NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2025 NFL Week 7 Recap: Broncos Comeback, AFC Favorites Separate and CMC Carries The Load

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Jourdan Rodrigue, Patrick Claybon, and Nick Shook to recap all of the Week 7 action from around the NFL starting with the Giants at the Broncos (01:00), followed by Packers at Cardinals (15:00), Colts at Chargers (25:08), Eagles at Vikings (35:10), Commanders at Cowboys (45:25), Rams versus Jaguars in London (52:57), Panthers at Jets (01:02:45), Saints at Bears (01:09:15), Raiders at Chiefs (01:16:35), Patriots at Titans (01:23:37), Dolphins at Browns (01:40:00), and Falcons at 49ers (01:35:27). 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 can always get saved by the late window. I'm Greg Rosenthal. I'm here in the Chris Wesleying podcast. podcast studio for the week seven recapping. Yes, the early morning games. I was talking with you in the newsroom, Jordan, maybe the worst slate that we've seen in terms of excitement, in terms

of intrigue, and then the late games arrived. And they're so good that not only Patrick Claibon and Jordan Rodriguez are joining me in the studio, but Nick Shook is with us in Cleveland because you had the luck to get Denver and New York, Nick. Good job by you. Yeah, you know, through About two and a half to three quarters of this game, I thought, well, it looks like I'm just going to get three lopsided results this day, which is fine, makes riding a little bit easier. But the Broncos said, no, we are the kings of the fourth quarter, and we're going to make a comeback for the ages.

So much happened in that game, in these afternoon games, I don't want to waste any more time. Let's get to it. We've got an afternoon heavy start to the show. Yes, starting in Denver. At attempt of 39 yards for the win, snap placement, kick on the way. It is good. Bronco players celebrating

like they just won a home playoff game. And why not? Why not indeed? Dave Logan of K-O-A, 33 to 32. In a game that had more twists and turns in the fourth quarter than some teams have for an entire season, the Denver Broncos scored 33 points. in the final frame.

They trailed 19-0, entering the fourth quarter. They scored three touchdowns at one point in a three-and-a-half-minute span. And yet, they still had to drive the field after giving up another touchdown, Nick shook to get a field goal. And you know what? They got that field goal, and they escape with a win in one of the games of the year. When was the moment you thought that they could actually pull this thing off? It was precisely on third down when Jackson Dart stepped up

the pocket and tried to step over somebody as he was throwing and threw one of the worst picks you're going to see all year and just hand delivered it to the Broncos linebacker at that point I thought oh god they're going to do it in fact no you know what we're going to back up middle to late third quarter they're driving and I'm watching them finally find a little bit of offensive momentum which they lacked all day and I'm thinking oh god they're doing this again they're doing what they did in philly they're just setting up a 21 point fourth quarter comeback except there wasn't 21 points. It was 33 points. The most points scored by a team after getting shut out in the first three quarters in NFL history. Leave it to the Denver Broncos. They're not even

Jekyll and Hyde. They're, oh, God, my alarm didn't go off. I'm three hours late for work, but I can still get there and make something out of the day. That's what they did today. And then got fired. No, I mean, you saw Jackson Darts face for those watching on on YouTube, for those who caught the broadcast. Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life as a New York quarterback tracks and dart. Just in absolute horror you felt for him. I felt like the game swung in that moment with the interception. I think that's when Greg stood up out of his chair and then raised his desk up as well to finish the game. It was like this like like fog started creeping and you could just feel like this was happening. And what an excruciating finish for every single

one of those players and the two head coaches who were in absolute hell the entire time through the end of that fourth quarter. Right. So to back it up, when that interception happens, to be fair, you know, it's still 26 to 16. The Giants defense doesn't have to give up an immediate touchdown. And then the Broncos, you know, defense does a great job getting the ball back so quickly. The Giants defense doesn't have to give up a six play 51 second drive capped by a bow knicks scramble to take the lead. But that's exactly what they did. The part to me that's as crazy as anything is it felt like the Giants had luck because

they got a deflected touchdown for 41 yards to Theo Johnson to give them an 18 point lead. And that happened in the fourth quarter. Yeah, it was 10 minutes and 22 seconds ago in the game. It was 19 to 8. And I understand there was like a sequence of fortuitous circumstances for the Denver Broncos. But that pass could have easily been picked off. and Theo Johnson now has four touchdown passes from Jackson Dart.

This one was absolutely not supposed to happen. The location in Denver and that play got me thinking back to, look, I know he's a lot more skilled than Tebow. But, man, Tebow things just happen to Jackson Dart. Let's listen. Scatterbo with the back, third and 17. And he'll cut a pass, caught on the ricochet. It's grab here by the galloping Johnson. He'll be chasing the play by Barron.

Did he get in? He did touchdown. 41-yard ricochet touchdown reception taking it in Theo Johnson nice little hook and ladder there yeah you can actually hear the sound of the keys getting out like people left the game

they were filing out of the stadium at that point because like the idea that the sequence that would happen after that would happen was improbable for most people including me and a lot of Broncos fans were like that was a very frustrating game and they decided to peace out and I understand it.

I want to go through a little more of the end sequence with you, Shook, but more big picture, like what were some of your takeaways from Darts performance and the Broncos' defensive performance for the part of the game that seemed reasonably normal for the first, you know, 53, 54 minutes of this game. That's a great way to characterize it because it was very much a normal and one-sided game.

The Giants were playing excellent football on both sides. They basically had every answer for whatever the Broncos wanted to do offensively. the Broncos look like they were sleepwalking offensively. They had one possession that got down inside the Giants 5 and they stonewalled then. Dane Belton delivers one of the most crushing hits you'll see all week to stop that on fourth down. Just a great example of how I thought the Giants brought the fight to the Broncos through the first three quarters. Offensively, darts converting, you know, third down passes. They're finding ways to keep drives going.

Scatibos, you know, navigating traffic, breaking tackles getting the end zone. It looks like a Giants win. It looks like one of those games where you think, wow, the Broncos just really can. came out kind of flat and never recovered until the fourth quarter happened. I thought that New York played a fantastic game overall until this crazy sequence of events started. And what's wild about that is that, you know, Claymont just talked about, Patrick just talked about where he said, you know, the Broncos had a bit of fortuitous, you know, circumstances go their way as well. Two deflections for touchdowns in a row in the fourth quarter, we should have known that it was going to go full chaos from there. But it still felt like the Giants could recover.

And they did until they didn't. And that's why it's going to stay more than anything for them. I know. Part of my mind is still living in the world where, wow, Shane Bowen and the Bowen Sans is really happening. Like, the defense got better for the Giants for most of this game. And you're on social media and the fans are like booing the Broncos a little bit. And there's a lot of anti-Shon Peyton sentiment because I think the Broncos fans are so attached to Bo Nix that they're getting mad about Sean Payton.

And then it all flips. Right on its head. Yes. it was crazy too because you like I know we have mixed opinions on momentum across the board here but I will say you could feel like the wind get knocked out repeatedly of both side lines over back and forth back and forth I think that Patrick's momentum argument would argue okay if all that momentum was happening on one side then when the Giants got the ball back 30 to 26 and they're trailing with about a minute and 50 to go, then they wouldn't have been able to drive

the length of the field. And that's exactly what Jackson Dart did. And so that should not be forgotten. Let's actually listen to his touchdown run, which in this game's, you know, fashion, it was initially called short. First to go at the one, 40 seconds to go. Giants trail by four, scouting him to the tailback. Dart pumps his right leg, takes the snap. He's going to run with it. And he dives ahead. Do he break the plane? No. short he reached no lots a touchdown no he lunged and broke the plane Carl I think he lunged and broke the plane before his right thigh hit helpful to wear a red that's what we're doing the play it is a touchdown and an improbable

fourth at 19 but you got 30 they're going to get the ball with 20-something seconds left Denver so they've got to they got to have some good defense That is exactly it. Now, we were talking a little bit before the show. There's, you know, neither of these coaches called a great game, in my opinion. And when things got tense, Brian Daible calls that play on purpose. We were talking about, oh, you know, you give them too much time, and it's at altitude, and long kicks are possible there in that stadium and all these things.

That is a play that is intentionally designed to run the quarterback up the middle and score a touchdown. And even if you don't score a touchdown, then you have to kill your last. time out to stop the clock. So they were going to give them time back, really, no matter what, either as a touchdown or then you have to burn your last time out. So they were going to have time. The Broncos were on the other side. I think it's a good play call because I don't think they necessarily would use the time

out right away. I'm not mad about the play. And I think the point is to try to score a touchdown. You can't, you can't play around. You can't live in a world, Shucky, where you're that, where you're that, like, passive where you're trying not to score a touchdown. Zach Allen wasn't passive on that play. He was in the backfield.

Jackson Dart doesn't make a move there. They could lose the game on that play. It was a weird play call because in terms of like the way that they blocked it up, Jackson Dart had to break four tackles to get to that point. And I'm like hindsight, they get the touchdown fine. We can be results oriented there. I think it was a weird call.

Consider they probably shouldn't have been there. Penalties got them there in the first place. It was the perfect call in a moment of chaos because as they line up and then they shift everybody out wide, I'm shouting at the screen, QB Power, QB Power, he's running this up the middle. there is a tackle split wide. They're trying to spread out the defense and just add to the chaos and confusion of it.

And it does work, but you're right. It is kind of a strange play call. They're embracing the situation of chaos, but also at the top of the screen, when at first he's ruled short, Brian Daibald tries to call a timeout in that moment with like 32 seconds left. That touchdown comes with 37 seconds left.

If this game wasn't chaotic enough, there was still another drive for the Broncos to pull off most games end close to there. But in today's NFL, and with the Broncos and the Giants in this game today, we still had more excitement to come. And oh, by the way, they only got to there, and I'm fine with the call because of this,

because they got a passenger fares call that bought them a fresh set of downs. They had Sean Peyton running down the sidelines so upset with the call that he gets it on sportsman-like conduct penalty and puts them first in goal at the one. Like, just madness. I hated that penalty anyways.

I know. And we were shouting about it too in the newsroom. And it's interesting because, like, so I think you could have maybe called that on second down, for example. Like, I don't mind the play call. It clearly did not fool the defense at all. You're supposed to sort of part the ocean or part the waters there with the movement pre-snap that you build into that play.

Everybody, we're all yelling at our TVs here, understanding what's about to happen next. And the Broncos certainly aren't fooled. I think you can run that on a second now. But that's what I'm saying. It's like, this game, there was too much happening and too much going on for anything unweird to happen, if that makes sense. Yes.

It was just providing an opportunity to have, because you're going to have to have the guard come back around because Zach Allen is unblocked on that play. To move the guard in that situation with your rookie quarterback, it just seems like a weird decision. Dart, you know, made it happen because earlier in the game. Because weird. Yeah, we talked about a situation where you put him in a tough spot

and he didn't make the play. He made the play that time, but, oh. Yeah. It's tricky. Like, Dart ends up 15 for 33, but for 283 yards and three touches. I know some of that was fortunate, but like under 50%, They have no drop back kind of passing game.

The one thing I think that shouldn't be lost is Bo Nix was having a nightmare game for most of it. But he was obviously sensational in the fourth quarter, making all the best decisions and plays when it mattered most. And he gets the ball back needing some dimes. First play of that drive, a great throw over the middle for 29 yards to Marvin Mims. Like you can get on the Giants defense, but that's a great throw. They get a penalty of Brian Burns not getting back on side. then Bo Nix with a great pass deep down the sideline to make it a closer field goal to

Cortland Sutton. So he stepped up in the biggest moments with some darts. And man, the giant season would have felt so different if they had a chance next week to sweep the Eagles and get way back into this NFC East and NFC wildcard race. They would be three and four trying to get to four and four. Instead, they're at two and five. Broncos feeling good at five and two. I'll give you the final word, Shuki, on this game. Then we'll say goodbye to you. And then we're going to bring you back later in the show. I would love it if the Broncos would, you know, play a good football for four quarters, but that's

wishful thinking with a lot of football teams. And this really stings for the Giants and I hurt for you because as Greg just said, everything was trending toward you being, having a ton of belief and now you have to come back and answer the same questions, including about your coach when I really don't think this is necessarily his fault. So tough one for them.

I know. Every Giants fan I see on social media, it's like, Brian Dayball has to be fired now and it's like, I don't know. The offense, the most fireable offense that Brian Dable has done this season is starting Russell Wilson in week one. Because every week that this offense looks this good, it actually shows what a bad process that was. Lots of bad processes around the NFL today. But I actually don't think there were many in Arizona. I thought this was a good, clean football team or game played by

two good teams. Just the road team had to come out on top. One last stop by this defensive unit. Rissette in the shotgun, slot to the right side, Harrison in the slot right. Jones to the left, two safeties high, Green Bay. Brissette waits for the snap, he takes it, back to throw. Deep drop, rainbows over the middle, into the end zone, and it is busted up, and it is incomplete, caught out of bounds. Jones came up with a catch, but out of bounds, and there is your dagger. The Packers will escape.

with a 27 to 23 win in Arizona. Who, Wayne Larravee. He sounded tired by the end of this game. A lot happened in the fourth quarter of this one too. The Packers survive a game effort by the Arizona Cardinals, 27 to 23. No Hail Mary for Jacoby Brissette, who for the second straight week plays very well,

but ultimately sees his final pass fall incomplete, and that ends in a four-point deficit. The Cardinals have not lost the game by more than four points all season. Their scoring differential throughout the course of the season is now negative 1, and yet they fall to 2 and 5 on a day where the Packers had to show something a little different.

So far this season, they have led every game by at least 10 points. They haven't trailed at any point by 10 points until today. They were down 13.3 early. They never had a lead in this game. until under two minutes to go. And I thought the key moment of the game was one where we, and by we, I mean me,

would have been criticizing Matt Lafleur for changing his mind to go for it on a fourth down. I liked the call to go for it. I hated burning his second time out with just over two and a half minutes to do it. They had the field goal kicker out earlier. He had kicked a 60-yarder. They were going to kick the ball to tie it.

And you know what? Matt Lafleur said, I'm going to trust my best players. Jordan Love and Tucker Kraft to go make a play and that's what they did. Fourth and two Green Bay. Can they get two yards to keep this thing alive? 232 to go.

Down three. Love looking to throw has time. Lofs the left side for Kraft. He's got it. 14 yard line on the far side. They beat Dayrin's hitter Deverson, first down Green Bay. Thought this was a game where the best players

on the field just kept stepping up and that was a case where like if they don't hit that play, if Lefleur doesn't have the faith in them, they lose that game. And if they go for a field goal, they very well might lose that game the way their defense was playing. And Tucker Kraft and especially Jordan Love stepped up.

Yeah, exactly. And what I loved about that sequence is you could almost see the torment of the decision going back and forth in Matt LaFleur, like it flashed across his face. This is a person who does not really hide his emotions and has trouble hiding the things he's thinking in the course of a game action.

And if you ever watch him as he goes out officials, you will definitely notice this. This is, this was, you could tell he was thinking, oh, my God, did I make the right decision? But if you are confident in your players, and I was giving the Packers grief last week because, or during our preview show, because I'm like, you are so good. You are such a good team. You are so good in every phase. Your kicker is perfect. You hit a 61-yard freaking field goal.

which I think is a record in that stadium on the road. And you are so good on offense and you're so good on defense. And you have a great coaching staff. And so just go out and be loose and be free and trust your players and like unclench a little bit. And to me, he almost clenched Greg. He almost clenched Patrick. He was almost too tight.

And then he just let go. And he's like, all right, Jordan loved Tucker Craft. Go make a play. And they did. It was awesome. And Josh Jacobs finishes out that drive. You know, he's battling through a. half injury and look, we'll see if their defense is awesome. On paper, it's good. On the field,

they've been good. Like, I would say that's the case of their offense and their defense. It's just been good. There have been more potential than greatness. If Michael Parsons didn't have maybe the best game I've seen by any defensive player all season today, they could have given up 40 in this game, but he ends up with 10 pressures, three sacks. In my book, it's four sacks because it was two different half sacks. And I want to abolish the half sack. That is my, subway take, there should be no more half sacks. A half sack is a half sack. 100% agree. Thank you so much. Um, so five QB hits. A couple tackles for loss. Some good run defense plays too. And his biggest sack at the end where he takes a play off

in the final drive for the Cardinals comes back on, gets the sack. And that sets up, uh, the desperation play by the Cardinals. They needed all their best players like Kraft and love in Parsons to get out of there with the win. Because I think the Cardinals were almost playing for their season and they played very well. Yeah. They played the, entire time, other than, you know, Rashon Gary made a great play that actually got the Packers a key possession on a turnover where Jacoby Brissette is looking to get the ball to Zonovan Knight.

And it looked like a fumble initially. I don't know. It looked like a bad pass that was just thrown backwards, recovered by the Packers. But Rashon Gary got a hit, got the ball out. And just in that play where we've bemoaned, I've bemoaned in previous seasons that the Packers just needed some star power. And they got it today because Parsons also had a, sack of Jacoby Brissette that took him a very long time to get up and he was kind of hopping

around for a little bit and I think that slowed him down but to go back to that that fourth down played like they got to have it play the thing looking back at the dots looking back at the all 22 Romeo Dobbs got open over the middle Josh Jacobs won on his option route as well as Tucker craft with you know a Cardinals fan would say he pushed off he did push off that move right there was that veteran crafty push on I mean they would have but they almost never call that full speed. But all three of those guys got open on that play. And I think

that's like to get to that point of Matt LaFleur making that got to have it decision. He not just went with a play to get Tucker Kraft open. Two other guys got open on that play. Trust your players. Trust your play calls too because I thought he had a great

game calling the game. There were so many plays where Jordan Love had easy buttons, especially in the second half. First half, less so. the three points that they got before halftime were so massive. They got the ball back after

a stirring Jacoby-Preset drive. And we'll talk percent in a second. The last drive of the first half was stirring. And they played great to end it. And the Packers get the ball with seven seconds left

on the 35. And that's where I think you make a mistake in terms of the kickoff, kicking it out of bounds. And it starts at the 35. They get with seven seconds left and Love hits Dobbs over the middle for 22 yards in time to take the time out and then that sets up that 61 yarder. Those three points were huge. But man, after halftime where they scored three touchdowns, there was a lot of Matt Lafleur specials, just really creative stuff and getting his receivers open. I mentioned Bressett. I think

Jonathan Gannon, he's got a lot of tough things over the next week. They're going into their buy. I think they're, they just should be three and four. They feel like a three and four team. They could even be a four and three team the way they've played the last couple weeks, but they're two and five and they have to decide whether to go back to Kyler Murray or not because I think the offense has just looked more cohesive and more of what it should be with Jacoby Brissette quarterback. And I'll say it for you, Jordan, because you always say that it should go through Trey McBride thing. Like you saw that today. I think it helped that they have Elijah Higgins back and there are two more, two tight ends. And it just

look more like what they want to do, under center, play action, all this stuff. It's just what their coaching staff knows. It's why they brought Jacoby Rosset in to see if this could work, then it would really work, right? And who knew? They did not obviously plan for an injury or this type of thing. When I was at camp over the summer and I was fortunate to talk to Jacoby Rosset, and I encountered one of the most confident individuals I've met in years in terms of if he was going to get a shot, he was going to do, he was going to absolutely make the most of it going rep for rep throughout those pretty open training camp sessions where a lot of times the number one and the number two are actually getting a lot of the same reps with the way that they run their

practices. And I thought that it showed. I thought it absolutely showed. You see Drew Petzing running the offense that he specifically wants to run through the tight end, especially like you mentioned, having some personnel back, but then also dotting in a couple of guys here and there. Say Jones made a pretty crucial catch. Marvin Harrison, two catches for 58 yards with the 35 yard long as well. And drew a big pass interference out of deep threat. Absolutely. So it's not like these guys were absent.

But this was Jacobi Brissette and Trey McBride's game together today. And Trey McBride was really upset over a mistake that he made earlier, like, five minutes after the play happened. He was, Greg and I were talking about he was like yelling at himself and hitting himself in the chest on the sideline. And then he goes out and he scores the two touchdowns. 10 catches on 13 targets for 74 yards and some of them were absolutely crucial and I believe that is more touchdowns than he had all last season.

Just a good clean football game. I really thought, Leah, it looked like a playoff type of game because I think the Cardinals were desperate feel for him. We'll see about the Kyler decision. I just think Brissette has been excellent

in these two weeks. But I mean, the results are the same. It is five losses. But wins are not a quarter of 15 combined points in those five losses, which is bananas. It would be an organizational

changing move to bench Kyler right now. Gannon is at a key point. I'm just curious how it goes. And I'm glad you mentioned that play where McBride didn't come up with a touchdown and he was mad. I give a lot of credit to Edger and Cooper. So to keep the theme on this game in terms of stars making absolutely crucial plays, that play by Edger and Cooper,

a tackle on the sideline where he basically threw Michael Wilson's face into the ground to set up a fourth down attempt by the Cardinals where they then tried to sneak it and Edger and Cooper helped to stuff the sneak. This is a young linebacker stepping up. Those were two game winning plays by him. Let's go to a game where there wasn't a ton of game winning defensive plays, but there were a lot of great plays. High snap for Jones, but he pulls it down, gets it to Taylor, marching to his right. He's at the five touchdown. The trifecta again for Jonathan Taylor. Three rushing touchdowns for the greatest running back going right now. It's 37, 17 Colts over bolts.

And he's going to the house. I thought we're in Englewood. I thought he was headed down to Huntington Beach the way he was running that ball. Shout out to Charles Arbuckle making his NFL daily debut. Matt Taylor's on the show every single week because Jonathan Taylor and this Colts offense is getting it done every single. week, 38 to 24 against the Chargers. Patrick, anytime the Chargers even got it to third or fourth down, much less get a stop in this game. And there weren't many. It felt like a miracle, just an awesome offensive performance by the Colts. No, it was incredible. The Colts, that was the third

Jonathan Taylor touchdown, as they noted. And actually, the South End Zone and SoFi does early point towards Huntington Beach if you think about it. So it was just... We love geographic accuracy. We do. And it's something we'd hear to on NFL daily. The Colts didn't stop scoring in a game where the Colts' defense needed to make plays. Certainly

they did turn the charges over a couple times and got a win avenging their loss to the stadium itself. They didn't beat the Rams. They're now one in one and one in Sofi. One in so far on the season. They got Khalil Mackback, which

helped them, and it might have helped them more against the lesser team, but the Colts are just so dominant. Jonathan Taylor had three touchdowns, average six yards of carry. There was a Tyler Warren score that made it 23, and the Chargers on what felt like at that point, it got to have it dry. They went nine plays down to the Colts

eight, and Nick Cross was covering Quentin Johnston. He was blanketing him a clean pocket for Justin Herbert, and he just kind of inexplicably throws it directly at Nick Cross, who picks it off, corrals it with one hand for the turnover. He had another interception where Grover Stewart, tipped the pass, got an interception. He's 31 years old as his first career

interception. I promise 53 Colts players were on the field celebrating after he got that one. And they weren't able to hold serve consistently against the Colts team that had over 400 yards of total offense. Alec Pierce getting back, getting down the field. My obligatory Alec Pierce mentioned he had like three catches for 74 yards late in the third quarter there. And just a dominant performance by Dimes and Company where they consistently made the plays and the Chargers defense couldn't ultimately keep up. Every time I flipped over to this game,

I would say, oh, Patrick, because Alex Beares was making a play. You guys, this six and one Indianapolis Colts team, by the way, is such a complete team. They're so balanced.

They came in having real questions about their corners. Yes, Justin Herbert put up 420 yards. Through the ball, 55. times, had some a great performance from a couple of guys, including this Gadsden guy who has arrived on the scene in a bolt.

150 plus. I mean, his first game in the NFL Gadsden, what was that, week three or four? Obviously, the son of an NFL great. Like, he puts up seven for 60. And he's, he's like putting up Brock Bowers, Tyler Warren type of number since. It's insane. So yeah, they got theirs, certainly, in the passing game.

But you cannot out produce a team that is so production-based that is the Colts and they're so balanced in doing it run and pass 94 yards for Jonathan Taylor but then also you have like six receivers getting at least three catches a piece is this to me this is like the deepest receiving core in the NFL right now well in there I agree in terms of like top like four guys who you if you're including Warren as the fourth or fifth even when you want to Jonathan Taylor had three catches today.

Jonathan Taylor has become a complete player. I'm glad you use that word complete because he knew he was one of the worst pass blocking running backs in a league. And everyone killed Stuyckin a couple years ago when they had that play to win the division. Gardner Minchutu to, I believe Tyler Goodson was it?

And everyone's like, why is Tyler freaking Goodson in the game with the division online? Which is fair. But Jonathan Taylor admitted like, I just haven't been, that guy in Pass Pro, and he talked about working on it all summer long. And if you look at the snap distribution, he now does not leave the field. And that's why he's catching more of those

dump-offs. He doesn't have the best hands in the world, but he can catch a dump-off. And then when he has the ball in his hands, he's still freaking Jonathan Taylor. This offense is just so tough to stop. And I am a little disappointed. I give the Colts all the credit, but I am a little disappointed that Jesse Minner and this Chargers defense has had no push back against opposing offenses for the last five or six weeks. And they're not that injured. Like they got Cleo Mac back. They got Perriman back.

They haven't been that injured this whole time. So to me, they have been one of the bigger, you know, disappointing units in the league, the Chargers defense. What did you see out of them today, Patrick? It was, they only got pressure on 14 of Dom's dropbacks. And even then, because we talk about all the time,

on NextGen stats pressure is more of a proximity alert than anything else. So they got close to Daniel Jones, but even in that situation, he had an 89 pass rate. the average over five yards per attempt where it was just constant that the Colts checked it down to be perfectly honest like 40 plus was in question but they got to a point where they were just running clock and the Chargers essentially were running clock as well with Herbert throwing for over 450 but a lot of those like they were fourth and 12s fourth and 22s that

the Chargers kept converting and staying on the field so it was they just didn't make any plays it felt like over the course of the entire game. Khalil Mack had a sack, but other than that, like not a lot was going on. And it's a lot of Herbert, like Herbert scrambling a lot. I mean, Herbert's second half of this game was an ultimate like show of just watching a guy trying to do it

all by himself. And it was pretty entertaining to watch, to be honest. I mean, there were a lot of like dimes in there, but it's just too much. And it'd be one thing if he was making up for at one point today being down to their sixth tackle because they lost Austin Declis at one point, although he did come back in.

Um, you know, they're going to get Joe all back potentially as early as Thursday night. So that would be just team changing for them. But he can't be making up for the defense and the offensive line situation. They just need the defense to be better and the special teams. Like there was a moment in this game where they, uh, had scored a couple times in a row. And then special teams gives up a big play. Ultimately, though, there's just not many, uh, teams that have that many wide open receivers. Like Michael Pittman, like guys were just open.

for Daniel Jones. It's fun to watch. Yeah, I'd like to, especially as we get like more and more data from this season, maybe at the halfway point or something, I'd like to do a deeper look or a deeper dive at this Chargers defense and like what exactly is going wrong. Because they started out so, so well. And they look dominant and they look schematically sound. And it's almost like, you know, we talk, I know it's all, this is a huge mental thing and players have to make plays and coaches have to put players in good position. But it's almost like, you know, Jesse Minner doesn't really want to change what he does, nor does he maybe feel like he can, you know, even some of their guys that they, that they, um, kind of brought in and invested in and then developed, you know, he, he's

trying to play with all these light boxes. You can't really do that against Jonathan Taylor right now, especially when the Colts can just kill you in every different direction possible. Um, you know, there are zoning defense and they can be really, really good when they're playing fundamentally sound, but then there's just breaks in different places. And yeah, injuries are one thing, but to your point, Greg, a lot of the guys that were injured are back. Now, they haven't been back for a long time, so maybe they still... They haven't been that injured on the events. They've been an average number of injured.

They're just thin. I think, offense, I get it. They're a frustrating team, the Chargers right now. But most of the credit just goes to having to play the Colts. What I'm saying is, I think it's because I curse them, honestly. Oh, yeah. That's the reason. There's no other reason.

There is a significant contrast in specifically watching these two teams where it's, like Justin Herbert is having to square general relativity and quantum mechanics every single play versus dimes there was a play where Michael Pittman Jr. is in the bottom of a three receipt and wide open like where are the layups? Yeah. And the Chargers offense. It's just all Herbert. Yeah. And it's all Herbert. And for the Colts, it's all like everybody. And that includes the defense making just enough plays. Shout out to Nick Cross with that interception on play you talked about. That was a great catch. It was like a one-handed catch.

And friend of the show, Mark, hit the alarm, hit the bell, Jordan. She wants to keep track of how many times I mentioned Ali Connolly. Friend of the show, Ali Connolly called him in a text. Perhaps not only the NFL's most improved player, but potentially the most important non-superstar in the entire NFL,

Nick Cross. And if you want to know what he means by that, read the 3,500 word essay that he wrote about Nick Cross, who's kind of the spine of the structure of how this defense is built, and you'll understand you'll get a little smarter. That's on the read-optional substack. Let's take a quick break, because we have a lot of games to get to, including the Carson Wins Revenge Saga.

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.

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Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. A.J. Brown to the foreside. This is the biggest third down of the season. Quite frankly. Perks in the gun. Hurts is back. Here comes the worst.

He is looping it for A.J. Brown. Who has it? Who has it? He's down at the 10-yard line. Hurts to A.J. Brown. Magnificent. Great call there by Mayor Reese. On W.I.P.

Yes. Jalen Hurts to A.J. Brown helps to seal a 28 to 22 victory. and how symbolic, how perfect that play was in encapsulating a perfect day just about by Jalen Hertz. He was perfect on deep shots, by the way. Five for five on throws over 20 yards for 215 yards. This game reminded me so much of when their offense was rolling at least a passing attack. Last year, there was a fourth down early in the game, fourth and four, and that's where he hit his first bomb to A.J. Brown ends up being a 37-yard touchdown.

And it reminded me so much of a second quarter, fourth and four go ball that he threw to A.J. Brown in week six, I went to go check last year against the Giants, which I thought was, if you were going to pick one play that kind of like unlocked them in the middle of the regular season last year, it was that one. He ends up going deep quite a bit in this game, including to Devante Smith. Hurts under his center this time with Barclay behind him. Brown, a wing to the fourth time. On second down, Hurts' fakes. He's back. He's looking.

He is going deep. He went Devonte Smith. He has it. 2015, 10, 5. Touchdown! Devonte Smith beat Rogers. Unreal. Devante 9 catches, 183 yards.

A.J. Brown ends up with 121 and 2. They will be happy. on the flight home, no more drama. It was just an old school Jalen Hurd's performance. I'm happy. They ran play action. Yes. And they didn't just run play action,

which they had only run six play action passes entering this game, and all of them were paired with passes and route combinations that did not go over seven yards. This game, Jalen Hertz, was four for four on play action from under center for 121 yards. And a touchdown. And so averaging 30.3 yards per play action pass and a touchdown. He was also just about perfect against Brian Flores's blitz. 11 for 14 for 233, two touchdowns. Including that last play.

Like that was great solving the blitz. Just looked great. He had an incredible, incredible game played nearly perfectly. And the Eagles did some different things. They moved his spot. they developed and formulated and schemed. And this was actually something where no, they didn't necessarily get the run game going.

They didn't have to. They could throw the ball all day long against a secondary that is very good. Right. I love that Hertz also had two third and long creation plays. When Hertz is playing well, he mixes those plays in. He had a third and 15 to Devante Smith for 28 yards

and then a third and 13 where he scrambled to AJ Brown which set up one of the touchdown. Yeah, it set up a touchdown. The Eagles needed, they needed all of them. And the manipulation, the pocket manipulation from Jalen Hertz, where a few years ago he would have escaped to his right early. He stays in, the edge comes back around, and then he goes to the right and gets A.J. Brown,

where a couple of weeks ago against a very good receiving core, Isaiah Rogers had the best game ever, literally, the best game ever against T. Higgins and Jemar Chase. And then he comes back around and to A.J. and Devonta gives up 156 yards, including that bomb, as well as the third down to AJ Brown, where those guys kind of took advantage of their old teammate. And I think especially on the sluggo to AJ Brown, like that prior knowledge, you know, it comes into play.

Shuts up all the WIP callers who are like, how did we possibly let Isaiah Rogers go? Although I think, you know, would have been good to keep them. It was. Yeah, Dory Jackson got banged up in the middle of the game. Yeah, that's true. And Keeley Ring, like, not like they've been great, but you should be able to survive with one replacement level cornerback. And they did for the most part today. It was a weird fan geo game. Typical in that like they let them go down the field and they

end up forcing quote unquote five field goals in six red zone trips. Carson Wentz and the running game really moved the ball well all day. Now two of those forced field goals were after touchdowns called back. One by penalty of during a nightmare game for their center, Blake Brendel. Blake Brindle in this game, even in just the first half, had a sequence where he threw the ball 20 yards over Carson Wentz's head. There goes one red zone drive. He gives up a massive hit from Jalen Carter, which turns into a pick six and gets beat early.

And as a penalty that calls back a touchdown, they also, I thought made a crazy overrule on a potential T.J. Hawkinson touchdown with a little under three minutes to go. To me, that was a touchdown. And the end of the game would have looked a little bit, different. That's not taking anything away. It's just pointing out it was a weird game where Carson Wentz looked good for about 80% of the plays. And the other plays were such disasters that that's what people will remember. Yeah. And I and also I would I would put Kevin O'Connell in there too with some

of the play calls at one point at a second and one in the second quarter from the six yard line and they end up kicking a 33 yard field goal from that field position. I mean. And not running it in any of those place. Yeah, and it was, it's one of those games where you just, you just take Carson Wentz for who he is, take him as he is, and whatever comes with him, you just try to endure and weather the storm. You know, I thought because of all the messiness that was happening for the Eagles, internally and all the chatter externally, and could they actually adjust and could they actually do X, Y, and Z coming up against a really tough defense and reputationally tough defense and and schematically tough defense.

And then a pretty composed, despite all the uncertainty at quarterback, relatively composed and well-coached offense, especially with some of the weapons that are available to Carson Wentz. But the Vikings teetered on the brink of pure chaos to me multiple times. And again, they could go most of the field. And then all of a sudden, things would just happen. They would just make mistakes or there would be weird play-calling sequences or the Vikings would make a play or the officials would get involved.

one you know it everything pick one anything could have happened and did happen in this game there was and i'll give you because on the jellix hunt pick six like he starts lined up over top of justin jefferson kind of drifts a little bit and then runs back over and carson wince gets plastered as you noted by jalen carter and and those interceptions happen they happen all the time the macuba interception was the like typical carson wince uh pick where it's like you can't you can't throw that ball that really had no chance to be completed. And he's just kind of throwing a yolo ball as if it's a Hail Mary situation. But they're still in the game at that point. Oh, it's early second quarter. I mean, he played pretty well from that point forward. At that moment, I thought either J.J.

McCarthy or Max Brasmer is starting next week because I just thought it was going to circle down the drain. And actually, Wentz played pretty well the rest of the game. I mean, he ends up with 313 yards. Like I said, he could have had, they could have had a couple of touches. touchdowns there, and he has them in it at the end. But yeah, when you have a, unfortunately, he's going to have these sequences. The sequence was a pick six, a play where he fritzed out and threw the ball backwards, and it ended up being a negative nine fumble. That's what it's called that, because he threw the ball backwards out of bounds, then a holding penalty on his offense, and then the other interception. So it's just like those four plays just absolutely killed

them. Take everything away, though, and the Vikings defense, I don't think it's been special this year. It's just been okay. It's like the 12th best defense in the league. And they weren't special today. And they just, that's just, they just need to be. But they solved the tush push. They solved it. Maybe.

I mean, yes. They had a defensive player lying down in front of the center on his side, essentially with two players over him to try to block it. Now, the Eagles did hit their first tush push, but it was very close and it was tight. And then the next one, there was actually a false start on A.J. Brown. so we never really found out. They used him as a wedge.

But it was, it was interesting. Human wedge. We'll see if someone copies them. No. Because like who would do that? It's like it kind of works. It puts 10 people on the field. Okay.

Last. He's a human being. He's a human wedge. He's laid literally, I was reading. They literally called this guy up like recently. It was like, here's your job today. You are to lay horizontally across the line of scrimmage. It's amazing.

Like, this is insane. Lawrence is a crazy guy. It's the type of thing that led to it. Yeah, it's the type of thing that led to his dolphins players, like, not being sad when he left. Good win by the Eagles. And more than anything, it comes down to the players. The Eagles' offensive line was totally dominant. None of the Vikings pass rushers won one-on-one matchups at all.

It should be pointed out helping Jalen hurts. Well, on the other side, the return of Jalen Carter being Jalen freaking. Carter made all the difference in the world. There wasn't a single edge rusher in this game that had a quick pressure. You know how many Jalen Carter had all by himself? Six. He was awesome in this game. Eagles win. Vikings fall to three and three

ahead of TNF. Let's stay in the NFC East. Play clock at one. They get it off. Blitz is coming. Mariota. In trouble. Being ripped away. stays alive. Throws it in the fly. And it picked off. Guess who? Duran Blans. One man to beat. Pick six!

That's Kevin Burkart on Fox, and that's also the trademark, Oh, call by Tom Brady, or is it more like, oh, it's just a lot. It's a lot of, oh, every week. Should someone tell him to stop that or no? We had a good chat about it. It feels like he should. It's authentic. It's energy.

Okay. 44 to 22. The Cowboys win a game. where, sure, the commanders did not have Debo Samuel or Terry McLaurin, and they lost Jaden Daniels in the third quarter of this game, and he did not return. And that's the biggest story coming out of this game. But ultimately, the Cowboys offense,

we're putting up points no matter who is going to be on the commanders today. And their defense actually helped them today. You guys, they played complimentary football in all three phases, and especially notable on defense. I want to put a spotlight on the two Dallas takeaways in the third quarter. both of them that led to touchdowns. The first was a sack fumble. Jadavian Clowney recovered it.

That was the play that Jaden Daniels heard his hamstring on and eventually was ruled out of the game after first going to get checked out in the blue tent and then going to the locker room. Plus, Dak Prescott and the Cowboys then scored on the corresponding possession. Marcus Marriota comes in. He throws a pick six.

Really bad. You saw it desperation throw by Marcus Mariotta. Duran Blan comes in and scores off the takeaway. and it marked just a really good day for the Cowboys defense overall. Yes, against a really depleted commander's receivers room, as previously noted. But the Cowboys, when facing the like numbers four, five, and six, Washington receivers and a very banged up Zach Ertz just decided like, hey, we are going to play a ton of man-to-man coverage in this game. We are going to blitz more than we normally do.

The neck veins on Matt Eber Fluse's neck were standing out every time the sideline cameras cut to him. This was, the defense had juice this game. They played complimentary football. And again, I already can hear it now. Yes. Yes, the Washington commanders were extremely depleted, even down a quarterback by the end of it. But this Cowboys defense really needed a game like this.

They were pretty good against the run as well. And they made plays. And that is something that's been sorely lacking because Dak Prescott had another incredible game. It's happening every week. to me, he's been the best quarterback in the league, along with Mahomes, I would say. We'll get to him. But in terms of just consistently every week, Dak has been ridiculous.

And, you know, C.D. Lamb returns to this game. And he puts up, you know, a monster touchdown right off the bat. What was that? 76 yards or something. And yet George Pickens, you know, still ends up having, like, a very entertaining game. Anything can happen when this guy touches the ball. No, and like we see because the Cowboys were still explosive without C.D. Lamb, but you could, of course, CD and Dack have played a lot of football together.

He had 100 yards before the end of the first half. It wasn't just that home run. There were a couple of third downs where you just see them continue to execute at the high level. Javante and the run game got back healthy after the disaster in Charlotte. But as much as the positive cutaways of Iber flus over on the side, We haven't had a lot of positive Eber Fluse cutaways. I wanted to give him some pop, you know. Jane Daniels still had when he was in.

Yeah. Still had a lot of time to throw. He was back there on 63% of his dropbacks. It was over two and a half seconds. And a lot of that is, you know, balls that would have come out. If Terry McLaren or Desmond or Debo, who is getting, you know, 29% or 20 plus percent of the air yards on this team while he was healthy. You could see that the absences really impacted the offense as well.

but this is a game that even if they were there, the Dallas offense was on fire. And 100% correct because you could see everything was just a little off. The timing, some of the spacing for the receivers that were available. A couple of guys made plays. Jaden Daniels had a really great sort of correction. He started running the ball a little bit and then getting the ball to Jeremy McNichols, who had a big catch and run as well to help get them to the goal line.

And then Jaden Daniels nearly did the same thing that he did last week, which was mishandling a bad snap. But instead, he keeps it himself. And Jerry McNichols adjusts as well in the moment. It helps lead block for him, keeping it for the touchdown. They make it a game 20 to 15. Unfortunately for them, Dak Prescott is on the other side.

He goes right back to George Pickens deep against Marshawn Lattimore, who did not look like he was having a good time at any point during this game. And he's so smooth. He looks like he's running in slow motion, but he's not. It does not make sense to me. He just everything and then all of a sudden Pure Chaos hits because he does some WWE move or something in the middle of a play

but it sets up a Giovante Williams run to the goal line and then Dak Prescott of course hits Jake Ferguson and they scored in about 30 seconds to close that to close out the first half and it just was this Cowboys offense just has

it. They won't have this kind of performance for their defense I don't think for the rest of the season although the adjustments I think were relatable. Like I said, playing more man coverage is not something that they wanted to do clearly earlier in the season. They won't be able to against non-depleted

receiver core that they'll face later in the year. But at the same time, like, man, these games, these Dak Prescott games, are just awesome. Well, they can play more man. And I'm sure they will. It's shout out to a beat reporter.

Shout out to the Cowboys for letting beat reporters watch actual practice a little bit, unlike other teams. They did note this week that they saw them practicing man coverage quite a bit more than they usually do. And it's like, yeah, be flexible. To go back to the Eagles game quickly, one of the reasons they won is Vic Banjo called man on so much more than they normally do. And because that's what scrambled Carson Wentz's brain.

And they need to be flexible. You paid Duran Blan and Trevon Diggs all that money. Let them do what they do best. And yeah, for all the excuses that you can make for this win, they essentially were trailing 35 to 14 before Marcus Mario did took a snap. I flipped to the Broncos games. for example. Right.

But I just want to shout out Brandon Aubrey. There's another 61-yard field goal. So we mentioned Lucas Heversick earlier, and Brandon Aubrey hit a 61-yard field goal to go up 20 to 8 there in the first half. I mean, kickers, man, K-balls. It's becoming normal. You know what else is becoming normal?

Like, the Cowboys just, they're part of this season. At this point, I guess I'm just, I don't know. Like, put the NFL hat on me and put me next to Rob Lowe in the crowd. Because, like, I find myself rooting for teams to stay alive and interesting. That's kind of what I want. And it's pretty interesting. The Cowboys are ahead of the commanders right now in the NFC East.

Man, if the Giants had finished off, that game would be really spicy there. But 3-3-1, they're just in the mix. They might have the best quarterback in the league. The commanders are going to have to do something they haven't had to with Dan Quinn, which is going to get out of a little bit of a right here at 3-4. let's go to a team in London who barely spent any time there

but they're not trying to get out of a rut at all fourth and one Stafford under center snapped play fake rolling left looking down field Stafford plants throws deep down the middle of the field

to the end zone and it's caught it's a touchdown Rams it's the rookie time in Terence Murgis his first career touchdown on a fourth and one play The explanation point for the Rams in London.

That is J.P. Shadrick from Westwood One. Apologies to J.B. Long, you know, putting a J.P. instead of a J.B. just feels wrong. We couldn't find the radio calls for J.B. Long, who I am reliably told, from J.B. Long, spent less than 12 hours in London. Wow. There it is. Announced the college football game in America on Saturday night and then flew over, called the game. The Rams win 35 to 7. they barely spent more than 24 hours there. They got there Saturday morning

and you wonder if teams are going to start copying them because Matthew Stafford finished with five touchdowns in a game where everything looked good for the Rams except for maybe the offense in the third quarter, but that's like a small little knit to pick Patrick. Like their defense was awesome. Their offense was awesome. Where do you want to start?

We'll start with Devante Adams, breaking an NFL record today, three touchdowns, all less than two yards. One of them was a one-hander that he caught for Matthew Stafford. As you wondered, like, what would this offense look like without Pooka Nakua? The answer is pretty good. Where the Jags really like, there's a conversation to be had because the deployment of Travis Hunter was mostly at wide receiver in this game against the Rams. But Andrew Wingard, once again, like we just saw him get beat on that play action touchdown to the tight end.

Like, it's week after week where teams are Iceland. him in coverage. And it's just, it's, the results are not good for the Jacksonville Jaguar. Two huge penalties in the first half of this game before giving, uh, that playup. Yeah. Stafford ends up with five touchdowns in 182 yards. Not, not a stat line you normally see, but it was raining heavily through the first half of this game. The rain did let up, but it was sloppy. People slipping all around. So not a ton of chunk plays down the field until, you know, Hunter got one in Diami Brown for for the Jaguars later. And all five of his touchdowns came against the blitz, which again, you would think because of the familiarity

between these two coaching staffs that you just don't blitz Matthew Stafford. But apparently that is what the Jacksonville Jaguars decided they were going to try to do today, possibly trying to take advantage of yet again missing Rob Havenstein at right tackle. And also missing Pooka Nakua, who's really great in the blocking service. I think it is such a compliment to how many jobs Puka Nakua actually does for the Rams, that they were in 12 or 13 personnel more than they have been by volume since 2020. And even before that, since we really just started tracking this. Oh, and I got a next gen stat. Oh, please. Go for it. In 13 personnel. So that's three tight ends on the field. Yeah. It is by far the most any team has ever had three tight ends on the field. It was

almost 40% of the time. Next gen only tracks back to 2016. But by far, comparison, the Rams had six snaps total with that personnel over the last four years. And yeah, they were in it almost 40% of this game. And they just got heavy and they got good. Because Puka Nakua plays both receiver and tight end for them depending on the type of pass play or the type of run play. And I think that is such a compliment to him. And it is, again, I think a really timely and really good reminder to Rams head coach, Sean McVeigh, that you can use. more than one player on your roster you can target more than one player you can use more than one personnel and hell good things might happen when you decide to do so especially if you can finally be the Kyle Shanahan of the world and beat up on your former offensive coordinator

Liam Cohen and beat up on your former employees and and less need can beat up on his former protege James Gladstone. This game had so many connections and so much, so many layers and levels to it, but I think to me, when Sean McFey goes into the bi-week, and I know this is when he goes and actually

catches up on what the rest of the league is doing like a true football sicko, he is going to look back at this game and say, this is exactly what I myself said, I wanted to do with this team, including when Puka is on the field, as be as multiple as possible, have so much more dimension to this offense. I think he called a great

game. I think Chris Shula called a hell of a game on defense as well. He kind of hid the issues that those cornerbacks are having and took advantage of still continued miscommunication, inconsistency, lack of identity within the Jaguars passing game that Patrick, you have been on. You've pointed this out from the jump. Well, and the thing is that we talk about fighting history and legacy. They're doing it. It wasn't just Brian Thomas Jr. with the endbreakers. On in breakers today. Trev was nine of 20 for 142 yards. Diami Brown had one

where he looked like he was making a weird decision on it. There was another by Parker Washington. And again, a lot of the breakers where the guys were trying to make breaks and slipping and falling, but both teams were playing on the same field. It just seemed to impact the Jags a little bit more where

you almost wonder like maybe just take the middle of the field out. If everything is going that way for the passing game, maybe just stop doing it all together. Right. There was a third down where, yeah, you mentioned Diami Brown kind of stopped short or isn't a little confused. Travis Hunter doesn't even look the way of the ball on another third down, although he does finish with eight catches for 101 yards. They were trying to target him, especially late. It was almost like they were trying to work on him and he had a 34 yard touchdown. He had

a great catch down the field. It's another game where I think the box score for Trevor Lawrence lied. Like, I don't think he played well. There was a fourth down where he made a bad decision to run in the goal line and then got stopped but didn't like kind of if you're going to do it you kind of have to make it happen and go all out and ultimately just you know gets called you know short by a couple yards he takes a couple sacks on a play where there's like a pretty clear blitz the rams have a tendency to blitz on second down it's just and he just doesn't see it he just he kind of doesn't see things and uh hit the bell all he was at the game oh that's too and this this is good insider information.

It's always good information. That's the thing. I want to make sure the listener, I want to make sure the listeners aware what we're doing here. We're trying to track how many more time. Who wins? Ollie or Walker in terms of Greg mentions

per show. The problem is you putting this up is going to limit both of them moving forward. But that's just, I don't think so. I don't think so. This one's too good. This one's too good to pass up.

I love Walker too. I love Walker too. I'm the best. shout out to to my son. There's one who got to see in person

one of the all-time performances in any sport. So Hey, Othani. Awesome decision. So glad I went to that. It is like it is like

taking some sort of like incredible, I don't know, drug or something to hear your child say like that was so much fun after anything, after something.

And that was that on Friday night. Shout out to Shoahatani for making a lot of people happy. Walker, happened to see the greatest baseball game. Yeah, yeah, yeah, just happened to be there. Just making a lot of people happy around here. Okay, I do want to mention the point, which was he's at the game and he said

the sideline and the offensive organizational, whatever you want to call it for the Jaguars was in total chaos the whole time. Players didn't know whether to go in or not. Like, they're talking. It's total confusion. Out of the side, like, players don't seem to know the play.

They're coming in and out of the huddle. Liam Cohen's kind of yelling at Trevor Lawrence to get back in the huddle, but Trevor Lawrence is like coming back out of the huddle to like find out what's going on. Whatever's going on, Trevor Lawrence is not really understanding, I think, or, you know, figuring out what they are trying to accomplish on offense. I think that's clear to say by you wouldn't even need to be there to see that to know that. But I think just by what's going on on the field, It's like it's too much for him and this offense right now.

But a lot of that is because, you know, the Rams were doing great things on their side of the ball as well. All right, let's move on. That was a sad game to send to London. I feel bad, but at least they saw a great performance by a team that could be going deep in the playoffs and if they went to the post-game pressure. And Crunky wins the billionaire.

Oh, that's a good call. A great quote, too, by Devante Adams. He's a killer. That's what killers do. They go out and kills. I feel like we could use that. uh in the future i'm not sure how that was him talking about matthew stafford yeah not just generally killers who sometimes you know kill in varying locations they don't just go i mean that is what killers

do by definition that's how they become killers we're the panthers got to be killers we're going to find out after the break 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 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 podcast 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, and how front offices construct winning rosters.

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more in an empty set hubbard playing an upback position now he motions off the left tip of dalton andy the snap back to throw launches deep downfield leagueette and just makes the catch inside the 25 yard line it's been a career game for Xavier Legett. They went for the Haymaker. And Xavier Legett delivers. That's a gutsy call right there. That was Anise Straff on WRFX and Luke Keeckley, maybe?

Jake DeLone. Maybe Jake DeLone? Who knows? Probably Jake DeLone. Panthers win, 13 to 6. In a game that they unfortunately lost Bryce Young to an ankle injury Andy Dalton finishes the game out. But yes, if we're talking most improved players,

how about just within this season? Xavier Leggett was struggling in September. But this is two games here where he stepped up and made huge plays. Nine catches, 92 yards. And the Carolina Panthers are over 500. Yay! And the Jets haven't won a game.

Yes. And Xavier Leggett, that was the play to ice the game. They really didn't do anything with Andy Dalton. in like that was the most significant play on offense and it's Andy Dalton you know firing up the the fire engine on a hot air balloon and Xavier Legat gets down there and shields off the defender that's what it was Greg uh to go back I love the way you put that well that's that's how like you can hear the as that ball like slowly descends and Legate's having to fight for his life to keep it from being picked off so go back to the second quarter three nothing panthers the jets run

quarterback power with Justin Fields he gets the first down he gets hit as he slides by Nick Scott. He's on the turf for like a third of a second. Then he pops up. The independent neurologist pulls him off the field. Terrod Taylor comes in.

Fields eventually comes back in the game, but the deepest penetration they got was to the 44 of the Panthers with Fields in after that hit. And he would be substituted out. I didn't quite get to Aaron Glenn's post game comments because I ran to do Game Day Live after that.

But I wonder about that decision and how the, you know, evaluation played into that. The Panthers got their score before halftime. Bryce hits T-Mack twice on back-to-back 11-yard passes. Then they set up a screen to Chuba Hubbard that the Jets defense was not there for at all to the extent that there were three linemen out front blocking for Chuba Hubbard

and they couldn't get to anybody before Chuba ran ahead of them. They get 26 yards. And I'll count that screen as a play-action play where Bryce was very good on play action. He had 112-passer rating and a touchdown. A couple plays after that, legate on another play action play for that he was trying to spin away from briggs on the play where

briggs kind of dives low and clips his ankle they've got the bills up next i hope they're able to have bryce because as we noted they didn't really do anything with andy dalton today and that was a short play coming in um where he's having to play for you know in the backup position i'll grant that against a defense that's been solid uh relatively late uh the jets have been but j c horn's play in the second half keeps them in this lead because he has a one-handed interception of Tarrad Taylor

Unreal play. For some reason Taylor tries Jay C. Horn once again on like this day of NFL legacy where Gadsden goes off in my game. And J.C. Horn goes off

in my game where he single-handedly, literally saves this game for the Carolina Panthers because other than the hot air balloon, that was really it in the second half. Yeah, to your first question about what Aaron Glenn was saying, effectively, I mean, essentially, it is being treated as a benching. And Aaron Glenn is not ready to say, according to the Jetsby reporters, who the quarterback is going to be next week and added that the team needed a spark, which is why Terad Taylor came back in.

I thought, I agree with you. I thought Bryce Young played pretty well, honestly. And I think he has been playing pretty well. And I think it's interesting. I know locally they don't really like that there's a two-back system. emerging here, especially after RICO Dowdell, but watching Chuba Hubbard manipulate the screen game,

at one point he outran his own blockers on that play you mentioned to the outside where you would have liked to see the blocking layer back in and sort of thread him through the inside, but he is so athletic and so explosive, especially on some of those short catch and runs. And I love that play design

and how it was set up. And I think if they're going to try to get explosives any which way, not always able to trust them in the passing game, although really happy for Xavier Leggett for how. having a really solid career game. He was, it was just a cool thing to watch all of these guys get activated. You really want to make sure that Bryce Young can continue this.

According to Joe Person at the Athletic, my former beat partner, initial testing came back clean. Obviously, follow up testing, MRI, stuff like that is going to have to happen over the next day or so with Bryce Young. Because this Carolina Panthers seem over, which is over 500 for the first time since, what, 2021? Yeah. They are, they seem like they're improving every single week.

The defense is improving six sacks today. They didn't have six sacks to the first six games last season. This is just awesome. I love watching this team. I felt bad about my, if they had just played Tyrod last week, they probably would have won that game take just because those two throws by Tyrod were late and also seemed to be using the same, what was it called? The balloon propeller thing?

Hot air balloon. had a little bit of that to those throws too. Unfortunately, Soss Gardner has a concussion and it's just dark days for the Jets. But yes, the Panthers at four in three and they're just

how about that? Be in the mix. And Rico Dadoe fantasy owners can be happy because he still led the team and carries with 17. But yeah, Panthers offense didn't really get that much done. 4.3 yards per play. And the Jets become only the second team in the last decade to give up 13 points or less in two straight games and not win either of them.

Shout out to the most depressing Bill Belichick team of all time, the 2023 Patriots. Let's go to the Bears, not depressing at all. I need a new tally line. Hang on. Cadoons are out to the right. Snap. Caleb, giving his swift. On the cutback. Gallops inside the five. Blasting into the end zone. Touchdown. Touchdown Bears. DeAndre Swift. And Jeff Joniak from WMVP. What a tandem.

DeAndre Swift, Jordan. He may not always be great, but that man is streaky. And when he's great, he's great. The Bears run game looks so much cleaner and so much sharper post-by week than it did heading into the bye. They had 222 yards behind DeAndre Swift and the seventh round rookie running back out of Rudkers. Kyle Monongai. I hope I am saying that correctly. after hearing it over and over and over again on the broadcast,

yet being here for so many hours, it seems to have left my brain. You guys, this game looked over, over in the first half. The Saints had just seven first downs. Three of them were by penalty. Spencer Rattler had already thrown a bad interception and Dennis Allen, former Saints head coach, had him totally turned around and was just abusing all the skill guys on some of his blitzes

that he was sending at the Saints and that the tight ends and some of the receivers and the running backs had to pick up. And it turned into interceptions. And it turned into bad plays by Spencer Rattler. And Chicago was up 20 to zero right before the end of the half. Spencer Rattler hits Chris Olive on two really, really huge plays, including a touchdown that made up 78 of the Saints 104 first half yards. You can't stop the denizens.

You cannot stop the denizens. It's back on. You may only, it's back on and you may only hope to contain it because three total interceptions by Spencer Rattler, including one late in the fourth quarter by Tremaine Edmonds on a tipped pass that gave the Bears their 16th takeaway of the season. And I think we have sound for the play that iced the game. Rattler brings Johnson in motion to the right, takes the snap, going to roll to the right. Camara got bumped up in coverage, tipped up in the air intercepted. Tremant Edmonds on the tip by Edwards. Bears take it away for a fourth time today.

Edwards on the tip. They wanted to go to Camara. He got wiped out by Johnson, the line banger. And that ball was ricocheted right into the hands. And Tremant Edmins, his third interceptor this year. Yeah, while we're just going heavy on Dennis Allen, I hate to do this. No.

When I first saw this, I have to admit I had a physical reaction. But here's Ben Johnson in the locker room after the game, giving a game ball away that will make the skin crawl of any New Orleans resident. Okay, defense 44 yards on the ground, all right? Defense, four sacks. Dennis Dowley, come in! Dennis out, getting with it. These players are loving it.

He did the little kick dance that was on TikTok a couple years ago. To be real, the Bears have won four straight games. They've been kind of wacky, but they're winning in different types of ways. I think they're creating offense. And my number one takeaway from this game, and it's now from the two weeks, is they just look like a different team since the buy defensively and running the ball. And man, like, I think they solve some things. It might have been because Ben Johnson opened up the playbook.

a little bit. He said the governor was off to the Monday night football guys in terms of how they use motions and everything. They were trying to really simplify it the first month. It's like it's not simplified anymore that's helping the running game and then the defense has just seemed to find something in the last couple weeks. Yeah, 57% success rate for DeAndre Sufifft, 53 for Kaalmanungai

and the defense holding Alvin Camara to 36% success rate. I was excited for the Kendra Miller revenge game against Dennis Allen. Chris Olavay kind of got his through the past game but just one carry for seven yards got hurt for Kendrae miller got hurt leaving the game and it's um it's a weird situation for the ground game uh for the saints where they were behind and

trailing and having to throw a lot here uh but it it seemed like asking a lot of spencer ratler but again this is a defense uh that before the buy was getting run over by everybody and the commanders come in with the i think the number two run game at the time they shut them down and And now after this performance, like, yeah, perhaps taking personnel decisions away from Dennis Allen allows him to ingratiate himself to a locker room in a way that we didn't see him. He's always been a good coordinator. Yeah, and that's why Ben Johnson hired him. But it is interesting on the other side.

Like, Greg, you brought up their own run game. I mean, especially when they're doing these zone runs, the layers of their blocking is so much cleaner. When I say cleaner, it means that not only are they getting off the line of scrimmage, but they're setting up second and third layers of their, especially outside and middle zone runs that really help DeAndre Swift see it very well. And he's clearly thriving off of that. In the start of the year, some of the yards before contact by this offensive line was there.

They were blocking some stuff open. It wasn't totally consistent, but they were blocking some stuff open. And he was not getting the yards after contact. And that was a huge issue. He has really come alive post-by week. And I think part of it that helps is it's visually more appealing. Like you can actually, I loved what they did this game, the broadcast.

They did a lot of shots because the booth like myself were kind of geeking out over the run game and how much it's improved over the entire or over the last couple of weeks. And they were really showing a lot of the angles exactly clarifying what they meant when they were talking about some of what the running back was going to be able to see. The thing about this offense that is still erratic, is the passing game. And there were a couple of Wow plays and Caleb Williams and Robudunze. You can tell that when they're really on, they're on and when they're off, they're just off. DJ Moore had a nice catch and run play where it seemed like he just could not get tackled at one point.

But it's going to be one of those games where I think it's going to be so important to go back and look at the All-22 because there were some plays where it seemed like Caleb Williams was holding on to the ball for a really long time. And I want to think that it's because players were covered downfield. But then we are talking about the Saints defense. here. And so this is going to be one of those where if you can't really see the full picture on the broadcast, you're going to want to go look at the full picture before you make a true opinion. But the passing game overall is just a little out of sync, a little erratic. They didn't need it today. All they needed was to run the ball well. And sometimes that's all you can ask for. And get good defense and the offensive line's been better. The Saints are supposed to be all about their offensive line, but it has not been good this year. And they lost

their captain, Eric McCoy today to a, I believe it was a pectoral or was it a biceps? It was one one of those two where it was a biceps and it does not sound good for him. That's going to hurt. Those are the two injuries that always set off alarm bells from me. They didn't used to exist back in like the 70s, you know? They didn't have like torn biceps.

What development came along? A lot. You know what came along? Patrick Freaking Mahomes came along to this league. And the day he started playing, he changed it. And he's all the way back if he was ever gone even in the slightest. Chiefs do get the ball to start the third quarter. That enters into that same discussion. They load the right side up again. They single the new side. Todd Rice.

Touchdown. Kansas City. Rashi Rice, his second touchdown. The Chiefs go on a 16-play, 94-yard drive. Three drives, three long touchdown drives. Thank you for summing up. The first half so beautifully Mitch Holtz on KFNZ. And thank you to me for a making sure we took this Chief's team as our Survivor. It wouldn't have mattered. We'll get to the Patriots. Yeah. But if you can choose the game that was the most lopsided in the entire NFL this season,

as your survivor pick, you're doing something? Right. The Chiefs finished with 30 first downs in this game, and the Raiders finished with three. I don't really need to say that much more. Usually at some point, the stats like, you know, like you write down these little stats because like, oh, it'll be crazy to mention

that through two and a half quarters, these were the stats. This is the stats at the end of the game. They brought in Kenny Pickett for the last couple of drives. Kenny Pickett's very first step, he loses a fumble. And then, of course, he goes three and out,

his next drive too. Like, it didn't get any better in garbage time. Meanwhile, Gardner Minchu played the entire fourth quarter. He had almost as many drives Gardner Minchew in the fourth quarter, which scored zero points, by the way, as Patrick Mahomes did

because Patrick Mahomes put up 31 points in only five drives and then his day was absolutely done. They just look so good right now at the chiefs. Felt meet ass. It was old school. To the point where

it's Rishi Rice being fully reintegrated like that instantly he catches the shovel pass and then they force feed him a touchdown pass down the sideline where they could pick and choose who got to score just a nasty Raiders performance across the board. It was, and the linebackers especially got picked on

Alandon Roberts and Devin White. It was just ugly. But putting rice in there for Juju, just he has so much juice. That touchdown throw that we saw, what a great route. Like his footwork on that one-on-one versus Q Blue Kelly. Like, it's just a mismatch. They just are checking off everything. Like the Mahomes fun factor is there. He had an incompletion to Tyquan Thornt,

which could have been one of the best throws of the year. he was getting hit and he threw it about 58 yards and hit Taekwon Thornton in the shoulder pad. It didn't, it wasn't a completion in the end, but it was absolutely ridiculous. He had a no look pass. That was too worthy, I believe. That was an amazing no look throw. He also had a like bullet that was absolutely beautiful. That one was to worthy.

The no look was to Rice. He is just out there having fun and so is Andy Reid. if you just listen to the dummy call that they had on a fourth down conversion. Let's listen. Well, they're going for it on their own 40. A fourth on a foot. Tried to draw them offside.

The blue ad was on, no, no, no, no. Sorry. Mahom says, Coach, it doesn't. Oh, there they go. He was taking it. There they got. Oh, my God.

Does anyone do it better? Too cute or great. What do you think, Patrick? No, they're just trying stuff. They're playing the Raiders. They're horrible. They just get to do whatever. At that point, the game was close.

I think it was only seven. Yeah, just because of the nature of the game. Like, it starts zero to zero. They should have never driven that bus around Arrowhead or what was it? It was. They took a lap around. They drove the bus. They have not won a game since, but I got to feel like Raiders fans were wondering,

were we better off with Antonio Pierce? That wasn't even this regime's fault. I know, but they're still taking out of him. At least Antonio Pierce kept it close. I mean, Pete Carroll's come in there. This is the worst team in the NFL along with the Jets. I know they've won two games. I guess the Titans are right there too.

But everything about it is bad. Like, they're the, it's hard to watch Gino. It's hard to watch this defense. This is what I wonder. And I asked you the same question, but Greg, it was hard for you to even think of really, a actual answer. It's like, what do you do if you're the Raiders? Like, what, what do you do? Do you make personnel moves? Do you sell at the deadline? Do you try to stockpile a bunch of draft picks? Do you make

coaching changes? Like, this is, this is so much worse than I think anybody thought that it was going to be. You thought that they would at least be respectable. There are some really solid people in that building. And what are they going to do? Well, here's what people. Carol hasn't been able to do for many years, which is provide any advantage as a defensive coach. And he's not doing it this year. And to be fair, they lost Max Crosby during this game. They lost Adam Butler, who's a starting defensive lineman during this game. They did not have Joe Kobe Myers available for this game. They did not have Brock Bowers available for this game. No team has needed a by week more than this Raiders team. And they will get it. And

hopefully that can solve something. But man, the chiefs are four and three. And Pat Patrick Mahomes is putting up monster fantasy stats again. And if you ask me, what team are you most confident? If you had to pick one team, would be playing in the Super Bowl for either conference. I mean, I think the average answer would be the Kansas City Chiefs. Chris Jones, by the way, also looked awesome in this game. Suddenly, we're right back to this Chiefs team, as we've always known them. And then some.

I think better than the last couple of years. That's absolutely right. All right. You guys have both had long days. you were live on on TV for three hours so long that you haven't even noticed how there's a button open in your shirt and I can see your chest hair right now.

Sorry, the micro, that's where the microphone went through. It just happened. New tally calling. And Jordan, you were on air, I believe at like 8 in the morning or something live. And so we're going to say goodbye to you too, but it was a thin slice of heaven. And we're going to go to our next game.

This is going to be a thin slice of heaven for me. Patriots and Titans. I'll keep track of the tally from now on. Do you want the tally before I go? Okay, we've got Olly 2, Walker 1. Okay. He still has time to come back. Greg, self-mentioned one.

Bill, one. Chest, one. I mean, have that ever been mentioned before? Yeah, I don't know that my chest has ever, you know. We're just going to keep tabs on it, all right? May takes the snap chest on. He dropped back with time. He loads up.

He does a lot of open man, booty. And he reaches out and he snaps it. He tumbles and millions. Touchdown! Patriots! What a throw! What a throw! More importantly, it's the catch. Kayshawn Booney is developing into one heck of a weapon for Drake May.

It's fingertips, extended, deep post, left, and they take the shot. Easy kick out of bounds. You're at the 40. You get it to the 50 on a run, bag it to Hunter Henry, and then Josh McDaniels take a shot. That was Scott Zolak acting like a touchdown against the Tennessee Titans won them the Super Bowl. And I don't mind it one bit. Patriots win 31 to 13 was also Bob Sochi on WBZ after the game.

Shook, Drake May was asked about his completion percentage. Some of these box scores are getting absolutely crazy. He went 21 for 23 today for 222 yards. And he said, look, I'm not trying to be a captain checkdown. I'm not trying to be a check down Charlie is I believe what he said and he's not that's actually the second touchdown he's had this year over 50 air yards

he's the only quarterback in the league to do that surprisingly there have been some shots down the field but he was really accurate on a day the Patriots win 31 to 13 it didn't start out that easy but in the end it looked like a lot of Patriots games this year yeah and Drake May is dazzling so much

that Scott Zolak's going horse in the booth because he's just overwhelmed by how well Drake May is playing he's not a checkdown Charlie, but he is the third player under the age of 24 with 200 plus passing yards and a 100 plus passer rating in six consecutive games. That's how well he is playing right now. And that was the story of their game in the second half. This game actually reminded me a lot of an earlier Titans game. I know the Patriots won, but you'll see the connection here in which they played pretty well with the Rams for three quarters. And then the Rams overwhelmed them in the fourth in part because the Titans made

mistakes that opened the door for the Rams to do so. The Patriots did that to them, but it's started with that touchdown pass to Kishan booty. Drake May's latest deep shout to him for a touchdown. We've seen it happen over the last few weeks. And then it really snowballed in the second half when they score a touchdown in the midway through the third quarter. And then just 11 seconds later, K. Levan Chase on gets the fumble from Cam Mord, who had the ball fall out of his hand again, as we saw him do recently, I believe it was against

the Raiders and returns that for a touchdown. And before you know it, in the blink of an eye, we go from 17, 13, 13 Patriots to 3113 Patriots, and that was all she wrote, because that's where the scoring finished, and it's all that really mattered for another win for the Patriots. I have not heard this call, but let's give it a shot. If he got Horace off that first touchdown, let's see what this one's like. Ward under center, two receivers, two to his left, two to the right, including a tight end in the wing, single back, hands on knees, turns, play fakes, rolls into the gun.

Chaseon, picks up the ball with a flat thrown on the play. Jason has it running into the end zone. Cam Ward off the play fake, rolling backward in big trouble with baby-A. The Patriots are celebrating, and the end zone is able to take the football in full school. Scott Zolak, I'm a self-talker too, but you just had an entire conversation with yourself on the air while your play-by-play guy was talking. You killed the touchdown call because he said it. was coming back and then it wasn't coming back. Like we all went through it.

Shout out to Caleb on Jason, by the way, four quarterback pressures in this game. So I know he got fortunate there, but he's been good for them this year. How did Kim Ward look shook with the new head coach, or at least interim head coach, Mike McCoy? You know, in the first half, it was pretty encouraging.

It was an interesting dynamic or dichotomy between these two teams because Mike Rable shows up with an intent to run the football and win the physical battle. And so they hand off to Romandria Stevenson four straight time to start the game. They hand it off to him a fifth time on the opening drive.

There's drive kind of stalls. Drake May takes a sack to kick a field goal. And then Ward comes out and he's dealing. He's fine and Iia Manor over the middle. He's looking for Chmary, D.K. Like, he's tossing the ball around, right? But then it all kind of came to a screeching halt in the second half with that type of play.

And from there, I mean, once the deficit grows for these Titans, you just know that they're so limited in terms of talent or just experience that you realize it's going to be a very steep mountain to climb, and that's where things kind of fell apart. But in the first half, I liked what I saw. I mean, he looks a lot like he has in most games,

save for a couple in which the difference in talent was so significant that you knew they just couldn't do anything. It's, again, just a case of the Titans, even when they make a coaching change, they're still just kind of playing with one hand tied behind their back. Their turnaround is not going to happen overnight. No matter who the coach is, I would say they looked a little more organized,

but they still messed up the details. So I think it's going to be a change or an improvement that happens next year. Yeah, supposedly they were simplifying the offense for Cam Ward. And look, he did go 25 for 34 and was effective for most of the game. But ultimately, he's going up against a team where every week, like, Drake May's completion percentage over-expected is just absolutely outrageous. It was plus 24 today.

Like, the biggest problem they have is he just takes too many hits. He left the game to get checked for a concussion. That's like the third time this year that that's happened. He rushed for 62 yards. he's going to need to protect himself better. Jeffrey Simmons, by the way, left with a hamstring injury without the final three quarters of this game.

And I think a lot of credit has to go to, like his teammates picking him up. Ramandre goes for 88 yards on the ground. DiMario Douglas has a one-handed catch on fourth down, which allows them to score another touchdown. Austin Hooper's touchdown was a good throw, but it wasn't even better catch. So people have been killing like their roster construction

in terms of their receivers. I tell you what, they have a lot of guys. guys who block, who are pretty versatile and who have good hands. Like, they're not separating, but they've been pretty reliable for Drake May. It's led them to a five and two record. I'm actually looking forward next week, shook to a tougher matchup against the Brown's defense. On the other side, you know, it's not as tough. But that's actually the best defense that they face, maybe all season. Yeah, and I would be curious to see how the Browns approach this, because Defon

Diggs has been very good over the last few weeks. And he made some really great catches today. Him and Drake May are very much on the same page. May threw a great back shoulder fade to him on the sideline that only probably Diggs is going to make that catch. Or, you know, he's in that upper tier of receivers with the late hands. Like a more inexperienced receiver is not making that play. He also, like, layered in a couple of different balls to different guys as well.

And so I'm curious to see how the Browns approach it. Do they take Denzo Ward and travel him? Who do they identify as their top receiver? Because booty's obviously blossoming this season. It's going to be a very interesting matchup. That note on Simmons is important, though, because that is when this game truly changed. Once Jeff Simmons came out of the game, the Titans didn't have an answer

for whatever the Patriots wanted to do. And that's really where the scales tipped in New England's favor. Yeah, the ground game had its best day for the Patriots. Torel Jennings, of all people, ends up getting more touches than Trayvion Henderson. It's dark out here in the Trayvion Henderson streets. Mike Vrable said they might have found their five minute back.

Man, and it's not Trayon Henderson. Let's go and talk about your Browns before we get to Sunday night football. Of a good Browns Day, finally. Zaychan to the backfield, too from the pistol, throws to the outside, blasted, picked off. Campbell down the sideline. He's at the 10, the 5, touchdown.

Are they going to call it a score? It's a touchdown. Campbell didn't step out of bounds. He tight broke the sideline. Welcome to Cleveland. So much focus of this game is going to be on the losers. The dolphins are 1 and 6. You know, the Browns are 2 and 5.

Will Mike McDaniel survive the week? Who cares about that? We got to hear another Andrews, Ciliano call. And yes, it came from a big defensive play, but they got it done on offense as well, at least enough. Quinchot Jenkins with three touchdowns on the day. And what the hell shook? Before I give you the floor, let's just get another Siciliano call into the show because there hasn't been enough this year. And they're now in the Miami 46-yard line for the far hash out of an eye formation. Fanon in front of Judkins. Gabriel on first now will give to Judkins running up the middle. Big hole 40.

He's at the 35. He's in the 30. It's a foot race 20. 15. Far sideline. Touchdown. Windshot Judkins. 46 yards to the house.

Are you able to enjoy a blowout Brown's victory? Shuck. I enjoy it through my friends who are at the game and text me. The Browns are back and I am able to reply. No, they're not. They're just playing a team that's worse than them and capitalizing on it. It was a good, this is the gameplay I expected. Like that touchdown run, I expected that to happen against this Dolphins defense,

which cannot stop the run. We've seen it over and over again. But we have this weird balance between rushes for negative gains. Like, just be like tackle for loss for loss of three. Like, Judkins average precarious 3.4 for this game because there's like five or six examples where he just gets tackled in the backfield. And then it's Judkins runs for four because he had to break two tackles. Then he rips off a 46 yard touchdown run.

But yeah, it all comes back to the defense with this team. And they found an opponent that is so disjointed that they were able to capitalize. And, you know, they pick off two or three times. The first one being an errant throw, the next two just being poor decisions and bad throws by two of Tongue Vailoa. The first one went off of A. Chan's hands and was a great play. We saw that highlight as well. But fun little fact for these Browns, Tyson Campbell gets a pick six.

Another former Jaguar, Ray Sean Jenkins, gets an interception in this game as well. The most dominant performance you're going to see from the Browns this year and maybe into next year. But they needed it. It's always nice for a fan base to get a nice little blowout win that was so lopsided that even their fans started to leave the game early. Enjoy it. Andrew Barry's back, you know. He was taking a lot of slings and arrows from Joe Flacco, but the guy he traded for Tyson Campbell, yeah, with the pick six.

And look, you win the turnover battle for it to nothing. you mentioned Tua, he leaves this game late. It was over at that point. Quinn Ewers, who was the backup today over Zach Wilson, comes in three interceptions. You do wonder if that'll be it for Mike McDaniel in Miami. This is him after the game. A game like this, you know, I think we didn't see coming in terms of our prep.

But you absolutely, with 100% certainty, you have to evaluate everything. you know, I think it goes for, you know, no person or no player or no coach has got their hands clean and we have to go back to work and starting with me, do a better job. It's a bummer. Like, it all comes down to the coach quarterback, their relationship, their performance, and I think today said it all. 100 yards for two.

I know it was bad weather, but 100 yards, three interceptions, it just feels like a regime-ending type of performance. And even on a day where their defense got some stops along the way, just couldn't happen for them. Enjoy the victory. Hey, why not, Shucky?

And enjoy a Sunday night football game. We're going to talk about right now after the break. Maybe not right now. 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.

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, 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 the league year after year. Whether you're a diehard fan or just love understanding the game on a deeper level, we give you the full picture. If you want insight that goes beyond the box score, this podcast is for you.

Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Six podcast on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Fiorio, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a fantasy vet, We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents.

Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Christian McCaffrey has carried the load tonight that he stands behind Matt Jones. Now, Cal Ushik shifts, eye formation. Jones takes and gives. Christian, cuts it up inside, back peddling his way. Pushing, pushing.

They got him in. Broad up front for the Niners tonight. A touchdown, maybe to put it away, San Francisco. Oh, they weren't just pushing. They were pulling. But whatever gets the job done, the 49ers beat the Falcons 20 to 10 on Sunday night football to get to 5 in 2, just poking the balloon and letting a little air out of all that falcon type. coming off their win in prime time last week.

They've been living it in prime time, but man, the 49ers have been living this life with Christian McCaffrey. It doesn't matter who gets hurt, who's in the lineup, who doesn't. They're given about 30 touches a game to Christian McCaffrey, and it's working well enough, especially tonight. 31 touches, and I love Nick when the highlight fits the theme of the night. He finishes with 129 yards on the ground on 24 carries. Baja Robinson also effective on the ground.

It was a sight for sore eyes. The 49ers could run the ball again, and ultimately they controlled the game and especially that late fourth quarter drive to put it away. Yeah, I feel like we were two seasons ago with them way they were on the football. Maybe four or five seasons ago,

the way they executed. But really, I think it was perfectly fitting that the team that they played, they essentially took their game plan from their most recent prime time victory. Only six days ago, the Falcons were rolling with Bejohn to a victory. And they said, we're doing the same thing with Christian McCaffrey

from basically the start, but really right before halftime, riding it all the way into the finishing touchdown in the fourth quarter. Look, when you're down, you know, your top receiver and Ricky Pearsall, you're still not Brandon Ayuk back. You're playing with Mack Jones as a backup quarterback who's been battling his own slew of injuries throughout this season. Who do you turn to your best player? And you ride him to victory, and that's what they did.

It's crazy how complete. Lee Christian McCaffrey is as a player and you lack the explosion right now. And that's what maybe is different from this iteration of the 49ers running attack compared to previous years. His long run for the day was 15. But he had 31 touches. That includes seven catches for 72 yards. And so he was the leading receiver by far today.

And I started wondering, like, if you just took his, forget all of his rushing numbers this year. And we know on a per snap basis, they haven't been great. Forget the rushing. Just looking at his receiving numbers, he's third in the NFL with 53 receptions. He's now sixth in the NFL for 516 receiving yards. So, you know, more than all the receivers except for five. And then he's first by a long shot in scrimmage yards with 981. We're only seven weeks into the season. And he's almost at a thousand scrimmage yards. And okay, he's not making as many people miss, although he does make people miss, but man, is he tough? He's running through people's faces tonight, and he's smart. If you get him one-on-one against a linebacker in coverage,

so much of their offense is about setting him up to do that. He knows exactly where to go. He knows how to set up defenders. He is not John Robinson right now, but he didn't need to be. And tonight on a night where Robinson was pretty quiet against a really frisky 49ers defense, he was awesome. Give me your thoughts on watching this 49ers defense and what they did to hold down the Falcons to only 10 points. I mean, first off, what an achievement to accomplish this without Fred Warner, who you lost to an injury last week.

I mean, that's a massive missing piece that you think would immediately create a mismatch in favor of the Falcons when you incorporate Bejohn out of the backfield. Bejohn didn't really make all that much of a difference tonight. They found ways to patch that whole, that biggest hole, the biggest void on their defense up. And I think a big part of it was getting Kevin Givens back in this pass rushing unit up front.

You saw Bryce Huff making a difference all the way to the end, you know, getting after Michael Pennix enforcing an incomplete pass that for a moment was believed to be a fumble. This defense, I mean, Robert Sala has just done such a great job of making the most out of whatever spare parts he has left. And that's how you hold the Falcons to 10 points. I just love that you're like, it was big that they got Kevin Givens back. And you're right.

Like, they just need bodies. But, okay. Let's look at who made the biggest plays of the night. Chase Lucas, a slot cornerback was not overly familiar with, who is filling in for Upton Stout, the rookie slot, makes a couple huge plays late. He's actually the highest ranked player, according to PFF, in this game. Bryce Huff, what a trade that is turning out to be.

Two sacks, two quarterback hits, another hurry, had a force fumble late that they ended up calling back against, you know, PennX because there was a penalty. down the field, but he was just everywhere. And then Tatum Bethune is in there at middle linebacker for Fred Warner. And he made a number of big plays

in the night. And one of them is a pressure late in the first half. And I thought this was typical of the pressure numbers overall weren't crazy. They definitely ticked up late in the game. But they were well timed on key downs. And I think that's been a 49er staple when

D.M. DeMico Ryan's was the D.C. Now, when Robert Sal is the D.C. Again, it's like they really know when to hit on big downs and they made it absolutely happen tonight but I'm thinking of that play to end the first half and they make Pennix throw an intentional grounding with 10 seconds to go and eventually that runs the clock out

because they have to do a 10 second runoff and they don't get three at the end of the half and it was typical for me for a night where like Pennix wasn't awful but he wasn't composed throwing to all parts of the field in key spots when under pressure. No, no. He missed.

some throws, whether he was pressured or unpressured, and especially when things got desperate late in this game, of course. But I think that's a product, again, of the 49ers defense. And really, like, what keyed this win for them was how they delivered in big moments. The third down that they complete a pass that sets up the McCaffrey touchdown, that's a third and long. That followed a really, really nice play by a defensive tackle for the Falcons to cut down McCaffrey in the backfield, former Ohio State Buckeyes, Zach Harrison,

made a fantastic play. And yet they still overcome that with the big plays on the, the key downs on both sides of the football. That's me. MacChol. Look, yet his one interception was not on him tonight. They didn't ask him to do too much 152 yards, but just a couple key third downs.

Like they were mostly field goal drives, but a couple key third downs, one to Jennings, one to Bourne, and then you mentioned the third and long to McCaffrey, and he's been the perfect level of backup. Because I don't think anyone who really knows ball

thinks he's playing at a higher level than Brock Purdy plays on average. he's playing good enough ball to help them win games but not good enough to make a real controversy. That's perfect. They're 5 and 2 and they've really managed this part of the schedule and they're not going to get

their defensive players back, but they will get Pearsall back they'll get Purdy back hopefully soon and a disappointing game for the Falcons to fall to 3 and 3. These two teams, they're just stuck in the middle of the NFL but the 49ers are right there atop. The NFC West now

tied with the Rams who's started this long Sunday of football in London about 14 hours ago. So I know you've been driving all over the state. Nick, congratulations to your grandparents, renewing their vows this morning. And congratulations to you being such a good grandson that you drove all the way across the state and then back in time for kickoff because you're a great NFL daily correspondent. Appreciate you, man. Yeah, I'll take that.

I'll take. Yeah, shout to them. Their great grandparents, 65 years. That's the model of consistency right there. That's awesome. That's really cool and really cool that they could do that and that you could be there for that 65 years. We can only hope.

All right. Who knows? Maybe we'll be celebrating the 65 anniversary of NFL Daily someday. I think there's going to be new hosts by then. Doing the math. Yeah, that'll be a walker host. We'll be back Monday night. We've got a double header.

Both games are Austin, Houston, Seattle. Tampa Bay, Detroit starts out. Nick Shook and I will be. be there. We'll see you Monday night. Hey everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters.

We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why. behind what happens on 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 F.

Florio, and together we host the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, your ultimate source for player news, draft tips, and winning strategies. Whether you're a rookie manager or a football. fantasy vet. We've got the insight to help you crush your opponents. Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL, visit Toyota.com

slash NFL now to learn more. This is an IHeart podcast.