NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Friday Fun Show! Browns-Steelers TNF Recap + Final Thoughts for Week 3

Episode Date: September 23, 2022

A virtual room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Gregg Rosenthal share their final thoughts before a weekend of football action. First, we recap the Browns-Steelers Thursday night matchup. Some listeners ask questions via the YouTube comments, and Gregg shares the Chris Wesseling All Star team. We take MORE feedback and questions from the live listeners, and finally hit the last nuts and bolts leading into Week 3 with Heroes of the Week Predictions. The Friday Fun Show airs live on YouTube at 10am PT/3pm ET/6pm BST every Friday.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hello and welcome to the Friday fun show. Work entitled, motherfucker. I'm Dan Hansis, Greg Rosenthal, Mark Zessler from their homes. Week 3 is upon us And this is your Your dive into that I call it a wobbly spiral

Greg thinks it's tight as hell I mean this song is tight as hell And I think Friday fun show You called it Weekmill last week Well that's just like giving meekmill some credit That a man in the sound library of the NFL Is not going to match him But it very much sounds like

What is that song? Anyways, the Friday Fun Show, I think the name is stuck. I think this is it. God's plan? Is that what you're thinking of? No. Whatever. What's up, Mark?

I don't appreciate Greg slamming like our generic music library. We're doing the best we can with what's offered to us in an outside trademark world. That's fine. The Friday Fun show presented by no one is. About to get rolling here. We have a live, live audience coming to you, 10 a.m. here in Los Angeles, 1 p.m. New York, 6 p.m. London. And it is very, very, very exciting to have you guys with us. And we're going to have that as part of the show, as you know, the Friday Fun Show, working title, live listener feedback throughout the proceedings.

That's where Grave Digger comes in. Eric Roberts, all the team behind the scenes, connecting us with the listeners. We're going to have our week three MVP predictions. And by the way, it's time to get one of these right, guys. Hero of the week. Hero, it's not MVP. I mean, I don't think of it as MVP. But, Dan, to your point, the two that I picked in week one and week two

have not just only been off the mark. They have been like nuclear fallout disasters. So I hear what you're saying. But that's like Greg going on one of his Twitter rants about like, oh, you know, now that we see how bad all the Panthers quarterbacks have been, Teddy Bridgewater great when the bar is that low? Anything looks good. So you can only go up from here.

I hope so. It literally could not get worse. My point is what a terrible personnel decisions they've made. If they had Teddy Bridgewater the last two years with that defense, they would have won seven or eight games. They were an average offense. They were an average offense. 86 seconds into the show and Greg is before Greg dropped either a Gino Smith or Teddy Bridgewater reference, 86 seconds is what I had it.

And then take a look at it. bring it up he brought it up set stuff now it's it's cute it's like i don't know what it is there's something about these underdog middling quarterbacks that you connect with gregg on a almost personal level it's fine to be clear i didn't bring it up but it's like uh john gonzalez with the chains if i if you bring it up you got to give the man a chance to respond day that's fair all right so before we get to the week three hero predictions before we get to any listener feedback before Or we open up the floor to a certain hero, a snarky, handsome brunette and a black shirt. See, if you watch it, listen, if you're listening to the podcast, you don't see Greg looking very zaddy like this morning.

So that's another reason why to watch live. Let's get to the first game of week three, Thursday night football. Chub will be the tailback. Froholt the fullback. They turn. They give it the chubby. vaults he spins he lands touchdown oh look at this stadium and listen to this stadium as the browns go down the field and open up at eight-point lead they've been at 2214 there it is

the call from jim donovan of wk r k the cleveland browns on sunday they let victory slip away this time they get it done they recover the onside kick at the end kind of they get a I think it was a backdoor cover score I mean whatever it is a score as a time expired to make it look different than it was but the final score is 2917 Browns over Steelers and that was Nick Chubb of course

going in for the score I think did Don't even call him chubby I like that 113 yards on 23 carries nearly five yards a tote and that touchdown so the Browns are two and one on the season. They are one minute and 55 seconds away against the Jets from being 3 and 0.

But whatever it is, and whatever you think about the Browns and your rooting interest in the Browns, the season has started off very well for this team, Mark Sessler. Yeah, I couldn't disagree at all. I mean, there were concerns going in. I mean, at wide receiver,

along the defensive line, and certainly a quarterback. And I think that the version that we've gotten from Jacoby Brissette, the past two weeks, you take away that interception against the Jets, He's really played for Jacoby Preset, the best version of his football ever. And I mean, I thought last night, his connection with David Najoku, with Amari Cooper.

I mean, they don't really have much else through the air behind those guys, but they delivered. And, you know, I'm looking at a Steelers defense. I check this out on PFF that I think one offshoot from the way that their offense played in the second half, where they had four straight punts and three straight, three and outs. They came into the game with guys like Alex Highsmith, Miles Jack, Cam Sutton, Akila Witherspoon, leading the league and snaps at their position. They've been on the field a lot. It was that Bengals game. It was the Patriots game.

And last night they were on the field for 36 minutes. And so I think, you know, Mike Tomlin said it. If you cannot stop Nick Chubb and they cannot and you cannot stop Cream Hunt, it's a tough out. And so if you get the throws that you get from Jacoby Brissette, the offense functions. I mean, it's like I think with Jacoby Brissette, the journey was always, you're going to get to. Sean Watson coming back. You wanted to go maybe win seven games. Just give yourself a chance.

And they're very close to being three and oh. They have a manageable two and one. They've got a tough schedule coming up down the stretch. But this is a manageable situation for the Browns and probably as good of a thing as they could have imagined back in August. No, I mean, you mentioned Zadis, Dan. I mean, what a three weeks this has been for Mark's guy, Kevin Stefanski, you know, the ultimate Zaddy.

I assume he has children. Maybe he doesn't. He has multiple children. Okay. He just feels like he's a dad and a handsome one at that. I mean, I know that's one of the ones. Everything's weird about the back and forth between you guys right now. I think it's a reminder of what Stefansky did when he first arrived in Cleveland.

And what you see right now, to me, is coaching. Their offense has carried them. Even including last night, I would say their defense on balance has been disappointing and a little below average. Their offense is extremely efficient despite questions that I had going into the season at Offensive Line. But you know what? Has solved it?

Coaching. Like, they coach up that offensive line so well and they still have talent there. It's not like they don't have talent and that's helping them run the ball. Nick Chubb is running the ball better than ever. But more than anything, it's Jake Brisket.

Slice me off a little piece of this version. As you said, Mark, like Kevin Cefansky would absolutely take this version of Jake Brisket over Baker Mayfield. Slice me off a piece of that Jake Brisket. We're bringing that because he's predictable. You know what he's going to do. And we've seen it before. We saw him throw 18 touchdowns in six interceptions under Frank Reich,

another guy who helped Jacoby Brissette speed up his clock a little bit, get the ball out of his hands, help him take advantage of a nice big arm every now and then with some play action and have a really effective season for that Colts team about five years ago. And we're seeing that now. He's better than Baker. And you can see the difference between how he was this year and how he was a year ago in Miami.

I mean, the only difference is coaching. It's not, and the players around them, it's not like Jake Brisket is a different human being. Yeah, we didn't, listen, by we, I mean, the football cognizante. We didn't give Jacobi Brissette a chance entering the season. Everyone just wrote him off as the worst starting quarterback in the league or amongst them. And it simply has not been the case. In fact, he's been, you know, week one was maybe a little mad.

But week two and three, he played really well both weeks. So, you know, and Amarri Cooper, they have, over 200 yards receiving in the last five days together. So that is, there's a connection there. Nick Chubb is, I think I saw you on Twitter, Greg, and tweet about it, and I agree. This is the best I feel like he's ever looked. He's just an absolute monster,

and he should continue to get the ball at least 23 times a game until Deshaun Watson gets back. And even after Deshaun Watson gets back because he's that much of a difference maker. I don't want to hear anything I saw. I also saw people talking about Mitch Trubisky. Well, Mitch was actually pretty good in this game. Get out of here.

Get out of here with that. What do we do? Like the Steelers, let's move forward as an organization. I mean, he was like, okay. Let's move forward. We know what this is kind of the best case scenario for Mitch. And you're just, you're right now, you're an organization sitting in a cul-de-sac. And it's time to get back on the road.

And if you think you drafted a quarterback in the first round, unless there's something else going on that we don't know about, which happens all the time in our league, give him a shot, put him in there and let him start his development process sooner rather than later at this point. Because they're a very hard watch. offensively. I know they have pieces. As we know, that was an unbelievable catch. One of the best catches that you'll see this season by George Pickens. And that's just a reminder that there is talent on this roster. You know, you saw Najee Harris running the ball well in this game. So let's see what we can do in that realm. Mark, tell me about your Thursday night,

by the way. Had an incredible night. People don't like me asking you about this, but it will remain a curiosity for me. When you're at a local watering hole and you're having a couple drinks and the Browns are going up and down the field and winning football games and what's going on be honest please be honest with no I went to watch the game I mean first of all I mean it's it's just kind of honest to say that we don't really have too many chances where we get to go watch the game and just have no kind of responsibility or report to file after or have to talk about it for 15 minutes it's like I just went and enjoyed it I don't think I can't remember the last time that I watched a Brown's game out of play out on the town and that's where I went and that's what I did and I'm

I would give the knight a out of 100, a score of 94 out of 100. Ooh, that's high. You know what? For various elements. Mark, can I say something? Yes. Because it's not, it's never been me doubting your integrity or anything else. But I find that now with the passage of time, and I'm not saying the Deshaun Watson situation,

is any better a look for the Browns. And he's going to enter the picture in a couple months. Al Michaels was the last guy I wanted talking about that last night and he fumbled it. I trust him to do just about anything except talk about Deshaun Watson. Hey, man, I trust Al Michaels for three cocktails in Malibu. I do not trust him to get the Deshaun Watson story right. My point is, is that as someone that loved the Browns your whole life, I can imagine how conflicting it would be for you to actually not be rooting for the Browns and enjoying the Browns fan experience last night when you're at a bar having a couple drinks and they're winning. beating the Steelers. I was rooting for them because I think I think the way that the team is

structured right now like Jacobi Brissette's very enjoyable and I kind of like the journey for Jacoby Brissette and I am like the Nick Chubb thing like he's just the kind of football that I love watching and so I kind of just went and said I don't I'm going to go just watch the game and I wasn't sitting there rooting against the Browns on any level I'm not doing it here I'll leave the conversation here and then we'll move on okay whenever if you get the feeling like you want to just feel like it's you're rooting for them and it was not, this is just the way it played out. Your heart, the heart wants, what the heart wants.

You just come back to the show and you're honest with it. We will not hold it against you. We'll totally understand it. And I'll leave it there. Well, let's see what the future holds. I mean, I've never, like, stuck in cement on anything in life. I think that's become clear. Total support from us.

And, yeah, when they had that drive where they ran it every single play to win the game, except for that beautiful play action shot to Amari, I just thought, like, Ooh, this is a Mark Sessler drive. And this is a Cleveland Browns fan drive. And Chubbs just his feet and his vision. It's another level, man. If I had to pick one running back to get me five yards that's alive on this earth right now, it's Nick Chubb. How about that onside kick, though?

No, I don't get it. I mean, the last, like, the last like couple minutes of that game were so bizarre and took so long. Oh, it was so stupid. You know, they stopped the game and then they don't convert the first down. they go to the line and run out the play clock and then kick up punt it away. And I'm just thinking to myself, if he's, if they snap this fucking ball over the Browns punter's head, my sons were watching. He's like, I was trying to explain to my son's football and the mechanics of it.

Once the onside kick play happened and went out of bounds and said, guys, because they don't get it. They're little kids. The game's over right now. All the Browns have to do is do basic things and run out the clock. And then I said, but kids, there is a chance here that the snap goes awry or the punch. blocked and if that happens all these fans that you're going to walk into the lake nearby because that's what would have happened if the brown somehow blew it but they didn't browns are two

and one people that don't like the browns anymore you could say thank you to my jets for keeping them from being three and oh throw us flowers if you'd like that's that's up to you send me how that works but fair enough to NFL network headquarters inglewood california i don't think the Steelers would have scored on that touchdown by by the way anthony walker their their great linebacker who's one of their leaders of their team, it's been announced as we're taping that he's going to miss five to seven months with a quad injury. So that's unfortunate a loss for them. All right, let's move on. Hey, uh, Grave Digger. How you doing, buddy? Hey. Grave Digger. Hey, I'm great. How are you, Dan? I mean, the way you, though, came in there, it was almost like Yessica walked out on

and he left you a dear John letter, her old dear Justin letter. No. How long was the best man's speech that we talked about last week? It came in just over seven minutes, including hugs at the end, which was a lot longer. Okay, so just under seven minutes, which was longer than I thought because I rehearsed it and it was four and a half. That's what happens. So I don't know. It went really well.

I feel proud of myself and happy that I had a lot of people come up and say, hey, great speech, which would have happened probably. no matter what the speech was, but it would, but that's nice to hear. We both said, yeah, I said three to five. He said, you said five to seven. I mean, under seven's fine. I'm just saying that the reason why he wrote four minutes worth of speech and it turned into seven was for applause and laughter breaks and general joy and revelry and what's the most special occasion in a lot of people's lives. And Justin, he brought the rain, but the rain in this case was pure joy. You're working the room. You're shifted into showman, mode. And I think that's fine if it adds

a 90, 100 seconds to the operation. Speaking of work in the room, I want some questions here. We saw some fly up. One guy asked, where does Pickens' catch rank all time? And this reminds me of enough of emotional love connections with the people that matter to you most. Let's move on. Get to the football.

The Pickens catch was another feather in my cap of like there's one play made every week that's better than any play made in the entire decade 1970s or 1980s. The Pickens play would would fit into that. That's it.

I don't know where it ranks all time, but it would beat a couple solid decades of players. But to Dan's point about Trubisky, and like I thought he was good for Trubisky, like, I want to see the coaches film, go look how wide open Chase Claypool is on that play. This from Sammy Shamrock is Mike Tomlin's stubborn approach

with Mitch going to cost him his first losing season. No, Mike Tomlin will never have a losing season. But to your point, yes, he will. He said after the game, he was not even considering it. He will. He will. He will.

Mr. Trubisky starts 10 games. they will have a losing record this season. To you point about the coaches film, I tried out that other channel, what's it called, the NextGen channel on the Amazon. I really,

I enjoyed it last night. I think I'm going that with every week. I think they show how open Claypool is if you watch that. Yep, yeah. What else? What else we got? Darren from Dublin.

Question for Dan and his monologue about Cade York. That's the rookie kicker of the Browns. He's been atrocious ever since. That's a little strong. What's his status in the kicker club at the moment? surely the bouncer realized he was using a fake ID. Ouch.

Listen, he pushed the extra point wide right against the Jets, but he's not the reason they lost. They had way more crucial errors that went on in the last two minutes of that game. So whatever. He missed again off the upright yesterday. And it's like, okay, be careful here, kid. Because kickers can get the yips and you miss two extra points and you're 22 years old. I'm a little nervous about the second miss in five days, put it that way.

But he's still obviously hugely talented. He stays in the club for now. May to stay a little too late in the club. Maybe we'll put him in a crib. We'll put him in the corner, get him right. Boochaboo. Question, who is your anti-cornered animal team as the 2-0 team that you trust the least? That's a good one.

For me, it's the Giants. It kind of covered that on the show this week. What do you guys think? Well, when I think anti-cornered animal, I almost think they're like a team that's a little too pleased with themselves. No team springs to mind. I guess if I had to go with one, it's partly because they're playing the bills this week.

It's the Miami Dolphins. I still want to see what happens when they play a better pass rush. And more importantly, I'm a little worried about their defense. I don't think they've covered themselves in glory yet. Well, I don't know if I would use the bills as a measuring stick for anyone. But I have to go Giants. Because of all the two-in-0 teams, maybe Miami is the one exception. They're like bona fide playoff heavies.

And the Giants are that team you get every year. sometimes there's more, that it's nicer 2-0. I have enjoyed the story, but they're not going to be 4-0. Right. I had the dolphins in the playoffs, by the way. I think the only one out of us. And I think they'll win 10 or 11 games. But in terms of like, this is just going to be a top three offense,

I guess I'm with Dan. I do want to watch and see that. All right, we'll get back to the listeners in a bit. But now, the last. floor is yours, Greg Zaddy Rosenthal. Well, this Friday fun show, I'm thinking about Chris, Chris Wesleyan. And if you're new to our show, and I know you hear us talk about them a lot, but I do hear from a lot of people that think it's cool how we talk about Chris, but they're new to the show

and they didn't have that history with them. And we miss them every show. And one thing I've learned, like, the more when I talk about them and when we talk about on the show. It keeps them here with us and it makes me happy. And to me, that's fun. And I thought about making like an all-star team, the West All-Stars. Because when I'm watching games on Sundays, I often think of like, what would West think about these teams and these players right now? And I think of some of his favorites that he was so right on. So stop me at any point. I'll go through the offense first. But some Chris Wesley. We're not going to stop you. You know why? The floor is

yours, bro. I know. But it's just like no one wants to hear a five-minute mom. monologue. Well, think about it as like a best man speech. Like Chris as your best man. Go ahead. We'll chime in after. Josh Allen was the one guy. He pushed back on me so much. And Mark, you did too. I think you were kind of a Josh Allen guy from the beginning. But, man, he would love to see this version of Josh Allen, who's just like the best player in the league. Mark, reserve comment for after. I don't want to have that log of a monologue. But man, like, everything, it's true. Sometimes you can see it right away. And he saw the athletic gifts Alan had from the beginning and always figured he could figure it out he could figure it out and you know what he was damn right and he's a supernova unlike almost anyone we've ever seen is this going to be a 53 man roster i know i said i wouldn't i wouldn't interrupt why are you talking now it's like five or six guys uh you'd be correct i'm putting two running backs in here i always thought he had a great eye for running back erin jones and jonathan taylor were two guys who

very early in their careers he could just see had that pure burst and could move move away by the rush in front of him. Nick Chubb's good at this too, but they've got it even more like explosion, and he knew that initially. So we're going with two running backs in the backfield. At wide receiver, we got Terry McLaurin, who I remember we watched early. And again, this is Chris Wessling's ability to see guys early in one of those Monday night games in his rookie year. He just thought McLaurin was going to be a next level guy. Marcus Mariotas is just kind of cheering everyone on from the sideline. I think Chris would really be enjoying this Marcus Mariota season. He was always fascinated by his

footwork. We could throw Rogers and Herbert in there, but that's the offense at least. Those are the Wesleyan all-stars. I like him. The man had a keen eye for football. Do you think he'd still be, McLauran would still be the number. There's so much to pick from at that position. I get what you're saying, but like

I don't know if he'd stand at heads and tails of the rest. I'm just going off the dome. I mean, I thought about it yesterday, of course, and thought like what came to mine and those were the ones. And I was hoping you guys would have other ones that came to mine too. The ones that receiver that came to mind were guys who are retired, like Steve Smith, Larry Fitzgerald, were two of his all-time, all-time favorites.

I don't know, I guess because I respected his football acumen so much, West, that the ones that he didn't have right stuck with me, like he was way in on, uh, what was he was in on Marriota or Winston? I can't remember. Mario, yeah, he was a Marcus Mariotica. Yeah, but that's why I think he would, he would enjoy and have some hope here. And I do too, actually, that this version of Mariotta might give us some, uh, some entertainment. Greg, Greg, you should have put on Chris and Michael in the back field just as an honorary candidate. He did love Amir Abdullah as well.

On defense, I will throw a few more guys. He also called Leonard Fournett Battleship Lenny, which I always enjoyed. He struggled to change direction. A couple of his favorite defenders of all time. It struck me watching JJ Watt last week. Man, J.J. Watt, when he plays, still makes a big freaking difference. No one enjoyed the early J.J. Watte's more than West. Honey Badgers, one of his all-time favorites.

Who's quietly, I think, settled into that Saints role and has played pretty well through two weeks and he's giving them what they want in his hometown in New Orleans. And then I was noticing a little juice out of late in Vandrash the last couple weeks after a couple really down years. I'm not saying he's going to turn into the guy. I think Wes and I hoped when him and Jalen Smith looked like the best linebacker duo in the league. But he looks a little more over those injuries and he's played good football the last couple weeks. And he loved himself some Vandrass.

So I think he'd like the Vandrash resurgents. I have to admit when I think I saw him in week one, whatever. I was like, for a second, I was like, wasn't he out of the league two years ago? But then I got him confused as Sean Lee and that's just being racist. Yeah, we're here in the listeners. Bridget says she loves here in the West Easter eggs at the end of the shows and another listening. Let's read that coming. Alistair Hillers is Greg not wanting to monologue for the first time ever. That is, this is a first. You are visibly uncomfortable and I'm enjoying that, Greg. Yeah. This is like when we did a Zoom for Dan on his birthday,

during Corona with like 18 different threads of friend groups and he could not handle it for more than about six minutes. Oh my God, that was one of the nicest thoughts. Yeah, expressions of love that my wife shared. And but she just miscalibrated what the old Zeuser likes and what the old Zeuser doesn't like. I like to keep my silos separated. Well, we were all wondering because, you know,

the call ended, but I was like, I would give a thousand dollars just to see what the conversation is in the hands of household because of the balance of it was a wonderful, idea that totally sunk like a rock and water. She felt bad because she could tell I was like dying. That was that was like almost that was the ultimate pandemic moment now. Looking back, that was kind of it.

All right. Does that you have anything else, Gregie? That's it. No. Thanks to you guys. Thanks to the listeners too for always enjoying when we talk about West. He is he's with us. We think about him as we're heading to London next week and these sorts.

sorts of weeks. He's always a part of us. Absolutely. Well said, Mr. Rosenthal. Do we have anything else you want to throw to the, from the listeners here, Justin, before we move on to our week three, not MVP, but hero picks. Aaron Jaffe, Canada would like to know which NFL coach will be fired first. We'll get to that in a few minutes. Anything else? You're putting that. I had Matt Rule as my guy last week and Hero of the Week. So I don't know. I hope that's not it. I mean, it's not a spoiler alert. I was not wrong. What's the first thing you'll do when you come to London? A good question. I got an update. We have tickets if we want them and I do want them. I'm going to go to the UK Germany game fresh off the plane. And I was going to mention that to you guys after the show.

Nick Pike slacked us that the NFL UK office is hooking us up. Now it's a little tricky right off the plane, but that's a pretty badass thing to see. It's ambitious, but it's also like a, you know, it's a World Cup qualifier. That's unique. The tickets are there, though. Like, we have the opportunity to go when we're there. We don't have to confirm or decline right now. Yeah, they're in the email.

I think there's so, you know, that's such a nice thing. I would like to find someone for all of them. And we have some people that could certainly take them if you don't want them. But yes, we've got the tickets. They're there. Nice. John Gonzalez, who you may be aware of. of is traveling to London on a separate assignment working for Sports Illustrated and he is

securing tickets for Mark and myself with John to see Crystal Palace versus Chelsea. And Gonzo thinks that Crystal Palace is right up my alley and I'm going to see with that. I don't even know what that is. I think I'm going to join you guys. I think I'm going to try to do a double header because the other game. I don't think there's any extra tickets, Greg. I'm a hammer fan, West Ham, but they're playing later that day. That reminds me the one time we went to London and we were doing some live event.

And Greg was like, oh, I'm going to wear my West Ham jersey and my kit. And then everyone's going to cheer me. And then he didn't realize it was like wearing like a Boston Red Sox shirt in a Times Square for a promotional event. And you just got hissed. I mean, they're all London teams. It's just it's not, you know, all the other London teams don't like it. I'm being told that Crystal Powell. are very jets, so that checks out.

Greg's getting destroyed for calling the soccer team U.K. instead of England in the comments. I just wanted to point that out. Ouch, out, out, gosh, that's a good point. I'm an ignorant. Someone who's asking about the product I talk about all the time. It's Redkin, bruise, work hard, molding paste. All right, let's move on now to...

That's a new listener, because you mentioned that roughly once a week, your hair product. Yes, absolutely. Week three, hero predictions. Mark, start us off. All right, so I just want to let newer listeners to the Friday Fun Show know that in week one I picked Danny Gray, the Niners Speedster, who was an active. Last week, I cursed the Titans by picking Ryan Tannahill, who, I mean, right, the Titans were treated like, you know, lost infants by the bills, so that didn't go well.

This time around, who I hope that finally the curse is over, because I am going to pick a player that I've really enjoyed watching. He's only played two games in his career. It is Drake London of the Falcons. They, to me, I think their offense has just been spicy. It's been interesting. And this is someone, everyone wants to know, why is Kyle Pitts not getting 42 targets a game?

They'll figure that out in time. But they already have, what? About six targets game. Go ahead. That's fine. But for me, it's like they're playing the Seahawks who quietly have really stunk up the joint on defense. I mentioned yesterday they're the only team in the league

without a three and out. I think they have the 30th passing defense DVOA right now. It's a good spot for the Falcons who've scored points to get right. And I see a breakout game for Drake London, which means he will catch one pass for eight yards. All right. I will, I think I had Russell Wilson last week.

And that didn't quite work out either. So we're all kind of struggling. He was okay, at least. I think you had the best one of the three of us. But this is already, in week three of this program, we have a two-time MVP prediction. And I don't know if you saw, but Dan Orlovsky on ESPN took out his laser pointer and showed his audience that the Panthers offensive attack had a tell when Christian McCaffrey was in the backfield, according to Orlovsky.

The defense, if they're paying attention, knew when the Carolina offense would pass or run based on where Christian McCaffrey lined up in the backfield in relation to Baker Mayfield. Orlovsky, sensing a viral moment, called this coaching malpractice. And Matt Ruhl was asked about it on Friday. Yeah, I saw a dance thing. You know, I think it's, I think it's, I've been around, you know, I've been around long enough.

I've seen enough coaches, you know, I've seen enough coaches get on and say, every time they do this, it's going to be this. And then it's wrong, you know, I mean, And I disagree with it. If you're saying that they knew whether we were running or passing, I would say, well, how come we're, how can we're in for 146 yards and 6.3 yards for carry, you know, so. And of course, everyone's having fun with that because those numbers are spiked by a couple chunk gains by McCaffrey.

And it's Matt Ruhl's turn this year. Last year it was Matt Nagy who drew the short stick the year before it was Gase. Next year it will be somebody else. Every NFL season, there's one head coach who, appears doomed before things even start and then things start and it's obvious and it just becomes a question whether that individual makes it to January and it doesn't mean that Matt rule is a bad man or even a bad coach. It's just his turn. And this did not work out and made me think of Chuck Pagano who after his fight with cancer and some real success with the

Colts a few years back refused to let the fact that it was his turn to find who he was. And speaking of Chris Wessling, Wes and I always vibe done that. We just loved how Pagano handled that situation. They can't eat you. They can fire you, but they can't eat you. Pagano said after a 51-16 pasting by the Jaguars dropped the Colts below 500 late in 2015. So if the worst thing, a year from now, let's say I'm. in Boise this time next year, playing with my granddaughters, I'm going to be fine.

This ain't going to happen, but I'm going to be fine if I have to go down that road. I think Matt Ruhl has some Chuck Pagano in him. People are going to continue to have their fun with Ruhl until he's gone. But I do not think the monster will consume him. And I like that I could tell in these press conferences, he's not going to be a punching bag. He's going to go down swing, have your, have your jokes and fun with Matt Ruhl. But he's my MVP because I could tell he's going to have some New York grit how he handles the situation. Well, also, the one thing about NFL coach is, if it does go down this season,

he's still under contract for like another four plus years because he got that super long contract from the Panthers. You get paid that money. You can go play with, he could go play with Chuck Begano's grandchildren if he wants. I mean, you would suddenly have, I do think that if you were in that situation, this is me personally, everything starts to boil. It starts to go south. And they're like, you know what, Mark? We've had enough of you. But we're going to pay you for the next five years. I'd be like, I'd be dancing down the, down the, Driveway to exit the workplace. We'd be like, Mark, actually, we're not firing you yet.

We just wanted to talk about some concerns. And then Mark's just like packing his bag. Mark, your turn. Or is it, no, it's Greg. It's me. By the way, one of the listeners, Angel asked is spicy better than frisky. Another listener, Mike Mika, said, you know, frisky is one step ahead of spicy. I think they're different.

They refer to different things. Yeah, I don't think they're connected like that. That's a great question. Angel does believe frisky is better than spicy. To me, spicy is different. And how does Matt Rule even win this, by the way? Like, so you're predicting they're going to win a game? I just wanted to talk about Matt Rule,

and we could try to distill that into whatever silo that belongs in. Because to me, he wasn't that spicy there. He was taking a little too lying down from game. No, because I know people also like taking them apart for the, how we butter knife the stats for the previous week. And they're just going to keep coming for him. I just, I'm rooting for him that he doesn't become miserable over it. I think spicy is better than Frisky, by the way.

I think Spicey is like, look out for this team. Frisky is more like the Falcons. Like, okay, they could give you a hard time, but you should take care of business. Maybe from a football anger. I'm seeing the two words in different contexts. Greg, close it out. All right.

My hero of the week is a man by the name of Thomas, Edward, Patrick, Brady, Jr. That's right. It's the Pharaoh. He's coming strong this week. So, okay, here's the thing. People are so ready to kind of like bury or at least like say he's in this gradual decline. You know what he is? He's returning to his roots.

Yeah, it's going to be a little bit of a transition. He knows what it's like to play with a great defense and this is a great bucks defense that can control a game. And he knows how to problem solve during games and the fantasy numbers might not be that great. And he might be missing two offensive linemen. There's no Donovan Smith here. Cole Beasley might be active because Julio Jones is a game time decision. Mike Evans is suspended. No one's healthy.

But you know who I trust in the fourth quarter against a good defense. I trust Tom, Edward Patrick Brady. He's turning the clock back, Dan. He is maybe declining, but declining to like 2003 when they won a Super Bowl. And they found a way to win a lot of close, low-scoring games. And that's what he's going to do this week. New York wasn't listening to anything because he saw someone say that he looked handsome right now. I saw his eyes.

I did not see that you did look handsome you look great Mark you know I'm not in the business Greg of Tom Brady declined talk anymore I'm with you it is a transition

it's clearly a transitional time for him as a human and I believe as a player but now he's gonna he's gonna turn it back to that that game manager that just people can't understand why they lost in the end

yeah there's also a reason why I declined to use my first pick in the draft on Thursday's podcast on the box, because I don't think they're very fun to watch right now, especially in the state of the offense with all the injuries. It's a fair point. I'm not doubting Tom Brady. All right, before we say goodbye, let us check in real quick.

It's like Aaron Rogers and, you know, Tom Brady is not fun enough for me. Oh, here it goes. The Greg Rosenthal Injury Minute presented by AccraShore, which is maybe a weight loss drink for old people. That's a guess. Go ahead. All right, the bills are in trouble here. They're not only missing Dane Jackson, which we expected, but Micah Hyde, their safety is out for this game.

So is Jordan Phillips. Jordan Poyer might be out, too. That's good news for Huli, I mean, for Tua and friends. Julio, as I mentioned, game time decision. Lyle Collins does look like he will play for the Bengals, which I think is good, but maybe not the way he's been playing. David Voktiari's practiced a couple times this week. On your business, Jerry Jones.

Yeah. Taran Armstead, watch out for mispractice. all week for the Dolphins, their great left tackle, who's really changed their team and might miss this game. And as I mentioned, Cole Beasley, I think we'll play. You got anything, Mark? You want to jump in the injury minute? I think that's about it. I mean, I think that was about a minute, so I don't, I think we're good. All right, we don't have any major things to add. Great. I'm just reading the comments at this point. We are going to be, any last comments before we go? Someone wants me to send feet picks. I don't think that's going to be happening.

Don't cover the hair. Dan put on his Yankees hat. I think he was transitioning into the rest of the day mode. Aaron Judge goes for 61 tonight. Let's go. All rise. Thank you to everybody for listening, for watching along Sunday flagship program. Then we're on to London.

Ticketmaster around the NFL. Join us at the live show, special guests and fun galore next Thursday night. Until Sunday night, heed the call. enjoy your weekend going bad that's the song going bad god's playing god's playing This is an IHeart podcast.