NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Friday Fun Show! Command-Off TNF Recap + Final Predictions for Week 6

Episode Date: October 14, 2022

A virtual room filled with some heroes - Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler, Gregg Rosenthal and Patrick Claybon share their final thoughts before a weekend of football action. First, we recap the Commanders-Bears Thursday night "command-off." Gregg takes over "It's About Me!" with an apology and thoughts on a "new" professional sport. We take feedback and questions from the live listeners, Gregg has a final injury update, and we hit the last nuts and bolts leading into Week 6 with predictions for this weekend. The Friday Fun Show airs live on YouTube at 10am PT/1pm ET/6pm BST every Friday.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Hello and welcome to another edition of the Friday Fun Show, working title from around the NFL, your guide to everything to come on Sunday and beyond. I'm Dan Hansis. Got a virtual room filled with some heroes. Greg Rosenthal, Mark Sessler, Patrick Claibon. Hey, fellas. I thought you'd sound more fired up on a Yankees morning, Hansis. Why would I be fired up?

Commander's Bears didn't do it for you? Why would I be fired up about a Yankees Cleveland rainout on Thursday night that leads to the game starting exactly when we do this program? Oh, I didn't know us right now, to be honest. I just figured it's exciting. It's playoff baseball. It's what gets your juices going. We are bringing this thing.

We're landing this plane in short order. A nice seven-minute show today. Actually, Dan, there's a comment already from Adam Corner that says tugboat pulling the show into Harbor. So it's not a plane. We're going to be using your, you, the personification of you, starting a show. Okay, cool. That works. How's everybody doing today?

It is Friday. It's fun. We're live streaming, of course. So please, please, please be involved. We already see a lot of people in the chat. We've got a nice little community building in that realm. And we'll be taking some of your questions and comments throughout the show, like Aaron Klenderman, who asks, I'm feeling a bit more frisky than spicy.

Does that make sense? I don't know. Mark, you're going to have to privately interface with Aaron Klenderman to find out that info. I will check with him, sure. All right, good. But before we do that, let's start things off. I have to, I got to give a shout out. For Thursday night games that continually end with the winning team scoring 12 points

and the sport of football being set back decades, we have a lot of juicy stuff to talk about after these games and it's no different this week when the Washington commanders and Chicago Bears squared off at Soldier Field. Let's get into it. Takes the snap, turns to his right, throws toward the end zone. That is bubbled up in the air. Is it incomplete?

Yes. Benjamin St. Juice was on coverage of Darnell Mooney. And now the referees are talking about it. They think Moody was out of bounds. They haven't decided yet. What's the call? They said he went out of bounds inside the one. It's up for the third time in this game.

Washington gets a stop inside their own five. And Washington is going to end a four-game losing streak and defeat Chicago 12 to seven. Bram Weinstein, the call WB-B-I-G. So painful. So painful for the Chicago Bears who come within half a yard of stealing a win. here really not stealing a win they should have won the game but they're a team at this stage that doesn't know how to close and makes

killer mistakes that they cannot make up for final score Washington 12 Chicago 7 and it was that close Patrick Claibon at the half yard line if he just catches it if darned him only just catches

that ball clean we're talking about something totally different but he did not catch the ball clean so we are not any number of things you could change Dan You change one thing over the course of the entire game, and the Bears win that football game. That's what was so frustrating. After Justin Fields missed the wide open tight end for a touchdown, he played spectacular. The rest of the team falls apart.

They dropped multiple balls. Dante Pettis had a chance to catch a touchdown two plays before that. Field has an incredible run where it looks like he might score, and it was just constant. All the failures inside the five-yard line, it was one of those things. Like we're seeing the entire franchise just fall apart. Al Michaels is calling for the ouster of Dan Snyder. And it's like, oh, there's no way this thing goes. We'll get to that.

And then the universe just decides the commanders are going to win the game. It was frustrating me. I didn't even have a rooting interest, but it was just frustrating watching the Bales. The Bears continue failing like that. It was really frustrating. It was because it felt like they deserved to win that one. You know, they had almost double the yardage. I thought this was one of their best games of the year.

I think their offense has gotten a little bit better every week. I don't think Justin Fields played that well throughout, but he obviously was let down by his teammates there, and it wouldn't have mattered if Darno Mooney just catches that pass. And I understood Ryan Fitzpatrick's frustration on the postgame show, and I think he just didn't get what they're trying to do on offense. When you're inside the 10-yard line three different times and there's no design runs for Justin Fields, he's so good. see it when he scrambles.

Unfortunately, the best play they have is often him dropping back to pass and then scrambling. He's missing open receivers in terms of not seeing them. Watching the game on Prime Vision where they have the time to throw clock ticking, it was like incredibly stressful because like those two sacks he took early were over six seconds. So the offense is not fitting him. He's not fitting the offense. And yet they're doing enough each week where the last couple of weeks they've been very competitive with the Vikings and they looked much better than the commanders last night.

They should have won that game. They should be three and three, which would have been a nice story. I'm with you, though. I feel like he's in an offense that does not seem to correctly kind of maximize what Justin Fields could be. Sort of he breaks out of it. And his two weeks in a row made big plays. I mean, he put them in position to win on that final drive.

And their red zone scenario, their scheme has been a hot mess for a while now. I don't like the Justin Fields peeling himself off the turp. No. Repeatedly subplot here. I talked about it with Daniel Jones, another. young NFC East quarterback or NFC quarterback a couple weeks ago, he's going to get hurt. This isn't me like hoping it happens or putting it into the stars. You can't just take that many hits.

So I admire the guy for his toughness and his ability to hang in the pocket and be like a guy that's like, I'm going to hold on to the ball and wait for something to show up. But also I thought Kirk Herb Street, who by the way has his hands filled with Al. And again, we're going to get to that. I mean, Kirk needs to help out Al when he when he talks these. big topics. It's just like crickets over next. Oh, Kirk is just cricket. Kirk's like, wait a second. I didn't sign up for all these sociological elements of what the National Football League is about. But there was one play in particular early where Herb Street

neatly pointed out, Justin Fields had a really nice pocket and a receiver flashes open, not wide open, but NFL open and he doesn't pull the trigger and then eventually he takes the sack. And he needs to be quicker and make those decisions because that's factoring into the beating that he's taking in these games and especially on Thursday night. Yeah, I look at what Washington did and you can't feel good about winning. It's the second straight Thursday night game where I think the winning team doesn't come out feeling especially good. I think with the Colts, at least they feel like, okay, maybe we could escape this.

We're two, two, and one. But that was one of their worst games of the year. The touchdown that Chicago did score was so Washington. I think they had 10 men on the field. they were, like there was total confusion in the end zone. There was another play later where they had to take a time out because they had 10 men on the field. They seemed like they're out of ideas.

Like they did that half hard. Like everyone else is going for it on fourth and one at midfield. But they're doing like a very half-hearted try to get an off sides. And like Ron Rivera looked like he was smirking because like the attempt was so bad. The 10 men on the field thing I was talking about, had to use a timeout, or they tried to use a timeout because they had 10 men on the field, but it wasn't allowed because none of the players realized they had just used a time out. And it just feels like they're so disorganized on both sides of the ball, and they're just

kind of scuttling along. And they won this game. But when you get out gained by 180 yards by the Bears, it's not a good sign. They're both the most sacked quarterbacks in the league, and it looks like it. And we endured it. And I do find it interesting more of like a football note over the last two weeks that we're incredibly spoiled in general as NFL fans because how many how often do people huddle around the water cooler complaining about like a dull NHL game there that's a commonplace scenario we get too bad a relatively bad TNF games in a row and it's like a second Vietnam like we can barely handle it as a viewership and it's like we're going to survive this these were these were bad matchups bad games but like we're so used to it being the most incredible

island scenario week after week that I mean I think we need to mean as usual use a different sport as a punching bag to make a point mark but I think it's a little different because the NFL is telling the world these are our spotlight games this is the product we're going to enter into billion dollar deals with major platforms to air this and show it to America if you're watching a bad what did you use your example this time the NHL I went you're watching a bad NHL you would probably have me removed from the broadcast so I'm just trying to help you with this. So like, an NHL game, you just turn it off.

It's just a regular game. But the NFL has purposely told you the viewer that this is the game to watch and everyone needs to be there. So when we get back to back games like this, yeah. And Kirk Herb Street said during one commercial when they were teasing next week's game, which has the Cardinals in it. So that's a bit of a, you know, a toss up as well. We promise it will be better than the last two weeks, which is funny because he can't,

he can't promise it. Last night was kind of fun. I think last night might have been so bad. it was good territory. It wasn't that bad. It was better. I was definitely better than the previous week. I agree with that. But also the bears get a couple yards. They run some different plays. A ball doesn't bounce off a helmet. And I don't think that conversation is happening again. I think people really get addicted to the scoreboard when there was a game that held our interest for the entire time. We're all sitting here. Everybody's in the chat talking about it. Like it's,

there's still interest in the game. It was still entertaining. We just didn't quite get the score results. One of the reasons why people are talking about the game is because what happens after the game, when Ron Rivera, again, after a win, and this tells you about the kind of the color around the Washington football team, the sky's overhead, the energy around the team. Ron Rivera was asked about Carson Wentz, you know, he stepped in it a little bit earlier this week, and then there was a question from a reporter about some reporting that Daniel Snyder, the owner under fire, had been the one that greenlit or pushed the issue to get Carson Wentz into Washington.

So this is Ron Rivera now after a win on Thursday night football. So honestly, I'm going to speak my mind for a second. For honestly, it's been hard. It really has. You lose four games in a row and everybody wants to get you, you know, just get on you. And they've played their asses off. They have. They play their asses off for everybody.

They come out and they show up. They work hard. All right. They don't complain. Okay. They hear all the stuff and they've got to deal with it. I get them. I respect them for that because they're resilient.

They come back. everybody keeps wanting to say i didn't want anything to do with carson well i'm the guy that pulled out the sheets of paper that looked at the analytics that watched the tape in the freaking when we're at indianapolis okay and that's what pisses me off because the young man doesn't deserve to have that all the time i'm sorry i'm done and he walked if you're listening uh to the podcast version of the show Rivera walk so you sent it and uh Greg there's reports connected to um Daniel Snyder talking about having dirt on other owners. And like we said, Al Michaels, who is the play-by-play voice, the venerable play-by-play man of the NFL coming on the air and saying

outright that other NFL owners want Daniel Snyder to sell. This is all part of a big wicked stew for Washington. Yeah, I'm glad you connected those two points because that question to Rivera, Dan, was actually a question about Snyder and everything that's, has gone on this week and that Rivera seemed a little testier about stuff like that. And he answered it. It was feisty. I'm glad he spoke how he was feeling. But he kind of pivoted what the question was to his Wentz discussion.

And that felt like the Wentz part felt like he's trying to defend his player. He's standing up for his player. He's in a tough spot. He knows he put himself in a tough spot. And that's a public thing that he did. He didn't really answer the question. And the fact that Al Michael said, and I'm just quoting here, he said, quote, just my feeling, I think what the league would love is for Snyder to sell the team is really interesting because we know how connected Al Michaels is at the very top levels of the sport with ownership, the most influential owners, with the Park Avenue League office. So for him to say that on a Thursday night broadcast is not set in a vacuum, I think he knew what he was saying.

And it's also interesting, you know, when there are reports that the owner of Amazon, his boss, Jeff Bezos, wants in on being an NFL owner and is in that area. And people are connecting those dots. And it's just interesting. It's quite a stew. I think the Snyder thing is further along than it's ever been is what I'm saying in terms of a public and even NFL feeling on it. I mean, of course they want them to sell the team because they don't want him to understand. unleash his information that he has on other owners, right? I mean, that's probably the scariest possible reality for them.

All right. So there you go. One game in the books Thursday night football. And like we said, the Sunday flagship show, we got you covered with the recaps of all of those games. Want to check in? Where are we? Hey, Gravedigger.

Where are you at? Oh, Grave-Digger. Hey, how's it going? What's up, buddy? anything to check in terms of the live stream around the NFL viewers right now. I'd love to get a larger collection of questions in, but I have a handful here. Okay, okay. We could just cycle through a couple here.

Jim, the editor, what is the most disappointing unit in the NFL right now? Disappointing unit, I would have to say the Denver offense personally. Anybody else have a contender there? I'll take the Rams offensive line. We've got the defending Super Bowl champs, and they can't. They can't do anything. I think they're the only team that has given up more pressures per game than Washington. To me, that Washington offensive line really is on them,

whereas Chicago's offensive line, I think, has played pretty well some games, and it's more on fields. I would go Packers' defense, just because I was told too often that they could be a top five. They should be good on paper. The players are good, and yet they're like a bottom 10 defense right now. I would go Arizona's offense. I mean, they're not some of their parts. I know they're waiting for DeAndre Hopkins,

but they seem highly disorganized. They find new ways to be disorganized week after week. And I'll throw in the Detroit defense, which I know wasn't supposed to be good, but they weren't supposed to be historically bad. And that's, you know, grit doesn't do it alone. What else we got, Gravedegger? Okay, this gentleman or woman or whatever they are has a demand for you.

You need to talk about how inept the Steelers coaching staff is. All right. That's up to you if you want to follow it. mop. Matt Canada ran the same place seven times on Sunday. You need to talk about how inept the Steelers coaching staff is. Patrick, I'm going to throw this one to you. I will only say without having studied it close enough to notice that that was what was going on, if indeed that was what was going on, is that they got put in a very bad game script. It was grim. So I don't know what seven plays. Hoppel mop, man, woman, whatever you are. But that was kind of a fun

game. What do you got, Patrick? Yeah, it was a rookie quarterback making his first start on the road against the number one pass defense in the NFL with a bad offensive line. It just wasn't going to go well. The idea that this staff has some sort of problem, like we just watched the commanders play on Thursday night. Like, that's a staff with problems. They couldn't get 11 guys on the field. Like, that's a problem. That the Steelers starting a rookie couldn't, like, make the game competitive in Buffalo. I don't think we're drawing any long-term conclusions from that. A listener, Jeff Clark notes, Claibon yawns at this Steelers question.

Wow. What else we got? Hop-op-op. That's a little inside. I like that. Claibon, you have to answer to that to that. Mighty Gazelle, are the Vikings above spicy? No.

No. Mark. No, I mean, I think they're, they challenge themselves for quarters at a time to be spicy. When they are, they can achieve that. But I don't buy into them as the level of spicy we talked about on Tuesday show. Here's the thing about spicy and frisky. You can be good at football in winning games and still just be like a plain piece of white bread.

And the Vikings are kind of like that. They can keep winning and they're not spicy. I mean, I kind of like the first two quarters Vikings in the right spot. They look absolutely spicy with the way they carry themselves. But part of the Vikings experience is that they go from spicy to very bland very quickly. Anyway, one more. where da cool laid at took me a second to put it together but i did now that rule is gone mat rule former head coach of the panthers whose butt is the hottest greggie i think it's

ron rivera today i think if i had to like pretty i think cliff kingsbury is the other one that that comes to mind and it's weird because i know he's got all that guaranteed money in the contract and Claibon isn't feeling it, but I just worry, Patrick, for his sake, I think if this season goes south and I could see that, I think his butt will be very hot. By the way, Claibon just went from the opposite of what a yawn is, which was a, he gave Greg the look like, like what? He thinks it's spicy. He thinks it's spicy.

It's spicy. I like it because I didn't think you should have gotten the extension, but the fact that he just got it and then they're just going to churn, hey, like having billions of dollars sounds cool. Like you can just do whatever. There's no consequences. He did it with Josh Rosen. and they did it with Steve Wilkes, so I don't know.

I'd throw a vote in there for old Nate Hackett, depending on where this season goes. That's probably a better answer. That is my vote as well, Mr. Sessler. I think he's smelling some burning, and then he's like, oh, it's my own buttocks. All right. I love reading the comments on the side.

I know it's not helping out our listeners, but I just would suggest to the other co-host here. It is a lot of fun when guys like Neil Kennedy says, Big Spoon Energy from Claibs and Greg. I don't even know what that means. It's facts, Greg. That's all you need to know. It's facts.

All right. Let's take a break from the comments. We'll get back to that. But now it is time for that special part of the show. Mm. Mm. always that last six seconds or so that gets me. The floor is Greg Rosenthal's.

It is about him. It's about me. It is about me, although it's not about me. It's going to start being about Brentley Weissman, the former Chargers Scout, who I spoke about on Tuesday. I've got a two-parter it's about me. The first part's quick, and it's just me giving a former apology to Brentley Weissman. I got the facts wrong,

to apologize as a journalist and a man he was not fired from the Chargers. He left the Chargers didn't think the pro scouting life was for him. He went into UCLA recruiting. I've now checked out Brentley on Twitter. He's doing great work with the Draft Network. It's good stuff. Good follow on Twitter. And that's on me. That's my fault. I should not have been just throwing things around willy-nilly that were inactive. That's big of you, Greg. And yeah, shout out to Brentley. And good luck. to him and his endeavors. And I will say this all started, Greg, just because you couldn't handle that I had the scoopage on that Chargers situation.

And now, look, one of your little squabbles every two or so weeks, every fortnight, Greg's in a squabble. And look what happened this thing. Yeah, and I don't apologize for many of those squabbles because I continued to see myself in the right. And in this case, I'm 100% in the wrong. And I needed to admit it. Now, that's just part of one.

I would just say just on that topic, I would just stop talking now and move on to the next topic. No, no, my point is I'm, this one, I'm totally in the wrong. Dan's thing has nothing to do with it. So my fault, Brent Lee. And, yeah, check it out. Go, just move. Just move.

The second part is less important, but something I feel very passionate about. And that's pickleball. And Dan's going to say, what does this have to do with the NFL? Where's the football here, Dan? It's not about me. It's about you, buddy. It's about me. Tom Brady just bought a professional pickleball franchise.

So it is related to the NFL, and I'm getting mentions like crazy about this Brady pickleball thing. And my official position on this matter is the same people, the same athletes, the same celebrities, the same hedge fund managers that were pushing crypto on you and Bitcoin and doing the laser eyes when Bitcoin hit 50 and was selling you. Almost to the man are the exact same celebrities and athletes and hedge fund managers. who are pushing pro pickleball on you right now. I got no use for pro pickleball. You want to play it as a recreational sport? That's fine. I got to be careful here.

You know, some of our closest shadowy league figures here, our big pickleball enthusiast, you want to play it, get, you know, some recreation. That's great. Just don't sell it to me as a professional sport. It's unwatchable. The people who are excelling in it, are just failed tennis players.

You're literally not allowed to move very far in the game. And if we're talking about promoting it as a professional viewing sport that the tennis channel is trying to push on me, it's probably a bad side when the sports started for retirees in Florida with too much money and too much time. So that is not a professional sport. You want to get out there. You want to have fun.

It's sort of like a co-ed dodgeball thing where you're meeting people at your age. that's fine. Do not push it on me as a professional sport. And the same people investing in it right now. These are not the people we want leading us. These are the people that have gotten us into trouble. A lot of hedge fund money, Dan, and it does bother me.

And one last thing I will say. Okay. One last thing because I give one more apology to somebody out there in the world. No apologies at all about pickleball. Like I said, play it. Yeah, I don't know where all these people were five years ago, but you got to respect the rules of public. spaces if you're going to be doing it. These pickleballers sometimes are putting like their rackets

and their nets on the court and trying to claim a public court. One, they're not even playing on it. And so that's happening. Like that's not allowed. You got to like understand if it's a public court, uh, you got to let whoever's there just go on it. Like people just, they just put their bags out there. They try to like stop it and I'll go out there and start playing. These pickleball players swarm like locust. Once Dan, I had someone, tell me that they had the court reserved and tried to kick off me and my young son trying to have fun on a public court. And I was like, you know, I've been coming to these courts or five years. You're not allowed to reserve courts. They're public. They're for everyone. Like, there is no such

thing. And I didn't leave the court. And I did send an email to the town later and found out they were totally lying. They were saying that they reserved the court. So respect the public spaces and respect it and don't respect professional pickleball. These people will not be here in five years, please. All right. Now I could picture Emeka getting that full monologue as well. Oh, yeah. Poor woman.

Big trouble. You can't be, you couldn't be more right, Dan. Although she's with me. She hates the pickleballers. You took on big pickleball there. I don't think it could come back from this. I don't think pickleball itself can survive the past six minutes. I don't. I don't think you can have.

The home 17 says Greg's Karen arc. No, please. I'm sticking up for the little guys here. Like a sport that's being promoted by a ton of like hedge fund managers. That's the people you want to back. I don't really have a hard pickleball take. I've played it before. I think it's very good, especially for people that are a little bit older when tennis becomes a bit of a challenge.

And I've seen it in different parks. And it feels like a really nice way for, people to be active and have fun together. So like, I understand like you're a tennis person. So I'm going to respect that you see it as a lesser version and certainly shouldn't be taking up real estate at your local parks. Like I can feel that. You know, that's, hey, listen, it's about you.

So I'm not going to say anything else other than I'm glad you got that off your chest. Just respect the space. Respect the, the other players. I haven't been picking up a lot of that. And don't try to put it on TV. Like what are we investing in here? Stop this. Yeah, clearly I respect Greg's passionate defense of tennis, but I also love the jabbing at the speculative investment All-Stars who just chase the next thing.

Like if the Harlem Shake was a thing right now, they'd be trying to invest in it. Yeah, just chill out. Just because it's the thing doesn't mean it's going to be the thing in 15 years, like chill out. I do respect that Tom Brady may have a few extra costs coming his way based on reports out of the Tom Jaze household. Well, yeah, because he lost all that Bitcoin money. Yeah, hopefully invested in actual resources. Right. It's like if Elon Musk was a sport, he would be pickleball.

All right. We have a little treat for the audience. Welcome to this guy gets it with Mark Sessler. Today, the NFL tackles the controversial topic, injury in sport. And now, your host, Mark Sessler. During Thursday night football between the Bears and Commanders, an international audience was given a first-hand peek into one of sports unavoidable bugaboos, injuries.

We watched with trepidation as Commander's quarterback Carson Wentz shook and waved his throwing hand after it collided with a Bears' defender on a past attempt. He shook it violently, hoping that whatever discomfort had attacked his tendons, his nervous system, his joints would magically go away. It did not, though, because that is not how the human body works. And ultimately, it provides us with a great lesson about the raw nature of sport, the natural tension between the athlete and their tool, the human body. It is quite different than you being in a cubicle and having a paperweight your child made you tumble over onto your ring finger. When an athlete is injured, it affects not only their personal performance, but the potential

of the team around them, and from a bird's eye view, our enjoyment of the game itself. Join us next week when we'll dive into the on-field term chain gang, a playful way to zing the game's officials or an out-of-date unsightly celebration of our overcrowded prison system. This has been. This guy gets it with Mark Sessler. needed it needed that because it's that level-headed viewpoint on sports that has made this guy gets it a sensation and i believe episode one was also related to injuries um so i like that this is kind of the corner at least in this season of this guy gets it just like injury talk well i think injuries have evolved and so that was last year's take uh it needed it's i wouldn't call it a part two just

a more evolved form of last year's take i get that i get that i get that Very good, Mark. Hey, it's time now for the Greg Rosenthal Week 6 Injury Minute, presented by AccraShore. Cream for your butt. Kyle Pitts, he's back this week. So put him back into your fantasy lineups. I know he's struggled with that, but he's okay.

Jonathan Taylor looks like he'll be back this week. Shaq Leonard will not. T. Higgins back at practice on Friday. Jonah Williams, their left tackle, though, out. That could be big time trouble. on Sunday. James Connor looks like he's going to be out. Rashad Bateman was not seen at practice Wednesday or Thursday.

We haven't gotten a practice report yet on Friday. Pat Friermuth practicing despite being in the concussion protocol. So sounds like he might be back. PJ Walker will start at quarterback for the Carolina Panthers. And Wondale Robinson and Leonard Williams both trending towards playing for the Giants. Getting a little healthier, Danny. You worried about that lock? I lock the Ravens over the Jones.

giants. I am not concerned. Baltimore will roll. Anything else we want to check in with the listeners slash viewers, Mr. Grave digger. Will you dig my grave? Will you make it shallow so I can feel the rain? Dalom again, 17. What below 500 team? That was a Dave Matthews solo single from 2006. What below 500 team would you not be surprised if they made a Super Bowl run? Below low 500. So two and three are worse. That's it, Tuffy.

Rams? Ooh. I would go Bengals I would throw in there as a more likely one than the Rams, I think, right now. The Raiders schedule is very soft

and I think they have life, even though they're one and four. But if the question is make a Super Bowl run, that's strong. Saints. Let's do that. All right. Very good.

What else we got? Rose and Mendoza, if you could do it all over again, who would you pick as team of ATL? There are no reverse gears in this tank. I would not change anything. I'm not jumping off the ship either. I know I locked against, well, I didn't lock against the Patriots, but I had a bad vibe about the lines last week.

But I still think we need to support them now more than ever. I agree. Mark would change it apparently. It was in our hearts. We all believed in it. We all agreed on something for once, too. So I'm sticking with it. Oh, and Jay.

does Dan hate the Cardinal so much? Because they're poorly coached and underachieving and kind of annoying and bad to watch. It's a very, the bar is what the bar is. And it's like, that's why I don't like watching them because they stink. And they shouldn't stink, but they do. What else? Michael Pratt, if the Eagles win this weekend, when will their first loss come? Patrick has the answer to this actually. He's looked into the future. Yes. Yes, I have searched my feelings and the facts that they will lose to Indianapolis in a in an odd Frank Reich kind of sort of revenge game on November 20th. The next four games are Steelers, Texans, commanders, and Colts. They also have a by-lead there.

So they really will be heavy favorites to go 10 and no if they happen to win this game. Their schedule does not get much tougher after that either. It really doesn't. I feel even more confident now that the Cowboys will. steal one here, and then they'll win another four in a row, and it won't even matter. So there'll be nine and one are running away with the division at that point. One more. One more.

A.J. Garner, what do you guys think of getting rid of punts altogether? Crazy rule change, but would be fun. I am. Oh, Mark. No. Go ask Bill Belichick about that. I mean, I think, like, I get what we're doing here with that question. But, like, then what, we're having to look at the Cardinals.

Some of these teams that have 34 yards in the first half, that's going to lead to absolute lopsided messes where they're having to go for it on fourth down. I guess you can have the other team start at a certain place, but punters are relatively important human beings that do have a place on these rosters. I don't want them ejector-seated out of the NFL entirely just yet. It is football.

We don't need to be taking things out of football. We need to be putting fun things into football. I'd be fine taking out extra points, which is close to a punt. But punts, no, that's way too far. Yeah, but people are missing them left and right. Punts are important. You need a punt. You need to punt when it's fourth and 20 on your own 20.

What are you going to do? Mark, when we used to do all those ATN posts and, well, here's the lighter side of sports. There was that guy a few years back, the high school coach that made a name for himself by never punting ever. And he was dominant. And then he went to college and said, I'm going to be the same guy I was. And even at the college level, he was quickly outed as. a fraud and a scamster

and I think lost that job quickly. Yeah. I don't know who it is, but he was some guy. Anyway, let's now finish things. He got it worse than pickleball. Remember, guys, I need to watch a baseball game. So we are now going to move

to the week six predictions starting before we do that. Let's go through what we did last week. I had the lines would lose to the pats, which I want to say ding, but I also said that the Patriots would run for over 200 yards on the ground, and I believe it was about a buck 80. So, again, integrity stands above all with old Zusser.

I will take the L there. Unbelievable. I mean, the integrity off the charts. Mark, Jets win by 10. Ooh, he's halfway home. But Zach Wilson throws for 350 plus yards and four TDs. That didn't happen. I think Mark had a second prediction as well,

but I'm not seeing it written here. It was that the Falcons would win by 10 plus, which we'll just, we can forget. Thanks for admitting that. Okay, so we got a double, we got a double L there. Gregi, Travis Kelsey is awesome. I mean, you got to admit, he scored four touchdowns in the game. I said Travis Kelsey's awesome. That delivered.

It did. And we, you know, we said that you were hanging shallots on that, but to have four scores, you got to give it up. I also, I still don't understand why the Raiders did. You didn't cover Travis Kelsey at the one-yard line for any of the touchdowns. But that was their decision. For Greg, I think. Probably for Greg.

Yeah. Greg, we're going to give you your first checkmark. That's a big, that's a big W for Gregi. And finally, Claibon, you also had multiple predictions. Well, one was purely emotional. Right. Travis AetN scores two TDs and a win over the Texans. And then you threw that one out.

He didn't score. He did have a good game, though. His best game of the season. And then you said the Lions, as a counter to my pessimistic take on Detroit, you said that Jared Goff and the Lions would go off in New England. So not a very good week overall. Greg, thank you for giving us one W. And let's now get to this week's predictions, starting with Claybond.

All right. I'm looking forward to a Brown's win, Nick Jobb three touchdowns. Is that too Gregish? Should I go a little bit farther? Three touchdowns is good. All right. That's so much. I mean, you want to get these right at some point?

Has he ever scored three touchdowns? That's why we were giving you a hard time, Gregi, last week, is that you're just like, Travis Kelsey will be good. We're like, well, give us something. Give us numbers. Give us something tangible to track, which is what Claibon just did. Yeah. And have I talked about this this week?

Give Nick Chub the ball a lot. You've mentioned that. All right, Mark, your turn. All right. It is another two-parter A or one. A non-quarterback will score five touchdowns this weekend. Book it. Book it.

And number two, a Titans player, or Titans, huh? Why two? Because these both are, this is my double lock of the week, where like if you're, if you're like listening to those radio stations with like the mafia dudes, like they give you the absolute lockdown thing. This is part two. A Titans player or Titans players will get into a whole bunch of trouble during their by weekend. Okay, you understand though if that happens, but the other one about the five touchdown doesn't happen.

and you don't get the checkmark, just to be clear. I could get both, and you would find a way to not give me the full points. So I'm not concerned about how this is what's called self-sabotage. He's not even giving himself a chance to win. What if I get both right? How about I believe in what I predicted here? Greg? Okay.

Yeah, Claibon, by the way, Chubb has scored three touchdowns in a game twice in his career in 70 games. All right, three times next week. All right. Also, a lot of comments that Claibon's just face, like, during the show, is a big star here. So people should check it out on YouTube his reactions, his silent movie reactions. I'm going pretty light here again.

Cooper Rush turns the ball over twice and the hype train ends. The Eagles defense ends it with a thud with a couple turnovers here on Monday night. I got to say I feel better about Markslock the Eagles on Monday night than I do about myself after looking at the injury reports here with the Giants.

Maybe I'll flip it. I'm not ready for that yet, But Cooper Rush has a couple turnovers in an ugly owl. And finally, my fearless prediction, our man, Mark Sessler, celebrated kind of an overlooked birthday for many people this week, the big four-nine. And he tried to keep it under the radar on account of, you know, the ongoing negotiations with his own mortality. But we need to spotlight this, man. My prediction for week six, or really leading up to week six.

Mark celebrates tonight and tomorrow in a unique Cesslerian way that probably includes a 2 a.m. walk-up Cello Drive but maybe some other stuff too happy birthday friend oh look at that photo

a little slideshow for the people watching I grab some photos from my archive let's just cycle through these for the people I look here's Mark interviewing Hugh Jackson years ago looking intrepid as hell Now, Mark, you can't change your behavior based on this prediction. You have to party too hard if that's what you're feeling in your heart.

Dan knows me well. Yeah, let's keep going with the photos here. This is with my father and my brother, Kevin Danger, at a Bud Light Super Bowl event. Keep going. That's Mark with his lost daughter. Yeah, it's my daughter. He has not done a good job raising her, but here is our New York Super Bowl sitting with Chris Wessling and wearing matching I Love New York ads. I love that one.

And here we go. This is from the ARCA Media Christmas party with Hanson Bank. And look at Mark. What a stunner. Like a soft gel camera there. I like that. That was very soft. That was where like the friend, like the hot friend on Instagram

picks the picture where she looks the best. Yeah. On her birthday. I did look good in that picture. I did look good in that photo. And here, wait, go back, wait, go back to the other one. What is this? This is the 2012 draft.

That's Johnny Manzell being whisked up the stairs at Radio City Musical to party with Drake and probably do things that he wouldn't want anyone to know about. And there's Mark with the big smile. And now one more. That's what I'm photographed with was doomed like a year later. And one more. This is the only photo on record of Mark eating. Mark, you ate a sandwich with a fork?

Apparently. I mean, at least you were eating. I don't know. And he was so happy about it. What is that shirt? Thank you. I appreciate that very much, Dan and others. Happy birthday.

I have another apology to make. Your birthday did sneak by us here. So happy birthday, Mark. Thank you. But I kept it under the radar in hardcore fashion. So it's, you know, guys don't know other guys' birthdays. Do you? I never do.

No, I never. Now we do. Now, yes. Everybody sent happy birthday to Mark and his wild weekend to come. And it will be a wild Sunday in the NFL, which we will track on the flagship program. Be there. Sunday night. Until then, he the call.

Thanks, everybody. Go Yankees. Death to Pickleball. This is an IHeart podcast.