NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Week 6 recap

Episode Date: October 14, 2013

A room full of heroes, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler and Chris Wesseling recap all of the Week 6 action and bring you the key takeaways and analysis from each game. Join the conversation on Twitter: @NFL_ATL or #NFLATL.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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. The Around the League podcast takes what the defense gives it. Welcome back to another Around the League podcast. I'm Greg Rosenthal, and I am in a room filled with heroes. Not as full as usual, but Mark Sessler is here.

Chris Wessling is here. K. Rich, behind the glass is here. How are you all doing tonight? We're good. I think it's a glass half full of heroes. Something like that. Yeah, we're going to have fun. This was kind of a crazy week. It was very crazy.

A lot of road upsets. A lot of road wins in the early games. Strange stuff. You know it's a crazy week when Riley Cooper's making plays after the cats? and Mike Shula for the Panthers is calling a creative game and Ron Rivera is going for it on fourth down every day. I mean, that's when you know it's crazy. This is the kind of Sunday where we sit the four of us,

and today Dan is not with us, as listeners can already tell. A cube of four facing each other 24-7. And at one point, Greg just got up out of his chair as he normally doesn't hear and just marched up and down the aisle. I don't know what was going through your system at that point, But you were more excited than I've seen at any point this season. I was well-rested. There were a lot of great games, you know, starting with, I guess we've got to get there.

Patriots Saints, that's the game of the day, right? It is, definitely. One of the games of the season, weird game, the Patriots pull it out with a touchdown at the last second. They got the ball back with under three minutes to go, or they had the ball with under three minutes to go. They're stopped on downs. Belichick goes for it on fourth and sixth. They basically turn the ball over. That game looks over then. Saints then kick a field goal.

They get the ball back again. Brady throws an interception. Then the game looks over. They stop them. They get the ball back. In a half-empty stadium, Brady marches them down the field, and it's one of the most stirring Patriots wins in a long time. The game is, also, though, I feel like the laundry list of injuries that came out of this.

Yeah. Some notables. Akeep Taleb was hurt. He had a hip injury. Jared Mayo hurt his shoulder. Danny Mandola had a head injury, looked like he was concussed. There were a number of Saints injuries, but they didn't look as serious. So you're right.

The Patriots are piling up a lot of these injuries, and that's a concern moving forward. But I don't think anyone's too concerned about that after this game. Jimmy Graham, how bad was his injury? That's right. Forgot Jimmy Graham. He had the ankle injury, and he was in and out of the game in the fourth quarter. Eventually had to be helped to the locker room. It was just a remarkable game.

The Patriots, I thought, outplayed the Saints for much of the game. They had the lead. They didn't take advantage of opportunities. The Saints score on a crazy third and 20 play to take the lead. Brady missed a lot of throws in this game, and I think that's going to get lost in the analysis. But the difference between this Patriots team and other teams is the defense is making plays for them.

They got the ball back for him a couple times at the end. The Saints had six three and outs, plus a four and out, which was basically that. late field goal. So the defense for New England played very well. I've been holding up Sean Payton as a paragon of aggressive play calling with the lead. Please tell me he didn't get conservative on me.

He did. You know, he counted on the defense of Rob Ryan stopping the Patriots late a couple times. When they got the ball back after the Patriots turned it out over on downs, weren't that aggressive. When they got the ball back after the interception,

half the stadium left. Terrible job by Patriots fans. And I've killed the Patriots fans over the year for not really being a good home crowd. It's not loud there. They're not football smart. Patriots fan, Red Sox fans, for instance, hate all the other baseball crowds and they think that other baseball crowds don't know when to cheer and they're not really smart and they're not true big baseball.

That's what Patriots fans are for football. Does that make sense to you? Did you call them a wine and cheese crowd? It's a wine and cheese crowd. White and cheese. That's San Francisco. Come on. A lot of people were leaving after they turned the ball over on downs with 244.

left in a one-point game. That game is so far from over. And then a lot more people left after Brady through the interception. But if you just know the math, there's two 20 left in the game, you have some timeouts. They knew if they could have stopped them three in a row, they'd get the ball back and they had a shot to win. He drives the length of the field. See, I think that's an interesting point. They're five and one, yet it seems like this Patriots team has already been through more adversity in terms of probably, I guess, team building and jelling, then we've seen any New England team in a really long time. The big story all season's been, you know, Brady's broaders receivers in early this week

to study film and really get on the same page. Are you actually seeing that happening? Or is that a work in progress that even by the end of this year, we're still going to be saying it never really clicked? I think it'll get better. There were key drops in this game in the fourth quarter, but more of it was Brady struggling. He ended up with 6.3 yards per attempt. I think this is a team that always is better in December than it is in October.

So the fact that they're winning games, the one thing that was missing this year, this team reminds me a lot of the 2003 team. The one thing that was missing was winning some crazy, close games that you really didn't have any right to win. That's kind of a Patriots thing, and that's what happened today. Let's move on in our schedule and go to the Packers and the Ravens. Packers pull out the win in Baltimore. They lose James Jones and Randall Cobb to injury, but they still find a way to win. and basically held the ball at the end of the game to win it and not give the ball back to Baltimore.

Are we surprised Green Bay was able to do this on offense? It was only 19 points, but it was enough to win against a tough defense without those two receivers. I'm not surprised. We talked on Friday about Green Bay's improved running game. They now have three different 100-yard rushers over the last four weeks,

and they had zero 100-yard rushers over the previous 44 games. That's outrageous the improvement there. That's one, like, off-season. They decided we're going to become a different team on the ground. And a lot of times these plans, by about three-quarters into the first game of this season, you realize, nope, not going to happen, same old issues. They really have changed.

They have. And how serious are the injuries to Jones and Cobb? Well, Ian Rappaport, our NFL Media Insider, reported that both injuries aren't believed to be too serious. But we don't know what that means exactly. That means that they're not expected to be season ending. They both feel like they escaped them without a major problem, but they could still miss some weeks, and that's a problem for this office. So you might have Boykin as your number two receiver,

which means this offense might be resting on Eddie Lacey's shoulders for a while. He's the first rookie running back for the Packers since 1971, John Brockington, to go for 99 yards and back-to-back games. I think he's going to be their focal point for a few weeks. And you know, I probably still take their group of weapons over what Baltimore has right now. Sure. I talked to Patcher a little bit during this game because he covered this in terms of our write-up on the site. And their run game right now looks to be, what used to be a real staple in Baltimore is struggling.

I still think Ray Rice is a top three back in this game. He's a wonderful running back. But their line, even with Eugene Monroe, Patrick basically told me it was a real issue today. They cannot blow open holes in the run game. They were stopped right in the goal line. They had basically, they ran a series of plays, got stuffed on a big scoring opportunity. The Ravens of Old capitalized. And, you know, I had this as a hero pick because I thought potentially, this is the week that Baltimore tells us, no, you know, we've had a lot of early season issues, but this is going to be our big signature win.

It did not happen. They don't have the weapons. They put up two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, but you're right, you can't survive running for 47 yards. The Packers' rush defense has been very good. season. And you can't survive with Tandon Doss was their leading receiver. Dallas Clark is their number two receiver. And I don't know what the solution is for that long term. Offensively, they've just been a mess and it hasn't gotten any better. Another offense that we expected to be a mess today, we expected the Buffalo Bills to just get whacked and not score any points, but it goes

into overtime. How did the bills stay in this game? This was yours, Chris Wesley. They went major run-heavy game plan in the first half. The Bengals went up by two touchdowns in the third quarter. And in the fourth quarter, you could kind of sense the Bengals were slackening up a little bit on defense. And Thad Lewis made him pay for it. He came back with two touchdown passes, one 40 yards. The bills, you could tell, thought that they could win some man-to-man matchups with their speed on the outside with T.J. Graham and Robert Woods. And even Marquise Goodwin, who caught a long pass. So that was how they got back into it. But But never in that game did I think the Bengals did not have control.

Even when the bills tied it, I just didn't have that much confidence in Thad Lewis playing on a bum wheel. How is Cincinnati spreading the ball around at this point in the season? They have a lot of young guys, new players. Are you seen – you watched all their games. Have you seen anything different last couple weeks? Well, they used Marvin Jones more today, and he had two splash plays early that kind of got that offense going. He had a, I think, a 34-yard end around, and then he had a 40-something-yard reception. And those two big plays kind of jump-started the offense.

And then they got Gio Bernard involved in the passing game big time. And he just, the 20-yard touchdown he had was Barry Sanders-esque. He broke some ankles and, you know, just juked a few guys out, took it in from 20 yards out. He looked good. Buffalo's now at 2 and 4. Any hopes of a surprise playoff run fading a little bit. Bengals in first place, all by themselves, at 4 and 2, we've popularized our new phrase, A.D. after Dalton.

that's the line in which your quarterback is either a problem or he's not, and Dalton's right on the line. Is that line moving slightly upward after this performance, Chris? I think it is. He played well today. Now, I don't think the bills are one of the best defenses in the NFL, but they have been able to bring some pressure with Patton as their defensive coordinator. And I think some other quarterbacks aren't playing well.

So, you know, a guy like Shab has to fall behind Dalton. You know why I disagree? Because next week we'll be here on Sunday night. saying that that line went back down. I just don't see him doing it consistently. That's the magic of the Dalton line. It goes up and down every week. Dalton moving target.

I did like what he did against the Patriots last week. So a couple things. He doesn't need to be great for this team to win 11 games and make it to the playoffs. He needs to be great to go far in the playoffs. I don't think any of us believe that's going to happen. No. One more thing on this game, we should mention that Kiko Alonzo is probably running away with the defensive player of the year honors.

He had 22 tackles today. 22. 22. Defensive player of the year. Defensive rookie the year. I'm sorry, yes. Maybe defensive player of the year. Just don't want to get you in headlines that you don't want to be in.

That's 22 more tackles than JJ Watt had today. All right, this has been a rollicking good time. You know, I'm happy about the Patriots. Wesleyan is thrilled about Mike Brown and the Bengals. I can care less about the Bengals. Just play along with me. But we've got to get to some sad news here. The Lions and the Browns today.

they were ahead by, what, 10 points, and I said to you, you weren't very optimistic even at that point. I said to you, look, if they can't hold on to a 10-point lead at halftime against Detroit, you know, that's a problem at home. And they didn't. You know, I have not seen Stafford play a better game this season than he did today, and I think it came against a pretty good defense, to be honest.

My problem, obviously, with Cleveland on the, is quarterback, Brandon Whedon. is not ready for prime time. And they're stuck with him. And the other option is Jason Campbell. But really the story of the day for me is exactly what Stafford did. That team built itself a hole in the second half,

and he kept working them out of it. And Megatron was not at his best. He got eight targets today, but he had only three catches. And Stafford found Chris Durham as a target, and then he found young tight end. Joseph Forier. Fantastic game.

You know, and he seems to have a knack. for the end zone. He's done this before. He's 6'8 he better than that for the end. And you know what? Cleveland made a tactical mistake early in the game. They put up a small safety up against him. And he just posted up, caught it, score. He's done that a few times this year. They just look for, like they don't use Schaeffler in the end zone. They use Joseph Forier because he's so tall.

I love Joseph Forier, by the way. He is the new Bubba Franks. He's even better. Seven catches this year, five touchdowns. Yeah. No, he's It's not even just a scheme, although he is the first tight end. He has three touchdowns today, first tight end since the 70 merger to do so. No one else has done that in one game. I like it because he reminds me of Christian 4A. No one else has done what?

No tight end has caught three touchdowns in one game. That's not true. There's something different about that. Dante Rosario had three last year in one game. Didn't Cameron have three? I read that incorrectly then. Rewind the tape. Well, it's all right.

You know, I wish it wasn't true. I wish it wasn't true. He is incredible. He is the Jerome Bettis of tight ends with, you know, every time Bettis would touch the ball, he'd score, touch out. He's the Chris Hoyle's of tight ends. That guy would have like 20 home runs and 40 RBI every year. You know what I'm saying? Who's Chris Hoyle? Forget it. He was an old Baltimore Orioles play. You know, there was a, I actually went out of my way. I know who you're talking about, yeah. I went out of my way to write a separate post about an individual weed-in throw back in like week two

where he had a wheel route to Chris Obanye and just overthrew what would have been a 50. 50, 60-yard gain, if not a touchdown. Today, trailing 24-17, down by a touchdown, Whedon wings a pass, comes out of pressure and wings a pass into space that he claims he was trying to throw out of bounds, and DeAndre Levy jumps up for his second interception. His first was a thing of beauty. This one was just sitting there in thin air.

He picks it up, and he ends the game for Cleveland. It was such a disastrous throw, and it's not a throw that an NFL quarterback makes. it's disheartening to watch. I saw this build on another website as possibly the worst throw ever in the history of the NFL. And then I went and watched it and I thought it wasn't that much hyperbole. It was really an awful throw. It was an awful throw.

So you said Whedon is not yet ready for prime time. Do you think, you know, next year when he's 30 years old, he might be ready for prime time? He turns 30 tomorrow. 29, really? I think 29 tomorrow. I believe he turns 30 tomorrow. Really? Yes.

So happy birthday to Brandon Whedon. You're crushing Mark Sessler's soul. Let's go to the Rams and the Texans. And we all thought this was the week. The Texans would get back on track. We all picked them to win. We were all wrong. And the final score, 38 to 13, is just an eye-opener, Wesleying.

What was the biggest factor in the Rams winning by so much? Bad luck. And a defense that looked like it was tired of carrying the offense in Houston. and just kind of rolled over, had no backbone whatsoever, especially in the red zone. They couldn't stop Zach Stacey, who is playing well but isn't a world-beater at running back. We're not talking Adrian Peterson here,

but every time they needed a stop on him, the Rams would just continue their drive. And really, Shob played fine. Shob played just fine. I think it was – this is one of those games where the Texans were averaging 10 yards per play on offense going into halftime. Arian Foster looked as good as he has in three years, He looked legit.

And, you know, the penalties, 75 yards and penalties going into halftime, two turnovers. They just, and then the second half, they gave up two touchdowns within six seconds. I think one was a pick six, and the other one was a punt return or a punt block, and it just all snowballed from there. Is the best thing that could happen to Matt Schaub, in what has been a terrible month, to go out for a brief period of time, have T.J. Yates come in and be potentially a bigger decision. disaster, and then Shab comes back in. It's like he kind of put that fire out. Who's still sitting around calling for T.J. Yates at this point. That's a fair point.

I was going to say the best thing would have been for him to stay healthy and for them to win this game because he was playing well enough to win the game. But T.J. Yates looked awful when he came in the game, and we had no high hopes for him anyway. Even if Shob's ankle isn't healthy enough next week, I wouldn't expect Yates to play well. So Shob left the game after the game, Gary Kubiak said he'll get tests on his ankle, his leg, a little bit of everything. Case Keenham is there as an option. They're two and four, and this is a team we thought would be a playoff team. Some of us did at least. And, you know,

they're at the point in the season where they're almost reaching the point in no return. They play at Kansas City next week, too. That's not a good matchup. That's a tough one. One question because the big story there early in the year was the timeshare in Houston's backfield. What's the situation with that right now? There's no time share whatsoever. It's all Aryan Foster. And frankly, the people who were saying Ben Tate had a better burst so he was a better back, Ben Tate isn't close to Arian Foster as an NFL running back. Foster is one of the top five running backs in the NFL. And to me, to me, it was always silly to say that Tate was going to overtake Aryan Foster.

Sometimes you just get the feeling it's not your year. They outgained the Rams by 204 yards. And lost by 25 points. I have to believe that's the first time in NFL history. there's been that big of a yardage difference and you lost by that many points. Here's an arcane stat for you. Arian Foster rushed for 198 yards

in a game in which his team lost by 25 points. The last running back to do that was Gerald Riggs in 1985. See, we can give you statistics that are correct on this show. Another one of your hero picks that went down in Flamesmark, Chiefs and Raiders, you took Oakland in this game and I think you did it because you thought Terrell Pryor could make some magic. Kansas City's offense is not that exciting.

For a half, it looked like it was playing out that way. And then I didn't see any of this game. It seems like it went horribly wrong. What happened to Pryor? Well, I think the score does not indicate quite how tough Oakland played out of the gate. They were very dominant over Kansas City early on. But Kansas City's defense is the real deal. And I've been hearing it from Chiefs fans today, as I think West has in the past.

because I basically argued that the defense is the reason they're 6-0 and the reason that that record isn't a complete mirage. But their offense to me is, you know, and I'm at the first one to point this out, is not exactly something that's going to scare opponents on any level. Alex Smith was rushed real heavily. It reminded me of that Giants 49ers game last year when New York, not a great football team, came out and just hassled Alex Smith from the start and they won that football game based on that.

that's how you get to this Chief's offense. But you flip it around, and Pryor in a stadium where the decibel level was broken and Seattle suddenly has to try to go do the same thing. Pryor had numerous issues trying to get the ball out, trying to start the offense up, get plays off. They look disorganized. He was sacked ten times today. Ten times?

When is the last time we've seen that? And you know what? The Chief's defense is that good? 1998 was the last time a Raiders quarterback was sacked ten times and the last time the Chiefs had a defense that's sack. what quarterback 10th? Who was the quarterback? Jeff George.

Thank you, Cliff Clavin. Hello. Good job there. So I hope you weren't pressured to mention that the Chiefs broke this, you know, in decibel level. Oh, I have someone with their hand on my shoulder right now. Right. I mean, I got some tweet. You better mention this.

Who cares about breaking the decibel level, please? No, but I will say. This is the dumbest story I've ever seen. It is dumb, but in this game, I do think it really impacted a young quarterback like Terrell prior. He just simply the whole Raiders offense And number one, you know what else impacted them? Losing two offensive linemen

For a team that's already lost about eight They simply had no one in there They could stop the Chiefs defense from getting in there I agree with our man Dave Damashek On this issue of crowd noise If it happens in the natural flow of the game Like Marshawn Lynch's playoff run against the Saints Then it's cool

If you're doing it just to break a record It's exceedingly lame It's a little outside It's lame The Chiefs fans have been great all year. Don't get me wrong. I've watched games. Except on Twitter. Right. I just mean at the game and I've thought, wow, they make a difference. But when you're getting all excited about breaking some decibel effort, like, okay, go home with your trophy for that. I mean, what do you

get for that? A few more points on the Chiefs here. We said last week, we asked, are they the best defense in the NFL? I think they are. Well, I think it'll be interesting. Actually, I understand the Texans right now are a suffering team, but I'd like to see how they handle that challenge next week, and I'd like to go see them play Denver. Okay. You also mentioned they don't have much on offense. I've got a stat for you. Jamal Charles. First player since O.J. Simpson in 1975 to have 100 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown in each of his team's first six games. He's an MVP candidate. Yes, he is. You know, at half, he had to think, 45 yards receiving, and the rest of the team had about 35. I mean, he is being used to the max. We knew Reed can do that with running backs in the passing game. He fits the bill as that kind of a player. but my problem is, you know, Alex Smith is also, I think,

believe, near the bottom of the list in terms of throwing passes 20 plus yards. They're not pushing the ball down field. When Donnie Avery is your deep threat, you got issues. He averaged 4.13 yards per attempt today. He didn't complete. I mean, that's deep in the gabberts zone. I don't know what that is. That's below the gabbard zone.

But I think they're happy with it. I don't think they're, I think their philosophy says this is who we are. One point on Andy Reid, coach of the year. first team since the 1956 lines to go start the season 6 and 0 after having the league's worst record the year before. Interesting. You can print the playoff tickets.

I mean, we'll see if they could somehow win the division, but there's almost no way that the chiefs blow this, I think. They're going to get to 11 win something like that. Well, we have a thing on our site today, if the playoffs ended smack dab right now through all the tiebreakers shenanigans, Kansas City is the number one seed, and the Broncos are the fifth seed

would play the Bengals and the wildcard. Well, that's a ridiculous thing, because they haven't even played each other. You know Cincinnati can do nothing but go into a wild card game and lose. Well, one team that would not be in the playoffs if the season ended today, but I still think they could get there

is the Carolina Panthers. And the reason I think so is because every couple weeks, they come out and they just smack some team around like it's a minor league squad, and you just believe in this team. Their defense was dominant against Minnesota. They didn't let Adrian Peterson run early in that game. They didn't let Matt Castle get comfortable.

They pressured him all day. And the offense sustained drives. I mentioned it at the top. Ron Rivera is going for it on a couple fourth downs. They pick them up early, score a long touchdown drive. They're sustaining drives. Camp still had those four or five throws that just made you scratch your head and he just missed them.

But other than that, it was about as good an offensive performance as you could ask for. and they win 35-10. It was a game that was really never close, and there are two teams entering today that had one win apiece, but to me they're so different. I mean, the Vikings aren't a threat,

and the Panthers, I think, have a chance this year. I picked the Vikings in this game because I saw it as two pretty equal teams, and I wanted to take the home team, but after today, I would say that the Vikings' defense is overrated. We thought they had a lot of talent, but they haven't stopped anybody all year.

And of all the units on the field today, the Panthers have, the Panthers' defense is by far the most dominant. And I'd be real concerned for that front office and that coach because the whole paradigm there, which is going to be, we are going to be a strong defensive team, we're going to be a team that runs Adrian Peterson right up the gut. And, oh, by the way, we're going to develop at least one quarterback while we're here. Right now, you've got three projects.

And guys who have never been seen as anything more than a project, frankly. And, you know, I think what, Josh Freeman probably starts next Monday night. But if that doesn't work out, what do you walk away from this season with if the trajectory of Minnesota's campaign ends the way it started? Yeah, if you're going to take a positive, there's no more quarterback controversy. I actually, I know it sounds crazy if you look at the numbers. Matt Castle did not play that bad in this game. He sailed two passes that happened to both be picked off.

One of them was late in the game when it didn't matter. He actually made some plays on third down. He was under duress. It was a full team meltdown. Their defense got no pressure on Newton at all. Their offensive line isn't playing well. But it makes it easy for them to just play Freeman next Monday night. Ponder is basically out of the mix.

And enjoy that Monday night football game. Giants, Vikings, combined record, 1 and 10. Dinner with the wife. Next Monday night, yeah. You don't have to stay tuned to that. You know, we've killed Mike Shula on this program repeatedly. Yeah. He got a little crazy day, a little friend.

He had a flea flicker, tight-end screen. I've never seen that in my life. And I thought maybe it was a weird, improvised play after the flea-flicker, but it was clear it really was a tight-end screen off a flea flicker. He did some end-rounds. He had some nice called runs for Newton. And the most important thing is when it was 21 to 3, I thought, okay, this is where Mike Shula and the Panthers take the air out of the ball.

And they kept throwing. They kept throwing on first down. They kept throwing down the field. Intriguing fourth downs today, too, right? Right, and they started the game going for fourth and short. So I loved what I saw to Carolina. Again, it's only one week. It'd be nice to see them win a close game eventually,

but it's a step definitely in the right direction for Carolina. Pittsburgh Steelers took a step in the right direction today, finally winning a game. They go to New York. The Gino coaster crashed this week. It's up one week. It's down the next. The Steelers are one and four on the season,

and Chris Wesseling is a believer. Yeah, I wrote an article two weeks ago The impetus was the Levi-Brown trade Which, you know, as far as impetus high, impotide As far as impotide go I think they have pills for that As far as that goes, it wasn't the best idea But I just, in that division nobody's running away with it

And the Steelers out of all the bad teams, I think, are the best team And this is a game We've waited for their defense to play like the Pittsburgh Steelers defense and, you know, they were facing a rookie quarterback, and they kind of expected what you think a Dick Lobo defense is going to do on the road against a rookie quarterback. And if Dan was here, he'd probably be saying, let's bench Gino Smith right now.

I don't know. He called it the Gino Coast, and I think that's a problem. It's stunning, but that's what happens, I guess, when we're going to put every rookie quarterback that's drafted right into the fire in the NFL these days, you're going to get this. I mean, I think Gino Smith obviously has some talents. I mean, you can't look at the Atlanta game and say

he's completely devoid of the ability to be a quarterback in the league. He looked really good in that game. But then you get this, and I didn't watch this game closely, but you just look at the result, and it's like most of these teams, week to week, who are these teams? Because there's no consistency with a team like the Jets. Well, they had such an advantage,

just having Ben Rathesberger, who is rounding into form, had a clean game. I thought he played well the week before the buy. So, you know, they're on the board. The Jets are at 3 and 3. no one thought this is a team that's going to go on a bunch of win-street because I think they're hoping to scratch out eight wins but if any Jets fans were getting the idea

that this could be kind of a sneaky 10-11 win team you know this was a sobering moment and they're not a healthy team either so that doesn't help on offense they're just missing a whole lot of weapons you know and cromarty by the way he went in with the knee injury and Dan mentioned that he really did not look healthy either in this game and he got fried on a big touchdown pass early on And for another, you got it killed on a 25-yard pass interference called to. Just not a good game for a defensive backfield that certainly misses Revis, I think.

We wondered about the Steelers' weapons early in the season if Antonio Brown is the number one receiver. I think he's on pace for over 130 catches now. And Heath Miller in two straight weeks has looked really good. They're coming around. You can't kill Avion Bell because he was playing against big snacks today and nobody runs on big snacks. Well, the Steelers host the Ravens next week. So Chris Wesleyan has this belief that the Steelers can get back in it, and we were talking, when would I jump on his belief that they have a chance?

They said, well, it's next week. If they beat the Raven, then get to two and four, and maybe the Bengals are coming back to back, then they're in the conversation. They have to do that first. It was a nice first step today. They got off the Schneide. The Bucks did not. The winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Get excited, K. Rich, behind the glass. You are rooting for a first place team. Greg's out of his chair. I'm out of the chair and I'm excited about Philadelphia and K. Rich. All I have to say is three touchdowns in the air, one touchdown on the ground. Nick Foles, what more can you ask for? Right. Well, let's pose the question to you then.

It was asked to Chip Kelly after the game, but Crystal Rich, do you keep Nick Foles in the starting lineup? Let's say even if Michael Vick was healthy. See, this is really controversial for me because I am a big Mike Vick fan and I'm trying to not let my fandom get. in the way. But when you see a performance like you just saw today, how can you not start him? All right, let me play devil's advocate. Listen, Michael Vic didn't do

anything to lose his job here. And I get tired of the climate in the NFL where any time a backup comes in and simply does what backup quarterbacks are asked to do. Okay? Oh, there's a quarterback controversy and Mike Vick suddenly you know, if you bench Mike Vick

and invariably Foles gets hurt three quarters later, you've got a disaster straw on your hands. Kelly said all along he's going to stick with Vic. You've got to stick with Vic. Well, let's be fair. If Nick Foles did what he was asked to, they asked him to be Peyton Manning. I mean, he was a sensational today, 296 yards, three touchdowns through the air, one on the ground. He made a couple very beautiful deep throws for touchdowns. He was composed, he was decisive. It was a great performance out of him. You put Nick Foles in Tampa, and there's just something in the water down there. Seven touchdowns. Well, there's something in the locker room.

You can't put him in Tampa because Greg Shiano checks under his bed for Nick Fools every time he turns off the light. I know. If I have one takeaway from this week, it's that Nick Foles owns Greg Shiano, seven touchdowns in two games against him, almost 700 yards. It's crazy. I did not. Mike Lennon played well in this game. This was my game.

I thought he had a really nice performance. And it wasn't just because the Eagles defense was bad. He made some tough throws under pressure. He picked up some third in longs. And it didn't matter that Eagle's offense was too good. I mean, let me ask you, though, you think that there's a potentially good move for Kelly to make a switch at quarterback? I don't see that as a good move. No, I don't think quarterback's an issue on this team.

I think it's the defense. They can win with either guy. Everyone's gotten on Chip Kelly for not revolutionizing the NFL. Three teams in NFL history have ever racked up 400 yards on offense for six straight weeks. Four teams, Chris Wesleyan is telling me. The Broncos did it after you saw that step. Oh, the Broncos did it this week, too. And one of those teams is the Eagles.

So it's nothing new. So here's another stat. The Eagles are the only team since the merger with 1,600 passing yards and 1,050 rushing yards in the first six games. Now, Michael Vick, we don't know if he's going to be healthy for next week. Chip Kelly did leave the door open and said, we're going to evaluate everything. He kind of made a joke about it because he said Foles could keep the job if he went 100 for 100 with 27 touchdowns.

He was like, well, did he do that? Not quite. But we're going to evaluate it. We'll see how healthy. Vic is, to me, this just makes it so that they can be really careful. It looks like it was a serious injury for Vic. You can keep them on the sidelines for one more week and let

Foles do his thing. And he is 33, and he is in probably the final 11 games that he's going to play for the Philadelphia Eagles. I think they can win both ways. And I really did think at times today they looked a little more like the Eagles offense that we expected in terms of moving the ball quickly, out of your hands quickly.

And they were playing in rhythm against a very good defense. I was really impressed by Nick Foles. I was not as impressed with the Broncos. I mean, but I guess what, I guess we just built this thing up that we were going to win by 40. You're tough to impress. Well, I mean, did anyone expect this to be a close game in the fourth quarter, Broncos, Jaguars? It's close in the third quarter.

You know who I wasn't impressed by two? I just want to throw this out there. The Buccaneers crowd and all the crowds out there today. There's all Eagles fans, right? And Foles actually had a quote where he said, listen, you know, there were plays where I heard such an uproar from the stands and they're down in Tampa that I thought something must have happened that I didn't see an interception of fumble. But no, it was Eagles fans cheering on a good place.

So, yeah, not a high mark there. So that's a bad job by the Buccaneers crowd. It's a terrible job by the Patriots crowd to leave before the game-winning touchdown, embarrassing. And it's even worse job of the Texans fans to cheer Matt Schaub when he got injured and then cheer even louder when Yates came in. That's an ugly moment that people will remember. years from now for the Texans fans.

Texans fans also were throwing ice, which raised the ire of J.J. Watt and Brian Cushing. I don't think I would want to be on J.J. Watt's bad side. No. I agree with U.S. That would be unrewarding. All the players after the game, Cushing, I forget the word he used. He was disgusted

by it, and Andre Johnson was really upset, and this is something that's going to stick with that crowd. It's unfair. It's not the biggest story. Maybe that brings the team together. Maybe you guys can tweet us. Who you think was the worst crowd? The Patriots? or the Texans crowd. I know everyone will probably say the Texans.

Let's get back to these Broncos. How did the Jaguars stay in this game? You know, the Broncos made more mistakes than normal. Manning lost two fumbles, which when's the last time that happened? He threw a pick six to Paul Plus Lusney. You know, the Jaguars got to hang around for a while, and they showed some pluck. They played pretty good defense for a while. Justin Blackman was unstoppable on offense.

They stayed in the game. They were within two points in the middle of the third quarter, which Greg said that could be the story of the year if that kept up till the end of the game it quickly went downhill for them after that but... It would be fun to root for a team where you win by 16 points set the records that we just mentioned

and we're sitting around the campfire asking what's wrong with Denver? There was a little bit of annoyance in Peyton Manning's post-game press conference you know people were kind of asking them almost like it was like they lost the game and they asked them a question how come you didn't go after

the fumbles that you snapped from the quarterback exchange, I guess there were a couple of those. And he said, don't say that like I never do. Don't make that a rule. And they were going back and forth. I think he was a little ornery. He even said, I think some people think that football is easy, and it's not supposed to be easy.

It's hard, even some people inside this building. I thought that was interesting. Maybe he thought people were getting a little too, you know, excited about this. Peyton Manning is almost unimpeachable right now. He's got to be smarter than half the coordinators out there. He's playing at such a high level, and he's mastered the game. As a reporter, I wouldn't be questioning what he's doing out there. No. Wait, no, with Denver's backfield, that was another one where it's a carousel of people.

It looks like today that might have changed a little bit. It's been Marino for the last couple of games, and they can't rely on Hillman. He fumbled again. Monty Ball dropped a pass. I don't think Monty Ball is playing with any confidence whatsoever. And No, Sean, is exactly what this offense needs. He's just rock-solid reliable, and he's great. the passing game, that's perfect for them.

Tell me something positive, at least, about the Jaguars. Justin Blackman, we've been talking about him since the preseason. He looks so much better than he did last year when he came in out of shape, couldn't separate from defensive backs. He was killing Champ Bailey on the slant all day today. You couldn't stop him. He looks like kind of a young Anquan Bolden. He's kind of powerful after the catch like that, hard to take down.

I like him a lot. I think he and shorts are a good twosome. Now, they had shorts left the game early in the first quarter with a strained neck or shoulder. Hopefully that's not serious. And you guys should check out our what we learned, our takeaways from each game at post after the Sunday night game. And one of the takeaways from Wesleying was about Malik Jackson. So we're not just talking about big name guys. We're talking about a defensive interior situational pass rusher who's really emerged as a big time threat.

So check that out every Monday night. It's even sponsored. I don't know by who, but by someone. Especially if you're Malik Jackson's mom, because this might be the first time in his NFL career. He's gotten a numbered bullet point right on NFL.com. I want to give Malik some love. We've got to talk about the Seahawks, give them a little love.

They continued Russell Wilson's undefeated home record in his career. With a victory over the Titans that wasn't overly exciting, 20 to 13, it would have been a bigger score for Seattle if there wasn't a 10-point swing at the end of the first half where they had a field goal blocked and returned for a touchdown. So really this game wasn't quite as close as it indicated. But just kind of the Seahawks showing once again they're going to win the games that they're supposed to.

Any big takeaways from Ryan Fitzpatrick not winning in Seattle? Not a huge shock here. You know, but the Titans, I will say this, every game, they've been in every game. They're a much tougher. You know, last year they were getting crushed on defense, giving up enormous amounts of yardage, getting, having 40, 50 points dropped on them week after week.

Is that Greg Williams? I think it is. It has to be, right? It has to be. I mean, they really are a much tougher team this season. And it's a tough loss for them because you have to just wonder what would happen if Jake Locker were still in there. I thought the announcer made an interesting point on this game

where it was on Twitter about Russell Wilson. I talked about this last week that sometimes he's missing some routes that are there because he's trying to do everything himself. And I can think of a red zone play in particular late in the game where he kind of, he has the slant, but he starts running around and leaving the pocket a little early. I think that happens because they haven't protected him well. He had a very good game overall, but they're still trying to find themselves on offense.

They're not quite there. They ran the ball well late in the game. They get the win, and they're trying to improve their passing game as the season goes. Maybe this was just because I was watching Maurice Jones Drew in the other game, but every time I flipped onto this, game, Marshawn Lynch looked great to me. He looked explosive, and maybe that was because Maurice Jones, Drew, couldn't get out a third gear whenever he had a hole, so it just looked, maybe the discrepancy there.

But also, bad news for Seahawks opponents, Pete Carroll said after the game, Percy Harvin's return is, quote, just around the corner. Ooh. Interesting. And good news for fantasy owners there. The NFC West race, you know, at first there looked like there might be some surprises. San Francisco's coming back to the pack. They get the 32-20 win over Arizona today.

Now they're four and two. The Seahawks are five and one. It's starting to look more like we expected. The Cardinals and Rams both at three and three, so they're not totally out of it yet. This was a game where the offense and Vernon Davis especially got right, and at least they got something going in the passing game. He had a career high in yards at halftime.

That's crazy. That is surprising. I mean, the Cardinal's defense has played well for the most part, but Carson Palmer put him in a couple of bad spots in this game. He was intercepted twice early, and the talk started right away on Twitter. Don't be surprised if you see Drew Stanton. That surprised me.

I would be surprised if we saw Drew Stanton, wouldn't you? I would too, although I have to say you're getting from Carson Palmer, is anyone that surprised right now that he goes out, has a game like this? I mean, this is what you knew you would have. when you went out and made Carson Palmer your so-called franchise quarterback for this season? I don't know what the question is, but the answer isn't Drew Stanton. No, it is not. And they probably know that, you know. But what about Kaepernick? I mean, is this, are we disappointed with his play at this stage in the season?

Yes. A little bit, yeah. Wait, what do you mean a little bit? You just named him as your biggest disappointment three days ago. Yeah, I am. I need to look at this one. His two turnovers in this game were probably mistakes he could have avoided mental errors. He did hit on some big plays at least in this game, so that was a positive sign. Kind of like the Seahawks and the Patriots, the great teams in the NFL win while they're figuring things out.

And the 49ers ultimately won this game, a division game comfortably while they're figuring things out. So that's a step forward for them. One injury to watch from this game, Kent Summers of the Arizona Republic said after the game that Fitzgerald could barely bend over. He had previously injured the left inch hamstring. Now he has a right hamstring injury. And Callais Campbell left the field on a stretcher with a neck injury. Reports were that he did

have feeling in all his extremities. And early signs are positive for him, but he's an enormous player for them. So they're going to be on Thursday night football this week, Arizona and Seattle. And if they're going to hang around in this NFC West, that's a big game. They've at least been a fun team to watch because they have so much defensive talent. In our final game of the night, Redskins, Cowboys, thought there would be more fireworks in this one. Cowboys get the win at home. Redskins in trouble here at 1 and 4 in the NFC East. We've seen the Cowboys secondary torched last few weeks,

and RG3 came out and it looked like the byweek did him great. His legs looked much more spry this week, but they still only have one touchdown all year in the first half on offense. So, you know, as well as RG3 looked on the ground, this is not 2012 RG3 yet. happy to see if you're a Cowboys fan, that Dallas doesn't come out and lay an egg after what was an incredibly crushing loss last week. I still think this team wins the division at about 8 and 8. This is a wacky NFC East. I know Greg has the Eagles here, but Dallas had to come home

and take care of business tonight. They did, and it's more proof that this is a team game, and it shouldn't all be about the quarterback. Tony Romo plays great last week. They lose. He has a so-so game this week, and they win, but they get, you know, a punt. return for a touchdown. Their red zone defense does a good job, and they get a win. And for the Cowboys, the fact that they can win any games that look like toss-up games at home is a little bit of a step in the right direction. One question, I want to go back. Is Seattle right now the best team in the NFC? Yes. Yes. I think the Packers can get there. I think the Packers can get there. They've had a lot of injuries on defense and offense, but I think they could round

into form where they're right there. But right now, Seattle has to be there. I chose Seattle because of the record, and Clay Matthews, James Jones, Randall Cobb, that's three very important players for the Packers. We don't know how serious the wide receiver injuries are, but they're just lacking talent if they lose that many key players. So we like the Seahawks. We like Nick Falls.

Kay Rich likes Nick Falls maybe a little too much. No, it's not too much, guys. I really want Vic to start. I'm a huge Vic fan. It hurts me to say Nick Foles should start next week. but just being realistic since we live in a realistic world I think that he should maybe get the start

and see what happens and if it completely blows up, Vic. This happened to me last year. When we lay it at your feet? Time barrels on. This happened to be last year. Foles played great in Tampa and I could have sworn

he was going to be one of those great rookie quarterbacks. You kind of step back. We'll see what happens. We'll talk about Nick Foles next week on our recap, but you don't have to wait until then. You can listen to us

on our Wednesday show this week. Please subscribe. leave comments, tell your friends, tweet at us. Crystal wants you to use hashtags. That's all I got for you tonight. For Kay Rich, Mark Sessler, Chris Wesley. I'm Greg Rosenthal. We'll see you Wednesday.

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