NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Week 7 recap

Episode Date: October 21, 2013

A room full of heroes, Gregg Rosenthal, Dan Hanzus and Chris Wesseling recap all of the Week 7 action and bring you the key takeaways and analysis from each game. Don’t miss another installment of ���Win Wess’ Toaster” next episode.  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.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the League podcast, sugars the agaps. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hansen's, and I am joined by a nice collection of heroes. We got Chris Wessling and Greg Rosenthal. No Mark Sessler, but we are here, and we're going to carry on, fellas. It's a fun day. Another fun day.

I had to sit next to Dan Hanzas as he reveled in his jets winning. That was one of the better jet victories in some time, and we will get to that game. But I do the one thing I think we should get to first, because you never want to lead with this, but it is what it is. Greg, a big day for injuries. A huge one. So it seems like these Sundays happen once, twice, maybe three times a year a Sunday, where the injuries change the complexion of the season.

And that could happen. Jay Cutler and Sam Bradford, two starting quarterback. both got hurt. We taped this on Sunday night, so we don't know for sure what the prognosis is. It sounds like Sam Bradford is going to miss the rest of the season, which would basically end whatever hopes the Rams have. We don't know about Cutler. It doesn't sound good. Brian Cushing's out for the season, according to Albert Breer.

Leon Hall, one of the better young cornerbacks in the league is out for the year for Cincinnati. Arian Foster got hurt. Jermichael Finley got hurt. Doug Martin got hurt. So just a lot of big injuries today. Kyrich, everything okay back there? All is good guys. Sorry for the extra sound effect. No, I like it.

Like, we do like the sound effects. That was a little, that was a little mundane corporate office drudgery stuff. Exactly. We're talking about injury, so I thought I'd just throw one in there. It sounded like Link just picked up a heart on Zelda. Oh, wow. Good call. All right, so let's go through all the games, and, you know, we already brought it up. I will start with it. Let's do that.

Nick Falk kicks a 42-yard field goal with five minutes ago. on overtime to lift the Jets to a 30-27 win over the Patriots on Sunday. Obviously, this was controversial game because of the penalty on Pat's defensive tackle Chris Jones, which gave focus second shot of it. And fellas, while we're here, K. Rich? What is going on? The reading from the NFL rule book. When Team A presents a punt, field goal, tempt, or tri-kick formation,

a team B player who is within one. yard of the line of scrimmage must have his entire body outside the snapper's shoulder pads at the snap. Team B players cannot push teammates on the line of scrimmage into the offensive formation. Penalty for unnecessary roughness, loss of 15 yards from the previous spot. So you're proud that that's the way the Jets could get a victory? That is the rule.

Those were the rules put in place. The Jets abided by the rules, which has not happened a lot this season. The Patriots could not, and the Jets are in the race, in the AFC, East. I don't know what the Jets have done to be given two gifts by the football gods this year. Well, you have Levante David in the season opener pushing Gino out of bounds, save their bacon, and now you have this Chris Jones character who equally saved the Jets' bacon, because what happened was folk missed a 56-yard field goal. If that penalty doesn't happen, Tom Brady's coming out on the field right around midfield,

I think we all could tell what was going to happen. He was targeting Gronk all day. Rob Gronkowski came back. That was the other big storyline of this game. 17 targets. They would have been Bing, Bing, Bing, field goal, and away we go. Instead, the Jets caught a break. There's no other way to put it.

But what have they just gone down the field? I mean, the Patriots got the ball to start overtime. The Patriots got out gained in this game by quite a bit. They had the ball for 23 minutes. The Jets had it for 46 minutes. The ending was weird. And I'm saying this as a Patriots. fan, but I think the Jets deserve to win this game.

I think, you know what, this was a closely contested game. I think it was a game where the Jets jumped out to an early 7-0-0 lead. Gino threw a terrible interception that was run back of pick six, but then, and the Patriots went into the half up 21-10, but then Brady gave it back through a pick-six of his own to Antonio Allen, and that sparked a 17-0 run for the Jets. It was a really good game, and yeah, I mean, that penalty is what people are going to remember this game for. and Dean Blendino, I'm sure he's going to be on TV a lot tomorrow.

But at the end of the day, the thing you take out of it, especially as a Jets fan or even as a football observer, who thought the Jets are going to be terrible, they are in this race. I just want to know what's the update for the week, Dan. Is Gino Smith a future Hall of Famer? Is he the worst quarterback you've ever seen? The Gino coaster rolls on. And, you know, the funny thing I found about,

they gave him the chance to put the game away at the end of regulation. He threw two incompletions. Jeff Cumberland dropped the pass. That probably would have locked the game up for the Jets and allowed the pads to get the ball back and kick a field goal. But then they took the ball out of his hands in overtime. They ran the ball 11 straight times, and it worked. Chris Ivory ran 32 times for 105 yards.

It was absurd. But, yeah, I mean, listen, Gino, he's his best strength is throwing downfield. and what comes with that is occasional mistakes, but what can you say? They're four and three, and who saw that coming? Not me, and I had a bet seven wins. You did, you did.

They might outperform that. All right, do you want to move on to the next game? Let's do it. Let's keep rolling. So, Matt Ryan, he threw for 273 yards, three touchdowns, and that's without Julio Jones and Roddy White. That's a direct shot right to Chris Wessling's face. Matt Ryan's stepping up today.

And the Falcons snapped a three-game skid with a 31-23 win. Greg, you watch that game. Tell us about it. Well, I didn't really watch it, but I tried to, you know, see what was going on. 18 carries 18 yards for the Falcons on the ground, and they won the game. To me, they're two and four. This doesn't mean they're back. It just means that the Buccaneers spiral into Greg Shiano hatred continues.

Now we have X-Bucks players talking about Shiano saying that they won't let them go to practice. And they wanted to bring kids to the practice on Friday, and Chiano won't let it happen. And just every week that they don't win a game, it just allows these stories to fester. This is the same defense that made Nick Fools look like an all-pro last week. So let's not go crazy with the Matt Ryan can do all these great things without his all-pro receivers. But you did say you did predict that Ryan would fall on his face.

And I still predict that. Well, on Friday, you said about Sunday, right? I mean, for the rest of the year. Okay. But he did not. Harry Douglas, 149 yards in this game. So I can predict a lot of fantasy owners picking up Harry Douglas and Chris Ivory this week. Yes.

That's really my takeaway from this game. And that's really about it. Don't chase points. And so we shouldn't put too much into this Falcons game, but this is not going to kickstart some magical run? I didn't see the game, but it seems to me like the Buck's defense didn't show up for a second straight week. Yeah. All right, let's move on. The Cam Newton completed 15 of 17 passes.

yards and a touchdown, a 30-15 win over the St. Louis Ram. Rams, a game that had some bad blood. Hey, Chris Wesley? There was one big fracas, which Steve Smith was predictably in the middle of. There was a lot of shoving, pushing, finger-pointing, trash talking. Genoers Jenkins learned a little lesson about talking trash to Steve Smith. Apparently, the way Steve Smith put it was it was Janoris Jenkins' first time on Google. He finally learned how to Google and he looked up a bunch of stuff about Steve Smith's family. He was out there talking about his wife and family, and Steve Smith basically said,

I'm not playing this game. Definitely don't do that with Steve's season. And he had, to me, the best touchdown dance of the season, which started out as the prime time dance, and then he cut that off and said, that's not you, Jenkins. You're no, you're no Dion. Wow, you're reading deep into it.

It has to be a pretty good dance to get Chris Wesleyan. Oh, it was great. Well, I'm not even reading into it. In his epic post-game rant, he explained the dance saying, I'm telling this guy, he's no Dion Sanders. Before the game, Chris Wesseling, true or false, you said this statement. Ted Ginn is playing better than Steve Smith this season. During the game. It's true, and I stand by that.

Over the first six games, Ginn was playing better than Steve Smith. He had more yards on half the targets. But after this performance and the fire that he showed, now I feel like you're back in. You know, he's my best. player of the last, he's my favorite player over the last decade, and I'm, I'm back on board after that touchdown dance in the, and the rant, which was just great. It was a 19-yard touchdown catch for Smith, his 800th career catch, which also led to, actually, what is probably my favorite line of Smith's Post game rant, they asked what was like, how did it

feel to get that 800th catch against Jenkins? He said, he's just another notch on the bedpost. That's 800. He ain't no different. Great. It's awesome. He also compared him teaching Jenkins a lesson like when a when your dog pees on the floor and you rub his nose in it that's what he compared his touchdown dance to and you know we've been talking up this panthers team and now they're three and three they're heading to thursday night football this week against the winless bucks NFL network i mean they can get into the wind column then they have the falcons the next week we could be looking at a five and three panthers team are you buying christ i've been buying and you know

they are throttling bad teams which panthers fans are very angry with me for creating that headline as if they're not really throttling bad teams look they're beating bad teams these aren't good teams and they're doing exactly what they should be doing they're beating them soundly um but they haven't beaten anybody good yet if i'm a panther's fan this is what i'm excited about uh you know they had it over the past two seasons they had turned on uh their ability at by the end of the year and it kind of made a bad year look decent they might be finding their groove earlier this year and that might actually

get them in the playoffs, save Ron Rivera's job, anything's possible now, right? Defense is a top five NFL defense. Cam Newton has two of the three highest passer ratings of his career in the last two weeks. Good teams, that's what they do is beat down bad team. That might be the signature, you know,

piece of evidence that you are a good team. So I think... How does losing to the Cardinals fit in there? That does not fit into the great team theory. And let's see, they need to put on the big boy pants in a close and late game and win that game. And when we start seeing those happen, I think you could really buy in.

But certainly they're promising right now. Before we move on, we should talk about the Rams who are now three and four. And if Bradford is out for the season, by the time, you know, everyone listens to this, that might be out there. It just makes their decision. I don't think they're ever going to move on from Sam Bradford this off season, but now they're three and four. Their backup is Kellyn Clemens.

They don't have another quarterback on the roster. So they'll bring in another guy or two. And it's just like, okay, this season. season was a wash. Bradford had been playing better the last few weeks. But this team, without him in there, they're going to be one of the worst teams in the NFL. Kellen Clemens has no pocket presence to speak of whatsoever. There might be sack records started this year.

And you know what? I don't know. Should we even bring it up? I guess we should. NFL media's Michael Silver reported that what did he report exactly, Greg? He report that there were internal discussions about bringing in Tebow for a tryout. Mr. Tim Tevo. Oh, I'm not familiar with him.

One of the people that they were thinking about bringing in, they once thought about trading for them. The thing here is they only have three wins. They're going to be one of the worst teams in football, I think. And so that sets up a situation where they might have a very high draft pick next year. But they, yeah, and that is a good point. I kind of feel like the way less need from what we heard from him, that he would probably dig in with Bradford a little further,

especially when you look at his stat line this season, He's going to have a nice line through the five or six games. I don't know. We'll see, but it could be. It's a good quarterback draft. Are you suggesting that three years after they called Sam Bramford the potential to be the best quarterback in the NFL and passed on RG3 that they will actually draft another franchise quarterback? If you're that high, I think you got to consider it based on what Bradford's done. That would be an epic bungle.

I think it's better to admit your mistakes, though, than sit around with Sam Brad for the next three or four years and then admit it. I think Bradford showed enough in the last few weeks that they will be back on board the Sam Bradford train. It reminds me a Christian Ponder, well, finishing the end of last season well and convincing them they didn't need to do anything. I don't think Bradford's at that level, and it's not easy to just replace a quarterback. We're talking about how they might be the worst team in football because they lose Bradford. So you don't want to just get rid of them. I just think you've got to think about younger quarterbacks. And bungal or not, less needs still the most attractive, handsome GM in the NFL.

All right, moving on, Tony Romo through for 317 yards and a touchdown. Cowboys overcame a slow start, beat the Eagles 17 to 3. The Cowboys now sole possession of first place in NFC East. Greg? The defenses were much better in this game than we thought. This was the first scoreless half for Chip Kelly in his entire career going back to college. That's 59 games worth, and they only had three in the second half. I thought, look, the Cowboys are the best team in the NFC East.

There's no debating it. They're 3-0 in the NFC East. They've won each game comfortably. They're not a great team, but their defense has shown a little something in the last couple weeks. Jason Hatcher, my defensive MVP sleeper. Another big game. How far up the list has he gone? Could he be number one on the defensive MVP watch?

No, he cannot this week. I mean, JJ Watts, JJ Watt, and until he starts, I know they're two and five, but he's been so great. I can't put Hatcher above him, but Hatcher's a difference maker each week. He's the only guy that was supposed to be on that defensive line that's there still. How did Nick Foles look? He was brutal. He was your boy, by the way. Yeah, Nick Foll.

He didn't look healthy. He went 11 for, he threw 29 passes for 80 yards. Yikes, that's below Gabbard zone. That might be the most sub-Gabbard zone performance of the year. Gabbard's going to look at that box score and get really driven to outperform that or underperform that next week. I mean, he missed open throws. all day. He looked like he was hurt from the first quarter on.

Maybe he tweaked his groin. He was limping. He was not trying to run when they were trying to let him run. He had open lanes. He made bad decisions. And then he left at the end of the third quarter with a head injury, not with the groin injury. Matt Barclay came in. He threw three interceptions in one quarter.

I think we'll see Michael Vic next week, you know, as long as he's healthy. Well, Sean McCoy was held to 3.1 yards per carry, which is a higher average than Nick Fools yards per attempt. Wow. Wesleyan picked the wrong week. We had a friendly disagreement about how Lashon McCoy would perform rushing yards last week. I won the argument. Friendly is very loose.

It seemed to have a little edge to it, yes to me. It's the first I'm hearing of it, but I don't know. And look, Terrence Williams is the other thing that stood out to me in this game. Miles Austin is giving them nothing. He's basically done. He had two or three targets by the end of the game. He wasn't even on the field. And Terrence Williams has been a very consistent.

player for them last year. What do you mean by basically done? I just mean he's not a factor for them. Just because he has a hamstring injury, right? I just mean he hasn't helped them at all this year, and when he starts helping them then I'll believe he's a factor. At this point, I don't think he's a factor for them.

Gotcha. One thing, Greg, we had talked about it a bit downstairs, and, you know, should we be disappointed on balance by the Chip Kelly offense that we've seen in the NFL? Because this isn't revolutionizing the game the way

maybe people thought was going to happen. They just tied an NFL record going into this week. Tied. With 400 yards of offense for six straight weeks. Only four teams in NFL history have ever done that. This year's Broncos, this year's Eagles, are two of them.

They're going to have some bad weeks. This was their worst performance by far. But I don't think it comes back to Kelly. If anything, Kelly's been impressive, I think, with what he's done. Dan Carpenter, released by the dolphins in August. beat his former team today, hit a 31-yard field goal to beat the Bills. The Dolphins who started 3-0 are now 3-3-3.

Wes, what were you seeing? This was basically a tale of two-quarter. The first quarter and the fourth quarter, Ryan Tannahill did not play well. The first quarter might have been the worst quarter of his career. It was awful. Fourth quarter, he had four chances to come back and match Thad Lewis, and he couldn't do it. Second and third quarter, he threw for three touchdowns, which is the first time in his career he's done that.

And that's basically why they lost because Tannahill couldn't match what Thad Lewis was able to do in the fourth quarter. Just think of that sentence. Thad Lewis, how did he look again? He looked adequate. You know, the same way he looked last week. They want to run the ball when he's in there. Of course, they wanted to run the ball when E.J. Manuel was in there, too. But when they had to pass, he was able to do it.

And they did have to pass because the running backs, at one point in the, the early fourth quarter, Frank Summers was leading the team in rushing. And the Dolvins have lost three straight, and they have to go to New England next week, I believe. And so that is a big game for them. Just think of the opportunity missed here. The Patriots lose. You could have gotten everyone excited. Now they're going to New England with the threat of possibly losing four straight.

Yeah, in general, you get off to a 3-0 start. That should set you up for the entire season to have a nice record, and they gave it all back instantly. They're as close to last place as they are to second place. Let's give the bills some credit. I think their defense has been underrated all year. They're three and four. They're in every game. I mean, even when they lost the Bengals, they barely lose that game.

They're not a bad, bad team. Mario Williams gets the clown suit of the week. He put a clown suit on Tyson Clabo in one stretch in the fourth quarter. Tana Hill was only sacked twice, but it was those two big plays in the fourth quarter. One was a turnover that Williams forced, and he had a really good game. Mario Williams is earning his money. Yes. He is having a great year.

And did he get that engagement ring back? I don't know. Everything else seems to be going really well for him, but that. All right. Moving forward, Colin Kaepernick, I think he had his best game. I watch this game. He had his best game since week one. He ran for 68 yards and a touchdown.

He threw for 200 more. An easy win over the Titans, 3117. This is a game the Niners jumped out to a 24-0 lead. And look at this. Four straight wins now for the 9. They go to London next week for a cake victory over the Jaguars, and they'll go into their buy. It's six and two, which is basically what we all expected, right? Yes.

I wasn't buying in on their offense, was totally back until this performance, at least what it looks like. Did Kaepernick and the offense kind of look like you expected them to look going into the season? Well, they, you know, they didn't run the ball incredibly well, at least from the backfield options. But I like that Kaepernick, they really took the shackles off him in the Reed option. And, you know, the thing I took out of this game is we haven't seen the best of Colin Kaepernick yet this year. And this could be, you know, we're starting to hit a point maybe where he can start getting back to that level that we expected all year. And when that happens, you know, they once again, you know, should be viewed as one of the top three or four teams in the league. I mean, I saw a lot of good things.

And then on the titan side of the ball, you had Jake Locker. He came back. I thought that was a little bit of a unnecessary risk because the Titans had their buy next week. But he came out of the game okay. He moved okay with the hip injury. And then one other thing I took out of the game, you know, you said clown suit in a good way with Mario Williams. Kenny Britt, give him the clown suit on my end, just in the bad way. One catch for eight yard, which is a standard stat line for him now.

But he also had like a temper tantrum at the end of the game, you know, caused a personal foul and then threw his helmet on the sideline. Mike Munchak, who said he was proud of Kenny this week, last week. I can't imagine he still feels that way. I didn't think it was possible, but he started out, and after two or three games, I said he was the worst player in the NFL, and he's gotten worse since then. He's really bad, and I thought, you know, I thought it was curious that Munchak talked him up this week, last week, and then said he was going to give him a bigger, you know, role in the game plan. I wondered if maybe they were trying to audition him for other teams, but that's certainly he did not give any performance. Plan hit a snag. Yeah, exactly.

So that's that. Let's move forward. Roy Huloo, three touchdowns, including one. with 45 seconds to play. The Redskins, 45-41 win over the Bears. That is my hero pick. I'm very excited about that.

But the biggest storyline here, Jay Cutler went out with a groin injury. NFL media's Michael Silver reported the injury could be serious, Wes. Yeah, I think we've seen the McCown Act before. This is bad news for a Bears team that, as we said on Friday, plays a very bad defense.

The Redskins, RG3 has his best game of the year by far, and they rush for over 200 yards. The bears are, to me, if the Cutler injury is serious, the Bears are out of the mix for the playoffs. And the Redskins didn't win the game until a minute left. I mean, let's not forget, they put up 41 points with Josh McCown at quarterback most of the game, right? Yeah.

I mean, Josh McCown's numbers are fantastic. 14 for 20, 10 yards per attempt, got a touchdown, 200, yards. The Redskins' defense is awful, and that's why I just don't take them seriously as a contender, because no matter how much better Robert Griffin the third gets, I don't think it's going to change the defense. Yeah, one bright spot, another bright spot for the Redskins. Rookie tight end Jordan Reed caught all nine of his targets for 134 yards. And a touchdown, he's kind of been on our radar the last few weeks as a guy who's been more involved in their offense. It moves really well for a tight end. He kind of plays like Aaron Hernandez.

So I think that's a good, he's a good fun for them. Fred Davis, inactive, right? I'm not sure if he was inactive. He was. Yeah, he's out of the mix now. And the timing of the Cutler injury, if it's not that serious, is fortuitous because they have a bye week. But coming out of the by week, they're at Green Bay, and then they have the lion. So you mentioned you can't see them staying in playoff contention.

Even if it's a three or four week injury, something like that, they're coming out with two huge division games. If they drop those two, they're almost out of it. Say you can look at it like this. It's great news for the Panthers. It is. And all the NFC hopeful. You have to figure now the 49ers have one of those wildcard spots. So it's almost like everyone else is going to be fighting 49ers or Seahawks.

Someone from the West has a wildcard spot, so everyone else is fighting for the other one. And I think out of all the teams in that mix, Panthers are playing better than any of them. All right, let's move forward. Aaron Rogers playing without James Jones and Randall Cobb didn't matter against the Cleveland Browns. three touchdowns, you know, your typical great Aaron Rogers game. That was enough against the team, Brown's team led by Brandon Whedon, who stinks.

31-13 win for the Packers. I watch this game. I don't know how much I took out of it. You know, on the Packers side, it just shows that Rogers is so good that he could keep this team afloat, even if they are banged up. I really like what I see out of Eddie Lacey. The guy is

I like that the way he runs, he has patience, and then he's also he runs with power. It's just really impressive even though even though a statistical line wasn't great today you just could tell that guy can play and uh you know i asked you guys downstairs is he the best running back since in green bay amon green was the guy that we came up with i think he could be that way um so that was that was that was that game i mean but we didn't this guy he's he's so bad i know we've talked about him we don't have to dwell on it but if the browns now now after two straight losses they need to turn

it to jason campbell that's all i that's all i mean i think this is getting personal with dan Brandon Wheaton at this point. If you watch this game, you know it's, well, it's a little personal because I did predict Brandon, Brandon Whedon to have a quarterback rating north of 90 with, I think, 32 touchdowns and 75,000 yards. You said 4,000 yards. You based it on three possessions in the preseason. Greg is out of his chair again.

But the Browns would go night and turn. So that was the worst prediction. Of all the bad predictions, that was the worst one all year. Weiden averaged 3.5 yards per attempt today. You said it was the worst prediction. I still think Big Ben is MVP is worse by you. The fact that you based it on Whedon's preseason makes the worst. The reasoning was the worst.

He was like a bottle of fine wine ready to break out. It just didn't happen. And hey, listen, I admit my mistake. That was incorrect because he is not good. I'm with Dan on this one. You can't go with Brandon Whedon anymore. He's that bad. You have to turn to Jason Campbell just to keep your fans' interest.

They're in this race in the AFC North. The Bengals are there with only... They're not in the race because they don't have a quarterback. You're not in a race if you don't have a quarterback. The record is three and four, and they have a good defense. So they're around if they could somehow score any points. They can't. They can't with Whedon.

I will speak for the empty chair for Sessler here. It's so unfair to Browns fans that in that Thursday night game, Brian Hoyer blew out his knee. This could have been an exciting season for them. And instead, they just got, they really got... I can't say the word I want to say. but they deserve better. You are a factory of sadness! Let's talk about the two players in the Packers' defense real quick.

So I first noticed Sam Shields when he shut down A.J. Green earlier in the season. Last week, he shut down Tori Smith, and today he held Josh Gordon to two catches and 21 yards. And then inside linebacker Jamari Latimore, who was all over the field last week, led the team in tackles this week, had a sack, a tackle for loss, a pass defense. I think he might be better than Brad Jones. I am liking my Packers to win the Super Bowl. Bowl pick because the defense is coming together. I thought it would be pretty good this year. They'll get some people back on offense.

Jared Boykin hit a good game. He's playing in place of James Jones. Eight for over 100 yards. I don't know. You know, obviously you've got to give credit to a guy when he delivers that type of game as a receiver. But I always give a lot back to the quarterback, too, for, you know, finding ways to take almost anyone and make them a big player. I think Rogers is that good.

And that's why, yes, I think they are a player. Do I think they'll beat big teams in the playoffs? I don't know about that yet. All right, moving on. Jamal Charles ran for 86 yards at a touchdown. Alex Smith also ran for a score, a weird run for a score and some quasi-fake to no one. The Chiefs held on, kept their undefeated record alive

with a 17-16 win over the Texans. Greg, your thoughts. Great game. And I highly suggest sometimes people ask me, what games should I watch during the week on Game Rewind? That has been a question. This would be a great one. It wasn't high scoring, but it was back and forth.

There was a lot going on. Foster and Cushing got hurt, which was too bad. But Case Keenham played well for the Texans. Both offenses were better than I thought they'd be. They moved the ball back and forth, weren't totally efficient with some turnovers. And the Chiefs eeked out another one. I mean, every week it's the same thing. Every game is the same.

The only thing was missing was there wasn't a Jamal Charles clock-killing drive. This time the defense finished off the Texans. But it's the same story. A lot of things went right with the Texans. Texans, and they still lose. Here's the question I have. Did Case Keenum show enough to keep this job, regardless of whether Matt Schaub is healthy?

He took five sacks. My answer is yes. I think you have to think about keeping Keenum as the starter. The offense looked a little better with him. They were going up against a great defense. He made quick decisions, made some plays on the move. I don't think they will stick with Keenham, but he made it a tough decision.

He did take five sacks. He held the ball. The Chiefs are probably averaging five sacks a game. They're leading the NFL end sacks. And he was under pressure the whole game, and he did a nice job. He definitely wasn't the reason they lost this game. It was a hard-fought game. They really played their hearts out, the Texans, and lost.

Nothing really changes about the Chiefs after this game, but without Cushing. I think the Texans are out of it. Two and five. It's not your ear, bud. How about they just go in the tank, go 2 and 14, get Teddy Bridgewater behind center next year. Do it. No, don't do it. It's not good for the game. I think they're too good to bottom out. I think they're good enough. And this game showed it. I mean, they were on the road in a tough environment and they lost by a point with their number three quarterback. They're going to be

too good to get that spot. They're going to be in a weird in between where they're the number seven picks, something like that. Why do I still, and this, you know, I felt the same way about the Niners a couple of years ago and I couldn't be more wrong about it. But why do I feel like the the chiefs are a 14 and 2 divisional round knockout. Is that silly? It's not silly at all. It's exactly how I feel. They remind me a lot of the 2003 chiefs,

who I never believed in, totally imbalanced, where one side was great and the other one stunk. That was the offense of Dick Vermeal. They jumped out to a 9-0 start, and they didn't win around in the playoffs. Okay, let's move forward. Sean Suissem hit a 42-yard field goal, no time left,

lifting the Steelers to a 1916 win over the Ravens, Huge win for the Steelers who now, Wes, can we say they are in the race? They are alive and well after an O and four start? I believe they are playing better than any team in the AFC North other than the Bengals. And it's close. I think the Steelers could give the Bengals a game right now. Levyon Bell had a very good game today. Had the most rushing yards by Steelers running back since week eight of last season.

They need that too. I mean, did he look good to you or was it the offensive line or a little bit of both? He looked much better than any other Steelers running back has looked since, you know, for a couple of years, really. So you're saying my MVP pick. Still alive a little bit. I think, yeah, he's on life support, but he's still alive. And what about Joe Flacco?

Because we talked about before the season that this team wasn't tremendously talented on offense, and now this would be Joe's chance to earn his money. You know, they seem like a middle-of-the-pack team, and Flacco has to be taking heat for this, right? No, no, he's taking heat because it was a contract. That's a non-factor. You pay your franchise quarterback what it takes to keep him. Flacco...

Well, sorry. They're asking him to work with guys who just aren't very good. Beyond Tori Smith, he has no weapons. The offensive line has been abysmal. And then the running backs, after the offensive line, they can't pass block. And Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce are first and second in the NFL and percentage of runs that have generated two yards or less.

Rice looks downright slow. He's got... Flacco has... nothing to work with on offense. I think he should take a small modicum of heat, not because of the contract, but because of the thought that the Joe Flacco backers tell us that he's a top five type of quarterback. And if you're that good, you're not directing the 31st or 32nd offense in the league.

And that's about what this group is right now. Top five is just ridiculous. I agree. Top 10, maybe not either. So he's not elevating everyone else, maybe a little bit, but not really. I don't think he's the type to elevate everybody. I agree. All right, we've reached the point of the show where we reach out to our Chicago correspondent, Kevin Patra, who watched two games for us today.

And I guess we'll start with, first of all, how are you, Kevin? I'm doing well. I'm doing great. Good, good. I'm everyone in L.A. It's horrible. It's been a tough week for Kevin, so we should be kind to him. Why is that?

I'm a big boy. I can handle it. His beloved Detroit Tigers is rough. We're going to go down that road? Well, I could just feel it in the tone of his voice. You know, as a Yankee fan, I could have told you Jose Varus was going to destroy you. There was a lot of mistakes, mate. Yeah, let's move on.

Let's just get away from that. I'm sorry for your loss. But why don't we start with the game that maybe people don't care about as much? We have the Jacksonville Jaguars. They were going for that first win. Nice sell there. I like that. Yeah, well, you've got to do what you've got to do.

Patra, by the way, chose the Jaguars to beat the San Diego Chargers on our picks. but Philip Rivers threw a touchdown, Ryan Matthews went over 100, and 24-6 win for the Chargers. Patrick, first of all, why did you take the Jags? I felt like my logic. I felt like there was some soundness to my logic. The Chargers coming up on Monday and I win, going east, playing an early game. You know, teams can lay eggs out. No chances.

I don't, you know, teams don't go on 16 Jags at one at some point. I figured this was my chance to take it, you know. So what did you say? Well, they didn't lay an egg. Clearly, Philip Rivers came out. He was as efficient as he's been off season, 84% completion percentage. He just picked apart, you know, a Jags' defense that didn't have much of a pass rush. You know, the Chargers lost two left tackles. Flouker had to move over to left tackle, and they still, you know,

River still wasn't that rushed at all. So Matthews just ran well on the ground. You know, they came up with 14 points out and pretty much put the game away that early. I felt like after the second or third drive, the Chargers were already in business to win. Well, Patrick, you rooted for a team that did go 0 in 16. Do you think this Jaguars team is worse? Pound for pound.

I mean, you know what? I was trying to make that comparison all week. I did back quarterback play. It's similar. The non-existent defense and the non-existent defensive rush is there. I think the Jagger's a few playmiggers on the outside more than the Lions had. I mean, the Lions really only had Megatron. So I do like what the Jags have on the outside with Mike Brown,

Custer Shorts, and Justin Blackman. They have an MJD, even if the offensive line can't open holes for him, he's still better running back from the Lions head at the time. I still don't think they go on 16. I think that's once in a lifetime. The Lions were competitive, though. They had a stretch of, I'm looking at four or five games, whereas a one-score game, and it came down to the buzzer,

and the Jaguars are not competitive. Well, we'll see. I still think it takes a lot to, and a lot of those games where, you know, the Lions beat themselves that season a lot as well. They have for. Right. The Jaguars are very clearly being beaten by other teams. Beating by the other teams.

Okay, so let's move on to the other game. Mike Nugent hit a 54-yard field goals. Time expired. The Bengals, 27-24 win over the Lions. That's three straight wins now for the Bengals, including wins this season over the Packers, Patriots, and Lions. Are we buying in now on the Bengals? Patrick, you start this off.

I mean, this game is all about the big plays for the Bengals. A.J. Green starts it off with an 82-yard touchdown reception. I actually thought Andy Dalton had a lot of yards. The offensive line did a very good job keeping him clean. He's only sacked once, and that was in the last two minutes. The Lions' pass-runch was non-existent. I also thought he left like three or four big plays out on the field, where if he had led A.J. Green, who was past the defense,

he probably would have had three more touchdowns, and this wouldn't have been a close. game. So do you guys, I'll open it up to you guys, do we buy it on the bangles now? It's a nice win. The Bengals are who we thought they were. They have a great defense and the question mark at quarterback. What I'm hearing from Patra was that Dalton's box score looks like possibly the best of his career,

but he didn't play that well? Looking at his box score, he said, but I still felt like there were four or five throws that he really undersrew them badly. and like they should have been a couple of them should have been picked off and if he would have let dream was just torching this defense even when he wasn't getting his balls thrown his way he was just uncoverable they aren't who i thought they were because their results say they're one of the better teams in the league i mean dan said it they beat the patriots they beat they won in detroit that's impressive they beat the packers they had one loss at the buzzer in chicago the results have been great and we're not going to trust them until they went in the playoffs but you can't really argue with the way they're playing right now no but that's how i thought they would be they would be a good regular season team with a great defense and a question market quarterback and i think

that's still who they are thank you kevin that's who they were today definitely thanks man i appreciate it guys all right so that takes us to sunday night football the game of the week greg is already pumping his fist he made the hero pick that the indianapolis cults would knock off the undefeated Denver Broncos. That is exactly what happened. A 39-33 win. I don't know. What do you say about this game?

It was kind of a strange, long, lumbering game. But the Colts outplayed the Broncos. And this is not a game. This was not a fluky win by the Colts. The game changed on the Robert Mathis safety. Manning went five of his next 12 after that for 36 yards and no scoring drives while the Colts went on a 21-0 run. Wouldn't you say he looked kind of old during that stretch?

I would say he looked old. I think we've said all season that he has the weakest arm in the league, and it looked a little bit weaker or significantly weaker during that stretch. And I was saying that the throws were coming out poorly. Greg, you disagreed with me. And Wes, I know we've talked about that, like what you were just saying. The ball didn't, after that Robert Mathis hit caused the safety, he went right in the tank and the whole offense did.

And the balls were even by manning standards, They seem to be floating more. I think someone tweeted, I'm not sure who it was, but that it looked like his throws had parachutes on them. I mean. Jeremiah tweeted that. Yeah, Jeremiah moved the sticks. Even by Manning's standards, this ball was not coming out of his hand well. So I'm interested to find.

He dismissed it after the game. He said he throws ducks all the time. I throw wobbly passes. I throw wobbly touchdowns, too. Right. But I don't know. That's something to watch, I think, because he took a pretty good shot there. He did, but he has thrown wobbly passes all year.

That's all I disagreed about, was that he's thrown ugly passes all season. And it did seem to get even worse for that stretch. But let's not forget what happened at the end of the game, where they scored 17 points in the last 12 minutes, and it could have been more if Ronnie Hillman didn't freaking fumble the ball inside the 5. What a disastrous play that was. But I just pointed out that he was looking a little old because my theory on this is a game for the young.

I wish we could play back my whole race. about the Colts winning. Okay, Rich, don't do it. It pretty much all came true, and it was the game where we all sort of say the Colts are going to be on the national stage and Andrew Luck, and it's just their time for a day. I have to stand up for this.

This is unprecedented. Dan is standing up. Three minutes into the first quarter, after the Broncos had gone up, Greg was already thrown in the towel saying, can't believe he made this pick. And, you know, this was such a mistake. and you can't now play revisionist history

and act like you were all the way in for four quarters. Hey, the results are, they're facts. The game was predicted. It was a hero pick. And let's not forget, this is a big moment for the Colt season. They go now, what is it, three games up in the AFC South? Three games up on the Texans, at least. And they've got a lead that almost seems insurmountable.

They've gotten through a part of their schedule where they beat the Seahawks, the 49ers, and the Broncos, and to me, it just shows the skies the limits for this team. I'm not saying they're the best team in the league, but they're a team to be reckoned with. I don't want to be the wet blanket here, but I will list two things here with the cults. Number one, Reggie Wayne had a non-contact left knee injury in the fourth quarter. Michelle Tofoya on NBC said that, you know, he had tears on the sideline and he went straight to the locker room. That could be a serious injury.

And then the other thing, just to look out for, Trent Richardson, even by T. Rich Standards had a bad game. 14 carries 37 yards, 2.6 yards per carry, and a bad loss fumble that helped get the Broncos back in that game. So there are some things to be worried about for the Colts, but on balance, you have to be really excited if you're a Colts fan that you have a true AFC contender. The biggest problem with Trent Richardson is they pick him up to run power and they can't pick up third and ones and fourth and ones.

And he's on the bench in a key situation. they're playing Donald Brown because of this... Damn it, Donald! Because of this NFL coaching role where you have to bench a guy for fumbling, which is absurd. But anyway... I agree with that, but also the guy's not getting the job done. Since he's been there...

They're undefeated. They're undefeated, yes, but it's certainly not because of Trent Richardson. They're undefeated except for that game last Monday night when they got whacked by the Chargers. I'm just saying. Besides that, too. So they're not undefeated. Is there any, you've been, you know, talking up this Broncos team all season, any concerns after this one?

Chris Wesleyan. What are they? They have a defense that is not only last in the NFL and past defense, but they've allowed 35 points, an average of 35 points and 420 yards over the past three games. And if not for the Jaguar scoring one more point against the Rams than they did against the Broncos, this defense would have allowed season highs in three-street. great games. It's not a good defense. I'm not ready to say it's a really bad defense, but it's a below average defense. And we've been banging that drum the last month, and they're saying Champ Bailey and Von Miller returns, that'll change everything. Von Miller, yes, Champ Bailey got hurt in this game. We don't know if he's an above average player right now. We don't know if he

can stay healthy. This injury might be serious. He's an aging player who's hurt. So I think it's a problem for them. I don't think they're probably the best team in the NFL or the AFC, but it's not by a lot. I don't think we should put too much into this night. This was a weird week for this Broncos team with all the Manning stuff and you went into a building where it's tough to win on a Sunday night. I'm going to give him a pass

here. Von Miller, by the way, had basically no impact. You had two tackles in the game. So I guess it might take him a little bit to get back to Von Miller's standards. But once you get that going, I think they're going to be fine. Their offensive line in Denver shouldn't be that good. On paper

it's not that good. The Colts were the first team that was able to get to Manning early and often they hit them early it had a huge impact on this game either or said than done but they're going to have to play the chiefs twice and that that won't be easy yeah the offensive line gave up four sacks 10 quarterback hits a safety yeah it was manny was hit a lot i don't know the last time Peyton manning was hit 10 times in a game i mean that might have been the most for a long long time they got to take care of the king okay so that is it for today's podcast we will be back on Wednesday big Wednesday show by the way Greg we have a special guest Greg Cosell from NFL films that's a good one and we also are bringing

back win West West's Toaster wow Karech right on the you know it's a little late in California right now but K Rich just brings the heat there thank you very much K Rich win West's toaster is back Wes how are you for you feeling as we approach the next competition. I'm feeling pretty comfortable about this toaster. I haven't performed at my peak yet on this game. I feel like it's coming. It's kind of like

Kaepernick, your best way is to come. This was my training camp. I'm on a little role with the prognostication with this Colts and good picks last week and I'm just going to put it out there now. Wes's toaster is given away this week. The game ends. I can feel it. Wait, do you have a cessler

that the toaster is going somewhere, Greg? It just is Just the feeling that came over me. Yes. All right. We got to get out of here. Yes. So we'll be back on Wednesday.

Until then, this is Dan Hansa signing off for the mailman, the boss, K. Rich behind the glass, the sizzler, wherever he is. And, of course, while he'll be in there. Until Wednesday. This is an I-heart podcast.