NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL ATL: Week 8 recap

Episode Date: October 28, 2013

A room full of heroes, Gregg Rosenthal, Dan Hanzus, Marc Sessler and Chris Wesseling recap all of the Week 8 action. Don’t miss 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.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the League podcast. Mrs. Wayne Fonce. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the League podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I'm joined by a room full of heroes. Chris Wessling, Mark Sessler, Greg Rosenthal, and Kevin Patra.

What up, boys? Hey, Dan. How are you? Well, that's not quite accurate because Kevin Patra is on the phone. but we're starting with him this week and you know might as well bring him in on the top of the show Kevin your first intro Thank you sir I'm glad to be a part of the intro this time

Yeah All you need to do to make this happen every week is have the Lions win The most crazy awesome game possible Yes that would that would work I'm on down for that And we're going to get to that game in a second Wes welcome back To Studio 66

Good to be back You have a glow I do? Yeah. A certain gold hue. Yeah, a nice weekend, didn't you? I had a lovely weekend. It was fantastic.

There's a woman in your life. Yes, yes. Kay Rich, can you tell as a woman that Wes looks a little different? West, you came in, the top of the head was glowing, the face was glowing, everything was glowing. Yeah, I could tell a difference. You know, he was involved, seduction Friday. It feels like it's carried over. Seduction Sunday.

Seduction Friday, Seduction Saturday. The whole works. Yeah. And, you know, now we'll see, Greg. Are you a little nervous, Greg? Now that Wes is a man that had a great weekend that it might affect his edge as a football analyst. No, I don't take that approach. I mean, I like seeing a happy Wes.

Yeah, all right, good. I like it, too. I love it. I like Block two people on Twitter today. Wow, that might be a record. All right, so that's good. Everyone's really excited. No one's were excited in Wes, but everyone's happy.

Let us get going with all of some. Sunday's week, eight games. And as we said, we have Patra off the top this week from Chicago because he watched the game of the week. Matthew Stafford's one-yard plunge over a pile of linemen with 12 seconds to go, lifted the Lions to a 31-30 comeback win over the Cowboys, a game in which Calvin Johnson went ham and had 329 yards receiving second all-time. Patrick, tell us all about this one. I mean, where to begin? The Lions just shooting themselves in the foot with four turnovers. The line's defense holding down Romo and basically causing Des Bryant to have a connoxion on the sideline.

Calvin Johnson catching nearly everything for going on a historic day for three and two. I mean, there was just so much. And then Matthew Stafford with his last drive was just impeccable. He made a 40-yard, he just threw a 40-yard time to Chris Durham. That really got set it up for a pass to Calvin. and then his unexpected by pretty much everyone his dive over for the game winning. It was just the last minute was just ridiculous. I think personally that, you know, Dan Marino had the fake spike against my Jets in November 94,

and that's famous. This was a better fake spike to me because if he gets stuffed at the goal line there, I think the clock runs out, doesn't it? On this, I don't think so because they would have probably had to review it, and then they would have probably had a 10-second runoff, so there might have been two seconds left. Fair. I think that's how I read it.

But either way, I mean, it was a smart play because not letting everyone thought he was yelling, spike it, spike it, spike it. I was actually thinking of my back on mind. He could just go in, and he just dove over the top. Luckily for him, he did get it. That was only his third most impressive play of that drive. Yeah, like I said, the Chris Durham throw to me was just spot on. It was exactly where it needed to be let him right out of bounds.

It didn't take a lot of time. And Patrick, either you or Wes, somebody set it up for me. What exactly were they facing there in that last? It was one, they had less than a minute, no timeouts, right? Right. Correct. Should Jason Garrett take any heat at all for just running the ball at the end of the game? When they got the ball back, it looked like it was over.

They got their stop. They were celebrating like the game was over, but the line still had two timeouts. They run it three times and Detroit gets the ball back. Well, the big, the thing, one thing you have to take it, there was a holding call on the Cowboys that would have, if that, if that stopped the clock, shorts declined the penalty that set up the field goal, but it was like third and four, if there wasn't that holding call that stopped the clock with a minute two left, there would have probably, the lines would have only had about 20 seconds. So in that sense, and the Dallas wasn't penalized much of the day, but that was, that came, became a huge penalty. That was only the second penalty of the day, but it saved the lines at 40 seconds. thought, Calvin Johnson, you know, he talked to reporters after the game. Number one, you mentioned this in your write-up. The guy was stopped inside the four-yard line, five-yard line four times

today, which hasn't happened in 12 years. And one of them, I mean, at the one-yard line, it's like every game he gets to like the one or two-yard line. Ah, he stinks. Well, no, he doesn't get any... Last year that happened to him all the time. It's hilarious that it's like one of those things like, oh, he got inside the five again. There it is. But he told reporters after that he saw... all one-on-one coverage for big chunks of this game. So you're talking Jason Garrett. What about Monty Kiffin?

How do you cover this guy one-on-one? They gave up 623 yards. I mean, this looks like it was a close game, and it was. But Patra mentioned the four turnovers. They had 623 yards compared to 268 for Dallas. The most Dallas has ever given up by 40 yards. Yeah. Fire Rob Ryan.

They tried a single cover Calvin with Brandon Carr, and it just didn't work early and it didn't work late. And like I said, with the four turnovers, you have to understand also, those four turnovers are all committed in Cowboys territory. So these were plays that they should have, the line should have scored on, this should not have been a close game. And on the Cowboys side of things, this is a devastating loss. I mean, they were four and three, they were staring at five and three,

and instead it's like the same old thing where they just can't put it together. And, you know, the Des Bryant scene was really bad. I mean, how many fluff pieces have we read about how Dez finally saw the light? And I know it's in the heat of competition, things happen. But I thought, you know, that guy's got to get it together and realize that people are not only going to have the cameras on them, but that's now going to be something he gets asked about for seven straight days. Who cares that? I care. I'm with Dionne on this one.

You guys on top of your mountain tops telling me who cares, I care. All of a sudden, you're Damashik. You're on the mountain top with the high horse saying, oh, this is. terrible. They're arguing on the silent. He's the best thing about the Dallas Cowboys. And I'm sure Tony Romo doesn't want to get yelled at or the coach doesn't, but I'm sure they don't really care that much in the heat of the moment. They know that's all it is. My biggest problem with Tony Romo

isn't the last minute interceptions. It's that he plays too cautiously. If Des Bryant is double-covered, Romo won't throw it to him. And I think that's an issue with that team. Two things I'll say on that. One, it seemed like half the people were ignoring him the first ranty one anyway, so I'm not sure that. they really cared about it. Two, I agree with Wes, because I was astonished by how many times Romwood didn't even look, look Des' way in the first half, especially.

I made a joke that I thought Roshin Mathis was Dorel Revis or something. He wasn't even looking that way. How many lost? One drive, it was three incomplete passes to Terrence Williams that weren't even close, and he didn't even look at Des on any of them. It's crazy how many losses Jason Garrett has had like this in his career. Baltimore last year is one that, comes to mind. It's just crazy. How many losses

the Cowboys have had with this. It's going to catch up to him. We have to think if this happens again, and they miss the playoffs, it will be the end of the road for Garrett. And these type of loss is how you miss the playoffs. You know, Patron, you're right up. You open it up saying that Stafford obviously went against his critics today by

beating a good team, which he hasn't done, you know, in terms of records, but are the Cowboys a good team? I mean, we thought so coming in, which was a big thing, a mental thing for him. I do, I may mean, are they a good team? Are they going to make the playoffs? Look at that division.

Do you think that the previously 0 and 6 New York Giants are coming back to take the division? I think the Cowboys are a good team. Some weeks. I have a quick stat. I think most stats, like, after the game, they kind of explain what happened, but they're not that surprising. The one

on Calvin Johnson, that Randy Moss has one career 200-yard game, Calvin Johnson has six in his last 27 games. That, like, it made me rethink, I think the Rainey Moss versus Calvin Johnson kind of comparison. How many, he's got more 300-yard games this year than Alex Smith. Now we're taking shots at you Chiefs fans when it's not even your team.

Unfair. All right. I read he out, he outgained like 11 teams combined teams. It's pretty good. I think he had a good day. Kevin Patrick, you had a good day too. Congratulations on the win. And thank you for joining us, as always.

Appreciate it, guys. All right. Podcast on track to go, 186 minutes right now. That was a great game, though. That's right there, I think, with the Cowboys. Another heartbreaking loss, Cowboys Broncos is the game of the year. That's so funny that you say that, yeah, because Dallas has been on the losing end of both of those.

Okay, let's move on, and we'll go through all the rest of the games this week. We start in Denver where Peyton Manning overcame four turnovers, and the Broncos scored the last 38 points Sunday, and a come from behind 45-21 win, over the Redskins. Wes, you watch this game. What did you take from it? The Broncos' past defense,

which is much maligned. You know, they were 32nd in the league. Hit RG3 at least 15 times today. Knocked him down repeatedly in the second half. Knocked him out of the game. Forced him to his lowest passer rating of his career and his lowest yards per attempt. Von Miller had an impact this week.

Broncos past defense looked good, and RG3 looked as bad. as I've seen him. Wow. Throwing the ball or just overall decision-making? How did he look back? I would say decision-making and throwing. He does look quicker than he did earlier in the year, but his passing was awful today. He held the ball too long. He missed a lot of open receivers, didn't even see them. RG3 finished with 132 yards passing one touchdown, two interceptions, and came out of the game late with injured knee. Not the surgically repaired knee, but I guess it appears he'll be okay

but still yeah a terrible day for him they went into the fourth quarter with the lead the final score was 45 to 21 they was a 31 to nothing fourth quarter they had a 38 to nothing run is that a record 31 to nothing in the fourth quarter it's a little bit like

what happened when the Broncos played the Redskins in the Super Bowl reversed that was a 35 point second quarter the Redskins were up 21 to 7 and it all happened over a five minute span to close out the second quarter and open up the third quarter, and it was all basically Broncos' errors. They scored a touchdown. They would have had a field goal to end the half, but they scored a touchdown because the Broncos had too many

men on the field, and then they opened up the second half with Peyton Manning lost a fumble that put him on the doorstep of the end zone, and then a pick six. So the offense wasn't responsible for much of this at all. We heard before the game that Peyton Manning had two sprained ankles, one of them being a high sprain, which you typically don't see a guy just roll out into the field later this afternoon when that's the case. How did he look? He looked like Peyton Manning. So you're not buying the injury update here? Look. I heard he had three sprains.

It was very strange. This is either the... Well, this was a respected report. This is either the least severe ankle sprain in history and they gave him drugs that they should probably be giving to the rest of us just for courtesy sake. All right, let's move on. The speaking of big runs at the end of the game, the Patriots fell behind 173 at the half to the Dolphins on Sunday, but they scored the game's final 24. points in picking up a 27-17 win another poor statistical game for tom brady but they were able to

still take care of the dolphins who have now lost four straight after that three and o start as i watch this game brady actually had 25 yards passing and a pick at the end of the second quarter they were booing at jolette stadium um and things just didn't look good at all changed in the third quarter tanah hill and mike wiles couldn't connect on a pass uh when the dolphins were marching back in for another score. Ten Hill takes a sack. Sturges misses a field goal. And then over the next 107 seconds,

the Patriots put up 14 points, and they never look back. So, you know, Jeff Ireland and I wrote this in the piece, he's probably very happy to sign that extension before all this stuff went down because the dolphins are in trouble all of a sudden. It's more money for Jeff Ireland. Doesn't necessarily mean he's going to have a job next year.

I mean, well, just because you sign, I'm just saying the dolphins have to win some games, and positive things need to happen for them or else there could be changes in the office. Could you get an extension and they get fired before the first year that extension kicks in? Sure, why not? That wouldn't be unprecedented?

He can get fired today. I mean, he got fired last... He'll never be fired. Let's be honest. What an amazing turn this season took for Miami because they opened 3 and O and the talk even in this room was, you know, this is the one time when all

a wild off-season spree of free agent spending works. These guys are playing well on both sides of the ball. We were talking about Brent Grimes. We were so excited. And then look at four losses later. These guys play the Bengals on Thursday night, and what essentially is a game to save their season? They're not a terrible team.

They're in each game. They've been playing fairly good teams, and they're in the game, and they have the lead, and they find a way to lose. And there's something in that DNA when it started steamrolling in the second half that the Patriots, who have had a lot of come from behind victories. They haven't been pretty this year.

They had a fourth quarter comeback against Buffalo. They did it against New Orleans. They did it against Miami. They've won a lot of close games. They believe they were going to win this. And Miami, it was just like they shrunk from the moment. Greg, I know you got to watch a little of this game. Brady, he basically saved himself from about $6 million.

What's Wrong with Tom Brady think pieces this week. But are you still worried about him, his play so far this season? He hasn't been great this year. I've written about it a lot. He hasn't been one of the 10 best quarterbacks of the league or anything like that. He hasn't been one of the 15 best quarterbacks in the league. Ouch. Is he AD on the bad side?

Hold on a minute. Hold on. He hasn't. If you watch the game and forget about what his name is, he's been missing throws all year. Which side of AD is he on? Oh, of course you're taking him. Previous seasons matter. Yeah. The AD is different.

I'm so confused by AD. It's very confused me at this point. AD is after Dalton. We'll get to him a little later. It's a very simple concept. All right, we'll get into it. I'm expecting the Patriots offense to come around, but it's been slow to do so. And that is worrisome.

I like the fact that they've found a way to win these types of games, though, and the defense hasn't totally fallen apart despite the injuries. Two key losses, by the way, on each side for the Dolphins, wide receiver Brandon Gibson. Albert Breer reported that he has a torn Patelor tendon, or they believe he does, probably a season-ending injury. And Patriots starting right tackle Sebastian Volner, Volmer was carted off the field with what looked like a broken leg, so I don't think we're going to see either of those guys again. That's a massive loss for New England.

If you're coming up with a list of their best players, Volmer, Mayo, and Wilfork are in the top six overall on the team going into the year, and now they might be without all three of them. The Making the Leap Curse has spread to the Patriots star players. They're going down once a week. It's true. All right, moving forward. To London, we go.

Crikey. Colin Kaepernick. They're not going to Melbourne. Well, listen, it's, you know, I'm not so sure about it. Colin Kaepernick playing well through and ran well, and the Niners marched over the Jaguars 4210 at Wembley Stadium. You know, Mark, you watch this game. Is there anything that you took out of it?

You pretty much summed it up. All right, moving on. You know, we've talked about the Niners as a team that has kind of heated up on offense week. They won five in a row. and it was Greg Roman who told Mike Silver earlier this week, we're going to peak at the right time. Well, I don't know if it was Sunday they were hoping to do that

because they looked utterly unstoppable, especially running the ball. They just seemed to completely dominate the line of scrimmage, but against it's Jacksonville, and it's easy to just pile on the Jaguars. But one thing that really disturbs me about Jacksonville... Well, because there is something, because Gus Bradley, if anything, knows how to build a defense,

and it's so clear they just don't have the horses on any level because especially at their linebacker group, they could do nothing today to shut down Gore. And it wasn't just Gore. It was Kendall Hunter. And we saw Kaepernick running the ball even more than last week. And it was impressive with the level of domination. They had their way.

In a season where there haven't been a lot of dominant running backs, Gore has been an exception. He's having a really great season. Greg, you like to call him the inconvenient truth. You know, he's much better than anybody ever realizes. feel like, and he just continues to pour it on this year. Wait, one game that I, or one play that I think that people will love to

watch if you have access to the coaches film, and it was hard to see on the actual television screen. And if you don't, Mark will send you a stipend to get access. I will give you access. Or you'll write about it Wednesday on what we learn. I'll just give them my email and my password. Yeah. All right.

You know, that's probably the more logical way to go. All right. So they had a play that were basically Bruce Miller, their fullback, right? They're all bunched up in the middle of the field. and he trots off to the sideline as if he is to go get a cup of Gatorade or something, and then bang, snaps the ball, hits Miller, he goes 43 yards, and there's no one around him. He said that later was called The Big Sleeper. Wow.

It's the name of the play. I like the movie. Why use it against the Jaguars? I feel like they didn't need to do anything today. That's a fair point. So the 49ers office, the passing offense, it seems like they've had, what, three different versions this year? They start out. They want Kaepernick to pass.

then they take the reins off him and turn them into Alex Smith and now over the last couple of weeks they're going pistol well listen I think they are in the next two to three weeks going to get both Mario Manningham and Crabtree back I think what they probably said was listen let's let's go with our strength and see where it takes us and they've been able to just run the ball and not even worry about the passing games we can do whatever we want

bottom line in the league where every game is close 70% of games have been within one score in the fourth quarter this year, the Jaguars have not had one game. They're 0 for 8, where they haven't even been close to within one score in the fourth quarter, they have the third worst point differential at this point in the season of any team in NFL Hithman. And one last thing. In the last two games, they've given up 66 points, 832 yards, and 379 rushing yards,

and forced one turnover and had one sack. Have a nice day. The last point on this, and I would love a one word answer, yes or no, from all you guys, including Carrich behind the glass. Jags are 0 and 8. Oh, and 16, yes or no? Chris. I've been saying for a few weeks

that 0 and 16, they don't deserve a win. That was 17 words. One word, yes or no? No. No, yes. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Oh, my God. I forget how you phrase the...

Will the Jaguars go? Oh, and 16. Wes. Yes. Mark. No. Greg. No.

No. All right. What about you? No. They'll win. They'll beat somebody. We'll see, though. All right.

Moving on. Oh, this was a great game. Definitely was not a great game. Josh Brown kicked career high. Five field goals. Eli Manning played error-free, and the Giants beat the Eagles 15-7. Sorry, K. Rich. Greg, you were tasked with watching this Slosh Fest. Tell us about it.

Well, if you like the Cowboys' 17-3 win over the Eagles last week, you're going to love this field goal fest. I mean, no touchdowns. Not a lot to talk about. Eli Manning protected very well, made a lot of nice plays on third down. Michael Vic can't stay healthy, and they have a big quarterback problem because Nick Foles has a concussion. Foles, I mean, Vic popped his hamstring, he said.

He doesn't think it's as bad as the last time he got injured, but he might be out a couple weeks, and they're three and five, and they've scored three points on offense in the last two weeks combined. You know, this Vic thing at this point, how many years does the same thing have to happen over and over again where a team gets in bed with Vic and then he gets hurt, or maybe he's a little ineffective and the team's struggling

and then he gets hurt and he comes back and gets hurt I'd be so sick of it I wouldn't want him anywhere near my team at this point last year with the Eagles you know Chip Kelly had a series of sort of bizarre decision

before the season with Chip Kelly it's the man is smarter than everyone in the room he doesn't need to actually explain his answers because he's just so high up there above all the rest of us he had smoothies smoothies everything he does is so beyond the pale beautiful

I'm a little bit annoyed with the fact that actually, he just fundamentally did not coach a good football game today. Well, he made a lot of unorthodox decisions that did not work out. He, instead of kicking a 50-yard field goal, he went for it on fourth and nine. That didn't work. Then later in the game, it's fourth and four on midfield, down two scores in the fourth quarter, and he doesn't go for it. He punts.

Then it's fourth and 20. He does go for it. There was just a lot of odd decisions today. But see, when he does it, it's unorthodox. If someone else did it, it would be they're just. the bad coach. Look, it's not working right now. It's not just Michael Vick. I mean, the entire offense isn't working

at all right now. Are the Giants the team to beat in the NFC East? This week. Seriously. Are they? This is the worst two-game winning streak, maybe, of all time. These have been... I'm not saying they are. I'm just asking if they are. They have a few things to build off. The passing game was better today. Granted

it was against the Eagles, but it was better. They've stopped the run pretty well. Hey, that Peyton Hillis backfield, you know? It's good team for him. I mean, when you got Peyton Hillis and John Connor in the same backfield, it's like you have eight offensive linemen on the field. Watch out. An embarrassment of riches.

No, no, no. Listen, Peyton Hillis, he belongs with the Giants. I like it. Mark, come on, just let it go. All right, sorry. No, and, you know, the one thing I'll say also, and Greg, we talked about it downstairs, I'm not, to borrow a Damashek phrase, you know, all that college football

Hocom, I'm not really a big college guy. So I never liked the idea of a big college coach coming in and everyone telling me that this college coach is going to take over the NFL and change the way people think, eat it cheap, Chip Kelly, because you didn't. Way premature. You couldn't do it. Everyone thought that you were going to do it, and you didn't do it.

Let's wait until at least gets his own guys. Matt Barkley has played most of the last two games for them, or a lot of it. A quarter of last game, three quarters of this game. I mean, look at the results. How many teams are going to win with their third string quarterback? Well, at this point, you could hide behind that. But he wasn't doing much before this. Come on.

This team is not, they have not revolutionized football. They have a very bad defense, and their offense broke records over the first four or five weeks. The one thing I'd be concerned about is there a offense that doesn't have much variation at all week to week, and you do wonder if defenses are catching up a little bit to what they do and finding a good way to stop them. Is Kelly now in the same situation? Reed was down the stretch last year in terms of, I got Michael Vicks sitting here,

but he's probably not going to be here next year and I need to take a close look at Nick Foles and Barclay and figure out what do we do from here? No, no. So you play Vick. The NFC East is so bad. The Eagles could be in first place in a week or two. Yeah.

And honestly, I don't think that Foles is that good. Get a guy healthy. I mean, they're not available. J.G. Kinney might be starting this week next game. He'd make an excuse for Chippee. I have to throw now, is it J.J. Kinney? There's someone named Kinney on the Eagles that was a quarterback. And Vic's not healthy.

Foles isn't healthy. I mean, they don't have any option. Out of a seat. All right. Two more stats before we can move on. Philly has now lost 10 straight home games, which is actually kind of hard to fathom. And the Giants snapped an eight game

Road Losing Street today. So good job, G-Men. All right, moving on, Drew Breeze through five touchdown passes and the Saints, you know, not a game that they dominated all the way through, but ultimately they pulled away for a 35-17 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. I watch this game, you know,

It wasn't really much for me to take out of it. The Saints are a much better team in the Bills, especially at home where they're going to be hard for anybody to beat them this year. Certainly isn't going to be the Bills. And the one guy on the Saints had jumped at, two guys with the Saints. First of all, Jimmy Graham did not play a ton. He had three catches, of course, two touchdowns of the three catches. He played one snap in the second half, and he scored a touchdown in that one snap.

So he's not healthy, but if he's on the field, he scores. The other guy that jumped out to me for the Saints was Kenny Stills. He was, I believe, the 17th wide receiver taken in the draft, and this is a guy who has a ton of potential in this offense. He had three catches for 127 yards and two touchdowns today. He is a potential real deep threat for Drew Brees going forward. And they're six and one, and Sean Payton told the team afterwards, you know, don't be too excited being bowl eligible.

I guess the point was, okay, we're probably going to win this division or we're in good shape to make the playoffs, but they're a team that is going to have a chance to be the number one seed in the NFC. By the way, keep an eye on Drew Brees as a sleeper candidate in the MVP race. Peyton Manning still is the faraway leader, but Breeze is having another monster season,

and he's going to be the quarterback of a team that went from out of the playoffs to 13 or 14 wins. Don't they just need to have a Peyton Manning Award and then have a MVP race for the rest of the league behind them? It's fair. I feel like I didn't see this game, but you would probably describe Thad Lewis as adequate for the third week in a row?

You know, he actually, to his credit, they came out in the read option, and he took a crushing hit, and they threw the read option out the window for the most part after that. And he kind of had a deer in the headlights look early, and, you know, basically for most of the first half. Then he made some plays. They kind of stayed in the game until the fourth quarter. You know, I'd give him a B-minus.

It wasn't anything where it's like you're not going to start a quarterback controversy, but he's basically done more than I think a lot of people would have expected to this He's been sacked 13 times in three games. I think he's tougher than people realized out of the gate. He keeps getting, he gets injured and he keeps coming back in. Do they really miss C.J. Spiller the way this offense is built this week, or did you notice a big difference with Fred Jackson in there or not? Missed them all season. Yeah, I think even when he's been.

That's why I mean he's really not been himself all here. That's why it's kind of hard because you don't even know, you know, even when he's been in, he hasn't been in. But yeah, I think maybe that would have made the game more competitive if a healthy Spiller was in. but the Saints are just a much better team. And I don't think Doug Marone is going to be upset about the effort level this week. I think they played competitively, but they're just not going to do it. I might be a little upset. All right.

That's fair. All right. Speaking of a little upset, Mark, the Cleveland Browns are officially in trouble. Alex Smith threw for 225 yards and two touchdowns, and the Chiefs held off the Browns in a 2317 win to remain the NFL's lone undefeated team at 8-0. Mark, you watch this game. You're very silent and intense, but now you can talk about it.

It was a little bit of a hard game to sum up because Kansas City, for the first, like, 15, 16 minutes of this thing looked dominant. I mean, it was exactly what Andy Reid drew up in his dreams at night when he looked at what he had on this team. They came out and just stomped Cleveland.

They had 13 first downs before Cleveland had its first first down. That's how bad it was. But then Jason, Campbell, you know, listen, he hasn't practiced with the team, and he certainly hasn't played with them, started to heat up. And I think what it spoke to for me, get hot, baby. Well, here's the thing, Josh Gordon, who's been listening to Trade Talk for a month, amid, you know, reports that the guy's not trying, has his third 100-yard game of the season. He's their best player, and he's

done this with three different quarterbacks. It doesn't matter who's in there he produces. Kansas City couldn't stop him. And then Jordan, Cameron got heated up and Cleveland came back into this thing. And then on the other side, Alex Smith got sacks six times. Cleveland's defense was awful early. I mean, they looked as bad as I've seen them all season. And they made it close at the end. And so I come away and almost not knowing what to think about Cleveland, but also Kansas City because you know what? I know they're going to roll into the playoffs with a 13 and 3 record and they're going to get stomped. I'm sorry. I just feel that way. I don't, I think. That's across the board, I think, in this room now. We're

all of the same belief. Well, I think it's a great. season by Reed, and it's a nice job by Alex Smith, but something just isn't there. Why look ahead so far? A loss. Two games against the Broncos. They've got to see if they can win the AFC West. If there was a second today where we thought Denver might lose, and I started thinking, wow, Chiefs might have a chance to really win this division.

I mean, you never know. Speaking of, you didn't know who this team is. The Chiefs haven't given up more than 17 points in a game yet. They're only the fourth team since 1970 to do that in the first eight weeks of the season. and then you balance that out by looking at the quarterbacks they've played. Yeah. It's almost all backups. Well, and they have, and I don't want to say, oh, they've been lucky on the schedule

because it's hard to beat anyone. They've gone out and they've done it, but you're right. They had Ryan Fitzpatrick. Then, listen, they had Terrell Pryor, who frankly has been a nice surprise. And then last week they go out and play Case Keenum. Case Keenham last week, who also, I think, played well against them, but it's his first game there. So you're right.

They have Thad Lewis next week. They do. And they also played Jacksonville. You can say it. They've been lucky on this schedule. It's okay. That doesn't hurt, but they've won these games. They're a little bit like the Panthers.

They haven't played anybody that you'd really be impressed with, so it's hard to know who they are, but you have to credit them a little bit for beating the teams that they've been on their schedule. Fair or unfair to say, Jason Campbell, it's not the reason the Brown's lost this game. No, he certainly is not. It's another indication, I think, that Cleveland,

if they don't blow this thing up, is not, and I'm not just saying this as someone who is a Browns fan, it's that when we've had good quarterback play, i.e. anyone other than Brandon Whedon, they've been competitive. So it's like if they can find that guy, and I don't think that's Jason Campbell on any level beyond the next couple of games for next season and beyond, they're an interesting team. Okay, let's move forward.

Wes, we have a problem, Wes. Terrell Pryor ran for 93 yards on the first play from scrimmage. That is the longest run by a quarterback in the history of the NFL. NFL's been around a while. The Raiders won following the buy week for the first time since 2002, beating the Steelers 21 to 18. Wes. Will Chris Wesleying eat his softball pants? That's my question to you. I think I'm going to end up eating my softball pants with Sean Swee's, getting a healthy

portion of them. Oh, wow. So you're changing your mind. So for anyone just tuning into the program, Wes has. promised to eat his softball pants if the Raiders win six games this year. At the beginning of the year, that looked like a crazy prediction. And now a mighty band overachieving guys in the black hole are getting it done. And we stick to our promised guys.

We do, because we're men. Let the record show that this whole thing was born out of our Making the Leap series where Mark told me that Dennis Allen would win six games this year. At the time, Matt Flynn was the starting quarterback, and I said, if the Raiders win six games, I'll eat my softball pants. Right. We didn't know that Thorell Pryor was going to quarterback, nor did we know that Therle Pryor. No, but you escalated it.

You weren't looking at Torell Pryor and no one was. You're backing off it? He was on the roster. Hold on. Hold on. I'm not backing off this. I haven't backed off it yet. You weren't scared of Torell Pryor and no one else was in August. No, I'm not, but I think the narrative has changed now that he makes them a different team.

It's changed. None of us pick the Raiders. What happened here? By the way. K. Rich glowing behind the glass, by the way, because all she wants to do is film some type of segment whereby Chris eats pants.

Oh, guys, and it's coming. My question is, are we getting ready to dip them in the sauce, West? Yes, I think they're going to have to go in marinade. Oh, the marinade. Do they have winnable games coming up? Oh, yeah. They're playing the...

I think they're hosting the Eagles next week. That's a very winnable game. Sorry, K. Rich. I know you're going to mix loyalties there. What are you hoping for in that result? Obviously, I'm hoping for my... team, but any little step we can get closer to West eating the pants,

I'm okay with it. And then they go to the Giants the week after that. All these AFC West teams, by the way, are lucking out because they're playing the NFC East out of division racking up a lot of wins. Just going to throw this out there. My two coaching making the leap candidates wanted to go off the grid with the players picked Allen, who

if they win next week, they're four and three, which literally no one on planet Earth thought would happen including myself. Four and four. Four and four. And then Rob Ryan. A little bit surprise down in New Orleans. Bad Santa. All right. So, congratulations, Mark. What about the game, though?

Oh, you want to know what happened in the game? Well, the Steelers didn't really get off the bus until the third quarter started. Terrell Pryor started with the 93-yard run. McFeddon looked great. The two of them were playing off of each other really well. Lamar Houston and C.O. Moore were really anchoring the Raiders defense, harassing Rufflesberger, shutting down Lavian Bell. And then the third quarter starts, and the Steelers just dominated from there on. Greg was keeping a running count of how many series the Raiders were going.

They had, the last nine series of the game, they had one first down. The Steelers shut them down, but it was too little too late because Sean Suissell missed two chip-shot field goals that were the difference in the game. And this is one of the tightest games you can have statistically. They were separated by two seconds in time of possession, three total yards, and three points. How do we all get this so wrong? We all picked the Steelers, and I think we all were surprised by it. What went wrong with the Steelers?

The run defense wasn't there in the first half, and they couldn't move the ball. Todd Halley's play calling once again is open for debate, and the Steelers seem to be – they seem to really confuse Big Ben in the first two quarters. Pryor's such a crazy player because you hear everything about quarterback position is all about making the right reads and doing this. You know, you have to win from the pocket, and that's all true. But then there's a game like this where their offense was stymied for more than half the game. game yet the couple crazy plays he made the run a third down throw that he made that's basically

the different because he made those plays and no one else can he's like uh early career michael vick where he's the best athlete on the field and you notice this especially if you watch them all year on third downs it's hard for a defense to stop a quarterback like that on third downs because you're in man coverage and you go out to cover your men a couple of guys rush to pass her and then prior just takes off and runs for the first down Okay, let's move on. Will Chris Wesleyan eat his softball pads? I'm sorry, guys.

You know, this is making me so happy right now. Before we move on. We were attempting to move on. They are on pace. They are well above the pace. All right, moving on, I'd like to get over this hump as fast as possible, but we need to discuss it. Andy Dalton threw a career high five touchdown passes for them to Marvin Jones, and

the Bengals beat up on the Jets, 49-9. Sunday in Cincinnati. Listen, the Jets, this was a team that's been afraid of success all season. They have not had a two-game winning streak. But I thought this was going to be a close game. I thought the Jets' defense would give Andy Dalton problems. I think I had some people in this room that agreed with that notion on Friday. And instead, J. Gruden out-coached Rex Ryan to the degree that you wouldn't even

believe this game was over by the end of the first quarter and you know the jets this is a loss that that is going to be hard for them to recover from if you ask me i feel like it's hard to take them seriously as any type of playoff team when you get beat up this bad really shoots a hole in damage checks nepotism theory yeah well i think i think dave said yeah i think we were talking about jay gruden and whether he was competent or not and they the jets were confused all day Dalton was going downfield with accuracy I mean this was a complete pasting Doesn't this remind you of another Jets lost though

during the Rex Ryan era? Yeah I think are you referring to the Patriots lost in 2005 to 3 And what happened after that? That was a better jet team I think A much better jet team And they kind of ran into a buzzsaw Yeah listen Do I think that the Bengals are a 49-9

Team over the Jets every time they play? No but this was a really ugly game And then I will give you one stat as we hop aboard the Gino coaster. This loss was not on him. It was more on the defense, which had no pass rush and the secondary, which got torched. Antonio Carmardi has not been the same guy since he heard his knee in practice three weeks ago. D. Milner wasn't even competitive. He got benched in the second quarter.

That is a first round pick. And then you have Gino Smith, who threw two pick sixes in the second half. The game was 283 by then, but still, you can't have those mistakes week after week. His record now after Jet wins this season, it's 0 and 4 with one touchdown to nine interceptions. So, you know, it's just bad all around. Dan, you got some grief in the newsroom from my boss, all of our bosses, on you being harsh on the Jets and how embarrassing it was. And you said that actually you were holding back, that you had to delete some of the vitriol that was on the page that sounded too much like an angry Homer. I want to hear what that vitriol was.

Well, basically my point was, was this was the loss, not just any loss, the type of loss that could really destruct the season. I think it has that type of ability because it completely knocks the wind out of their sales. It's that great win over the Patriots last Sunday. It's like it never happened now. And now you have to go and face Drew Brees. And, you know, if they get wiped out then and they go into their buy, all of a sudden they're kind of close to where a lot of people maybe thought they were going to be at four and five. still a little overperforming, but, you know, they just had a lot of momentum, and they blew it. And a lot of that has to go back to Rex Ryan, who I think is on pace to keep that job.

But when you have your team get outplayed this badly in this type of spot, it does reflect on the head coach. You know, we talked about this being the game of the week on the last podcast. Yeah. Well, no, in the sense that you've got two teams in the AFC that we're not sure about, right? especially over on Cincinnati's side with Andy Dalton. An easy target who actually, we all know, has played really, really well over the last three or four games. They went out and took care of business.

Five touchdown passes for Dalton, four of them to Marvin Jones. This offense is not a mirage. And, yeah, and Andy Dalton deserves his due. The Bengals in general deserve their due because I feel like they kind of keep going under the radar, even though they're now six and two. Dalton in his last three games has thrown for 11 touchdowns,

one interception. He's thrown for over 1,000 yards. guards in the last three games. After that little slump, he's gotten better. And I was asking Wes about the AD, does this move him or does this change AD, your scale at all, which was an explanation. What is the explanation of AD again, Wes? AD is after Dalton.

Any quarterback ranked over him is not a solution. Any quarterback ranked behind him is not a solution. He's a problem. And to me, that's the beauty of the after Dalton scale. It slides back and forth. and we had that in mind when we created it. That he wasn't always going to be the 24th ranked quarterback. He might be the 16th, but I doubt he'll ever be higher than that.

How many more games does he have to put together before this messes up the whole scale, though? He has to do this in the postseason. Okay. We've seen this the last two years. He has good statistical games in the first half in that midseason, and he totally craters down the stretch, so we need him to show us that he's that guy. All right, moving on. Andre Ellington rushed for 154 yards on 15 carries including an 80-yard touchdown run

and the Cardinals intercepted Matt Ryan four times and a 27-13 win over the Falcons. Greg? I don't know, something about these Cardinals. Last two times Matt Ryan's played him. He got picked off five times last year in November. Falcons still won the game. And then four times this year, although a couple of them were late in just desperate situations.

The Cardinals' defense, Wesseling, spoke about it the other day. I think he's believed in them even more than me. They have to be one of the most underrated groups. It was one of the most dominant performances of any defense I've seen this year. They gave up a few red zone trips early, but after that, they stuffed Stephen Jackson. Matt Ryan had more rushing yards than Stephen Jackson. They rushed for 27 yards total. Cleas Campbell had a huge game.

Daryl Washington had a big game. Tyrone Matthew had a big game. everyone made plays for that team and it was just a dominant performance and they couldn't get any pass rush on Carson Palmer and they're four and four they're a team I think that deserves to be four and four I know you think I'm picking on this quarterback

but the Cardinals defense also looked good because they got to play against Matt Ryan and the Falcons I don't think I think he's played great all season he has but they're not the same offense without Roddy White and Julio Jones and I know people want to point to the Buccaneers game against a quitting defense and say he played great

but this isn't the same as playing a real defense Well, I never expected them to be the same defense without those two guys, and this is really the first game other than that Bucks game that's been the case. I don't expect them to be particularly good. I think they have one of the worst five defenses in the league, and they're going to have to have everything go right on offense to score a lot of points and win games, and he made some bad decisions today. 18 targets for Harry Douglas.

Wow. Although Harry Douglas a week ago, and listen, we didn't, when they beat the Bucks, the Bucks were at that point, seen one of the better defenses in football. We've seen since that they've crumbled to some degree. But aren't the Falcons now in this group of teams, the Steelers, the rest of these teams are talking about that the Jets, one week they look good, the next week they look like utter junk

because they lack talent right now, and they're completely inconsistent. They've got so many holes. Their running game is awful. I mean, Stephen Jackson had six yards and 11 carry, so it's not to Quiz Rogers or those guys. It's the whole team. They have no defense.

I'm ready to stick a fork in them. I know that we're getting ahead of ourselves here, but I think this team is done. Well, and on both sides of their offensive line is a disaster, and on the defense, they have no pass rush, and they can't stop teams. That's how many games you're going to win. I said they were done three weeks ago.

You did, and they have to go to Carolina and Green Bay, and they play the 49ers and the Seahawks, and the Saints are still on this schedule. The fort committee, we have to get together. It's over. We have to go in a conference room, bagels, orange juice, coffee. Let's figure this out. We might come out with a fork.

Some locks? Can you eat locks, Mark? I don't know. It's like the first catered event I've ever been to, though, if that happens. And that takes us to our final game of the week. It is a Sunday night football game. You know, I don't know what we did as a people to get stuck with another Vikings' primetime game. So close to that abomination against the Giants on Monday night.

But we got another one tonight. A little more competitive, especially early on. But ultimately, the Packers were too much here. Let's start with the fact that Aaron Rogers made some of the best throws that we've seen. I thought Matthew Stafford was, his last drive was just so awesome today. And then Rogers comes out and puts a couple of throws right away on the dime. And Jordy Nelson shows, once again, he's one of the top six or seven receivers in the NFL. That throw, that Aaron Rogers throw to Jordan Nelson for the first touchdown of the night for Green Bay

was one of the most perfect passes you could ever throw. And it's a throw that I don't know how many people can make. Maybe Peyton Manning, maybe one or two other guys, maybe Breeze. Peyton Manning, no way. Couldn't even think about it. He couldn't put enough arm on that. Well, all right, guys. All right, guys.

Dan, I'm still... Get out of here, Dan. It was a good throw. All right? It was a very good throw. I think... I heard someone call it an earburner. He had a couple of earburners to Jordy Nelson.

And there's going to be some clown in your office tomorrow that... Well, he did great against the Vikings' past. defense because they're not that great a past defense, but it doesn't matter what the defense is when you're making those throws. Those are just sensational plays, and it's amazing to see him carry them with so many injuries around. I think it's a big win for Green Bay's defense, too, because they were stomped by Adrian Peterson last year, absolutely taking control by AP. And you know what? Like Green Bay's defense, I'm coming around. I was critical of them early in the season. I think they're playing a little more physical than we realize. Well, you know what?

They are better. Unlike some football pundits, I'm able to admit. when I'm wrong about something. Wow. Give me an example here. The entire nation, everyone that covers football, essentially. Anyone with an opinion on Carson Palmer in the last five years? That's right. Wes pointed that out in the newsroom and he's dead on.

Why can't the national TV guys admit that Carson Palmer is sort of a disaster? You did have a Cessler about the Packers going eight and eight, which is looking worse by the week. I think the definition of Cessler is changing slowly. It's funny you bring up their defense because, they're doing this without their best defensive player and a couple other guys injured on defense and they're playing really well.

We're also, by the way, we're going to have to, if we're going to go into the conference room and talk Atlanta Falcons, the Four Committee, we're going to have to also talk about the Vikings. So we're going to, you know, we'll have some locks, we'll have some scones. What other nationality breakfast things do we want to get us? Some croissants.

I don't know if we need that much food to talk about, this will be a quick meeting with the Vikings. I don't have to be a lot in there for a while. Let's relax a little. I think we use there. There's some kickback time. Somebody bring the iPod in and you get the Bose in. We listen to some tunes.

Have a committee meeting. All right. That's it for the games. By the way, one more thing. Priyanka, Chopra, International Pop Star. We spoke about her on Friday, the singer of the Thursday Night Football theme. And we wrote about her extensively last week and around the league somehow in two different posts. Retweeted something that I tweeted out about the end.

around com and Greg's guest ran. So that's pretty big time. We also got accused, and maybe rightfully so, from an outsider's point of view of basically touting our network's songstress, but that's not the reason we like her. When you're right, you're right. I wish I was on the podcast Friday because ever since the beginning of season, I don't understand why people criticize her. It's so obviously a much better song than the Sunday night song.

See, here we go. I mean, 4.8 million followers all read your post, I'm sure. Oh, yeah. You have to feel like that's got to be near the top of your career achievements. You once interviewed Joe Namath or not? Yeah, I did. Okay, so that's maybe number two. Now Priyanka's number one.

Dan, you got a retweet from what is one of the biggest international actresses on earth. And how many followers did you get from it? I got 3,500 followers. Just kidding, I got 3. Three. So there's some disconnect here between her fan base and general football. I think it's the English language. Well, we're going to break down those walls.

Fair enough. We're going to break down those walls, and maybe we'll do it next week somehow. But for now, we're done. We will be back on Wednesday, where we will – what's going on on Wednesday? We're going to just talk some football. We're going to fork a few teams. Oh, we're going to get forking. We're going to look ahead to the Bengals and dolphins.

We're going to come up with some awards. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's what it is. We're going to do some mid-season awards, which people are excited about. There's been a lot of buzz nationally about that podcast topic. So get ready for that. So until then, this is Dan Hansa, signing off for the mailman, the sizzler, the boss, K. Rich behind the glass. And, of course, while the answer.

Until Wednesday. This is an IHeart podcast.