NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL Week 10 recap

Episode Date: November 10, 2014

A room full of heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling and Marc Sessler -- recap every Sunday game from Week 10 in the NFL.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 NFL podcast. Doesn't wear makeup on camera. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, Greg Rosethall. What about, boys. Hey, Dan.

Dan wears some makeup occasionally. I do. That drop is accurate, though. On Sunday nights, no makeup. even though we did tape an extra video today that you can find on NFL now of our biggest takeaways. 18 seconds into the production, and Greg is plugging.

Why not? And we got our own folder. The people demanded it, and now we have our own around the NFL folder on NFL now. You know what we should be plugging. Dan Hanses' coronal skills. We played over the weekend. Dan has the spin down.

He's now number two in the L.A. power rankings. Yeah, I'm pretty happy about that. I feel a little slighted. I think I held my own as well. You won every game you played. All right, but that's how dance skills. Well, because he was on your team. I don't know.

We'll talk about this later. I don't like the way that happened right there. That's actually not a good sign for you, Mark. I don't like how that happened. They usually put the worst player with Wes to try to even it out. That's also something that's dawning on me. And by the way, one of my favorite images, and thank you, Wes, for that. I'm learning from the master.

But one of my favorite images at NFL media is Chris Wesleying in a makeup chair. something you cannot imagine ever happening. Yeah, that's bad news. Could you have, like, when you were delivering mail crossing over that bridge in Cincinnati, could you ever imagine you would be in a makeup chair? As I was macing dogs. All right, so it is, of course, week 10.

This is our Sunday recap show. Another big week of NFL action as we head deeper into November. It's crazy. We're almost heading toward Thanksgiving now, and then all of a sudden it will be the playoff stretch. But right now this is that crucial middle section of the season where stuff just starts to get clear

and the fakers fade and the real men step up. That's where we're at right now. Mark's shaking his head. Well, as I've mentioned, I refuse to look at the week eight, week nine section as the midpoint. I view around week 13 as the midpoint. You keep on pushing it back. Well, because it's like a guy that wants to take his lunch break,

you know, a couple hours before his shift ends, not at the midpoint of the day. Mark, again, giving hints that he just is, cash in that paycheck. That is not accurate. Let's not call week eight something that's not. By the way, filling in for TD behind the glass, TD called it sick today.

You want to talk about a guy cashing in a paycheck? Oh, come back. I will say that since Mark and I started here in 2010, I've never missed work to be ill, a TD missing a football Sunday. Casting aspersions on your producer's character. It's hardcore. So I hope he gets well soon, but he better be sick is all I'm saying.

Zach Dressler behind the glass filling in. And I am, I for one, I can't speak for the other gentleman. I'm confident. Thanks, guys. I appreciate the vote of confidence. For me anyway. Thanks, Dan. I appreciate the vote of confidence.

You got it from all of us. Oh, yeah. Mark, what's wrong with taking a pre-mid meal? But I don't find the issue. Well, you raise a fair point. We don't take lunch either. So, I mean, you know, there's all sorts of issues floating in the atmosphere. Workwise.

All right. So let's, why don't we get to the game? And we'll start with the game that maybe jumped out to us as the most exciting or most important game of the day. And that went down in Nolens. San Francisco 49ers rookie linebacker Chris Borland recovered an overtime fumble to set up Phil Dawson's 35-yard field goal to knock off the Saints. 2724, a huge win for the Niners. West, the Niners held off a Saints comeback to get it done. Did they save their season at the Superdome?

I think they did. They have to be considered in the wild card hunt still, and it's not out of the realm of possibility that they win their division. Well, do you think they're, like, is this a win that gives you confidence that they're going to turn it around? The Saints were probably pretty well in New Orleans. The Saints really screwed this up. They came back, they took over the game, took the lead, and then allowed one of the worst coverage mishaps you'll ever see. They let Michael Crabtree get behind them. On 4th, 10 for a 51-yard catch, and he couldn't have been more wide open, and that blew the game.

The next series, Jimmy Graham catches a 50-yard, Hail Mary, and gets called for offensive pass and interference, which he vehemently disputed, but it's pretty obvious at well. Right, he didn't watch the video if he's vehemently disputing that. Two reps flew through flights. Yeah, and the Steve Smith play a few weeks ago, you could definitely make the case that there might have been a flop there. This time Jimmy Graham was like 6-7-260 all muscle, you know, shove the cornerback.

And what's going to happen is that guy's going to go down pretty hard and pretty fast. Come on, relax, Jim. I didn't think the 49ers played that great. Kaepernick was better than his numbers show. They're getting nothing out of Crabtree and Vernon Davis. Bolden played pretty well in the first half, but dropped multiple passes in the second half. I saw he dropped what would have been, you know, a setup for another touchdown as well. A long touchdown, probably, yeah.

One thing with the New Orleans, like all offseason, we talked about how Rob Bryan is going to use his safety so creatively and what a funky, interesting defense it is. They got torched today, huh? Well, yeah, I mean, part of that is Jaris Byrd's not there and he wasn't playing well when he was. Yeah, the safety didn't play that well. Keenan Lewis, who has been Pro Bowl caliber at cornerback for them this year, went down with a quad injury and could barely walk. They rolled him out for the game and he came back anyway and kind of just drug his, his leg around the field. I mean, isn't this on the Saints offense, though?

I mean, this team is not a team built to win games. When they give up 24 points in New Orleans, you kind of expect them to win. When they get the ball two times in overtime, you kind of expect them to win. Drew Brees, I'm sure, would take the blame for how that game ended, which is him holding the ball forever on back-to-back plays. One, he takes a sack, and the other takes a fumble. if Tony Romo did that or Jake Cutler did that, you know, we would kill them for like make a decision,

throw the ball away, do something. He had two bad plays and that led to them losing. He's really been playing like Cutler all year. Making bad decisions. The pocket presence is shaky. Right before halftime the Saints have the ball with a chance to score, he threw into triple coverage in the end zone and got intercepted. Is this what he is going forward this season?

I mean, why is this happening to Breeze? He's been such a pristine passer for so long. Because last year he was, I thought, had the best pocket presence in the league and made great decisions. And this year he's just not playing that way. And we all got sucked in. I think we all took the Saints in this game, correct? Zero pick. That's correct.

And going back to Thursday show, I remember when we were previewing this game, we really focused a lot on the Niners problems and their inconsistencies. And I think we all maybe got sucked into the idea that the Saints had gotten back on track and we're going to take care of business here. Instead, they're once again, they're a difficult team to figure out. Maybe the Niners and them are both at the same level where they're both kind of up and down, but the Saints are not out of the woods yet, and now the clock's starting to work against them. But they can feel good because they're in the NFC South. So they're still in first place, and if they take care of their division games, like when Atlanta comes back to New Orleans, if they can take care of those games,

they should still be a playoff. Isn't it kind of over on some level anyway, though? If they're going to be a team that gets into the playoffs at 9 and 7 and maybe wins a home game? I never buy that. You make it in and then you see what happens. They lost to a Seahawks made it at seven and nine. And if they make it in, they're guaranteed one home game. Well, that's, I mean, you're going to get that home game,

but are they going to beat anybody else on the road? Sure, anybody can get hot. The Ravens did. But, Dan, fair point, because barring a miracle that would be a semi-disaster for the NFL, a seven-and-nine team, if that's what happens in the NFC South, you have a nice home game. Even if you win that, it's over after that. Which NFC superpower should they be afraid of?

Right. And, I mean, like, the Cardinals lost 44 to 10 three weeks before the playoffs the year. They made the Super Bowl. They were 9 and 7. People called them the work. I mean, if they can just get their house in order, at least they're kind of lucky just because they're in that division. Let's update my boy here, Mark Ingram.

Third straight 100-yard game, 27 carries, churns out 120 yards. First running back since 2003 for the Saints with three straight 100-yard games. I heard that there's an eviction notice on Steve Smith's honeymoon suite and your stable of boys. Wow. And he's moving right in. Smith hasn't done much lately. I didn't hear that rumor, but I can't really deny it.

I like how Wes spent the first five minutes of this, you know, recap just waiting for us to ask him about Ingraham. And then he's just like, well, I'm just going to have to bring him up myself. Exactly. You've got to plug the guy. He's playing great. Drew Stanton replaced an injured Carson Palmer in the fourth quarter and threw a 48-yard touchdown pass to John Brown,

who delivered one of the signature touchdown dances of the season. And then Arizona's defense took. over from there, scoring two fourth quarter touchdowns in a 31-14 comeback win over the Rams. Another big, big win in the fourth quarter there by the now eight-and-one cards. But this one came at a huge cost, right, Wes? It did. Carson Palmer feared to have a torn ACL according to NFL media as Albert Breer and NFL Media Insider, Ian Rapidport. It's the same knee that was shredded in 2006.

At the time, his doctor, his surgeon said on a scale one to three, it was a four as far as how serious the knee injury was. It's so crushing. I mean, we can move on to what the Cardinals, what's up with the Cardinals, but for Carson Palmer, it's like he's been looking for his whole career for a chance like this. He signed his contract. I wrote this big thing on Friday that he can rewrite how we kind of think of his career. You did this. You did this to him. And then two days later, it's just like it seems like he's cursed.

It's crazy because the knee injury way back when happened 10 days after he signed an extension with the Bengals. And then the timing again is so bizarre. So if he's had bad luck with injuries, he's had good luck with money. Sure. The amount of money he's made in his career is crazy. But how long till we'd ever see him again, maybe, or I mean, late summer? Well, yeah, I would imagine he'll be ready for next season if this is an ACL tear. But then you're coming back from a second major knee injury

and you don't have, you're in your mid-30s, you don't know. 35 years old next year. And, you know, this is a bummer to me because you see a lot of people on Twitter because Drew Stanton is coming and done some things, acting like this isn't that big a deal for the Cardinals. But this is a huge deal. I think this effectively removes them from the Super Bowl conversation. For me, anyway, I don't think this team can go, make a deep playoff run

with a journeyman back him unless there's some magic going on in Arizona, and even with the magic that we've seen, I don't think it's enough to have a Drew Stanton team go all the way through the NFC. That would be a hell of a story, if nothing else. But you're right, it would take a lot. There's some similarities and differences. Like Palmer, Drew Stanton is not afraid to take chances down the field. He'll pull the trigger, and Arians doesn't seem to coach any differently with Stanton in

there. They stay aggressive, but he's not nearly as accurate as Palmer. He's a better athlete. He's probably one of the better athletes at quarterback in the league. Well, it's actually to their benefit. that Stanton got that early section of games, saw a lot of action. And it's funny because when we talked to Ariens at the Combine, he basically said, no, we're not interested in drafting a quarterback high

because he believes that much in Stanton. And I think you're right, there's a definite drop-off. But it's not a drop-off to Brandon Whedon or an absolute Jason Campbell-S disaster. It's just a drag. They have eight wins, so it's really hard to imagine them not making the playoffs. They're getting nothing. The Seahawks have to be excited. The 49 should be excited.

Well, yeah, makes that division interesting. the Seahawks catch him now in the division. It's fair. The Cardinals are getting nothing in the running game. Ellington had 23 yards on 18 carries today. Tries to bounce everything outside, and they don't really open any holes in the middle anyway. But one good thing, I would like to see if Larry Fitzgerald can stay hot.

He looks like 2010-2011 Larry Fitzgerald to me, and he has for the past five weeks. It's worth noting to. I mean, they were trailing in the fourth quarter with Carson Palmer in the game. You know what I mean? So it wasn't like at home against the Rams are a tough team, but it's not like they were trounting him. And that's maybe the other bummer in this, that Larry Fitzgerald, half of his prime was wasted on backup quarterbacks. And now he's got another one throwing to him for the rest of the season, most likely. We'll see what happens.

But, I mean, that's a devastating setback for a team that's been on a great run. The Kansas City Chiefs rallied from a 10-point deficit on the road, moving ahead of the bills in the AFC playoff race with a 17-13 win, In Orchard Park, big time win by the Chiefs who win every week, it seems. Greg, you believe this was the day the Kyle Orton revival story ran out of gas. Yeah, he started off great in the game, and he was really lousy in the fourth quarter. And I think you saw the difference between the two quarterbacks in this game. Both had tough situations, but Alex Smith was just pounded.

Ten quarterback hit six sacks. They had eight tackles for loss The Bill's defensive line dominated this game But Smith just found a way To make a couple runs On third and long And make a great throw on third and 16

Right before Jamal Charles touchdown And he made just enough big plays At the big moments Whereas Orton kind of had Unforced errors at the big moments Kyle Orton got outplayed By a guy whom you Compared to a late career

Drew Bledso at one point in this game Well I was just saying After a while he had got hit so many times that he started to see the pressure before it got there almost, and he just started freaking out. I would have too. It was as dominant a performance by a defensive line as I've seen this year for the first three quarters. I think for me, I'm not ready to write off the Kyle Orden experiment in Buffalo this season, but two things. It's like the first game where he didn't really do much to get Sammy Watkins going. I know he was protected well by the defense, but also

the schedule ahead for Buffalo is a disaster. Right. They have to go to Miami. this Thursday, which is a huge game, not quite an elimination game, but neither one of those teams wants to go to five and five. And then if you look at their schedule later, they have to go to Denver, they have to go to New England, they host the Packers. So I think that's kind of was my takeaway, that this was a game they really couldn't blow. They were the better team, and they kind of gagged it away at the end. Could you tell watching the game that Sammy Watkins was playing at less than 100%? No. I mean, they tried to throw it to him. I mean, Orton tried getting it to him deep. Ron Parker, not a big name, was the MVP.

of this game. He was on... Sounds like the sales clerk at 7-Eleven. He was part of the Legion of Boom in the training camp last year at one point, and they cut him, ended up on Kansas City. He was covering Watkins most of the day. He forced the fumble in the third quarter when the bills were going in for what looked like a 17-3 score.

If Scott Chandler just fell on the ball in the end zone, they're up 17-3, I think they win. But instead he drops it, it goes out the back. And then Parker just kept breaking up passes the rest of the way. It was really impressive. Chiefs playing in January? I think so. I would think so as well.

I think they're going to get that six seat. I think it's going to come down at Chiefs Chargers. Is you sold yet? No. Well, then question, like, who would you put in there? Is it going to be just the North, basically, like, the Baltimore and the Pittsburgh? I think I would put two AFC North teams in there. That might be a hint about the Browns, Mark.

The last thing he's coming around. West is going Steelers, Ravens. I think the Dolphins are a better team than the Chiefs. He's got in all the proudies. Chiefs did beat the Dolphins, by the way. Tony Romo made his return to the lineup, and Des Bryant had a second quarter for the ages as the Cowboys rolled to a 31-17 over the Jaguars

at one blestown. Mark, the Cowboys, they hit their by at 7 and 3. How important was this win for the Big D? By the way, Des Bryant, it was a big win. I mean, they looked like the team that we, saw runover opponents for a number of weeks. They ran the ball well. It was the Jaguars who I've lost complete faith in at this point.

But Des Bryant, zero production in the first quarter, nothing. Comes in the second, six catches, 158 yards, two touchdowns, which shatters like a single quarter record for the franchise, puts him on pace for his second game ever in terms of his yardage, does nothing in the second half. It's like such a like indicator of the entire career. because I'm such a fan of him. He has like an entire wing in my stable of boys, and I draft him every year in fantasy,

and this is how Des Bryant works. He's massively productive in spurts, but he's just got to be prepared. There will be dry patches, but when he shows up, it's a massive explosion. Yeah, shut out for three quarters. If you knew that going in, you'd think, hmm, they're going to have to look somewhere else in the past,

but he totally blew up. But also, Murray, 100 yards on the ground. A lot of these guys, Bryant got yanked in the second half to get an IV. Murray didn't play a lot down the stretch. Romo did not. Well, you know why Bryant was dehydrated, right? He broke curfew, without getting wasted. I broke curfew Friday night, too.

I don't blame him. Yeah, apparently 20 Cowboys broke curfew or didn't break curfew. According to the Cowboys, there was no curfew. I don't know if I believe that. And then there was also a report from Ian Rappap Award Sunday morning that they were a little nervous about some wild parties and shenanigans going on at Des' pad and how giving him more guys. guaranteed money, he could affect that.

But, you know, he went out and performed in the Cowboys. Tell us about Tony Romo. Well, one note, send us on to London and we'll break curfew too with all our friends in England. Well, Romo looked, you know, he looked like a man made out of, like, cheap wood early on, moving around very stiff. He just was like, he really, really, the injury, it was so clear that he was not able to do what he wanted to. But they pounded the run early, and he ended up completing 20 to 27 passes, and Brian broke the game wide open. Jacksonville was a lost ship at sea for the second half. How was the vibe at Wembley?

I was watching on television, you know, from our office. So it's hard to get, you know, an in on scene read on the place, but definitely seemed to be a crowd that... Everything you say, I'm not listening to. Well, no, but a crowd that's going to get sold Jacksonville year after year as a team in England. I'm not sure that they're thrilled with the results. It seemed to be a Cowboys heavy crowd

from what I could judge from my seat in Los Angeles. Cool. We have a very loyal listener named Simon, who was a cabby in London. And he reported that the whole city was fired up. The place was loving the NFL, but he didn't spot a single Jaguar's shirt all day. Well, maybe because the Cowboys were out till the early hours

hanging with the British people. I like that. And, you know, we talked about it, hashtag onto London, the quest to get the Around the NFL podcast to beautiful England next year for our Wembley, what do they call it, the international series games, and some great fan work was done. We had a gentleman who in all British coinage spelled out hashtag onto London.

I love that. Someone did a Photoshop of the Union Jack behind us here in the studio. Love that. What else did we see on Twitter? A wide variety of visuals. It was fantastic. Someone sent Tuppence, so they still used it. They do.

And we were all wrong about the currency. But I was thinking about it this morning. We need to make sure that the NFL knows how much our passionate listenership overseas wants us there. This is the information. We decided this is what we're going to send a postcard from your native England, whether it's, you know, shot a Big Ben or the London Bridge or, I don't know, Main Road. I don't know. I don't even know anything else.

The River Taney Road. Anything. Any postcard. Berkshire. You send that to Roger Goodell, the commissioner, 345 Park Avenue, New York, New York, 101, 54. And you just write on the back. Hashtag, on to London, you know, a little message. Send the Around the League podcast to England.

It makes so much sense. It's efficient. And that's all you got to do. So, you know, any questions? Send them to ad producer TD. But, Greg, you were nodding your head. No, it's a great bit that will, you know, not be edited into, out of the podcast, you know. What?

What's wrong with people sending their wishes to ROG? We'll see. I think he'd like to realize how passionate the fan base is in England about bringing us over there. As we're serious, this isn't a bit. No, we want to be there, and we've got to get on the radar in the big office. You know, we've got to get those guys over there as ambassadors. We just can't do it on our own time.

Who doesn't like receiving a postcard in the mail? Keep a mailman employed. We move on. The New York Jets entered Sunday with three turnovers on defense in their first nine games. They had four on Sunday in a surprising 20 to 13 win over the Steelers at the medal ends. This was a game where various reports or tweets, I should say, stated the balance of the crowd was about 60, 40. Pittsburgh fans, all those Steelers fans, they wore the black and gold, nice and adorable,

and they were, you know, looking for a big party in New York or in New Jersey. But guess what happened? The Jets showed up. Alleluia, the Jets showed up. And Bernard, the Toaster Master, in the upper deck, no jumping. Maybe jumping for joy as he watched the Jets deliver an actual sound defensive performance. and Michael Vick made some plays, and there you go. And the Steelers, the Steelers, I don't know what to make of the Steelers anymore.

It's the same old situation. Every time you start to get sucked in and thinking they're a team, their most dangerous team in the AFC potentially, or one of the most dangerous teams, they lay an egg like they did today, and it makes you wonder, how can I trust you, Pittsburgh? Thoughts, how did the Jets stop the Steelers? Because I think there's several times this year where you look at the Steelers and say, they have way too much talent to be held down by this team.

I, you know, I don't consider myself a genius of play calling, but I don't know what was going on with Todd Haley and the way they attack the Jets. The worst secondary in football. I think everybody knows that the stats bear that out West delivered that hammer drop on the last podcast that it was like a 112 pass a rating against the Jets this year, one interception all season. The way to beat this Jets team, and it's especially easy when you have Lavian Bell to loosen things up, is to pass down field and attack that secondary. yet time and time again through this game they were checking down and trying to drop little screen passes over the defensive line and I could count at least

I would think like five passes that were completed to Levy on Bell or others they were then dragged down in the backfield they weren't aggressive in attacking the secondary and then they got in a little bit of a hole and then the Jets were able to make some adjustments but all credit to the Jets for a team with secondary and cornerbacks

you couldn't even pull out of a lineup they delivered a nice performance against Rafflesburg. He threw two interceptions. This was the same guy that threw 12 touchdowns over the past two weeks, and I'd thrown one interception all season. So he threw two picks, and they're just a really well-played game. And on the other side of the field, Michael Vick is a guy that can still play. I mean, he is not a franchise quarterback that you're going to build around at this stage, but he threw a beautiful deep pass to T.J. Graham, a 68-yard touchdown. He broke Bryce Brown's ankles on a beautiful little crossover move

That set up another score So he can still move, he could still throw And it was just a great performance He can still play, he can still move, he can still throw Can he save Rex Ryan's job? I was going to ask the same thing, good question I don't think anybody could save Rex's job Now my concern is that the Jets finished strong

They won every game for the rest of the season I don't know if that would even do it I mean that would still be four straight years Yeah I mean that is impossible But my concern is that Woody's already decided that Rex, it's time for him to move on. But a strong finish saves Idzik, which I don't want. I think they need a fresh start all the way around, and we'll see what happens. I mean, but we'll, you know, we'll see what happens.

I think Rex has gone, though, no matter what. What a day for Patriots fans. Oh, wow. You know. The bills. We never see that. And for Brown's fans. Oh, no, no.

A much bigger day for Patriots fans, right. Continue on. You know, the bills lose. The dolphins who will get to later with our guy, Kevin Patra, they lose. And then the Jets win. They hurt their draft pick. And now they're going to start fooling themselves into this whole Vic thing. It's perfect.

At one point, I could just imagine Greg excusing himself to an office and then like pulling up on his phone, ace of bass, and just dancing to, it's a beautiful life. Because you have such a beautiful blessed life. You're halfway to 13 and 3. You're the one with the ace of bass reference. I don't want to work with anyone who listens to Ace of Base. I wish we had the video podcast for that dance move.

It's a beautiful laugh. Swedish pop smiths of the 90s. It was a special era. Underrated and also very overrated. They were pretty bad. Abba, way better than Ace of Base. I think they were the same thing, essentially. Yeah, it was their children.

Anyway, so yeah, a nice win for the Jets and a weird situation for Pittsburgh. new quarterback same result for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who fell to 1 and 8 with a 2717 loss to the Atlanta Falcons that snaps a five-game losing streak for Atlanta Mark what did you see from Josh McCown today who of course replaced Mike Lennon the starting lineup for the bucks well I think he's a you know first blush he's a he's a better short-term answer for what is a lost season than Glennon I mean, he actually comes out in the game, 17 play, opening drive that chews up eight and a half minutes and goes for 47 yards. Is that good? That's the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. So I'm saying that's the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

But also, he got hit hard late in this thing and stuck in a game that I think other quarterbacks would have exited out of. He was emotional after they lost. I mean, it's not about does Josh McCown, is he tough enough or does he want it, any of that stuff. They just, this team cannot get it together. announcers are always really impressed by drives that have a lot of plays and passing it to a lot of different receivers. And that never seems like a particularly impressive or, you know, Jermaine stat. Oh, he passed it to eight different receivers.

Oh, they had a 19 play drive. Wouldn't it be better to just have a five play drive and score at that time? Well, I think that also means a lot of those plays aren't working, and that's what was going on with Tampa. And then across the way, I mean, this was, you know, I found out this morning that Greg had put me on this game, and I thought I must have offended the boss at some point. to be assigned this affair because really yeah we're in there in that division where someone

could have a losing record and win it but it would be sad for any football fan outside of these two cities to have to deal with one of these well Atlanta in the playoffs and they're still in the mix they're one game back they're in the mix but they're not in the mix in terms of what they are because yeah they they haven't won a game since west and i covered them beating up the bucks in week three which feels like seven years ago at this point it does feel like a long time ago I'm a little torn on Josh McCown, whether he's still my boy or not. This seems like the best game by a Bucks quarterback all year. Right, but what are we saying when we say that?

But then he came out with one half of a Canadian tuxedo in the... And then the ghost game press. He looked like Billy Ray Cyrus combined with Ivan Drago. Not a good look. Not everybody has a brand new fleece sweatshers. That is a great-looking fleece you're wearing to the... Thank you. Look at the colors.

It evokes feelings of the fall. That's what it's here for. Lovie Smith, one and eight. No chance he gets fired still if this team continues down this road. It doesn't seem like a Bucks move, that ownership, but I think the question should be asked. Lovie Smith is the Mike Glennon of quarterbacks. I've seen enough. Justin Foressett ran for 112 yards and two touchdowns,

and the Baltimore defense held the Titans to 210 total yards in a 217 Ravens win. That snaps a two-game losing streak for, Baltimore, who stay right in the middle of the pack and a stacked AFC North. The, and I'm not quite familiar with this name, the Titanic's, maybe the ship. The Titans, they're based in Tennessee. Oh, okay, the Titans have lost three straight. They fall to two and seven. Greg, anything about this game?

The Titanic's, named after the movie. I'm aware of the ship. That's how this crew is going right now. Oh my gosh This is the last draft pick In terms of the team that you don't want to watch I think right now, the Titans I mean they're close

It's got to be in that mix They were even close The bucks I guess They got some players Mike Evans Well it's a week to week proposition You draw either Your Sunday is going to be gloomy and strange

I'd rather watch like murder in a small town On Lifetime I'd rather watch Titanic I just like seeing my guy Justin Foreset do it every week. I mean, this is a random career year to end all random career years. He's been on five or six teams. You know, he's shorter than I am practically, and he's top five running back.

He's going to make the pro ball. Well, he also weighs about 100 more pounds than you, and it's all muscle, so, and he's got outstanding lower body power. He has a much better body than Greg. It's a safe bet. Ravens were close in this game, too, for a while. I mean, this was, it was tied at half time. Mettenberger comes out and he's great for the first two drives

and then they did absolutely nothing after that. This game will be completely forgotten to the sands of time. We will know it will ever think of this game ever again after a couple days from now. It will never be mentioned in conversation. Nothing will ever come of this game. It's just something that happened. It's over and the world moves forward.

We need to move on. They had an eight drive stretch the Titans did after their first two pretty good drives. One of which ended with a fumble at the goal line, the other one, a touchdown. where three and out every drive, except for one drive where they got one first down, and then Mettenberger caps it off with an interception. Fire that one up on Game Rewind this week. That sounds a lot like Charlie Whitehurst.

We've seen the Titans' offense go three and out so many times this year. This is how crazy the NFL is today. It seemed like for a quarter and a half, Mettenberger was out playing Raffles Burger. The Battle of the Burgers. I thought Connor wore one last thing on this one made a good point that, Ken Wisenhunt, the offense, he saw the same play being run on consecutive drives, the same patterns, the same stuff over and over, that there's a lack of creativity. I think for the fans that are paying money to watch these games,

I don't know if Jake Locker is like the future, but... Put him in? I don't know. He's got to be a better option to win games. You know how big Titanic was? It came out December of 97. I was a senior in high school, so you know he had a bunch of Joe collective courses when you're a senior in high school. We had a film class that our teacher, who's a very

nice woman, she turned the class into a Titanic class where the entire semester we learned about Titanic. That's terrible. And then we took a... It's not even a good movie. Yeah, but you have to take yourself back to that period. It was also an absolute ship. Did you know

that? I know it because of this course. But we did a mock documentary about the Titanic. A mockumentary. A mockumentary. we went to the theater to see the film and I recall many of the girls in my class had already seen it about 10 times by this point capture the zeitgeist

I like that no guy I know will admit to having seen that film in the theater but there's no way with the financials that many men didn't go to see it twice I was held hostage on an airplane while the movie was playing I mean it wasn't an awful movie I didn't think it was awful

by any story it was long I'll admit that I went to see it Is that a crime? I went to see it. Well, it's not a crime. I actually enjoyed it in the moment. Winslet, frisky. Like Kate Winslet quite a bit.

All right, moving forward. Greg is about to fire both of us. Matthew... I thought in the theater. We all did. We had the West side. I remember that was there on opening night. I know we're talking through the music now.

The line for Titanic was like a nothing that I've never seen. I got in line for showgirls. I wasn't going to anybody. Wait, whoa, whoa. You got a line for showgirls? This is the first thing that's ever stopped the music. You get on me for Ace of Base, and then you went to the theater to see Showgirls. It was a horrible decision.

Do you remember how hot Elizabeth Berkeley was, like, as the It Girl coming out of Save by the Bell? She wasn't even, she was like the bronze medalist amongst the Save by the Bell. We went to this, like, me and 20 guys that I hung out with went to this movie and saw like every other guy we knew. That's a weird dynamic. And then we didn't even stay for like halfway through the movie. It was that bad. A bunch of dudes rolled into Showgirls together. Yeah.

And then we walked out. Like, it was that bad. We had to leave. All right. It's a strange dynamic. Let's try this again. Matthew Stafford through an 11-yard touchdown pass to Theo Reddick with 29 seconds to play, lifting the lines to a 20 to 16 win over the Miami Dolphins in what was Calvin Johnson's

return to the lineup. To talk about this, this game, we've got to go to our guy. He is our Chicago correspondent via Detroit Rock City. He is the great Kevin Patra. he loves going to the gym he loves watching football he loves writing about football and he loves talking about football and now he's going to talk about football on the podcast Kevin Patrick coming at you what up buddy what's going on fellas well beautiful intro Dan oh well thank you hey you know my whole life it encapsulated right there I nailed it a home nun I'm walking off the lions find away again

I'm going to ask you Kevin you are a lion's fan you've suffered a lot a little uh little magic in this team is there are they a little different this year potentially yeah i mean they just three weeks in a row they come back under two minutes and won the game uh mat stafford has struggled throughout the year but when it comes down to crunch time he makes throws it's almost like he's like afraid to get in trouble for uh over three quarters and then at the very end he's like oh screw it i'm just going to make this pass anyway and he made he made plays and they haven't backfight on him in the last three weeks that throw by the way that throw to riddick is on the short list for me throws of the year in fact number one for

me, he was week one against the Giants by Matthew Stafford when he hit Megatron in the back of the end zone. This is on the list, too. He went sidearm, slung it at an angle on a line like a bullet. Riddick was covered like a glove on the play, but he put it in a spot where only his receiver could get it. Game over. And I'll tell you this, though, every line's been lost on that Reggie Bush would have dropped that pass. Wow. So it went to the right guy, too. Absolutely Reggie Bush would have dropped that. No doubt in my mind. Reggie Bush only had five touches in this game. Is he just not a major part of this team anymore?

Well, I think he tweaked. He looked actually, his first three carries were looked good, and then I think he tweaked something. He went down, he was out of it down, and then he didn't really touch the ball after that again. It was like they were, he was in there as a decoy after that. So I don't know if he retweaked his ankle or what, but after he got heard, he didn't come back.

He didn't play very much after that. Greg, you had, you had, Greg, the hero pick on the Dolphins. You were invested in it, of course. You tell me your thoughts about the dolphins and their inability to stay hot. Is this the same old dolphin scenario we're talking about here? Well, I mean, they blew it. I mean, they had this game. They were ahead.

They had fought back. Their defense looked pretty good. All these Lions fans killing me on Twitter. Oh, how dare you say you pick a game? I mean, by the way, your fellow fans, not a good group, Kevin Patcher right now. Oh, they've been through a few things. I mean, they were just going crazy after the first quarter. How's your defense looking now?

They'll make their names. I'll block them for you. Just piped out. Oh, I blocked them all. Doesn't everyone do that? I feel like every fan base has their set fraction of people that do that. They were particularly aggressive. But this is a loss that will haunt Miami because, you know, they were on the road.

They were in position to win. There was a big drop in this game, right, by Charles Clay, Kevin. Mm-hmm. I mean, that if he catches that, then maybe they don't wind up losing. They fought back and put themselves into position. I'll tell you what, Tannenhill puts that ball six inches out in front of him instead of behind him, and it's a touchdown. A head of bow isn't able to get back to knock it now. So it was a little – Panoh was on the roll.

I thought Tanya Hill should have ran that ball into the end, and I thought he could have ran a touchdown. And then – and he threw it, it was a little behind. But here's what I'll say is the Lions had a 10-point leading. It felt like it should have been 20. Right, because they have two difference makers in Calvin Johnson and in Domenu, and the Dolphins really don't have people like that. Golden Tate. I mean, it was third and ten. This game is on the line here, and the lines pick up, you know, the first down on that final drive, if not for that. Again, I mean, the Dolphins defense had a lot of chances to close out this game. Was Sue the best player on the field today, Patrick? Oh, absolutely. I mean, from the first two defensive snaps they had, he stuffed Miller for a three-yard loss and then blew up pouncy to destroy Tannehill. Tanahill got worked over in this game. Their offensive line, especially after Alba went down, which we didn't even talk about. That's a big loss for them.

He just got beaten up. I was surprised he could get up after a couple times. All right. Now, lastly, Megatron, how do he look to it? He looked like he was healthy? He certainly put up the production. Yes, he looked fine. The deep ball early.

Actually, I thought Brent Grimes did his best job as you could since they didn't give him any help. They weren't really doubling him in most situations. They were just like, all right, Brent, this guy's foot taller than you, but have at it, son. And he actually knocked a few balls away that. Megatron should have put up over 200 yards against a different corner, I thought, today. Yeah, and as Kevin mentioned, and we don't want to skip right over, Brandon Albert, who is their best, the Miami Dolphins' best offensive player, I think was headed to a Pro Bowl,

maybe a first team or second team all pro nod this year, injured his knee, and the dolphins expect him to be out for the season. Did not look good. So it's a massive loss for them. They're going to move their first round pick, Joanne James, over to left tackle, but then Wright tackles a mess. They have the bills coming in. I mean, that's a huge, huge loss for Miami.

Thank you, Kevin. Appreciate it, fellas. Have a good one. A fast start gave way to a hard crash for the Oakland Raiders who gave up 35 unanswered points in what became a 41-17 loss to the Denver Broncos at the Black Hole. Peyton Manning bounced back from two early interceptions

to throw five touchdowns before exiting after three-quarters. And I will say about this game, the final score doesn't quite indicate what this game was shaping up as at least early. The Raiders came out friskey as Kate Winslet and Titanic. They were making some plays. They forced Manning into those two picks. Manning has thrown four picks in the last two weeks now. And they seemed to be, you know, pumped up. Derek Carr threw a touchdown pass off a turnover and things seemed to be looking good.

It all changed, though. on a third down, a checkdown pass, excuse me, a checkdown pass to C.J. Anderson, who alluded three tacklers, then cut around the field for a touchdown to put them ahead, and then they never look back. They just kept scoring after that. The Raiders looked hapless. They looked like a team that is 0 and 9. And that's a situation around. The Broncos took care of business, and the Raiders, while they've shown flashes at times, they keep losing. I think that's 15 straight now. It's insane. Fifteen straight?

It's hard to do that. Right. It really is. In the NFL, you don't see teams. You'll come up against some game where everything clicks. You know, you run into like a drug-induced Andy Dalton, like what we saw on Thursday night, and everything just happens for you. Did you induce him with the drugs? Just saying, I think, that he looked to me to be under the influence of something.

I don't know. 15 straight. And Greg wants to give their GM an extension and a new thing. I don't want to give him anything. I'm saying I think it could happen because he's had a good draft. class that's all how did the quarterback look today he looks it looks like he'd have to look up to see the gabard zone Derek Carr this is why stats are can be very misleading sometimes he he began the last drive I think they went on a 96 yard touchdown drive with less than two minutes to play

heading into that drive I believe he was I believe 19 of 40 for 90 yards and two interceptions and a panic shovel pass to his own lineman that led to a lost fumble that that's set up a back-breaking score. He missed a lot of guys, a lot of open receivers. You know, Carr has had some really nice moments as a rookie, and this is just par for the course. They're going to be games where he is not going to look good at all. And putting him up against face-to-face against Peyton Manning,

it wasn't probably going to end well. They weren't going to win any shooting. Yeah, and on a team that did nothing in the off-season to convince us that they actually were going to be able to run the ball. And that's a bad. I didn't even know if they dressed running backs in the team. I don't remember a run. quarterback. They had 10-3 and outs.

That's more than some teams may be having a season. 10-3 and outs so far. Yeah, I think he threw about, what, 50 passes in the game. They, you know, so when you ask a rookie to throw that many passes against the very good Denver defense, you know, he took some hard hits in the game. It was just no, no, bueno. The Broncos in this game kind of did what I think of as their defining trait among Peyton Manning, which in the Peyton Manning era with the Broncos, which is that when they score,

they score a ton in a hurry. I mean, they scored four touchdowns in this game in less than nine minutes of playing time. And that seems to always happen with this team that you'll stop them for a half. It'll look like a game, and then it's just like an avalanche. They make it look so easy.

And we all knew this already, but to watch the game closely and see it, how it unfolds, how many weapons Manning has at his disposal. Manuel Sanders is, if it's, I didn't think it was possible, but he's probably a better option than Eric Decker or no loss at all.

Demarius Thomas had 11 catches in this game, or I believe nine catches, went over 100 yards. Sanders and Julius Thomas had two touchdowns each. And then you had, Wes Welker is not even really a big part of this offense. That tells you so much about. He looks like he's done. Yeah, and it's not a big problem because they have so many guys.

Let's talk about the backfield real quick. Ronnie Hillman against the Patriots didn't do anything, and he didn't do anything in this game. He's been playing injured. Did you get a sense that injuries were affecting him, or C.J. Anderson was just better. I mean, this was a hard game to judge because they did start off slow, and then once they went into that scoring veraage,

it was really done with Manning's arm. They had a lot of quick strikes off a good field position. I know that Anderson, he had the play of the game, the turning point, which I talked about earlier, which to me probably gave him more of a workload in this game. Hillman didn't look right. I think he was on the sideline with an issue at some point in the game as well. So I wouldn't put too much into the snap breakdown,

between the two in this game, but it's something to keep an eye on because CJ look very good. CJ? Yeah, we're buddies. Good boys. Ooh, jaunty. Marshawn Lynch piled up 140 total yards

and a career high four touchdown runs in the Seahawks 3817 win over the New York Giants at the clink. This was a game that was actually 1717 entering the fourth quarter. What happened, Mark? Wow, you really want to know. All right. I'll try to tell me. You know, when we write these games up, the first, like, big

takeaway for me was that Seattle's passing game up to that 17-17 tie, very troubled. It's the second third week in a row where they really looked kind of off-kilter. I think Greg, you called it a completely random passing attack. And it's, you know, they're not getting, Russell Wilson's not getting great protection. And they miss Percy Harvin, whether people want to believe that or not. And they definitely miss Golden Tate. They have no one that can take the top off. a secondary but by the end of the game and the way they came back and just blew the doors off the New York Giants was leaning on Russell Wilson on the ground and especially Marshawn Lynch who I think for the second week in a row looked absolutely insane on the ground I mean they ran for

350 yards obviously most by a team this year on a franchise record wow one guy I want to talk about on the Giants when I've watched O'Dell Beckham play I genuinely see greatness out of him This guy's going to be an absolute superstar. Yeah, New York was very smart, and Beckham was smart to take the first six weeks of the season to rest and prepare and get ready. But, no, you know, to be honest, like we talked about down, does he have a chance to sneak into the offensive rookie of the year competition? I don't know how that whole thing actually plays out. He kept up this pace, I think he would. He was outstanding.

There was one drive where they went right at Richard Sherman, and he had like a 44-yard pickup off Sherman. and then two plays later or something, another 26-yard game right down the same sideline. I mean, New York, and this is the third week in a row where teams have not shied away from throwing at Sherman, and we don't want to make too much of that, except that that's a banged-up secondary, and it shows. But Beckham, one playoff to the next. I mean, I agree with he's been one of the best players. Wouldn't surprise me if he ends up with the best career out of any of the rookie receivers, and this might be the best rookie class we've seen since the mid-90.

Yeah. The Seahawks team is so weird, though. I think it's fair to call this kind of a two-man backfield right now, and it's Lynch and Wilson. I mean, I really mean it. Those are their two backs. Because they rely on Wilson running the ball, planned or not. Like, that's a huge, huge element of their offense.

They don't have much else to rely on. Yeah, but a lot of those runs today were designed runs, obviously. And, you know, like you mentioned downstairs, Greg, Like something feels a little desperate about it from Seattle because you don't want to have to be doing that with Russell Wilson. But they had 80 yards passing with about 40 minutes of the game going by. Right. And then when they hit on the big play,

it's kind of what I was talking about in terms of randomness. Russell Wilson made an amazing juke, I believe, to get away from, forgetting which Giants defender, who basically got in free. Like an amazing lateral quickness move to get away from pressure, then evaded another pressure and then kind of extended the play and then threw it deep.

Those are the types of plays that they're getting. Anything else, gentlemen? I think we've sealed it up. All right. Well, then why do we just move on to the Sunday night football game? Another primetime stunner. Oh, my God.

Poor Alan, poor Chris. Oh, man. This game was over. Sometimes you know a game's over within 10 minutes. This is one of those games. The Green Bay Packers went of 42-0 by the end of the second quarter. Aaron Rogers threw six touchdown passes in two quarters

in route to one of the great blowouts of the season. And if you are a fan of the Chicago Bears, I would imagine you're thinking, well, first of all, if you're a fan of the Packers, you're thinking, we are a Super Bowl caliber team, we are looking hot, we're feeling good, life is great, we're the best quarterback in the world. If you're a Bears fan, you're thinking of hitting the red destruct button, right, at this point?

I know that you're lucky if you're not drunk at the bottom of a ditch right now. Forget listening to a podcast. You've already won. It's very fair. I mean, I think that like last year at this time, there was so much optimism around Mark Tressman and what he had brought to a really lifeless offense for years under Lovie Smith. He completely rebooted the machine there.

Now I'm looking at this team, and I'm wondering, are they one of the worst coached teams in the league? They just look completely unprepared. And this isn't the first week where the wheels have fallen off. They went out and bought three pass rushers. drafted two defensive tackles early in the first couple of rounds

and they're one of the worst defenses that secondary in the first half was one of the worst performances I've ever seen they are a win in Atlanta away from a six game losing streak right now I mean you got to give them that win they earned it but I mean they're not just getting beat

they've had a very tough schedule they're playing some of the better teams in the league like New England and Green Bay a couple of times and they just showed that they're nowhere near that They're closer to like a five-win type of team than a playoff team. Yeah, and you asked earlier in the show a team like the Saints who whoever wins the South or whatever, what NFC team that's a dominant stands in their way? And that's a really fair question because there isn't one necessarily,

but Green Bay like Pittsburgh, for instance, when we see Pittsburgh operating at peak performance, when Green Bay is doing it? Are you kidding me? If you take Drew Brees and friends out of the 72-degree dome and put them in 10-degree Lambo in the middle of January, it would be a disaster. Well, and the Packers do look a little bit better. I mean, the Clay Matthews at Inside Linebacker. That was a surprise.

That experiment couldn't have worked any better. He was wreaking havoc. I think that maybe they'll go to that permanently. They came out of the buy week with that plan. And, you know, as far as Greg, you wrote a piece a couple weeks back now saying that the Broncos were the best team in football, the Packers that far off? Or is this a situation where we can't put too much into this game because the Bears are just in shutdown mode? I don't think the Packers are that far off, but I think your second point is also a good one

because Ryan Tannahill looked perfect when he played against the Bears and the Patriots looked perfect when they played against the Bears. But the Packers' defense has steadily gotten better all year. They're running game in Eddie Lacey, eh, you know, not totally, but the defense, which we kind of expected to be much better, has improved a lot, especially in the secondary.

Mark, how are you feeling about the trade that I orchestrated trading Aaron Rogers three days ago in exchange for Randall Cobb so after two weeks of having Big Ben on the bench with six touchdowns we move him into the starting lineup trade Rogers and then he throws six touchdowns so three weeks to miss six touchdowns

by a quarterback three weeks in a row well and our team name is Kate Mara and she is of the Mara and Rooney heritage so she of course would want to rather have a Steelers quarterback running a team that's going to do a late charge into the championship game Go for it.

Yeah, you don't want Aaron Rogers as your quarterback. Oh, wait. Yes, you do. You know what you want is Mark as your co-owner for him to be supportive after that disaster. Oh, Mark's not in. Mark's about as plugged in as the Bears are in the NFL right now on this team. On my fantasy team, you're right. On other aspects, I'm very plugged in.

All right. So that's it for Sunday's edition of the Around the NFL podcast. We will be back on Wednesday with another show. And I know we've gotten a lot of tweets about when are you going to stick a fork in some teams. and we are going to be sticking some fork people are going to get forked on Wednesday and a little spoiler alert we might be talking about the bars we might be talking about forking the charges as team of ATL too that's that's a that's a west narrative that is not to discuss that's too crazy I've already forked them myself you guys can hold off on that until later in

the season if you know who we wouldn't fork is Zach what a great job I'm outstanding you could plug in a sound effect of cheering or clapping on your A healthy, Zach, by the way. Fully healthy. You're at work, operating at high levels. Plus, we're keeping away from your first love. Your Twitter profile description says what? It says, I love pizza?

Pizza, tacos, and burgers. And there are, there's pizza downstairs. Is there? Why don't we all celebrate by... Zach spins out of his chair and leaves his headphones dangling. Shutting down the whole machine up here. Go downstairs. Have a little pizza party.

All right, this is Dan Hansen signing off for the Sizzler. the mailman, the boss, and the great Zach Dressler behind the glass. Until Wednesday. podcast.