NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - NFL Week 4 recap

Episode Date: September 29, 2014

A room with some heroes -- Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal and Chris Wesseling -- recap every game from Sunday's action including Steve Smith's performance against the Panthers, the Bucs' stunning upset over the Steelers and much more.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 hasn't been blocked by Chris Wesleyan on Twitter. 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 some heroes, Chris Wessling and Greg Rosenthal. What up, boys. Hey, Dan. Mark Sessler, not with us today at home with the family doing familial things. We will carry on without him on another Sunday night in the NFL.

My goal is to be blocked by Chris Wessling by the end of this podcast to say something so offensive. He has no choice. Well, you could probably say something about his team of ATL nominee of the Steelers after their meltdown today. Chris Wessling, what was going through your mind and your heart? Through my heart, nothing. Your heart is black. Sounds like a guy that just got back from Vegas. Well, yeah, I have a few things to say about that.

come on i'm never going back to that city i was going to say there's something nothing has ever been more doomed than chris westling's trip to los vegas from the start and never had a shot and sure enough there was no upset it doesn't seem like it was great to revisit with a few of a few friends that i've known for 20 or 25 years but the city itself come on that place has nothing going for it wow all right well i like Vegas but whatever um all right so we got a nice show a very nice show going over all the games this is the first buy week of the season so how many teams Greg were off six six teams are off so that so that leaves more time for us to dig into all the games of today and I guess that really we shouldn't waste any time because there's so much still so much

to get to even with the bye teams TD how you doing doing good guys doing good how you guys doing another shirt without sleeves but a hood very confused shirt it's a Sunday guys come on Yeah, you did come, you came to our little pod in the newsroom and kind of not even slyly basically told us to clean it up a bit now that we're on cameras. Yeah, no hats allowed. No hats, which wrestling was not happy about. This will be an issue with me for a long time. Let's just say some shadowy league figures, watch the video that we put out last week,

you know, two or three videos we put out there. They're like, yeah, we can clean it up a little bit. Have they ever seen videos of any other podcast in history when they're wearing flip-flops, t-shirts and hats also it's you know in our defense we were told as the podcast was starting that there would be videos i'm just saying yeah i mean we so we weren't not that we're any looking better today i found this uh zip-up sweatshirt on my chair it's probably been there for two months and i said that will work i like our podcast when it's irreverent and doesn't take itself too seriously oh shot a little bumsett burner shots fired to the people that aren't going to listen

to this anyway forget yeah Forget about the shadowy league theories. That felt like it was at TV. Guys, I'm just here to make the show, okay? So whatever show we want to put out, the best show for the people, that's what I'm here to do. This would be a good time for you to reach under your desk and just hold up your Emmy. That would shut us up. It would be, yes.

All right. So let's get into the games. And, yeah, I guess the best place to start is in the NFC where we had a big game in San Francisco, where the 49ers coming off some, you know, poor play of late. But they got back on track today against the Eagles. Frank Gore caught a career best 55-yard touchdown. He added 119 yards on the ground. The inconvenient truth lives Greg Rosenthal.

And the Niners beat the Philadelphia Eagles 26, 21 on Sunday. That is the first loss of the season for the Eagles. As we know, Cambridge, who's behind the glass, is very upset because Nick Foles looked like a guy that might lose his job to Mark Sanchez, possibly. That's how bad he looked. Chris Wessling, you were watching this game very closely. What do we make of the Eagles? out on offense.

The genius in trouble? Chip Kelly said after the game, we got whipped up front, and that's exactly what happened. They were without three of their starting offensive linemen. For second game in a row, they had trouble blocking. There is no rushing attack. And they didn't go across midfield until deep into the fourth quarter, really. The one, that's all true, and yet there they were inside the two-yard line

with about two minutes to go, third down. All you got to get is two yards, and they take the lead late in the third. the game, and I thought they're going to go to LaShawn McCoy here. He had just picked up five yards, which was actually his longest run of the game. The play before that, they go two straight passing plays. It blows up. What do you think of the play calling there? I don't have any problem with it because I think they had no, they have no confidence

in their offensive line, and after watching the entire game, I can't blame them. Lashon McCoy did bigger prominently into the first one of those plays. If he can get a block, I forget which pass rusher it was for San Francisco, If he can get a block and get some time for Nick Paul. Antoine Bethay coming off the edge. And if he gives Nick Foles a little more time, he had Zach Ertz coming open, but Foles had to get rid of it quickly. That was the story all day.

You know, Foles struggled. He made some bad throws, but it's tough to know how much to blame him, how much to blame the offensive line. 21 to 43, 195 yards, average 4.5 yards per attempt. The Gabbard zone. This is Nick Foles in the Eagles' offense and the great genius. He was sacked once a pass rating of 42.3. And, Wes, you were talking about that offensive line.

Lasham McCoy was asked earlier, or last week, I should say, about him being off, maybe struggling out of the gate, 2.9 yards per carry entering this game. And he kind of brushed up and said, I'm not struggling. You kind of could read between the lines what he was talking about. 10 carries for 17 yards today along of 5 on the day. So they don't have any running game.

Foles has come back down to Earth a little bit where he's not having this magical season with no turnovers. and, you know, the offense just isn't the same as last year right now. They're at least today. Certainly not getting anything from Riley Cooper who dropped to potential game-winning touchdown and is averaging 10 yards less per catch than last year. Why did they give Riley Cooper a long-term contract? That one boggled my mind at the time.

It boggles it even more. He has stunk this year. Every time he has a chance to make a big play, he drops it. Nick Foles, why I can't kill him today, he did make a number of really good throws. in the fourth quarter. Just on that one drive, really. Right. Well, at least he got it going when it counted.

I mean, really good throws. One of them was to Cooper, and he just dropped it. And what about the Niners? What do we take out of this game for them? They had a weird, like, bizarre stubbornness about going pass heavy for the second week in a row, and then it looked like Harbaugh might have taken over the play calling. And they went back to the run and sort of robed Frank Gore. But, yeah, they look, the defense looked phenomenal, too.

Vic Fangio, good game for his defensive play. Every time you try to pour a little dirt on the inconvenient truth's grave. I saw you trying to do it, even though you had him on your fantasy team. You say, oh, this is the wrong year. He just rises up out of the ground. One of the great players, I hope he's in the Hall of Fame someday. And I just take out of this a complete team performance, at least from the defense and the offense.

Special teams was a disaster for San Francisco. I mean, they needed this win badly. This is a team we're used to seeing in the playoffs. They had to get the two-and-two and win this game. And all the people on Twitter that were tweeting at me about Chip Kelly's various coaching errors today, just bring them on. There's no level where I'll hit and I'll be like, you're right. The genius has taken too much abuse.

And I noticed TD not using the genius sound drop today, probably because he didn't earn it. I think we should, we could just have that as a weekly running column, have Dan Hanzas go full heel, things that Chip Kelly did stupidly this week by Dan. hand like that. All right, moving on. Steve Smith talked about this game before he was even a member of the Baltimore Ravens, getting a chance to face the Carolina Panthers, the team that basically brushed him aside after 13 years of service. He came up big today, seven catches, 139 yards, and two touchdowns. And the Ravens beat up on the Panthers 38 to 10 on Sunday.

Carolina has been wiped out two straight weeks with Cam Newton ending the game on the bench with Derek Anderson in mop-up time. I ask you, gentlemen, is it time for us to get worried about the 2013 team of ATL, the Carolina Panthers? Absolutely. I mean, this defense just had two performances that we never saw last year. Now they were without Thomas Davis today, and he's going to come back. But Greg Hardy's not coming back. When you have Justin Fawcett running through the middle of your defense, and they couldn't tackle, they weren't swarming to the ball like they normally would.

Fawcett's bouncing off people. The Ravens' offensive line, which is much better this year, pushed Carolina around all day. We know the secondary in Carolina is not that good. They had no pressure on the passer. They had to start blitzing to create some pressure, and Joe Flacco played very well today against the blitz and made some big plays. The Panthers are beat up. Their backfield is a mess. defensive line has some problems, and they have a grueling schedule the next five or six weeks.

I just couldn't believe what I was watching because Flacco could just sit back there and survey the field. He hit a big play to Tori Smith. That's what the Ravens haven't been doing this year. He hit a big play to Kamar Aiken, I believe. And then, of course, Steve Smith. You got to love Steve Smith. Just delivering the goods. Like, when everyone's watching, Steve Smith always delivers a good. It's awesome. I don't have an NFL team, but I have an NFL player. My favorite player of all time, Steve Smith. And you know what? You see that enthusiasm on Twitter when we'll be working on a Sunday

and you'll just see these sounds from Wes's pot area and then tweets firing out, just all pro Steve Smith. This is the guy. And it makes me think of a young Wes, like a 24-year-old Wes with all these ideals. Hair. And he loved the bangles. And I wonder what that guy was like when he had hope in his own team.

Well, that's the reason why my heart is black. I feel bad for covering this, you know, assigning this game to myself. You should have been watching this because when Steve Smith someday, I think he has a chance to get into Canton. Put him in. Especially if he has. Rosadold a lot of Canton talk on Sunday night. If, especially if he has a good couple of years in Baltimore now,

this is going to be one of those games you remember. The first game against Carolina. Look, his long touchdown pass was fluky, was on a tip. but he had a lot of other really great tough catches throughout the rest of the game. No drops. It was great. What does it say about the Panthers coaching staff? They couldn't use this guy deep last year. 135 players had more plays of 20 yards last year than Steve Smith.

Julio Jones is the only player this year with more plays of 20 yards. And two points on the quarterback play, Joe Flacco definitely deserves a lot of credit playing without. Dennis Pitta, he completed 22 of 31 passes for 327 yards and three touchdown. downs, 137.4 passer rating. And Cam Newton, we should point out, two rushes for seven yards. So he's not running. He's not healthy, maybe? No, he's not running well at all.

When he got outside the pocket, the burst was gone. There was one play where he ran out of bounds, I believe, for a seven-yard loss. Instead of trying to really run up the field, you knew it wasn't Cam Newton. But I got to say, he played really well in this game. He made a lot of good third-down throws. All of the problems in Carolina were offensive line. there's no running game. At one point, you know, DeAngel Williams got hurt.

They're running Taryn Poole and Darren Reeves are there two running backs? What is it? Torn Poole? I don't know. I think I worked at Fridays with him, too. That's what I'm saying. Red sticks in the back all of them. Newton's making plays, but the offensive line got killed by Suggs in Dumerville and the defense was bad.

Newton is the least of their problems. The Detroit Lions came to the Metalands on Sunday with Calvin Johnson. in the lineup, but he wasn't really there. Calvin Johnson has a bad ankle. He isn't playing close to 100%. Didn't matter, though, because Matthew Stafford stepped up, delivered a big game, threw for almost 300 yards and two touchdowns,

no turnovers, added a rushing touchdown as well. And my New York Jets, my sweet New York Jets, continue to struggle. A 24-17 loss on Sunday, Gino Smith had two more turnovers. It was getting booed by the MetLife Stadium. MetLife Stadium crowd, and things are not looking good for the Jets who have suddenly have lost three in a row.

Gentlemen, I know that we have all been pro-Geno to start the season. Is it time to start worrying about him at this point? What I wonder was, I didn't see the game, but when I look at the box score, he didn't look like he played any worse than Aaron Rogers did last week. Maybe this is a lot more about the Lions defense. Gino Smith is not playing well. It seems like one of his strengths, I feel,

is being able to handle adversity and push the ball downfield and not look like he's playing scared or little because the moment is getting big for him. This game, he seemed to be playing a lot more tentative. The Jets' offense in general was just a much less exciting, explosive unit than maybe we saw in week two against Green Bay. And there were five straight three and outs at one point in the second quarter after our first possession field goal drive.

He threw another touch interception, which is now it's every week occurrence. throw at least one pick he turned the ball over on a fumble i mean he took another step back not as as monday but bad he has the third most interceptions in his first 20 NFL starts in history so i mean he's got a turnover problem even though we like him i think they should stay stick with them you're jets fans chanting for michael vick in the game and that that's that's immediately the question do you want to see michael i don't i'm not ready to see vick necessarily I thought that maybe Vic, this would have been a game to put him in when the offense was just completely stagnant

and see if maybe he could lift them. I know that invites a controversy, but I thought maybe this was a game because this was such an important game for the Jets. With a really tough schedule ahead, they cannot lose a second straight home game in six days. Now all bets are off, and if you're a Jets fan, you really have to worry that your team's going to be one in six or two and seven in a month. And, you know, one thing, Marty Morn and Wigg, to me, the offensive coordinator, keeps on finding himself on the radar for all the wrong reasons. This time the Jets had a long first possession drive. They used Chris Ivory nine times, nine carries or 51 yards.

The drive stalled in the red zone and they got a field goal. And then they benched them for the next two series. And that was during the five straight three and outs. They seem to be so hung up on getting a mix of pass and run that they're missing the big point, which is Chris Ivory is a player. And Gino Smith has lost. Chris Johnson only had six carries today had a long touchdown run to get him back in the game, but it's not even a question anymore.

Ivory is the number one guy here. Let's talk about the better team in this game. Yeah, let's do that. The Lions, team of ATL material. Wow. How quickly you turned, by the way. You loved the Jets a couple weeks ago. Hey, I predicted the Lions to go to the playoffs, and they are, they look like a playoff team to me.

Well, this is a very impressive win, by the way, because you win on the road and you win without Calvin Johnson, essentially, and no semblance of a running game, a very impressive win. Whether the Jets are a good team or not, this is a nice win. Well, what impresses me is they're not putting up crooked numbers like they did in the Scott Linahan era in terms of yards, in terms of points,

but they're winning. They're not making the big boneheaded mistakes. What's a crooked number? Yeah, like 37 points or 375 hours. You don't know they're off from baseball. Well, seven, eight, you know, look, it's a phrase. It's a baseball team. Dan knew what I was going.

I knew what I was going. on it. They're winning different kinds of ways. They're not shooting themselves in the foot. Their defense has to be one of the best in the league so far. Yeah. And one more point on Gino Smith, who dropped an F-bomb on a fan in the crowd, followed by Sheldon Richardson explaining that nobody should be doing that unless you procreate

and then the child you make with another human goes on to play in the NFL, then you could criticize a player. It was one of the stupidest points anyone has ever made. It's a very long-term plan, too. Right. Yeah, that's not going to help the Jets for 25 years or so. Maybe he's a genius. Maybe that was his intention.

You can't say anything for at least 25 years. If we see an entire, you know, Jets team full of great stars, you know, all with the same birthday, you know what I mean, 25 years from now, we could chart it back to Mr. Richardson. Jets football. It's fun. J.J. Watt had an 80-yard pick six. and was in E.J. Manuel's face all day. A true terror is the Texans approved to 3-1 with a 2317 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

E.J. Manuel, 225 yards, passing had two touchdowns and two interceptions, but it was not enough as the Texans and especially J.J. Watt cruised and got the win. So, J.J. Wad, gentlemen, is it time to start saying that he is a runaway favorite? Is it too early a runaway favorite for defensive player of the year right now? Remember the Seinfeld episode where George says, For I am Costanza, Lord of the Idiots?

That's how I feel about picking anyone besides what in my preseason defensive player of the year. I mean, come on, he's the best player in football. I did. He's the best week-to-week defensive player of my lifetime when I'm really been locked into watching football as my job and everything that's about the last 12 years or whatever. I mean, Dorel Revis was just as dominant. but it's different when you're a cornerback to shutting people down.

What week after week... He's relentless. Even last year when he, you know, it was a quote-unquote down year, there's a strong argument to be made he was the best defensive player in the league. You have to talk about him now is just, is he the best football player right now? I think he is. Like, is he better than any quarterback is better at what they do? Because there's no quarterback that's quite as dominant right now as J.J. Watt is he had nine

QB hits in this game. That's a crooked number, Chris Wesley. I've never seen that. A nine in that category. Usually, we talk about the whole team gets a couple. Remember, there's that stat. No, no QB hits, no sacks. Oh, yeah.

He had a name for that. I forget. Is it a Lyle? No, it was a Golston. Oh, Golston. That's an entire team. He had nine on his own. Yeah, that's impressive.

Maybe I'm underselling it when I introduced this. to you guys MVP candidate let's just you know let's mix things up for the first four weeks sure he would be why not why don't you give why can't you give it to defensive players i mean he's single handedly i mean they've won three or four games with not with not much offense not a lot of arian foster ryan fitzpatrick led the texans and rushing today with 14 yards j j wad is single-handedly carrying this team the bills dominated the first half of this game it was 10 nothing. It could have been worse if they had an NFL caliber starting quarterback, but they don't. E.J. Manuel is terrible. He's a problem. He's not getting better. They had that lead and you just

saw Fitzpatrick have one nice drive at the end of the first half, and that's all they need. The defense basically did the rest. Bill's fans were loving E.J. Manuel after two games, and it was obvious that they were hiding the quarterback. They don't let him play like normal NFL quarterbacks because he can't. I don't think I've ever complained about a team throwing the ball too much, because I, I always just figured that, you know, fans that complain, now you've got to run the ball, you've got to bounce. Shut up. You get more yards throwing the ball, even if you're bad at it.

In the first half- Shut up. Shut up's not a nice thing to say. That's one of my favorite Greg Rosenthalism. He told someone to shut up in the newsroom today, and there was a little bit of tension there. I don't even remember. Who was it? Dwayne.

Oh, okay. Our social media coordinator. Yeah, well, I know Dwayne well. Great guy. Well, it's just something Greg says, and we don't know how to take it. Quit it with a shut up. Okay. No, I love to.

Keep it coming. Keep the shut up. Keep it coming, but just understand that it hurts. E.J. Manuel threw about, I think it was 26 passes in the first half of this game, and they only had 14 rushes. And that was at a time he was averaging 3.2 yards per throw. So they came out with a pass-first approach in this game, even when they were winning. It was bizarre, and it didn't work at all. Are we to take the Texan seriously as playoff contenders?

Three-and-one, maybe not an impressive offense by any strats, bro. We're talking about Watt. they're winning games. Can we take them seriously? I have a role about this. Let's hear it. You can't take any team with Ryan Fitzpatrick as the quarterback seriously. What about a team with J.J. Watt on the defense? They might go eight and eight.

They still have four games left against Tennessee and Jacksonville. So if they're going to make it, you've got to make the argument to their schedule. You win three or four of those games and maybe you have a chance. Ryan Tannahill threw for 278 yards and two touchdowns and the Dolphins cruised to a 3814 victory over the Oakland Raiders who stink in London

the Raiders are now 0 and 4 Derek Carr got hurt in the game hurt his leg, hurt his knee he was replaced by Matt McLean I mean things could not get any worse for the Raiders right now so the Dolphins get back on track after the Ryan Tannahill controversy created by his head coach.

Are we back in Greg Rosenthal, Ryan Tannahill, back on the horse? No. Now what? Joe Philbin is going to take credit for this? Did Joe Philbin name his starter for a week for you? I think go to Matt Moore. Look, they responded. They were down 7-0 quickly, and I think we all were thinking,

wow, maybe the Dolphin season is going to flush away over there in London. Now it's like it never happened. Two and two. One of the best games of Tana Hills career. He completed 14 straight at one point. I had a pass-a-rating over 1-45 at halftime. I'm beginning to think the Raiders aren't going to the Super Bowl this year. No, that's not nice.

You always take little jabs at that. The four committee is getting together this Wednesday around the NFL podcast before we're going to get into a conference room where there's going to be some croissants and coffee and other dishes. And we're going to talk about who's going down. And I got a very good feeling that the Oakland Raiders might get the fork. And if you know what that is, just so any first-time listeners, we deem who's done, who's finished.

They have no chance of making the playoffs. This feels a little late, about four weeks too late, potentially. But I think the Raiders are a good chance of getting the fork. Do you know what other committee is meeting this week? No. Mark Davis and all his henchmen to decide Dennis Allen's future. Oh, they're heading into a bye week, correct? That this could be the time.

NFL media insider Ian Rappaport reported last week that they won't start discussing Dennis Allen's status until they have a laffer like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did in Atlanta. The Raiders had, the Dolphins had 38 unanswered points at one point in this game. It was a laffer. The Dolphins, too. I mean, this was not, they weren't getting rolled up on the Saints and the Superdome. Embarrassing, embarrassing performance for the Raiders, especially on defense. So you're saying my boy, Matt McGloin, not going to save the season? Matt McGloin came in on his second play.

They snapped it over his head, went for a 50-yard touchdown to Cortland Finnegan, and then a couple of plays later he threw an interception. It was miserable all around. Circus music playing in the background in London. Greg, you mentioned you were worried about, or there was a possibility that the Dolphin season would flush down the toilet in London.

Did you know that the toilet flushes in the opposite direction? No, the Lou. The Lou? In Australia, I think. I don't know about England. I don't think so. Got nothing here. I don't think so.

I got nothing. I'm sure one of our listeners can alert me if it flushes the right direction. What makes our direction right? I'm an expert on Japanese toilets. America. The Japanese toilets are something else. Asian toilets are the best. By far.

I don't know if you ever saw the Simpsons. I like that jumping in there. That Simpsons episode where like the toilet talks to Homer and makes a dinner reservation for him. It's pretty much like that. That sounds terrifying. I don't really want my toilet talking to me. The light turns off when you close the thing. I mean, it's...

I want privacy in there. I don't want some robot telling me what to do. Yeah, the toilet technology in Western civilization, poor. Yeah, it is something that they're... They're crushing us. They're crushing us. All right. It only has one job.

Some things are meant to be kept in. out to a nice lead or fell behind and then got ahead of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I should say. Had a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter and then it all fell apart. Mike Lennon takes the bucks down the field, hits Vincent Jackson for a five-yard touchdown with seven seconds to play. And the Buccaneers, the Buccaneers, beat the Pittsburgh Steelers at Hinesfield, 27 to 24. The Steelers committed 13 penalties for 125 yards in the game. They let a gimmie get away and a team that was trailing 56-0 the week before.

Chris Wessling, your team of ATL nominee just went up in flames. Explain this to me. I'm just kidding. What's up with that? I think this is the most bipolar team in the league. They don't know who they are. They kind of play like the Cowboys have been playing for the last three years.

Oh, that's not a compliment. No, it's not at all. They can score on you. It doesn't sound like a team of ATL either. They came out in a fog. Big Ben got sacked twice on the opening drive. Tampa Bay got set up with a really short field. The receivers kept dropping.

passes. Big Ben was on point for most of the day and had a great game. The Steelers just dominated for three and a half quarters and let the Buccaneers hang around and they paid for it in the end. Wow. I can't believe you really hit on it with calling him bipolar because the Brown's game, week one, awesome in the first half, terrible in the second. Then you had a total stinker in week two and a perfect game in week three and then you somehow lose to the bucks. That's the biggest roller coaster in the league. That was the biggest upset of the year, I think. They could blow out any team in the league, I think, and could lose by blowout to any team in the league. That's a good question.

Is that the biggest blowout, I mean, the biggest upset of the year? I think it is. There hasn't been many. Considering what happened with the Bucks last Thursday night, I mean, I think it was a foregone conclusion. And I wonder, obviously, we all picked it, a zero pick for the around the NFL team. We all took the Steelers. I'm curious what that national consensus was that they track all the people on NFL.com. I'm sure it was at least 98% or something Steelers.

It had to be something absurd. but it didn't work out that way. Wes, by the way, do you want to use your Matthew Mulligan and get the Detroit Lions as a team of ATL nominee at the Steelers expense and send them packing? The way you phrased the question, what I want to do is keep both the Lions and the Steelers involved.

That's what I want to do. You can't, though. Well, I don't believe there are rules in this game. Well, I have officially voted no to the Pittsburgh Steelers so they cannot be a team of ATL. All right. Well, that wasn't my doing, so you take credit for that. There's got to be rules.

Wes, there's not to be structure to life. No, there did not have to be rules for team of ATL. It's purely organic. I know you're a cowboy, Wes. You're a cowboy, you wear your cowboy hat. I'm with Wes. I don't think there needs to be any rules. You both are, but you don't understand the importance of structure.

But I had Cessler here with me, he would help me. It doesn't really matter because the Steelers aren't going to be the team of ATL. You know, Mark should block them. I'll block them. I just did. I can't imagine. It's over. It's over.

Wow. Wes is not taking it as well. I was just trying to think of how it's going to respond. I need to get the lions in there then. All right. The lions are now on the board. And that's a much better. All right.

I'll give up the Steelers. But if they start playing really well, I'm not going to be thrilled. You can root for them. You can do whatever you want. And by the way, speaking of the stick of fork in him, we talked about, we missed the opportunity. We forgot to do it, a stick of fork in the bucks. And I guess maybe we should hold off now. Mike Lennon looking fresky.

He's like quarterback. We still want to do it? They had 64 yards at half time. You know what's interesting, though? They're only one game out of first. That's a fact. That's a fact. They are not a good football team.

NFC South. No winning teams so far. I think you should be good at football, and they're not. Philip Rivers is on fire, gentlemen. Threw for 377 yards of three touchdowns today, and the Chargers beat up on the winless Jacksonville Jaguars, a 33-14 win on Sunday, and San Diego in a game, really. They just took care of business is what they.

had to do. Blake Bortles made his first start through two interceptions, did throw a touchdown pass, but the Jaguars are 0 and 4, and the Chargers are rolling, gentlemen, and Philip Rivers is too. Is any quarterback in the NFL playing better than Phil Rivers right now? Andrew Luck. In the past two weeks. Last two weeks against soft opponents, everyone beats up on the Jaguars. And the thing about the Jaguars secondary, when people are open, they're really open. I mean, that's what happens the last couple weeks. But at the... That's not to take anything away from Rivers, because he also made a number of really fantastic plays in this game when he was under pressure, evading pressure, just doing Philip Rivers types of things. If the Jaguars were any more of a tomato can, Greg Rosenthal would line them up to challenge for his toaster.

Well, not as a – their defense, yes. But now the offense is pretty interesting. Blake Bordos looked really good today. I know they only ended up with 14 points, but 29 to 37, 253, had a touchdown, had two low. late interceptions when they were trying to play catch-up, made a lot of really impressive plays. I mean, he has leapt off the screen more than any rookie quarterback. Certainly, well, I guess just a couple years ago, they were looking pretty good. But his first game...

Since 2012. Right, not that long ago. But he's looked really good the first couple times out. I don't think we can't emphasize enough how bad the Jaguars are on defense, especially past defense. Kirk Cousins and Luck had the best passer ratings of their careers against him. Rivers was over 1.30 today, one of the best games of his career. The Bucks gave up 56 points to the Falcons and have given up 33 fewer points than the Jaguars on the season.

Wow. The thing about Rivers, why he is an MVP candidate this early, is he's not getting much help. They're running game stinks. 20 for 42 today from Brandon Oliver and Donald Brown. And the defense is okay, but the offensive line's not playing well. River's been under pressure quite a bit, so he had to play really well. on this game. And I look ahead at the schedule for the Chargers. They're 3-1

now. Three straight wins. They really should have won that week one against the Cardinals. They did not, but 3-1. Home to the Jets, the reeling Jets next week, at the Raiders after that, and then home to the Chiefs. They could easily be 6-1 heading into Bronco into Denver for week 8, which is a Thursday night football

game. So Chargers are in a good spot right now. Enjoy watching Kenan Allen this week when you fire that up in Game Rewind. Had a great, great game. Just tip-toes and nice catches. And one final point. Everyone blames, you know, the offensive line for Toby Gerhardt's struggles. But sometimes it's third and one or fourth in one.

And Toby Gerhardt runs up into that line like the tipto burglar to use Dion Sanders' old nickname for Sean Alexander. Hit it. Hit that run, you know, Toby. Let's go. You're splitting carries with Denard Robinson. That's a bad sign. Like, it's it. It's fair.

We brought up Andrew Luck. So let's talk about Andrew Luck. The third year quarterback through four touchdowns. Touchdown passes on Sunday, leading the Colts to a wipeout 41-17 win over the labeling Tennessee titones who have now lost three straight games. He did this with the help of Reggie Wayne, who still looks like Reggie Wayne, seven catches for 119 yards and a touchdown. The Colts, looking good against bad competition. Wes, you said it. Andrew Luck is an MVP frontrunner through four games.

Greg, do you agree? Is he that level right now? Sure. Why not? I mean, it's four games end of the season. He's played three good games, I guess, right? I wouldn't put him at MVP level. He's been on fire ever since you called him out. I didn't call him out. I said, I think there's a correlation. I think it's fair to point out that he goes in hot and cold streaks like other young quarterback. Like other quarterbacks? Right. All quarterbacks. No, like, around the NFL writers. He has been streaker. Even Colts fans, no, he hasn't, he's not an unbelievably accurate quarterback, I wouldn't say.

Well, he's the only quarterback in NFL history with back-to-back games of 350 yards, at least four touchdowns, 70% completions, and only one total interception. So he's been pretty accurate the last two weeks. Right. Against the Titans and Jaguars, and the thing that saves this Colts team is that they're in that division. I'm not saying the Colts won't be a good team, but the fact they're in this division when you're 0 and 2, instead of having some tough week three game and going to Green Bay or whatever, they get to play the Jaguars and the Titans back to back.

Here's the really good thing I watch this game closely today. If you're a Colts fan, you're really excited about, yeah, luck lit a bad team up. But he also wasn't sacked once, and that's what they need to protect him, because without him, they would be the repeat of what happened after Peyton Manning got hurt. They would go right down the drain. On the other side, if you're curious, because I know. I am. I want to know about the Charlie Whitehurst experience.

I was going to say the clipboard, Jesus made an appearance, and, you know, he didn't kill the Titans. They didn't lose because of Charlie Whitehurst. He threw a touchdown pass. He actually had the Titans' longest run of the game, which would tell you something. He threw an interception. It wasn't his fault. So Whitehurst did what Whitehurst is going to do, and that's why he has a beautiful beachside vista view. It opens up.

He's got all these acoustic guitars. I tweeted that I imagine he has all these acoustic guitars and can only play part of glycerine. I don't think he has the ability to hang with it just like in quarterbacking. He just kind of chooses to stay in the middle. I don't know why I'm taking shots at White Earth right now His team lost 41 to 17 It was one of the best games of his career It was right

Had to have been Serious Yeah so yeah And the Titans If you got excited after week one They've lost 3 Street And every game the season They've given up more and more points

I think the fork committee We'll be discussing the Titans Wow early but How can you fork a team that doesn't exist Just be for they should trade for Tom Savage to be their quarterback. Dan hit on a good point, though. The offensive line for Indianapolis,

I think a little bit better this year, don't we think? Yeah, I think they're getting a little healthier, too. And we should give Chuck Bucano a little credit because I feel like we're a little critical, Chuck, and maybe that's earned. I like the successful onside kick attempt after their first touchdown. Pat McAfee, who's annoying on NFL AM. Wait, no. Who's awesome on NFL AM?

A shadowy league figures were approaching. A beautiful onside kick. led to another touchdown. So good job by you, Chuckie Pagano. Nobody beats up on Patsy's like Chuck Pagano. Chuck Strong. Teddy Bridgewater made his first start of the season. He passed for 317 yards and at a rushing touchdown.

And the Minnesota Vikings beat up and held off the Atlanta Falcons, 41 to 28 on Sunday. The Vikings had a franchise record with four rushing touchdowns, including three. from Matt Asiatta. And one more for Bridgewater. A nice win for the Vikings. And gentlemen, I ask you, the Atlanta Falcons are kind of a hard team to figure out right now.

But I guess the thing we do know is that their defense stinks. They're a great home team. This is two losses now away from home. This is a bad loss. Teddy Bridgewater's first start. I mean, what did he look like to you? He looked great. I mean, he averaged his yards per attempt average.

What is it if you go over 10, which is double the Gabbard zone? It's like the bizarro Gabbard zone, 10 yards per attempt. He looked comfortable. He pushed the ball down field. He ran the ball well. He did everything you want except for finish the game. He hurt his ankle on his last carry of the game near the goal line. Came out.

Actually got carted, but it wasn't a serious cart situation. I think they gave him some x-rays. He came back on the field for the final minutes. He told NFL media's Omar Ruiz after the game that, He's going to play on Thursday against the Packers. A little bit of a bad luck, bad break there, that they have a short week to face one of the best teams of the NFC. But if you're the Vikings, you're thrilled, by the way Teddy Bridgewater looked.

Frankly, I was surprised that he looked this good. He looked ready and almost looked like a guy that should have been in there week one. Remember the 1998 Vikings? Randy Moss's rookie year, Chris Carter, Randall Cunningham. That's who the Falcons made this team look like today. 558 yards for the Vikings. Wow. Jared Matt Azata and Jarek McIntyne.

Yeah, he was amazing, he was amazing too. Jarius Wright came into this game with 37 yards. He had eight catches for 132 yards in this game. Yeah, he was beating up on Marcus Chufant. The one thing that annoys me, and I'm sure it annoys thousands upon thousands of fantasy owners of Cordell Patterson, they are not involving him in the run game, had no rushes, had a couple catches in the game,

but he doesn't have a big part. In fact, Gyrus, Gyrus, right? Gerius, right, had more targets 10 than Greg Jennings and Patterson combined. So, I don't know, whatever, whatever works because Teddy Bridgewater got it done. That's the connection. So, hey, listen, if you're a Vikings fan, an absolute, out of nowhere, inconceivable disaster occurs where the greatest player in franchise history disappears off the face of the earth, and they're still alive and they got excited people and they're playing outdoors and the sun's shining.

and they got a rookie quarterback who could be the new face of the franchise. All is not lost in Minnesota. This is really impressive win because so far it's been their defense that's been the better side. And to bounce back after two losses in a row like that and to put up 41 points, the Vikings are going to remain frisky. We've been talking about it. They're going to be a tough out. When I was riding back from Vegas,

caught wind of a Sessler when I was listening to the podcast. Oh. Oh, yes. That's right. forgot about that. Name to watch if the Vikings win this in the final seconds Harrison Smith safety.

Why is that? Is that a Sessler? What's he going to do? Just have a feeling he may have the turnover that changes the complexion of this game. All right. Let's say, let's call it even. We couldn't give him Blake Bordell's week three starter,

but we're going to give him this, even though the game was a 10-point game at that time, but still, that ended the game. Harrison Smith picked it up. off to end the game, Sessler called it. You could say it's a deciding interception. Mark, not here to accept his Emmy. We're going to have to throw it in the garbage.

Good job, Mark Sessler. Mark doesn't listen to the shows he's not on, though, so he'll never even know we gave him. We'll have to tell him privately. He doesn't listen to the shows he is on either. You are a factory of Sussing! Oh, no. No.

That's just not nice. Aaron Rogers told everybody to relax. And now Packers fans, Ken, a 38 to 17 win, a convincing win on the road against the Chicago Bears. Rogers was lights out, 302 yards and four touchdowns. Some big days by big time quarterbacks today. The Packers scored on their first six possessions to build their lead, and that is five straight wins for the Packers at Soldier Field. And to talk about this game, we get on the phone, our Chicago around the NFL correspondent.

He is the great Gavin Packer. Kevin Patrick coming at you. What's up, buddy, boy? How's it going, fellas? You are loving life today. Your lions are in first place, and you got to watch one of your favorite players of all time. Aaron Rogers light up the bears.

Wait, what about the Detroit Tigers clenching the American League Central Division? A big day for Detroit sports. I didn't even know it. There's nothing like backing into a win. So tell us about the Green Bay Packers. we everyone was worried that this offense or some people were worried that this offense was not clicking and what was wrong and then everything clicked tell us about it yeah aaron rogers as he said looked phenomenal today he was just throwing darks and dropping dimes it was really i mean told everyone to relax like you said and every there's no reason to doubt that they can't come to form now because he proved today running game still has a lot of work to go but if there's any question erin rogers is still the man he showed it today i absolutely dominant eddie lay Casey said this week that he looked at the film of his terrible game against the Lions,

and it was all about the pad level. Did that solve everything? I did not. I mean, he still has no holes. He's still running into defenders right at the line of scrimmage and working for everything he's got. They solve a lot of issues there, and they almost just sort of abandoned. He had 17 paris, but they just went and they decided they could pick apart the bear's secondary, and that's what they did.

And then play action, and Aaron Rogers had all day to throw the bears got next to nests. no pass rush they had one sack but that was for zero yard loss and it was on a scramble they just didn't get in his face and he had time to just find jordy nelson and randall cobb they were running free all day in the secondary there was no there were no punts in this game which is only the second regular season game in nfl history do it dumb capers uh to somehow get that done i mean when you look at the the box score you see 496 yards for the bears 358 for the packers So, like, what makes up for that difference that the Packers still ended up winning this game so convincingly? Well, it was the quintessential Jekyll and Hyde performance by Jay Cutler.

They moved the ball all game. Even when, even in the second half, when they didn't score points, they were moving the ball. He had one throw over the middle at the very end that should have looked like it could have been a touchdown, but they couldn't, they reviewed it, and they couldn't seem like a high best play of the season was blocking the camera, I think. and he threw the next two possessions in the second half he threw a pick and then they turned over it on downs and then he was out for Jimmy Kloss

and he just started forcing throws in the second half when things weren't there and that's what it was. They were moving the ball fine and they were just the turnovers killed him and they couldn't keep pace with Rogers. How about this NFC North? Three teams at two and two

and your Detroit Lions now on top at three and one. Might as well just start printing up the T-shirts right now. You know, as a Lions fan, you always hope for the best and braids for the worst. So we still got a lot of games to play. That's true. All right, Kevin Patcha, great hearing your voice,

especially strong connection. Sometimes you sound like you're on a battlefield in Sarajevo, but today you sound like you're next door. Thank you. Oh, I appreciate it. A little peek behind the curtain. See you, Kevin. Bye, Kev.

Which takes us to Sunday night in Big D where the Dallas Cowboys welcome the New Orleans Saints to town. The Saints have had struggles on the road, and that continued in a big way and Big D. A convincing win by the Cowboys, a dominant win, really, where the Cowboys jumped out to a lead on their first drive and never look back. DeMarco Murray led the way with a monster game well over 100 yards and multiple touchdowns. Tony Romo looks like Tony Romo again, moving well, throwing touchdowns, not making killer

mistakes. Gentlemen, the Cowboys romp the Saints, and I know they're, Mark, I know at least Mark picked the Saints to win a Super Bowl, but they're not going to win anything if they keep struggling on the road, and this was an ugly performance. Maybe they're just not that good. They haven't played like they're very good for a month. There hasn't been one good Saints game where you came away from the game saying, wow, those are the Saints I expected. I think what had me a little peeved in this game, the defense was awful, but Sean Payton early in the game, they've got to do your job.

in Cowboys territory on fourth and short, and they punt. They don't even go for it. There was twice in the game where they had decisions like this where it was just like, where's the Sean Payton we used to know, the aggressiveness. Right, and they also took a couple field goals that you could have gone forward on fourth down. Shane Graham missed one of them. Another when they're trailing, I think it was 24-0 at the time after halftime, and yet they go for a short field goal instead of going forward on fourth down,

and Dallas immediately responds with the drive. It's just, I don't know whether to be more impressed with the Cowboys or more annoyed at the Saints. Yeah, I mean, and I, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. There are a couple things that jump out to me. Number one, first and foremost, the Cowboys are three and one. Yeah, that's a little weird. Time for first place.

I don't think any of us saw that. Number two, even though the Saints have proven time and time again when you look at the numbers that they're not the same team on the road offensively, the Cowboys defense really shutting down the Saints is really impressive to me. And number three, Tony Romo, and I tweeted this out early in the game. You know, the guy, when he messes up, social media explodes. When he plays well, you don't hear anything.

And let's give the guy some credit. He's coming back from another backster. Do you look bad those first two weeks? We all wondered if he was going to ever be the same guy or if it was going to be something that was going to take a long time. Well, the answer is now by week four of the 2014 season, he's the same guy that's been a really productive player for a decade. I give wrestling credit for telling me to calm down when I was.

quite critical of Tony Romo West basically was the equivalent of your shut up yeah I just said I agreed with you he I agree with your analysis completely he looked bad he didn't look like he was fully recovered from back surgery but I didn't think that meant he would be the same way all year well one thing

he's done the last couple weeks is avoided pressure in the pocket which is his trademark really and so that indicates a player even if he doesn't have as much juice on his fastball that's more important that he's getting out of the way and he's feeling healthy enough to do that and they have the most consistent running back in the league right now.

They're a very controlled, efficient, smart offense right now, at least for a few games they've been. It's weird. It's weird. It's really how we thought in the preseason. The Cowboys are winning with the defense and ground attack. Well, what about this Saints offense? Because, look, they haven't had a great running game,

and they haven't had big plays. Even though they're moving the ball very well before this game, they haven't had big plays. They missed Mark Ingram. He was the big playmaker. Where's Jimmy Graham? You and Mark Ingram. Graham's been fine.

Mark Ingram averaging six yards of carry, which I believe leads all NFL running backs starters. It's something else that Sean Payton has to be wondering when he looked across the sidelines in this game. Maybe I got the wrong defensive coordinator here. Maybe I should have had Rod Marinelli. Jerry Jones knew what he was doing firing Rob Ryan. Rob Ryan good every other year. So this is a bad Rob Ryan year

He'll be back to Bad Santa Potentially somewhere else next year You know that Jerry Jones had to Oh he's loving this They showed a shot when they went up 31-3 In his giant lavish box of him Grinning maniacally He was just this is a special game for him

Because you know that he was happy Not only get the win in prime time To go to 3 and 1 against the marquee team But to get it against Rob Ryan Who took a shot late this week About the Dallas has a new coordinator every year and blah, blah, blah, blah. Bob Bates, DDS, by the way, my father-in-law texted me about four minutes ago,

said, how about them Cowboys? So Lone Star State is all in on the Cowboys. You kind of always want to like the Cowboys, too. Now you're all in. You've got a hero pick on this one. And a hero pick. The Saints are only one game back in the NFC South, so that's good for them. But when you look at their schedule and you look at the NFC South schedule,

I'm convinced you're only getting one playoff team from the NFC South. No wildcard team is going to come from it Because everyone's schedule when you look forward is brutal Because they have to play the NFC West out of division And they have to play the AFC North out of division So there's no easy games I mean you look at the same schedule Detroit Green Bay Carolina San Francisco Cincinnati

Baltimore Pittsburgh Carolina I mean it's just nonstop no no gimmies All right so that is Sunday night's edition of the around the NFL podcast We will be back on Wednesday We'll be talking about maybe a little talk about Monday night football some news obviously we're going to get the fork committee together we're going to check in on TD because I'm sure he's already started on his win Greg's toaster

contestants rounding some up Wes while you were out while you were in Vegas we did some initial talk about getting some as Greg puts it tomato cans lined up so if you think you could take down Greg Rosenthal ahead of the Titanic rematch with Chris Wessling you hit up at producer TD on Twitter, and he'll get it done. Our video segments, where can they be accessed, by the way, TD, if people seem to like them. On NFL.com, NFL now, it's in the articles. Tonight's, some posts are going to be in tonight's articles, recapping the games, and

it's everywhere, guys, it's everywhere. At our podcast landing page, too, Greg. That's true. How do you get there? There's an NFL.com slash podcast. Slash. Yes, slash podcast. It's also a video podcast channel.

It's follow the guys on Twitter. You'll see it on there. And we want to thank everyone who's watched the videos so far and have quickly made them the most watched videos in the history of NFL.com. That's not true. That's not true. It might be. It's up there probably.

No one's told me it's not true. We are now ubiquitous. All right. So that's it. This is Dan Hansa, signing off for The Mailman, the Boss, and TD behind the glass. I thought I saw K Rich back there too. We will be back on Wednesday. See you then.

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