NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Ravens-Saints MNF Recap + Top 6 "Bummers" this season

Episode Date: November 8, 2022

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by The Athletic's Jourdan Rodrigue to recap the Ravens-Saints Monday Night Football matchup. Then, the two discuss the top six "bummers" so far in this 2022 NFL season.NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, everybody. Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the 6th, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters. We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else.

It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Jackson looking to throw. He does. He's got a touchdown. Ravens. The rookie likely. Play clock and one handoff. Touchdown, Drake. Here's Drake. He is in for the touchdown as second of the night. Turn on the lights. Here comes. That was Joe Buck singing, sort of, and Troy Aikman laughing, and a bunch of Ravens scoring in a 27 to 13 victory for the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football in the Superdome, a convincing performance that should send a chill down the spine of the rest of the AFC.

The Ravens look that good. But of course, I'm Greg Rosenthal. Every Monday night, we bring in a special guest to talk about the game. And this week, it's Jordan Rod Rieg of the Athletic, who you may know as a Rams beat reporter, but she's got a great football mind about any game. So let's give you some more fun teams, Jordan. Who needs the Rams?

I know you've been up for 20 hours. Did this game keep you awake? You know, were you into it? I actually think you did me like a huge solid here, Greg. I mean, I got to watch a really good run game for the first time in quite a while. So this was good. This was very, very good for me personally. It was medicinal in a way, you know, like just the catharsis of getting to see, you know,

the ball moving down the field on the ground was great. Yeah. Tough. Yeah. We'll maybe talk a little Rams late in the show. We're going to do six bummers from the 2020 season, kind of in honor of that Rams running game in their offense in general. But it wasn't a bummer watching this Ravens running game.

How fun are they to watch for Lamar to just show up in the Superdome a place, you know, he's never played before, may not play again for eight years or something, and just kind of put on one of the individual performance showcases that remind you, oh yeah, we should appreciate Lamar Jackson because any game that you watch can turn into a game like this. You might look at the box score and see 12 for 22, 133 through the end. air and a touchdown and 82 yards on the ground and think, okay, that's a typical solid Lamar Jackson game. But the way he did it just like had me jumping out of my seat, just making the Saints defensive players look unathletic. And it's so rare for an NFL player to make other

professionals look athletic. But it was one of those Lamar Jackson nights where you had to watch it to really understand almost their entire offense felt like it was, you know, coming out of him escaping Saints tackles. Yeah, and they kept changing the contact points. They have all these positionless players. I love watching this group and I don't get to watch a lot of

Ravens games. I don't get to watch a lot of non-Rams games unless I were super dedicated and slept way less than I already do. Just being a beat writer, that's kind of the life. You're on a plane. You're at the facility. You're covering the team that you cover. I get such a joy out of watching what this group does

in the run game because, again, they're using essentially positionless players from the quarterback to what they're asking the running backs to do to this Picard guy who I'm serious, I'm like oh, where did that guy go to school? Ricard, Ricard, Patrick Ricard, yes. Yeah, and I'm like, where did that guy go to school?

I'm like, of course, he went to Maine, right? He went to you, Maine. And of course, you know, you're going to get a 310 pound. You know, it's just cool. Like, just watching some of the layers and the contours that they create and the conflict that they put these defensive players in, the Saints' defense is no slouch, really.

And for the Ravens to be able to accomplish this and do it in such a way that you almost felt like they were constricting very, very slowly, some of the ways they went ball control, especially with the way they opened that third quarter. And it was like this slow constriction. And all of a sudden that that third and long run that Lamar had up the left side where he like parted Moses, right? like he like parted his own tackle out of the way and it just that was when you really felt like okay this is it's very slow and all at once it kind of probably is like what hypothermia feels like wow that is really well said i um i hope like you are cool with this extra work you're saying you know i know you normally don't uh have to cover a monday night game or you flew back it didn't occur to me that i should have picked a game where you you weren't flying back from the East Coast that day.

I hope you're cool with the extra work. And they do make it interesting. And that's one of the reasons I love the Ravens. And to your point, like the game felt out of reach after that first drive in the second half. They go into halftime up 14-3. They only have four drives, I believe, on offense in the first half. It was a typical Ravens game where they're kind of sucking the life out of the game.

And it's just a field goal drive to start the second half, but it's six and a half minutes long to make it 17-3. At that point, with the yards that they seem to be able to get in the running game whenever they really wanted it, it felt like the game was over. And yet they have it. It's a tough matchup against the Saints on paper. And they just put defenders in so much conflict. A guy like Pete Werner, who's had, to me, a Pro Bowl type of season was a little lost tonight. Marcus May and Tyron Matthew, the two safeties on the Saints who have struggled for most of the year, didn't.

know what to do, and the Saints have been known for their run defense, and they just couldn't stop them. The Ravens end up with 188 yards on the ground, and whenever they needed a play early, let's say, Ricard, you know, converts a short yardage. And then they have Jackson, Lamar, doing a read option for about five yards on another third down. It just feels like those plays are there whenever they wanted. And oh, by the way, he can create when he does drop back to pass, and it looks like the pass rushes all over them. When you're saying positionless players, though, on the offense, what do you mean there? The way that they basically make the receivers and the tight ends and the fullback, certainly, too,

are all such an active part of the running game, you mean? Yeah, and you don't know what's going to happen pre-snap because, like you said, he can pass so well. And what I loved, and you were like, oh, I hope you don't mind the extra work. The second I see this guy run a quarterback sweep, I mean, come on, like, and then throws the ball because he's got the he's got the DB in conflict like you can I freeze framed on it this is how much of a kick I got out of just seeing what they were doing like I went and found the clip on on Twitter and I just started freeze framing it to see at what point does the DB realize he's made

a grave you know he's in a great situation yes yeah and sort of like flashback record scratch freeze frame moment where he flips around and and honestly I don't blame the saints defense this is a good defense but the thing is is there's not much you can do when there's, you know, three to seven options that can happen post snap with out of the same look pre-snap, you know, when they're aligning the fullback and then they've got the running back and then they've got Lamar and all of these guys, you know, Drake can catch a pass or the full, you know, the fullback's probably going to lead block, but he can get some of these motions going and, and, you know, even the tackles. I mean, you see the tackles pulling way the heck over. I mean, it's, it's crazy. Some of the things that they can do and the complexity in this run game. And it's really, um, It's really remarkable to see it kind of clicking together. And a great example of that is that is that quarterback sweet because then from then on out, because of course you're crashing the edge down and you're trying to get him, you know, out of bounds ahead of that, that even at minimum, that first down conversion

marker, right? And so the second that the defender pulls down toward Lamar to try to, okay, maybe I can stop this guy, then he's just letting the ball go float into the end zone like so effortless. And then every single time he moves even or. or even like twitches his shoulders one side to the other. When he's taking the hand off, you're thinking about it. And if you hesitate, when you can do that many things post snap out of the same pre-snap looks, then you die in this league.

And it's just, it's really interesting to watch. They sort of have taken these guys and they made them, like I said, into positionless players, but they're maximizing what they can do out of these looks. And really when they look, like I loved what they did on the ESPN broadcast when they were sort of doing that aerial view and showing some of the lanes that they were creating and some of the highlighting some of the things that they were able to, the contours they were able to even manufacture on short runs.

You really kind of understand the complexity of what this thing is. And can you tell I've been missing watching a run game, Greg. Yes, I can and I love it. And I'm so happy I have you on because you have such a great mind for the X's and O's. And I think the way that you described it helps illuminate how difficult they are to prepare for

for an NFC opponent. I do think about this that in the division, you know, they see the Ravens twice a year. And Greg Roman, their offensive coordinator, take some grief because their passing game necessarily isn't as developed because they spend so many times, so much time adding all these running plays. And as Troy Aikman was explaining, they're like option running plays. And now that they drafted Tyler Linderbaum, who is more of a zone player in college, they've added some of those elements, which they didn't even add in the past. So they're always adding to the running game, and everything builds off of that.

And that's awesome. And I think you can only do so much on offense, but in a week like this, where you don't have Mark Andrews, and you're all pro tight end. You're not getting Rashad Bateman back for the rest of the year. Troy Aikman was calling Devin Duvernay their number one receiver right now. That should be a major problem against a good defense in the year 2022. Isaiah likely, who was the rookie tight end who caught that beautiful touchdown pass, on the quarterback sweep, led the team in receiving with 24 yards. That should be a problem, and yet they find different ways to win,

and I like that there are enough ways in the NFL that you can be different. Like, you cover a Sean McVe offense, and yes, there's been all these offshoots, and you've done a good job covering all the different offshoots. But isn't nice to not have just another Sean McVeigh offshoot, like that there's one team out there led by a one of one player who to me is the greatest running quarterback of all time. I don't think that's any

question. He passed Steve Young now for fifth all time and he's going to be number one soon enough that there's a team that can do things a little differently and they can do it because they've built their personnel around Lamar Jackson. Yeah, I think it's cool. It's like one of the most traditionalist statements in football is that you create A plus

plays for your A plus players. And the thing is, those are just happening on the ground in a way that is sort of mind bending for defenses especially. I mean, you think about it, Greg, we talk about this and you guys talk about on the show all the time about the philosophical shift in the league. So many things are dictated toward the passing game right now. Isn't it just so perfect that this dominant like multiple run heavy team that's doing all kinds of crazy stuff and even as added, like you said, some of that outside zone stuff, some of that like layer developing downfield

kind of blocking scheme. And and that's something that is just starting to find. its fullest form and it happens to be at the perfect time that everything else is shifting toward and even the personnel that's coming into this league is shifting toward how can you defend the past and I think it's it's really interesting it's sort of catalytic in a sense it's happening in its own small world obviously but the ripple effects from what they can create like I said just getting the ball in a plus situations they're a plus players no matter how it happens And I think there's something kind of cool and like, I don't know if this is the right word, but like anarchistic about it a little bit where they're kind of like, we don't really care.

Yeah, they're zigging while everyone else is zagging. And I think the Patriots have done a good job with that over the years of trying to either be ahead or not worry about the league trends because you're ultimately at an advantage if you're playing counter to that. I think that's why they were effective relatively running so much power last year with a rookie quarterback against all these light boxes. but the Ravens were very intentional this offseason after a year where they really tried to spread it out and work on their passing game.

They intended to be this sort of team this year. They made their offseason moves with being a 2018 Lamar Jackson MVP year or was that 2019 Lamar Jackson MVP year type of team. And it's working. And the thing I like about the NFL season is it's so long that the Ravens are completely different than where they were in September. They were a mess in their running game, traditional running game, or whatever this is in September.

It took them three or four weeks to get going. They were also a mess on defense, giving up big plays in September with a new defensive coordinator. We're going to get to the Saints and we're not going to do 50 minutes on this game. I know we could. We're pretty deep into it.

But I do just want to quickly give the Ravens defense some flowers before we move on. They've just improved so much over the last four or five weeks. Like I said, they started the season so poorly. But they've added players as they've gone. Justin Houston, who missed three games this season, is now up to, I think, eight or nine sacks on the year, had an interception tonight.

The third active sack leader in the NFL right now to see him have a night like this was incredible. And then Roquan Smith added to the mix, like, was great in terms of stopping the run. And to me, they're pretty good at every level. And they are a totally different defense if you've watched them week to week, which I know you don't have a chance to do. If you just tuned in right now, you'd say this is a perfect Ravens team running and defense. Because I think at every level of the defense, they have playmakers and they don't have any huge weaknesses.

And they're a veteran team. Well, I think this was exactly what you need to try to do to stop a Saints team that actually I happen to agree with some of your takes over the last several weeks and into the season. Like, the Saints are frisky. Like, you got to keep an eye out for them. Not that frisky. But honestly, I do give the credit. I mean, this, this all, like we said, all of the conflict that you're being put in as defenders in this regard, like, it's almost like, what are you going to do? You got to just pick the way you're going to lose, essentially, against a run game like this.

But the, in terms of what the, the Ravens are able to do, stopping the run. I mean, I did when I was doing some of the background work before this, it was like 24th or 25th in run defense DVOA and they were allowing a lot of like initial yards after contact and they were just not looking like they were, you know, doing the job. But if you want to go ball control on the other side, the way that they did, especially opening that third quarter, you have to stop the run and you have to try to rattle the quarterback on the other side and you have to try to get them to just take big pieces out of the air. And they did that. By the time I had this, you know, I haven't run down by the time the Ravens were up 27 to 6. They were out rushing the Saints 162 yards to 47 yards. And this, you know, this Saints team, like they can run the ball, right? So it was really,

I think when you kind of going back to what I said before, you get into your A-plus plan, and then you can have more flexibility and more freedom to go ball control on the other side, which they very much did. Right. Houston's playing out of his mind. It's such a Ravens thing.

I mean, Justin Houston, who signed to a deal and was good for them last year. And then no one wanted him again. And I think he sat around in free agency. I'll find out while we're talking here, but it felt like it was like August or so. The Rams could have had them for nothing. They needed an eddresher.

Everyone needs an edge rusher, and yet Justin Houston was sitting out there. And the Ravens just have a way of coaching up and knowing how to use these type of guys. Clias Campbell had a really nice game returning from an injury. Madabuque has been great, and their cornerback duo of Humphrey and Peters is just all coming together. And they have a cake schedule the rest of the way. When they put up that graphic of their next four games on the telecast, and I see that they have a buy here coming off of kind of their mini-buy, at the TNF game, and then coming back, they have Carolina, Jacksonville, Denver, Pittsburgh,

Cleveland, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and then finishing with Cincinnati. I know that was a lot of teams I just threw out you, but you know what? It wasn't a lot of good teams. Other than Cleveland and Cincinnati, and Cleveland is a stretch. They'll have Deshawn Watson back there. Those are bad teams, and the Ravens are set up at 6 and 3 as a team who have led by at least 10 points in all nine of their games this year, Jordan, they're only the fifth team in the Super Bowl era of which that's true, which is preposterous. So you're thinking like that's

some of the great teams of the last, you know, 30, 40, 50 years in terms of how they started the season. Obviously the Ravens haven't been good at closing games. We'll have to see how that goes when they play good teams, but they're not going to have many good teams. And so that's why they're so set up. They just feel like a very solid number three in the AFC, if not right there with the bills. And the Chiefs, when you're just kind of projecting forward. Because to me, it'd be hard for them not to win the division. Sorry, Bengals fans. Well, as later in the years you go and you're getting in some cold

weather and all kinds of stuff and, you know, we can pretend it's not a factor, but trying to defend a run game like this and trying to, you know, defend a team that can, like I said, just eat away at you and go into like hypothermic mode in the ball control and what they do, that's, that's really tough. Wait, so what's the hypothermia thing again? It's like, you know, I would imagine I've never, thankfully, suffered from this. You should try it, yeah, just so you know, yeah. Just an experiment, yeah.

But it's like the way that they were picking away with some of those four, five, eight yard runs, it was like happening very slowly in that drive and you could sense they were building to something. You were sort of seeing the other side. going a little bit numb, starting to turn a little bit blue, and then all of a sudden, Lamar breaks off that long third down run, sort of a dagger, and then everything is darkness after that. So I think that that was kind of, that's kind of how I would describe.

I love it. You're getting dark and you're getting deep, and they are the perfect team for this season. I keep thinking about this, and you mentioned it, how it's a different NFL year right now. It's a little more defense. It's a little more running. I'll get to that when I get to the bummers later in the episode. And they're built for that. You know, the Jets are like a lesser version of them.

But the Jets are sort of built for this season. The difference is, you know, one is Lamar Jackson at quarterback. And one has an improving defense and a coaching staff that's been there. And they were getting a little tight in the fourth quarter, even though there was no reason to. Like Lamar Jackson got as upset as I've ever seen him with the center, you know, spike, you're giving him the ball on time and the plays weren't coming in and he wasn't happy with a timeout and he spiked the ball at one point and him and Ronnie Stanley are a giant. And if that's Kyler Murray, you're like, oh, is this something? But it's not because it's Lamar Jackson and he's just fired up and you know how his teammates feel about him. And then later in the fourth quarter, Marcus Peters, who struggled, who failed to help push out Joanne Johnson on the sideline on a late kind of meaningless touchdown for the Saints gets into a jawing match. match with John Harbaugh on the sideline.

So the Ravens, even when they're winning big, there's just like tension in the fourth quarter. Maybe that's because of all these blow-in leads. They make it fun, though. They, like, made it watchable. If I was going to make you watch a Monday night blowout, this was the one. Yeah, I was happy to watch it. I loved that moment, too.

There was like this in very, very ample pause as the broadcasters. They were watching Marcus Peters and John Harbaugh have their discussion. And then all of a sudden one of them goes, you know, John Harbaugh is a young 60. And I was like, that's what you say right now? Like, it was amazing. It was incredible. He is, though.

He is. I'm shocked he's 60. It was that. And Morgan Moses laying a block in the first quarter or a second quarter, I think it was laying a block on the edge and wagging his finger at the guy he just like threw into the ground. There's some, there's some spice to this Ravens team. And I think that's why you see some of these moments like that is they're figuring out

where to funnel all of it, right? They're channeling all. of it and they're going to have to because, you know, sustain this is a, I think this is a sustainable way to play football. What I loved, um, I was thinking about this today. I wrote in my notes, look at these old guys go, right? Because it's Justin Houston and it's Calais Campbell. You know, Calais Campbell was my first ever professional football interview as an intern running quotes, uh, for the Cardinals. And he was there. And what a nice human, terrifying probably to play against. and you saw that a couple of times.

But it's just watching, like I said, these guys, when you're talking about closing games, these defensive players, like, especially on that defensive line, they're sort of figuring it out. They're starting to figure out how to show up in these big moments. Those third down sacks were so crucial in stopping any of the Saints momentum

and, you know, let alone what they did against the run tonight. Yeah, I loved Mike McDonald blitzing a little more in this game than they have been this season, and they were really well-timed. and you mentioned it with the veterans. Like, yeah, Cleas Campbell is one of the largest humans I've ever seen. He must have made you feel small. He certainly makes everyone feel small.

And I almost, when I've heard him speak, and I think I did ask him some questions, I remember when he was part of the Cardinals Super Bowl team, and I was covering that team that week when they played the Steelers in the Super Bowl, was that he has such a low register, and I find this watching Shaq on inside the NBA, that the base is so deep that I kind of can't understand

what he's saying sometimes. Like my ears don't go that low. You know what I mean? It's like it's too low. He would be ranked very high if I had a cadence rankings of defensive linemen. He would be great if he was a quarterback

with a nice, you know, base cadence. Oh, I'd love to hear a Callais Campbell cadence. I mean, I would run the other direction probably because, again, like probably terrifying to play against him. But just like I said, it's just,

he's just got like a warm presence and when I see him running around out there, because like, you know, guys, they start to get up there in years and sometimes you forget, you know, hey, they're still moving people around and, you know, you just see him and he just does not look like he's aged. And it's fantastic. You know, you probably feel like he's got that big connectivity within the locker room. Like he's kind of just one of those guys. He's like an NFL man of the year. Yeah, he's an NFL man of the year type of guy. And I love this team. I don't need an excuse to love a Lamar Jackson team, but man, the way they're coming together in the schedule,

I think they're going to be in it quickly on the Saints, and they bummed me out. I can't believe I picked the Saints to win this game on NFL.com. I had the Ravens, actually, initially. And then when I saw when Andrews and Edwards were out, I just lost my mind, and I picked with my heart, not my head. They're just a poorly coached team, I think, overall. If you've watched them week to week,

There was an exception last week, but turnovers, penalties, pre-snap mistakes, just sloppiness. It's really been a part of their DNA throughout the course of the season. I think they got beat by a better team tonight, but there wasn't a lot of fight out of that defense, especially. And I know they got worn down, but I think you saw the limitations of Andy Dalton playing well. He had been playing well until tonight. and they're in the NFC South, so they're only one game out of first, and their fans don't want to hear it,

but they're just going to be dragged along in this season and continue to matter. The fans have this fatalist thing of just wanting to give up on it all, but it's not going to happen in the NFC South because I don't think the Bucks or anyone is running away with it. So it's just going to be trying to fix these issues. And Dennis Allen, to me, hasn't shown the ability to fix their mistakes. They had one great week where they shut out the Raiders,

And other than that, they're pretty similar week to week. Yeah, I mean, I think you see sparks from time to time. I mean, especially what I really liked about this game is there was an emphasis on two positions in particular that like don't get a lot of love in modern team building. And that's running back and inside linebacker. And I thought it was really fun watching from both teams. Yeah. From both teams. I thought it was really fun watching the inside linebackers go.

And really, again, I think part of this is. to be in conflict that much, especially when the contact point of how they're running the ball is changing on you from snap to snap. So sometimes it's hitting the delinement. Sometimes they're changing the contact point directly to the linebacker. Sometimes they're changing it to the second level almost immediately with some of their blocking concepts in the quarterback. And I think that it's just a bad matchup. Like I have no doubt I'm going to watch a close game in a couple of weeks in New Orleans against, you know, Rams Saints. If, you know, it's like kind of dreading it, because like after that'll be that'll be messy and that'll be sloppy yeah the saints have the

capability to blow a team out like the raiders too like they did they they have good players um but i've just watched enough of them this year to know that it's not consistent they've had so many injuries so of the ravens um but you could you could feel it tonight when they lost eric mccoy their pro bowl center that it was already over and then it got really over and that could be a major problem for them because you're moving Caesar Ruiz to center where he did not play well as a rookie and then you're messing with the protections and Andy Dalton then has more to do and Ruiz had been playing better until this game but both him and Ramcheck had a rough night and

they've got Chris Alave who would be my pick as the offensive rookie of the year I know Kenneth Walker is the favorite in Vegas right now and Damien Pierce I think is the second favorite but I watch Olave and I think this guy is a number one right now and he's a rookie and he can run routes with anyone and if he was on if he was on the dolphins let's say right now he'd be putting up jalen waddle type type numbers oh i absolutely agree and he just it's just smooth right like the way that he just goes in and out of his breaks and his cuts and the way he changes direction and all of a sudden he's downfield and it's like you know did this guy just like open a spacetime portal and all the sudden there he is and you

totally lost track of him and right against better You're in guys like Peters and Humphrey. He does it every week. I mentioned him on the show last week, and he went five for 60. And I was like, if you, just in the box score, it's five for 60. But if you watched it, you can just, he reminds me of Marvin Harrison a little bit. I mean, he is a really high-level receiver that I don't know, like, what the ceiling is, but he's already there where he's, I have no question he's going to have a really incredible career.

I couldn't help but notice on my Twitter timeline. that, because I was doing the Channel 5 coverage in the UK for Monday Night Football, that Sean Payton was on the Manning cast during this. And I just thought, man, this is very Saints right now. You know, Peyton Manning and Sean Payton are talking about it. And Sean Payton makes some joke that, hey, me and Lamar are both free agents next year, which is like would be tampering if he was a coach of a team. Oh, but wait, he is kind of a coach of a team.

He quit on the Saints with multiple years. left on a huge guaranteed contract that he had renegotiated over and over with the Saints. And I don't know, man. It rubs me the wrong way a little bit because he's not a free agent

and the Saints are going to get compensation in theory for him except that his best friend is the GM of the Saints. Mickey Loomis. I don't know. But you know he loves it. You just know he loves it.

Oh, he loves it. It is stirring the pot. Right. He's going to get paid. And it's all going to get paid. going to work out fine, but at least someone, because everyone else in the media is best friends with Sean Payton, should point out that, like, he essentially quit on the team with a ton of, and he deserves to retire, but he's not retiring. He's using it as a leverage play to

come back next year, and he's going on while his team's getting absolutely hammered in the Superdome. He was there at practice, by the way, two weeks ago, which blew my mind. He was in the facility, just hanging out, and then that's the week they win by shutout. It's, just like it's it's all too much it's messy i just had to point out that that was like tell me how you really feel i don't even know i don't know how i feel but i am just like noting this and i'm just saying like the saints don't have to let you coach anywhere man or or they could ask for a first or you know a couple first round picks let's see if anyone would give that up all right that was a bummer way to end the game talk saints don't

saints fans don't want to hear any more about that we're going to go over quickly uh six bummers from the uh 20 22 season i'm going to throw out six, but I wanted you to start with your bummer, Jordan, before we get out of here. Oh, pressure's on. Now I have to make sure that it's a good, a good number. Well, I don't want to take gears. Yeah, I don't want to take gears. I'm going to run through mine quickly, but I want to hear what yours is. So I'm working on this theory, and it's a little bit like a bunch of yarn on a chalkboard right now that's pinned up in various directions, and I'm just gesturing to it wildly. But I think that the Rams are currently navigating through a hell of their own creation. And,

And in part, you know, we saw what happened at the trade deadline, and it's kind of like the Rams did not create a more efficient picks for players market, but they certainly, I don't even know if inspired, motivated more active picks for players, that and a lot of other factors, as you've talked about a lot, including on the trade tsunami episode. And I think, so there's that, right? So now they've done this thing first or they've done it in such high frequency first. And now they're working with less capital in a more efficient market. So you're navigating that part of things. And then you're looking too at some of the things that they've done schematically that have sort of helped motivate the space that this league is in right now, especially on defense and in the particular way that it caps passing plays. And then you look at their own roster and they are completely inequipped to. actually combat the direction that defenses are now playing high frequency passing attack

teams. And it's kind of, if you're them, it's kind of a bummer because, you know, it's happening in your own building and you would think that you would see that coming. This sort of underworld that they've helped to manufacture now is something that they're navigating through schematically and philosophically. That was kind of mind-blowing. You're right. It reminds me a little bit of how hard it was for the Patriots, and they did it because they had Tom Brady,

but their defense was terrible for many of those years. That's why they didn't, you know, in the early 2010 of like not only their coaches getting stolen from everyone and their personnel guys who had similar ideas and wanting similar players, but then they're running similar schemes. and other teams are using similar ways to get players. And it's like all these little advantages that you had

that added up to a lot are no longer nearly as big because everyone's doing your stuff. And especially for the Rams, it hurts because they just don't have answers offensively. I mean, they are an extreme bummer to watch play football on offense. The running game, as you mentioned, is kind of the start of it. But the passing game's an equal bummer, and it's a bummer in my house, Jordan. I'm not there on Sundays, but my daughter Ellis makes a Rams shrine every week on this couch

with all these paraphernalia and stuff. And it's tough, you know, it's tough, it's tough watching this Rams offense. I mean, no one's going to cry for Rams fans after they won for a Super Bowl. But it's just like it's about as uninspiring as it gets right now. And it doesn't feel like there's a lot of hope. to get out of it either part of the thing too is like they were a team that they they didn't just like go catalyst by catalyst over a sequence of years like as you see sometimes in this league like they did everything all at once and they did it just as the cap sprang back out just as the new cba was negotiated just as teams started this sort of next generation wave not only of young quarterbacks but also of young personnel decision makers and um you know know, maybe a little bit more of a modernized philosophy. And so now when you are, you know, sort of in the middle and operating out of all those

catalysts at once internally as a team, then all of a sudden things start to happen a lot quicker than maybe you realize. And I think that's kind of where they're caught right now is they're pretty good generally at navigating like the shifts of the league philosophically and schematically. But it all happened really, really, really, really fast, like over the course of a couple of months and not over years as we've sort of seen these things tend to do. And now teams are already countering, especially the defensive stuff, teams are already countering, you know, the best ways to pick away at that at that shell defense and some of those, you know, cover six

concepts that they like to run. You know, the Fangio State League. Everyone system likes to run. I think it's been lost because everyone looks at the offensive coaches that are all around the league and most of them are struggling. But the Rams, the Fangio and the Brandon Staley defense that just is everywhere and kind of given a little hypothermia in a bad way to a lot of offenses around the league. Yeah, comes from the Rams in large part, and it's not making this season more fun to watch. So that's one of my bummers is just like the passing game being down so hard.

And it's because of these defenses in part. making it harder to move down the field and making them really earn it. But now that I say it, it is creating the opportunity for different types of teams like the Ravens, the Jets and everything, to pop up and be successful. So maybe I shouldn't be so basic. But I am a basic bitch, ultimately. I don't know. Can I even say that?

I don't know. In that context, you can. I think I can. Wait, wait, wait. I like points. Eric, did you hear something? Oh, yeah. I didn't.

I'm a little confused about what I heard. This seemed like a... You can say that in that context. That is two straight Monday Night Recaps. The guest has jumped in. This is the best recurring bit that will almost undoubtedly not continue next week. I can't believe you did it. That just made my entire, like you guys don't even know.

Jordan, you're knocking out of the park. You're like quick analysis in the way that you can understand not only the game played tonight, but the league trends is why everyone should read Jordan at the episode. athletic and the pile after Rams games. And maybe those are becoming a bummer for you. I hope not because you're really good at analyzing it in the moment. That's something I could never do the night of a game. That's just a really hard skill is to write right after the game.

But it's even harder to write about complex sort of schematic ideas of what happened in that game right after the game. I don't know anyone who's doing it better than you. You're doing an amazing job. So that's that is not a bummer. It's why I'm really happy I had you. The passing game is a bummer. Quickly, the rest of my bummers is that still,

I'm still not over the PJ Walker whole thing, Justin, one of the great plays in NFL history, that he was not rewarded. And then the next week, he goes three for 10 with two interceptions, possibly ending his career as a starter in the NFL. I'm not over that. I picked him up in fantasy just because of that bomb that he threw

and then he had negative three points this week, so that was fun. Yeah. I'm sorry. I mean, yeah, my son picked up Dante Foreman and DJ Moore, and I told him not to play either. He played them both, and he lost because of it. But that was the play of the year, and it was totally ruined.

So that was a bummer. The Jags not being really a part of this season, and I don't think they're going to be. If you look at their schedule in the next handful of weeks, they play the Chiefs this week, the Ravens after that. They also have the Titans and the Cowboys coming up. So that's for their next five games. I just thought the Jaguars would be part of this season,

and it's a bummer to me. I know not to you, Justin, that they're not. Mack Jones is a total bummer. One of the worst quarterbacks in the league. I'm shocked by it, but at this point, you've got to face facts that that's where it's been. And then Kyler Murray's passing is just a bummer to me, just the station to station.

I threw a lot out there. We've got to go soon, Jordan. But if any of those just struck your fancy, I know, you know, you're going to be getting ready for a Kyler game soon, right? That's their opponent, the Rams this week. Am I right? Yep. They host the Cardinals this week. And I'm kind of interested in seeing, like, which version of this team that they do get.

And which version of the Rams, you're going to see, you know, they kind of, they put it together earlier this season in spurts against the Cardinals. Cam Acres was running the ball pretty well that game. They were getting some of the play action going. That's the other thing that's interesting to me. And I won't go on a rant here because I know it's late for everybody. And you've been like working, actually working all day. So they're running like some of their 2019 offense. You know, they went all like they went all the drop into drop back and like, hey,

we don't need play action. We're going to still leave the league in explosives and EPA just by dropping back and throwing it the heck downfield. So, but now they're like, you know, no. like wholly dependent on the run again it's the way teams are playing them of course and and some of that zone stuff they're going back to basics because it's not working it's crazy how things cycle back around anyway so that's what our friend it gets the cardinals maurice jones shrew begged for he he he he literally went to he he does the announcing for the game i think he literally went to the

coaches and told them to do that i'm sure they and i don't know if they listened to morris but maybe they do they should he's he's brilliant so and he's great at what he does and so it's uh our pal J.B. So, but yeah, I think I'm interested to see what they're going to, like, which version of themselves either team is going to be. And I feel like this is one that could get very, very sloppy in a real hurry. The Rams defense is playing well. Some like 52 passes by Brady without allowing a touchdown and then a complete catastrophe in the final seconds there on Sunday. But it's, overall, they're playing well. They play the Cardinals well. Um, Oh, there's no mystery.

I don't think the Cardinals are really up and down, and I don't think they're like a different team week-to-week. They're one of the most consistent teams. That yards per attempt average from Kyler is going to be between five and six. There's going to be very few explosive plays. It's going to be the same thing as it always is. And sometimes Kyler will make magic with his legs. He's doing that more, and maybe you'll hit a play or two deeper to Hopkins.

They didn't last week, but it's a station-to-station. of an offense. It is not a bummer to have you on, Jordan. You killed it. I feel bad. I'll try to have you on next time when you're not after a flight. But I would love to have you. This was fun. No, this was great. I mean, I've been, since you guys launched this, I've been like, oh, I hope he asked me to be on. I'm like, oh, I hope he asked me to be on. Like I said, before, I listened to all your all your shows. I'm in traffic a lot, driving back and forth to and from various football facilities in the Southern California region. And you guys keep me company. I laugh a lot. I love all the drops, especially the one of the guy going like, ah, or whatever that one is,

every single time it gets me. So I appreciate what you guys do. It really was great to be on. And I was stoked to be on with you. Sorry. That one's for you. That's Orson Wells, by the way. And if, If you want to look it up, you can find it on Twitter. One of our enterprising listeners saw where that original clip came from. It's also been posted on Reddit like six times in the last year. Oh, really? Okay.

I try not to dive into the Reddit. That's one step too far for me. Every single time, like, I'll be in the car. I cannot be taking a sip of coffee because it's serious. I mean, you heard I like choked out a laugh now because it gets me as cool as I try to keep it here. Professional as I try to keep it on your show here, Greg. It does get me every single time. You're too nice.

And I hope for you that the Rams give you some entertaining football down the stretch, something to write about. Stay in the mix. Stay interesting. That's all we look for. Stay interested through these 18 weeks. All right, Jordan, you are too kind. I can't wait to have you again.

This was a ton of fun. On Tuesday, we've got to talk some Colts. There's a lot to talk about there. Special guest, Bridget Condon, is going to be. there. Until then, heat the call. six, we take you inside the game from breaking down college prospects and NFL rookies to evaluating team building philosophies, coaching trends, and how front offices construct winning rosters.

We study the tape, talk to decision makers, and give you a perspective you won't find anywhere else. It's everything you need to understand the why behind what happens on Sunday. Don't miss it. Listen to the Move the Sticks podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.