NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Thanksgiving 2024 Recap!

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Will Gavin of talkSport to break down all of the Thanksgiving action from around the NFL. The guys start with a recap of Dolphins at Packers (01:32), followed by Bears at Lions (24:35) and Giants at Cowboys (48:30). Note: time codes approximate. 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.

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Listen to the NFL Fantasy Football podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're always going back for something. seconds and thirds. That's right, a trio of games on this Thanksgiving. I'm Greg Rosenthal in my garage, joined for the first time by a intercontinental Thanksgiving guests.

Yes, it's Will Gavin. It's already Friday in the UK. Will Gavin from Talk Sport, if you listen to what some people called the most insane recap of the year back in week six, thank you for staying up early or late, whatever it is, Will, talking about these games with me. Uh, no, absolutely love it. Thanks for having me. I do feel like mentioning going up for seconds or thirds feels like a direct shot at me before we've even Oh. But, you know, I can take it on the chin. That's fine. No, it is absolutely not. It's what I did tonight. And we just had a lot of a lot of great bread products. I think we

overload, which you got to have, but we had two different types of cornbread because my daughter wanted to make one. Then we had some biscuits and just like I did not feel well a couple hours. ago, but I feel better now. We have three fun games to talk about, maybe at the very end, we'll talk a little bit more about our Thanksgiving. I'm curious what it's like to be a Brit watching these games. But first, let's start with the night game because maybe it wasn't the best game of the day, but I think it's the most important to Lambo. Love in the shotgun to the setback. Jack Jacobs to his right. Snap, give fake to Jacobs, quick toss, read, left side, It's touchdown, five, end of touchdown.

Jayden Reed, his second touchdown of the night. It's 20 to 3, Green Bay. Yes, Jaden Reed, getting it done. He just dial up all the best plays for Jaden Reed. That got it to 21 to 3 in the second half. The Packers go on to win 30 to 17. That was Wayne Larravee. of course, from WRNW in Green Bay.

Packers get that big lead. And maybe I'll just start with Reed because as I was watching this game, Will, I had a theory. And it's like, Jaden Reed is Matt LaFleur's muse. He always comes up with the good stuff for Jaden Reed. And Jaden Reed always executes it. They showed a stat that Jaden Reed now has as many touchdowns

or more than any people. Packer in history in his first two years as a receiver. And you think of that touchdown, beautiful blocking the receivers do a great job blocking all season long. They get Reed into the end zone on a nice swing pass. And they have the first Reed touchdown on a play where he makes it like he's run blocking for a couple of seconds. I don't know if I'd call it trickery, but very creative. And then he spins out and Love puts it perfect timing for that touchdown. Reed had a nice run earlier in the game. And I know that's not the biggest big picture take here.

But Matt Lafleur always seems to know how to use Jaden Reed in such a way to make him at his best. And that's kind of Lafleur's magic with his entire team. This offense was humming tonight. Yeah, look, just two catches in that first half, but both of them touchdowns. And you mentioned the blocking down field. You do feel like this is a receiving core and an entire Packer's offense that finally starting to look like it actually has of real identity over the last couple of games. A lot of that has to do with the rushing and a lot of that is

to do with Josh Jacobs, I'm sure we'll come on to. But, Jaden Reed, I went into this season being very doubtful. And it was very much like a fantasy thing where people are taking him mid rounds, even earlier rounds. I'm like, yeah, okay, so this guy was good last year, but he had what, 12 plus touchdowns? That's, if you're just relying on that, that's never going to happen. But he is a guy who can have two catches and just two touchdowns. So apparently I was horribly wrong.

He did have the great end around. play as well, that 23-yard are on the ground, which really helped boost his night. But it's amazing you come out of this game talking about him, despite the fact that what, just three catches for 24 yards plus that. He's what your guy, Debo used to be, not to bring up any sort of subjects for 49ers fans, but he really reminds me of him. Obviously, he's a lot lighter in a different style of player, but there aren't that many players that can impact a game like Jane Reed does on special design plays. And like you said, have four touches tonight, two for ten. touchdowns. And one, that run was the best run that anyone had all night just in terms of pure

talent. Now, my theory is that Jane Reed is Matt LaFleur's muse. He always comes up with the good stuff for Jaden Reed. Christian Watson, on the other hand, I believe is Jordan Love's muse. Because two catches for Christian Watson tonight, that's it, on four targets. But those two throws were absolutely incredible by Jordan Love. The deep one down the sideline, that just shows off Love's arm strength. And then another key one on the drive late in the second quarter that helps set them up into a tight window, the turkey shot that John Gruden used to talk about

between the zone, the deep defender, and the underneath. And Jordan Love always seems to make his best passes to Christian Watson. Watson doesn't always catch him. There was probably a PI on a late target that they didn't give to the Packers. But it kind of shows off what Love can do. And it's just this group of players that are very, cohesive. I think you're right. They have an identity, even on a night where they didn't have Romeo Dobbs on the field. They had more than enough with Tucker Kraft and those two receivers.

Yeah, that deep shot on the third and sixth in the third quarter where hitting down that right-hand sideline was, not only was it like a proper ballsy play call. The way he stepped up in the pocket, the way he kept calm as it was collapsing around him and just absolutely hit Watson in stride was sensational. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned the defense pass interference because what a dreadful call that was and Matt LaFleur made it clear. I love that when you're up by like three clear scores, you've still got Matt LaFleur on the sideline giving the referees just that much stick was lovely. No, because that was his moment. That was LeFerrne moment. And so if you didn't watch the game and you're tuning in on Friday to listen to this, thank you very much. We love you. It's 30

to 17. And yes, the game seems all but over. It's two minutes and 10 seconds left probably when they snap that that ball something like that but they're going for the kill shot almost anyone going into the two more two minute warning is just going to run the ball there and punt and and try to kill the clock or whatever maybe throw a short pass but they're like we've got this howitzer that's just this thing of beauty let's take our shot right now and give the fans something fun to leave and stick it to our old friend mike macdaniel so i love coaches like that like matt lafleur who's going to let his players have some fun it didn't work but it was worth it i'd get it get mad to. I did, I did thoroughly enjoy. And when I say thoroughly enjoy, I mean that with as much

dripping British sarcasm as humanly possible, because I didn't enjoy much that Jason Garrett did on co-coms tonight. But I did, I did love him when Saran Neal came across and contacted him horribly early for one of the most obvious defensive parsing interference. Like it was textbook. It was like teaching tape pass interference for, uh, for officials. And he kind of went, oh, yeah, he did maybe get there a little earlier. That's just like, yeah. What else didn't you like about Garrett? I have a lot to get to with this game because what a what a no show for the dolphins in a big spot. And we're going to get to that while we're giving the Packers some credit off the top of what didn't you like about Jason Garrett? I think after three hours of

Tom Brady just hating life of watching one of the worst quarterback matchups we've had in the NFL this season, but doing it with a lot of fun. I just needed Jason Garrett to be just in a bit of fun Thanksgiving mode or to just give us the tiniest bit of insight. But, what he did on almost every play was took exactly what, you know, the comm said and just repeated it in a more flowery way. Like not once did we see anything that was like actually delivering you anything that you learned. Like this is a guy who was a head coach in the NFL for many years

and just gave us absolutely nothing about game management, absolutely nothing about the play design. And I just, I did, I found it a tough. I love it. I'm not going to love it. I love it. We're going to keep Will up to. four in the morning, like, give him something.

Yeah, exactly. I like the cutting criticism here. Well, can I just say, there's one other Christian Watson play as well I wanted to highlight. It was early on in the game when it was still a single score, where Don Tavian Wicks had a horrendous drop. And Christian Watson went full defensive back to stop the tip ball interception. And I don't know, it was just one of those plays that it doesn't show up on the box score and it doesn't show up in a two-score win late on.

People don't pay attention to it later, but it just told me a lot about the way that this offence is coached, about the way that they're always never giving up on plays, about we talked about it, the way the receiver's blocked down field. It just said to me, like, this is an offense that isn't going to switch off. And I don't know, I've not really been excited about the Packers before tonight,

and now I kind of feel like even on the road in the playoffs, I'd fancy them to have a chance against even the best teams in the conference. So, yeah, I'm getting on the Packers hype. trying a little bit off. Okay, so I don't think the Packers have played to their potential. They haven't played many complete games. This was one of their best games of the season. But I have been excited to watch them because Love, he's a roller coaster.

Now, this is two straight games for him without an interception, and he had one in every game before this. So that's a positive sign. Their running game is so dynamic, so diverse, and it really didn't get going today. Josh Jacobs talked about it afterwards. He was held to 43 yards on the ground on 19. carries had the big reception that we'll mention in a minute. But Chris Brooks had some runs.

Emmanuel Wilson had some runs. One of the biggest plays of the game, actually, I thought, was they trusted the running game enough to hand it off to Emmanuel Wilson, who's been great this year on a third and four outside the 20-yard line. I think the score was seven to three. And he runs that thing all the way inside the 10. And they can just, they can run power. They can run duo. They can run zone. They can do it all. They're very cohesive. It's a good, offensive line. And that kind of brings me to my criticism of the dolphins here. And I got some more love for the Packers. But you're not beating the allegations dolphins. Like this is it. This is the same thing. We just keep seeing the same thing. And their fans are like, well, it's not fair. It's not

fair. Like this, that and the other. And it's just the same thing. It's not a narrative that they play worse late in the season or that they can't play in the cold. It's just the facts. And maybe they'll play better down the stretch here because they have a good schedule and they certainly were playing well into this game, coming into this game. But their pass rush lost repeatedly tonight, did not bother Jordan Love at all. Jordan Love struggled against pressure all season long. His numbers actually were pretty good. I checked next gen's that's four for five for 38 yards and a touchdown tonight.

But the key number there is five. Like he was barely pressured at all. So that's showing a lack. of toughness there. You can't run the ball. This was a Dolphins team that was able to run the ball and they just can't.

And the key sequence to me, Will, and the entire game is they're down to scores, 27-11, and they get the ball down to the one-yard line after an eight-yard run to get it there. They get stuffed on second down. And then McDaniel gives up on trying to run. They were inside the one-yard line.

Two straight plays. They run these kind of crossers that they're no, to run for and the defense is absolutely ready for it and their offensive line loses pretty quickly on both plays and Green Bay knew what was coming because this is a team that loves to run those plays on the goal line and this is the exact same thing that the 2022 and 23 dolphins had trouble with like they couldn't run in short yardage in big situations and that's got to be so frustrating as the snow is falling down that they're just kind of living up to what everyone

has said about them in the last couple of years. years. Yeah, it was a bit of a weird second half from the Packers' defense in terms of that they softened up a lot in the middle of the field. But the touchdown drive just before that, and then the drive that you're talking about that went down to the one yard line. Your tour goes, 11 or 12 over the course of those two drives. First one, eight plays 70 yards. That second one, 12 plays 77 yards. And you're thinking, oh, this is actually a bit of offense from the dolphins. We're starting to see them, you know, Jalen Wardle made a couple of catches. Tyreek Hill finally started warming into the game a little bit.

Johnny Smith was by far their most targeted guy on the day. And you got into that short-yarded situation. And they kind of, they threatened on that play like a quarterback keeper with Alec Ingold running across the formation. And then just, I don't know, I don't know whether it was the offensive line collapsing. I don't know if it was just the way that Green Bay read it. I thought it was a brilliant play from Quay Walker, who also had a big pressure on the third down as well. And I thought it was one of the real bright spots of that Green Bay defense all day.

But you're right. just, it's been amazing this year to watch guys from that same tree. And I think you've had the same problems with Shanahan, the same problems with McVeigh, just absolutely lose all creativity and lock up when they get in the red zone. Like I don't understand how they haven't developed the, this brilliant array, like even if you just do something really simple there with tour, like run a naked boot, try and open up one side of the field, have a couple of guys in the end zone who might get open. You've got more chance of completing it than just that bizarre mishmash of two or three different plays that they tried to run and just failed miserably

and ended up with the sack. So there was a little brief moment there. It was like 3.30 in the UK at that point. I'm like, right, we've got a game on our hands. Let's go. And then they fail on that conversion. And it's the normal time where I would turn the TV off. Actually, I'm not going to apologize. We're having fun. And look, at this pace, this is going to be a long one. And look, I get it. Two is playing great. I keep. into this game saying Tua is going to be on QB Island. He ended up throwing for 365 yards and two touchdowns in this game. I say thank you to Tua as a representative for all his fantasy owners. You've been beautiful the last three weeks. Like, yeah, I'm keeping Kyler Murray on the

bench for you and you're coming through. It's not that he's playing poorly, but tonight, the running game, Moster goes five for 19. A. Chan goes seven for 14. They're one of the worst running teams in the league. And that is such a difference between the last couple of years and this year. And Mike McDaniel, that's where he made his bones. And that's where I think the lack of talent on the offensive line comes through. And for one of the first times all season, their pass protection, at least on a couple key plays, didn't come through either. It wasn't terrible all night, but there was the play in the first half where Armstead didn't get out of his stance and in Inc. Bari got a sack that was actually back-to-back plays with the sack. And they had

just enough failures. They have such little margin for error, Will. I think that's what gets me. I've been enjoying this Dolphins team. I wanted them to win this game to maybe go on a run because they're five and seven now. They have to win out basically to have a chance. And they have a schedule that you could win out against, but that's a tough ask at five and seven.

I don't think they can do it. They have such a small margin for error. They don't really run the ball well and they don't throw the ball vertically anymore. So they're probably the best in the league at everything else at throwing the ball short, essentially. Like they are the best at the ball handling and the timing and all that, like number one. But that it's just hard to keep winning with no verticality and no running game. That's a tough combination. Yeah, I'm really glad you mentioned the verticality because it's exactly like, like Devon Achan had a great game in the receiving today,

as much as they didn't run the ball well. He was 8 of 56 with the touchdown as well. I haven't got the A dot on his targets yet, but I bet that it's about two yards because it was all checkdowns that he did something phenomenal on the back end. They were well designed that it was the right choice of tour to take the checkdown. Checkdown is like this dirty word, but anyone who like you and I loves Philip Rivers as much as we do know that check down offense is a legitimate offense and it can get you yardage and it can win you games like it almost did for them today. But the big question that I saw all across social media and I want to ask you about is, What's going on with Tyreek Hill? Like he had some inflated stats in the end in this game.

Like they had the catch at the end of the third on the comeback, which he slips on it. And so many times in the past, hundreds of times in the past, we've seen him on that kind of catch, turn up field, break a tackle, make a guy miss and take a six yard gain for 25 yards. And as I was writing that down, in fact, he did have that big 24 yard gain as I was making that note. And I nearly deleted. I thought, no, because it still highlights how. It was garbage time. It was garbage time. Exactly, as was his touchdown, garbage time.

And like, if you take out that final two drives of the game when they were already pretty much out of it, Tyree Kill had absolutely nothing to show for today. He is carrying this wrist injury. He says he's not going to have surgery till the offseason. I don't know how much that's affecting him. But I just, I don't see any of the separation. I don't see any of the burst up field. I just like all that stuff that made him really special, just wasn't there today and hasn't been there enough this year.

I totally agree. That's been on my radar. They gave him a monster extension before the season. He is now, how old is he? He's 30 years old. He'll turn 31 before next year. That's not a death sentence. But he's, I think, on the way down.

I think it's safe to say, like, at his peak, which was an extended peak and was peaking last year, you know, through most of that year. since about this time last year through now, the production and the explosion just hasn't been quite as good. And you pay him that much money. They're such a top-heavy team. Yeah, you want more than 650 yards through this point in the season, which he had in 80 of those. Yeah, tonight where a lot of them were in garbage time.

It's just been a little off. It's hard to get him and Waddle going at the same time. Johnny Smith, speaking of fantasy, I mean, he goes 10 for 1.13. Those drives in the second half. That was the Dolphins team that I've. seen. And it's not like they were awful in the first half. It was more that Tua was 10 for 11 at one point or eight for. I remember he had one completion. And the Packers were driving to go up three scores. It was like they had only had the ball a couple times and their defense let them

down. And so that's, that's part of the thing I've pushed back a little bit with Dolphins fans this year too is your team shouldn't collapse that hard when you lose. lose your backup quarterback. So that's that's on your coaching staff that everything fell apart that bad for now. But I'm doing the math roughly in my head. I believe they are now four and four in Tua games. So you also can't tell me that they're that there are some great team with Tua. They're literally four and four. They were one and one when he got hurt because they were losing that game 31 to 10 in the middle of the third quarter. And the last the first couple games when he came back against good teams, one three straight, and now this one.

And so that just speaks to a team that's in the middle of the road. Like, they probably should be six and six, not five and seven, but a team that's in the middle of the road probably isn't going to win the rest of their games. They have the Jets. They're at the Texans. They have the 49ers, which who knows what they'll look like. And then they are at Cleveland and at the Jets. The Texans are actually at home.

Like, yeah, I actually would make the Dolphins slight favorites at least in all those games. Like, I think they're favorite in all those games. So, sure, you could win them all. But the odds on doing it are pretty slim at this point. Andrew Brandt, who I know is, you know, famed for being slightly favorable towards the Packers, let's say. But did tweets for them, yeah. It did tweet pointing out that, you know, Tiger Kill is getting $26 million this year. Jailen Wardle's getting $20 million this year.

The Packers leading seven receivers are getting $8 million between them. Like, I know those guys are going to now be getting paid as we get. towards the end of this season and, you know, there was so much talk for so long about them not taking a first round receiver and just taking these mid-round guys. But it's showing out. And like, it just shows that play design and coaching makes a huge difference. And you're absolutely right. Mike McDaniels deserves more like, I'm a football nerd. Of course I love Mike McDaniels. All football nerds do. But like they, him and the front office deserve a lot of stick for not making this team work without tour, for not having a backup box for a guy who is so injury

prone. And, you know, this is a season where they could definitely be a playoff team based on everything they've got on their roster. And they're probably going to peter out and end up like 8, 9, 10, somewhere around that point. And it's disappointing. It is. They missed a lot of tackles tonight. The Packers had 132 yards after missed tackles. The success rate for the Packers on the ground actually managed to be 40%, which is fine. And the dolphins were much, much lower. Again, you're not beating the allegations. You know who. who is, I don't know who has allegations for Josh Jacobs right now, probably no one. Let's listen to that, the call of his big reception in the second half.

On first and ten, Love under center. Two tight ends in the game, melting in motion to the left. Love takes the hand off to Jacobs, steps up in the pocket, dumps it off, left side, and he's got Jacobs to the defendant 40, 45, 40, to the 45, 40, breaks a tackle, 35, 30, and taken down. the 20-yard line. My goodness, Josh Jacobs would not go down.

Oh, that's a great call. And just one of my favorite moves I've seen all season. The way he made Dotson, that was who it was, fly. David Long was involved there, too, right? I don't know, David Long got cut. What am I saying? I saw David Long earlier in the day on the Lions. That was just a sweet, sweet play by a Packers team

who came together at this time last year, Will. I know they haven't been great all year, but they've been winning while being a little confusing. They're nine and three. In any other situation, like year, they'd be like, hey, maybe we'll get the two seed. They got some work to do just to be the number two team in their own division. They're at Detroit next week on Thursday night.

Jordan Rodriguez is going to do that recap with me. That is one of the games of the year so far. And they absolutely have the pieces to get better and play their best down the stretch. And they'll need to because they have some tough road games. Lions, Seahawks and Vikings. all on the road down the stretch. Yeah, look, I'm aware we're going super long on this game, but Josh Jacobs, like, unreal contact balance, sensational to break that tackle. And obviously, I saw what he did to the 49ers last week. In a season where we got Derek Henry and

Seekon Barkley, it's hard to look beyond those two as like free agent running backs. When you can know how well he's done there and how well Aaron Jones has done over in Minnesota as well, like the running back's back, baby. It is absolutely back. And he has been a huge part of that team. I can't wait to watch this team the rest of the way because I think Jordan Love is getting more and more confident. There was just a couple throws. He was under control today, but the throw he made when he was on the run to read, all it did was set up a field goal to be shorter to take a three score lead in the fourth quarter. You know, move the ball to down to the four yard line. But that is one of the best throws you will ever see the arm strength he has while throwing on a total run and then read one hands it.

That's just like a, hey, our ass. athletes are better than your athletes. The Packers have some great athletes. All right, we still have a lot to get to. Let's take a quick break and we will finish our recap after that. Did you see the Colts Pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining.

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Williams with 10 seconds to go in the game. Williams with seven. Williams with six takes the snap. This could be the final play of the game. Throws it deep downfield. It is ungrimpleased. That's it. That's it.

That's it. What in the world were the bears thinking? This game is over. You talk about the world. The world of clock mismanaging. The game is over. Dan Miller and Lovis Brown. Well said on WXYT.

What are the Bears thinking? Matt Eberflus is the answer for Lomis Brown. The Lions escape. That game was sitting there for the Bears to steal at the very end. 23 to 20. Caleb Williams moving the ball. down the field and if you were around a television at all today

you probably know the circumstances but he was sacked Will with 32 seconds left they had a timeout they were in field goal range Cairo Santos said after the game I was ready to go kick it right there from 58 yards that's in my range

if I needed to they not only never got any closer for a kick they never kicked it They never used the time out. They waste all that time. And then Caleb throws it down the field. One of the worst end of game sequences you'll ever see. My gosh.

There's a really funny video that was tweeted out by Sean Hammond, the Bears Beat Right at a half time of Cairo Santos out taking long field goals while Shibuzzi was doing the half time show, like just out of camera shot. And it's well worth going and looking at because it's very, very funny. But Cairo Santos, when he meant he was ready, he meant he was ready to go. and I like we get on to Eber Flues and we'll get on to the Williams of it but I do think it is worth

teeing up slightly as we'll talk about Williams' performance overall in this game that on the first and 10 from the 25 yard line he had DJ Moore streaking across the formation and if he throws that with even the tiniest modicum of anticipation just gets that

ball out a second earlier and ahead of his man it's six points and they've won this game of football and none of this ever happens instead he throws it into his feet he throws it late, and then they get sacked by Zezerius Smith on the next play, and we all know now what happens from that point onwards. I think Iber Fluse deserves all of the stick that he's getting. I totally get it, but what I've seen that's been, I think, really interesting has been

a lot of people saying, right, I think there are two options, right? They either take the time out straight away, they get their heads clear, they get their best play to get the ball to the sideline and get it out of bounds, or to the middle of the field and spike it in time so they can go and take the field goal, right? or they let they do what they did they let the play run down try and get the ball over the middle and then take the time out i don't know what the play was they decided to run was was absolutely bizarre going for it all but i've seen a lot of people saying like why isn't iber flus calling the time out once it's clear that Caleb williams is in his own head he's getting to the line of scrimmage at 13 seconds he's not snapping the ball to six seconds he's trying to read this defense Peyton manning style i'm just like you can't have that middle ground if he's not if he calls that time out with 10 seconds he's not 10 seconds remaining, you're still left with a situation where you've got... It's no would be better. You could just kick it.

You could just kick it. I mean, everyone would kill them there. I agree. That's a weird thing to criticize. Like, take it. You should have taken it with 10, 13 seconds left, something like that. There's a big blame pie here. And Caleb Williams, he will be better in that situation in a couple of years.

Probably in a couple of weeks after going through that. He absolutely deserves a big part of that. He's out there changing the place. They actually get lined up with about 16, 17 seconds left. So I think, which it's crazy because then they don't snap it for another nine seconds. They like sit there with over the ball for 10 seconds, which is absolutely crazy. Ridiculous. He kind of lost his mind in that moment and it is tricky.

But that's why you take the time out in the first place. I hope a listener reminds me of what I'm thinking of. There was like a very subtle situation that was so similar in the last couple of weeks. If I didn't have my family here, I would have poured it through and try to figure it out. But it was a very similar situation where it happened. And so many times in these late game situations, I believe that one was with maybe 40, 50 seconds left. But the coach immediately used the timeout because you just know after an unexpected sack like that where you backed up 10 yards, it is very difficult to get everything under control.

and know what you're supposed to do and know what play to call. And so you call a timeout right away because you know you have a rookie quarterback and you have 30 plus seconds there and now you can't spike the ball after a throw over the middle. So that's why what Matt Iberfluz said

after the game in his mind sounded correct. Let's actually listen to old Maddie. Maybe his last press conference as a Bears coach, we'll see. I like what we did there. Again, once it's under seven, you know, you're going to call time out there or actually under 12

and then really you don't have an option because it's third to fourth you got to throw it into the end zone then so to me it's I think we handled it the right way I do believe that you just re-racked the play get it in bounce and call time out

and that's why we held it and didn't work out the way we wanted it too oh he's so confident seeing it too I don't it's not intentional like you say he's so confident saying it is full blown gaslighting like he is he's trying to convince us by with this word salad that what he did was in any way right.

I think he believes it. I think he, you know, I don't need to name names, but he is a politician that believes everything he says, and that's why the lies work. Like, I think he believes it. Now, what he might not intend to do because he tried to do the whole, I take full of responsibility, I'm the coach, but he did say that at some point, but saying that is not taking full responsibility because saying that is essentially saying Caleb Williams messed up. Because what he is saying is, I like what we did there.

He's saying like, yeah, I thought we were going to get the playoff with 20-something seconds left and the operation wasn't going to be so slow and that Caleb wasn't going to stand over the ball for 15 seconds. It all would have made sense to, quote, re-rack the play,

get it off with 17 seconds left or whatever it is and execute it well, but they didn't execute it well. So he's essentially in my, my mind saying the thought process was right. They just didn't do it right. That's how I read it. Yeah. And this is why I wanted to highlight that Caleb isn't completely without fault because I think he has gone kind of blameless on social media, etc. But look, they've six losses in a row now. And four of those are the Hail Mary against Washington, the Packers block field goal, where should

they have gained more yardage before they took that field goal, the overtime loss to the Vikings. and then this one and with all of them the game management has been absolutely horrendous and really for two and a half years and 13 weeks into this season the game management has been consistently bad

under Iber flus like I used to bang this drum about being like you need to have a coach who is just there to tell you what to do situationally whose their whole job is to no clock management and to be on top of it but a lot of teams actually do have that now

and they sit up in the booth and they do tell them what to do and they still get it wrong despite having an expert who's literally in the building doing that. Or have a coach that's pretty good at it. Like that's an option too,

a Dan Campbell, a John Harbaugh. Iberfuss was later asked in that press conference asked if he expects to be the Bears head coach next week, which is a tough question.

And he just said, I'm going to keep grinding and show up. But the fact that those questions are being asked, it's just, there's so many different stats. They're the first team in NFL history to go on a six-game losing streak without having multiple turnovers in any of those games. Just kind of interesting. All Iberflus talks about is

don't turn the ball over. Don't turn the ball over. And he's shown how you can lose. Keenan Allen said at one point, we did enough as players in that game. So that kind of, that kind that says it all. He also said he was totally surprised that that was the last play of the game. he thought like everyone on the field thought oh we must have more time right like that couldn't be how the game ended they didn't know and then he said he looked up at and saw that they still had a time out and said like oh yeah and uh DJ Moore said we keep coming back in these games putting ourselves in position and then we shit the bed and yeah that's what they do the worst record in one score games to your point will since Iberflus took over are

the Chicago Bears yeah shocking And look, when you look at what they did overall in this game, like, it's a game that based on the first half, they had no right to be in this game late on, right? Caleb goes five of 15 for just 34 yards in the first half. Second half comes out, 14 of 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 3 touchdowns. Let's go. Did lead them down the field on that drive. Did look like they were going really positive. And this was without much of a running game whatsoever. Like DeAndre Swift had that third and one where he picked up 10 plus yards on that final drive.

but prior to that, Caleb had the top three rushes on the team on the day. Like, they just weren't moving the ball particularly well at all on the ground. And so, you know, the line's got a bit soft in that second half. Injuries, I think really hurt them in a big way as well. There were some really bizarre incidents throughout the game that we'll kind of get into on both sides of the ball, I imagine. But, yeah, this is a game that shouldn't have been there for the Bears and then very much was there for the Bears. And they just feel like a team who don't know how to get out of their own way right now. No. That game was such a one-sided game and the Lions didn't take advantage because they struggled in the red zone in the first off. At one point in the first half, the Lions had 18 first downs and the Bears had nine plays. Now, from that point forward, the Bears more or less dominated. I'm not going to say I'm concerned if I was a Lions fan, but the Bears came back.

in that game. There were a couple of moments in the second half. Campbell not going for it on fourth and two at about his own 40 to kick it back to the bears at last time. They kind of blinked there where I was like, oh, that's a little surprising. Dan Campbell's not being aggressive in this moment the way that their defense was playing. And the way their defense was playing was in large part because of the injuries in this game. Let's go through him. Josh Pascal, their starting edge, They've had so many edge injuries out with a knee injury. Malcolm Rodriguez left the game. Mackay Wingo, one of their defensive linemen, left the game.

DJ Reader and Zadaria Smith both left the game, but returned. And Reader actually got a quarterback hit Will on that play where Caleb Williams threw it at DJ Moore's feet. So he probably should have made that play, but it was a big play by DJ Reader on that play to get a, QB hit and at least bother Caleb Williams. So he returned Levi-on-Wuzerike, who's been great for them in the middle with a limineal hurt his hamstring in this game. So that is a number of key defensive linemen. It's been just a cascade of injuries at one position. And you could see Caleb Williams getting more comfortable as the game went on and having a lot of time and picking on some mismatches. You got Kindle,

Vildor out there. You know, they didn't have Carlton Davis and Keenan Allen and DJ Moore. Like those were mismatched matches on the outside and you think ahead to next week with Packers, Lions. And if they can't get healthy, they could be in trouble on defense. Yeah. And look, it's

a defense that Aaron Glenn has managed to both scheme up and coach up to do brilliant things without Aiden Hutchinson and without some of their best players. And you mentioned, you know, missing key piece in that secondary today. Next-Gen Stats had a tweet that, you know, Zadaria Smith, Al-Qaeda Muhammad, and DJ Reader all had seven-plus pressures in this game, which means- They still got after.

Yeah. Caleb was pressured on 17 dropbacks without them blitzing, which is the most in the Dan Campbell era. And that's not going to be, the idea was you lose Aiden Hutchinson, you're going to struggle, right? That was, but Zadaria Smith comes in and they decide not to line him up as the kind of just a replacement for Aiden Hutchinson, which I think wouldn't have worked, but they've got him playing up the middle. He had that brilliant spin move on the inside to force Caleb outside on the pocket on this second drive to force the three and out, got the sack at the end of the game, which obviously caused such huge issues. I thought he was absolutely sensational in this game despite the fact that he's going against a pretty bad offensive

line. And yeah, the Lions defense keeps from finding ways to win despite everything. And yet in this second half, there was enough concern from me that goes, if they were playing a really good, organized football team who kind of are well-coached and knew what they were doing. This would be a dropped game for them, and I suspect that the Packers are exactly that kind of team next week. Yeah, it's tough to know what to make of it because, like I said, like in the first quarter, it was 145 yards to five. But they kept bogging down in the red zone. They were throwing a lot in the red zone instead of running. And then Jemir Gibbs had that fumble as they were going in up 16, nothing, I believe, at the time at the end of the second quarter.

And that fumble gave the bears a little life where they would have been out of it if they had gone in there 23-0 nothing at halftime and said Gibbs fumbles. And it was a low possession game. I was thinking, wow, the lion's offense really, you know, struggled in the second half. But they really didn't. They had a touchdown drive. And then in the fourth quarter, they did punt two different times. It was a four-and-out.

They missed a field goal on a short field where they had stopped the bears in, Jake Bates could have put it away. And then they had that three and out that I mentioned where Gough didn't even get to make a throw. They just ran it three straight times. They got stuffed on third and two and got backed up a half a yard. And Dan Campbell at that moment, it's about three and a half minutes left. And I'm thinking, I know you don't want to give him good field position, but I trust your offense more right now than your defense.

And he decided to punt it away. It was almost like, hey, offensive line, you just gave up a yard. You haven't earned the right to go for this fourth down. And so he's always been good. knowing his team, he punted it away. And at that point, I thought, wow, I think the Bears are going to win this game, which probably not a lot of Bears fans were thinking. They're too jaded after all these years to actually think something good was going to happen. Because I really thought the way Caleb was moving the ball at that point in the game, they scored the touchdown on a nice drive right after halftime and then a couple more touchdowns before that last drive. I thought they were going to go down the field and win this damn thing, which would have been quite a story. But instead, the Lions get to 11. and one and the bears get to four and eight, who knows if the bears change coaches. I know there's a lot of focus on the bears and they're not even the relevant team. It doesn't matter if they change coaches this week. They're going to change coaches at the end of the season. That's kind of

what matters. Yeah, I do wonder how much concern there is for. I know you said they didn't play poorly in the second half, the lion's offense, but it did seem weird. They went away from the run as much they did. Jamir Gibbs had nearly 12 yards per rush in the first half. They had 144 yards on the ground in that first half. And then what, I think he only had four rushing yards in the second half, Gibbs. And they, I mean, I know they've got the one two punch with Montgomery, and he saw a lot of the ball. But it just felt like that got completely shut down that part of the game.

You know, Mon Rarsent Brown and he gets two targets in the second half. James and only gets one target, which was on that catch where he had that ridiculous hurdle, which it's amazing. That's not a play we end up talking more about because it's the kind of thing that like, you know, if it happened at the week one of the season, we're going, oh, my God, that's some of the greatest athleticism we've ever seen. I've never seen a hurdle like that because it wasn't like a jump-up hurdle.

It was a sprinting 4-4-4-3 speed hurdle straightforward. That was incredible. Like a full-blown just hurdle, like a hurdler hurdling. Like it was insane. I did actually, on the James and William thing, I wanted to know your thoughts on him throwing the ball into Tyreek Stevenson's face and getting flagged for it.

And the reason that I wanted to bring it up wasn't so much the decision itself, because Jamie Williams feels like a guy that has that in his locker, like he's got a bit of that to his background and stuff. But it was the moment they showed on the sideline when Antoine Randallel was absolutely just reaming him out like a dad telling off like his teenager who's come in two hours after his curfew and clearly stinks of cheap whiskey. And he's just like absolutely. And James Williams is desperately pleading his case and he's basically saying, no, that was stupid. What are you doing? I think it was a real good players as coach moments.

We've talked about that a lot this year with like, you know, Kevin O'Connell and Tobico Ryan's and guys like that. But yeah, I love to watch the Antoine Randal L just give him two barrels. It was really good fun. I just love all the old friends that he has on the sideline. We got now old enough to remember Aaron Glenn as a player. We got Deuce Staley over there. We got Randallel.

Like, it's a fun staff to just watch. And sometimes you just got to survive games like this. The Bears have given them a lot of troubles, not just beating them on Thanksgiving. But generally, they've shut down the Ben Johnson offense under Iber Fluse. So I was trying to think what do they do well? Now, they're a really good situational defense. They've been great in the red zone all year.

And they're pretty good on third downs. They, I checked the next gen stats. They only give up 5.4 yards per attempt on play action today. And Goff had a lot of play action. They only gave up 5.6 yards per attempt on in-breakers to goff. And I think the broadcast talked a little bit about just they really flood the middle of the field. So they're good in the red zone. They manage to take away the middle of the field.

I think teams could at least look at what Chicago has done over the years to Detroit and try to gummy it up. And maybe it's just a matchup issue that's difficult for Detroit. But you give Iber flue some credit there because I did not think they would be. able to hang defensively in this game. They really haven't been a good defense overall this year. They're not a good run defense. They weren't today, but the Lions didn't really have many running attempts in the second half. And they're not a good pass rush. And they weren't for most of today either. And they managed to survive. So there's something. But that's kind of the Matt Iber Flues defensive. Like the things they do well does not make up nearly enough for all the

the shortcomings. Yeah, I wrote down on first half red zone struggles. Kyla Gordon should have picked Jared Goff off on that opening drive, a little bit of turnover luck for him there. But I wrote exactly that. They did a really good job of flooding the middle of the field, taking away those in-breakers, stopping them from doing what they do so brilliantly. And actually, like, Javon Dexter had that brilliant sack on the third possession, but also had some really good stops early on. And they did, they seemed to turn it on in the red zone.

And I was trying to figure out watching it back, was it lion struggles and play calling in the red zone? But I thought they were good plays there. and I thought they were decent execution. I just thought the bears tightened up really well when he got into that area. The Lions did try and throw a touchdown with Penn School, which was one of when that happened so early in the night,

I was ready for one of the greatest Thanksgivings of all time. I'm like, if this is happening in the first quarter of the first game, we are in for a barnstormer this evening because I'm just obsessed with Ben Johnson. I'm obsessed with that play call. It was unbelievable. It got the standing ovation. A three-yard sack has never been cheered louder from the home crowd than that play. And I don't know if they were cheering just because of the huevos on Ben Johnson to call it.

Or the fact that Penae Sewell, you can look in the box score and see that he got sacked. And now, yes, he's given up fewer sacks, zero than sacks he's taken this year, one. Maybe they were just cheering because four different Bears defenders tried to bring him down and not even got him close. Like his knees didn't buckle. The momentum took him over to the sideline and the play then ended. But no one was getting that big boy down. And I'm a little disappointed, A, that he didn't complete a pass on that play.

And then B, the second half went as it did. Because my Penae Sewell for Offensive Player of the Year agenda was everything in the first half of that game. I was like, this thing actually might take off. He is a star of this game right now. And I don't think it's crazy to put him up there almost as a representative, but also because he's Penae Soule, as a potential award winner this year on the best offense, the best team in the league.

But then it quieted down a little and it made me sour. Your friend of mine, Ollie Connolly, did a really good piece about Penae Saul this past week for The Guardian. And runs targeted behind Saul this season, over 50% of them, 52.5%, go for a first down or a touchdown. And that's more than, that's, it basically, it's the most successful play in the NFL. It's just run behind Pene Saul. And you mentioned my 49ers fandom earlier on.

It's reminded me a lot of Trent William's season last season, where when Pentee Saul isn't in the lineup, they don't look anything like the same offense at all. And they just do so much with him and so much behind him. And I love the idea that we're like, we're under the lights. It's Thanksgiving. we haven't won on Thanksgiving in, what is it, eight, nine years now, and we're going to try and throw a touchdown with our best lineman. Like, I was so on board with it.

It's a shame it didn't work, but yeah, I love the crowd reaction. How, I mean, how are the bears ready for that? I guess they just, like, the, the players just, like, read, read that it was a pass play and didn't look up or something because everyone was well covered on that play. It was, there was nowhere good, good job quarterbacking by, Penae Sol holding on to that ball. What a season for the Lions, ending that Thanksgiving streak.

Who cares if it was close and you have some concerns? I know these are champagne problems. The injuries are the issue, but you are 11 and 1. You won on Thanksgiving. And now you got two big games coming up. Packers and bills coming into Detroit. Well, for season ticket holders in Detroit to have Thanksgiving against the Bears, then Packers and then Bill.

as you are unanimously the number one team in everyone's power rankings, the number one team in the NFC. What a time it is to be a Detroit Lions fan. So enjoy it. Let's take a break. Let's get to a game. Everyone's excited about Cowboys, Giants. We'll talk a little bit about our Thanksgiving.

It's going to be great. But before we do that, let's listen to Dan Campbell. Talk about the Lions and their mindset with all the injuries that they have. We back right after this. Let me ask you this, does it really matter? Like, who cares? You know, and that's the thing. That's what I go back to.

Man, well, I can, it doesn't matter. Like, either it is or it isn't, or we get a guy back, we don't get a guy back. And, like, worrying about it and moaning about it and bitching about it. It's like calls, right? It's like the call. It's like Vildore. I could sit there and throw a fit about it. What does it matter?

You know, it's called, it's done. So I know this. Whoever we have available, we're going to get them ready to play, and we expect them to hold the line. Period. Hey, this is Matt Jones. And I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL cover zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different.

Did you see the Colts pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative. and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get. Listen to NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Toyota, the official automotive partner of the NFL. Visit Toyota.com slash NFL now to learn more. What's up, everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here. And I'm Bucky Brooks. On Move the Sticks, we take you inside the game from Scouting Reports and player development. To team-building philosophies, coaching trends and how front offices construct winning rosters.

Every week, we study the tape, talk to decision-makers, and share the insights you won't find anywhere else. It's the kind of conversation that connects the dots, from college football prospects to the NFL stars of tomorrow. We break down the draft, analyze matchups, and evaluate how teams put it all together on game day. Plus, we dig in the coaching strategies,

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iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. I'm Marcus Grant. And I'm Michael Fiorio, and together we host the NFL fantasy football podcast. Ready to dominate your fantasy league this season? Then you need the NFL fantasy football podcast,

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return. Locked with play action. Screen. Tipped up in the air and intercepted by Oversone. One and right to the goal line. Touchdown Overshow. Oh, what an athletic play that is. Brad Sham, KRLD. Like having Brad back on the show the last couple of weeks. DeMarvion overshot with an incredibly athletic play. Not just tipping the ball up to himself. and then running under it beautifully. But coming off a pretty vicious block on the running back even before tipping the ball, that was awesome. Cowboys' defense gets it done, make Drew Locke look bad,

turnovers galore for the Giants. The Cowboys hold on for a 27 to 20 victory, their second straight win to get to 5 and 7. The Giants, they got a pretty good chance here to get the number one overall picking this draft. They are at 2 and 10, and, well, they found a team in the Giants, Dallas did, that they could push around a little bit. That had to feel good.

Like the offensive line for the Cowboys, I thought, played pretty well. They could run the ball. They protected rush enough. And then defensively, Michael Parsons and overshone, and that front got after Drew Locke. Yeah, Michael Parsons against Evan Neal might be the biggest mismatch we see in the NFL all season. Like, it felt like abusive by the end of that game. I really, like, I was just rotate them out.

Just what swing tackles have you got? Just anyone. Just please, please just put him out of his misery at this point. You mentioned, I thought they were much better in the trenches on both sides of the ball over the last two weeks. And they have been, you know, there was a standout defensive performance, but Rico Dowdell's first career 100-yard rushing game. I still felt that Mike McCarthy made some weird play calls. There was a point where Rico Dada had an 18-yard pickup when they were up to scores and could go and kill the game off. And then he ran three consecutive passes for Cooper Rush.

And you're just thinking, it's all working. The Giants are giving it up to you. Why are you just not absolutely running the ball down their throat in this situation? You know, I totally get targeting Adori Jackson. That makes complete sense to me. But outside of that, like, it just didn't quite feel like it completely clicked on that side of the ball. But it felt like they're getting in. enough out of Cooper Rush and a really good defensive performance.

And so, you know, the Cowboys aren't back, but at least they've got something to enjoy as the season starts to reach it. No, they're going to win just enough games to kind of ruin their draft pick and all that. Hey, Michael Parsons was a late pick. Zach Martin was a late pick. Who was their center back of the day? Travis Frederick. I mean, they've had plenty of good late picks.

So they can make their picks and they'd much rather win on Thanksgiving, especially after the first five games that they had at home, which rivaled any team in NFL history in terms of point differential. That's how bad the Cowboys were at home. Yeah, Dowdo goes for 112. He gets 44-yard rushing yards over-expected. And Cooper Rush, not a great or pretty thrower of the football, but he has gotten a little better each week this season that he's played.

He ends up with 195 yards, 21 for 36, but there were a lot of drops. C.D. Lamb had three drops on the game, then left with an injury, only two catches. And one thing Cooper Rush does better, a lot better than Drew Locke, who got the start over Tommy DeVito, because DeVito was injured. He avoids sacks. The pressure rate for the Giants was actually 24%, which is low, but it's not, like, comically low, and they did not get any sacks on Cooper Rush, whereas the pressure rate on

Drew Locke was 44%, and a lot of them were quick in his defense. but six sacks one and a half from from micah like carlossin was in there odigizuo was getting in the mix and lock was he was he was full locking a couple fun runs in there but a fumble on one of those runs in interception and yeah man this this giant season just can't end fast enough yeah he was by far their leading russia on the night but you look you look at um yeah they they only orchestrated two plays of 20 yards or more in the whole game and they were both drew lock scrambles like this is just it's it's it's not working it's it's not difficult to kind of look beyond that um it was he was at half he was eight

of 177 for 55 yards and actually of his 178 total 68 of them came on that garbage time touchdown drive right at the end where they were just giving him 18 yard pickup after 13 yard pickup after just just letting him move down the field although it wasn't quite garbage time I always struggle with like what is garbage time what isn't they had a chance to win that game there they kicked it off you know they kicked it off to the cowboys and made the cowboys get a first down if the cowboys went three and out which is a very normal thing for a 2024 cowboys to do they would have to punt it to the giants with a chance to win the game just saying just saying but don't you feel like the defense then actually goes oh we should we should start playing again now right

that's why why the defenses do that i don't i don't get that i appreciated actually the packers after not playing well for most of the second half tonight, got very aggressive actually during Miami's deep garbage time drive and just didn't let them move the ball at all. And it was like, yes, that's how it should be. Just do that. Giants fans are going to absolutely hate that I'm going to point this out, but I'm going to anyway.

The money they saved from Saquan Barclay, they spent on Devon Singletary and Drewlock. You can draw the direct line because of how they paid all their contracts this year. they literally freed up five million dollars and they went and spent it on a backup quarterback and that's what they got out of it like or they spent twice as much money on Brian Burns is another way to look at it and Brian Burns has been fine he's been about what you would expect Brian Burns to be but it you know it's not changing their life

yeah and look that you can't the Demerion over Sean play is like a freak moment an unbelievable just piece of athleticism one of the best plays was see or season. It'll be on highlights all year on. So, like, you can't necessarily throw that back in their face. But other than that, like, they just didn't put anything together on offense at all. And I think it did highlight that Cowboys defense,

like eight takeaways in their last five games now. You know, overshorn. He actually recovered the fumble from the Eric Kendrix on the, the Tyron Tracy fumble as well. So, like, what a game for him and what an emergency he's had. And it's why I

keep going back to the fact that, you Both of these teams, well, are they actually? I was going to say both of these teams are going to be having a reset this off season, but suddenly this past week with back-to-back wins, with some murmurings from Jerry Jones on local radio, with suddenly people writing think pieces about it, like, or suddenly it might be that Mike McCarney's staying in Dallas. I don't buy that. I can't buy that. I guess they'd have to keep winning.

Now, they're five and seven. They have the Bengals at Panthers, home for bucks, at Philly, home for W. Washington. I mean, if they win two of those games, that would be outstanding. And even that would only get them to seven and ten. It's more likely they win about one of those games. I mean, Tom Brady's with you. Tom Brady spent about three minutes at one point talking about that. Mike McCarthy is one of the greatest coaches in the NFL. I'm less high on Tom Brady than you are. He always seems a little angry. And it's not just like, because of those quarterbacks. He just, I think he wants to be good. And he's, he's like, frustrated. He's, he's, he's, he's,

He's not good. He's, like, trying to have a good time. Maybe he's just not comfortable, and I think he will be more comfortable in the future, because I do think he wants to be good, and that's it. But it's even, I even, man, we're picking on him. It's just, I like, they came back from break, and Kevin Burkart was saying, like, happy Thanksgiving to everyone. And I saw Brady just sort of mouth, happy Thanksgiving.

Everybody, but, like, it wasn't his turn to speak, so he actually didn't say it, but it's just little moments like that. poor Kevin Berkheim to go from last year watching Greg Olson tear that to ducking apart with his bare hands like he was an absolute animal to this year and shout out to Ollie Hunter for this line on Twitter but going to Tom Brady looking like it's the first time he's eaten human food like he was I know and then he tried to do like hey what would a cool tough guy do in this scenario and then like went hard at it obviously he was astonished. at how good meat tasted, like it's the first time he's had it in 25 years. It was one of the weirdest moments. And I am higher on Brady the new overall. I think he has improved over the season. And when they give him a chance to be a football nerd, like I really enjoy it. And I like his anger. Like I think I liked his anger in this game. But actually, the bit of anger I liked wasn't about the quarterback play going on the field. Actually, him going quite hard after

Daniel Jones in the builder, basically saying that by requesting a release, a release, least that's him giving up on the team who have invested so much in him. I don't agree with him, but at least it was a bit of honesty and a bit of like forthrightness from Brady. Like I'd rather interesting opinions I disagree with than Jason Garrett. I mean, I agree with that. That's a good take. I did not. I don't agree with it really either, but I hadn't heard that and that that's more compelling. He isn't afraid to be critical, which I'll give him credit for that. It's more just broadcasters they need to be a good hang right on some level unless they're really teaching you a lot and I don't feel like he's a good hang yet but yeah it's funny because obviously coming

someone from a radio background like you know we're broadcasting cricket right now which is a little bit like baseball this insanely long sport where you're just hearing the same two three four voices for what can be like eight hours at a time and so it needs to be driven by interesting people and actually even like the NFL in this country when you compare it to like our football soccer like if somebody comes and listens to a talks about broadcast of one of the London games or Germany or like the Super Bowl and they listen they they we have their company for four hours and so if you are very straight down the line or if you are boring then or you don't say anything interesting that's why you need to get will Gavin on on the mic but the thing is

it's not throwing a little knack coombs you know wonderful I'm glad he got to mention because he would have been angry if he hadn't. Like, it's just, you need, it's not going to be the reason you turn off because you've tuned in for the game, not for the individuals necessarily. But it does elevate it when you do get like a Kevin Harlan or Kevin Berker or somebody's really, really good. Like, it does make a huge difference to your enjoyment of a bad game. Yeah, this was a tough one because the Giants and Cowboys are great draws in the U.S.,

and I'm sure a lot of people will watch this game. This is traditionally the most watched game of the year, actually, the Cowboys Thanksgiving game of any football game all season long. But, you know, over there, it's like, I don't know if the Cowboys and the Giants are as big of a draw. And so I didn't feel good that this is the product that they were given out there for everyone. Although the Fox, I did like they had the Cowboys and the Saints in their In-the-Hunt playoff graphics. So they're small victories.

I was like, wow, okay. They're still in the hunt, five and seven. Let's put them in there. Saints, you're in the hunt. If they're not mathematically out of it, you have to call them in the hunt. Well, nobody's mathematically out of it. I don't think even the giants are mathematically out of, this would have to do it, you would think, right?

Going into this week, they weren't. Maybe some other games will eliminate them. Just some other really small things in this game. Malik neighbors, very Malik neighbors game, like a couple bad plays. He's had some mental errors this year, but three really, really tough grabs. uh in this game different types of ones one on the sideline one with a diving catch one on a ball

behind him i mean he is just a beautiful catcher of the football like the offensive line for the giants just made that offense unplayable but he's awesome uh and then jonathan mingo it's not going to happen i don't think but they're just like hope ball after hope ball to jonathan mingo and then welcome back brandon cooks he actually made a big difference he made an outstanding catch on that third down with about two under two minutes to go to put the game away if if cooper rush doesn't make a pretty good throw there. And Cooks doesn't make that catch. The Giants get the ball back with a chance to win. I have no faith the Giants would have gone down the field and actually scored. But that play coming out of the two-minute warning, welcome back. Brandon Cooks. He had three catches for 16 yards

on seven targets. Mingo, by the way, two yards on four targets. So there's your Cowboys. How was your Thanksgiving? Did you work the whole time? Well, yeah, like normally we do, we try and do like a bunch of us will get together at a bar in central London or something and like a lot of like the kind of American themed bars will do like a big roast dinner and put a turkey on and like they'll put pumpkin pie on or something like and that you can get like a little little sense of Americana on the day but actually today I just I knew I was coming on so I was professional and I stayed at home and I made notes and I watched the games definitely nothing to do with recently becoming a dad and you know having to help out with feeds or anything

it was very much I thought you were like up working on and talk sport till 5 in the morning. My first thought was, well, who do I ask to work on Thanksgiving? How about someone that doesn't technically celebrate Thanksgiving? And then I thought, but that's making them up, you know, making them stay up till 5 in the morning, which is almost torture. Will Gavin, that's the man for it. I did do a few updates on TalkSport.

So I did do a little bit of side. I had a bit of a side hustle. But the point is, Greg, that you were the main reason I'm still awake and it's 5 to 6 in the morning. So just know that. I appreciate it. Let's get Eric on here. My Thanksgiving, we picked up from an amazing barbecue place, Maple Block. I highly recommend it if you're in the Culver City or Los Angeles area. And they smoked that turkey. Smoke turkey is the way to go. It was so tender. It was delicious. My lovely wife, Emeka, you know, made some stuffing, made some cornbread, made dessert. You know, we had some sides. But, you know, we had some sides. But, you know, It doesn't hurt to order the sides. I mean, to order the turkey, it's fine. If you don't, you know, if you don't have all the time in the world, my parents were over.

My friend Anthony was over who I do the Jesselnik and Rosenthal Vanity Project, JRVP, with, and everyone should check out his. Such a humble brag, my friend Anthony. I'm just saying, he was over. I can't turn on my TV right now without his face showing up and being like, go on Netflix, watch Anthony Jessenick special eventually. This was a long-winded way to say, go, yeah, go check out his new. special. I looked and they had the Netflix like top 10 or whatever. And my guy is right there

number three. People sick of watching two and a half hour long movies. It's a nice 53 minute special. And it is absolutely hilarious. So it was a great Thanksgiving. I'm going to go and see his top 10 in the UK. Okay. Don't, you know, let's not, let's come down. And then Eric, your first, your first Thanksgiving with the baby, you went over to your mom's, how was it? first thing, too. It was great. Lots of people around to hold the baby, so we're not, you know, on full baby duty. But once we got home, it was very much, hey, I have not napped today. And it was all catch. It all caught up to us once we got home. And there was nobody else to kind of just, hey, be an aunt, be a grandma, be an uncle, hold the baby for us. And it was just, hey, dude,

I am pissed and tired. And I'm, you know, but now he's sleeping now. So that's always good. That's always great when you bring me on and there's no baby crying in the background. Oh, yeah, I should have thought about that, too. I didn't even, that didn't even cross around. I don't even know. How deep is the Roberts family going here? I'm always fascinated by people's family. I come from a very small family, not just our size, you know, because we are quite diminutive.

Older brother, younger sister, one nephew, nine and seven. So not a huge, not a huge crew over there. Yeah. Well, that's good. I'm glad that we were all able to do it. We were all able to manage it. Brought my parents back. They're staying at a place a couple bucks away.

And then headed back here to talk to you, Will, and to work with you, Eric, and we'll end this thing because it's longer than I expected. And Eric's got to go edit out my swear at some point. I just, I need you to know that Anthony Jessonic is in the top 10 on UK Netflix. Let's go. Let's go. He's at 10, but it's still top 10. Oh, you know, you know, you didn't need to do that. You didn't need to do that. No, but that's still strong. In the UK, that's strong. He had a nice show in London. And, yeah, if you just give it the first 10 to 50 minutes. If you don't like that part, you know, I don't know what's wrong with you.

It's pretty hilarious, but you probably won't like the rest either. All right, that is it for our show. We are back on Friday. Special guest with Cynthia Freeland and I. It might be someone who is at my Thanksgiving dinner table today, who I also played tennis with. And thank you, Will. Again, thank you, Eric. Yeah, the season starts at Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving, right? So I guess it's official. Like football is back. It's over. 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

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