NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Week 12 Recap

Episode Date: November 26, 2018

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Sessler and Chris Wesseling – recap all of week 12 including the Thanksgiving games. The heroes break down the Seahawks win over Carolina (2:38), the Browns pulling out a win with old Coach Hue Jackson on the sidelines (21:34) and another Jacksonville loss (45:05). As always, the heroes break down the Sunday Night game to close the show (1:08:36). Are the Packers done this season?Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Speak for yourself. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hanzas and I am joined in a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What is a boy? Hey, Dan. Happy Sunday night. Happy Sunday night. Week 12. Week 12's here.

Thanksgiving. You know what they say, dog. Football season does not start until after Thanksgiving. Started. Why does Wes get a prescripted line to start every show? And then the rest of us are left searching for something to say. Wow. Well, Wes doesn't need to do that prep because he's got the locked in.

That's what I'm saying. Catchphrase. You guys got to come up with either a catchphrase or a little bit of pre-show prep and think, what do I want to talk about right off the top, if anything. I mean, I can lose that line after like 700 episodes. I don't think anyone is asking for that. I just find it. The entire universe would collapse into itself if you stopped saying, hi, I am.

I think you did a nice job setting yourself. It's part of the accent. It's the whole thing. It's the Tybee Island accent. We get it. So, Greg, yeah, that's one of those. It's like one of the two. come over the catchphrase or just, you know, before the show, think, what can I do?

What can I add to the top of the show to make a bad? I think this podcast said is at its best when you live in the moment. You just see where it takes you. You never even know. It's always just a nice blank slate right there. All right, good. That'd be La Rosa. A lot of games to get to.

This will be a jam-packed episode of the Around the NFL podcast because we will hit the Thanksgiving shows near the bottom of the episode. So stay tuned for that. and we will dig into all the Sunday action, including Sunday night football with the Packers and the Vikings, a lot at stake there, obviously. But let's start with the games that were played earlier today. Ooh, and a humdinga in Charlotte. From 30 yards out for the win, the snap, the boot, the kick is up.

The kick is through. The Seahawks win in Carolina. Sebastian Janakowski from 30 yards out on the last play of the game and the Seahawks have done what they need to do. Yes, they did. Steve, rival, K-I-R-O with the call. Russell Wilson threw for 339 yards. Two scores and Seabas, still around after all these years.

Kick that 31-yarder as time expired to lift Seattle to a 30 to 27 win over the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers, like I said, in Charlotte, a come from behind win for the Seahawks. Three straight losses for Carolina, and Seattle is alive and well in the NFC playoff picture. Wes, another gutsy win for a Seahawks team with Serious Mojo. Some of this is randomness, but credit them for making plays in the Red Zone. The Panthers should have been ahead by double digits in the fourth quarter. They were not because the Seahawks stopped them in the Red Zone, particularly in short-yard. plays. Bradley McDougal had a great interception in the end zone. But if Graham Ganoe doesn't miss a

52-yard or who knows how this game ends, the Panthers have 478 yards of offense, which was most Seahawks gave up all year long. And for the second straight week, Seahawks win a game in which the other team just failed to capitalize. I could not agree more with you, Wes, about how the beginning of this game went. The Panthers marching up and down the field. Really, for most of this game against Seattle. They get stuffed near the goal line and a fourth and three card from Newton. I thought he got the first down, West. They did not give him the call upon challenge.

That did not go the Panthers way either. They went down the field again and got stuffed on a McCaffrey run. We'll get to McCaffrey in a second. So instead of being up 14-6 or having a two-score lead, they never were able to get any distance. Well, and the Seahawks defense did not play particularly well, but the offense. made the big plays. Russell Wilson, fourth and three to David Moore,

who made a one-handed catch in the end zone. Corn Elder was the cornerback on the play who never even looked back on the play. Turn around. Sounds like an ancient farmer. Yeah, not a real person. Or a monk. Or a pavement song.

He's a 3,000-year-old farmer who was also the base player in pavement. And then Wilson climbed the pocket on that last drive to hit Tyler Lockett, wide open on a coverage bust in the red zone and set up the game winner. the Seahawks made the plays with the game on the line. Give them credit.

Well, that was Lockett and really freestyling, seeing something when the play breaks down, and Russell Wilson gave Lockett credit. And they're among the best in the league right now at doing that. Russell Wilson is certainly at quarterback, and this is the second straight week where you start out, run, run, and Chris Carson, they were running back set after the game.

Like, they were calling out some of our plays in the first half, thinking they were a little too predictable, and then you're counting on your quarterback to kind of save you and make plays on his own, but they have one of the only guys who can actually make that game plan work. Beyond today's game. Ouch. Well, that's beyond today's game.

That's a tough loss for the old Zusser and the old lockup challenge. I thought they were going to come through on this. Go ahead, Mark. Well, no, but I think you believed in the Panthers. And you know what's weird? And now it's sounding like a broken record. I still do. I think they win this game, eight out of ten,

and I think they've hit a really a lull in their season. And once you get to three games, you start to mess with screwing up your whole season. But, yeah, I still think this is a team that could be around and make noise in January, but this is an ugly loss in the last three weeks have been pretty high. They can be around because they allow enough teams into the playoffs to, you know, some of them are not the equal of others.

But if you want to believe in the Seattle. I don't mean backing in the playoffs. I mean, well, they are backing in right now. No, I'm saying they're backing it. They can get out of this slump they're in. To me, they're the opposite of Seattle. You respond to getting nipped by the Rams by five points. by beating the Packers, the much-Ballyhooed Packers,

knocking off the Much-Ballyhood Panthers. And now you have four home games and your remaining five. You play the Niners twice. You play the Cardinals to close the season. And you've got a tough one against the Chiefs. But they play the Vikings too, a team they can beat. Compare that to the Panthers who finish with two out of three against the Powerhouse Saints.

And they've just, they have some mojo, whether that can be quantified or not. They've become that team that you can't figure out how they won the game at the end of the at the end of the games like how did we lose that game to seattle but after a while that's almost becoming a repeatable skill for them and it's strange that they don't think that's repeatable i think it's completely random i think it's random but i think graham gano missed a kick if in what's that's that's what happened sure but they then they went and took advantage of it they also had that touchdown from david more who's like like when they fell down in this game they came back they've

they've found a way to stick in games that they really had no business winning uh two more panthers points the Graham Ganoe, who's been a really great kicker, that was a 52-yarder. So it's not like he shanked like a 36-yarder. It was a long kick, but that's a guy that you come to depend on, and you knew they were in deep trouble as soon as he missed it, and they were. And we cannot forget Christian McCaffrey in this game. It's getting lost, obviously, because Seattle pulled it out.

But franchise record 239 yards from scrimmage. He went for 125 and a touchdown on the ground, and 11 catches for 114 in the air with another touch. down that you won't get much more productive days in the league than that. One thing about Carolina's defense, Carolina's defense needs to operate more soundly if they want any chance of doing anything. Seattle scores on its final five drives with no drive less than seven plays, one of them 14. I mean, that's not by chance. That's not just magic happening. We've cited their front seven getting older, but it's also Eric Washington in his first year as

defensive coordinator, this is not a good first year for him. It's not a good debut. They really regressed on defense. Am I looking at this right there? Is there six fumbles in this game and the Panthers picked up all six? I mean, so there was a lot going on. Wow. And one more note, driving into work right as games were kicking off.

I caught this a couple times now. The Panthers Radio Network, Mick Mixen, on the call. He does a bit of a brief monologue immediately before kickoff. And it's clear Mick puts a lot. a lot of work into them. I heard one involving the Giants game. That was pretty wild. Here's the one that started today's game, just to give you a little flavor of the mixing effect. After the win over Tampa Bay on November the 4th, the 6th and 2 Carolina Panthers went viral, dripping with drip, the thumbs up emojis tore it in. But then like a millennial brain

addicted to Facebook, we got a little distracted. Trolled by the Steelers and then catfish by the lions, the Panthers are now not accepting any more friend request. Instead, Carolina is cutting the cord, unplugging, and focusing on the fundamentals. The semester is flying by, and if the Panthers don't get serious and buckle down, our devices will be taken away. We're getting rid of all social media. And then they kick off. He's not at all.

I'm all in. Hey, old uncle at the Thanksgiving table. He said dripping. When did Millennials drop Facebook? Intercepted in the end zone. Intercepted by Shelby Harris. The defensive lineman with the play of the game. Yeah, it was.

Dave Logan, K-O-A with the call. Nose tackle. Shelby Harris picked off. Big Ben's two-yard attempt. He was targeting Antonio Brown. But who knows what was going on with Rathlisberger on that throw. in the end zone, 103 to play, effectively ended the game. Locked up a 24-17 win for the Broncos over the Steelers in Mile High.

It's a big loss of the Steelers who lost ground in the race for a buy in the AFC, and a huge win for the Broncos who got their play of the year, Greg, from an unlikely source. This game had everything. You're mentioning the game-winning interception by a nose tackle. That's got to be the first time. That's ever happened. Never happened before.

In NFL history. But before that, we had a field goal block by Justin Simmons, which he has a habit of doing. So I guess it's not that weird. A half-ending fake field goal touchdown attempt that went to Alejandro Villanueva. Give him another Navy Federal Credit Union commercial after that touchdown. I mean, I've never seen that. You had a 97-yard touchdown throw to Juju Smith-Schuster, a beautiful play by Ben Rathisberger. I mean, everything was going on in this game.

you had a fake, a fumble at the half-yard line that went out the end zone, the worst rule in football that favored the Broncos in that situation because Xavier Grimble couldn't score. I mean, this is what happens when the Steelers turned the ball over four times and the Broncos don't at all, the team that's getting pushed around a little bit in the game found a way to win. I mean, what do you make of a game like that? I don't know.

It's another example of Pittsburgh. You know, Dan and I did a Sky segment today asking which, team we trust more, the Chargers of Steelers, and I confidently said that I'm starting to trust the Steelers because of what they pulled off last week when they should have lost to Jacksonville and turn it around. And then 20 minutes later, you get this delivered on a platter. I don't think this was a disgraceful loss by any stretch. It isn't except you've given up a chance. Now you've thrust the Patriots back into the buy scenario. That is disgraceful. That's on my radar too, and this is almost too obvious.

But it's so predictable for Pittsburgh. And now they get the charges next week. Well, the Steelers still have the Patriots. the Chargers and the Saints left on the schedule. Yikes. But they had won six straight games. This is not an easy place to play. It was just sort of the way that they lost it. Me and millions of others that don't want to see the Patriots get a buy for a ninth straight year.

The idea of the Chargers now will go into Pittsburgh and lose next week. So they'll essentially cancel each other out and New England will take care of their business, which is, you know, all respect to that. And then that's it. That's it. Well, the Steelers and Patriots play each other. So the Steelers, yeah, the Steelers, all you got to do is win at home and you can control that situation. The Patriots have some tough games left too.

But for the Broncos to win this game, to end a six-game winning streak, a week after you ended another six-game winning streak by the Chargers, which came a giant slayers. A game after you were a field goal miss away from beating the Texans who were on a five-game winning streak. This team, even though they've been outplayed the last two weeks, I think they've been better than their record. has shown for much of the season. They also had two games against the Chiefs and one against the Rams. They're five and six. They're only one game out of the wild card.

They only play one team with a winning record, the rest of the way. And you can absolutely see a road to them having a relevant week 17 possibility to get into the plan. Against the Chargers. And they are your classic berserker team where suddenly you don't want to deal with Denver

and you definitely don't want to deal with them on the road because what they've done the last two weeks, the only scary situation for Broncos fans is you get a little frisky, you go eight and eight, maybe you even do something a little more than that, and you convince yourselves to keep Vance Joseph around for another year, where I feel like Vance Joseph coaching decisions have cost this team at least two games this year, if not more. That's fair. But at least if you're a Broncos fan, you got this rookie class, which is just awesome.

Philip, Lindsay, 14 carries 110 yards. He's so fun to watch. He was such a key in this game. And James Connor barely got the ball. 13 carries to only to 56 throws for Ben Rathusberger. And Connor had a killer fumble, one of many killer mistakes in this game by the Steelers. But you had to, I still kind of like Philip Lindsay maybe

as offensive rookie of the year. I have not given that award to Saquine Barclay. I don't care what the numbers are. When you watch him, he's just such an impactful player. Ben Rathesberg, only threw one touchdown pass in this game. One of the steel, did you mention the fake field goal? I did, yeah. Okay, yeah.

Just a wild game, but he went 41 of 56 for 460s. He made a lot of really good. plays in this game. I feel like, and like you said, the 97-yard touchdown was a throw out of the back of the end zone with a hand in his face and the defense of the line coming down on him. I don't know. I'm not tracking this too closely, but I feel like he's on pace to throw for about 74,000 yards this year.

I feel like he throws for 462 yards every other week. It feels like it. It's crazy. All right, let's move on. From 32 yards away, snap, ball down, kick is up. It's got the distance. It's good. It's good.

The Colts have won it. The Colts. Matt Taylor, WFNI with the call. Andrew Luck threw three touchdown passes. Adam Vinatieri knocked through that 32-yarders. Clock ran out, and the Colts beat the Dolphins, 2724. It is five straight wins for the team of Wes T.L. Speaking of Wes, hey, Wes.

Andrew Luck faced a 10-point fourth quarter deficit in this one. He don't care. This was one of those games where playoff teams and the Colts hope to be one have to find a way to win when the brakes don't go their way and they've gotten outplayed

and the Dolphins made more big plays in the game. The Colts made more mistakes and then at the end of the game you saw Adam Gase elect to run the ball in third and ten with a two minutes left punt the ball back to Andrew Luck in a tie game and Luck who we used to say

when he was early in his career his pocket movement is the eighth wonder of the world and we saw that on a miraculous play where he's he ducked under a sack and hit Chester Rogers who after the game Frank Reich says wasn't even in the progressions at all it was just all Andrew Luck finding him

and that set up the game winner on a day where the dolphins really played their hearts out they really did and Miami we said downstairs that the Colts are doing God's work because unless you're a Dolphins fan this Miami team is not necessarily a team you want hanging around and playing in January a playoff game because there's not a lot of juice around the dolphins.

But you have to give them credit, they really did find a way to hang around in this game, take control of the game, but they couldn't close it. And that, Greg, I think you kind of have a different take on this. But the Adam Gay's decision, third and ten, deep in his own end, I get that. But when you run the ball, you want to give up play, when you're five and five and you're fighting for a playoff spot and you know damn well on the road kicking it back to Andrew Luck who's going to get it around midfield, that you're probably dead. what message does that send to your team the front office to the fans that would drive me crazy

and I don't think it helps Adam Gase come Black Monday I couldn't agree with you more I mean that play said so much to me about what they think of their passing game in Ryan Tannahill I mean I know he isn't Tom Brady but he's 17 for 25 200 yards in this game it's not like he was bad in this game right Wes and it's just it's just sending a message you don't you would You don't trust your quarterback at all. And it's not feeling the game because at that point of the game, the Dolphins defense was not getting stops.

They had just given up two scoring drives. And the Colts did it by running too, which is so different than old Colts teams that the Colts came back in this game in the fourth quarter on one of those drives basically by running the whole time, which is pretty amazing. They don't have a passing game.

Who? The Dolphins. His numbers weren't that bad, but 75 yards of that came on a fluke play to Laurenti Corrante. where he won a jump ball and then just ran to the end zone after that and that's what the dolphins offense has been all year these fluke big plays and credit them for for actually going through with them and making them but they're not you can't rely on them from week to week i mean they were

banged up at wide receiver today to start absolutely yeah they're very they're very banged up they talked about tannihill throwing with significant pain and he's better that he's certainly better than Osweiler. But they're not running a full offense with banged-up receivers and Tannahill playing in pain. But that said, though, you have to feel like you're playing with House Money when you've got two Andrew Luck picks by Xavier and Howard. So to your point, to punt the ball, we're in a league now. Where you already gave up the 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. Right. We're in a league where you go for it. You take chances. You risk everything. You don't give the ball back to Andrew Luck with three plus minutes when they've scored on their

previous two marches. To me, we were all sitting there watching it, and it's like, goodbye Dolphins, because you don't deserve to be in this derby if you cannot make the decisions that winning teams, Super Bowl-type teams make. Especially at, or go ahead. No, I was just going to say, it's got to hurt, and I don't have a lot of sympathy for Dolphins fans as a Jets fan, but if you, in a near-must-win game, you pick luck off twice on two straight plays, you recover a fumble, you partially block a punt, and you have a 10-point

lead in the fourth quarter to not be able to close that game out. These are the type of losses that stick to your ribs and it makes you not want to be a football. Quick question. Had they won this, would we be giving them any credit as a team that we can trust any more than losing it? I would have given them a lot of credit because they fought their ass off for three and a half quarters. They've had a few games like that. I still, to me, they were a team that I kind of expected to just finish eight and eight. I'm not sure how it's going to happen, but I just.

Well, we're seeing it. They were on that road. I do appreciate, though, that despite the dome being closed today, they did make it rain. there in Indianapolis. We thought this game was going to be close. And they got it done for me. So that's why Gaye should have been thrown at the end. Are we tracking all of your rainmakers?

We're tracking. No, I think let's just do that one. Oh, okay. We went two and one this week. It rained heavily in Philadelphia, lost by an extra point in Washington. So two and one, that's a great rate of return right there. Okay.

Let's move on. He's got the snap. Looks left. Can't lose every week. We get at least one right. And Joku. Well, you go two at one, that's great. And they push him and push him in the edge.

Touchdown! Don't talk over the brown highlight. From his friends. Give me a rank, Greg. Jim Donovan with the call, WCKY. Hugh Jackson had a front row seat for Baker Mayfield and each of his career high four touchdown passes, including that fine effort by tight end,

David Njuko. Injuku? Juku. In Joku. In Joku. As the Browns roll over the Bengals, 35, 20. This was a game as 28-0 before the Bengals even scored a point. Anyway, it's another slump buster for the Browns to snap a 25-game road losing streak.

Mark, the Browns, like their rookie passer, feel dangerous. I couldn't help because they kept obviously flashing to Hugh Jackson on the sideline. What could be going through this man's mind? Because love him or hate him, it's been, you get fired. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I got a part. Well, he's watching the players that he failed to maximize, devastating the defense that he was brought in to save in Cincinnati. He's got the magic touch. There's no doubt about it. I honestly felt for him a little bit because it was such a perfect storm of him looking like the utter fool.

To the point at the end of the game, Baker Mayfield, who was a rookie, essentially refused to really give him a hug, gave him sort of a distant, awkward shake as they were parting ways. You had Demerius Randall. Let's hear what Baker Mayfield had to say about that. Didn't feel like talking. You or him? Me? I don't know. Left Cleveland goes down in Cincinnati.

I don't know. It's just somebody that was in our locker room asking for us to play for him and then goes to a different team. We play twice a year. Everybody can have their spin on it, but that's how I feel. I mean, I tweeted out that comment from Baker Mayfield and it starts this insane I just clicked off Twitter

because it's all these people going back and forth where it's not fair to critique Hugh Jackson he's just looking for another opportunity. Well, I agree with you. And I think that Baker Mayfield's more sane you went there of all places and it's probably more of a league thing that feels like a conflict of interest

to allow someone to do that. But he also said Baker Mayfield, we have people we believe in calling plays now. And that's not fiction either because whether it's Freddie Kitchens or whoever it is. Kitchens open. It is, they completely change

the game plan from last week, or two weeks ago against the Falcons, when it was all wishbone, run-oriented, you think you can run against the Bengals. They come out today with empty sets and fillet Cincinnati, and they took their foot off the gas in the second half. And we should mention that Andy Dalton left the game with a thumb injury on his throwing hand, and did not return. Jeff Driscoll played, and I don't know what will happen with Dalton. There's no concluding evidence at the moment. Marvin Lewis said it wasn't serious, but they're not sure what that means. Mark, that's three great Baker-Mayfield performances

in a row. Soup's pretty hot in that kitchens right now, right? Oh, yeah. I still find this to be a completely humor-free bit by you, but continue to cook it up nonstop. Don't you understand that's what makes it funny? He looked sensational.

I don't know what's going on in the last couple weeks with him because he's grown leaves and bounds from some of his earlier performance. That's what's going on. I think it's so exciting to watch Mayfield and Chubb and Joku. Like, I know they're four, six, and one. They're really not totally out of the wild curries.

But even if that isn't part of the factor, just to watch these young guys play like this has to be exciting. I mean, I can't think of a better Brown's moment than, like, today in this decade. I know they were, I know they had a winning record with Brian Hoyer and stuff, but to rub it in Hugh's face while you now feel like you have a future quarterback. And I know he's done it over the last few weeks against some of the worst defenses in the NFL. and that's going to change over the next few weeks. So he'll be tested.

But, I mean, it's a beautiful thing. Your biggest road halftime lead since 1991. That's getting it done. Agreed. The Bengals just reeling. I mean, we've seen this before. They're broken. We saw it last year.

They went through a November swoon last year. And then Marvin saved his job with back-to-back wins at the end of the season. But their defense looked like this in November of last year. And I don't see it getting much better. They're not the same. I will say this, not unlike maybe the Dolphins to some degree. A.J. Green was out. Cordy Glenn was not in there.

That did have an impact on this game. They're missing people left and right. But they also just look like a, you come out of that Saints disaster, and this is what you do? They're someone that they're five and six, and technically they're only one game out, but they really do, they do feel like a dead team walking, and they have for a while. And spare me the pregame insider reports that, like, whispers are, you know, increasing. that Marvin's just going to hand it off to Hugh at the end of the season.

That's going to depend on, if there is any thought that that could happen, that has to depend on how the season ends. And if it ends in any way that it's been going the last month, there's no way Mike Brown could do it. Even Mike Brown's going to do. If there's even a sand grain of self-scouting, you don't hire Hugh Jackson as your head coach.

That would rank probably 37th on the list of bizarre things Mike Brown has done. Let's move up. 43-yard attempt by Jake Elliott. The kick is away, and the kick is gone. It's well done. Oh, it's been a while since we heard, Merrill Reese of WIP. Get that excited.

Jake Elliott booted a 43-yard field goal through the uprights with just 22 seconds to play. It was the deciding points in a. 25-22 win for the Eagles over the Gemon, who had a 12-0 lead in this game. They were up 19-3 at one point in the second quarter. They had a 1914 lead in the fourth quarter, but the Eagles kept on coming, and they overtook their rival.

Wes, you got your luck, you got your wish of a quiet December in Gotham, and the Eagles keep themselves alive in the NFC East. I don't know what happened in this game. The Giants came out, and here's another 1991 stat. They had their most first half yardage since 1991 against an Eagles defense that was without six of the 11 starters they had in their earlier matchup with the Giants. Wow. They were moving the ball at will.

The Eagles had given up like 900 yards over their previous six quarters entering halftime. And then the Giants had negative yards in the third quarter, completely went away from Saquan Barkley. After the game, Pat Schumer said we needed to give him a spell, rest for a spell. they went away from him and he was their offense. Eagles could not stop Saquan Barkley in the first half. And then I have to go back and watch this because I honestly have no idea how the Giants blew it. I think Pat Schumer went in the tank on his play calling

and Eli couldn't make plays in the second hand. Well, Odell Beckham had pointed remarks because as we know, the Philly secondary is way banged up and there was not a lot of challenging of that secondary in the second half. And maybe we'll learn that Saecon Barkley had an injury, he was dealing with because you're right he was unstoppable in that game what what before they went away

from them and i think the turning point uh in the game and eli had a nice first half and they were piling up the yardage but he forced that throw into coverage over the middle uh in the final seconds when he could have settled for a field goal got it back to a two score game instead it was intercepted easily and that kind of from that point on it was a totally different game i mean here here are some of First of all, you had Crayvon LeBlanc covering Odo Beckham in the second half of this game. Here are some other people in the Eagle secondary or their defense in general.

You had Chandon Sullivan and Crayvon LeBlanc getting the most snaps. You got Trey Sullivan and DeAndre Hall, even in the mix there at safety. You had Devante Busby at a cornerback. I mean, this is, I mean, their entire secondary are guys that basically couldn't make the team back in September. You also have like, you know, Camus, I don't even know how to say. Brugier Hill. Rugeet Hill, linebacker.

It's like, this is a mass unit. Michael Bennett went down in this game. They had some other injuries. And for the Giants not to put any points on the board in the second half is wild. Don't let their defense off the hook. You know, I said that Thursday, I'm not sure their defense is any better in their offense. I think their defense is worse than their offense.

And the Eagles just went through them in the second half. Zach Ertz had a big game. But that's kind of like Carson went to season. The only thing predictable. or reliable about this offense is Zach Ertz. I do like Josh Adams. I do think that he gives them something to cling to down the stretch. Absolutely.

He was impressive and he had a 57-yard touchdown called back on a holding penalty on the opening drive. That was a big call in the game. He looks good. I think he's going to keep that. He's already taken over their leading rush for the season with about 300 yards. And I think he's going to keep that job the rest of the year.

The Eagles are 5 and 6. The Redskins and Cowboys, of course, tied atop the NFC East at 6 and 5. Let's move on. Donnie Townsend's punt will be fielded by Cyrus Jones and the Ravens 30 brings it along the numbers to the 40 he's got a blocker he's at midfield down the near sideline 40 oh to 30 leg race 20 10 5 touchdown Ravens 70 yard punt return for Cyrus Jones Jerry Sandusky WBL with the call Cyrus Jones big return put the Ravens ahead for good Gus Edwards and Lamar jacks combined for 189 rushing yards as the Ravens took care of the Oakland Raiders 34-17 in Ballmore. Greg, you were bubbly all day watching L Jackson, hearing little sounds from you from your

cubicle area. Why? Because he's a fun player to watch. You know, they came out in the first half, almost trying to prove a point that, hey, Lamar Jackson can be a drop-back passer. We can run a very conventional offense. There wasn't really even any threat of Jackson running, any fakes, anything like that. and he made some throws. He also had two interceptions, both of which were tipped,

but were not great throws. And then the second half, you come out, and it was like, all right, enough of trying to prove a point. Let's try to win the game. And they basically ran the type of offense that they did a week ago. 13 play drive touchdown. Gus Edwards and Lamar Jackson get it going on the ground, and Jackson make some night throws.

17 played drive touchdown. And it just took up so much time that it was essentially over after that. And I found it very telling after the game that they asked John Harbaugh, you know, if Joe Flacco gets his job back if he's healthy, and John Harbaugh went out of his way not to answer it. And I think this is Lamar Jackson's team. It wasn't perfect, but I think they want to ride this out and see what happened. I mean, and John Harbaugh's name is being whispered about for the USC job this morning, hours before they kicked off. My one question with the Ravens, because no doubt Lamar Jackson is arguably the most electric player in the league outside

of Sequin Barclay. And last week, they run for 267 yards. This week, it's what, 242. We're in a league. We're all we're talking about is forget the running back for the most part outside of four or five of them and throw the ball left and right and defenses don't matter. And the Ravens are coming at this in a completely different way.

Is that something that the next Ravens coach or even Harbaugh is going to try to sustain long term? Is this how you play offense with your quarterback rushing the ball 20-something times over time? It's got to be, right? I'd be concerned. Well, he only rushed it once in the first half. He ended up with 11 overall and ran it well in the second half.

You need to have a better defense than the one that they've shown lately for this to work. They're not really playing game-changing defense. Well, they have to do the Panthers for me, though, where you need the quarterback to move the sticks on third downs, especially. But it looks like Ozzie Newsom's rookie class is saving John Harbaugh's job. You've got Lamar Jackson, Gus the Bus, Orlando Brown's taken over at right tackle. I already see Hayden Hearst at tight ed now. This is a completely different offense.

And I think you don't mess with a winning streak. You have to keep playing. Also, is it the worst thing in the world? And I know that we just came up the week where everyone was saying football is different now. Football's changed. But the idea of those two run heavy drives, you mentioned, Greg, in the second half, covered almost 16 minutes of clock time. When defenses can't stop offenses anymore, it's not a bad thing to have a team that tries to control

the clock and keep these offenses off the field. Maybe that's the Ravens way to win. Maybe it's their only way to win. And it's just so hard, right now at least, it's so hard to, they've turned third and five to a running down. It's so hard to stop the mesh play with Gus Edwards, who had 118 yards. In the first half, they weren't even trying that on third and long or third and five. In the second half, it was just easy for them.

It was either Edwards or Jackson running to the edge, moving the ball. And Jackson's passing numbers don't look great, but he had some nice throws. he also had a 50-yard dime to John Brown that was called back by a holding penalty. So as anyone who watched him in college knows, he can throw some pretty passes. They just got to kind of figure it out. They've had some nice, easy matchups to start out.

Well, he also turns the ball over. My one thing is I can remember other quarterbacks where we were all fawning over mesh points and players running for 80 yards from under center. And it's like they have two weeks of tape on Lamar Jackson and a bunch of scattered plays here and there. not bemoaning it. If it works to Dan's point, it's fine to be a different type of offense. But I wouldn't be concerned about any attack where your quarterback is being put out there

10 times a game as a runner. I just don't love that. One thing he was good at today was pretty much avoided almost any hits. There was maybe one play, but it was basically a lot of running out of bounds on six-yard gains. Shout out to Matt Judin, by the way, who had a force fumble that turned into a touchdown for Terrell Suggs and wound up your boy Terrell Suggs I mean not my boy oh it's from it sounded like it downstairs I was a great play but right has a Terl Suggs poster that's not true at all I was saying he was not a Hall of Fame player people got to calm down with the future Halls he's gonna be in the Hall of League maybe they'll read up on Terrell Suggs he's yeah thank you that would be my point

so next drive Judon gets sacks on the first next two plays so three sacks in three plays which almost never see and he celebrated by running into the tunnel thinking it was fourth down. He pulled it perfect. It was only third down, though. A timeout wound up, like he came back and you could see him mouthing, oh, I thought it was fourth down. The game was no longer in doubt, though, that.

No, I was 3417, but still. Also, a shout out to, you had a nice, you like the call on the CBS telecast, didn't it? Oh, yeah. I mean, when you can find wordplay like this, you got to let Temposi cut it up and play it. They love cramps here in Baltimore. Crantery, the touchdown.

You got to know that could be taken a different way. He was workshopping that for a while. You got to know that. There are multiple meanings attached to that potentially. Got to be careful. Let's isolate that for future Ravens' use, by the way. Let's go, Ricky. Brady takes the snap.

Late pressure, a throat, out of the middle fork, open, plunges, and takes the catch, absorbs the contact, and falls in the end zone for a touchdown. Patriots. So why you get the big boy back? Oh, God. You know what? That was Bob Sochi and Human Gatorade Bottle, Scott Zolak with the call.

WBZ, Tom Brady, Rob Grunkowski. They do something that they hadn't done since week one, which is hookup on a touchdown. It opened the scoring for the Patriots. In the end, they push past the Jets, 2713 at the Meadowlands. If this is your thing, some people, it's their thing. Some people, it's not. It's not.

Brady is now the NFL's all-time passing yardage leader. So congrats on that. including playoffs, which to me is how stats should be. I agree with you on that. This one followed a very similar script when these teams play in Jersey, especially in the Todd Bowles era, which could not end soon enough, by the way. The Jets hang around for two or three quarters before the Pats pull away.

Same deal here. And yeah, I came out of this game. Really, if you're a Patriots fan, you're okay, but Brady, he had a cut on his thing. thumb that I think affected his accuracy, so maybe he wasn't as sharp, or maybe that also goes back to hashtag gradual decline. Maybe that's a thing. But today was a good day because Sony Michelle was running through massive holes in the Jets'

defensive line, and in general, the Pats had no problem carving up the Jets, who, by the way, hired a defensive head coach, and this is what they get, about 500 yards of total offense for the Pats. So the Patriots are 8 and 3, and like we said, with that 3. Steelers loss, Greg. They are now in position for that second buy. And that's what they got to do. They just, and this is what they're so good at, Greg, in November and December.

They just pile up wins while other teams go through highs and lows. And they, if you're a Patriots fan like me, you're looking for, okay, what can they be building off of it? Essentially had nine offensive drives in this game, and they got 500 yards. So it was a really good offensive game, even if they struggled a bit in the red zone. They moved the ball. You get Sony and Michelle back healthy. It looked like he was banged up.

But to me, he makes such a difference in their offense. They just really need him. And I think he plays to the strengths of that offensive line. And gronk is back healthy, makes one big play, not an efficient thing. He looks okay. He still doesn't look like the close. Somebody tried to get me to E. Crow for a tweet I had last week that were in the post-Gronk era. We are in the post-gronk era, but he's still capable of making plays.

And he did here with three-catch. He's still very valuable. though, right? I mean, and so if you have him and Gordon cut all five of his targets for 70 yards, that's a game to build off. It's nothing crazy but this is what the Patriots should do to the Jets. Is Jamal

Adams the only reason to watch Jets games the rest of the season? And isn't that sad? I mean, it's a safety, a reason to watch it's all game alone. As much as I love Jamal Adams and he really is a player and maybe even an all-pro he is there's no playmakers on the Jets

defense. Well, you're Todd Bulls, you've had a thousand days to fix what the previous coaching staff struggled with is you can't rush the passer and they still have no one to do it and you're getting gashed on the ground and to your point Dan I mean everything that Todd Bowles would try to sell an ownership group on what he adds he no longer adds so the season cannot end in quick enough for the jets who need a coach to come in and enough with this nonsense where you do not develop offense like it's been so long in New York. Come on.

Who else can't get out of New York fast enough is the offense coordinator, who I'm so disgusted with. I've cast a name out of my mind. Jeremy Bates, who called like 55 like passing attempts or something absurd of that in that nature for 45 passing attempts or Josh McCown in this game against the Patriots run defense that you could have moved, you could have moved the ball on. He doesn't know what he's doing. Bowles is completely lost and worse than, worse than all.

Like, this was a game I had circled on the calendar. These were the fun games. Oh, now I got Sam Darnold and we get to see him go against Brady. But here we are. The Jets are boring. They're irrelevant. And there's nothing to be learned or gleaned from the rest of the season. And I'm just waiting for the season to end.

And I'm sick of it. I'm sick of waiting until January 1st and then hoping for a brighter tomorrow. It's a terrible reality as a fan. And like, I'm very happy for you, Mark. But it like, it doesn't make it any better that I see other teams finding progress. I know it's not pleasurable. Right, like, starting to see progress. And I'm really happy because I was sick of the Browns being bad, too.

But, like, the Jets is just another wasted season. And this game, I derive no pleasure from watching the Jets. At least, though, the one ray of hope is that you didn't draft Ryan Leif. The quarterback isn't the reason that they're crumbling. We'll see. It'd be nice to see him back on the field, but you're right. And you would love to see him do some positive things, Sam Darnold, that is, down the stretch. But it's going to ultimately be for a staff that he's not working for next year.

anyway, so I get it. And I don't need to see Josh McCown anymore. I love the guy. I hope he ends up in a booth or on a coaching staff. I just don't care to watch him play for three hours on a Sunday. The Patriots gone down on his career. Patriots spend a lot of their season trying to figure out who their guys are. And they do feel like they have sort of a pecking order here on offense with Edelman now looking

a little more like himself with Hogan. Make it a couple of plays as a fourth receiver. They're healthier than they have been on defense. If you're a Patriots hater, like it doesn't. surprise me they came out of the buy and beat the Jets here, but I think there's legitimate reasons to think that they can play better down the stretch. They're healthy. Hey, Erica, first of all, congratulations.

Thank you. Second of all, 18 straight seasons with a 500 record or better for the Patriots. So that would mean you were probably like five or something? 2000. How old were you? 2000? I was in second grade. Tough year.

So about the millennium. The second grade must have been tough. You were born when Mark and I were starting college. Do you remember all that? you know, like a lot of people just wondering whether Bledsoe really mixed with Belichick or what. This is like Greg trying to cook up his early 1990s memories that he actually does not possess

of the Patriots not being good. What does that mean? It means exactly what I just said. You're saying the Patriots were good in the 1990s or the 1980s, Rod Rust and Dick McPherson? I mean, yeah, I can look up their coaches names too on pro football reference if I want to. Wow. Wow.

That one cut deep. One last note before we move on. Corderole Patterson decided to grab my boy Henry Anderson's balls. I love Henry Anderson. He's a nice little pickup by Mike McAgnon, who you're also on my list, buddy. Watch out. You also said you're going to come on our show, Mark.

Well, he did not officially. And you haven't been on the show yet. That doesn't help your cause. We didn't pursue him on any level. I sure did, Mark. I reached out to the Jets. Oh, you did? I did.

I mean, if he's listening to any of these episodes, he knows it's just, he's going to come in here and get lashed. I'm sorry, man. I'm hitting out. Wow. But anyway, Cordell Patterson was caught on CBS. I haven't seen you this mad since, like, the Rainmaker sound drop about 20 minutes ago. You're really inflating your sense of importance if you think I have an issue with the rainmaker.

I just wish you would, what I do wish you would do with the rainmaker is just to really get the bit right, pick a rainmaker. Yeah, one rainmaker for a week. Pick three. One per week. I mean, it's kind of like you said, like, the bit of it that it's making you upset, that it's what's the most fun about. I have no problem with the rainmaker. I'm trying to help you. You know, I'm trying to help you with the rainmaker.

I think one focused rainmaker would make everyone happy, but that's not Greg's aim here. Right, exactly. Okay. If that's the aim, that's fine. We're just trying to have fun here. It's season six. But you're having fun. Yeah.

It must be fun, being a Patriots fan. But isn't that what you were just talking about? Running a high level gambling ring behind the scene. I mean, I wish I was. We're actually making money off of any of this stuff. We're not allowed to do that, so we're not allowed to tell us you're doing that. So Courtney Patterson grabbed the Jets player's junk, and this is what Patterson said when questioned after the game. I'm a grown man.

I don't need no one's ass and... Censored. ...in my face, which is fair. But maybe don't grab the guy's junk. That's also fair. Feels like we can agree on both of those statements. Sure. Let's move on.

Jacksonville's second and 10 from the two to the snap. Bordeaux is going to throw it. Waits, fires down the middle. It is tipped. It is intercepted by Jordan Poyer up around the 18-yard line. Poirer goes down there. The Bills pick it off on second down. And now they're in field goal range with 501 left to play.

Oh. John Murphy, WGR with the call. Don't you look past those Buffalo Bills? Josh Allen scored the go-head touchdown. A 14-yard run in the fourth quarter. The Bills handle the Jaguars. 24 to 21. Oh, my goodness, Jacksonville.

Greg, the thing most people will remember about this game, assuming they recall anything at all, will be the fight and ejections of Leonard, Fornett, and Shaq Lawson. It was part of an incredible sequence, if this game had a little more lasting impact, that involved a great touchdown, near-touchdown catch being nullified. A fight, as you mentioned, with some haymakers, at least being attempted by Fournette and Lawson.

They're both kicked out. The fight continues into the alley, or not the alley, the tunnel. The alley would have been great. It's awesome. Jack Lawson having to be held back. Then another Jaguars touchdown being nullified. Then a terrible sack that Blake Bortles takes. Then a missed field goal by Josh Lambo, which Sean McDermott celebrates like they just won the Super Bowl.

It's a tie ball game here at the end of the third quarter. And then Josh Allen making a play. And this game was really. out of 1975, 42 throws, 74 runs, and it's very telling that the Jaguars treat Blake Bortles, just like the bills treat Josh Allen, which is that they don't really let him throw the ball. What do you think of Josh Allen? I think he had a fun game to watch.

You know, he, I'm not going to get carried away when he, I think he completed eight passes in this game, but a couple of them were beautiful throws, and he ran the ball for almost 100 yards. And I like that after his first run of the game, he's talking trash right in the Jaguars' face. And when he scored a big touchdown, the go-ahead touchdown, he does the Jalen Ramsey touchdown celebration. So I like that he's out there at least feeling himself. Jaguars are now three and eight. They've dropped seven straight. It's their longest losing streak since they lost nine straight in 2016. When that happened, Gus Bradley got canned and replaced by Doug Marone. Doug's got to watch out. This thing is starting to really get ugly now. I think he'll

be okay. I think he'll survive no matter what, but I don't know. 99 yards. You're going to go 3 and 13? I don't know. You got to win a game. Alan had 101 yards on the ground before two kneeled downs. And yeah, eight for 19 throwing the ball. The Bordles thing is crazy, though, that they just, that you're watching this game, I see Allen as a rich man's Bordles. And Bordles, it has not made any progress in the five years that he's in the league. He still looks like a poor man's Josh Allen. They've got some Redskins level offensive line issues, too. Eric Flowers played left tackle today. Andrew Norwell, their big off-season signing, had an ankle injury today.

They lost their center and right guard in the two weeks before, so they are really trained on their offensive. And they lost Fournett, who was running very well and is the key to their offense. Let's move up. Rivers under center, fakes the handoff. You know that guy. Rolling to his right. Stending the play, still rolling to his right.

Throws to the end zone caught. Touchdown. Keenan Allen. Philip Rivers stays perfect and throws his third. score of the day. Nothing there initially. I'm sitting here thinking Philip Rivers about to throw his first incompletion.

You're going to have to throw the ball away, but he never gave up on the play. No, he didn't, DJ. Move those sticks. Matt Money and Daniel Jeremiah with a call for K-F-I. Philip Rivers tied the NFL record for consecutive completions

that throw to Keenan Allen. It was also a great play by Alan who kept on moving and moving and finding a little window. These guys are locked in right now. Anyway, so Rivers tied the record for most completions to start a game and the highest percentage in a game as the Chargers whooped up on the Cardinals, 4510 at the stub. We're at the hub.

We're at the center. Rivers probably deserves some MVP love too, right, Mark? I mean, come on. He's always forgotten, and it doesn't help that he's playing in a city where he's absolutely playing second fiddle to everything that the Rams are doing right now. Sixth fiddle. Yes, I mean, how many fiddles can there be? because that stadium was...

Even the Klepper's fiddle is like playing louder. A little bit louder. A little bit louder. I mean, I want to get to the stadium thing in a second, but there are one concerning issue, Melvin Gordon, who came in with knee and hip issues, left with an injury on his other knee, which the latest I'm seeing here is that Eric Williams of ESPN

thinks it's an MCL, which is much obviously better than an ACL, and they feel like he could return, but may miss the Steelers game next week, which is critical. Ouch. They do have one of the more deeper, intriguing backfields, in the league, and Austin Ecculler came in later and played fantastically. They did everything you could ask for on offense, and Joey Bosa made a couple big plays.

The Cardinals, to me, are an absolute loss cause, but if you want to pull one thing hopeful, I thought their first drive with Rosen and David Johnson was promising, but it's more of the same. It's just a flatlining team that has to question if they're going to keep their coach around. This was a Chargers game for me because they got down early, where they bounced back well after that loss to Denver. And I do think that they can go into Pittsburgh and beat them, but I don't know if you can do that without Melvin Gordon. That was my biggest takeaway from watching the game.

When they fall behind 10-0 after what we saw in the fourth quarter of the previous Sunday, you're like, oh, man, the Chargers is going to charge her here. And then they just, what do they do? They roll 45 straight points out, and they just score every time they have the ball. And it's just another reminder. I mean, this is, you should not get lollipots for beating the Cardinals at home. But for a Chargers team that has demons and a game that, in a game that, in past, Last year's could have easily been a trap game for an organization like this with the Steelers on deck.

You've got to give them credit for that. They had one series that I thought absolutely showed that they are not previous Chargers teams, where Rosen threw an absolutely awful. And sometimes you see this from Josh Rosen. Like the decision on a throw, it's just an absolute bad decision. And he threw a terrible pick in this game to Derwin James. And then right away, Melvin Gordon shotguns for a touchdown. It's like that's what this team can do.

They're so explosive. So I am concerned if Gordon's not in there. I'll give them a little lollipop at least for blowing them out for allowing essentially no yards after those first two drives You're getting them like a Dumb Dumb one of those? Yeah

Like one of the ones from the bank. A dentist maybe a bank lollipop. That's what good teams do. They blow up bad teams. You know, I got a sneaky hot take but Dum Dum is way up there in the lollipop rankings. The mystery one?

Well, I like the cherry and I like the apple. I like the root beer one. Butterscotch. See, now you're getting a little crazy. Now you get a little out of the West. Butterscotch number one in my rank. Relax, Wes. Come on.

Can't throw butterscouch out there like that. Number one by far. I'll take Blopop right there. Hey, that's a good pick. It's a good pick. Blow pop lasts longer. I mean, it's got gum inside. That's what?

Please. That's my butt. Winston has protection. It starts to break down. Rolling to him is right. He throws the ball against his body. Wide open. Adam Huffers in the 10 to the 5.

Huffies to the 3-2-1. Touchdown, Tampa Bay. Adam Huffreys. Fair than King. Love the sound of Gene Decker off of WFU.S. James Winston threw for 312 and two touches. The Bucks easily handle the wretched Niners 27 to 9. That snaps a four-game skid for Tampa Bay.

The Niners, meanwhile, are two and nine. They seem to be gunned for that number one overall pick. Good luck to them. Mark, life is better for the Bucks when the quarterback isn't constantly throwing it to the other team. Yeah, if you, this is a Greg Rosenthal special because this may have been James Winston's best game of the year. He was not turning the ball over like a wild, you know, interception robot.

He, I thought he played pretty well. I don't want my name associated with this game as a Greg Rosenthal special. Why would one build an interception robot? Yeah, like, what's the point? Well, some teams seem like that's exactly what they want to do. It's like if you can find a low, like to middling game that's going to be last on your game pass rankings, If you were to isolate just Winston's game, I think you could come out with something to bolster your argument

that Winston is a quarterback to stick around to. Overall, I don't buy into that. But one question I come out of this with the 49ers, they were so banged up. No Pierre Garsohn, no Marquis Goodwin today. They had nothing. And so Nick Mullins was totally exposed against a terrible defense, but they just couldn't get anything.

I cannot help but wonder, because they also had to waive Ruben Foster after another charge of domestic violence. So that's another draft class going a bit wayward. The overall build-up of the Niners that if they had Jimmy G. this entire year, one thing that keeps lingering in last couple games is would there be much more fierce criticism

for a Niners team that might have maybe four wins because I don't see them suddenly ripping off nine wins just because Jimmy G's in the lineup? This is not a very good team. That's fair. They deserve some criticism. Well, those draft picks, I mean, Solomon Thomas and Rubin Foster in the first round? I mean, that's, Solomon Thomas is not on the field in key situations.

He's not really adding much. He's, you know, he's a run stopper that plays half the snaps and isn't standing out. And Foster, I mean, to me, that's the most significant thing. It had nothing to do with this game. But as you mentioned, released over the weekend after, you know, another arrest. And the fact that they took, they took him back over the summer and that that was Lynch's first class. You are wondering where the criticism is, and I think it's coming right now. I think in the Bay Area at least, this is kind of the inflection point.

Also, that you weren't competitive with a buck with his buck. Do we give Kyle Shanahan a total pass? I think he's getting one because there's no question that he'll. Does he deserve one or should this team be more? Here's the one thing. If you say that Kyle Shanahan's asset is that he coaches quarterbacks well, he has done that this year. I mean, he creates offense. Matt Breed is leading the league in yards from scrimmage.

They've had so many injuries. I think he's a great offensive mind and he's shown it. That's like a John Harbaugh situation to me. What are you going to do, let Kyle Shanahan go and watch someone else scoop him up and start winning with a great offense? I don't think it's a Shanahan issue. It's just you're two years into this and the talent on the team is there's a long way to go. And maybe they inherited junk.

We know that. It was a problematic franchise when they arrived. So it's not like, you know, to the stake, you know, burn them at the stake kind of thing. But it's just that it is an ultra free pass because you lost your quarterback. The Ruben Foster situation, it's ugly. did nothing the season on the field. They stuck with them. We'll see how this new case pans out,

but there's a chance that this is a first-round pick that's done in the league because there's a different viewpoint on how these things, how they come off now, that it wasn't like this five or ten years ago, and you wonder if he's done playing. And if so, I mean, what a waste,

what a waste of potential by Rubin Foster. There's something that's, I mean, everything about it is unsavory and disappointing, but there's something a little extra that he played extremely well as a rookie and then they make excuses to keep him and then he's struggling this season and then you cut him right away.

Let's, before we get to the Thanksgiving games and Sunday Night Football, you may or may not have heard, but Lowe's is the new home of Crasman. I'm telling you, you have to have heard by now if you listen to this podcast. It means that Lowe's, you'll find an ever-growing selection of mechanics,

tools, tool storage, and more in store and online, ready to help tackle projects. throughout your home, including that 120-tooth ratchet and that three-degree arc swing. And everybody knows what it does. You've got to know what it does by now because it swings, and it means you can loosen her tighten bolts with the less movement.

You don't need so much movement. Gives you so much leeway. Yeah, they're hard to reach spots. I mean, you've got to know what's going on with the ratchet by now. It's after Thanksgiving. Plug in. It's Christmas season. I mean, unless you hire someone to fix something,

things in your house, which some people do. Well, that person's going to need a three-degree arc swing. Absolutely. Somebody needs it. And it also comes in gunmetal chrome, which, I mean, if you're a man, you might like that. Shop the new home of Crasman today at Lowe's.com slash around. That's Lowe's.com slash around. Thanksgiving football.

Second out of 10. Here's the snap to Daniel. Back on a play fake. Looking right, throws right, got towed open, makes the catch in the end. Touchdown Bears. Let's spin through these Thanksgiving games starting with the Bears. Chase Daniel started for Mitch Trubisky through a career high, two touchdowns. The Bears keep rolling.

The team of ATN, a 2316 win over the lines. Mark, Daniel did his job, but a lot of the credit has to go to the Bears' defense, which stifled an underman Detroit attack. Oh, man, Eddie Jackson, five touchdowns on defense in two seasons. And it seems like if you play the Bears, you almost have to factor. in that they're going to score on you with their defense probably once a week because it happens over and over. And to me, this was another argument for Chicago's coaching staff, because this is not a team that goes high and low, the very consistent week to week. This was a rather

blasé game, but you were able to coach up Chase Daniel to do what we should expect backup quarterbacks to do, but you often don't get is come in and just deliver a rather vanilla performance. But he also, I thought he showed great chemistry with his running backs. There was a great wheel route. Who was the guy that caught the season? And he missed Cohen on what would have been another touchdown. Well, there was another guy that got a touchdown too. I forgot who it was.

But I hear it. Oh, Moselle. Oh, yeah, Mazzel. Yeah, it's like, he just seemed to be, he seemed to run the offense well. I thought that Alan Robinson had a great catch in this game. Taylor Gabriel's part of it. So, you didn't see a huge fall off. It's a well

coached team and you got the result that you thought you would and someone got their lock. That's right. Who was that? Well, it was not me because I switched to the Browns, but it was, it was great. Yeah, watching this game in the fourth quarter, and I know Daniel moved the ball pretty well.

His numbers look great, 27 for 37, 2.30 and 2. I think if you watched, you know, you could see the reasons why he's a backup, but he did his job. When it was mid-fourth quarter, I'm watching it. The Lions have the ball, and I'm thinking, like, the defense here for the Bears is going to have to make a play, I think, for them to win this game. Like, that's, it just felt like that. That's kind of what's next or maybe it was special teams.

And then that's exactly what they do. And that's what great defenses can do. I don't think they're a shutdown group by any means. The Lions still move the ball pretty well. But it's amazing that in a game where they sort of needed their defense to make a play at the end, they do it. I mean, can you get Matthew Stafford some playmakers around him? They're a hard watch right now. And a good job by the Bears on 85 hours rest to win another football game.

But it's hard watching Stafford on the field with a bunch of Hammondegers. They've been a hard watch for 20 years. Carry on Johnson and Marvin Jones are dynamic and they're missing and their backups are a huge step down. The Bears do need to. Well, Laguerre Plunt played pretty well in this game. He did, but I still think he's a huge step down. Nice name for Lagari. The Bears need to fix their running game, though.

Yeah. To go into Denver and run the ball with their two running backs 10 times for 27 yards. And this is not necessarily a new problem. They've been pretty up and down. That could get in the way of winning some big games. You meant Detroit? No, I meant Chicago. Tariq Cohen and just in Jordan Howard.

You said they went into Denver. Oh. He sure did. He met Detroit. Let's move on. He looks to throw. Pockets clean. Over the middle.

He's got Cooper. Cooper cuts back and now there he goes. Across the 50. It's a foot race. 40, 30, 20. Will he get there? 10? He reaches out and he's into the end zone.

Touchdown, Dallas. Brad Shamma, the sham god of KRLD with the call. Amari Cooper is making Jerry Jones look like a very smart football man. He scored two touchdowns, including that 90-yard romp in a 3123 Cowboys win over. The Redskins moves Big D into a first place tie in the NFC East West. Is Dallas once left for dead at 3-and-5? Now the favorite in this division? I think they've been the favorite for a couple of weeks.

Haba-habba. They're playing better than the other two teams. I think the Redskins, not only over the last few weeks have seen their season dealt a severe blow. They've seen their franchise dealt a severe blow. Their franchise quarterback who uses his athleticism, as his major calling card, has a spiral fracture and might not be ready for the start of this season. And at age 35, you wonder if it'll ever be the same.

This is beginning to feel like a lost season and a lost few years. The Cowboys, on the other hand, you know, I thought people jumped on the Amari Cooper trade way too early, were too quick to say it was a bad trade, and you've seen how it transforms this offense. I don't like giving up a first-round pick for a guy whose contract's about to run out,

so you're forced to pay big money to Amari Cooper, even if you got B-minus results, but he absolutely has been a game changer. I thought this last game, he actually helped create one of the only celebrations that I've enjoyed, which was that foul shot through the uprights after he scored. Oh, I think you could see that for years, though.

He had the Markell Fultz thing going on to. I actually, I sensory, like, turn off to most of the celebrations. So if it's been out for years, I might have missed it, but I thought that was the camera angle too looked nice. They did a good job with it. I was, the 90-yard touchdown is the one that gets the juice. But Cooper, his first touchdown, where he just kind of ran away from the secondary, it just showed how especially his athleticism is great.

And the Cowboys get another big game out of Zeke Elliott, who's getting the ball a ton. But he keeps on saying, feed me. He does the spoon thing. And that's been working because he's putting up about 150 yards in a touchdown or two every week. You know, spare me, though. Okay, now is Zeke Elliott in the MVP? He told you it was going to happen.

West called this game so many different ways. He said people are going to be talking about the Amari Cooper trade as a good trade, absolutely, and that Zeke is an MVP? Give me a break. Like, in what world is Ezekiel Elliott even remotely close to as valuable as Patrick Mahomes or Drew Brees? So those are the only two guys that even need to be in the conversation. But even if you extended it out to five or six, which you shouldn't. This isn't the NBA.

You don't vote for five guys. Like, he's nowhere near Breeze or Mahomes. He wouldn't even, to me, he's not even close to that list. Well, is Philip Lindsay, more valuable than Baker Mayfield? No. That's a different, the way that they take that award

and it's not called the most valuable rookie, it's called offensive rookie. Maybe that changes it. But to me, Zeke is nowhere near a franchise quarterback. He's not necessarily... He can average 175 yards a game until the end of the season.

He still wouldn't win it. What would the record be without Zeke Ellie right now? I'm not arguing for MVP, but I'm just saying like he's pretty... Right, he's pretty valuable... He's one of the most valuable running backs. And I'm not ready to say he's... They were in that range, so pretty bad.

He's up there with Tyreek Hill as the most crucial skill position players on their teams. And I'm not so sure that the Cowboys are playing that well offensively with Amari Cooper. They got two big plays. They won this turnover battle three to nothing. The Redskins had a lead fairly late. This looked like two fairly even teams, but one is extremely banged up right now. And the Cowboys, if they don't beat the Saints on Thursday night, they're going to be tied for the lead with either the Redskins or the Eagles. Going into the last four weeks this season.

We're going to get the eight-and-eight winner in this. I do think they're the best team, but I don't think that they... Well, the other two teams are hot garbage right now. Right, and they're playing each other, so one of them gets a win. I don't think Dax really played very, like, his best football the last couple of weeks. Like, the offense is still very hit or miss. Thursday night football. Thanks.

He's looking to throw. Has a man open toward the end zone. Touchdown, New Orleans. Tommy Lee Lewis just activated tonight. Put some points on the board for the Saints of 20. 38-yard toss. It's 6-0, New Orleans. It felt like that's Zach Streep, WW. I felt like the Saints are just messing around on Thanksgiving night.

Tommy Lee Lewis and Austin Carr. Each catch touchdown passes, their second career touchdown passes for both of them. Rookie tight end. Dan Arnold, there he is. Dan Lauria. Rookie receiver, Keith Kirkwood, also got touchdowns. They're first. Both of them. Saints, they've won 10 straight now. 3117 over the Falcons, and that's even pushing about how close this game really was. Greg, this looked like an easy one on paper for the Saints, and it was.

It was, especially because the defense keeps making plays. I mean, the Falcons move the ball pretty well, but you have no chance to win a game that has such a small margin for error when you go to New Orleans. When Matt Ryan loses a fumble, Julio Jones loses a fumble on the way into score, and Calvin Ridley loses a fumble on the way into score. So the Falcons shot themselves. in the foot. But like you said, Dan, even if they hadn't, and they hadn't made those

mistakes, you got the sense that Saints had another gear that they could have gone offensively in this game and they didn't even need it. I mean, there was a second half picked by Matt Ryan too. You're so right. Like that Ryan played well. No, he, he's played well every game. But like the turnovers, you can't, you can't get out of each of these possessions with no points. That's the thing. You have to take more chances when you're playing the Saints in New Orleans too. I mean, threw the ball really well. He did. And he's been doing that, but he also had that interception, fumbled three times. That fumble was, the play was designed for him to fake inside, and by the time he turned around, the ball was out of his hands.

You can't even credit. That speaks to New Orleans. Unlike some of these other teams that are vying for buys and stuff, they can rush the passer in some of these games. They're getting pressure, six sacks. I mean, that, come on. I know Greg has said they are, you can't say that they're not as good on the road as at home. I just can't disagree with that more. They are much better at home, the Saints. They are a much better home team than road team, and their defense plays so much faster at home. I think they're obviously more dangerous at home.

They've just been a good road team this. They've been better on the road this year than years past. They haven't lost the game. And they've been some good teams. Right. They got lucky to beat the Ravens. And, you know, the Vikings outplayed them for about 20 minutes in the first quarter or first half of that game. I just think their defense at home, the Bears are the only defense I trust more than the Saints

defense right now. Wow. they are so watch that game again they are so fast on defense and they pressured ryan all game well they're getting better anzoloni is getting better yes sheldon rankins is getting better davenport came back for this game and he adds so much juice to them so it's a defense and laddimore is getting better started off the season pretty slow and playing well now they're playing really fast two years ago the balkans were up 283 in the super bowl couldn't get over the hump last year in the nfc four and seven this year got to win when you get there you don't know if you'll ever get back that's true another lost year for the Falcons to Sunday night football

pick the hand of Cousins rolling chased by Matthews fired there'll be a first time and more and stealing can he get in yes touchdown oh Al Michaels with the call Kirk Cousins versus Aaron Rogers

who wins it's Kirk Cousins and it wasn't close the Vikings quarterback threw for 300 and 30 yards. Three touchdowns was not intercepted. And the Minnesota Vikings, a huge home win, 2417 over the Packers, who are now 4 and 6 and in a free fall out into nothing.

As Tom Earl Petty once said, Greg. Well, that was very crisp, I'm going to get a classic rock riff in there. On a night where you thought the Packers won't one last stand, it just isn't there. There's no juice. Vikings came to play and got it done. They did. I don't think you could watch this game and have any takeaway other than the better team won.

I mean, the Vikings had 416 yards to 254 for an Aaron Rogers-led Packers team. The Packers came in banged up. They got more banged up throughout the game. And the best Vikings players showed up, including Stefan Diggs, in the last moments, this game was not over yet. And the Vikings decide to throw the ball on third and long. Pretty surprising. and it would have had have been a lot of criticism if it didn't work out.

Kirk Cousins does not deliver a good throw, but Diggs reaches behind him for a wobbler and ends the game. Once again, situational football is the bugaboo for the Packers. That fourth in one play where they got stuffed, I thought that was huge. Tremont Williams trying to catch a ball that bounced over his head. That was huge. And then once again, we ought to call this on McCarthy

when your team only has one time out left when you're trying to come back in the two. two minutes real. They always have one timeout. They like start every half with one time out and no one knows how. They put them on prime time three of the last four games.

They've lost all three. And I get the lost New England, acceptable. But you have Seattle and Minnesota, two teams that float in your world if you're the Packers, that you need to come out and show us. We can take care of Seattle and then we can take care

of the division opponent that we know so well. You can't do either. You don't belong in the playoffs. The difference for me with this game compared to all these other games because it did follow similar script as all these losses have is that someone, whether it's the defense or a special team, messes up and doesn't even give Aaron Rogers a chance. And in this case, they weren't able to get the third down stop.

But you know what? This game's different to me because I don't think it matters. Even if Aaron Rogers gets the ball back and I never want to doubt Aaron Rogers, but the way this team looked on offense, they just seemed dysfunctional and frankly broken. There's no, the magic that was on display early in the season. Remember, when we were in London, our hotel rooms, we're watching that Bears game and how fun that was with Rogers. By the time we've gotten now to late November,

there's just, that seems to be absent now. And they're 0 and 6 on the road, which, and Aaron Rogers has to take some credit for the blamers, take some of the blame here, too. I don't think anybody is blameless in what's happened in Green Bay. Since that Bears game, your wins, precious Green Bay Packers, are against the bills, 49ers, and dolphins. If another team had this script, we'd be killing them. We are killing them.

Mark, are you listening to what we're saying right now? It took till this night. Yeah, but other teams... I killed them last week. Two weeks ago. Other teams don't have one of the great quarterbacks in NFL history, so you're always going to give them a chance. But to Dan's point, you're right.

They haven't developed anything throughout the season. They're backing up. Like, Valda Scantling we were excited about for a while. You had three yards in this game. You know, Equanimia St. Brown is their number two receiver. You never got Cobb back. It's a lot of it. I mean, a lot of key injuries, too.

Nick Perry, Mike Daniels. These are core guys. But I don't know if they could have figured it out anyways. It is as dark as it's ever been in the Mike McCartney era. This finally does. Here's your hope. You have the Cardinals, Falcons, Bears, Jets, and Lions. Are we going to start hearing about the run the table, 9, 6, and 1?

Only if they win two or three straight. And guess what, Mark, I know you root against Aaron Rogers. I'm not rooting against Aaron Rogers. I just, this, tonight, this is reality. You don't root against Aaron Rogers? This is reality to me. Let's pull up some of the audio during this game. It's not just Aaron Rogers.

It's the whole thing surrounding the Packers. If Aaron Rogers were on a different team dealt with differently, I would not feel that way about Aaron Rogers at all. I'm not going to stop rooting for Aaron Rogers, even though it's a bad team. That's not what I'm doing, by the way. Okay. Just your, that's a narrative. Okay, cool. I'm going to keep rooting just because it's more fun.

I think it's fun when he's involved in December and in January and what sucks about this, especially I have nothing else to root for. is it seems like they are just not going to be players. I mean, but here's my question. They're like five or six other really amazing teams to root for. Why not let know of the Packers? Not the Packers, but I think Rogers is special. That's why it's a bummer that he's not going to be around. He looked in the mirror this week.

He promised changes. He said, I have to play differently, and this was more of the same. I didn't see anything different. I didn't see a better Rogers. And I think, to Mark's point, this is not a fun team to watch. They broke me in that Seattle game. And I'm with Greg. I'm ready for the McCarthy era to be over

so Rogers can work magic with someone else. I mean, I think we're going to get our wish. And I think the time is still going to tell about this Vikings team. This was an important, important step forward for them. And they did some of the things that you want them to do. Cousins played a very clean, excellent game feeling. And Diggs looked like stars.

Cook looks like he has more juice, even though they still can't run the ball, at least in the passing it. He looks like he is more juice. And more importantly, Richardson, I think this team's going to go as far as Richardson, Griffin, and Hunter take him. I mean, some of the moves that Hunter put on on a key sack, Richardson's played great our year. If those three can dominate and Linval-Joseph, too, then I think this team has a shot to really make some noise. They haven't really all put it together too often as a total team, but they got the pieces to do it.

They have tough games at New England, at Seattle, but to use Mark's phrase, the Vikings live in that word. It's not like the Patriots are some kind of juggernaut this year, and the Seahawks aren't either, so they can win those games. Yeah, great win for the Vikings. I'm a little bit worried, and I know all Vikings fans are the same way. Two more misses for Dan Bailey in this game. Zimmer lost trust. And you got to wonder.

They went for it on fourth down when they had a chance to really put the game away or make it a 17-point game or 13-point game, and they decided to go for it. didn't work out, and who knows, is Dan Bailey on this team? And this Vikings curse at the kicker position, this team's going to play close games. They're trying to win a Super Bowl. What happens there? That's one negative, I would think, from Sunday night.

And that they've got quite a bit of ground in my mind to catch up. I mean, in the standing, certainly with the Bears, a game and a half is significant this late in the season. And just the Bears seem like a better team. So they are fighting uphill to get a wild card spot, which is a tough route to get to a Super Bowl. They're in the five seed right now. in a very loaded NFC, but it's still a big way. Do the Vikings feel like a team that's going to get into the wildcard round and rip off three wins against all these other teams in the NFC?

Absolutely not. But the difference is, had they lost tonight, we'd be burying them, and they would be buried. They haven't shown it, but they have the pieces that you would think that they can play better. And different parts of the team have played well. Like, tonight, if you have the defensive line, if you have that good a pass rush and that good of a passing game, you're going to have a chance to win any game.

What we want to see the rest of the year is fix the offensive line in the running game. Then we'll take you seriously. 254 yards of total offense for the Packers in a game they needed. What a mess. All right. That's it for Sunday. We have one more Monday night football. One more game.

It's on Monday night. It's a matchup between who, Wes? Titans and Texans. Your team. You're Houston Texans. I know it's my team. I knew the matchup. I was just giving Wes a little.

I know. Airtime. It's a special. Dan's Texans against the titoons. Somebody's team. I feel bad for whoever it is. I didn't even think about that. It's kind of like your team versus your anti-team.

And then for us, Tuesday will be our Twitter show. And then Wednesday and late Thursday night, two podcasts. And then we just keep going as we head towards December. That's it. This is Dan Hansa signing off for Quiet Storm, the mailman. The old boss. And Ricky Hollywood behind the glass. Hey, Ricky, how was millennial Thanksgiving?

It was really fun. Nice. Thanks. Until Tuesday. relies on you. Don't let them down. Unlock elite gaming tech at Lenovo.com. Dominate every match with next level speed, seamless streaming, and performance that won't quit. So you can push your gameplay beyond performance with Intel Core Ultra processors. For the next era of gaming, upgrade to smooth high-quality streaming with Intel Wi-Fi 6E and maximize game performance with enhanced overclocking.

Win the tech search. Power up at Lenovo.com. 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.

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