NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Week 4 recap

Episode Date: October 5, 2015

A room filled with heroes - Dan Hanzus, Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler and Colleen Wolfe – break down each game from week 4 of the regular season including a happy Dan from a Jets victory and several teams staying undefeated from a victory.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast, Sugar's the A-Calf. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by room filled with heroes, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, and Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. Dan just went around the room and touched us with his sweaty hands. I didn't, but I'm fine.

I couldn't reach you, Mark, but I will after the show. Feeling a little clammy? A little bit. They were a little clammy. A little bit on the clammo side. Old clammo hanso. Old sticky fingers. Old sticky fingers hands us.

Welcome to the Around the NFL podcast. This is our week four recap show. And that means the quarter poll of the season. Pretty exciting. It was not a great day of games on paper. And yet, as it often happens, Sessler mentioned, a lot of good games on the field, a lot of excitement. That's true.

I mean, every week the NFL delivers high excitement. And this was no different. Mark, you were, by the way, just so everyone knows, and I had it clocked at 4.21 p.m. Pacific time, Mark reacted with excitement to a Browns game that he was watching, officially ending Mark's hunger strike against the Browns. What a waste of time my reaction was. It was. The game did not end well, and getting emotionally invested in this team on any level is a disaster move.

Yeah, I feel you. I feel you. I did across my mind when that happened that I do understand, again, I don't necessarily support it, but I totally get what you're doing here. Well, we can't all wake up at like 6 a.m. Pacific time and watch our team just destroy someone else from another country. Oh, that's true. That's true. It was a nice wake up this morning. I woke up before my infant son for once. and my wife, and with the sun not even up yet, I got to watch the Jets in London. We're going to get to that. A lot of show coming up today on the Around the NFL podcast. What do we got coming out?

We got all the games from week four. And Greg, we did the Thursday game. We got the Monday night game coming up. We have two teams on by. So we're going to talk about 13 games. 13. Wait, what about the game that was in London early this morning? What about it?

Oh, that counts as one of the 13th. Okay, cool. It wasn't in America, so I didn't know what the rules were. It's a little hazy, but I get what you're saying. Yes, we're counting that. We're going to talk about that game as well. Also, we're going to have in the studio again, our good friend. She's almost like an unofficial, official member of the Around the NFL podcast. She is, Connie Fox, better known around these parts, Colleen Wolf. We'll be back. I mean, if one of us were to, you know, die quickly, suddenly the show, she could quickly move every fire. Or a thing around here.

You'd be remembered just as long as if you were fired or got killed in this environment that we're in. So they would quickly shift, you know, Connie Fox takes the spot. Basically, she's leverage against all of us. She's a safety guard against Trent. Smart move by us to just hand management leverage like that. Yeah. And you know what, with Connie Fox, too, if she wants to be part of this show on a full-time basis, she knows all she has to do is get rid of one of us.

So just keep that in mind. Maybe we'll bring that up when she's in here. And then finally, we have the Cowboys v. Saints Sunday night football from the Super Dome. We're going to get into that. That, of course, the return of Drew Brees back in the lineup after missing a week with a shoulder injury. And yes, four more quarters of Brandon Whedon. They never get sick of that. So that is everything we got coming up today on the show.

That sounds like a pretty good show. You guys agree? Pretty full. Yeah. All right. So let's get into it. Let's start with the first game. And the first game that we're going to get to will be a prime time, or excuse me, a late game in Denver.

And it's another week and another dominant performance for the Broncos defense. Denver sack Teddy Bridgewater seven times, overcoming another shaky performance from Peyton Manning and a 2320 win over the Vikings. And a couple things, few things. First of all, in case we needed any reminder, this Broncos defense is for real. Teddy Bridgewater I thought and Greg I think you made some type of reference to this too in the newsroom that Bridgewater

he acquitted himself pretty well considering how much pressure he faced all game he did a great job alluding pass rushers throughout the day even though he got sacked seven times and ultimately that's what it came down to and they got a nice day from Ronnie Hillman who had a 72 yard

touchdown run in the second quarter that acted as two things the longest touchdown run of the NFL season so far. And it officially, he supplants C.J. Anderson most likely as their number one running back option. And you saw it even down the stretch this week with Ronnie Hillman, Hillman getting carries in a big spot. So Hillman stepping up, the defense having another monster day, to Marcus Ware looks like he's 27 years old. And Peyton Manning, listen, we know now what we're seeing from Peyton Manning on a week to week basis. He can still get it done, but he's not going to be

dominant. I mean, you're just not going to see it. So here's my thing. And I'll throw it to you, Greg, to get us going here. Payton Manning just has to be a league average quarterback, right? And this team's going to win 12 games and be a factor in January, right? They're 4 and 0 with him being a league average quarterback. I thought he improved a lot last week. I think he played a really good game in week three once I got a chance to go watch that again. I think for the most part during today's game, he played well, but he made that almost rookie type of mistake that you're not used to see not a Peyton man right before halftime when he threw the interception and that turned the game around.

The kind of mistakes that you thought he would not make when I compared him to Farv's final season. That's true. He isn't playing that smart. He's throwing pick sixes. That's true. And he doesn't need to be great because this defense, every week, they find a way to come up with the play at the end of the game.

And I'm into stats and I'm, you guys, sometimes Wes makes fun of me for being like too logical and taking the logical, you know, rational. I'm a little jealous. But I don't have that. But I do believe there is such a thing as Mojo in terms of winning close and late games. And this defense especially believes they're going to make the play to win the game each week. And the play to win the game this week was T.J. Ward late in the fourth quarter with the Vikings driving down three points, a sack and strip of Teddy Bridgewater.

Von Miller falls on the ball. Game over. I mean, the difference with this Broncos team is not just, oh, they're making up from Manning's less effective play. Like, the defense is looking dominant. And, you know, you take away Hillman's big run today. Their running game is not been that impressive. But if they can shore that up, this is a team much better prepared to win later in the year in cold weather games and in the playoffs than just having to lean on manning. However, I'm not anymore convinced that a team with a lesser manning is a better shot to get to the Super Bowl.

There's a massive compromise at play here. Maybe not a better shot, but they have a shot. They're 4 and 0, and they're just figuring things out. I think John Elway deserves a lot of credit for rebuilding on the fly. Well, they were worried about what's going to happen when Manning's gone or he's not dominant. Well, he's gone. He gets more credit than the AGM in the game. What happens when January Manning shows up?

I mean, he's already playing fairly poorly now, and it's his time of year. Right. Well, there's two ways to look at it. It's either this team is better built for January football because they're not leaning on Manning to produce like a all-timer, and they're going to lean on their defense more. But if Manning is like this now, if he regresses beyond now, they're not going to have a shot. Because he can't be a lesser player. He kind of has to stay here or get better.

He can't get worse because he's already right at the middle of the pack right now. At what time have we ever looked at any Super Bowl hopeful team and say the quarterback isn't as good as he was last year? So they're a better threat to get to the big game. I'm not saying that. I know you're not. But it's just that it's easy to get to that narrative. This is a much more playoff rugged type team. But Manning is just going to do and push.

make mistakes and big spots? Well, they don't buy it. But this defense has a chance to be truly special, to be a defense that is just as dominant as the Seahawks defense has been the last couple years and has carried that team. I mean, seven sacks, 11 QB hits today, and they're just so deep that you can see

that if Manning can just, you know, prove a little bit, why not? Does it worry you at all? They're waiting by two games in the AFC West. Those games count. I mean, they're way ahead already. Does it worry you at all that it took Ronnie Hillman out playing C.J. Anderson for three pre-season games

and four regular season games before they turn? to Ronnie Hillman. Sure. I mean, I guess you could potentially chalk that up to they thought so highly of Anderson this year. And he has been playing through injury. On the other side at the running back position, I think one of the things we're most excited about in terms of matchups this week was Adrian Peterson versus the Denver defense. And I called it in the write-up a draw because they did a really good job bottling them up for the most part,

but on one of the biggest plays of the game, which was a fourth and one from midfield with about nine minutes to play. in the fourth quarter. Peterson busted through a huge hole, great blocking, and took it to the house. So that's a big impact play, obviously, still has the legs. So, yeah, Peterson was kind of held in check, held under 100 yards, but also had a big score. So interesting matchup. Let's see it again. Each week, Bridgewater disproves some of the things that were said about him in the draft. Like, his arm wasn't that great. I mean, he had a couple throws where he's getting pulled down today, where his arm was unbelievable, just one throw where he threw it out of bounds, and that he's not that greatest scramble. When he wants to be, he is one of the best two or three scrambling

quarterbacks in the league. I call this like an onion check game for him. He had a chance to make a big, a big comeback at the end of the game, maybe steal, a tough game in the road. It didn't happen. And he did have the game ending turnover, so I'm not going to go crazy. But I did see things from him today that leaves you still excited about Teddy Bridgewater. And this, I would assume, I've never played at this level that you know of, that you know of, but I would assume this would help him down the line. And history knows of. They showed well today. Broncos are 24 and 2 out of home since Peyton Manning took over.

They showed well to make this a game. All right. Let's move on. Let's talk about some of these. Let's just go down the line and talk about some undefeated teams. Next up, the Arizona Cardinals, who had a home date against the Rams looking to go 4 and 0. But Todd Gurley had other plans. He exploded for 136 yards in the second half alone.

And the Rams held on for a 24-22 victory over. the Cardinals, knocking Arizona from the ranks of the unbeaten. Chris Wessling, please. Explain to me, Mr. Scientists. Who are these St. Louis Rams? Well, this is the first time in the Jeff Fisher era where I thought they were watchable. Yeah. This was the best game in the afternoon.

I didn't see all the games, but it was a fascinating game. It was a slug fest between two quality teams, and the Cardinals were the better team. The Rams were lucky to get away with a win. But Wes is turning the corner calling the Rams a car. quality team you guys you were making fun of the quality team because Todd Gurley emerged as a dominant talent in their backfield they haven't had an offense he gives them an offense exploded for 136 yards in the second half and looked great doing it and showed awareness in the final drive with a couple of big runs where he just kind of sat down at the end of the run instead of trying for extra yardage

or going out of bounds that's a great trope by the way announcers calling games where a running back or a receiver, has the presence to get down and keep the clock moving and not score, catnip for announcers like, oh, that guy's head is in the game, he's a heady player, these surroundings, he's always aware of everything. For him, it was because it was his second

game ever. And he knew it. I didn't just love it. It was a combination of how well he was running, too. How about the problem with the, we got a lot of tweets. Let's just confront this. A lot of team of ATL curse tweets wondering one game after. That's preposterous. They were the better team today.

Okay, why? They were extremely unfortunate. They turned the ball over three times. They outgained the Rams easily. And it was just a lot of bad luck. Like Larry Fitzgerald fumbling, Carson Palmer threw an interception in the end zone where it was a helmet catch by Genoa's Jenkins.

You can't just say that. It's bad luck for the car. When David Tyree caught the ball on his helmet, did you think it was lucky? No. Wes is raising his voice at you, Greg. You can't let that stand. Greg, you are the boss.

You need to take command of the situation. Of course it's a lucky play to catch a ball on your helmet. Well, he caught it first, and then, you know, there's this gently massaged. Perhaps. Part of the callback here is that the boss, you know, people didn't really buy into this, but he talked about the Rams backfield as being one of the more watchable, intriguing ones around. And listen, if Gurley does this on a week-to-week basis, he is absolutely right. Who cares what Trey Mason does?

Well, yeah, Trey Mason, I guess maybe it's just one of the more watchable players because Trey Mason only had two carries for negative one yards today. By the way, Honey Badger echoed my sentiment, just watched the tape. By no means did they do anything special. We beat ourselves. The Cardinals were the better team, and they're still a powerhouse and one of the best teams in the NFL. In an extremely unfortunate day, they still were easily the better team on the field.

But that's fine, but that's the Rams recipe, essentially. I mean, they beat the Seahawks this way. They beat the Cardinals this way. That's basically who they're going to be. Full 16 for 24 for three touchdowns, you know, not making huge mistakes, the defense making big plays. I mean, red zone defense counts as something. And yards don't count as much of anything.

They basically, they play the game they wanted to. And I get it. Your first game after being named Team of ATL, you're going to have some butterflies. A lot of pressure. You can end up making some mistakes that would be deemed uncharacteristic. I get that. But you just need to now, now that's out of the way. Now you push forward.

I did. There is not even a 1% of me that is concerned about this game. The Cardinals are a very good football team. There was chatter. I mean, we heard this, you know, Greg and I heard this before work today. A couple people inside the Cardinals locker. word did get around that they were chosen as team of ATL. A lot of pressure.

It's just another thing that Ariens, their schedule's tough. Ariens has a lot of issues to confront and this is one of them. What kind of team are we? Can we handle this pressure? Are we just going to mail it? And to answer some of the people tweeting at me, I'm not happy that the Rams beat the team of ATL. Now it's

the team of ETL. That is everyone's team. The Rams, they were the team of THAL fall, but now I'm more into the team of ATL. Well, speaking have tough schedules. The Rams go to Green Bay next week. That's the good thing they won this game.

It's a good thing they won. The momentum might be short-lived. All right. So, the Arizona Cardinals no longer undefeated. How about the Atlanta Falcons, A-Town, is where they play? How about that? All right. No one calls it that.

The Falcons remain undefeated as NFL touchdown leader Devanta Freeman. I said that, and it's true. Gashed the Texans for 140. 49 yards and three scores, a 4821 blowout victory. Ryan Mallett was benched after a miserable first half in a predictable development, and I fear that's it. We're not going to get any more Ryan Mallet. I've enjoyed the arrow while it's last.

Wes, this, you would classify this game. I'm just going to throw it out there. Tell me if it's accurate, a total mismatch. It was a boat race. I mean, it was 42 to nothing, I think, by the middle of the third quarter. to the point where they just put Freeman, Julio Jones, and Matt Ryan

and bubble wrap. Freeman looked great. He had the same burst that he had last week. The offensive line gave him huge holes. Became the first back since the merger with three touchdowns in each of his first two career starts. And he looked phenomenal. He looks to me like a combination of an early

career Ray Rice and an early career Pierre Thomas. I can't say enough about Kyle Shanahan. Yes, absolutely. Because these are a lot of the same players that couldn't have been less fun to watch a year go. Does it bother you that the Browns had Kyle But I think that's why I'm seeing

now firsthand how important he was to Cleveland last year because they went from looking like one of the most dominant lines with a run game that fit their backs perfectly to looking nothing like that now where that's what the Falcons are with what was a terrible offensive line last year, they're moving the ball.

Kyle Sanahan's going to get some head coaching love if this offense keeps up. Well they've scored 35 points in back-to-back games for the first first time since their 1998 Super Bowl. When Leonard Hankerson is getting over 100 yards for your team, you're doing something right. What about the Brown's clean house? You get rid of farmer, who's a bum, let's face it.

You get rid of petting, sorry, it's just not working out. And you bring back Shottie, the prodigal son under new management. Head coach. Shattie, Shannie. Shannie, excuse me. It's a little early to get on that road, Dan. Okay, let's talk about the Texan side of things, and let's hear what and see what Bill O'Brien had to say after the game, taking it very hard.

I'm disappointed to myself. I'm disappointed in me as a head coach. That's what I'm disappointed in. Because I don't think I did a good job today. And I think I have to do a better job of being a head coach of this team. It starts with me. To go out there and perform like that, that's on the head coach. So I'm going to try to do a better job.

Kind of a transparent coach move there. And then he thinks in his mind when they write the biography about the Super Bowl season, when I put all the pressure and all the struggles on my shoulder, that let the team be themselves and not worry about the outside factors and just what was going on between those 100 yards long and the 53 yards across.

Well, I think also anyone, he knows that anyone watching the game tape is going to know that he alone is not to blame for this disaster. I think he's right. It's all his fault. He's mismanaged the quarterback situation pretty well.

Now they have a Thursday night game coming up against the Colts. They're one and three. He's, I guess, going to name Hoyer as a starter. There's no way you're not. You're turning back to them out. Oh, by the way, and the disrespect that they show our quarterbacks, I'm tired of it because both of those kids can play. Enough is enough.

He was wrong. He was trying to talk his coaching staff into it. Maybe the person who really mismanaged it, though, was Rick Smith. Yeah. That this was even a situation that Bill O'Brien had to deal with. They'd rather have Hoyer than Ryan Fitzpatrick? Well, those, but those quarterbacks are somewhat hand-fixed by Ryan, at least Hoyer. And it was a terrible year to try to find a quarterback if you didn't have a high draft. Well, Arian Foster.

A bunch of teams. You know, things aren't going well. When he returns for this game, you know, he has 10 yards and 8 carries. In one of those carries, he fumbled the ball. It was returned for a touchdown, and the fumble was caused by his own teammate. Oof. Exactly. He looked rusty.

And Ryan Mallett, I mean, he should never start again. I'm sorry, Dave Damashek, but there's no timing element. There's no timing element to his offense because he just stares down receivers and tries to throw it through him, as we've mentioned before. And he was just incredibly inaccurate. He would probably beat Donovan Nab's Wormburner record. Most one hoppers to his wide receivers have he played all year. Did you see Colin Capernick today? He might be in the race.

Yeah, he'd be another candidate. We're going to see both of these quarterbacks like five more times. That would not surprise me. This is going to be absolutely rough to watch. All right, let's move on another undefeated team. The Carolina Panthers, they remain undefeated. Josh Norman continued his Mark Sessler revenge tour. Intercepting to James Winston passes running one back for his score.

and a 37-23 win for the Panthers over the Bucks. Panthers are 4-0 keeping pace of the Falcons atop the NFC South. And, you know, Josh Norman, listen, Mark, you had an unfortunate run-in. He got banged by our bold prediction story that we have to write every week and now it becomes part of your legacy. But Josh Norman is playing great. I mean, he was good for them last year. He's been their best player on defense this year.

Him and Cam Newton have been the two best players on that team. He leads the NFL with four picks. They're probably two and two without Josh Norman. And it's nothing to do with even today because the first week and week three, I mean, he was core to them turning the game around. I like to think that, you know, if he was lacking that final brick of motivation, what is it I need to really set my season on fire? It's a completely misdirected Twitter argument I actually had nothing to do with,

but somehow I get swirled into it deeper and deeper by a bunch of oversensitive panther fans. That's a great, and the panthers are very sensitive as I've said my Cam Newton thing I got swept up in in January. Hey, TD, after the season when Josh Norman wins defensive player of the year honors, can we effort getting Josh Norman in the studio? Have to make it happen for sure. You don't have to work too hard on that. How about a bye week?

Let's even get a buyout. They play the Seahawks coming out of their by week. Everyone's excited, the Panthers, but no one really is taking them that seriously. That's for good reason. Their defenses look great. These are the quarterbacks they face so far this year. Blake Bortles, Ryan Mallett. Luke McCown and James Winston.

That's somehow Rushmore. They've taken care of business. And on offense, I think they've done better than anyone could have possibly hoped for. And Cam Newton's playing well overall. But that's about the idea they get. Cam Newton did not light up the box score. But he's doing exactly what he needs to be doing for this team right now. He's not forcing the issue.

He's not going to throw for a ton of yards or throw a lot of touchdowns. But he had two scores today, both to Ted Ginn, by the way, back from the dead. Well, good for them. He just hangs around in the NFL, makes a play every year and a half. And then you had, of course, no interceptions and led the team in rushing. He's their best running back. Let's face it, so far this season, Jonathan Stewart hasn't really lived up to his promise. So Newton is carrying this offense himself.

And we don't, there's no such thing as a quarter poll MVP, but he should be in the discussion if there was. He's 4-0 and carrying a team with a crap offense. I think this is the best four-game stretch of his career, all things considered. But it's come against four of the worst teams in the NFL. I totally disagree. In three of his four starts, he's in the Gabbard zone. I think he's playing well. But look who he's throwing to.

That's a direct relation to him's throwing to. The stats don't tell the story, but I don't think he's playing particularly that much better than he's played for other stretches of his career. A couple other things here. Jared Allen. Got easy opponents. His Panthers debut, one tackle.

And a sad story, the kicker for the bucks, Kyle Brinza, you won't hear about him no more. he's missed five of his last seven kicks after they scored a touchdown the bucks in the third quarter to make it 31-16 he got booed as he came on to the field for the extra point made that one but then came on the field again

in the fourth quarter for another extra point missed that as well and he looked like he was going to cry afterwards it was a bad week by the way bad week for kickers it's a shame too because his range is 70 yards he's got the biggest leg in the NFL yeah so he'll probably resurface somewhere but

I mean this was one of those weeks where it seemed like every team had a kicker missing. And don't be surprised when that's a big narrative this week that the extra point being pushed back has gotten in the heads of these kickers. And they're fragile men. I get that. Oh, so they simply wanted to do the things

that were like 99.4% successful. They're not reacting well. But there's no, we're going to go through it in these games. There's some huge misses. Before he went on his missus, he hit a 58-yarder. Wow. He hit it halfway up the net, too. Yeah, so he can kick, but...

Not accurately. So that's what's going on with the Panthers. So good job, guys. 10 straight home losses for the bucks. It's so depressing. Winston with four picks for them in his second home game after the first one was such a statement. And the first three of those picks resulted in touchdowns for the Panthers.

24 points off turnovers. Let's talk about another undefeated team, the Green Bay Packers, who usually depend on Aaron Rogers to lead the way. But on Sunday, it was the defense that did the heavy list. shifting a 17-3. Was it 17-3? That's correct. That is correct.

Thank you. 17-3 win over the 49ers who have now lost three in a row after that Monday night aborition. It must have been the whole Chris Berman or at the big bell bottom. That must have got them motivated to the point that they were able to get a victory,

but now they've crashed down to Earth. Greg. That was definitely... Well, they were competitive. They were better in the Big Bell-Bottom today. Yeah. I mean, so the Packers are undefeated and the 49ers are lost, aren't they?

with Colin Kaepernick leading the way into the abyss. They're a tough watch, and just kind of like last week, I thought Sam Bradford's follow-up to his absolute horror show in week two was almost a bigger, you know, red flag because he did it again. This game, to me, was an even bigger red flag for Kaepernick, because now you have two games like this in a row. He had three plays all day where he completed a pass longer than five yards

or that went further than five yards in the air. They had less than 200 yards of offense. He held the ball too long at times, and then the offensive line was just a disaster. Tori Smith, after the game, was saying they had us in man coverage, zero coverage, essentially, no safety back there, blitzing all game long, and they never figured it out. So that's on Kaepernick, and that's on the entire offensive coaching staff. They were just clueless. I mean, they just had people coming all day. And if you want, because I had one eye on this game as well.

And if you watch some of the body language, TD, you should check this game out because I know that's something that you thrive at. Body language reading, Tori Smith, Anquan Bolden, visibly frustrated by the Callan Kaepernick display. Well, and you talk to, like, Bucky Brooks, and he talks about when you have a new coach and everything's new, that you don't have a long leash with your players. And when you're the 49ers, that first week win, all right, we were all thrown off by that. But what's happened since is what people worried might happen in this team. And how long do they believe in this coach? Well, the defense played outstanding, and they played hard all day. And they really could have made this a one-score game with about five minutes left.

The only reason the Packers were even ahead by that much was because Rogers had an unbelievable third and seven throw to James Jones. I mean, the defense looked, they made Aaron Rogers look very mortal. But, TD, let's show those two Kaepernick plays again, because I think it just shows what Kaepernick was doing wrong. today. And on the third, he had one third and long that I really remembered where he scans the field. And instead of trying to make a pass, he ends up just running out of bounds for a five-yard gain. And then the very next drive he has a third and long, and he's back there. We're watching, if you're watching on the video, the first third and long, instead of looking for one of the receivers, he just runs out of bounds. Okay, we're not even going to give that up. The next

drive on a third and long, he goes back. He has a wide open receiver in the middle of the field right in the middle of the play. He hesitate for no reason, had perfect protection, waits too long, and then throws it up and it gets it. It's regression.

It's one of the great mysteries of the NFL. What happened to this guy who took the NFL by storm, almost won a Super Bowl, came within, what, four or five yards, and no major injuries

and has just regressed year after year to the point where he's not even an effective NFL start and not even close. And the worst news for the 49ers and their fan base is that the backup is probably the worst draft

bust in the last five years, Blaine Gabbard, so they have no way out. They're banged. Well, Kaepernick is paid like a franchise quarterback, so I think it would, I don't think it makes any sense to bench him, even though he's playing this bad, unless it was a really, you're going to lose the team, though, to certain points. You have to just keep playing them and figure it out.

And if you want to get rid of him at the end of the season, I mean, going to Blaine Gabbard, what's that going to do? Can I ask you a question? Because looking at that fact that Carlos Hyde, who looks so good in the opener, 20 yards off eight rushes, and they're running the ball. Capernick's leading. the team in rushing. I just don't like the whole way the whole thing set up. What is Hyde

going to do if they can't pass the ball? I think teams are loading up like Torrey Smith was saying. They're blitzing. They have everyone in the box and they can't figure out any way to stop. The offensive line was terrible too. I mean, Kaepernick was just, they were, it was target practice on him all day, which is a good sign

for the Packers. I know it was an easy matchup, but the defense is playing pretty well. Nick Perry, Mike Neal, Julius Peppers, Clay Matthews, they all had big days. And a relatively quiet game from Aaron Rogers. I mean, he had that one throw, which was absolutely insane. The first drive of the day, they looked exactly like the Packers took a 7-0 lead. Most of the rest of the day, the 49ers' defense did a great job getting them off the field.

49 touchdowns, five interceptions since the start of last season. My goodness. That's a thing. Even in a slow day, he didn't make any mistakes, really, any big mistakes. And Kaepernick, has he been good since defense has caught on to the read option? Well, no, that's a fair question. You're right, because the regression, though, did not come in. that first season when I think he wasn't even thinking.

Ever before the Super Bowl, it was so relaxed when we were watching him on the sideline, just at ease. It was like he didn't even know what he didn't know. And he was multifaceted. It was like he could kill you with his legs with those long strides. And nobody threw a better fastball downfield in him. I mean, the guy looked like a total package. Who knows?

It's a mystery. Tori Smith, another move that's not working out for any sides. The Ravens could desperately use him. Thank you for bringing it up. Pallodi Nata and Tori Smith both involved the Ravens. If there is a wide receiver listening to the show that it, has free agency coming up and you play with a really good quarterback,

take less money and stay. Absolutely. Don't go to a team with a bad quarterback. You will end up losing more money because you'll get cut in two years. The Randall Cobb rule. Randall Cobb rule. Or be Justin Blackman

and get quietly signed by the Packers and go under the name James Jones. That's another option. All right. Let's move on. Let's check back in with the AFC East and let's go to London. Mark, you've mentioned in the past

that you're from England, and so you'll be especially invested in this game. Chris Ivory set a career high with 166 yards and 29 carries, and the Jets pushed the Miami Dolphins closer to the brink, a 27 to 14 win at Wembley Stadium. And the Jets men have a formula. It's this. You lean on the defense, which is the real deal,

which we thought it was going to be before the season. And unlike the dolphins on the other side of the ball, they have backed it up. They are a very good defense. maybe even top five. And then you give the ball to Chris Ivy, run the offense through him because when he's healthy, he is a, I'm not going to say he's as good as Marshawn Lynch, but he's a reasonable facsimile to that guy.

And if you have a big downhill powerback like Ivory and a great defense, I know it's not 21st century football, but you're going to win games and you might get in the playoffs. So it's everything that Rex Ryan wanted the Jets to be the last few years. And it is. Right. They're winning for that reason. When they stripped him of every resource he needed to be successful, Now those resources are back.

But then there is the wrinkle of they also now have a legitimate all-pro type wide receiver. And Brandon Marshall, who went over 100 yards for the third street game. Wes, I'm going to hit you up with a quiz here. The last jet wide receiver to be named an all-pro. Al-Toon? Correct. Wow.

The male man. Look, he's shown. It keeps the toaster. The toaster is in hibernation. It's on hiatus, but he just shows he's rich. Do you know what year? just 1986.

Oh, he did it. He nailed it. That was good, Wes. Up top. Known to millennials is Nick Toon's father. Yes, exactly. Yeah, the Jets have not had an all-pro wide receiver

since 86. Their last pro-ball wide receiver was Keishon in 99. I say this because Brandon Marshall could achieve both those highlights because he is that good. This game, Ryan Fitzpatrick, cannot throw down field.

We know that. So what are they doing the first play of the game that set the tone? He lets it loose. And literally, if you watch a replay, he throws it as hard as he can. He cannot throw it any farther than this. It travels 58 yards. Marshall makes the catch.

Ivory takes over from there. Ivory was great. The Jeff's win. And yes, Greg. Well, you forgot one key part of their formula when you were going through before. Yes, go ahead. Make the defense drop as many Ryan Fitzpatrick interceptions as possible. Or you've got to throw it so hard that the defense just drops it because he had about four or five today.

The other part of the four years. You're like the king. You're the king that has everything. but can't let a peasant have a good thing. You have to shoot it down. They were wildly dominant in this game. The other part of the formula is playing the dolphins. Yes.

A defense that right now is going to get its coach fired. Well, the coach is going to get the coach fired. Well, he is. But it's like, this is a total meltdown. Let's talk about the dolphin side because we're hearing reports that Philbin's fate can be decided by as soon as tomorrow. Who knows, you might listen to this and Joe Philbin is fired. But this was a team that needed to show.

show up in this game in London and look inspired and prepared. And for the fourth straight week, they went down at the, they got beat up from the start of the game. They went into the halftime losing, just an uninspired effort. And then I'll just say this, like, so maybe he'll get rid of coil, the defensive coordinator. I don't know if that's going to fix anything. But this defensive line, Sue got 60 million guaranteed.

Chris Ivory ran right through him for the first touchdown of the game. that entire defensive line. You remember the defensive line that Sue was going to take on all these double-triple teams? And Cameron Wake was going to have 37 sacks and Vernon was going to be a stud and everybody was excited.

Zero sacks combined through four weeks. Combined! Has any team been as consistent as the dolphins? They've had the same issues in every game they've played this year. They were very lucky to even be vaguely in this game

because I made fun of Fitzpatrick but it was a full-scale beatdown where the score could easily have been 40 to 7, and that would have reflected how uneven this was. We heard some things at NFL Network. We reported Friday and Sunday that either coil could be gone and that there was grumbling within the team, some people complaining, for instance,

that they had to have a three-hour long, like these endless practices, you know, right before they get on the plane to learn. Don't do that. They get off the plane and they do another practice right away. What are coaches going to learn that? I don't know if it's even fair, but I think it's fair to say that the players think the coaches are the problem. That is the words that's getting around. And when that happens, that's trouble.

There was a moment today. I believe it was Jarvis Landy, who led the team in rushing. That's how out of whack this offense is at the same time. He's the only guy that scared me in this game. And, I mean, the thing is like, well, I lost my train of thought. Well, there was a moment in the game where Philbin, I've been up a long time. I've been up a long time. I've been up a long time.

I've been up a long time. I've been trying to hold on to a Dolphins player to make a point coming off the field and correct him. And I think it was Landry from Shing. He is just pulling away from Philbin. And he doesn't want to give him eye contact. He just walked away. He walked away. That is a mess.

And all the sideline shots of Philbin were disconcerting. And the other thing, because I know you like Bill Laser Mark, he had a terrible game plan in this game, too. I mean, the only time they moved the balls on three deep throws that went for defensive PIs. And how many wide receiver screens do you have to run that don't work before you stop throwing wide receiver screens? Well, it's a big part of their offense. And what we like about, like, Laser is the idea that he was going to be the first coach. to bring this eagle's offense somewhere else, and it's been a comprehensive failure.

Tana Hill is struggling, and he can't lift up whatever is going on around him. He's just not that guy. He's okay. That's all he is. Your boy, Todd Bulls, he's the blitz calling puppet master that Greg Williams gets credit for being. Todd Bulls is phenomenal at dialing up blitzes

with no edge rush on his roster. I saw a stat from, you retweeted it. I believe that they had more defensive-backed blitzes in this game than any team has had in five years. I think it was like 20 Buster screen did three in a row. They kept sending them at it, over and over. This is the thing why this defense is so

well set up. Sometimes it's like they have 13 guys on the field because they could send the house and then trust Revis and the rest of the secondary to cover. Listen, Mark. Dan is in heaven. Boy, Leonard Williams looks good too. Leonard Williams is looking good. Like Dan comes strutting in after the Jets

game. He's got, if you see him on the on carries, he's going to have a big Jets t-shirt today. Big smile on his face. Why is it big? Are you calling me fat? Is that what you're doing? A big smile? No, big gesture. Why did it have to be big? Why can't just be a regular gesture? It's, I don't know how to describe it. It's an interesting It's an interesting selection that you're wearing. Well, first of all, it's factually incorrect. They were the Titans in 1960. It's true. I like how you guys are trying to

take me down, but it's not going to work. Is that not true? We're happy for you. Mark's calling me fat. What's saying my shirt's stupid. It's not stupid. Typical Dan, I'm only remembering the slates. We just talked about how great they They have the fourth best record in the AFC. They do, and they're definitely a top 10 team. Not a morning guy, Dan. If they can get you up at 6 and just feeling nice and fresh as a day, and they are playing well.

I loved it. All right. So I got the other New York team. The Giants jumped out to an early lead against the Buffalo Bills. Never look back. A 24-10 win in Orchard Park. The two-and-two Giants have effectively bounced back after those two crushing losses to start the season. Huh, Mark?

I mean, this is a game where Buffalo, you're at home. the score is a little bit unindicative of what happened. Buffalo Bills cannot get out of their own way. Lead the NFL with like 57 penalties, had 17 today. And the biggest thing they did outside of, you know, destroying their own chances to win by having two touchdowns called back by flags, was extend every Giants drive in the first half, give them chances to win over and over.

They could have climbed back into this, but they could not stop the flags from dropping on them. And that, in Rex Ryan, who defiantly afterwards said, oh, you know what? I want a team that just fights. Well, no, I get, listen, it's not a Rex Ryan, but he was, he was trying to make it. He'll take a while against Rex Ryan. No, he's right, though. He's trying to make a point, though, that, oh, well, this happened to us in Baltimore.

We had 20 plus penalties in Baltimore when you were the coach, Rex. And so if it's happening again, look, we can still succeed. This was completely undisciplined football. And that's the difference between Todd Bowles in New York and this Bill's team. It could not get out of its own way. Players love Rex. Players play hard for Rex. Rex does come into games prepared week after week,

but the penalties do fly with Rex. And it's part of the team. It's the same defiance he showed after week, too, when he trash-talked Dionne Lewis. And then it said after the game, Dionne Lewis still stinks, run the ball. They're another hard team to figure out because they've looked awesome two weeks

and terrible two weeks. What do you make sense? What do you make of the bills right now, Mark? It's, you know, Tyrod Taylor finishes with 274 yards, but a lot of that just came late. Like, first half, 38 yards passing. I think part of it is I really like Tyrod Taylor overall from what we've seen.

There's a lot to work with, but is his fourth start. And the idea that he's just going to roll the table and continue to get better every game, there's going to be stops and starts. I think they definitely, they missed LaShawn McCoy today. They missed San Juan. I mean, that's a big excuse. If you want an excuse.

Right, because Harvin is not, you cannot center your entire passing game around Percy Harvin. They tried to do that today. And credit to the Giants, It's like a really no-name defense played them well in the first half, and then they just hung on. Spaggs' defense is performing above its wildly low expectations. It's a nightmare scenario.

Very couched prey, though. I did throw a little wildly low at it. We are hurtling towards Super Bowl 50 Giants Patriots and Spags coaching the game of his life. Belchick run out of town in shame, and Spaggs takes over the pats. What? What world are you living in? And Greg jumps off a cliff. And it's over for Greg.

The lieu of flowers, Sunday donation. Come back down from your high of the L.A. food day. Greg's dead. All right. Okay, okay. All right. It's that time of show. Every Sunday we welcome in a great woman.

I mean, listen, I would even go as far as saying she is the greatest woman. She is a really star contributor on the Game Day Blitz program in NFL now with Dave Damashek. She is the wolf woman. Connie Fox, Colleen Wolfe. Colleen never knows what to do on the camera's on her, so she has to do a new gimmick every time. It's really awful. Eventually, you'll hit on your, you know, Arthur Fonzorelli.

You're right. And we'll get lunchboxes. Colleen, as I said. Not going well. Welcome back, Colleen to the round and a podcast. Hey, what's off, guys? How are you? Been a week.

This is turning into a Brett Farve-like iron. man streak. It is. Just like that. Yeah, exactly. You are, of course, internal chatter within this business.

I don't know where you're going. Colleen is talent on NFL Now Game Day Blitz. But you guys are also talent. On NFL Now Game Day Blitz. Less consistently. How about that? Yeah.

Which is a program, if those of you have not seen it, in which Dave Damashek sits on a couch with his friends, friends that are paid by the NFL, Well, maybe not real friends. But within the context of the program, there is friends. Maurice Jones, Drew, Ike Taylor.

Yep, Ike Taylor and Bucky Brooks. Keith Evans. Yeah, Elliot. We were there today. Around the NFL guys stop by from time to time. And then Colleen just ducks in and she talks about social media stuff and then interjects little bullets of knowledge and then a little bit of mirth. Yeah, exactly.

That's well summed up, Dan. Thank you. Thanks. Please don't touch me. Okay. Okay, so let's, we got, let's see, five, six more games to get to. So why don't we get going right now with another undefeated team? I love talking about undefeated teams.

The Cincinnati Bengals who continued their winning ways, moving to 4-0 with a 36-21 win over the Chiefs, Connie Fox. We keep waiting for Andy Dalton to crumble, and yet here he is, looking like a different player. It's weird because he looks really relaxed now. Like, we haven't really seen him play like this, and he keeps finding A.J. Green, which, yeah, should not come as a shock. But you can tell that they are sort of hitting their stride together. It's the first time in his career, he has four straight games with a pass rating over 100.

Now, I mean, you look at, he has Jeremy Hill that's doing things. Now, before Gio Bernard, Jeremy Hill had three touchdowns. But before Gio and Jeremy Hill on the same carries, Gio was doing so much better his productions as far as. yards per carry, but Hill was the guy today, and the defense just shut down the chiefs. They had seven field goals in this game. This is where you get really excited if you're a Cincinnati fan, because if Jeremy Hill figures it out and starts running downhill and running over people and get in the end zone, and then you mix in Bernard, which everybody in this room likes his skill set a lot, and the

dog keeps up, geez, are you talking about this defense? I for it looks like a pro bowler. I mean, one of the highlights we just saw is Andy Dalton on a full sprint to the right, throwing it 50 yards down the field. That's why this four-game stretch is different, I think, than the other Dalton runs because he's leading the league in yards per attempt by bombing it down the field week after week. He's done it so consistently, you have to believe it.

Yeah, I mean, five players with 27 or more yards on a certain catch. I mean, that's what they did last week, too. The chunk yards downfield, the big long throws, like, that's what would be missing every third game for the Bengals last season. usually from the neck up with Dalton. He does look, I think Hugh Jackson is a much better play caller than Gruden ever was with this team, and he's comfortable. It's year two for him, and it's not completely fake from Dalton.

Nothing surprises me about the Bengals except for Dalton's confidence. It's his hair. His hair is more confident. He does look more badass. It looks good. His hair looks better. Because if you're a carrot top, you can either buzz it down, and that shows a little bit of shame in the carrot, and I don't think there should be shame.

But when you grow it out, it looks literally. like a flame atop your head. It looks a little insane, like a comic book villain in a way. Don't pick against the Bengals at home. They're 152 and 1 at home since the start of 2013. How about next week against the Seahawks? You're going to keep that? Well, I pick against the Bengals on a routine basis

just because that's my prerogative. Did you pick against them this week? No. I don't think of it. So not your prognative at this time. I'm not going to put any stock in Alex Smith who had the most Alex Smith stat ever today. Well, I gave Wes the choice of a few games

and he was just like, I can't watch Alex. I can't watch Alex Smith back-to-back weeks. 386 yards today, the third most ever by a quarterback without throwing a touchdown. Wow. He was sacked five times today, too. Right. I've never heard of 21 points by, was it seven field goals? Yeah, seven.

One away from Rob Barronis' record. I'm just saying they didn't have any, I mean, that is the most Alex Smith type of game you. Greg, I have to challenge you right now. Okay. You know one of my favorite pieces every week is the QB Index. And I know we have a longstanding narrative about Andy, Dalton about where he fits in in the class of NFL quarterbacks. You have him at 14

entering Sunday. And the people ahead of him to get into the top 10 entering this week, Matthew Stafford, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning, and Joe Flacko. Let's be fair. Andy Dalton right now is a top 10 quarterback and he deserves to be. Better than Peyton Manning. The whole quarterback index, you know, it's very confusing

how it's rated. But the one thing I know, after four weeks, that's when it's just on 2015 alone. I think it's kind of unfair to just rank them off of the new season only when you only have two or three weeks of play. So based on this season alone, yeah, he'll be in the top 10. He'll probably be in the top six or seven. Wow. As soon as... For this season alone, I don't think there's any down. Thursday, the next time you roll out your column? That's correct. Totally new territory. It's never even come close. Yes, that's... NFL.com slash QB ranks. Wow, this is a lot of plug. I like that. That's some high

voltage plugging. Speaking of vanity URLs, how about the end around? We can get that. Do we have a backslash heroes and villains? That's probably the same territory that Believe Land was, which is, oh, Greg, you know, vanity URL for Greg, let's get that thing going, let's get Henry on board, someone else is, and it's like, you can ask for one any time you want. And it comes out. Hashtag rookie watch. Rookie watch. That would have been a good idea last year too. DM.coming, hey, can I get a vanity URL for blank?

You can get it. It really doesn't make any difference to anything. A lot of vanity URL talk tonight. I'm going to get a vanity U.S. for every article I write from now on. You can see, Colleen, completely spun off our access. All right, let's move on. That much that we just moved on from him entirely. All that's going through my head is that one iTunes review is like,

is this a real football podcast or amateur comedy hour? By the way, two fans that absolutely slaughtered me for two straight weeks, as I dared to suggest they might only win seven games this year. How's your team looking? That's all I guess. Lovely. I like it when you do that. Put fans in their place.

We move forward. It was a tough day for kickers in the NFL, as we said. But Robbie Gould drilled a 50-yarder with two seconds to play. Given the Chicago Bears a 22 to 20 victory over the visiting Oakland Raiders, this is a bear's team that had Jay Cutler. Greg, this team rally around their leader? Is that what happened here? Well, they're a much better team with Jay Cutler.

People make fun of them, but he played pretty well, actually, this season, other than the two killer interceptions that he threw. He moved the ball against the Packers. He played well to start the other game where he got hurt. He made it absolutely huge different. People hate on J-Colour until you have to watch Jimmy Clauseen. Right, exactly. And I think a lot of people will be taken away from this game. It says more about the Raiders.

Just seeing on Twitter, I think Raiders fans were absolutely furious because they expected this is a game that we should win. But they're not at that point where they should win any game. They were really lucky, I think, to be in the game. The Bears outplayed them for most of the game. Outgained them by 130 yards, and they ended up winning at the end. Wes, we knew it. What? The Raiders can't have nice things?

Well, we knew not to trust them, and we trusted them anyway. Well, I tried to switch this game to the Bears when I found out Cutler were starting, but it was already locked onto the Raiders. I regret it. I mean, that's a pretty big difference from Kloss and the Cutler. I know Cutler people make fun. He's a mid-level quarterback. Connie Fox.

What happened with Amari Cooper today? He was four for 49, two turnovers. Had a nice little touchdown catch. But other than that, yeah, you know, Amari Cooper, Derek Carr, the whole passing attack looked like, you know, a bunch of young players going up against a bear's defense that looked to revive. Maybe they just got to get rid of Jared Allen.

My favorite part... My favorite part of this game was the nine lateral return at the end. You see Gabe Jackson try to, like, continue it. I did hear our new... from explode during that. I was like watching another game and just wanted to blow the room up. That is one of the funny things on a Sunday.

Mark turns into joky smurf. It's like one of the best things on a Sunday in the newsroom is when something really exciting is going on and people look around and what's going on, what's going on. Mark just stays at his computer glaring. No, that's one of the best things like at a sports bar.

It's true. That's true. Mark Ellis Bennett on the return of Jay Cutler, You know, someone asked him his Cutler to criticize. Like saying how good, you know, you got your guy back and you won a game. He said they threw rocks at Jesus too. And Jesus was an excellent guy who did a lot of awesome stuff. Oh, those Bennett brothers are just so witty and smart.

They do seem to want to each top each other every time their mouths open. So you're saying Jesus didn't do awesome stuff? No, I think he's correct. I might not compare Jay Cutler to Jesus. You know. I, Christy Cavaleri probably would. That's true. It's her personal Jesus.

Let's move on. The Jacksonville Jaguars had multiple chances to kick for a rare win in Indianapolis. They couldn't get it done. Matt Hasselback helped the Colts get to two and two, a 16 to 13 overtime win. Yuck. Greg, if the Jagahoo can't beat a 40-year-old Matt Hasselbeck, this is just never going to happen, is it? It was really disappointing because Blake Bordell's, I thought, played fantastic in the first half. Really played pretty well throughout the game, but they couldn't finish drives.

To score only 13 points, they didn't score on their last. last eight drives of the game. They got the ball five times in the last eight minutes of the game and then in overtime. And, you know, all these chances to win the game, their kicker missed a couple chances. Chuck Pagano tried to freeze him once and he should have been punished by the football gods for the freezing. For doing that because the kicker missed it by 20 yards.

He came closer the second time around but still missed it. What a depressing loss for the game. I didn't like that Blake Bordor, Blake Bordel's Apologist qualifier by you there, Greg. I thought he looked good. We've got to go into Indy and win the game here. You play to win the game, and you have Matt Hasselbeck starting for Andrew Luck who's missing his first game ever, and you can't get it done. Jesus, Jacksonville.

Yeah, but T.J. Yeldon, he had a great game, and so did Alan Hurons. Alan Hurons had eight catches in the first half. Which is good, which is great. But at the end of the day, and maybe the kicker blew it. Their kicker missed three if you count the one where the Colts called the time. That should not happen in the NFL. The game winning and regulation and an overtime. But it was 53 and 48 yards.

If you're leaving it to a kicker hitting a lot, field goal, there's other things at play, including Gus Bradley, third and 11 in overtime, and they're in position for that field goal, and he calls a run up the middle instead of trying to keep moving the ball. He gets three yards and the kicker missed it. You got to be aggressive. They don't have the DNA of winning. I mean, is Matt Hasselbeck, I know he's 106 years old, but he does. And you let him throw, Matt Houseback, if you would have told me he was going to throw 47 passes in his first start in a hundred years, and they won the game. I mean, this is a game that only the Jaguars can lose.

It feels like a team that is perpetually stuck in neutral, and we shouldn't take them seriously as a franchise. At this point, that's true. Their quarterback and kicker have a combined age of 82 years old. That's how they won the game today. And Frank Gore felt on the goal line again. Hasnwick looked good, though. You saw this game, is it safe to say

that Andrew Luck was not the problem with Andre Johnson? No. They tried to get it deep to him. He couldn't make a catch that you would have normally seen Andre Johnson. He had zero catches and two targets. Two targets. He's done, I guess. Well, Frank Gore played poorly, too.

Maybe there's something to not signing older players. Well, and it wasn't just because Hasselbeck is there either. I mean, Moncrief had 75 yards. Kobe Fleener, 9 for 83. I thought Hasselbeck looked really good. There was at least six or seven drops by the Colts. I would say two or three by Frank Gore, a couple by Moncrief. It's an unidisciplined team.

And he made the right decisions. And he threw in a couple of those like, hey, I'm, you know, the poor man's Brett Farve, like throws across your body while you're getting hurt. I mean, he was having fun. Well, there's something to be. be said for taking like 118 weeks off in a row. Are you suggesting anything? I don't know.

Put us all on ice for a couple months. Remember when you wanted to us all to take four weeks off because Odell Beckham did? Well, yeah, that didn't come. Should we take three years off like Hasselbeck did? Sure. All right. Come back four years from now, completely irrelevant. Connie did that at one point in training camp, I feel like.

Yeah. Well, I was like sick. I wasn't here for like three weeks at one point. It was a while. It was all right, Connie. Moving on. Kirk Cousin. showed some life on Sunday

leading the Redskins on a 15-play 90-yard game-winning touchdown drive in the fourth quarter. It led to a 23-20 win over the Eagles. Colleen, the Redskins are better than everyone thought, but is this just going to be remembered as another bad beat for Chip Kelly and the Eagles?

The Redskins are better than everybody thought, but they're a bad team. So that means the Eagles are even worse. Sam Bradford was terrible in the first half. He sort of got it together in the second half when they finally started to go after. Chris Oliver. He was burned by two really good touchdowns. I mean, 62-yard pass to Riley Cooper. This was the longest play of the year, just the cap there. Then Miles Austin had a 39-yard touchdown.

So you have that. The offensive line looks awful. They can't run block. They can't pass protect. You have DeMarco Murray just disappeared. He had one good run. Then he was gone the rest of the game. He was complaining after the game. Then he's not getting enough touches. He has 40 touches through three games right now. This is your lead back. He had 80. three through three last year. Plus, in addition to all of that, the Eagles defense was on the field for most of this game. They were so gassed that Kirk Cousins was able to march down the field

on the final drive of the game and win it for them. The time of possession, they were on the field for 41 minutes. And Chip Kelly always says the time of possession isn't important, but it definitely was. And Pierre Garcin, with, I think, the play of the day on that touchdown catch to win it, to sell out and then get blacked. on a game-winning touchdown catch? I mean, it doesn't get much better than that.

I love Pierre Gerson. We're seeing this a lot with this team where you look at the box score, and Murray has eight carries. Ryan Matthews 5, Spurals, 4, and I don't know. I mean, it's just like you want to get someone into a flow, and when they did that last week with Matthews,

they finally had something happen. I mean, that's why it was a weird move when they signed both those guys in the off-season. You have three running backs. It's not normal to have three guys that you're trying to get touches. like this. And I don't know if that's the reason why they're not moving ball.

I think it's the offensive line, though, has been a major issue this year. I mean, you have Jason Kelsey right now is the only starter from last year because Jason Peters got hurt and so did Lane Johnson in this game. Well, that's a major, major fact. Huge. And if the Eagles are like a fantasy team, you would trade one of these running backs and clear up the log jam and define some roles and get going on it. But this isn't fantasy, Mark.

No, you're right. This is very much on the real earth. And this is supposed to be an awesome. offense that runs so many plays and it's up-tempo and it's quick. Washington had 79 plays. Eagles 51. When Miles Austin and Riley Cooper are your best playmakers, you're in big trouble. So a lot of people in the NFL that are happy about this season-long development so far.

Well, he hand-ticking yourself. Yeah. I mean, one of them being hands-in-hance. He hand-picked his cross because there's no one else to blame. Yes, yeah. I mean, it's been terrible. And, Connie, you say that you don't think the Redskins are any good at all. So they didn't do anything to get you thinking,

hmm, this team's a little frisky? I mean, Garsohn, he came up big. Deshawn Jackson. He'll be back next week. But I just think Kirk Cousins driving the length of the field, that was just so much because the defense was so gasped. By the end, they were victimized by Kurt Cousins. Yeah.

I feel like the Redskins are kind of like the Texans last year where people say, oh, it's the hardest thing to do is to win a game in the NFL. No, it's not that hard. Lousy teams win eight or nine games every year. And the Redskins seem like maybe one, they'll be one of those teams. Greg could win a game easily I mean, they had five sacks today. I'm just saying pretty mediocre teams

win eight games all the time. They're just kind of there and they get, you know. Can you imagine Greg on his next big network hit saying that to Solomon Wilcox? That will go very well. All right. Moving on. All right, Mark, here we go.

An offside's penalty on Brown's cornerback, Tremont Williams gave Chargers kicker Josh Lambo a second chance at a game-winning field goal. It was good. San Diego won 30 to 27. Wes, we weren't expecting a Rivers McCown duel, but guess what? That's what we got.

They both played great. This was one of the best games of Josh McCown's career, including that five-game stretch. West Giddy talking about that. Right after you gave up on him. He showed me. An infamous making the leap a candidate years ago. But he was making the plays that I need to make in this game.

Absolutely. He was under fire, too. The Chargers had a pretty good pass rush going with Jerry. How do you say his name? Atahue? Atachu and Melbourne. Jiris Bird? Yeah, that guy.

Oh. How about Duane Boe? Drop the only pass thrown his way. I was saying to Wes. Mark was outraged by Dwayne Bill. He wants you to cut immediately, if not sooner. I think it sends the wrong message to your, well, who knows what's going to Can we put Ray Farmer and Dwayne Bo in the same cabin to send him out of town?

Would you sign off on that, Mark? Mark likes Ray Farmer. Well, listen, I don't like a lot that's going on in general because one, I don't like teams where you say all offseason, Here's the two or three things we promise you we're going to do well. And through four games, it's the three things they're not doing well. Their offensive line is nothing like last year's. They can't run the ball effectively. And their defense, which they were sneaky calling like a top five secondary in the league,

everyone's squawking, has been an absolute disaster. Mark Sessler tweet here, five fixes for the Browns. One, start Mansell. Two, return to 100% zone blocking. Nice. Three, run endless no-huddle. Four, re-signed prior. Terrell Pryor?

This is for last week. Way more Duke Johnson. Well, that paid off. Duke Johnson, they did finally unearth him. Here's the problem. Here's the biggest problem. And those are all good fixes, Mark. Number one, which to me is the number one thing they got to do,

this game actually hurts that because McCown played well. And Mike Patton, and his mind is going to justify his decision to stick with him. He's a competitive player. The team is behind him and he's working real hard. So Josh is going to continue to be our starter. And it's like, bro, you're not going to. going anywhere, put in the kid. Wait, why did you just turn petting into like a 1958, like Neanderthal from the inner city?

You know, I don't need to explain it. I don't know what that was about. Does he seem like a high culture man? I think, I don't know. He's salt to the earth. It's going to have a lot of free time if they don't figure this thing out soon, though, because you're one in three, you could have had this game. I mean, they're not a very good football team and they can't.

I have to, I had to look over at Mark when they miss, I mean, just seeing what's going on over there when they miss, when they, you know, Missed the field goal, but then they called the penalty on the Browns. Right. And it's just your head in your head. It's the same old thing. Greg, drinking in your misery. No, I wasn't. It was just a natural.

Hold on. I got a natural reflex. It was a natural reflex. He was on his throat of ease. I had to look over while my subordinate was crumbling emotionally. Do you think that when TD goes to bed, he lays in bed wondering to himself, man, I really missed out on a great factory of sadness drop today. I almost tweeted it at Mark.

It does, it has no... The drops still work behind the glass, right? They do, yeah. Okay, just checking. Different, you know, different situation. I mean, you heard the drop from earlier. That's all we got now. That's what we got.

We got the wolf. Look at how much things change in a year. Nobody's even going to talk about the chargers in this game. Well, let's hear him. Philip Rivers was spectacular. He had a couple of beautiful touch passes to Keenan over Frenchie, Pierre Desier. I think it's going to be a good play, actually.

He had tight coverage on both those plays. And then Danny Woodhead was phenomenal, too. But Rivers really carried this team, hit Dantrell Inman on a big third down late in the game. And the Chargers, look, they were down to two healthy receivers by the end of the game, two healthy cornerbacks, three of their offensive linemen were out, and Rivers still carries them to victory. Not to mention Antonio Gates is back next week. Good point.

Hey, Mark, what's up? You are a factory of sadness. You know, I see these thoughts again. It's a little bit late, you know. I mean, we were, you know, but nice, thank you. It's all about... You are a factory of sacked! Press a button over and over.

It's all that timing. It's all that timing. All right. Colleen. Yes. Connie Fox. You are one of the... I like to say one of the stars of NFL now's Game Day Blitz.

Yes. But you guys are, too. One to 7.30 every Sunday. That's Eastern. We live in Pacific, so I don't know why we have to kowow to the whole Eastern Time Zone block. 10 to 4.30. It's like watching Gandhi twice in a row. It's a marathon.

You cover all the games, though. So that's kind of nice. We've got all the highlights going, some chatter. You know, your old man's in town, so you're going to go and meet him for dinner after this. And that's nice too, so we're happy for you. Because the bond of family is important. It is.

Yeah. Ed Wolf would like that. And I just want to clarify something. I said that Colleen may be the greatest woman ever. It's weird. You have to clarify this. My wife, I will probably put her ahead of Colleen in the power rankings. But there's no, Colleen's not on the Dalton scale.

She's not hanging in the middle of her. You're saying they're in the same tier. Yeah, they're the same tier. So it's not really a clarification, but a massive backtracking. Whatever, however you want to look into it, I dug myself out. I'm in the clear. Great job doing it too. Thank you very much.

Pulled it off. Yes. So there she goes. Here comes Titi with all the drops. He's like, oh, what's this iPad in front of me? For six months. This thing works. All right.

Now, Colleen exits. Will you leave, Colleen exits? Did you just read that somewhere? Colleen gets out. And now we dive into Sunday night football. Another thriller, a game in which the Dallas Cowboys were down seven points or less than two minutes to go. Brandon Wheaton to Terrence Williams ties it up with a beautiful throw in the back of the end zone.

And then here come the Saints. They take it down the field. Look like they're going to win the game easy. Oh, another bum kicker blows it. Zach Hocker, whoever you are, buddy, you miss a 30-yard field. Not to be a jerk, but you got to make that kick to win the game. Got it. He misses it.

They go to OT, and guess what happens? Drew Brees is he's done time after time for years, saves the Saints, hits C.J. Spiller down the sideline in a blown coverage assignment. Spiller does the rest, taking it down the sideline. Untouched 80 yards for the touchdown game over. Walk off 26 to 20 win for the. The Saints, a big win for the Saints, Mark Sessler, and a tough one for the Cowboys who are now 2 and 2 and 0 under Wheaton, but not his fault.

Not his fault at all. I mean, I mean, you know, Brandon Whedon, two games in a row, has been competent and he's not the reason that they're losing football games at all. From backup quarterback angle, you've got to be happy with what he's done. Well, when he's thrown at Bryce Butler leading the team in receiving yards, it was all on one catch, but he's right there in snaps as the number two receiver in Snob. Naps, along with Cole Beasley to Terrence Williams, that's a rough group. And yet, he had them in position to win the game again.

So you can't really put it on them. I don't know if you put it on the defense either, but the defense, which we were excited about the first couple weeks, isn't good enough to win games on its own. Well, this is exactly what we thought would happen. When you lose Tony Romo and Des Bryant, and Tony Romo would score more than 20 points against the worst defense in the NFL. I mean, you can say we didn't, not a problem,

but they lost tonight because of injury. And because Sean Lee comes out in his replacement, Damian Wilson is burnt by C.J. Spiller on the game winning touchdown. Injuries are killing the Cowboys. Have you guys, you know, this is for West and Dan, ever seen Mark have the same look in his eyes as he did when the Saints kicker missed it at the end of regulation? Well, just to let people in a little bit, we finished taping the early part of the show and then we stopped down and watch the end of the game and then we pick it back up again. and Mark's staring at the screen. He wants to get out of here. We all want to go home.

It's not that I want to get at. Yeah. Continue. Mark really wanted to go home because when the kick was missed by Zach. No, was it even before the miss? No. It was on the miss. It was the miss.

On the miss. Mark pounds the table and fury. I've never seen you express that much rage physically. It was actually before the kick because it was when they got down there and you're going to put it away. And what I, listen, I just wanted to see, we had everything going so. well here. Let's sew it up. Let's roll out of here. Drew Brees did it. And C.J. Spiller did a 13 second overtime. You know, they didn't exactly light up the Cowboys, but they moved the ball up and down the field. I thought the first drive of the game, that was the best

drive I've seen from the Saints and Drew Breeze all season. I thought this shoulder issue was going to be a problem, you know, maybe indefinitely, but he looked like he was fine. He looked like the regular Drew Breeze. I didn't think he hit as much juice on his throws. He hasn't, when is, I don't know. He didn't have a ton of, he's not a guy who's known. But he stuck a couple throws in there that showed that he could still do it and this wasn't a guy that was going to be an issue against a team. Dallas running rushing attack

by the way, Lance Dunbar suffered a potentially serious knee injury three for 54 but then you look at Darren McFadden 10 for 31 Joseph Randall 11 for 26 Christine Michael still not getting carries only one carry for negative one yards that's you know for all the talk of

this is a potentially like all time offensive line this is now it's pretty clear it's not as easy as they thought to plug in someone in the backfield to carry this team on the ground. Yeah, I mean, I think we also, for months, even before the season, the hints from the coaching staff and everyone

else's would be a committee, a group of running backs to try to equal what happened last year with mostly one back. Dunbar is a big loss for this team. I don't know how long he'll, what the deal is with him, but that is a playmaker stripped right out of this running game. He's been a big part of their attack, and Collins were said,

and I thought the same thing. Their offensive line didn't play that well in the second half last against Atlanta, at least in the running game. There's a reason for that. Yeah, but, okay, what is their reason? Falcon stuck everybody near the line of scrimmage because they knew Brandon Whedon wasn't going to throw up more than eight yards down the field.

So that's part of it. So their offensive line isn't going to be good enough to make up for that, I guess, while Whedon is in. They are pass-protecting very well. Weedon gets rid of the ball so quickly because he seems like he doesn't want anything to do with the pass-rush. He'll take a seven-yard gain, even when it's third and 18. But the running game is not going to be able to survive,

I think, with Whedon behind center. I mean, what do we expect? I mean, I don't know, but Dallas isn't going to face a worse defense than this necessarily. I don't even blame Dallas. They fought hard. You can't overcome Tony Romo, Des Bryant, and Sean Lee. For the Saints, is there any hope by one and three they get back in the mix? They're way out of the mix in the NFL.

Not going to win the division. The defense is too bad. Talk to me in a month. You know who else is in trouble, by the way? The Cowboys. So they lose these two games. They're two and two. Verse Patriots.

So they host the Patriots. They go to New York to face the Giants. They host the Seahawks and the Eagles. And then it loosens up a little bit at bucks, at dolphins. And then you're getting into the Ranger and Romo might get back. And, I mean, it's going to win the division games. It's going to come down to those. Yeah, you got to win those games.

And they got to just hang around 500 and then hope Tony and Des saved the day. All right. Those are the games on Sunday. By the way, this is our Sunday night show is on YouTube. You can see the entire episode on YouTube. if you go to the NFL channel, and I believe there's around the NFL, has a playlist, and you'll find it there.

I'm sure if you type in the search function. We'll put our playlist as the little link right under our Twitter profile, if anyone. Thank you, because I tried to find it once, no left. Yeah, let's make it, it'll simplify it. We'll shoot you guys the direct link to the playlist. That's all good. And, of course, we have our two other shows during the week on Tuesday,

where you'll hear us next and then Thursday. So, you know, Another week in the book. Quarter poll. And by the way, we're going to check in, speaking of poll, our power pole, update it. What's so funny? No, I want to go to sleep. Absolutely.

I was just laughing, thinking about that it's power pole time again. Power pole time. The kids get excited when the power pole, every four or five weeks, like, opening up. It's like Christmas four times a year. What have we learned, by the way? We learned the Jets are three and one. We learn Mark gets very fiery about. certain elements of games at certain times of the night.

Yeah, anything after 9 p.m., wildcard scenario. Wild card by the sizzler. All right, so that's it. We'll be back on Tuesday with another great show with a new producer behind the glass to replace the Elyrishman. So that's it. So that's something to get excited for.

Until then, this is Dan Hanzas, signing off for the Quiet Storm, The Mailman, the boss of Tidie behind the glass. Till then! This is an I-heart podcast.