NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Week 5 recap

Episode Date: October 12, 2015

A room filled with heroes - Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler and Colleen Wolfe – break down each game from Week 5 of the regular season including the Bengals and the Falcons hanging on to undefeated records in overtime, and a thrilling ending to the Sunday night game between the Giants and the 49ers.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 has its swagger back. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. We don't have our swagger back. We don't have our host. But I'm Greg Rosenthal alongside Mark Sessler, Chris Wesselene, and Colleen Wolf. What's up? Hi, Greg.

How are you? How are all of you? I think it's good. West doesn't get the first. Like, hey, Greg, you know, it's a different kind of feel tonight. Dan, of course, is with his family at a big-time family reunion in New Jersey. Of course. Because that's definitely where you'd be on football Sunday.

Well, you know, they're not going to schedule it around our schedule. No, good. Families come first in our corporation. And I, you know, I'm going to look at the positive. We're going to miss Dan, but we don't have to talk about the Jets this week. They're on a bye. He's not here. And we've got Colleen Wolf for the whole show. Wow. Major positive.

Yeah. Right? I apologize ahead of time. My notes are, like, beautiful mind style. TD already yelled at me for tidying up the paper. You got swiftly chastised for having a messy desk. So I don't really know what's going to happen here. That was a little weird, TD, that you would talk to our guest that way right off the top, like, give her a bad feel.

We want to be welcoming to our guests. I try to deliver the message nice. It was a simple, hey, Colleen, could you just tidy up your papers a little bit? That's all it was. This is your tombstone right now. That's what's going to read on your tombstone. T.D. was here. He bossed around Colleen. Big week five. It was a fun day.

I think the early set of games was the best early set of games we had all season. A lot of close games. And we have a lot to get to on the show. I'm looking forward to it. We're going to talk about all the undefeated teams keep winning the Bengals with a big win, go to 5 and O, and take care of the Seahawks. Huge comeback there. We're going to get to your Browns, Mark Sessler.

I mean, the Cleveland Browns, big win today. Were you expecting that? Well, no, I was not. I mean, you know, they've not looked like they were prepared to do that, but they're not playing a great team. You know, I don't think the Ravens get on too much credit. So we'll get to that eventually. We're also going to talk Sunday night football, not exactly a barn burner,

49ers, and Giants. So we're going to get into all of that through the show. But I think let's just get to the games. And let's talk a little lions and cardinals right off the top. And we're starting with this game. Maybe it's a weird choice because two major things happened. The team of ATL was playing in it and delivered a strong message. And Jim Caldwell also delivered a message benching Matthew Stafford in the middle of the game, Chris Wessling.

Tell us about it. Caldwell compared to a pitcher who just doesn't have his best stuff that day. You take him out, you go back, and in five more days he goes out there and starts another game. Stafford will be back under center, but there's no denying. He's regressed since Joe Lombardi took over his office. offensive coordinator. He has eight interceptions this year. He had only 12 all of last year. And he looks he looks like he's got happy feet. He's got that thousand yard stare against the blitz. He looks clearly like the pressure is getting to him behind an offensive line. He's

probably developed some bad habits. Yeah, he's now eight straight games with fewer than 300 yards passing. He's never done that in his career. There's never been a stretch like that. And you start to question what the problem is because they have all these weapons. And I know we've had this conversation before, but the more and more you watch him and the more and more he breaks down, the more I question where it's coming from. I mean, with Stafford's been doing this zany stuff for years. It's not like this is a new version of him from that angle. I mean, he took 11 quarterback hits today. That line is culpable for part of what's going on, but even behind better versions of this line, Stafford has done mind-boggling stuff from game to game.

Well, it's been constant all year that they're not picking up free blitzers, they're struggling one-on-one, But that's largely on, that's partly at least on Matthew Stafford, that he has no idea how to solve a blitz. I mean, we've seen with Peyton Manning and Tom Brady over the years, not taking sacks is a quarterback skill. The offensive line for whatever reason still seems to take the blame nationally when this happens, but ultimately it's on Stafford and the coaches to figure something out. It is.

It's on that Stafford-Lombardi team that's not getting it done and it seems to get worse by the week. I think something like this and then the Dolphins troubles where, you know, now Albert Breer's notebook, he's pointing out that they're no longer is invested in Ryan and Tannahill in Miami. I think when you see Stafford benched and you see Tanna Hill, like, struggling,

you appreciate more Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, who go 15 years without ever any kind of quarterback controversy. What are they going to do? Well, maybe Jay Cuddler isn't the only coach killer in this division. Maybe Jay Cudler should go quarterback the Lions. What's the difference? No, they're pretty similar. Yeah, Matt Stafford, the three picks today,

but you've got to give credit to the quarterback. Cardinals' defense, too, because they have been on fire. They have, I think, three pick-sixes, and there were, like, a ton of teams coming into this week that didn't even have three interceptions, three defenses. So you have to look at sort of what the Cardinals are able to do. And Chris Johnson, my God, the way that they're able to run the ball with him, he was actually like 9.2 yards per carry today. He's entrenched.

Andre Ellington comes back and doesn't see a carry till the third quarter. Oh, my gosh. David Johnson's the third downback. Chris Johnson is too valuable to take off the field. He's running like the last four years never happened. Well, part of the reason I want to put this game first, I think the Stafford News is a huge memorable moment. I think he's always gotten too much credit.

For instance, him versus J. Culler, what's the difference? He's just younger and people have gotten less, you know, aren't as tired. Now they're getting tired of Stafford. But the other reason why I want to hear Chris Wesleyan honk about how great these Cardinals are. Team of ATL, you know, they took a beat down, or they took a loss the first game we had him.

But here they bounced back. My takeaway is the same as it was last week in a loss. They're the most complete team in the NFL. I'm waiting for someone, anyone, to point out a weakness on their team. I think this is an examination in coaching these two teams, too, because you look at the talent that Detroit has, and it's not that much different than what Arizona has. But Arizona is one of the most complete coached teams,

and it's been going on for more than just this season. Ariens is the man, James Betcher, is that the defense coordinator? He said in the offseason, Ariens, this guy will keep this defense rolling. Forget about time. Todd Bowles, this will be a great transition, and it has been. It's the most opportunistic defense right there with the Broncos this year. I mean, they had six takeaways today and stifled the lion's offense.

They fly to the ball on defense, and in an offense, you've got guys like Andre Ellington and Michael Floyd, who are basically insurance policies. So the Cardinals stay on top of the NFC West, and your Cincinnati Bengals, Chris Wesleyan. Stay on top of the AFC North. I guess we knew that coming into the week. but the Bengals Seahawks to me was the game I was looking forward to most on Sunday and for the Bengals to fall behind 17 points in that game in the second half rip off 17 points in the fourth quarter and win it in overtime to me that is the statement

game of the day the Cincinnati Bengals maybe the statement game of their franchise history whoa I'm not even kidding I've watched this team long enough to when they were down by 17 it didn't surprise me. Crumbling again because that's what they always do. I don't recognize these Bengals. It's like nothing I've seen. They have a backbone. Like even when they were Super Bowl teams in 81 and 88,

their defense wasn't that great. They were always heavy on offense. And to shut down Seattle in the fourth quarter while they're scoring 17, this is something that Cincinnati Bengals don't do. Are you getting excited about the Bengals? No, I'm not excited at all. I just think I should give them proper credit

and acknowledge that this is different. Well, you mentioned before the season that you were, you know, some little heart fluttering about this Bengals team. Just a little bit, you were open to it. And now they've coming out, and they're 5 and 0, and everything about them is fantastic. I have an affinity for their 70s and 80s teams that I researched, but I will never go back. I just can't. It's about me. That is fair.

Chris, your P-level at this point, though. Oh, it's very high. I mean, like I said, this isn't a Bengals team that I recognize. I was always confident. I remember a couple years back when they played the charges in the playoffs, and I was like, no, they're going to lose. They're not allowed to have nice things. For new listeners or viewers on NFL now, of course,

the P-level refers to Dan Hansis' scientific, saver metric, advanced statistic of, you know, from 1 to 10, how likely would it be, is the P, you know, coming into your pants on the Bengals possibly losing in that first Saturday of the playoffs, which is called Westivis, after Chris wrestling. It's my favorite holiday of the year, their annual loss. Now I think it's probably likely to happen after their bye week in the playoffs. They'll just lose that week. Also, Giovani Bernard, too.

I mean, he's averaging 5.3 yards per carry. He is, it looks like he's definitely in front of Jeremy Hill now because coming into this game, he was averaging 5.5 yards per carry on 54 totes. And then you had Jeremy Hill, which was only 3.3 on 50. So they had the same workload. But Gio has just been producing way more. Jeremy Hill looks slower this year, and Gio Bernard looks better than last year, so they're playing the better players. That is concerning, though, because Hill seemed like the guy that they were going to ride deep into winter in Ohio, because that's what they did last year with him.

What's going on with the guy, though? If he's not in, like, pristine football shape, he's got a couple of months to get there. Well, he had carries early in the game. He wasn't that effective, and the thing that really blew me away from the Bengals during this comeback was it wasn't all Andy Dalton. Andy Dalton played very well to start the game, really played a great first half until he was picked off in the end zone at the end of the second quarter. Then the offense went away, but they came back with all facets. And the most impressive thing I saw them do was run the ball straight at Seattle with Gio Bernard in the fourth quarter. You don't normally see that for a team that's trailing, but that was really their comeback.

It started, though, with my guy Adam Jones. I mean, they're down 17 points, and Pac-Man takes a big punt return back. Gio Bernard sets up a touchdown. Andy Dalton moves the offense very nicely, especially at the end of the game. He had one beautiful pass to set up a game tying field goal to go to overtime. So it was a little bit of everything for this team. It wasn't just Dalton. It was also the defense holding Seattle to only three first downs on their last six drives.

And I got to wonder, Russell Wilson didn't do much at the end of this game. He had an interception in the red zone in the second half. They scored two touchdowns. One was a long run by Thomas Rawls who played great, and the other was a defensive touchdown. And Wilson didn't really do anything. At what point are we concerned about these Seattle fourth quarter collapses? It keeps happening.

Yeah, and you wrote in your article that they really didn't miss Marshawn Lynch either. No, I don't think so. I mean, obviously it'd be better, but that wasn't the problem. 169 yards. Thomas Rolls have more yards today than Marshall Lynch has ever had in any game. That was the Seahawks' first rushing touchdown of the year. Wow. But they're not in sync, though.

I mean, that's nice that the rookie did that, but how many weeks in a row are we going to wait for Seattle to get their offense unhooked? I mean, it's happening week after week at this point. They had some moments in this game. Russell Wilson played well. I thought the offensive line, for the most part, played well. But at the end of the game, when it mattered,

I mean, they had two chances in overtime just to get a field goal. They can't get a field goal in the fourth quarter. It totally stagnated at that point. that's where the deep Bengals defensive line took over. But if you look at what Seattle's done since the Super Bowl, I mean, they blew a huge, a two-touchdown lead, you know, 10-point lead in the Super Bowl in the fourth quarter. They lost to the Rams, of course, that was overtime.

It really wasn't about the fourth quarter. They were shut out in the fourth quarter and lost that game to the Packers. They were terrible in the fourth quarter against Detroit. And then in this game, they blow a big lead in the fourth quarter. They're a team that can't close, and it's supposed to be a great defense. Isn't it on your defense to close? That's a major concern. And the fact that the offense, too, just they're not producing as much.

Jimmy Graham is obviously not a big of part as maybe they thought he was going to be. And that offensive line, it's good that they're playing better, but that's been a problem all season. That gets me thinking, I was watching this game. I was thinking, well, who's the better tight end, Jimmy Graham or Tyler Eifford? Well, wait, all right, but does it boil down, too? Because this is the second key player that the Seahawks have traded for that Daryl Bevels had trouble using. Happened with Percy Harvin. Percy Harvin goes to Buffalo and he's playing better.

and with Jimmy Graham, we heard all week that they're trying to turn them into a blocker. He's not a blocker. Yeah! And it's, you know, it's three catches for 30 yards. Again, it's another week where they're not in sync. It's interesting that the opposite happens on their defense. They bring anyone in, and they integrate them on defense and feature their strengths, and on offense, they do the opposite. Well, that's maybe the risk when you have, you know, a head coach

that maybe can't solve the offense as much. I mean, they've been so good on defense that it almost hasn't mattered. But when I was watching this game, and Ifer, it was a huge factor when you guys rewatch this during the week. To me, he's the difference in this Bengals offense. The two difference is Andy Dalton going deep and just being a different quarterback that way. And that's number one.

But number two is Tyler Eifert. I mean, he's a huge difference. Two touchdowns today he had. Should everyone start using the JJ Watt elbow brace now? What is that? Is that what Tyler Eiff has got that? Yeah. And when you have a tight end that can do what he does,

it forces the defense to stay honest. You can't put everyone down deep with A.J. Green. I mean, Marvin Jones coming back, too, that gives you two players that were not this kind of a factor a season to go for Cincinnati. So the Bengals remain undefeated. The Seahawks in a little bit of trouble down two games in the NFC West. That's true. They are in a little bit of trouble, but you could also look at it as they win in today. They're not even a good road team traditionally.

They go in and they barely lose to an undefeated team. That's fair. Another team that barely won that was undefeated, the Atlanta Falcons, took care of business at home, 25-19 against the Redskins. Mark Sessler watched this game very closely. Did a pick six in overtime by Kirk Cousins. You know, somewhat dim your Kirk Cousins love. I mean, it's a burgeoning love that you got in.

Yeah, I don't know if love is the word. But, yeah, I think Kirk Cousins is sort of a week-to-week operation where I came way from last week really liking what I saw. And in this game, it's what's haunted him from the start. the turnovers, which were absolutely a killer today. And sandwiched what was at the end when he brought the Redskins back to create overtime, a masterful drive where he just showed better command of the offense than you're ever going to see from Robert Griffin. And so there's things to like, but he's still very much a developmental quarterback at this point, I think.

Or he is what he is, and he's going to be turnover prone. It's a different kind of bad quarterback. Pick your poison. Do you want the guy with backbreaking turnovers or do you want the guy who can't move in offense? He's the backbreaking turnover guy. And he's done it two weeks in a row now because he did it right off of the Eagles as well. Yeah. Then you have a ton of stuff that happened in this game as far as the Washington secondary. They were down, two of their top corners, Chris Culliver and DeAngelo Hall.

They were the story of the game because, you know, when this was looking like Washington was just going to take this thing early on, their secondary. Hell, shut out Julio Jones in the first half. Julio Jones was not healthy necessarily in this game. but they absolutely closed down on the passing attack, and I thought they did have found an excellent job, but you just can't hold that offense down for that long, and Devonta Freeman got unhooked.

He had a huge day. More Kyle Shanahan love from you, Mark, please? I love Shanahan, because I think if we wanted, you know, Hugh Jackson is probably one of the best play callers in the league, and that's a big reason why since he's doing what they're doing, but Shanahan and what he's done with this offensive line and the way that the running backs are responding and what it means for their passing game,

I honestly feel like he is the key to what's happened in Atlanta. It's so impressive that for years, we saw this offensive line couldn't block anyone. Pass block, run block anything. And now Freeman's rolling up 170 yards every game. I think the bigger factor is the schedule maker's giving him the entire NFC East right out of the gates. Which they just swept. They're four out. Four and no.

They just won the NFC East. It's over. No one's going to get more than four wins in that division. Well, that's impossible, actually, statistics. I think over their next six games, they only face one team with a winning record. So they've beaten the NFC East. They've beat the Texans. So they're 5 and 0.

And yet each one of these games is absolutely almost every one of them. Well, up until today they gave up 20 points in every one of those games. And they're all crazy endings. When you're watching this, did you kind of think, yeah, this isn't really a 5-0. Well, you know, because our job is to go and write these and you kind of build your narrative as it's closing down towards the end. and the thing changed like 17 times. I was pulling my hair out because it's like, how do you describe what just happened?

And part of it is that I think they're both, on one level, they're incomplete teams as well. I don't think that the Falcons are an essential five and O type team. Well, maybe don't write before the end of the game, Mark. Well, it's due two minutes after the game. I don't do it. Just wait. I like to get my stuff together.

I mean, it was an exciting game, though. I mean, one of the better we've seen all season. It seemed like a game where the Falcons were determined to blow up, you know, the missed field goals. I remember the play just I happen to look up and Matt Ryan had a wide open 40-yard touchdown to Leonard Hankerson and he just sailed it and then they missed the field goal right after that.

He had a fumble in the red zone right. He really isn't playing that great this season. I love, I'm a huge Matt Ryan guy and I've just been saying I think this is the year he's going to jump to the top five. I think overall, and this just shows what the team around you, what the difference is. I don't think he's any better this year

than he was last year. I think he was fantastic last year. I think he's had a running game for the first time in years, and it's legit. And Freeman, I mean, he's eight touchdowns on the season already. And the Redskins, which have a pretty good defensive front, had no answer for him down the stretch. Yeah, the Redskins hadn't allowed an individual rusher,

55 yards, over 55 yards, until this week with Freeman. Would you rather have Matt Ryan or Cam Newton, Colleen, Wolf? I'm just putting on your GM. Well, you're wearing, you know, that's the sweatshirt that all NFL GMs wear if you're walking in the film now. So that's good. No, I would go with Cam Newton because I think if you put him maybe in a different offense with, you surround him with some better weapons, then I think his ceiling might be a little bit higher

than Matt Ryan's. I like that kind of analysis. That was on the spot, guys. I didn't really have a lot to think about it. I just want to, I like to put you on the spot. You know, you're in a different role. I'm like, I'm hot now. I don't know.

Sweating. You spend the day on Sundays, of course, on NFL Sunday Blitz. on NFL now. Yeah, NFL, Game Day Blitz. Game Day Blitz. And that's on from 10 to 4 in Pacific, or if you want to get weird about it in the Eastern, it could be like 1 to 7.30.

Right, yeah, you can check that out on NFL now. We're there all day. And you're on NFL now throughout the week. I just, you know, thought we would throw that in there. A fine plug on your park. Thank you. Colleen, since we're talking about you and you really are the centerpiece of this show

in so many ways, let's talk about your Philadelphia Eagles. We've been waiting for the Eagles offense to get on track 39 to 17. They basically ended Sean Payton's career in New Orleans. No, I don't think you're wrong. That's overstating in a little bit. But a blowout and embarrassing loss for the Saints. Was it a bigger deal for the Eagles to get this kind of win or a bigger deal of the Saints to have that bad a loss? That's tough because going into the game, both teams, one and three, both sort of felt like their seasons were in a tailspin.

But I think that there were so much pressure on Chip Kelly and the Eagles because the expectations were so much higher than the Saints. Sam Bradford, again, he had this awful first half, and then they were able to adjust. And he came back and played better, but he threw two red zone interceptions and was the first quarterback in the league at this point to throw two red zone interceptions in the same game.

That was bad. And they won 39 to 17. Yeah. Also, the interesting thing here was you look at the box score and you see DeMarco Murray had some great stats, some high numbers. But a lot of that came in junk time, and Ryan Matthews was actually the more featured back in this. And a key play came. It was a relatively close game still, and it was first and goal at the two, and they gave it to Ryan Matthews. And that really, I think, told a story today.

Yeah, I mean, can we just at this point all agree that Ryan Matthews is the better fit for this ground game? And I mean, I think that even in the summer there were people close to the team saying that and now we're seeing it week to week. I'd like to make a motion to change garbage time officially to junk time. Sponsored by Sanford and some. Need more junk in our lives.

Junk time. It was not good. Also, there was a play that Sam Bradford threw a touchdown to Josh Huff and you tweeted about it. Two Saints defenders just like smacked right into each other. That was pretty much the play that turned the Eagle season around. Just football follies, two Saints defenders like bonged heads fall down.

And so the Eagles get a big run after the catch. And it was another game where, and I think that you're right, Greg, about Sean Peyton. It's another game where we saw Peyton, you know, quietly squaring off with Rob Bryan on the sideline. And Connor Orr, who wrote up the game, had this line that I love. He called it, the game had the look and feel of a Zeppelin rapidly falling to earth. Sounds like a line out of the Sessler repertoire. Well, I mean, it seems accurate, though, because what is, if you're a Saints fan after many, fun seasons over the past decade plus. What a disaster this team is right now. What is your

hopeful takeaway? What do they do well? I think their end of the year video for NFL films will be the two defenders crashing into each other. Yeah. And Fletcher Cox, he just blew up Drew Brees. On cue with the highlights. Wow. Watch it. She's a pro. Three sacks, two fumble recoveries. He had a great game. But Drew Brees and this offense, you can really tell how much they miss. Jimmy Graham. Well, I mean, just the fact that that's sort of a jenga piece that Shaq always talked about. They miss 2012 altogether. They miss a lot.

They miss, even 2013 when they won a playoff game in Philadelphia, this offense has really not been blamed for this start because the defense is such a tire fire. And that's fair. The defense is arguably the worst in the league. But the offense is 30, 40 percent worse than it used to be. You could see it in the Dallas game, even with Drew Brees back. They're not going up and down. on the field. Willie Sneed is their number two receiver. They have great running backs,

yet the running game's not really that consistent. It's just a dim version of what they used to be on offense. And there's not big plays. It used to be a big play offense. There's not big plays. And look at Spiller, two yards on six touches. I think part of it is that what we wrote about and heard about the Saints in the offseason was, oh, this late period Drew Brees is going to be surrounded by a Dallas Cowboys clock chewing offense. And that sounds great in May. But And they aren't able to get it done. They just cannot get it done. And your defense is on the field.

Right. I mean, the Eagles gave up, the Eagles had 300 yards in the first half. And it wasn't a blowout at the time, but they had 300 yards in the first half of the game. It was a game where the Eagles had, you know, you mentioned the two red zone turnovers. You also had two fourth and longs that the Eagles went for,

which was a total sign of disrespect to the Saints offense, that they failed. So in a game like that, for them to score 39 points, I think this is easily the darkest day of the Sean Payton era, and it's not even closed. Well, I mean, there was also a little scandal that happened a couple years ago, but from an on-field perspective. From an on-field perspective, I think this is worse because, to me, it's over.

And the reasons it's over, not what happened in the game from what happened on ESPN before the game, that we get a report that the dolphins are interested in Sean Payton and other teams could be interested in Sean Payton. And they throw in the article, it's unclear if Payton or the Saints would be open to such a move because he has two years left on his contract. track. You know, I'm calling BS on that. It's open. That's coming from Sean Payton. That to me is a for sale sign on Sean Payton's house. He is saying, I want out of here. And of course, they're going to hide behind sources and reports and whatever. But I'm reading that and I'm thinking

Sean Payton would love to coach the Dolphins. And it makes a lot of sense. And anyone that wants to take him should look at what Sean Payton's been when True Breeze is not True Breeze. It's part of his success. That's a depressing. And I, and I wouldn't say I'm disappointed. Maybe it's his agent. It might not be Sean Peyton himself that's doing this, but I think it's a disappointing thing for Saints fans to see. I think on the flip side, you know, that big takeaway

from the Saints, but I don't think you take anything away from this game of the Eagles. I don't think you can. The Saints are that bad. The Eagles scored on their last seven drives after having 300 yards in the first half. I just don't think you can measure yourself against the Saints. I don't buy it. No, I don't buy anything that the Eagles

are selling at this point still, just because they looked so bad. Well, they were one in three, two, years ago as well not that that really means a whole lot but chip kelly got that team into the playoffs and i just i don't know they lost another team they lost and this is another team though that unlike the like the seahawks have a lot of new parts happening on offense and maybe it takes more than a month that said i'm with you i the chip kelly thing have a nice time with it good luck to you i'm not just buying in all over again at this point all right one one team we're obviously all buying in on the green bay packers it's crazy how these undefeated teams just stay undefeated most

and no teams in NFL history, and I think we're going to have the most five-and-o teams in NFL history. The Packers took care of business at home 24 to 10 against the St. Louis Rams. Chris Wessling, you mentioned going into this game. Maybe the Rams don't even have the best defense in this game. After watching the Packers' defense on Sunday, who's better, St. Louis or Green Bay? Packers were better going into this game, and they're much better coming out of it. I mean, the Rams made life difficult for Aaron Rogers, but the Packers,

made life impossible for Nick Fools. They hit him, I think, 11 times, intercepted him four times, gave him a 1.5 QBR. Clay Matthews looks like Troy Palomalo moving all over the defense. The main flying behind him making plays. He hit fools four times himself. And Wes is a sucker for guys with flowing hair. It goes back to. I get it.

It goes back to Fabio. Yeah, his, well, just his life experience. That's where the channel's back to. He just sees it. No, I don't generally. You know, I don't seem to go for the long hair look on guys. If you were forced to have a fat head in your room, would it be Clay Matthew? I would not have a fat.

No, but if you were absolutely forced. It would be like James Joyce or something. He does not have a fat head. James Joyce Fathead? He was like 4'6, I think James. It would not be a football player in my bedroom now. I don't know. I'm going to stay out of this one.

All right, I'm sorry. Tell us more about the Rams or the Packers defense as well. The James Joyce Fathead moving a lot of units here in a lot of. October 2015. How about, you got to give the Rams defense a little credit here. The Packers only scored seven points on offense to the first half. I guess what, 17 the whole game, because the Packers' defense scored a touchdown here. The Rams had chances for Red Zone trips, only one for St. Louis.

Watching this, do you think it was a close game? No, no. I thought the Packers controlled the game all along. The Rams won time of possession, and they were able to do that because Todd Gurley is a superstar. I mean, he's a game changer. He is, to me, an old. school franchise altering kind of running back in their old Campbell mode, where you bring them in with your defense already set, you control the clock, and if you had anything on

the offensive line or quarterback, you'd have a chance to win this game. How about Aaron Rogers with three turnovers? I know how everybody rolls there. It had to happen at some point. Well, the two interceptions couldn't have been more unlucky for Aaron Rogers. The first one was tipped at the line of scrimmage, and then James Laurinitis made a diving catch for it. The second one wasn't even a catch, but since the NFL's

catch rule is the worst rule in professional sports, and it gets rolled inconsistently from game to game. They can't figure out what a catch is. They awarded a guy for trapping the ball against the ground. I have no idea why the defense gets credit for that, but Calvin Johnson and Des Bryant have to like do Chinese arithmetic before they can catch a bat. It doesn't matter when Nick Foles has a QBR that's 78 and a half points lower than Josh McCowns. I know because they, I saw them, they were in the red zone at one point and Foles got picked off, right? And at that point, they had a chance to make it a game. Like, they were somewhat in this game, but to have four interceptions, to average 4.7 yards per

attempt, their passing game, you don't know what's going to show up week to week. Clay Matthews called this the best defense he's been on since he's been in Green Bay. And it looks like it. They bring a lot of pass rushers, and their young secondary is really good. I was not expecting that. I mean, the Packers' defense in the Super Bowl season took a while to get going, and then they were really on a roll. But there hasn't really been many great Packers' defenses.

Not in the McCarthy era. I mean, because these last two weeks, and granted they're playing two offensively challenged teams, they haven't had great offensive performances. They've scored 41 points, and some of that's from the defense. And Gurley's 159 yards, Packers play a good run defense today. Gurley's just that good.

Do that come mostly at the end then? He had one 50-something-yard run, I believe, in the fourth quarter. Second week in a row, he's at a 50-plus-yard run. He's that kind of guy. He moves like no other bat. He's got a gallop like Adrian Peterson. I mean, he just moves different. Green Bay has now officially clinched the NFC North.

I just made that up. Patriots are one of those teams, like the Packers, that just keep rolling along. And we're going to roll on to their game next. The Cowboys defense played very well in the first half, and they sacked Tom Brady five times. And yet, when you look up at the scoreboard, at the end of the game,

They called a basically perfect defensive game plan, and they still lose 30 to 6. New England now, 4-0, they're the last of those 4-0 teams. More of the same from them. And really, it's kind of, watching this game, I'm thinking, what do you need to do to beat the Patriots? Like, what do you think the game? What do you think the... I'd have to, like, get a group of cars kidnapped Tom Brady, Tom Brady's entire family, and maybe Edelman and his family as well, and just get them out of town.

and then go with your backups. That's your only shot against New England. I think play the Cardinals. That's what you need to do. Oh. Do you think the Cardinals are the best team? I do. I mean, honestly, though,

the New England, until someone goes and takes care of business, I think it's fair to call New England just as much of the best team as Arizona at this point. Well, you asked me my opinion. I told you. I think the Cardinals could beat them. I think the Patriots have a weakness in their secondary,

and the Cardinals don't. Not today. They didn't. Dion Lewis today. This guy, I mean, I saw him with the Eagles, and I never saw him in the game, do anything like that. The way that he made people miss today and the production that he had, God, it makes me question the Eagles, but it just makes the Patriots so much stronger the fact that they have him and he can do these things.

93 total yards on 14 touches doesn't really explain what he did today because he must have had nine broken tackles. That's what he's doing every week. I mean, he is one of the best I've practically ever seen at just making people miss with, which he's got a couple of feet. In front of him, it's uncanny how well Leon Lewis is playing. He's in the perfect offense because Brady's basically running a spread offense. Right. And he's doing short passes.

You know, every once in a while they stick Lewis on the outside against a Nigel Bratam who has no prayer of keeping up with him. But he's in the perfect spread offense for him. I mean, this is, and this is, you know, Brandon NFL a year ago. It's like they keep taking players that have not thrived elsewhere, plug them in, and they become core contributors to play off Super Bowl team. Well, they have a triplet. And Brady, who was sacked, like I said, five times in the first half.

The Cowboys defense looked completely different with Greg Hardy. You know, we all probably wish Greg Hart. Like, we all would be fine if Greg Hardy never played in the NFL. I am actively rooting for that. Yeah. I mean, I think we're all rooting against Greg Hardy. And yet when you watch him play and you just analyze what happened on the field today, I was thinking, you know, this could be the best on-field free agent signing.

of the offseason if he plays like this. He had five quarterback hits today, a couple sacks, a couple tackles for loss. It was one of the better defensive performances. I would say I've seen this year from just about anyone. So he returns. Rolanda McLean returns and has a great first game. They really played well in the first half,

and then it kind of fell apart for them. And Sean Lee was back on the field. So if you're a Cowboys fan, you saw some things to like about. And yet despite all that, I mean, Brady's 20 for 27. He averages more than 10 yards per attempt, and they basically just find a way to get the job done because that's what they do. How can I trust QBR as a stat

when Brandon Whedon hit a higher QBR in this game than Tom Brady did? Wow. That's absurd. That is a problem. That's a big problem. That's wildly absurd. I think part of it is there was a lot of run after the catch for the Patriots.

I mean, the Patriots, to be fair to Brady, I mean, he had a lot of help today. But isn't that what their offense is? Yeah, he's got Julian Edelman making people miss on a long touch. He's got Gronk. He's got Dionne Lewis. He had a good running game today with... What did Edelman do to Mo Claiborne?

Oh, my gosh. He broke his angles. I mean, he shook him so bad at the start of a play. Claiborne just went down on the ground in a heap. He looked like a shot horse. It was just over. And that wasn't even the play I was talking about. I was talking about the 69-year touchdown.

And I don't think that was Claiborne, but he made one cowboy just missed badly in the open field. I said it a couple years ago, and you didn't want to hear it, but Edelman's a better player than Wes Welker was. he's a better overall player well in his prime i would say julian edelman can do more things his peak is better than west walk i'm not saying he's going to have a better

i don't know if i agree one thing is true i mean they found they had welker they got rid of welker at the right time they bring in someone and they had already had him in the system that simply does what welker does just as good or is more at this point i mean it's that's what the new england does other players would lose someone and then spend the next 10 years looking for that filling. England just does it over and over. That's so true.

We have to bring up, though, too, the Cowboys' Offensive line. That's all we heard about, everybody chirping about the offensive line. It's so great. Da-da-da-da. Like, Marco Murray gone. Doesn't matter.

Plug somebody else in. This line does not look as good as it was sold to us the entire off-season. And as you wrote in your write-up, Greg, the offense in general, they went without a first down for 25 minutes of the game. at one point, the offense.

And that was at a time when the Cowboys defense was playing great. They had six straight three and outs at one point. And that's why I'm giving the Cowboys defense a lot of credit here because their offense put them in such a bad spot. And even though the Whedon stats are bad and the overall Cowboys stats are bad, they're very misleading because the game was wildly over before they did anything. And a lot of that, I think, was Whedon, is that they just trusted they could handle the Cowboys receivers on the outside and they loaded up the box.

But with that said, they had a ton of penetration on the offensive line. A lot of tackles for loss, getting to Whedon very quickly. Chandler Jones, Jamie Collins, Dante Hightower, and your boy, Mark Sessler-Jabal, Sheard, had a big day today. Well, we talked about that signing when it happened, that I thought that Sheard, who played well in multiple systems in Cleveland, was going to be a great fit for New England. And secondly, part of the thing with the offensive line, when you replace Tony Romo with Branden and Whedon. Brandon Whedon made Cleveland's offensive line look bad when they had Jordan Cameron and Josh Gordon as the number

one receiver in the league. So it's just not, he's not able to do this. Their schedule coming up, Giants, Seahawks, Eagles, Bucks, and Dolphins. They've got to come out of this in a still bad division. He's got to win some games. Well, he might not be he might not get a change. I think they're

going into the by week now and I think they'll strongly consider Castle. I don't know if that's going to help matters or not. You know how much have ripped on Castle over the years? He's a much better quarterback than Brandon Wheaton. Thank you. Thank you. I didn't want have to say. Well, we'll see. I mean, I am not sure I trust any Castle narratives

at this point. That's true. That's just how bad Brandon Whedon is. Bill Callahan, I think, leaving, that hurt them. That's a huge thing with the offensive line as well. So, their offensive line is struggling. The Broncos' offensive line has been struggling throughout the season

and yet it doesn't seem to matter. The Broncos get another win. They're at five, 15 to 10 over the Raiders. Chris Wessling, is this just the new normal for the Broncos winning ugly but doing it almost the same way every single week? I think it has to be because the defense is making up for an offense that is one of the worst in the league, and that's not hyperbole. They were ranked 30th going into this game by football outsiders on offense. Peyton Manning did not have any touchdown drives again.

This also happened in week one. 2003 is the last time a Peyton Manning-led team did not have a touchdown so far in two games this year he has only the defense to thank for keeping that streak a lot there has to be part of Peyton Manning

that's thinking why couldn't I this is great I have this defense keeping me undefeating and taking the pressure off but wouldn't have been cool to have this defense for one of my dominant offensive teams at some point because we would have crushed everyone and won the Super Bowl I don't think it's fair to say that they are the 30th

best offense because what did they say all off season we're going to do well. We're going to run the ball. You know, Peyton doesn't need to throw all over the place because we're going to surround them with a strong running game. Anderson, 22 yards, Hillman, 21 yards. I feel like this does the box score every week minus Hillman's one big play from a couple weeks ago. So you say it's not fair? Are you saying they're actually 32nd in offense? Well, no, I'm saying that's, to say that it's crazy that they're 30th, it's not crazy. They're a bad offense. Who would you rather have Peyton Manning or Derek Carr? Derrick Carr. Wow. How about Peyton Manning or?

or Sam Bradford. Any of them, because they're not turning 40 in a year. All right. There's just, there's only so much, I think there's only so much you can do on offense with Peyton Manning right now. Because he's, he's scared to get hit, it looks like to me, and he can't move. And he really can't make a, he can make some of the throws, but then there's five or six throws a game where you never see anybody throw uglier passes. And it's like, what's happening?

Charles Woodson was very happy to see him today. I'm sure he was. I mean, a couple interceptions for the first time in his career, and Peyton Manning, he just continues that streak of multiple interceptions. I think it's been four straight games now. Wow. And, you know, again, could be three or four interceptions, not two. Well, you mentioned Charles Woodson, Colleen,

and Charles Woodson was a guest this week on the Around the NFL television show hosted, of course, by Andrew Siciliano. That is on every day, Monday through Friday, Monday 6 p.m. Thursday's 2 p.m. Eastern, and that's a three-hour show on Thursday. And when Andrew talked to Charles Woodson, you know, he said it was a big life career goal to get his hands on Peyton Manning's balls. That's what, that's the way Charles Woodson put it, and he did it twice. Are we happy for him?

Rosenthalga's Sophomoric on the bus. Happy birthday to him. I'm quoting. That was literally the quote. He did get his hands on it. He did. In the second interception that Woodson made. was incredible.

I do want to make a serious point that it's insane how well Charles Woodson is playing right now. He's leading the league in interceptions. Oldest. It's 39. Oldest player in history with multiple interceptions in a game.

I'm just stunned by your consecutive string of like A minus plugs here. You keep nailing the plug. Oh, A minus. Oh, okay. What do I got to do to bump that? That's true. That's true.

It's pretty good. He's 91 on a math test. More likely to be playing at our funerals. Charles Woodson or Keith Richards? I mean, I tweeted. I tweeted. I tweeted. I tweeted.

He's going to be playing after we're all dead and gone. He moves up the all-time interception list, too. He's about seventh now. That's true. I think he passed, who was it? He's up to Ed Reed. He's up to Ed Lott and Darren Sharper. He's passing Ronnie Lott.

I mean, when he was making that Super Bowl run with the Packers, it was almost like an interesting first time anyone asked this question. Wow, is Charles Woodson a Hall of Famer? And now it just seems obvious that he's a Hall of Famer. Give us a little bit on the Raiders here. and their offense's inability to score more than 10 points. Is it all just give credit to the Denver defense? What is it?

Well, they move the ball, and then you have Sebastian Janikowski missed the field goal, had another one blocked because it was too low. So there's six points right there. Then you've got the pick six, so they were driving then. They were driving quite a bit. And then Von Miller's stripsack, which was, you know, a clown suit play, Austin Howard missed a block. And Von Miller just came up and took the ball right away from Derek.

Derek Carr set the Broncos up. So there were a lot of drives where they could move the ball, but they didn't end well for the Raiders. We need a sponsor for clown suit play of the week. There are any clownsuit manufacturers out there? Like a clown college? I got a clown guy. I don't know.

So Derek Carr was sacked four times, and the Oakland offensive line had only allowed three sacks all season. I guess that's what happens, though, when you run into the Denver defense, they're that dominant. And we should mention that DeMarcus Ware left with a back injury and did not return. That could be a big injury.

It's uncanny, though, that they make that big play every single week. And this week, it was the touchdown, right, return. And at that point in the game, the Raiders still had a chance. I do have to call a flag on Bill Musgrave and Derek Carr for not changing the play call late in the game. They need a touchdown. It's fourth and 19. Literally, they need a touchdown to stay in the game.

And they threw a screen pass to it. I think it was doing it. On fourth and 19? Yes. Do you remember that? I mean... I don't remember that. The game was...

They managed the game well at the end of the game. The game was still in doubt, and it was like they didn't know what the down was. So they went for it on 4th and 19, because you have to, to score a touch set. And they threw a two or three-yard pass that gained one yard. Was it Roy Huloolew? It's the strangest thing I've ever seen. Greg was going to find a way to get his angst towards Bill Musgrave out in one of these podcasts, because we've heard this before, hints of it, and it's in full bloom now.

Well, Musgraves should be happy because look at what Spags is doing with the Giants defense. Greg took him to town. So a tough loss there for the Raiders. They're now two and three. The Broncos in full control of that division. And it's got to be a fun race for the buys in the AFC because a lot of undefeated teams there. It was a tough loss for them.

I didn't get an even tougher loss for the Kansas City Chiefs today against the Bears. They find a way to lose a big lead at home. They fall 1817 to Chicago. the Chiefs we now know could be without Jamal Charles for the rest of the season. Andy Reid indicated that he, you know, initial reports say it's a torn ACL and MRI will confirm that on Monday. Could this have gone any worse, Colleen, for the Chiefs? No, not at all. You look at their record and now that they don't have Jamal Charles, when he left the game, they couldn't move the offense at all. And that's the biggest problem with

Alex Smith. He needs the run game. He has. Jeremy Macklin there now, but without anybody to run the ball, I don't know how they're going to do anything. I mean, Andy Reed, after the game, now that they're one and four, he was asked just general thoughts, and he said, we're moving on to Minnesota. That's what we're focusing on. Oh, that's what everyone says. You're one and four. Jamal Charles is not in your offense anymore. How are you going to do anything? You feel, you sound like someone that has a little, you know, P-T-R-D, you know, post-traumatic Reed disorder. You know, that you've seen some of those, too many of those press conferences.

Because the other thing with him that would be so frustrating is you have Jamal Charles and he wouldn't run the ball. He wouldn't run the ball. And now you don't have them anymore and I don't know what they're going to do. In Kansas City, they got beat by Jay Cutler. That's all you really need to do. I mean, Charles was a part of their passing game too. They're in big trouble and where they're heading is they're going to get forked this week.

Well, that's for sure. I mean, it's over for the Chiefs. Yeah, it's over for the Chiefs. And it's maybe, maybe this is a piece one of us should write this week or something. It's these mid-level quarterback contracts, the franchise quarterback that's not quite worth $18 million a year, but they are worth 15 that's killing these teams now. Alex Smith, Ryan Tannehill, Kaepernick, Stafford's got all the money, but he's a problem, too. It's been a bad year for mid-level franchise quarterback.

Thank you, Greg. That was going to lead what we learned tonight. Oh, wow. I just gave you the idea. I had something like that going around in my head. But I really put it in a... You did. You put it all together.

In a digestible way that people could understand it. You did. You guys work so well together. It is like hand and glove. You know who I wouldn't put on that list, though, Jay Culler. I mean, you've got to give Jay Culler some credit. They would cut him tomorrow if they could. The bears are scrappy.

Here's a quote from Matt Slosson, who that's his real name. He's a guard. Not Matt Cawson. Jay is the definition of resiliency. That's his quote after this game. I love how like spicy. Every few games you'll have wandering bear supporting Jay Cutler and then in the offseason you hear nothing.

You got to give some credit that they won a game. And I know it was, you know, Jay Culler didn't have the greatest game ever necessarily, Colleen. There were a lot of miscues. There was a botched snap at one point that he almost fumbled and he did manage to throw a touchdown out of it. But it was just a sloppy... Both of these quarterbacks were in the Gabbard zone.

Well, they also found a way to win a game. The Chiefs found a way to blow a game where they had a touchdown on defense from a Jay Cutler fumble. I was going to give him some credit. His leading wide receivers in this game are Marcus Wilson, Cameron Meredith, and Josh Bellamy. Those are his top three wideouts.

All-sun, referee, no Eddie Royal. You know, give Jay a little bit. I have to go to Rode Award and find out who Cameron Mennard. Meredith is. I've never heard of him. He was doing something last week and I was like, who is that guy? Who is Meredith? Undrafted out of Illinois State. They just picked him out of their backyard. Matt Forte deserves really all the love. Yeah. I mean, he had a good game. He had 20-some touches and over 100 yards. I'm just saying. All the love. All the love.

He's caring this team. The Bears, we thought they were the worst team in the league. They've won two games. They've won two games in a row. Chiefs have to be in that mix for the worst team in the league. Well, look, there's a reason why we never believe in the Chiefs. When your best player is Jamal Charles and you know that if he goes down, they're done because you don't have a good quarterback. TD, you know, puts little thoughts into my ear every now and then or tells me what game is coming to next.

Also, when we're outside of the studio. TD, but, yeah. But since, you know, you want to dig, you want to get a dig in here somewhere. So let's just have you voice it instead of me, you know, doing it for you. I mean, your boy, Dave Damshick, has the Chiefs as

a Civil Bowl pig, so, you know. He does that every year. He's pointing that out. Does he have them over the Texans in the AFC championship game? He does. Oh, my gosh. This is the guy who had Jake Cutler for MVP last year.

Well, he had the Bengals recently, and he was a year, maybe a year or too early on that. So the Shek Kiss of Death. The Checks loves the Chiefs. The Chiefs are done at 1 and 4. The Bears deserve a little credit for being feisty. Well, they don't deserve a lot of credit. I think we've said enough.

Okay. Let's move on to another game. That we're not going to talk that much about, probably, the Bucks and the Jaguars. But at least Chris Wesleyan, this was a little more entertaining, a little more filled with offense, some young quarterbacks, and the Bucks get their second win of the year 38 to 31 over the Jaguars. Well, look, this game was sneaky exciting. Doug Martin ran about as well as anybody's run all year today. He looked, from start to finish, he looked like a complete, impressive, dynamic running back,

just took over the game, and maybe that had to do with the Jaguar. his leading tackle, tackler, Paul Puzzlesney was out. So they were a Swiss cheese defense today, but Martin looked great. And they've got this dude named Howard Jones that they signed,

he's me. They signed off the Pittsburgh Steelers practice squad, gave him the highest contract of anybody on a practice squad, acted for the first time today, and he's flying around the field. Two sacks, no one else to blame.

That's why they call him the scientist, Colleen, by the way, because he's got all the lowdown Howard Jones. Howard Jones is like, like a mid-80s pop singer. Simp pop guy, yeah. Had a, like, a sixth-grade girlfriend.

Right, if you were writing a headline for the bucks on defense, you would say things can only get better. It's like if you don't have enough money for Howard Johnson, you know, they have the Howard Jones down the street. Lights are on. Trampling all over our Howard Jones music talk. Can we talk about Blake Bortles for a second? I mean, his last two games put him together,

and I think we're seeing some progress from this guy. He looked good today, and, you know, you've got Julius Thomas coming back. was worked in slowly. He didn't start, and it seemed like he was playing on third downs initially. But you've got all the, you know, Julius Thomas, Alan Robinson, Alan Hurons is coming on, the albino tiger might come back at some point. Marquis Lee. They've got some weapons on this offense. Yeah. And also, I mean, you have to be happy for Lovie Smith because he gets his first home win ever with the Bucks. Wow. Yes. I didn't realize that. That is crazy. I know.

How does that man have a job? I know. So that happened. Oh, and 10, that's crazy. But, okay. Yeah, the one thing, though, I thought the Buck's defensive front did look a little bit better than the Jags. You look at those two offensive lines, not the best in the league. Yeah, because Bortles outplayed Winston. Bordle's played really well for the second straight week. I think there's some real tangible improvement.

Here's the problem, though, in Jacksonville, because, yeah, we just took, you know, Lovie Smith to town for not winning more than one game at home. if you're the Jaguars, you're still, you're one and four. At some point, this coaching staff that we have just given a huge leash to has to start winning these games. This was a game they had to win. And they're not doing it. I think this is one of the, well, I mean, it's only been a season and a half, but this is a really tough loss for the Gus Bradley regime.

I think to get that kind of performance from Blake Bortles, where he's four touchdowns, 9.2 yards per attempt, 31 points. you finally get an offensive performance, and then your defense. What this team is usually supposed to be about to give up 38 points to Doug Martin and James Winston, and you're not even the best team in the lousy state of Florida. You're one and four. It's hard to see progress there. Right.

They got ran over 183 yards on the ground giving up. I mean, this is not Seattle light. I really think if Bortles develops into the guy you think is the face of the franchise, the coaching staff will be fine. I guess. You don't want to bring in a new coach when Bortals is. playing well and finally looks like a... Well, a good young quarterback can extend

your coaching career for a long, long time. The same is true for Lovie. I mean, he's already matched last season's win total. I would have never guessed that a game with Winston and Bordels would have over 10 yards per attempt between the two of them. That's true. Or 69 points. Out there throwing bombs. Jaguar's got to get some wins before they go to London, I feel

like. I mean, you're going to be covering there soon. I guess they only have one more game before they go. Yeah, a win. How about a win? Add a little sizzle. You're going to be covering what, Jaguar's Bills is the game. You're going to be entrenched with the bills because you and Rex have such a lovely relationship.

Well, I'm open to me, my mind changed. All right. Let's talk about those Rex led bills. They find a way to get a victory in Tennessee. It was 14 to 13. Maybe not the prettiest game in the world, but the bills were down,

feeling like it could be a little bit of a low point in their season, and they do come back to win the game calling. Yeah, and the bills, they were without Sammy Watkins, LaShawn McCoy, Carlos Williams. They had really no offensive weapons. And Tyrod Taylor,

he did a lot. He rushed for over 70 yards in this game. And he even caught a pass from Chris Hogan. Whoa. Set up a touchdown. 7-Eleven. Yeah. And they even got some production out of Dan Heron,

who they signed this week. So he was the other leading rusher behind Tyrod Taylor. So this win, they barely edged the Titans. But it wasn't pretty. They did it, though. They have gotten nothing through the air without Watkinson there. There's just not a single receiver that stood out.

It was one of the more stunning score lines I saw today when it was 3-0 at halftime. I was shocked at the Titans' defense, which has not been good this year. I know the bills were missing a lot of people, so maybe I shouldn't. But I like Tyrod Taylor. The more I watch them, the more I like him in general. And I thought he would find a way. And he did. I mean, he runs for 76 yards.

the next leading rusher on the team at 28 yards. Who would you rather have... They had no running game and Chris Hogan as their number one receiver and they won a game, so they deserve something. Who would you rather have running your defense? Rex Ryan or Dick LeBoe? Oh, Rex Ryan.

Rex Ryan. It's not even close. Why is it not even close? Because Dick Leboe's 80 years old or whatever. He basically just got fired by the team that loved him. Yes, it is. I mean, how could... I like Dick Leboe a lot. I mean, I think he's...

That's one reason that they've changed a little bit this time. The wild eyes are coming out at me for the ages. Maybe he'll take you to bingo with him. Oh, wow. I think it's fair to say people reach professional peaks. In general, I'm asking then. Maybe not this month this week. But of the two defensive minds, you believe

more in Rex Ryan than Dick Leboe? I would disagree. If you said Leboe at his peak at their prime, yeah. That's different. I still would take Rex, maybe. Rex Ryan has a lot of bad games on his resume on defense. Connor Oir who wrote up this game, gave a lot of credit to the fact that even

even though, you know, they were trailing much of the game that the defense, the attitude, big hits at the end of the game when the Titans had a chance to go try to drive for a field goal. Ultimately, it's, this is, I was thinking when it was 3-0, and this is like, well, this is what Rex wants. This is the team that he wants, three-nothing games. That's like his dream. Very defensive-minded teams, yeah.

Big win, though, for the Bills. And it also makes me think the AFC South is getting close to being almost over. As bad as, I mean, the Colts are probably going to lose this week to the Patriots. but just the rest of the AFC South, other than the Colts, really struggling to find a win. The bills get to three and two. And now let's move on to our last game before the Sunday night game, the Cleveland Browns. Mark Sessler, 33 to 30. You desperately wanted to cover this game.

First time you covered a Browns game all season in the office. I see that as a sign that you're back on board. Do the Browns, Mark Sessler. finally have a quarterback in Josh McCown? Well, it's depressing as he's like 43 years old, but he has played lights out and back-to-back. It's ages, Mark. That's fair.

That's fair. Whoa. But it's, I mean, first quarterback in the history of, no, listen, it's not been a good 20 years, but there's a lot of good Browns teams over their history. First quarterback in Brown's history for back-to-back-to-back, 300-yard games, through for 457 yards today, which set a franchise record.

And this is for a team that, rightly so, we question if they were the worst skill position, collection of skill position players in the entire league before the season. And instead, they're averaging like 27 points a game. It's all coming through the air because they can't run the ball, which is what they sold us as their method for victories. And their defense is atrocious. So everything that the organization said,

this is what we're all about. We're bread and butter. We're tough. We're going to win games 10 to 7. you are winning games 33 to 30 in overtime. I don't know what's happening. You know who is in a sneaky running maybe for that coordinator of the year job? Your boy, the offensive coordinator in Cleveland.

I mean, I know they lose Kyle Shanahan, but your boy is doing pretty well. Except though, the loss of Shanahan has revealed that the Browns line is nothing like it was a year ago. The shifting away from what they did last year has completely reduced their running game to salt. So I'm concerned. When you bring in a first-time offensive coordinator that hasn't been, been with the organization. I think that's always a big risk. I think the lions are seen with Joe Lombardi, you know, the downside of that risk, really an offense that doesn't fit them. They bring in D. Filippo, and he's, Josh McCowne looks fantastic. We were a little,

we were a year of premature on making the leap for me. Oh, please. Oh, wow. Wes, by the way, you gave up on Josh McCann. That's true. Two weeks ago, and he's put together his two best games by far since he's been in Chicago. Because he, there was nothing sneaky about last week. I thought maybe it's garbage time, maybe it's this or that, but he was fantastic last week and it sounds like he was a game. And that is DiFilippo because he's, one thing that changed

with that organization is that they got on the quarterbacks this offseason and honestly, McCown is a massive upgrade over Brian Hoyer a year ago. Gary Barnage or Rob Gunkowski. Hey, you joke around, but Barnage has been hanging out of my Donniercy roster

forever. I've always loved him. Why? He looked like a son today. He's a better athlete thing you think, and he's got great hands. I always wonder why he wasn't used more in his offense. For years, because he's been, it was Rob Chisinski that brought him to Cleveland from Carolina, and he was never used much. They had Jordan Cameron, so he wasn't going to play that role. But he didn't have a drop for years.

Like, it was just a couple. He's not some Jim Dre who can't move that well. He's a good athlete for a tight end. Yeah, and I don't know what you do at this point with Johnny Mansell, because Josh McCown is really, I mean, he's making something out of nothing. If they fall three games under 500 at any point, even if Josh McCown's playing well, I mean, unless he's playing this well, I think you still make a change. But who knows?

The Browns are two and three. Well, their schedule, their upcoming schedule is an absolute disaster. I think it's the Broncos, the Rams, the Cardinals are in there, and then you get the Bengals and Steelers. That's awful. That's awful. What would your official title be on NFL Sunday Blitz? That's a great question. I don't know, because I was going to say as the host, but you're not the host.

They don't do titles on that. No. You kind of jump in and you talk so. But when you're over there, can you tell the difference on a day where Mark Sessler comes over to the couch after a Brown's win and a Brown's loss? Like what is the difference? Like your interaction with him, his with the rest of the guys, everything like that. Well, it's only happened two times. So it's a small sample size to deal with.

But wait a minute, the Ravens. Hold on a second. Good answer out of that. Thank you. We tend to do that on the show. We only talk Browns during Browns game. That's a good boy. The Ravens are one in four right now,

and they're lucky to be one in four because the game against Pittsburgh, they should have lost. They should be winless right now with the Lions. And Joe Flacco has nobody to throw to. He has Kamar Aiken. He has Chris Gibbons. He has, who else is...

Kyle Hughes Check. Marlon Brown. It's a mashup of bad receivers, and they are in a lot of trouble. You've been killing. You've been killing their defense. Yeah, they're forked. Well, I'm not killing their defense. Everyone that's played them has killed their defense. Because when you go and give up 505 yards to the Browns, this year's Browns, you don't have a whole lot of excuses left.

And it's not, this is not an aberration. Every week they're getting fried. Justin Fawcett, though, did have a good game, 121 yards, but that's against the Cleveland run defense. Which is a shockingly terrible group of run stoppers. Like, they have no one that can contain the edge. Just run around the tackle, and you're going to be fine. Yeah, Trestman. 20, 30 yards at a time. You know, you watch long enough, and even if the coaches remain the same, team personalities, like, they eventually go away.

Like, the Steelers are now a bombs away passing attack, and the Ravens are one of the most lifeless defenses in the entire league. Could have used Pernell McPhee, I think, for this season. That's a great point. All right. A lot of great points happened today. Most of them by Colleen Wolfe. College majority.

We're going to say. That's too kind. We're going to, you know, most of. Yeah, I would say, like, 85%. Mark had a few. West, not his best day. Wait a bit. You guys.

Colleen, you know, thanks again. Yeah. You can see you on NFL now all week. Of course, on Sundays. We know where to find you. I'm doing Fantasy Live now. Ooh, you are. Yeah.

Well, days, yeah. Nice. I didn't tell anybody because I wasn't sure if it was real. I didn't want to jinx it. That is real. I mean, when you have the chance to work with Michael Fabiano,

you just got to. Hall of Famer. Yeah, Hall of Famer. You just got to cross those fingers. not jinx anything. So that's great. We'll watch you there. And of course, we'll see you every Sunday night here. Every Sunday. You're a mainstay as part of the show. Colleen, thank you very much. Thank you guys. All right, we move on to the big Sunday night game. You know, earlier in the show, you know, I kind of mocked this game, the matchup that wasn't getting me excited. But you know

what? It turned out to be a great game. Giants win it 3027 on a last minute, Elon. Manning Toss to Larry Dinell. Was it the play of the day, Mark Sessler? Well, it's the last play of the day. So, yes, it is. That's how things work. And really, for me, it was another lesson with O'Dell Beckham because out for much of the second half with a hamstring injury,

just putting him on the field at the end, forced the 49ers to account for him. He had a huge PI call that helped the Giants get down the field. And then the touchdown at the end, I don't think it would have happened without him on the field. TD and I had a big debate. Like right before that pass interference call, right before he came on the field, T.D. said, you can't mess with a hamstring. Don't put him back in the game. He said, you play to win the game. It's a tight game. What good is he in three or four weeks if you lose three or four games? Get him on the field, win the game. Getting called out full force. What do you think about your coaching acumen getting questioned right here, TD?

Hey, I'm thinking about Odell Beckham's career because West like me thinks it can be one of the greatest to ever do it. A hamstring, if you mess that up, that is something that it won't be three to four weeks. It could be a whole season. So again, if it was an ankle. for sure. A hammy. I'll be a little bit more careful with that. Well, he was running on the sideline, and you're right. It's typical of how Odell Beckham outshines the rest of this group that Larry Dinell makes an unbelievable catch. And we're giving a great throw, too. Great throw by Eli Manning, a great drive, which was really keyed by some Shane Vareen catches, especially the one that got them into the red zone.

It's like, I agree with Chris Collinsworth. You can't let Shane Verne beat you all the way down the field. You know that's exactly what Eli Manning. Manning wants to do. They got the ball back, of course, down forward, knowing they needed the touchdown. And that throw to Danelle is great. But Larry Danelle, who drops some easy catches, makes a leaping catch on his fingertips over Navarro Bowman. Antoine Bathay is coming over. I mean, that was not an easy play at all. It was basically in the double coverage. You know what that is? That's a first place play.

Puts the Giants in first place. They would have been tied. Everybody would have been tied with the same record if not for that play. So the Giants are now one game up. And all this division takes is one team doing this more than every other week because it seems like we're going to get an eight and eight winner to this division potentially. But if you're San Francisco though, it is tough. This is a tough loss because, you know, I don't know where the other wins are going to come. You gave up 525 yards and to Eli Manning 441 through the air. Every week it's a new disaster for this defense. Well, on the road, they're a different team on the road. You give Eli Manning the franchise record for most completions in a game. Big Ben had one of the

best games of his career against this defense. And Carson Palmer lit him up too. Yeah, you mentioned I mean, this was an average day for them on the road. And it's a shame because after such depressing losses the last couple weeks and games where we started questioning the future of Colin Kaepernick. And I don't think he settled those questions on Sunday night. Kaepernick goes out there. He throws for 262 yards, especially in a couple touchdowns, especially. after early in the game, they weren't getting anything done. They moved the ball very well in the second half. They have a touchdown

drive when they absolutely needed it to take the lead. It looked at that point like San Francisco is going to win. Carlos Hyde ran the ball fairly well. Anquand Bolden gets off. They even woke up Tori Smith. He's still on the team. And yet they still can't get a win because the defense collapses. If it's not one thing, it's the other.

Yeah, you really, I think you have to start questioning some people in the front office for the change and direction on this team. You know, Trent Balke has been a pretty good drafter, but to assume that he was the one responsible for that many dynasty they've had over the past half decade? And now they're one in four and they look lost. Well, that had a lot of Scott McLuhan's fingerprints all over it as well. And part of it is the attitude. They boldly said, we're right, you're wrong, we're going to get rid of some great coaches, bring in, you know,

14 players are going to leave the building, but don't worry about it. We got it under control. And there's the results. You're not a good football team anymore. Yeah, the offseason moves were one thing in the retirements were bad luck. And even at the end of last season, it was clear that the time had run its course on Harbaugh. What I have a problem with is really the animosity that was building about credit before that all happened, dating back to last off season, early last season. I mean, these were rumblings we heard about a while ago.

And if you're a 49ers fan, you know, you're going to want some changes again. Yeah. And Tom Sula, sweating like a madman on the sideline tonight, he needed this win. I just thought it's a tough situation. So the Giants go to three and two. You've got to give them credit after some brutal losses to start the year. They have won three in a row. And they've been, Wes, we talked about it earlier in the week, just in the office.

They've been the best team in the division. I mean, they've been at least consistent where you kind of know what you're going to get from the Giants. Not a great defense. We don't know if they're going to win more than nine. Much better defense than we gave them credit for. Right. They're only that way because Tony Romo and Des Bryant are not on the field. That's the only reason that they are.

That's fair. So that's fair for them. I think this was a fair show. I miss Dan. You know, I don't like, yeah, I like it when Dan's hosting. You can just kind of sit back and crack wise. But I think we did, you know, we did a fair job replacing him, and he's going to be back on Tuesday. And, you know, we'll just keep taping shows. I like to call it The Return of the Mirth. The Return of the Mirth show. So that's coming up on Tuesday. Audio only. Our podcast then on Thursday. We'll also have our. big preview show, of course. You can check us out on NFL Now all day on Monday. And that's really

it for the week five podcast. See, T-D, there you go. Set it up. All right, for Greg Rosenthal, Colleen Wolf, who did a great job today, Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, all the guys in the back. We'll see you Tuesday. This is an IHeart podcast.