NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Week 6 recap

Episode Date: October 19, 2015

A room filled with heroes - Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler and Colleen Wolfe – break down each game from Week 6 of the regular season including a 2014 AFC championship rematch between the Patriots and the Colts, and the Broncos defense carrying Denver to a perfect 6-0 record.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. We'll need some time to adapt to the pro games. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by a room. Failed with Heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling. Greg Rosenthal.

What's up, boys? Hey, Dan. Feeling it. Mm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Greg is having the time of his life on this Sunday. I can tell.

Well, it's nice that Dan, you know, last Sunday he wasn't here. Now I can just kick back and relax. We basically just sit here. It's Dan's show now. Certainly not my show. But this is the YouTube Sunday night show. You'll see, and I have a sinus infection. So everyone, be careful.

Not feeling great. Fighting through Chris Rose, one of our hosts, also on MLB Network, NFL Network. He said, the number one thing when you're ill and you're not. on-air guy, tell people that you're ill. Make light of it. It puts the whole thing to rest. Develop some sympathy for you. I see he also gave you tips on name-dropping. Yeah, Chris Ross. He's a nice guy. I had a nice conversation with him. Anyway, yeah, you've got to organize when you do the Sunday show. It's our flagship show here at the Around the NFL podcast where we go over every single Sunday game, including the Sunday night football showdown

between the cults and Patriots, which we'll get to at the bottom of the show. But there's a lot of stuff to talk about today, Mark. You had a nice Sunday. I sat across from you. You got a little upset about the Browns. We'll get to a little later. But in general, you seem to be in good spirits, Mark. Well, you know, part of our job is just to maintain and to get through it, and that's what I did.

It was quite a fun Sunday. A lot of good games, by the way. A lot of good games. Mark's going to London today's. Mark is on his way to London on Tuesday. So any of our listeners that are in London, you and Connor and Mark, you guys got a figure out where the big meetup's going to be next Friday or Saturday. I'll leave that

to you guys. Yeah. I mark a couple of pints. I cannot wait to meet some of the English followers of the show. Is it true that you actually spent some time in your life in England? Yes. Have I heard that? It's been chronicled. I lived there when I was a young boy and I'm going to try. There's any break in the schedule.

I'm going to get out to Waybridge in Surrey Bridge. Which is where I lived. If I can find a way to get there. I actually googled Gary Bardage today to find out if he was English. He sounds English. Gary Barnage. He's like, Gary Bonnage. You think we would have known that by now?

From Kentucky. Yeah, I thought so. But just in case I missed it. Sometimes you know something will go off your radar and you should know it, but you didn't. Talk Gary Bonnage. Well, historically, totally a Brit, I'm sure, way back in the Barnage family. His lineage. So, yes, a lot of good games to get to. And I don't, there should be

nothing else. We should just get to it. Please. So much work. So many games to get to. And we'll start, like we did at least two weeks ago. Greg, I don't know. I did listen to the show. None of it stuck with me. Totally forgettable so. Two weeks ago, we led, no, it was a great show, working like.

Two weeks ago, we led with all the undefeated teams. So let's keep doing that. And we'll start with the Carolina Panthers, who we all thought, or most of America thought, that this would be the end of the Panthers as an undefeated team. They're going to the clink. Seattle Seahawks, they're going to get it together. But guess what?

Things didn't work out that way, because the Panthers remain undefeated after staging a dramatic fourth quarter rally, the end, a 27-23 win over the Seahawks at the clink. Greg, the Panthers are 6-0, am I correct? That is incorrect. 5-0. The Panthers are 5-0, and the Seahawks are in deep, deep trouble.

Which reality surprises you more? The Panthers being undefeated. I know they had an easy schedule early, but this proved they're a different sort of Panthers team. And I know Cam Newton's had some nice moments in his career. He had a game-winning drive to beat the Saints to win the NFC South in 2013. He beat the Patriots on Monday Night Football Ones. I thought this was the most impressive thing I've ever seen from Ken Newton.

To be down 20 to 7 in the second half against his Seahawks, to be down 2314, going midway through the fourth quarter, and rip off two straight 80-yard drives. And these weren't cheap drives where he's getting penalties and running. He's throwing lasers down the heart of their defense, passed their Legion of Boom into tight windows. He was just razor sharp when it mattered most. And I'm watching this game.

And I'm thinking, which quarterback do I want at the end of games right now? Cam Newton and Russell Wilson. I want Cam Newton. Wow. I mean, based on this season, there's not a heck of a lot of the debate there. A legitimate MVP candidate at this stage of the season, right? I don't think so in a season where Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers have played this well because I don't think it's fair.

I don't think it's fair to them. Andy Dalton, I'd throw in there too because I don't think Cam's been that great each and every week. but that's not taking anything away from what he did. Whenever they absolutely needed a drive, they did it. It was 80-yard drives, four of them in the game. In their other whole nine drives, they only had 63 yards. So it was an uneven game like that. We talked on the last show about, you know, listen,

Carolina is going to have to have one of these signature wins before we take them seriously because of all the... Fair. Yeah, it was a fair viewpoint. But is this actually that win? Is this Seattle team that good? Is it? Because all these losses have been,

by one scores to pretty good teams. And they looked very good for most of the day, just like they did last week. And the games they're losing. I mean, it's to the Bengals at the end. It's to the Packers in the fourth quarter. It's to the Panthers. And just watching it, I didn't think the Seahawks gave this game away. Granted, they made a big mistake.

Maybe we'll talk about that on the last play where Greg Olson scored. There was some sort of miscommunication between Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas. But other than that, the Panthers earned everything they got. And even if the Seahawks go in the tank this year and finish seven and nine, And at this stage of the season, going into today, it was still understood to be very difficult to win West in that spot. And the Carolina Panthers went in there and did it. And to me, it's like, now you could legitimately worry about the Seahawks team. Am I right?

I'm not that worried about them. Really? They're one of two teams with a losing record and a positive point differential. They have the talented roster. They've got good coaching. Well, but you believe in the Cardinals. So it's going to be tough. There's still two games behind the Cardinals.

So that's a problem. It's going to be tougher to win three road games potentially if they don't win this division. When you're at two and four, it's going to be harder to win your division. None of that bothers me. We were at a similar place last year at this time, and the Seahawks got everyone back, became the most dominant team in the league. I just look at their roster and their coaching staff, and I think, and basically, their results. Fourth quarters, they haven't come through, but that doesn't mean they're not a good team.

I'm with you. I don't think it's time to panic. It is positive also to look at what Jimmy Graham did today. It sounded like he finally had the game that we thought he'd. have from wire to wire with this team. That's fine. Graham did have his best game of the year. And what you're going to hear this week,

people are going to, because I felt like there were too many excuses made for the defense last week in their meltdown against Cincinnati. They said, offense isn't taking enough time off the clock. In your building, with the lead coming off that terrible loss last week, you've got to finish. You've got to finish the game. And Seattle, just like in the Super Bowl and they couldn't close it out, they could not close this game out against the Panthers, which, you know, Cam Newton's playing great. he played great today, but they made Cam Newton and the Pathers look like the best offense ever.

When it's January and Doug Baldwin is honking about everybody disrespecting them in October, he's talking to Dan Hansen. That's fine. Well, that's. I'm not going to be that guy who Doug Baldwin's calling out. Do something. It's a thing that they collapse late in games. It's a thing.

Their last five losses have now been games where they've led in the fourth quarter. So far this season, I think they've been outscored 76 to 27 in the fourth quarter. So when they got to the fourth quarter in the stadium there, they put up, you know, fourth quarter. Everyone starts going for. Everyone starts going crazy. You know, here's our time. I think they got a field goal to start off the quarter. And everyone, you know, in the building is thinking about it.

They're talking about it. And what do they do? They give up 2 80-yard drives to a team that has one receiver. Devin Funch just dropped three passes today. Greg Olson is having the best season of his career. He has one receiver in a team that's not known for throwing the ball. And they just go right down, just like last week, that the Bengals did, and they do nothing on offense, too.

But it's bad. It's in their head. But part of it last year, and the reason they were so dangerous, was they can chew up the clock and just beat you up with the running game. And I know you wrote that Marshawn Lynch looked great today, looked a lot better, but still, it's 54 yards. That's a hundred yards less than he'd have in games last year at times. Yeah, they didn't get it done on the ground. I just thought he looked good on a few runs.

He looked very closely. He looked healthy. But Jonathan Stewart was the better runner in this game. That's encouraging. He fought through a lot of tackles. He played really well and just gutsy darts from I can. It's fun to see.

Panthers have a nine-game regular season winning streak. Give him some credit. Gary Williams is a problem, by the way, too. He's becoming more and more of a problem every week. They tried to pick on him. I mean, he had an up-and-down game, but he's becoming a problem for that team.

The Panthers deserve credit. I mean, I was one of probably many people that kind of wrote them off as the weakest undefeated team early on, but now you've got to take him seriously. That was a gut check game. Sure. Another undefeated team, the Denver Broncos,

And Peyton Manning, who's been carried by his defense this year, let's face it, they had to carry him again today. He threw three more interceptions, including a pick six. But the Broncos got a late Brandon McManus field goal in overtime to escape with a 26-23 win over the Cleveland Browns. Greg, I'll throw this to you again. The Broncos are now 6-0. But does any of this really matter if Peyton Manning is going to be one of the five worst quarterbacks in football? And honestly, I'm not even joking. Doesn't matter if this is how Peyton Manning is going to be.

Yes, because one that assumes that Peyton Manning will stay that way. And even if he does stay that way, at this rate, they're going to have a buy in the playoffs in a home game. And the way this defense is playing, they're going to have a chance to win every week. It's crazy to watch a Broncos team get worse and worse on offense each week like this. Though, I thought this is the week where it finally ends. Joe Hayden is out. Deshawn Gibson is out. This is one of the worst five or six defenses in the league.

And yet, I would say this was the worst game Peyton Manning had all season. He did have a few good throws. That's the thing. People say, like, he can't throw the ball anymore. He had three or four really good throws. But he keeps making the mental errors. He should have lost this game a million times, and it was on the Browns that they didn't take. His reaction after the third pick, Mark, when Peyton, he, like, grabbed it his face mask.

And it was like he almost couldn't believe it if you're watching on YouTube. You can see it here. Like, he couldn't even believe that he's making these errors. They're telegraphed throws. They're mental errors. And Demarius Thomas did not help him at all in fourth quarter or overtime, two terrible drops. But Manning remains the problem, and yet they're still undefeating.

Greg nailed it. Cleveland came into the game with, I think, one interception all season. They're not a team that last year they were delivering turnovers. They're not this year. And for them to pick on him the way they did, it was almost like, and I was sort of watching this off to the corner of my eye while I was covering a different game, but you were almost counting on. Manning making another blunder. It's like every couple, he just kept doing it over and over,

throwing bizarre incompletions as well. He missed some throws by a lot. I don't know if it was the weather. He had the glove on. I mean, it was under 50 degrees. That's the first time this, you know, season for a Manning game. He was off target. He also, like I said, made some big throws. But this is something we are relying out at every week. He leads the league in interceptions. I mean, that's who he is right now. That's why I sat with Mark on this. Come play off time. I don't think you can just trot the defense out there and say they're going to win. No, they have to get better out. Their opponents this year are combined 10 and 24.

They're going to be facing a lot better teams in the playoffs. Are you counting the Broncos wins in that? That's not fair when people do that. You get the point. 10 and 24, make it 10 and 20. They're bad teams. But, you know, he's my new litmus test guy. Jordy Nelson used to be the litmus test.

If you're watching football games, you know he's great. Who are they going to try it out next week to argue against you on NFL Network? Someone who's not watching games and insists Peyton Manning's a good quarterback. And they're... Sally Wilcoats. They're sticking by him. They're telling us what they think of him with the play calling, with these runs on third and long,

and all the third down throws are short of the sticks, and they're just hoping for yards after contact. And one of the big arguments has been the offensive line's not playing well, and the running game's not playing well. He was protected fine. The Browns did not have much of a pass rush today. The running game was good throughout.

They really gave the ball to Ronnie Hillman as the primary back for most of the game, and that was how they were moving the ball. He was good, and C.J. Anderson did all the work. in the overtime drive. This from Ronnie Hillman on social media after the game, you need to get off Peyton. That's our QB bottom line.

You fake fans don't say anything when he's winning us the game, SMH, which means Mark what? Shaking my head, that's what he's doing. It's like, it's one of the dumbest things online because it just, I don't know, it seems bizarre to me. And there are a lot of dumb things online. I agree with you on that. I also, I don't need to hear these players every week

telling the fans what to do and who's fake and who's real. It's like fans can boo or get on a player when he's struggling as mightily as Peyton Manning is. Mark, were you, were you SMHing, you know, after that Josh McCown interception? Because we should talk about the Brown side of thing. They had the ball past midfield at the end of regulation. Josh McCown through a big interception. They picked off Manning in overtime and had the ball around the 40. At that point, they only needed, what, five yards to get into the...

They went back 18. And they went back backwards. What are you feeling about Josh McCownering? Well, it was like the reverse of a raffle copter. How about that? Because, listen, it just seemed like Cleveland, we talked about this way with the Jaguars where you start to see hints of a team developing, but they don't have the DNA from the coach on down on how to win these kind of games.

Cleveland did last week, but that was the Ravens, and we found out they were just not a good team. Brown's fans are still expecting that mistake to happen. And until that changes, this is a typical. Typical type of Browns lost. As bad as Manning was in this game, Josh McCown was worse. And that was one of,

he said he was trying to throw the ball out of bounds, which makes more sense than what, just throwing it up for grabs, which he did. But he always makes those plays where he's surrounded by guys and he just throws it high up in the air. He was also facing a much more difficult defense. Right. Than Peytony Manning.

That's absolutely true. Was this the best game in offenses played against Denver? No. They had a ton of drives. I'd love to go look quickly. But the fact is they were going three and outs back and forth the whole game. They didn't even get 300 yards in this game on 50 drive, something like that.

So the Panthers and Broncos remain perfect, as do Chris Wessling, the Cincinnati Bengals. Andy Dalton threw three touchdown passes, a 3421 victory over the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park. Wes, A.J. Green neutralized

in this game, and yet Andy Dalton still thrived. There's something different going on here, isn't there? Yeah, when I think about this game, I think of two things. One, how loaded the Bengals' roster is that they really have no weak points. And two, that the bill's defense is overrated. The Bengals offense, I mean, everybody talks about the Cowboys offensive line.

Andy Dalton never gets touched. He has all day back there to pick defenses apart. And then when you take away A.J. Green, because the bills do take away number one wide receivers, that's what their defense does. But Marvin Jones has a great game. Tyler is a great red zone weapon. G.O. Bernard picked up a bunch of first downs. They have so many weapons.

And Mario Williams came out and, kind of questioned the defense a little bit and the scheme itself, which is funny because two seasons ago, with a similar scheme under Mike Petten, they sent a franchise record for sacks. They had a ton of sacks last season, and they have something, they're very low right now. They're just absolutely... We have nine sacks on the season, and Mario Williams said something like, you know, he set the record for dropping back into coverage. Look, any coverage that you have with Mario Williams in it, and they're only rushing three,

you can understand why that front four, which is so good, is going to be frustrated. They think Rex is outsmarting himself. And more importantly, Kyle Williams left with a knee injury. It looked like it might be serious. It sounds like he won't make the trip. They're leaving as we speak. They're leaving Sunday night for London. It sounds like Kyle Williams will be staying home, which is a big loss.

And the bills are now three and three. And in a weird way, it's a sneaky maybe blessing in disguise because there was these strange reports before the game, one from Rapsheet, that E.J. Manuel had a chance to hold. hold on to the starting job if you played well in this game, which I didn't get a chance to see every one of the snaps in this game, but it doesn't appear that Manuel have the type of game that would lead to a quarterback controversy. But that's, you know, you didn't want any of that leaking out there.

You didn't want any of the discussion, whether it's real or manufactured in the media or by an agent or by a GM that has other interests. But that's just bad news. So manual not playing well and put that to bed is kind of a good thing to come out of a bad loss. It's totally disruptive, and it begs the question of, Have we, have the people inside the team not watched Tyrod Taylor and the growth descent? He must not like something about him if it came from the team.

Well, how did, how did Manio look? Look, he's terrible. I mean, his ball placement is just among the worst you'll ever see. His decision making's bad. They went three, four, four, four, three in outs in the first half when Andy Dalton was running away with the game. I don't know why, what was the point of that report? I mean, you lessen Taylor, Taylor's leadership. on the team.

It doesn't know. It undermines your starter. Maybe it's supposed to be pumping up E.J. manual, and it's someone that really believes in it. If you're pumping up E.J. manual, you're not doing it two hours before game time on a Sunday, where E.J. Mang. At the cost of your starter.

And it's, you know, it's funny because, like, Greg Roman and San Francisco, they made a switch at quarterback during the season after spending so much time in practice with Colin Kaepernick. We don't know what they're seeing behind the scenes. Well, they don't like it that Taylor doesn't see Sammy Watkins because he's short. He's a short quarterback. Maybe he just doesn't see the field well in general.

You know what? If that's his biggest evil, it's about... By the way, he's had five starts. He's had five NFL starts, you know? And Sammy Watkins' touchdown catch today got hurt again on crutches after the half. And it's just like, you know, this guy can come out, ask for the ball, but she got to stay on the field, too. The worst thing this could be this could be would be it would be Doug Whaley who put his job on the line by going to get Watkins and then him reacting to Watkins going to the media about needing the ball

and that leading to this issue with the quarterback situation. It's just you hope it's not that because that is as dysfunctional as it gets. It bothers me that this is even an issue that they would leak that report. It just, Tyrod Taylor is such a better quarterback than he did Emmanuel. He's been great. Before we move on, in your piece, you called Andy Dalton a legitimate MVP candidate, Chris Wesleyan. Is it time to junk the Dalton scale, the measurement, whereas, each quarterback in the league is measured by Andy Dalton,

the prime meridian of quarter. It's a serious question. But the way he's playing now, is it time to junk this? I think we need more than a six-game sample size. The one thing I'd say, though, is one thing that we thought about Dalton because it was true on the field up until the season was that he hit his ceiling the minute he entered the league,

that there was never a better version of Andy Dalton over all his seasons. He is a legitimately different quarterback this year. I would say the scale has to work to be functional, and if it's not going to work if he goes 13, and three in plays the squad. Well, it might be something we evaluate in the off-seat. Sure, right.

Big team, big owners meetings that we have. All of what you said is true that he has been better, that you're noticeably, he's shown improvement. But I think where I stand and where I stood all off-season, it doesn't matter what the Bengals do from September through December. I need to see it in January. TD thinks the body language is better on Andy Dalton, but I think it's true. I think it's the hair.

Yeah. But that's, but you're, when you have good hair and you know this, Dan, you're just feeling good from head to toe. I never feel myself until the product is in. There you go. That's a damn ritual. He comes into the office. First thing he does put a little gel in the air. It's funny because it's... And then, man, it's just you have an aura around you, like a pregnant

lady, where you just feel something good is going to happen with you. Everything you just said is accurate. Moving on. That you're a pregnant lady? Yeah, I'm Prego. I'm due at the end of the month. I'm taking a long maternity leave. Another undefeated team, the Green Bay Packers.

They will go into their by week without a loss. Aaron Rogers looked human for the second straight week and Philip Rivers threw for 503 yards and also has another kid on the way that's eight kids.

Come on. That's a preschool. And you know what? And he can obviously take care of those kids. He's settled down. He's a multi-millionaire. But we got a lot of people

on this planet. We got an overpopulation. He can afford to feed them? Let's slow down. By the way, beautiful transition from the pregnant woman conversation to this situation. I would encourage Phil

Rivers and his wife to have a lot more kids because they can provide for them and raise wonderful people. Says a man who had seven brothers. Six brothers. It's also, at a certain point, it's rubbing in it a little bit. I'm that potent. Anyway, so Rivers threw for

503 yards, but Green Bay's defense got a goal line stop in the final minute. They secure a 2720 win at Lambo. West, the Packers, you know, they don't look so indestructible of late, but results are results. Yeah, I think it might have been you who said after week three or week four,

you can take away Jordy Nelson, you can take away Eddie Lacey and Aaron Rogers still plays like an MVP. Packers keep right on rolling. That was me, actually. And I think we saw like the breaking point the last couple of weeks. You can blame it on Jordan Nelson, but it's not really.

You take away Devante Adams, Andrew Corliss, Ty Montgomery. Eddie Lacey is completely ineffective because he's playing through an ankle injury or because he's overweight one or the other. But you've got all these people around Aaron Rogers and then you've got, he can't make back shoulder throws to Jeff Janice because they're not on the same page.

Richard Rogers isn't coming down with tight catches in tight spaces. Cobb is dropping passes. He's throwing, like James Starks was open for a potential late touchdown, but that's a tricky route that James Starks is not used to running. Yeah, basically his number one, number three, and number four receivers from August are out of the lineup. So he's throwing to a bunch of guys. At one point he's throwing in a red zone.

came over my desk and they show who's on the field is Jared Aberderas and some guy named Justin Perillo or something. Those are made up. Those are his red zone weapons. Yeah. So I think it can't be a surprise. And yet he drew for 8.8 yards per attempt today. And they score 27 points and win the game and stay undefeated. So that's the luxury of

you know, being the Packers. What was it like to watch Philip Rivers? Top his performance from Monday night when he threw it for 790 times or whatever. And today he threw it 65 times for 500 yards. Those are real statistics. He was surgical against the defense that football outsiders ranked as number one in the NFL on past defense. Now the Packers hadn't really played any great quarterbacks this year. So it's telling that Rivers did this to him, but Stevie Johnson was inactive. Keenan Allen

played awesome for three quarters and then sat out the fourth quarter with a hip injury. He had 14 catches? In three quarters. That is outrageous. And his his performance might have been more impressive than D'Andre Hopkins. He was making great catches. What is the deal with Eddie Lacey? Three rushes off four carries, and James Starks just takes over. Well, I look at it this way. We've seen Eddie Lacey when he's healthy, and he's an excellent football player. So he's either out of shape or unhealthy. We know a couple weeks ago he's playing through an ankle injury,

and when they played James Starks this much over him, it suggests to me they're just trying to get to the buy, get Eddie Lacey healthy, and then get him going. But he did not look like himself. He looks sluggish and slow. There's something about this Chargers team. I mean, they're in these games. They're against the Packers and the Steelers, but now they're at 2 and 4.

I mean, this is a team that, I don't know if they need to make the playoffs to keep everyone there, but pretty disappointing start for San Diego in general. They're not far away from being 1 in 5 either, or I guess a better record based on every one of their games coming out. They can't run the bottom line. Every team behind them, we cannot take seriously. Everybody in front of them, we can. Okay, that's good. It checks out.

When you make cryptic statements like that, you're usually hiding some kind of into. Yeah, no, I said something last show. that I think McCoy, there might be some talk that they need to be a winning team or else he's gone. Saucy. Greg is secretly our podcast insider. You know why?

Because Greg has this thing like all the insiders out there and he's got some sources within buildings, I think, that we don't know about. So whenever you see him texting, he's always, that's information coming into him. Sure. Well, he's a journalist. Jurno.

Giving me a good reputation. Unwarranted. Moving on. Landry Jones through a pair of touchdown passes to Martavis Bryant in relief of an injured Michael Vick. And the Pittsburgh Steelers came back from a deficit to not a 2513 win over the Arizona Cardinals. Mark, you know, listen, Landry Jones, nice little performance there. But losing to a Big Ben Free Steelers squad is no way for a team of ATN to comport itself.

It reminds me a little bit of the way you described the Cardinals a couple weeks ago, where they absolutely dominated on every category, statistically. 421 yards for Carson Palmer. They were moving the ball up and down the field, plenty of big plays, but they could not turn the real estate into points. And I give the Steelers credit for shutting down the run game for much of the affair.

And they just, a couple big turnovers for Arizona. I mean, you cannot on the road commit the turnovers. And Carson Palmer threw a killer pick at the end that really put this game out of reach for them. Pittsburgh, it was just one of the stranger games I've seen all season. Clearly, if you're without Big Ben next week, I would put Landry Jones in over Mike Vick because what happened right away was that the playbook seemed to completely open up. And Arizona's defense responded differently to Landry Jones, who was taking more shots

down field. It opened up the run game for Levion Bell, who was just seeing seven men in the box time after time with Vic on the field. It was completely ineffectual. So, you know, it's not a good situation for Pittsburgh, but it was huge to come out of here with a win. Huge to come out with a win. Against a team. They're not even close to being a better team than Arizona, but they got it done today.

I mean, against the top five team in your building without your quarterback, and you actually go to your third string quarterback, and you get a win. You're four and two now, and you can now withstand being without Rafflesberger for another week, and there's a very good chance that happens, and you're going to be okay. I mean, this was their biggest win of the season. Easy. the fact that they've now ripped off two of these against two decent teams in San Diego and then a very good team in Arizona I mean that just makes me think

how good can these Steelers be you get Ryan Shazir back you get Ben Rathesberger back it's like they're right back where we thought they'd be before the season which is as one of the real Super Bowl it is funny to watch though what they have become and what they were

with Vic on the field and no big Ben one passing yard in the first half that when you take you can't lose that game if you're the Cardinals when we talk MVP and you talk anything other than quarterback, I don't listen anymore because this was another example that when you take that one starter off the field at quarterback, this was a completely average offense. Look at Martavis Bryant runs wild today. And Antonio Brown didn't do much, but I totally agree.

The defense is much better than we thought early in the season in August. And once you get Big Ben back, you've got Martavis Bryant-Levi on Bell, Antonio Brown. That's a Super Bowl contender. In a two-team division now. And I think that everyone, if you do have your PS2, somewhere in storage, you can get that out, dust it out, plug it in in, see if you can find Matt in 2004, you know, with Michael Vick on the cover with the Falcons, put that in there, play a game because I don't think we'll ever see another Michael Vick snap in the NFL. You just think it's borne a little out for Michael Vick. No, listen, actually, look, I'm not going to go too crazy about Michael Vick. There's a lot of people that think you shouldn't ever even come back to the NFL. But if you're somebody that that guy defined an error of the NFL,

and I think it was very clear by the end of when he left the game and these past two games that Michael Vicks finished. This could probably was his last start in the NFL. It might even be his last appearance in the NFL. It's possible. Well, that's what I just said. On the field, I know, that's what I'm saying. But what I'm noticing is that you're plagiarizing your own tweet these days.

You know, your tweets on the screen and you're just using that material. Now, it's good to test it out. That's kind of like my journal of my thoughts. over the course of Sunday, and some make it to the second draft. I like to look at you as like a multi-platform weapon that you operate on Twitter and you bring the same content to the exact same content to the podcast. Word for word. Right.

So it's like the end of Mr. Belvedere when you're writing your journal, you have to announce it as well. Streets out of China. That's with another timely 80s. When you're vicking, you get outplayed by the kicker from Friday Night Lights. It's time to go. Very fair. Wow, Andrew. That's right.

Mark, have you gotten to season two yet for Friday Night Lights? I knocked off a few episodes last night. You know, I didn't realize this season is 26 episodes long or something. It is kind of the old TV model. And I'm a whole lot of free time. You know, I've got about nine more episodes in season one. Friday Night Lights, I believe, premiered in 2006, which is light years ago in terms of what's happened in television since, how television is produced.

Now, now it's like 12 to 14 episodes of season, Max. Back then it was like, hey, writer's room, go crank out 37 episodes for a season. Watching is now, I need a lost weekend. I need to vanish from society to get through, you know, a season. We need a television podcast. Showing up. Oh, yeah. Theology podcast.

About shows that came out a decade ago? Yeah, or two. And Mr. Belvedere, by the way, was not a well-known sitcom. So if you're overseas listeners, he was a British butler, Mr. Belvedere, who landed in Pittsburgh. Bob Euker was prominently above. All right, moving on. Real quick, for all the people. worried about the team of ATL or asking me if I'm worried about it.

Not worried at all. Again. Yeah, we got a thing of a song. 160 more points than their opponent. The Cardinals are a well-oiled machine. They're going to have a few losses. They're still a great team. I agree with that.

It's disappointing they haven't played that they've been outplayed or that they've lost two out of three games since we picked them. This is something that. When you have Seattle in the division, though, you want to take advantage of every opportunity to beat a Landry Jones. slash Michael Vick team that you got. That's all. That's fair.

Team of ATL. We still got the faith coming from us. Don't worry, cards. Don't be nervous. I think there's a little bit of jitters. They think they need to be even better. Just be yourselves. Just be who you are.

Be yourselves. Let's move on. The Minnesota Vikings could not get Adrian Peterson going and got another quiet game from Teddy Bridgewater, but they still did enough for a 1610 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. Greg. I watch this game, and I would like to put in a formal request that we don't have to watch any more Chiefs game.

As a group. As a group. Well, but the problem, like, that I could consider, but there's a team on the other side of the field each week when they play. And I don't think there's any, I know the technology is improving. I don't think you can just take the Chiefs off the field and just watch the Vikings. I don't know. I need you to tell me about the Vikings in general, you know what I mean? Yeah, I get that.

I get that. And I feel bad when I say that. If you're a Chiefs fan that's listening to the show, I mean no disrespect. I mean no disrespect. Not towards the fans. The fans deserve better. Right.

You know, they deserve a team they could get excited about. Why are they so tough to watch today? Because, well, without Jamal Charles, there's nothing there. You got Alex Smith, who's, you know, Mr. Fuddy-Duddy, throwing those little dump passes over the middle. Mr. Fuddy, buddy, not pushing the ball downfield. Travis Kelsey disappears for stretches. I don't know how that happens.

Jeremy McClain got hurt in this game. Things are even worse without Macklin involved. They got... A lot of drop passes for Alex Smith, it looks like. Yeah, I mean, the team didn't play well. Charcantric West didn't do anything. Nile Davis, didn't do anything. West had a bad fumble also in the fourth quarter

when they had a little momentum. This team went from last week to this week, four and a half quarters without scoring a point without Jamal Charles. The Vikings didn't play particularly well in this game. The Chief's defense, to its credit, did a really nice job bottling up Adrian Peterson, who did not get going ever in this game. But at the end of the day, it was just a boring workman-like victory.

And that's what they want to be on offense, it seems, because this isn't a departure from what they were last year either. They're content as an organization of Alex Smith, the quarterback, and all these shortcomings that are joined with that. and they want to win and lose games 16 to 10. They're going to lose a lot more than they're going to win. They've had a lot of bad luck this year, losing close heartbreakers. They're not built to go out and dominate teams on offense

and have a nice time being 6 and 10 when that's the case. I think they have like two more years invested in Alex Smith. But if you're Andy Reid, is there any thought to just kick the tires on old chase, a former making the leap candidate? I think they should. We were calling for that a couple weeks ago. I don't think they will just because of the guaranteed money in Smith's contract. Did Teddy Bridgewater look any better this week?

Not really. He's been, he hasn't really, have you guys seen a game where you thought he's looked really good this year? Yes. One game. He was just about perfect. But other than that. He was just a guy in the field.

I mean, he threw one touchdown. I threw two picks. Not good throws. He has three touchdowns for the entire season now. So I didn't take much out. I didn't take much out of that. When you guys check out the game, maybe you'll see something different.

The one guy did stand out for them. is Stefan Diggs. Oh, yeah. Yeah, fifth round pick. Didn't, I don't even think he was active for the first few weeks of the season. The last two weeks, he has 13 catches for 216 yards,

had seven for 129 today. So, you know, there are guys on that offense, Corderell, Patterson, of course, Mark your boy, Charles Johnson. They haven't been able to get anybody to find any success, and it looks like they hit on something with Diggs here, so expect him to be a regular part of that offense.

You called that on Thursday's show You know, Mike Wallace, what does he have, two catches for 23 yards? He had nine targets and two catches, whereas Stefan Diggs has nine targets and he has 120. He's not Mike Wallace anymore. He doesn't move like he used to. Kyle Rudolph, nine yards. I mean, tight ends in Norv Turner's offense typically thrive. And it's been the opposite for some of these so-called playmakers that we were touting all summer.

Beckins haven't played well, and yet they're three and two, and I think they have the lions and bears next. So they have a chance to be right where everyone was hoping they would be, something like five and two. And some people might start to, oh, is Adrian Peterson still the same guy? Because he's had two kind of really bad games now statistically. But this was not his fault. He was getting swallowed up in the backfield before he even touched him. He could really use Teddy Bridgewater heating up a little bit to take some heat off him. All right.

Now, it's the time of the show. It's Sunday where we welcome in a woman. That's it. I'll leave it there. Let's bring her in. Hey. Here I am again. It never gets less awkward that intro.

No, it's, yeah. Something else. I said woman, but I mean wolf woman. Colleen wolf, not only a friend of the around the NFL podcast, but you know what, an actual friend of ours. Aw, that's sweet guys. We've hung out together. We've ingested liquids, and we've had conversations.

We like had beers together. The way you said is strange. Very murky description. I had a friend in town this weekend who listens to the podcast now. He's a recent adoptee. And he was saying, he's like, that Colleen Wolf, she just needs to be on the show every time. That Colleen Wolf needs to be a show. I'm telling you the truth.

I don't think so. I praise. I think this is the perfect amount of Colleen. Not too much more. Colleen, she is every Sunday. Of course, she's one of the faces of NFL now. She's also a constant presence on the NFL Now Game Day Blitz program on Sundays, which Greg, you and I sat in on NFL Now.

A little story about that today. I did my two-segment thing. And then Shaq was like, all right, fella, you know, great to see you again. All right, Colleen, take it away. And I was like, oh, I thought I was done. So I put down my little stick mic and I start to walk away. And I see all these people behind the camera like shooting me daggers. And then I was like, no, you're not clear.

You're not clear. And now I'm standing in the middle of the set. And then I just bail. And everyone has just given me a look like I am human garbage. Why not try to be a professional when you're on the air? I was trying. Plus, in what scenario are you not taking the mic with you? Even if you think the segment's over, at least bring it with you.

Be helpful. Be a professional. I don't know. I didn't notice any of this. I didn't see any of it all. Are you plugged in? I don't know. It's hard to tell.

Sometimes. All right. Isn't going clear of Scientology team? term? Yes, it is. I am not a Scientologist. That's for the Theology Show. Or is it? Is Scientology a religion? Mark, we'll start with you. We will discuss on this summer's Theology podcast. All right, great. All right, so let's continue with the games. Colleen's back. It's always great to have Colleen. And since Colleen's here, and I'm in a good mood now, we're going to talk about the New York Jets. Ryan Fitzpatrick threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score.

and Chris Ivory posted 196 total yards. It all added up to a 34 to 20 Jets win. Yes, it did. Over the Washington Redskins at the Meadowlands. The Jets, Mark Sessler. I know the Brown stank again, and I don't revel in that, but at least... It doesn't sound like it.

Wow, you kind of do, since they were a play away from beating an undefeated team and being three in three scrappy Browns. Give them a little credit. Just know that the Jets, a fellow pain ranking team, they're doing okay. I think that all could be happy for you, Dan. I don't understand why that was...

So you're not jumping on the Jetspan wagon now? Yeah, I was inviting Mark on. That's what I'm trying to say. No, I don't need to get on that train. Okay, it's going to end horribly. But this is my takeaway from this game. And yes, the Redskins are all sorts of beat up. And, you know, the Jets are at home.

They should win this game. I now think the Jets are actually good. I think they're good. I think not only they have a pretty nice schedule this year and they have a really good defense. I think they're legitimately good. And it's because Chris Ivory, he's not the best running back in football,

even though Brandon Marshall said it. But he is a top five running back right now. So not only do you have a top three defense, you have a top five running back. Brandon Marshall, Wes, if you were to do an end-of-season wide receiver rankings, Brandon Marshall keeps this up. He's a top-five wide receiver this year.

This guy is doing something. And, you know, Don Maynard, who I know, West, know well, the great wide receiver of the 68 world champion Jets. He was the last wide receiver to have 100 yards in four straight games. That's what Brandon Marshall did today. So you have a great, great wide receiver,

a great running back, a great defense, and Ryan Fitzpatrick is okay. Should we pop champagne? Yeah, okay. You got a good offensive coordinator. I think that's one of the keys of the whole. Fitzpatrick played great today. He had one interception,

so he's going to make a mistake every week. like that. Sometimes he'll make more than one, but he made some big throws, and he's been making plays all year with his legs. He had an 18-yard touchdown run that won this game, essentially, put the game away. So he's been getting first downs all season with his legs. He's been limiting the killer mistakes. Put it all together. The Jets are good. This is a 10-win team. If they can play a team that's missing eight starters every week, they'll be fast. Whatever thrown of sneeze. Watch the game and tell me what you think of a team. They're a much more complete team than last year, and it starts with all the pieces on defense that Rex Ryan was not given.

at the end of his tenure. And we always talked about the fact that, you know, what Marshall did is he turns Eric Decker into not the number one and only target on the field, but a very good number two. And you've got weapons all of a sudden. All right, so you're right. They're good.

And they're not great. Go 10 and 6. That means they go 6 in what? Six and 5 down the stretch. And that could happen because they're only good. And the Patriots are better. I would be happy with the 10 and 6, get in the playoffs and then see what happens with that defense.

Absolutely. Did Ryan Fitzpatrick play the best game by a Jets quarterback in the past decade. Because ESPN's QBR says he did. They gave him a 99 QBR. I mean, he was very good, but he's, you know, he's not throwing downfield, really. He's basically taking what the defense gives him.

I thought he played a very nice game by Ryan Fitzpatrick standards, but I don't know. I feel like maybe some of those Sanchez games before everything went downhill were probably better. Brett Farb, Brett Farb threw six touchdowns in a game against the Cardinals. Every once in a while,

there's a good Jet quarterback game. But Fitzpatrick is getting the job done, and Gino Smith is not getting in anytime soon. They came into this game in the second half and scored 24 straight points, then just, like, drop the mic. Well, right. When I was reading the tweets in this game,

a lot of people were saying the Jets were very lucky to even be close in the first half, considering how poorly they played. They turned it over three times in the first half, and it was very jetsy, and it was basically all the things I had been concerned about. They were down 1310 at the half. And then Dorel Reeves had an interstate.

Reception early in the third quarter. He now has six takeaways in five games, so he's been well worth the money so far. And that changed the whole tenor of the game. They went nuts after that, scored 17 straight points, and that was pretty much it. How many wins did they have last year, the Jets? I believe they were 4 and 12. Okay. So they have reached that.

Well, it should be fun. And you're right about the schedule. I forget about that because I'm thinking, well, the Jets haven't really beaten anyone. I mean, they won in Indianapolis. That was solid, but they haven't beaten another team with the winning record. But then I'm looking at the rest of the schedule. They don't have any teams with winning records. rest of the way. You know, you have the division games which aren't easy.

You have the Patriots choice, which is very difficult. But other than that, it's Cake City. Including next week, that's a great game, Jets, Patriots. You think that will be talked about at all? I think on this podcast it will be that. And, you know, whether they're going to bench Kirk Cousins in Washington after the game, Jay Gruden said, no way. Of course not. I mean, he's underwhelming to me.

4.6 yards per attempt and a couple more picks. Yeah, now what's the alternative? And it's not RG3. That's no alternative. It won't be OG3. RG3 who was active for the first time this year. but that was because they're so banged up. I mean, they're not going to play RG3, right?

Because they don't want to risk them getting hurt. But Cousins isn't the answer. Well, neither is Colt McCoy, so you've got to just stick with it. There's absolutely no running game either to help them. Right. They're supposed to be built on running in time of possession, and they've been hit or miss all year. Yeah.

They're an 8-N-8 team in the making, or maybe a 7 or 6 win team. Well, they've got to start winning. You're 0 and 3 on the road. So they got to start winning some games on the road to be 8 and 8. One bright spot. They were really banged up, though. I mean, key guys. the Sean Jackson, Trent William.

I mean, Jordan Reed, all these guys, Matt Jones, all these guys are starting. Seven inactive, six of them were starters. One bright spot. I thought last week, Breshaat Breland played as well as any cornerback in the NFL. And then this week, he has two takeaways. Three. From what I, three takeaways. He had two fumble recoveries and interception in the first half.

And then Brandon Marshall made him look bad on a touchdown later. But he played a very good game. So there are some things. There's still a good defense. But the Jets rolled up. a season high in yardage, if their defense takes a step back, this team's going to crater. Gino Smith's next past, next August in Oakland as a Raiders backup. Mark is loving this way. Rex Ryan.

Raiders backup. Sure. Preseason action. Gino Smith, out the door. We don't need him in New York anymore. Why would you ever bring that guy back into the fold? It's over. Well, Gino, Fitsy hadn't been playing that well the past couple weeks.

Gino is toxic, ultra toxic. That's what Keith Hans is things, too. I was talking with my dad on the way to work today. He's like, Danny, they can't put that guy and he's a bum. Your dad knows. Your dad's watched the Jets for decades and decades. He's seen a lot of bad quarterbacks. He is.

He's a straight shooter. Danny, Gina Smith's terrible. Keith Hansis. All right. Let's move on. All right. The Lions, they've done it. They did it.

You predicted it. You said it, Greg Roselthal. The not-so-bold prediction. They were favored in the game. What was your headline? The Lions, I don't remember. Something about no more winless teams. No more football teams will win a football.

Lions win a game. There are no more winless teams. I don't know. And it involved football twice. Way to be quick on your feet, though, Greg. The Lions have done it. Matt Prater kicked a 27-yard field goal with less than three minutes to go in overtime, giving Detroit a 37-34 win over the Bears,

their first taste of victory in six tries. Colleen, at one point, this. This game appeared to be headed towards a suitably pathetic tie, but it didn't happen that way. Thank you for that. Yeah, no. Matt Stafford, he finally threw, I mean, threw for over 400 yards, and there was a stretch of like seven games where he hadn't thrown for over 300. And more importantly, he went to Calvin Johnson.

So Calvin Johnson finally has a 100-yard game. 166. Yeah. The first 100-yard game of his career, but guys, I'm still not sure what it catches at this point. Oh, my God. Because of another terrible, absurd call. That was absolutely awful. So Golden Tate, he gets the ball knocked out as he's crossing the goal line, right?

And the Bears defender comes down with it before he hits the ground, and it's ruled an interception, then it's reviewed and overturned and called a Golden Tate touchdown. I mean, so the argument was that it's not the same as these other highly controversial episodes where they're going to the ground and there's possess. or not maintain making your football play. It's that he had possession when he broke the plane and so the play is over. Right. Dean Blanino said. It sort of makes sense.

It just wasn't, it was just, it doesn't make any sense. When you've got a rule where everybody in the stadium thinks it's not a catch, everybody watching it at home thinks it's not a catch, Mike Pereira thinks it's not a catch. And all the coaches think it's not a catch. It's a broken rule, fix it. And the Dino-Blandino thing doesn't work because you can't just throw to Dino and then he's going to say whatever technically the rule

book might actually interpret it. It doesn't really provide me any clarity. I look at a guy like Pereira. Nothing would. Changing the role would provide clarity to a role that is clear. At least like Pereira, for instance, who used to be the VP of officiating, they throw it to him and he's like, I don't know. Ask Calvin Johnson if that's.

Ask that's Brian. I mean, I don't know what to call this. That's been my main point all along. The officials don't know the rule. And take a look at that catch by Golden Tate and then take a look at the Tyler. Eifford catch from a couple weeks ago and tell me which one should have been a touchdown. Well, that's when it breaks.

You'll pull your hair out. You'll pull your hair. Or that Devante Freeman played from last time. You'll pull your hair out trying to figure it out. It's just way too much gray area. And it's just taking attention away from the Cutler-Stafford duel

in the dome that people were waiting for. 3734. Everyone's dogging these big arms quarterback. I thought Greg was getting out of his chair there. Get out of the chair. It's too complicated. It's too complicated. human that was waiting for this.

They made a movie out of this game. It would be called Unwanted. Jay Cutler's best play in the world is just kind of running around for a while and throwing it up deep to Alshan Jeff. Now he can do that again. It looks like a totally different offense, though, with Alshan in it. I mean, you can see the marked difference. And Eddie Royale's back. I mean, that helps.

Jay Keller's not that bad. I know. With the Bears. He's not that bad. He is what he is. They're competitive every week now because Jay Cutler is involved. And we were talking about this team as like a 14-lost team when he was hurt. I agree with Colleen on Jeffrey, though, because the Bears Chiefs,

I watched that on Game Pass on Saturday and fell asleep in my chair watching it. Like, the Chiefs were involved. Well, they were, but they're a different office with Jeffrey. Are you kidding? But his two plays at the end of that game were maybe two of the greatest Jay Cutler plays of all time. I'm talking about this. It's a football game that's 60 minutes long. The first 59 minutes were an absolute disaster.

I know that you are a quiet closet, Jay Cutler supporter. There's something quiet about it. I've been supporting him a decade. Greg is out of the closet. I'll tell you what. You're a Patriots fan. Go put Jay Cutler on your Patriots and see how you like that four games. Cutler's on Greg's Mount Rushmore with Matt Castle and Reagan.

Oh, that mound's going to crumble. I did not expect to see old Sessler fire eyes talking about Cutler. I don't know where you shot some fire out of Ross there. He said it was a boring game. I just think it's easy to say that you have all this love of Jay Cutler. When he's, they're still two and four, they're going to always be a team. That nothing important happens with him a quarterback. Name his big victories.

Give me three big J-Culler victories. Or one. He won a playoff game. But he just doesn't get that thing done. He got out played by Caleb Haney and a playoff game. Yeah. Those throws are pretty neat. Is there anything else we need to know about this game, Cullen?

No, just the bear's defense gave up over 540 total yards. Ooh, that's right. They had a surprise to sneakies. They've been playing well. Yeah. I think it's because nobody has a. the same drives. They score too quickly. They had been playing well, so now

they have nothing to hold on. Good news, Mark. As we move on, the Baltimore Ravens continue to slip off the radar. I don't have a radar anymore. They gone. Their latest setback came at the big bell bottom. It ain't happening, Berman, so give it up.

We're the only ones keeping it going. I know, it's true. It's true. Where Colin Kaepernick threw two touchdown passes to lead the 49ers to a 25 to 20 win over John Harbaugh's team. Mark, we forked the Ravens playoff chances last week. No, no regrets after what we saw today. No, I mean, it's really only Baltimore secondary can turn Colin Kaepernick into a functional quarterback.

He played his best game of the year by far. Tori Smith even got a ball. Well, and that's the saddest thing, because outside of Steve Smith, who he, I think with the kind of injury he had, I don't think we would even be getting out of bed, essentially at a broken back, came in, And every time he's on the field for the Baltimore, he's the heart and soul of that entire team. But you watch Anquan Bolden and Tori Smith, each, 96 yards for Tori Smith, 102 for Bolden.

These were your receivers a few years ago. Now they're making plays for the 49ers. And there's nothing outside of Crockett Gilmore and Steve Smith in Baltimore. I know it's a lot to watch your Harbaugh or Flacco. Got to be tough to watch those two guys score. It's a little bit, you know, I guess you're not allowed to really say this because he's done so much. but Ozzie Newsom should get a little heat, you would think, right?

You got this franchise quarterback you're paying $20 million a year, and you didn't give them the team. Well, you must have read my post because that was awesome. Well, I might have erased it in the end, but basically I feel like this front office put this team together poorly this season. There's no way around it. In the past Baltimore's had what appeared to be weaknesses on paper, and they shore it up and they're still going to win 11 or 12 games.

There are distinct weaknesses with this team, and really the secondary is an absolute disaster. Every week. On the couch, MJD and Ike Taylor both were referring to Flacco as a checkdown quarterback, which isn't exactly what you want to hear. That's also not true. But he said that his game works best when he has someone, I guess you could say this, but any quarterback.

But when Ray Rice was there, that's when Joe Flacco could be his most effective. He had someone to check it down to. He doesn't have that guy. That is completely not what their offense is. Listen, go tell I can MJD. He's probably knew of that. He's probably knew of that. This is all factually correct.

What? They said that. And it's not true. They also laughed at me when I said that Brian Hoare would start another game this year because Ryan Mald is terrible. Oh, don't cross West. I haven't been back since. I'll tell you that much. We got to get Sally Wilcox in the studio because he laughed at Greg when he first came in the around the NFL television show, which we used to be on.

He laughed at Greg when Greg questioned Peyton Manning. And then he disappeared. You were on this past Thursday. and they, Solly was nowhere to be found. Well, they called a knockout, TKO. They got to trot out someone else next week to defend Peyton Manning against you. Wait, hold on. How bad is Levi's Stadium turf?

It's the big bellbott. Absolutely. Oh, yeah. Justin Tucker, his foot, like, sunk into the field on that kick, and he ended up missing it. The craziest thing? It's happened over and over. It's one of those fields that gets killed.

The site of Super Bowl 50. The kicker's foot disappeared in the turf when he planted. In, like, a giant, like, grass divot flies across space after he tried to, you know, it was embarrassing. Yeah, it's a tough thing because they've built up that stadium, too, for so long of, like, it's got all these 21st century, you know, innovations of the fan experience and everything is different and, like, you know, when you're at the game.

But, you know, we can't, you know, make graph. 21st century's been a little overrated so far. They better call in Carl Spackler to head up that ground crew. Who's Carl Spackler? Oh, yeah. Bill Murray and Caddy. I thought you were talking about every 20 minutes on the watch we'll get one of those references from what I thought you were talking Jim Toma was that as he or George Toma they used to really have kind of a field expert who would go around to the NFL fields and fix them up TD can we get like some type of signal or bell whenever West makes a dated cultural reference we'll work on that okay cool I think that was 1980 or 81 a long time ago

Colleen wasn't born yet. It's about me. No, but I did, how about I did get the Pee Wee Herman dance today from Steve Smith. I did recognize that. Peewee's timeless, though. I felt like that was pretty good. Isn't Caddyshack time? Oh, no, I forgot.

Dan hates the Caddyshack. I am a little anti-Cadishak. I don't know. It just never connected with me. It doesn't mean it's not good. Let's move on. Yeah, I think it'd be good to move on. Do you, wait, do you like Caddyshack?

Not particularly. It's fine. Greg? Yeah, I like it. I like it. It's not a glorious. Well, I'm trying to think of when's the last time. It's like, how can you have an opinion about anything you haven't seen in the last 10 years?

I think they all should be thrown out the window. What about airplane? I love airplane. I have seen that. So there you go. But I've seen that recently and I still know that I love it. Caddyshack, I feel like if I watch it now, I might not love it. Wes, your thoughts.

Caddyshack is one of my top five favorite comedies. And I think you're not alone. Slightly un-American if you don't like it. It is, I like it. You take a lot of jabs, Wes, at sports writers. I do. Yeah. That's like...

The thing, like sports writers, what they really like to do is listen to Bruce Springsteen and watch Caddyshack. I love to do that also, but I don't like staying around all day quoting Caddyshack and telling people how great Bruce...

You would just like us to carve seven minutes out of the podcast to discuss it. It's about me. Don't think that I've been the one discussing. To be fair, that's time. Mark gets in a rush late in these Sundays. He wants to get out of this as quickly as possible. So let's move on to your old friend,

Brian Hoyer, who threw three touchdown passes, all of them on third down, and the Texans improved to two and four with a 31-20 win over the Jaguars. Wes, the struggle for progress continues for 1 in 5 Jacksonville. Yeah, Blake Bortles is on pace now for 4 and 350 yards and 35 touchdowns and about 300 back-breaking interceptions. I mean, their offense moves the ball. They look pretty explosive at times, but he had a back-breaking interception right. before halftime, had another interception in the second half that was really hurtful,

and missed a couple of wide receivers who were wide open for potential long touchdowns. So I think as well as he's playing, he's not helping them in the win column. At some point, their progress is faced with reality, which is that if you're ranking teams based on results, they're number 32 right now. Because they just lost to the Bucks and the Texans in back-to-back weeks. They're fourth. It doesn't get worse than that. one win, which is tied for the worst spot.

And the problem now, too, is let's say Bortles continues to make progress, but they go three and 13, and man or front office decides they need to start fresh with the GM and coach, then Bortals has to start over the, and once you get into that situation, that's how progress gets stunted. I don't think the offense, because watching the Bucks game and then parts of this one, that the offense feels close. There are a lot of these young pieces, and it's interesting. that it's the defense on a Gus Bradley team

that had no pass rush last week when they needed it. There's no distinct element to this defense that sets it apart and you're years into Gus Bradley's program. So I put it on the coach. It doesn't help that Blake Borrell's also the team's leading rusher today. Yeah, if they don't get T.J. Yeldin back, I mean, Toby Gerhardt and Donard Robinson, they're not going to get it done. They're back to where they were last year on the ground, and this is, that's a disaster.

Wes, is DeAndre Hopkins the best wide receiver in the league that nobody talks about? Yeah, he's like Jordy Nelson and Golden Tate used to be before people figured out they were good. DeAndre Hopkins is incredible. He made a bunch of circus catches today. He saw a pace for 140 catches, 2,000 yards, and 13 touchdowns. With the worst quarterback situation in the league. Yeah, the guy is unbelievable. And he also has more targets at this point in the season than any wide receiver since 1991.

Wait, Brian Hoyer's, like, last five and a half quarters are Sterling, though. That's fair. I mean, he was amazing today. Last week and good this week. he was facing the Jaguar's defense which made the Buccaneers look good last year and he has benefit of Arian Foster to help move the chains but that being said

he's so much better than Ryan Mallett Yeah I mean Hoyer they probably should have If this season isn't going to go anywhere For Houston it probably won't because Brian Hoyer Even if he started 16 games They weren't going to go off but they probably should have a little more patience in hindsight

Because Benzs than three quarters That was a huge mistake Maybe three and a half quarters That was Ben But if we think Andy Dalton's going to come back to Earth, I guarantee Brian Hoyer does. He will. They're not going to face Jacksonville every week. All right.

Let's move on another team that needed a win. Dan Campbell for president. Make America great again. Dan Campbell, the hulking interim coach looked like a genius in his debut, turning the dolphins into a grounded-bound beast and a 38-10 win over the Titans. Colleen, will the dolphins lose another game with the teal and credible Hulk wearing a headset? Um, yes, but Dan Campbell, first of all, I felt like the orange collar he had on that polo was extra bright after they won. He was, he was, I know, but it was just like he was radiating.

I think after the comments that he was worried about throwing up on his shoes kind of thing before leading into the game, um, the way that the defense responded in this was one of my biggest takeaways because they only had one sack coming into this game combined as a team. And just in the first half alone, they had. four sacks, five and a half sacks, and Cam Wake had four of them. So they were, I mean, that defensive line woke up. Such a difference from what we've seen this entire season. And I mean, Ryan Tannihill, he didn't really respond any differently, but that defensive line did and Jarvis Landry too. Oh, right. So Dan Campbell's, Joe, Joe Philbin, sitting at home watching on TV, good. I'm like, hey, great, Cameron Wake, our best player by far is healthy again, gets four sacks, and this clown in a tight shirt gets all the credit for it.

Like, he had anything to do with 10. I motivated. The Oklahoma drill did the job. Get me a brighter collar. Lamar Miller, by the way. How about this, Joey Bibbs? Maybe you give the guy that was like a top 10 running back in the league last year the rock and see what happens. Over 100 yards.

I mean, I didn't think we were going to see that, but he had more yards in this game than he had in combined the last three games. So he's finally running the ball. And that's what they need to do. If they have him and he can do that, why aren't? Aren't they running the ball more? And there was a little bit of controversy with a low hit on Marcus Marriota of the Titans. After the game, Ken Wisenhunt, who might not be long for this job in Tennessee,

he had this to say about the hit by Vernon on the defensive line of the Dolphins. I think it was BS. I think it should be taken out of the game. That's not the way you play football. I think it was done with the idea of trying to. hurt our quarterback, and that's, that's, that's football. He's angry. Showing some fight.

Good job, Ken. Yeah. Your thoughts. Connor Moore covered this game for us and mentioned several times that he thought the Titan should have taken Marcus Mario out of the game because he was getting battered around so much and that the offensive line was getting clown suited by Cameron Wake. They're missing their tackle, their center, you know.

And he got hurt. It appeared. He was down. It looked terrible. It looked like he was going to come out. And then he stayed in there. He showed some toughest. But maybe if Wisen on, you know, is that worried about him,

this was the time to call off the dogs. And he did eventually. He put in Mettenberger when they were down, I think, 17 in the fourth quarter. But he had to wear a knee brace when he went back in, too. He said that Vernon apologized afterwards, which I know carries a whole lot of weight. I mean, the tight are in Forkville, right? Because we were hanging on during their biweek. We've got to get together.

Well, we'll talk on Tuesday. We can discuss. I know where my vote goes because, again, this is another AFC South team that has zero going on when it counts. We need to retire to our conference room. Got some Danish, some coffee. Where is this conference room? It's only for...

It's in the basement next to the Camelope. It's in the basement of the Alamo. See, I could do 80s references as well. It's weird how you're just excluding Colleen automatically. I think it's worth inviting her to the committee. I vote for that. I don't know if Dan likes this.

We can use a fresh... Dan's like, this is our boys club. Dan, you don't even drink coffee. We'll buy one more Danish. Dames in the club? I say no. See? No Disney Dames in our club.

Charlie Cancerly in the podcast. Men business. Of course, Colleen's welcome. We could save some Danish. Oh, are you? An extra one. Yeah. Buy one more.

So nice of you. Thank you. I love Danish. What does a Dane have to say? I don't care. No, sir. Colleen, you've done it again. Great.

You've done it again. You've come in here. You've delivered insight. You delivered some, you know, Keen insight on the games. You brought in some humor. Please keep going. You really, you're charming.

Thank you. Charming. I like the insight and keen insight. Both insight and keen insight. And keen insight, which is important. Very different. So we will see you again next week. Yeah.

And so that's it. All right. I'm out. As Colleen heads out, the wolf woman. Bye, everybody. Our attention to Sunday Night Foot. The Indianapolis Colts at home against the New England Patriots. You guys, you know, there's a little bit of heat, a little backstory in this one.

Something about deflated footballs. Or were they, Wes? Let's get into that first. No, just kidding. Don't care. Let's talk about the game, the Colts and the Patriots. And this is a game Tom Brady throws over 300 yards, throws for three touchdowns. The Garrett Blunt rushes for 90 yards and a touch.

The Pats jump ahead. stay ahead, end up winning the game by a final score of 34 to 27. Thank you. 34 to 27, my computer shutting down like my sinus cavity right now. But, you know, this is a game that was a close game and surprisingly close.

People thought this would be the biggest blot in history, 80 Burger talk going around. But this was a six-point game with late in the third quarter when Chuck Pugano called to play that, quite frankly, let's be honest, if things go the wrong way and their owners

acts a certain way, it could cost Chuckie's job. He calls a bizarre fake punt attempt involving Griff Whalen, who is, of course, the centerpiece of Connor Orr's his Madden football team. I don't know. What they were trying to do is a fourth

and three play. If you're watching on YouTube, you could, an NFL now, you could check it out right here. The play is snapped for whatever reason, immediately a loss because there was five Patriots defenders. The Patriots quickly take over, score again. That ended up being all they needed. They gave up a late score.

3427 final, Greg Rosenthal. Listen, throne of ease, if you will. Not what you were looking for in terms of a blowout that made the cults look terrible. I wasn't looking for a blowout. It's great. You go to play one of your biggest rivals from the last decade, although it's been a one-sided rivalry

ever since Andrew Luck's been there. They haven't won a game. This was the closest game. and they pretty much did what they wanted to do on offense. If it wasn't for Julian Edelman's drop that turned into a pick six, this game maybe doesn't look quite as close in the fourth quarter. But that play was all the enjoyment I needed out of tonight. That's what you'll have to settle for.

And that'll be the narrative for obnoxious Pats fans is that, well, we got that trick play and that's all we needed. But it was very embarrassing by the Colts. I mean, it was the play that that's how this game will ultimately be remembered. I mean, we saw on television that Chuck Begubon, seemed to mouth to Griff Whalen afterwards. Why did you snap that? Because we'll have to hear more from the coach himself,

but it seems like they were trying to draw the Patriots off sides. They jumbled the defense around. They got a little bit caught off guard. But the Patriots were wise. They kept five guys right home over Griff Whalen. And when he snapped a thing, they just smothered him. And it was over. And then from there, the killers, they just march in for a touchdown.

To what end? I have no idea. what the Colts were doing on that play. I'm genuinely curious to hear the philosophy behind that formation. Well, maybe Griff Whalen, who has been the centerpiece of Conner's Madden team, it's a Patriots post-deflategate team that may be moving to another city.

Maybe he was secretly trying to win this game for the Patriots. I don't know how this all makes sense. Roan of Sleeves. Between the two worlds. But they're like Griff Whelan did get a touchdown later in the game. The play got whistled. So the Colts aren't even allowed to set up in that formation, apparently. Why would they even try it?

It was one of the worst plays in special teams history that you could ever think of. But it's got to distract from the fact that Andrew Luck really struggled in the second half. Maybe he's not healthy. Maybe he is, but he was spraying passes. I don't think he's the most accurate quarterback, at least compared to the quarterbacks. He's at the same level of the top five to ten quarterbacks. He's not always the most accurate, but he was spraying passes. I think it's fair to ask if his shoulder.

not back to strength yet because he didn't it's not the same guy that we've seen before he hasn't played well all year that's true before before the string shoulder i didn't think he was throwing well in the season opener or week two had a good first drive where they go down to the field and they have short passes but the patriots seem to kind of figure out how to drop another guy underneath and when you took away the first read this isn't what the luck that we've seen that when you take away the first read he gets flummox but that that's what was happening it seems like with the Patriots every week, too. They know they did a pretty good job on Rob Mankowski, held to 50 yards, but when that happens, one of their other chess pieces blows up. Danny

and Mendoza has a big night. It just seems like every week it's a revolving star for this team, no matter what they do. And the defensive line really got a lot of pressure on, late in the game. My favorite moment, I know this is going to sound like a homer. Late in the game. Tom Brady, it's second and four. They're trying to kill the clock, and he has an unbelievably bad delay of game. you guys see that an unbelievably bad delay of game coming out of a Colts timeout

and he wasn't even close to snapping the ball and you can see Belichick in the headset going GD Tommy you know what the was that like he was getting pissed No I'm just saying he's getting pissed at Tom Brady because it was a terrible mistake with three minutes left in the game it's like that's why I like Bill Ben

Here come the trumpets and the page boys as Greg gets carried around the New England territory is on his throne with grapes and a harp. The sun has a face and it's smiling down upon the throne of bees. And you know what? Next week, 5-0, Pat's, 4-1 jets, that'll be fun.

On the other side, the Colts, now they're 3-3, which is okay when you're playing in the AFC South. Fine. But you have New Orleans at home and the Saints, we're not going to go crazy about the Saints, but they can be frisky in that spot. And then you go at Carolina,

that's an undefeated team and then home to Denver be careful be careful Andy this thing could spiral on you they could win this division at 7 and 9 be careful AT NFL podcast

who's already forked the Texans and has the Jaguars lined up for forking than we're thinking about the Titans too might fork the rest of the division that's how we got in trouble last year we forked everyone but the Saints last year

in the NFC South and then we got banged I don't know I mean oh watch out like that could spiral out of control and they could be 3 and 5 is, I guess, what you're saying. Three and six.

They could be three and six. Well, first of all, the saints on the road, you know, let's not get carried away. They lost to the Eagles by 29 the last time they were on the road. And so what if they were three and six? Three and six is very likely first place in the AFC South. Absolutely. That's a great division, guys. Anything else, Wes, I'll give you the last word on this game, 34, 27.

Pats win Sunday night football. I need a beer. Well said. I could use it. one as well. That is our Sunday night spectacular. We covered every game and it was a great job by all. The effort was there. Execution? We'll have to listen back to know. But the effort I could tell everybody was a lot of effort. Totally involved. So that's it. We will be back on Tuesday with another week of shows. Mark, the wheel goes round and round and round. So we will talk about

the Monday night game, preview Thursday night football, the news, all the fun stuff. Mark will be on his way to London by then. Oh, yeah, have fun. I may be here for that show, we'll see. You will be here for the TV. Game time decision. Then you're leaving. Excellent.

Then I'm leaving. Good. So that's what lies ahead. But until then, this is Dan Hansis signing off for The Quiet Storm, the Mailman, the boss. Jesus. TD and everybody else behind the glass till Tuesday. This is an I-heart podcast.