NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Week 8 recap

Episode Date: November 2, 2015

A room filled with heroes - Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler, Dan Hanzus and Colleen Wolfe – break down each game from Week 8 of the regular season, including a shootout in New Orleans between the Giants and the Saints, and a dominant Broncos team knocking off the Packers from the ranks of the undefeated.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 a higher BMI than QBR. Welcome back to another edition of the Around the NFL podcast. My name is Dan Hansis, and I am joined by a room filled with heroes. Mark Sessler, Chris Wessling, Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys? Your hand motions are really going crazy. Hey, Dan.

Oh, I forgot about that. You were looking at me. Greg shows right in. You're the last one that gets introduced, but then Wes, as has become his trademark, chimes in with... Hey, Dan. And then you come... That's a bad sign for the show.

You know what? I think it's good to keep listeners on their toes. You start expecting the same exact thing every week gets a little stale. Well, Greg, what happened there, honestly? You know how the show's opened like 642 times in a row, and that's not what happened. This is the Sunday edition of the Around the NFL podcast, the flagship show of the regular season for us,

a big show ahead of us today in a Sunday that unfortunately was marred by injuries to some key players. It could affect how everything happened. Everything is, everything's always, you know, floating. You never know what's going to happen in the NFL, but when injuries enter the fray,

changes things quickly. Am I right? Christoph Wesley. Absolutely. It's a truism in football. Yes, absolutely. So a lot of stuff to get to today. We are going to get to one of the great shootouts in recent history of the NFL.

I think I go on the limb and say that when 100 points are scored between two teams. That's what happened in the Superdome, the Saints Giants. A thriller, Cincinnati Bengals. Wow. Still undefeated. Who saw this coming? Let's face it. Undefeated.

And one of those key injuries came out of that game against the Steelers. We'll get to that. And, of course, our friend, the unofficial. fifth member of the around the NFL podcast crew Colleen Wolfe will join us drop by in the studio Connie Fox as she's known to outsiders.

Really to no one. People will listen to this podcast, that's about it. We did have a, I won't get into too many details, specific details, that we had a meeting with a shadowy league figure who insinuated so you call her Connie Fox that seems maybe a little bit sexist

and we were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, chill out shadowy league figure SLF. Fox has nothing to do with like whoa, she's a foxies. No, it was her name in high school nickname that she went by that she told us and now we're repeating it. Absolutely. There's no controversy. They're trying to boil one up.

Enough oversight. They're trying to like put us into some type of controversy. It's good you set the record straight right here. Nobody will have any more questions at all. So, yes, that's everything that's going on. We've got a lot of games to get to. I believe the number is 12, Greg?

I believe it's, what, 13? Yeah, 12, 13? I don't know. 12 nailed it. So why don't we get into it? And we'll start with the shootout at the Superdome. Drew Breeze tied an NFL record

with seven touchdown passes, and Kai Forbath hit a 52-yard field goal as time expired, lifting the Saints to a, oh my God, 52 to 49 win over the New York Giants. And as I said, one of the great shootouts

in recent NFL history, a game that on two occasions, the Saints went up 14 points only to see the Giants come all the way back. The Giants actually took a lead in the fourth quarter on a pick six. It wasn't even, I was going to say, one of Drew Breezes' rare mistakes in the game, but that wasn't on him. It was a catch and a strip that led to the Fumble recovery. It wasn't even a pick six recovered. Nailed it again.

Giants in the lead, but then here come the Saints one more time. C.J. Spiller with touchdown catch, that's number six. Six for a touchdown passes or seven. And then the winner comes, Greg, on a punt return, face mask, drills the 52-yarder. Insane game at the Superdome. The Saints alive. So alive. We bury them.

We forked them. They've won three in a row. Their schedule is easy street moving forward. I remember we threw out that idea after they won that Thursday night game, and we kind of poo-pooed it. And now you look at them. Their offense has looked like the Saints' offense for the last couple weeks. you've seen this building. Now, the Giants' defense in Steve Spagnolo,

they have no pass rush. They can't do anything. So that should be taken into account. But you said, you know, maybe this is one of the great shootouts in NFS. There's no doubt. It's the most passing touchdowns in a single game ever. You know, Drew Brees tied the single mark,

and they broke the combined mark. Eli Manning and Drew Brees together. Yeah, Eli meant what happened with Eli should not be lost, 350 yards, over 350 yards, six touchdowns himself, a career high, Mark. Well, I mean, it was, I think it was a week ago on Sunday night when I was saying, you know, the Saints' defense is coming around and maybe it's time for us to realize that it took Rob Ryan, time to get his young players involved. Well, forget

about it. I mean, you've just given up 49 points. But it's also sometimes these weird shootout games have nothing to almost do with who the teams are. They just, they kind of unfold this way. In this case, with the way the Saints have been played all year, it does. And the giant. I mean, these are two of the worst defenses in the league. So it makes all the sense in the world. That's what I want I know. Last year when the Steelers and Colts had that great shootout, it was the best quarterbacked game I'd ever seen. Was this great quarterbacking or the two worst secondaries in the NFL because that's what the secondaries have been so far this year? It's hard to say. I mean, but I don't want to take credit away from Drew Brees what he did or what Eli did. I mean, there was a point in this game where it was probably midway through the third quarter where they had combined nine touchdown passes and seven incompletions.

So, yeah, there's some terrible defense here. But these are also, and I know, Wes, you're not going to hear it, but I'm going to say it. These are two Hall of Fame quarterbacks performing at an incredible level in a big stage and bringing the best out of each other. As far as the defense, I had an idea also. Right around the time I saw the stat, the nine touchdowns, the seven incompletions, that this should have been a loser goes to Canada match between Steve Spagnola, the Giants defensive coordinator, and Rob Ryan, the Saints defensive coordinator, and Canada being the home of a CFL team.

where they could be a linebacker's coach. Sure, I think that fits. I mean, it's fitting for Rob Ryan at this point. I'd give him that award. If Vince McMahon was the commissioner, that would happen. How about Sean Payton just putting it to his old charge, Steve Spagnola? I mean, people don't remember. Oh, you're loving this guy.

No, I'm just saying. People don't remember the Steve Spagnolo era in New Orleans because it was a disaster. And he left there not a well-liked guy necessarily by his players or by his ex-boss. and to put something on him like that, 52 points. Look at the grin, Greg is like, basically Super Bowl 42 never happened because of this game. This game provided more joy, I think, to the fans in New Orleans and the Saints that they expected to get from this entire season. These are two teams that if the playoffs started now, like the Saints are in the mix and the Giants are still leading their division. It just shows you how mediocre the NFC is at the bottom.

I got to deliver a couple more stats about this game because it's a great all-time stats game. The game yielded more than 1,000 total yards, 60 first downs, and over 800 yards passing. This is like, Mark, you versus your brother in Super Tecmo Bowl in 92. No, not at all. I would destroy him regularly, and he would attest to that. All right. I mean, I was kind of just general statement, but we can get into it. That was one thing I did well in life, was Tecmo Bowl, too.

Did you play with the Browns? I'll play with any team. I won a 32-team championship with the Browns with a couple of neighbors, and this was a 1990 Browns team that went 3 and 13 in real life, so that's coaching. We used to have tournaments where we'd have offensive and defensive coordinators. We're sounding like... That's so funny.

We're sounding like the guys that used to talk about stratomatic now. Yeah. When you're talking about like NES Nintendo Entertainment System. You brought us there. I did. It was my fault. Super TechMobile was a great game. So, yeah, I mean, what do we...

What was that great? I was just got to say good call on the big Odell Beckham game, too. Wasn't that one of the headlines from the future, He actually was better than I predicted two touchdowns and 200 yards. He actually only got 130 yards, but he had three touchdowns. He looked 100% in Mark. I'm going to put it in the end around this week, if for no other reason, just to make sure you see it. Because I know you read the end around every week.

Religiously. Well, religiously would on a Friday afternoon read it. The Fox Telecast showed his pregame exercise routine, which now, you know, obviously he knows the camera's on him. At one point, he did a forward role in the end zone and then came up pretending to, be shooting a gun, like a detective in like a 70s television series. I mean, listen, I think we all agree that he's an absolutely phenomenal player and in growingly tedious with every week. Signetti, I'm parting you up.

You're with Odell Beckham Jr. I'll turn in your back. Yeah, Signetty would love to have Odell Beckham Jr. right now. So what, I mean, are either of these teams going to be in the playoffs? I'll just throw it out there right now. Because ball teams are still, the Saints are now in legitimate good position to have a shot at this. They're four and four.

To make a run at the wild card, potentially. And the Giants at 4 and 4, they're still right in the mix of the NFC East. But we don't, Wes, we don't think any of these teams are very good, right? They're both mediocre, but Greg, you know, Greg mentioned it earlier. The NFC is so mediocre throughout, really. The AFC is the stronger conference right now. Cowboys we're loving this game. It's another loss where just the winner of the NFC East doesn't look like they're going to get more than nine wins this year.

At least the Cowboys can feel like, okay, we're in it for another week. Yeah, you know what, though? I don't want to hear that with the Cowboys, and we'll get to them later, but you can't lose like nine games in a row and be like, hey, I'm feeling pretty good about my chances. At a certain point, you stink. Yeah, they stink. All right, let's move on now to a big AFC North showdown,

the Cincinnati Bengals, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Heinz Field. We talked about this on Thursday, Greg. If the Steelers couldn't win this game, AFC North is over. It's over. It is. Andy Dalton shook off a pair of fourth quarter picks,

hitting AJ Green for the go-head score. The Bengals at the end of the game, 16-10 win over the Steelers West. The Bengals just locked up the AFC North and the Steelers have lost Levyon Bell. The even bigger story. I don't think it's mathematically over, but yeah, I think essentially

the AFC North belongs to the Bengals. And you have to admire their ability to kind of withstand the pressure that the Steelers brought. For the first time all year, the Bengals' offensive line lost the battle at the line of scrimmage. The Steelers got consistent heat

on Danny Dollar. And they didn't do much for three-quarters. And then when the game was on the line, Dalton responded after throwing two fourth-quarter picks and led the game-winning drive. Similar to what he did against Baltimore, where it was really his worst moment of the year, and then he ends up driving for the game winner.

He did it here today. And yet all of this, as great a win as it was for Cincinnati and tough as for Pittsburgh, it seems secondary to them losing Levyon Bell for the season. Just as we're going up to tape this, Ian Rappaport reports he's going to, severely torn MCL, and he is expected to miss the season, and that is just a brutal loss.

And that doesn't sound good when the insiders are getting the word that it's not just a tear of your MCL, a severe tear. I mean, that sounds like a long rehab process. Probably he's going to end up on IR. And Wes, I'll ask you, is this a crushing loss for the Steelers in the sense that they're no longer a title contender without Labion Bell? I believe that to be the case,

because I believe as great as Todd Gurley, is, Leveon Bell is probably the best all-around running back in football. He's so patient. He has such great vision, such a great receiver. And then DeAngio Williams is all right. I mean, he's average 5.5 yards per carry in situations where Levi-on-Bel has been unavailable this year. So he's a good backup as far as backups go, but Levi-on-Bel is just so dynamic. Then again, just thinking about this game, like everyone, I expected, you know, Ben Rostisberger's back. This isn't an easy matchup, but they're going to score some points again. I mean, they scored 10 points today. It's a little unfair. They had a really methodical opening drive touchdown that seemed

a little too easy for them, and the life went out of the stadium when Livion Bell got injured. They just couldn't do anything on offense after that. Also, you're asking Big Ben after coming off a knee injury, and not that he rushed back, but no way is he 100%. He didn't have the same agility. It's going to take some time. I don't count the Steelers at all out of another murky A-F. playoff race. And it is, I feels like when we say that AFC North is sealed and it's November 1st, that weird things happen in that division. We've said a lot of dumb prediction. Well, we have, but the Bengals would have to

comprehensively crumble. And the triplets in Pittsburgh, which I think is potentially the best in the league, have been on the field together for what? About 25 minutes this season. Yeah, and they're not going to happen. It's not going to happen again. And, you know, let's talk up the Bengals a little bit here because now they're 7 and 0. This is a game I think a lot of people expected them to get picked off here And once again, they don't.

And maybe even more reason for optimism is Andy Dalton did not play a great game. This is probably his worst game of the season. Definitely it was his worst game. And yet instead of a full-on crumble, Wes, he led them down the field and got the game-winning touchdown. So even in a day that was a down day statistically still progress for the flaming ginger man. I would not call this progress for Andy Dalton. I admire the team's resilience, but this wasn't a good performance by him. This was a good performance by AJ Green.

And the defense, and maybe they get a little help from the running game in the offensive line. And that just speaks to the point that this is a team, that Andy Dalton's carried them some weeks, but it's a complete team. And the defense, I think, has quietly gotten a little bit better each and every week this season. They got Vaughn's Burrfax back today for base packages and had a huge impact. He's the guy who knocked Levy on Bell out of the game. And I know it's a division game, but they get the Browns on Thursday. They get the Texans at home after that.

That's two wins. They are looking at most. likely 9 and 0 heading into deep November, which is just, it's an amazing thing. Wes, your favorite day of the year, everyone knows it's the first wild card game on a Saturday in January known as Westavis, because it's always, it's seemingly always the Bengals in that game getting picked off, you go to a local bar and you drink and you celebrate. The pea scale now. Here's the scale. One, dry pants. You're a grown-up, no issues.

Your feeling you've got to go to the bathroom. Go to the bathroom. Ten, your pants are soaked with pee. All your underpants is soaked. Went through your underpants into your regular pants. You got to go change your clothes because you're soaked with pee. Where are you standing? You know, last time you checked, I was about a 9.8.

I think I'm at about an 8.4 now. Oh, it dropped. Yeah. How is that possible? They're going to be 9-0. They weren't impressive at all. But they're not going to be playing on that first Saturday. If nothing else, the West of this committee, you know,

the Parent Teacher Association that plans it, you know, bakes the cookies, does all sorts of things. They're going to have to meet and officially move the holiday to a week later this season. Well, I don't feel like the Patriots are going to lose a game. That's a good point. 2013 Peyton Manning showed up Sunday night, so the Broncos might not. So you're saying your counting on them being the three seed, then they still play in that

game. That's fair. And they get bombed out by the six seed on West of us. That's what they do. The big upside for West. I feel like he's, you know, kind of hoping more than using his football mind. He doesn't need to worry about this holiday at all. There are still 363 other days a year that West could go to a local bar.

And he will. But none. And Wes, you'll explain to Mark, but there's nothing quite as special as that off day on Saturday watching his old Cincinnati team that he said, I don't want you in my life anymore, going up in flames. It's a special day, and it's a day I've been able to rely on for the past half day. Well, your problem. It's shoveling. The league is not putting the Bengals on Saturday this time.

This is a different Bengals team. They were on Sunday morning last time. I think I schedule around Westavis at this point. Like, West just gets that day off, and he'll work the other playoff day. It's totally preposterous. All right. Moving on, let's go down to Big D. Russell Wilson, get clutch, Russ, dangerous, they call him.

And by the way, Russell Wilson. They do. I saw your Instagram page dressing up as Batman with Sierra and renting out the Batmobile. Dude, get in control of your situation. You don't need your woman running your entire life. I'm sorry, by the way, T.D. I know you're not, you're shaking your head. I'm not even too.

I've never been a fan of that relationship. I think it's weird. I think he's just trying too hard, and that was, that was dismal. Yeah. Hold on. He rented out the Batman. Well, it's not a real car.

It's a version. It's a version. It's a version. It's not just one Batmobile. It just, she's in total control of the situation. Let's face it. Way to stay grounded, Russ. She was the cat woman.

Hey to stay grounded. Russell led a clutch 16-play drive, setting up the game-winning field goal on the Seahawks. sent the Cowboys to their fifth straight loss, this time at 13 to 12, setback at Jero World West. Have the Seahawks started their expected surge, or do you still see problems for the defending NFC champions? That's a tough question, because they did not play well.

They had their usual litany of fourth quarter miscues. It really started late in the third quarter when Greg Hardy had a deflected pass and interception. They get a field goal blocked. They have ill-time tennis. They have a fumble. It's just Marshawn Lynch runs out of bounds. He's a veteran. He should have stayed inbound to kill the clock.

And they escaped because Matt Castle is a horrible quarterback. That end sequence between that Matt Castle had in the game, which is probably, you know, the part of America that didn't watch the whole game, ended up watching that last sequence. That was about as ugly a four plays in a row as any quarterback can have. To the Seahawks credit, they clearly... clearly knew who was quarterbacking against them when they decided to roll Russell Wilson out

for a play that would kill the clock instead of throwing to the end zone. They just wanted to leave Matt Castle with a minute instead of two minutes for a field game. It was the play. Okay, so take us through that sequence, Greg, because it was the rollout where he took the horrible sack, right? I mean, he held onto the ball forever a couple different times.

There was the incomplete pass that they thought was a fumble for a touchdown. Yes. The fourth down play was really just Doug Free was beaten quickly He couldn't have done much about that But it was just about as ugly as it gets After a performance where Matt Castle

Had a lot of nice throws the week before But this week Jerry Jones said After the game He thought Matt Castle played well enough to win This game? He said that after this game They had four net yards in the fourth quarter Who said that?

He also said Brandon's the most beautiful quarterback in the NFL I was gonna say we gotta choose our words carefully This is the owner of a team But I will say Jera, at a certain point, everything he says is completely out of touch with reality. I mean, there's everything, whether it's been their offensive line or Brandon Whedon or Matt Castle or Greg Hardy, or every running back they have, or every running back. It's basically it's, make out of the running backs, but McFadden is carrying this team. Well, it's 64 yards rushing.

I mean, you know, I hear you. He totaled 113 yards, would have had 138 if not for a stupid illegal shift penalty. second straight week that he's really the entire offense. Best 3.2 yards per carry player in the league today. It's hard to rush for more than three yards of carry when the other team has no respect for the quarterback. I'm more surprised about the Seahawks offense in this game. And the Cowboys defense is getting better and better each week.

But I thought the Seahawks offense had possibly turned a corner against San Francisco. And I thought Marshall Lynch had looked a little better the previous two weeks. I think it's concerning. He only put 13 points up. And Russell Wilson was lucky he only had one pick in this game. he could have had a couple more on some errand throws. They also could have had 20 points pretty easily, and an offensive line that came under a lot of fire

didn't allow a single sack to him. Wes, how did Des Bryant look in his return? He clearly wasn't like at peak form, and Richard Sherman shattered him around the field as he's been doing against top receivers. Sherman easily won that battle. To be fair to Des, Matt Castle was throwing the passes. And he's said as much after the game.

I mean, he didn't call Matt Castle out, but he acknowledged that the vast adjustment going to Tony Romo. Look at these ducks that Castle is throwing. Right, the Castle is ridiculous. And by the way, you can watch these Sunday shows on YouTube under the NFL playlist. Just throwing that out there. Shameless plug. There was a lot of buzz.

I didn't get a chance to watch this game too closely, but a lot of buzz on Twitter, Richard Sherman, playing at an extremely high level, whether the quarterback was good or not. But him shadowing now the best receivers in the league. Maybe that's the last piece of the equation when talking about who's the best corner in the league. Earl Thomas tweeted after, or said after the game,

I've never seen a nerd ball out like that. A nerd? They call Richard Sherman a nerd. Four passes defense, and I believe one of those catches was the first catch against someone Sherman was covering in three games. Maybe you'll get a positive grade from PFF. We can all dream. There's no way Richard Sherman orders Domino's on his phone.

Of course not. I don't even know what you're referring to. It's a commercial that's on. all the time in which he's ordering he's putting the little pizza emoticon

I want to go back and to check check his feed to just call out false advertising you were absolutely right he has never done that

crossing out one more potential sponsor thank you we don't need them smash cut to Damashik doing like a backstroke through Big Macs

and dollars falling upon him yeah don't worry about the around the NFL podcast It's Sunday night and we are bitter. It's Sunday night bitterness. Let's move on.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Oh, man. So they blew the big lead last week against the Redskins, and they blew another one here. They were up 23 against the Falcons. The Falcons come all the way back, but in the end, the Bucks finish this time, in overtime.

They kick a field goal. Then hold on for a 2320 victory over the Falcons. Greg, you call this game the full, Jamis Winston experience. It was. This season for him has been a lot of good. It's been a lot of bad, and it's been enough for you to believe he's going to have a good future as a starter. And that was what you saw in this game. You saw some ugly throws that should have been intercepted. You also saw some plays like in overtime. We're watching on YouTube. Third down play to Charles Sims. He has to complete that or else the game's over. Third and ten, he completes another pass. He moves the

ball down the field. Then you get to the goal line. He has a potential game winner, and he just short-arms it. So they kick the field goal and the game's not over quite then. So it was good, bad, a little bit of everything. But I like that he just keeps going out there. He makes the Bucks fun to watch. That alone is a victory, that the Bucks are watchable. Oh, we did not think that would be the case at all. And, you know, you pointed it out, Greg, last week,

that against the Redskins, had the game ended differently, the storyline would have been Winston because he's put together a couple of, it's not the whole game, you're right. There's a couple weird things happening. But there is progress. I would be very encouraged if I was a Bucks fan. I thought he was outstanding a week ago. he was not outstanding on Sunday.

Matt Ryan easily outplayed him. I'm not sure what to take from this game because the Falcons had almost 500 yards of offense. They outgained the Bucks by a couple hundred yards. Matt Ryan was sensation, you know, really just razor sharp the whole day, like a lot of people are against the Buc's defense. But they had, they lost the turnover battle four to nothing. They lost three fumbles in the first half. Two were, you know, one was on a center exchange.

One was on a bad snap. It was just a one was on a play where Julio Jones just had the ball. taken from him. So it was just a fluky sort of loss for the falcons. So all the falcons good luck from earlier and you're kind of evened out in the game. That was exactly what I was thinking watching this game. Everything that went right for them, the rest of the season went

wrong. It was just a lot of unforced there. They look like the better team. You know, we, I think Mark, you brought it up earlier today. Things change so quickly. Things you assume in October look silly by the end of November and there was a time where we said, well, obviously the Falcons or the Panthers will either win the

division and the other takes the wildcard. But Are there any concerns that the Falcons are a team that could really start to slump into a situation where they could fall out of the playoff mix? There's a concern. Their schedule is very favorable. But I've thought all... The easiest in the NFL. And coming up, you know, 49ers, Colts, Vikings, bucks. It's like it doesn't get that much harder.

I mean, that is harder. Some of those games aren't easy. But they're a team. I don't think you can count any game as a way. Well, they just lost to the bucks in their own building. They're not that talented on defense. They have no pass rush. And the passing game's been up and down.

The defense plays well together, but it's not a good defense. There's always teams like that, though. Remember the 6-0 Josh McDaniels Broncos? Or he's running through the mile high, pumping his fists after beating Belichick and the Patriots. And then they fall off a clip. The difference with the Falcons, though, is you've got a franchise quarterback and you have Julio Jones. Like, where they are good is not a fluke. That's true.

And Julio Jones, after some quiet games, had 162 yards in this game and 12 catches. Just in every single throw was the exact same 15 yard in breaking route to Julio Jones, and they just couldn't stop it the whole game. Tomorrow, a lot of confluence of a lot of weird things happening. Tomorrow is the 2015 NFL draft. The season never happens. Stay with me. You own the first pick in the draft.

Do you guys take James Winston or Marcus Marriota? Mark first. Marriota. Wes. Mario, Mario. Greg. Come on. Be a hero.

Be brave. Side with James. I'm going to go with Winston, because that's what I thought going into it. And now I've seen enough to think, I like what I've seen. He's a little, the only thing that worries me is just some passes just, you know, miss by. After week one, though, I thought Marietta would run away with the question you just asked. And it's interesting where we are right now. Absolutely.

Moving on, the international series in London ended with a laughter as the Kansas City Chiefs put the clown suit on the Detroit lines. A 4510 win at Wembley Stadium. Greg, the Lions committed their worst sin yet in this lost season. They made Alex Smith look interesting. Well, it wasn't that interesting. It was, what, 34 to 3. What they made is the Chiefs look like a juggernaut. I mean, the Lions are so bad, I just can't believe how bad they are.

People want to blame Joe Lombardi. Fire everybody. The defense has gone from a top five defense to a bottom five defense. Alex Smith ran for 78 yards, almost all in the first half. That's interesting. That is interesting. He was sharp. He's been sharp a couple weeks.

If you had only watched the last two weeks, you would think the chiefs are a playoff team. I mean, they dominated the Steelers. I know it was Landry Jones, but their defense was great, and the offense really controlled that game. And then this game was an even bigger laffer. The lions, they're a miserable wreck. Best thing they can do, best thing they can do is resist the urge to go with an interim coach. Leave Jim Caldway in there and ensure that you get the number one pick. Oh.

That's good thing. You know, speaking of things changing, by the way. They won 11 games last year. I don't think we can say he's that horrible of a coach. Oh, he gone. Who would, all right, games on the line, your team is driving for a fourth quarter score. Who would you, who's better, who's worse than him in game management? I'd have to think about that.

Andy Reid? Ken Wisenhock. Mike Smith. There's a few. He's in that club, though, I think is West's point. I'll say something, too. You know, you got rid of the offense coordinator. replace them with Cooter, of all people.

Jim Bob Cooter. A gentleman who climbed into someone's window and tried to climb in their bed with them a couple years ago. Well, it's been like 10 years. The guy that... He was like the best friend in Growing Pains. It's like, oh, where's Cuder? Actually, it was Boner.

Cudor was the guy who worked on cars in Dukes of Hazard. The funny thing watching this game was the first drive. It wasn't finished with my point, but go ahead. No, no, no, go ahead. No, you get Cooter in this show. I thought growing pains was your main point. No, no. And you nailed it, man.

I nailed that, but I'm going to nail another one. Cooter enters the building, all right, in a more, you know, a more heavy role. And you also get the O'Line coach out of there. You think, oh, Amir Abdullah, they're going to work him in, this guy that we fell in love with back in August. One touch today. What's going on in Detroit? They hired Caldwell specifically to fix Matthew Stafford, and he's regressed. There's no doubt.

And last week, you could have made the case Stafford played pretty well in that game, except for the fact that free rushers are coming at him all the time. Today, he did not play well at all. He panicked. He made terrible throws under pressure. The free rushers were still coming through, especially in the second half, once it was a laugh. I want to see a sourced report whose fault in Detroit is all these free rushers.

Will Cald will call? Will Cald will call? I think we know the answer. I heard one of the coaches say that the idea now was to simplify things and pair back the playbook for Matthew Stafford who didn't seem like he's, you know, grasping it out. Well, there's your TechMobile reference. It's the first technical where it's four plays.

Yeah, exactly. How about this? Big Mac, Mike McCaghan, picks up the phone, the Jets General Manager, and calls up Detroit and says first round pick for Matthew Stafford. Who says no? I don't think the Lions would agree to that. I think the Jets would say no.

Really? How does that... The Lions have a shot at the number one. pick, you can get your franchise quarterback and get rid of Stafford's ridiculous salary. Right. I mean, you would still... You already pay a megatron 20 million a year? No, but you would have then two first round picks

to rebuild, and you'd get Stafford out the door anyway. That's what I'm saying. The Jets would say no, not the Lions? Wow. As a Jets fan, would you want Matthew Stafford? Well, now that my quarterback, Fitzmatich just ripped up his thumb... This week you're talking about it. We just... Greg just said they had to simplify of the offense for him. You'd have to come in there and learn a new offense in the middle of year.

I know, that's problematic. By the way, better in the off season. We were talking about the insane AFC playoff race. At 3 and 5, the Chiefs are one game really out in the loss column. And they're like a lot of, unlike a lot of these teams that can try to convince themselves that they're somehow legit. The Chiefs have something, which is a defense.

And they had, their offense has played very well the last couple weeks. Charcantric West looks like a very good backup. Don't let them reel you in. I'm not saying they're good. I'm just saying they have something going on. If they still had Jamal Charles, I would get into this narrative. because I thought they had a bad schedule that they had to go through early on

and they could have gotten strong and maybe been sneaking up on people without Jamal. Yeah, but Dan, if West is going to run for 97 yards and Alex Smith is going to run for 78 every week, you've got Jamal Charles. That's interesting. Moving forward, Justin Tucker connected on five field goals,

including his ninth career winner to lead the Baltimore Ravens to a 29-26 win over the San Diego Chargers, a game that went back and forth, back and forth. West, the biggest story to come out. out of this game wasn't the outcome, however. These teams are both mediocre at best, but the injury suffered to your boy,

the boy of your stable of all time, Steve Smith. He looked so explosive on that play too. Got the ball and took off running and looked like he had a chance to take it and a sniper. Sniper got him right in the Achilles. Went down and he ended that game fourth in the NFL in receiving yards per game.

So he's playing at the highest level he's played in in half a decade when this goes down. It's a shame. What were you thinking as you see him coming off the field where you feeling almost a little emotional? I mean, this guy's been your guy. And when you saw that, it's a rare time when you're watching someone and thinking

that probably is the last play of his career. It's hard to maintain that kind of perspective when you're trying to cover a couple of games and keep up with everything. You know, he's got the towel over his head when he has to be carried off the field, and you immediately think, I hope, that's not the last play I ever see out of his career.

And you wrote the post after the game. John Harbaugh suggested that he has some kind of inside info that Steve Smith's coming back. And the report from Yahoo, why they wouldn't trade Steve Smith, was because they feel pretty strongly there's a chance he's coming back for 2016. I've heard that thrown out there that wouldn't this make him more likely to come back? And I was thinking, well, but isn't that why you retire, is that you don't want to be trying to...

Mere mortals do, but not a guy with the biggest chip on his shoulder in NFL history. Well, the only thing, though, we've seen guys come back just as fresh from knee injuries in some cases. Achilles is, at his age, that's a long rehab. And that can slow you down for a season. That is the one injury where the medical technology in the last 10 years has come leaps and bounds, and now it's like a six-month-in-d isn't that what Crabtree had? Steve, yes. Steve Smith and Baltimore, last year was very good, slowed down down the stretch.

This year got off to another great start. Do we really want to see him come back next year and have his Andre Johnson season? I always want to let him go out like a warrior injured. He goes out how he wants. But I don't want a depressing Steve Smith season is what I'm going to say. No. But, you know, if there's one guy that we want to have faith in

that's going to do what we can't don't expect, it would be him. The pity that you're laying on Steve Smith, that's what's going to drive him to come back. I hope so. You know who should. I hope there's blood and guts all over me. We should be pitying the rest of us who have to cover Ravens games this year. I mean, he had more than double the amount of receiving yards

as the next closest receiver on the team, who's Kamara Aiken, more than, way more than double, almost triple. Flackos... They're going to be tough to watch. They win this game, and then the Chargers, as bad a loss as this was for the Ravens to lose Steve Smith. They not only lost this game, and again, a wide-open AFC, they lost Keenan Allen, King Dunlopter, left tackle, Corey Legit, Chris Watt, and Ladarius Green, all in this game. that doesn't even seem remarkable because this happens to Chargers every week guy was saying during the game they ought to get rid of the golf cart that they come out and just use a double-decker bus just get everyone off the field bring out your dead

they have had some terrible luck it's i know you i know that you've mocked the Chargers fans dan over the deal i feel for the Charger fan wait why would you say that i mocked the Chargers fan they never said they weren't even good enough to know dan is simply not signing up for the idea that they're the most passionate fan base and you can't. That stadium is half filled with the team. I just feel bad for that team right now. Well, they may have a new coach I think after the season. If you want to put together your

list of hot seat coaches, I think McCoy suddenly finds himself on that list. Before we bring Colleen Wolf in, Connie Fox, as she's known by some, and it's been clarified why she's called that. Just a few other ideas for sponsors for the podcast if they're listening.

Apple, I feel like that would be a nice fit for us. Sure, that would be... I saw the Steve Jobs movie, loved it. Although they don't love it, so didn't love it. Okay, good move. Nike, I'm wearing a pair of their kicks right now. Great product. They're very independent. They're looking for small projects. Just do it, Nike.

What's going on right now? Chase Bank. Great Bank. Deep Pockets. A little bit of an underdog financial institution. I go to Chase. Dick's Sporting Goods. Like the name. Not the top of my list. Okay, what about

one more? Cornhole, like the leading cornhole manufacturer, whoever it may be. Cornpentry.com is the first cornhole business in America. It's in Cincinnati. Bang, so there you go. We'd be sponsoring them, basically. If you are a...

That one sounds more believable, realistic. If you are a shadowy league figure with any of those companies, come at TD. I'm sure he'll get the deal done. All right. With that set, let's bring in our friend. There is our friend in the, around the NFL, awkward ISO cam. Yes. Hello, hello.

What's up, Colleen? Hey, Dan. How's it going? Colleen Wolf, of course, the NFL Game Day Blitz now. NFL now Game Day Blitz. Got it. Yes, with Dave Demchek and the gang. You do a lot of work on Sundays over there, like seven hours, right? It's a long show, yeah.

But you know what? It flies. Flies by. A lot of games, a lot of things happening. I bet. Sessler was on the couch. On today's show, did you think you feel? fit in. Yeah, he always

fits in. We need more of you guys on the show, I think. Okay, we'll work on that. Colleen, back as she is, this is her other regular gig on Sunday. She sits in on some games, so why don't we get into some more games? It's great to have you. It's great to be back. And by the way, we get it.

You work for the NFL with the shirt. Come on. Thanks. Just in case you forgot. Got extra money for that? I'm just waiting for my Danish still from the fork meetings. I haven't gotten it. Whoa, that got awkward. Let's move forward.

We'll start with the Minnesota Vikings who got a 36-year-old, a 36-yard field goal from Blair Walsh. As time expired, lifting the Vikings to a 23-20 win over the Bears at Soldier Field. Colleen, another shaky day for Teddy Bridgewater this season, but he connected with his new favorite target

when it counted most. Yes, Stefan Diggs, Grave Digger. First of all, I love his celebration, it's amazing. I like that. But this guy, I mean, he was a fifth round draft pick. I didn't expect him to play the way that he's playing now. And they desperately need a guy like him when they have guys like Cordero Patterson and Charles Johnson and Mike Wallace who are doing anything they need him to really step in, step up.

And he did. Now that they have Adrian Peterson doing Adrian Peterson like things, that helps. Here's the thing with Diggs, too. And this would be a reason to be even more excited. The Bears obviously had done their work and prep for him. I think he had four yards receiving at halftime. And it's because, like, what happens with actual good receivers, even when they get stopped initially, they find ways to get open.

He ended with 90 yards, the big touchdown to win it. This guy's a real player. Yeah. He's been so good, so quickly, that you wonder why the Vikings didn't have him active the first few weeks in the season. Their best receivers had a bit. Not to mention why did he get taken in the fifth round of the draft. Right.

We've got seven first round picks. Only one of them is doing anything. Tell us why, Mark. Why wasn't he picked? These things happen. I mean, scouts are human beings that, you know, they're on the road, they're tired, you know. It should never happen. They don't get everything right.

This game was the Vikings' entire season, that they looked poor for most of the game, and that they find a way to win an ugly game against a bad team. They could not be less impressive at 5 and 2 than they are, but it really doesn't matter because they can try to figure things out as they go, and they've got a nice little record now. I asked Bucky Brooks on the couch, why, like, why is it that Norv Turner's offense seems to almost have taken a step back this year And his opinion was that they have to actually focus on the ground game this year. Adrian Peterson, obviously, is Adrian Peterson. But they were just basically throwing the ball a ton at the end of last year.

And they don't seem to be the same team. At five and two, they're the least impressive five and two teams. I feel like Bucky always just says every team should run the ball more. Well, no, he was saying that that was the problem. That's higher than to try to account for Adrian Peterson and the best running back in football that maybe it's thrown some of what they had the end of last year off, Where's this Rosenthal Brooks, heat, Emmett? No, that was not expected.

It's not heat at all. Well, we'll decide what's heat. I think we all, the four of us found it to be sort of a shot. Maybe you talk it out on the couch. It would be good. Double shift for the couch for granted. You make it sound like it's a punishment.

No, it'd be great. The more time to go through your points and get, you know, your points out. Your points. Good, good. Good points by everyone. And Jay Cutler's last game before his mega trade somewhere.

in the NFL, maybe Houston, right, Craig? Yeah, and I thought it might be Matt Forte's last game, too, but now he left with an ankle injury and that could complicate things. And if he's in this game, I believe Jeremy Langford had the costly drop that basically gave the ball back to Chicago and let them win the game.

I mean, gave the ball back to Minnesota and let them win the game. It's weird, but Jake Cutler, like, actually hasn't been playing that fast. He hasn't been making really terrible mistakes. Yeah. That sentiment is very, it's been prevailing this season

that everyone's like, hey guys, am I allowed to say this that J. Cutler's not terrible? Because he hasn't been. I mean, this season, on balance, he's been probably right in the right in the middle of the pack of quarterbacks, right? If they do want to trade them,

I mean, they've set it up well with three pretty good weeks from Cutler, but Connor Orr wrote a piece where it really has a lot to do with Adam Gase who Cutler finally said, I want to do the things the way you did with Peyton Manning. Now, do we buy that? I don't know, but he has looked.

more functional. Count on Mark to spin it back to the O.C. He has a kindred spirit in Connor who believes it's all these magical, you know, 37-year-old offensive coordinators that are the keys. That's like these wildly talented, billionaire. That's who he spends, like, his entire week with. So there is some impact on his play. I mean, I think it says that Gase, they've got good coordinators in Chicago.

That they really do. The coordinators are like your manic pixie dream girls. Yeah, I'm not sure that the listener would know what that means. but I would agree. It's a certain character. Do you want to get into that? I don't know if we do. It's a certain character in a movie.

It's a female character in which she's not an actual human being. She really just exists to help the male protagonist see the light and learn to enjoy life. But she's not really. Basically like the idealized indie dream girl. Natalie Portman and Garden State. Got it. Yes. Nathan Rabin of The Onion, I believe, is credited with it.

We should at least not act like it was an original thought. But let's move. Let's get out of this and talk about Mark's Cleveland Browns. And Mark, by the way, first time Mark watched a game on assignment for the Browns completing his return to fandom. And it's fitting that the game was another stomach churner. The Browns jumped out to a big lead on Sunday. But the Arizona Cardinals kept their cool, reeled off 27 unanswered points on their way to a 34 to 20 win. Mark, the Cardinals don't have to be perfect when Carson Palmer is playing at this level, right?

Yeah, I mean, forget the Browns. They are apparently offering half their team up for trade at this point. The bigger story is the Cardinals. I mean, they had four turnovers and really put themselves in a hole in this game. And that's the only reason that Cleveland was in this fight was bad teams need turnovers to hang with a team like the Cardinals. But when you are as talented as Arizona is, they just found a way to overwhelm Cleveland in the second half, exposed weaknesses. It was not Carson Palmer's best game because this should not, they should. should not have been down as much early. Palmer had two deep throws, one to Floyd and one

two of Fitzgerald, that were overthrown. It just, it wasn't as crisp as we've seen him in other games. And it didn't matter. In the end, they just absolutely took control of this thing. I think Arizona is the right pick for team of ATL for what they did today. Six and two. Now, the fact that they don't have to be even at their best to be able to take care of teams that are, I mean, that's a sign of a good team that does that type of work. Yeah. Although we just talked about that coming off a Monday night's game, that they keep not playing at their best, that they keep having the struggle and make things harder on themselves. They've lost a couple of these games, and now they've been in a couple of these games

against bad teams. So they do need to stop doing that at some point. It's a really bad, Simon, you have to struggle your way to 500 yards every week. Well, you know what I'm saying? Well, yeah, but that's a problem. But among the teams in the NFL, who can't you say that about the Patriots? Broncos, the Bengals and the Broncos had a quarterback who didn't have a good game until week eight and yet they're still undefeated yeah but they've struggled like the cardinals by the way

a lot of uh bad job by some of our listeners today nothing worse than premature honking in the first first quarter oh your team of ATL not doing so great now premature honking part of it is just the cardinals have had the easiest schedule in the NFL so i think you have to take that into account we talk about schedule all the time so i'm just assuming it is going to get tougher and they're going to have to play better those weeks they've obviously got the tools they i mean they put this kind of performance up without John Brown. What's J.J. Nelson all about? That's who came in for him, and he

looked pretty good. He runs about a 4-2-5-40. He's incredibly tiny, and if there's a defender within the area, he doesn't catch the pass. Well, he looked better today, and he played the John Brown role, got open, made a couple big catches. It's a rookie. He's got to start somewhere. Brown was active, but they just didn't play him.

One of those deals. Yeah, he sat on the sideline. And I think things had gotten real hot. Maybe they would have put him in, but I think that Arians knew that this was not in doubt once they started to hook, like after halftime, you really could tell

that the tide was turning. They know the Brown's defense has struggled against the run. They give Chris Johnson 30 carries. When they have, it's surprising to me, when you have David Johnson and Andre Ellington combined for four carries

in Chris Johnson. I wouldn't do that. And Chris Johnson lost two fumbles. Yeah, you know your coach is in love with you when you lose two fumbles and you still get 30 carries. I don't know why you'd be giving Chris Johnson 30 carries.

He's still a 30-year-old running back. You want to keep them as fresh as possible when you got some options. Well, I'm not sure that was the game plan. I don't know if that was what they wanted to do. They've turned him into a pack horse. Yeah. I mean, one thing about Cleveland, and this is why they're a disaster, they spent six months telling you, you know, we're this tough team.

They got this offensive line. We're going to use two draft picks on offensive and defensive linemen in the first round. They run for 39 yards and Josh McCowners, their leading rusher. Wow. And they basically, Duke Johnson, who is their most interesting player in the backfield, vanished in the second half. I have two Browns things to run by you here, Mark. First of all, you and I have a sandwich prop. Who gets the three wins first?

The Browns are the Cavs. Well, the Browns have now used up all their head start, and they're both at two wins, and I believe the Cavs have three games this week. So I think I'm going to get it. Well, the Cleveland is lucky that they play Thursday night, and they're not lucky because they play the Bengals. But if everything went wrong for the Cavs,

then maybe Cleveland got there. I have essentially loved. Can you just let the Cleveland fans enjoy their one good team? The Cavaliers not root against them. I'm not rooting against the Cavs. I said this sandwich, no, this sandwich is out. And here's one other, while Colleen looks up the Cavs schedule, one other idea, Mark. We talked about, you know, the Browns were out of the league for three years of the 90s

before they came back in 99. Right. With the 20-year anniversary coming up, why don't we do this? Leave the league for three more years. Come back in 2019 as a third iteration. second iteration, just wipe it away. It never happened. Fresh start. I like it. We discussed it earlier.

I think what it does is it wipes out what is two decades of absolute, ugly, treacherous nonsense. And then you reboot and you start over again. If they trade their entire roster, you might get that chance. You'll miss out on Gary Barnage's Prime. It's right now. You don't want to put that off. Take advantage. Greg, you've got to come with a harder sell than that.

Gary B. I'm happy for him. Colleen, Wolf, Connie Fox, our Cleveland. Cavs beat record. What do you got on schedule? They have two this week against the Sixers. Oh, the worst team in basketball. And the Knicks. And the Knicks. By the way,

Cleveland's not beating the Bengals on Thursday night. And by the way, Josh McCown got hurt in this game, right? So Johnny Mansell might just get this now. I'm over it. I think McCown will play. He is, I'll give this. The guy is tough. He won't finish. He is tough. All right. Let's move on. The Houston Texans set a single game franchise

record with seven sacks on their way to a 26 win over the, I'm going to say it, and it's back to Tennessee Titans. Oh, wow. Mark, let's give the Texans some credit. They haven't quit on their coach, despite last week's epic embarrassment. I don't have a lot to say. I don't even know how to set you up for this game, but throw it out there. Someone had to win this game, and, you know, Houston's defense took over.

Brian Hoyer, this is the weird thing. I watch him, and if you watch the full game, it's like, oh, yeah, he definitely is not the future at quarterback on any level. But he has, I believe, 14 touchdown. downs to three picks in the offense this year. So it baffles me that they ever settle on Ryan Mallet is the better option with what we've seen at this point. But still, you have no quarterback. They can't run the ball.

This is another game where the running game was an absolute disaster for Houston. It was all about the defense because the Titans without Marriota, they are what they were last year. They're unwatchable on offense. They're one of the worst offenses in the league and they need Marriota back. It makes you think so much more about Mariotta too. Absolutely. See how Metburger plays.

That's what I put in the post was that if you're a Titans fan, you have to realize how good of a choice Marieto was that you have a quarterback. The last six quarters from Marieto were pretty similar to the last eight quarters. It started going pretty poorly for him his last couple games. I don't know. Just the talent around them is so. Yeah, I think the link is that he was getting killed just like Mettenberger was getting killed today. I mean, Mettenberger is not a good quarterback at this point.

His play has fallen off a map, but he cannot. You got guys in your face all game long. Mettenberger has fallen off at all. He's the same guy he was last year when he couldn't win a game and couldn't move the offense. And if he could draw up a quarterback to get 13 combined hits between two players, J.J. Watt and Whitney Merciless, it would be Zach Mettenberger with a slow delivery and no pocket move. Greg, let's call it like it is. That was a direct shot from West to you.

Not just Greg. Greg Cosell. And I like... Only Greg in the NFL just the direct shot. I like Mettenberger, too. And I'm not about to write anyone off after a season and a half, number one. but he's not progressing in the offense right now. There's a positive way to look at it, by the way, if you're a Titans fan.

I'm sure there are quite a few out there. You almost want this season to go into the tank because a lot of people don't like Ken Wisenhunt. They don't like the offensive scheme. And you get to reboot the machine and get a healthy Marcus Marriota next season. And maybe a 3 and 13 ensures that, whereas maybe a 6 and 10, you might get stuck with Wizzin on. They've lost 16 of 17 games.

Yeah, but then you're starting a whole new offense. I mean, that sounds nice, but that's what the Titans have been doing. You know, the Titans just did that to get Ken Wisenhunt. It's not like that solved anything. If you want to look on the bright side, they just lost a game to the soon-to-be first place Houston Texans after Monday night. When you think about that division, how awful it is, they were annihilated by the dolphins. They just cut mallet, and now they're three and five, and they're just, I mean, right there. We boxed themselves into a corner forking the Jags and Texans.

Now the Titans are out there. Wes, we got a... Just fork the whole division. When we get the committee together. Colleen, do you want to join us again? Yeah, can I? This time you get some Danish, but you got to get there early

because the Danish goes quick. I should have told you that. Yeah, all right. Wait until you see what the folks do Monday night. I think you're going to want to fork the whole division. Wes won't back down. How about this? We got to at least consider the Titans now at 1 and 6.

Will you consider forking the whole division? No. Let's see what the Colts did. Then I think we got to fork the whole thing. Oh, someone had a good idea on Twitter. by the way. Someone say, yes, forked the whole division, and then the winner of the division,

we give the money to the charity from the winner. We said that. Did we say that? Yeah. Never mind. That's a brilliant idea. We're now referencing ourselves. But I was, I don't want to, I don't know,

let's see, let's see what happens with the cults on Monday. All right, yeah. All right, moving on, the St. Louis Rams wrote an increasingly familiar formula on Sunday, suffocating defense, Impact play some Todd Gurley, added all up at 27 to 6.

win over the stinky. Ah, you stink. San Francisco 49ers. A game that's exactly what you kind of would imagine from this game to be, which was Todd Gurley looking special. I wrote in our recap piece where, what's it called again, Greg? What?

What's our weekly. What we learned? What we learned piece. Simply been the title for four years from. Yes. Well, Greg could have helped me out there. I thought he never, he didn't know we wrote the thing. I thought you meant your special,

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Our weekly recap, the 34 things we learned or whatever it is. I have seen the future of the running back position in the NFL. It's Todd Gurley. This guy is special. He went through the middle of the Niners defense on a 71-yard touchdown run where he was, again, it was very good blocking. But he just has that gear that very few players have special to watch, and that's really all you needed. They were down 3-2 at the point of this run.

And if you're watching on YouTube on NFL now, you can see it. The game was over at this point. It was 8-3 after this run. They did get the two-point conversion because the Niners are that bad on offense. And I don't know what else. At this point, Jim Thompson's got to worry about his job. And he's got to think to himself,

I know Blaine Gabbard's not good. There's a lot of evidence of that. But how much longer can I run Colin Kaepernick out there without risking this team quitting on me? Kaepernick averaged four yards in attempt over 41 passes in this game and just looked completely out of his element once again. And you included it in your post, the clip of Kaepernick, you know, about to take the snap

and he's got a wide receiver out on the sideline saying, excuse me, Tori Smith, I am wide open. There isn't a single human being around me, doesn't even see it. He's freaking out, too. There's not much more he could do to get Kaepernick's attention. And there's a receiver on the other side, too. And it seems like a funny play that it's almost unfair to make fun of him. But this is the precise reason why I think Colin Kaepernick is struggling as a quarterback, as his awareness, his awareness of everything going on around him.

28 or 30 other quarterbacks are going to notice that in that situation and throw it to him. He just never, he's never made the leap as a quarterback and grown. The running back, the running game for the Niners is terrible. Mike James and there was a character named Kendall Gaskins. Mike Davis, yeah. Mike Davis and Kenner Gassett. I'm not familiar with Kendall's work. They combined on 10 yards and 15 carries.

The Hane plane might be coming back because Reggie Bush. And by the way, Edward James almost dumb. Oh my gosh, that's an awful thing. Get your act together. Right. They have concrete, unprotected concrete that runs around the barrier between the stands and the sideline. Last week, Josh McCown ran onto the concrete, slipped into the wall, banged his chest and shoulder. In today's game, Reggie Bush blew out his knee.

Well, it's helping the Rams, I mean, two weeks in a row. Well, maybe that's it. They lit their field on fire. There's all sorts of issues going on inside the end. And perhaps now I don't want to look too much into it, but there's only one owner in this California thing that's actively trying to get out of the city. And the stadium has turned into like the final level

in Super Mario Brothers. It's a total disaster of minefield. It could be the, you know, we're joking. It could be the last play of Reggie Bush's career. There's no guarantee that he's going to get a chance to play again. And ultimately... He felt like he was a little bit at the end of the line this season. And this is a guy who, when he came into the league,

and even the impact he had early on with the Saints, one of the biggest stars in the entire NFL. And ultimately a disappointing career, I think. But had his moments, especially with your team, the Saints, Greg. In Miami. I think that changed my perception of it. Oh, when he ran for 1,000 yards, which is averaging 60 yards a game and bought everyone on.

He was talked about before the draft's underwhelming career. Yes. Todd Gurley, best five games start in NFL history for a rookie. Missed two games and barely played in a third is on pace to break. Eric Dickerson's rookie rushing record. All you liver-livered people who couldn't couldn't say after three games he's great, maybe we'll give him five years

and then you'll finally be on board with how great Todd Gurley is. Maybe it'll take him dragging this Rams team to the playoffs, just like I predicted before the season. They're starting to beat the bad teams. We said, okay, is this Rams team any different? Then they're going to take care of business against some of these bad teams. They're taking care of business because they are as ugly as possible

at throwing the ball. They've also given up 12 points in two weeks. I mean, they have a legit deal. Well, that's, yeah, that's the rest of this. You were right. It has nothing to do with Trey Mason, but they're the most exciting thing to watch because of Todd Gurley. Exactly. Well, also because Levy and Bell is up.

One of them would step up. Good couple minutes for Greg here on the podcast. Your boy, Trey Mason, the most exciting running back in the league. When was the last time the 49ers scored a touchdown? Like, I'm actually having trouble remembering. Here's August 6th. A good 49ers said. Last two weeks, 19 first downs and 19 punts.

Wow. That's hard to do. By the way, it's the year 2015, and Kendall Gaskins, as you mentioned, was their leading running back with five yards or six yards. And their two leading receivers today were Jerome Simpson and Quentin Patton. Oh, that's brutal. It's not good. Dark times.

It's not good. By the way, again, another reason to watch our show on YouTube, Greg's reaction to Wes seating or saying that the St. Louis Rams backfield is the most exciting. The hand motions, it's wild. Oh, yeah. Well, like any Wes trying to. give in on a point. He included

some technicality, whereas he's not really saying that. Wes does build in those back doors. I'll be a backdoor man. It was like, yeah. No comment. We should move on. And we will talk about, did you have something else to say,

Greg? No. Let's move on to the black hole where Derek Carr threw four touchdown passes in Latavius Murray, one over the 100-yard mark for the second time the season. leading the Raiders to a 34 to 20 win over. Yes, the New York Jets who have now lost two in a row.

And, by the way, don't look now, but the Jets and the Raiders, both four and three, when you look at that AFC wildcard picture, which is increasingly muddled. They'd be in right now. And now the Raiders have the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Jets. So that could be huge in a couple of months. If the Raiders continue to look like a team that we should take seriously,

and I'll say it again. I said it last week, the Raiders are the team that we forked, teams, when we forked teams that says we don't think there's any chance they make the playoffs. And guess what? The Raiders, they look real good. And Derek Carr is a major reason why. He threw for 33 yards, not 433 touchdowns, four touchdowns. And, you know, you add it all up. If he's going to play at that level, and even with Dorel Revis on the opposite side of the field, and Revis did a nice job holding Amari Cooper in check, he's still finding us. He got Michael Crabtree going for 100 yards in a touchdown, which you would think would be hard to do in

2015. He got Latavis Murray in the mix. Taiwan Jones. I mean, this offense has some weapons, and they're making plays. Crabtree's been great all year with this guy. The Jets' defense looked terrible. Give Crabtree some credit. He's looked good all year.

He's one of the better free agent bargains of the entire year. And I think we owe an apology, especially Wesleying, if we're going to start battling tonight, to Reggie McKenzie. We buried Reggie McKenzie more than we could ever bury anyone on the show. I'm just saying he's built a team that has developed. He's not going to apologize to anyone. What are you trying to do? I don't really expect an apology.

Sorry I got on you for the match shop trade, Reggie McKinsey. Sorry, buddy. Reggie's job is safe now. He should say he should lose the job that he needs to be fired. He should have been fired last year. That's what we said all that. And right now they're a young team on the rise. That has a lot to be excited.

Well, I think any GM could have drafted Amori Cooper or Kalee Mack. He deserves a ton of credit because everyone, passed on Derek Carr and he identified him as a franchise quarterback. And that's the most important move that any GM can make is locating the franchise passer. And maybe that's where the apology is because I think there were doubts about Derek Carr in this room.

And I think that Derek Carr has turned into it looks like a really good young passer. And that's the difference for all bad franchises and good franchises do you have the quarterback. And they might actually have the quarterback. It's not crazy to think that this team could win nine or ten games. And on flip side, we're watching the Jets

today. And Ryan Fitzpatrick a patch, it's a one-year patch, right? And then in comes Gino Smith, and the trouble begins. And I'm done with the Gino-Smith business. This guy needs to not be on any football team, especially not in New York. Well, wait. I can't stand Gino-Smith. Let's go through it first of all.

Ryan Fitzpatrick on the first series of the game goes into a QB slide or not a QB slide. This is going to, because he's been doing this a lot, gets hit and suffers ligament damage in his thumb. He'll have an MRI tomorrow. He could end up missing significant time, which is bad news for the Jets.

Gino Smith pressed into action. Did have moments in this game. And this is really the Gino Coaster. Right. This is the Gino Coaster experience. The passing game was the best part of the Jets team, though, by far, right? You can make excuses for Gino Smith all season long. I think this is the Jets need to find another quarterback right away.

All right. Let me just get through this point. You know, Gino Smith played pretty well in a backup role today. But it is still. you were complaining about him the whole game. He makes, this is why he's the Gino coaster, is because he makes him plays. He kept him somewhat alive

for most of the game, despite them being heavily outplayed on defense. But he makes the mental and physical errors and holding onto the ball too long, not sensing what's going on in the pocket, not getting out of bounds on a long run and taking a crushing shot to his chest, that kind of stuff that just leaves you scratching your head

and you don't want that guy leading your team. I think he's okay as a backup, but if he's going to be the start, starter for the Jets for a period of weeks. You could kiss the playoffs goodbye. He's going to make too many mistakes. Well, that's all I'm saying. I think this is, he's too inconsistent.

And he has these ceiling moments. But the last two minutes of the Jets off, the last two drives of the Jets' offense was a disaster. But this is typical of what's going to happen in New York this week. The Jets didn't get a stop until five minutes left in the game. They literally did not stop the readers. I want to know what happened to the Jets number one defense. Right, exactly.

The Jets got, what was it, 18 yards, 17 yards running on 15. 15 carries from Chris Ivory. But all the talk's going to be, well, you lost Fitzpatrick, you lost Gina. It was as bad a defensive performance as you could ever possibly. So tackling was bad for the first time in this all this season. Tackling was terrible, especially on that Taiwan Jones touchdown. There was four missed tackles. They have an issue in that they have this gifted young defensive line,

but they still can't put pressure on the quarterback or at least get sacks on the quarterback. And that's leading to issues that when the secondary is not playing at a high level and it wasn't today, Antonio Carmardi used an expletive to describe his play after the game. Marcus Williams, they took a gamble Todd Bowles and it blew up in their faces. He was a decent third backup corner type of guy. They put him into a safety role, and he got absolutely shredded by Michael Crabtree in this game. So that didn't work out. So if the secondary is not going to be at a top level and you're against a good quarterback,

and that's what Derek Carr is playing like, they're in trouble. I mean, there was a lot to get nervous. But even Latavius Murray, everyone in the world was predicting he wasn't going to do anything. he was running through this Jets defense. It was just not a good effort. Yeah, overall regards again for him. But you go into this game and you think, like, this Jets defense and Todd Bowles, the Raiders don't have a chance at all.

Now the Raiders are four and three. Dan's team loses 34 to 20. My team loses 34 to 20. The Bengals win a tough game on the road. That's tough for West. I mean, this is an offensive team, though. This is their MO. They are an explosive offense.

The defense for Oakland's not anything. They're one of the hottest teams in the league. The Raiders are. And next week, they go from up-and-coming team that surprises to a legitimate wild garden dinner. They go into Pittsburgh next week. They can really make an even bigger statement then. And people are telling, on Twitter,

people like to have their fun when the Jets lose and whatever, guys. I will say this. You know, people are like, oh, there's a real pathos there. Time to unfork the Raiders. There is no unforking. Yeah. And whether we like to or not is a different conversation, but we just don't.

Once we fork a team at that time, And we have made the decision. They have no chance of making the playoffs. But in this case, it's starting to look tricky. Greg has a big donation going to the Oakland Bay Area Young Republicans. How about the Oakland Save Our Team Fund? Keep the Raiders in Oakland. Maybe this is going to be like the script to a bad Disney movie where they win the

Super Bowl and keep the team in town. You can do it, Terakar. Your charity donation is going to keep the team in town to win the school? No, I'm saying they're going to win the Super Bowl. And that'll keep them in Oakland. Greg's charity donations are really more of, like, a vessel to raise his profile. Like any big philanthropist. This is more about getting the, you know, the acclaim for being a philanthropist.

Right. Okay. So, let's move. Colleen, why don't you stick around for Sunday night football? Let's talk about it. Sure. It was a game that, two undefeated teams and you're thinking, oh, this is going to go down to the wire. Alan Chris is going to be all pumped up, but guess what?

It didn't work out that in a way at all. It was a one-sided affair. Peyton Manning went 21 of 29 for 340 yards, no interception, throwing the ball like it's 2013. C.J. Anderson goes over 100 yards with a touch. Who saw that coming? And even more shocking. To me, the most shocking stat line of the entire season, Aaron Rogers, the greatest quarterback alive throws for 77 yards. You could do the math. A 29-10 win for the Broncos over the Packers.

It is the Broncos who remain undefeated and looking like one of the very best teams in the NFL. you know, we were saying downstairs while we were watching this game, if the Broncos could even get average play on offense and average play from their quarterback position, it's time to look at them differently is not a flood undefeated team, but a potential Super Bowl contender. This is one of the most significant results of the season. I don't think that's stepping out on a limb

because the score doesn't indicate what a boat race this is. The Broncos just played the Packers, a team that's a little bit healthier, 500 yards to 140 total yards. If you put the Patriots up against the Texans each week, you would not expect it to be that one-sided of an NFL game. So the Packers did a good job to even keep this close, but Denver did exactly what they wanted to do on offense.

The run game looked like a Gary Kubiak running game. Peyton Manning went down the field, and the Denver defense played even better than you would expect against this Packers' offense. I mean, it was unbelievable. We have to start to ask if this Broncos defense is one of the best we've ever seen. yeah if it's early but yeah they shut down the packers and

Aaron Rogers they made him look shaky pretty good ass a test they've had as good a half a season as any half a season that we see I mean there's plenty of other good Rogers previous low in a game was 142 and it was 77 tonight so that was significantly lower

than any game he started and finished and I think if you're the Broncos and you sat down over the buy and tried to dream up a best case scenario game for your coming out of the buy they couldn't have done this in the wildest dreams.

You find the running game, Peyton Manning throws better than he has in a calendar year and the defense shuts down the best quarterback in the league. I mean, we cannot overlook and we're giving it plenty of time. But just again, like Aaron Rogers,

we've had conversations and we've written breathlessly about how this is guy playing quarterback at the highest level it can be played. And yes, we're starting to maybe see some wear on the offensive machine in Green Bay because of the guys that they're missing.

But to do what they did, make Aaron Rogers look like Colin Kaepernick. Well, let's not get carried away. Well, just from a statistical standpoint, that tells you that we might be watching something special to what Cessler was saying. It was like, if you have a great front four, you can get to the quarterback very easily.

If you have a linebacker, linebackers that can cover and maybe the best secondary in football, what's missing there? No, nothing. But I think it's, you know, this is unusual because we don't see the Packers ever have a game like this.

But to me, it has more to do with the Broncos. than Green Bay. Although Green Bay's offense last couple weeks has not been what we expect. And then they ran into a buzzsaw tonight. They're clicking on no cylinders. And at the risk of filling the boss's head too much, he's the one who preached a couple of weeks ago

that the Broncos, this could all turn around. And if Peyton Manning gets it going, they're a Super Bowl team. My head is just blowing up. You can feel the air flubbing. I also said after week one, I think this Broncos defense is it, or before week one,

that has a chance to rival those Seahawks' defenses of last year. Anything else you said you'd like to bring up? Yeah. What's it like to never be wrong, great? I just love that they got the running games going here, too, because Gary Kubiak, we've been waiting and waiting and waiting for that, and we saw how Peyton threw was just throwing interception after interception, 160 yards on the ground, Ronnie Hillman, two touchdowns,

you have C.J. Anderson, another touchdown. That's what they need to do, and that's what they're doing. And how about Peyton Manning? this guy he was throwing the ball like a guy that doesn't have a dead arm that isn't coming off six of the worst games of his career he looked like Peyton Manning well the one thing that Peyton Manning fans

could hold on to the last three weeks is he had two or three really good throws every week we talked about that it was just the decision making and the consistency and he just wasn't hitting a lot of them but he would have two or three wow plays where you're like wow I mean that's a nice 30 yard you know deep out down the field it's not like it hasn't been there if just for all this to come together now you would think is going to give them so much confidence

in terms of moving forward what type of team they can be. That was one of the reasons, what's one of the reasons to believe in this team is the players around him. I mean, Demarius Thomas isn't any worse. Emmanuel Sanders isn't any worse. In theory, the running game could be pretty good with Gary Kubiak. Well, in any, in Kubiak's offense, anytime you're rushing for 160 yards, the quarterback is put in a much better position. And that's not what's, that gets not been the case for Manning for almost all season.

But he did look different tonight. He did. His throws were much different. Yeah. The receivers in Green Bay, I think this matchup highlighted the kind of struggles they could have in the NFC playoffs against, for instance, Seattle and some of the really physical cornerbacks. I mean, this Denver secondary is incredible. And right now, Randall Cobb, Devante, out, I mean, that group isn't really getting the job done. I mean, I don't think they're probably getting open to them.

They're starting to look a little flawed. Their defense, too. You give up 850 yards to Peyton Manning and Philip Rivers in back-to-back games. All right, so that's it. That was a really comprehensive, professional rundown of the week that was. Congratulations, guys. Well, some of that bitter stuff, maybe not quite as professional as other parts of the show. Well, there are always parts of the show that aren't professional.

The part about the P, I thought was good. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was super proud. I missed that. Well, we were asking Wes's pants if they were soaked with pee if they were dry.

Oh. You'll have to listen to the show to find out. The context is important. You don't need to context. Colleen, you've said it all. You've done it again. You've come in here

and hit a home run. Thanks. Thank you. We'll see you next week. Connie Fox. And that is not an inappropriate name for Colleen. It was a high school.

Yes, that was my high school nickname. So everybody, get off with her back, PC police. And shadowy league figure. Am I right? Greg, am I right? Just kids today, it's like you can't make fun of anything, you know? What happened with men, well, men, you know what I'm saying?

What is happening? I don't know. We will be back on Tuesday with our Monday, we're going to have our Monday night recap, Thursday night football preview, and all that good fun. So make sure you tune in for that. But for now, that is it for the round of the NFL podcast. Stan Hansa signing off for the Quiet Storm, The Mailman, Connie Fox, the boss, and TD behind the glass. Until Tuesday.