NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - Week 9 recap

Episode Date: November 9, 2015

A room filled with heroes - Gregg Rosenthal, Chris Wesseling, Marc Sessler, Dan Hanzus and Colleen Wolfe – break down all the action from Week 9 of the regular season, including an NFC East showdown in overtime between the Cowboys and the Eagles, and the Colts handing the Broncos their first loss of the season.Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comNFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. The Around the NFL podcast won a Stitcher Award, I think. Where the hell is that thing? 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, and Greg Rosenthal. What's up, boys? Hey, Dan.

Sunday night recap show, the flagship show of the Iran. on the NFL podcast, another big week in the NFL, huh, the boss? It was the best set of early games all season, not even close. Really? Yeah, I just called it. What jumped out to you is, you know,

what made it so special? Well, good games. Packers, Panthers, Raiders, Steelers, meaningful games, Vikings, Rams was a close one, Bill's Dolph, you know, a lot of games that had meaning. Perhaps you're forgetting week three, a great early slate. Got a side of a day in there.

Very strong week, week three. I'll never forget the week three slate. Wes, how you doing? Good, good. for the first time in history, three, eight, no teams. That is, that's historic. Also historic, there's another downstairs in the newsroom. There's another bald white that was wearing the same pullover sweatshirt as Wes.

Beefy baldy. And they looked like brothers. Yeah. And you have seven brothers, so, or six brothers. Jason Artilius could be a Wesleyan. It was impressive. That was a story. I'm like 10 feet away and I don't have good eyesight.

I was like, oh, Wes is coming over to get some Italian dinner. And no, it was Jason. Yes. So coming up on today's show, we have. have, of course, the Panthers remain undefeated, and they did it in very impressive fashion by taking down the Packers. So there's a lot to unpack there. Unpack Packers on the host.

Nailed it. Big Ben injured again. The Steelers dealing with more injury woes, so we will get into that, unpack that situation in Pittsburgh and the Buffalo Bills. One of the teams that we forked, and you know, this whole thing with the fork, they're back at 500 after wasting the dolphins. this thing with the fork I don't know if we should do it anymore

because we none of us feel confident like for instance we would all take back forking the bills and the Raiders and I'm sure there's another team out there

that could make us look silly that's something we need to get together maybe over Danish and bagels and coffee and lots of for Tuesday's show but it's just it's backing up Greg's point

that we were being too audacious with some of our forkings and you're simply just proving the boss right. So, you know, I'm not like trying to stick it to Greg. If Greg was making a good point, I know with you, you don't want to give Greg any credit, but I'm just giving Greg credit. Are we going to do this again? Credit. The last podcast was the credit podcast. And the one before that in the previous one. So anyway, yes, the fork. We'll talk about that on Tuesday

show, our final four conversation in least in terms of forking teams. So that's all coming up in a big show. I feel good. Who's excited? Oh, yeah. Sure. Big time. All right. Let's do. Let's talk some football and let's start with Carolina and Green Bay. And Cam Newton throws three touchdown passes, runs for another

score. And the Carolina Panthers, can you believe it? Can you believe it? Eight no, with a 3729 win over the Green Bay Packers who have now lost two straight. Mark Sessler. Nobody should be doubting the Panthers as a Super Bowl contender after taking down the Packers.

and the Seahawks, right? Couldn't agree more. I mean, I think that they keep proving week after week that whatever comes out and whatever type of team it is, they'll surprise you over and over. I mean, they're offense that we, I kind of ruled this Panthers offense out when Kelvin Benjamin was gone. And what they're doing, not just running the ball, but through the air today was incredibly impressive. Cam Newton threw a late pick that nearly would have turned the narrative of this game completely on its ass. But honestly, what he did previous to that was some of the most aggressive passing we've seen from the Panthers this year. Two passes of 50 plus yards, another one 39-yarder for a touchdown.

He made this Green Bay defense, which is given up 500 yards, two games in a row, look desperate. The Packers getting boat raced by the Broncos, and then for the first half of this game, for six straight quarters, is one of the most surprising things, I think, to happen this year. Not just that they're getting beat, they're playing good teams, good defenses, but that it wasn't remotely competitive. it. Of course, they did, you know, make a good comeback in this game. 37 to 14 at one point. They did come back. You know, in NFL media insider Ian Rappaport noted before the game that there was issues in Green Bay with their passing game and they wanted to go less aggressive and start throwing more methodical short routes. And we saw that early

and it didn't work at all. It was almost like Rogers just didn't trust the receivers that he has out there. Second half, they got going and they just went back to what they do with him at quarterback. And they made a game of this. It was very concerning. for Carolina Lake. And we have some video on the sideline

the Packers this kind of tells you a little bit about the frustration. Do we have that T-D.? The frustration

and you can watch us, of course, on YouTube. Every Sunday show is on YouTube. Check that out. But B.J. Raji,

ha-ha, Clinton, Dix, get into it on the sidelines at one point and it just shows the frustration bubbling over.

I think there was a feeling, especially in the early part of the season, that this was going to be one of those Packer seasons where they roll into 14 and 2 and all of a sudden out of nowhere they hit this choppy water. So offensive line was just as much of a problem as the receivers have been made out to be. Absolutely. Rogers got hit what 14 times today? Yep,

sacked five times. And I mean, if it wasn't for his completely stellar footwork and the way he is able to escape the rush, he would have been sacked nine times. Well, you talked about Cam Newton going down the field. If he's hitting vertical plays to Funchis and Jericho Kotri, which I wouldn't necessarily expect each week. I mean, then this team can win a Super Bowl. I mean, that is the thing that would hold this team back. Theoretically, I think they're good enough

to get the number one seat in the NFC and certainly contend for a Super Bowl. They're now two games up on the field. But if they start getting that passing game going consistently, I mean, they have everything. They only needed Jonathan Stewart hit about 60 yards, and it wasn't we just have a one-dimensional

run-based attack. Newton killed him with his feet. Stewart did just enough. They trust Stewart on long third downs to give him the ball and he converted. But you're right, it was the passing game and Newton's trust of his receivers. I mean, he throwing ball 40 yards through the air and trusting his receivers to

make the catch point of attack. I mean, Devin Funches, who had given them nothing really this season to this point, if he becomes a player on this offense and then you have Greg Olson and Jonathan Stewart's running well, they're going to score enough points. And, I mean, they're for real at 8-0. How can you doubt them at this

point? Well, I almost want to see, was this Green Bay's defense because they looked that bad and looked that bad. Two games in a row against offenses that aren't known to light people up. What happened the game before that? That was Philip Rivers' 500-yard game. Mark made a good point in the newsroom about the Panther stability as an organization. They could have easily fired Ron Rivera after a year or two. Instead, they gave him an extension. And if you look at the three undefeated teams, Belichick and Marvin Lewis are the two longest tenured coaches in the league. They've got to combine 29 years. Ron Rivera's been in Carolina.

for five years, they gave them an extension. I think there's a lot to be said for that stability. Absolutely. Is it crazy to start thinking about 16 and 0 for the Panthers? Because if you look at their schedule, I think the odds are, of course, they're going to get picked off one of these weeks. But if you look at their schedule, there isn't a single particularly hard game left on it. There's not a game where they're not going to be favored significantly.

You know, the Falcons no longer looks like that tough of a game. They got to sweeten that's tough. You've got to go to New Orleans. That's not necessarily easy. But there are no great teams left on this Carolina schedule. So even if they don't go to 16-0, maybe they could threaten it. And if they don't go 14-2, I'd be stunned. They're going to get that.

I think, and this is a credit to the Panthers, not taking it away. Like, they could easily be 5-3 right now. They've been games where they've been outplayed or things broke the right way at the end of the game or they made the play to win the game. So this has been very different. Like, when they talk about the Patriots at 8-N-0, I feel differently. Like, I think they have a real shot at it. But I think the Panthers will have some weeks where they, because they can get.

get picked off by most teams that are average and better. I don't think they're a dominant team. I think they also came into the year, though, having to figure out who they were on offense especially. And I don't, for me, I don't care if they go 16 and 0. They're in pole position just to have home field throughout the playoffs, which would be completely unexpected for this team. As great as Cam Newton's been this year, we all know he's one of the most inconsistent passers in the league. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he just has a bad game and they lose. Did you guys hear about Bannergate? Yes. Yes, we did. We do. Not to use the word gate the listeners any longer when it comes to controversy mark and gregg and i exchanged a

heated debate about this subject before you entered the what was it up here well let me just fill in the listeners first that banner gate occurred when cam newton was stretching before this game on sunday and saw a packers fan hanging up a banner at bank of america stadium that said you know it was like packer country in north carolina ripped the banner down and the fan who had paid five hundred to make that banner and was planning to hang it in his man room, quote-unquote, reported it to the local authorities and Panthers officials. Now, what were you saying? That's ridiculous.

Greg thinks Cam Newton should be allowed to go out and break whatever long as you want to never pay him in the conspicuous things. If you spend $500 on a sign, you deserve to lose that money. That's ridiculous. What Greg said to Wes and I before you appeared in the room was that I don't care about the working person. Well, Greg's not a regular Joe. No, he's not.

That's a thing. Hey, here's what regular Joe's do. They spend $500 on a silly sign. That's not what regular Joe's, and that's a psychopaths do. He wants to tailgate with it and then put it into his manor. Regular Joe's done that kind of scratch line.

Admit that you struggle to put yourself in the mind of the average man. No, I am the average man. I don't think it's some huge deal and Cam Newton should be castigated for it, but he should have to, the Panthers should reimburse this guy as $500. Apparently the Panthers did intimate

that to the man that they'll take care of him. But, you know, Cam, come on. A multi-million dollar corporation, the Carolina Panthers, can they float $500 for a sign? Well, they better. And, you know, this isn't Cam's first time stealing things. I'm just going to say it. There's a history.

All right. Moving on. Sticky fingers, Newton may call them. So, Carolina remains unbeaten. How about the Denver Broncos? Andrew Luck picked a great time to return to form on Sunday, throwing for 252 yards and two touchdowns in a 27-24 win, knocking the Broncos

from the ranks of the unbeaten. Chris Wessling, this game was supposed to be all about Peyton Manning setting records. Instead, the real Andrew Luck returned. Yeah, the Broncos are actually kind of lucky they were in this game. They got a long punt return as time expired going into halftime

to get on the board, and then Peyton Manning hit Emmanuel Sanders with a 64-yard touchdown in third quarter. outside of those two plays, the Colts just absolutely dominated the first three quarters. Andrew Luck looked, this was easily his best game of the year. Well, Denver came out a half time, put together a big drive, tied the game in the middle of the third quarter. And at that point, they had all the momentum in the world, if that's a thing that exists. And you just thought the better team is going to, you know, stand up here.

And that was a team, that was a spot where I thought the Colts were going to absolutely roll over. and instead they respond with a great drive against the defense we've been calling the best in the league. And then they do it again at the end of the game, a six-minute drive to end the game. You hear about a four-minute offense often in the NFL, try to kill the clock and end the game. They killed six minutes and three of the Broncos timeout.

That's one of the best drives anyone's had all year. Two words, Rob Chudzinski. Yeah, I was wondering downstairs how long it would take for Mark to spin it back to an O.C. So you're saying all of this is because Rob Chudzinski got promoted Andrew Luck now great again, all for Chud. 100%. Well, in Mark's defense, the wide receivers were more open.

If you've been watching the Colts this year, you know that one of the reasons Luck's been holding the ball is because the wide receivers aren't separating. They got open against the best secondary in the league or one of the best secondaries in the league. Well, Akib Talib, very good cornerback. Not so good with his actions at the end of the game. They would have had a chance to get the ball back

and he sticks his fingers. That was pretty good, though. What was it? Dwayne Allen, was it? Yeah, old-school, old-school eye gouge. You don't see much of those anymore. Like Moe from the Three Stooges? Yeah, exactly.

Nice, Three Stooges reference. I like it. Right. You don't see it a lot, though. And to top it off, it was, like, reminded me like an old 80s wrestling thing when someone would rake Hulk Hogan's eyes, and then Hogan would be, like, feeling around, like, ah! Yeah, right.

Dway Nellon sold it pretty well as well. Well, that's what, it came to leap said after the game, you would have thought that he was in a 16-car accident the way he reacted, Dwayne Allen that was after the game. That did cost him a chance. It did prevent what would have been the most anti-climactic moment of the day. Peyton Manning was about to get back out on the field, throw a pass, complete it,

and he would have broken the passing yards record then. He was only three yards short in a meaningless moment where they had really no chance. Great. Another week of this breaking records for Peyton Manning's shatter. Do we have to write more material on this now? Well, yeah, and I already written the one for breaking it this week. So now we're going to have to pre-write one for next week. At least we know what will happen at the beginning of the game.

That doesn't really matter. I'm more concerned about the long-term stuff here for the Colts. I mean, does this mean we think we feel pretty safe having forked the rest of the AFC cell? We haven't forked the Titans yet, by the way. I called them a bad, bad football team because they played like a bad, bad football team. But they were a pretty good team today. They looked pretty well-rounded. They lost Mike Adams to an ankle injury, and Henry Anderson, their really good rookie defensive end to a knee injury.

We had to see how serious those are. But those two guys have been probably two of their three or four best defensive players. If you even get luck at, you know, mid-tier between this game and some of the others, they're going to win this division easy. Yeah. It is crazy, though, because Monday night, Andrew Luck was really appalling at times. And this Andrew Luck was the guy that we remembered from last year and the year before that. I mean, it was like two different guys.

First time all year. Even going back to week one, it's the first time all year that I thought Andrew Luck looked like the Andrew Luck were used to seen. You know what was a big difference is he's made so many bad decisions of when to run or won't even run throughout the season. and he was great today on picking up. And the last two quarters against the Panthers, he was phenomenal with his legs today.

How about Peyton Manning? The response last week after he had that big game was like, okay, maybe Peyton Manning's coming back all the way this year. His arm looked fine. It looked better than it did in the first seven weeks, but the first half looked a lot like the playoff loss where he's just throwing over and over again downfield

and not connecting on anything. He came alive a little bit in the second half, but still through like the game-sealing interceptions. to Darius Butler. All right, let's get into talk of two more AFC playoff contenders. Antonio Brown went off

on Sunday. 17 catches, 284 yards. Again, Mark, this is you and your brother dueling a super Tecmo Bowl back in 91. That's the type of production

we're talking about. Those weren't duels. Because you destroyed your brother. No, actually, you know, I'm going to hear from at some point because he listens to this show. Yeah, maybe we should get him on the show.

He was quite a good Tecmo Bowl player. He's not against me. Antonio Brown goes seven, 17 for 284. Excuse me. No touchdowns. You stink. But it didn't matter.

He led the Steelers to a 3835 win over the Oakland Raiders, a game that came down to a field goal at the gun. So a big rim for the Steelers. But Greg, nice win. Steelers get it done. Tempered, though, by another huge injury to one of their key players. Their most important player. And Rathesberger is out with a mid-foot sprain is what Albert Breer is reporting for us. It's supposed to came out a couple of weeks.

They have the Browns this week in Pittsburgh, and then they have a buy. So if you were creating a scenario of when to have a multiple week injury, this is it, because they can possibly win that game against the Browns. I don't think it's a home run. Well, you know, Landry Jones will be starting. And then you get a week off. Maybe you get Rathesberger back after that. And if they make the playoffs, they're five and four now.

These two games where they had their backup quarterback come in and win at the end. It was Michael Vick against the Rams, and now Landry Jones against the Rams. Raiders could be the difference of them making the playoffs. The Raiders came back and they tied this game, but it was Landry Jones, who basically just did what Ben Rathesberger did all day, got the ball to Antonio Brown and let Antonio Brown do the best. They could direct snap the ball to Heath Miller next week and beat the Browns. I mean, it was one of the most amazing two-person performances, maybe the most in NFL history.

Antonio Brown had 284. DeAngelo Williams was in well over 100. they combined for 531 total yards from scrimmings. That's the most in NFL history from two people. Are you just saying that Levi-on-Bell is basically a system back? No. Are you saying that the Raiders' secondary is trash? The Raiders' secondary is going to prevent them from making the playoffs.

I think in the end, I think that's what's going to keep them. They have a chance. Their offense is obvious. Who did they have guarding Antonio Brown, DJ Hayden early, and then Amerson? Amerson, DJ Hayden. Hayden got hurt in the game, so that didn't help. I guess that doesn't help because he's not very good either.

Charles Woodson gave up a lot of big plays. You can shut up about your Charles Woodson for a defensive player of the year. A lot of throws going over his head. Antonio Brown would have had another 60 yards if Ben Rathesberger had hit him on a wide open deep player. People only watching the highlight

they have Charles Woodson and a key player. There's Charles Woodson if you're watching on YouTube getting outrun there. Well, the hero worship of Charles Woodson in a great career and he's going into the camp,

he's going into the hall, but like people talking them up as a defense player of the year. It's gotten so out of control on that last Antonio Brown reception that basically put the game away. Dan Fouts on the CBS broadcast is like bellowing. He's like, oh, and look who comes and gets him. Charles Woodson, like, then you're giving him?

You're trying to give him more credit for getting beat on a 60-yard reception? I feel bad now that we're piling on Charles Woodson. He's legitimately having a pro-ball season as a 39-year-old. I'm the one who started it. But he should not be in that category. Shame on you. Greg, if you're going to start it, finish it. Say something really.

I really apologize. He called their secondary trash, but let's credit their offense, 2013, 2014. They didn't have a single 30-yard game. They have four of them this year. They were limited in a lot of the game, especially the first half by the Steelers defense, which has been better. But what they do is when they explode, it is fast. It's a 40-yard run by Latavius Murray, who also left this game with an injury and did not return.

Concussion. It's second in the last 10 or 11 months. And that was a big loss late because he has looked. great the last couple weeks. He's a true power back. But when they suddenly score, it's in bunches. Michael Crabtree, another 100-year game. Eric Carr, some beautiful touch passes over the middle. Very clutch. He had his one bad throw the whole day was an interception late in the game, but they got the ball back and then tied it up. Crabtree's going to get paid. They lost this game, and it was kind of a heartbreaking loss, but we've got Will behind the

Glassies of Raiders fan. Shouldn't he feel hopeful about what's happening in Oakland? Yeah. I would be excited because you've got a quarterback. and everything starts to change. At this point, Derek Carr is far ahead this season than the other guys that have been drafted over the last three years. I mean, he's far ahead of where Teddy Bridgewater or Bordals or certainly anyone from the class before them is. Moving on, the Buffalo Bills are back at 500

after Sammy Watkins enjoyed a career day, 168 yards receiving and a touchdown in a 33-17 win over the Miami Dolphins in Orchard Park. Yes, it is the end of the Dan Campbell honeymoon period. The Dolphins are now 3 and 5. Another team that we forked, and this one feels good because I think the dolphins, you don't have to worry about a resurgence from them. They look like an obviously inferior team all game.

They are now 0 and 4 the Dolphins are in the AFC East, and they've been outscored 137 to 52 in those losses. Oh, my gosh. You shouldn't even be allowed to play the next two. Just kick them right out of the division, relegation. Hmm. And Dan Campbell made one of those decisions that sometimes having the interim coach can backfire on you because their whole thing, it's always like, we're changing the culture around here. And at the end of the first half, they have it, you know, they're down 19 to 10, 197, I believe, actually. And they have it at the one yard line with two seconds to go. And Dan Campbell's like, oh, you're going to make a statement.

And they go for it twice, pass incomplete. They leave points on the field. It just shows that the dolphins, the fun period of those two weeks against those bad teams is over. And then on the bill's side of the ball, this team is scary. And the Jets got the bills coming to the Meadowlands in four days. This team, when it's healthy and Tyrod Taylor back in the lineup, and Sammy Watkins looking like a guy that was worthy of the first round pick, Carlos Williams and LaShawn McCoy both went over 100 yards rushing.

McCoy especially, he kind of reminded me of 2000. 2013 McCoy on his touchdown run, and Tyrod Teller did not look affected by that MCL sprain. He moved well. Put it all together. This team is an offensive team, which is so crazy with Rex Ryan as the head coach. I guess why they were so frustrated after the Jaguars lost, a game that had you had all these players on the field, they would have won hands down. And that changed the complexion of their season. But to come back and take this thing today, with Tyrod Taylor as quarterback, we are stupid to have forked the bills.

because I think this is a very interesting offense I think he was hurt when we did it It was just last week It wasn't long ago I mean last it was after the last game I was in London so I don't take I'm not going to you know I put it on your three shoulders

On the soil in Culver City At the time we were taping it Well you were eating Danish in the corner But not taking part of the discussion No I found out that it happened after And it's you know shame on the three of you I will get through it It was my fault I should not have allowed it to happen

And I still think they have an uphill battle to make the playoffs. But at this point, as we're sitting here today, okay, it was a tough loss for the Raiders and, you know, the bills that lost to Jacksonville. They're tied for the last playoff spot at four and four. Four losses is the last playoff spot in the AFC. So this race is just starting. Even a team like the Dolphins can convince themselves they're in it because they're only one loss behind. This podcast has mirrored the bill season, too, and the fact that we will be sky high on the bills saying, oh, how stupid we were to count them out and how low to this team is. and then they lay an egg

and then we're down at and Mark, you're talking about maybe assassinating Rex Ryan and we're talking on how they can't put it together and don't have the right scheme and the defense stinks. Maybe we should, again, take a deep breath before putting them in the playoffs

because they have been inconsistent all year. I forked the bills for one reason out of spite. You're a spiteful man. Someone with a lot of influence on their coaching staff thinks that E.J. Manuel might be better than Tyrod Taylor. And if you think that, I'm sorry. I have to assume.

That is over at this point. That hubbub is just utter nonsense. Yes, that is over. He was 11 for 12. Tyrod Taylor changed everything with this team. They went from in August being a team that seemed like they would be an all-serrant team because they still were going to have the quarterback problem to Taylor looking like a guy. He looks like the type of guy.

And he didn't throw a lot of passes in this game. But the team, they just go with him. They're an erratic team, but they have shown greatness in their good games. They have dominated the games that they won. The two against the Dolphins, the one against the Colts. in week one, certainly. I mean, when they're at their very best, you can see there's a lot to be excited about,

a lot of talent. Sammy Watkins, by the way, looked really good in this game. He ate Brent Grimes' lunch. He had basically every yard that Taylor threw. I mean, I think it was everything but 13 or 14 yards.

Pretty rare to see a guy with more receiving yards than the team has net passing yards. That's almost impossible. Darn near. Nice. Stats. Stats are cool.

Moving forward, the Minnesota Vikings have moved into a first place tie in the NFC North following a 21-18 win over the St. Louis Rams. Chris Wesleying, this was supposed to be the big battle between AP and Todd Gurley, but neither player delivered the signature game that we perhaps expected. What was this game really about?

This was a Jeff Fisher fever dream. Hide the quarterback, two Belcow running backs, and good defense. And dirty hits. Dirty hits? All the recipes, and ultimately a loss. It's what Jeff Fisher is all about. Mike Zimmer was.

You could tell during the game, Teddy Bridgewater got hit late on the knee on one play that wasn't called. And then a few plays later, Lamarcus Joyner leveled him right in the head when he was sliding, and Zimmer lost it. He was livid. He knocked him unconscious on the field, Bridgewater out with a concussion. And after the game, this is what Mike Zimmer had to say. A very angry Mike Zimmer. I would say if we were out in the street, we probably would have a fight. I do know that there's a history there of their defensive coordinator.

I'll leave it at that. And the name of that defensive coordinator, Chris Wesley? The only one in the league with a dyed goatee and a frosted tip in his hair, Greg Williams. Giving Gregs with a double G at the end a bad game everywhere. Of course, the defensive coordinator of the Bounty Gate Saints team, and it led to a banishment from... A man on record is saying if you get the head, the body will die. Well, in fairness, this is a sliding play that if you watch it in full speed, it doesn't look that crazy. It was a little bit bang-banger.

If you listen to Lamarck's joiner after the game, he said, my parents are friends with his parents. I grew up miles away from him. The last thing in the world I would ever want to do is to put Teddy Bridgewater out of the game. Like I wish I didn't hit him in the head. It was just I was coming after him right when he slide, and that's what happens.

It's a scary, football's a scary game. Like, I didn't see it as a vicious hit. I think Zimmer's emotional in the moment right after the game because his quarterback literally is laid out in the field unconscious for a moment and it hurts their team. But to me, I thought the reaction was a little strong for what the play was. Well, it might have been.

I mean, I think it's the second week in a row that we've seen someone knocked out cold on the field and watching Bridgewater go down the way. As a fan, just watching it, that was weird. You're going to get mad because a couple of plays before they hit him low. He was outside the pocket, so it actually wasn't a penalty. So there's that, and then the Fisher reputation, and it's your quarterback. I mean, you can understand why they get fired up.

That's Greg Williams' history. That's what got Zimmer fired up. Rodney Harrison on Sunday Night Football's pregame show had a pretty nasty thing to say about Jeff Fisher. He referenced a game during his career in which one of Harrison's teammates got laid out and seriously injured, and he looked up and said he saw Jeff Fisher laughing on the opposing sideline.

Jeff Fisher has a reputation among other coaches and people. His teams play to the edge or their dirty teams. They were dirty with Odell Beckham at the end of last year. The Rams, though, lose this game and the Vikings continue to win these ugly games by three points. I swear they're the least impressive six and two team possible

but now they're tied for the NFC North lead with the Packer. Their schedule is outrageous coming up though. Yeah, if they are both Packers and Vikings both six and two but does anyone sitting here think that the Packers have any chance of not winning this division still? They had to get their stuff

together. They haven't played well. But it's yeah it's the way I feel about the Carolina Panthers too with the consistency when you start having the same staff, same quarterback, same offensive players around year after year. Don't we trust Green Bay to get back on track? The Vikings, there's no track record of this.

What did you see from Peterson and Gurley today? The longest run was 16 yards between the two of them. Defenses were stacking the boxes, of course, because it's Teddy Bridgewater and Nick Fools. And Lindball Joseph for the Vikings needs to be in the Pro Bowl this year. Having a great year

last week, or the week before that, Zimmer said that he is the best nose-tackle he's ever coached and he was a big reason why girly was basically bottled up he's been huge really all year for them i mean they have a they have a defense that you don't get excited about individual players i wouldn't even say everson griffin's having one of his best seasons zavier rhodes is certainly not having his best season yet harrison smiths been great anthony bar is very good yeah and then they get it done week after week and then the rams offense this they're the worst third down offense in football they have four conversions in their last

Three games combined. Four. That's a real bad. That's a mess. Their whole offense is runs to Gurley, Gertit plays to Austin, and then fakes to Gurley and Austin to set up. And then occasional bomb. They'll hit one to Britt or Brian Quick once a game or so.

And I think they did. But everything's based off of Gurley and Austin, and their misdirection and playfakes there. Moving forward, Blaine Gabbert made the most of his starting opportunity for the 49ers, throwing for 185 yards and two touchdowns to lead San Francisco. to a 17-16 win over the, yeah, I said it, fading Atlanta Falcons. Greg, the Falcons have lost three of four now after...

Bold statement there. Well, I also, speaking of bold statement in our story last week on the old NFL.com, predicted they're going to miss the playoffs. And I did not think they were going to blow this game, but they did. Is it panic time in A-Town, Greg? Yeah, they've been... We've said they've been a mediocre team all along,

so now they're losing these close games instead of... It's a bad team. winning them. It's a bad, it's a seven and nine, eight, and eight type of team to me that started out on fire and now they're losing these close games. I think they'll wind up winning some of these close games too, but to lose to Blaine Gabbert, who was much more decisive than Colin Kaepernick and ultimately played a lot better. It's easy to play better when you're facing the Falcons pass rush, which is actually worse this year under Dan Quinn than it was a year ago. Gabbert threw a bad

interception midway through the fourth quarter so people should hold off on saying he should have really set up a game winning drive for the Falcons but instead Dan Quinn makes the worst coaching decision of the entire season. I can't believe I didn't just start with this. Fourth

down at the two yard line two minutes and 56 seconds to go down four Dan Quinn decides to kick a field goal to cut the lead to one and then kick off. He'd only had two timeouts because he just blew one on a stupid challenge about five minutes before. So what do the 49ers do? They get the ball. They run a bootleg with Gabbert. He picks

up the first down. Game over. It's never get the ball back. Mike Smith gave him an envelope when he took over and said, if you get into a fix, do what I'm going to tell you to do inside to send. Yeah, it's like Jim Caldwell took over his body for a moment. You have Matt Ryan and Julio Jones and Devante Freeman and you're at the two yard line. And if you don't get it, It's not like you have to lose the game. You can still get that three-and-out you think your defense can get. He said he was having faith in the defense. It didn't work.

He never works. He played to win the game. Remember, Dan Quinn, we were giving him a lot of credit early in the season for being the difference maker. I guess these things kind of average out. Maybe Dan Quinn isn't the godsend that he initially seemed to me. I still think he's like a very good coach. It's just that, you know, that Falcons are what their talent level is as well. Well, they should be doing, it was the first game.

where an opposing defense just decided to stop Devante Freeman, and they did it. 49ers gave up 17 yards rushing in the entire game. Navarro Bowman had a big game. Navarro Bowman is starting to look like Navarer Bowman again. I think Freeman might have ended up with 12 yards. I believe they got absolutely nothing going on the ground. Julio Jones had a good game, but that wasn't enough. I got to give credit to Jim Tom Sula, too, because this season,

had a chance, and maybe it still will, to a complete spiral show where they lose 12 in a row or something to end the season. So this was putting up some respectful game. And what other theory that I want to throw out there is the inherent risks, whether you're a regular person or a quarterback, of growing your hair out. Because it could either be a situation where you look cool, Greg, your yearbook photo. Oh, yeah. It's been floating around social media. That looks great. Or it can make you look goofy. And it, it, It ends up being something you regret. Andy Dalton grows his hair out, looks badass, becomes one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

Colin Kaepernick grows his hair out, look goofy, now he's on the bench, and Blaine Gabbard. Blaine Gabbard used to have long hair, couldn't have stunk any worse. He's cut it clean and starting to play well. I think that's going to change in about a week. Today, the lowest moment of Colin Kaepernick's career came because he had to come into this game for a couple plays. Blaine Gabbard went through the concussion protocol after taking a couple hits. Kaep Kappernick comes out there. The minute that Gabbard comes back on the field, the crowd, which was half filled, by the way,

but the half that was there went absolutely crazy that they got Blaine Gabbard back on the field. Very weird. I mean, there's always surprises every week in the NFL, but the fact that Blaine Gabbard led a 49ers team over a 5-2 or a 6-2 Falcons team, stunning to me. I should have gone with my Blaine's world headline from the future. Oh, please. Flew it. What a missed opportunity that.

that was. Okay. It is that time of the show where we welcome in a friend of the show and really the unofficial fifth member of the Around the NFL podcast. You know who I'm talking about. She is the wolf woman Connie Fox.

Oh man, Colleen Wolf is back. Now that's so much worse. I mean, somehow the awkward iso cam gets more awkward each week. Yeah, that's my goal. So I'll do, I've done this before, little shooter McGavit. Yeah. I'll do that. I don't know. Who knows it's going to happen next time. Connie Fox, welcome back to the show. How are things going? Things are great. Thanks for having me back. The NFL now game day blitz program you did about seven hours on

that. Yeah, uh-huh. That was like seven hours ago. Yeah. You know, it's good, whenever you can get on the couch. You got on the couch. You get on the couch. You know. Greg was on the couch. Yeah, former players can kind of ignore what you say, and then you banter with Shaq a little bit, and everybody has a fun time on the couch. It's a great system. There was some Cam Newton heat, right, when you were on? Is that what that?

Oh, yeah, I was just trying to say, like, what's the point of arguing, like, that he's the second place of the MVP race? It's not a NBA ballot where you can put in five different places. He's not even close to the number one, so just quit it. So heat of debates today on the couch. Everybody

check it out at NFL now. It's better than the games. You would much rather hear Greg debate, you know, the number two plays and the MVP voting than actually watch Panthers. Every Sunday, right? 10 a.m. on the West Coast. Yep. There you go.

So we want to talk some football, Colleen? Let's do it. Yeah, that would be cool. Let's do it. The New York Giants will remain atop the division for another week after taking care of the Buccaneers a 32-18 win in Jason Pierre Paul's debut with the team. Colleen, were you impressed with what you saw from the. NFC East leaders. The NFC East, it's fine.

I mean, hey, the Giants' defense, actually, after looking really awful the week before, they held the bucks to basically field goals, and James Winston somehow rushed for a touchdown. That was weird. That's it. Steve Spagnolo, baby. Spaggy. So that, they had three takeaways. And as you said, JPP, he was in on the mix again on the field. But, yeah, I think O'Dell Beckham, Jr., anytime he's in the game,

You can't really count them out. Mark, you watch this game. ODB got the ball a lot or thrown his way a lot today. 17 targets season high. I mean, they basically said this is our weapon. We're going to go to them over and over and over and over. And Eli Manning threw two terrible picks that kind of kept Tampa in this game. And, you know, honestly, Doug Martin has been so good this season.

But the Giants, and I don't know if it had to do with JPP. It did a little bit. He played like 75% of their snaps. Wow. They shut this Bucks run game down until, Charles Sims blew it open with a late, long run that kept, you know, that again, kept tampon the game. James Winston, it was another good step for him.

Greg, you've been talking about him for a couple weeks. And it was, he hasn't thrown a pick since week four. And it was another day of mistake-free football. They've got to turn these field goal drives into touchdown drives. That was the difference here. But the Giants, it was a very Giantsy game, not very impressive. You know, they're hanging on to this game league in the NFC East. I picked against the Giants because this felt like the kind of spot where the

Giants would either lay an egg on the road or they'd let a game get away. And for a while, it looked like the bucks could steal it. Yeah. But ultimately, the Giants found a way to hold on. And they got garbage six points at the end on a lateral play that turned into a touchdown. So it makes it look like it wasn't a close game, but this was a close game. How much of that from the Buccaneers was Mike Evans dropping passes? Well, Mike Evans dropped passes, you know, their running backs drop passes.

They were not doing Winston any favors. Evans, you know, he's sneaky. He looks like from the box score that he blew up and had a big day. But he makes the catches you don't think he'll make, and then he drops these easy ones and leaves Tampa's offense and a fix. There's a little like Amari Cooper today, I would say, at his worst day as a pro, and he still went over 100 yards, despite that. The Eli Manning box score is typical for me for Eli Manning this year.

He throws for five yards per attempt on 40 throws, which is in the Gabbard zone. He has a couple picks to go with his two touchdowns. But it doesn't matter. They're somehow five and four. They're overachieving at this point. And they can't run the ball either. No, they have like five running.

backs that each have like four characters. Well, you say they're overachieving, but if you ask a Giants fan, they'll say the Giants should be seven and two right now because they've given away games time and time again this season. They're having a strange little season right now. I agree. I mean, there's nothing about them that screamed, we're good at this. Like, what are they good at?

They don't have anything they're particularly good at other than they have Odo Beckham, who's breaking every record now. Now you're starting to get with Odo Beckham, like the fastest to do this, the fastest to do that. That's pretty much happening every game you play. But good at being five and four. Imagine how good he would be if Ruben Randall could actually start doing things as well. Then you would have all sorts of guys catch. Well, you know, it would be nice if Victor Cruz, who by the way didn't blow off half his hand on Fourth of July on Fourth of July, couldn't make it back before JPP.

Who knows if we're ever going to see Victor Cruz again? He's still missing and that's hurt this team as well. You're both right because, you know, Beckham, who took a lot of heat for not wanting to deal with contact. I mean, he's getting double-teamed left and right and they're not scared of anyone else. in that offense. What was this? I kept reading on Twitter that Odell Beckham wasn't playing with gloves on at one point? Well, it was it was a pouring rain. He typically always

wears gloves and he had no gloves so I don't know what the strategy was. Greg, your thoughts on glove gate? I'm not in favor. Glove game. Okay. Moving on, it is time TD. You know where we got to go now. To the throne of ease. The cherubs

floating, dropping grapes into Greg's mouth. I'm not really flexible. Small little children. little diapers blowing trumpets. Just little boys all around Greg giving any need he could ever have. Why do I have little boys around me? Because that's like a rich, like royal person

has little boy servants and manservants. Ah, please. Serve me up Kirk Cousins' matchups every week. The New England Patriots are halfway to perfection. Tom Brady threw two touchdown passes and Lagarde Blunt ran for 129 yards, then to score in a 27 to 10 win over the Redskins. Colleen, what's the point of these bum teams even showing up in Foxborough

when we got to deal with these one-sided games that only give Greg more joy that he doesn't need at this point. It's overkill. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Greg. Wow. No, listen, I mean, honestly, though, who is going to stop the Patriots right now? Can anything or anyone, they keep dealing with these injuries and they still look just as good?

That offensive line, they're playing a tight end in there at one point. Right, doesn't matter. Does not matter at all. Like the Williams. That's converted right tackle. Dionne Lewis, he goes down. Not a problem. Let's get somebody else in there. Let's get Brandon Bolden in there. He can catch passes too.

He can run the ball. It's crazy how good they are. They're not stopping anytime soon. Jamie Collins also banged up a little bit. But you mentioned Throne of Ease. This was maybe the worst regular season game about they've had. Because if Dionne Lewis is out for a long time or if it's really serious, he's out for the season, something like that, which it doesn't sound like initially,

that is a massive, massive loss for them. Well, you're right, Craig, but every time New England won the game by 17 points, and they won it easily, by the way. That was a late score just to get it even to halfway respectable looking. But the point is what Colin just made. I mean, Brandon Bolden, who's been in bubble wrap for a year and a half, comes out of nowhere, and he completely flames the Redskins defense that we were talking highly of a couple weeks ago.

So it is like, yeah, D.N. Lewis is a huge loss. but no team in the league does a better job of taking other people's trash and just two weeks later they're shining in New England. They've had more line changes than any team in the NFL, and it doesn't matter. Brandon Bowden will be back in bubble route next week. James White was inactive today. I think he was a healthy scratch. If Dionne Lewis doesn't play, they'll bring James White back on the NFL.

They need offensive linemen. Sebastian Volmer went out, obviously, Solders out for the year. If, for some reason, Volmer was out for a while, eventually these problems will matter when you play teams like the Broncos or the Bengals, they're in a race right now for that buy, which is vitally important because whoever gets the three seats is going to have to play two road games,

and you're not really going to have a chance to lose many games. You might have to go 15 and 1 to get that by this year. It must be nice to be in New England. Your attempt at drumming up, you know, sympathy for the hard-scrabbled, you know, white-knuckled Patriots, it's just not really work. This season's a bonus. It's a happy bonus.

Sympathy for your team. It's scored in, what, 31 straight quarters? That's right. Every quarter since the first one. That is an amazing stat. It really is. It must be nice, guy. Why does it all have to be about me?

Maybe you just make it about the excellence of potentially the greatest quarterback of all time and the greatest coach of all time. You're getting to witness as a football fan. Can we stop with the potentially stuff? Please. He's the greatest. Come on. Which one?

Tom Brady. Both. Belichick. Belichick would probably defer to Paul Brown. Just to bring Greg down a little bit, Greg, Mark, can we just, you got some mail over the past week, right? Do you want to share that with the group right now? Yeah, actually, from someone that we met in London. Oh, no.

Very upset about one aspect of our show, which was a very popular segment in the past, which was Greg would be part of the pick crew and make picks, and he was a big part of hero picks as well, a segment that's been deep six because the boss is not interested. So, yeah, he's a big part of the pick. He did, uh... Oh, he's got props. He sent something over. You want to open this up?

Well, who was it? Who said this? It's a guy named Christian who we met in London, a wonderful guy who listened to every show. Don't try to pass the box. Christian is a man of justice. Of course he could have.

So he wants justice for this show. All right, let's see what Christian from London. Oh, I think I know what this is. Wow. Looks like we got in our hands right now. I'm going to hold it up. If you're watching on YouTube, oh, thank you. You're going to hold it up here.

this is what would you call this a burlap sack a gunny sack we've talked about during the pick segments on um on thursdays when we go around making the pips picks that perhaps gregg since he's chosen not to make picks and he's compromised a segment could maybe wear a sack on his head when it comes like his time to pick and we just like keep moving this is cover half of me so now we now we have the sack Greg your thoughts My thoughts are that I haven't heard anyone mention missing picks in a long time because no one really notices. Look at the message right here. Bring back hero picks on the bag itself.

On to London. With a logo of the around the NFL. This is very classy. And then hashtag on to London. Greg, would you like to put this on maybe just to give us? I'm not putting that on. So you're not going to play ball for the listeners. Maybe it was another show.

We're not even making picks. What if this had like, what if it was like a Jezelnik show thing? Would you put it on then? You can put it on the Redskins. I think not only should you have to wear, we should be chanting shame in the background while you wear. Shame. Yeah, absolutely.

So thank you. Who is it? What was his name? Christian. Wonderful guy. Excellent work, Christian. All the way from another country. I understand.

I probably wouldn't want to put a burlap sack on my head. I don't, it's not like we're going to get on you about that. It's sweaty and itching. It's good, but it's good that we now have that. I can only imagine. We should, though, now that we have it, we should figure out some way to, like, to penalize us. Like, if something bad happens.

You have to wear the burlap sack. Maybe it's something to think. I think it's very Greg-centric. It's probably going to be Greg wearing the sack before, you know, anyone else in the show. Wes has been in a burlap sack before. Well, you go, you know, when you're a little kid and you go to, like, family picnics and you have all these little picnic games. Sometimes they're like burlap sacks.

Yeah, oh, yeah, the old put the kid in the sack and hit him with a baseball back game. This is what happens when you grow up with seven brothers in Cincinnati. There's not a lot of money. Yeah, you race in them. You put a sack in the legs get sweaty, you know. the old burlap sack races. All right. Here we go.

So the New England Patriots remain in first place in the AFC East. The second place team in the AFC East is the working class. The real tame of the AFC East,

the New York Jets, that's the way I look at it anyway. They have hit the midpoint of the season at 5 and 3 after, you know, a hard fought, I'll call a 2823 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars at the Meadow Lions.

A game that the Jets are very fortunate that they played the Jaguars today because they jagged it up. and figured out a way to lose the game. I would say that 28 other teams in the NFL would have beaten the Jets, the mistakes the Jets made, their inability. Here's a crazy, crazy stat.

And, you know, when I proclaimed a few weeks back that the Jets are good, and I was really excited about that, that was built upon the fact that I thought they had one of the best defenses in the league and maybe a top five or top three running back in the league. Really since that happened, the defense has been middle of the pack at best, with secondary issues, which I didn't see coming. Maybe you should wear the sack. Oh, let's not go that far.

And Chris Ivory has, over the last three games now, has rushed for 84 yards on 55 carries, one and a half yards per carry. This week, this game on Sunday against the Jaguars, they have a pretty good run defense, but 23 carries for 26 yards, which pound for pound is one of the worst performances ever for that many carries, according to the Eli Sportsbury.

He did have two touchdowns to save fantasy owners, but they're not running the ball anymore and they're not getting big stops on defense so the Jets in my opinion despite the win here are in danger if they don't get back to their real formula that made them dangerous in the beginning of the season. There's a crazy stat 29 rushing yards that's the fewest in a Jets game in a decade. Wow. It's 2005.

And yet they won. And what's their identity? I thought last week's Jets defensive performance was one of the most listless of any team all year. They went through the motions when they tried to tackle and it sounds like they gave up 430 yards again this week. I mean, the numbers make it look like they had a bad game. I wouldn't say they had a bad game.

They had some bad breakdowns, including a three-place 76-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, and then they gave up a quick score at the end of the second quarter as well. But they did do a better job getting pressure on the quarterback. They did have three turnovers, which they've struggled to turn the ball over recently. So there were some bright spots on defense. But Antonio Cromartie, a guy we talked about last week, who's maybe on the other side. of the hill now. He got beat again on a long touchdown. He's beneath the hill. Well, he's gone into Funks in his career and then come back from him. That's how he signed

a cheap deal with Arizona. But this time it looks different. He got beat again and then exited this game with some type of quad injury. If you want to assume that it's an injury and not just the guy that is having a bad way right now and came out of the game. Well, I don't think we can, we can't say right now that they have a good secondary anymore, that that's a strength of their team. They have Derell Revis, who's still a great player, But outside of that, if Screen and Cromarty aren't playing really well, they're not what you thought they were, at least through this stretch. Yeah, I'm willing to say that I'm not hopeless about their secondary,

but there are now concerns about the secondary, which I did not anticipate. But, yeah, I mean, and the thing is, if you're not going to run the ball, Ryan Fitzpatrick, who has the thumb injury, it's going to catch up to him because Fitzpatrick again played steady, but you play a better team you're going to get beaten. and that's why I'm worried about the bills on Thursday night. Who's this new edge rusher you found? Oh, Maldon. What's his last?

Oh, Carl Maldon. Hey, Carl Maldon. Carl Maldon, his name is. Is that his name? No, Alonzo. Alonza Maldon, he is a third round draft pick that had two sacks, and it gives them an edge rusher, which they don't have. They have a bunch of guys that can push the pocket in the middle.

But if he could be somebody that gets to the course, quarterback there in a good spot. So that's promising, but I'm a little nervous, that's all. They're all by their lonesome right now though. As the wild card race goes at 5 and 3, I think 10 wins and you are definitely going to be making the AFC playoffs this year

and 9 win, it's probably going to work out that there's a bunch of teams tied or something like that where the 9 win team gets into the playoffs. What's up with Julius Thomas right now, too? We have Alan Hurons, Alan Robinson, both over 100 yards and Julius Thomas has like, what, 15 yards receiving today? And he

didn't look good he didn't get separation he had a bad drop and maybe he's still not right but it was a finger injury it wasn't like it was something where it affected his speed or he just doesn't look so far he looks like a bust to me um but those receivers are the real deal and i think boardles they'll be kicking themselves and when you guys watch this game you're going to be stunned that they blew this game because they were down five points with six minutes to go first and ten from the jets 10 and bordels loses a fumble uh they go jets go three and out, they punt it back, they muff the punt, and the Jets recover that, and then Brandon Marshall scores the touchdown to put it away. So the Jags, Gus Bradley can't lose too many more games

like this. Yeah, I mean, you mentioned that 28 other teams would have won this thing, and that's what the Jaguars need to stop being, is one of the three teams that can't do it, because that's, I thought they turned the corner a little bit against Buffalo, pulling out the win the way they did, and they were so excited. Conoror actually spent a little time with Gus Bradley after, were so fired up. They didn't care how they won the game. They viewed it as a turning point with young pieces starting to show up. But then you turn around and you do this. It was that same DNA in the collapse in London before they pulled it out at the end. And this time it was happening where they don't pull it out. So there's still that team

has a way to go. And for all the AFC South is lousy, there are two games back in the AFC South and they have a loss to the first place leader. So when you have a week like this, you're suddenly buried. Right. Moving on. Mike Mularky for president. How about it? No. No? Okay.

Well, the Titans interim coach is the new Dan Campbell. How about that? Yeah. They did win today. That's not good. After Tennessee scored an upset 3428 win over the Saints and overtime at the Superdome, Colleen Wolfe, Connie Fox, the wolf woman, Marcus Marietta, returned to the lineup, and he was the man.

Yeah, after missing two games, he is back. He started off a little shaky. How in the world, that one pass, I don't know if you guys saw it, to Delaney Walker, it should have been intercepted. Well, that was lucky. I mean, it was so, so lucky. But these are the things that are happening with him. He throws that pass and somehow turns into a touchdown. I mean, after that point, he really picked apart the Saints and he made good decisions.

And you look at that offensive line, the pass blocking, they were allowing sacks in every single game. and Mario didn't get sacked once today. It's 21 to 10 in this game at one point, and seven of those 10 was on the fluke play that should have been picked off for the Saints to blow this game after the couple of wins that they had to get back in the mix.

I mean, this is a killer loss to lose the Titans at home. It reminds me of, we just talked about the bills and how different they are with Tyrod Taylor in there, and you look at the, you look what happened with Tennessee

with Mariota back in the lineup. Suddenly the receivers are productive. The numbers across the board completely changed. The running game opens up because their quarterback can do so many different things. Or because they play the Saints. All right. Well, that's fair.

They played a disaster team. Also because Zach Metenberger wasn't under Senate. NFL media is Albert Breer. He writes a column or a notebook column on each Friday. He wrote that one of the reasons why the Titans decided to make the change is that Ken Wisenhunt, staff could not protect a quarterback. And so it is telling that Marcus Marietta, the first game with Wizzenhunt out the door doesn't take a sack. And that's the whole thing. They've got to protect this guy.

And if you're Ken Wisdenham, by the way, you've got to be dying. Because he looks like the real deal, Marriota. And all Wisden and had to do is get through this season and get a few wins. And he would have been hooked up with a franchise quarterback, which could have bought him years. Even just to this week. Just get to this week and have this happen. I don't think they would have fired him tomorrow. Mario's injury essentially cost him his job, but it goes back to Tennessee.

What they may be thinking, that's partly the coach's fault. but it happened. Brandon Browner continued to be the worst free agent signing of the offseason. Having two penalties in the fourth quarter, he now is 17 for the season, which I believe is like twice as many, just about as...

He's on paced for 34 penalties? That's got to be a record. Didn't he go after a reporter in the locker room? And then he goes after a reporter, a profanity-laced, a tirade against a reporter who wasn't even interviewing Brandon Browner. They were interviewing Jarrett Spurred, our old buddy.

It's been hard time. for Jaris. Ah, Jaris Bird. Our old friend, one of our great friends, Jaris Bird. Jairoos, Byer. Jairoos. Byr. Byrd was one of the two.

Yeah, he was one of the two players. Him and Keenan Allen, you know, I mean, Keenan Lewis collided. The ball pops up in the air. Delaney Walker takes it for a long touchdown. And they're asking Jaris Bird about these questions. And then Browner just goes off. It's not about one play.

We went to overtime and just went. crazy. Pipe down, Brandon. You know, lucky you got a ring last year, Brian. Someone else from the Titans deserve some credit

here. We don't talk about him anymore because he plays in Nashville. But Brian Arakko, every time I watch the Titans, I write down, gets consistent heat

on the quarterback. And the Saints were flying high. Breeze had joined Rothesburg as the only two quarterbacks in history to get 850 yards and 10 TDs over a two-game span.

And Arakpo helped shut them down in the second half of the game. Assigning that a lot of people said, Why are you going after this guy and it's worked out well? His chest is going to explode. That's what a lot of people were saying.

That peck, it might blow. You know what I like to in this game? How about the overtime first possession touchdown? You know, we don't see enough of that for the six-point result. None of this field goal second possession, it's like we're just going to drop it on you. Speaking of all of time, it takes a stand in favor of touchdowns. Bad job by us. There's an NFL coach that took the win today in overtime.

Mike Zimmer, correct? And it worked out. Yeah. Taking the win. Marty Mortonwig, wherever you are, buddy. We love you. Did he get a job, Marty? No.

A little different with the current rules. Wait, he's the Ravens offensive coordinator. Marty is? Yeah, I believe so. Wait, what? Is he not? Trustman. Oh, no, you're right.

Wrong guy. I think he's probably still being paid by the Jets. The listeners will never hear this interplay. By the way, the Saints, they cannot run the ball at all. And I don't know if you guys saw it, but at the beginning, right after half, time, they came out and ran three straight run plays, went three and out.

Like, they just kept going back to it and got nothing. Oh, sad. Well, Colleen, you've said it all. And what do we learn? We learn that Colleen is a regular contributor on NFL Now's Game Day Blitz program. I feel like you're doing the math when you do the previews. There's how many teams? But you know, we enjoy having you.

And we enjoy having you so much that once again, you will be invited to the Fort committee meeting where there will be danish and bagels and coffee and locks last week right it's the last week of the forks this is exciting this is it last one ever we'll see you uh bright i know how i made it this far but i'm so grateful uh we meet at 4 a m 4 a m on monday so in a few hours from that oh great perfect colin thank you for joining us and we'll see you next week it's been real which takes us to sunday night football at jera world, a game that ended in sudden fashion a Jordan Matthews 41-yard touchdown reception on the first possession of overtime, the decisive play, in a 33 to 27 win for the Eagles

over the Cowboys. Yes, the Cowboys have now lost six straight games without Tony Romo behind center, but don't hang this one on Matt Castle. He played a very solid game moving the team when they needed to move. But Sam Bradford, Greg Rosenthal, he was the man that you take out of this game. Yeah, DeMarco Murray did things. Ryan Matthews did things, but Bradford delivered when it counted and the Eagles are four and four and the Cowboys are getting close to the junk scrap heat. Yeah, put him there. Get rid of them. Sam Bradford, we said if you squinted hard, you can see him getting a little bit better in that game against Carolina before the buy. And I think you saw more of the same tonight. More that just it looked like the Eagles

offense in that they were snapping the ball with 25 seconds left on the play clock. They were finally They play in some up-tempo ball. They get the ball in OT, and they made the Cowboys bang. Dallas looking gassed on defense at multiple points of this game. Poor beleaguered Matt Castle gets all the grief. The defense gives up 150 yards to DeMarco Murray, 130 yards to Jordan Matthews. This is supposed to be the strength of this team.

Totally banged up Dallas squad, and Tony Romo is my MVP pick because this team would be running away with the NFC if he were helping. He's played one and a half games. Well, I mean, it's a terrible MVP pick, but at the same time, we see your point. Well, my point is you take him off the team, and this is the guy those most beleaguered quarterback around before last season,

and now you find out there's nothing without him. I'm a little bit nervous as someone that really enjoys Chip Kelly struggling. This game makes me nervous. And I know the Cowboys aren't a great team at this juncture with how beat up they are. But if Sam Bradford's going to play like this and he's going to spread the ball around and they're going to get action out of their backfield from both their key guys, They're going to pile up yards and they're going to win some games. I think they're in the conversation for sure when you're talking about who's going to win this division.

Well, I thought I think they're going to win it. And I think their defense was what we could rely on. But they really haven't played well the last two weeks, the Eagles defense. I mean, they gave up a lot more yards and they had many chances to close this thing out before the fourth quarter and they couldn't do it. The crazy thing with the Cowboys in this whole six-game losing streak is they have been either ahead or tied in the fourth quarter in five of the games. The Patriots was the only game that they didn't have.

have a chance to win in the last three minutes and they just find a new way to lose. It's almost like they lacked the character to come through in tights. Haven't won a game, haven't won a game since they brought Greg Hardy on board. It's a shame that he was the one who almost hit Sam Bradford on the last play of the game but just didn't quite get there in time.

That is a good takeaway. Do we not believe that Dallas in the final week of the season will be obviously on prime time somewhere and they will be No, I don't. I don't think they're in deep trouble now. I mean, there's no denying that. because I think, like we were just saying, I think the Eagles, they're probably going to be a team

that's going to have around nine wins. I think the Giants are a team you could book probably going to be around nine wins. When you're in two and six, you're almost eliminated your margin for error, and Romo's not coming back anytime soon. Well, I think he's going to miss one more game, and that would be against the Buccaneers.

Then they're at two and seven if they lose that game. It would be amazing. Tony Romo, for everything that he's gone through, if he comes back at two and seven, leads him to seven straight wins, and then leads him to the Super Bowl title. That's how Tony Romo gets off the Schneide. Get the burlop sack out.

It's not going to happen, Greg. It's not going to happen. Anything else in this game, guys? Not a word. Des Bryant looked a lot better. Looked like Des. So that's a big piece of it, though. But you got, I tweeted that Cowboys are a glorious disaster

right after this game. And Elliot Harrison, who's, you know, he works for NFL media, of course. He does our power rankings. He's also a Cowboys fan. Went back at me, a little anger. Like, how can you say they're beat up? But what you were saying, Greg, they are finding ways to lose and they're losing and heartbreaking ways.

That's got to be taking a toll in that locker room. The defense, I think, to Wes's point, has really had a chance to win a couple of these games for them, and it hasn't done it. So that is... Yeah, it is terrible. I am really upset. I can still win this division.

That bad luck has fallen on the Cowboys. That's terrible. To think that Greg Hardy is getting in his $90,000 Cadillac at the end of these Sundays and is disappointed, it does break my heart. The Earth is not fair, and that is a prime example. Okay, so that is the Sunday Recap Show. Great work, gentlemen.

You know, as always, stellar job by everyone. And congratulations, Greg. Another week on the Throne of E's 8-0, halfway to 16-0. Is there any doubt that the Cowboys are going to go 8-0 in the second half? The Patriots. The Patriots, excuse me. Why does it have to be about the Patriots? I don't know.

Everything's about the Patriots when you're on the throne of Ease. Exactly. This is, we'll be back on Tuesday. where, yes, we're going to get the fork committee together. We're going to, our power pole, sponsored by, you know, nobody, but our power pole will be back at the midpoint, talk about that. We might even break out one of our favorite games, but I'll leave it at that for now, a little tease.

So, until then, this is Dan Hansa, signing off for The Quiet Storm, the Mailman, the boss, and TD behind the glass. Till Tuesday. This is an IHeart podcast.