The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 15 Hangover: The Ravens stay alive, and the 49ers notch their 10th win

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

We all realize that the 49ers have 10 wins and are a near-lock for the playoffs, right? Has a double-digit-win season ever gone more overlooked? And how dangerous might the Niners be, assuming they do get into the playoffs? Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen discuss that on this episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also dig into Ravens-Bengals and Vikings-Cowboys from Week 15, and take a couple of sad voicemails from the fans.Rundown (timestamps are approximate)3:35 Ravens-Bengals recap24:57 Vikings-Cowboys recap47:06 Titans-49ers recap1:02:57 Voicemail from a sad Cowboys fan1:09:34 Voicemail from a sad Packers fanConnect with The Athletic Football ShowYT: https://www.youtube.com/@TAFootballShowPodcasts: https://podfollow.com/the-athletic-football-show/viewX: https://x.com/TA_FootballShowIG: https://www.instagram.com/tafootballshowTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tafootballshowDiscord: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshowCall us: 847-448-0701Email us: [e-mail]: Robert MaysCo-Host: Derrik KlassenExecutive Producer: Michael BellerVideo Producer: Katy DuffyAudio Producer: Michael BellerSocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.socialFollow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.socialFollow Robert on X: @robertmaysFollow Derrik on X: @QBKlassTheme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Week 15 hangover for you guys today. We hit three games. I think it's been a while since we've done three games to this level. And we really dug into all three of those games. Start off with Ravens Bengals. Shouted a little Vikings Cowboys.

Rounded things out with the Niners beating the Titans before taking a couple calls from sad Packers and Cowboys fans. Really enjoyed this one. Hope you guys do as well. Let's get to it with me and Derek Classen right now. The week 15 hangover here on the athletic football show. When you have as good a week as we did in week 15 in the NFL, the hangover also feels particularly juicy.

Like there's a lot of stuff for us to dig into today. Sometimes we're just left with the morsel steric. But this week in particular, I feel like there's a lot for us to discuss with these three games that we're going to hit. Yeah, we had Ravens team still fighting for their playoff lives and for the AFC North. We had a Niners team that honestly, like I thought the Titans were. kind of a weird and bad matchup for them. So I thought it was interesting for them to have to run up and play that game.

And then obviously we had the Sunday nighter that we didn't really get to talk about it on the show obviously because we're going to do it for the hangover. The Cowboys are like out of the playoffs now. Whereas like they had like a 10 to 12% chance going into this game and they lose it and they're gone. We're going to three games today like Derek mentioned, Ravens Bengals, Vikings Cowboys, Niners, Titans. We're going to start with the Ravens and the Bengals.

The Ravens blank the Cincinnati Bengals, 24 to nothing. The Ravens now go to seven and seven. As of right now, we're recording this. It's 3.11 p.m. Central time on Monday. The Steelers will play the Dolphins tonight. That will have huge implications on what's going to happen in the AFC North. As of this recording, the athletics numbers have the Ravens with a 44% chance to win the division. That might seem low considering the fact that they play the Steelers again.

The reason for that is that the Ravens schedule after this is heinous. They play the Patriots next week and they play the Packers the week after that before getting the Ravens in week 18. So that's why even if these teams have the same record or even if the Ravens have a game on the Steelers after this week is over, the Ravens have a very tough end of the season schedule-wise. So just a little bit of context for why those numbers look the way that they do. You and I talked a little bit about this game last night in real time, trying to figure out if we wanted to talk about it on the recap show. We ended up pushing it today, which is pushing it to today. I'm curious, as you went back and you watched this, is there anything different in how you

you process this game watching it back over than your initial impressions of it in real time? I mean, honestly, this was not a game that I got to see a whole lot of during Sunday. I think what really struck me and why this game felt weird upon rewatching it is that one of the things I looked up because when you watch the game, you look at a shutout, right? And you're like, God, the offense must have just got completely ravaged in this game. And then you watch it back. And they actually were kind of moving the ball fairly well through the passing game, like down to

down. It was actually okay. And so I went and looked this up on in shutouts over the last five seasons. The only time a team has had a higher success rate than the Bengals getting to 43.7% in this game was the Bailey Zappy start against the Chargers in 2023. So it's and there are only there was only like one other game above 40%. Like it's very rare that a team can like kind of move the ball and just get blanked. But you have to me where this felt like this was just going to be a really weird day for the angles was on the possession, I think it was either their first or second possession in the middle to late first quarter. They get to a second and four on the Ravens 25. Joe Burrow just misses Jamar Chase on a wide open slant. Like it was his worst throw of the day. Rare kind of miss for

him. And then on the next play takes like an 18 yard sack to get them out of field goal range, which is also like a you're a five, six year veteran. You probably shouldn't be making that mistake. It was just immediately like, oh, it might be a really weird day for this offense. Yeah, that's almost exactly my thoughts after going back and rewatching this thing, because you see 24 to nothing. And you think, all right, well, the Ravens kind of got back to it. And the Bengals really struggled on offense in this game, clearly. And I launched a lot of the explosives in this game in real time. And I think that kind of colored my opinion of how the Ravens played, which we'll get into. But if you look at this, per the true media numbers, the Bengals had like a 44% success rate in

offense. And the Ravens had a 47% success rate on offense. The difference was, the turnovers and the explosives. That's it. Like, that's the entire difference. And then some of the plays in high leverage moments. Obviously, you know, the Bengals are 3 or 15 on third down. And then you have a couple four downs that they didn't end up getting. And so the score of this game is an absolute blowout.

I don't think the Bengals played well by any stretch. But it was a little bit surprising to feel how the game was down to down going back and watching it, considering what the final results looked like. This also, I actually just looked this up. This goes back to the same point. on shutouts over the last five years, the Bengals had 39 minutes and 19 seconds of time of possession in this game. No other shutout did the losing team have more than 33 and a half minutes.

Like for them to control the ball, kind of move the ball fairly well, get into scoring range multiple times and come away with nothing. Because that's the thing. It's not like they were consistently moving to a round midfield and then losing it. They had multiple interceptions on the Raven side of the field, the one where I think it was a third and five. He throws a little bit high to Jamar Chase.

He gets tipped up. That gets intercepted. And then obviously the pick six where they kind of do the Bidon passing to Alohi Gilman, also in Raven's territory. So it's like they were getting the ball into scoring range. Just like you said, like in the moments where they had to get it over the line, some Raven made a player. They had a nice play call or just weird bounces on interception, stuff like that.

Even the play you're talking about where he takes the sack on third down to kick them out of a field goal range, they were in plus territory on the first drive where that happened. the fourth and three where he tries to throw a deep scene ball to Mike Issicki against cover two on fourth and three, that ball is thrown to Mike Isicki inside the five yard line. And so that was happening consistently throughout this game. If I were, and Joe Burrough said it afterwards. He's like, I played horrible today. Like it was out of character for me.

I think the word he used was this is a this is an outwire compared to how I typically play, which I appreciated him just saying that flat out. He's like, I'm better than how I played today because he is. And beyond some of like the high profile mistake. and miss cues. The pick six is, the pick six is like a little bit of everything. There are multiple different plays in this game

where Dylan Fairchild doesn't block anybody into a pressure look and the pick six was an example of that where there's really no reason for him not to block Tavius Robinson on that play. He doesn't. Bro has to get rid of it quickly. It's exactly what you're trying to do

with that simulated pressure when you're dropping Kyle Van Noy back into it. So that's a high profile miss. But there were so many plays in this game where it is like so close on the margins. from it being a big play for the Bengals, and it ends up becoming either nothing or a negative. You mentioned the tip ball interception to Jamar Chase. That's not a good throw, but that's a throw that Jamar Chase can bring in every once in a while.

The seam ball to Mike Gisicki against cover two, that's probably the wrong decision on that four-down throw-throw. He has Chase underneath, but I understand trying to throw that ball down the pipe in cover two. Roquant-Smith does a good job of squeezing it. It's just off of Gisicki's fingertips. Then there was another play. There was a deep shot to Yoshivas. in the first half on like their third drive,

that's almost completed for a huge chunk gain. And so the margins in this game for the Bengals, like every single close play when they had the ball in this game did not seem to go their way. Yeah, they just, they had a whole lot of nothing. I also did think like for the first two games that Burrow had been back, I actually thought he looked healthy and looked like he was able to drive the ball

well and stuff like that. I just didn't think he drove the ball very well in this game. It was very cold. Right. It was 10 degrees at kickoff, they said, which I know like the Thanksgiving game they played was cold, but that was 38 degrees at kickoff. Like that about 30 degree difference is hell of a lot, especially once you get under freezing that way. And so I thought he struggled to drive the ball a little bit.

So you add that on top of, again, getting a little bit unlucky in five or six of these moments. And that's how you end up getting blanked in a game where you didn't, you didn't play well, but you didn't play poorly enough to have gotten shut out the way that you did is probably the best way I would phrase this game. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think that the offense didn't play well, but the offense didn't play. poorly enough to get blown out by 24 points. When you look at the other side of the ball, what were your impressions of the Ravens offense in this game? I mean, I thought Lamar looked really, really good.

I thought Lamar finally looked healthy. Like to the point that I thought Burrow kind of looked weirdly unhealthy, I thought Lamar looked really healthy. There was one play, it was one of his scrambles. I think it was the one where there was about 50 seconds left in the second half where he takes off to his left side. And when he finally decided to hit the gas and go, that was the first time since he came back.

where I was like, oh shit, okay, he can kind of move again. And so I thought that that was really encouraging. And then I did think that there were a couple of instances of like nice design stuff. Like the out and up that they hit to Zay Flowers for a touchdown, it's obviously an incredible throw for him to layer that on the back pylon. But I also thought the design of it was kind of nice. They have flowers in like a tight alignment with the tight end right next to him on that side. Tight end runs out to the flat.

Zay runs up and starts to bend it out like it's going to look like a smash concept. And then he just takes it up the sideline, Lamar. makes an incredible throw. Like, I thought they had a couple of good moments like that. And then Lamar did look pretty confident to me as a passer. And so doing all this against the Bengals defense, I'm not sure how much of that, like, you know, when you've got to go see potentially the Patriots next week, the Packers, you're going to see the Steelers again.

I don't know how that's going to play. But I actually did think they looked okay in this game. It was still a little bit herky jerky. Like, I think they really relied on some of those explosives. I agree that I thought that he looked healthier in this game. And so that scramble that you mentioned, I think, is a perfect example. Some of the throws down the field were really impressive.

It's funny you mentioned that that route on the Zayflower's touchdown. We've talked about this a bunch of different times over the course of the season. When the Bengals are in some of those cover two looks, a lot of their issues throughout the year is that that safety in that cover two look was getting too much width. And they were able, teams were able to hit these like up the seam vertical shots against the Bengals when they played cover two. In this situation, Gino Stone did not get enough with on a play up the sideline.

And so Zay is open on a beautifully thrown ball from Lamar. And so you had some explosives. You had a couple plays that, I mean, the throw he makes to Zay Flowers at the end of the first half, the little one he like pops over the corner and cover two that Zay like somehow catches in that little void. That was an insane play. Can I also say the thing about Zay, I don't understand Zay Flowers because he has that catch, which is incredible, knowing that Jordan Battle is trying to take his helmet off on that on that play. And then you had, I think at some point early in the second half, Zay Flowers runs his dig route and catches a really nice contested pass. But then he also had the wide open, deep stop route in, I think, the first quarter that just like hits him in the stomach and he tips it up to a defender.

I'm like, can we just be normal? For one game, can we be normal? Because he had like four awesome plays and then did that in a game where the Ravens did not have the ball a lot because the Bengals were moving the ball. And then he had the play in the back corner of the end zone where the bar gets to him on the corner. And that would have been a tough catch. That's like a twisting catch. But that's a ball you hopefully come down with. Yes.

And so it was one of those games where I think Lamar looked pretty good, but the offense was still like weirdly frustrating in some moments. You had explosives on the ground. But when I look at this Ravens team right now and you see some of these flashes where you're like, okay, like this is it. Like this is what I want to see from them. There are, there were plenty of those in this game. But I still get back to it when I'm watching the pass rush.

and when I'm watching the offensive line, even if Lamar is going to be right, I just have my questions about whether this team is good enough up front on both sides of the ball right now to be truly scary as you get into the playoffs. They do not have a real pass rusher. And how badly they miss Matabeeke when you watch a game like this

and they're just very little interior push. Travis Jones had a couple of nice moments, but that's not what Travis Jones's game is. Tavis Robinson had some awesome. unblocked pressures in this game, but like that's not what he is. Draymond Jones had a decent game as a pass rusher, but he's not like a dynamic player in that way. And so they just don't have a ton of juice, especially for a team that isn't going to blitz very much. And then on the other side, they just don't move people.

That offensive line, it just does not move people right now. Even like you look at some of the stuff, some of the reps that Ricard has as a blocker right now. Like this used to be a team where you would watch them play. and they would really be able to grind opponents like down into dust with the physicality they brought on that side of the ball. And I just don't feel that from them right now. Even like the biggest run they had in this game was that little pitch out to Henry on the right side. And that is like a finesse trickum dickum run. Like that's kind of what they need in order to find explosives.

And so even in a game where you saw little glimpses of like a version of the Ravens that I want to see, I still just feel like there are important. qualities of this team missing right now. I think in terms of like them being a potential Super Bowl contender, so I'm with you. I do think I was at a point where like maybe three weeks ago I was worried could they even be good enough to get into the playoffs? And I actually do think that they'll be good enough to do that. But I do agree that they're probably not scary enough to make the run that you want. And I think at least on offense, if they were more comfortable running Lamar, I could see

the world where they work around that. Right. Because I think right now the issue with the run game is they don't have something that they know for sure they can lean on. Where it's like maybe we know we're a lead zone team or we know we're a gap team. Like they don't have like a run that I think they can go to consistently. And I think in previous iterations of the offense, if that was the case, it was like, okay, we lean on Lamar. And whatever the Lamar plays are, those are going to get us, those are going to get us right and they're going to keep us efficient. They don't have that right now.

And I will say to their credit, I think over the last month or so, they've at least found like three or four of these trickum dickom kind of designer just like, one-off runs that do go for a pop like Keaton Mitchell has had a couple. Henry had the one in this game. Those are their best place. Them like with designer perimeter runs, those are their best plays. And I actually want to see them, and obviously the downside of those

plays, like those can get blown up. There's a high variance when you're trying to have a steady diet of those within your offense. But when I watch this team right now, like I kind of want to see them try more of them because they're not consistent enough down to down, either running the ball

or dropping back to pass, where I feel like they need to be hunting out as many explosives as they can and as many areas as they can. And so if we get to a place where instead of two or three of those a game, you're trying five or six of those a game, I actually think that's the version of the Ravens offense we need to see for them to be whatever the best version of themselves is right now. I couldn't agree more because Derek Henry can still haul ass. Like, I think there's been this assumption that because the Ravens rushing offense is not that good that maybe Henry's lost a step, Anytime he still gets room in the second level or on the perimeter, like he's still moving.

And so I'm with you. Like if they can maybe try a handful more of those a game. Because again, I think like we're both saying, the reality is they don't have a, you know, we can be like the Rams and just lean on duo 20 times a game. They just don't have that right now.

And so to try to lean into the volatility a little bit and hope that Lamar Jackson will kind of be your steadier in the passing game, I really think that that's probably their best path forward. A few specific plays I wanted to point out in this game. There was a pressure that Travis Jones had. the play where Orlando Brown gets holding penalty and he could have gotten illegal hands to the face. When you watch the end zone, Coppy,

the club that Travis Jones has on the right guard, it's like literally when you watch a bag drill where guys are just hitting the bag as hard as they can, how exaggerated the club was. Like, he's going like full swing. You can like see the line back. It was hilarious. I was like, this is just picture perfect.

The D-Line coach is going to love this when they go back and watch it. my favorite play of the entire game talking about like Lamar looking healthy the flip he had to DeAndre Hopkins on that RPO was absolutely disgusting and so I think we're going to play it if you guys are watching the YouTube version of this but it's an RPO with a run to the left it's like a counter run to the left with multiple powers and then he's got a bubble going back to the right and Lamar has his eyes on the bubble and just goes complete sidearm no look around a guy to Deion Dr. Hopkins in the middle of the field who has like a 30 yard gain. I watched that play and I was like, holy shit. That was Vintos Rammar and so I love that. But I think the best part of that play is D'Andre Hopkins gets past the rest of the defense and like has a step on the safety, does not trust that he can outrun anybody and

tries to cut it back. And I'm like, just run. You're going to get run down, but like just keep running. It's funny that Lamar, at this stage of Lamar's career, this stage of DeAndre Hopkins's career, He's like Kyle Van Nuoy in open space. He's like, I don't know what I'm doing here. He was looking for a pitchman. We talked about that play on the show last night,

but the Kyle Van Nuoy handing it back to Alohi Gilman for that touchdown is very Ed reed coded in a way that I completely support. And so we'll see what happens with this Ravens team over, you know, the final few games of the season. I still think that there's like a reasonable shot that they get in. I just am not sure how dangerous they'll be if that happens. Like it just feels like a team that lacks. teeth in both

their offensive and defensive lines. And I'm just not sure what a Ravens team with that specific issue is going to look like as we get into the playoffs. That being said, like, all these teams are fucking imperfect, man. Like, I just, I don't know. Contextualizing who the Ravens are with

like the rest of the AFC and even like the rest of the field in general right now makes it even more of a complicated conversation. Because if I was putting this Ravens team against like last year's Bill's team or last year's Chiefs team. I'd be like, oh, they ain't got it. But I just think that there really are no perfect teams as it currently stands. And so it just makes me think about them a little bit differently,

even if I'm not that enthusiastic about them. That's the thing. It's a weird AFC. I don't know if I trust this team overall, but like ultimately Lamar Jackson still being in the dance, especially if he's going to get a little bit healthier over the next three weeks. Like, I still want to see it. The last thing I want to say about this game, because we haven't discussed this at all in any capacity, the quotes that Joe Burrow had last week that were taken, I think, by a lot of people as him saying that he was unhappy, that there were issues with him being in Cincinnati. I never read them that way. And in talking to some people there just that cover the team, because I wanted their opinion, like they hear from Joe every week. they're very used to his messaging and the fact that he wants to get stuff across sometimes in those settings. And when I was listening to him last week, that sounded like a guy who has been

heard a lot and who has a team that's losing. Like it just sounded like somebody who's kind of beaten down by what this season and honestly the last several years of his career have looked like, I don't think that was Carson Palmer get me the hell out of here. And I think for the most part as people who are around him all the time have pursed this, that's where I a lot of people have landed. And so I just wanted to talk about that for a second because I think that it really did get blown into something. I don't think he was trying to intend it to become.

I'm with you. Like, I don't, this to me did not feel like a Cincinnati thing. Like in terms of the offensive construction, like it's been all the stuff that he wants, like having Jamar Chase around, you know, keeping T. Higgins around, like just the way that they've built the offense and the way that they construct it consistently. It's his thing.

So I don't really think he was complaining about like how the team is operating or any of that. I'm with you. It's like he's banged up every year. It's the thumb thing or it's some sort of lower body injury or it's the turf toe stuff. Like it's just one thing after another. I just don't feel like since that the, what was it, 2021 run, he's had like a full season really where it's like I have nothing in the off season. I have no issues during the season where I can just play football at a really high level. He just hasn't been able to do that.

And obviously over the last couple of years, his defense, maybe even if he was healthy, would have made it really hard anyway. All right, we're going to take our first quick break and come back and chat a little Vikings cowboys. The Vikings knock off the Dallas Cowboys, 34 to 26. Dallas goes to 6.7 and 1 on the season. Like you said, they now have a less than 1% chance to make the playoffs. The Vikings were officially eliminated from playoff contention after the Bears win yesterday. And so this is more about morality points than anything else for the Minnesota Vikings. Where do you want to start with this? You were very excited about the prospect of a Brian Flores defense playing against Dak

Prescott. I think in a lot of ways this game did deliver on that front. Do you want to dig into that first? It actually did deliver on that. I would like to start there. Like there was, we can talk about a bunch of different specific moments, but I think where I felt where this game was really cool was in the second quarter, there was about eight minutes and 40 seconds left. It was third and 10. Flores loads the line of scrimmage. And what they end up doing is they drop multiple guys from like the weak short side of the field back into the open like field side where I think Dallas had three receivers, knowing that Dallas wants to run a bunch of crossers into that way,

they cut off all the deeper ones. Dallas only gets seven, so it becomes fourth and three. And then on the next play, DAC has a really good play to convert them. They get like 17 yards. And that to me was just like, it's so cool that Brian Flores had this pressure that was like,

yeah, we're not going to give you the third down immediately. You're going to have to earn it. And then DAC earns it. Like, it's just, that is exactly what I signed up for when I wanted to watch this game. And so to get it was really awesome. My favorite stretch of the entire game was actually the two. two-minute drive that Dallas had.

And they got the ball back with a, I can't remember exactly how much time, but it was just like a normal in two-minute in terms of how much time, the amount of timeouts. And on that drive, the Vikings ran like multiple, just funky cover-two variations for pretty much the entire drive. On the game, the Cowboys or the Vikings played 44% cover two. And they got to it in, I can't even describe how many different ways. I mean, just so many different varieties of it. and watching Dak try to process a lot of that was really fun.

He finished 10 of 16 for 165 yards with two sacks against cover 2 in this game. And on that drive specifically, all the Cowboys were doing was they were lining up in empty, the entire drive. And so the Cowboys were just in empty with Hunter Leapke either offset or just as a sniffer lined up right between the guard in the center to prick up any pressures. And so it was just Dak Prescott and empty against Brian Flores doing. weird shit in pure passing situations. And we just got to watch them

go back and forth for an entire drive. And the other layer of the cover two stuff, I actually, I'm so glad you brought that up, because one of what I thought was really interesting in this game, Brian Flores likes a lot of his too high stuff to begin with, but we've talked a million times that Dax's favorite throws are those seam routes or even those dig routes,

like trying to throw in between the numbers like intermediate level of the field. And on a lot of those cover two plays, they were having one of the safeties rolled down kind of as like a high pole player instead of like being the linebacker and like running up the seam, he kind of like starts high

and it almost looks like cover three when you're watching it. The nickel and the other safety are the ones who pop back into the deep half and the pole safety actually drops down. We see Spagnolo do this a decent amount. But I think this is a perfect example like you're saying,

if you're going to try to combat what DACA wants to do, dropping that guy down into that seam area is exactly what you would want to do. Right. Because if you're just like, let's say if it was covered, cover three and that middle of the field player is playing a little bit deep. Well, Dak is going to be like, I can throw that scene before he gets there.

But if you're playing him a little bit more aggressively and it's this cover two where he's like a high pole dropper, that's a bang, bang play. And I think even the best quarterbacks don't really want to make that throw. And I thought that even the guys who were playing it, it was a lot of like Josh Mattelis, just did a really good job of getting in front of those routes and not even giving Dak a window. So for one, for Flores to know that that was the best way to take away some of Dax best stuff and not give him that.

And Dack really didn't throw that area of the field until I think the final drive of the game where they were playing like bullshit defense. They really couldn't win the game anyway. And then Dack like still for the most part had a good game working around it. I just was like this game, man. Like I know they lost this game, but like it was just so incredibly fun to watch. I think he did a good job of taking what was there consistently. Like he wasn't trying to force throws into that area for the most part.

There were a lot of throws to the flat. there were more than enough aggressive throws for it to be a Dak Prescott game. I mean, would they get the ball with 10 minutes left in the third quarter? They're up 20 to 17. He absolutely chucks a whole shot to C.D. Lamb down the right side line for 30 yards. You could see him hold the safety too. Like that throw was incredible. So that there was a two-play stretch there where they had a 30-yard chunk to C.D.

And then right after that, there was this Javante Williams run that it was just absolutely beautiful. Like you watch Cooper Beebebe, Tyler Booker, and Tyler Smith on the that play. They all have one on one blocks. They're all gorgeous. It's like a 21-yard run. The Cowboys offense, I think, down to down, played pretty darn well. They averaged 6.3 yards per play. They had like a 46% success rate per next gen. They stood there, they stub their toes in high leverage moments. They were two of 13 on third down. And kind of similar to the Bengals conversation, even though the Cowboys scored 26 points, when they got into plus territory, there were several big time flubs and mistakes that ended up getting them in this game, which we can go over. But overall,

I thought the battle between DAC and a healthy Vikings defense with Brian Flores pulling the levers gave you what you wanted out of this game. And honestly, the run game too was another big part of it because I think you got, this was also like a this is what a Brian Flores kind of like a run plan can look like versus a good offensive line. He did a lot of like, we're going to send bodies. And there were some good moments and some really, really bad moments. There was one where Cowboys were backed up kind of inside their own end zone.

They had a tight split receiver to the right side. Flores said, all right, I'm going to blitz the corner. he fires off and gets into the backfield, it's a stuff. And then there was a different play later on where they had the one technique aligned to the weak side. Dallas tries to run strong to the left. The one technique actually cuts back like across the guard's face. They fire a backer in there and he goes and gets a TFL.

But then there were another, a number of other moments like on that Javante Williams, that second and seven pop run, they're in like a double mug look. And all the interior is just like, ah, we can move these guys. And they do that. And then there were a couple times where they tried to fire like, Eric Wilson and Tyler Booker just bounces him out of the club. But Tyler Booker, by the way, unbelievable game. I thought he was on fucking fire.

I'm excited to watch with that trio is going to look like moving forward. It's a bummer that Tyler Guyton has been hurt kind of on and off this entire season. He came into the season hurt. They're starting left tackle. He's hurt now. In this game, it actually ended up becoming a big deal. Their backup left tackle, Nathan Thomas, I think it is, their backup left tackle. It's numbers to me.

Number 71. who played a majority of this game. He got hurt before like the final couple drives and then Akima Medici, Deneji had to come in and that ended up impacting the game. I mean, the Vikings got consistent pressure on those final couple drives right around what was the third string left tackle. And so it is a bummer that for all of the cool elements of this offense that we've gotten from the Cowboys this year, we've never really gotten to see the offensive line healthy.

And that is something hopefully we do get next year because I think there's a lot. to build on with the young pieces among that group. It's exciting. I couldn't agree more. Like the, I know the record's the record. They're basically out of the playoffs now, but like the offense, when they've had their guys have been like the third best offense in the league, basically. Like they delivered on all the promises they wanted to. And so again, if they get these guys healthy again, Guyton looks solid next year. Even Terrence Steele like has been up and down with injuries over the past few years. I think he's been fine for a lot of this year. Like it's, they're really coming around to something that I think could be really fun next year. Yeah.

We'll get to why this team has not been successful despite the fact that their offense has been good in a second. Some of those like real like sliding doors moments for the offense, Brandon Aubrey misses two field goals in this game, right? And on the first one, he, it's a, the Cowboys are driving. They have a second and five. They don't block Leve Drake Rodriguez on a play action. Dak is forced to dirt it on second down. On third down, Grenard hits a nasty spin move on Terrence Steele and disrupts the timing of the play. Dak actually avoids the initial pressure, but because he's thrown off and pushed off his spot,

he doesn't have anywhere to go with the ball. He takes a sack. Aubrey misses the field goal. They have a third down early in the third quarter, deep in opponent territory. Vikings bring cover zero. Dak has to get rid of it immediately. Turpin gets tackle short of the sticks. They have to kick another field goal.

They are up 20 to 17 with a chance to go up 10 late in this game. And their Cowboys, the Vikings do an incredible job of sniffing out of screen in plus territory. Byron Murphy, they tried to give a jet sweep to Cavante Turpin to the right side. Byron Murphy on second down does a fantastic job of maintaining contain on that play and forcing it back inside. It goes for two yards. They get it back to like third and three or fourth and three and they take a delay game. That drive gets blown up. And then at 2423 early in the fourth quarter, they're driving again.

They're in plus territory. Dack gets sacked on a third down by Van Ginkle and Grenard, and then Brennan Aubrey misses another field goal. And so I think that the Vikings' credits are, the Vikings' defense deserves a lot of credit in those moments, but the Cowboys had plenty of opportunities in this game, and they either came away with no points, or they turned potential touchdown drives into field goals.

Yeah, and like, again, even if some of those just missed field goals hit, like, I think Dallas's, like, end-of-game operation is probably a little bit different. Like, this just, it felt like because of some of those misses and then again one of those two third a couple of third downplays just don't go their way it ends up it was like it was kind of the opposite of the bengals where it's like you the bengals played a much better than zero points would suggest whereas in this game it's like i almost think the the dallas cowboys played even better than like 26 points which is just like i thought they were awesome in a game where flores did everything he was supposed to i just think the quarterback in the offensive line

played at a really really high level part of the problem part of the reason that the margins were so slim and the fact that they didn't give themselves a ton of margin for error is that the defense allowed a 59.3% dropback success rate to J.J. McCarthy in the Vikings offense. That you can't do that. Like he he he had been under like 40% dropback success rate on the season basically before this that might that might have been a little bit higher after his commander's game too but like he this was bad level of quarterback playing for them to allow him to look like MVP level Matthew Stafford. It was just like that's inexcusable. I thought that he had some decent moments in this game.

I mean, there were a handful of like really impressive throws. The touchdown throw to Jalen Naylor, his first one of the day, where he's booting to his left and he flips his hips, moving to his left, and gets around, puts his foot in the ground, and fires that ball to Jalen Naylor in the left corner of the end zone. Like there are moments when you look at what he is as an athlete and as a thrower where there's absolutely something there. A lot of it just doesn't really happen on to,

timer and structure. There were several moments in this game where it did. But I think a lot of his best plays still are where I got one guy. The field is cut in half and I am just letting this thing loose. And when he's able to do that, like you do see some of the flashes of what made him a top 10 pick. Yeah. I'm like honestly what impressed me less than this game where some of his like peak throws, like he's even when he was playing terribly, he did have two or three of those throw a game where you were like, okay, talent wise, I can see it. I did think for the first time, even though there are some instances where he's still a little late, maybe his eyes aren't perfect where they need to be.

This was the first time where it didn't feel like he was frantic in the pocket and he didn't feel as jumpy. Like I actually did feel like he was confident in the way that he was playing. And so again, for, again, Dallas's defense maybe allows you to do that a little bit easier. But I did think that he, you know, there were a couple instances where even when and how he's, quickly, he's deciding to take off as a scrambler, I thought was a little bit different than he had done in previous games. Just some of that stuff I thought he did well.

And so like there was, it was early in the fourth quarter with about 11 and a half minutes left. It was just the second and down, second and seven. And just how quickly he decided to take one hitch. Okay, boom, I'm just going to slip out of the B gap here and go get a first down. He just wasn't that decisive with stuff like that earlier in the year. And so for him to at least have put together his first game where it felt a little settled, I was like, okay, that's how you start to build on some stuff. I'm with you.

I think that he just looked a lot calmer, a lot played within himself. a lot more. And there, thankfully, there were a lot of plays out there to be made. You know, I mean, the 58-yarder he has to Jordan Addison early in the second quarter, it's third and eight. I can't describe to you like what the Cowboys are trying to do defensively on that play. I think it's quarters to that side. I think Kaylin Carson is just like a sleep. And so you have an outside corner to that side and you have Jordan Addison just run right by him. Like just runs right by him. And to JJ's credit, he puts the ball on the, the money, it's a 60 yard gain.

But that just can't be happening. Like the amount of open guys that this team consistently allows, I just don't understand, like, what the plan is supposed to be on defense and how we've arrived in such a terrible spot with this group. That was kind of where I was at to. It was weirdly like, JJ probably didn't play as well as the numbers, but also did play his best game, I would say. And so, yeah, there was that.

That's a fair representation. And that play was the most egregious one to me where I was just like, I, I, I, I, I, I, I don't understand what Kaelin Carson was looking at. Because there are moments where it's like, okay, a guy puts a crazy double move on a guy and you just start to burn past. But Addison didn't even really do that. It was kind of like a pretty stock standard route. And so I do think it was a good concept. Like they were running like kind of a Mills concept where the inside receiver is running like that deep over dig route.

And so it's designed to draw the other safety down and let that be a one on one. So decision wise like McCarsely should make that throw whether or not Kailen Carson is participating in the play either way. but it becomes a touchdown because he's not participating in the play. And then I would say like there were still a couple of rough moments for JJ, I would say in this game. Like he the only throw, I wouldn't say the only throw, but I think the throw that irritated me the most was early in the fourth quarter, the throw, the completion actually that he has to Hawkinson, the sailor to the left side. I'm so glad you're bringing this up. I'm so glad you're bringing this up. It's wide ass open.

Dude, he tries to get him killed. It's wide ass open. And nobody is near the sideline. If he just throws that out to the sideline, Hawkinson gets basically probably a one-on-one at like the eight-yard line to maybe go turn that into a touchdown. Instead, he leads it back up the field into the safety. And if the safety is like a quarter of a second faster,

that's either an incompletion or Hawkinson is going out on a cart. Like, I just, that play irritated me. I was like, man, we can't do that to our best players. It's so funny that you said that because I had that exact play in my notes where it's an 18-yard completion, but it's actually one of the plays. that I found most frustrating in the entire game. But you go to the flip side, his best throw of this entire game

and his best play of this entire game, in my opinion, is to T.J. Hawkinson. There's like four and a half minutes left in the third quarter, and it's covered two, and he puts a scene bowl on T.J. Hawkinson for like 30 yards. And then on that same drive, it's a fourth and three that's the play of the game. The Vikings have a fourth and three on that drive,

and they're initially, Jalen Naylor is covered. I assume this was the, not the design of the play. Sometimes you'll see this where you'll have a guy kind of sit for a second and then wheel back around as like a double move. I don't think that was the design of the play. I think that is a second reaction play from Naylor who is sitting there. He's covered. He wheels back down field. J.J. extends, finds him down the field and that's the touchdown drive that makes it 24, 23. So the Cowboys were up 20 to 17. They go down. They have a fourth and three in Vikings territory. They take a delay. They kick the field goal. They go up 23, 17. So,

So instead of going up 10 there, they go up six. And then on the ensuing drive for the Vikings, they have a fourth and three at the 37-yard line. They get it. They score a touchdown. They go up 24-23. And so those two fourth and three plays and decisions. And I'm not even like excoriating Brian Schott and I'm not going for that.

But that sequence where the Cowboys come away with three with a chance to go up 10, and then the Vikings come back and score a touchdown on that drive with the seam shot to Hawkinson. And with that fourth and three conversion, that's where the game changes right there. And then Aubrey misses a field goal on the next drive. And actually, the Naylor fourth and three was interesting to me too. Because I think when I first watched it, and when you watch it back, it's like, Nailer has, if he wants to throw it down the sideline to him vertically and let him run under it, maybe for a touchdown, it's there.

But then as I watched it again, I was like, it's fourth and three. Maybe just giving him the back shoulder where he's the only guy who can go and get that ball actually is the right throw. And so it ends up looking a little bit weird. like as I rewatched it a couple times, but I was actually kind of impressed that that McCarthy was like, you know what? What is the quickest way that we can just get this completion

and keep the drive alive? I actually liked it. A couple of things to point out, Vikings had a 33% rushing success rate in this game. I thought the Cowboys front, the Vikings offensive line had some issues with the amount of like stunting and games that they were having to see in the run game.

And so there were a lot of run stuff, negative runs, just nothing going for the Vikings on the ground. There was one play though, where I just, it was exactly, I know where you're going. Yep. It was a seven-yard run. Yes, I'm so glad you have this.

It was a seven-yard run at one point in the game. And I just cannot describe to you how aesthetically pleasing it was. It's a seven-yard zone lead run. And when you watch it happen, there's a double team between Fries and Kelly. And then C.J. Hamm is leading up. And the combo between Fries and Kelly, the timing of it, Fries comes off of it onto the linebacker. and Fries and C.J. Ham hit their guys at the exact same time.

And it was just like, if you could draw up a beautiful run play in the NFL, that's what it would look like. And there was just something so aesthetically pleasing about the blocks hitting at the exact same time with that cadence. Like, it's one of my favorite things to watch in football as a run play unfolding like that. I couldn't agree. I was so amped for that play. And it's funny. Yeah, it only pops for seven yards. it's just like kind of an okay run. But watching the way that it unfolds, for that to be like a diamond in the rough for a rushing game that otherwise was not very good for Minnesota,

I was like, man, if they could just get four or five of those a game, they would be absolutely cooking with gas. A couple of specific plays by defensive linemen in the run game. Jalen Redman continues to have like two plays a game where I'm like, my God. Like he just kind of like had like a long arm in the run game holding off Tyler Smith for a TFL at one point in this game. And then the other guy, Kenny Clark did something disgusting to Ryan Kelly and the Viking second possession.

He was lied up as a head up nose on that play. And he times up the snap count. Like he gets an early jump and Kelly just has absolutely no shot. And so Kenny Clark just walks Ryan Kelly directly back into the running back for a two-yard loss. So there were several like highlight moments from front seven players for both teams in this game. They really were like they were and again even from the offensive lines like this was like ended up quietly being like an insanely fun trench matchup on both sides. It was fun. It was. And I was not

necessarily expecting that. But I probably should have been given the fact that the interior for the Cowboys is a good group. The Vikings offense, they play without backup left tack. They play without their starting left tackle again in this game. But they're healthier than they've been for a good chunk of the season. And so there are a lot of good players involved up front on both sides of the ball. And it did not disappointed. We got a lot of good moments from both of those guys. All right, we're going to take one more quick break and then come back and chat a little Niners Titans. I want to start with my process of watching the Niners offense in this game. And it actually, it happened before he started going off. I think it was the first play where he gets hurt on like

a hip-drop tackle. And then there was another play where he was open and did not get the ball. on like the first two Niners drives, I was like, we're going to get a game soon where Ricky Pearsall just goes off. Like that guy is incredibly talented. Like when you watch him move and you watch his ability to create separation, and then you go back and look at like the last three games that the Niners have had, and he's playing a lot. But they're getting a ton of targets of kiddle,

a ton of targets, Christian McCaffrey, Joanne Jennings is getting a decent workload. And Pearsall just hasn't been involved. And I'm watching him move on like their, first drive and you watch him like stick guys at the top of routes and his ability to kind of sell things. And I'm like, it's weird that this guy has not been more productive. And then he has his first big game in like two months. I'm that guy is like he's awesome. He's awesome. His it's not just like he is a good route runner. I think he runs down the field really well like some of those outbreakers.

I think he's really good on. He also, if you're going to play in this Niners offense, you better be ready to catch balls over the middle of the field and find a way to snag it. And he does have pretty incredible like hand-eye coordination. It's not, it's not like watching Pukua because he's a much bigger player, but just that fearlessness where like he will just go up and go take a shot over the ribs. Like I do admire that about Ricky Piersol. So I'm glad that he's finally, again, he's dealt with health issues. And then obviously there was the off season where he got shot and had all of that. And so for him to like have a game where he gets to step up and really be the guy now, I think he's like, I'm into what he can be for them long term. He did a little bit

everything in this game. I mean, you got like, he gets a PI in the end zone on a little crosser return that's designed to attack man coverage. He's given the corner a ton of trouble on that. They have a third and 13 in this game where he runs like a deep out route against Kyra Elam. He converts that. He was open on multiple crossing routes. They get him on a little like, almost like a little squirrel route to the left side where he's running like a corner stop and coming back into space. He's wide open on that play. So they were going to him in a lot of high leverage moments. And the nine are, the biggest difference in this game, as the Niners were fantastic on third down.

I mean, they were seven of seven, their first seven third downs. And even if they weren't running the ball very consistently, they were able to convert a ton of those high variance plays in this game. And that's why they were able to sustain drives. And so watching him be a bigger part of the offense was exciting to me. Because I think for this team to be the best version of itself on that side of the ball, they need him to be involved because he can be that dynamic. Yeah, like, and I think the third down stuff, obviously, again,

some of this has to be couch but they're playing the Titans, all that stuff. But I do think there were a couple of things. One, you have Pierce all back and healthier. And I think them having a wide receiver that they feel like they can go to in those moments is great. Like, obviously they've had kiddle,

CMC can do all that stuff on third down. But to have a wide receiver guy, you can play outside. And on that third and 13, like that play was funny because I watch it and I'm like, man, it feels like the ball's taking forever to get there. And then it finally gets there and he's still like three yards away

from any defensive back because he just snapped him off so bad. And I was like, all right, if you have a guy who can do that, that makes life a lot easier. And then I actually do think Brock Purdy for the first time since coming back kind of looked like himself as a creator, as a mover, like getting outside of the pocket. I was like, that's who he has to be for this to work. And if we're going to have the big scramble play, he gets to DeMarcus Robinson, the weird jump pass he had to George Cable play.

I mean, yes, it's, yes, it was pretty good. No, no, I mean, Purdy had a big scramble. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, oh, the actual scramble in this game. Sorry, yes, sorry. I was saying, yes, the pastor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying. He was, like, finally moving.

And my whole complaint with when he came back was like, the whole point of him being in the offense is that he can run around. And this was the first game where I was like, oh, he's running around. The Niners might be who they're supposed to be again. It's interesting. I kind of came away from this game with a similar feeling to how I felt while watching the Ravens, where you watch the passing game. And it's like, okay, I see it, right?

I see the vision. And again, I think the pierceal helps. see out that vision. And I do think that the Niners have more dynamic past catchers than the Ravens do. Like, I think that's kind of clear when you combine what Kittle can do. And he was a monster in this game. Like every single little play action dump off, they gave him in space, he turns into like a 15-year game every time the ball is in his hands.

It's just, it's disgusting. The fact that you can just flip him the ball, let him do that. Obviously, you know what McCaffrey can do in those moments. Juan Jennings is like he is Joanne Jennings. Like his first touchdown, it's like, you're just shoving guys out of the way in man coverage. I appreciate that about him. The combination of all of the past catchers, like, it's not what it's been at its best for this team, but it's still a good group. And I do think Pierceaw kind of elevates it. But then you watch what they are down to down in the run game.

And this has always been the case with them where they don't really have a lot of movers up front. I feel like it's worse right now than it's been in a while where you watch them try to run the ball and there's just not a lot there. And so even if I do feel like, talent at the past catching spots and pretty with that like chaotic good energy that he brings at his best there is something there. I still feel like the engine of this thing is not where it needs to be for them to find a level of consistency you want from a Niners offense. I don't know.

I think they're kind of okay. I think in terms of them being like 2023 again that you need the run game to be that. But I do think that like what they are now, like they can consistently be like the sixth best offense in the league. like if that's the bar to me. I kind of think they can. With some of these guys being healthy, like because to me at least...

Are you scared of this offense though in the playoffs? I guess that's where I get. You are. I think I would be. Yeah. I think if Purdy continues to look healthy the way that I think he has, if Pearsall can continue to be like this team's number one,

Kittle is as scary as anyone in the league with the ball in his hand. And I know that CMC in the run game has not been good, but I do think by virtue of having Christian McCaffrey on the field, teams are still scared of them running the ball. and you get some of the coverages you want so that Kyle Shanahan can run a lot of the plays that he want. I mean, even in this game, the Titans ran like 72% cover three on passing plays.

Like they were getting the stuff that they want. And so even if there's more of the burden on the passing game to be efficient because they're not running the ball well, I actually, Christian McCaffrey, what he can do in the passing game almost allows you to replace the run game in a way. So I actually am pretty scared of them. I think that's fair. They were unbelievably efficient throwing the ball in this game.

And there's no denying that. I just think a decent amount of it is still coming like slightly off schedule. And I guess that's okay if Brock Purdy is your quarterback, right? Like you have to embrace that because he can do that. That's what he can do that Mac Jones can't. I just, I don't know. I think there's just like something about when I watch them where I'm still worried about what the offensive line is going to look like in important moments for both a past protection

perspective and from being able to run the ball on your own terms perspective. I just, I don't trust their ability to do that right now. I mean, I think that's fair. I do think there's definitely a world where they run into Seattle. And like Leonard Williams and DeMarcus Lawrence just have like a day on them. But I don't know. I kind of like their chances against most to everybody outside of the truly elite defenses right now. But those of the teams are going to have to play in the playoffs.

I think that's kind of where I land. In this game specifically, they got beat up on both sides of the ball up front. Both sides. They got pushed around. And I think Tennessee is capable of doing that. But they can get pushed around on both lines right now. The defensive line, that shouldn't be surprising. We know that that's a group that is hurt.

And then your best pass rusher is a guy you don't like defending the run. But he has to be out there because he's your best defensive end right now. In this game, the Niners around a lot of 70% design rush success rate per next gen. 70. And as of right now, they are dead lab. and run defense success rate. And I know that's a separate conversation from the one about the offensive line

and the running game on that side. But I just feel like when you're looking at the Rams, the Seahawks, the teams they're going to have to play in the postseason, I don't think that there is a team they're going to play that's not better than them on both lines as things currently stand. And that worries me. And that part of it, I agree with you.

Like, when you're worse in the trenches, you are not playing the games on your terms anymore. And I still trust. That's kind of where I'm at. And they were able to skirt around it. it for a long time, even if they weren't super talented there. And I just don't think they're, I think it's worse now. I think this is like the worst I've seen it in a while.

It is like the offensive line is worse than it's ever been. And I still, I still do think that like I would trust Kyle Shanahan in a playoff game to get me 17 to 20 points against even the best NFL defenses. But there were previous versions of this Niners team where it's like they might also do that to the opposing offense. There's no shot this Niners defense is doing that to anybody right now. Again, because they can't stop the run whatsoever. And then I actually don't think the secondary is that bad.

It's just if you're never putting teams in pure past scenarios and even when you do, you can't rush the passer, how is the secondary supposed to look any sort of decent? Yeah. And the linebackers are, they're digging into their depth there too. Like De Winters has been nice and he's had good moments again in this game. But I just think that the level, the quality in the front seven right now combined with the quality of the offensive line, it gives me pause about what this team can accomplish when we get into the playoffs.

Like what they have done up to this point and what they continue to do is undeniably impressive. Like this is a very good version of a Kyle Shanahan coaching job and I think solid deserves a lot of credit too. I just think that there's some mf missing from what they are right now

to no fault of their own. Like this is just the place where they've landed. On the offensive line it is their fault. But on the defensive line, it is not their fault. Yeah, the defensive stuff like that was kind of an accident. And like to quickly recalibrate it too, I think it is a little bit disappointing that you win this many games and probably just don't feel like your team can

realistically do anything to get to the Super Bowl. But we said coming into the year that this was like a reload year for the Niners. And so for them to even look like this is like, oh shit, okay. I mean, it's a really impressive year. They should feel good about where they've gotten and also be realistic about where they can actually go this year. I want to be clear about that. I don't, when I frame it that way, I'm not disappointed in what the Niners are right now. I think it's just trying to be realistic about what the Niners are.

are right now. And I'm not going to rule out these pass catchers, Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy, doing something crazy to a really good team in the playoffs. I do think that gear exists because they're so dynamic. But again, I just think that the engine of things and like, it's not solidified to me. I guess that's what I mean. It feels flimsier than I want it to because of what they look like on both lines. The Titans continue to be pretty good on the interior of both lines. And they were in this game. I think that there's something there with like elements of this Titans team. The run game looked really good in this game. Jeffrey Simmons is giving people tons of problems in this game. I think that we've talked about this a lot with the Titans. Like they just need

better talent on the edges of their offense and defense. They need better receiving talent. They need better edge rushing talent. They need better DB talent. I mean, what Ricky Pearsall was doing to like every single member of the Titans secondary in this game. It's just a tough place to be. But like, that's where the Titans are right now. It's, I, and they were like that when they had all their guys healthy. And then they are now digging into a little bit of depth at defensive back, which I think has been a bigger issue.

Like, I'm, I'm pretty much with you on the offense. Like, I've wax poetic about Cam Ward a number of times. I don't need to, to continue to do that. But like, I think the backfield is relatively talented. We've seen this offensive line have some pretty good games, especially after the first like six weeks of the season. Over the first five or six weeks, they were pretty tough, but I really think that they've kind of scaled into this season really, really well.

Backup, a lot tackle in this game, too, and you could tell. You could feel it over the course of the game. Which, like, earlier in the season, when it was back up, right tackle, you could really feel it. Like, there is definitely aspects of that that I think can be frustrating. But when they're healthy, I do think the offensive line looks okay. I think tight end gunner helm is kind of giving them a little bit of something. I think he's a pretty solid player.

That's like a nice piece for them to have. To me, it really does just come down to the wide receivers. And I think in this game, it was actually both phases of the game. Obviously, this is a unit that's had their drops and they don't necessarily get open consistently and you really have to help scheme them open. They were also really frustrating to me as blockers. Van Jefferson in the red zone missed the block on a safety coming down into the run fit. There was one where Chimira, DK, they had him inserting on like a duo run and he just completely whiffed on his guy. It was a little bit of everything in this game.

And so I think if they can sort out wide receiver a little bit next year, I'm like, they're not going to be a good offense, but they should be watchable. Like, they've got enough talent. I mean, I have a keen eye on who is going to be the offensive play caller and designer for this team. Like, who would they end up with? I do think there's enough to work with here where I want to see how this goes. And even in this game, like, it's 1710 at halftime. You know, like they were in this thing.

Like, they were showing some fight. Like, there were definitely some flashes from the offense. The Niners come out on their first drive of the second half. they there's again pierce all has a 38 yard chunk on like a crazy good route against marcus harrison that drive ends with a corner route touchdown to juan jennings it's suddenly 24 to 10 on the next titans drive you feel the backup left tackle and their inability to pick up some pressures they punt the ball back the niner score touchdown is 31 10 the game is over like it just they there is like a decent amount of fight and resistance for stretches of these games

before they just get out talented over the course of it by better teams. That's exactly what happened again yesterday. And that's kind of the other part of it, too, is that this is an offense that when they've been at their best, it's when they can stay balanced and run the ball because they do run the ball fairly well. And it keeps this offensive line, especially with the backup left tackle in this game, out of some pure pass stuff. When they get into most of their games this year, where they start to fall behind a little bit on the school board, they're down 10 points, 14, 7 points, 17 points. Then you have to pure pass with a rookie quarterback, an offensive line that is still a little bit shaky in terms of pass pro,

and no receiver or pass catchers that you're really scared of. Like, that's how these games, they get to points where they have to dig themselves out, and then they just don't really have the ability or the talent to dig themselves out of it. Yeah, I feel, I was going to say less hopeless. I don't even feel it. I'm not hopeless at all. Like, I just, I don't think this is hopeless. And I think as a Titans fan, that's really all you can be asking for right now

is to have enough glimpses now where this is not. totally a lost cause and I don't think that it is. It doesn't feel like watching the like Urban Meyer Jaguars or like this year's Raiders or anything like that. It's like it's a bad offense, but there are at least kernels of like, we could pick and choose from this and this can be something down the line. All right. Before we get out of here, we're going to hear from you guys. We're going to take a couple voicemails for another edition of Monday morning. We got a couple sad fan bases we want to get to today.

Beller, hit us with the first one. Hey, Robert. I'm sitting outside of my dog just watched the Cowboys game there's a winchill about minus five right now he's just squatted to start doing his business and it's

it's gonna smell like the Cowboys defense out here I mean we gave up 34 points to J.J. McCarthy tonight and I know the Parsons trade is what it is at this point we got Quina Williams

we got some other guys we gave up 34 points to the Vikings and on a day where Parsons, Hersons, his ACL, Quinn Williams gets injured. The last guy standing

is Jerry Jones, the multi-billionaire vampire that seems to just live off of my hopes and dreams. Am I dumb? Am I the idiot? Am I the problem

in my life for continuing to fall for a marketing firm with a football hobby? Is this ever going to get better or am I just a lost cause as well? is this the most introspective message that we've gotten all year? Here's the problem with this.

This year is a particularly frustrating one if you're a Cowboys fan because this is the version of the Cowboys offense we've wanted for the last like five years. Even in 2023, when DAC was like an MVP candidate, I still don't think the offense was as legitimate as it is right now because I don't think that if you look at what, that was, it was just like a souped up version of what the Cowboys had been kind of in the combination. For a lot of the time, I mean, we talk about this with Joe Burrow, we talked about this other quarterbacks. The Cowboys are running the DAC offense for a while. And I think to their

benefit, but also to their detriment. And this is the first time in a while where when you look at the past catching options, when you look at the structure of everything, it does feel like this offense has the gear they need to be a like real player in this thing. And it happened at the exact same time where the defense is bottoming out for like a bunch of different reasons. Like the idea that you're going to use some of the money that you save by not signing Michael Parsons to that deal to give it to Duran Bland and you're still paying Trevon Diggs what you're paying him. And you have these guys who are these man-centric corners in a previous version of your defense. And you're going to bring in Matt Iberfus to be your defensive

coordinator with like no consideration for the players you have when you're deciding with the structure of that defense is going to be. It's been malpractice the entire year. Like, it's nothing about this was correctly planned on that side of the ball. I think you went for familiarity with somebody who's been in the organization and you did that thing where we want a former head coach as the defensive coordinator for a first time head coach because we think it's going to bring us some semblance of stability. And it's a square peg in a round hole.

It never worked. And I think that you have to do some real thinking about what type of defense you want. to run next year based on the players that you have. That's the thing is like, I think the Parsons trade is so funny because the immediate thought would be like, oh, well, they rip Parsons out of the front. The front must be the issue here for Dallas. And it's not a perfect front. But like the front actually has something to it.

They can rush the passer a little bit. Like Kenny Clark has been good for them. It's that, yeah, part of their reasoning for, oh, we're going to save all this money is that we can do all this stuff with the secondary. And none of the bets they've made in the secondary have worked out. Obviously, for part of it with digs is that he's been injured, right? but they drafted a player who was coming out of college injured in Chauvin Ravel. They have the Duran Blan thing, who I think, obviously he had the year where he had a million interceptions, but that is not something that always plays.

And again, that worked because they were running a defense that fit exactly his skill set, and now they're not. And it just, it felt like they were a little bit, just didn't know exactly what the picture was supposed to look like on defense. And we're just hoping that pulling out Parsons and just throwing enough bodies at the front would fix it. And it obviously didn't. Is there a defensive scheme or system that you would like to see the Cowboys borrow from heading into next year based on their current personnel? I genuinely with the secondary, I don't think it matters. Like this is to me is not a secondary that it matters like what you run. Like I just don't think they're good enough.

I would like to see. I mean, we'll see what Revelle looks like with a full off season. If he comes into next season healthy, like there's still enough youth on that side where, and I think again, defense can just be so. volatile from season to season that I do want to see like a different set of ideas and how this group plays with a different set of ideas. I just don't know exactly who that person would be. I think a lot of the guys, like a lot of the systems defensively that I think are really good around the NFL right now or like trees I'd want to pick from. These are not a lot of teams that run a bunch of man coverage. And so I'm curious like where they would seek out a coordinator or

somebody that they think could fit what they want to be and what they want to do. I'm not sure either. I'm really not sure. Because again, it is a world where everyone wants to run a lot of this too high, cover six, all that sort of stuff. And I just don't, like with these corners, I just don't know if that's really what you want to do. And honestly, truthfully, with the linebackers, like, they are not guys where I necessarily want them sitting in a bunch of hook zones and like trying to run up the seam as the three or anything like that. Like, I just, this is a team where I would want to simplify it for the linebackers and even truthfully for the DBs. And so a lot of man coverage and a lot of blitzing probably would be good for the.

them. It's just outside of Detroit and Aaron Glenn in that tree. Like there's just not that many teams who are doing a whole lot of that. Unless you want to pull from Denver maybe. That would be my other guess. Detroit is the place I would consider. Like, if you look at it, so the passing game coordinator for the Lions, the Shay Townsend, he got there last year. And so he's only been there for two years. And if you look at what the Lions defense has been able to do for the most part with just an insane amount of defensive back injuries over the last two years, I do think that group is like well put to and well-coached. And so maybe trying to seek out something like that where you think it is,

like the right blend of who you've drafted and what type of scheme that you're running. Like I do think that has to be a considered conversation for the Cowboys this offseason. And if they can get to a level where, what do we say, just be regular bad. Just be regular bad on defense with the pieces that you have up front. I do think you combine that with the offense. And there is reason for hope. And unfortunately, for that guy who just called, it's like the exact right. It's the exact wrong amount of hope.

It's exactly what you do not want as a fan. Exactly. It's the scariest kind of hope to have. All right. Let's hit one more before we get out of here. Bella, what do you got for me? Hey, guys. This is Brad from Wisconsin.

At the end of the first half of the afternoon slate, the green attackers were in position to be the number one seed in the NFC by way of the Detroit Lions beating the Rams and still beating Seattle Seahawks, those two results changed, and that has less of an impact on my life than, you know, our best offensive linemen leading the game due to the injury, seemingly for multiple weeks,

a stud young safety leading the game to, you know, at least one week, if not probably multiple weeks. our best remaining pass catcher after our best pure pass catcher, you know, towards ACL earlier in the season. And the second best defense is defensive player in football and probably one of the five or six best players in football period towards ACL and is out for the rest of the season. I don't know ever gone from this high to this low as a football fan this quickly. What do I do with myself?

what happens here, help. I'll let you take this because I think you're going through like a similar emotional path that a lot of Packers fans are right now. Like quarterback injuries aside, I don't know if I've ever seen a team's hopes and dreams like collapsed this quickly. Like for, again, like he said, they were leading this game and their offense looked awesome against a really, really good Denver team for the first like two and a half quarters of this game. And then we spent so much air.

being like Christian Watson gives him so much explosiveness down the field, he goes down. So now the offense is probably going to feel cramped again. Well, at least if it's going to feel cramped, maybe our offensive line and our run game can help us. Okay, now we lose Zach Tom. That's going to hurt us. On the flip side, obviously losing Parsons,

you made the trade in the offseason and have gotten everything you've wanted out of the Parsons deal in terms of his impact, what he's doing in terms of some of the stuff they can scheme up. He had like five pressures in the third quarter alone. Like, he was awesome in this game. And obviously they lose him. And that probably tips the scale on them potentially not being able to win this game.

And then the Evan Williams one is a great shout too because I forgot that when we were talking about it last night. He's same. He's probably their third best defensive player. Like he's awesome. He's a really, really good player. And so he might come back for the playoffs and he'll be okay. But like, again, the fact that they went from, it just felt like they were on such this upswing. Both sides of the ball had found something.

They were becoming explosive again. and all of the pieces that made them explosive are gone now. It's just like, it's not really the loss. Like, the record doesn't matter. They'll get into the playoffs. It's that you've lost all the things that got you here in the first place. I mean, the most unfortunate part about this, and I think I did say this last night.

Right now, they're just the 20-24 Packers again. Yep. And that's okay. But none of the stars, none of the explosive, like, exactly. You're a good team. You know, you'll be feisty in the playoffs. You could win a playoff game with, with, that construction, but you were not a championship caliber team without Michael Parsons and with

some of the other injuries that they're dealing with. And that was the hope for this year. That's why you make the Michael Parsons trade is because you want to be a championship caliber team. I just don't think they have that in them without him because I'm just not sure the past rush has enough juice for them to get there. And so what are you looking at? You're looking at maybe a division around loss to the Rams. That's kind of what you're staring at right now. I mean, you'd hope that was going to be different this year. And then so you go through the off season, doing the entire thing over again.

I think the difference is, at least this off season, you don't have to be sitting there wondering where are we going to get these guys from, right? Like, where are we going to get these difference making pieces? You're getting them back. And this is a team for the most part that is young enough and you're bringing back enough guys where I think you can feel pretty good about this.

Like, let's see what they do along the offensive line. I think that's like an interesting question to me. Rashid Walker is a free agent. And so how do they handle that? Like, is that a situation where Jordan Morgan plays that spot? Anthony Belton plays guard. Do they kind of sort that out a little bit differently? My assumption is they'll move on from Ellen Jenkins this offseason

save some money by doing that. They'll have a little bit of money to spend in free agency. Like, this is a team that still has some runway as constructed because they are so young and they're not overly expensive. And so the 2026 outlook, I feel like we're going to be I think there's going to be more collective enthusiasm about what they can be going into next year than there was even going into this year

because they've shown us what that level looks like. But that doesn't make the next month any easier for Packers fans as they kind of have to sit with the reality of what this is. Yeah, like I still feel great about what they're going to be next year. I'll probably, when we, depending on how the offseason goes, you never know. I'll probably say that they're the third best team in the NFC. I thought they were the second best team in the NFC.

halfway through that game. And then very quickly, they've become like, I just, they probably don't have the juice for the Super Bowl, which is it really did feel like over the last three weeks, it was all color lessing and you could see the vision. And it just immediately got shut out. Left comes at you fast in the NFL, my friend. Sure does.

All right. That's all we've got for today. We will be back tomorrow with Building the Beast with Dan and Dave. We will have our Monday night football recap on the YouTube channel available on Tuesday. If you guys are watching this, encourage you guys to go check that out. I'm excited for Steelers,

Dolphins. I think there's a lot of line in that game. Steelers lose that game. We'll see what it does for the Ravens. And so excited to chat about that one and excited to bring you guys a bunch more this week. For now, that's all we got. Appreciate you listening.

We'll talk to you very soon.