The Josh Innes Show - NFL Weekend Wrap Up

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

It was another great Sunday of NFL action. * Are The Chiefs back? * Can the Eagles survive with awful offense? * The Lions may be most complete team in NFL * Are the Ravens cooked? * Why do we still have ties? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you're with Amex Platinum, you get access to exclusive dining experiences and an annual travel credit. So the best tapas in town might be in a new town altogether. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Terms and conditions apply. Learn more at Amex.ca. Hello, friends. Welcome in. It is all up in us Monday morning after another great weekend. Football-wise, we had college, we had pro, and it was quite a time. Quite a time it was indeed. Yesterday, of course, a very good day of NFL football. There were a couple of games in there that were really fantastic down to the wire. Last night, while you were sleeping, maybe possibly, while I should have been sleeping.

We had an overtime game ended in a tie, which is preposterous. There should never be a situation where a professional sporting event ends in a tie. But this one did with the Cowboys and the Packers. And, yeah, the fact that it was a tie sucked. But we have learned something about the Packers the last two weeks. And what we've learned in their 01 and one stretch here is maybe they're not the locked-in Super Bowl favorite as we all thought they were after two weeks of domination. So we got that. Let's do this. Let's kick off the show today with looking back at each game and giving some initial thoughts on each one. And then we'll find some games to kind of dive in on specifically. But let's look at all the games from yesterday. We will do that after these words. All right. Let's see here. We will start with the Vikings and the Steelers, the game that was in Ireland. And the final was 2421. It wasn't that close. The Steelers dominated the game. It was just.

the Vikings with a big fourth quarter and yes the Vikings had the ball down by three I still don't view that as some sort of close game I know that it was but through three plus quarter as it was dominated by the Steelers I still don't think the Steelers are all

that good and I don't think the Vikings are all that good. The Vikings have a backup quarterback and couldn't do a damn thing with the ball through most of the game and then all of a sudden you look up and Carson Wentz is thrown for 350 yards and two touchdowns a couple of big plays they had the D.K. Metcalf, you know, 80-something-yard touchdown as well.

I don't think the Steelers suck, but I don't think the Steelers are all that good either. But, hey, A. Raj is making plays. He's taking care of the ball. He's getting the ball to the guys who need it. They did it without Jalen Ward on the backfield. It's one of my favorite pass catchers out of the backfield. You know, Kenneth Gainwell had almost 100 yards rushing. D.K. Metcalf had an 80-yard touchdown in the day. So, look, whether I think the Steelers are good or not, and I don't think they're particularly good, They're three and one, and that's the only thing that matters at this point through four weeks.

They're a three and one team. They held on to beat the Vikings over in Ireland, and there you go. Commanders and Falcons, admittedly, I can tell you that I did not watch one second of this game. For whatever reason, there was nothing that was exciting about this game to me. I never turned it on because any time it got sort of close, there was something else I was watching. I will say this. Michael Pennix finally had a big game, 313 yards and two touchdowns. B. John Robinson, again, a big weapon out of the back field. It was just an all-around offensive

dominance from the Falcons. Yet, at the end of it, still a relatively close game with a backup quarterback for the commanders. They're going to get Jane Daniels back soon, but I think this week they're going to get him back. But that's a big one for the Falcons because that division, Tampa took an L this weekend. So, you know, that division is open. Really, it's between two teams because the Panthers are terrible and the Saints are somewhere beyond terrible. The Falcons, who I think could still end up winning that division. I don't think they're as good as Tampa, but Tampa's dealing with injuries as well. So we'll see, but that's a huge win for the Falcons.

Saints and Bills, I guess you've got to give the Saints credit in one spot. They had multiple opportunities to actually win this thing. They did some dumb shit or in the red zone that cost them earlier in the game. Then late in the game, I'm looking down at my phone and it appeared they had taken a 22, 21 lead, but call is overturned. And after that, they had to settle for a field goal. Then the bills marched down, score and, you know, stretch the margin a little bit. But give the Saints some credit at least because the Saints are not good.

We know they're not good. They were a massive underdog in this game. They were, what, like 15-point underdog? Three of the first four weeks, the Saints have played tough. They got their asses kicked last week by Seattle. But the Bills, who are one of the best teams in the NFL, although I'm not a big believer in them, give them some credit. There are no moral victories, particularly in the NFL, there are no moral victories, but give them some form of credit just because they were able to go out and play tough three

out of the first four weeks of the year. This one's the toughest matchup they've had, and they stayed in it, and they were toe-to-to-toe with the bills for most of the game. Spencer Rattler was okay. I mean, look, you're playing tough with him. Rattler, I mean, look, I say he was okay. I mean, threw for 126 yards. But they kept it close.

They kept it tight. They were dominated in terms of the scoreboard. They were dominated in terms of the box score. Yet they hung tough and you give them some credit because they didn't get walloped in the game. Yes, they lost by 12, but they didn't get destroyed. So, like, that's all I can do with the team. The Saints are my team. That's all I can do with them at this point is just say, hey, you know, like when I watch them,

I have to see if I think Spencer Rattler's worth a shit, which Spencer Rattler is not going to be the long-term solution, a quarterback for the team. But that's all I can do is see, like, what guys are worth. the shit what guys aren't worth of shit and because the wins and losses do not matter at this point they're 0 and 4 the season's over so what are you going to do browns and the lions it was closer than it should have been for a while it was a 20 to 10 game after three quarters but the lions turned it up in the fourth quarter and crushed them 14 nothing in the fourth ended up winning the game by 24 I love the lions I adore this team the weapons all over the place

are disgusting Aminrah had another seven catches I told you he's a guy you take for over five and a half catches every game. He's a beast. They're able to run the ball relatively well, too. Jamir Gibbs had nearly 100 yards on the ground. And for the most part, they've taken care of the ball this year and give them some love, man. I think the Lions are a legit Super Bowl contender. They're three and one. And again, it's the Browns. The Browns are not very good. They beat the Packers last week. They very well could be an 0-14. Their offense is dreadful with Joe Flacco. At some point, they have to consider doing something at the quarterback spot, whether it's Dylan Gabriel, whether it's Shudur Sanders, either

one of those, but it's a waste right now with Flacco. Flackos look like shit, threw for a buck 84 yesterday. And again, they were in the game. There was a point in that game. I never felt like the lions were going to lose. It was never one of those situations where I'm like, all right, lions are going to bomb this one. But there was a point where the lions were just kind of half-ass in it, it seemed like.

They were just kind of, you know, run, run, punt, and like run, run, deep ball, hunt and it was like, okay, what are you doing? Just put these guys away and then they eventually put them away and dominated the way they should. And after a loss to start the season against the Packers that had everybody just concerned and everybody asking, oh, what are they without Ben Johnson? What are they without Aaron Glenn? The last three weeks, they've got huge victories, particularly over, you know, they dominated the bears who are not very good. But by the way, we'll talk about the bears. But then they dominated the Ravens, who as it turns out, may not be very good either.

And then they beat up on the Ravens, one of the worst teams in the NFL. But they've dominated those games. You know, the score didn't indicate how much they dominated the Ravens game. They throttled the Bears by 30-something points. They throttled the Browns by 24 points. So if you're going to play shitty teams, you might as well dominate the shitty teams. And that's what the Lions did yesterday. And that's what they did against the Bears.

And really, that's what they did against the Ravens. So I love this Lions team. I love watching them play. Panthers and the Patriots, that was the most predictable one of the weekend. Julie and I don't do like a survivor pool or a suicide pool or whatever, but as you know, we've talked about it before. Our friend Allie, who used to be on the podcast all the time during the Rona, she always asked us to do her work pool. And our suicide slash survivor pool team this week was the Patriots.

The Patriots felt like a slam dunk from the jump. The Panthers beat the Falcons 30 to nothing. last week. The Panthers are not good enough to beat anybody 30 to nothing. They are a dog shit team, and we know they're a dog shit team. And while the Panthers are not great, or rather the Patriots are not great, the Patriots should have, could have would have beaten the Steelers last week. They should have, but they turned the ball over like three times in the red zone, a couple of interceptions, a couple of fumbles. They were the better team against the Steelers and should have beaten the Steelers. We knew that. And they didn't let us down in this one.

they just manhandle the Panthers, 42-13, nothing special about that game and nothing that I would look at and go, like, you know, like, wow, like they did what they were supposed to do against a really shitty team. It doesn't mean I think the Patriots are particularly good, but the Panthers are dreadful, and that 30-0 beat down of Atlanta last week was more of the exception, not the rule. Patriots dominating was the play the whole time, and they throttled them by 29 points. this may be the biggest shocker of the weekend, probably the biggest shocker of the weekend. Chargers at the Giants, and the Chargers just played a shitty game from start to finish,

and yet they were still in it down the stretch. 2118 was the final, and my man got his first dub. Now, he wasn't particularly good. Like, if you looked at the numbers for Jackson Dart, you'd be like, okay, whatever, cool, like neat-o. But he got the job done. He didn't really do much outside of the first time. they had the ball, but you wouldn't know that by watching the way his coach reacted to him after the game, like grabbing his face. It looked like they were going to make out.

You know, my man, Dayball's like, this could be saving my job because they very well could have been 0 and 4. They lost Malik neighbors in that game, so they got a, they're a mess. But if you look at the situation, they find themselves in now, at me, at least you got some hope. And hope can be a dangerous thing. But Jackson Dart only threw for a buck 11, but he was able to run the ball effectively for 54 yards had a touchdown on the ground cam scataboo white dude running back big bowling ball white dude running back goes for 79 on the ground and also a guy that can catch it out of the backfield had two catches for 11 yards he's a guy that like again you see like white dude gets drafted you're like whatever white running back guy well white running back

guy here's kind of balling out and uh the giants got that win um again that doesn't mean much I still think the charges are a fucking really good football team. You know who's been really underwhelming, though? Like, to me, the biggest takeaway from this game is that Ladd McConkey wasn't good last week. And this week, he had one catch for 11 yards on six targets. And it's like, what the fuck happened to Ladd McConkey? Would the real Ladd McConkey please stand up? Two weeks in a row he's been underwhelming.

But this week was super underwhelming. You know, guys like Quentin Johnson and Keenan Allen have been more of the playmakers for them. Really, this week it was Quentin Johnson, nearly 100 yards receiving, but woof, like, I don't know what happened to Ladd McCongy. And that's the thing. Athletic-wise, it's not like Ladd-McConkey is a special athlete. And essentially, yes, I'm saying

he's a white guy. Like, if you lined up a bunch of dudes and you said, who's the best receiver in the NFL, I mean, you'd take a thousand other dudes over Ladd-McConkie, but McConkey's one of these dudes that makes play somehow gets open and ends up with 70, 80, 90 yards in a game on eight catches, and you're like, how the fuck did this guy do this?

But that hasn't been the case the last two weeks. But the Chargers take their first L of the year. I still think they're a fucking really good football team. Some weeks you're just going to lose. And this was one of those weeks. It just seemed like they never got things going. Eagles and Bucks, I hate the fucking Eagles so much. I hate watching them play.

I hate the way they win games. They win ugly. Their offense is gross. You got A.J. Brown, who's cryptic tweeting. as you knew it would happen. You knew that A.J. Brown was going to be cryptic tweeting. It was obvious that it was coming after the guy has like, you know, two catches. Although he was targeted, what, eight or nine times yesterday?

You just knew it. You knew that a cryptic tweet was coming because the guy ain't getting his numbers. And the Eagles did win. They ended up winning by six. And look, Baker had his chances in the game. For all of the dominance, it seemed like the Eagles put forth with special teams and with defense turning the ball over. They had multiple shots the Buccaneers did.

They threw a pick in the end zone that was late in the game. Then they took the big sack late in the game. Look, I love Baker, and I thought Baker was going to somehow pull off another miracle. He didn't. It's a miracle that the game was even close as they were getting dominated for most of the game. But I hate the Eagles. I hate them. I hate watching them.

I hate the way they win games. I hate the way their fans have to like – and people that support them have to rush to their defense. knowing that they're a shitty offensive football team like they know they're a garbage offensive team they know it they know that they're hanging on by a thread by making uh you forcing turnovers blocking kicks they know it they know it and nobody can truly explain how the hell it's happening with how shitty their offense is but they continue to do it and you got to give them credit because they're four and oh but it's smoke and mirrors the way

they're doing it you can't count on multiple interceptions every game you can't count on block kicks every game. But give them credit. They went on the road, hot weather game down in Tampa and won against a Tampa team that's pretty freaking good. They were beat up, of course. They were without what's his name, Evans, Mike Evans. But still, you know, you got the W and you needed to get the W and you did. So credit to you. Titans, Texans might have been like one of the least watchable games in history for most of it. It was a 6-0 game after 3 quarters. And then the Texans were able to score a couple late to make it look. more dominant than it was, but the Titans are just god-awful.

And maybe we'll dig into this one a little bit deeper later, but my God, the Titans are terrible. And we said the Texans needed to dominate to keep people happy. I don't even know if 26-0 kind of limping through most of that game excited anybody with the Texans at fan base, we'll see. It was not a very exciting game, though it's 6-0 going to the 4th, so woof. The Rams, that was a fun game. We knew that the Colts were due to have some sort of letdown.

They finally threw an interception. In fact, they threw two of them. I knew that Daniel Jones was due to do something. But that was a hell of a game, but you had a little bit of everything. He had the wide receiver who should have scored the go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter, who drops the ball before getting into the end zone because he's one of those fucking moron. So you end up getting a touchback on that play. Late in the game, you tie it.

Rams get it next play. You go like 80 yards, 90 yards for a fucking touchdown. Just a fun game overall. The Rams can play, man. Stafford can play. The Colts can play. That was just a fun game. That was just one of those games where, hey, someone's got to win it, someone's got to lose it. Hell of a fucking fun game back and forth. I think both of those teams can play. The Rams have proven who they are over the years, and we'll see if the Colts can maintain. They play in a bad division,

as you know. I mean, the Titans are dreadful. The Texans are pretty bad. And the Jaguars aren't particularly good either, although they've got to win over the 49ers. Look, what are the Jaguars. They're three and one. They played a depleted 49ers team, but the 49ers quarterback was back. What are the Jaguars? They're a three and one football team. So they're tied with the Colts. So what are they? I don't know. That's a weird, it's a weird vibe. They finally got a decent game out of Brian Thomas Jr. Look, I say a decent game. It wasn't anything special. Like, they've done this without BTJ doing much of anything. Like, he had 49 receiving yards to lead the way for them, but

he hasn't done anything spectacular. He hasn't made a giant play really this year, but they got the win. They got the W. I mean, Brock Purdy threw for over 300 yards. Statistically, the better team on the field was San Francisco. But Brock Purdy turned the ball over twice and turnovers of the great equalizer. They lost two fumbles in the game. They threw two picks in the game. And that was the difference.

I don't think Jacksonville is a very good team. I don't believe that there's some sort of threat, but give them credit. They're three and one, and you have to give them credit when they're three and one, because you are what the record says you are at this point. The Ravens. The Ravens are the most interesting, because I still don't think the Chiefs are good. They're two and two. The Chiefs suck.

They are not a good football team. Yet the Ravens may just be fucking dreadful. They got so bad that they had to take Lamar out. Lamar may have an issue, too, with hamstring. The idea is that maybe they just took him out. because they didn't want to keep him in because the game was a blowout at one point. I don't think this is some sort of revelation that the chiefs are very good. I think the Ravens just may suck.

We knew their defense wasn't very good. We've watched them just have guys move the ball up and down the field on them all year. He saw it the week before a Monday night football where, what, 38 points put on the board by the lions before that. So you knew that the Ravens had issues, but now they're a one-on-three football team. and the Chiefs have stayed alive. I mean, the Chiefs very easily could have been a 1-3 team, an 0-14 team. They're not very good. But they're 2-2 and give them credit for that.

And Xavier-worthy came back, and Xavier-worthy put up the numbers he needed to put up for them. I just don't believe in them at all either. Bears get to 2-2 against the Raiders. That game felt like one, like the Raiders had the shot to win it. And the kick was blocked. You had a lot of block kicks over the last couple of weeks in the NFL. Caleb goes out and throws for 212. He wasn't anything special yesterday, but he made a couple of big plays late

and made the plays he had to, and here are the bears. 25, 24, they're two and two now. The bears with the talent they have on the roster are a scary team. I don't think they're anything special. But if you face the bears on any given week, there are weeks that you could lose no matter how good you are. To me, that's what makes what the lions were able to do to them so impressive. if they beat them by 30-something points.

You know, outside of that, the Bears have hung tough with everybody they've had on the, they've beaten two teams, and then you look what they did against the Vikings back when, you know, the Vikings rallied in the fourth quarter, but the Bears pretty much dominated that game too. You know, this could be a three-and-one team. They've won the last two weeks, and they should have, could have would have beaten the Vikings. The Bears could be a three-and-one football team. And with the talent they have on the offensive side of the ball, like they're a scary team. Anybody that faces them could lose.

They're very much alive. And then last night, he had the Packers and the Cowboys. The Packers are a team that's really seen their fortune's turn. First two weeks of the year, everybody talked, basically anointed the Packers as the best team in the NFC and the Super Bowl favorite. Then the last two weeks, they blow a 10-0 lead in the fourth quarter against a bad Browns team. And then against a bad Cowboys team who can't stop anybody. Cowboys blow another league. You're talking about an epic game, though.

There were 31 points scored in the fourth quarter of that game. That was a fun game. So then the Packers really got lucky. They should have lost because of their poor clock management down the stretch. And overtime, they got lucky where one second is left on the clock. That second should have ticked off the clock. And they should have lost the way they handled that down the stretch. But they didn't.

It is what it is. And they end up losing the – well, they tie the game. No NFL game should ever end in a tie. It's bullshit that these games end in a tie. It is dumb. You've played all of this, 60 minutes plus another 10 minutes. So you've played 70 minutes of football, and you're going to allow it to be tied. There should never be a scenario where a pro football game is ending in a tie.

College games don't end in a tie. Baseball games don't end in a tie. There is no reason why these games should end in a tie. It is stupid. It is really preposterous. So now, like, what are you going to get? You get like two points for the tie. Two, one and one are the Packers, and one, two, and one are the California.

And look, the Cowboys are another team that if you look at their games they've played, they coulda shoulda would have beaten the Eagles. They were never really in it against the Bears. They beat the Giants. They could be a two-win football team. You could argue they could be a three-win team. For all of the issues the Cowboys have, could a should-a-would-beaten the Eagles. And if the clock ticks one more second, they beat the Packers, and they're a three-win football team.

So I don't think they're particularly good, but they're not dreadful. and there you go. You got two games tonight, and there you go. There's your weekend wrap-up.