The Ringer NFL Show - Week 9 Awards

Episode Date: November 8, 2021

We recap the incredibly weird Week 9 slate by giving out awards, including Winner of the Week, The Panic Button, Weird Flex but OK, The Player You Won’t Acknowledge Is Good, and more. Later we induct the next player into the 2021 Fantasy Burn Book and recap our day of prop bets. Email us at [e-mail]. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producers: Craig Horlbeck and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody? I'm JJ John D. Stramski. And I'm Jason Gough, and if you haven't heard, the ringer has gone local. I'm bringing the fire. I'm bringing the rain from the Big Apple with my show, New York, New York. And I'm reping Shy Town with my new show The Full Go on All Things Chicago. We've got episodes three nights a week with all the reaction to the local teams and guests. Plus bonus episodes around all the big games and storylines.

So whether you're uptown, downtown, downtown, in the burbs, or a transplant. Make sure you follow New York, New York, and the full go on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. My name is Danny Highfitz. I'm here with Danny Kelly and Craig Rolbeck. That was weird. Week 9 is over except for Montana football. And what the, I don't even know what just happened.

I think people know that that was really strange, but I just want to punctuate real quick. There were a ton of upsets. But I want to just read you guys some actual facts. Entering Sunday night of football. Here are some facts. The QB4 this week was Josh Johnson. from Thursday Night Football

who came in for relief of Mike White. The RB1, probably in the whole week, is James Connor. Uh-huh. And then I want to read you entering Sunday Night Football, who the top 12 receivers were this week. Elijah Moore is number one.

Devante Smith, Keenan Allen, Olamadee Zakeas. Nice job. Marquise Brown. Malique Turner for the Cowboys, who I have never heard of. He might win the award for the guy

I've heard the least of this year to score the most points. Malik Turner, who is not Cedric Wilson. Or Noah Brown, the other guy. Brandon Ayuk, Tim Patrick, now that Jerry Judy's back, Tim Patrick is finally doing it.

Hunter Renfro, Michael Pittman, Justin Jefferson, and Donovan People's Jones. That's the top 12 receiver entering. This is exactly how my rankings went this week, actually. So it's kind of weird that that happened. Craig, didn't you have a note on the tight ends? What was your fun fact about the tight ends this week? Three of the top nine scoring tight ends this week were on the Chargers.

Dude, I give up. This is such a stupid one of whom I've never heard of. Do you guys, the Titan 4 this week was Stephen Anderson. Who's that? Dude, this is so dumb. Why do we do this? I love how every week it's like, who's that? Who the hell is Derek Gore?

Who's Stephen Anderson? This whole episode is we essentially led with weird flex but okay because this whole week was weird flex but okay. Bizarre. Anyway, it's the whole, yeah, the whole thing was strange. We can get to winners and losers, but I mean, I feel like the theme this week is really losers. I'm just going to start, you know, who's losers?

The freaking Dallas Cowboys. Yeah. They're the main losers of the week. Other than all of us who thought, like, fantasy was predictable. The losers, the Cowboys. 30 to 16 to the Broncos. The 16 is such a sham. I'm radicalized.

We're doing this after a Sunday Night Football. And Sean McVeigh is trying to score a touchdown at the end of this Titans Rams game to make the score more palatable. I turned it off in protest. I don't know if they got that touchdown. They did. I don't care. They did.

We need some kind of box score mechanism to like remove the points because the fact that this Cowboys game is 30 to 16 is horseshit. It's 30 to zero. That is the score in my head. the seat like it was ridiculous at what point did you guys realize the cowboys were going to do nothing today well you always first half I'm willing to throw out the window

and be like they'll come back and adjust right that's what you like to convince yourself of they'll come back and adjust in the second half I think it was halfway through the third quarter I was like oh this is just they're just gonna lose just not happening yeah yeah Zik was eating out of the game getting hurt none of it was working fantasy wise Cid Lam and Amari cooper combined combined for 10 fantasy points. Zeeke had his fewest touches since week one. Again, as Craig mentioned, ending out with a knee injury. He was playing

in garbage time with three minutes left, so he's fine. Listen, I don't understand garbage time in the NFL. It is the most baffling phenomenon. Why was Matt Stafford marching down the field with 30 seconds left down 20? Especially after he twisted his ankle earlier in the game. It's wild because someone pointed out

I don't remember who just pointed out on Twitter that like, Sean McVey doesn't play his players in the preseason, like at all because of fear of injury. This is Matthew Stafford, who already had, like, a thumb issue hitting on a player's helmet. I get, like, there's a mentality, right? There's a toughness mentality that you can't be afraid to get hurt. If you're playing football, like, you can't be afraid to get hurt.

That's what the coach is for to pull you out when you might get hurt when the game is over. Everybody was playing Cooper Cup, the best wide receiver in the league is out there, like, running routes. Dak Prescott is throwing through two touchdowns to Malik Turner. Maybe even that when I get Mike McCarthy saying, like, he needs the reps. Dak Prescott needs the reps at game speed, whatever. I don't know. Anyway, there's so much. much that's crazy, especially like the thing that's so annoying is CD Lamb, anyone who Cid

lamb knows so annoying this week was, this happened at Darren Waller a few weeks ago. A player hurts their ankle or something in the middle of the week at practice. Reporters aren't there. Not only do we have no idea what's wrong with them. We won't know what's really wrong with them until we get to game time. We don't know how hurt they are nothing. So we have no idea what to make a C.D. Lamb this week. He turns out he's playing. We're like, cool. You probably put him in your lineup. Nothing. But even if you were like, well, I got a Mark Cooper. See, Lambs hurt, DAC is back, that's great, nothing. This whole Cowboys thing was a zero.

Cowboys were blown out, and the best thing you can say about Dallas is that they got blown out so badly that the Bills then got blown out lost a more embarrassing game that kind of washed away what Dallas did. Yeah, move right onto the Bills here. Josh Allen's 11 fantasy points.

One wide receiver with double digit points, Stefan Diggs. The team scored zero touchdowns. Zero. And the Jaggs beating the Bills is the sixth biggest upset based on point spread since 1990. Can you say that again? That's crazy. The sixth biggest upset based on a point spread since 1990. Holy shit.

Dude, the Seahawks dominated the Jags last week. What happened? The Bills are kind of weird team, man. The Bills and the Chiefs kind of remind me of each other a little bit because they're like both led by Uber talented, you know, top of the line quarterbacks that can do so many different things out of structure. You know, obviously, both Josh Allen and Patrick

Mahomes have like elite elite arm talent. But when you watch these offenses, sometimes it's like, man, they just look so out of sorts all the time. They just look out of sync. And Stefan Diggs can't get it going. I don't know. It's just bizarre. I don't really understand what's going on.

But this is like a new low for Buffalo. Like losing to the Jags. And Lawrence was hurt for part of the game. Yeah. Like, I don't know. It was just like the most. bizarre thing I've ever seen. I'm also furious at myself.

Do you remember like two weeks ago when I wanted to bet on the Texans to beat the Cardinals because I said like there's always one game a year where the worst team in football beats like the best one? And I picked Texans to beat the Cardinals and said the Jags to beat the Bills, except this one it's like

it was bewildering because you just kind of thought the bills were above that. Yeah, just to let you guys know the Jaguars lost by 16 to the Texans this year. I mean, it's astonishing. By 16. John had three second half turnovers, but honestly, Josh Allen wasn't even doing Hero Ball. It was like the bills were so bad.

Josh Allen's like, I got to do something. It was like he had to actually try to do more and he couldn't. It was astonishing. We also haven't even gotten to like the main point here, which is that it was like the Josh Allen game, which went from like this stupid fun fact, which is the bills took Josh Allen, what, seventh in 2018? And then the next year the Jags took a defensive end named Josh Allen with the seventh pick, which is like this fun fact, a trivia that'll never happen again.

and then they play. And it's like, ha, ha, ha. And then he sacks Josh Allen. And that was funny. And then he picked Josh Allen. And like, that's weird. How often does a player get a sack and a pick in the same game? And then he like recovered a fumble.

And it's like, I feel like that happens twice a year to any defender where you get a fumble recovery sack and pick in the same game. It's like, did you guys have a parlay together? Were you in on something? Some Josh Allen parlay? Maybe. Maybe they were. I don't know.

I don't do a ton of IDP with like the individual defensive play. players. Does Josh Allen, the defender of more fantasy points than Josh Allen, the quarterback? I have to imagine. I mean, Josh Allen at 11, the quarterback, I have to imagine that a pick, a sack, and a fumble recovery is more than 11. Can I be a curmudgeon for a second? Did you think the Josh Allen thing was stupid? I think that people were overplaying it a little bit. It's like, it's funny like for one second. Ha ha, they have the same name. And that's about it. Welcome to Twitter, Danny Kelly.

It's like people were losing their fucking minds about this. Well, that's like Twitter is like just a long list of a random comment you would make to someone next to you on the couch while you're watching a game that would get a laugh. But it's not like worth a conversation. It wouldn't get a laugh. It gets a quick exhale out of the nose. Like legitimately. I was actually was sitting on the couch the other day on Thursday. And I turned to my girlfriend and I said, the Jets have two players named Michael Carter.

And she kind of like acknowledged it. And then we moved on. That's what social media is in a nutshell. It's like people are like, oh, it's the end of Western society. What social media really is is you can't have a substantive conversation about the Bills or the Jaguars. So you just, it's a line of things that make you go, like through, as Craig said, through the nose more forcefully.

So I'll give you a real story, which I think is relevant because the Jaguars just beat the Buffalo Bills, is that I was in Columbus, Ohio this weekend for a wedding. And I went to that Urban Meyer bar. You did. Yeah, I thought you were joking about that. I legit thought you were joking and then you were there. Everyone thought I was joking. I had a Snapchat.

I sent it to my friends. I put it out. Everyone thought I was kidding. And I looked up my hotel and it literally like you just, I walk in a hotel and I go to the concierge. I'm like, where should I go? They're like, oh, Urban Meyer's Pinehouse right down there. I'm like, are you kidding me? So I walk in and I shit you not.

You saw the stool. First of all, it is a mecca to Urban Meyer. It is unbelievable. And I look up and do you know what I see? Just this giant print photo of Urban Meyer hugging his wife. Oh no. And I thought it was, it was, the whole thing was funny. However, I have to say, what was very disappointing was an hour in, I learned from the

bartender, that was not the actual place. There's like three of them in the city. Wait, you didn't actually go to the same one? I thought I did for like the whole time. But there's three of them and the one happened downtown. Wow, good for you. But being there's three of them. I know.

And being there and thinking it was the place, though, was still almost. You should have recreated the photo. That would have been funny. I thought about it, but that some, some lines I didn't. That was funny. Oh, wait, I got a question here. A little tasteless, maybe, but that's fine. But the fact that this happened, though, and then the Jaguars beat the bills, I don't know.

Do you have to go back to the Pinehouse is what I'm saying? Do you think that he took the team bus back to the... Do they go back to... I don't even know how that works after the game. Do they all just drive home? How does this even work? He probably took a party bus back home. They take the bus back to the facility, and then they all drive home individually.

This is the stuff people want to know. And I'm hoping that Urban Meyer was on that bus. Yeah, the specifics of how they travel home. That's what I'm very curious about when they're at home. I have a question, though, spinning this back to football. DK., you're our scheme lord, scheme god. Thank you. So the bills scored six points against the Jags.

The Jags scored nine. I don't care about the Jags offensively. I'm not surprised they scored nine. But the bill's scoring... You're going to go over the 69 joke that's right there? It's kind of big of you. You want to get it out there? We can all acknowledge it.

69? It's a breathe through your nose kind of hard. Moment of silence for the 69, Joe. Okay. All right, moving on. Okay, so, D.K., is this simply Josh Allen and the Bills played so poorly, like, from a talent standpoint? The throws were there, Josh Allen was missing them. The blocking wasn't there, but it normally is.

Or was it the Jacksonville defense somehow did something that no other defense has done this year? Oh, I don't, I really don't know. I'd have to go back and, like, watch it really closely. I was trying to watch, like, six games at once. But I think it was mostly just poor execution. I think credit to the Jags defense, they definitely made some plays and the Josh, the Josh Allen thing,

like he was all over the place, highly talented pass rusher, and he made a huge impact. I would say, though, generally speaking, and it's kind of like what I was saying with the chief thing. Like, they just remind their offense reminded me of the chiefs today.

It's like they have all these elite talents on their offense, and they're always trying to make plays out of structure instead of just like dropping back, getting the ball out, moving to chains. you know what I mean like a lot of like a West Coast offense it's all timing based

stuff like when I watch them it's just all so out of sync they're always just trying to make something crazy happen and then Josh Allen will do his thing where he'll you know pass into traffic or whatever I to be honest I have to I'd have to rewatch the game to like give you a much better answer than that but it just felt very out of sync out of sorts like they just weren't on the same page a lot of the time and yeah it just felt like I was watching the chief's offense I think there's a shitload of pass pressure I think it's in the short what happened in the bills. Yeah, that also did not help.

And it just showed. Yeah. But, yeah. I mean, this whole week, right? I almost part of me feels like the season, the Super Bowl season begins next week. Yeah. I actually think we're at the point where so many important teams, except Tampa Bay somehow, Tom Brady once again benefits from the chaos.

It's like the latter. He's like Little Finger. But so many good teams got. Knocked down a pay. That it's actually really rare that you get, like one at the same. time, every team basically has to regroup this week, including the bucks who run by. Like every team actually looks themselves in the mirror like, wow, do we suck? We have to win a Super Bowl.

And I always, my, I've always kind of believe that Super Bowl season like begins after Halloween. Like I almost, I actually for a while wanted the ringer to do like a second season preview after Halloween because I feel like that's actually when the season starts. Like the first two, everyone's figuring themselves out. But I actually believe that. Like we're going to beginning it now. and now I'm kind of like going into it.

I'm like, all right, the Titans are obviously the best team in the AFC, clearly. We all knew this. Yeah, sure, totally. What they've done in the last four games is incredibly impressive. I will just give the Titans a quick shout out as like they're a winner of the week because could you, if I had told you that when the Titans lost to the Jets

in whatever week that was, that the Titans would then go on and that they would beat the Jags, the Bills, Chiefs, and Cults and Rams. Five straight games. That's so weird. And what if I told you, hey, The Titans are playing the Rams, and in this game, Ryan Tannenhill will have 143 passing yards.

The leading rusher on the Titans will have 29 rushing yards, and the leading receiver has 42 passing yards. And they beat the Rams by really like 20. I'm also going to just quick, I'm just thrown out. I'm really like inflation. I got inflation for winners and losers this week. I'm throwing them out. We made fun of Carson Wentz last week.

I made fun of Carson Wentz. I said he did like the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Stafford did it. Stafford did the same thing. He didn't switch the hands. But Stafford, in the end zone, not a safety, backpedals till it is, thinks it is, it wasn't going to be, throws a, like spins like a pirouette, and then like throws it right to the defenders who like gets to the one yard. That was like also the dumbest thing I've seen. Stafford played horrible.

He did. Well, the pressure clearly rattled him. I mean, his feet felt extra happy tonight. I don't know, didn't it? It felt like he was tapped at the night. It looked like a boxer. He was just like dancing. But I just want to say, when they came back from commercial and they were like, Mike Perez,

whoever the ref guy was who was calling in. He was like... McCauley. He was like, well, if Stafford just took it, took the sack, it would have been down at the one-inch yard line that, you know, the forward motion was actually stopped. Yeah, like, his ball was like holding it out over the school line. As if Matt Stafford is supposed to know that in the moment. I was like, this is the dumbest shit I've ever heard.

No, but I think the thing I really want to ding, though, is our guy Sean McVeigh, who is Craig's brother, but we hold no, you know, family ties be nothing to us. this is a brutal podcast. Sean McVeigh, like the Rams front office strategy of like trading all these picks for Von Mill. It was like so forward thinking. It's so contrary and it's so like not old.

It's literally the opposite of basically, I think every great team that's ever been built in the NFL, if you ask the people who did it, I think 100% of them would say you built through the draft, literally 100%. And the Rams are out here doing something no one's ever done and like trying to just throw picks away, burn them, win a super hero.

Just mercenaries. on the front office side. And then on the coaching side, Sean McVeigh, despite being like the youngest coach in the NFL for like four years now, he's like the most conservative coach in like the whole league on fourth down.

I cannot believe he kicked those field goals. It's unbelievable. Well, yeah, you're, I mean, you are right. He is very conservative. But I mean, the first field goal is fine, whatever. The second one they got like a penalty, it was like fourth and 12. Like, what are you going to do? It's like he was kind of hamstrung every time he had to kick.

But I agree with you probably one of them. He should have gone for it. But he is really hesitant, which is kind of weird. I don't know why. I think it's once you're really good, you kind of like no longer have that aggressive mentality because you don't want to lose. You start playing with a fear of losing rather than a gunslinger trying to win mentality. You know what I mean?

Craig, you're the producer. You don't have to be afraid someone's going to clip this and throw it a show on. Like, you can just delete this. well Mike might do it who knows Mike don't you clip that Mike don't click that as Bill would say turn the camera off Turn the camera off Kyle

So turn camera on Turn the camera off okay don't show Sean that Okay rose Craig had kicked off flying coach All right Other winners losers From this week Yeah we gotta talk about James Connor Running back on the Cardinals

If you guys didn't know Can we talk about his hair cut while we're at it? Sure what do we call that I mean well I was I was workshopping ideas you know it's kind of like the combination of a mullet and a rat tail it's like a

like a rat mullet of some sort I don't know what to call it if people if people have a name possum is it the possum yeah someone said it looked like a gladiator helmet which I thought was pretty good it's like got like the it's got like the fluff on the back kind of like that goes out anyway not a man

yeah I would say it's not a great haircut I think he's my person do it every once with his hair. You know, I gotta say something about James Connor. So, let's, well, I'll talk about his day. He had 26 touches, which is crazy. Chase Edmunds hurt his ankle early in the game. So James Connor got 26 touches.

He scored three touchdowns. He had 96 yards rushing, 7 yards receiving, 40 PPR points. He was the best scoring running back in the day. His first three touchdown game, longest touchdown reception of his career. I kind of think, I don't think James Connor is bad. And I think for some reason when he got traded to the Cardinals,

everyone is like, oh, he's mad. Asiata now. James Connor was good in Pittsburgh and was like a very versatile player. He wasn't like the fastest guy, but like he was a good receiver, a good runner, worked really hard, broke tons of tackles. Like James Connor is pretty good. He just kind of got banged up in Pittsburgh for the last year and then they got rid of him. And I feel like everyone's kind of like agreeing that James Connor sucks and there's like a TD

vulture. James Connor's good. Am I being gaslit or do I remember you saying that he was kind of like bad Asiata? Well, maybe in like terms of how, what he was doing, what he was doing this? this year. Like, he just, like, comes in for one-yard touchdowns. But James Connor as a player, he's good at football. Well, here's the deal, Craig.

I think he fell into a situation where, uh, sorry, Edmonds, his job is basically, Edmonds is like, get me to the, he gets the offense to the goal line. And then they bring Connor in the first drive today. Yeah. And then they bring Connor in to punch it in. It's Ricky Bobby at one point in Cal Notton Jr. That's what it is. Oh, my God.

Slings shot him. Slick shot him. But like, but if you win one time, how am I? going to win. But like, I think everyone thought Pittsburgh, I mean, I mean, poor James Connor played with what, Duck Hodges for a year, and then with Ben and no elbow last year, and it's like, what do we expect? He had a crappy year, but like, whenever Ben was healthy and James Connor was healthy, he was like a top 10 back in the league. Also, it's just like, he's the, what happened today was he got all the touches, because Chase Evans got hurt. He got all the

touches and one of the better offenses of the NFL. I don't know, obviously, Kyler was out, but still, it's like, and then also he just got all the, he got all the points. like that's what happens. I don't think he's bad. Look, I don't think he's bad. I think he plays his role really well. I think where this is coming from in our brains, or at least mine in particular,

is he probably, I feel like he'd probably run like a 4-9 at this point. He looked pretty fast on that, like, on that catch and run that he, we scored like the 45-yard touchdown. But to me, like, when you look at some of the running backs in this league, explosive, dynamic,

juke the shit out of people. And James Conner's just out here running in mud. He's, running people over. But there was one point, I'm just looking at, I knew, I didn't know it off the top of my head, so I just Googled 12. There was one point in the game today where he has, he had four touchdowns on his last 12 carries.

So it's like the only time he's getting in is to score the touchdown play. Having said that, though, if Chase Simmons missed his time, James Connor is like a top 12, maybe a top 10 running back. I agree. Just because of how much the Cardinals have been scored. He can do everything. The other thing is that he's the goal line guy. Like you guys mentioned it.

High Fitz, you mentioned it. like Arizona's run game is one of the most creative and explosive run games in the NFL right now. They're doing a really good job of scheming it up. Cliff Kingsbury is. He's just like the way that they spread things out and the way that they pair their passing offense with their run game is really cool. So yeah, I mean, it's great. If Edmonds is out long term, which I don't know, we didn't see exactly what happened. He's guest-brained ankle.

He did not come back into the game. But if he misses a game, like James Connor easily at top time running back. We're going to be talking about all off season, which is just more running back dead zone. Think about, I mean, Chase Edmonds and Giovante Williams going in like the sixth, seventh-ish round. And then you have Melvin Gordon and James Connor going like four rounds later and probably finish the season just outright a lot better. And what's funny is that goes against like what you're supposed to do. Like the JJ Zacharison's whole thing is in ambiguous running back backfields. You're supposed to take the first guy getting drafted is the one who should work out.

Well, apparently you just take the one who's going to scroll the touchdowns. news, okay. Anyway, get the guy who scores the touchdown plays. Come on. Okay. D.K. We got to mention Sam Darnold and the Panthers offense in general. Like, it is getting dark out here.

It's getting grim for the Panthers. The Panthers are one in five in their last six games. Darnold seems to just be getting worse as that time goes along. Today, 16 out of 33, 172 yards, three picks. He has now failed to pass for over 172 yards. in the last three games each. Wait, what? 172 yards was his three game high today

in terms of passing yardage. He has now thrown a hospital ball in three straight games, sending his, just airing out his receivers, just hanging him out to dry. It's very disconcerting to watch. He got Robbie Anderson last week, DJ Moore this week.

And speaking of DJ Moore, his fantasy value is free-falling. He, after starting, out the year, like really, really strong. He has now gone under 10 points, two straight games. And basically, he's just like a flex option at this point. You want to think of him, like the way I think of him is like a wide receiver one. But in this offense, with Darnold passing for 150 yards a game or whatever, it's just

so frustrating to watch. I know all the receivers on this team are frustrated. You could see Robbie Anderson was like lighting Darnold up on the sideline today. Was he really? He feels like he was yelling at him? He was like screaming. at him. Yeah. So I don't know. It's going to be interesting how they kind of deal with this. Like if we get PJ Walker going forward, it feels like they have to go with Darnold just because.

No, I think he's getting benched. I mean, I think they should bench him. They should bench him, right? I defended St. Donald's the summer. I was a, I really believe that like the Adam Gage's Jets was the worst possible situation for him to develop. And I was really interested in seeing what Joe Brady and the Panthers could do with him. I didn't spike the football for the first three weeks. I handed the ball to the and I was like, yeah, I'm going to walk off after this touch. He's awful. And like, he's broken. It's unknowable whether he was always going to be bad or the Jets ruined him or he's just bad.

But like the skill set just doesn't vibe with like the decision making necessary to play NFL football. And I don't, I no longer think that he will be salvaged. Like this is unworkable because now we're three straight weeks of Matt Rule all but publicly begging him to stop turning over the ball. Yeah. His pick six was pretty bad too. He like tried to, he escaped to the pocket, went to his left, and it was like Carson once. He tried to do like a shovel pass and he threw it over the receiver's head and just the guy just picked it off and ran it back for like an 80 yard pick six. We didn't even say the most embarrassing part is that Darnold's defining career moment of his whole professional career is the Bill Belich is like the seeing ghosts against the Patriots. And he's out against the Patriots and just plays almost like his worst game since. then. I think I saw today his, in his career against Patriots, he has one touchdown and nine picks.

That is unbelievable. Well, I should take it back. That's like the most believable stuff. Are we ready to get, I'm not quite there yet, but I want to acknowledge that we should maybe start thinking about whether we're not we're ready to give Adam Gase an apology.

Whoa. No, no, no, no. That's, that's maybe you didn't hear what I said, but like I thought I said this stat enough. I'm going to say it again. This includes one year of Todd Bowles, but still, the Darnold-era Jets were given the most points against the spread in the entire NFL, and despite getting the most points, they had the worst record against the spread.

That's really funny. Like, Adam Gage's deserves nothing. That's so hard to do. I agree. D.K., good take, though. It's a good take. But there's so many. I'm going to have another Patriots-related take.

We're going to save for another pod. Do we have any of their winners and losers? There's a lot of losers this week. I feel like you got to toss out Kyle Shanahan in the Niners, man. Like they're really, Kyle Shanahan is running out of excuses for why his team isn't succeeding. I mean, he's healthy now. They played Colt McCoy and the Cardinals in a division game. And this game was never really close.

No. It wasn't. I was paying closer attention to the Packers Chiefs game. What happened? What the hell happened in this game? I don't, dude, the 49ers are just not good. Like, offensively, defensively, it's just bizarre. I really don't get it because they have a lot of talent on both sides of the ball.

I mean, clearly, they're banged up in the secondary and things like that. There's some things that are happening that make it harder for them to win. And that's going to be the clear excuse for Shanahan. The Cardinals didn't have the MVP of the season perhaps playing quarterback. Yes, yes. That's a really good point. Not to mention Hall of Fame. Henry Piondrey Hopkins or AJ Green.

Tom Brady will win MVP, but continue, Greg. Yeah. No, I'm basically saying, like, his defender, Shannon's defenders in this case will say, oh, look at over the last few years, like the injuries they've had or whatever. Not necessarily just for this game. But yeah, I don't know.

It's tough. Their offense just can't really move the ball. There was like a good IUC breakout in this game. So that's kind of exciting. But generally speaking. That's exactly kind of what I'm curious about for people who watch this game, what I want to go back and see is basically,

did IUC get some of Debo's role because Debo has a half injury, or did IUC carve out of it? Like, why, basically? Why did I, you have to answer that right now? I'm interested if it's going to happen going forward. The thing that stood out to me the most is I think, I don't know, but the numbers,

it looked like they threw more than they really ever have. I mean, they were down early. They had 40 passes. Yeah, I mean, so. They couldn't really run the ball. Yeah, they couldn't run the ball at all. Jimmy G. And it looked, it didn't look like Iyuk was taking Debo's work

because I think they'd, both had decent games, and George Kill had a great game. It looked like, kind of like last year's Niners, honestly, like the second half of the season when Ayuk really took off, that's what it kind of looked like, but they couldn't get hot until late. They sputtered on too many drives, and their defense couldn't do anything against Col McCoy, which is insane.

Col McCoy is 22 for 26. I'm looking at now, 39 rushing yards, when is the last time of Kyle Shannon team did it have 40 rushing yards in a game? Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, you only ran it eight times with Elijah Mitchell. Man, when you say it, too, they didn't have

Kyler, they didn't have DeAndre Hopkins, they didn't have Edmonds, and they didn't have JJ Green. And they didn't have JJ Watt. That's one of the reasons they probably needed. Or JJ Watt. It's one of the reasons they probably needed Connor, because I mean, that's a lot of size. We're not size. A.J. Green and Hopkins play big. And this game was not close. It was 14.0

in the first quarter. And you're like, well, I'm just going to do this manually. Okay. The, oh my God, you know the last time the Niners didn't have 40 yards in a game against the Cardinals two years ago? That was like the first game. The Cardinals is give the Niners trouble. That whole division's wild. It's DK knows too well.

Anyway, Shannon, is you like the hot guy with no personality? Interdivision matchups are always weird. I feel like. Inter. I never used the word intro correctly. But is Shanahan like the hot guy with no personality where it's like you want to be with them? And then like the second you're like actually with them, you're like, oh, like there's nothing going on here. Which is funny. Because it seems so cool to be in on the Niners. But once you're in a, once you're actually watching the Niners, like this team kind of sucks. what's funny is I think people thought that was going to be Cliff

and it's kind of not right now. That's exactly it. That's exactly how I thought the NFC West was going to go. The Niners are going to be substance and the Cardinals are going to be sizzle. It's exactly the opposite. You're right, correct? Also, because what did we think? Part of my thing was Chandler Jones, J.J. Watt, A.J. Green, this team is not going to stay healthy. We're relying on this many old guys.

J.J. Watts, it didn't even matter. AJ Green's, you know, it's still working, though. All right. this is really a branch of winners and losers this week. DB Cooper Award for the biggest disappearance. Yeah, so I don't know if we mentioned before, but Odell Beckham, disappearing from the Browns team.

Quite literally. In its entirety. Yeah, he's basically just like, I'm out. I'm not going to play for this team anymore. I don't know exactly what happened, but he forced his way off the team. What did DB Cooper actually do?

DB Cooper handed a note and was like, give me money or else, and then I'm going to jump off this play. Like, Odell did that, but with his dad's Instagram. I think is basically what happened. I mean, yes, it's almost the exact perfect parallel to what they're doing. So, Odell's gone.

That's, that's a thing. But also, Jarvis Landry felt like he was gone. And so he's my guy, he's my DB Cooper Award, the biggest disappearance this week. Jarvis Landry just really wasn't that involved. Even though he did get a lot of targets, he just didn't put up many points. He had 4.1 points in a blowout win. for the Browns. It's one of those things where you see this every week, I feel like, or I feel like we say this every week. If I would have told you, Cleveland scored 41 points

and a blowout of the Bengals, wouldn't you have guessed that Jarvis Landry would have more than three catches for 11 yards? Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. It's also, it's a tough pill to swallow for Odell that the second he leaves, they put up 41 and kick the best team in the ASC North, but I love Odell, and I have loved Odell when he was on the Giants. This free Odell thing is the most ridiculous thing. I can remember from a player. I know we're in the player empowerment era. Who made those t-shirts?

Who made them? I get, dude, Justin Jefferson wearing the free Odell shirt before the game. Look, I know LSU, I'm sure he's known him for years. I'm sure they're friends. It is still so ridiculous. This team has been so much better without Odell in terms of like Baker's efficiency

and just straight wins and losses. This team, what did they go last year? 11 and 5? They rocked. rocked the Pittsburgh Steelers without Odell last year in the playoffs, went to the divisional round, played with the Chiefs. They didn't beat them,

but almost beat the Chiefs in the divisional round. The Browns were like, like a couple possessions from the AFC championship game without Odell. Like the fact that they're now like acting, like Odell Beckham has been like,

wronged. Wronged is the most ridiculous. What is going on here? Like everyone needs to chill. including LeBron. Someone pointed this out on Twitter, and I forgive me, I don't know who it was, but they were like,

they clearly got these t-shirts made like a week ago or like four days ago. And then before... Custom ink, just like churning these out and sending them to every great receiver. But genuinely, like, who sent the email? Who signed up and did it? It was like a friend group.

They went to the mall, got a screen printed, you know, at the little... Was it like Odell's agent? Yeah. It was like this would be... Did O'Dell be like... Like, hey, can we get shirts going? Probably.

They had to get, like, you know, priority mailed to the different locations. And then by the time everything was through, like, they had already agreed that they were going to let Odell go. But they were like, it's too late. We're going to go for it anyway. We're going to wear these t-shirts, even though you're going to be a free agent in 24 hours. I just love the idea of, like, some 24-year-old kid working at the desk at CAA. Probably had to, like, design a free OBJ shirt on custom ink.

It's like on your resume, you said you're proficient in graphic design. So let's see. You have 30 minutes. But all serious is like we, I denied this at first. I was like, I didn't believe the whole like Baker's better without O'Dell thing. When that was really a thing like, like, when he, O'Dell tore his ACL and then the Browns got better, I was like that's, that's like too simplistic. It clearly had, like that clearly held water. So my official take on this without doing in-depth research on like the numbers on both sides of it is I think that it's really closer to like the Browns just don't really need O'Dell to be, to run the office.

that they want to run. And the guys on the ringer NFL show on Friday, we're talking about this. Like basically, you know, his skill set doesn't really mesh well with Baker's style as a quarterback. Essentially, you know, what they were saying is, you know, Baker is a little bit off on his timing. He doesn't get back to the backside reads quite as often as a lot of

quarterbacks. And when he does, he has to, like, hitch around and try and really put a lot into the ball deep down the field and it ends up being late. his skill set, his style as a quarterback just doesn't really mesh well with, like, Odell's skill set as a receiver. And so I think that made a lot of sense when I was listening to it and kind of just like trying to picture like what we've seen from Odell in this offense.

And like obviously the numbers back it up. Like, Odell just hasn't been nearly as good as he was in New York in this offense. And so going to, and I think honestly, ultimately, this is what got, this is why he was like, I want off, I went out. Like this is going to torpedo my career. if I stay here, blah, blah, blah. Like, I think that's ultimately why he decided to go. He could see that this just wasn't a good fit for him.

And so, like, him going to a team, like Mike Florio reported on Sunday night that he wants to go to the Seahawks, the 49ers, or the Saints, and his preference is the Seahawks. And my first thought is, like, obviously, this is going to be a circus in Seattle. If he goes to the Seahawks, it's going to be fun. But also, his skill, like, Russell Wilson meshes well with Odell. in my opinion, like the way they play. You think he meshes better than Trevor Simeon or Tatea?

Yeah, he doesn't like Baker's arm strength. What do you think the cut up would look like as a dead? Seriously, that's good deadpan. Odell's dad posting a video of Tassum Hill's like arm strength. Actually, a really interesting thing on ESPN this morning was watching was Randy Moss talking about this on Sunday countdown for ESPN because obviously at this point, Odell's best hope is a Randy Moss desk turnaround. And Randy Moss was basically like he needs a veteran quarterback in his,

strong head coach and like they'll figure it out. But like realistically of the options, you only get one or the other. Like there's not really any of their combos out there. You get, uh, what about Seattle? Yeah, I, I suppose that is Seattle. They're the only one because you look at New Orleans, it's like not a veteran quarterback, but you get Sean Payton or you could go somewhere else. I mean, this is going to go to freaking Tampa Bay. Seattle is probably the best option. But it's 2,000 miles from where he's, he's from Louisiana. Whereas New Orleans is like, he's from Louisiana. So like, that's a decision's

going to make. But, like, like, you know. I mean, I think all three of those are kind of weird. Like, honestly, everything's weird. But the way that the Seahawks play with, there's just a low volume passing offense. There's just not many plays to go around. My buddy Mike tweeted something the other day and it was like literally made me laugh out loud.

He was like, oh man, I can't wait to see D.K. Metcalfe, Tyler Lockett and Odell Beckham on the field together. I'll blocking, all, I'll run blocking like really well. It's like this is what we're doing. Like this, Seahawks throw the ball like 16 times a game or something. Riddle will not be happy there. I feel like Odell just got too famous too fast. Like obviously all these guys enter the NFL and it's like, you know, you need a year or two to adjust like your whole life's different.

And Odell before like that was over did the catch. And now Drake wants to be his friend and put him in albums and like he's on SNL. And it's like he went up two levels when most people have struggled just adjusting to one. I don't know. It's the whole thing strange. I think he's still got some gas in the tank. I think it depends on where he goes. If he goes to the Saints, I don't know if it's going to work out.

But if he starts scoring touchdowns with the CX, maybe he'll kind of like change his tune. But really what we wanted to talk about here was Landry. Landry's target rate in the last three weeks. Jarvis Landry's like failed target rate. That was the story. Who, by the way, has this straight up been better than O'Dell since they've been on the same team?

Yeah. However, I still... I got close to wanting to burn Jarvis Landry, put him in the burn book this week. I didn't quite get there. But, I mean, his... target rate, I saw this from J.J. Zacharison, 25%, 32%, 26% the last three weeks. And he scored eight points, 10 points, and four points. And the targets are there.

Like, he grabbed his briefcase and hopped out the plane, but he never made it. And left all the money behind. All right. That's why I drafted you award. I just want to shout out quick Jonathan Taylor from Thursday night football. I mean, 21 touches, 200 yards, two touchdowns looked like the best running back in football. I mean, Colts gave him gaping holes, but he also, he's like, he's the size. of like an SUV, but he has the speed of like a McLaren. He's unbelievable to watch. I was like just... He's the antithesis of

James Connor. He is... How dare you? He's the opposite of James Conn. Yet he scored less. Yeah, he scored less. He would be better moving forward. D.K., who's your... That's why I drafted you guy. It was good to see Darren Waller have a good game today. Seven catches 92 yards.

Derek Carr did miss him on a wide open touchdown, which was a little bit of a bummer. But at the end of the day, he's still getting elite. utilization. And that's really, really encouraging for what we could see the rest of the season. It's been a little honestly

disappointing so far this year with Darren Waller. There's been flashes. Obviously, week one, he had a huge week. But he hasn't had any to the spike week since. And so I think I saw today

kind of like, that's why I draft you. Like, I'm very excited about him going forward the rest of the season. He's still getting a 23% target rate coming to this week.

That's going to go up with 11 targets this week. He's running a route a ton. And now he's back to basically being the number one in this offense, the number one guy in this offense with rugs gone. So, yeah, I was just encouraged by what we saw from Waller this week.

And I think, again, he's going to be a guy that could have a really, really strong second half the year and, you know, potentially be like a league winner type player. My that's why I drafted you guys, Keenan Allen. He had 12 catches on 13 targets for 104 yards, no touchdowns. That is a classic Keenan Allen game. 12 catches, no touchdowns. That is a Philip Rivers ass Keenan Allen game.

And listen, you know, I think Keenan Allen has flown a bit under the radar this year. I've been very, very focused on the Chargers because I obviously play on that team. So I've been watching a lot. And I'm shocked you didn't have a good week this week. We thought that joke was dead. It's not. Keenan's actually been good this year. I mean, he just hasn't had the big ceiling, but that's kind of never been his thing.

He's fifth in the NFL and catches per game. And I... Really? Yeah. Which is weird. What happened was we were freaking out about Keenan. Allen, because Mike Williams was going off, and then all these offense, all these defensive coordinators are like,

why don't we just like Keenan Allen catch the ball for four yards like a hundred times and just not let Mike Williams catch a deep? And so he's fine. And, D.K., he was fifth and catches per game before today. I need 12 catches today. So Keenan, I bet on him to lead the league and catches. Still kind of there. Like, it's a slight possibility if Cooper Cup needs to twist an ankle.

But it is there. But anyway, nice to see Keenan Allen kind of like, you know, doing what he's supposed to do. Every time I looked at. But what about Mike Williams, though? Your guy, Craig. Yeah, so we're bringing back the panic button. This is the worst.

Mike Williams, once again, has had a bit of a dud day. I mean, he was doing nothing. He had one big catch. He had like a 40-yard catch. So he had 58 yards today on two catches. Cool. But the last three, four weeks, I know he was hurt one week, but this is not the same Chargers offense that we saw in the first four or five weeks of the season.

Mike Williams has been like unplayable the last three weeks. And it looks different. And D.K., maybe you can comment on this, but they're not. they're not taking the shots they used to. It seems that every defense has figured out. I swear this year, more than any of the year, I've heard the term two deep safeties. Yes, yes.

As if no one has ever thought about that before. It needs to be explained better. Yeah, it's like, oh, they never thought about putting two guys deep before. But apparently that stops all offense because no one can do anything. Patrick Boholmes is now a backup. No one's good anymore.

But Mike Williams, they don't even throw him the ball. He's had five targets each of the last three games. D.K., let's see if I can explain this. correctly. Sure. If you put two safeties back,

you have to check down the ball and take short stuff and take what the defense gives you underneath. But the Zumer millennials brains have been broken

by the TikTok and we don't have the attention span to get a 12 play drive and so therefore none of these young quarterbacks can do. Is that correct?

Mahomes is getting answers. If the quarterback you don't have TikTok, like Mack Jones, Tom Brady, Tom Brady, those quarterbacks can shunk together.

their 14 play drives. How no one can shoot a mid-range jumper in the NBA anymore. You don't practice it? Yeah. However, teams that usually... No mid-range jumper shooting teams usually win the finals anymore. But yes, I get your point. I don't know.

I don't watch the NBA, really. So here's the deal. Yeah, I think, honestly, this is... It sounds like a joke, but it's part of it is... And especially when it comes to, like, the Chiefs. I don't know so much about the Chargers, but it's like they almost get bored trying to just take what the defense is giving them,

and checking it down or running it even. Like, God forbid, we run the ball. You know, that's fucking boring as hell. And so, like, yeah, you have to string together these really long drives and you have to execute really well and you have to play in structure and not turn the ball over. Isn't that football, though? Yeah, it makes no sense.

It's so funny to me because, like, Craig, you says, like, wait a minute, if we put one extra guy deep in the backfield, like, maybe they can't throw it for 600 yards on us. This is where I'm confused. This made a lot of sense to me of why this was messing up the chiefs for like, you know, three or four weeks because they've been so good. And then there's a lot of guys back there so he can't make a decision. Don't change what you've been doing.

Like you're Patrick Mahon. But like eventually when you get your ass kicked over and over, I just am stunned by the lack of adjustment because it's been like two months. That's what I don't understand. I think it's, I'm going to go out on limb here. I think it's a little more complicated than just playing against too high stuff. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's it.

According to the announcement, it's not, okay. Maybe you don't have them been watching the tape. Yeah. I think to get back to the Chargers, though, Craig, I think your point is well taken. It's the offense in the beginning of the year was like, they were creating these chunk plays. Mike Williams wide open, 50 yards down the field. And they were letting Herbert launch it with his rocket launcher arm and all that. And now it's just like, oh, God, Dinkin'N.

dunk. It's like pulling teeth watching this offense, like push the ball down the field. You know what I mean? And so it's I guess it is sort of like endemic. It's like part of the whole league is doing this now where you need to see teams like really execute and string together these 11, 12 play drives.

Who was the team that had a 15 play drive this week and then didn't score a touchdown? Was it the Rams? Didn't the Chargers go 98 yards and not score? Maybe it was the Chargers. Someone they got stuffed to the goal. There was one team. I think it might have been the Chargers. somebody looked that up while we're talking, who had a 15 played...

15 played 98-yard drive or something like that, and they got stuffed at the one-yard line. But... Yeah, all Herbert does now is check down. Oh, my God, yeah. That was the charges. First drive of the game, 15 plays 98 yards.

Seven minutes, no points. And they got zero points. So, yeah, I think it's, you know, this is definitely something... It's like a thing that's happening around the league, I think, with some of these, like, high-flying offenses. And so... However, I actually...

I feel like I could be a defensive coordinator. Hold on, hold on. I have to just briefly give. Just put a extra guy back. Just too high safety. Hold on. I have to briefly give Brandon's daily credit because that is the argument for not going aggressive and fourth down, right?

Like 15 plays you're at the two yard line and you go front and fourth angle and you don't get it. But the flip side is the Eagles got the ball to two, three and out, Chargers got the ball in Eagles position, and they did get the touchdown on the next drive, which is the whole reason you go for it there. Just want to show. Right. Can we, Brandon Staley really quickly, he's almost becoming so analytical.

He's like galaxy braining every situation. Like, they had to kick this field goal to win the game, and it was like fourth and one, and they like went for it. And they're like, they had a 45-yard field goal and they went for it because like, I guess it was too far of a field goal for Brandon Staley.

They're really pushing the limits of like testing. If that didn't work, there would have been a Brandon Staley back. backlash because that was wild. So I'm looking at right now. It was fourth and one. First of all, they had already gone for fourth and one at the 39.

Because that was a 58 yard field goal. And it was like, okay, that's a bit long. Chargers, yeah, charges as an organization can't expect to make that.

But then he had a fourth and one at the 28, which is like closer than the third, than the 38. And he ran, that's so, like, I mean,

I actually in real time was trying to understand. And the only thing I could really think of other than like some math I don't get was that he just must know something about his kickers range that I don't know. I get, but it was like a 43 yard kick. Jesus Christ.

I don't know. And you know what? It worked. So you know what? Who are we to guess the process? He's drunk with analytical power. Also like, they're getting run on a lot.

Like, we've talked about this all season, basically like they're the worst run defense in the NFL and they don't give a shit. Like that's like by design. Like, we'll let you run. Go ahead and run.

But they're getting run. on a lot. And the Eagles almost won this game. I mean, it was a very close game. The Eagles were 176 yards. They're Eagles ran 39 times. They basically waited for Miles Sanders get hurt before they ran.

It's so weird. The Eagles were like, we're not going to run at all. And then Miles Sanders was like, all right, it's time now. He's got to be the biggest loser of this whole thing. There was games where they ran the ball

like three times or two times. Literally three times. There's three guys with double-digit rushes in this game on the Eagles alone. Can you imagine being Miles Sanders and getting hurt before the world? He's so pissed. Just get me out of here.

We're not mad. We're just disappointed award. Yeah. So, Cadarious Tony, I'm not mad at you. I'm just a little bit disappointed. And more, really, I'm actually just disappointed in Jason Garrett for not getting Cadarious Tony more involved. For getting the W?

Look, they won the game. The Giants won. I'm going to go ahead and say, congratulations. I get it. Like, this is only going to embolden your terrible decision-making Jason Garrett. But I actually saw this from Ryan McDowell. this made me laugh. Ken and Goliday is back in the lineup.

Cadarious Tony, healthy, Evan Ingram, playing well. Kyle Rudolph led to Giants and targets. Like, this is, what are these teams doing? Highfit, you answer this because you're a giant fan. I had such a bittersweet day because the Giants beat the Raiders and they beat them because they did this really great

thing where they let the Raiders get all the way to the Red Zone and then we're like, we're going to let the Raiders implode here. and like that, you know, great strategy. No, the real thing that blew me up was, I told you this earlier today, the Giants are three and six, which is the best record

they've had through nine games in five years. Yikes. And like when I heard that, it literally just sapped all the joy I had from this game. Like, it pulled it out of me. It was like a needle. Like it pulled it like a blood sample.

All of my joy, like the mojo in Austin Powers was extracted. And I was like, I, oh, it's like this team's disgusting. And I have to just, I'm going to talk about this stat maybe every day for the rest of my life. The giants have been outscored in the final two minutes of the first half, 45 to nothing. And I kind of don't care that they won this game because it was a cool win.

But I'm going to say that like 45 to zero, they have been outscored in the final two minutes of that. That is impossible. That is five points per game. If we put that to one drive per game, nine games, that's five. points per drive. The Rams entered this week leading the NFL in points per drive at three, which means in the final two minutes of the first half, the giants basically turn the other team into the best offense in NFL history. Like the every team is the 07 Patriots driving against the Giants in the final two minutes metaphorically because the Giants beat them.

But like, isn't that? Don't you have to try to do that number one? And then two, what does Joe Judge do all day? Oh my God. Figure out the right hoodie to wear If you're looking at the numbers from this game, I just truly don't understand how the Giants won this game.

Maybe it's really simple. It's right before halftime, Darren Waller just blew by the defense. I don't know if it was James Badderer or who, but like it was like one of those, like there were eight yards from the line of the end zone. And somehow in eight yards, Darren had picked up like three or four steps on the defender.

It felt impossible. And Derek Carr just threw a bullet pass. And if he had put any, amount of touch on it, Darren Waller would have called this touchdown and the game would have been over, entering half time. And the whole game changed. And then it happened again later, but like not as bad. But the Raiders just couldn't score.

Yeah. And it was just, it was, it was turnovers. Derek Carr had two picks and a fumble. And the Giants didn't have any. Yeah. They had a fumble. Well, Daniel Jones turned it over one time. It is a pick six though that completely changed. It just, but again, they won. I should be happy. But this team sucks.

And Jason Garrett sucks. And I'm already upset that I'm falling into a world where The one thing I didn't anticipate was Jason Garrett keeping his job beyond this year. And if the Giants do that, I'm going to lose it. Bottom line. I'll be disappointed. Hyfitz, were we wrong or were we just early getting super excited about Tony? Like, he's had a couple pretty block games, last two games.

I know that he's been coming back from injury and everything. He's been hurt. I mean, it's, look, he's a rookie receiver dealing with an injury on a team. It's going to be all over the map. Yeah. I mean, it's not just like the whole offense is injured. Everyone except Daniel Jones is hurt. John Ross is like the healthiest receiver on this team.

John Ross washed out of Cincinnati because he couldn't be healthy. He's the healthiest player in the whole offense. I will buy all of the Cadarius Tony's stock. I think if he's healthy and in the right offense, I can get him the ball appropriately and running the right routes. He's in like a top 10-wide receiver in the league. What if they play someone with two high safeties though? Shit.

Oh, shit. What if they drop one safety back? No. If anybody needs a defensive coordinator, I got a lot of ideas up here. All right. The sneakily elite ward. I said that weird. Sneakly. Sneak elite. Sneak elite. Sneak elite.

Sneak elite. Someone else to talk. I'm going to say, I'm going to call, I'm going to call this for Hollywood Brown. And I'm going to call him Hollywood because he's earned it. He's got his name back. He's more than earned it. He just keeps stringing really good games together. He had another very strong game today, especially like in the fourth quarter, man. He was just going off. I want to pull this up because I was really, really impressed. I think the, I think the Ravens ran like 89 or 90 plays in this game. They were, they were just turning it on. This is like a fantasy like Nirvana for me because. The Ravens are fun. Yes, it's so fun to watch

them. It's also fun to watch Don Hallib will be really mad all the time. Yeah, he's, he's got a stirring look on it on the sideline there. I mean, look, they started out pretty poorly. Like, Lamar Jackson did not look good to start the game. He was throwing picks, making really bad decisions. They picked it up by the end of the game. Marquise Brown, especially came on strong. He had nine catches 116 yards in this game. Rashad Bateman was also very good. Mark Andrews pretty solid. Five catches, 44 yards. The nice part about this offense is they can't run the ball. Well, Lamar can run. But in general, like, they're not very good at running. And they funnel all their targets or

most of their targets to three different guys, Mark East Brown, Rashad Bateman, Mark Andrews. Granted, I will say, three Randos got touchdowns this week. So hopefully that doesn't carry over. Like, for the most part, like, targets are going to these three guys. Devante Freeman is, like, the guy that I don't want to admit is good, but he's the Brandon Cooks Award. I don't want to admit he's good. He's good. But, like, Devonte Freeman is out here, like, making pseudo-acrobatic catches for touchdowns and,

like, actually leading their rushing attack. But the reason they're passing is because Devonte Freeman is the running back, and they're like, even they can't believe it. But it's a sign of the Ravens are a good, like, a well-coached team that they're an entirely, they run an entirely different offense pretty much than they did a year ago. And they have the same record. Yeah. They're equally as good

and they play a completely different style of football. The Ravens had the same players. They had 36 first downs today. Are you kidding me? The Vikings had 13. Wait, what did you just say? They had 36 first downs to the Vikings 13. The poor Vikings just take three point losses.

Are you sure? They played 89 plays. They had 36 first downs. All right, wait, I got to look up with the Cowboys head. Granted, it did go to overtime. This includes the Cowboys fake garbage time. the Cowboys had seven nine

seven no they had the Cowboys had 13 but that that's bullshit because they probably got eight of those on the last two drives yeah I think the Cowboys had five in actual time what did you say the Ravens at 31 we got to look this up when we're done 36 first downs today I wish I could just easily just eliminate

all the Cowboys last two drives because there's such a scam you really hate garbage time I hate how coaches It's just, oh, it's, I never really realized how much they care about the score being closer that it seemed until recently. Wow. So, Hyvitz, the NFL record is 40. They were four off the fucking record. I mean, they had, how much, how much overtime did they use? They played almost the entire overtime.

Yeah, it was a whole 75-minute game. But still. Still, still, that's a lot. Also, Hyvitz, you love, I know you, you like to talk about points per first down. Yeah. And, like, you know, this is your, this is your fantasy, fantasy, fantasy football league. Rashad Bateman, all 11 catches of his career have all gone for first down.

I love this. What is he? Kendrick Bourne? That was Kendrick Bourne thing with the Niners. It was like he just, he was 27 for 28 and third down at one point. It was ridiculous. Moves the chains. Literally this is like, we talked about this all off season two. It's cool. It's just the single most valuable thing of fan base wants in the player outside of

Redsone threat. It's just the third down guy. It's like it's the easiest way to be a beloved player on your team. But yeah, sure. We should call them chain chop? You know the Mario thing? Chain chop? You know I, like, didn't play a ton of Mario's a kid. Really? You guys don't know who Chainchomp is? No.

Mm-mm. I feel like I just lost a lot of respect. What is chain chop? Chain chop is like the big kind of Pac-Man-looking thing with the chain on him, and he would go around and eat everything, and he would be in Mario. Super Mario 64. I feel like a lot of people listen to this podcast. I don't remember this guy.

We'll now stop listening to this podcast. You don't remember chain chop? I played a lot of the original Mario and Mario Kart, but I don't remember seeing this guy. I was way better at Mario Kart than the other Mario games. Double dash on GameCube was sick. That game was the best. I was terrible at Smash. I was pretty good at Mario Kart.

Anyway. Just to wrap up the Mark East Brown commentary here. I saw this. We just did with the chain chomp. That was kind of the whole thing. So am I not allowed to get back into it? Yeah, no, fine. Are you fine?

Okay, cool. Whatever. The last 16 games, I saw this from Adam Harsstead. His 16 game, the last 16 games of Mark Heise Brown's career. He has 83 catches, 1,216 yards, and 12 receiving touchdowns. He has scored single digits in fantasy in just two of those games. He's as, like, consistent as they come right now. Maybe, you know, Cooper Cup obviously extremely, extremely consistent.

But in terms of just, like, stringing together really solid games, week in, week out. Hollywood Brown has arrived. It's kind of crazy. Big win for D.K. Well, I don't know if it's a win. I mean, he gave up, but we just for like three years. but we can. I'm excited about it. I'm excited about it. All right. Cooper Cup Award for Player,

you wish you had. We're going to go a little thunder round here. Formerly known as the Derek Henry Award for Pry, which had fantasy. Shouts to Corral Patterson for the Falcons, who had his most receiving guards since 2013. He had 126 yards on six catches. He also ran the ball nine times for 10 yards. Didn't really get much going on the ground. He has 737 yards and 7 touchdowns from scrimmages this season in eight games.

that is a almost 1,600 yard pace and 15-ish touchdown pace on the year. Cortero Patterson. What a goat. And he looks like legit good.

None of this looks like a fluke to me. So, wait, how many yards did he have today? Yeah, 136 scrimmage yards. So, oh, well, Dan,

the scrimmage, he basically, next week, he will probably set his career high, season high for receiving yards in his season.

Wow. Yeah. That's like Cooper Cup. Cooper Cup's like super close to, I think, breaking the hands. Yeah, he already doubled himself up. But like, Cordell Patterson doing it at 31, or he's turning 31 in March. He's 30 years old. Yeah, he had like to play the game.

After he's already had the most kick returns in NFL history for touchdown. After that, he just is having the best resuming year of his career. They, they targeted him on like an ISO route on the final drive of the game. He's cut a 64-yard catch down the sideline. Like, he is doing legit stuff. It's crazy. It's absolutely. it's not to me while Mike Davis is fumbling the game away.

Poor Mike Davis. My goodness. Craig. We already talked about the Ravens, but it's Lamar. Lamar's been so damn good this year. And weirdly, I think he's actually been flying under the radar. He was the quarterback three heading into the week, and I have to imagine he'll be close to the overall best quarterback in fantasy

after this week's game. His highs are incredibly high this year, and his lows are really productive lows. All of his bad games this year have been, like, fantasy starter level. So Lamar is killing it. I like this version of Lamar better than any other one. And also, he hasn't had as many rushing touchdowns as he should have compared to how much he's rushing. And I actually think he can maintain this pace, if not even play slightly better, which is kind of nuts to think about.

Yeah. All right. I mentioned my Brandon Cook's award players I don't want to have made as good. It's James Connor, Devante Freeman. James Connor of Chase Headman's out, top ten running back. Devante Freeman is a running back. Both those blow my mind. I don't know which more.

Yeah. And mine is, we mentioned him earlier too. It's Carson Wentz. I don't know. He might not be good at real football, but he's not bad at fantasy football. I mean, he's only really had one bad game all year. He has been like a legit fantasy starter. Every game but won this year.

Does he get the old Trubisky Award or Bortles? Just don't watch him. Just do not watch him play football. Just put him in your lineup. That's perfect. I think he's exactly right. I actually think he's been, I don't know, the word good. I got hung up on saying,

the word good there. He's been solid. He has and this is pretty much his whole career, but he always gets caught making these really stupid plays where, you know, in this last game where he tried to throw it with his left hand, whatever. The rest of the time, he honestly looks pretty good. Well, you know why?

Because he figured out how to be too high. You just under three receivers to get the pouty. Well, no, no one's running too high on him yet because he's not that good. But now that he's good, they're just run too high. Can you do the pass interference move against the too high? I don't think so. Yeah, that's the other thing.

So maybe that's what Mahomes is doing. He's sucking so bad that teams stop playing the too high against him and then he can start doing the past interference stuff. How many yards does he picked up on just those prayers up in the like... Just from the time that I've watched in the season, probably nine. Yeah. He'd be leading the NFL in yards if those were caught passes. Who's he playing next week?

They're playing Jacksonville. Oh, well, he's screwed. Yeah, wow. It's R.P. Carson once. Can't stop him to Urban Myers' Pied House. nothing you can do. Okay. Is that everything? No.

Well, Prop bets, we're, what are we? We have two for Monday night football, which in retrospect really screwed us up. But, yeah, we'll have to hold off. But we're, uh, we're one, two, three, four and three right now. Five for three, yeah. Five for three. Five and three. You know what, it's late, man.

You know what? I got this far. We got to get to the last category here. Burn. So Prop bets will let you guys know. Burnbook. Who do you guys think should be burned this week? I thought about putting Jarvis in here.

Can I just give yourselves a pat in the back for Burning O'Dell a week ago before the whole trade deadline thing happened? The timing was immaculate. We have been perfect this year with our burns. Our burn book has been, we are. No one has pressure though. This is like high-bron. We really haven't. Askins has been better.

But we have really nailed it. And like, this is high pressure. We can't get this wrong. And you can't cop out by picking somebody who's just like already shitty. Yeah, you can't do that. Because like, this matters. Burning Darnold

That's like The layup of the century I Alright No it's not a Burnbook guy It's really a disappointing

Before you say it If O'Dell gets On a new team And starts lighting it up Does the burn book Can we take him out of the burn book After being After switching teams

Like does that count If he changes teams It can apply for reinstatement But if he goes to The fucking years or something There's an arbitrator It's a whole thing Okay, I have a nomination for Burnbook.

What do you got? Julio Jones. That's a good one. What did he do tonight? Not much. Four catchers 35 yards. Did you catch what Chris Collinsworth said? He said, I have not seen

Julio Jones run full speed this season, but I think I just did there in the first quarter. Which I thought was the best explanation of Julio Jones's year that I've heard so far. He's missed two games this year. He's had one game with more than 59 receiving yards. I zero touchdowns

I think this is not only is this excellent this is astute this is correct he's just been a massive disappointment and you think it's going to continue

I take it but he's also it's not only that when he's played he's been bad it's that when he has been playing or not been playing

you've had to do the is he going to play thing and then now he's worked himself into the it doesn't matter if he's going to play

because I'm not going to play him if he's healthy but I can't cut him because he's Julio Jones

and I can't can't trade him because he's Julio Jones and no one wants him. And you know what will feed even more into his burnbook status is he'll have a huge game in the next four or five weeks? Is this what the falcons said to deal with when they were trading him? Is this effectively the same thing? They're like, we don't know if he's going to play. No one wants him because he doesn't know if he's going to play.

But we took him so high. Like he'll have one game in the next five weeks where he'll have eight catches for 140 and two touchdowns. And he'll be on your bench. That's why he's in the burn book. Yeah. Yeah. I like this.

Dika, do you have any dissent here? unfortunately no not really i do i have him in one league and it's just it's been a struggle it's been a big struggle he's practically unplayable i mean yeah this is like doing yourself in favor by taking him out off the off the menu like you can't start him anymore Julio jones you're in the burn book save me for myself all right that's all we got thank you dk thank you cra thank you mike for producing this episode should i thank poll assassin and Moses again. Now, let them, let them live in that one episode.

Thank you everyone for listening. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, George Jones. Thank you, Urban Meyer's Pinethouse. Really surprisingly good food. I'll give Urban Meyer this. It's a good bar. Like, it's a good bar.

It's well thought out. The TVs are placed well. The volumes good. The chicken wings. I'm sure he had a lot to do with the design. He's an amateur architect, kind of like Charlie Munneman. longer. Except for yes, he puts doors and windows and stuff in his building. It's very well

lit in the Irbynoyer Piney. Well, well, I should. Perhaps it shouldn't be. Goodbye, everyone.