The Ringer NFL Show - Week 10 Recap: The Lions' Comeback Win Over the Texans, Chiefs Block the Broncos, and More

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

Sheil, Steven, and Diante return to discuss, debate, and share their expert takes on some of the biggest games from Sunday’s NFL slate. Lions-Texans (1:25) Broncos-Chiefs (16:53) Patriots-Bears (28:56) They then plant their flag on major hot-button issues that are shaping the season as we head down the stretch towards the playoffs (38:05). Finally, the guys survey the league and offer superlatives and awards to the players, coaches, and teams who made newsworthy contributions to the Week 10 headlines (1:08:56). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia, Steven Ruiz, and Diante Lee Producers: Chris Sutton, Tucker Tashjian, and Mark Panik Production Supervision: Conor Nevins, Arjuna Ramgopal, and Daniel Comer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's happening? It's Todd McShay and I'm back with a new home and a new show at the Ringer and Spotify. The McShay Show. It's a video and audio podcast coming to you year round with all my NFL draft information, big boards, mock drafts, and player movement. Plus, I'll be chatting with some of my best friends in football, including some of your favorite football analysts. During the week, we'll have episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays that will include discussions about my player rankings, who's rising, who's falling, and who your NFL team should be keeping an eye on. Plus, we'll be reacting each week to the college football playoff polls and giving you previews and picks for each Saturday slate. In addition, I'll have episodes on Saturday

nights with my immediate reaction to the full day in college football every week. So if you love the college game, the NFL, the draft, or all of it like me, make sure to like, follow, subscribe, and get ready for the McShay show on the ringer, Spotify, and wherever you watch or listen the podcasts. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show. Shield Capadia here with my friend Stephen Ruiz and Deonté Lee. Good to have you watching on Fandual TV or listening on Spotify. We just got finished watching a wild Sunday night football game. We're going to talk about that, talk about the rest of the action in week 10. Deante, have you had your minute to wrap your head around what we just watched at Lions Texans? I think you could give me an hour and I don't know if I'd be able to

wrap my head around. what we just watched for Sunday night football. I mean, you want to talk about, like, the swings of the game just taking you every which direction and then finishing when maybe like the closest make you could possibly have on a field goal. I really am still trying to process what all this means and what to take away from this game. Yeah, no doubt about it, Ruiz. Yeah, I kind of had my head down writing during certain parts of this game. But every time I looked up, I heard Chris Collinsworth or Mike Tariko discussing another interception

from one of these quarterbacks. And it seemed like all of them kind of looked alike, too. It was like the same interception over and over again, especially for Jared Gough. But this Lions team, I mean, we're going to talk about it, but their ability to overcome even mediocre quarterback play from week to week every now and then has been astounding. They still look like one of the better teams in the league.

Yeah, they've got eight wins now atop the NFC standings. All right, we're going to start it off with that game. We started off with lessons we learned from the week. and Deante, you're up first. So what did you learn from Texans' Lions today? I think the best way you can boil it down is that the Lions have kind of built a quarterback proof system and the Texans are running a very quarterback dependent system. And I think that you really saw that manifest itself in the second half as Houston was trying

to put the game away. And C.J. Strau gave the ball away, took some sacks. And there was just a point in time about maybe midway through the third quarter where I was watching C.J. Strau just working the drop-back game. and I just thought like how many times have I seen over the last three weeks him not be moved off of his platform within the first two seconds, two and a half seconds of a drop back. And that's not to say that he was faultless in this game.

The speed out that turned into an interception of Carlton Davis was a poor throw, poorly time throw. And then obviously the throw into the end zone, badly underthrown, didn't see it until late, which gave the defense an opportunity to get back underneath it. But when you're able to set that to the side and just think about it holistically, so often there's immediate interior. your pressure that he's got a side step and now that changes his vision or you get immediate edge pressure and now he's forced to step up in the pocket and now there are certain throws outside

the numbers that are harder to access as a result and you could definitely just feel kind of the weight of how much he has to do for this offense in every possession in the second half whereas on the other side and this is something that we've talked about with Detroit before it is so easy for them to flip a gear and say all right we don't have it in the passing game we're going to go to screens. We're going to go to the downhill run game. We can design certain things with choice routes for Amon-Ross-St. Brown. We can get different design things and got-to-have-it situations for James or Sam Leporta that just looks so much easier for Jared Gough than what you're looking at on the other side. Most of the quarterbacks in the NFL, and I would say specifically

tonight against C.J. Stroud. And that ultimately ended up painting the difference in this game is that Detroit was able to get to a different part of its playbook that did not ask its quarterback to be the ultimate problem solver in order for them to be viable offensively. Yeah, to your point, he was one of the best quarterbacks when throwing in rhythm last year, and there's like a certain time frame that you have to hit to be considered throwing in rhythm by like next gen stats or pro football focus. He was one of the best. It was him.

It was pretty. It was two. It was the three Shanahan quarterback's, or Shanahan offense quarterbacks, this year that's totally gone away. And the question with offensive coordinators, especially young ones, who haven't really proven themselves is typically, okay, what happens when the defense finds a counter to your initial punch? The best coordinators find a counter punch. Bobby Sloic still hasn't found a counterpunch. We've been harping on it all season, but you could see the results of it. Like, you got an ideal

performance out of your defense. They did everything they wanted to do against the lines. They wanted to make Jerich Gough a dropback passer. He was in this game and he threw a bunch of interceptions and they still couldn't capitalize on those mistakes. If the defense is playing this well, and the offense is going to let them down against the top team. Like, I don't know how you feel confident about Houston going into the playoffs. And ultimately, in this year, after they made their moves in the off season, that's the goal, is success in the playoffs. Yeah, I thought Stroud was awesome in the first half, that drive to end the first half.

I thought we were getting the performance I talked about on Friday, where I'm like, I just want Stroud to put the cape on and put the team on his back. And they're up 23-7, and I'm like, yes, we are getting it. Anyone who said anything about CJ Stroud this year, you're going to say, see this game. He's going to win it for the Texans. And then in the second half, to your point, Ruiz, seven possessions, four punts, two interceptions, one missed field goal. They had more than one first down on one of those drives in the entire second half. This ended up being a bad offensive performance and a very good defense, both teams, obviously with all the interceptions, but even

interceptions aside, two very good defensive performances in this game. And you can't go seven possessions against this Detroit Lions offense, I don't care what the score is. They can be 35 to three or something. If you go seven straight possessions in a game without scoring against this lion's offense, they're going to figure it out. And to your point, Deonti, you saw, it wasn't always pretty for the Lions, but you always felt like they have a chance on this drive. They have a chance on this drive. Oh, beautiful screen designed to Jameer Gibbs. Oh, great run by Jemir Gibbs. Oh, Amon Rae St. Brown on the choice route. Like, they have so many more things to work with than this Texans offense does right now.

And I think a lot of it obviously starts with that Texans offensive line. Even in that first half, I was surprised on the broadcast, they come back out of halftime. And they're like, C.J. Stroud was pressured on 50% of his dropbacks in the first half. I'm like, man, and that seemed like good protection from the Texans offensive line. Now, if you want to look at the glass half full for the Texans, Deontay, Nico Collins doesn't come back yet. He's going to come back. How much of a problem solver do you think he can be for the issues that ail them?

I mean, that gets you right back, or at least it makes being in rhythm, as Stephen was detailing, a little bit more accessible. Because now I can get to my back foot and maybe throw some of those Russell Wilson moonballs on a fade or on a post or on a comeback route where I don't have to try to survey the entire field and have to be concerned with what angle is this pressure coming from. And how do I have to reset my feet in order to find Dalton Schultz for seven yards or in order to find Tank Dell for nine or 10 yards? I think that that will definitely be an additive for this offense. And then I think for the more attention that Nico Collins gets to draw, the more we can see what they were in the first six or so weeks of the year, at least when Joe Mixon was available to them, which is that teams have to honor them with a little bit more split safety.

You can't play as much tight coverage. And now you can run the ball a little bit more effectively. You could definitely feel that missing in the game for them tonight, especially in the second half, when it was clear that they didn't have it in the dropback game. They didn't have a run game that they could lean on. to try to take some strain off of their quarterback. So I think Nico Collins, as an explosive passing threat, immediately adds value.

And then I think the implied value of what that gives them also adds to their run game and makes it a little bit easier on your tank dills, on your Dalton Schultz's, on John Mechie. And I think it keeps them out of having to be in as much 11 personnel, pure spread stuff, to try to move the ball in the passing game. So I have a question for the group. Should we be concerned about this performance? It is notable that Detroit was able to,

overcome the five interception performance from Jared Kauf. But you don't want to be overcoming that type of performance. And if you go back like three weeks ago when they played the Titans, it wasn't like he was good in that game either. He's had some questionable games. They've been able to overcome them against inferior opponents. But what happens when they start playing better opponents? I feel like there is a red flag to take from this game,

even though Detroit was able to overcome a lot. I'd be thrilled if I were a Lions fan. I mean, this type of game, their defense, Remember all the talk we had in August about, is this defense going to be any different, you know, the way they play? I mean, to come out, if they don't come out,

again, seven straight possessions to hold the opponent scoreless, you're not even in the game. The takeaways, the pressure they're able to get, even without Zadaria Smith, playing in this game. Some of the plays from Carlton Davis, you saw Lee McNeil in this game.

So I feel like this is an outlier game. I hear you. It's happened before. It will happen again if they're, maybe if they're outside in December, which it doesn't look like they're going to be most weeks this lion's offense is going to work and he's not going to throw five interceptions Jared Goff. I mean, their passing game for the most part has worked. We know they

lean on their run game. We know their offensive line is awesome. So I would be thrilled about this because I didn't know that they were a team that could win in different ways. Like, you know, you mentioned it. They got the game script. They're down 23-7 and they still somehow found a way to pull out this win, win with a big kick at the end of the game. So I don't know if you agree, Deontay, but I was thinking if I'm a Lions fan, I'm like pumped this week. I'm like, we are the best team in the NFC still. Yeah, I mean, you should feel okay. I do think there were points in time, especially before they got things wrong in the second half where you can look and feel the fact that Amon Ra's St. Brown is not a natural one-on-one separator or a ball winner. I think that Houston was

able to do some things in terms of playing cover two and taking away some of those choice routes, playing man and really being able to stick to him even when he's running those shallow crosses and some of the ways that they're able to manufacture touches for them. And I think defensively, one of the funny things about it is that it was almost as though the flow of the game and what the storyline of the game was going to be for both defenses kind of flipped. Whereas in the first half, and I know I said it before we got on the show, we were just kind of texting back and forth,

just that the first half really kind of painted how much of an absence Aiden Hutchinson's injury gave this defense, right? Because they weren't affecting C.J. Stroud in the same way in the first half. He was able to operate a little bit more in rhythm. and you saw him kind of picking this defense apart in the middle of the field and out on the perimeter. And I thought that Houston was playing really well in spite of not having Will Anderson. And then in the second half, it was like that flow of the game completely flipped where you could clearly feel the fact that Houston did not have its closer to be able to get to the quarterback and really affect Jared Gough. Even as he was turning the ball over, I think they could have definitely been helped by a guy who could get them a TFL in the run game or somebody that they had to account for so where they couldn't just run those perimeter runs that Jemir Gibbs ended up popping.

as the game went on and that David Montgomery was finding the edge, getting off tackle as a game wore on. So he was definitely missed in that game. And then to your point, She'll just Detroit's commitment to continue in to push the pocket. They got a lot of quick pressure tonight. And it really kind of took away or mitigated some of the effects that we saw in the first half with them not having a top-tier edge rusher like Aidan Hutchinson and not having Zedarius Smith.

So I do think overall you should be encouraged that you were able to dig yourself out of a multi-possession hole without your best guy defensively and without the guy you just acquired defensively, but I do think still, you kind of have to be a little alarmed about what kind of position this team can land itself in when Jared Goff is playing as poorly

as he was for the first two and a half quarters of this game. I'm just saying, $53 million a year. I don't want to be talking about how we overcame our quarterback and how the best our offense has looked has been in games where he's taking a back seat. He should be driving the bus if he's making that much money.

And I think it's going to be harder down the line to keep that team together that's making his job so easy. We'll see what happens though in January. That's the one reason why I can't trust this team. That's the one reason why I'm hesitant to pick them to win the Super Bowl or even make the Super Bowl is because that quarterback, he's a quarterback who needs a certain game script to play his best. That's been proven throughout his career.

And this year hasn't given us any evidence to the contrary. Yeah, overall, I agree with you that, yes, there are certain conditions you want in place for Jared Goff to be at his best. I think this year they have the pieces in place to allow for that for the most part. I mean, he's still second and drop back success rate. When they've had to call passes, they've been able to be pretty efficient. I understand. Not every game. You mentioned the game two weeks ago. Overall, you know, we've seen those graphics that start started the game 12 for 12 or whatever it is. They don't have a dot on those graphics for a reason. I'll just leave it at that. Also, this too, I feel pretty, if I'm a Texas fan,

like this day, all right, you lose 12. I'm not going to say, I feel good. You lose 23-7, you lose a game. You're annoyed by that. At the same time, man, this defense, what they did to Jared Gough in this lion's offense for a long time in this game, what they did to Josh Allen goes nine for 30 against them. Like what you want in the modern NFL is a defense that can play well against great offenses, almost like, I don't want to say, nothing else matters, but anyone can beat up on the backup quarterbacks in the NFL. And they have a defense and they have a defensive coach in D'Amico Ryan, who has a history of coming up with game plans to fluster some of these very good offenses.

So get Will Anderson back, get Nico Collins back. You're still going to win the division. I'm not giving up on that team. I think they're a team that could look different in mid-December than maybe they do right now. This Texan team is starting to feel very 2010 San Diego Chargers to me, where they have the franchise quarterback. They have a really good defense. And it just seems like they're losing these close games and giving games away

because something goes wrong, either up front with the offensive line or the run game does not have the kind of rhythm it needs, you know, or something goes wrong with special teams as it does with the misfield goal in the second half. So I do think if you're Houston, you feel better today than you feel, then you felt coming off the loss against the Jets, but you do have to start kind of looking at where are we at as a franchise? If we have the quarterback that we want to have in the future,

and this defense already looks Super Bowl ready in year 200, Dimeco Ryans, and we still are having these issues against contending football teams because this doesn't look anything like what it was when they were beating, on Buffalo down a few weeks ago. If they need to feel any better about their situation, their divisional opponents are starting Will Levis, Mac Jones. And who's the other one? I'm already forgetting.

Oh, Joe Flacco, of course. Joe Flacco, my favorite quarterback. How could you forget? There you go. Yes, they are in a good spot with that division, no doubt. All right, let's take a break. We come back. We find out what Ruiz learned in week 10.

Get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fandul, America's number one sports book, because right now new customers can bet five, and get $150 in bonus bets if you win. The Fandul Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place. I've got the Rams home favorites Monday night against the dolphins. You can do that. You can do a div.

You can take the dolphins or do a prop, whatever you want. But remember, when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, view live, play-by-play, and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. just visit Fandul.com slash Ringer NFL to join today. You'll get started with $150 in bonus bets if you win your first $5 bet. That's Fandual.com slash ringer NFL. Never waste a hunch and make every moment more with Fandul an official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Must be 21 plus and present in select states or 18 plus and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-mithrowerable bonus bets,

which expires seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook. Fandul.com. Gambling problem called 1-800 gambler or visit RG-dash-help.com. All right, we're back on the Ringer NFL show. Ruiz, what do you got? What lesson did you learn in week 10?

So I was going to come on here and say, like, Kansas City can't keep getting away with this. But like, everything in me tells me, yes, they can. And they're probably going to get away with this. And they're probably going to win a Super Bowl. I'm talking about them escaping. Arrowhead with a win in a game where they were outgained by the Broncos. The Broncos had a higher EPA.

They had a higher EPA in the passing rate. A higher EPA in the run game. A higher success rate in the past game. A higher success rate in the run game. They dominated this game. They should have won this game. But the Chiefs somehow, some way, they pull the win out. They get a block kick at the end.

But this game really came down to what it's come down to all year for the Chiefs. The defense has played well and Patrick Mahomes's magic on third down. But when you look at their splits on offense by down, that's where you get the real concern here. Because they're not a bottom 10 offense on first and second down, but a mediocre offense on first and second down. And they are the best offense in the NFL by EPA and success rate. And any metric you want to look at, that's typically when they've had most of their production on offense. I think once that luck starts to turn, and we saw it turn a little bit in this game against Denver, although Mahomes had a couple of third and long,

third and extra long conversions that really helped Kansas City pull this one out. But once that luck starts to turn and they can't improve on first and second down, I think we're going to see a couple of losses. And I wouldn't be surprised if this season turns into a little bit of the 20, 23 Eagle season that we saw last year where they start, what do they start, 10 and 0, 9 and 0, whatever it was. And then by the end of December, it felt like they were going to lose the first playoff game they played. And that's what happened. I don't think it's going to get that back because Mahomes and Reed are still here.

but when you account for the fact that they're going to be in the AFC and playing against teams like Baltimore or Buffalo, even Houston can rebound Cincinnati still has a chance to be a threat in the playoffs. I think the bar is a little bit higher than that 23 Eagles team. Well, the funny thing to me, right, is that

even though they've been winning these games in similar fashions, I don't think that we can just copy and paste the same analysis from past weeks where they kind of stumbled around and then pulling one out in the end to what we've been seeing over maybe the last two to three games. I thought that, you know, when you think about when they beat the Saints and when they beat the 49ers,

they were able to do that because they could rely on the run game whenever they got the light boxes, when teams wanted to play more man. And they were able to play behind that offensive line and try to mitigate asking Patrick Mahomes to be Superman on third and medium, third or long, third and extra long. What I feel like we've seen over the last three weeks is just less and less effectiveness in the run game, more teams that are just willing to load up the box on early downs and try to get them into those second and nine, those third and eight, a little bit more often. And while I think things have played out fine because you have maybe the best quarterback

to ever live behind there, you can just feel the constraint on this offense as every week goes by. So I'm with Stephen. I think that in this game, them not having big turnover problems is ultimately what allowed them, I think, to hang around longer than what they would have in other situations when Patrick Wilhons was giving the ball away. like weekly to a defensive lineman or some disaster play was happening in the run game with the fumble.

But to me, I think the more that I'm watching this team, the less confident I feel. So I might be going in the opposite direction as Ruiz, where just like as I'm watching that Broncos game, it just feels so certain to me that like, oh, these wide receivers really don't have an answer against any coverage picture that they see. And you saw on third down, Denver didn't really have to blitz them to get pressure in this game. It just came down to Patrick Mahomes shaking pass rushers off. on third and 13s and then loft in the ball to Travis Kelsey or DeAndre Hopkins to move the chains. I just don't like living that way as a team that is chasing its third Super Bowl.

And while I know I know I'm an idiot for not feeling good about the team of Patrick Mahomes, I can't ignore everything that I've been, that I've learned about watching the NFL in my lifetime and say that everything is fine. We know that there are plenty of warning, warning marks and yellow flags and orange flags with this team right now, at least on offense. that's the only thing that's holding me back from writing this team off is because I know how this is going to end. I know Patrick Pohombs and Andy Reid are going to figure it out. And I don't want to be the guy that's in the montage when they're winning the Super Bowl with all the media clips being like, oh, they're done this time.

It's going to be Deonté now. Don't make the same mistake, Shield. I think it's a classic like two things can be true scenario. I think the concern is validated. I mean, based on offensive success rate, this was their worst performance of the entire season. And a lot of that has to do with what Deonti is saying. They couldn't run the ball. They averaged three yards per carry in this game and everything has to be so methodical.

They are producing an explosive play at the fifth lowest rate in the NFL. Can I tell you a team that produces explosive plays at a higher rate than the Kansas City Chiefs? The Chicago Bears, so don't worry, we're going to get to them. The Chicago Bears produce explosive plays at a higher rate than the Kansas City Chiefs in the year 2024. How is that possible? So I think it's okay to say there are concerns about this. team. They are 9 and 0, but they are 7 and 0 in one score games. Usually, you're not able to do that. Maybe with Patrick or Mahomes, you're able to do that. But then I say the other part, which you

started with it. Like, so what? They should be like a 7 and 2 team? That's pretty good coming off a Super Bowl victory when you had questions coming to the seasons at offensive tackle, when you had a wide receiver go down when you face the sixth hardest schedule in the NFL. Like seven and two is still pretty good here. So I have concerns about I'm going forward, but I mean, this schedule is wild. Like, yes, they have the bills next week. They've got the Browns on the schedule. They've got the Raiders

on the schedule. They've got the Panthers on the schedule. And they've already won nine games. So like, let's say they lose every other game. You're talking about a 12 and five team who very well might still be the one seat. That's almost like the worst case scenario with this team. And let me ask you this. Most

likely team to get to the Super Bowl from the ASC. Your life depends on it right Now, who are you picking? I'm picking Baltimore. I was about to ask you a similar question. I'm not. I'm picking the Chiefs. Which you're picking Kansas City over Baltimore.

In the playoffs, especially in these playoffs where they're going to be playing at home against a team like the Ravens. If they face the Ravens, I'm picking the Chief. The Chiefs can still win in a lot of different ways. Like their offense isn't as good, but they're probably still the most balanced team in the AFC. Their defense is way better than the Ravens. And I trust them on special teams.

Deontae, you didn't answer. Who do you got? Is Baltimore to me if we're talking neutral field? If we're talking about Kansas City getting home field throughout, I mean. I'll take them, please. You think Mahomes is scared of a neutral field? What are you two talking about neutral field is the difference? To me, it's not even that there's anything wrong with Patrick Mahomes.

Like, if anything, like, the fact that I am not just dismissing this case outright is the biggest, like, bow and the feet of Patrick Mahomes there is. They have a 54% success rate on third and 10 or more dropbacks. That's insane. That can't last. Like, literally, it just can't last. The leak has taught us that that's not going to last. And that's not to say that when they're not converting these third and extra longs at a ridiculous clip that everything's going to fall apart.

But it is just another marker in terms of when things go wrong, the margin for error is not actually as great as I think their record suggests. I think that we're able to walk away from the result to these games and just say, oh, man, Patrick Mahomes fixes all the problems. The truth of the matter is that Denver did outplay this football team. Like I said, this wasn't the San Francisco game. This wasn't the New Orleans game where Kansas City looked like the more talented team from Snap 1 throughout. And they made mistakes along the way that allowed their opponent to hang around.

This was them being outplayed, especially by Denver's defense. And they just happened to block a kick at the end. And that's not to say if Denver makes a kick at the end of the game that we're coming in and saying, aha, they've been exposed. Everything is going, you know, everything is crumbling for this team. And we can finally be honest about where Kansas City. is. That's not what I'm saying, but I think that them not having that lost this Sunday, I think just paints over once again some of the things that have gone wrong with this offense.

And I am just concerned when you see Buffalo, when you see Baltimore again, assuming that they do see them in the postseason, that those are going to be the kinds of teams that can keep pace with them when they are playing at their best. And maybe the high variance that they've been living off of a Patrick Mahomes goes in another direction. That's why it feels a little Eagles coded to me this year. It's because if you go back to September of the Eagle season, they had problems

like Shield was saying, but they were still a good football team, and if you gave them neutral luck, they'd probably be like 8 and 2 instead of 10 and 0. But no, those problems fester and they get worse. And like the run game point that Deontay brought up, I think, is a very good point. This game their pass

rate was 75.4. That was not only the highest of their season. It was the highest of the season across the NFL. This was not a game that they were trailing in for most of the game. That's like how often they pass on early downs, you're saying? No, not even early downs. Just in general all snaps. Overall. 35.4 of their plays were past plays. I mean, I know they were down by double digits early on, but it wasn't a game where they were playing catch up, so to speak. The Bronco scored 14 points the entire game. And I just think that that playmaking burden is just going to just buckle Patrick

Mahomes eventually. He's not, like Deonti said, he's not going to be able to keep completing these passes on third and 10. And you mentioned the numbers. Yes, the offensive numbers overall do look good, but that's almost entirely based on third down. You said only five teams have a lower explosive play rate than them. If you go on first and second down, no team has a low. They have the worst explosive play rate in the NFL. They are 18th in EPA. They are 10th in success rate. That's good, but it's not great. It's not going to sustain your offense. We've seen high success rate offenses fail in the NFL. You have to generate explosives when they just aren't outside of Patrick Mahomes' magic on third down.

That's why I'm concerned. I'm also less concerned because it is Patrick Mahomes. And maybe he will just keep this up for the next four months or whatever. Yeah, I share. I think the concerns are valid. And there's also still no team I would take over them. Matt Patricia ain't walking through that door, you know, with the 2023 Eagles. They still got spags.

Like what's more likely? Spaggs slows down. Spags and the Chief's defense slows down the Ravens offense or that Ravens defense is able to stifle the Chief's offense. The former is more likely, but I think if we're looking at that week one game, the issue wasn't that Spaggs shut down that offense. Yeah, that's true. And that to me is the biggest concern. So I think that now, really what this season has done has almost given us a very narrow focus on what next week is going to look like when they play Buffalo.

Because if it looks similar to the Ravens game where the bills are able to march the ball up and down the field, even if Kansas City does get that one player, those three plays they need late in the game to win, I'm probably going to come out of that game wondering whether or not I still trust this team to go win those games in the postseason. You know, obviously just setting aside the fact that that that means they're probably going to get home field advantage throughout. I just need to see, I need to see them really give me something emphatic. And this is not a styles point thing as much as I want to see the recipe that we know to win Super Bowls show up and be present for the Chiefs when they're playing against it, when they're playing these games on a weekly basis. Yeah, they're not a juggernaut. I mean, bills are in the mix, Ravens are in the mix, like you guys mentions, uh-oh, I just saw chiefs are underdogs in that game. Oh, no. Add this to the underdogs. Hello, classic Mahomes performance. The books are good, man. Already? No, I need all the help. I got. Yeah, I probably should start making them on Sunday night. Something. I need some help in our picks contest. All right, my lesson is about a team. Maybe we just talked about. out, but it's not going to be complimentary. I promise you. The Bears' playoff hopes are over,

and so is Matt Eber Fluse's tenure as their head coach. I mean, I know what disaster looks like. I know what the end looks like, and it looks like what's happened to this team over the last three weeks. So today, they lose to the Patriots 19 to 3. They're six and a half point favorites at home, and they had 11 first downs in this game. They were one for 14 on third down. Caleb Williams got sacked nine times in this game. It was a complete disaster. Now, if it were one game, I would say rookie quarterback, every team's going to have ups and downs, but rookie quarterback, you're going to have ups and downs. The last three weeks for this team, like Jaden Daniels might have ended Matt Eber Fluse's coaching career in Chicago, because you have that play where you have a player on the

team, Tyree Stevenson, looking at the crowd while the Hail Mary is happening, still probably the most fun moment of the 2024 season. Not for Deonté, who is a defensive coordinator, but Ruiz and I can at least laugh about it. You have that. The next week, you have DJ Moore running off the field in the middle of a play. He says it's because of one thing. Matt Ibrufus says it's because of another thing. And then DJ Moore's asked on radio, has Matt Eberfuss lost the locker room?

And he says, I want to say no. I want to say no. Like, I mean, I don't know. That's not saying no. That's I want to say no. By the way, they also gave up a 50-yard rushing touchdown at the end of the first half in that game. They get blown out by the Arizona Cardinals. And then this game happens.

And so now you have three weeks in a row. You have 21 straight possessions over two games where you have not scored a touchdown. You are four and five. On paper, four and five isn't that bad. They have the hardest schedule in the NFL going forward. Offensive line. A joke. Offensive scheme.

A joke. Head coach. Losing players. left and right. Again, I know what this looks like. Organizations that have this much invested in a player like Caleb Williams, they're not going to be patient. They're not going to say, run it back. This thing is going to get way worse over the second half of the season. And listen, I'm not calling for Maddie Ber Fluss's job. Seems like a nice guy. Got the glow up in the offseason, did some nice things as a defensive coach. But it's not going well right now. And I fear

that our boy Fluse is going to be looking for a job at the end of this season. I mean, him growing a beard is like his biggest accomplishment of his tenure as Bears coach. And his wife bears a credit for that. She is the one who made the call that he should keep it. Listen, behind every strong man, you know? Yeah, and like you can't try, like he could play the, you know, I can change my O.C. card.

I could fire Shane Waldron, replace him and turn things around. But like, he's 0 for two with O.C. hires me. Yeah. I was good saying he just did that. Yeah. Getsy was a disaster his first two years. And Getsy didn't even last more than 10 games in Las Vegas in that place. So, like, how would you trust him to hire the play caller for Caleb Williams going forward? And Kevin Byrd was asked if Iber Fleeves had lost the locker room today. He said, I don't want to get into that.

He didn't say no. He didn't say yes, but he said, I don't want to get into that, which means, yes, he has. It's over. And I don't know how you rebound from this. I mean, the Bears are last number of the last three games in EPA, Total EPA on throws. They're last in success rate. I mean, and you don't need advanced analytics to look at this. This is something I pointed out when they played the commanders

and just how often you're watching Caleb Williams have to deal with these very basic passing concepts out on the perimeter and these crushing pockets. And I will say, it's not necessarily that he invites pressure as much as his tendencies when he's pressured can oftentimes lend themselves to him making a play worse. That definitely came up at times. I know that Stephen and I, you know, in our group chat and some of our other buddies,

are just kind of talking about like, at a certain point, Caleb Lens, that's just kind of understanding. understand the offense that he's playing in, you're not going to get but naked receivers. They're always going to be tight window throws because that's just the design of this dropback game right now. And I think that all the criticisms that come with that are founded and warranted. And I would definitely like to spend some time shining a line on them because I know we spend a lot of time talking about it.

But I also think that Williams needs to do a better job of managing the pocket, of getting the ball out. I do think that he has bailed backwards in a pocket in the same way that we were criticizing C.J. Stroud for over the last couple of weeks, especially against the Packers in the Jets in terms of making bad situations worse. And you're just kind of seeing this whole thing fall apart in the sense where they were never competitive in this game against the Patriots. And the Patriots were pretty awful offensively in this game.

And the Bears had plenty of opportunities, plenty of possessions where they could have taken control of this football game. The fact that it never even felt like they had a puncher's chance at it kind of speaks to the state of this franchise right now. And I think that if you combine this game in particular with the Cardinals game last week, That definitely looks like trend lines for a team that is losing its grip on the rope. And with all these divisional games coming up, it's entirely possible that we could look up and this team may not be winning games at all come holiday season.

The one thing I'll disagree with there is that, like, I feel like Caleb is making mistakes in the pocket. But these are mistakes typical of a rookie quarterback. Oh, I agree with that. And rookie quarterbacks should be allowed to make. And yeah, I don't think you're viewing his tape like harshly at all. But when you do watch the tape, like you go back and watch the Arizona game. and I'm trying to find plays where he left meat on the bone and I can't find him.

Like he's doing things that you want to see not just your rookie quarterback do. He's doing things you want to see your third year quarterback too. Like before the snap, going through his progressions, he's trying to go through his progressions. And like DeAndte said, sometimes you just got to not do that.

And sometimes you got to go into improvise mode a little bit earlier. And I don't think he's doing that as often as he did over the first month. And like it kind of worked in those games against lesser opponents. but when you see that they're not going to be able to protect them, I do think he's got to create a little bit more.

And I do wonder if playing for this coaching staff and playing in this offense where the environment is just bad all around, from the protection to the receivers getting open down field, DJ Moore's effort has been questioned over the last couple of weeks. Adunze is a good player. I think he's been promising, but he is a rookie and he does make rookie mistakes. And then Keenan Allen, Deontay touched on this a couple weeks ago. Somehow he's like their intermediate target,

even though he should be just like a slot option on under these stuff. It's just not a well-designed offense, and I don't know where you go from it, but I really think it's highlighting Caleb Williams' weaknesses and making them look bigger than they actually are. Anytime you have a rookie quarterback who plays right away, you also have to worry about are they going to develop bad habits? And he might be doing some things at a high level, but I do wonder about the pressure stuff, not to say like he can definitely do. You don't want the quarterback in a situation where they're dealing with that so often that they have to make decisions. I mean, this game, he's two for nine for 10 yards when pressured on the season.

He's being sacked on over 11% of his dropbacks. Again, I'm not saying that's all on him, but that like you want him to be able to operate in a functional offensive ecosystem. And they're not doing that right now. And so then you worry if this happens over and over and over again for the next whatever eight, nine weeks of this season, then what are you working with in the offseason when you're trying to get him ready for his second season? So it's just like, to me, stuff piling on top of you.

other for this bear's team and then you look at the schedule and they got pat they haven't played the packers yet they haven't played the lions yet i mean them played the 49ers they played the 49ers you're talking about these are like the best teams in the nfc make up five of their remaining games uh and so they are in a really tough spot right now let me read off some of his time to pressures he had he was pressured 16 times three of them came off came after 2.1 seconds he had two he was sacked twice after 2.0 seconds do you know how often that happens? That doesn't happen very often. He's getting pressured in under two and a half seconds. He doesn't even have a chance to finish his drop by the time there's pressure in his face. I don't know how any rookie quarterback would deal with that. I don't know how any quarterback would deal

with it regardless of experience. He's in quarterback hell. I know we talked about how he was in one of the best situations that number one pick has ever been dropped into. And people are still kind of holding that against him. Just watch the film. Does it seem like a good situation? It's not. Trust me. It is not. Yeah, I think it's going to get bad for this Bears team. Yeah, it's going to get worse. They got a buy coming up here. But then after that, Packers, Vikings, Lions, Niners coming out of the buy. I don't know that they're going to have many anti-I mean, 21 straight drives without scoring a touchdown.

You know, you figure you would just luck into one at one point. But yeah, I think, I don't know, we might be looking back at that James, Dale Mary as kind of a turning point. It could be for the better for honestly Caleb Williams' ultimate development here as a quarterback and for the Bears franchise. But they were looking a lot better a couple weeks ago than they are right now. All right. We take a break. We come back. It will be time to plant our flags on something we saw or something we think is going to happen in the future.

All right. We are back on the Ringer NFL show. I'm going to lead us off. All right. We plan our flags on something in the show. I'm planning my flag on the fact that we can ignore the following teams when it comes to the playoffs. See ya. Had a nice season.

You made it to, what is it? November 10th, November 11th, you know, I'm not telling you if you're a fan of those teams. Sure, there's reasons to watch some of them. But in terms of playoff picture and how this season's going to end and who's hoisting the Lombardi, they're not going to be much of a factor or any of a factor this season. Now, some of these are easy. I did come to one fun conclusion that I want to get your guys take on. But let's start with the NFC here.

You guys tell me, am I wrong about any of these teams? NFC, I'm crossing off the Giants, two and eight, brilliant performance this morning. Thanks for making me watch that game, guys. It was a great three and a half hours well spent because it went to overtime, longer than the average game, actually. Hey, I had no obligation. And I woke up and watched it. Honestly, it was kind of entertaining.

It wasn't boring. It wasn't boring. Panther, speaking of which, they're also on the list, three and seven. Saints, you got the win today. you're on the list. Three and seven. Cowboys, you are 28th in point differential. And Cooper Rush and Trey Lance are probably going to start the rest of your games. You're three and six. You're on the list. And then I've got the Bears. Again, on paper, four and five, if you're a Bears fan, you say, what are you talking about? We're in the mix for the playoffs. I don't think you're in the

mix for the playoffs. Those are the teams in the NFC that I have off the list. That was pretty easy. Now, the AFC is where this gets kind of interesting because the playoff field has really shrunk here. So you've got the Jaguars at 2 and 8, Raiders 2 and 7, Titans 2 and 7, Browns 2 and 7, dolphins 2 and 6, Patriots 3 and 7, Jets, 3 and 7.

And I've got the Colts, who I just call the AFC version of the Bears, pretty much. They're 4 in ticks. I've got them out of there. So think about that. There are 16 teams in the AFC, and I just eliminated eight of them. So we have eight teams battling for

seven spots in the AFC playoffs. Here are the teams. The Chiefs, the Bills, the Steelers, the Texans, the Ravens, the Chargers, the Broncos. And of course, I'm not giving up on my Cincinnati Bengals. Four and six, firmly in the mix

in the AFC. First question to both of you, did you hear a name of any team there where you say Sheila, you can't eliminate them just yet? They still have a chance. Ruiz, you're shaking your head no.

No, no. If anything, I thought your list should have been longer. Too generous. Even in the AFC. You should have just eliminate eight or nine teams. Okay. All right. Deontae, I didn't miss it.

You're good with the list of teams I'm eliminating, right? It's one of those things where it's like, I'm not, there are names of teams that I might want to say because functionally they're still hanging around, right? Like Indianapolis is functionally still hanging around. Spiritually, that season is over. They're dead. Right.

Actually, I'm going to take this. If they make the switch back to Anthony Richardson and he could stop playing the worst football you've ever seen in your life and they can get that run game going. This schedule is not hard. Two qualifiers is too many. You've already laid out two qualifiers. I made my case.

Okay, let me just read the schedule. Jets next week. They can win that game. The Jets just got blown out by Arizona. Don't make me watch that game. The lines are going to get trouts. They're going to get blown out. It doesn't matter who the quarterback is.

But after that, they play the Patriots, the Broncos, the Titans, the Giants, and the Jaguars to finish the season. They can get four wins. They can make the playoffs. I don't think that there's a quarterback on that roster that can handle Denver's blitzing. I've watched enough of both of those guys. I feel like if the Broncos turn up the heat, that game's going to be a disaster. They can win a game here and a game there.

I don't think they can reel off enough wins to get into the AFC playoff picture. So of those eight teams I mentioned in the AFC, who is your odd team out right now? Do you need the list again? Because I mentioned eight teams. That could make it. No, it's Denver. Denver, okay. It's Denver for me.

I know I wasn't there to do the recap of the Thursday night football game this past week between Baltimore and Cincinnati. But after watching them play those two games against the team that I believe to be the best in the AFC, I feel pretty good about them being able to squeeze together just enough wins to sneak in, even if they are the seventh seed. And then the level of quarterback play that we're getting out of Joe Burrow and then what Jamar Chase has been for them, there's no way you can dismiss. what we see from them when they're playing at peak capacity.

So while we were dunking on you, I think throughout October, I think the more that I've watched them now, the more comfortable I am with them finding their way into the playoffs, even if it's by a fingernail. If I'm a Broncos fan listening, I'm saying, come on, we just played the Chiefs at Arrowhead, and we win that game, if not for a blocked field goal at the end. Why are we not?

Why are you so quick to eliminate us from the AFC playoff picture? Ruiz? Bo Nix. End of answer. No, no, really the offense as a whole. I don't think Sean Payton has done enough to prop him up as a quarterback. He had his best game of the season this past week against the Chiefs, and he made some strong throws, especially the one on the move to set up the game-winning field goal. Yeah, that was nice. He is improving, he's definitely improving, and he's definitely better than

I thought it would be. I will say that. But they do have, they do have to run a certain style of offense to get the best out of him. And we saw that, like, on the two drives, they scored touchdowns. They moved the ball well, but outside of that, they didn't move the ball effectively at all. I think they had three, three and outs on the game. So it's kind of a mixed bag even on his best day. And I just, I think the longer we get into the season, the easier it is, the easier it's going to be for offenses to kind of deal with that havoc wreaking defense. They're going to figure out ways to block up Vance Joseph.

I think there's an expiration date on that style of defense. Not that they're going to be bad. They're just not going to be the best defense in the NFL over the second half, in my opinion. And then, I don't know, I think it's going to get hard. It might get even harder on offensive defenses get a beat on what they're doing offensively. Yeah, their formula is very interesting because Bo Nix is like superpower, if you want to call it that, as a rookie, has been not producing negative plays. Like, he doesn't get sacked a lot and his turnover worthy play percentage is very low. So theoretically, if you wanted to win with like a good defense and an offense that doesn't make a lot of mistakes and a coach who can scheme up some things here and there, like there is a formula to do that.

I just think they're going to be unpredictable. Like, I hear you with fans Joseph. Like I was thinking that last week, you know, after the Ravens and then they come out and against Patrick Mahomes, like I'm not saying they, you know, dominated that game. But you hold them to 16 points in that game. They definitely did some nice things. They stopped the run. Their defensive line has been probably one of the most overachieving units in the entire NFL this season. So, yeah, it's tough.

I have to go with the Bengals because I have so much stock invested in them. I don't feel that strongly about it. they kind of have an opposite formula where the, you know, the quarterback and the receiver have to do everything and their defense isn't going to give them anything. So we shall see. Well, the Bengals are only one game back of Denver and Denver goes to Cincinnati in week 17. So like even the one game advantage they have, I think it's going to get wiped out by that game. And you know what? I want to be fair to, I want to be fair to Denver because Los Angeles's last two months is a lot more precarious schedule-wise that I think Denver's is.

They have to see Baltimore. They have to see Cincinnati. You've got to be. see Kansas City again. They have to see the Bucks who play decently on offense. I think this week notwithstanding, this was a pretty tough week for them playing up against the 49ers. But I think they see enough good quarterbacks to where, and this is something I've been kind of keeping an eye on. As much as I like what Jesse Mentor has done with this defense, I think a lot of this has

been, you know, kind of taking candy from babies, so to speak. I do want to see what this is going to look like. When is Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase that you're game planning for and not a Saints team that is already kind of on its last legs or a Titans team that doesn't have much to play for. So that's going to be a team that I'm kind of looking at where they can, maybe they've banked enough wins to where they're safe and they've only got to win maybe three out of the next seven or eight or whatever the case may be in order to get in the playoffs because of how the AFC is set up.

But I do think if there's a team in this group that can fade fastest, it might be Los Angeles just because the quality of opponent coming up over the next month. That's definitely fair over the next month. but there are a lot of babies on that December schedule coming up. So they might be able to bounce back. I think next week is like a huge game for the Bengals and the Chargers. I actually think like the Chars or the Bengals might have a bigger margin for error just because of the schedule for the Chargers after that. They play Baltimore.

They play Atlanta. They play in Kansas City. And the Bengals have an easy schedule. That's one of the reasons why we didn't write them off last month is because the schedule in the second half is a lot easier. And I do, like if you're comparing them to Denny's. And you're comparing Los Angeles to Denver. You know, Cincinnati is Joe Burrow. Los Angeles has Justin Herbert, who played another fantastic game, top five MVP candidates.

And Denver has a rookie. Yeah. No, that is that's fair. The makeup of those three teams is definitely different. So it's kind of fun. It makes it, it helped me. I'm like, oh, these are the teams I'm going to pay attention to in the AFC. So there you go.

Ruiz, where are you planting your flag after week 10? All right. Mine's a little prediction. Fast forward to Wild Card Weekend. Imagine this. Okay. The Falcons are hosting their first playoff game since the Super Bowl run with Matt Ryan. So this is Saturday, probably?

Yeah, yeah. They're taking on the fifth seat, the fifth seat at Minnesota Vikings. In Minnesota, who are they trodden out at starting quarterback? Ryan Tannahill. I think I'm done with Sam Darnold. I've been done with Sam Darnold. If you search Twitter, search put in Mollins on Twitter, and you'll find a lot of great tweets.

Viking Twitter. I think they're done with Sam Darno. They were calling for Nick Mollins. They were also calling for Tanna Hill. But Tanna Hill has been waiting for an opportunity. He said in August, I think, I'm not going to sign with the team unless they have, unless they're a playoff contender, they have a good offensive line and they have good skill players and good play calling. Minnesota fits that to a T, check marks all across the board. And if you're Kevin O'Connell and you just watch Sam Darnel nearly throw away a game where you give up seven points to Mack Jones by throwing. three interceptions all in the red zone,

a week after nearly giving away a game to Joe Flacco by turning over the ball three times. He has six turnovers in his last two games, 11 in his last six. You have to think, like, we got to make a change here. We can't go into the playoffs. We can't waste this defense that we have, this top five defense that we have,

and bank on Sam Darnold turning things around and mitigating those mistakes that he makes because he's not going to do that. This is just who he's always been, and it's who he's always going going to be. Deonté, are you as disturbed as I am that this man was typing into Twitter search Mullins at some point today? I was typing in put in Nick Mullins. Put in Mullins in quotations to make sure I never heard more of a signal that Stephen needs to log off. You know what's more sick?

Type it in put in Mullings and then hitting send on the tweet. That's more sick and that's where Vikings fans are right now. Don't disagree. Don't disagree. I'm just a man offering medicine to them in the form of Ryan I would add to Stephen's prediction and say that no matter who's under center for them, if they do see a team like Atlanta, that's going to be a Jesse Bates three interception masterpiece of a game. If you're going based off of what we're seeing from this passing game right now, and Stephen obviously was early to this, I think even when they were undefeated and Sam Donald was putting up some pretty impressive passing efficiency numbers, he was kind of noting

that some of the decision making was a little bit more suspect or you weren't seeing enough of Sam Darnold, the decision maker. It was more of Kevin O'Connell, the play designer. I think as the weeks have gone on over the last month, you've seen more and more of Sam Darnold taking his grip of the steering wheel for worse in this offense. I think the first one, the first one I think you can kind of hand-wave if you want to be apologetic to Donald

because the ball gets tipped up in the air. But the truth of the matter is that Justin Jefferson was plastered on that thin route. There's no need to throw it. That's exactly what you get when you throw to a guy who's being plastered. the end zone was awful. And then the one after, like, both of the interceptions after that, they were just like some of the worst football plays you'll see all week. And Matt Jones threw one of the worst interceptions that you'll see all week in that game.

And I think still it will rank behind what we saw from Sam Donald at his worst. And I think that for them, they've just, they've done such a good job of masking things. So I don't want to make it necessarily a Sam Donald bash fest because I think that he's not being anything other than the quarterback. He's always been. but I do think that now that there is less opportunity for them to hide him behind a running game that's generating explosive plays in a way that exceeded all of our expectations coming into the year and you're seeing more of those high leverage situations. I think this game and then the Rams game on Thursday night a couple of weeks ago

were both very illustrative as to where Sam Darnel's influence can be a negative effect on this passing game. It's not like the passing results have been that great. I think they were good over the first month of the season, but now they're kind of like a mediocre offense all around. And as long as you keep putting pressure on that defense to perform in the way that it's performed, I think it's going to break at some point in the second half. You can't keep asking them to do this.

You need a quarterback who's at least going to make their job easier and not make it harder. And he's just made it harder week after week. And it goes back to even the first month, even in some of their biggest games, like the San Francisco win, which I think is probably their biggest win today. He turned the ball over and kept San Francisco in that. game. I want the record to show that I was even earlier on the Sam Donald skepticism. Deont, even before this, honestly, he still exceeded my expectations. Even with everything you've said, he leads the NFL and turnovers, like you said, Ruiz, they're operating a mediocre offense.

Guess who's never operated a mediocre offense for a 10-week stretch in his entire career? Sam Darnold, and even the passing game, he's like 20th in EPA per pass play. Guess who's never done that in his entire career? So, like, this is still a Kevin O'Connell has done a pretty amazing job. Like even today, I mean, they were going up and down the field. They had about 400 yards of offense. They drove into Jacksonville territory on 8 of 10 drives. It's not like the offense didn't work. He has built an offense that works with Sam Darnold as his quarterback. Again, something no one has done since Sam Darnold entered the league. The question is, what is the ceiling of that? And I think the more Sam Darnel plays, the more you will see mistakes like this. It's just,

there's too much, there's too much data on this now. There's too many reps. This isn't someone who's rookie. This isn't someone who, you know, like a Gino Smith who didn't like wasn't playing. No, this guy has been playing. He's had what? Thousand, over a thousand dropbacks in his career and has never been able to do it. So it's hard for me because I do feel like he's like this is the best he's ever performed given the, you know, environment around him at the same time. This is why I don't put them in my list of Super Bowl contenders in the NFC just because at some point, I think the defense will keep them in almost, you know, pretty much every game. But at some,

point he's going to have a game like this and you're not going to be able to win whatever. It's going to take three in a row to get to the Super Bowl. Does Tana Hill move the needle for you? Do you reconsider? I was going to ask you. So let's say Tanna Hill comes in. What is your best case scenario? Like, where on the scale of one to 32 quarterbacks?

You know what I'm saying? Because that's really what it comes down to. I would give him top 15 realistically. Really? Okay. 36 years old? Yeah. Last year I thought he was pretty bad behind a terrible offensive line in Houston with a bad offense.

but the year before that, he actually performed pretty well. And he's still making, like, high-level throws. He kind of gives you the Darnold thing where his highs are really high. He's not going to do it on the move like Darnold. Not going to do it off platform. But he is a guy who will stand in there, stand in the pocket, take a hit, and make a tough throw over the middle of the field and down the field. That's always been his gift.

His problem has always been reading plays out. It always takes a little bit too long for him. And those fractions of a second make a big deal for NFL quarterbacks. I think Kevin O'Connell has an offense. that kind of makes up those fractions of a second for you, as we've seen with Darnold this year. The one concern is he has been a guy who has thrown into a tight window or two. His turnover worthy play rate is not too far off where Darnels has been this year.

So that's the one concern. What you would hope is in a better offensive environment, like we saw in 2021 in Tennessee, or 2020, I think it was, you would get the best out of him and kind of hide his weaknesses. And he definitely has the skill set to maximize what we're getting out of this Minnesota offense already. Yeah, I thought Tannahill was under, you know, from like 2019 to 2021. I was on the like, hey, Tanyl is kind of underrated. But now at 36 years old, what I saw from him last year, and you're right, it was a bad

situation last year and there were some injuries at play. If you're getting like any version of that, then it's going to be worse, I think, than Darnold. So I don't know. I would say the most likely scenario, and I can't believe I'm saying this, this version of TANL wouldn't be an upgrade or this version of Sam Darnold, Deont. What do you think? No, same thing.

I don't know if I could put a ranking on it, but I would say if he landed somewhere between Kurt Cousins and Baker Mayfield, that's best case scenario. Like to me, that's absolute best case scenario for a quarterback, his age. And that feels unlikely to me just when you say it. I'm like, I don't know.

Exactly. I think the most likely scenario is that he probably lands somewhere around like James Winston this year, right? Where it's like, all right, if the defense drops the plasses that you throw directly at their face masks, your stat line will look fine. If they catch the ball,

you're probably going to lose a football game. And then I think that ultimately lands you exactly where you said, where you would just be asking yourself every week if this is materially better than what it was when Sam Donald was a starting quarterback. I just think you ride this out. I mean, like, you know, I don't think that there were any expectations or anything that necessitated them trying to squeeze any more out of this season than they already have.

And I think that they're in a fine position now. You know, it's not like for all the turnovers, I think that this is a 28 to 31 point game. if not for the turnovers from Sam Donald today. But I think that they're still fine. They were marching a ball up and down the field. Like you said, Sheel, I think that the defense has still been stable, you know, even though I've been looking for all these regression opportunities.

And then you look down the stretch for them because they've already seen the Packers and the Lions once, I don't think that their remaining schedule is as daunting for them. I think this is really just a matter of even as Donald is turning the ball over, they probably have just enough talent and coaching to kind of raise the floor of this team. to get them through at least a 500 stretch due November and December. And then obviously I think that we all kind of know where we will place them as a genuine contender in the playoffs, which is not very high. Yeah, they've already overachieved.

They're in a good spot to make the playoffs. This is sort of a was a weird season where, you know, it could have gone either way. It's the J.J. McCarthy going to play. It's sort of a placeholder season. I will say if you are another team in the NFC and you're prepping for Brian Flores on Wild Card Weekend, that doesn't sound that fun to me if I'm an offensive. coach. But yeah, they can win a playoff game. I don't know.

It's hard for me to picture them getting beyond the divisional round in the NFC with the quarterback situation. But who knows? Weirder things have happened. Nick Foles has happened. Joe Flacco has happened. So, you know, weird. Quarterbacks can go on a run for

two, three, four weeks sometimes. All right. Deontay, you're up. Where are you planting your flag after week 10? I'm planning my fag on the fact that the San San Francisco 49ers are going to win the NFC was. Oh, you're back. I think I'm back in. And it's funny, I'm back in a way that I didn't imagine, which is that this is not me saying, oh, Christian McCaffrey is back and they're right

back to the 2023 version of this offense because that's not what we saw on Sunday against Tampa Bay. I think that one of the things that made San Francisco so unique was the fact that they could get into 12 and 22 and 21 personnel and because of Christian McCaffrey as a wide receiver, or at least as an option out of the backfield, they were effectively able to treat those personnel groupings as though it was 11 personnel or being a 22 personnel, but because of Christian McCaffrey as a wide receiver, you can basically treat that as a 21 because you can flex him around or get him out quickly from the backfield and get those yak opportunities. And that definitely came up, right?

You got the wheel route out of the backfield today against Tampa Bay. That was pretty reminiscent of what you would see. You saw those choice routes. and they were definitely feeding him early, I think to just kind of get a rhythm for him. But I think to me, when I was watching this offense, it's actually more interesting looking at him be dropped into the offensive ecosystem, which has already exists for San Francisco,

which is a lot of 11 personnel. It's very reminiscent of like early Sean McVeigh and Kevin O'Connell, where you're just going to get into a bunch of condensed sets and use motion and all these different jet actions and more creative run game actions in order to try to get to the edge. And then in the passing game, I think that they've just resigned themselves to the fact that they really trust Brock Prady to just operate as a drop back passer. And they're just trying to open the field up as much as possible and give him as many different true receiving options as they can. And I think that if it wasn't for the muff punt and the miss field goals, we probably don't feel or the immediate reaction coming out of that game is not that there's anything wrong with this team.

And more so just like this isn't 2023, but it doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with this offense. I think that they're just going to be more spread out down the stretch of this year. And I think that Christian McCaffrey fits that just fine. People are just going to have to adjust the way that they approach offense because it's not going to be anything like what it was last season. Yeah, he comes back and he plays what all but eight snaps or something in this game, in his first game, bad. I was afraid for his health.

I'm not going to lie to you, Sheel. Yeah, he is hot too. I felt like every time I looked up, I was like, okay, another checkdown. All right, another handoff, a swing, a screen. 19 touches. All right, we're already up at like seven to ten touches. And we haven't even hit midway through the second quarter yet. This felt like a lot pretty much pretty quickly out of the gate.

Yeah, this was not easing him back in, Ruiz. They just threw him out there and said, let's go. No, yeah. And I think this performance just speaks to the floor, the very high floor of this offense when they have Christian McCaffrey out there. Like, I didn't think it was, like, you look at Brock Purdy's stat line and you would think he was perfect on the day. But when you watch that game, especially in the first half,

I thought he was way better than the second half. But in the first half, his accuracy was all over. I agree with that. He did not play well in the first half. He did not play well, but you look at his stat line at halftime, and it was MVP numbers. And I just think when you have Christian McCaffrey out there, you just force the defense to play in certain ways. Even though they were stopping the run game, it was opening things up in the past game. And I think that's going to be the case going forward where in the past couple of months, defense didn't really have to sell out to stop this run game.

Like the 49ers run game still had its highs. Jordan Mason played well with Christian McCaffrey not out there. but he wasn't forcing defenses to change, which opens up those play action passes and those shot plays in the passing game. I still think they're kind of in between offenses and Shanahan's kind of trying to ramp up Christian McCaffrey. I know he ended up giving him a bunch of touches,

but I don't think that was the plan. Based on the interviews on the sideline, that was not the plan for McCaffrey before this game, but I think they fell into a game script where they had to rely on their best goals. I don't think the Kyle Shanahan can help himself. No, he cannot. He absolutely cannot.

I mean, that's true, too. And he will lie to the media. I'm not going to rule that out either that he wasn't just lying. But like most coaches wouldn't welcome their star back and be like, all right, you're going to be the focal point of the offense today. I think it is going to be different going forward and it's going to look a little more like 20, 23. I think this team by the time January rolls around, it's going to be just as good as it was last year. I can't for the life of me like a coach who's that detailed and has built this offensive machine over the years. I can't address special teams if you're Kyle Shannon.

hand. Like, this is not a new issue for them. This costs you games. I mean, they missed three field goals. They have a muffed punt. Again, you can look at this entire season. If they had league average special teams, what their record would be. They would be in first place in the, in the NFC West. So that's the downside. I know it's not fun to talk about special teams, but their special teams has been an issue offensively. Yeah, I'm with you guys. Their offense is going to be just fine here. Even it didn't feel perfect. They weren't great in the red zone. And they had the second best performance of any team in week 10 in terms of EPA per drive. That 172 yards after the catch.

That was, I think, the thing that stood out to me most. And it wasn't the, it's not the Miami Dolphins variation of yards after the catch, where it's a bubble or a swing screen that turns into 20 to 25 yards. I think that's where you feel the gravity of Christian McCaffrey was more like, Ricky Pirsall and Joanne Jennings are working into so much more space in the middle of the field. So that 10 to 15 yard area is actually where. they're getting there, yak, because guys are catching the ball in open air or with only one defender nearby. And now if I make that guy miss, I can go get a bunch of yards. And I think that

that that's going to fit this version of the offense. And I think that because Joanne Jennings has played so well, and I think that because they, I think that we're seeing that they know that Ricky Pirsall can do even more in the offense. And that was flashed, obviously, on Sunday. You get some big touchdown, you know, his first touchdown of his career on, I think, like a 40-yard or six-yard touchdown on a dig route that he was able to get a bunch of yards after the catch on. So I think that that's going to end up being the hallmark of this team. It's going to be less about Christian McCaffrey as a bell cow taking all these outside zone reps and then catching the ball out of the backfield and more so just using him to really kind of

dictate what the coverage pictures are going to be for Brock Purdy and then giving him an opportunity to work the middle of the field or those intermediate areas in the dropback game. because the other thing that came with that was less play action again. I think they were at about 13% play action rate on Sunday. And I think that that's another thing, another marker for you that this offense does not want to turn Brock Pritties back to the line of scrimmage. They just want to give them as many or as close to empty looks as possible and just allow him to kind of work whatever open air he gets because teams can't really play man coverage even without Brandon Ayyuk because of Debo, Samuel, George Kettle, and Christian McCaffrey working in the core of the formation. Yeah, you talk about Mark. margin for error though. And I feel like their schedule gives them a very limited margin for error.

In two weeks, they go to Green Bay. Then they go to Buffalo the week after that. They still have a game against Detroit. And then that last game of the season at Arizona, that could be for the division. And it's in Arizona. So Deontes got the Niners. He says to win the NFC West. Ruiz, you just mentioned Arizona. I think last week you said you had the Rams, little week 10 check in. If you're picking today, who wins this division? Wait, last week I said the Rams are going to win the division? Yeah, you planted your flag on it.

Deonti, am I nuts? I think you did plant your flag on the Rams and the division. See, you're firing off too many takes in these streets. You can't remember what takes in it. No, no, I'm with it. I'm sticking with it. They are going to win. I'm looking at their schedule now.

Now I can see the vision. Am I going to have to be like the Cardinals hipster? I mean, this Cardinals team today was unbelievable. Kyler Murray's playing the best football of his career. It was 22 for 24. in this game. They had seven possessions against the Jets and everything worked. I mean, they had, I think, four touchdowns, one field goal, one punt, and then they ran out the clock. I mean, I think he completed 17 passes in a row at one point. Their defense is playing a lot

better. I'm not going to be the Cardinals hipster here, but the hipsters who I made fun of in the preseason can have a laugh at me because this team is playing way better than I thought they were going to play this year. Yeah, and Kyler Murray's playing the best ball of his career. and it looks different. I talked about this on the midweek show a couple of weeks ago, but it showed up again today, just his ability to manage the pocket and make throws from the pocket and his decision-making.

It's not the type of pocket play you're used to seeing out of a short quarterback like him. It's not the type of pocket play we've seen from him for the first couple years of his career. This is real evolution as a player. And even if the stats at the end of the year don't say it's his best season, it's his best season ever. And I think it's a really good sign for this team going forward,

no matter how the season ends. And looking at their skis at their skis. They definitely have the easiest schedule of the three teams in competition for this if you want to cannot Seattle, which I'm fine doing. I was saying not only is he playing his best, but this is also just like the healthiest offensive ecosystem that he's played in. The last two weeks, this is probably the first two game, like back-to-back game stretch where the Cardinals have won. And I didn't feel like there was an undue amount of strain put on him as a runner or having to create as a scrambler outside the pocket in the passing game. he was really able to operate in rhythm throughout, you know, today's game against the Jets. And this is a defense that still for all of its issues throughout the year,

should still be able to play pretty tight coverage against a team like the Cardinals. And I think that they were able to get after him a couple of times in the first half. But to see him bounce back from those hits, some of those pressures and still, you know, deliver the ball from the pocket, whether it's in a tight coverage or against, you know, soft zone looks. That just kind of speaks to the kind of rhythm that he's working with right now. And Murray made that same point that you just made. but the offense is more sustainable and more healthy. Like I forget who was broadcasting the game,

but the commentator had said, Kyler told them he feels like this is more sustainable and he's going to be able to stay healthier in this type of offense. Yeah, that's the hit you mentioned, Deontay. That was my favorite sequence for him where Quincy Williams comes on a blindside blitz, rocks his helmet off.

Kyler Murray's helmet's helmet's on the ground. It's lucky that he like didn't get injured there. Comes back. Great throw to Trey McBride. And I think it was Marvin Harrison, Jr., for the touchdown. It was an awesome sequence for Kyler Murray and what was an awesome day for him. So I'm still, if I had to pick

Niners, but keeping my eye on the Cardinals, maybe more so than I was a couple weeks ago. I'm not picking the Niners to win the division, but I think they're the most likely to make the Super Bowl out of these teams. I just think they're kind of like too far behind in the race to catch up and really run away with it given their schedule at this point. I think that's a fair way to frame it. On the record, Ruiz Ram's division. Nineers best chance at Super Bowl, Deonté.

And I'm going to change my mind next week. I'm just telling you what I'm on record for this week. We're going with the Niners right now. That division is very fun coming down the stretch here. All right. We will be right back with our awards for week 10. All right. We're back on the Ringer NFL show.

Awards, superlatives. You know what we do after every week. Deontay, lead us off. What do you got? This first award is going to be, and really not our award, just the first of perolative, we're just going to give some time to properly appreciate the bozo invitational that was Colts Bills in the morning slate and all the interceptions. You know, the Sunday night game, I think, kind of sticks out in my mind because there were some particularly spectacular

interceptions from Jared Goff and a C.J. Stroud. But I've got to say to open a game with your first passing attempt is Joe Flacco, but just one of the worst throws directly to Teran Johnson, pick six, you know, the ball's picked off basically in the opponent, what would be the opponent's red zone. And he goes right down untouched into the end zone. And you just get all the hijinks that come after that. There's a sack strip from Flacco. You get some bad Josh Allen turnovers as well.

You get another Joe Flacco turnover. I mean, there was just so many just of the worst turnovers that you will see. And I think that if you combine that game and the Sunday night football game, you would have a pretty strong yakety sacks compilation to put together. of awful turnovers. I like it. The Bozo invitation, I feel like, yeah,

we can get that, maybe get that sponsored or something. I feel like there is some potential there, Ruiz. The Bozo Invitational was last Sunday night. Let's be honest. It was Sam Darnel versus Joe Flacko. That was at least the best Bozo invitational of the year. There you go.

All right. Yeah, I didn't have many eyes on that game, but this Colts move has not exactly worked out for them, the benching of Anthony Richardson, and the move to Joe Flack. like now 0 and 2 since that move. They did get one explosive run this game with Jonathan Taylor from under center.

You popped a, I think it was an outside zone. And that's what it was all for. Bench and Anthony Richardson, all for that one single run they got. Listen, the guy who picked Jonathan Taylor under rushing yards was well aware that he popped that one. First, it's like the two minutes into the first quarter, it's like Jonathan Taylor, 64 rushing yards. I'm like, what? I have the under 81 and a half. Did not work out for me.

All right, Ruiz, what do you got? What's your first award? I'm just going to give my award to special teams coaches. Shout out to Darren Rizzy, the interim coach for the Saints. I think more coaches or more interim coaches should. Every interim coach should be a special teams coach. Because what does every locker room need that just saw its coach get fired? They need a kick in the ass.

They need some energy. And the special teams coach, I feel like, is the guy that's going to bring the juice. And if you saw the sideline shots of Rizzling this game, like the guy was losing his mind. They won the game. And he looked like the maddest man in America. And then after the game, this was very Jim Tom Sula coded. I don't have the reporter's name.

Actually, I do, Catherine Terrell. So Rizzi says after the game that in the morning, when he got to the facility, he admitted to clogging the toilet in the head coaching office. Now, when I first read it, I thought he said the toilet was clogged and he had just discovered it. And I assumed Dennis Allen left a parting gift before he was fired. But no, no, the Rizzi claimed it. And I feel like that's the type of accountability you want from the interim coach. And the type of accountability, they weren't getting from Dennis Allen.

So shout out to Rizzi and shout out to all special teams coordinators because they seem to do a great job in this particular role. Look, this is not a judgment on appearance for anybody, but we definitely had an era of head coaches over the last decade of Charlton McVeigh, Kevin O'Connell, Kyle Shanahan. You get your head coaches that clearly look like they have been properly manicured and prepared for television. And then you get a guy like the wrestler whose eyes are as wide as Derek Henry's are when he has the ball in his hands, just looking like he is absolutely on the brink of losing his shit on every play. And to Stephen's point, I do think that you need a little bit of that energy. And I definitely think that the Saints probably played about as inspired as we've seen them play maybe over the last month or so trying to get things back in order after releasing Dennis Allen.

Kirk Cousins isn't staring that guy in the eyes and beating him. I'll tell you that much. That game was lost because of that guy, or that game was won for the Saints and lost for Atlanta because of that guy's intensity on the sideline. Listen, not to get two in the weeds here, but we know coaches can be superstitious. You know, my guy had to break out the plunger today.

Like, is he going to be, you know, trying to make sure that happens next week. That's all I'm saying. The team talisman. That's not what that's going to turn into. That's not something you could do on purpose. You can't clog a toilet on purpose. like he's baby ruins calling his shop in the toilet. Listen, there could be a laxative involved.

He's in New Orleans. You got a lot of options. It could be a magnesium supplement involved. Again, I don't want to get two in the weeds here. I already have. I'm just saying if he wanted to get too prestigious about it. And there's also his quote, Ruiz. So this is also from ESPN's Catherine Terrell.

So he said he clogged the toilet and then he said, and he thought, quote, this is going to be a crappy day, end quote. Good pun. You need a good part. Merry Rism. To all who celebrate. Listen, this is a one week bump. They're going to go back to Stinking next week.

I'm just saying. One thousand percent. Listen, that's good. They got the win against the Falcons today. All right, so I was actually going to have that as my best postgame quote from a coach. So I'm glad we were on the same page there. Now I will move to my best post game quote from an owner. I think you can figure out who this is from because there's literally one owner who talks after football games.

and his name is Jerry Jones. This is from the athletics John Machota. And the background here for those who did not watch the Eagles Cowboys game is that C.D. Lamb lost a touchdown in the sun because of the way that stadium is constructed. The sunlight was really shining down. This wasn't like a 40-yard touchdown. This was like they were in the red zone and he was running across the back of the end zone. And he couldn't see the ball because of the sun.

So apparently Jerry Jones was asked about this. and he said, quote, by the way, we know where the sun is going to be when we decide to flip the coin or not. We do know where the damn sun is going to be in our own stadium. He was then asked, why not put up? This is so funny. Come on. Get to the punch line. There's a punch line at the end of this quote.

I need to hear somebody else say it out loud. He was asked, why not put up curtains over the windows? And Jerry said, well, let's tear the damn stadium down and build another one. Are you kidding me? everybody has got the same thing every team that comes in here has the same issues I'm saying the world knows where the sun is you get to know that

almost a year in advance someone asking about the sun what about the sun where's the moon your GM of the Dallas Cowboys Jerry Jones I'm starting to think those scribbles those doodles that he was doing during the owners meetings like the biggest sign of competence that we've seen from the sky

from the past year I love punctuating that with where's the moon I was actually going to give a superlative. I was going to give a similar superlative. The sun was going to win my 12th man of the year. There you go. Because this is not the first time. I've never seen,

I've never seen guys just look so resigned as like cowboy, or just anybody who plays in Cherry World Fields when they have that late afternoon, early evening game, and you eventually, you get your obligatory, lost the ball in the sun, couldn't field a punt because I can't track the ball

because of where the sun is located. I don't understand why, this has to be this way because they have, they have all of the tools necessary to fix the problem. And then Jerry Jones's response today sounds like when I'm talking to my son about maybe adjusting the way he's using his Legos or his magnetic blocks, which is like, oh, if I can't build this fort, let's just knock the whole shit down.

Because clearly I'm the problem here. That was a Jerry Jones quote. Oh, so clearly you guys just all hate me. It's all my fault. It's all the stadium's fault. So let's just tear it all down and start over, not just be accountable for the fact that you are so desperate to have this sunset as though you're playing at the Rose Bowl that you were negative, that you were willing to negatively affect

your team week over, week over week. And I hope the NFL gives them the gift of playing in that 415 slate for the rest of the year. I want to see this continue to happen as often as possible. It's not only the window and the glare. Like they have the scoreboard that obstructs the punts sometimes. Like there's obstacles all over the stadium. And hopefully, Jerry applies that same logic to the coaching staff this off season. He blows it up and he builds it over again. Yeah, that was not pretty, but Jerry always good for some comic relief. Where's the moon? Many people are asking. Where's the moon? Many people are asking. Where's the moon? All right, Deontay, what else you got? I've got, like, pathetic moonball of the week award goes to the mean ball guy,

which is Russell Wilson. I think that they were backed up inside their own end zone. And I think the sequence of play was like first and ten moonball lands outside lands and lands outside of the field of play third and ten they come right back to it another moon ball down the same sideline falls incomplete and there was just so many moments in the steelers game against the commanders where you're just looking it's like really this is the whole offense now huh is drop back get to your back foot and just heave the ball to george pickings and hope for the best and it obviously worked out late in the game. And I will give them credit. I thought that their end-of-game operation was actually one of the, some of the better that I've seen, some of the best that I've seen so far this

year. I thought they did a really good job at making sure that they got as many possessions as possible in the fourth quarter. And they took away opportunities for Washington to be able to come back and get back in this game. Obviously, the false start, not the false start, but the offside to seal it. I thought that that was a smart idea for them to threaten they would go for it, hard count, something that we see all the time, so the fact that they were able to pull them off sides, spoke really well to Mike Tomlin's understanding of how to close a football game and the competency of the Steelers. But God, man, it is hard to watch Russell Wilson when it's in that mode. 50% completion rate, and outside of George Pickens being a superhero, there was really

nothing else happening in the passing game. And I think that even as they're winning these games, I'm feeling less confident about them on a weekly basis just because of the style of play. Yeah, it really is like a boomer bus style of offense right now. Russell Wilson is on pace for his highest EPA per play since 2015, but he's also on pace for the lowest success rate or the second lowest success rate of his career. So like it's all or nothing with him. And if you look at like the passing maps from the past three weeks, there is nothing over the middle of the field.

Everything is either underneath or deep outside the numbers. And while that doesn't look great for Russell Wilson, the quarterback, I think it looks great for the Steelers coaching staff who seems to understand what this guy is in ways that offensive genius, quote unquote, Sean Payton was never able to really figure out last year. And really, we haven't seen Russ put in this style of offense since the early days in Seattle when Pete Carroll kind of found this formula that works for him. He is a very unique quarterback with a very unique skill set. I don't think it's quite as robust as it was back in the glory days in Seattle. But like, he's got some useful skills. And that moonball is one of them and they're

spamming them until it breaks. And I do think it's going to break eventually. But for now, it's working. Yeah, it feels, you're right. It feels like every play, but yeah, he got one to Mike Williams with the game on the line and the touchdown. The Steelers, when am I going to learn my lesson? Do not take the other team when Mike Tomlin is an underdog on the road, which he was in this game. And then they're two and a half point underdogs in this game. They win it. They're seven and two on the season. Their defense, though, continue. You know, that's, that's what's carrying the team. I mean, they limit the commanders to 200. and 42 yards and 19 first downs in this game.

I would have to go back and look more closely. It felt like this was probably Jaden Daniels' worst game of the season. I mean, there were some throws he had there to make, which he did not make in this game, like a lot of an intermediate deep part of the field there. He's 17 for 34 in this game. They had opportunities to string together drives down the stretch. They go, you know, punt, punt,

and then turnover on downs there with their last opportunity. Zacharts is just short of the first down marker. So commanders fall to seven and three, big matchup against the Eagles on Thursday night in the NFC East. Ruiz, what do you got? My next one's actually from the same game. I'm going to give an award to Tomlin, who I think is just like,

this is the best ball you could possibly be playing to get the most out of Tomlin in post-game press conferences. He's really feeling himself in this decision that he made to go to Russell Wilson. And then this is my favorite quote. It was about the, I think it was about the fake pun. no it wasn't about the fake punt it was about the fourth down where they try to get them to go off sides and they do go off sides he said we're not going to live in our fears that's not how we get down which is the most tomlin quote of all time i think he said on the fake punt that's on me i own that i do it again but we didn't execute so it was a bad idea just accountability most coaches would be like you know what we drew up the right play you just got to execute no he's like it was a terrible idea the guy drops the wide open pass on what was it fourth and 15 from their own 15 that was wild that would felt very un-Tomlin.

Like, I was shocked. That's probably the most shocking fake pun I've seen all season. That's how you know, though, that he's feeling himself right now. And then also, he was asked about the fourth down, whether he was going to go for it if they didn't jump, uh, jump off sides. And he was like, I guess we'll never know. And he had the biggest smirk on his face. Nobody is enjoying this season.

No coach is enjoying this season more than Mike Tomlin. And it's been a while since he's been able to smile like this in Pittsburgh. And I mean, it might end in a week or two. It might end next month. But for now, I feel really, I feel really, I feel. feel really good about Mike Tomlin and where he's at and where he has his team. Yeah. One of the, I mean, he's had, I feel like every year has been an impressive coaching job.

We would have that, that, that Duck Hodges here is still probably the one that I look at and go, how, how did this happen? This needs to be documented in the history books. But yeah, this is a very, once again, impressive coaching job by Mike Tomlin and Steelers first place in the AFC North. They've got the Baltimore Ravens in a man. Week 11 is going to deliver. Remember, think of those matchups.

We'd already mentioned Raven Steelers. You got Bill's Chiefs and you have Eagles commanders on Thursday night in week 11. All right, Ruiz, you gave the Tomlin one. I'm going to give one for worst case of jet lag to Daniel Jones. I mean, you guys made me wake up and watch this game. So I did watch it. He was horrendous in the first half of this game. Brian Daibald dials up a flea flicker.

Both guys are open. I can't remember if he took a sack or he threw it away. but Brian Davel was just like stomp, like pacing the sidelines for minutes afterwards. You see both receivers with like their hands in the air. I don't know what was going on with Daniel. It was like he was seeing ghosts in the first half, but you were going up against arguably the worst defense in the NFL, not Bill Belichick.

I don't know what was going on with him. He bounced back in the second half. They force overtime, have the fumble. They lose. The giants are now two and eight. They have the worst record in the NFC. The Panthers have a better record. than the New York Giants right now.

Things not going well for the New York football giants. All right. Deante, anything else on your awards list or are you tapped out? I'm tapped out. Ruiz, you got anything for us? Yeah, I got one for Justin Herbert. I wasn't familiar with your game award with the scrambling. I don't know if you guys saw any of this game.

But every time I looked up at the screen, he was not only embarrassing a Titans defender trying to tackle him. He was like making them fall to the ground without even getting a finger on him. He had at least like four ankle-breaking moves. One included a pump fake. Another one, he got Kenneth Murray to touch the turf. If he continues playing like this, and he has been running a little bit more over the last two years in terms of scrambling.

He already has eight design rushes in this offense under Greg Roman. He's on pace to surpass all of his seasons going back to his rookie year where he had 20. I think he's the only one where he would have more. And I really think it's an element that these past Charter's offense have been tapped into. It's an element that Herbert himself hasn't tapped into in terms of out-of-structured play. But the more they do it, I think the more it's, the easier it's going to be to generate explosives with this offense where the personnel isn't conducive to generating explosive plays. More emotions, more expressions on his face again this week. What has Jim Harbaugh tapped into with Justin Herbert?

There's a personality there. He's playing with a little charisma after some of these scrambles and some of these plays. Yeah, I would like to read a story about. what's going on there? Because just there are more like close up shots of his face or like going to break and like this is what he did after he picked up the first down than I remember at any point

in his career. He goes, he goes 14 for 18. They blew out the Titans. It was 2717 but it didn't even really feel that close there. So I was with what you said earlier Deonti. Yeah, I want to see them against some better teams and we're going to get an

opportunity to do that here with the Bengals, Ravens, Falcons, chiefs are there next month. So yeah, I'm curious to see like some measuring stick games with this Chargers team. But when they face these teams below them, they basically blow them out every single time. The thing that has been nice to see for Justin Herbert is that I do think that philosophically his style of quarterbacking is a perfect mesh with how Jim Harbaugh wants his quarterbacks to play because he's not going to take sacks and he's very rarely going to put the ball in harm's way. And that to me, I think, is just papered over.

so many of the personnel issues that Los Angeles has, especially at the wide receiver position. And now that we've seen a little bit more of his dynamic athleticism, like Stephen was saying with the scrambling, with the extending of plays, that is a dynamic that allows him to do some of the things that Josh Allen did when he didn't have Khalil Shakir and they hadn't yet traded for Amari Cooper. Were you getting these third down situations? And now that is just as viable an option to move the chains as him having to pin a ball up against him, we'll disle's chest, you know, or find Ladd McComkey for exactly 7.2 yards to move the chains.

And I think that the more of that we get to see from him, the closer he becomes to the closer he is to becoming the quarterback that we want him to be or that we feel like we deserve to watch as consumers, given his level of talent, I do think that the next couple of weeks will be very telling, not only for the structure of this offense, but where Justin Herbert is in situations where you know his back is going to be up against the wall in certain situations. It's pretty likely that they may end up in a position where, hey, Cincinnati might go out and scoring their first two or three possessions, and now you're chasing by multiple possessions. You can't run the ball.

You can't just lean on this ball control style. And now you've got to go make plays as a dropback passer. That's really where I want to see him and where I want to see this team before I really feel comfortable about what they can be in the postseason. Chargers Bengals also next week. what a slate in week 11. And yeah, those aren't, I'm curious what you're talking about there, the game scripts. We'll talk about this later in the week.

But yeah, how do they play again? Because those aren't great defenses, the Bengals and the Ravens. Like, how do those games go? What style of play do they embrace? All right, I'll finish it. Unless Ruiz, did you have any more? Was that your last one? I got one.

I'm giving an award to Browns fans just because they didn't have to watch the Browns play this week and the cabs are 11 and O. I mean, they're the biggest winners in the NFL right now. You know what type of season you're having when. the team you root for when they have a buy. Like, how do you feel about it? I think most of the time you're like, thank God. Like, all right, I don't have to watch my team this week.

So that's definitely the case for them. All right, I'm just going to go back to a game we already talked about. Funniest moment during a broadcast, Eagles Cowboys. Jim, they show Zeke Elliott, what I forgot was on the Cowboys, on the sideline. And they talk about his suspension last week. And then Jim Nant says, Mike McCarthy said, Elliot had his best week of practice this week.

and like 15 seconds later, Zeke Elliott fumble in the red zone. It was the Cowboys' only chance to score basically all day long, and the timing was impeccable. So nice job by the CBS crew, those production meetings, and then you get the Zeke fumble right after that. Things not going well,

as we mentioned for the Dallas Cowboys. All right, that'll wrap it up. An action-packed week 10 episode of the Ringer NFL show. Thank you to Deonté Lee. Thank you to Stephen Ruiz. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing additional production supervision by Connor and Evans, Arjuna Ram Gopal, and our friend Dan Comer, Tucker Tashijan, also on the video production. We'll be back later this week. Appreciate everyone listening.

Talk to you soon. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. call 1 8887-887-8-9-7-77 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MD Gamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit Gamblinghelpline, MA.org or call 800-327-50-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-8-7-7-8-Hop-N-Y or text Hope NY in New York.