The Ringer NFL Show - Week 11 NFL Power Rankings: Dolphins Crack the Top Five, Raiders Sink, and Why the Eagles are Still on Top | Power Rankers

Episode Date: November 16, 2022

Jason and Austin discuss how the NFL power rankings have shifted after Week 10 . They start by discussing why the Dolphins and Mike McDaniel’s offense makes them Super Bowl contenders (04:38). Then, they examine the fall of the Raiders after losing to the Colts in Jeff Saturday’s coaching debut (15:55). Next, they explain why the Vikings are still ranked below the Bills despite their stunning win (31:04). Finally, Steven Ruiz joins to discuss Kirk Cousins’s play this season and why the criticism towards Justin Herbert is unjustified (51:21). Hosts: Austin Gayle and Jason Goff Guest: Steven Ruiz Associate Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal and Conor Nevins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Call me sentimental, but to me, the most joyful moment in sports is the soccer goal. And when that goal happens at the World Cup, well, it's pretty good. I'm Brian Phillips. With the 2022 Men's World Cup approaching, I'm making a podcast called 22 goals on the Ringer podcast network. It's about 22 of the most fire emoji goals in the history of the tournament. We're going to have so much fun. Welcome into the Ringer NFL show.

This is the power rank. episode. It's arguably the best episode on the feed. I might be a little bit biased. It's Austin Gil here with Jason Gough. He's back. Where were you last week? Did you have another sickness? You keep bailing on me, man. Stephen Ruiz said you're scared to compete. Jesus Christ. All right, another sickness. Well, I had COVID two weeks ago, three weeks ago. That's why I wasn't in. I didn't want to be on here sneezing and, you know, having a 102 degree temp on you. And last week was my birthday. So people decided to do stuff early on. Yes, man, I'm 42 years young. I love.

I love the fact that I get a chance to do this with you. And no, come on, man. Scared a competition. Come on. You already know, you already know better than that. You know, I'm riding high. I got a team here that I'm covering that scores 30 points a game and loses all those games. So, you know, it's a fun NFL world that we get to walk into every single week here.

I'm glad you brought up the Chicago Bears. I didn't have them in the rundown. But I wrote, you know, I wrote in the Power Rankings file. The show is always talking about Power Rankings. We're talking about Team of the Week, Rizers, fallers, all that. stuff. It's a hard file to do given where the Minnesota Vikings are right now and trying to rank them ahead

of the Buffalo Bills. Are they better than the Buffalo Bills? Would they win again? Will they be? I don't know. We'll get into that later. We'll get into that later. But where's Jared Allen when you need them? Justin Fields looking as good as he does. I think he's reaching levels of dynamism that are very similar

to Lamar Jackson and what he's able to do running the football and the pressure he's able to put on defenses with design runs and scrambling, all that stuff. and them still losing games is kind of a positive, right? It's going to give them a higher draft pick, and they already have over $112 million in cap space to spend next year. Like, that's like the optimistic glass-half-half-full look at Justin Fields playing well

and the Bears losing games. You have a different opinion, though. You want them winning games. You want them coming out of these on top, and you don't care about the draft picks and where they pick ultimately. Well, because I do believe in the evaluation being you do. and enough to win some of these games, especially as a quarterback, right?

And when you're talking about tanking, right? We're talking about Carolina and some of these other squads. They're tanking to try to find their quarterback. You don't tank to try to get a wide receiver. You don't tank to try to get an offensive tackle. You don't tank to try to get a guard, all the things that the Bears need. So in my evaluation of this team week to week is

the Lions are a team you should beat. You had a 14-point lead. What did you do wrong? And what should you not replicate going forward as opposed to, oh, well, they shit the bed and they got a higher draft pick now. Like, you try to shit the bed so you can get the guy that's already here. So that's why the tank win thing to me is kind of, you know, football is a weird thing where culture sometimes matters and, you know, you're not ever letting go of the rope just because

is a thing. So, and I've talked to Dominic Foxworth and some other guys on my pod about it. It's just, I understand when you're trying to get the guy, but when you think you have the guy, go out there and win football games and when you don't, you should be evaluated the way you should be. Not on some, it's just the lions or you get yourself

a higher draft pick. Justin Jefferson, Jamar Chase, those are first round picks, right? But Stefan Diggs is a fifth round pick. Some of these guys you can find,

developing guys and drafting well to me is better than drafting high. Look at the Browns, right? Yeah, I think the biggest storyline in Chicago is just

why did it take this long? Why did it take this long to start calling more design runs? Was it Fields and him getting his feet wet and a lot of people talk about as you grow in the NFL, the game slows down, is the game slowing down for him enough to where he is more confident scrambling, he is more decisive running the football.

I don't know. I think it's a combination of a lot of things, right? It's experience. It's Iber Fluse. It's the coaching staff committing to more design runs and trying to cater an offense that really fits his skill set. And where you look at the best offenses in the NFL, we're going to get to this one just upcoming, what the Baltimore Ravens did, when they brought in Great Groman and what Harbaugh did

did to build around Lamar Jackson, and you're starting to see that in Chicago. and for different reasons, for different skill sets, team of the week, you're seeing it in Miami with what Mike McDaniel is doing with an RPO heavy, quick passing game with the Dolphins and Tuatung of Iloa. He has created, objectively, a offense that is maximizing already what is sky high potential. Jalen Wattle and Tyree Kill, in my opinion,

are the best receiver do in the NFL. If you could take, if you were going to take any two receipts, from one team to start an NFL team and you aren't taking Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle, I think you're wrong. Honestly, I think you're wrong. I think Tyra Kill is the best receiver in the game. And when you compliment him with a Jalen Waddle, which is like a Tyree kill.

0.75 or 0.7, whatever it may be, that is different. And Ben Zolak has a great stat talking about how 2 o'clock as average time to throw is one of the fastest in the NFL, but his averaged up the target on quick throws is so much longer because these guys are getting down the field faster. Because you have a Tyree Kill, a Jalen Waddle,

and even Trent Sherfield, their wide receiver three is no slouch in the speed department, right? That's another guy that's running 4-4. So you have Tiger Kill, you have Jalen Waddle, and you have a quarterback that at Alabama before the hip injury was an all-star, an all-pro at running the RPO offense and getting the ball out quickly, getting it out on time, and being accurate. Everyone made fun of Mike McDaniel when he said,

Two of throws the most accurate pass in the league and blah, blah, he was hypoenaed up his quarterback, whatever. But seeing how much he elevates what is already a very good offense that runs a lot of pre-snap motion, that runs a lot of play action, runs a lot of RPO's, runs a lot of different personnel. groupings at the same rate that a McVeigh or Shanahan does, seeing Tua operate the

offense, you can see that he elevates it further because he gets the ball out quickly, has quick timing, and he's making good decisions. I think that the biggest improvement we've seen from Tua Tuna Vaila this year, in addition to health, and I think these are correlated, is confidence. When you look at what he did, go to that Trent Shurfield touchdown in the corner of the end zone

this past week. You look at when he starts throwing that football, he's covered. Like, Sherfield's covered, and he's like, no, I got it. This is my guy. I'm putting it exactly where he gets it. And he's trusting him, right? And like, that confidence, I think, is a direct reflection of obviously Tuotungo Vailoa. Every single Miami Dolphins fan want me to come on here and say he's an MVP candidate. He's the best quarterback in the league.

He's better than Justin Herbert. Stop. Be happy that Mike McDaniel and this coaching staff is getting that kind of confidence at a Tuotung of Aloha. Because as long as that's happening with a healthy hill and a healthy Jalen Waddle and this office cooking with Mike McDaniel just sweating through every single game, calling all these different personnel groups, making everything look the same but different at the same time. this Miami Dolphins team, I'm ready to say it. And I know our producer Carlos Scherboges is a Dolphins fan. He's not on the call today.

This Miami Dolphins team, Jason, is a Super Bowl contender. I'm saying it right now. I'm saying it right now. Is a Super Bowl contender with how talented this offense is? Yeah, I don't think it's a stretch because the NFL is up for grabs right now, right? If you look at the NFC, you got what, the Cowboys, the Buccaneers, the 49ers, all teams that are kind of struggling and up and down a little bit. Not to mention that the 49ers are getting it rolling here.

But there's a bunch of teams who, kind of. can get hot late and still be considered a contender. This team has been hot throughout. And of course, you have the Tuotunga Vialoa head injury and the issues with the concussion and the second concussion. But what I am enjoying the most about this Miami offense and shout out to a brother named Mike. You know, Mike McDaniel is out here not only going to win the coach of the year, but he's, you know, I think this is a very interesting year of coaching being turned on its head, right?

Because Mike McDaniel wasn't in line to get a head coaching job. And then all of a sudden, the blind floor stuff happened. Maybe next year, the year after that, he gets the gig, right? What he's done, I think, is similar to what Sean McVeigh did, right? Similar to what Kyle Shanahan did. And to me, it's more important what he's doing, the exotic nature of the running game. When Sean McVeigh had Todd Gurley and some of the things that they were pulling off, hell, when Jim Harbaugh was in San Francisco and you're like, oh, look at this.

Like, it seems old school, but all it is is trying to designate where you're going to slide your line, who the middle linebacker is, all these things that you have to designate pre-snap. The motion stuff that we try to look at for man and zone and offenses, I think Mike McDaniel right now is doing that on run plays with Alec Engel. Like, Alec Engel being a fullback and then sliding out and playing the ageback position or getting in the flat. Like the things, and then let's face it, we talk about CMC, right?

Christian McCaffrey going in San Francisco. What Jeff Wilson, Jr. can be in this. offense and not just out of the backfield, but actually giving him the football, Rahim Moster. I marvel at, and obviously, Tyree Kiel and Jalen Waddle, and of course, Tuatanga Vaila make this a lot easier for them because there's six and seven man boxes out there. But what he's been able to do in terms of the exotic nature of the run calls, it has been fascinating to watch. And I think this last week was a picture perfect instance of that.

You saw Alec Engel split out. You saw him in the slot. You saw him at that H-back position. You saw him at a fullback. And it's all designating where we want to run the ball or if we want to get out of this place. So they're doing some magical things on the offensive side of the football right now, especially in the run game for me.

I'm so glad you brought up the run game. And now some of this is obviously the Cleveland Brown's run defense is awful. Yeah, for sure. Fifth. Fifth worst in yards before first contact per step. They're too skinny, right? When you look at that defensive line, it's too thin. They've built this defense in the eye of speed.

speed, speed, speed, and that has cost them size. And that's why you saw some of the traps hitting, and they were trying to be a penetrating defense. And when you were rushing upfield, they run the trap on you, they're going to cut you up all day long. And the Miami Dolphins might be Daniel, tip your cap, is doing that really well.

And what was a weakness last year in Miami Dolphins' offensive line, he is now turning into a strength, running the football. And they haven't been super successful running the football against other teams this season, but still you see that he has that feather in his cap or that tool in his tool belt, right? Like, oh, this defense sucks. I'm going to go ahead and call a great run.

run game here. And then you see, obviously, Jeff Wilson, Rahim Moster, that combination, having a lot of success in a similar scheme that he saw, obviously, when they were with Kyle Shanahan. And for me, you look at the awards right now, in odds. Nick Siriani is the favorite twin coach of the year on Fandole at plus 120. Then it's Brian Dayball at plus 320. Then it's Kevin O'Connell at plus 360. We don't even get to Mike McDaniel until plus 700. Mike McDaniel is undefeated when his starting quarterback finishes the game. When Tuathele-law starts and finishes the game, he is undefeated this season. This offense is absolutely electric. When you look at any efficiency metric, whether it's EPA, yards per play, all that stuff, it is reminiscent of MVP seasons,

MVP caliber seasons from quarterbacks in previous years. Tuatung Wai Loa is a big part of that, but Mike McDaniel is a huge, huge part of that as well. I think the Miami Dolphins are maximizing the talent that they have and the talent that they have is very freaking good. That's that perfect, that perfect combination where Miami, again, I think is a Super Bowl contender. I think they can score with the Buffalo Bills. I think they can score with the Kansas City Chiefs. I would not be surprised if they are playing the AFC championship against one of those two alien quarterbacks

and Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes. I think the other award race I want to update before we get into the biggest mover this week is looking at MVP. Right now, Patrick Mahomes is the favorite plus 120. I think that's accurate. Then it's a three-way tie on Fandul for MVP. Josh Allen, two-o-tung-tung-vail-law and Jillen Hertz all at plus 500.

That is absurd to me because I think the only I want your reaction to this take. I think the only other player that should be in the conversation with Patrick Mahomes for MVP right now, given how much he's elevating what is objectively a poor supporting cast and his battle injuries all year is Lamar Jackson. And Lamar Jackson's fifth on this list at plus 1,200. You're telling me there's a multiple of 10 in terms of different odds between Mahomes and Lamar Jackson this year.

Am I wrong? I know that the Baltimore Ravens don't have as many wins as the bills or don't have as many wins. I think they do. They're six and three. I don't understand it. I don't understand why the Baltimore Ravens. I don't understand why Lamar Jackson is not being considered. Maybe he doesn't have the box score numbers to back it up.

But man, Lamar Jackson has, is the only reason the Baltimore Ravens could be playing a playoff game this year. If we're talking about value, like the true definition, and we have this conversation across sports every single year about what the MVP really is. Is it the best player or is the most valuable player? If you take that player off their team, how much of a precipitous drop would they actually take?

And far and away, it would be Lamar Jackson, if that were the case. I mean, we saw the Kansas City Chiefs win games before Patrick Mahomes got there with their culture and their roster. And, of course, Andy Reid with Alex Smith. Of course, you put in football Jordan and you take it to the next level. You go to Super Bowls, whether you're winning them or not. When Lamar Jackson's numbers, you know, for me, it's kind of like this. It's pitchers wins, right?

For years, pitchers wins were a big thing. 20 game winner. This guy's 18 game winner. And then all of a sudden, you're like, hey, wait a minute. What happens? when you have an offense on the other side that isn't scoring any runs, but that pitcher is only giving up one or two runs. Then it became fielder independent pitching and ERA,

and all those numbers started getting thrown out. You know, guys like, you know, who is it, King Felix, my man from Seattle who won the Siong with 12 wins. Lamar Jackson's numbers are never going to be 42 touchdowns thrown, six interceptions, and rushing for 10 touchdowns. That's not going to happen. He's always going to be somewhere around that 25 touchdown number, somewhere around there.

You want to keep his interceptions low, but his value, if you watch Baltimore Ravens games, it is all about Lamar Jackson. They've had running backs go in and out. They've had wide receivers. They've traded wide receivers. They've developed wide receivers from special teamers.

Mark Andrews has been the constant over the last couple of years, but that's what happens when you have a mobile quarterback, seemingly, right? You look at Michael Vic and Algae Crumpler. You know, anytime you've got a mobile quarterback, the perimeter guys sometimes are going to struggle. But no one can tell me,

other than Patrick Mahomes, that Lamar Jackson is, the second most valuable player. You know, you even look at Buffalo. I mean, in Buffalo, they have a terrific team, right? They've got a lot of talent on that roster. How much of a drop do they take if you put an above replacement player at that quarterback position?

I think they take a drop, but not as extreme a drop as the Baltimore Ravens take. So I'm right there with you. And, of course, the Jalen Hurts stuff. I mean, it's a quarterback award now, right? Because if we're looking at it, we should throw Justin Jefferson there, right? When Jamar Chase is healthy, you should throw Jamar Chasing there. Stefan Diggs.

There's a few linemen out there that you could throw in there. But in the end, it's the quarterback award. So I'm right there with you. It's Patrick Mahomes and it's Lamar Jackson. Then it's everybody else. I'm glad we're agreeing early on the podcast. No competition to start, which I love to see. The Offensive Player of the Year Award,

which is essentially become the best non-quarterback in the NFL, which I think is right by. I mean, it's smart to acknowledge a non-quarterback every season. So giving them offensive player of the year by kind of like de facto, I think makes sense. Right now, it's a two-horse race between Justin Jefferson and Tyra Kill, and I'm fine with that. poison. Justin Jefferson had one of the most absurd catches I've ever freaking seen. We're going to talk about

the Vikings a little bit later in that game specifically. But man, and Tyree Kill, you talk about you removed Tua from this offense, it's not going to be as great. You remove Tyree Kill from this offense, it might be a whole different story. The defenses play completely different if Tyree Kill isn't starting every single week for the Miami Dolphins. He's always there. All right. Number two, biggest mover.

I had to drop them. I had to. The Las Vegas Raiders are the 31st team and in the bottom of the barrel tier on my list. What do you want me to do? They just lost to it. The guy was on Get Up a week before a week ago. He got a call from Jim. Jeff Saturday got a call from his friend, Jeff, Jim Ursay, after 12 a.m.

On a Sunday and said, do you want to be the coach of this team? He's like, let me talk to my wife. Somewhere in the middle of the night, this guy agrees to be the head coach of Indianapolis Colts, flies in their Monday, names a 30-year-old Park Frazier as the offensive play caller on Tuesday. And somehow, on the road, as a four-point dog, makes the decision to swap Sam Melliger from Matt Ryan and the Indianapolis Colts, not in a fluky way. beat up on the Las Vegas Raiders.

The Raiders fall to 2 and 7 and just lost to a coach that was on ESPN a week ago. I'm sorry, but you have to go to the bottom of the barrel here. You have to fall to the depths of the league, and that's not it. In addition to losing, in addition to having a terrible record this year at 2 and 7, in addition to falling under expectations, now you have a locker room that is lost, in my opinion. Derek Carr cried at his postgame presser. I've been a Raiders fan since I was born. I was, season tickets for 10 years

and the only jersey I've ever bought as a Raiders fan. This is a fun fact. Only Jersey I've ever bought. I've always said, I'm never buying a jersey, I'm never buying a jersey until we get a good player. Only Jersey I've ever bought was Derek Carr after his 2016 season where he broke his leg, where I thought he was going to be the future of this franchise. Watching him for as long as I have, you've never seen a presser like that, where he goes up

and he's crying and he's saying the effort is shit, he's saying, I'm paraphrasing the quote, but he says the stuff that people have to put in their bodies on this team just to sleep at night. That is hinting at the medicine and quote-unquote medicine that these guys are taking to cure ailments to suit up and practice and play in this game. And he is upset about the buy-in.

He's upset about the effort. Star receiver, best friend of Derrick Carr, Devonte Adams, is the same concerns. He says, I don't care about what McDaniels is saying, this effort is bad. We don't have buy-in. People aren't playing full quarters. What does McDaniels say?

I have no issue with the effort. What does Mark Davis say, the owner of the Raiders? I think McDaniels is doing a fantastic job. Rome wasn't built in the day. Rome was built in 800 years, and it feels like it's going to take 800 years for this Raiders team to ever be good again. because you have now misalignment between ownership, Mark Davis,

who is notably one of the poorest owners in the NFL. You know what he doesn't want to do? Still paying John Gruden that settlement that he had to pay him after that resignation and all that. He doesn't want to fire McDaniels and Dave Ziegler, the new GM, and have to pay more money. Yeah, that doesn't count against the cap, but it counts against Mark Davis's pockets. So, of course, Mark Davis is going to say McDaniels is doing a fantastic job. Because firing him not only will cost him a shitload of money, more money he doesn't have, it will also admit that he's doing a bad job of finding the right guy to coach his team.

Derek Carr and Devante Adams feel that the locker room is lost and the effort is gone and the buying is gone. McDaniels and Davis, guys who are protecting themselves, self-serving are saying everything's fine. What's going to happen? My assumption is you're going to lose some good players. You're going to want – Derek Carr is going to want out. Devonty Adams is going to want out.

You're not going to re-sign Josh Jacobs. You're going to trade away, Darren, or whoever it may be. You're going to take out – you're going to make the scapegoat this roster that is objectively one of the more talented rosters in the NFL, and instead not the scapego or leave there, McDaniels and Ziegler to rebuild a team that is already lost. I don't know, man. I don't think the Raiders could be in a much worse spot.

Yeah, no, and this is the thing. Mark Davis doesn't have to cover his ass. He's the owner of the team. And they've got a disenfranchised fan base, right? Whether you're in Oakland, Los Angeles, or Las Vegas, like, there's a satellite fan base. So where's your real ire really coming from? Like, you don't have to turn on sports radio every morning and hear it.

You don't have to, you know, open a paper and read it with any kind of fury because it's really not centered anywhere. So Mark Davis doesn't have to cover his ass. He knows what's going on in that locker room. He's one of those guys who's around enough, right? He's not some of these dudes who's got other businesses and other ventures that he's so tapped into that he can't be around his football team. He's around this football team.

He knows what's up and he knows exactly what Derek Carr and Devante Adams are espousing right now. It's funny to me, sometimes people show you who they are. And sometimes you should believe him, famous, Maya Angelou quote. Josh McDaniels has shown you who he's been for years now. You know, the Indianapolis Colts job, first of all, the fact that he did what he did to the Colts and then got beat by the Colts with a guy who was on TV the week before. It's just, it's the Chardon Freud that I kind of just absolutely love because of this business and the stories we get out of it. But Josh McDaniels just might be a good play caller, right? It takes a lot more to motivate 53 men

and 47 that are up on a Sunday than your time with Bill Belichick or any quote. quarterback that you have developed. And when Carr goes to the presser and says what he said, and everybody felt it, right? Like usually we get these weirdos who are like, oh, you make fun of people for crying. No, no. I felt it because that is one of the better dudes from

anybody that I have talked to around the league and around him. That's one of the better dudes in the league. He's one of the more earnest guys in league. When the Henry Rugg situation happened, he had a moment where, you know, it's always touchy when you are supporting a person who was involved in an

incident like Henry Wugs was, but everybody was like, damn, this is a dude who's not just peddling that religious shit. He's out here actually living it and actually walking in that light. And you can respect it, whatever it grounds you. Absolutely. So for him to do what he did and say what he said, not just with the putting stuff in your body, but the tears that flowed because he felt bad. You could tell he felt bad that he had to do that in that moment.

That means it hasn't been happening in the last two or three weeks. Like these things are buildups, especially press conferences after law. And these things have been happening probably for the last month or so, and guys have been looking around. You know, I talked to Dominique Foxworth, like I mentioned on my podcast, and he talked about the Raven Way. When he was a Raven, he said there was no ass slaps and there was no handclaps. You don't have to show everybody that you're out here doing bad or, oh, my bad. No, just don't fucking do it, right? And we don't have to pat you on the back for doing your damn job.

That's how good franchises are run. And also, he said that they would meet. And there would be nobody telling them to meet. the coaches wouldn't be telling them to me. The Las Vegas Raiders, when you have guys letting go all the road because they see that their hard work isn't paying off, that's when coaches have to start stepping on next, have to start snatching college. And for whatever reason, Josh McDaniels can't do that.

So the Devante Adams incident that happened earlier in the year, now you've got this situation with Derek Carr. The last couple of years for this organization has been full of very embarrassing or untidy moments. Now you have this. Yeah, Josh McDaniels can say whatever he wants to say, but it seems already. that they've lost this thing. I'm mad that that's the biggest mover, though.

I'm mad that that's the biggest mover because, yo boy, Sean McVeigh and the Los Angeles Rams. See, early this morning, you know, I had my coffee. I came down here to the kitchen, right? As you can see in the background. And I'm like, all right, let me see what my man AG has to say. And I click the ringer. You know, I go on to, and it's on the front page, too.

They got my man shining on the front page. Let's go. We're in the paycheck. Yeah, right? And I look at, I'm like, all right, you know, let me go to the 20s to see where this awful ass Rams team landed. And I'm looking, I'm looking, I'm like, oh, not at the top of the 20s, all right, maybe in the bottom of the, oh, there they are, mid-20s.

The 23rd ranked team is the Los Angeles Rams. Last week, they were 21, a loss to Colt freaking McCoy. And Cliff Kingsbury and the Arizona Cardens dropped them two spots. Explain your fucking self, Austin. do. This is a completely fair call out. I have to say that first and foremost, too. They lost to Colt McCoy and Cliff Kingsbury and the shitty-ass Cardinals with John Wolford at quarterback. I mean, they also were playing their backup quarterback. Like, if Matthew Stafford plays in that game, I think the Rams win. I'm sorry. But I think

bigger reason to drop them further than 23, if you look at some of the teams, you could drop them behind, like maybe you drop them behind the Jags, the Colts, the Steelers, the Lions. Those only a few teams left. I mean, I don't know. You got the Bears, the Saints, the Panthers. I I don't know. I can drop them further if I want. I think the bigger reason is Matthew Stafford's injury, and now you have Cooper Cup on the injury reserve. Cooper Cup is objectively the best offensive player. This offense is one of the worst in the NFL, if not the worst in the NFL, and that doesn't even factor in what it's going to look like now without Cooper Cup. We don't know when Matthew Stafford's coming back healthy. Defensively, their 19th in EPA per play

allowed. Like this is a bad, bad football team. I think McVeigh raises the floor and defensively you have Aaron Donald, right? Best defensive player in the NFL. Jalen Ramsey, one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL. There's still some substance here to maybe not put him behind the lions. Look at him. Look at him shooting himself bail. Hey, Eduardo, did you hear him? He was, he started out on the right track. He's like, oh, wait a minute, I'm making his team too shitty. Let me, let me bring up Aaron Donnell. Let me bring up Jalen Ramsey real quick to suffice the fact that I should have had them rated in the lower 20s. I see you, A.G. I see you. I see you. I got one more thing to say about the Raiders and that Colts game in general. And then

then I'll move off. Shout to Jeff Saturday and anybody who's ever wanted to coach. Exactly, exactly. So the last thing I'll say about the Raiders is I never imagined. Mark Davis didn't imagine Josh McDaniels, Dave Ziegler. No one imagined. Derek Hard did not imagine that this team would be ranked 31st on any power rankings at this point in season. No one imagined that they'd be two and seven at this point in the season. But they are.

And the reason that they are, in my opinion, is that Mark Davis, again, made a bad decision in replacing a head coach with Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler. And again, Josh McDaniels is proving what he's proven us, like you said, what someone tells you something, make sure you believe him. What he's proving to us again is that he's not viable for this role. He's not viable for a head coaching role in the NFL. Vic Tafer and Tashon Reed are two writers for the athletic. I want to give them big shoutouts. I've been reading them for a long time as a Raiders fan. They're reporting on this situation has been fantastic.

Vic Tafer slipped this into an article. Players are getting tired of, longer meetings, longer practices, and team officials scouring their social medias. He slipped that in. So Josh McDaniels is over there running some ridiculous regime that's making practice longer, making meetings longer, and just got people scouting social medias. They're leading tackler a couple of weeks ago,

retired after that game. I wonder why. I wonder why. Like there's reasons that, you know, players are not bought in, right? And people not buying in, it's not on the players. It is a reflection of leadership. Yes, you can always say that there's going to be bad apples in a locker room and they wouldn't buy in no matter what. Collective buy-in when you have leaders, Derek Carr, DeMonti Adams, on this team saying there's not buying, that is a reflection of leadership. Obviously, a reflection of some of the player leaders on that team and Adam's a car, but a bigger reflection of the guy who's asking for longer meetings, longer practices, and scarring fucking player social medias on the side.

We've heard all the horror stories about Josh McDaniels. Go listen to the I Am Athlete podcast with Brandon Marshall. Brandon Marshall's like, dude, in that season where Josh McDaniels won his first six games, we were cheating. And then they found out where you had those tapes, and then we lost a fucking bunch of games. Like McDaniels is a cheater and doesn't have this locker room. I don't know, man. I just think, and then the last thing I'll say about the Colts.

Jim Ursay is going to celebrate this win. Jim Mersey is going to celebrate this win and pour it on Jeff Saturday. And Jeff Saturday, in every way, shape, and form. should feel positive about coming out of this with a victory and show that coming in, leading a change, asking for a quarterback change, moving on from some St. Malagher to Matt Ryan, like he did a lot of things this week,

I'm sure, to bring energy, fire, and just overall, you know, aptitude to a cult team that was flailing. That does not mean, that positive result does not mean this was bad process by Ursa. Calling your friend and giving him a job after having no coaching experience in the college of the NFL is still disrespectful and a disappointment

to the arbitrary roadblocks put in front of minority coaching. Still, it's bad process. If you hit on fucking 18 and it is a three and you get 21, that's a good result. It's still bad process. And in my opinion, him bringing a friend to coach his team for the last eight games. He's never coached in the NFL before. It was just on get up at ESPN. It's still bad process.

And I think disrespectful and a disappointment to my ready to coaches. Don't let this blind you. Don't let this Saturday win blind you from the fact that this was still, in my opinion, bad process. Yeah, no, I agree with you. And before I speak on the Indianapolis coach thing, go back to your Raiders point, Let's take a look at it. All the Billichick Tree guys, you can't run your show the way he runs his show without those results. So if you're not getting those results and you want longer meetings and you want, you know, guys scouring social media and all this other secret service type of activity around a facility that would probably put more tension and pressure on a situation after a loss, then go right ahead.

You saw how it worked out for Matt Patricia. You're seeing how it works out for Josh McDaniels the second time. a row. Everybody wants to be Bill Belichick that's around Bill Belichick, but they don't have Tom Brady. They don't have the Willie McGinnis. They don't have the Richard Seymores of the world. They don't have the lawyer Malloy's of the world. There's a certain thing that goes along with culture. It's called talent and leadership as well. They don't have that. To institute that and have some kind of copy and paste template that you're going to now build a franchise through, yeah, you better get some success first before you start to do that kind of shit. And I agree with

you. I agree with you. It's a way to circumvent and the NFL is going to have to to really take a look at it now because if you don't think the Jim Mersey tipped off a lot of owners to what they need to do going forward to circumvent circumnavigate these rules of, you know, the Rooney rule or, you know, making sure that minorities get these token-ass interviews. Yeah, just go ahead and just go ahead and fire the guy that you want to fire middle this season, hire the guy that you truly want and then put on some bum-ass interview process in the off-season and then hire your interim head coach. So I'm not surprised, right, because I don't think,

Nate Burleson nor Michael Irvin will be able to come and coach their former teams after walking out of the television booth with no prior head coaching experience on the professional or college level. But it's the NFL way of doing business. The only way you change this thing is when Jay-Z and Diddy and the boys by the commandant.

That's the only way you change this thing. It's the only way you change this joint. Last thing on the Colts, because I think a lot of Colts fans are going to be upset at my disposition and others' disposition that I'm still in disagreement and disappointed by the process from Jim Mersey.

And I think I don't think any of that disappointment should be reflected in Jeff Saturday. Jeff Saturday took an opportunity handed to him and made the most of it. It's not the people who take these opportunities that are at fault. It's the people who offer these opportunities without the consideration of minority coaches. Like when you look at what Jim Ursay said when they asked him about the Rooney Rule, he almost like was offended that someone said, hey, did you talk to a minority coach before doing? He's like, whoa!

He said, there's no problem of perception unless you guys make it a problem of perception. I don't know what the fuck that means. You got to do what I understand. I was a broadcast journalism major too. What? I don't understand. Are you guys ever held accountable? Do your editors ever bring you in and say you wrote that stuff?

It's all wrong. You're fired. We held accountable. That's for sure. Like, he's like, they were like, hey, is there any chance you talked to a black person before this? He's like, oh, whoa.

What's your problem? I was a broadcast journalism. Like, that's a... It just doesn't make sense to me, man. It doesn't, it really... It really doesn't make sense to me. It's disappointing. It's disappointing.

It's disappointing. It's disappointing. tip your captain's success that he had, I still think you can be upset about the process. You can still be upset about the process. All right, too high, too low. I've renamed this segment over the last few weeks that I don't know what I'm doing,

and I'm going to go in order of the top teams in the NFL because I don't know what I'm doing. Let's give it. Number one, we got to talk about this game. It was obviously on last night. Philadelphia Eagles lose in what was insane fashion. Yes. To the Washington commanders last night on Monday night football,

there were multiple bad calls. You had the Dallas Guard at Fumble where it should have been a face mask. you could argue that the Taylor Heineke flop was a bad call at the end of the game. Regardless, there were some tickey-tacky calls and missed calls. But ultimately, what happened was the Washington commanders found a way to possess the football

and forced turnovers. The Eagles went into this game with three turnovers on the season. They had three turnovers in that game alone. That's fluky, that's regressing to the mean in rapid fashion. But still, Eagles lose. I didn't move them from the top spot. I still think I have them as the number one team in the NFL. They're eight and one on the season.

Am I wrong to keep the mayor after losing? losing, obviously, to the Washington commanders that they think is an 11-a-half-point favorite at home. Yeah, I'm good on that. You know why? Because you can write that off as the bad day. And also, there was some moments in that game. I mean, that game changed on two injuries for me. When Josh Sweat gets hit low by Logan Thomas, and all of a sudden they couldn't get off the field on third downs,

like Fletcher Cox and J. Vaughn, Hargrove, and all those guys that we talk about a lot. Josh Sweat is one of the engines that makes that defense go on the other side of Brandon to Graham. So now you can focus a lot of it. attention on Brandon Graham and make sure that you close down those two big boys. It's a different defense for the Philadelphia Eagles. And also, A.J. Brown, on an out route, something happened to his lower extremity. I don't know if it's his left ankle or his right ankle. But after that, AJ Brown wasn't getting open.

He left the game, I believe, for a series or two. But after that, he was a non-factor. So much so that they had to start going to Devante Smith. They had to go to Quest Watkins, who eventually had that big catch and fumble down the field. I mean, this Philadelphia Eagles team, they're going to be healthy. And I don't think they're going to turn the ball over three times in the second half of a football game at the crib. This is one of those games where you're right off. And I think this is a you going to get mad about the Philadelphia Eagles game, right?

Like I think they're going to come out here and start scarring folks because of that. And Nick Siriani and the offensive play calling, the offensive staff, get a football to the running back. Like Miles Sand, I know I know you didn't have it a lot. I know I know the commanders did not get off the field on third down. but Miles Sanders, I mean, just give them the football a little bit. You know, Boston Scott, give them the football a little bit. And I'm not just talking about, you know, wheel routes or, you know, angle routes out of the backfield. I'm talking about hand the football off, help your quarterback out a little bit,

allow your offensive line to form some kind of toughness. I mean, you got Lane Johnson and Jason Kelsey. They can move people around, right? They're not just athletic dudes. Allow them to pound on people a little bit. I know you had a tough defensive front, two of the best defensive tackles in the game on the same team for the commanders. I just, I thought there was some moments there where the Eagles could have taken back the game

and kind of got caught up in the wave of the game. So those two injuries, and on top of that, you're going to get everybody's best shot when you're undefeated team. They got to watch the commander's best shot. That's the best division in the National Football League. We thought it was going to be the NFC West, right? It's been the NFC East throughout.

The positive takeaways are the right takeaways, I think, if you are a commander's fan or a commander's backer, is that it is obvious. And I know Taylor Heineke, after the game when he was like, do you think you'll be the starter moving for? He's like, that's their decision. It's obvious that this is Heineke's team. And they have something in Taylor Heineke, at least, maybe not a quarterback of the future,

but they at least have something positive, right, that they're excited to play for. And Terry McCorren was with Scott Van Pelt last night and talked about how he just, there's a grit to him. There's a tryhard to him. There's a care to him that this team needs right now. And that, I think, is when you talk about culture and when you talk about buying, and you talk about effort, it starts there, man. And when you're, people are making fun of him for celebrating that first down when he gets hit by Brandon Graham.

I love it. Like, dude, celebrate. This guy, this guy knows that his days are numbered. The NFL stands for not for long for sure for Taylor Hineke. A guy who's a backup in the XFL. They know that the rug, he knows the rug could be pulled out from under him at any point this season. Every win, every personal foul he draws is going to be a positive worth celebrating. So I think Taylor Hinekees is a positive.

Terry McClure in this game. Get your fucking popcorn. That was incredible. Incredible. And then the few times they put Chonsie Gardner Johnson on him, He was cooking them too. Terry McClure, one of the more underrated receivers in the NFL, because he doesn't have the box court statistics.

He hasn't had the quarterback to really elevate his statistical production. But, man, looked good in this game. And two others, I'll shout out for the commanders. Corners. Kendall Fuller, Benjamin St. Juice. It wasn't perfect, but those boys were working. And you saw Benjamin St. Juice force to fumble against Quetz Watkins. Like, yeah, you can call turnover fluky and that's regression.

But, man, to go get that ball is a big play for Benjamin St. Juice. So I do think the Washington commanders, there's some talent on this team. And Chase Young isn't even back here. from injury. So I think that there's a lot of positives. For the Eagles, you can't turn the ball over three times in the game. You can't. This is not a team built to turn the ball over three times in the game, just like half the teams in the NFL, or every team in the NFL. The other thing is, this is the first time at any point this season, they've trailed in the second half. This team, and some will point

that at Jalen Hertz. Oh, man, like, you can't have Jailen Hertz. You don't want him to lean on him to pass the ball. I think a lot of that criticism is valid. In some ways, it's bigger that this team is built. This team is built to win with a lead, and it has won with lead in the second halfs of games moving forward. I think the Eagles know that and they're going to be better for it. I think this is a good loss for a team that does not want the undefeated cloud over them as they go into the back ends of the season. I still think the Eagles are fine and I still have them first in my power anchors.

Number three, the Buffalo Bills. I have the Bills at three. It's Eagles, Chiefs, Bills. And Vikings fans are sending me death threats because I have them ahead of the Minnesota Vikings. I have the Vikings at four. Let's talk about this game and let's talk about these two teams. The Buffalo Bills, specifically Josh Allen, has underwhelmed, right? these red zone interceptions, these costing mistakes, fumbling the snaps exchange, and the end zone.

Like, there are issues that are all directly tied to Josh Allen being a little bit more clumsy or not careless, but making mistakes with the football, right? Turning the ball over when you don't want him to. And some of those same mistakes that we saw in 2018. He's still an alien. He can still do throws that no other quarterback in the NFL can really do, but he's making mistakes and it's costing them games. They've lost back-to-back games now against the Jets and the Vikings.

With the Minnesota Vikings, there are eight-one on the season, just one as an under- dog in Buffalo with a healthy, seemingly healthy Josh Allen. I still don't have them over the bills. I still don't see what is a middle of the pack offense in terms of efficiency and a middle of the pack defense in terms of efficiency as a deep postseason contender. I think they're talented. I think that they've proven that they can go head to head and win a lot of one score games. They rank just eighth and point differential this season and have won seven consecutive games now by eight points or less. These one score games are bound for regression, right? Winning one score games every single week is hard to do. It's why

the Raiders last year were like 6-0 and now they're 0 and 5. Like, losing and winning and losing the one-score games often is determined by a bounce going your way or not going away. Or a Justin Jefferson, absurd catch of the century, or a fumbled snap exchange in the end zone. Like, ball has to bounce your way to consistently win

one-score games. It's still a skill and they have confidence because of it. They're dancing with the chains on because of it. Still, this Minnesota Viking team, I have at four, Buffalo Bills at three. Your reaction to that, am I wrong? They just won head-to-head. No, I'm still there because the determining factor for me is the quarterback, right? Until Kirk Cousins proves me wrong or proves anyone wrong and makes that trip to the Super Bowl, then I'm going

to go with the better quarterback. And it's interesting that you mentioned what you mentioned about Josh Allen, too, because he's been putting the ball up for grabs a lot over the last few weeks. It's just people haven't come down with it. So the more you do that, right? We talk about Sacks, right? But really, it's about pressures because Sacks is the offshoot of pressure. The more, the more often you're in that backfield, the more often you're confusing that quarterback, the more often he's going to go down. This guy has been putting the ball in harm's way for the last three weeks. And the last two weeks, they've actually been able to pick it off.

And the snap situation, situational football is important. I don't care how much you are out of the gun. At some point, you got to practice that a little bit more. And you could tell the mesh, the snap point, he didn't have his hands together and it lost him a game. The Minnesota Vikings thing to me is very, first of all, we got to stop with the quarterback cosplay. The shit with the chains is getting out of control.

At some point... You don't like the chains? Oh, wow, I didn't know this. I didn't know he didn't like the chains. No, because they did it to Taylor Hanicki on the plane as well. At some point, we're going to get to a very uncomfortable place here. You know, like all of a sudden, it's all good. You know what I mean?

He had some asshole calling the Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kurt Duggins, right, throughout the game. Oh, man. The broadcaster, yeah, yeah. So that's what I'm saying. Let's slow down on the fucking cosplay for a little bit. Okay? Like it's going to get a little uncomfortable out here for the brothers. But that's fair.

I like to call out. I like to call out. I'm just, you know, I like to. It's like my annual Halloween PSA to my white brothers. Like, hey, whatever you do, no matter who you're dressing up as, you don't have to paint your face. You feel me? Every single year. I get you.

October 30th, I tweet that. Just let my white brothers out there know that you ain't got to do that. But the point differential that you brought up, that shit is important because at some point, you're going to have to, the same way we talk about Jalen Hertz and the Eagles, where it's like, oh, what happens? Because these games where defense ain't going to show up, you're going to commit a turnover on special teams, and you're going to look at your quarterback and go what you got. At some point, and maybe it's going to happen at the end of the season, maybe, unfortunately,

for Vikings fans, it might happen in the playoffs. But at some point, these close games aren't going to go your way so much so that a swing, here, a swing there. Next thing, you know, a fumble happens on a punt return. Now you're down 10 points. What do you do? Do you turn back and say, hey, Kirk, take us home? That's the issue that I have. So the determining factor for me.

I thought the Vikings will win the NFC North at the outset of this season. It looks like they're going to do so. It looks like they're going to be either the one or two seed in the NFC, right? Kurt Cousins, until he proves to me that in a big game, he can be the dude that he has been paid to be,

I can be skeptical. And when he does proved to me, I'll tip my cap. But just like Jimmy Garapolo, just like, you know, Matt Schaub and Andy Dalton before him, like there are certain things that when a team is fully formed and ready to take off and your determining factor or, unfortunately, for certain fan bases, you're limiting factors, your quarterback position, I'm just waiting for it to happen. So I definitely would have the bills ahead of the Vikings. There were points in that game where ESPN's win probability model gave the bills like a 98% chance of winning that game. They had to have a Dalvin cook, you know, break off run.

They had to have Josh Allen phone with that ball. They had to have on fourth and 18 Justin Jefferson come down with a catch. I don't think anyone could even imagine. Like, just imagine that catch. You can't even do it. Like, that has to happen. Now, I will say to speak positive on the Vikings because I feel like I'm constantly saying, oh, well, they're not as good as you think they are Vikings fans.

They're not as good as you think they are. Cousins has played better over the last three weeks. I think when you look at these obvious passing situations, he's dropping dimes and he's making plays and he's giving guys a chance. There are also times where you wish he was a better quarterback. You wish that he was as good or in that tier of a muller. Holmes and Allen of these other guys that are winning a lot of games and in the MVP conversation, rightfully so. With the Bills, we just talked about the Eagles and them having

three turnovers in a game and it's hard to win that way. Buffalo Bills are finding out it's hard to win when your quarterback throws a ton of picks. He leads the NFL in picks. He's thrown 10 picks. And when you talk about putting the ball in harm's way, PFF, they also track turnover-worthy plays, which is those same things, where you're throwing it to receive defenders hands and they're dropping it or fumbling the ball, even if your team recovers it, it's still a turnover-roarly play. He leads to a league in turnover-worthy plays with 19. And when you look at some of the other quarterbacks that are on this list that are turning the ball over a lot, it's

Justin Fields. Guess what? They've lost a lot of games. Jared Gough, they've lost a lot of games. Kyler Murray, Marcus Marriota, Jacoby Brissette. Teams that turn the ball over a lot, or put the ball in harm's way a lot, lose a lot of games. The bills aren't, and they've had success at the early parts of the season because they weren't turning the ball over. Once the turnovers happen,

even if it is just one throw, oh, just that red zone interception, oh, just that fumble from Josh Allen, that's all that matter. You turn the ball over two or three times a game, it can flip everything. And it did against the Minnesota Vikings, that can't happen. If you want to be in the Super Bowl, you're going to have to have the ball bounce your way a handful of times, and that involves limiting turnover. So celebrate Minnesota Vikings fans that you are now with the Eagles losing on Monday night in potential play for the number one seed, right? You're obviously, you don't have the tie breaker with the Eagles because you lost to the Eagles, but still could have a number one seed, could have the first round by. For the bills, they're in a little bit of hot water now. Yeah, they're still a really good football team. Yeah, they're number three on this list. But if you lose out on the first round by, now the Chiefs are slated to have that, that's a different ball game. How? Having to win three games together with Super Bowl is a lot different than having to win two. And you can look at, that's just rolling the dice, right?

That's rolling the dice three times. It's harder to hit the number every single time as it is with two times. So I do think that the Buffalo Bills are the better football team. They're the better strength. They're the stronger football team. And that's why when you look at betting markets, right, and I think this is the biggest indictment. When you look at the betting markets, this week, the Minnesota Vikings, I don't think you've looked at the line. I'm going to guess that.

Do you know what the line is? The Vikings are at home against the Dallas Cowboys. What do you think the line is there? At home against the Cowboys, four and a half? At home. Vikings favored? Yeah. Cowboys are favored by one and a half.

That is what's showing you like the market, Vegas, Vegas, which Vegas knows. 35% of underdogs have won straight up since 2005. They're not making the Vikings an underdog to lose money. You know, they're not giving you plus 105 for the Vikings to lose money. They view right now, the market views, Cowboys is obviously the better football team, even on the road against Minnesota Vikings.

Vikings are going to have to win a lot of tough games. We're going to have to win games as underdogs, potentially in the postseason to make the Super Bowl. But that doesn't mean they're not 8-1 right now. That doesn't mean they're a top five team in the NFL. Speaking of the Cowboys, I'm looking forward to talking to Stephen Ruiz about their quarterback because there's some interesting things happening. But I'll save the Dak Prescott talk for Stephen. That sounds good.

He wants to talk a little Kirk, too. And I'm excited to get his opinion on Kirk Cousins. I want to know where his head's at on Kirk Cousins. What's your game of the week this week? I just teased Cowboys Vikings. That might be a big game. right, Cowboys at Vikings. Vikings are one and a half point dogs at home.

The other game that I think has huge playoff determining. I don't even know if that makes sense. But the Jets are Patriots are three and a half point favorites at home. If they lose this game, I think that their race to the playoffs almost becomes non-existent. Like I think it's going to be very difficult

from them to map a scenario to make the playoffs if they lose at home to the Jets this week. If they win, the Jets could be in a really tough spot, right? The Jets could be in a really tough spot. I wrote in the power rankings this week, the Patriots have the hardest remaining strength of schedule according to ESPN's Football Power Index. The Jets have the easiest.

So the Jets against the Patriots this week is one of the tougher games that they'll play. I'm interested to see what ends up happening in this one because I think the Patriots win. It keeps their playoff hopes alive to get a wild card. If the Jets win, I think it all but secures a playoff spot for them and the Patriots on the outside looking in. But what is your game of the week?

I like those two. All right. So I like Cowboys Vikings, but in your game of the week, I hope the Jets win because there's no way in hell that I want to fucking watch any Patriots play off football. I don't want to watch it. I don't want to see it unless Matthew Judon is running around out there in a skills competition.

I don't want to see that. There's nothing interesting about that team to me. There's nothing fun about it. They're a boring squad with no personality. And there's nothing there for me. So hopefully the Jets win. I love watching Sauce Garden. I love watching that defense play football.

I love watching Zach Wilson running around and play flag football in an NFL stage. But to me, it's Cowboys Vikings, right? The NFC right now, you're trying to determine what the real NFC is going to look like, right? What the Buccaneers still have in them. The commanders are in the hunt. The San Francisco 49ers went out and traded for one of the better players at his position. Now you got Kyle Shanahan with a couple of weeks in his bag trying to figure out where to put Christian McCaffrey. So this is a very important game, not just for the league, but for the NFC playoff picture.

I'm going Vikings. I'm going Cowboys because you got two quarterbacks too who, you know, there's still quite, question marks about. Since Dak has come back, you know, that Packers thing, that Prescott did not look good. And I know both teams put up a lot of points, but he didn't look good doing so. So I'm looking forward to seeing that Prescott play against that Minnesota Vikings defense. I'm looking forward to seeing Justin Jefferson go up against Trayvon Diggs and Michael Parsons and that Cowboys defense as well. So yeah, Vikings Cowboys will be it for me. What's interesting is Fandle is all but guaranteeing that the Cowboys make the playoffs.

They're minus 1,400 to make the playoffs. And to bet them to not make the playoffs is plus 900. So you bet a dollar, you win nine. You bet 10, you win 90. I don't know if I hate that bet. I don't know if I hate that bet. I know their favorite over Minnesota, but let's say this juggernaut of a team

that Minnesota Vikings fans want it to be win at home against Dallas. And the Cowboys dropped the 6 and 4. And the Packers on Thursday night beat the Titans as a three-point favorite on a short week. Then it starts getting interesting. and then you have the Washington commanders, obviously, at five and five. Like, this is, I don't know. I don't know if it's all but guaranteed that the Dallas Cowboys make the playoffs.

This is a big game this week. Dropping to six and four as the Packers start to sniff around, the commander starts sniff around, and the Giants essentially could pull away here with their favor by three over the lines. I don't know. This is a big, big game for Dallas, man. And the playoff odds in terms of betting them to make the playoffs, don't reflect that at minus 1,400 to plus 900.

But, man, I don't know. This is a big game, in my opinion. It is a big game. But I think the Cowboys are all but assured for that playoff from because three weeks in a row, they've got the cake schedule of the Colts, the Texans, and the Jaguars. So I think, yeah, after the Vikings game, after the tough Giants game that'll happen, you know, it was the Thanksgiving week.

I think the Colts, Texans, Jaguars will be kind to the Cowboys. I think, I mean, if you look at it right now, you can kind of say that there are four teams that are locks to make the NFC playoffs, right? The Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, the New York Giants. I mean, it sounds weird to say. 7 and 2 or 7 and 2. There's only so much more losing than you can possibly do outside of some catastrophic, you know,

rash of injuries that hits this team. And the Cowboys, right there, right? So, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in San Francisco 49 is strength of schedule matters. That's why I'm looking at the Cowboys making it with that three weeks late where they're going to go at worst two and one, at best, three and O. Yeah, I think the Cowboys are going to make it just because the NFC is so weird. But then where does that leave the Seattle Seahawks, right?

Where does that lead the Washington Commanders? The Green Bay Packers are going to run the full? football so much so that Air Rogers is going to be pissed, but they're actually going to win games because of it. Like, there's a lot happening here in that middle tier of the NFC. So there's still stuff to watch, no doubt about it. It would take an absolute collapse. And that is reflected in the betting market, right? Minus 1400 to plus 900 to miss the playoffs. It would take an absolute collapse, a loss to Minnesota and a loss to some of those bad teams moving forward and a heroic, a herculean effort from the Green Bay Packers to climb back in because they have

the Titans on a short week, which is no fucking slouch. Yeah, it's at home. Yeah, the Titans have underperformed at times. But Mike Brable, Tanna Hill, Derek Henry, that's a tough game. Then you've got to go to Philadelphia to play the Eagles. Then you got the Bears on the road, call that a win. But then you got the Rams at home, one of the worst teams in the NFL. Then you got to go to Miami. Got to go to South Beach to play the Miami Dolphins.

Those are potentially two more losses. And they're four and six on the season, right? They're already two games back for the Dallas Cowboys. So Packers would have to flip the script to make the playoffs and maybe potentially kick the Cowboys out. So that will be a good game. But there's some good games this week. Because you get to week 11, week 12, week 13. that's when the good game starts to pop up

and some real playoff odds happen because the AFC, the wildcard race, is not as locked up, right? Like you have, the dolphins are obviously looking to be a wildcard team, but could even win the division, right? Both the dolphins and the bills will make the playoffs, which one that wins the division?

Still TBD. We'll see what happens there. But then you obviously have, since the A Bengals vying for a playoff spot, their four and a half-point favorites of the Steelers on the road this week. Charters are looking for a playoff spot. You got, it's going to be a big week.

I'm excited, I'm excited. But let's bring in the, The best person of this podcast. Ah, third best. We'll call him the third best person on this podcast. And that's only because Carlos isn't with us. Exactly. If Carlos was here, he'd be the fourth best.

Let's go ahead and bring in Steve Ruiz. He wants to talk a little Kirk Cousins. Jason's going to make him talk some Jack Prescott. Let's do it. Steve Ruiz joins the show. Off the mic, Gough was explaining a movie that no one wants to see. And I think you might have to flip to the, you might have to get it on the rewatchables. You were making it sound so good.

The mask? Yeah. Shout out to Derek Carr starring in The Mask. Squissure. All right, where I want to start is I have Minnesota Vikings fans looking for my address because I have them as the fourth ranked team behind the Buffalo Bills, the team that they just beat on the road. Talk to me about Kirk Cousins and why there's market hesitancy.

The Cowboys are one and a half-point favorites over the Vikings on the road this week. There's market at hesitancy to back Kirk Cousins and this Minnesota Vikings team. And there's anyone that's not a Minnesota Vikings fan, there's hesitancy and backing them as a deep postseason contender because of Kirk Cousins, right? And there's some data to back that in obvious passing situations. He's one of the more inefficient quarterbacks in the NFL. And when you turn on the tape, I know you've been tween out some clips today. There's still a lot of concerns with the quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings.

Talk to me. Yeah. And I would actually say that the reason why I'm skeptical, at least, is the opposite of what you're saying. I think that they've been overly reliant on those obvious passing situations. And we saw that to the extreme against Buffalo where the early down stuff, like the run game was working, but the early down, passes, which has been a theme throughout the season, it was not working. And it really came down to Kirk on obvious passing down, just saying, oh, fuck it. Jefferson's down there somewhere.

It's like that meme. And he just threw it up and Jefferson would go up and catch it. And I, like, people are giving credit to Kirk for those throws. They're saying their dimes. Like, he literally threw one while he was cowering in fear and not looking and Jefferson caught the ball. Like calling those, I don't call those dimes. I think there are prayers that were answered. It's like, it's like posting half court he used him being like, look, this guy's a great shooter. He's a great three-point shooter. Look at him to make these shots.

They're luck. It's also like those viral TikToks where those guys are like throwing a ping pong ball onto like a mini solo cup and they've been recording it for like six hours and when they hit one, it's like, oh my God, what a dime? It's like, okay, do you watch every throw of Kirk Cousins? Do you see every throw that we're going on?

Make an offense out of that. Good luck making an offense out of that. And that's like, and the thing is he's not getting the environmental benefits that he has enjoyed throughout his career, like the play action numbers aren't there. And that's like the thing with Kirk is he was always a good play action quarterback, but now they're not seeing like cover three at the rate they were seen

because of the offense he's in now. And they're seeing more too high. And it's harder to run play action against those coverages. And that was always his cheat code. And the question with Kirk Cousins was, what's his plan B? And we're seeing this year, he doesn't really have a plan B.

and what it looks like to me at least is like Washington, Kirk Cousins. You remember when he was in Washington and it was like, oh, he's too reckless. Like he throws a lot of interceptions. And then he kind of got into the play action quarterback type of offense and that protected him from that. That like hit his weaknesses. But now we're seeing that type of Kirk cousins again. And I think that's why people are skeptical.

And that's why the numbers, even though they're winning, the numbers are way down for Kirk. Like he's usually a top 10 quarterback by EPA. Now he's below league average. Stephen, the old guard of NFL quarterback that is getting ready to leave, right? the Aaron Rogers of the world. You know, we had Ben Rothesburg or retired. Tom Brady's going to play till he's going to play till he's five damn years old because he doesn't want to go back to the crib whether somebody's there or not.

And those businesses aren't doing too hot. You're right. You're right. Yeah, that TB12 water ain't moving the way it was. Then you get the middle guard where Dak Prescott and these kinds of guys are set in there. I think the Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow, young quarterback guard that has kind of passed this middle guard up. I look at Dak Prescott and I'm like, wait a minute. At this point, he was supposed to be ascending, right?

He was supposed to be the guy that was the, you know, not the little cousin, but he was the junior, the little bro. This dude in that Green Bay Packers game looked as bad as I've seen him look this season. And of course, he had the time off where the Cooper Rush was out there, you know, managing, not really scoring points, but managing this offense. What are you seeing from this Cowboys offense and Dag Prescott? And what's not clicking right now? Even though they're putting up points, he just doesn't look sharp.

I think you have to look back at the Cooper Rush games, and it looked like a different offense to me. It looked like an offense that wasn't asking as much from its quarterback. And like the Green Bay game, the two interceptions, looked like miscommunications with the receivers. Like he expected the receiver. I think Greg Olson broke it down during the game. He expected the receiver to cross the face of the safety.

He ran behind them, and it's an interception. It kind of happened on both of those plays. And I think that just kind of like is emblematic of the problem. they're asking Dak Prescott to do all this processing post-snap because he's able to do it. He's very good at that stuff. But it's hard. And if him and the receiver aren't on the same page, you get these ugly plays and you get these mistakes. And I think the Cowboys need to kind of treat Dak Prescott as if he is like a Cooper rush

and give him an easier offense to operate. Not that he needs to be in that type of offense. I just think that this collection of talent and this coaching staff, that's what. what's best for them. So scaling it back is something that you think is necessary? Because, I mean, last year they led the league, if I'm not mistaken, in points per game, right? Yeah.

And I thought that they were able to make things easier on DAC earlier in the year. And then as the season went on, it was like more dropback passing. We didn't see as much of like the schematic stuff that they were doing. Like they were putting offensive linemen in the backfield at fullback. They were using unbalanced lines. They were running a lot of play action, a lot of motion. and then you kind of saw them go away from that. And I think they're doing the same thing in season.

And I thought they put those protections in for rush and they're not giving them to Dak Prescott because it makes sense. Like, we're paying this guy a bunch of money. We don't need to run the kiddie offense for him. We can run the grown-up adult offense for him. But I don't know if they have the talent. I don't know if Kellan Moore is that dude

that can consistently provide open throws in that type of offense. Like maybe like an Andy Reid could. I wanted to also bring up, Justin Herbert. And I feel like we talk about Justin Herbert every single week because he is a dazzling. I don't know if I've said that word before. Dazzling thrower of the football. There is every single week, all 22 angles of Justin Herbert throws, you're like, Jesus, that is insane. There's two or quarterbacks I could do that. But he's not winning football games. And he's under scrutiny because

of it, I think every single week. There's consensus media consensus fans are, why isn't he winning? They could miss the playoffs this year for back-to-back seasons. There's going to be conversation that Tutsunga-Lola was the right choice. over Justin Herbert, objectively, if Tua makes the playoffs and Herbert doesn't. Whether that's true or not, whether that's right to have is whatever, but that's going to happen. Tell me why it shouldn't. Tell me why, I think there's two quarterbacks where you have to keep the faith right now.

You have to keep the faith on Justin Herbert, even though they're losing games, and you have to keep the faith on Trevor Lawrence. Those are two quarterbacks that are extremely talented that are limited within, whether they're injury-played offenses or offensive schemes that are not maximizing their talent. I think with the Jacksonal Jaguars, they're limited from a talent perspective. that Christian Kirk's are top receiver, but probably should be a number two, number three, with the Los Angeles Chargers,

Rashon Slater's out for the season, Mike Williams is missing games, Keenan Allen's missing games, this receiving chorus slow, and Joe Lombardi has not proven yet that he can even maximize the talent that he has when they're healthy. So I think both those quarterbacks are ones

where we've got to just like hold the faith that it's going to get better, they're going to build it around these guys. Why should we continue to do that? And what are the reasons to do so? For Herbert, I think you just watch the games, and I think if you watch the games, like, you're not going to come away with this takeaway.

And here's some, like, numbers to back it up. Over the last two weeks, he hasn't had his top two receivers, top two offensive tackles, top two tight ends. He is fourth in PFF grade, six big time throws to zero turnover worthy place, two sacks on 23 pressures. That's an 8% sack rate on pressure dropbacks, the best in the league.

He's averaging five yards per attempt. He's a bottom five passer and passer rating over those two weeks. Like, he is literally playing his ass off, and this is the most he can get out of it, is five yards per attempt in a 78 pass rating. That's like Jeff George in 1991 type numbers we're talking about. And look at what he's doing individually. That's why when you watch the San Francisco tape,

every completion that isn't a checkdown against zone is like the best throw you've ever seen. Like literally, he just made like six throws that were amazing. It's because if he's not doing that, they're not throwing downfield. They're not completing balls downfield. And I don't know what else to say. At this point, if you're saying the injuries are an excuse, you're basically arguing that supporting cast doesn't matter at all and that every team that's spending money on receivers

and offensive line is they're dumb, like they're wasting their money. He's missing his top two receivers, top two tight ends and top two offensive tackles. How do you play offense like that? How do you, I don't know, I don't know what else to say. I think those are bigger excuses for Lombardi. Right, no, they are.

If you wanted to create excuses for Lombardi, who you've been adamant that the play colling in Los Angeles By Lombardi has been atrocious, he's not throwing things downfield. Like, if you wanted to create excuses for him, it's because he doesn't have speed and he doesn't have his top guys who actually call downfield passes. And I think that is more legitimate than saying those are excuses for Herbert, whereas you turn on the, I think you need a shirt or a hat that just says watch the games. Because I think there's a lot of times where you come on these podcasts as the, as a film guy, as a guy who's a part of film Twitter or whatever, that leverages numbers in an audio content format to help explain and help evidence. But what's always going to be better is turning on the tape. You turn on the tape, you watch the games, you see that Justin Herbert.

a better quarterback. If you look at wins or some of these other box score statistics, you may be leaning to a or whatever it may be. Any closing thoughts here, Gough, Ruiz? Can I make one more point on the chargers? We are saying all this stuff about them and how they're like Herbert's not winning games. They're five and four. They have a winning record despite all these injuries. And we didn't have even talk about the defensive injuries. They have the 17th best drop back by EPA, dropback passing game by EPA. That's like league average. They are league average with a five and four record despite all of those injuries and everything they're missing.

I don't know how this reflects poorly on Justin Herbert. I honestly don't know how it reflects poorly on Brandon Staley. But that's what it is. I don't know. I just want to point out that he said that Justin Herbert is literally playing his ass off. And that just sounds painful, to be honest with you. At some point, if I'm playing a brand of football, then my ass falls off. Then you sign me out.

Before we go, Stephen Ruiz, if you had to re-rank the 2021 draft class at quarterback, top three. God, just putting this man on the spot. Top three. How would this go? It's the same, the same order I had from that year. What was it? 2021. I've already forgotten. Lawrence, Fields, Lance. And I know, like, I look like an idiot for the field stuff because I canceled him or whatever. I mean, the scouting report was never that he was going to be Michael Vick.

Right. Like, his biggest touters were like, oh, he's accurate, he's smart, he's a pocket quarterback. and he is none of those things. Like that's why I'm hesitant to be like, oh, yeah, he's really good now because you watch the film and like there is no semblance of a dropback passing game.

And he completed like two passes and rhythm from the pocket all game long. Fields was like widely considered the number two quarterback in that class. Over two and number three, a lot of people like Tech Wilson because he was a accurate downfield passer in the Ohio State offense pocket passer.

He has remade himself as a different player. Now, now running the football. football rampant and having a lot of success, obviously running football, things that you didn't see, both in design fashion or even in scrambling fashion at Ohio State, maybe because the office line is better, there's more open receivers, whatever it may be, but still, he is dominating as a new version of Justin Fields and breaking records in the process. Ruiz, Goff, always fantastic to get on the mic with you guys. I really enjoy it. I get smarter every single week.

Make sure you tune into the rest of the feed on Wednesdays, on the ringer NFL show, Fee. The Island with Nora Prince Idi on Wednesdays. And then on Thursdays, the Scramble will shield Capadia. And on the ringer preview show, my guys, Danny High Fitz Ben Solac and this guy named Steve Ruiz, come back on the show. Make sure you listen to the rest of the shows. Shout out to our producers, Connor Nevins, Arjuna Ramper Ball, and Carlos Chiroboga. Until next time, Gough, Ruiz, Gail, the Power Ranker Show.