November 20, 2024 • 31 mins
It's Fox Sports Radio's official fantasy football podcast! Dan Beyer and Mike Harmon open this Wednesday edition of the show with a passionate rant on the state of the Chicago Bears. A longtime Bears supporter, Mike lays out everything wrong with the franchise (including through a fantasy lens) and weighs in on where they go from here. Later, the guys get into the 49ers and the disappointing season they've had up to this point. Finally, they close the show with some interesting numbers on this NFL season's passing stats, providing some insight on how certain players' fantasy seasons have gone.
Hosts: Dan Beyer, Mike Harmon
Producer: Ian Roddy
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ladies and Jules.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
You want experience during your football season, We'll buckle.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Up, sweet cheeks. That's all.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We've got, all the experience in the world. This is
I want your flex with Dan Bayer and Mike Harmon.
Mike and Dan break down everything you need to set
your lineups, from position rankings to starts and sits. The
guys help you make those hard decisions. And now let's
catch your flex onde. Here's Dan Bayer and Mike Harmon.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
All right, it's Week twelve of the NFL season.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
The six buys on your schedule or something that got
it under our skin. But instead of looking ahead to
the matchups Michael Levis rankings in our next episode and
hot plays and whatnot, we talk about the bigger issues
surrounding the National Football League. We'll dive into something that's
been missing this year. Plus we have some forty nine
(00:55):
ers talk to get to. But we have to start
out with Mike Chicago Bears. Now that some time has
kind of gone past, Mike from the loss on Sunday,
where do you stand with your beloved hometown team.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Well, frustration mounted expectations are always a dangerous thing, and
I think I was real about it and looking at
the division that it was going to be a tough
climb and that you know, Minnesota was going to be
better than they were given credit for, and they have
been a good balance. It's not going to be sexy
(01:28):
and pretty, and yes, Sam Darnold, some folks still have
a distaste. Like last episode when we were talking about
with Gino Smith, some folks just can't let some of
the past get away from them. But with the Bears,
at least in the game against Green Bay, you saw
a semblance of an offense that had a direction and purpose,
whether it stemmed from Caleb Williams, as Jay Galaizer reported
(01:50):
on our Fox NFL Sunday, getting in front of the
squad and saying, hey, some of this is on me,
whether it's film review or just taking a long walk
on the beach, recognizing because there are our beaches in
Chicago that you can go walk along the lake front
there and figure out, hey, I need to be better
here here here. DJ Moore has been so everybody's been salty,
(02:11):
everybody's calling out coaches. The Eberflus thing is something that
won't go away, because here's another game that was a
potential win that by coaching scared.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Yeah, coaching scared.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
That's the thing that bugs me about it, and that
it was backed up by so many luminaries that wanted
to wag their fingers at us, from Kurt Warner on down.
It's like, all right, if I'm coaching because of and
I make a decision off of what seems to be
a fairly elemental play that here's all the stuff that
go wrong, I should just walk away, right if I
(02:47):
need what's my best play for a three yard sure game.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
We don't have one of those for a four yard
like that.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
That's essentially what he said an offense that it operated
efficiently all day. Look, Cale Williams still has lots of
room to grow. We've talked about this ad nauseum for weeks.
I don't think he's as far off as some do.
I don't think he's as accomplished and ready to go
somewhere in the between. We've got to figure out. Oh yeah,
Ryan Poles and company, figure out the guts of your squad.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
One of the things that happened this week, guys, is
they cut an alignment who they signed to a three year,
thirty million dollars deal before this season. How many people
do you think argued about that on national radio?
Speaker 5 (03:28):
This guy, that's it.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
You cut a guy you gave ten million dollars a
year in week eleven of a season, and it wasn't
afterte like, you don't think that's part of the overriding.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
Problems of what you're having. But you know to say it.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
You know, Williams goes twenty three to thirty one. They
move the ball and you can pick a you know,
different drives and just say he hit this mark, He
hit this mark, he ran for seventy yards. Right, was
more we're confident of saying all right, I'm gonna go,
as opposed to continuing to dance and then eventually taking
a sack, as we've saw him do as recently as
(04:09):
last week against the Patriots. Right, instead of just saying
all right, nothing's here, go, trying to go through whatever,
all the criticism. I could just hear the talking heads
in his voice. He holds the ball too long, he
tries to be hero ball. He does all of that
stuff paralyzed by the analysis like the here's the second
(04:30):
game this year that Eberflus took away that could have
been won. You go back to Washington not to relitigate it,
like telling me that that fifteen yard pass play didn't matter.
Might be the dump that was fireable in the moment. Yeah,
like he should have He shouldn't have said another word
on a microphone. That should have been the end of you.
When you saw a guy in Jaden Daniels who was
(04:52):
having trouble throwing a ball down field because of the
sore ribs. And even on that final hail, Mary didn't
get the ball to the end zone. It took a
perfect tip of what seven yards in the air into
the end zone for Brown to catch it. This time
you got a forty six yarder. And now everybody's saying, well,
there was the obvious you know, issues and deficiencies, and
(05:14):
yes we're going to file a complaint with the league
for what happened to our long snapper.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Get the hell out of here.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Makes it worse, right, like all of.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
This stuff to say you have you don't have a
play in your bag. This guy's called a great game.
Brown had called a great game that you didn't trust him.
This guy you elevated to go get you four yards
or five yards to make it an easier kick with
a better trajectory and easier run up and leave it
(05:44):
to chance with time on the clock and a timeout
in your pocket. Now, we've seen it too many times
with this guy, and that's multiple times that he leaves
the field with timeouts. Yes, that that could have been
used for for good.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
See I got my wicked deadline in for the week.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Well, that's the other part of it.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
And I think that your callback to the commander's game
is so important because of just giving that play up.
I had, as a non Bears fan, had the same
emotions as so many people did about settling for the
field goal and your point about Kurt Warner and saying, well,
what about if they lost two yards and blah blah blah.
(06:26):
It's not even necessarily that, Mike. The The problem that
I really also had with all this or was another
layer of that shows you, like Matt Eberflus and the
Bears told on themselves, was when they were working the
clock that they just ended up calling the timeout with
(06:47):
three seconds left or four seconds left, because you had
thirty seconds. You could have just spiked it at that time. Yeah,
ran your field goal unit on and then you still
have the timeout because the timeout is there and I've
seen other teams do this. I've actually never seen it
in play, but I've heard many a broadcaster, many an
(07:08):
analyst say, if you have a bad snap, or if
something happens, at least you have the timeout, or if
you like, kick it on second down so if something
goes wrong, you can kick it again. And I thought
the holder who's at Taylor, the punter that was holding,
(07:28):
didn't get it right away, like there was a pause
or a bit of a bobble, which I think through
some of the timing off. But that's the scenario where
if you had a timeout, he could have just ate
the ball and called time out at that point and
then you're still kicking again. But I think it threw
some of the timing off. But just the fact that
they didn't line up and spike the football, they just
(07:49):
waited for it to run down and call the timeout
and use their final timeout when they they didn't necessarily
had to. It was like, Okay, maybe they're playing checkers
and other people are playing chess.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
I just thought they kind of on themselves in that scenario.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Yeah, it's just another great example. Like I called it
loser ball, and I'll keep going it loser ball, Like,
if you're your whole thing is what's the expected value
of a run forward? That that's really what we that's
all this comes down to, right down distance. We want
to go into analytics and whatever. It's the expected value
(08:24):
is not negative to or a fumble lost. Yeah, on
a basic run play with Roshan Johnson behind an offensive line,
guess what they'd rather run block than be dancing Bears
in pass coverage. Sure, and yes we're actually talking about
the Bears, so that's kind of funny, but legitimately, push forward,
give me one play. I need one play from you
(08:46):
to get three yards and to set it up for
this guy on the right hash mark on the right
spot whatever. And you're gutless, and you're absolutely gutless about it.
And then your post game explanation followed by the following
day's media stuff is all doubling down on a negative expectation, saying, well,
(09:07):
they're probably gonna be better than us on that play.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
How dare you like that?
Speaker 4 (09:13):
It just defends my And that's not if I do
this friandy coach that went up and said that kind
of thing, right, It just defends my sensibility as a
guy who's watched football. You do the Red Zone radio
work with Carrie Rhodes on Sunday. I mean you you
love the game as much as I do, no matter
who the coach is. They go up and talk like
(09:35):
that about a situation where winning is in the offing
by executing one play, and you're basically saying my team's
not good enough to do it.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Come on, yeah, it's awful. Look awful. Look.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
I wish I was in the NFL office as the
complaint came in, like, hey, Rock, did you get at this?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
And the Bears.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Send an the customary rubber stamped letter on the shiny stationary.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
The apparently the Bears want us to change the outcome
because their center got hit, the long snapper got hit. Yeah,
I just such a bad look. And by the way,
it all comes back to hard knocks too. Where wasn't
it all about looks? You know, Maddi Eberflus and the
beard and the you know, the new look Bears.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
He talked about it then, yeah, talk about it now.
Those were the big big takeaways. DJ Moore got paid
a lot of money. They went to some ice cream
place that they shoved everybody else out of the ice
cream museum for he and his family to walk around.
Speaker 5 (10:44):
Yeah, the great moment.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
And then Matt Eberfleus, you know, taking his wife's advice
to look the part and look better on camera.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
That's it. Those were your takeaways from Hard Knocks.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
By the way, with the Giants and Bears seasons, the
way they're turning out, no one is going to want
to do Hard Knocks next year.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Well, they're going to argue, this is why we never
want to do Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah, I actually feel bad.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
That's It's why I support Joe Shane and the Giants
so much, because I thought I hated the idea at first,
and then I just I absolutely fell in love with
the show because of how it played out.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
But that's why I will defend him.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Like their problem was giving Daniel Jones the contract and
then they had to live with it. So the off
season that we saw play out, they made the decision
they had to make. The Giants are on a playoff
team with Saquon Barkley wouldn't have an offensive line.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
It just it wouldn't. It wouldn't happens.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Getting hurt certainly doesn't help, no, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
And so they tried to address it in certain ways.
They you know, got Malik Neighbors to play maker they
wanted and and if you if you drafted Jayden Daniels, Uh,
you know, he's not having the success that he's having
with the Giants that he's having with the Commanders. So
I think all of those things are fair, fair comments
to say. But Joe incomes under heavy criticism because he
(12:03):
lets in the Giants, let people in, you know, behind
closed doors, and now I think it's going to taint
their reputation, which is too bad.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, really is.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
In the end, it's you know, his son comes off
as a better GM is what people are going to
take from.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
It as well.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
But yeah, I mean the Jones contract, you wanted stability, right,
you looked around and said, all right, he's shown us
a little bit. Another year with Dable, I guess what,
it didn't work out the gate and then he gets
hurt with a pretty severe injury, right, Like that's the
thing to being lost in this was he didn't go
down with a twisted ankle last year. Sure like he
(12:42):
battled back from something. And it's not to excuse it, right,
he's not good. I mean, there's just no way to
cut through it, but yeah, it hamstrung every other decision.
And you know, we joked about it a little bit,
and we have dan, you and I in the past,
Like go back to the twenty eighteen draft. They take
him number two overall. Quarterback that got drafted to the
first round with the exception of Rosen is still playing
(13:04):
and playing really well.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah, it's I mean, jeez, what can you do? Even
Sam Donald turned his career around.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Well, you just need to get the Jet stink off.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Sorry man, all right, both for he and Gino took
a couple of stops in a lot of years, and
here we are.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Well, the argument then was, and I remember and there
was a long time NFL writer who does a really
good job in talking about that and said, you're gonna
have Saquon Barkley for a max of eight years, while
the Jets are going to have Sam Donald for twice
that much. And that's why the Giants made the wrong
decision in taking Saquon Barkley. Hindsight is twenty twenty with everything.
(13:43):
But I do remember that being said. So we'll not
say the name of the reporter. I will keep that
off the record. Hey, we've all made our stupid comments,
so I don't want to hold it to the person
who said that.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
So anyway, all right, I.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
Say a lot of things. I'll wear it. Dan, I've
never said anything.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
No, Ian is not absolutely even when he started Kyler
Murray and his bye week in our Guillotine League, he
still had.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
The perfect answer on the comeback.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
So anyway, still survived.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Dan, Yes, he's still alive.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
Now.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
I want to see the lineup of that got cut
as the guy who's been out for a.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
Co Big Mike's ballers got cut?
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Really yeah, yes, but not talking so loud this year, huh.
I might have to send him a note now an
interested observer Bill in Kansas City.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Good, good callback it is. I want your flex. He'z
Mike Carmon. That's Ian Roddy. I'm Dan Bayer.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
What's wrong with the San Francisco forty nine ers and
what's missing in the NFL that's next year and I
want your flex? Welcome back to I want your flex
before we get to what's missing in the league. He's
Mike Carmen, I'm Dan Byer. Ian Roddy's our executive producer.
We do want to talk a little bit about the
forty nine Ers, many people still waiting for them to
(15:06):
turn it around. Didn't have George Kittle against the Seahawks.
He's expected to try to battle and play in Week
twelve against Green Bay, but now brock Perty's got a
shoulder issue. He's day to day. Christian McCaffrey did have
almost eighty yards rushing against the Seahawks, but not the
Christian McCaffrey that people would expect, and not the offense
(15:28):
that people would expect with the San Francisco forty nine ers.
Where are you on the Niners and their offensive weapons
when it comes to fantasy football?
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Mind stuff?
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Rud right now, Dan, I mean, obviously McCaffrey when he plays,
we get our expectation that we're in those mid teens
or higher for touches. So you're gonna play him and
you're gonna wish. Oh, but you know, the ceiling obviously
crashed far down from where.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
We are seeing.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
It all comes back to that damn Dallas stadium. The
you know when we draft him first, second, or third overall,
depending on settings or fear of a breakdown, that it's
now the all right, I need eighty to one hundred
total yards, and I hope for a touchdown, and if
I'm in the PPR league, I'm going to assume he's
(16:15):
getting five to seven targets. How many catches out of there,
I don't know, but that ceiling is much lower, and
I'll be surprised. As for everybody else, the only other
guy that really on a week to week basis you've
been able to count on is Kittle, And I hang
a star on Juwan Jennings for a second, but Kittle
went healthy and available still rates among your top tight
(16:40):
ends not named Taysom Hill. See what they did there.
We got Taysom Hill into the discussion. But I mean
Deebo Samuel's got thirty three catches, Jennings eight games, forty two,
some big plays all over the field. And that was
the one thing you got to see on Sunday a
little against the Seahawks, is you know that you can
(17:01):
work him in the red zone, make a big play
down field. He sticks the landing on the Hey, let's
move those chains. So a guy who I've become more
and more impressed with, but Brandon Ayux an afterthought. When
he does play right, he's basically running windsprints at this point. Yeah,
that'll get back to him and I don't want to
come and get me. But you know, all of that
(17:23):
to say, none of those guys are automatic starters right now.
I guess Jennings is a back end too. But otherwise
I'm doing a lot of wishing and hoping. And you
look at rock Party completing about two thirds of his
past attempts to sixty one a week, but only thirteen
touchdowns in ten games. That's not getting it done. Yeah,
(17:44):
he's got four rushing touchdowns that help save it. But
as you mentioned now, he's banged up. So how much
of my trust in him? At least, you know, the
next week or two, you've got a big game against Green.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
Bay and guess what they get after you?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Right.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
I mean we've used them in terms of looking at
streaming D's a number of times. Here's another spot. If
he's banged up, you know it's you know he's feast
because he's putting balls up in harm's way.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
There's just there's something that's off with them. The explosive
games that they've had, they've not been there. They looked
good against Ian's Jets in the opener, put some points
up against the Patriots, and then on Thursday night against
the Seahawks. They had a game and when they ran
the ball really well because the Seahawks just had an
(18:33):
awful night stopping the run. He had the big Grendo
run at the end of the game, which inflated some
of the stats. But they really have just been, I
don't want to say an average team, but that's what
they feel like they are. Yeah, so that's and Deebo's
Deebo's tricks a couple of years ago when he was
(18:54):
the MVP. Like, those big plays aren't there right now.
I don't know why they don't you Jordan Mason more right,
I just it's just it almost seems like it's arrogance.
And I know, like maybe Kyle Shannon is saying, Christian
McCaffrey's our best option. He's fully healthy, let's get him
the football. But you know, he hadn't played for the
(19:16):
first half of the season. At least there was some
continuity with Jordan Mason, and he's been persona on grata.
I mean, he's not not getting any attempts, which is
just it doesn't make a lot of sense to.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Me that you would do that.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I get the value of McCaffrey but now the value
of McCaffrey to you as the team is really in
the playoffs. So why don't you just have him carry
the ball twelve times a game and give Mason eight carries?
Speaker 1 (19:39):
They're just, yeah, something seems off.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Rock Perty maybe tried to do more with his legs now,
and now that he's dinged up, I'm not sure how
that's gonna happen. But yeah, to say the forty nine
ers is mediocre or our mediocre as fantasy options, I
think that's where we are right now.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Mason had a run of at least twenty two yards
in six different style arts, average five point one yards
per carry. Going back to the earlier conversation about Eva Flus,
the Bears and everything else, if I've got an expected
value creeping towards upper four yards per carry, boy, that
makes life much easier for brock Purty on second and
(20:18):
third down, now, wasn't it? And go on down the line,
and they finally got Trent Williams back this week, who
made mediocre offensive lineman better. Sure, right, it's just the
way you know they bring the star back. It lifts
the boats a little bit. But all of that to
say for fantasy purposes tough sledding right now to really
(20:40):
trust anybody unless you're looking at flexworthy plays or in
this case, you got six teams on buy in week twelve.
We'll do it again in week fourteen. We'll find guys
back into the line up there. But otherwise the trust
effect is gone. The thing that may help you offensively though,
is if Bosa does miss time with the oblique, maybe
the defense is a little more deflated, which means you've
(21:03):
got to get in some shootouts, but that remains to
be seen.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
The other point they're with that defense, Mike, with the
forty nine ers defense that used to get you off
the field or forced turnovers. You don't have that anymore.
And it's just as well. So now the Seahawks really
can't run the football. They have a bad offensive line.
It's not working right now, and the forty nine Ers
(21:29):
took care of their time of possession. But the forty
nine ers inabilities on defense also allow teams to stick around.
And you know how bad they've been in the second
half is music to the ears of many, and I
think it's just an all around step down from their
play that are the reason why.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
They're losing games. And they're losing like.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
This, and why maybe their guys aren't, you know, developing
in the fantasy world.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Like these stadium roof at at and t trying to
close it that championship window.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Let's close this podcast with some numbers that you wanted
to pass along and dive into what is missing in
the NFL in twenty twenty.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Four, just kind of the curiosity right as you're going
week to week and you're looking at big performances, right,
some of it for the scorecard, but trying to figure
out some angles and correlations or causations or excuses as
it were. And we've celebrated the return of the running back, right,
we had twelve hundred yard rushers in Week eleven of
(22:32):
the NFL season. So that's all exciting. But I on
the other side, in a league where we've talked about
offense so much and the rules are changing and all
of these grandiose performances, it's like, where are the three
hundred yard games this year?
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Right?
Speaker 4 (22:48):
We look at the grid of the games just passed,
and yes, Cooper Rush gets credit for one, so good
for him. But on the year to this point in
the season, there are three players who've had four three
hundred yard games. Joe Burrow because the defense stinks and
(23:10):
he's chasing a week and week Baker Mayfield secondary got
hurt early on they were cruising, but then now their
secondary gets hurt and defensively they're not the same. So
again chasing a bit, your guy Geno Smith. You talk
about the run game, et cetera, and defense.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
The defense stinks. Notice a pattern here.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
So those three are the guys with four, and then
you got Jared Goff's got three. Looking at the same time.
Last year, coming through week eleven, Rock Perdy had his third,
to a Tongue of Biloa had his fifth.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
CJ.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Stroud already had his fifth in week ten of last year,
you had seven different quarterbacks with three hundred yard games.
We had we had a week earlier. This year it
was Gino Smith in week nine. He was the only
guy that had one. Not often do you see you know,
outliers like that. Yeah, going back to last year, it's
(24:08):
like six here, seven there for the season. If you
go all the way down to you know, week seven,
Week seventeen, Week eighteen, you've got a number of quarterbacks
at five or Dak Prescott, Matthew Stafford got all the
you know, we're creeping towards five and six at the
end of the year. You've mentioned Joe Flacco winging and
around for good and for bad. Right, the positive that
(24:32):
he had the yardage was there, he turned the ball
over a ton whatever. But you know we saw more
in the past game and this year it's it's waned
a little bit. And so you know when we have
our fantasy you know scale, when we jump on to
something right zero running back strategies, Hey, I need all
(24:53):
my wide receivers.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
Whatever.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Yardage is something where we're lacking a little bit, you know,
in that trickled down effect as we get to balance
with those running games again.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Not only is it the names, Dak would be one,
as you mentioned his name. Obviously, the Cowboys have their deficiencies.
Let's be honest. The Chiefs aren't the same. They aren't
playing the same. They're actually a defensive team that we've
talked about now and you're not seeing Patrick Mahomes throw
the football. Josh Allen doesn't have Stefan Diggs or Gabe
Davis anymore. They've obviously drastically changed. I think that those
(25:28):
are some of the reasons that we've seen a little
bit less because some of those common names aren't there
to a digged up you know another name that you mentioned.
But still when he's been back, even this past week.
I don't know if it's the two safeties that are
keeping Tyreek Hill in check or what the deal is,
but it's been a lot of eight chan and whatnot
(25:48):
out of the backfield.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
There hasn't been a lot of Hill and waddle. So yeah,
it is.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
It is when you sit back and you look at
the numbers, because I think that the running backs have
had more of an effect on the season, and so
maybe that plays into it.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I have won well, okay.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
The fact that maybe we're changing philosophically, not only to
the run, but the fact that everybody's super toe because
they were put it out yeah kickers and the fifty
yard field goals. That maybe we're changing a little bit
of how we're playing. And again you'd have to go
to each of the thirty two coaches and their coordinators
to talk about it. Is that maybe we're changing up
(26:29):
how the offenses are called to make sure we get
the three out of a possession instead of putting it
at harm's way, throwing it away and then having to punt.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
I would in the counter to that because I had wondered, again,
what has changed, because I feel like we're going for
it more on fourth down? Sure, you know, like where
there's maybe more opportunities and when you are going for
it on fourth down, because we're not talking about fourth
and a half in and we're talking about fourth and four,
fourth and three, that maybe there'd be more opportunities to
(27:01):
you know, to score that way. But yeah, it is,
It is, you know, an interesting I don't know if
it's the parody of the NFL even, but I just
look at the names that we are accustomed to. Matthew
Stafford would be a name when they didn't have Pookinakua
for half the season. Cooper Cup was out for a while,
So you're not going to have it with the Rams,
(27:23):
even Gino Smith with his four DK Metcalf missed some time.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
And I think.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
There's a lot of maybe a lot of different reasons,
but I would wouldn't even be able to put my
thumb on which one.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Well, you know, it's fun.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
It's just a quick look and you know from our
AI overlords on a search in twenty twenty three, teams
attempted seven hundred and thirty.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
Six fourth downs.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Okay, say that again.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
It says the number of times NFL teams go for
it on fourth down go from nineteen ninety two where
it was three hundred and ninety nine times, okay, to
seven out of thirty six last year.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yeah, double dar jeez. Yeah, that's I think it's I
think it's the importance of the mobility of the quarterback
as well.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
That that's a part of it, where you can get
yards with your legs. If you know, there's just being
a dropback passer in the National Football League is I
don't know. I just I think that it's starting to
become a thing of the past.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
You have your Joe Burrows, you know that that can
do it. And even Joe Burrows showed that he can
run a little bit. But justin Herbert's been running more
this year in the way that they've done it. We
know Josh Allen, you know Jalen Hurts obviously, I mean
go back to the fantasy like you know, people now
(28:56):
saying Hurts is taking away from Saquan's MVP candidacy because
of the Tush push but yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
There's just yeah, there's I don't know. Yeah, it's it's
it's very very interesting.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
Look, with the Saquan MVP thing, it's like gent and
the Heisman. He ain't winning it. Sure, it's a quarterback award,
whether you like it or not. I here's your mop.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
I I would agree with you, except for the fact
that just don't know who is going to stand out.
And I wanted to give Derrick Henry the m v
P before I wanted to give Lamar.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
The m v P this year. Right, No, I agree
with you, so but but.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
Yeah, right on our board that we studio.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
I had, I said, I'm gonna pick Joe Burrow till
his playing career ends because he's got to win one,
at least one. And I'll tell you what, the way
that he's playing with that four win Bengals team, they
would have zero wins if it was out.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Could he be Jerry West or Andre Dawson of the
eighty seven Cubs?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Yeah, yeah, your team.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Stinks, but damn it, look at what you did.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Wh was it Chuck Howley who won an MVY Super
Bowl MVP on the losing team?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I can't remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but Uh.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Yeah, there you go, six time Pro bowler, only Super
Bowl MVP from a losing team.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, there it is. But there's my there's my Joe
Burrow push. But I think you're right with the Josh
Allen right now. I think it is his to lose,
all right. Any final words.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
For eat anything you gotta get off your chest. Is
a Jets fan or just life in general.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
It's all for me, fellas. Just yeah, as a Jets fan,
things are bad right now. So just looking forward to
the end of the season.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
In that regard, just end the season j E. T s.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
That is what it stands for.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah, oh man, that's.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
My season, just and the suffering. Yeah you want to
use it all works, that's brilliant.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
All right. So for Ian Roddy and Mike Carmon, I'm
Dan Byer.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
We'll come back at you with a brand new episode
on Friday, given you all the rankings and info you
need to know four week twelve.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Until then, be well, we'll talk to you next time.
Here on. I want your flex
Ladies and Jules.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
You want experience during your football season, We'll buckle.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Up, sweet cheeks. That's all.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
We've got, all the experience in the world. This is
I want your flex with Dan Bayer and Mike Harmon.
Mike and Dan break down everything you need to set
your lineups, from position rankings to starts and sits. The
guys help you make those hard decisions. And now let's
catch your flex onde. Here's Dan Bayer and Mike Harmon.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
All right, it's Week twelve of the NFL season.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
The six buys on your schedule or something that got
it under our skin. But instead of looking ahead to
the matchups Michael Levis rankings in our next episode and
hot plays and whatnot, we talk about the bigger issues
surrounding the National Football League. We'll dive into something that's
been missing this year. Plus we have some forty nine
(00:55):
ers talk to get to. But we have to start
out with Mike Chicago Bears. Now that some time has
kind of gone past, Mike from the loss on Sunday,
where do you stand with your beloved hometown team.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
Well, frustration mounted expectations are always a dangerous thing, and
I think I was real about it and looking at
the division that it was going to be a tough
climb and that you know, Minnesota was going to be
better than they were given credit for, and they have
been a good balance. It's not going to be sexy
(01:28):
and pretty, and yes, Sam Darnold, some folks still have
a distaste. Like last episode when we were talking about
with Gino Smith, some folks just can't let some of
the past get away from them. But with the Bears,
at least in the game against Green Bay, you saw
a semblance of an offense that had a direction and purpose,
whether it stemmed from Caleb Williams, as Jay Galaizer reported
(01:50):
on our Fox NFL Sunday, getting in front of the
squad and saying, hey, some of this is on me,
whether it's film review or just taking a long walk
on the beach, recognizing because there are our beaches in
Chicago that you can go walk along the lake front
there and figure out, hey, I need to be better
here here here. DJ Moore has been so everybody's been salty,
(02:11):
everybody's calling out coaches. The Eberflus thing is something that
won't go away, because here's another game that was a
potential win that by coaching scared.
Speaker 5 (02:22):
Yeah, coaching scared.
Speaker 4 (02:24):
That's the thing that bugs me about it, and that
it was backed up by so many luminaries that wanted
to wag their fingers at us, from Kurt Warner on down.
It's like, all right, if I'm coaching because of and
I make a decision off of what seems to be
a fairly elemental play that here's all the stuff that
go wrong, I should just walk away, right if I
(02:47):
need what's my best play for a three yard sure game.
Speaker 5 (02:50):
We don't have one of those for a four yard
like that.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
That's essentially what he said an offense that it operated
efficiently all day. Look, Cale Williams still has lots of
room to grow. We've talked about this ad nauseum for weeks.
I don't think he's as far off as some do.
I don't think he's as accomplished and ready to go
somewhere in the between. We've got to figure out. Oh yeah,
Ryan Poles and company, figure out the guts of your squad.
Speaker 5 (03:16):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
One of the things that happened this week, guys, is
they cut an alignment who they signed to a three year,
thirty million dollars deal before this season. How many people
do you think argued about that on national radio?
Speaker 5 (03:28):
This guy, that's it.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
You cut a guy you gave ten million dollars a
year in week eleven of a season, and it wasn't
afterte like, you don't think that's part of the overriding.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
Problems of what you're having. But you know to say it.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
You know, Williams goes twenty three to thirty one. They
move the ball and you can pick a you know,
different drives and just say he hit this mark, He
hit this mark, he ran for seventy yards. Right, was
more we're confident of saying all right, I'm gonna go,
as opposed to continuing to dance and then eventually taking
a sack, as we've saw him do as recently as
(04:09):
last week against the Patriots. Right, instead of just saying
all right, nothing's here, go, trying to go through whatever,
all the criticism. I could just hear the talking heads
in his voice. He holds the ball too long, he
tries to be hero ball. He does all of that
stuff paralyzed by the analysis like the here's the second
(04:30):
game this year that Eberflus took away that could have
been won. You go back to Washington not to relitigate it,
like telling me that that fifteen yard pass play didn't matter.
Might be the dump that was fireable in the moment. Yeah,
like he should have He shouldn't have said another word
on a microphone. That should have been the end of you.
When you saw a guy in Jaden Daniels who was
(04:52):
having trouble throwing a ball down field because of the
sore ribs. And even on that final hail, Mary didn't
get the ball to the end zone. It took a
perfect tip of what seven yards in the air into
the end zone for Brown to catch it. This time
you got a forty six yarder. And now everybody's saying, well,
there was the obvious you know, issues and deficiencies, and
(05:14):
yes we're going to file a complaint with the league
for what happened to our long snapper.
Speaker 5 (05:18):
Get the hell out of here.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Makes it worse, right, like all of.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
This stuff to say you have you don't have a
play in your bag. This guy's called a great game.
Brown had called a great game that you didn't trust him.
This guy you elevated to go get you four yards
or five yards to make it an easier kick with
a better trajectory and easier run up and leave it
(05:44):
to chance with time on the clock and a timeout
in your pocket. Now, we've seen it too many times
with this guy, and that's multiple times that he leaves
the field with timeouts. Yes, that that could have been
used for for good.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
See I got my wicked deadline in for the week.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Well, that's the other part of it.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
And I think that your callback to the commander's game
is so important because of just giving that play up.
I had, as a non Bears fan, had the same
emotions as so many people did about settling for the
field goal and your point about Kurt Warner and saying, well,
what about if they lost two yards and blah blah blah.
(06:26):
It's not even necessarily that, Mike. The The problem that
I really also had with all this or was another
layer of that shows you, like Matt Eberflus and the
Bears told on themselves, was when they were working the
clock that they just ended up calling the timeout with
(06:47):
three seconds left or four seconds left, because you had
thirty seconds. You could have just spiked it at that time. Yeah,
ran your field goal unit on and then you still
have the timeout because the timeout is there and I've
seen other teams do this. I've actually never seen it
in play, but I've heard many a broadcaster, many an
(07:08):
analyst say, if you have a bad snap, or if
something happens, at least you have the timeout, or if
you like, kick it on second down so if something
goes wrong, you can kick it again. And I thought
the holder who's at Taylor, the punter that was holding,
(07:28):
didn't get it right away, like there was a pause
or a bit of a bobble, which I think through
some of the timing off. But that's the scenario where
if you had a timeout, he could have just ate
the ball and called time out at that point and
then you're still kicking again. But I think it threw
some of the timing off. But just the fact that
they didn't line up and spike the football, they just
(07:49):
waited for it to run down and call the timeout
and use their final timeout when they they didn't necessarily
had to. It was like, Okay, maybe they're playing checkers
and other people are playing chess.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
I just thought they kind of on themselves in that scenario.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Yeah, it's just another great example. Like I called it
loser ball, and I'll keep going it loser ball, Like,
if you're your whole thing is what's the expected value
of a run forward? That that's really what we that's
all this comes down to, right down distance. We want
to go into analytics and whatever. It's the expected value
(08:24):
is not negative to or a fumble lost. Yeah, on
a basic run play with Roshan Johnson behind an offensive line,
guess what they'd rather run block than be dancing Bears
in pass coverage. Sure, and yes we're actually talking about
the Bears, so that's kind of funny, but legitimately, push forward,
give me one play. I need one play from you
(08:46):
to get three yards and to set it up for
this guy on the right hash mark on the right
spot whatever. And you're gutless, and you're absolutely gutless about it.
And then your post game explanation followed by the following
day's media stuff is all doubling down on a negative expectation, saying, well,
(09:07):
they're probably gonna be better than us on that play.
Speaker 5 (09:11):
How dare you like that?
Speaker 4 (09:13):
It just defends my And that's not if I do
this friandy coach that went up and said that kind
of thing, right, It just defends my sensibility as a
guy who's watched football. You do the Red Zone radio
work with Carrie Rhodes on Sunday. I mean you you
love the game as much as I do, no matter
who the coach is. They go up and talk like
(09:35):
that about a situation where winning is in the offing
by executing one play, and you're basically saying my team's
not good enough to do it.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Come on, yeah, it's awful. Look awful. Look.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
I wish I was in the NFL office as the
complaint came in, like, hey, Rock, did you get at this?
Speaker 1 (09:56):
And the Bears.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Send an the customary rubber stamped letter on the shiny stationary.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
The apparently the Bears want us to change the outcome
because their center got hit, the long snapper got hit. Yeah,
I just such a bad look. And by the way,
it all comes back to hard knocks too. Where wasn't
it all about looks? You know, Maddi Eberflus and the
beard and the you know, the new look Bears.
Speaker 4 (10:30):
He talked about it then, yeah, talk about it now.
Those were the big big takeaways. DJ Moore got paid
a lot of money. They went to some ice cream
place that they shoved everybody else out of the ice
cream museum for he and his family to walk around.
Speaker 5 (10:44):
Yeah, the great moment.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
And then Matt Eberfleus, you know, taking his wife's advice
to look the part and look better on camera.
Speaker 5 (10:53):
That's it. Those were your takeaways from Hard Knocks.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
By the way, with the Giants and Bears seasons, the
way they're turning out, no one is going to want
to do Hard Knocks next year.
Speaker 5 (11:01):
Well, they're going to argue, this is why we never
want to do Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah, I actually feel bad.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
That's It's why I support Joe Shane and the Giants
so much, because I thought I hated the idea at first,
and then I just I absolutely fell in love with
the show because of how it played out.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
But that's why I will defend him.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Like their problem was giving Daniel Jones the contract and
then they had to live with it. So the off
season that we saw play out, they made the decision
they had to make. The Giants are on a playoff
team with Saquon Barkley wouldn't have an offensive line.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
It just it wouldn't. It wouldn't happens.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Getting hurt certainly doesn't help, no, but yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
And so they tried to address it in certain ways.
They you know, got Malik Neighbors to play maker they
wanted and and if you if you drafted Jayden Daniels, Uh,
you know, he's not having the success that he's having
with the Giants that he's having with the Commanders. So
I think all of those things are fair, fair comments
to say. But Joe incomes under heavy criticism because he
(12:03):
lets in the Giants, let people in, you know, behind
closed doors, and now I think it's going to taint
their reputation, which is too bad.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, really is.
Speaker 4 (12:13):
In the end, it's you know, his son comes off
as a better GM is what people are going to
take from.
Speaker 5 (12:19):
It as well.
Speaker 4 (12:21):
But yeah, I mean the Jones contract, you wanted stability, right,
you looked around and said, all right, he's shown us
a little bit. Another year with Dable, I guess what,
it didn't work out the gate and then he gets
hurt with a pretty severe injury, right, Like that's the
thing to being lost in this was he didn't go
down with a twisted ankle last year. Sure like he
(12:42):
battled back from something. And it's not to excuse it, right,
he's not good. I mean, there's just no way to
cut through it, but yeah, it hamstrung every other decision.
And you know, we joked about it a little bit,
and we have dan, you and I in the past,
Like go back to the twenty eighteen draft. They take
him number two overall. Quarterback that got drafted to the
first round with the exception of Rosen is still playing
(13:04):
and playing really well.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Yeah, it's I mean, jeez, what can you do? Even
Sam Donald turned his career around.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Well, you just need to get the Jet stink off.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Sorry man, all right, both for he and Gino took
a couple of stops in a lot of years, and
here we are.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Well, the argument then was, and I remember and there
was a long time NFL writer who does a really
good job in talking about that and said, you're gonna
have Saquon Barkley for a max of eight years, while
the Jets are going to have Sam Donald for twice
that much. And that's why the Giants made the wrong
decision in taking Saquon Barkley. Hindsight is twenty twenty with everything.
(13:43):
But I do remember that being said. So we'll not
say the name of the reporter. I will keep that
off the record. Hey, we've all made our stupid comments,
so I don't want to hold it to the person
who said that.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
So anyway, all right, I.
Speaker 5 (13:59):
Say a lot of things. I'll wear it. Dan, I've
never said anything.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
No, Ian is not absolutely even when he started Kyler
Murray and his bye week in our Guillotine League, he
still had.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
The perfect answer on the comeback.
Speaker 5 (14:12):
So anyway, still survived.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Dan, Yes, he's still alive.
Speaker 5 (14:18):
Now.
Speaker 4 (14:18):
I want to see the lineup of that got cut
as the guy who's been out for a.
Speaker 5 (14:21):
Co Big Mike's ballers got cut?
Speaker 4 (14:24):
Really yeah, yes, but not talking so loud this year, huh.
I might have to send him a note now an
interested observer Bill in Kansas City.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Good, good callback it is. I want your flex. He'z
Mike Carmon. That's Ian Roddy. I'm Dan Bayer.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
What's wrong with the San Francisco forty nine ers and
what's missing in the NFL that's next year and I
want your flex? Welcome back to I want your flex
before we get to what's missing in the league. He's
Mike Carmen, I'm Dan Byer. Ian Roddy's our executive producer.
We do want to talk a little bit about the
forty nine Ers, many people still waiting for them to
(15:06):
turn it around. Didn't have George Kittle against the Seahawks.
He's expected to try to battle and play in Week
twelve against Green Bay, but now brock Perty's got a
shoulder issue. He's day to day. Christian McCaffrey did have
almost eighty yards rushing against the Seahawks, but not the
Christian McCaffrey that people would expect, and not the offense
(15:28):
that people would expect with the San Francisco forty nine ers.
Where are you on the Niners and their offensive weapons
when it comes to fantasy football?
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Mind stuff?
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Rud right now, Dan, I mean, obviously McCaffrey when he plays,
we get our expectation that we're in those mid teens
or higher for touches. So you're gonna play him and
you're gonna wish. Oh, but you know, the ceiling obviously
crashed far down from where.
Speaker 5 (15:53):
We are seeing.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
It all comes back to that damn Dallas stadium. The
you know when we draft him first, second, or third overall,
depending on settings or fear of a breakdown, that it's
now the all right, I need eighty to one hundred
total yards, and I hope for a touchdown, and if
I'm in the PPR league, I'm going to assume he's
(16:15):
getting five to seven targets. How many catches out of there,
I don't know, but that ceiling is much lower, and
I'll be surprised. As for everybody else, the only other
guy that really on a week to week basis you've
been able to count on is Kittle, And I hang
a star on Juwan Jennings for a second, but Kittle
went healthy and available still rates among your top tight
(16:40):
ends not named Taysom Hill. See what they did there.
We got Taysom Hill into the discussion. But I mean
Deebo Samuel's got thirty three catches, Jennings eight games, forty two,
some big plays all over the field. And that was
the one thing you got to see on Sunday a
little against the Seahawks, is you know that you can
(17:01):
work him in the red zone, make a big play
down field. He sticks the landing on the Hey, let's
move those chains. So a guy who I've become more
and more impressed with, but Brandon Ayux an afterthought. When
he does play right, he's basically running windsprints at this point. Yeah,
that'll get back to him and I don't want to
come and get me. But you know, all of that
(17:23):
to say, none of those guys are automatic starters right now.
I guess Jennings is a back end too. But otherwise
I'm doing a lot of wishing and hoping. And you
look at rock Party completing about two thirds of his
past attempts to sixty one a week, but only thirteen
touchdowns in ten games. That's not getting it done. Yeah,
(17:44):
he's got four rushing touchdowns that help save it. But
as you mentioned now, he's banged up. So how much
of my trust in him? At least, you know, the
next week or two, you've got a big game against Green.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
Bay and guess what they get after you?
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Right.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
I mean we've used them in terms of looking at
streaming D's a number of times. Here's another spot. If
he's banged up, you know it's you know he's feast
because he's putting balls up in harm's way.
Speaker 3 (18:13):
There's just there's something that's off with them. The explosive
games that they've had, they've not been there. They looked
good against Ian's Jets in the opener, put some points
up against the Patriots, and then on Thursday night against
the Seahawks. They had a game and when they ran
the ball really well because the Seahawks just had an
(18:33):
awful night stopping the run. He had the big Grendo
run at the end of the game, which inflated some
of the stats. But they really have just been, I
don't want to say an average team, but that's what
they feel like they are. Yeah, so that's and Deebo's
Deebo's tricks a couple of years ago when he was
(18:54):
the MVP. Like, those big plays aren't there right now.
I don't know why they don't you Jordan Mason more right,
I just it's just it almost seems like it's arrogance.
And I know, like maybe Kyle Shannon is saying, Christian
McCaffrey's our best option. He's fully healthy, let's get him
the football. But you know, he hadn't played for the
(19:16):
first half of the season. At least there was some
continuity with Jordan Mason, and he's been persona on grata.
I mean, he's not not getting any attempts, which is
just it doesn't make a lot of sense to.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
Me that you would do that.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I get the value of McCaffrey but now the value
of McCaffrey to you as the team is really in
the playoffs. So why don't you just have him carry
the ball twelve times a game and give Mason eight carries?
Speaker 1 (19:39):
They're just, yeah, something seems off.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Rock Perty maybe tried to do more with his legs now,
and now that he's dinged up, I'm not sure how
that's gonna happen. But yeah, to say the forty nine
ers is mediocre or our mediocre as fantasy options, I
think that's where we are right now.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Mason had a run of at least twenty two yards
in six different style arts, average five point one yards
per carry. Going back to the earlier conversation about Eva Flus,
the Bears and everything else, if I've got an expected
value creeping towards upper four yards per carry, boy, that
makes life much easier for brock Purty on second and
(20:18):
third down, now, wasn't it? And go on down the line,
and they finally got Trent Williams back this week, who
made mediocre offensive lineman better. Sure, right, it's just the
way you know they bring the star back. It lifts
the boats a little bit. But all of that to
say for fantasy purposes tough sledding right now to really
(20:40):
trust anybody unless you're looking at flexworthy plays or in
this case, you got six teams on buy in week twelve.
We'll do it again in week fourteen. We'll find guys
back into the line up there. But otherwise the trust
effect is gone. The thing that may help you offensively though,
is if Bosa does miss time with the oblique, maybe
the defense is a little more deflated, which means you've
(21:03):
got to get in some shootouts, but that remains to
be seen.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
The other point they're with that defense, Mike, with the
forty nine ers defense that used to get you off
the field or forced turnovers. You don't have that anymore.
And it's just as well. So now the Seahawks really
can't run the football. They have a bad offensive line.
It's not working right now, and the forty nine Ers
(21:29):
took care of their time of possession. But the forty
nine ers inabilities on defense also allow teams to stick around.
And you know how bad they've been in the second
half is music to the ears of many, and I
think it's just an all around step down from their
play that are the reason why.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
They're losing games. And they're losing like.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
This, and why maybe their guys aren't, you know, developing
in the fantasy world.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Like these stadium roof at at and t trying to
close it that championship window.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
Let's close this podcast with some numbers that you wanted
to pass along and dive into what is missing in
the NFL in twenty twenty.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
Four, just kind of the curiosity right as you're going
week to week and you're looking at big performances, right,
some of it for the scorecard, but trying to figure
out some angles and correlations or causations or excuses as
it were. And we've celebrated the return of the running back, right,
we had twelve hundred yard rushers in Week eleven of
(22:32):
the NFL season. So that's all exciting. But I on
the other side, in a league where we've talked about
offense so much and the rules are changing and all
of these grandiose performances, it's like, where are the three
hundred yard games this year?
Speaker 5 (22:48):
Right?
Speaker 4 (22:48):
We look at the grid of the games just passed,
and yes, Cooper Rush gets credit for one, so good
for him. But on the year to this point in
the season, there are three players who've had four three
hundred yard games. Joe Burrow because the defense stinks and
(23:10):
he's chasing a week and week Baker Mayfield secondary got
hurt early on they were cruising, but then now their
secondary gets hurt and defensively they're not the same. So
again chasing a bit, your guy Geno Smith. You talk
about the run game, et cetera, and defense.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
The defense stinks. Notice a pattern here.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
So those three are the guys with four, and then
you got Jared Goff's got three. Looking at the same time.
Last year, coming through week eleven, Rock Perdy had his third,
to a Tongue of Biloa had his fifth.
Speaker 5 (23:47):
CJ.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
Stroud already had his fifth in week ten of last year,
you had seven different quarterbacks with three hundred yard games.
We had we had a week earlier. This year it
was Gino Smith in week nine. He was the only
guy that had one. Not often do you see you know,
outliers like that. Yeah, going back to last year, it's
(24:08):
like six here, seven there for the season. If you
go all the way down to you know, week seven,
Week seventeen, Week eighteen, you've got a number of quarterbacks
at five or Dak Prescott, Matthew Stafford got all the
you know, we're creeping towards five and six at the
end of the year. You've mentioned Joe Flacco winging and
around for good and for bad. Right, the positive that
(24:32):
he had the yardage was there, he turned the ball
over a ton whatever. But you know we saw more
in the past game and this year it's it's waned
a little bit. And so you know when we have
our fantasy you know scale, when we jump on to
something right zero running back strategies, Hey, I need all
(24:53):
my wide receivers.
Speaker 5 (24:55):
Whatever.
Speaker 4 (24:56):
Yardage is something where we're lacking a little bit, you know,
in that trickled down effect as we get to balance
with those running games again.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Not only is it the names, Dak would be one,
as you mentioned his name. Obviously, the Cowboys have their deficiencies.
Let's be honest. The Chiefs aren't the same. They aren't
playing the same. They're actually a defensive team that we've
talked about now and you're not seeing Patrick Mahomes throw
the football. Josh Allen doesn't have Stefan Diggs or Gabe
Davis anymore. They've obviously drastically changed. I think that those
(25:28):
are some of the reasons that we've seen a little
bit less because some of those common names aren't there
to a digged up you know another name that you mentioned.
But still when he's been back, even this past week.
I don't know if it's the two safeties that are
keeping Tyreek Hill in check or what the deal is,
but it's been a lot of eight chan and whatnot
(25:48):
out of the backfield.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
There hasn't been a lot of Hill and waddle. So yeah,
it is.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
It is when you sit back and you look at
the numbers, because I think that the running backs have
had more of an effect on the season, and so
maybe that plays into it.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
I have won well, okay.
Speaker 4 (26:07):
The fact that maybe we're changing philosophically, not only to
the run, but the fact that everybody's super toe because
they were put it out yeah kickers and the fifty
yard field goals. That maybe we're changing a little bit
of how we're playing. And again you'd have to go
to each of the thirty two coaches and their coordinators
to talk about it. Is that maybe we're changing up
(26:29):
how the offenses are called to make sure we get
the three out of a possession instead of putting it
at harm's way, throwing it away and then having to punt.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
I would in the counter to that because I had wondered, again,
what has changed, because I feel like we're going for
it more on fourth down? Sure, you know, like where
there's maybe more opportunities and when you are going for
it on fourth down, because we're not talking about fourth
and a half in and we're talking about fourth and four,
fourth and three, that maybe there'd be more opportunities to
(27:01):
you know, to score that way. But yeah, it is,
It is, you know, an interesting I don't know if
it's the parody of the NFL even, but I just
look at the names that we are accustomed to. Matthew
Stafford would be a name when they didn't have Pookinakua
for half the season. Cooper Cup was out for a while,
So you're not going to have it with the Rams,
(27:23):
even Gino Smith with his four DK Metcalf missed some time.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
And I think.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
There's a lot of maybe a lot of different reasons,
but I would wouldn't even be able to put my
thumb on which one.
Speaker 5 (27:34):
Well, you know, it's fun.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
It's just a quick look and you know from our
AI overlords on a search in twenty twenty three, teams
attempted seven hundred and thirty.
Speaker 5 (27:45):
Six fourth downs.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Okay, say that again.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
It says the number of times NFL teams go for
it on fourth down go from nineteen ninety two where
it was three hundred and ninety nine times, okay, to
seven out of thirty six last year.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yeah, double dar jeez. Yeah, that's I think it's I
think it's the importance of the mobility of the quarterback
as well.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, I think.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
That that's a part of it, where you can get
yards with your legs. If you know, there's just being
a dropback passer in the National Football League is I
don't know. I just I think that it's starting to
become a thing of the past.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
You have your Joe Burrows, you know that that can
do it. And even Joe Burrows showed that he can
run a little bit. But justin Herbert's been running more
this year in the way that they've done it. We
know Josh Allen, you know Jalen Hurts obviously, I mean
go back to the fantasy like you know, people now
(28:56):
saying Hurts is taking away from Saquan's MVP candidacy because
of the Tush push but yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
There's just yeah, there's I don't know. Yeah, it's it's
it's very very interesting.
Speaker 5 (29:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
Look, with the Saquan MVP thing, it's like gent and
the Heisman. He ain't winning it. Sure, it's a quarterback award,
whether you like it or not. I here's your mop.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
I I would agree with you, except for the fact
that just don't know who is going to stand out.
And I wanted to give Derrick Henry the m v
P before I wanted to give Lamar.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
The m v P this year. Right, No, I agree
with you, so but but.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
Yeah, right on our board that we studio.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
I had, I said, I'm gonna pick Joe Burrow till
his playing career ends because he's got to win one,
at least one. And I'll tell you what, the way
that he's playing with that four win Bengals team, they
would have zero wins if it was out.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Could he be Jerry West or Andre Dawson of the
eighty seven Cubs?
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Yeah, yeah, your team.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Stinks, but damn it, look at what you did.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Wh was it Chuck Howley who won an MVY Super
Bowl MVP on the losing team?
Speaker 1 (30:05):
I can't remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but Uh.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Yeah, there you go, six time Pro bowler, only Super
Bowl MVP from a losing team.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah, there it is. But there's my there's my Joe
Burrow push. But I think you're right with the Josh
Allen right now. I think it is his to lose,
all right. Any final words.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
For eat anything you gotta get off your chest. Is
a Jets fan or just life in general.
Speaker 5 (30:29):
It's all for me, fellas. Just yeah, as a Jets fan,
things are bad right now. So just looking forward to
the end of the season.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
In that regard, just end the season j E. T s.
Speaker 5 (30:39):
That is what it stands for.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Yeah, oh man, that's.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
My season, just and the suffering. Yeah you want to
use it all works, that's brilliant.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
All right. So for Ian Roddy and Mike Carmon, I'm
Dan Byer.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
We'll come back at you with a brand new episode
on Friday, given you all the rankings and info you
need to know four week twelve.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
Until then, be well, we'll talk to you next time.
Here on. I want your flex
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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