Mike Harmon & Greg Cosell talk NFL Headlines heading into Week 8, & MORE!

On a new episode of FOX Football Sunday with Mike Harmon & Greg Cosell, Mike and Greg discuss Lamar Jackson's game status change, talk about the chaos that is the Jets + go in depth previewing each game of Week 8 in the NFL ! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Greetings and welcome in another beautiful Sunday upon Us from
the mobile Fox Sports Radio Studios. I'm Mike Carbon alongside
me forty six years NFL films the NFL Matchup Show.
You hear him Thursdays, one pm Eastern, alongside Colin Coward.
He's a legend in the business. Honored to be with
him every Sunday morning. It's Greg CoA sell Greg. Another

(00:25):
beautiful Sunday upon Us.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Yes it is. Can you believe Mike it's week eight?
Where does the time go? You know?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
I was looking at that a little bit and then
I looked in the mirror. I'm like, yeah, I'm due
for a haircut too. So that time, well, you get
buried in all the extra stuff.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
We're doing an.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Extra film review, extra, you know, media sessions, and certainly
we've got if we wanted to just pick apart what
coaches and players had to say this week and never
actually look at a game, Greg, we could still do
an eight hour show.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Well, you know the thing for me, Mike, just yeah,
I don't have to worry about the haircut part of it.
Because my younger daughter is a colorist and it's all
so I never have to worry about that part of it.
I get taken care of, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Every time she walks Themut, I think that up, that
is not a bad way to be.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
She takes care of my appointments and everything. I don't
have to worry about it.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
How do I get on board that my daughter's just
help me?

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Beat it?

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Old man? Right, Just tough to do of our own.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
It's a crazy week, as you said, you know, it's
the fact that it's already week eight is really a
bit frightening.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
And we've seen so much. It has been been a
very topsy turvy week. I came out here.

Speaker 2 (01:33):
I'm in Baltimore this week, see the Ravens and the Bears.
A little bit later on with my brothers, a big gathering.
They grab some friends and everybody got out here. I
was on the plane with the assumption yesterday I left
thinking I get Caleb Williams and Lebar Jackson. How lucky
am I I get off the plane. I don't have
Lamar Jackson anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
No, that's kind of a weird situation. I couldn't begin
to tell you what to make of that, just because
we really don't have any idea, but I don't know.
You know, we'll see. You know, there's a lot of
talk now that if he doesn't play Thursday. This is
only what I'm reading. I like, I said, Yeah, I
don't have a pipeline to anyone if he doesn't play
this Thursday because they play Thursday night against Miami, that

(02:13):
he could be shut down for the season.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, that escalated quickly right from sure to'spin to some
other language, and you know it's it's I'd be remiss
because of what I do with Jason Smith the five
days a week on the network in the evening. You know,
we always raise our hand and watch things run in parallel.
How much the NBA's situation of this week now will
influence a little bit how teams and or other organizations,

(02:39):
other professional leagues will will monitor these things. Because we've
always had the injury report and we all kind of understood,
you know, what it was about. But now certainly extra
scrutiny over this last week. So curiosity, no question here,
But talking to folks as I was around town here
in Baltimore, a little defl little angsty, you know, based

(03:02):
on the overall but now this nebulous space of well,
how healthy is or isn't Lamar Jackson really takes it
to a whole other space.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
How old is? How old is Lamar Jackson? Now? I
mean I know what is let me let me pull
him up because at some point he's a great player.
That's that's not my point at all. He's a great player,
but at some point just the fact that he runs,
and he's been very very good at not taking big hits,
but at some point all that you know, I would imagine,
does take its tall. I'm just curious.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, Bria brionn Our producer at twenty eight years old
January seventh, and ninety seven.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
I mean, theoretically he should have many more good years left,
you know, as many quarterbacks do. So we'll see what
happens going forward.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Yeah, it's always that curiosity, right of what is the
shelf life for a guy that runs as much as
he did? To your point, he's been pretty good about
a void the big hit through his career. But when
you're still running the ball one hundred times plus taking
hits behind centerplus it all adds up right.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Well, you know, can't go ahead.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
No, It's funny you mentioned that because I worked with
Ryan Joworski for years and years, and he always said
something that always resonated with me. He said, people always
think about the hit that takes you to the ground,
but no one thinks about the fact that when you
do go to the ground, guys that weigh, you know,
one hundred pounds more than you fall on you. You know,
So it's not the initial hit necessarily, but it's the

(04:25):
fact that guys can fall on you and you know,
and again, he slides a lot. There's no question he
doesn't really take vicious hits. But you just wonder over
time that does have to add up because he's not
really a big man, right Yeah, No, I mean because we.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Go all the way through and you know, think about
the careers of guys like Cam Newton and others. You
know what I've always said, Greg, is I want, at
least from my estimation of it all, if I've got
something that makes the guy takes him from good to great,
great to elite, then I want him to do that
as long as he physically can. Right the Hey, we

(04:57):
need to change this guy. Well, now you take and
maybe some of that special sauce right bit away. Right,
so if it becomes a gestation period, a career length
like what Cam Newton had of eight years of really
great football.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
I think you sign up for that, right.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
And then I think playing to you hear that a
lot with the running backs too. I mean, you know,
people say that, I've heard Troy it. You can talk
about that over time, and obviously he played with one
of the best ever, a guy that really you know,
was able to play at a high level for longer
than most backs. But you can't. You can't take a
great back like you can't all of a sudden with
Jonathan Taylor, for instance, say well, you know what, we're

(05:34):
not really going to give him the ball the next
three weeks, you know. I mean, you're trying to win games,
and coaches want to win every Sunday. So what they
do is they use their players. They maximize their traits
and their ability and the desire to win games.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
God's it. In the end, nobody's playing for five years
from now. It's the right.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
I get to win on Sunday and then lather, rinse,
repeat again, zach Reis dubs and rally up as best
you can. So we started the week with a some
fireworks here in Los Angeles, yeah, and let's talk about it.
Mark qu ups of Justin Herbert for me, if you would, my.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
Friend second and ten Herbert to throw, takes a shot
to the end zone from acauckey, caught touchstand.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
Chargers twenty seven yards Ladd mccauckey.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
So that's KF five. Matt money Smith on the call.
Chargers win thirty seven to ten. Justin Herbert and we
watched it that night. As soon as we saw the
offensive linemen were back up, particularly Joe Walt, I felt
a lot better about going against Brian Flores's defense, which
after time really didn't offer a whole lot of resistance.
As this thing started to get away, Greg Yeah, two

(06:46):
twenty seven three touchdowns, a pick, an almost pick. We
could talk about official reviews while we're at it now,
we'll do.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
That another time.

Speaker 2 (06:55):
Ladd McCaughey six eighty eight one. But Aronde Gadson got
the other guy who is stepped up. We remember his dad.
I still have a stack of his trading cards sitting around.
But for the second straight week and now he's one
of those guys that week in, week out is becoming
a very favorite target of Justin Herbert.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Yeah. Three weeks in a row. The previous two weeks
he had seven catches. I think he had five this week,
but he had the touchdown. He's become a pretty important
piece of their pass game. And he went to Syracuse says,
I'm sure you know Mike as a wide receiver and
got transitioned to tight end, so he's not your traditional
tight end. He can line up anywhere in the formation.
While he's not fast in terms of a forty time,

(07:33):
he's very fluid. He moves well, and he just gives
them another dimension. But you know, it's funny you mentioned
the Vikings and what really struck me watching that game.
As you know, I watch as many games as I
can every week on the coaching tape, but it struck
me that for two weeks in a row now, the
Vikings have really struggled when they blitzed. And we know

(07:53):
that Brian Flores likes to blitz. The week prior it
was the Eagles, this week it was the Chargers. I mean,
the numbers the last two weeks against the Vikings blitz
have been off the charts for passing games. And you
know they now have ten days and I'm sure that
that's something that Brian Flores will look at really hard
before their next game because it's just it's not sustainable.

(08:17):
The way teams the last two weeks, the Eagles and
the Chargers, the way they've attacked and had great success
against that blitz, which is so foundational to Brian Flores.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
Big shots downfield the order of the day.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Add the balance with Vidal once again going over one
hundred yards, that's been a topsy turvy run. But with
a healthy offensive line, Suddenly you raise the eyebrow and
wonder about the ceiling for the Chargers. But for Justin Herbert,
you know, he was comfortable. They did a good job
on the blitz pick up. He didn't take some of
the vicious hits that we'd seen. Again talking about the

(08:51):
number of hits, I think we've talked more about Herbert
than we have a lot of other Yeah, actually here
the last few weeks. But pretty clean pocket for him
with that extra heat coming.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
Well, and you mentioned the run game. They had forty
three rushers for two hundred and seven yards and Herbert
was a significant part of that with his scrambling ability.
He had sixty two yards scrambling and that was a
big factor in the game. And they controlled the ball
for more than thirty nine minutes. Very hard to win.
When the opposition has the ball for more than thirty
nine minutes, you don't get a lot of plays. I

(09:22):
think the Vikings in this game ran forty seven offensive plays, Mike,
and forty seven offensive plays in this league ain't going
to get it done.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Justin Herbert had nearly double the rushing yards as the
Minnesota Vikings.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
Yeah, that's not a statue you want to put up
on the wall there. That's not very good.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
Mason four for three, Jones five for fifteen.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
And we'd be.

Speaker 2 (09:45):
Remiss again if we didn't at least look at the
Minnesota side of things, because I was looking like I
was in the Rocky movies when Duke won't throw the towel,
when Apollo's getting bludgeoned in Rocky for by drago On
selling Rocky throw the damn towel, because for Carson Wentz.
After a while, it was it was sad because.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
Yeah, I mean there was no help, Yeah it was.
It was a tough, tough game on both sides of
the ball. I think one final point though, in the Chargers,
this was a game. Now granted they got ahead early,
but I'm sure this was their game plan going in.
This was a game where they went back to I
think what they'd like to be in terms of personnel.
They played a ton at a base personnel, you know,

(10:28):
meaning that they played with two tight ends, a fullback.
I mean their tight end Fisk, who's not a pass
receiver at all, he's a blocker. He played forty three snaps.
The fullback Mattlocke, who's essentially a converted defensive tackle, he
played forty one snaps. So this was a game where
I think they went back to the way Greg Roman

(10:50):
and Jim Harbow would ideally like to see their offense look.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Back to basics, no question about it.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
Hey for the best pregame show every weekend, being sure
to keep it locked in Fox Sports Radios.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Down to Kickoff presented by bet MGM.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
Every Saturday and Sunday morning, we couched down to all
the biggest games for three hours right up until kickoff.
For all the best plays up to the second injury news.
Tune into Countdown to Kickoff presented by BETMGM every Saturday
and Sunday morning right here on Fox Sports Radio and
the iHeart Radio app. We're gonna hit a lot of
the big games today. Again, reminder to folks, six teams

(11:24):
on a buy, none of those pesky early games, so
you didn't have to get up for London calling out
there across the land. So I think some folks appreciated
a little bit of a break because they've been the
Pavlovian responsive lightups like no, no, no, no, go back
to bed. You got to hit the snooze or just
keep the radio on and stay in bed a little
bit longer. You don't have to rush to it. But

(11:45):
we also have the big run of buy so no Detroit, Mercifully,
no Las Vegas, no Rams, no Cardinals, no Seahawks, no
Jaguars this week. Yeah, so many great little one liners
in quips from people in the you know, the saying
the quiet parts out loud. I guess is the theme
of the week.

Speaker 3 (12:05):
Greg.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
As we continue, we're gonna we're expecting a change in starters.
Now the matchup may not be as marquee with Miami
in Atlanta, but there's a lot swirling about both those teams.
So how about we go with that next at Greg
Cosel where you find them on Twitter, find me over
at Swollen Dome. We're just getting warmed up. It's Fox
Football Sunday here on Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio

(12:30):
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Foxsports Radio dot com and
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Speaker 3 (12:40):
Hey, it's me Rock Parker.

Speaker 5 (12:43):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
twenty two minutes of pipeing hop baseball talk, featuring the
biggest names of newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe
in analytics or the I test, We've got all the
bases covered. New sols drop every Thursday, so do your
SOAF a favor and listen to Inside the Parker with

(13:05):
Rob Parker on the iHeartRadio app or wherever.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
You get your podcast.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
Welcome back in Fox Sports Radios, Fox Football Sunday, Mike Garmin,
Greg co seal with you. Thanks to Mark and Breonna
making us sound so pretty all the sound and keeping
us keep the red light on as we keep rolling
on here on a beautiful Sunday morning. Wherever you're listening
and partaking in the show, we appreciate you out and

(13:31):
to and from services, having some early morning coffee out
for a brisk walk, maybe hitting this snooze button and
just staying in bed a little bit longer.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
Whatever the case may be, we.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Appreciate you and reminder with the iHeartRadio app, you can
take us wherever you are, stream us wherever you happen
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Speaker 1 (13:59):
It'll always pop up at the top of your screen.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Greg, one of the matchups today maybe not as highlight
worthy as some of the other real big matchups right
when we talk about Green Bay and Pittsburgh. A little
bit later on Dallas Denver. We'll get to all of those,
but the Miami Atlanta game holds some special storylines for
us on both sides of the equation where the quarterback

(14:26):
is concerned. We could start first with the idea of
Captain Kirk Kirk Cousins getting back under center here five
of seven twenty nine yards last week in relief Michael
Pennix with the knee injury. Looks like he's not going
to be able to go. So the last time we
saw Captain Kirk he was ushered well in. I don't

(14:47):
even know what the proper term is to see the
new shiny toy in Michael Pennix Junior. I have no
idea what to expect from him today. Drake London so
with a questionable tag.

Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yeah, I'll be in if London can't go. But I
think just there'll be different parts of the playbook in
the past game with Kirk Cousins, because one thing Penix
does really, really well is throw the ball outside the
numbers with some velocity and some juice. That's not really
Kirk Cousins game. He's always been a little more timing
and rhythm based, working between the numbers. I think you
would see much more of that, and I think they

(15:21):
can rely on the run game there. They're basically a
pistol formation offense because maybe ninety plus percent of Bijon
Robinson's runs have come when they're in the pistol formation
and he's lined up right behind the quarterback and the
outside zone run game is there absolute staple. You'll probably
see more of that. You know, the other side is

(15:43):
probably just as interesting, Mike. I mean it's sort of
fallen apart a bit with too it, don't you think.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, when when we get to the point where and
I'll do this to best encapsulate it without doing a
dramatic reading of it all talking about his height, things
we say in the media, things we say as fans,
but saying the quiet part out loud. Was the curiosity
as Tua got to the podium quote. I think that

(16:10):
with some of it being able to see guys with
their guys also up front and our guys. I'm not
the tallest guy in the back there either, so being
able to see and then sometimes when that happens, you
don't want to just throw it blindly, and you got
to progress. So I think to some merit to reasons
as to what happened for Wattle talking about missing Jalen
Waddle and at times looking away perhaps doing that you

(16:33):
know what I can see and the easier throws right
as opposed to as he says, blindly or trying to
figure out the timing that way. But pretty damning kind
of comments for a guy to start bringing up his
heights six years into a career.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah, I don't put much stock in that. To be
honest with you, I could tell you a quick story,
but the first thing I'm going to say is I've
been saying this for years, and I see now that
others are saying the same thing. Tua can only play
one way. He's pure timing in rhythm, so he has
to be able to hit that backfoot and deliver the football.

(17:08):
And when all works as it has at time, certainly
through the last three four years, he can look beautiful.
You know. He hits that back foot, the ball comes out,
he's accurate, the ball placement is there. He gives receivers
run after catch, because run after catch is a function
of the quarterback much more so than the wide receiver.
But when that's not happening, and don't forget, defenses have

(17:30):
seen more and more of him over the years, and
they probably have figured out better than ever how to
defend a lot of those route concepts. And when those
throws are not there, he doesn't have anything else he
can fall back on. He just doesn't have another part
to his game. Now, just a very quick story about
the seeing part. I remember years ago I used to

(17:52):
get a chance to interview all the quarterbacks. I'm going
back to the mid to late nineties when they had
something called the Quarterback Challenge, and I interviewed for four years.
These were the Steve Youngs, the Troy Aikman's, the Brett Fahrs,
the Jim Kellyes, the Dan Marinos. I got to know
those guys well, the John Elways, and I interviewed him
for years. And Steve Young said, what finally turned him
into a great quarterback in the Bill Watsh system was

(18:15):
the understanding that he had to make throws before he
could see his receiver. And so that to me, that
argument this is too And now I don't buy that
for half a second, to be honest with you, because
I think the great quarterbacks throw the ball before they
see their receiver. They and someone like too. It has
to throw it to a spot, not wait for a receiver.

(18:36):
So I think he's just reacting to the fact that
things are not going well.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
One of the big words that we've used forever greg anticipation. Yeah, right,
quarterback ability to anticipate how that picture is going to
change and evolve as you scroll through. And but certainly
here grasping at straws, because we talked about Mike McDaniel
a lot and trying to find some semblance of balance.
Obviously losing Tyreek Hill big Darren Waller popped up on

(19:03):
the radar for a nano second. Now he's back injured,
so trying to find some playmakers outside of a chan
has been a difficult proposition for this offense, and they
sput it today. I would expect Atlanta, between their two
running backs to run the ball forty plus times. Yeah,
get out of there, because Miami's been how should we say,
woefully insufficient in terms of their defensive acumen against the

(19:27):
running game.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yeah, I would think that would be the case. And
you know, Jeff Albrick, the decordinator for the Falcons, has
been a heavy blitz guy. I'll be curious if he
does that today. I mean there'll be third and long
situations where I would think he would. But we know
that the way that the Dolphins have to play is
to get the ball out quick, so he may feel
that high percentage blitz may not be the best approach.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
As we look at these slate overall, Greg some big ones.
Maybe you know one side where we've got more more
questions than the other. But a matchup that stands out.
You know, I've got Daniel Jones. You mentioned Jonathan Taylor,
a little bit earlier guy looking to go to the
Triple Crown. It's funny with running backs, we're always trying
to figure out where that cliff is. Well, clearly it's

(20:10):
still off in the horizon for Jonathan Taylor. But the
balance that Indianapolis has played with now you've got four
or five viable targets for Daniel Jones, but a big
spot here. When they're at home, it goes to a
whole other level.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
You know, it's funny because everybody just assumes it's Jonathan Taylor,
and I'm sure that defense is when they face the Colts,
the number one thing is let's stop Jonathan Taylor. But
think about this, Daniel Jones continues to have the most
first down passing yards in the NFL by a wide margin.
He's got the third most first down drop decks, Mike,

(20:46):
He's dropped back. They've called passes on first down one
hundred and five times now. Taylor, on the other hand,
only has seventy four rushes on first down. So they
throw the ball much more on first down. Then they
run it and they're really really successful doing that. Now,
that doesn't mean you don't go into a game with
the idea that you have to stop Jonathan Taylor. But

(21:06):
I would bet that most people would think it's all
Jonathan Taylor and that Jones is the complimentary piece, when
in fact it's the other way around. Through their six
to one start.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah, he's been fantastic, there's no question about it.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
Great spot and for Shane Steich and substability that he'd
been lacking, right because we'd watched, oh for sure, position
for years and they were all great names, right, including
you know Joe Flacco whose picture is everywhere, by the way,
and every spot I stopped in in Baltimore last night
there was a poster or some reference to Joe Flacco

(21:40):
being elite once upon a time in Baltimore.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
But you talk about him.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
And Matt Ryan and all those guys that came through
what they tried to do with Anthony Richardson finally finding
some balance and stability here, it's an interesting spot.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah, where Indianapoli, it's no question and there's.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
No question that you know. I think what stood out
when I watched their tape and I think that this
is a Shane Stikeen thing. They've done a great job
with this. He does an excellent job creating define windows
for Jones that allows him to play with decisiveness and efficiency.
You see route concepts where the read is clean. There's
a lot of what we call levels concepts. Receivers at

(22:17):
different levels high low concepts. The kinds of concepts might
that really define it for a quarterback cleanly, because the
one thing you don't see, which of course you did
see a lot in New York when Jones played behind
a poor all line is he's never getting stuck in
the pocket. You don't see him drop back and just okay,
where am I going with the football? Now? He's playing

(22:38):
with high level decisiveness and he he's very efficient right now.
And you know the other thing about the Colts, which
really speaks to their overall offense. They've run more red
zone plays than any team in the NFL, and they've
scored the most red zone touchdowns. And if you do that,
you're going to have a pretty good offense.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Operational efficiency in the red zone. The last thing anybody
wants to see as a kicker, Sorry.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
I would agree with that. By the way, you don't
have to convince you of that.

Speaker 1 (23:04):
No, that's it, though it might be become one of
the commandments of the show.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
I don't want to see a kicker trotting out, even
though on Brandon Aubrey and those guys are entertaining as
can be coming out.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
What's it sixty three? Okay, let's see what he's got.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
No, I'd rather address that guy's going to kick a
seventy yard field goal. There's no question about that. An opportunity, yeah,
I have, he's definitely going to do that.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Might be looking at some of that today in the
mile High Air. We'll get to that game a little
bit later on. But a big game on Sunday night
football forty five and a half to total Green.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
Bay at two and a half point.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
As Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers await the Packers, there
were a bunch of Packers fans on the plane. I
really thought there was gonna be a brawl between the
Bears fans traveling across country.

Speaker 1 (23:49):
And the Packer fans.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
No, they sat and they wondered aloud of what their
teams were going to become. But here was a quote
from Aaron Rodgers a little bit earlier in the week,
Greg to set the table as we get ready for
this one.

Speaker 6 (24:00):
I don't have any animosity toward the organization. Obviously, I
wish that, you know, things have been better in our
last year there, but you know, have a great relationship
with a lot of people still in that organization, and
this is not a revenge game for me. I was
excited to see some of those guys and be on
st Night Football again.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
Now.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
We chuckled as we talked about Rogers a little bit
during the week because after he beat the Jets, he
was very happy to have beaten every person associated with
the Jets. So I love this smile and the bright
eyed Aaron Rodgers. But don't tell me he doesn't want
to hang forty on these guys.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Well, there's no question. That's just the nature of competition.
But you know, the Steelers are a fascinating offense to
watch because they are really a base personnel offense. They're
not really a passing team in a strict sense. They've
played the highest percentage of what we call thirteen personnel
when you play with three tight ends. And in fact,
Darnell Washington believe it. I have it from a good

(24:55):
source that he's probably more in the three hundred pound
range as a tight end than he is at two
sixty five or two seventy. He's really another offensive tackle
out there, although he does have very good hands, which
is odd. But this is a team that plays a
ton out of you know, base personnel, and we saw
in their last game against the Bengals, we saw Washington

(25:16):
make some big time blocks. You know, we can say
the same thing about the Niners. We'll probably get to
that game as well, because they have a good one.
But when your tight end can block defensive ends or
outside linebackers who were on the ball on the edge
one on one, particularly defensive ends, what that does for
your run game is just you can't really put a

(25:37):
number on it. It's unbelievable how that helps your run game.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Yeah, I'm certainly seeing more efficiency from Jalen Warren and
that was one of the big questions coming into the season.
Greg was trying to figure out how they'd establish a balance. Obviously,
it was great to have Friarmouth back in full of
for them in that last game against Cincinnati, as you mentioned,
with the thirteen personnel, but being able to deploy him
in John news Smith, who's coming off an eighty eight

(26:03):
catch year last year. I think Miami would want him
back anyway. All of that to say that you're still
looking at it, and a guy in Rogers that you know,
people still skeptical off of the early four and two
and some of what we've seen thus far. You know,
what do you see in you know, which is still
driving with the same effectiveness downfield?

Speaker 1 (26:26):
What's changed on his tape?

Speaker 3 (26:28):
Aaron Rodgers. Yes, I mean I think he still can
throw the ball beautifully. I don't think he's one of
those guys that could probably wake up when he's seventy
and throw the ball like that. He and Joe Flacco
could probably both do that. So I don't think there's
an issue with how he throws it. Obviously doesn't move
quite the same way that he once did. He's not
going to make as many plays off schedule, which was

(26:49):
sort of a staple of his game in his prime
years with the Packers. But as far as throwing the football,
I think he's fine. I just don't I think that
the way this offense is structured, and certainly with Author Smith,
you have to remember Author Smith has a certain belief
in how he wants to play as well, So I
don't think that they built the offense around Rogers. I mean,
keep in mind we talked about the multiple tight ends

(27:10):
they played with six o lignemen. Warren had sixteen rushes
last week against the Bengals, fifteen of them. Fifteen of
the sixteen came out of multiple tight end and six
to zero line personnel. He was fifteen for one, fifteen
out of multiple tight end and six oh line personnel.
I think that's the way they want to play, and
can they do that against the Packers. They're going to

(27:32):
try to do that against the Packers for sure.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
Curiosity of trying to play bully ball that way, I
mean it's like a you know, an exaggerated version of
the tush push when you've got that much beef in
front of you at Greg.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
As you look at it. Right on the other side,
for the Packers, there's been a lot of Josh Jacobs.
When we look at jorli a length thus far.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Yeah, I mean, sixty nine percent completion for him, ten
touchdowns against two picks. I guess the question that I'm
hundred here that offensive line. We saw the PA the
Steelers pass rush really rise up for three games, but
then they were dormant against Flacco and the bank Ribles
a week ago. You know, how much do we expect,

(28:14):
you know, Jordan Love to be on the move in
this one, and what have you seen from him in
the first six month.

Speaker 3 (28:19):
You know, I don't know how you feel about it,
but Jordan Love is a guy that, to me, no
one talks about. And it's It's very interesting because he's
only in his third year as a starter and he's
played extremely well, and I think that he's developing in
the way you would expect him to develop. I think
there's sort of an efficiency to his game. Now. Will

(28:39):
he make a reckless throw here and there, just because
he's so gifted throwing the ball, Yes, he will, and
you'll live with that. But for the most part, I
think that he's sort of settled in every play doesn't
have to you don't have to chase plays. That's a
term I heard from a coach and I love that term.
He doesn't chase chase plays as much as he used to,
and he takes what's there and he's now playing with

(29:00):
more efficiency. They are another team that likes to play
with multiple tight ends. We've seen what Tucker Craft has
done over this last year year and a half, he's
become one of the better tight ends in the league.
And the last two weeks Jacobs and the run game,
which I think is what Matt Lafleur would really like
foundationally to be his offense to look like they've started
to be able to run the ball with greater efficiency

(29:22):
as well.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
What's been curious, right is the and they did it
last year was the great graphic that we used to
chuckle about was just looking at the receiving yardage chart
for the Packers, like they have X number of receivers
at four hundred yards or whatever, and you know that
operational efficiency and not having to be myopic and trying
to force the ball into guys. So we look at Dobbs,

(29:44):
it looks like Christian Watson's on the return, so you
know you'll get him back in the mix as well.
But Tucker Craft currently they're leading receiver in terms of yardage.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
Yeah, and I'd almost forgotten about Christian Watson. It seems
like he hasn't played in a long time. And obviously
they drafted Matthew Golden who's becoming a bit of a factor.
But yeah, they don't have the one guy that's necessarily
going to be targeted, you know, twelve thirteen times a game,
so they throw it to a lot of guys, but
it's it's a good offense and love. To me, I've

(30:15):
always said this about love, and maybe one day he'll
be thought of this way. But I think just in
terms of talent at the position, he's probably in the
top five or six in the league. In terms of
just physical and athletic traits at the position.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
Eight point two yards per attempt this year, averaging about
two hundred and forty yards per game. That was always
a curiosity right then when he got drafted and it
was all the handwringing.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
I tried to stump for that.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
I don't claim a lot of victory laps, but I
trusted the process of what the Packers right, right right,
you're right, I mean they did it, you know, the
handoffs that they had. Look, I remember Don mccowski beating
the Bears as a child, Greg, so I got.

Speaker 3 (30:54):
You go, Don mccowski, the magic Man exactly.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
With that flared hair and all of that.

Speaker 2 (30:59):
But you go all the way down the line is
that organizational stability still trumps everything, and we have very
few organizations that we've been able to hold up to
that to that standard in the in the NFL with
the Packers doing that and allowing him to come along.
And I guess maybe this is the the old school
side of me. It's like, if you have the luxury

(31:20):
of drafting a guy to learn, even if the guy
is in a great hands on one on one teacher
by osmosis and being in those film rooms and practice
fields and everything, you're going to get better to when
you finally get your opportunity as opposed to, well, you're
the shiny new toy that we did our marketing plan around.
You may not be ready to play NFL football, but
get out there. So I think he got the best

(31:42):
you know service done for him as well that he
wasn't forced immediately.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
And the other thing too is they're not throwing the
ball a ton and you know, again, he's he's played
one less game than a lot of other you know
people because they had to buy. But in terms of
the number of dropbacks that he's had, he's he's down
closer to the by him in the league than the
top of the league. So they're not saying every week,
Jordan Love, you've got to go out and win football games.
You know, it's very hard to play that way in

(32:08):
the NFL, when every week you ask your quarterback to
be the reason you win or the reason you have
to win. It's just too hard to play that way
in the league. Defenses are too good and they're not
really asking him to do that. But he's capable of
doing that in any given game.

Speaker 2 (32:23):
Only two times this year has he gone above thirty
passing attempts, once against Wahington just thirty one. There forty
three in that wild game against Dallas back at the
end of September, one of the highlights of the first
seven weeks. As we began the show, yes it is
week eight in the National Football League season. Already pretty
soon you'll all be putting up your holiday decorations, but

(32:45):
not yet. Got a little bit of time before you
got to do that. At Greg Cosalaz, where you find
him in the Twitter verse. Check out everything he's got
going the video highlights and matchups and everything he's got
the NFL Matchup Show, and then you hear him every
Thursday one pm Eastern with Colin Cowherd to break down
fifteen to twenty minutes of audio and video greatness, and

(33:06):
then we're blessed to have them to for two hours
each and every Sunday here on Fox Sports Radio, Mike Carbon.
You can find me over at Swollen Dome. As we continue,
we'll keep going down our run of the big games
of the day. I alluded to Dallas and finishing off
the Jordan Love commentary, why don't we head to that
game because that is a marquee game. Next it's Dallas,

(33:28):
it's Denver. What do we get out of Denver after
that wild Week seven finish? We'll talk about it next
year on Fox Welcome back in Fox Sports Radios, Fox
Football Sunday, Mike Carbon alongside Greg CoA Sell, having a
blast with you this morning.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
It goes so fast.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
Six teams on a bye one game already in the
books and a big slate ahead. You find Greg on
Twitter at Greg Cosell. Find me over at Swollen Dome.
Appreciate you being with us here early on a Sunday morning,
as you're getting out and about and ready to attack
it day with a ferocity so intense. I'm trying to
steal the Jim Harbaugh line and fire people up as

(34:04):
we go. Greg, you know, get people jacked up for
a big Sunday of NFL action, one of the marquee
games here, and this is a get your popcorn ready
kind of moment. Is when we talk about this Dallas
and Denver game. Let's start with the Dallas offense for
a second, mister Mark, if you would please get it
for the fourth five Prescott tell me, bears it out

(34:27):
deep down the field.

Speaker 7 (34:28):
See breaks the tackle, flowing home touchdown Dallas.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
I just like the analyst.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
Because there it was the big play to zd Lamb
forty four to twenty two year final pick your poison,
Cede lambbag George Pickens. We talk about Jake ferguson the
last couple of weeks, and of course Javonte Williams no
slouch himself. Dak Prescott has himself an offense putting up
points for days.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
Greg. Yeah, and you know it's funny. We we just
heard that seventy four yard touchdown to Lamb. That was
a brilliant play by Prescott. And the reason I say that,
and I think people will be able to visualize this,
that was a route concept that we called dagger. And
what that means, Mike is there's an inside vertical route
and then the outside dig route. So the inside vertical

(35:16):
route is just meant to clear out because you want
to throw the ball to the dig ninety nine point
nine percent of the time that's where you throw the football.
But what happened is is Prescott saw the safety Savage
take away the dig route to Tolbert, so he went
over the top to Lamb because it was a two
shell coverage, meaning the middle was open. So that was

(35:39):
really high level quarterbacking by Prescott, who's playing at a
very high level. And you know, the way I do
my work, just so people understand, is I don't look
at numbers. I watch the tape and then when I
see something, I'll look at numbers to see, oh, do
the numbers reflect what I'm seeing. So I've obviously watched
the Cowboys all season and I'm seeing, boy, they're really
good on play actions. So I looked up their Prescott's

(36:03):
play action numbers this year. They're off the charts. I'm
just gonna read them to you because I wrote them
down because I had to Prescott and play action Mike
is sixty for seventy one, sixty for seventy one, eighty
four point five percent completion percentage, seven touchdowns, no interceptions,

(36:23):
and half of those have come where he's under center,
which is I always believe is the better way to
run play action. But their play action pass game has
been silly good.

Speaker 2 (36:33):
Yeah, it's been amazing to watch as we look at
we're getting close towards the trade deadline and a lot
of stuff on the wins, you know, and Jerry saying, hey,
maybe we go back into the marketplace because there's certainly
a couple of teams struggling.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
We may try to get a pass rusher.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
You may go get one of those guys.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
Well, they had one at one point, I think didn't
they Well.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
You know what, they kind of liked him.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
That's one I think there's gonna be a bunch of
books written about Greg in terms of how that all
process all came to play in it. You know, as
much as I love the player of Micah Parks is
like part of me is always the all right if
you pay him, and that's you know.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
It's funny money.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
It's not my money whatever, but you know, trying to
figure out your roster build and all those kind of things,
like what's he worth to you on a win total?

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yeah, if you try to average it, you never know,
but you have no idea like how it's going to
show all.

Speaker 3 (37:26):
Oh, for sure, there's one thing he can do. And
we saw that last week. And we didn't mention this
when we spoke about the Green Bay game. But I
go back to Bill Walsh. Okay, and people might remember
Bill Walsh. I'm sure some do. One of the greatest
coaches of all time, won Super Bowls with the Niners
in the eighties, and he always said one of the
deciding factors in the NFL is pass rush in the

(37:48):
fourth quarter. And we saw that last week with Green Bay.
But we'll see. You know, the thing about the Cowboys
is they have everything you want from an offensive perspective
every dimension. They've run the ball really well. Tavante Williams
has not really been talked about much at all because
of their past game, but he's among the league leaders

(38:08):
in rushing yards. They've got Pickens, who's your classic boundary X,
meaning the single receiver to the short side of the
field who can win one on one. And then they've
got Lamb who's your classic kind of movement receiver. He
normally lines up to the wide side of the field,
he can run any route, he can work off motion.
They've got a quality tight end in Ferguson, who is

(38:29):
a real compliment to those guys. From an offensive standpoint.
They pretty much have everything you want from a skill
position perspective.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
Well, we look at it.

Speaker 2 (38:38):
Yeah, we had the Michael Parsons hat trick last week,
just to put it in perspective. The big game that
he put up on Arizona. Now on the Denver side
of things, one of the wildest games. Oh boy, decent memory,
thirty three to thirty two year final, that fourth quarter for.

Speaker 3 (38:54):
The You predicted that, right, You predicted they'd get thirty
three in the fourth?

Speaker 6 (38:57):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Absolutely, yeah, while giving up thirteen in the fourth, right,
right right? Part of the two, wasn't it. They just
shut them down entire Yeah, yeah, right. But for Bo
Nixon company, a wild finish, he joked at the podium.
He was ready to have the explanations of well if
they'd gotten shut out, but instead they get a wild win.

(39:18):
I don't know other than succeed and proceed what you
take from that in the way they yeah finished.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
I'm gonna tell you, honestly, I knew I'd be asked
a lot about that this week, and I watched that
tape carefully both sides. I don't have a brilliant answer.
You know, it wasn't like all of a sudden they
started doing this. You know, there were a number of
one on one plays where they made them, where Sutton,
you know, was one on one and he made plays.
I mean, obviously Nix was phenomenal in the fourth quarter
with his numbers. He wasn't sacked. He was sixteen for

(39:45):
twenty five for one seventy four. It kind of started
late in the third quarter. But and I'm just being honest,
I don't have a brilliant answer for what changed in
that game.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Five and two now are the Broncos.

Speaker 2 (39:59):
But I mean it sets up a beautiful game here
in Denver with Dallas coming to bear because Denver's still
a top five defense in terms of points allowed.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
Without question, and they can rush the quarterback and that'll
be very interesting because I think the Cowboys on the
edge are still not as good as you'd like to
be with their two tackles in one on one pass pro.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
He's Greg Coasell at Greg Coasell where you find him
in the Twitter verse. NFL Films forty six years the
NFL Matchup Show and every Thursday with our guy Colin
Coward here at one pm Eastern find me at Swollen Dome.
Coming up next, we'll take a Twitter trip towards the
planet Houston and the San Francisco forty nine ers.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
Welcome back in hour two of the program Fox Football Sunday,
Fox Sports Radio. We'll play some fun with names as
we get things started hour two. Get your wedded appetite,
because we got Flacco, we got Cousins, we got Andy Dalton.

Speaker 1 (40:57):
Yeah that's right. Those are three of the quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Watch goat in the competition later on today as we
get things going here Week eight in Arnest one game
in the book, Six teams on Buys. Welcome into another
beautiful NFL Sunday Here on Fox Sports Radio. Mike Garment
alongside me forty six years NFL films, the NFL Matchup Show,

(41:20):
and he's number one in terms of your video breakdown
to tell you what your eyes are truly seeing on
an NFL Sunday.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
It's great coasale at great coachlle How you doing.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
I'm doing great? Got another out here looking forward to it.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
We're racked up and rolling along as we get closer
to kickoff here the one pm games, no London game
this week, get a little reprieve from the European contest,
which I know a lot of folks on the West
Coast really do a lot of complaining about in the
hallways at Fox Sports Radio, Greg like, come on, man,

(41:53):
it's like, well, you know what, you're just gonna set
an alarm or you know, trust that that guy that
was getting your lineup doesn't get downgraded. Of course, in
today's NFL I've talked about a little bit last hour.
You know, just because the guys have quote full participant
in practice really doesn't mean a whole lot anymore.

Speaker 3 (42:12):
We do have what we still have two more European
Games though right coming up we do next couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (42:17):
Yeah, we'll get back into those in artists here in
the next couple of weeks. So you're not done with
them yet, No, that is true. But but certainly for
this week, which we talk about the big bye week.
Four teams next week, but six for this week, including
the Detroit Lions taking a week off the Jaguars. Just
when I start getting excited about the Jaguars. Greg, They well,

(42:38):
they do things to make me less, so I'm trying
to be nice because otherwise, you know, the the non
FCC compliant off air going.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
What am I seeing, Trevor. I believed in you. What happened.

Speaker 2 (42:51):
So we've got they're on a buy as well. We
go through the schedule as a whole. It's got some
great spots in it for us. We've gone through a
few of the games, the rest of the teams on
by Vegas, the Rams hoping to get Poka Nakua back
out of the bye week, Arizona, the questions, you know,
Jacoby Brissett moved them really well. Kyler Murray always a guy,

(43:15):
that's his name, sparks a lot of debate, Greg. And
then we got the Seattle Seahawks. Hopefully their defense gets
fully back in full session when they get.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
Back football though, Mike, they're playing good football.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
Yeah, love the love the offense.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
Look at the offensive play calling right, the most running percentage,
highest running percentage in the NFL between what Kenneth Walker
the third does and Charbonnay now the touchdown Vulture.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Sorry, fantasy owners, they don't run it great, but they
run it a lot, but.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
That's just it, right, being being committed to even if
it's three yards and a cloud of dust that the
concussive blows over time opened something downfield. And obviously Smith
and Jigba is just next world as a watch of
the relationship he and Sam Donald and put together.

Speaker 3 (44:03):
You know, it's so funny. Just I know they're not
playing this week, but I remember going back to when
they signed Cooper Cup. And you remember last year, because
they had Metcalf, they had locket that Smith Nijigba last
year as a rookie ended up playing predominantly in the slot.
I think it was a rookie last year, right, there's
only a second year, a third year, third year, right,
But last year he played predominantly in the slot. And

(44:26):
I remember so many people said when they signed Cup,
they said, what are they doing? They've got a slot receiver.
And I just thought to myself, I said, you know,
first of all, that's so silly to say. For this reason.
Number one, we live in a world where there's so
much formation variation, there's so much motion. Teams line up
with receivers and what we call reduced splits where they're

(44:47):
closer to the line of scrimmage. They're closer to the
tackles or the tight end, the attached tight end. So
to me, that argument made no sense at all. But
the bottom line is about eighty percent of his snaps
this year he's been an outside receiver, and my guess
is they probably knew he could do that, and that's
why they had no compunction whatsoever about signing Cooper cup.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
Shuffle up and deal.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
I was wondering if with Tyler Lockett getting his release,
whether he'd find his way back to Seattle to help
bolster that receiving corps. But it's a lot of transactions
to come here as the trade deadline on November fourth.
So looking for the activity, there a lot of rumor, conjectures.

Speaker 3 (45:27):
Speculations it's coming up.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
Yeah, it's fun time.

Speaker 2 (45:30):
We've seen a lot of big activity already, but certainly
more in the offing. Now back to the games on
the slate, We've got an NFC East battle, the return
bout and Jalen Hurts looking to make some waves even
without one of his big weapons.

Speaker 1 (45:46):
But here he is from last week, or maybe.

Speaker 8 (45:48):
Not urch fakes Paris. He's looking he is going deep.
He looked the funks a Smith, he hasn't twenty fifteen
ten five ton fu tis that beat rugs.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
There, you go, big play for Smith and looking to
get him going. Today they'll be without a j. Brown,
so one piece of that passing devone and trying to
find and so sort of this offense out has been
kind of curious, right when we look at the efficiency
with which Jalen Hurts from passing perspective, He's at seventy

(46:24):
three percent, eleven touchdowns at a pick fifteen hundred yards.
But the run game hasn't been consistent. We know Brown's
been unhappy at times.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
With his usage.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
So you know, not too shabby to still be winning
football games, but maybe just covering and putting some extra
paint over some stuff that's brewing under the surface.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
No, and Hurts played a terrific game last week. You
know it's funny the play that we just heard my
good buddy Merril reach there getting still getting excited after
doing it. Rates got I think Merrill started in the seventies.
He's awesome. But play that was the second play of
the third quarter. And this is one reason I love
Tate Mike, because they ran that same personnel package and

(47:08):
formation twice in the first half. Okay, the first time
they ran it, they handed to Barkley, he gained four yards.
The second time they ran it, they had a holding
call in myolotta. But the reason I'm mentioning that is
they saw when they ran that personnel grouping information how
Harrison Smith lined up. So when they came back to
it on the second play of the third quarter, they

(47:30):
knew because Smith was going to drop down because they
had six offensive linemen on the field. Okay, they knew
Smith would drop down, and they knew that DeVonta Smith
would be one on one with Rogers, So they just
knew what they were going to get from a coverage perspective.
And Jalen Hurts throws as good a deep ball as
anybody in the league. And that was I mean, that

(47:51):
was probably sixty yards in the air, and you couldn't
have handed it to him any better.

Speaker 2 (47:54):
Now, that was a fantastic play. Meryl Reach nineteen seventy seven,
according to.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
My man Merrill. Yeah, go, of course, you know, being
in this area, I've known Meryll for years and years.
He's the best.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
Eighty three years old, still getting at it. I hope
I'm yelling with that same level I got.

Speaker 3 (48:11):
I mean it sounded like a young man there. He
was exactly.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
Yeah, yeah, well and obviously excited when you get to
on Cork a long one because as we talk about
how disjoined it, it's been this is interesting, interesting game
this week, right, you get the giant squad that they
lost to earlier in the season. They're coming off of
that crushing game that we just talked about against Denver

(48:34):
and you know, trying to get yourself right back up
for this kind of game.

Speaker 1 (48:38):
Yeah, is it interesting.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
I would say this two weeks ago when they lost
that was probably the eagles worst defensive performance of the season.
Number one Jaylen Carter did not play. Number two Quinon
Mitchell got hurt after thirteen snaps. You know, this is
not Vic Fangio's first rodeo. He's been doing this a
long time. There were a lot of assignment mistakes and
problems in that game two weeks ago, which is uncharacteristic

(49:00):
of a Vic Fanjo defense. I would strongly believe that's
not going to happen again.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
Now.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
I'm not saying the Eagles are going to win the game.
You know, that's why they play him obviously, but I
would doubt that the game will play out the same way.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
Yeah, we look at it thirty four to seventeen.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
Was that one the smashing, battering ram that is scatterbo
and Jackson Dart doing his magic in that one, But
certainly from pillar to post without Carter able to do
the smash mouth football and get after it in a
way that well, most teams don't get you against that Philadelphia.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
Yeah, and that's what was most intriguing about the game,
the end of the game, when they lined up with
three tight ends and just ran the ball on that
final drive they got the ball with six minutes and
fifty seconds to go, the Giants did, and they ran
out the clock, and they did it just running the football.
They physically handled the Eagles defensive front, and again Carter

(49:51):
was not in the game. I would doubt that's going
to happen this time.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
This is one of those scheduling situations where I just
throw my hands up and say, why the hey, here's
one division game, then play one opponent, and then come
back and do this again.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
I understand there's a lot of logistics that have to
go on.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
Greg, but that won't stop me from complaining about these
kind of situations because we see him in the middle
of the season and then we certainly see them towards
the back end as well to where it's I don't
know what we strive, especially when we talk about how
important divisional.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
Uh, the division still matters, right, I mean in terms
of the playoff stuff. So to do it like this
and scheduling it just always approa a.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
Big game for the Giants, Mike, because they've played much better,
much more competitively in the four games that Dart has started.
They've been much better on third down. You've got to
deal with his running, his scrambling. I mean, they spied
him on the first drive in that game two weeks ago,
and you know, it's great to spy a guy, but
then you got to tackle him. You know. I work
with Darius Butler and he said something to me this

(50:54):
week which really resonated. You know, we were talking about spying,
you know, on athletic quarterbacks. He said, the spy concept's
great Monday to Saturday, but then you get in the
game and you got to tackle him, you know, and
that's not so easy.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
Well, especially a guy like Dart that's willing to throw
his body into it, right, He's not, you know, dancing
into the secondary.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
He'll learn eventually.

Speaker 3 (51:15):
Yeah, he's gonna have to be care I think he's
been in the blue tent in every game that he started,
so he's gonna have to be a little careful.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Well, they just got fined three hundred and fifteen dollars
for that staff who there, right, Dable two hundred Ku
Scatabo got fined a few bucks for going to check
in on his teammates. So uh yeah, some well, we
we get into all the injury stuff. We do a
lot of the the hand ringing of trying to figure out,
you know, the processes, procedures, et cetera. For the Giants,
they do get Graham Gano back for you for you

(51:43):
all looking for a kicker for your fantasy efforts later
on today.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
There you go. I mentioned the kicker once this.

Speaker 3 (51:50):
Yeah, I don't. I don't have any response for that.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
That's okay, I just commit him a party, party follow
I think Greg and the larger, larger standpoint, how about
San Francisco Houston? Real quick as we go around here,
more of Mac Jones, no Nicocollins for the Yeah, for
the Texans, which means some of these youngsters really have
to grow up fast. Noel's been a bigger part of

(52:12):
their offense the last couple of weeks. But I'm seeing
a lot of thought pieces on CJ.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
Stroud.

Speaker 3 (52:18):
Yeah, Stroud struggled this year quite a bit. It's been
tough for him, and there's you know, there's a lot
going on there. Sometimes it's hard to know for sure,
but Stroud has been I guess he's been hesitant. He's
been tentative in the pocket. There's no question their on
line hasn't been great. But I think part of growing
up as an NFL quarterback is learning how to function

(52:39):
when there's bodies around you. Boy, the rookie year that
he had, his anticipation and timing was really high level.
But I think everything's happening a little too fast for
him right now. Now. I'm not in his head, mic
I don't know what he's thinking or seeing, but it
just looks like he's maybe anticipating pressure because he's been
getting a lot of it. And when you anticipate pressure,

(53:01):
what happens is is you start to play fast physically
and it slows you down mentally. It's an odd comparison there.
But that's what happens. You start to play too fast
physically and then mentally you just don't see it the
way you should. So we'll see. But the Niners, I
tell you, last week they lined up and ran the

(53:21):
ball really well for the first time this year. The
focus of their run game was inside. Now Kittle being
back is a big deal in the run game. I
think he was only targeted twice, wasn't a factor in
the past game, but the fact that he can block
defensive ends one on one and there's two really good
ones in this game. This is a really intriguing matchup
with that Texans defense, which is really really good versus

(53:44):
a forty nine er offense that really wants to run
the football.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
And that's the curiosity because this defense has done everything
they can for him. Yeah, from the Houston side of things,
that defensive front are really athletic and active. So it'll
be interesting to watch because last week that game with
the forty nine ers, you say, the run game really
got to it. He was the Christian McCaffrey show grand forms.

Speaker 3 (54:07):
He's on his way to being only the first player
in NFL history to have a thousand rushing in one
thousand receiving in two seasons. That's hard to do. I
think there's there's been three backs that have had a
thousand yards receiving other than McCaffrey. Let's leave McCaffrey out
two of them. I think people would get the third one.
I bet no one would get. Two of them would

(54:29):
be Marshall Fawk is one, Roger Craig is the other,
and the third one we'll see. If you know who
this is. It was the nineteen eighty five Chargers. I
believe it was still Don Coriel if memory serves me correctly.
It was a back named Lionel James who had a
thousand Little Train James, Get Little Train James, nineteen eighty five.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
We can always get our nickname. Game going on to
you here, Greg. There's so much we can do with
all of this, but yeah, I mean some special things.
And what's most interesting with McCaffrey is every time he's
gotten hurt, it becomes ah, he's done, and then he
comes back and does what he's doing. This year, you
look at the what they've done target and reception wise,
he's got twice as many, more than twice as many

(55:10):
receptions as any another member of the team.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
He's got fifty three. Your next leading receivers Kendrick Bourne
and Jake Tungs.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Yeah, and of course you know receivers have been out.
You know, Rittan Pearsall is going to be out again
this week, and I think he's a developing second year player.
I think Ayuk, they're talking maybe week ten that he
might be back. So we'll see, you know, we'll see
how it progresses. I would imagine Perdy will be back obviously,
not this week, maybe next week, so you know, they'll

(55:39):
get players back. But I think the key for them
was their ability last week to line up and grind
it and run the football. And you know, the Kiddle
thing is is big because that allowed them to have
double teams on the inside and they need that because
the interior of their own line has not played great.
As individual blockers.

Speaker 2 (55:58):
Yeah, we've talked a lot about him last week in
his return, Greg so feather in the cap, excuse me,
frog and the old throat in the predictive nature, there
no question about it.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
Big as we go forward.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
Not that you get any fantasy points for the blocking,
as Kittle was quick to point out in the post game,
as well as we continue. Still some big matchups, including
a Monday night affair that I think we're all excited about,
so we'll get to that as we continue. Here, it's
Fox Football Sunday on Fox Sports Radio. He's Greg co Sell,
I'm Mike Harmon. Hey, be sure to subscribe to the

(56:33):
Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel. Search Fox Sports Radio on
YouTube and you'll see our best videos from all our shows.
And don't stop there. Hit that thumbs up icon and
comment away. Let us know whose takes you like, even
those who you don't. Search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube
and subscribe today at Greg co cell on Twitter at
Swollen Dome. As we continue, Patrick Mahomes, you thought the

(56:56):
Chiefs were dead.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
You keep trying. It's like a movie villain. You gotta
make sure you finish the job. We'll talk about their
rise next here on Fox.

Speaker 7 (57:05):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
Welcome back in it's Fox Sports Radios, Fox Football Sunday,
Mike Harmon alongside Greg co sal Thanks for being with us.
Thanks to Chris and Brianna Isaac Lohencron. We'll get an
update from him in a couple minutes. We appreciate you
being with us as we get ready for Week eight
in the National Football League season. We've gone through a
number of the big matchups thus far. We'll get to

(57:39):
the big Monday Night or in a second, be remiss
fit and talk at least for a moment about where
I am greg here in Baltimore with what the Ravens
have been No, Lamar Jackson once again, a little bit
of controversy over the injury report and practice statuses and stuff.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
So as we wait for the next year. There a
lot of banged up.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
Chicago Bears on the other side when it comes to
the defensive side of things. But Caleb Williams and Ben
Johnson and the work in progress last week not the
most operationally efficient. I'm liking this team to the Lovey
Bears Super Bowl run in some respects am I expecting
such grand heights? No, but where their defense has been

(58:24):
very opportunistic. Winning the turnover battle and then getting the
run game involved has worked wonders for Chicago.

Speaker 3 (58:31):
And that's why having a complete team is so critical,
because your quarterback and I think that Williams has been
a little uneven, but it's a work in progress. He's
had some really good moments and he's had others where
he struggled. But when you have a complete team, you
can still win games. They won what four in a row.
I believe their defense has been good. Although they just

(58:51):
put Kyler Gordon on I are and he's a really
good slot corner. He was out of the lineup to
start the season, just played a couple of games. But
Dennis Allen is one of the best defensive coordinators in
the league. And you know, one of the things, as
I've talked to coaches over the years, Mike, I would
always ask offensive coaches who are the toughest defensive coordinators
to play against, and Dennis Allen's name always comes up.

(59:15):
He does a really, really good job. So they're able to,
you know, stay in games with that defense. I think
they lead the league in turnovers on the defensive side
of the ball, So that's always a big stat. It's
not something you can count on every week, but it
certainly is an important stat. And you know, I think
because of that, they're able to to weather the work

(59:37):
in progress nature of Caleb Williams.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
No, Gordon, Yeah, ah, sorry sorry about that.

Speaker 3 (59:43):
Greg, No, no, no problem. I mean Gordon's out. Is
anybody else out on defense?

Speaker 2 (59:48):
Yeah, you got Tyreek Stevenson's going to be out with
the show older Cole on the offensive side, Cole Kmett
is out, Rashaan Johnson, who's been limited in terms of
his touches anyway, Braxton Jones going to miss his as well.
But yeah, a lot of guys in that secondary banged
up for the Bears this time out.

Speaker 3 (01:00:06):
Yeah. So, I mean, like I said, their defense has
been really good, and offensively, I think the run game,
I guess Swift is due to play. I know he's
been banged up, but as from what I'm seeing this morning,
it appears as if he's going to play. You know,
if they can run the ball with some degree of efficiency,
they don't need to run for two hundred yards. But
just you know, look what happened last week. I don't

(01:00:28):
have the numbers right in front of me, but I
don't think Williams had more than thirty throws right last week?
Got right? Yeah, so I mean sometimes that happens. See,
we live in a world. Well here's the way people
think about the NFL, for the most part, they start
with a quarterbacks the most position, most important position on
the field. B. If the team wins, see that means
the quarterback's great. And it doesn't always work like that. That's,

(01:00:51):
you know, just like the opposite happens. Quarterbacks most important.
B team loses see quarterbacks bad. And you know that's
that reduces it to the most silly, simplest terms that
you can possibly reduce it to.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
But it's most digestible. The old spool girl of Sugar
makes go down. You want to sick a few bars. No,
I'm just kidding, but.

Speaker 3 (01:01:13):
I do remember the movie because I'm old enough to
remember the movie.

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
No, it's a classic that we give it a straight
at least once a year. You got to resit those classics.
But yeah, I mean you look at Monding guy had
fifteen touches last week. Look was it a pretty win
against the Saints? No, but operational efficiency. Look the White
Sox in eighty three. The banner was winning ugly.

Speaker 3 (01:01:34):
You know what, there's another Chicago reference there you go.
But not every game is pretty, you know, sometimes you
win where it's not so pretty, and you have to
win some of those good teams wins those kinds of
games during the season, the teams aren't good, obviously, they
lose those kinds of games. So the Bears are certainly
trending in the right direction. We'll have to assume Caleb's

(01:01:56):
going to continue to progress. There'll be some ups, there'll
be some downs. Hopefully they'll be more up going forward.
But you want to win those kinds of games.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
Nine touchdowns against three picks, taking care of the ball
for the most part. Their turnover differential, you know, as
we know turnovers being and winning that margin one of
the greater predictors for victory. But certainly, as we've watched
some of these games in the twenty twenty five season,
it is not an absolute.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
No question about it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
At Greg Cosell where you find him in the Twitter verse,
check out the NFL Matchup Show, all the work that
he does breaking down film for you, of course every
week here on the Network alongside Colin Coward at one
o'clock Eastern time. Now, let's turn it over to the
news desk before we get to our Monday night affair.
Greg to our guy, a legend, the man of the legend,

(01:02:45):
the myth himself. It is Isaac Low and gron At
Isaac Low and Gron where you find him.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
I Low.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Happy football day, buddy, Oh, Happy football day to you
and Greg.

Speaker 4 (01:02:54):
Thank you so much. Let us start north of the
border because we have the first World Old Series complete
game in a decade. Take that, Analytics nerds. In Game
two of the World Series on Saturday night, as the
Los Angeles Dodgers one A Toronto five to one to
even the series at one game apiece, Yoshinobu Yamamoto complete

(01:03:15):
game four hitter with eight strikeouts. He retired the final
twenty batters he faced for the first complete game in
a World Series in a decade. Meanwhile, offensively, Will Smith
and Max Munsey broke a one to one tie with
home runs at a three batter span in the top
half of the seventh INNY and college football on Saturday Night,
Number three Texas A and M what at Number twenty

(01:03:35):
LSU forty nine to twenty five. Texas A and M
quarterback Marcel Reed ran for one to eight with two touchdowns.
He also threw two touchdown passes. Number nineteen Louisville over
Boston College thirty eight to twenty four. Louisville running back.
Isaac Brown ran for two h five hundreds, fourteen carries,
including a sixty two yard touchdown. Number twenty five Michigan
State ran wild. Excuse me, Number twenty five Michigan ran

(01:03:58):
wild at Michigan State already one to twenty, Justice Haynes
he ran for one fifty two with two touchdowns. Jordan
Marshall ran for one hundred and ten yards, including a
fifty one yard touchdown at number twenty two Texas one
in Mississippi State in overtime forty five to thirty eight.
As Texas rallied from thirty one to fourteen down with
nine to thirty five to play in the fourth quarter,

(01:04:21):
Arch Manning through for three hundred and forty six yards
three touchdown passes before leaving due to injury early in overtime.
ESPN reports that Manning suffered a concussion in last night's game.

Speaker 1 (01:04:33):
Guys, all yours appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
Elo At Isaac Low and Gron where you find him
and if you missed Eddy of today's show, be sure
to catch the podcast search Fox Sports Radio wherever you
get your podcast. Right after the show, Briann I'll get
it together and she'll post this thing be sure to follow,
rate it, give it five stars, even provide a.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
Review of it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
Search Fox Sports Radio wherever you get your podcasts, you'll
find today's full show posted right after we get off
the air. Mike Armin, Greg Gosel. Here it is Fox
Football Sunday. Here Fox Sports Radio full slate of games
minus those six teams on a bye, you get a
little bit of a reprieve, which means you've got to
go fill some of the holes in your fantasy lineup.

(01:05:13):
Hopefully you've heard a couple of the names as we've
done the deep doves on the wide receiving corps, running.

Speaker 1 (01:05:18):
Back cores that are out there. So we'll get to
more of that. But let's get into this big Monday
night game.

Speaker 2 (01:05:24):
Greg, as we look at the Kansas City Chiefs and
last week Patrick Mahomes said, hey, welcome back to Rashi
Rice with a pair of touchdowns in that one, as
they just absolutely thumped the Raiders, but it was balance
and getting him back in the mix right away. Seven catches,
forty two yards and two scores. The balance restored and

(01:05:48):
suddenly the Chiefs looking that much more dangerous.

Speaker 3 (01:05:51):
You know what I think has really stood out to
me over these last number of weeks, even before they
got Rice back. Mike and I think this is something
that had sort of faded a bit from offense over
the last oh I'd say probably a year to two years.
There is now a rhythm and timing to the way
Mahomes is playing now. Mahomes is absolutely special. No quarterback
that we've probably ever seen has his sense of spatial

(01:06:13):
awareness and understanding how to move around where defenders are,
where his players are might be the best we've ever seen.
But this season what really stands out to me, and
again I watched the tape and then I look something up.
From snap to throw, he's the quickest in the league.
Think about that for a minute. That means he's playing

(01:06:34):
with really high level timing and anticipation, and that's something
we hadn't seen a lot of in recent years. So
now we're seeing, in addition to the absolutely special traits
that he has in terms of making plays outside of structure,
which will always be there, now we're seeing the timing
and anticipation at a high level. And I think that's

(01:06:55):
why they are now so so dangerous.

Speaker 2 (01:06:57):
Currently fourth and passing yards with her, but obviously the
hang of star. He's got the game this week, but
nine different receivers last week, and the guy that we
had talked about four or five weeks ago, hopefully fantasy
owners went and picked him up. Brishard Smith had a
big game nineteen touches last week for the Chiefs in
that win.

Speaker 3 (01:07:18):
I don't know if I've talked about him with you,
I mean you maybe you know we did. No, we
did a few weeks ago. Yep, yeah, I told you then.
I told you for sure that he was going to
start to see more snaps. And I even read somewhere.
I don't tend to you know, I watched tape all
day long, so I don't listen to press conferences very often.
I don't read, you know, some nights when I go home,

(01:07:38):
I tend to read some stuff here and there, but
I'm not really up on everything being said by coaches
or And the thing is I did read somewhere that
they said they were going to get him more touches.
It made perfect sense to me because I watched him
coming out of him SMU, you know, for the draft,
and I thought that I didn't know he'd be drafted
by the Chiefs. But he's a perfect Chiefs back because

(01:07:59):
he's sort of a convert wide receiver into a running back.
He's a great receiver. They don't need him to be
their foundational runner, but he can be a big, big
factor in their past game.

Speaker 2 (01:08:09):
Yeah, curiosity certainly as we watched that offense come to
bear like last year was the all right jumbled up
and while it wasn't pretty, you know you've got to
finish them when you've got the chance in those late
game situations. Mahomes getting the ball out, finding his open
targets and rolling it up. Here we are once again,
they're four and three after they left for dead.

Speaker 3 (01:08:31):
They're getting back to some of their key concepts. Like
you know, for years and years we used to do
pieces on my Matchup show on what we call the
flood concept. It's a three level concept to one side
of the field vertical, intermediate, short and we used to
do pieces all the time, film pieces because it was
so cleanly laid out. All of a sudden, again I'm
seeing them do that and they get to it in

(01:08:53):
so many different ways. It's such a good concept. Against
zone coverage, it's really difficult to defend. Kelsey had a
forty four yard catch and run last week against the Raiders,
right out of that concept. The way they got to it,
he came from the other side of the field. It
was beautifully designed. So you're starting to see a lot
of their key concepts work beautifully again because Mahomes is

(01:09:16):
playing with such good timing and anticipation right now.

Speaker 2 (01:09:20):
As we continue on, we've got a few more games
that you know, we try to touch them all, but
we've spent most of our day today on a couple
of these key matchups Greg, but there's still a couple
out there that give us the storylines. Celebrating Joe Flacco
as we do here while I'm in Baltimore a big
game against the Steelers. Now he's got the New York Jets,

(01:09:41):
and boy, I tell you, we can just have a
full sitcom or tragedy for what we've been watching out
of the New York Football Jets and their press conferences
and play on the field. But for the Bengals, Am
I wrong to think that Joe Flacco, with this core
of receivers and Chase Brown, and assuming they don't trade
Trey Hendrickson which they're saying they're not going to that,

(01:10:03):
that they can actually be contenders in that division.

Speaker 3 (01:10:06):
Well, I would assume if they win today, and again,
you know, you never know what's going to help.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
We gotta play them.

Speaker 3 (01:10:11):
Yet, yeah, you still got to play them. But if
they win today, they're four and four. The division has
turned out, because of Baltimore, not to be a great
division as many thought it would be. I would doubt
they would want to make that trade. But again, I'm
certainly not there their front office. But the one thing
we know about Joe Flacco, we probably talked about this
that he's going to throw the ball to Chase and Higgins,

(01:10:32):
and I think we kind of saw that, didn't we.
Chase has twenty three targets last week, and which is ridiculous.
He's got eighty two targets and fifty eight receptions in
seven games. And even you know the thing about Flacco,
number one, he's going to throw it to your receivers.
But there's just a natural ease and and sense of
anticipation that he plays with that is is truly beautiful.

(01:10:55):
I mean, I just he's a fun guy to watch. Now,
when is he going to force some balls? Because he
throws it sure, and in any given week, Hey, look,
he could throw three picks today and they could lose.
That's just the way Joe's been throughout his career. But
he also is going to make sure that he feeds
Chase and Higgins, and then when those guys get bracketed

(01:11:16):
or doubled, he'll throw it to Yoshabas like he did
on that thirty seven yard completion last week on third
and four late in the third quarter when both safeties
basically dropped down to bracket Chase and Higgins. So, you know,
Flacco just sees the game so easily. You know, I
got to know Joe a bit and I did some
things with him over the years, and just hear him
talk about it, it's almost like, hey, if the safety

(01:11:39):
does this, you throw it here. If he does this,
then you throw it there. He talks about it like
anybody could go out and do this, and we know
anybody can't go out and do this.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
Yeah, he gave one of the great pressers this week.
For folks that missed it, you can go in and
wind that up with some of the quotes that he
had about eating out and what he's doing with his family.

Speaker 3 (01:11:56):
I actually did see that because I know Joe, so
I made it a point to see that, and you know,
he's just he's just a really good guy because he
still lives here in South Jersey, so you know that's
where his family's based. That's that's where he's from. Went
to Autuban and high school here in South Jersey.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
Yeah, just a great clip. For those that haven't seen it,
I'll make sure to retweet it back out at Swollen Dome.
It is one of my favorites of the week in
between all of the mess because the Aaron Glenn's side
of it has been interesting. No sauce Gardener by the
way that Jets secondary to day out with the concussions and.

Speaker 3 (01:12:29):
I got to tell you the guy and Justin Fields
is going to start and I remember doing Justin Fields
coming out of college and there were concerns. But you know,
it's funny I talk about this with my matchup crew
because obviously I've got guys who really know ball and
we talk ball, and as you know, I know coaches
and talk to them as well, and it's just some
guys as they developed for whatever reason, Mike, and it's

(01:12:51):
so hard to know, they just end up not being
able to see it clearly. I mean, you know, you
just and and Justin Fields is that guy. I mean
just in terms of pure physical traits, big arm can
throw it, you know, obviously a phenomenal runner for and
he's big, he's probably six three two thirty. But he
just doesn't see it the way you need to see it.

(01:13:12):
And at this point in his career, that's not likely
to happen. And it's a shame because he's so physically gifted,
but it's it's just not likely to happen. At this point.
He's been given a lot of chances, and it's just
it's it's not gonna work out. I don't think.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
Yeah, that's the curiosity. How often do you get to
bounce like We've seen a few guys with some great
success and stop five or six. Just a question of
when the carousel stops for him. So what we'll keep
an eye on. That certainly guaranteed him a lot of money,
a lot of conversation back and forth. As soon as
Woody Johnson starts talking. I appreciated his quote, and we'll
take a break out of this. I'm not a good

(01:13:48):
owner at least when it comes to winning.

Speaker 3 (01:13:51):
There you go, that's a good quote. I miss that one.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
Yeah, no talking about ownership, talking about that, the NFL
and everything, and then he threw to that. I was like, wow,
I mean in terms of winning, no, but hey, sometimes
the honest things come out and give us some extra fodder.
And Greg Gozel where you find him on Twitter, find
me at Swollen Dome. We've got two more matchups and

(01:14:17):
some general thoughts leading into Week eight. As we continue,
It's Fox Football Sunday here on Fox Sports Radio. Welcome
back in It's Fox Sports Radios, Fox Football Sunday by
Carmen alongside Greg Gosell. Final a couple of minutes for
us today. Coming up at the top of the hour,
you got Countdown to Kickoff presented by bet MGM, getting
you set for the day's action.

Speaker 1 (01:14:36):
No doubt they'll take a.

Speaker 2 (01:14:38):
Little turn to the news of the week in the
larger sporting universe with the NBA and everything flowing on there,
all the updated injury reports with Isaac Low and gron
thanks to him, thanks to Brianna and Chris making a
sound so pretty this morning and keeping the light on
for me here as I'm traveling here in Baltimore ready
for in game action. The Ravens Bears a little bit

(01:15:01):
later on today, trav Traverse to the stadium soon enough
at Swollen Dome for my trials and tribulations and chaos
that I find trying to keep myself out of trouble.
I got a big mouth, if you haven't figured that
out right, So occasionally, you know, folks don't understand my sarcasm, and.

Speaker 3 (01:15:20):
I didn't in trouble. I didn't know where you were
going with that. I was just gonna let you dig
deeper and deeper there.

Speaker 1 (01:15:25):
No, I just call it what it is. Occasionally I'll
find myself in a hole that I created. It's like,
no at all.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
Now I have to explain to you I was being sarcastic. No,
so we'll watch that one with baited breath, no question.
A lot a lot of big games on the slate.
We have two more that we haven't covered yet. One
that I think is really interesting because of a team
that's kind of scuffled a bit and from their passing game,
curious what you've seen, And that's the Buffalo Carolina game.
Carolina's got Andy Dalton running, but we've been running out

(01:15:53):
there today. But we look at ric o'dowell and now
Chewba Hubbard back with the proficiency of the run game.
I mean, look at all of a sudden with Rico Dowdle,
He's a top five in terms of rushing yards thus
far as is James Cook. The balance for the play
calling for the Bills about fifty to fifty right now.
But trying to find that big goat you receiver for

(01:16:15):
the Bills continues to be a year long project.

Speaker 3 (01:16:18):
Yeah, and you know you probably know me well enough
now that I'm very rarely critical of coaches because I've
been fortunate in my career to be able to be
at training camps and be in meetings and sure and
know how hard these guys work. And I'm just not
one of you know, I'm not. I don't want to
sit here and say, well, gee, this is bad because
you don't know you have to be there. But just
watching the Bills pass game, and it's one thing when

(01:16:40):
you talk about versus man coverage Mike, then it's again, yeah,
do they have that one guy that can definitely just
go out and win. Probably not, but even versus zone,
I feel like there needs to be and again this
is purely from tape study. I think there needs to
be a more expansive element to what they do with
their pass game versus zone. I think it's pretty d

(01:17:01):
I don't think they do enough with it given the
fact that they have a great quarterback. So I'm curious
if the bye week where teams do a lot of
self scouting, that's one of the main things teams do
during their bye week. I'm very curious to see what
they look like today because Carolina does not have a
bad defense, by the way, well.

Speaker 2 (01:17:19):
Because that's the thing. It's curiosity that defense is pretty solid.
But they might just try to play keep away because
the Bills defense has been a problem against the run. Yeah,
so you might just see an awful lot of Dowbell
and Chuba Hubbard and see if they can't keep Josh
Allen on the sideline.

Speaker 3 (01:17:36):
Yeah, for a team that you know has Josh Allen,
and I know they get a lot of run after
catch and those plays do count, and Shakira is phenomenal
run after catch, but there's not a lot of explosive
plays at the intermediate levels. They don't really run a
lot of those kinds of routes. So, because the last
thing you want when you feel like you're better than

(01:17:57):
the team you're playing and there's no question Buffalo will
feel that way for sure. The last thing you want
is to be in tight games late third quarter, fourth quarter,
where one play good or bad, can change the game. Now, granted,
they for the most part average thirty points a game,
so some people might be listening to this thinking, well,
you don't know what you're talking about. I'm just going
by what the tape shows me. They have a great

(01:18:20):
quarterback who very often can get them out of trouble.
No question, he can make any kind of play at
any time. But it's hard to live that way every
single week. Sometimes that doesn't happen.

Speaker 2 (01:18:31):
Well, it's one of the big things we try to
do here in the two hours, I think in terms
of you know, the charter of the show and what
we're doing is it's not just box score reading and
right mental scores, right. I mean you can look at
a team that's five and two or six and one
and still see the warts.

Speaker 3 (01:18:47):
Well, coaches still blame me. Yeah, when, by the way,
when a team wins, even if they win forty to ten,
and you know this, Mike, a coach never comes in
the next day and says, hey, guys, we were great
this week. We have nothing to work on. That never happens.

Speaker 2 (01:18:59):
Yeah, they're not walking into film review and said, you
know what, burn the tape, let's have ice cream instead.

Speaker 3 (01:19:04):
No, it's not the way it works, and it's never
the way it works, believe me.

Speaker 2 (01:19:08):
Ye quick note, Drake London was added on Saturday with
a hip injury. He's going to be a game time decision.
So taking that up till kickoff. The guys on countdown
to kickoff, we'll have that for you. Final one is
the Buccaneers and the Saints. Saints have been plucky.

Speaker 1 (01:19:23):
Rattler's been entertaining to me.

Speaker 2 (01:19:25):
In spots, but for the Buccaneers, it's really more just
the way the offense has had to operate without the
component parts. Now Evan's lost with the collarbone, Godwin and
Bucky Irving's still out, so still more Abukah and Rashad White.

Speaker 3 (01:19:42):
Yeah, I'm waiting for McMillan to come back. I really
like that kid coming out of college, and he looked
toward the end of last year it looked like he
was really coming on. He's been out longer than I
think was anticipated, so more serious. But I was not
surprised by what happened in Detroit last week. They've been
playing really well. They've been winning a a lot toward
the end of games. I love Baker, I love the

(01:20:02):
way he plays, I love how decisive he is. But
you know, they're missing so many pieces and it's just
hard to keep playing that way.

Speaker 1 (01:20:09):
It's tough.

Speaker 2 (01:20:10):
There were just a couple of throws last week. It's
like he's got him, he's got oh, he's over overshot him.
You know, some of those heroics. You just get used
to him making those throws.

Speaker 3 (01:20:18):
Yeah, it can't be great every week. Sometimes you just
miss some throws and that's what happens.

Speaker 2 (01:20:23):
Fantastic stuff as always, Greg, I appreciate the two hours
of conversation with that.

Speaker 3 (01:20:28):
A great time, Mike.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
Running through next week four teams on buy. We'll get
back after it. Enjoy the games. We'll talk to you'
all next week at Great Coachell at Swallowing Dome.

Speaker 1 (01:20:37):
Countdown to Kickoff is next