2024 Week 6 Recap from London

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're always on Pacific time,
or at least that's helping me forget that. It's two
fifteen in the morning in London as we start the
show in the beautiful talkSPORT studios. So lucky today to
be joined by Ali Connelly fresh off is amazing debut

(00:30):
preview show performance, Phoebe Scheckter straight from the airwaves at
Sky Sports, and Will Gavin, who I believe lives here
at Talksports.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Literally, I've left the studio in seven years, so it's
a delight to be back with other people because Coffidy
gets lonely at this time on a Monday morning.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
This place is impressive and I love this foursome that
we have. There is no one I would rather be
in a car with at one point thirty in the
morning on the way to the studio than Phoebe sector Like.
We love honking so much about football and ourselves that
we actually talked the whole way here after doing Sky
Sports all day.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
It is lovely to be here with you.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
We were also at Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium about twelve hours ago.

Speaker 5 (01:13):
I was going to say three different locations today for
the win from the stadium. I mean, I don't know
if I'm okay to bring this up and with your fans.
You took a motorcycle to sky and then we took
a car. So planes, trains and automobiles is occurring today.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yes, and we will get to that. We won't bore
the people at the top, but we'll talk about that later.
We're going to talk about the Bears impressive win today.
We were all at that game, but we're not going
to start with that game because we got to start
with Ali's favorite game.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
Here Washington Baltimore. Let's hit it.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Hev me all over to the back field.

Speaker 4 (01:48):
He'll get the carry up the middle.

Speaker 6 (01:49):
Big hole potch down for the King.

Speaker 7 (01:53):
Derek Henry strikes again and the Ravens extender lead.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
That was Darry Sandusky of w b a L.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Dereck Henry on a day where it felt like he
wasn't even that big a part of the game plan,
wasn't that big a part of the win?

Speaker 4 (02:12):
And then I looked up.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
At the end of the game and he has twenty
four carries for one hundred and thirty two yards. It
is amazing what this offense is doing. Everyone is looking fantastic.
Let's start with you, Alie. I almost am surprised looking
at the final score that they only ended up with
thirty points in a day where it just felt like
they could have kept playing this game and the Commanders

(02:34):
were not gonna stop them or catch up.

Speaker 8 (02:36):
Yeah, you get Zay Flowers in the first half where
it gets what nine catches in the first half and
then nothing the rest of the way. And Henry you
mentioned with running the ball, the huge kind of game
changing aspect he brings to the offenses. The after the
tackle stuff is just as never ever a bad down
to run Derek Henry. I think he's up to now
full games this season with thirty yards over expectation. I

(02:58):
don't know what an expectation could be for Derek frankly,
but next gen comes up with those stats. Last season,
Greg only one player at four games all season, Christy McCaffrey.
Henry as full already this season. And so I you've
mentioned this before, what is the option to stop these
guys when they're trying to run the ball.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
What can you possibly do?

Speaker 8 (03:17):
The idea of picking between Lamar has the ball or
Henry has the ball. Now the passing game is expending.
There's just no simple way to stop.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah, the linebackers for Washington, Frankie Luvu, Jordan Rodrieg's favorite
player who's been playing great all year, rendered almost irrelevant
in this game.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
And then they picked on Bobby Wagner. I thought of
dec amount.

Speaker 3 (03:35):
Also.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
I apologize Ali because I went around the room and
we did the little hey, how you going, and I
didn't include you, And I gotta say, like, like your
hair is it's better than Kirk Cousins.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
In the morning.

Speaker 8 (03:49):
You saw me zoning out after fourteen hour a day.
I'll give this guy a break.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Well, it was kind were you like, we're watching this game,
this was our game on Sky Sports Phoebe, and like,
is your takeaway here more about how unstoppable Baltimore is
or some concern with Washington?

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Where are you going?

Speaker 5 (04:08):
I think it's about how unstoppable the Ravens are right now.
I mean, to Allie's point, they were finding ways to
win every single time they were on the on the field.
And you know, the first half with a definite z
flower show. Then you give to the second half mark
Andrew starts stepping up. You start just finding ways that
they are attacking you and Derrick Henry. I know it

(04:29):
didn't feel like he did much, but they're finding ways
to utilize him, whether it's outside of the pocket, you know,
straight downhill runs and he's always wanted to punch it
in the end zone.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
Four hundred and eighty four totally yards in this game,
and Lamar Jackson afterwards called it a pick your poison offense,
and I think that's before with this bottomore team, when
we've seen them and expected them to go on deep
runs and then they've stumbled in the playoffs. There's been
a lack of balance, there's been a lack of weapons,
There's always been something to point to. It feels like
there's no more excuses for this offense at this point.
It feels like they're going to be able to attack

(05:00):
you in so many different ways. But I have to say,
on the other side of the ball, from what I
saw of Jadean Daniels today, both the touchdown throws I
thought were absolutely sensational to Terry McLaurin, brilliant timing throws,
particularly that fourth down, and you know, yes, we should
be pouring praise on the bottom or Ravens here, but
Jadan Daniels still continues to impress and probably his first

(05:21):
time going up against a proper heavyweight on the other side.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, there is there is a sense with this team
every week when they're facing a new kind of test.

Speaker 4 (05:28):
Last year it was last week.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Rather it was the Browns defense, which obviously presents certain
challenges in every week. It's like another piece of evidence
that yeah, this has stay in power. This is a
real thing. We know the defense just doesn't have the
personnel and maybe not the scheme to overcome that personnel.
But Daniel's doing next level things as a rookie quarterback.

(05:52):
Keeps happening, and this is a case where he didn't
really get help from his running game. I think we've
seen the running games dried up, especially without Brian rape
But I don't think Brian Robinson would.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
Have saved them today.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
The running game is kind of stagnated other than his
scrambles the last couple of weeks.

Speaker 8 (06:06):
Yeah, and even in the passing game, this was one
of those My guy Cliff Cliff comes into this game.
You know it's big TV spot. He knows it's a
Lamar Daniel's show. He wants to show off, make sure
people remember Cliff Kingsby. Some of the situational play calling
was really quite off, and I just didn't feel like
Daniels has put in very good spots to succeed. It
was really just on him. This was one of those
ones where it's like this guy has the special stuff.

(06:28):
It was one of those anticipation throw games, go and
make your own play games. It was not one where
he's getting a bunch of help from the line who's
played really well for most of the season, receivers springing
open all over the place. It was him and Terry
McLaurin in certain spots and tended him just go on
and making plays.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
Ollie, are you saying we might have overreacted to the
first few weeks of the season as this Cliff Kingsbury renaissance.

Speaker 8 (06:49):
Cliff Kingsbury great play designer, not always a great play caller.
He is a guy who I've mentioned before likes to
show off early in the season. Here's all my bag
of goodies, and I would like him sometimes to pass
over the year all the different stuff. He brought a
lot of the goodies today and they had no chunts
when there was no blocking.

Speaker 5 (07:06):
Go from I think that what happened too, was Jayden
Daniels did a really nice job of responding to what
the Ravens showed him. Right, So we talked about the
first half there was a lot of those those passes
outside of the numbers, which we hear so much about.
And then second half they challenge him and he's throwing
over the middle, he's finding zach Ertz, he's finding Noah Brown,
and I think that just goes to show the versatility.
He didn't have to use his legs that much either,

(07:29):
which was nice to see because he almost became the
top rusher for a second there based off of, you know,
really not having Brian Robinson.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yet he ended up just twenty two yards on the
ground and that was the top rusher for Washington. It
is kind of crazy that a rookie quarterback is leading
one of, if not the best offenses in football with
zach Ertz, Noah Brown, Yes, Terry McLaurin, who's one of
the best receivers in the league, and Zakias as his
top guys. Echoler making plays in the passing game and

(07:58):
this could have been a blowout. Baltimore ended up with
twenty eight first downs, four hundred and eighty four yards.
The early interception was the worst throw Lamar Jackson made
all day, But other than that, he was spot on
three hundred and twenty three yards and twenty six attempts
and it could have been much more one sided, but
you mentioned it. Ali Jayden was just making special throws

(08:18):
where a couple of the third downs to McLaurin on
the outside where there's really like no window and he's
hitting it, he's looking off defenders. It was a back
shoulder for one of the touchdowns. Like it's all just
awesome stuff. And it's a wide open division and they're
four and two and they still kind of feel like
the team to beat, and the Ravens are maybe the
team to beat in the AFC four straight wins. Travis

(08:40):
Jones has another big day, like Bateman and Andrews finally
do a little What gets in the way of this
Ravens team at least? Do you think during the regular season.

Speaker 8 (08:49):
I can't really see anything. The only thing I would
have thought of coming into the year was would the
defensive front really hold up? Did they have a special
pass rusher? Could they get that? Can you be a
team that blitz and sims your way through an entire season.
We haven't really had a full body of work of
these style of defenses playing over a full season, particularly
going into a postseason having great success. But we've now
got a Deafa Alway who has become one of the

(09:12):
top preminent pass rushs in the league, seemingly out of nowhere.
They've been flashed in the past. Now he's developed into
being a true every downthroat.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
I almost keep throwing it to Ali because I'm just
like looking straight at him and and I'm intimidating a
little bit. Will by your your radio voice, you were
you were going to do this, and I'm hearing myself
in my ears and it's like listening to Tom Brady
or something for three hours.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
And this is with my voice feeling pretty rough after
the four hour calls though, which Ollie did join us
on on Talk Sport. Look this whole when zach Or
brings in danps as like a kind of an advisor,
and it did start to look as Alli was talking about,
like it worked sure that this was going to be
a sustainable thing. I just can't figure out if today
was a case of Brian Robinson was out, Cliff Kingsbury

(09:58):
didn't call a great game and that's why they were
so stout up front, or whether this was a really
good performance from this run defense, which hasn't necessarily shown
up so far this season. They've got the Bucks up next,
which I think we saw how powered their offense can
be earlier today, and so that may be a better
test for them. That for me is probably the place

(10:18):
that they fall over. You know, Kyle van Noy, who
has had a sensational start to the season but has
been their best player on the defensive side of the ball.
Is that really sustainable? Is not having those very special But.

Speaker 4 (10:31):
I did it for a whole year with them before
they are crazy.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
When Yannick and Gakway had a key sack in this game,
I was like, they've done it again. They've signed a
guy no one wanted in the middle of the season
and he's gonna end up having some big play that
wins them a game in the division around.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
It's just what they do.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
And one thing we talked about Phoebe was the play
action and the under center game. At the beginning of
the season, we said it's almost like they have two
offenses and they're not really married up. And now it's like, oh,
they almost have two offenses and both of them are awesome.

Speaker 5 (11:04):
Yeah, and they've done a really nice job of planning
it out too, right, so you're looking at what they're doing.
They might go in have a deep pass, they usually
would return to the run. They mix it in a
little bit. You got some nice play action. They found
it really great ways to move the ball around and
again utilizing Derek Henry, they didn't even have to really
use Justice Hill. I mean, he's pretty much coming in
as a pass blocker at this at this rate. But

(11:27):
I like what they're doing. I think that Lamar's enjoying
it out there. I think he wants to have a
cleaner game. I think we all want to see them
have a cleaner game. But it doesn't phase them in
the fact that, yeah, they're getting turnovers, but they're still
finding ways to win.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
Ultimately, Yeah, they look awesome. I feel I was a
little nervous before this was like two thirty. We haven't
all ever done a show together. Well, this is your
first time on NFL Daily. That's very excited.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
And I gotta say, I think we're gonna kill this show.
We're gonna knock it out. Let's go to where they
were killing it in Dallas.

Speaker 9 (12:03):
Lions from the road forty eight for the first down,
Golf up under center, single back Montgomery.

Speaker 10 (12:08):
Jared takes tosses to Montgomery, flips it back to Amed Rock.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
He gives it to Golf. He's gonna throw down field.

Speaker 4 (12:13):
He's got Laporta missed the grab.

Speaker 9 (12:15):
Twenty fifteen ten five ye touchdown Detroit Lyons help.

Speaker 10 (12:20):
Out a little raffle dazzle in the lone star state
fifty two yards.

Speaker 4 (12:26):
That was Dan Miller on w X Y T yes.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Jared Goff on one of the roughly seventeen trick plays
that the Lions decided to call as they got the
ultimate revenge on that nonsense game that they lost in
Dallas a year ago forty seven to nine. I thought
it'd be one sided if you listen to the pick
Show with Neil Reynolds, but I never thought it would

(12:52):
be this one sided. Them just dropping a hammer. Jared
Goff completing eighteen passes once again this week, this time
for three hundred and fifteen yards and three touchdowns. Both
sides of the ball dominated up front for the Lions.
Phoebe and after this game, Like, are what is your

(13:15):
biggest Like, what's the best part of the Detroit Lions
right now?

Speaker 5 (13:18):
The best part, my goodness. I love the defense. For me,
I love how much they have grown and developed. We've
talked about it a bunch earlier. This tandem of safeties
that they have going on, Brian Branch, the way that
they stepped up Kirby Joseph, the way that they're able
to play and read off each other and take chances
because of that trust. I mean, they're being opportunistic and

(13:40):
I think it's so exciting to watch because this is
what they needed. We've asked for the secondary to be
kind of bolstered. You bring in Terry and Arnold. I
think they've done a great job of putting it together.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
It's really interesting. We call it with Brian Brownsch at
the Super Bowl this year, he and Aidenholmler were kind
of doing some well, you know, this is what we
do talk sports check out. But look, he was really
down on his own rookie season that actually wasn't keen
on his own performances, and we talked about how he
grew into the year, but but realistically he thought he
could do a lot more and I do love the

(14:10):
back end, but we are talking about this game without
talking about kind of one of the most significant moments,
which is Aiden Hutchson goes out of the game. It's
a broken leg. He goes immediately into surgery. He's going
to end up staying in Dallas for a period of
time and missing you would imagine the rest of the
season and.

Speaker 11 (14:27):
As much okay is ever now, Yeah, I don't want
to like my Hostina Bill Well, you didn't mention the
catastrophic injury.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
That kind of put a cloud over this whole thing,
like we were going to get to that. But we
can talk about the win first a little bit.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
It's fine. It was a phenomenal performance and they go
into Dallas and we're going to talk about what an
absolute stink show the Dallas Cowboys are. But I just
Phoebe brought up the defense and there's so much to
love about it. But I do worry about upfront without aid. Okay.

Speaker 1 (14:58):
So yeah, when we saw that in and they show
those replays in slow motion and they didn't show it
much on the broadcast, and yeah, it's horrifying. It's horrible,
and the I don't even think it's worth speculating because
you just don't know what these injuries, but it obviously
looked like a clear fracture, and you just hope it's
the type of injury that is as a lot less

(15:21):
long term in terms of what he's going to be
like when he comes back from the injury as possible,
and that he can just fully recover. And there's no
sense speculating on that. But we can't speculate on this
defense moving forward. I think if the Lions had an issue,
it might have been the lack of pass rush depth
after him. That it's really just Selene McNeil and they
have injuries. Marcus Davenport has been out. Derek Barnes should

(15:45):
be back, who's a linebacker, but they certainly use him
to rush. I mean he might be a starting edge
player for this team. Now, Like, what is your concern,
Allie about what this team looks like moving forward?

Speaker 8 (15:54):
Yeah, it's obviously a major concern. You lose the best
pass rusher in the NFL through the opening weeks the season.
The only thing you would say, maybe I've said it,
is they've been so good in the secondary, which I
didn't expect it to coalesce that quickly. And hutch did
his face a pretty rough slate of starting players in
the NFL. Most have been rotational backup guys that he's
gone to work on. And you can go and find

(16:15):
Ed Rusher's on the trade block. You can call everyone
up and say, hey, sarm Reddick, do you fancy doing
six weeks for us? It is a thing you can
find and maybe patch together, bringing in a vet off
the street trading for someone and they will never give
you what Aiden Hutchson does, where you can kind of
scheme some things up and bring in a couple of
veteran guys. If they were a mess on the back
end and lost Hutchinson, it would obviously be a huge concern.

(16:37):
But I think they've been so good on the back
end that they might be able to find a way
to piece it together.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
And immediately thinking teams out of the mix, like who
would be available?

Speaker 4 (16:45):
Is that area Smith that could be one?

Speaker 3 (16:47):
I immediately saw a speculated trade list from a Lion's
Beat writer that included Max Crosby, Okay, Trey Hendrickson, Like,
those are teams out of them?

Speaker 4 (16:58):
I request the trade before the season.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
The Bengals would have to fall pretty far out of
it for them to consider that. They also, I don't
think have made a transaction in the months between September
and January since like nineteen seventy five. They don't really
get off their asset and do that. But there could
there could be some players out there that is fair
to point out. And yes, yeah, the secondary tearing on
Arnold with some nice plays. This was an example I

(17:24):
thought of what Mike McCarthy has been criticized for not
creating easy passes even against a team that plays so
much manned defense. There there wasn't a lot of separation
and they weren't completing those throws Dak Prescott tonight.

Speaker 3 (17:39):
No connection issues resurfaced with Ceedee Lamb in this game
that we've seen time and time again, continued attempts to
force throws into tight windows which just weren't working. Terrible
inception thing. It's five turnovers on the day in the end,
and I just I know, when you're chasing a game,
obviously you're going to have to try and make big
plays to have to go after those big moments. But

(18:03):
just every single time, the decision making from Dak Prescott,
who I think pre snap is one of the best
quarterbacks in the NFL. But that just the decision making
once the ball is in his hands just wasn't there
today at all.

Speaker 5 (18:15):
I think there's an element of that, but I still
think there are a lot of issues with this offensive
line and it's not necessarily giving him the time. He's
having to throw into these tight windows. He's one of
the top quarterbacks that has to do that in the league,
and I think it doesn't help when you don't have
a run game at all. I mean, you look at
what Ezekiel Elliott was I say able to do. I

(18:36):
mean he had eight carries today an average of two
point one. I mean, you just can't survive like that.
And if you have no run game, then the defense
knows that you have to pass. Because they fell behind
in points so quickly, I mean, there's naturally gonna be
pressure and the Lions are able to do whatever they
want essentially because you're constantly playing form behind the sticks.

Speaker 1 (18:57):
They were so desperate, you know, they had to go
for a and there was that Branch interception early, which
was a great play where I think he baited Dak
Prescott in it. Branch made it look like he was
gonna cover the defender in the flat and Dak fell
for it. And that's amazing that Branch is pulling off
plays like that, But you weren't thrilled with some of
the routes CD ran. They also went for that fourth

(19:19):
and two in their own and they had to at
that point they're down I think it was fourteen or
seventeen points. It's like early third quarter, and it's basically
the game's over because we know we're not going to
make any stops. We have to go for fourth downs
in our own and and yeah, I'm with you. I
don't think it's been the best CD LAMB season so
far either.

Speaker 5 (19:35):
No, And I get your caring frustration with you, but
you're fourth and two. You know that you are the
guy they've paid you to be that guy, and you
do a slow, kind of heavy release off the line.
You've got the defender sitting at the sticks the whole time.
You don't even make him move or or you know,
have that like explosiveness that we need from you, and
then the ball gets thrown and nothing's carried in. I mean,

(19:57):
and that happened multiple times throughout the day.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Phoebe loves herself some football, so I like it when
she kind of puts on her Ali Connolly.

Speaker 4 (20:05):
Hat a little more critical.

Speaker 8 (20:08):
Yeah, I mean we spoke about this in the preview.
Everything they do on offense just looks like hard work,
every single part of it. And I love Dak probably
more than anyone, but missus Prescott. I really believe he is.
I've called him before. He's the closest thing we have
to Peyton Manning pre snap as Will were seeing, he
just loves to go out there to pick people apart,
and he is a true football genius. But there comes
a time when it's like we need some easy buttons.

(20:29):
There's nothing in that offense that is easy. Even when
they have they try and put different receivers out there,
the commitment the effort is so poor. They have to
pull explosive guys off the field to put not explosive
guys on they think we'll actually try. It's a huge,
huge problem. Everything about the offense, from designed to details,
to effort and intensity, the talent and technique, it's all

(20:50):
so lacking.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
And at a time when the league is all about simplifying, right,
it's all about even just presenting quarterbacks with his read one,
two three, we're not even gonna make you read the defense.
We're going to make it so easy for you within
the structure, and Dak Prescott's being told, no, you have
to do literally everything.

Speaker 8 (21:06):
The most embarrassing part of the game is just watching
the other side of the field and seeing all the creativity,
all the movement, all the effortlessness. To the point where
has there ever been a team play in their own
building get hammered the way that they did. And this
has happened now multiple times. It's four games in a
row they've been hammered. And then you have a team
the Lions, in the fourth quarter to say, our only

(21:28):
job is to get one of our tackles a touchdown.
That's all we care about.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
And you were on a Jerry Jones beat. It was indeed,
please give me the report.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
This is Jerry jones eighty second birthday today, and this
is coming off the back of the Cowboys allowing one
hundred and sixty seven points over their last four home games.
So it's not a happy time in Jerry world right now.
And he was asked afterwards about the potential for a
head coaching change. I'm not going to do the accident
because it would be horrible at any time of day,
but particularly at half two in the morning or whatever
it is. Jones said, I haven't even considered that. I'm

(22:00):
not considering that, so we're clear. And when he was
told he had made it in season change before, he
bristled and responded, do you think I'm an idiot? I'm
not so, Jerry Jones in fine Jerry Jones form afterwards,
going and addressing the media, and this is their worst
defeat in the Jerry Jones era at home. The last
time they lost, the last time they lost by this

(22:22):
many points was the year before Jerry Jones bought the team,
So right now he could be understood if he's having
some pretty tough conversations with Mike McCarthy and the rest
of that coaching staff.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
The positive spin is, for as many issues as they've had,
they've sort of managed the season well enough that they're
three and three at this point. They got that win
in New York, which is a division whin, they got
that fourth down pickup against the Stealers, just that at
least there's hope if you're Jerry Jones, the eternal optimist.
At three and three, the bigger issue is if they
lose to the teams that are their biggest rivals, or

(22:55):
were at least in the NFC. You're going to San Francisco,
then you're in in Atlanta for Philly and washing Houston
and at Washington. It is a tough slate coming up.
So everyone's gonna be on Mike McCarthy watch. We get it,
but it's it's not gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
I don't think going into a bye week as well.
This is the bye week with San Francisco.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
Yeah, but that's what I mean.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
Wins, those wins, Those wins saved him his job. I
believe for sure he's gonna give him a chance against
those rival teams and for Michael Parsons to come back.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
But they're in a very difficult situation. Before we move
on from this.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
Game, at least we should just give it a little
love to like the line, this is the game we're
gonna probably gonna send the most time, we watched it
very closer. I mean, Montgomery going twelve for eighty, Jumior
gives twelve for sixty three. They're just leaning on Deffinitly,
it was like Ben Johnson was just cycling through the team. Oh,
we haven't gotten a mon Ross Saint Brown a touchdown
late in this game. Let let's get it to him.
And then Saint Brown for some reason just sprints to

(23:49):
the bench and starts screaming into the air. I don't
know what he was so worked up about, but I
loved him. Oh, let's get the deep shot to Jamison
Williams after he has a drop early. Let's have Tim
Patrick make it insane. One Hen did catch early where
he comes back for the balls. Ciam Laporta, who has
been quiet our season, only has one catch, but it
goes for fifty two yards out of beautiful thrist and
it's like everything is just beautiful right now in Ben

(24:10):
Jonson then, like they just feel like they're in the
fourth year of their tenure, and it's like, if you
could write a book out of how to rebuild an organization,
this is it.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
Almost everything is beautiful, and Ben, You're right. So the
only thing that he was so desperate to get alignment
a touchdown after what happened against the Cowboys last season,
and he tried it four separate times, and each time
they got called for a penalty or something went wrong
on the play, to the point at which he was
just stood on the sideline looking bewildered after another one

(24:43):
got called back. I felt bad Ben Jonson was clearly
looking to do something, and this is a league where
you're not meant to run at the score and you're
not meant to embarrass other teams. You felt like this
was a bit of an emotional win for the Lions
after last year, and I feel like Ben Jones was
just a little bit disappointed to not get the hands
all in the hands of a big man.

Speaker 4 (25:00):
Love that they kept going for that.

Speaker 1 (25:01):
If that's the topic on the Dumb Debate shows on
Monday morning, I'll be so annoyed. But I thought you
were going to point out, actually there was something bad
that happened for the team. It was the catastrophic injury
to the heartbeat of the team. That's like the number
two overall pick in the draft.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
Watch.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
Yeah, I forgot to before we go.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
I do want to just get your guys thoughts on
Tom Brady after six weeks, because this was the most
locked in I was to a Tom Brady performance.

Speaker 8 (25:29):
I've been on Tom Brady beat Watch. Essentially most important
player in the history of the game modern wise steps
into a booth gets paid, Yes, how much money by
Uncle Rupert to come on cold games. The first week
was horrifying, boldline, embarrassing. He got really, really good, really quick.
No one noticed. Now the voice is a concern. Certainly

(25:50):
the voice is slightly grating, but he is that.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
Can be overcome just charm and one liners.

Speaker 8 (25:57):
It's fine, he's really settled into them. I'm allowing him
to nerd out over football. When he's nerding out of
a football he is as good as it gets with
anyone in communicating when they force him to do football cliche,
let's talk guy. He's brutal. You can see he's playing
a character he's watched on TV. So we get these
like four or five snapshots a game of Tom Brady

(26:18):
being Tom Brady, which is, let me just be a
football dog, and he's really good at it. The more
they can do that, the more they can maximize that.
The moys is best.

Speaker 5 (26:25):
But surely there's an element that he is still growing
into this role. Just I get it. They've played him
a lot of money. Everyone thinks he should be wonderful,
but it doesn't happen like that. I mean, all of
us have been in that situation where you're building chemistry
with the person next to you you're trying to figure
out so you don't have these awkward pauses. I think
he's trying to figure out who is he as a broadcaster,

(26:45):
because that can't exactly be the same guy when he
was on the field, and that's all he's known for
so long. So I think he's going to keep getting better.
Like you said, he's very coachable, right, I mean that's
why he's been so successful. So he's going to be
self scouting. He's going to be doing all this work
on him his own to make himself.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
I mean, we're doing it right now on our first
try as a fourth and it's not taking us.

Speaker 8 (27:04):
A while in the world now, I'm buying all the stock.
I think he's gonna be a super stuff. Someone who
is that homicidely competitive is going to go home every night.
He's going to fix the voice, he's going to watch
the tape. He's going to make himself be the best.
You got Romo hitting the links, you know, five days
a week, Brady is going to be in the booth
at home practicing. U. Okay, He's gonna be great. So

(27:25):
today was the day that convinced me that I anger, right.
I think there are certain things I'll like other guys
more for or less. He's still got a ways overall
to catch up with, like a Greg Olsen to me.
But today I was like, oh, he is going to
be really good at this.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
And I think part of it was that he enjoyed
today watching championship level offense. He was like, finally someone
who meets my standards, Like I can accept these guys.
These guys are worthy of me watching them, I am
enjoying great football.

Speaker 3 (27:57):
Yeah, after he'd have to sit and watch the Cowboys
from the first five weeks of the season, he was
excited to see a team who legitimately have a Super
Bowl possibility. Look, I think for me and I'm with
Ollie when he gets nerdy, I love it. But we
are a room of four nerds, so like, of course
we're going to love that. I'd like just a little
bit more kind of honesty slash reflection on his own career.

(28:20):
There was a brilliant moment in week two when Jalen
Brooks lost his footing on what was a wide open
throw and ended up not catching the ball, and Kevin
Burkhart turned to him when was like, Tom, would you
go back to him immediately on the next play, and
these stock answer is yet, you go back to your guy.
You have to trust them, you have to prove that

(28:41):
you trust me. You have to build up their confidence.
And Bradi just went, no, that guy's not seeing the ball.
The rest of the game, just was honest about it.
I'm not throwing to him again for the rest of
the set.

Speaker 8 (28:49):
Welcome to Bethel Dance in his career And the best
example of that was the Baker Mayfield one, because they
had a pre set ready to go. They did it
in the meeting and they had the graphic ready to life.
We're gonna throw to tom what you're gonna say, and
they figured it out, we'll go to camera, it's Kevin
and it's Tommy and Cameron will do that. But before
they could get to it, they mentioned it on air.
He let out how he really felt, which was passive,

(29:09):
aggressive and pissed off and annoyed. The Baker Mayfield said
that and then was anadyne when they actually threw it
to the part they'd pre planned. So if he can
just let slip out more how he really feels, I
don't know if you can do it. When you become
a team owner. Maybe he's just gonna be watching and
seeing Ben Jonson. I'll hire him for the Raiders. Maybe
that's what he was thinking in the third quarter. But
that real guy who's in there, who is part dork, partner,

(29:30):
part business guy, I think if he can just let
it come out more often, he's gonna be great.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
You forgot like the seventy percent like pathological killer, which
I like when that comes out to. So, yes, we're
not gonna do a like a five minute Brady recap
every week, but maybe every six weeks we'll just check
in out him. All right, let's take at one quick break.
We're gonna come back. I'm gonna talk a little Saints Bucks. Yes,
the agenda, how did it too?

Speaker 2 (30:04):
Or second down five promotion Godwin play action fake Bayfield,
looks downfield, throws up to caught ball on the left side.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
Put across the fifty to the forty five is Godwin.
He breaks another.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
Tackle, Godwaight down the sideline upside of the numbers to the ten, five,
three two one touchdowns.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
T have a bay Chris.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Godwin fought through a tackle, King, got his balance and
scoots fifty five yards to the promised lamp.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
If it's Sunday, you know it's Dean Deckerhoff on w
f US. Another victory for the Go Go Buccaneers offense.
They put a fifty burger on Dennis Allen in the Superdome.
Chris Godwin showing up week after week ends up with
eleven catches, one hundred and twenty five yards and two touchdowns.

(30:50):
We went into this game, Will thinking Spencer Rattler, and
I left this game thinking, Dennis Allen and this defense
that they've been building for so long is no match
for one of the best offenses in the league, the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
Yea, I think your buddies at the Saints block party
aren't gonna be happy for what they saw from the
Saints defense today because Tampa.

Speaker 4 (31:13):
Bakolu joining me on Thursday night.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
Not to cut you off, sorry, Will, but Thursday night
could be a funeral for Dennis Allen with Sean Payton
coming into the building. So I am looking forward to
that post game with them on NFL Daily no matter
what happens. For their sake, I hope the Saints win,
but if they don't, it'll be probably a better show.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
Look, this was a super fun game. Fifty one twenty
seven is slightly slightly harsh, I would say on Spencer
Ratler and then Orleans Saints twenty fourth coarter points for
Tampa Bay put a late kind of hurting on them,
but five hundred and ninety four yards of total offense,
and Baker Mayfield had the most Baker Mayfield of days
today opening drive five to five fifty eight yards, brilliant

(31:56):
touchdown strike. I was like, this is the Baker that
has come out in last year or so, had really
shown out. In the end, four touchdowns, three interceptions for
his three hundred and twenty five yards. I would say
only one of them was truly on him, was a
truly bad throw, but otherwise a really good all round
performance from Baker Mayfield. But it was the rushing. It
was the performance on the ground. It was John Tucker

(32:18):
coming out and having fourteen carries for one hundred and
thirty six yards and a touchdown. It was a total
rushink stats number of what they had three hundred and
seventeen in the end, two hundred and seventy seven yards
on the ground. Astonishing.

Speaker 8 (32:32):
Yeah, and they've really struggled to run the ball for
much of the year. This is the first game last
week they started to get it going a little bit.
This one was where they were pairing the efficiency with
the explosiveness. I think they ended up with ten explosive
runs over the course of the game. I think they
had ones of thirty one, thirty twenty nine big gashing
runs and Dennis Allen, if nothing else, will be furious
that that team was pushed off the ball like that.

(32:54):
Even the way they played defense, bunch of defensive backs,
tons of dime. It is built structurally that we at
least stop the run, then we kind of get funky
on the back and then try and force turnovers. They
got the turnovers, but they couldn't stop the run.

Speaker 4 (33:05):
I know I'm paying attention more to the Saints than
most teams.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
When while Brian Brant was having that game, I was
thinking the Saints drafted Isaiah Faski over Brian Brandt at
a moment where they really could have used that position.

Speaker 5 (33:20):
Oh hugely.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
I mean it was.

Speaker 5 (33:22):
It was definitely a situation where they need to be
stacking their defense a little bit more. But even just
looking at the game overall, I mean, just going to
the Saints for a second, the fact that they scored
twenty seven points in the second quarter, and that was
all that they scored in the second quarter. That Tampa
Bay let that happen. But then they said, no, we've

(33:44):
had enough of this. This is not going to carry
on anymore.

Speaker 3 (33:48):
That was really what was noticeable from Spencer Ratler's day.
And it was a tough day in terms of chrys
Olav goes out with with a concussion on that fantastic
defensive play. The fumble was returned for the touchdown, but
in the first half, ten of thirteen one hundred and
thirty seven yards had the touchdown as well across the Saints'
first six strives. And then it felt like at the
half Todd Bowls went sorry, why are.

Speaker 4 (34:10):
We getting his spy?

Speaker 3 (34:12):
Like, why are we making a fifth round rookie do
this to us? Dialed up a ton of interesting pressures
forced him into going eleven of twenty three with two
interceptions in the second half. And ye, he was doing
it while they were taking a Rasija heat away down
the field while he had no Chris Lava. You know
that the guy who was seeming to see most of
his looks was the fellow fifth round rookie Bub means

(34:35):
what a name that is. By the way, five catches,
forty five yards and a touchdown for him. Overall, I
thought for a first game for a fifth round rookie Spence,
the rattler did enough for me to say, Okay, this
guy could be something in the NFL.

Speaker 8 (34:48):
Yeah, certainly, maybe one of these long term career backup
swing start guys comes into a spot and you get
a three week run where you're all really excited about
its rattler ball season. You can move around and create.
This is why I will always go down with Todd.
He has never met an answer to a question that
has not just let me blitz more. And it was
very clear that you could see just seeping through the
screen was Ball saying, I am gonna light this young

(35:10):
guy up. It's annoying me right now. And they sent
plenty of heat in the first half too, but he
just decided it's over. I'm sending everything. And it was
pretty clear too that Ratler was told stop taking off early,
see it, read it, look it, throw it. And he
was actually playing efficiently as you mentioned will early on
and had a few decent scrambles as well, and so
he's sitting in not wanting to move, and balls is
sending all kinds of heat, and you pair the two together,

(35:32):
suddenly you get a bunch of negative plays. But I
thought it was, as you said, for a first outing
against a really tough defensive look, I thought he was impressive.

Speaker 4 (35:40):
Yeah, they need to support him more.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
It was fourteen nothing and all he had done was
throw a completion into a lava where it was a
fumber return and that was just bad luck. But your
defense is not expecting to give up a touchdown on
the first drive. Your defense, which is what the whole
Saland thing is really about, like, Hey, I can't hire

(36:04):
an offensive coordinator. We're going to figure out how to
have an offense that's just good enough. We're going to
play this defense that there's so much continuity in terms
of the scheme goes back practically a decade at this
point with Alan and the players that we're going to
keep ourselves in games. We're going to try to run
the football with Alvin Kamara that certainly dried up over
the last handful of weeks, and we're going to be

(36:26):
a top five defense. So if a division opponent comes
into your building, this is one of the lowest moments
of the Dennis Allen era.

Speaker 4 (36:35):
It just blows my.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
Mind that I did a podcast talking about how great
the Saints were and maybe some Super Bowl hype in
New Orleans and stuff, and that was just a few
weeks ago, and now they're on a long losing streak
with Sean Payton coming into town and they just gave
up fifty points for the first time since the Giants
and Eli Mannon came in.

Speaker 4 (36:58):
I remember this game well. It was a Sunday night
football in October.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
Now, if I get this wrong, Everyone's like, actually, you
didn't remember well, But I'm pretty sure it was a
Sunday night football in October, and I was in Stamford, Connecticut,
just waiting for that game to end so I can
take a car back to the city at like one
in the morning. It reminded me of tonight with that
Lions Cowboys game. Phoebe and we were just like, let's
hurry this thing up with the reviews and everything. A
big moment in the same season. It's a long way

(37:24):
to go, but I do just want to give the
Bucks credit because I just think this offense has been
dockingly consistent and consistently good and now they're getting the
running game involved. And Mike Evan said before the game
that this game wasn't just about them, and I'm sure
it was not lost on anyone with the devastation of
the hurricane this week and they're spending the week in

(37:47):
New Orleans, a city who it almost sounds like familiar
to that it's only a football game, But it's also
awesome they went out and won this game, and this
team has a chance to do something pretty special, which
is win a division again, like they could win at
four straight times, which is crazy.

Speaker 5 (38:05):
Yeah, and it's amazing to see what they've done with
Baker Mayfield over the years. I mean, he is someone
that's really come into his own from when he left
the Rams to coming out to Tampa Bay. I mean,
he's got an incredible crew around him. Like you said,
you get the run game going. That's such a big
part of what they've needed so far. And to run
all over a New Orleans Saints defense that with keeping

(38:26):
them in the games early on as well. So I
think that they have a lot to be proud of.
And I think it's impressive that, you know, this team
want to represent Florida, they want to represent Tampa Bay
and be a beacon of hope essentially, and this is
this is a pretty good way to feel. Fifty one
to twenty seven is a nice ending to this game.

Speaker 3 (38:45):
I also want to give just a bit of a
shout out to the defensive side of the ball in general.
We talked about those blitz in the second half, but
Kelijah Canci comes back, have some time out wrecked the
middle of that offensive line throughout, and they've got so
much kind of great talent on the back end of
their deals, good young talent. But we mentioned the fumble player,
the crystal Abby Tike Smith who made that play also
had an absolute day from himself, and they just keep

(39:08):
seeming to find these gems in the draft. When they
went on that Super Bowl run, yes there was all
the talk about it was Tom Brady and Gronk coming
back and all that excitement on the other side of
the ball, but it was the brilliant drafting they've done
on the back end of the defense that I thought
really won them that Super Bowl, and they just seem
to keep doing it again. So the Bucks are kind
of a team that we're probably not talking about enough
as could have an impact come January.

Speaker 8 (39:28):
Yeah, I worry about the sustainability of them. Defensively. I
don't think the pass rush is a true pass rush.
I mean they're playing today, it's a rookie quarterback. They're
on the third center the scenes. Who is in charge
of figuring out who's going where, who's blocking who? What
are we all doing? Do we even know all the
words and the calls? We've had the three days to
work together, and top Balls is sending six to seven
guys every other play in the second half, so we'll
ruin our fun.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
Sean Tucker had hundred and ninety two yards from squimmage.
Sterling Shepherd had more Russian yards than anyone on the
Dallas Cowboys.

Speaker 4 (39:59):
Sterling's he's back.

Speaker 8 (40:00):
I tried to warn you the Liam Cohen was a
major upgrade of a day of Canalis, and here he's
rolling now. They play with such incredible tempo and that
feel of when to go to things, all the end
the rounds today, all the creativity they get guys wide open.
Baker's playing really well, decisive, taking off and making up
plays with his feet. He has become way more decisive
with Cohen than of almost lush. You.

Speaker 4 (40:21):
I gotta say yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
That gino ish contract they gave Baker was very similar,
where it's like you're not quite a super franchise quarterback,
but you're you're not a mid level guy. It's somewhere
in between. I think it's aging pretty well so far.
There is separation in the NFC South. There are the havelves.
That's the Buccaneers. That's the Falcons, who will get to
in a bit, and then there's the have nots. It's

(40:43):
the Saints and the Panthers. Let's go to Green Bay
where they were having a lot of fun.

Speaker 7 (40:48):
DoD's not a played the motion to the right side
snammed the love under pressure.

Speaker 10 (40:52):
Love looks he's a down the right side, making it testable.
Tip toes into the eight sout play six sat like
desperations through.

Speaker 9 (41:04):
Charge love to his good buddy, throw me up stub
to the Packers twenty yard touchdown pass re established control
this game.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
It's thirty to thirteen, Wayne Laravie of w r n W.
Good buddy he is. It almost felt like when they
dialed up some big playser like, we gotta get Dobbs
some touchdowns today. So he's happy with everyone and they
give him big hugs after the touchdown. Jordan Love finally
has a normal game, at least normal for him, which

(41:36):
is throwing just bonkersly talented throws to his receivers. Jayden Reed,
Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs all get it done. Four touchdown
throws for Jordan Love thirty four to thirteen is the final,
and maybe this Packer season is just kind of settling
into where it should be.

Speaker 3 (41:57):
When they brought him back in Week four and throw
him in against the Vikings and he still clearly didn't
quite look right, and you knew that he was going
up against that Brian Flores defense and all the exciting
stuff that they do, Like there was some little little
bit of kind of almost panic mode of okay, how
has Lafleur managed to scheme up some really amazing performance
out of elite Willis? And then Jordan Love comes back

(42:17):
and looks that bad. This is the Jordan Love that
we saw last year. He still will have those moments
and Ollie or test for this, I'm sure where he'll
make some boneheaded throws and just plays that you just
do not expect a top tier quarterback to make. But
I thought he was sensational today the Romeo Dobs touchdown,
the one we just heard. Ben was one of the
players of the day for me, both in what Love

(42:38):
did but in the catch itself as well, And it
was just fun to see them up and firing again
in an NFC which at the moment, outside of the
Vikings has looked like there's no one grabbing it by
the scruff of the neck. This is a Packers team
who actually finally might be figuring things out.

Speaker 8 (42:53):
Yeah, this was the Love stripping away any of the
ears of the last few weeks here. He has been
throwing it to everyone all over the place, no matter
what since he's returned, and this just kind of trimmed
down some of the fight. He still had some of
the most unbelievable throws of the day. The inbreak to
Doubs that he hits it's between three players at once
is a lifetime type throw, one of the all time
throws you'll ever see that will be forgotten. What was incredible.

(43:16):
He just the things that used to be really difficult
for him when he first started picking up pressure attack
in the middle of the field are now the things
that are easy for him, and the things that were
easy before He's just now mastered. I'm such a huge
Jordan of fan. When you pair the efficiency, the instincts,
the anticipation with some of the offscript creativity, that's when
you start ratching up to like, Okay, how high is

(43:37):
he going up? The peck can go to here? When
he's at his best game, he's probably in the six
to seven range already, and I think climbing.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
Oh yeah, and the great plays are so great that
you forgive some of the downside. I think Packers fans
had just been a little panicky and overreacting to the start.
They were weirdly like unhappy about it situation where you
were three and two and Malik Willison started a couple
of those games.

Speaker 4 (44:05):
It's a long season. This is a young team, one
of the youngest, maybe the youngest team in the league.
It's them in the Rams, I believe. And look, it's
an overmatched Cardinals defense at least talent wise. But both
sides of the ball played well for the Packers, and
they have to feel really good where they're at coming
out of week six.

Speaker 5 (44:24):
Yeah, and I mean look, and he was injured for
those first couple of weeks as well. I mean, what
Lafleur does, and the way that he schemes things up
and the play calling that he has, he puts Jordan
Love in a great position. I mean, he is a
coach that's able to really understand the piece of the
puzzle he has, and we saw that again Malik Willis
earlier on. There's not many coaches we're seeing that nowadays

(44:46):
that have answers to the test for his players. Jordan Love.
I love that he sat, you know, for a while
behind Aaron Rodgers. He's still learning. His actual rep experience
is not as high as some of the other quarterbacks
out there. So yeah, his line of success he's going up,
but it's not going to be without its pitfalls. And
you're kind of taking that as he's still developing as

(45:07):
a young guy.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
Yeah, I just want to take a time out here
where we've reached three am. Phoebe was actually a totten
about like nine am or something like that, doing early hits.
I want to just do a little bit of a
welfare check because as we were we were in our break,
Will said that you eat more than any person he's
ever met, and it just felt like you needed a
little more energy. So we'll give you a break to

(45:29):
eat that candy bar if.

Speaker 9 (45:30):
You can too.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
And for our American listeners who haven't ever watched any
of the stuff that we put out and talks for
I am a man who weighs well north of so
I'm saying that you eat too much. He's really saying something.

Speaker 5 (45:41):
Oh baby, Hench, No, Look, I just I need to
constantly be fed here. So I appreciate y'all letting me
have a couple of bites in my candy bar.

Speaker 1 (45:51):
Yeah, and if you if you check out Phoebe's workout
routine on Instagram, you understand how it all makes sense.
Thirty four to thirteen. Does any reaction to this Cardinals
team Ali who's up and down? Not really up and
down on the defensive side of the ball. They seem
like one of those teams that on defense they spin
the wheel a little bit and sometimes it'll work.

Speaker 4 (46:12):
Usually it probably won't. But offensively a disappointing day, I would.

Speaker 8 (46:15):
Say, yeah, And particularly in the first quarter, they just
couldn't get anything going to open the game, and it
just felt they were playing from behind from the get go.
I think it speaks just more to the packages disappointing.
It was for the Cardinals. This is one of those
take care of business. If you're a real contender and
you know you're overmatched and you can you're just more
talented the other team. This is a take care of business,
win by two, three touchdown type game. When you watch

(46:36):
the Cardinals play, particularly on defense, they're just not as
athletic as everyone else in the NFL, and they're not
as athletic, for certain as that package team, and you
can just feel the talent imbalanced all throughout the game.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
Yeah, they need their offense and Kyler Murray to be special.
They need their running game to be way more consistent
than it's been this year. A little bit of a
disappointment to me, and they just weren't up for it
today like they were in that visional matchup last week.

Speaker 4 (47:03):
We've waited long enough. Let's let's head to the game
that we started with.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
It is time for the Sunday Drive presented by the
all new hybrid Toyota Camera to Tottenham.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
Mercedes Lewis and Colcomett on the right hand side the
line on the left roma Tunday, they've got a fullback
in in the form of an extralignment.

Speaker 12 (47:21):
They put the ball in there, Swift de Andre Swift
into the end zone touchdown, Chicago Bears, a one yard
punge for the former Detroit Lion now Chicago Bear.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
And that is the cherry on top of a very
good Sunday for.

Speaker 3 (47:35):
Chicago in North London.

Speaker 4 (47:37):
Oh, put that on the Call of the Year list.
It is Will Gavin of tx Sport Radio.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
You have the power to do that, Will Varney behind
the glass right, you could put it on unless Eric
Roberts editing it behind the scenes. Yes, that was Deandres
Swift finding pay dirt in a thirty five to sixteen
victory for the Bears. Came into this game wondering can
the Bears continue to beat up offensively on under their

(48:09):
overmatched defenses.

Speaker 4 (48:11):
They absolutely did it.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
Caleb Williams ends up with four touchdowns on the day
and he didn't even feel like he had to work
that hard throughout.

Speaker 4 (48:22):
The game to do it.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
Yeah. I don't want to suggest a negative against the
Jags immediately, but we knew going into this game, and
we talked about this a lot with Ollie going into
this weekend and on our call on talkSPORT today that
they are a defensive play and a ridiculous amount of
press man without having any talent in their back seven whatsoever.
I actually thought the linebacker's played well today comparatively for
a Jags defensive performance. I said, comparatively, Ollie, I see

(48:46):
you shaking your head over there, But I just on
that back end. You know, Andre Cisco had the pick today,
but on that culomet touchdown, had two separate opportunities to
tackle him and failed on it. Just was picked on
all day long. Out side of that, and I thought
that schematically, they again made it quite easy for Caleb Williams.
But this felt for me like the day where we

(49:08):
really got to see the fun side of Caleb Williams.
Four scrambles for fifty six yards. He made the right
decisions in the right moments of when to tuck and
run and when to pass the ball, and yeah, I
just thought all round it was a not coming out performance,
because the last three weeks have gradually got better and better,
but this was his best all round game for me,
and like getting to watch it live, it was a real,

(49:29):
real joy.

Speaker 8 (49:30):
This was the first superstar performance, I think it's fair
to say, and it's a payoff really for all the
pain they went through in the early weeks, you know,
Shane Waldron was getting just crushed by everyone gang. He's
burning through this young rookie. They threw the motherload at him.
With the expectation by the time we reached this week
we gate, week ten, week twelve, we could start blending
everything together, which is we have this really expansive, cool,

(49:53):
cohesive offense that Caleb is running the show at the
line of scrimmage all throughout the game. He's checking everything
the whole time, and then when needed he can take
off and create. And it was for him to figure
out on what plays can I do my Caleb Williams things,
and on what plays am I playing within the rhythm
of the offense. In the last two weeks when they
came alive, he was just purely strictly I play in
this stroke, ture, I do my thing. They face a
Jags defense that plays a bunch of press bank covers,

(50:15):
like will said, does nothing to disguise, create, blitz, do
anything up from or on the back end. So it
was time for him to say, if it's not that,
I can take off and play. And it was just
finally seeing the first glimpse I felt of the USC
style Williams in the league.

Speaker 4 (50:29):
And look, you still see some plays.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
There was a scramble to his left in the red
zone where or no coming towards us in the deep
bread zone where he couldn't outrun the defender where he finds.
Oh Man, it's not as easy to outrun people in
the NFL. Even on one of his long runs towards
the end, towards our end, where he has a chance

(50:53):
to maybe make someone miss, and you can almost see
him thinking like what juke am I gonna do? And
he just sort of jukes back and forth and he
gets tackled. But that's I mean after a twenty yard run.
I've been really impressed. And I know Kurt Warner was
on the NFL Network broadcast and he's a hard greater
when it comes to real quarterback and stuff that he
seems so comfortable in this Waldron offense. And your guy
does deserve a lot of credit calling up good plays,

(51:15):
I think, making it for easy for him sometimes. But
also Caleb is making the right throws, throwing back shoulder,
looking off defenders, getting to his second read. All the
things that really weren't emphasized when he was a prospect
are the things I think he's excelling at the earliest
as a pro.

Speaker 5 (51:32):
Yeah, and it's been great to see because he has
been stacking these bricks week in and week out, and
he faced a lot of criticism and he's overcome all
of that and he's just putting out great work right now.
I mean, look, it helps you get DeAndre Swift, who's
doing a great job with that rushing. The offensive line
is doing much stronger. We'd seen previously really great glimpses

(51:55):
of what Caleb Williams can be when he had an
O line that could protect him. So now his accuracy,
his decision making, all of that is really coming together.
And he's got this great character of receivers, you know,
amongst Roma Dunze with your Coolkmets, Keenan Allen's. These guys

(52:15):
are all really doing a great job. Of course Dj Moore,
so it's been great to see.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Like they had a break at the end of the
third quarter and I believe the score at that point
was twenty one to ten, and you're thinking, this is
where like, if the Jaguars have any chance to win,
you're putting so much money in that defensive line and
resources with Trayvon Walker as the one pick and Ark Armstead,
you know, has a good game to start out in

(52:41):
Josh Hayen's island, like go make a play and they're
on the goal line and he doesn't allow them to
make the play. He makes the absolutely perfect throw to
Keenan Allen, and being there, we were in that corner.
It's such a basic observation being there live, but you
just realize how perfect a play like that has to be,

(53:03):
How there's so little margin for error for Caleb Williams
to be even a quarter of a second off and
Keenan Allen to make that throw, and that throw has
to have the exact right velocity but also the right
touch in the smallest window windows, and he just hits it,
and you realize like, oh, well, great offense can just
neutralize whatever the Jaguars wanted to do on this day,

(53:23):
and that was the case. The Bears now officially have
an offense that will punish bad defenses, which is a
pretty major step, because I don't know if we can
say that about any Chicago Bears offense that I've been
alive for, maybe like a great month of Jay Cutler
that I enjoyed quite a bit.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
I I And the thing for me as well is
that it wasn't completely perfect and there is still room
for growth. You mentioned some of the scrambling. There was
the one where he got his long scramble of the day,
the twenty three yard of where he got to midfield
and ended up sliding down on the sheld well. There
still wasn't a guy within.

Speaker 4 (53:56):
Yes, that's what I mean with the instincts, so he's
like in his own head a little bit.

Speaker 3 (54:00):
It felt like he could have gone another ten to
fifteen yards there. And the inception I think when you
watch that play back, DJ Moore is wide open two
or three steps earlier in that throw, and that's something
he's going to have to learn to trust his instincts,
learn to trust the play a little bit on. But
I think it's the fact that he throws that interception
when the game is still tight at seven to three,

(54:21):
and then gets the ball back and comes out and
has probably his best drive of the game on the
next drive to make it fourteen three and essentially wipe
out any chance it felt like the Jags had of
coming back. And it's that short term memory we always
ask for quarterbacks to have on top of making the
right decisions, on top of calling the plays and making
the great throws, and yeah, just all round, really really impressed.

Speaker 8 (54:40):
I think the pig is an important point because there
was a bad pig. Bad throw got out of the
timing of the offense, took like two three extra beats,
and he should have done as you mentioned, it's wide
open by the time he liked to go. No on
is a bad ball. He hangs it inside. He lost
up for some strange reason. It was it never had
a chance because he just didn't get out in time.
And what he's done so well in the past couple
of weeks is understand which throws our need timing and

(55:02):
within the flow of the offense on which are the
ones he can go and create on. And this to
me was the most all around package game because we
got to see, you know, the creativity and the good size.
We got to see him play within rhythm with instruction.
What I think he showed today that he's not shown
a great deal of in the past is more general
management of the game, not in terms of just you know,

(55:24):
dealing with things at the line of scrips and getting
the ball out to the right pieces. Not going big
game hunting. They didn't really spark to begin with, and
his default has always been to slip into bad habits
and just chase the deep ball every single time. And
this was the first game where he's just kind of
committed and stayed to what the offense is asked of him,
and then if he needs to do something, then he'll

(55:45):
try and take off and do it. So this was
like a true pro quarterback performance with some like magic
doest sprinkled on top, and that to me, will be
the most exciting part of this development.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
Love it, Love that recap, and I love that they
took the buy after London. I always think it's a
mistake take the buye after.

Speaker 4 (56:01):
You get the win. You sit on this.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
They're at a perfect point in the season. They're at
four and two. They beat the teams they were supposed
to beat. The schedule will get harder down the stretch,
but everything is on schedule. The defense we just take
for granted is going to be solid and iber Flus's
mix things up a little bit more. If it was allowed,
Kevin Bayard would be a good comeback Player of the
Year candidate. But now I think you're not allowed to

(56:26):
come back from just being bad, so like Philip Rivers
that year where he went from the eighteenth best quarterback
in the league to the fifth, like that would not
have counted. But they were rock solid, even like first
drive of the game, you know, they give up a
long drive and then they make the play to break
up the touchdown in the end zone from Gabe Davis.

(56:47):
Maybe Gabe Davis could have brought that in if he
didn't double clutch it, but still Elijah Hicks didn't give
up on the play. And in their defense, it's just
a rock solid defense. And one thing I really appreciated
being there was of all the London games I've gone to,
and you can tell me if you disagree, this was
the biggest home field advantage. Like it was a true

(57:08):
BEARSS crowd, which was a cool place to be. I
think just being there you could see it in the
crowd of course, but it was more of the reactions
that there were a couple of plays because we were
doing sideline, Me and Olivia Harlan Decker, who was fantastic.

Speaker 4 (57:21):
It was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Occasionally we weren't turned towards the field for whatever reason.
We had to look at the monitor, and you could
hear the crowd go ah, and then the cheer and
the oh was oh, Caleb Williams just threw that ball
a little too high, but then the applause was oh
Roshawn Johnson came down with it with a one handed
catch and just everything the reactions to like a near

(57:44):
face mask in the official reviews. Everything was just like
a home game, which felt very cool for someone that
I've gone to these games quite a bit and I
thought it was pretty unique.

Speaker 3 (57:54):
You heard it from moment one when in the pregame
warmups the Jags came out to wall up and got
booed out.

Speaker 4 (58:01):
I know, you never hear it at this game. I've
never heard booze at this game.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
And we were in the locker room afterwards we were
asked about that and Jonathan Owens actually said like, did
you hear them boo? I was like, yeah, but the
biggest boo of the game did come for a Packers
Sucks sign, which he didn't buy on. Unfortunately. I thought
we might have some fun.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
There was also a lot of Packers sucks chance yeah,
which is you gotta be careful of that. Ali you've
lived in Boston, although you lived there after two thousand
and four. But yeah, Yankee sucks after two thousand and four.
It feels way different than how often it was before
two thousand and four. And it feels like an inferiority
complex when it's your chanting Packers sucks in London.

Speaker 4 (58:40):
Just just enjoy your team. That's sort of saying where
the little brothers it is.

Speaker 8 (58:44):
But I think they recognize we got Caleb Williams. Okay,
it may not be for too long. You know, we'll
get another year in of this and then maybe just
maybe we could be having division races for the next okay,
ten to fifteen years.

Speaker 4 (58:55):
Okay, I love that.

Speaker 3 (58:56):
I thought the Pan's defense is the other thing that
really highlighted from each there. You mentioned it, but you
know they lost to Kwonbriska before this game. Tyrek Stevenson
out of this game. Even Terrell Smith didn't travel, so
they're missing their third corner as well. Kyler Gordon, who's
you know, the big nickel corner who blitzes a huge amount,

(59:17):
goes out of this game as well, and just the
rotational guys that come in. Josh Blackwell had a big game.
Jalen Jones had a big game. Elijah Hicks, who you mentioned,
had a big game, and just like when those rotational
guys can come in and have a big performance, I
think that defense right now looks like a top five
defense in the NFL, which you pair that with the
quarterback that we're all very excited about. Maybe I'm overstating
it on a performance against the bad Jags team, but

(59:39):
I really impressed with that side of the ball as well.
And you mentioned taking the buye after London. I like
taking the buy after London. What I'm probably less keen
on is teams who stay in London after a horrible
loss like that, because what a rough week this is
going to be for the Jacksonville Draguars.

Speaker 4 (59:54):
I mean it'd be rough in Jacksonville too.

Speaker 1 (59:56):
You're right, Doug Peterson might be how b to be
here because I think there were questions about his job
security before this game, whether he was gonna make this trip.
They win last week, it's close, next week feels do
or die. Just he sounded very tight in the postgame
press coming. He sounded tight at halftime speaking with our

(01:00:17):
NFL network. It just it's a tough situation just on field.
Did you have any takeaways of like watching Trevor Lawrence
and what this product is right now, because there's just
like a not a lot they can hang on to.

Speaker 4 (01:00:31):
And Trevor Lawrence played okay in this game.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
Was kind of a typical Trevor Lawrence performance where you
look up and you're like, he didn't play that poorly,
but he just leaves you wanting in crucial situations.

Speaker 5 (01:00:40):
Yeah, and it's not always on him, right, we saw,
you know, fumbles from Evan Ingram, Tank Bigsby. I mean,
I mean that just puts even more pressure on running game.
Really No, yeah, no running game as well. I mean
we were all thinking they had a little bit of
momentum from last week's When you're coming out to London
where you're pretty much the home town here, you've got

(01:01:01):
two weeks of being able to build off of what
you've done. I mean last year they were really successful
winning back to back games here. I just think that
kind of since the beginning of this season that there's
been issues in Jacksonville, and whether we're talking about when
Trevor Lawrence was playing the Bills and he's rolling out
from pressure that's not existing, or there's conversations from Doug

(01:01:24):
Peterson around, Hey, I'm calling the right please. There's there's
tension that's constantly building.

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):
There was a moment on the sideline right towards the
end of the game where you had Trevor Lawrence, Christian Kirk,
Evan Ingram all stood there silently, shoulders slump staring out
onto the field. So after they sent Mac Jones into
the game in place of Trevor Lawrence and I just won.

Speaker 4 (01:01:46):
For one, Trevor Lawrence is saying.

Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
Trevor Lawrence is supposedly not a big rara guy, not
a big kind of locker room leader in terms of
making speeches and geeing people up. He's more of a
do as I show, not as I say, kind of guy.
And I look through that entire roster and I think, right,
who this week is going to grab this team by
the scruff of the neck and lift them up. Who
they're like? We went through it on air, and I

(01:02:12):
think maybe Eric Harmstead, who's just come in there and
he was like four time waterpayon Man of the Year
nominee in San Francisco, Like he's a good locker room guy.
But actually, there's no big veteran leaders on either side
of the ball there, And so I think Doug Bederson's
got a real problem this week. Where you could get
to Tuesday, you could get to Wednesday, and these units

(01:02:33):
have all gone off into their separate meetings or complained
about each other, complained about what the issues are, put
blame on somebody else, and I think you could get
quite toxic quite quickly.

Speaker 5 (01:02:42):
Yeah, yeah, And I think you're right. I mean, there
is really no veteran leadership. And when a team is
struggling like this, even if you're faking it so you
make it, you need some you need some sort of
help from within the amount of head coaches that I've
known that have that player, that veteran player on the
team that they kind of have those private words with
to really kind of help share that message. I don't

(01:03:04):
know who's talking to Doug Peterson, and I don't know
who Doug Peterson's talking to you right now, because you're right,
they all feel like they're all working in their own silos.

Speaker 4 (01:03:11):
They could also see some cornerbacks.

Speaker 8 (01:03:14):
That would help, and then you maybe change your system.
If you don't have cornerbacks, maybe a staff meeting that
could have been had. I'm with, will you know I
don't buy into the ra ra stuff that much, but
I was genuinely shocked watching them today. I've been doing
so many games in high school college NFL. When you
first start scouting, you get sent to really bad college
games and they say, just watch the sideline, check the vibes.

(01:03:36):
Put it in the report. I don't think I've ever
seen anything that bad before. It was so flat, the
vibes were so off. The number of clicks that were
building throughout the game, which it would start with everyone
together slowly becomes seven, slowly becomes four, slowly becomes sections
of three. That just does not happen in pro football.
It was really odd, and we'll mention the lack of leaders.

(01:03:57):
There really isn't when you go through them, someone who's
talented and has some like juice to them. Trevor's not
like that. Peterson is not like that. Armsteads you mentioned.
Is more of like a Nobel piece candidate type, lovely
intelligent man than he is like somebody's gonna grab someone
and say like, we've got to do well. Devin Lloyd
is the only guy who profiles like that, and he
has been shocking for most of the season, So you

(01:04:19):
can't walk into a staff meeting and say everyone's gonna
pick the game up. They'll throw the film on and say, yeah,
you shouldn't be playing in the league. So I genuinely think,
having watched them on the sideline today, it's a bigger mess,
and actually thought it was just watching the tape.

Speaker 5 (01:04:31):
But surely that comes from the head coach ultimately, because
I honestly thought the past couple of years, you bring
Doug Petersontain in, he's, you know, this great coach. He's
a quarterback himself, he's got all his experience is gonna share.
But then I still go back to that press conference
a couple of weeks ago where he's saying, well, I
made the right decision. Well that's that's ultimately you.

Speaker 1 (01:04:51):
He said after this game we need to have like
a culture change, and the culture change and everyone had
the obvious reaction, which is like, you're it, bro exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
Well, andre cisco I mentioned before, was also interviewed in
the locker room afterwards after he'd said that, and he
basically went in and went, yeah, everyone kind of took
the second half off, basically accused all of his defensive
teammates of just just giving.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
Up well, it's true. Being there, just there was no resistance.
It was tough to watch. But I've seen it so
many times. I've seen teams right before they fired their coach,
and it's crazy how that happens so often. So no
one's going to enjoy that. The London curse is real.

(01:05:35):
We're gonna it might hit twice this year.

Speaker 8 (01:05:39):
We've we've never had a coach fired and they leave
him in London as they continue to keep playing and
go on and playing with you. Now, that would be
and I know they wouldn't do that. I know that
you wouldn't do that because you've ever done it before,
you do it after. But that was a someone should
get fired game. It was a someone should get fired performance.
They change. He's not gonna let Press Taylor go. He's
been banging his head against the drum with this thing
now for so long. They're not gonna change Ryan Nielsen.

(01:06:01):
The only one you could change is Doug Peterson. I
get Logistically, it's pretty much impossible because they're over for
over a week.

Speaker 3 (01:06:08):
Book.

Speaker 8 (01:06:09):
That was not a that was like an embarrassing time.

Speaker 4 (01:06:11):
Tony Khan coaches on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
They kind of make it a crossover where it's connected
to the wrestling.

Speaker 4 (01:06:18):
Like everyone wins.

Speaker 3 (01:06:21):
I think you do? You move the rest day from
Monday to Tuesday, and Monday Shad Khan just hosts any
head coach who isn't currently in a job. Mike Rabel's
flying over as you speak. Bill Belichick flying over as
we speak, all joining him on his multi billion pound
yacht on the Thames, just to talk about that job.
We're gonna see. It's gonna be all over the paparazzi tomorrow,
don't you are.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
It is unfortunate. It does remind me Doug Peterson of
the arc that he had with Philadelphia. Obviously it's lesser here,
but it's still similar. They won that playoff game. There
was a moment, but it just got a little stale.
And who was a rough watch today? And that was
the Sunday Drive presented by the all new hybrid Toyota Camri.

(01:07:03):
Whatever your vibe, it's a camera vibe. Learn more at
Toyota dot com slash Camry. I wanted to learn more
about the new England Patriots new franchise quarterback Drake May
and I did today in Foxborough.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
Mixon in the backfield.

Speaker 4 (01:07:20):
CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:07:21):
Other setter.

Speaker 4 (01:07:22):
Stroud gives the Joe over left guard boxs to.

Speaker 2 (01:07:26):
The outside fifteen ten five to the pilot.

Speaker 4 (01:07:29):
He's got it. Touchdown.

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
Joe Mixon checked back into the game and checks out
of the end Zoon for six on a twenty yard
TD run. Patriots fans headed for the exits have an
hee day.

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
Enjoy the shower.

Speaker 4 (01:07:45):
Oh, just sticking it. Mark VanderMeer k I lt he
killed him.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
I mean that is that is a Scott Zolac level
called by the Texans. They were enjoying themselves a forty
burger in Foxborough, forty one to twenty one. We'll get
to the Drake May of it all, but I'll try
to pretend that that wasn't the most important thing in
this game and recognize there was a five and one

(01:08:12):
team in this game that had everything rolling on offense.
This Patriots defense has quietly been among the league's worst
this year, and C. J. Stroud, with Joe Mixon and
Damian Pierce back in the lineup, really didn't see a
lot of resistance from them.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
Yeah, big, big rushing day for them on a day
where we've had a few of those two hundred and
thirteen yards on the ground. Mixing one hundred and fifty
nine of those seems to really kick start as a
little just a five and one team. They're five and
one team where the only game they've lost was that
road game against Minnesota where that defense just really really
picked them apart. I think other than that, they've been
incredibly impressive and they've beaten some really good teams on

(01:08:50):
that run as well. And overall today, as much as
Mixon was absolutely huge for them on a day when
Nico Collins was out, you have Tank Dell's step up
and have his best game of the season. You mentioned
Damian Pierce coming back into the lineup, he getting his touchdown,
lovely run to the outside reaching for the pylon. I
just this Texans team, Okay, again, a little bit like

(01:09:13):
saying I don't want to overreact to a Bears team
facing a bad Jags team. This Patriots side have lost
to some pretty bad teams this year already, but getting
really excited about watching the sexist team play.

Speaker 4 (01:09:24):
I mean, there's no quarterback I like watching more than
c Distrot right now.

Speaker 8 (01:09:27):
No, No, he's he is, I think in his own
category with how he's actually playing at the moment. They operationally.
Design wise, it's nothing that impressive. I think Bobby Slower
got a lot of attention in credit because CJ. Stroud
walked in the building was very special from day one,
and their run game has been a mess for most
of the time he's been there. This one of the

(01:09:47):
first time we got to see it actually succeed. And
it was interesting because he often looks really uncomfortable even
though he's playing very smooth and bailing them out of trouble.
This was a great time to see you look how
easy in effilus it looks for them when they're playing
a poor team and then the operation becomes easy for him.
He can just pluster bad defenses when at least everything

(01:10:10):
is okay or good off fine around him. And if
they can find ways to develop and improve, if the
line can get a bit better during the season, if
the run game can hold up, then yeah, they're gonna
be in the hunt in the AFC.

Speaker 1 (01:10:21):
Yeah, there's success rate actually wasn't even that high on
the rushing place It wasn't terrible, but it was essentially
they popped a couple big ones, but Stroud on Placey
wasn't under pressure in this game.

Speaker 4 (01:10:31):
Was nearly perfect.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
He did have that one interception early, but they scored early,
they scored often. It was you know, it was pretty
much fourteen nothing before Drake May got to do almost anything.
And that's it's nice if you're a Texans fan to
see that they can cruise to a victory like that,
because that wasn't the case a couple of weeks ago.

Speaker 4 (01:10:53):
They barely won against the Jaguars.

Speaker 1 (01:10:54):
They've kind of been skating by and maybe not been
quite as good as their record indicates because Stroud's been
playing so well. Well, this was a game where they
look like, Okay, this is the real deal contender, even
though they're playing without Nico Collins.

Speaker 4 (01:11:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:11:05):
I mean the run game week one, that was the
Texas we thought we were going to get. Then you
get some injuries and you know, so it's really great
for today to be able to see Joe Mixon taking
off one hundred and two yards, Damian Pierce, I mean,
really mixing that in, and then Stefan Diggs is just
continuing to grow and develop and become that number one receiver.
It almost feels like their game against the Bills the

(01:11:27):
other week has somehow brought them together and they're even
better friends than they've ever been. But that's kind of
Stephan Diggs's vibe. He wants to find he wants to
be that number one receiver, go to guy for their quarterback.
But Tank Dell continues to do some great stuff, you know,
a really nice relationship with Dalton Schultz.

Speaker 13 (01:11:44):
So c J.

Speaker 5 (01:11:46):
Stroud, I think he's just an anomalye ultimately where his poise,
his patience, and then his ability to throw with such
an incredible arm strength is pretty spectacular to watch.

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
Do you want to give me your Ali Connolly review
of Drake May's first start? Just your first impressions before
you really grind, you know, grind it all the tape.
I know you're going to give the review on the
sub stack, and I was happy to learn that some
of our listeners signed up. So I go check out

(01:12:18):
Ali Connolly's substack and you know, continue to make us
look good for Ali Connolly for doing this work for us.

Speaker 8 (01:12:26):
I will say up front, this comes with a bias
that I think Drake May has a chance to be really, really,
really special. I had him very close to Caleb Williams
coming out of the draft, and so I'm going through
that prism slightly if I am looking for confirmation bias
that there may be some secret sauce in there. That
to me was everything you could expect from a rookie
starting his first game with no offensive line. They get

(01:12:48):
the left tackle injured on the first drive of the game,
so they're rolling through guys no one's ever heard of
up from their facing the probably, if not the best
defensive front in the NFL least the one that gets
the pressure at the highest rate. So for him to
have only a couple of brain thoughts, if we can
put it that way, to have the deep shot to
Kashan Booty to make some plays of his legs, I

(01:13:09):
thought he looked a little bit overrowed. The footwork stuff
was a real problem. It's going to be that way
for some time with him, and I just don't know
how you can really critique him for it. When you're
trying to time things up with an offense where there's
no protection, there's no help. It's not a great offense
in general, in terms of design, there's not great receiver help.
So just seeing the traits translate the arms there, he
can move, he can create. He's got good instincts when

(01:13:30):
he bails from the pocket. The throw down the field
to Booty was like a really high level timing, anticipation,
placement throw. What more could you really hope for us?
Like a flash of hope.

Speaker 1 (01:13:41):
Yeah, everyone that was so worked up about, oh, you
can't have let am play football. The Texans have a
high pressure rate. He has more touchdown passes on the
season already than Jakobe Brissett. That that's nice on players
that he wasn't pressured in this game, and there weren't
that that many. He was pressured almost fifty percent of
the time, which is huge number, but place he wasn't.

(01:14:02):
He goes twelve for eighteen one sixty two three touchdowns
and that interception. I believe that was the early one
where he just might have been a little too hyped
up in any sales a pass. But overall it was like, yeah,
let's let's see our rookie quarterback play. And it's crazy
that that might be four games this year that they've
lost an offensive lineman in the first quarter.

Speaker 4 (01:14:22):
It just like keeps happy.

Speaker 1 (01:14:24):
Like even as bad as their offensive lineman is, it
even gets worse that they always have a first quarter
injury to one of the key spots. So overall, it's like, yes,
at least give the Patriots fans some reason to watch
this drek.

Speaker 3 (01:14:36):
It's it's six different offensive lines in six games basically,
and their starting sentence there was a guy they signed
off the Raiders practice squad three days before this game.
Like that is a level of not front office in
competence because you can't help the injuries.

Speaker 4 (01:14:51):
It was incompetence how they went into the season. Now
it's just bad luck on top.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
Of the Yeah, exactly. And we talked a little bit
about short term memory earlier. I think to have that
bad overthrow which led to the Kalen Bullock interception on
the second drive after going three and out on the
first drive, people feeling a little bit wobbly puts together
the nice drive, hits it, hits Kalen Boody for that
deep Kishon Booty for that deep shot, and suddenly a

(01:15:15):
little bit of juice, a little bit of something in
that offense and that you already mentioned Greg more touchdowns
on the season already than Jacoby Russett. First time. They've
passed the twenty point mark this season six games in
as well, Like, Okay, it wasn't a great performance, but
at least on the offense, there was something to get
behind and enjoy, and Drake May was the driving force

(01:15:37):
for that. Even with past protection issues and interceptions and
everything that came with it.

Speaker 8 (01:15:41):
The bounce back stuff will never be a problem with Drignae.
He is like Eli levels of unflappable. Yes, just ket
balls all over the place. Whenever he thinks there's any
kind of sign of trouble, that will never ever be concerned.
The concern is is he just going to get in
his own head and start ripping it way more than
he should? I thought he played with more control than
you could expect. You got pressured fift percent of the

(01:16:01):
time against a really good defense to do an all
kind of quirky things on the back end to change
the picture and you don't know what's happening. That overthrow
we had was Puel like, I don't know what's happening.
I'm just gonna throw it, and the bowl sales on
him because his feet got lost. To not have ten, eleven,
twelve of those in those circumstances is to me pretty
impressed in a really good place to build from.

Speaker 1 (01:16:20):
Yeah, Ramandre Stevenson was out for this game of Antonio
Gibson gets the start, has nineteen yards on thirteen carries.
A man named Terrell Jennings was significantly involved in the
running game. And you know who else was involved in
this game. A man that Tom Curran, who has the
best eye out there of any Patriots beat writer said
was maybe the best receiver in all of training camp

(01:16:42):
other than Pop Douglas, and that was Casean Bhute. And
I love that you got him on the field with
Drake Maye. I just I know we're not having a
lot of extra calls today, but I do want to
hear the first touchdown pass of Drake May's career.

Speaker 7 (01:16:54):
And now the Patriots havelet trom mc forty shots this
Statt Bacul, he's in the pocket, he.

Speaker 10 (01:16:58):
Runs back if there's a long ball down the right.

Speaker 9 (01:17:00):
Sorry, this touchdown pass shun body on a perfect time from.

Speaker 4 (01:17:07):
Trick May He he beat Stingley down the right side.

Speaker 14 (01:17:12):
May dang, what a time for the first touchdown of
his career as a Patriot.

Speaker 3 (01:17:18):
Just desperate for the injection of Zola at this time.

Speaker 1 (01:17:21):
I wanted to hear how zolaks fine. I would say
that was like a five out of ten. Zoe Lac.
The fact they were down fourteen nothing at the time
probably just like dimmed the level of sounding like he's
on crack. But good to have Scott Zolac on the show.
Let's take a break. We are going to be back
and talk about a high scoring game in the NFC.

Speaker 7 (01:17:41):
Sound Cousins under center, McCloud emotion. Here's out here, straight
ahead touchdown atlantaar just banging away at the north end zone.

(01:18:05):
It's his first rushing store of the year.

Speaker 1 (01:18:08):
That was Tyler Algiers first rushing scorer of the year,
as West Durham of w z d C says thirty
eight to twenty. The Panthers hung around in this game
for a while, the Falcons pulling away late as they
do in their shootouts in this wild NFC South season,

(01:18:29):
the Falcons are on a roll, and I thought phoebe
in this in this late window, we might get a
little bit of a shootout.

Speaker 4 (01:18:37):
We kind of needed a close game.

Speaker 1 (01:18:39):
We didn't get it, but we're getting a good divisional
race now between the Falcons.

Speaker 4 (01:18:44):
And the Buccaneers.

Speaker 5 (01:18:45):
Yeah, and we had a version of a shootout between
the Falcons and the Panthers in this situation as well.
I was quite honestly shocked by the fact to hear
that Bijon Robinson it was his first time scoring two
touchdown rushing touchdowns in a game like that, considering how
incredible he has been. Look, when you get the Falcons,

(01:19:06):
you just don't know which version of Kirk Cousins you're
gonna get. So you know, he wasn't perfect by any means,
nineteen of thirty throughout the game, but he was finding ways.
Again you get the run game going, you know, great
to see Tyler lgier Be, John Robinson doing their thing
and then spreading the ball around his kind of top
guys essentially Drake London, Kyle Pitts.

Speaker 8 (01:19:28):
It was.

Speaker 5 (01:19:29):
It was kind of just a regular Kirk Cousins game
for me.

Speaker 4 (01:19:32):
In every year.

Speaker 1 (01:19:33):
Every week rather I go to the next Gen Stats
box score to see the breakdown of like, okay, are
they adding anything where Kirk Cousins moves, just like even
a little is there any play action? And every week
it's pretty disappointing for them, and yet they keep scoring.
So today on play action three of seven for twenty

(01:19:54):
nine yards, so it's still not happening, and yet they're
one of the like highest producing passing games.

Speaker 8 (01:20:00):
In the league. Yeah, and even those play action things
are quite junkie. A lot of it is flash fake stuff.
It's not really turn the back true play action heavy
cell because they don't trust him to move. And the
Panthers got nowhere near Kirk Cousins today. They had four
total pressures in the entire game, three game from one player,
and they came in back to back to back plays.
So for the most of the game he is untouched.
You would really expect and hope you would see even

(01:20:21):
more from them. I think in that situation, if Cousins's
going to sit back there and play see it throw
at football, you would expect that he'd be able to
carve it up if there's no pressure there. But they
get the wrong game going, and that's a huge thing.
If they could not get movement from Cousins, they have
to find movement somewhere from the wrong game, and they're
now integrating new things into the offense in the wrong game,
they're balancing it more between Algier and Robinson. So that

(01:20:42):
would be the exciting thing to take out the game.

Speaker 3 (01:20:44):
The Panthers defense are not a viable NFL defense. Thirty
four or more points in four out of six games
this season. And actually we're talking about tradable pass rushers
earlier in the show with the Lions. Jadavian Clowney another
one who probably should be on that list and probably
could be picked up for something mid round.

Speaker 4 (01:20:59):
But it needs to get healthy. But yes, that makes
a lot of sense.

Speaker 3 (01:21:03):
It just felt like last week Kirk Cousins, what fifty
eight passes and five hundred and nine yards in that
overtime win over the Bucks. Today they just relied on
the ground game, two hundred yards between their two leading rushers,
three touchdowns between them as well. And it was one
of those games which was a little bit like Buck
Saints that was actually quite tight in the third quarter

(01:21:23):
and you were surprised it was so if you were
watching the game flow, and then the better team just
pulled away later on. And you are establishing quite a
strong division between those top two teams and the rest
of the division.

Speaker 1 (01:21:35):
Yeah, and this isn't a great week to measure it,
but they keep trying to get this outside zone running
game working, and that's going to be important for them
to get better at or just stop doing it. Over
the course of the season, and every week I look
and see I look for one stat, is Tyler Aldia's
success rate higher than Bijon Robinson's In every week?

Speaker 8 (01:21:58):
It is?

Speaker 1 (01:21:59):
And so then I have to stop myself from criticizing
them for using Algier equally with Robinson, because he is
an effective player and he is fitting what they do.
But this was great that they both had a great game.
They both had very high success rates. There wasn't much
difference between him and they're using their weapons. And you
mentioned that about the Panthers pass rush. If you were

(01:22:21):
just like power ranking different units in the league, like
every possible units run defense, pass rush, like safety play,
the Panthers pass rush might be there with the worst
unit of any unit in the entire NFL.

Speaker 8 (01:22:40):
Yeah, I mean, we're picking between allful things. But I
would encourage you to go through the Cordinal's death Shaw
and you take the Cordinals are starting a team that,
if you just go through name by name, is the
second string on every of the team in the NFL
outside of Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:22:54):
It's fair.

Speaker 1 (01:22:55):
It's a fair point. That's why that's why I like
Ali to be here to check me. But yeah, this
this past rush is rough. My other biggest takeaway from
this game is Xavier legets you know, I've got big
balls touchdown celebration or the horse riding.

Speaker 9 (01:23:10):
What what is it?

Speaker 4 (01:23:11):
And it's week after week. I love it? And did
he do that in college?

Speaker 3 (01:23:17):
I'm in it was it was have to be better
than the afternoon tea celebration that we saw in London
today from the bear.

Speaker 1 (01:23:23):
Surely like it must be his thing because he's now
he's now broken it out on multiple one of his
touchdowns and it it looks like it was Nick van
Exel right after he would hit the big three pointers
and he would jump around and Xavier like it is
either bringing that back or he's riding a horse.

Speaker 4 (01:23:39):
But I I think it's how.

Speaker 8 (01:23:43):
Well I love about Like, yeah, I think he's trying
to throw people off. He's got the accent thing. He's
doing this big balls thing. People start thinking this guy's
not up too much. He plays really, really intelligently, and
he's seamlessly slotted in and being a way bigger part
of the offense. And I thought he would be just
based on skill set in college. So I think he
just throw defensive backs off with all this this ancillary.

Speaker 4 (01:24:02):
Good Jawn making a real point.

Speaker 3 (01:24:04):
Thank you. We'll not only going to tell you that
Xavier gets riding a horse in his celebration, but I
can tell you that he's riding his horse a dollar bill.
Apparently he's dedicated the celebration to his horse.

Speaker 5 (01:24:17):
And we've got the outset he as a cowboy.

Speaker 4 (01:24:20):
I could have used Google and you've ruined my fantasy here.

Speaker 1 (01:24:24):
Well, let's go from one exciting NFC South game to
an AFC South game.

Speaker 4 (01:24:30):
Colts, Hey, I had emotions.

Speaker 8 (01:24:33):
Josh Allens out of the right side, clack all five
drop crowls office.

Speaker 10 (01:24:37):
Back foot into the end zone, going up and making.

Speaker 3 (01:24:39):
A bit on the balls. Michael pittm you got it?

Speaker 6 (01:24:43):
Hide why Pittman puts the Colts on top a ten
yard pass Flacco to Pittman and the Colts lead nineteen
to seventeen in Nashville.

Speaker 1 (01:24:55):
They can't keep letting him get away with it. Don't
blackout it again. Twenty to seventeen.

Speaker 4 (01:25:02):
That was Matt Taylor on w f N I.

Speaker 1 (01:25:05):
Michael Pittman, who was supposedly going to injured reserve earlier
this week and then ends up playing in this game,
not only plays but catches the game winning touchdown on a.

Speaker 4 (01:25:17):
Play where he landed on his injured back.

Speaker 1 (01:25:20):
A crazy Joe Flacco throw, very similar to the throw
he made last week which started the comeback against who
are they playing last week? It is absolutely late Jacksonville
in this game. The Colts win this one though, a
key division win for them. They're managing the season well like,
not playing great, but they're three and three. They put
the Titans in a world of her only one win

(01:25:42):
on the season. Will Levis doesn't crack one hundred yards
in this game, Ali like, I'm just happy Joe Flacco
was still in our lives.

Speaker 8 (01:25:50):
I am happy to That was not a good throw though,
right am I misremembering now? It's a terrible throw of
Pittman grubs it between two guys.

Speaker 2 (01:25:56):
I go on it.

Speaker 3 (01:25:56):
Even it's a.

Speaker 4 (01:25:57):
Results space business, sally, it's still counts.

Speaker 3 (01:26:00):
Pickman did all of the work there. He's going to
get the best corner in football last year and somehow
to make it.

Speaker 1 (01:26:06):
It was third down and Joe Flacco has decided I
am too old to do anything but just throw it up.

Speaker 3 (01:26:13):
It was third down in Flacco, That's what it was, and.

Speaker 8 (01:26:15):
He missed the one to Piers too. They had the
big shot to pierce out another third down and just
throw it up that. I cannot even imagine the toughness
of Michael Pittman. I'd know what's going on with the
back injury. Back injuries to scare me no matter what. Anyway,
if it does a school teacher, football player, whatever it is,
to say, you're going to go to ir, he says, no,
let me give it a go for a week and
we'll figure out afterwards. He gets to catch on collision
with two guys for the game winning score. Then they

(01:26:37):
go back to him to ice the game, and on
both plays basically the design and or end product is
you have to fall on your back. That's what this
is going to do. And he comes up for it
and must have it moments. They only go to him
three times. He gets them all, just big time, big
time plays.

Speaker 5 (01:26:51):
I mean, it's pretty amazing what drugs can do to
make you feel whilst playing a game.

Speaker 4 (01:26:57):
I mean, but it's put the football player here, the choir.

Speaker 5 (01:27:04):
I got you, guys, don't worry about it's too late.
I have no filter anymore. But look, I mean, Joe
Flacco is just incredible. What he's still able to do.
I loved a clip from last week where he has
throwing the ball and he has just stood there amongst
the mayhem. He kind of is just living on free
money right now. He's able to just have a great

(01:27:24):
time and you know he's he's enjoying himself. He gets
to keep playing week in and week out.

Speaker 1 (01:27:31):
And this was a weird situation where Anthony Richardson did
practice during the week. He was a game time decision.
They said they wanted to be extra safe, so he
was the third quarterback. I think part of that was
probably a calculus of Flacco's a little more regular with
the timing and I'm sure Richardson isn't one hundred percent.

(01:27:52):
But it's also not a franchise quarterback where, well, if
he's at all able to play, he's going to play.
You know what, Like if Dak Prescott had that level
of injury, they would just play Dak Prescott. And that's fine.
Like there can be gray area, doesn't mean that his
job is at risk. I would like expect he plays

(01:28:12):
next week. Who knows, but they're happy that Joe Flacco
got them a win in the meantime on a day
where look, they're starting running back when eighteen for twenty
nine trace sermon, their defense carries the load, holds Will
Levis under one hundred yards passing.

Speaker 3 (01:28:27):
This was it. They were fairy fortunate that on the
other side of the ball, while Joe Flacco was statuesque
as always, they had Will Levis, who with DeAndre Hopkins,
Calvin Ridley, Tyler Boyd, Like there is no way, Like
I almost feel like I could complete over one hundred
yards of passing with that collection of receivers against an
NFL defense. But Ridley caught zero of eight targets last night,

(01:28:51):
And you just think to yourself, like, the Will Levis
experiment feels like it's already done. I just don't know
what the next answer is for them. They just seem
to be floating through the rest of the season, Titans fans.
And it's a rough point to be after six weeks.

Speaker 4 (01:29:06):
Too harsh like that it's done. One in four. This
was a sneaky big game, not to the rest of
the NFL, but to the Titans. This was a big game.

Speaker 1 (01:29:14):
This now it just feels like they're they're pretty buried there,
and yes, they're not getting growth out of their quarterback.

Speaker 4 (01:29:21):
With a coach that was hired in part to develop
this quarterback.

Speaker 8 (01:29:25):
I don't know if he has had to develop, and
I think it was hard to figure out within six
weeks is he a real guy or not? And I
think they got their answer pretty quickly. It's not even
if they had lost that that would be okay in
terms of just Levis himself. When you watch him play
and they're playing a defense that does absolutely nothing. They
don't really have much of a pass rust. They have
been cooked for four weeks. They do nothing on the
back end to try and weird out quarterbacks. This would

(01:29:46):
be the game where you say, okay, even if we
get the two or three classic bone headed Will Levis plays,
we should put up two hundred and fifty three hundred
yards through the air. We can make some plays. We
can still evaluate Levis. So that would be more concerning
to me than even the record and even some of
the unfortunate dom turnovers we've had this season. Because you
just think the lake count happened forever. You would hope,
but the fact you can't punish bad defense is gonna

(01:30:07):
stay consistent.

Speaker 5 (01:30:08):
I think the biggest problem is that you would just
hope to see development and learning, and it's you can
see why they're getting frustrated when you're making similar, if
not the same, exact mistakes week in and week out.
And yes, there's an element where he still is a
younger guy in the NFL terms, you know, only going
in his second year. He didn't play obviously a full
season last year. But you can't keep making the same mistakes.

(01:30:32):
You've got to be able to show progress.

Speaker 1 (01:30:33):
Yeah, I will see your making the same mistakes, and
I will raise you from Will Levis Adshaun Watson.

Speaker 4 (01:30:41):
Let's go to UH Eagles and the Browns.

Speaker 3 (01:30:45):
Hurts in the gun sloped to the foreside.

Speaker 13 (01:30:48):
Mark Legan was right on second down.

Speaker 8 (01:30:50):
He's back, he's looking, he is going deep down the fore.

Speaker 15 (01:30:54):
Side of the field, and it is caught. He the town.

Speaker 4 (01:31:00):
Well put on. It's just what a prow, what a cat.

Speaker 9 (01:31:03):
That's just fun.

Speaker 1 (01:31:05):
There is something absolutely beautiful about a Meryl Reese call
on wip. But there's something even more beautiful, Will Gavin
about a Dalen Hertz go ball to AJ Brown. You
can say whatever you want about Dalen Hurts, like that
man throws a perfect go ball and he has the
perfect man to catch it.

Speaker 4 (01:31:26):
In AJ Brown.

Speaker 1 (01:31:27):
It's funny, how you know, you bring AJ Brown and
DeVante Smith back and you're a little better on offense,
at least enough better to win twenty to sixteen over.

Speaker 3 (01:31:36):
The Brown six four one hundred and sixteen AJ Brown today.
But the touchdown, he had zero point three yards of
separation for that one according to next Gen Stats. And
you had that, and you had DeVonta Smith in as
you mentioned, three catches sixty four and that fourth quarter
touchdown as well, and suddenly the Eagles offense kind of
starts to get rolling again. They still struggle to finish

(01:31:58):
drives a little bit. This game, it felt like it's
the Browns defense we've known, have their strengths, and therefore,
restricting the Eagles to twenty points in a day where
they are getting big games from their big receivers is
relatively impressive. And actually Deshaun Watson didn't have a terrible game.
Dare I say, probably his best performance for the Browns

(01:32:19):
this season. So this wasn't much much tighter game than
I was expecting. Came away with it at.

Speaker 4 (01:32:25):
You probably watched this game closer than me.

Speaker 1 (01:32:27):
Someone explained to me how the team with one hundred
and forty four net passing yards and nine points, like
had a better quarterback performance, Cause there might be an answer,
There always can be.

Speaker 8 (01:32:40):
But what's had a very good game against the Readers,
and other than that, he's not like an NFL player.

Speaker 3 (01:32:46):
Honestly, it's just one drive and basically he had one
really good drive and that's essentially better than he has
most weeks.

Speaker 8 (01:32:54):
And the only caveat well, let me just say on Watson,
the weird thing with him now is he used to
be dying against pressure. Not only would he beat pressure,
he was by far and away the best quartersback in
the league get throwing when he was under pressure. Now
he is just in full on seeing ghosts, can't see
the past rush connovated mode, and it's just become an
absolute disaster. He's turning down wide over open receivers, he's

(01:33:16):
bailing too early. Then he's hanging in too late on
other opportunities. But there is a broader issue with him.
I think it's way too easy to say it's all
on Deshaun Watson. He's not good enough. He had an
excellent game against the Raiders and they stung in that
game as well. Just operationally, they are a disaster. Coaching wise,
it's really been really, really poor. Every single time they
get into the red zone. Every single time and they're
barely there, they get some kind of penalty, and it's

(01:33:38):
always a pre snap operational one. It's not a holding.
It's always a false start and illegal shift something to
back them up. They had a chance to go and
win this game down the stretch, and they blew it
because they're having penalties in the red zone.

Speaker 5 (01:33:49):
I mean, we talked earlier about bad body language. I mean,
this whole team gives bad body language. I mean, I
know Omari Cooper has a little bit of that in him,
but how do you how do you watch this team
and think, Man, these guys really want to play for
each other. They love playing together, Like you have no
strong leadership. You've got a quarterback in there who I

(01:34:10):
truthfully don't believe that everybody wants in that building anyways.
What makes you want to go out week in and
week out and play for each other? I mean, I
think back to the video clip of Joel but TONI
when when you know he doesn't help up, he doesn't
want the help of Jean Watson. That for me and
Joel is the nicest man I've ever met like that

(01:34:32):
for me, says so much about a team, And so no,
I'm not surprised that if you have no discipline in
the classroom, you're not gonna have discipline on the field either.

Speaker 8 (01:34:41):
And it's getting to me pretty evident that there's some
mandate that they can't bench the guy even for a
couple of series.

Speaker 4 (01:34:48):
Well, because.

Speaker 8 (01:34:51):
They are running stuff. They had a second and fifteen
they called a droll play. They had a third and
seventeen they called a tight end screen. That is, we
don't like and trustock quote back with paying in more
than anyone in the league. And it's second and fifteen.
And if that's Dak Prescott, Josh Allen, any of these guys,
you try and find a way to rip it down
the field and they're like, we are avoiding this, we
are out of this drive. We may as well just

(01:35:11):
put on second down because we don't trust to Sean Watson,
Then why is he the starting quarts back if we
don't trust the guy?

Speaker 1 (01:35:16):
Right, I should mention that the Browns only touchdown in
this game was on a field goal block recovered by
Rodney McLeod. So when I say nine points that that
was what they scored on offense, just three field goals,
And I think they're testing that theory of yoursali that
you can't bench him. Although I think his play has

(01:35:36):
warranted benching, I think considering that once they bench him,
he will never play for them ever again, and everything
that goes in that in ownership, I actually think it's
predictable that to this point they wouldn't have benched him.
I think this week is one inflection point. I think
there's a chance that he is benched. On Tuesday, Kevin

(01:35:58):
Stefanski said, yes, he's our star quarterback after the game.
They always say that right after the game, so it's
gonna take a larger conversation. I think it's a week
to week basis now and the next catastrophic game, and
maybe this is somewhere in between. So they string it
out one more week like it's coming. It's not going
to continue like this. They just owe it to the

(01:36:19):
rest of the team. And the reason is, even though
operationally they're a disaster, and even though the defense is
clearly not as good as it was a year ago,
we've just seen every other quarterback who was playing under
Kevin Stefanski in Cleveland have such higher moments that you
just got it, just just to feel like you're being

(01:36:40):
honest with the rest of the team.

Speaker 3 (01:36:42):
The ridiculous thing is there's this idea that they're making
a business decision because there's this one hundred and forty
million dollars worth of cap money that is still there
over the next two years. But guess what, that's still
there even if you bench him or even if you
cut him, and at least you might have half decent
quarterback play Like Jameis Winston. We know is not a
franchise quarterback, but what he is is a guy who

(01:37:03):
gets people going. Teammates love him, gives you that bit
of juice. And we've seen him on the sidelines, leading
these these huddles and leading these big speeches. He's a
priest team while he's also then going back and sitting
on the bench and letting Deshaun Watson go in and
make these horrible plays. And I just I cannot fathom
at this point how he is still even on the roster,

(01:37:26):
let alone starting for them. It's it's mad he.

Speaker 8 (01:37:28):
Can father way he's on the roster because they can't
afford not to have him on the roster. It's on
the weirdest situations ever. They gave him the most ludicrous
contract of all time, and now they have to just
live with it. The business decision now is who wants
to keep their job in the building. Does Kevin's fans
want to have a job Morgan, he wants to pay
because he's going to have to start someone else to
show something here. If, like you said, Greg, we've seen
bring Joe Flack off a couch, we can score points.

(01:37:50):
He could bench him and show it's not me, it's
this guy. You screwed up the contract.

Speaker 4 (01:37:55):
You're gonna have to start around. I've seen that. Yeah,
I feel like we have seen that over and over again.

Speaker 1 (01:37:59):
But you're you could prove it on this particular hell
trade for Jacoby Brissett.

Speaker 4 (01:38:03):
I mean I wouldn't want to give him.

Speaker 1 (01:38:04):
I kind of like I like him having there with
Drake May, but we've seen Jacoby with them, and this
is a perfect win for the Eagles because you know,
coaches like to say yeah, you like you like to
coach them hard after a win, and there are things
that they won't like about this. Saquon Barkley only ends
up with forty seven yards rushing, but more importantly like
it's a perfect win for the media in Philly, because

(01:38:26):
no one's gonna be happy with a twenty to sixteen
win over the Browns. Everyone loses Eagles, Browns. Let's go
to a game where a team definitively won. That team
was the Pittsburgh Steelers in Las Vegas?

Speaker 4 (01:38:39):
Or was it Las Vegas? It didn't sound like it
if you saw the crowd there.

Speaker 5 (01:38:42):
Harris alone setback.

Speaker 4 (01:38:43):
We'll get the pitch as he was trying to seal
the edge. Naji oh able.

Speaker 10 (01:38:46):
To slide inside one tackle, get down the sideline.

Speaker 6 (01:38:49):
Naji Harris Cracy towards the Enzo scrawls out busy in touchdown.

Speaker 4 (01:38:55):
Steelers. What a run by Najie Harris. What a run
by the iron Horse?

Speaker 7 (01:39:00):
Did you see him?

Speaker 3 (01:39:01):
He coasted two men on the end of the line.

Speaker 13 (01:39:04):
Then he took it up the sidelines and like Superman,
lay it.

Speaker 3 (01:39:08):
Out and jock the end zone.

Speaker 1 (01:39:10):
I love it. Nase Harris with a big play. Just
haven't heard that enough, Not this season, not in a while.
Wdvee Rob King, Craig Wolfley. Yes, Harris ends up with
one hundred and six yards on the ground and that touchdown,
the Steelers pull away late. It's twelve seven at halftime,
it ends up thirty two to thirteen. Will It's been

(01:39:35):
a season where the Steelers make the most out of
their offense. On a day that Dustin Field maybe had
one of his worst games as a member of the Steelers,
they still win by three scores in Las Vegas.

Speaker 3 (01:39:49):
Yeah, and Naja Harris is one of the most frustrating
running backs I think in the NFL, because you see
him have games like this and you see that there
is clearly a level of talent there. And yet this season,
prior to the today where he averaged seven point six
yards per carry, there was only one previous game where
he went over four yards to carry. There's a lot
of fourteen for forty twos in his past like he

(01:40:09):
had last week, or thirteen for nineteen like he did
against the Colts. That feels like Najeris isn't the guy
who falls forwards. He's not the guy who gained you
those extra yards. And yet today really really impressive thought,
fought through multiple tacklers, picked up yards after contact, and
really carried this team for huge, huge stretches. So if
you can get a run game going, and you've got

(01:40:30):
the defense the Steelers have, then you've got a very
good chance of winning games of football. Because you know
who we haven't talked about as much this year because
he's one of those guys who's always in the defensive
player of the year conversation. TJ. Watt had an absolute
day today. Two forced fumbles, both times proper peanut punching
the ball out, one of them right on the goal line,

(01:40:51):
just when the Raiders looked like they were coming back
into the game. And you feel like, regardless of whether
Fields has his best day or not, regardless if they
end up giving Russ, Wilson and Troy, this defense is
going to carry them to the playoffs and maybe even
to a couple of wins in the playoffs.

Speaker 5 (01:41:05):
But I think anytime you have TJ. Watt, you've got
a chance.

Speaker 13 (01:41:08):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:41:08):
I love the way that he plays because he doesn't
he doesn't play like you're winning or like you're losing.
He is just consistent and he's consistently coming after you.
His ability, his physicality, the way that he's able to
manipulate the offensive line. I mean, anytime there's a third down,
you're like, all right, we're's CJ.

Speaker 4 (01:41:26):
Watt.

Speaker 5 (01:41:26):
He's about to make a play, and he's terrific. I mean,
he gives that team life. He is completely the leader
of the team, especially when Justin Field doesn't necessarily that
guy you look at who totally embodies the Steelers, that
is TJ.

Speaker 3 (01:41:41):
Watt.

Speaker 1 (01:41:41):
All right, we've reached four am. We are circling back
for the Phoebe wellness check. You've been sneaking in bites here?
How is everything they have?

Speaker 5 (01:41:53):
I have been awake for twenty two hours.

Speaker 4 (01:41:55):
We were almost there.

Speaker 1 (01:41:57):
One more game after this than we throw it to
our friend Nick Shook for Sunday Night Football.

Speaker 4 (01:42:03):
But I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:42:04):
I don't know what to think about this Steelers team,
but I do like that they're like a maybe not
a main character of this season, but a solid supporting
character that like could get some awards.

Speaker 4 (01:42:14):
Buzz.

Speaker 8 (01:42:15):
Yeah, we had Wilson on the sideline right he's he's
hanging out there trying to poke his head around seeing
if he can get involved. My I'm just still trying
to recover. I'm very very UPSETM going through a personal
thing right now. Zach Fraser left the game in a
walking boom. Who was my pick for Rookie of the
Year and still would be as good as Jane Dines
as being one of the most talented players that's come
into the league in a long time, as being unbelievable.
That is a huge blow.

Speaker 4 (01:42:35):
If they give us a minute on Zach Fraser here,
because this is this is your.

Speaker 8 (01:42:39):
Chance, four m in the morning. Zach Fraser breakdown. Just
the most well crafted, well honed center that's come into
the league in generations. I would say I'm not used
as effectively honestly as he could be, but his ability
to read things, pick things up. Mostly in past protection,
he was known coming in as this undersized, explosive get
out in space blocker. You can do things where you

(01:42:59):
can pin him and you can move from you can
build a wrong game around him. What's really being impressed
about him is teams have gone after him, trying to
attack him in passport. They've tried to get after him
by blitzing Kim standing two guys over him. He just
has a great sense of awareness for what to pick up,
who to pick up depths really nerdy things. None of
you guys are interested, and I can see around.

Speaker 4 (01:43:17):
Them so interested. I'm writing notes to support your point.

Speaker 8 (01:43:22):
So yeah, he just he has walked in from day
one an all pro caliber level at center, which you
never ever ever see these guys. Usually you will see
some flashy plays, some clips that go around and you think, oh,
this guy's going to be really, really good, but it
takes them all two three to pick up all the
nuances of the position. He stepped in in day one
was immediately perfect. His tape against the Colts is the

(01:43:42):
best tape of any center you will see in the
league this season.

Speaker 1 (01:43:45):
That is incredible that you know, this is a team
in the Steelers that has an insane history at the
center position, and so it's so crazy you say that
that generational how he's come into this season and so
that's so important for him. So think about it, Mike
Webster back in the day, Dermani Dawson and then Marquise

(01:44:09):
Pouncy and now it's the lineage. And there is something
about the Steelers that they have a history of these
edge rushers and certainly their defense, and they have these
centers and they have an identity. And I was speaking
with someone this week who is trying to pick what
team that they should root for as a like a

(01:44:31):
British person who's learning about the NFL, and they were
kind of honing in on the Steelers, and I said,
that's a great choice. And it was because of stuff
like this, like that they actually have an identity that
when you think of the NFL, you think of the Steelers.
There's the lineage all the way back to the nineteen
twenties when they got that team by having a good
day at the horse track. And it's still the same

(01:44:52):
family one hundred years later. And so that's when I
say I like that the Steelers are part of this season.
It's because of all of that stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:44:59):
It's given me salute life that we are doing a
breakdown of the Steelers' center history four five in the morning,
and that I love Olly Connley more than maybe any
member of his family. I could listen to him talk
about football all day long. I still will not get
behind the idea that a center is gonna win Rookie
of the Year, no matter how good.

Speaker 4 (01:45:18):
His boat, though, that's why you've got to have some
boats of other people.

Speaker 8 (01:45:22):
I know he's not going to win. I'm saying talent
for talent, play play. He has been as good as
Jayden Daniels at his job. Jayden's is more valuable and
slightly more impressive because he's a quarterback, but being a
center is not. He's just seven on day one and
he's been just so good. I will just say quickly,
you mentioned TJ Watt before doing this without Herbig and Highsmith.
When those three are all together, they don't use her
Big as much as they probably should do. That is

(01:45:44):
as good a front as we have in the league.
So for them to continue to play at this level
with those two guys being out for a couple of
weeks is really importsive.

Speaker 1 (01:45:51):
Yeah, and we got the news from the Raiders before
the game, like, hey, we might not actually trade Davante Adams,
which translates to, hey, we're not getting any good trade
offers for Devontae Adams. I do believe that they're willing
to hold on to him until the trade deadline, and
that's maybe what this is signaling. That he could be
on ice or he might even be back on the

(01:46:12):
field and show that he's healthy in the meantime. The
trade deadline still a few weeks a week. I do
not believe he'll be on the team after that. And yeah,
Raiders fans, like, if you want us to talk more
about your team, do more Rock Bowers. That's all we
have for you, Like alex and Alexander Madison is your
leading rusher with thirty three yards and eight. O'Connell's back

(01:46:33):
in the starter. But it doesn't really make much of
a difference here.

Speaker 5 (01:46:36):
No, it doesn't. Like you said, I think Brock Bowers
is probably the most exciting player that they have going on,
you know, kind of getting my vote for Rookie of
the Year essentially from a tight ends perspective, I mean,
I think he's been phenomenal what he's able to do
and how he's he's kind of transforming what tight ends
are doing out there.

Speaker 4 (01:46:55):
But nine for seventy one today, nice game.

Speaker 5 (01:46:58):
It's a nice game. Nice game for the young man.

Speaker 3 (01:47:01):
There was this idea that he was a level of
talent coming out that should be And listen, we're giving
Raiders fans their flowers by giving them some love with this.
They climb into the league as a guy who should
be the best prospect of the position, but landed at
maybe the worst landing spot possibly for him because of
the quarterback play, because they traded drafted a tight end

(01:47:21):
high last year and he's just blown all that out
of the war and been absolutely brilliant. Yeah, and there
we go, Raiders fans. We were positive about your team.

Speaker 4 (01:47:28):
They're not done at two and four.

Speaker 1 (01:47:30):
But whenever a team falls two games under five hundred,
that's when it starts to feel closer. I've just seen
too many teams bounce back after that. But this team
does not have the bones of a team that you
would expect. Meanwhile, Max Crosby's out there getting eight pressures
and two stuffed runs on half an ankle, and so
he's still being Max Crosby. But at two and four,
they had higher expectations in the building. Outside of the buildings,

(01:47:53):
there really weren't that many high expectations. All Right, we're
going to take a break. We'll be back in a second.

Speaker 4 (01:48:07):
So a third and two from the four, Herbert to Dobbins.

Speaker 15 (01:48:12):
Dobbins bounces off a defender, reaches the ball out touchdown.

Speaker 3 (01:48:17):
JK.

Speaker 15 (01:48:18):
Dobbins, with the extra effort to reach out, punches it
into the end zone for his third rushing score of
the season.

Speaker 4 (01:48:32):
That was Matt money Smith. He knows what he's doing.
He's not letting Daniel Deremia get a word in edgeways so.

Speaker 1 (01:48:39):
That he can get onto his favorite podcast, the podcast
he actually listens to. Twenty three to sixteen. Chargers win
this game in Denver. They race out to a twenty
three to nothing leading. I'm feeling like I'm feeling a
little something this Chargers team, Phoebe.

Speaker 4 (01:48:59):
It makes me.

Speaker 1 (01:49:00):
It makes me feel things that like we need an
interesting sixth or seventh seed option in the combination of
Jim Harbaugh and Justin Herbert is enough for me to
be interesting interested in this team, even if their style
of play is a little blah. This game was weird,
a lot of injuries early for the Chargers, and that
Jim Harbaugh leaves the game and is treated in the

(01:49:21):
medical tent. John Harbaugh, his brother, actually left his press
conference concerned about Jim. But then he's back on the sideline.
So that's good to hear. And Yeah, a big division
win on the road.

Speaker 5 (01:49:33):
Yeah, and it's look, I love what Harba has done
with Justin Herbert. This is really what he's needed for
so long. I mean, we've been criticizing Herbert over the
years for not being able to kind of open up
his arsenal essentially, but you bring Harbaugh and he starts
to change the culture in the building. He's doing a
really nice job. I love to see that. Lad McConkey

(01:49:54):
has been like the dude for them the past couple
of weeks. I think he's done a really nice job.
Laughing already.

Speaker 4 (01:50:01):
No, that's an ALI guy, right, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:50:03):
Yeah, it was a full face bumb And what I
love from Lad McConkie today as well was there was
real frustration from himself when players weren't going his way,
like he was getting legitimately angry, and then when things
started to work out, geared up quite a bit. But
I was just like, he is proper He properly cares
about this team being successful. I really really enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (01:50:21):
It's such a weird dynamic with this team because Herbert's
numbers are awful this year, and the offenses it's figuring
things out, I guess to put it nicely, and this
was a good step forward, and yet it I agree
with Phoebe that it still just feels like it's it
has a stronger foundation.

Speaker 4 (01:50:37):
To build off of.

Speaker 8 (01:50:38):
Yeah, that's the perfect way to put it. Think they
feel like a professional team who wins games. They're supposed
to win, and when you go play by play, you go,
everyone's doing their job, Well, why is the ball not moving?
And it just hurts my brain slightly when they do that.
You know, they came out in this game the first
time really they've tried to open up early. They've done
the classic Jim Harbor think we're going to run the ball,
run the ball, will take some shots. In this game,

(01:50:59):
they open up first ten players, they throw the ball
ten times. You can see Justin Herbert, which I absolutely
ador from quarterback being like, I have three plays and
corn the one where I to throw the ball first
nine of the first ten times. Then gets a little
bit of a telling off. But they've got a big
lead and they start running the ball.

Speaker 4 (01:51:13):
It goes nowhere.

Speaker 8 (01:51:14):
And then to close the game they return to saying, okay,
Justin Tran gets over the line and we'll we'll drive
down the field and turn out yards that way. So
when they let him throw the ball early, I think
they've got a better chance. And when they're trying to
slam away with the run.

Speaker 3 (01:51:26):
Jesse Mentor's unit on the other side really impressive today
until that kind of fourth quarter. Was it garbage time
was that. Did the Broncos figure it out? Difficult to
kind of tell, but twenty five quarterback pressures today, Khalil
Mack with six of those, and that's without Joey Bosa,
who should return to this lineup at some point. So
really impressive on that side of the ball. And actually,

(01:51:47):
like you mentioned, Jim Harbor going out of this game
with his ar trill flutter apparently had one in San
Francisco as well. They never kind of came out like
slightly concerning that. But actually when he went out of
the game, Jesse Minter took over as the kind of
assistant head coach role, but Greg Roman was left to
call the plays on his own, and they had a

(01:52:08):
fourth and goal at the half yard line and decided
to kick a field goal from there, when I'm convinced
that Jim Harbor in the game would have told them, no,
we're absolutely going for that, at which point it would
have been twenty four nothing at that point and there
would have been no concern about a second half comeback.
Bizarre decision from Greg Roman, But.

Speaker 4 (01:52:28):
I love your killing Greg Roman at this point.

Speaker 3 (01:52:30):
Kill Greg Roman all day long, every day.

Speaker 1 (01:52:33):
In his defense, Jim Harbor I believe went for his
first fourth down of the year late in their last game,
so they have gone for it less than any other team.
Although the half yard line, Yeah, that's too much.

Speaker 4 (01:52:46):
JK.

Speaker 1 (01:52:46):
Dobbins. I think it's big for them. They need to
be able to run the ball to be the team
they want to be. First couple of weeks he pops
off a couple of big runs after that, really not much.
Today was a little more consistent out of him, twenty
five for ninety six and then offensively. Yeah, you get
your boy Mconki involved, but it's gonna just have to

(01:53:06):
be different guys kind of popping up, not even with games,
but with plays like Semi Fioco had a play in
this game, and Kamani Vadal had to play in this game,
and Josh Palmer, who has quite been quiet this year,
surprisingly like had to play in this game.

Speaker 4 (01:53:22):
And that's what they're gonna need to do. And they
did it against a defense that's been giving teams a
lot of trouble and they showed one way to possibly
beat them. The Broncos have to be disappointed.

Speaker 1 (01:53:32):
Sean Payton, like I said, going into that Saints game
on a little bit of a role coming into this
one and really to be humbled down twenty three to nothing,
you more disappointed. Ali, I know you watch this game closely,
the defense or the offense for the Broncos.

Speaker 8 (01:53:47):
The offense still for me, it just does not look
functional for such long stretch of the game. It really
only gets going when they're able to crank things up,
move with some pace, slim things down a little bit,
go no huddle when they're trying to run the true
classic Sean Peyton offense. There's just so many issues all
across the ball. Protections bad, boon Nicks is bad. They
get out the huddle sole ly. They all panic. The

(01:54:09):
first player of the game, he throws an exception the
first play of the game, and they get to the
play clock with two seconds left. Which is a guy
who does not know if he's ready or not, doesn't
know everything set properly the way he wants it to be,
drops back, Panics throws a pig That happens to them
five six times a game. And we're not early in
the season so much anymore, where you should be either saying,
let's slice some of this stuff off. He's not ready,

(01:54:30):
or he should be figuring it out. And they've had
weeks where they have completely stripped the playbook back, let
him just play the screen game and then create game.
They've had some success doing that. This was the first
time they tried to say, Okay, let's ramp things back up.
I'm going back home and next week out really like
to run my offense and try and beat Dennis doing
it that way, and when trying it, it was not
a success again.

Speaker 3 (01:54:50):
And we talked Caleb Williams scrambled today and he made
smart decisions and he ended up with what fifty six
yards on the ground. Bonix ended up leading this team
in rushing today and almost all of those scram will
look like just pure panic and actually something opened up
for him and he managed to.

Speaker 1 (01:55:05):
Although that's that's been all year and it's been quite effective.
It's the best part of his game, like rushing value
by QBR and everything. He's one of the better quarterbacks
in the league for that. I'm with you, though it
seems like there's no plan to it, and it often
happens when they're trailing, but at least he makes that works.

Speaker 8 (01:55:23):
Yeah, why would you not just lean into that being
the offense be the most up tempo RPO offense in
the NFL. Try and move into twenty twenty four. Go
and see what Washington is doing with Jaden Daniels. This
is where he's being effective. Let's lean into this for
four or five weeks. When he's more comfortable with the
other things, then we can go back to that. So
that is proper coaching. Just running your offense when the

(01:55:43):
guy doesn't get it, that's not coaching.

Speaker 5 (01:55:46):
But I think there's a bit of ego that's just
in there with Sean Payton. Imagine would you imagine? But genuinely,
I mean, look, he's saying that this is my quarterback,
this is my guy, We're gonna win my way, and
I don't think he's in a position where he wants
to step back and be like, ooh, maybe this wasn't
the right scheme here, Maybe this wasn't the right move.

(01:56:07):
Maybe we shouldn't have put bo Nicks in these situations.
And then ultimately it's probably quite frustrating when you look
at the score line and you think you have two turnovers,
you actually might have even won that even with the
poor display of football that was out there.

Speaker 4 (01:56:19):
So that's the Chargers winning record three and two in
the mix.

Speaker 1 (01:56:25):
I think there's just a spot here for whoever's second
in the AFC West to make the playoffs because their
schedules are very easy, and so this game to me
is a big one because these are the two candidates
to b second in the AFC West and you get
a win on the road in the division. Not a
flashy game, but I think an important one for the Chargers.
This was an important week for myself for NFL Daily.

(01:56:47):
It is always a huge treat to come over to London.
It's always one of my favorite weeks of the whole year.
Today like Sunday game Day, that's probably, you know, my
favorite work day of the whole.

Speaker 4 (01:57:02):
Year, and.

Speaker 3 (01:57:04):
Made it so long.

Speaker 4 (01:57:06):
It's true, I just don't want it to end. That
now I'm gonna like honk for a while more.

Speaker 3 (01:57:11):
Yeah, I'm getting emotional listening.

Speaker 1 (01:57:12):
To talking about it. It's different this year too, like
I'm not here with Dan and Mark. I feel their
absence more this week. I always feel Chris's absence this
week going to hot Tottenham Hotspur where they remembered him
and we lived out our dreams and it was really special.
But doing this show with you guys, like we could

(01:57:36):
talk more. I love that we're breaking down bo Nix's
like running ability at four in the morning, and you
guys have such great energy and you love the game
so much that this particular podcast was like a total
treat and something that I'll remember. And thank you Will
for providing us this studio and the energy, because if

(01:57:59):
we were all in our hotel rooms right now, this
show would be about three hundred percent worse. And adding
your voice and your analysis, it was overdue. We need
to have you on much much more. And also thank
you to the will behind the glass, Will Will Varney.

Speaker 3 (01:58:15):
But thank you absolutely gushing. I cannot get over it.
I'm a man who has the ego of champaignon now.
I'm just going to be on a high all week long.

Speaker 1 (01:58:24):
Chase, Greg, That's why we thank you for having I've
long tried to keep you in your place and not
let you get too big, but this time I got
to give it up.

Speaker 3 (01:58:32):
This is why the debut has come so late in
the day. It's just like I could not let him
on the podcast before now he just would have been insufferable.

Speaker 1 (01:58:38):
And we did have a wonderful lunch a couple of
days after the Super Bowl at a Caribbean restaurant in
Santa Monica. I think of that often when I'm driving
past that place. I was like, this is where me
and Will and his wife. A lot of people to
think like la, I mean, London's crazy. I'm not trying
to brag, but it's the only place in the world

(01:59:00):
world that a cab driver could possibly recognize.

Speaker 4 (01:59:03):
Me, which is easy to me.

Speaker 1 (01:59:05):
And they have the little speakers and they just are you,
Greg Rosenthal And I'm just like, it's fall why can't
you say th h? But yeah, he was a big
NFL fan. He was a big around the NFL fan.
He's a big he'd the call fan and he says
he's a big NFL Daily fan. And it really didn't
mean a lot to me. Today at the game, when

(01:59:26):
we were outside on the riser, Olivia and I and
so many different people came up because that was the
time where it's our people, it's the people at the game,
and so many fans came up and they said, hey,
we love the around the NFL, but we really love
what you're doing with NFL Daily too, and we love
it all and we love seeing you here.

Speaker 4 (01:59:45):
And that was very cool. So thank you to everyone
and did that.

Speaker 3 (01:59:49):
I do think the listener is going to be slightly annoyed.
Right at the top of the show, we tease that
you're going to tell us about getting a motorbike from
So yeah, he still not told us about this magical
motorbike ride.

Speaker 1 (02:00:00):
Yeah at Alex Jackson, jacko, producer at Sky Sports, called
me yesterday evening and said, asked me, I'm not going
to do the accident because because I know how to
hate the accent, but that you know. He asked me
if I would take a motorcycle from the game because
I was going to be there doing hits through the

(02:00:21):
end of the third quarter and he was hopeful he'd
it'd be great to have you there for the start
of the What here is the six pm games at home?
It's the ten am games in LA And he's like,
the only way I think we could do it is
if it's on a motorcycle.

Speaker 4 (02:00:36):
And I was like, Oh, I don't have to drive it.
Do that would be crazy?

Speaker 9 (02:00:41):
Like?

Speaker 4 (02:00:41):
And I did ask the question.

Speaker 3 (02:00:43):
That's me.

Speaker 4 (02:00:43):
I was like, do I have to be like holding
the driver the whole time?

Speaker 7 (02:00:47):
That's it?

Speaker 4 (02:00:47):
He's like, no, there's handles. I said sure that that
would be fun.

Speaker 1 (02:00:50):
So I felt very cool, very like I don't know,
like superheroish, having to get to like the chase and
we're in the motorcycle, first motorcycle ride i'd ever been on.

Speaker 4 (02:01:02):
Seemed like pretty normal at first.

Speaker 1 (02:01:03):
Then you get on the highway and you're like, okay,
this thing is is moving if you look down and everything.
But the scary part is definitely weaving through traffic, which
is why they wanted us to take the motorcycle. There's
London traffic's crazy, it's worse than La and yeah, he's
he's weaving through that and we're like two inches on
either side of me and people are giving us dirty
looks and I'm afraid they're gonna like open their door.

(02:01:24):
But yeah, we made it the wind, you know, flying
not through my hair because there was a helmet on.
But it was pretty bad ass.

Speaker 4 (02:01:31):
It was awesome.

Speaker 8 (02:01:32):
You know.

Speaker 3 (02:01:32):
Neil did the same thing last week as well, Neil
Reynolds getting on a motorbike from Tottenham to sky It's
just I can't even imagine.

Speaker 1 (02:01:39):
I don't know who looked like less of a bad ass.
Because I did have them take a picture. I put
it out on my Instagram story, I'll put it out there.
And like, I was worried that I was gonna be
really cold because I didn't have a heavy jacket or anything,
and they they had it all ready for me. They're like, oh, yeah,
we've got a huge heavy jacket for you in gloves,
and I looked like a three year old, like it
was made for a much bigger person.

Speaker 5 (02:02:00):
But I will say the difference between you and Neil
is that we were literally counting down thirty seconds to
going live and they are having you run onto the
dance floor. You have no idea what's happening. We're like, hey,
we're hitting this, this, this is and we're live. Neil,
I love you, but you did not do that last weekend.

Speaker 4 (02:02:20):
This was Greg.

Speaker 1 (02:02:21):
That was the moment I got out of the of
the motorcycle and I'm walking up to the building and
then I see our producer Yell and he's like, why
don't you run Greg worth Worth three minutes from error?
And I'm like, is he being serious or is he
like like being sarcastic like? And I was like okay,
and I started running and yes, I got there about
thirty seconds before it started, and it was really fun

(02:02:43):
doing that show. Hannah Wilkes was just a beautiful host,
and her first day back from having her lovely daughter,
so that she had a hero performance too. I mean
she's feeding her baby in between breaks, so that is
pretty freaking amazing by Hannah. And it was so fun
to work with everyone this week. I'll stop talking, but

(02:03:05):
thank you also to the NFL for sending me out there,
and Matt Schneider and Jason Kleman and Eric Roberts back there,
and Randy Chavez who who were helping us all out,
Henry Hodson, who makes a big difference in all of
our lives. I'm just gonna say it, just try by
make growing the game. When I see this game out here, Ali,
like you're a young man, isn't it a different game?

Speaker 4 (02:03:28):
And I hate to ask this question, but it's true.

Speaker 1 (02:03:31):
It's different than it was doing an NFL game than
when they first started doing these games, and certainly like
the last like even since Tottenham hotspurd Stadium's open, like
it's different.

Speaker 8 (02:03:41):
Yeah, well, the atmosphere so much better at the Tottenham
Stadium for one. The Wembley next week could be fun,
I'd like you said at the top. I've never seen
an atmosphere like that in London that we saw today,
which was a true home crowd type vibe. There was
not the fifty percent home twenty percent fun of another team,
and then to spread around with all of the kind
of Joseys. We still had some of that three that
which is always film with. This was like a legitimate

(02:04:03):
Baz home crowd.

Speaker 1 (02:04:04):
I love that I made you talk about the how
the game has grown over here to close this show,
the little I like the last.

Speaker 4 (02:04:10):
Thing that Ollie wants to talk about. I blew it.

Speaker 8 (02:04:13):
My brain is still hurting from the idea of having
to dig a moator bike through in the middle of
London to see a Mike McCarthy football team.

Speaker 1 (02:04:19):
It's like about yes to get there for the very
first step to get there for like the little build up,
it was a lot of fun. And I do not
forget that we that we are lucky to do this
and that there's nothing guaranteed. So if this was the
last time they ever sent me to London, I feel
like I made a count. And thank you to everyone
who is listening, and I'll stop saying thank you. I

(02:04:40):
apologize to anyone that I forgot to say thank you,
yes for Will Gavin, Phoebe Schechter, Ollie Connolly, Will Varney
behind the glass. When we are wrapping this thing up
at four twenty two in the morning, you know football
is back and it's time to send it to Nick

(02:05:01):
Schuk to wrap us up.

Speaker 4 (02:05:03):
Here, take us home, Nick, Bengals and Giants.

Speaker 14 (02:05:07):
Third down and eighteen on the Bengals first drive of
the game.

Speaker 3 (02:05:11):
Again the Bengals with an empty.

Speaker 4 (02:05:12):
Formation, shotgun snap.

Speaker 14 (02:05:14):
It's a five man rush. Burrow run for thirty five,
twenty five, twenty fifteen, ten five times for the pie
on touchdown, a forty seven yard touchdown run by Joe Burrow.

Speaker 9 (02:05:31):
I'll tell you you talked about a defense getting.

Speaker 4 (02:05:34):
Distorted to New York.

Speaker 10 (02:05:36):
Giants, gave up half a football field.

Speaker 3 (02:05:38):
Old baby score score. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (02:05:42):
Wealk to the.

Speaker 16 (02:05:43):
Sunday Night football recap Patrick Clavon here with Nick Shook
as that essentially was it.

Speaker 9 (02:05:48):
Nick.

Speaker 16 (02:05:48):
Joe Burrow's long career long touchdown run almost held up
as the score in this game as the Cincinnati Bengals
knockoff the New York Giants at Bengals that was scoring
a billion points seventeen to seven, but one was a
touchdown that probably shouldn't have been late by Chase Brown.
But yeah, just an odd game, but one that Cincinnati

(02:06:10):
was able to come out on top of in the end.

Speaker 13 (02:06:12):
Yeah, and the Chase Brown touchdown a perfect example of
broadcaster timing where they show a graphic that says the
Bengals are like one in one thirty eight when they
score ten points or less and they're winning ten to seven,
and then the next play Chase Brown makes it seventeen
to seven, and oh, you don't have to worry about
that anymore. Yeah, this game lacked highlights when it comes
to scoring plays, but didn't lack highlights overall. A bit

(02:06:33):
of an ugly game, but I wouldn't call it a
clunker or a snooze fest, but a defensive battle, if
you will. We learned a lot about the Giants defense.
We actually learned a lot about the Bengals defense, which
has been a sieve upfront for most of the season.
They got a little bit healthier up front. They did
get run through pretty emphatically for one drive, but when
it came down to making a play, they made the
plays they needed to. They stopped Tyrone Tracy, they stopped

(02:06:54):
the Giants offense, which didn't have a ton of life
if it wasn't running the football, and they were able
to hang on and leave the Metal Lands with a
much needed victory.

Speaker 16 (02:07:01):
And the victory that was hard fought that came ultimately
Nick on a fourth down stop. Where this was something
that Brian day Ball was doing. It was almost consistent,
pretty much in lockstep with the next Gen stats recommendation.
I'm not sure if there's a particular sheet and situation
that the Giants staff has, but these go situations, they

(02:07:22):
were successful for the Giants for the most part, until
they weren't. Ultimately at the end, when you saw, in
similar fashion the two fourth downs that the Giants did
not get in the second half, Mike Hilton was back
there doing his I'm Mike Hilton, I'm a veteran pointing
a direction almost kind of lebron esque on an inbounds
play kind of guiding guys. He got the pass breakup.

(02:07:45):
I think it was DJ Turner that got the ultimate
one that kind of sealed the deal where the Giants
were band aid and duct taping their way down the
field and eventually, you know, with Greg Joseph missing kicks,
it's tough to sustain an offense like that.

Speaker 13 (02:08:01):
Yeah, that's the key is the fact that they scored
one touchdown all night, and you know, you missed two
field goals and there goes your opportunity. But yeah, they
go three for five on third down or on fourth down.
It felt like they went for fourth down ten times.
They were using all four downs, like that high school
coach who refused to punt and made waves in the internet. Basically,
the Giants became that team on Sunday night, and I
think it was at a desperation. It was, look, hey,
we know we're not only Merlin to get so many

(02:08:22):
chances to move the football, and if it's fourth and short,
I think it's anything inside of six as usually a go.
I would envision a world in which they have the
next gen stats about model up in the box and
like radioing down like Bryan, next gen sys, go for it,
go for it as if they don't have their own
analytics department. But yeah, they went for it willingly and often,
and most of the time they got it, but they
didn't get the most important ones. And that's often the

(02:08:44):
difference in a game like this, where the Bengals offense
that had put up a ton of points, like you said,
wasn't scoring and the game was within reach, and it's
a Giants team that took.

Speaker 4 (02:08:52):
A step back.

Speaker 5 (02:08:53):
I guess, I don't know.

Speaker 13 (02:08:53):
I wouldn't even necessarily say that it was a rough
night for them against the Bengals defense that played better.
I mean, this is not the Giants team that we
saw play the Seahawks a week that's for sure. But
I mean sometimes it's about matchups, and they lost out tonight.

Speaker 16 (02:09:04):
Well, are the other matchup that you pointed out the
last time we were doing a Prime Tom breakdown. I'm
sitting here in my garage and I'm celebrating. I'm heaping
Dimes with praise, like this is a top ten Dimes game.
And you looked as you do, down into the screen
and you're like, it was on the road Patrick, the
home road spits for splits for Danny Dimes of not

(02:09:26):
being kind, and here we are low and behold, Dimes
is back at home and the offense can't do anything.
What is it?

Speaker 3 (02:09:33):
Nick? Do you have a theory about Daniel Jones at MetLife?

Speaker 13 (02:09:37):
You know, I don't know. I mean, I've been to
Met Life once, the lighting there is a little weird,
but I don't think that has anything to do with it.
It's just a little weird on the eyes. It's got
a bit of an orange glow to it at times, honestly,
like they didn't run the ball well until the third quarter,
and they had a very strong third quarter, but their
offense felt very unbalanced, and every time you saw him
drop back to pass. In fact, I looked at the
pressure numbers and they were way lower than I thought
they'd be. The Bengals got fifteen total pressures at thirty

(02:09:59):
three points three percent, exactly one third few math wizards,
and it felt like he was constantly under duress. Are
just slow, hesitant to make a decision. I think that
speaks to coverage being sticky. If guys aren't blatantly open,
you know he's going to be somebody's a little bit
indecisive and wait a second or two. But I mean, yeah,
the home versus road thing, I don't know. I think
it's kind of strange. I know New York's a big market,

(02:10:21):
and if I put myself in his shoes, I would
have a hard time handling that. I guess, as most
people would. But it is kind of strange there as
a team really bad at home in terms of winning
percentage and in terms of primetime games over the last
decade too. So it's not just him, but when he
was doing this, he was going up for those of
you who watched on YouTube and putting my hand on
an upward trajectory on the screen right now. He came
back down a little bit. We'll see where he lands

(02:10:42):
in QB index this week. And yes, that is a plug.

Speaker 16 (02:10:46):
Yes, well you have to because it's a lot of
work and people should pay attention to it. There was
an opportunity. But because the Giants on their best drive
of the night, I believe what was the penetration here?
They got down they were at the twenty. No, they
are snapping this ball at the fifteen yard line. First

(02:11:08):
and ten from the fourteen yard line. Dimes has the
rookie Tracy out in the flat. DJ Turner is covering
Tracy in theory, but he turns to run to grass Nick.
Tracy is ultimately wide open, and for some reason and
Collins were pointed to us out on the game, Dimes
takes his eyes off. Tracy gets hit as he throws

(02:11:30):
and throws a ball to Jermaine pet Pratt, he picks
his off runs it back to the twenty seven. That
was essentially their chance, that was their best opportunity, and
there it went just on a weird decision by Daniel Jones.

Speaker 13 (02:11:41):
And that came in the first quarter, end of the
first quarter too, in a game that was only seven
to nothing and they'd put together a strong drive. But
that also speaks to what we've seen from Daniel Jones
for most of his career, which is this is a
guy who when under pressure, tends to flail or tends
to you know, have an issue where he gets hit
when he throws and the ball goes sky high and
it's easy for an interception. I mean, is just kind
of who he is. It's unfortunate that this is an

(02:12:02):
offense that's so limited that they have so few chances
that it then you know Lingers and by the end
of the game, you look back and think, man, that
was one of our big opportunities early in this game.
But it is what we've seen from him for most
of his career, which is why he has the reputation
he has, which I was cheering for him, man, just
like you were. I was like, man, he's putting together
a nice month, like he's starting to build upward, and
you know, it's a little bit of a setback.

Speaker 16 (02:12:24):
Yeah, a setback where that they're going to have to
get better. Their next game is coming up against the
Philadelphia Eagles, who just came off a win against the Browns,
albeit an odd one, but they got aj Brown back.
And speaking of the Browns, that is next up at
a visional matchup for the Cincinnati Bengals, who I guess,

(02:12:44):
I mean the caveat that it was the Giants knick,
but the defense did you said it lose?

Speaker 3 (02:12:48):
Squad played better today?

Speaker 13 (02:12:50):
Yeah, I actually honestly think that that match up that
the Bengals face next to the Browns will be very
similar to this and another offense that's incredibly limited primarily
by quarterback play, much more than the Giants are, but
against a defense that's going to give them trouble. And
that really speaks to the Giants defense. You know, we
look at them right now and they lose tonight and
they're two and four overall, but they're better than two
and four on the defensive side of the football. That

(02:13:10):
front four has been very good. Dexter Lawrence is a machine.
He breaks through a double team tonight and gets a
sack of Joe Burrow like he's a monster. He's doing
a chunky soup ad and he totally deserves it because
he's a beast. You know, they didn't have their full
group out there Asizo Julari though, has had a great
stretch and had a great game tonight as well. So like,
it's not all bad news to the Giants just because

(02:13:30):
they put seven points on the board. They do have
a really strong defense, especially up front. It's just that
in order to win this league, you gotta put it together.
So I think that, you know, like in comparison this
game tonight, the Browns Bengals game is going to be similar,
but the Giants, the Giants got to figure out some
way to put more points on the board like they
were in the weeks prior, because that defense is going
to travel, it'll come to play.

Speaker 16 (02:13:49):
Yeah, the defense that deserved better tonight, especially as he's
those Jalai I am Brian Burns who were playing incredible tonight.
But you want to talk about a great team, what
about a team that spans between uh here in Ohio, Nick,
we got two thousand plus miles.

Speaker 3 (02:14:03):
I got five thousand miles.

Speaker 16 (02:14:05):
Going to London thanks to Phoebe Scheckter, Will Gavin, Olly Connelly,
Nick Chuk, Randy Eric, everybody. This is a global edition
of NFL Daily. We appreciate you guys and to get
for Week seven because this is what we do. This
is who we are, this is what we're about. We're
about autros, we're about fun, and we're about football. See

(02:14:28):
you guys on the next edition of NFL Daily.

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