December 16, 2025 • 27 mins
Another cold-weather game, another loss for Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins. In Week 15's edition of Monday Night Football, Aaron Rodgers continued to quarterback at a high level and the Pittsburgh Steelers collected a very necessary victory in their campaign for Super Bowl glory. Gregg Rosenthal and Nick Shook recap the game, provide key highlights and discuss the implications of this result heading into Week 16.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
One in the plate clock gets a snap Dolphins bringing
pressure throw over the middle.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It is complete.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
The dk Metcalp pearls aside one.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Defender stick from another pit in the ad zone.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Bit at Pittsburgh Steelers touchdowns what and ever by dk
metcalpe bysic caality on full display.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
This is the catch it run receiver. This is why
you go in free agency and.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
You get the big bodied man out of Seattle. Dk
Metcalp caught that in traffic, had a man on him,
pushed them aside, sidestepped another guy, and waltzed into the
end zone like he owned the place, which he does
here at Akershure.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
He absolutely owned the night, like the Pittsburgh Steelers dk
metcapp getting in the end zone as part of a
four straight touchdown drives streak by the suddenly go Go
Pittsburgh Steelers. They beat the Dolphins twenty eight to fifteen,
and they threw aside Miami's small playoff chances like dk
(01:05):
metcalf did with a defender there. That was Rob King
and Max Starks on wd v E. Thanks for everyone
checking us out live on YouTube. Thanks for everyone listening.
On Tuesday morning, I thought this was going to be
a good game shook and it was a good game
by Aaron Rodgers for a second straight week, and it
(01:25):
was a great game. I would even say the best
of the season by the Pittsburgh Steelers. After the last
two weeks, I'm taking this Steelers team a little more seriously.
Am I overreacting?
Speaker 5 (01:37):
M Okay, so I don't need to throw cold water
on this, but I'm going to just slightly because I
would like to point back to Miami's I believe it
was week five when they played the Cleveland Browns and
they completely quit.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Sorry was week seven.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
They completely quit in inclement weather in Cleveland that day
and the Browns dominated them. The Browns, a bad team,
dominated them. So they're not a measuring stick for a team.
But that does not discount the fact that the Steelers
have put together two very strong games in the last
two weeks, namely Aaron Rodgers two best performances as Steelers
quarterback in his first and probably only season.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
As Steelers quarterback.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
And it's they're headed in the right direction at the
perfect time with this very tight AFC North Race.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And just a few weeks after Steelers.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Fans were calling for Mike Tomlin's job, suddenly they're all
back in the bandwagon.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
They want to play renegade again.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
That is so true. It's so Steelers, it's so Tomlin.
They're eight and six, and we're going to get into
the schedule and their playoff chances, and I'm thinking about, Wow,
they might not even need to win that Week eighteen
game against the Ravens because they've got the Steelers. They've
got the Browns in Week seventeen, and the Ravens have
(02:39):
two really tough games Patriots and Packers, and who knows,
the Steelers could clinch in Week seventeen, but it would
be very Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Tomlin to look so good
like this on Monday Night football. They're twenty three, you know,
home winning streak on Monday Night Football is intact. And
then lose to the Browns. But I don't know Rogers,
you mentioned it, he's peaking. I thought he was awesome
(03:02):
last week, like that was a legit vintage Rogers game, four, five, six,
big time throws. He played great tonight. I think he
played great, but it was more of the game management
style that we've seen this year, just more effective. An
average depth of target under four yards, so he is
last in the NFL in terms of dinking and duncan,
But I'm not gonna fault him for it tonight, Nick,
(03:22):
because it worked. And the three or four times where
he had to throw it a little deeper intermediate routes,
it was usually over the middle, which we haven't seen
a lot of, and they were on the money, and
he showed off his arm strength and it was almost
a perfect night four in completions from Rogers, and they
really held the ball for most of the night.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Yeah, we saw one of those passes of the middle
of the DK Metcalf, which I think perfectly explained or
illustrated the knight for the Steelers against this Dolphins defense,
which is that, look, we're.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Going to win the battle of wills.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
We're going to take the ball in our hands and
we're going to break tackles and we're going to refuse
to go down. And it also, you know you talk
about the average depth of target being minimal, Well, it
helps when you have a guy like Kenny Gainwell that
you can just swing the ball out in the flat
and he can make guys mits and he can you know,
pick up the extra yards.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
After they catch.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
It's perfectly fine. To fit this within the framework of
Arthur Smith's offense, you don't have to be a deep
shot taking team, although they were they were last week.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
They did take a couple of deep shots the DK metcalf.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Really they didn't need to tonight, and they played within
themselves and that's why they were able to take a
game that looked like it was destined to be a
low scoring, closed affair and blew it wide open before
the end of the third quarter.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Yeah, the third quarter was crazy. What was the stat
you quoted to me, right, It was we came on.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
Okay, So the Steelers dominated the third quarter in a
fashion that you're usually just not going to see an
NFL game. They outgained the Dolphins one sixty three to
negative twenty. They had nine first downs the Dolphins had zero.
That is dominance in statistical form.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
It was rough. There just weren't a ton of possessions.
Both teams started out punting, and the Steelers did three times.
But I thought to a tongue of Iloa's first interception
was kind of a sign of things to come. Asante
Samuel Junior gets to pick. It's his third game as
a member of the Steelers, and it was one of
(05:06):
those double whammies, like bad decision, bad execution, and then
Joe and especially Troy Aikman in the booth just shaking
his head. Troy Aikman was sick of watching Tua. By
the end of this game, he was saying that Tua
was lucky to only be leading the league in interceptions
by as much as he is, because he throws two
or three of them every week that teams could pick
(05:29):
off and he's not beaten the I can't play in
the cold allegations there were one or two more that
could have been picked off tonight, and going into the
fourth quarter like early, it was sixty plays to twenty six,
and Tua had so many negative plays, and they put
up a couple late scoring drives and what amounted the
garbage time, and even those you couldn't be happy about
(05:50):
because Troy Aikman's making fun of them for playing so slow,
like they were essentially waving the white flag on the
game and the season that you can't even enjoy the
garbage dime unless you're Darren Waller's fantasy owner somewhere.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
I mean the production that they got in the fourth
quarter really skewed the stats and made it look a
lot closer than it was. It was not as close
as the twenty eight to fifteen final that we got.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It was not. It was a very lopsided game.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
And you're right about Tua's propensity for throwing interceptions. In fact,
it's so prevalent ESPN random montage of the interceptions that
he's thrown that were just easily red passes picked off
by opposing defenses Buffalo Cleveland tonight.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
You just keep going down the list. It's uh. It
just kind of adds.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
To the fact that we don't know what toa his
future looks like, and especially when you are playing in
an AFC where most of the heavyweights are playing in
cold weather, and Tua is now zero to six in
games that kick off at below forty degrees and they
never looked like they stood much of a chance tonight either.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Wait, wasn't the stat that they had never won one
like below forty five degrees and now.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
They'd lost thirteen.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
They won one. I think they won one at like
forty two degrees and now they moved h Yeah, but
it is sad that this could and should be the
last meaningful game of the Mic Daniel era. I'm not
buying all this talk that he might be saving his
job and he's got a chance to return, Like I believe,
there is a chance, but it's going to be up
to the next general manager. And I have a hard
(07:12):
time believing that the ownership is going to make them
keep Mike McDaniel and just usually in those situations, the
coach doesn't stick around. So I hate that. How fitting
it is that they come up short in the cold
because you think of so many of the big moments
of the Mike McDaniel to era and this is what happened.
I want to get to a bit of a hot take.
I have on that in just a second, but first
(07:33):
I want to give a little more love to the Steelers.
It is time for Who Delivered, presented by Uber Eats,
and I'm giving it to two men tonight, and it's
the great buddy comedy of the last five years. Yes,
it's Arthur Smith, the offensive coordinator of the Steelers, and
John U. Smith.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Let's listen is a left tackle here for this year
there's now the pitch to John HU Smith and Smith off.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
The right side and first through the end zone.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Touchdown Pittsburgh Steelers Joan hu Smith with the rushing touchdown
for the Steelers their fourth touchdown of the game. So
to add insult to injury, let's go ahead and let's
go with this. Meka Fitzpatrick injured, traded to the Dolphins,
Jalen Ramsey a sack, John Hu Smith a rushing touchdown.
(08:23):
I think the Steelers won that trade.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Oh a little rude about Minca there because he's been
the best player in that trade for what it's worth.
But a great call there by Arthur Smith and by
Max Starks two doing our job for us and helping
to point out that Jalen Ramsey had a nice night.
Johnny Smith has been in the crosshairs for Steelers fan.
I couldn't believe this, but earlier in the game he
had his first first down since week nine. He also
(08:48):
had a brutal penalty and a couple of bal blocks
in this game, which has been typical for him. But
he did get that touchdown. And that's when you know
that the Steelers are really rolling. When Gainwell goes over
one hundred and forty yards from scrimmage and John Smith
is getting rushing types down well.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I mean This is the team with the deepest tight
end room in the NFL.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
I mean you have John Smith, Pat Fryarmuth, Darnell Washington,
Cam Hayward or sorry, Connor Hayward, his younger brother.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
And you think about all four of those.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
Of course, John who's not going to see the field
very often, he's not going to make much of a difference.
But leave it to Arthur Smith to roll out a
personal grouping that you almost will never see. I just
looked it up just because I wanted to check it out.
You know about twelve personnel right, two tight ends on
the field. Usually there's a running back involved. That's why
it's twelve. There's no running back on the field this play.
There's six offensive linemen, two tight ends, two receivers, and
Aaron Rodgers and they run a toss to John new Smith.
That is the diabolical nature of what Arthur Smith, the
(09:34):
offensive cordator who wants as a head coach, turned Corderyal
Patterson into a running back. That's what he's capable of doing.
And it's just the icing the cherry on top of
this blowout cake, this blowout Sunday that we're going to
run a toss sweep to a tight end because we
know that we have a little bit of revenge to
earn for John who with the Dolphins.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
And I know you don't want to give too much credit, Shuck,
But if I'm going to be fair and say I'm
looking for a game where they thoroughly beat a team,
they've been on my raidar because they've only outgained their
opponent three times this year, Nick, that's crazy before yeah, tonight,
and only one of them was by a significant margin.
It was actually the win over the Browns that they
(10:13):
had earlier this season. So they are a tough team
up front. I actually think they might be a little
underrated in terms of their offensive line. They can run,
block pretty well, they do some fun stuff. Rogers has
not been pressured too often. He gets rid of the
ball so quickly. That helps them out certainly. In fact,
tonight he was only pressured I saw, according to Next
(10:35):
Gen set four times. That's just nuts, and he was
sacked on three of them. Like he is the ultimate
pressure to sack Ratio King or guy at the bottom
of the league, which is why like the way they're
winning is you know, it's a thin way to win
and yet I'm much more intrigued by that Steelers Lions
game in a week. So congratulations to Arthur Smith and
(10:56):
John new Smith. That was who delivered presented by Uber Eats.
When football makes you hung get game day deals on
Uber eats, the official on demand delivery partner of the NFL. Order. Now,
we had a question in the chat that asked, uh,
is it going to be a new coach and a
new quarterback for the Dolphin And here's my hottish take.
(11:19):
That could have been the last time we ever see
two of tongue of Iiloa play for the Dolphins. Like
he could be benched as soon as Sunday because he's
in a similar situation I think to where Derek Carr
was a couple of years ago when the Raiders benched him.
Where Kyler Murray frankly is right now. When you know
that that quarterback with some guarantees on his contract is
(11:42):
not going to be playing for you necessarily next season,
maybe just sit him down. They have a draft pick
there and quinn Ewers, it's just a possibility, like you, yeah,
you have Zach Wilson. I'm not saying it's going to
be an upgrade, but Tua has not been playing well
at all, so I just think there's no chance in
my mind that he's going to be the guy there
(12:03):
next year almost at all, And so possibly do they
bend fim early.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
This also reminds me of the Russell Wilson situation in
Denver in which they went to Jared's Didham for the
last couple of games because Sean Payton knew they were
moving on from Russ in the offseason, And maybe that
does come to fruition.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I do think that this is not a move made
to save a coach's job.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
To answer the other half of this question, because I
believe that Mike McDaniel and Tua talk about law are
a package deal and they will both be gone, and
especially with a new general manager coming in, he's going
to want to hire his guy.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
He's going to want to have his quarterback.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Neither of the existing guys are probably his choices whoever
they do hire as general manager. So it feels like
the end of an era, and an end of an
era that we saw coming. I don't know, six to
eight weeks ago before the Dolphins were on this little
mini winning streak which they can credit entirely to Anthony
Weaver getting the defense together. They held their last four
opponents before tonight under twenty points in each of those games,
and Devon h. Chan for running through defenses and powering
(12:54):
this offense. Those are parts of the team that are
going to carry over next year and building blocks for
the general Andrew.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
You'll have some changes defensively, but Chan is.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
A cornerstone of sorts for your offensive side of the football.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I don't think the quarterback and coach jar though.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yeah I have something to say about like the package
deal and they have been. But first I would do
want to get to a comment that say, the Dolphins
are terrible, but you saw yours playing against the Browns.
How do you switch to that? Even as bad as
who is playing, you do have a responsibility to the
veterans on the team to try to keep winning and
all that. But I will point out one of our
throw of the Year nominees on NFL Daily that no
(13:31):
one believed me until they watched. It was from Quinn Ewers,
thrown at about fifty eight yards down the field while
getting drilled by a Browns defender. Although he did not
look particularly good in that game other than that one trow.
I don't think they're connected anymore. My theory is that
we're going to hear some blame, maybe from sources from
(13:53):
you know, I've been noticing a nasty little game was
going on when there was losing and they threw the
GM off the boat, and it felt like there was
maybe like a split there, a schism between McDaniel, who
has a lot of friends in the media, and Tua,
and that Tua was getting blamed through the media by
some just very specific criticisms that felt like it was
(14:16):
coming from inside the house.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
I think arguments can be made in McDaniel's favor, and
really the way you do that is you trace it
all the way back to his roots being on Kyle
Shanahan's staff in San Francisco, where they were an incredible
rushing attack, and you can point to a chan's recent
success and say, look, he's scheming it up.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
They can find success with the running game, they just
need the quarterback and they don't have the quarterback.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
And I could see them selling that, especially if Steven Ross,
the owner who was most likely to fire his coach
a month or two ago, decided to stick with his
coach when things were at their absolute worst, which was
coming off of that loss to the Browns, by the way,
an embarrassing showing, the second embarrassing showing of the season,
week one against the Colts being the other one. I
don't know how you show up completely disinterested in Week one,
but that's what the Dolphins did. So I think if, like,
(14:59):
if you're looking for a reason to keep him more
a theory or a path for him to stay there,
it's that the owner already stuck by his coach and
you can just pin all the blame on the quarterback.
But the problem is it's so hard to get a
different quarterback, and if you hire a new general manager,
you're gonna have to sell that candidate on keeping the
coach when that's not his coach.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
That's where it gets a little tricky.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Yeah, we've had we have a call for Chad Pennington.
He's not that much older than Philip Rivers about the
same arm strength at this point. Yeah, I don't I
don't think it's even that crazy to keep Mike McDaniel
because of the options that will be out there, Will
anyone be better that you could bring it? Like, I
don't think it's crazy. Just history tells us it's less
than likely. I think Anthony Weaver will get a real
(15:39):
interview there and might get some interviews elsewhere before we
move on from this game. And yeah, the Steelers schedule
is really interesting at Detroit next week, and so that's
a huge game the line, Yeah, to keep their playoff
hopes alive, and they got some real defensive issues. Rogers
is playing his best ball the year right now. I
(15:59):
think their offense actually can score on the Lions. I
don't think their defense without TJ. Watt. He missed this
game and is going to be out. It sounds like
for a while after a lung injury. We mentioned that
earlier but not on this show specifically, just a horrible
injury procedure gone wrong inside the building, some therapy gone
(16:21):
wrong inside the building. And without TJ. Watt and some
of the problems the speed that they have in the secondary,
I think that's going to be a bit of a
score fest and it'll be fun. Let's give one more
love to the old guys. Our producer Chris Babona, not
an old guy, says, we got to listen to the
MVS touchdown. We had a Marquez Valdez Scantling primetime touchdown
(16:44):
from Aaron Rodgers in the year twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Rogers under center. It's a snap play action pass looking
steps up, throws to the.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Right, to the left.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I beg your pardon, touchdown, Pittsburgh scinis.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
How about that man Marque Beldez Scantling with his first
reception as a member of the Steelers, and it is.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
A Pittsburgh Steelers touchdown and Aaron.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Rodgers celebrating with his former teammate from Green Bay, Red Rover.
Red Rover bring Marquez Bandell's skett wig over.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
That was great. That was the moment where I realized
this wasn't gonna be like the Steelers Dolphins game from
two thousand and seven. I believe tell the listeners about
that before we move on to our final segment. There
stuck well.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
In the history of Steelers Dolphins in Pittsburgh, the elements
usually get involved.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
But way back in two thousand and seven.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
It was a lot of rain and the field at
what was then known as Heinz Field wasn't very great.
It was in terrible condition that night, so terrible, so wet,
so saggy, that a punt lodged itself into the turf
upon contacting the turf. It's a memorable moment in the
history of Monday Night football, and it's a it's a
memorable moment, I guess in this history of this matchup.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Luckily tonight they had the field much better.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Shit, but it was more frozen than wet, and we
didn't get another football lodged in the turfy.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
I wish they did.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
I want zero zero with three minutes fifty five seconds left,
you know what we look at. This is probably never
gonna come up on this show again. I actually want
to listen to the whole call because it includes a
young Mike Trico an aged Tony Kornheiser. I believe in
like Tarico's voice sounds a little different. Let's listen.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
It might have been if picked a player we'll catch
just as well as just punched.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
Brandonfield struggled earlier, got the wet ball away. Alan Rosson's
gonna walko. It looks like it's on a team.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Boy, if you tea the ball up, couldn't put it
any better.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
I love that that is Tarico, right, I think it's Turrico,
Cornheiser and Joey Thaisman.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, it might be Joe thisand way back in the day.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Everyone watching tonight. We love y'all. You know, there's five
YouTube's after the games. There's watch alongs with Eli and
Peyton and other various like ways to watch. It's the
best crew in the business. Monday Night Football, Joe Buck
and Troy Aikman. You know, appreciate what you have because
it was rocky up and down over some of the years.
(19:10):
I actually defended the Tony Corneiser year between him and
Tariko that I had fun watching that one. But there
were some ups and downs in the booth over the year. Steelers,
they define up and down, but they were awesome tonight
and they might just clinch this division before week eighteen.
We'll see something about the Steelers and the Ravens. Just
seems like the football gods want that game to maybe
(19:33):
be the Sunday night game in week eighteen to decide
who goes to the playoffs. But we'll have to wait
and see. Maybe your Browns can help us get Let's
make it time for Quarterback Keeper presented by Snapdragon. We're
gonna wrap up this Monday Night show like we do
(19:53):
all Monday nights, with a little love to a quarterback
that you Nick Shaw, the author, the mastermind behind quarterback
keeper has noticed is playing good ball when you went
back to watch the tape, and yes, it is the
quarterback of the team that one of the commenters pointed
out is the best team in Florida. There is no
(20:14):
doubt that is the Jacksonville Jaguars in their quarterback, Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
Greg And I'm gonna take this moment to offer you
an opportunity to, I don't know, repent apologize for your
critique of my placement of Trevor Lawrence in the top
ten of QB Index, because man, I.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Won't do it because as of last week that was
too high. What you're just doing it off of, like
what you think is gonna happen.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
A little bit of projection. It's not involved, but it
tends to come true. It tends to come true with
some of these drinking Someone might say, I have a
little bit of foresight on my side because Trevor Lawrence
balled out of control on Saday, accounted for six touchdowns,
he threw for five. He threw three of them to ETN.
He was absolutely lights out dialed in Brian Thomas Junior
threw the hands of two defenders for a touchdown. Sitting
(20:56):
in the pocket, Survey getting loose. Nobody's open because somebody's
getting held down. A flag is on the field. He says,
forget this, I'm taking it myself down the sideline for
a touchdown. This is how Trevor Lawrence has played for
most of the last month, if not longer. This is
what I've been watching in these Jags games that maybe
a lot of people aren't paying attention to but need to.
Now it's not just his arm. He's kind of shaken
(21:17):
off the interception tendency that he's had for most of
his career, and he's getting busy with his legs. And
this was the peak of his powers in this game
against the Jets. And yet it was against the Jets.
And yes, they've had a bit of a soft schedule
as of late. But I am a believer in the
Liam Cohen and Trevor Lawrence partnership that it is propelling
him to new heights, heights unseen since the first year
that he played under Doug Peterson. And while this AFC
(21:41):
is wide open, I cautioned to everybody who just counts
out the Jags because they're the Jags and they play
in Jacksonville. Don't overlook them because that guy right there
is playing some really good football. And if he's playing
good football and he's got the talented core around him,
they could go place this.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Yes, thank you, great Joah professional. He stuck it to
me at the beginning, and he stuck the landing. The
only knit I have to pick with any of that,
because you were a seer, was that he's been playing
like this for a month. If he was playing like
that in terms of how he looked on Sunday for
a month straight, I might put him in the MVP mix.
(22:19):
I mean, that was one of the best performances by
any quarterback all season long. And you look at six
touchdowns and you think Jets, and you see a couple
of the touchdowns where it's you know, etn over the middle,
wide open and a screen pass. You think, oh, like,
maybe that was just easy and schemed up. No, like
he was in rhythm from minute one. You mentioned tight windows.
(22:40):
It was every kind of throw was over the middle.
It was some crossers to Brian Thomas Junior, it was
a deep pass, and then if it wasn't for Caleb Williams'
pass over the weekend. I think that shot from Lawrence
when he is sprinting left to Parker Washington would get
more attentions. That's in the top five throws of the year.
(23:00):
We just watched it at the end of that montage.
Great job by Chris there. That's a top five throw
of the year, no question it is gonna be. It
might right now be on the podium. And everything you
said was just on point thirty one points in the
first half. He's running more. I really am looking forward
to how he finishes out the season.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
You know, when I watch these games, I'm obviously taking notes,
but sometimes I just have some mental notes that are
burned into my brain because of how great the plays
are made. And I know exactly when that throw to
Washington was. It was just outside of three minutes or
just inside of three minutes left in the first half,
and it was one of those There's probably two or
three throws I see from quarterbacks every week that make
me get up out of my chair or off my
couch and just say wow out loud. And I said wow,
(23:40):
And at that point I realized, this man is playing
the best football of his career. He's completely comfortable, and
I'm kind of scared to see what happens to a
team that runs into the Jags and doesn't realize who
they're facing.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
He is because of him saying that, well, he's playing
that way.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
They got the Broncos Sunday. It's not a great slate.
I had the Sunday slate overall, like the daytime with
the prime time games are fantastic. This week. You know,
you got Philip Rivers next Monday Night against the forty
nine ers. That's just fun. Two teams battling for the playoffs.
You have the Ravens and the Patriots. That's a great game.
And Thursday nights, you know, one of the games of
(24:13):
the year Ram Seahawks. But the Sunday game slate really
is dry except for that Jaggs Broncos game. That is
a real great test. So we'll be talking about that
throughout the course of the week. But I'm excited. I
think he's at another level. And it's interesting to think
back to the offseason, who are the big two targets
in terms of coaches, Who are the two guys that
was like they could make a big time different. I
(24:35):
guess Rabel was in that mix too, But in terms
of offensive masterminds at this time last year, who could
go and fix an offense and it was Liam Cohen
and Ben Johnson. They're both delivering like their young quarterbacks
are getting better and better. Took a little longer with Trevor,
but it's happening.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
And Liam Cohen has overcome that terrible duve All moment
in his opening press conference that was light years behind
in history now because of how they're they've really done
a really good job too of overcoming the hole that
they dug themselves, just emotionally from that collapse against Houston.
I thought that was the beginning of the end for
this team. They have responded in the opposite direction, affirmatively,
(25:14):
as in, this is not going to bury us. This
is just the moment where we realized we needed to
reset and get our stuff in order, and they've played
really good football Stincent and I think another key part
of this, and this is gonna be a great test
against Denver this weekend. Jacoby Myers has been such a
great addition for this receiving cores and it's gonna be
a great test of how he can make a difference
with them because you're gonna have pats Ertani's probably gonna
(25:35):
be over Brian Thomas Junior for much of this game.
But I'm just really curious to see how well can
this offense function against the defense like that? And how
big of a role is Meyers is gonna play, because
he's played a big one lately.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Got a couple questions before we leave in the chat
and yes, that once again was Quarterback Keeper presented by Snapdragon.
Learn more at snapdragon dot com slash laptops. A question,
Liam Cohen Coach of the Year, He's got it. If
you won out, he's gonna have a chance. There's a
lot but between him, Ben Johnson Vrabel, I think Kyle
(26:08):
Shanahan's in the mix. Like there's a lot of great
options right now. Another question, is Tyreek Hill a Dolphin
next season? No chance. I was a little surprised they
carried him onto the roster this year, but that was
partly because it would have been really tricky to get
rid of him, and they weren't able to really have
even a chance to trade him because of the injury
that happened. Tua is more complicated because of his contract,
(26:32):
but there's always a way. There's always a way if
you don't want him on the roster. I just think
it would be awkward if he is there as a
potential backup for the Dolphins next year, and I just
don't think they're going to go into next year with
Tua as their starter. We'll be talking about that all
off season, like a million shows this week. In fact,
(26:55):
while we're taking questions, I'll remind all the people watching
now and listening if you listen into it early in
the morning, you can send us questions. We're doing a
mail bag holiday themed mail bag, but also football questions
on Tuesday's show. Hit the Music, Chris Pabona. We're getting
out of here. Appreciate everyone who is here on Monday
Night football. Nick Schuck's been killing it all season long.
(27:17):
He'll be back. We have two more Monday Night footballs
to go before we get to the playoffs. Looking forward
to those as well. I'm Greg Rosenthal. Like I said,
send us your questions on Blue Sky on Twitter. We'll
have them Tuesday. See you the
One in the plate clock gets a snap Dolphins bringing
pressure throw over the middle.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It is complete.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
The dk Metcalp pearls aside one.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Defender stick from another pit in the ad zone.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Bit at Pittsburgh Steelers touchdowns what and ever by dk
metcalpe bysic caality on full display.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
This is the catch it run receiver. This is why
you go in free agency and.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
You get the big bodied man out of Seattle. Dk
Metcalp caught that in traffic, had a man on him,
pushed them aside, sidestepped another guy, and waltzed into the
end zone like he owned the place, which he does
here at Akershure.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
He absolutely owned the night, like the Pittsburgh Steelers dk
metcapp getting in the end zone as part of a
four straight touchdown drives streak by the suddenly go Go
Pittsburgh Steelers. They beat the Dolphins twenty eight to fifteen,
and they threw aside Miami's small playoff chances like dk
(01:05):
metcalf did with a defender there. That was Rob King
and Max Starks on wd v E. Thanks for everyone
checking us out live on YouTube. Thanks for everyone listening.
On Tuesday morning, I thought this was going to be
a good game shook and it was a good game
by Aaron Rodgers for a second straight week, and it
(01:25):
was a great game. I would even say the best
of the season by the Pittsburgh Steelers. After the last
two weeks, I'm taking this Steelers team a little more seriously.
Am I overreacting?
Speaker 5 (01:37):
M Okay, so I don't need to throw cold water
on this, but I'm going to just slightly because I
would like to point back to Miami's I believe it
was week five when they played the Cleveland Browns and
they completely quit.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Sorry was week seven.
Speaker 5 (01:48):
They completely quit in inclement weather in Cleveland that day
and the Browns dominated them. The Browns, a bad team,
dominated them. So they're not a measuring stick for a team.
But that does not discount the fact that the Steelers
have put together two very strong games in the last
two weeks, namely Aaron Rodgers two best performances as Steelers
quarterback in his first and probably only season.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
As Steelers quarterback.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
And it's they're headed in the right direction at the
perfect time with this very tight AFC North Race.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
And just a few weeks after Steelers.
Speaker 5 (02:14):
Fans were calling for Mike Tomlin's job, suddenly they're all
back in the bandwagon.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
They want to play renegade again.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
That is so true. It's so Steelers, it's so Tomlin.
They're eight and six, and we're going to get into
the schedule and their playoff chances, and I'm thinking about, Wow,
they might not even need to win that Week eighteen
game against the Ravens because they've got the Steelers. They've
got the Browns in Week seventeen, and the Ravens have
(02:39):
two really tough games Patriots and Packers, and who knows,
the Steelers could clinch in Week seventeen, but it would
be very Pittsburgh Steelers Mike Tomlin to look so good
like this on Monday Night football. They're twenty three, you know,
home winning streak on Monday Night Football is intact. And
then lose to the Browns. But I don't know Rogers,
you mentioned it, he's peaking. I thought he was awesome
(03:02):
last week, like that was a legit vintage Rogers game, four, five, six,
big time throws. He played great tonight. I think he
played great, but it was more of the game management
style that we've seen this year, just more effective. An
average depth of target under four yards, so he is
last in the NFL in terms of dinking and duncan,
But I'm not gonna fault him for it tonight, Nick,
(03:22):
because it worked. And the three or four times where
he had to throw it a little deeper intermediate routes,
it was usually over the middle, which we haven't seen
a lot of, and they were on the money, and
he showed off his arm strength and it was almost
a perfect night four in completions from Rogers, and they
really held the ball for most of the night.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
Yeah, we saw one of those passes of the middle
of the DK Metcalf, which I think perfectly explained or
illustrated the knight for the Steelers against this Dolphins defense,
which is that, look, we're.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Going to win the battle of wills.
Speaker 5 (03:48):
We're going to take the ball in our hands and
we're going to break tackles and we're going to refuse
to go down. And it also, you know you talk
about the average depth of target being minimal, Well, it
helps when you have a guy like Kenny Gainwell that
you can just swing the ball out in the flat
and he can make guys mits and he can you know,
pick up the extra yards.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
After they catch.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
It's perfectly fine. To fit this within the framework of
Arthur Smith's offense, you don't have to be a deep
shot taking team, although they were they were last week.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
They did take a couple of deep shots the DK metcalf.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Really they didn't need to tonight, and they played within
themselves and that's why they were able to take a
game that looked like it was destined to be a
low scoring, closed affair and blew it wide open before
the end of the third quarter.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Yeah, the third quarter was crazy. What was the stat
you quoted to me, right, It was we came on.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
Okay, So the Steelers dominated the third quarter in a
fashion that you're usually just not going to see an
NFL game. They outgained the Dolphins one sixty three to
negative twenty. They had nine first downs the Dolphins had zero.
That is dominance in statistical form.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
It was rough. There just weren't a ton of possessions.
Both teams started out punting, and the Steelers did three times.
But I thought to a tongue of Iloa's first interception
was kind of a sign of things to come. Asante
Samuel Junior gets to pick. It's his third game as
a member of the Steelers, and it was one of
(05:06):
those double whammies, like bad decision, bad execution, and then
Joe and especially Troy Aikman in the booth just shaking
his head. Troy Aikman was sick of watching Tua. By
the end of this game, he was saying that Tua
was lucky to only be leading the league in interceptions
by as much as he is, because he throws two
or three of them every week that teams could pick
(05:29):
off and he's not beaten the I can't play in
the cold allegations there were one or two more that
could have been picked off tonight, and going into the
fourth quarter like early, it was sixty plays to twenty six,
and Tua had so many negative plays, and they put
up a couple late scoring drives and what amounted the
garbage time, and even those you couldn't be happy about
(05:50):
because Troy Aikman's making fun of them for playing so slow,
like they were essentially waving the white flag on the
game and the season that you can't even enjoy the
garbage dime unless you're Darren Waller's fantasy owner somewhere.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 5 (06:03):
I mean the production that they got in the fourth
quarter really skewed the stats and made it look a
lot closer than it was. It was not as close
as the twenty eight to fifteen final that we got.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
It was not. It was a very lopsided game.
Speaker 5 (06:13):
And you're right about Tua's propensity for throwing interceptions. In fact,
it's so prevalent ESPN random montage of the interceptions that
he's thrown that were just easily red passes picked off
by opposing defenses Buffalo Cleveland tonight.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
You just keep going down the list. It's uh. It
just kind of adds.
Speaker 5 (06:30):
To the fact that we don't know what toa his
future looks like, and especially when you are playing in
an AFC where most of the heavyweights are playing in
cold weather, and Tua is now zero to six in
games that kick off at below forty degrees and they
never looked like they stood much of a chance tonight either.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Wait, wasn't the stat that they had never won one
like below forty five degrees and now.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
They'd lost thirteen.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
They won one. I think they won one at like
forty two degrees and now they moved h Yeah, but
it is sad that this could and should be the
last meaningful game of the Mic Daniel era. I'm not
buying all this talk that he might be saving his
job and he's got a chance to return, Like I believe,
there is a chance, but it's going to be up
to the next general manager. And I have a hard
(07:12):
time believing that the ownership is going to make them
keep Mike McDaniel and just usually in those situations, the
coach doesn't stick around. So I hate that. How fitting
it is that they come up short in the cold
because you think of so many of the big moments
of the Mike McDaniel to era and this is what happened.
I want to get to a bit of a hot take.
I have on that in just a second, but first
(07:33):
I want to give a little more love to the Steelers.
It is time for Who Delivered, presented by Uber Eats,
and I'm giving it to two men tonight, and it's
the great buddy comedy of the last five years. Yes,
it's Arthur Smith, the offensive coordinator of the Steelers, and
John U. Smith.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Let's listen is a left tackle here for this year
there's now the pitch to John HU Smith and Smith off.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
The right side and first through the end zone.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Touchdown Pittsburgh Steelers Joan hu Smith with the rushing touchdown
for the Steelers their fourth touchdown of the game. So
to add insult to injury, let's go ahead and let's
go with this. Meka Fitzpatrick injured, traded to the Dolphins,
Jalen Ramsey a sack, John Hu Smith a rushing touchdown.
(08:23):
I think the Steelers won that trade.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
Oh a little rude about Minca there because he's been
the best player in that trade for what it's worth.
But a great call there by Arthur Smith and by
Max Starks two doing our job for us and helping
to point out that Jalen Ramsey had a nice night.
Johnny Smith has been in the crosshairs for Steelers fan.
I couldn't believe this, but earlier in the game he
had his first first down since week nine. He also
(08:48):
had a brutal penalty and a couple of bal blocks
in this game, which has been typical for him. But
he did get that touchdown. And that's when you know
that the Steelers are really rolling. When Gainwell goes over
one hundred and forty yards from scrimmage and John Smith
is getting rushing types down well.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I mean This is the team with the deepest tight
end room in the NFL.
Speaker 5 (09:04):
I mean you have John Smith, Pat Fryarmuth, Darnell Washington,
Cam Hayward or sorry, Connor Hayward, his younger brother.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
And you think about all four of those.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
Of course, John who's not going to see the field
very often, he's not going to make much of a difference.
But leave it to Arthur Smith to roll out a
personal grouping that you almost will never see. I just
looked it up just because I wanted to check it out.
You know about twelve personnel right, two tight ends on
the field. Usually there's a running back involved. That's why
it's twelve. There's no running back on the field this play.
There's six offensive linemen, two tight ends, two receivers, and
Aaron Rodgers and they run a toss to John new Smith.
That is the diabolical nature of what Arthur Smith, the
(09:34):
offensive cordator who wants as a head coach, turned Corderyal
Patterson into a running back. That's what he's capable of doing.
And it's just the icing the cherry on top of
this blowout cake, this blowout Sunday that we're going to
run a toss sweep to a tight end because we
know that we have a little bit of revenge to
earn for John who with the Dolphins.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
And I know you don't want to give too much credit, Shuck,
But if I'm going to be fair and say I'm
looking for a game where they thoroughly beat a team,
they've been on my raidar because they've only outgained their
opponent three times this year, Nick, that's crazy before yeah, tonight,
and only one of them was by a significant margin.
It was actually the win over the Browns that they
(10:13):
had earlier this season. So they are a tough team
up front. I actually think they might be a little
underrated in terms of their offensive line. They can run,
block pretty well, they do some fun stuff. Rogers has
not been pressured too often. He gets rid of the
ball so quickly. That helps them out certainly. In fact,
tonight he was only pressured I saw, according to Next
(10:35):
Gen set four times. That's just nuts, and he was
sacked on three of them. Like he is the ultimate
pressure to sack Ratio King or guy at the bottom
of the league, which is why like the way they're
winning is you know, it's a thin way to win
and yet I'm much more intrigued by that Steelers Lions
game in a week. So congratulations to Arthur Smith and
(10:56):
John new Smith. That was who delivered presented by Uber Eats.
When football makes you hung get game day deals on
Uber eats, the official on demand delivery partner of the NFL. Order. Now,
we had a question in the chat that asked, uh,
is it going to be a new coach and a
new quarterback for the Dolphin And here's my hottish take.
(11:19):
That could have been the last time we ever see
two of tongue of Iiloa play for the Dolphins. Like
he could be benched as soon as Sunday because he's
in a similar situation I think to where Derek Carr
was a couple of years ago when the Raiders benched him.
Where Kyler Murray frankly is right now. When you know
that that quarterback with some guarantees on his contract is
(11:42):
not going to be playing for you necessarily next season,
maybe just sit him down. They have a draft pick
there and quinn Ewers, it's just a possibility, like you, yeah,
you have Zach Wilson. I'm not saying it's going to
be an upgrade, but Tua has not been playing well
at all, so I just think there's no chance in
my mind that he's going to be the guy there
(12:03):
next year almost at all, And so possibly do they
bend fim early.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
This also reminds me of the Russell Wilson situation in
Denver in which they went to Jared's Didham for the
last couple of games because Sean Payton knew they were
moving on from Russ in the offseason, And maybe that
does come to fruition.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
I do think that this is not a move made
to save a coach's job.
Speaker 5 (12:22):
To answer the other half of this question, because I
believe that Mike McDaniel and Tua talk about law are
a package deal and they will both be gone, and
especially with a new general manager coming in, he's going
to want to hire his guy.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
He's going to want to have his quarterback.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Neither of the existing guys are probably his choices whoever
they do hire as general manager. So it feels like
the end of an era, and an end of an
era that we saw coming. I don't know, six to
eight weeks ago before the Dolphins were on this little
mini winning streak which they can credit entirely to Anthony
Weaver getting the defense together. They held their last four
opponents before tonight under twenty points in each of those games,
and Devon h. Chan for running through defenses and powering
(12:54):
this offense. Those are parts of the team that are
going to carry over next year and building blocks for
the general Andrew.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
You'll have some changes defensively, but Chan is.
Speaker 5 (13:02):
A cornerstone of sorts for your offensive side of the football.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
I don't think the quarterback and coach jar though.
Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yeah I have something to say about like the package
deal and they have been. But first I would do
want to get to a comment that say, the Dolphins
are terrible, but you saw yours playing against the Browns.
How do you switch to that? Even as bad as
who is playing, you do have a responsibility to the
veterans on the team to try to keep winning and
all that. But I will point out one of our
throw of the Year nominees on NFL Daily that no
(13:31):
one believed me until they watched. It was from Quinn Ewers,
thrown at about fifty eight yards down the field while
getting drilled by a Browns defender. Although he did not
look particularly good in that game other than that one trow.
I don't think they're connected anymore. My theory is that
we're going to hear some blame, maybe from sources from
(13:53):
you know, I've been noticing a nasty little game was
going on when there was losing and they threw the
GM off the boat, and it felt like there was
maybe like a split there, a schism between McDaniel, who
has a lot of friends in the media, and Tua,
and that Tua was getting blamed through the media by
some just very specific criticisms that felt like it was
(14:16):
coming from inside the house.
Speaker 5 (14:17):
I think arguments can be made in McDaniel's favor, and
really the way you do that is you trace it
all the way back to his roots being on Kyle
Shanahan's staff in San Francisco, where they were an incredible
rushing attack, and you can point to a chan's recent
success and say, look, he's scheming it up.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
They can find success with the running game, they just
need the quarterback and they don't have the quarterback.
Speaker 5 (14:36):
And I could see them selling that, especially if Steven Ross,
the owner who was most likely to fire his coach
a month or two ago, decided to stick with his
coach when things were at their absolute worst, which was
coming off of that loss to the Browns, by the way,
an embarrassing showing, the second embarrassing showing of the season,
week one against the Colts being the other one. I
don't know how you show up completely disinterested in Week one,
but that's what the Dolphins did. So I think if, like,
(14:59):
if you're looking for a reason to keep him more
a theory or a path for him to stay there,
it's that the owner already stuck by his coach and
you can just pin all the blame on the quarterback.
But the problem is it's so hard to get a
different quarterback, and if you hire a new general manager,
you're gonna have to sell that candidate on keeping the
coach when that's not his coach.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
That's where it gets a little tricky.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Yeah, we've had we have a call for Chad Pennington.
He's not that much older than Philip Rivers about the
same arm strength at this point. Yeah, I don't I
don't think it's even that crazy to keep Mike McDaniel
because of the options that will be out there, Will
anyone be better that you could bring it? Like, I
don't think it's crazy. Just history tells us it's less
than likely. I think Anthony Weaver will get a real
(15:39):
interview there and might get some interviews elsewhere before we
move on from this game. And yeah, the Steelers schedule
is really interesting at Detroit next week, and so that's
a huge game the line, Yeah, to keep their playoff
hopes alive, and they got some real defensive issues. Rogers
is playing his best ball the year right now. I
(15:59):
think their offense actually can score on the Lions. I
don't think their defense without TJ. Watt. He missed this
game and is going to be out. It sounds like
for a while after a lung injury. We mentioned that
earlier but not on this show specifically, just a horrible
injury procedure gone wrong inside the building, some therapy gone
(16:21):
wrong inside the building. And without TJ. Watt and some
of the problems the speed that they have in the secondary,
I think that's going to be a bit of a
score fest and it'll be fun. Let's give one more
love to the old guys. Our producer Chris Babona, not
an old guy, says, we got to listen to the
MVS touchdown. We had a Marquez Valdez Scantling primetime touchdown
(16:44):
from Aaron Rodgers in the year twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Rogers under center. It's a snap play action pass looking
steps up, throws to the.
Speaker 4 (16:54):
Right, to the left.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
I beg your pardon, touchdown, Pittsburgh scinis.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
How about that man Marque Beldez Scantling with his first
reception as a member of the Steelers, and it is.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
A Pittsburgh Steelers touchdown and Aaron.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Rodgers celebrating with his former teammate from Green Bay, Red Rover.
Red Rover bring Marquez Bandell's skett wig over.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
That was great. That was the moment where I realized
this wasn't gonna be like the Steelers Dolphins game from
two thousand and seven. I believe tell the listeners about
that before we move on to our final segment. There
stuck well.
Speaker 5 (17:33):
In the history of Steelers Dolphins in Pittsburgh, the elements
usually get involved.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
But way back in two thousand and seven.
Speaker 5 (17:37):
It was a lot of rain and the field at
what was then known as Heinz Field wasn't very great.
It was in terrible condition that night, so terrible, so wet,
so saggy, that a punt lodged itself into the turf
upon contacting the turf. It's a memorable moment in the
history of Monday Night football, and it's a it's a
memorable moment, I guess in this history of this matchup.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Luckily tonight they had the field much better.
Speaker 5 (17:59):
Shit, but it was more frozen than wet, and we
didn't get another football lodged in the turfy.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
I wish they did.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
I want zero zero with three minutes fifty five seconds left,
you know what we look at. This is probably never
gonna come up on this show again. I actually want
to listen to the whole call because it includes a
young Mike Trico an aged Tony Kornheiser. I believe in
like Tarico's voice sounds a little different. Let's listen.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
It might have been if picked a player we'll catch
just as well as just punched.
Speaker 4 (18:29):
Brandonfield struggled earlier, got the wet ball away. Alan Rosson's
gonna walko. It looks like it's on a team.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Boy, if you tea the ball up, couldn't put it
any better.
Speaker 4 (18:41):
I love that that is Tarico, right, I think it's Turrico,
Cornheiser and Joey Thaisman.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Yeah, it might be Joe thisand way back in the day.
Speaker 4 (18:50):
Everyone watching tonight. We love y'all. You know, there's five
YouTube's after the games. There's watch alongs with Eli and
Peyton and other various like ways to watch. It's the
best crew in the business. Monday Night Football, Joe Buck
and Troy Aikman. You know, appreciate what you have because
it was rocky up and down over some of the years.
(19:10):
I actually defended the Tony Corneiser year between him and
Tariko that I had fun watching that one. But there
were some ups and downs in the booth over the year. Steelers,
they define up and down, but they were awesome tonight
and they might just clinch this division before week eighteen.
We'll see something about the Steelers and the Ravens. Just
seems like the football gods want that game to maybe
(19:33):
be the Sunday night game in week eighteen to decide
who goes to the playoffs. But we'll have to wait
and see. Maybe your Browns can help us get Let's
make it time for Quarterback Keeper presented by Snapdragon. We're
gonna wrap up this Monday Night show like we do
(19:53):
all Monday nights, with a little love to a quarterback
that you Nick Shaw, the author, the mastermind behind quarterback
keeper has noticed is playing good ball when you went
back to watch the tape, and yes, it is the
quarterback of the team that one of the commenters pointed
out is the best team in Florida. There is no
(20:14):
doubt that is the Jacksonville Jaguars in their quarterback, Trevor Lawrence.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
Greg And I'm gonna take this moment to offer you
an opportunity to, I don't know, repent apologize for your
critique of my placement of Trevor Lawrence in the top
ten of QB Index, because man, I.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Won't do it because as of last week that was
too high. What you're just doing it off of, like
what you think is gonna happen.
Speaker 5 (20:34):
A little bit of projection. It's not involved, but it
tends to come true. It tends to come true with
some of these drinking Someone might say, I have a
little bit of foresight on my side because Trevor Lawrence
balled out of control on Saday, accounted for six touchdowns,
he threw for five. He threw three of them to ETN.
He was absolutely lights out dialed in Brian Thomas Junior
threw the hands of two defenders for a touchdown. Sitting
(20:56):
in the pocket, Survey getting loose. Nobody's open because somebody's
getting held down. A flag is on the field. He says,
forget this, I'm taking it myself down the sideline for
a touchdown. This is how Trevor Lawrence has played for
most of the last month, if not longer. This is
what I've been watching in these Jags games that maybe
a lot of people aren't paying attention to but need to.
Now it's not just his arm. He's kind of shaken
(21:17):
off the interception tendency that he's had for most of
his career, and he's getting busy with his legs. And
this was the peak of his powers in this game
against the Jets. And yet it was against the Jets.
And yes, they've had a bit of a soft schedule
as of late. But I am a believer in the
Liam Cohen and Trevor Lawrence partnership that it is propelling
him to new heights, heights unseen since the first year
that he played under Doug Peterson. And while this AFC
(21:41):
is wide open, I cautioned to everybody who just counts
out the Jags because they're the Jags and they play
in Jacksonville. Don't overlook them because that guy right there
is playing some really good football. And if he's playing
good football and he's got the talented core around him,
they could go place this.
Speaker 4 (21:58):
Yes, thank you, great Joah professional. He stuck it to
me at the beginning, and he stuck the landing. The
only knit I have to pick with any of that,
because you were a seer, was that he's been playing
like this for a month. If he was playing like
that in terms of how he looked on Sunday for
a month straight, I might put him in the MVP mix.
(22:19):
I mean, that was one of the best performances by
any quarterback all season long. And you look at six
touchdowns and you think Jets, and you see a couple
of the touchdowns where it's you know, etn over the middle,
wide open and a screen pass. You think, oh, like,
maybe that was just easy and schemed up. No, like
he was in rhythm from minute one. You mentioned tight windows.
(22:40):
It was every kind of throw was over the middle.
It was some crossers to Brian Thomas Junior, it was
a deep pass, and then if it wasn't for Caleb Williams'
pass over the weekend. I think that shot from Lawrence
when he is sprinting left to Parker Washington would get
more attentions. That's in the top five throws of the year.
(23:00):
We just watched it at the end of that montage.
Great job by Chris there. That's a top five throw
of the year, no question it is gonna be. It
might right now be on the podium. And everything you
said was just on point thirty one points in the
first half. He's running more. I really am looking forward
to how he finishes out the season.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (23:19):
You know, when I watch these games, I'm obviously taking notes,
but sometimes I just have some mental notes that are
burned into my brain because of how great the plays
are made. And I know exactly when that throw to
Washington was. It was just outside of three minutes or
just inside of three minutes left in the first half,
and it was one of those There's probably two or
three throws I see from quarterbacks every week that make
me get up out of my chair or off my
couch and just say wow out loud. And I said wow,
(23:40):
And at that point I realized, this man is playing
the best football of his career. He's completely comfortable, and
I'm kind of scared to see what happens to a
team that runs into the Jags and doesn't realize who
they're facing.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
He is because of him saying that, well, he's playing
that way.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
They got the Broncos Sunday. It's not a great slate.
I had the Sunday slate overall, like the daytime with
the prime time games are fantastic. This week. You know,
you got Philip Rivers next Monday Night against the forty
nine ers. That's just fun. Two teams battling for the playoffs.
You have the Ravens and the Patriots. That's a great game.
And Thursday nights, you know, one of the games of
(24:13):
the year Ram Seahawks. But the Sunday game slate really
is dry except for that Jaggs Broncos game. That is
a real great test. So we'll be talking about that
throughout the course of the week. But I'm excited. I
think he's at another level. And it's interesting to think
back to the offseason, who are the big two targets
in terms of coaches, Who are the two guys that
was like they could make a big time different. I
(24:35):
guess Rabel was in that mix too, But in terms
of offensive masterminds at this time last year, who could
go and fix an offense and it was Liam Cohen
and Ben Johnson. They're both delivering like their young quarterbacks
are getting better and better. Took a little longer with Trevor,
but it's happening.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
And Liam Cohen has overcome that terrible duve All moment
in his opening press conference that was light years behind
in history now because of how they're they've really done
a really good job too of overcoming the hole that
they dug themselves, just emotionally from that collapse against Houston.
I thought that was the beginning of the end for
this team. They have responded in the opposite direction, affirmatively,
(25:14):
as in, this is not going to bury us. This
is just the moment where we realized we needed to
reset and get our stuff in order, and they've played
really good football Stincent and I think another key part
of this, and this is gonna be a great test
against Denver this weekend. Jacoby Myers has been such a
great addition for this receiving cores and it's gonna be
a great test of how he can make a difference
with them because you're gonna have pats Ertani's probably gonna
(25:35):
be over Brian Thomas Junior for much of this game.
But I'm just really curious to see how well can
this offense function against the defense like that? And how
big of a role is Meyers is gonna play, because
he's played a big one lately.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
Got a couple questions before we leave in the chat
and yes, that once again was Quarterback Keeper presented by Snapdragon.
Learn more at snapdragon dot com slash laptops. A question,
Liam Cohen Coach of the Year, He's got it. If
you won out, he's gonna have a chance. There's a
lot but between him, Ben Johnson Vrabel, I think Kyle
(26:08):
Shanahan's in the mix. Like there's a lot of great
options right now. Another question, is Tyreek Hill a Dolphin
next season? No chance. I was a little surprised they
carried him onto the roster this year, but that was
partly because it would have been really tricky to get
rid of him, and they weren't able to really have
even a chance to trade him because of the injury
that happened. Tua is more complicated because of his contract,
(26:32):
but there's always a way. There's always a way if
you don't want him on the roster. I just think
it would be awkward if he is there as a
potential backup for the Dolphins next year, and I just
don't think they're going to go into next year with
Tua as their starter. We'll be talking about that all
off season, like a million shows this week. In fact,
(26:55):
while we're taking questions, I'll remind all the people watching
now and listening if you listen into it early in
the morning, you can send us questions. We're doing a
mail bag holiday themed mail bag, but also football questions
on Tuesday's show. Hit the Music, Chris Pabona. We're getting
out of here. Appreciate everyone who is here on Monday
Night football. Nick Schuck's been killing it all season long.
(27:17):
He'll be back. We have two more Monday Night footballs
to go before we get to the playoffs. Looking forward
to those as well. I'm Greg Rosenthal. Like I said,
send us your questions on Blue Sky on Twitter. We'll
have them Tuesday. See you the
Host
Gregg Rosenthal
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