Thanksgiving + Black Friday Recap: Upsets Transform The 2025 Season

Gregg Rosenthal and Ollie Connolly recap the Thanksgiving and Black Friday games starting with the Bears at the Eagles followed by Packers at Lions (18:50), Chiefs at Cowboys (36:34) and Bengals at Ravens (55:10). 

Note: time codes approximate

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to NFL Daily, where if the season just started
at Thanksgiving, we've got a whole lot of Super Bowl
favorites who are.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Having a miserable season.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Yes, I'm Greg Rosenthal recapping the Black Friday Game, the
three Thanksgiving games. I'm doing it from my garage in
Santa Monica, and I'm doing it with my friend Ali
Connolly of the Read Optional podcast and Substack, who's all
the way over in Manchester. Ali, I'm glad you are
the one joining me here for this show, because I

(00:37):
feel like the NFL is not the same as it
was a couple of days ago, that these two days,
these four games in the NFL have probably transformed like
how this season looks, maybe more than any week that
we've had so.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Far this season.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
I agree with you. Everything feels off its axis, all
the super so cool at the backs, essentially seemingly if
not out at the playoff punt, right on the bubble
of will they make it or no? All of a sudden,
you start really buying into the Cowboys going on this run,
maybe getting into division contention. And then the Bears, I mean,
we talked about them, was it less Saturday? And some
of the kryptonites and concerns, and all of a sudden

(01:11):
I kind of ticking some of them off week by
week like they could really be a probem in the postseason.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, they were gonna start with the game in Philadelphia,
But what we have a lot to get to. The
Chiefs Cowboys game was to me as fascinating as there
was a game all season. The creeping, you know, discomfort
with this Ravens team will hit that at the end.
But why don't we start, Yes, in Philadelphia and with

(01:37):
this NFC North race that the Bears just stubbornly refuse
to bow out of.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
They're in first place going into December.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Paul the twenty eight snap pick.

Speaker 4 (01:48):
Caleb fakes the swift, rolling to his left, being chased,
Gonna throw deep.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
He's got comet over the shoulder, hands out, touchdown, Bears touchdown.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Cole come back, you want to play?

Speaker 4 (02:00):
Called by Ben Johnson, had a throw perfectly timed Caleb
to Cole.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
Bears at steadily twenty three to nine.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Oh on a windy, cold night in Philadelphia. It was
the running game for the Chicago Bears, but it was
also the play calling. Great call there by Jeff Joniac
on w MVP. Caleb Williams to Cole Comet. Wasn't a
lot of passing in this game, but man, that was
well timed, as was a lot of third down calls

(02:32):
from Ben Johnson the Bears. For them end up cruising
twenty four to fifteen, and it could have been even
worse on the scoreboard. Allie, this was a mollywoppin two
hundred and eighty one yards on the ground from the
Chicago Bears.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
How did they do it?

Speaker 2 (02:53):
They just manhandled them. I mean they bullied them up front.
It was all kind of the creativity of Ben Jonson
the run game and he'll get a bunch of those
play but they just went manol man a lot of
the time and just bullied them. And the score is
a really kind reflection. I thought the Eagles response defensely
was pretty poll for someone of Fanjo's statua not having
the ability to kind of mix up on the fly.
Understood some of what he was trying to get away with,

(03:15):
but the payoff comes on some of the play action
shots they were able to hit. Not a great game
for Caleb Williams, probably back to back weeks while he's
not being his best, but they just dominated them with
the ground game, and the Eagles had no response. Yeah,
I think the wind.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
It's hard to know without being there, but the teams
that were going into the wind all night struggled to
throw the ball, and so I think that had an effect.
But you're right, the game could have been a bigger blowout,
and we'll get to that part of it. But you
look at the running numbers. There were two one hundred
yard rushers for the Chicago Bears in this game before

(03:50):
the fourth quarter started. That hadn't happened. Two one hundred
yard rushers for this team since the eighty five Bears
like in an entire game. DeAndre Swift who's been incredible
since the bye week at one hundred and twenty five yards,
Kyle Manungai, who's been awesome this season, one hundred and
thirty yards. And if you add up the total plays
that the Eagles defense has been on the field for

(04:12):
the last two weeks, it was ninety last week, it
was eighty five this week. I don't know if that
played into how Ben Jonson called this game in the
first half, but they looked like a tired defense and
I think the Bears were really confident that we are
going to be the tougher team, We're the one built
for this sort of atmosphere, and they were absolutely right.
Forty seven plays in the first half, and even though

(04:34):
the score was close at halftime, it really felt like
the rest of the game was set up by that
first half, just dominating the time of possession.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah, I felt the Eagles will gassed by the second quota.
I mean they finished with eleven miss tackles. There was
two guys with four miss tackles, A Piece Blanco Ship
and Na Kobe Dan. I thought Na Kobe Dean had
a really brutal game. Meanwhile, Jihad Campbell plays zero defensive snaps,
so wow, to try and change the defensive personnel and
j Johnson put you in this impossible bund The Eagles
want to play with a light box, they get completely

(05:04):
mauled whenever they play with the light box. They tried
to ever so slightly change the front structure, but the
way Ben Johnson calls the running game means you're pretty
limited in how many bodies you can actually stick down there,
because if someone misses, there's nothing behind you to try
and figure out some when you've got all the creativity
in misdirection and they lead the league in play action.
You're just panicked all the time that something's coming over
our head for an explosive, either the playfake or one mistackle,

(05:27):
one burst, one kind of bit of trickery in the backfield,
and it's a wrap, so it kind of forces you
to play a bit more static, be a little lights
from the front, and that Bears line is just crushing
people at the moment.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Yeah, Darna Wright has been the breakout from the line,
but you have to give the front office and Ben
Johnson's vision credit, especially after that first month of the
season when it wasn't really working the free agent pickups
with Dorman, when Jonah Jackson has been out there and
in general just developing the guys that they have in
summer backups, like at left tackle. It's just a really great,

(05:59):
greater than the son of their Parts team right now,
which is really tough. I mean, you don't normally see
volume like this, with this efficiency, forty seven percent success
rate on the ground, and it's hard not to just
think about the differences between where this Bears team is
right now and not the Bears from a year ago,
because I mean, that's night and eight.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
This is a nine and three Bears team.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
But the Eagles where they were a year ago, they
are now eight and four, and all the concern that
everyone's saying, yeah, but they're winning games now, they're not
winning games against better competition. And the running game stuck
out tonight under thirty six success rate in terms of percentage.
But Jalen Hurts I thought had a rough go of

(06:41):
it for much of the game. Whether it was just
missing throws or making rough decisions, is just another game
where it didn't seem like they could take advantage of
enough mismatches on the outside.

Speaker 5 (06:52):
No.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
I thought the game plan was egregiously bad. I thought
Jalen Hoods was egregiously bad. You've kind of bundle the
two together and it's just becomes a complete night. Man.
I mean, they're getting booed off by the fans on
the first three and out of the game, and it
felt fair. This is the defending champs coming into the
game who have the division lead, and you felt like
the foods were valid, the boos were valid. It was like, okay,
after they saw what happened with the Cowboys last week,

(07:15):
it made a bunch of sense. And Hurts in particularly
just I thought his brain was completely scrambled by a
really pretty placid static defense on the back end. To
be that confused is deeply, deeply troubling to me.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, there was like a lot of blitzing from Dennis
Allen and the Bears, but like most of the Bears
defensive games lately, there wasn't a ton of pressure still,
like the pressure rate was very low even though the
blitz rate was high. I'm thinking of, you know, the
early slant that they had potentially to DeVante Smith where

(07:51):
that could have gone for a touchdown and Jalen Hurts
threw it behind him and.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
On that same play, Dallas Gutta is wide open down
the sea has two touchdowns the same play. He misreads
it and then misses the throw.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, and I'm not sure if he thought DeVante Smith
was gonna stop, but I don't know why he would
think that based on like the leverage and where the
coverage was.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
And yeah, he miss his throws.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Like towards the end of the game, he starts having
faith in like the one on one matchups to AJ
Brown and AJ Brown starts making plays for him. Was
actually a great game by AJ Brown. He finishes with
ten for one point thirty two and two touchdowns. The
second one was sort of garbage time with three minutes left,
but he was making it happened. But I just don't

(08:34):
know if like the crowd is getting into it, if
it's the offensive line, Like it can't feel great going
into halftime. And you mentioned the booze are loud. After
the first drive of the game, the booze were insanely
loud going into half them they have the shots of
the kid, you know, going double bird, and then the father,
I think, like proud of his young.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
Son, like hugging him after that. That was one of
my one of my favorite images of the entire season.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
Just a beautiful holiday moment for everyone to enjoy internationally.
I just think it's boarderline unforgivable to have a game
plan where the Bears are on their fifth and sixth
linebacker right they are blitzing like maniacs because they aren't
get any pressure. They don't get any pressure when they blitz,
And to not have it built into your plan that

(09:19):
everything we do is built around putting those linebackers in conflict.
Those are not starting caliber NFL linebackers. We're gonna lead
into our old school rpo game. It's gonna be an
awful lot of Jalen Hurts designed run stuff, and we're
gonna make it. Where is Saquon? Where isn't sake? Or
maybe we get Tank Bigsby in there for a bit
more juice. If one of those linebacker misses the pill,
it's an absolute home run shot. For that not to
be the plan, for tempo not to be the plan.

(09:41):
They only look competent when there's any degree of tempo.
You see it. The one time they get Jalen Hurts
in the quarterback run game, he rips off a twenty
two yard game on the ground. Then they immediately go tempoor.
They take the deep shot to aj Brown and it
feels like they're in the game. Why that isn't baked
into being automatically part of the offense, particularly against this defense,
This makes no sense.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Yeah, I'm glad you brought that sequence up, because at
that point in the game, the Bears are up ten
to three. We went over how dominant the numbers looked
at halftime, but they didn't fully take advantage. In the
first half of that game. There was a fourth and
one fail by Kyle Manungai, which was overturned upon review.

(10:23):
I think that was the first drive of the game.
Caleb Williams missed a very wide open Roma dunze in
the end zone when he didn't get his feet set.
That was more points that were not really taken advantage of.
And then in the second half where Jalen Hurts throws
an interception where they have a three and out to start,
where Saquon Barkley doesn't even look for the ball on

(10:44):
the first play of the second half and you're thinking,
Bears have to put it away and they can't move
the ball at all. They get, you know, one first
down in the first two drives. Then that sets up
the drive you're talking about where finally they go tempo.
They get five plays ninety two yards. There's a penalty
thrown in there. It's ten to nine, and they end

(11:06):
up getting the ball back after a Caleb Williams interception
on a screen pass where he doesn't give enough loft
on the screen pass. So suddenly the Eagles just scored.
It's ten to nine, like they're only down one point.
They start driving down the field. They are in position
to take the lead, and this is where I think
the game changed, and I know this must have been

(11:30):
fascinating to just from an x's and o's perspective. The
game turns on a tush push fail.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
I think that was the.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
Biggest play of the game.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
Our guy Nashan Wright, who's having a great season, like
he's bounced around in the NFL, having a great season,
comes in on the tush push in the red zone
and rips the ball away from Jalen Hurts and that's
at ten to nine, and that really does turn the
game around.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
The Bears score on the ensuing drive.

Speaker 1 (11:54):
What did you see on that play that Nashan Wright
got the ball from Jalen Hurts.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
It goes back to Kelvin Shepard. Kelvin Sheppard having a
really rough time of it as the defensive coordinator to
Detroit right now, but he figured out the Toush push,
which is to have an offset defensive player. He used
Nashon Wright. Shepherd used the linebacker, and you basically spit
the tushbush. You have someone just completely ignore the sneak
element of the Toush push and he just races in
from the side to go and grab Jalen Hurts, and

(12:21):
you hope you can hold him up and pull him
back and it removes the push element of the quarterback sneak. Essentially,
they twist it slightly with Dennis Allen, say, does go
and rip the ball? If the ball's then Jalen Hurt's
going to hold it. Just go attack the football and
you get one of the biggest turnovers of the season
to swing. I think that the fortune of two fronts
and while doing that, maybe put to end the effect
of the touchbush. That is the way to stop it.

(12:42):
It's been proven not Roy and Flores trying to sacrifice
a human at the altar by lying down someone. That
one did not work. But Kelvin Sheppard figured it out.
Dennis Allen took it, and that is just out there. Now.
I've used this spear motion that you can use defensively.
You can attack Jalen Hurts before the push comes along.

Speaker 1 (12:59):
And it was interesting to hear Al Michaels and Kirk
Kurbstreet talk about Jalen Hurts sounding like he's not even
that big of a fan of the touch push. He
he would rather just maybe do a quarterback sneak, So
maybe that gets back to the Eagles and he helps
like just self sabotage, the touch push, the ensuing drive. Again,
it would have been a fascinating fourth quarter because I
do think the Eagles defense still would have been tired

(13:21):
in that situation. But it would have been a fascinating
fourth quarter to see the Bears behind in that situation,
whether it was by two points because of a field goal,
and yes, they were down at one point because of
a Jake Elliott missed extra point.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
The wind and just the kicking conditions were not great.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
But then the.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Bears rip off a really outstanding drive where they basically
don't have Caleb Williams throw the ball at all, and
it fitted. It finishes in a very fitting way with
a Kyle Manunguy touchdown.

Speaker 4 (13:50):
Two tight ends right side of the line, Manunguy, the
loan back take from center had the gift manung Guy
washed out by Jonah Jackson, clears the path to the
end zone for Kyle Manongay right fighty one up guy
another touchdown.

Speaker 2 (14:03):
Hun Fish one of four yards.

Speaker 4 (14:05):
Had a sixteen nine fairs lead over the Eagles.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
Oh, I love that, And that was a sweet drive.
It was a twelve play march ninety two yards and
they follow it up their next drive with a touchdown
drive too, And you mentioned on Blue Sky Believe it
was a little back and forth with Jordan Rodrigg, which
I love to see, and she made the hilarious and

(14:30):
true comment that broadcasters love nothing more than the phrase
illusion of complexity, and you pointed out, yeah, but in
the Bears case, like it really is pretty complex so
late in the game, Like, what did you see for
what they were doing on those last couple of touchdown
drives where it just felt like the Eagles defense gave way.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Yeah, I would love one of these coaches men when
Charlie Weiss went to note to Day and he was like,
we have a schematic advantage, then he like completely fell
on his face. In college football, I would love one
of these guys come on and saying, no, we are actually
very complex and better at this than everyone else, which
is sensing what Ben Johnson does do. It's just the
volume of packages, the volume of concepts within the packages,
And I get what they're saying about. They dress things

(15:09):
up to look the same way. They also just put
guys in such difficult assignments. It's hard to overstate how
difficult it must be to play tight end in that system,
they have way more on their plate than essentially any
other position in the NFL. It sets up all the
wrong game all the play action stuff, and on that
drive you're talking about it, they just lead all the
way into let's go and find our four team best
run plays and we'll just pick between them based on

(15:32):
the leverage of the defense, acentially where someone's shaded, what
it's going to tag the weak point of the defense.
It's just classic Ben Johnson. You get some of the
payoff stuff. This probably wasn't Caleb's best game. On the
payoff plays, they were there to be made. He just
couldn't connect on some of that stuff. I'm sure the
win played into that, but that was Ben Johnson, deep
deep in the bag and I must have it drive
for the season.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah, and I think you do see some of the
weaknesses not just of Vic Fangio's scheme, which you mentioned
had had a light box for for so much of
the game, but also just these guys. Jalen Carter barely
left the field last week. That their front in terms
of Jalen Phillips, who might have gotten a little banged
up at the end of the game, and their defensive

(16:13):
line in general did not come off the field much
in that ninety snap game against the Chiefs, and it
was the same tonight. And by the end of this game,
they just look gas and they protected Caleb Williams well.
He didn't hit everything, but he hits that touchdown. There
was another third and four in the fourth quarter that
was important that was impeccably blocked and he ends up
hitting Colston Lovelin on the sideline. And then I thought

(16:35):
the play calling was great at the end of the
game when they're trying to kill clock to use Caleb's
legs on a play where he runs to the sideline
and man he in a straight line. He's one of
the fastest quarterbacks in the NFL.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
I genuinely believe running to the sideline, he's the quickest
guy in the league. He's just a smo. He loves
doing the show off. Mahomes slow down and it's like, buddy,
you're not Mahomes. They're not going to give you the
free flag. Please just get out of there and stay safe.
That Loveland play is important though for the Eagles too.
They've changed defensively what they do on the back end
because they're so scared of a Dori Jackson where they

(17:09):
play a side defense a cornerback now, which you just
never see in the NFL. So one guy set to
one side, one guy set to the other, and instead
of being left or right, which is often how the
legal do it, they're going field boundary. So short side
the field is Quinnon Mitchell, far side the field is
Dori Jackson. And that's been out there now. That really
like discombobulated the Lions a couple of weeks ago, because
you don't see it in the league very much. Now

(17:31):
that's out there, it's very easy for the office to dictate.
We know, based on how we set our formation, exactly
where Quinya Mitchell is going to be on the field.
If you go and look at that play, they get
the matchup they want, which is Colston Loveland in the
slot on reblanken Ship. And everyone is hunting at all
times for reblanken Ship. That's what everyone wants to do
against the Eagles. Everyone else is like an all Pro
player other than a Dori. If you can find blanken

(17:51):
Ship one on one, so when I must have it down,
must have its situation. The Eagles are really tipping themselves
on what they're going to be defensively, and so you
can always try and cover up in a raise when
you feel you've got a sinkhole at KLNA. But now
it's open up a different kind of ones for them.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
Yeah, and it's set up I think by being in
such favorable situations. I don't know what it ended up on,
but I saw late in the first half, like their
average third down distance and they were nine for fifteen
on third downs tonight was under three and a half yards.
So they were just always in a good spot to
either run it or give Caleb a favorable look. It
continued throughout throughout a What a fascinating season. This is

(18:28):
in the NFC North. So the Bears stay on top
of the division. Everyone was saying, Okay, the schedule's gonna
get hard. Well, got a little harder last week with
the Steelers. Took care of that, got much harder this
week in Philadelphia. Took care of that. You got the
Packers two of the next three weeks. That is really
gonna be fascinating. And yeah, the Eagles, they have to

(18:49):
worry about the division two. We'll get to the Cowboys
in a minute, but let's talk Packers Lions.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
Let's go to Detroit.

Speaker 5 (18:56):
Love steps up, points across in the formation, it drops back.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Into the shine. Here's a snap and fourth down rushes
on Love looking off his back, look at thank catch.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
Have a thirty yard line number, first down, Green Bay.
There is your stagger.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
A Turkey Day dagger right through the Lions. Great all there, Love,
Wayne Lairvie on W R and W.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
I think that's John Coon in the background yelling yeah, man,
what a fitting end to that game because it was
a Jordan Love masterpiece. Felt like that was on the
short list of like great quarterback performances of the season.
It's right there with the Giants game from Jordan Love

(19:47):
a couple of weeks ago. Obviously a bigger situation and
even tougher opponent, but he had about four or five
wow throwers in this game, on top of other great
decisions throughout and yes they answered every line scoring drive.
I thought Jared Goff was up for the challenge, but
ultimately the Packers win thirty one to twenty four. Great offense, beats,

(20:10):
good defense. And what did you see out of Jordan
Love in this game?

Speaker 2 (20:14):
Yeah, I think you're probably being a bit harsh in
with four or five I thought they're probably eight tall,
nine wild throws in that thing. I mean, it was
just like big Boy Superstar put the Capon drive after
drive in a way that's you know, he gets almost
billed as like this Kel's bomber. I think at times
when he is just so unbelievably precise. At all times,
he was throwing guys open all the time. The sidelines,

(20:36):
the Lions came in and said, we are not letting
Jordan Love rip us apart over the middle of the field.
That is our entire game. Let me make it muddy
and difficult in the middle of the field. Will dat
him to beat us to the permitter. And he said,
I'm good, boys, I'm good with that. I'll just rip
it all over the place. He bombs the ball down
the field when he needs to. He's ripping it outside
the numbers. It's Christian Watson over and over again. He
puts it off the sideline where only his guy can

(20:57):
get it with pressure in his face. That those are
top three, top four player in the league type throws
on big time, big time drives.

Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, the stats are really something. And we'll talk about
the defense in this game. When he is not pressured
he is the best quarterback in the league. The numbers
would would tell you and certainly the eyes would tell
you that on Thanksgiving. So you think about that throw,
big time play. You had the Dontavian Wicks touchdown. That

(21:27):
was a close call whether he got his feet in
or not. Ultimately, I think it was the right move.
You had the fourth and sixth call where he throws
the ball deep, and then you had the Christian Watson touchdown.
Let's listen to one of Jordan Love's best throws of the.

Speaker 5 (21:44):
Day under center is Love single back offense Jacobs fron
back on second and ten back to the Oh Love
best time.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
Initially ring deep down on the right side.

Speaker 4 (21:54):
And clean Bay Packers christ Jed Watson pluzz the top
off the Lions defense.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Be to me, Robertson fifty one yard touchdown.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Path that gave them a ten point lead early third quarter.
And to me, Alliot, it's the variety of the type
of throws. And when he gets criticized it's because sometimes
he does too much big game hunting, I guess, But
like big game hunting is why they won this game.

Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, I mean probably the only floor is when something
goes wrong. He wants to chase it back in one play,
and that's a real problem with kind of the offense
they have this year. But they have kind of reformatted
now and accepted took a graft, is not coming back.
We're gonna have to build this thing around Christian Watson.
We probably will have to be a let's hunt seven
explosive plays down the field. If we hit three of them,
we feel pretty good about our chances. And I thought

(22:49):
this was probably the best evidence of that this season.
I did think again the Lions planning, we could see
it on the touchdown for that, it's like everyone's congest
in the middle of the field. They're kind of allowing
him to take a deep shutside of the numbers. I'm not
sure my plan woul be Let's allow Jordan to put
the game in his hands trying to deep shout to
Christian Waltson. It feels like Love would take that every time.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah, And I did think the pressure was maybe the
biggest difference between these two teams. So this is this
is the part where we talk a little Michael Parsons.
The Lions did not get a high pressure rate in
this game whatsoever. They tried to send pressure, they didn't
really get there. The Packers did not have to send

(23:28):
extra guys on the blitz nearly as often. And Michael
Parsons finishes with ten total pressures, five quick pressures. And
maybe it's unfair to just compare him to Aiden Hutchinson,
but compared to Aidan Hutchinson zero quick pressures, you know,
five pressures on the game, and ultimately they made life
tougher on Jared Goff, who I thought played a good game,

(23:50):
thought it was one of his better games of the
season overall. And it's not like Jordan Love is incredible.
When they did get on him, he was three for
twelve in this game against pressure. Most of his damage
was done when in the offensive line did his job.
What did you see out of Hafley's defense and how
they got after Jared Goff?

Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yeah, mic it should be noted, was double team on
twenty three percent of his pass first steps, so he's
putting those kind of numbers up. Plus the three run
stuff still like all time run stuffs where it's like
helmet cup pop off type stuff, superstar type plays. Halfley.
I think what was really impressive was leveraging the threat
of Micah Parsons. I thought there was a degree of
can we call it arrogance in Dan Campbell's approach to

(24:28):
the game of there's an awful lot of leaving Mike
a single dub. But in fairness to Dan Campbell, early
in the game, Halfley was showing a lot like I
will drop Microw, We're gonna use micro really creative ways,
all these different creative pressures that Haflee is known for,
and so it starts putting doubts in the Lion's mind
of whether he's truly coming or not whether it's worth
investing a double team. And so you can see that

(24:48):
payoff over the course game when we get to the
kind of the drive for each just in the backfield
every play, then you get the kind of i'd say
shaky call to extend the drive for the Lions where
he just took over the game for three plays and
was like, I'm gonna end on Thanksgiving. That was all
set up from the first two quotas where Halflee proved
that I will just leverage the threat of having the
best player on the field by dropping him out and
sending an ovolo pressure the other way, and you get

(25:09):
free run as a Jarred Goff all through the first
couple of quotes.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yeah, like the like the first drive of the game,
you know, like the first third down snap, Goff had
two defenders in his face in half a second.

Speaker 2 (25:21):
There was nothing to be done there.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
One of them was Isaiah McDuffie, who, by the way,
has played great the last two weeks. Like I don't
know if you have an Isaiah McDuffie take, but kway
Walker's been injured. I don't even know if we mentioned
that in this podcast, but McDuffie's kind of been awesome
these two weeks.

Speaker 3 (25:34):
Maybe it's the system, but he's been outstanding.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
He's been good. A Hall of Fame high five player
arrives just in times to give everyone else a high five.
In the backfield, He's not quite athletic enough to be
like a serious difference makeup, but he's in the right
spot at the right time, and that's kind of the
best you can hope for.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
I think, yeah, I was, I wasn't thinking like he's
a crazy difference maker, but it does show. I think
how Micah is setting up everyone else, and you mentioned
how he helps to close the game down. This is
why you may the Michael Parsons trade. There's what like
a sack that he makes late in the game to
set up a third and fifteen essentially kills that drive

(26:10):
and then kills the next drive too, because for a while,
Goff is fighting back and making some highly difficult plays.
Despite the fact that they lost A'manra Saint Brown in
the first drive of the game.

Speaker 3 (26:24):
He never returned. He has an ankle sprain.

Speaker 1 (26:27):
Rap sheet says he will not be placed on IR
it's a quote unquote low ankle sprain.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
So we'll see.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
But they're without Laporta there, without Amanra Saint Brown. We
got the news before the game that fired me up
that Frank ragnow is going to return at some point,
Like do you think long term because they are out
of the playoff picture right now that they have enough
let's say they don't have aman Ra for a few
games to get it done offensively without him.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
I really don't. I mean, it was a shocking amount
of Tom Kennedy, who is being with the team since
like twenty nineteen, since he finished playing lacrosse. He's just
always on the practice squad. He gets on the active
rouss like well, twenty four hours before the game. Then
he's getting seven targets in a game against Micah Parson's
defense at home. It's that was pretty shocking the reg
Now news. I'm so fined up to have Frank RightNow back.

(27:17):
I would pull slight that it feels unfed by expectations
on him that he's gonna walk off the sofa like
Joe Flacco did a couple of years ago as a
center in the league. When we've seen how Lineman look
when they retired, they shed weight really quickly. To expect
to just walk back in as a Hall of Fame
caliber play who will kind of like erase and fix
all the problems, I think is a little unfair on
right now.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Yeah, and they were without Graham Glasgow in this game,
who had been taking over at center, so you know
they've had issues and maybe that helps to explain the
drive at the end of the game. But it really
reminded me of the drive late against the Eagles where
the Lions took a while and it almost felt like
they waved the white flag in Philadelphia that night, just

(28:00):
making forever in a game that they were only down
by a touchdown, and the same thing kind of happened
in this game where they take a six minute drive
late and kind of just end the game on themselves
and ends in a field goal too, because Goff ends
up taking a sack. That's, you know, one of the
drives where Michael Parsons makes such an impact. It just

(28:20):
feels like, man, these are these are not the Lions
that I love. These are not the Lions that I
had in the Super Bowl. I'm not feeling great about
that right now.

Speaker 5 (28:27):
No.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
I think that's part of when you change the play
call a mid season, you know you might have some
operational issues during the Dann Kemmel's trying to manage the
entire game, then he's also calling the plays, and it
just feels like there's a bit of friction there. I
don't think he's done a great job. I think we
all just love Dan Kemberl and respect Dan Kempbell. That's
like you just assume he's going to be good at
this stuff. I think he's been pretty poor over this
month that he's been calling plays. I mean, they had

(28:48):
a twenty four percent success rate on twenty five early
down runs, and I understand the logic that we lose
them on raw. We've not got Lapolle that the line
is not playing very well, just get the ball in
the hands of Jamie Gibbs. But they're are more creative
ways to do it than just slam your head against
a brick wall over and over again. Where Evan Williams
is having the absolute game of his life, flying down
from safety to pin everything he can in sight, and

(29:10):
it just it just felt like an ideological game where
he's like, no, this is who we are. The fourth
down calls, the run game was like, no, this is
how we played Detroit Lions football. And it's like, you
are losing the game quite handily and your quot back
is playing absolutely lights out in a really tough situation
where his interior line is terrible. Rattlig is the only
one who's supposedly healthy and he's hurt and wincing throughout
the game. He's throwing to a lacrosse player. He's playing

(29:33):
absolute money, and you don't adjust the game plot at all.
I mean, that's fair that.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
By the way, that seamball to Kennedy was a beautiful
throw and catch. I mean some of the passes to
Jamison Williams was like in just the smallest window and
catches him perfectly.

Speaker 3 (29:48):
In stride.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
I'm not saying Goff's game was perfect. And in fact,
the time on fourth down where the Packers did a
good job flushing GoF out and got him off his
spot and he throws on the run, but it's just
a little bit behind Williams. Williams could have made that catch,
but it maybe just showed the difference between Golf and
some of the more mobile quarterbacks in the league. Like, ultimately,
he did a good job. And yeah, Dan Campbll's not

(30:11):
going to change I think who he is. He talked
after the game about the fourth down decisions.

Speaker 6 (30:16):
I didn't like one of those those fourth down calls.
You know, it felt like, you know, I don't know
how good of an opportunity we really gave our guys
on that first one, you know, but but you know,
we had an opportunity, and even at the end of
the day, we had an opportunity and we couldn't you know,

(30:38):
we just couldn't get it done there later in the game.
So I wouldn't say necessarily that that's going to have
an effect on me. You know, you always want to
convert them, and we've had a lot of conversions here.
It just didn't work out today.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Oh man, I read those codes. I hadn't seen it.
How is it? Dejected? Dan Campbell hitting you on this Friday.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Hits me in the goop, I will say, I don't
want to upset my friends in the data dorg community.
I am all full. Let's go for it. You know,
whatever the numbers say, I get it and with it.
There is a degree of understanding your own personnel, which
is why I like that he took some account was there.
Like the play he got them into based on what
he's dealing with at the moment, is probably not the

(31:17):
smartest play to be in. And just when you know
your interior is a disaster, your quarterback can't move off
his spot, you do have to change ever so slightly
on how you can actually get through and win these games.
And when you know you've gotten a run game, it's like,
maybe it's a time to go in and take some points. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
That Jamison Williams drop was the second fourth down that
they failed, and I believe the first one was a
Jamir Gibbs run up the middle, which I wait switched.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
To Yeah, yeah, Dank Gmble was giving his square, but
he bailed him out there because that was a full check,
and it asked for Tim Kennedy, again the five eight
lacrosse player, to move inside from a really wide position,
to come and try and pin like he's prime Cooper
Cup at backside safety. So that was just never ever
go into work. And I think that's Dank Campbell throwing
himself from the grenade for guff though.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
I love that you shouted out Evan Williams in what
he did in the run defense in this game. Obviously
Parsons had some great run stuffs. Your guy Edge Cooper
also showed up on a few big plays. They stuffed
the run ten times, so that's at or behind the
line of scrimmage.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
That's a huge number.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
I'm actually surprised the Lion's success rate was as high
as it was with just thirty one percent, which is
still quite low, but they had so many negative runs.
What do you think about this defense and kind of
how they are rounding into form for the stretch run
and their toughness.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
I still think that they are a bit loose on
the back end, I would say, and I do worry
about them. Against a really great quote about kho can
move slightly, obviously anyone will be concerned about that, but
I think you see, if it's not immediate pressure, they
can be a bit of a stif all that plays
play best top down. Evan Williams is a maniac attack
in the line of scrimmage, and I adole him for that.
If he's just playing on the hall field, haven't kind

(32:56):
of figured out what's going on. He gets lost all
the time. I mean he was lost like seven times
in this game. Twoffs at the seven unbelievable plays in
the rung game. It's just there's no time when that
pastor she is getting home. So if Parson's if the
other guys can rise to the level as they did in
Key Spots on Thursday, then obviously offsets everything Enigbari everyone
playing to a higher level. I think Louvin DeVante Wyatt

(33:17):
is a huge, huge loss to them. Inside they are
pretty falling down the peck and golda now of those
interior guys, they really need some kind of upfield rush.
When Parson is getting double teamed at this kind of
clip of whiles, it's our super Bowl chances are in
the hands of Enigbari, and I don't love those odds.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
Yeah, So after the game, DeVante. Whyitet who was carted off.
We didn't get a complete report from the insiders yet,
but Matt Lafleur said, quote, it doesn't look good in general.
When they say that it's it's usually some sort of break,
which would be really unfortunate for them one of their
most important players up. I want to leave on a

(33:54):
positive note though. I mean Christian Watson, his dad knew
his dad. People that don't know we're on Twitter, we're saying,
first of all, they're not using him right. He can
do more than what he's doing. He's a complete receiver.
He's a tougher guy. And then number two, he's going
to be back from this injury sooner than you think.
The rehab is going better than anyone who's ever torn

(34:16):
as ACL before, and he's going to be more explosive before,
and damned if he hasn't been. Right, Chris Watson looks
like like a centerpiece of a passing attack, which I
did not expect.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
He really has changed this offense since he came back.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
Yeah, and so needed with Craft going out. I mean
to just have the gravitational pull of someone took a
graph with It's like a gravity player where everyone would
just kind of pinch around him and it would open
up the targets for everyone else. They needed someone who
was another three level threat, and Waltson developing is like
a middle of the field kind of sneaky demon. I
think is really transformed what they can be on offense. Yeah,

(34:49):
Matthew Golden was out for this game. I do think
if you telled me we're in the playoffs and suddenly
that's when Matthew Golden starts breaking out with like a
couple big time plays like that would not shock me.
I don't think he was lost earlier this year. Maybe
maybe you tell me differently, but like they still could
have another piece to play in this offense. It's exciting

(35:09):
for the people like you are holding the UH. I
have the Packers winning the Super Bowl ticket. I feel like,
even though the Bears won.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
On Friday, you gotta feel better maybe than you have
all season long with the Packers at eight three and
one after this one.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
I feel good seeing Jordan Love, who is the quote
back I enjoy watching the most round into this kind
of form at the stage of the season is very,
very exciting.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
So I mentioned they have two games against the Bears
in a three week span. It's actually eighteen days because
the last of those games is on a Thursday night.
Just a banger of a game, But I hate that scheduling,
Like two games in eighteen days between these two teams
is is weird. And they both have some very challenging

(35:52):
games down the stretch, so there's a lot of.

Speaker 3 (35:56):
Game to play.

Speaker 1 (35:57):
And yet I feel like the Packers, if there was
any doubt, like eight three and one, there in outstanding
shape to not only possibly win the division, but certainly
get a wild card at the very least. And now
Chicago at nine to three, despite that tough schedule looking
very good. A couple of games up on the Detroit Lions.
All right, that's the NFC North. Let's take a break,
and you know it's been a good couple of days

(36:19):
when we save what might have been one of the
most fascinating games of the entire season. Four after the break, Yes,
Chiefs and Cowboys.

Speaker 4 (36:36):
All right, here we go, preussnout looking that way. Now
he runs up out of the pocket, He sprints to
the right, He tucks the ball the womens, he steps
in from the n touchdown Cowboys, they drew it up
for the dirt.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
They drew him up in the dirt. Prescott said I'm here,
I'm no here.

Speaker 2 (36:54):
You here, you do something.

Speaker 4 (36:58):
Williams did something.

Speaker 1 (37:00):
That was brad Sham on k RLD and that was
the end of a beautiful drive by Dak Prescott to
take the lead, a lead they would not relinquish. Cowboys
win thirty one to twenty eight. And I wanted to
start there, Ali because I did feel like that drive,

(37:22):
that moment where they are trailing in the fourth quarter
was a fascinating moment in this game. And after that,
we get a whole lot of George Pickens, we get
a decent amount of CD LAMB, and we get Dak
Prescott doing the stuff before the snap, after the snap
and occasionally like that with his legs improvising. To me,

(37:43):
it was like the full Dak experience and it was beautiful.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
Yeah. I was just rolling around the floor with Lead.
I said, Jentlemen is my favorite wode, but the watch
doc is like my daily beloved seeing him have that
kind of performance against Spags on what maybe the most
watch game in history when the numbers come in, very
very very thrilling.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yeah, the closing of this game to me was so telling,
So Chiefs take the lead and we'll back it up.
Because Mahomes played very well in this game. There was
so much to go to in this game. This is
gonna be a challenge for us. Frankly, Ali, you said,
how many.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Words did he write of notes this week?

Speaker 2 (38:19):
Oh, three thousand, three thousand?

Speaker 3 (38:21):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (38:21):
And how many was on this game? Because I do
feel like I have just more on this game. There
was like a lot going on in this game, probably
two and a half thousand, right, So trying to boil
it down is tough. But I do think how they
closed the game offensively was was fascinating and telling. You
essentially have the George Pickens drive where you know he

(38:42):
has to play where he gets the big hurdle on
the third down, but he also draws pass interference. He
has a couple other catches and it ends. I believe
that's the drive. You also have an incredible two point
conversion play. Thought of going with that for the highlight
right after that where Dak puts it in a tiny
wind to Pickens following drive after they get the ball back,

(39:04):
that's where you hit the fifty one yarder to ceed lamb.
You know, Spagnolo sends pressure with McDuffie, and you get
a one on one Chamari Connor against Ceedee Lamb beauty
dime down the field. You get a field goal there
to go up two scores, and then you finish the
game by getting the ball back with three twenty two left.

(39:24):
And there were so many parts and I'm combining them
all together, just wanting to take the big picture here
Ali where because the Chiefs took the lead and then
the Chiefs you know, got it to one score and
there's three twenty two left. There were so many points
where I thought, Okay, this is where the Chiefs do
get that stop, this is where the Chiefs get the
ball back and then win. But it just kept not happening.

(39:47):
And they closed it out by throwing the ball two
times in a row on second down, which I think
was so important. On one, they get a pass interference
that was to Pickens. On another they complete the ball
to Lamb. He goes out of bounds. But whatever, they
end up finishing out the game and just never give
the ball back. Kind of walk me through what you

(40:08):
think of just Brian Schottenheimer and how Dak approached this
fourth quarter and finishing out what was a great game plan.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
Yeah, I think Schottenheimer is so dialed in. I think
that's probably just the best all around offense in the league,
just design wise. I think it's almost streaks ahead of
everyone else at the moment. And then where I feel
like Schottenheimer's just like taking himself to a whole different level.
We talked about some of like the organizational arrogance to
Dan Campbell being able to step back and understand that

(40:35):
we need probably three first downs to win the games
and maybe end the chief season. It's players, not plays
in those moments, and we can find ways to get
Cede lamp in the slot one on one. That's just
what we want. Design is irrelevant. We're just gonna go
man to man get our best play of the ball.
We'll have the Pickings drive you mentioned. Let's just find
a way to get George Pickens isolated. We think he's
the best athlete on the field. He was playing like

(40:56):
the best athlete on the field. He's the smoothest athlete
maybe in the league right now, and so that's just
how we're going to go down swinging. We've done all
the fun stuff, all the creativity, all the game on
stuff and when we've got to have a drive, when
it's come from behind territory, what it's going to go
to our two best plays, That's how we're going to
go down.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
Yeah, Ceedey Lamb finishes with seven for one to twelve
and a touchdown. Pickins has six catches on thirteen targets.
When when I looked at it in the end, I
was like, oh, McDuffie got his share of wins. It
was especially him in coverage, but ultimately there were a
ton of penalties. And when you really go through all
the numbers, and the Cowboys numbers are great. I mean
they finished with four hundred and fifty seven yards, they're

(41:32):
over fifty percent on third down, like their numbers are great.
But the Chiefs numbers are pretty great too. And the
biggest difference you can really see is that it's the
one hundred and and ten yards of penalties. That the
Chiefs have ten penalties for one hundred and nineteen yards.
And it did put them in difficult situations on offense,
and it did help sustain some of these Cowboy drives

(41:53):
or it was just a desperation ploy because their players
aren't as good as the Cowboys, And I know Chiefs
fans are mad at Andy Reid right now, that's there
could be some reason to be fair. But I also
watched this game just thinking like the Cowboys offense is
more talented than the Chiefs defense.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
Oh yeah, they had speck Noelin in a blender at times,
I felt like where he just didn't know what to do,
where he's got no pass rush. And yeah, another primetime
game was George Kyle Lofts is just Mia every single
primetime game, every big game, every time you needed to
do something to help you season out, he had him
that ridiculous contract. He's but some donut every single time,
completely irrelevant in a big game. And to be fair

(42:29):
to the Chiefs, they kind of sold out to try
and force the Cowboys into third and medium, third and long,
and then Dak was just money on third and fourth downs.
They had a six two percent success rate on third
and fourth downs. That's just a ridiculous number to have
it the best of times. It's even crazy to have
when that is like the money spags down. That's when
he does all the cool spagsy stuff, and the Cowboys
just a step ahead the entire evening.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
So I think the game.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
We just talked about Packers Lions, and then this one
had some similarities that it meant to you know, mention
it with the Packers Lions is like the Lions blitz
rate was more than double the Packers, and the pressure
rate was around the same was actually better for the Packers.
It was kind of a similar dynamic here. It wasn't
quite as you know, severe, but ultimately the Chiefs blitzed

(43:13):
almost half the time, and yet they only had a
pressure rate of thirty percent, which was lower than the Cowboys.
That's an amazing stat because it's also a Cowboys pass
rush stat, which is awesome, Like they had a totally
respectable good pass rush overall without having a blitz like crazy.
But Spagnolo hits that blitz early in the game. It's

(43:37):
the first third down and they heat up Dak Prescott
and he throws an interception and you're thinking, oh man,
this might be a long day. And it was almost
like that success early got Spags to cocky or something,
because he just kept sending stuff the rest of the
game and after that, like Dak seemed to really have
an answer for what they were doing.

Speaker 2 (43:57):
Yeah, it's interesting. Specs has gone Dak Abun when they've
played in their career like he has had man he
really does come after him in a way that no
one ever goes after Dak Prescott that where he is
a blitz killer. He's so intelligent, so smart, he can
identify everything so quickly, and he's old school. Brady squ
replaced the blitz, quarts back wherever the blitz comes from.
You just throw the ball behind the guy's head. You
move on with the game. And so Specks tried to

(44:18):
get him with more zone pressure stuff what you call
a hot pressure, which is where the blitz guy goes from.
We dropped someone from the defensive line into where the
blitz guy came from. So if he replaces the blitzer,
Chris Jones or someone stood there. That's how they tried
to get him. With that first third down, they get
the free runner through Chris Jones drops into that spot.
Dak looks the other side of the field, thinks it's
a blitz when it's spags Usually to man blitz, it's

(44:38):
his zone blitz. Instead throws it into a cover two
hole and gets picked off. They start trying to toggle
back and forth between all that man pressure, which is
kind of vintage spags and more of these zone pressures,
And I gotta say to me, it's all credit to
the offensive line more than Dak. It's not a Dak
stat if you look at four of them, which are
really cool designs, fan spag and no difficult to pick
up stuff. Dak is not even looking at the side

(45:00):
feel where the pressure is coming from. And the Cowboys
guys just clean all that stuff up. How well they've
become tied together when they've got a new left tackle.
Booker is playing completely out of his mind the last
few weeks as a rookie. It was a really really
impressive Cowboys oh line performance when Specks tried to get
really creative.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
I'm glad he pointed that out because that was something
we talked about throughout the offseason. This young offensive line,
how do they come together for the Cowboys because there
was a ceiling there, a lot of high draft picks
and I know Tyler got in. Their left tackle is
out right now. Nate Thomas filled in for him, and
he did give up the most pressure of anyone on
the offensive line, but it still was under control. Like

(45:38):
he did not stand out the rest of the group.
Booker Terrence Steele on the right side, and then you
have Cooper Beebe and Tyler Smith like they've played a
lot of games together in a row and they're playing well.
And to your carlaftis vicious takedown earlier thirty one pass
rushes in this game won pressure and it wasn't quick,
so fair, it's fair. I was worried because you put

(46:01):
you know, you put NFL Daily Ali in your profile
now on on social media, which I love seeing.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
Feel feel proud, But I was worried.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
You know now that that's there are we're gonna get
like a softer version of Ali, and George Coloftus knows that.

Speaker 3 (46:18):
Uh, let's listen to CD LAMB after the game.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
I loved just hearing the cowboys and seeing the cowboys
loving this moment.

Speaker 5 (46:26):
Message to the whole leading as boys, you're a national
masspect and that you can actually do this.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
Keep talking. I see that's my message. I see it.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
I just love like the cockiness too, and how they were.
You know, they get the turkey leg afterwards and they're
sharing the turkey leg like two guys biting the same one,
which was a little.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
It's good fateen chemistry. I don't think the Jaellen Hoods
and A J. Brown are sharing turkey legs. Yeah, not great.

Speaker 1 (46:52):
Okay, let's let's talk a little bit about the Chiefs
offense because it was a great My Homes game.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
Would you w you go that far and say great?

Speaker 1 (46:59):
Maybe maybe like a very good Patrick Mahomes game, like
Jared goff in the losing effort.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
I do think he was very much up for the challenge.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
And we don't have to do the QB wins last thing,
because I can think of four or five outstanding plays
by Mahomes and maybe he didn't hit every improv play,
but he hit a lot of.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
Them, and I think did enough to win this game.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
Yeah, and he's doing it with all those miscues you
mentioned on offense too, all the penalties backing them up
there down three linemen right midway through the game, this note.
Smith Simmons goes out with an injury. Looks like that's
gonna send him to Aya the right tackle. Juon Taylor
goes out too, so doing it under a ton of fire.
I gotta say, I'm worried about Andy Reid, and I

(47:43):
don't want a blaspheme against the football gouts, but it
is just so strange to watching Andy Reid team become
one of the most predictable offenses in the NFL have
some of the most almost laughable tendencies at this point
where the good coaches just know everything they're trying to
do and so much to the game. Every week just
feels like Mahome is running for his life and if
it's not magic, nothing is gonna happen. We get the

(48:05):
play where he almost falls over twice and he throws
back down the field and that just feels like a
micro cousin for the season where it's just feels such
hard whoop for them all the time.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Yeah, think about how this game could have been a
blowout the other way. Not a blowout, but a comfortable
win for the Cowboys. They hit the fourth down to
take the lead to Rashi Rice, which is a miracle
play by Mahomes and a great catch by Rashi Rice,
who did have a pretty big drop on third down
at another point in the game that killed the drive,

(48:37):
but for the most part has come to play the
last couple weeks and made big plays. You hit the
first touchdown on a fourth down to Travis Kelcey. That
was not an easy play at all. That's fourteen points
right there. You mentioned the play where he is absolutely
stumbling before hitting Xavier Worthy, or they're facing a fourth

(48:57):
and long and the game is essentially over and the
touchdown to Marquise Brown. I mean, that's just like a
talented play. Patrick Mahomes is awesome, but these were not
easy plays by Mahomes, and it is striking that there's
like hasn't been a lot of easy buttons. There is
something to me that I don't know if this team

(49:18):
is tired or Andy Reid's tired. I mean, the man
is sixty seven years old, They've played a lot of
football games, and the weight of being the Kansas City Chiefs,
It's not like it went away from losing that Super Bowl.
I think it's still there and there does seem to
be some sort of fatigue factor, maybe mentally as well
as physically with this team.

Speaker 2 (49:37):
There's certainly a lack of ideas. There is still a
stunning amount of Kareem Hunt. So much is still built
around Travis Kelsey, who I think is moving way better
than he did do last year. But I just don't
know if that's what you want to send to the
offense around at this point, I just go back to
a couple of weeks ago they played Denver. There's two
plays where they motion and Vince Joseph is basically running

(49:57):
onto the field to point out to his corner a
corner out is coming. It comes twice when he runs
out on the field to do that. They face the
Cults when they get into a certain formation with the
certain emotion. It's the exact same target point of the
rung game, the same side reaction six for six times
in that game. They get to the same look against
the Cowboys on their third drive. They have the two
really good drives and they have nothing for success drives.

(50:20):
And the Cowboys linebackers, hardly you know, a Hall of
Fame group, are almost laughing, getting to the line of screams,
are you kidding me? Are they going to do this again?
And there's no payoff play building with these actions. Are
going to run the ball with the same action at
the same point over and over again and nothing pays off.
That's just not Andy Reid. He's usually falling over with
all these different ideas. He used to have Mike Kafker
on steph digging through like Chinese and Japanese and Lithuanian

(50:41):
film to go and find cool plays that they would
hit over the head of the Las Vegas Raiders and
now it just feels so fatigued.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
And you mentioned the Josh Simmons injury. It's a dislocated risk.
We don't know when he'll be back, but he's going
to be out indefinitely and that's a huge loss for them.
I mean, they do have a well paid, a good
backup in left tackle, Jalen Moore, but that that's a
big loss for them. And yeah, you mentioned the four
successive punts that they had. Three of those ended in

(51:13):
Dallas territories. So in one hand, like the the Chiefs
were in this game because they kept hitting fourth downs.
On the other hand, they punted from plus territory from
like a fourth and four I believe it was, and
that ended up setting up that George Pickens drive. It's
like there is still a level of conservatism from Andy

(51:36):
Reid that that I find frustrating.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
I believe the surrender index, but that in the ninety eight,
ninety eighth percentile of cowardness from Andy Reid and the
Cowboys got the ottage back in full place. So it
was very well and Patrick Mahomes, did you quote the back,
you would feel if ever there was a time to
be ultrogressives. Though when now stacking up that they have
two of that key offensive pieces old then the more
predictable nave of a been and then he's being more

(51:59):
concerned if then he has before. So I think that
and around all that they play really well offensively. All
the advanced stats still love them that better this season
than they will less season, but the margin for error
is so thin because of injuries, because the defenses really
regress them. Being league average is a testament to spags.
Given what's happening on the back end and lack of
a true pass rush, the only way to impact the

(52:21):
quotback is pray and hope that a five man zone
pressure forces a turnover. It's not even gonna get home.
It's just well the quarts back panic with a flash
of kula and throw the bolt. Was all Chris Jones
goes ham for full snaps a game.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
Yeah, and if you want to go down to just
the basic stats, but I do think they're telling sometimes
nine quarterback hits for the Cowboys, three sacks, a couple
of them just when Mahomes is just holding it, holding it,
trying to make a play. And then on the other side,
the Chiefs do not sack Dak Prescott. They do get
six quarterback hits in the game, but couldn't get him down.

(52:55):
Let's listen to Patrick Mahomes after the game. Now, six
and sex just.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
Just missed opportunities. I mean, just like all the losses
we've had this year.

Speaker 4 (53:03):
We can beat anybody, but I mean we're showing that
we can lose to anybody, and so we got to
be more consistent.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
Hmm.

Speaker 1 (53:10):
He was kind of like dejected. I would say, like
again when they played the Broncos and lost that game,
like that was a humbling game. This one when I
when I watched them, I'm not saying it was like acceptance,
but it was just like, yeah, this is where we are.

Speaker 3 (53:25):
Like we're six and six. I don't think their season
is over.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
Certainly, if any team could run the table, it could
be them and they could even maybe afford a seventh loss.
But we have reached that point now with these teams
that were Super Bowl favorites coming in like the Lions,
like the Chiefs, where it's it's legit they might not
make the.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
Playoffs, yes, it's wild we credit the Mahomes that answer,
I guess, but he was majorly responsible for losing the
Broncos game, so he played really well in this game.
But it's kind of like he gives one back to
the defense, having I think cost them the Broncos game.
It just makes it now a Texans and charges double
head to which is certainly winnable but becomes must win,

(54:06):
and with the injuries on the offensive line going against
the most ferocious passers in the NFL, it becomes once
again Patrick put the cape on. We're out of ideas.
You got to go figure this out on your own.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
Yeah, I you know, Chiefs fans have had a lot
of fun over the years. I do like how it
sets up this stretch run between these two teams. So yes,
now the Cowboys are only a game and a half
back of the Eagles. There's a path certainly for the
Cowboys to make it as a wildcard. They if they
only lost one more game and they have the Lions

(54:37):
next Thursday night. Finally, Shookie and I get like a
real banger of a Thursday night game, such a big
game for both teams, even if they lost that Lions game.
If you look at their last four, they're probably favored
in all of them. They could possibly even lose the
Lions game, win out get a wildcard, but one and
a half back of the Eagles, they have a chance
to maybe win the division. The Eagles, though, do have

(54:59):
the command twice and the Raiders in there, and so
the margin is it's gonna be tough to try to
pass the Eagles. On the other hand, the Chiefs like
they're rooting for everyone in the AFC to keep losing,
which is why when they were watching Baltimore and Cincinnati,
if they were watching or checking their phones later that night,

(55:20):
they were loving the result.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
Let's go to Cincinnati throwing.

Speaker 4 (55:23):
The shotgun p Ryan two is right shotgun staff Joe
under pressure, clings it down the middle of the phone
Yo C bosh leave shit the three. He takes it
into the end zone a twenty eight yard touchdown to
and Gray Yo si Bosh, and the Bengals lead is
back to eleven with a pat coming up.

Speaker 6 (55:45):
Ah.

Speaker 1 (55:45):
I love that throw, and I love the satisfaction that
Joe Burrow had after the game talking about that throw,
like everything that he had done to get back was
to be in position to set up his guy Yoshi.
The Bengals upset the Ravens thirty two to fourteen. That
was Dan Horde and Dave Lapham on wc K why

(56:08):
it felt like Burrow needed the first half just to
warm up a little. I mean, he still was good,
but he missed a few throws. They settled for a
lot of field goals, and they had a lead at halftime.
But in terms of ball location and decision making, the
second half of that game, to me, Ali was like
Joe Burrow had never left.

Speaker 2 (56:27):
Yeah, I agree with you. I mean that throw is
so sad, and I feel for Roquan Smith. You can
see in his eyes that that is an incredible play
for Roquan Smith. He goes from a mugged up spot
to kind of matching the route vitually all the way
down the field and he looks over like, are you
kidding me? That Joe Burrows returned only like fall guys
could make that throw on time absurd pay I I
thought he took some time to get warmed up, and
they just tried defeat to Jama Chase going into the

(56:48):
second half, and obviously that's where the wing wing connection
between those guys come in and you can get more
explosive down the field. I mean, this was a game
going to the third quote to given how many tonovers
the Ravens had in their row and half the Bengals
really struggled to convert in the red zone. I thought
that was where you really saw kind of like a
Christmas and Fluidity show for Burrow, where it's like has
to be done instantaneously at the snap and you're going

(57:09):
from practice speed to game speed. And then he'd really
sped things up in the second half.

Speaker 1 (57:13):
Yeah, and look, their running game has been better lately.
I thought their offensive line had a good game, maybe
pointed out the Ravens lack of a pass rush. And
then there were a number of throws to Chase that
were just huge. A third and seven helped set up
a touchdown, just one of those outs, perfect timing that
just Joe Burrow makes look easy. He had a bomb

(57:35):
to Chase in this game that he put everything into
and it worked out, and that set up points. I
believe that was a field goal drive. And it's kind
of like you're getting all the good stuff from Joe
Flacco but without like the crippling interceptions.

Speaker 2 (57:50):
So that's a big upgrade.

Speaker 1 (57:51):
But I guess the biggest difference is the Cincinnati Bengals
are forcing five turnovers against the Ravens, Like, how much
of it do you think is the Bengals defense and
how much much of it was Lamar Jackson and this
Ravens offense just having a brutal performance.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
I thought a mix of both, which I know is
a cop out. But then the Bengals pass first looked
significantly improved, I think in barb because we're just underrating
how poor the Ravens offensive line is. Lamar I just thought,
I don't know what was happening during that game. Maybe
he had two big Thanksgiving dinner or something. It was
just not feeling it. I mean, the fumbles where the
balls was coming out. Every single fumble was avoidable, not

(58:27):
only from the fact the ball slips out of his
hands or he makes a poor decision, but there were
wide open throws all over the field that he just
turned down, which then meant the play was extended, which
then caused the fumbles. He was just so out of rhythm,
and throughout this run where they've been winning the games,
their office just looked so disjointed and disheveled. I felt
throughout the run there's just no rhythm and they've kind
of got away with it through turnover. Look that they

(58:48):
have not turned the ball over during that run. They
turned the ball over on Thursday, more than they have
done at any point during the winning streak.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
Yeah, it was both a cursed game and like a
terrible game. You had the Za Flowers offensive pass interference,
kind of a shaky call that would have been seven
points just taken off the board. You had Isaiah Likely
on a catch and run going in for a long
score and DJ Turner knocks it out right at the

(59:17):
goal line and the Bengals get the ball back on
a touchdown. That's fourteen points. Then again, it's also three
points with Lamar just dropping the ball for Cincinnati to
kick a field goal before the end of the first half.
And maybe the biggest play, or certainly one of the
biggest plays the entire game to me because it set
the tone, was him fumbling the ball kind of running

(59:40):
into pressure early in the first quarter on his own
goal line and setting up the Bengals. It only ends
up being three points, but there was just something about
it that it set a spooky mood that they never
really got.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
Out of I mean that crowd was dead.

Speaker 3 (59:56):
Ali.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
They not only did they leave with seven minutes to go,
they were silent the whole game. I think they think
this Ravens team doesn't have it, and based on the
eye test, like I think they're right now.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
The home crowd always knows, and everyone's talking about putting
this run together, and it's really just a knock on
the Steelers kind of stinking, and that's not accepting that
the Steelers kind of sting. They know they've not got
the juice. You know, this was just to me the
most bizarre Lamar game because he looked healthy finally, despite
being on the injury report constantly. He was moving pretty
well when he had to take off of his legs.

(01:00:28):
He looked more spry than he has done throughout the
wind streak. But just from the pocket, some of the
decisions were pretty poor. Yeah, no touch or actually down
the field, miss some wide open throws, a bunch of
turndowns against the flakiest defense you could hope to find
that isn't in Vegas, and just choosing not to let
the ball go was really quite a bizarre performance. And
the weird thing is he had a number of great throws.

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
So I know the weather was not good, but I
don't think it was like a crazy windy night. But
it was cold there didn't seem to hurt Burrow too much.
And Lamar also had like a number of good throws.
If you just isolated the good throws, yea, you were like, Okay,
he's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
The throw to likely you mentioned where he gets Jordan
Battel punches the ball out on the goal line as
an unbelievble three, he has another one to likely move
into his leg. He somehow has does that with Lamar
things where he just goes into slow motion. Everyone else
is moving a double speed and he's able to throw
the ball back for a diamond to the middle of
the field. So it was just a real rollercoaster ride
with him. And it's being like that for the offense
as a whole, but a lot of it I think

(01:01:27):
is being at tribute to He's just not moved that
well even within the pocket. He just seems really sludgy,
and yet it looked like he had the legs all
the way back last night, but them was like kind
of the explosive twitch movements within the pocket. Then being
able to break out and then the actually just vanished
on him.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Yeah, he had to pick up a few first downs
with his legs, but yeah, there were just throws he
had that he missed. There was a play action shot
that Andrews was open, just missed it. He had a
third and nine, I believe to Zay Flowers killed the drive.
Just missed it like a Rashad Bateman seam ball, which
was a tough throw to make, but he missed it
by Tonny like one hop. Keaton Mitchell at one point,

(01:02:04):
and he just hasn't been on the same page and
sometimes he needs, you know, Dantes Walker to make a
play for him the last couple of weeks, and tedes
Walker just refuses to make that play. Let's actually listen
to the interception that Lamar Jackson threw late in the game,
because for all of these turnovers, the Bengals were kicking
field goals early and even though they played better late,

(01:02:27):
the Ravens were still in this game, and they did
put together a couple of touchdown drives, including some big
Derrick Henry plays. Keaton Mitchell also had a touchdown to
close the gap in the third quarter, so it wasn't
really over until this Lamar interception.

Speaker 4 (01:02:42):
Huge play here, third and nine at the Cincinnati fifteen,
the Bengals showing pressure, They've got seven guys up on
the line. Lamar drops back. Lamar throws downfield into the
end zone. Pip fan intercepted Atrius Night running it back.
He's at the thirty thirty five forty spin move there
and tackled around the forty five yard line. A tip

(01:03:02):
of the line results in a pick for de Matrious
Night and the Bengals get their fourth taken.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
And yeah, that was more of bad luck for Lamar,
maybe not being as aware or moving in the pockets
as you would like. But it was a night where
Joseph Asai and Miles Murphy were making some plays in
the backfield. That's It's all Bengals fans have wanted. It's
just some signs of life out of their pass rush.
And Osai had a at a monster game, two sacks,

(01:03:29):
t quarterback hits for hurries. And I thought Murphy was
back there too. It didn't quite show up on the
stat sheep. I just thought he was active giving them
something where I don't know this This division's pretty rough, Ali, Like,
do you have any faith maybe that that this defense
could turn turn around a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
No, I think they uh just disaster spots everywhere. That's
so funny because it's a disaster zone in every single position.
Then dj Ton is just an all pro play. It's
just DJ does his own thing. Everyone else is a
complete mess. Aside, did play well. I thought Murphy was
really active. I'm surprised he didn't show more in the
statue he felt hurries. But yeah, and I think it
was some run stuffs and everything. But like, I was

(01:04:07):
surprised he didn't hit Labar. But you're right, it did
show up a little bit too. And grading on that
typical curve, I guess that would be a plus plus UPO. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
Okay, we've gone a long as we'll often do. Let's
actually wrap up the show, take one last break on
the other side. I don't want to just move past
the burrow stuff, because late in this game it did
make me think. And I know they're four and eight,
and I listened to Paul Dayaner's podcast it's called The Growler.
He has one of the best postgame podcasts. It's tight,
which maybe I could we should learn from Molly. I

(01:04:36):
don't know one of the reasons. I like, it's like
always just it's just thirty minutes. It gives me that
Bengals postgame heat, and he always says great perspective. And
after last week they were just talking, Okay, the season's over,
the scene's over. And then after this one it's like,
I don't know, the Ravens are pretty bad.

Speaker 3 (01:04:52):
They get to play them again in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
I don't trust the Bengals to rip off a ton
of wins, including playing in Buffalo next week.

Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
That's that's the problem.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
But you could see a scenario where the Steelers and
the Ravens lose enough that couldn't eight wins be enough
to make the playoffs in this division? Could nine wins
be enough? If Joe Burrow keeps playing like this, he's
got a chance. Let's actually listen to his first touchdown
back from injury.

Speaker 4 (01:05:18):
Now, p Ryan moves back a few steps and lines
up to Burrow's left. Joe is ready, catches the shotgun,
snap begins scrambling right, Burrow throwing downfield for Hudson.

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
Oh he's got it.

Speaker 4 (01:05:28):
Wow, touchdown, Bengals. What an adjustment to the ball by
Hudson and the not so ober the back right pylon
for a fourteen yard touchdown Joe Burrows first since returning
from the Joe.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
You can pick on the Tanner Hudson versus Kyle Hamilton
in great coverage matchup and actually get a completion like
you're cooking with gas.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
That was an incredible play, unbelievable play. I want to
say too, I think that their offensive line, who takes
a ton of flat understandably, has actually been pretty good
now for a couple of months. Again, grading on the
Bengals curve with trying to figure out how could they
put some kind of run together. I think it's gonna
go through how the offensive line can hold them. I
thought they really handled all the different looks and pressures

(01:06:14):
and fake outs the Bengals tried to send their way.
And if you just give Borrow even a split second
of extra timey he's used to having, that's when you
can do stuff like dice people ball move slightly and
be able to have enough time to get the throw
and they'd be mashing people with the run. I mean
that third and success right since week six, and so
you go into the Bills game next week, that is
a perfect profile to have like a fifty burger fifty

(01:06:35):
burger off between these two teams.

Speaker 1 (01:06:37):
Man, I hate to give you know, Zach Taylor too
much credit. First of all, this is setting up, not
that I thought Zach Taylor or there was gonna be
some regime change necessarily anyways, but this is absolutely setting
up for them to play well down the stretch and
Mike Brown just to run everything back.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
That's a big picture look. But together, I don't know.
And that I think that the Bird he's a tweet
in that Joe Brady and Joe Burrow I have a
little rendezvous back in Cincinnati. I think that's very much
still on the table. The thing with Tailor that's funny
is everyone always says, what does he do? And that's
a totally fair question. I got no idea what this
guy does monate the Friday. What he does do every
time Burrow goes down is completely over all the offense,

(01:07:14):
but it's delayed by like three weeks. He like runs
on a leg. He can't accept that. He just mourns
that the Burrow is out, even though he's used to
it at this point. So they over all it. That
stuff usually works pretty well. Then Joe comes back, and
Joe's like runs it for a half and is like,
I'm good with all that crap. Let's get to throw
all that stuff out. Let's go back to the Joe
Burrow offense. I would like them to keep as much
of the rung game elements that have really been singing

(01:07:35):
over the past month, keeping in there with Burrow, although
I think the tail is a bit of a pushover
and Borrow will get to do his thing.

Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
Well that's the thing.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
Yeah, Burrow just feels like he's running this organization, and
you know why not. I trust him over probably anyone
else in the building. I guess that's talk about singing.
I like those Ali birds singing. And I was gonna
I was gonna give Taylor credit because I almost feel
like with these tight ends, it's Drew Sample, it's Noah Fant,

(01:08:05):
it's Tanner Hudson, who, by the way, the very play before,
made an incredible play as a cornerback to I think
get the ball away. It was the same matchup from
Kyle Hamilton on what could have been an interception. So
shout out to Tanner, Hudson and GASICKI like they're almost
rams light a little bit with these like four tight
ends that it's like not huge production, but they just
seem like they're effective in adding layers to the offense.

(01:08:28):
And the offense has been pretty good, more than pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
And Burrow will cast them aside within two minutes when
he gets back to playing how he wants to play.

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
It's fair.

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
Okay, we've done it. I don't know if we got
through all of your notes.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
We have to give this one last note. The best
announcer of a two beautiful, glorious football days was Jason Garrett.
To come out to Jason Garrett, what a come out.
And I know people thinking, wait, I heard him on
note today at NBC where it sounded like he was
throwing up on himself. Was panic the entire time. Last
yet pretty good on Thanksgiving this year. Absolutely elite. Now

(01:09:03):
this is coming from a guy who loves Treyigman. I
know Treigman is device, so I think Aikman is by
far the best in the business. I thought Garrett was
exceptional in having the innate ability to understand every single
thing that happened on the play in real time. It
is so impossibly tough to do that. We've been at
games and cold games. It is so odd to be
able to see both the coverage and the rush and
the protection and the route concept. Somehow he can internalize

(01:09:25):
it instantly and points to fout that is proven when
they go back to replay. Oh, he's exactly right on
how the play unfolded. I mean to defend us on talkSPORT.

Speaker 1 (01:09:33):
You know they got the like replay monitors right away,
they got the spotters and everything, so you know, step up, well, Gavin,
let's let's up the budget here and we could be
giving you that level analysis.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
I don't know if I'll go back to check that out.
The Ravens Bengals game was the one I did not
watch live until the fourth quarter, and even then my family,
you know, we had them all over last night. We
sat down for dinner right about as that game started,
and so I watched that back this morning.

Speaker 3 (01:10:05):
But that's great to hear. I did think he was good.

Speaker 1 (01:10:07):
Some guys are better doing the game by far, even
though it's a harder job on some level than the studio,
which I get the studio is sterile and the job
kind of sucks. You're just saying fifteen seconds, like, if
you're good in studio, it's like, a it's hard to
do that. And Jason Garrett, you're right, like he never
says anything in the studio. But I know for a

(01:10:27):
fact some hires up at NBC listen to this show.

Speaker 2 (01:10:30):
So maybe, oh, that's that's good. Yeah, take the Chruis
Millis men out of that. You read it, that asks
him to have charisma and let the bull coach Cold
Bowl place in real time. That seems pretty sensible to me.

Speaker 3 (01:10:39):
I do think that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
Although Chris Collins, where I do think, is great at
seeing the whole picture in the moment.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
Aikman is so streaks ahead of everyone else.

Speaker 1 (01:10:50):
It's no he's a quarterback, unfair advantage. Okay, I don't
know if we got to all four thousand pages of
your notes andired up, I'm gonna listen to one last
thing about Joe Burrow. By the way, I wanted to
hear him post scheme. Uh, he was about as close
to emotional as I would say.

Speaker 3 (01:11:09):
Joe Burrow.

Speaker 5 (01:11:10):
Ever, again, certainly hasn't been easy on me through through
six years from a lot of different angles. But you know,
I've worked really hard to put myself in position to
be back out there and a lot of people around
me have done the same. There's there's no there's no
better feeling than that, you know, putting in, putting in

(01:11:31):
work for for a long time and going out and
in it paying off. It's uh, there's just just there's
just no feeling like going out in front of the
world with a group of guys that work really hard
to go try to win games, and and going out

(01:11:51):
and putting on a good performance and winning that game.

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
It was reflective and like it was, it was a
lot he's he mentioned the last six years have been
tough with the for a competitor like that to have
to miss so many times, so much time, like this
season has not been the same without him for all
of us, but I'm sure has been absolutely brutal for him.

Speaker 3 (01:12:09):
So it was a it was a cool moment.

Speaker 2 (01:12:11):
I don't know how you can't love a guy with
that flow and that coat. Just getting emotional, throwing dods
to ton of hoodson non ky Lamet full polls the best.

Speaker 1 (01:12:21):
Uh yeah, Eric, lets us know your reaction to the
coat off camera because we were showing it was just fantastic.
It is amazing for that that big of a badass
to be wearing that badass of a coat. I mean,
he's our Joe Namath. He just hasked to stay healthy,
you know, like when when he had when he hit
that first touchdown. Oh no, it was actually the yos
of us touchdown. And I think if you're watching us

(01:12:42):
on YouTube, we love you, subscribe, like we'll be back
on Sunday night. You can actually see his reaction after
showing hitting that touchdown of him just slamming himself in
the chest and uh in the head, saying you're gonna
send a six man pressure on me, I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:12:59):
Gonna make you pay.

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
And he said after the game how they've been repping
that exact play over and over all season, even when
he was.

Speaker 3 (01:13:06):
Not in a lineup.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
Everyone check out the read Optional, Ali, I saw you
got a Black Friday special, so this is the time
to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:15):
Fifty dollars. Come come now, come on, that's fifty dollars
for a year the read Optional. Amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
Yeah, that's the whole year. And that's Ali's great writing.
And so he'll be using about maybe thirty five hundred
of those four thousand words of notes.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
In terms of his writing.

Speaker 1 (01:13:33):
And then you can also check out his great podcast
with John Leedard if you subscribe there too. If you
subscribe to this podcast feed, you will hear us again
on Sunday night. So normally Ali and I are going
to be doing Saturdays moving forward, but it was a
pleasure Ali to have you recapping I think the biggest
two days of the NFL season so far.

Speaker 3 (01:13:51):
So hopefully Sunday can top it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
A lot of pressure.

Speaker 1 (01:13:54):
I'll be back in the studio with Jordan Rodrive and
Patrick Clayban. Your guys, Shook will be I from Cleveland.

Speaker 3 (01:14:00):
We will see you that

Speaker 1 (01:14:07):
Mm hmm.