The NFL Power Rankings podcast with Colleen Wolfe and Dan Hanzus begins with reaction to the Top 5 of Week 5 and the 49ers taking a big jump to #5. The Rams have fallen out of Dan's Top 10 and there could be reason for concern. The league has a lot of 'foggy' 2-2 teams that could jump in the rankings with a solid win. Dan is still trying to figure out teams like the Giants, who have had a strong start but could fall back to the pack. The Power Failure of the week goes to the Lions after a tough loss to the Seahawks. Dan also explains why he has the most questions about the Dolphins.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
NFL Power Rankings is a production of the NFL in
partnership with I Heart Radio. He's bad. What have everybody?
Welcome to Power Rankings, brought to you by Energizer. I'm
calling Wolf and a hearty, hearty Welcome home, Dan Hansas,
he returns victorious from England, from London, I mean your
(00:29):
country thanks you for your service, like America. Yes, I
know that it was rough city paperwork that I get
something a good frame and put in the living room.
I can I can have something drawn up for you. Yeah,
maybe a plaque. Who knows, I don't. I have to
start on a negative note. What how dare you Daniel
(00:51):
Jeremiah in the studio? Well, listen, how dare you you
know that we are very good friends at this point?
Jeremiah just thought that. Well yeah, actually after last week
me and DJ he has moved up my power rankings
of fresh like watching Padres games together straight over you, Dan,
But since you weren't here, I'm sure you didn't get
(01:11):
a chance maybe to listen, not yet, but I planned
to study it. Well, how about right now shall we?
The blood feud runs pretty deep with Dan. Yeah. You
know a lot of people when they get contracts and
they get them redone. They put in special perks, and
maybe that's a wardrobe budget, maybe that's flying first class
on the road. Mine is I will only appear on
a Dan Hands new show if he is out of
(01:33):
the country. I wish you weren't a liar, Dan, but
here we are right now. Dolphins are number three. Yeah,
I mean he's not a man of his word. Spoiler alert,
I mean raise your hand if you're not shocked by that, Okay,
that would be me. Can we put a QR code?
Can we put a few R code on the screen
and you can just scan it and get Dan's real
time reaction? Perfect? That's what I want. I would love that.
(01:56):
We're going to effort it, see if we can get
it by the end of the show. I will go
back to Ken Dorsey real quick, though. I haven't seen
somebody that upset since Hand just woke up the morning
and one of his two T shirts that he wears
was dirty. That is another level of anger that we
saw up there in the booth. Well, first of all,
I was so excited when I heard there would be
a Hard Knox podcast and I heard you were going
to be involved in and I was like, I'm in,
(02:17):
count me in, and I'm like, oh my gosh, they've
got hands this with her. But episodes because Dan, no,
but you, but you subscribe a little bit, but just
your part, just to your part. And then fast forward
like a little like fifteen or thirty second fast forward button.
Usually have to push it multiple times, you know, goes
on and on and on. Yeah, Oh my gosh, Dan,
(02:40):
the look in your eye now of just anger. I
travel across the world to promote this brand of American football,
and that happens back home. That is a sneak attack.
The wholesome assassin Daniel Jeremiah with his fancy little shirt
and his little digs. I will have my vengeance. I
(03:01):
declare vengeance. Daniel Jerem Maya beware, no one in San
Diego is safe. That fancy little shirt he was wearing,
he told me before we started the show that he
specifically wore that shirt because you have the same one.
So just letting you know. My favorite dig was that
I have to T shirts I have. I'm like one
of those guys. I have seven thousand T shirts, including
(03:24):
every T shirt I've had since about nine And my
wife wonders why do you have all these shirts? Guys
can't throw out their T shirts. No, it's it's difficult. Well,
why don't you put your top five on a T shirt?
Let's throw it up on I don't know why I
would do that because this changes every week, so that
would be well maybe just for this week. We before,
we got the Eagles at number one, no change there,
(03:45):
no change for the Bills at two, the Chiefs up
two spots at three, the Packers standing pad at four,
and then the Niners up six spots at number five.
We're gonna talk about them too, but let's start with
the Eagles. I'm not freaking out you are, Dan. You know,
two weeks in a row for the Eagles. They're the
only undefeated team in football at this point at four
(04:06):
and now. And that was an interesting little test for them,
wasn't it. It was so you had a situation where
they fall behind fourteen nothing. It's the first time there's
any level of adversity for them and their defense, and
Miles Sanders are the ones that kind of get it done.
Miles Sanders, I think it has been excellent all year long.
A buck thirty four and two touchdowns on twenty seven carries.
(04:27):
If you remember, there are a couple you know, a
couple of years ago when he first broke out, he
looked like a superstar in waiting, and then last year
never scored a touchdown. But the fact that he's able
to be the lead of a ground attack that had
over two hundred yards and then with the defense did
did poor Trevor Lawrence who we were you know, we
were ready to see him make the leap in week
four and he's still very well. May I'm really a
little bit out Connie on everyone needs to judge Trevor
(04:50):
Lawrence every week about whether or not he's living up
to the hype. But yeah, having five turnovers and four
lost fumbles, there's no way to go through life. It's
sort of like what was previously going through when every
single start last year it was he was being judged
on every single mistake was so magnified. So Trevor Lawrence
kind of takes over that spot. But it was an
(05:10):
emotional game. It was a messy game for the Eagles,
the fact that Doug Peterson was back in the building.
It was raining, It was ugly, but like the win
itself was ugly too, And they've showed that they can
win a variety of ways, whether it's a shootout, whether
it's a come from behind when like this, the defense
did a really good job. Hassan Reddick, Like, what a
(05:31):
great pickup that was in the off season. But I'm
a little worried about some of the injuries that are
starting to pile up for the team. But you are
standing standing on your ground here. The Eagles are the
top team in the NFL, not just because of the record,
but just because of it is not the power standings,
it's the power ranking. So yeah, it's the fact that
they've won in all sorts of ways, and even when
(05:53):
Jalen Hurts comes back to earth a little bit, they
still find a way to reel off twenty nine unanswered points.
I don't like that their new end zone font is
a rip off of the old Jets logo from the eighties, Like,
you guys don't to be doing that. I'm not a
huge fan of the funny. I don't know what's going
on with that. But yeah, and you have the number
two team, the Bills, who were so awesome obviously on
Sunday night, And it did cross my mind, Connie, since
(06:15):
you're bringing up. Were they good enough and impress him
enough against the Bucks to take back the one spot
from the Eagles. But ultimately I said, that doesn't seem
right the Eagles. I think the Jags are not the
Jags of last year, and I thought that was a
really impressive showing in that game. Yes, so there we
have the number one spot, um, and we will continue
to see how they do. They have the Cardinals next week.
(06:37):
The Eagles do it is especially after what we've seen
from that you guys, Boo, Doug Peterson. I'll get to
that a little later in the show. I hope you do. Listen.
We are a good We're good people from Philadelphia. All right,
as I sit here in all of my Phillies gear.
Let's go to your number four team, the Packers. They
stay at four, so now they're in the top five.
(06:58):
Still pretty high for a team that almost lost to
Bailey Zappy in overtime. Yeah, that was a very strange
game because I don't think the Packers were playing poorly,
and I don't think even Bailey Zappy was playing well
like it was in him going off and and shocking
the world. He made a couple of throws, but for
the most part, he was exactly what you would think
(07:18):
from a third string rookie quarterback with no experience at all.
So I think when you saw when the field goal
kick goes through the uprights by Mason Crosby and the
Fox cameras cut to Matt Lafleur pulling off his headset
with like a look of just relief etched across his face,
it was because I don't think anyone expected that game
to go the way it went, and you kept expecting
(07:38):
Green Bay to pull away, and um, yeah, if you
want to quibble a little bit, and sure I will,
that's part of the job here. It wasn't so impressed
with the defense, his inability to really take that game
over for some three and outs for Zappy into a
killer you know, interception or a pick six, something that
would give them breathing room. But instead the Pats kept
on answering the rod, the Rogers marches, and then finally
(08:01):
they step up and overtime get the stop near midfield
and then kicked the field bill. So it was a
nice little test and unexpected test for the Packers. So
it was enough to park them where they were, but
it wasn't huge on Romeo Dobbs dropping. Yeah, I know
it was very close, but that's now the second time
we've seen one of these young wide receivers failed to
pull in what would have been a huge touchdown for
the pack I hate when I don't survive the ground,
(08:23):
like every single time, never surviving, I hate it. But
it just shouldn't have been so difficult for the Packers
in that game. I understand when you have a game
like the Bills and the Ravens did like that is
an absolute test, that's like a final exam almost in
the regular season, and you know it's going to be
difficult and it's going to come down to the end.
But this really should not have And I guess it
was nice that the wide receivers for the Packers ultimately
(08:46):
came through at the end so they could get the
game winning field goal. But there are some problems there
and it's not sustainable that the way that they're winning games. Yes, well,
that word is the word that Aaron Rodgers used on
Sunday after the game. This is the quote. This way
of winning. I don't think it's sustainable because it puts
too much pressure on our defense and obviously I've got
to play better and will play better. And here's the thing, Rogers,
(09:07):
for all the Criticison gets on certain subjects, is being
modest here because I thought he was excellent in that game.
He puts some throws on the money that there are
very few quarterbacks that can do what he does and
what he did in that game. And that's why it
was such a strange game for me. It's almost like
I would want to go back and watch it again
because because I was in like an England Hayes where
I'm sleeping to two hours a night with supreme jet
(09:29):
leg Because I didn't think the Packers played bad. I thought,
really maybe a testament at Bill Belichick and them coaching
up that team to hang against a much better opponent.
But the Packers held serve like the Eagles tested in
a surprising way, got the dub and their schedule coming up,
they have the Giants, Jets, and Commanders, so they could
have six wins. So Giants so that's win. Jets lost
(09:52):
two or three before they get the Bills. How about
your number five team. You absolutely love this team. You
loved them from week one when I think you had
them ranked three, the Niners at five. You're really trying
to make the Niners a thing right now, and honestly,
like some of us are about to remember that Monday
night football game against the Broncos, that's ancient history that
(10:14):
feels like it was a hundred years ago. I know
it wasn't. But this is the version of the Niners
that can win a Super Bowl. This defense is absolutely legit.
Sacking Matthew Stafford six times, you got the game. I
sing pick six by Telenoa Hufanga, who has been awesome
all year. The Niners have this ability and it's underrated
(10:35):
to continually unearth these gems on their defense. And they're
not always high drafted guys. They are these players. They
just their development machine of impact players on defense, and
you just see it. When they have health and they
have these guys on the field, they are really tough
to mess with. It Also, I think this building, Levi
Stadium doesn't always get a lot of love, but that
was loud last night. I thought that was a good
(10:57):
vibe there. So the defense is the reason they won
that game, and I think taking it to Sean McVeigh
and the Rams in that way had to be super warding.
After the playoffs, Matthew Stafford was sacked seven times and
that I was just looking it up. But you also
have Deebo Samuel and just the touchdown run that he
had was he had so many trying I'm like closing
(11:18):
my eyes so I can visualize it right now. There
were so many miss tackles and the Rams are usually
that is their department. They're so good and nobody can
tackle sam So you had that insane run and then
Jeff Wilson just was like shot out of a cannon
at one point, just the acceleration that he had. There
was just so much yak in this game. Yeah, and
(11:42):
that's what this is about. And that's why you could say,
maybe I'm a little overly bullish putting them into the
top five. But when Jimmy Garoppolo is playing within himself,
he doesn't have to do as much as some of
the other quarterbacks of big time teams in the league
right now. He just needs to get it out on time,
on target, and let them do the work. After the game,
he was interviewed on the field and he said it
(12:05):
we're getting the Yacht Bros. Back and nearly three quarters
of his passing yards yesterday thirty nine came after the catch.
Oh my gosh. So it's like you can say, oh, yeah,
but he can't attack teams downfield. Look at what he
has and the way they could play offense, that's fine.
And then if you have a defense like that, come on,
you're telling me what the team you saw last night
(12:26):
dismantle the Rams? And I know the Rams haven't been
good this year, but that's not the top five team
to you right now? Well, we're close to it. I
don't know, because watching them against the Broncos it just
felt different. Now. I know that was Jimmy's first start
and he really hadn't had a ton of work with
the starters before that, But I think that you do
have a point when you talk about the defense and
(12:46):
the way that they're able to win games with this offense,
with the yak yards and everything else. That's how they
made their playoff run last year, So why couldn't they
do it again this season? Especially now Jimmy g is
not playing with a bad throwing shoulder, so I think
Garoppolo could get them in the end. I get that.
I think the reason why I had them at number
three to start the years because I did buy into
it this idea, But what if you took a supreme
(13:09):
talented player like Trey Lance, and if the coaching staff
leaves in him, if he's great, they're going to be unbelievable.
That didn't work out, unfortunately because of the injury. But
now you have this team, and I think this team
is still plenty good enough to win. Yeah, so they
have the Panthers to win it all, Connie to win
it all? Perhaps, whoa, you're telling me that version of
the Niners in January. The Eagles welcomed them into the link.
(13:32):
You're not a little concerned, Not at all. I'm feeling great,
great about. Let's go to teams six through ten and
your rankings. At six, we have the Bengals up four spots,
the Ravens at seven. At eight, you have the Bucks
they remain unchanged, as well as the Vikings at nine,
and then the Dolphins down seven spots at ten. I
(13:53):
want to talk about a team right outside of the
top ten, though, the team that lost to the Niners.
While we're kind of coming off that game, the Rams.
They have a lot of issues going on their offensive
line in the relying way too much on Cooper Coup.
Everything is going through him. Let's just look into the
future though here for a second, because they started at two,
then they fell to four, then they slipped to six
(14:15):
for two weeks. Now they're outside the top ten at eleven.
If they lose to the Cowboys on Sunday, how much
further do they fall, Well, it depends what kind of
loss it is, But if it's if it's a performance
like this, the one on Monday night, they're all of
a sudden probably in that six to eighteen range, which
is crazy. But listen, the reason why they're on a
steady decline on this list is because they haven't played
(14:37):
well all year. There was only one moment in the
season where I felt legitimately good about the Rams is
when they were twenty seven three on the Falcons, and
even that game on the Falcons, and even that game
became a nail bitter at the end until Jalen Ramsey
high pointed an interception in the end zone. Yeah. I
just thought the offense is hard work for them right now,
And you could definitely point to the offensive line and
(15:00):
all the injuries that they've had along that front, and
that's causing maybe the reason why they're refusing to throw
downfield is because they don't trust their line to hold
up for Stafford, who's a veteran quarterback who's been dealing
with issues of his own. There's probably a lot of
different factors, but you're right. I don't think any offense
where you're just throwing it over and over to Cooper Cup.
I mean the game I pick six by who founda
(15:20):
who do you think he's targeting the Cooper Cup. Of course,
defenses are going to react and say, you need to
beat this with someone else. And that's why this Allen
Robinson situation has been It's approaching. I wrote it in
the Power Rankings on NFL dot Com because I love
just writing the word. We're approaching Connie Boondoggle status with
this acquisition. I it's I'm so upset about it. I
(15:41):
really wanted to be upset about what I wanted this
for Allan Robinson, Like I was so excited that he
was finally freed, he was out of Chicago. We thought
it great for him and this and it doesn't. This
isn't necessarily a reflection of Alan Robinson himself, but of
course he's probably got something to do with it. Maybe
he has a lot to do with it. But I
remember around the NFL went to Rams camp in the
(16:03):
summer and Jordan and Rodrigue who covers the ramps of
the athletic We love Jordans. She was one of the
many beat writers that we're saying, Man, this guy Allen Robinson,
he is bawling out. People are coming up to me
and just saying, hey, keep an eye strangers at the
grocery store. Strangers. Well, I think it was a camp,
but I like that idea. Jordan's buying oranges in the
(16:24):
grocery store and someone just can't get enough of Allen
Robinson and conversation about his career, or it was Colleen's
like college, what are you doing here? You even live
in this neighborhood? Are you following me? And so it's
gone from that to this, and part of it's a reminder.
It's like the summer is kind of annoying in football
because you could talk and talk and talk, but you
(16:45):
can't manifest it. He needs to do it on the field.
They need to find a way and they also need
to pick up the phone and see how what Dell's
needs doing. That's true, that's a great point. I'm a
little worried about Sean McVeigh. I wonder how he is
doing just like mentally right now, because I'm sure he's not.
He has to watch, he has to, and I'm sure
he did it last night. He used to watch that
(17:06):
game film, and I wonder when he watches that what
his thoughts are about Matthew Stafford and how much of
the offensive issues go back to him or is I'm
sure he's obviously watching at McVeigh from all levels in
terms of studying the offense as he understand that the
protection issues and the inability to have a sustained run game,
and the lack of a trust here with Stafford and
these other receivers. It seems like it's all kind of
(17:28):
a messy stew And this is the first time after
watching this games like, Oh, I'm worried about the Rams.
It's hard to repeat. It doesn't happen, it happens last time,
it happens like twenty years ago. And right now the
Rams don't look anything like they were by the end
of last year. No. And meanwhile, Jared Golf, though he
doesn't have the wins, is playing pretty well. We'll get
to the lines a little later on the show. I
(17:48):
don't know if they're Yeah, I still think there are
two and two are probably worse if a golf is here,
But you're right here. He you know, he wasn't. Here's
the thing. He wasn't the problem either. In Los Angeles.
It was when the supporting cast came back to earth
a little bit, including Todd Gurley, who went from superstar
to just a guy overnight. He was exposed a little bit.
Golf Stafford. Is he being exupposed a little bit right now?
I don't know. I don't know what's happening. I don't know.
(18:11):
It's a weird team to figure out right now. They
can't figure themselves out Teams eleven through fifteen, as we
just mentioned, I think I should have dropped him out
of the top ten. You think it's too harsh by
the old zuer No, I think you're right watching them.
What did I mess up in the top ten? Did
I botch anything in the top ten? Two? Let's see,
I'm looking well. I don't know if the Niners the
Packers maybe should get dinged a little bit because it
(18:32):
was just such a tough win for them against Bailey's Appy,
But overall I kind of nailed it eleven, very good,
the Rams down Titans at twelve. They remain the same,
(18:52):
The Cowboys remain the same at thirteen, Chargers up one
at fourteen, and then the Raiders at fifteen. But that
spot that is just so difficult to figure out. It's
a little bit of the twilight zone. Two weeks in
a row, the Cowboys have been your thirteen ranked team.
The defense is carrying the team. It's a little bit
(19:13):
like a Cooper Rush effect going on. How do you
feel about them right now? Are they really that difficult
they are to understand? You know what, They're a little
different than the typical thirteen twilight zone really because I
don't think you're difficult to figure out right now within
the context of they're pretty good. They are pretty good.
They're not a team's usually the numbers. What are we doing? Like?
(19:35):
Who are they? What makes them kind of an interesting
team to try to figure out? To me, Connie, is
are they actually really good? Are they the team that
went through last year and entered the playoffs and then
fell on their face? But it was like, Okay, this
is a good Dallas team. It's a team here mouse, Connie.
They are going to contend for the NFC East this
year because as good as Cooper Rush has been, and
(19:56):
he has been, he's really done great work and I
really liked even in the game on Sunday he was
attacking downfield throws at the game in hand late He's
he's fearless out there. He knows this is his opportunity.
It is the defense that is not going to change
unless they get hit by injuries, and that that's a
defense that has given up one touchdown in each of
the first four games. Even the Eagles are going to
(20:18):
struggle against this defense, well, well we'll see. We'll see
about that. A great job getting after Carson Wentz. They
stacked him twice, intercepted him twice. Everybody does that. It's
been all year for for Dallas, and Michael Parsons is
not stuffing the stat sheet so far. But this is
even without him going off and just taking over the
league for a six week stretch, which is possible as well.
(20:40):
So the mystery to me is are they a potential
elite NFC team. I'm already now back in that they're good.
How good are they? And again we're wrong all the
time in the show. I don't like to tell anyone that,
because I thought they were cooked after week one. But
the Cooper Rush thing was a revelation that he was
able to come in and hold things down, and the
(21:01):
defense has been maybe the best in the league. Was
that a baby's head that just flew by? Or is
that just you know your jet like that? There's the baby.
It's a doll head, colleague, not an actual human baby. There.
It is E equals MC squared, a clock spinning grandfather clock,
(21:21):
just going around and around. We are in not the
Twilight zone, because that's someone else's intellectual property. Yes, what
is this aversion? It's the twilight area? Okay, yeah, twilight corner.
Well no, because space is vast right, the twilight vacuum.
It's pretty good. Okay, you know what else? I see
team sixteen through two. Okay, Broncos will be clear with
(21:44):
the I p on that. We'll chat. We in the clear.
It's check with our Cardinals at seventeen, up three, the
Saints of one at eighteen, the Giants up three at nineteen.
Can I say one more thing about the previous grouping
the Jags of the one and the Falcons of go ahead?
Did you plan to talk about the Raiders on today's
show before we said goodbye. I want to on the
(22:04):
Raiders quickly. They're up six to fifteen. But it's not
like I watched the game against the Broncos and thought,
oh man, they are on the rise. It's this whole
middle of the league right now is very foggy. Well, yeah,
there's so if a team like the Raiders wins one game,
they're gonna shoot up. Even if I'm out that high
(22:26):
on them. Now you look at the rest of them,
you just say, I got the Broncos down to the Cardinals.
I don't like the Cardinals at all. But then look
who's beneath the Cardinals. The Saints, who are one of
three and very nearly owing four. The g Men, who,
yes they're three and one, and I get I moved
them up three spots, but I'm not love with them.
The Jaguars just gave up twenty nine straight points of
(22:48):
the Eagles and their young quarterback at five turnovers. The
Browns keep finding ways to lose. And then I got
the Falcons up to twenty two, and maybe they should
be even a little higher, you could argue, but I
don't love the Raiders. But look at all these teams. Connie,
I feel like we just took a saw and opened
up your head and looked inside of your brain. You're delirious.
Imagine flying over like Scotland and Ireland and then the
(23:13):
ocean and then Nova Scotia, and then I'm over Bozeman,
Monte And it's like, oh, Dan, keep you know, pound
out your power rankings, figure all this out, as like
my body clock is exploding inside. But I still, by
the way, Hashtago have a gift for you. What hey, Dan,
you know what presented by energized right moving up? And
(23:41):
one of those teams is the Giants now at nineteen.
Then well week one, they actually came in at that's
where we started at the beginning of the season. Yes,
so really almost you know, almost last one of the
worst teams in the league, it seemed on paper before
we began the game. So they beat the Titans and
moved up to one. They beat the Panthers and moved
(24:03):
up to nineteen. They lost to the Cowboys, dip them
back back to yeah you have to correct there, and
then to the Bears. They won this past week and
now they are nineteen. So listen, only the Eagles and
the Vikings have made bigger leaps since Week one, but
at nineteen, like, you're still not really sold. No, And
(24:24):
you know it's interesting to me. Usually when there's a
team and I'll use the Panthers as an example last
year or the Dolphins this year that gets off to
a fast start, and if I don't immediately move them
high up the power rankings, the fans of that team
will come into my Twitter and just say, I don't
know what I'm doing. How dare you ignore what they're accomplishing. Usually, wait,
let me guess they can understand how you have a
(24:45):
job right, you should be fired, you should be this.
It's like whatever, bros. And then usually those teams, because
they're not actually as good as those fan bases think
despite the early record, they fall back to the pack.
With the Giants, I've done the same thing. I'm kind
of slow playing them a little bit because I'm not
buying in totally. But I'm not hearing Giants fans pushing back.
I'm not seeing it as my because I think Giants
(25:05):
man's also understand that this three and one start well
not fake by any stretch. This is a team that
has played very close games and all three of the wins,
se Kwan Barkley has been the difference and pretty much
all of them. The Cowboys game, which was like kind
of the first big test in prime time at home
with Dak Prescott injured, they weren't able to get it
done and that kind of said, okay, that was a
little bit of a heat check for them. So while there,
(25:27):
nineteen rise is notable and three and ones great and
there's little juice in New York for the football teams,
which is nice. I can't say when I look at
their schedule. Connie at Packers in London in London with
Daniel Jones maybe out, he's not the ankle issue, and
we don't know about Tyrod Taylor because the concussion right
Ravens at home at Jaguars at Seahawks. I'm not in
(25:48):
on that yet. I think that's it. After that stretch
of four games, they'll probably be five below. But listen,
they've already surprised a little bit. Maybe they'll surprise the more. Yeah,
the Daniel Jones getting knocked out with the ankle and
then he didn't throw a pass the rest of the
game after he had to come in. Tyrod Taylor was
knocked out, So who knows if it's going to be
Davis Webb starting in London for the Giants. But this
(26:11):
week we had the wide receivers combining for three receptions
in twenty five yards. Kenny Golladay zero I know, I
don't even know at this point. He came out of
that game and he's been injury zero catches before he
was knocked out late in the game. But this is
a team that Alan, I know what you're doing. I
(26:32):
know what you're saying. You're like, oh, this is total
bogus there, Bologny, I don't believe in them, and I
kind of agree with you, but this is a very
hard spot for them going to London to play Green
Bay shorthanded. But se Quon Barkley has been one of
the best running backs in the league and that is
something I did not see coming that changed their fortunes
in a lot of ways this year A D forty
six rushing yards for him, outstanding. He's been a bright spot.
(26:56):
So that's great for the Giants fans. They can hang
their hat on that. You know, how magnanimous of you.
I know, this is what I do. Anyway, we got
teams twenty three through seven, just patted her hair. After that,
I'm patting myself on the back of the Seahawks at
five to twenty three. The Lions, Oh, the Lions were
gonna talk about them in a second down eight at
(27:18):
the Patriots down one at five, the Jets up five
at twenty six, the Steelers down one at seven, got there,
Kenny pick it in. He'll be the guy moving forward.
But this brings us to power failure. I just mentioned
the Lions and it was so sad. It was so
sad watching the look in Dan Campbell's eyes at the
end of that game as he watched on after his team.
(27:41):
This is a forty eight to forty five game against
the Seahawks. Geno Smith came out of nowhere. This is
this is so sad. Why does they didn't even have
Aman Rossi Brown? This is the sad power failure music,
sad jams. This is a sad jam. I don't know
what to do because you know this team cently. We
(28:02):
recovered the Hard Knocks Lion season on the podcast this summer.
That was a great time and we had so much
hope and in particularly you know this county, like Aaron
Glenn was m dude, former Jets cornerback who just seemed
to be the type of coach that anybody would want
on their staff at defensive coordinator, smart um, leader of
(28:26):
men type, guy that lived and breathed it. And yet
they're on pace to give up more points than any
team ever through four games and after the lost, Dan
Campbell without calling out Aaron Glenn, you know, made it
clear that we have reached the stage where we need
to change some things and we need to be asking
questions about why this isn't working. So the offense giving
(28:47):
up fifty five yards to Geno Smith and the Seahawks,
that doesn't uh. There's a major issue here. So they
gotta get a fixed. They got to find a way.
We talked about it all through the summer on the
Hard Knocks podcast that this defense was a question mark.
And Rodrigo for instance, having the second highest selling jersey,
(29:09):
the undrafted where the seventh round rookie linebacker. They don't
have a lot of star talent and even Jeffer Couta
making a jump at cornerback, they don't have enough pieces
touch there now. But it's it's a problem. Is it's
a power failure for the height machine around the Lions
because you do need tangible appreciation, you need you need
(29:32):
to take the next step, and they haven't done it yet.
The offense has. The offense shows that they can score points.
They didn't have Iman Ross at Brown, they didn't have
d jhark in this game. Jamal Williams, he's showing that
he can be a reliable back for them. Jared Golf
is actually flourishing with Ben Johnson. They're creative. D J.
(29:54):
Hockenson has been for them. They're averaging thirty five points
a game on the nose. The problem is they're allowing
thirty five point three points. It is the highest hot
number of points to under anyone of any team ever
as well. So I want to talk about the twilight zone,
the team that doesn't make sense. I don't know what
to make of the lines, but let's just hope that
this is not an aberration with the offense because of
(30:16):
the Lions offense comes back to earth a little bit.
The defense is not gonna be able to pick up
the slack. I just need a couple of wins for
Dan Campbell. Yeah, you know who else needs its Dan Campbell. Ah,
that's the next The Colts the Cults don't need the
Lions to win. For Dan Campbell, the Colts started at
twelve this year, and you know how much I loved them.
Then they tied the Texans, so they filled a fifteen
(30:39):
and then they lost to the Jags, so they fell
to twenty six, plummeted to six. They beat the that's
when Peter Scheger said they should be thirty two. I
remember on Good Morning Football after the Jags game, after
the Jags loss, who had looked worse at that point,
which is a fair point at that sid, but I
didn't want to bury him that far. Well, you bumped
him up three spots when they beat the Chiefs, and
then shows that that was the right move. Got me
(31:01):
because if I would have put them all the way
down to thirty two and then they beat the Chiefs exact,
I would have looked like, so here we are now.
They've fallen sixteen spots since week one. It's it's a
tough team and Matt Ryan he's having issues with turnovers.
They can't run the ball. This is not what I
was sold during training camp. No, no, what I sold
to everyone else, right, And it's a bad beat for Connie.
(31:23):
I understand that. But when I was walking into the
studio today and behind the glass was our colleague, producer
Jason Klemman, big Rams fan, and I said, hey, Jason,
so what's up the ramps? They stink? And we had
a conversation about it. I have have the same conversation
about the Colts. Are we just there with the Colts? Bad?
Is that? What's the problem? Like, what's wrong with the Colts?
How do we fix the cults? Maybe this is actually
(31:46):
a deeply flawed roster, and with the offensive line not
being nearly as good this year, that blows everything up
that it was so sensitive the roster that it needed
to be held um and everything needed to be strong
upfront or everything else falls apart. And because it hasn't
been strong up front, Matt Ryan looks old and has
and ineffective and and turnover plagued. And Jonathan Taylor is
(32:08):
getting stuck at the line of scrimmage over and over again,
and now he has a high ankle sprain with a
Thursday night game coming up, and yet it all up
It's like, you know, have I mentioned Keel Leonard just
broke his nose and was ruled out with a concussion.
I don't like anything about where the Cults are right now.
They're lucky to be one two and one because they
feel like a team that could have been owned for
(32:29):
as bad as things went. But this is not a
team that I feel good about rising. I think the
Titans are a better team, clearly. I think the Jaguars
have surpassed them, and they're more closer cousins to the
Texans in the a f C South, which I'm with you,
I can't believe that. I think I picked them as
a playoff team, maybe even to win the South, but
that has not been the team that showed up to play.
The Cults are now oh two and one in the division,
(32:52):
and they have Jacksonville and Tennessee again coming up in
the next three weeks, so that is a rough schedule. Yeah,
and I think Frank Reich, knowing how angry ownership was
at the end of the last season, it this thing
continues to spiral. I know everyone's saying Matt Rule is
going to be the first guy out. Frankreid could be
in trouble here if this season truly goes off the rails. Yeah,
(33:13):
it's that's not a place that you want to struggle,
especially with Jim Mercy and the way that everything went
down last year with Carson Wentz getting run out of town.
Kind of owner would you be? Would you be that
type of be a well liked owner? You would, yeah,
but I would think I would probably be reactionary. Would
you be the type of owner that would fire people
all the time and demand results? And it's tough because
(33:38):
all that power, you know, right, That's what I'm saying.
I kind of feel like you might be, Yeah, that
might be your thing. That's a your that's your job
is to win, all right. Yeah, I'd be very calm,
almost passive, but also wisdom. It would be like everybody
would know. I would carry around a big stick, a
literal stick, like, oh, that's his wisdom stick, and I
would think about things like Winston Churchill and World War
(33:59):
two and then come to decisions that would lead my
organization to the you know who has a new owner
at the Broncos, let's go to them. Nice Transition one
(34:20):
have fallen eight spots since week one. Wisdom stick. They
went from eight to sixteen to seventeen to fourteen to sixteen.
So here we are now this offense is we saw
a little bit more this week with Russell Wilson. But
this team, now they lost Javonte Williams, it's difficult to
figure out. Yeah, the fact that I have them at
sixteen that feels generous as well, but again speaking to
(34:43):
what we're talking about earlier, it's so it's so hard
to figure out this area of the power rankings right now.
It's usually the have a spot to figure out. Is
that the teenagers as we'll call them for the Power
Rankings at thirteen to nineteen group and the Broncos are
right near the top of the list, and I don't
know what they're gonna do. This Javonte Williams injury is terrible.
It was worse than you would have imagined when you
saw it happen. So he's got a long road back,
(35:05):
and the fact that they have to put Melvin Gordon
and back in the lineup at running back. I got
its fumbled four times, including lost one for a fumble
last week in a in a big game. That's not good.
That's not good. And then you put in Boone in
that game and he drops the pass that would have
kept them alive against the Raiders late. So they're they're
running back situation is brutal. You know, got the Randy
(35:27):
Gregory injury. I'm we'll say this positively about the brocas
Russell Wilson starting to look a little bit more like dangerous.
He's doing a little more freelance work the last drive
against the Niners and Sunday night, and then he made
some really kind of good throws that reminded you of
the old days, and scrambling a little bit more against
the Raiders. He certainly was not the problem against Las Vegas,
(35:51):
but Denver in general, Yeah, I think it's safe to
say even a two and two, which is hardly a
disgraceful record, I would say that they're a pretty big
disappointment when going down that list in the ACU. So
they play Thursday night, as we mentioned, against the Colts,
and right, nice set up for them because Jonathan Taylor,
even if he plays, is going to be severely limited,
(36:12):
and you take Jonathan Taylor out of that lineup, the
Denver defense should be able to eat there even with
Gregory out. So we'll see how that game goes. But
we were talking about Frank Reich and when we were
talking about the Colts and the fact that he could
you know his seat might be getting warm a team
who has a head coach with the hottest of hot seeds.
I feel like already Matt Rule the Panthers. They have
(36:35):
fallen eight spots since week one. They have bounced from
twenty three down to twenty nine, down to thirty one
and then thirty one. They are really hovering just around
like the worst possible spots. So this is Baker Mayfield.
He has looked awful. He is not the guy I mean,
I wonder at this point are they going to turn
to Sam Donald? Is that they will? They will turn
(36:57):
to Sam Donald because this is not sustainable and is
it better? Probably not. But that's the problem. That's the
Matt Rules sich ouation, which is the one that nobody
wants to be in right now. He knows his jobs
on the line here and he is already he knows
just like every Panthers fan. And you could hear him
in Charlotte on Sunday booing the quarterback. They know he
is not the answer Mayfield. I always kind of thought
(37:20):
this that he was a product of his system in Cleveland,
and when there was a lot around him, he was
able to make some things happen. But once you take
some things away, this is what you get. And Donald
probably won't do any better, let's face it, but they
needed at certain point make a change. And the fact
that mc coral, the rookie, went out with the foot
injury in August, so he's not even an option. So
(37:40):
rules like stuck with Baker right now. And there was
a report that came out this week that Donald's not
close to coming back yet from the high ankle spring
that he suffered. You're just stuck with Baker. But can
I say one thing about the offense. Few years back,
Teddy Bridgewater was the quarterback and they were better. But
you know who else is better, Christian McCaffrey. And you
know why why he they were better? It wasn't just
because McCaffrey is a different guy now, because I think
(38:01):
he's the same guy that would use him a lot,
like throwing down field and pass patterns, and he was
kind of used in a dynamic way and now it's
just like they're just hammering him through the middle of
the line as a between the tackles runner with an
occasional screen pass. He's your dude, like, find ways to
make the quarterbacks job easier by using the best player
on your team, and that's creative. I did share with
(38:25):
the audience that Ben McAdoo looks like my neighbor Nate
around the NFL, and and again it didn't maybe track
with the entire audience, but I'm gonna essay on another show.
That's a cool thing though, that he kind of looks
like my neighbor. Small audiences really showed him in the
box and I was like, Oh, that looks like my neighbor.
Let's go to that's my Ben McAdoo analysis. In case
(38:47):
your neighbor. I remember when Ben might as well be
I remember when Ben mcdoo was the Giants coach and
he couldn't figure out to do with his hair, and
then he slicked it back, and I think he's found something. Now,
all right, you don't want to talk about you brought
him up? Are the Colts at twenty eight? We just
mentioned them down five? At twenty nine, we got the
(39:09):
Commanders taking command one spot up from last week, the
Bears at thirty down three, the Panthers down to a
thirty one, and then unchanged matters moved up. So that
tells you if the commanders can get beat and look
bad doing it and technically move up a spot. The
teams below them are in a bad place. Really, that's
(39:30):
very bad place. So you don't want to be in
this spot. And so the Cults, you know, they just
have an edge on the Commanders. But the Bears. The
justin fields thing is that's another that's another issue because
you you could tell that Mattiraflus does not feel like
you can trust fields right now or run the offense.
He set a season high on Sunday and twelve lost
of the Giants with eleven completions. Well not so that's
(39:53):
an issue, all right. So let's get to the best
of their rest here. We're gonna put thirty seconds on
the close like that's an issue, Dan, It is an issue.
You know what. Else, there's a lot of issues here
in terms of teams that are difficult to figure out.
Which is the hardest to figure out, know, they put
me on a clock with jet leg go ahead, go Alright,
hardest team to figure out is the Dolphins. I got
the middle eleven. Now, Dolphins fans are upset about that.
They say, how could you do that to us? We
(40:15):
lose one game and you're dropping us eight spot. Well,
you also lost to a and everything that went around
the loss of twah And you know the NFL now
is taking a much more serious crack here about how
they're handling concussions. Teddy Bridgewater against the Jets. I like Teddy,
but the Dolphins are a big question mark to me
right now. They are How can they not? A lot
of people? Hey, time's up? Good job? How about this one.
(40:37):
Shouldn't the Falcons thirty seconds on the clock be above
the Browns after beating them? Isn't that how that works? Well? Uh? Maybe,
but again, I was on a plane. I didn't write these.
Someone did. Someone on my laptop, someone that looks like
me wrote these, But it wasn't me. No. I do
think the Browns. Yeah, I think the Browns are a
(40:59):
better team than the Falcons. The Browns could be four
and oh if they just execute better at the end
of a couple of game games. Um, the Falcons have
surprised me. I liked them. I think they're certified frisky.
But if you tell me who I like better, I mean,
twenty one and twenty two County. Can we calm down
a little bit? And it's not the power The rankings
let's go to the next one. Okay, we got there's
(41:20):
your job. I apologize. I apology accepted. That's fine. So
let's go Bengals at six, Ravens at seven. Are you
tipping your hand for next week? Oh? Good? One games?
Where's the game in Baltimore? Is it in Baltimore? Got check? Now,
let's check that. Uh yeah, yeah that is. I guess
you would Technically I would have. I would have to
say no, I wouldn't. I could say whatever I want.
(41:43):
I like the Ravens at home, but I also say,
since Thenati has their swagger back. They liked what I
saw from the Bengals the last couple of weeks, and
Joe Burrow went out of his way after the game
to compliment that offensive line and say, hey man, you
do that, you protect me. We're gonna do all right.
I still want to get the running game going, but
I do like the Bengals in Baltimore. Alright, So again
that game at the Ravens Sunday night football too, that time.
(42:08):
That's exciting. Joe Burrow is gonna ball out in prime time.
I know he's going to show up in some amazing outfit.
He had this floral suit on last week's swagging thirty seconds.
Will the Jets yo yo continue in the rankings? I
am excited to watch the Jets. Do you emotionally I don't.
Sometimes when I'm writing about them, I emotionally write about them,
(42:29):
but I try to be even keeled with the rankings. Yeah,
I thought that was really nice to see Zack wilson
um lead That comeback in the fourth quarter. Was an
excellent win. That's their second like crazy comeback in three weeks.
I think they're still a very flawed team. But like
I said, I think the Dolphins are a big mystery
with Bridgewater and all the drama that has been around them,
and the Jets beat Miami. They're teenagers baby like nineteen Yeah,
(42:54):
but they have to play well, which They've never been
teenagers in the time I've been doing power rankings. But
now all of a sudden, you are coming to I'm
seeing Dan kind of like right now for the Hay
it's gone. Okay, you're done, You're off the hook from
ranking things. I'm going to rank some stuff real quick. Yes,
we get out of here. That's the name of the
(43:14):
sem You you know you think your jet leg is bad,
Let me tell you about my jet leg because I
also had an amazing week in London. I've been all
over the place. My husband, John J. Pollis is over there.
For what am I drinking? That's ginger? Yeah, So I
hung out with you guys. This was a great night.
We were at the pub together. We were supposed to
(43:34):
go to a game Crysonal Palace and so we just yeah,
we went to the local pub and enjoyed the company
of each other and John, who's a great husband and
a great hang. We had a fun time together in London.
Did take the polaroid photo of you everywhere and had
all sorts of photos taken with the polaroid in various figures. Yes,
you can check out my instagram if you want to
(43:56):
see it's like a flat Instead of flat Stanley, it's
flat Colleen bringing me all across London. We went to
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium the day after the game. I didn't
get to go to the game, but I got to
check out the Yes, the polaroid. Where do you think
your spirit is inside that photo? Is that what's happening here?
Is your spirit inside the actual? Yes, that's why I'm there.
(44:18):
I met Harry Kane the captain in the locker room,
and then the grand finale. I met the crew and
cast from Ted Lasso at the big NFL party after
the game. So you didn't have to go to London. No,
I didn't just do this all the time going forward.
The best part is after I'm done with our coverage.
(44:38):
I was here at two am to start for the
pregame and half time and all of that. I get
home and I have a FaceTime from John and I
answer at it's John with the cast and crew from
Ted Lasso, surprises around every corner. All right, I got
another thing I'm going to rank. It's pretty good husband work.
I know the rest of us a lie. This was
(45:02):
pretty amazing. Now, normally we would not be showing anyone
running onto the field, but the hit the Bobby Wagner
pulled out against this was last night Rams Niners. There
was someone from the crowd that came down onto the
field and Bobby Wagner had the craziest hit on him
to take him out, kind of security him attack. McKinley
(45:26):
took this guy down and Kurt Warner thought potentially it
was a gender reveal because it was a look bomb.
It was pink. Turns out that was not the case,
but shout out to Bobby Wagner for the tackle there
that did not show up in the statute. Yeah, I
thought that was great. I think any fan you have
to if you do run on the field, which you
should not, but if you do, at the very least,
in addition to the night in the county lock up,
(45:49):
getting smoked on the field, that's should be part of
the price as well. And if you can get a
future Hall of Famer like Bobby Wagner to do it,
why not. Yeah, and Kevin Harlan had a great call
of it. You can check that out. Oh yeah, check
out the Around the NFL podcast. We'll we'll play that.
By the way, did you notice that some poor security
guard in the background of the video that's all over
(46:10):
the place right now is running after the guy with
the smoke bomb and he suffers like a devastating legs
slash knee injury. Yes, watch closer. It's like it's the
Apruter film of crazy fans on the field. It's crazy.
What happens to this man's leg is he's just trying
to run after this lunatic. The lunatic should pay for
that man's a c l reconstruction surgery. I did not
(46:31):
know that. I'm always always so concerned about the security guards,
especially if like a player takes them out by accident.
That is hardcore. Yes, oh god, okay, I'm sorry to
give you that news, but that he sometimes job didn't
catch that angle? All right? One more, how about this?
How about some good news will end on a great
note here. I just want to let you know that
(46:53):
the fans in Philadelphia Eagles fans, we are not monsters.
Doug Peterson gets back to the Lincoln Financial Field, gets
a standing ovation in the rain from the crowd. Their
hero returns. The statue is up and now here he
was in the flesh. It was a great moment. How
(47:14):
big of you, guys, especially a couple of weeks after
you're unmercifully booing the poor kid wide receiver who got
drafted in the first round and didn't play as well
as he wanted to. Instead of booing the guy that
drafted Jalen reagor Howie Roseman, you're booing this poor player
who just wants to do his best. Dan, why do
you hate Philadelphia? I don't, It's just you know, let's
(47:36):
calm down with the hero where everybody amazing work out
there with Doug Peterson. I mean, how could you not cheer?
How is this even something? I think? This is This
is what I'm talking about with the Eagles fans, in
the Philly fans like the fact that you need to.
Of course you would cheer Doug Peterson. We are out
of time, you've won one super Bowl in fifty five years.
Of course you would cheer him. Why would it even
(47:58):
be something like maybe we boosted him? Well back? Everybody
have a great rescue a week. NFL Power Rankings is
a production of the NFL in partnership with I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i
(48:19):
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
NFL Power Rankings is a production of the NFL in
partnership with I Heart Radio. He's bad. What have everybody?
Welcome to Power Rankings, brought to you by Energizer. I'm
calling Wolf and a hearty, hearty Welcome home, Dan Hansas,
he returns victorious from England, from London, I mean your
(00:29):
country thanks you for your service, like America. Yes, I
know that it was rough city paperwork that I get
something a good frame and put in the living room.
I can I can have something drawn up for you. Yeah,
maybe a plaque. Who knows, I don't. I have to
start on a negative note. What how dare you Daniel
(00:51):
Jeremiah in the studio? Well, listen, how dare you you
know that we are very good friends at this point?
Jeremiah just thought that. Well yeah, actually after last week
me and DJ he has moved up my power rankings
of fresh like watching Padres games together straight over you, Dan,
But since you weren't here, I'm sure you didn't get
(01:11):
a chance maybe to listen, not yet, but I planned
to study it. Well, how about right now shall we?
The blood feud runs pretty deep with Dan. Yeah. You
know a lot of people when they get contracts and
they get them redone. They put in special perks, and
maybe that's a wardrobe budget, maybe that's flying first class
on the road. Mine is I will only appear on
a Dan Hands new show if he is out of
(01:33):
the country. I wish you weren't a liar, Dan, but
here we are right now. Dolphins are number three. Yeah,
I mean he's not a man of his word. Spoiler alert,
I mean raise your hand if you're not shocked by that, Okay,
that would be me. Can we put a QR code?
Can we put a few R code on the screen
and you can just scan it and get Dan's real
time reaction? Perfect? That's what I want. I would love that.
(01:56):
We're going to effort it, see if we can get
it by the end of the show. I will go
back to Ken Dorsey real quick, though. I haven't seen
somebody that upset since Hand just woke up the morning
and one of his two T shirts that he wears
was dirty. That is another level of anger that we
saw up there in the booth. Well, first of all,
I was so excited when I heard there would be
a Hard Knox podcast and I heard you were going
to be involved in and I was like, I'm in,
(02:17):
count me in, and I'm like, oh my gosh, they've
got hands this with her. But episodes because Dan, no,
but you, but you subscribe a little bit, but just
your part, just to your part. And then fast forward
like a little like fifteen or thirty second fast forward button.
Usually have to push it multiple times, you know, goes
on and on and on. Yeah, Oh my gosh, Dan,
(02:40):
the look in your eye now of just anger. I
travel across the world to promote this brand of American football,
and that happens back home. That is a sneak attack.
The wholesome assassin Daniel Jeremiah with his fancy little shirt
and his little digs. I will have my vengeance. I
(03:01):
declare vengeance. Daniel Jerem Maya beware, no one in San
Diego is safe. That fancy little shirt he was wearing,
he told me before we started the show that he
specifically wore that shirt because you have the same one.
So just letting you know. My favorite dig was that
I have to T shirts I have. I'm like one
of those guys. I have seven thousand T shirts, including
(03:24):
every T shirt I've had since about nine And my
wife wonders why do you have all these shirts? Guys
can't throw out their T shirts. No, it's it's difficult. Well,
why don't you put your top five on a T shirt?
Let's throw it up on I don't know why I
would do that because this changes every week, so that
would be well maybe just for this week. We before,
we got the Eagles at number one, no change there,
(03:45):
no change for the Bills at two, the Chiefs up
two spots at three, the Packers standing pad at four,
and then the Niners up six spots at number five.
We're gonna talk about them too, but let's start with
the Eagles. I'm not freaking out you are, Dan. You know,
two weeks in a row for the Eagles. They're the
only undefeated team in football at this point at four
(04:06):
and now. And that was an interesting little test for them,
wasn't it. It was so you had a situation where
they fall behind fourteen nothing. It's the first time there's
any level of adversity for them and their defense, and
Miles Sanders are the ones that kind of get it done.
Miles Sanders, I think it has been excellent all year long.
A buck thirty four and two touchdowns on twenty seven carries.
(04:27):
If you remember, there are a couple you know, a
couple of years ago when he first broke out, he
looked like a superstar in waiting, and then last year
never scored a touchdown. But the fact that he's able
to be the lead of a ground attack that had
over two hundred yards and then with the defense did
did poor Trevor Lawrence who we were you know, we
were ready to see him make the leap in week
four and he's still very well. May I'm really a
little bit out Connie on everyone needs to judge Trevor
(04:50):
Lawrence every week about whether or not he's living up
to the hype. But yeah, having five turnovers and four
lost fumbles, there's no way to go through life. It's
sort of like what was previously going through when every
single start last year it was he was being judged
on every single mistake was so magnified. So Trevor Lawrence
kind of takes over that spot. But it was an
(05:10):
emotional game. It was a messy game for the Eagles,
the fact that Doug Peterson was back in the building.
It was raining, It was ugly, but like the win
itself was ugly too, And they've showed that they can
win a variety of ways, whether it's a shootout, whether
it's a come from behind when like this, the defense
did a really good job. Hassan Reddick, Like, what a
(05:31):
great pickup that was in the off season. But I'm
a little worried about some of the injuries that are
starting to pile up for the team. But you are
standing standing on your ground here. The Eagles are the
top team in the NFL, not just because of the record,
but just because of it is not the power standings,
it's the power ranking. So yeah, it's the fact that
they've won in all sorts of ways, and even when
(05:53):
Jalen Hurts comes back to earth a little bit, they
still find a way to reel off twenty nine unanswered points.
I don't like that their new end zone font is
a rip off of the old Jets logo from the eighties, Like,
you guys don't to be doing that. I'm not a
huge fan of the funny. I don't know what's going
on with that. But yeah, and you have the number
two team, the Bills, who were so awesome obviously on
Sunday night, And it did cross my mind, Connie, since
(06:15):
you're bringing up. Were they good enough and impress him
enough against the Bucks to take back the one spot
from the Eagles. But ultimately I said, that doesn't seem
right the Eagles. I think the Jags are not the
Jags of last year, and I thought that was a
really impressive showing in that game. Yes, so there we
have the number one spot, um, and we will continue
to see how they do. They have the Cardinals next week.
(06:37):
The Eagles do it is especially after what we've seen
from that you guys, Boo, Doug Peterson. I'll get to
that a little later in the show. I hope you do. Listen.
We are a good We're good people from Philadelphia. All right,
as I sit here in all of my Phillies gear.
Let's go to your number four team, the Packers. They
stay at four, so now they're in the top five.
(06:58):
Still pretty high for a team that almost lost to
Bailey Zappy in overtime. Yeah, that was a very strange
game because I don't think the Packers were playing poorly,
and I don't think even Bailey Zappy was playing well
like it was in him going off and and shocking
the world. He made a couple of throws, but for
the most part, he was exactly what you would think
(07:18):
from a third string rookie quarterback with no experience at all.
So I think when you saw when the field goal
kick goes through the uprights by Mason Crosby and the
Fox cameras cut to Matt Lafleur pulling off his headset
with like a look of just relief etched across his face,
it was because I don't think anyone expected that game
to go the way it went, and you kept expecting
(07:38):
Green Bay to pull away, and um, yeah, if you
want to quibble a little bit, and sure I will,
that's part of the job here. It wasn't so impressed
with the defense, his inability to really take that game
over for some three and outs for Zappy into a
killer you know, interception or a pick six, something that
would give them breathing room. But instead the Pats kept
on answering the rod, the Rogers marches, and then finally
(08:01):
they step up and overtime get the stop near midfield
and then kicked the field bill. So it was a
nice little test and unexpected test for the Packers. So
it was enough to park them where they were, but
it wasn't huge on Romeo Dobbs dropping. Yeah, I know
it was very close, but that's now the second time
we've seen one of these young wide receivers failed to
pull in what would have been a huge touchdown for
the pack I hate when I don't survive the ground,
(08:23):
like every single time, never surviving, I hate it. But
it just shouldn't have been so difficult for the Packers
in that game. I understand when you have a game
like the Bills and the Ravens did like that is
an absolute test, that's like a final exam almost in
the regular season, and you know it's going to be
difficult and it's going to come down to the end.
But this really should not have And I guess it
was nice that the wide receivers for the Packers ultimately
(08:46):
came through at the end so they could get the
game winning field goal. But there are some problems there
and it's not sustainable that the way that they're winning games. Yes, well,
that word is the word that Aaron Rodgers used on
Sunday after the game. This is the quote. This way
of winning. I don't think it's sustainable because it puts
too much pressure on our defense and obviously I've got
to play better and will play better. And here's the thing, Rogers,
(09:07):
for all the Criticison gets on certain subjects, is being
modest here because I thought he was excellent in that game.
He puts some throws on the money that there are
very few quarterbacks that can do what he does and
what he did in that game. And that's why it
was such a strange game for me. It's almost like
I would want to go back and watch it again
because because I was in like an England Hayes where
I'm sleeping to two hours a night with supreme jet
(09:29):
leg Because I didn't think the Packers played bad. I thought,
really maybe a testament at Bill Belichick and them coaching
up that team to hang against a much better opponent.
But the Packers held serve like the Eagles tested in
a surprising way, got the dub and their schedule coming up,
they have the Giants, Jets, and Commanders, so they could
have six wins. So Giants so that's win. Jets lost
(09:52):
two or three before they get the Bills. How about
your number five team. You absolutely love this team. You
loved them from week one when I think you had
them ranked three, the Niners at five. You're really trying
to make the Niners a thing right now, and honestly,
like some of us are about to remember that Monday
night football game against the Broncos, that's ancient history that
(10:14):
feels like it was a hundred years ago. I know
it wasn't. But this is the version of the Niners
that can win a Super Bowl. This defense is absolutely legit.
Sacking Matthew Stafford six times, you got the game. I
sing pick six by Telenoa Hufanga, who has been awesome
all year. The Niners have this ability and it's underrated
(10:35):
to continually unearth these gems on their defense. And they're
not always high drafted guys. They are these players. They
just their development machine of impact players on defense, and
you just see it. When they have health and they
have these guys on the field, they are really tough
to mess with. It Also, I think this building, Levi
Stadium doesn't always get a lot of love, but that
was loud last night. I thought that was a good
(10:57):
vibe there. So the defense is the reason they won
that game, and I think taking it to Sean McVeigh
and the Rams in that way had to be super warding.
After the playoffs, Matthew Stafford was sacked seven times and
that I was just looking it up. But you also
have Deebo Samuel and just the touchdown run that he
had was he had so many trying I'm like closing
(11:18):
my eyes so I can visualize it right now. There
were so many miss tackles and the Rams are usually
that is their department. They're so good and nobody can
tackle sam So you had that insane run and then
Jeff Wilson just was like shot out of a cannon
at one point, just the acceleration that he had. There
was just so much yak in this game. Yeah, and
(11:42):
that's what this is about. And that's why you could say,
maybe I'm a little overly bullish putting them into the
top five. But when Jimmy Garoppolo is playing within himself,
he doesn't have to do as much as some of
the other quarterbacks of big time teams in the league
right now. He just needs to get it out on time,
on target, and let them do the work. After the game,
he was interviewed on the field and he said it
(12:05):
we're getting the Yacht Bros. Back and nearly three quarters
of his passing yards yesterday thirty nine came after the catch.
Oh my gosh. So it's like you can say, oh, yeah,
but he can't attack teams downfield. Look at what he
has and the way they could play offense, that's fine.
And then if you have a defense like that, come on,
you're telling me what the team you saw last night
(12:26):
dismantle the Rams? And I know the Rams haven't been
good this year, but that's not the top five team
to you right now? Well, we're close to it. I
don't know, because watching them against the Broncos it just
felt different. Now. I know that was Jimmy's first start
and he really hadn't had a ton of work with
the starters before that, But I think that you do
have a point when you talk about the defense and
(12:46):
the way that they're able to win games with this offense,
with the yak yards and everything else. That's how they
made their playoff run last year, So why couldn't they
do it again this season? Especially now Jimmy g is
not playing with a bad throwing shoulder, so I think
Garoppolo could get them in the end. I get that.
I think the reason why I had them at number
three to start the years because I did buy into
it this idea, But what if you took a supreme
(13:09):
talented player like Trey Lance, and if the coaching staff
leaves in him, if he's great, they're going to be unbelievable.
That didn't work out, unfortunately because of the injury. But
now you have this team, and I think this team
is still plenty good enough to win. Yeah, so they
have the Panthers to win it all, Connie to win
it all? Perhaps, whoa, you're telling me that version of
the Niners in January. The Eagles welcomed them into the link.
(13:32):
You're not a little concerned, Not at all. I'm feeling great,
great about. Let's go to teams six through ten and
your rankings. At six, we have the Bengals up four spots,
the Ravens at seven. At eight, you have the Bucks
they remain unchanged, as well as the Vikings at nine,
and then the Dolphins down seven spots at ten. I
(13:53):
want to talk about a team right outside of the
top ten, though, the team that lost to the Niners.
While we're kind of coming off that game, the Rams.
They have a lot of issues going on their offensive
line in the relying way too much on Cooper Coup.
Everything is going through him. Let's just look into the
future though here for a second, because they started at two,
then they fell to four, then they slipped to six
(14:15):
for two weeks. Now they're outside the top ten at eleven.
If they lose to the Cowboys on Sunday, how much
further do they fall, Well, it depends what kind of
loss it is, But if it's if it's a performance
like this, the one on Monday night, they're all of
a sudden probably in that six to eighteen range, which
is crazy. But listen, the reason why they're on a
steady decline on this list is because they haven't played
(14:37):
well all year. There was only one moment in the
season where I felt legitimately good about the Rams is
when they were twenty seven three on the Falcons, and
even that game on the Falcons, and even that game
became a nail bitter at the end until Jalen Ramsey
high pointed an interception in the end zone. Yeah. I
just thought the offense is hard work for them right now,
And you could definitely point to the offensive line and
(15:00):
all the injuries that they've had along that front, and
that's causing maybe the reason why they're refusing to throw
downfield is because they don't trust their line to hold
up for Stafford, who's a veteran quarterback who's been dealing
with issues of his own. There's probably a lot of
different factors, but you're right. I don't think any offense
where you're just throwing it over and over to Cooper Cup.
I mean the game I pick six by who founda
(15:20):
who do you think he's targeting the Cooper Cup. Of course,
defenses are going to react and say, you need to
beat this with someone else. And that's why this Allen
Robinson situation has been It's approaching. I wrote it in
the Power Rankings on NFL dot Com because I love
just writing the word. We're approaching Connie Boondoggle status with
this acquisition. I it's I'm so upset about it. I
(15:41):
really wanted to be upset about what I wanted this
for Allan Robinson, Like I was so excited that he
was finally freed, he was out of Chicago. We thought
it great for him and this and it doesn't. This
isn't necessarily a reflection of Alan Robinson himself, but of
course he's probably got something to do with it. Maybe
he has a lot to do with it. But I
remember around the NFL went to Rams camp in the
(16:03):
summer and Jordan and Rodrigue who covers the ramps of
the athletic We love Jordans. She was one of the
many beat writers that we're saying, Man, this guy Allen Robinson,
he is bawling out. People are coming up to me
and just saying, hey, keep an eye strangers at the
grocery store. Strangers. Well, I think it was a camp,
but I like that idea. Jordan's buying oranges in the
(16:24):
grocery store and someone just can't get enough of Allen
Robinson and conversation about his career, or it was Colleen's
like college, what are you doing here? You even live
in this neighborhood? Are you following me? And so it's
gone from that to this, and part of it's a reminder.
It's like the summer is kind of annoying in football
because you could talk and talk and talk, but you
(16:45):
can't manifest it. He needs to do it on the field.
They need to find a way and they also need
to pick up the phone and see how what Dell's
needs doing. That's true, that's a great point. I'm a
little worried about Sean McVeigh. I wonder how he is
doing just like mentally right now, because I'm sure he's not.
He has to watch, he has to, and I'm sure
he did it last night. He used to watch that
(17:06):
game film, and I wonder when he watches that what
his thoughts are about Matthew Stafford and how much of
the offensive issues go back to him or is I'm
sure he's obviously watching at McVeigh from all levels in
terms of studying the offense as he understand that the
protection issues and the inability to have a sustained run game,
and the lack of a trust here with Stafford and
these other receivers. It seems like it's all kind of
(17:28):
a messy stew And this is the first time after
watching this games like, Oh, I'm worried about the Rams.
It's hard to repeat. It doesn't happen, it happens last time,
it happens like twenty years ago. And right now the
Rams don't look anything like they were by the end
of last year. No. And meanwhile, Jared Golf, though he
doesn't have the wins, is playing pretty well. We'll get
to the lines a little later on the show. I
(17:48):
don't know if they're Yeah, I still think there are
two and two are probably worse if a golf is here,
But you're right here. He you know, he wasn't. Here's
the thing. He wasn't the problem either. In Los Angeles.
It was when the supporting cast came back to earth
a little bit, including Todd Gurley, who went from superstar
to just a guy overnight. He was exposed a little bit.
Golf Stafford. Is he being exupposed a little bit right now?
I don't know. I don't know what's happening. I don't know.
(18:11):
It's a weird team to figure out right now. They
can't figure themselves out Teams eleven through fifteen, as we
just mentioned, I think I should have dropped him out
of the top ten. You think it's too harsh by
the old zuer No, I think you're right watching them.
What did I mess up in the top ten? Did
I botch anything in the top ten? Two? Let's see,
I'm looking well. I don't know if the Niners the
Packers maybe should get dinged a little bit because it
(18:32):
was just such a tough win for them against Bailey's Appy,
But overall I kind of nailed it eleven, very good,
the Rams down Titans at twelve. They remain the same,
(18:52):
The Cowboys remain the same at thirteen, Chargers up one
at fourteen, and then the Raiders at fifteen. But that
spot that is just so difficult to figure out. It's
a little bit of the twilight zone. Two weeks in
a row, the Cowboys have been your thirteen ranked team.
The defense is carrying the team. It's a little bit
(19:13):
like a Cooper Rush effect going on. How do you
feel about them right now? Are they really that difficult
they are to understand? You know what, They're a little
different than the typical thirteen twilight zone really because I
don't think you're difficult to figure out right now within
the context of they're pretty good. They are pretty good.
They're not a team's usually the numbers. What are we doing? Like?
(19:35):
Who are they? What makes them kind of an interesting
team to try to figure out? To me, Connie, is
are they actually really good? Are they the team that
went through last year and entered the playoffs and then
fell on their face? But it was like, Okay, this
is a good Dallas team. It's a team here mouse, Connie.
They are going to contend for the NFC East this
year because as good as Cooper Rush has been, and
(19:56):
he has been, he's really done great work and I
really liked even in the game on Sunday he was
attacking downfield throws at the game in hand late He's
he's fearless out there. He knows this is his opportunity.
It is the defense that is not going to change
unless they get hit by injuries, and that that's a
defense that has given up one touchdown in each of
the first four games. Even the Eagles are going to
(20:18):
struggle against this defense, well, well we'll see. We'll see
about that. A great job getting after Carson Wentz. They
stacked him twice, intercepted him twice. Everybody does that. It's
been all year for for Dallas, and Michael Parsons is
not stuffing the stat sheet so far. But this is
even without him going off and just taking over the
league for a six week stretch, which is possible as well.
(20:40):
So the mystery to me is are they a potential
elite NFC team. I'm already now back in that they're good.
How good are they? And again we're wrong all the
time in the show. I don't like to tell anyone that,
because I thought they were cooked after week one. But
the Cooper Rush thing was a revelation that he was
able to come in and hold things down, and the
(21:01):
defense has been maybe the best in the league. Was
that a baby's head that just flew by? Or is
that just you know your jet like that? There's the baby.
It's a doll head, colleague, not an actual human baby. There.
It is E equals MC squared, a clock spinning grandfather clock,
(21:21):
just going around and around. We are in not the
Twilight zone, because that's someone else's intellectual property. Yes, what
is this aversion? It's the twilight area? Okay, yeah, twilight corner.
Well no, because space is vast right, the twilight vacuum.
It's pretty good. Okay, you know what else? I see
team sixteen through two. Okay, Broncos will be clear with
(21:44):
the I p on that. We'll chat. We in the clear.
It's check with our Cardinals at seventeen, up three, the
Saints of one at eighteen, the Giants up three at nineteen.
Can I say one more thing about the previous grouping
the Jags of the one and the Falcons of go ahead?
Did you plan to talk about the Raiders on today's
show before we said goodbye. I want to on the
(22:04):
Raiders quickly. They're up six to fifteen. But it's not
like I watched the game against the Broncos and thought,
oh man, they are on the rise. It's this whole
middle of the league right now is very foggy. Well, yeah,
there's so if a team like the Raiders wins one game,
they're gonna shoot up. Even if I'm out that high
(22:26):
on them. Now you look at the rest of them,
you just say, I got the Broncos down to the Cardinals.
I don't like the Cardinals at all. But then look
who's beneath the Cardinals. The Saints, who are one of
three and very nearly owing four. The g Men, who,
yes they're three and one, and I get I moved
them up three spots, but I'm not love with them.
The Jaguars just gave up twenty nine straight points of
(22:48):
the Eagles and their young quarterback at five turnovers. The
Browns keep finding ways to lose. And then I got
the Falcons up to twenty two, and maybe they should
be even a little higher, you could argue, but I
don't love the Raiders. But look at all these teams. Connie,
I feel like we just took a saw and opened
up your head and looked inside of your brain. You're delirious.
Imagine flying over like Scotland and Ireland and then the
(23:13):
ocean and then Nova Scotia, and then I'm over Bozeman,
Monte And it's like, oh, Dan, keep you know, pound
out your power rankings, figure all this out, as like
my body clock is exploding inside. But I still, by
the way, Hashtago have a gift for you. What hey, Dan,
you know what presented by energized right moving up? And
(23:41):
one of those teams is the Giants now at nineteen.
Then well week one, they actually came in at that's
where we started at the beginning of the season. Yes,
so really almost you know, almost last one of the
worst teams in the league, it seemed on paper before
we began the game. So they beat the Titans and
moved up to one. They beat the Panthers and moved
(24:03):
up to nineteen. They lost to the Cowboys, dip them
back back to yeah you have to correct there, and
then to the Bears. They won this past week and
now they are nineteen. So listen, only the Eagles and
the Vikings have made bigger leaps since Week one, but
at nineteen, like, you're still not really sold. No, And
(24:24):
you know it's interesting to me. Usually when there's a
team and I'll use the Panthers as an example last
year or the Dolphins this year that gets off to
a fast start, and if I don't immediately move them
high up the power rankings, the fans of that team
will come into my Twitter and just say, I don't
know what I'm doing. How dare you ignore what they're accomplishing. Usually, wait,
let me guess they can understand how you have a
(24:45):
job right, you should be fired, you should be this.
It's like whatever, bros. And then usually those teams, because
they're not actually as good as those fan bases think
despite the early record, they fall back to the pack.
With the Giants, I've done the same thing. I'm kind
of slow playing them a little bit because I'm not
buying in totally. But I'm not hearing Giants fans pushing back.
I'm not seeing it as my because I think Giants
(25:05):
man's also understand that this three and one start well
not fake by any stretch. This is a team that
has played very close games and all three of the wins,
se Kwan Barkley has been the difference and pretty much
all of them. The Cowboys game, which was like kind
of the first big test in prime time at home
with Dak Prescott injured, they weren't able to get it
done and that kind of said, okay, that was a
little bit of a heat check for them. So while there,
(25:27):
nineteen rise is notable and three and ones great and
there's little juice in New York for the football teams,
which is nice. I can't say when I look at
their schedule. Connie at Packers in London in London with
Daniel Jones maybe out, he's not the ankle issue, and
we don't know about Tyrod Taylor because the concussion right
Ravens at home at Jaguars at Seahawks. I'm not in
(25:48):
on that yet. I think that's it. After that stretch
of four games, they'll probably be five below. But listen,
they've already surprised a little bit. Maybe they'll surprise the more. Yeah,
the Daniel Jones getting knocked out with the ankle and
then he didn't throw a pass the rest of the
game after he had to come in. Tyrod Taylor was
knocked out, So who knows if it's going to be
Davis Webb starting in London for the Giants. But this
(26:11):
week we had the wide receivers combining for three receptions
in twenty five yards. Kenny Golladay zero I know, I
don't even know at this point. He came out of
that game and he's been injury zero catches before he
was knocked out late in the game. But this is
a team that Alan, I know what you're doing. I
(26:32):
know what you're saying. You're like, oh, this is total
bogus there, Bologny, I don't believe in them, and I
kind of agree with you, but this is a very
hard spot for them going to London to play Green
Bay shorthanded. But se Quon Barkley has been one of
the best running backs in the league and that is
something I did not see coming that changed their fortunes
in a lot of ways this year A D forty
six rushing yards for him, outstanding. He's been a bright spot.
(26:56):
So that's great for the Giants fans. They can hang
their hat on that. You know, how magnanimous of you.
I know, this is what I do. Anyway, we got
teams twenty three through seven, just patted her hair. After that,
I'm patting myself on the back of the Seahawks at
five to twenty three. The Lions, Oh, the Lions were
gonna talk about them in a second down eight at
(27:18):
the Patriots down one at five, the Jets up five
at twenty six, the Steelers down one at seven, got there,
Kenny pick it in. He'll be the guy moving forward.
But this brings us to power failure. I just mentioned
the Lions and it was so sad. It was so
sad watching the look in Dan Campbell's eyes at the
end of that game as he watched on after his team.
(27:41):
This is a forty eight to forty five game against
the Seahawks. Geno Smith came out of nowhere. This is
this is so sad. Why does they didn't even have
Aman Rossi Brown? This is the sad power failure music,
sad jams. This is a sad jam. I don't know
what to do because you know this team cently. We
(28:02):
recovered the Hard Knocks Lion season on the podcast this summer.
That was a great time and we had so much
hope and in particularly you know this county, like Aaron
Glenn was m dude, former Jets cornerback who just seemed
to be the type of coach that anybody would want
on their staff at defensive coordinator, smart um, leader of
(28:26):
men type, guy that lived and breathed it. And yet
they're on pace to give up more points than any
team ever through four games and after the lost, Dan
Campbell without calling out Aaron Glenn, you know, made it
clear that we have reached the stage where we need
to change some things and we need to be asking
questions about why this isn't working. So the offense giving
(28:47):
up fifty five yards to Geno Smith and the Seahawks,
that doesn't uh. There's a major issue here. So they
gotta get a fixed. They got to find a way.
We talked about it all through the summer on the
Hard Knocks podcast that this defense was a question mark.
And Rodrigo for instance, having the second highest selling jersey,
(29:09):
the undrafted where the seventh round rookie linebacker. They don't
have a lot of star talent and even Jeffer Couta
making a jump at cornerback, they don't have enough pieces
touch there now. But it's it's a problem. Is it's
a power failure for the height machine around the Lions
because you do need tangible appreciation, you need you need
(29:32):
to take the next step, and they haven't done it yet.
The offense has. The offense shows that they can score points.
They didn't have Iman Ross at Brown, they didn't have
d jhark in this game. Jamal Williams, he's showing that
he can be a reliable back for them. Jared Golf
is actually flourishing with Ben Johnson. They're creative. D J.
(29:54):
Hockenson has been for them. They're averaging thirty five points
a game on the nose. The problem is they're allowing
thirty five point three points. It is the highest hot
number of points to under anyone of any team ever
as well. So I want to talk about the twilight zone,
the team that doesn't make sense. I don't know what
to make of the lines, but let's just hope that
this is not an aberration with the offense because of
(30:16):
the Lions offense comes back to earth a little bit.
The defense is not gonna be able to pick up
the slack. I just need a couple of wins for
Dan Campbell. Yeah, you know who else needs its Dan Campbell. Ah,
that's the next The Colts the Cults don't need the
Lions to win. For Dan Campbell, the Colts started at
twelve this year, and you know how much I loved them.
Then they tied the Texans, so they filled a fifteen
(30:39):
and then they lost to the Jags, so they fell
to twenty six, plummeted to six. They beat the that's
when Peter Scheger said they should be thirty two. I
remember on Good Morning Football after the Jags game, after
the Jags loss, who had looked worse at that point,
which is a fair point at that sid, but I
didn't want to bury him that far. Well, you bumped
him up three spots when they beat the Chiefs, and
then shows that that was the right move. Got me
(31:01):
because if I would have put them all the way
down to thirty two and then they beat the Chiefs exact,
I would have looked like, so here we are now.
They've fallen sixteen spots since week one. It's it's a
tough team and Matt Ryan he's having issues with turnovers.
They can't run the ball. This is not what I
was sold during training camp. No, no, what I sold
to everyone else, right, And it's a bad beat for Connie.
(31:23):
I understand that. But when I was walking into the
studio today and behind the glass was our colleague, producer
Jason Klemman, big Rams fan, and I said, hey, Jason,
so what's up the ramps? They stink? And we had
a conversation about it. I have have the same conversation
about the Colts. Are we just there with the Colts? Bad?
Is that? What's the problem? Like, what's wrong with the Colts?
How do we fix the cults? Maybe this is actually
(31:46):
a deeply flawed roster, and with the offensive line not
being nearly as good this year, that blows everything up
that it was so sensitive the roster that it needed
to be held um and everything needed to be strong
upfront or everything else falls apart. And because it hasn't
been strong up front, Matt Ryan looks old and has
and ineffective and and turnover plagued. And Jonathan Taylor is
(32:08):
getting stuck at the line of scrimmage over and over again,
and now he has a high ankle sprain with a
Thursday night game coming up, and yet it all up
It's like, you know, have I mentioned Keel Leonard just
broke his nose and was ruled out with a concussion.
I don't like anything about where the Cults are right now.
They're lucky to be one two and one because they
feel like a team that could have been owned for
(32:29):
as bad as things went. But this is not a
team that I feel good about rising. I think the
Titans are a better team, clearly. I think the Jaguars
have surpassed them, and they're more closer cousins to the
Texans in the a f C South, which I'm with you,
I can't believe that. I think I picked them as
a playoff team, maybe even to win the South, but
that has not been the team that showed up to play.
The Cults are now oh two and one in the division,
(32:52):
and they have Jacksonville and Tennessee again coming up in
the next three weeks, so that is a rough schedule. Yeah,
and I think Frank Reich, knowing how angry ownership was
at the end of the last season, it this thing
continues to spiral. I know everyone's saying Matt Rule is
going to be the first guy out. Frankreid could be
in trouble here if this season truly goes off the rails. Yeah,
(33:13):
it's that's not a place that you want to struggle,
especially with Jim Mercy and the way that everything went
down last year with Carson Wentz getting run out of town.
Kind of owner would you be? Would you be that
type of be a well liked owner? You would, yeah,
but I would think I would probably be reactionary. Would
you be the type of owner that would fire people
all the time and demand results? And it's tough because
(33:38):
all that power, you know, right, That's what I'm saying.
I kind of feel like you might be, Yeah, that
might be your thing. That's a your that's your job
is to win, all right. Yeah, I'd be very calm,
almost passive, but also wisdom. It would be like everybody
would know. I would carry around a big stick, a
literal stick, like, oh, that's his wisdom stick, and I
would think about things like Winston Churchill and World War
(33:59):
two and then come to decisions that would lead my
organization to the you know who has a new owner
at the Broncos, let's go to them. Nice Transition one
(34:20):
have fallen eight spots since week one. Wisdom stick. They
went from eight to sixteen to seventeen to fourteen to sixteen.
So here we are now this offense is we saw
a little bit more this week with Russell Wilson. But
this team, now they lost Javonte Williams, it's difficult to
figure out. Yeah, the fact that I have them at
sixteen that feels generous as well, but again speaking to
(34:43):
what we're talking about earlier, it's so it's so hard
to figure out this area of the power rankings right now.
It's usually the have a spot to figure out. Is
that the teenagers as we'll call them for the Power
Rankings at thirteen to nineteen group and the Broncos are
right near the top of the list, and I don't
know what they're gonna do. This Javonte Williams injury is terrible.
It was worse than you would have imagined when you
saw it happen. So he's got a long road back,
(35:05):
and the fact that they have to put Melvin Gordon
and back in the lineup at running back. I got
its fumbled four times, including lost one for a fumble
last week in a in a big game. That's not good.
That's not good. And then you put in Boone in
that game and he drops the pass that would have
kept them alive against the Raiders late. So they're they're
running back situation is brutal. You know, got the Randy
(35:27):
Gregory injury. I'm we'll say this positively about the brocas
Russell Wilson starting to look a little bit more like dangerous.
He's doing a little more freelance work the last drive
against the Niners and Sunday night, and then he made
some really kind of good throws that reminded you of
the old days, and scrambling a little bit more against
the Raiders. He certainly was not the problem against Las Vegas,
(35:51):
but Denver in general, Yeah, I think it's safe to
say even a two and two, which is hardly a
disgraceful record, I would say that they're a pretty big
disappointment when going down that list in the ACU. So
they play Thursday night, as we mentioned, against the Colts,
and right, nice set up for them because Jonathan Taylor,
even if he plays, is going to be severely limited,
(36:12):
and you take Jonathan Taylor out of that lineup, the
Denver defense should be able to eat there even with
Gregory out. So we'll see how that game goes. But
we were talking about Frank Reich and when we were
talking about the Colts and the fact that he could
you know his seat might be getting warm a team
who has a head coach with the hottest of hot seeds.
I feel like already Matt Rule the Panthers. They have
(36:35):
fallen eight spots since week one. They have bounced from
twenty three down to twenty nine, down to thirty one
and then thirty one. They are really hovering just around
like the worst possible spots. So this is Baker Mayfield.
He has looked awful. He is not the guy I mean,
I wonder at this point are they going to turn
to Sam Donald? Is that they will? They will turn
(36:57):
to Sam Donald because this is not sustainable and is
it better? Probably not. But that's the problem. That's the
Matt Rules sich ouation, which is the one that nobody
wants to be in right now. He knows his jobs
on the line here and he is already he knows
just like every Panthers fan. And you could hear him
in Charlotte on Sunday booing the quarterback. They know he
is not the answer Mayfield. I always kind of thought
(37:20):
this that he was a product of his system in Cleveland,
and when there was a lot around him, he was
able to make some things happen. But once you take
some things away, this is what you get. And Donald
probably won't do any better, let's face it, but they
needed at certain point make a change. And the fact
that mc coral, the rookie, went out with the foot
injury in August, so he's not even an option. So
(37:40):
rules like stuck with Baker right now. And there was
a report that came out this week that Donald's not
close to coming back yet from the high ankle spring
that he suffered. You're just stuck with Baker. But can
I say one thing about the offense. Few years back,
Teddy Bridgewater was the quarterback and they were better. But
you know who else is better, Christian McCaffrey. And you
know why why he they were better? It wasn't just
because McCaffrey is a different guy now, because I think
(38:01):
he's the same guy that would use him a lot,
like throwing down field and pass patterns, and he was
kind of used in a dynamic way and now it's
just like they're just hammering him through the middle of
the line as a between the tackles runner with an
occasional screen pass. He's your dude, like, find ways to
make the quarterbacks job easier by using the best player
on your team, and that's creative. I did share with
(38:25):
the audience that Ben McAdoo looks like my neighbor Nate
around the NFL, and and again it didn't maybe track
with the entire audience, but I'm gonna essay on another show.
That's a cool thing though, that he kind of looks
like my neighbor. Small audiences really showed him in the
box and I was like, Oh, that looks like my neighbor.
Let's go to that's my Ben McAdoo analysis. In case
(38:47):
your neighbor. I remember when Ben might as well be
I remember when Ben mcdoo was the Giants coach and
he couldn't figure out to do with his hair, and
then he slicked it back, and I think he's found something. Now,
all right, you don't want to talk about you brought
him up? Are the Colts at twenty eight? We just
mentioned them down five? At twenty nine, we got the
(39:09):
Commanders taking command one spot up from last week, the
Bears at thirty down three, the Panthers down to a
thirty one, and then unchanged matters moved up. So that
tells you if the commanders can get beat and look
bad doing it and technically move up a spot. The
teams below them are in a bad place. Really, that's
(39:30):
very bad place. So you don't want to be in
this spot. And so the Cults, you know, they just
have an edge on the Commanders. But the Bears. The
justin fields thing is that's another that's another issue because
you you could tell that Mattiraflus does not feel like
you can trust fields right now or run the offense.
He set a season high on Sunday and twelve lost
of the Giants with eleven completions. Well not so that's
(39:53):
an issue, all right. So let's get to the best
of their rest here. We're gonna put thirty seconds on
the close like that's an issue, Dan, It is an issue.
You know what. Else, there's a lot of issues here
in terms of teams that are difficult to figure out.
Which is the hardest to figure out, know, they put
me on a clock with jet leg go ahead, go Alright,
hardest team to figure out is the Dolphins. I got
the middle eleven. Now, Dolphins fans are upset about that.
They say, how could you do that to us? We
(40:15):
lose one game and you're dropping us eight spot. Well,
you also lost to a and everything that went around
the loss of twah And you know the NFL now
is taking a much more serious crack here about how
they're handling concussions. Teddy Bridgewater against the Jets. I like Teddy,
but the Dolphins are a big question mark to me
right now. They are How can they not? A lot
of people? Hey, time's up? Good job? How about this one.
(40:37):
Shouldn't the Falcons thirty seconds on the clock be above
the Browns after beating them? Isn't that how that works? Well? Uh? Maybe,
but again, I was on a plane. I didn't write these.
Someone did. Someone on my laptop, someone that looks like
me wrote these, But it wasn't me. No. I do
think the Browns. Yeah, I think the Browns are a
(40:59):
better team than the Falcons. The Browns could be four
and oh if they just execute better at the end
of a couple of game games. Um, the Falcons have
surprised me. I liked them. I think they're certified frisky.
But if you tell me who I like better, I mean,
twenty one and twenty two County. Can we calm down
a little bit? And it's not the power The rankings
let's go to the next one. Okay, we got there's
(41:20):
your job. I apologize. I apology accepted. That's fine. So
let's go Bengals at six, Ravens at seven. Are you
tipping your hand for next week? Oh? Good? One games?
Where's the game in Baltimore? Is it in Baltimore? Got check? Now,
let's check that. Uh yeah, yeah that is. I guess
you would Technically I would have. I would have to
say no, I wouldn't. I could say whatever I want.
(41:43):
I like the Ravens at home, but I also say,
since Thenati has their swagger back. They liked what I
saw from the Bengals the last couple of weeks, and
Joe Burrow went out of his way after the game
to compliment that offensive line and say, hey man, you
do that, you protect me. We're gonna do all right.
I still want to get the running game going, but
I do like the Bengals in Baltimore. Alright, So again
that game at the Ravens Sunday night football too, that time.
(42:08):
That's exciting. Joe Burrow is gonna ball out in prime time.
I know he's going to show up in some amazing outfit.
He had this floral suit on last week's swagging thirty seconds.
Will the Jets yo yo continue in the rankings? I
am excited to watch the Jets. Do you emotionally I don't.
Sometimes when I'm writing about them, I emotionally write about them,
(42:29):
but I try to be even keeled with the rankings. Yeah,
I thought that was really nice to see Zack wilson
um lead That comeback in the fourth quarter. Was an
excellent win. That's their second like crazy comeback in three weeks.
I think they're still a very flawed team. But like
I said, I think the Dolphins are a big mystery
with Bridgewater and all the drama that has been around them,
and the Jets beat Miami. They're teenagers baby like nineteen Yeah,
(42:54):
but they have to play well, which They've never been
teenagers in the time I've been doing power rankings. But
now all of a sudden, you are coming to I'm
seeing Dan kind of like right now for the Hay
it's gone. Okay, you're done, You're off the hook from
ranking things. I'm going to rank some stuff real quick. Yes,
we get out of here. That's the name of the
(43:14):
sem You you know you think your jet leg is bad,
Let me tell you about my jet leg because I
also had an amazing week in London. I've been all
over the place. My husband, John J. Pollis is over there.
For what am I drinking? That's ginger? Yeah, So I
hung out with you guys. This was a great night.
We were at the pub together. We were supposed to
(43:34):
go to a game Crysonal Palace and so we just yeah,
we went to the local pub and enjoyed the company
of each other and John, who's a great husband and
a great hang. We had a fun time together in London.
Did take the polaroid photo of you everywhere and had
all sorts of photos taken with the polaroid in various figures. Yes,
you can check out my instagram if you want to
(43:56):
see it's like a flat Instead of flat Stanley, it's
flat Colleen bringing me all across London. We went to
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium the day after the game. I didn't
get to go to the game, but I got to
check out the Yes, the polaroid. Where do you think
your spirit is inside that photo? Is that what's happening here?
Is your spirit inside the actual? Yes, that's why I'm there.
(44:18):
I met Harry Kane the captain in the locker room,
and then the grand finale. I met the crew and
cast from Ted Lasso at the big NFL party after
the game. So you didn't have to go to London. No,
I didn't just do this all the time going forward.
The best part is after I'm done with our coverage.
(44:38):
I was here at two am to start for the
pregame and half time and all of that. I get
home and I have a FaceTime from John and I
answer at it's John with the cast and crew from
Ted Lasso, surprises around every corner. All right, I got
another thing I'm going to rank. It's pretty good husband work.
I know the rest of us a lie. This was
(45:02):
pretty amazing. Now, normally we would not be showing anyone
running onto the field, but the hit the Bobby Wagner
pulled out against this was last night Rams Niners. There
was someone from the crowd that came down onto the
field and Bobby Wagner had the craziest hit on him
to take him out, kind of security him attack. McKinley
(45:26):
took this guy down and Kurt Warner thought potentially it
was a gender reveal because it was a look bomb.
It was pink. Turns out that was not the case,
but shout out to Bobby Wagner for the tackle there
that did not show up in the statute. Yeah, I
thought that was great. I think any fan you have
to if you do run on the field, which you
should not, but if you do, at the very least,
in addition to the night in the county lock up,
(45:49):
getting smoked on the field, that's should be part of
the price as well. And if you can get a
future Hall of Famer like Bobby Wagner to do it,
why not. Yeah, and Kevin Harlan had a great call
of it. You can check that out. Oh yeah, check
out the Around the NFL podcast. We'll we'll play that.
By the way, did you notice that some poor security
guard in the background of the video that's all over
(46:10):
the place right now is running after the guy with
the smoke bomb and he suffers like a devastating legs
slash knee injury. Yes, watch closer. It's like it's the
Apruter film of crazy fans on the field. It's crazy.
What happens to this man's leg is he's just trying
to run after this lunatic. The lunatic should pay for
that man's a c l reconstruction surgery. I did not
(46:31):
know that. I'm always always so concerned about the security guards,
especially if like a player takes them out by accident.
That is hardcore. Yes, oh god, okay, I'm sorry to
give you that news, but that he sometimes job didn't
catch that angle? All right? One more, how about this?
How about some good news will end on a great
note here. I just want to let you know that
(46:53):
the fans in Philadelphia Eagles fans, we are not monsters.
Doug Peterson gets back to the Lincoln Financial Field, gets
a standing ovation in the rain from the crowd. Their
hero returns. The statue is up and now here he
was in the flesh. It was a great moment. How
(47:14):
big of you, guys, especially a couple of weeks after
you're unmercifully booing the poor kid wide receiver who got
drafted in the first round and didn't play as well
as he wanted to. Instead of booing the guy that
drafted Jalen reagor Howie Roseman, you're booing this poor player
who just wants to do his best. Dan, why do
you hate Philadelphia? I don't, It's just you know, let's
(47:36):
calm down with the hero where everybody amazing work out
there with Doug Peterson. I mean, how could you not cheer?
How is this even something? I think? This is This
is what I'm talking about with the Eagles fans, in
the Philly fans like the fact that you need to.
Of course you would cheer Doug Peterson. We are out
of time, you've won one super Bowl in fifty five years.
Of course you would cheer him. Why would it even
(47:58):
be something like maybe we boosted him? Well back? Everybody
have a great rescue a week. NFL Power Rankings is
a production of the NFL in partnership with I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i
(48:19):
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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