Key Takeaways from NFL Week 5: Jets good, Lions bad, Geno Smith MVP?

Geno Smith, MVP? Dan Campbell, charlatan? JETS GOOD?!

Every Monday Morning we go LIVE on Twitter Spaces to break down Sunday's NFL action, and this Monday was no different. The crew chopped it up with everyone who stopped by!

Episode Transcript

(00:14):
Welcome to three Out, your nationalNFL podcast featuring three sports media pros.
It is our takeaways. We dothis every single Monday morning, eight o'clock
Eastern time. We go through allthe games, all the NFL action,
break it all down and tell youwhat you need to know. Shaddy and
Samantha are already in. We gotbooks already coming in the chat. Of

(00:36):
course, if you are listening tothis five and you want to join us
to straight as you can the question, you have to take it. Anything
like that, just let us know. Otherwise we're gonna do what we do
the way we do it every singleweek, twice a week. It's three
and Out. We're gonna get started. Okay, I want to go.
I actually want to go to Savantha'stopic first. Samantha, I'm just thrilled.

(01:00):
We talked a little bit about iton Twitter, But why don't you
tell us what you want to talkabout first? So I got a new
shirt. Um a couple of weeksago. I saw this a new person
walking down the street, and soI ran after this man down the street.
Behind that shirt, it's a verysimple green T shirt, white writing.

(01:21):
It says Zach Wilson is good.I was like, I need that,
I mean, is it true?Just I don't all, maybe it's
better if it's not true. Ineed that. A few weeks ago and
it finally showed up, And guesswhat the Jets are two and all since
I acquired the shirt, I've beenwearing on Sundays. So are the Jets

(01:42):
good? Or is the shirt walking? Which is or is it both?
I don't know. So that's whatI wanted to talk to you guys about
today. So we're gonna go aheadand assume the shirt is lucky because one
has one of players and I don'tlike this, But are the Jets also
good? Could they do it withoutmy Zach Wilson? So I'm a little
skeptical. Be honest, we've seenthem look pretty bad. I'm not show

(02:05):
Zach Wilson's performance. I'm sorry TShirt for saying this has been anything that
indicates, oh, there's so muchbetter with Zach Wilson back there as opposed
to Joe Placo. But and there'sgot to be a little bit of like
whatever the reverse of like he said, Cat bounces for Miami to the situation
that they were in a week togo, and then it must be lose
Teddy Bridgewater and concussion protocol and likeSkyler Thompson, I don't want a real

(02:29):
quarterback, Like what are they supposedto do? You know? I think
there was a lot of struggle onMiami said because of that, But I
wanted to hear from you guys too, like what does everybody think? Like
are the Jets good? Are theyadequate? Are they almost good? Like?
Where are we at on this?Especially with regard to Zach Wilson himself.

(02:51):
Yeah, he said this a littlebit last week, that the Jets
have that nineties stealers vibe about themwhere they've got I think a really good
head coach in Robert Sale. I'vealways been very impressed with him as an
individual, who's one of my favoritehires of that coaching cycle. Yeah,
really really wanted him in destroyed atthe time. And they do things from

(03:16):
an original perspective. They're starting todo things the right way, and I
think that's important because it's not,you know, constantly going over something flashy,
Like they've got a really good offensiveline. They've got some good like
runs stuff in front seven guys thatmake other people better. That they seem
to play pretty selfishly defenser, selflesslydefensively, which I think is very important,

(03:38):
very similar to Robert Sale's coached fortynine Ers defenses. And all of
a sudden there's some sparks offensively,and that's bringing in guys like Garrett Wilson,
who you know, brings some youthto that offense. That being set
Steelers last week, Dolphins with thethird string quarterback this week. I don't

(04:01):
know if the Jets are good orif they're just getting really good timing,
because now they've got a really strugglingPackers team that I think they can go
toe to toe with, even ifit's at Lambeau. Then they've got any
more struggling Broncos team, But thenit's Patriots. Bill's Patriots, and you
could be talking about them as farn'taway the worst team in the division in
like four or five weeks. Sowhen all of a sudden done, I

(04:23):
think the Jets are much better footballteam than they were. I'm not sure
they're good. Yeah, I'm I'min the same boat with Robert Sale.
I think and have thought ed havebeen waiting for my vision of his job
doing to be good like I thinkhe's going to do a good job.
I thought he's doing good, doa good job of waiting to feel like

(04:45):
that's been true. Um, youknow, defensively, they showed some sparks
early on this season, and youknow they are finding some guys, they
are finding some players. UM.Loving the sauce Gardner like don't. Um,
I love that he's not got TeddyBridgewater. But like just I love
the attitude and I love the talent. I love that you have a rookie

(05:06):
coming in and making impact plays.Um. And just sidebar the Dolphins my
team of adequacy. Losing Teddy Bridgewateralso makes this much such different thing for
for Miami and what it is they'retrying to do this here. But to

(05:26):
circle back to the Jets, arethey good? I don't. I don't
think they're good yet. Zach Wilson, I don't think he's good yet.
But that plucky adjacent label we liketo give to people, they certainly have
it. Not The Jets are pluckyadjacent and they're gonna be a team that
it's gonna be fun to watch.Um. I'm tempted to to to pivot

(05:47):
into my topic next shotting, butI want Samantha to get her circle back.
Uh, and and I can letyou go next if you want people,
Samantha, why don't you wrap itup? Oh? Yeah, I
mean I think my in yours kindof bookend. Don't say, um yeah,
this is to me real quickly.I just think the Jets are,

(06:08):
let's say, and hoping they canget over the hump between that place where
you're like, oh, this iskind of entertaining. Maybe they're not as
awful as we were afraid they weregoing to be and the point where they're
actually making good progress towards being anactual good team, Like can they get
out of that middle place? Andif that's what I'm wondering, I do
you think Robert Saal is a bigcoach? I don't know. I think

(06:29):
that Wilson is a good cornerback,but some exciting players. I think that
with Saw finally having kind of sometalent to work with, especially on the
defensive side of the ball, thathas helped. But this is actually I
think perfect segue into what you wantto talk about time, like can they
get out of the sort of purgatoryspace where I think your topic is living

(06:50):
right now? Yeah? I gotasked by a radio host on Sunday morning
at um, if if it's morefun to watch the Lions this year?
And again I stressed this a Sundaymorning before the game kicked again to the

(07:11):
Patriots um and and having that andat what I answered was yes, because
when you have that offense, wehave playmakers, when you have the ability
to score points. As frustrating asit is to watch a team that cannot
force another team to punt, thatcannot get a stop, you know that
that folds like what tissue on everythird down. That is frustrating to walk

(07:36):
when you turn around and you seeplayers make plays at score points, when
you see players, I said,Deander Swift, I think it was in
week two, Um, there's aplay. It was a little swing out
to him from you know, twelveyards out and it wasn't necessarily a great
play design and throw a little offyou had to go down to catch it.
There wasn't any defenders to touch himdown. So he just got back

(08:00):
up and hit the jets and inthose twelve yards he covered those twelve yards
so fat and like smoke. Twodudes on the way, and it looked
like he just decided I'm going toscore and no one on this field can
stop me, and then then ithappened. You know, that level of
talent, that's just something that it'sso fun to watch and it's it's so
great to see, and it's somethingthat Blons fans haven't had really since Calvin

(08:24):
Johnson, that that level of talentand that level of ability to know that
you, oh, just get itto hit, he'll score. Oh,
any given moment, this guy mightjust decide it's type of score touchdown and
then go do it and beat theother team. That feelings so great and
so fun. And so for themto go to New England and not only

(08:46):
failed to fix the defensive front,I mean, I guess I should say
the defense considering how many more peoplegot injured, even against a third string
rookie sixth round pick in Bailey Zappy. Um, you know they allowed fewer
points, right, they allowed lessthan thirty points I went to, which

(09:09):
is an improvement, even though again, you know, a huge chunk of
they're already desperately thin secondary went outbackstep and went out during the course of
the game. Um offensively zero pointssix trips if I remember correctly, in
the Patriots territory six months going forwardon fourth down and and six failures and

(09:33):
no points. Now, obviously someof this is that they cut a kicker,
signed a kicker and didn't trust thatkicker to kick um, so that
is something, but some of itis also everything is just all over the
place right now. Like the offense, Jared goth not play well. M

(09:56):
had a momors Saint round back,but he was not able to make an
impact in the course. You know, Bill Belichick sometimes just draws up great
game plans and you don't have anyanswer for it. And I remember when
we used to say about that SuperBowl when Bill Belichick, you know,
just turned Jared Goff's brain in toomuch. Part of that is coaching.
It's a reflection of Sean McVeagh.Gotta coached by Bill Belichick. And there

(10:20):
was no Plan B. There wasno answer there. And DeAndre Swift,
who was that guy I was talkingabout able weis Ago, was not there
to be that playmaker. Nobody wasable to step up and take over the
game and be like, I'm gonnascore no matter what. This was not
fun to watch, you know,the first two or three or four drives,
it was like down by three,down by six, down by nine.

(10:41):
But the lines are still moving theball well, and I kind of
figured, okay, cool, Likeyou know, we're one play away,
one drive away. It's gonna beyou know, ninety seven or ninety eight,
and it'll be a game, andthat just that one drive just never
came. I don't think it's ahuge indictmentity entire Lions project. I see

(11:01):
people like, oh, what ifcamp what if the camp will just sucks?
What if what if Aaron Glenn andBen Johnson are not hot coordinators?
What if what if all these teams, you know, it's all these players,
what if the whole thing is justbad? Like as this is the
NFL, it's a seventeen week season, you're gonna have I seventeen games season,
eighteen week season, coming up againsta by your very thin team,

(11:26):
especially on defense, which you knewwas very thin, has been torn to
shreds already. You are out therestarting practice squatters like like this is this
is not gonna be solved. He'sgonna take more than one year to fix
everything. And I know Lions fanswant to see it now, but it's
it's it's it's going to be aproject. It's going to be rebuilt,

(11:48):
there's going to be steps forward,there's gonna be steps back. Yeah.
I was surprised by and I knowsomething this happens in like a blowout loss,
But I was surprised by the numberof like analysts people like us going
on Twitter yesterday and saying, well, are we finally done with Dan Campbell?
Oh, Eric Glenn, do yousee what I mean? Like what

(12:09):
really? Like, I know flansget frustrated, but I was shocked by
the number of writers and football analystswho were kind of like, well,
I'm not on Dan Campbell now becausehe got shot out by Bill Belichick.
Like, yo, that's happened almosteverybody. Bill Belicheck's better up for a
long time. He's a very coach, and he's also very very good at

(12:31):
like propping up things that how toexplain Zappy without insulting him. Well,
he's a third string quarterback, andBill Belichick is a guy who can kind
of make that work. It canbe like we'll stick whoever out there.
I mean, how many games isthat team one with Bryan Moyer at various
points, So they're very good atthis. Also, like you said,

(12:52):
I think the kicker issue was biggerthan a lot of people realized it's harder
than you think to just go,oh, we'll just score a touchdown instead.
Right, if everybody could do that, then why wouldn't That's what you
would do every time. So ifyou don't trust your kicker, then you
have a much much more difficult jobthere. I do think it's bad that
they got shot out and it's alot of points to give up, although

(13:13):
as you put it out down asmany as a week ago. But look,
we said at the beginning of theseason that this team still doesn't quite
have the talent that they need tocompete. So it's really tough for me
to see the coaches indicted on this, like, have they made a few
bad decisions? Of course, wellso as every coach in the NFL,
and you pay attention to them,one stuff like this happens. But you

(13:33):
know, I am, I don't. My opinion on these guys hasn't changed
at all. They had a badgame, they didn't have the talent to
compete, and sometimes you just getout coached by Bill Belicheck. Happens to
the best of us. Yeah,you guys said it all. I think
if I'm looking at a micro perspective, there are things I'm worried about,

(13:54):
you know, Jared Goff's terrible,horrible, nope, very bad day is
something I'm concerned about. But maybethat as much is Jeffo Kudas, Like
Jeffokuda has gotten very exposed in thelast two weeks after what was a very
good start the season by him,that defense continuing to be the game that
can't choose straight no matter what.Just it's not just lack of talent,

(14:15):
but it's it's very much like acommunication which happens as you rotate a bunch
of new guys in who haven't playedtogether. But at the same time,
you had camp, you had you'vehad practice. It's it's week five,
it's not this isn't the first timeany of this has ever happened. Your
football players, you shouldn't have likewide open guys down the field, and

(14:35):
on the reverse offensively, like whenyou have wide open guys down the field,
you should probably hit them. Andthe continued risk play of Jared Goff,
it is always concerning because you can'treally win games when you're with a
skeleton crew in your quarterback can't putthe team on his back, and so
those are things that are going tohold the Lions back. But again,

(14:56):
this is the natural part of theprogression they're in, where me having a
pretty good season by all accounts,like you've only won one game, but
you topped in the NFL offense atleast tending into the week, and you've
you've acquitted yourself well in most ofthose weeks, and then you hit a
big old speed up. And Ithink right now, if I was,

(15:18):
you know, playing amateur armchair psychologistfor the Lions organization, I think they're
absolutely just white knuckle trying to getto the bye week because they do not
one hundred percent know what's going on. They just know that everything hurts and
they are dying and they need abreak, and they get a bye week,
so things hopefully should be better thanall right. Dan pask is in

(15:41):
the chat and requested so that Idon't want to talk to Dan is a
Lions Dan, Uh, you goahead and give you the give you the
consci thanks to much show. I'msorry, I wasn't going to maybe it
was gonna wait till the end ofI just wanted to come in and I
agree with every said about the DetroitLions Patriots games. I just want to

(16:03):
bring one extrac thing and it hasno bearing on the result, but like
it's just like you know, inthis, in this in these recent times
of sort of getting over abuse andPTSD, that's what it's been for us.
And as the Detroit Lions going throughthree years of Matt Patricia, it
really wasn't as bad with boll Quinn, but Matt Patricia was just literally I
mean, I'm sorry, I'm emotional, but if you know, like everyone

(16:26):
joked about being if we'd won andhaving Dan Campbell carried out off on the
arms like Schwartz did you know,and you can see, you know,
the build up of history there aswell. But you know, Bill Belichick
is just an awesome coach. MattPatricia is not. And and and and
I totally agree with Shanny about justliterally just breathlessly getting to the buy we've

(16:48):
got twelve more games. I'm notsaying we go to the playoffs, but
we've got twelve more games. AndI don't know, So I just wanted
to come in and say hi,and the same things. And there's just
a bit more to it than that, do you know what I mean?
There's just a bit more to itthan the game. Yeah, absolutely,
and always appreciate your journal and listeningand chatting Dan. And then you know,
this is the thing with me.You look at this team is always

(17:11):
going to be a monthly year project. This is the like third straight complete
tear it out and rebuild. AndI know that the progress, like the
obvious progress, makes it so thatyou want that progress to keep progressing.
Right when it's not a straight lineto the top, you go, well,
like, what's what's going wrong?Was it all lies? And uh,

(17:33):
you know people are already comparing tothat Patricia. I say, oh,
like, this team right now looksworse than it did at the end
of the Mat Patricia era. Andit's like, guys, I you came
into this game thinking the Lions aregoing to win, right. You came
into the game before thinking the Lionsare going to win at the Lions at
this have been favored multiple times atthe end of the Matt Patricia era.

(17:56):
You came into this game knowing Lionsare going to lose by multiple touchdowns and
it happened, like you can.It's just a completely different ad appear,
a completely different experience, and that'sbecause the players believe that you can see
that the players believe, the playersknow they're talented, and I'm I'm shocked

(18:17):
to see people trying to come forBrad Holmes and be like, well,
how come all of his mid roundpicks aren't starting and producing. It's like,
well, okay, never mind thatthe offense's best player was last year's
third round pick and the defense's bestplayer this year is this year's sixth round
pick. It doesn't work. Collectback. There's no GM in NFL history

(18:38):
who has two drafts and has fourteenguys out there starting and playing well.
If that's what that's your bar,Like, that's there's no GM that's going
to hit that bar. And thefact that not only had they had contributors
from later rounds that they can't playwell, and so far it looks like
all their big swings have paid off. You know, you you're getting results

(19:03):
from guys like Austin Bryant, turnaroundguys like hal By tie. You're talking
guys at Jeff Okuda, though againhe had a rough day yesterday. We
still don't know if he'd ever bea starter in the NFL. But this
team is succeeding with some of BobTwinn and Matt Patricia's failures to tell you
something about it. Anyway, wecould do a whole show on the Lions.
I could do a whole show onthe Lions. I thought, for

(19:26):
like seventy percent of our running timeso far, I will hang up and
listen. Except I'm not going tohang up because I love stick but Shiny,
it is time for your key takeaway. Yeah. I actually kind of
thought that I was gonna go afterthe New York Jets take earlier because I

(19:47):
want to talk about the former NewYork Jets quarterback Gino Smith, who oh
saw a comparison on Twitter that Iabsolutely loved yesterday and that Smith is quickly
morphing into our generations Rich Cannon,that that this is this is a dude

(20:08):
who was absolute trash, was absolutelike thrown out with yesterday's leftovers. And
now, all of a sudden,after he was traded as the throw in
on a you know deal to sendRussell Wilson, what'll called one of

(20:30):
the best quarterbacks of our of ouryou know time, sent him to Denver,
and all of a sudden, GenoSmith is sort of you know,
he's the the odd man out,you know, Drew Locke was supposed to
be the dude. No one thoughtGeno Smith was going to end up being
that guy, and now he mightbe an MVP candidate. What do you

(20:52):
guys think? I think it's great. I love this. I you know,
we talked about the redemption for GenoSmith and how we all kind of
wanted to see this happen, andyou know, I think maybe we weren't
quite as far out on him asa lot of people were. I know,
when the trade went down, Ithink we all kind of went or
start Gino Smith and Drew Lock,but I don't think any of us do

(21:15):
kind of how big that gap wasgoing to be, which is cool.
I mean, I think there's someyou know, stuff about the defenses in
the face but he had to takeinto account and so on. But I
really think he's been quite good,and I'm not sure I want to give
Pete Carroll credit for that. Imean, it's it's like the easy downs

(21:37):
to be like, well, yougot to win from the checks and now
he's fine. And I'm not necessarilyhating like Pete Carroll, but like,
I don't think it's like Pete Carrollsaw something that finally fixed Gino Smith.
I don't think that's how this went, but I think it's great. I
think it's super cool. I lovethat the Seahawks are kind of interesting in
a season where a lot of peoplethought they were going to be like the
worst team in the NFL. AndI think this is great. Yeah,

(22:03):
I've been I've been uh bringing upthis article that I wrote back in twenty
thirteen about him, and I actuallyjust pulled it up right now for real.
Um. At the headline is,Jeto Smith continues to defy racial stereotypes
as NFL Draft's top quarterback prospect um. And I'm like, why did I

(22:26):
frame it like that? I'm like, oh, right, because it was
the classic Nolan naraqi Uh, formerPro Football Weekly editor and u NFL dot
com contributor, where every single yearhe picks a black quarterback to site anonymous
sources to say he's stupid. Um. And the Gino Smith was the guy

(22:47):
that he did that to left thatyear, and so I went, hey,
no, like I'm freaking down himas a prospect that like, no,
this guy can be this guy canbe a quarter of it. And
he's not a dominate the dominant prospect, but he's someone who can come in
and be a good NFL starter anddoes a lot of things well. And
he's not a stereotyped running quarterback,but like he can run and he's a

(23:12):
better passer than that. So allI have been like, please Geno Smith,
show people what you can do.And the situation in New York was
not good. It was never goingto work. I've always been glad that
he's hung on and now that he'scoming and doing what he's doing. That
combination of experience and this is somethingthat NFL coaches in a long time,
especially the old is right and personnelpeople will tell you, quarterbacks me time

(23:37):
to develop. As much as welove lightning in a bottle and as quick
as we tend to be able tosee, oh yeah, you throw a
guy out there and he sucks,he probably just sucks and it's time to
move on. There's a lot ofreally talented players who just don't get reps,
don't get opportunity, aren't ready whenthey get the opportunity, right like
how many of us. I,certainly, at age twenty one, was

(24:02):
not ready to be a full timenational NFL media analyst. I got there.
I had a talent, but Iwas not ready at age twenty one.
A lot of us aren't right.And the idea that if by twenty
two you aren't one of the fivebest people in the world, that what
you do, you won't ever beable to do it or won't ever be

(24:22):
able to get there, it's justnot true. And there's no minor league.
Teams don't give reps to back upsand camp anymore. Teams don't give
reps to back ups during the season. You just don't get to see this.
So I'm I'm thrilled that Geno isgetting the shot. My one word
answer or you know, one lineanswer t Shaddy, though, is to
win the MVP, the Seahawks aregonna have to be a playoff team,

(24:42):
and I'm not sure they can't getthere. Yeah, but the numbers are
there. I get that he's notthe MP. Yeah, it probably won't
be, but he is playing really, really well. And the thing that
gets me about all of this ishow bad Russell Wilson looked in Pete Carroll's

(25:06):
offense, and how bad a lotof those pieces, including the offensive line,
including some of these running backs.This is almost it's it's almost surreal
that that Geno Smith is basically justcoming and this is every old school coach's
dream, just this idea that ifyou just do what I say, if

(25:27):
you just sell out this stuff,sell out to the team, everything's gonna
go our way. And no onebelieved it when Russell Wilson was at the
Helm, because Russell Wilson didn't believeit. But apparently Geno Smith is just
that dude who is willing to dowhatever the offensive coaches say and willing to

(25:49):
sell out for his team, andit's it's working. I don't think that's
a sustainable model for success because youknow, it's the NFL and you need
more talent. We actually need tostart winning games as well. But when
all of a sudden done, like, I love what I'm seeing Gino Smith.
He's just fun to watch play footballright now, and I cannot say
that about the depth of Broncos andRussell Wilson. All right, well,

(26:11):
we are having fun here at threeand out. We're gonna drop in a
quote unquote break up for this.If you listening live, it'll just be
a second or two. I justneed to put it in the recording,
because of course we are recording We'regoing to drop this into our main feed
before we put our nipe big show. We bring on a big NFL guest
and kick every single game straight upand it gets the spread and better out

(26:32):
big topics of the day. Let'sgo to three outpod dot com for all
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(26:55):
All right, we are back onthree and on your National NFL podcast.
Is our Monday React. So keytakeaways we talk about every single NFL game.
I already talked about each of ourthree big key takeaways for the whole
weekend. Let's go down. Let'sstart Vikings Bears NFC North Vikings come Way
twenty nine, twenty two shot.What do you think? This was a

(27:18):
bit of a confusing game for me, not because the Vikings won, but
because the Bears looked so good againstthe Vikings defense that I thought, you
know, would have quit themselves alittle bit better than this. Yeah,
But then also like I thought,if this was going to be a closed
game. It was going to bea Bears defensive sort of push. Yeah.

(27:41):
Yeah, it wasn't like Kirk Cusinshad himself a day, Delvin Cook
had himself a day. Justin Jeffersonstarted doing Justin Jefferson things. Again,
this was a really weird game forthese two teams who sort of went against
the grain of what they've been allseason long. Yeah, this was definitely
strange. Um And if you justsaw the outcome and didn't have any information,

(28:03):
I think I would have assume thatmaybe her cousins had kind of a
rough time yesterday, but he didn't. Um And and the Bears, I
think maybe now we're at the pointwhere, okay, you know what,
maybe something's finally going right here becausethey've done a good job staying in games,
competing with teams that thro the elyshouldn't be able to keep keep it
based on the talent level there.So I'm pretty sold on this coaching staff.

(28:29):
I'm not sure yet about this frontoffice, but we have some time
to decide on that. And maybeprobably the best thing about this is,
like maybe Justin Fields isn't just goingto like rock there, like we were
all afraid was going expected this tobe an expecting Yeah, I thought this
is going to be a two goodrunning games too, terrible rushing defenses,
everything like screams like under under underscoring, brutal ugly, And that wasn't

(28:55):
what it was. Bear still covered, the spread, still kept it close
to kept it intern asking. Umand and the Vikings continue to just straight
by with unnecessarily close wins against teamsthey're significantly bore talented. Then I have
to believe that's going to come backto fight them at some point. Fucking

(29:15):
he is twenty one Falcons fifteen,simithought was your key takeaway? There was
some questionable officiating in this one.Um, I'm not sure I buy the
whole Oh the Falcons caught host theywould have won this game if Yeah,
there was some strange stuff going on. And thought the buck Wolves were underwhelming.
Um, So, I'm not surehow much we can really take away

(29:38):
from this because again we have twoteams where we looked at the Bucks a
lot this season and said, Idon't know, they don't create. They
look maybe not quite as good aswe thought, not quite as good as
we hope they would be. Andwe've also looked at Falcons and say,
hey, wow, you know,like they're they're gonna win some games.
They're pretty good. Now, thatwould have been a creating major upset.

(29:59):
So yeah, quickly surprised at thiswent this way. But we will say
this, credit to the Falcons forhanging around in this one. Whether the
Buccaneers are underwhelming to all of usor not. Um, we go back
to we keep bringing this up,so I guess we'll finally give him some
credit instead of making fun of himfor it and say, you know,
Ben albright Um said on the show, I was like, I don't know,
the Falcons guys picked a long shotSuper Bowl pick, but they're better

(30:22):
than I thought they would be.Some credits to Ben for pointing that out
to us. The twenty twenty twoBuccaneers being underwhelming, Tom Brady getting questionable
calls, and the Falcons being unableto steal a deal when another team is
trying to literally hand them a gameare all like the chalkiest things. So

(30:45):
this one did not surprise me.If anything. Like when the Falcons started
to get back in it, Iwas like, okay, here we go,
Like let's get let's get the dramait's one of those like it must
have been a Buffalo wild Wings butthe buttons somewhere. That's almost right.
Um, this one, this onedid not surprise me that this is one
where like kudos to the Falcons,but they're not in the same class.

(31:10):
I'm just waiting for the Buccaneers tosort of become the Buccaneers again because if
they don't, and really soon,I think it's going to be a really
long season for them, when youknow, injuries start happening again and you
start wearing down on the course ofthe season and then you get the playoffs.
I just don't think this Buccaneers team. And we started into the lead
up for this week, h youcan you can win the NFC South and
still be a really terrible football team, and I think that's the Buccaneers.

(31:33):
Yeah, because that was supposed tobe this game, right it was oh,
getting Mike Evans back, getting ChrisGodwin back, like, oh,
did you remember like half of theguys who makes the Bucks the Bucks were
gone. That's why I ends likeno zero difference in how they look as
a team or how they performing asan offense did not help. And you
know, I look at I lookat I look at the Bucks and and

(31:56):
Tom Brady and go, this iskind of the thing I've been waiting for,
you know, for them to lookthis bad and that they're a one
bad call away from getting keep bythe Falcons for the first time Brady eleven
and oh lifetime against the Falcons.Um. You know that certainly should be
worrying if you're a Tampa Bay fan. But again, like you said,
Shatty, you can be pretty bad. It's still win this division. And

(32:21):
once you win in the division andyou're in the playoffs, I think anything
can happen. I think, youknow, I'm not saying anything will happen
with the Bucks against the rest ofthe best teams in the NFC, But
since I'm not sure who the restof the best teams in the NFC are,
you know, everything's still on thetable for them. X thirteen Jaguars
sticks. Guys, again, speakingof low scoring, ugly games and teams

(32:49):
disappointing us, Um, Shatty,what do you think? Yeah, this
game had all the harm hallmarks ofa Texas the Jaguars game. Uh yeah,
When when the big headline coming outof the morning is that you're generational,
not too long ago. First overallquarterback should get better eventually. I

(33:13):
think it's what Doug Peterson said aboutTrevor Balls, like yeah, dip shit,
we know, like no offense,like like that is just the worst.
That's not even a non answer.That is like a that is like
a slap in the face answer topeople who are like, yeah, we're
all waiting show us like like we'rewaiting, like that's the thing that we

(33:35):
expect, not this. So Iguess. I mean the Texans have had
a good defense all season long,Like I don't understand what happened to the
Jaguars rushing attack in this one.This would be a game that I think
I could probably spend multiple hours studyingon film if I hated myself, and
I don't, so I won't.And that's where I'm gonna leave this one.

(33:59):
Yeah, yeah, can we justthrow out the whole AFC South It
isn't I'm in the same place asyou've chu, like what is going on
here? This is ridiculous? LikeI don't know if the chaos goblin part
of who like looks at season it'slike, ooh, this is interesting,
and then I remember that they're alllike just different kinds of bad. And
I know we want to think betterof the Jaguars than that, and we

(34:21):
wanted to think better of the Poltsthan that, but they kind of just
keep getting in each other's way andit's not super convincing. And I'm not
saying, oh, I take backeverything we said about Doug Peterson and the
Jaguars and Chuckle Arrens. Of course, then I still think they're probably the
classic this division. But I thinkthis is a sign that everybody kind of
needs to take a breath and say, Okay, we still have a long

(34:42):
way to go or there. Don'teverybody get all excited and think, oh,
this is like the weird Blake Bourdalseason again. The Jaguars are coming.
No, they're not, at leastnot yet, all right. Look
at Chargers Browns. Chargers win close, thirty to twenty eight. I think
a lot of people were looking atthis game and looking at the line and

(35:05):
going, hmm, what's going onhere? Because I think if the Charges
as a much better team than theBrowns, and maybe they're only a slightly
bit better team than the Browns ofSamantha your take well, um, being
as injured as they are, Ithink that's true. Otherwise, not so
much. This game wasn't nearly asclose as the score would indicate. Um,

(35:29):
I don't think it's an indication thatthese teams are close talent wise as
well. UM looked at Brown's offense, say, a lot of people getting
on Kevin Kay it's over the lastcouple of weeks for his offensive play calling.
Um, I don't think he's theproblem. I don't think the offense
is the problem. JA Kobe Prisettehas been at the very least competent in
every start he's made. But theBrowns defense is a disaster right now.

(35:51):
Now they do have some critical injuries, but the scheme has just been awful.
And this has been going on fora couple of years now. It
might be time for Joe Woods togo. It was realistically it was probably
time to Joe Woods to go lastyear, and they kind of gave him
the benefit of their doubt, whichokay, But I think we're at the
point now where this defense has somuch talent and perform so poorly. We

(36:15):
get and week out and you canmake the argument that the Chargers are good
offense, but they're also fairly injuredand this happens every week, and it
doesn't have to be a good offensefor this to happen. You know,
and can say the Chargers are passingfor you know, three hundred what it
was at seven. I think yard'sa game. Well. Teams that are
a lot worse than have done thisto the Browns defense too, So it

(36:37):
seems like it might be time fora coaching change on the defensive side of
the wall. Yeah. I don'tunderstand how you open up a fourteen nothing
lead and have Nick Chubb and KareemHunt, who both had really good football
days, and then still lose thisone. This should this should have been
the problems, you know, cominginto this week. I agreed with everything

(36:58):
you're saying, Tie. I thoughtthe Chargers injuries, especially on defense,
especially against the run. I thoughtit was gonna do women this one,
and they sort of just got outchargeredby the Browns or got out browns by
the Browns, I don't even knowthe like. The Chargers tried to hand
this the one away, and thenthe Browns were like, no, no,

(37:19):
we got this, fam, We'rebetter at this dropping games than you
are. And that's almost what itseemed like. It almost seemed like two
teams really trying to lose this oneexcept for Austin Eckler. And that's my
takeaway. My takeaway is that AustinEkeler is back. Dudes like like,
this is a guy who needed agame like this And sixteen carries one hundred
and seventy three yards. That's that'sjust incredible. Yeah, incredible, useless

(37:45):
stat of the day by NFL orShips for this fiftieth career touchdown awesome.
Became the fourth undrafted running back inthe Common Draft era with fifty career scores,
joined Priestholds, Arie Foster and theGarrett Book. Interesting. Interesting set
it back there for as Eckler tojoin Bills thirty eight steel Its three And

(38:12):
if I remember, if I remembermy UH pick correctly, I said something
like, you know, I thinkit's not without the roma, you know,
not outside the roma possibility that theSteelers just absolutely get decimated here.
But I also think it's not outsidethe roma possibility that they put up a
good fight and end up covering thespread. So I think I think the

(38:35):
Steelers against the spread of this one, but put the bad thing happened in
a big way. What do youthink. Uh my takeaway is that I
saw a member of the Pittsburgh mediasays and long the lines of, you
know, the Steelers are the worstteam in football. I don't think it's
close. I can't think of astable they to say about this team.

(38:59):
And I just thought, you pieceof absolute human garbage, like you don't
know what bad like you haven't watchedaryan offense, like our two spinner is
not your running back? Like stopthis is this is a bad team that
could easily be a playoff contender withlike two tweaks and t J. Watt

(39:22):
back in the lineup, like comeon, Like, of course they're really
bad. The Bills are very,very good and that's what this is.
And the Bills were a team thatwill absolutely smother you to the point of
exhaustion. Uh you know it's it'sthe Dan Campbell line where they will drag
you out to the deep end andabsolutely, you know, wear you down.

(39:42):
That's the Bills and they're really goodat it. And the Steelers were
the victims today. You play thisgame ten times, I think half of
those are what you said, tiehalf of the half of them are like
twenty one ten or twenty one seventeenBills victories. Uh, there are many
of these where the Steelers do putup a vice, but this wasn't this
one, And things like this happenedin the NFL. And I don't think

(40:04):
the Steelers are this bad. They'rejust not that good either. Yeah.
I think what we're looking at hereis like they're very mediocre football team that's
missing a couple of critical pieces.There's like this half of half the Steelers
fan basis like it's time to startquestioning, like tunel really what Like no,

(40:27):
no, that's not what's happening inyour at all. And then the
other half is the people like myhusband who are like, you know,
we could still make the playoffs.Divisions not that good and you're like,
ooh, also no to you,Okay, neither of you reality, they're
like the middle of the pack teamthat's well coached and has enough talent to
get out there in linsy games thatthey shouldn't. To me, the big

(40:52):
takeaway is Jenny Cook get either notready or never gonna be ready. I
don't know. I think they probablyneed to fund the idea that they may
be in the quarterback market again nextyear, but it's too early to tell
I'm not quite ready to write offcan you think it just yet? But
oh boy, does he have along way ago? Oh yeah, And
I think questioning my comlin after thisis ridiculous and I'm also doing but like,

(41:16):
yeah, don't quote the Deep Magicof Me, which I was there.
It was written like the Steelers.You you got a long way to
go, to Steelers fan before you'veactually witnessed bat football. Speaking of Titans
twenty one Commanders seventeen game none ofus wanted to watch was played and ended

(41:40):
about how we thought it was goingto end, shot accumulation anything from this.
Carson went had a better day thanI thought it was gonna have against
his Titans defense. And I'm nottrying to peat anyone's serials this morning,
but if you need twenty eight carriesas Derek hen to beat the Commanders like

(42:01):
that does not vote well for longterm success over the course of the season.
Like there has to be certain gamesover the course of the season with
a workhorse running back that you spellhim a little bit, that you have
backup stewer coming in taking like abunch of the workload that your passing game.
Can you know facilitate some things.If you are running someone twenty eight

(42:21):
to thirty times a game, everygame to get wins, that is not
sustainable, guys. And I honestlybelieve that this is a purit victory almost
for the Titans, because you shouldn'tneed to do that. You shouldn't need
Derrick Henry to have those kind ofdays to beat Washington. Yeah, skipper

(42:42):
the Washington part of this because,like you know what, no one wants
to think about that. That's notfootball. But yeah, I know Derreck
Henry, Okay, great, hefinds the end zone place, Well,
how much work did he have todo to get there? I'm not sure
that the correct strategy for the Titansduring this sort of semi we don't pays
that they're in is like, runDerrick Henry into the ground. Never love

(43:04):
that, and you don't like whatthis team's doing. Really underwhelming and I
don't seem like it for Derek Henryeither. Okay, I've got the Ron
Rivera. How bad could the Gandersbe? For how Logue? And I
still think he's a good coach?Right? Oh? I agree, I

(43:28):
agree, I will jump right outthat you. Yes, absolutely, I
like Eddie, right, now wegot people going maybe Dan Campbell is a
bad coach, and I'm sitting herelike, no, I think Ron still
Like, Ron's still doing his job. I totally agree with you. Like,
I don't know. I'm not evensure I can explain it or justify
it properably for gaming an hour.I could probably talk my way there,

(43:51):
but like, yeah, like,I don't think the problem is Ron Rivera
here, I really Treague not Yeah, but at the end of the day,
he's still employing a lot of coachesthat I think shouldn't have jobs at
more. So that's that's fair.That is fair. That is fair.
Let's guys speaking of coaches that vicOh man, I'm super thrilled by this.

(44:15):
I thought something like this might happen. I was actually in the middle
of already I spot um, theywere asking me about this game as it
was happening. Giants Giants twenty seven, Packers twenty two. I picked the
Giants to get the spread here becauseI thought it might get interesting. I
thought they would keep it close.I thought they would cover the spread.

(44:37):
I did not expect an actual wespecially not after the Packers came out fighting
and scoring points and I looked likeoh yeah, like just tremendous lafleurde.
We're sitting here like oh like stepskiss, like here we go. We
wanted all this time to see theoffense to pop off. Now we've got

(44:58):
it and it just slow. Anabsolute nightmare for green Bay guys. This
is probably my favorite thing that Isaw all day yesterday due to a combination
of it's kind of hilarious to seelike green Bay get like smacked like that,
especially in the London game where mostof the people they are public backers,
fans, and also Daniel Jones,you guys, the hero that no

(45:24):
one needs. Just tremendous. Wewere big Daniel Jones fans around these parts.
No because it's so exceptionally good,but because he's just great in so
many waves that are not quantifiable umand like yeah, I mean we I
know where it's all the right timeand cheek and we talk about this,
but you know, pretty good toughnessshown I think by Daniel Jones yesterday to

(45:45):
get out there on that bomb ankle. You know, he was running around
like he always does, so creditto him, credit to Brian Dable.
I don't think the Giants are nearlyas good as their record indicates. In
fact, I guarantee you they're notas good as their record indicates. But
and I'm a little bit more aboutsapon Mark Lay, who has been overused
for a guy who's relatively delicate,came out of the game for a while,

(46:07):
become back and score the game whenhe touchdown, which is great and
all, but I'm a little bitworried about the long term d being put
on him at the moment. Buthey, credit to dable credits is Daniel
Jones. Credit to zap Ah Giants. So cool, so cool. Yeah,
I'm gonna go the other way withthis one. I don't understand why,

(46:29):
like three or four games this season, Matt Lafloor needs to remember that
Aaron Jones exists. But yeah,and really good and you're playing a team
that you can just work horse backthis one. Yeah, I mean you've
got a number of backs. Youdon't need shot plays, you don't need
trick plays, you don't need AaronRodgers to have a career day to win

(46:52):
this one. This should have beena much easier victory. And at the
end of the day, I justthink there are moments in the NFL and
I realized This does go against whatI just said about Derrick Henry, but
I think it's two different scenarios.There are moments in the NFL where you
see eight in the box and youstill hand it off because you just know

(47:13):
you're better. And that's where thePackers at their best can be and they're
clearly not there this season, whichsucks because they don't have a receiving corps
in Aaron Rodgers doesn't look like AaronRodgers, and that defense isn't really put
up as much of a fight aswe all thought they would. So if
they don't trust the running game ina game against the Giants, I don't

(47:36):
know what they're doing here. Allright, let's go to San Francisco thirty
seven, Carolina fifteen. I don'tknow that there as much that we could
take away from this, but theshatty what do you think? Yeah?
I don't take away much from thisone, except for the Panthers do have
a better than advertised defense. Ithasn't always shown up a specific you know,

(47:59):
especially because a turn overs by theoffense, and just this one was
Jimmy Garoppolo having a pretty average dayby his standards, like over fifty percent
or get just over five percent passingbut no picks. It just came down
to the forty Niners are much betterteam. Yeah, I don't have much

(48:19):
to say about this. This wasa lot sighted game going in. It's
the result that we expected and thatthe forty nine ers should produce in this
game. And Baker is now ina walking boot. So a year later,
here we are doing with Baker.Oh boy, all right and Eagles
twenty, Cardinals seventeen. Samantha,you take away. I don't have a
ton to say about this one either. You know, Eagles getting the job

(48:42):
done, Cardinals. I've been doinga pretty good job of hanging around in
this one as well. So ifanything, that this was like okay,
Eagles business trip, who got itdone? It gave me some hope for
the Cardinals though, that they wereable to keep this this close and kind
of contain the Eagles offense. Okay, maybe the Arizona Cardinals are not as
dead as some of us feared.Yeah. I felt this one was a

(49:02):
lot closer than the score indicated,and quite frankly, I thought the Colonels
brought more of a fight than Ithought they would against a very very good
Eagles team. So this just continuesto prove my assertion that the Eagles are
just the best team in football rightnow. Yeah, I would go more

(49:30):
along with that if it wasn't alwaysthree points. How come they're always beating
teams by three points no matter howhigh or low the score is. Can
we just put the boot on athroat? Please? Please convince me?
Wow me, blow me away.Cowboys twenty two rams ten. This one

(49:52):
was fascinating, Shotti takeaway here?Can we stop talking about Cooper Rock when
the Cowboys defense is doing just likeI just every single time someone's like and
the Cowboys blah blah blah Cooper.No, Cooper Rush didn't do anything like

(50:14):
Matthew Stafford. Was harassed and haranguedand had a really bad day, but
was still far and away the bestquarterback at this one. Cooper Rush was
ten of sixteen. That's not CentralMichigan numbers. That's like a high school
team running the veer numbers. Guyslike, I'm happy for Cooper Rush,

(50:37):
but they're there are legitimate people outthere, legitimate people who have birth certificates
and aren't bots and aren't like aBangladeshi. You know, Twitter farm.
They're legitimate people who think Cooper Rushshould continue to start when Dak Prescott is
healthy because he's had these wins,and it's like they don't even under stand

(51:00):
that the other side of the ballexists. This is the cowboy's defense is
fantastic. Dan Quinn is earning himselfanother head coaching job with the job that
he is doing this season. MikeMcCarthy is coaching a cruise control because him
and his offense are doing nothing rightnow and he is benefiting from it.
He doesn't have to make good decisionswhen his defense is just smothering people.

(51:21):
The compoy's defense is maybe one ofthe biggest stories of twenty twenty two.
Yeah, I agree. I thinkthe only thing that really means we want
to talk about with Dallas right nowis that Pastor Rush and Mike a par
season, just absolutely incredible performance yetagain out of them, I mean a
nightmare day from Matthew Stafford and Ican't give enough credit to Dan Quinn.

(51:43):
This has been a very different defensepost Rotten there Noik and with dan Quinn
at the home incredible job. Butyeah, this doesn't make Mike McCarthy a
competent head coach. This doesn't meanCooper Rush is better than Dak Prescott.
Yeah, look, this is it'sjust an absolutely ridiculous line of thinking.
And for the Rams, like MatthewStafford, he doesn't have any help.

(52:05):
I mean, what's he supposed todo. He's trying to do so much
on his own. And you goup against the defense like that, And
I think that and this is probablysomething you should save for like a big
topic at a later date when wecan talk more about it. But the
Rams brand of team building, whichI've never been a fan of, and
I get it, flags five forever, you morgage your whole draft, you
bring in a bunch of proven stars, you get a Super Bowl. Absolutely

(52:28):
totally hear it. But now they'repaying the price for that, and that's
something I think we should discuss furtherat a later date. Yeah. Absolutely.
And while the Browns are already makingmoves to get better defense, made
trade for a line backer yesterday.I would like to see the Rams like

(52:50):
we all saw the three of ussaid Cowboys pass rush meets Rams offensive line
equals Catboys win. Very simple,A plus B equals see. I think
the Rams need to keep that math. I go So do we need to
make a trade, Do we needto sign somebody? Do we need to
get Andrew Whitworth. Somebody posted avideo I saw Whitworth retweeted it with like

(53:15):
the crying, laughing emojis of somethingless snead to Andrew Whitworth after week one,
And it's this guy who like isat this woman's doorstep and he's like
on all fours and like reaches upand hands her like a huge lot one
hundred dollars bills and she goes,you may kiss my boots and sticks out

(53:38):
her boot and he kisses it andshe slams the door in his face.
So something something like that has tohappen because this Rams team is not going
to be competitive until they can giveMatthew Stafford more time to throw the ball.
All right, let's go got ourlast game Ravens nineteen Bengals seventeen Sunday

(54:00):
Night Football again with a game thatwe wanted to see competitive matchup close.
Finished, Samantha, what do youthink? I thought they both looked a
little bit underwhelming, which is prettyhard for the course for an AFC North
primetime game. This is what weexpect, right, I mean, we
didn't get as much of the likecask goblin, like comedic screw up stuff
that we sometimes get out of thesewhen they play after seven pm. But

(54:23):
uh yeah, I mean, Idon't know expected this to be close.
Um it's I think you can sortof debate who needed this more, Cincinnati
or Baltimore. I mean, wewere pretty critical Baltimore a week ago,
and I'm not sure they actually lookedany better regarding any of the things that
we talked about. It's still somepretty significant issues here that need to get

(54:50):
resolved. And you know, theLamar Jackson performance obviously kind of a con
turn in this one. But Baltimoreescapes with the win. This is probably
what the division is going to comedown to at this point. So these
adsheads they matter because it's probably goingto be pretty close. And on a
game where Jamar Chase played, Ithought Devin Durne was the best skill position

(55:15):
player on the field and Jaking closesecond, and I'm not sure there was
a very close third, including misterChase. But we talked about a lot
heading into this game about Lamar Jackson'scontract. During this game, Wilamer Jackson's
contredy was mentioned repeatedly by the bythe Sunday Football Crew, but with some

(55:37):
injured receivers and the lack of investmentthat this team has made in the receiver
corps, he looked rather pedestrian untilthe very end. He looked like a
guy who could not hit a wideopen target repeatedly until the very end.
And I think that's just a lackof chemistry and guys who you know,
aren't worth spending a ton of timeon in practice, especially knew that Rasharde

(56:00):
Batemon Hurt. I think this isa team that absolutely is dying. If
we're talking about teams that need togo out and make a move, like
like the Rams adding an offensive lineman, I think, you know, Odell
Beckham is just sitting out there,and the Ravens need talent and wide receiver
they could bring in like des Brianagain and he would probably be an upgrade

(56:22):
from some of the guys that thatare ceiling snaps on that roster. So
um Ozzie Newson was able to getaway with some some things theoretically that I
just don't think this team has thatlevel of talent scouting department anymore, and
they need to go out and makea move that that's a little counterculture of
them, and I think whether that'sSoll Beckham Junior or not, they just

(56:45):
need more talent the wide receiver positionbecause Lamar Jacks is being wasted right now,
even though as we saw the asjust a phenomenal player. All Right,
it's been a phenomenal time, anomalhour long key takeaways today, but
we had a lot to get to, a lot to talk about. I
had too many lines feelings, asis the norm. Thanks to everyone we
showed up in chat and ask questions. We're gonna record this of Garding.

(57:07):
We did record this. We aregoing to put this in our feed,
just like we will with our bigshow and we talk to our big guests
pick all those games straight up andagainst the spread. It's like we do
every single week. Thanks to everybody, we will see you back again eight
am Eastertime, live on Twitter spacesto break down next week's NFL action,

(57:28):
just like we always do right hereon three and out your National NFL Podcast