Transcript of 2024 Week 10 Preview

Welcome to NFL Daily, where everything's fine. We're just fine. Just totally chill, totally normal 24 hours here since we've last been in the Chris Westphalian podcast studio with my friend Patrick Claybon. My other friend Steve Weiss. We're here for the Week 10 preview. Let's go.

Let's get the football.

Let's do it.

I know. I reached out to some folks. I'm very, very fortunate, and always have been, to be surrounded by the people that I have in my life, and I couldn't imagine spending it with any other group of people.

Appreciate you, Patrick. That was a great job.

Shout out to all you all.

Yeah, for real.

Back there behind the glass. I appreciate you guys.

Absolutely. More on the great people behind the glass a little later in the show. This will be Randy Chávez's last day. Behind the studio wall for NFL Daily. We'll talk about him, give him some flowers later in the show, and that is a great sentiment. I did feel better getting to work today and seeing everyone and just being back in the football mix and We're going to do the preview the same way we always do, smallest to biggest spreads.

We start with a team. I don't know if you guys know, the New York Jets are all fixed now, guys. Everything is great. They're taking that greatness on the road to go up against the Arizona Cardinals who, Greg, are on a three-game winning streak with Jonathan Gannon's defense, giving up a top five EPA per dropback despite having a sack by committee approach. Do they get it done against the Jets?

Wow, this is such a fun late afternoon game. It really is. In a window where there aren't great options, this to me is really fascinating to me. Can nick Rauhless in this defense turn into a steady defense that at least isn't giving up big plays and gives problems to a Jets offense, which got going. Finally, in the second half of that Thursday night game, they get the extra rest here. But I look at it the other way around and think about this Cardinal's offense because that's how if they're going to make the playoff this year, it's going to be because their offense is next level. I love Steve, how Kyler Murray has quietly transformed a little bit who he is. Not a lot of negative plays. Last week, not flashy. It was one of the first Cardinal's wins I can remember where Kyler didn't do much, but that's almost a good sign. If you look at his numbers, very few negative plays. He's in the top 10 in the league in terms pressure to sack ratio, so he's avoiding sacks. He's in the top 10 of the league in terms of turnover-worthy play percentage, so he's not making mistakes.

He's not fumbling a ball. He's not throwing picks. And of course, you get the spectacular plays. Sometimes, maybe you don't need them all against the Jets as long as you don't make big mistakes.

Yeah, this is the first time probably in his career, when he's healthy, where he hasn't had to do as much. He's still the bearer of the cross, so to speak, but he's got some weapons. James Connor is a stud. I want to ask both of you guys this, though, because to me, this is a, okay, make us believe something can happen game. Is it more so for the Jets or for the Cardinals? Like, make me a believer type game?Jets.It's.

Still the Jets for me. I've seen this Cardinal team win three games in a row. I think they beat...

Against good teams. Yeah, I have close games, but I feel like I know who they are. I don't know that they're going to win the division or not, but they're going to be in the mix, and they present a lot of problems for you. I still don't know who the Jets are.

But if the Jets lose this, then, okay, it's a wrap. Yes. The 3-7. The owner can go back to England, and the rest of the team can do whatever. They can figure it out. But if they win this game, it could get very interesting. I love it's only a one-point difference here because I think it's a toss-up type of game. I look at the Jets defense. Kyler's a different guy than they've played, and he's so good. You know how much I love Kyler Murray and the way that he plays. It's like, if the Cardinals win this game, I'm like you. I'm like, okay, they're going to be a pain. They're going to be a tough out. But if they win this game, it's like the old Leonardo DiCaprio and Django. Now, sir, you have my attention. I knew you'd like that. No, I love it.

It's thematic on the day. I had to go look up who leads the Cardinals in the Sacks. Do you guys know?

No.

Dennis Gardex, though, who is towards the ACL.

It's Dante Stills. He's got three and a half Sacks. Zaven Collins has three. We at least know who he is. Chris Barnes, K. R. I. S. Barnes has two sacs. Normally, when there's a game coming up against Aaron Rodgers and the Jets, I try to key on this one or particular edge rusher. Where do the Jets need to focus? I don't know what they do here with this sac by committee approach. And then over on the other side, the Jets, much to their pleasure this season, have forced the second most pass attempts on the run this season. Other quarterbacks scramble on 18.7 7% of place. Great. Problem now is it's Kyler Murray. It's Kyla Murray, right. That's something you don't want to do.

Well, that was one of my takeaways from that Thursday night game. Is the Jets' pass rush back? Hassan Redik had a nice game. Everyone has a nice game against the Texans, But they were getting pressure at every position. Will McDonald had a nice game. Quinnen Williams has played his two best games of the season back to back weeks. That's actually a strength for the Cardinals. Their offensive lines played pretty well this year. To me, when the Jets having the ball, though, that's a game plan matchup because the Cardinals don't have the players ultimately, but sometimes they can confuse the opposition. Can they confuse Aaron Rodgers and whoever, Todd Downing, calling the plays? Maybe, maybe not. They're just such an up and down team. I think We're going to see some points in this game. I actually think both offenses end up winning.

I agree. To go to the Cardinals' past, the Pass rush, they're not going to confuse Aaron Rodgers. No one's going to confuse him. They can confuse that offensive line. They can do some things because, okay, who do we scheme against? Where do we shift the doubles in certain situations? We don't know. We know Jonathan Gatten is very creative in generating pressures. I think this is going to be a fantastic game.

Roger is spelled out, looking at his schedule, talking to Al and Kirk Herb Street, going through all the games that they could win. That's all true. But even if they won this game and it's close to their four and six, it's like that's a pretty slim margin for her. I look at all these games, it's like, yeah, you can win them all, but you can lose them all. There's no game where you're like, oh, the Jets are the way better team. So TBD on them getting off Fraud Watch.

Yeah. In fact, they're going to have to do something. We're going to have to invent a term to come back from Fraud Watch because it wasn't just necessarily a watch. It was confirmed. They fired their coach. They had to make a huge trade to get Devante Adams to change the circumstance. And then they're able to slide past this Texans team that's going in the wrong direction on Halloween night where they needed that countdown to Devante. It wasn't like they were running away. I know that Malikar Corley had the mistake, but there's plenty of teams all across the league, Seattle, Miami, all these teams that had game-changing mistakes. The Jets survived that one against the Texans, but they're still not on watch.

I believe now that the-Possim alert. Yeah. Now that the offense is back enough, I'm sick of trying to make the decision on my fantasy team which to start Devante or Garrett Wilson. I've been just trying to guess. I'm just going to start them both. I believe that they'll have a good enough game here against the Cardis offensively.

I'm just guessing your third is not that great. He's fine. Okay.

It feels like a lot of jets. The Miami Dolphins are going to have to get on the jet to fly across the country after flying up north to upstate New York. They are two and a half point underdogs against the Los Angeles Rams. The Dolphins coming off their best game offensively this season, all the way to LA. A fully operational Rams team, Steve, where they're on a three-game win streak, two winnable games coming up, unbeaten since the buy, reminding me of the 2023 Sean McVay run that went on the buy and then went on a huge run on the way to the playoffs.

And they did that when they got heavy on the run game, when they played some power football. I'm almost surprised that the margins are almost two and a half. I mean, I know Miami's offense is playing well, and that's going to be an exciting game Monday night. But the Dolphins defense has not done much. Los Angeles is getting Puka back. The explosive playability that we've seen out of this Ram's offense is something that's all right. Stafford is coming in and just drilling the ball downfield. Now, that's not to say that the Ram's defense is going to be that great. They're not a fast secondary, so this is where Waddle and Tyree kill these guys can get after them. But I'm going to say it once again, those young dudes on the D front, Jared Vershiden, the rookie, and Braden Fisk are real Dudes, they are real guys. They are going to be into his grill, so it's going to be that quick passing game. I just think the Rams, they're on a groove. I think with Puka coming back after being ejected and being embarrassed by that, I think he's going to have a big game.

You know what? I Hope you're right on Puka. I didn't think he looked great last week when he was out there. I asked around a little bit. I think that knee injury that he suffered in practice is concerning because that Thursday night game he came back for, and that was the full Puka. If you watched last week's game, he and Stafford weren't exactly on the same page, and he maybe wasn't moving as well. They're not the same team offensively, but I think they have more going on overall in terms of their balance between the defense and the offense than the Dolphins do. Actually, EPA per play, for what it's worth, I looked this up for a different team we'll talk about later. But since week 6, EPA per play, their defense is third in the NFL, the Los Angeles Rams. It's pretty impressive. It's a front that can get after you. The problem for them is, Tua gets rid of the ball so quickly. It's been even quicker the last couple of weeks than usual. The timing has been fantastic. He hasn't really looked like he missed a minute. They haven't been going down the field as much as the old-school Dolphins, but they got some intermediate routes into the mix against the Bills, and it was extremely effective and accurate.

There's not a lot of reason for me to think that this Ram's defense is going to slow down that running game, which is really good, or to being on time with this throws.

If not for the anomaly that's Jared Goff in 2024, The past two weeks, Tua's had an 80.3 completion percentage. It trails only Goff in this incredible run that he's on by a full percentage point, which is like, you just got to throw that one out there. Two is playing pretty well. Jared Verste leading all rookies with 39 quarterback pressure.

That dude is good, man.

Three and a half sacs. But I can't go away. I know that we're going to have to wait and see how healthy Pukina Kua is. But when Cooper Cup is back on the... Matthew Stafford just looks different. We had some questionable throws during that no-cup era, and all those just seemed to go away against the Seattle Seahawks. It was just like, Oh, Matthew Stafford's back. And I think number 10 has a whole It has to do with that.

I mean, and then Robinson stepping up. Like, okay, I need to step up. Right.

I mean, suddenly, Cooper Cupping back just gives DeMarcus Robinson superhuman powers. He's made crazy catches the last two weeks.

But I mean, that says something. I'm in a room with you guys. He's high IQ. I've I know I've got to level up, right? And that's what Robinson is doing. So this is going to be, to me, it could end up being the game of the weekend in terms of excitement and points and things like that.

I want to ask you a tough question, though. So in this scenario, if Patrick and I are helping to raise your game, we're the Cooper Cup and Pukeuna Kua.I'm the DeMarcus Robinson.So who's the Jordan, Wittington, and Tutu Atwell that's not really raising your game quite as much?

I know you dropped. You're not going to admit it, but there's a name in there, every time I hear it, it's like...

I don't know who you're being, but I like that. That's good. People are going to have to guess.

Deep, deep.

All right, folks, digging through the roster right now. Going to a NFL at work, footballreference. Com, and sorting by lose shares. As we get away from the Monday night game and go to a game that we did not know was going to be this good several weeks ago. It is the Pittsburgh Stealers at the Washington Commanders, who are two and a half point favorites against a team that could be first place in the AFC North, over under 45 and a half. Ian Egle, Charles Davis, and Evan Washburn on the call. Greg, we have seen Jaden Daniels win a lot of different ways, what would a Commander's win look like against this Pittsburgh Stealers defense?

I think it would look like their offensive line holding up in what's going to be their toughest test yet this season, if you look at what they're doing. I think they've overachieved, considering the talent that they have, we thought that was going to be one of the worst offensive lines in the league. I think they've done a great job coaching it up. I think the young players like Brandon Coleman have played well, the free agent signings like Tyler Biotish have played well. But The Steelers are a little different, and they're coming off of a bye week. T. J. Watt, at times, has been almost a little tired this season at the end of games. He's fresh right now. You add Preston Smith to the mix. Got him some of depth. They're deep. If you can get Jaden Daniels time, We already know what's going to happen. He'll dice him up. There's no question. If he gets time and protection and they block well in this game, I don't care what the Steelers' defensive ranking is. They're going to put up 30. But I don't know if I quite believe in the commander's front to pass this test.

They got to just keep passing these tests as they go, and this is the biggest one yet.

This is what we're going to see. We're watching a video right now of Jaden Daniels breaking pressure. He's a guy, he's slippery. The comparisons to Lamar, he's not Lamar yet, but he's got He's got evasiveness, and he's got the ability to make decisions on the move. The Steelers haven't faced a slippery quarterback like him. But again, Washington, you could say, Do they have a quality win? No. I mean, in terms of a stellar opponent victory, who they faced. So both of these teams, you can say that we know the Steelers beat the Chargers early in the season. They beat the Falcons earlier in the season. But since both these teams, this is a, Okay, who are we? We know the Steelers' identity. Washington is a fun team. We don't know their identity yet. But I think the fact them going out getting Marshawn Latamore, who I think will play in spots. He's somebody who can travel with the receiver, very physical tackler. He's not going to know the defense enough to play the full game.

We'll see if he has the Devante out Adam's magical ham string healing because he did have an injury before this.

He did. I actually spoke with someone there and said they have to figure it out. So this seems like it's pretty legit unless Mr. Miyagi comes in. It gets his hands together. It gives them touch. But I think this is going to be a really fun game as well. I actually like Washington in this game. I think this is the game. Russ has been so ridiculous the past couple of games, especially throwing the ball downfield, and this is a team to do it against, that it's almost like he's due to put a pot fly up there. I don't know. He doesn't turn the ball over often, but man, he's just been like, if he keeps it up playing like he's played those last two or three games, all right, now the Steelers, the Steelers, everybody, It's going to be, I think, an opportunity to find out what things are like for...

Because the season started in San Rastil, St. Juice. It was down the sideline over and over again. In the past few weeks, that's gone away. And San Rastil, I wanted to highlight until out of nowhere, Danny Dimes just runs over not just him, but his teammate as well and collects an angry run there. But I think because both teams added players, I think in spots of need, the Steelers for eight months now have been trying to get a wide receiver. Get a big 50-50 guy. They go get Mike Williams. So now there's somebody on the opposite side of the field. I know the memes about Russ ignoring the middle of the field. Well, if you've got two big targets on the outside, you could do that as well as the run game is going right now. Then on the other side, this is the number three quarterback scramble team in the NFL, led by Jaden Daniels. But it's the number one defense against stopping the quarterback They go and get PQ. They draft Wilson in the line. There's so much speed on the edges, and then you add in Wat and high Smith there. I think on the edges, this isn't going to be the mismatch that the commanders have been able to feast on all year.

Fun game that Charles Davis, our friend. Yes, I like him getting in such an awesome game this week. I think Russ being as good as he was in that game against the Giants before the buy was one of the moments of the season. You're like, Wow, if they can to really revive Russ's career in a consistent, meaningful way, this team is going to be different. I feel like I need to see more. I think he got a little too much love for an up and down first game back, but then he got into the flow, and he was fantastic in that second performance. To give Arthur Smith some credit, he's not doing as much of the outside zone as just like in the past, it's all outside zone, all outside zone. It wasn't really working all the time. They're still doing that, but they're mixing up the running game. Then when you see younger guys develop, I think that's a really strong point to the coaching stuff. Calvin Austin, we weren't sure what he was going to be at the NFL level. Now, he's a great third, fourth guy as an extra weapon, and he's maybe in a spot where he doesn't have to be the outside guy with Mike Williams there.

That's great. Darno Washington is a valuable player for them. He's blocking well. He's another offensive lineman. He's making plays, and Freirmoot is a solid tenant. That, to me, is coaching. First year in this system that they're just steadily building Building up what this offense can be. I think it'll be more problems, to your point about Washington not facing many great offenses lately. They've done pretty well in some spots. Cincinnati, they were horrible. But since then, Arizona, everything, I'm Really curious to see how they do because I think offensively, if the Steelers can be a top 12 type of offense, then watch out, they're a Super Bowl contender.

What's interesting is to see if Pittsburgh is going to be able to keep hammering the ball like they have been, because those two linebackers are Washington. Bobby Wagner is still dealing, and Frankie Louvou I mean, we continue to talk about how dynamic of a player he has been. It's almost like when Roquan Smith went to Baltimore and Patrick Queen was there, how that made Patrick Queen take off. Getting Louvou and Bobby Wagner feeding off each other like that, they have been dynamic. I think that's going to cause him issues.

I'm contractually obligated to bring up every time Franky Louvou name comes up. Jordan Rodrieg of the Athletic, put him on our preseason All-Pro team. To the consternation of myself and many fans who thought that was a little too rich, and she saw it come in there. One last thing on this game. I do think the Steelers cornerbacks, Dante Jackson and Joey Porter Jr, are a little attackable here. Porter makes great plays, but he also is a gambler. He's out of position sometimes. Donnie Jackson has just been struggling. So that's something I think the opponents they faced haven't really taken advantage of. So watch out for Scary Terry, and Noah Browns had some nice moments. I think that Washington wins, I think you could see some deep shots back and forth, vertical down the field.

So much to look forward to in that game. A couple of good teams. From there, we go to a team that's on the other direction. But then one of Greg's Super Bowl picks the Buffalo Bill's three and a half point favorites at Indianapolis who start Joe Flacko to results. We'll call them Steve, Andrew Catalan, Tiki Barber, and Jason McCordy. Again, three and a half point The over-under is 47. What more can the Colts do to have success, especially against a very good Buffalo team?

Yeah, I see this number three and a half, and it makes me think the odds maker's thinking either Buffalo is going to play down or Indianapolis is going to have a spike because offensively, they were so bad. I mean, defensively, Indianapolis, they got dudes. I mean, DeForge Buckner and those guys up front, they look good still. Now that he's back, it's helped out Quitty Pay. It's helped out some of these other guys. Kenny Moore on the back end in the slot, but they have not faced a scrambler like Josh Allen. I don't know. I think if Buffalo doesn't play down, that four seems like a real tight number. I like Buffalo to go to Indianapolis. I know people think, again, the Colts are going to give them a tough shot, and they might. But at some point, I think the explosive players for the Bills show up. I think there's a question about Keion Coleman's availability for the Bills, but I still think they've got too many weapons. They may not run the ball, but I just think Josh Allen's scrambling ability is going to be too much.

Yeah, Keion Coleman is week to week, and Sean McDermott indicated it could be a while for Keion Coleman. I think he was getting a second opinion, which sounds like they're hoping for a better answer.

Is it Mark Cooper? He's touching goal, too.

It's risks for both of them, broadly enough.

Yeah, so that's a concern, and that might inform-That might be part of the number. Another one is, I think the Colts have played a one-score game in every game this season against every opponent. They are the middle of the NFL They are the Dalton scale of an NFL team, where it's just like, you can measure yourself if you're above or below the Colts. It's always hard to figure out who Patrick roots for, Steve, but it's not hard to figure out who he's rooting against. He's rooting against the cults as long as Joe Flacko is starting. Am I right?

Because you didn't like the decision. I would like to see something else. Nothing about that game in primetime said to made that this is the right decision. They had to get Joe Flacko in there so that they could have a chance to win this season. That wasn't my takeaway.

No. It's interesting because I think if you are a pass first team against the Bills, they're a team that that's playing into their head. Yeah, you don't want to do that. This is an ultimate team that you got to just be patient, run the ball. Anthony Richardson would help Jonathan Taylor and help their running.

The Bills aren't great against the run. No. You can play power ball against them.

Yeah, he's number 12 among running backs and rushing yards That's what you're expected. I think a lot of that comes from, if you total up to season totals, our rushes with Anthony Richardson in the backfield, where there's that threat that he's going to pull that ball. It's not necessarily there with Joe Flacko. If they have Flacko, then you're going to expect to see those explosive plays in the passing game that just didn't materialize.

Yeah, and Michael Pitman is still not 100%. He's missing practice. He's played through this back injury, and I heard him speaking on Wednesday, and he's a tough guy, but It almost seems like the team should maybe step in. He's not who he normally is. Ryan Kelly, their center-Yeah, he's out.is out and going on injured reserve. They are getting their left tackle back, Bernard Ryman, it sounds like, but Kelly might be out for a long time. So it's a banged up team on top of everything else. That's not a good sign. I did want to note the Bills signed a couple of defensive tackles this week. We've bounced around the league, Quitten Jefferson and Jordan Phillips. But that's proving your point about they aren't feeling good about stopping the when you're signing two journeymen at this point in the season and hoping that they can help out.

Yeah. This is not going to be like the Rams Dolphins game or the Steelers Washington game.

No. Shout out to Greg Ruso, by the way. One of the best developmental stories, I think, in the league. Improved every single season. I'm going to like seeing him on the fast track there in Indy. Watch out for a big game there. I also think James Cook has just been fantastic this year picking up extra yards. We're going to take a quick break in return for, yes, the Mike Tarriko, Chris Collinsworth, Sunday Nighter. It's a fun one. It's fun on Sunday Night Football when you see teams that just haven't been there that much. And Detroit, we're starting to get used to. Houston Houston, not as much. These two teams, they remind me of each other that Houston is on this track that Detroit's been on maybe one year longer. They're hitting some turbulence right now.

Yeah, turbulence is the only way to get there. The only way to get... If this game happens in week two, it's pandemonium. We're going nuts. The Texans are a little bit of a downstretch, but it's time. In fact, it's time for hot matchups presented by Wingstop here on NFL Daily. The Detroit Lions, a three and a half point favorite on on the road against those Houston Texans, Mike Tariko, Chris Collinsworth, Melissa Stark on the call. They'll have a song before the game. Everything will be great. But then, Greg, this Houston Texans offensive line will have to protect C. J. Stroud, something they have not been able to do.

This is the matchup where they can, though. It's interesting. As good of a team as the lines are, and I like the pickup of Zedaria Smith.

Big time.

He can step in right away and play minutes for them. I don't think he needs to learn scheme for three weeks to go rush the passer. They haven't rushed the passer well at all since Aiden Hutchinson has gotten hurt. It's amazing that they're such a well-oiled machine, offensively, defensively, coaching special teams, that it hasn't really mattered. They haven't faced an opponent that it's mattered. I think Houston should look at this matchup and say, Actually, this is a front we might be able to get CJ some time against. If we get CJ some time, we got a chance.

Yeah, and then Joe Mixon, they've got to run the They've got to pound the ball to get to play action stuff. If it's just CJ dropping back, they'll eventually get to him. Aaron Glenn can come up with some coverages to block off some zones and stuff like that and create pressures. I mean, that's what they have to do. He's had to be very creative. We know they like to blitz their inside linebacker. Anzaloni is a hell of a player. I think they've got to run the ball to get it going. Boy, the three and a half on this is interesting. I think Houston has been embarrassed. I think they're going to tighten it up this week. I actually like the Texans to win this one. Wow. All right, I do. Because I think as great as the Lion's offense is playing right now, too, matchup-wise, this is good, man, because you know how much the Lynes, they can pound the ball with Montgomery and Gibbs. They can set up to play action. Goff hasn't been asked to do too much. I just think this is a game where Hughes can score enough points as to where it's going to be the Goff versus C.

J. Stroud show.

One thing that will help C. J. Stroud still waiting. Heard from and head coach Demeco Ryan. Nico Collins could come back. They're going to monitor him this week. C. J. Strata has a higher passer rating, completion percentage, yards per attempt, generated more EPA. Of course, all those things seem obvious, but to look just at the difference with Nico Collins on the field versus Nico Collins, it is significant. I think it makes some of those offensive line issues not go away, but just a little bit easier to deal with when you've got this giant gainer of yards and catcher of football.

A giant human being.

Out there to throw the football.

We don't know that he's coming back. He was not at practice on Wednesday. They activated him. He supposedly has a decent chance to play this week. That is something big to check because you're right. We got to group that trio of receivers together at the beginning of the year. And then you realize, no, it's more like Justin Jefferson and the other good receivers like Jordan Addison on the Vikings. There's a big gap between one and two, and CJ loves that dude. That's his guy. It's a good point that Detroit, for as good as their offense I think this is actually their toughest test of a defense that they face. Will Anderson miss Wednesday's practice? That's concerning, but he hasn't really missed game time, so I don't think that will be a problem. The bad news for the Texans, though, is in the rest of the league, frankly, the lines are getting healthier. They're getting Jamison Williams back now. He hasn't been hurt. He's had a suspension, but he's coming back on the field this week. They got Zedaria Smith in the trade, and then they actually started the practice window for Melo Fano, who's a good safety, and Emmanuel Moseley, who's a guy who's going to get snaps for them at cornerback.

We don't know if they'll return this week, but they're getting some reinforcements for a team that's really past every test. This is another one. It's like they've had so many games where they've had to be up. This is an out-of-conference game on the road. They've just passed every test, though, where they pretty much are playing their A minus game every week. That's really hard to do, and they've done it.

I'm so glad you mentioned the secondary. I love some of the young safeties. Jalen Petrie, who's a superstar for Houston, but Kirby Joseph.

Yeah.

I mean, he's a ballhawk. We know. I mean, he came to Fame last year because Matthew Stafford said he hit Who's a tight end, hit him low, and he still hasn't come back for the Rams this year.

Tyler Higby.

Tyler Higby, right. Higby has come in. Thank you for searching the Rolodex. The old man here who keeps forgetting. But Kirby Joseph is a hell of a player, and he's somebody, if Nico Collins comes back and really starts to play that stuff where he's running up the hash marks like he does, that we could see some really good matchups.

Yeah, and They get Brian Branch to presumably come back and play a full game. He apologized for the Double Bird, which gave us an opportunity to talk about the story and history of the Double Bird. Oh, yeah. On the Sunday recap show. But a lot of good-Oh, yeah.

The Double Birds were happening in Houston back with Bud Adams.

Brian Cox still has the best one.

There's a connection here. I know, Patrick, you're not into the, Okay, the team is going to try harder this week because there's more motivation. Houston does have four extra days rest, which I think is a thing. So that's nice. I don't know if I believe in the try harder, but I do believe in that good teams respond to bad performances. If you're a good team, you're not going to stay bad consistently. I do think that was the worst game the Texans played all season. I can't see them responding and playing more like their A game.

You could do that because you are a good team. Good teams can evaluate what went wrong, and you can implement the corrections, whereas bad teams tend to just stay bad.

Tend to just go ahead and wallow in the L. Speaking of, let's get to our next game.

Nice segue. A matchup in the NFC South where the Atlanta Falcons are a four-point favorite against the Dennis Allen-Less, New Orleans Saints, the over under 46, Joe Davis, G-Reg, and Pam Oliver on the call. Do the Saints get the, We fired our coach, and we like the next guy better bump, Steve?

They'll get a bump. And not only that, but Derek Carr is going to come out and get Mike Thomas off of his back. He's well had to the Mike Thomas came off with a few scud missiles after that came. Look, this is... I know it's-That was during the game.

That was like, he's out there throwing- Mike's got his phone. He's not waiting. He's going to watch.

He's going to let you know how it feels.

Look, it's four points. These guys always play close games. Atlanta is really rolling me. Kerko is playing good. We know the Saints defense is not what it was. The way they're running the ball, now they're getting Kyle Pitz engaged. But I just think it's going to be a close game. I think the Saints will get some type of spike because it's always just players. I've seen this forever. Oh, man, now it's on us. We don't have anyone else to play them. They fired the head coach, and the Saints don't like to do that.

Especially this one, because I think this one applies more for the fired coach principle than almost any I can ever remember because the players fired their coach.

The players fired them. That's how I feel.

They fired them. Yes, they did. I've been trying for years.

Yeah, but not just through their play, but through communication with the highest The best levels. I think they helped. So they're going to... Saints, Falcons. I saw this tweet, what you can do after the election, one of the options you have, and one of them was make an impulsive and self-destructive major life decision. I don't know if I want to do that, but I think I might just pick the Saints at least this week. That's my version of a self-destructive life decision because I believe in the fired coach principle enough more than ever. And in this matchup, this is their Super Bowl.It's their Super Bowl.And they played the first time around. That was a It's a crazy game where the lead changed hands a couple of times in the last minute of the game. And that's just how these two teams roll.

I'm with you. I would also like to make a rash decision and pick the Saints at home.

I thought you were going to hit the bottle.

The folks in New Orleans deserve the team to play better than it has in the past few seasons. But it's just this is not the same team.

No Olave.

Olave, who said that he's going to go through the process, new coach, the interim coach, we should mention, Daren Rizzi, says that he is going to have Chris Olave go through the process. Chris Olave, the person, is their primary concern before anything else. That was a wicked hit, man. It started to pile up. Now we've got the Ghost of Sed Wilson, Marquez Valdés, Scantling. It's really difficult to imagine. I know that the final goodbye, the final hurrah of the Dennis Allen era is going into Carolina and having Alvin Kamerra get over 200 yards total.

He looked awesome last week. He looked awesome. You got AK, you got Tateam Hill, you got some of those prideful guys in defense. Just weird things happened in this matchup. We don't know about Drake London and Grady Jarrett status, but there was good news for the Falcons that they're day to day, so it is not long term for either one of those. Yeah, I don't know.

I'm feeling. I shouldn't talk you out. Take the saying it's going to be a close game.

No, I am. No, it's going to be a close game, man. It will. That's just how these teams play.

I want to give Bajon Robinson a little bit of love just because As well as he's playing, I think you almost take it for granted, but this is the best stretch of his career. Four straight games over 100 yards from scrimmage. A couple of those had 140. Last year on that Falcon's offense, his success rate was below average, 36%, which for a guy that talented is a crime. This year, 46%, top six among all runningbacks in the league. So he's making the splash plays, but he's also just grinding out those six-yard gains. And he's been fun to watch. I thought Kirk Cousins last week actually may… Did he move a little better? They had a few play-action plays. Oh, there it is. They had a few play-action plays that hit. Now, they didn't do much. He was 4 for 4 for 80 yards, so it was still only four attempts, but maybe moving a little better.

What about Darnell Mooney? Yes. What about how that dude has absolutely emerged? Him and Kerko have got that relationship going. That's something to watch in this game because he seems to be hitting a big play every third of the time.

This isn't about logic, though. This game, it's not about logic. It's about passion. It's about the fired coach principle. It's just about weird stuff happening when these two teams play.

That's true. And not just weird, because we've seen this collection of Saints players, even the ones that are remaining. I know they're dealing with it. We've seen them be successful. We saw them literally have the most successful season in Dennis Allen's coaching career last year. Nine wins was the top. That's as good as it was.

That was the seedling. How did he finish off that season and also start to finish off his career as a Saint?

No, I'm apologizing to Arthur Smith. By being disrespected.

By his own team.

By his own team. That's what I'm saying by James.

I saw James Hearst, who was on that team and is now working in local broadcasting in New Orleans, say that he thought that was the beginning. Maybe it wasn't even the beginning, but that was a huge moment in Dennis Allen losing the team, which is ironic because that was the moment the front office decided, actually, we're going to keep him. Tell me how you feel about it. Yes. Jameis Winston. Don't apologize for Jameis Winston. No.

Or touch downs, which is difficult to come by in the NFL. Our next game is the Minnesota Vikings coming off of that win against Joe Flacko, a four and a half point favorite at the Jacksonville Jaguars, who were magnanimous enough, Greg, to send them a left tackle after Christian Darisal goes down. Now, it's the time for the Cam Robinson revenge game against this old squad on Fox, Adam Amin, Mark Sanchez, and Christina Pink on the call. How do you see it going?

I think the Vikings are just a lot more trustworthy in a matchup where we don't know if Trevor Lawrence is going to be 100%. He's sitting out of practice, was very sore, apparently after that loss to the Eagles, and he's coming off one of his roughest games. He does not seem like the quarterback, and Doug Peterson doesn't seem like the play collar right now to be able to solve the puzzle that is facing Brian Flores. Now, some coaches can. We've seen it. We've seen Sean McVay do it. We've seen Matt Lafleur do it to some degree, but I don't think this Jaguar's team can. This is one of those matchups I was like, I feel like I've never watched the Jaguar's Vikings game, but I did check. It has happened eight times in history, every four years. So it's no different than every other matchup, but the last time they played was during that pandemic year, and maybe that's why I have Black Cold. The Jaguars were one and eleven at the time.

Who were the starting quarterbacks in that one?

And lost that game. Give me a second. It was Mike Glennon and Kerko. Mike Lennon was for the Jags.

Sorry. Wow. No wonder they drafted. Look, I like the number. I like the number four and a half. I like Minnesota to win it. The Jags are one of these teams That if they're able to hang around, they're just going to be a pain because defensively up front, they can give you some headaches. I mean, Trayvon Walker, he's a speed to power rusher, but he's good against the run. He can really get on a tackle. Josh Heinz-Allens is the same, a little bit more creative in the pass rush. But I'm just worried for them. If Minnesota gets up early on them, then they might be on the brink of saying, Which way are we going to go? I don't know how much gumption. I mean, they're still playing hard. They're still competing in every game. But this is a game, it's in Jacksonville. I don't think they'll tap out. But I think if Minnesota gets up early on a 14 to three or something like that, then you're going to have some hands on hips in bad body language as they try to get back.

I look at this collection of Jackson, and like you mentioned, Josh Allen, Trevon Walker. We've seen Andre Cisco make some plays this season, albeit that's secondary, giving up a lot of opportunity. Tank of Bigsby, really coming on. I look at this collection of players and could see them contributing on a Super Bowl roster. But together with this particular leadership group in Jacksonville, it's not working. And so much of it goes on the shoulders of their quarterback, and now we're potentially looking at C. J. Beathard coming in. It's just-Well, I don't think C.

J. Beathard will start, but they did activate him, I would assume, to be Mac Jones' backup, right? Should Trevor Lawrence not play, which is… Let's just throw C. J. Beathard out there, actually. I want to save McCorkle. I don't want McCorkle against Brian Floris. If he's going to come back in-Child of Jacksonville, Florida, McCorkle Jones.

There we go. There's the narrative. Max starting in his hometown, potentially.

Why not? We don't know about Lawrence's status, but it's a little concerning. This is an interesting part of the Viking season. They're 6-2, and I think there's some real concern of, are they really a real deal contender? We'll find out maybe later in the season because their next three games, it's a three-game road trip. You don't see that too often. It's at Jacksonville, at Tennessee, at Chicago. Three teams who have offensive issues that I think Brian Flores and this defense match up well I don't know if they win all three, but there's certainly a chance. Then you're looking at they could be nine and two, maybe worst case, they're eight and three heading into the stretch run, and they're still in a real nice spot. Even if Sam Darnold is not playing that well, Sam Darnold is having a lot of turnover where Because he plays the last four weeks among the league leaders. And yet, I don't know if it's going to matter in these couples.

He's got Justin Jefferson, man. Isn't that not Hawkinson's coming back? Aaron Jones, they're starting to open things up a little bit. But I'm glad you brought up the point about the schedule because a three-game roadie against teams that you don't necessarily get up for. That's a test. That is a significant mental test of a young team, a quarterback who's finally starting to hit his strike, to see if they're real. The good teams handle that, even if they've got to gut out the win. So this is a good mental test to see where they are. The Cam Robinson game, he played really good after being with that team for three days last week. Again, getting Hawkinson back. I love the point you made about this is not necessarily the tough part of their schedule. This is the mentally challenging part of the schedule to see how good they are.

There's some secret Kevin O'Neill sauce that we saw with the Pasternaught last year. And then Cam Robinson plays all 71 snaps, just gives up one sack after just showing up. This is something that Kevin O'Neill can do.

Not to get ahead of ourselves here before we talk bears later, but as all the heat that's on Ibraflux, he looks even worse because he's in this division with three great coaches. I mean, this is a tough division of coaches.

We'll get to the Chicago bears coming up here as we go. By spread, the next biggest one is the San Francisco 49ers, five and a half point favorites.

Don't get that number, man.

At the Tampa Bay Bucaneers, who took the reigning, undefeated Super Bowl champion, Kansas City Chiefs, to the wire on overtime. Perhaps maybe some lingering effects there as it was over time in the rain. Either way, five and a half point favorites is San Francisco. The over-under is 50 and a half. Kevin Burkert, some dude named Tom, and Aaron Andrews, and another guy, Tom Rinaldi on the call, Steve, with the potential of Christian McCafferry coming back.

I'm sitting here right now like, Tampa can win this game. When I say the five and a half, I think that is a big, big spread for this game. Yeah, it's a short week for Tampa, but they're playing at home. San Francisco has got to go across the country. But watching it as a viewer. Okay, how if Christian McCafree comes back, what's the rotation going to be? Are they going to go Jordan Mason early and hammer the Bucks, soften them up for McCafree, or are they going to have McCafree come in and get the blitz to back off? Because is he going to receive? Is he going to do this and that? That's something I'm looking at. But I mean, when I watch the Bucks, and it's like a week in, week out thing, even without their receiver, the way that they play offensively, that offensive line is good. They had a couple of penalties that really put them situations last week when they were moving the football. Baker is playing well. My guy, Kate Otton, did he make the preseason All-Pro with Frank Kalupo?

I mean, he didn't. That would have been a tough one to predict ahead of time. There's some good tight ends out there. Yeah, I know.

But Kate Otton is playing good for a couple of years. But the fact that they stepped up in the way that they compete the way they do, I think that five and a half is a big number. I'm not saying they beat the Niners. I think they could. But this is going to be a really tough game for San Francisco.

I have a hard time picking this game, spread anything about it, because if you told If you see that the Kyle Shanehan late season surge starts now, I'd buy it. We see the best game we've seen all season, and they do win by a countdown and barely cover it, something like that. I hear you, the Bucks are a really good offense. They're a top 10 offense right now. But CMC comes back. Sometimes you lose track of the injuries. There's been so many. Juan Jennings is coming back. He's a valuable player for them. Debo Samuel is at practice, limited in practice, but he should be back. Their offensive line is a little healthier, and it's a trend. Shani, the late season surge. All right, let's go through it. Last three seasons. November guy. Four and five. Three seasons ago, they end up in the NFC title game with a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter that they blow to the Rams. But they were four and five in that season.

With Jimmy G at the helm.

Before their late season surge. Two seasons ago, they were four and four. They end up, again, getting to the NFC title game. That was directly after their buy was the 4-4 mark. Last season, not as dramatic, but they went into their buy at five and three on a three-game losing streak and immediately went on a run and then went to the Super Bowl and really was the best team in the NFC.

When Trent Williams and Debo Samuel, I think were out for all those three games.

So injuries were certainly apart, but they are again this year. And so you can see them getting together.

That's great stuff, Greg.

Brock Purdy averaging 11.4 yards per play on play-action passes. I know Jordan Mason filled in. He was leading the NFL in rushes and yards It's a different situation when Christian McCafree is there. This 49ers passing game improves because they get the running back-back, oddly enough. But so many times, even when they had the full contingent, the best matchup in the passing game was CMC. I know folks think it takes time. He's coming back from injury. The reason he was out was so he could be 100%. And 100% rested CMC. Things could go wrong on any place. That could for anybody. I think this offense gets a whole lot better with it.

Here's the question, is he 100% or 115% because he did go to Germany to get some special treatment.

Like you got the Avan Drago special? Yeah.

I'm not saying anything.

I mean, you can't get it done here. You go to Germany and he's got it done. Yes. Shout out to all the Jordan Mason fantasy owners out there. Don't be sad. Don't put. Just be happy that it ever happened at all. You got an for half the season. It wasn't going to last forever.

I need that message today, Greg.Thank.

You.same. Isaac Garendo, by the way, playing well.They have a nice little rookie.Hey, man. That guy. Rooky class before the... I was thinking they've needed some young players to start supplementing all these stars. And quietly, Renardo Green. We'll see about Pearsaw, who had a pretty good game. They got the guard, Pooney, who's playing. They got a lot of rookies playing. So good job by John Lynch in this last draft. Good job by you guys in the second block of this show. We're going to take another break, and we'll be back with the biggest point spreads of the week. Back on NFL Daily, Colleen Wolf was not part of the Trade Deadline Spectacular because she was catching a bird over to Germany. How about that? Check her out in all the pregame coverage from... Where are they? Munich this year. Munich. Munich.

That's right. Frankfurt, they're Munich.

Yeah, right around a few 100 kilometers away from where Jim Tomsula is the head coach of the new Ryan Fier. Yes, he is. So shout out to international football. Shout out to the global community as we have got an opportunity to rise and shine and watch Sunday. Week 10 kicks off with the New York Giants five and a half point favorites in Munich against Rice Young and the Carolina Panthers, who got the win against the Saints. Rich Eisen, Kurt Warner, Jamie Erdahl, and Sara Walsh on the call, Greg. We get the early kickoff on NFL Network against the Carolina Panthers defense that has seen opposing running backs have success. Dimes and the G-Man were all about the ground game last week.

Yeah, their offense has looked solid the last two weeks. They've been very up and down throughout the course of the season. Hard to know what to make of them. But I'm not just selling this game because it's on NFL Network. I enjoy watching me a little Theo Johnson, a little Malik Nabors, just as bad teams go, a little Dexter Lawrence on the defensive side of the ball in that pass rush. The Giants have some players that will make them watchable. Danny Dimes, it's going to be a roller coaster against almost anyone. That's all I'm saying. Them against a bad defense, they could put up some fantasy numbers. Theo Johnson, I just am thinking it. They'd be a little good of a streamer this week.

I like this number. Look, I like what you said about Daniel Jones because last couple of games watching him, I know so much comes down on him, but they make so many dumb penalties and dumb mistakes. Like, he'll be moving the team all the way down the field. Next thing you know, it's third and 15, and then he makes a bad play. But if they could just stop with the dumb fundamental mistakes, he would look a lot better. But that's what bad teams do. I want to say this about Bryce Young because Dave Canales, the head coach of the Panthers, said, Bryce is going to start. I spoke with Vance Joseph, the DC of the Broncos. They played the Panthers a couple of weeks ago. He's like, Steve, they better not give up on this kid. If they do, someone's going to get a guy who can play. I was like, That goes contrary to a lot of stuff. He's like, Bryce Young made every good decision against our scheme. He threw the ball very well accurately, but he's not soft touching. He wasn't wiffleballing it like he was early in the season. He was sticking throws, and he was like, and we beat the hell out of him, and he got up every time.

He says, The size is an issue. They've got to figure out how to coach around his size. That's something that's not going to change or whoever he is next year. But they're like, That kid has got stuff to him. You see why he was number one? So against his defense, he's going to be up against pressure again. We know the Giants can't get after the quarterback. But I like the fact, especially after talking to Vance, who's defense is really good, that they're giving him another shot, that they didn't go to Dalton and said, Okay, let's see if he can continue to build on something. So they saw what Vant saw, who was trying to scheme against him.

Yeah, I saw probably, Bryce Young, and I guess, the emblematic of the way the season has gone for the Carolina Panthers, his best throw to Xavier Laguette on Sunday, it got picked off. An incredible play swiping it away of the Saints, and I'm blanking on the young defender's name there, but it was one of the plays of the day. I'll figure it out here before we move to the next game. But it's tough to think about this without the matchups of the defense. And you've got a guy leading the defensive tackles in Sacks and Dexter Lawrence.So good. The way that this defense is playing for the Giants versus a very porous Carolina Panthers defense. Turnstiles. That has seen everybody have success. The Panthers Sellers at the Trade Deadline. Mingo's gone.They got a great trade for Carolina.Good trade for Carolina. Deontay Johnson gone. The cupboard becomes bear. As much as I want to pick Carolina in this game, Greg, I just feel like-I like him to cover, at least.

I'm glad You had that perspective on Vance Joseph, a man who knows a lot more and is much smarter than me to confirm my priors, which is I've watched these last two games, and I think he's played better. I think the thing that I've been most impressed that's changed is I don't think he's played scared. I don't mean physically. I just mean I think he was very hesitant to make tight window throws, and he's been making those throws the last couple of weeks. Now, he could have had a couple of pics against the Saints, but I still thought it was one of his better games as a pro because because he kept making those throws, and he kept putting it into tight windows, and he had a number of really good throws, and the decision making was solid. So I think it's encouraging. I mean, look, everyone copes differently. It was what? It was Tuesday night as the existential dread was building in the pit in my stomach. I was like, I can't watch this anymore. I had been talking with Steve earlier in the day. He said he was just going to watch Netflix and find out as it went.

How I coped was I put on a little Saint Panthers and watched me some Bryce Young, so I could be as ready for this as possible. It didn't really solve the existential dread, but it was a distraction, and it was nice to see that I thought he played pretty well in that performance.

Yes, very well. The player I could not think of, Shamar Jean Charles, who has the most New Orleans Saint's name.

I wanted to say Stanley John Baptiste, then I was confusing. I was confusing my random Saint's hyphenated.Yeah, maybe it's John.It's amazing.John.

Charles.john Sharley.

Bringing us to... Oh, yeah, Greg.Drake May and the New England Patriots taking on fellow rookie quarterback, the number one overall pick, Caleb Williams, a six-point favorite are the bears after getting run out of State Farm Stadium by Kyler and Company, the over-under 42. It's Jim, Tony, and Tracy on the call as... Excuse me, Kevin Kugler, Darryl Johnson.

They're not giving us Jim and Tony.

Yeah, that would be nuts.

The Patriots are on probation with Jim and Tony for about three more years.

It's not happening. The bears is a six-point favorite. Steve, we have seen the highs and the lows here in the past three weeks for the bears offense. How do they do against New England?

Well, in the words of DJ Moore, I want to say no. Look, man, this is going to be a tough game.

Give us a little more context of why he said that.

Okay. Again, DJ Moore was asked on a radio interview or podcast interview, has head coach Matt Iberflus lost a locker room? And he, I want to say no. It was not an emphatic endorsement. Look, Chicago, they got some things going on. I mean, you hear a player like that, you saw a DJ More for whatever reason. I don't know if he got hurt, whatever in that game, in a play Arizona middle of the plate just walks off the field. What is going on there? This is after a play after the corner of the Hall Mary play is wave into the crowd and makes me ask, What is going on with this team? That's not happening in New England. Yes, they were soft when they got their butts kicked over in England. But they compete. This six-point number, I guess they're saying, Okay, the Patriots can't block anybody, and the Bears can get after the quarterback. Drake may, and I'm going to continue to say it, he is a real guy. He's coming off a two-pick game this week. He can play. I like this game because Caleb can play. I like these young quarterbacks. Caleb clearly has more options right here.

I like the bears in the game, but the six points, I am not sure, and I will not be stunned if the Patriots win this game.

I I wouldn't either because the vibes are that bad with the bears. It's a really fascinating thing how... Clearly, the coach and the players, maybe they're not all on the same page. Offensively, DJ Moore and Keenan Allen, even Aduzzi, sometimes, something's been a miss there. Sometimes it's just not being on the same page, literally, with the routes. Sometimes it's just they don't seem very happy. When that happens, somehow it does manifest on Sundays. You saw it with that Saints Panthers game. They had no business really losing that game, and somehow all the intangibles show up on the field. A team like that, it's not like they're more talented than the Patriots by a good amount, but they're also not the most talented team in the league. Surely they could lose this game. Now, putting that aside, the Patriots, I think other than May, are the worst team in the NFL. I don't think they're very well coached, especially on offense, and I don't think they're very talented. I would still expect the bears to win, but I wouldn't take that six points, and I'm rooting for my guy, Drake May.

Looking good. Ramond J. Stevenson, getting any vibes from him? How about the offense for the Patriots?

I mean, he's always playing hard, but he also ran for 16 yards on 10 carries. He's a great player. That just shows how bankrupt they are in terms of their offensive mind, because that's the way you would want to beat the bears is running the ball.

But they can't right now.

They really can't.

They have not been able to. I think a part of what's going on in the vibe situation over in Chicago has a lot to do with the play calling situation, especially in the past two weeks, where you saw in wins against the Rams, the Panthers, Jacksonville. Targets, balls going to Cole Komet. He had two touch downs against the Jags. The past two weeks, in the two-game losing streak, one catch for 14 yards. That's been it for Cole Komet. We just watched DJ Moore decide to leave in the middle of the play where perhaps he stepped out of bounds and he's thinking he can't come back in.

He says it was an ankle. He twisted his ankle.

When I watched, I thought he got hurt. When I watched it, I thought he got hurt.

He's fully on the bench before Kyler throws the ball to Keenan Allen. It's vibes aside. There's a player right there.

Yeah, right there. To me, it looks like he's limping, like he's pulling up.

Yes, that's it. He confirmed it in the Uber flu sent it.

He's answering questions postgame. He's dealing with the fact that they're losing. He's not feeling good. They're hurt. There's a lot going on, but as you guys mentioned, the talent disparity is significant in this one. And I've been browsing Bear's injury reports for weeks, waiting for Jaquan Brisker and Kyler Gordon. Kyler Gordon, a limited participant in practice on Wednesday. So there's the up. There's the vibe bonus for the Chicago Bear.

But as one guy comes back, they're losing another. Andrew Billings has been really good for them in the middle of their defensive line, and he is now out for the rest of the season with the injury that he suffered last week.

There's Ramondre. I'm telling you, man.

I was like, Yeah, they're more talented overall. But actually on the lines, this is a rare game where the Patriots offensive line thinks, Hey, maybe we won't totally collapse this. This group up front for the bears aren't great. It's week on week. On the other side, actually, they might be able to get after Caleb because everyone gets after Caleb. I'm glad you mentioned the brisker thing because I'm really frustrated with how in the background, some of these failures in concussion spotting has become. This used to be a whole thing that we talked about a lot. Jaquan brisker, after a play where he was absolutely reckless and had a massive hit that caused this concussion, stayed on the field for the entire rest of the game. They never even checked him. It was something where his teammates put their arms around him and helped him off the field. That was how obvious it was at the time. That spotter never even checked him. He ended up playing 85% of the snaps in that game. The next day, he came in and self-reported. That was five weeks ago. This man is not to be able to play football again.

I'm sure just as a human, you really feel for him. But also, we're not doing enough to help these guys out.

Well, I mean, they're trying. We're seeing some cases where it does work, and it's tricky. I mean, again, you've seen where they helped them off. They should have spotted it, but somebody else should have seen it. But the fact he's missed that much time, that's not good.

They failed him. They really did. Oh, man, maybe I will pick the-Do it.do it stupid effort. I did last week, like 10 minutes before the game. I think you almost got it. I switched my pick, and then they lost.

You were exceedingly close.

But you're seeing the stuff with Drake May.

I will say, the old master goal in me would point out like, Hey, Drake May, Caleb Williams. In this game, who do you trust a little more? I take May. But I know the context. That's not fair. Caleb Williams is in a very difficult position, but Drake May is showing what you would want to see out of a number three overall pick for sure.

And now we've got a game that features, well, not the number three quarterback, a number two quarterback, as Cooper Rush will start his series of games for the Dallas Cowboys. This time, he is at home in a seven-point Underdog against the Philadelphia Eagles. This game does feature Jim Nantes, Tony Romo, and Tracy Wolfson as the Eagles get the win, holding off a Jags comeback last week, Greg. And now it's a divisional against the Dallas team that's limping to the halfway finish line.

Man, it feels like the finish line. This was bad luck for Doc Prescott to have that injury. Bad luck for Jim and Tony and CBS. Bad luck for all the country that's going to be watching this in a pretty quiet late window. Is this the national game.

Still going to get eyeballs.

Sure. It's football. It always gets eyeballs, but it's not my eyeballs. I'm going to be watching one of those other two games. I'm not into this, watching this Cowboys team. This Eagles team team, even though they still eagle it up and just let a team back in it and stuff. I will say the second half of that Bengals game and the first half of that Jaguars game, there was dominant football. I like seeing that out of this team because it's been a while since we've even seen stretches of dominant football, and I don't think they're going to have a problem getting up for the Cowboys. They're going to love seeing a wounded Cowboys team, and they're really tough up front. Their defensive line is playing much better. Absolutely. Vic Fandio is doing a good job, and we know the offensive line is good. Even without Mylata, they've been pushing people around in the running game, so I think they're licking their chops, and I think they're going to look really good in this game.

Yeah, nick Chirian is the type of dude who's going to say, Okay, this and this and this. Let's go get it. Philadelphia, seven-point favorites. The number is going to be bigger than that just because I just don't think Dallas is going to score. They don't run the ball well anyway. Cooper Rush, Vic Fangio, the Eagles's defensive coordinator said, Well, they're not going to change their offense with this guy. I'm like, Ooh. That's not great because basically, They're going to play pitch and catch with CeeD Lamb, and they're going to get some balls with Jake Ferguson, and that's pretty much all that they have. There's some things they're going to do to try to limit that. I think Saquon... I know Micah Parsons, right? I think he's starting returning back to practice. There's a possibility he could come back.

He sounded confident that up. Yeah.

Maybe that's something to get Dallas's defense to play a little bit better, but the Eagles just have too much, man. Ever since A. J. Brown came back, this offense has been cracking.

Yeah, very good. They're getting good contributions without Dallas Goddard or Grant Calceteros playing well. How about that? To the extent where it seemed like... I don't know if nick Seriani had a little bit of heat for Halley when there was discussions about, I forget specifically what the quote was, about he made his case, essentially, saying what the team's needs were and how he felt like the roster was in a solid position. So maybe that's what he was referencing. Who knows? He coached him up. Maybe we got to go on the sideline at a home eagles game and just yell at him, and nick Seriani will reveal that information to us. But they're using 12 personnel at the fourth highest rate, not the one of, at the forest highest rate in the NFL. It makes sense, considering the way that Mekai Becton is playing, the guys up front, and Saquon as well, mashing. It's tough to take the Dallas defense, Micah or no.

Yeah. Speaking of personnel decisions, how about some credit for Vic Fangio, who basically brought in Zack Bond and early in the offseason, was saying, this has got to be our guy, not the $7 million former Super Bowl winner, Devon White, that you signed Howie Roseman, my guy, Zack Bond, and he's been great. He's been great. And Nekobi Dina has really developed into the player they're hoping. Howie also deserves credit because his rookies are playing well. So, Vic brings a guy in. The rookies are playing well in the secondary. There is not a starter. This amazed me when I heard this on their defense over 27 years old. That's a nice group.

If you have those younger guys on those younger guy contracts and you're paying your quarterback the way you're paying them and some of those offensive linemen the way you're paying them, that helps.

Good news for AJ. Aj Brown, by the way, is day to day and was back at the practice field. So that was shocking to me because I thought that might be a long-term injury. That's really good news. He might even play in this game.

Yeah, good news for everybody, but fans of the Dallas Cowboys who are just looking for some semblance of positivity, I'll refrain. Let's go to our next game, the Tennessee Titans.

Wait a second. We haven't talked survivor at all.

That's a great call, Greg.

I feel like the way that you said, you think the Eagles will top the number there, how I'm feeling about this, we haven't taken the Eagles yet.

All right. It's unanimous.

It's unanimous.

Okay. I'm willing to... Cooper rushing. Not a bad backup, but he's not drawing with a full deck here.

In a season of NFL upsets, once we began to work together as a team, unbeat.We're.

On a roll.How about that?Unkilling.Survive.The Kellen Moore, the Kellen Moore revenge game.Oh, it is a Kellen Moore revenge.It is.

There we go.Wow. They could put 40 up on him, and then he'll be coaching the Cowboys next year. I can see it. I can absolutely see it.

It would be a very Dallas Cowboys thing to do, to go for change and then not change very much at all. The Tennessee Titans on the road across the street, taking on the chargers who were seven and a half point favorites after thrashing and picking off Jameis Winston three times. Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilba, and Megan Alivi on the call, Steve, where we have seen Maximum Herbo the past three weeks. Does it continue?

It looks like we're going to get Will Levis back for the Tennessee tight.

You flex in here, you're punching. Wow, you're excited.

Because he gets to go get Tulip below, too, and Khalil Mack and Joey Bosa. I mean, this charges defense. This is soon, they've got to start to strike the national consciousness. They are very much, yeah, they play in the same division as the Chiefs, but they are very much in this playoff hunt in the AFC, and their defense is getting it. They're just playing typical Harbaugh ball smashing, physically on offense. Herbert's playing fantastic. But this game here, seven and a half, like what? I guess they think that Jim Harbaugh is just going to be a nice sportsman and just take his foot off.

That's a lot for a Chargers team.

That's a lot for a charger team, but score 19 points a game. The Titans are not like, I mean, offensively.

No, I was not impressed by the Titans last week or just in general. I thought Mason-Rudolf made them more stable, but they've got issues everywhere. Everywhere. They have subpar quarterback play on top of that.

But DeAndre Hopkins gave him a salute.

That's fair. He said he remembered them. Herbo. So yes, they're physical, but they're physical in pass protection right now because that's what What they're doing is throwing the ball. There's a stat called neutral pass rate. Just in normal down-and-distance situations where it could be run or pass, what do you do? While Herbo was hurt early in the season and they're establishing this team before the buy, They're first in the league in neutral pass rate. Since the buy, they're putting on Herbo's shoulder second in the league. They've actually been as pass-heavy as possible. Now, the way these games have played out, a lot of it is passing a lot early and then just grinding the other team down late It's no longer a neutral situation, but that is really encouraging. It's a lot of downfield throws that really works against this Titans team where the secondary is struggling. Making Herbo fun to watch again is one of my favorite developments. That said, they faced the 30th, the easiest schedule in the entire NFL, according to DVOA so far, and this week is not going to change that.

Jim Schwartz defense, having a little bit of a corner safety conversations as multiple blown coverage went up, doesn't hurt those stats, but the opportunities are there, and he's taking them and hitting them. You mentioned it, Greg, before the buy, 6 yards per attempt on downfield passing. After the buy, 14.8 yards per attempt. That's crazy. As Herbo is throwing deep to Lad, who's having a great rookie season, as well as this defense continued to be solid week after week against the team that's... I don't I don't necessarily know that I feel like they have a better chance of winning with Will Levis coming in versus Mason Rudolf. In fact, I feel like it goes down.

Well, I think this is just like, let's find out what he's got. We got the rest of the season. I mean, they were sellers at the trade deadline. Well, they've been sellers most of the season, getting rid of their guys. So let's find out what Will Levis is because they're going to be picking at the top end of the draft. So I think that's where they are right now.

I actually heard Callahan said that outright, that this season is about getting a good evaluation Levis, which is interesting. They weren't saying that initially, but it makes sense. I thought Mason-Rudolf helped them a little, but it was only so much. Yeah, how did that work out? Yeah, they were still extremely sloppy. This is one team that beats itself versus a team that doesn't. The one thing the Titans do well is they stuff the running game. They're great at run stuff, forcing negative run. This is another week to just let the chargers cook, let Herbert throw the ball.

The Gus bus. The Gus bus is getting healthy for the chargers, too.

Gus was coming back, although I'd like to see Camani Vidal get some work. Okay. A little personal bias there. Bringing us to our last game, the Denver Broncos, going to Kansas City, where the defending Super Bowl champs just won in overtime against Baker Mayfield & Company. They are eight-point favorites. Kevin Harland, Trent Green, and Melanie Collins on the call. We mentioned nuke's. Remember the Titans celebration? Travis Kelsey goes huge to get 16 targets. You said the Holmes and the Chiefs. We're going to have an offensive explosion, Greg. You were correct.

That's right.

You said last week that the Broncos defense might get exposed. You were correct. Let's go. What happens in this game, Greg? Because you know both of these teams.

I think that Denver is going to keep it close. Yes. I do. I think they're going to cover. I look at the two matchups last year. I think they can be instructive. It was early in the season that the Chiefs and Broncos played when the Chiefs were struggling last year. But Vance Joseph, who was running this defense, only gave up 14 points per game in those two matchups. The second one wasn't close. The Broncos actually won easily. That's been memory hold for me. I think this is a defense that could give them some issues. I'm curious I don't know how Bo Nicks is going to play in this spot against a really good defense. That's obviously where it could go sideways. But I tend to think short week for the Chiefs, coming off an overtime game, their offense was on the field for 83 plays. I think the Broncos could It's ugly it up, and it'll be a close game in the fourth quarter.

I am 100% with you, and this is after seeing the Broncos against the Ravens. You look at the score and you're like, The Ravens just kicked them up and down the field. At the end of the first half, Bo Nicks was driving Denver down the field, actually through a shutdown pass, called back on holding. He hits that pass. It's 17 to 14 going into the half. Instead, they have to settle for a field goal. Three plays later, Lamar hits safe flowers. It's 24 to 10. That swing changed everything in that ball game because Bo Nicks was moving the ball. He can run, he can hit the drive throws. He spreads the ball out. He's making very good decisions. They're not going to be able to run the ball very much against Kansas City. The defense That was just they got Lamard. Okay, do we run Blitz, which is what they did. They ran Blitz to try to stop Derrick Henry, who didn't have much going in the first half. So Lamar was popping explosive play after explosive play. I mean, they probably had 8 or 9, 20 plus yard Receptions right there. But then the second half, Denver backed off, and then it was a Derrick Henry show.

I think in a game like this, and this is what I like about Kansas City moving forward. Again, I think Denver, it's going to be closer than the eight. But the fact that Kareem Hunt and the way they ran the ball against Tampa's front, against Vita Bay and those guys, that's why everybody... We keep asking, What is Kansas City going to lose? They're going to lose at some point, but the fact now that they are mashing in the run game when they want to is just another thing to add to the mix.

You imagine the loss being in a slog game. Somebody tips a pass, the line of scrimmage, because right now it's possession, possession, third down, conversion, third down, conversion. It's like a grind out final two minutes of the Super Bowl every single time the Chiefs have the ball on offense, where this Denver Broncos team has been very good at keeping things in front of them, making tackles. They've only missed 12.3% of their tackles this season, and a lot of missed tackles because they missed 13 against King Henry last week, which happens sometimes.Business decisions.Business decisions. You got eyes on eight, and then all of a sudden, this 6'3, 260-pound running there is running 4'4 away from you. They just have to do that enough, stay on the field, maybe get their hands on a ball, because otherwise it's going to be difficult. You can't run the ball in between the tackles against the Chiefs right now. You just can't do it. Nobody's having success with it. It's all on Bo's shoulders to just run around where Drew Tranquil is tracking everybody. It's very tough.

Nix is playing better. I think it's a good test for him. He's got a couple against some better defenses because I think he's better than he was the first three or four weeks. You look at the season-long dropback numbers, they're pretty rough for them. But I think just eyeball test and the numbers, he's gotten better. But this will be a test of how much better. I think both quarterbacks are playing better. Now, they're obviously in different stratospheres as players, but I think Patrick Mahomes has settled into this this season and is playing his best ball now of the season coming into this game. And he'll need to. As I mentioned, it's a good Bronco's defense. They're a prideful group. I don't think they're going to want to get waxed again. I think we're going to get a fun with.

And they'll move Sertan. Sertan will sit there and stick on Kelsey in certain situations. He will stick on Dave, you're worthy in certain situations or D-Hop. When you've got somebody who can make you play 10 on 10, that also helps.

Okay, so we've reached the end of the road for the week 10 preview. How about that? How about that? We're getting through it. We've also reached the end of the road for our friend Randy Chávez's time at the NFL. Randy, I want you to come on in here. I want you to be able to say a couple of words, and I'm going to say a couple of words about you. First of all, we're presenting you with a go-away present here. Oh, man. We got the Dodgers with the patch on and the Freddie Freeman. Pretty cool. I'm like off camera, like a real pro. You can put on a microphone here, Randy, while I talk about you. When we were starting NFL Daily in July, and obviously, Randy helped out a ton and was a big asset for the Around the NFL podcast. When I was starting NFL Daily, out of nowhere, essentially in late July, we rushed that thing. Eric is on his paternity leave and enjoying a great and deserved time with his baby and his wife. Randy was there with me to help launch this show. No matter what time of day or what we needed to get done, if it's late, if it's early, whoever we need to get, Randy was always, I got you.

That's what he's been like for a couple of years at this company. I think it's been three now that you've been with us and helping out. More than anything, just a great human, a great dude that ups the vibes. We're talking about bad vibes. We were talking about bad vibes on certain teams earlier. If you add Randy Chávez to the mix, the vibes immediately improve. He's someone that you add to the locker room to get the good feeling. We will miss you, Randy, but we also want to congratulate you. You're going to be producing some big-time podcasts elsewhere, and more than anything, you're getting health care. Let's go.

Congratulations. That's all, baby. Let's go. Yeah, it's been... Honestly, it's crazy making the jump here from where I came from originally, being super intimidated coming into this and just meeting a lot of great people and learning from a lot of great people and leaving here with friends, leaving here with a new feeling of confidence, not necessarily feeling too small for any room. I owe it a lot to people like you, Claybond, everyone in this building who've given me just so much great knowledge. Really, man, it's hard to put into words how much this place and the people here mean to me.

Well, appreciate you, Randy. Always part of the family, always certainly part of this show. It was you with me launching it, and obviously, we wish you well.Thank you.Yes. That's it for the Randy Chávez era on NFL Daily.

Here, let's hold this like you're signing You're holding the Championship Dodgers Jersey, and maybe your packers, maybe the good luck for your packers.It'll.

Be coming next.I hope so. I hope so.

But thank you so much, guys. I really appreciate it.Thank.

You.all.

Right.thanks to Randy. Obviously, thanks to Steve, Patrick, Eric, who is always holding it down behind the glass as well. That's it for our Week 10 preview. We'll be back Thursday night. Nick Wesling will be joining me. Oh, sweet. To recap Ravens, bangles. Really looking forward to that. And yeah, when Randy Chávez is getting dental, you know football is back.