Transcript of 2024 Week 5 Recap

The Ravens take possession at their 43 with 4:26 left to play. Quick toss. Henry running to the left side gets a block. He's at midfield. He's rolling. 40, 30, leg race, 20. The king is on his feet, 10. He's taken down at the 6-yard line. Derrick Henry has put the Ravens in position to wrap it up. Oh, what a play.

And wrap it up, they did. Ravens get the win in Cincinnati, 41 to 38 in overtime. Welcome to NFL Daily, starting off strong with one of the best games of the year.

I'm Greg Lamar that actually had the fumble. It was tough for him to celebrate after the game because they're on a drive with an opportunity to win. He's clapping as the clock winds down. The ball bounces off of his hands. He forces a fumble. Cincinnati recovers it again. But there's just some chicanery with the clock management and the play management. Zack Taylor elects to run the ball three consecutive times. Evan McPherson comes out. There's a bad hold on the kick, and the Ravens get another chance, which is something that I did not think they would do. The drive summary late in this game. Yes. Second half drive summary for both teams. Touchdown, Touchdown, Touchdown, Touchdown, Touchdown, Interception, Touchdown. That's how it was. That was the game. I did not think Baltimore would get a stop. But that interception is Marlon Humphrey, who was in the wrong place at the wrong time for most of this entire game, finally taking a guess on a shot and picking off Joe Burrow, ultimately, giving him a chance to win this game.

It's why I wanted to start with this game, not just because it was potentially a Super Bowl contender in Cincinnati at one and four and really put some wind in the sales of the Ravens, but that it exemplifies this week's games. I think this was the best week of football that we had. We're going to get to a lot of really fun, tight games throughout the day. It reminded me of the Thursday night game, too. Yes, it's offense Offense, offense, offense, offense, offense, Patrick, but it ended in part because Joe Burrow throws a crucial interception that gives the Ravens an extra possession at the end of regulation. They also punt after getting the ball with a minute and 35 left, and you're thinking they're going to have a chance. There's the fumble, there's the miss field goal because of the bad snap. And so it was a little bit of everything. It was redemption for Justin Tucker. And nick Shook, I I know they stopped him for a chunk of this game, but man, this Derrick Henry, Lamar Jackson offense is just a lot to deal with.

Yeah, it's a lot to deal with. That's why I picked the Ravens in a high-scoring affair. I just didn't think it would be 41,38 high-scoring. That is extreme. But I guess this is the new age, or at least when you face the bangles defense. It bumps me out for Joe Burrow that he has to be nearly perfect every week to give his team a legitimate chance to win. And he throws one interception at the worst time possible, and it's a backbreaker. And it allows the Ravens an opportunity to win the game because He's been so good, and yet the bangles defense has not been anywhere near as good. And going up against a team like the Ravens, number one rushing team in the league, bangles have a soft front. You knew this was going to happen eventually. I'm surprised that they actually contained him as long as they did before they finally broke through. So the final score, while very high, not too much of a surprise in one of the most thrilling games of the year.

And ultimately, in that overtime possession where the Ravens fumbled the ball on the snap to Lamar where he's clapping, a couple of plays before that, Derrick Henry could have ended this game. There was a run to the right side where Henry almost broke free Hubbard got his ankles. The story of the game, the highlight that everybody will remember is Lamar stiff-arming Hubbard twice on a shutdown pass to Isiah Likely. That's going to be one of those plays that we're going to see a billion times.

Oh, let's listen to it right now. I'm sure Sandusky's got a good call on this one. Let's go to it. Lamar in the shotgun.

Lamar bobbles the snap. Has to pick it up off the turf. He's being chased, corralled, stiff arms a man, Stam Hubbard, and finally slings in the back of the end zone. Touchdown. Isiah likely. Oh, my. Unbelievable. Lamar Jackson bobbled a snap, picked it up off the turf, stiff arm, Stam Hubbard, a la Derrick Henry, extended the play, threw back across his body, and hit the tight end. In other words, he did everything wrong for the perfect outcome.

Which is the story of the Baltimore Ravens in this particular Another game where this game has gotten away from them. It's tough to look at the stat line for Jamar Chase, who had 10 catches for 193 yards and two touch downs. There was absolutely a problem on the other side of the ball. Ultimately, the bounces work out for Baltimore, where they hadn't earlier in the season.

Right. I mean, Marcus Williams has been an issue for the Ravens in their secondary this year, just getting burned for big plays. He was flat-footed on at least one of those Jamar Chase touch downs where he takes the short pass for 70 yards. Tee Higgins, I think, has looked really good the last few weeks. He gets two touch downs, 9 for 83. And yet it hurts that Burrow has such an electric game, but then he has that interception, and then he doesn't get a chance at the end. And this stuff is driving me crazy. And I know the kickers are better than they've ever been. We'll get to a few of them that were awesome this week.Included.

Tucker today.Right. A driven 59-yarder. Yes.

I shouldn't lose that fact that This was a great day for Justin Tucker to get his groove back with that big one to tie it late in regulation. Then, of course, he hits the short game winner, too, which is always a nice feeling. But they run it three straight times, and it has given me flashbacks to Marty Schottenheimer and Mike McCarthy and all the coaches that don't trust their quarterback for some reason in the biggest of spots. And yet you can say, well, it was more on the snap, but it's a long kick. And either way, just let them go try to win the game on offense. There was no reason to really worry, but it was maybe in his head, that interception that they had. I'm just going to... People are very angry in Cincinnati. Our friend, the Spice Rack, sent me his group, Bangle's text, and it's just got a lot of F-bombs. I can't even really read it. But they want everyone fired is basically the answer. That is effing embarrassing. Effing losers. Absolute effing losers, absolute effing losers, F this staff. And yeah, this is where Benges fans are right now.

I've never seen so many swear words in my life.

This is me actually editing it down.

I wish we could show this.

Maybe, yeah, if you watch on YouTube, maybe after the fact, I'll put it out on social with some things blurted out. But prayers to Spice Rack. Maybe this is the game, though, that I thought that the Ravens deserve. I know The Bengals fans won't want to hear this, but the Ravens should be three and two. They're a good team. They're the first team, nick, to rush for more than a thousand yards in the first five games of the season since the '06 Falcons with Michael Vick and Michael the Burner-Tunner, and only the second team since 84. So they seem perfectly built in 2024, where it's more about running than passing to win. And yet today, Lamar throws for 348 and four touch downs. He gets both his tight ends involved or three tight ends involved. Isiah, likely. Mark Andrews goes 4:55, and Kohler goes wild. So they have to feel really good about their offense and getting a tough division win.

Yeah. I mean, entering the week, the Ravens were in first in rushing yards per game by a margin of more than 45 yards per game. That's significant in the league. That's crazy. It makes you realize that then they can go out Lamarck and throw for 348 and four touch downs. And you're like, I don't know how to stop this team. This is what makes them so scary. In fact, folks probably look back at their 0-2 start and think, God, we should have... I wish the The Cowboys would have buried them when they had an opportunity. They're where the bangles are at one and four right now. I wish somebody else would have... This team's on a roll already.

You know what happened? They're built to play from behind now, Greg. Where previously, apparently, they weren't built to play from behind. But now, it's a little roster construction hack.

Maybe it is good for them, actually, because they've given up all those 10-point leads. They're not built to play with the lead. They're one of the few teams we were thinking. A certain team, we'll talk about soon, Patrick and I have put on Fraud Watch. Then I was thinking about it. I was like, well, other than the Vikings and the Ravens, you could put the whole league on fraud watch right now. But the Ravens are feeling good at three and two. Before we go, let's listen to Lamar after the game because it's always nice to hear a happy Lamar. What are the emotions that you are feeling right now?

I'm ticked off. You know that overtime fumbled, that little mishap, trying to get the ball from my center. But our defense did a great job stopping guys. He's a great offense over there, a great team all around. And we got it done. The GOAT, shout out to the goat, man. Jt, Andy Hand.

Yeah, they got a lot of potential goats on the same roster there between Tucker and Henry and Lamar Jackson, playing the quarterback position as well as anyone in the league. Let's go to Houston, where C. J. Stroud was doing the same for most of Sunday.

To give the Texans the victory. Here's the snap by Weeks, the spot. Here's the kick by Fairbairn. Has the distance, and it's good. Fairbairn wins it at the buzzer. The Texans beat the Bills. 59 yards for the dub on H-Town Day, 23:20.

Oh, yeah, it's H-Town Day. Isn't every day H-Town Day? Mark Vandermeer from K-I-L-T. Kyame Fairbeard. We got these kickers just hitting old 59-yarders like it's nothing. Another controversial end of the game, play-calling sequence. Zack Taylor taking a lot of heat in Cincinnati for what he did. I think Zack Taylor was a lot more at fault for what happened in the Bengals game than Sean McDermott and the Bills were for what happened at the end of regulation. You look at the drive chart and you see that that Fairbairn kick came on a two-play, five-yard, seven-second drive. Wait, how did that happen? It happened because Josh Allen threw three straight incompletions after getting the ball inside of their own 10-yard line. It was at the three-yard line with 32 seconds to go. Now, a lot of things happened to set that up. It was a totally bone-headed situation there to recover the ball. You get it at three-yard line. It's 32 seconds left. But the Texans have three timeouts. Sean McDermott explains after the game, We know Kyame Fairbairn has that leg. We know that they have all three timeouts. If he could do it again, he says he probably would have run the ball on first down.

But I actually agree with him that they were in a very tough spot. They have to get the first down there, or else you're in the exact same situation. If you ran the ball three straight times, yes, in theory, you could have made them burn all three timeouts, but they also would have had more time in that case than the seven seconds, and you could have very well ended up in the same situation. In the end, they have to get the first down. Now, I think you can fault nick. What Josh Allen decided to do, maybe some of the routes that they're throwing, that there weren't enough options or weren't enough decisions throwing the ball short. And he's throwing low percentage passes down the I got some stats on that that are absolutely crazy. But to me, it was a little bit more about execution that the Bills just couldn't complete a 10-yard pass because they were in a very tough spot there with the field position. I think most likely the Texans are probably going to get the ball in a decent position unless you pick up a first down, and they didn't pick up a first down.

So I've killed Sean McDermott over the years for play calling and game management. I actually don't think this is as big of a deal as people are making it out to be.

Well, let's not leave Joe of this, too, because he obviously plays a big part as well. It speaks to what happened to them against the Ravens early in that game last week, where they essentially struggle in yard situations in which they need a first down. I know it sounds simplistic to say that, but early in that game, they could not get the fourth down. Are decided to punt. If they're getting a fourth down early, they couldn't convert third and eighth or even any longer, and they're backed up against their own goal line. It's a double-edged sword, though, because we just got on Zack Taylor for being conservative and running the ball three times before trying to set up a field goal. You could try to run the ball a couple of times there, but you're backed up against the shadow of your own goal post. What if you get stopped for a loss and suddenly you've given up a safety in a tie game? So it's a really tough situation to navigate. So it really does come down to execution. It also speaks to the Bills inability to find consistent success in the passing game, unless it's a little bit of Josh Allen heroics, which is a thing that we've seen over the last now two games.

So they need to go back to the drawing board and I think examine what they do in these situations, whether it's early in the game or in a key situation like that late. And ultimately, they end up with egg on their face. But I At the same time, what are you going to do? You're five yards away from your own end zone. You have to tread lightly there.

I think in Joe braided and Sean McDermott's defense, you're not going to have a Josh Allen, a whole lot of Josh Allen games where he's one of 14 against pressure for 24 yards. Josh Allen only completed nine passes.

He's usually the best quarterback in the league against pressure.

I think it's just an anomaly. I hope Josh is okay, but in those situations, three straight passes, you think Josh is going to roll out. He's going to do the pump fake thing. He's going to go off. He had a couple of good runs in this game. Just the universe somehow in this conspiracy against the Bills. Just in a game where the Texans made mistakes late as well. There was a game-winning drive opportunity where Darryl Gumbwale, instead of getting some extra yards for Fairbair on the drive before, for some reason, slides the burn clock, and he could have got at least seven yards. Just an odd decision, I guess, because Darryl's hit game-winning field goals. He did it last year. Maybe he had confidence in his dude. I don't know what was going on.

That's a great pull.

I'm not sure what happened there.

Well, I think he was trying to keep the clock moving. It was very clear. He was trying to keep... He had the first sound. I actually thought that was a good play by Agumbu Wale. I hear what you're saying. Maybe he could have just tried to run someone over. He's a big dude. But at that point in the game, and I'm really glad you brought that up, it looks like Houston is going to be able to run the clock down potentially, and kick their own version of a game-winning field goal. But C. J. Stroud has an intentional grounding, which I think was the right call, but that ends up backing them up before the punt. So there was a lot going on here, but you mentioned 1 for 14 on pressure throws. Josh Allen went 9 for 30 in this game. Yeah, it was nice. For 131 yards in a touch down. That's the lowest completion percentage for a passer that threw at least 30 passes. I forget what the number was, but it was a really long time. You don't see a 9 for 30. He went 1 for 15 on throws over 10 yards.

And I went and looked, that throw over 10 yards was about 12 or 13 or something. So it was something like 0 for 12 on throws plus 15. All day, you just saw him throwing hope balls down the field, and they played a lot of single high. So they were almost daring them to throw the ball deep. They don't have a lot of guys who can win one-on-one. The Texans trusted their Their secondary, their secondary played great. They got a lot of pressure on Josh, even if it wasn't a lot of sacks, which is the story of the Bill's offensive... I mean, the Texan's defensive season. I just think this is a game where if you go back and watch it, both defenses were outstanding. C. J. Stroud got 425 yards of offense and I think did amazingly positive things. But he also turned the ball over twice in the second half and could not move the ball. And the Bills defense stood up over and over and over and over again, giving offense a chance to win in the second half. So you got to say their defense played outstanding, too. And I'm just giving up to both these defenses that they were ahead of the offenses in this game and that, yeah, the Bills have some things to figure out offensively in a game where they did run the ball really well against a good Texans run defense.

They maybe should have stuck with it a little more because they were getting consistent chunks when they ran the ball.

Yeah, I have one note from the Live Watch before I go back and watch this again tomorrow about Josh Allen, and it just says, stuck hero ball. It really concerns me, not seriously, we're long term concerned, but just in the last couple of weeks, this looks a lot like he was stuck, that situation he was stuck in in the final weeks of Ken Dorsey. That is not where the Bills offense needs to go. You're right, they ran the ball well. But when the ball is in his hands, he doesn't need to be out there trying to play hero the whole time. That's how you end up 9 for 30. Yeah, you're right. Tip of cap to the defense is everything else. I'm sure they'll get it ironed out. But for one day, visually, not great.

Looking over at... Because you're trying to explain this 9 of 30 performance. Curtis Samuel had five yards, average separation. Matt Collins had four and a half. Dalton Kincaid, north of three and a half.

It's just a bad Josh game. Maybe it was the picture that the Texans were showing him were not clear because whenever he threw it to Curtis Samuel, it was a disaster. Curtis Samuel, who I've always defended, did not look great. They threw seven targets to Samuel and Valdes Scoutling for a total of zero yards. They're just not in sync. The offensive line, though, is playing really well. Like I said, they ran the ball for, I think, like 150 yards on the game, and they protected Alan well enough. They missed Khalil Shaqir in this game, but Khalil Shaqir should not mean that much to him. I give McDermott credit. He went for a fourth and 5 where the announcers are saying, Don't go for it. It was Charles Davis saying, Don't go for it. It was at midfield in a close game, I think a 10-point game. And they hit Keion Coleman for what turns out to be a 49-yard catch-and-run TD. So that's an ultimate... Beautiful play. Great job. Nico Collins, I should mention, left this game with a ham string injury that was caused on a 67-yard countdown where he absolutely dusted the Bills' secondary.

The rookie Cole Bishop made a mistake there, ate the cheese. And that left Stefan Diggs as their number one receiver, mostly playing out of the slot. Diggs came through with enough possession chain moving catches, 6 for 82. I noticed a somewhat, if you can have an icy hug, I would say Diggs and Allen had an icy hug. It was the quickest hug you can possibly imagine, and a little bit of side eye from Diggs afterwards. Here is Diggs in the locker room after the game. Hey.

You all know how much that meant to me? I appreciate you all. I love you all.

But the biggest thing We got to get back to work, man.

That was a hell of a win. We got to get back to the grind on the next week, man. I love you all boys, man. Take this on three. One, two, three. I like that.

Yeah, look at just Stefan, breaking it down in the locker room. Maybe the quick hug is because he knows Josh played a bad game. He's not trying to sit there and draw even more attention. Who knows? Who knows?

Fair. But then I also watched all the other hugs and interactions Stefan Diggs was having immediately before and after they were longer. Eric has his hand raised for the first time. So real quick, it's just something I noticed. Texans played Minnesota last week, and they did so much B-roll about Diggs, hugging it out with everybody. He hasn't been there in, what, five, six years? There was hugs with people I'm sure he'd even play with. He was in Buffalo Last year, I didn't see one Josh Dapp up. I didn't see any love on the sidelines. It was weird. I saw some other love that he was getting from his old teammates, but not with Josh. We've heard some things. I don't think it is a secret that they weren't necessarily on the best of two. But it is a secret.

It is a secret.

Okay.

It's literally a secret. Nobody knows.

There was a crazy Love Fest video on Minnesota Twitter after the game. I don't even think Diggs was there with that guy, and he's hugging this guy like it's his uncle. Stefan was there last year in Buffalo. What are we doing? Texans get the last laugh. Four and one. That could be a big game when we're looking at seeding at the end of the year. The Texans have survived a couple tricky weeks here, and now they are well in front in the AFC South. The Bills fall to three and two. Let's go to Santa Clara, where I didn't expect one of the games of the day, but we got one of the games of the day.

First down, snapped to Purdy. Straight drop, again, trouble hit, and the ball The water is far aside, and Kysier White with a diving interception to win the game at midfield. Purdy got hit, the ball flutter, and Kysier White caught up to it, holding in, and the Cardinals are going to get one in San Fran.

Unbelievable. David, the ball batted into the air.

Crazy Carl showed up for the Arizona Cardinals.

Bat the pig into the air, and Khyzer White comes down with it. Bat the pig. Bat the pig.

Into the air. Let's go.

One of the most underrated players in the League, Kyzer White. I can't do that for long. I can't do that at all. 24 to 23. The Cardinals get a stunning victory against the 49ers on the road. Not just stunning because of the recent history between these two teams and where the Cardinals have been at the last few weeks, but stunning because it a 23 to 10 lead at halftime, and the 49ers don't get another point. Stunning because the Cardinals go for two when they're down four. Spicey ends up winning on a Chad Rylan 35-yard field goal before that interception by my man, Kysear White. Shook, tell me, because you watch this game closer, what do you think was the key to the Cardinals winning the second half, 14 to nothing.

Running game, number one. Everybody knows who's watched the Cardinals this year, that if the running game is going, they have a chance offensively. And James Connor, who got to halftime with nine yards on six attempts, ended up with 86 yards on 19 attempts. He didn't score, but he paced this offense and balanced it out, which, first off, kept him on schedule because the Cardinals in third and long are terrible. And it kept them on schedule, which allowed Kyler Murray to just take the short passes, dot the field with completions, and keep the offense moving. So That was the first part, bouncing out the offense. The second part was takeaways. They were backed up. First in goal, 49ers with the ball, first in goal, moving right down the field, about to put the game away. Jordan Mason around the left end. And a linebacker you've never heard of because he hadn't played a down before today comes in and knocks the ball out. And it's recovered by the Cardinals, which then gives them the opportunity to go down the field and take the lead with that Chad Reilly. Does he have a name? Chad Reilly. Oh, yeah.

Well, it's going to take me a second to find.

Luketa. Luketa. I don't know his first name.

Jesse Luketa. Jesse Luketa was his name, and he made a phenomenal play. Dennis Gardeck makes a key pass break up on third and 23 because the Niners lose Jake Moody to injury. They're not going to kick however long field goal, very long, out of Mitch Wyshnowski's range. So they have to go for it on fourth and 23. It's all the key little plays in between that stacked up, stacked up, and they capitalized on every single one of them, avoided catastrophe, and came away with a shocking win that nobody saw coming.

A defense that really bothered Brock Purdy, who only had one completion under pressure on the day. When Brock Purdy, we see it all the time, spins away, rolls out to his right, makes a play when he's got time. Over two and a half seconds, Brock Purdy was 10 of 24 in this game with two interceptions. Just making some weird decisions. Not sure what Jonathan Gannon's defense did, but it was really a problem for this 49ers offense to make big plays. Jordan Mason was really the only play that the 49ers could make other than a couple of IU plays.

Okay, so one of the theories that I've long believed, there are some of these coordinators that dial up these crazy game plans, and sometimes they really hit, and sometimes they really don't. You know what I mean? I think that if you're a game plan defense, you can have a game where you win 41 to 10. I think this is almost a game plan offense, too, where they're very creative, like they did against the Rams. Or you could have a game like last week where they lose 42 to 14. It's not working. Or you really muddy up the picture. And without the best talent, nick, you end up winning and making enough big plays to keep this 49ers offense down. On the other side, I didn't see a ton of this game, but Kyler Murray has a fourth and 5. The game's on the line. They are driving for what turned out to be the go-ahead game-winning field goal, but they almost certainly lose that game if he doesn't get it. And he has the most Kyler Murray fade away, jumper to Marvin Harrison on fourth and 5. Not many guys can do that, and that's just your best player is making a great play.

Yeah, and it was a quiet day for Marvin Harrison Jr. Before that fact, they'd highlighted had been targeted six times and had one catch. That ended up being the biggest catch of the day as he just throws basically a jump on and out. He knows he's going to be there. He just throws it off his back foot with the rush all in his face. And of course, Marvin Harrison Jr. Comes down with the ball, buys him a fresh set of downs, and then they're suddenly in a position where they can run the ball and start to drain clock because they know they're in field goal range. And again, tip of the cap, new arrival. Chad Rylan shows up to replace Matt Prater, who's injured, ice in his veins all day, knocks in both of his field goal attempts. It was beautiful, beautiful comeback win for them.

Chad Rylan had one of the worst seasons any kicker has ever had last year for the Patriots. It's on Belichick's 2023 epitaph there that he used the fourth-round pick, but he's back in the league, and I'm happy for him. I guess I'm not that happy for him.

You're laughing at me. Greg was like, Oh, who's their kicker? I'm like, Oh, they got Chad Rylan. It's like, Oh, it's like, That's over.

There's no way they're going to do it. I want to go back to the Cardinals going for two down four. If they hadn't made that, that's one where people are going to get at them. They won this game partly with an edge in the numbers. I mean, that is a gutsy call. Kyle Shanaan went for a field goal on fourth and goal from the two-yard line. Those are analytics plays, Kyle Shanaan is not playing by the numbers, and the Cardinals, in those case, decided to, and it really paid off for them. The 49ers are now 0-2 in the NFC West. Both of those games, they had 10-point leads in the second half against the Rams and the Cardinals. They're 0-3 in the NFC. Sets up a very compelling Thursday night game, which these two guys, nick Shook and Patrick Claibon, are taking care of for me while I'm hopefully asleep in the middle of the night in London. That That's a big game. No guarantees. Nick, the 49ers got a block field goal return, a block field goal return, and an interception on a screen pass that set them up on a short field, and they lost this game.

So fair is fair. They had some big things going their advantage, and they did not win.

Yeah, it was one of those games where it just felt like everything was going their way, and they were going to cruise to victory. It was almost a formality until the second half arrived, and they started to get stymied by the Cardinal's defense, and then they started making plays, and the balance just shifted back in their favor. And you knew you were like one or two explosive plays away from suddenly this changing. And that never really quite happened. It was just a steady approach. And because they had enough time, that's why they ended up pulling it out. But I mean, yeah, it's one of those games they're going to look back at and think, how did we lose this game? Because we made all the plays, the right plays in the first half, and they went to sleep. I mean, Brandon Ayuk, 147 yards on eight catches. His first breakout, his highest before was under 50 yards. That should be leading toward a victory, and they just didn't get the job.

Right. They're just weird. I mean, Jordan Mason has more yards rushing in the first five games than any running back in the history of the 49ers, but that fumble just absolutely turned the game. And yeah, Ayuk gets going, but then Juan Jennings has 13 yards on fork targets, and Debo Samuel has 11 yards on the game. They're having a hard time putting it all together. That can happen for teams, I don't know, that lose the Super Bowl, and it's a long offseason and a whole lot of injuries. We're going to go take a quick break here. When we come back, we're going to travel across the ocean. It was a fun game in Tottenham Hotspur's game. It was a long game. Talk a little Viking's Jets.

The Jets, five of 16 on third down. Roger, back to pass, fade right. And... There's Jeffman. Did Gilmore pick it off? Come on, the Viking. Yes. Viking's ball. I believe it was Stefan Gilmore, but he's being mugged by his teammates. And why wouldn't he? The Minnesota Vikings are going to improve to five and 0.

Stefan Gilmore. The Vikings. 5-0. What a world. Kfan, Paul Allen always getting it done, just like Stefan Gilmore always getting it done, reading the throw, trying to go back shoulder to Mike Williams. Gilmore saw it. Mike Williams did not. It is time for the Sunday Drive presented by the all-new Hybrid Toyota Camry. And yes, it was our NFL Network game. It was a big game, I think, in the Jets season. And more than anything, I think it was an awesome game by the Vikings defense. It's tricky, whether you want to give credit to bad offense or good defense. In this case, Patrick, we've seen this Vikings defense scramble so many different teams that if not for a very poor Sam Darnal game and a bad interception in the fourth quarter, this thing would have been over and quite boring with the way that the Vikings defense played through about the first 10, 11 possessions that the Jets had.

And they did it with consistency. It wasn't just big plays because I know Aaron Rodgers had three bad passes. He'll tell you were bad passes, including the one that Stefan Gilmore got, but they were consistent as the day went on, especially getting pressure on Aaron Rodgers, who ultimately ended up throwing the ball 54 times. And this one, including 22 targets to Garrett Wilson. But on the other side, while the Jets got called for a litany of penalties, it was really just a consistent veteran performance, something that we've seen from this Vikings defense for the entire season, bothering Aaron Rodgers, limiting Brees Hall on the ground to nine carries for 23 yards. Braille and Allen didn't fare much better. They both averaged 2.6 yards per carry. Smothering, they're in the right spots. It's just a very, very good solid defense.

It's very well coached. Shook, before that Darnold interception, which really changed the game with under 10 minutes to go, they're in their own end. It's just been a punt fest in the second half. Darnold struggled since Aaron Jones went out, which was early in the second quarter with a hip injury. He gives the Jets a chance on a short field and they cash in for their second short field countdown of the game. Before that, the Jets offense had had six punts, two turnovers, those interceptions by Rodgers, one turnover on downs. And yeah, They got three after a special team's penalty, gave them an extra possession on a ruffing the punter. The Jets got three points that way, and they got another seven on a short field. So the offense almost hadn't done anything themselves. They had very few total yards. And yet there they were at the end of the game driving. And I'm thinking like, Man, is Aaron Rodgers going to do this? Right now, I don't think there's just a lot of belief and a lot of cohesion in that offense.

Yeah. Last week, I got on them for making Aaron Rodgers throw it 42 times in the rain. 54 times seems like a lot, and it is. But there was a period during that stretch where they tried to run the ball twice and got stuffed three, four, five yards deep in the backfield, just completely losing any semblance of a blocking unit on the interior on those plays. And I'm like, well, I understand. Aaron Rodgers almost got tackled on the handoff on that play. I guess they have to throw the football. Everything is hard for this offense right now. Everything is difficult. And Aaron Rodgers just looks so exasperated. First off, He's trying to make some miracle throws, which he tried one to Alan Lazard in the end zone, which was placed perfectly, but the window was smaller than the size of my face, which can often appear large in the screen at times. It was about that big. To expect anybody to catch that would be out of their mind, and he almost did. And yet, Rodgers is very angry at himself and maybe angry with the fact that it wasn't producing a positive result. It's just there's so much frustration right now.

So that's how you end up with this final score, where you end up with 17 points in a pick in the final minute, but they had a shot. Now, I have to I'll say this, guys. Five games in, I am sold on the Vikings defense. I wasn't. I was skeptical. I was like, well, maybe it's a match-up thing. What they did to the Niners was maybe that was the aberration. I am sold now because of the way Brian Flores is... Count me the last guy on the train. I'll get on the caboose. I don't care. Let's go. They're good. They're well-coached, like you said. Harrison Phillips is a monster on the inside. They have a great unit. And Gilmore getting that pick, because he was getting touched up by Garrett Wilson earlier in the second half. Him getting that pick in that situation felt very vindicating, I think, for this entire the Vikings team.

Right. But are we believing in the Vikings offense? This was a step back. Look, Aaron Jones is not as important as Justin Jefferson to this offense, and certainly the offensive line gives them a huge big foundation to build off, and they were fine today, at least in their pass protection. But Darnold had a tough game. You got hit in the ribs very early, and maybe that was a factor, but just missing throws all over the place, not really seeing the field too well. I think Rodgers was just as good or better than Darnold in this game. Darnold goes 14 for 31. But you know what? He gets the ball with him only up three after that breakdown drive that I was saying, and he makes his best couple of throws of the game at the end, one to Jefferson and then another to the tight end, Johnny Munt, and get some three points there. So they feel better going into the buy. I think that he had a nice point. He's not afraid to keep sling. I'll give him that. He kept firing it in there, and there were some bad decisions and bad throws, and he kept going, and it paid off in the end that he had a couple of good throws.

Yeah, both one wide receiver has got a lot of volume today. A lot of those balls that Sam Darnold threw just to Jefferson's way probably could have gone somewhere else in the progression. I can't be too mad at Sam for that, but he'll tell you it was just a standard Sam Darnold game before this season.

That's how I felt, too.

We'd seen this before. The rest of the team, I'll pick them up there. And of course, Aaron Jones is a huge I don't really know how much of the game plan went to Aaron Jones and how much just goes out of the window when Ty Chandler comes in, but Ty Chandler had a turnover as well. It did impact things, but I don't really know that it was as much.

No. Well, he had 22 targets to Jefferson and Addison for only nine catches, which you're just not used to seeing. Some were just misses, and some were just bad decisions. Both of these guys... I mean, Garrett Wilson had 22 targets in this game. I thought Rodgers was making a point to force it to him early. On the very last drive of the game, Garrett Wilson sees the coverage is stepping up on him on what looked like a hitch route, and then he decides to go deep. Rodgers sees him, but he can't make the play and the throw. They would have won the game, or they would have taken the lead there if he hits Garrett Wilson. Those are the fine margins. Rodgers just isn't creating very well on his own. He ends up going three for 17 on throws over 10 yards. So there were just some funky numbers here. And the Vikings go into their buy five and out. The Jets chose not to take a buy. The way the NFL does it these days, if you go to London, the team can actually request to have the buy afterwards or not. If they don't want it that early in the season, the NFL says, Okay, you don't have to have it afterwards.

And they will play the Bills in a really interesting Monday night game. But they two and three. Long way to go. Let's actually listen to Rodgers after the game.

I'm definitely banged up. I got my foot caught on pile there. But it just seems to be a low ankle sprain. Again, they were trying to get me in the tent, and we had to rough in the kicker, and I said, Screw it, I'm going back out there. Yeah. Willis Reid type performance from Aaron. Oh. Where he's... Honestly, because I had left the house to get in to do Game Day Live, and I saw Rodgers writhing around on the ground, and I'm thinking, Oh, that's tough for the Jets. Rodgers goes down, and I get back in, and he's playing in the game.

He was crawling around like On the sideline after his knee got wrenched up and you thought, My God, this could be a long-term injury. And suddenly, he's back out on the field and they had a long drive. So injuries were a factor here. But yeah, he diagnosis a low ankle sprain. Soss Gardner we should also mention, was evaluated for a head injury, but he did return to this game at the very end.

Yeah, there was a lot of time on the sideline, but I do believe he was in.

Yes, he was back in. Just because I like patting ourselves on the back, let's just mention, if you listen to the preview show, what game we took as a survivor pick. There were some landmines out there. You could have gotten 49ers today. That would have been trouble. We didn't do that. We went with the Vikings, and they came through with four. Good job by me, Patrick and Steve Weiss. That was the Sunday Drive presented by the all-new Hybrid Toyota Camry. Whatever your vibe, it's a Camry vibe. Learn more at Toyota. Com/camry. Let's head to Washington. Nick, one of these weeks, we should just take you off Brown's duty, but this was not that week.

Second at seven at the 41 One-yard line. Two wide receivers to the right and three to the left. Mccafree and Hertz next to each other inside the numbers. Macafre chip blocks. Jaden loads one up towards Diamey Brown. He's got him. Touchdown. Touchdown, Washington.

That was Ram Weinstein from WBI. G, Jaden Daniels goes deep to Diamey Brown, part of a 34 to 13 victory. The Washington Commanders are 4 and 1. They've won their last two games by a combined score of, let me do the math here, 76 to 23. Jaden Daniels went for 82 on the ground. Another couple of big throws through the air, a 66-yarder, a 33-yarder, and a 41-yarder. Is this one of the best teams in football, nick Shook?

Well, the big concern with them wasn't quarterback because Jaden Daniels proved himself rather quickly. Starting with that Monday night win over Cincinnati. It was the defense. Can the defense get a stop? In the last two weeks, the defense has allowed a combined 27 points while outscoring them like you just said. So Dan Quinn's fingerprints all over this. They had seven sacs today against the Browns offensive line that is very quickly becoming notorious for being a sieve, and you can sack Deshawn Watson as much as you want against them, as long as you send the house on third down as every defense is done to the Browns this year. But this defense is coming together, and especially in the front seven. The back end still leaves me a little bit concerned, but the front seven is really playing well. They They were dominant on both sides of the ball today. Just a complete team win. It's funny because you look at Jane Daniels' stat line, he's 14 to 25 for a 2:38, a countdown and a pick. Probably his roughest game in the NFL so far, maybe saved for, I don't know, week one or two.

Week one Yeah, week one, I would say.

Week one, because he still produced, but they were trailing that whole game. He still was awesome. It's just that the Browns had a nice little edge on him early in the game, and their offense is so bad that it didn't matter. And eventually, he found his groove. That touch down past Deyami Brown was the straw that broke the camel's back, the crack in the dam that burst, whatever it is. That's what it was. And it just was a cruise fest from there for the commanders who look fantastic offensively.

Yeah. Let's listen to our friend, Bram Weinstein, again. For a candidate, I'll throw out there from Jaden Daniels for throw of the year. I don't know. This one caught our eye.Tody candidate.

Snap to Daniels. Big pressure coming up the middle. He tries to get away from Devin and Gus. Moves to his right, looking downfield, throwing for McCloy and behind the defender. The team stumples down to the two. Jaden Daniels has done it again.

The magic of Jaden James is on display. London Fletcher there on the call along with Mr. Weinstein. Sprinting right, throwing that ball. It's just how it comes down so pretty, Patrick.

It's a great throw. It will be on the toty reel. It's not quite touching Richardson's. No.

I wish McLaren finished it with a touch on that. I was bad luck. He just got caught for buying by the ankle.

But it's an incredible throw. The guy also, for the fourth week in a row, I'm looking over Cliff called an incredible football game. Austin Echler had, at one point in the fourth quarter, Austin Echler had 16 yards per touch, per catch and per carry. Everything was working. Of course, Jaden's doing... He's seven and a half yards of carry. It's tough to figure out how much is the rookie being phenomenal and not being a lot of tape on him, and Cliff just putting together a great game plan. But the win for the Browns today is somehow getting Jaden Daniels to have 11 incompletions. That's the win for the Browns.

I saw Jaden Daniels against unblocked pressure in the first half. It was four unblocked pressures. He went two for two for 78 yards. One of them was that long throw. Then he ran for 36 yards. Even the perfect defense is not getting him down. He is just a force of nature. I would say the story of the NFL season right now is Jaden Daniels. This is so much different than 2012 because of the ownership. 2012, people look back on now as a moment in time of like, Oh, yeah, that couldn't have lasted. You wouldn't have known that at the time. That was equally magical in terms of the level of play that RG3 was at. He was fantastic, like his level. But the fact that Snyder was there, it was always something hanging over this organization. It changed things in a way that this feels like a totally fresh, different type of start. That is not the case. It's almost the opposite in vibes when we're talking Cleveland. Nick, let's listen to Kevin Stefansky after the game, asked if he's going to bench Deshaun Watson.

Yeah, we're not changing quarterbacks. We need to play better. I need to coach better. And that's really what it is.

Yeah. When you start just saying everyone around them needs to play better, that's not That's not a good sign. Give me your Deshaun Watson recap from today. Ends up throwing the ball 28 times for 125 yards, and a lot of that was in garbage time.

Well, point number two in my what we learned is it's time to bench Deshawn Watson. I don't say that with any Cleveland background in me. It is just obvious. This is a guy who is holding your offense back. Yes, they don't protect well. Yes, they don't run the ball except for maybe a third of their plays, and they don't do it well until late in the game when it doesn't matter. But this guy is not He's not playing quarterback at an NFL level anymore. He's just not. He's been under pressure so much in the first four or five games of the season that as soon as he senses pressure, he's pulling his eyes down. There are guys open. He's looking at the rush almost immediately. He held the ball for an average of 3.27 seconds today. He's not making quick decisions. He lacks the speed and mobility to get out of the pocket and extend plays with his legs or pick up positive gains for first downs. It seems like he doesn't even want to run unless he absolutely has to. Ball security is bad. The entire offense is being held back by him. They They have money invested in receivers.

They have money invested in David Njoku in tight end. None of that matters because even when they're open, he misses them by three yards. He did it early in the game on a throw to Amari Cooper today. Greg Olson was like, You're wide open in the NFL on that throw. You got to make that throw. He's not good enough to play in the NFL as it stands right now. If the Browns want to dig out of their one-on-four hole, they need to accept that fact. Kevin Stefans, he needs to make a change and see what happens because you have no future with him right now, plain and simple.

We already have the precedent once this season Dave Canales on a Sunday after a bad loss by the Carolina Panthers comes out and says, We're not making a change at quarterback. Lo and behold, 13 hours later, it's announced that there's a change at quarterback. I don't see. Jameis comes in this game, he throws one pass. It's complete.

He looks better in that one pass.

That one pass, I'd seen enough. I had seen enough before this year. But I feel like we have evidence as to right now what the best option for the Cleveland Browns is. It's not Deshaun Watson.

Well, Kevin Stefansky knows that. He knows the score. He knows who pushed for Deshaun Watson and who didn't. And to make it clear, I don't. But he knows how much of that was his decision, how much went into this season, and their plan for the backup, and not deciding to bring Joe Flacko back, where Dorian Thompson-Robinson is at because he's going to be an option at some point, if not right away. I don't think it's a guarantee that it would be Jameis Winston if they go to another quarterback. But he also knows that is a conversation I have to have with ownership with the general manager, whether that's right or not, that's just a fact of life in the NFL, because I think when you go away from Deshawn Watson, you're never going back. It's the worst contract in the history of the NFL. It's the worst trade in the history of the NFL. It's been the worst... To make a mistake that was so obvious before they even made it, I would have never expected expected the on field product to be this bad. I thought it was a mistake because of everything else that Deshawn Watson was bringing, including a suspension.

Now we're here, and I don't know what career he's going to have moving forward. I don't know. Maybe they will let him play six more games. Everything is possible with this team. I doubt it. But man, it's just dark, man. It's pretty dark.

Yeah. I mean, we operate with the privilege of hindsight here, right? But at the same time, how many times are you going to slam your face against a brick wall before you decide to stop proceeding in the direction of the brick wall? Because the Browns are headed nowhere fast, and it all has to do with Deshawn Watson. It's as simple as, if you need proof, just look at last year. I know personnel around you has changed their offensive lines, banged up, but just look at last year. You got Joe Flack off the couch, and he played well. Make the change for your own good.

How about the Jacobi % year? You have all sorts of proof. All of Kevin Stefansky's era there. Even Baker Mayfield, when he was going well, he has a history of quarterbacks that have done They gave him and Andrew Berry, who deserves a lot of heat here because he ultimately made the trade. Watson, pretty late in this game, had 1.4 yards per pass. I mean, you just can't play football this way. They are only the six teams since 2000 to have under 300 yards and under 20 points for their first five games of the season. The other teams, quarterbacks for those teams, There were a couple of Dolphins teams involved. It was actually post-surgery. Dante Culpepper, which bums me out, and a little Joey Harrington. Aj Healey was involved. Jimmy Clawson's Panthers team, Josh Rosen's Dolphins team. It's some of the worst teams ever. I do want to say before we move on, I apologize to Jordan Rodriegue of the Athletic for complaining that she put Franky Louvou on our preseason All-Pro team. Because, man, Franky Louvou is balling out right now. Two back-to-back dominant games. Franky Louvou is getting it done. Let's end on a positive note and go to where Jordan was on Sunday.

Sofye Stadium, Rams, Packers. Here it is, ball game, fourth down in almost five.

Football to the 38th guard line of Green Bay. Stafford to the shotgun, three receivers left. Snipp Stafford looking, waiting, throws. It's broken up. Yes. Incomplete. Yes. Broke it up on the play on a slang pattern. And it is carrying It's in Valentine who breaks it up. There is your Dagger. Finally.

It was a finally. You thought it was over, then it wasn't. You thought it was over, and then it wasn't. But finally, the packers defense gets to stop Wayne Larravie on W-R-N-W. Look, the packers get it done, 24 to 19. Send the Rams into their buy at one and four. The packers get a much needed win to get to three and two on a day, Patrick, where they didn't have Romeo Dobbs because they suspended him after he missed practice on Thursday and Friday. Apparently, he was reportedly upset about the game plan. They had a game plan that was pretty heavy on Tucker Kraft and Jane Reid. I like that, Dontavian Wicks. That did not work out for them. But they did get a win in a game that had a little bit of everything.

A little bit of everything. And ultimately, when you look back at this game, I understand Green Bay comes in. They're favored. They're healthier than Los Angeles. The Rams lost this game, right? There were two third-quarter turnovers that the packers turned into scores. One of the Rams' touchdowns was an absolute gift from Jordan Love, a Watodi worst throw of the Year campaign candidate as he's falling out of the back, he could just take a safety. He's falling. He tries to get the ball to his tight end, ends up throwing a pick six. But the packers on third down were one of eight. One of eight on third down. They got out gained by the Rams. Those turnovers doomed the Rams in a performance where it seemed like... Because Matthew Stafford has been carrying this hurt Rams team. There were a couple of throws from Matt Stafford today. I just haven't seen all season. Some misses. Good performance, but ultimately coming up short because of some crucial errors.

Yeah, he throws it 45 times to get to 260 yards. They went into halftime with a lead, but then a fumble on their first drive of the second half, and They're a team that just has such a small margin for error. That was a Kyren Williams fumble who's been playing great overall. They spelled them a little more in this game. Finally, Blake Coram out of Mothballs and Look Good getting 25 yards on five carries. But they just can't afford plays like that. And then the packers offense finally got going for a couple of touch downs. I was thinking, okay, finally, a normal Jordan love game, because I just think he's been so up and down this year. But then they struggle in the fourth quarter. They punt a couple of times, including one on a long drive, and he had that interception. So I don't think this qualifies as a normal Jordan Love game, but you'd rather be figuring things out at three and two, especially in a season where you didn't have your quarterback for two of those games. They survive in the like, Shana hand tree off Lafleur beats McBay.

This is one of those games where they're going to look back and say, I'm really glad. Thank God we won that game because we did not play our best. Like you said, Jordan Love has been up and down since he came back from that knee injury, and yet they pull out a win. He had one really nice throw late in this game that really killed me because it went right through Dontavia Wix's hands, and then it forced them to punt and the Rams get the ball back. But what really killed me the most was the misses that you talked about with Stafford. That fourth down throw that we just played. He's under pressure and he misses his target, probably about a yard, and throws it basically out of his catch radius, and that's just how it all ends. And McVay's expression says it all. He's just staring up with his mouth agape like, I can't believe that just happened. I thought we had a good shot. Another game where a lot of things just feel difficult for them. I know they're hurt offensively. They're missing a bunch of alignment and everything else. They're missing their top two receivers.

But a winnable game that you end up losing, and you're now one and four. And like McVay, he alluded to after, it hurts, and it should hurt because this is a winnable game against a team It's going to end up with a winning record, and you're going to be looking up at them in the overall NFC standings if you can even get out of your own division, and you're just going to sit back and think, It's one of those ones that we should have had. Now we're one and four, and we got to dig out of this hole.

Yeah, there's bad one and fours, and then there's teams like the Rams who had that one game the Cardinals, but otherwise has been just there in their three losses, all to good teams. You wonder when he misses these throws, though. It's such a timing offense. Jordan Wittingen is clearly their number one receiver. I think he's a really good player, actually. He should be owned in all fantasy league if he wasn't already. I think he's doing a lot of what they asked Cooper Cupp and Pukunaku to do. I think Stafford clearly trusts him, 7 for 89. But he's your one. Tutu Atwell is your two When Kolby Parkinson gets 13 targets in this game, that's tough. Packer's weird situation. Wicks had a bad game, and he had that drop. That's some of the problems with Jordan Love, but the Dobbs situation, they have to figure out. I do like that they're unlocking Tucker Kraft, who had an outrageous 66-yard countdown. That was a fantastic play. Then let's talk about the throw that Jordan Love had to Jaden Reid. I think this is a Toady candidate throw of the year. Let's take a listen.

Second and 10, Green Bay. The packer's 45. Love takes play action back to throw deep drop. Pass time. Rainbows for Reid down the left side.

Oh, my God.

Henry makes the catch inside the He said, Seach it all over the show, he catch. Down he goes at the one-yard run of Los Angeles. What a throw, what a play, what a catch.

That is right near the top for me, Patrick. Sixty-one yards, total air yards on that. To throw it from one hash to the other into double coverage, but it gets where it needs to go. Outstanding catch, dude. Jaden Reid. Is Jaden Reid like an all pro? That's a totally separate point.

Yes, to your separate point. I do believe he is because it might have been a better catch than it was a throw. A little bit of a journey. I'm frantically on Game Day Live trying to look through the roster to see who number 4 is for the Rams, but he takes this circuitous route, doesn't necessarily track the ball, actually winds up running past the ball.

Is that Akela Witherspoon? I think it is. If you want to know who number 4 is. Do they cite him recently? And they actually had Tredavious Way to Healthy Scratch, if you want to know how things are going at their cornerback.

Well, he hasn't been good at all.

Well, it's been an adventure back there. It's a nice throw. I don't even know. I'm going to have that Jaden Daniels throw, probably a little bit better.

Okay, just put them both on the real Eric and consider for our midweek meeting where we meet with all the higher ups in the NFL. Yes. Goodell shows up on the Zoom, but the face isn't on it, so I don't know if he's really there. Let's maybe bring up the idea of the worst throw there, the W, Tony. What is it? Because Jordan loves there with three different Will Levis throws. All right, let's go to Seattle. We're not done with big plays yet. Let's go.

Myers in his 10th year out of Marist.

He's set.

Snap is good. Kick on its way. It's blocked by the Giants. They got pressure up the middle, and they scoop it up. Running down the left side is Houston.

He's to the five, and he's in for the score, and a down.

Bryce Ford-Wheaton is the one that picked it up.

Bryce Ford-Wheaton on a block by Isaiah Simmons. It was just a day for blocked field It was a day for defensive touch downs. More on that in a second. And it was a day for... Yeah, Isaiah Simmons, not playing a lot of defense these days, but gets it done at a point where it looked like the Giants might blow a 23 to 13 fourth quarter lead, but special team saves them.

On a play where Brian Dable shot now the Special Team's coordinator, and ultimately, there's a lot of consternation in Seattle about the results of this play because as well as the long snapper, as well as the guard, Laken Tomlinson, got pushed in the back and held down. Yeah. So I say, if Simmons could jump over them, apparently, the rules clarification is, That's okay. Keep an eye out for that in the league because they weren't being held down. They weren't pulled down. They weren't blocked. They were just made stationary. Give a clear lane for Izea Simmons on what ultimately I thought was about to be a Gino game-winning, TD Drive, Greg. But the Giants defense made the place.

Yeah. So preceding that was a drop by Jackson Smith and Jigba. Am I remembering it correctly? I mean, that goes right off his hands on third down. And so that ends up setting up that field goal. Gino also threw an incomplete deep to lock it right before that. They're in such great position with a ton of time, and then they're suddenly making that kick. Mike McDonald, the Seahawks coach, said after the game, he thinks it was legal what the Giants did. Not many people have Dexter Lawrencees. I mean, that's the thing. How many people are that strong to actually pull that off? And how many people are that athletic, Isiah Simmons, to jump over the top without making any contact with the line, which would make it a penalty? So I give it more to the individual execution. And the Seahawks didn't execute, ultimately, because that drop by JSN absolutely killed them.

I have an answer for that. Another who is as athletic enough to do that, Miles Garrett in Indianapolis last year did the same thing. But it is rare.

That's who we're talking about.

That's the class.

Yeah, the freaks. The freaks of the NFL can do that. Yes, exactly. It's a thrilling play, but I thought it was fitting, too, because the Giants defense really made life tough for Dino. I know he finished 28 to 40 for 284 in a countdown, but nothing was easy for them. This is a Seahawks offense that we saw go toe to toe with the lines a week earlier. They're a pretty explosive offense when everything's working right. Even things for Dike Metcalf were tough. He had four catches from 55 yards, and he had a fumble. That was a turning point in the game as well. Shout out to the Giants defense. We focus a lot on quarterbacks in this league, and Daniel Jones has steadily been better and better since his ugly start to the season. Small baby steps along the path toward being a competent quarterback. But this defense has really been sneaky good for them and has kept them competitive, especially in their last few games. I mean, it was dominant against the Browns. It made a big difference in this game today. Maybe not the next-gen stats. I think their pressure rate was 35.3%, so that's not really going to jump off the screen for you that much.

But nothing was easy for Gina. Yeah, it's solid, but it's not like, Well, they're in the 40s. Nothing was easy for Gina, though, because of this Giants defense. That front four, and really that front seven, has made life tough for a lot of offenses so far.

Well, Lawrence gets three sacks in the game, four quarterback hits, and then that play at the end. He is an all-pro. Yes. Brian Burns makes... He's had a couple of plays this year. I know it hasn't been every week, but in their two wins, he has made game-changing plays that led to that win. The Seahawks go for it on a fourth and 1 from their own 35 in the fourth quarter. Burns comes like a bat out of hell untouched, but just reads the play, explodes, and prevents Gino Smith from doing anything. Did he get the sack or did he just have the pressure on that play? I can't even remember. Either way, it sets up a short field goal drive for the Giants to go up two scores. Thought that was going to be the end of it, but this being the NFL in 2024, that was not the end of it.

Also, the Giants' offense in terms of a breakout game, Tyrone Tracy had 12 carries coming into this game. Ultimately, it goes 18 carries for 129 yards. The Giants sustained offense because with the frustrated... The D. K. Metcalf turnover, the turnover on downs. So Eugene and company just wanted shots to get back out there. But in several opportunities, they just couldn't get back out there because the Giants staying on the field. I thought, I know, Shook, we talk about quarterbacks a lot, and in terms of QB wins, this is the best dimes game that I've seen in a while. Interesting. But even considering that, there was a third and four opportunity in the fourth quarter, get a first down, get out of there and get the win, and the Seahawks defense comes up with a pass break up. There's questions on whether-Oh, that was a PI, I thought, on the Seahawks defender.

So they got lucky a little, too, in terms of the-But you don't want to waste the good dimes games.

They got a good dime game with no Malik Nabors and got to win.

Yeah, exactly. That's the key point. No Malik Nabors, Wanddil Robinson makes a shutdown grab. Darius Slatein has a really nice game, eight for 122 in a countdown. It was in this one stretch where he just caught a deep ball, gets flagged for taunting after signaling a first down then makes another catch. Suddenly, they just exploded out of nowhere. I'm like, Oh, my God. The Giants' offense isn't just competent. They have a little bit of life here. I don't know if they can sustain it over four quarters, but when paired with the defense, they're a tough out. Now, they're only two and three because of that rough start that they had. But I like the way they're trending trending. Not Team of the Year type stuff, but sleeper.

Well, I said, I think on the preview show, it was damning with faint praise, but they were the second best one and three team in the league. Yeah. To the bangles. I was like, They're actually playing close to the 20th best team. And so it makes sense to me that they are two and three. I'm noticing this is a trend around the NFL, especially the NFC. Everyone's just trending towards the middle. Forget that every team has won a game, spoiler alert, in the NFL. Almost every team in the NFL, in the NFC, has won two games. Everyone is at two and three or three and two for the most part. The Rams and a team we haven't talked about yet, the Panthers, are the only team that are at one and four. The Giants get it done on a day where they're missing Devon Singletary as well. I think if you don't pressure Daniel Jones, he's going to be fine. We've talked about fraud watch occasionally for some teams. I don't think the Seahawks are remotely there because their defense is going to travel. But the Seahawks defensive ratings after the first three weeks look a little fraudulent because they got some healthy players back today.

They got Leonard Williams back. They got Nuoosu back. They got their linebacker Jerome Baker back, and it was still pretty rough to give up 420 yards to the Giants, 24 first downs, and get run on by Tyrone Tracy, 129 yards. That is not a good performance. By the Seahawks. On a day that starts for the Seahawks with 102-yard fumble return, breakdown return by Ray Sean Jenkins, their safety, you get a free seven points that you don't expect to get there. They still end up losing to the Giants. They are three and two. And like I mentioned, they're going to be playing on Thursday night. We will take one more break here. We're going to get to the teams that are headed overseas this week. Like myself, looking forward to this game in London, but first got a couple of games to talk about Stateside.

Too tight in, set. Eye formation this time on second and five. Bigsby, the running back. They toss it to the left to Tanks. He cuts it back to the middle of the field. That's good running. Tank bases into the open field. 45, 40, 35, 30, 20, 15, 10, 5, touch down. Tanks' Bigsby has exploded for another score. Sixty-five yards. How good is that? And the Jags extend the lead.

Oh, it is good to hear Frank Frangie's voice again. First time all year. Wjxl. Yeah, Tank Bixby with his second impressive shutdown run of the year. I mean, his 19-yard run in the third quarter was an absolute thing of beauty as well. He come to play this year, 101 yards. And yet it came down to a whole lot of defensive collapse in the fourth quarter, and Trevor Lawrence being asked to step up and potentially save his coach's job, like We'll never know, but the walls were caving in on this Jaguar's team. They hadn't won a game all year. They're up 34 to 20 after that run. There's only five minutes left in the game, and somehow the Colts have two separate shutdown drives that go for 70 yards or more and 45 seconds or less. It was going to be one of the worst collapses that you've ever seen, and there was some whispers that if they don't win this game, who knows if Peterson even makes the trip to London. So Trevor Lawrence gets the ball, and this is going to get a little forgotten in this game. He throws a nine-yard throw to Deernis Johnson.

A really nice catch by Luke Farrell, 11 yards. And then who he trusted more over the years than Christian Kirk, 14 yards to him. He sets up a Kam Little, 49-yard field goal. They get out of there with a 37 to 34 win. And it was really nice, Shook, to just see them execute offensively at the end of this game because they needed every last yard, every last point, because their defense wasn't doing anything by the end. 24 fourth-quarter points for the Colts, but the Jaguars escape with their first victory of the year.

Yeah, and on a day where I thought the best thing for the Jaguars would be their throwback uniforms. Turns out they put up 37 points in almost 500 yards of offense, and Trevor Lawrence figures it out for the first time all year. 28 to 34, 371, two touch downs and a pick. That's the Trevor Lawrence that the Jaguars need, especially if their defense can't stop a nosebleed, as we learned in the fourth quarter. And Tank Bigsby, 13 for 101 and two touch downs. That This is the offensive production we've been waiting to see from the Jaguars that we thought we might see that we just hadn't come close to seeing until Sunday. What a day. Not going to say it's going to save Doug Peterson's job in the long run because it's still not a great football team. But what a day. Who knows? For a franchise and a fan base that desperately needed this.

You just stay in the picture. You just never know. It's like the Saints this year. Just stay in the picture. You never know if you have a good season. We don't even know if they will. Doug Marrone, when he won a game as an interim head coach with the Jaguars, I always remember this. That one game got him the full-time job, got him a whole other contract in like years of... You just stay in the picture because you don't know. They play the bears next week. They'll be underdogs in that game, but the bears aren't in an unbeatable team. Then you got the Patriots after that. You stay in London. London saved their season last year. It turned it around. So you just never know. And you can tell Doug Peterson absolutely felt it. This was him talking after the game about a possible weight off Trevor Lawrence's shoulders.

Well, I think there's It's a weight off everybody's shoulders.

Fair.

Yeah, fair. Right? Yeah.

Not just him.

It's a weight off of my shoulders, too. Now, you guys can get off my tail for at least a week.

Everyone's laughing there, but I mean, I I think Doug Peterson might have come into this game feeling like he needed to win this game.

This was the best offensive performance, not even close, the best offensive performance that the Jags have had. Other than a weird Trev decision, firing a ball in a triple coverage to Brian Thomas Jr. A solid game as he celebrated his 25th birthday. Really, it starts to feel like we're getting more Tank Bigsby in here. I know Travis ETN was dealing with a shoulder injury in this game, but take Bigsby played great.

Theyit's been awesome this year.

It's one of those things where you also got a spectacular performance because I know the Colts made play after play after play. But number one overall pick, Trayvon Walker had a strip stack of Joe Flacko. He had the game sealing stack of Joe Flacko as well. The Jacks defense made plays as well. Josh Heinz-Allen was picked up and got the fumble recovery that got them three points.

He was getting pressure all day. The funny thing is, you look at Flacko's line 33 for 44 for 359 and three touch-ons, and they were decent. For half this game, I was like, Oh, the old... Okay, the magic's gone. Flacko is just missing some open throws. He's looking pretty old when he's under pressure. And yet he got it all together at the end. Now, I can almost hear the Colts fans yelling at the podcast. Do people yell at podcasts? I don't know. I do.

Yes.

They're like, Can you mention the injuries? And yet it is fair to know the following Colts were not involved in this game. Anthony Richardson, although at this point, I think Joe Flacko runs a cleaner offense overall. I think that's fair to say. Like, Josh Downs ends up 9 for 69 in this game. You had those bombs to pierce. I don't know if that's a huge downgrade, but Jonathan Taylor, that's a huge, A huge downgrade to Trey Sermon. Quiddi Pay is out. Kenny Moore is out, their best cornerback. Ebukam has been out all year. Taekwan Lewis is now on injured reserve. Deforece Buckner is on injured reserve. Juju Brent also out. Start their starting corner, and then they lost Will Fries, who was filling in at tackle to what looked like a very devastating leg injury that he had to be carded off. I know a lot of teams have injuries. That's next level injuries, and their offense is making it happen despite it. Because, hell, Joe Flacko just throwing it down there because, fuck it, pierce is down there somewhere. Let's listen in. Joe Flacko in the shotgun formation.

Play action Good protection. He's got it. He's in the 20 down the far side like 10. Five, touch down. I-e-d-y. Alec pierce with fireworks in the fourth quarter. He strikes again.

It's 34 to 33, and the Colts are one point away from tying the game. I just wanted to hear that crazy moment in the game at WFNI Matt Taylor. Yeah, that was the moment. I was just like, Anything is possible. I don't know What is happening in the Jaguars? Secondary, the first long completion to pierce, which was initially called a countdown, and then they ruled it wasn't, was just an absolute gorgeous dime. Flacko can still sling it.

pierce had a one-handed catch where he corals the ball with one hand, actually knocks it away from a defender, and then catches it with his other hand. Those are the three targets. He had three targets, three catches, 134 yards. Can we get Alec pierce some more targets?

That's true. But on the other hand, you could look at it like that's the best three-target game maybe in NFL history. I can't imagine. Although Randy Moss had some wild ones. Randy Moss. Okay. This is there. Put this up with Alec pierce, getting it done. The Colts are at two and three, that feels about right for for where they've been this season. The Texans open up a two-game lead in the division, and the Jaguars, who have been in four one-score games, finally get a victory before heading to London. Would the bears do the same and really get us hyped up for the next game at the Hot Tatie?

Safeties are back deep. Snap to Caleb Williams. Good protection. Lines it up for DJ. More to the end zone. Perfect throw, perfect catch. Touchdown, bears. That's There you go. Deep strike and a 30-yard breakdown. 27-7, bears. Second connection of the day with DJ Moore, and the Beers are pulling away from the Panthers.

Dj Moore goes 5 for 105, gets two touch downs. And yeah, Caleb heard everyone talking like, Okay, it was nice. You got the win last week. Let's be a little more explosive on offense. Maybe let's win a game where you don't have to sweat it out. They did all of 36 to 10 over the Panthers. Caleb goes over 300 yards, very efficient on only 29 attempts. And suddenly this bears team, Patrick, is rounding into the team that they hoped they would be.

And I'll go old football guy, cliché time, because it looks so different now that Chicago Bear's can run the football. They look competent up front. Caleb is making checks to run plays. They're positive plays. Caleb has time to do the Caleb Williams thing, the reason that we saw him drafted number one overall, where he's giving guys hezzy's in the backfield, extending plays, getting first downs, going on adventures back there, finding a receiver. 29, 304 yards, and two touch downs. Dj Moore had a pair of touch downs in the revenge game against his old team. They traded him away. Trade looking good for the bears at this point because...

That's an understanding. The bears.

But honestly, All right, because you see the control that Caleb Williams had against this game. I understand it's against an underman Panthers team that lost Jedevi and Clowny in this game. The pass rush really wasn't there when they did get there. Caleb was making the miss. But this was an all bears game. On offense, the defense gave their traditional bears-type performance, but they didn't need the heroics. Like, Jaquan Brisker had an incredible hit. I was worried about both him and Tommy Trimble because their heads ran into each other. Neither player was intending to make helmet-to-helmet contact, but it was just one of those situations, forced to fumble there, but they didn't need it.

It's awesome. I'm glad you shouted out that, Brisker play. When people say there's not physical football anymore in the NFL, I present to you Jaquan Brisker. There is no one likes Juan Prisker right now. He is very Bob Sanders to me. That's cool to have different flavors. This bear's defense is showing what really good defense is going to do. They haven't been a great defense, Chuck. They've been a top 10 defense, But they haven't been like, Hey, we're going to dominate. But when you play a team that's a little underman, like the Panthers, they dominated.

Yeah, on paper, this felt like a game that was going to be a get-right game for the bears on both sides of the ball, and really a come-back-to-Earth game for Andy Dalton and the Panthers because of that bear's defense, because of the defense that I think is just quietly ascending, and people aren't quite paying attention to him because they're focused too much on Caleb Williams in his first month and a half of his NFL career. But they've been solid. And this is the type of game where they prove, Look, we are the superior unit against this offense, and we're going to prove it. We're going to make Andy Dalton throw an interception, only throw for 136 yards. That on paper right there is like, Okay, that's what I expected from them. But what I didn't expect, what I'm really excited to see from the bears, is that DeAndre Swift was able to run the ball effectively, and it wasn't just him for two weeks in a row. Last week, it was like a monumental moment when he burst through the line and scored a shutdown against the Reims. It was because it just hadn't happened for them prior.

Now, they can protect Caleb. Even when he's under pressure, today, he went five for 8 for 98 yards, had a passer rating of 105.2. Once the running game opens up, it gives your offensive line a little bit of a breather because look, we are allowed to actually run block because all offensive linemen want to run block. They don't want to pass block. And when they have to pass block, they'll be a little bit better at it because they're not spending the entire game doing it and picking up blitzes. So this is the front that they needed to play. Without Jedevi and Clowny to really get right. Caleb goes for over 300. And bears fans have to be feeling... I know I have a friend who's a diehard bears fan who was lighting my phone up afterwards just being... Send me the little fingernail paint emoji like, Oh, bears went on a Sunday. Oh, that type of thing. They're getting some confidence Well, he also knows you're a Brown's fan, so he's punching down.

I don't think that's nice of him to do as a fan. A Come Back to Earth game for the Panthers, who I think took a moral victory out of last week somewhat. And now Jalen Coker was their leading receiver in the game. It's just disappointing because you're getting Deontay Johnson and Xavier Leget involved so much more a week ago with Dalton, and Dalton had a Come Back to Earth, too, in his revenge game. You got a long shutdown run by Hubbard to start the scoring to make it 7-0. You're thinking, Oh, this is going to be frisky. But Dalton ends up with 136 yards and a shutdown on 28 attempts, and Bryce Young ends up coming in in garbage time and having a drive that ends with a sack. At some point, they're going to ask the question, When does Bryce Young come back? I don't think that time is now, but I did see an article on The Athletic actually asking that question, which is interesting to me.

Yeah. Well, the answer is late in garbage time.

At some point, they mean to start the game. I I think that will happen. Their one and four feels darker than most. There are a few teams now that we can look around the league, and we're going to talk about one of them coming up that one and four, it's already feeling like there's not much light at the end of the tunnel for the Panthers. That is not true about whoever was going to win the AFC West battle between the Broncos and the Raiders, because the winner of that game was going to have a winning record through five weeks of the season. Let's find out who was.

Minchew under center. Minchew with a play fake, rolling to his left.

Now, floats one too high.

It's going to be intercepted at the goal line, down the west sideline, intercepted. This is past Sertan. Sertan is going to house call it.

25, 20, 15, 10, 5, TD.

K-o-a, Dave Logan. There was a penalty on that play, though then there was confusion, but it ends up counting. Yes, Patrick Sertain has one of the defining plays of his career, an absolutely a game-changing play. If you listened to that highlight and you didn't know who won, you might have thought, Oh, it's Garner Minchu is going to throw a countdown to go up 17-3 in a game that there's been almost no offense. Sertain turns that around. Picks 6, ties the game at 10, and the Broncos roll from there. They end up winning 34 to 18. Garner Minchou gets benched in this game. He struggled, and I think he just had his feelings hurt because Patrick Claibon in the newsroom was just cackling that he thought this was the worst throw he's seen in the entire season.

It's tough to make it because it's a 14-point swing. Yes. Pat Sertan is on top of Rock Bauer's ready to make a tackle at the one-yard line. That's what Pat Sertan is thinking. And Garner Minchou airmails him. I understand there's a defender in his face, but in defense of Jordan in defense of Will Levis, there's a player who has the potential of scoring a countdown. Instead, the other team scores a countdown. That was the swing on this point. He threw the ball in the only spot on the planet where the absolute worst thing possible could happen. That's why it's the to me.

Put that on the worst throw of the year, real, and we're going to bring it up again at the meeting this week to see if that can officially become a thing.I guess you're right.Hopfully.

Roger turns his camera.

I hope so. It was a tough moment, and it's crazy how there was just like nothing for the Raiders after that. Christian Wilkins and Max Crosby were getting after it early in this game, and then Wilkins left with an injury. And after that, there just wasn't much going on defensively for the Raiders. Bo Nicks, I thought, played well in the second half of this game. He was set up in positions to succeed. Javante Williams ends up with 61 yards on the ground. He leads the team in receiving with 50. That lets you know it wasn't a lot of huge plays from the Bronco's passing attack, but you do expect that. One thing I will give Nicks credit for is that he is tough to sack, so he avoided some sacs, had one positive rushing play, but Mostly just avoided mistakes, and they took over right now. They're playing just good enough on offense, and their defense is just a lot to deal with. They got Garner Minchou benched, and Aiden O'Kunal comes in and played worse, frankly, than Minchou did. I mean, Minchou moved the ball all day. He had the two interceptions, so I get why he was benched.

But he's looked okay this year, and O'Kunal did not look okay playing in place of Minchou. We'll see who's the quarterback next week in Vegas. But does it really matter, nick Shook, do you think?

No. Unfortunately, it's bringing to life my biggest fear when they played that preseason game that was supposed to decide the quarterback competition, and they were both awful. Antonio pierce couldn't even get to the press conference and make a decision in that moment because he knew they were both awful. This is the realization of that, unfortunately, for the Raiders who are coming off of a high of getting a win, a low-scoring win last week and then getting smoked by a division rival. This Bronco's defense is for real, guys. Look, you gave up 26 points in your season opener, but since then, you gave up 13 on a weird loss to the Steelers in which you had no offense. Since then, you've made trouble for Aaron Rodgers, Baker Mayfield, and now both Garner, Minchu and Aiden O'Neill, which is obviously a step down for the other two. But it just It tells me that no matter where you are, road or home, this defense is playing well. It's going to be a problem for every team that plays against them this year. And it propelled them to victory. And it gave Bo Nix, who is about as predictable as the weather in northeast Ohio this time of year when it comes to him playing on a Sunday, gave him the padding he needed to be able to just dot the field underneath and work within the system and come away with a win.

So another good win for them. They wore gorgeous throwbacks. It was a throwback week in the NFL. Oh, yeah. Hey, man. There's not much I like more than a nice win and a good set of throwback uniforms.

Okay, so that pick six, which was fantastic, was over 100 yards. It's the first time in NFL history that we've had a week with more than 200 yard returns. And not only did that happen, they happened about five minutes apart, and they happened by a defender wearing the number two. So that's a lot that happened in a short amount of time. It was fun in the newsroom, this Bronco's defense is making it that way. And you look at the score, it's 34 points. The Broncos only had 289 yards in this game. How does that exactly happen? It happens with a 26-yard field goal drive in the first half, and then a 38-yard field goal drive in the first half. And so over their first seven possessions, all they had was two short field goal drives and five punts. To your point about the defense, nick, that's a defense letting their offense eventually catch up to the game. Even then, they were set up on short fields. The shutdown drives were He's only for 50, 39, and 58 yards, which is just outstanding field position, which came from the great defense, which came from the turnovers.

Zack Allen had six quarterback pressures in this game. Another sack. He is in all... I keep saying all pro. All pro is tough, but he's in the mix for all pro, and he's certainly had a Pro Bowl season. Then, Riley Moss, who teams want to pick on because he's the other one opposite's routine, is playing better every week and had an awesome interception in this game. A really athletic play there. The Broncos are frisky at three and two. You know who else is frisky? Who's that? Bo Nicks. I mean, what did you think of that Bo Nicks, Sean Payton back and forth barking at each other on the sidelines?

I think, and honestly, because Bo Nicks was joking after the game. What was said, he said, I love you. I think folks are poopooing this. I think that's the right reaction. All sorts of things happen. There's helmet communication, there's discernment There's agitation because Bo has Troy Franklin open for a countdown, and they don't connect in the end zone there. I think sometimes things just get hot. Somebody says something cross.

I just like the body language because he was barking at Sean Payton. If I was choosing which player or which person bowed down a little more, Bo Nix was in it. And Sean Payton was like, Whoa, man, this guy is serious. Let's listen to Sean Payton after the game.

It's part of the deal. Listen, last year, all of a sudden, it's just there's still a little bit of Ferris Buhler in this player that we got to get rid of. All right? Talking about Bo, and I love him to death. And so sometimes it's my love language.

All right? Wait, I don't get the Farris Buhler reference.

He's taking a day off? That's what Romeo Dobbs did. I don't think.

We talk about Farris Buhler. He was a smart ass of a kid. He's taking the day off of school, and he's going around giving you all this life advice while he's gallivating around Chicago.

I need more context. The follow-up from that reporter needed to be like, What do you mean, Farris Buhler? I needed more context. Someone's got to explain it to me, but I frankly needed more. All right, let's go to the final game of the day. I know it's your game, nick, but probably the less said about this game, the better.

Twelve seconds left from Miami's 36. Short motion by Douglas from the left. The snap is back to %, dropping back, looking to throw. He steps to his right. He sets up. He fires down the middle for Henry.

He makes the catch at the 10. They're going to hurry their thought.

There's only three seconds and two seconds left, and they're not going to have enough time to get another snap off.

That's the game. Miami will win it.

By the 15-10 final. This is the worst loss since Tom braided left the Patriots.

Oh, wow.

Scott Zolak. That's the first time I heard it. I just said, Get me Zolak on this, and I figured it'd be great, and it was even greater than I imagined. That was Bob Sochi on WBZ with Scott Zolak, 15 to 10. The Dolphins win the game. Look, I don't want a short change of Dolphins' victory because Dolphins fans will be like, You gave us no time. You're just miserable that the Patriots lost. No, I didn't even watch this game. You explain to me what can be taken from it from a positive Miami angle. I mean it for real.

For I mean, I wanted to talk about Zolak in his recency plan because there have been worse losses than this. Yeah, okay. That's a fair point. There have definitely been worse losses than this since Tom braided left. Let's keep it real here, Zolak. But no, the Dolphins, pretty much everything that could go wrong went wrong for them in this game. They had a long snapper, snapper-grounder to their kicking unit to try to kick a field goal. That didn't work. They had a missed kick as well, a pretty short kick that went off the upright. It seemed like everything they tried to do just didn't work well. But eventually, they started to figure it out in the second half. They put together a couple of field goal drives. And by the fourth quarter, when the game was within five point, actually it was within one point, 10 to nine, riveting moment, they decide, You know what? We're actually going to pound the run, and it's going to work. Because most of the day was dominated by the Patriots' ground attack. No, it's Jalen Wright for a gain plus 10. Rahe Moster for a gain of 18.

Another Jalen Wright carry. And then they get down by the goal line. And who finishes it off? None other than the fullback Alec Ingle because fullbacks are people, too. And he got the end zone to give them the lead. Tyler Hunt up and down better than he was the week prior. Still missed some throws, still looked a little hafhazzard in the pocket. But they won the game in a game that they should win because the Patriots are not a good football team. I hate to say it. Look, Jacobi Perset is tough as nails, and God, he deserves a medal after the end of the season for however long he plays because he gets clobbered every week, and he got crushed plenty in this game, but he keeps standing in there and throwing the ball. He also finished with 160 yards, and most of those yards came in the fourth quarter. He actually threw a shutdown pass that was ruled incomplete because Jalen Polk didn't get the other in bounds in the back of the end zone. That would have given them, Patriots, the win.

That was a bad throw, wasn't it?

It was a little high. It was wide open.

If he puts that on Polk, they take the lead there with very little time remaining. I bet Zolak had a great reaction to that one. Let's actually listen to more Zolak. I don't know what this is, but Eric just says, We've got more Zolak, so this should be fun. Probably keeps going.

This is the worst loss since Tom braided left the Patriots. There have been some bad This team, inexcusable, losing this team at home, 1:00 on a Sunday. You get a quarterback off the street to come in here and beat you. He couldn't stop to run. Your penalties, your slot, and he can't move the ball. You're never going to win a game, score 10 points. Until you're ready to make decisions to change it, it's going to be what it is. Maybe you start looking at tackles at the top of the draft next year.

Yeah, what's he wanting to do? If there were starter tackles goals that were available right now, the Patriots, I guess, or the Browns would have gone and gotten them. There's nobody there.

Right. And the guys that are there got hurt. I think you could question the play calling in this game, 34 passes for the Patriots averaging 4.7 yards per pass, and I'm sure even lower per passing play if you count the sacks, whereas they ran the ball 19 times, 7.9 yards per run. This is a rare game. And yes, you mentioned the Dolphins ran the ball well. That's what Mike McDaniel made his money That's how he got the head coaching job was from the running game, and they run for 191 in this game. So that Patriots defense really hasn't been too stout, and that's what they were known for forever. But eventually, they broke down after a whole lot of punts. And hey, you never know. Dolphins stay alive at 2:00 and 3:00, Patriots at 1:00 and 4:00. Anything more from you, Shook, on this one?

The Patriots offensive line is terrible, but we've talked about that already. I mean, the interior, oh, my God, they just get blown up. Zack Seeler had a field day against this interior. It was bad.

Zack Seeler is a great ball player. And yes, the pressure percentage for the Dolphins on this day, 51%. I didn't I don't know what it was going to be before I started that sentence, but I just knew they would come through it for me at a hugely high rate, 51%, which is just-Yeah, Brissette, he's been pressured at a rate of 50% or higher in three games this year.

That is losing football, Scott, and you're not going to fix that overnight.

No, but I do think you should play Jake May. Why not?

So he can get crushed, too?

I think he'd get rid of the ball quicker, maybe. Yeah, I mean, play football. I think playing football is a good way to get better at playing football.

Yeah, I think it's the only way to get better at playing football. I don't know. I got worse at playing football, watching the game. I think Drake May actually getting involved in the actual game is probably going to be good for his development because you can actually develop.

I think it's coming soon. Wouldn't surprise me if it is this week. That's it for Patrick's contribution to the show. And what a contribution. It was outstanding stuff. Nick Shook and I will wrap up and go to Sunday Night Cowboys, Stealers. It was a late one.

For the ball game, fourth and goal.

Cresgut in the gun, Snap is back. He has some time. He throws it in the end zone. It's a touch down to Jalen Colbert on the left side of the end zone, crossing in front of to Sean Elliott with 20 seconds to play. Goodness gracious me.

Yeah, that's Brad Sham on KRLD.

One of the longest days in professional football history ends just before 1:00 AM on the East Coast. Cowboys get the win, 20 to 17. Dak Preska on fourth down gets enough time, feels a little pressure from the right and just smooth, shakes over to the left. Good job by him. Finds Jalen Tolbert, who had a nice night on a play. Nick Shook that decided who was going to win and who was going to lose. It's one of the things I love about football because based on the result of that single play, you were going to get an entire week's worth of positivity in Dallas and a week's of negativity in Pittsburgh. Look, I think the Cowboys earned this one. Two big-time drives at the end of this game. They ultimately almost doubled up the Stealers in terms of total yardage. And Dak Prescott gets a win in a night that you just thought was going to go the Stealers' way because they won so many games like this, but they didn't this time. Cowboys just a little bit better.

Yeah, I felt like they might have played Renegate a little too early for the fourth quarter in Pittsburgh, but that's neither here nor there.

Although they It's not an interception on the drive that follows it, so it seems like it works.

Yeah, right. Yeah. Voodoo magic, that song. This was a night that was building toward being one of those doomsday Mondays in Dallas. If they had not completed that pass on fourth and goal, primarily because they got within a half a yard of the end zone and nearly fumbled possession away on first down. And then by the time they get to fourth down, you look back at earlier in the game when the Cowboys had three trips to the red zone, and only one of them Produced points, fumble, field goal, interception, three in a row, all ended inside the Steeler's 20-yard line. They only got three points out of it. They also had a blocked field goal. There were a lot of missed opportunities on the field, which explains why they nearly doubled them up in yards, and yet they needed a countdown in the final second. To win the game. But overall, you cannot overlook the fact that Dak Prescott dug deep and led two huge drives in that fourth quarter. And a tip of the cap, Rico Doudle, man, running way harder than his measurables would suggest. A run game finally getting you off of the Cowboys, which they lacked in the first month of the season.

So a great win, overcoming some adversity on the road, a 90-minute delay, which can really wreck you just having to wait that extra time after getting all warmed up and everything else. So they battled back and did a great job.

Yeah, it was ugly. The first half was 6:00 to 3:00 at halftime, and the field was still a little sloppy after the rain and the lightning that, yes, delayed this game for quite a bit. And yeah, made it, I believe, about a It was a 15 and a half hour day of football. If you woke up like me on the West Coast, made a little coffee, went out in the garage, the game started around 6:30 AM, and it finishes a little before 10:00 PM. So we almost got 16 hours of football. And you know what?

That was a good amount for me.

I liked it. When this game was slow, I was like, Okay, let's move it along. But that was a fun fourth quarter. The Cowboys, like I said, go 16 plays, 95 yards. That ends at the beginning of the fourth quarter. That's maybe their best shutdown drive of the entire season. They get a stop. You think everything is going to be great, and then it's the interception that I mentioned. Steelers have probably Justin Fields' best drive of the night. I think Fields has played outstanding all year. Tonight was maybe not his best night. Overall, they didn't really get the running game going. They tried them on design runs early, but on that drive, he made good decisions, was accurate with the ball, gets it in for them to take the lead. It's a four-point lead, and that helps the Cowboys be more aggressive. And they timed it out perfectly. That was like a five-minute drive that ends with 20 seconds left. And yes, you would have liked it to be a little easier when they get along the goal line. Alandon Roberts did his best Troy Palamalo impression, flies over the line of scrimmage, gets his helmet right on Rico Dattle when he's carrying the trying to score the countdown.

And again, if that ball just bounces differently on the turf, the Steelers recover, and it's one of the greatest defensive plays of the entire season. Steelers win. But this time, Dak Prescott, Johnny on the spot, is the one that recovers the ball and ends up throwing the game winner to Tolbert, who had a nice night, 7 for 87 was a bit of a theme. Other guys stepping up. Kavante Turpin was more active, 4 for 50 in this game. You mentioned Dautil. Ferguson had 70 yards. So they They spread it around. They had more of a power rushing attack. Shook. They said they were going to give up on a little bit of that outside zone. Rico Dautil said, It's taking a while for us to find our identity. This worked out better for them and something for the Cowboys to build off.

Yeah, it was much needed balance because look, I mean, Dak threw for 352, but he also threw for two interceptions to go along with his two touch downs. Any offense is going to be better when you're balanced, when you have a threat on the ground in the passing game. That was massive for them in those two fourth quarter drives, was being able to run the ball with authority for positive gains consistently and not getting stonewalled by the Steeler's defense that we know can be very good. It was very good in the first half. They shut down one of the Cowboys trips to the red zone with a strip sack of Dak Prescott, stopped their momentum in their tracks, but the Cowboys were able to figure it out. You talked about Ferguson. He made A huge catch on third down, pivoting outside, catching the ball, and then getting away from a defender for a massive first down to keep that drive alive, because there were multiple instances in that last drive where the Cowboys were this close to stalling out, this close to being forced in uncomfortable fourth down situations. It wasn't until they had that fourth and goal that they actually had to deliver.

Again, a night where other guys that you typically don't mention made the contributions. Tolbert on the Dallas side. I mean, Pittsburgh, George Pickens was pretty quiet all night, and yet they still managed to put 17 points on the board and hold this lead until the final minute. Every time, every game we play is not always going to feature the stars, even if the stars are the ones that attract the eyeballs. Sometimes it's about the lesser known guys, and that was definitely a theme tonight.

Yeah, Pickens finally made a big play on that final touch down drive, but otherwise was silent. They were running these heavy personnel packages with two, sometimes three tight ends, and he was not on the field for those plays. And so he actually had less routes run than Van Jefferson in this game. And Najeeh Harris is their leading receiver with 35 yards. They're going to need to be better on offense. I think Fields has actually covered up a lot of offensive line and schematic deficiencies for this team, and it ended up showing up in this game when Fields maybe wasn't quite as sharp. He throws for 131 yards in two touch zones. I think the key of the second half, actually, was Nate Herbig or nick Herbieg getting hurt because he led this game in pressures, actually. He had more pressures than T. J. Watt. You mentioned that strip sack. That was really a combined effort between him and T. J. Watt. And once Herbieg was out of the game. They're sending extra attention to Watt, who wasn't quite as active, maybe wore down a little at the end of that game and weren't quite as deep on the defensive line.

So the Cowboys get done. Huge game in terms of managing the season. They're The schedule coming up is tough. They were about to be two and three going against Detroit next week. That would have been rough to deal with. There was a couple of potential losses. This really just stems the tide, calms things down. Three and two is fine in this NFC, where, like I said, almost everyone has two wins or three wins. They've got three. And yeah, the Steelers fall back. That lead in the AFC North was gone quickly. They are now tied with the Ravens at three and two. And what a day, Shucky.

I got to say a shout out to Mike McCarthy, a guy who is known, infamous for screwing up clock management situations at the end of games. Played it perfectly tonight. Good for you, Mike. Back home, in case you didn't know by the broadcast, Which reminded you about 50 times he's from Pittsburgh, and he did a good job back at home.

It's the new Jerome Betis is from Detroit. But you're absolutely right. It was in a game, by the way, the Steelers could have desperately used those timeouts. Not only did they blow one right at the end when they were trying to get together before the goal line play, but they blew a couple when they didn't really need to earlier in the fourth quarter and had nothing left at the end to try to make a miracle drive. That will do it for our show. Appreciate everyone who made it this far in the show. We will be back on Monday night. This week is going to be a little bit different of a schedule. Nick's not with me Monday night. Giving him the night off. Bridget Condon, who's going to be with me on channel 5. If you're in the UK, watch me on Monday night football. Monday night, she's going to run upstairs. Then we're going to do Monday night football recap in the Chris Wesling podcast studio.

Until then, you know football is back..