Transcript of 2024 Week 7 Preview with Brian Baldinger

Welcome to NFL Daily, where we can only hope to be as interesting as the most interesting man in the world. That's Brian Baldinger, Baldy, on the show today. Also very lucky to be joined here in the Chris Westling podcast studio by my friend Patrick Claibon. And yes, this is NFL Daily, presented by DoorDash. A little different for this previous show. I'm excited, Patrick.

Yeah, we get Baldy back, and we get you back from London. Glad to have you back in these Estados Unidos.

Yes, it was a fun trip over there. I'm sad, Baldy, not to get to watch My team, the Patriots, and Drake May this week. That'll be an interesting one against the Jaguars. But I'm excited to have you aboard.

Thank you, Greg. Pat, good to be with you guys, man. Chance to talk some football here. I think I've got it pretty well digested from week 6, so I think I can look at some of these games and some of these matchups that everybody's turning to right now.

Well, everybody's going to turn to find out what you think about the bird, so let's start right there. Otherwise, we'll go small Call us the biggest spreads, but we got to start because we got Baldy on, Greg. Let's go ahead and start with the Saquon Revenge game. Philadelphia, a three and a half point favorite on Fox, Chris Myers, Mark Sanchez, and K-Pink on the call. Baldy, the Saquon Can get his revenge against the G-men?

He could. I mean, the Giants defense is playing great, guys. Played really well against Seattle two weeks ago. Played great against an explosive Cincinnati team last week, even without Kavon Thibodeau, Ezees O'Gillari. Played great. Dexter Lawrence playing as good as any defense lineman in the league right now. So they're going to have their challenges. They did not run the ball well last week against Cleveland. But I'm sure Saquon had this. He's talking in Philadelphia in the locker room right now after practice about what this is all about for him. So there is some of that to it. But Saquan knows that it's all about going up there to win the game first. Philadelphia is a better team. But the Giants' offense, honestly, guys, Daniel Jones couldn't have played worse than he did last week. That's disappointing because he played really well against Seattle without Malik Nabors, but he got the ball down the field to Slate and to Wendell and really made some things happen. Last week, he couldn't make a right read. That was a winnable game. It's 10-7 in the fourth quarter, and they just need a drive to win, and they couldn't do it.

Now they're going to have to do it without Andrew Thomas, who's their best offensive player, maybe the best player on their team. He's a really good player. I don't know what they're going to do to adjust. But if Daniel Jones played like he did last week at home against a poor Cincinnati defense, and now you take away his blindside protector, I mean, if I was the Eagles, I would be, I I don't know who's going to be out there, but I'd be lining up to go get to the blind side of Daniel Jones right now.

I'm glad you brought that up, Baldy. It sounds like it's going to be Josh Isidu. Isidu. Yeah, at left tackle. So they leave Jermaine Illuminaur at right tackle where he's played well. This has been a good Giants offensive line on balance, been one of the strengths of this team. It's funny you mentioned Saquon. He says it's been so long. He doesn't care anymore about the Giants that's in the past. It's been like weeks. He also said that the The fans, he doesn't think the fans will care anymore. I mean, I think they're going to care. I don't know if they're going to boom or not, but the Eagles need to get it going again on the ground. You mentioned a Giants defense has played pretty well, especially against the run. Now, one thing I haven't mentioned on this show is that Jordan Milata is also going to be out for a couple of weeks, the left tackle for the Eagles.

Johnson is in at left tackle now.

Yeah. He had some struggles, I believe, last week in that game where they It just were a little off. And this is a big game, Baldy. It's a swing game. I know people think the Giants season is just over, but they don't want to think that. They're 0-2 in the division. They're 2-4. They win this game, and it's just a messy, mucky NFC East race, and they're back in it at three and four. They can look at this game and think they got a chance. They lose it, and they're basically out of it. They need to win this game. And you mentioned how the defense has been playing well. What do you think they do to maybe mess up the picture for Jalen Hertz, who I don't know what to think about his season right now. Your friend at PHLY, Fran Duffy, I saw him have some numbers just about how they do not throw to the middle of the field. Jalen Hertz does not. He's last in the league in terms of throwing to the middle of the field by a good amount over the last few years. It's a constipated offense, as Lane Johnson said over the weekend.

Well, it's a whole lot better when Devante and A. J. Brown are in the lineup like they were last week. I talked to A. J. Before the game last Sunday, and he had five catches all in Brazil and hadn't played since, and a countdown. He had more than all that in one game. I told him he's a long ways away from the NL leaders in receptions right now. You got to catch up. He started that process last week. It's the one guy you can talk about thrown over the middle, and I know Fran has those numbers and other people do, too. But honestly, when A. J. Is in the lineup, that's where the ball is going. He is the offense. He's the spark. He's the big play. He tackled Martin Emerson. He tackled his arm and the ball and everything to make that countdown catch last week. He was excellent at shaking guys after the catch. He's a beast, and he wants the ball badly. The Giants, look, Deontay Banks, Adory Jackson. You can look at the Cardell float. You can look at the guys they have. Aj is better than all those guys. One thing that Jalen feels with is just throwing jump balls to A.

J. Brown. You're in a scramble drill, A. J. Is coming back to the ball. The offense definitely is better, and it has a lot more jump to it. It's not as constipated as Lane said when A. J. Is in the lineup.

It's funny because they're actually 12th in DBOA. That's total efficiency on offense this year, the way they're talked about, and that's with a lot of injuries. It's really not that bad. I was interested that Cordell Flott, you mentioned his name, traveled with D. K. Metcalf. Last week, or a couple of weeks ago, rather. I wonder if he does that with his old teammate, AJ Brown, because I don't think that would go well.

Yeah, it'd be an interesting decision, the Eagles offense. Of course, you mentioned injuries. They're going to have to deal with Grant Calceterra playing tight in. Dallas Godert left the game. Calceterra played 91% of the snaps. Interested to see if the Dimes home road splits continue to stay because for some reason, Daniel Jones really can't get it done at MetLife this season, 0-2 there, has not thrown a shutdown pass yet. We'll leave that game and go to a Super Bowl rematch. The spread, one and a half points in favor of the home team, the San Francisco 49ers, Greg, Kevin Burkhart, Tom braided. Congratulations to new Raiders owner, Tom. On the call, are we going to see this Chief's offense finally get going in a Super Bowl rematch?

Yeah, I think they'll be fine. I don't think this 49ers defense is what it was a year ago. I think Mahomes is coming off of his best It seems like so long ago now, that Monday night football game, really off his best two games of the year. I thought he played very well against the Chargers. Those are two pretty difficult matchups, and Mahomes handled it. I am curious to see Baldy, nick Bosa, If he's lining up against the Chief's left tackle, what havoc he can have? Because he's coming off one of the most dominant performances I've ever seen for a guy that didn't have a sack in the game on that Thursday night football game against Seattle, where he really controlled that Because to me, this 49ers front just isn't as good as it once was. But if you could have nick Bosa just having a special performance, that can at least carry the day and make it difficult on Patrick.

Well, you're right, Greg. I mean, your eyes aren't deceiving you. They're not as dominant. I mean, they lost Yvonne Hargrave early the season. He was supposed to be their DeForece Buckner, who they never replaced once he left in free agency, and then he's out. So Malik Collins steps up, and Leonard Floyd has been okay. But they just They have to blitz more, honestly, to get more pressure. But he could beat either tackle out there, whether it's Joan or Juan Yee, whoever's playing on the left side right now. He's capable of beating both of them. But Mahomes knows that, too. He's excellent at just escaping that and avoiding those negative plays that nick can create. What was encouraging for the 49ers defense last week were the two rookies, Moustapha and Green. They both had They hadn't had any interceptions in a secondary. The two rookies stepped up last week, especially after really a flat game against Arizona. I think Diamador Lenor is as good as slot corners as there is in the football. Fred Warner, all he wants, honestly, is the ball. He just wants the ball in every play, whether he's intercepting it, punching it out, recovering it.

It just wants the ball. Fred knows that this game, it's interesting. It is a Super Bowl rematch. It's interesting, Brad is doing a game and Fox is doing it. It's the first time Fox has ever televised a Super Bowl rematch.

Wow.

Since they started in 1994.

Back when you were one of the crew members. I remember watching some bald games. I don't want to age you here, Baldy, but I was back in high school watching some Baldy on those Fox broadcast. It was fantastic.

Yeah, I wasn't getting the A game. I wasn't getting that game. Me and Kurt Meneffy or Kenny Alvin, we were getting somewhere lower down. We were in Carolina, probably.

Right. I was going to say, if I was watching you, it was probably my Patriots, but going to, I don't know, the Falcons or something on a Fox game.

Yeah, I got to the Falcons at the Patriots. It was over in the first quarter, something like that. But regardless. This is the golden era. I don't think there's... Honestly, the Super Bowl is a Super Bowl. Desan Francisco wants to beat Kansas City. They need to. They're It's hovering right now. They're not playing great. We are seeing, honestly, all the rookies stepped up, Garendo stepped up last week. But we're going to talk about the quarterbacks. There is some similarity between Brock Purdy and Mahomes, just from a standpoint of being able to create offense, their movement. Brock Purdy was excellent last week in extending plays. You do see both guys, if you put them in a 40-yard dash, they'd probably both about a 4-8. But on the football field, the way that they stop, start, change directions, head fake, ball fake, all those things, they both have those things to extend plays. It's a big part of both their offenses right now.

Yeah, plays extended because you think about Patrick Mahomes and not necessarily wanting to blitz him. It's just he and Josh Allen, in terms of quarterbacks who see their average time of throw go way up on third down. And the 49ers defense going to have to deal with You guys mentioned Malik Moustapha just allowing one reception on seven yards and six targets this season. That's a good start. I think back to the change to go to nick Sorenson as a defensive coordinator. Steve Wilkes has the univvial task of stopping Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl, which has happened one time to keep his job. It doesn't. And so now here's nick Sorenson with your chance, Greg, to go out there, stop the Chiefs, and I guess save your job because that's the standard.

Baldy mentioned the best way to stop it, which is just Fred Warner. The Chiefs, I read, right now are throwing more screens than any team since 2018. Not just any Chiefs team, any team, period. They're living off of screens, and Fred Warner is one of the best players in the league to stop it.

Andy Reid has been in this business a long time. He's always been a pass-first guy. But because of all of the injuries, whether it's to Hollywood Brown or Shee Rice, all the injuries and defections from the wide receiving I mean, they're almost a 50/50 run-pass team right now. 160 passes, 150 runs. Andy Reid has never been that 51/49 like this before in his life. But honestly, they're a very good power run football team. Kareem Hunt, who leads the team in rushing right now, somehow after just two games. They might lean on that because San Francisco doesn't look like... I've seen teams, including Arizona, run the ball really well in the second half in that win against them a couple of weeks ago in San Francisco. If they have to lean on the run, and that includes Mahomes scrambles and design runs, I think they're willing to do that right now.

Yeah, incapable. They've shown it, and they've gotten better offensively throughout the course of the season. It's an old-school matchup because the 49ers play so much in 21 personnel. So that's two running backs on the field, a running back and a fullback, usually. It's use check. But they're in that 41 % of the time. Baldy, before the show, you asked me, what's the audience for NFL daily. I said, You could get as deep as you want to, Baldy. Not that I can get that deep, but they're averaging over 10 yards per attempt out of 21 personnel. That's crazy. So they're in these heavy formations, but they're gashing you down the field. You must love that because that's 1990s football.

Well, it is. It's changed a lot, obviously. It's evolved. But I mean, every offense lineman wants to run in and play action pass. Pass is the easiest block there is. When the defense lineman is anticipating another run. I mean, it slows them down tremendously. Both teams are more than capable. San Francisco has made a great living. If they've got a play action pass off every run in Kyle Shanahan's offense So I would expect both teams to have new wrinkles within the framework of their offense for this particular game and knowing just the style of defense and the percentage that Spags is going to blitz and nobody's better than Spags at getting free hitters to the quarterback, and nobody seems to be able to block Chris Jones in his business right now. So Kansas City all the way up into overtime when San Francisco had a chance to score there in an opening drive, had pressure right in Brock Purdy's face, and they ended up settling for the field goal.

Yeah, ultimately saving the Super Bowl for Kansas City. I think that you could say that they won that on that play, a missed assignment by the offensive line for for the 49ers. You talked about new wrinkles, Baldy. We got a couple of new wrinkles in our next game. It is the Jets, a one and a half point favorite at Pittsburgh. The over-under at 38 on Sunday night football with Tariko and Collinsworth, Melissa Stark on the call. Mike Tomlin getting first-team reps for Russell Wilson this week. The Jets, they go in and get Devante Adams. First off, let's start with the quarterback, Baldy. Do you make this change right now at 4-2?

I wouldn't. In fact, I texted somebody in Pittsburgh today. Of course, he didn't get back to me about that. He told me about other players, but he didn't tell me anything about the quarterback. Not that I was fishing. It was just a friendly thing.

You're like, Hey, I'm on NFL Daily today. I want the good stuff.

One thing about Justin. First of all, they're in a good position, four and two, whatever. But Justin has taken care of the football. Now, you can say that George Pickett doesn't have a countdown catch, and they're a run-first team. But Justin's taking care of the football. They got to the playoffs last year, guys, with their three quarterbacks throwing a total of 13 countdown passes. There's a formula there in Pittsburgh now, and Justin's run for five touch downs while throwing for five. It gives you an element that Russell really isn't very good at anymore. I wouldn't make the change. I would ride Justin at this point.

Yeah, I'm with you. We talked about that on our show on Wednesday with Colleen Wolf and Jordan Rodrie. We'll see if he fits in this Arthur Smith offense. I'm curious on the other side, they add Devante Adams. I actually believe that the Steelers were favored in this game, and I don't know if it's just people aren't big on Russell Wilson or they're big on Devante Adams, but now the Jets are favored in this game. I'm curious if Todd Downing, who I think had a good first showing as their play call or their offense made sense to me, can he make all the different parts work together on the fly? That seems like it's going to be difficult to do, especially against this good Steeler's front.

I agree. The problem with the Jets, really, has been their offensive line. Aaron's not great, don't get me wrong, but they haven't played well up front. They blocked a little bit better last week. But Brees Hall has had so many negative runs or runs that have gone for two yards or less this year. And then the protection, it's You can see it, it's getting worse. These guys on the edges, Tyron and Morgan, we knew they were old. They had a lot of trade off the tire, and they were poor against Buffalo. And now here comes TJ and Cam. The problem is Aaron Rodgers is getting hit way too much. He has to get rid of the ball quickly right now. He can't stay in there the way maybe he once could and maybe avoid some pressure. He's taking a lot of hits in the last three games and last three losses. I don't know if Devante changed that. They're heavily penalized. I don't know if Devante changes that. They're heavily penalized. I don't know if Devante changes that. I say all that, and yet at the same time, they needed one play to beat Denver.

They couldn't make the play. Just a really bad timing between Aaron and all the receivers in that game. Then, Gareth Wilson shakes loose at the end, beats Stephane Gilmore, and Aaron over throws him. It would have been an easy walk-in, a countdown for Gareth, and they lose that game. And last week, they're down the three-yard line. They're at the 16-yard They can't score. Maybe Devante, they dial it back from three years ago when Aaron just gave Devante a look. Next thing you know, the ball's in the end zone. It's back shoulder, it's double move, it's come back, and it's thrown to the pylon, and Devante is exactly where he's supposed to be. You make back shoulder throws like this against Brandon Stevens. Maybe they have that rhythm right away. But I don't know how Todd Downing is supposed to know that. Maybe Aaron is going to call the plays, but it's a lot to expect when they haven't played together in three years that it's just going to click right away.

Yeah, what just an injury note for the listeners. Alex Hy Smith, I believe, is expected to return for this game, so that's big for them. They still will be without nick Herbig. But yeah, you mentioned Hayward and Watt. That is the best duo in the league now. So now you add another great pass pressure in Alex Hy Smith.

Yeah, it's tough to think because the game and the score gets inflated. Aaron throws a hail Mary. It's what Aaron does. But I'm thinking to that play. Aj Epinesa is, for some reason, standing on the 50-yard line. He's in the flat, Baldy. It's just a weird... Because the previous drive ended with the Epinesa's sack, and Aaron is getting hit constantly. Greg Ruso was also on the 40. I don't know I thought the bills were doing there, but everything was-They were on their sideline.

They were trying to have their cake and eat it, too. It was a bad idea.

It didn't work out. It was a bad plan on that particular play, but it still seemed so hard. Even with Downing, it seemed like a clear attempt try to get some more layups in. We had a flea flicker, reverse pass attempt just to try to get something where it's not just Aaron manufacturing things, but if he can do it, it's with Devante, but I'm with you, Baldy. I saw Aaron get hit way too much to feel confident against the Steelers team. I think the line movement just reflects probably more Russell Wilson than Devante Adams.

Maybe.

A little bit of an extra. But I don't know, considering the way Ray Davis was plowing over Jets, Baldy, I don't know how good I feel about the Jets defense right now either.

I'm I'm with you. I mean, Javan Kinlaw is a former first-round pick, and you can say he's talented. San Francisco saw enough of them. I mean, they lifted him right out of his chair the other day and just planted him. I mean, he's not holding the point. Leky Fotu looked lost in there. They weren't good up front. Buffalo pushed them all over the field in that game. Kind of surprised that the game was as close as it was, to be honest with you.

All right, we'll go to another game with a couple of teams who have been in some close games It's Seattle and Atlanta, also featuring a couple of defenses that have allowed the other teams to go up and down the field leading to those score fest. That's why it's a 51 over under Atlanta, two and a half point home favorite. Greg, Kenny, Albert, Jonathan Vilba, and Megan going to be on the call. Kirk O'Chains getting another win in Atlanta?

I don't think so. If I have to pick it, maybe that's my Seattle bias. They're on a three-game losing streak. The Falcons are on a three-game winning streak, if I'm correct. Yeah, they were one and They're making it work every week. I go and check that number. How is Kirk doing in the play action or moving outside the pocket? Still bad every week. He basically isn't moving. He's just winning from the pocket. It's happening. Mike McDonald has been under a lot of heat this week in Seattle. The honeymoon is over just because they look so similar in the ways that they're losing to the ways that they lost the last few years. Bad tackling, a lot of just mistackle. It's boring stuff. It's bad run fits. It's just guys not being in the spot that they are supposed to be. I'm curious because I know it was against Carolina Balde last week, but I think if Atlanta can get Tyler Alzeer and Bajon Robinson working as a duo like they did in that game, and the run came along a little bit, too, in that Tampa game. Then this team is real because the defense, Raheem Morris can scheme it up, but they need to be a great, great offense.

For that to happen, they need to get their running game cohesive. I don't think they were the first month of the season in terms of their run block. You're the block and specialist here. It It wasn't really working. Are you feeling more confident about this running attack going up against Seattle?

Well, especially because it's against Seattle. Seattle's been... They're giving up 35 points a game. Two weeks ago, Tyrone Tracy Jr, if anybody knew who he was, went up there and ran for 129 yards against Seattle. They're giving up five yards of carry. Atlanta is looking at that going, Why don't we become a run-first team? Some days, I think Tyler Algier is He's a better back than Béjan. Now, Béjan is an explosive, and he can hit home runs. But Tyler Algier is a quality back. He would play for any team in this league. He breaks so many tackles. He's so hard to tackle. But the combination is a very good combination. You can look at David Montgomery and Jamir Gibbs. There's a couple of really stand-out duos of running backs, but I think Béjan and Tyler are really good. I think Seattle is going to have problems. I also think that, honestly, if I was Kirk Cousins and I did want to throw it. I might just throw it to Drake London every play because his catch radius, his route running, he's just an elite player, and he's an excellent blocker. He's as good a run blocker at receiver as there is in his whole league.

He's a big part of that running success, and he knows how to do it without getting run over and getting called for holding and all this stuff. He's just very skilled at getting linebackers or slot defenders the vendors out of the way and let Mijon or Tyler go.

I'm looking over at that defense because the offense is... I don't have as many questions about... My concern is with the Falcons because Andy Dalton, they got a lot of hands on Andy Dalton passes last week. Aj Terrell eventually came back and gets him. Now, here's this Schrödinger's receiver in DK Metcalf, who's either going off or doing nothing. If he is scoring touch downs, they're getting called back. Kenny Walker got this This insane illegal formation penalty where he's just bouncing up and down for no reason, and it caused DK to get a shutdown called back. There's a lot of cutaway because it's Dike. The broadcast might play it up, but I'm looking at this matchup, and I do have some concern for the Falcons, even though it has a good-There are similar teams to me right now in a way in that I think Seattle and Atlanta, both, they need to be elite offensively.

That's their path. I think Seattle could be that team. They're on a little extra rest. They're on my extra rest watch. Oh, there we go. They the Thursday night game. They got three or four extra nights rest. Then the Falcons. The Falcons don't seem like a five and two on a four-game winning streak type of team to me. That's why I'm leaning Seattle in this one. We're going to take a quick break on NFL Daily. We'll be back. Baldy is going to join us for a couple more games. That's what we got time for. Talk to him. Oh, it's a good one in the NFC North. Back on NFL Daily, and when I looked at this schedule, I fell in love with this week seven. We got the Super Bowl rematch. We got Russell Wilson versus Devante Adams in a Steelers Jets game out of nowhere. And this block just has two beautiful games to start off with, including one in the NFC North, two of the best teams in the NFL.

Yes, that's right. It's time for a hot matchup presented by Wingstop. And the folks at Wingstop didn't take the Super Bowl rematch, Baldy. They said, I want the best division in football. Sam Darnold, the Minnesota Vikings, a two and a half point favorite with an over and under of 50 against Jared golf and the Detroit Lions. How do you see this going, Baldy?

If We're going to go matchups here, Pat. I really like Ben Johnson against Brian Flores, the number one offense against the number one defense. To me, this is the best matchup of the week, and for that reason, because Brian Flores has been brilliant this year, just brilliant in what he's done. Between the takeaways to Sacks, almost positionless football amongst the different players and what they're doing to good quarterbacks and good offenses to be undefeated against Detroit, that The best way to counter some of the things Brian Flores does is to run the ball right down your throat with Pene Sewell and Frank Ragnald, the whole group up there. They're playing Kevin Zeitler. They're playing great. I really want to see how Detroit attacks us. There's always new wrinkles. There's always tricks. There's always explosive plays in Ben Johnson's system. The Vikings haven't seen an offense this diverse where they can pound you if they want to, they can nickel and dime you with guys like Sam Laporta and Amand Ross, St. Brown, or they can just burn you with a guy like Johnson right there on the outside. I just think this thing has all of the elements that that an analyst would love to dig into when you talk about matchups.

Yeah, I looked at the matchups from last year. I don't know how predictive they are because it was in December, it was nick Mullen starting for the Vikings. By that point of the season, the Flores defense was not playing as effectively. That said, they were actually pretty evenly played. Yardage-wise, they were both quite even, and the Lions won two close games there. I want to see if Aaron Jones plays in this game. We don't know They traded for Kam Akers. Again. Yes, since we last tape this show, it's wild that Kam acres has trade value still after those two Achilles. He's been running hard this year. Now, it was like a six, seventh round pick swap, and it might speak to their not as confident, Ty Chandler as the backup for Aaron Jones. But to me, he's really important. He reminds me of Aaron Jones in Green Bay, where just nothing worked as well when Aaron Jones wasn't there. And you saw that in the London game once he was out, probably Sam Darnold's worst performance. And It'll be interesting to see how he looks going up against this Lion's defense. Yeah, they don't have a great pass rush, and so he should have time with Aiden Hutchinson not there.

But their secondary, I think, has been getting better every week.

Better every week. And why not go ahead and give him the toughest test that football can provide in Justin Jefferson, who's faced actually press coverage on 37 snaps this season and only has three catches there, but without a pass rush against the guy who has traditionally torched the Detroit Lions in his games against them. If you want to go fantasy-wise, he averages over 23 points a game every single time he plays the Detroit Lions. How much are you going to send Carlton Davis, Terry on Arnold, maybe, out to play a man press against Justin Jefferson when we've seen Sam Darnold's predilection to load up Justin Jefferson with targets, which we can't criticize, but I still think it's fine if you want to do that. But it's such a great matchup. I think with the way that KOC is calling plays, It's tough, Walt. It's tough to look at this and say, Well, yeah, Jared's going to solve Flores, and they're going to win this game in Minnesota with them playing such good football.

Well, I mean, you got Jamieson Williams on one side, you got Justin Jefferson on the other side. Carlton Davis has been an unbelievable pickup for him. He's playing great football week in, week out. I mean, his ability to read routes, to play in sticky coverage, they're putting a lot on him right now, and he's delivering like he He did in Tampa. He was the best corner in Tampa. He's the best corner right now. So he's going to see a lot of Justin. The one thing I love about Justin Jefferson is he has a plan to get open, and then he has a plan after the catch. The guy is, he's a remarkable player. If Aaron Jones can't go, they're going to have to lean on the creativity of Kevin O'Neill, his creative genius. I don't know if it's genius, but he's very creative in the passing game. They'll create Whether Detroit's a man or zone, whatever, they'll have the right plays up against the predictable coverage. That's one of the strengths of what Kevin has done this year.

It'll be interesting if Detroit can get a lead in this game. The Vikings defense hasn't had to play from behind. They haven't had to stop the run as much, and nothing will test your toughness up front. They have a great rotation of players up front in Minnesota, but nothing will test your toughness than this offensive line just running after you over and over. Blake Cashman has Turf toe. That was a surprise coming out of the buy. So he is week to week, but he's going to miss this game. Really looking forward to this one. Lions, Vikings. We had to wrap up with the game of the week from the One of the GOAT analysts in this business. He's been doing it back since he was on those Fox broadcasts. He's still going strong, and he's got a million different shows. You got to get to one of them. Any of your podcasts you want to promote before we say goodbye to you, Baldy?

There's a daily podcast every day on Odyssey and All City podcast in Chicago and Phoenix and Philly and Dallas and Denver. Let's go. I'll be on that national radio call. I'll see Tom braided out there. There we go. This weekend. Looking forward to getting out there. I'm actually leaving to go out there tomorrow. That is awesome. So I'm looking forward to it. Yeah.

Thank you, Baldy. We will see you next time. Thank you, great. Thanks, Patrick. Love having Brian Baldinger on. The best. I love this next matchup, too.

Yeah, we just talked about how the North in the NFC, the best division in football right now, the Green Bay Packers, get another fun one in Lambo. They are two and a half point favorites, Greg, against the Houston Texans. It is good news for them. They get some of their wide receivers back. We're going to wait to see what Dontamian Wix's status is for this game. The problem for Houston, they're going to be their second straight game without Nico Collins. Over under 47 One and a half. We get Nansen Romo and Tracy on the call. It's the A1 for CBS, and I think it should be.

It's a good game. Again, this week has a number of bangers. I just wanted to just make a note here. You know how I set you up there and then you said, Okay, it's Texans, it's packers, it's the point spread. I happened to have looked at the comments recently on YouTube once, which you shouldn't do, probably. One of the comments was commenting on your handsomeness, which was funny. Shout out to them. The heart-eye emojis. Another mentioned, Why is Patrick always cutting Greg off to set up the games? Doesn't he know that Greg's the host? I just wanted to say for your sake, Patrick, you're doing me a favor. We're a team here on Wednesdays, and you're taking a little off my plate here on the preview show, Thursdays rather. That's how we're doing it. Obviously, it's on purpose. He's not cutting me off people.

I I don't like to interrupt. This is NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. The key there being daily. Greg's doing a lot. If I could jump in here and do the thing where I talk too much as another, as I'm looking at the YouTube commenter say Stop. That I am a NFL Android.

Oh, don't look. Okay, now we're getting too much.

No, it's fine. It's fine because I get to sit in here in the Chris Wesley podcast studio with you and do this. I'll take whatever any Loser man, 84, 63 wants to say.

I just wanted to point that out. It was actually weeks ago that I saw that, and I thought it was funny, and it just crossed my mind that that is ridiculous.

I'm cutting you off right now, Greg.

I don't know where we are in this game, but one thing I want to... You mentioned the Texans offense. I think they're one of the strangest things going on in football right now. I don't think they're playing well, but I just think they have an elite quarterback who's playing like he's having the second-year leap that one of the best rookie quarterbacks of all time you would hope that he's had. And it's not totally showing up because I think there's another world where this team is really struggling and everyone is saying, Oh, The coaching is not smart, and the offensive line is not great. What is going on? Houston, C. J. Stroud is declining. But he's just such an exceptional player that he's making it all look good. Even against the Patriots, their success rate on a play-to-play basis was not good, but they had these short fields, and he just is making incredible plays. I don't know what my takeaway from all that is, other than I think when you play better defenses, it could show up more. I just am not sure that the packers are one of those better defenses. The packers, they're fine.

They're going to get a lot of turnovers, but I don't know if that's replicable. I mean, it has been so far, but are you going to be able to do that all season long? Otherwise, you're not a great pass rush. You're working in more rookies, which I think is a positive. Edger and Cooper and Evan Williams were two guys last week that really popped a rookie linebacker and a rookie safety. I think it's a positive. I think they're making those changes maybe because they're not happy with what's going on on the plays where Xavier McKinney isn't just making the best interception you've ever seen. I don't know what my takeaway is with this Houston team other than just C. J. Stroud is freaking amazing, and the running game is way better when you have Joe Mixon back there. Joe Mixon is proof that running backs matter.

Yeah, and I was going to throw those two things in there for you because the games... Because if you look at the season long, and we're thinking points per game of what we expect, they score seven against the Minnesota Vikings. Then they get the bears game out of the way, which they win 19 to 13. Those are two top 10 defenses in the NFL right now. Now, they come into this game. They scored 41 on New England. Again, regardless of what we think about the Patriots, that's without Nico Collins.

Sure. A lot of defense helping there, but yes.

I feel confident in this offense that I don't necessarily think they're going to get a win here because, again, this defense, opportunistic, mainly, Xavier McKinney, whose pick streak did come to an end last week. So we miss out on the fun packers counting to five, six, and seven. Maybe they'll keep counting with his next opportunity. But it's the way that Jordan Love is playing with Jaden Reid, specifically, because I used to be one of those that was very critical of this idea Then, Hey, this is, Hey, you get cheese Debo edition. I'm like, We keep trying to find Debo Samuel clones, and it stopped doing it.

How much does he weigh? He doesn't weigh anything.

No, he's not running through people. But the shiftiness, the ability to be involved in the run game and the pass game in the particular ways within this tree of offense that has roots now from sea to shining sea, it's good, and it's tough to pick the Texans on the road right here. Two really good teams, which I think it will come down to.

I think they're similar in that they're so good, they have such good coaches, and they're just good organizations right now where the Texans are at in terms of bringing in Domingo Ryan and their player acquisition, that they can survive a first six games of the season where I actually don't think either team has been at their total best, and yet they're five and one and four and two. Jordan loves performance last week. I know that was a favorable match, but I just think it's going to give him confidence and give this offense confidence that they're back to where they expect it to be. Now, they're going up against a Texan's defense that's second in the NFL right now in DVOA. I mean, it's been a really good defense The defense has been better than their offense. I think it's the bigger him, the defense and C. J. Strata, the reason why they're five and one. Both their starting linebackers were out of practice on Wednesday. Kamari Lasseter and Jimmy Ward are also out of practice on Wednesday. Two guys in the secondary. So that's just interesting, important players to watch as the week goes on in terms of their availability.

But yeah, I do think Joe Mixon, the way he's running, makes a big difference for this team. I have a hard time picking this game. I have not decided who will pick? We'll stay tuned.For Game Day View.

We got Game Day View coming up later on this week on NFL Network. Let's go to our next game. It is the Arizona Cardinals, playing host to the Los Angeles Chargers, who are a three-point favorite coming off of their win against the Denver The Over Under is 43.5. Can Kyler and the Bird's offense, Greg, get whatever this slump is figured out?

Yes, because it's like they're in every other game team, so it just feels like they're either terrible or awesome in every other game. I worry that Marvin Harrison Jr. Won't be available for this game. He's coming off a concussion, so we don't know if he's going to be out of the protocol by Sunday. There's no way to know early in the week. If he's not there, then you start worrying about, Okay, we know the defense isn't that talented, but is this offense maybe as talented as we thought coming into the year? The running game has just not been as consistent as you would have liked. Trey McBride had a nice game last week, certainly, but it's a tough matchup. This Chargers defense has really improved, and we'll see what they do when they have to play some of the better offenses in the league. But there aren't many of them on their schedule. They've been very, I I just would say sound when I watch them. They don't make any mistakes. That, to me, speaks to good coaching from Jesse Minter. Guys who are struggling in other systems, like Christian Fulton, a cornerbacker, are playing very well for them.

They're linebackers who I thought were a question mark. I've been, again, very solid in the run in the past game. It's just a really good defense that you have to earn your yards against. I think that's a matchup that could favor the chargers. I'm falling for this chargers team, though. It doesn't take much for me.

No, it's good to see a healthier Justin Hubbert go out there and play. You wonder about their availability on the outside because there was a point where... Now I'm blanking on the-Timi Fahoko?

No. What?

The rookie wide receiver out of the one, two national championship. Lad McConkey. Yeah, Slad McConkey left the game against the Broncos, and I'm like, What are they going to do? How many targets are you going to funnel to Josh Palmer? But then Kamate Vidal, the all-time leading rusher at Troy University, gets out there, runs a wheel route, scores a shutdown. But the one thing that did concern me that Chargers defense was how many rushing yards Bo Nicks was piling up in the second half. If you're going to have a low-scoring game and you're going to be playing against Kyler Murray, who is in a slump right now, that's going to need to be something that you get figured out. We You've seen this Arizona Cardinal's defense step up and stifle teams in this game being in Arizona? I might make one of those inexplicable pics where I pick the home dog and just fail miserably. I think that's fine.But.

The Cardinals, I think I can make a case for it. Yeah, the chargers are three and two. They're in the middle of the pack for a reason. If the Cardinals lose this game and fall to two and five, their excitement level of this season goes down quite a bit. This is an important game for them. Jakey Dobbins looked really good coming off a buy. Sometimes I think you can tell with running backs when they've had a week off that they just look better. The thing I struggled with the most each and every week with the Cardinals is their overall talent on defense. I think it's the worst the worst group in the NFL, maybe by a decent amount, in terms of just if you lined up all the players, who has the most talent?

If we put them on a 100-point scale. Yeah.

Or just you drafted all the defensive players in the league. The feels like their players would get taken on average the latest. And that's why, and it's no shot to them, but that's why it's the ESPN+ game. We got a double header again on Monday night. A little different, though. This is a first. It's an 08:00 PM Eastern and 9:00 PM Eastern start. But the ESPN Plus game is the second one. Just weird. I just wanted to point that out for people who are planning this. I'm pretty sure this particular setup has never happened before. So this is the Orlowski and Riddick and Laura Rutledge and Fowler crew, which I like that crew. I like that crew, but they'll be on ESPN Plus. They'll be on my iPad while you got Bucks and Ravens on the main screen.

As an NFL Android, Greg, I do want to stress that I love every decision that our beloved league makes.

That one's probably up to ESPN, I guess. But yeah, in conjunction, it's all together.

I watch games simultaneously. It's what I do. Bleep, blue, blorp. But the thing I like about primetime games is we're all watching the same game. I love that. Oh, yeah. I don't really like it, Greg.

I don't either. If you're at 9:00, so they're playing at 9:00 PM, that's got to be the latest start since they moved Monday Night Football back. Remember when Monday Night Football used to just be at 9:15? Yeah. Wasn't that just a thing? Which is crazy to think about when I was a high school kid just trying to stay awake past midnight to watch these freaking games. It's been the latest one in a while. If you're going to play a game at 9:00 PM Eastern, just start the first one at 6:00 PM. I promise out here on the West Coast, we'll be watching at 3:00. It's the NFL. We'll be watching. Maybe it's not as many people.

Because somebody's going to comment like, Oh, you all are going to be in traffic. We're in traffic anyway.

It's fine. I'm just being... I like the double headers. I don't like them at the same time. Leave us alone.I'm with you.We're in our cars.

Let's get to our next matchup. Miami at Indianapolis, who is a three-point favorite. Ryan Kelly missing practice. We're not necessarily sure who they're going to be starting at running back. Trey Sermon dealing with a shoulder injury. They go and get Sivan Ahmed in a potential revenge game against the Dolphins, the perhaps to a list dolphins. I don't know what to think about this game, Greg. The over-under is 43.5 points. Maybe Anthony Richardson is back. Maybe it's not Joe Flacko. A lot That's not a maybe. Kevin Coogler, Darryl Johnson, and Laura Oakman on the call. That's not a maybe.

Yeah, it is expected that Anthony Richardson will play in this game. He practiced fully on Wednesday, and the coaching staff is not giving away the answer. So I appreciate you leaving some vagueness. But the reporting has said expectations from our insiders. Speaking of Nivel Network Insiders, Jonathan Taylor was on with Tom Pelacero this week on the Insiders, and that made me think like, Oh, is he playing this week? Why would he be on? On. And Pelacero did a good job asking him. That's just because Tom got moved. Yeah, and he said, Would you put him back in your fantasy lap? And he said, I'm definitely feeling better this week. Why is he doing shows if he's not going to play? So I'm hopeful. And this team just doesn't make any sense without Jonathan Taylor to me. Actually, Anthony Richardson makes a lot less sense without Jonathan Taylor. They are a combo platter, and they're a fun one. And this is a matchup against the Dolphins team, which still doesn't have Bradley Chubb back. I think next week might be the week that we see Bradley Chubb on the field It's probably not going to be this week.

This is the bad teams with decent record bowl. Seasons can change. That's why we did that segment on Wednesday. Things will change. Both of these teams are candidates to actually be good in December. It could happen. They really haven't been good this part of the season, but the Dolphins are two and three. The Colts are 3 and 3. To me, it's a big game for the AFC playoff picture because they can just survive this portion of the schedule and then actually become as as good as the record says they are eventually.

We need an animation for the bad teams with decent records.

I mean, the Dolphins might be the worst team in the NFL so far, but they're two and three. I guess they're better than the Patriots for sure. They beat them.

They did.

It's Tyler Hunt for another week.

It could have gone either way. I have confidence in Anthony Richardson, mainly because he could be scattershot, but he could do that against a good defense. He could do that against a bad defense, whether Bradley Chubb is there or not. My main thing is whether it's Anthony Richardson or Joe Flacko, I'm looking every single week at Alec pierce running down the field by himself, and we're late into the fourth quarter, and Alec pierce isn't seeing any targets in the ones that he does. Again, whether it's Flacko or Anthony Richardson, we don't necessarily know where they're going, but I think he is such a deep threat in a game that could be low scoring. Alec pierce could put one in the paint.Okay.I like that.

To your point, he has averaged three targets per game over the last four weeks. That's crazy. Crazy talk. It's an error. Yeah, he burned Lejarius Sneed a couple of times last week, but they couldn't connect on a win, on a breakdown in that win. Kaleas Campbell, just shout out to him, playing so well. It's crazy. He's been, weirdly, one of the most underpaid players in the league the last four years because every year, he just signs a one-year contract as this older veteran, and he provides elite production, and he's doing it again. Dolphins, colts. Dolphins, I don't know. I don't think the Dolphins are done yet, especially with Tua Tungavailo. If they could just scrape out this win, get to three and three. Tua comes back, maybe they start playing better. We are going to take Another break here on NFL Daily, and we'll get to that other Monday night football game that I mentioned, Ravens Bucks, after the break. It's a different week in the NFL. Great games. We got the NFL Networks, Swansong in London this week, although we'll be back, of course, in Germany in some December games. But that's Chris Rose, our friend on a call.

That's fun. We'll talk about that game in a sec. But first, it's the prime Monday night game, Ravens Bucks.

It's the one that we've been waiting to see an MVP candidate again against an MVP candidate.

Oh, stop.

Baker Mayfield and the Bucks playing host to Lamar Jackson.

He threw three interceptions last week.

Three and a half boy favorites on Monday Night Football with Joe, Troy, and Lisa on the call, or you can watch the Mannings, or you can just chill and watch Game Center.

We love Greg, Baltimore. What is Game Center for the listeners so that they can understand?

Game Center provides you stats, highlights, as well as social interactions every single week. Check it out.

During the game on NFL Network.During.

Any game. During any game, during any primetime game. Really? You could check it out.

I think, yeah, at some point, the network found out that instead of putting on old football lives, if you just put up a blank screen with stats on it, a lot of people watch it. It must be a second screen for a lot of people. Or who knows? They don't have ESPN Plus, and they want that station. I don't know.

We love free ad-supported television, which is our NFL fast channel. Free ad-supported television. Which as we used to call television. I'm an Android. Sorry, Oh, yeah, about this game. I get caught off on a tangent. Baltimore, so hot right now, Greg. One of the big surprises is just how well Rashaad Bateman has played in recent weeks. Lamar Jackson gets Mark Andrews back in the fold last week against the Washington Commanders, against now a Tampa Bay defense, which has seen Baker throw three interceptions, but they still score 51 points, Greg. A Tampa Bay run it up and down the field as well. This one could be high scoring because this Ravens defense hasn't necessarily fixed all the problems that they had earlier this year.

No, they're a mediocre team against the pass. They're almost impossible to run against still, which happens year after year after a year. It used to say that about the Bucaneers, too, and they've improved in recent weeks, so maybe they're rounding into form for what you expect a Todd Bulls team to be. And so then it's more about the passing game, and you certainly favor Lamar Jackson in that scenario. But the Bucs passing game has levels. Liam Cohen has been a really nice fit for Baker in mitigating some of his bad habits, getting the ball out quickly, Chris Godwin playing fantastic. And these Ravens defensive backs just don't inspire a lot of confidence. There was a lot of hype about a Marlon Humphrey revenge season. He's been fine. He hasn't been their issue. But Nate Wiggens, it seems like Marcus Williams is often involved in giving up big plays. When they had that lead against Washington last week, I kept saying on Sky Sports, we were doing the game there, and I'm just like, They're going to keep giving up points. Jaden Daniels is not going to make this easy on them. I think if the Ravens are playing, it's weird because I don't think they're a great team with the lead just because I think their weakness on defense is giving up big plays in the secondary.

So this is a game where I could see playing out in a similar way. High scoring. Ravens offense is the absolute best in the league. The Bucks don't have enough pass for us to really bother Lamar, but that Tampa keeps up, and it gives us points and gives us a lot of fun on a Monday night.

At a certain point, your defense becomes Derrick Henry in the fourth quarter, because as you pointed out, best offense, it's impossible to make the argument against that. They're the number one the passing efficiency offense in the league, the number one rushing efficiency offense in the league, and the King being such a big part of that, where the cliché about getting stronger as the game goes on and wearing defense is down. I really think it's more of Derrick Henry can break one at any point, whether it's his first carry against the Buffalo Bills or whether it's late in the game as it was against the Washington Commanders. And then there's this conflict that they have you in late, where I'm watching that game with Ron Avera, who was spectacular in the preview show with you a few weeks ago, Greg.

Oh, thank you. You were watching the game with him?

Yeah, we had Ron in studio for Game Day Live on Sunday, and he's looking at that last play and says, Well, the problem here is Lamar is going to pull this ball and run it for a first down while everybody's chasing Derrick Henry. Lo and behold, it happens. For some reason, Lamar stops running at the sideline and takes a shot, which I don't necessarily want. I wish he would stop doing that. But he's got the Bucks defense in conflict there. Number 28, in rushing efficiency defense. I still feel confident there.

Yeah. Now, those stats were mostly without Vita Vea on the field or Kalajia Canty on the field. They were healthier, and I think you saw that. I know they had a bad quarter against Spencer Rattler there, but they have more playmakers now that Antoine Winfield is back to. I think that's probably the best way to stop Baltimore. You're most likely going to give up a lot of yards in a decent amount of points, but can you somehow turn Lamar over a time or two, Antoine Winfield? It'll be on them to do so. I still like the Raven. I like the Ravens this week. I like the Ravens every week.

Yeah. If Baker and company score like they have been, maybe Lamar does the thing where he's holding on to the ball too long, trying to score touch downs, and somebody gets a hand on one, Vita via, knocks one out. Let's get to a game I know you're fired up for, Greg, because you just got back from across the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Lower 48. Shout out to you for the distance traveled. The New England Patriots. At five and a half point underdog against the team that has won one game in the Jacksonville Jaguars because there are people like me who insist on believing in them. The Over Under 42.5, Chris Rose, Joe Thomas, Steve Weist, on the call. Rise, shine, and watch on NFL Network, also available on NFL Plus, by the way. Does Jacksonville get it figured out against your pats, Greg?

I've gotten back and forth on who I want to pick in this game. Five and a half is crazy.

That's nuts.

Jaguars are just such a bad You can't give them five and a half points, even against the Patriots. But man, the Patriots are poorly coached on offense. I was more excited about Dreg May until I went back and watched the entire game plan, and it's just not cohesive I don't know if they're well-coached. He's certainly not well-protected. He did some things individually that were exciting. You look at the next-gen stats for this matchup, and on balance, the Jaguars' past defense is the absolute the first in the league. You could see it in that matchup on Sunday. I was there for it. Just a lot of confusion, a lot of guys looking at each other after the play. If ever, Drake May in this passing attack was going to get it going consistently, it would be in this matchup, and that's why I think it'll go down to the wire. May gives us game a little bit more juice. I know Chris Rose was asking about it in the film room a couple of weeks ago. When do you think they're going to go to May? Greg, I was like, I bet by the time you're doing that game.

And then I was in London with Steve Weiss last week, and we're talking about it. He was like, he was excited that that Drake May is in this game because you just like watching good quarterback play. Trevor Lawrence has not been consistent this year, but if there's a slump Buster out there, it's the Patriots defense. They are one of the worst in the league, too.

But you were there, Greg. Was that not the best game Trevor Lawrence had played all season?

Second best. I think he's played his two best in a row. Colts game, he was really sharp. This game, once or twice, I think he passed up on guys that there. So maybe that doesn't show up in the box score, but they were there. And I think the progression would have taken them there, and then he just doesn't throw it. But he played fine in that game. If Lawrence played like he did the last two weeks, all season, no one would be complaining about him. Absolutely.

And the bears were eventually at a point where they had to decide to stop running up the score. But there was a point in that game in London where it's a one-score game. The Jags defense has a third and eight penalty, first down. They get another third and 15 penalty, first down. And then it happens again. It happened three times on the drive, Greg. This team, when things are going right, something will go wrong. And I just don't know how I can keep saying that's going to happen. But also, how can I say that that's not going to happen when I get mad because I picked this team and they keep doing it?

Well, imagine being a Jaguar fan or the owner of the Jaguar, Shad Khan, watching this. Ollie Connolly, I think made a good point that I did not notice at the game. I was on the other sideline, so there's no way I could have seen this. That he's never seen a more disconsolate bad vibes not talking to each other's sideline in the NFL or in any level of football than this Jaguars team. I don't want to overrate vibes, but something's wrong with Jacksonville. When I started thinking about that, I was like, Okay, the Patriots can at least win this game. But man, people aren't happy there. The defensive players aren't happy. Even their good players, like Keon White, are getting criticized because he's playing out of structure. They just seem extremely undisciplined on defense. So even the things that you expected would be okay being on their Ps and Qs, they're not getting it done. And I saw Greg Bedard, who I really respect, said, People are missing in the Drake May excitement in Boston, the forest for the trees, that this team is so poorly run right now. And I was like, no, the forest is that they have a quarterback.

He's the only thing that matters for this this entire season. But I also see what he's saying that if this coaching staff and this structure is not going to be competent, then you're going to waste a couple of years of Drake May's career. I'm hoping that that can improve over the course of the season. I know they're not going to win many games, but if they're going to win a game, this would be one of them.

Yeah, if he's a tree in the forest, it's the tree of life. He's like the central figure. When he wasn't pressured, he was 12 of 18 for three touch downs. If you're looking for good news in New England-That's pretty good. Yeah, he had a pick. But hey, three touch downs. That's why we go with the ratio because-Very watchable, very exciting young player.

That makes me excited. I'm excited to hear Chris and Joe and Steve on the call. They're great.

Speaking of Joe Thomas and Chris Rose, by the way, the Cleveland Browns, playing host to the Cincinnati bangles, who are a six-point favorite. The Cleveland Browns get back in a great work in the Players Tribune. Nick Chubb saying he has unfinished business in Cleveland. He feels he owes it to the city. I think maybe the city might owe a nick Chubb a little bit. It's a rough spot. They just trade Amari Cooper. They're still starting. Deshawn Watson, Greg, Cincinnati's defense, Lou Anerumo squad, looked a lot better against dimes. How does Cleveland score points here?

That nick Chubb just does something.I hope it does.That's just...I hope so.the football gods giving us and him and Browns fans, something to hold on to, something to cheer about. I'm glad you pointed out that article, which I read. It was getting a little misty at the breakfast table here at my house. How cool. In Oregon, and the fans don't deserve what's happened during this Deshaun Watson era. No. Nick Chubb certainly doesn't deserve to be playing on an offense this putrid where Deshaun Watson has taken the in terms of sacks, 31 sacks this year, the worst EPA on sacks through six weeks since 2016. So he's just putting them in such a bad spot. And part of that is absolutely the offensive line. More of it, I believe, is Watson and the Bingo is coming off their best game of the year where maybe Hubbard is healthy again, and they just looked a little more dynamic. They're certainly healthier again. You wouldn't think that the Browns offense is going to get anything done. But reading that article just made me root for It was like a magical nick Chubb game and him just doing something crazy.

And that's unfair to expect. But who knows? The matchup is not a bad one against the Bengals in general. That maybe you can return to what made this Browns team great under Kevin Stefans He offensively, which was running the ball.

Yeah, two of the best pass rushers in the game in terms of pressure share. Miles Garrett at 31.3%. Trey Hendrix is actually at 31.8% as well. Between Miles and nick Chubb, yeah. Brown's offense, please get it figured out.

I will say the Browns have owned this rivalry, owned it in the Zack Taylor era. Even last year, I'm pretty sure the Bengals did get them back in the rematch, if I'm remembering right. I should not just count on my memory. But I remember the Monday night game where the Bengals were rolling, coming into that, and the Browns just absolutely stomped them a year ago. And there is something to say about that, that when you have the same coaches and they're matching up over and over and you keep getting similar results, it is It's a rare case where past results can indicate future results. I think the Browns probably feel a little more comfortable in this matchup than they should. Six points for a Bengals team that's two and four is a lot against a pretty good defense that the Browns can throw out there coming off a good game against the Eagles.

The one spot, though, where Jim's defense is... It feels a little bit different is all of these explosive plays. They've allowed the sixth highest rate of explosives on the ground the third most yards due to missed tackles. And so in comes Jamar Chase, who in the past four weeks is like, Oh, yeah, that's still Jamar Chase. That's still Joe Burrow. And the bangles offense, we don't have any problems with. It's really the defense. And looking over, did they get things figured out? I'm looking for a reason, and the only thing I can hang my hat on is nick Chubb has a crazy emotional game. Everybody's going nuts at the dog pound there, and Miles Garrett blocks a couple of field goals or something. I don't know.

It's tough to see anything else. By the way, my mind is so stuck inkjet lag that I was thinking of a Monday Night game from two years ago. That game did not exist last year, although they did split the two matchups, including, I remember, just an ugly performance by Burro in week one a year ago, 24 to 3.

The year is combined, but it's all within the beautiful mind of one Greg Rosen. The Las The Vegas Raiders making a trip to their former home to take on the Los Angeles Rams, who are a seven-point favorite. Kevin Harland, Trent Green, and Melanie Collins on the call. The over-under is 43 and a half, Greg. It is basically the entire plane has been constructed out of Rock Bauer's at this point with AOC throwing passes, and the Rams coming off a buy. The buy is why they're favored by seven, right?

That is so disheartening if you're a Raiders fan or new owner like Tom braided. You're a seven-point underdog against a Rams team that's won one game.It's not likeIt was a fun game, though, right? It was, and they've been competitive in others, and they have a top 10 quarterback in Matthew Stafford. So it is not a normal team that has only won one game. But man, that is absolutely brutal. We don't know if Cooper Cupp is going to play in this game. I heard Monday was an important day for him, but I don't know how much he really works. So my guess would be it might be a little longer before we see him. And certainly, Pukunaku is not going to be back for this game yet. And it's a big game because the Rams don't have many games on the schedule where they should win. And if they're going to get back into the mix, they were three and six last year before they made the playoffs. This is a game you have to win. There we go.

They go on a run here, and I'm excited for Jared Verce in this one. I know Colton Miller has been playing well at tackle, but now he's in an absolute impossible spot because a fun Aiden O'Kunal fact, he has not attempted a single no scramble rush on any of his 442 dropbacks since entering the NFL, Greg.

That is crazy. Not a quick mover.

He's literally not. It's like while we critique a 40-year-old playing in New York for not getting away from... Aiden O'Neill is not running. He is not going to leave. I'm thinking about this Ram's defensive line and the way that they've been able to get pressure this season, especially Jared Verfs. I think it's going to be tough. I'm going more than seven in that particular pick. I just don't have the confidence because I think the world of Rock Power's, and I love the way that they've had him out there, essentially playing wide receiver because he can do that, but wide receiver, tight end, he's that good of a football player. But to have a team on his back in this particular situation, I just don't believe it.

Jackson Power Johnson, who's a rookie offensive lineman for them, has been struggling. I think they thought their offensive line was going to be a strength, and it's been up and down. They certainly haven't been able to run the ball consistently enough. It was It's interesting to me, Mark Davis tried to squash the Max Crosby rumors, and there have been rumors. I'm just saying in the little text and whatnot. The GM group chat? No, I don't know about the GM group chat, but I think people have been calling and maybe not been wondering whether Max Crosby would be available or not, and maybe not getting clear answers about that. Mark Davis seemed to squash that at the owner's meeting, and he better, because if you're trading Max Crosby, I just think you're going to lose... Who are you? You're going to lose the fans that you have.

What's the point in player acquisition? You want to get something that nobody else has, and then you want to keep that thing. The thing that they need to avoid is maybe have nobody ask Max Crosby about this while he's frustrated. You don't want to end up with another trade request. Just try to facilitate, make everything as comfortable as possible, but also win games. Because I know Max doesn't want to be out there playing every single play playing through the things that he's had to play through while they're consistently bad.

It's a winnable game for them, even though the Rams are seven-point favorites. Maybe this is the game I should have tried to take my family to, but it's on a Sunday. It's tricky with taping NFL Daily, so we are making it to the Thursday night Vikings-Rams game the following week. We're going to take one quick break, and then we're going to wrap up with the last few games here on our week 7. Back on NFL Daily, and we haven't made a survivor pick this week, so we've only got a couple of games left with which to choose.

I guess when we finish one of them, the person, everybody listening will know the results and how that turns out. Let's find out. Carolina at Washington, who is an eight-point home favorite where the folks believe, and they should, the over-under 51.5. You should also believe in that, Greg, because Jaden Daniels in this offense is roaring the defense. We'll see. We'll probably get a good litmus test. With just Andy Dalton, who is the litmus test. Again, 51.5. Ian Eagle, Charles Davis, Evan Washburn on the call. The Carolina Panthers were in that game against the Atlanta Falcons. Both of these teams had losses last week, but the vibe advantage, obviously, going by way of our nation's captain. Yeah.

When you're the commanders and you're playing a dead on a rival Panthers team, and you're still getting Charles Davis in the building, that shows that Jaden Daniels has some star power here. It's true. That's the number two CBS crew. Basically, everyone's in on watching Jaden Daniels every week. It's the best show in the league. He somehow, I thought, played better against the Ravens than in some of his big splash games because they really forced him to win by going to his second read by having to stay in the pocket, and wasn't a huge factor on the ground, and wasn't necessarily hitting those big plays down the field, and yet he was extremely efficient and effective. And the Panthers are that defense week after week that you're like, Is this running game actually good, or did they just play the Panthers? And so you figured they could put up a 40 spot here in this one.

Yeah, confident there. J. C. Horn, playing good football. Not enough to make me confident in the one in five Carolina Panthers. I do start to wonder, at what point does it become pointless? And we don't just get Bryce back in to see how things are going to look.

But I guess it's one of those things.

And also an eye on Brian Robertson Jr, specifically for fantasy purposes, because as you mentioned, this Carolina Panthers defense has been amenable to opposing runningbacks. And so if there's no Brian Robertson Jr. Could get Maximum Austin-Ekler, who I think gives this offense a different dimension. It makes it fun, especially with the way Jaden is playing. Kind of interesting. He essentially becomes like a receiver, too, type volume there when he's in the game. So, yeah, this one, I mean, this is just all the Ricky quarterback. It's tough to talk about anything.

Well, and you can talk about Terry McLaurin, who has a different profile. Next The stats noted that he's run a post, a corner goer, a wheel, which are the routes down the field, the vertical routes on 42% of its route. So it's like he's going deep down the field more often than he has since he was a rookie when it was just bombs away to Terry. You wouldn't think the Panthers are really going to have many answers. They're this weird spot where Andy Dalton made them significantly better, and he continues to play at a fairly high level week after week. But it's also like, what is the point of entire franchise right now?

He's got them so much better that they've climbed all the way up to dead last in point differential, where they are negative 100.

This was by design. They spent all their money on offense this offseason. They got rid of all their good defensive players. They also had a couple of injuries on defense, but they basically decided, We're going to be bad on defense to try to help evaluate Bryce Young. But then he only lasted two games before they made their evaluation, and now they're just with this 20 second-in-the-league offense and one of the worst defenses. It's tough. But these are the types of games Washington, everything is first for them. They have to prove as they get through the season that they can keep passing these tests. If they do, They're the favorites to win the division, which is wild.

They'll get to that Cliff Kingsbury week 7, 8, 9 type fall off where people are going to be charting that, and I'm people in that. Leading us to our final game, the Tennessee Titans at with the Buffalo Bills, who are a nine-point favorite. Nine also, coincidentally, the Jersey number of one Amari Cooper when he played his college football at the University of Alabama. He is now a Buffalo Bill, the over-under 41, Andrew Catalan, Tiki Barber, and Jason McCordy on the call. The Tennessee Titans. Shout out to Tony Pollard. He's been good. We're looking for good stuff anywhere else, and it's hard to find it, Craig.

Yeah, it's not there in the passing game. Brian Callahan just seems so frustrated with Will Levis. You do wonder when Mason Rudolf is going to come into the mix. I think it's going to happen at some point. Calvin Ridley's upset. Deandre Hopkins would be an interesting trade candidate potentially for the team. The defense has been disappointing, at least in terms of their past defense the last couple of weeks, just not bigger than the sum of their parts, the Titans defense. You play a Bill's offense that Daddy and Mary Cooper solves their one issue that they have. But it was a dynamic Bill's offense to begin with. I think they're one of the few teams that can actually line up against Tennessee, just man for man, add that sixth offensive lineman like they do and still be able to do what they do, not get pushed around by Jeffrey Simmons in that front where the Titans are so good and still be able to run the ball when they need to. We'll see if James Cook is back for this game for the Bills.

Yeah, and I think Ray Davis added a dynamic type level to this Bills' offense. My question for Joe braided was, where did Ray Davis go? In the middle of that game, they went away from the run game after it was so dominant in the start. Eventually, he gets back. He has a huge eight-yard run in the third quarter to convert a crucial first down. But I'm watching just how well Greg Ruso and A. J. Epinesa played against the Jets. I know the Jets' offensive line is nothing compared to the Tennessee Titans' offensive line. But we're still seeing Will Levis where Calvin Ridley is being used as a deep threat, but then it's late garbage time situation.

He's getting mad about it.

Yeah, it's understandable. I'm glad that he cares, but it's just a very frustrating thing. It's hard for me to consider a way that the Titans win this game, which is why I'm going into the jungle, Greg.Oh.

Wow.a.

Proposition for you.

Yes.

That after a week off, we make the Buffalo Bill's Our Survivor Day.

This is the sloppiest segment known to me. At first, we lost. Initially, we came back. Yeah, I don't know. I was in the UK, and it just slipped my mind. But yes, I'm all in on the Bills in this game. It's a week where they're missing Von Miller while he's on suspension, and they've had some injuries there I don't see about Ed Oliver, but they can get it done against this offensive line.

My big season-long concern for the Bills is athleticism in the secondary. I feel like there was an opportunity for them When you get exposed, especially with Garrett Wilson. Their ability to deal with wide receiver ones when the quarterback is protected, I'm concerned about that. But Amari helps the offense because when you're relying on... Shout out to all of Mac Holland's production, but McHolland's, the win at the line of scrimage. Adding Amari really helps.

Well, how about Taran Johnson coming back, and that matters a lot. Then one thing I thought was interesting was Taylor Rapp had a couple of big-time hits in that game coming back from a concussion, and he was wearing the the Guardian Cap because he came back very soon after the concussion. One of those hits, which has potentially won the game for them.

Yeah, the one on-I couldn't help but think like, he could have had a concussion on that play, but he was wearing the Guardian Cap.

It's all just making me wonder, if we actually care, we don't really care that much about concussions because then everyone would just wear the Guardian Cap. It's a weird way to end the show. But it's just like Taylor Rep is like, now I actually do want to protect my head, so I'm wear it. It does because I'm coming off of a concussion. It's just something to think long term that I think eventually everyone's going to be wearing these things, and we're in this weird in between that. I'm very conscious of that it's in the in between. Yeah.

That's all. Hopefully, we'll get data back and says that this does and help. But I don't think it's a weird way to end the show because these guys put themselves at risk.

It really struck me with Taylor Rapp last week, and it's on my mind, too, with Tua tongue. But I know he's going to be coming back. I'm curious. He'll be wearing it. I wouldn't be surprised if he was. And yes, Amari Cooper's debut with the Bills. Patrick doesn't like this analysis, but I actually think maybe Amari Cooper will be trying just a little bit harder this week now that he's on a good team where a quarterback can actually feed him the ball in the right spot.

That's second part. That's second part. That's all.

We agree. Okay. Thank you for watching NFL Daily presented by DoorDash. Love doing this show with all my friends each and every week, like Patrick Claybon and Brian Baldinger. Thank you for joining us all the way from Pennsylvania. We'll be back. Check out our livestream after Saint, Broncos. It's going to be a lot of fun. Check us out on YouTube. Until then, football is back.