Transcript of How Far Can The Eagles Formula Take Them?

Hertz under center. He goes with a pitch to Barkley. Barkley across the 30. 25, 20, 15, 10.

Good boy. Another one.

Hello. Hello. Four yards. He's unbelievable.

He is unbelievable. Saquon Barkley running in for a second shutdown on the night. You can hold him down for a while. You can't hold him down for four quarters. He ends up with 146 yards on the ground with two touch downs. The Eagles beat the Commanders 26 to 18 in Philadelphia. This was a 7-3 game for Washington at halftime, and the Eagles offense got rolling. That was Merrill Reece and Mike quick on WIP. I'm in the garage, and I'm looking at my friend Stephen Ruiz of the Ringer from Washington, DC. But he's not a Commander's fan, and so he's probably not heartbroken they lost this game a lot of Commander's fans are who thought this season's going to be special, and maybe it still will be, but they're at seven and four. There are a couple of losses now back of an Eagles team, Steven, that just looked like a little tougher, a little more grown up, a little more ready for mid-November football than Washington did.

No, the Eagles just look like the more talented team, the more solid team. Both of these teams take a unique approach to offense, especially on early downs. They have offenses that don't look like any offenses elsewhere in the NFL. But Washington, to this point, has been based on, one, the talent of a rookie quarterback in Jaden Daniels, who's been brilliant, but has run into a bit of a rookie wall this last couple of weeks. And then the scheme of Cliff Kingsbury. I always think there's an expiration date on offenses where you're getting by on smoking mirrors a little bit. I think with the Eagles, where it's talent-based, we just have better guys than you. We have an offensive line that's going to run you over. We have a running back that's going to take advantage of those holes. Then we have two wide receivers that if you leave them one-on-one on the outside, we're going to do damage to the air. I I think you saw that play out on the field.

I love it. You're already planting your flag that the Cliff second half collapse is coming. I love that by you, Steven. Let's put a pin in that and get to that a little later because that is intriguing. Jaden Daniels has struggled the last couple of weeks, although the offense had moments against Baltimore. Tonight, they really didn't. They end up with 264 yards, and that includes a garbage time, TD drive that they had at the end. They did have a chance an onsite kick under 30 seconds to go. So it was worth trying for. But most of the night, they really struggled. I want to give the Eagles their flowers first, because to me, this was the classic Eagles game of 2024. If you haven't watched them each and every week. A lot of them have been like this. And by that, I mean, they look disjointed on often. Jalen Hertz sometimes doesn't make the best decisions in the red zone, for instance, you saw tonight. There was a lot of unforced errors. They had a trick play, which killed the drive. They had a holding penalty, which killed the drive. They had another drive, which had a couple of drops.

Jake Elliott's missing kicks all over the place, two missed field goals in the first half, missed extra point. But at a certain point, their offensive talent seems to just catch up and overwhelm the opponent. And meanwhile, the defense has been money since the buy week, and now this is a better opponent they're going against. They played well against the as well, which was a good offensive opponent. And to me, they are absolutely legit, and they make you earn everything. And that combination is a winning combination because by the fourth quarter of this game, it just felt like the play differential. The Eagles had had about 15 to 20 more plays at halftime. Ended up being too much for Washington. And the second half drives for Philadelphia. They were leaning on them like, you could see when you had the overhead angle. They go, field goal, touch down, touch down, touch down to end the game. Game and Saquon with prairies of acreage to run through, and he hits it. And it's a great formula. As long as they're not turning the ball over, it's tough to beat.

It feels partly 2022 eagles's formula. When they were struggling with the passing game, they could just go to that run game and just hammer the same run plays over and over and over again. I remember there was a game against the Giants where I think they ran the same run play out of the same formation eight times in a row, and the Giants couldn't do anything to stop it. It feels like that. The past game isn't quite where it was a couple of years ago, but we've also seen highs out of the past game, especially when Jalen Hertz has been pushing it deep outside the numbers to A. J. Brown, to Devante Smith. I think if they can get that going more consistently, we're going to see this team reach some of the highs they reach when they made that run to the Super Bowl.

Yeah. Tonight, I think Washington's defense did a good job. Jalen didn't attempt to throw over 20 yards, and he only completed three over 10 yards. Everything was short. It felt like the two teams were almost in a staring contest. My colleague, Jordan Rodriguez, the athletic, pointed this out on Twitter that this was clearly Vic Fangio's defensive plan. It always is. Jaden Daniels did not throw well against split safety tonight. According to the next Gen, 7 of 11 for 32 yards. And then the fourth quarter interception that Reid Blankenship picked off. First of all, shout out to Reid Blankenship. He's like the closer. He only catches interceptions in the fourth quarter, and he That never drops them. It's an underrated aspect to a defensive back, a defensive back that never drops the interception. And suddenly, that ball was just rolling downhill fast in the fourth quarter. This was a close game. The Eagles didn't even have the lead going into the fourth quarter. They take a shutdown drive that ends with the push with Jalen Hertz with 12 minutes to go. And after that, it was all Philadelphia. But I think their defensive plan to make Jaden Daniels really work down the field slowly and not go to his wide receiver.

Washington felt comfortable playing that way, but they need bigger plays than what they got tonight.

Yeah. And even during their fast start to the season, they weren't getting a lot of downfield explosive plays. A lot of their explosive plays were coming on yards after catch or Jaden Daniels getting outside the pocket and scrambling for a first down. But we remember the big throws downfield, especially against Cincinnati, the two throws on Monday night. Then Jaden Daniels, I mean, had some other marquey deep throws. I think he had one against the Ravens. I think he had one against the Steelers down the sideline. But outside of that, there's not a lot of passes going downfield, especially over the middle of the field. You saw the Eagles take away those early down efficient plays and force them into a drop back game on third down. This was one of their worst games on third down. I think they were one for nine at one point. I know they might have improved the stats on that garbage time drive. I guess it wasn't garbage time because they cut it to one possession. But really before that drive, they weren't really moving the ball on third down at all. And that had been such a strength for them.

They had such great third down numbers, such great fourth down numbers. We see a fourth down stop on a concept that I know some people criticize the play call there, but that's a call they've been using a lot on fourth down and having a lot of success with it. It hasn't been stopped. Having JD Daniels do a little play-action fake and then roll outside the pocket and either run for it or pass for it. And no team has been able to stop it. But I think it speaks to how much heavy lifting the scheme was doing early on. And now that teams have all this film and know how they're going to approach games, I think we're going to see them have a... They're going to have to come up with plan Bs and plan Cs going forward.

I'm glad you brought up that sequence. So after the Eagles's shutdown, the score is 12 to 10 because Elliott missed the extra point. Washington is driving. They actually have a second in one. They're playing fast, they're playing tempo, which is where they've been at their best all season. It was the first drive of the night where Jaden Daniels just He ripped a couple of confident throws. He had one to McLaren, who only had one catch tonight. And that led all wide receiver. Zakeas had one, Noah Brown had one, Diami Brown had one. And they totaled, just doing some quick math here, for 28 yards. That's absolutely outrageous. Their wide receiver's got absolutely nothing done. So it's second and one. They're in field goal range. And Jalen Carter, to me, makes the play of the night. I was watching on the prime vision view from the overhead camera, which is just awesome. And the way he shed the tackler there and penetrated, I don't think many defensive tackles, if any, are going to make that play. And so he forces a third and two. They stuff that. It was slow developing. That was a nice play, too.

That brings up the fourth down that you mentioned. Let's actually take a listen to that, and then we'll talk about the decision after that.

Instead of trying for a game-changing field goal that would give them a one-point lead, they're going to go on fourth and two. Daniels, under center. Daniels is back. He's being chased. He's running. He's being pushed. He's knocked out of bounds. The Eagles take over on downs. The Eagles take over on downs.

That was a great call there, again, by Mero Reece. Jalen Carter busted up that play, too, at the beginning. I know they fumbled the snap a little, but that is an incredible sequence. This guy had three quick pressures tonight, according to next-gen stats. He is having that second-year leap. I don't even know if his raw numbers are that crazy? I honestly don't know. But just by the eye test and the film and everything, he's having that second-year leap. He might be an all-pro right now. And that sequence with the fourth downstop, too, which they make a good play on the edge, he started that play.

Yeah, it reminds me of watching a young Aaron Donald where you didn't even need to see the numbers. You saw '99' just blowing up every play. Every time you watched on Game Pass, the condensed version, you'd see '99' breaking into the backfield. And that's how it feels with '98' on the Eagles right now. And there were times when Washington had a good play call on. They had the numbers in the run box, they had the blockers there. And then an Eagles defensive lineman, usually Carter, would just blow up the play. And that's the difference between these two teams right now. One is a finished product or as close to a finished product as you can get with them bouncing back after the last year. And then you have Washington, a team that's still trying to learn how to build around this young quarterback who has given them a spark. But I don't know if they're ready for games like this at this point in the season yet.

You know what's interesting? I was not expecting to come into tonight and hear some Jaden skepticism from Steven Ruiz. Where's he at in your QB rankings? But it makes sense, and I don't disagree with anything you're saying. I do think he was erratic last week, which was a little concerning. He missed more throws than you would expect it, but there were the big plays, and he's really avoided big mistakes, which I think is really to his credit. That was true in this game, too. It's impressive for a rookie, but am I fair to pick up on a little bit of Jaden Daniels' rookie season skepticism? Where is he in the rankings? Just tell me that.

I think he's 18, 17 now. I like to slow play with the rookies. I don't like to give them too much.

Yes, your ranking, to be clear, is like an all-encompassing, like how good are they at the NFL level? That's fair. Guys with seven years of experience, it's tough to top that.

But most of my skepticism has to do with Cliff Kingsbury in the offense. I think every rookie, I'm going to be skeptical that they're going to be able to carry over a start the rookie season to the second half, especially when the schedule gets tougher. But I think Jaden Daniels skills, I don't question those, the skills that have allowed this offense to operate. It's operating. That's precise accuracy, especially underneath 20 yards, and then his ability to run. Now, we have seen him lose that. I don't know if it's the injury. I don't know if he's hesitant to take some hits now after the rib injury. But he's not making guys miss in the open field as much as he did early on. We'll see how that goes going forward after he gets healthy. But that would be my one concern with him individually. But I think the more that teams are able to sit on some of these concepts that Washington has had a lot of success with, and they start to figure out how they're using the no huddle in the second half, I think it's just going to get a little bit harder.

I don't think they're going to go away. I don't think this offense is a complete fluke. And I think Jaden Daniels is going to end up winning Rooky of the Year, and we're still going to feel good about him at the end of the year. I just don't think it's going to be that, Oh, he's a top five quarterback based on production and maybe even an MVP candidate by the end of it.

Yes. I was saying two weeks ago, I thought he was an MVP candidate just because the offense is based around him, and he transformed a team that just wasn't there, and it was hard to argue with the efficiency. I think it's just the schedule. You played two of the better defenses right now in the league. I'm comfortable putting Philadelphia there as a top eight defense, whatever the number is. Certainly, Pittsburgh is there, too. And so you play some better defenses, and they won more than they lost. They weren't disasters on offense this last two weeks. They didn't make huge critical mistakes. They put up some points against Pittsburgh, but it was a lot of failed drives. Let's talk about the fourth down decision, because as you heard on that call, Meryl Reece a little surprised. They could have attempted a kick there with their backup kicker, Zane Gonzales, to take a 13 to 12 lead. What do you think about the decision by Dan Quinn there?

I think it's fine. I know it was a low-scoring game and you want all the points you can get, but the Eagles were moving the ball even in the first half. They missed the field goals. Jake Elliott missed his two field goals. They missed the extra point. So I think the score was being suppressed a little bit, and it wasn't actually indicative of how the Eagles were moving the ball. And then Washington has been money on fourth down all year long. They've been going for it on fourth and short all year long to stop doing that, to go against your identity in the biggest game of the season. I think that sends the wrong message to your locker room. If Dan Quinn does that, and I was in that locker, I would go, Oh, he was scared of the moment. He does it against the Bucks. He's not going to do it against the Eagles in primetime. I would question him after that.

Yes, I love that. I agree with all that. Maybe I'm giving Dan Quinn too much credit. What I hate about coaches sometimes is when they don't feel like they have a flow of the game or they know where their strengths are, they know where their weaknesses are in a certain game or in a season in general. Sean McVay is like that sometimes with his fourth down decisions. The way this game was going, I think Dan Quinn knew the burst was about to break with his defense. He had just given up a drive where they got absolutely gashed. The play disparity, as I was saying, was pretty massive. And a field goal was not going to win this game. I think he felt the way that game was going, they needed to stay on the field longer. They needed to try to get seven if they can. And if they can't pick up one yard over a three-play sequence, it's like, bully to you. You're better than us today. We need to be able to prove that we can do this because everyone honking about not going for that field goal. Oh, would it change the momentum of the game?

It's like, Philadelphia was going to keep scoring. They probably were going to score a shutdown or two more, which they did. Not that Dan Quinn is thinking we're about to give up two massive big gains, but I think he knew they probably needed a countdown to possibly win this game. And they didn't get it. And you got to give them credit. Zack Bond on that play on the outside, Reid Blankenship on the outside. Their defense has really been special. No one is older than 27 years old on their starting defense, which is just crazy. They had wanted Vic Fangio in Philadelphia for a few years, and they got him. I just was wondering if it was going to work because Fangio's defense is over the last handful of years haven't been amazing. And the first month of the season, they're figuring out. And now you see how great Quinian Mitchell has been. He was against Terry McLaurin tonight, and Cooper D'Egine comes in. You're getting much better play out in N'Nicobi Dien, and Nolan Smith has a big sack tonight. Josh Sweat is doing his normal thing. It's like this is a pretty good defense, and that Fanjio hire looks like one of the better coaching hires of the offseason.

Yeah, this is a big bounce back here for Vic Fanjio, and really the Vic Vangio tree, which had been so in vogue a couple of years ago and then fell out of favor. And then Vic Vangio was... I think Jalen Ramsey criticized him in Miami last year, I think because they weren't playing enough man coverage. And then he goes to Philadelphia and he gets corners, and they're playing man coverage. They're majoring in man coverage. I think that was a big reason why they matched up so well with Washington today. And really, if you could play man coverage, you can match up with any offense. The man coverage is like the catch-all solution to any offensive or any problem an offense can present. I don't think that's going away. I think these corners are legit, and I think that's the big difference between last year and this year. You have more synergy between the pass rush, the defensive line, which is playing better, granted, but you're also getting better coverage on in the back end. Those guys have a little bit more time to get after the passer, and we're seeing the fruits of that.

Yeah, and it's crazy. They really did in one offseason. They were smart to keep Slay. I never thought they were going to get rid of him anyways, but he's having a good year. Chauncey Gardner-Johnson hasn't really worked out. He's probably the one guy they're not thrilled with in the back-end, although he had a decent game tonight. But then the two rookies, what do you think of Reid Blanken's ship and Cooper Dajine showing up to the stadium tonight wearing Exciting Whites T-shirt? I think I think that's officially the nickname, Exciting Whites.

I mean, that's a good sign. The vibes are good. The vibes haven't been this good in Philadelphia since the 2022 season or maybe even the 2017 season when they were wearing the underdog masks in the playoffs. But yeah, they are Exciting Whites, like Cooper DeGene. I guess a lot of people want to call him a gimmick because he's a white quarterback, but he could play. He's a good player. And Quinian Mitchell is the type of player who can transform a secondary and allows you to do different stuff on the back-end. I think if they're not getting the years, they're getting out of Cooper Dujine and out of Quinian Mitchell, this defense looks a lot different. How Vic Vangio is calling the defense looks a lot different. And I think this game tonight would have looked a lot different.

Yeah, and Zach Bond with a couple of nice plays early. A pass deflection. He's been awesome. And N'Nicobi Dean has been rock solid. I had someone in Philadelphia. It was interesting because Quinian Mitchell was playing Slot Corner in training camp, and actually the Beat Reporters were wondering, Hey, what's going on here? Is Is this going well? They seemed uncertain. And someone within the organization told me, very early on, they were so excited about Quinian Mitchell. They're like, Oh, man, we got this one right. Try to keep a lid on it, but just feeling internally like, Man, this guy is going to be really good. I was like, Oh, that's interesting. That's different than what we've heard. The confidence has been absolutely borne out. And yet maybe Hertz can be a little skittish here and there, and maybe it doesn't matter if it's a run-first offense. It really is a run-first offense. They were so patient. He was 15 for 56 in the first half of this game, Saquon. They weren't getting a lot of push. They're getting three, four yards. They weren't unsuccessful runs, but they weren't busting it open. But they stayed patient. And then late in the game, Becton's making blocks.

Mylata's out there. The Jurgen's had one crazy block where he just lifted a guy in the air. Godert is pumping his fist after one of his seal blocks, I think, on a Saquon play. It's all cohesive and it looks cool.

Yeah, it feels like the opposite of last year. That's what it feels like. There are concerns about Hertz. I've been skeptical of Jalen Hertz in the past couple of years, and you can have your criticism about him holding onto the ball in the pocket. I think he did that a couple of times tonight. He missed some open receivers. But I think all All of those criticisms were true in 2022, and that didn't stop them from rolling over the NFC. He wasn't that great in the pocket that year. Just didn't matter. I think they have the same ecosystem once-Yeah, but that Super Bowl, man.

That Super Bowl was beautiful.

Yeah, if you get him to the Super Bowl, he's capable of producing a performance like that. You could beat anybody. You can almost beat Patrick Mahomes, but Patrick Mahomes was just perfect on that night. I'm not going to say they're going to win the NFC, but I would not be surprised if they're in the NFC Championship. If you would have asked me about the steam ceiling month ago, I would not have said that. I think one of the big difference is the receivers are back, and that stretch without those receivers poisoned our perception of them, I think. I think it made me a little bit too low on them and what they could be. Now that I've seen that receiving core back and what Saquon can do with them around and with that offensive line, how it's rolling. Yeah, this offense could be a top five unit at its best.

Yeah, and they're, cross your fingers, quite healthy right now. They get my lot of back and Goddard is a very important player for them. So yeah, when they're messing Goddard and Brown at the same time, and they're defeated with AJ Brown, especially if you watch those first games that Brown was back, he just was the whole passing game. I mean, they just spam him on a slant whenever they need it or a go-ball. And Jalen throws those well, and AJ Brown is that good. I mean, tonight, it doesn't pop off the screen. He's 5 for 65. But I would just say in terms of value to his team, he is as valuable as any wide receiver in the league. I'm not going to say he's ahead Jefferson or Chase, but I think it's right there. I think he's as valuable to the Eagles as any wide receiver is to their team.

You've heard the criticism about this offensive scheme. It's been one of the most criticized schemes over the last two years, whereas Justin Jefferson is getting a lot of scheme help with Kevin O'Kunal, whereas the Eagles scheme is just like, A. J. Brown running a straight line. A. J. Brown take two steps in a slant. And like you said, it's open every time. It's easy money. I know they missed on a couple of throws today, but that's the exception to the rule. Usually, that go-ball outside the numbers has been money for them, and especially against this opponent. I am impressed with what Washington did, especially in the secondary in this game, because they've had trouble defending this offense when it's rolling, especially those two guys on the outside. The last couple of years, those guys have went wild on their secondary. It didn't happen tonight.

So your family are Commander's fans?

Yes.

Okay. Seasons of ticket owners. First of all, how How was that? You grew up in a Washington household, and then you become a Panthers fan. And then how has it been this transition to Commander Land with Jane Daniels for them and everything?

Yeah, they're excited. My mom texted me on a Sunday, and she texted. It was like a month ago, and she just texted me the number 23 with a question mark, and I had no idea what it meant. I was like, What does that mean? And that's when I had Jaden Daniels ranked at the time, and she was questioning my rank. She was texting me on a Sunday to yell at about my rankings. Then two weeks ago, I think... No, it was right before the Bear's Hale Mary, she calls me, and she's just talking about the Commanders to me. I'm like, Mom, I'm writing. I have to podcast. This is my busiest day of the week. Why are you calling me right now. And then I hung up the phone, and then literally five seconds later, Jaden Daniels throws that countdown for the win.

That is incredible. I want to speak to the Commanders fans out there because, man, they're a group that's hungry. They have so many fans, and they're out here in Los Angeles, too, and I know a couple of them. I think they're heartbroken. I think they're going to be mad after this game that they did not look quite in the same class of Philadelphia. I'm just thinking, Enjoy this journey here, because here's what's going to happen. You're seven and four. Let's look a little big picture. They're going to make the playoffs. Their next two games are against Dallas and against Tennessee. Then they have a buy. I think they're going to win those games. They've really shown they're able to beat bad teams, and those are really bad teams right now. They can be nine and four. They can head into the buy. They have two games left all season against teams with winning records. One of them is the Falcons. That's a very winnable game. One of the worst, probably teams with a winning record in the league. Certainly, that's a coin flip game at worst. And the other game is the week before it, and that's home for Philadelphia in week 16.

I posit that home game against Philadelphia in week 16, which, yeah, Philadelphia showed tonight. They're probably a better team, but I think Washington could beat them in a given day. I still think that'll be for the division lead at that point, because the Eagles are 8 and 2. They have to play another game. They have another buy. They're at the Rams. That's tricky. At Baltimore, they have the Panthers, so that's a layup. Then they're home for Pittsburgh. That's all before that Commander's rematch. Those are three tough games in there. I think the commanders are going to hang in this thing. The Eagles will probably have three losses at best going into that game, and you'll have a chance to get a spot for first place in freaking week 16, a year after everything that happened last year. And worst case scenario, you lose that game to Philly, you don't win the division, you finish the season with the Falcons and the Cowboys, You're probably getting to 10 or 11 wins, and you're probably going to the playoff. So it's house money. I also think you're going to be playing big-time games the week of Christmas this year.

So this loss does not feel overly devastating to me. Philadelphia, to me, had to get this game in hand, considering the schedule that's coming up.

Yeah, and even when this team has made the playoff, which hasn't happened much in the last two decades, but every time, they've had a rally at the end of the year to make it. Even in 2012, with RG3, I think they were like three and five at one point, maybe even a worse record than that. They really had to win down the stretch. Kirk Cousins had to come in and win a game or two to just get them into the wild card. 2005, I think that's when Sean Taylor was killed, and they had a rally then with Joe Gibbs. When Tyler Henneke, when they played the Bucks in the playouts a couple of years ago, they didn't look like a playoff team until the last week of the year. I think they won with some ungodly record. This year, they're actually winning wire to wire. It just feels like a race that you can pay attention to every week. I'm with you. I think no matter how this ends, you should be happy because this is the first time you've been able to follow a team like this for, I don't know, maybe before the turn of the century.

Right. The only game I didn't mention, by the way, on the schedule was a game against the Saints. So, man, you got two games against the Cowboys, the Saints, and the Titans. If you just can win those games, you're at 11 wins right there without even beating another good team. And that 2005 team, I sneaky enjoyed that That was the Mark Brunell team, right? And then did we have a Chris Sims appearance at one point?

They beat Chris Sims in the wild card round, I believe. Yes, that's right. And then they lost in Seattle, and then Seattle beat Carolina. I was really rooting for Washington to win that game because I knew Carolina was going to get washed in Seattle, and that's exactly what happened.

Yeah. So big winners tonight. Eagles fans, they can enjoy beating Josh Harris, the commander's owner at a time where they are not happy with their 76ers. And just before we go, I just have to give a shout out to Joe Shane, because whatever he thought, the Giants GM, I should preface, that famously in Hard Knocks, saying that we didn't give our quarterback $40 million to hand off to a $12 million running back. Whatever he thought could have been the worst possible worst case scenario, and whatever was in John Mara, the owner's mind, when he was saying he hoped that it wouldn't go to Philly, whatever the worst case scenario is, this is so much worse.

It's so much worse. Plenty of GMs have let players walk and have lived to regret it, but none of them, literally none of them, have had HBO come in and document the mistake in their building.

Right, but how many, though, have let go the franchise's best player at the time in his prime, and he goes to a division rival who's much better, and he has an offensive player of the year type of season. I don't know how many times that's happened. My rule in the NFL is always like, teams never let players that they want to keep go. It's pretty easy. If a player leaves in the middle of their prime, it's usually because they wanted him to leave, which was true here. They did want Saquon Barkley to leave. It just could not It's not going to have worked out any worse or better for the Eagles and for us, because if he was in New York, this wouldn't be happening. So I might be talking from the biased viewpoint of a Saquon Barkley fantasy owner that's always mad when he goes down at the one, but it always works out in the end.

Where are you at in Offensive Player of the Year? Are you someone that says no quarterback can be an offensive player of the Year. It's only going to a non-quarterback?

Now, yes. I just used to refuse to acknowledge it. I hated it because The quarterbacks kept getting it, and I just thought it was stupid. It was the dumbest protest in the history of protests was NFL. Com's editors would send us to fill out all the awards, and I just would skip offensive players. No one else knew other than them that I was protesting. I was just so stupid. But now, non-quarterbacks should get awards. They should have a non-quarterback award, and then they should have an offensive lineman award, too. So yes. I would say yes. You would think right now, Who would it be? It would be Saquan. It would be Derrick Henry. Derrick Henry. It would be Chase, maybe. That, I guess, in the mix.

I would give it to Saquan. What I would really do is give it to Lamar. I I would give it to... I know you hate giving it to quarterbacks, but I feel like he has at least a dual threat impact on that offense. He is the focal point of the run game and the passing game.

So he wins both.

Yeah, but if you're not going to give it to Lamar, I would give it to Saquan over Derrick Henry. My My reasoning is simple. I'm not voting an offensive player of the year who's not the best player on his own offense. I think Saquon Barkley has been far and away the best player on his offense. That's only really because AJ Brown has been hurt. I think if AJ Brown is in there, you can make a debate about that. But Saquon has just been everything for this team. When they've gone bad on offense, they've just been like, Let's press the Saquon button over and over and over again, and eventually something good is going to happen. It has. It has. Literally every time they've won, it's been Saquon having a great game.

Right. I'm looking at the numbers. He was at 1,150 yards from scrimmage before this game and then adds, what, almost 200 tonight. He's maybe over six yards per carry still on the season, which is crazy. They need to be a little careful with his usage. He is on pace for a monster workload. But I like that. I don't like the Lamar thing just because I never really understood. Some of the years when the same quarterback would win offensive player of the year and MVP, It didn't really have any rhyme or reason. It wasn't like super duper years. They get both. It was more just like there wasn't good candidates or votes got split. If the award's that vague, I don't like it. And yes, I think if offensive linemen can't possibly win any awards, then we should come up with an award for an offensive lineman.

That's a good call. I'm with that.

The Brian Balden Award. Steven Ruiz, you can check him out at The Ringer, The Ringer football show. He has a cat. What's her name?

Her name is Rhonda.

Shout out to Rhonda. Shout out to your mom. Did she send you any text tonight? No text tonight.

I'm actually concerned she didn't text me tonight. I'll call her tomorrow morning.

It was a late night. It was a long week here. This is one of those weeks. I was out at night. I actually went to a concert. I'm feeling it at my age. I am glad we are done with Thursday Night Football, the Picks show that we do every week will be on Friday afternoon. Me and Cynthia Freeland. I'm on a heater there. Six straight wins on that. So check that out Friday afternoon. Until then, for Steven Ruiz. Yeah, when Saquon Barkley is just making that crowd at the link go crazy, you know football is back. See you, friend.