Seahawks-Lions and Titans-Dolphins MNF Recaps

Published Oct 1, 2024, 6:46 AM

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Nick Shook to recap the Monday Night Football doubleheader between the Seahawks and Lions and Titans and Dolphins. The show starts with the shootout between the Seahawks and Lions (03:45) and a rundown of the stellar play from Jared Goff and Geno Smith (09:12). The show then shifts to the Titans and Dolphins where Will Levis' play before being injured (22:14) and the state of the Dolphins is discussed (31:50). The guys get you caught up on news from around the NFL including injury updates to Jonathan Taylor and Anthony Richardson (36:24), DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons (39:18) and Robert Saleh walking back his comments about Aaron Rodgers' cadence (45:21). Finally, Gregg and Nick give you their players of the week to wrap the show (48:48).

Note: time codes approximate.

 

Second and goal for the Lions from the seventh golf out of the gun, Montgomery to was right, Jared Lean's in, there's the snap. Jared on the end of round gives it to Amen Ra He's gonna.

Throw it to Jared.

Hello, Jared Babbie on the receiving end of a pass from Robin rock Saint Brown.

Bob bet Johnson, I seek you too.

That is beautiful stuff.

That is Sunday Night Magine.

It was Monday Night Magic w x yt Dan Miller with one of the most fun plays of the year, one of the most fun calls of the year, one of the most fun games of the year. Forty two to twenty nine, the Detroit Lions beat the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football. It was a showcase of quarterbacks, but yes, Jared Goff also as a receiver. Him and al monro Saint Brown became only the eighth duo and NFL history to throw touchdown passes to each other in the same game. You've probably seen the stat out there by now. Jared Goff threw the most passing attempts without an incompletion in NFL history.

But it wasn't eighteen for eighteen.

Nick shook with me on a Monday night, and yeah, we'll talk about the Titans Dolphins game two coming up. It was actually nineteen for nineteen because I'm on Rod laid that out there beautifully over a defender and Goff with a little extra speed in some late hands for the touchdown.

What a night.

That made it twenty eight to fourteen, and these two teams were just getting warmed up. Then.

The one thing I thought was as soon as he scored and through the ball in the stands, I was like, isn't he gonna.

Want that ball? Like Hoften is gonna catch touchdown pass?

It was that kind of night though, I mean, and just that alone was an example of where Ben Johnson's been deep in his bag of tricks.

Pulled one out again Monday night.

Yeah.

It was really an antidote to what we've been seeing this season where we're hearing like the quarterback play is not great. And if you've watched Jared Goff over the first three weeks of the season, he even said it to the ESPN crew, it has not been up to my standard. When he's gotten pressure in his face, he's made bad decisions. And tonight there wasn't a lot of pressure in his face heat. He only had to throw four passes under pressure. I think he took a sack in this game. Did two sacks in this game? Yeah, but the play calls were there when he had to go down the field.

It was on point.

He knew what the defense was gonna do before it happened. It was a huge role reversal from the game that the Ravens defense coached by Mike McDonald played against him a year ago and in a big spot with the quarterback Island taping looming just the day away, knowing he might get kicked off quarterback Island. He just had a magical night with just perfect decision making and what more can you do? After the game, though, Dan Campbell and Jared Goff both didn't seem to know first that Jared Goff did not have it in completion, Let's listen to Dan.

Yeah, well, I just gave the game ball to somebody else, So I feel awful right now? Yeah? No, I well, I knew he played a heck of a game. I did not realize he was perfect. I did not know he was literally eighteen for eighteen.

Oh that is hilarious.

Shook, like, what do you what do you think about that the Lions after a win like this where yes, their defense ended up giving up a lot of points in this game. The Seahawks kept cutting it to one score, Lions bring it to two score, back and forth throughout the second half.

Yeah, gave up over five hundred yards.

But I don't care about that, Greg, because for some reason, when the Seahawks and Lions meeting Detroit, a shootout just ensues. And we got it just like we did. I think it was Week one of last season that would ended up in overtime. We got another thriller, and for the first time after watching Golf and the Lions struggle to put points on the board and finished drives against the Buccaneers two weeks ago, and even that win in Arizona last week really required some grittiness, needed Golf to scramble on the third down to pick up a key first down. They needed none of that tonight because they couldn't be stopped. And really it started with the running game, Greg. That was the beauty of it was that, you know, they've had some issues offensively in the last couple of weeks, and they just said, you know, what forget it. We're gonna go back to Week one in the drive that won us the game to start the season. David Montgomery carry us down the field, and he did that. Set the tone, opened up the passing game, and Golf was fantastic. No matter the pressure or not, he was sharp all night. Really great to see from the Lions because if their offense really does produce at this level, that'll buy them time to figure out some of their defensive issues and help them come into form, you know, as we near the midway point of the season.

Yeah, they're going into their bye week. I thought this was a big game because I think they've been wanting to feel like the Lions again, and they haven't quite felt like the Lions. I actually think before this game the defense had showed real improvement this year. On balance, they're a good run defense, but they've been playing better against the pass. They were without Brian Ranch tonight, Melafon's been out for a minute, and I think they wanted to have a game like this. I think it's perfect they get into the by three to one. It's going to be a tough division race this year, clearly, and they can start working on things and they felt like themselves and you said it. They are first and foremost a run first team. I mean Goff only had to throw eighteen passes. Jamir Gibbs goes fourteen for seventy eight, has a couple really important chunk plays. They were effective in the red zone and they want to run to set up the pass. That is who they are. You mentioned the Seahawks Lions rivalry. I mean, this is a thing. We need it in the playoffs next year. It wasn't just last year, and it was Week two, thirty seven, thirty one. Gino Smith takes down the Lions in Detroit the year before Week four, also early in this season, also at home, forty eight to forty five. The Seahawks get it done and put the Lions at one in three. Remember they started one and six that year before they started rallying. And that was a big time Gino Smith coming out party. He had the Russell Wilson primetime game. But that was the game where you were like, oh my gosh, they could really be an offensive force. And even the year before when Russell Wilson was the coach actually i mean the quarterback for the Seahawks, they beat the Lions. So Dan Campbell was very aware of that fact. That was a shootout to where they gave up fifty points and there's something about Aaron Glenn facing the Seahawks that just doesn't work.

And they got to go back to the lab.

You can't leave Carlton Davis on an island for this whole game.

But I'm not I guess I'm not.

That worried relatively that they gave up thirty nine first downs in this game.

That is a preposterous No. Thirty eight.

So thirty eight first downs, Nick, is the most first downs. And that was what the Seahawks did in any game by any team in eleven years. That was the twenty and thirteen, that magical Peyton Manning season.

I remember it well.

Was our first round the NFL season with Chris Westling and Dan and Mark and Chris especially enjoyed the hell out of that Manning season. That was the last time a team had this many first downs. And yet the Seahawks weren't really in this game, and at least in the last five minutes they kept it interesting, but the Lions ultimately got the go ahead score when they needed to.

I mean, that's what happens.

We saw it in Washington against in Cincinnati against Washington last week on a Monday night. You know, if you find yourself on a shootout, you really can't afford to waste any possessions. They had to turnover early on the DK Metcalf fumble, They had a missed field goal, they punted in between there. Meanwhile, the Lions go touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, punt, touchdown, touchdown. When the opposing offense is scoring at that rate, you have very little to no room for air. You must produce points. And it was really that fumble that allowed the Lions then to go ahead by two scores and build out enough of a lead that they were able to ride it out to the end. If that doesn't happen, we're probably talking about a game that comes absolutely down to the wire, one of the classics. And it was already a great game even if it didn't get that close to the end because of the fireworks. And this is the modern NFL. This is but the fans want. This is what they want points, they want air attack, and the rumors of the demise of the passing game very overblown, evidently based on this game Monday night you're.

Right, and a key moment you went through all those touchdowns in a row for the Lions after their punt, or at least after their fourth quarter punt that I'm thinking of. I mean, there were so many different touchdown streaks you could have, you could have chosen different board parts of the game. They had three straight touchdowns punt, two street put touchdowns, punt, and then another touchdown. It's it's just insane. After their fourth quarter punt, Seahawks get the ball, uh, with a chance, you know, to maybe go take the leads and make it really interesting. And there was a kind of a phantom not a phantom call in Tyler Lockett. It could have been called, it could have not been called a pass interference call on a fourth down play where the Seahawks picked up the fourth down to get into field goal range. They end up throwing the flag. It's fourth and thirteen at that point at the fifty yard line. The Seahawks punt and they never quite got close again. I look, I can't believe it's taken me this long to say that was a fantastic Geno Smith performance. I think for most of the game he actually was. I wouldn't I don't know if he was playing better than Jared Goff, but he was having to do more because he was doing so much pressure and he was playing really well.

I think he's been so locked in all year.

He ends up with three hundred and ninety five yards a touchdown, and unfortunately for his stat line, throws a pick in garbage time, basically as they're down thirteen, just trying to find something in the last two minutes that doesn't work. They bogged down in the red zone a couple times right at the end of the game. But he played awesome, and it it just gets me thinking, like this was such a great game because if you just like individual plays, like you just like seeing athletes do awesome stuff, like this was a game for you. So forgive me, Nick, but I'm just gonna list a bunch of the plays, and I probably forgot some, but this game, this one game, included all of these plays. The first throw of the entire game by Gino Smith was an absolute dime to the sideline. A toe tap to DK Metcalf in tight coverage against Carlton Davis was absolutely incredible. The DK near touchdown in the second quarter where Gino Smith lobs it over it and DK is almost diving.

For the touchdown.

They rule it a touchdown at first, it ends up being at the half yard line again. Gino Smith's box score against wrapped like that was a beautiful play. The force fumble that was actually a great throw by Gino two. DK, who breaks a couple of tackles, is almost trying to do too much. Jack Campbell makes that great punch out for the force fumble. Eight Hutchinson, by the way, ten pressures in this game.

Let's go for a few more plays.

Gino Smith five forty six left in the third quarter, there were these back to back plays almost where he spins around under pressure, he's about to get hit and just throws a dart to lock it in the middle of the field to get a first down on a third and long. And then just a couple plays later, a similar type of dart under pressure to Bobo.

I believe it was Oh.

Yeah, Bobo fell down too and got back up.

It just absolutely insane.

Kenneth Walker's twenty one yard touchdown run was it awesome run? Like they pitched it to him left. He goes, you know he's going left. He goes all the way back around, runs around a couple defenders there, and now let's get to the Lion side of thing. There was the toe tap by a Monros Saint Brown with over five minutes left. Normally that would have been the highlight. That was like the fourth biggest highlight of the game. If you're watching on YouTube and it is a lot of fun. We have the highlights. You can see it there and the replay of it. What a fantastic catch by Saint Brown who had the best six for forty five and a touchdown I've ever seen.

I'm not done yet, Shook, We've got two more.

The David Montgomery forty yard catch and run Zach was just one of the like most Marshawn Lynch type plays I've seen in a long time.

Actually, let's listen to this one.

Look them the lions. Now Montgomery the single back behind golf first down from the thirty golf play action face so that's the pocket, drifts left, look foks and now throws back against the body at his pot, bouncing golf at tackle and get across thirty five?

Is Motcoffrey still going on forty seven going across the forty.

Cucomery I believe it was the fifty left sideline Hi stepping across the forty inside the thirty.

Five and run out of bounced down.

At the thirty two yard like David Montgomery, Are you kidding me?

I'm telling you all that was missing was get off me Child's play the old Marshall Lynch run against the Saints like that. There's a thing on TikTok right now where guys will narrate their like road to Glory player in college football twenty five where they'll be like running through tackles and making all the like sounds like that.

I could have used that on that too. It was that amazing.

That was awesome.

I love.

I did hear a play by play guy in the college football game doing the like on a telecast, which was really cool. And you're I mean, like Montgomery was stoned and then they came out his legs and he's spun out.

I mean, what ah, what a runner? What a player?

Montgomery has turned out to be. Man, I was wrong about him with the Bears. And then finally, let's let's listen to one more play. All of these plays happened in the exactly in the same game. Yeah, let's let's listen. Another seventy yard er to Jamison Willie golf up.

Under center on first down, off turns, takes the gifts to pick up the blitz golf throws. It is caught cross way to go online and forget it.

He's gone, so nobody's need to catch it. You can't catch that man.

Javo the house seventy yards from Jared gobh and he slams it over the gold post.

That's gonna draw a penalty.

You can't do that.

But damnage done.

Jamison Williams up into the crowd for the celebration.

He may that look easy. We made that looks so easy. You know why it looks so easy?

He shook because it hit him perfectly in stride, like over the second level defender that the safety was flat, like that's an underrated throw. They had so many yards after the catch tonight, I think it was two hundred and nineteen, and that's largely because goff is he's that West Coast quarterback. He's he's the Joe Montana where he puts it exactly where it needs to be. When he got drafted first, that was the vision. It was those pretty passes that hit you in stride.

It was that play to Williams. He was so hit so perfectly and so open. I think it's the longest I've ever seen a receiver start to celebrate a touchdown, like he started high stepping at like the twenty eight. For those of you who are not watching on YouTube, you could see it if you're watching on YouTube, high stepping at the twenty eight, to the point where I was like, oh, no, oh, no, you're celebrating too early.

You're gonna get caught. And then he didn't.

It was just a magnificent play on their part. And it is really fun to see them get to Jamison more often because he has that big playability that we didn't really see consistently over his first couple of years in the NFL. So now that he's getting to that point, you know, on nights like this where you need every score to win a game like this, it's a beautiful sight to see.

It was almost they kept scoring too fast. They ended up with fifty plays, which is normal, it's on the low side. Certainly, the Seahawks ended up with seventy eight, and again a couple of those you know that it's inflated a little by those last two relative garbage time drives, but that's sixteen more plays another like eighty yards they attacked on then, but even before that they were going on longer drives. You know, dk Goes seven for one oh four, Locketts five for sixty one, Smith and Jigbu five for fifty one. They got the running game going in the second half after not even trying in the first half. They actually only ran the ball four times in twenty seven plays in the first half, So I think both teams leave feeling some positives. But to get Laporta involved, to get Jamison Williams involved, to have this offensive performance, and then I think it was a big deal Nick going into the buy to get a win without Frank Ragnow. They're on off splits without rag Now. Last year were miserable and they played great upfront. Obviously all the line protection, like the calls. They were ready for that moment tonight. And if they need Ragnow to sit out for a little while with the strained peck, then they showed they can survive it.

Yeah, Jared Goffin only pressured seven times. I know they had a couple of sacks, but for the most part he had relatively clean pockets, and he was able to operate. And that's the way you beat them is by getting pressure in his face and taking away the middle of the field, which the Seahawks did not do, and managing to prevent that from happening without one of your best offensive linemen, one of your most tenured offensive lineen outside of Taylor Decker, a guy that you can count on to set the protection and also block consistently in the interior. That's a big sign, a big positive sign for the Lions. I'm not going to point to their defense really. I know they need to correct a lot of things and they need to get cleaner. They had like nine penalties, But I mean, this is the momentum you want going into the bye week, especially now at three and one.

Yeah, their defense, Terry Nardo needs to stop, you know, just holding the receiver tonight. It's been a problem all season long. And yes, here comes the cold water on everything and Seahawks fans. In my mentions tonight, you know when I mentioned like it's probably not a great sign that the Gino Smith is playing nearly perfect. I thought he was perfect in the first half and they were down twenty one to seven, like, I don't know if he had one negative play from his angle, like the entire first half and they were down twenty one to seven, and everyone in my mentions like.

Yo, they're missing all their stories and stuff. It's like, you don't think I know that.

I'm saying that, Like, it's not a good sign for them winning tonight's game. That was all I'm saying that. It's not a good sign. If he's having to play perfect and they're still losing by a lot, they're probably not gonna win tonight. And yes, that was a massive factor in this game. They did not have Leonard Williams. They did not have Boye Mafe, who was leading the NFL in pressures recently. They did not have Ucena Nuoso, who hasn't played all year but practice this week and there was some hope. They did not have their first round pick, Byron Murphy, who would really help in the run defense. And they did not have Jerome Baker their linebacker, so they were starting a fourth or fifth round linebacker who's been okay the last couple weeks, but Goff really won over the middle of the field. Then during the game, they lost Julian Love, who's been to me playing at like an all pro Pro Bowl type level with a thigh injury. So that's six starters on defense. So as much as I wanted this to be a litmus test of all right, what Lions offense shows up, what Seahawks defense shows up, that's why we need the rematch in the playoffs. This is a great budding rivalry and we want to see it with all their players because that was a big deal. Lions had their injuries too, Brian branches out. You know, I know they're missing some guys, but that's a massive difference then basically every Seahawks defense that we've seen, at least the first few weeks of the season before they had a couple more injuries in the Dolphins game.

Yeah, you know, you could look at their schedule and say, well it's been a little soft. You know, you played Denver in New England than Miami without Tua. Right, so three wins in a row. Who have you played? That's serious? Well, this is the serious team. But with all those injuries accounted for, you kind of have to take it with a bit of a grain of salt and not hang your head too much about it because you still manage to compete with all those you know guys missing on the defensive side of the ball.

It's just that you couldn't quite keep up offensively.

And you know, look, all I really need to see from them right now, this early in the season is that their offense can consistently score and that Gina's gonna play well and he's playing fantastically. So look, man, I know you lost the game, but it's a game that you can pull a lot of positives out of. You figure out what you need to correct. You keep moving forward because it does get a little tougher. New York's got You know, the Giants they play next week, has a strong defensive front. They've proven that through the first month of the season, and they will be able to cause some pressures. Then you get San Francisco, Atlanta, Buffalo and the Rams to get tested.

You're gonna get tested.

I actually thought the offensive line took a step forward tonight, I think, and I actually thought against Miami the edges were okay. I mean, Charles Cross has been good all year and the edges were okay. It was all coming up the middle. I thought they were better tonight. Detroit's pass rush this year has other than Hutchinson has been quite thin. It's really Hutchinson on Wuzerique and that's about it. Although Gino had that stretch where he was under pressure a lot, I thought it was like a normal amount of pressure, considering he dropped back to pass fifty six times. It was it wasn't that crazy tonight, and he does a great job. Part of that is Gino makes him look better. I mean, he was getting the ball out so fast early. He'd better get onto QB Island. I think this was a good final statement. And Jared Goff, who if we had done the segment last week, I think you would have been booted off. It's it's going to be tough to move him, but that will come on Wednesday show. Steve Weisch coming into the studio along with Colleen Wolf and Jordan our usual crew. Wow, that was fun. Do you have anything left to say? If not, we will take a break because there was another game tonight, Nick, Yeah.

We have another game that quite as exciting. I just want to say one thing. Yes, Jared Goff goes a perfect day for eighteen for eighteen the odds of Golf completing all eighteen passes based on the completion probability of each attempt according to next Gen Stats, one in one and forty five less than a chance.

Yeah, okay, that sounds about right, Like if he played a game and had all of those passes and he played a game every week for about eight years. I'm just doing the math very roughly. Yeah, that sounds about right. That is crazy. I don't know how they come up with that, but it is absolutely crazy. Not all those throws were easy, and yeah, Amnra saved him, and I think, I know I Goff wasn't sure at the end of the game. He was trying to think of it. You said, I think he threw one away that was called back by penalty and that might have been what was in his head where he had one throwaway that got wiped out by penalty. I'm glad it did twelve for twelve, by the way, in play action for two hundred and twenty nine ers. I mean, you can just find a million crazy stats, but this, to me was Jared Goff in a nutshell play action over the middle of the field, hitting guys in stride.

Nice night.

Been so many nice nights for Jared Goff with the Detroit Lions. Both these teams are at three and one. I think we're going to see them both in the playoffs. We will take a quick break. We're going to talk about Titans and Dolphins after.

That fourth and going at the four, gim Pollard around right hand trying to score.

Pollard dives height.

The thirty point streak is broken, and the Titans fans, who dominate the remainder of hard Rock Stadium, celebrate.

I've never been so happy with thirty points.

And the Dolphins fans are booing that is really boohoop.

Mike Keith and former Titans interim head coach Dave McGinnis w G f ax Tony Pollard scores in the most hilarious of that call and put that on the Calls of the Year list.

Eric behind the glass is that it was to make the score thirty one to twelve with under two minutes to go, with under thirty seconds to go. Shout out to Brian Callahan there for going for and probably changing a lot of fantasy fortunes. He must have known that thirty points score thing. They had not top thirty in over a thousand days. Nick Shook and the Titans are winless no more. One in three over the hapless Miami Dolphins.

Tell you what, he's lucky that Arthur Smith wasn't on the other sideline. He might have a bit of an altercation in midfield if that were the case. The cackling in that call was fantastic. But I think that also kind of paints the picture of where the Titans have been so far through three weeks, where they've been in games, they've had opportunities to win, they just haven't closed the deal. He can go back to one and thing about that with Will Levis and his pick six that lost them that game. The difference tonight, though, is they lose Will Levis after he throws a pick to Emmanuel Ogba, of all people, who makes one of the greatest catches in the history of thunder thighs. You know, ball falls out of his hands right in between both those thick thighs and he just squeezes them and hangs on the football. It was not a good start for them. Levis goes out because of a shoulder injury. Mason Rudolph comes in, He throws for eighty five yards and somehow steadies the ship enough for the Titans to basically cruise to victory over a Dolphins team that is searching for answers on the offensive side of the football right now.

Yeah, so that's the biggest story. We'll get to the Dolphins part of it in a minute. But Will Levis was hurt after an early third down where he dove for the first down marker. The most Will Levis play of all time, just trying to make something happen, do you know, passes up a throw to run, looks very athletic doing it, but comes up like half a yard short. Didn't seem like a great spot, but he came up just a half a yard short. So it's like he tries so hard and he comes up short. And he came up and you could read his lips saying, you know something about his shoulder? Yeahouh, yeah, I hurt my shoulder.

He's very expressive.

His lip reading was a major feature of this game because on that Emmanuel Agba interception, you could see him saying I didn't see him at all, and it's like, yep, we know Will Levis. So he goes out with that injury, he's in pain. They get it checked out. Rudolph comes in and he has a field goal drive. Nothing crazy. It's like a moderately long field goal, but just a couple plays where he got to his second read and made normal football plays, normal passes, And it was kind of like Brian Callahan saw that and was like, Oh, I like that someone who's just doing what he's supposed to do within the framework of the offense. Hmmm, I might want to see a little more of that if if Will is not feeling one hundred percent.

I also think that given the situation that they stepped into on Monday night oh and three, you know, desperate for a win, see some stability at quarterback, not a high ceiling, we know what Mason Rudolph is, but just some stability there to keep the offense going. I think at that point he was just like, dude, we need to go get a win, like we desperately need to go get a win. Let's just ride this out for the rest of the night. We know that the Dolphins probably aren't going to score a lot of points. Let's ride this out and ride the running game, which is what they did to perfection or near perfection. I mean, statistically, they did a fantastic job between you know, ty J Spears and Tony Pollard. Pollard goes twenty two for eighty eight and a touchdown. Spears fifteen for thirty nine. Not a great average, but also scores a touchdown. Bit of a boom or bust running game for them, but it did the job. And in a game where you can expect that your defense is going to play well enough to limit the opposing offense, that's really all you need provided you don't turn the ball over. And with Rudolph in there, you can basically count on you're not going to turn the ball over. So it worked out for him. Big win, not in the fact that they won by so many points, but just a big win to get a win in the column at this point after a month.

Oh, it's a huge. Callahan was thrilled after the game. He you know, just got the game ball from his owner. It's such a heavy thing when you're winless. And now that they have won a game, the Jaguars are the only winless team in the league. By the way, with the Seahawks losing that game, there are only two undefeated teams in the league.

That's the Vikings and the Chiefs.

Let's actually listen to what Callahan said at halftime to ESPN. When he was asked about the quarterback situation.

Mason Rudolph came off the bench gave this offensive spark, who's your starting quarterback in the second half?

We'll see Will's got an injury he's dealing with, so we'll see how it comes out. I weren't sure how he was feeling, so we just let Mason finish the half and we'll figure out when we get in there.

Yeah, what will be the determining factor about who should be your starting quarterback?

It's just a matter of if you can physically play, and then if he can play, he'll go. But Mason's been a really nute shout for us.

Yeah, you know, after the game he said something similar, whereas, if will Levis is one hundred percent, I mean, if Willlevis is healthy, he's one hundred percent our quarterback. He also mentioned the upcoming by played into his thinking, so that even though it was pretty clear will Levis could have returned to the game, maybe wanted to return to the game. I think he understood the situation and they just didn't want to rock the boat. And look, if will Levis hadn't thrown that interception, he might have stayed in the game. But it's just been a rough start for Levis. I think as inconsistent as he was last year, I think he's been worse this year because it's just been more consistently bad. Like you see stretches, you see big plays. He can throw the ball down the field, but they really struggle on the short and intermediate area with Levis. And to have that brain fart right off the bat to start this game, I think Callahan was happy. And look, Rudolph didn't do great. He went nine for seventeen for eighty five yards. It really wasn't a great performance. They had four punts early in the third quarter, but after that they started at least getting some field goals going. He made a really nice play right before halftime. Maybe that played into Callahan's thinking. They actually got the ball back shook with twenty two seconds around their own forty yard line, and he delivered a strike his best throw the night, to Boyd for twenty seven yard lines. They run up, they spike it and Nick Folk, who's on fire this year, hits a forty seven yarder.

He hit three fifty yarders in this game.

Nick Folk is absolutely ageless, and that was like the offensive highlight of the night until that late Pollard touchdown.

Yeah, it was nice to see Nick Folk bang through a few of those field goals because I still remember when he was with the Patriots and couldn't hit a fifty yarder and just kept.

They wouldn't even let him try.

I don't know what happens. These kickers are getting better and better as they get older. They're kicking the ball further, like young Wayku used to not be able to kick that far, and now he's piping fifty eight yarders.

I don't know what's going on here. Yeah.

The Levis thing, though, Like it's hard because doing QBI every week, I just watch him and I think, yeah, there it is. There's the potential, there's the potential, and there's the bonehead of mistake. And we saw the what the eff are you doing turnover in week two. We saw the turnovers that he made in week one, and it's just like, man, if you could eliminate that from your game, then you could actually, you know, take a hold of this job potentially long term.

It's just not there yet.

And again, in a situation like this where you desperately need to go get a win, you go with the guy with the lower ceiling who's steadier, and especially in a muggy night. Did you see, by the way, those of you watched on YouTube saw, but those listening on podcast, it was hot in Miami on Monday night so much that Brian Callahan sweat through most of his shirt in the first half. So with these type of conditions, you know, you don't want to let any variables get involved, So good good on them.

Yeah, you got to do the thing that tennis players do and have like a change and yeah change like Francis Siafa will change it like twenty times in one match or whatever. But just have like a second half to shirt. If you're Callahan, who did say that the injury was bothering Levis significantly. I mean, this was an ugly game. There's some crazy stats in this game. Sixty one first half plays between the two teams. Twenty one of those this was according to ESPN stats in Info, twenty one of the sixty one went for zero or negative yards.

I mean, that's freaking.

Twenty one negative or zero yard plays in a single half between the two teams. So that's why the Titans running game doesn't look as good on paper as you would expect because their offensive line on the right side just gives up huge penetration. I mean, Spears had like a negative four, negative eight where he had no chance, like it's been happening all year.

The left side of the Titans offensive.

Line, Scoronski and Laith them something to build off in their center, like they're getting something going there. The right side is a total disaster with Petit Frere. There was eighteen penalties between these two teams. And yeah, let's get to the dolphins of it all. Tyler Huntley somehow didn't throw an interception in this game, but he also did not throw for one hundred yards despite some garbage time yards ninety six yards on twenty two attempts missed open receivers, and you know, more to the point, just didn't seem like he knew what was going on in the playbook that well, which makes sense. It's a very complicated playbook. And he's only been there for six weeks.

Yeah, you know, and he had some inaccuracy issues what you come to expect from a guy making us first start when he hasn't been there very long. But they also can't do the small things very well. I mean he found Jalen Waddle open over the middle and Waddle drops it. Even the pass to Tyreek Hill that you know, picks up a nice game in the second half that he might break for a touchdown, he gets cut down. They go for it on fourth down and Tyreek goes around the end of the Jets sweep and he gets cut down short of the sticks.

Like just nice Condrey digs there. That was like it was a few real highlights. I guess their defense had plenty of highlights.

I take that back, yeah, but like the small things are just not working for the Dolphins right now, which is why they start. I mean, they had eighty four yards of offense going to the fourth quarter. That's not the Miami Dolphins we expected to see the season. But that's what happens when you lose your quarterback and you'd throw two different guys in there in two weeks.

Okay, that's true.

And yet on the other side of the ball, Mason Rudolph comes in and it was operable. You know, they go for two forty four. What actually wasn't that much better? To be fair, Uh, Malik Willis, he's still in this coaching you were in this coaching tree. I mean they had the number one ground game in the NFL when Malik Willis was the coach, I mean was the quarterback in Green Bay, and that's that's sort of one of his rivals there. Lafleur, I think some of this has to go down on McDaniel. Joe Flacco comes in and plays well, who's another one like that. There's been a bunch of backup quarterbacks that have come in and been good enough, like Andy Dalton. I know that's a different type of situation, but you can say that they've lost their starting quarterback. But it shouldn't all fall apart like this when that happens.

But it falls apart when you don't have a trusted, veteran option who's familiar with the offense, which is right.

So that's on them though, because Skyler Thompson has literally been there for Skyler Thompson, but he's been there for three that was their choice, So that's on mcdeith's on them.

Yeah, you can put it on Greer a little bit.

I guess it's hard, but when it comes to quarterbacks, I think it's on McDaniel, but I think more is on McDaniel. This Dolphins team was on my radar of not really being what we expected coming into the season because of the offensive line and the running game could be better. They had the seventh This was from Austin Gale at the Ringer. They had the seventh best rushing offense in EPA in the last ten years last year. That's how good their rushing offenses was last year. Yeah, they are thirty first now, they're thirty first in the NFL now. And even when Tua was in for those six quarters, it was an up and down game against Jacksonville where they had to come back to win late against a team that right now has the thirty second ranked defense according to DVOA.

So that game does not look good.

And the two and a half quarters with two against Buffalo wasn't good either. So there's you can't collapse this bad. They're the worst team in the NFL. I don't even think there's a question. I mean, I guess the Jaguars could because they're zero and four. I would take the Jaguars right now against the Tyler Huntley Dolphins.

Yeah.

I mean, if you want one defining moment of where the Dolphins are offensively and how lost they are just go back to last week when they played the Seahawks and they got a turnover inside the ten and came away with a field goal. That's just not enough. That's not enough.

But that's who they are right now.

It's tough.

Four point four yards per attempt for Huntley Jordan Brooks. I think he's been good. Trying to think of some positives to say Jalen Phillips, this is not a positive. Got hurt again tonight. He was frustrated, he was in and out of the game. He was kind of banged up last week too. He's coming off that serious injury and got back for week one. You do wonder if you're going to hear another offseason article at some point of Phillips saying I rushed back too quickly off of such a serious injury, and he hasn't quite been right. Like they've gotten some good linebacker play, like Steelers played well, but the defense has been bad too. They were thirtieth inefficiency coming into tonight according to DVOA. That will improve after this performance, but their defense hasn't been good too. It's depressing. They're playing the Patriots next week, and actually those might be the two worst teams in the league. I would say, Dolphins, Patriots, get excited. All right, let's get excited. Let's do some news, Nick Schuk, that's enough.

On that game. Congrats to the Titans. It's Monday night. You know, we're going through a bunch of injuries.

Jonathan Taylor had a high ankle sprain and that came out of nowhere in that game against the Steelers.

It happened, we believe.

On the last play of the game. So that's why you didn't really notice. I kind of hobbled over on the last carry that he had. Ian Rappaport believes it's not a bad high ankle sprain. Whatever that means. I don't know how that works. And Athony Richardson is day to day. So this Colts team will be, you know, waiting and seeing if they can play this week.

Yeah, Taylor did a good job of keeping that offensive float with Flack in there. They leaned on him, especially in the second half, to keeps some drives going outside of that make if it's Patrick penalty. He kind of paced them and balanced it out. Losing him would be a blow because behind him is.

What Trey sermon like. It's not the best one two punch.

But if it's not bad, which I don't know how high ankle sprain's not bad, then that's still encouraging.

We'll see. They're a little bit on the men right now.

I mean, I think there are different variations. There's the ones like I'm thinking of a Ryan Tannehill injury at a couple of years ago, which he could barely move after being out a week or two. And then there's ones like home is played through it. But even then he like we're talking about a running back, there's no way he should be playing this week against the Jaguars.

We'll see. I think Anthony Richardson will be ready to play.

That is just my hunch. They called him day to day, but we'll have to track that. That's a chance there for the Jaguars to possibly get a win before they head over to London. Come on, Jaguars, I'm covering you there, let's do it. Christian Watson, the Packers receiver, has a high ankle sprain and he is out at least a week or so. This is a receiver group that can probably live without a receiver just because they're so deep.

Yeah, Dantavian Wicks had a nice start to the season in a nice game on Sunday. You have Romeo Dobbs there as well, and as long as Jordan Love isn't throwing a bunch of interceptions as he did this past weekend, you'll find a way to keep it afloat. Thankfully, you have Josh Jacobs back there to lead the ground game, which has been you know now in terms of EPA or like you know, success rate has not been high, which is kind of weird. I'm not I still have an unpacked deb but visually it's a it's a better running game.

So you know, they got the rams. That's that's a very winnable game.

And look, Jayden Reid has turned into He's not a traditional one. But the more he plays, the more I think about him like like an Aman Ross Saint Brown. He's not like aman Ross Saint Brown. I don't know if he can be like that consistent, But what I mean is that you can build a chunk of the offense around this guy and he's going to show up every week. So he is their one, even if he's not a traditional one. And then I mean his numbers look like he's a traditional one. He's a really unique player. I really like Jane Reid, so I think they'll be able to survive without Watson for a bit.

Hopefully it's not too long.

We keep getting news about the Cowboys injuries that get worse and worse. Now it's DeMarcus Lawrence out four to seven weeks and Micah Parsons likely to miss this week with a high ankle sprain. Their bye week is two weeks away, so they might be tempted to keep Micah out for those two games. He says he's never missed a game at any level, which is a wild Stati Parsen college, Yeah, high school or college or.

Like insane with that. It wasn't a good game for them defensively against the Giants. I know it was a low scoring affair, but in terms of like pressure and Parsons making a difference and everything kind of a little bit concerning. And you saw what the Saints did to him a couple weeks prior, so losing both those guys at the same time is concerning to me. But it's more about Lawrence than it is Parsons. If Parsons is to come back.

Quicker, I mean, it's absolutely brutal. Those are the two best players on their defense. I guess you'd throw Trevon Digs in there. Yeah, that's a killer. They're playing the Steelers. Steelers keep getting pretty good schedule luck, although I guess you could say they got bad luck that they had to face Joe Flacco on Sunday.

Nick Chubb is set to practice on Thursday.

So all these players that were put on short term I are, there's the option to have them start practicing this week. Some players are, some players aren't. For instance, Kendrick Bourne, I believe is ready to start practice. That opens the three week window and then they have to be activated within that three weeks if they're going to play this year. So Nick Chubb getting closer to playing. They desperately need them. Shaq Thompson, the Panthers linebacker, is going to miss the season with a torn achilles. Steelers guard James Daniels is going to miss the season with an injury. That's a big loss for them. A solid starter on a fairly shaky offensive line. Tank Dell expected to return on Friday. Excited about about your guy Chubb getting back on the field.

No, because they have offensive line issues and I think that's going to prevent him from being able to really get out and get going. But it's still an upgrade over Jerome Ford. The Browns don't run the ball very much. They haven't through the first month. When they have, it's just been random chunk plays from Jerome Ford. Chubb's more liable to produce those. But they have so many problems up front that I'm concerned they can't run.

They have nothing, they have nothing, they have to run the ball. I mean, maybe they'll get He'll down that offensive line. By the time Chubb plays, I think the earliest Chubb, if he's just starting to practice this week.

It's got it would be two weeks or so.

Yeah, it would be next week at the earliest.

And and we'll see because he's coming back, yeah from that that devastating injury he suffered on Monday Night Football. All right, let's get to some comments that I wanted to talk about on Sunday Night show.

And it was. It was a packed show.

But I did love that Baker Mayfield had that baller game with Tom Brady up in the booth.

And yeah, Tom.

Brady seemed to be in his feelings a little bit about some Baker Mayfield comments let's listen to Tom Brady's response on the Fox broadcast.

Oh, Baker Mayfield sizzling to start and took a little playful jab at our guy here said quote. They wanted me to come in, be myself, bring the joy back to football for guys who weren't having as much fun.

I thought stressful was not having super Bowl rings. So there was a mindset of a champion that I took to work every day.

This wasn't daycare.

If I wanted to have fun, I was gonna go to Disneyland with my kids.

Yeah, he mad Man. Yeah, like he came out ready to say that. And look the comments from Baker who was on a podcast. Look good things never happened. If you go on a podcast and just start talking that. He said, everyone was pretty stressed out when Brady was there. The building was a little different, was a high strung environment, and they wanted Baker to come in and just kind of be himself. And that was the response to Brady, which Baker said after the game. He said, I think they were these were taken out of context. They can't be taken out of content. They were your they were your quotes. I think it's fair to say that, Like, he wasn't saying that Brady was a bad guy. He was just he was just saying, like every the building was a little stressed, and they want me to be me because they can't.

You know, they can't. I can't be Tom Brady and get everyone stressed out like that.

Look, both guys can be right and both things can be true. This is Tom Brady arriving in Tampa was exactly what you've seen in the NBA with Lebron James.

It's Lebron effect.

You show up, you are instantly expected to contend with a veteran guy who doesn't have many years left and he expects to win titles. And that's all that happened with the Buccaneers. It's just that they got one and then they didn't get there again over the next two years, and they fell short, you know, in somewhat dramatic fashion one year. So like you're dealing with that pressure constantly because you know that the clock is taking on the greatest player to ever play the position who happens to be on your team, and you know you have to deliver before he's done.

That's all it was.

And Baker's not wrong. But also should we be surprised if Tom Brady responded that way?

No, No, I mean I just love that.

It truly bothered him a lot for him to say that, and there's just like an edge in his voice, and look, Brady sounds like he would stress you out. Of course, of course he would stress you out. Just it was like watching Aaron Rodgers on Sunday with all the miscommunications, just the look of disgust at the false starts, and everyone's trying to get to that level. It's difficult. It's not helping Tom Brady be a broadcaster. I mean, I think sometimes he's a little stressed out as a broadcaster, which is not the vibe you want to give off to the listener.

Although you know, I think it's getting better.

He's been niacle about football and he's a perfectionist, and that's what it takes to usually win titles is you have to be a little bit crazy. In fact, there was a Neil Brnnan special where he mentioned like I want my athletes to be crazy because that's what leads them to win titles and be great.

And that's Tom Brady in a nutshell.

Yeah, I've definitely seen it in the broadcast, there's some pauses, he's getting better.

But yeah, it was now that Baker had his best game of the season and Brady gave him props. I think he was even on like a postgame show of where he was a player of the game or something like that. So they're all good, you know, to Tampa legends, Baker Mayfield and Tom Brady. Finally, I mentioned Rogers here mini controversy, very New York controversy after the game, where Aaron Rodgers spoke about Robert Salace comment that maybe after five false starts, they have to look into, you know, changing up what he's doing with his cadence, the cadence.

Specifically, Robert said, that might be something you guys have to dial back a little bit.

Is that something you think could potentially help the situation.

It's one way to do it. The other ways hold him accountable.

Man.

We haven't had an issue. We've had one false start. Morgan had one false start I believe until this so you know, it's been a weapon. We use it every day in practice. We don't you know, we rarely have a false start, and to have I don't know five today, it seemed like four or five yeah, it seems like an outlayer. I don't know if we need to make mass changes based on you know, kind of an outlier game.

You know, I agree with Aaron Rodgers there, but I couldn't help but laugh. You know, when Robert Sala spoke at the podium Monday and gave the most predictable answer when asked about.

It yesterday, I was, I was. I was mentioning operation. We're always going to push the envelope with cadence always, but but with regards to operation uh, you know, getting in out of the huddle, getting to the line of scrimmage, of the communication that's being had, We're uh, those are all things that we can continue to look at and clean up. But from a cadence standpoint, that's part of what makes us who we are, and we're going to continue to always push push the envelope on that.

Nothing to see here, sicky.

I feel like Robert Sala has been under more pressure and scrutiny as a head coach in his time with the Jets than any coach in recent memory. Every year it's something, and this year it's this. You want to talk about daycare. Aaron Rodgers is right, we're not running a daycare here in Floria Park, New Jersey, and in the meadow Lands, we're running an NFL football team. Level up, guys, learn the cadence, quit committing errors. I think Rodgers is completely right to be like, no, we don't need to change it. They just need to be better, because I'm great.

If it's a one game thing and they haven't had any problems and it's a weapon that they use. But it was a real issue for them on Sunday. But it was it was so easy to see that Sala like he just got caught saying something he wishes he didn't say, and he realizes.

What not on a podcast?

Yeah, I know.

I'm sure there was a conversation between Robert Sala and Aaron Rodgers on Monday and that led to that.

Press government And that's fine.

It's okay for Aaron Rodgers to basically be calling the shots on that offense. People, I think make almost too big of a deal about it. When great quarterbacks have been doing that throughout the history of this league. People always say like, why can't we go back to those days where you know, Peyton Manning and certainly Brady and Breeze, but also you know, Johnny Unitis and really going back till it's like where they're calling the plays like it's okay.

Where Peyton Manning is calling a hot mic, going damn it Donald as Donald Brown blew up the pass protection. The best part about that Rogers clip him looking up at the lights in the ceiling in the room, try to like, all right, how do I get through this answer? Like, oh my god, It's like the ben Afflecks smoking Meme's just like, oh my god, I have to deal with this right now.

Yeah, fun game in London this week between the Jets and the Vikings. I'm looking forward to breaking that down later in the week on our previews show. But that's just a couple of days away. Before that, it's time for the Captain's Corner, presented by Captain Morgan's how we wrap up our Monday Night recap our Monday Night recaps the last couple of weeks. I thought this was it for the year, and then I looked it up.

Shook. We got two more.

Monday Night doubleheaders, two more, there's a week seven and then there. I like it actually because I think it's good for this show. And now I just mostly think about what's good for NFL Daily.

It just makes it.

Yeah, if you get a stinker, you're like, both of these last two weeks are perfect examples. We've gotten one stinker and then a really fun game to talk about to save it. If we only had that stinker, then it's kind of a it's kind of a blast show that we really need to tap dance a little bit.

So I like it.

Yeah, I mean you can watch me stare at the ceiling as I try to go through an answer in which I don't think about how it's not good for my fingers on the keyboard.

But yeah, sure, totally.

Ah, yeah, you're writing on these nights and everyone should check out shocks what we learned up on NFL dot com.

All right, give me your Captain Morgan Captain of the week. All right.

So Chicago Bears had a rough go first few weeks of the season, but they finally broke through on Sunday with a close win over the Los Angeles Rams. And the hero from that day is not Caleb Williams. It's DeAndre Swift, who finally popped a couple of nice runs for this team.

That's what they expected when they got him.

He finishes with sixteen carries for ninety three yards, including a thirty six yard touchdown that gave him a nine point lead in the fourth quarter.

Big day.

He also chipped in seven catches for seventy two yards. If they are going to grow as an offense. In a week in which I had to listen to Shane Waldron talk about communication over and over and over again in word soilid his way through a press conference, this is how it gets done. Takes some pressure off the quarterback. So a rays of a glass and it cheers to you. DeAndre Swift, first big performance with the Bears.

Great choice there, DeAndre Swift getting done for the Bears at two and two. I'm going with some big names. I'm going two guys. Neil Collins twelve for one point fifty one in a touchdown. I'm not just box score reading here. I went back and watched that game today and I'm just so in love with this guy's playing style. He's so good like he I think he might be the best receiver in the league right now, other than Justin Jefferson. Like, no one's gonna make me put anyone ahead of Jefferson. But on a week to week basis it is insane. I love that they can give him the ball to run with for ten yards of yak on third and ten and he'll go get it. But then the plays that he makes on the ball down the field are just awesome. And then I also want to give Chris Jones some love. I think in the era of Aaron Donald, we don't realize how rare it is to have a defensive tackle who's just the best player in the game. And that's what Chris Jones was again on Sunday. So many big plays and then when you need a play on the goal line, who's the guy who gets the pressure. It's Chris Jones in a big spot. Always he is rising the list of the best defensive tackles of the last twenty years. And yeah, he's not going to pass Aaron Donald, who cares like he is getting to I mean Hall of Fame level.

Right, like yeah close, Yeah, I think so.

He was a little bit of a late bloomer, but year after year stacking up these all pros and game changing moments in the playoffs, I actually think he's he's in, like it's gonna happen for him. And I don't want to take that for granted. I think he's been among the best defensive players in the league. Would be on my short list for Defensive Player of the Year through four weeks. That was the Captain's Corner, presented by Captain Morgan. It's delicious and Chris perfect for game day with your friends.

Spice it up.

Visit Captain Morgan dot com to find a Captain near you. Please drink responsibly. This is the time of night where I set you free into the Cleveland streets, Nick Shook, I think the bars are all closed by now.

It's like one am there.

Yeah, I'm not a Monday night out of the town kind of guy, because my Monday nights are spent watching football.

Greg Why.

Why? I don't know.

Oh, because football is back. I blow it, roll this out Eric. We will be back on.

Wednesday.

What a day.

This is going to be QB Island. We've been pumping this thing up for six weeks. We're only doing it four times a year during the season.

Who stays on? Who goes? Gino Smith making it happen in primetime against the Lions. You know football is back.

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