Thanksgiving 2024 Recap!

Published Nov 29, 2024, 7:52 AM

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Will Gavin of talkSport to break down all of the Thanksgiving action from around the NFL. The guys start with a recap of Dolphins at Packers (01:32), followed by Bears at Lions (24:35) and Giants at Cowboys (48:30).

Note: time codes approximate. 

Welcome to NFL Daily, where we're always going back for seconds and thirds.

That's right, a trio of games on this Thanksgiving.

I'm Greg Rosenthal in my garage, joined for the first time by ed Intercontinental Thanksgiving guests. Yes, it's Will Gavin. It's already Friday in the UK. Will Gavin from Talk Sport. If you listen to what some people called the most insane recap of the year back in week six, Thank you for staying up early or late whatever it is, Will and talking.

About these games with me.

H No, absolutely love it. Thanks for having me. I do feel like mentioning going up for seconds or thirds feels like a direct shot at me before we've even seen Oh, but you know I can take it on the chin and that's fine.

No, it is absolutely not. It's what I did tonight. And we just had a lot of great bread products. I think we overloaded, which you gotta have. But we have two different types of cornbread because Todter wanted to make one. Then we had some biscuits and just like I did not feel well a couple hours ago, but I feel better now. We have three fun games to talk about, maybe at the very end, but we'll talk a little bit more about our Thanksgiving. I'm curious what it's like to be a Brett watching these games. But first, let let's start with the night game, because maybe it wasn't the best game of the day, but I think it's the most important to.

Lamba loving the shotgown of the setback John Jacobs to his right, snamp get fake to Jacob's quick toss, green upside, quick to touch a shown Benjup touchdown Shaden Reid his second touchdown of the life.

It's twenty to three the Green Bay. Yes, Jaden Reid getting it done.

He just dial up all the best plays for Jaden that got it to twenty one to three. In the second half, the Packers go on to win thirty to seventeen. That was Wayne Larvie, of course from wrn W in Green Bay. Packers get that big lead. And maybe I'll just start with read because as I was watching this game, will I had a theory and it's like Jaden Reid is Matt Lafleur's muse. He always comes up with the good stuff for and Jaden Reid always executed it. They showed a stat that Jade Reid now has as many touchdowns or more than any Packer in history in his first two years as a receiver. And you think of that touchdown, beautiful blocking. The receivers do a great job blocking all season long. They get read into the end zone on a nice swing pass and they have another the first read touchdown on a play where he makes it like he's run blocking for a couple of seconds. I don't know if i'd call it trickery, but very creative, and then he spins out and Love puts it perfect time in for that touchdown.

Reid had a nice run earlier in the game.

And I know that's not the biggest, big picture take here, but Matt Lafleur always seems to know how to use Jaden Reid in such a way to make him at his best, and that's kind of Lafleur's magic with his entire team.

This offense was humming tonight.

Yeah, look, just two catches in that first half, but both of them touchdowns. And you mentioned the blocking down field. Do you do you feel like this is a receiving corps and an entire Packers offense that finally starting to look like it actually has a real identity over the last couple of games. I A lot of that is to do with the rushing, and a lot of that is to do with Josh Jacobs. I'm sure we'll come on too. But Jaden Reid I went into the season being very doubtful, and it was very much like a fantasy thing where people are taking him mid rounds, even earlier rounds. I'm like, okay, so this guy was good last year, but he had what twelve plus touchdowns. That's if you're just relying on that, that's never going to happen. But he is a guy who can have two catches and just two touchdowns A partly that was horribly wrong. He did have the great end a round play as well, that twenty three yard on the ground, which really helped boosts he's night. But it's amazing you come out of this game talking about him despite the facts that what just three catches for twenty four yards plus.

That he's what your guy Devo used to be.

Not to bring up any sort of subjects for a forty nine ers fans, but he really reminds me of him. Obviously, he's a lot lighter in a different style of player, but there aren't that many players that can impact a game like Jayden Reid does on special design plays and like you said, have four touches tonight, two for touchdowns and one that run was the best run that anyone had all night, just in terms of pure talent. Now, my theory is that Jane Reid is Matt Lafleur's muse. He always comes up with the good stuff for Jayden Reid. Christian Watson, on the other hand, I believe is Jordan loves muse because two catches for Christian Watson tonight.

That's it on four targets.

But those two throw those were absolutely incredible by Jordan Love. The deep one down the sideline that just shows off Love's arm strength and then another key one on the drive late in the second quarter that helps set them up into a tight window that the turkey shot that John Gruden used to talk about between the zone, the deep defender and the underneath. And Jordan Love always seems to make his best passes to Christian Watson. Watson doesn't always catch him. There was probably a PI on a late target that they didn't give to the Packers, but it kind of shows off what Love can do. And it's just this group of players that are very cohesive. I think you're right, they have an identity. Even on a night where they didn't have Romeo Dobbs on the field, they had more than enough with Tucker Craft and those two receivers.

Yeah, that deep shot on the third and sixth in the third quarter away hitting down that right hand sideline was not it was it like a proper bulls. He play cool. The way he steps up in the pocket, the way he kept calm as it was collapsing around him and just absolutely hit Watson stride was sensational. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned the defense passing in France because what a dreadful cool that was. And Matt Lafloor made it clear. I love that when you're up by like three clear scores, you still want Matt Lafloor on the sideline, giving the referees just that much stake was looking.

No, because that was his moment. That was Lafleur moment.

And so if you didn't watch the game and you're tuning in on Friday to listen to this, thank you very much.

We love you.

It's thirty to seventeen, and yes the game seems all but over. It's two minutes and ten seconds left, probably when they snapped that ball something like that, but they're going for the kill shot. Almost anyone going into the two minute warning is just going to run the ball there and punt and try to kill the clock or whatever. Maybe you'd throw a short pass, but they're like, we've got this howitzer, that's just this thing of beauty.

Let's take our.

Shot right now and give the fans something fun to leave and stick it to our old friend Mike McDaniels. I love coaches like that, Like Matt Lafleur was gonna let his players have some fun.

It didn't work, but it was worth it. I'd get mad too. I did.

I did thoroughly enjoy. And when I say thoroughly enjoy, I mean that with as much dripping British sarcasm as humanly possible, because I didn't enjoy much that Jason Garrett did on co Coms tonight, but I did. I did love him when Saran Neil came across and contacted him horribly early for one of the most obvious defensive past inferience, like it was textbook. It was like teaching tape past interference for officials and he kind of went, oh, yeah, did maybe get there a little earlier. That's just like, what else.

Didn't you like about Garrett?

I have a lot to get to with this game, because what a what a no show for the Dolphins in a big spot, and we're going to get to that while we're giving the Packers some credit after tap. But what didn't you like about Jason Garrett?

I think after three hours of Tom Brady just hating life, of watching one of the worst quarterback matchups we've had in the NFL this season, but doing it with a lot of fun, I just needed Jason Garrett to be just in a bit of fun, thanksgiving more or to just give us the tiniest bit of insight. But what he did on almost every play was took exactly what you know the comms said and just repeated it in a more flowery way, like not once did we sear anything that was like actually delivering you anything that you learned, Like this is a guy who was a head coach in the NFL for many years and just gave us absolutely nothing about the game management, absolutely nothing about the play design, absolutely and I just I did I found it tough love. I'm not gonna love it.

We're gonna keep Will up till four in the morning, Like, give him something, give them something. I liked the cutting criticism here.

Can I just say that there there's one other Christian Watson play as well. I wanted to highlight. It was early on in the game and it was still a single score where Dantavian Wicks had a horrendous drop and Christian Watson went full defensive back to stop the tipball interception, and I don't know, it was just one of those plays that it doesn't show up on the box score, and it doesn't show up in a two score win late on, people don't pay attention to it later. But it just told me a lot about the way that this offense has coached, about the way that they're always never giving up on plays, about we talked about it, the way the receivers block down field. It just said to me, like, this is an offense that isn't going to switch off. And I don't know, I've not really been excited about the Packers before tonight, and now I kind of feel like, even on the road in the playoffs, I'd fancy them to have a chance against even the best teams in the conference. So yeah, I'm getting on the Packers hype train a little bit after.

Okay, So I don't think the Packers have played to their potential. They haven't played many complete games. This was one of their best games of the season. But I have been excited to watch them because Love he is a roller coaster. Now this is two straight games for him without a interception, and he had one in every game before this, so that's a positive sign. Their running game is so dynamic, so diverse, and it really didn't get going today. Josh Jacobs talked about it afterwards. He was held a forty three yards on the ground on nineteen carries had the big reception that we'll mention in a minute.

But Chris Brooks had some runs. Emanuel Wilson had some runs.

One of the biggest plays of the game, actually, I thought was they trusted their running game enough to hand it off to Emmanuel Wilson, who's been great this year. On a third and four outside the twenty yard line. I think the score was seven to three, and he runs that thing all the way inside the ten. And they can just they can run power, they can run duo, they can run zone they can.

Do it all. They're very cohesive. It's a good offensive line.

And that kind of brings me to my criticism of the Dolphins here, and I got some more love for the Packers, but.

You're not beating the allegations Dolphins, like.

This is it.

This is the same thing. We just keep saying the same thing, and their fans are like, well, it's not fair. It's not fair like this, that and the other, and it's just the same thing.

It's not a narrative that they play worse late in the season or that they can't play in the cold.

It's just the facts.

And maybe they'll play better down the stretch here because they have a good schedule, and they certainly were playing well into this game coming into this game, but their pass rush lost repeatedly tonight, did not bother Jordan Love at all. Jordan Loves struggled against pressure all season long. His numbers actually were pretty good. I checked next Sense. That's four for five for thirty eight yards and a touchdown tonight. But the key number there is five, Like he was barely pressured at all. So that's showing a lack of toughness there. You can't run the ball this was a Dolphins team that was able to run the ball, and they just can't. And the key sequence to me will in the entire game is their down two scores twenty seven to eleven, and they get the ball down to the one yard line after an eight yard run to get it there. They get stuffed on second down, and then McDaniel gives up on trying to run. They were inside the one yard line two straight plays. They run these kind of crossers that they're known to run for it and the defense is absolutely ready for it, and their offensive line loses pretty quickly on both plays, and Green Bay knew what was coming because this is a team that loves to run those players on the goal line. And this is the exact same thing that the twenty twenty two and twenty three Dolphins had trouble with, Like they couldn't run in short yardage in big situations, and that's got to be so frustrating as the snow is falling down that they're just kind of living up to what everyone has said about them in the last couple of years.

Yeah, I think it was a bit of a weird second half from the Packers defense in terms of that they softened up a lot in the middle of the field. But the touchdown drive just before that, and then the drive that you're talking about that went down to the one yard line. Two it goes eleven or twelve over the course of those two drives, first one eight place seventy yards, that second one twelve plays seventy seven yards, and you're thinking, oh, this is actually a bit of offense from the Dolphins. We're starting to see them, you know, Jellen Wardle made a couple of catches, tyreek Hill finally started warming into the game a little bit. Johnny Smith was by far their most targeted guy on the day, and you got into that short yarded situation and they kind of they threatened on that play like a quarterback keeper with alec Ingold running across the formation and then just I don't know, I don't know whether it was the offensive line collapsing. I don't know if it's just the way that Green Bay read it. I thought it was a brilliant play from kuway Walker, who also had a big pressure on the third down as well, and I thought it was one of the real bright spots of that Green Bay defense all day. But you're right, It's just it's been amazing this year to watch guys from that same tree. And I think you've had the same problems with Shanahan, the same problems with McVeigh. Just absolutely lose all creativity and lock up when they get in the red zone, Like I don't understand how they haven't developed this brilliant array. Like even if you just do something really simple there with too, like run a naked boot, try and open up one side of the field, have a couple of guys in the end zone who might get open, you've got more chance of completing it than just that bizarre mishmash of two three different plays that they tried to run and just failed miserably and ended up with the sack. So there was a little brief moment there. It was like three point thirty in the UK. At that point, I'm like, right, we've got a game on our hands.

Let's go.

And then they fail on that on that conversion, and it's the normal time where I would turn the TV off on the highlights.

Like actually, I'm not gonna apologize. We're having fun and look at this pace. This is gonna be a long one, and look I get it. Tuas playing great. I came into this game saying Tua is gonna be on QB Island. He ended up throwing for three hundred and sixty five yards and two touchdowns in this game. I say thank you to Tua as a representative for all his fantasy owners. You've been beautiful the last three weeks. Like yeah, I'm keeping Kyler Murray on the bench for you and you're coming through. It's not that he's playing poorly, but tonight the running game Moster goes five for nineteen eight, Chan goes seven for fourteen. They're one of the worst running teams in the league. And that is such a difference. But between the last couple of years and this year and Mike McDaniel, that's where he made his bones, and that's where I think the lack of talent on the offensive line comes through. And for one of the first times all season, their pass protection, at least on a couple key plays didn't come through either. It wasn't terrible all night, but there was the play in the first half where Armstead didn't get out of his stance and ending Bari got a sack. That was actually back to back plays with the sack and they had just enough failures. They have such little margin for error. Will I think that's what gets me. I've been enjoying this Dolphins team and I wanted them to win this game to maybe go on rund because they're five and seven now. They have to win out basically to have a chance, and they have a schedule that you could win out against. But that's a tough askt at five and seven, I don't think they can do it. They have such a small margin for error. They don't really run the ball well, and they don't throw the ball vertically anymore. So they're they're probably the best in the league at everything else at throwing the bar short essentially, like they are the best at the bar heeling and the timing and are that like number one. But it's just hard to keep winning with no verticality and no running game. That's a tough carbonation.

Yeah, I'm really glad you mentioned the verticality because it's exactly like like Devin a Han had a great game in the receiving today, as much as they didn't run the ball well, he was eight of fifty six with the touchdown as well. We haven't got the a dot on his targets yet, but I bet that it's about two yards because it was all checkdowns that he did something phenomenal on on the back end, and they were well designed and it was the right choice of tour to take the check down checkdowns like this this dirty word. But anyone who like you and I loves Philip Rivers as much as we do, know that checkdown offense is a legitimate offense, and it can get you yardage and it can win new games like it almost did for them today. But the big question that I saw all across social media and I want to ask you about, is what's going on with Tyreek Hill? Like he had some inflated stats in the end in this game, like they had. He had the catch at the end of the on the comeback, which he slips on it, and so many times in the past, hundred of times in the past, we've seen him on that kind of catch, turn up field, break a tackle, make a guy miss, and take a six yard gain for twenty five yards. And as I was writing that down, in fact, he did have that big twenty four yard gain as I was making that note, and I nearly deleted. I thought no, because it still highlights how its garbage exactly as was his touchdown garbage time, and like if you take out that final two drives of the game, when they were already pretty much out of it, Tokyo had absolutely nothing to show for today. He is carrying this wrist injury. He says he's not gonna have surgery to the offseason. Don't know how much that's affecting him, But I just I don't see any of the separation. I don't see any of the burst up field. I just like all that stuff that made him really special just wasn't there today and hasn't been there enough.

This shit, I totally agree, that's been on my radar. They gave him a monster extension before the season. He is now, how odd does he He's thirty years old, it'll turn thirty one before next year. That's not a death sentence, but he's I think on the way down. I think it's safe to say, like at his peak, which was an extended peak and was peaking last year, you know, through most of that year, since about this time last year through now, the production and the explosion just hasn't been quite as good. And you pay him that much money there's such a top heavy team. Yeah, you want more than six hundred and fifty yards through this point in the season, which he had in eighty of those Yeah tonight, where a lot of them were in garbage time. It's just been a little off. It's hard to get him and Wattle going at the same time. John new Smith speaking a fantasy, I mean, he goes ten for one thirteen those drives in the second half. That was the Dolphins team that I've seen. And it's not like they were awful in the first half. It was more that Tua was ten for eleven at one point or eight for I remember he had one completion and the Packers were driving to go up three scores. It's like they had only had the ball a couple of times and their defense let them down. And so that's that's part of the thing I've pushed back a little bit with Dolphins fans this year too, is your team shouldn't collapse that hard when you lose your backup quarterback. So that's that's on your coaching staff that everything fell apart that bad for now, But I'm doing the math roughly in my head. I believe they are now four and four in two of games. So you also can't tell me that they were that they're some great team with Tua there, they're literally four and four. They were one and one when he got hurt because they were losing that game thirty one to ten in the middle of the third quarter. That that, you know, And and they won the lost the first couple of games when he came back against good teams one three straight and now this one. And so that just speaks to a team that's in the middle of the road, like they probably should be six and six, not five and seven, but a team that's in the middle of the road so probably isn't gonna win the rest of their games. They have the Jets, they're at the Texans, they have the forty nine ers, which who knows what they'll look like, and then they are at Cleveland and at the Jets. The Texans are actually at home. Like, yeah, I actually would make the Dolphins slight favorites at least in all those games, Like I think they're favorite in all those games. So sure you could win them all, but the odds undoing it are pretty slim at this point.

Andrew Brant, who I know is you know, famed for being slightly favorable towards the Packers, let's say, but did tweet work for them? Yeah? Did tweet pointing out that, you know, Tyer Hill's getting twenty six million dollars this year, Jalen Word is getting twenty million dollars this year. The Packers leading seven receivers are getting eight million dollars between them. Like, I know those guys are going to now be getting paid as we get towards the end of the season. And you know, there was so much talk for so long about them not taking your first round receiver and just taking these mid round guys, but it's showing out, and like, it just shows that play design and coaching makes a huge difference. And you were absolutely right. Mike McDonald's deserves more like the football nerd. Of course, I love Mike McDonald's, all football nerds do. But like they him and the front office deserve a lot of stick for not making this team work without tour, for not having a backup ox for a guy who is so injury prone. And you know, this is a season where they could definitely be a playoff team based on everything they've got on their roster, and they're probably going to peter out and end up what like eight nine ten somewhere around that point. And it's disappointing.

It is.

They missed a lot of tackles tonight. The Packers had one hundred and thirty two yards after miss tackles. The success rate for the Packers on the ground actually made us to be forty percent, which is fine. In the Dolphins were much much lower. Again, you're not beating the allegations. You know who is?

I don't know who has allegations for Josh Jagbas right now, probably no one. Let's listen to that. The call of his big reception in the second half.

I'm first and.

Two tight ends in the game.

Melton in motion to the left, glove.

Tapes, takes the handoff to Jacob, steps up in the pocket, dumps it off left side, and he's got Jacob flip a fender forty U fifty to the forty five to forty pikes of tackle thirty five thirty, then taken down.

Beside the twenty yard line. My goodness, Josh Jacob's wood enough go down.

Oh that's a great call and just one of my favorite moves I've seen all season.

The way he made dots and that was who it was.

Fly.

David Long was involved there too, right, No, David lug got cut. What am I saying? I saw David Long earlier in the day on the Lions.

Uh.

That was just a sweet, sweet play by a Packers team who came together at this time last year.

Will.

I know, they haven't been great all year, but they've been winning while being a little confusing. They're nine to three.

In any other situation like year, they'd be like, hey, maybe we'll get the two seed. They got some work to do just to be the you know, number two team in their own division. They're at Detroit next week on Thursday night. Jordan Rodrigue is going to do that recap with me. That is one of the games of the year so far, and they absolutely have the pieces to get better and play their best down the stretch, and they'll need to because they have some tough road games Lions, Seahawks, and Vikings all on the road down the stretch.

Yeah. I'm aware we're going super long on this game. But Josh Jacob's like unreal contact, balanced, sensational to break that tackle, and obviously I saw he did to the forty nine ers last week in a season where we got Derek Kenrian Secon Barkley, it's hard to look beyond those two. Is like free agent running backs when you can say how well he's done there, and how well Aaron Jones has done over in Minnesota as well. Like the running backs back baby.

It is absolutely back and he has been a huge part of that team. And I can't wait to watch this team the rest of the way because I think Jordan Love is getting more and more confident there. There's a couple throws he was under control today, but the throw he made when he was on the run to read, all it did was set up a field goal to be shorter, to take a three score lead in the fourth quarter. You know, move the ball to down to the four yard line. But that is one of the best throws you will ever see. The arm strength he has while throwing on a total run and then read one hands it. That's just like, hey, our athletes are better than your athletes. The Packers have some great athletes. All right, we still have a lot to get to.

Let's take a quick break and we will finish our recap after them.

The Williams with ten seconds to go in the game. Williams with seven Williams with six takes the snap. This could be the final play of the game, throws it deep down field. It is a game incomplete.

That's it.

That's it.

That's it.

What in the world for the games? It's over about the wall to Clark, this manager, even over Dan Miller. Lomas brown Well said on WXYT, what are the Bears thinking?

Matt Eberfluse is the answer for Lomas brown the Lions escape. That game was sitting there for the Bears to steal. At the very end twenty three to twenty Caleb Williams moving the ball down the field, and if you were around a television at all today you probably know the circumstances. But he was sacked will with thirty two seconds left. They had a time out, they were in field goal range. Cairo Santos said after the game. I was ready to go kick it right there from fifty eight yards. That's in my range if I needed to. They not only never got any closer for a kick, they never kicked at all. They never use the time out. They waste all that time and then Caleb throws it down the field. One of the worst end of game sequences' you'll ever see I got.

There's a really funny video that was tweeted out by Sean Hammond the Bears beat right at halftime of Kyra Santos out taking long field goals while Shaboozi was doing the halftime show, like just out of camera shot and it's well worth going looking at because it's very, very funny. But Cayra Santos when he meant he was ready, he meant he was ready to go, And I like, we got on toweb flues and we'll get onto the Williams of it, but I do think it is worth teeing up slightly is we talk. We'll talk aboute Williams performance overall in this game that on the first and ten from the twenty five yard line, he had DJ Moore streaking across the formation and if he throws that with even the tiniest modicum of anticipation, just gets that ball out a second earlier and ahead of his man, it's six points and Neyver won this game of football, and none of this ever happens. Instead, he throws it into his feet, he throws it late, and then they get sacked by his area Smith on the next play and we all know now what happens from that point onwards. I think Eba flush deserves all of the stick that he's getting. I totally get it. But what I've seen that's been I think really interesting, has been a lot of people saying, right, I think they had two options. Right, they either take the time out straight away, they get their heads clear, they get their best play to get the ball to the sideline and get it out of bounds, or to the middle of the field and spike it. In times they can go and take the field goal right, or they let they do what they did, They let the play run down, try and get the ball over the middle, and then take the time out. I don't know what the play was they decided to run. Was was absolutely bizarre going for it all. But I've seen a lot of people saying, like, why isn't Eba Flus calling the time out once it's clear that Caleb Williams is in his own heads. He's getting to the line of scrimmage at thirteen seconds, he's not snapping the ball to six seconds, and he's trying to read this infense Peyton Manning style. It's like, you can't have that middle ground. If he calls that time out with ten seconds remaining, you're still left with a situation way you've gone, so.

It would be better you could just kick You could just kick it. I mean everyone would kill him there. I agree, that's a weird thing to criticize, like take it, you should have taken it with ten thirteen seconds left, something like that. There's a big blame pie here, and Caleb Williams he will be better in that situation in a couple of years, probably in a couple of weeks after going through that.

He absolutely deserves a big part of that. He's out there changing the place.

They actually get lined up with about sixteen seventeen seconds left, so I think, which it's crazy because then they don't snap it for another nine seconds. They like sit there with over the ball for ten seconds, which is absolutely crazy.

He ridiculous.

He kind of lost his mind in that moment, and it is. It is tricky, but that's why you take the time out in the first place. I hope a listener reminds me of what I'm thinking of. There was like a very subtle situation that was so similar in the last couple of weeks, and I didn't have my family here, I would have I would have poured it through and try to figure it out. But it was a very similar situation where it happened. And so many times in these late game situations. I believe that one was with maybe forty to fifty seconds left, but the coach immediately used the time out because you just know after a satn unexpected sack like that where you backed up ten yards, it is very difficult to get everything under control and know what you're supposed to do and know what play to call, and so you call a time out right away because you know you have a rookie quarterback and you have thirty plus seconds there, and now you can't spike the ball after a throw over the middle. So that's why what Matt Eberflu said after the game in his mind sounded correct. Let's actually listen to old Maddie, maybe his last press conference as a Bears coach.

We'll see, I like what we did there again.

Once it's under seven, you know you're going to you're gonna call you know, time out there or actually under twelve, and then really you don't have an option, you know, because his third the fourth you got to throw it into the end zone then, so to me, it's uh uh. I think we handled it the right way. I do believe that. You know, he's just rewrecked the play, get it in bounce and call time out, and that's why we held it and didn't work out the way we wanted it.

Two.

Oh, he's so confident seeing it too. I don't.

It's not intense like you say. He's so confident in saying it is full blown gaslighting, like he is convinced. He's trying to convince us by with this word solid that what he did was in any way right, and I think he believes it.

I think he you know, I don't need to know the names.

He is a politician that believes everything he says and that's why the lies work. Like I think he believes it now what he might not intend to do because he tried to do the whole I take full of responsibility. I'm the coach. But he did say that at some point. But saying that is not taking full responsibility because saying that is essentially saying Caleb Williams messed up. Because what he is saying is I like what we did there. He's saying like Yeah, I thought we were going to get the playoff with twenty something seconds left in the operation wasn't going to be so slow, and the caleb wasn't going to stand over the bar for fifteen seconds. It all would have made sense to quote re rack the play get it off with seventeen seconds left or whatever it is in execute it well.

But they didn't execute it well. So he's essentially, in my mind saying the thought process was right, they just didn't do it right.

That's how I read it. Yeah, And that's why I wanted to highlight the caleb isn't completely without fault because I think he has gone kind of blameless on social media, et cetera. But look, they've six losses in a row now, and four of those are the Hail Mary against Washington, the Packers block field goal where should they have gained vore yardes before they took that field goal, the overtime loss to the Vikings, and then this one, and with all of them, the game management has been absolutely horrendous, and really for two and a half years and thirteen weeks into this season, the game manage it's been consistently bad under eba flus like well I always I used to bang the drum about being like, you need to have a coach who is just there to tell you what to do situationally, who's their whole job is to no clock management, to be on top of it. But a lot of teams actually do have that now and they set up in the booth and they do tell them what to do, and they still get it wrong just by having an expert who's literally in the building doing that.

And yeah, or have a coach that's pretty good at it at it like, yeah, that's an option to a Dan Campbell, a John Harbaugh. Eberflus was later asked in that press conference if asked if he expects to be the Bears head coach next week, which is a tough question, and he just said, I'm going to keep grinding and show up. But the fact that those questions are being asked, it's just you get there's so many different stats. They're the first team in NFL history to go on a six scheme losing streak without having multiple turnovers in any of those games. Just kind of interesting. All Ebraflus talks about is don't turn the ball over, turn don't turn them all over and he's showing how you can lose. Keenan Allen said at one point, we did enough as players in that game, so that that kind of says it all. He also was said he was totally surprised that that was the last play of the game. He like, he thought, like everyone in the field thought, oh, we must have more time, right, Like that couldn't be how the game ended.

They didn't know.

And then he said he looked up at and saw that they still had a time out and said like, oh yeah, And DJ Moore said, we keep coming back in these games, putting ourselves in position and then we shut the bed, and yeah, that's what they do. The worst record in one score games to your point, well, since Eberflus took over are the Chicago Bears.

Yeah, shocking And look when you look at what they did overall in this game, like it's a game that based on the first half, they had no right to be in this game. Later on, right, Caleb goes five to fifteen for just thirty four yards in the first half. Second half comes out fourteen of twenty two two hundred and eight yards, three touchdowns. Did lead them down the field on that drive, did look like they were going really positive and this was without much of a running game whatsoever, Like DeAndre Swift had that third and one where he picked up ten plus yards on that final drive, but prior to that, Caleb had the top three rushes on the team on the day, Like, they just weren't moving the ball particularly well at all on the ground and so you know, the Lions got a bit soft in that second half. Injuries, I think really hurt them in a big way as well. There were some really bizarre incidents throughout the game that well we'll kind of get into on both sides of the ball, I imagine. But yeah, this is a game that shouldn't have been there for the Bears, and then very much was there for the Bears, and they just feel like a team who don't know how to get out of their own way right now.

No, their game was it was such a one sided game, and the Lions didn't take advantage because they struggled in the red zone in the first half. At one point in the first half, the Lions had eighteen first downs in the Bear had nine plays. Now, from that point forward, the Bears more or less dominated. I'm not gonna say I'm concerned if I was a Lions fan, but the Bears came back in that game. There were a couple of moments in the second half, Campbell not going for it on fourth and two at about his own forty to kick it back to the Bears at last time they kind of blinked there where I was like, Oh, that's a little surprising at Dan Campbell's not being aggressive in this moment. The way that their defense was playing, and the way their defense was playing was in large part because of the injuries in this game. Let's go through them. Josh Pascal their starting edge. They've had so many edge injuries out with a knee injury. Malcolm Rodriguez lot left the game. Makai Wingo, one of their defensive linemen, left the game. DJ Reider and Zadarias Smith both left the game but returned. And Reader actually got a quarterback hit will on that play where Caleb Williams threw it at DJ Moore's feet, so he.

Probably should have made that play.

But it was a big play by DJ Reader on that play to get a QB hit and at least bother Caleb Williams, so he returned. Levi on Wuzurique, who's been great for them in the middle. With Alee McNeil hurt his hamstring in this game, so that is a number of key defensive linemen. It's been just a cascade of injuries at one position. And you could see Caleb Williams getting more comfortable as the game went on and having a lot of time and picking on some mismatches.

You got Kendall Vildor out there.

You know, they didn't have Carlton Davis and Keenan Allen and Dj Moore like those were mismassive matches on the outside. And you think ahead to next week with Packers Lions and if they can't get healthy, they could be in trouble on defense.

Yeah, and it's a defense Aaron Glenn has managed to both scheme up and coach up to do brilliant things without Aiden Hutchinson and without some of their best players. And you mentioned, you know, missing key piece in that secondary. Today, next Gen Stats had a tweet that you know, Zadarias Smith, Alcady Mohammad and Dj Reeder all had seven plus pressures in this game, which means good after Yeah, Caleb was pressured on seventeen dropbacks without them blitzing, which is the most in the Dan cambell era, And that's not going to be. The idea was you lose Aiden Hutchinson, You're going to struggle, right, that was. But Zadarius Smith comes in and they decide not to line him up as the kind of just a replacement for Aid Hutchinson, which I think wouldn't have worked, but they've got him playing up the middle. He had that brilliant spin move on the inside to force Caleb outside on the pocket on this second drive to force the three and out got the sack at the end of the game, which obviously caused such huge issues. Like I thought, he was absolutely sensational in this game despite good car the fact that he's going against a pretty bad offensive line, and yeah, I lians defense keeps from finding ways to win despite everything, and yet in this second half there was enough concern for me that goes if they were playing a really good organized football team who kind of a well coached and knew what they were doing, this would be a dropped game for them. And I suspect that the Packers are exactly that kind of team next week.

Yeah, it's tough to know.

What to make of it, because, like I said, like in the first quarter, it was one hundred and forty five yards to five, but they kept they kept bogging down in the red zone. They were throwing a lot in the red zone instead of running. And then Jamir Gibbs had that fumble as they were going in up sixteen nothing I believe at the time at the end of the second quarter, and that fumble gave the Bears a little life where they would have been out of it if they had gone in there twenty three nothing at halftime. Instead, Gibbs fumbles and it was a low possession game. I was thinking, Wow, the Lions offense really you know, struggled in the second half.

But they really didn't.

They had a touchdown drive and then in the fourth quarter they did punch two different times.

It was a four and out.

They missed a field goal on a short field where they had stopped the Bears and Jake Bates could have put it away. And then they had that three and out that I mentioned where Goff didn't even get to make a throw. They just ran at three straight times. They got stuffed on third and two and went back, got backed up a half a yard and Dan Campbell at that moment, It's about three and a half minutes left, and I'm thinking, I know you don't want to give him good field position, but I trust your offense more right now than your defense. And he decided to punt it away. It was almost like, hey, offensive line, you just gave up a yard. You haven't earned the right to go for this fourth down. And so he's always been good knowing his team. He punted it away, and at that point I thought, Wow, I think the Bears are gonna win this game, which probably not a lot of Bears fans were thinking. They're too jaded after all these years to actually think something good was gonna happen, because I really thought the way Caleb was moving the ball at that point in the game. They scored the touchdown on a nice drive right after halftime, and then a couple more touchdown before that last drive, I thought they were going to go down the field. They'd win this damn thing, which would have been quite a story. But instead the Lions get to eleven and one and the Bears get to four in eight. Who knows if the Bears changed coaches, they know there's a lot of focus on the Bears and they're not even the relevant team. It doesn't matter if they changed coaches this week. They're going to change coaches at the end of the season. That's kind of what matters.

Yeah, I do wonder how much concern there is for I know you said they didn't play poorly in the second half the Lions offense, but it did seem weird they went away from the run as much they did. Jimmy Gibbs had had nearly twelve yards per rush in the first half. They had one hundred and forty four yards on the ground in that first half, and then what I think he only had four rushing yards in the second half. Gibbs and they I mean, I know they've got the one two punch with Montgomery and he saw a lot of the ball, but it just felt like that got completely shut down that part of the game. You know, mom Rass and Brown and he gets two targets in the second half. Jameson Williams only gets one target, which was on that catch where he had that ridiculous hurdle, which it's amazing that's not a play took we end up talking more about because it's the kind of thing that, like, you know, if it happened at the week one of the season, going oh my god, that's some of the greatest athleticism we've ever seen.

And yet I've never seen a hurdle like that, because it wasn't like a jump up hurdle.

It was a sprinting four four to three speed hurdle straightforward that that was incredible, like a full blown just hurdle, like a hurdler hurdling like it was insane.

I did, actually on the Jamison william thing. I wanted to know your thoughts on him throwing the ball into Tyreg Stevenson's face and getting flagged for it. And the reason that I wanted to bring up wasn't so much the decision itself, because Jamie Williams feels like a guy that has that in his locker, like he's got a bit of that to his background and stuff. But it was the moment they showed on the sideline when Antoine Randelel was absolutely just reaming him out like a dad telling off like his teenager who's come in two hours after his curfew and clearly stinks of cheap whiskey, and he's just like absolutely and is desperately pleading his case and he's basically saying, no, that was stupid. What are you doing? I think it was a real good players as coach moments. We've talked about that a lot this year with like you know, O'Connell and ka Ryan's and guys like that. But yeah, I love to watch hands. When Randaell just gave him two barrels, it was really good fun. I just love all the the old frends that he has on the sideline. We got now old enough to remember Aaron Glenn.

As a player.

We got Duce Staley over there, we got Randall ll Like it's a it's a fun staff to just watch, and sometimes you just got to survive games like this. The Bears have given them a lot of troubles, not just beating them on Thanksgiving, but generally they've shut down the Benn Johnson offense under Ibra flus So I was trying to think, what what do they do well now? They are really good situational defense. They've been great in the red zone all year, and they're pretty good on third downs. They I checked the next Gen stats, they only give up five point four yards per attempt on play action today and they were in GoF, had a lot of play action. They only gave up five point six yards per attempt on inbreakers to GoF, and I think the broadcast talked a little bit about just they really flood the middle of the field so that they're good in the red zone. They managed to take away the middle of the field. I think teams could at least look at what Chicago has done over the years to Detroit and try to gum it up and maybe it's just a matchup issue that's difficult for Detroit. But you give eberflu some credit there because I did not think they would be able to hang defensively in this game. They really haven't been a good defense overall this year. They're not a good run defense. They weren't today, But the Lions didn't really have many running attempts in the second half, and they're not a good pass rush and they weren't for most of today either, and they managed to survive, So there's something. But that's kind of the Matt Eberflus defensive like, the things they do well does not make up nearly enough for all the shortcomings.

Yeah, I wrote down on first half red zone struggles Kyla Gordon should have picked Jared goff Off on that opening drive. A little bit of turnover look for him there. But I wrote exactly that they did really good job of flooding the middle of the field, taking away those in breakers, stopping them from doing what they do so brilliantly. And actually, like Jivon Dexter had that brilliant sack on the third possession, but also had some really good stops early on, and they did. They seem to turn it on in the red zone and I was trying to figure out watching it back, was it Lion struggles and play calling in the red zone. I thought they were good plays there, and I thought they were decent execution. I just thought that the Bears tightened up really well when he got into that area. The Lions did try and throw a touchdown with which was one of When that happened so early in the night, I was ready for one of the greatest thanksgivings of all time. I'm like, if this is happening in the first quarter of the first game, we are in for a barn storm of this evening. Because I'm just obsessed with Ben Johnson. I'm obsessed with that play call. It was unbelievable.

It kind of a standing ovation And so a three yard sack has never been cheered louder from the home crowd than that play. And I don't know if they were cheering just because of the huevos on Ben Jhonson to call it, or the fact that Pinae Sewell, you can look in the box score and see that he got sacked and now, yes, he's given up fewer sacks zero than sacks he's.

Taken this year. One.

Maybe they were just cheering because four different Bears defenders tried to bring him down and not even got him close, like his knees didn't buckle. The momentum took him over to the sideline and the play then ended, but no one was getting that big boy down. And I'm a little disappointed a that he didn't complete a pass on that play and then b the second half win as it did, because my Pinae Sewell for Offensive Player of the Year agenda was everything in the first half of that game.

I was like, this thing actually might take off.

He is a star of this game right now, and I don't think it's crazy to put him up there almost as a representative, but also because he's Pine saw as a potential award winner this year. I'm the best offense, the best team in the league. But then it quieted down a little on it me and me.

So your friend of mine, Olly Connolly, did a really good piece about Penney Saul this past week for The Guardian, and runs targeted behind Saul this season over fifty percent of them, fifty two point five percent go for a first down or a touchdown. And that's more than that's it. Basically, it's the most successful play in the NFL. It's just run behind Penney Saul. And you mentioned my forty nine ers found them earlier on It's reminded me a lot of Trent Williams season last season, where when Penny Saul isn't in the lineup they don't look anything like the same offense at all, and they just do so much with him and so much behind him. And I love the idea that we're like, we're under the lights. It's Thanksgiving. We haven't won on Thanksgiving in what is it, eight nine years now, and we're going to try and throw a touchdown with our best lineman. Like I was so on board with it, It's a shame it didn't work. But yeah, I love the crowd reaction.

How I mean, how are the Bears ready for that? I guess they just like the players, just like Red read that it was a pass play and didn't look up or something because everyone was well covered on that play. It was there was nowhere.

Good good job quarterbacking by Piney Soul holding on to that ball. What a season for the Lions ending that Thanksgiving streak. Who cares if it was close? And you have some concerns. I know these are champagne problems, that the injuries are the issue. But you are eleven and one, you won on Thanksgiving and now you've got two big games coming up, Packers and Bills coming into Detroit. Well for season ticket holders in Detroit to have Thanksgiving against the Bears, then Packers and then Bills. As you are unanimously the number one team and everyone's power rankings, the number one team in the NFC.

What what a time it is to be a Detroit Lions fan. So enjoy it.

Let's take a break, Let's get to a game. Everyone's excited about. Cowboys Giants. We'll talk a little bit about our Thanksgiving it's going to be great. But before we do that, let's listen to Dan Campbell talk about the Lions and their mindset with all the injuries that they have.

We're back right after this.

Let me ask you this, does it really matter? Like who cares? You know? And that's the thing that's what I go back to, Man, I can it doesn't matter, like either it is or it isn't and we get a guy back. We don't get a guy back, And it's like worrying about it and moaning about it and bitching about it. It's like calls right, it's like the call. It's like bildor I could sit there and throw a fit about it. What does it matter?

You know it?

It's called.

It's done.

So I know this.

Whoever we have available, we're gonna get them ready to play and we expect them the whole the line period.

Giants are out at the forty first and ten after the kickoff return.

Block with play action screen tip.

Up to the yard and it's up to the long show running right to.

The goal line.

Touch down own horse shown. Oh what an athletic play that is.

Brad sham k RLD like having Brad.

Back on the show the last couple of weeks to Marbion over Shan with an incredibly athletic play, not just tipping the ball up to himself and then running under it beautifully, but coming off a pretty vicious block on the running back even before tipping the ball.

That was awesome.

Cowboys defense gets it done, make Drew Lock look bad. Turnovers galore for the Giants. The Cowboys hold on for a twenty seven to twenty victory. They're second straight when to get to five and seven the Giants. They got a pretty good chance here to get the number one overall pick in this draft. They are at two and ten and well, they found a team in the Giants. Dallas did that they could push around a little bit. They had to feel good. Like the offensive line for the Cowboys, they thought played pretty well. They could run the ball, they protected rush enough, and then defensively, Micah Parsons and overshown and that front got after Drew Locke.

Yeah, Mike Parsons against Evan Neil might be the biggest mismatch we see in the NFL all season. Like, it felt like like abusive by the end of that game, I really like I was just ro to take them out. Just what back at, what swing tackles have you got? Just anyone, just please please just put him out of his misery. At this point, you mentioned I thought they were much better in the trenches on both sides of the ball over the last two weeks, and they have been. You know, there was a standout defensive performance, but Rico Dawdle's US career one hundred yard rushing game, I still felt that Mike McCarthy made some weird play calls, Like there was a point where Rika Dad had an eighteen yard pickup when they were up two scores and could go and kill the game off, and then he ran three consecutive passes for Cooper Rush, and you're just thinking it's all working. The Giants are giving it up to you. Why are you just not absolutely running the ball down their throat in this situation. You know, I totally get targeting adri Jackson. That makes complete sense to me. But outside of that, like it just it didn't quite feel like it completely clicked on that side of the ball. But it felt like they're getting enough out of Cooper Rush and a really good defensive performance, and so yeah, the Cowboys aren't back but at least they've got something to enjoy as the season starts to reach it.

No, they're gonna win, and just enough games to kind of ruin their draft pick. And hey, Micah Parsons was a late pick. Zach Martin was a late pick who was their center back of the day, Travis Frederick. I mean, they've had plenty of good late picks, so they can make their picks, and they'd much rather win on Thanksgiving, especially after the first five games that they had at home, which rivaled any team in NFL history in terms of point differential. That's how bad the Cowboys were at home. Yeah, Daudo goes for one hundred and twelve, He gets forty four yard rushing yards over expected.

And Cooper Rush not a great or pretty thrower of the.

Football, but he has gotten a little better each week this season that he's played. He ends up with one hundred and ninety five yards twenty one for thirty six. But there were a lot of drops. Ceedee Lamb had three drops on the game and then left with an injury. Only two catches and one thing. Cooper Rush does better a lot better than Drew Locke, who got the start over Tommy DeVito. Because DeVito was injured, he avoid sacks. The pressure rate for the Giants was actually twenty four percent, which is low, but it's not like comically low, and they did not get any sacks on Cooper rush, whereas the pressure and Drew Lock was forty four percent, and a lot of them were quick in his defense, but six sacs one and a half from from Micah like Carl Larsen was in there, Odiggy Zoo was getting in the mix, and Lock was he was he was full Lock and a couple of fun runs in there, but a fumble on one of those runs in interception, and yeah, man, this this Giant season just can't and fast.

Yeah he was by far their leading Russia on the night. But you look, you look at yeah they they only orchestrated two plays of twenty yards or more in the whole game, and they were both Drew Lock scrambles. Like this is just not it's it's not working. It's it's not difficult to kind of look beyond that. It was he was half. He was eight of seventeen for fifty five yards, and actually of his one hundred and seventy eight total, sixty eight of them came on that garbage time touchdown drive right at the end where they were just giving him eighteen yard pickup after thirteen yard pickup, after just just letting moved down the field.

Though it wasn't quite garbage time. I always struggle with, like, what is garbage time? What isn't They had a chance to win that game there they kicked it out, you know, they kicked it off to the Cowboys and made the Cowboys get a first down. If the Cowboys went three and out, which is a very normal thing for the twenty twenty four Cowboys to do, they would have to punt it to the Giants with a chance to win.

The game, just saying just say, don't you feel like the defense then actually goes, oh we should we should start playing again now.

Right, That's why why defenses do that. I don't I don't get that.

I appreciated Actually the Packers, after not playing well for most of the second half tonight, got very aggressive actually during Miami's deep garbage time drive and just didn't let them move the ball at on.

I was like, yes, that that's how it should be. Just just do that.

Giants fans are going to absolutely hate that I'm going to point this out, but I'm going to anyway, the money they saved from Saquon Barkley, they spent on Devin Singletary Andrew Locke. That's where that you can draw the direct line because of how they paid their contracts this year. They literally freed up five million dollars and they went and spent it on a backup quarterback. And that's what they got out of it.

Like they spent twice as much money. And Brian Burns is another way to look at it. And Brian Burns has been fine. He's been about what you would expect Brian Burns to be. But it you know, it's that change in their life.

Yeah, and look that you cut the Demnion over Shon play is like a freak moment, an unbelievable, just piece of athleticism, one of the best players will see all season. It will be on highlights all yearund so like you can't necessarily throw that back in their face. But other than that, like they just didn't put anything together on offense at all, and I think it did highlight that Cowboys defense, like eight takeaways in their last five games. Now, you know Overshawn he actually recovered the fumble from the Eric kendricks on the Tyrone Tracy fumble as well, So like, what a game for him and what an emergence he's had, And it's it's why I keep going back to the the You know, both of these teams, well all they actually I was gonna say both these teams are gonna be having a reset this offseason. But suddenly this past week, with back to back wins, with some murmurings from Jerry Jones on local radio, with suddenly people writing think pieces about it, like, well, suddenly it might be that Mike mcconfee's staying in Dallas.

I don't buy that. I cannot buy that, but I guess they'd have to keep winning. Now they're five and seven. They have the Bengals at Panthers home for Bucks, at Philly home for Washington. I mean, if they win two of those games, that would be outstanding, and even that would only get them to seven and ten. It's more likely they went about one of those games. I mean, Tom Brady's with you. Tom Brady spent about three minutes at one point talking about that Mike McCarthy's one of the greatest coaches in the NFL. I'm less high on Tom Brady than you are. He always seems a little angry. And it's not just like because of those quarterbacks. He just I think he wants to be good, and he's like frustrated, he's he's not good.

He's like trying to have a good time.

Maybe he's just not comfortable, And I think he will be more comfortable in the future, because I do think he wants to be good, and that's it. But it's even even man, we're picking at him. It's just like they came back from break and Kevin Burkhart was saying, like happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and I saw Brady just sort of mouth happy Thanksgiving everybody, but like it wasn't his turn to speak, so he actually didn't say it.

But it's just a little moments like that.

Paul Kemberke I'm to go from last year watching Greg Olsen tear that to duck and apart with his bare hands like he was an animals so this year and shout out to all he hunter for this line on Twitter, but going to Tom Brady looking like it's the first time he's eating human food.

Like he was, and then he tried to do, like, hey, what would a cool, tough guy do in this scenario? And then like went hard at it.

Obviously, he was astonished at how good meat tasted, like it's the first time he's had it in twenty five years. It was one of the weirdest moments. And I am higher on Brady than you overall. I think he has improved over the season and when they give him a chance to be a football nerd, like, I really enjoy it, and I like his anger, Like I think I liked his anger in this game. But actually the bit of anger I liked wasn't about the quarterback play going on the field. Actually him going quite hard after Daniel Jones in the build up, basically saying that by requesting a release, that's him giving up on the team who have invested so much in him. I don't agree with him, but at least it was a bit of honesty and a bit of like forthrightness from Brady, Like I'd rather interesting opinions I disagree with than Jason Garrett.

I mean, I agree with that, that's a good take.

I thn that I don't agree with it really either, but I hadn't heard that, and that that's more compelling. He isn't afraid to be critical, which I'll give him credit for that. It's more just broadcaster. They need to be a good hang, right and some level unless they're really teaching you a lot. And I feel like he's a good hang yet.

But yeah, it's funny because obviously coming someone from a radio background, like you know, we're broadcasting cricket right now, which is a little bit like baseball, this insanely long sport where you're just hearing the same two, three, four voices for what can be like eight hours at a time, and so it needs to be driven by interesting people. And actually even like the NFL in this country, when you compare it to like our football soccer, Like if somebody comes and listens to a talks able broadcast of one of the London games or Germany or like the super Bowl, and they listen, we have their company for four hours. And so if you are very straight down the line, or if you are boring then or you don't say anything interesting.

Why you need to get well Gavin on the like. But the thing is it's not going a lot on that combs, you.

Know, wonderful. I'm glad he got to mention because he would have been angry if hadn't. Like, it's just you need. It's not gonna be the reason you turn off because you've tuned in for the game, not for the individuals necessarily, but it does elevate it. When you do get like Kevin Harlan or Kevin Burkhart or somebody's really really good like, it does make a huge difference to your enjoyment of a bad game.

Yeah, this was a tough one because the Giants and Cowboys are great draws in the US, and I'm sure a lot of people will watch this game. This is traditionally the most watched game of the year, actually the Cowboys Thanksgiving game of any football all game all season long. But you know, over there, it's like, I don't know if the Cowboys and the Giants are as big of a draw, and so I didn't feel good that this is the product that were given out there for everyone. Although the Fox I did like they had the Cowboys and the Saints in there in the Hunt playoff graphics, so they're small victories. I was like, wow, Okay, they're still in. They're still in the Hunt five and seven. Let's put him in the Saints, you're in the hunt.

If they don't mathematically out of it, you have to cool them in the hunt.

But nobody's mathematically out of it. I don't think even the Giants are mathematically out of this. This would have to do it, you would think right going into this week they weren't. Maybe maybe some other games will eliminate them. Just some other really small things in this game, Melik neighbors very Melik neighbors game like a couple bad plays. He's had some mental errors this year, but three really really tough grabs in this game. Different types of ones. One on the sideline, one with a diving catch, one on a ball behind him. I mean, he is just a beautiful catcher of the football. Like the offensive line for the Giants just made that offense unplayable. But he's awesome. And then Jonathan Mingo. It's not gonna happen, I don't think. But they're just like hope ball after hopeball to Jonathan Mingo and then welcome back Brandon Cooks. He actually made a big difference. He made an outstanding catch on that third down with about two under two minutes to go to put the game away. If if Cooper Rush doesn't make a pretty good throw there, and Cooks doesn't make that catch, the Giants get the ball back with a chance to win. I have no faith the Giants would have gone down the field and actually scored, but that play coming out of the two more warning. Welcome back Brandon Cooks. He had three catches for sixteen yards and seven targets. Mingo by the way, two yards and four targets. So there's your Cowboys. How was your Thanksgiving? Did you work the whole time? Well, yeah, like normally we do.

We try and do like a bunch of us will get together at a bar in central London or something and like a lot of like the kind of American themed bars will do like a big roast inner and put a turkey on, and like they'll put pumpkin pile on or some of that, and then you can get like a little little sense of Americana on the day. But actually, today I just knew I was coming on, so I was professional and I stayed at home and I made notes and I watched the games. Definitely nothing wow to do with recently becoming a dad and you know, having to help out with feeds or anything.

It was you were going to I thought you were like up working on Talk Sport till five in the morning. My first thought was, well, who do I ask to work on Thanksgiving? How about someone that doesn't technically celebrate Thanksgiving? And then I thought, but that's making them up, you know, making them stay up till five in the morning, which is almost torture.

Will Gavin, that's the man for it.

I did do a few updates on Talk Sports, so I did do a little bit of I had a bit of a side hustle. But the point is great that you were the main reason I'm still awakening. It's fine, yes in the morning, so just just know that I appreciate it. Let's let's get eric on here. My Thanksgiving.

We picked up from a amazing barbecue place, Maple Block. I highly recommend it if you're in the Culver City or Los Angeles area, and they smoked that turkey. Smoked turkey is the way to go. It was so tender, it was delicious. My my lovely wife Emmica, you know, made some stuffing, made some corn bread, made dessert. You know, we we had some sides, but it doesn't hurt to order the side. I mean to order the turkey. It's fine if you don't, you know, if you don't have all the time in the world. My parents were over, my friend Anthony was over. Who I do the jessel Nick and Rosenthal Vanity Project jervyb with and everyone should check.

Out his us such a humble brag. My friend Anthony was saying, he was turn on my TV right now without his face showing up. Okay, go on Netflix watch Anthony Justink special.

Eventually, this was a long winded way to say, go, yeah, go check out his new special. I I looked and they had the Netflix like top ten or whatever, and my guy, that is right there number three. It you know, people sick of watching two and a half hour long movies. It's a nice fifty three minute special and uh it is absolutely hilarious.

So it was I was great.

Top ten in the UK.

Okay, don't you know, let's not let's come down and then Eric crazy. Your your first your first Thanksgiving with the baby. You went over to your mom's.

How was it? First? First thinking it.

Was great, lots of people around to hold the baby, so we're not, you know, on full baby duty. But once got home, it was very much hey, I have not napped today, and it was it all caught up to us once we got home and there was nobody else to kind of just hey, be an aunt to be a grandma, be an uncle pulled the baby for us, and it was just hey, dude, I am pissed and tired and I'm you know, but now he's sleeping now, so that's always good. That's always great when you bring me on and there's no baby crying in the background.

Oh yeah, I should have thought about that too. I didn't even that didn't even great. Way. I don't even know how deep is the Roberts family going here. I'm always fascinated by people's family.

I come from a very small family, not just our size, you know, because we are quite diminutive.

Older brother, younger sister, one nephew ninety seven.

So not a huge not a huge crew over there. Yeah, well that's good. I'm glad that we were all able to do it. We're all be able to manage it. Brought my parents back there, staying at a place a couple of bucks away, uh, and then headed back here to talk to you will and uh to work with you Eric, and we'll end this thing. Because it's longer than I expected, and Eric's got to go edit out might swear at some point.

I just I need you to know. Yes, he's in the top ten. On you to go, let's go, he's at ten, but it's still top ten.

Oh you know, you know you didn't need to do that. You didn't need to do no, but that's still strong in the UK. That's that's strong. He had a nice show in London, and uh yeah, if you just give it the first ten to fifty minutes.

If you don't like that part, you know, I don't know what's wrong with you. It's pretty hilarious, but you probably won't like the rest either. All Right, that is it for our show. We are back on Friday, special guest with Cynthia Frielan and I. It might be someone who is at my Thanksgiving dinner table today who I also played tennis with, and thank you will again, thank you Eric. Yeah, the season starts at Thanksgiving, right, so I guess it's official. Like football is back, it's over.

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen  
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