A brand new week to talk football. Here on tape heeds Bob was Shusling, a long time radio voice of the New York Jets, college football broadcaster for ESPN, and of course Scott Pioli, longtime general manager in the National Football League, Dan Orlovski, longtime quarterback in the Nashville Football League. As we crawled behind the XS and ose and get you the nerd football take. Hopefully you're a football nerd like we are. And guys, there's so much to dive into this week. Two teams that we want to start with that if you told me this was going to be the NFC championship game at some point, I would not be surprised, and yet we have a lot of question marks about both. Aaron Rodgers comes back to the Packers. They look pretty pedestrian, although they get the win. But let's start with the Rams and Scott, you know what the floor is yours because I know that this is something that you forecast a few weeks back that this Rams team might not necessarily be what we thought they were. Are they starting to become what you thought they might be? That was an ugly episode that we watched this past week against San Francisco. Yeah, the last two weeks, they've had teams just come out and punch them in the mouth, and that's what it's been in And I'm not down on them. I'm just not as high on them, and I wasn't you know. I made the point last week about their record, um and it remained the song remains the same, right there, one and two against teams that have winning records, and their combined record of the teams that they have beaten is twenty one wins, forty two losses and one tie. And to me, I there's always been a lot of sizzle around this team, right for every time I get that it's l a. I get that, but they've also got an organizational culture where they make so much about everything that they do, and they've traded away a lot of draft capital and last week I'm still not ready to criticize it fully because I think it's the unique approach and I'm not afraid of unique approaches and new ideas. Yet until things work out or don't work out, I can't say that they what what a brilliant idea, what a brilliant concept, what a brilliant culture. I'm not ready to say that and right now where it's trending is they gone against teams that are physical teams and they've got beaten you know, they've been beaten up. And I think one of the things as a team builder and having a history as a team builder, something I earned. I learned early on, and quite honestly, I learned this as a kid in in in high school football. As silly as it sounds, you know, winning championships and being a great team is not just about talent. It's about the collective. And that's one of the unique things about the game of football, right that there are all of these interdependent relationships, all of these unique circumstances, different surfaces, different you know, weather, and the players need to work together. So the job when you're building a team and trying to build a championship team, if that's your goal, if your goal is to build a championship football team, the job isn't to just collect talent. It's to build a team. Yes, you have to have talented players, but you sure need to make sure that those pieces are going to work together, and that those team pieces, the majority of those players in your locker room, need to be about the collective and the greater good, and I'm not sure. Uh, that's what the Rams have been focusing on. They've got a lot of star power, They've got a lot of sizzle. I'm just waiting to see some substance. You guys don't think it fits. I mean, are there parts of this team that when you're watching them, Dan, you say that puzzle piece doesn't necessarily fit with this puzzle piece because to Scott's point, they have not looked cohesive the past couple of weeks. Yeah, I think that. First of all, I don't ever believe that players should fit anywhere. I think they should be placed for places they can excel. You know, Um, I think both player to coach and then player to scheme. I think this is a team that's got new pieces that they've got to figure out how those pieces can excel and thrive in their roles. Um. I think Scott brings up a ton of great points that the biggest one for me is the physicality. Watching the game against the fort and going back two weeks ago against the Titans, the physical aspect is not there right now. I'll go strictly to the field and some of the things that I see, I think defensively, the l A Rams defense. They are a team that wants to play committed to coverage too high shell umbrella coverage. Okay, so number one, when you play that, and that's fine, that's kind of the way of the NFL right now. When you play that, your defensive line has got to be absolutely violent against the run. Violent. They're not violent enough right now in their front seven against the run. Subsequently, when you play that shell, you gotta know teams are gonna run the football on you. Right like teams are going to run the football on you, you have to be phenomenal not okay, phenomenal on the back end, meaning your secondary when it comes to run support. If you go back and why that game, there are multiple occasions a couple of times Deebo Samuel on the left side on a sweep Elijah the first play of the second half on the toss, the secondary is so one late to support in the run and then too unwilling to support against the run. You that that's something I think they've got to look at. They've got to figure out how they are going to manage still trying to play that defensive identity and commit to the coverage aspect while also not getting physically dump trucked. And I think that's the big thing defensive that they got to figure out. And I don't know if I don't I'm not a defensive coach, but I think that's an emphasis thing that they can get after um. Offensively, I'm a huge fan of Shawn. I think offensively they're fantastic. Their numbers this year are really good. That being said, I've I've started to feel that they need to go back a little bit to two or three years ago. They run so much empty which a big part of me love, you know, the so much five man protection. Get the ball out, but I want to see them, I don't know, six or seven times a game more put Matthew under center and go take some play action chunk throws. Take some play action shot throws, not for the quarterback, not for the receivers. The interior of the offensive line. I think the interior of the offensive line right now the past two weeks has been exposed. And that's an issue because when you're gonna play against teams that can get after you in the inside, and defensive coaches can figure out ways to get their boys inside, they're getting beat up and I want to see them. They run player action pass like most in the NFL. Sean McVeigh play action pass most usage wise in the NFL. And if you go back and watch that game again, the interior of their offensive line is getting pushed around, Matthews missing some throws and they're not. They got ten possessions against the forty nine, five of them ended in three and outs, are turnovers half their possession and three ounce of turnovers. Yet go win any football games like that, So I think the bye week for them comes at a good time. Um. I believe that they gotta be very similar to Tampa last year. They gotta be very critical of Okay, who are we because Tamble was good last year, not great? Into thereby, who are we? Who do we have to become to go win a championship with the players that we have. I just think some philosophical tweaks um are gonna be beneficial for this football team, both on defense and on offense. And real quick on the Packers, guys, Scott, what you see? I mean at the Packers and the Seahawks. They both get their franchise quarterbacks back and none of them look like what they have looked like when they are at their best. Certainly, I mean that was kind of a survive and advanced game. The Packers found a way to survive in advance. It's been a terrible year for the Seahawks with the injury to Russell Wilson and also, uh, just the fact that that team is not what it used to be. But what did you see with Green Bay that I don't know gives you concern at least in the short term. We maybe Aaron Tron now kind of round back into form. I don't see anything that overly concerns me or makes me, um, you know, want to overreact. I think he was clearly out of sync. Um he wasn't at his top level. But I'll say the players around him, he was off the mark with a number of throws. I felt there were a couple behind a couple that were in places that receivers either weren't expecting or they were just Aaron throws. He also had a couple of drobs. It just seemed like, again, the sink, the chemistry, whatever you want to call it, wasn't there. My biggest concern happened when Aaron Jones went down, because he is the most. I think there's that group of three right, it's Aaron Rodgers, it's Aaron Jones, and it's Davante Adams. Those players need to be rolling in order for the Patris go Now. A J. Dillon came in and did a very very good job. But I think if a team gets a chance to focus on A J. Dillon, I don't know if he's going to be as as good as Aaron Jones. Now, the good news is it's only apparently it's only a mild m c L injury. He's gonna miss a couple of weeks, but he should be back soon. I think it's just a matter of the time, the distraction, the time away from one another. Aaron Rodgers is still a terrific player, and once he gets back in sync again, he was wasn't in practice there there was so much time missed and the quarterback position and the relationships with the players around there, you need to have time together. Yeah, nothing necessarily alarming on their offense Green Bay. For me, I would say this, Um, they're gonna have to figure out who is the really second past catching option for this offense. Now with Robert Tonyan out, you know we've seen a couple of games in this offense or with this offense without Tonyan Alan Lazard has to step up, or Valdes Scantling has to step up. Aaron Jones is going to be used in their past games somewhat specifically in their screen game as the same as A J. Dillon, But those guys are gonna have to become that secondary option. Aaron Rodgers had tremendous rapport with Robert tunn in tremendous and I think he's got a good group with Cobb in bizarre but somebody's gonna have to become, you know that that really, I don't want to say, you know, like he believes he can go to Cobb when he needs them, but really, to help this offense kind of generate success, somebody in that second grouping is going to have to step up. The reality for this football team for me, guys, as I think their offense is good, I think their defense is the best part of their football team. That's shocking to say that they're there. The strength of the football team is the defense. They're an average offense so far this year, and I think they can win a Super Bowl still because of that defense. I think the defense is it's very similar to what I talked about the Rams. They're playing a ton of two high shell again philosophically, something that we see in the NFL. Um They're not exposing their corners and coverage, so their coverage unit is much better. The difference between this team in the Rams is they are winning in the run game. When they play that show their their defensive line, specifically interior wise, Lowry and Kenny Clark are doing a really good job. It's hard to run the football on them. When they're doing that. Their linebackers are really good. So you're looking at a defense that has kind of dare te people to run the football. We're not going to expose our back end, and their defensive line is doing a nice job protecting against the run. Now they're gonna play Minnesota come here soon. Who can run the football specifically when you play him in Chelle. If they play really good sound defense against Minnesota, then we're really having a conversation about this defense as an absolute difference maker. But I don't have necessarily concerns about the Packers offense outside, Hey, who is going to step up for Robert tuny in to give this offense, some pass game rhythm. Well, another topic we're gonna get to when we come back. An offense that I think we've all had concerns about all season, the Carolina Panthers. Right, they've hovered around five hundred. They are still in the mix. But talk about the ultimate homecoming? All Right? Sam Donald's injury and the fact that he wasn't even playing that well before he got injured opens the door for Cam Newton and not only come back to the FL, but come back to Charlotte to play for the Panthers. Does he start against Washington? What happens to that offense with Cam Newton now at quarterback? That is what we're gonna talk about when we come back on tapeds. Welcome back to Tapeds, and welcome back to the Panthers. Cam Newton. Here we go. He's in a shotgun, the two back pistol, six pounds, three time Pro bowler, Cam Newton. The Kaffrey swings out of the backfield, Why to the right, Newton's gonna run right in the grass, breaks a tackle Kaffrey. Everybody celebrating touchdown right side, first play a touchdown. So Cam Newton with a bit role with p J. Walker starting the game at quarterback for the Carolina Panthers, but that might not be the case for long. Here's Cam Newton after the win for Carolina. Huh oh, impeccable, impeccable man, my boy, Robbie had an unbelievable conversation last night over dinner, and it's great for things to come to fruition. I wouldn't even call it the new me, but I'm big on energy and that feeling on the sideline collectively as a team started with PJ to the offense going out there and well really the defense getting the turnover. That's a combination of a great team win on the road. That was a great team that we played, and you know, just for it to come full circle offensively, defensively, special teams, you know, it's a great work. Well, guys, I don't know if this is a destination for Cam Newton that any of us saw coming, but now that he's there, and obviously we didn't know what was gonna happen with Sam Donald playing poorly and on top of that him getting injured, so it does make it kind of a logical destination, I guess for Cam Newton. But now a really interesting destination, right, I mean, I guess stand up, what I would ask is how much better do you think this offense can be with Cam? I mean, what should we have a right to expect from him as he steps back in? And schematically are they the same offense with Cam Newton as they've been with Sam Donald? Do they have to change much? Yeah? I don't think they have to change much. Schematically, They'll definitely be very similar. Specifically in the red zone. I mean Sam had five touchdown runs inside of the red zone the first month of the season. They haven't gotten down there a ton over the past month. That's why they haven't used it much. So I think this football team can be the big issue with the team offensively. When Sam had struggled over the past month, where one giveaways, turnovers and to just lack of first downs, they just weren't staying on the fields at all and it was stressing their defense. So you know, Cam's gotta come in, And you know, I just want to be honest about Cam. The last time we saw Cam play an extended period of football, he gave the football away. It was a lot of turnovers, He was inaccurate, he missed easy throws, and so I'm I'm hoping that that's not the version of Cam Newton. We get he was okay in the preseason. He was solid in the preseason. The preseason is a joke, okay, So, like, it's not hard to go and perform relatively fairly in the preseason, specifically if you're a veteran quarterback. Um, you know two things. I think the success of this offense is tied to the health of Christian McCaffrey and the health of Cam Newton. I'm not thinking that Cam is just gonna come in and you know, they're gonna run zone read eight times a game, and he's gonna carry the ball seven to eight times a game and take some hits and he's gonna be okay. So I think that their offense schematically stays this Dame. It's it's an offense that predicates on fifty three and third horizontal stretch of the field. How many different ways can we get DJ More the football, Robby Anderson the football, and Christian caffrey the football, And so they're running their their offensive line will be helped by the numbers game that Cam can bring to the quarterback round aspect. I think this football team has the chance to hover around five with Cam. He's got to be prove to us that he can make timely, accurate throws and value the football. Yeah, Dan, I was, you know, fortunate or unfortunate to be with the Atlanta Falcons at the peak of his career. Cam Newton's career. We're in the same division, and he was spectacular in his prime. That season was simply spectacular. I don't doubt Cam's ability as a leader, or his ability to inspire his team, or how hard he's going to work, because he is going to work hard. I just have a concern of whether his body and the brutality of this game is going to hold him back again, because that's what happened with Cam. Cam was such a passionate player, with such a competitive player, his body got, you know, it was worn down, and as you mentioned earlier, the last time that we saw him, the last time, you know, not just the preseason, but the season before, there has been this steady decline in his tools, in his skills, and again but nothing to do with him. A body can only take so much and the way that he plays, he's not gonna put He's gonna put himself in harm's way because he's such a competitor. Okay, he's a smart player, and at times he's so competitive he's going to do the thing that can, you know, hopefully ignite the team. So to me, Um, I see much of what what you say. And again I get he scored two touchdowns as first two touches, but he only ran nine snaps on offense this entire week. Now we're talking about him becoming the starter. He's going to be put in situations and circumstances where he has to take sixty to seventy snaps a game and there's still a little bit more than a full half a season to go here. The arm issues that he had, and whether it was a weakness in his arm or whether it's just the movement of his arm that he can't get the ball to the place that it needs to be, those things aren't going to go away. They may be all right when he first starts out, you know, and then when that happens, how long is he going to be the starter? How much time will he be given? Because one thing that I do go back to when he left the Patriots that I could not get out of my head every time I heard a conversation of a team, you know, should Team X be thinking about bringing Cam Newton? You know, Cam Newton came out and said, if I'm not the starter, I'm going to be a distraction. And to me, you know, it's one thing when other people say that about a player, when we speculate that a player might be a distraction mode, when that player comes out and says, if I don't start, I'm going to be a distraction. Does that become a problem when you know the team feels that they need to have a spark from another player that isn't named Cam Newton. Isn't this still about McCaffrey? Absolutely? Dan, When you and I were talking, I remember about Sam Donald because we obviously with the Jets, and I have a real soft spot for Sam, rooting for him so hard to have a new career. And what I kept going back to was he's gonna throw a three yard past a Christian caffrey, and Christian McAffrey is gonna go zing, zing zing for thirty five yards, and he's gonna look at Christian McCaffrey and be like, man, where have you been? My whole life, I never had anybody like this in New York. That could do this for me? Isn't that Isn't he still the lynch pin if he stays healthy for it. Maybe, I mean, with all due respect to obviously what they surrounded Cam with in New England, Kim didn't have that kind of a weapon to just dump it off too and maybe go make a play there either. I don't know, I mean, can't maybe he revisit the Fountain of Youth as long as Christian McCaffrey stays healthy and provides that to him in their offense, Bob, no question about it. Over the past twenty four months, we have data that tells us that is unlikely to happen. No one is a bigger Christian McCaffrey fan than me. You know, they're littered all over the country. As much as we all love Christian, I hope to God that he stays healthy. And if he does, yes, that's an obviously a huge deal. He's one of the two or three best backs in football. But if we're gonna sit here and go, well, all we gotta do is feed Christian McCaffrey or fine Christian McCaffrey. The likelihood is those those touches are gonna add up as well, and in the wear and tear over three or four weeks of him getting thirty plus touches is gonna factor in as well. Two things that I wanted to touch on that I thought Scott mentioned as as well, and it kind of hits on your McCaffrey point, Bob, is everyone needs to understand he's going in cam Newton behind a bad offensive line. This offensive line in Carolina stinks. It is not a good unit. If this, if he was stepping in, candidly, if he was going back to New England to play behind that offensive line, I'd actually feel a little bit better about it because he's not gonna have to play so crazy fast to make these incredibly fast decisions and get you know, one of the things that you know I thought started to hurt Sam was how bad the offensive line was playing. I'll go back to Sunday's game against Arizona. He goes in outside of those you know, two red zone plays. He throws the slant to DJ More to his right. It's man to man coverage, third down, DJ, I think it's second down. Actually, DJ Moore wins on a slant man to man. It's an easy throw balls in the right hash d J. Moore is on his right, No one is in the third slant window, and he throws it two ft behind him, and it's we can sit here and say, oh, that's rust nous. Sure it's a slant. I could go in my backyard and throw it right now, you know. And so I think that we we gotta be that this is part of this is to be honest about the situation. Is he's going to have to at thirty two. I believe show that the accuracy has somehow gotten better since two thousand eighteen now two thousand eighteen, because the nineteen he didn't play twenty you know there was or excuse me, twenty he didn't play right, twenty one was COVID. So you know, we we got to go back to the last time he played good accurate football is three years and show me you're gonna hit those throws accurately and consistently. Well, it's gonna be interesting to watch. There's no doubt a game that I think both of these guys have at least one or two things to say about. By the way rounds Patriots, I don't really know that there's anything else we need to say, we're just gonna come back on day pass and talk about those two teams with Scott Pioli and dan Orlovsky stick around. We are back on tape. Its Bobo Schusan down our Lovsky. It's got Poli. Well, I want a roller coaster season it has been for the Cleveland Browns. Here is Baker Mayfield's reaction to their lopsided loss to mac Jones in New England. I mean, they had a good scheme, but I think there were plays for us to um to make their Uh yeah, I think it's a little bit of execution. I think at this point, we everybody in our building has to look in the mirror and just kind of re evaluate the accountable to themselves, to each other. Um, because we're we're sitting, you know, sitting somewhere where we thought we'd be in a better place right now, but we're not. So it's time to reevaluate and everybody needs to hold themselves accountable. Well, if you read between the lines what Baker is saying and what several other guys had to say from the Cleveland end of things after that loss, they seem to be alluding to looking themselves in the mirror, but also the coaches having to look in the mirror as well. I don't know if that locker room is starting to fracture guys, who knows, but just schematically on the field, why this roller coaster we saw the seemingly we have found ourselves offense when Odell Beckham was off the field, Dan, as you said, they got better without Odell Meckham. It was more Baker Mayfield is going to run plays rather than run things for players. And now this so look what what is to explain this? Dow Jones up and down with the Cleveland Brown. I like that dow Jones reference. Okay, so I think offensively, um. First of all, my first point is this, the Patriots defense has played ten games here, okay ten One quarterback has played well against him. His name is Dak Prescott. They've made a lot of quarterbacks played poorly, all right. Tom Brady was one of them. Tom played poorly until the last third down, couple third downs in the fourth quarter. Justin Herbert played poorly. So a lot of this has to do with New England's defense. I think offensively with um Cleveland number one, New England did an awesome job of taking away the tendencies of an informational tendencies of Cleveland, Like it was very obvious when I watched Cleveland got into empty a couple of times. Now, when Cleveland gets into empty, five man protection, five receivers out there, and they put the tailback out as the number one receiver, the guy closest to the sideline, one of their favorite plays has put tailback on a five yard hitch, push up, five yard straight line come back and they take the inside receiver and run a scene. That's one of their favorite plays. They call it as a run play. Hey, just throw it to the tailback out there if it's soft coverage. New England did an awesome job in those situations of they took their outside linebackers to the boundary. So the guy was Kyle van Noy. What Kyle did was at the snap and Scott's this is gonna sound like you know, uh very much, so deja vu for to you. He smacks or smashes the slot receiver one step. Okay, so then that guy is gonna be a little slower downfield. He immediately turns and runs to the tailback with his eyes on the tailback. He's not even looking at the quarterback. He's looking at the tailback and I know, this is what you guys do. And what happens is the corner who's supposed to be covering the tailback in in a on the paper coverage situation is running to cover that scene guy that Kyle Vanoy just hit at the line of scrimmage, so he's just step in front of him. They did that three times, just took away tendencies. Um. I thought that when they got into thirteen personnel or twelve personnel and put Baker under center and pulled people. You watch number eight Bentley. You can tell that the coaching staff and New England said, hey, when they put this quarterback understand her and they pulled backside guards. You have no past responsibility, but you ain't got none. I want you to go smash the guard. The pulling guard. He blows up three plays that. Honestly, I think when the Browns pulled people, they're the best, second best team in the NFL outside of Dallas Cowboys. And I just thought because the way they took away the tendencies of the Cleveland Browns offense, there was absolutely no um, consistently or confidence to what they were doing the Baker interception is beautiful. New England shows him man to man coverage one safety in the middle of the field pre snap, ball gets snapped and everything rotates to cover too zone. That's why there's so many people near that football. Coyle Dugger picks it off for a touchdown. So I just thought the defense for New England did an awesome job of break playing tendencies and uh, I'm making them again play in a way that they were very uncomfortable with Cleveland offenses. And and I'm gonna say also that I felt the Browns took some things away from themselves that are their best football. You know, that opening drive, Cleveland gets the ball eleven plays eighty four yards. The Ernest Johnson had fifty eight yards rushing in that series alone, and the rest of the half the Browns have the ball in offense, they run it only three times and throw it nine times. I don't get interesting. I don't get it. I didn't get it while it was happening. They end up being you know, oh for four on third down in the first half. And so whether it was the Patriots taking them out of it or it was the score taking them out of it, it was way too early to get away from what they were doing well and what they I get it there without Kareem Hunt, there without Nick Chubb, I get it there without their top three backs. But this is supposed to be one of the best, if not the best, offensive lines in the National Football League. Baker Mayfield is not a player, and this is not being disrespectful to Baker at all. Baker is an above average and at times good and at times very good quarterback in the National Football League. But what he has around him is a good support staff. Now you start taking away a good offensive line and a good back, you know, then more things fall on him. And whether that's his own mental pressure on him or if it's the actual thing, But to me, I saw them taking themselves out of things. Whether the Patriots drove him out of him, I don't know. But in the first half. I get what the score was at the end of the first half, but the Browns again, in that opening drive, I said, this is gonna be the slug fest that I thought it was gonna be. Because the Patriots came and they drove, you know, drove the ball, and you know, I just I don't know. I wasn't crazy about the way that the Browns changed what they were doing. Now, Dan, a couple of things that you talked about, you know, the physicality of the of the New England Patriots defense on the skilled players, whether it was a back, a slot receiver, or the receivers. That that is time tested and it goes you know, everyone knows what we used to do that against the Colts, we did in the Super Bowl against the greatest show on turf, I mean, but that was being done previously to that, and it's an important part of what they're doing. And the overall physicality of the New England Patriots is one of the top three things I think that is shifting this football team into overdrive right now. You know, when you look at what the Patriots did with their personnel groupings on on the offensive side of the ball, more than half of their snaps they were either two backs meaning Yakob Johnson was in as a fullback, or they were two tight ends and or they had six offensive lineman. They came out and said, we are going to punch you in the mouth, and you know what they did, They punched them in them out three drives over ninety yards a ninety nine yard drive that was eleven plays, had seven runs in it, you know, and in those four passes. It was interesting because it was early in the game. My biggest concern was what is Miles Garrett gonna do today? How are the Patriots going to figure out the way to slow down and neutralize Miles Garrett if they can, because I don't think that Isaiah Winn could do that on his own over the course of a game. But in that yard drive, in those four the four pass plays that they had, three times they chipped them with the back and one time they threw the the brown showed Blitz and mac Jones through the quick outside shoulder fade, and those were the four passes. So that slowed things down. Now, if you remember also when there was a sack by Miles Garrett, what did they do the very very next time. Immediately went to a screen. So they ran a bunch of screens. They ran dummy reverses, which they also sprinkled in with some real reverses, they ran some boots. They did things from a play calling standpoint and a scheme standpoint that neutralized Miles Garrett. And to me, that was one of the big one of the big parts of the game. And again I go back to that sack that that Garrett got, Isaiah Winn tried cutting him. When you watch that block or attempted block, it was bad. But again the very next play, third and thirteen, Pats running screen twenty yard game down to the three yard line, they punched on the ends on the next play. You know, one of the things about the Patriots offense, when you come into that game, you have to recognize something that they've always done. And we did very early with Brady and we did it with Benny Testaverdi in at the New York Jets. And I'm talking about because this is the collective family belief of how to run the offense. They went into that game. They had the third most receptions by running backs in the entire National Football League, and that's part of what they did to slow down Miles Garrett. I also think, like talking about the Patriots offense, but I think that the best thing that they do is they never ask specifically Mac Jones. They don't put him in positions where Mac you can't do that, you know what I'm saying, Like, they don't they don't ask him to do things that he's incapable of doing, or be somebody that he's not. I think the third and thirteen screen is a perfect example, just just your mindset wise of hey we're third and thirteen. A lot of times teams are gonna just ask their rookie quarterback, okay, you know, like, hey, we're gonna run you know, shallow cross and deep en routed. You're just gonna read the hook defender, and all of a sudden you get pressure and you gotta get the ball in your hands before you you want to, and you think the hook defenders more shallow than he is, and you try to throw it at the top and it becomes a pick and everyone's going, this rookie quarterback stinks, right, And so I think that now they have the luxury of doing that because their defense is so fantastic and they don't have to necessarily go chase points. And I think that's the beauty of the football team for New England. They don't have to chase points. They can just go and almost we heard that clear SA play after play, we just run the next play. They can do that because of the complementary and complete aspect of their football team, the way that they in their run game, and I've I've said this for a couple of weeks. Now, you better have a secondary that is gonna come up and hit people because those wide receivers in New England are gonna go block you, okay, and that is going to force your safeties and corners to tackle. And if they're not gonna be able to, Cleveland did not want to do. If they're not gonna be able to, then they're gonna have an issue. I thought, you know, Scott, going into this season, I said, I believe that New England was gonna turn back the hands of time and go back to two thousand and they're gonna run the football and it's gonna be about third down and Mac Jones is gonna be really good because he's so smart. He'll handle protection and he's so accurate. Third down you get a ton of man coverage and I think of the Jacoby Myers fade into the sideline. Why is that so smart by Josh McDaniels, Because the balls on the right hash okay, he go formation into the boundary, meat, he puts the passing strength into the boundary, the trips goes into the boundary, he cuts to Kobe Meyers. Split from a normal split, which is two yards outside of the numbers to three yards inside the numbers, you get single high one safety in the middle of the field man to man coverage I have, so it's eleven yards from the sideline to the numbers plus the numbers, which are like two yards wide, plus the three yards split. I've now given my guy sixteen yards of space to work with on a fade, a go route, three step go route out the line of scrimmage. It's hard not to be able to do that well then, because I've given you so much room as a receiver to win and as a quarterback to make that throw. That's why I think that this football team offensively is at his absolute best when Josh McDaniels has a great feel for who they are and who they're not. And I think that's yeah. I think that's the big difference, Bob. You know in the football team over the last month, there's Josh has figured that out. Patriots being really really good, really really physical, Mac Jones being good going to the playoffs. I think the only thing that could make me sadder is if we spent our entire Thursday episode talking about Jets bills, which we are not going to different. That is a guarantee. We thank god I talked to enough about Sunday, we'll talk about you know what. At least I have a Tom Brady loss to talk about this week, just to make me happy. But that's about all I've got to hold onto right now is Tom Brady is not happy. Hey, the Chargers, they've dropped three or four and as Patrick Mahomes found his form, that Chief's offense looked a little bit different. This week. We're gonna talk about all of that in our next episode when it drops on Thursday. Please download and subscribe and join us for our next episode when it comes your way Thursday. Ontepe Beds

A brand new week to talk football. Here on tape heeds Bob was Shusling, a long time radio voice of the New York Jets, college football broadcaster for ESPN, and of course Scott Pioli, longtime general manager in the National Football League, Dan Orlovski, longtime quarterback in the Nashville Football League. As we crawled behind the XS and ose and get you the nerd football take. Hopefully you're a football nerd like we are. And guys, there's so much to dive into this week. Two teams that we want to start with that if you told me this was going to be the NFC championship game at some point, I would not be surprised, and yet we have a lot of question marks about both. Aaron Rodgers comes back to the Packers. They look pretty pedestrian, although they get the win. But let's start with the Rams and Scott, you know what the floor is yours because I know that this is something that you forecast a few weeks back that this Rams team might not necessarily be what we thought they were. Are they starting to become what you thought they might be? That was an ugly episode that we watched this past week against San Francisco. Yeah, the last two weeks, they've had teams just come out and punch them in the mouth, and that's what it's been in And I'm not down on them. I'm just not as high on them, and I wasn't you know. I made the point last week about their record, um and it remained the song remains the same, right there, one and two against teams that have winning records, and their combined record of the teams that they have beaten is twenty one wins, forty two losses and one tie. And to me, I there's always been a lot of sizzle around this team, right for every time I get that it's l a. I get that, but they've also got an organizational culture where they make so much about everything that they do, and they've traded away a lot of draft capital and last week I'm still not ready to criticize it fully because I think it's the unique approach and I'm not afraid of unique approaches and new ideas. Yet until things work out or don't work out, I can't say that they what what a brilliant idea, what a brilliant concept, what a brilliant culture. I'm not ready to say that and right now where it's trending is they gone against teams that are physical teams and they've got beaten you know, they've been beaten up. And I think one of the things as a team builder and having a history as a team builder, something I earned. I learned early on, and quite honestly, I learned this as a kid in in in high school football. As silly as it sounds, you know, winning championships and being a great team is not just about talent. It's about the collective. And that's one of the unique things about the game of football, right that there are all of these interdependent relationships, all of these unique circumstances, different surfaces, different you know, weather, and the players need to work together. So the job when you're building a team and trying to build a championship team, if that's your goal, if your goal is to build a championship football team, the job isn't to just collect talent. It's to build a team. Yes, you have to have talented players, but you sure need to make sure that those pieces are going to work together, and that those team pieces, the majority of those players in your locker room, need to be about the collective and the greater good, and I'm not sure. Uh, that's what the Rams have been focusing on. They've got a lot of star power, They've got a lot of sizzle. I'm just waiting to see some substance. You guys don't think it fits. I mean, are there parts of this team that when you're watching them, Dan, you say that puzzle piece doesn't necessarily fit with this puzzle piece because to Scott's point, they have not looked cohesive the past couple of weeks. Yeah, I think that. First of all, I don't ever believe that players should fit anywhere. I think they should be placed for places they can excel. You know, Um, I think both player to coach and then player to scheme. I think this is a team that's got new pieces that they've got to figure out how those pieces can excel and thrive in their roles. Um. I think Scott brings up a ton of great points that the biggest one for me is the physicality. Watching the game against the fort and going back two weeks ago against the Titans, the physical aspect is not there right now. I'll go strictly to the field and some of the things that I see, I think defensively, the l A Rams defense. They are a team that wants to play committed to coverage too high shell umbrella coverage. Okay, so number one, when you play that, and that's fine, that's kind of the way of the NFL right now. When you play that, your defensive line has got to be absolutely violent against the run. Violent. They're not violent enough right now in their front seven against the run. Subsequently, when you play that shell, you gotta know teams are gonna run the football on you. Right like teams are going to run the football on you, you have to be phenomenal not okay, phenomenal on the back end, meaning your secondary when it comes to run support. If you go back and why that game, there are multiple occasions a couple of times Deebo Samuel on the left side on a sweep Elijah the first play of the second half on the toss, the secondary is so one late to support in the run and then too unwilling to support against the run. You that that's something I think they've got to look at. They've got to figure out how they are going to manage still trying to play that defensive identity and commit to the coverage aspect while also not getting physically dump trucked. And I think that's the big thing defensive that they got to figure out. And I don't know if I don't I'm not a defensive coach, but I think that's an emphasis thing that they can get after um. Offensively, I'm a huge fan of Shawn. I think offensively they're fantastic. Their numbers this year are really good. That being said, I've I've started to feel that they need to go back a little bit to two or three years ago. They run so much empty which a big part of me love, you know, the so much five man protection. Get the ball out, but I want to see them, I don't know, six or seven times a game more put Matthew under center and go take some play action chunk throws. Take some play action shot throws, not for the quarterback, not for the receivers. The interior of the offensive line. I think the interior of the offensive line right now the past two weeks has been exposed. And that's an issue because when you're gonna play against teams that can get after you in the inside, and defensive coaches can figure out ways to get their boys inside, they're getting beat up and I want to see them. They run player action pass like most in the NFL. Sean McVeigh play action pass most usage wise in the NFL. And if you go back and watch that game again, the interior of their offensive line is getting pushed around, Matthews missing some throws and they're not. They got ten possessions against the forty nine, five of them ended in three and outs, are turnovers half their possession and three ounce of turnovers. Yet go win any football games like that, So I think the bye week for them comes at a good time. Um. I believe that they gotta be very similar to Tampa last year. They gotta be very critical of Okay, who are we because Tamble was good last year, not great? Into thereby, who are we? Who do we have to become to go win a championship with the players that we have. I just think some philosophical tweaks um are gonna be beneficial for this football team, both on defense and on offense. And real quick on the Packers, guys, Scott, what you see? I mean at the Packers and the Seahawks. They both get their franchise quarterbacks back and none of them look like what they have looked like when they are at their best. Certainly, I mean that was kind of a survive and advanced game. The Packers found a way to survive in advance. It's been a terrible year for the Seahawks with the injury to Russell Wilson and also, uh, just the fact that that team is not what it used to be. But what did you see with Green Bay that I don't know gives you concern at least in the short term. We maybe Aaron Tron now kind of round back into form. I don't see anything that overly concerns me or makes me, um, you know, want to overreact. I think he was clearly out of sync. Um he wasn't at his top level. But I'll say the players around him, he was off the mark with a number of throws. I felt there were a couple behind a couple that were in places that receivers either weren't expecting or they were just Aaron throws. He also had a couple of drobs. It just seemed like, again, the sink, the chemistry, whatever you want to call it, wasn't there. My biggest concern happened when Aaron Jones went down, because he is the most. I think there's that group of three right, it's Aaron Rodgers, it's Aaron Jones, and it's Davante Adams. Those players need to be rolling in order for the Patris go Now. A J. Dillon came in and did a very very good job. But I think if a team gets a chance to focus on A J. Dillon, I don't know if he's going to be as as good as Aaron Jones. Now, the good news is it's only apparently it's only a mild m c L injury. He's gonna miss a couple of weeks, but he should be back soon. I think it's just a matter of the time, the distraction, the time away from one another. Aaron Rodgers is still a terrific player, and once he gets back in sync again, he was wasn't in practice there there was so much time missed and the quarterback position and the relationships with the players around there, you need to have time together. Yeah, nothing necessarily alarming on their offense Green Bay. For me, I would say this, Um, they're gonna have to figure out who is the really second past catching option for this offense. Now with Robert Tonyan out, you know we've seen a couple of games in this offense or with this offense without Tonyan Alan Lazard has to step up, or Valdes Scantling has to step up. Aaron Jones is going to be used in their past games somewhat specifically in their screen game as the same as A J. Dillon, But those guys are gonna have to become that secondary option. Aaron Rodgers had tremendous rapport with Robert tunn in tremendous and I think he's got a good group with Cobb in bizarre but somebody's gonna have to become, you know that that really, I don't want to say, you know, like he believes he can go to Cobb when he needs them, but really, to help this offense kind of generate success, somebody in that second grouping is going to have to step up. The reality for this football team for me, guys, as I think their offense is good, I think their defense is the best part of their football team. That's shocking to say that they're there. The strength of the football team is the defense. They're an average offense so far this year, and I think they can win a Super Bowl still because of that defense. I think the defense is it's very similar to what I talked about the Rams. They're playing a ton of two high shell again philosophically, something that we see in the NFL. Um They're not exposing their corners and coverage, so their coverage unit is much better. The difference between this team in the Rams is they are winning in the run game. When they play that show their their defensive line, specifically interior wise, Lowry and Kenny Clark are doing a really good job. It's hard to run the football on them. When they're doing that. Their linebackers are really good. So you're looking at a defense that has kind of dare te people to run the football. We're not going to expose our back end, and their defensive line is doing a nice job protecting against the run. Now they're gonna play Minnesota come here soon. Who can run the football specifically when you play him in Chelle. If they play really good sound defense against Minnesota, then we're really having a conversation about this defense as an absolute difference maker. But I don't have necessarily concerns about the Packers offense outside, Hey, who is going to step up for Robert tuny in to give this offense, some pass game rhythm. Well, another topic we're gonna get to when we come back. An offense that I think we've all had concerns about all season, the Carolina Panthers. Right, they've hovered around five hundred. They are still in the mix. But talk about the ultimate homecoming? All Right? Sam Donald's injury and the fact that he wasn't even playing that well before he got injured opens the door for Cam Newton and not only come back to the FL, but come back to Charlotte to play for the Panthers. Does he start against Washington? What happens to that offense with Cam Newton now at quarterback? That is what we're gonna talk about when we come back on tapeds. Welcome back to Tapeds, and welcome back to the Panthers. Cam Newton. Here we go. He's in a shotgun, the two back pistol, six pounds, three time Pro bowler, Cam Newton. The Kaffrey swings out of the backfield, Why to the right, Newton's gonna run right in the grass, breaks a tackle Kaffrey. Everybody celebrating touchdown right side, first play a touchdown. So Cam Newton with a bit role with p J. Walker starting the game at quarterback for the Carolina Panthers, but that might not be the case for long. Here's Cam Newton after the win for Carolina. Huh oh, impeccable, impeccable man, my boy, Robbie had an unbelievable conversation last night over dinner, and it's great for things to come to fruition. I wouldn't even call it the new me, but I'm big on energy and that feeling on the sideline collectively as a team started with PJ to the offense going out there and well really the defense getting the turnover. That's a combination of a great team win on the road. That was a great team that we played, and you know, just for it to come full circle offensively, defensively, special teams, you know, it's a great work. Well, guys, I don't know if this is a destination for Cam Newton that any of us saw coming, but now that he's there, and obviously we didn't know what was gonna happen with Sam Donald playing poorly and on top of that him getting injured, so it does make it kind of a logical destination, I guess for Cam Newton. But now a really interesting destination, right, I mean, I guess stand up, what I would ask is how much better do you think this offense can be with Cam? I mean, what should we have a right to expect from him as he steps back in? And schematically are they the same offense with Cam Newton as they've been with Sam Donald? Do they have to change much? Yeah? I don't think they have to change much. Schematically, They'll definitely be very similar. Specifically in the red zone. I mean Sam had five touchdown runs inside of the red zone the first month of the season. They haven't gotten down there a ton over the past month. That's why they haven't used it much. So I think this football team can be the big issue with the team offensively. When Sam had struggled over the past month, where one giveaways, turnovers and to just lack of first downs, they just weren't staying on the fields at all and it was stressing their defense. So you know, Cam's gotta come in, And you know, I just want to be honest about Cam. The last time we saw Cam play an extended period of football, he gave the football away. It was a lot of turnovers, He was inaccurate, he missed easy throws, and so I'm I'm hoping that that's not the version of Cam Newton. We get he was okay in the preseason. He was solid in the preseason. The preseason is a joke, okay, So, like, it's not hard to go and perform relatively fairly in the preseason, specifically if you're a veteran quarterback. Um, you know two things. I think the success of this offense is tied to the health of Christian McCaffrey and the health of Cam Newton. I'm not thinking that Cam is just gonna come in and you know, they're gonna run zone read eight times a game, and he's gonna carry the ball seven to eight times a game and take some hits and he's gonna be okay. So I think that their offense schematically stays this Dame. It's it's an offense that predicates on fifty three and third horizontal stretch of the field. How many different ways can we get DJ More the football, Robby Anderson the football, and Christian caffrey the football, And so they're running their their offensive line will be helped by the numbers game that Cam can bring to the quarterback round aspect. I think this football team has the chance to hover around five with Cam. He's got to be prove to us that he can make timely, accurate throws and value the football. Yeah, Dan, I was, you know, fortunate or unfortunate to be with the Atlanta Falcons at the peak of his career. Cam Newton's career. We're in the same division, and he was spectacular in his prime. That season was simply spectacular. I don't doubt Cam's ability as a leader, or his ability to inspire his team, or how hard he's going to work, because he is going to work hard. I just have a concern of whether his body and the brutality of this game is going to hold him back again, because that's what happened with Cam. Cam was such a passionate player, with such a competitive player, his body got, you know, it was worn down, and as you mentioned earlier, the last time that we saw him, the last time, you know, not just the preseason, but the season before, there has been this steady decline in his tools, in his skills, and again but nothing to do with him. A body can only take so much and the way that he plays, he's not gonna put He's gonna put himself in harm's way because he's such a competitor. Okay, he's a smart player, and at times he's so competitive he's going to do the thing that can, you know, hopefully ignite the team. So to me, Um, I see much of what what you say. And again I get he scored two touchdowns as first two touches, but he only ran nine snaps on offense this entire week. Now we're talking about him becoming the starter. He's going to be put in situations and circumstances where he has to take sixty to seventy snaps a game and there's still a little bit more than a full half a season to go here. The arm issues that he had, and whether it was a weakness in his arm or whether it's just the movement of his arm that he can't get the ball to the place that it needs to be, those things aren't going to go away. They may be all right when he first starts out, you know, and then when that happens, how long is he going to be the starter? How much time will he be given? Because one thing that I do go back to when he left the Patriots that I could not get out of my head every time I heard a conversation of a team, you know, should Team X be thinking about bringing Cam Newton? You know, Cam Newton came out and said, if I'm not the starter, I'm going to be a distraction. And to me, you know, it's one thing when other people say that about a player, when we speculate that a player might be a distraction mode, when that player comes out and says, if I don't start, I'm going to be a distraction. Does that become a problem when you know the team feels that they need to have a spark from another player that isn't named Cam Newton. Isn't this still about McCaffrey? Absolutely? Dan, When you and I were talking, I remember about Sam Donald because we obviously with the Jets, and I have a real soft spot for Sam, rooting for him so hard to have a new career. And what I kept going back to was he's gonna throw a three yard past a Christian caffrey, and Christian McAffrey is gonna go zing, zing zing for thirty five yards, and he's gonna look at Christian McCaffrey and be like, man, where have you been? My whole life, I never had anybody like this in New York. That could do this for me? Isn't that Isn't he still the lynch pin if he stays healthy for it. Maybe, I mean, with all due respect to obviously what they surrounded Cam with in New England, Kim didn't have that kind of a weapon to just dump it off too and maybe go make a play there either. I don't know, I mean, can't maybe he revisit the Fountain of Youth as long as Christian McCaffrey stays healthy and provides that to him in their offense, Bob, no question about it. Over the past twenty four months, we have data that tells us that is unlikely to happen. No one is a bigger Christian McCaffrey fan than me. You know, they're littered all over the country. As much as we all love Christian, I hope to God that he stays healthy. And if he does, yes, that's an obviously a huge deal. He's one of the two or three best backs in football. But if we're gonna sit here and go, well, all we gotta do is feed Christian McCaffrey or fine Christian McCaffrey. The likelihood is those those touches are gonna add up as well, and in the wear and tear over three or four weeks of him getting thirty plus touches is gonna factor in as well. Two things that I wanted to touch on that I thought Scott mentioned as as well, and it kind of hits on your McCaffrey point, Bob, is everyone needs to understand he's going in cam Newton behind a bad offensive line. This offensive line in Carolina stinks. It is not a good unit. If this, if he was stepping in, candidly, if he was going back to New England to play behind that offensive line, I'd actually feel a little bit better about it because he's not gonna have to play so crazy fast to make these incredibly fast decisions and get you know, one of the things that you know I thought started to hurt Sam was how bad the offensive line was playing. I'll go back to Sunday's game against Arizona. He goes in outside of those you know, two red zone plays. He throws the slant to DJ More to his right. It's man to man coverage, third down, DJ, I think it's second down. Actually, DJ Moore wins on a slant man to man. It's an easy throw balls in the right hash d J. Moore is on his right, No one is in the third slant window, and he throws it two ft behind him, and it's we can sit here and say, oh, that's rust nous. Sure it's a slant. I could go in my backyard and throw it right now, you know. And so I think that we we gotta be that this is part of this is to be honest about the situation. Is he's going to have to at thirty two. I believe show that the accuracy has somehow gotten better since two thousand eighteen now two thousand eighteen, because the nineteen he didn't play twenty you know there was or excuse me, twenty he didn't play right, twenty one was COVID. So you know, we we got to go back to the last time he played good accurate football is three years and show me you're gonna hit those throws accurately and consistently. Well, it's gonna be interesting to watch. There's no doubt a game that I think both of these guys have at least one or two things to say about. By the way rounds Patriots, I don't really know that there's anything else we need to say, we're just gonna come back on day pass and talk about those two teams with Scott Pioli and dan Orlovsky stick around. We are back on tape. Its Bobo Schusan down our Lovsky. It's got Poli. Well, I want a roller coaster season it has been for the Cleveland Browns. Here is Baker Mayfield's reaction to their lopsided loss to mac Jones in New England. I mean, they had a good scheme, but I think there were plays for us to um to make their Uh yeah, I think it's a little bit of execution. I think at this point, we everybody in our building has to look in the mirror and just kind of re evaluate the accountable to themselves, to each other. Um, because we're we're sitting, you know, sitting somewhere where we thought we'd be in a better place right now, but we're not. So it's time to reevaluate and everybody needs to hold themselves accountable. Well, if you read between the lines what Baker is saying and what several other guys had to say from the Cleveland end of things after that loss, they seem to be alluding to looking themselves in the mirror, but also the coaches having to look in the mirror as well. I don't know if that locker room is starting to fracture guys, who knows, but just schematically on the field, why this roller coaster we saw the seemingly we have found ourselves offense when Odell Beckham was off the field, Dan, as you said, they got better without Odell Meckham. It was more Baker Mayfield is going to run plays rather than run things for players. And now this so look what what is to explain this? Dow Jones up and down with the Cleveland Brown. I like that dow Jones reference. Okay, so I think offensively, um. First of all, my first point is this, the Patriots defense has played ten games here, okay ten One quarterback has played well against him. His name is Dak Prescott. They've made a lot of quarterbacks played poorly, all right. Tom Brady was one of them. Tom played poorly until the last third down, couple third downs in the fourth quarter. Justin Herbert played poorly. So a lot of this has to do with New England's defense. I think offensively with um Cleveland number one, New England did an awesome job of taking away the tendencies of an informational tendencies of Cleveland, Like it was very obvious when I watched Cleveland got into empty a couple of times. Now, when Cleveland gets into empty, five man protection, five receivers out there, and they put the tailback out as the number one receiver, the guy closest to the sideline, one of their favorite plays has put tailback on a five yard hitch, push up, five yard straight line come back and they take the inside receiver and run a scene. That's one of their favorite plays. They call it as a run play. Hey, just throw it to the tailback out there if it's soft coverage. New England did an awesome job in those situations of they took their outside linebackers to the boundary. So the guy was Kyle van Noy. What Kyle did was at the snap and Scott's this is gonna sound like you know, uh very much, so deja vu for to you. He smacks or smashes the slot receiver one step. Okay, so then that guy is gonna be a little slower downfield. He immediately turns and runs to the tailback with his eyes on the tailback. He's not even looking at the quarterback. He's looking at the tailback and I know, this is what you guys do. And what happens is the corner who's supposed to be covering the tailback in in a on the paper coverage situation is running to cover that scene guy that Kyle Vanoy just hit at the line of scrimmage, so he's just step in front of him. They did that three times, just took away tendencies. Um. I thought that when they got into thirteen personnel or twelve personnel and put Baker under center and pulled people. You watch number eight Bentley. You can tell that the coaching staff and New England said, hey, when they put this quarterback understand her and they pulled backside guards. You have no past responsibility, but you ain't got none. I want you to go smash the guard. The pulling guard. He blows up three plays that. Honestly, I think when the Browns pulled people, they're the best, second best team in the NFL outside of Dallas Cowboys. And I just thought because the way they took away the tendencies of the Cleveland Browns offense, there was absolutely no um, consistently or confidence to what they were doing the Baker interception is beautiful. New England shows him man to man coverage one safety in the middle of the field pre snap, ball gets snapped and everything rotates to cover too zone. That's why there's so many people near that football. Coyle Dugger picks it off for a touchdown. So I just thought the defense for New England did an awesome job of break playing tendencies and uh, I'm making them again play in a way that they were very uncomfortable with Cleveland offenses. And and I'm gonna say also that I felt the Browns took some things away from themselves that are their best football. You know, that opening drive, Cleveland gets the ball eleven plays eighty four yards. The Ernest Johnson had fifty eight yards rushing in that series alone, and the rest of the half the Browns have the ball in offense, they run it only three times and throw it nine times. I don't get interesting. I don't get it. I didn't get it while it was happening. They end up being you know, oh for four on third down in the first half. And so whether it was the Patriots taking them out of it or it was the score taking them out of it, it was way too early to get away from what they were doing well and what they I get it there without Kareem Hunt, there without Nick Chubb, I get it there without their top three backs. But this is supposed to be one of the best, if not the best, offensive lines in the National Football League. Baker Mayfield is not a player, and this is not being disrespectful to Baker at all. Baker is an above average and at times good and at times very good quarterback in the National Football League. But what he has around him is a good support staff. Now you start taking away a good offensive line and a good back, you know, then more things fall on him. And whether that's his own mental pressure on him or if it's the actual thing, But to me, I saw them taking themselves out of things. Whether the Patriots drove him out of him, I don't know. But in the first half. I get what the score was at the end of the first half, but the Browns again, in that opening drive, I said, this is gonna be the slug fest that I thought it was gonna be. Because the Patriots came and they drove, you know, drove the ball, and you know, I just I don't know. I wasn't crazy about the way that the Browns changed what they were doing. Now, Dan, a couple of things that you talked about, you know, the physicality of the of the New England Patriots defense on the skilled players, whether it was a back, a slot receiver, or the receivers. That that is time tested and it goes you know, everyone knows what we used to do that against the Colts, we did in the Super Bowl against the greatest show on turf, I mean, but that was being done previously to that, and it's an important part of what they're doing. And the overall physicality of the New England Patriots is one of the top three things I think that is shifting this football team into overdrive right now. You know, when you look at what the Patriots did with their personnel groupings on on the offensive side of the ball, more than half of their snaps they were either two backs meaning Yakob Johnson was in as a fullback, or they were two tight ends and or they had six offensive lineman. They came out and said, we are going to punch you in the mouth, and you know what they did, They punched them in them out three drives over ninety yards a ninety nine yard drive that was eleven plays, had seven runs in it, you know, and in those four passes. It was interesting because it was early in the game. My biggest concern was what is Miles Garrett gonna do today? How are the Patriots going to figure out the way to slow down and neutralize Miles Garrett if they can, because I don't think that Isaiah Winn could do that on his own over the course of a game. But in that yard drive, in those four the four pass plays that they had, three times they chipped them with the back and one time they threw the the brown showed Blitz and mac Jones through the quick outside shoulder fade, and those were the four passes. So that slowed things down. Now, if you remember also when there was a sack by Miles Garrett, what did they do the very very next time. Immediately went to a screen. So they ran a bunch of screens. They ran dummy reverses, which they also sprinkled in with some real reverses, they ran some boots. They did things from a play calling standpoint and a scheme standpoint that neutralized Miles Garrett. And to me, that was one of the big one of the big parts of the game. And again I go back to that sack that that Garrett got, Isaiah Winn tried cutting him. When you watch that block or attempted block, it was bad. But again the very next play, third and thirteen, Pats running screen twenty yard game down to the three yard line, they punched on the ends on the next play. You know, one of the things about the Patriots offense, when you come into that game, you have to recognize something that they've always done. And we did very early with Brady and we did it with Benny Testaverdi in at the New York Jets. And I'm talking about because this is the collective family belief of how to run the offense. They went into that game. They had the third most receptions by running backs in the entire National Football League, and that's part of what they did to slow down Miles Garrett. I also think, like talking about the Patriots offense, but I think that the best thing that they do is they never ask specifically Mac Jones. They don't put him in positions where Mac you can't do that, you know what I'm saying, Like, they don't they don't ask him to do things that he's incapable of doing, or be somebody that he's not. I think the third and thirteen screen is a perfect example, just just your mindset wise of hey we're third and thirteen. A lot of times teams are gonna just ask their rookie quarterback, okay, you know, like, hey, we're gonna run you know, shallow cross and deep en routed. You're just gonna read the hook defender, and all of a sudden you get pressure and you gotta get the ball in your hands before you you want to, and you think the hook defenders more shallow than he is, and you try to throw it at the top and it becomes a pick and everyone's going, this rookie quarterback stinks, right, And so I think that now they have the luxury of doing that because their defense is so fantastic and they don't have to necessarily go chase points. And I think that's the beauty of the football team for New England. They don't have to chase points. They can just go and almost we heard that clear SA play after play, we just run the next play. They can do that because of the complementary and complete aspect of their football team, the way that they in their run game, and I've I've said this for a couple of weeks. Now, you better have a secondary that is gonna come up and hit people because those wide receivers in New England are gonna go block you, okay, and that is going to force your safeties and corners to tackle. And if they're not gonna be able to, Cleveland did not want to do. If they're not gonna be able to, then they're gonna have an issue. I thought, you know, Scott, going into this season, I said, I believe that New England was gonna turn back the hands of time and go back to two thousand and they're gonna run the football and it's gonna be about third down and Mac Jones is gonna be really good because he's so smart. He'll handle protection and he's so accurate. Third down you get a ton of man coverage and I think of the Jacoby Myers fade into the sideline. Why is that so smart by Josh McDaniels, Because the balls on the right hash okay, he go formation into the boundary, meat, he puts the passing strength into the boundary, the trips goes into the boundary, he cuts to Kobe Meyers. Split from a normal split, which is two yards outside of the numbers to three yards inside the numbers, you get single high one safety in the middle of the field man to man coverage I have, so it's eleven yards from the sideline to the numbers plus the numbers, which are like two yards wide, plus the three yards split. I've now given my guy sixteen yards of space to work with on a fade, a go route, three step go route out the line of scrimmage. It's hard not to be able to do that well then, because I've given you so much room as a receiver to win and as a quarterback to make that throw. That's why I think that this football team offensively is at his absolute best when Josh McDaniels has a great feel for who they are and who they're not. And I think that's yeah. I think that's the big difference, Bob. You know in the football team over the last month, there's Josh has figured that out. Patriots being really really good, really really physical, Mac Jones being good going to the playoffs. I think the only thing that could make me sadder is if we spent our entire Thursday episode talking about Jets bills, which we are not going to different. That is a guarantee. We thank god I talked to enough about Sunday, we'll talk about you know what. At least I have a Tom Brady loss to talk about this week, just to make me happy. But that's about all I've got to hold onto right now is Tom Brady is not happy. Hey, the Chargers, they've dropped three or four and as Patrick Mahomes found his form, that Chief's offense looked a little bit different. This week. We're gonna talk about all of that in our next episode when it drops on Thursday. Please download and subscribe and join us for our next episode when it comes your way Thursday. Ontepe Beds