Down the stretch, we go on taped Spoble Shoes and Dan Orlovsky Scott Pioli set for a new week to talk NFL football again. We crawled behind the xs and os on this podcast and bring you the nerd side of the game that we enjoy the most. And of course always at the tellustrator when you catch him on NFL Live and alongside me as well college football on ESPN. Scott Pioli, of course, longtime general manager in the National Football League, and he brings that personnel expertise that we love, roster building expertise, and guys, the roster has changed certainly for the Rams, and that's where we're gonna begin this episode because that was a tough one against the Packers. Here was the reaction of Matthew Stafford after yet another hard fought loss. Um, I've had some tough stretches in my career. There's no question. Play this game long enough, it'll humble you, you know, and and um, you know, I uh put a lot of hard work into this. As to all the guys in that locker room, as to all of our coaches, Um, is it disappointing when it comes when you come out and and uh, you know play like that. Absolutely. You know there were some good things, but too many bad things for us to have a chance to be a good team like Green Bay. And there's no question if you're going to beat a team on the road like the Green Bay Packers, you have to be better than the Rams were. Their roster has changed, right, like Robert Woods being gone, Odell Beckham coming in. I guess there might be an adjustment period. Having said that, though, what are you guys seeing That's just not clicking because the first I guess, you know, seven or eight games of the season, we were talking about Matthew Stafford being that m VP candidate. We thought he might be at the beginning of the year. But Scott, you made this point. Look at their schedule, right, they had a four game stretch there where they were playing kind of the bottom feeders of the NFL. Maybe that tilted our opinion of the Rams a bit. Is this a team that we have a good field for yet? Are we still searching for who the Rams are? Scott and ken be as we go down the stretch? I think we're still searching. And and I do go back to what I said earlier in the season. They started out seven and one, and they were playing competition. Again, not their fault, they can only play the teams that are on the schedule. But they were looking, um, you know, they were beating teams that were not very good football teams. I mean, that's just the reality. They were football teams that were not good teams at that point in the season. And then we get to the the end of October in the beginning of November and they add two players. You know, once again they go out and get players with star power name names, and you know, Von Miller thirty three, I want to say, the thirty three year old defensive end slash pass rusher, and Odell Beckham. And you know, since they've added those three players, they've lost three straight games. I'm not saying that those players are the reason, but this is reminiscent of free agency in the off season, where teams go out and spend a lot of money on star power names. They're selling jerseys, they're selling sizzle, They're not giving much substance. And to me, I was concerned that this was a team that was seven and one, they hadn't beat anyone that was really good. Then they started playing some good teams and they've been owing three and one thing that has changes is the roster, not only the addition of those two players, but the absence of Robert Woods, who's a very very important part of their offense. And to me, they just don't look in sync. There's nothing about their game on either side of the ball that looks in sync, you know. And then you also have to understand in the middle of the season, and I remember this from my early time with the Cleveland Browns in the National Football League, where we were constantly churning the roster and bringing in new players and telling players, Okay, this is what we're gonna do. If you're in, we're in. And players do what they need to do and do what they're supposed to do there on the roster. Yet there's this wandering eye from the rest of the organization trying to bring in other players that again, um, how good are they? How committed are they? And I'm not saying that that either one of these players are not committed, but it does have this trickle down effect within a team. Again, I still always go back to the whole idea that you know, we're we're in the team building business. Right. We're not trying to see how many Fantasy football points we can we can gather. We're not looking to see how many guys make the Pro Bowls, right, Because individuals make Pro Bowls. Teams win championships, and you're trying to get the best fifty three players on your team that are the right fifty three players on your team in order to win championships. Well said, you know, speaking to just kind of what happened on the field, and this has kind of been a couple of week transition or evolution for the Rams. I think offensively, there's a lack of um. There. There is an ego issue going on with their offense. I think that if you watch this game early on, you know, they decided to put Matthew under the center, and they ran the ball a little bit, and then there were some play action. They actually come out in their second series, they go down seven nothing, and they come out in their second or third series and they run the ball in first down, they get five yards, they get to second and five, and the next snap is out of empty. And now I've talked extensively over the past three or four weeks about this offense, and they're empty personnel, the five man protection, second and five empty and it's a sack fumble and the left tackle and left guard got absolutely beat. And I'm sitting there going why Sean Sean mcfaith, their head coach, Why after a first down run first and five are we getting into empty when you're playing on the road against a defensive line for Green Bay that's been playing good. Why are you going to the one area where you in the last three weeks have fallen apart in and that's the interior of their offensive line in empty protection, and all of a sudden, the game flips upside down. You know, Bob, you know I love golf. Scott. I don't know if you do, but you know there's that saying for golfers when they enter a tournament, you can't win the tournament on Thursday, but you can lose it. And I feel that's exactly what has happened over the first or the last three weeks. In the first quarter for the Rams. They're losing game teams by this self inflicted, almost hardheaded style of football. And I think offensively right now, they're so dependent on the big play. They're so dependent on Okay, how many let's let's let's let's force these big plays to happen. And we're in an era right now in the NFL where that that's you know, teams aren't really allowing for much of that and they can't drive the field. They refused to be methodical in Green Bay defensively did not blitz Matthew in this offense and basically said, we, as a defense, are gonna challenge you, Sean McVeigh, that you used to be one of the best run game coordinators, design, run design, play guy in the NFL. We're gonna challenge you to do that. And he refused to and Matthew played good. He wasn't brought there to play good. He was brought there to play great. And I just feel right now, on offense, it's this ego thing to go not We're not gonna do kind of what we need to do to have success on offense. We're gonna force this issue. We're gonna force this square peg into the round hole, and it's really hurting their football team. And I'll remain adamant. I think they need to put the quarterback under center more. I think they need to stay get back to their motion offense, get back to marrying plays that look the same, so that causes the confusion for the defense. Get back to that play action game that looks like the run that you called them the third play of the game, and now we're gonna bootleg off of it and it looks the same. They're not doing that anymore. And then I'll think on defense, I would say two things, and I'm I'm not being disrespectful here. I think defensively they're dumb, and I think defensively they're soft. They had three times on third and three or less. And most people who follow football know that as a man down man coverage third and three or less. Three times Jalen Ramsey covered the tight ends for Green Bay and not Davante Adams in man coverage. That's not smart football. And then when I say they're soft, I'm not challenging their manhood. I'm challenging they give you so many free completions. There's no physicality at the line of scrimmage to challenge receivers and not get All green Bay did was called quick game, quick game, quick game. And all Aaron did was operated get the ball out quick. They minimize the pass rush and they got the ball out quickly, and the Rams defensively never got in the face of Green Bay and tried to challenge. You can play zone coverage and be physical at the line of scrimmage, and I think those are two things defensively that they gotta figure out real quickly here, because if you're gonna play that soft, your pass rush and all those pieces you got on your defensive line won't matter a scott. Can we quickly flip it over to the Packers though, I mean, obviously we want to talk about the Rams and their deficiencies, and everybody just you know, you talk about the Packers, it's all Aaron Rodgers all the time. I mean, to beat a team like that at home, and to beat them thoroughly and they did, you gotta be a pretty good football team yourself. So what did you see out of Green Bay? You know, there were two plays in the third quarter that stood out to me, and uh one was the fourth and two in the third quarter, just prior to the touchdown, not the touchdown it self, but it's fourth and two. Aaron Rodgers drops back, he looks off and is staring down to his right right, and then a little bit in the middle and then all of a sudden turns and makes it throw, makes the completion that allows them to stay on the field and get the touchdown. It was a brilliant play. It was it was classic Aaron Rodgers. But what was happening there at that moment, in my opinion, I was just watching a Packers team that had this energy that the Rams did not have. And it was even more underscored a little bit later, when there's three minutes left in the third quarter, again another play, offensive play in the third quarter, and they run the screenplay. There's a screen and the ball is fumbled and and again if you watch the game, what happened was there was immediately too offensive linemen on the field hustling their butts off, get on the ball, recover it. Just because the offensive linemen are chasing the play. It was a screen, but the back was out in front of the screen, so these were the players behind the screen itself, and they end up recovering the ball. They get a field goal out of that. So two big plays in the third quarter with energy out of the Packers. It was so positive, that was so authentic, That was so real to me. That was one of the other things. And again not saying, you know, similar to what you were saying, did not saying that the Rams weren't playing hard, but they weren't playing to the level of the Packers, in my opinion, in the cold outdoors, and it just like looked like two teams that were that were approaching the game differently. And you know, I just want to fallow one other thing that you said, Dan, I thought was really important about the Rams offense was the protection. Andrew Whitworth has been a very good football player in National Football League. He's about to turn forty years old and still playing left tackle, and he had a couple of issues the other day and they were real issues, you know, whether it was calls for holding or just not being able to block them and not having enough leading his pencil. So to me, there are some real things that are going on in that Rams offense. To Dan's point about, you know, if we can't run it, let's not run it, guys. Yeah, it's just when I watched the game, I think the overwhelming theme for me was while one team is very much so playing to their strengths and not to their weaknesses, and one team constantly leans into their weakness and not their strength, and it's so shocking for me to watch that play out for the Rams. If you watch Green Bay's offense, I'll touch on that quickly. I mentioned the quick game. Right when I say quick game, I'm saying Aaron Rodgers is catching the ball and trying to get it out really in less than three steps. So we're thinking two seconds of quarterback time right here. Nine times nine times they called quick game. He went eight for nine. So when you're doing that, Number one, I'm taking away Aaron Donald and Leonard Floyd and Von Miller. You guys don't matter to me. Number two, I'm keeping myself in rhythm. That catch and throw is is I'm catching and throwing to a time where now we're we are staying quote unquote ahead of the chains, were staying balanced in our rhythm. As an offense, I can be an ideal play call situations, and then A J. Dillon eight times eight carries first quarter, seven twelve, first quarter, six thirty two, third quarter. I can go on and on. He gets a handoff and he gets hit at or at one yard game of the line of scrimmage. All eight times he falls forward for more than four yards. Sometimes it was eight or nine yards. So his ability to get hit at the line of scrimmage, so to speak, and churn out positive yards is such a difference aker for this offense. I think it's an identity changer, a reliable aspect for this offense in Green Bay. And for Sean McVeigh, there was a time where if you passed him in the hallway on your way to get a cup of coffee, you got a head coaching interview, right Like I mean, his his coaching tree was just if you were in his orbit for five minutes. I'm watching this game and again, this is my department. Three minutes to go in the game, you're down eleven. I don't think they had any time outs. If they had any time outs, they had one. They took it all the way down to fifty seconds to go on the game on third and one in field goal range and ran the ball and took the clock down to like twenty seconds to go and kick the field goal. What are you doing right, Like, you you need two scores. You need to score. You need to have enough time in the back end of your first score to get an onside kick and have a chance to get a second score. And again this is supposed to be the most brilliant offensive mind in the history of football, and he can't figure out that you have to allow yourself enough time on the back end. Again, Teams, for some reason in that down eleven under two minutes to oh scenario, always obsess over getting the touchdown, first, kick the field goal first. Leave yourself enough time that if you're able to get the on side kick, at least you've got a prayer who cares. If he who cares. If you get a first down on third and one with fifty seconds to go in the game, then the next ball either has to go in the end zone or you kick the field goal of a minute left one way or the other. Give yourself enough time. Again, that just drove me ban at us. But all right, we'll move on. We will get to a big win for the Bucks over the Colts when we come back, because that is something that I think was kind of a litmus test for Tom Brady. I'm gonna get the breakdown of the guys, Bucks Colts. We come back on Tapeds, Welcome back to Tap pens, Boba Shoes, Scottioli, dan Orlovsky. All right, a big one Bucks Colts, Tom Brady as normally as the case, finds a way against a good football teams. But Frank Reich had to say after the Colts loss, Yeah, very frustrated. You know when you're going up against that good of a team. Uh, and you really got a chance, and you know, you feel like if we don't beat ourselves, and they were playing based defense against our sub offense a little bit too so trying to force us into throwing it a little bit more. But ultimately, when you make when you make that many mistakes against good football team, it's gonna come back and haunch you. Well, it is a good football team. Maybe they did beat themselves. And Scott, you lived this life with Tom Brady at quarterback and Bill Belichick is the head coach. Right. You've said this over and over again when we've crawled inside games on this podcast, whether it's going back to your Patriot days or watching the Bucks now with Tom Brady. Oftentimes teams will find a way to give you the game and make mistakes that you can capitalize on. The necessarily, maybe you have to go out and win it. Did you see that as the case this past week with this win for the Bucks over the Colts, I don't know who was necessarily one particularly one or two particular plays. I think a couple of things I saw. I'll just talk about the Colts side real quick. I just I was expecting so much more out of the running game in this this weekend out of the Indianapolis Colts didn't get it, didn't see it um, They couldn't get it established, and they I felt like they didn't try to establish it um strongly enough because again, I just don't think that Carson Wentz is going to go out and win a game UM against a very good football team all on his own. Flip side talking about, you know, the Buccaneers, here's one of the things. You know, one of the things I said also earlier in the year was that when in order for the Bucks to have a chance to repeat, they can't be the same team. They've got to be a better football team. And I've been looking for signs of players, Okay, who's gonna step up and who's going to be better than they wore last year. Who's gonna make the Buccaneers better. You know, they've dealt with a few injury situations, and the guy that I see steadily picking up and becoming a better football player is Leonard for Nette, who was really helping their offense. And you know, a lot of the talk after the game, surprisingly to me, was all about this great speech that he apparently gave in the locker room at halftime. But more than words, it was his play and it is his play, you know, Leonard Fournett. He's been known as what as as playoff Lenny, right or Lombardi Lenny, where he only shows up in the playoffs. His rookie year with the Jacksonville Jaguars, when the Jaguars made that run towards the a f C Championship, he played better in the playoffs than he did in the regular season. Last year with the Buccaneers, you know, he was on the verge of being released until the playoffs showed up and then he started performing really well. So he's always been a player that's performed better in money games than he has in the regular season. But this year, you know, he's among the top fifteen rushers in the National Football League. But most importantly what I've seen out of him is out of all the running backs in the National Football League, he's third in receptions and that is a key to this offense because they've played without Gronk quite a bit, and for the routes and the spaces on the field that you're gonna need short and intermediate production. This is where Leonard Fournette has stepped up. And for Tom Brady, him having players having a running back that can catch the ball, that can be dependent upon is critical for Brady and this offense that he likes to run. So to me, you know, watching what he did this past weekend, um seems to becoming more commonplace on the field. And the other thing is when you start producing, that's when people are going to actually listen to you. At halftime, he could have been talking all he wanted, you know, previously, But until you produce, you can be any kind of leader you think you want to be. But until you produce, you know, it usually falls on deaf years. But people are now willing to listen to him. He has locker room credibility. Now, yeah, good point on that. I actually thought four and I played really well. I thought the biggest performance is Rob Gronkowski's you know and you you two things that probably don't get talked about enough. For three things in relation to ground our how remarkably smart he is is a run blocker. I know physically he's a very good run blocker, but how smart he is as a run blocker. There was a play, you know, right after they had gotten those back to back turnovers in the third quarter where they're going to run a draw to his side and Indies playing kind of in a condensed front to the tight end side, and he's got to get to the middle linebacker and it's basically impossible for him to get to that middle linebacker unless he somehow sets the defensive ent in like a bluff sense and gets skinny meaning turning his shoulders and gets inside of the defensive vent to get up to the middle linebacker. It's probably the most important block on the play and just his awareness of knowing that's the only way for me to go make the block that is necessary on second and ten and he does it. And it was a play that stood out to me because for Net ran the ball so well, and it's no coincidence that Gronk was back, and in his ability to play such a smart game and the run game blocking wise, was really big to me. Number two, Bob, You've heard me say this before. He has got such remarkable feel for color as a route runner, you know, and I say this all the time, these around guys like Calvin Johnson and Andre Johnson and Reggie Wayne, these guys had such great feel. Listen, those guys could win against man coverage like all day long. Okay, those they're special because they know what where, where they have to be or where they shouldn't go when they're running routes against zone. And Gronk has got such a great feel for getting away from color, meaning the different color jersey, but also not running to color as well and essentially covering him up. And there's so many times in this game where he's running a seam or down the sideline where he's just got this very innate ability to just be boring in space or just settled down in space where he's giving Tom an opportunity to throw him the football. And I thought that was such a big deal for their past game. And then I thought the play of the game was on third and eight in the third quarter, about ten minutes and eight seconds to go. This is right after the sack fumble that Shack Barrett gets, and it's third and eight and Indie shows bluff pressure and Tom's at the line of scrimmage and he checks to a screen. There's a trips to his right. Gronk is the number three guy closest to the tackle, and he checks to one of these one step Gronk go to the flat right now towards the sideline screens you guys on the outside block, and he throws it to Gronk and it's a bluff screen out of Indie's defense. They fooled Brady essentially, and they're in perfect position to make the tackle and strictly off effort. Gronk runs through four five tacklers for Indian gets the first down. If they don't make that play, they punt. I firmly believe that they lose the football game. And I just thought his impact on the game with his smarts, his ability to kind of feel space and then his effort was huge for this football team. I thought they're the game swung in the third quarter on those two takeaways, the sack FuMB on the interception Um and Scott. I kind of think Indie did try to run the football. I just thought they couldn't blocked Videvea. I just you know, they just they couldn't block Vitea and there's such an RPO offense, the run pass option. You know, I think they're calling run plays and you know the defense is is giving a poll and throw read and um, you know I I thought that was a big deal for Indie's offense. You know, the game was really swung on those turnovers. To me, right, I'm a hockey guy spitting chick lit. Right, how good? Good? What's that? Dominated? It's got any thoughts they'll flipping around to Carson Wentz. I mean just in terms of, like, obviously when he has Taylor, they got that run game going, as you said, five touchdowns the week before. But where is the Cults future and hopes if Carson Wentz has to go out and just flat out a win a game for them. Yeah, I just don't. Depending on the matchup, I don't. I don't feel that strong strongly about it. And again, and I am not being disrespectful in any way. I think that Carson Wentz is an above average quarterback that sometimes plays good and some days can be a good quarterback. But as an evaluator, We've talked about this before. As an evaluating you have to look at patterns and you have to look at the overall big picture. Just because you have a good game doesn't mean that you're a good quarterback. Just because you have a bad game doesn't mean you're a bad quarterback. Again, flip side of you. Just because you have a bad game doesn't mean you're a bad team. And to me, I think Carson Wentz is a He's an above average and at times good quarterback. And you can win a division that way, you can win a championship that way. You just need to be supplemented by a very very strong defense that plays very well. And you also have to have other players on the team, as you mentioned Jonathan and Taylor. You have to have other aspects of your you know, of your offense that are performing and playing well. I just don't feel that Carson Wentz is the kind of player. And there's a handful of these players, right, And sometimes I think when myself or other people use certain terms, we're not trying to be disrespectful, We're just trying to be honest. And I just think that he's an above average quarterback that needs a strong support staff in order to win. What do you think? Yeah, I know all that, I don't disagree. I think that Again, to Scott's point, there's probably a handful and we're that might be a high number of guys that can go out there and just do it themselves, you know, kind of on a week by week basis, and then there's a group of probably another half dozen to eight that, hey, if if things are around them are pretty good, you know, they got a pretty good old line, pretty good scheme, pretty good play caller, and get some good pieces, they're going to perform like top ten guys. I think that's where Carson Wentz is. You know, he's a top ten quarterback. When all right, we got our offensive lines playing pretty good and we got a good play called like, that's who he is, and that's really good. I mean again, there's thirty two starters on the planet and there's probably twenty five good ones, and so when you're in that top ten and those pieces around you are good, I actually thought that was probably the best game I've seen Carson. Again, I've seen Carson Wentz play every snap. That's probably the best game I've seen Carson Wentz playing three years. You know it just as far as the timing he played, with the urgency he played with the ball, placement that he played with, the decision making that he played with. UM, I don't. I don't think that there was a poor decision that he made in the game. Um the sack fumble. You know, if you go back four plays before it, he throws a seam to Michael Pittman, Shack Barrett is right there, almost has the sack fumble on that play four plays later? Is the sack fumble? Do I think Carson Wentz was, you know, maybe a tenth of a second late with a football maybe maybe, and maybe he gets it off if he at tenth of a second early. And then the interception. I've seen him throw that ball fifty times this year and would either be a catch or p I and Winfield just made a great play. So, UM, I thought he played really good football. It's I think the Colts proved they're a really good team. Um. I think the Buccaneers proved that they're a championship caliber team. Well, a couple of teams that are right now very much in the playoff picture. One hanging on the periphery of the playoff picture. Play a huge game on Thursday, and that's the Cowboys and the Saints. They'll kick off Thursday Night Week thirt team, both coming off of Thanksgiving losses. Can Dallas get back on track? We're gonna find out next on tapeds. Well, the Dallas Cowboys lost a heartbreaker on Thanksgiving Day, and obviously it was a different story for the Saints. Far from a heartbreaker. They got beat up pretty good by the Buffalo Bills late on Thanksgiving Night. Bobo Shoes and Scott Pioli and Dan Orlovsky back here on tapeds to talk about Cowboys Saints to start week third team on Thursday Night. And guys, here was Dak Prescott's reaction to their loss to the Raiders on Thanksgiving Day. I mean, we've got we've got to get back to uh, believe in believing in the basics and just playing fundamental football and being smarter, being smart, as I said, being able to keep the officials out of the game. Uh, playing compliment of football. Um, scoring touchdowns when the defense gets turnovers. Uh, and um we'll be okay. Uh in the senses. I'm sure a bunch of people are jumping off the bandwagon, which is which is fine with us, because we know what we're capable of, we know the team that we have. More importantly, we know the men that are in that locker room, and that's the most important thing. Um is just our belief in each other and that that's not going anywhere. And I faded. We lost a tough one, uh in an overtime game today, and that's that's the bottom line. Maybe when they get their wide receivers back, folks will jump right back on the bandwagon. I don't know. When I was watching this game, guys, I did not come away with the feeling that the Cowboys lost this game because the quarterback, right like the quarterback of the coach, always take too much blame and maybe get too much credit. Granted he's a he's without his top two big guys, but he's still through seventy five yards. He's stole a couple of receivers, go over a hundred yards. Game, got to overtime, defense, gave up thirty points. I mean, I don't know when you guys took a step back and and and are looking at the Cowboys maybe where their offense will go back to once they get a Mari Cooper and Ceedee Lamb back. You know, is there a bandwagon to jump back on with the cow Boys I think the context of this game is very unique. Number One, the the amount of penalties are abnormal, right, So you're not going to your your not anticipating your team is going to be hurt that much by penalties. I'd say the second thing focusing on their defense, Bob, would be this, And this is kind of something that I've started to feel a little bit since really the Minnesota game. This is a defense that rose this year because their pressure package and their man coverage. Now me as an offensive person, when I watched teams consistently play as much man coverage as Dallas does. My number one job, I'm gonna find the guy that's not good, Okay, I'm gonna find the guy that I feel I can attack. And I think we've started to see there's some guys on this defense that you feel pretty darn good about. If you're gonna play man coverage, I'm gonna go after you. And and Anthony Brown is one of them. It's just one of those guys. Lewis is one of them that you feel maybe we like our matchup here, and so that does give me pause defensively, I think offensively, I would say two things. Number One, I feel fine about them because they're gonna Ceedee Lamb and Amari Cooper. It's not like they're getting me back at wide receiver. You know, they're getting guys back. A Maori for everything that people say about him, is a hundred million dollar wide receiver. He can still win. Ceedee Lamb is the first round. And so those guys, they I can't judge their offense pretending that they're not gonna be there. I will say this the second thing, and this is the most like alarming and discouraging thing to me. Where have the pullers gone? Their run game was so diverse throughout the first part of this season, and the most diverse and dominant aspect of it was when they would down block and pull people, down block and pull people. They were so good at I actually thought they were starting to be come into the conversation with the Cleveland Browns in regards to it. In the past couple of weeks, as this run game has slowly started to not be as effective, they've stopped pulling people, and I would like, I would want to know why why are we pulling less people? Because they've gone to strictly like a zone run game, and I just don't think they're great at that right now, and that would be my biggest concern about the the offenses. They got to get back to pulling people in their run game. Dan, I agree with you completely on on the run game, and and that's where I was going to focus on. In terms of the offense, It's it's not just the apps of Cooper and Lamb. Right, Zeke Elliott is not healthy and that is clear and there you know, and and Pollard is a good back. Now go back to the early part of the season when Zeke, you know, was was at a sort and their offense was all was It was a total passing game and they couldn't get in sync and they couldn't get things going. The absence of Zeke or or when Zeke was not playing like he should have been playing, becomes a problem for this offense. And again that's not the takeaway from Pollard, but it Dan, I've sat there and seen the same thing. And I've wondered also if the absence, you know, when when Smith was hurt and then Martin had an issue, did they start changing the offense due to injuries upfront or issues they were having up front where there was an absence of players, and then they just haven't gotten back to what was successful, and in trying to do that, you know, now they've got hurt, so they don't have the the everyone's talking about the receivers, and I agree with that. I also think that not having Zeke Elliott a player that they count on to be a certain way. And I think I was pretty critical a Zeke Elliott at the beginning of the year when I felt like he wasn't running like he was supposed to be running, when he wasn't delivering the goods and playing as hard as I thought he would. Then all of a sudden, he flipped a switch and their fortunes started to change a little bit. So to me, on the offense, they've still got one of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League. He just you know, a quarterback can't always do it just on their own. But his running attack has been affected and so has his you know, his top two receivers, so that does become a problem for the offense. That's kind of what my feelings are. And again, like this game is so it was so impacted by the penalties, and I just don't think that's and like the fact that the penalties were there, and those two receivers weren't there. It's so like it's so hard to really kind of get a a full judgment on exactly you know, because if those two guys play, they win the game, or if those penalties don't happen, they win the game. You know, So real quick a thought keeping in a division before we wrap up this episode of tapeeds. As I told you, guys, and never ever ever doubt me, the Eagles are going to the playoffs. I told you that last week, right talk about the announcer Jigs. I mean, I can't get it straight with a team that wears green and white. I figured I could latch on to this green and white team and ride them into the playoffs the week after and just give me, give me a quick thought, both of you, because the week after Jalen Hurts had us all convinced that they've got this offense figured out. He has really settled in. For him to have that kind of a performance and for that team to have that kind of a performance on the road against the Giants, team that has struggled to find themselves all year long, that that was about, I think is deflating a loss as any team in the NFL had this past week. I'd say this for Philadelphia. First of all, the Giants have a good solid defense. Okay, so that that that is a good challenge. Two things offensively that I didn't like. Number one, that was the the game where we've all heard the phrase, well quarterback didn't see the field. Well that was this game. There's and it's the turnovers were what they were, and there were moments where you go, man, how do you there's a handful of other plays where he just doesn't see the field. He's just not seeing the field in that moment. Whether and you guys have heard me say quarterbacks predetermined where they should throw. Absolutely, you never assume where you should throw. And there's moments where he's just assuming I'm throwing it to this guy, and Um was was completely committed to doing that. There's moments where he's just not reading things and almost like seeing everything without seeing anything. I'm just gonna keep my eyes down the field and hopefully somebody popped open. And that was un characteristic of the way he had been trending. Playing wise, um I thought they threw the ball way, way, way, way too much on short yard situations. Four times on third and two or less or fourth down, they threw the ball when they were running the they ran for with hundred yards. Their quarterback run game was chunk after chunk after chunk after chunk, And that was something that I was sitting there going as a coach, you want, I wanted them to start to get a feel for what I was watching on during the game and then on the tape, like, Hey, the young kids struggling right now seeing stuff. We're really good running the rock. Let's just run the rock man, you know, it's you know, And I thought that hurt their football team. That being said, the end of the game obviously is the end of the game with those two drops. I know, every once to kill reagor yes he's got to catch the football. Um, but disappointed in the quarterbacks kind of vision, but then also kind of the the field for the play calling. Yeah, Dan, I agree with you. And you know, they rushed for two eight yards on only you know, thirty three carries. They could have run the ball forty times, and I think that they would have been a little bit more secure because to me, that's where their their game has become. They were starting to develop this personality a little bit too, as you know, tough guys up front, Jeff stoutin the offensive line coach and and and run game coordinator, who I think is one of the best in the business. This offense and upfront was starting to take on a little bit of Jeff's identity, and then I feel like they moved away from it. Again, I get it. They ran for over two hundred yards. That's good, and it could have been better, especially on a day where I think, you know Jalen Hurts was it was bad last Sunday. And again that doesn't make him a bad player. He was bad that day. And Dan to the point that you just made, I couldn't agree with you more. When you know that a player's game is off on a certain day, whether it's a quarterback, you just need to move away. That's where you need to as a coach and a player, you need to move away from if it ain't working, don't go with it that day. And sometimes you know, like Tommy Brady says, man, but once in a while, even Betty Crocker burns the brownies. He was burning the brownies at last Sunday jail, So just get him out of the kitchen right, and to me there was the story was they could have run more, they could have dominated, they could have imposed their will, and the Giants do have a solid defense, but I think that they could have imposed their will so much more. And then you look at the four turnovers, you know that was part of the problem. To it just seemed like that there was a lack They're too young of a team there too, you know, a coaching staff, first time a head coach and Nick Suryan, it's a young group that maybe a little bit of success. They're starting to smell themselves a little bit, and they didn't know when they needed to shift things. Well, they still have opportunities. They've got the Jets this week, and then they've got the buy and four divisional games to close out the season. But now it really feels like the Eagles are playing without a net as we head towards the playoffs. Right that they are four teams ahead of them for arguably one spot that have six losses. They now have seven, and they're in that group. That was why I think this past weekend was such a disappointing blown opportunity from their standpoints. So we'll keep our eyes on the Eagles. That will do it for this episode of Tape Heeds, but our next episode will drop on Thursday. There was a team in the a f C that has reinvented themselves these last couple of weeks, and they may now look like a different kind of super Bowl threat, a surprising super Bowl threat in the a f C. We'll talk about that, and boy, we continue to have a debate back and forth about where the Browns are with Baker Mayfield. Those are topics we will talk about when we come back our next episode of tap It's on Thursday. Join us then

Down the stretch, we go on taped Spoble Shoes and Dan Orlovsky Scott Pioli set for a new week to talk NFL football again. We crawled behind the xs and os on this podcast and bring you the nerd side of the game that we enjoy the most. And of course always at the tellustrator when you catch him on NFL Live and alongside me as well college football on ESPN. Scott Pioli, of course, longtime general manager in the National Football League, and he brings that personnel expertise that we love, roster building expertise, and guys, the roster has changed certainly for the Rams, and that's where we're gonna begin this episode because that was a tough one against the Packers. Here was the reaction of Matthew Stafford after yet another hard fought loss. Um, I've had some tough stretches in my career. There's no question. Play this game long enough, it'll humble you, you know, and and um, you know, I uh put a lot of hard work into this. As to all the guys in that locker room, as to all of our coaches, Um, is it disappointing when it comes when you come out and and uh, you know play like that. Absolutely. You know there were some good things, but too many bad things for us to have a chance to be a good team like Green Bay. And there's no question if you're going to beat a team on the road like the Green Bay Packers, you have to be better than the Rams were. Their roster has changed, right, like Robert Woods being gone, Odell Beckham coming in. I guess there might be an adjustment period. Having said that, though, what are you guys seeing That's just not clicking because the first I guess, you know, seven or eight games of the season, we were talking about Matthew Stafford being that m VP candidate. We thought he might be at the beginning of the year. But Scott, you made this point. Look at their schedule, right, they had a four game stretch there where they were playing kind of the bottom feeders of the NFL. Maybe that tilted our opinion of the Rams a bit. Is this a team that we have a good field for yet? Are we still searching for who the Rams are? Scott and ken be as we go down the stretch? I think we're still searching. And and I do go back to what I said earlier in the season. They started out seven and one, and they were playing competition. Again, not their fault, they can only play the teams that are on the schedule. But they were looking, um, you know, they were beating teams that were not very good football teams. I mean, that's just the reality. They were football teams that were not good teams at that point in the season. And then we get to the the end of October in the beginning of November and they add two players. You know, once again they go out and get players with star power name names, and you know, Von Miller thirty three, I want to say, the thirty three year old defensive end slash pass rusher, and Odell Beckham. And you know, since they've added those three players, they've lost three straight games. I'm not saying that those players are the reason, but this is reminiscent of free agency in the off season, where teams go out and spend a lot of money on star power names. They're selling jerseys, they're selling sizzle, They're not giving much substance. And to me, I was concerned that this was a team that was seven and one, they hadn't beat anyone that was really good. Then they started playing some good teams and they've been owing three and one thing that has changes is the roster, not only the addition of those two players, but the absence of Robert Woods, who's a very very important part of their offense. And to me, they just don't look in sync. There's nothing about their game on either side of the ball that looks in sync, you know. And then you also have to understand in the middle of the season, and I remember this from my early time with the Cleveland Browns in the National Football League, where we were constantly churning the roster and bringing in new players and telling players, Okay, this is what we're gonna do. If you're in, we're in. And players do what they need to do and do what they're supposed to do there on the roster. Yet there's this wandering eye from the rest of the organization trying to bring in other players that again, um, how good are they? How committed are they? And I'm not saying that that either one of these players are not committed, but it does have this trickle down effect within a team. Again, I still always go back to the whole idea that you know, we're we're in the team building business. Right. We're not trying to see how many Fantasy football points we can we can gather. We're not looking to see how many guys make the Pro Bowls, right, Because individuals make Pro Bowls. Teams win championships, and you're trying to get the best fifty three players on your team that are the right fifty three players on your team in order to win championships. Well said, you know, speaking to just kind of what happened on the field, and this has kind of been a couple of week transition or evolution for the Rams. I think offensively, there's a lack of um. There. There is an ego issue going on with their offense. I think that if you watch this game early on, you know, they decided to put Matthew under the center, and they ran the ball a little bit, and then there were some play action. They actually come out in their second series, they go down seven nothing, and they come out in their second or third series and they run the ball in first down, they get five yards, they get to second and five, and the next snap is out of empty. And now I've talked extensively over the past three or four weeks about this offense, and they're empty personnel, the five man protection, second and five empty and it's a sack fumble and the left tackle and left guard got absolutely beat. And I'm sitting there going why Sean Sean mcfaith, their head coach, Why after a first down run first and five are we getting into empty when you're playing on the road against a defensive line for Green Bay that's been playing good. Why are you going to the one area where you in the last three weeks have fallen apart in and that's the interior of their offensive line in empty protection, and all of a sudden, the game flips upside down. You know, Bob, you know I love golf. Scott. I don't know if you do, but you know there's that saying for golfers when they enter a tournament, you can't win the tournament on Thursday, but you can lose it. And I feel that's exactly what has happened over the first or the last three weeks. In the first quarter for the Rams. They're losing game teams by this self inflicted, almost hardheaded style of football. And I think offensively right now, they're so dependent on the big play. They're so dependent on Okay, how many let's let's let's let's force these big plays to happen. And we're in an era right now in the NFL where that that's you know, teams aren't really allowing for much of that and they can't drive the field. They refused to be methodical in Green Bay defensively did not blitz Matthew in this offense and basically said, we, as a defense, are gonna challenge you, Sean McVeigh, that you used to be one of the best run game coordinators, design, run design, play guy in the NFL. We're gonna challenge you to do that. And he refused to and Matthew played good. He wasn't brought there to play good. He was brought there to play great. And I just feel right now, on offense, it's this ego thing to go not We're not gonna do kind of what we need to do to have success on offense. We're gonna force this issue. We're gonna force this square peg into the round hole, and it's really hurting their football team. And I'll remain adamant. I think they need to put the quarterback under center more. I think they need to stay get back to their motion offense, get back to marrying plays that look the same, so that causes the confusion for the defense. Get back to that play action game that looks like the run that you called them the third play of the game, and now we're gonna bootleg off of it and it looks the same. They're not doing that anymore. And then I'll think on defense, I would say two things, and I'm I'm not being disrespectful here. I think defensively they're dumb, and I think defensively they're soft. They had three times on third and three or less. And most people who follow football know that as a man down man coverage third and three or less. Three times Jalen Ramsey covered the tight ends for Green Bay and not Davante Adams in man coverage. That's not smart football. And then when I say they're soft, I'm not challenging their manhood. I'm challenging they give you so many free completions. There's no physicality at the line of scrimmage to challenge receivers and not get All green Bay did was called quick game, quick game, quick game. And all Aaron did was operated get the ball out quick. They minimize the pass rush and they got the ball out quickly, and the Rams defensively never got in the face of Green Bay and tried to challenge. You can play zone coverage and be physical at the line of scrimmage, and I think those are two things defensively that they gotta figure out real quickly here, because if you're gonna play that soft, your pass rush and all those pieces you got on your defensive line won't matter a scott. Can we quickly flip it over to the Packers though, I mean, obviously we want to talk about the Rams and their deficiencies, and everybody just you know, you talk about the Packers, it's all Aaron Rodgers all the time. I mean, to beat a team like that at home, and to beat them thoroughly and they did, you gotta be a pretty good football team yourself. So what did you see out of Green Bay? You know, there were two plays in the third quarter that stood out to me, and uh one was the fourth and two in the third quarter, just prior to the touchdown, not the touchdown it self, but it's fourth and two. Aaron Rodgers drops back, he looks off and is staring down to his right right, and then a little bit in the middle and then all of a sudden turns and makes it throw, makes the completion that allows them to stay on the field and get the touchdown. It was a brilliant play. It was it was classic Aaron Rodgers. But what was happening there at that moment, in my opinion, I was just watching a Packers team that had this energy that the Rams did not have. And it was even more underscored a little bit later, when there's three minutes left in the third quarter, again another play, offensive play in the third quarter, and they run the screenplay. There's a screen and the ball is fumbled and and again if you watch the game, what happened was there was immediately too offensive linemen on the field hustling their butts off, get on the ball, recover it. Just because the offensive linemen are chasing the play. It was a screen, but the back was out in front of the screen, so these were the players behind the screen itself, and they end up recovering the ball. They get a field goal out of that. So two big plays in the third quarter with energy out of the Packers. It was so positive, that was so authentic, That was so real to me. That was one of the other things. And again not saying, you know, similar to what you were saying, did not saying that the Rams weren't playing hard, but they weren't playing to the level of the Packers, in my opinion, in the cold outdoors, and it just like looked like two teams that were that were approaching the game differently. And you know, I just want to fallow one other thing that you said, Dan, I thought was really important about the Rams offense was the protection. Andrew Whitworth has been a very good football player in National Football League. He's about to turn forty years old and still playing left tackle, and he had a couple of issues the other day and they were real issues, you know, whether it was calls for holding or just not being able to block them and not having enough leading his pencil. So to me, there are some real things that are going on in that Rams offense. To Dan's point about, you know, if we can't run it, let's not run it, guys. Yeah, it's just when I watched the game, I think the overwhelming theme for me was while one team is very much so playing to their strengths and not to their weaknesses, and one team constantly leans into their weakness and not their strength, and it's so shocking for me to watch that play out for the Rams. If you watch Green Bay's offense, I'll touch on that quickly. I mentioned the quick game. Right when I say quick game, I'm saying Aaron Rodgers is catching the ball and trying to get it out really in less than three steps. So we're thinking two seconds of quarterback time right here. Nine times nine times they called quick game. He went eight for nine. So when you're doing that, Number one, I'm taking away Aaron Donald and Leonard Floyd and Von Miller. You guys don't matter to me. Number two, I'm keeping myself in rhythm. That catch and throw is is I'm catching and throwing to a time where now we're we are staying quote unquote ahead of the chains, were staying balanced in our rhythm. As an offense, I can be an ideal play call situations, and then A J. Dillon eight times eight carries first quarter, seven twelve, first quarter, six thirty two, third quarter. I can go on and on. He gets a handoff and he gets hit at or at one yard game of the line of scrimmage. All eight times he falls forward for more than four yards. Sometimes it was eight or nine yards. So his ability to get hit at the line of scrimmage, so to speak, and churn out positive yards is such a difference aker for this offense. I think it's an identity changer, a reliable aspect for this offense in Green Bay. And for Sean McVeigh, there was a time where if you passed him in the hallway on your way to get a cup of coffee, you got a head coaching interview, right Like I mean, his his coaching tree was just if you were in his orbit for five minutes. I'm watching this game and again, this is my department. Three minutes to go in the game, you're down eleven. I don't think they had any time outs. If they had any time outs, they had one. They took it all the way down to fifty seconds to go on the game on third and one in field goal range and ran the ball and took the clock down to like twenty seconds to go and kick the field goal. What are you doing right, Like, you you need two scores. You need to score. You need to have enough time in the back end of your first score to get an onside kick and have a chance to get a second score. And again this is supposed to be the most brilliant offensive mind in the history of football, and he can't figure out that you have to allow yourself enough time on the back end. Again, Teams, for some reason in that down eleven under two minutes to oh scenario, always obsess over getting the touchdown, first, kick the field goal first. Leave yourself enough time that if you're able to get the on side kick, at least you've got a prayer who cares. If he who cares. If you get a first down on third and one with fifty seconds to go in the game, then the next ball either has to go in the end zone or you kick the field goal of a minute left one way or the other. Give yourself enough time. Again, that just drove me ban at us. But all right, we'll move on. We will get to a big win for the Bucks over the Colts when we come back, because that is something that I think was kind of a litmus test for Tom Brady. I'm gonna get the breakdown of the guys, Bucks Colts. We come back on Tapeds, Welcome back to Tap pens, Boba Shoes, Scottioli, dan Orlovsky. All right, a big one Bucks Colts, Tom Brady as normally as the case, finds a way against a good football teams. But Frank Reich had to say after the Colts loss, Yeah, very frustrated. You know when you're going up against that good of a team. Uh, and you really got a chance, and you know, you feel like if we don't beat ourselves, and they were playing based defense against our sub offense a little bit too so trying to force us into throwing it a little bit more. But ultimately, when you make when you make that many mistakes against good football team, it's gonna come back and haunch you. Well, it is a good football team. Maybe they did beat themselves. And Scott, you lived this life with Tom Brady at quarterback and Bill Belichick is the head coach. Right. You've said this over and over again when we've crawled inside games on this podcast, whether it's going back to your Patriot days or watching the Bucks now with Tom Brady. Oftentimes teams will find a way to give you the game and make mistakes that you can capitalize on. The necessarily, maybe you have to go out and win it. Did you see that as the case this past week with this win for the Bucks over the Colts, I don't know who was necessarily one particularly one or two particular plays. I think a couple of things I saw. I'll just talk about the Colts side real quick. I just I was expecting so much more out of the running game in this this weekend out of the Indianapolis Colts didn't get it, didn't see it um, They couldn't get it established, and they I felt like they didn't try to establish it um strongly enough because again, I just don't think that Carson Wentz is going to go out and win a game UM against a very good football team all on his own. Flip side talking about, you know, the Buccaneers, here's one of the things. You know, one of the things I said also earlier in the year was that when in order for the Bucks to have a chance to repeat, they can't be the same team. They've got to be a better football team. And I've been looking for signs of players, Okay, who's gonna step up and who's going to be better than they wore last year. Who's gonna make the Buccaneers better. You know, they've dealt with a few injury situations, and the guy that I see steadily picking up and becoming a better football player is Leonard for Nette, who was really helping their offense. And you know, a lot of the talk after the game, surprisingly to me, was all about this great speech that he apparently gave in the locker room at halftime. But more than words, it was his play and it is his play, you know, Leonard Fournett. He's been known as what as as playoff Lenny, right or Lombardi Lenny, where he only shows up in the playoffs. His rookie year with the Jacksonville Jaguars, when the Jaguars made that run towards the a f C Championship, he played better in the playoffs than he did in the regular season. Last year with the Buccaneers, you know, he was on the verge of being released until the playoffs showed up and then he started performing really well. So he's always been a player that's performed better in money games than he has in the regular season. But this year, you know, he's among the top fifteen rushers in the National Football League. But most importantly what I've seen out of him is out of all the running backs in the National Football League, he's third in receptions and that is a key to this offense because they've played without Gronk quite a bit, and for the routes and the spaces on the field that you're gonna need short and intermediate production. This is where Leonard Fournette has stepped up. And for Tom Brady, him having players having a running back that can catch the ball, that can be dependent upon is critical for Brady and this offense that he likes to run. So to me, you know, watching what he did this past weekend, um seems to becoming more commonplace on the field. And the other thing is when you start producing, that's when people are going to actually listen to you. At halftime, he could have been talking all he wanted, you know, previously, But until you produce, you can be any kind of leader you think you want to be. But until you produce, you know, it usually falls on deaf years. But people are now willing to listen to him. He has locker room credibility. Now, yeah, good point on that. I actually thought four and I played really well. I thought the biggest performance is Rob Gronkowski's you know and you you two things that probably don't get talked about enough. For three things in relation to ground our how remarkably smart he is is a run blocker. I know physically he's a very good run blocker, but how smart he is as a run blocker. There was a play, you know, right after they had gotten those back to back turnovers in the third quarter where they're going to run a draw to his side and Indies playing kind of in a condensed front to the tight end side, and he's got to get to the middle linebacker and it's basically impossible for him to get to that middle linebacker unless he somehow sets the defensive ent in like a bluff sense and gets skinny meaning turning his shoulders and gets inside of the defensive vent to get up to the middle linebacker. It's probably the most important block on the play and just his awareness of knowing that's the only way for me to go make the block that is necessary on second and ten and he does it. And it was a play that stood out to me because for Net ran the ball so well, and it's no coincidence that Gronk was back, and in his ability to play such a smart game and the run game blocking wise, was really big to me. Number two, Bob, You've heard me say this before. He has got such remarkable feel for color as a route runner, you know, and I say this all the time, these around guys like Calvin Johnson and Andre Johnson and Reggie Wayne, these guys had such great feel. Listen, those guys could win against man coverage like all day long. Okay, those they're special because they know what where, where they have to be or where they shouldn't go when they're running routes against zone. And Gronk has got such a great feel for getting away from color, meaning the different color jersey, but also not running to color as well and essentially covering him up. And there's so many times in this game where he's running a seam or down the sideline where he's just got this very innate ability to just be boring in space or just settled down in space where he's giving Tom an opportunity to throw him the football. And I thought that was such a big deal for their past game. And then I thought the play of the game was on third and eight in the third quarter, about ten minutes and eight seconds to go. This is right after the sack fumble that Shack Barrett gets, and it's third and eight and Indie shows bluff pressure and Tom's at the line of scrimmage and he checks to a screen. There's a trips to his right. Gronk is the number three guy closest to the tackle, and he checks to one of these one step Gronk go to the flat right now towards the sideline screens you guys on the outside block, and he throws it to Gronk and it's a bluff screen out of Indie's defense. They fooled Brady essentially, and they're in perfect position to make the tackle and strictly off effort. Gronk runs through four five tacklers for Indian gets the first down. If they don't make that play, they punt. I firmly believe that they lose the football game. And I just thought his impact on the game with his smarts, his ability to kind of feel space and then his effort was huge for this football team. I thought they're the game swung in the third quarter on those two takeaways, the sack FuMB on the interception Um and Scott. I kind of think Indie did try to run the football. I just thought they couldn't blocked Videvea. I just you know, they just they couldn't block Vitea and there's such an RPO offense, the run pass option. You know, I think they're calling run plays and you know the defense is is giving a poll and throw read and um, you know I I thought that was a big deal for Indie's offense. You know, the game was really swung on those turnovers. To me, right, I'm a hockey guy spitting chick lit. Right, how good? Good? What's that? Dominated? It's got any thoughts they'll flipping around to Carson Wentz. I mean just in terms of, like, obviously when he has Taylor, they got that run game going, as you said, five touchdowns the week before. But where is the Cults future and hopes if Carson Wentz has to go out and just flat out a win a game for them. Yeah, I just don't. Depending on the matchup, I don't. I don't feel that strong strongly about it. And again, and I am not being disrespectful in any way. I think that Carson Wentz is an above average quarterback that sometimes plays good and some days can be a good quarterback. But as an evaluator, We've talked about this before. As an evaluating you have to look at patterns and you have to look at the overall big picture. Just because you have a good game doesn't mean that you're a good quarterback. Just because you have a bad game doesn't mean you're a bad quarterback. Again, flip side of you. Just because you have a bad game doesn't mean you're a bad team. And to me, I think Carson Wentz is a He's an above average and at times good quarterback. And you can win a division that way, you can win a championship that way. You just need to be supplemented by a very very strong defense that plays very well. And you also have to have other players on the team, as you mentioned Jonathan and Taylor. You have to have other aspects of your you know, of your offense that are performing and playing well. I just don't feel that Carson Wentz is the kind of player. And there's a handful of these players, right, And sometimes I think when myself or other people use certain terms, we're not trying to be disrespectful, We're just trying to be honest. And I just think that he's an above average quarterback that needs a strong support staff in order to win. What do you think? Yeah, I know all that, I don't disagree. I think that Again, to Scott's point, there's probably a handful and we're that might be a high number of guys that can go out there and just do it themselves, you know, kind of on a week by week basis, and then there's a group of probably another half dozen to eight that, hey, if if things are around them are pretty good, you know, they got a pretty good old line, pretty good scheme, pretty good play caller, and get some good pieces, they're going to perform like top ten guys. I think that's where Carson Wentz is. You know, he's a top ten quarterback. When all right, we got our offensive lines playing pretty good and we got a good play called like, that's who he is, and that's really good. I mean again, there's thirty two starters on the planet and there's probably twenty five good ones, and so when you're in that top ten and those pieces around you are good, I actually thought that was probably the best game I've seen Carson. Again, I've seen Carson Wentz play every snap. That's probably the best game I've seen Carson Wentz playing three years. You know it just as far as the timing he played, with the urgency he played with the ball, placement that he played with, the decision making that he played with. UM, I don't. I don't think that there was a poor decision that he made in the game. Um the sack fumble. You know, if you go back four plays before it, he throws a seam to Michael Pittman, Shack Barrett is right there, almost has the sack fumble on that play four plays later? Is the sack fumble? Do I think Carson Wentz was, you know, maybe a tenth of a second late with a football maybe maybe, and maybe he gets it off if he at tenth of a second early. And then the interception. I've seen him throw that ball fifty times this year and would either be a catch or p I and Winfield just made a great play. So, UM, I thought he played really good football. It's I think the Colts proved they're a really good team. Um. I think the Buccaneers proved that they're a championship caliber team. Well, a couple of teams that are right now very much in the playoff picture. One hanging on the periphery of the playoff picture. Play a huge game on Thursday, and that's the Cowboys and the Saints. They'll kick off Thursday Night Week thirt team, both coming off of Thanksgiving losses. Can Dallas get back on track? We're gonna find out next on tapeds. Well, the Dallas Cowboys lost a heartbreaker on Thanksgiving Day, and obviously it was a different story for the Saints. Far from a heartbreaker. They got beat up pretty good by the Buffalo Bills late on Thanksgiving Night. Bobo Shoes and Scott Pioli and Dan Orlovsky back here on tapeds to talk about Cowboys Saints to start week third team on Thursday Night. And guys, here was Dak Prescott's reaction to their loss to the Raiders on Thanksgiving Day. I mean, we've got we've got to get back to uh, believe in believing in the basics and just playing fundamental football and being smarter, being smart, as I said, being able to keep the officials out of the game. Uh, playing compliment of football. Um, scoring touchdowns when the defense gets turnovers. Uh, and um we'll be okay. Uh in the senses. I'm sure a bunch of people are jumping off the bandwagon, which is which is fine with us, because we know what we're capable of, we know the team that we have. More importantly, we know the men that are in that locker room, and that's the most important thing. Um is just our belief in each other and that that's not going anywhere. And I faded. We lost a tough one, uh in an overtime game today, and that's that's the bottom line. Maybe when they get their wide receivers back, folks will jump right back on the bandwagon. I don't know. When I was watching this game, guys, I did not come away with the feeling that the Cowboys lost this game because the quarterback, right like the quarterback of the coach, always take too much blame and maybe get too much credit. Granted he's a he's without his top two big guys, but he's still through seventy five yards. He's stole a couple of receivers, go over a hundred yards. Game, got to overtime, defense, gave up thirty points. I mean, I don't know when you guys took a step back and and and are looking at the Cowboys maybe where their offense will go back to once they get a Mari Cooper and Ceedee Lamb back. You know, is there a bandwagon to jump back on with the cow Boys I think the context of this game is very unique. Number One, the the amount of penalties are abnormal, right, So you're not going to your your not anticipating your team is going to be hurt that much by penalties. I'd say the second thing focusing on their defense, Bob, would be this, And this is kind of something that I've started to feel a little bit since really the Minnesota game. This is a defense that rose this year because their pressure package and their man coverage. Now me as an offensive person, when I watched teams consistently play as much man coverage as Dallas does. My number one job, I'm gonna find the guy that's not good, Okay, I'm gonna find the guy that I feel I can attack. And I think we've started to see there's some guys on this defense that you feel pretty darn good about. If you're gonna play man coverage, I'm gonna go after you. And and Anthony Brown is one of them. It's just one of those guys. Lewis is one of them that you feel maybe we like our matchup here, and so that does give me pause defensively, I think offensively, I would say two things. Number One, I feel fine about them because they're gonna Ceedee Lamb and Amari Cooper. It's not like they're getting me back at wide receiver. You know, they're getting guys back. A Maori for everything that people say about him, is a hundred million dollar wide receiver. He can still win. Ceedee Lamb is the first round. And so those guys, they I can't judge their offense pretending that they're not gonna be there. I will say this the second thing, and this is the most like alarming and discouraging thing to me. Where have the pullers gone? Their run game was so diverse throughout the first part of this season, and the most diverse and dominant aspect of it was when they would down block and pull people, down block and pull people. They were so good at I actually thought they were starting to be come into the conversation with the Cleveland Browns in regards to it. In the past couple of weeks, as this run game has slowly started to not be as effective, they've stopped pulling people, and I would like, I would want to know why why are we pulling less people? Because they've gone to strictly like a zone run game, and I just don't think they're great at that right now, and that would be my biggest concern about the the offenses. They got to get back to pulling people in their run game. Dan, I agree with you completely on on the run game, and and that's where I was going to focus on. In terms of the offense, It's it's not just the apps of Cooper and Lamb. Right, Zeke Elliott is not healthy and that is clear and there you know, and and Pollard is a good back. Now go back to the early part of the season when Zeke, you know, was was at a sort and their offense was all was It was a total passing game and they couldn't get in sync and they couldn't get things going. The absence of Zeke or or when Zeke was not playing like he should have been playing, becomes a problem for this offense. And again that's not the takeaway from Pollard, but it Dan, I've sat there and seen the same thing. And I've wondered also if the absence, you know, when when Smith was hurt and then Martin had an issue, did they start changing the offense due to injuries upfront or issues they were having up front where there was an absence of players, and then they just haven't gotten back to what was successful, and in trying to do that, you know, now they've got hurt, so they don't have the the everyone's talking about the receivers, and I agree with that. I also think that not having Zeke Elliott a player that they count on to be a certain way. And I think I was pretty critical a Zeke Elliott at the beginning of the year when I felt like he wasn't running like he was supposed to be running, when he wasn't delivering the goods and playing as hard as I thought he would. Then all of a sudden, he flipped a switch and their fortunes started to change a little bit. So to me, on the offense, they've still got one of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League. He just you know, a quarterback can't always do it just on their own. But his running attack has been affected and so has his you know, his top two receivers, so that does become a problem for the offense. That's kind of what my feelings are. And again, like this game is so it was so impacted by the penalties, and I just don't think that's and like the fact that the penalties were there, and those two receivers weren't there. It's so like it's so hard to really kind of get a a full judgment on exactly you know, because if those two guys play, they win the game, or if those penalties don't happen, they win the game. You know, So real quick a thought keeping in a division before we wrap up this episode of tapeeds. As I told you, guys, and never ever ever doubt me, the Eagles are going to the playoffs. I told you that last week, right talk about the announcer Jigs. I mean, I can't get it straight with a team that wears green and white. I figured I could latch on to this green and white team and ride them into the playoffs the week after and just give me, give me a quick thought, both of you, because the week after Jalen Hurts had us all convinced that they've got this offense figured out. He has really settled in. For him to have that kind of a performance and for that team to have that kind of a performance on the road against the Giants, team that has struggled to find themselves all year long, that that was about, I think is deflating a loss as any team in the NFL had this past week. I'd say this for Philadelphia. First of all, the Giants have a good solid defense. Okay, so that that that is a good challenge. Two things offensively that I didn't like. Number one, that was the the game where we've all heard the phrase, well quarterback didn't see the field. Well that was this game. There's and it's the turnovers were what they were, and there were moments where you go, man, how do you there's a handful of other plays where he just doesn't see the field. He's just not seeing the field in that moment. Whether and you guys have heard me say quarterbacks predetermined where they should throw. Absolutely, you never assume where you should throw. And there's moments where he's just assuming I'm throwing it to this guy, and Um was was completely committed to doing that. There's moments where he's just not reading things and almost like seeing everything without seeing anything. I'm just gonna keep my eyes down the field and hopefully somebody popped open. And that was un characteristic of the way he had been trending. Playing wise, um I thought they threw the ball way, way, way, way too much on short yard situations. Four times on third and two or less or fourth down, they threw the ball when they were running the they ran for with hundred yards. Their quarterback run game was chunk after chunk after chunk after chunk, And that was something that I was sitting there going as a coach, you want, I wanted them to start to get a feel for what I was watching on during the game and then on the tape, like, Hey, the young kids struggling right now seeing stuff. We're really good running the rock. Let's just run the rock man, you know, it's you know, And I thought that hurt their football team. That being said, the end of the game obviously is the end of the game with those two drops. I know, every once to kill reagor yes he's got to catch the football. Um, but disappointed in the quarterbacks kind of vision, but then also kind of the the field for the play calling. Yeah, Dan, I agree with you. And you know, they rushed for two eight yards on only you know, thirty three carries. They could have run the ball forty times, and I think that they would have been a little bit more secure because to me, that's where their their game has become. They were starting to develop this personality a little bit too, as you know, tough guys up front, Jeff stoutin the offensive line coach and and and run game coordinator, who I think is one of the best in the business. This offense and upfront was starting to take on a little bit of Jeff's identity, and then I feel like they moved away from it. Again, I get it. They ran for over two hundred yards. That's good, and it could have been better, especially on a day where I think, you know Jalen Hurts was it was bad last Sunday. And again that doesn't make him a bad player. He was bad that day. And Dan to the point that you just made, I couldn't agree with you more. When you know that a player's game is off on a certain day, whether it's a quarterback, you just need to move away. That's where you need to as a coach and a player, you need to move away from if it ain't working, don't go with it that day. And sometimes you know, like Tommy Brady says, man, but once in a while, even Betty Crocker burns the brownies. He was burning the brownies at last Sunday jail, So just get him out of the kitchen right, and to me there was the story was they could have run more, they could have dominated, they could have imposed their will, and the Giants do have a solid defense, but I think that they could have imposed their will so much more. And then you look at the four turnovers, you know that was part of the problem. To it just seemed like that there was a lack They're too young of a team there too, you know, a coaching staff, first time a head coach and Nick Suryan, it's a young group that maybe a little bit of success. They're starting to smell themselves a little bit, and they didn't know when they needed to shift things. Well, they still have opportunities. They've got the Jets this week, and then they've got the buy and four divisional games to close out the season. But now it really feels like the Eagles are playing without a net as we head towards the playoffs. Right that they are four teams ahead of them for arguably one spot that have six losses. They now have seven, and they're in that group. That was why I think this past weekend was such a disappointing blown opportunity from their standpoints. So we'll keep our eyes on the Eagles. That will do it for this episode of Tape Heeds, but our next episode will drop on Thursday. There was a team in the a f C that has reinvented themselves these last couple of weeks, and they may now look like a different kind of super Bowl threat, a surprising super Bowl threat in the a f C. We'll talk about that, and boy, we continue to have a debate back and forth about where the Browns are with Baker Mayfield. Those are topics we will talk about when we come back our next episode of tap It's on Thursday. Join us then