The MMQB NFL PodcastConor Orr and Albert Breer discuss CJ Stroud's record breaking last second win against the Bucs, how the Bill's injury woes may make this a lost season for the team, how the Bengals were able to right the ship, the Eagles's dominant defensive front, why the Vikings are going to be able to avoid a full scale rebuild under Kevin O'Connell, and the rest of the week nine slate
Hello, and welcome to the MmpB NFL Podcast. I'm conroor Albert Breers here, and what better way to bring in my insufferable Ohio State fan co host than by talking about c J. Stroud. There's no other place to start, Albert. This guy's gonna take over the NFL. Four hundred and seventy yards, five touchdowns, rookie yardage record, and I mean I would call it the game of the week. I mean, sure, there are more important things to talk about here, but the Texans beat the Buccaneers and that was the game of the week.
It was weird because I remember thinking so like the Baker leads the team down the field. Now, I almost felt like the story was gonna be like, Wow, maybe Baker Mayfield the back half of the season can really do something with the Bucks. And they're still be true, they're right in the NFC Yeah, and they're right in the NFC South Race. And then you know, you look and it's like, okay, there's four six seconds left, two time outs. There's no way they're gonna win. But maybe CJ gets the I think he was like within like what thirty yards of the rookie single game passing records. That'd be cool, you know, Like so it's like, maybe we come out of this and the two stories are CJ breaks the record and then Baker obviously has maybe his biggest day as a buccaneer. What he did at the end of that game was freaking ridiculous. I mean, I don't know how many quarterbacks are capable of doing that, but I don't think the list is very long. Connor, I mean, I I don't know. I'm as caught off guard by this as everybody, because, you know, I think back the one game I can think of that was there are two games that were like this for him at Ohio State. There was the Rose Bowl where they came from way back against Utah, and then the next year last year, there was the loss of Georgia in the Peach Bowl, and it just I don't know what clicked for him, but it feels like that's him every game now, you know. And to make the throws to Tank Dell down the stretch with no timeouts right, like so what were they at the They were like right around midfield right with no timeouts left. They had to burn the two timeouts because Dalton he throwed twice to Dalton Sheltz underneath that they were in bounds, and so they burned the two timeouts. They get to midfield and you're thinking, okay, like they're just gonna throw in the end zone now, And I almost, I almost can't decide which of the last two throws is more impressive.
The one where the Buccaneers were in too deep and you hit the receiver as his foots dragging on the sideline. Yeah, So I this was.
Like a hole shot. It was like into for people who don't know like it was. That was into like like a very small dead spot in the coverage, far far away from where CJ.
Stroud was standing, right, And so for me, you know, that encapsulated the day because my takeaway on Stroud was it's not that we didn't know he could do this, but it was the nature of doing these all back to back to back to back to back. The Texans had ten points, was twelve minutes to go in the third quarter and CJ. Stratt had one touchdown. He finished the game with five touchdowns four hundred and seventy yards, and the Texans had thirty nine points. And it was that the first touchdown of the second half where I think it was Dell as well. And you have him on the go ball into the corner of the end zone from like forty yards out.
He's a flat footed too. Like the way he threw that like it looked like he was almost like like the body position he threw that from. He didn't need to put anything into it. He just like kind of flicked his wrist from a standing still position and put it in the back corner of the end zone. I mean, the degree of difficulties on some of these throws is ridiculous.
If I'm a coach. It's not again that the numbers had scare me. It's the fact that he was able to put together a bunch of elite throws in a short period of time. I'm under dress and against a very good defensive coach, and I think that all that combined together. So I got in a little bit of trouble. I posted that I wrote about Stroud and then I said.
No reaction, got some blowback.
Right now, I think he is a top eight quarterback at this exact moment time, factoring in all of the injuries. If you eight, are you taking eight other quarterbacks? And I think if I rephrase it, it's probably even higher.
Hold on, all right, so we have to do this then, right, So Maholmes, Holmes, Burrow Allen, that's three yep, Trevor four four, Lamar five five.
Stafford's hurt, Like, I don't think this is a controversial. Everyone's like to uh, and that's.
What That's what everybody says, and they have a controversial opinion is I don't think this is a controversial.
Okay, Herbert, Herbert, Herbert were missing Herbert six six seven, Okay, who else?
Like I'm doing like the division by division thing in my head. Yeah, I mean he might he might be eight, Like think about it, dude, I mean that's crazy to think about, but you're right, he might be eight. Holy crap.
And and if you rephrase it, who if you're starting a franchise over today.
The thing is, all the guys we just named are still relatively young. I think there wasn't like Stafford would have been the younger guy in that group. So I mean, I, I mean, I I certainly don't think you have enough yet to take him over, like I mean Burrow Allen Homes certainly definitely not. But even like Herbert, like we don't have enough evidence yet, but because Herbert looked like this is a rookie too to some degree, right, yes, so, but this is I mean, yeah, like he you know, I think the most impressive thing, Like I remember when he was in school, he liked the comparison to Burrow. And I don't know if they're quite stylistically the same, but I think the one area where they are the same is what they do is very sustainable.
You know, they both navigate the pocket.
Well, yeah, you could argue like there could be a shelf life to Lamar, there could be a shelf life to Josh Allen, right, even Mahomes, Like Mahomes takes a lot of hits. Like the game Burrow plays. One of the things I really like about Joe Burrow is Joe Burrow is gonna be able to play that way till he's thirty eight, you know. And I feel the same way about CJ. Like I think CJ the way he plays is very sustainable, and it's sustainable about against all kinds of defenses, right, almost doesn't matter what you have, He's gonna have answers for it because he plays such a cerebral game. So there's a lot to light there there's no question. I mean, like, you talk about the Texans how like one guy and it's not one guy because it's Demiko. Also it's other people in that organization, so it's not one guy, but how much one guy has done to change the perception. Think about how we were thinking about them three months ago, two months.
Ago, right, Yeah.
No one thought this was coming two months ago. And I don't think I would have two months ago, Like I may have had like a personal interest in watching the Texans because of where Stroud went to school, but other than that, like I mean, they would have been way down my list. They wouldn't have made it onto one of my screens, you know, and like yesterday, at the end of that game, I couldn't stop watching them.
So a little peak behind the curtain here. I write as things are happening, probably two or three times on Sunday, and editor Mitch Goldich and I were talking about to call him on coaching ingenuity because we were like, Okay, how cool is this. The Texans are in this game without a kicker, The Vikings are in a game where Josh Jobs got there. On Tuesday. Basically, you know, writing about how some of these coaches are are great and how they are able to figure this stuff out at the last minute. And then Baker Mayfield scores at forty six seconds left, and Mitch goes, Okay, let's think of something else. And I turn away and I'm like starting to look and then I get a notification on my phone, like I'm watching a couple other games and I've tanked Ellen fantasy that he caught a touchdown. And I was like, oh, well, that must have been just from like an hour ago, and I'm just getting a delayed reaction. And then I turned and then and then Mitch is like, turn this game on right now, and I was floored. I couldn't believe it, Like they even still they weren't on one of my screens, and I could not believe how just cool he was through that whole thing. I mean, what an arrival game for him.
I mean yeah, And I think, like it's so if you're in Houston right now. The really cool thing about it is it's not like it's like we haven't seen a quarterback do this before. I just think it's rare to see it this early, you know what I mean. I think that's what's rare about what we're watching with him, Like with Burrow, I think we saw it pretty quickly, but it might not have looked quite this way. Right with Herbert, I think we did see it. Like I think Herbert is like probably a good comparison as far as like how quickly it happened. The really cool thing about it is when it happens this fast is getting to see how getting now, if you're a Texans fan or if you're in that organization, how much runway you have now? So now we got the quarterback in the rookie contract for the next few years, right, we got Will Anderson to build around on defense, We're going to have a quarterback to attract a top receiver if somebody's available out there, Like you, if you're the Texans are entering this great window of opportunity. Forget even about this year, and they could I mean, who the hell knows, who's to say they're not going to win that division? Right? You know, like they could win that division? But like going forward, now you have a bunch of like pretty good young players on that team, and you're gonna have cap space and do you have a real chance to build that thing out? Now? You know, like the idea of I don't know, like I'm not deep enough into the draft yet to know who's gonna be available with like the twentieth pick. But you imagine if you find a great young receiver to pair with him, you know, a lot of exciting stuff there for them.
The big loser in all this, Albert, what do you think the big loser in this? Who do you think is the biggest loser of this? You want to no, not press the S two test, the S two tests.
We're talking about c J. Stroud and the S two tests two tests. That's right? Yeah, did it measure?
How you could do that? Because I'm I am, I am so done with the with the g D S two test, and I believe, like I don't want to say, you know, I'm a good maybe there.
Could be the new way you refer to it, the G two tests.
Yeah, I'm a good Catholic boy. I'm not going to say it on a podcast, but you know, and just the way that it gets this stuff gets leaked and then people who don't know what they're doing then mistake this for a lack of intelligence or ability when it's just you know, it's it's a test. It's like any other test.
Here's what I think about like all that. Like so like I do think like the intention with these things is good because there is something with the quarterback that's so intangible that you cannot see, right, and you think you can see it, but there's always the question, like, wells a scheme helping him? How is he being coached? Like they're with that position maybe more than any other position in sports, there's this cerebral part of it that is almost impossible to get one hundred percent right, you know what I mean, Like it's very, very hard. And in this day and age, we want to put freaking numbers on everything. We want to put analytics on everything, right, And I think in a lot of cases what ends up happening Connor, is analytics become an excuse for us to pass on something, right, Like the number the hard numbers become an excuse. So it's like, all right, well I passed on Will Anderson because he's not six five two fifty five, and my my numbers say that that sort of edge rusher only has a thirteen percent chance of being all pro right, right, So what it does for all of these teams is it creates the outs for them to say no, I don't want to take that risk. I don't want to roll the dice, because then they can go to their owner, who most of these owners are into analytics three years later and say, well, it wasn't my fault. Like I mean, I was just following what the numbers were telling me, right, And this is why I really respect what Baltimore has done. Baltimore has their own in house analytics operation. And I remember Eric tokap To saying to me once what analytics do for me is they create guardrails. And it doesn't mean I can't go outside the guardrails, but I'm going to respect the guardrails, right, and I'm not going to make a million exceptions. But I need to be smart enough and experience enough and confident enough in what I'm doing to understand when it is the right time to go outside the guardrails. And that's where all like the pre draft researches work like that. That's what like sitting down with these kids is, you know, That's what getting in the room is, That's what like talking to their coaches is. And I I don't know, I just think, like too often, the biggest problem with these things, is they be they create absolutes, you know, And so I can't have I can't have a receiver who runs four six, right, I can't because the numbers show me that, like there's almost no chance that that guy is going to make it more than ten years in the league. Whatever it is something like that. Right, Well, if you're a ge, it's easy to say, well, if I miss on that guy, I can just tell my owner this is why. And if I take him, right, if I take him, well then I'll be the laughing stock of everybody. Oh he took the slow receiver, Well you could end up with Akwon Bolden, you know what I mean. Like, so, like that's the thing about it is like it's just it's it's mixing art and science so to speak, you know, like there's an art to it, Like there's an art to use in the numbers the right way. And now I've talked for five minutes and I'm long winded about it. But I do think that there's something that's so there's something that's so like that's so gray, that's so non black and white about that position. And I think that, like the S two tests, is another chance, another attempt to try to make something black and white that is so intrinsically gray. You know, I agree like with Tom Brady, Like I mean Tom Brady's football brilliant. I mean like he, by his own admission, was like a mediocres student at Michigan. I don't think he scored off the charts on that wonderlick, right Like. The only way you were going to know was if you did all of your homework and you talk to everybody, right like. So there's definitely an art to all of this.
And for those of you who don't know, the S two is a cognition test that was developed by a like party not related to the NFL, basically as an attempt to measure quarterbacks abilities, you know, and kind of and.
They got it. To be fair, they got it right a couple of times, which was their whole thing, right Like, I think.
Like brock Purdy had a really high stwo.
Burrow scored off the charts, right like. So there were a few of them. And I remember there was this rumor and I love Joe, but so I say this was you know, I say this with all the respect in my heart, but that the test was developed at LSU. So I remember a couple of people said to me, just, uh, you know, like you may want to take that Burrow number with a grain of salt, like he may have had had a few a few cracks at that one before he took it for real.
I do wonder, I mean, you know, you know, is it something like the SATs where if you take it enough times you can you can get it better.
I don't know, but anyway, I mean, my parents certainly seem to think so when they signed me up for those.
How many times did you take the SATs twice? Twice? Yeah? I always take it twice. And here's here's the thing I think it was.
It was sprang of my spring of my junior year and follow my senior year. I think that's what it was back then.
I think that I think that's the move. Yes, I would. My My playback then was to when I would talk to girlfriend's parents at the time, was I would give them my SAT score. But they were old enough where they didn't realize or remember that they didn't have a writing component, and we did. So I took the SATs with the three categories math, un and writing, and so knocked the writing out of the park bar.
I always wondered how hard the writing was.
It was not hard. But then again, I don't find I mean, I know it reads like writing is difficult for me, but I don't find writing difficult. But I got like a fifteen hundred on my SATs but with a third category. And so I tell everybody, like, like my girlfriend at the Times parents they're like, what how'd you do? I was like, I got a fifteen hundred And They're like, can you believe that her boyfriend got a fifteen hundred on the sets? And I'm just like, yeah, that.
He's not getting into IVY schools.
Oh man, Yeah it was, so, you know, it was. It was a helpful. It was a helpful tool. I like to you know, nobody asked what I you know to break it down for them. I just said, I got a fifteen hundred. My st I did.
Okay.
Moving on Buffalo Cincinnati, we are now at the point Albert where the Bills have a better chance of missing the playoffs than making the playoffs. Do you envision this as some sort of a big cataclysmic thing And I don't. Here's why else. I think that every you know, every couple of years, the team is going to be bad, and Buffalo I think is just they're going through it right now. They had a good run.
They have bad injury luck this year too. I mean they've already lost Tredevious White, they lost to Kwan Jones, they lost Matt Mulano. You know, I think I'll put it that I think we're so hyper focused on certain positions. Like if Stefan Diggs had gone down, everybody would have been like, oh, Mulligan here, you know what I mean. Right, they lost three guys on defense that are like vital to what they do. Von Miller's probably not quite one hundred percent yet, Like they I still believe in the infrastructure there. Now, like it's getting to a point where they're going to have to start to replace some of these guys, right, Like Micah Hyde's gonna age out, Jordan Poyer is going to age out. Von Miller is obviously not going to be around forever, and so like they are going to get to the point where it's going to be like, okay, like we you know, we're gonna have to start to draft and develop into some of the positions that you know, where we're getting a little bit older. But I mean, look, they went toe to toe with the Bengals last night. I think the Bengals are a really good team. Like I think the Bengals are like, you know, an eight to no team cloaked as a five and three team because of Burrow's injury, you know, like the Bengals are that. And I think, you know, I talked to Zach Taylor last night, like around midnight after the game, and like he did. He didn't say this explicitly to me, but you can tell he thinks this is his most well rounded team. Like he thinks that this is like as as balanced as they've been. He thinks they benefited from the Burrow injury in certain ways because it forced them to play different ways. And if you look at the last eight minutes of that game against Buffalo, right, so so they wind wind up closing out Buffalo. Joe Burrow threw one pass in the last eight minutes, one pass, and it was because the defense played sound and disciplined and forced Buffalo to chew up five minutes. Then you know, Burrow hits hits Tyler Boyd on the sideline route and they run the ball three times and the game's over. They won that game against Seattle a few weeks ago before, they're by with their defense in the fourth quarter, Like, I don't know, as good as they were two years ago. Do you think the defense can close out a game the way they closed out Seattle two weeks ago. I don't know, you know, so, I think I think last night was as much about how good Cincinnati is as it was about how trouble Buffalo. It's probably more about how good Cincinnati is and how good Cincinnati is going to be going forward, because I think now you're getting the old Burrow injected into a team that had to find different ways to win over the first two months.
Yeah. I think the Bengals are the kind of team that's good enough that three weeks weeks ago, a sane person would have put them ahead of the Lions in the power rankings, and here we are. I feel good about my decision. Yeah, I thought this was still a great Like for everybody who's talking trash about the Bills, Josh Allen still played a monster game here, and his mobility is just off the charts and single handedly kind of getting this team back into it. But it's it's not enough. I think this team needs a lot. I mean, they need a good offseason.
I really this is why I was so for them rolling the dice on a Barkley or a Jonathan Taylor.
I know, I mean it would have made a big difference.
I really do think, like, and I know it's not like the popular thing to invest in a running back, but to me, like, I think having a running back would almost put a governor on all the wildness of their offense, you know what I mean. Like, I think it would stabilize them. I think it will get them in down in distant situations more consistently. I think it would it would like sort of moderate their turnover issues. Like I think having like a steady running back, And I like James Cook, but the bottom line is James Cook's like what one hundred and eighty five pounds, Like You're not going to run James Cook into the line twenty times a game, you know, right, Like, But I think having a steady running game would like completely stabilize things for them and make Josh Allen even more dangerous. Like can you imagine having to respect Josh Allen going one way and take one Barkley's going the other, you know, on his own raad like stuff like that. Like I think it would make them so much more dangerous, and you know, like so I'd be interested if I were Buffalo in either looking at drafting one high next year or I mean, look like Barkley is going to be available, you know it is it worth taking a look at, you know, especially because the guy played in your offense in New York the last couple of years.
Yeah, I just feel and again I think it's one of those situations where Buffalo needs a little grace, Like this team has been exhausted. This team has been up against it for years. What they went through last year, I mean, there was always going to be a hangover, and who knows, maybe they turn it on and they figure things out down stretch. But I had them going nine to eight and missing the playoffs in my predictions, and I just felt like that was I just felt.
It was a three week stretch there though Connor where they looked spectacular. There was where they beat the Raiders. That so maybe they can recapture that with the Raiders, the Dolphins and someone else. But they when they put their foot on the gas, they're as impressive as anybody. Like I thought we saw during that three week stretch, like they still have that team we saw playing Kansas City on that night three years ago. Like I think we saw they still have that in them somewhere. It's just I can't explain why they can't summon it a little bit more consistently right now. And I do think the injury issues on defense into it and you know, sort of force the the offense to I think play like like like try to clear a higher bar on a more consistent basis. But it'd be interesting to see what happens if they can, if they can somehow summon that when it matters most, you know, because it is a team that, like if they were to like stumble around for the next month and then like sneak into the playoffs as a wild card. I guarantee you they're the team that, like the four division champions, wouldn't want to wouldn't want to draw in the first round.
No doubt. Cowboys, Eagles. And here's I don't know if you're I don't know if you're like me. And no matter what the new having the direct TV on YouTube, having Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV is really nice. I like it. My problem is if there is a game on the big TV, I can't watch a game, Like if there's a local game on the big TV, I can't watch a different game on my laptop. I think it's just like a size or how my attention is diverted. So if there's so the Giants of the Jets, I'm in New Jersey right.
On one TV, right then you have on the other TV you have the local game.
So my my setup is I'm at the dining room table, which is right near my TV. So on the big screen we have the local game, which is Jets or Giants, and then on the laptop you have the four and if anything gets good, I'll go to a single screen. But the problem is yesterday the late window local game was the Giants and the Raiders, which I had a cursory curiosity and because I had the Raiders defensive Fantasy Football.
But I'm now.
But they wouldn't put on. They wouldn't go to the Eagles game, and I don't know why, And so the Eagles game is popping off, and for some reason, I just can't take my eyes off of poor Tommy DeVito getting the pulp beaten out of him and MEANWI while one of the best games, better games of the year. I would say, with two teams who are actually in the mix is occurring, and I just can't get my brain to somehow switch from like big screen to little screen. And so I was just begging Fox. I was like, please mercy this game. And they never did. They just never took it off.
You couldn't get the You couldn't put the Giants Cowboys or the Eagles Cowboys game up on the big screen.
No, well I guess I could. My other part here is that I'm too old and I don't know how to get YouTube TV on my TV.
No, really, yeah I can't. That's so easy. Like I'll face time with you later today and I'll walk you. It's so easy. You got to me Connor, all right, Okay, I'm older than you, Like, like I I come on, man, Like, it's not that hard YouTube TV thing. Like I have YouTube TV on one of my TVs. Then I'll have a local game on the other. Then I'll have YouTube on my on my laptop too. I can kind of rig it now, It's like I can't. The problem is like it's I want to have other stuff up into my laptop too, which is made me think about buying one of those. Have you seen like so like the TV station I work with, they have like where you have like the extra screen you can drag stuff from one of your screens onto the other screen. I got to figure out how to get one of those from my office, because then I would have the second screen and I could put more YouTube up on that one and have both. But it seems to me like one thing I have noticed, and I got to figure this out. I don't know if they let you have multiv on two different screens, that's a problem.
Oh yeah, I want eight. I can't do that.
I have to I can't either like that. I used to try. At one point, I was like all right, like I'm gonna go sit at a sports bar that I know is not going to be that busy on a Sunday and try to watch it with you know, like where they have like a wall of TV's right, and my add is so bad I just couldn't. I had no chance. Like I you wind up for me, I just wound up watch nothing, you know what I mean? Like I wound up watching nothing.
And I feel like it's this I don't know, I have this long rant about how I do feel like the multiview and red zone are killing our ability to actually just watch and understand one football game.
But well, your kids aren't old enough to like really make it through games yet, Like my kids won't watchful like I don't. I don't know if any of the kids watchful games anymore. And I think it's Scott. I personally think it's Scott Hanson's.
Fault, handsome devil just walking us through every Sunday like that.
Anyway, So everybody should check out Scott Hanson's cameo, by the way, it is, and it's Scott's a buddy of mine. Everybody should check out Scott Hanson's cameo. It is, I mean, just something special.
You can do it probably for what what does he charge? One hundred bucks?
I'm not sure I'd have to look at that.
Is he like a three hundred dollars?
Give me what? I hope you give me a complimentary one. I'm not sure you know it is. It is something else, though, I promise I'll leave it at that. But I promise you once it's once you, once you go in, you're going to be spending some time there.
What was your main takeaway from the Eagles Cowboys game.
I just thought, I mean, the Eagles defensive front was like unbelievable.
Yeah, I mean they are. At what point do you think we can get over the idea that they lost in the Super Bowl and so they can't by rule of what has happened in football, pass and make it back there again because they're just so good.
Well, I mean, like it's just another I mean, it's another example of how if you are good on the lines of scrimmage, you are going to be in every freaking game. You're going to be in every game. And like I'm not saying it doesn't matter what you have everywhere else, but if you're at least competent at the other positions, no one's going to run away from you. And if you're good at the other positions, you're gonna be the Eagles, you know, Like, I mean, just how deep they are and how good they are at all those spots up front, and how like they just have an assembly line of guys coming through. But I mean the offensive lineman who you know, made the who had the fumble the cruise of fumble recoveries, Tyler Steen, who was Alabama's left tackle last year. That's a guy who's in the pipeline for them, right, And then you look at like the number of guys who made place for them on defense, It's like every time you look up, Dak Prescott's either got three people around him or is on the ground and it's someone else there, whether it's Josh Sweat, Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, Jalen Carter, It's like they're able to come at you in waves, and you know, it's just I think it's my biggest takeaway is the Eagles are going nowhere because they are so good on the lines of scrimmage. And that is something that like doesn't matter whether time of year what like, as long as your health relatively healthy, like that travels everywhere. And they're gonna be difficult to beat the rest of the year, you know clearly. And you know they're gonna be tough to beat in the playoffs too. The one question you have, of course, is like Jalen hurts his health, right, and how like every week he seems to look a little bit more beat up. But but but yeah, I mean, like the Eagles, I mean to be able to close the Cowboys out the way that they did too, you know, and not to like beat a dead horse here, but again the line of scrimmage thing, like, you know, they make the goal line stop right and in part because Dak Prescott's throwing off balance and Schoolmaker's got to reach for that ball. And then you know, in the end it's it's Brandon Graham getting a sack and then Josh Sweat and Jalen Carter coming in on the next play, and it's just there's just players. They got so many players.
You know, the Cowboys Mike McCarthy and Dallas kind of had a hand in locking themselves out of this game too.
And I just culprits.
They were col culprits. Co coulprits. Damn that is that is so hard to say. Co culprits. So they get the ball down to the eagle six yard line with time to play, and here's what happens. They go false start, sack incompletion, delay of game and then by then you're so far out that you throw at the CD Lamb just to get the ball to him, and he backs up and gets tackled before the end zone.
That although that was a pretty good bid, that was probably their best player of that series. It was I mean, given the situation, Like, honestly, given the situation, that was actually a pretty decent play.
Yeah, all things considered, what is it like, I.
Mean, they screwed up absolutely everything before that, but that that actually that that play was pretty good. I think it was. It was thirty Yeah, it was third and twenty six from the Eagles, twenty seven.
Just when we thought you couldn't what is the dumb and dumber line, Just when we thought you couldn't get any dumber, you go totally.
Yeah.
So I think these are these little breadcrumb moments where I mean, if I'm Jerry Jones and this is the last year, I'm gonna believe that Jerry Jones actually cares about winning a Super Bowl. But if I'm Jerry Jones, I'm looking at this and I'm like, this team, we either win by fifty points or we kind of just vomit on our shoes. There's no middle ground here. And this was finally kind of a nice middle ground game. But then again at the last second, just a complete and total breakdown. And I'm so I'm wondering, like, is this something where if you're Jerry Jones, you're like all right, uh, Like my window is now, do you care anymore? Or are you just making so much money that none of this really matter?
No? I think he cares deeply about winning another Super Bowl, and I think he does field urgency for it. Like I think that that definitely exists. You know, they beat like, I mean, what does the Rams when mean? Now? Like it looked impressive, right, but then the Rams looked like totally inept yesterday against the Packers. They beat the Chargers in LA. That win has an age great and then you go before that and they got blown out by the by by the Niners.
Right, So you beat the Giants by forty in a monsoon. They're one of the worst teams in the NFL. You beat the Jets by twenty the week after the Ross Strings, right then you lost to the Cardinals. You blew out the Patriots, you got blown out by the forty nine Ers, you barely beat the Chargers, You blow out the Rams, who are terrible, and then you lost to the Eagles. Now they get the Giants and the Panthers and the Commanders next, so it's not really gonna matter. We're gonna look at this team and they're gonna be eight and three and we're gonna be like, Wow, that's great, look at the Cowboys. But I do think doesn't there have to be something in the back of your mind there that's like any time this team faces real attrition, they kind of go punched in the face.
I mean, I believe there are a lot of coaches there who are in contract years. So I do think like there's a decision point coming on that staff. There's also you know, the you know, like the decision that's going to have to be made on dan Quinn. Who can he say no to head coaching opportunities another year? Is he willing to do that? You know? I don't know. And then there's that little thing just circulating a little bit out there about Belichick, like would Jerry take a massive swing like that? Would Bill want to do that? You know? So I think that there's if they lose, if they were to somehow lose like one or two of the next three, then I think the heat gets turned up, Like I think they don't have to win the next three, but I think they have to look a lot better than they have. And that's not to say losing there's no shame in losing to the Eagles in Philly, but they still sort of lack when you look at their schedule that win where you're like, yep, there, it is like that that's who they can be, you know, because like those wins early in the year don't look nearly as good as they did when we were there. And so yeah, I just I have a hard time kind of pinning down exactly what the Cowboys are right now.
One of my favorite games of the week the Vikings and the Falcons.
Oh yeah, I.
Went from being public enemy number one and well not public enemy number one, but I just felt like last year the Vikings, I was just like, calm down, guys, your team's not that good, and yes you won thirteen games, but then you get knocked out by the Giants in the playoffs. Like that's where you are as a group of people. But they have flipped from the poster children of luck and good fortune to the poster children of like grit and resilience and determination. This team is so much more fun than the one that was just smoking bad opponents last year and winning a lot of one score games. This The end of this game was unbelievable. But here's where I want to start. Jaren Hall looked really good, like he was. He was only in for what a drive and a half before they had to put Josh dobbson, But he threw. He completed five or six passes. O'Connell was not burying him in the run game. They were letting him sling it. He had the long completion of Madison. I thought he looked really good. And so I don't know, all of a sudden, I'm like with Josh Dobbs, you know, if Jaren Hall's got to come back into a game, I'm like, justin Jefferson comes back, this team could make first Yeah. Yeah, they're fun.
I mean I think they I think it's like a good indication of like where the team's going. And it wasn't just like you know, the quarterback injuries. They lose acres in the game. They went in, they found out Christian Darrisaw was going to be out like what like ninety minutes before kickoff. That's a huge deal when you lose your left tackle that close to kickoff, kJ Osborne goes down, you know, I just I think that it looks like they've really found something with Kevin O'Connell as their head coach, you know, like and it looks like that team plays with identity. It looks like Kevin is like consistently getting the most out of his quarterbacks and consistently getting the most out of skilled players. Like every single every offensive player on the roster has taken a step forward, from Kirk Cousins to Justin Jefferson to kJ Osborne to Christian Derrett, Like everyone on that roster is taking a step forward since he's been there, and they're getting the most out of everybody. And now you're looking at a team and I don't I hate to look ahead, but I will because I think this has been sort of like this was marked as a reset year for them. They're gonna come out of this year with a clean salary cap, with a full compliment of draft picks, and I think, like, for if you're a quarterback, like it's an attractive destination, right, Like who's to say they don't draft like JJ McCarthy next year. And now all of a sudden, they've really got something, you know what I mean? Like, I just really like where they are and where they're going. And like you said, like I think, you know, like the fact that like there's all this noise, and I mean, look, I created some of the noise because I had written a few different times like how this was a recent year, and if you look like at their actions, it has acted like it, Yeah, it's a recent year, right, But like in that circumstance to be able to climb back from one and four and keep winning this way, I'm pretty damn impressive. And like I said, like I think the heart of it is like Kevin is like legitimately getting the most out of everybody, you know, and you know, even like the defensive side, like I think Brian Flores, you know, done a good job, and Kevin was quick to yeah, acknowledged that maybe he made a mistake hiring at Donatel year ago, you know. And so like I think there's just so many good signs about where they're going. And that doesn't mean that they're going to challenge the lines to win the NFC North or make noise in the playoffs or anything like that. But in a weekend NFC could they sneak in as like a six or seven seat. Absolutely, And that's crazy that I can say that with that much confidence after they lost their starting quarterback a week ago.
My only falcons note here is that Arthur Smith, you're on the goal line and then you do a reverse handoff to John new Smith. You have Tyler l Gear, you have Bijon Robinson, you have the best compliment of skill position talent in the NFL. What is going on here?
God? You know, it sucks because I do think that they've done a lot of things right there, and I do think, like on paper, the idea of waiting to go on on the quarterback is the right thing to do, because the last thing you want to do is you'll go one hundred percent in on a quarterback that maybe you're only seventy five percent sure about. But I mean, it's it's hard not to like look at like their quarterback situation yesterday and like rolling Taylor Heineke out there and Hiek is an excite been an exciting player the last few years and everything else. But you know, like seeing where they are a quarterback and then looking on the other side of the field and seeing Kevin O'Connell win with a guy who I mean, I think Kevin o tocconnell's ability to get what he got out of Josh Dobbs made a lot of people look bad yesterday, A lot of people look patty, you know, like and you know, like almost in a this doesn't have to be that complicated kind of way. You know.
Yeah, you can win games without kickers. You can win games well, you can win games with the running back as a kicker. You can win games with Josh Dobbs having just gotten Yeah.
I talked to Tank Dell after the game and it was kind of hilarious because he told me he didn't even know Daria gumbole A could even kick. He said he had no idea and he was like sort of wondering what he was doing going out there with the field goal team. So, I mean, Tank's a rookie, so like maybe maybe he's missed some stuff. But I mean what like I I sort of like think about like coaching our coaching the third grade team when I was watching that, because it was like, you know, we can't long snay yet, Like they're too young to long snap.
So you're kicking off the t.
You never Yeah, they're kicking off the t, but we're too young though they're too we haven't taught. We haven't got them go long snapping yet, which means no punting and no field goals, which means you're going forward on fourth down every time, you know, and uh and yeah. So I kind of thought about, like, oh, like they've been in the situation we've been in for the last two months where every time we get into the red zone, it's we gotta we're in two down territory.
That's so funny.
Well, actually we're constantly in two down territory, like not even the red zone. We're just constantly in two down. But they would be in too down territory in the red zone.
You're you're like third grade Kevin Kelly, the Arkansas head coach, you never who never punts.
That's right, Yeah, yeah, yeah. The only deal may not be my choice, but you know where where Kevin Kelly is.
The only other game I thought was worth taking a little bit of a look at this weekend was Miami and Kansas City. I can't I don't know what it is. I can't get on board with the early with the early games on my coast. Like, you know, I was just telling our producer Shelby, like I had the you know, the Germany games on, but I also got the you know, I got the New York City marathon on yesterday. I'm trying to watch. I'm trying to see how this race goes, trying to see all my friends. I'm trying to see, you know, the women's race was really interesting. But that's my early morning non football time. That's like my getting my you know what together time. And all of a sudden I got like, you know, it's a mass game, massive AFC game on and I'm just like I finally come to and the Chiefs are up twenty one to fourteen, and I'm just like, okay, all right, time to get connected here. But nice game from Kansas City's defense. I think that we have not been talking nearly enough. And I'll blame myself first. I'm the guy who puts out the coaching list. I don't think Steve Spagnola will get another crack, but he has done phenomena such a good job with this defense. I mean from where it was and before Steve Spagnola was there, I mean it was Bob Sutton, and Bob Sutton is a legend, really the precursor to a lot of the Rex Ryan stuff. He's like, got you the.
Rex's DC back in the Connor, the Connor or salad days on the Jets.
Beet right, that's right, And so I always have a soft spot in my heart for Bob Sutton. But when Steve Spagnolo came over, at first I thought, I don't know, man, because I would talk to players that hated playing in his defense. Like if you ever talked to like some of the guys like Malcolm Jenkins, some of the Saints that were on some of those teams when Spagnoel was there, like the bounty gate air Saints are just like they despise that defense, and he has evolved to the point where this is a this is a formidable defense. This is one of the better defenses in the NFL.
I mean it might be better than their offense right now. Yeah, Like I mean they they And it's interesting because I think it's been years of like all of these they have all of these flexible pieces, like all their d linemen can play inside, are out right, and there are defensive backs like Lugerius Snead, like he traveled with Tyreek Hill yesterday and that allowed them to use Trent McDuffie as a plitzer. So you think about that, like Sneid at one point was just like their slot corner. Now he's traveling with Tyreek Hill, so you free up Trent McDuffie where you can use him different ways. And so now the offense is looking at these two guys and it's like, okay, like where are they gonna be? Well, he's over here on Hill, so that means McDuffie could be anywhere. And it's Chris Jones insider out is a man who inside her out Like it does like sort of remind you of those great giant defenses that Spagnolo had, you know, back you know whatever fifteen years ago, when you had all those d linemen that could play inside and out, you had, you know, flexible pieces. I don't know if he was still the coordinator when the intrell role was there, but that's one name that kind of pops into my head as a guy who was a corner safety. Flexibility. Yeah, I mean it's I think like they're not only very flexible, flexible and versatile, but they've got like a lot of like really good young players, you know, Like McDuffie's a really good player. Like I think McDuffie's a borderline all pros needs a really good player, justin Reid's a good player justin ree can move down place some linebacker for them. Well, he gay is a good player, a man who's a good player. Obviously, Chris Jones is Chris Jones. So you know it's a it's not just a it's not just like a well conceived, good scheme, like versatile type of defense. It's like also like there's there's like legitimate talent because Brett, feach and and Spagnola have worked together so well in finding the right guys for it.
The in terms of vp A per play, which I like? Do you like e p A? Are you an ep A guy?
Expected per What was that?
Expected points added?
Okay, all right, are you are you?
Are you pro EPA, you anti?
I guess I'm pro ep A. Haven't really used it before, but I'll go with it just for you.
Connor, are you a d v o A guy?
I think d v o A. I think it's a good tool. I'll put it that way. I thinks a good Are you a big dv OI guy?
I like DVA.
I like things.
No, I mean again, I think but in terms of you know, if we're making an a value statistical evaluation, I like things that take into consideration more than just the raw numbers, like because you'll talk to a coach and be like, I got here and I raised his completion percentage from this to this, But it leaves out a big chunk of, you know, of the why. And I feel like some of this stuff adds some of the why back in, so I like it at least a little bit better. But anyway, EPA expected points added. Kansas City Chiefs are fifth offensively and they're fifth defensively. Like, imagine a year where the defense is on par it's as good as it's an equal part two. And I thought that, you know, listen, I think they're doing a good job of force feeding guys like Rashie Rice and trying to get Sky more involved here. I don't know if it's gonna happen, especially in time for when they need it to happen, and these guys are gonna have to step up massively in big games at the end of the season. But there's nothing wrong with having your defense carried the load for a little while.
Yeah, And I uh, it was interesting because I heard I heard what Mahomes said to Jeff Darlington after the game on the field.
And did he get to go to Germany.
Yeah, I'm jealous of Jeff. Jeff wung the Germany trip.
Huh.
Yeah, yeah, Jeff had like the uh Jeff had like a had a picture of like a beer flight. I'm like, and it was like Saturday afternoon there, but it was like you saw it on like I saw it on. I forgot to send it to him, but you saw it on social media at like eight thirty am on you know US Times.
Jeff a beer guy. He looks like he just he.
Looks Jeff is a beer guy. And I and so he has the beer flight and it's like you wake up on Saturday morning and I'm like, you know, I don't know, I'm going out to my kid's flag game. I'm like, god, damn it. Jeff like, so he's on his day off in Germany. So yes, he swung the Germany trip. Good for Jeff. Shout out to Jeff. And he did, and he did and he did pull the animal house built. But while he was there on Twitter, which I really did appreciate too, but Mahomes said to him, you know, like that he thinks it's the best defense in the league, which might be putting. It might be going a little too far, but he said he thinks it's the best defense in the league. And then he said, and it's going to give us time to catch up with them on offense, will be where we need to be when it counts, you know. And it sort of reminded me of the way again, like this is like the easy comparison because it's like the new dynasty versus the old dynasty. But like the way the Patriots used to evolve over the course of the year, and there would be like certain strengths they would have that would lift everybody else up, and then by the end of the year, like they would have the other parts of their team worked out. And it sort of feels like that's the way the Chiefs, because of how transcendent Mahomes is, because of how good reading his staff are, that they're able to, you know, be good enough in enough areas to the point where when they have issues they can sort of work them out on the fly. And I think that's where they're they're they're at right now. And I think it's easy to forget too. Connor, they were breaking in two new tackles and that's not automatic. Yeah, you're an old offensive Lineman.
Right, oh yeah, yeah, communication reserve guard.
Yeah, community communication is really important for those O alignment, you know. Like so like I do think like that's an element too of like kind of working it out when you have two new tackles, Like there is a little bit of a learning curve there, and it does seem like they're better in those spots than they were in September.
With that, let's hit some lightning round action here. The Colts beat the Panthers twenty seven to thirteen. Bryce Sung has two pick six'es. The Thomas Brown offensive coordinator era is off to a precarious start, and at one point in time I would have told you were hot if you thought that this was going to be a one and done situation. I don't think it's that crazy at this point. Like I really do think that David Tepper is a hothead. The owner, yeah, is of the temperament that this thing could get mixed up quickly.
Right, And I think, you know, like again like sometimes like the owners, owners like a lot of times have like little things that they want to take advantage of. And I think one of those little things is the window that you have with a rookie quarterback right with a young quarterback on the rookie contract, and I could see where maybe it causes him to act with urgency, you know, and say I have to do something because before you know it, we're going to be a year four Bryce Young and then we're gonna have to make a decision on where we're going with him, and we're gonna have blown that window. So I could see him acting with some urgency. I don't think it happens. But if Bryce Young keeps playing this way and they look like they're miles behind the Houston Texans right now, like who same thing, new coach, new quarterback, right then maybe we're talking about this being more of a reality a month or two from now, you know. And it's just it doesn't look like Bryce is getting a whole lot better. Is I think the biggest problem, and you know, it's just I don't. I think part of the problem that Frank deals with here too, is that the owner really did think he was close, you know, and between Brian Burns and j. C. Horn and you know, all the high draftics, Derek Brown, like all the hair, all the high all the high draft picks, all the talent they've got on defense. How they thought they got their offensive line right last year. I know this is massively disappointing for people in their front office and you know, all the way up to the top to the ownership suite.
I feel like watching DeForest Buckner sack. Bryce Young was one of the most stunning size discrepants moments in the NFL. I was just like it, It's like when I pick up one of my kids, you know, and throw them into into bed. I was like, oh my god, Like he could completely envelop Bryce Young. I think I still think Bryce s thing's good. I think in three years him and C. J. Stroud will be on equal footing. I know that's a hot take. I might write it later this week, Albert who knows.
But.
Oh yeah, My only hot take from this one is that you have to watch the locker room video of this game. Jim Mersey is dancing to a boom box, which I think is sort of like a played out thing, and it's not funny. But what was funny was he was holding Shane Steichen's hand, the head coach, and then just like I guess they like bro hugged.
Or whatever, like like a square dancing sense kind of like.
Yeah, yeah, like a little bit like they like it looked like they high fived and then they kept the high five, like he kept hold of his hand and then he's and then he's dancing and he's dancing and he's dancing, and you could Tellane is like get my hand, like I need my hand back, like this is weird and I don't from the owner. Yeah, and so it's one of those great like the office moments. Yeah, it's just very funny. So that's that's really my only takeaway here Giants Raiders. I I will I will say.
Is there something here? Is this the dead cat bounce it? Yes?
Well, I don't know. Here's what I will say the Giants, that is the worst situation to be in for any team when you fire an unpopular head coach who you know. I know you wrote about some of the team meeting stuff. I know there's been some of that stuff circulating too throughout the week. It sounds like it got bad to the point where these guys were genuinely thrilled that he was gone. They were all smoking cigars in the locker room afterwards, which I thought was a bad look. But you, as the Giants, there's nothing you can do about that, and then Daniel Jones tears his a cl and then you get put into a situation where Crosby can just Evan Neil got hurt in this game after just coming back from another injury. The whole thing was a disaster. So I do feel bad for the Giants. I think their consolation price here is going to be Drake May. Good for them. I think that's gonna be all right and everything's gonna work out. Is like the perfect Giant too, and that would be really is.
Yeah, it's like like Central Casting New York Giant, like son of an athlete, same way Eli was, you know, like comes from a like sort of I guess Southern royalty, you know, like he just I mean they all have that. It's the kind it's the kind of thing that John Marrick could really wrap his wrap his head around.
Eli, Drake May, and Daniel Jones all have hair that looks like it is a small helmet like of hair, and it looks like you can remove it almost like a.
Military like a World War two military helmet.
Almost like the you know the concussion helmets that goalies wear in uh in English soccer. It's almost like that, but with hair on top of it, and they all have it. So maybe that's what Dave Gettoman was talking about when he's saying full Bloom loves it starts it starts up top, which is something I don't know anything about it.
Yeah. I think the thing that's interesting about the Daniel Jones situation is because of how this year went, when they're making a decision on that position in the spring, they have like no more information than they had when they signed the deal in the first place last March.
You know, do you want my easy solution? I think this is the easiest solution of the world. You draft Drake May number two, which is where you're sitting right now, or Caleb Williams, if that's who falls to you, and you let you let Daniel Jones have a Kyler Murray here, like you say, take your time. You can rehabit, and if you're back in October and Drake May's not ready yet, you know, then you can play and then we'll cut you after twenty twenty four when we can eat the twenty two million in dead cap. Or you're probably not tradable, but there's something that we can work out with the money. One's treating this like it's a big thing. And when I wrote it yesterday, I think he's done in terms of being the Giants unquestioned starter. I don't think that there's any doubt in my mind. But this is an easy situation. Daniel Jones likes it there, they like him, the owner loves him. Just let him hang out for a year. What's the worst that is?
No, there's no real downside. I mean, I guess the doubt. The worst thing that would happen is that he comes in and plays great, and then you got like the Philip Rivers Drew Brees situation, right, which is.
A good problem.
I think it was a good problem to have. That's like a champagne problem. I also didn't know until just now looking up at the TV in here. Learned this in the bottom line a second ago, that Matt Barkley is on the Giants roster. So there you have it. What, Yeah, just learned that on the bottom line. It just flatched on the TV.
Sick. My one good Matt Barkley story is that I I don't know.
If I'd rather watch I don't know if I'd rather watch Tommy DeVito or Matt Matt Barkley is actually a really good guy. But I don't know if i'd rather I don't know which which I would rather watch, because, like I, like I said on Twitter, Lost, Tommy DeVito does sound like a guy like they pulled off the off a construction site, you know, as a to play. During the nineteen eighty seven strike.
I went up to interview Matt Barkley for a story that never ran, thank god, because it was terrible, but just about what it was like to be like Trevor Lawrence basically where you were essentially known to be the best quarterback in the world for like eight years before you even got to college. And so I was talking to him about it and someone pulled me over in the Bill's locker room, another player, and he goes, this guy right here is MF and case Keenum And it was I think it was right after like the Minneapolis Miracle. And he's like, Matt Barkley's MF and case Keenum And I was like, that's it's a really nice compliment. But you know, anyway, the Ravens demolished the Seahawks. I think this was a This was a game that kind of showed everybody like the Seahawks are good, They're not great. The Ravens I thought were good, but are actually a lot better than might might be great. And I don't think that there's I think.
The Ravens have the two best ones of this season. Yeah, if any team, like I think that this when and what they did to the Lions two weeks ago might be the two best wins in the entire league of any team this season, just because of what they did to those teams, Like it was like non competitive, like just a physical beat down. And this feels to me like this is trending towards being like a vintage raven season, you know, just because like I, you know, you look at like the jab Omar is doing distributing the ball. He's still effective as a runner. They ran for three hundred yards yesterday, and the defense is suffocating, you know, and the defense has horses again. So it would have been really fun to see them wind up with like a Daniel Hunter like we talked about last week, you know, and see what that would take them. But they're really good as it is.
New Orleans Saints gets five and four of the twenty four to seventeen win over the Bears. I love watching the Saints because like all of a sudden, Taysom Hill will just come into games and you're paying a quarterback forty million dollars a year, and then you're just like, yeah, let's throw in more accurate Tim Tebow for like big downs and not just rushing downs like Taysom Hill is throwing for touchdowns. Teammates always catches me out.
It always like it always like kind of like if you've got like four or five games out with the multiview and all that, like it always like it's always that thing you catch right in the corner of your eye too, like when you look down, it's like, holy crap, David Carr's running. No, no, no, no, that's number seven.
Yep, yep. My only other thought here is that. And I wanted to do it in all my leagues this year and then I forgot about it. But Taysom Hill should be like your second to last draft pick in every fantasy football league, And because you have guys that are sitting on the bench all year, you should just have him on the bench all the time because there's gonna be like a three week stretch where he plays quarterback and he scores like seventeen points a game. Just you know. Anyway, the Commanders beat the Patriots twenty to seventeen. If anyone can tell me one thing about this game without looking it up, I'll give you eleven dollars.
Isn't that amazing?
Like this game was so far off my radar it might have well have been played in Like.
I had to watch it because I'm going to talk about it on TV and radio all week.
That's true.
My thought is that Patriots are going to Germany this week and they're going to play the Colts at nine thirty am on Sunday morning in a game that a lot of people aren't going to watch. And this is legitimately where another coach would get fired if it wasn't Bill. If you look at the last four years and you divorce it from the previous twenty, which you can't, right, But if you look at the last four years, it was seven wins, ten wins, playoffs, get blown out in the first round of the playoffs seven wins. Now this and now you've lost the Commanders who had just traded two of their best players, their two defensive ends, right, and you're going to Germany and playing a rebuilding colts team, this would be the spot where another coach would get fired if the last four years belonging to another coach as it were. And I'm not advocate, I Bill just does not. Bill deserves the rest of the year for all he's accomplished, right, But am I wrong? No?
I don't think so. And far be it from anyone to embarrass an NFL franchise in front of the lovely fans in Frankfurt.
In Jerry, Yeah, we had remember because you remember there was that streak of like coaches getting fired in London. Yeah, wasn't it like it was like Dennis Allen, Joe Philbin right, Like there was like I think it was like two or three years in a row a coach didn't make it back from London.
As if traveling to that place isn't crappy enough.
Didn't one of them get fired and then like was flying was fired flying home on the team player or something like that?
God, could you imagine?
I think that was the Raider. I think that was that Dennis Allen like was fired at the stadium and then had to fly home, fired on the team plane like twelve hours. I'm I shouldn't laugh about that because it sucks. But what an awkward situation.
The I mean, flying to London or anywhere in Europe sucks so much, and to then also receive bad news on that flight, Mike.
I will see the flying back's not as bad.
Well, that's true because you're coming back into your natural body clock. Yeah.
So maybe maybe whoever that fire coach was that I can't I can't remember which one it was, but whoever that was had that going for him that day.
Yeah, so get ready for that Germany. Mac Jones right after Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill and Mike McDaniel and into mac Jones and Gardner Minshew exactly.
Holds the coach right right.
Packers twenty Rams three. I so we do like a pix against the spread thing with s I gambling. I am now one in seven on the year, So like I'm giving air quotes expert gambling advice. I picked the Rams. I thought I thought they would play well. I thought that you could get oh, I thought you could get something out of Brett Rippon. But yeah, that's that's not the case.
This.
Both of these teams are bad.
I don't know.
I mean Aaron Jones looks healthy, which is good if Luke Musgrave is your leading wide receiver, like this is good. I think Packer fans are tired of hearing how young the team is. But these are kind of the games that you'd like to see.
I don't know. I mean, I mean, like, I don't know. I just try to keep reminding myself that they were six and ten the first year Rogers was a starter, and that was coming off an NFC title game appearance, and like that. Sometimes these take these things take time to reset. They were ten and fourteen through Aaron Rodgers first year and a half before they really turned into a rocket ship and figured it out. So love you want you do want to give it some time. But yeah, I mean, I don't know if this is the week where you could say, yep, there it is, you know what I mean. Just because the Rams are not in a good place right now, they should.
Just take some of these games and they should play them as like like they should just play them in random outposts throughout the world and then don't even televise them here, like we'll just find out what happens like on the ap wire in the newspaper, Like we don't need to see it on TV. When you get to the point where you like the Patriots and you're not the air quotes the big Dynasty Patriots anymore, and you're two and seven and it's November. Just just play the games in like.
Like when the Raiders played that game in Winnipeg, and yeah, and Antonio Brown froze his feet? Wasn't there like a hole a random hole in the field too or something like that? Do you remember that was there?
Really?
It was something ridiculous because it was probably the second most ridiculous thing of the last few years to only to like when the logo, the Hall of Fame logo melted into the field in Canton and they couldn't play Remember that, Yeah, when they had to cancel the Hall of Fame game because the logo itself melted, Well, there was if I remember right again, You got to look this up. But the Raiders were playing a preseason game in Winnipeg and they had sold the game to Winnipeg because they were fighting with Oakland because they were leaving Oakland, and so they played this game in Winnipeg. And I believe the CFL goal posts are in the middle of the end zone isn't that right, right, Yes, right, So they're in the middle of the end zone, and so they hadn't properly, they hadn't filled in the hole that the CFL goalpost had left, and so there was just like a random hole in the end zone that I believe the NFL hadn't taken care of.
Fantastic. While you're saying this, I'm googling the most remote outposts in the world where you could play an NFL football game. But Google said North Sentinel Island, which is not true. You're not allowed on North Sentinel Island, I believe is the only place, Like there's been people who have tried to go there. It's in the Bay of Bengal, but it's you if you try to go there. The people who live on that island just like destroy people. Like there's been people who have tried to like come on boats, like cannibals or no, no, I don't think so, but like, like I think there's been like missionary deaths there North Sentinel Island, which, like I mean, that's what we call it. I don't know what they would call it. But yeah, so you can't play a Patriots game on North Sentinel Island. That's that's false. But anyway, yeah, they should just like I don't know, like put put an NFL game in like Japan, make the Patriots like if you're bad, you shouldn't be relegated, but you should have to travel to random places. You know what I mean?
Is South Sentinel Island just as dangerous.
I don't know. Maybe it's like I don't know. I'm just I'm just getting into the Bay of Bengal right now, So that's my you know, you can ask now I'm on Korra, which is.
Like having a waste more time than I should today looking this up.
Oh hell yeah, has anyone tried to Has anyone been to the North Centinel Island on Quorra, And like there's like people being like, yeah, I did, but it's like no, you definitely don't.
Wait it's part of India. But then it's like looks like it's like kind of like closer to like in Indonesia, right yeah, right, Like so isn't this where that like plane crash which wasn't remember the Malaysian was it Malaysia Air the plane the plane disappeared.
I think we're mixing together to pop culture phenomenon things.
I watched a whole I watched a whole special on it, and this this string of islands here I think was where I think it was where the and Shelby, our producer, is now saying no on the on the chat, I don't think so, but I swear to God, like like the I think the net that there's a Netflix special on like that Malaysia airplane that like disappeared, and I could swear it was right in this string of islands where like the plane took like a turn west or something and then like just like was never seen again. I thought that was it, But Shelby will keep us updated on that. I'm almost positive it was.
Maybe they have the answer to fixing mac Jones and making it more interesting. Very last, but not least, we have the Browns just clubbing the Cardinals twenty seven to nothing. I mean, this is what happens now. Right when you get rid of Josh Dobbs, Now you're free falling. Now you're getting into the point where Caleb Williams comes into focus. At this point, the only question is whether the Panthers can outpace the Giants. At this point, for that number two PAGs this is the first time corn of Bears, really, but this was the.
First time where the Cardinals really didn't show up, yep, you know, like this was the first time where it felt like, all right, like this is what we sort of expect from them. And I don't know whether they ran out of gas or what it was, but they just it's it's certainly interesting because now, you know, you look at it, and I would say the race, the Capabilliams sweepstakes has really started to heat up, you know, like where and I'm looking at it here because I had it in my notes yesterday. Yeah, so it right now we have the Cardinals at one in eight, we have the Bears with the Panthers pick at one in seven. We have the Bears with their slotted picket two and seven, the Giants with their slotted picket two and seven, and the Patriots with their slotted picket two and seven. So it's it's an interesting situation. Those five teams are all squarely in the running, and so the Cardinals really need to keep the pace or else somebody could swoop in and take that quarterback from them.
Yeah. Other than that, I mean Sean Watson's back to d nineteen yards two touchdowns. One of them was a tipped uh touchdown, So let's not let's not get too excited yet.
But we'll see that was a bizarre play. Like it like it well landed right in his hands, almost like as if it was planned, you know what I mean. Like it was like the way that thing bounced. It bounced right into his like bread basket, so it was like popped up into the air and then just like hit him in stride. Yeah, I'm not sure if there's not too much to read into that, but.
It's so hard, it's so hard to go back to the Browns after North Sentinel Island. Like my mind is just on fire right now about.
My mind is on North Sentinel Island, I know.
I mean, you know, Cleveland, just win a few more games and you'll you'll be more deserving of our attention that.
And I'm gonna try. I'm going to actively try to prove producer Shall be wrong and show him that the Malaysia Air disappearance did happen over North set in the Island or thereabouts.
But better you better watch it. Man, you're getting to the bottom of this. You're getting too close.
You get like a I mean, can I get like maybe like a like two hundred mile radius margin for air there airlines flight closed Stinel Island like within.
If it was found within, even in the same ocean, I will give you credit for it, but I don't think that's true. But Albert is enterprising. That's why we have him here. Thanks as always, uh to my buddy here for coming on, and thank you guys for tuning in. As always, we have the Matt and Gilberto Show on Thursday. Please give it a rating and review. It really does help other people find the show. Let us know what you think of the Sunday Monday show. I'm Connor Or and we'll see you guys next week.
