2025 NFL Week 7 Recap: Broncos Comeback, AFC Favorites Separate and CMC Carries The Load

17:32And that ends in a four point deficit. The Cardinals have not lost the game by more than four points all season. Their scoring differential throughout the course of the season is now negative one. And yet they fall to two and five on a day where the Packers had to show something a little different. So far this season, they have led every game by at least 10 points. They haven't trailed at any point by 10 points until today. They were down 13-3 early. They never had a lead in this game until under two minutes to go. And I thought the key moment of the game was one where we, and by we, I mean me, would have been criticizing Matt LaFleur for changing his mind to go for it on a fourth down.

18:15I liked the call to go for it. I hated burning his second timeout with just over two and a half minutes to do it. They had a field goal kicker out earlier. He had kicked a 60-yarder. They were going to kick the ball to tie it. And you know what? Matt LaFleur said, I'm going to trust my best players, Jordan Love and Tucker Kraft, to go make a play. And that's what they did.

18:35Nick Shook:Fourth and two, Green Bay. Can they get two yards to keep this thing alive? 2.32 to go, down three. Love looking to throw, has time, lofts the left side for Kraft. He's got it! Out of bounds! 14-yard line on the far side. They beat Daydrin Taylor-Deverson, first down, Green Bay. I thought this was a game where the best players on the field just kept stepping up. And that was a case where like, if they don't hit that play, if LeFleur doesn't have the faith in them, they lose that game. And if they go for a field goal, they very well might lose that game the way their defense was playing and Tucker craft.

19:11And especially Jordan left stepped up.

19:12Jourdan Rodrigue:Yeah, exactly. And the, what I loved about that sequence is you could almost see the, like the torment of the decision going back and forth and Matt LeFleur, like it flashed across his face. This is a person who does not really hide his emotions and has trouble hiding the things he's thinking in the course of a game action. If you ever watch him as he goes at officials, you will definitely notice this. This is this was you could tell he was thinking, oh, my God, did I make the right decision? But if you are confident in your players and I was giving the Packers grief last week because or during our preview show, because I'm like, you are so good.

19:52Jourdan Rodrigue:You're such a good team. You're so good in every phase. Your kicker is perfect. You hit a 61-yard freaking field goal, which I think is a record in that stadium on the road. And you are so good on offense, and you're so good on defense, and you have a great coaching staff. And so just go out and be loose and be free and trust your players and, like, unclench a little bit. And to me, he almost clenched, Greg. He almost clenched, Patrick. He was almost too tight, and then he just let go. And he's like, all right, Jordan Love, Tucker Craft, go make a play. And they did. It was awesome. And Josh Jacobs finishes out that drive.

20:29He's battling through a calf injury. And look, we'll see if their defense is awesome. On paper, it's good. On the field, they've been good. I would say that's the case of their offense and their defense. They've just been good. There have been more potential than greatness. If Micah Parsons didn't have maybe the best game I've seen by any defensive player all season today, they could have given up 40 in this game, but he ends up with 10 pressures, three sacks. In my book, it's four sacks because it was two different half sacks. And I want to abolish the half sack. That is my subway take. There should be no more half sacks.

21:03A half sack is a half sack.

21:04Jourdan Rodrigue:100 % agree. Thank you so much. So five QB hits, a couple of tackles for loss, some good run defense plays too. And his biggest sack at the end where he takes a playoff in the final drive for the Cardinals, comes back on, gets the sack and that sets up the desperation play by the Cardinals. They needed all their best players like Kraft and Love and Parsons to get out of there with the win because I think the Cardinals were almost playing for their season and they played very well.

21:29Patrick Claybon:Yeah, they played the entire time other than, you know, Rashawn Gary made a great play that actually got the Packers a key possession on a turnover where Jacoby Brissett is looking to get the ball to Zonovan Knight and it looked like a fumble initially. I know it looked like a bad pass that was just thrown backwards recovered by the packers uh but rashaun gary got a hit got the ball out and just in that play where we've bemoaned i've been in previous seasons that the packers just needed some star power and and they got it today because parsons also had a sack of jacoby brissette that took him a very long time uh to get up and he was kind of hopping around uh for a little bit and i think that slowed him down but to go back to that that fourth down play like they gotta have it play the thing looking back at the dots looking back at the all 22 Romeo Dobbs got open over the middle Josh Jacobs won on his option route as well as Tucker craft with you know a Cardinals fan would say he pushed off he did push off that move it was that veteran crafty but they almost never call that full speed but all all three of those guys got open on that play and I think that's that like to get to that point of Matt LaFleur making that gotta have it decision he he not just went with a play to get to get tucker craft open uh two other guys got open yeah play trust your players trust your play calls too because i thought he had a great game calling the game there were so many plays where jordan love had easy buttons especially in the second half first half less so but the three points that they got before halftime were so massive they got the ball back after a stirring Jacoby Brissett drive.

23:09And we'll talk Brissett in a second. The last drive of the first half was stirring and they played great to end it. And the Packers get the ball with seven seconds left on the 35. And that's where, you know, I think you make a mistake in terms of the kickoff, kicking it out of bounds. And it starts at the 35. They get it with seven seconds left and Love hits Dobbs over the middle for 22 yards in time to take the timeout. and then that sets up that 61-yarder. Those three points were huge. But man, after halftime where they scored three touchdowns, there was a lot of Matt LaFleur specials, just really creative stuff and getting his receivers open.

23:48I mentioned Brissette. I think Jonathan Gannon, he's got a lot of tough things over the next week. They're going into their bye. I think they just should be 3-4. They feel like a 3-4 team. They could even be a 4-3 team the way they've played the last couple weeks. But they're 2-5 and they have to decide whether to go back to Kyler Murray or not because I think the offense has just looked more cohesive and more of what it should be with Jacoby Brissett at quarterback. And I'll say it for you, Jordan, because you always say that it should go through Trey McBride thing. Like you saw that today. I think it helped that they have Elijah Higgins back and there are two more, two tight ends.

24:24And it just looked more like what they want to do under center, play action, all this stuff. It's just what their coaching staff knows.

24:31Jourdan Rodrigue:It's why they brought Jacoby Brissett in to see if this could work, then it would really work, right? And who knew? They did not obviously plan for an injury or this type of thing. When I was at camp over the summer and I was fortunate to talk to Jacoby Rissett and I encountered one of the most confident individuals I've met in years in terms of if he was going to get a shot, he was going to absolutely make the most of it going rep for rep throughout those pretty open training camp sessions where a lot of times the number one and the number two are actually getting a lot of the same reps with the way that they run their practices.

25:09Jourdan Rodrigue:And I thought that it showed. I thought it absolutely showed. You see Drew Petsing running the offense that he specifically wants to run through the tight end, especially like you mentioned, having some personnel back. But then also dotting in a couple of guys here and there. Zay Jones made a pretty crucial catch. Marvin Harrison, two catches for 58 yards with a 35-yard long as well. And drew a big pass interference on a deep throat. Absolutely. So it's not like these guys were absent, but this was Jacoby Brissett and Trey McBride's game together today. And Trey McBride was really upset over a mistake that he made earlier, like five minutes after the play happened.

25:48Jourdan Rodrigue:Greg and I were talking about he was like yelling at himself and hitting himself in the chest on the sideline. And then he goes out and he scores the two touchdowns, 10 catches on 13 targets for 74 yards. And some of them were absolutely crucial. And I believe that is more touchdowns than he had all last season. Just a good, clean football game. I really thought it looked like a playoff type of game because I think the Cardinals were desperate feel for him. We'll see about the Kyler decision. I just think Bursette has been excellent in these two weeks.

26:15Patrick Claybon:But I mean, the results are the same. It is. Yeah, they lost. But wins are not a quarter. 15 combined points in those five losses, which is bananas. It would be an organizational changing move to bench Kyler right now. Gannon is at a key point. I'm just curious. I'm curious how it goes. And I'm glad you mentioned that play where McBride didn't come up with a touchdown and he was mad. I give a lot of credit to Edger and Cooper. So to keep the theme on this game in terms of stars making absolutely crucial plays, that play by Edger and Cooper, a tackle on the sideline where he basically threw Michael Wilson's face into the ground to set up a fourth down attempt by the Cardinals where they then tried to sneak it and edger and cooper helped to stuff the sneak this is a young linebacker stepping up those were two game-winning plays by him let's go to a game where there wasn't a ton of game-winning defensive plays but there were a lot of great plays high snap for jones but he

27:14Nick Shook:pulls it down gifted to taylor marching to his right he's at the bottom touchdown the trifecta again for jonathan taylor three rushing touchdowns for the greatest running back going right now

27:27Patrick Claybon:It's 37-17 Colts over Bolts. And he's going to the house. I thought we're in Englewood. I thought he was headed down to Huntington Beach the way he was running that ball. Shout out to Charles Arbuckle making his NFL daily debut. Matt Taylor's on the show every single week because Jonathan Taylor and this Colts offense is getting it done every single week. 38-24 against the Chargers. Patrick, any time the Chargers even got it to third or fourth down, much less get a stop in this game. And there weren't many. It felt like a miracle. Just an awesome offensive performance by the Colts. No, it was incredible.

28:12Patrick Claybon:The Colts, that was the third Jonathan Taylor touchdown, as they noted. And actually, the south end zone in SoFi does eerily point towards Huntington Beach, if you think about it.

28:21Jourdan Rodrigue:So it was just we love geographic accuracy. We do.

28:24Patrick Claybon:And it's something we adhere to on NFL Daily. The Colts didn't stop scoring in a game where the Colts defense needed to make plays. Certainly, they did turn the Chargers over a couple of times and got a win avenging their loss to the stadium itself. They didn't beat the Rams. They're now one and one in SoFi. One and one in SoFi on the season. They got Khalil Mack back, which helped them. And it might have helped them more against a lesser team. but the Colts are just so dominant. Jonathan Taylor had three touchdowns, average six yards a carry. There was a Tyler Warren score that made it 20-3, and the Chargers on what felt like at that point, it got to have it drive.

29:02Patrick Claybon:They went nine plays down to the Colts' eight, and Nick Cross was covering Quinton Johnston. He was blanketing him a clean pocket for Justin Herbert, and he just kind of inexplicably throws it directly at Nick Cross, who picks it off, corrals it with one hand for the turnover. He had another interception where Grover Stewart tipped the pass, got an interception. he's 31 years old as his first career interception i promise 53 colts players were on the field celebrating um after he got that one um and they weren't able to hold serve consistently against the colts team that had over 400 yards of total offense uh alec pierce getting back getting down the field my obligatory alec pierce mentioned he had like three catches for 74 yards late um in the third quarter there and just a dominant performance by dimes and company where they consistently made the plays and the Chargers defense couldn't ultimately keep up.

29:54Jourdan Rodrigue:Every time I flipped over to this game, I would say, oh, Patrick, because Alec Piers was making a play. You guys, this 6-1 Indianapolis Colts team, by the way, is such a complete team. They're so balanced. They came in having real questions about their corners. Yes, Justin Herbert put up 420 yards, threw the ball 55, times. Had some great performance from a couple of guys, including this Gadsden guy who has arrived on the scene in a bolt. 150 plus. I mean, his first game in the NFL, Gadsden, what was that week three or four? Obviously the son of an NFL. Great. Like he puts up seven for 60 and he's like putting up Brock Bowers, Tyler Warren type of number since.

30:40Jourdan Rodrigue:It's insane. So yeah, they got theirs certainly in the passing game, but you cannot out produce a team that is so production based. That is the Colts. And they're so balanced in doing it run and pass 94 yards for Jonathan Taylor. But then also you have like six receivers getting at least three catches a piece. Is this to me? This is like the deepest receiving core in the NFL right now. I agree in terms of like top, like four guys who you, if you're including Warren as the fourth or fifth, even when you want to throw. Jonathan Taylor had three catches today. Jonathan Taylor has become a complete player.

31:20I'm glad you use that word complete because he knew he was one of the worst pass blocking running backs in a league. And everyone killed Steichen a couple of years ago when they had that play to win the division. Gardner Minshew to, I believe, Tyler Goodson was it? And everyone's like, why is Tyler freaking Goodson in the game with the division online, which is fair. But Jonathan Taylor admitted like, I just haven't been that guy in pass pro. And he talked about working on it all summer long. And if you look at the snap distribution, he now does not leave the field. And that's why he's catching more of those dump offs.

31:56He doesn't have like the best hands in the world, but he can catch a dump off. And then when he has the ball in his hands, he's still freaking Jonathan Taylor. This offense is just so tough to stop. And I am a little disappointed. I give the Colts all the credit, but I am a little disappointed that Jesse Minner and this Chargers defense has had no push back against opposing offenses for the last five or six weeks. And they're not that injured. Like they got Cleo Mack back. They got Perriman back. They haven't been that injured this whole time. So to me, they have been one of the bigger, you know, disappointing units in the league, the Chargers defense.

32:29What did you see out of them today, Patrick?

32:30Patrick Claybon:uh it was they only got pressure on 14 of dimes's drop backs and even then uh because we talk about all the time on next gen stats pressure is more of a proximity alert uh than anything else so they got close to daniel jones but even in that situation uh he had an 89 passer rating he averaged over five yards uh per attempt where it it was just constant that the colts checked it down uh to be perfectly honest like 40 plus uh was in question but they got to a point where they were just running clock and the chargers essentially were running clock as well with herbert uh throwing for over 450 but a lot of those like they were fourth and 12s fourth and 22s that the chargers kept converting and staying on the field so it was they just didn't make any plays it felt like oh like over the course of the entire game khalil mack had a sack but but other than that like not a lot was going on and it's a lot of herbert like herbert scrambling a lot i mean Herbert's second half of this game was an ultimate show of just watching a guy trying to do it all by himself.

33:30And it was pretty entertaining to watch, to be honest. I mean, there were a lot of dimes in there, but it's just too much. And it'd be one thing if he was making up for at one point today being down to their sixth tackle because they lost Austin Declas at one point, although he did come back in. They're going to get Joel back potentially as early as Thursday night. So that would be just team changing for them. but he can't be making up for the defense and the offensive line situation. They just need the defense to be better and the special teams. Like there was a moment in this game where they had scored a couple of times in a row and then special teams gives up a big play.

34:07Ultimately though, there's just not many teams that have that many wide open receivers like Michael Pittman, like guys were just open for, for Daniel Jones. It's fun to watch.

34:16Jourdan Rodrigue:Yeah. I'd like to, especially as we get like more and more data from this season, maybe at the halfway point or something, I'd like to do a deeper look or deeper dive at this Chargers defense and like what exactly is going wrong because they started out so, so well and they look dominant and they look schematically sound. And it's almost like, you know, we talk, I know it's, it's all, this is a huge mental thing and players have to make plays and coaches have to put players in good position. where it's almost like Jesse Minner doesn't really want to change what he does, nor does he maybe feel like he can.

34:47Jourdan Rodrigue:Even some of their guys that they kind of brought in and invested in and then developed, he's trying to play with all these light boxes. You can't really do that against Jonathan Taylor right now, especially when the Colts can just kill you in every different direction possible. They're a zoning defense, and they can be really, really good when they're playing fundamentally sound, but then there's just breaks in different places. and yeah, injuries are one thing, but to your point, Greg, a lot of the guys that were injured are back. Now they haven't been back for a long time, so maybe they still...

35:19They haven't been that injured on defense. They've been an average number of injured. They're just thin. I think... Yeah. Offense, I get it. They're a frustrating team, the Chargers, right now. But most of the credit just goes to having to play the Colts.

35:33Jourdan Rodrigue:What I'm saying is, I think it's because I curse them, honestly. Oh, yeah.

35:37Patrick Claybon:That's the reason.

35:37Jourdan Rodrigue:There's no other reason.

35:38Patrick Claybon:There is a significant contrast and specifically watching these two teams where it's like Justin Herbert is having to square general relativity and quantum mechanics every single play versus dimes. There was a play where Michael Pittman Jr. is in the bottom of a three-restricted stack and wide open. Like, where are the layups in the Chargers offense? It's just all Herbert. Yeah. And it's all Herbert. And for the Colts, it's all like everybody. And that includes the defense making just enough plays. Shout out to Nick cross with that interception on the play. You talked about, that was a great catch.

36:15That was like a one handed catch and friend of the show. Hit the, hit the bell, Jordan. She wants to keep track of how many times I mentioned Ollie Connelly, friend of the show, Ollie Connelly called him in a text, perhaps not only the NFL's most improved player, but potentially the most important non-superstar in the entire world. entire NFL, Nick Cross. And if you want to know what he means by that, read the 3 ,500 word essay that he wrote about Nick Cross, who's kind of the spine of the structure of how this defense is built. And you'll understand, you'll get a little smarter. That's on the read optional sub stack.

36:55Let's take a quick break because we have a lot of games to get to, including the Carson Wentz revenge saga.

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40:44Nick Shook:And if you want to keep the fun going all summer, You can get the Topgolf Summer Fun Pass, which lets you play every single day and bring up to five guests every visit. Get yours now at topgolf.com slash fun pass. Summer hits different at Topgolf. A.J. Brown to the foreside. This is the biggest third down of the season, quite frankly. Hurts in the corner. Hertz is back Here comes the wush He is looping it for A.J. Brown Who has it? Who has it? He's down at the 10-yard line Hertz to A.J. Brown Magnificent Great call there by Merrill Reese on W.I.P. Yes, Jalen Hertz to A.J. Brown helps to seal a 28-22 victory and how symbolic, how perfect that play was in encapsulating a perfect day just about by Jalen Hurts.

41:52He was perfect on deep shots, by the way. Five for five on throws over 20 yards for 215 yards. This game reminded me so much of when their offense was rolling at least a passing attack last year. There was a fourth down early in the game, fourth and four, and that's where he hit his first bomb to A.J. Brown ends up being a 37 yard touchdown. And it reminded me so much of a second quarter, fourth and four go ball that he threw to A.J. Brown in week six. I went to go check last year against the Giants, which I thought was if you were going to pick one play that kind of like unlock them in the middle of the regular season last year.

42:33It was that one. He ends up going deep quite a bit in this game, including to Devante Smith.

42:40Nick Shook:Hurts under center this time with Barkley behind him. Brown a wing to the far side. Second down. Hurts fakes. He's back. He's looking. He is going deep. He went to Devontae Smith. He has it. 20, 15, 10, 5. Touchdown! Devontae Smith beat Rodgers. Unreal. Devontae, nine catches, 183 yards. A.J. Brown ends up with 121 in two. They will be happy on the flight home. No more drama. It was just an old school Jalen Hurts performance.

43:14Jourdan Rodrigue:I'm happy. They ran play action. Yes. And they didn't just run play action, which they had only run six play action passes entering this game. And all of them were paired with passes and route combinations that did not go over seven yards. This game, Jalen Hurts was four for four on play action from under center. for 121 yards and touchdown. And so averaging 30.3 yards per play action pass and a touchdown. He was also just about perfect against Brian Flores' blitz, 11 for 14 for 233, two touchdowns. Including that last play, like that was great solving the blitz. Just looked great. He had an incredible, incredible game, played nearly perfectly.

44:05Jourdan Rodrigue:And the Eagles did some different things. They moved his spot. They developed and formulated and schemed. And this was actually something where, no, they didn't necessarily get the run game going. They didn't have to. They could throw the ball all day long against a secondary that is very good. Right. I love that Hurts also had two third and long creation plays. When Hurts is playing well, he mixes those plays in. He had a third and 15 to Devante Smith for 28 yards and then a third and 13 where he scrambled to A.J. Brown, which set up one of the touchdowns.

44:39Patrick Claybon:Yeah, it set up a touchdown the Eagles needed. They needed all of them. And the manipulation, the pocket manipulation from Jalen Hurts, where a few years ago he would have escaped to his right early. He stays in. The edge comes back around. And then he goes to the right and gets A.J. Brown, where a couple of weeks ago, against a very good receiving core, Isaiah Rogers had the best game ever literally the best game ever against T. Higgins and Jamar Chase and then he comes back around and to AJ and Devonta gives up 156 yards including that bomb as well as the third down to AJ Brown where those guys kind of took advantage of their old teammate and I think especially on the sluggo to AJ Brown that prior knowledge it comes into play.

45:24Shuts up all the WIP callers who are like how did we possibly let Isaiah Rogers go? Although I think, you know, it would have been good to keep him. Uh, it was, yeah.

45:31Jourdan Rodrigue:Dory Jackson got banged up in the middle of the game. Yeah, that's true. And Keely ringer, like, not like they've been great, but you should be able to survive with one replacement level cornerback. And they did for the most part today, it was a weird Fangio game typical in that, like they let them go down the field and they end up forcing quote unquote five field goals in six red zone trips. Carson Wentz in the running game really moved the ball well all day. Now, two of those forced field goals were after touchdowns called back, one by penalty during a nightmare game for their center, Blake Brendel.

46:06Blake Brendel in this game, even in just the first half, had a sequence where he threw the ball 20 yards over Carson Wentz's head. There goes one red zone drive. He gives up a massive hit from Jalen Carter, which turns into a pick six and gets beat early. And as a penalty, that calls back a touchdown. They also, I thought made a crazy overrule on a potential TJ Hawkinson touchdown with a little under three minutes to go to me that that was a touchdown and the end of the game would have looked a little bit different that's not taking anything away it's just pointing out it was a weird game where Carson Wentz looked good for about 80 percent of the plays and the other plays were such disasters that that's what people will remember yeah and I and also I would I would

46:51Jourdan Rodrigue:put Kevin O 'Connell in there too with some of the play calls at one point at a second and one in the second quarter from the six yard line. And they ended up kicking a 33 yard field goal from that field position. I mean, and not running it in any of those plays. Yeah. And it was, it's one of those games where you just, you just take Carson Wentz for who he is, take him as he is and whatever comes with him. You just try to endure and weather the storm. You know, I thought because of all the messiness that was happening for the Eagles internally and all the chatter externally. And could they actually adjust and could they actually do X, Y, and Z coming up against a really tough defense and reputationally tough defense and schematically tough defense.

47:33Jourdan Rodrigue:And then a pretty composed, despite all the uncertainty at quarterback, relatively composed and well-coached offense, especially with some of the weapons that are available to Carson Wentz. But the Vikings teetered on the brink of pure chaos to me multiple times. And again, they could go most of the field and then all of a sudden they would just, things would just happen. They would just make mistakes or there would be weird play calling sequences or the Vikings would make a play or the officials would get involved. Either one, you know, everything, pick one, anything could have happened and did happen in this game.

48:06Patrick Claybon:There was, and I'll give you, because on the Jalex Hunt pick six, like he starts lined up over top of Justin Jefferson, kind of drifts a little bit, and then runs back over, and Carson Wentz gets plastered, as you noted by Jalen Carter. And those interceptions happen. They happen all the time. The Makuba interception was the typical Carson Wentz pick where it's like you can't throw that ball that really had no chance to be completed, and he's just kind of throwing a YOLO ball as if it's a Hail Mary situation, but they're still in the game at that point. Oh, it's early second quarter. I mean, he played pretty well from that point forward.

48:40At that moment, I thought either J.J. McCarthy or Max Prosmer is starting next week because I just thought it was going to circle down the drain. And actually, Wentz played pretty well the rest of the game. I mean, he ends up with 313 yards. Like I said, he could have had, they could have had a couple touchdowns there and he has them in it at the end. But yeah, when you have a, unfortunately, he's going to have these sequences. The sequence was a pick six, a play where he fritzed out and threw the ball backwards and it ended up being a negative nine fumble. That's what it's called that because he threw the ball backwards out of bounds, then a holding penalty on his offense and then the other interception.

49:19So it's just like those four plays just absolutely killed them. Take everything away, though. And the Vikings defense, I don't think it's been special this year. It's just been OK. It's like the 12th best defense in the league. And they didn't they weren't special today. And they just that's just they just need to be.

49:34Jourdan Rodrigue:But they solved the tush push. They solved it. I mean, yes. They had a defensive player lying down in front of the center on his side, essentially, with two players over him to try to block it. Now, the Eagles did hit their first tush push, but it was very close and it was tight. And then the next one, there was actually a false start on A.J. Brown, so we never really found out. They used him as a wedge. But it was interesting. Human wedge. We'll see if someone copies him. no who would do that it puts 10 people on the field it's incredible he's a human being he's a human witch I was reading and they literally called this guy up like recently and it's like here's your job today you are to lay horizontally across the line of scrimmage it's amazing this is insane it's the type of thing that led to Yeah, it's the type of thing that led to his Dolphins players not being sad when he left.

50:37Good win by the Eagles. And more than anything, it comes down to the players. The Eagles' offensive line was totally dominant. None of the Vikings' pass rushers won one-on-one matchups at all. It should be pointed out, helping Jalen Hurts. While on the other side, the return of Jalen Carter being Jalen freaking Carter made all the difference in the world. There wasn't a single edge rusher in this game that had a quick pressure. You know how many Jalen Carter had all by himself? Six. He was awesome in this game. Eagles win. Vikings fall to three and three ahead of TNF. Let's stay in the NFC East.

51:13Nick Shook:Play clock at one. They get it off. Blitz is coming. Mariota in trouble. Being ripped away. Stays alive. Throws it in the front. And it's picked off. Guess who? Deron Bland. One man to beat. Pick six. That's Kevin Burkhart on Fox. And that's also the trademark call by Tom Brady. Or is it more like, oh, it's just a lot. It's a lot of, oh, every week. Should someone tell him to stop that or no? We had a good chat about it.

51:45Jourdan Rodrigue:It feels like he should. It's authentic. It's energy. Okay. 44 to 22. The Cowboys win a game where, sure, The commanders did not have Debo Samuel or Terry McLaurin, and they lost Jaden Daniels in the third quarter of this game, and he did not return. And that's the biggest story coming out of this game. But ultimately, the Cowboys offense were putting up points no matter who was going to be on the commanders today. And their defense actually helped them today, you guys. They played complementary football in all three phases and especially notable on defense. I want to put a spotlight on the two Dallas takeaways in the third quarter, Both of them that led to touchdowns.

52:28Jourdan Rodrigue:The first was a sack fumble. Jadavion Clowney recovered it. That was the play that Jaden Daniels hurt his hamstring on and eventually was ruled out of the game after first going to get checked out in the blue tent and then going to the locker room. Plus, Dak Prescott and the Cowboys then scored on the corresponding possession. Marcus Mariota comes in. He throws a pick six. Really bad. You saw it. Desperation throw by Marcus Mariota. Daron Bland comes in and scores off the takeaway. and it marked just a really good day for the Cowboys defense overall. Yes, against a really depleted commander's receivers room, as previously noted, but the Cowboys, when facing the numbers four, five, and six Washington receivers and a very banged up Zach Ertz, just decided like, hey, we are going to play a ton of man-to-man coverage in this game.

53:16Jourdan Rodrigue:We are going to blitz more than we normally do. The neck veins on Matt Eberflus' neck were standing out every time the sideline cameras cut to him. This was, the defense had juice this game. They played complimentary football. And again, I already can hear it now. Yes, yes, the Washington Commanders were extremely depleted, even down a quarterback by the end of it. But this Cowboys defense really needed a game like this. They were pretty good against the run as well. And they made plays. And that is something that's been sorely lacking because Dak Prescott had another incredible game. It's happening every week.

53:53To me, he's been the best quarterback in the league, along with Mahomes, I would say. We'll get to him. But in terms of just consistently every week, Dak has been ridiculous. And, you know, CeeDee Lamb returns to this game, and he puts up, you know, a monster touchdown right off the bat. What was that? 76 yards or something. And yet George Pickens, you know, still ends up having, like, a very entertaining game.

54:20Patrick Claybon:anything can happen when this guy touches the ball no and like we see because the cowboys were still explosive without cd lamb uh but you could of course cd and dac have played a lot of football together he had 100 yards before the end of the first half uh it wasn't just that home run there were a couple of third downs where you you just see them continue to execute at the high level javante and the run game uh got back healthy after the the disaster in charlotte but i as as much as the positive cutaways of Iberflus over on the side. We haven't had a lot of positive Iberflus cutaways. I wanted to give him some pop, you know.

54:55Patrick Claybon:Jane Daniels still had, when he was in, still had a lot of time. He was back there on 63 % of his dropbacks. It was over two and a half seconds. And a lot of that is, you know, balls that would have come out if Terry McLaurin, who has been, or Debo, who was getting, you know, 29 % or 20 plus percent of the air yards on this team while he was healthy. you could see that the absences really impacted the offense as well but this is a game that even if they were there uh the the dallas offense was on fire and 100 correct because you could see

55:27Jourdan Rodrigue:every everything was just a little off the timing some of the spacing for the receivers that were available a couple of guys made made plays jaden daniels um had a really great sort of um correction he started running the ball a little bit and then getting the ball to jeremy jeremy mcnichols who had a big catch and run as well to help get them to the goal line. And then Jaden Daniels nearly did the same thing that he did last week, which was mishandling a bad snap, but instead he keeps it himself and Jerry McNichols adjusts as well in the moment and helps lead block for him, keeping it for the touchdown.

55:59Jourdan Rodrigue:They make it a game 20 to 15. Unfortunately for them, Dak Prescott is on the other side. He goes right back to George Pickens deep against Marshawn Lattimore, who did not look like he was having a good time at any point during this game. and he's so smooth. He looks like he's running in slow motion, but he's not. It does not make sense to me. He just everything. And then all of a sudden pure chaos. It's because he does some WWE move or something in the middle of a play. But it sets up a Javante Williams run to the goal line. And then Dak Prescott, of course, hits Jake Ferguson. And they scored in about 30 seconds to close out the first half.

56:35Jourdan Rodrigue:And it just was this Cowboys offense just has it. They won't have this kind of performance for their defense, I don't think, for the rest of the season, although the adjustments, I think, were laudable. Like I said, playing more man coverage is not something that they wanted to do, clearly, earlier in the season. They won't be able to against non-depleted receiver core that they'll face later in the year. But at the same time, like, man, these games, these Dak Prescott games are just awesome. Well, they can play more man, and I'm sure they will. It's shout out to a beat reporter. Shout out to the Cowboys for letting beat reporters watch actual practice a little bit.

57:15Unlike other teams, they did note this week that they saw them practicing man coverage quite a bit more than they usually do. And it's like, yeah, be flexible to go back to the Eagles game quickly. One of the reasons they want is Vic Fangio called man on so much more than they normally do. And cause that's what scrambled Carson Wentz's brain and they need to be flexible. You paid to Ron Bland and Trevon digs all that money. Let them do what they do best. And yeah, for all the excuses that you can make for this win, they essentially were trailing 35 to 14 before Marcus Mariota took a snap.

57:46Jourdan Rodrigue:I flipped to the Broncos game, for example. Right. But I just want to shout out Brandon Aubrey. There's another 61-yard field goal. So we mentioned Lucas Heversick earlier, and Brandon Aubrey hit a 61-yard field goal to go up 20 to 8 there in the first half. I mean, kickers, man. K-balls. It's becoming normal. You know what else is becoming normal? like the Cowboys just they're part of this season at this point I guess I'm just I don't know like put put the NFL hat on me and and put me next to Rob Lowe in the crowd because like I I find myself rooting for teams to stay alive and interesting that's kind of what I want and it's pretty interesting the Cowboys are ahead of the commanders right now in the NFC East man if the Giants had finished off that game it'd be really spicy there but three three and one they're just in the mix they might have the best quarterback in the league.

58:37The commanders are going to have to do something they haven't had to with Dan Quinn, which is get out of a little bit of a rut here at three and four. Let's go to a team in London who barely spent any time there, but they're not trying to get out of a rut at all.

58:52Patrick Claybon:Fourth and one. Stafford under center. Snap. Play fake. Rolling left. Looking downfield. Stafford plants. Throws deep down the middle of the field in the end zone.

59:02Nick Shook:And it's caught. It's a touchdown, Rams. It's the rookie tight end, Terrence Bergesek. His first career touchdown on a fourth and one play. The explanation point for the Rams in London. That is J.P. Shadrick from Westwood One. Apologies to J.B. Long. Putting a J.P. instead of a J.B. just feels wrong. We couldn't find the radio calls for J.B. Long, who I am reliably told from J.B. Long, spent less than 12 hours in London. There it is. Announced the college football game in America on Saturday night and then flew over, called the game. The Rams win 35-7. They barely spent more than 24 hours there.

59:46They got there Saturday morning, and you wonder if teams are going to start copying them because Matthew Stafford finished with five touchdowns in a game where everything looked good for the Rams except for maybe the offense in the third quarter, but that's like a small little knit to pick Patrick. Like their defense was awesome. Their offense was awesome. Where do you want to start?

1:00:10Patrick Claybon:We'll start with Devontae Adams breaking an NFL record today, having three touchdowns, all less than two yards. One of them was a one-hander that he caught from Matthew Stafford. As you wondered, like, what would this offense look like without Puka Nakua? The answer is pretty good. Where the Jags really like there's a conversation to be had because the deployment of Travis Hunter was mostly at wide receiver in this game against the Rams. But Andrew Wingard, once again, we just saw him get beat on that play-action touchdown to the tight end. It's week after week where teams are isolating him in coverage, and the results are not good for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

1:00:48Two huge penalties in the first half of this game before giving that playoff. Yeah, Stafford ends up with five touchdowns and 182 yards. Not a stat line you normally see, But it was raining heavily through the first half of this game. The rain did let up, but it was sloppy. People slipping all around. So not a ton of chunk plays down the field until Hunter got one and De 'Ami Brown for the Jaguars later.

1:01:12Jourdan Rodrigue:And all five of his touchdowns came against the Blitz, which again, you would think because of the familiarity between these two coaching staffs that you just don't Blitz Matthew Stafford. But apparently that is what the Jacksonville Jaguars decided they were going to try to do today, possibly trying to take advantage of yet again, missing Rob Havenstein at right tackle and also missing Puka Nakua, who's really great in the blocking service. I think it is such a compliment to how many jobs Puka Nakua actually does for the Rams that they were in 12 or 13 personnel more than they have been by volume since 2020.

1:01:50Jourdan Rodrigue:And even before that, since we really just started tracking this. Oh, and I got a next gen stat. Oh, please go for it. In 13 personnel. So that's three tight ends on the field. It is by far the most any team has ever had three tight ends on the field. It was almost 40 % of the time. Next gen only tracks back to 2016, but by far for comparison, the Rams had six snaps total in that with that personnel over the last four years. And yeah, they, they were in it almost 40 % of this game and they just got heavy and they got, they got good. because Puka Nakua plays both receiver and tight end for them, depending on the type of pass play or the type of run play.

1:02:30Jourdan Rodrigue:And I think that is such a compliment to him. And it is, again, I think a really timely and really good reminder to Rams head coach, Sean McVay, that you can use more than one player on your roster. You can target more than one player. You can use more than one personnel and hell, good things might happen when you decide to do so, especially if you can finally be the Kyle Shanahan of the world and beat up on your former offensive coordinator, Liam Cohen, and beat up on your former employees. And Les Snead can beat up on his former protege, James Gladstone. This game had so many connections and so much, so many layers and levels to it.

1:03:15Jourdan Rodrigue:But I think to me, when Sean McFay goes into the bye week, and I know this is when he goes and actually catches up on what the rest of the league is doing, like a true football sicko. He is going to look back at this game and say, this is exactly what I myself said I wanted to do with this team, including when Puka is on the field is be as multiple as possible, have so much more dimension to this offense. I think he called a great game. I think Chris Shula called a hell of a game on defense as well. He kind of hid the issues that those cornerbacks are having and took advantage of still continued miscommunication, inconsistency, lack of identity within the Jaguars passing game that Patrick, you have been on.

1:03:56Jourdan Rodrigue:You've pointed this out from the jump.

1:03:58Patrick Claybon:Well, and the thing is that we talk about fighting history and legacy that they're doing it. It wasn't just Brian Thomas Jr. with the in breakers on in breakers today. Trev was nine of 2442 yards. Deami Brown had one where he looked like he was making a weird decision on it. There was another by Parker Washington. And again, a lot of the breakers where guys were trying to make breaks and slipping and falling, but both teams were playing on the same field, just seemed to impact the Jags a little bit more, where you almost wonder, like, maybe just take the middle of the field out. If everything is going that way for the passing game, maybe just stop doing it altogether.

1:04:33Right. There was a third down where, yeah, you mentioned De 'Ami Brown kind of stopped short or is a little confused. Travis Hunter doesn't even look the way of the ball on another third down, although he does finish with eight catches for 101 yards. They were trying to target him, especially late. It was almost like they were trying to work on him, and he had a 34-yard touchdown. He had a great catch down the field. It's another game where I think the box score for Trevor Lawrence lied. I don't think he played well. There was a fourth down where he made a bad decision to run in the goal line and then got stopped.

1:05:07If you're going to do it, you kind of have to make it happen and go all out and ultimately just gets called short by a couple yards. He takes a couple sacks on a play where there's a pretty clear blitz. The Rams have a tendency to blitz on second down. He just doesn't see it. He just, he kind of doesn't see things and hit the bell. Ollie was at the game.

1:05:32Jourdan Rodrigue:Oh, that's two. And this is good insider information. It's always good information. That's the thing. It's always good information. I want to make sure the listeners aware of what we're doing here. We're trying to track how many more times, who wins, Ollie or Walker, in terms of Greg mentions per show. The problem is you putting this up is going to limit both of them moving forward. But that's just how I want. I don't think so. I don't think it's going to have impact at all. This one's too good. This one's too good to pass out. I love Walker too, by the way. Walker.

1:06:00Nick Shook:He's the best.

1:06:04Shout out to my son. There's one. Got it. Who got to see in person one of the all-time performances in any sport. Awesome decision.

1:06:15Jourdan Rodrigue:So great. I'm awesome decision to go. So glad I went to that. It is like taking some sort of like incredible, I don't know, drug or something to hear your child say like that was so much fun after anything after something. And that, that was that on Friday night. Shout out to Shohei Otani for making a lot of people happy.

1:06:37Patrick Claybon:Walker happened to see the greatest baseball game.

1:06:39Jourdan Rodrigue:Yeah. Just happened to be there. Just making a lot of people happy around here. Okay. I do want to mention the point, which was he's at the game and he said the sideline and the offensive

1:06:55organizational, whatever you want to call it, for the Jaguars was in total chaos the whole time. Players didn't know whether to go in or not. They're talking. It's total confusion. Out of the side, players don't seem to know the play. They're coming in and out of the huddle. Liam Cohen's kind of yelling at Trevor Lawrence to get back in the huddle, but Trevor Lawrence is coming back out of the huddle to find out what's going on. Whatever's going on, Trevor Lawrence is not really understanding, I think, or, you know, figuring out what they are trying to accomplish on offense. I think that's clear to say.

1:07:28You wouldn't even need to be there to see that to know that. But I think just by what's going on on the field, it's like it's too much for him and this offense right now. But a lot of that is because, you know, the Rams were doing great things on their side of the ball as well. All right, let's move on. That was a sad game to send to London. I feel bad, but at least they saw a great performance by a team that could be going deep in the playoffs. and if they went to the postgame presser.

1:07:53Jourdan Rodrigue:And Kroenke wins the billionaire off. Oh, that's a good call. A great quote, too, by Devontae Adams. He's a killer. That's what killers do. They go out and kill us. I feel like we could use that in the future. I'm not sure how. That was him talking about Matthew Stafford. Yeah, not just generally killers.

1:08:08Patrick Claybon:Matthew Stafford. Who sometimes kill in varying locations. They don't just go out. I mean, that is what killers do, by definition. That's how they become killers. Were the Panthers going to be killers? We're going to find out after the break.

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1:12:27Patrick Claybon:Now he motions off the left hip of Dalton. Andy the snap back to throw launches deep downfield. Legette just makes the catch inside the 25-yard line. It's been a career game for Xavier Legette. They went for the haymaker. And Xavier Legette delivers. That's a gutsy call right there. That was Anise Straff on WRFX and Luke Kuechly, maybe? Jake DeLome. Maybe Jake DeLome. Who knows? Probably Jake DeLone. Panthers win 13-6 in a game that they unfortunately lost Bryce Young to an ankle injury. Andy Dalton finishes the game out. But, yes, if we're talking most improved players, how about just within this season?

1:13:15Xavier Leggett was struggling in September. But this is two games here where he stepped up and made huge plays. Nine catches, 92 yards. and the Carolina Panthers are over 500.

1:13:29Patrick Claybon:Yay! And the Jets haven't won a game. Yes. And the Xavier Leggett, that was the play to ice the game. They really didn't do anything with Andy Dalton in. That was the most significant play on offense. And it's Andy Dalton, you know, firing up the fire engine on a hot air balloon. And Xavier Leggett gets down there and shields off the defender. That's what it was, Greg. I love the way you put that. Well, that's how you can hear the as that ball slowly descends and LeGette's having to fight for his life to keep it from being picked off. So go back to the second quarter. Three nothing Panthers. The Jets run quarterback power with Justin Fields.

1:14:06Patrick Claybon:He gets the first down. He gets hit as he slides by Nick Scott. He's on the turf for like a third of a second. Then he pops up. The independent neurologist pulls him off the field. Terod Taylor comes in. Fields eventually comes back in the game, but the deepest penetration they got was to the 44. of the Panthers with Fields in after that hit. And he would be substituted out. I didn't quite get to Aaron Glenn's post-game comments because I ran to do Game Day Live after that, but I wonder about that decision and how the evaluation played into that. The Panthers got their score before halftime. Bryce hits T-Mac twice on back-to-back 11-yard passes.

1:14:45Patrick Claybon:Then they set up a screen to Chuba Hubbard that the Jets' defense was not there for at all to the extent that there were three linemen out front blocking for chuba hubbard and they didn't they couldn't get to anybody before chuba ran ahead of them they get 26 yards and i'll count that screen as a play action play where bryce was very good on play action he had 112 passer rating and a touchdown a couple plays after that he does hit leggett on another play action play uh for that he was trying to spin away from briggs on the play where briggs kind of dives low and clips his ankle they've got the bills up next i hope they're able to have Bryce because as we noted, they didn't really do anything with Andy Dalton today.

1:15:23Patrick Claybon:And that was a short play coming in where he's having to play for, you know, in the backup position. I'll grant that against a defense that's been solid relatively late. The Jets have been. But J.C. Horn's play in the second half keeps them in this lead because he has a one-handed interception of Terod Taylor. Unreal play. for for some reason Taylor tries uh J.C. Horn once again on like this day of NFL legacy where Gadsden goes off in my game and J.C. Horn goes off in my game where uh he single-handedly literally uh saves this game for the the Carolina Panthers because other than the hot air balloon

1:16:04Jourdan Rodrigue:that was really it in the second half yeah um to your first question about what Aaron Glenn was saying effectively I mean essentially it is being treated as a benching and Aaron Glenn is not ready to say according to the Jets be reporters who the quarterback is going to be next week and added that the team needed a spark which is why Terod Taylor came back in yeah I thought I agree with you I thought Bryce Young played pretty well honestly and I think he has been playing pretty well and I think it's interesting I know locally they don't really like that there's a two-back system emerging here, especially after Rico Dowdle, but watching Chuba Hubbard manipulate the screen game.

1:16:42Jourdan Rodrigue:At one point he outran his own blockers on that play you mentioned to the outside where you would have liked to see the blocking layer back in and sort of thread him through the inside. But he is so athletic and so explosive, especially on some of those short catch and runs. And I love that play design and how it was set up. And I think if they're going to try to get explosives any which way, not always able to trust them in the passing game, although really happy for Xavier Leggett for having a really solid career game. He was just, it was just a cool thing to watch all of these guys get activated.

1:17:15Jourdan Rodrigue:You really want to make sure that Bryce Young can continue this. According to Joe Person at The Athletic, my former beat partner, initial testing came back clean. Obviously follow-up testing, MRI, stuff like that is going to have to happen over the next day or so with Bryce Young because this Carolina Panthers team, which is over 500 for the first time since what, 2021?

1:17:37Nick Shook:Yeah.

1:17:38Jourdan Rodrigue:They seem like they're improving every single week. The defense is improving. Six sacks today. They didn't have six sacks the first six games last season. This is just awesome. I love watching this team. I felt bad about my, if they had just played Tyrod last week, they probably would have won that game take just because those two throws by Tyrod were late and also seemed to be using the same... What was it called? The balloon propeller thing? Hot air balloon. Had a little bit of that to those throws too, unfortunately. Sauce Gardner has a concussion, and it's just dark days for the Jets. But yes, the Panthers at four and three.

1:18:19Wow. They're just going to be in the mix. How about that? And Rico Dotto, Fantasy Owners, can be happy because he still led the team in carries with 17. But yeah, Panthers offense didn't really get that much done. 4.3 yards per play. And the Jets become only the second team in the last decade to give up 13 points or less in two straight games and not win either of them. Shout out to the most depressing Bill Belichick team of all time. The 2023 Patriots. Let's go to the Bears. Not depressing at all.

1:18:47Jourdan Rodrigue:I need a new tally line. Hang on.

1:18:48Nick Shook:Cardoons are out to the right. Snap. Caleb giving his swift on the cutback. Gallops inside the five. Blasting into the end zone. Touchdown. Touchdown Bears.

1:19:01DeAndre Swift and Jeff Joniak from WMVP. What a tandem. DeAndre Swift, Jordan. He may not always be great, but that man is streaky. And when he's great, he's great.

1:19:16Jourdan Rodrigue:the Bears run game looks so much cleaner and so much sharper post bye week than it did heading into the bye they had 222 yards behind DeAndre Swift in the seventh round rookie running back out of Rutgers Kyle Monongai I hope I am saying that correctly after hearing it over and over and over again on the broadcast yet being here for so many hours it seems to have left my brain you guys this game looked over, over in the first half. The Saints had just seven first downs. Three of them were by penalty. Spencer Rattler had already thrown a bad interception and Dennis Allen, former Saints head coach, had him totally turned around and was just abusing all the skill guys on some of his blitzes that he was sending at the Saints and that the tight ends and some of the receivers and the running backs had to pick up.

1:20:04Jourdan Rodrigue:And it turned into interceptions and it turned into bad plays by Spencer Rattler and Chicago was up 20 to 0 right before the end of the half. Spencer Rattler hits Chris Olave on two really, really huge plays including a touchdown that made up 78 of the Saints 104 first half yards. You can't stop the denissance. You cannot stop the denissance. It's back on. You may only, it's back on and you may only hope to contain it because three total interceptions by Spencer Rattler including one late in the fourth quarter by Tremaine Edmonds on a tipped pass that gave the Bears their 16th takeaway of the season.

1:20:42Jourdan Rodrigue:And I think we have sound for the play that iced the game.

1:20:46Nick Shook:Rattler brings Johnson in motion to the right. Takes the snap. Going to roll to the right. Kamara got bumped up in coverage, tipped up in the air, intercepted. Jermaine Edmonds on the tip by Edwards. Bears take it away for a fourth time today. Edwards on the tip. They wanted to go to Kamara. He got wiped out by Johnson, the line banger. and that ball was ricocheted right into the hands of Tremant Edmonds, his third interception this year. Yeah, while we're just going heavy on Dennis Allen, I hate to do this. When I first saw this, I have to admit I had a physical reaction, but here's Ben Johnson in the locker room after the game, giving a game ball away that will make the skin crawl of any New Orleans resident.

1:21:34Okay.

1:21:35Nick Shook:Defense, 44 yards on the ground. All right. Defense, four sacks.

1:21:44Nick Shook:Dennis Allen, come here!

1:21:59Dennis Allen getting with it. These players are loving it.

1:22:02Jourdan Rodrigue:He did the little kick dance that was on TikTok a couple of years ago. To be real, the Bears have won four straight games. They've been kind of wacky, but they're winning in different types of ways. I think they're creating offense. And my number one takeaway from this game, and it's now from the two weeks, is they just look like a different team since the bye defensively and running the ball. And man, like, I think they solved some things. It might have been because Ben Johnson opened up the playbook a little bit. He said the governor was off to the Monday Night Football guys in terms of how they use motions and everything.

1:22:34They were trying to really simplify it the first month. It's like it's not simplified anymore. That's helping the running game. And then the defense has just seemed to find something in the last couple weeks.

1:22:42Patrick Claybon:Yeah, 57 % success rate for DeAndre Swift, 53 % for Kyle Manunga. And the defense holding Alvin Kamara to 36 % success rate. I was excited for the Kendra Miller revenge game against Dennis Allen. Chris Olave kind of got his through the pass game. But just one carry for seven yards. Got hurt. For Kendra Miller got hurt leaving the game. And it's a weird situation for the ground game for the Saints where they were behind and trailing and having to throw a lot here. But it seemed like asking a lot of Spencer Rattler. But again, this is a defense that before the bye was getting run over by everybody.

1:23:22Patrick Claybon:And the commanders come in with, I think, the number two run game at the time. They shut them down. and now after this performance, like, yeah, perhaps taking personnel decisions away from Dennis Allen allows him to ingratiate himself to a locker room in a way that we didn't see. And he's always been a good coordinator.

1:23:39Jourdan Rodrigue:Yeah. And that's why Ben Johnson hired him. But it is interesting on the other side, like Greg, you brought up the, their own run game. I mean, especially when they're doing these zone runs, the layers of their blocking is so much cleaner. When I say cleaner, it means that not only are they getting off the line of scrimmage, but they're setting up second and third layers of their, especially outside and middle zone runs that really help DeAndre Swift see it very well. And he's clearly thriving off of that in the start of the year. Some of the yards before contact by this offensive line was there.

1:24:13Jourdan Rodrigue:They were blocking some stuff open. It wasn't totally consistent, but they were blocking some stuff open and he was not getting the yards after contact. And that was a huge issue. He has really come alive post by week. And I think part of it that helps is it's visually more appealing. Like you can actually, I loved what they did this game, the broadcast. They did a lot of shots because the booth, like myself, were kind of geeking out over the run game and how much it's improved over the entire, or over the last couple of weeks. And they were really showing a lot of the angles, exactly clarifying what they meant when they were talking about some of what the running back was going to be able to see.

1:24:51Jourdan Rodrigue:The thing about this offense that is still erratic is the passing game. And there were a couple of wow plays and Caleb Williams and Robo Dunze, you can tell that when they're really on, they're on. And when they're off, they're just off. DJ Moore had a nice catch and run play where it seemed like he just could not get tackled at one point. But it's going to be one of those games where I think it's going to be so important to go back and look at the all 22, because there were some plays where it seemed like Caleb Williams was holding onto the ball for a really long time. And I want to think that it's because players were covered downfield.

1:25:24Jourdan Rodrigue:But then we are talking about the Saints defense here. And so this is going to be one of those where if you can't really see the full picture on the broadcast, you're going to want to go look at the full picture before you make a true opinion. But the passing game overall is just a little out of sync, a little erratic. They didn't need it today. All they needed was to run the ball well. And sometimes that's all you can ask for and get good defense. And the offensive line's been better. The Saints are supposed to be all about their offensive line, but it has not been good this year. And they lost their captain, Eric McCoy, today to a I believe it was a pectoral or was it a biceps?

1:25:55It was one of those two where it was a biceps and it does not sound good for him. That's going to hurt. Those are the two injuries that always set off alarm bells. They didn't used to exist back in like the 70s, you know. They didn't have like torn biceps.

1:26:10Jourdan Rodrigue:What development came along? A lot. You know what came along? Patrick freaking Mahomes came along to this league and the day he started playing, he changed it and he's all the way back if he was ever gone, even in the slightest.

1:26:22Nick Shook:Chiefs do get the ball to start the third quarter. That enters into that same discussion. They load the right side up again. They single the new side. Todd Rice. Touchdown, Kansas City. Rashi Rice, his second touchdown. The Chiefs go on a 16-play, 94-yard drive. Three drives, three long touchdown drives. Thank you for summing up the first half so beautifully. Mitch Holtis on KFNZ. And thank you to me for making sure we took this Chiefs team as our survivor. It wouldn't have mattered. We'll get to the Patriots. But if you can choose the game that was the most lopsided in the entire NFL this season as your survivor pick, you're doing something right.

1:27:12The Chiefs finished with 30 first downs in this game. And the Raiders finished with three. I don't really need to say that much more. Usually at some point, the stats, like, you know, like you write down these little stats because like, oh, it'll be crazy to mention that through two and a half quarters. These were the stats. This is the stats at the end of the game. They brought in Kenny Pickett for the last couple of drives. Kenny Pickett's very first step, he loses a fumble. And then, of course, he goes three and out his next drive, too. Like, it didn't get any better in garbage time. Meanwhile, Gardner Minshew played the entire fourth quarter.

1:27:49He had almost as many drives Gardner Minchu in the fourth quarter, which scored zero points, by the way, as Patrick Mahomes did. Because Patrick Mahomes put up 31 points in only five drives. And then his day was absolutely done. They just look so good right now, the Chiefs.

1:28:04Jourdan Rodrigue:Felt meat ass.

1:28:07Patrick Claybon:Yes. It was old school. To the point where it's Rasheed Rice being fully reintegrated like that. Instantly, he catches the shovel pass. And then they, you know, force feed them a touchdown pass down the sideline where they could pick and choose who got to score. Just just a nasty Raiders performance across the board. I it was in the linebackers, especially got picked on a Landon Roberts and Devin White. It was just ugly. But putting Rice in there for Juju, just he has so much juice. That touchdown throw that we saw. What a great route, like his footwork on that one on one versus Q Blue Kelly. Like it's just a mismatch.

1:28:45They just are checking off everything. Like the Mahomes fun factor is there. He had an incompletion to Taequann Thornton, which could have been one of the best throws of the year. He was getting hit and he threw it about 58 yards and hit Taequann Thornton in the shoulder pad. It wasn't a completion in the end, but it was absolutely ridiculous. He had a no look pass. That was too worthy, I believe. That was an amazing no look throw. He also had a bullet that was absolutely beautiful. That one was to Worthy. The no look was to Rice. He is just out there having fun, and so is Andy Reid. If you just listen to the dummy call that they had on a fourth down conversion, let's listen.

1:29:30Nick Shook:Well, they're going for it on their own 40. On fourth and a foot. Tried to draw him offside. Never f***ing works, man. Sorry. Mahomes says, coach, it doesn't work. Oh, there they go. He was taking it. There they go.

1:29:50Jourdan Rodrigue:Oh, my God. Does anyone do it better? Too cute or great? What do you think, Patrick? No, they're just trying stuff. They're playing the Raiders. They're horrible. They just get to do whatever. At that point, the game was close.

1:30:05Patrick Claybon:I think it was only 7-0. Yeah, just because of the nature of the game. Like, it starts 0-0. They should have never driven that bus around Arrowhead or what was it? It was. They took laps around Arrowhead. They drove the bus. They have not won a game since, but I got to feel like Raiders fans were wondering, were we better off with Antonio Pierce?

1:30:23Jourdan Rodrigue:That wasn't even this regime's fault. I know, but they're still taking out him. At least Antonio Pierce kept it close. I mean, Pete Carroll's come in there. This is the worst team in the NFL along with the Jets. I know they've won two games. I guess the Titans are right there too. but everything about it is bad. Like they're the, it's hard to watch Gino. It's hard to watch this defense. This is what I wonder. And I asked you the same question, but Greg, it was hard for you to even think of really a actual answer. It's like, what do you do if you're the Raiders? Like what, what do you do? Do you make personnel moves?

1:30:59Jourdan Rodrigue:Do you sell at the deadline? Do you try to stockpile a bunch of draft picks? Do you make coaching changes? Like this is, this is so much worse than I think anybody thought that it was going to be. You thought that they would at least be respectable. There are some really solid people in that building. And what, what are they going to do? Well, here's what Pete Carroll hasn't been able to do for many years, which is provide any advantage as a defensive coach. And he's, he's not doing it this year. And to be fair, they lost Max Crosby during this game. They lost Adam Butler, who's a starting defensive lineman during this game.

1:31:35They did not have Kobe Myers available for this game. They did not have Brock Bowers available for this game. No team has needed a bye week more than this Raiders team, and they will get it, and hopefully that can solve something. But man, the Chiefs are 4-3, and Patrick Mahomes is putting up monster fantasy stats again. And if you ask me what team are you most confident, if you had to pick one team, would be playing in the Super Bowl for either conference, I mean, I think the average answer would be the Kansas City Chiefs. Chris Jones, by the way, also looked awesome in this game.

1:32:08Jourdan Rodrigue:Suddenly we're right back to this Chiefs team as we've always known them. And then some. I think better than the last couple of years. That's absolutely right. All right. You guys have both had long days. You were live on TV for three hours. So long that you haven't even noticed how there's a button open in your shirt. And I can see your chest hair right now. Sorry. That's where the microphone went through. It just happened. New tally calling. It just happened. And Jordan, you were on air, I believe, at like 8 in the morning or something live. And so we're going to say goodbye to you two. But it was a thin slice of heaven.

1:32:43And we're going to go to our next game. This is going to be a thin slice of heaven for me. Patriots and Titans. I'll keep track of the tally from now on.

1:32:51Jourdan Rodrigue:Do you want the tally before I go? Okay, we've got Ollie 2, Walker 1. Okay. He still has time to come back. Greg self-mentioned 1. Bill, one Chest, one

1:33:03Patrick Claybon:I mean, has that ever been mentioned before? Yeah, I don't know that my chest has ever, you know

1:33:08Jourdan Rodrigue:We're just gonna keep tabs on it, alright? May takes the snap chest on He drops back with time He loads up, he does a lot of open man booty

1:33:16Nick Shook:And he reaches out, he snaps it He tumbles into the end zone Touchdown, Patriots! What a throw! What a throw! More importantly, it's the catch

1:33:29Patrick Claybon:Kayshawn Booty is developing into one heck of a weapon for Drake May. It's fingertips extended, deep post left, and they take the shot. Easy kick out of bounds. You're at the 40. You get it to the 50 on a run, bang it to Hunter Henry, and then Josh McDaniels take your shot. That was Scott Zolak acting like a touchdown against the Tennessee Titans. Won them the Super Bowl, and I don't mind it one bit. Patriots win 31-13. was also Bob Sochi on WBZ after the game shook. Drake May was asked about his completion percentage. Some of these box scores are getting absolutely crazy. He went 21 for 23 today for 222 yards.

1:34:14And he said, look, I'm not trying to be a captain check down. I'm not trying to be a check down. Charlie is, I believe what he said. And he's not. That's actually the second touchdown he's had this year. Over 50 air yards. He's the only quarterback in the league to do that. surprisingly uh there have been some shots down the field but he was really accurate on a day the patriots win 31 to 13 it didn't start out that easy but in the end it looked like a lot of

1:34:37Nick Shook:patriots games this year yeah and drake may is dazzling so much that scott's all ex going horse in the booth because he's just overwhelmed by how well drake may is playing he's not a check down charlie but he is the third player under the age of 24 with 200 plus passing yards and a 100 plus passer rating in six consecutive games. That's how well he is playing right now. And that was the story of their game in the second half. This game actually reminded me a lot of an earlier Titans game. I know the Patriots won, but you'll see the connection here, in which they played pretty well with the Rams for three quarters, and then the Rams overwhelmed them in the fourth, in part because the Titans made mistakes that opened the door for the Rams to do so.

1:35:15Nick Shook:The Patriots did that to them, but it started with that touchdown pass to Kayshawn Booty, Drake Mays latest deep shot to him for a touchdown. We've seen it happen over the last few weeks. And then it really snowballed in the second half when they score a touchdown in the midway through the third quarter. And then just 11 seconds later, Caleb on chase on gets the fumble from Cam Ward, who had the ball fall out of his hand again, as we saw him do recently, I believe it was against the Raiders and returns that for a touchdown. And before you know it, in the blink of an eye, we go from 17, 13 Patriots to 31, 13 Patriots.

1:35:46Nick Shook:And that was all she wrote. Cause that's where the scoring finished. and it's all that really mattered for another win for the Patriots. I have not heard this call, but let's give it a shot. If he got horse off that first touchdown, let's see what this one's like.

1:35:59Patrick Claybon:Ward under center, two receivers to his left, two to the right, including a tight end in the wing, single back, hands on means. Turns, play fakes, rolls into the touchdown.

1:36:10Nick Shook:Chason picks up the ball with a flat run on the play. Chason has it running into the end zone as Cam Ward off the play fake, rolling backward in big trouble. The Patriots are celebrating in the end zone as Avalon Jason able to take the football in full school.

1:36:34Scott Zolak, I'm a self-talker too, but you just had an entire conversation with yourself on the air while your play-by-play guy was talking. You killed the touchdown call because you said it was coming back and then it wasn't coming back. Like we all went through it. Shout out to Caleb on Jason, by the way, four quarterback pressures in this game. So I know he got fortunate there, but he's been good for them this year. How did Kim Ward look shook with the new head coach or at least interim head coach, Mike McCoy?

1:37:05Nick Shook:You know, in the first half, it was pretty encouraging. It was an interesting dynamic or dichotomy between these two teams because Mike Vrabel shows up with an intent to run the football and win the physical battle. And so they hand off to Romand Jarek Stevenson four straight times to start the game. They hand it off to him a fifth time on the opening drive. Their drive kind of stalls. Drake May takes a sack to kick a field goal. And then Ward comes out and he's dealing. He's finding Aya Manor over the middle. He's looking for Jameer Adike. He's tossing the ball around, right? But then it all kind of came to a screeching halt in the second half with that type of play.

1:37:37Nick Shook:And from there, I mean, once the deficit grows for these Titans, you just know that they're so limited in terms of talent or just experience that you realize it's going to be a very steep mountain to climb, and that's where things kind of fell apart. But in the first half, I liked what I saw. I mean, he looks a lot like he has in most games, save for a couple in which the difference in talent was so significant that you knew they just couldn't do anything. It's, again, just a case of the Titans, even when they make a coaching change, they're still just kind of playing with one hand tied behind their back.

1:38:04Nick Shook:Their turnaround is not going to happen overnight, no matter who the coach is. I would say they looked a little more organized, but they still messed up the details. So I think it's going to be a change or an improvement that happens next year. Yeah, supposedly they were simplifying the offense for Cam Ward. And look, he did go 25 for 34 and was effective for most of the game. But ultimately, he's going up against a team where every week, like Drake May's completion percentage over expected is just absolutely outrageous. It was plus 24 today. Like the biggest problem they have is he just takes too many hits.

1:38:36He left the game to get checked for a concussion. That's like the third time this year that that's happened. He rushed for 62 yards. He's going to need to protect himself better. Jeffrey Simmons, by the way, left with a hamstring injury, was out the final three quarters of this game. And I think a lot of credit has to go to like his teammates picking him up. Ramondre goes for 88 yards on the ground. Demario Douglas has a one-handed catch on fourth down, which allows them to score another touchdown. Austin Hooper's touchdown was a good throw, but it was an even better catch. So people have been killing like their roster construction in terms of their receivers.

1:39:12I tell you what, they have a lot of guys who block, who are pretty versatile and who have good hands. Like they're not separating, but they've been pretty reliable for Drake May. It's led them to a five and two record. I'm actually looking forward next week, Shook, to a tougher matchup against the Browns defense. On the other side, you know, it's not as tough, but that's actually the best defense that they face maybe all season.

1:39:33Nick Shook:Yeah. Yeah, and I would be curious to see how the Browns approach this because Stephon Diggs has been very good over the last few weeks, and he made some really great catches today. Him and Drake May are very much on the same page. May threw a great back shoulder fade to him on the sideline that only probably Diggs is going to make that catch, or he's in that upper tier of receivers with the late hands, like a more inexperienced receiver is not making that play. He also layered in a couple of different balls to different guys as well, and so I'm curious to see how the Browns approach it. Do they take Denzel Ward and travel him?

1:39:59Nick Shook:Who do they identify as their top receiver? Because Booty's obviously blossoming this season. And it's going to be a very interesting matchup. That note on Simmons is important, though, because that is when this game truly changed. Once Jeff Simmons came out of the game, the Titans didn't have an answer for whatever the Patriots wanted to do. And that's really where the scales tipped in New England's favor. Yeah, the ground game had its best day for the Patriots. Terrell Jennings, of all people, ends up getting more touches than Travion Henderson. It's dark out here in the Travion Henderson streets.

1:40:26Mike Vrabel said they might have found their five-minute back. Man, and it's not Travion Henderson. Let's go and talk about your Browns before we get to Sunday Night Football. A good Browns day, finally.

1:40:37Nick Shook:Jay Chan to the backfield. Tua from the pistol. Throws to the outside. Blasted. Picked off. Campbell down the sideline. He's at the 10. The 5. Touchdown. Are they going to call it a score? It's a touchdown. Campbell didn't step out of bounds. He tightrope the sideline. Welcome to Cleveland. So much focus of this game is going to be on the losers. The Dolphins are 1-6. You know, the Browns are 2-5. Will Mike McDaniel survive the week? Who cares about that? We got to hear another Andrew Siciliano call. And, yes, it came from a big defensive play, but they got it done on offense as well, at least enough.

1:41:21Quinchot Jenkins with three touchdowns on the day. And what the hell, Shook, before I give you the floor, let's just get another Siciliano call into the show because there hasn't been enough this year.

1:41:32Nick Shook:And they're now on the Miami 46-yard line for the far hash out of an I-formation. Fannin in front of Judkins. Gabriel on first down will give to Judkins running up the middle. Big hole 40. He's at the 35. He's at the 30. It's a foot race. 20, 15, far sideline. Touchdown! Winshot Judkins! 46 yards to the house! Are you able to enjoy a blowout Browns victory? Shook. I enjoy it through my friends who are at the game and text me. The Browns are back and I am able to reply. No, they're not. They're just playing a team that's worse than them and capitalizing on it. It was a good. This is the game plan I expected.

1:42:12Nick Shook:Like that touchdown run. I expected that to happen against this Dolphins defense, which cannot stop the run. We've seen it over and over again. But we have this weird balance between rushes for negative gains. Like just be like tackle for loss for a loss of three. Like Judkins average per carry is 3.4 for this game because there's like five or six examples where he just gets tackled in the backfield. And then it's Judkins runs for four because he had to break two tackles. Then he rips off a 46 yard touchdown run. But yeah, it all comes back to the defense with this team. And they found an opponent that is so disjointed that they were able to capitalize.

1:42:44Nick Shook:And, you know, they pick off two or three times. The first one being an errant throw. The next two just being poor decisions and bad throws by Tua Tungavailoa. The first one went off of A-Chan's hands and was a great play. We saw that highlight as well. But fun little fact for these Browns. Tyson Campbell gets a pick six. Another former Jaguar, Rayshon Jenkins, gets an interception in this game as well. The most dominant performance you're going to see from the Browns this year and maybe into next year. But they needed it. It's always nice for a fan base to get a nice little blowout win that was so lopsided that even their fans started to leave the game early.

1:43:15Nick Shook:Enjoy it. Andrew Barry's back. You know, he was taking a lot of slings and arrows from Joe Flacco, but the guy he traded for Tyson Campbell. Yeah. With, with the pick six and look, you win the turnover battle four to nothing. You mentioned to a, he leaves this game late. It was over at that point. Quinn Ewers, who was the backup today over Zach Wilson comes in three interceptions. You do wonder if that'll be it for Mike McDaniel in Miami. This is him after the game, a game like this. You know, I think we didn't see coming in terms of our prep, but you absolutely with 100 certainty have to evaluate everything.

1:43:57Nick Shook:I think it goes for no person or no player or no coach has got their hands clean and we have to go back to work and starting with me, do a better job. It's a bummer. like it all comes down to the coach quarterback, their relationship, their performance. And I think today said it all a hundred yards for two. I know it was bad weather, but a hundred yards, three interceptions, it just feels like a regime ending type of performance. And even on a day where their, their defense got some stops along the way just couldn't happen for them. Enjoy the victory. Hey, why not Shooky? And enjoy a Sunday night football game.

1:44:43We're going to talk about right now after the break. Maybe not right now.

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1:47:38Nick Shook:This is Tab Ramos from Inside American Soccer. And this summer, Topgolf is turning into the ultimate soccer destination. They're not just throwing games on in the background. Topgolf is going all in on soccer. They've got a new soccer-themed game you can play with your group, special in-venue activations, exclusive food and drink items inspired by the global game. And at more than 60 locations, they've even installed full-size soccer goals so you can try to hit golf balls right into the net. And every match all summer long will be on throughout the venue. So it's a great place to watch with friends, hang out, compete a little bit, and enjoy the atmosphere.

1:48:18Nick Shook:And if you want to keep the fun going all summer, you can get the Topgolf Summer Fun Pass, which lets you play every single day and bring up to five guests every visit. Get yours now at topgolf.com slash fun pass. Summer hits different at Topgolf. Christian McCaffrey has carried the load tonight that he stands behind Mac Jones. Now Kaljuszczyk shifts, I formation. Jones takes and gives. Christian cuts it up inside, backpedaling his way. Pushing, pushing, pushing, they got him in! Braun up front for the Niners tonight. A touchdown, maybe to put it away, San Francisco! Oh, they weren't just pushing.

1:49:03They were pulling. But whatever gets the job done, the 49ers beat the Falcons 20 to 10 on Sunday night football to get to 5-2. Just poking the balloon and letting a little air out of all that Falcon type coming off their win in primetime last week. They've been living it in primetime. But, man, the 49ers have been living this life with Christian McCaffrey. It doesn't matter who gets hurt, who's in the lineup, Who doesn't? They're giving about 30 touches a game to Christian McCaffrey, and it's working well enough, especially tonight. 31 touches, and I love, Nick, when the highlight fits the theme of the night.

1:49:42He finishes with 129 yards on the ground on 24 carries. Bajon Robinson also effective on the ground. It was a sight for sore eyes. The 49ers could run the ball again, and ultimately they controlled the game, and especially that late fourth quarter drive to put it away.

1:50:01Nick Shook:Yeah, I feel like we were two seasons ago with them, the way they run the football, maybe four or five seasons ago, the way they executed. But really, I think it was perfectly fitting that the team that they played, they essentially took their game plan from their most recent primetime victory. Only six days ago, the Falcons were rolling with Bijan to a victory, and they said, we're doing the same thing with Christian McCaffrey from basically the start, but really right before halftime, riding it all the way into the finishing touchdown in the fourth quarter. Look, when you're down, you know, your top receiver in Ricky Purcell, you still don't have Brandon Aiyuk back.

1:50:34Nick Shook:You're playing with Mac Jones as a backup quarterback who's been battling his own slew of injuries throughout this season. Who do you turn to? Your best player. And you ride him to victory, and that's what they did. It's crazy how complete Christian McCaffrey is as a player, and you lack the explosion right now. And that's what maybe is different from this iteration of the 49ers running attack compared to previous years. His long run for the day was 15. But he had 31 touches. That includes seven catches for 72 yards. And so he was the leading receiver by far today. And I started wondering, like, if you just took his...

1:51:14Forget all of his rushing numbers this year. And we know on a per snap basis, they haven't been great. Forget the rushing. Just looking at his receiving numbers. He's third in the NFL with 53 receptions. He's now sixth in the NFL for 516 receiving yards. So, you know, more than all the receivers except for five. And then he's first by a long shot in scrimmage yards with 981. We're only seven weeks into the season and he's almost at a thousand scrimmage yards. And OK, he's not making as many people miss, although he does make people miss. but man is he tough. He's running through people's faces tonight and he's smart.

1:51:56If you get him one-on-one against a linebacker in coverage, so much of their offense is about setting him up to do that. He knows exactly where to go. He knows how to set up defenders. He is not John Robinson right now, but he didn't need to be. And tonight on a night where Robinson was pretty quiet against a really frisky 49ers defense, he was awesome. Give me your thoughts on watching this 49ers defense and what they did to hold down the Falcons to only 10 points.

1:52:23Nick Shook:Oh, I mean, first off, what an achievement to accomplish this without Fred Warner, who you lost to an injury last week. I mean, that, that's a massive missing piece that you think would immediately create a mismatch in favor of the Falcons. When you incorporate Bijan out of the backfield, Bijan didn't really make all that much of a difference tonight. They found ways to patch that whole, those, that, that biggest hole, the biggest void on their defense up. and I think a big part of it was getting Kevin Givens back in this pass rushing unit up front. You saw Bryce Huff making a difference all the way to the end, getting after Michael Penix and forcing an incomplete pass that for a moment was believed to be a fumble.

1:52:58Nick Shook:This defense, I mean, Robert Sala has just done such a great job of making the most out of whatever spare parts he has left and that's how you hold the Falcons to 10 points. I just love that you're like, it was big that they got Kevin Givens back and you're right, they just need bodies. but okay let's look at who made the biggest plays of the night uh chase lucas a slot cornerback i was not overly familiar with who was filling in for upton stout the rookie slot makes a couple huge plays late he's actually the highest uh ranked player according to pff in this game bryce huff what a trade that is turning out to be two sacks two quarterback hits another hurry had a forced fumble late that they ended up calling back against, you know, Penix because there was a penalty down the field, but he was just everywhere.

1:53:46And then Tatum Bethune is in there at middle linebacker for Fred Warner. And he made a number of big plays in the night. And one of them is a pressure late in the first half. And I thought this was typical of the pressure numbers overall weren't crazy. They definitely ticked up late in the game, but they were well-timed on key downs. And I think that's been a 49er staple when D 'Amico Ryans was the DC. Now when Robert Sala is the DC, again, it's like they really know when to hit on big downs and they made it absolutely happen tonight. But I'm thinking of that play to end the first half and they make Penix throw an intentional grounding with 10 seconds to go.

1:54:26And eventually that runs the clock out because they have to do a 10 second runoff and they don't get three at the end of the half. And it was typical for me for a night where like Pettix wasn't awful, but he wasn't composed throwing to all parts of the field in key spots when under pressure.

1:54:42Nick Shook:No, no, he missed some throws, whether he was pressured or unpressured, and especially when things got desperate late in this game, of course. But I think that's a product, again, of the 49ers defense. And really like what keyed this win for them was how they delivered in big moments. The third down that they complete a pass that sets up the McCaffrey touchdown. That's a third and long. That followed a really, really nice play by a defensive tackle for the Falcons to cut down McCaffrey in the backfield. Former Ohio State Buckeye Zach Harrison made a fantastic play. And yet they still overcome that with the big plays on the key downs.

1:55:15Nick Shook:Mack Jones, baby! That's me. Mack Jones. McCorkle. Look, his one interception was not on him tonight. They didn't ask him to do too much, 152 yards. But just a couple key third downs. They were mostly field goal drives, but a couple key third downs. one to Jennings, one to Bourne, and then you mentioned the third and long to McCaffrey, and he's been the perfect level of backup. Because I don't think anyone who really knows ball thinks he's playing at a higher level than Brock Purdy plays on average. He's playing good enough ball to help them win games, but not good enough to make a real controversy.

1:55:49That's perfect. They're 5-2, and they've really managed this part of the schedule. And they're not going to get their defensive players back, but they will get Pearsall back. They'll get Purdy back hopefully soon. and a disappointing game for the Falcons to fall to three and three. They these two teams, they're just they're stuck in the middle of the NFL. But the 49ers are right there atop the NFC West now tied with the Rams, who started this long Sunday of football in London about 14 hours ago. So I know you've been driving all over the state. Nick, congratulations to your grandparents, renewing their vows this morning.

1:56:28And congratulations to you being such a good grandson that you drove all the way across the state and then back in time for kickoff because you're a great NFL Daily correspondent. Appreciate you, man.

1:56:38Nick Shook:Yeah, I'll take that. I'll take that. Yeah, shout out to them. They're great grandparents. 65 years. That's the model of consistency right there. That's awesome. That's really cool. And really cool that they could do that and that you could be there for that 65 years. We can only hope. All right. Who knows? Maybe we'll be celebrating the 65th anniversary of NFL Daily someday. I think there's going to be new hosts by then. Doing the math. Yeah, that'll be a walker host. We'll be back Monday night. We got a doubleheader. Both games are Austin. Houston, Seattle, Tampa Bay, Detroit starts out. Nick Shook and I will be there.

1:57:13We'll see you Monday night.

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