2025 NFL Week 8 Late Games Preview

11:43Steve Wyche:frolicking. Right. Like that. You don't have to worry about him. And I actually think like Taequann Thornton delivering early in this season was like a big foundational piece for this offense. For instance, the commanders have given up more of the 50 plus plays than any team in the league. And the, and the chiefs are one of the most explosive teams in the league now. Like you have to cover him. You mentioned, you know, they're not totally benching Taequann Thornton. So like, he's not maybe going to have a huge volume number, but it's like, you have to worry about Taequann Thornton while you're worrying about everything else.

12:12Steve Wyche:He's in the MVS, hope he drops the roll.

12:15Patrick Claybon:Where it's like, all right, we're going to cover these guys up and maybe he'll put that one on the turf.

12:20Steve Wyche:They need to get back. If they could win this game, it'll be that their run game and Bill and everything gets back a little bit. Getting Debo,

12:28Patrick Claybon:having Debo McLaurin back. I was at the game against the Raiders when Marcus started that game and he's so comfortable getting the ball to Debo and Terry McLaurin. That'll help. Yeah. And I think back to Marcus Mariota catching his own touchdown pass against the Kansas City Chiefs. Yes. in a bygone era. Back in the Arthur Smith O.C.

12:44Steve Wyche:days.

12:44Jourdan Rodrigue:You're on it with all the parallels, Patrick.

12:46Steve Wyche:Those were back in the Mariota-Winston wars of 2015-18. Makes me think of that. We try not to talk about those. It was a tough time for a lot of people.

12:58Patrick Claybon:Greg sent me a clip of us from NFL Network up to the minute talking about the Titans, the exotic Smash Mouth Titans. Yes! A young Greg. We looked so young. Even younger, Patrick. Back in the day. If I had only known then. Up to the minute. Rest in peace. Another ghost of a show. Great, great problem.

13:16Jourdan Rodrigue:Greg May wasn't even in Greg's life yet.

13:18Patrick Claybon:He was like in middle school. A great game opportunity where it's a force versus object game. The Dallas Cowboys on the road taking on the Denver Broncos, who were really good in the fourth quarter last week. We'll forget the first three. The Broncos favor Jordan by three and a half. The over under is 50 and a half. You know CBS loves it because it's Jim and Tony on the call. the quantum superposition that is the 2025 Broncos, which one shows up against Dak and company?

13:45Jourdan Rodrigue:This has game of the week potential to me, actually. I really think that. I don't think we saw anything to sway any sort of opinion on Bo Nix from this last game, honestly, better or worse. He just is playing the way he's playing right now. Now, I did see improvement from the Dallas Cowboys on defense, and I think they're starting to play a little bit more. What have we got to lose? mode and a little bit, I want to say desperation ball a little bit because they were wasting such a significant and extraordinary season by Dak Prescott. That last week looked more like a full complimentary team than we have seen the Cowboys look all year this year.

14:26Jourdan Rodrigue:And they are so fun on offense. And I think that this, that's why this has such big game potential because it's Broncos games this year. Something weird always happens very much. so last week, but weird stuff has happened in so many of these games. And, and, and, you know, Sean Payton is like wanting to kind of just, just keep rolling and, and kind of keep like, like trying to be in his bag and all these things and capture that feeling that they all had at the end of last game. And certainly in that fourth quarter, and you know, Dallas is like really, really good vibes with CD and George Pickens back against these two corners in Denver.

15:03Jourdan Rodrigue:I just, I love this game. Actually, I want this game. If you will, if you will allow me to, I'm not sure.

15:07Steve Wyche:what the assignment deals are. Sometimes Shook has already been assigned a game for his writing, so that all plays into it. It's very complicated. I love the number. It doesn't seem that complicated. Well, because he already was assigned it. If he's got this game, you don't got it. That's what I'm saying. He's pretty simple. We got, well, also, you know, maybe Patrick really wants it. You know? What if he fights you for it? I fight for this podcast. You're too nice. See, Patrick's too nice. He just allows whatever to happen. You weren't briefed for that possibility, right?

15:39Patrick Claybon:You got Justin Fields. Folks want it. Yeah, I'm going to end up watching Justin Fields play somehow. I would love a Nathan Peterman game.

15:47Steve Wyche:Oh, he always is just on some practice squad. You're just like, really? Peterman still? I love the number in this game going over 50 and a half because the Broncos defense is a little overrated. I don't think that's a hot take.

16:04Jourdan Rodrigue:Nick Bonito is listening.

16:05Steve Wyche:Let's clip it off. No, let's not.

16:08Jourdan Rodrigue:The fear every time we say. Sorry, Nick. Ominous respect. It's like me and Kyle Shanahan. Ominous respect. They've played three games this year

16:16Steve Wyche:where they gave up at least 25 first downs. They were pretty well dominated by the Colts offensively, which is a great offense. But you don't expect the Giants to put up 26 first downs, almost 400 yards on your defense and call you like a dominant defense. I think that got a little lost in that game that they had no real answers in terms of their pass rush. And they were going up against a good offensive line. The Cowboys maybe aren't as good. All I'm saying is, if you're going up against maybe the most balanced offense in the league, I don't think they're going to, maybe they make a few big plays, but I don't think they're going to keep this score down.

16:57Steve Wyche:I think it's going to be a fun score fest back and forth.

17:00Patrick Claybon:Well, I mean, Dallas is going to put points up. Jordan just mentioned that CeeDee Lamb, I love the fact, and people finally start talking about his crossing route ability, just catching it and going. He is...

17:12Jourdan Rodrigue:No fear.

17:12Patrick Claybon:His yak, he's such a fun player, but we also know those safeties for the Broncos will knock your teeth loose. And so, you know, that's interesting. Remember, Denver, once again, is not going to have Drake Greenlaw.

17:25Steve Wyche:Suspended for this game.

17:26Patrick Claybon:Suspended for going after an official. So we'll see how this defense shakes out. I think Denver's offense though, Bo Nix, if he can figure out how to play in the first half, I don't understand why they don't move him more. He is on the move and he's pressing the line of scrimmage and putting the defender in conflict.

17:45Jourdan Rodrigue:I think I know why.

17:46Patrick Claybon:Like right here, look, they're putting the defender in conflict. That's a tip ball, but.

17:50Jourdan Rodrigue:I think I know why. And actually, I have a theory about this. I don't know that it's not based in any fact. It's more observational and psychological, but there's been a couple, early in the season, there are a couple games where they did, they booted him out and they rolled him out and then he went on the move. he held the ball forever you could hear internally his mind screaming at him saying throw it now throw it now throw it now missed court and Sutton on a big potential touchdown and then missed him again booting to the other side rolling out to the other side and I think that's a Sean Payton thing if you do this and you like fine you don't get any play action fine you don't get any bootlegs I'm withholding I'm withholding bootlegs from you as a punishment until you've earned them again like that's kind of you know it's very psychologically farcical, but you know, there might be something to it.

18:33Steve Wyche:They got so predictable with the short stuff though last week that one, I didn't think I thought that was one of Bo Nix's better games overall. The biggest problem they had was he had like six or seven passes batted at the line of scrimmage because the Giants knew all week, all they're doing are these screens and these bubbles and just everything is just short, short, short. And they were just like, don't even bother and just knock it down. And they just kept knocking it down. It kept killing drives over and over.

18:56Patrick Claybon:It was in, to Jordan's point, like maybe it is frustration.

19:00Jourdan Rodrigue:where coaches don't play running backs for less,

19:03Patrick Claybon:like takes, takes the ball out of his quarterback's hands weirdly for the majority of the game. And then like in those last couple of drives, you see Bo trust Marvin Mims down the side. Yeah. Trust Courtland Sutton down the sideline on throws where earlier in the season, he's trying to put the ball in the absolute perfect place and flash the cannon and miss them deep. He left the throw to Marvin Mims, like four yards short and Mims just went up and made that play in a gotta have it moment. And I think that you can do that. You can test this particular secondary, but with them playing more man, it's like, what's, which version is this?

19:36Patrick Claybon:Is this the Jadavian Clowney getting three pressures in a sack and we're getting great cutaways of Maddie on the sideline?

19:42Steve Wyche:They're going to get destroyed.

19:43Jourdan Rodrigue:They can't play man against this group of receivers. They could against this offensive line either.

19:47Steve Wyche:And they're not going to have Trevon digs. It sounds like he had a concussion, some sort of accident at his home. And he is not at practice on Wednesday. Also the Javante William, I mean, it's revenge game, right?

19:59Patrick Claybon:is this yeah i was wondering who was gonna drop that a little bit i i i'm shocked that greg beat

20:05Jourdan Rodrigue:me to it i know you've been on them the entire yeah sean pain pointed out i don't know what his

20:10Steve Wyche:parameters were here but he cited a statistic that teams are 2 and 17 after having some sort of big comeback in the fourth quarter of the week before i don't know what i don't know what the parameters were i'm a little skeptical of this step but that's what he's skeptical of all of Yeah, but he was just saying that there's a natural letdown effect. Are they trying to psych out the gamblers?

20:31Jourdan Rodrigue:Sean Olytics.

20:32Steve Wyche:Yeah. He was just saying, like, don't get too high, I guess. Man, I love this game. In Denver? I don't know who I'm going to pick. Hey. What about the Russell Wilson shade? That was nice, though. I wanted to know. Pretty strong clapback, by the way.

20:43Jourdan Rodrigue:Yeah, he broke character.

20:45Steve Wyche:Yes, he did. In a good way.

20:47Jourdan Rodrigue:I loved it.

20:47Steve Wyche:I like the theories that people had that Ciara wrote it for him. Ooh. You know what?

20:53Jourdan Rodrigue:I love it.

20:53Steve Wyche:That's a legit thing.

20:55Jourdan Rodrigue:in every way if so

20:57Patrick Claybon:that's right it's time for the Sunday Drive presented by Toyota let's go places Sunday Night Football the Green Bay Packers are three point favorites at the Pittsburgh Steelers who got TNF'd last week by Joe Flacco the over under is 45 and a half it's Sunday Night Football so it's Mike and Chris shout out to Italy Steve on the call the Packers can they finish a team that they're better than this year, 2025. Woo!

21:30Steve Wyche:It's a good one. Big week for the Italian-Americans. Yeah, right? NBA on NBC with Tariqo was great. That was big. Now he is here. Stallion. He's going to be in Pittsburgh.

21:41Patrick Claybon:This is an intriguing matchup to me because Green Bay's offense, Josh Jacobs just continues. I love him. He's just one of my favorite players. Every week he's got some type of sickness, whatever, and just goes out and does it. He puts a team on his back when he has to. And this is one with Green Bay's receiver speed where you can see Jalen Ramsey gambling because he's starting to play some football. Like Jalen's starting... Not last week. He got cooked a couple times last week, but he's made some plays too. But this is one where I think the speed of the wide receivers for Green Bay might be the difference.

22:15Steve Wyche:I could see that. And I thought the Steelers coaching staff was a big reason they lost that game. Like Joe Flacco knew it was happening before it happened because it's the same stuff that's been happening. For some reason, they thought, hey, Darius Slay and Jalen Ramsey, go to work. Like, even after the first half of that game, they came out in the second half and they're like, hey, go to work, guys. It's like, that's not who Jalen Ramsey is anymore.

22:35Patrick Claybon:But look, go back to last year when these teams played. The 44-38 shootout that Pittsburgh ended up winning because Russ, I think, threw four or five touchdowns.

22:44Steve Wyche:But Cincinnati knows how to play offensively against Pittsburgh. That's fair. And so this week is different with Green Bay. And, you know, we don't get into the narratives too heavily sometimes. I love this one, though. But it is pretty amazing. It's one of, I think, one of the 10 greatest quarterbacks that's ever played this game. At his highest level, he still probably would be my pick as like at his very peak until Mahomes. Like, I think Mahomes has an argument. He's the best quarterback I've ever seen at his very peak, Aaron Rodgers. Playing against the team that he was with for 18 years. And, you know, if nothing else, that man is petty and has got to have some salty feelings about how it ended and everything.

23:23Steve Wyche:And I love it because he's playing as well as you could have possibly expected. Better than I expected coming into the year, showing a little more confidence in his mobility and willingness to stand in just a little bit more. It's not like his numbers against pressure are great, but I think he's liking what his offensive line is doing for him. And you feel like he might have something here where if it's a high scoring game, I can imagine it going back and forth like he did with Flacco last week.

23:51Jourdan Rodrigue:This game, I know this sounds kind of crazy, but a game like this with the personalities involved with as veteran and tenured of coaches on either sideline who know each other so well, going back decades of coaching, not just as head coaches, with this quarterback who at one point when Matt LaFleur took over in Green Bay, sat on a call, on a Zoom call with Matt LaFleur and some of the assistant coaches for hours and days, sifting through every single line in the existing playbook and also in Matt LaFleur's playbook that he brought over from Tennessee and from Los Angeles and picking and choosing what plays they were going to run together, what plays they were going to try to tweak to do more of what Aaron wanted, what plays they were going to try to tweak to do more of what Matt wanted and basically laying it all out on the table and going in grouping by grouping, personnel by personnel, play by play.

24:46Jourdan Rodrigue:and that type of meticulousness and type A from both of these people, this is going to be a game where we're going to see some cool Easter eggs. If we know what we're looking for, if we're going to try to look for some of these things, this is a guy who plays and sends a message with how he plays and the types of things he does, all the gestures, the hand gestures he makes and all of the talking back and forth, depending on the situation, the scenario and the looking to the sideline and the gesturing, but also the types of plays. And Matt LaFleur is the same exact way. He's what I would call a heart-on-the-sleeve play caller where they're showing you, Greg's talked about it a lot with the game script, but they're showing you exactly what they think of you and what they think and what they want of the subliminal message.

25:29Jourdan Rodrigue:They know that the football people on the other side will pick up, not necessarily the viewer. This game is going to be full of them. I cannot wait. I love this game.

25:36Patrick Claybon:Look at the edge rushers in this game. That's another storyline in this too. You got Highsmith and JJ on one side, and then you got Rashawn Gary and that other guy, you know, from Dallas. He's okay. Who just is absolutely just playing at another level right now. Who may now take away one of the top Steelers threats, which is oddly enough Darnell Washington. How about that? Who may have to stay in and help on both of those guys where he's also been good. And I think it kind of takes away because of the late stage, Rodgers dictating to wide receivers and making the lines. If you take those guys off the field because you got so many tight ends, then you can't necessarily do all of those things.

26:14Patrick Claybon:And it kind of gets like late stage Rogers right exactly where Arthur Smith would like him to be just by purely changing the personnel on the field. We saw three tight ends. He loves Darnell Washington, too, though, man. And like, yeah, he's like hand signaling to Darnell who was lined up out wide where it looks like the Green Giant like standing on some soup can out there. They did link up there, but they target the wide receivers at one of the lowest rates of the NFL. And I think about how good the coverage has been in the secondary for green Bay, like Sean Nixon and all those guys were like, maybe they they're in run support this week.

26:49Steve Wyche:Yeah. It's going to be a test for the Packers offensive line, which overall looked better last week. They are healthier. Did we just have a small earthquake or am I crazy? No, it's probably just, I moved my chair. That's probably it. You know, we're starting to always, we're starting to watch. We're just always on alert. They looked better last week, but this is a different pass rush. The problem is like, well, Mike Tomlin even like have the best pass rusher on the team on the field it was a little insane last week like at the end of that game it's like they're still in main coverage and Nick Herberg's the best pass rusher is literally not on the field and that's why I think the Packers are going to win this game I think they've been really close to putting together more of a complete performance if they can pressure Jordan Love that is the recipe he hasn't been great against pressure this year but I like the coaching matchup for Matt LaFleur over this Steelers defense and for them to put up a big number and challenge Aaron Rodgers to match up.

27:43Steve Wyche:I mean, I was thinking of making this my survivor pick.

27:46Jourdan Rodrigue:Listen, I know there's a ton of respect. I know there's a ton of respect. And, and, and they're going to all, everyone's going to say the right things, but how delicious for Matt LaFleur, if he can dial up these explosive plays, but the Steelers are given up in big fistfuls and bunches here lately. We can dial up these explosives and the quarterback on the other sideline, And his former quarterback and collaborator is helpless to do anything about it.

28:12Patrick Claybon:And here's something to add to that, into dialing up plays. Of all the tight end talk we're talking about for Pittsburgh, Tucker Craft, when you talk to defensive coordinators around the NFL, they will tell you every game he scares them more than anyone on their team because he's huge, he can run, he can block. He's like a bigger George Kittle. And the way these defensive coordinators talk about him, it's like that's the guy we don't have an answer for.

28:37Steve Wyche:and you're seeing it show up week after week. Yeah, some of the numbers are surprising that the Packers have created the smallest separation in terms of their receivers of almost any team in the league, which is surprising, especially having watching how it looked last week. I thought LaFleur had a really good game, but Tucker Craft is the guy you worry about. Shout out to Jalen Warren, by the way. I do want to ask before we take a break whether, Patrick, you're ready to take the L on years long of hate of Jalen Warren because that man is making someone miss every time he's got the ball. Yeah.

29:09Patrick Claybon:Shout out to Jalen Warren on making that guy miss. I'm sure the home runs are eventually going to... Not a big home run hitter,

29:16Steve Wyche:but this season, I feel like if you look at it, like his missed tackle rate and everything, it's there with the best running backs in the league. All right. I'm just saying.

29:24Jourdan Rodrigue:Not taking the bait.

29:26Steve Wyche:Like the Mariota Winston Wars of 2015. Staring Greg down. The Jalen Warren, Najee Harris Wars. All right. Still continue.

29:34Patrick Claybon:Maybe Greg and I are going to take a long-term Kenny G, Jalen Warren prop here.

29:37Steve Wyche:Okay, let's do it. Let's come back and we will wrap up these late games in just a few minutes.

29:44Jourdan Rodrigue:Heavy icon.

29:45Steve Wyche:I mean, he's been playing well. Okay.

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34:19Steve Wyche:Back on NFL Daily. One of the biggest mismatches of the season is Titans-Colts coming up. And you just mentioned poor Mike McCoy. It got me thinking. I have a question for you, Steve, that I don't know the answer to. What kind of pay bump do you get when you get the interim head coaching situation? Is that a negotiation? How does that work? No, no, it's a negotiation.

34:39Patrick Claybon:It's probably different in Tennessee than it would be for, like, the Rams. Okay. But it's a bump. I mean, now, depending, let's just say Mike McCoy, I don't know what he's making. Let's say he's making$400 ,000 or$500 ,000 as the OC. He's probably going to double that.

34:52Steve Wyche:Especially at the point of the season where it happened. Technically, he was like either a position coach or a senior offensive consultant. He wasn't even quarterback. He was not the OC technically before.

35:02Patrick Claybon:Yeah, and most teams don't take a coordinator out of position because they need that person to call the plays and whatnot. But, no, he's probably going to get to double the bump, I would think.

35:11Steve Wyche:It's like daddy's buying better Christmas presents this year out of nowhere. Just a little found money for Mike McCoy.

35:16Jourdan Rodrigue:If it's not already in the contract you sign at the start of your tenure, it has to be renegotiated by the agent. And sometimes that leads to different decisions being made by teams as to who is going to actually be their interim head coach. And it is wild. It is wild.

35:30Steve Wyche:Maybe that's how Joe Vitt got two different interim head coaching jobs in his storied career.

35:35Patrick Claybon:Oh, that's not how he got one of them. That's a rough one. You don't get the job because of your agent who's allegedly there to get you more money, but he doesn't get you a job purely because of the person that they are. That's a rough one.

35:47Steve Wyche:You got to know the owner. One of my favorite Patrick rivalries is Patrick versus all agents. And I support you in this. Thank you, Greg. Yes. Thank you. Oh, they're back.

35:58Patrick Claybon:Yeah, my apologies.

35:59Jourdan Rodrigue:Remember Jalen Warren? Yes.

36:01Patrick Claybon:I'd much rather have this discussion because I might be wrong on Jalen Warren. Sorry, Drew. We're going too long. The Tennessee Titans at the Indianapolis Colts who are favored by 14 points. Greg Rosenthal, Well, the over is 47 and a half of the folks. And we agree that most of those will be scored by the Indianapolis Colts. Best offensive football. Andrew Catalan, Charles Davis, the best person in the world. Jason McCourty on the call. The coach firing bump came for like a quarter, maybe. Do they get more of it against the Colts?

36:29Steve Wyche:I hope so. It actually did look like they played at a faster tempo. They're talking about practicing at a faster tempo. Some more deep over type of routes that Cam Ward looks good on. Those first two drives, he looked great. So they get rid of Tyler Lockett. He has to be released, but he was essentially benched for Jamari Dike. I do like that. They tried to make some changes. Ultimately, it's a personnel thing that there are two tackles, JC Latham and Dan Moore, which they have a lot invested in, really struggled in that game last week and have really struggled in general. And there's only so much you can do schematically, I think, to fix the personnel problems they have.

37:06Jourdan Rodrigue:I know exactly. And I know this sounds kind of crazy, but at this point, the season is sort of just like it's sunk, right? And they've got to hire a new coaching staff. So right now, the most important thing that Mike McCoy can do, along with that front office collectively, whoever's making decisions for real, can sit there and say, okay, can we win with X player in Y type of way? Can we win with Y player in X type of way? Mix things up a lot. I will have no surprise at all to see them mix things up quite a bit over the remaining stretch of the season because they're trying to figure out who to keep and who to let go of.

37:40Jourdan Rodrigue:Because if you fire the head coach like this, and you make it clear that it's roster oriented, and there wasn't enough improvement, all the things that they said, you have to figure out, okay, if you can play in this type of way that we might go this direction for a coach, okay, then let's see who sticks with this, who fits and what we might need to do. This is like, I know it sounds like sad, right? But that's exactly what a good organization would do right now is to see, try a bunch of different types of things and see who excels in certain concepts that you think you might be gravitating toward for the future of your team and figure out who you're getting rid of and who you're keeping.

38:18Patrick Claybon:Well, and this is also about the development of Cam Ward. Look, they just went through this with Will Levis. I mean, the fact that they're going through this again on such a short calendar and trying to develop your quarterback and see if he's the guy, it's organizationally red flag. They went through a lot with Will Levis. Right. But I'm just saying that that is a red flag.

38:34Steve Wyche:I mean, Will Levis is looking like a genius for kind of opting out of this season. Yeah. He broke his shoulder or whatever. That's fair. They thought he was going to fight through it or something. Yeah. He was like, sorry.

38:45Jourdan Rodrigue:Deadlift bar crushed him, bro.

38:47Patrick Claybon:Until it was right here. But I'm more interested in the Colts because you talk to a lot of teams. How do we fare when there's expectations? There were no expectations of the Colts now. They came out and they looked really strong against the Chargers, running the ball in a highly competitive game. This is a game, 14 points, right? A 14-point favorite. but how do they fare in terms of keeping their focus against a division opponent who they should run off the field?

39:08Steve Wyche:And they did once. This is a rematch. They put up a 40 burger on the Titans. It was 34 to 13, like until late in that game. So they, they've passed every test like that. They just seem to love playing football together. And we, we talked about them at length on, on the show with Colleen Wolf on, on Tuesday. I just love like the Bordellini center, uh, Quentin Nelson combination, combination like they look really smart self scouting that they waved goodbye to Will Fries and Ryan Kelly with their replacements there.

39:40Patrick Claybon:Yeah. Everything everything is working and also 10 targets for Alec Pierce. There it is against the Chargers. They were all deep shots. Yeah. Including shout out to the film watchers on YouTube and TikTok pointing out that they put the they saw on tape the Dolphins putting the cover three defender in conflict. And so they went right at him with Alec Pierce and a huge home run which is, you know, just makes everything better. Just get more balls. Alec Pierce doesn't lead the NFL in yards per catch anymore because they're throwing the ball more. Now it's Tyquan Thornton.

40:09Jourdan Rodrigue:I also want to point out that on the screen, as you're watching some of these Colts Chargers highlights, that touchdown pass that Daniel Jones threw to Tyler Warren, a lot like a no-look pass to me. And I noticed it because he has a very intense gaze. And when it's not looking in the direction you think it's going to be looking in, you definitely notice it.

40:28Patrick Claybon:But how much fun does he have? Oh, he looks great. He looks great.

40:32Jourdan Rodrigue:He's night and day. I love this. I love this for Lou Anarumo, who is scheming and coaching. I mean, he's got a great group first and foremost, and these players are really bought in to him and they are, they seem like they're all playing for each other, even when they've had injuries and deficiencies and different, especially on the perimeter, like they really are playing for each other. You can tell, and he's doing smart things with them. He's mixing his coverages a lot. He's rotating his coverage. He's confusing the quarterbacks and it's fun for everybody. You could tell how excited, Greg, you brought it up in the show yesterday with Colleen.

41:03Jourdan Rodrigue:They're so excited to get back out there and play football. Both sides of the ball, all three phases. They're so excited to be out there and that's the sign of a team that can sustain this type of juice.

41:13Steve Wyche:No Josh Simmons, by the way, in this game for the Titans. So a tough assignment gets tougher.

41:18Jourdan Rodrigue:Jeffrey Simmons.

41:19Steve Wyche:Jeffrey Simmons.

41:20Patrick Claybon:As perhaps, you know, he might. He and Calvin Ridley might be heading elsewhere. We'll head elsewhere and go to a team that was having so much fun but the fun is starting to slow down a little bit. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a four-and-a-half point favorite, Jordan, going on the road to take on the division rival New Orleans Saints. The over-under is 46-and-a-half. Kenny Albert, Jonathan Vilma there. We're not expecting Mike Evans for most of the rest of the season. A nasty fall in which he breaks his collarbone and has a concussion on the same play, like clearly motionless on the field. It was horrible to see.

41:50Patrick Claybon:The streak's going to end, but Baker is always ready to fight, even before the game here. How do you see this one going?

41:58Jourdan Rodrigue:And Baker had an awful game too. And I did get some, I did get some, some posts sent my direction, wondering what the status of Baker ball was at this juncture. Sputtering, sputtering. I would say I still have faith. I still believe. Baker ball keeps on rolling, baby. Filibustering. Cause I knew that jarring ear shattering drop was coming, but it's I mean this was by far this was their worst game on offense for sure last week and I do think that they bounce back despite again suffering some more pretty depressing injuries but their offensive line they've got their offensive linemen you know Saints can't really get a pass rush Saints are showing up in spurts and fits on defense and on offense but nothing consistent you really need this game and a kind of a morale boost if you're Tampa Bay

42:54Steve Wyche:I think this is a dangerous game in the division coming off of a game like that. And you know who won't let anyone get too easy? It's Baker Mayfield. He knows what kind of rivalry it is. Bucks and Saints. It hasn't exactly been clean play from their part when we play them. It's a physical game. It is what it is. You expect it. Division rival. Yeah. Not much else to say besides the fact that I don't like him.

43:20Jourdan Rodrigue:Oh, he is so back.

43:21Patrick Claybon:He has to fire himself up sometimes. Like I was thinking about the long run that he had a few weeks ago, and then he looks for a defender's shoulder to walk into. This is the verbal version of that.

43:32Jourdan Rodrigue:He's so back. He's so back. Don't pick them this week, Greg.

43:36Steve Wyche:I didn't pick them last week.

43:37Jourdan Rodrigue:I know, but I'm just saying, I spent the first half thinking it was your fault, and then you texted me unprompted.

43:41Steve Wyche:I never picked them in the end.

43:44Jourdan Rodrigue:Just don't pick them.

43:45Steve Wyche:This is their bye week coming up, and yeah, I just think it's such a difference if they can win this game. Todd Bowles made some pretty big changes on the defense last week. Like Jacob Parrish is now kind of a slot only player. And then they like what they see out of the rookie Benjamin Morrison, who's coming in with Jamel Dean. I mean, that's great. But if we're talking about potential trades, I know they signed Hassan Redick before the season. He's now going to be out for a few weeks. He hasn't given them much. They could really use another pass rusher. Maybe this isn't the week that that gets them.

44:17Steve Wyche:But I think Rattler, it does pass my baseline NFL starting quarterback test where if you give Rattler time, he'll deliver. I know he's coming off his worst game of the season. He was due to have a bad one. He really had been so consistent before that. So I wouldn't be surprised if the Saints offense rebounds a little bit here and gives them trouble.

44:35Patrick Claybon:Yeah, I'm with you on this. This is going to be I like the four and a half mark right here because one. For as long as I've been covering the NFL, the Saints play Tampa tough. It does not matter if it's Drew Brees, if it's against James. It doesn't matter. It is always a very good match. If whoever's coaching them, every time they play it, it's a very tough game. And that game against Detroit, we can see this. They're going to bounce back. That was an emotional, draining game. For them to see Mike Evans go down like that, for them to put as much into it and not play well. I mean, they played. They competed like hell, but they did not play well.

45:10Patrick Claybon:This could be a tough game for them to emotionally gather themselves. look at their run of games that they just played they played the fegal the the eagles at seattle

45:20Jourdan Rodrigue:san francisco and at detroit can't wait for the bye yeah i mean this is one where it's just like

45:25Patrick Claybon:okay let's just hang on let's just hang on to get there so this could you know i'm not gonna say it's necessarily gonna be an upset game but this is this is one i keep my eye out for it's gonna

45:34Steve Wyche:be a tough game i might have to assign myself this you know i like like a little dirty south by the way did you see the new two lane uniforms that are gonna break out incredible

45:43Patrick Claybon:those might be the greatest uniforms ever

45:45Steve Wyche:thank you, thank you Steve for pointing that out before I could even do that those are spectacular I've never wanted to buy a helmet the helmet the Uptown City Edition we might not be a Power 5 school, we might have gone like 20 years between having decent football teams but they're 6-1 now and they got the cleanest uniforms consistently in the entire college football put us in the playoff for that

46:12Jourdan Rodrigue:Then your coach goes to Penn State.

46:14Steve Wyche:The coach is probably going somewhere, but they held on to him for one more year. They're right there. And they're also receiving votes. We're 28th right now. Joe Brady's going to Penn State.

46:23Jourdan Rodrigue:Matt Rule's going to Penn State.

46:26Steve Wyche:I hope so. Because, you know. So does Eric. I can't make fun of the game. Eric's laughing. Eric, the Bills fans want Joe Brady gone. I think, sneakily. Weirdly, they don't like Joe Brady anymore.

46:39Jourdan Rodrigue:If you dip into Bill's tour at any point or Bill's blue sky at any point, you see some things.

46:44Patrick Claybon:They're manifesting AJ Brown trades right now on Bill's Twitter.

46:47Steve Wyche:A lot of crazy things are happening out there. We stole our coach from Troy, from the Troy Trojans. So it happens. It's a feeding system and the capitalism comes for us all one day. Let's take a little break. It's about to. We will be back for a fun Thursday night football game. We need to survive, Greg. Oh my gosh. We need to survive. We've survived as a team. We did a great job last week picking the most one-sided game in the NFL this season. That was Chiefs Raiders. If I wanted to feel alive, I would take the Packers this week over the Steelers. But that goes against...

47:27Jourdan Rodrigue:Why didn't you want to feel alive last week?

47:29Steve Wyche:I'm nothing if not... I care so much about this. Just going with the vibes and how the wind is blowing and my emotions at the time. But that doesn't really make sense. We could take the Chiefs. I want to know how confident Steve will be on taking the Falcons.

47:43Patrick Claybon:I knew we were going to go there.

47:47Patrick Claybon:Let's make the easy pick. I'm almost more confident. I'm almost more confident going Cincinnati over the Jets.

47:54Steve Wyche:Do we want to save the Colts for a more difficult week? You never. It is my philosophy, even though I just said let's get frisky. Never save. Okay. This is going to be the most the Colts are favored all season, right? we're trying to win the game here we're going to make it to week 19 Colts it is

48:12Patrick Claybon:in week 17 I'm going to be like Greg we could have had the kids right now but no it's a fair point

48:18Steve Wyche:we will be back on Thursday night I'll be there I'll be at so far that's awesome Chargers and Vikings of course we also have the pick show me and Cynthia Freeland picking games against the spread that's coming up it's like i like live i live in the chris wesley podcast studio get me a cot uh see you guys next time it's more jalen warren love i love jalen warren wasabi is purpose-built to free your business from skyrocketing storage cost and fees wasabi is the go-to provider for professional and collegiate sports teams around the world check out wasabi's ai-enabled intelligent media storage wasabi air to the industry's only cloud storage service with triple protection against cyber criminals.

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