In short
NFL Daily episode recap focused on how Thanksgiving and Black Friday games reshaped the 2025 season outlook, especially the NFC North and the Cowboys’ momentum.
Guests
Greg Rosenthal (host) and Ollie Connolly (Read Optional Podcast and Substack; based in Manchester). No other guests are named.
Key claims
- Bears’ win over Eagles (24-15) “transformed” the division race: Chicago’s ground dominance (281 rushing yards; two 100-yard rushers before the 4th) plus Ben Johnson’s run/play-action creativity exposed Philadelphia’s tired defense and poor in-game adjustments.
- The game swung on a defensive stop of the Eagles’ tush push: Nashawn Wright ripped the ball from Jalen Hurts, credited to Kelvin Shepard’s defensive concept and Dennis Allen’s execution.
- Packers’ Thanksgiving win over Lions (31-24) was driven by Jordan Love’s precision “wow” throws and pressure pressure mismatch: Micah Parsons generated 10 total pressures, including 5 quick pressures, while the Lions couldn’t consistently get to Love.
- Cowboys beat Chiefs 31-28 (Black Friday): Greg highlights Dak Prescott’s full improvisation sequence and late-game execution, including a touchdown drive and a lead they didn’t relinquish.
Notable examples
- Bears: Caleb Williams-to-Cole Kmet TD; Kyle Monungay late TD; Eagles booed early and at halftime.
- Packers: Christian Watson 51-yard TD; Love’s deep throws to the perimeter.
- Cowboys: Dak’s scramble-to-Wiggins TD and later CD Lamb big play.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VORecap of Thanksgiving Games
1:02 to 2:28
Analyzing the impact of Thanksgiving and Black Friday NFL games on the season.
“hot cloud storage, proud partner of the iHeart Podcast Network.”
Recap of Thanksgiving Games
3:19 to 4:25
Analyzing the impact of Thanksgiving and Black Friday NFL games on the season.
“Try the new Tropical Butterfly Refresher from Starbucks.”
Chicago Bears vs. Philadelphia Eagles
4:25 to 6:28
Deep dive into the Bears' performance against the Eagles and offensive strategies.
“going on this run, maybe getting into division contention.”
Bears' Dominance in the Run Game
6:28 to 7:42
Exploration of the Bears' effective running strategy against the Eagles.
“And the score is a really kind reflection.”
Eagles' Struggles and Boos from Fans
7:42 to 9:01
Discussion on the Eagles' poor performance and fan reactions during the game.
“And I think the Bears were really confident that we are going to be the tougher team.”
Analysis of Jalen Hurts' Performance
9:01 to 10:06
An evaluation of Jalen Hurts' challenges and missed opportunities in the game.
“Yeah, Darnell Wright has been the breakout from the line, but you have to give the front office and Ben Johnson's vision credit, especially after that first month of the season when it wasn't really working.”
Game Turning Points and Missed Opportunities
10:06 to 11:33
Identifying critical moments that shifted the game's momentum.
“for much of the game, whether it was just missing throws or making rough decisions is just another game where it didn't seem like they could take advantage of enough mismatches on the outside.”
Final Thoughts on the Thanksgiving Weekend
11:33 to 14:01
Concluding remarks on the overall impact of the holiday games on the NFL season.
“the leverage and where the coverage was.”
Bears vs Eagles: Game-Changing Plays
14:01 to 16:41
Discover how a key turnover altered the course of the Bears-Eagles game.
“And then in the second half where Jalen Hurts throws an interception where they have a three and out to start where Saquon Barkley doesn't even look for the ball on the first play of the second half.”
Tactical Depth of Bears' Offense
16:41 to 21:54
Explore the complexity of the Bears' offensive strategy and execution in critical moments.
“And yes, they were down that one point because of a Jake Elliott missed extra point.”
Show all 34 chapters
Jordan Love's Masterclass Against Lions
21:54 to 23:06
Learn about Jordan Love's impressive performance that led the Packers to victory.
“So the Bears stay on top of the division.”
Defensive Strategies and Pressure Dynamics
23:06 to 28:00
Analyze the defensive strategies that influenced the outcomes of key matchups.
“It's right there with the Giants game from Jordan Love a couple weeks ago.”
Lions vs. Cowboys: Game Analysis
28:00 to 39:50
A deep dive into the game between the Lions and Cowboys, discussing strategies, player performances, and critical moments.
“That was all set up from the first two quarters where Halfley proved that I will just leverage the threat of having the best player on the field by dropping him out and sending an overload pressure the other way.”
Lions vs. Cowboys: Game Analysis
39:51 to 40:52
A deep dive into the game between the Lions and Cowboys, discussing strategies, player performances, and critical moments.
“If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Tremphaya, proper training is required.”
Lions vs. Cowboys: Game Analysis
42:28 to 43:50
A deep dive into the game between the Lions and Cowboys, discussing strategies, player performances, and critical moments.
“ZepBound Terzepatide may be able to help.”
Dak Prescott's Game-Winning Drive
45:13 to 46:41
Analysis of Dak Prescott's impressive performance in a crucial game.
“Prescott said, I'll hear, I know, I'll hear you.”
Game Dynamics and Coaching Strategies
46:41 to 49:24
Discussing the strategies employed by both teams during critical moments.
“There was so much to go to in this game.”
Chiefs Defensive Struggles
49:24 to 51:07
Examining the Chiefs' defensive issues and penalties affecting their performance.
“You mentioned, let's just find a way to get George Pickens isolated.”
Mahomes' Efforts Amidst Challenges
51:07 to 56:00
Analyzing Patrick Mahomes' performance under pressure and team struggles.
“they kind of sold out to try and force the Cowboys into third and medium, third and long.”
Chiefs' Offensive Struggles
56:00 to 58:06
Explore the Chiefs' predictable offense and Mahomes' struggles under pressure.
“Have some of the most almost laughable tendencies at this point where the good coaches just know everything they're trying to do.”
Injuries and Coaching Decisions
58:06 to 1:00:05
Discuss the impact of injuries and Andy Reid's conservative play-calling.
“And there does seem to be some sort of fatigue factor, maybe mentally as well as physically with this team.”
Mahomes' Leadership and Team Dynamics
1:00:05 to 1:02:48
Analyze Mahomes' leadership amidst team injuries and their playoff implications.
“It's like, there is still a level of conservatism from Andy Reed that, that I find frustrating.”
Bengals vs. Ravens: A Turning Point
1:02:48 to 1:07:18
Recap the Bengals' victory over the Ravens and Burrow's critical performance.
“Yeah, I, you know, Chiefs fans have had a lot of fun over the years.”
Lamar Jackson's Inconsistent Play
1:07:18 to 1:10:03
Examine Lamar Jackson's struggles and the Ravens' lack of rhythm in the game.
“their offense just looked so disjointed and disheveled.”
Analyzing Lamar Jackson's Performance
1:10:03 to 1:10:55
We delve into Lamar Jackson's struggles in the recent game, focusing on missed throws and pressure faced.
“And yet it looked like he had the legs all the way back last night.”
Bengals' Defensive Standouts
1:10:56 to 1:11:56
Discussion on key plays made by the Bengals' defense, highlighting player performances and impact on the game.
“Because for all of these turnovers, the Bengals were kicking field goals early.”
Evaluating Bengals' Defensive Future
1:11:57 to 1:12:49
Exploration of the Bengals' defense and its potential to improve moving forward in the season.
“It's just some signs of life out of their pass rush.”
Joe Burrow's Impact and Return
1:12:50 to 1:21:10
A thorough analysis of Joe Burrow's return from injury and the overall performance of the Bengals' offense.
“For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters.”
Jason Garrett's Broadcasting Comeback
1:21:11 to 1:22:44
Discussion on Jason Garrett's performance as a commentator during recent games and his effectiveness on air.
Joe Burrow's Emotional Post-Game Reflections
1:22:45 to 1:24:00
Insights into Joe Burrow's emotional response after the game, reflecting on his journey and hard work.
“protection and the route concept somehow he can internalize it instantly and point stuff out that is proven when they go back to the replay.”
Joe Burrow's Emotional Return
1:24:00 to 1:26:12
Learn about Joe Burrow's reflections on his journey through injuries and his return to the field.
“ball coach call ball plays in real time.”
Recapping Big NFL Days
1:26:12 to 1:27:18
Hear the hosts discuss the recent impactful games and their significance for the season.
“You can actually see his reaction after hitting that touchdown of him just slamming himself in the chest and in the head saying, you're going to send a six-man pressure on me?”
Recapping Big NFL Days
1:28:18 to 1:28:55
Hear the hosts discuss the recent impactful games and their significance for the season.
“or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck.”
Recapping Big NFL Days
1:29:03 to 1:29:59
Hear the hosts discuss the recent impactful games and their significance for the season.
“It's one of the most important sounds in our car.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Lowe's knows Sundays are for football. So tackle your home improvement projects by Saturday and earn your Sunday with great deals on LG and Bosch appliances, select Bounty and Swiffer cleaning products, and more. Then once your to-do list is done, get ready to kick back, relax, and enjoy the game. shop in store or online now and earn your sunday with help from lowe's official partner of the nfl wasabi is purpose-built to free your business from skyrocketing storage costs 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.
0:54Wasabi, driving innovation and data storage for up to 80 % less than market competition. Try for free at wasabi.com. Wasabi, hot cloud storage, proud partner of the iHeart Podcast Network. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? ZepBound Terzepatide may be able to help. ZepBound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. ZepBound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection.
1:34ZepBound contains terzepatide and should not be used with other terzepatide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if ZepBound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop ZepBound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems.
2:08Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia, if you're nursing pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills. Taking ZepBound with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-5979 or visit zepbounds.lily.com. What's up, y 'all? Summer's got a different tempo. Everything's a little looser, brighter. One plan turns into another. You hear something, you stay a little longer. Next thing you know, you're somewhere you didn't plan to be.
2:48It's those in-between moments. That's where the ideas hit. Conversations stretch out. Little memories sneak up on you. Sometimes it's just about what's in your hand. That color. That chill. The new tropical butterfly refresher from Starbucks. Guava and passion fruit flavors with mango pineapple flavored pearls. Yeah, that feels like summer before you even taste it. Funny how one small stop becomes the best part of the day. Start your summer rhythm with Starbucks. Try the new Tropical Butterfly Refresher from Starbucks.
3:29Welcome to NFL Daily, where if the season just started at Thanksgiving, we've got a whole lot of Super Bowl favorites who are having a miserable season. Yes, I'm Greg Rosenthal recapping the Black Friday game, the three Thanksgiving games. I'm doing it from my garage in Santa Monica, and I'm doing it with my friend, Ollie Connolly of the Read Optional Podcast and Substack, who's all the way over in Manchester. Ollie, I'm glad you are the one joining me here for this show, because I feel like the NFL is not the same as it was a couple of days ago, that these two days, these four games in the NFL have probably transformed like how this season looks maybe more than any week that we've had so far this season.
4:15I agree with you. Everything feels off its axis. All the superstar quarterbacks are essentially seemingly, if not out of the playoff hunt, right on the bubble of will they make it or not. All of a sudden you start really buying into the Cowboys going on this run, maybe getting into division contention. And then the Bears, I mean, we talked about them, was it last Saturday? And some of the kryptonites and concerns and all of a sudden, like out of ticking some of them off week by week, like they could really be a problem in the postseason. Yeah, they were going to start with the game in Philadelphia.
4:46But we have a lot to get to. The Chiefs-Cowboys game was, to me, as fascinating as there was a game all season. The creeping, you know, discomfort with this Ravens team will hit that at the end. But why don't we start, yes, in Philadelphia and with this NFC North race that the Bears just stubbornly refuse to bow out of. They're in first place going into December. Ball to 28. Snap to Caleb. Fakes to Swift. Rolling to his left. Being chased. Going to throw deep. He's got Komet. Over the shoulder. End zone. Touchdown, Bears. Touchdown, Cole Komet. What a play call by Ben Johnson. And a throw. Perfectly timed.
5:29Caleb to Cole. Bears extend the lead. 23-9. Oh, on a windy, cold night in Philadelphia. It was the running game for the Chicago Bears, but it was also the play calling. Great call there by Jeff Joniak on WMVP. Caleb Williams to Cole Komet. Wasn't a lot of passing in this game, but man, that was well-timed, as was a lot of third down calls from Ben Johnson. The Bears, for them, end up cruising 24-15. and it could have been even worse on the scoreboard, Ollie. This was a molly whopping 281 yards on the ground from the Chicago Bears. How did they do it? They just manhandled them. I mean, they bullied them up front.
6:21There was all kind of the creativity of Ben Johnson in the run game and he'll get a bunch of those plaudits, but they just went man on man a lot of the time and just bullied them. And the score is a really kind reflection. I thought the Eagles response defensively was pretty poor for someone of Fangio stature, not having the ability to kind of mix up on the fly, understood some of what he was trying to get away with. But the payoff comes on some of the play action shots they were able to hit. Not a great game for Caleb Williams, probably back to back weeks where he's not being near his best. But they just dominated them with the ground game and the Eagles had no response.
6:52Yeah, I think the wind, it's hard to know without being there. But the teams that were going into the wind all night, struggled to throw the ball. And so I think that had an effect, but you're right. The game could have been a bigger blowout and we'll get to that part of it. But you look at the running numbers. There were two 100 yard rushers for the Chicago Bears in this game before the fourth quarter started. That hadn't happened, two 100 yard rushers for this team since the 85 Bears, like in an entire game. DeAndre Swift, who's been incredible since the The bye week at 125 yards. Kyle Monungay, who's been awesome this season, 130 yards.
7:33And if you add up the total plays that the Eagles defense has been on the field for the last two weeks, it was 90 last week. It was 85 this week. I don't know if that played into how Ben Johnson called this game in the first half, but they looked like a tired defense. And I think the Bears were really confident that we are going to be the tougher team. We're the one built for this sort of atmosphere. And they were absolutely right. 47 plays in the first half. And even though the score was close at halftime, it really felt like the rest of the game was set up by that first half, just dominating the time of possession.
8:07Yeah. I thought the Eagles looked gassed by the second quarter. I mean, they finished with 11 missed tackles. There was two guys with four missed tackles apiece, Blankenship and N 'Kobe Dean. I thought N 'Kobe Dean had a really brutal game. Meanwhile, Jihad Campbell plays zero defensive snaps. So try and change the defensive personnel. and Ben Johnson puts you in this impossible bind. The Eagles want to play with a light box. They get completely mauled whenever they play with a light box. They try to ever so slightly change the front structure, but the way Ben Johnson calls the running game means you're pretty limited in how many bodies you can actually stick down there because if someone misses, there's nothing behind you to try and figure it out.
8:42So when you've got all the creativity and misdirection and they lead the league in play action, you're just panicked all the time that something's coming over our head for an explosive, either the play fake or one missed tackle, one burst wonk, and a bit of trickery in the backfield. And it's a wrap. So it kind of forces you to play a bit more static, be a little lighter in the front. And that Bears line is just crushing people at the moment. Yeah, Darnell Wright has been the breakout from the line, but you have to give the front office and Ben Johnson's vision credit, especially after that first month of the season when it wasn't really working.
9:13The free agent pickups with Dahlman, when Jonah Jackson has been out there and in general just developing the guys that they have. And some are backups like at left tackle. It's just a really great, greater than the sum of their parts team right now, which is really tough. I mean, you don't normally see volume like this with this efficiency, 47 % success rate on the ground. And it's hard not to just think about the differences between where this Bears team is right now and not the Bears from a year ago, because I mean, that's night and day. This is a nine and three Bears team. But the Eagles, where they were a year ago, they are now eight and four.
9:47and all the concern that everyone's saying, yeah, but they're winning games. Now they're not winning games against better competition. And the running game stuck out tonight under 36 success rate in terms of percentage. But Jalen Hurts, I thought, had a rough go of it for much of the game, whether it was just missing throws or making rough decisions is just another game where it didn't seem like they could take advantage of enough mismatches on the outside. no I thought the game plan was egregiously bad I thought Jalen Hurts was egregiously bad you kind of bundle the two together and it just becomes a complete nightmare I mean they're getting booed off by the fans on the first three and out of the game and it felt fair this is the defending champs coming into the game who have their division lead and you felt like the foos were valid the boos were valid it was like okay after they saw what happened with the Cowboys last week it made a bunch of sense and Hurts in particular just I thought his brain was completely scrambled by a really pretty placid static defense on the back end.
10:49To be that confused is deeply, deeply troubling to me. Yeah, there was like a lot of blitzing from Dennis Allen and the Bears. But like most of the Bears defensive games lately, there wasn't a ton of pressure still. Like the pressure rate was very low, even though the blitz rate was high. I'm thinking of, you know, the early slant that they had potentially to Devontae Smith, where that could have gone for a touchdown and Jalen Hurts threw it behind him. And on that same play, Dallas gutter is wide open down the sea. He has two touchdowns on the same play. He misreads it and then misses the throw.
11:27Yeah. And I'm not sure if he thought Devontae Smith was going to stop, but I don't know why he would think that based on like the leverage and where the coverage was. And yeah, he misses throws like at towards the end of the game he starts having faith in like the one-on-one matchups to A.J. Brown and A.J. Brown starts making plays for him was actually a great game by A.J. Brown he finishes with 10 for 132 and two touchdowns the second one was sort of garbage time with three minutes left but he was making it happen but I just don't know if like the crowd is getting into it if it's the offensive line like it can't feel great going into halftime and you mentioned the boos are loud after the first drive The boos were insanely loud going into halftime.
12:13They have the shots of the kid going double bird. And then the father, I think, proud of his young son, hugging him after that. That was one of my favorite images of the entire season. Just a beautiful holiday moment for everyone to enjoy internationally. I just think it's borderline unforgivable to have a game plan where the Bears are on their fifth and sixth linebacker. right they are blitzing like maniacs because they can't get any pressure they don't get any pressure when they blitz and to not have it built into your plan that everything we do is built around putting those linebackers in conflict those are not starting caliber nfl linebackers we're going to lead into our old school rpo game it's going to be an awful lot of jalen hurts designed run stuff and we're going to make it where is saquon where isn't saquon maybe we get tank bigs being there for a bit more juice if one of those linebacker misses the fill it's an absolute home run shot for that not to be the plan for tempo not to be the plan they only look competent when there's any degree of tempo you see it the one time they get jalen hurts in the quarterback run game he rips off a 22 yard gain on the ground then they immediately go tempo they take the deep shot to aj brown and it feels like they're in the game why that isn't baked into being automatically part of the offense particularly against this defense just makes no sense yeah i'm glad you brought that sequence up because at that point in the game, the Bears are up 10 to three.
13:32We went over how dominant the numbers looked at halftime, but they didn't fully take advantage in the first half of that game. There was a fourth and one fail by Kyle Monungay, which was overturned upon review. I think that was the first drive of the game. Caleb Williams missed a very wide open Roma Dunze in the end zone when he didn't get his feet set. That was more points that were not really taken advantage of. And then in the second half where Jalen Hurts throws an interception where they have a three and out to start where Saquon Barkley doesn't even look for the ball on the first play of the second half.
14:12And you're thinking Bears have to put it away and they can't move the ball at all. They get one first down in the first two drives. Then that sets up the drive you're talking about where finally they go tempo. They get five plays, 92 yards. There's a penalty thrown in there. It's 10 to nine. And they end up getting the ball back after a Caleb Williams interception on a screen pass where he doesn't give enough loft on the screen pass. So suddenly the Eagles just scored. It's 10 to nine. Like they're only down one point. They start driving down the field. They are in position to take the lead. And this is where I think the game changed.
14:52And I know this must have been fascinating to you just from an X's and O's perspective. The game turns on a tush push fail. I think that was the biggest play of the game. Our guy, Nashawn Wright, who's having a great season, like he's bounced around in the NFL, having a great season, comes in on the tush push in the red zone and rips the ball away from Jalen Hurts. And that's at 10-9. And that really does turn the game around. The Bears score on the ensuing drive. What did you see on that play that Nayshawn Wright got the ball from Jalen Hurts? Yeah, this goes back to Kelvin Shepard. Kelvin Shepard having a really rough time of it as the defensive coordinator in Detroit right now.
15:29But he figured out the tush push, which is to have an offset defensive player. He used Nayshawn Wright. Shepard used a linebacker. And you basically spear the tush push. You have someone just completely ignore the sneak element of the tush push. And he just races in from the side to go and grab Jalen Hurts. and you hope he can hold him up and pull him back. And it removes the push element of the quarterback sneak, essentially. They twist it slightly with Dennis Allen and say, just go and rip the ball. If the ball's there and Jalen Hurd's going to hold it, just go attack the football. And you get one of the biggest turnovers of the season to swing, I think, the fortune of two franchises.
16:02And while doing that, maybe put to end the effectiveness of the tush push. That is the way to stop it. It's been proven. Not Brian Flores trying to sacrifice a human at the altar by lying down someone. That one did not work, but Kelvin Shepard figured it out. Dennis Allen took it. And that is just out there. Now, if you use this spear motion that you can use defensively, you can attack Jalen Hurts before the push comes along. And it was interesting to hear Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit talk about Jalen Hurts sounding like he's not even that big of a fan of the tush push. He would rather just maybe do a quarterback sneak.
16:36So maybe that gets back to the Eagles. And he helps like just self-sabotage the tush push. The ensuing drive. Again, it would have been a fascinating fourth quarter because I do think the Eagles defense still would have been tired in that situation, but it would have been a fascinating fourth quarter to see the Bears behind in that situation, whether it was by two points because of a field goal. And yes, they were down that one point because of a Jake Elliott missed extra point. The wind and just the kicking conditions were not great. But then the Bears rip off a really outstanding drive where they basically don't have Caleb Williams throw the ball at all.
17:09And it finishes in a very fitting way with a Kyle Monungay touchdown. Two tight ends right side of the line. Monungay, the lone back take from center. And the give. Monungay. Washed out by Jonah Jackson. Clears the path to the end zone for Kyle Monungay. Mighty Monungay. Another touchdown run. This one of four yards. And a 16-9. Bears lead over the Eagles. Oh, I love that. And that was a sweet drive. it was a 12 play march uh 92 yards and uh they follow it up their next drive with a touch done drive too and you mentioned on blue sky i believe it was a little back and forth with jordan rodrigue which i love to see and she she made the hilarious and true comment that broadcasters love nothing more than the phrase illusion of complexity and you pointed out yeah but in the bears case like Like it really is pretty complex.
18:05So late in the game, like what did you see for what they were doing on those last couple of touchdown drives where it just felt like the Eagles defense gave way? Yeah, I would love one of these coaches. Remember when Charlie Weiss went to Notre Dame and he was like, we have a schematic advantage. Then he like completely fell on his face in college football. I would love one of these coaches come out and say, no, we are actually very complex and better at this than everyone else, which is essentially what Ben Johnson does week to week. It's just the volume of packages, the volume of concepts within the packages.
18:32and I get what they're saying about they dress things up to look the same way. They also just put guys in such difficult assignments. It's hard to overstate how difficult it must be to play tight end in that system. They have way more on their plate than essentially any other position in the NFL. It sets up all the run game, all the play action stuff. And on that drive, you're talking about that, they just lead all the way into, let's go and find our four team best run plays. And we'll just pick between them based on the leverage of the defense, essentially where someone's shaded, what it's going to attack, the weak point of the defense.
19:02It's just classic Ben Johnson. You get some of the payoff stuff. This probably wasn't Caleb's best game on the payoff plays. They were there to be made. He just couldn't connect on some of that stuff. I'm sure the wind played into that. But that was Ben Johnson deep, deep in the bag on a must-have-it drive for the season. Yeah, and I think you do see some of the weaknesses, not just of Vic Fangio's scheme, which you mentioned had a light box for so much of the game, but also just these guys, Jalen Carter, barely left the field last week. their front in terms of Jalen Phillips, who might have gotten a little banged up at the end of the game.
19:37And their defensive line in general did not come off the field much in that 90 snap game against the Chiefs. And it was the same tonight. And by the end of this game, they just looked gassed. And they protected Caleb Williams well. He didn't hit everything, but he hits that touchdown. There was another third and four in the fourth quarter that was important. That was impeccably blocked. And he ends up hitting Colston Loveland on the sideline. And then I thought the play calling was great at the end of the game when they're trying to kill clock to use Caleb's legs on a play where he runs to the sideline.
20:08And man, he in a straight line, he is one of the fastest quarterbacks in the NFL. I genuinely believe running to the sideline. He's the quickest guy in the league. He just he loves doing the show off my home slowdown. And it's like, buddy, you're not my homes. They're not going to give you the free flag. Please just get out of there and stay safe. That Loveland plays important, though, for the Eagles, too. they've changed defensively what they do on the back end because they're so scared of Adoree Jackson where they play a sides defense a cornerback now which you just never see in the NFL so one guy set to one side one guy set to the other and instead of it being left or right which is often how the league will do it they're going field boundary so short side the field is Quinone Mitchell far side the field is Adoree Jackson and that's been out there that really like discombobulated the Lions a couple of weeks ago because you don't see it in the league very much now that's out there it's very easy for the offense to dictate we know based on how we set our formation exactly where Quinone Mitchell is going to be on the field if you go and look at that play they get the matchup they want which is Colston Loveland in the slot on re-blankenship and everyone is hunting at all times for re-blankenship that's what everyone wants to do against the Eagles everyone else is like an all-pro player over the Nadori if you can find blankenship one-on-one so in a must-have-it-down must-have-it situation the Eagles are really tipping themselves on what they're going to be defensively and so you can always try and cover up in a raised floors when you feel you've got a sinkhole at corner but now it's opened up a different kind of ones for them yeah and it's it's set up I think by being in such favorable situations I don't know what it ended up on but I I saw late in the first half like their average third down distance and they were nine for 15 on third downs tonight was under three and a half yards so they were just always in a good spot to either run it or give Caleb a favorable look it continued throughout.
21:51What a fascinating season this is in the NFC North. So the Bears stay on top of the division. Everyone was saying, okay, the schedule is going to get hard. Well, it got a little harder last week with the Steelers, took care of that. Got much harder this week in Philadelphia, took care of that. You got the Packers two of the next three weeks. That is really going to be fascinating. And yeah, the Eagles, they have to worry about the division two. We'll get to the Cowboys in a minute, but let's talk Packers, Lions. Let's go to Detroit. Love steps up, points across the formation, a drops back into the shotgun.
22:25Here's the snap and fourth down rushes on. Love looking off his back foot, throws the left side. Yes! There's a leaping catch at the 30-yard line number. First down Green Bay. There is your dagger. A turkey day dagger right through the Lions. Great call there. Love Wayne Larrabee on WRNW. I think that's John Coon in the background yelling, yeah! Man, what a fitting end to that game because it was a Jordan Love masterpiece. Felt like that was on the short list of great quarterback performances of the season. It's right there with the Giants game from Jordan Love a couple weeks ago. Obviously a bigger situation and even tougher opponent, but he had about four or five.
23:20Wow. Throws in this game on top of other great decisions throughout. And yes, they answered every line scoring drive. I thought Jared Goff was up for the challenge, but ultimately the Packers win 31 to 24 great offense beats, good defense. And what did you see out of Jordan love in this game? Yeah, I think you're probably being a bit harsh in him with four or five. I thought there were probably eight or nine wow throws in that thing. I mean, it was just like big boy superstar put the cape on drive after drive in a way that's, you know, he gets almost billed as like this careless bomber. I think at times when he is just so unbelievably precise at all times, he was throwing guys open all the time.
24:00The sidelines lines came in and said, we are not letting Jordan Love rip us apart over the middle of the field. That is our entire game plan. We make it muddy and difficult in the middle of the field. We'll dare him to beat us to the perimeter. And he said, I'm good, boys. I'm good with that. I'll just rip it all over the place. He bombs the ball down the field when he needs to. He's ripping it outside the numbers. Christian Watson over and over again. He puts it off the sideline where only his guy can get it with pressure in his face that those are top three, top four player in the league type throws on big time, big time drives.
24:30Yeah, the stats are really something. And we'll talk about the defense in this game when he is not pressured. He is the best quarterback in the league. The numbers would would tell you. And certainly the eyes would tell you that on Thanksgiving. So you think about that throw, big time play. You had the Dontavian Wicks touchdown. That was a close call, whether he got his feet in or not. Ultimately, I think it was the right move. You had the fourth and sixth call where he throws the ball deep. And then you had the Christian Watson touchdown. Let's listen to one of Jordan Love's best throws of the day.
25:09Under center is Love. Single back offense. Jacob's put on back. On second and 10, back to throw Love. Has time initially. Rainbows deep down the right side. And he's got it. Watson touched up. Green Bay Packers. Christian Watson blows the top off the Lions defense. Beat Amik Robertson. 51-yard touchdown pass. that gave them a 10 point lead early third quarter. And to me, Ali, it's the variety of the type of throws. And when he gets criticized, it's because sometimes he does too much big game hunting, I guess, but like big game hunting is, is why they won this game. Yeah. I mean, probably the only floor is when something goes wrong, he wants to chase it back in one play.
25:58And that's a real problem with kind of the offense they have this year, but they have kind of reformatted now and accepted. Took a craft is not coming back. we're gonna have to build this thing around christian watson we probably will have to be a let's hunt seven explosive plays down the field if we hit three of them we feel pretty good about our chances and i thought this was probably the best uh evidence of that this season i did think again the lions plan if you could see it on the touchdown throw there it's like everyone's congested in the middle of the field they're kind of allowing him to take a deep shot outside the numbers i'm not sure my plan would be let's allow jordan to put the game in his hands trying to hit a deep shot to christian watson it feels like love would take that that every time yeah and i did think the pressure was maybe the biggest difference between these two teams so this is this is the part where we we talk a little Micah Parsons the Lions did not get a high pressure rate in this game whatsoever they they tried to send pressure they didn't really get there the Packers did not have to send extra guys on the blitz nearly as often and Micah Parsons finishes with 10 total pressures, five quick pressures.
27:01And maybe it's unfair to just compare him to Aiden Hutchinson, but compared to Aiden Hutchinson, zero quick pressures, you know, five pressures on the game. And ultimately they made life tougher on Jared Goff, who I thought played a good game. That was one of his better games of the season overall. And it's not like Jordan Love was incredible when they did get on him. He was three for 12 in this game against pressure. Most of his damage was done when the offensive line did his job. What did you see out of Halfley's defense and how they got after Jared Goff? Yeah, Michael, it should be noted, was double teamed on 23 % of his pass rush snaps.
27:36So he's putting those kind of numbers up, plus the three run stuff that are like all time run stuff, where it's like helmet cup pop off type stuff, superstar type plays. Halfley, I think what was really impressive was leveraging the threat of Micah Parsons. I thought there was a degree of, can we call it arrogance in Dan Campbell's approach to the game? of there was an awful lot of leaving Mike a single dub but to in fairness to Dan Campbell early in the game Halfley was showing a lot like I will drop Mike around we're going to use Mike in really creative ways all these different creative pressures that Halfley is known for and so it starts putting doubts in the Lions mind of whether he's truly coming or not and whether it's worth investing a double team and so you can see that payoff over the course game when we get to the kind of the drive where he's just in the backfield every play then you get the kind of I'd say shaky call to extend the drive for the Lions where he just took over the game for three plays and was like, I'm going to end this on Thanksgiving.
Read the full transcript
28:25That was all set up from the first two quarters where Halfley proved that I will just leverage the threat of having the best player on the field by dropping him out and sending an overload pressure the other way. And you get free runners at Jared Goff all through the first couple of quarters. Yeah. Like the, like the first drive of the game, you know, like the first third down snap Goff had two defenders in his face in half a second. There was nothing to be done there. One of them was Isaiah McDuffie, who, by the way, has played great the last two weeks. Like, I don't know if you have an Isaiah McDuffie take, but Quay Walker's been injured.
28:55I don't even know if we mentioned that in this podcast, but McDuffie's kind of been awesome these two weeks. Maybe it's the system, but he's been outstanding. He's been good. A Hall of Fame high five player arrives just in time to give everyone else a high five in the backfield. He's not quite athletic enough to be like a serious difference maker, but he's in the right spot to the right time. And that's kind of the best you can hope for, I think. Yeah, I was thinking like he's a crazy difference maker, but it does show, I think, how Micah is setting up everyone else. And you mentioned how he helps to close the game down.
29:24This is why you make the Micah Parsons trade. There's what, like a sack that he makes late in the game to set up a third and 15 essentially kills that drive and then kills the next drive too. Because for a while, Goff is fighting back and making some highly difficult plays, despite the fact that they lost Amon Ra St. Brown in the first drive of the game. He never returned. He has an ankle sprain. Rap sheet says he will not be placed on low IR. It's a quote-unquote low ankle sprain, so we'll see. But they're without Laporta. They're without Amon Ra St. Brown. We got the news before the game that fired me up that Frank Ragnall is going to return at some point.
30:09Like, do you think long term, because they are out of the playoff picture right now that they have enough? Let's say they don't have Amon Ra for a few games to get it done offensively without him. I really don't. I mean, it was a shocking amount of Tom Kennedy, who has been with the team since like 2019, since he finished playing lacrosse. He's just always on the practice squad. He gets on the active roster like, what, 24 hours before the game? and he's getting seven targets in a game against a Micah Parsons defense at home. That was pretty shocking. The Ragnow news, I'm so fired up to have Frank Ragnow back.
30:42I would pause slightly there. It feels unfair to put expectations on him that he's going to walk off the sofa like Joe Flacco did a couple of years ago as a center in the league. When we've seen how linemen look when they retire, they shed weight really quickly to expect to just walk back in as a Hall of Fame caliber play who will kind of like erase and fix all the problems, I think is a little unfair on Ragnow. Yeah, and they were without Graham Glasgow in this game, who had been taking over at center. So, you know, they've had issues, and maybe that helps to explain the drive at the end of the game, but it really reminded me of the drive late against the Eagles, where the Lions took a while, and it almost felt like they waved the white flag in Philadelphia that night, just taking forever in a game that they were only down by a touchdown.
31:28And the same thing kind of happened in this game where they take a six minute drive late and kind of just end the game on themselves. And it ends in a field goal, too, because Goff ends up taking a sack. That's one of the drives where Michael Parsons makes such an impact. And just feels like, man, these are these are not the Lions that I love. These are not the Lions that I had in the Super Bowl. I'm not feeling great about that right now. No, I think that's part of when you change the play call in midseason. you know you might have some operational issues during the dan camill's trying to manage the entire game and he's also calling the plays and it just feels like there's a bit of friction there i don't think he's done a great job i think we all just love dan camill and respect dan camill that's like you just assume he's going to be good at this stuff i think he's been pretty poor over this month that he's been calling plays i mean they had a 24 success rate on 25 early down runs and i understand the logic that we lose him on raw we've not got laporta the line is not playing very well just get the ball in the hands of jamaic gibbs but there are more creative ways to do it than just slam your head against a brick wall over and over again where evan williams is having the absolute game of his life flying down from safety to pin everything he can in sight and it just it just felt like an ideological game where he's like no this is who we are the fourth down calls the run game stuff was like no this is how we play detroit lions football and it's like you are losing the game quite handily and your quarterback is playing absolutely lights out in a really tough situation where his interior line is terrible.
32:52Rattledge is the only one who's supposedly healthy and he's hurt and wincing throughout the game. He's throwing to a lacrosse player. He's playing absolute money and you don't adjust the game plan at all. I mean, that's fair. By the way, that seam ball to Kennedy was a beautiful throw and catch. I mean, some of the passes to Jamison Williams was like in just the smallest window and catches him perfectly in stride. I'm not saying Goff's game was perfect. And in fact, the time on fourth down where the Packers did a good job flushing Goff out and got him off his spot, and he throws on the run, but it's just a little bit behind Williams.
33:25Williams could have made that catch, but it maybe just showed the difference between Goff and some of the more mobile quarterbacks in the league. Ultimately, he did a good job, and yeah, Dan Campbell's not going to change, I think, who he is. He talked after the game about the fourth-down decisions. I didn't like one of those fourth-down calls. You know, it felt like, you know, I don't know how good of an opportunity we really gave our guys on that first one, you know.
33:55But, you know, we had an opportunity, and even at the end of the day, we had an opportunity, and we couldn't, you know, we just couldn't get it done there later in the game. So I wouldn't say necessarily that that's going to have an effect on me. You know, you always want to convert them, and we've had a lot of conversions here. It just didn't work out today. Oh, man. I read those quotes. I hadn't seen it. How is a dejected Dan Campbell hitting you on this Friday? Hits me in the gut. I will say I don't want to upset my friends in the day-to-day community. I am all for let's go for it. You know, whatever the numbers say, I get it.
34:33I'm with it. There is a degree of understanding your own personnel, which is why I like that he took some accountables there. Like the play he got them into based on what he's dealing with at the moment is probably not the smartest play to be in. And just when you know your interior is a disaster, your quarterback can't move off his spot, you do have to change ever so slightly on how you can actually get through and win these games. And when you know you've gotten a run game, it's like maybe it's a time to go and take some points. Yeah, the Jameson Williams drop was the second fourth down that they failed.
35:01And I believe the first one was a Jameer Gibbs run up the middle, which I thought maybe Goff switched to. Yeah, Dan Gable was giving his quarterback. He bailed him out there because that was a full check. and it asked for Tim Kennedy again the 5 '8 lacrosse player to move inside from a really wide position to come and try and pin like he's prime Cooper Cooper backside safety so that was just never ever going to work and I think that's Dan Campbell throwing himself in the grenade for I love that you shouted out Evan Williams and what he did in the run defense in this game obviously Parsons had some great run stuffs your guy Edge Cooper also showed up on a few big plays they stuffed the run 10 times so that's at or behind the line of scrimmage that that's a huge number I'm actually surprised the line's success rate was as high as it was which is 31 which is still quite low but they had so many negative runs how do you what do you think about this defense and kind of how they are rounding into form for the stretch run and their toughness I still think that they are a bit loose on the back end I would say and I do worry about them against a really great quarterback who can move slightly obviously anyone would be concerned about that but i think you see if it's not immediate pressure they can be a bit of a civ all their players play best top down evan williams is a maniac attacking the line of scrimmage and i adore him for that if he's just playing on the half field having to kind of figure out what's going on he gets lost all the time i mean he was lost like seven times in this game to offset the seven unbelievable plays uh in the run game it's just there's no time when that pass rush is getting home so if parsons if the other guys can rise to the level as they did in key spots on Thursday, then obviously it offsets everything.
36:39Enigbari, everyone playing to a higher level. I think Lujan, Devante Wyatt is a huge, huge loss to them inside. They are pretty, they're falling down the pecking order now of those interior guys. They really need some kind of upfield rush when Parsons getting double teamed at this kind of clip. Of course, it's our Super Bowl chances are in the hands of Enigbari. I don't love those odds. Yeah, so after the game, Devante Wyatt, who was carted off, We didn't get a complete report from the insiders yet, but Matt LaFleur said, quote, it doesn't look good. In general, when they say that, it's usually some sort of break, which would be really unfortunate for them.
37:16One of their most important players up front. I want to leave on a positive note, though. I mean, Christian Watson, his dad knew. His dad, for people that don't know, we're on Twitter. We're saying, first of all, they're not using him, right? He can do more than what he's doing. He's a complete receiver. He's a tougher guy. And then number two, he's going to be back from this injury sooner than you think. The rehab is going better than anyone who's ever torn his ACL before. And he's going to be more explosive before. And damned if he hasn't been right. Christian Watson looks like a centerpiece of a passing attack, which I did not expect.
37:51He really has changed this offense since he came back. Yeah, and so needed with Kraft going out. I mean, to just have the gravitational pull of someone took a graph. was such like a gravity player where everyone would just kind of pinch around him and it would open up targets for everyone else. They needed someone who was another three-level threat. And Watson developing as like a middle of the field kind of sneaky demon, I think has really transformed what they can be on offense. Yeah, Matthew Golden was out for this game. I do think if you told me we're in the playoffs and suddenly that's when Matthew Golden starts breaking out with like a couple big time plays, like that would not shock me.
38:26I don't think he was lost earlier this year. Maybe you tell me differently, but like they still could have another piece to play in this offense. It's exciting. For the people like you are holding the I have the Packers winning the Super Bowl ticket. I feel like even though the Bears won on Friday, you got to feel better maybe than you have all season long with the Packers at 8-3-1 after this one. I feel good seeing Jordan Love, who is the quarterback I enjoy watching the most round into this kind of form at this stage of the season. It's very, very exciting. So I mentioned they have two games against the Bears in a three-week span.
39:03It's actually 18 days because the last of those games is on a Thursday night. It's a banger of a game, but I hate that scheduling. Like two games in 18 days between these two teams is weird. And they both have some very challenging games down the stretch. So there's a lot of game to play. And yet I feel like the Packers, if there was any doubt, like eight, three and one, they're in outstanding shape to not only possibly win the division, but certainly get a wild card at the very least. And now Chicago at nine and three, despite that tough schedule, looking very good. A couple of games up on the Detroit Lions.
39:39All right. That's the NFC North. Let's take a break. And, you know, it's been a good couple of days when we save what might have been one of the most fascinating games of the entire season for after the break. Like, yes, Chiefs and Cowboys. Coming up.
40:20eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Tremphaya, proper training is required. Tremphaya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tremphaya today.
40:52Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit TremphayaRadio.com. Lowe's knows Sundays are for football. So tackle your home improvement projects by Saturday and earn your Sunday with great deals on LG and Bosch appliances, select Bounty and Swiffer cleaning products, and more. Then once your to-do list is done, get ready to kick back, relax, and enjoy the game. Shop in-store or online now and earn your Sunday with help from Lowe's, official partner of the NFL. Innovation is what gets your business to the big leagues, and Wasabi is designed to give every business a shot at competition. Break free from skyrocketing storage costs and unpredictable egress fees from old and top-heavy legacy providers.
41:45Wasabi is the world's hottest cloud storage company and the go-to provider for professional and collegiate sports teams and leagues around the world. And here's why. Innovation. From Wasabi's AI-enabled intelligent media storage, Wasabi Air, to the industry's only cloud storage service with triple protection against cyber criminals, data deletion, and ransomware. Wasabi has taken the lead in big league data storage. Remember, Wasabi is up to 80 % less than market competition and doesn't charge a cent for businesses to access their own data. Wasabi, another championship story. Check them out for free at wasabi.com.
42:23Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage, proud partner of the iHeart Podcast Network. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? ZepBound Terzepatide may be able to help. ZepBound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity, or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. ZepBound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection. ZepBound contains terzepatide and should not be used with other terzepatide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines.
43:03It is not known if ZepBound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it. Or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop ZepBound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia, if you're nursing, pregnant, plan-to-be, or taking birth control pills.
43:39Taking ZepBound with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-5979 or visit zepbounds.lily.com. baseball is back and bet MGM official partner of major league baseball is bringing the heat all season long step up to the plate all season with swing for the fences the free-to-play game where every swing could score you rewards we're talking parlay boost tokens odds boost tokens same-gate parlay boosts and even bonus spins all season long and the action doesn't stop there get more out of every at-bat with MLB same-game parlay boosts stack your picks and boost your potential payout.
44:27Plus, lock in bigger value with MLB odds boost tokens and MLB parlay boost tokens all season long. More boosts, more swings, more chances to win. Download the BetMGM app and step up to the plate today. See BetMGM.com for terms. 21 plus only. Promotional offers may vary by market. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards may vary. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. available in the U.S. For New York, 877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY 467-369. For Arizona, 1-800-NEXT-STEP. For Massachusetts, 1-800-327-5050. For Iowa, 1-800-BETS-OFF. For Puerto Rico, 1-800-981-0023. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel.
45:12All right, here we go. Prescott looking that way. Now he runs up out of the pocket. He sprints to the right. He dumps the ball to Wiggins. who steps in from the one. Touchdown, Cowboys. They drew it up in the dirt. They drew it up in the dirt. Prescott said, I'll hear, I know, I'll hear you. Here, you do something. Williams did something. That was Brad Sham on KRLD. And that was the end of a beautiful drive by Dak Prescott to take the lead, a lead they would not relinquish, Cowboys win 31 to 28 and I wanted to start there Ollie because I did feel like that drive that moment where they are trailing in the fourth quarter was a fascinating moment in this game and after that we get a whole lot of George Pickens we get a decent amount of CD lamb and we get Dak Prescott doing the stuff before the snap after the snap and occasionally like that with his legs improvising to me it was like the full Dak experience and it was beautiful yeah I was just rolling around the floor with glee that I said Joe is my favorite quote about the watch Dak is like my daily beloved seeing him have that kind of performance against Spags on what may be the most watched game in history when the numbers come in very very very thrilling yeah the closing of this game to me was so telling so Chiefs take the lead and we'll back it up because Mahomes played very well in this game.
46:49There was so much to go to in this game. This is going to be a challenge for us, frankly, Ali. You said how many words did you write of notes this week? Oh, 3 ,000. 3 ,000. Okay. And how many was on this game? Because I do feel like I have just more on this game. There was like a lot going on in this game. Probably 2 ,500. Right. So trying to boil it down is tough. But I do think how they closed the game offensively was fascinating and telling. You essentially have the George Pickens drive where he has the play where he gets the big hurdle on the third down, but he also draws pass interference.
47:24He has a couple other catches, and it ends. I believe that's the drive. You also have an incredible two-point conversion play. Thought of going with that for the highlight right after that where Dak puts it in a tiny window to Pickens. Following drive after they get the ball back, that's where you hit the 51-yarder to CeeDee Lamb. You know, Spagnuolo sends pressure with McDuffie, and you get a one-on-one Chamari Connor against CeeDee Lamb. Beauty dime down the field. You get a field goal there to go up two scores. And then you finish the game by getting the ball back with 322 left. And there were so many parts, and I'm combining them all together, just wanting to take the big picture here, Ali, where because the Chiefs took the lead and then the Chiefs got it to one score and there's 322 left, there were so many points where I thought, okay, this is where the Chiefs do get that stop.
48:19This is where the Chiefs get the ball back and then win. But it just kept not happening. And they closed it out by throwing the ball two times in a row on second down, which I think was so important. On one, they get a pass interference. That was to Pickens. On another, they complete the ball to lamb he goes out of bounds but whatever uh they end up finishing out the game and just never give the ball back kind of walk me through what you think of just brian schottenheimer and how dak approached this fourth quarter and finishing out what was a great game plan yeah i think schottenheimer is so dialed in i think that's probably just the best all-around offense in the league just design wise i think it's almost streaks ahead of everyone else at the moment And then where I feel like Schottenheimer is just like taking himself to a whole different level.
49:07We thought about something like the organizational arrogance of Dan Campbell, being able to step back and understand that we need probably three first downs to win a games and maybe end the Chiefs season. It's players, not players in those moments. And we can find ways to get CeeDee Lamb in the slot one on one. That's just what we want. Design is irrelevant. We're just going to go man to man, get our best play of the ball. We'll have the Pickens drive. You mentioned, let's just find a way to get George Pickens isolated. We think he's the best athlete on the field. He was playing like the best athlete on the field.
49:34He's the smoothest athlete maybe in the league right now. And so that's just how we're going to go down swinging. We've done all the fun stuff, all the creativity, all the game plan stuff. And when we've got to have it drive, when it's come from behind territory, what it's going to go to our two best players. That's how we're going to go down. Yeah, CeeDee Lamb finishes with seven for 112 and a touchdown. Pickens has six catches on 13 targets. When I looked at it in the end, I was like, oh, McDuffie got his share of wins. It was especially him in coverage. But ultimately, there were a ton of penalties.
50:03And when you really go through all the numbers and the Cowboys numbers are great. I mean, they finished with 457 yards. They're over 50 percent on third down. Like their numbers are great, but the Chiefs numbers are pretty great, too. And the biggest difference you can really see is the 110 yards of penalties that the Chiefs have 10 penalties for 119 yards. And it did put them in difficult situations on offense. And it did help sustain some of these Cowboy drives. or it was just a desperation ploy because their players aren't as good as the Cowboys. And I know Chiefs fans are mad at Andy Reid right now.
50:36And that's, there could be some reason to be fair, but I also watch this game just thinking like the Cowboys offense is more talented than the Chiefs defense. Oh yeah, they had Spagnuolo in a blender at times. I felt like where he just didn't know what to do, where he's got no pass rush. And yet another primetime game where George Karloftis is just MIA. Every single primetime game, every big game, every time you need him to do something to help your season out. You hand him that ridiculous contract. He puts up a donut every single time, completely irrelevant in a big game. And to be fair to the Chiefs, they kind of sold out to try and force the Cowboys into third and medium, third and long.
51:12And then Dak was just money on third and fourth downs. They had a 62 % success rate on third and fourth downs. That's just a ridiculous number to have at the best of times. It's even crazy to have when that is like the money spags down. That's when he does all the cool spagsy stuff. And the Cowboys just a step ahead the entire evening. So I think the game we just talked about, Packers-Lions, and then this one had some similarities. I meant to mention it with the Packers-Lions. The Lions' blitz rate was more than double the Packers, and the pressure rate was around the same. It was actually better for the Packers.
51:42It was kind of a similar dynamic here. It wasn't quite as severe, but ultimately the Chiefs blitzed almost half the time, and yet they only had a pressure rate of 30%, which was lower than the Cowboys. That's an amazing stat because it's also a Cowboys pass rush stat, which is awesome. Like they had a totally respectable, good pass rush overall without having a blitz like crazy. But Spagnuolo hits that blitz early in the game. It's the first third down and they heat up Dak Prescott and he throws an interception and you're thinking, oh man, this might be a long day. And it was almost like that success early got Spags too cocky or something because he just kept sending stuff the rest of the game.
52:28And after that, like Dak seemed to really have an answer for what they were doing. Yeah, it's interesting. Spags has got Dak a bunch when they've played in their career. Like he has had him and he really does come after him in a way that no one ever goes after Dak Prescott. That way he is a blitz killer. He's so intelligent, so smart. He can identify everything so quickly. And he's old school Brady-esque replace the blitz quote. Wherever the blitz comes from, you just throw the ball behind the guy's head. You move on with the game. And so Spaggs tried to get him with more zone pressure stuff, what you call a hot pressure, which is where the blitz guy goes from.
52:59We drop someone from the defensive line into where the blitz guy came from. So if he replaces the blitzer, Chris Jones or someone is stood there. That's how they tried to get him with that first third down. They get the free runner through Chris Jones drops into that spot. Dagg looks to the other side of the field, thinks it's a blitz when it's Spaggs. Usually it's a man blitz. It's a zone blitz instead. Throws it into a cover two hole and gets picked off. they start trying to toggle back and forth between all that man pressure which is kind of vintage spags and more of these zone pressures and I gotta say to me it's all credit to the offensive line more than Dak it's not a Dak stat if you look at four of them which are really cool designs from Spagnuolo difficult to pick up stuff Dak is not even looking at the side of the field where the pressure is coming from and the Cowboys guys just clean all that stuff up how well they've become tied together when they've got a new left tackle Booker is playing completely out of his mind the last few weeks as a rookie.
53:47It was a really, really impressive Cowboys O-line performance when Spags tried to get really creative. I'm glad he pointed that out because that was something we talked about throughout the offseason. This young offensive line, how do they come together for the Cowboys? Because there was a ceiling there, a lot of high draft picks. And I know Tyler Guyton, their left tackle, is out right now. Nate Thomas filled in for him. And he did give up the most pressure of anyone on the offensive line, but it still was under control. He did not stand out. The rest of the group, Booker, Terrence Steele on the right side, and then you have Cooper Beebe and Tyler Smith.
54:21They've played a lot of games together in a row, and they're playing well. And to your Karlaftis, vicious takedown earlier, 31 pass rushes in this game, one pressure, and it wasn't quick. So fair. It's fair. I was worried because you put NFL Daily, Ali, in your profile now on social media, which I love seeing. I feel proud. But I was worried, you know, now that that's there, are we going to get like a softer version of Ali? And George Kolostos knows that.
54:55Let's listen to CeeDee Lamb after the game. I loved just hearing the Cowboys and seeing the Cowboys loving this moment. What's the message to the whole league as far as your resilience and able to bounce back? and what you can actually do in this game. Keep talking. I see y 'all. That's my message. I see it. I just love like the cockiness too and how they were, you know, they get the turkey leg afterwards and they're sharing the turkey leg. Like two guys biting the same one, which is a little... It's good for team chemistry. I don't think that Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown is sharing turkey legs.
55:27Yeah, not great. Okay, let's talk a little bit about the Chiefs offense because it was a great Mahomes game. Would you go that far and say, great maybe like a very good Patrick Mahomes game like Jared Goff in the losing effort I do think he was very much up for the challenge and we don't have to do the QB wins loss thing because I can think of four or five outstanding plays by Mahomes and maybe he didn't hit every improv play but he hit a lot of them and I think did enough to win this game yeah and he's doing it with all those miscues you mentioned on offense to all the penalties backing them up they're down three linemen right uh midway through the game there's no smith simmons goes out with an injury that looks like that's going to send him to ir the right tackle juan taylor goes out too so doing it under a ton of fire um i gotta say And I'm worried about Andy Reid and I don't want to blaspheme against the football gods, but it is just so strange to watch an Andy Reid team become one of the most predictable offenses in the NFL.
56:28Have some of the most almost laughable tendencies at this point where the good coaches just know everything they're trying to do. And so much of the game every week just feels like Mahomes running for his life. And if it's not magic, nothing is going to happen. We get the play where he almost falls over twice and he throws back down the field. And that just feels like a microcosm for the season where it's just feels such hard work for them all the time. Yeah. Think about how this game could have been a blowout the other way. Not a blowout, but a comfortable win for the Cowboys. They hit the fourth down to take the lead to Rasheed Rice, which is a miracle play by Mahomes and a great catch by Rasheed Rice, who did have a pretty big drop on third down at another point in the game that killed the drive.
57:14but for the most part has come to play the last couple weeks and made big plays. You hit the first touchdown on a fourth down to Travis Kelsey. That was not an easy play at all. That's 14 points right there. You mentioned the play where he is absolutely stumbling before hitting Xavier Worthy, or they're facing a fourth and long, and the game is essentially over. And the touchdown to Marquise Brown, I mean, that's just like a talented play. Patrick Mahomes is awesome, but these were not easy plays by Mahomes. And it is striking that there's like hasn't been a lot of easy buttons. There is something to me that I don't know if this team is tired or Andy Reid's tired.
57:57I mean, the man is 67 years old. They've played a lot of football games and the weight of being the Kansas City Chiefs. It's not like it went away from losing that Super Bowl. I think it's it's still there. And there does seem to be some sort of fatigue factor, maybe mentally as well as physically with this team. There's certainly a lack of ideas. There is still a stunning amount of Kareem Hunt. So much is still built around Travis Kelsey, who I think is moving way better than he did do last year. But I just don't know if that's what you want to, you know, center the offense around at this point.
58:28I just go back to a couple of weeks ago, they played Denver. There's two plays where they motion and Vance Joseph is basically running onto the field to point out to his corner, a corner out is coming. it comes twice when he runs out on the field to do that they face the colts when they get into a certain formation with a certain motion it's the exact same target point of the run game a same side run action six for six times in that game they get to the same look against the cowboys on their third drive they have the two really good drives and they have nothing for four successive drives and the cowboys linebackers hardly you know hall of fame group are almost laughing getting to the line of scrimmage are you kidding me are they going to do this again and there's no payoff play build these actions we're going to run the ball with the same action at the same point over and over again and nothing pays off that's just not andy reed he's usually falling over with all these different ideas he used to have mike kafka on staff digging through like chinese and japanese and lithuanian film to go and find cool plays that they would hit over the head of the las vegas raiders and now it just feels so fatigued and you mentioned the josh simmons injury it's it's a dislocated wrist we don't know when he'll be back but he's going to be out indefinitely and that's that's a huge loss for them.
59:35I mean, they do have a well-paid, good backup in, in left tackle Jalen Moore, but that, that's a big loss for them. And yeah, you mentioned the, the four successive punts that they had. Three of those ended in Dallas territory. So in one hand, like the cat, the chiefs were in this game because they kept hitting four downs. On the other hand, they punted from plus territory from like a fourth and four, I believe it was. And that ended up setting up that George Pickens drive. It's like, there is still a level of conservatism from Andy Reed that, that I find frustrating. Yeah. I believe the surrender index, but that in the 98th percentile of cowardness from Andy Reed and the Cowboys got the yardage back in four place.
1:00:23So it was a very worthwhile. And Patrick Mahomes is your quarterback. You would feel if ever there was a time to be ultra aggressive. So we're now stacking up that they have two of their key offensive pieces are old. then they're more predictable than they've ever been. And then he's being more conservative than he has before. So I think that, and around all that, they actually play really well offensively. All the advanced stats still love them. They're better this season than they were last season. But the margin for error is so thin because of injuries, because the defense has really regressed.
1:00:51Them being league average is a testament to Spaggs, given what's happening on the back end and the lack of a true pass rush. Their only way to impact the quarterback is pray and hope that a five-man zone pressure forces a turnover. It's not even going to get home. It's just, will the quarterback panic with a flash of color and throw the ball towards, or Chris Jones goes ham for four snaps a game? Yeah, and if you want to go down to just the basic stats, but I do think they're telling sometimes. Nine quarterback hits for the Cowboys, three sacks. Couple of them, just when Mahomes is just holding it, trying to make a play.
1:01:24And then on the other side, the Chiefs do not sack Dak Prescott. They do get six quarterback hits in the game, but couldn't get him down. Let's listen to Patrick Mahomes after the game, now 6-6. Just missed opportunities. I mean, just like all the losses we've had this year. We can beat anybody, but, I mean, we've shown that we can lose to anybody. And so we've got to be more consistent. He was kind of, like, dejected, I would say. Like, again, when they played the Broncos and lost that game, like that was a humbling game. This one, when I watched them, I'm not saying it was, like, acceptance, But it was just like, yeah, this is where we are.
1:02:02Like, we're six and six. I don't think their season is over. Certainly, if any team could run the table, it could be them. And they could even maybe afford a seventh loss. But we have reached that point now with these teams that were Super Bowl favorites coming in, like the Lions, like the Chiefs, where it's legit. They might not make the playoffs. Yeah. It's wild. we credit the Mahomes for that answer I guess but he was majorly responsible for losing the Broncos game so he played really well in this game but it's kind of like he gives one back to the defense for having I think cost them the Broncos game it just makes it now the Texans and Chargers doubleheader which is certainly winnable but becomes must win and with the injuries on the offensive line going against the most ferocious passers in the NFL it becomes once again Patrick put the cape on we're out of ideas you got to go figure this out on your own.
1:02:53Yeah, I, you know, Chiefs fans have had a lot of fun over the years. I do like how it sets up this stretch run between these two teams. So yes, now the Cowboys are only a game and a half back of the Eagles. There's a path certainly for the Cowboys to make it as a wild card. If they only lost one more game and they have the Lions next Thursday night, finally, Shooky and I get like a real banger of a Thursday night game. Such a big game for both teams. Even if they lost that Lions game, you look at their last four, they're probably favored in all of them. They could possibly even lose the Lions game, win out, get a wild card.
1:03:31But one and a half back of the Eagles, they have a chance to maybe win the division. The Eagles, though, do have the commanders twice and the Raiders in there. And so the margin is, it's going to be tough to try to pass the Eagles. On the other hand, the Chiefs, they're rooting for everyone in the AFC to keep losing, which is why when they were watching, Baltimore and Cincinnati, if they were watching or checking their phones later that night, they were loving the result. Let's go to Cincinnati. Throwing the shotgun, Pirine to his right. Shotgun snap. Joe under pressure, flings it down the middle of the field.
1:04:07Yossi Bosch leaps at the three and takes it into the end zone. A 28-yard touchdown to Andre Yossi Bosch. and the Bengals lead is back to 11 with a PAT coming up. Oh, I love that throw. And I love the satisfaction that Joe Burrow had after the game talking about that throw. Like everything that he had done to get back was to be in position to set up his guy, Yoshi. The Bengals upset the Ravens 32 to 14. That was Dan Hoard and Dave Lapham on WCKY. why it felt like burrow needed the first half just to warm up a little i mean he still was good but he missed a few throws they settled for a lot of field goals and they had a lead at halftime but in terms of ball location and decision making the second half of that game to me ollie was was like joe burrow had never left yeah i agree with you i mean that throw is so absurd and i feel for roquan smith you can see in his eyes that that is a incredible play from roquan smith he goes from a mugged up spot to kind of matching the route vertically all the way down the field and he looks over like are you kidding me that Joe Burrow has returned only like four guys could make that throw on time uh absurd play I thought he took some time to get warmed up and they just tried to feed to Jamar Chase going into the second half and obviously that's where the the wink-wink connection between those guys come in and you can get more explosive down the field I mean this was a game going into the third quarter given how many turnovers the Ravens had in their own half the the uh Bengals really struggled to convert in the red zone I thought that was where you really saw kind of like a Christmas and fluidity show for Burrow where It has to be done instantaneously at the snap, and you're going from practice speed to game speed, and then he really sped things up in the second half.
1:05:50Yeah, and look, their running game has been better lately. I thought their offensive line had a good game, maybe pointed out the Ravens' lack of a pass rush, and then there were a number of throws to chase that were just huge. A third and seven helped set up a touchdown, just one of those outs of perfect timing that just Joe Burrow makes look easy. He had a bomb to chase in this game that he put everything into and it worked out. And that set up points. I believe that was a field goal drive. And it's kind of like you're getting all the good stuff from Joe Flacco, but without like the crippling interceptions.
1:06:27So that's a big upgrade. But I guess the biggest difference is the Cincinnati Bengals are forcing five turnovers against the Ravens. Like how much of it do you think is the Bengals defense and how much of it was Lamar Jackson and this Ravens offense just having a brutal performance. I thought a mix of both, which I know is a cop-out, but the Bengals' pass rush looked significantly improved, I think, in bar because we're just underrating how poor the Ravens' offensive line is. Lamar, I just thought, I don't know what was happening during that game. Maybe he had too big Thanksgiving dinner or something.
1:06:59I was just not feeling it. I mean, the fumbles where the ball was just coming out, every single fumble was avoidable, not only from the fact the ball slips out of his hands or he makes a poor decision, but there were wide open throws all over the field that he just turned down, which then meant the play was extended, which then caused the fumbles. He was just so out of rhythm. And throughout this run where they've been winning the games, their offense just looked so disjointed and disheveled. I felt throughout the run there is just no rhythm. And they've kind of got away with it through turnover.
1:07:25Look, that they have not turned the ball over during that run. They turned the ball over on Thursday more than they have done at any point during the winning streak. Yeah, it was both a cursed game and like a terrible game. You know, you had the Zay Flowers offensive pass interference, kind of a shaky call. That would have been seven points just taken off the board. You had Isaiah Likely on a catch and run going in for a long score, and DJ Turner knocks it out right at the goal line, and the Bengals get the ball back on a touchdown. That's 14 points. Then again, it's also three points with Lamar just dropping the ball for Cincinnati to kick a field goal before the end of the first half.
1:08:07And maybe the biggest play, or certainly one of the biggest plays the entire game to me, because it set the tone, was him fumbling the ball, kind of running into pressure early in the first quarter on his own goal line and setting up the Bengals. It only ends up being three points, but there was just something about it that it set a spooky mood that they never really got out of. I mean, that crowd was dead, Ali. Not only did they leave with seven minutes to go, they were silent in the whole game. I think they think this Ravens team doesn't have it. And based on the eye test, I think they're right.
1:08:44No, the home crowd always knows and everyone's talking about putting this run together and it's really just a knock on the Steelers, kind of stinking. I mean, that's not accepting that the Steelers kind of stink. They know they've not got the juice, you know? This was just, to me, the most bizarre Lamar game because he looked healthy finally, despite being on the injury report constantly. He was moving pretty well. When he had to take off with his legs, he looked more spry than he has done throughout the win streak. But just from the pocket, some of the decisions were pretty poor. He had no touch or actually down the field, missed some wide open throws, a bunch of turndowns against the flakiest defense you could hope to find that isn't in Vegas.
1:09:19And just choosing not to let the ball go was really quite a bizarre performance. And the weird thing is, is he had a number of great throws. So I know the weather was not good, but I don't think it was like a crazy windy night, but it was cold there. Didn't seem to hurt Burrow too much. And Lamar also had like a number of good throws. If you just isolated the good throws, you were like, okay, he's fine. The throw to likely you mentioned where he gets Jordan Battle, punches the ball out on the goal line is an unbelievable throw. He has another one to likely move into his leg. He somehow does that weird Lamar thing where he just goes into slow motion.
1:09:52Everyone else is moving at double speed and he's able to throw the ball back for a dime into the middle of the field. So it was just a real rollercoaster ride with him. And it's been like that for the offense as a whole. But a lot of it, I think, is being attributed to he's just not moved that well, even within the pocket. He just seems really sludgy. And yet it looked like he had the legs all the way back last night. Both of them are kind of the explosive twitchy movements within the pocket, then being able to break out. And then the accuracy just vanished on him. Yeah, he had to pick up a few first downs with his legs.
1:10:21But yeah, there were just throws he had that he missed. There was a play action shot to Andrews was open, just missed it. He had a third and nine, I believe, to Zay Flowers, killed the drive, just missed it. Like a Rashad Bateman seam ball, which was a tough throw to make, but he missed it by a ton. He like one hop Keaton Mitchell at one point, and he just hasn't been on the same page. And sometimes he needs, you know, Dante's Walker to make a play for him the last couple of weeks. And Tez Walker just refuses to make that play. Let's actually listen to the interception that Lamar Jackson threw late in the game.
1:10:56Because for all of these turnovers, the Bengals were kicking field goals early. And even though they played better late, the Ravens were still in this game. And they did put together a couple of touchdown drives, including some big Derrick Henry plays. Keaton Mitchell also had a touchdown to close the gap in the third quarter. So it wasn't really over until this Lamar interception. huge play here third and nine at the cincinnati 15 the bangles showing pressure they've got seven guys up on the line lamar drops back lamar throws downfield into the end zone unintercepted demetrius knight running it back he's at the 30 35 40 spin move there and tackled around the 45 yard line a tip at the line results in a pick for demetrius knight and the bangles get their fourth takeaway.
1:11:45And yeah, that was more of bad luck for Lamar, maybe not being as aware or moving in the pocket as you would like. But it was a night where Joseph Asai and Miles Murphy were making some plays in the backfield. That's all Bengals fans have wanted. It's just some signs of life out of their pass rush. And Asai had a monster game, two sacks, two quarterback hits, four hurries. And I thought Murphy was back there too. It didn't quite show up on the stat sheet, but I just thought he was active, giving them something where, I don't know, this division's pretty rough, Ali. Like, do you have any faith maybe that this defense could turn it around a little bit?
1:12:22No. I think there are just disaster spots everywhere. That's so funny because it's a disaster zone in every single position. Then DJ Turner's just an all-pro player. It's just DJ does his own thing. Everyone else is a complete mess. Asai did play well. I thought Murphy was really active. I'm surprised he didn't show up more in the stats sheet. Like five hurries, but yeah. And I think it was some run stuffs and everything, but like I was surprised he didn't hit Lamar, but you're right. It did show up a little bit too. And grading on that typical curve, I guess that would be A++ effort. Yeah. Okay.
1:12:52We've gone long as we'll often do. Let's actually wrap up the show. Take one last break on the other side. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Trimphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tremphaya is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Tremphaya, proper training is required. Tremphaya is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis.
1:13:32Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tremphaya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit TremphayaRadio.com. Lowe's knows Sundays are for football. So tackle your home improvement projects by Saturday and earn your Sunday with great deals on LG and Bosch appliances. select bounty and swiffer cleaning products, and more.
1:14:10Then once your to-do list is done, get ready to kick back, relax, and enjoy the game. Shop in-store or online now and earn your Sunday with help from Lowe's, official partner of the NFL. Innovation is what gets your business to the big leagues, and Wasabi is designed to give every business a shot at competition. Break free from skyrocketing storage costs and unpredictable egress fees from old and top-heavy legacy providers. Wasabi is the world's hottest cloud storage company and the go-to provider for professional and collegiate sports teams and leagues around the world. And here's why. Innovation.
1:14:47From Wasabi's AI-enabled intelligent media storage, Wasabi Air, to the industry's only cloud storage service with triple protection against cyber criminals, data deletion, and ransomware, Wasabi has taken the lead in big league data storage. Remember, Wasabi is up to 80 % less than market competition and doesn't charge a cent for businesses to access their own data. Wasabi, another championship story. Check them out for free at Wasabi.com. Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage, proud partner of the iHeart Podcast Network. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? ZepBound Terzepatide may be able to help.
1:15:26ZepBound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. ZepBound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection. ZepBound contains terzepatide and should not be used with other terzepatide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if ZepBound is safe and effective for use in children. Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it, or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2.
1:16:10Tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop ZipBound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia, if you're nursing pregnant, plan to be, or taking birth control pills. Taking ZepBound with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor.
1:16:42Call 1-800-545-5979 or visit zepbounds.lily.com. 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.
1:17:30And 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. I don't want to just move past the borough stuff because late in this game, it did make me think, I know they're four and eight, and I listen to Paul Daner's podcast. It's called The Growler. He has one of the best postgame podcasts. It's tight, which maybe we should learn from, Molly. I don't know. One of the reasons I like it, it's just 30 minutes.
1:18:04It gives me that Bengals postgame heat, and he always has great perspective. And after last week, they were just talking, okay, the season's over. The season's over. And then after this one, it's like, I don't know. The Ravens are pretty bad. They get to play them again in a couple weeks. I don't trust the Bengals to rip off a ton of wins, including playing in Buffalo next week. That's the problem. But you could see a scenario where the Steelers and the Ravens lose enough that could eight wins be enough to make the playoffs in this division? Could nine wins be enough? If Joe Burrow keeps playing like this, he's got a chance.
1:18:40Let's actually listen to his first touchdown back from injury. Now P. Ryan moves back a few steps and lines up to Burrow's left. Joe is ready. Catches the shotgun snap. begins scrambling right burrow throwing downfield for hudson he's got it wow touchdown bangles what an adjustment to the ball by hudson and he knocks over the back right pylon for a 14-yard touchdown joe burrow's first since returning from the toe injury pick on the tanner hudson versus kyle hamilton in great coverage matchup and actually get a completion like you're cooking with gas that was an incredible play unbelievable play i want to say too i think that their offensive line who takes a ton of flack understandably has actually been pretty good now for a couple of months again grading on the bengals curve with trying to figure out how could they put some kind of run together i think it's going to go through how the offensive line can hold up i thought they really handled all the different looks and pressures and fake outs that the bengals tried to send their way and if you just give borrow even a split second of extra time that he's used to having that's when you can do stuff like dice people ball move slightly and and be able to have enough time to get the throw and they've been mashing people with the run i mean they're third in success right since week six and so you go in that that bills game next week that is a perfect profile to have like a 50 burger 50 burger off between these two teams man i hate to give you know zach taylor too much credit first of all this is setting up not that i thought zach taylor or there was going to be some regime change necessarily anyways but this is absolutely setting up for them to play well down the stretch and Mike Brown just to run everything back that's a big picture look but I don't know and I think that the the birdies are tweeting that Joe Brady and Joe Burrow might want to have a little rendezvous back in Cincinnati I think that's very much still on the table the thing with Taylor that's funny is everyone always says what does he do and that's totally fair question I got no idea what this guy does Monday to Friday what he does do every time Burrow goes down is completely over all the offense but it's delayed by like three weeks he like runs on a lag he can't accept that he just mourns that burrow is out even though he's used to it at this point so they overall it that stuff usually works pretty well then joe comes back and joe's like runs it for a half and is like i'm good with all that crap let's get to throw all that stuff out let's go back to the joe burrow offense i would like them to keep as much of the run game elements that have really been singing over the past month keep it in there with burrow although i think that tail is a bit of a pushover and burrow will get to do his thing well that's the thing yeah burrow just feels like he's running this organization and you know why not i trust him over uh probably anyone else in the building i guess uh that's talk about singing i like those ollie birds singing and uh i was gonna i was gonna give taylor credit too because i almost feel like with these tight ends it's drew sample it's noah fant it's tanner hudson who by the way the very play before made an incredible play as a cornerback to I think get the ball away it was the same matchup from Kyle Hamilton on what could have been an interception so shout out to Tanner Hudson and Gasicki like they're almost Rams light a little bit with these like four tight ends that it's like not huge production but they just seem like they're effective in adding layers to the the offense and the offense has been pretty good more than pretty good and Burrow will cast them aside within two weeks when he gets back to playing how he wants to play it's fair um okay uh we've done it i don't know if we got through all of your notes we have to give just one last note the the best announcer over two beautiful glorious football days was jason garrett what a comeback for jason garrett what a comeback and i know people are thinking wait i heard him on notadema nbc where it sounded like he was throwing up on himself was panicked the entire time last year pretty good on Thanksgiving this year absolutely elite now this is coming from a guy who loves Troy Aikman I know Troy Aikman is divisive I think Aikman is by far the best in the business I thought Garrett was exceptional in having the innate ability to understand every single thing that happened on a play in real time it is so impossibly tough to do that we've been at games and call games it is so hard to be able to see both the coverage and the rush and the protection and the route concept somehow he can internalize it instantly and point stuff out that is proven when they go back to the replay.
1:22:55Oh, he's exactly right on how the play unfolded. I mean, to defend us on TalkSport, you know, they got the like replay monitors right away. They got the spotters and everything. So, you know, step up, Will Gavin. Let's up the budget here and we could be giving you that level analysis. I love that. I don't know if I'll go back to check that out. The Ravens-Bengals game was the one I did not watch live until the fourth quarter. And even then, my family, you know, We had them all over last night. We sat down for dinner right about as that game started. And so I watched that back this morning. But that's great to hear.
1:23:32I did think he was good. Some guys are better doing the game by far, even though it's a harder job on some level than the studio, which I get. The studio is sterile and the job kind of sucks. You're just saying 15 seconds. Like, if you're good in studio, it's like a, it's hard to do that. And Jason Garrett, you're right. Like, he never says anything in the studio. But I know for a fact some hires up at NBC listen to this show. So maybe. Oh, that's good. Yeah. Take the charismalist man out of the arena that asks him to have charisma and let the ball coach call ball plays in real time. That seems pretty sensible to me.
1:24:05I do think that makes sense. Although Chris Collinsworth, I do think is great at seeing the whole picture in the moment. Not quite. Maybe not Troy Aikman. Aikman is so streaks ahead of everyone else. It's not fair. He's a quarterback. Unfair advantage. Okay, I don't know if we got to all 4 ,000 pages of your notes, and we're fired up. I'm going to listen to one last thing about Joe Burrow, by the way. I wanted to hear him post-game. He was about as close to emotional as I would say Joe Burrow ever gets. Certainly hasn't been easy on me through six years from a lot of different angles, but I've worked really hard to put myself in position to be back out there.
1:24:49and a lot of people around me have done the same. There's no better feeling than that. Putting in work for a long time and going out and it paying off, there's just no feeling like going out in front of the world with a group of guys that work really hard to go try to win games and going out and putting on a good performance and winning that game. he was reflective and like it was it was a lot he said he mentioned the last six years have been tough with the injuries for a competitor like that to have to miss so many time so much time like this season has not been the same without him for all of us but i'm sure has been absolutely brutal for him so it was a it was a cool moment i don't know how you can't love a guy with that flow and that coat just getting emotional throwing darts to tanner hudson guy lameter football's the best uh yeah eric lets us know your reaction to the coat off camera because we were showing it was just fantastic it is amazing for that that big of a badass to be wearing that badass of a coat i mean he's our joe nameth he just has to stay healthy you know um like when when he had when he hit that first touchdown or no it was actually the yosef us touchdown and i think if you're watching us on youtube we love you subscribe like we'll be back on sunday night You can actually see his reaction after hitting that touchdown of him just slamming himself in the chest and in the head saying, you're going to send a six-man pressure on me?
1:26:25I'm going to make you pay. And he said after the game how they've been repping that exact play over and over all season, even when he was not in the lineup. Everyone check out the read optional, Ali. I saw you got a Black Friday special. So this is the time to do it. $50. Come on now. Come on now. That's$50 for a year? The read optional? Amazing. Yeah, that's the whole year. And that's Ollie's great writing. And so he'll be using about maybe 3 ,500 of those 4 ,000 words of notes in terms of his writing. And then you can also check out his great podcast with John Ledyard if you subscribe there too.
1:27:03If you subscribe to this podcast feed, you will hear us again on Sunday night. So normally Ollie and I are going to be doing Saturdays moving forward. But it was a pleasure, Ollie, to have you recapping, I think, the biggest two days of the NFL season so far. So hopefully Sunday can top it. A lot of pressure. I'll be back in the studio with Jordan Roderick and Patrick Claiborne. Your guy, Shook, will be live from Cleveland. We will see you then.
1:27:32Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? ZepBound Terzepatide may be able to help. ZepBound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity, or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. ZepBound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5, or 15 milligram injection. ZepBound contains terzepatide and should not be used with other terzepatide-containing products or any GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines. It is not known if ZepBound is safe and effective for use in children.
1:28:12Don't share needles or pens or reuse needles. Don't take if allergic to it. Or if you or someone in your family had medullary thyroid cancer, or if you've had multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, tell your doctor if you get a lump or swelling in your neck. Stop ZepBound and call your doctor if you have severe stomach pain or a serious allergic reaction. Severe side effects may include inflamed pancreas or gallbladder problems. Tell your doctor if you experience vision changes before scheduled procedures with anesthesia, if you're nursing, pregnant, plan-to-be, or taking birth control pills.
1:28:44Taking ZepBound with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-5979 or visit zepbounds.lily.com. I'm U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. The sound of a seatbelt. It's one of the most important sounds in our car. It means everyone is ready and everyone is safe. The more our kids see us put on our seatbelts, the more natural it is for them to put theirs on too. Make it a priority. Buckle up every time. Hear the sound? Make it a habit. Paid for by NHTSA.
1:29:33Grainger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building. You're managing all of them. And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners. Lights about to fail, filters ready to clog, HVAC on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind. Count on Grainger for quality products, easy reordering, and 24-7 support. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click grainger.com, or just stop by. Grainger. For the ones who get it done. T-Mobile has the best plan on the best network. Just ask Kevin Bacon. Today, business happens virtually everywhere.
1:30:10That's why you need Supermobile from T-Mobile. The best plan on the best network. Letting you run your business from your phone like never before. In moments of high demand, T-Mobile's network adapts to put your business connection first. Discover more at supermobile.com. Best business plan based on a combination of advanced network performance, coverage, layers, and security features. Best Network based on analysis by Ooglip Speed Test Intelligence Data 1H2025. Ooglip trademarks use it or license and reprint it with permission. This is Tab Ramos from Inside American Soccer. And this summer, Topgolf is turning into the ultimate soccer destination.
1:30:41They've got a new soccer-themed game you can play with your group, exclusive food and drink items. 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. 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. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.
From the publisher
Gregg Rosenthal and Ollie Connolly recap the Thanksgiving and Black Friday games starting with the Bears at the Eagles followed by Packers at Lions (18:50), Chiefs at Cowboys (36:34) and Bengals at Ravens (55:10).
Note: time codes approximate
NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcasts
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.




