Week 11 Recap: Huge wins for the Eagles, Broncos and Rams, Josh Allen goes off, Niners cruise in Purdy's return

0:03Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays one heck of a week 11 slates today. We had arguably the game of the year coming into the week in Rams Seahawks. It did not disappoint. Not great performances from the offenses, but really good performances by both defenses. We dug into that. We kick things off talking about the Eagles win in another ugly game over the Lions today on Sunday Night Football. A couple of performances that grabbed our attention with Josh Allen and the Bills big win. The Denver Broncos knocking off the Chiefs and putting their playoff chances in like real peril for the first time in a long time.

0:39The Niners offense looks like we expected the Niners offense to look that also grab some attention today. Some WTF performances, one from the Los Angeles Chargers getting blown out by the Jaguars. Another one by Bryce Young, but not in a bad way. Just kind of a bewildering performance considering what the Panthers offense has looked like for a good chunk of this year. And then a couple of things that made us feel romantic about football in week 11. So we're going to dig into all of that with me, Derek Lassen and Dave Hellman right now.

1:13It was one of those weeks in the NFL where it feels hard to keep track of everything that was going on. And I love those Sundays. That's not a complaint whatsoever. We've had too few of those Sundays so far this season. So we have a jam-packed show today. We have a bunch of notable kind of season-swinging potential wins that happened today. We had arguably the game of the year heading into today to break down. But we're going to start with the Sunday night football game. the Eagles win another ugly one over the Detroit Lions the Eagles Derek are in a spot now where it just feels like they're dragging teams into the deep end of the pool and drowning them in each one of these games like there's nothing pretty about it but they continue to win these and today was maybe the ugliest one we have seen from this team and what has been a season full of them it absolutely does which to me feels like I know Vic Fangio is not the head coach but like that feels like how he would want all of his football teams to play where you're just dragging teams into the mud and winning, you know, 16 to six or whatever it was at the end of it.

2:11And so I really do think especially to like last year, I think the defense played really well for Philly, obviously, but the story of their season was the offense. And so I think it's actually kind of cool now that the offense has for a large part of the season been pretty up and down. They've had obviously Lane Johnson misses a lot of this game. They've had a lot of issues. AJ Brown getting into the mix, you know, off the field a little bit again. But the defense has really stepped up and this game was probably their best performance of the season. Last week was also incredible. They've had two back-to-backs here that are insane.

2:38It really does feel like after the moves that they made at the trade deadline, which we talked about, we were curious, what would the Philly defense look like after trading for Jalen Phillips, after incorporating some of these new pieces, after getting healthy on that side of the ball? And Dave, it really does seem like they've clicked into a different year over the last couple of weeks. How much more do you think Howie Roseman would pay for Jalen Phillips, knowing for sure what it would look like? Like, obviously, you do that deal and you pay a third because you think he's a good player. but and it hasn't all been Jalen Phillips obviously but just adding that to the mix it just takes everything up a notch and I'd love to know how he's answered that question because they look they look incredible since he joined the mix one of my big thoughts while watching the defense in this game was Jalen Phillips is much better than a player you typically trade a third round pick for there are a couple different things involved here right his injury history obviously cannot be ignored he's somebody that's been banged up for a huge chunk of his career you know you don't want to think this way but something like that could happen at any moment given what most of his time has looked like in the NFL the other part of it is he is a pending free agent and so you're only going to give up so much for a player like that but when you're in a position where the Eagles are where it's like we're one or two guys away from being the best team in the NFC again he is talented enough to warrant that sort of risk quote unquote and so far it's working about working out about as well as it could have when you're chasing a title you You can afford another title.

4:00You can afford to not care about that. And I'm not saying they should have given up the farm for him, but it's just it's been incredible to watch. Like it's the classic case of Jalen Phillips. He can create and wreak havoc all on his own, but it makes your interior defensive line that much better. Not that those guys needed the help. And then a guy like Jalex Hunt, who those edge rushers were kind of struggling in the early going of this season. It makes his life easier. and you see the impact that he can make when the offense is trying to account for everybody else. This defensive line just felt like they had the Lions in a sleeper hold all night long.

4:34And every now and then the Lions would kind of shake out of it. I'm thinking of the back-to-back snaps that Jared Goff had that led to the touchdown that Jamison Williams had in the first half. The Lions would have these moments, and every single time the Eagles were there to reapply the ankle lock and just drag them back out into the middle of the mat. It was impressive. I mean, the defensive line, I think, finished with six batted balls. Six batted balls. The Eagles had nine quick pressures in this game. Not just pressures, quick pressures. And they weren't blitzing, really. They weren't. That front really controlled this game on multiple different levels.

5:09I'm glad you mentioned the Jamison Williams touchdown. That is the only completion in this game that Jared Goff had when he was pressured. He finished this game one of 14 under pressure per next-gen stats. The JMO touchdown was the only pass that he completed. Nine quick pressures for the Eagles defense. Overall, per NextGenStats, that is the fourth worst single success rate in a game for Jared Goff since he got to Detroit. It is his second worst game by total EPA. I think it was fourth by EPA per dropback. And so truly one of the ugliest performances that we have seen from the Lions offense since Jared Goff got there, let alone since they've become one of the better offenses in the league.

5:47you did a lot of thinking about talking about you had a video about it this week about the Lions offense with Dan Campbell calling plays last week we were curious what this would look like against a real NFL defense which I think we could pretty safely say that Eagles are definitely getting very real where between those two kind of polls what we saw last week and what we saw this week where do you think the Lions offense actually sits or do you feel like this is kind of one of those where you burn the tape and we don't really take too much credence and how this what this might mean moving forward.

6:18I think this is a burn the tape. I actually thought Dan called a good game. Like they were getting receivers open. Like Jared just kept missing. There were a number of these throws that there were especially two like right out of the half where he just throws these in breakers that he just throws them low and puts them in guys feet. I think Jared Goff has always been a guy that when it gets a little bit later in the season, he has to play outside when it's cold that he just struggles to like cut through the conditions. And especially when it was as windy as it was today, I think he just struggled with accuracy.

6:41So I thought they actually did a decent job to scheme guys open. I thought them getting as many pop plays for Gibbs when the Eagles knew they were not going to get punished further down the field. The fact that the Lions could still scheme up enough of those. I thought they called a decent enough game. So they're probably not going to score 44 every every game the way that they did against the commanders. But I don't think it will be as bad as six. I think they'll I think they'll find that level pretty soon. Maybe they get a fourth down conversion or two instead of a big donut hole. The fact that they had five fourth down failures in this game, and then on fourth and 10, while down two scores, they decided to punt the ball away.

7:17And then for the second week in a row, we had an opposing coach on the other sideline from the Eagles doing things that were mystifying. And then Nick Sirianni's like, hold my beer. Don't worry about it. I'm going to come up with one that's just as confusing. And then he decides to go for it. The only thing that could keep the Lions in that game was him turning the ball over in minus territory to give them free points and make it a one score game. They could not move the ball and he gave them the ball on the 30 yard line for them to cut it to a one score game. I truly do not understand that sequence of decisions from both of these coaches.

7:50Back to back weeks for Nick Sirianni. I mean, this very much felt like just a continuation of the Lambeau field thing. It's funny, though, because on Monday Night Football, you're sort of exasperated by how ugly that game was at times. Whereas now having done this to an offense that was clicking last week and looked so impressive against an admittedly very bad commander's defense. But now I'm at the point where I like admire what the Eagles are doing, where I just like the, the ability to just bludgeon people with a crowbar repeatedly. I'm just like, yeah, you know, it's, it's not flashy, but it's very effective.

8:28I'm not there yet. The reason I'm going to kind to wave away the offensive performance today is again because it was so windy the fact that they could not really throw the ball down the field they couldn't really get the run game going i do think there are probably better days ahead for the offense even if it's been ugly to this point i'll wait to see if they have a game like this where jalen hurts goes 14 of 28 in a game where it's not 25 mile an hour winds or whatever it was then i'm gonna i'll be at a place where i appreciate what the defense is doing but i won't fully be there the way that you are i still want to see more.

9:00I mean, hey, it's at least worth mentioning. I said this right before we went live, like the Lions did not play well enough for me to feel too sorry for them. But that pass interference flag at the end of this game, that heinous had it not been thrown, could have completely turned this game on its end, which I kind of doubt that happens as dominant as the Philadelphia defense had been. But it's worth mentioning. And like it is it's it's a dangerous game to play when when And you do play this style where if you make a questionable fourth down decision from the head coach or if you don't convert a third down, you wind up in a spot where a game that you've had control of all night long can come perilously close to being more dramatic than that, which has happened two weeks in a row.

9:45But Eagles get the wins. Two catches on 12 targets from on Ross St. Brown in this game. That's 12 targets, two catches. Independent of the conditions, what were your takeaways from watching the Eagles offense struggle again today? Is there anything kind of specific when you're watching them right now that you feel like is holding them back? Or again, is this one where you're going to give them a little bit of grace because of what we were talking about with the wind and everything else? I think because of the conditions, you lose Lane Johnson fairly early, and he was obviously battling through that.

10:17And then I would say the only thing that I thought that the Lions did fairly well, and they did this against Lamar Jackson a lot is they did a lot of like drop eight stuff. And with Lamar Jackson, it was, they did a lot more like half of a spy where he's like kind of rushing, but kind of just watching the quarterback. It was a little bit less that and a lot more, some like true drop eight type of stuff on some of the pure pass. And I think again, that was like, okay, if we're in third and nine or second and 11 or whatever, and we know you have to throw down the field in these conditions, you're not going to do it.

10:43But I do think that that can kind of be an effective strategy against Hertz anyway. You're looking at so many guys kind of got into the mix here. Morrow Jomo had that fourth down stuff in the second quarter where they tried to, I mean, it was a stunt inside with Brandon Graham kind of looping around. And so I'm on Ross St. Brown gets on Jomo on that fourth and one play. He stuffs it. They had the big chunk run to tank Bigsby to set up that touchdown drive where they had multiple pullers on that play. Aiden Hutchinson ducks inside. I mean, you needed two or three big plays on offense to win this and that they came up with just enough of them.

11:13Yeah, I think I'm in a point where obviously the Sunday night game, we're preparing for some other stuff. if you're not watching it as closely as you probably want to be, I want to go back and kind of rewatch this just again to see what the structure of the passing game looks like to get a better understanding of how much of this is their inability to throw the ball downfield because of the conditions, and how much of this is the continued struggles of the offense. I don't have the most solid answer to that right now, but at the end of the day, we're going to need to see more from the Eagles offense if they're going to accomplish what they want to accomplish this year.

11:42It's pretty simple. As good as the defense is playing, the offense is going to need to get, if not to the level they were by the end of last season, then much better than we're seeing right now. It's incredible how the Eagles are living out the Chiefs 2024 season. I mean, like the Eagles have lost more games than the Chiefs had at this point, but the similarities are really striking. Like the one score victories, the finding a way to get it across the finish line, the like waiting for things to break out. It's very funny that they beat them in the Super Bowl and are now cursed to be as good. But I don't want to say underwhelming, but like you're very, very good, but you just want that extra gear just a little bit.

12:23And hey, eight and two, while not usually playing your best ball at least on the offensive side of the ball, it could be way worse. The real takeaway from this game is that with the Lions loss, the juggernaut Chicago Bears are now in sole possession of first place in the NFC North. You guys, our intrepid Chicago fans on this show have been charting that since the field goal went in for the Bears at 3 o 'clock Central Time. They were like, Lions lose. The Lions lose tonight. It's all us, baby. The third seed in the NFC as it stands right now. How does that feel? It feels fine. I don't really feel good about how the game went today.

13:03I don't feel good about being an adverse of J.J. McCarthy. Thank you for saying that. because I think the number of people in the Chicago area who are willing to admit that might be few and far between. McCarthy was horrendous for like a huge chunk of that game. We're not digging into that game today. We're going to talk about it on The Hangover, but the Bears still have a long way to go. Seven and three aside, the Bears still have a long way to go. I think that's the fine point I'll put on the end of that. All right, let's get to some of the other performances that jumped out to us today. It's time for You Have My Attention.

13:35Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention. The Denver Broncos knock off the Kansas City Chiefs 22-19. They now have a commanding lead in the AFC West race, especially after the Chargers lost today. Per our playoff simulator on The Athletic, which you guys, if you have not checked it out, I highly encourage you to do it. Austin Mock handles that for us on our side. Just a great tool to kind of understand, all right, if a team loses this week, what do their chances look like? You can really go in and kind of customize it. Right now, after I checked it, following that Chiefs loss, they currently according to Austin have a 57 % chance to make the playoffs so this now goes beyond them just not winning the division and having to go on the road in the first round if they make the playoffs at five and five there's like a legitimate chance now they're playing the Colts next week there there's a real shot that the Chiefs are five and six next week after that game and they are staring down not making the playoffs this season which is a wild place to be completely fair, completely true.

14:36You are correct to frame things that way. Real quick, how legitimately worried are either of y 'all about that happening? I mean, they're the Chiefs. They'll probably get in. I can't get there. I can't get there with being worried about them missing the playoffs. is that they have multiple head-to-head losses against other teams that are going to be in the mix for this in the Bills and the Jaguars, who are both currently AFC wildcard teams. And so the fact that if it's tied and they don't have the head-to-head, Like, that's pretty troubling. If they go to five and six next week. Yeah. What is the record they need in order to make the playoffs?

15:10Like, what's your guess? Do you think they need to be 11 and six in order to make the playoffs? Actually, with the rest of the AFC wildcard, they probably do need to win 11 games. So then they have to run the table. They'd have to run the table then if they lose next week. That's a real thing. It's very tempting to be like, oh, they'll be fine. Oh, they'll be fine. Oh, they'll be fine. You're sitting at five and six in a crowded conference. This is not a guarantee. It's not a guarantee at all. but that is the degree of equity that they have built up. That's just how I feel. I'm not saying it's right.

15:39And they just, I want to make sure we talk thoroughly about this. Like, I was so impressed by Denver. Denver outplayed them basically from beginning to end. There was nothing fluky about this performance by the Denver Broncos, but it's like Michael Myers. Like, I just got to see that happen before I believe it, basically. The Chiefs missing the playoffs, that is. And obviously, like the division, maybe not mathematically, but realistically, the division is dead. Like they they lost the AFC West today. So we're in we're definitely in uncharted waters. This is not something the Patrick Mahomes Chiefs have ever had to deal with.

16:14But I think that there's still it's a big bridge to gap for me to be worried that they fall out of the playoffs. They also to look ahead a little bit, the teams they have typically struggled, struggled against. And we've talked about this and we'll talk about it in this game. are teams that can kind of man up with you and play a lot of one-on-one coverage and pressure the quarterback really quickly. They play the Texans in a few weeks, and the Texans are, again, one of those other teams that they're going to be fighting head-to-head for one of these wildcard spots. They're both 5-5 right now, which, think about what we thought about Houston as recently as like three weeks ago, and what we thought of the Chiefs as recently as three weeks ago.

16:46It's a crazy spot to be in. Chiefs had a 38.8 % dropback success rate today per NextGen. Patrick Mahomes against man coverage against this Broncos team, 9 of 17 for 70 yards over the course of the game. And that's not necessarily surprising, given what the Broncos, even without Patrick Sertan, given what the Broncos do and given some of the areas where the Chiefs have struggled, considering what we've watched Patrick Mahomes do when teams play a bunch of zone coverage against him. Are we surprised that this team still, when it's working and when other things about the offense aren't working, refuse to just line up and run the football?

17:22They had a 54 % rushing success rate in a very close game. They ran the ball 14 times. I think part of it is they're worried they can't get explosives that way. They can't get explosives throwing the ball either. They had like one of them today. Yeah, but Patrick Mahomes offers you the chance at doing that. There's at least some percentage dice roll that you can get. We got a lot of evidence to suggest. And I was the one that... Isn't that an argument for let's find some stability and eventually over the course of the game, we will find explosives within the rhythm of the game? I was the one that told y 'all heading into this that Kareem Hunt was running the ball surprisingly well this season.

18:00Like his efficiency numbers, the explosives are not good and like the big play rate is not good. But Kareem Hunt has been surprisingly efficient running the football for the Chiefs. Having said that, I don't know. I still don't blame him for that because especially against this Denver defense, I think you're limiting yourself when it comes to gaining more than like a handful of yards at a time. I just kind of wonder too, if they like try to become a team that is doing a lot more of running ball and can't get explosives where you get into the ends more quickly and you kind of short, like you shorten the clock on some of these games and limit possessions, like is your defense good enough and getting enough takeaways to play that way?

18:38Like, I just feel like they're in a weird spot with like, what is their calling card as a football team? I don't think that their calling card should be running the ball. I think that in a game that's very close the entire time when you're having trouble throwing the ball downfield, maybe you should run the ball more than 14 times. But like against this front, I don't know. But it was working. But like, is that by virtue of it? Like, I feel like if the Broncos really wanted to stop the run in this game and were worried about it, they would have. Like if the Chiefs had committed to it, I think the Broncos have a talented enough front that it wouldn't have been a problem.

19:07I still feel like there's a balance to be found. They were like lined up under center one time and gave the ball to Kareem Hunt and he had a pop game on that play. Yeah. It just feels like there are pads to them being a little bit more balanced on offense than what we saw today when they were languishing for a good chunk of this. The biggest thing about the Broncos' performance in this game that stood out to you was what? I mean, I thought they played man coverage really well on a lot of these guys. Even without Patrick Chetan, I know Riley Moss got a handful of penalties, but otherwise I thought he actually played a really good game.

19:37And then beyond him, I thought all the other auxiliary players had a good game. Like Abrams Drain had a really good game. McLaughlin made a number of good plays. Talanoa Hufanga, not necessarily in coverage, but just in terms of coming down and hitting and limiting gains, I thought other than missing the one tackle on the big Kelsey play, I thought he played a really good game. And so I just thought they kind of did what they did and played a really good game. And then Vance Joseph did cook up a number of pretty good pressures. I think it might have been on the first drive, Patrick Mahomes, they gave him a double mug look and then brought the nickel late and popped out one of the linebackers.

20:08And that's a pretty good way to get guys. And so they got him there. And so I thought it was kind of just the pretty standard, like the Broncos did what they did and they just played exceptionally well. We have to say it. It doesn't erase what happened against the Raiders and it doesn't change his struggles throughout the season. Bo Nix was f***ing nails in this game. Late in the game he was. I mean, OK, I wouldn't maybe nails doesn't apply to everything, but across the game, he made the plays that the Broncos needed him to make. And the reason I push back on that is even like on the opening drive of this game.

20:44Is this a is this a earth shattering play that should change anybody's perception of Bo Nix? No, but he hit Cortland Sutton on like a little shallow post on third and 11. Get that. That is the difference between you kicking a field goal and not to open this game. And when you when your kicker has to kick five of them and you win this game with 22 points, that type of stuff matters. Like he he made throws like that throughout the game from the opening drive. And then obviously, I mean, he really had some heroics in the fourth quarter. I mean, the throw on third and 15 to Corlin Sutton was awesome.

21:17I mean, to kind of, that was where I swear, and this is just my own personal bias. But again, I refused to write the Chiefs off. And that whole time I was just like, all right, let's get to where Patrick Mahomes has the ball. And he's going to go do the Patrick Mahomes thing. And when Bo hit that play, which took it to the two minute warning, I was like, oh, the Chiefs are in trouble. like this this is not going to the script that according to the script i thought it was so i just you know not not a life-changing performance from bo nicks but he made i would say five throws that were a big part of the difference in this game absolutely i mean the best throw he made all day was the one to troy franklin with like 6 30 left in the third quarter i mean that throw he makes down the left sideline is a beautiful perfect ball and the blitz pickup by prentice on that play was ridiculous and so he picks up the blitz and bo drops it in on that play Fulton misses the jam on Franklin gives a little bit of a window hits him and then on that same drive maybe the next play even Connor comes off the edge Knicks replaces it with a little short post to Courtland Sutton that goes for 13 yards they score a touchdown on that drive and so those two throws setting up that touchdown drive helps swing this game for the Broncos and then the one he made to Troy Franklin on the last drive to me that's more of a Troy Franklin play it's a corner route Bo leaves it inside the adjustment that Troy Franklin makes on that play to kind of come back inside for it, get a little subtle push off that I don't think should be called.

22:41That's just like a good move in the moment, makes that play and then sets up the game when I feel goal. And so those are like your handful of throws when your defense is playing this way that are enough to win the game. Yeah. Like he made the thing with Bo, like if he, they design deep shots really well. It's just, I've talked about for a number of times, he just has not hit them for a lot of the time this year. This game, he hit a number of them. We've talked about four of seven today. And one of them was a drop. He hit Franklin on the first drive, actually, and like Franklin wasn't able to bring it in.

23:07It was like slightly on outstretched hands, but there was contact at the end. I thought it was actually a really, really damn good throw. And so Bo hitting his deep shots on top of hitting one or two of the other throws that we know he can make. Like the short dig that he throws to Cortland Sutton, like that's a throw that he should be able to make. That's what we had last year and then within that often. Right. And just like this year, it's just been a little bit more up and down. And so if he can do that and then make two or three blitz replacements a game instead of just taking really ugly, like second down sacks or whatever.

23:34Like if he can just kind of fit into those buckets and then the defense can do what they do. That's how they win games. It's just been a little bit more uneven for a lot of the season. Like this is the game that the Broncos are supposed to win. This is what it's supposed to look like. The last one, the chunky hit to Pat Bryant on that corner route. That was the other like big throw he had in this game. It's a little half boot to the left. Connor, it's play action. Connor has his eyes in the backfield just enough. And he hits Pat Bryant for 48 yards on that corner route. And so again, those are like the four or five throws that came up huge in this game.

24:03I thought Mahomes even given the quality of the Broncos offense left a lot defense Given the quality of the Broncos defense left a lot to be desired in this game Going back and watching some of the decisions that he made There were a couple plays where there was a third down in the second quarter Like the two-minute warning from their own 19 He has brashard smith like in the flat turns it down and takes a sack And there was another play later in the game where he had smith on kind of a wheel route on the left sideline that if he throws it immediately, that's a completion. He doesn't throw it. It turns into an incompletion and it kills the drive.

24:37And then the pick he had on that third and 14, like that's just a throw you cannot make. And that was the second interception he had on that drive. On the TV copy of that. And like Mahomes is at a place in his career where, at least I do, I just kind of default to trusting that he's looking at the right thing or making the right decision. So like on the TV copy, I'm like, oh, I'm sure he saw something that made sense. And then you go back and watch it when the all 22 angle hits a couple hours later. And I was like, this is, this is terrible, which I feel bad even saying that Pat Mahomes did something terrible, but just not like, there's no way that you're getting enough loft on that ball to get it over Jaquan McMillan while keeping it inbounds.

25:20Like, it's just not going to happen. And he looked like a guy who was pressing for most of the day. I also felt like there were a number of times in this game where he did not want to take like the late release checkdowns, like whether tight end coming out, another running back out of the backfield, like he just didn't want to take it. And so he would end up either taking a sack or he would force himself out of the pocket or he would just end up chucking up a prayer deep down the field, like four or five seconds into the play. Like there was just a lot of, they could not find like a stable passing game between like the six to 15 yard area.

25:48It really felt like he was three of 12 for 92 yards and the interception when throwing the ball 10 or more yards down the field. And 61 of the 92 is like that one. The one Thornton. The one shot play to type one Thornton. Everything else was just an abysmal day trying to do anything past the six. We talked about it in terms of the overall calculus with the Broncos. The offense doesn't have to be great to justify the quality of the defense. You need to make a handful of plays a game in order to be a legitimate threat given the state of the defense and how they're playing. Just they really weren't doing that against good teams, right?

26:26I mean, so the fact that that was the formula today where the defense is still great and the offense is going to make those six or eight plays over the course of the day that are enough. And the other part of it was special teams. Mims had two huge returns in this game to set them up with short fields. And so that's all you need. Like with the defense playing the way that it is, you don't need a ton from the other side of the ball to be very scary. And I think that version of the Broncos that we saw today, It's more than enough from all the complementary areas of the roster. They've held 8 of 11 opponents to 20 points or less.

26:58So, yeah, they need that version of Bo Nix, and they are a very, very formidable team. Like, even if it's not the most fun offense in the NFL. 9-2, number one seed in the AFC right now. All right, before we move on, we're going to take a quick break.

27:18Let's get to our next one here. The Los Angeles Rams knock off the Seahawks 21-19. The Rams, I mean, we knew that this defense had been playing well for a good chunk of the season. They turned the ball over. Sam Darnold throws four interceptions in this game. The Rams go to 8-2. Los Angeles Rams in what we thought might have been the game of the year. You guys firmly have my attention. This game was incredible. It was what it was supposed to be. I really think we got a lot of what we were supposed to be. Obviously, I think it would have been fun to see one, like for the Seahawks offense, like them either just explode the Rams defense or have what happened here where the Rams defense like finally took it to the Seahawks offense in a way that nobody else has been able to.

27:59The way that they were forcing some of these Sam Darnold interceptions I thought was great. Like the first one, Cam Kinch's is just kind of playing like a robber role and he throws it a little bit late. He goes and makes the interception. But like the second one, they're in dime. They're throwing this, they're showing this five-man pressure. They pop the linebacker out and they get this twist on the right side where Byron Young comes free. And you can see the corner. They pop out into like quarters coverage, the corner playing against the 10 yard out to the right side. He's like, OK, my guy's getting free.

28:26I have eyes on the quarterback. I can go. He goes and makes the interception. So just them doing a lot of that stuff where guys were clearly ready to jump on routes, knowing and seeing that these pressures were going to get home. I just thought the way that they coached this defense today was phenomenal. It was the number one thing that stuck out to me. And like when you watch the timing on that second interception in particular, and you watch when Byron Young comes open on the twist and the exact moment that that pressure is supposed to get home is when the corner starts to jump on the ball. And that happened throughout this game.

28:57It's like the Rams do such a great job of I mean, to me, obviously, the four man rush is very talented, but we've talked about this so often. they don't blitz a ton but the stunts that they use and how dynamic the front feels you get enough free runners and like the way and the timing of when they're coming open it's almost like perfectly timed when he's going to get to a different point in the progression and so there's just like a beautiful synchronicity to every aspect of the defense and tonight or today might have been the best example that we have seen of that so far this year the other thing that i really enjoyed about this.

29:28It's funny. They did it. Kudos to them. But the way the beginning of this game colored everything else that happened. I mean, the vast majority of the Rams' success on offense came in the first handful of possessions of this game. The Seahawks defense, they caught on in a big way. I just had this pulled up. Where did it go? The Rams, after the first quarter, the Rams were bottom three in the league in success rate. The Seahawks defense, It's like they lived up to their billing as well, is what I'm trying to say. Even if it was, you know, it looked dicey in the beginning. The Rams did some great stuff with their run game early on.

30:08But watching the Seahawks defense try to will them back into this and almost doing it, by the way. I mean, very, very close to this, you know, from the fourth interception onward, I guess, it was kind of like, all right, well, sort of a disappointing, you know, finish to this game. considering all the hype that went into it. And the Seahawks defense absolutely did not let that be true. I mean, one of the biggest questions we had coming into this game is how would Seattle match the heavy three tight end stuff that the Rams were going to do and how successful will we be on those plays? Well, they played nickel to 13 personnel almost exclusively in like normal down and distance situations, not in the red zone in this game.

30:48The Rams had a 17 % offensive success rate out of 13 personnel over the course of the game. on run plays, they had an 8 % rushing success rate on those plays. It was just the one that they hit to Kyron Williams where they had Davis Allen as a fullback. They hit a little weak zone or a weak lead and that was it. That was every run after that. I don't think they got, I think I was looking this up too, they didn't get any more than four yards on any of those runs, which is crazy. They had six passes the Rams did out of 13 personnel in this game. Those passes went for four yards. And so the Seattle defense, I know if you're a Seahawks fan or if you're somebody that has been waiting for Sam Darnold to turn back into a pumpkin, I'm sure there are going to be a lot of I told you so reactions to this game.

31:29And I don't blame you for that. If that's how you want to come down on this, that's totally fine. I watched this game not really that dissuaded from what the Seahawks can accomplish this year in a game where their quarterback does not throw four interceptions. And this to me was just like, this is what a blow up Sam Darnold game looks like. And we know that. We knew that this to me doesn't really change. I think in the back of my mind when I think of what the Seahawks are, it's like, yeah, Sam Darnold might just do this every now and then against a good defense. I'm not readjusting my calculation to it.

32:01Does it change your opinion at all that the defensive coordinator that has blown him up now coaches a division rival? If they see him in the divisional round or something, I might pick the Rams. They're going to see him again this year. I do think that there's something about the way that they use those twists and stunts and the fact that it's creating free runners against him, even like slightly later in the drop back. Like there's something about the way that he responds to seeing those flashes of color that I do think might be real. Like I do think that the way the Rams approach their pass rush, there is something about it that does give him issues.

32:37I don't think it's a coincidence. Well, and I think a lot of it too, even if it's not some of the twists and stunts, even on some of the other plays, like I think on the first interception, Tyler Davis does a really good job of pushing the center into his lap. And so they weren't really, I don't think, I don't remember if they were doing any games there, but he just walked him straight back. He just walked him straight into him. And I do think that Sam Darnold every now and then can be like, if you crowd his space and he's kind of feet are already planted, he might just, I think to his credit, sometimes he'll sit in there and take a shot to the chest and he can make an incredible throw.

33:07But I think the nature of sometimes quarterbacks that operate this way is that it can look like this, where you guess, you try to throw the ball a little bit early and ball kind of comes out like this. You end up throwing a pick. I will say this too Gray Zabel goes down in this game And I mean we don't know anything as of right now It sounds like he's going to have The usual tests, MRI, whatever Done in Seattle I assume when they get back But if that is a And hopefully it's not, but if that is a lengthy injury I worry that that could have A little bit of a chain reaction On a Seattle offensive line that was already Dealing with a center injury coming in And you can feel that, I mean that play where we were talking about with Tyler Davis as he walks Ola Timmy back into the quarterback.

33:47He's the center on that play. And so then you've got, as the game goes on, back up left guard, back up center already, and then their right guard is probably their worst starter as is. And so then you've already got a big issue there. I think, too, on kind of speaking to Sam Darnold sometimes getting a little bit sped up, and I think you felt that as the game went on, as it was kind of building towards him, the third interception he throws, they're trying to get Arroyo up the seam, and it looks like the safety to that side is starting to bail off the hash. he turns his corners like up into the sideline like he might try to go get on top of whatever the number one is trying to get vertical and Sam as soon as Sam Darnold triggers on it that safety I think it's Cam Kenshin's lies down to get to that little like seam bender and so even just the DBs like kind of playing with him that way like again I just Sam Darnold did not play his best day but I really came away more from this being like Chris Shula can just he can really do this shit and the other guy on that play, Omar Spates carries that vertical down.

34:43He doesn't let him flatten back off. And squeezes it and makes it. Greg Olson was really critical of Arroyo on that play where he's like, I mean, the fact that he did not come back inside and bend it inside and he didn't cross the defender's face, kind of leaves his quarterback out to dry. That to me is a really good play by the defense on that play. Like Spates carrying that route, I think just really speaks to collectively how this unit plays together when everything is clicking for them. I really enjoy and there will be Sam Darnold discourse. I'm kind of with you, Robert. And I mean, Darnold obviously didn't play well.

35:14And I don't blame anybody for being a little bit put off. I'm not willing to rewrite what this guy's done through whatever it is. Nine, 10 games, 10 games now. I'm not willing to rewrite that off of one game. But my overall impression, it's funny because we did a whole thing on our midseason awards about Stafford and Darnold and shortlist for MVP. and I was just so much more entertained and interested in what these defenses were doing against such quality quarterback play. I think that my takeaway from this when it comes to Sam Darnold is we know these games are still possible, right? Like we know there are games where things can get away from him a little bit.

35:53And I do think the fact that that version of him still exists is worth keeping in mind as we think about like the heights this team can reach against really good defenses late into the season. Like we know this is possible and we shouldn't just ignore that. I still feel like because the defense can play this well, if he doesn't get into this mode, they're still going to be really competitive, basically against anyone they play. I think the big takeaway for me is when they're forced into playing away offensively, they don't want to play, what does it look like? We talked about that a lot coming into this game.

36:25On play action throws in this game, he was 9 of 10 for 74 yards. On non-play action throws, he was 20 of 34 with three interceptions. And so they played from behind for the first time in a really long time. And I feel like them being pushed into that mode is difficult. And in the second half, especially, the Rams played a ton of dime in the second half because they knew they didn't have to worry about them running the ball with heavier bodies on the field. And so it was just a version of defense and a version of defense on the other side and a version of offense from the Seahawks that we just haven't really had to see this year.

36:56And I do think that they just looked a little bit uncomfortable with the game being dictated to them rather than vice versa. and like to take a little bit of heat off of Sam Darnold for that I do think part of it is like we haven't really seen him have to throw from behind in a lot of these games but also we haven't had to see this offensive line yeah like pass protect against a really good front in like pure pass we're trailing by a couple of scores and so and I think that again it was it's kind of a little mixture of both like Sam Darnold didn't play his best game but a lot of that was like this offensive line is already kind of iffy and they had to play against one of the best fronts in the league behind the scoreboard.

37:30That's just a really tough place to live. If I'm coping, and I mentioned it a minute ago, but if I'm a Seahawks fan, you gave up 21 points to Matthew playing the best football of his career, Stafford, in this Rams offense. Two of those three touchdown drives start on a super short field because of a Darnold interception, which that is a problem, but I think I came out of this more impressed with the Seahawks defense than I already was. And like that's saying something, given how dominant they've been at times. But after it's a slow start and the Rams had some success on the first few possessions.

38:08But man, they are impressive. They are fast. They are tenacious. And similar to Denver, like that unit is going to give you a lot of opportunity, even when you're when Sam Darnold's not playing. It's kind of what I had in mind when I was saying like the offense doesn't need to be what it's been all season for this team to be really dangerous. it just needs to not be an offense that's throwing four interceptions. But they still almost won this game, despite what the offense was doing because of the quality of the defense. And even what the Rams were doing early in the game, it's a lot of bullshit, right?

38:39They had that one chunk run, throwing a ton of tight end screens. They understood that they had to manufacture offense in this game because of the quality of defense they were playing against. And we talk about teams being able to dictate the way the games are going. the Rams not the Rams understanding we can't just come out and play the way we've been playing all season because of the team we're playing against on the other side I think really speaks to the quality of that Seahawks defense because this Rams team I don't think wants to change their stripes for anybody right now given the quality of their offense the way they're playing you could feel the way they were calling the offense just felt a little more bit more tense like he just they really were not sure what was going to work in this game and really outside of the first quarter they didn't have a whole lot can we mention Sean McVay's willingness to burn timeouts throughout the game, probably because of that too, was incredible.

39:29My favorite, and I don't remember at what point in the game this was, but they were in a third and 10, didn't want to get the delay game. So they call a timeout. This was in the second half. It was in the second half, yeah. And then they get a false start immediately after that anyway. So they end up in the third and 15 to begin with. So that was like, it's not Sean McVay's fault to right tackle false starts, but it's just funny that they were trying to avoid the third and 15 and end up there anyway. It's not, but we were talking about this while it was happening. And I just felt like Sean McVay is so obsessed with the game within the game where that feels more important than being able to stop the clock in a two-minute situation, which I don't think I agree with, but he knows more about it than I do.

40:07I think you can absolutely take issue with the timeout usage, and that is a point against Sean's overall game management approach. I will say, watching him go for it three times on fourth down in the first half, knowing that those opportunities might be scarce in this game. That is a new version of him that we have not usually seen over the last like eight years. And they get two of those and they lead to touchdown drives. And so if those are field goals instead of touchdowns, this game potentially goes very differently. Bad kicking will do that for you. I'm telling you, we need to saddle these guys with bad kickers for like eight weeks in order to rewire their brains.

40:41It has worked for the Rams. Before we move on really quickly, Pukunikua fumbling in this game was like genuinely disorienting to me. You were so confused. I could, I, I, it just, I saw the ball on the ground and I had heard that Puka Nakua caught the football and I was like, that just can't, that's not correct. That can't be right. The catch he made on the right sideline where he gets both feet down. Like it, again, the fact that we only had a couple of those moments from this Rams offense over the course of this game speaks to the quality of Seattle's defense. And it, listen, there's not, you get all the credit in the world for forcing Sam Darlan into that sort of game.

41:17I'll say that one of my major takeaways from this is I can't wait to watch this again in a couple of weeks. Very much looking forward to that. Let's get to our next one here. The Buffalo Bills beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 44 to 32. Josh Allen, after the most heinous start to a game I can kind of imagine from Josh Allen, he just passes a ball out of his own end zone and gets intercepted. and then, you know, had a couple other dicey throws in this game, gets a ball, one ball tipped up by Tykee Smith that was not intercepted, another one that was tipped up by him that was intercepted. And so not the cleanest game from Josh Allen.

41:55I think still some moments that felt like old school Josh Allen, not necessarily in a good way, but over the course of the day, finishes with 317 yards passing and three touchdowns, runs in three touchdowns, so six total touchdowns in a game where the Bills needed every single point he gave them. Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills. You guys firmly have my attention after today. Fourth six-touchdown game over the last six years, and two of them are Josh Allen. First player in league history with multiple games with three passing touchdowns and three rushing touchdowns. So, not that I needed to know he was capable of doing that, but it's fun to see him do it.

42:36It's just fun to see the Superman guy play like Superman. And it's so fitting for Josh Allen that the game would start that way. Like maybe, like, you don't want him to always listen to the dipshit on his shoulder, but like, sometimes he needs to. Let that guy in a little bit. I kind of think this version of the offense does need that version of Josh Allen a little bit. I don't disagree with that. Like, you can be buttoned down when everything is working great, but when it's not, yeah. I can buy that. When your run game is killing it, and you have some of the best, like, tying your play action game and all this stuff and like Kincaid's healthy and all this and whatever it is and the passing offense works but like they've struggled to kind of piece some of this stuff together especially in games where the run game is not working for them you kind of need Josh Allen to just hold the ball a little bit and start wheeling around there I mean there were plenty of plays he made today on time in structure that were big time plays I mean the tight window slant he hits to Gabe Davis on that fourth and four that sets up the first touchdown that's a beautiful on time throw he rips a slant to Josh Palmer early in the second quarter I'm so glad you said both of those because on paper like Gabe Davis caught three for 40 and Josh Palmer caught two for 17.

43:48That's nothing crazy. Right. But like he went to them in high leverage moments early in this game on touchdown drives. And I was looking back at it and I was like, yeah, just give him guys he can trust to make these plays. And I know Gabe had a drop on a similar play later in the game, but still you convert a fourth down. It just it was very noticeable to me that these two guys were the guys he was looking for in a couple of big spots. The reason I pointed out is just I don't want it to seem like this was totally chaos. Josh all the time that got them to this place. I think it was a combination of the two.

44:23So on that drive, it's a third and six. He rips his, it's a triple slant to Josh Palmer. He rips it for a completion. It's a good blitz pickup on that play. They had a six-man pressure. They pick it up on that same drive. It's third and three. The Bucs drop eight on that play. That's the one where he buys time moving to his right in the pocket and throws the ball all the way back across the field to shavers for 43 yard touchdown. And so it, when their run game is not going to be the engine of the offense, I think the version of Josh Allen you want is a combination of those two things. And you want him to be surgical and important moments, but at the same time, you're going to need him to kind of dig into that devil on his shoulder mode on that place like that one to shavers where it's like, this is the right blend like I don't want him to be conservative underneath Josh Allen if we're going to be running the ball at three three yards a clip with James Cook over the course of this game yeah like you need some amount of of both and I think that was like the whole conversation with his early career is that for the first two three years he was kind of mostly just the the the crazy guy and then I think the last couple years he's certainly toned it down and obviously last year he did an incredible job of kind of waffling between the lines and finding which two of those he needed.

45:32I also did think that there were a couple of moments where the play calling and play design from Joe Brady actually was really good. Like the James Cook wheel route touchdown in the late third quarter was incredible. Like they've got the ball on the left hash and they do this little half roll the other way. But what I thought was interesting is so they clear out that side with a post route from whoever the number one receiver was to that side. But Anthony Nelson, the defensive end to that side is supposed to be peeling if the bat comes out of the backfield. but they usually when that's happening the back is going all the way outside of the tackle and so it's very easy for the defensive end to see they run him actually through the left guard in the left tackle and Anthony Nelson has this kind of like oh shit like I have to cover him moment and he just ends up scot-free down the sideline I like I thought that was just a nice little wrinkle to that play to get him wide open there must have been 150 combined yards off of like running back wheel routes in this game the Bucks too I mean like yeah Tucker had one yeah Sean Tucker showed up for his annual 40 point fantasy game.

46:30He did it against the saints last year. He had an amazing game, but, uh, oh yeah, no, I did want to ask you though. What do you think Keon Coleman's reaction was to Tyrell Shavers having the game that he's or Gabe Davis? Yeah. I mean, Gabe Davis, but like Tyrell Shavers, like he made the Keon plays in this game. And the crazy thing for me is, and I I don't want to disparage Shavers because it's a really cool story, but like he just made the plays that were there to be made. Yeah. Like just, just loop out of your route and go downfield. When you see Josh inner creator mode, he had like a nice catch over the middle of the field on a dig.

47:09They threw to him on mesh. Like that's all stuff. Keon Coleman can do theoretically anyway, assuming he makes his meetings on time. And then he had the 20 yard completion of Shavers with like a minute left in the second quarter. And that sets up the screen touchdown to tie Johnson. And so Shavers had plays that where he scored and then set up other touchdown drives for this team. I think overall, I feel like my biggest takeaway from when the Bills were able to do work in the passing game today is when the Bucs weren't bringing extra bodies. Like that play that you mentioned. I'm sure I'm curious what the call was on that play where Anthony Nelson is supposed to peel off, whether or not that's a blitz or it's a simulated pressure.

47:46Because there were multiple plays in this game where he's dropping or Yaya Diaby's dropping. on plays where Josh Allen was not blitzed today. He was 10 of 15 for 179 yards and two touchdowns. The Bucs front, so non-back seven players, had zero quick pressures in this entire game. They had three for the game. Two of them were Savasie Dennis and one of them was, I think, Jacob Parrish. So it was all on blitzes from the second and third level. In this game, Yaya Diaby had five snaps in coverage. It's too many. That's a lot for your best pass rush. Yeah. Especially when your front four, the way that it currently exists, no Redick, no Clash of Cancy.

48:25Oh, yeah, no Clash of Cancy. Like, that's, we need our best pass rusher to be a pass rusher in these moments. And anytime they weren't blitzing or anytime they were using some of these simulated pressures, I think that's when the Bills did a ton of their work in the passing game. I hate that the Bucs offense looked good for the first time in a while, and it just wasn't enough because Josh Allen played like MVP Josh Allen. I mean, it's not a deep thought. I'm still worried about the Bills defense. I was going to say, they got run on for 200 yards. How could you not be? And that is actually the thing I do want to talk about.

49:00The Bucs in this game did a lot of gap stuff, and they hit a number of GT counter plays where they had Tristan Wurst wrapping out in front for mostly Sean Tucker. The long Sean Tucker run where Wurst gets all the way out in front of him, and he is like outpacing Sean Tucker on this run and completely puts, I think it was Jordan Poirier, in the ground, which obviously he's Tristan Wirth flying at you, of course he's going to do that, but just like the fact that he can be in that position as a tackle is just like, he's an incredible player. How do you like, and Jordan Poirier's done some great things in this league, but like when you've played as long as he has and you're bouncing back and forth off the practice squad and you just get put through the earth's crust by Tristan Wirfs.

49:45Like, I don't know. I wouldn't want to. I wouldn't want to be doing that. You start thinking about Vontae Davis. Yeah, you just start thinking about life after football when that type of stuff happens. And the other big defensive play that's worth mentioning because the game kind of swings in this moment is the pick that Cole Bishop had. And it's a really strange play. Like Ibuka and Shepard are both running, like crossing routes almost right next to each other. And Baker is throwing the ball to Ibuka because he has a step on Taron Johnson. and Cole Bishop just kind of falls off of that shallower route and makes the play.

50:16And then the next play, James Cook scores on that wheel rod touchdown against Anthony Nelson. So the game completely swings on that play. If Cole Bishop doesn't make that play, there is a chance we're not talking about this Josh Allen performance in that way. That's a really good point. I would have to watch too. Did they just get weird timing disruption? I don't remember exactly how they ended up. I watched it five times on the All-22 and I still don't exactly understand what happened on that play. I will say the Bills drive for to go up 37 to 32. I think that's worth just like laying out how they were moving the ball against this team specifically.

50:47There's an underneath check down to James Cook on that on that drive for 18 yards as the linebackers are like flying out and getting tons of depth to start the drive. Third and 11, another play where Diaby is dropping. They throw a comeback to Curtis Samuel to great blitz pickup by Dawson Knox and Ty Johnson on that play. They're in a split back look. They both pick up guys coming off the left side. Johnson hits Samuel on a comeback for 14 yards, I think, to get the third down. He escapes to his right on that drive, finds Gabe Davis on a big in-breaker for 22 yards, and then right up the seam, Dawson Knox goes for 23.

51:23The linebackers are nowhere to be found on that play, which is an issue that continues to be worth mentioning for the Buccaneers. And then Josh has a design keeper for a touchdown with nine minutes left in the fourth quarter. they go up 37 to 31. That's it. That's the ball game. So that was the drive that kind of put things away. And that was another example of if you weren't heating him up in this game and they were playing coverage, they were consistently getting what they wanted in a lot of these moments. Get to our next one here. The San Francisco 49ers beat up the Arizona Cardinals 41 to 22 and Brock Purdy's return.

51:56He has a massive game today. I mean, the passing game, it looked easy for the Niners for a good chunk of this game against a Cardinals defense that had been pretty good as they've gotten healthier. In this game, Brock Purdy, a 57.1 % dropback success rate for the Niners. And I think on a lot of levels, it felt for the first time, we can talk about why, that the Niners offense felt like the Niners offense we thought it might be coming into the season. And so this Niners team that now sits at seven and four, cruising to the playoffs, And I think at least on offense is going to be playing potentially its best ball of the season moving forward.

52:34You guys have my attention. Literally the first drive that they have, they get the first real drive. Their first technical drive is they return the. Yeah, that doesn't count. Yeah, that really doesn't count where they return the kickoff to the one and Christian McCaffrey punches. It's a good way to start the game. It's a very good way to start the game to get ahead to like a free 7-0 lead. But I would say like where you really started to kind of immediately feel like, OK, this is how the Niners are supposed to play. they get into a third and eight on their first real possession. They have this empty bunch to the left where they have Christian McCaffrey, Juwan Jennings, Ricky Pearsall.

53:05Ricky Pearsall is the kind of point man in this little stack. He just flies off the line in this deep corner route. It clears out both the quarter safety there. He's trying to stay high on top of him. And then the actual outside corner tries to stay on top of him. Jennings runs the other like shorter corner. And he is wide as open. Like anybody could have made the throw. And so I think you just saw them hit a lot of those type of plays over the course of this game where they just did a really good job of clearing guys out. I showed you guys a clip I was watching. I can't remember what play it was.

53:37I think it was a completion, I think, to Kittle at the start of the second quarter. And you have CMC on a wheel route to the right side. And you have Pearsall on like a little bender over the middle. And then you have Kittle on the high low with Pearsall. and I showed you guys, I paused it like at the top of Purdy's drop and it's like the most beautiful like still photo of offensive football that you can see because I can't remember who was in the left flat but there's somebody in the left flat. There's CMC running up the left on the right sideline so he's controlling the flat defender and threatening vertically on that play.

54:14You have Pearsall coming on the bender and you have Kittle coming underneath and so you have five guys out in the route and it's as perfectly spaced as you possibly could have five guys out in the route and why that play just really made me smile is that that's what the Niners offense is at its best. And it has been a while since we have seen that. This year, it's because we haven't had the receivers in the lineup. Like, Pearsall getting back in there and giving them a little bit of the juice is absolutely part of this. We haven't seen Purdy for a huge chunk of this year. And last year, when Purdy was playing well, you didn't have McCaffrey doing that.

54:47And so for the first time in a very long time, and it felt like this today, we got the Niners passing game that was at least reminiscent of what this team looks like when they are a f***ing machine on that side of the ball. Kyle Shanahan took the batting donut off of his back. He's just finally getting some hacks with a normal baseball bat for a change. I mean, the wheel route to Kittle for 30 yards, I mean, that's like when you have all of these guys out there, at least most of these guys, obviously Iyuk isn't back yet, but we're at a place now where I'm excited to see what the offense can look like.

55:20Go ahead, say it. The defense is... Jacobi Versad completed 47 passes in this game. I understand it was a blowout from the start, but I do think that the defense will probably hold this team back from accomplishing what it wants to, but I'm at least excited to have this version of the offense back in my life. I thought this game was a really picture-perfect encapsulation of why we took the Niners off the table, but why we might have been conflicted about it. I was curious. The Cardinals called 80 % pass plays in this game, which, like, it got out of whack early. they did it out of necessity. You got to throw to catch up.

55:52But I was curious, how many teams have done that and how successful has the quarterback been? So I actually, I took it to 75 % called pass plays. And so 25, excuse me, 28 quarterbacks have had a game with that skewed of a run pass ratio. Only five quarterbacks have had a successful EPA, positive EPA per drop back when doing that. Matthew Stafford also against this beat up Niners defense Joe Flacco against the Bears not surprising no Patrick Mahomes twice this year and Justin Herbert once this year and Jacoby Brissett today so like to to have it be that skewed and still be so successful you're either MVP caliber quarterback or going up against a God freaking awful defense and I hate to dog on the Niners because obviously there's a lot going into it.

56:50It's not just that they're bad. They're beat to shit. But it's tough to imagine a defense like this giving you a true shot when you get into some of these games against the heavyweights. But I will say, I think it's going to be entertaining to watch them play. It absolutely is. The NFC West is going to be incredible down the stretch here. Like, okay, the Rams have played both games against the Niners, but the Rams still have another Seahawks game, and the Niners still have another Seahawks game, right? Yeah, so I mean, that is all going to be appointment viewing. All right, before we move on, we're going to take one more quick break.

57:54What the f***? What the f***? What? what the fuck here's where I took issue with this game in terms of it being like an embarrassing performance when I think of the Chargers defense now that they've gotten some guys healthy it's like okay Khalil Mack is back Denzel Perryman is that linebacker again like they can start to hit some people they can the run defense can be okay and it I think has been better since they've gotten those guys back they have some real oomph again the Jaguars offensive line while I think they've been actually a pretty successful run game for a lot of the parts even when the passing game has falling off they're not a run game that like pushes you around today they were today but today they pushed the chargers around so bad they were clearing linebackers out like anytime they got four hands on the defensive tackle they were five yards past the line of scrimmage the jacks had a 55.6 rushing success rate today which i think maybe until sunday night or until sunday night football was at least the highest of the day and i assume that held like they were incredible i don't I don't think either of those teams can watch that.

58:50No. They ran for 192 yards, and there was nothing accidental about it. Like, you watched it from start to finish. I mean, the first, or late in the first quarter, they had, like, an 11-yard two-and-run that sets up a touchdown. And on that play, like, it's a great job by Little to capture the edge. Hainsey does a great job with a reach block there. They had multiple plays today where they're running windback runs. Those tosses. It's windback, design windback plays where you have a guy slicing across, they're getting onto the second level. I mean, the first one they had was like eight minutes left in the second quarter.

59:24The left side of the offensive line, like Walker Little just like moves Scott Matlock on that play. They have a really nice rep of counter from the pistol with like five minutes left in the second quarter. Cleveland and McCary do a great job in space on that play. And so they really owned that side of the line of scrimmage. I think we could guess that that might happen on the other side of the ball, which we'll talk about. Exactly. But for them to control a Chargers front that I actually think had been playing pretty well since they got healthy, honestly, one of the more shocking things that happened over the course of an entire game.

59:56And where I kind of felt like it was really going to start worrying me on the Tootin rushing touchdown early in the game. They run one of those, like, one of those toss plays. Cole Van Lannen, who is his team's backup right tackle, mashes Khalil Mack, like completely washes him down the line and makes the cut back into the end zone as easy as it could be. And so I was like, OK, if we're going to have a day where Khalil Mack is getting moved around by a backup right tackle, this is not going to go well. And it really never got any better for the for the Chargers. On that side of the ball, I also thought Trevor was really good in this.

1:00:28Trevor was awesome. I thought he was really, really good. Like this is one of those side. He was really good. Yeah. The interception. But so that's a theme for Trevor. Just like, OK, yeah, aside from his worst throw of the day, he was really good. But typically the worst throw of the day, there aren't like 10 really good throws on the other side. Maybe there are two or three. That was, he had one really bad decision in this game, but down to down, this is the most impressed I have been with him in a game in a while over the course of the, probably since the Chiefs game. And even that game was very different than this.

1:01:02That game against the Chiefs, I think the biggest, the most damage that he did was extending plays as a creator, as a scrambler. The work he was doing from the pocket in this game today. I mean, there are a ton of examples, but a lot of throws he's making into zone coverage into space in this game with anticipation. I was really impressed with it. He had a curl to Parker Washington on a second and 10 in the first drive of the third quarter. Just beautiful timing. Rips that ball into space. They had a third and 12 on that drive. The Chargers are running like a funky little pressure. It's a full slide.

1:01:34He rips it to Jacoby Myers for 21 yards. There's another curl against a soft zone with like five minutes left in the third quarter. He rips one of Jacoby Myers with four minutes left where he progresses all the way back to this inbreaker that he rips past dies earhole. Like there were so many plays in this game where he is on time, understanding where the windows are going to be progressing to them. I thought the past protection was really good in this game, which has not always been the case with this team this year. And so the offensive line went a long way in kind of dictating that. And again, you had probably three, four examples of LaQuint Allen doing a great, great job with blitz pickup in this.

1:02:12And so this was just cohesively such an impressive performance from like every level of the Jags offense in a way that I don't know if you could hear it in my tone. But like, it's kind of surprising based on what we have seen from this team recently. So maybe the most shocking part of the early window was like, this game kind of looked exactly like you thought it might going into halftime where like the Chargers are struggling. They're like Herbert's under siege. The Jaguars have pieced a few things together, but it's 14 to six. Like, it's not hard to imagine the Chargers climbing out of this.

1:02:43And then the sequence as the game starts, Jags 11 play, seven minute touchdown drive. No shooting themselves in the foot. No stupid shit. They go up 21-6, force a three and out, 16 play, nine-minute touchdown drive, game over. When have the Jags ever done something that efficient in their lives? Do you know their penalty count for this game? It couldn't have been very many. One. Really? For five yards. That is shocking to me. For a team that all year has had illegal formation issues. They were one of the most penalized teams in the league coming in. Clearly, they played their cleanest game of the year.

1:03:21And I want to say two things. First of all, I think you already feel how much Trevor trusts Jacoby Myers. Like Trevor is a guy who, hell or high water, God bless him, he's going to throw the ball over the middle into tight windows. And Jacoby Myers is a guy who can make those plays. And it's pretty clear that he already trusts him to do that. And so I think that's going to unlock something in the offense. And then, Robert, you talked about kind of coming into the week. Every head coach is going to kind of face a moment where it's like, stuff is not going well for you. And you need to see if you can kind of bow up and, you know, kind of step up to the moment.

1:03:51And for obviously the Chargers just didn't play their best game today. But for you as the Jaguars to walk into this game and handle them pretty convincingly, that's a pretty cool moment for Liam Cohn. I totally agree. It was really impressive. The last throw I want to mention, and again, just speaks to him seeing things really cleanly today. They ran mesh with like four minutes left in the third quarter. And it's against zone coverage. And he has that little sit route over the ball to Quentin Morris. And he rips it on time. It's great protection again on that play. And so just so many examples of that on the offensive side for the Jags.

1:04:24On the other side, this is not a fair fight with the Chargers offensive line and the guys that the Jags have on the edge specifically. Justin Herbert had a 50 % pressure rate on non-blitzes in this game. And you felt it. You just can't live that way. They had absolutely no shot. On the first play of the game, there was an intentional grounding on a naked, like right back into Trayvon Walker. and that just kind of set the tone for like how this was sure. The next two plays, they just threw two perimeter screens, which I wrote exactly that in my notes. I was like, the fact that the first drive was Herbert pressured immediately into an intentional grounding and then two perimeter screens.

1:05:01I was like, oh, they don't, they have nothing today. I was curious. I went back and watched all the way through. The first like, the first slow developing play where Herbert, like where it wasn't a screen, it wasn't like a three-step drop. It wasn't get the ball out, get the ball out. I would argue it came with three and a half minutes to play in the first half. Like that's how, like that's how long it took for them to buy Herbert time to look for something downfield. Trevor Penning, not a, not a wonderful day. Josh Hines Allen against Trevor Penning went about as well as you thought. It was what you thought.

1:05:37It's like you do the Trevor Penning trade because like we talked about it on trade deadline day. It's like, we just, we need a body who can do things. And I'm sure people, thought this will be like he could be an upgrade over austin deculus at left tackle and i i don't know that that is the case i don't know i mean there were just so many examples like eight eight pressures on the day three quick pressures they had the ball the chargers were down with 21 to six with six minutes left in the third quarter second and eight josh and josh hans allen's in his lap immediately next play it's third and eight he immediately toast penning around the corner hits herbert as he throws there was a he had a pbu on a quick throw to quentin johnston with like nine minutes left in the second quarter.

1:06:20On that third and 10, he beats Penning to the corner. Herbert has nowhere to go with the ball, and that's a sack. And so Josh Heines-Allen was really good in this game. Trayvon Walker had a couple of splash plays in this game. The other guy who I thought had some really, really nice moments for the Jags defense was Devin Lloyd. Yeah. Multiple really nice plays in this game. There was a sack at the beginning of the second quarter. They're trying to run a play-action in-breaker, and Devin Lloyd just turns robots right back at the in-breaker, takes away that window. Herbert has to take a sack. The next play, Devin Lloyd erases Kamani Vidal on a screen pass for a five-yard loss.

1:06:54Was that the one? Devin Lloyd beat the blockers to the catch point. I believe that was that one. The Chargers offensive line is trying to get in position, and Lloyd's already celebrating the tackle. And then with two minutes left in the second quarter, they tried to get a double move to Aranda Gaston down the right sideline. Lloyd runs with him step for step. Penning gets called for a hold on that play. That was the day. that was the day for the Chargers offense and so we know this is going to happen to their offense against teams that have quality pass rusher or two and that's exactly what happened today and I think accentuated by some decent play by other guys in the Jags defense what happened to the Chargers defense in this game I think that is what is truly shocking about the result and I think there's going to be some percentage of people that want to get onto Herbert this game and I don't think he played his best game I don't think he was seeing it very well Obviously, the interception he throws, he's trying to target Ladd McConkie on a deep over in the fourth quarter and just like sails it over his head by like 10 yards.

1:07:50He did not play his best game. I think the thing that like Herbert suffers from is that because he's proven that at times he can put together Herculean efforts when he's getting pressured half of the time, that there's this expectation that he should do it all of the time. And it's just like, you can't do that every game. It's kind of impossible. I'm not saying that he should do it every game, but it's frustrating to try to guess when he's going to be capable of doing it. Because he is. Justin Herbert has played some games like that, and then sometimes the bottom just gives out. And I'm not blaming him, but it's frustrating to just be like, which Chargers offense am I going to watch today?

1:08:31The one that's DOA or the one that Justin Herbert might give a chance to? He didn't play well today, but this is another one of those games where it's like you have no shot. If you're going to give up a 50 % pressure rate on non-blitzes and you're going to have a 23 % rushing success rate over the course of a day, it doesn't really matter what you do as a quarterback. You can have your best day and it's still probably going to be enough. And when you don't have your best day like he did today, you watch a game like this where it ends up 35 to 6. Let's get to our next one here. We put this here because we didn't have, we had four things already and you have my attention.

1:09:07Bryce Young. Bryce Young, after some of the low points we have seen from him so far this season, to go out and throw for 448 yards against this Falcons defense. And we said this coming into the week. We said anything could happen when you open Falcons-Panthers, considering what these teams have looked like over the course of the first half of the year. This game could be anything. And guess what? We were right. It lived up to that billing. So for the first time, at least this season and maybe ever, I'm going to do a complimentary Bryce Young. What the fuck? A week ago, we were talking about like having to let go of the idea that Bryce Young could be a franchise quarterback.

1:09:50And I'm not saying one game against Atlanta should change your mind. But this is one of those games where it's like, come on, man. He's the franchise record holder. Season single game passing yard. He passed Cam Newton. are we ready to have the conversation about whether Bryce Young is a better NFL quarterback than Cam Newton? My flight out of here is on Friday. I'll move it to tomorrow morning if we're going to do that conversation. Please don't. Please don't make Derek rage quit the podcast. This is one of those games where you and I, we come into the season. And again, listen, I was excited to watch Bryce Young because I liked watching the style that he played with last year.

1:10:23And he played with that today, to be fair. And I was like, man, like, I don't know if this is going to work, but I liked watching him play in the back half of last season. And like, I do think that they have enough upfront and you get some better receivers and they really let him down last year. Like, what could this look like heading into 2025? And then it looks the way that it does over the first 10 weeks of the season, where he is one of the worst starting quarterbacks in the NFL. And I start to lose a little bit of hope. And then he comes out in the game. He had, he comes out and has the game he had today.

1:10:51And that's why my response is like, Bryce, what the why can't you do this today and then look like you looked over the first 10 weeks of the season this is what the falcons let people do the crazy defense is not that bad this year the crazy thing too spiritually the falcons it like this looked like it was gonna go the way some of these other games have gone too like atlanta was up 21 7 and my eyes were sort of gravitating toward other things like okay the the packers are playing a nerve-wracking game Like Atlanta's doing what I thought they would do. And then Bryce, Bryce did that. I mean, and like at the start of the set, actually it was even before halftime because he made some nice plays to get them into position for the field goal at the end of the first half.

1:11:34And then the touchdown to Xavier Leggett at the beginning of the third quarter, I'm like, okay, Bryce, I will watch this. This is, this is what I was excited about. I mean, that's the beginning of the third quarter. So even like, yeah, the touchdown, a couple throws to get them into field goal range at the end of the half. I mean, the crosser he throws to T-Mac on the backside of that play is a beautiful throw. And then even like the first touchdown drive that they scored, he progresses back to Coker on like a drop eight versus cover two and like finds him for 15 yards. There's a little like half boot on that drive on fourth and two where Watts is flying downhill and he hits Leggett for 22 yards.

1:12:13And so he was making nice plays even earlier in the game. And then in that, He sets up the field goal drive and then coming out in the third quarter, the crosser he throws to Coker with like 13 minutes left in the third quarter. It's a great blitz pickup by Dottle. He like lofts it right over Caden Ellis, who's like sinking on that play. And then it just keeps kind of happening over the course of the second half where he's making throw after throw after throw. And it really did feel like it felt like in the back half of last season where he's just seeing these opportunities to push the ball down the field and consistently making these throws over and over again.

1:12:49And I really enjoyed it the same way I did in the back half of last season. I just missed the fact that it hasn't been happening this year. And he was because that was the thing. The reason I still, again, like maintain that at times when it works like this, he's kind of getting away with it and like pushing his luck a little bit. But it works when he's throwing over the middle really aggressively and when he's willing to just stand in there and like take a hit. And in this game, he was in there and he took some shots like he really did. Oh, my God. he took one it's somewhere in my notes jalen walker about took his head off on one of those dude he he had one i think it was i think it was the 39 yard catch and run to t-mac before halftime where he like he got decked as he was letting the ball go and i was going to say the other thing too and again we don't have to relitigate whether this changes bryce young's ceiling as the panthers quarterback but having ted aroa mcmillan to make you right in a big way is such a big part of that because the ball was perfectly placed.

1:13:45But on that play, McMillan goes like both hands over his helmet, snags it in stride, and then dusts A.J. Terrell and Jesse Bates to make that a 40-yard gain. And when you have that, it can supercharge maybe what you don't like about Bryce Young a little bit. The fact that McMillan in that moment, the ball is above his head and he can just snatch it, gather himself, and accelerate like that His size is just like, oh my God, man. Eight for 130 and two in this game. And like looked every bit of a top 10 pick. He made a play in the late in the third quarter that to me is just like such an expression of what he can do as a receiver.

1:14:26And it's a small play, but it's a third and four and he's running a comeback on the left side. And the aggressiveness that McMillan has in coming back to that ball to make that play. He is just, I mean, he's a quarterback's best friend. Like every aspect of how he plays the position makes it easier to play quarterback. And that's not always the case with like highly drafted, super talented guys. Like not all of them are that quarterback friendly, but so many aspects to his game. You are just the best possible option for a quarterback like Bryce Young. Can I tell you a fun stat I found from this game?

1:15:01Jeff Ulbrich blitzed Bryce Young more in like more than anybody in his NFL career not named Todd Bowles third most net blitz and then it's just been the Bucks that have done it more 18 dropbacks where the Falcons blitz them Bryce went 10 of 13 for 127 and a touchdown but finished with a negative.38 EPA per drop back because they sacked him five times. That's one of those games where if the ball's coming out, we're good. He technically, he torched them when they blitzed him, except they sacked him five times. I've never seen a split like that, or at least I don't remember it. I had the same stat, 10 of 13 for 127 against the blitz.

1:15:44The other situational thing that's worth pointing out, they were fantastic off play action today. 9 of 11 for 143 yards and a touchdown when they used play action. You could feel it. I mean, even the safeties were kind of flying down when they were using run fakes in this game, because obviously Falcons came in really worried about what the Falcons could do on the ground. The Panthers could do on the ground. And that ended up hurting them. The one guy I think that they the Falcons or the Panthers did a really good job of picking on over the course of this game. Natron Brooks, the other outside corner who was playing on the other side of A.J.

1:16:13Terrell had a rough day in this game. They get beats him on the sluggo for 36 yards on that touchdown. And then on that same drive, he gets beat by Coker on a crosser for a big chunk gain. He then muffs the kickoff immediately after the touchdown to Leggett, which is a pretty tough back-to-back for any player. Panthers don't score on that play. But and then the huge chunk play to Mitchell Evans off of a leak, which is like, it's good to see a good old like 2017 leak play back in my life again. And then the series, the sequence that I think really does, it goes a long way in swinging in this game is that on third and one with 13 minutes left, they give the ball to Bijan Robinson and DJ Wanham just makes an incredible play to blow that thing up.

1:16:59And then the Falcons get the ball at the plus 39 with three minutes left in the fourth quarter when they're up 21 to 19 and they settle for a field goal after like three straight incompletions. And then they had another drive in the fourth quarter where they had three straight incompletions. And so Kirk Cousins coming into this game late, I think does do a decent amount of work in the Panthers being able to hang in this thing and eventually win. Michael Penix, there's nothing out officially, but Ian Rapoport said late Sunday afternoon that there's at least some concern he's going to miss time with this injury.

1:17:30And the offense, even with Michael Penix, it's not even this year. The offense with Cousins, when he has been in, has been borderline unwatchable. It's always bad. At least with Penix, sometimes it's not bad. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. Who am I kidding? Yes, I do. The Bucs and Panthers play both of their games against each other in the last three weeks of the season. What are you trying to say over there? I'm trying to say that it could be a fun finish to that division. I mean, they're tied on wins. Like the Bucs, the Panthers have played more games. They're behind the Bucs, but they're tied on wins.

1:18:02And I don't know, the Panthers get the Niners next week. The Bucs have the Rams. Like it could be bumpy here for a little bit, but when you get both of those games in quick succession at the end of the season, I'm going to step out on a limb and say it's going to go a long way towards swinging who wins the NFC South. And that's very fun. And now the Panthers will go do something inexplicably awful now to wipe away all my enthusiasm. I watched this game, and it's so tempting to watch this game and want to buy back in, and I just can't do it. Because he did this and looked like this. Obviously not to this extent, but he looked like this in stretches in the back half of last season.

1:18:40And so the fact that we've already seen this version of him and then you've seen the version of him that's happened over the first half of this season, I've already lived this life. I've already done this exact process before. And so I'm being very cautious with how I'm taking this Bryce Young performance. And that's not to take away anything from the way that he played today. He was really, really good today. I've just already done this and I'm just not sure I want to go any further down that road before we watch him play again. You don't have to do that. You're allowed to just live week by week.

1:19:13This was amazing, and he holds a franchise record now, and it was really cool. Because he's better than Cam Newton. Okay. We've got to wrap up the show. He's a week away. He's a week removed from scoring seven points against the Saints. Two teams that we're not going to dig into here, but you were on notice after the way that today went and what you needed to win these games. The Packers win an ugly one against the Giants. a couple fantastic plays by Jordan Love, a couple fantastic plays by his receivers as well. Some brutal drops for the Packers receivers in this game, but also some fantastic, like, high leverage plays by the Packers receivers in this game.

1:19:50They knock off the Giants 27 to 20. And then the Ravens needing Shadur Sanders to come into this game and go 4 of 16 or whatever he went. There was a moment, I think, after his, like, first 12 or so dropbacks, I think it was 12 dropbacks, where he was averaging negative 0.1 EPA per dropback. And so they had, and actually it might've been 13 dropbacks because he was at like negative 12 and a half EPA in those first 13 plays. Without that, the Ravens might not win this game. They do, but I'm not sure how much credit they deserve for that. Yeah, this feels a lot more, at least the Packers, I feel like they like, they shouldn't have been like behind and struggling the way they were, but at least it felt like they earned their way back into the win.

1:20:34And the Ravens got pretty fortunate with, I think, the way that this one ended. What a disgusting game, though. Like, truly, I don't, we didn't do this for Sicko Street, but it was deserving of it. When you consider, what, a bobbled pick six by Lamar, a batted at the line, our boy Karshan Swessinger with a pick. He fought for that pick, too, in the air, by the way. That was insane. An explosive quarterback sneak touchdown from a tight end. The fact that that was like a game swinging play, and this is all you need to know. Also, Miles Garrett continuing to make his push for the most impressive single season by a guy on an irrelevant team.

1:21:12The most tungsten arm O'Doyle performance we've ever seen from Miles Garrett in this one today, I think. The way, go watch him like hip drop Roger Rosengarten to get, I think it was his second sack. The way he just bumped him out of the way like a high school player. I want to find it. I want to find the tweet from Zach Johnson, from Zach Jackson, our Browns reporter, talking about Miles Garrett in this game and the historic nature of what Miles Garrett did in this game because there is... Here it is. Miles Garrett's 10 sacks in the last three games tie Hall of Famer Richard Dent 1984 for the most in a three-game span in the same season since sacks became an official stat in 1982.

1:21:54Only Garrett, Reggie White, Chandler Jones, and Carl Mecklenburg have four plus sacks in multiple games in a season. As the Browns fall 23-16 to the Baltimore Ravens. They cut to Garrett when this game went final and Lamar does victory formation or whatever. They cut to Garrett on the sideline after the game was over and just the look of stoic acceptance on his face. It's past the point of being numb. It was telling. How do you feel about the fake tush-push reverse pivot touchdown. It feels to me like you might consider that like a dishonorable version of football. It's a little bit dishonorable, but I don't know.

1:22:34I'm kind of like, I'm kind of into the fake push stuff. I think it's fine. I'm just curious how you felt about it. I'm more like, maybe this is me. Like, I just think the Ravens are cool when they win. And so like Mark Andrews doing it, I think was kind of cool, but I don't know. I didn't really mind that so much. Typically it feels like something that does feel a little bit like razzle dazzle bullshit to me, but I don't really mind it. All right. Let's get to the moments that made us feel romantic about football in week 11 before we get out of here. I mean, this thing was a thing of beauty. Every week, we like to pick out a few moments that start out to us to just, you know, make you feel warm and fuzzy about what football really is.

1:23:10Derek, why don't you kick us off? What is the moment that made you feel romantic about football in week 11? We just got a very Baker moment today on one of his touchdowns where they run this little slide RPO to the right on like the one yard line. And he ends up running it in. And as he gets in, he gets chopped down and like lands really badly on his neck. And it looks like if you stop it right there, you're like, oh, my God, he surely is going to be stuck on the ground and hurt on this play. Immediately bounces up and chucks the ball into the stance. I'm like, all right, we're going to get that kind of Baker today.

1:23:40And so just getting that like right off the like around when Josh Allen had just done his stupid chest pass interception. Like I was like, OK, this game is getting into silly mode. my version of this today is uh the darnell washington play from the second quarter of that steelers win against the bangles which we will talk about on the hangover tomorrow but i mean come on man like you're throwing a crossing route to a 300 pound man what he does to i believe it's demetrius knight on that play just puts him in the ground with a stiff arm like derrick henry stiff arm and then my favorite part of the play is immediately after jordan battle has a chance to tackle him at the sideline.

1:24:19And he has no f***ing interest in this. Like, could not be less enthusiastic. I mean, I guess if it's your job, but man, I wouldn't want to. Just come on, just try to chop him down at the very least. Gives the most half-hearted attempt ever. And Darnell Washington rumbles for like 10 more yards. And then at the end of the play, he's like about to step out of bounds. And DJ Turner is there. He runs into DJ Turner and launches him. I'm not kidding. five yards out of bounds further down the field. So three different Bengals just get absolutely embarrassed on this one single play by Darnell Washington.

1:24:56How can you not be romantic about that? There was a lot of discourse when Darnell Washington came out about whether, like, let's just call it what it is and make this guy an offensive tackle. Like, what are we doing here? But there were plenty of great plays on his college tape that suggested he was more than that. And I deeply appreciate Arthur Smith for getting the most out of him because I don't think anybody, just anybody could do it. That was easily my favorite play of the day, easily. Dave, what made you feel romantic about football in week 11? If you were worried we were glossing over this, don't worry anymore.

1:25:27I wasn't going to let it happen because, Robert, we're going to talk about some special teams because they made me feel romantic about football this week. Let's start it off here and we can build to a crescendo. Five games were won on a walk-off field goal in week 11. But started with the morning game, Madrid, Riley Patterson, 29-yard field goal, nothing to get super excited about. But the Dolphins walk off the Commanders. I don't know how many people saw this game, and hopefully, honestly, you didn't. But in a game very few people were watching, Houston walks off Tennessee. Matthew Wright kicked three field goals on the day, including the game winner.

1:26:09He's on his third team of the year, by the way, including the Titans. So he goes from kicking for Tennessee like a month ago to beating them today. Cairo Santos goes four of five for the Bears, overcomes the 45-yard miss to hit a walk-off in a game that I can't wait to hear y 'all talk about on the hangover. Then Ryan Fitzgerald gets an overtime game winner after the big Tommy Trimble catch and run in the Atlanta game. Will Lutz, five of five on the day with a 54-yarder. and then he gets the walk off after the big Bo Nix completion to beat the Chiefs, essentially knock them out of the division race.

1:26:45Big day for kickers, right? Except for the one that was missed in large part because of, I think, the best punt I've seen in a long freaking time. Ethan Evans of the L.A. Rams with the game on the line. It's 21-19. Rams run into the line. They get to fourth down minute to play. Ethan Evans bounces this punt on the two yard line and it dies on the inside. The one it dies at the pylon. I've never seen anything like it. And you know what gets me romantic about football? When a punter gets to do the I'm him thing. And it was so well-deserved. Think about this. Jason Myers is a 61 yard attempt. He was right at the line of his range.

1:27:37If that punt by Ethan Evans is anything other than the best of his life, Seattle might win this game. But the most perfectly executed coffin corner pun I've seen and maybe ever made Seattle start at the 0.5 yard line. And I mean, they did drive it out to midfield. But if that's even down at the five, we could be talking about Seattle having won this game. Ethan Evans, that was awesome. and it made me feel really romantic about football. I would love to, the Thicker Kicker plus Ethan Evans, those are some big boys as the specialists for the Los Angeles Rams. They have a type that they're developing and I fully support it.

1:28:14All right, before we get out of here, let's talk about what we learned today. You know, I think I've learned something today. Each week, we like to wrap things up with a lesson that we learned from the week in the NFL. And my lesson today is pretty simple. This is anybody's ballgame, man. I mean, who is the best team in the NFL definitively right now? I think it's probably the Rams. So that's the thing. I think it's the Rams and their MVP quarterback had 4.6 yards per attempt today. It's crazy. We're in a spot where you look at the current seeding in the playoffs. The Broncos are the one seed in the AFC.

1:28:48The Patriots are the two seed. And considering the rest of their schedule, I think legitimately have a chance to win a shitload of games. like I don't think it's out of the question that the Patriots are the number one seed in the AFC at the end of all of this which is a crazy place to be as it currently stands the Chiefs are not in the playoffs right they are the ninth seed in the AFC as it currently stands the Lions are not in the playoffs right now they're currently the eighth seed in the NFC the Bears are the three seed in the NFC the Eagles are currently the one seed but I don't know how good the Eagles are right now.

1:29:21Like it just feels like think this thing right now is wide open given like the current state of this, the Ravens, like we expected them to come back and would the Ravens be like, you know, a real force to contend with in the AFC by the end of the year, it's been kind of uneven for them. I don't know what to make of the bills. The Colts have had a weird couple of weeks. It just feels like this is as muddled and as crowded as I can remember it being, because even when we get to this point in the year, 10, 11 weeks in, and the standings are all jumbled up, it still feels like we know who the truly elite teams are that are going to come out on the other side of it.

1:29:58And I just don't know who those teams are right now. If you told me five or six teams that could win the Super Bowl as it currently stands, I think I'd probably believe you. And maybe more than that. And I just can't remember being at a place this deep into the season where it felt like it was anybody's game to this degree. And even if I still cling to hope or belief in some of those teams, like I said, I'm not done with the Chiefs. I'm not out on the Lions. I feel silly saying this, but like I'm holding some stock in the Packers still. You can make fun of me if you want to. I don't care. But if you're a team, why not?

1:30:37Yeah, exactly. I mean, with all of these teams, why not? But like, but having said that, and as easy as it is to fall back on those like established teams that have proven some things. If you're a fan of the Broncos or the Patriots, the Colts, the Bears. Hold on. Hey. I don't think you have to. Like if I was a fan of one of those teams, you couldn't tell me shit. Even if I don't really think that highly of the Chicago Bears, what we're seeing this year and the flaws that most of these teams are displaying, you might as well just have fun with it because it feels that wide open that like even some of these teams that I'm not sure I take seriously, whatever, man, you got to line up and play.

1:31:21I think there are a lot of teams kind of mired in the muck of how tight this feels that have a chance to do it. I'm not sure the Bears are one of those teams, but I think there are plenty of them. Would I bet on that? Absolutely not. But hey, it's been a long seven or eight years here in Chicago, right? If you want to have some fun with it, I can't hold that against you. The fact that it's November 17th and the Bears are in first place. I will take it as ugly and as strange as it has looked in some of these stretches. We're going to talk about that game tomorrow on The Hangover. We're going to dig into Bears-Vikings and what that game looked like.

1:31:49Also going to chat about Steelers-Bengals, which we did not really talk about today other than the Journal of Washington play. And then we're going to discuss the Texans-Titans game as well. Those are our three games for The Hangover tomorrow. Looking forward to that. We've got a full slate of shows coming your way over the course of this week, all of our regularly scheduled programming. For now, that is all we've got. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon.