Hurts like Hell, and Every NFC Contender's Weakness

32:05All right, we're back. So we're going to do the NFC contenders, but the Phil Rivers news it's happening. It really seems like it's happening. I saw this last night and I laughed and I got my jokes off and then I, it seems like the insiders have been reporting more and more essentially the indianapolis colts lose daniel jones brutal killies oh god never mind the news just broke so phil rivers the colts signed philip rivers to their practice squad yes uh it says to support riley leonard and serve as potential option down the road riley leonard himself who came in and honestly wasn't that bad for Daniel Jones is dealing with an injury.

32:52So I'm just going to do one take on this because first of all, we haven't seen Phil Rovers play in five years, right? Five years ago. Yeah, 20. He played in 2021, but in the 2020 season playoffs. Okay, so I'm not going to do like a take. It's probably, you know, I mean, this. Yeah, that's my favorite thing is people have been like off of the film. I'm like, dog, like that was that was in COVID. what are we talking about there's no film that's not real i know 2020 i mean what my son wasn't born i was yep i had two fewer kids than i had now and i had 10 times as much time as i have now uh so here here's the only thing i'm gonna do here say the indianapolis colts over the next four weeks face the seahawks the niners the jags who are getting after it right now in the past rush and then the houston texans you cannot send 44 year old philip rivers out there against that defense that honestly if they do that they need to like make like a you must be over the age of 18 to watch this game because the violence is going to be so unsettling do you remember did you watch squid games no but it was they had to cut cookies out of things in season one there's like a very old man who competes in the squid games and at the end is like it turns out there's a twist i won't reveal it but it turns out amidst all the violence is like shuddering in the corner that is how it's going to feel watching Philip Rivers if he plays against this Houston Texas all right I have the exact opposite take they have to do this I need to I need to see this I need many 30 year old men and 40 year old men across the country to see this I need them to see what it looks like four years off the bench Philip Rivers who like has a legitimate Hall of Fame case don't know if he's going to get in or not not going to get into that but Philip Rivers very very very good quarterback i needed i need them to see what this looks like because to learn yes it's supposed to be a shot across the bow for yes we did a lot of like oh aaron rogers like looked a little better there at the end of the jets era and like maybe with the steelers and i was like no he's too old and i was like no like he's processing like the game will age well no like it short of tom brady and some degree of like pseudoscience magic wizardry i don't know what happened there you cannot be this old and still ride the ride you gotta get off and so i for science especially against these defenses i would like to see it it's like when those guys are like i would be serena williams 101 it's like let's someone needs to be a tribute an example to us all if philip river starts against the texans he will have a time to throw up 1.9 seconds jonathan taylor will have 14 targets it will be disgusting football leonard actually looked okay That's the part that's really a kick in the groin is that Leonard looked fine and workable for a day three rookie, and you could just limp to the finish and be sad.

35:39But instead, because he gets hurt, you have to do this. You have to do Philip Rivers is leaving his children and flying to Indianapolis to save our season. Can't Russell Wilson just beg to be cut? I mean, all right. Anyways. Yeah, Shane and Phillip are boys is what it is. I don't have to get into this. All right. So the NFC weaknesses. So weaknesses for every contender. You can go first. This is not the order of the seating because I did it before the weekend. I sent you the list and it's all I was at wax now, but we're going to do your new five things. I'm going to do five. You can go first. You have the Green Bay Packers.

36:17Yeah. The weakness for the Packers is non Micah Parsons defensive lineman. Right. That is the. What's up with Sean Gary. can we talk the gary extension was one of those ones where when it happened i was like man i if that's for you that's for you like i just i i was never really there on his on his peak performances like pocket pushing is great having the ability to finish when you're a guy who he can get to that peak of the pocket and then he can get that tight corner like that is absolutely a desirable trait he runs unbelievably hot and cold both from a technique perspective and in my opinion from an effort perspective i think his eyes are really really really slow and so like in theory he's a good run defender but anytime there's misdirection or there's something to read out i just think he's late to the upkeep and right now like he just he he does not to me look like a particularly engaged player and just that's a really hard way to win in the defensive line where everything happens so so so fast uh so gary having a a like bottom i think of 80 qualifying edge rushers he's like 77th right now in in pressure rate like it is i i didn't have the numbers in front of me but he's bottom 10 right now in terms of generating one-on-one pressures the theory behind parsons was that Parsons would clarify a lot of roles for guys.

37:23Lucas Van Ness would get to spend more time inside. Rashawn Gary would get less chip help, less elite tackles. It just hasn't happened. And then the defensive tackle room, the Devontae Wyatt injury happens at the end of a win against the Lions. So kind of coming out, everybody feels great about it. But Wyatt was really their number one butt kicker, a defensive tackle. Everybody likes a Carl Brooks. He's a little bit more of a slippery player and a penetration player. Behind him, Warren Brinson, Nazir Stackhouse, they added Jordan Riley this week. Like it is his bottom of the roster players. And that's going to be an issue for them in run defense, especially because as we know from Parsons Cowboys days, teams will solve the Parsons problem by just running the ball a ton, right.

38:01And wearing him out, tiring him out. He is a little bit of a lighter player for the edge and beating him in the running game. There's just not a lot of other impactful players there in the past rush and a run defense for the Packers in the defensive trenches. The bears weren't able to do it to the degree to which I thought they would. So maybe just Jeff Hathaway is going to go this thing and the linebacker core is really good and they're gonna be able to account for it but if you're telling me the Packers are an early playoff exit what happened I'm telling you a team eliminated Parsons with the running game and nobody was able to pick up the slack rim long defensive line yeah I think Halfley does so much work to either use Parsons to dictate to defenses or to find ways to get him one-on-ones or to just you know throw them off all together he drops him into coverage decent amount.

38:44He is very much like the queen on his chessboard, which is great. But like you said, if an entire pressure plan is oriented around, okay, cool, we're going to get you to double Parsons or triple Parsons or whatever, somebody's got to win other than Parsons. And right now, nobody else is consistently winning. That Bears game, Parsons had eight pressures. The rest of the team had ten. Not tenable. I have seen some concerns around the Packers run defense and you saw in the second half, the bears rushing attack come alive, but I think it's just, it's not a elite run defense, but I do think it's good enough.

39:26I, especially like watching what they did against Detroit two games. um i know the panthers film is concerning to people but i don't think it's like an achilles heel for this yeah that that panthers film is the sort of way they will lose to the running game which is a lot of five yards a lot of grindies those games are going to be close and like you just need jordan love and the offense have a relatively normal day and you'll still win those uh they're not going to lose on the explosive stuff because their second or third level is so good right quay walker great season right now contract your quay walker edron cooper delivering on what was expected from him after I finished the year.

40:00Evan freaking Williams. Holy Moses. He's fun to watch second year safety. And then David McKinney and Nicole Javon Bullard, who Tom Brady was like over the moon about in that game. They're their second and third level fitters are great. And so they can limit the plays after they get through the first level. But there's a lot of movement in the first level. So those grindy running games can can can, you know, get those free five yards against them. All right, I've got the Rams. Tricky. Rams are good. A lot of things. Very complete team. I went with corner. I know that they've played well and I think have been really impressive in big spots, but I think there are certain types of receivers this group struggles with especially, especially like big receivers.

40:46Yeah. Against Philadelphia, AJ Brown put up 109 yards against Carolina, mcmillan and coker who are both big dudes had huge days emmanuel forbes gave up a lot he really struggled he's a smaller guy this last week against michael wilson who's another bigger receiver he put up 142 yards on them and it's not just one corner i know i mentioned forbes but there's been games where it's been williams games where it's been witherspoon i get it but i just think a team with size true X receivers can give this past defense trouble. Yeah, the back seven for the Rams is just not as talented as you'd like to be bringing in to a playoff run.

41:32And they play the sort of defense to account for that sort of an issue, right? Where they play a lot of zones and they try to pack the space and what have you. But eventually you're going to be able to get isolation plays, right? Like those Panthers players are like third down and fourth down. You got to be able to play man coverage on those reps, right? Especially their pass rush downs. So it's just, are you going to run into teams that can neutralize your pass rush, whether via getting rid of the ball quickly or having a really good offensive line? The nice thing is like in the NFC playoff picture, you know, Lions, the offensive line's not there.

42:00Eagles, quarterback's not there. Seahawks, we saw with Sam Donald McLean against this, this rush. The Packers are the one team where it's like, you know, if Jordan Love decides to have, you know. Kirsten Watson. Yeah, exactly. If Love decides to have a flamethrower game. Yeah. As long as he gets his absurd interception out early, he'll be great the rest of the game and they're going to get you. So the NFC playoff field, I think, doesn't match up well into the Rams defense, except for Green Bay, which, you know, we got to see the same the second Sam Donald game as well to learn a little bit more about that.

42:27I think they're fortunate that Dallas isn't. That would be another team where I don't I think Pickens and Lamb would be a major problem for them. But I don't think the Cowboys get in the way things are. No, Cowboys and Panthers are two of the tougher matches for them. And that's like fringe playoff teams right now. Funny. Yeah. OK. Okay, Bucs, the reeling Tampa Bay Bucs, really just collapsing down the stretch in terms of these losses, coming off of a collapse to Tyler Shuck. What are we calling the Shuck Boys? The Shuck Boys, yeah. I'm trying to make this a thing. Are you a Shuck Boy? I was a Shuck Boy coming out.

43:06He was like, oh, he's my day two guy. He's my underrated guy. I will say, I think the Shuck Boys are getting a little too far over their skis. I am not saying anything. I'm not making grandiose proclamation. That wasn't you. That was, there's others. He's playing well. I'm just saying he's playing well. This last game was really impressive. Playmaking was impressive. Yeah. The box, the box is tricky because there's like 19 different things to pick from. It's like, I was, I had no idea what you're going to go with here. Yeah. So to me, like the, the, the, the big issue is going to be the health on the offense, because I think the defense just kind of is what it is.

43:39We were all hoping it was going to be better. They're getting Jamel Dean back. and like they've been a much better pass defense with him on the field so maybe it's that but like the defense kind of the reality is the reality this offense could have been a lot better and could be a lot better going to the postseason but they just lost ben bredesen again so now they're going to have two backup guards in it's going to be dan feeney and michael jordan not that michael jordan but this has been an issue for them is that interior uh pass protection and then like the bucks last year were just like a super diverse running game and an excellent screen team with liam cohen and they've just lost that aspect of of the game with bucky irving being clearly limited and with the office of line being not nearly as effective right and so you just end up with a lot more baker mayfield third and sixes and third and sevens and baker for as fun of a quarterback as he is is just even at his peak with tampa bay is just too volatile to be given that many long passing downs right i saw uh john ledger who's a bucks guy has been on the show he said the bucks have been like three for 17 throwing 10 plus yards on the field over the last two weeks like it's It's just the lack of wide receiver talent, obviously.

44:39Baker's clearly bagged up. The pass direction issues, they all compound. And so the Bucs don't have a reliable mode on offense right now. They don't have a reliable. This is how we get our first down. This is how we move our football. Because the carousel wide receiver, the carousel running back, but specifically, in my opinion, the carousel of the offensive line, has just led to scheme upheaval and unreliability. And so I was holding a candle coming out of the trade deadline, coming out of the bye week for the Bucs. Get healthy and coalesce fast. It's going to be week 15 when Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan maybe get back on the field.

45:06like it's a little bit too little too late yeah it just feels like they are i know it's um i guess appropriate because the pirate ship it just feels like they're a ship where like every time they plug one hole two new holes sprout up water it's like one of those cartoons um yeah they're a little bit tricky to talk about the way the eagles are where it's like i do think there's a legitimate conversation about how good is baker actually and i do think there's legitimate conversation where like what is todd bowls really bringing to this team but also you kind of look at this here and you go, okay, but the biggest piece of the pie issue is just the health.

45:38And so if they decide to full run it back, I would totally get that. Yeah, I think people, speaking of people getting over their skis, talking about quarterbacks, I think some of the conversation about Baker Mayfield was a bit, you know, sleeping in this season. However, I actually, like, oh, I'm not going to say that. Say it. It's okay. No one will clip it. No one will aggregate it. Don't worry about it. I think it's easier to call an offense with him than it is Jalen Hurts. 100%. 100%. Yeah, okay. Tried to put that in a way. that was unaggregated. I'm with you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think that was a good pick for you, though.

46:10Yeah, I agree. You saw they signed JPP. JPP's back. Everybody's coming back. Absolutely. And there's nobody happier about the Philip Rivers news than Jason Pierre-Paul, right? It's like, all right, I'm not going to be the one clowned on this week. Very good. No way Philip Rivers plays against Seattle, right? At least, like, save, give him a week that, like, there's no, I mean... There is legitimately nothing that would surprise me. Remember, if Leonard can't go, the alternative is Brett Rippin, which, you know, draft network 2018 Ben Solak is thrilled about that ripping opportunity. Not doing it.

46:40Not doing great ripping in 2025. Okay. The Eagles, we just spent a long time talking about, I just wrote offense. I didn't even try it. Run game, predictably the passing game, Jalen Hurts, quarterback, whatever, offense. I'm going to ask you a question, though, that we didn't actually talk about at the top because we kind of went big picture with Hurts and the organization. This is going to be a playoff team. most likely if you could pick one fix schematically for them to do on offense moving forward, just one thing that you think could help, what would it be? I would target Saquon Barkley a lot more in the passing game.

47:19I think they ever do that. So they do. They have these games where he's like, you know, like when they when they beat the Packers, right, it was like the one like quick bailout throw. He had like a 50 yard catch and run. It's just if if your theory is Saquon is not that physically diminished, it's not like, you know the big season last year it's just the offensive line issues what i think is a prevailing theory and a largely correct theory then get him the ball in space right and they're really unwilling to get him the ball in space the other thing about it is that it really simplifies things for jalen it allows him to get into a rhythm right uh you see the teams that target their backs heavily a lot of times like it's just hey let's let's let's put our receivers on the field let's run them down the field fast berkeley right now teams have to fear aj brown have to fear davante smith and we just tell the quarterback listen the moment you see linebackers sink just give it to the back and we'll just go get six yards and like this would be an extension of our running game to me it's a way to get Barkley activated get more home runs out of Barkley while also insulating Jalen Hurts making him feel better about his passing game performance and also weaponizing the threat of Devontae Smith and AJ Brown away they haven't been able to this year making him feel better about his passing game I didn't I wanted to find a better way to say that but unfortunately that's how it came out so patronizing uh you know I like that idea um yeah i i everything is just so hard right now just throw in a few even if it's unlikely that you know most of the especially against the defense like let's say they did that against the chargers like realistically you're not getting chunk plays out of that but boy could they use some 67 yard completions from him and i and i i mean there's a reason why goddard was like kind of the focal point of the game right against that type of defense but having a a receiving back is very helpful too um yeah i think that makes sense all right you have the niners i i'm almost positive i know what you're gonna say here lack of pass rush all right we a lot of these by the way from this point forward but yeah yeah and we've talked about this a lot so historic numbers really quickly they have a 26.3 pressure rate as a team which is the lowest for any team that robert sala or chris kosarik the defensive line coach has been on ever uh 3.3 percent sack rate which okay yeah ben like they don't get pressure don't get sacks they also have the lowest pressure to sack rate of a defense in the nfl so they get after the quarterback the least and then they're the worst team at converting those pressures into sacks so through 14 weeks of the season they only have 16 sacks that's the lowest since the 2022 bears so most of the last three years through 14 weeks of the season we've seen a team generate sacks the great news is your tur gross models is coming back so don't worry we we'll be okay no more cleland ferrell snaps uh They have no depth.

49:47They have no star talent. And they don't blitz, right? Schematically, it's not what they do. And they're kind of getting away with it. So I don't think we're going to see a big change in that regard. But postseason rules for me, right? Like the number one thing I look for, do you have offensive players who are beaters? Do you have guys who are field tipping? Got a game plan for players? Number two thing I look for in terms of a postseason run is can you get after the passer? Right? That is a non-negotiable for winning three games against playoff teams. Niners can't do it. I found myself thinking about the Niners while watching the Chargers.

50:13I was watching the Chargers and I was like thinking you got to protect thinking like this offensive line, task protection situation is untenable. When I watched the Niners, I think the lack of pass rush is untenable. Which of these teams is more of the, they can't keep getting away with this team because the Niner, like offensively, the Niners are actually sort of healthy now. And I think the same is true of the Chargers on defense. So they're kind of like mirror images of each other. Yeah. I think that the Niners can get away with it for longer because like the secondary has talent. And even though, like I said, like they don't get a lot of pressure consistently, like they do have a guy in Bryce Huff who can move you off of your spot.

50:53Right. They have at least like one dude on a base down. Chargers cannot keep getting away with this. No shot. Justin Herbert is going to break and die. So that's where I lean, but it's, it's pretty, like I said, since the 2022 bears, it's pretty untenable there. Game day at my place is kind of a big deal. If I'm grilling, chilling and watching hoops, my outdoor patio setup better be ready to play. That's where Wayfair wins. From patio seating and umbrellas to grills and grilling accessories, Wayfair's got it all, and it shows up fast. I'm talking championship-level fast and easy delivery. So level up your grill game and your outdoor chill game and head to Wayfair.com now to get your outdoor space ready for the season.

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52:51Ethos has also earned strong customer feedback with a 4.8 out of 5-star rating on Trustpilot, based on more than 3 ,000 reviews. Help protect your family with life insurance through Ethos. Get your instant free quote at ethos.com slash sports. That's E-T-H-O-S dot com slash sports. Application times and rates may vary. Okay, so I have Seattle next. I went with the inconsistent run game. And you might be listening to that and thinking like, well, what about Sam Darnold freaking out? And I would argue that stems from the inconsistent run game. So it's kind of my catch-all. But when I think about the Rams game coming up, I think like what they have to figure out a way to run the ball.

53:36You know, oh, Darnold struggles with these kinds of pressures and exotics and he gets rattled. He makes bad decisions. There is nothing he needs more than to have a somewhat efficient run game in those particular. There's games where it won't matter against teams like that's where it matters. And Seattle is 24th in rushing DVOA, 24th in yards before contact per carry. uh they are averaging four expected yards per carry which is 28th in the nfl so this is very much an offensive line issue for me and not a back issue um it's part of the reason why every other game a different back is slightly better than the other i don't think it's actually about the backs um but you know when i think about the playoffs and i imagine a world in which things you know the defense is obviously incredible where things go sideways it'll i i picture myself looking at the ngs dashboard after and seeing like a 30 success rate 35 success rate and and thinking that's why yeah and it's difficult because you brought up the backs i think you're absolutely correct on the backs there is at least once every game a perfectly blocked run that kenneth walker decides he doesn't want to participate in and i'm always like kenneth kenneth this is the one like you finally have it that's the thing with the backs too is like Charbonnet is like more normal, but Walker has more juice, I think.

54:57And so they're just kind of like, ah, he did it. And when they need Charbonnet to be normal, just chunk them three to four yards. That's where he starts not being able to break tax fine line of scrimmage. They fall behind the sticks. And when they need Kenneth Walker to be the guy who hits the home runs, that's where Charbonnet is having like a great normal game. And just like, they've been so off kilter, off beat, not being able to like find the right rhythm. It's a legitimate challenge. I am interested to see what they do when Jake Sundle comes back because there's the rumor that Oluwotimi is going to stay at center and they're going to put Sundle at right guard over Bradford, which I like, but also week 15.

55:32Like, we got to get this right now. Ravens fans and Seahawks fans might be neck and neck for who hates their right guard situation more in the NFL. But yeah, the guard situation in Seattle is a major problem. yeah i uh yeah and i think zabel also like zabel had a really it's had a really nice rookie season since the injury which i know he didn't miss a lot of time but i will say it's able to last few weeks has had some rougher snaps than i was seeing the first half of the season so if he's banged up as well like you're just kind of net negative across the board of the running game might take him a second to get back to i'm wondering where they are in run block when huh interesting all right i'll talk about that uh let's find adjusted line do not agree with this um okay uh we got you got the lions next we got four more teams but you got the lions yeah uh the issue is the interior pass protection and in and much like you with the seahawks running game and how it affects the quarterback the lions interior pass protection would be more survivable if not for the fact that specifically for jared goff who does not relocate his spot well who does not throw well off platform like this is the kryptonite this is the big issue you see it both when it happens.

56:45Graham Glasgow gets pushed back. Tate Rattler loses on a rep. The carousel left guard was a big problem for them against the Cowboys. You see it affect the accuracy and the throw comes out too fast. You also see it affect Goff when it doesn't happen, right? You can tell that he feels dramatically less comfortable in the pocket than he felt in those seasons in Detroit where everything was humming perfectly. And so there's just a little bit more urgency from him. They have not relocated him in terms of design rollouts and boots as much as I would have expected. and to me that's the dan campbell side of the offense and like right like that's dan campbell's like a sean payton right like we we go from the pocket like this we distribute when they had the ben johnson years and like the numbers aren't extravagant they were not rolling him out a ton but they did they were booting and now i'm trying to remember the last time i saw let me pull this up it's a great point on the rollouts yeah so he's he's last i'd looked at the numbers he was like bottom six bottom eight in the league in terms of rollout on specifically under center dropbacks you kind of have to control for some of the shotgun offenses but in general like anecdotally that's not a lever they're pulling nearly the way that ben johnson used to i'd really like to see them get back to that uh it's an it's a workable extension off of how well the running games are working with gibbs their target on a lot of the rollout stuff tended to be sam laporta and they don't have sam laporta right now and so like they have to kind of you know find a new mode for it but in general like to me if the lions can get golf moving a little bit more and maybe something they're saving for the postseason to kind of use when they need it I think that's going to help them account for it and cover up the deficiencies there on the interior.

58:14It is also worth noting that the expectation is that original starting left guard Christian Mahogany, who was not amazing but not a huge problem, is expected to have his practice window open this week. Not guaranteed that he's back week 15, week 16. We don't know anything about how healthy he is, but reportedly they might be opening his window. If they can get him back for the postseason, that will be a bug. I think IOL is the correct choice, but do we have any concerns about the back end of this defense? You lose Brian Branch. Corners have had their ups and downs. The Lions secondary is really hard to predict because it's the exact moment at which four of them are hurt that they have just like an unbelievable, we're going to play press coverage, we're going to get nine DPI flags, which can be so physical that we're able to shut you down game.

59:02uh there over the last five weeks they are the second worst defense by epa per drop back allowed yeah yeah yeah they they cannot get after the pat like when they go press because that's what they do even if it's like rocky scene out there they go they press and they say you know survive on these islands eventually our pass rush will get home and like the the the corner play and and the depth there is an issue they also just haven't been getting the quick pressures that they need to from in hudgson from malin mcneil from alkyne mohammed now marcus davenport's back but like the lack of depth and pass rush teams are chipping hutch a lot and he's not being nearly as effective within the first two three seconds of the snap he still has good pressure on sack numbers but a lot of those are extension plays uh yeah there's the defense is a is a very serious concern yeah the the cowboys game i was just looking at some of the some of the numbers uh from these cornerback i mean again it's the cowboys but you know before lamb got hurt um it was pretty ugly no just pulling it up right now.

1:00:00Yeah, I mean, gosh, DJ Reed. 130 yards, nearest defender. Okay, I got the Bears next. I'm going pass rush here. Yeah, you can pick anything on the defense. You can pick anything on the defense. I think what was so jarring was just watching Dennis Allen continuously try to blitz Jordan Love because he knew they had no chance of getting pressure without it and putting his DBs in really horrible positions. They were playing a lot of big nickel because Kyler Gordon didn't come back, so C.J. Gardner-Johnson should not have been covering those guys in man coverage 20-plus yards down the field. But it was like, and again, you could quibble with Allen in his approach, but he did that because this defense is 31st in pass rush win, 30th in pressure rate, 25th in sack rate.

1:00:57Their highest rank player in pressure is Montez Sweat, who ranks 43rd league wide. No one else is above that. It's if I think about this team and like a win in the playoffs is something where they can control the football by running it because that's their most dominant trait. But I do not love this team in a shootout because of that past defense. It's just not a good past defense right now. Yeah, they are. their bottom 10 and everything you brought up, and then they're like third in turnovers per drive, or takeaways per drive, I should say, for the defense. And it's like, yep, I've seen this story before, right?

1:01:31Where it's just down to down, you are not surviving. But you, Nayshawn Wright, like Kevin Byard, to their credit, they have gone and acquired defensive backs who are good at catching the football. Not all of them are. So they're able to get these takeaways and get these field flipping plays. They get their leads, and then they sit on it. Babe, you get to the postseason? No. You're going to run into an offense that doesn't turn the football over, that protects themselves from it. And then they lean on you for 60 minutes. There's more talent than you. I was so bad because I spent all week saying this and I was like, they can't keep getting turnovers to cover up for their like bad pass defense.

1:02:02And then Jordan Love threw one of the goofiest turn. I was just like, Jordan, like otherwise he was amazing in that game. But he just threw one of the like most boneheaded interceptions of the season. We used to say of Josh Allen that he had to get hit. Like he had to get the first quarterback hit in before he started playing well. Love's got to have his first pick before he starts playing well like like the best love games are always preceded by a first quarter interception that makes just absolutely no sense and then he's lights out for the rest of the way very odd just a funny funny quarterback um who they play this week okay cleveland i i did briefly i just want to address this because nfl live we talked about this game a lot and i um last week when we talked about the bears i was like i i the offense will be fine the defense is what concerns me and everyone's like how can you you know like the offense is you know so inconsistent throwing the ball and obviously williams the first half was pretty it was bad but i i loved it's not like a moral victory but i love so much in the second half ben johnson's approach and the fact that he stuck to his guns with the run game and just play insane amounts of play action um it's funny because i think that to me is like the lion's dna it's like oh cool we're behind we're not going to change our identity all we're going to put together an eight and a half minute drive and just grind you down and obviously they lost but i i did love seeing that from them and caitlin was much better than second half these stats are a little old but dionte lee of the ringer tweeted this out it was end of november passing epa per drop back first half to second half chicago jumps from 18th to 8th rushing success rate first half the second half chicago jumps from 16th to first right ben johnson declan doyle that offensive coaching staff in the halftime locker room sits down and and they like what and and that that's trickle down stuff right that's like the offensive analysts the passing corner that's the guys who are charging and everything they figure stuff out then they come back and they're a lot stronger in the second half i'm like i i bears 2025 i got my doubts i'm buying as much stock as i can in this team 2026 and beyond like they are very clearly sharp they get it they are good situationally the quarterback has very clear buy-in they are get like kyle monungai has just taken the running back one job right this this is the sort of team where they say we have a veteran free agent we have a seventh round rookie who's outperforming who like we're we're going to be serious about earning our reps here they are i'm so impressed even though they lost a game to the bears on the last second interception that's gonna be the ups and downs of a young team yeah um all right cowboys this is you we got two more yeah they just don't have solutions in the back end like it there was a great moment there after the bye demarvian overshone came back and savan revel and malik hooker and donovan wilson both starting safeties are there and like all right you know we're gonna have a stable defensive back seven now it's gonna be speed and there's gonna be talent we're gonna pressure the quarterback with quinn williams yeah since the bye their fourth worst in epa for drop back they were second worst previously right like in the first two games out of the by they looked good but now they've run into some better passing offenses they also still have a below league average pressure rate since the by since quinn williams got there their their plays on which they get pressure are very good but the idea that they are like now like a an elite pressure team is incorrect they do win when they get pressure they just are not actually like deep enough and consistent enough in taking away the quick pass such that they can be a team that dominates you with their front four and that's because this is the secondary is not good enough uh maddie rofus also like gonna be a zone heavy guy going to allow the quick pass that's always going to neuter a defense that's building their pass rush and so they're a little bit out of chips they're a little bit out of bullets in terms like this will really the thing that saves our defense they're definitely capable of takeover games right the cowboys wouldn't an upset game as the 17 of the playoffs i'll be the least bit i won't be the least bit surprised because they have opportunistic players they have field tipping players there and quinn and williams donovan azaraku has been great but this is not a consistent enough defense to make a playoff run yeah i agree even uh secondary they just they don't have enough players and we'll see if revel can take a step next year um that's probably what i imagine they'll address in uh in the draft but down the stretch you've got the vikings the chargers the commanders the giants obviously you could win all those games uh the eagles have to lose two for them to catch up doable don't worry about it we will do our part over here you guys got to handle your part over there i'll do my part the eagles have the commanders twice i think um i can't stress this enough doable doesn't matter of the schedule it can be done uh who do you think teams want to see less in the playoffs the this is such a first date question I'm hitting you what hello I need the rest I need the rest hit me I got you right who do you think teams are more afraid of seeing in the playoffs this is so first date Cowboys or Eagles the LeBron James Lakers um I would rather see the Eagles I think that's that's very hard no because it's cowboys eagles defense is really it's cowboys because i'm really confident that if i get two stops i could beat that team whereas with the eagles like that's going to be a one score game pretty much yeah yeah that defense is and then they still have like aj brown's take whatever it's it is the cowboys it's coming off the eagles game it's very tempting to say eagles it's still the cowboys yeah i think that the lions game was very illuminating right because we were coming off of these like performances from the defense and And everyone's feeling like, wow, the Cowboys are back.

1:07:29And it's like, oh, here comes a real passing offense. And I just love how much of the conversation is like the defense is fixed. And by the numbers, they got from 31st to 28th. It kills me. It's very funny. Okay, sticking with defense. Panthers, interesting because I've said this week to week, the quarterback is obviously very hard to predict. And I understand that some people might go in that direction. But this pass defense isn't good. it's not it's just bad and that's i mean they're you know bottom five and they're 32nd in epa per play against the pass um they don't get enough pressure particularly at edge uh outside of you know derrick brown up the middle the corners you actually mike james jackson playing pretty well but the safeties are very gettable uh i give up a lot of yards to tight ends yeah i'm about to say so most it's 2.2 yards per right run it's like by a mile the most in the league right oh i'm sorry i said their 30 second e-paper play versus the past i meant versus tight end so that was something i looked up because i was like there's no that's worse than the bangles which i didn't think it would be possible in 2025 if anybody has watched bangles against this the bangles are such a helpful defense this year because if you really want to stress how bad some other team are you're like look at they're worse than the bangles it's clarifying yeah they are 30 second e-paper play versus tight ends um you got some good ones in the nfc so i don't love that uh i think the run defense is improved and i think they have the type of run game where they can win games like they did against la um but you know i think this would be the worst would it be the worst defense to get into the playoffs in the nfc well of the ones we of all the defenses that we've discussed the past defenses yeah yes yes yes yes yes yes yes i think i still take dallas over them just because of the past like quinnon and and that's better yeah um they just it's just they just need more guys yeah it's very nice of you not to pick quarterback if i were given the panthers which perhaps is why i was not giving the panthers uh they would have been quarterback for me for sure but defensively yeah like they made a ton of free agent investments and they tried to get this unit from you know it's kind of seller dwelling to middle of the road.

1:09:47And for large stretches of the season, they have been middle of the road. They still just, they lack the horses in the back, in the back seven, Especially at linebacker where they've had these injuries. Yes. And it's tricky because two of the best passing offenses in the NFC, they faced the Packers and the Rams. They've had these hero games against them. And so there has been some proof of concept that there's enough punch in there, but like season long numbers indicate that those are kind of peak games, really hard to have three peak games in a row in the NFC playoffs. Like that's just that it's, it's cool when it happens, right?

1:10:16We get 2020 Bengals runs, but it's just hard to see. Bucks, Panthers, nerf gun to the head. Who's in? I think the Panthers will beat the Bucks. I really do. Like I decided the Bucks are so toothless right now. Yeah. And like a home playoff game for the Panthers, Dave Canales, like he deserves those flowers. He deserves that moment. They've done a lot of good stuff there in terms of Dan Morgan building that team. If it leads to like, you know, toxic Bryce Young discourse is going to drive me crazy all right we went back tomorrow or Thursday comes out Thursday to preview week 15 then we've got some good games on the schedule particularly Pills Patriots who I cannot wait for that that's probably I mean Packers Broncos really good Lions Rams obviously big but Pills Pats the narratives yeah so it's for a lot of marbles here right have you have you seen the uh like the whole like josh allen like i've seen a lot of like if man josh allen can't win the afc this year with no mahomes no lamar no burrow in the playoffs like when's he gonna do it like man he might not be drake may next week like i don't know there's a new there's a new kid in town there and the afc it's drake can't wait um all right so we'll be back on thursday to talk about those games uh you guys can check this out at youtube at youtube.com slash at me times ben has an article today uh that i just opened that's excellent that talks about things like the Chiefs offense, whether they can be fixed, the Eagles, of course, the Jags.

1:11:46I put my belief in the Jags on paper. It was a very poor decision. It's going to bite me in the butt very quickly. I'm facing Tice in our fantasy playoffs, and he has Trevor Lawrence. So I really I have Jackson Dart against the Commanders, which I'm feeling pretty good about for fantasy purposes, but Trevor Lawrence, I need this Trevor Lawrence here to come to an end personally. Jags are 12 and a half point favorites against the Jets this week. It is the biggest the Jags have been a favorite in 18 years. Have you ever felt a worse Jags loss coming than right now? I don't like that. I don't like that.

1:12:19I do like what we saw from the Jags, and it sounds like Ben did do. So go read that article. We're talking about that game, of course. And I'll see you guys then. Bye.

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