Hour 2: Guest Host Tom Pelissero, What’s More Likely with Rich from London, plus Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger

18:35Rich Eisen:And Chip Kelly saying we're balanced. I just think Pete's going to start taking the ball out of Geno's hands and wanted to put it in Gentry's hands. And Gentry has improved since they just let him stand any darn way he wants before the snap. Bring it back. So I think I'll go with Gentry right now on that front. Rich, this could be an interesting game here. How about this one? Browns quarterback more likely to throw more touchdown passes on Sunday. Their new one or their old one. Yeah, the new guy and the old guy. Dylan Gabriel. Oh, man. Oh, man. One's in Pittsburgh for career start two, and the other one is in Green Bay for his first start for the Bengals on five days in their playbook.

19:22Rich Eisen:And Jamar Chase is sick and now questionable. And him basically living out of a suitcase. So I will go with Dylan Gabriel. How about that? I'll go with Dylan. I'll go with rookie and career start two. in Pittsburgh, slinging it around. I believe in Dylan Gabriel. Let's go. All right, Rich, last one, and I'll leave you on your good London night. How about this one? More likely Super Bowl winning septuagenarian head coach who most wishes they had stayed retired. Pete Carroll or Bill Belichick? Pete Carroll or Bill Belichick? Belichick right now. No, no, no. Pete is as sunny a disposition as ever, and you know he wakes up every day saying, Where's my chewing gum?

20:12Rich Eisen:Let me chomp on it. Let me chomp on it. Let me turn this thing around. I believe. I've got my locker room believing. And Belichick is probably on occasion staring into space, wondering when he can get back on his boat. I will go 100 % Bill over Pete in this situation. I think Pete's sunny disposition is going to help the Raiders turn things around. How about them apples? You know how I feel about both of these guys. Of course. There you go, Jay Feli. We love both guys. Are you starting Rico Dowdle this week? Hey, Tom, can Jay Feli start Rico Dowdle this week? What's Chuba Hubbard's status?

20:51Tom Pelissero:Seems like a pretty safe bet that Rico Dowdle is going to be the man once again for Carolina this week. So good news for Jay Feli. I was planning on that.

21:00Rich Eisen:Well, you have to, as host, remind him that he's on the team, on his fantasy team, okay? Otherwise, you won't know. It was one time. It'll start him. You had him on the bench last week?

21:12Tom Pelissero:No, he let me know, so I put him in, thankfully.

21:16Rich Eisen:He didn't mean to let me know. No, I said, during that, when you, Tom, reported that Chuba Hubbard was likely to be out in the commercial break, I looked to see Rico Dowdle, who has him, and it's Jay, and I mentioned it on the air, like, guess who has Rico Dowdle? Jay doesn't. He goes, I do? Like, that's the guy you're playing in fantasy that infuriates you. You know what I mean?

21:38Tom Pelissero:And somehow that's the guy who inevitably is going to go on a run to the championship game. You just can see it coming.

21:44Rich Eisen:And I'm still transatlantically infuriated, by the way. Is that a band? Is that a cover band? Yeah. Or is that like what? Is that a Deep Purple album?

21:57Tom Pelissero:Yes.

21:58Rich Eisen:There you go. There you go. Very good. All right. I know you got an ex-guest. I got a dinner to go to and that'll be that.

22:04Tom Pelissero:We'll look for the photos later on, Rich. Thank you. Thank you very much. We'll see you bright and early Sunday morning football on NFL Network.

22:13Rich Eisen:I'll let you know when the photos are up so you can click on it. Wow. With your mouse.

22:22Tom Pelissero:Appreciate you, Rich. Thank you very much. All right. Ross Dellinger, college football writer for Yahoo, going to join us next. Maybe he can tell us how much Belichick's regretting this.

22:35Rich Eisen:Rich Eisen here. running a small business means every hire matters a bad hire costs time and money but the right one helps your business grow the challenge finding that person without sorting through resumes that's where linkedin hiring pro comes in it screens candidates so you can focus on conversations with qualified talent with hiring pro you can hire with confidence and build the team you need join the 2.7 million small businesses using linkedin to hire get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash eisen. Terms and conditions apply. While the world watches the stars at the FIFA World Cup this summer, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent, future stars who are already turning heads at age 14.

23:15Rich Eisen:Because next doesn't wait for an invitation, and neither do we. Hyundai has always moved the future within reach. We did it when we made advanced safety standard on every vehicle and engineered EVs with ultra-fast charging capability. because the future isn't some far-off concept. It's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Need parts fast? O 'Reilly Auto Parts as fast. Need them now? We've got now. No matter what you need, we have thousands of professional parts people doing their part to make sure you have it. We're O 'Reilly Fast. Just one part that makes O 'Reilly stand apart.

23:55The professional parts people.

23:58Tom Pelissero:Oh, oh, oh, O 'Reilly. Auto Parts.

24:12Rich Eisen:The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

24:15Tom Pelissero:Rich Eisenless, Rich Eisen Show. Tom Pellicero in for Rich on Disney Plus, the ESPN app, but of course, ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance. You did not dream that last night, even if you might have dozed off at some point in the third, fourth quarter. Giants routed the Eagles. Our next guest was there. He is a Super Bowl champ. He's a 13-year NFL veteran, now CBS analyst. You can see basically Jason McCourty everywhere. where I once, I think most famously, what he's best known for was releasing a single with me on the acoustic guitar and him singing back during his good morning football days.

24:57Tom Pelissero:I'm not going to ask you, Jason, to sing today, mainly because of how that segment went, but I got to say, in my weird memories of nine years at NFL Network, that one is really high up on the list. I give you credit because you actually have musical talent. Myself, I expose myself to everybody to show how bad of singing, but I got to show how much of a team player I bought into the segment and it was absolutely brutal, but I appreciate you for playing along. You absolutely went for it, which I appreciate it. But the moment you opened your mouth, I was like, Oh boy, there's no rhythm. There's no pitch, nothing here.

25:32Tom Pelissero:But appreciate you being here today, man. You were at the game last night, MetLife Stadium. I saw the photo on social media, you and your son. When you walk through the doors of that stadium, What are the chances in your mind you're going to watch the Giants salting that game away in the fourth quarter? My son wanted to wear his Jalen Hurts jersey to the game because at this age, he's nine. He just wants to be associated with the winner. He didn't care really which team it's going to be, but he was so sure that the Eagles are going to win. I'm like, buddy, like New Jersey, Northeast, like rolling up with a Jalen Hurts jersey.

26:07I don't want to have to fight anybody. So let's just go neutral, put on just an NFL jacket. but I didn't expect this. The Giants team we saw a week ago with five straight turnovers with so many young guys playing in their game and then the Eagles on the other side coming off of a loss to the Denver Broncos where they had a lead in the fourth quarter and kind of gave the game away. You expected the Eagles to be fired up that they didn't have to wait an entire week to play again and I expected them to win that game and win it kind of big and a lot of credit goes to Brian Dable. He's been able to get this team going even coming off that loss on the roll to come back home, the game plan centered around Jackson Dart and how it was able to kind of show itself throughout the course of that game.

26:51They end up going down and continue to fight and really put a butt whooping on the Philadelphia Eagles. And I think it puts them in a spot where at 4-2, yes, you still feel good if you're an Eagles fan that you are where you are. But it's kind of that teetering point where is this going to be the 2023 Eagles where they were 10-1 and then absolutely collapsed? Or is it going to be more like last year where early on in the season, Hurts had turnovers. They were struggling. They went into their bye week. They came up with some answers, and they went on a terrific run to obviously win the Super Bowl.

27:23A lot of question marks surrounding the Eagles right now.

27:26Tom Pelissero:So if you look at this Eagles offense, Jason, you spent a long time in your career obviously game planning against and trying to pick things apart. What's going on? They're pretty close to full strength. It's not like they've got injuries all over the place. Why, outside of the tush push, the tush push, we're calling the tush push fourth and inches. Besides the tush push, why does it seem like nothing else is on time, on tempo, the way that we expect? I think part of it is when you're a really good football team and really good offense like they were a year ago, each and every year you have to kind of recreate yourself and go back and look at it, what you did well, and how you have to adjust and adapt to whatever the new pieces are on your football team.

28:05Last year, they decided after the bye week, you know what? The best attribute of our offense is our line and our running back in Saquon Barkley. And we're going to fully commit to it because he's picking up three yards before he's even getting touched by a defender. And then he's able to do the rest. You come into this season, they haven't been able to do that. They've tried to line up in the shotgun like they always do and just run the ball at people. And Saquon is getting hit in the backfield damn near every single time. So you don't have the team to just bully people the way you did last year.

28:37We've seen him over the last two weeks try to rely on the passing game a lot more and put the ball in Jalen Hurts' hands. It's too vanilla. And I don't know if when you're looking at the Eagles, if they feel as though, hey, we're doing what Jalen Hurts likes and we're doing the things that work to the best of what his abilities are. Or if they just feel like he can't handle more with their offense, more emotion, more movement, different things with the wide receivers. you're not seeing that. A lot of times they're just lining up and they're saying, we're going to beat you one-on-one. And they don't have the ability to do that this year.

29:11So I think when you watch them, to your point, outside of the tush push and the variations that they've done off of the tush push, they're struggling. And you're seeing it on first and second down, which has led to them. We haven't even seen that many tush pushes the last two weeks because they're always in third and sixth plus because they're not able to pick up the necessary yards on first and second down. This is an offense that has completely lost their identity, and they have a 10-day break now. So somewhere along the line, they have to figure out exactly who they are.

29:40Tom Pelissero:The flip side of this, I also was struck by how the Eagles didn't seem to have a whole lot of answers for the things Jackson Dart was doing, particularly off schedule. There's kind of this looseness in his game. He's coming out of the pocket. It looks like a lot of times, I don't want to call it, you know, not full backyard football. I'm sure they have rules to the scramble drills, but like, a lot of their big plays are coming from him either running or just getting outside. If you're scheming this up against him, you watched that tape last night and you're figuring out, okay, how do we not let Cam Scadaboo gash us and not let the quarterback run around and make things happen?

30:10Tom Pelissero:What do you do against him? I mean, the first thing is you talked about him scrambling and you would hate as a defense. The one thing you go into the game, you're saying, hey, rush lanes. And I promise you, everybody on the Eagles defensive front probably talked about it going into the game. Guys, we got to stand our rush lanes. And then his first touchdown, it just parts like the Red Sea. And he's gone up the middle. Now it's one-on-one with Zach Bond. And he had no shot. And now it ends up in a touchdown. So you go on with these rules. And now you have to be disciplined when the lights turn up.

30:40I'll also say this. For the Eagles defense, when you don't have Jalen Carter in the front, when Quenion Mitchell ends up with a hamstring injury, and you don't have him on the outside, those are two of your very best players on the defensive side of the ball. And every team loses good players. But when you don't have guys behind it, it fully exposes you. It was one thing when Quincy Mitchell was in there and they were attacking Keeley Ringo. When he exited the game, now you have two corners in the Dory Jackson and Keeley Ringo. Guys aren't pressed up the way Quincy Mitchell does. Now they're playing off.

31:11Now it's easy access throws for Jackson Dart to be able to get the ball on the outside. With no Jalen Carter in the middle, now you're running Cam Scattable in the first half where it really wasn't making much hay in the run game. But that's the thing. They continued to run the ball, and it started to break open in the second half, and it became a scatterboot second half where it was a dark first half, and they just continued to pound the Eagles. And I think if you're watching that game as an Eagles fan, you're seeing your all-pro linebacker, Zach Bond, get ran over by scatterboot. You're seeing him getting made a fool up in the middle of the field by Jackson Dart.

31:45You don't know where else to turn on a defense when your offense is struggling as well. There was nothing really clicking for the Eagles last night.

31:53Tom Pelissero:Jason McCourty breaking it all down here on the Rich Eisen show. Tom Pellicero in for Rich. You got a trip to Miami coming up this weekend, Jason. Chargers at Dolphins. The Chargers, you talk about teams losing people. I mean, they're gutted. The Dolphins are beat up at this point. If you look at L.A. where they've been over these last couple of weeks where we were talking about them the first few weeks of the season of this might be the team to beat in the AFC West, if not the AFC. What do you see and how do they get things going back the right direction? A lot of it is, you just said beat up.

32:24A lot of it is the injuries on the offensive line. I mean, the first three weeks, Justin Herbert was just balling, being able to get the ball out, putting it wherever he wanted. We saw him creating plays with his legs, doing so much for this offense. And already we knew Slater was gone for the season. Then you lose Joe Ault in the Giants game early on. and now you're playing with essentially your third and fourth offensive tackle. Then Makai Becton is banged up on the inside. Boltzmann at the center has really struggled as well. So Justin Herbert went in the first three weeks where I think it was, he was averaging like eight yards per attempt to now the last two weeks has been five yards per attempt.

33:04So he doesn't have the time that he had in those first three weeks to be able to get the ball down the field and get it in his playmaker's hands. So now he's under pressure constantly, And the amount of hits that he has taken in the last few weeks is not sustainable for this offense. So they have to try to figure out a way amidst all of the injuries and now losing the running back in Amaritan Hampton, who kind of has taken off in the last few weeks. How do you still continue to generate explosive plays when you don't have a ton of time? Do you take people out of the routes and leave more guys in the block to give Herbert more time?

33:39How are you going to be able to run the ball now with Haskins and Vidal in the backfield when you don't have the high draft pick and Najee Harris is also on IR? That's going to be the struggle for this offense to figure out Greg Roman, their coordinator, how he can generate and still be able to do some things so they can put points on the board.

33:58Tom Pelissero:The Dolphins lost, I believe, three-fifths of their offensive line by week one. That's created a challenge for a team that already, I've always said Mike McDaniel has one of the hardest jobs in football because every week he's got to come up with a game plan for the quarterback to not get hit because bad things happen when Tua Tungvaluwa gets hit. But when you look at the numbers on Tua, he's not taking a great deal of sacks, but he's one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the NFL the first three years with McDaniel. Now suddenly he's down near the bottom. What do you see? And when you're talking to people, what do you hear about what's going on with Tua right now?

34:30Well, it's both sides of the line for them. Defensively, they can't stop the run because they're struggling up front in the way they're fitting a lot of their run plays. And then offensively, from the first game of the season, they were excited. They had James Daniel, who brought over from Pittsburgh. Austin Jackson was going to be the blind side of their offensive line, Tua on the right side. Both of those guys end up injured in week one. So now you're playing with two backups. Now Cole Strange is playing right guard for them, someone they picked up off of the Browns practice squad. So they've gone through so many injuries.

35:02And then the right guard, Jonas Ivanae, he's a rookie. He's still learning on the job. So for Tua, a lot of it is you got to get the ball out so fast and make a play. And that brings down the efficiency. And yes, he's not getting hit as much, but the offense isn't able to operate the way that we saw it operate in 2022. And now you couple all of that with the fact that Tyreek Hill isn't going to be out there for the remainder of the season for them. Jalen Waddle had one hell of a game. So did Darren Waller in the first half being able to do all of his damage. But now for them is how do you adjust as the game goes on, as the season goes on?

35:39How do you get the run game going to be able to take some of that pressure off of Tua and get A-chan in space to do some of the things? But for them, very similar to the Chargers on the other side of the ball, this offensive line is so banged up that you're trying to find out ways, McDaniel is, to still get the offense going and getting the ball out of Tua's hands and their playmakers, but you have to do it so fast and do it so efficiently.

36:03Tom Pelissero:You, of course, spent a lot of your career with the Tennessee Titans. You won a Super Bowl with the Patriots. Two teams that are different points in the young quarterback development, but what we saw last week, Drake May with kind of a breakthrough type of performance against Buffalo. Cam Ward, albeit with a lot of help from weird stuff happening in Arizona, but he was throwing dots down the stretch in that game to keep him in it. When you look at those two young quarterbacks, what do you see? man it's it's a beautiful thing when you can feel like in your locker room you have the guy that can lead you and i think last sunday night when we watched drake may and we watched the new england patriots you saw a team that really believes they have the guy that can lead them to the promised land that at some point could be hoisting a lombardi trophy in his career making clutch plays in the fourth quarter the moment not being too big and i remember being out there in the summer and getting a chance to talk to Josh McDaniels, their offensive coordinator.

37:02And he just had a big old smile on his face when he talked about Drake May. And it wasn't just the physical tools, but it was also the mental approach, how when they got there, Drake wanted to learn everything about the offense from the foundation on up, setting protections, knowing where the hots are, all of those things. He wanted to challenge himself to learn them, and he has. And we've seen from weeks one through week five the improvement of how he's understanding the offense and then obviously the chemistry that he's being able to build with Stephon Diggs. I think on the other side, what we're seeing from Cam Ward is we're seeing a young guy being able to thrive through the chaos.

37:41For the Tennessee Titans, their roster starting out this season wasn't going to be a great one that surrounded him. And even early on, drops from a lot of his receivers, including Calvin Ridley. And he's continued, even from the preseason, he's continued to put it all on his shoulders. The leadership qualities that he possesses at such a young age, man, it's exciting to watch. And even in the midst of last week where you see him going off in the presser, you have a guy that genuinely cares about this team, about the people around him. You just want to see them start to figure it out and move forward.

38:16And to your point, Cam Ward, I think, played awesome a week ago, and things had to go in their favor. The ball had to bounce their way, as we like to say, to be able to win that game. I don't know if that's going to continue to happen, but you want to see Cam Ward continue to get better for that offense.

38:32Tom Pelissero:I'm glad you brought that up, the press conference the week before. That's where he was asked about the offense. He said, we asked. That was his answer. I love the honesty. I love the bluntness, and it fits with what I see, and I didn't play in the NFL, but even watching the way that Cam Ward commands the huddle, when they were down a couple of touchdowns the week before, and it's the fourth quarter and some guys would come out there, their shoulders are down, they're soaking into the huddle. Cam Ward is coming out there and like letting guys know, like we are getting this thing going. I imagine there's a unique dynamic anytime you've got a rookie coming in and doing that.

39:03Tom Pelissero:But I've also would imagine if the guy is playing like Cam Ward played down the stretch last week, you're like, hell yeah, come and lead us. You need that at that position. And that's the one thing that he has shown since he got there in training camp. He got into a tussle with Jeffrey Simmons on the other side of the ball. Your quarterback is out there nose to nose with one of the best defensive tackles in the NFL. So that just shows you what he has and what he's made of on the inside. I think watching that press conference for me is frustrating because you have this young guy. And I don't know Cam Ward personally, but whenever you watched him since he's come into the NFL, even all of the interviews and different things leading up to him being drafted.

39:46He's one of those guys that when you watch him, he always says something wise beyond his years. He always has the right answer to say. He always seemed so calm and collective whenever he's in front of a camera. So when you saw him say those things and showed that level of frustration, it was even magnified more in my brain because I'm like, damn, it has to be that bad in Nashville right now for him to respond this way because we haven't seen that side of him. But I think to your point, there's an appreciation in Nashville for him saying that and him calling out the guys in the locker room, the coaching staff, the organization.

40:24When your quarterback, the guy you drafted first overall, is showing that level of frustration that early in the season, I feel like it puts everybody on notice because if I'm ownership and I'm Amy Adams-Strunk and I'm watching that, I'm like, well, what the hell is going on there? Like, why is this guy that frustrated after a game? Like, who is doing him a disservice? Because I have to figure this out and get it corrected.

40:47Tom Pelissero:You can see him on the call for Chargers Dolphins Sunday on CBS. Nobody better. One of my favorite people in the business. Jason McCourty, thanks for being here, man. I can't wait to get on the guitar. You knock down a place again. Good to see you, Tom. I'll put together a riff or something. I'll send it to you. You add the vocals, man. We'll collaborate. Keep this thing rolling. Great to see you, buddy. We'll do this again soon. Dude, he's phenomenal in terms of breaking it down. I thought it was really interesting, too, the way that he was talking about some of the challenges the Eagles have on both sides of the ball.

41:19Tom Pelissero:When you hear from somebody who sees as much ball and is as smart as Jason McCourty, Eagles have no identity on offense, and that defensively they, last night at least, don't have the depth to combat it. Those are things that if I'm Howie Roseman, who is as active as any GM on the phones, wants to be in every deal, is always going to be looking to push the envelope and improve the roster. If I'm thinking the same thing, and I'm Howie Roseman, I'm probably looking at, okay, what, if anything, don't make a trade, don't sign somebody just to make a trade or just to sign somebody, but there may be some things we need to address to make sure this thing gets going in the right direction.

41:58Rich Eisen:And I know Jalen Carter was out last night, but the thing that stuck out for me most was the Eagles just got pushed around on the front and on the line. And you haven't seen an Eagles team get pushed around like that in the last, what, two, three years, it seems like. And that kind of stuck out with me. And you saw it the way Scadaboo was getting through. Even on the goal line carries, he was just kind of getting through and they're pushing him into the end zone. You don't see an Eagles team get manhandled like that.

42:24Tom Pelissero:The Eagles have been the bully. Right. Since Nick Sirianni got there, the Eagles have been the bully. They were the bully in the Super Bowl last year. Last night, they got bullied. and we'll find out 10 days from now exactly how they respond. A lot more to come on this show. We've got injury updates, including for a certain quarterback getting back on the field today. We'll discuss that right on the other side of this break. It's the Rich Eisen Show with Tom Pellicero.

42:52Rich Eisen:A bandwagon fan. The biggest insult in sports. But this summer, during the FIFA World Cup, it's an invitation, America. Never watched soccer before? Perfect. Think a corner kick is a karate move? Sure, why not? Prefer sports where players can use their hands? Me too. Just here for the snacks? Now we're talking. So grab a bag of Lay's and jump on the bandwagon. We're undefeated. Lay's, the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Rich Eisen here with some advice. If high-interest credit card debt is grinding you down, it might be time to call an Audible with a SoFi personal loan. It consolidates your debt into one low monthly payment with no fees required.

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43:56Tom Pelissero:To the Rich Eisen show, Tom Pellicero in for Rich, who is going to join us shortly from London. Sight of Broncos Jets on Sunday. Rich will be on the call for that game early, early Sunday morning on NFL Network. I say early because I'm in makeup at 3.30 a.m. Look at you. Prior to the 4 a.m. Pacific time pregame show. It'll be later in London. We are on ESPN Radio. ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance. See why over 43 million drivers trust Progressive to stay protected on the road. See for yourself at Progressive.com. A few injury updates with NFL head coaches meeting with the media this morning.

44:39Tom Pelissero:The most substantial one, Kyler Murray's going to be back on the field today. Kyler Murray had a foot, some type of an issue in the game. He briefly went to the locker room, then he came back out, finished off the game, didn't practice the last two days. Jonathan Gannon told reporters, Kyler is going to be out there today, which you would think would put him trending toward playing on Sunday. I mean, quite frankly, it's a must-win type of a game against a Colts team that has been the best positive story maybe in the entire NFL this season. No team in NFL history had ever lost three consecutive games on a last-second walk-off field goal until the Cardinals.

45:19Tom Pelissero:And anecdotally speaking, I'm pretty sure no team in NFL history has ever lost any game the way the Cardinals did last week with dropping a ball before crossing the goal line with an interception turn fumble turn touchdown those are two plays I've seen separately I have never seen them in the same game much less one that would have been a blowout win for Arizona if not for those that sequence of events transpiring Bucks not getting a whole lot of help. No Chris Godwin on the field for practice today. Todd Bowles had said he'd need to practice to play. Still dealing with that fibula injury. Leftover from last year hasn't entirely been, it seems, himself so far this season.

46:02Tom Pelissero:Not on the practice field today. They haven't released the injury report. But sounds like no Chris Godwin. Still no Mike Evans. Still has been no problem to this point for the Buccaneers who find ways to put up points. Regardless who's out there. As long as Emeka Ibuka is out there. they have found ways to put up points so far this season, but no help coming for the wide receiver front. Of course, Bucky Irving remained sidelined as well. So probably another week of Rashad White. And here's one we will be tracking throughout this show. No Jamar Chase on the field. Oh, Zach Taylor, literally seconds ago, telling reporters Jamar Chase got sick last night, questionable to play against the Packers.

46:43Got sick with an illness.

46:46Tom Pelissero:you'd say it's probably a lot better than 50-50 that he's going to play. Not a lot of 72-hour illnesses, but possible. He was watching that Joe Flacco Browns tape.

46:58Rich Eisen:Was this thing on? Sorry. No, we got it.

47:02Tom Pelissero:I mean, you would probably have those suspicions a little bit more if you were still watching Jake Browning the last three weeks. And that's nothing against Jake Browning. I don't think that anybody, certainly Jake Browning didn't expect to play as badly as he has so far this season. What struck me watching the game live last week was there's just simple throws that Jake Browning is off on. Forget some of the decision making things. It's like, how many times is Jamar Chase going to run an outbreaking route and Jake Browning throws it on the inside shoulder for a pick? Those are the things that just happen over and over.

47:32Tom Pelissero:We'll talk more about Flacco getting another start against the Packers later on in the show. But my biggest question is just going to be, how quickly can you microwave the rhythm and timing and tempo on which NFL passing offenses function? As good as Jamar Chase is, as good as T. Higgins is, as experienced as Joe Flacco is, and he's played in variations of this system multiple times. There is many stops now in the NFL, including going all the way back to Denver with Rich Scangarello, with the Jets when he was with Michael Fleur. It's all part of that Shanahan McVay tree, but you still got to have reps with players on the field.

48:10Tom Pelissero:Now Jamar Chase is sick. So you lose a Friday. Maybe he's out there for the walkthrough tomorrow, but just in terms of getting that rhythm against a really good Packers defense, the coming off the buy certainly has gone through, I'm sure, and adjusted certain things. They're really talented. They're going to be healthier. Micah Parsons is going to be all over the field. I wouldn't think that you're feeling really comfortable with Joe Flacco just standing in there and going through his progressions. A lot of it's going to have to be, hey, we're on the same page. I am getting the ball out of my hand to you as quickly as possible.

48:41Tom Pelissero:What's that going to look like on Sunday if, in fact, Jamar Chase, who, again, questionable because of an illness for that game, what exactly is that going to look like right out of the game? You're trying to keep your season alive at this point if you're the Bengals. You're 2-3. I know. The team you're looking up at in the division, it's not the Ravens. We're not writing the Ravens off at 1-4, even though they might have to go into another game without Lamar.

49:05Rich Eisen:We probably should be writing the Ravens off.

49:07Tom Pelissero:If anybody is capable of going on a run, they got the bye next week. They face the Rams on Sunday. We'll find out. I believe they're on the practice field a little bit here. We'll see if Lamar's doing anything. If not, I mean, at this point, it's already fairly obvious. It seems that we're not going to have Lamar this week. Right. But take a look at that. You got the bye. Then you got Chicago and Miami. And if you're back healthier, besides Lamar, The fact that basically your whole defense isn't on the field right now, there's a lot of different factors in what's going on with Baltimore. Ronnie Stanley has been practicing more, should be okay to play this week.

49:39Rich Eisen:We're going to play what's more likely with Rich coming up here soon. But what percentage would you put the AFC North at getting two playoff teams at?

49:48Tom Pelissero:Based on where they are right now, not a particularly high percentage. Right. But if anybody's going to make a run, it's going to be Baltimore. And if you're the Bengals, you're just hoping we need to do enough. there's enough pressure on their defense already we all know that's an offense driven team when you pump all your money into the offense you have to score points can they score enough that the defense doesn't get exposed to the degree they have so far we will find that out starting in a must watch type of a game on sunday at lambeau field the rich eisen show podcast mlb.tv on espn is your home for every out-of-market game live or on demand Catch your favorite teams and players, plus MLB Network and ESPN app features like Multiview, syncing your stats, key plays, bets, and fantasy all in one place.

50:38Tom Pelissero:Sign up now for MLB.tv and the ESPN app. Separate subscriptions required, blackouts, and other terms apply. Visit stream.espn.com slash MLB TV for more information.