NFL Week 9: Seahawks NFC's Best? Colts' & Packers' Duds, JJ McCarthy Shows Out

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0:32Rich Eisen:it's time for overreaction monday once again rich eisen along with chris brockman hello everybody from the rich eisen show rich eisen podcast studios good to see you christopher good to see you my man week nine almost all in the books we say hello to everybody whether you're watching us on espn2 for a cut down version the full version maybe you're watching it on our youtube channel youtube.com slash rich eyes and show if you're listening to us on uh on our podcast however you get your podcast we greatly appreciate that just know this i'm describing the word picture we're two very handsome bald men talking football you ready so ready hit it that was terrible that was crap that was garbage this place sucks over reaction mondays monday all right hey what's up man you good i am good what do you have for me sir wow i want to start was Sunday night because that was an awesome performance by Sam Darnold and the Seattle Seahawks all the way.

1:28I think they're fantastic. I think they're the best team in the NFC and they're going to be the one seed.

1:34Rich Eisen:That is an overreaction, pal. I mean, shortly before we go on the air, the Philadelphia Eagles, who are six and two now, right? Just like the Seattle Seahawks, just like the Los Angeles Rams, went ahead and acquired Jalen Phillips from the Miami Dolphins to rush the passer. I might have cursed a little bit in traffic this morning. One of three deals that Howie Roseman's already made. And by the time anybody's consuming this segment right now on Overreaction Monday, he might have made already three more trades for SEC players or players from the Southeast in professional football, right? It seems like it.

2:12Rich Eisen:I mean, I'm very high on what the Seattle Seahawks have done so far, right? And also, we can't sit here and say, listen, this team has to play in front of the 12s. They have to have home field advantage. Because they've now won 10 in a row on the road. They do not. They will win anywhere. They travel, as do the 12s, by the way. So I'm not sitting here and saying anything but, way to go. Sam Darnold is maybe the greatest bargain, right? The greatest bargain of any of the, wait for it, any of those who just recently signed. Aaron Rodgers is in that mix for sure. But for somebody who is not making Trevor Lawrence type dollars, right?

3:00Rich Eisen:Justin Herbert type dollars. And his own division, Brock Purdy. Right, and is killing it right now. He is terrific. Defensively, they're getting it done. offensively Jackson Smith and Jigbo. I will mention this on the flagship show. This guy, sir, is 100 % threatening a 2 ,000 yard receiving season. He currently has, let me get this number on the spot for you. He currently has right now 948 receiving yards through the team's first eight games of a season. Jeez. And he's the youngest to do that under the age of 25 in NFL history. He surpassed Isaac Bruce, who had 938 through the first eight games of the 95 season for the Rams when he was 22.

3:59Rich Eisen:That's what Jackson Smith and Jigba is doing. Torrey Horton, I know he cost you a guillotine league. Well, hold on. I still can have a Marvin Harrison miracle. Let's hope so for your sake. Thank you. Horton had a who last night, right? He had two touchdown passes. The running game is working. Defensively, they're crushing it. Sam Darnold, 21 of 24 for 330 pass yards and four passing touchdowns. He is the, it's the fourth game with four passing touchdowns since 2024. Only Lamar has more with six. So yes, they're doing great. They're playing well. They can win the conference, not just their division.

4:37Rich Eisen:But being the one seed, I'm going to pump the brakes on that. The fact that you added the one seed. I did add that this morning. I wanted to take it a little higher. No, I know. This is an overreaction Monday segment. And here's why I like them better than Philadelphia. No drama. You don't hear anything from anybody on that team. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well, you don't hear anything from anybody that ever plays in the Pacific Northwest. How many people in baseball were surprised, oh, the Mariners are this good? When they showed up in the ALCS. You know, I mean, that's just the way it goes.

5:06Stop posting on Instagram.

5:08Rich Eisen:Use me and any of this mumbo jumbo. I know that. You know what I mean? I understand that. Vibes are at an all-time high. First of all, great use of mumbo jumbo. Thank you. Secondly, this 100 % is why it's a perfect spot for Sam Darnold, who went through the crucible of New York City when he first started, and then everything else. Now just go to the Pacific Northwest. Keep throwing your passes. Keep throwing your touchdowns. Keep finding number 11 and winning football games. I'm just not ready to remove the one of the ones to make them the one seed from Jackson Smith and Jigba's uniform. I'll just call this an overreaction and move on.

5:43Okay. Let's go to the previous one seed in the AFC, the Indianapolis Colts. They might actually still be based on record, but we saw the true colors come out in Pittsburgh on Sunday. Daniel Jones and the Colts turned back into pumpkins. They're not going to win the AFC South. Stop it.

6:01Rich Eisen:Stop it. The Jaguars came off their buy and had a nice overtime win in Las Vegas, in which they couldn't cover Brock Bowers. Who can? I know that. They batted down a pass at the end to save the game because they had a wide-open Raider in the end zone that would have lost the game. They also had a gajillion penalties again. The Houston Texans can't score points. The Texans had a very nice defensive performance against the Denver Broncos. But the Texans right now, having allowed 15.1 points per game, now have a 3-5 record. That is the worst record by far of any Texans team that has had a defense just like this.

6:49Rich Eisen:The 2012 team had a defense through the first eight games that gave up 17.1 points per game. They were 7-1. This team is 3-5. And the Indianapolis Colts are still 7-2. And the Steelers came up with a terrific football game from their defense. And Rodgers is not turning the ball over, which is what you'd expect from somebody at age 41. He's game managing to the highest degree right now. Correct. And they were more physical than the Colts. And the Colts have been road grading people. Okay. And so I would just say at this point in time, bury the tape, move on to Berlin, which is obviously their only option because they're going to play the Falcons next and get back on the winning ways before by.

7:39Rich Eisen:and they're eight and two. They're absolutely going to win this division unless the Houston Texans only scored a bunch of points and the Jacksonville Jaguars can stop shooting themselves in the foot and they don't even have Trevor Lawrence's best target because Brian Thomas is absolutely destroying your fantasy team. And I know that that's a terrible thing to say because players don't like hearing that sort of thing. I get it, but he is. But he is definitely not the top elite receiver in the top five in the AFC like he was last year. Now, the reason why I say this, you look at Jacksonville schedule coming up.

8:18It's all breaking very nicely for them. And whereas the opposite is true for Indianapolis. You know, they were kind of the who have they beaten to start the year and they buried teams. And now you look at the back half. It's going to get a little bit more difficult for Indianapolis. And I think the Steelers kind of provided a blueprint here. And whereas Jacksonville is going to have it kind of break their way. And I think they're going to get to 11 wins Jacksonville and they could steal this division.

8:44Rich Eisen:I will just say this. Okay. In the same way that I've been pointing out that the Ravens can still win their division, even though they're three and five and they're now officially two games behind the Steelers. What a massive win that was for the Steelers. Yeah. Massive win for the Steelers because they're staying two in front of the Ravens, as opposed to just being one behind them, having lost in the conference again, and then having not only lost in conference again, but losing to the team that is now stampeding their way to the one seed. They now have a tiebreaker over Indianapolis. Should your prophecy about the division come true, that the Colts don't win it, they're now in a wildcard position, and thus, or the Steelers, if they win their division, would be able to have a home game against the Colts again, feeling really good about the last time the Colts came in there.

9:34Rich Eisen:That said, the same way that I'm saying the Ravens have a chance to win their division because they have yet to play both Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. The Indianapolis Colts have, in your point of view, can lose the division because they have yet to play Houston and Jacksonville. And part of that gauntlet to end the division schedule also includes non-division opponents in Kansas City for Indianapolis. Again, Seattle, San Francisco. So killer schedule. It's into the teeth of the NFC West and the AFC South. They have work left to do. I think they win in Berlin. They're 8-2 going into the bye, coming back, feeling healthy and feeling good about themselves in Kansas City.

10:23Rich Eisen:So I don't think they've turned back into a pumpkin. and they ran into a buzzsaw, which happens in the National Football League. And it's also not a blowout loss. I know they got some window dressing at the end. There are only two losses of the season, same score, 27-20, to the Rams in Los Angeles and now to Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh. We'll see what happens in Berlin. I'll just call this an overreaction. I still think they're the best team in the AFC South for sure. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Granger has your back.

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11:18Rich Eisen:so good so good so good new summer arrivals are at nordstrom rack stores now get ready to save big with up to 60 off brands like rag and bone levi's adidas and free people join the nordy club to unlock exclusive discounts shop new arrivals first and more plus buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free great brands great prices that's why you rack let's go to lambo one of the most shocking results of sunday packers were big double digit favorites lose at home yes to carolina packers were my super bowl team i'm done with them packers are frauds as serious nfc contenders that's not true i can't say i can't you can't sit there and say that's not true i'm not gonna call them a fraud and they're not serious nfc contenders What did they, what had they shown you recently where you're like, wow, this team can, this team can do it.

12:14This team can beat the Eagles, the Rams, the Seahawks.

12:16Rich Eisen:Well, in our previous segment, Christopher, I just talked about how impressive the Pittsburgh Steelers were at home, how impressive they were on defense, how impressive they were on offense, how they went and out physicaled a Colts team that has been road grading the rest of the competition. And the Packers laid an egg in Lambeau. Absolutely. They laid an egg in Lambeau coming off of their best win of the year, where Jordan Love had maybe the best game as a pro against the same Steelers defense that clearly heard from Mike Tomlin and the staff in film sessions throughout the week to say, this is not happening again.

13:02Rich Eisen:And so what happened was shocking, not going to lie, although I did say the Panthers were my sleeper team of the NFC, which I wasn't bringing up until they're 5-4 at this point of the season for the first time since 2019. They have a pass, too, by the way. 2019. Oh, sure. The Panthers are in the mix. Yeah, they're in the mix. I mean, they're in the mix for an NFC wildcard spot. The problem for them is the NFC West is so damn deep that you're thinking two teams is going to make it from there outside of the division winner. So three's going to come from the West, but they're just one and a half behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coming off their bye, and Bucs are probably going to get Bucky Irving back, and we're going to see how they're going to look.

13:49Rich Eisen:But anyway, this is about the Packers being frauds. They are not frauds. That Steeler game is now looking like an outlier based on how they've played pretty much since week one. Well, I guess they, right. And to your point, their Packers, I have to say this, like it's a hockey team because they have a tie. All non-victories for Green Bay this year, okay, have come against teams at 500 or worse coming in. They've lost to 0-2 Cleveland. They tied 1-2 Dallas, and now they lost to 4-4 Carolina. So they have the disease of playing down to their competition with all due respect to Carolina being 5-4.

14:30Rich Eisen:They almost lost to Arizona. No, the almost losses I don't care about. I don't care about the almost losses. I mean, I care how you look in those games. You're 5-2-1 through the first eight games. You're signing for it. You're signing for it before week one. You're absolutely signing for 5-1. You watch the film. You watch how Jordan Love looks. I don't know, man. This reeks of overreaction in the fact that how many times in the history of this show and segment, which we've done for years, have one thing sounded good to you one week, and then the next week, poof, because the Eagles and the Packers play each other in the week 10 Monday night to finish the weekend.

15:10Rich Eisen:That's lining up perfectly. So this is where the rubber will meet road and proof will be in the pudding, and we'll see if the aforementioned mumbo jumbo of the Eagles is still in effect, and we'll see if the Packers can still get it done because the bottom line is there's some outliers here. Jordan Love, one of the worst performances of his career. Micah Parsons, first time in his career, he had zero quarterback pressures. It's never happened before. Tucker Kraft, though, this is the concern I have. That's huge. It looks like he's got a serious knee injury, so that's a problem. He's our number one target.

15:44Rich Eisen:But Josh Jacobs is still putting the ball in the end zone, and he's still running 17 carries for 87 yards. There's still, you know, LaFleur is still not bell-cowing him. He still hasn't had one of those 30 carry games. We're entering that part of the season. We'll see if he is healthy enough to do it. He's their best offensive player now that Kraft is out. Brother, I'm just going to say they are not frauds. They are serious NFC contenders. And the fact that they're a half game behind all the six and two teams in first, in front of them, in the standings, just 100 % is a reason why this is an overreaction.

16:20Rich Eisen:What else you got over there? Next two topics are going to be about the same game that was played in Detroit. Let's talk about your guy, man. He's back. J.J. McCarthy. He's going to take the Vikings to the playoffs. This was a big week for the Vikings and the Bears, by the way, because both the Packers and the Lions lost to the Minnesota Vikings, snapping their four-game losing streak in Detroit. It's the first time they won in Detroit since 2020. And, you know, I'm going to cape for J.J. McCarthy, that he looked terrific. And I just love the fact that a fellow Michigan man was in the booth in Tom Brady, just talking about the big throws that he made.

17:02Rich Eisen:Because, once again, the knock on J.J. McCarthy, ever since he lost only one game as a college football player and now remaining undefeated in the state of Michigan is that he doesn't have to throw a lot okay and he didn't have to throw a lot again on Sunday but what he did throw when he threw it were outstanding passes that were highly accurate and needed to be most of the time where they needed to be which is something that Caleb Williams is still working on in his craft in Chicago so So McCarthy also might be showing a knack for what you want in your quarterback, which is not making mistakes, winning in tough spots, most importantly in division.

17:51Rich Eisen:He now joins two other quarterbacks in the Super Bowl era to have two division road wins in his first three career starts. The others are named Patrick Mahomes and Dan Marino. Hey, heard of J.J. McCarthy as Jack Walsh, who's no longer popular in the Chicago Police Department, once said, a pretty respectable neighborhood. And so the reason why this may be true as well, if Aaron Jones can stay healthy and provide the scrimmage yards along with Jordan Mason, that's another balance that you want to have. Yeah, need the run game. But defensively, man. Oh, that was Brian Flores' masterpiece on Sunday.

18:32Rich Eisen:It was indeed, sir. So if they can start doing what we saw from the defense on top of it, because that's a major reason why they won, because it made J.J. McCarthy's throws and performances stand up. The Vikings, a season-high five defensive sacks and 11 quarterback hits in the Week 9 win in Detroit, and then on top of it, when Detroit swept Minnesota last year, which, as you know, they did, right? Yeah, and they only had four losses, right? Correct. Well, including the playoffs, just three in the regular season, two at the hands of Detroit. So in those two losses last year to Detroit, Jameer Gibbs had 160 scrimmage yards and multiple touchdowns in each of the Lions' wins over the Vikings.

19:20Rich Eisen:On Sunday, Gibbs had nine carries, 25 rush yards, three catches, three receiving yards. first game and over the last two seasons in which he had fewer than 50 scrimmage yards. That's the formula where this is not an overreaction four and four though. They have some work to do. They have some work to do, but I just gave why it's an, an, an over re it's not an overreaction, but I'm still going to just sit here and say at present it is because that's just another one game. As you know, the last time he won on division on the road, he went home, JJ McCarthy and had a very difficult day. in which you wound up injured.

19:58Rich Eisen:So I'll just call this an overreaction for the moment. Let's go to the other side of this game, the Lions. I'm concerned, man. The Lions are not going to win the NFC North. Oh, boy. They're a half game behind a team that's already beaten them. That's a problem. The Bears are now 5-3 just like that. Coming on a little bit. The Vikings, who just beat them, are last place at 4-4. It's a very tough division. And Detroit's next games, man, they have a brutal schedule, just like everybody in the NFC North have this year because they're taking on the AFC North. They're next up at Washington. That should be a win against Marcus Mariota.

20:45Rich Eisen:The big one's at Philadelphia on a Sunday night. The Giants coming in. Jackson Dart is really special. he's doing things that the giants have not seen a quarterback ever he's got some juice by the way in terms of rushing touchdowns and throwing touchdowns in the same game he's done it the year he's done it in every game but one since beginning being named the starter that said they should win that and then this is where the rubber meets the road man thanksgiving triple header the john madden as you know thanksgiving um special and it starts with green bay and detroit in ford field so they have to visit the rams they do have the steelers at home and they finish up on the road against two division opponents trying to return the fader to minnesota and then chicago which we know they beat destroyed the first time they saw them so i will just say right now i still believe the lions when healthy have the best team in the division and i also chose them to go to the super Bowl and win the NFC.

21:45Rich Eisen:I don't think they would do that as a wild card. So how dare you put me in this position? I'm just going to say the Lions will still win the NFC North. I'll still say they win the NFC North, which is interesting that to square the circle, I said that the Packers are still Super Bowl and NFC contenders. And they are. And they are. But they're gonna have to do it from the wild card if that's... If I'm right. Right. Correct. Which means Detroit wins on Thanksgiving against Green Bay. And I think Detroit wins against Washington. They're 6-3 while the Packers take on the Eagles, man. Do you think this division...

22:20Rich Eisen:Minnesota, by the way, takes on the Ravens next, and then the Chicago Bears, after doing what they did in Cincinnati, come home and take on the Giants before they visit Minnesota and have Pittsburgh at home, and then visit the Eagles the day after Thanksgiving. If we play a quick what's more likely, division to get three playoff teams, the NFC North or the West? I'll take the West. I'll take the West, which leads me to believe somebody's really good in the North and not making it. Yeah, either Chicago or Minnesota. Minnesota, because they were in a hole. They started in that hole, you know, because J.J.

22:57Rich Eisen:McCarthy got hurt and wasn't able to do what he did throughout the last six games that everybody said he couldn't do because he was on a soft injury sabbatical. How about my guy is basically what I'm saying. How about my guy, J.J. McCarthy? Oh, by the way, he won the championship for Michigan in case you just don't know. I've heard that before. Very good. I know we talked about the Colts earlier. Now I want to talk about the Steelers a little bit later on. You know, I've been impressed. That defense really showed out. And Aaron Rodgers, you know, he's managing the game in a way that you'd expect a guy with his experience to do so.

23:30They're here to stay, but they need to make a move on offense to be real AFC contenders. Are you talking about the trade deadline?

23:36Rich Eisen:I am. 100%. You're not wrong. you're not wrong which is kind of crazy because i man i would love to know exactly because you know we always say here over and over again about there's an iceberg and we in the public just see the tip of it and there's always something massive underneath it that we just don't know about you know which is why we're still wondering how micah parsons wound up on the green Bay Packers. Sure. You know what I mean? Like I would just love to know why the Steelers thought we just cannot have another minute of George Pickens being on our team. I'm with you. I think about that.

24:14Every time I see George make a huge play for Dallas, you're like,