2026 Week 5 Recap: 49ers and Vikings Stay Perfect and Messy Fun All Around

Welcome to NFL Daily. We're in week five. Three is the magic number. Three undefeated teams left in the NFL. Three winless teams left in the NFL. And three of us here in the Chris Wesseling podcast studio. I am Greg Rosenthal alongside Nick Shook and Jordan Roderig.

Are you ready to do this?

I am so ready. We had some weird stuff happen today.

It was. It was a day where.

The NFC East, especially in the London window, and then in the first window with that overtime game that you covered, Shook, was so slopperific. I thought, oh, we got to start the show with that. But then two teams that I think are in the mix to win the Super Bowl played... The best game of the day. So we had to start there. Let's go to Seattle.

Fourth down and 10 for Seattle midfield. JSN to the right with Cooper Cup. Shahid to the left. Darnold in the shotgun. 49ers lead by three. Here's the shotgun snap. 49ers bring four. Darnold pressured. Darnold steps up, throws, and it's caught. Cooper Cup. Upton Stout gets off. Knocked away. Cup dives. Where are they going to mark this ball?

Shy of the line again. 49ers take over. Great call there on KNBR.

Guy Haberman with his trusty sidekick, Tim Ryan, there in the booth. 32 to 29. The 49ers escape Seattle with a big road victory in the division. There will be a lot of talk this week about that particular call. Could you really tell whether he made the line to gain or not?

Nobody knows. Nobody possibly knows.

But what I saw on that play was something I've seen all season with the 49ers, which is that they have enough. Like, they get two players to pressure Sam Darnold quickly on that play to force him to make that throw just a little off. He makes the right decision. A tackler comes flying in to slow down Cup, doesn't make the tackle. But again, another pursuer for the 49ers defense.

All day long, I watched these two teams look like two very even teams, despite all the injuries on the 49ers offense. And I come away thinking, Jordan, They've got enough. They're 5-0 after a really impressive victory.

Well, that play specifically, taking out the spot, which I'm sure we'll hear and see more of as the conversation continues about this over the next.

Couple of days.

But the play itself, it is so emblematic of what this young, growing, some very veteran players, you know, Fred Warner, amazing as usual, you know, it's... they have veterans in this group, but the young players, the players who are having to play as a collective to play, to make smart plays as a collective, that is the reason why this defense keeps stepping up for the entire team and helping them win in the margins like this. in the moments that matter the most is because of that first effort.

And then the second effort, because they're swarming to the ball, they know where to be.

It's just smart football.

They're so well coached.

It was 32 to 29. And yet this was a defensive struggle, a defense dominated game, despite that score. But there were seven turnovers and the two offenses kept making enough plays on the short fields when it mattered. But I give a ton of credit to Renardo Green, who picks off two passes.

He's been great all year at cornerback.

Osa Digizua gave them some pass rush. Grayson Halton, who scores a touchdown in this game late in the second quarter. This was the moment where I thought, OK, the 49ers have a real deal chance to win this game because the Seahawks are just trying to survive. They're just trying to end the half. And yet the 49ers defense is the one that's making plays.

Darnold's under center. He takes the snap.

Turn.

Give.

Helani.

Ball.

Loose it's in.

The end zone who's on it 49ers say it's theirs and it is touchdown 49ers unbelievable.

They try to run it to the outside And that ball gets knocked out by Grayson Hall.

Knocked it out and recovered. Unbelievable.

The first sack of his career today.

The first forced fumble of his career today. And a touchdown he'll remember forever. Puts the 49ers up 20-13.

I wanted to throw that play into the mix because that makes it 21-13 at the half. And I've heard a lot of Seahawks fans just immediately on Twitter in responding to some of my positivity about the 49ers say, wow, look at what they needed to happen to win this game. You know, four turnovers. I was like, you got three on the other side. It was two defenses making plays.

And these are the types of plays that... Seattle's defense usually makes. And they did make in this play. But I wanted to point that out because the biggest difference, I thought, Nick, in this game were the two running games.

If you look at the success rate, I know the.

Yardage isn't crazy for the 49ers, but the success rate for the 49ers run game was over 55% in this game. They actually had a lot of key runs in their last couple of drives. Their two longest drives of the game were their last two on offense, whereas Seattle's offense really couldn't get anything going consistently all day, and they have a running game problem right now. And for that to happen against San Francisco, it's impressive that San Francisco's defense is giving anyone that many problems.

And this is the second straight week in which defense with the defensive line that is supposed to be so thin has completely shut down or at least limited an opposing running game and really balancing out the efforts on their part. The way they finished this game, I thought, was a great example of just who they are as a franchise, as an organization rallying to the football and winning by the inches. But you only get there if you weather the storm of your own turnovers, of getting the takeaways in the first half, of playing defensively. championship-quality football, which is what they did. And the weird thing about this front is I see Owo Okoronkwo gets released this week, and I'm thinking, like... They're thin. Like, why would they

release him? Because they got guys like that that can make plays and they can force the fumble and then recover the fumble.

This is a two for one. And you get the job done on the road.

And also the fifth straight time in the regular season that the road team in this matchup has won the game.

And it just changes what happened last season. Look, I know San Francisco got a big win in week one last year over Seattle, but the way last season ended for them to... kind of change that script. And now they're going to have a home game and try to sweep the Seahawks. Yeah, it's guys like Keon White and Okoronkwo and all these guys making plays. It's also Mike Evans, who I couldn't help but think with his seven catches.

Let me turn you around really quick, Nick, so I can read the name on the back of your shirt just to make sure you are who you are.

That is a great reference. Thank you, Mike Evans. To Evans. I know you don't know me.

Going to, I believe it was Trayvon Diggs, right? Who's talking trash at the end of the first half. And he was like, can you turn around? I just like, who are you?

Who are you?

Because I'm the guy who took less money and the higher taxes to leave my team and maybe flip two division races. The Bucks would be so much better with Mike Evans and the 49ers have no chance to win this game without him.

And I know Brock Purdy.

Like, struggled for much of this game, and he had an interception, but man, he made a lot of big plays on the move, and so many of them were to Evans, who, yeah, goes over 100. No one else has even over 25 yards in this game, and they lose two more receivers during the game. Debo Samuel and Cowing both leave Debo Samuel. with a hamstring injury. And as good as JSN has been all season, and he was the best player on the Seahawks offense in this game, he does have a drop that preceded that last play.

What, you're groaning?

No, I'm just, I'm going to give him a bailout on that. It was a tough catch to make.

Yeah, it was a tough catch. It was kind of over his ear. He puts one arm up. He doesn't get a hand up. He jumps a little early. Yeah. But you expect him to make.

He also had just gotten blasted a few plays prior. And he had just burned Jack Jones.

I just.

If he catches that, Seattle's got a chance to go win this game.

Doesn't happen. And that leads to that final fourth down situation.

Just one more point on Evans.

That Brock Purdy two-point conversion throw to Mike Evans.

Mm-hmm.

It was just tasty, all right?

It was just tasty. That's a perfect description. Tasty. Scrumptious.

That's why if you have a chance to go watch this one, you know, during the week on NFL Plus, I would recommend doing it because as much as the defense has dominated this game, the offense is the plays that they were making, including from McCaffrey and from each quarterback. Darnold, he's having a little too much up and down, Darnold, especially to start that game. But he actually rallied with his best play in the fourth quarter, too.

Until, you know, just couldn't get.

Out of it.

Before we get out of this game, can I be the change that I want to see and at least campaign for a change? Can we change the way that we rule where the ball is marked when it goes out of bounds? The idea of it's where he's out of bounds when he crosses the sideline, as if we have some perfect top-down view.

That makes sense to me. What else are you going to do?

I grew up in an era in which you just reached it out and wherever you reached it out is where it was.

Whether you were over the sideline or not, if your foot wasn't touching.

Yeah, but it's reaching it out while you're in bounds.

That's always been the case. I think that's fine.

Just have an invisible wall that's just going to read exactly where it was.

Speaking of on the sidelines, like Dre Greenlaw got ejected early in this game.

It was a big job.

By Ernest Jones to not respond after Dre Greenlaw headbutted him and look the rest of the 49ers defense especially Fred Warner picked up their teammate Dre Greenlaw and still got out of there with a victory and yes Fred Warner and Raheem Morris those two guys to me have just been incredible as good as Will Anderson's been like Fred Warner is at least in that defensive player of the year mix so far. Okay, that's too much good football to start the show. Let's get some nasty football.

Let's get the weirdest, messiest, most fun game of the day. I think of the season in terms of pure mess.

Jay Kelly does kick this one and it's going to be short. It's going to allow them to bring out 10 to 15 to the 20, 25, 30. He's got it here. Out to the 40, 45, 50. 40 seconds.

One second on the clock as he's brought down.

One second field goal range. David field goal range. Wow, he's doing it. One second.

One.

And here we go. So much of this game has been down to procedure. It's Devon Hamilton. The big defensive tackle. The snap is high. The kick is up from Cam Little. And with time expiring, the kick is gone.

Look at this.

It's a walk-off field goal for the Jacksonville Jaguars after the Eagles took the lead.

With eight seconds remaining. The huge return.

On the kick-off from Amir Abdullah gets them all the.

Way to the 40.

And then Cam Little is the man for the big moment.

Oh, you know who's the man for the big moment? Will Gavin. Will Gavin on TalkSport.

Great job calling a 19-17 Jaguars victory over the Eagles. That had to be the longest game in regulation in the NFL this season in a long time.

It went deep.

Into the 1 o'clock Eastern games because guys like Amir Abdullah changing the game. Seven seconds is the magic number. in these international games. We got on Brian Schottenheimer for kicking it into the end zone and giving Lamar Jackson seven seconds for winning that game in Rio. This time, a lot of people getting on Nick Sirianni for not kicking it into the end zone because the Jaguars did not have any timeouts.

It's almost like they're two completely different situations.

It is.

And yet part of me also thinks be able to cover the kick, execute the kick a little bit better than that. But how about the execution man that, uh, that Liam Cohen avoided the look on his face after he, he got out of there. That looked like a man that realizes he got away with something, but how about the execution by Devon Hamilton? One of the best nose tackles in the league this season, stuffing the run called into duty, uh, as the long snapper.

It's even crazier when you think about the little details of a play like that. Not only situationally to be aware and ready to go, Cam Little to make that kick, but Devon Hamilton is the emergency snapper for this team. And all throughout the game, it was a wild adventure. And I want to really shout out Logan Cook. and the holder for the field goal unit, the extra point unit who put on a actual all-star campaign today with the way that he was able to pull down some of these snaps. and get them in a position to actually get the kickoff. And this was crazy because it was so clutch with such a rag tag group of mashed together individuals and the weirdest moment of this NFL weekend, in my opinion. And it just was so fun. I

love the Megan Rapinoe celebration from Cam Little.

That's what I choose to say it is.

At the end, I absolutely, absolutely loved this ending for them.

And when you think ragtag, you kind of think the Jaguars in the Eagles of all teams in this game, like a superstar team that is playing, you know, without the center that they traded for, right? And with the shortest offensive lineman, Willie Lampkin, of all time. And they don't have Saquon Barkley out there. And then they lose Will Shipley in this game. And it's just backups. And they were overmatched. And you could see it in the stats. Like, the Jacksonville outgained them by so much. But two separate first and goals... from the one-yard line that Jacksonville gets no points on. The Eagles only rush for 22 yards, 1.2 yards per carry. They're overmatched all day, the Eagles, and yet Jalen Hurts puts together what should have been

a game-winning drive. This was going to be one of the most stirring victories, I believe, of Nick Sirianni's run in Philadelphia that would have had them feeling so good today And yet those seven seconds and what transpired there, Shook, makes it one of the worst losses, absolutely crushing Sirianni.

Let's listen to him after the game.

You know, our guys fought their butts off today. Defense had an outstanding game, keeping us in that game. Offense did enough at the end to go win us that game. Special teams did a nice job kicking it there. You know, I didn't make the right decision, and I lost us that game. And that's what I said to our guys. Um, and, and what hurts there is that, you know, the guys fought so hard and then I, I don't make the decision that, um, you know, that I should make it that in the game. And I cost us that one, that game. And I put that fully on me.

So, so I was wondering, you know, as you were setting all of that up, does the fact that you lose in such a fashion, make it twice as crushing. And then we listened to that sound and you can hear it in his voice. It's, it's, it's a coach who, understands the limitations of his team at this point with all the injuries, with the disaster that has happened up front, which includes the retirement of an all-time franchise legend, Lane Johnson.

And yet you're in this position in part because of your goal line stands that took points off the board for the Jaguars to win a game that you probably accept you don't really have that much of business of being in, at least on paper. And yet you lose like that. And you lose because you kicked it to him.

But also, like you said, cover the kick. Like, don't let a lane go. And it wasn't a great kick.

It was like a line drive that landed at the 10 that he catches on the run.

I think, like, multiple things can be true.

If it went into the end zone and they were able... to hit like an out route that we would have been blaming Nick Sirianni too. I do think in that scenario without the timeout, it is a different situation. It's probably the more percentage play to go into the end.

Okay.

But Liam Cohen is coming into that press conference in exact same way and putting the loss on himself. If this doesn't happen at the very end with those seven seconds, because Greg, I know you have some of these notes down some of the the goal to go sequences and some of the moments where not only was this team extremely undisciplined, Jaguars finished with 13 penalties.

The teams combined for 20 penalties throughout the game.

That's part of the last Jaguars game.

Part of the reason why it was such a slow moving game at times, but there was some real galaxy brain sequences. I, I agree.

The, the end of the first half and, and yeah, Look, they didn't trust their field goal unit, which I think is part of the reason they went for it both times on fourth.

But they saw the height that some of those snaps were getting.

So that makes sense. But you call an end around to end the first half. Like you have two first and goals at the one. You can't sneak with Trevor Lawrence. You can't come up with some sort of tush push situation there. It ends up being a run to two and that they see coming and lose four yards. And that's the thing. The Jaguars do have problems. We've been talking about them as a Super Bowl contender that they are.

Their offensive line is a problem. When I finally got to that Bengals game, it was later in the week. Like their offensive line can't pass protect. Jalen Carter killed them today. That's why the Eagles defensive effort goes for not in a day where they were really up for the fight. Jalex Hunt gets hurt on that final play of the first half, which is what an end around or a jet sweep. that the Jaguars try to make, that Hunt makes a good play on, and he gets hurt seriously. So they're not as shorthanded up front, the Eagles, and they made life very difficult on the Jaguars' running game.

Tootin broke some tackles, but he was having to earn it all himself. And Lawrence, I think, was struggling with the pressure, but overall played really well, including an incredible Parker Washington touchdown that I thought was going to be the highlight. If we can hear Will Gavin twice in one show, let's do it.

Trevor Lawrence moves a man in motion from left to right. Stops the slip. Does get the ball. Has options deep. Parker Washington is under it. Brings it in! Oh, what a catch. What a catch. Touchdown, Jaguars! Let's go, Jaguars! They've struggled on fourth down all.

Day long, but this time they finally find the deep threat.

Parker Washington with a ring wallet in coverage. That's ridiculous. And now they have a 16-14 lead with the extra point to come.

Wow.

That was F.A. Obata also in the booth there.

I love that.

The pure joy that they have in this booth is so unique to these international games.

And they're so fun to listen to. It's amazing. Washington goes six for 124 and two touchdowns. I mean, he has.

Hey, the man.

He has turned into that dude. Capital T.H.

I mean, you know, a game is going to be crazy where there's two ejections on the first play of the game. Who was that again? I can't even remember at this point. It was Brian Thomas Jr., but not the receiver, Brian Thomas Jr., and then it was Jeremiah Trotter Jr.

Jr.

Who was going to start in this game. Not to be confused with Josiah.

Jeremiah Trotter.

They both get kicked out in the very first play. I got some problems with the Jaguars' operation. The plays are getting in too late, but it is one of those games where they get to 4-1, and They just feel like they got away with something.

Messy fun. Messy fun team.

They are a messy fun team.

The only consistent thing with the Jaguars right now is Bachel Tootin always finishes between 68 and 73 rushing yards per game.

72 today.

And a lesser runner, I think, in this game because of their run blocking would have had like 45. Like he did a lot of work. Shout out to Darius Cooper, who only catches touchdowns right now. Two for 71.

He's the new Tez Walker. Incredible touchdown.

The Eagles were like this close to a long Dontavian Wicks touchdown against the Blitz. They had some answers for the Blitz. Man, the Eagles would have been feeling so much better about their chances in the NFC East because maybe on the flight home to Philadelphia... They turned on the slop fest that happened in the rain in Landover.

They've come out of the huddle.

20 seconds and the clock is running.

If they're going to run the ball here, they've got to get down, get set, and spike it. In motion, Ben Sitt at 15 on the clock. Daniels, play action. Rolling to the left. Goes down now at the 25-yard line. There's only seven seconds on the clock. There are no timeouts.

This is going to end.

Up in a tie if they don't spike it. It ends up in a tie.

Wow.

You gotta be.

Kidding me that's how I felt too this is the.

End of the.

Game well Jaden has to throw this football away that's.

The only oh my goodness you gotta be kidding.

Me we are not kidding you London Fletcher we are not kidding you Bram Weinstein Giants and Commanders tie. Messing up the standings for the rest of the year. First tie since that Cowboys-Packers game around this time of year last year. But only the second tie of the last four seasons total. Not a lot of ties happen. I think the only person that knew the game was over were the officials. They're just like, this game is over.

Dayton's just looking around like, hey, you're going to call the timeout?

John Harbaugh knew it.

John Harbaugh was halfway to shaking Dan Quinn's hand while Dan Quinn just stood.

There, frozen.

Well, he chucked his headset first. Yeah, kind of like his quarterback was at the end.

Ooh.

Of this game.

We can get into what else happened in the game, but I think while we're talking about how it ended, Shook, it would be instructive to hear from Jaden Daniels before we hear from our offensive lineman, Nick Shook.

We got to stop the clock. We got to know his ozone situation.

We got to relay that as an offense. It starts from everybody top down, but ultimately, you know.

It's on me. I mean, it is on him because he was the man with the ball and could have thrown it away. And you have to be aware of how many timeouts you have in your pocket in the end of game scenario like that. But you guys, you know, the, when the Popeye's chicken sandwich was taken the world by storm and everybody was like, they were selling out everywhere.

And there was that picture of.

That employee who after a long day of serving these viral chicken sandwiches was caught outside on a bench, just sitting down with their arms on her knees, just like this. That's how I felt, and I actually unintentionally adopted the same exact position after this happened.

Just from covering this game. Yeah, from the way it ended, I had no words. Speechless.

At one point, I admitted I may need to take the rest of the day for my mental health, because that's how confusing and just perplexing the entire... I was speechless. This is an operational thing. Obviously, it's a young quarterback who has to understand the scenario better. He'll learn from this. He'll get better than that.

But it wasted.

An opportunity to win a game that they probably shouldn't have had because this is a team that took a lead, that had a two-touchdown lead in the fourth quarter, that seemed to be in position to win. Jameis Winston leads a comeback and actually plays really good football. It was not so much of the downs of the Jameis Winston experience and more of the ups. Heavy reliance on Isaiah Likely.

got to neighbors for a touchdown to tie it. They go to overtime. Washington punts. New York's putting a drive together. He hits neighbors again. They're pounding the run with Cam Scadaboo. It looks like they're just inching closer to getting better range for their kicker who had missed three field goals on the day, Dominic Zavada.

Including one in overtime. Yes. just to maybe get him a chip shot.

But then Cam Scataboo, the guy who runs like a rhinoceros, gets the ball punched out, and Washington has the ball, and they move down the field.

They were in position to win this game, and they failed to execute.

I feel like we talk about botched endgame scenarios a lot lately, and this was the worst of all.

So Dan Quinn tried to take all the blame, and it was clear he said he should have made it easier on Jane Daniels that they were trying to get the ball closer for a closer shot. Field goal, but we should have made it more clear, or we should have just spiked it and just kicked the ball. I hear all that and they needed to do a better job because there was a stoppage of play with 55 seconds left. They had the ball on first down with 55 seconds to go at the 26 yard line. I don't know what went on in the helmet before that play, but after that play, they run the ball, then they take forever. And this is where I, I put a lot on Jaden Daniels. I put it on the coaches too, but he's a third year player. He's been playing football

a long time. Like the next snap didn't happen until 12 seconds. They were taking forever. It is a called passing play. Like he needs to know to just throw that ball away no matter what. Now, Dan Quinn says that play was called to go to the outside to the Senate or for him to throw it away.

Yeah, but when he dropped back, he didn't look like he was intending to pass at all. Almost like the play was broken.

It, which is confusing to me. I mean, everyone else is going out for a pass. He kind of looks up in panics, which is kind of why I put it on him somewhat from just losing, losing track. And when the, when the play is over, he's sitting on that ball for about three seconds, looking over to the sideline.

He does not know what's going on at that point.

Super interesting.

Then post game with those comments, because he does obviously ultimately take it upon himself at the end of the comments, but was also sort of insinuating that he wasn't clear or it needs to be relayed.

Yes.

It needs to be relayed.

They might not have prepped him right at that 55 seconds. It's a collective thing.

Teams that have to be situationally aware, it is the most crucial thing about the practice week and the way you structure and the way you communicate these down-to-down things. And yes, he's coming right back from the injury, et cetera. Maybe their prep looked a little bit different this week, but it is something that absolutely, and yes, it is his ultimately on him, Greg, to your point, great points on in the end, but it's a collective failure to me.

For sure.

And it's the type of failure that look, they're one, three and one, but it's the type of thing that gets remembered. If it's a, if it's a long season, we, We're going to move, but I do want to, you know, ask about everything else that happened in this game. Because look, Jaden Daniels had a couple of great rushing touchdowns, right?

Your one, two rushing touchdowns, rushes for over a hundred yards, has an efficient day.

They put up a lot of points.

Neighbors and likely both catch 11 passes and the Giants go back and forth. There was a lot of good football before it got ugly and over.

That's the bummer about this is that it wasted a nice little return day for Jaden Daniels, who was more effective on the ground than through the air, but was pretty effective through the air as well. I think he only had five incompletions in this game. And you look at that. It was eight mental math. And you look at the whole body of work and all you can think of is how it ended. And the fact that this is a tie that feels like a loss for Washington.

It's literally what Dan Quinn said after the game. And I do think it's weirdly a tie that feels like a win for the Giants. I mean, Scadaboo was saying that afterwards because he was saying how all the defense was like, you sold this game. It's like, well, you still did kind of sell the game because you would have probably won it if you didn't. fumble it but I love what they're seeing out of neighbors I was shocked at the quality of some of the throws from Winston well late in this game.

I know there was a bad there were some dimes and there was also but every every Jameis Winston drop back there's a little bit of like hesitance is he gonna try to do too much oh wow he dropped the dime on him for a touchdown right over the ear of Sonny Stiles that's part of the.

Experience 29 first down for the Giants and yeah when I mentioned Quinn and his long-term prospects never a good sign when one of the team owners Tweets after the game, Magic Johnson putting up like the classic Magic Johnson. I'm in total disbelief that my commanders had such poor clock management in today's overtime against the Giants. All we had to do was kick the field goal and we would have won the game.

Thanks, Magic. Fair point.

That is a fact.

Accurate. That is accurate.

Speaking of homers, let's go to Foxborough, where I'm sure Scott Zolik has something for me.

May from the shotgun formation takes the step. He's going to run it to the left. Drake May, he gets away from the defender. He's in for a touchdown. And what a shake free of Jeremy Chin. And he scores this one with his legs. Drake May and the Patriots expand their lead. I'm about ready to say it.

The quarterback's back.

I'm trying to delay it. He just keeps making plays. You're the same guy! You wanted cutlets! I was asking for Tommy.

DeVito two weeks ago while I was buying up the stock.

Well, it's paying off. Buy the dip.

After five touchdowns from Drake May, 374 yards through the air, had that rushing touchdown. To cap off his scoring, 45-17 over the Raiders. Signing out these Patriots games to you, Jordan, has been good business for me.

I know.

This might stay on Patriots duty for a while.

A couple weeks in a row, I'm clocking that. It was a great day for Drake, May, and the Patriots, and a really, really long day for Kirk Cousins and the Raiders. Josh McDaniels can gaslight us all he wants. But this offense looks night and day different from how it started the season. And Drake May is back, my friends.

He obviously had the five touchdowns. He's 26 of 34. He looks confident out there. The offense has dimension, run and pass. You know, they dealt with a couple of injuries, which which we'll get to later on Travion Henderson was, was ruled out, but they had every, in every facet, they were capitalizing on a Raiders defense that's looked so above expectation the first few weeks of the season that all they did was take bad angles, missed tackles, couldn't get pressure, and Kirk Cousins was under pressure on nearly 50% of his snaps on the other side and took three sacks.

Shout out to Elijah Ponder, who's becoming a thing. Week after week, he is playing better than ever, and you mentioned May getting back to what he does. The numbers on his deep passing in this game were outrageous, and Kyle Williams, he shows up just like once every month or so for a long touchdown, and it was his week.

Second down and 19. May from the gun. Stevenson left. Two receivers left. Two right drops back. He's going to throw the long ball left. He's got a man out there. Pass is caught by Kyle Williams. Touchdown, Patriots!

He runs.

He runs only one route. He runs it well. It's the go route.

Yeah, he had, he had what I was calling the, the hat trick of possibilities as a receiver. He had a deep pass interference that was, that behooved the Patriots, a deep touchdown and another deep catch and, and played really well was, was a go-to target for, for Drake may, especially for creating those explosives Hunter Henry as well, uh, gave, gave Drake may a couple of easy layups, including the touchdowns and, With this one, you mentioned Elijah Ponder. I really wanted to shout out the Patriots defense because I feel they should be talked about. While the backup corners, I think, played really creditably, really, really well, were active all game.

Elijah Ponder. No Carlton Davis, no Christian Gonzalez.

Elijah Ponder, the defensive lineman, who's maybe a little under the radar nationally. I know you certainly are a fan, Greg. But his two sacks and four pressures... The two pressures and a sack all came on third down.

He was so active. He just jumped off the tape for me.

And he really was emblematic of a Patriots defense that was just getting after Kirk Cousins the entire game and was bottling up the run game.

The Raiders, this is a big problem, guys. The Raiders cannot run the ball.

Ashton Janty, obviously, quite apparently is hurt. We know he was on the injury report all week. It was questionable leading up to the game. But the Patriots did such a good job, just messing with everything that the Raiders wanted to do. And really, even when their only option was press the Brock Bowers button and that looked electric, still the Patriots made plays after the catch on Brock Bowers at one point, forcing out of forcing him to fumble the ball and recovering it.

It just was all Patriots all game.

And, and, and especially in this, these sequences between the second and.

The third quarter. where it's still sort of a tight game.

It's 14 to seven Patriots. You know, the Raiders do recover a fumble by Ramond Ray Stevenson. So you think maybe this is when Kirk and this offense starts to get clicking a little bit more. But Draymond Jones for New England blows up a play. It was, for some reason, an end around featuring Trey Tucker off a long play action fake. Ultimately, that sets them up so behind the sticks that they have to try a field goal. Matt Gay doinks it off of the left upright and Drake May gets the ball back, hits Hunter Henry for a touchdown before halftime, gets the ball back again after halftime, scores again, and the game is blown wide open at that point.

It was that last touchdown, the one that we just played to Kyle Williams, where I was like, oh, this game's over. To quote Raven's play-by-play guy, long-time play-by-play guy, Jerry Sandusky.

The hay was in the barn.

Yeah, and look, May ends up on those deep throws, I think, eight for 11, like four for six on plus 20 AR throws.

You're going to really, really like watching his tape today, Greg.

Eight for 11 for over.

the 10 area throws, but that, that's how they, what he does. That's what he did last year. And they were Belichickian last year and how they handled the end of their second quarter sequences and out of half them, which is what they did. Again, they, they lost Travion Henderson. You mentioned they lost Will Campbell to an injury. So Caleb Lomu goes in there and plays left tackle for them.

But I'm glad you gave, yeah, the extra shout out to ponder who has been their best defensive lineman this year, that the stats show that what Milton Williams had his best day of the, of the season in terms of quick pressures and, and overall impact. So, so that's good too for them. And it's amazing how the, I think the fourth quarter of that game last year for Buffalo maybe helps to turn their season around. They are now three and two, just like the Las Vegas Raiders.

And Fernando Mendoza, who got in the game when it was 45 to 17 with six minutes left to play. He was six for eight, 48 yards, had a run for the sticks that did not convert.

Did a nice job out there. A very small sample size.

And most importantly, um, Longtime listeners of the show will remember Stephen, our Raiders superfan, also my trainer, which is embarrassing, who had a relationship talking to John Spytek, the GM. He was looking for us to finally mention him on the show again. And I said, I'll do it this Sunday, depending on how your Raiders do. So I'm happy to mention him in a 45-17 loss. Let's take a break and let's come back on the other side with the oldest rivalry in the NFL.

Third down from the Green Bay 46.

In the shotgun, Love hears the snap. They stymie the rush. Love steps up. Rainbows deep down the middle. Oh, he's got Watson in the end zone.

Yeah. Touchdown. Yeah. Touchdown, Green Bay Packers. Caught it over Cederman.

Christian Watson on a post. Back line of the end zone. His second touchdown catch of the day.

It's 20-7. Wow.

On a post? More like on a poster.

That was an incredible throw and catch.

And a good job by Shook with the wordplay. That's Wayne Larrabee. WRNW.

Part of a bombs away day by Jordan Love. Four completions, over 40 yards in this game, and another one that was 36 yards to Matthew Golden. It's actually the first time that a Bears defense has given up that many big plays, at least since ESPN Stats and Research was keeping track.

That throw.

was so funny to me because it's third and 22.

The very play before it. Yes, yes. Tell me.

Okay, so the very play before, they toast a DB down the sideline and throw it to Sturdivant for a touchdown.

Yes.

And it gets called back because of offensive pass. And you know what happened on the very play before that?

He went deep. I think the one before was to Watson. So bomb after bomb after bomb. We're just going to keep throwing it deep. Yes. And we're going to hit it because that's how you beat this Dennis Allen defense. My God, what a performance by Christian Watson and Jordan Love and Matthew Gold. And those three were just electric.

And the thing I was really impressed by was all the layups. And yes, even some successful running game plays that happen in between. Like that Watson catch is actually, it's only 14 to 7 to open the second half there. So in between all the bombs were smart plays by this Packers offense.

Listen, I know it wasn't perfect, right? There are still some things and, you know. step on the throat when you have the opportunity to step on the throat, you know, still an issue sometimes with this Packers team. But at the same time, I felt like the coyote in Looney Tunes, you know, with the eyes bulging out of his head going awooga because watching all of that was so fun.

And it's what we were promised with this passing game. It was what we were promised with what this offense was going to look like, which is fantastic. high, high frequency explosive plays with some setup plays in the mix and a run game that was just complimentary enough to set up all the other elements of what this passing game, this high octane passing game was supposed to be.

It's what we were promised and we finally got it.

Six for eight on throws over 20 yards for 258 yards. And a lot of them were, were things of beauty. Watson's numbers for the season are, are outrageous. I mean, I know it's only five games in, but they're like Randy Mossian. I'm just saying, when do you see a 26 for 474 and six touchdowns five games into the season?

He's not going to keep up that pace, but it's like all big plays, all touchdowns, all down the field, all gas, no breaks. And it was delicious because in this game, the Packers defense needs to be shouted out. for just making life really miserable on Tyson Bajet, who did not play well. He throws for under 100 yards.

He got benched in the fourth quarter for Case Keenum. Bajet had two interceptions. I mean, Case Keenum had a couple turnovers, too, in the fourth quarter. Yeah, one was unfortunate. They both were, you know, one's on a fourth down. The other one was unfortunate. You know, it happens, but they deserve a lot of credit. And you could tell there's no love lost. When you watched... the brief handshake and drive-by and yeah everyone checking us out on youtube give us a like just for breaking this thing in slow-mo they're out there looking really serious and i think this rivalry is actually getting in the way sometimes of smart coaching because ben johnson and LeFleur were both going all out in the fourth quarter. LeFleur to try to

score more points. Didn't really happen anyways. And then Ben Johnson to try to make it look better. I know they were trying to come back, but at the end, Case Keenum is getting absolutely demolished by Deny Dennis Sutton, who had an incredible game.

Pronounced Deny. Checked it out. Interesting name. French? Yeah, I think so.

He doesn't deny it.

Oh.

And Keenum's getting blasted back there, and the Bears offensive line can't protect Keenum at all, and Ben Johnson is just determined to try to get something done, and he can't at all. It was just everything you could want if you're a Packers fan. Man, three and two feels so different. than the Bears 3-2 does right now.

Do you guys ever think about how when two dudes who really don't like each other walk toward each other, they just get more rectangular as they go? Yeah.

That's the stride.

As they walk, their shoulders get a little broader. Every stride, the arms, just the elbows flare out.

Yeah.

Chest comes out, heads up in the air.

I'm ready to fight. That's what they look like. That is a great call. I would love to see Shook making that walk.

I'll do it right now.

Someone would have to dislike him, and I just cannot see that.

I did happen to see a comment that was on the YouTube last week that was like, you know Greg hates it when Shook's in the studio. And I'm like, I love it when Shook's in the studio because he's my left tackle. He's going to protect Jordan and I right next to the camera in the foreground as close as possible. Shook's our guy. Just incredible pressure. Five takeaways by the Packers defense today.

But the safeties too.

Like we were predicting with this defense, the safeties look awesome in this defense.

Only four all season before this. And yeah, Evan Williams was really good in this game. I thought the corners were really good too. Brandon Cisse, Keisha Nixon were great. And then the bears had a bunch of injuries. TJ Edwards left with an injury. Uh, Dio Odenbo left with an injury. Um, uh, also Lewis, the, in the back end, Cam Lewis, one of their secondary players left so it was it was a tough day and yes even a day where the Packers were able to run the ball I I wanted you know I hesitated whether to even give their running game a highlight but when you do the too small this early in the game it sets an absolute.

Tone single back offense love under center stack to the left side.

And now Love takes on the handoff. Lloyd around the right side. Touchdown, Mark, Sean, Lloyd.

And the Packers have a 13 to nothing lead.

You want to know who was on the end of that truck stick? Who?

Jalen Johnson. Tough, tough day for him. Yeah.

Look, They didn't run the ball great, but Marshawn Lloyd did end up with a couple of touchdowns on this game. So Packers feeling much better at three and two. The Bears should get back Caleb Williams, according to the reporting that's surrounding him. He apparently, according to the Fox broadcast, looked awesome in pregame, like moving around, throwing the ball really well. And there's been some reporting that he is feeling much better. You know who's feeling better? Any offense that plays against the Cardinals these days. Let's go to Arizona.

Gibbs on setback, second and goal from the three, snap, handoff Jameer Gibbs running parallel left, switches.

Back, wide open space, to the end zone, touchdown!

Oh, a jagged cut!

And Jameer Gibbs had only daylight in front. That sound you heard all the way back, three time zones away with the squealing of the brakes.

It's 44-14 Lions.

Awesome call there by Jason Bonetti, who sometimes is on Fox, sometimes is on baseball. He's on WXYT today. He is filling in for one of our very favorite play-by-play announcers, Dan Miller, who unfortunately lost his wife to cancer over the weekend. And Dan Campbell, with a really nice moment, gave Dan Miller the game ball to start his press conference.

Just a classy move by Dan Campbell. And, you know, the Lions, look, their offense in this game put up a 40-burger. On the Cardinals, that was Jameer Gibbs' second touchdown of the day. How did you enjoy watching this one, Jordan?

We have all encountered a man who still lives in the glory of times gone by, who unprompted will tell anyone who will listen about the time he did this or accomplished that.

Wow.

Who at 40 still wears the state championship ring to the bar or talks a big game and.

Pick up basketball but doesn't play defense.

This.

is a sad man. He lives in the fleeting brief highs of his ephemeral existence. Did he ask you if you wanted to hear him tell his story again? No! But still, here he lives inside but a few glorious memories, assuming that he can make other people relive them with him with no concern about their interests, their lives, their time, or their bandwidth. And so that brings me to the Arizona Cardinals, who will always remember the fleeting success they felt in the first quarter of Sunday's complete butt wiping at the hands of the Detroit Lions when they scored a touchdown of their first drive of the game that also included a hilarious trick play during which receiver Michael Wilson threw a pass to quarterback Jacoby Brissett, a first

quarter during which the defense forced three consecutive Lions three and outs, including three sacks. And then the second quarter, the rest of your freaking life happens. And Jared Goff and the Lions offense score 24 unanswered points on their way to a 40 burger. And all the Cardinals have is a memory and one that was never real in the first place.

Well done.

They're going to have to keep playing games this season in Arizona. But I think Jordan just ended it. Look, they also traded Marvin Harrison Jr.

Over the weekend.

We're going to get into that during the Texans part of the equation, but that thins out their receiver core. Their defense has been the bigger issue this season. Although, frankly, both sides of the ball have been issues. And yeah, they not only put up 45 points, they did it in seven drives. Like it's six touchdowns and a field goal in a row. Breakdown, maybe something that would be surprising to me out of what Detroit did today, like running, passing, something that would cut your eye.

Well, they distributed the ball really well. Jared Goff started out really, really tough. The pressure was getting to him. The Cardinals defense was able to get pressure on him, you know, but then he started playing really, really clean football and really getting to some of the spots where you would have thought in reverse, the Detroit Lions defense were the vulnerable ones, but instead they capitalizing on mismatches with Sam Laporta, Jameer Gibbs getting going at the right time and scoring. And the Lions defense, I think, to me, is one of the bigger stories of this game. Yes, the points are great. And Drew Petzing.

Really laid it on.

They were pushing the ball even at the very end of the game.

Former Cardinals coordinator, Drew Petzing.

And they cut to him on the sideline.

And I was like, that man really wants to drop 50 points on this defense. The Lions defense had a really, actually really good plan for Trey McBride and for Michael Wilson. And I think Kelvin Shepard really needed that. And certainly the players needed really, really needed that. They, they all but eliminated them from the equation. You know, that you're down to your like C minus offensive game plan. If you're the Cardinals, when a guy named Tegan quit, quit Toriano, the very deep depth tight end scores, two, two touchdowns and your actual start tight end. is basically being eliminated except for at the very end of the game and in garbage time. So for me, and the pressure that they were getting on Jacoby Brissett, it was a very well-balanced,

well-executed game plan for the defense. And to me, yes, the points were great. This was the story of the game to me, was the defense rebounding this way.

And yet, that garbage time touchdown.

It was so cool.

My favorite ride. It was probably the catch of the year. I don't have anything that can top it. It was just absolutely ridiculous catching the ball, tipping it to himself while he's getting his feet down over Jack Campbell. Like we just love athletes, athleticism. So even though it didn't really matter that much in this game, I mean, it mattered for his fantasy owners out there. And it mattered to us because it was incredible. Let's hear another call just because if you're going to put up 45 points, you get at least two highlights.

You should. How about Jamison Williams with his first two touchdown performance of his career?

Quick snap Goff ready to throw third down and 11 steps into it.

Fires near side Williams end zone. It falls right into his lap. Touchdown Jamo.

A parachute from Jared Goff to the near right pylon and a bullseye 39 yard touchdown. It's 30 to seven lions, nine 42 in the third. Yeah.

And, and Jared Goff too, the stats in the first half or the first quarter specifically don't show how rattled he actually was. He, the ball was getting batted out of his hand a couple of times. He started two for four with just seven yards through three drives in the first quarter. He finished 19 for 30 with two 71 and three touchdowns, no interceptions. He, you know, he, uh, he rushed in a touchdown himself as well. This was a rally and some resilience and some really good moralizing things.

For this offense.

That to me, we said on, on a couple of shows of the preview shows that This offense is fine. It is here to stay, and it shows that it can be sustainable and resilient, and that's what it was today.

Goff earning that spot on quarterback. I mean, he earned it with his first four weeks. He still hasn't yet to throw an interception among the league leaders and basically everything, if not the league leader, yards, touchdowns, no interceptions.

You got to be a little careful. You're going over 40.

I don't think we need 30 touches here for Jameer Gibbs.

He goes over 200 yards. That's right.

We're feeling good about it. And shout out to the Lions defense who have some reason for optimism. They hold Jeremiah Love to 22 yards on the ground on 12 carries. But more importantly... They should be getting back Brian Branch. Maybe in their next game. He was pretty active at practice. Let's move on.

I have one question.

Sure. At what point in this game did the Cardinals and their glory days high school guy hit the midlife crisis and they bought the Corvette? I'm guessing it was around the missed field goal where they were just like, let's buy the car.

No, no, that was the Trey McBride touchdown.

You know, stunting on them if you can. Just relive old times. It's going to be a lot of... Jacoby to Trey McBride. A lot of just Chuck and Brian.

Man, week one in the Cardinals seeming frisky seems so long ago. Who knew that a win over the Chargers would not really be that special.

Fidel to the left of Herbert.

Single receiver left.

Shotgun snap. Blitz on the way. Herbert in the pocket. Herbert climbs the pocket. He's going to be hit. And down he goes. Jaquan McMillan with the sack. That will end the football game in Los Angeles. The Broncos. It was ugly. They beat the Chargers 23 to 17.

You can almost hear it in Dave Logan's voice on KOA that the Broncos win the But there's at least a part of them that's like, yeah, but we didn't top 225 yards of offense. We didn't top four yards per play. This thing was ugly. And we're happy that our defense took over. in the fourth quarter against Justin Herbert, forcing fumble, forcing an interception. But we would have liked it to look a little bit different, Shook, as they get to three and two.

Yeah, you know, congratulations to the Broncos for winning what was, to be completely honest, a pretty ugly game. And for overcoming the greatest surge of optimism and potential and a little bit of belief. from the Chargers that we've seen all season in the second half, because this was not a game that Broncos fans can be very happy about offensively.

I'll just give you one point here that'll probably describe everything for you.

Capture it in one nugget here.

The four scoring possessions they had on the day, the five, four of them started in Chargers territory.

Okay, the Chargers 40. The Chargers 41, the Chargers 23, the Chargers 34.

They're a defense first team, but it is still a team that has a lot of offensive concerns. Bo Nix finishes with 123 passing yards and 16 of 27.

They ran the ball a little bit better with J.K. Dobbins.

Didn't really find a lot of momentum in that area until the fourth quarter when the defense started getting those turnovers. But like an honest Broncos fan will look at this win and say, hooray, we won. It's a division win. Those count more. But also we have a lot to clean up. And the first day or the first game in which Sean Payton officially takes back play calling. uh, duties led to some confusion or some disorganization on the sideline.

There was a period where they took a timeout when they're trying to bleed the clock and out of the timeout, they get a delay of game. Um, when they're like essentially just trying to settle for a field goal, but take as much clock off as possible. There was a period where it's fourth and goal and Sean Payton, he's going to go for it.

A lot of screaming and it's yelling at people.

Everybody, every coach with a headset on the sideline is getting the wrath of Sean Payton in this moment because they take forever to decide. They finally call a play and gets the line. And then he burns a timeout and they kick.

A field goal.

I mean, OK, we're being a little hard on them, but it's because we expect their defense to have a performance.

Yeah.

And the Chargers are not only down their two tackles, they're down two of their interior players, too. It's basically like all rookies and replacements on their offensive line, like Ladd McConkie tries to play and plays and he's banged up. Trey Harris gets banged up. They're so banged up on offense and they had a 17-10 lead. And that's where you give like a team that's won a lot of games some credit for being you know, forcing the issue in the second half. But I see a lot of Broncos fans like this felt like the game where they were thinking, man, we only ended up with 118 net passing yards on 28 dropbacks.

There were only very like minor glimpses of the Broncos offense doing with Bo Nix what they like to do last year, which is getting him, you know, out, you know, kind of rolling the pocket to the right, getting him out on sprint outs and stuff like that.

It was very rare. It was not consistent.

And I think it's just going to be a work in progress as Peyton takes over play calling again and tries to find a level of comfort with this team. Also, Jalen Waddell has not been the guy that they've expected him to be.

A lot of drop.

He had a key drop in the second half over the middle. So, yeah, there's a lot to work on with him. But congratulations again on the victory and, you know, against a Chargers team that I'm worried that Justin Herbert is past the point of no return this year.

I have a theory about this, and I wonder what you guys think. It feels to me because... We said right at the beginning when we were like pretty much everybody else in the league excited about the idea of Mike McDaniel coming in and being the offensive coordinator of this group. It seems to me like he's trying to go into fast forward mode or hard mode immediately, almost like, hey, remember, I can do this.

This is my resume.

Hey, maybe there's a head coaching job available this cycle that maybe I can. whatever, and it's felt like too much at once at all times. And it feels like trying to hit fast forward before you even get the VCR in your hands. I just don't think that they're skipping steps to me and the injuries don't help. And that's why I think it's like such a collective failure because now you're starting to see it affect the quarterback.

You're starting to see the quarterback make boneheaded decisions or mistakes that are just like almost cannot understand why they happen.

The interception he threw in the fourth quarter of this game was one of the most mind-numbing interceptions I've seen in a long time. I understand it's fourth down and they're trying to get a quick hitter to the sideline. And he sees pre-snap that it's probably going to be there until the defensive back drifts back into coverage and sitting underneath it.

But there's no pressure. It's a rare play. There's no pressure on that play. But if you're being harassed all day in every game, you're going to be conditioned to get it out.

That to me is a low confidence throw.

And it all starts with the line because look, Jim Harbaugh after the game took responsibility saying it's on me because of a fourth down call that he made up a touchdown in the fourth quarter with like nine or 10 minutes to go. They have the ball. They go for it on fourth and short. It's a Herbert sneak after they don't get it on third and one, they stuff them on downs. Next drive, Herbert coughs it up on a fumble. Next drive, Herbert gets sacked and fumbles, but they recover it. And then he throws that interception, just a total disaster.

So there's, there's three major concerning signs here in this, uh, scenarios that you just described which is number one probably the worst fourth and short sneak attempt you're ever gonna see it was so bad that in the middle of the play Justin Herbert knew he was doomed and thought about pitching it behind him to a teammate and then ultimately held on to the football secondly Herbert's got to understand when to give up on a play and take a sack not to say that he needs to take sacks because he takes plenty of them already but these fumbles are largely caused because he's loose with the football that's something that you have to work on as a quarterback you should be good at that at this point

in your career And then third, yeah, the interception, just kind of the cheerio.

Man, I hate talking about this Chargers team, and we have not yet had a positive Chargers highlight on the show this year. I miss Matt Money Smith and Daniel Jeremiah. So if Kamani Vidal is going to have one of the runs of the season, we're putting into the show anyways.

I don't care. Hand off to Vidal. Vidal cuts inside on his feet.

35.

Still on his feet. Get off me. The sideline. The 15 to the 10. Come on in, Vidal. Touchdown, Chargers. He just never stopped, never quit. MVS with a huge block out there. Weiss hustling down to pick up a block. Matlock picking up a block.

And Vidal just weaves his way down the sideline after breaking a tackle.

That's a team touchdown.

That's Scott Matlock, 300 pounds, mind you, downfield blocking, baby.

That's how you don't give up on a play. That's the effort they need. Okay.

Hey, look, it's a long season. Maybe we'll have a Chargers game. call in a Chargers win at some point this season. The season's so long, we already have players coming back from injured reserve.

That's exciting.

Charlie Kohler was out there today. Let's go to a game in Miami that reminded me of four other games that happened this season, also involving the Miami Dolphins, where we give them an attaboy.

It was competitive, but they lost. Second down. Burrow, again, wants a bunch. Oh! Jamar Chase! You're kidding! Good golly! A 45-yard touchdown grab! Jamar Chase!

This is not a tiny table take. This is the biggest table possible take. I'm standing on the table to petition Fox to get Eric Collins on the call each.

And every week.

He's the broadcaster for the Hornets. He just pops in like three times a year. I had Greg Olson on one game today, and yet I had to put Eric Collins in my Air Bud because Eric Collins is a joy to listen to on a call like that. Jamar Chase with an absolutely ridiculous catch going up one handed. putting it between his shoulder, getting it down. Incredible. 31-24.

That was one of four Joe Burrow touchdowns on the day. It was also one of only three pass attempts that Joe Burrow made in this entire game that went over 10 yards.

Oh.

It was the only one that went over 20 yards. He went... two for three over 20 over 10 yards.

He didn't mean need to do anything but sit in shotgun and Forget all that under center stuff and nickel and dime them to death. He was actually kind of mad because at the end of the game, they settled for a field goal and the Dolphins then went down, scored a somewhat garbage time touchdown, but did get to a point where they were onside kicking it. But ultimately they lose in a game that for the first half, Jordan, it looked like some of the second halves have looked for the Dolphins where they fall apart. In the first half, they just looked completely overmatched and the Bengals look like the much better team. But like Dolphins have done pretty much every game this year, like one half, they don't

play that well. And Malik Willis was as bad as he's been all season in the first half of this game. And then the second half, you look at the final numbers and they look like two fairly even teams.

Improvement. That's all I'm looking for.

Very little improvement, but improvement. The rookie class does look good, but... A lot of the same themes, I think, that you could see from each one of these teams. And I think the Bengals just want to get to the bye and kind of figure out their running game specifically and figure out maybe what's going on in the secondary next up.

Because they probably shouldn't have allowed this game to get as close as it.

Did at the end.

Yeah, but I also think about two games that we talked about last week that got as close as it did at the end. Chargers, Seahawks, and the Ravens game. And I just think sometimes that happens.

It was Ravens-Titans, so... what are you going to do?

Uh, you get the, you have another small attaboy to the dolphins and you say, good job bangles for going down to Miami where I thought, you know, in picking these games, I thought, you know, it's obviously a lopsided game.

The bangles should win that. But I thought, you know, they're in Miami. Yes. It gets weird down there. Sometimes they survive. They got out.

Everyone's a heat media day. Anyway, the thing that they should think about is like the visual of Greg Rosenthal sitting in his chair in the office, uh, marveling over Jacob Rodriguez's mustache.

Oh, yes.

With a headset, a double-can headset on, but one ear tilted because he's got the AirPod earpiece in as well, listening to two games at one time.

Seems overly complicated. And one of them is... The only way that'll work.

Is Eric Collins. I just, you know, Greg, every day I admire you more.

Let's, hell, let's listen to one of those Eric Collins calls. I was on the lookout for Eric Collins calls, so this was the first one I wrote down.

Herman, the fullback's in front of Gordon.

Malik Willis on the rollout here.

Second and goal. Looking for help. Oh, no! Willis goes down! Barrett Carter brings him down! Miami was on the half-yard line there in full retreat.

His calls are like sometimes when I write my notes. It's just like, oh no!

He very much was a guy who wanted, I think, a close game, who wanted good football, and Malik Willis was making... Bad play after bad play after bad play. He had one completion at that point, two interceptions, an absolutely brutal sack, had an almost another near interception. One of the more brutal halves of football you'll ever seen.

And it was, I feel like that was part of Eric Collins's, oh no! Boye Mafé in this front, Dexter Lawrence, week after week after week, they are awesome.

Wait, wait, wait. Give them a lot of credit. Does that mean, does that mean, That you're starting to believe in this defense?

No, because everything behind the defensive line, I don't really believe in yet.

Okay.

I think they could be fine. I think they're hoping to be average, which is what they were starting out. Great defensive line, show up at each and every week, and everything else, eh.

You hear that, Jordan? There's potential for them. Little progress. I think I can get them on board.

By the way, Ali Gordon, he's a dude. Ali Gordon has been running great. I'm not saying they're better without Devon Achan, but I think their running game has been better the last two weeks, and it would be great to see Achan and Gordon together.

I'm just saying, finally someone else is on the dolphin seat, and finally someone else is weighing in on the dolphin stuff.

Here we go.

Chase Brown right now, not the most popular figure among the Wesseling family. for not breaking tackle. I do think he's running pretty hesitant this year. And you saw a lot more Samaje Pirine in this game kind of taking over that backfield.

Something to watch. Let's go to the Meadowlands, where.

Two quarterbacks I feel very differently about were going up against each other in this game. And I had some Rudy interest, I got to admit.

Garrett Wilson solo right. Geno Smith in the shotgun. Woods motions across the ball. Takes the snap. Hand off Braylon Allen. Runs left. Has a lay. To the 20. To the 15. 10. 5. High stepping. End zone. That's a jet touchdown. Braylon Allen found a crease. And he found the left side of the end zone. 3-0-1 to go in the fourth quarter.

It's 16-12. The Jets on top. It was that gross. It was.

It was the type of game where you have to say the score 16 to 12 because you cannot assume the extra point is going in. In fact, the game turned around with a snap on a potential punt that set up that short field. It was messy. It was wet on the East Coast. The Jets hold on to win 17 to 12. Shook. The Jets are at two and three. Now the Browns are at three and two.

Who do you give the biggest attaboy in this game to?

Putting you on the spot. Wow. That is a heck of a question. It's been positive.

Because I would like to give an attaboy to Mother Nature. Please stop raining at MetLife Stadium. I would like to see competent football.

Please. I don't know. You still might not. Yeah, you're right.

The Giants were in Washington in the rain, and then the Jets were here, and I was thinking the Giants have only had like one normal game this season. If you don't, like the Jackson-Dart game was also weird, like throwing them in. We need some more normal games, but the Jets, this time they win in ugly games instead of losing one like they did to the Packers.

I would like to give an attaboy to Braylon Allen. OK, it was a great game for him. He's a hard runner. He was breaking tackles left and right. Obviously, he scored the go ahead touchdown there. And I'll give a small half attaboy to Tim Patrick for getting that ceiling block on that play off the edge to free Braylon Allen to finish that touchdown run off, because this was a really disgusting game. Offense was bad. You got so many was good. The greatest star on either side. David Bailey, three sacks.

He had a boy. That's nine pressures.

Yes, that is the ultimate attaboy. Nine pressures, including five quick pressures. He tortured the Browns offensive line. An offensive line that was really good against the Steelers a week earlier had no match for whatever Aaron Glenn's defense was throwing at their offense today. And Deshaun Watson in a rainy MetLife Stadium was completely uncomfortable the entire game.

What's the antithesis of an attaboy? Just a shook one. How about that?

All right, well, I mean, I'm shook over the fact that Isaiah Bond doesn't wear gloves in the round and had three drops.

Crucial drops. One was a touchdown.

One would have extended a drive late in this game and maybe would have given the Browns a chance to regain the lead.

It was, like I said, a gross day. A gross day offensively.

So the Browns want to be a team that can play in these elements. And Watson's been running the ball well, but success rate jets today, 41%. It's about average, but they go, you know, volume over 130 yards, 32 carries that Brown's half that 20% success rate kind of goes back to what they were like weeks one through three, where they were the worst rushing team in the league.

And then.

Shout out Garrett Wilson, who's had a great season. In these conditions, how did Gino look for me? Because he gets Garrett Wilson over 100 yards. I would not expect that in a 17-12 game where there was. Very little offense. Both teams like total yardage is very low.

It was a lot of lean on Garrett Wilson.

When I need to find a guy downfield, I'm going to Garrett Wilson, which is usually a very productive way about playing football. But Geno was under constant duress in this game. Joe Tippman, very good offensive lineman in terms of reputation, got crushed in this game. It didn't matter whether it was Malik Collins or anybody else. They got past him a lot. Geno faced a pressure rate of 45.7%.

That would be the story of the day if the Jets didn't log a pressure rate of 59.1%, which is astronomical. And so, yeah, Gino never really got an opportunity to get comfortable, but he did enough in spots to keep drives going. And also, this is one of those sloppy games where the Jets fumbled four times. They lost two of them. It just felt like nobody could hang on to the football. He has a nice completion to Kenyan Sadiq.

Sadiq gets blasted inside the 10, fumbles the ball, the Browns take over.

It was one of those tug of war games, a.

Little bit of a war of attrition type of game where you just kind of had to survive and hope that a few things broke their way. And when that punt went there, that snap went over Corey Bohork has his head. That's when things went their way.

I'm really enjoying the combination of Will McDonald and David Bailey too. They combined for 14 pressures today and the four sacks, obviously David Bailey has the three, but Will McDonald comes through to seal the game right at the very end. Uh, fun, interesting moment in the office for that one. Also lots of noises from various pockets of the.

Of the office.

Uh, so we knew something was happening. It was, um, I, I really appreciate that. There's like some, some youth and some like connectivity between, you don't always see it all at once with the jets, but every game you do see something and you're like, okay, I see that thing just not happening all at the same time.

Yeah.

I think they deserve to be two and three. I think the Browns are more of like a three and two team. It all makes sense. And look, every pass rush loves to see just Deshaun Watson coming. He goes 15 for 33. He holds the ball 3.25. You know, I think Bailey has been a guy who gets hustle sacks. He's not winning quickly this day. He did good job by him. Good job getting an attaboy. You know, good job by the Jets getting the victory at home. Let's take a break and let's come back with some teams that hadn't lost going into the day and had won going into the day and welcome in our friend Keegan Abdu.

You know, it's that time of the week.

CJ shotgun what he marks in the backfield with.

It here's the snap Stroud scrambles out to the left CJ fires.

And back of the end zone.

He's got his man touchdown Jalen Knoll with the TD catch as Stroud adjusted and found J.

Knoll back lot of the.

End zone Well, we knew someone was going to win in Nashville, and thankfully for our Texans, it was CJ Stroud and the boys.

26-3, one-sided affair.

We personally did it.

Yes. Good job, guys. Mark Vandermeer on KILT. It is becoming....

A bit of a recurring bit behind the scenes, Keegan, that our producer Eric Roberts gets sick of us talking up, oh, how well C.J.

Stroud's playing, even though they're 0-4. So now I feel much better.

We're bringing in a third party to adjudicate how well is C.J.

Stroud playing? I mean, he was awesome today. Thank you.

He was playing with just really good timing, had some great ball placement.

Under pressure, he was 8 of 11 today.

For 115 yards in the quick game he only had one in completion um was hitting a lot of stop routes and just staying on schedule you saw that touchdown there uh jaylen noel's first of the season but like his left tackle and left guard lose immediately he spins out to his left scrambles and finds noel in the back of the end zone on a beautiful throw um I think it's going to be really fun to see how Marv fits in this offense.

Yes, we are.

Yeah, let's just get to the Marvin Harrison of it all right now. So it's pretty rare that a top five overall pick gets traded early in his third season. It's not like he hasn't had any production in his career.

He's had a lot as a rookie, right? He gets traded.

We find out on Saturday, but we don't know to who it's strongly implied by Adam Schefter and Ian Rappaport strongly implied that it's the Texans. And that is probably for a second round pick. But it sounded like they were leaving the window open in case anyone else wanted to jump in and make that trade. Everyone else looked and thought, you're giving up a second round pick for Marvin Harrison in the year 2026. And they said, no, thanks.

So we found out literally when D'Amico Ryans was on the podium.

You guys want to know, huh?

Yes.

All right. We traded for Marvin Harrison. See you. Then he walks away.

The funniest thing is they asked about it three times. Like that was the third time. And I think they had a feeling. And yeah, they obviously didn't.

Get another offer.

I do want to talk about this game somewhat, but I do want to talk about the trade to Keegan. So they get a 2027 second round pick. That's pretty much the whole trade. They also swap like late day three picks in 2028. It's kind of irrelevant. So they get a second round pick. Arizona gets. and Houston's hoping it's not an early second. Right now, it would be.

Houston's losing a lot. What do you think about the trade? And then watching what happened today and thinking about this team, and how does that trade fit into what they.

Need and long-term? It's a fascinating deal. Yeah, so I think, first of all, it's a really fun wide receiver room now. You have Nico, Marv, and Booty, who are all kind of different flavors of an ex-receiver. And I think you get some nice insurance for Nico, who... obviously is always banged up. But seeing how they're going to use those four.

Receivers on the field, Noel is the Z. I think it's going to be fun.

And then you saw today, I mean, their run game has just been God awful for CJ Stroud's entire career. Today, I think they were like a 30% success rate and half of that was in jumbo.

They had to bring an extra offensive lineman on the field to do anything.

So it's the same old story. And they said, screw it. We're just not even going to try to run the ball anymore. They had their highest pass rate over expected, even though they were, you know, leading for most of the game. And I think they're just going to lean in, you know, trust CJ Stroud and go pass heavy and see how this works.

It feels a little duplicative, like all these guys who win as ball winners on the outside.

Nico is much more versatile.

And I think you'll you'll see him obviously move around a lot more. Booty had a good day and had like a big catch in this game. So did Xavier Hutchinson, who's definitely going to lose. It's an interesting gambit because it is a three year. you know, bet on Marvin Harrison Jr. It's not short term because they will pick up his fifth year option almost certainly because of this grade.

He's only in the middle of his third year.

It's not a cheap contract, but they will have him for the rest of this year and two more seasons.

Look, man, I understand that like sometimes guys that get picked high in the first round don't work out. And there are busts that get traded pretty quickly. I saw a graphic today that threw up a number of different guys. One of them, known in Cleveland by the sickos, Mike Junkin, a linebacker.

That happens. That was like in the 80s.

And what I cannot say is that Marvin Harrison Jr. is anywhere near a bust. I think he was in a situation that wasn't taking advantage of his talents, and I think he's going to flourish here with his old college quarterback who he already has built-in chemistry with. And we're going to look at this in the future and be like, oh, yeah, a second-round pick was maybe a little rich. A three-year commitment, given that they're going to pick up the fifth-year option, maybe is a little rich.

Three years from now, we're going to be like, that was a great move.

Yeah.

And CJ Stroud is not making turnover worthy throws. He's throwing into tight windows constantly. People who are watching Stroud every week and see, can see this. And so that's great for our receiver who is, does need to build some confidence, does need to understand where his body control is going to be within this.

Particular offense.

What I think has been really frustrating and will would be for any player is some of the sort of chatter around him or.

Like the whisper reports or whatever.

About his, like, is he invested enough and those types of things. And I will say this, you guys can, not you guys, but you guys can say anything you want about the Houston Texans right now. And they deserve it because they are, they've had a terrible start to their season. But one thing that is absolutely a truth about that building. And for anyone who's been inside that building to know is if you don't fit in with the absolute all out psychopath, football obsessed people that are on that roster, you stick out like a sore thumb and you're gone. And so for me, They clearly believe that being around this group will not only be great for Marvin Harrison as a player, but also off the field be really great for Marvin Harrison Jr.

To recalibrate his career.

Let's think about where he came from real quick. This is a kid who was a top recruit coming out of high school. He played at a top program at Ohio state where the standard is very high. And then he went to a team that was desperate to find pieces to rebuild.

Sure. He needs to go to a building with a higher standard.

He also just wasn't as good a player as like Michael Wilson. And I think it made sense that they invested in Michael Wilson long-term, but doesn't mean that this can't work out in this, in this game. So CJ does great. They basically bench David Montgomery for what he marks and kind of use.

Demon got hurt. Oh, he got hurt. Okay.

First quarter. Uh, Petrie also got hurt. He actually came in the fourth. Um, They had a fourth-round rookie, Kamari Ramsey, replace him. So they still played nickel. They didn't bring on the extra linebacker there. So it'll be interesting to see any reports.

How about the defense in this game, holding the Titans to three points?

Obviously, it's been a rough.

start to the season but uh will anderson in this pass rush looked like they were getting.

After the stars showed up um so anderson had three sacks he now has seven and a half sacks five games which is tied for the texans uh franchise record uh through five games with jj watt's 2012 season anytime you're in a sentence with jj watt in 2012 is probably a good thing um daniel hunter you know, getting to play ahead, quickest get-off in years. He was getting past the line of scrimmage in two-thirds of a second on average, and he had a team-high seven pressures.

And then Stingley.

Zero receptions allowed on 41 coverage snap. That's the third most by any corner this year. Lassiter still getting beat at the catch point a little bit. He's still struggling, but overall the defense just a dominating performance.

It sets up an interesting Texans-Jags game next week in London because the Texans have a chance to get back in the mix. After that, the schedule really opens up for Houston. we'll see if they can do it without their running game, which, yeah, they had a hold on a touchdown today. They can't get a third and one.

It's rough, but they have the pass rush, and they have C.J. Stroud, and now they have Marvin Harrison Jr. Let's go to another team that will be heading overseas in a couple weeks. We'll be watching them, Jordan. It is the New Orleans Saints. We're going to see them against the Steelers in Paris, and they're not doing their part to make that game as big as it could be.

Murray, shotgun. Aaron Jones to his right. Juwan Jennings, solo loan right. Three receiving options left.

Snap.

Safety blitz by the Saints.

It's picked up.

Murray, plenty of time. End zone. Jefferson in the.

Double coverage and touchdown!

JJ gets the gritty in New Orleans.

And the Minnesota Vikings have taken a 12-7 lead.

Paul, it wasn't double coverage. coverage. It was triple coverage.

Two-thirds of the backfield for the New Orleans Saints was on Justin Jefferson.

Oh, that was Paul Allen.

That was Kyler Murray with one of the better throws of the entire day.

Yeah, that was a I was watching that one live supporting that game.

And it was a no, no, no.

Yes.

Right.

Kyler said a few of those last few weeks. It's coming together a little bit.

Yeah.

24 for 30, 229 yards. They win 23 to 13.

That's Paul Allen and Ben Lieber on KFAA. And really helps to have Justin Jefferson back in the lineup, even though they didn't have Jordan Addison. The Minnesota Vikings are freaking undefeated. They are 5-0. They are doing it week after week. They are two games up, right, in the NFC North. Everyone else has two losses in that division.

What impressed you the most in this game?

Well, first of all, Kyler is finally looking comfortable in this offense. From the pocket today, he was 22 of 25 for 212 yards. He's increased his yards per attempt and success rate in every consecutive game from the pocket this season. He also scrambled seven times, which is something that Vikings have never had. That's other than the Josh Dobbs, a couple of games, but that was the most scramble runs by any Vikings quarterback since 2016. And then the defense, honestly, like this is one of the best defenses we've seen in a very long time.

They had allowed just one explosive play, which is the best under Flores. They allowed a 35% success rate. here today.

And so on the season, 33% success rate, the next closest team is playing right now.

The Falcons are about 38%.

The gap between those two teams is the same as the gap between the second place and 19th place team.

They are like outstanding right now.

They blitzed, uh, 11 of the first 12 dropbacks in the first half.

Oh, my God.

91%.

91%, right? Then the second half, they dialed it back just 40%. He's playing Madden. I know.

So through five weeks, highest blitz rate by far of any defense. At one point today, it was the highest rate in a game we've seen.

Flores is six of the seven. He's a complete sicko.

They're getting pressure almost on half the dropbacks through five games. Today, same thing with Tyler Shook. Under pressure, Tyler Shook today, 5 of 12 for 10 yards.

That is absolutely brutal. The Saints in this game... Look, the Saints are playing... one-handed every week because they just don't have a running game period.

They don't have a running game and the running backs can't pass protect so which is and the receivers can't what else the receivers can't run block too and so they end up with 3.3 yards per pass play in this game and they are a big play offense and you mentioned one explosive and it's so hard to beat this Vikings team which is just in such incredible sync, unless you are a balanced offense.

I thought they would maybe be able to hit him for big plays, but Shuck has not been able to really go over the middle of the field. How are you feeling about Shuck's performance in particular in this game?

I think Shuck really never had a chance.

I mean, Flores definitely got in his head with the aforementioned 11 of 12 blitzes in the first half. But then when he was dropping guys, because Even when he didn't blitz, he was showing pressure almost every time.

And then it was just screwing with Shuck.

I think he was holding onto the ball on average about a full second longer when he didn't send pressure just because it was like, oh, I'm so used to seeing this.

And now, oh, okay. And so the last two weeks, they can't protect him at all.

Falcons did the same thing without blitzing on Monday night.

And I think... It's been tough.

Yeah, see, that's what makes it so difficult to face this Vikings defense is the fact that they can show you pressure looks. You can walk up and see seven guys in the line of scrimmage and have no idea who's coming and who's dropping back in coverage.

They make stunts in with that as well.

It's a really difficult thing for an offensive line, a quarterback, and a running back room that can't pass block to try to manage and set your protections and make sure everything goes right over the course of a game. So if I was Brian Flores, I would keep my foot on the gas when it comes to blitzing against these younger quarterbacks. Tyler Shuck, I thought, was going to be a guy who would get it out on time. Cause he has more composure than your average second year quarterback, but that just shows how good this pressure look is.

And we've, we've been giving Minnesota a lot of grief for getting out gained week after week after week. You know, they went plus 200 yards today. This is a completely dominant effort. And again, you know, we're going to move on. But Kyler finally started running in this game. Their run game with Aaron Jones was pretty cohesive. Like, what did you see out of the offense?

So from their run game, they struggled on zone runs all year, but gap, they really started to.

Get some explosives.

That was the Aaron Jones touchdown run, like the 13 yarder in the second half. And overall, like Jefferson and Kyler are starting to get some chemistry and Uh, had a few extended dropbacks.

There as well.

Uh, where the scramble drills where he was able to get a first down.

Um, overall it was, I feel like it was always going to take some time.

Uh, Kevin O'Connor and, uh, Kyler are very different styles traditionally. And the, the marriage of that was going to take a few games, but I think, you know, if this offense can be even an average offense, uh, This could be a Super Bowl.

I thought they showed signs last week. When I went back to rewatch, I was like, oh, Kyler played much better in that game than I thought. Just taking what was there for him.

He did it again. They're undefeated. The Saints are 0-3, right, at home now.

And they're giving up a home game to go to Paris, where the other team that they'll face that will be watching Jordan, they're doing what they can to stay in the mix, at least until we get to them.

Let's go to Pittsburgh. Rodgers under center, has Warren as a lone setback. Gets a snap. turns gives warren starts left cuts back to the right finds.

A hole bursts through the middle breaks through to the clear jaylen warren racing into the end.

Zone for a pittsburgh steelers touchdown a 50 yard gallop for jaylen warren jaylen warren finally got the ball on finally just take it over leading rusher leading receiver he's the whole offense we're going over 30 points the steelers offense jordan making them a little watchable, 34-22, going away against the Colts.

This is the Jalen Warren game.

As you mentioned, he had 188 yards from scrimmage, an 80-yard catch-and-run touchdown in the first quarter that Aaron Rodgers was sort of joking about after the game because all he had to do was just sort of flip the ball to him, and there it went.

And he goes, well, I took a hit on the play, and so I think I kind of did something. But this was also.

brutal hit it was a big it was a big hit uh football.

Is hard i'm out for the season with that hit yeah football is.

Hard guys okay but this was also like it you there was a it was a sign that he was like sort of laughing joking all of that after the game because this wasn't just the jaylen warren game this was the joyful game this was the game that pat fryer moved actually called out his quarterback sort of, and his own offense sort of where he was talking about how they need to just keep it a little more, more composed and like keep their stuff together just a little bit more temperamentally on the, on the offense. And everyone joked, Oh, that means he's never going to get the ball again. Cause clearly Aaron Rogers was the one screaming his head off through the entire game a week ago.

This time Aaron, Pat Frymer, first of all, got two touchdowns during this game. And second of all, Aaron Rodgers was great. He was great on the field. And personality wise, he clearly made an effort to be the guy who is a positive influence on this group.

And it showed.

And I'm not usually the person who's like, ooh, I'm deriving great meaning from how somebody is composing themselves. But it really was quite tangible and apparent, even when he was having to scramble to pick up extra yards was actually, he did quite well during this game. He's laughing and joking with Lou Anna on the sideline. He throws three touchdowns.

He's mostly incredibly efficient throughout the course of this game. And I do want to credit the, uh, the, the Steelers defense, because when they say Ben don't break for a defense, they're pointing directly to what this Pittsburgh Steelers team did today, because the defense, you know, allowed, uh, 332 yards to the Colts. But only one touchdown. The rest were field goals.

Right.

It settles for five Spencer Schrader field goals in this game. And then by the end of the game, they had to just start going for it. They turn it over on downs a couple of times. What did you see out of because the Steelers defense? I've had a hard time getting. I'm glad you asked.

Like, what did you see? Like the run defense? Like, what did you see in general?

Well, I'm glad you asked because first of all, they held the Colts to 66 rushing yards. So that was huge to make Daniel Jones pass. And then obviously being in the deficit, getting the explosives they were able to get on the offensive side, getting Daniel Jones in deficit. Daniel Jones was up and down through the course of this game. And when he started to press. he would sail a couple passes at the end of the game.

But the real sort of pivot point to me was when this Steelers defense was asked to actually step up and make splash plays throughout various points of the game.

Yes, they gave up the yardage, but they made those plays.

And there are a couple in particular that I think really affected the game. First, Jalen Ramsey, who has a broken wrist right now, definitely preventing a third down catch for a conversion. Maybe even it was a touchdown with a hard, but legal hit against Tyler Warren. It was so physical that it knocked the ball loose. Asante Samuel breaks up a touchdown intended for Tyler Warren and the rookie Dalen Everett and his first career start prevents a 60 yard passing touchdown in the fourth quarter would have set the Colts up certainly in scoring position. And later in that drive on fourth down, again, that Colts are pressing at this point and Daniel Jones on fourth and long sees he has the ideal, like, you know, I

cannot wait to throw this ball matchup because he's got Josh Downs on linebacker Peyton Wilson.

And he's like, I am throwing the F out of this ball.

And Peyton Wilson is actually the one who makes the play in this situation.

It's a turnover on downs.

And the Steelers were the ones who were playing part to whole defense today.

Yeah.

Look, the Colts are 2-3. To me, they're one of the weaker 2-3 teams so far. I saw a tweet from Stephen Holder, who does a good job at ESPN. He said, look, there's a lot of Daniel Jones talk right now. He hasn't been at the same level as a year ago. But very little about, one, the Colts' embarrassing tackling. In all their losses, they can't tackle. Rodgers and Steelers, killing them in the middle of the field.

Jonathan Taylor having. 47 yards before contact. This is a team we're used to seeing running the ball. That's the fourth worst of his career. And then they don't really have playmakers at wide receiver. They have a great undersized slot in Josh Downs, which limits you a little bit when it comes to the running game too, but he's a great player, but that's it.

So they've got some problems.

And look, Saints, if you're not going to win any games to make that Paris game as spicy as possible, we're on the Steelers bandwagon, at least for one week going into it, because I want that game to be as good as possible.

The important thing was that they didn't get in their own way and they really can with the vibes and even with like just how tangibly they're like angriness at each other can be. And I think that's a very real thing. And again, I'm not trying to overstate this point, but it was so clear. that there was a collective and concerted effort to chill the F out today. And that's what they did.

So what did Mike McCarthy say this week? He kind of used the wrong phrase.

Cleaning the house.

We need to clean our house out. It's the day of reflection. He needed to figure out their stuff, right? The day of reflection worked. And I think it's evident in, I'm glad you mentioned Everett, because he had a really, really rough game on Thursday night against the Browns. For him to be able to bounce back and make a play like that, that just is a sign that like, look, the house isn't burning down.

We just had to clean.

Men would rather lose to the Browns than go to therapy. And they went reflected, and they came back. And look what happened.

Incredible.

We do not need to take a day of reflection to know that Keegan killed it once again.

Thank you.

And that we're now going to head to Sunday Night Football without Keegan. So we'll see you.

See you guys. Thanks for having me. To the right of Tua, out of the shotgun. Belt high snap. Tungabailoa steps up.

Throws.

Deals. And it's intercepted!

Kyle Hamilton, the Atlanta native, makes the play to seal.

An overtime win for the Ravens. 30-23. It is done on Sunday night. Oh, Kyle Eumanns, the new Ravens.

Play-by-play announcer talking about an old Raven, at least in terms of his veteran experience. Kyle Hamilton with the pick. to end a 30-23 Falcons loss. And yes, if this felt like a Falcons loss, Ravens, victory! Because this team, the Atlanta Falcons, just when you think the vibes are high, Tua Tungavailoa ends up having to play in overtime for an injured Michael Penix. Hurt his ribs at the end of regulation. Snoop Huntley leads a late touchdown drive, gets the two-point conversion, and with a little help from Derek Henry, gets the overtime touchdown as well. I actually think this was an ethical result, and I apologize to both of you for making it go to overtime.

Yes, you jinxed it, Greg.

That is your fault.

At one point, it was 20-15 with the Falcons winning, and Greg said, well, this game is moving pretty fast, and it would be really hard to end in a tie.

We've had late Sunday night, so I was just like, this probably isn't going to be a tie, and then the only thing that could happen to be a tie would be a Falcons field goal and then a Ravens touchdown, and then them hitting the two, which they weren't able to do earlier in the game, and It's hard to be a Falcons fan, Shook. So let's focus on some of the positive for the Ravens. When I say it's an ethical victory, they more than doubled the Falcons in terms of their rush success rate, 56% to 25. They ran for 208 yards. Derrick Henry was working them late in the game, but Snoop Huntley had some big runs in this game. Justice Hill started the game with a big run, started the second half with a big run,

and ultimately, if not for some drops and a return touchdown, you know, fumble recovery touchdown that the Falcons defense had. I think the Ravens did a lot of what they wanted to do, despite having their backup quarterback in the game. It looked like two pretty even teams, except Lamar Jackson wasn't on the field.

Like what was your biggest takeaway?

We talk about managing the schedule all the time. This is very much managing the situation. It was a team that, You know, it was trailing by eight points. Didn't look like they were going to be able to mount much of a fight. It was going to be close, but late in the fourth quarter, they suddenly have to go on this drive with about three minutes left to go tie the game.

They got to get the two. They get the two. They knock it all out.

But what it really was was a team that knew exactly what to do against the Falcons' strengths, which is primetime game, got to shut down Bajon Robinson. And it wasn't just the front. It was the defensive backs. Five run stuffs from defensive backs. Three from Malachi Starks, one from Kyle Hamilton, who's a usual suspect, and then one from Marlon Humphrey. It was a well-designed game plan defensively that I think kept them within range long enough for a very experienced backup in Snoop Huntley to lead them to tie the game and then ultimately win.

Yeah.

What I like, too, about the getting to the tie in the first place that forced overtime is that Declan Doyle just simplified things.

Yep.

Because when you're sitting at the goal line and you need two points to send the game into overtime after the touchdown, you put the ball in the hands of your best football player.

And that is Derek Henry. And it was easy peasy, you know.

Just say it, finish it. Lemon squeezy.

I was like, Ooh, that's so cliche. It, it just was so, he really simplified it.

I think there's been times, I think he's done a great job so far, but I do think there have been times where maybe he's overthought certain things, especially some of the short.

Yardage stuff that they've done.

This was direct snap to Derrick Henry power into the end zone. And then on the other side, when they have an opportunity to actually make the plays to convert them necessary, have to have it plays in the extreme scenario of the overtime.

What is it?

But a third and three to Mark Andrews who had a tough game prior to that.

What is it?

A third and six is a flowers who, who got through some contact in order to convert. And then what is it again? Derrick Henry with the 12 yard grown man run. to extend the drive and set them up in position for Snoop Huntley to ultimately score.

Yeah, that was a prevailing theme, I think, in all the second half and overtime of this game. Even though the Falcons come up short, it felt like both teams were really good at converting those gotta-have-it third downs or second-and-longs before Michael Penix went out, where they were running a ton of routes right to the sticks, completing passes on time, making the catch, and getting past the line to gain to continue these drives. Except the Falcons weren't the ones that were able to do it in overtime because they lost their quarterback.

The Ravens were able to do that.

Put together a huge drive, 14 plays, 68 yards, seven minutes and three seconds off the clock.

Boa constrictor.

I wanted the first ever... 10-minute overtime drive to end it. Because now there's the rule. Both teams get the ball. But not if you just took all the time off the clock. And we were threatening to get there. Those last couple drives were awesome. Snoop Huntley has played... All he does is win. He's won his last three starts here for the team. And I thought he played well throughout the game. Like I said, I thought... They could have had more if not for the Andrews fumble and Andrews drops a touchdown earlier. They were running well. I think the Falcons defense was up for the fight. These are two very similar teams. Both played a lot of man coverage tonight. Both blitzed a decent amount. Both got

a lot of pressure. And Penix, who started the game playing really poorly, his first two throws should have been intercepted. And then he tries to run one time and gets absolutely clocked by Kyle Hamilton.

He took some tough hits.

And that's where It's unfortunate he took a really tough hit at the end where they did have enough time to possibly get the game-winning field goal. And instead, he hesitates, he holds the ball, he takes a tough hit to the side, and you just hope that it's not anything that's going to be too serious.

Yeah, so far they're calling it a ribs injury. On the broadcast, though, they were talking about how he was grabbing the side of his neck as well. It was a tough hit, one of a couple that you mentioned he took. Man, he played great in most of the second half. Some of the throws that he made to Drake London were insanely good.

Third and 10 to Kyle Pitts to start the second half. Third and 15 chunk to London. A third and 10 to London. A third and one where he goes 16 yards to London. He had that beautiful throw to Dotson. I totally agree. He played well. If the running game was just a bit more, it's such a game of inches because he had that one little screen pass to Bajon, right?

With about two and a half minutes to go. that if it goes over the defender's hand, Bajon's either scoring a touchdown or getting close to it, and the game's over. And it was just like a little deflection. They kicked the field goal there to.

Go up eight.

The Ravens find a way to do it, and it sounds like they'll expect Lamar Jackson back next week.

It's sounding positive. Okay. Good show. Our best one yet. Week five had references to. Belichickian.

It had a Randy Mossian. It had a Popeye's fried chicken reference. It had a Looney Tunes reference, which made Eric very happy because it gave us this drop.

Now, I'm so glad.

Just keep playing that as we get out of here. We got to hit that time. Come on.

Yeah.

Stop. I want another.

One where it's a little like a wuga.

Fun week five. And guess what? It's not over yet. Monday Night Football.

I will kill you.

Let's get out of here. We got to hit that number, Eric. Got to do it.

We have the Bills. We have the Rams. Monday Night Football. Live on YouTube. Join Jordan and I after a great end to a great week of games.

And if not, you can catch us In your ears. Nick, go do some power rings. Hopefully tomorrow night's game makes you go.

No.

We'll see you then.

No.

2026 Week 5 Recap: 49ers and Vikings Stay Perfect and Messy Fun All Around

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