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[MUSIC PLAYING] It's your boy, the Vela. You all say I'm proud, Todd. You know what's going on? You got to go. A hard follow, but you know it's hard to win in the world. We don't do it anyway, man. She's paying the way out. She came to what's up, man. It's your boy, Jujim, man. Check it in right here. Got a big ducky. [LAUGHING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [LAUGHING] They came to say the Chiefs get there. When it looks who's here, it's kind of like seeing a Sasquatch, only with a lot less hair and a lot bigger head. OK. You're one day a week. Welcome. Yeah, you're going to see it. Good. Good to see you. Mike's over here telling everybody to watch the show three seconds before it starts. I want it to come out of their manner. Do you think you're going to change the ratings or something? It starts now. I want people to know, even if it's just one person who was like, you know, what am I going to do this morning? Oh, now I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to go watch Florian's big head. Yeah, I got you. So I like it. Did you just miss Shuster in that clip? Did somebody bump him? Or was that just a normal human dropping of them? Oh, Judon hit him. That was pretty good. I like that, as he tried to do his little social media thing. They got their Patriots relationship, I guess, a little history there. Yeah, and maybe a little present, too, where Judon ended up on the wrong end of last night's game. I really did think that the Falcons were going to beat the Chiefs. And I was going to be very upset. You know, Kirk Cousins pulling off things that he was unable to pull off with the Vikings. Like going to Philly and winning, although 2018, his first year there, they somehow won a late afternoon game. They'd been going there in prime time in recent years. Week two, really week two Monday night two years ago, week two Thursday night a year ago. Now week two Monday night this year. Stop making this about you and the Vikings. I just kidding. Nobody gives a shit. Nobody gives a crap. I do and I got the microphone. So I'm going to talk about whatever I want to talk about. You're only going to be here one day a week. You're a guest now. You're not a co-host. You're a guest. I disagree. I still am a co-host. OK, yeah. One day a week. You'd be like if they were doing the credits on a sitcom, it would be guest starring at the very end. Guest starring Chris Sims. OK, I'll be the guest star. I'll be the guest star. Chris Sims. Say what you want to say. Blank and you miss Chris Sims. But you know, I will say this, too. Yeah, yeah. And I was thinking about this earlier, because it's like, how do I say this in a way that is a good reflection on everyone? Because it is a good reflection on everyone. Because I'm getting feedback on Devin McCordy, who everybody loves. Of course. Michael Hawley, who's done the show a couple of weeks now, who everybody loves. Right. I've got Miles Simmons and Shireen Williams, who fill in in spots, and everybody loves them. Rodney Harrison did an hour on Friday before we re-eared the pick spot. And like the feedback, usually it's like they complain about this and that and the other thing. And everybody's very happy, but we still want Chris back. Yeah. That's the-- Well, I appreciate that. I miss it, too. I told you yesterday. I missed it. I missed talking about the NFL on a daily basis and being able to open up with it and talking to my buddy here. So the feeling is mutual. And I didn't say what you were-- No, I didn't say I say that. But they say that. They say that. OK. Don't worry, it's just not mutual. I'm ready to move on, baby. I changed my routines. I don't like to change. But I'll be back before you know. And I'll be back before you know to ruin your routine. That's great. But yeah. But screw your Viking saw it and you're, oh, if he wins and beats them now and he didn't beat them, he was on the Vikings and all that. Mainly I wanted to be right, too. That's what drives me. I want to be-- I mean, the picks were like yesterday. We didn't know what the hell was going on. Usually it's week four, week five, week six. When you reminded you don't know anything, I was surprised it came this early this year. The correction Sunday where we find out we don't know a damn thing. Well, yeah. It's still teams, still teams kind of finding themselves, figuring out what are they good at, dealing with some early season injuries, teams that are 0 and 2. We know we're going to be desperate. We saw that yesterday. They played really well. A lot of those teams had some upsets. It's the NFL. I mean, it's close. You make a mistake. You do something wrong, whatever it is. And all of a sudden you go, wait. We were favored by 7 or 10, and all of a sudden we're in trouble. We know that's the way it goes. We saw that again last night. Kansas City sitting there and kind of looking good, playing well. Oh, third, fourth, start of the third quarter. OK, here they go. They're going to dominate. And as you always say it, I give you credit for. They play with their food and let the Falcons hang in there and go three and out and go three and out and can't convert on third and short and do all that. The Chiefs are three and 0, right? But haven't really played an impressive game yet. I think you could say that. There was parts of the Ravens game in week one where you went, oh, wow, that looked good. But it kind of unraveled at the end, and they hung on for dear life. Week two, I have no problem saying they were outplayed by Cincinnati. Not by so much that a player, too, wouldn't matter. But still, Cincinnati, I thought, probably played better than they did on that day. They found a way to win, like the Chiefs do, and they're great at that. And last night, I'm not going to say Atlanta outplayed them. But I'm going to say that the Chiefs, I think at some points in this game, had a chance to squash them and kind of end this game and put them away to where we go to bed a little early and go, hey, yeah, the Chiefs are up by 10. There's three minutes left. We'll see you tomorrow. And they had the chances to do that and didn't do it. So a little bit of a weird taste in your mouth if you're a Chiefs fan or evaluating them. A microcosm of the Chiefs experience this season, because they could be 0 and 3. They just find a way. When they need to make it happen, they find a way to make it happen. They're one of the greatest-- I've ever seen, as far as finding a way. One-step matters, points scored, points allowed. They're one of the only teams we've seen, I think, in this millennium where they, when they lose the turnover battle, they still have a winning record. I mean, that's incredible. That says something about finding the way, too. Here's the other thing I'm going to throw out to you, because I was thinking about this last night, too. It's kind of funny. I think we got to change our thought with the Chiefs in general. This started with, like, hey, the greatest show on turf in my homes, and this is going to be some offensive dynasty. He got hurt his ankle in the Jacksonville playoff game two years ago, and they have been a defensive dynasty ever since. It is totally switched. And I think that's maybe part of the frustration of watching them at times. Maybe I've got to change my expectation a little bit, that they're just not that on offense. They have little issues on offense. I know they've got an injury with Hollywood Brown and all that. But really, all of last year, that playoff run, and of course, here we are earlier this year, early this year, and you'd say, the star of the show, the greatest thing about the Kansas City Chiefs, we know my homes is great. But the greatest thing about them is their defense right now. And it's kind of rare that they've kind of changed their identity in front of us. And I think we need to start realizing that. Big stops and big moments, getting turnovers and big moments. It's timely, too. It is. It's going one to rise to the occasion and get it done. You look at my home stats. They really are-- They're pedestrian, right? His passer rating-- I don't know if different people feel different about it, but it's been the number forever. It's still a basic guideline. Yeah, right. His first year as a starter was his highest full season passer rating, 113.8. He's at 89.9 now, which was impressive in 1977. Right, right, right. It's not impressive anymore. No, right. Five touchdown passes and four interceptions. That's not packed. We're home is through three games. No. Only five touchdown passes and three games. But they're three and they could be 0 and 3. It's about having that mental toughness that they bring to the table every single week. Find a way, find a way, find a way. That's right. And last night I was the defense. The defense stopped the Falcons twice in the Shadowly Inzone. I know. It's the defense every week. That's what I'm starting to say here. Last week was the defense, making the strip thumb on, burrow, and returning for a touchdown. That won the game the week before. It was the stop in the Inzone against the Ravens. So I mean, my homes, we know he's capable of magic, and he's one of the greatest ever. But they really have kind of become this ugly. We're going to run the ball. We're going to chew up the clock. That's what they did last night, dominated time and possession. And we're going to play defense. And we're just going to kind of make a play here and there in the past game to keep some drives going. But it's certainly nowhere near the feeling of what we had of the Kansas City Chiefs in the early days in my homes to your point, where you were just like, wait, they're going to score 40 tonight. They scored 35. It's going to be 50. How many is going to throw for tonight? It's going to be five. It's going to be five TDs. It's going to be four. It's going to be 400 yards or 315. What's it going to be? Now it's like, does he ever throw for 400? Are we ever going to get over 300? They're just an explosive element of their offense. That's not there. The league has caught onto them as far as what they do in their past game. And yeah, their offense is a work in progress, as we said here. And it raises a fair question as to how sustainable it is. Like, we have been led to believe, and we've come to the conclusion independently, that for as long as Patrick Mahomes are around, that the Chiefs are going to be contenders. And pieces around him are going to change. Coaches will come and go. Defensive coordinators will come and go. But as long as Mahomes are the constant, they'll find a way. That's going to be tested at some point. Because if Steve Spagnolo is the reason that they're cooking up these defensive schemes and the opportunistic moments where they seal victories or turn defeat into victory with a big play in a big spot, what happens when he retires? What happens if somebody ever wakes up and says, oh, we should make him a head coach again. We should recognize that his time with the Rams was a complete and total shit show. Sorry, London wasn't his fault. That horrible record that he had in a couple of years, there's not on him. Let's look at what he's done since then. Let's give him one more shot. Whatever the case may be, it may not be automatic. Yeah, great replacement. We just leave it where we left off. As long as we have Mahomes and anybody, we're going to be competitive, we're going to contend. Like, I feel like this is something that could very easily get knocked out of balance. It's like somebody riding a unicycle. You know, you're on that unicycle and everything is going well until it's not. And I feel like we just assumed they're going to keep rolling that unicycle forever. And I don't know. And it may not even last this season. Who knows? We still got 14 games left. Whatever is working for them now, opponents are furiously studying film. They got Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers coming to town next week. Harbaugh is going to want to turn it into a slobber knock or low scoring game, especially if it doesn't have Justin Herbert at quarterback and talk about that later. But yeah, I mean, I just wonder, I wonder where this is now. And I wonder if they need, I don't know if they need like an offensive. - Yeah, that's what I would go. - That's what I would say. - That's what I would say. - Right? I have the ultimate faith in Andy Reid. I mean, he is the coach of this team that always gets it done. And I do think he'll make appropriate moves. But I think that is something that they're going to have to look at in the future. It's not going to happen this year. But yeah, they need obviously maybe another idea guy in their building with the passing game. - Are they like addicted to these close wins? Like, is it something that they feel like if we do it now, we can turn it on whenever we want. Like if we're winning by 30, like we, like, they-- - They're numb to pressure because they've been in so many pressure moments. - Not studying for attempts. - You know what I mean? - Yeah, I know. - I'll go still get an A and I won't study. - I don't think they're bothered by close games at all. I know that. I mean, you're right about that aspect. And I think when you play in, you know, four super balls and three of them are really close and you got to come back the way you, they just look at it and go, oh, okay, we messed up. So what, well, we'll answer them when we need to. We've done that before. We know we can do it. That's the great confidence they have. But yeah, you always worry about, will that come back and bite them in the ass a little bit? But all the concerns you talk about and where it goes, hey, I mean, Andy Reed's made all the right moves. But right now you sit here and you go, they're three and oh, the defense is good. There's no doubt about that. They are running the ball. You like that. But it's not sexy. It's not explosive on offense. They're not good on third and short. You're gonna see and they're not scoring touchdowns and they get close in the red zone inside the five. That's been a problem with them too. And then I think when you couple, yes, the league is always studying them 'cause they're Kansas City. And everybody has stolen a lot of their concepts and what they do throwing the ball down the field. That I feel like everybody's got a good feel for what they like to do passing wise. And I think that goes into your point of like, and they do think at some point, Andy Reed needs to bring somebody in to give some fresh looks and ideas and things to their passing game. But then to this team right now, you've got Rishi Rice and you don't have anybody else at receiver. And that's another problem too. They're in the process right now this transition of no longer Kelsey is the number one target. I've been trying to say this to you. You know in the podcast and whatever that I do, that Rishi Rice is the new guy there. It's not Travis Kelsey anymore. 90% of their plays are called for Rishi Rice. Now the problem is after that, who's gonna be number two? And Travis Kelsey does not look good. They've not been able to get him going. Exave your worthy skin. It seems like a gadget guy right now at this point as he finds his legs. And that's another thing that worries you about this chief's offense Mike is just, can they just rely on Rishi Rice and the running ball of steel up the middle here in the next few weeks and get it done that way? I don't know. Carson's steel on draft of rookie 17 barriers for 72 yards on the day his sister got married. Crazy did she go when they put the wedding. Yeah, her brother would be starting a game at tailback because Isaiah Pacheco is on injured reserve with that fibula injury. But Samaje Piron had six for 25. And there was a question which of the two guys is really gonna be the one. Piron's a recent arrival. Steel's been around for the off season program and whatnot. And it was steel that had the ball. And it just shows you the commitment to that. And that's not many reason been criticized for in the past. Not committing the run to still have 17 carries for 72 yards. 4.2 yards per carry. Piron also averaged 4.2. So it was working. That's efficient. It is. It's not dominant but efficient. No. And it becomes a nice compliment to the passing game. That's where I give him Andy Reid. I give him a ton of credit. Andy Reid's the guy for the first 17 years of the century. We said he won't run the ball. He won't run it. What's going on? Run it. They're playing too deep. The start of the Mahomes era. Run it. What's the problem here? He's totally changed into patient run guy. I'm gonna play through my defense as a head coach now. I mean, I give him a lot of respect for that. But yeah, nothing is easy for them on that side of the ball. They have moments where you go, oh, wait. That's how I want them to look. Like the first drive of the third quarter last night. But then again, that fizzled out for a field goal. And then there was the next drive, I guess, in the third quarters and what I'm thinking about for the touchdown where you go, oh, wait, that's the Chiefs. But then it completely stalls out. 72 plays for 4.8 yards per play, right? 34 minutes in time of possession, 345 yards of total offense. I mean, solid numbers, but not the kind of numbers you expect with the Mahomes and Andy Reid led offense or team. And I think that's where-- I think I have to adjust my mindset too. I keep thinking their offense is going to catch fire here. And I don't know if that's going to happen. They're a defensive football team right now. Eight different guys caught passes. But Rushy Rice, by far, the favorite target. Yeah. 12 catches, 110 yards, and a touchdown on 14 targets. The next guy on the list with targets was Travis Kelsey with five. Travis Kelsey had four catches for 30 yards. And I don't know whether it's just-- teams still don't want to get beat by him. So there was a play last night where he was kind of open. But he was double. He was double. Like at what point do you say, we don't need to double him anymore. But if we do that, he's going to burn us. Yeah. I think-- So we're going to keep double it. I think the teams are getting to, and we don't need to double them. And I think what I see on film is that he's definitely not the same Travis Kelsey. 35 October 5th. Exactly right. That's old for a tight end. Year by year at that position and some of these positions in the NFL, a year is like five years in football world. And it does change you. And yes, he's not quite as twitchy or as fast as he once was. And they're having a hard time, I think, finding ways to get him to ball. Had the bad drop on the third and two late in the football game where you go, oh man, if he catches that right there, like they're going to put them away and we'll be able to go to bed here. But he dropped that. So yeah, they've been able to unable to get him going. And that's what I mean. That's what's crazy is Rishi Rice is the only thing that's consistently good right now. We don't even know who the number two target is for them. And I think it's going to be Kelsey as we continue here. But again, that hasn't taken shape or form quite to the way I thought it would here through three weeks of the season. I'm not going to write him off because we've seen him make huge plays in huge moments. Got to have it. Here comes Travis Kelsey. But the other side of it too is, I mean, when you and your brother sell your podcast, Amazon, for nine figures. And when you get all this other stuff going on, it's going to produce far more money than you've ever made in football. And you're on the brink of it. You're about to walk through that door. Right. How does that not affect me? I hear you. Yeah, you're not waking up in the morning going, man, I've got to get better at my 40 and run my right, right, right running. Yeah, I'm going to watch more film. Right, your priorities have changed and he's comfortable there. And, you know, he's a guy. And I'm not criticizing, I'm just saying that he's a very rare player who's in that position to unlock this world far bigger than the one he's been. And we're not. We're not. He's first ballot hall, a famer. I mean, this is one of the greatest Titans in football history. There's no doubt about that. But I do think we saw a little bit of a decline in some ability last year. I think we've seen another, you know, ticked down in ability now. And we'll see where it goes. I'm not giving up on him either. I mean, he's still that tremendous feel. He understands their offense. He's still, you know, rubbery and how he can kind of scoot through a defense with his hips and everything like that. So, yes, but we're going to see a thousand yards at this point. I would sit here and go, I'd be shocked if he got to a thousand yards the way it looks so far. But again, maybe they're just trying to lull people to sleep. And maybe they will stop doubling them in off. He goes, and there's a little bit of the old Lawrence Taylor concept too, when he said to Bill Parcels, I think the guys are faster. Why do these guys get faster? Yeah, you're getting slower. You're getting older. Yeah. And it's going to happen. And it doesn't necessarily happen, you know, quickly, it's just a gradual thing. And then we get to a point where it's like, hey, he's not who he used to be. He's the first baller Hall of Famer, but he's not who he used to be. And again, with all the other stuff he's got going on, I don't think he cares if he's not who he used to be. And if he can ride it out to three straight Super Bowl wins and make a big play at the right time, it's still very early. I don't want to write him off. It's only three games. It's a small sample size. But I just wonder when they're going to stop. I feel like they're obsessing with him. And at some point that's going to pivot. And what happens when that pivot is all of a sudden he's going to start getting the long catches and runs down the middle. At some point, these teams are going to start to go, wait, it's all about Rishi, right? So we're going to start going all in on stops. We've got double him. We'll take him away and he will get some favorable looks and matchups. They're in a work in progress on that side of the ball. Give him credit again, hanging in there, made some plays when they had to. But at the end of the day, it was their defense that stole the show. I mean, I was amazed that the ability we just saw Bijon Robinson run on the Eagles front last week on Monday night football at Will. We saw Kirk Cousins look really great in that game as well. And you get to yesterday and Kirk Cousins definitely never got quite into the rhythm that we saw at the end of that Eagles game. And man, I mean, again, the physicality of the Chiefs defense. And Steve Spagnollum, what he does. And their run game never got going on that side of the ball at Atlanta. So I give the defense a lot of credit. They bend a little bit at the end of the football game, but they held strong and got the W. Before we flip it over to focus on the Falcons. One last point, the Holmes has one 300-plus yard passing game in his last 12 in the regular season. Wow. And he has no game with three or more touchdown passes since 10, 22, 23 against the Chargers 12 games. That's incredible. Yeah. But says a lot though. They keep doing what they do. Let's have a listen to Patrick Mahomes on the Chiefs fighting away to pull out another close win. We haven't played good. I mean, really all three games. We've been able to win. I mean, that speaks to the character of the team, the grid, how we've been in these situations before. But I'll speak especially offensively. And me, myself, I feel like I haven't played very well. And that's not a stats thing. I just feel like I'm missing opportunities whenever they're out there and not throwing the ball on the exact spot I want it to be at. So it's about me getting back to my fundamentals, putting our guys in the right position. And then we got to execute at a higher level offensively. If teams are going to make us drive the field, we have to prove that we're able to do that. And I'm sure we'll get a lot of the same this next week with the Chargers. Can you say that you thought this was the first off season that they? We're a little too cute. What do you want to say? Little summits like, hey, let's enjoy the show. We're going everywhere. I did worry about them this offseason. I thought even for the Chiefs who handle the spotlight and the parades and all that, as good as anybody, I thought, wow, they're everywhere this year. It went to another level of popularity and shown up here at this event and doing that event. And I've worried about that before the year. I did. Yeah, and look, I think they have a weird kind of confidence. We've called it playing with the food. The new one I'm going to use is the kid who doesn't study for his test and still gets an A. OK, right? I mean, that's who they are. You're right. That's who they are. And they're kind of riding that. And I think that becomes addictive, doesn't it? If you keep doing it, you get your hand close to the fire and it doesn't get burned, you pull your hand out at the right moment. Listen, the rush of that, I get you. But man, at some point, one thing football has taught me is that that'll come back to get you. I really thought it would have came back to get them last year and they somehow went on the way to win the Super Bowl. That's what's amazing. And it could have come back to get them against the Ravens, against the Bengals, against the Falcons. Yes. And they keep winning. And I think the silver lining is they can look at it and go, "We're three and oh, to your point, we haven't got Kelsey gone. We'll get the offense going that way." And to what Mahomes is saying, yeah, it hasn't been good. We saw dumb interception in the Ravens game in a big moment where they were going, "Whoa, they're about to put them away here." Right? Before the half, he throws the interception over the middle of the field, didn't see the defender. Last week, throws two bad interceptions against Cincinnati. And of course, last night had the bad interception on the first drive of the game and they're down in the Red Zone, but also missed a few throws where he was not on his A-game last night, throwing the football. And I don't think he's been on totally his A-game throwing the football and what he can be as we know as one of the greatest throwers in the history of the game. He hasn't been on his A-game to this point and I expect that to change for sure as they kind of figure out their offensive woes and how they're going to attack here. Why didn't the Chiefs sign Justin Simmons? Why didn't they sign him? Well, he gets another interception. Mahomes, that's the only way to avoid Mahomes getting picked off by Justin Simmons. They got pretty good safeties, but... Why didn't an AFC team sign Justin Simmons? So one of the rivals. Yes, seriously, it's one of those... You can't figure it out. Why does one guy have a quarterbacks number? Not that I was anything like a Mahomes or whatever, but when I played Atlanta, they had D'Angelo Hall. Remember the great D'Angelo Hall? The ball was going to find his hands at some point in the game. I mean, whether it was my fault or not, it was unbelievable. Now, most of the times it was my fault, but I had a few where it was like, I got hit as I was throwing and I'm on the ground looking and going, oh no, who's going to catch it there? It's D'Angelo Hall, right? It just sometimes can be like that. It's one of those crazy things about football. Well, the guy that Mahomes has is Roshi Rice. We said he had 12 catches for 110 yards and a touchdown last night. I want to hear a little bit from Mahomes on Rice, because I want to say a little something on the back end about Rice, because there's two things that can be true about Roshi Rice. Have a listen. I mean, I see it every day. I mean, he's pushing himself. I mean, there's always still little things that you want to continue to work on, but I mean, he's a guy that's going to make plays happen. And he's doing a great job of when they're putting all that attention on Travis. He's making stuff happen underneath. And I mean, I'm sure defenses are going to start adjusting to try to put some more coverage towards him. And that's when Travis will make plays and that's when worthy will make plays or juju or whoever that is. And so he's a legit, legit number one receiver. I mean, you see that every single week, he's making more and more plays. And so I mean, I'm just, I'm super proud of what he's done already, but I think he has another level he can even unlock. And that's great. As a player, it's awesome. They love what he did last year, picked up the offense, fast and entirely kill. All signs are positive. But it's like he's not facing eight felony charges. It's like not even discussed. I know. It doesn't even come up. I hear you. Eight felony charges. And we saw the video. Yeah. And again, I struggle with this idea that do you punish the behavior or do you punish the outcome? Yep. Because if you don't punish the behavior, you're rolling the dice that that behavior is going to manifest itself and there's going to be an outcome. And that's when you punish the behavior. Shariem Williams and I talked about that before the season started. And I did the report the night the season started. And I don't know that there's been any mention of it since then. No, I don't think there has. And again, two things can be true. He can be a great player, but he also can be facing eight felony charges. Right. Without a whisper from the NFL other than, well, boring of a boring unforeseen circumstance like that. And they didn't even want it. They just like would prefer nobody even mention it. I hear you. I know. I know from the press conference, they did. It was a conference call a few weeks ago. They were being very word salted. Very nearly mouthed about it until some asshole decided to say, yes or no. Do you need two guesses on who that person was not? Well, yes or no. Is it going to be put on the commissioner? The worst I know is you. Yeah, I associate asshole with you. So, thank you. Uh, dictionary. There's a little picture there. Um, but, uh, but somebody's got to do it because we can't just like, and, and I'm not saying lock him up and throw the way of the key. I'm just saying he's facing eight felony charges for a ridiculously reckless moment that could have gotten somebody killed. Yeah. We've seen the video. It's horrifying. No, I hear you there. I think there's a few things that work in his favor here. One, he's really awesome at football. Two, I think he's generally liked and not viewed as a bad guy, even though that was a bad incident, right? I understand that. I think people go away. I don't see like a guy that's deliberately trying to hurt people and do that. Right. Even though I understand that moment and we know that serious crap can happen. And I think in our society, things like that, driving a hundred on the highway and where do I see right now and all that? I think it's a little bit like, uh, I see it all the time. I think it, there should, no. Well, I think people, I'm not saying it should. Look at that, that video, we don't see that out of a video game. Well, I, I, I think you see, I think people have a little bit more of a, I'm just saying a forgiving attitude with stuff like that for some reason. Unless somebody gets killed. Well, yeah. Okay. But my point is when the, it's like playing Russian roulette. I know. I know. Right. I know. There's only one bullet in the chamber, five out of six times, you're fine, but that one time you're dead. Yep. Why do we only get concerned the one time somebody's dead? I know. I know. And again, I, I just, it's an amazing sociological study that no one's talking about. Yep. It's just like it didn't even happen. I know. And he's having a great season. He is. He's a hell of a player. And two things can be true. They can be. Yep. And I'm not trying to be a, I, I look, I respect him. No, you're just amazed that it's gone like. But he's got eight pending felony charges and the NFL wants us to be quiet about it. And everybody's just kind of going along with it and being quiet about. Was it mentioned at all last night? No. I don't know that it was. No, I don't know. And I'm not trying to be critical of our teammates, our colleagues, but I mean, you'd like to think at some point, somebody say, oh, by the way, this guy's facing eight felony charges. Well, I think that, you know, you said it early in the year. It was talked about this off season. And now people are just like, hey, we're moving on with life and we're going here. And he's here. And we haven't heard anything from the league to your point. So, you know, what's the point of Mike Tareka beating it down again? No, that's right. I mean, at one point, like how many times do you have to check the box? That would be from NBC's collective perspective. We checked the box in a big way. Yeah. And that video that I did, it ended up on Instagram like 1.5 million views. Like that was a big deal that night. And we did it and now we move on. Yeah. And everybody moves on. It is crazy. But my point is, it's just kind of weird that I'm just, you know, I'm not saying, oh, he should, you know, he should not be playing. I just think it's weird that this is all out there in playing site. Nobody seems to notice. No, I hear you there. I hear you. I hear you. When it comes to hiring, the best way to search for a candidate isn't to search at all. With Indeed, don't search, match. Indeed, is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors, according to Indeed data, and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast. If you need to hire, you need Indeed. You can even use Indeed for scheduling, screening, and messaging to connect with candidates faster. 93% of employers agree that Indeed delivers the highest quality matches compared to other job sites, according to a recent Indeed survey. And since Indeed's matching engine is constantly learning from your preferences, the more you use Indeed, the better it gets. Join over 3.5 million businesses worldwide that use Indeed to hire great talent fast. Plus, listeners get a $75 sponsor job credit to get your jobs more visibility at indeed.com/nbcsports. Just go to indeed.com/nbcsports right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed. This time of year, Saturdays mean one thing and one thing only. College football. With sling, you get access to hundreds of games, and the biggest network starting at $40 a month. That's just $40 a month. Sling takes your love of college football to the next level. It's a no-brainer. Streaming games and saving on them too, and it's not just college football. Sling has live sports, news, entertainment channels you love, and less of the ones you don't. So you save hundreds of dollars on live TV. Sling also lets you choose and customize your channel lineup so you can choose the channels you actually like to watch. Sling's cloud DVR lets you record your shows to watch on your schedule. There's no complex technology, no long-term contracts, and no hidden rigamarole. Get rewarded for watching college football. Sling lets you do that. Visit sling.com/play to learn more and get started. That's sling.com/play. Sling.com/play. All right. Let's talk just a little bit about Kirk Cousins. Let me throw Kirk Cousins at bouquet, and I want to make sure I get this right. Okay, go to bouquet. It's a he loved him day. No, of course you love him when he loses on another team when you picked against him. Kirk Cousins became the fourth. Have to work on the Annunciation here. We're a professional broadcaster. Or somebody thinks we are, but not us. Fourth fastest quarterback in NFL history to reach 40,000 pounds in yards. Joining Matthew Stafford, Matt Ryan, and Drew Brees. I saw that. I saw that. Dan Marino was on the list too, because they showed it during the game. My biggest thing I want to say is that's where that should be your biggest thing. There's a graphic of Kirk Cousins and Dan Marino on it. That should be your biggest telltale sign that the NFL is a passing league now and the rules have changed. Kirk Cousins ain't Dan Marino. I could tell you that much. The league is just different now. I mean, again, we see certain games and quarterbacks and whatever. Kirk Cousins has been amazing. I don't want to take that away from him. He's one of the better pocket pastors we've seen in football over the last 15 years. There's no doubt about that. But, you know, yeah, I'm not, I guess, not ready to induct him into the Hall of Fame because of that either, because I know the league is so different now than what it was, you know, 30 years ago, 20 years ago. But last night, made some big plays as the game went on. We saw that, right? But all in all, I think they had a hard time kind of getting into rhythm and flow for the most of the night. Spagnola did a good job of having people around them. It looked like they crowded the line of scrimmage. It looked like they dared Atlanta to throw the ball because they said, wait, we can't stop the run unless we put a lot of people down there. And they gave them a look like a lot of man-to-man opportunities and whatever else. And that chief's defense came through more times than not. It's funny that big throw last night to throw pits. I was in the viewing room. And it was right before halftime. You guys were down in the studio and I think Fred Gudelle, Matthew Barry, Damian Dombrowski were in there. And I saw pits walk up to the line. And he's so big. And I almost said, I had the thought, I almost said it out loud. Why don't they throw it to him on every play? And that was the play. That next play was the play where we're down to the goal line. I mean, the guy is an incredible weapon. And it's just like this weird story. And there's got to be more to it. It can't just be luck or just happenstance. This guy is incredible. Why aren't they taking more advantage of that skill set? I mean, he's he's a good run blocker, not a great run blocker. And I think I would say the same in the past game. He's he's got all these combine, you know, numbers and all that. But it doesn't necessarily translate to him running great routes and separating all the time in the past game. And that's where he's not quite as gifted in that area as the public would like to think him after being that like combine freak and everybody talking to him that in that way. You know, I think there's still nuances in route running, how to lean people do stuff like that, that he's not necessarily great at that way. So yeah, there's some blame there on the Falcons and hey, they got to get him indoctrinated into the offense certainly. But it's what your what year is it through him three or four or I think so it's not it's some of it's on him. Yeah, it's it's not all just all every office coordinator that's been there in every quarterback. He doesn't quite play to his numbers. What we saw in the combine as far as that explosive ability. You mentioned B. John Robinson earlier, he got out rushed by Tyler Algier on far fewer carries. Robinson 16 for 31 1.9 average Algier did seven for 32 4.6. Right. And that last play. Yeah, what do you think of that last play? The run, the sweep to the outside, it never really got started. They're trying to run it behind Jake Matthews. I'm it's one of those that looks great. The X's and O's, but sometimes the X's overwhelm the O's and that's what happened. It's a tough one there. And the way the chiefs play, I mean, first off, the chiefs are that attacking defense. So in moments like that, they don't sit back and go, whoa, let's play coverage and not mess up. They go, let's get people at the line of scrimmage, get people upfield and create some chaos and see if they can handle the pressure of the moment. That's what they do. And they kind of overwhelm the Atlanta offensive line kind of throughout the night in a bunch of ways. And of course, Atlanta had the injuries that kind of hurt them there too. But yeah, I wasn't in love. I'm gonna say with that last play, but I think they're looking at it going, wait, it's hard running up the middle against this crew. Let's see if we can get on the edge and do something that way. But the chiefs are ready for it. They were ready for a wrinkle off of the inside run or something cute on the edge there. And of course, made the play. We saw Robinson get stoned at the line Monday night by C.J. Gardner Johnson. So let's try it to the outside. And that wasn't there. Exactly. It's hard to run it up the middle when everybody thinks you're gonna run it up the middle. Here's the problem. Yeah. When you have a quarterback who is not fleet of foot, it's harder in those moments to keep the ball in his hands and give him an option to run. Yeah, right. Right. Or think he can extend the play. Extend the play. You gotta go. Wait, do we have a great play that we feel totally awesome about that? We know he's gonna be able to kind of see it and get it out of his hands. Because right, he had some plays before that where they blitzed him and put the pressure on him. And he didn't make the appropriate throw. And yes, to your point, there was definitely a few plays last night where his lack of mobility came back to bite him in the butt where he went, Oh my gosh, if he could have just moved there, there was somebody open, but he gets tripped and has to fall or he just, you know, the walls came in and he has to get the ball out of his hand. That's not his MO. We see. Great. And I'm trying to be charitable and diplomatic and tactful here, but we've seen game on the line moments from him. Other than the time, he just let it go wing on a prayer or wing in a prayer, wing in a prayer, wing in a prayer to Justin Jefferson on fourth and forever in Buffalo. We haven't seen that delivery. I think of fourth and eight and he throws it three yards. Yeah, I hear you potentially right beat and double coverage down the field. Right. So well, he doesn't have the luxury of guys like my homes or borough or Josh Allen, where he can go, wait, this is a big moment. Wait, if the first guy's open, I'll put it on it. But if he's not, those guys can go. If he's not, I'll buy time and wait for something better. And maybe I'll find a crease and go exactly right. And then they have the feel for that too. So there's a double edged sword that goes along with that. But again, I'm not giving up on Atlanta. I think Atlanta's still a good football team. You see in the two weeks in a row, their defense is a pain in the butt with Raheem Morris and Jimmy Lake is the decordinator. They do a lot of good things. They're talented in the secondary. They got some big people up front on the D line. Their whole line, their offenses will work in progress. We'll see where it goes. But we know that was a good D they played last night. And they knew too, like to your point, right? With like, when Bijon Robinson and the game teams are going, Oh, we got to stop the run. Watch out. Watch out. And that's the, the, the advantage the backup running back gets at times because when he comes in, they go, well, they're probably take a break now. Let's take a break or whatever else. And, and kind of a psychological advantage as well. The good news for the Falcons, if there is any coming out of a loss on Sunday night, both the Buccaneers and the Saints in their division. Yeah. Also lost. Right. The Panthers, Panthers won the only team. They're back in it, baby. On their back. Oh, I'm hearing from all these Panthers fans thumping their chests. It's like, let's pump your breaks a little bit. You played a team that thought all they had to do was like, show up, dump a dump, a drink on Florio, Panthers fan. So anyway, let's talk about the Saints because they lost at home. Yep. 15 to 12. When you see that final score, you think that's the score at the end of the first quarter? No, that was the score at the end of the game. And it was like three nothing forever. It really kind of got nutty in the fourth quarter back and forth and they scored most of the points then. That was a weird game. And I got to say, I respect the fact that the Eagles were able to put behind them what happened on Monday night. I thought they would potentially crumble because we saw what happened last year. Yeah. When they hit adversity or when adversity hit them in the face on that Sunday against the 49ers, right, it just kept going. I think it was critical to the fortunes of the Eagles this season to find a way to quickly stop the bleeding and get that win against a team that was unbeaten, tough place to play, defense came up and kicked dash, shut down that offense. All those supporters, 15 drives with the score, 45 points a game. And for the Eagles defense, which kind of got steamrolled on Monday night, had moments of it, no doubt. And now, they look like a completely different unit. Completely different unit. I would say, I would preach patience if I'm any Eagles fan or anybody like that. Again, they're awesome. They're talented. They're deep. They got it all. You did it last night. You got some online injuries. There's no AJ Brown. It still didn't matter yesterday. So there's that you got two new coordinators on both sides of the ball. It hasn't meshed together for a full four quarter. Awesome look for a football team yet, but but I'll say this. And I said this on my podcast last night, when the Eagles are at their best to me, they look like one of the best teams in football. And the yesterday, but the way the defense played, and I have a lot of confidence that offense will come along because they've just got too much talent. And I do think it's a better system. But the defense was the big question through through the the first few weeks of the season. And the fact that they did that yesterday, and not only what they did, they didn't let Derek Carr get going in the passing game, they absolutely dominated the line of scrimmage. And then of course, we're in some tough spots, too. I mean, hey, the Saints block a punt. They're in field goal range. They decide to go for it for some reason. I don't know why it's a field goal game. So kick another field goal. It's three nothing, but they go for it. Philly makes the big stop gives the the Eagles offense a little jump start. And then all of a sudden it was, see, I'm Saequan Barkley. And I haven't seen a whole like this in my life since Penn State. And I'm going to take it to the house. This is off. Saequan was phenomenal yesterday. Sorry. I thought we're about to show the play. He really was. He did so many good things. And I'm just so glad he's getting to show his true abilities with some support and some space to run, Mike. Here it is. There it is. That's the border right after the block. This is when the game got nutty. It is three nothing. And there he goes out running the D back to the end zone. And he told Jason Garrett via FaceTime after the game that they were upset about the hit on Devontae Smith. Sure. And they kind of rallied and they got the determination. And that's where that yeah, the Saints were chirping a little bit and the Eagles, you know, I think a little bit have that bully attitude like, wait, we're worried the bullies. How dare you try to do that to us? And they answered back in a big way. Definitely. But that was that was a huge moment of the football game. It really was. And the fact that you felt like, wait, the Saints have a chance here to take control of it after the block pun. They were on the 20 something yard line. The Eagles D comes up strong. They break that big run. And it kind of broke their offense open altogether. And all of a sudden they started to move the ball. You made reference to this. And the Eagles did this as well. And I think if the Eagles would have lost, the move to fire Nick Siriani would have reached deafening levels, especially when you consider it's only week three. Right. I'm reminded of what Dean Pease said about analytics a few years ago, the longtime defensive coach. You got to know like, what's the score of the game? Yes. When you're making these decisions to go for it, it shouldn't just be the chart says do this based upon right 10,000 iterations of that down in distance. What's the score? How hard are points to come by generally? It's three nothing in the second half. I got a chance to get three. I'm taken three because it's just one of those games where there aren't many touchdowns to be scored until say Juan Barkley's lightning strikes. So and I don't think they read the room the right way with that sometimes. I agree. I think that's what you're saying. It's just it becomes a crutch. It becomes obnoxiously. And I better do it because if I don't do it, if I don't do it, right that. And I think this is the first time in the 2024 season, I'm making this derisive comment. The smartest folks in the room are going to be all over me on social media and you're stupid. You're stupid. You're stupid. You're stupid. Why didn't you know the analytics say you should do that? Oh, don't you believe in analytics? What's wrong with you? We're smarter than you, right? The smart thing to do is in a low scoring game and you got a chance to score points, score some freaking points, right? They had two. I mean, one hurts the hurts is there's some negatives right now hurts is definitely turning the ball over too much, right? Had the fumble had a bad interception interception in the end zone fumble on on field in field goal range. And hey, the Eagles D another point where they stepped up and the Saints got no points off of those turnovers. But you're right, there was at least two, there was a not three fourth down fourth and one attempts by the Eagles. Here's one of them where they're in field goal range right before the half. What my question here is there's only one time out and you're on the 20 yard line, right? You're only going to get another player two to score anyway. So just take the points go with it in the field goal game. But yeah, there was a few plays in this moment or if it's just too cute right there, that's too cute. That's a middle finger to anybody who criticized him for the end. That's a middle finger to anybody that criticized him for being too cute on Monday night. Maybe it may be it is, but but I don't disagree with you there that, you know, at times I feel like they're a little bit too cocky and just go, Hey, just take the play that's there, wear this team down gradually and slowly. You're the better football team. And yeah, they let teams I think kind of in the game sometimes with going forward on fourth or throwing the ball on third and three like they did last week on Monday night when it burned them. At one point before the season started, Nick Serioni gave a very introspective answer during a press conference about a book he read and he's trying to be less combative with officials trying to control his emotions. I just think he needs to control his emotions across the board. I think he gets a little too much of that. Go ahead. Mean held. I'm going to show you. Yeah, we've seen them yell at fans. We've seen them do yell at the other teams on the field. I mean, I love his emotion, but I don't disagree with you that it could probably get the best of some moments. And he makes a decision based on emotions instead of, wait, what's the feel of the game and what I'm watching and my gut and everything there? I do get that sense of two times times, Mike. The greatest coaches of all time. Yeah. Never acted that way. No, no. Bill Belichick never acted that way. Andy Reed never acts that way. Don Shuler never acted that way. No, his heart cells. When I grew up as a giant, he never acted that way towards your dad. Tom Landry. Right. Right. Chuck Knoll during a game. It was very, very rare and difficult to get an emotional response out of him because they understood the importance of keeping a cool ahead because when you start making emotional decisions, you start making bad decisions. Definitely. Nobody says the best way to make a good decision is get really pissed off and then make the first decision that comes to your mind. No, emotional decisions are never good. I say this to my wife and kids sometimes. Yeah, you got to, we got to take time. You got to think things out a little bit. You make an emotional decision and usually, you know, two, three days later, go, why the hell did I do that? That was so stupid. Hey, but let's get Dallas Scott, but yes, let's get to them in general. They're offense in general. And Dallas Goddard, what a day without a J Brown. We know Devontay Smith is their go to guy and he had a solid day as well. But Dallas Goddard, I mean, gave the Saints fits all day long. And I'm, I kind of like the way this Eagles offense is looking. I know it hasn't been perfect. I get that. But I think the passing game is definitely more creative. The offense in general has more formations and more ways to attack. What a catch right there on third and five. Yeah, the crossing routes, the Saints had problems with that all day. And Jalen hurts. He is playing better and better in the pocket as every month goes by in his career. And I've been impressed by that. And he made some big throws yesterday. Yeah. And that, that last play to Goddard that really, oh, with Mo Larry and Curly running into each other. It reminded me of that Falcons Vikings game from 2002 when Mike Vick exploded on a rendezvous and they ran into each other. But that's how he got wide open. And you saw it as it was happening. Watch this again. Three guys running each other because of course, those watching is a big moment of the game. And if we could show it one more time, you did not believe, right? I can't remember the exact quote, but you did not believe they were going to deliver in that moment because it was starting long. It was it was starting long and I went way that they're not going to be able to push the ball down the field. They've kind of been getting around hurts and doing a good job at least pushing the pocket. And I thought, man, third and 16, this is going to be a tough one for that. They play man to man. And if we could rewind it one more time just to show this, they got man to man as crossers. I don't know if they're supposed to stay with it or pass it off, but they have a safety cutting down to cut off Dallas Goddard. And you see, he runs into March on Latimore. And of course, that gives Dallas Goddard the ability to now run after the catch. And you know, and it also gave Chauncey Gardner Johnson some chance to throw some shade at the Saints D there. Well, they did. Hey, look, I love Tyrone Matthew, but yeah, he can. I don't know if he's got an injury or what, but he wasn't really kicking it into high gear. That's not high enough. No, no, that was, we all saw that in the viewing room. And I think there was a few of us that commented like, what's, what's he doing there? I didn't even look like he was trying. Here's Nick Sirianni Eagles coach on how his defense responded after a rough outing Monday night against the Falcons on the road against the Saints. Jalen Carter played his butt off. Jordan Davis played his butt off when everybody has been doubting them all week. Well, what are we doing? Why are we drafting these guys? Like, I've heard it all. I've heard everything. I mean, I tried not to listen, but I got to come talk to the media five times a week. So you hear it all. And they responded because they didn't care about what anybody thought of them. And then when they weren't riding with them, when they were losing, they ain't going to ride with us when we win. And so we heard it all. We heard everything. And they heard it and they responded. And all you can do is control yourself. You're always going to have people saying different things about you. And they went out there and they worked their ass off. I'm going to get emotional. They worked their ass off all week. I want to shock he's getting emotional. He came dangerously close to admitting the thing that we all know that they lie about not paying attention to what everyone says. He came up on the fly. It was impressive, Nick, to come up on the fly with that phony baloney. Oh, but I come into the press room and I hear it all from you. Like, I better be careful if somebody's going to realize I really do have rabbit ears and I do listen to everything. And I do read everything and it's okay. All pay attention or all have somebody at least to keep some clue in on what's going on. Because they tell them stuff that they think will get them riled up. Well, they're looking for anything they can to motivate them going. Yeah, some dumb ass like me that will say the 49ers are going to kick the shit out of the Ravens. I mean, you take that and you use it. Well, you do. You do. You also got to read the read the room, right? The temperature of the fan base a little bit. And you're you're crazy not to pay attention to that. So I'm not going to fault him for that. He understands where, yeah, I just say and admit it. No, I don't know. They all they all it's amazing. They refuse to admit it. I don't get it either way. They're too good to bother themselves with the opinions of we common folk. I feel like that's the attitude. We're better than you. We don't have to listen to you. Even though we listen to everything you say. I think so. But yeah, part of their job is listening and dealing with the public and the media and all that. And yes, they all do listen that way. And obviously they were listening this week about all the issues they've had and what happened last week and Monday night football and all that. But damn, they're good. And that was a big time win. And it did show some grit and tough and their backs were against the wall a little bit and they made some big plays. And you know, I will say I'm proud of them. And that's awesome for them in that way. And even though the Giants won yesterday, John Marra had to see that Sequon Barkley. Oh, he's got to be once again. Say, what the hell were we doing? He could be doing that for us. Could you imagine Sequon Barkley and Malik neighbors? And the Giants can block a little this year. They can open up holes. We're seeing that. But as we watch this melt right here, I mean, the one thing you see is that the New Orleans Saints O line is going backwards in all of these plays. I mean, you heard Nick Siriani say this is the interception at the end of the game that closes out. Great catch by Reed Blankenship there. But it was pressure that caused this. It was the D tackles pushing the pocket car had to throw the ball without being able to step into it. And of course, it's a, you know, late in the game, not a lot of time left. He had to push the ball down the field a little bit. But Jalen Carter was out of this world good yesterday. I mean, it looked like in every big play of the football game, you looked up and he went, Oh, Jalen Carter's in the backfield. Jordan Davis had his moments like Nick Nier, Nick Siriani said. But when I, when Jalen Carter is on his game, he is definitely one of the best defensive tackles in football, like a Dexter Lawrence, a Quinn and William for the Jets. He's right up there in that hierarchy. All right. Let's go ahead and take a break. There's plenty more to discuss coming out of week three, including one team with an unlikely comeback and one team that had to hang on for dear life and almost didn't. That's next on this Monday edition of PFT Live. First of all, congratulations on becoming the official grilling bar sponsor of the National Football League. How does it feel to serve up the NFL? Man, it's a real dream come true. I'm glad we'll be able to serve up some extra heat this season. Do you have any plans to celebrate? Absolutely. We're going to serve up America's favorite bonus wings with just 50 cents each to kick off the season. Any of our sources, whether it's in restaurant or to go, it don't matter. It's all 50 cents all the time. 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