The Big 6 in 60
Lamar Jackson and the Ravens Escape the Cowboys' Comeback | The Big 6 in 60
(upbeat music) - It's the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. (upbeat music) - Mo Ravens turned a pretty win ugly in meet three against the Dallas Cowboys. - Barnburner in Atlanta, but the Chiefs get it done by the hair of their chinny chin chin. No Cooper, no Puka, no offensive line, no problem. - Oh my God, the Vikings keep on rolling a thrashing. - Peril Perkins Jr. has a torn ACL, his season is over. - Some of you guys think Saturday was really, really ugly. I think as a defensive minded person, that was a gorgeous football game. - The Lockdown Podcast Network presents the big six in 60. The six biggest national sports stories from the local experts of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Get the real story, why it matters, what's next, who wins the big game and more, all in 60 minutes. The big six in 60 starts now with the biggest story in sports. - The more Ravens turned a pretty win ugly in meet three against the Dallas Cowboys. - You are locked on Ravens, your daily Baltimore Ravens podcast. - Ravens get their first win of 2024, although it certainly was not the prettiest we've ever seen, at least not for a full four quarters. And guess what, if you didn't know, that's how long these games are. They're four quarters, but the Ravens only played three of them. Yet again, Baltimore outscored 19 to nothing in the fourth quarter, and it's this thing where I would have loved to have talked about it in the way that, look, they dominated on the ground, Baltimore did. They found their identity. They were slinging the ball around. Baltimore's defense was turning up the pressure, but then it all just came crumbling, crumbling down in the fourth quarter. So we have a lot to talk about today. Appreciate everybody for being here. As always, we do these live instrument reaction episodes after every single Ravens game. Win, lose, pretty ugly, whatever it may be. We are here for you there. And look, I think the sense of the fan base right now and certainly how I'm feeling is, this is a game that they easily should have had. It should not have come down to this. It should not have gotten as ugly as it did. And quite frankly, the Cowboys could have easily tied this game. I thought it was a terrible coaching on Mike McCarthy's part to go for too early, which put them in a pigeon hole. And then all of a sudden you missed two two point conversions and leave four points on the board. And honestly, the Cowboys could have had a much easier path to tying this game, but Mike McCarthy decided against it. I thought that was poor coaching, so the Ravens get a break there. But just utter and pure collapse from Baltimore. You know, there were some penalties that maybe weren't penalties. There were other penalties that weren't penalties. It's just, look, this team has to be better. They have to be better. We have to see them be the team that they were in these first three quarters. They exploited Dallas's weaknesses. They were a team that was able to go out there and play their game. Dallas didn't dictate the game flow the first three quarters, the Ravens did. But Cameron, I see you right here with this comment, they got too conservative in the fourth quarter. And that is something we have talked about ever since Todd Wunken came in here, which is they either start really fast and then they fall off the clip at the end or they start really slow and they come together and they have a great day. This was the, this was the first one where they were scorching. And then the offense just got complacent. And Lamar Jackson will talk about this a little more tomorrow. He sent a clear message to John Harbaugh. So essentially said that felt like they should have kept their foot on the gas. We'll get into those comments a little more on tomorrow's show because I don't have the full quote in front of me right now. But I will get that. If I can, it was on the Fox broadcast after the game. But Lamar Jackson, actually we're just getting it here. He interjected in Harbaugh's news conference to shout out Daniel Filet Lele's performance. So hey, look Lamar being a leader there and Lamar is, but Lamar, it's unfair to him to ask him to put on the Superman cape here. It's unfair to Lamar to make him do all this and have John Harbaugh and all the, and look, it's not any, like we can talk. There's a lot of blame to go around, right? And it's a win that we're talking about as a loss. When look, there were a lot of good things this Ravens team did. I was impressed with a lot of things. We're going to talk about that. But it's kind of like this. Just a bit outside kind of says it perfectly. I'll take the W, but damn man, like couldn't they have made it a little easier? Could they have made it a little easier on the heart for everybody? So man, it's brutal, wins like this. You would have hoped that they could have just put the game away. But at the end of the day, they didn't. And John Harbaugh talked about the Ravens and their offensive mind why they didn't rotate anybody in. He said, "I was pleased what made me stick with them "was because they were doing so well running. "The ball, pass protection. "They were doing a really good job of locking. "It took care of the pass pressure, especially Micah. "So I just felt like there was no reason "to make a change there." The offensive line, they had their issues, but I honestly was fine with the way the offensive line played, right? I was fine with the way the offensive line played. Certainly some mistakes, certainly some things to improve on. But again, if we're talking about like things on the list here, that wasn't necessarily the reason why the Ravens were in the pickle they were in. Now to an extent it was, right? I'm not absolving them of all blame, but man, it is crazy. And I see a couple of people have talked about it. I see Anthony's comment here, though, "The pass defense is a problem. "They're ranked 30 seconds, not happy with the finish. "Nobody should be. "Nobody should be." I'm with you, Anthony, and if we pull up the stats here quickly, first of all, I mentioned it at the top, the Ravens were outscored in the fourth quarter, 19 and nothing. And there were other areas of that where, hey, they could have scored, but Justin Tucker, we are, I think to me, concerned for Justin Tucker is pretty high for me right now. And I think it is for a lot of people. It's, you know, misses a 46 yarder inside a 50. 50 plus is one thing, like still like, okay, not great. Inside 50, it's a mental thing for, for Tuck right now. Like it has to be. And look, while I pull up this graphic, I don't know where the heck my background went. Oh, whoa, look at this. Hold on. What just happened? I wanted to pull this up as a graphic, but it's pulling it up as my background, okay. Well, we're gonna delete that for a second and make sure we get that back in order. But regardless, one thing that stood out to me was the penalties for the Ravens. Ravens after week two, we saw that, had 11 penalties for 109 yards. And everybody's saying, well, look, things have to get better, right? They have to get better. There are evens had 13 penalties in this game. Now, not all of them were penalties, right? That Adafe Obay roughing the passer was the soft of a call as I've seen this year from Baltimore. But again, it's like not all 13 penalties were not penalties. You know, there were penalties that were the right call. And while certain penalties had a bigger aspect and a bigger, you know, bigger bearing on the game, Baltimore has to clean that up. Baltimore has to clean it up. That's a big part of it too. So here's the graphic. Look at this, here we go. 28, 25, the Ravens win, they escape. And see, I thought, I thought Brezz and Aubrey is gonna come out there and kick like an 80-yard field which the game of the Ravens gave the ball away. It was that kind of thing. The momentum for Baltimore was just plummeting. It was plummeting throughout the entire game. And that's something you just cannot have. You can't have it because you go three quarters and then it just plummets throughout that entire fourth quarter. The fourth quarter is like a game in itself. That's what I meant though. The fourth quarter, it's like an entire game in itself. You have to be able to keep that momentum. Again, a lot of positive things the Ravens did in this game, but it just feels like it's all overshadowed by what we saw in the fourth quarter. And for a Dallas team that really had no momentum, C.D. Lambin didn't have a good game, which getting credit to Baltimore's defense for kind of making that happen. But the secondary could be, you know, a point of conversation. I thought Ardera's Washington played well. I thought that there were other areas that, you know, the Ravens did a good job in. But, you know, Dax didn't really get credit. I mean, it was a way where he was pressured, but the Ravens, they didn't turn into sacks at the way that they did last week. I guess I would say here. They still had a decent amount, still three sacks. Calvin and Noy just balling out, right? Absolutely balling out for this team. But they have to be better in multiple different ways to close out and finish these games. It could be easily talking about a 38 to 19 Ravens win, but there was just that little sliver of momentum that Dallas caught, and then they caught on more, then more, then more, then more. And then garbage time suddenly isn't garbage time anymore. Garbage time is, oh, we're playing for the game. I don't think the ESPN graphic of the win percentage. Here we go. The Ravens had, all right, here, all right. No, where is it? Fourth quarter, fourth quarter. Here we go. In the fourth quarter, the Ravens had a 99.1% chance to win. Oh, no, that's actually early third. 91, 99.1% chance to win with 55 seconds to go in the third. 55 seconds to go, the Ravens had a 99.1% chance right at the start of the fourth quarter. The Ravens had a 99.1% chance to win this game. And then that number dropped all the way down. It didn't go too far, only like 81.5, but when you have a 99.1% chance to win a game, to get it to the way it did, and look, two huge plays by Lamar and Zae Flowers on that first play, and then Lamar obviously taken it on that sweep that a lot of people thought was a reverse, but Lamar kept it, got the first down game over there. That is what the Ravens needed in that moment, because they didn't do enough of it in that fourth quarter. The offense got conservative. Again, if you've been listening to me on lockdown Ravens every day, you've heard me say, I'm not super impressed with Todd Moncken's play calling this year. I thought it was great in those first three quarters, but we can't keep having games like this. This is not the way a team wins a Super Bowl. And I see a money here. We gotta stop taking our foot off the gas pedal and we just got, that's not good, yep, you have to. You can't take your foot off the gas pedal. Gotta keep pushing it. This is the worst fourth quarter team in the league. And again, the schedule's not letting up. Good, the Ravens gotta win, but it's unfortunate the circumstances were talking about it in, because this had the shot to really be all right. Ravens are back. They have all this momentum. That was took a lot of it away from them. So not the best, but coming up with the second part of the show, continue talking about what happened overall in the game, how the Ravens got to the point that they did. The situation happened in the fourth quarter and obviously some good in the game as well, because there was despite the way that it feels right now. - Today's episode brought to you by our friends at Fandool. You can start the season with a big return on Fandool, America's number one sports book. I'm talking, of course, of the NFL season. 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Make the switch to locked on sports today, free 24 seven sports streaming channel, programmed for you every day to bring you the biggest stories without all the screaming. Locked on sports today brings you Canvas analysis, opinions and news streaming 24 seven on YouTube or the free Amazon fire TV channels app, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Hi, this is Jake from locked on. There are a lot of moments in life that call for a celebration. Creating your state farm personal price plan can be one of them. Nothing feels better than a personal win from finishing a home DIY project, hitting a workout PR or even just taking your car in for that oil change. If you define it as a win, it calls for a celebration. And who's cheering right beside you? State Farm. With the state farm personal price plan, you can create an affordable price just for you when you bundle home and auto. So celebrate by breaking out the confetti and those happy dance moves. Talk to a state farm agent today to learn how you can bundle and save with a personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, state farm is there. Prices are based on rating claims that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer, availability amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. Barnburner in Atlanta, but the Chiefs get it done by the hair of their chinny chin chin. From the land of the three and the home of the Chiefs. This is the locked on Chiefs podcast. Winning ugly is something that they had to do multiple times now, Matt. The absence of Isaiah Pacheco, I felt, was felt very much early. We'll talk about the two halves in the next segment, but I felt like they rallied, they settled down. I do feel like Carson Strong deserved every rep that he got and he earned more by doing it. And having to run the ball that much is something I'm comfortable with, but I want to know how you feel about it, Matt. And then I know how Chris thinks. - Well, this was, yeah, I mean, you're right. I mean, this was a very ugly win and a win to win. And what to me, I think was, you know, a couple of struggling points. I mean, one, obviously, if you're a Pacheco home zone and you're averaging 4.8 yards a play, that's anemic. So you want to be a little better than that. But I really got this in a lot as with the run, you know, it was, you know, there were two types of run tonight. I mean, one was they were running specifically either just to set up the pass or they were running just to basically try and get a one yard or three yards or whatever may be at the time. And, you know, once again, we saw one of those drives bogged down inside the red zone. They've got a first down, first in goal at the three yard line and hit in despite trying to roll three straight times. That's a problem. I mean, this team right now can't get just a couple of yards on the ground when it wants to and need to. I mean, it can run the ball in first, second down, but when they're trying to do it on third or fourth down, I mean, it's just not there for them right now. And it's not there for them trying to do a goal line. But this was, I mean, it was very clear from the very beginning though in the passing game that, you know, the intention was when starting at left tackle and trying to just protect the offensive line in general. Mom's just trying to get rid of the football quickly and doing a lot of that. So this was not a game for the most built about taking shot down field or anything of that nature. And I don't think, I think Mom's had something like maybe five throws beyond five yard on field in the first court, first half, this was not a game plan that they were trying to take shots deep. And when they did, they struggled. But like I said, a win-to-win, even if offensively, I mean, the only thing that this team did was controllable and control it they did. And they had some long sustained drives. That's December football, it's not necessarily September in the dome in Atlanta football. - Yeah, there was a lot of different things that went wrong in that game. And, you know, I know people are gonna point to the Chiefs not having a great offense and not being efficient. And I agree with that for the most part, there were some issues. But go back to, right before they kick the ball to Atlanta in the fourth quarter, you're at the very end of the game, you're looking at a third and two and it's wide open and Xavier worthy just stops. I mean, the play call was there, they had the perfect play call, they had the first down, but Xavier worthy stops running his route and Mahomes throws it out in front of him and it just drops and it's an easy first down. And who knows if the defense even needs to come back at that point if they get the first down. Problem is, and I tweeted this out earlier, they started three for five on third downs. They did very well early on in the game and they did very well staying out of third downs multiple times throughout this game. And that was really the tale of the game for me is that you go watch the offense on first and second down. If they were getting, you know, good yardage on first down, they generally were getting a first down after, you know, on second down and they weren't even getting to third down. And then you get to a point where that, they just couldn't punch the ball in, they couldn't get it going and they often struggled. It's not something that you want to see at this point in the season, but I'm glad that it looked like at least from what I saw that they got out of here without injuries. - Yeah, and, you know, and that's amazing. I mean, third and fourth downs in this game ended up being huge, and you're right, the Chiefs, I think they were over their last three, third downs, but, you know, combined third and fourth downs, they go seven of 15, that's, it's certainly in their, you know, ballpark of where they, the low end of where they want to be, but they also held the Falcons in third and fourth downs, the three of two, that's tremendous. I mean, that's defensively where you got to be if you're going to win a game like this. And, and that's the difference in this ball game. They came out to play is especially on fourth down there at the end to get the Falcons off the field, twice at the end of the fourth quarter. That's how they won this game. - I really like the post game to see a linebacker out there with the offensive stars, so kudos to Nick Bolton. I had nothing down game. I know he had a couple of injuries, had to really get off the mat a couple of times, made that giant play at the end. Really kudos to the defense for stepping that up. We'll talk more about them later, Matt. But this is a formula that I think is a little bit problematic only because it's difficult to replicate. You have to make those in game adjustments. Spags had to lay on the defensive blitzes to really get this job done. Is this something that can do going forward in your opinion? - Well, you know, I mean, this is kind of what, I mean, thought that could be the situation this year. And, you know, and offensively and defensively, I think the problems are a little bit differently. I mean, on the defensive side, you know, they're making mistakes that they didn't make last year. And maybe part of it is certainly you've got guys in there that are playing instead of luxurious sneak that are making mistakes. You know, Jamari Connor had a tackle late in the game that kind of got away from him. That ended up being a, you know, a big moment. It looked like it could have been big for the Falcons. Jalen Watson gets a penalty. You know, he had a couple of struggling moments, I thought at run defense that, you know, hey, Legeria doesn't have that problem. Legeria isn't here anymore. So you've got to move on without him. They're still going through some learning, you know, pains with the guys that are new in that lineup that are taking the snacks of Legeria's use to give you. And, you know, in offensively, I think they're still, it's a different learning curve, but it's the same issue. I mean, you point to worthy, you know, stopping on the route. That's an experience. That's a learning, you know, as far as just being in the offense, getting to know your quarterback, understanding the play and knowing what your responsibilities are. And the Chiefs are just having some communication, you know, issues offensively on that side. That's what communication issues obviously defensively too. But I think at this point, defensively, they're good enough to overcome some of the mistakes that they're making. Oddsively, right now, with, especially with the injuries that they've suffered, I'm just not sure that they're good enough to overcome the mistakes they're making all the time. - Well, and you point out that they made some mistakes. Sorry, I just want to say really quick. The Nausey Johnson at the very beginning of the game with, I can't remember who the other guy was at this point. - It was tranquil. - Was it tranquil? Okay, yeah. And I mean, that's an easy touchdown. I mean, you cannot leave somebody unguarded, obviously, that's just an experienced thing. And playing in the defense together and communication, they'll work on that. They'll get better hopefully, but those are the types of things that really change this game and change it for the worst. Can't see defense was able to overcome it, but those types of miscues, you're not going to be able to overcome against some teams. - No Cooper, no Puka, no offensive line, no problem. - You are locked on Ram's postcast, part of locked on sports Los Angeles on the locked on podcast network. Your team, every day. - Oh my goodness. Right when this season looked over, you lose the first two games. Now you've got the Niners, now Cooper's out, now Puka's out. The whole offensive line, Dang near, is hurt. And it's Levi's to the south. All the cocky Niners fans coming down to SoFi. I know they had no McCaffrey. I know they had no Debo. I know they had no Kittle, but they were still supposed to run over the Rams today. Touchdown favorites. They still got the best defense in a while. And oh my goodness. This team fell down 14, nothing. If you told me the Rams won this game coming into today, I would have said, okay, the Rams somehow jumped out to a lead and then despite having no weapons to throw the ball to, they just ran the ball, protected a lead, forced a couple turnovers by Brock Purdy and Co. and stole a win. No, no, no, Brock Purdy was phenomenal. Joanne Jennings looked like Justin Jefferson, Randy Moss. I mean, name the receiver. And yet despite Purdy looking great, despite Joanne Jennings feeling the Debo Samuel hole perfectly with, I mean, one of the best performances I've seen by a receiver in a while. Despite the Rams falling behind 14, nothing. Despite Colin Williams, who got a ton of carries, not even being that efficient, despite so many things. Not only was this team down 14, nothing early, this team was down 10 late, this team was down 10, halfway through the fourth quarter or third quarter, excuse me, I can't believe it. I'm absolutely stunned. I'm absolutely fired up though. And I know all of you are. First and foremost, before we jump into this one, we will, where we will talk about everything. Quick shout out to everybody in here. I appreciate all of you guys, whether it's your first Rams postcast after this win or whether you're some of the loyal people I've seen so far, both in the preseason and the first two weeks, I see some familiar faces, BC, Craig, Daniel Berry, occurs in here as well, saying, wow, it was looking grim, what a win. Thanks you so much to all of you that are here. And also a quick shout out to the sponsor of today's show, man, I cannot believe it. Shout out to the sponsor, FanDuel. Today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel, place your first $5 bet. And you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets, guaranteed, visit FanDuel.com to get started. But come on now, let's, where do we start? I am stunned, I am thrilled. The Rams were down 14 nothing to this defense. And I, like many of you watching this game, even the most loyal, confident Rams fans, you're thinking we're down two scores, we have no line. We have no weapons. And we win this game. We win this game. We have to start with how the Rams go from 10 down to winning this game. Then we'll go, we'll talk about how they went from 14 down to in this game. But to me, it starts when you're down 24 to 14. Rams get the ball and they go 55 yards and 13 plays a couple really, I mean, Matthew Stafford, 32 yards to Demarcus Robinson after a penalty. I mean, everything, everything went against the Rams early in this game. Penalties killing us, plays getting called back, unbelievable Demarcus Robinson's sideline catches, getting overturned. Meanwhile, Jawaan Jennings is mossing guys. And we win this game. I can't believe it. I mean, okay, let's talk about this drive. I was talking about Stafford immediately, hands the ball off to Kyron Williams for 15. Parkinson gets called for an illegal block above the waist and already I'm thinking, okay, this is a huge drive. You're down 24, 14. You got to go get at least three and you get a penalty. It's first to native, the Rams 32 and Stafford goes, play action and absolutely throws a dime to Demarcus Robinson, 32 yards. Sean McVay, what he did in this game is he said, "I don't care if Kyron is running two yards a carry. "We are committing to this run game "because the only way with all of our weapons out, "with our entire offensive line out, "the only way we're going to win this game "is if we run the ball, we stick to the run "so that when we need big time drives, "we can run the play action. "We can pass off of the run. "And because of the commitment to Kyron, "even when we're down 14 nothing. "I think like six of our first eight plays "were runs or something, "even when we're down 14 nothing, "we stick with the run. "So that when we're down 10 in the fourth quarter, "less than 12 minutes, "we can run a play action on first and eight "and hit Demarcus Robinson for 32. "Then we can run a 2-2 at well, "end around, throw to Demarcus Robinson, "an unbelievable play that was a completion, "it's overturned, so then it's second and 10. "But what happens, Stafford hits 2-2 for eight. "Staffer then hits Parkinson for eight. "Kirin with the good run. "Kirin with another good run. "4th and one, we go for it. "And Kyron gets three. "And from there, we're not able to convert. "You're thinking we have first and goal of the eight "and we don't score a touchdown. "Oh man, we let this one slip away. "The red zone efficiency has been a problem. "We know it was a problem in the Lions game. "Staffer throws a pick in the end zone, costly. "A fourth down attempt in the red zone. "We don't get any points. "We were like 22nd in red zone efficiency "coming into today. "And right here, we see it again. "First and goal of the eight, you're down two scores "and you only get three. "At this point, I'm thinking, man, "what a performance to keep it close, "but you're down seven with six minutes. "Notters are gonna run the ball, run the clock out, "and we're not gonna win this one. "But what happens? "Despite Purdy running for his life multiple times. "That's what I mean. "This was not Purdy played terrible. "This was not, oh, they had no weapons "and the Niners were bad and the Rams got lucky "that their guys are out to counter our guys being out. "No, no, no, no, no. "The Niners looked good. "Purdy looked really good. "He was evading Russia's. "He was throwing dimes to Joanne Jennings. "Joanne Jennings was catching unbelievable passes. "I mean, there was a play here on third and eight "at the Rams 40 with 3.08 to go. "The Rams get a first down. "This game is probably, or if the Niners get a first down, "this game is probably over, third and eight. "Purdy runs around the back, the pocket, the backfield, "whatever you wanna call it. "He's running around behind the line of scrimmage "like he's Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M. "Like he's Mahomes in that Super Bowl against the Bucks "that they lost where he had to run for his life. "That's how Purdy looks. "He ends up scrambling for three. "He does a great thing for the Niners "and stays in bounds, runs some clock, "but Moody has to kick a 55 yard field goal. "Huge out to the Rams defense for stopping Purdy "on that play, stopping the Niners on that play. "You forced Moody to make a 55 yard kick. "I know he's done it in the past, but that's a tough kick. "The Rams did their job. "If you could have told me coming into this game, "that okay, the Rams forced Jake Moody "to make a 55 yard and if he misses it, "the Rams are gonna have a chance to tie this game. "I would have taken that." And so what happens? Moody misses the kick, the Rams get rewarded for being in this game when they probably shouldn't be and now we've got life. Rams have the ball at their own 45 with 243, plenty of time, but you need a tud. What do you do? What do you do? How about first play 50 yard, Stafford to 2-2? And how good does this feel for 2-2 Atwell defenders for 2-2 Atwell himself? This guy has been given a lot of opportunities and hasn't come through, then he hasn't been given any opportunities, kind of been thrown in the dog house. All these injuries, who was gonna step up? Was it gonna be DeMarcus Robinson? Was it gonna be 2-2? Was it gonna be a Whittington? Was it gonna be Colby Parkinson? Tyler Johnson, who was it gonna be? 2-2 Atwell, 50 yard catch in the clutch. He only has five targets, but he catches four of them for 93. This is the biggest play of the game. Huge, huge play, 50 yard completion, and just like that, now it's like, wait, don't score too fast. It went from can the Rams steal a touchdown here to don't score too fast? McVey knows what he's doing. He runs the ball to Kyron, picks up a yard, time out Niners, and then Kyron for four yards to tie this game at 24. The rookie Cardi makes the extra point. I don't know about you, but I was nervous. I'm a big fan of Cardi. I think he's got the clutch jeans in him. And we'll get to how he's proved that later in this game. But I was nervous on the extra point. We come all the way back. He does make it. The game is tied at 24. And then how about this defense? How about it? Vers scares all of us when he pushes Purdy out of bounds on that first down play. Thank goodness the refs do what they're supposed to. See that Purdy was in bounds when Vers makes contact with him. Does not call an unnecessary roughness late hit. Second and four, Purdy, throw to Iuke, four, nine. Okay, first and 10, Purdy, incomplete to Iuke. Good defense. Second and 10, Purdy chucks one deep. Bell, Ronnie Bell, probably should have made this catch. Let's be honest. That was probably his second drop of the game, depending on who you talk to. I think it's two drops. I think you consider that a drop. We dodge a bullet. But then third and 10, we get all over Purdy. The defensive line, the front seven deserves a lot of credit. We have seen what the Niners have done at the line of scrimmage, two opposing teams, both running the ball and pass blocking. And sure, 34 carries for 137 is not great defense, but it's pretty darn good. I will take it. I don't know the exact math on that. In fact, because I love you guys that much, I'll do it real quick. 4.02 yards a carry against the Niners, you will take that. So shout out to the front seven for doing their job against this amazing run game. And they got pressure on Purdy. They only sacked him one time, but how many times did Purdy have to escape pressure? A lot, including on this huge third down play, he escapes pressure, we're able to corral him. He only gets two yards. And then here is where the special teams gets it done one of the many times. The fake punt earlier in the game, we'll get to that 'cause that was a season saving play. But the special teams, and specifically, Mr. Xavier Smith, who impressed in the preseason on returns, if you watch the preseason editions of this locked on Rams postcast, there was one of them where I said Xavier Smith, looks like he's got some juice. Specifically in the return game, people were talking about Kyron Williams being the punt returner. No, no, no. And Xavier Smith, a 38 yard return. And just like that, the Rams are basically in field goal range because the drive starts at the 50. You need like 20 yards to be comfortable. And so Stafford, first play, I believe it is a play action. Throws it deep to Parkinson, there's flags everywhere. There's three flags on the Niners. We ultimately take the PI call. Niners get the ball to 26. And from this point, you know what to do. Run to Kyron, he picks up six. Spike timeouts, all that good stuff. And Joshua Cardi has a 37 yard field goal to win the game. And he drills it. Oh man, how good does that feel? How good does that feel? All this talk about Levi's to the South. Yada, yada, yada. How about that? How about that? The Rams season ain't over. Game time makes getting to the ballpark even faster and easier. Prices on the game time app actually go down the closer it gets to first pitch. With killer last minute deals, all in prices and their best price guarantee, game time takes the guesswork out of buying tickets. They're obsessed with finding ways to help you save money on tickets. Game time has deals on tickets right up to the start of the event. And even an hour after it starts, it's the place to find last minute seats. Find exclusive flash deals and sponsored deals on tickets for football, basketball, baseball, concerts, comedy, theater, and more. And the game time guarantee means you'll always get the best price. If you find tickets in the same section in row for last, game time will credit you 110% of the difference. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Download the free app and new users can get $20 off their first purchase with code locked on. Terms apply. That's code locked on for $20 off your first purchase with game time. Download the game time app today. Last minute tickets to lowest price guaranteed. Are you watching Fox Sports or ESPN on your TV all day? Have to turn down the volume with all that shouting. Make the switch to locked on sports today, free 24/7 sports streaming channel programmed for you every day to bring you the biggest stories without all the screaming. Locked on sports today brings you can't miss analysis, opinions, and news streaming 24/7 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV Channels app, part of the locked on podcast network, your team, every day. - Bada, Bada Boom, sold. Just sold my car on Carvana, dropping it off and getting paid today. - Oh, ready? - What, you still haven't sold yours? You told me about it months ago. - I just. - Is the offer good? - Oh, it offers great. - Don't have another car yet? - I could trade it in for this car I love. - Come on, what are we waiting for? - Ah, you're right. - Let's go. - Whether you're looking to sell your car right now or just whenever feels right, go to Carvana.com and sell your car the convenient way. Terms and conditions apply. - Oh my God, the Vikings keep on rolling a thrashing? You are locked on Vikings. Your daily Minnesota Vikings podcast, part of the locked on podcast network, your team, every day. - There are so many, I think, little moments in this game that feel like the tipping point where the Vikings really start to snowball. And I guess to, like the one that sticks out to me, it actually happens kind of early where the Texans had gotten two drives across midfield. They got one to respond to the first Vikings touchdown, which was a scramble drilled adjust in Jefferson. The Texans drive the ball into kicking range and miss the kick. It was like a 52 yarder. It was no gimme, and it goes just to scotch wide, right? And the Vikings actually take over and then they go score again, so it's 14, nothing. It's this huge swing, right? And that, I think, kind of sets the tone for, okay, this is a game the Texans are gonna be chasing the entire time, right? But how many times have we seen the Vikings get into that situation and let them chase it and let them come back? Not this time. The Vikings later let the Texans get back into field goal range where it feels like, okay, one score there, it's seven to 14, and yeah, you're still leading, but it's a game now. And it's third and four. And the crowd is going absolutely nuts. Fall start on the Texans. And the crowd, I think, realizes that it was kind of 'cause of them, and they go even more nuts and another fall start, and then a third fall start. All of this brought the energy in that stadium, and a lot of you listeners were there to just, I mean, the building's gonna shake down, right? And then on top of that, on the third, the ensuing third and 19, we got 15 yards of crowd noise fall start penalties. And then on the third and 19 afterwards, they get in a legal motion anyways, and which gets declined 'cause the Vikings got to stop, and they would end up punting on that one. Even though they were in, like, gimme, they were like on the 30, like they were in like, you should make this most of the time field goal range, and they weren't even close enough to try by the end of it. And that's such a key moment to me early in this game where that was your chance, Houston, to stop this from getting out of control, and it was a total meltdown. I am sure that, like, locked on Texans and Houston media everywhere is gonna be, like, livid about that sequence. That sequence, I think, again, kind of set an even more bleak tone for the Texans and a more easy breezy tone for the Vikings. But here's the thing I'll always say to you about the crowd. If you were there, Kevin O'Connell came up after the podium and echoed something similar. He said, you know, I wish I could get every fan of game ball. Don't have the budget for that. 'Cause I think it costs him, like, thousands of dollars every time he gives out a game ball, and it comes out of his own pocket. So when you see him, like, everybody gets a game ball, like you did after the 49ers game, like, that costs him, like, thousands of dollars to do that. So you can't do that at scale to the fans, but he said, you know, every fan deserved one. And I think it's funny, 'cause my thing about this is always this. Sometimes you'll get these, like, super snooty, like, grammar police people that get really mad when you say, like, we to refer to your favorite football team. Oh, you know, we won, we lost. And I think if you've ever been to a game and you've ever made enough noise to cause any communication issue or just made for a loud third down, you contributed. And this is the extreme version of that, right? Like, if you cost the other team five yards just by being part of a thing that got loud, for me, you get to say, we forever and ever and ever and ever. I'm never gonna say a word to you about it. And so everybody that was at that game, you, it's like, in triple kit, you get that. I don't know, that's always been my thing. Like, I think the fans do impact the game a little bit. And that's just the direct way too. Like, you could also make arguments for participation on social media and sending support that way, or, you know, participating in like random fan events if you can't afford a ticket, but you went to something at the mall of America, like, whatever, right? I think you all get that. But that's the big snowball to me. And then it's just like a thrashing from there on out. And there's so many individual performances that are worth shouting out, including, I wanna kind of go through the revenge game angle, but that doesn't really apply to Sam Darnold. And Sam Darnold is the next thing to talk about here. Four touchdown performance by Darnold. 181 yards, four touchdowns. He didn't even hit his yardage over. So it was a lot of, I mean, it's a lot of like short touchdowns, red zone stuff, but there were plenty of explosive plays there. And again, a very dialed in performance from Sam Darnold. When he wound up to throw, you knew someone was gonna be open. More often than not, that someone was Justin Jefferson. It was, I gotta check this. I gotta check the tape and all that and confirm this, but it looked like to me on the what I could see on TV that Derek Stingley was tasked with covering Justin Jefferson in single high structures. We talked about that in the crossover with Cody Davis. And I was incredulous that that could even be an idea because nobody had tried that for two years, really. But Cody Davis said, no, they really like Stingley. They think you can do it and they might actually do that. And I was like, no way, that's insane. That's the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard. There's no way they're that dumb. They might be that dumb. That's a bad idea. And I think seeing Jefferson pop off, especially on those crossing concepts, which can really stress middle of field closed coverages is when you get from one side of the field to the other, really hard to like switch those concepts off 'cause you're going through a zone a lot of the time. And that's where a lot of like the really wide open Jefferson stuff came. I wanna check that, but if that is the case, then I would say that's like a major reason that this game got so out of hand so quickly. And it felt worse than it was. You know, it felt more brutal than it was. It was 14, nothing and a half, if I recall. But then the Vikings came out in the third quarter. And while the Texans did finally get on the board and got their seven points, the Vikings still outscored them. And I think it was 24, seven months time you got to the fourth quarter. They scored 10 more points by the end of the game. And it just sort of kept piling on. I'm receiving touchdown to Aaron Jones came in that first quarter. That was the second one of the first quarter. There was like a wheel concept to Jefferson, I think is where they wanted to go with it. And the linebacker number zero Al Shire was, I think that's his name, was actually covering Jefferson, which is a matchup you love, but he did a great job of kind of dropping back on that. And it was a pretty, would have been a fairly risky throw. And so he just dumps it off to the running back and Aaron Jones does the rest. And then you have what could have been a great nailer touchdown called back on what I thought was a not great OPI penalty. It was a slot fade. So when you have slot fade, it usually will have some kind of curl underneath it. And that's what Aaron Jones was running. You split out wide and you run this little curl and you're never going to throw to it. It's just there to paint a guy, just to make a corner stay there so that you can get whatever else you want in the coverage. And then Jalen Naylor is going to run a little fade sort of wheel route type pattern. He's a deep ball. In this case, Aaron Jones kind of bumped the corner that was covering Naylor and Naylor was wide open and it was run a little bit touchdown. But it was, I guess he bumped him a little bit. It looked a little bit too intentional. I think that the receiver has a right to get to the spot he's supposed to get to and sit down. And there was no extension. It didn't seem like, to me, that there was any like super flagrant thing, but they called it, didn't matter. Naylor got the hands on later. And then they finished it with an absolute rifle. Today's episode brought to you by our friends at FanDuel. You can start the season with a big return on FanDuel, America's number one sports book. I'm talking of course of the NFL season. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game, you can check out the latest stats, live play-by-play and so much more on the same page where you place your bets. I noticed this on Sunday, I went to put in a couple, I had a couple of same game parlays. I had some straight up, some money line bets, some against the spread bets. And all of a sudden I see these new windows. Oh, hey, I can see what's happening in real time. I can place bets in real time. And right now at FanDuel, you'll get started with $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet. If you wanna place that first $5 bet on a, some week for action, early week for action, look ahead line, Packers, three-point favorites. Maybe Jordan Love plays, maybe he doesn't, against the Minnesota Vikings in what is suddenly a pretty juicy matchup, go to fanDuel.com to get started. Are you watching Fox Sports or ESPN on your TV all day? Have to turn on the volume with all that shouting. Make the switch to lockdown sports today, free 24/7 sports streaming channel, programmed for you every day to bring you the biggest stories without all the screaming. Lockdown Sports today brings you Canvas analysis, opinions and news streaming 24/7 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app, part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team, every day. - Decisions, decisions. - Wait a minute, are you still looking for cars on Carvana? - Yeah, decisions, decisions. - When I use Carvana, I found the exact car I was looking for in minutes, bought it on the spot. Electric or full diesel. Decision. - Come on, you've been at it for weeks, just buy it already. - You're right, crossover it is. Decisions, decided. - Whether you know exactly what you want or like to take your time, buy your car the convenient way with Carvana. - Harold Perkins Jr. has a torn ACL, his season is over. - You are locked on LSU, your daily podcast on the LSU Tigers. So now that we know Harold Perkins is done for the season, the big question is how does LSU start to replace him? If there's one thing that maybe benefits LSU, it's that they have been able to manufacture a pass rush by being better than their opponent. Let me explain what I mean. A year ago, LSU had to get very creative with how they generated pressure. Maybe it was safety blitzes or corner blitzes or delayed blitzes from Harold Perkins. You weren't just winning one on ones to get pressure. The example I'll give is Arden Key. You didn't need to get creative. Arden Key had 12 sacks in his season in 2016. You could just put Arden Key on the edge, he was better than most everybody he went against and he could get pressure for you. If you wanna look at it from a different position similarly, it was like Derek Stingley. You could put Derek Stingley on an island and he was gonna be better than most every receiver he faced. He didn't have to worry about numbers or rolling coverage or safety help. It was just like Derek, you got him and the locks down that guy. LSU didn't think they had that. Now, one of my contentions early in the season was that LSU, while they were thin on the interior, was gonna be good on the edge. Not just good by comparison of what they were a year ago, defensively, but like legitimately good. And we're seeing that so far. Y'all Braden Swinson and Savion Jones have been fantastic so far. I don't know if you know this, but Braden Swinson so far through four games, already has seven sacks, seven sacks through four games. I just mentioned Arden Keys 12 back in 2016. That's the LSU single season record. So for Braden Swinson, that is very much in sight. LSU on the season already has a dozen sacks. That's an average of three a game that's tied for 14th in college football. And by the way, the best in college football is Miami of Florida with 16 sacks. So you're not even that far off of that pace. And you've played much better competition than they have. So, you know, I think that's one way that LSU looks at replacing Harold Perkins. Just from a pass rush, a pressure standpoint is when you've got Swinson and you've got Savion Jones, and then you've also got young talented guys as well, like Abrella Ferclage-Kobbins, DeShawn Womack. Look, you got pressure from the inside as well of this past weekend, dominant McKinley. The true freshman five star defensive tackle came in and his first defensive series got a sack. So if you're just thinking in terms of pressure, you have that sort of covered because you've been able to generate pressure and havoc with your front. And I think Blake Baker will be able to do that and we just find in respect to generating pressure. The problem is, as we alluded to, accounting for Harold Perkins. Other teams don't have to account now for Harold Perkins. And before last week, Harold Perkins started taking reps at the star. They moved Major Burns back to safety. They moved Perkins at star. So what this means now with Perkins out for the year is Major Burns likely moves back to be your starter at the star position. And I thought, just to be frank, I thought Major Burns would do, would fare much better than he has so far in that spot this year. If I look at Major Burns on the season, I'm trying to find the, forgive me, here it is. I'm trying to find Major Burns' PFF numbers on the season. Here you go. Just his overall defensive rate. Again, Southern Cal, 54.8 and a 60.8, 63.9, 58.5. It actually, as I look at it, hasn't been as bad as maybe it seems or would have seemed on its face. But Burns in that star role is probably what you'll see and you'll continue to see a lot of those young guys at safety. Now, one big concern is that this past week, when you look at the lowest graded LSU players against UCLA, safety was a pretty common theme among the lowest graded players. Defensively, your lowest graded player defensively was J.K. Johnson. Then, Jordan Gilbert, Major Burns, DeShawn Spears, say, dry and four safeties. So you really struggled on the back end and they've got to get better play at safety. And maybe it's getting some of those younger guys like DeShawn Spears, like Highland Jackson. Maybe J.V. and Toviano gets more run. I will tell you, at the end of fall camp, we did see J.V and Toviano running at star when they moved Joanne Johnson more to that nickel role. Now, Joanne Johnson's playing offense. So I guess the short answer is you don't have one guy that's just going to replace Harold Perkins. What's going to happen is it's going to be a shuffling of roles. Major Burns is going to move back to the star. You'll probably see Toviano get more run at star as well. And you're going to see even more of, say, Dryon of DeShawn Spears, Jordan Gilbert, back at safety. And then maybe more Jair Brown in the nickel role, playing that nickel back role. And maybe more PJ Woodland as well. It basically just it shuffles. It shuffles Burns down. So there's a domino effect that happens now with Harold Perkins being out. Look, Brian Kelly will meet with the pours on Monday, and no doubt he'll address this. The other real gigantic question is whether or not Harold Perkins is done at LSU. He was a projected first round pick, and we all made the assumption that Harold Perkins was going to be gone this year after the season to the NFL. And he may still well be. If there is a benefit for Harold Perkins, it's that this injury happened early in the season. So by the time you get to combine pro day, et cetera, I don't know that Perkins will be 100%, but he'll be closer certainly than if this injury say it happened in the bowl game like he did with Logan Diggs a year ago, or John Emery. You know, John Emery last year, John Emery had that injury in November against Florida. So, you know, I think that it happened early, might allow Emery to go through, to have a surgery, to go through rehab and to get ready for a scouts and show what that may be. But no doubt this is going to cost him. And ACL isn't now what it was and what it has been in the past, but it's certainly going to hurt. You know, there have been interesting instances of players who tear ACLs than what happens. You know, Jake Butt was a great tight end for Michigan who towards ACL in the orange bowl went undrafted. You know, Jalen Smith would have been a top 10 pick. He had a devastating injury in the Fiesta Bowl for Notre Dame ended up going early in round two. And Dallas effectively gave him an entire red shirt year, his rookie year, and then ramped him up and he ended up having a good run in Dallas. There's always the possibility that Perkins could return. And maybe NIL could do enough for Harold Perkins where it would make sense for him to return, rehab, and try to increase his stock. But most likely what happens is Harold Perkins tries to rehab and gets ready for the draft and stays the course. But we'll continue to follow that as it goes along. But for LSU, John Emery, torn ACL, Jacoby and Gillery ruptured Achilles. Now Harold Perkins, torn ACL. The season ending injuries for impact players, not just impact players, but veteran players as well, just devastating for this team that is already thin on depth, is trying to rebuild the defensive side of the ball. And now you're losing your veteran players. I told you this, when Jacoby and Gillery ruptured as Achilles, we did a station survey at 104-5 ESPN Baton Rouge before the season. And all of us were asked, who was the most indispensable player on the entire team? Now, Garrett Nussmeyer is the answer to that question, and we all know that. But if you move beyond Garrett, my answer was Jacoby and Gillery, because you didn't have another veteran experienced interior defensive lineman, and that is hurt. But there were a handful of people on our station staff who said Harold Perkins. So now maybe the two most indispensable players that you had defensively are lost for the year. Steve Braden Swenson and Savion Jones can pick up the slack on the edge. Maybe Deshawn Womack, Gabrielleford, can get them some pressure as well. And we could still continue to see some of these young guys grow and develop in that secondary, because that's about the only path that LSU has forward here to try to make this defense respectable as you go through the meat of the schedule in October, but we're just a devastating injury for a guy who we all saw just splash on the scene as a freshman. Play a very impactful role on a bad defense at one unnoticed, because the defense was so bad a year ago. And now in his junior season, we're in the number seven jersey, going to SEC media days, projected first round pick to have this happen. It is just absolutely gutting. We wish the best for Harold Perkins, and no doubt we'll continue to follow it to see how LSU moves on. If there is a silver lining for the season, it's that it happened early enough, and before a game where you're going to play South Alabama, so you can go try to roll some guys out there and get them more reps, more attempts before you go into the open date and have two weeks to get ready for Ole Miss, and then the grind that's going to come ahead in October. Game time makes getting to the ballpark even faster and easier. Prices on the game time app actually go down the closer it gets to first pitch. With killer last minute deals, all in prices and their best price guarantee, game time takes the guesswork out of buying tickets. They're obsessed with finding ways to help you save money on tickets. Game time has deals on tickets right up to the start of the event, and even an hour after it starts, it's the place to find last minute seats. Find exclusive flash deals and sponsored deals on tickets for football, basketball, baseball, concerts, comedy, theater, and more, and the game time guarantee means you'll always get the best price. If you find tickets in the same section in row for less, game time will credit you 110% of the difference. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Download the free app and new users can get $20 off their first purchase with code locked on. Terms apply, that's code locked on for $20 off your first purchase with game time. Download the game time app today, last minute tickets to lowest price guaranteed. Are you watching Fox Sports or ESPN on your TV all day? Have to turn down the volume with all that shouting. Make the switch to lockdown sports today, free 24/7 sports streaming channel, programmed for you every day to bring you the biggest stories without all the screaming. Lockdown Sports today brings you can't miss analysis, opinions, and news streaming 24/7 on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team, every day. - Nah, not quite. - What's up? - Uh, sell my car and carvana. It's just not quite the right time. - Crazy coincidence. I just sold my car to carvana. - What, I told you about it two days ago. - When you know, you know. You know, I've even dropping it off at one of those sweet car vending machines and getting paid today. - That's a good deal. - Oh, great deal. Come on, what's your heart saying? - You're right, when you know? - You know. - Sold. - Whether you're looking to sell your car right now or just whenever feels right, go to carvana.com and sell your car the convenient way. Terms and conditions apply. - Some of you guys think Saturday was really, really ugly. I think as a defensive minded person, that was a gorgeous football game. - You are locked on balls. Your daily podcast on the Tennessee Volunteers. Part of the locked on podcast network. - So, I'm gonna give some reactions. Again, I was traveling, I went to the game. I got back Sunday around noon back in Knoxville and I'm just sitting here thinking like, "Wow, what a whirlwind weekend." Because I didn't leave until, you know, late afternoon. Actually, it was actually early evening because they delayed my flight Friday. But I left Friday evening, got back Sunday around noon. So, a quick trip out to the Palace and the Prairie, if you will. I was in house to see Tennessee take on Oklahoma and win that football game. So, I got a lot of thoughts. And I say all this 'cause I wasn't able to do a post game show because due to travel arrangements after the game, had to hop in the car, drive two hours, get close to the airport, all that type of stuff. So, first time you're hearing from me, typically I try to get something out after each game, but this will be the first time you're hearing from me since that football game. And, you know, in case you care, like I got some thoughts. So, quick thoughts and stuff like that here in segment number one, some reactions, scoring plays, courtesy of all Radio Network, in segment number two, game balls, stats that counts, caner grades, all that and more in segment number three. We're gonna recap this one from every single angle. At least start that process here on a Monday morning because, hey, Tennessee's on a bye week this week. So, chance to rest, recover, get healthy, and then set your sights towards Fayetteville for Arkansas next weekend. Quick thoughts first and foremost, you won a football game on the road in the Southeastern Conference. Yes, Oklahoma's brand new to the conference, but this is a conference football game. So, you never, ever, ever apologize for winning football games. That's something Coach Sparks told us, you know, of course Newman, I remember one time went down to Rome, Georgia and played against a shorter team. Anybody listening here that went to shorter played for, you know, the, I believe that the shorter Hawks, no disrespect, but, you know, we're supposed to, you know, win that game convincingly, and, you know, we barely scrape by, and everybody's just kind of, you know, upset in the locker room after the win, and Coach Sparks says, hey, you never apologize for a win. And that's not even this type of football game. So, like, don't hear me wrong. Like, I just feel like I've seen a lot of the reaction, and not everybody, but I've seen a lot of the reaction since Saturday night's game, and everybody's like, what happened to the offense, and I'm getting into that. And what, what was up with the play calling, and I'll get into that, and all Tennessee's lucky this. Lucky that, I mean, no. I mean, Tennessee played beautiful defense. Tennessee won this game on its defense, on its run game in the second third quarter. Okay, there's a lot of beautiful things in that. So, first and foremost, in my opinion, I can't tell anybody how to fan. You never, ever apologize for a win, and there was a lot on Saturday that I liked. Most importantly, Tennessee won the football game, and Tennessee's 4-0 heading to the bye week. So, when you're talking about those college football playoff projections, now if you look over the football power index, I don't have it in front of me, but Tennessee's chances are skyrocketed. Over 60%, I believe. Actually, I think they're over 70%. I have to go look and confirm. You did a job well done the first third of the season, okay? You made a lot of teams look pedestrian, and there was a lot of things on Saturday night that wasn't easy, and I'll get into that. But you made a lot of teams look pedestrian, but you handled your business, and your 4-0, and you start the real drive and stretch of SEC play here coming up a week after next. So, beautiful defensive game. Tennessee ran its touchdownless quarter streak all the way to 19 straight, leading into the fourth quarter on Saturday night, meaning dating back to last season. In fact, it was in the fourth quarter against Vanderbilt, last football season, last time. Anybody scored an offensive touchdown against Tennessee's defense before the fourth quarter on Saturday when Oklahoma scored a couple of excused me touchdowns. The first one they scored, Oklahoma being... Tennessee had a bunch of reserves in there. I mean, at one time, I looked down there and I was sitting next to Austin Price, and I'm like, is that Edwin Spillman at linebacker? No, look at me wrong. I wanna see Evan Spillman play. I think he's gonna be a player, but at that point in the game, this point in his career, it's like, what is he doing out there? It was him and Kayla Perry out there, and there were some other reserves on the demons, and then finally, this being Oklahoma, he drove the length of the field or whatever, and Tennessee put in their starters there towards the end, and they're just trying to get too cute with it, so that touchdown was on them and on coaching, in my opinion. The second touchdown that Oklahoma scored, and I set it on the two-minute drill afterwards. I set it on the board. I set it on Twitter. I set it on the postgame minipod for over at valkwest.com. I'm gonna stop saying it, because if you guys have consumed all that, job well done, but you're getting tired of hearing me saying this, that roughing the passer penalty that extended that drive for Oklahoma was about the most pathetic football call-off scene in quite some time, and I am big on, it's hard to officiate, I am big on, it's a thankless job, I am big, I'm team officials, okay, because I know a lot of them, and I know the work that goes into being an official in the Southeastern Conference and the ACC, but that roughing the passer penalty was absolutely pathetic. The weakest, the weakest personal foul call I think I've ever seen in my life, that was pathetic, and if not for that, that was fourth down, that should've been drive over, in my opinion, or it should've been drive over, not my opinion, in everybody's opinion, should've been drive over, so that second touchdown that scored came off that bogus roughing the passer called there in the fourth quarter, so this game should've been even more lopsided. This game was ever in doubt, okay? Tennessee took the foot off the pedal on the second half, and that's what we really wanna get into, right? That's what everybody wants to know, and why, and everybody's frustrating and angry. I even put down on Twitter sometime in the fourth quarter, I'm like, Tennessee is calling a very, a very conservative game plan here in this football game. I'm not a fan of it, but I understand why, and I stand by that right now. When I sang, I'm not a fan of it, I'm not criticizing why they did it. Actually, I think it's a smart move while they did it. I'm just like, you, I'm a football fan, I wanna see plays, I wanna see action, I wanna see fireworks, but also, I think Tennessee's at its best when it's playing aggressive, both offensively and defensively, and Tennessee's offense was not playing aggressive, not calling Josh Hype on Joey Holesley, we're not calling an aggressive game plan in the second half, but I condemn them, condemn them. That's probably not the right word, I applaud them, I applaud them, I think they did the right thing. Why? Well, because I don't know what Oklahoma's offense is gonna be this year, I don't know what Oklahoma's final record's gonna be, I could see them being a nine and three team, eight and four, whatever, but I'll tell you what, that defense is pretty good. And, you know, Matt Rice said, we like to go back at the end of the year and look and see how many, you know, teams, you know, what teams do against this Oklahoma defense, you know, when it's all said and done, 'cause we just don't know the answer to that right now, but know that Alabama's defense is gonna be tough, no Georgia's defense is gonna be tough, know there will be some challenges for some other teams in Florida, Kentucky, some other teams on the schedule, okay, but that defense is gonna be one of the best that Tennessee sees this year, in my opinion. So, you know, and I mean, you know, they had Tennessee's number on a couple of occasions. So, you know, we had tipped to Brent Venables, had tipped to his defensive coordinator who called those plays on Saturday. They did a really, really good job in that respect. So, you know, it was tough at first to run the football, Tennessee had seven carries for seven yards, averaging one yard per carry on the ground in the first quarter, and then Tennessee had a really strong second quarter, sparked by DeShawn Bishop, who is clearly RB2 on this football team, and then ending with Dylan Sampson. Eight play, 46 yard drive that really made the lead 19 to three at that point in time, heading into the locker room, and because you had a lead of 19 to three, because of the run game was starting to come around, and because you had already, you know, gotten tagged for not one, but two strip sack fumbles that didn't come back to hurt you at that point in time in the football game, Tennessee said, okay, well, what's more important scoring points or are guaranteeing we win this football game? Because the way this defense is playing right now, the way Oklahoma is playing offensively, the way Tennessee's defense is playing right now, we can run the football, and we can play defense, and we can punt the football away, and we will not take any unnecessary risk to make sure we get a win on the road, because that's the most important thing. They still took a couple of shots. Broomakoy had a shot down the field in the third quarter. Dante Thornton had a touchdown wiped off the board there because of a holding penalty. You know, that was, so, so, so it's not like that they didn't take any shots, but I'm just saying, like, on third and sixth, third and seventh, third and eighth obvious passing situations, they were running the football. It was annoying at times, don't get me wrong, but I understand where they were coming from, because you were playing this football game, and you guys know I'm a big believer in Dane Davis. I think you are, you are really, really well off for having a Dane Davis on this football team. Dane Davis had a rough day on Saturday. He did. It wasn't all his fault, but he had a rough day. The one, the blitz coming up, the strip sack coming from the left side, I believe it was Dylan Sampson. He's got to help pick up that blitzer, and he did not. I believe it was as Sean Bishop that was in the football game on, when, whenever Dane was not only having to play in this game, but flip-flopping between left and right, I think it was as Sean Bishop that was supposed to help on the one on the right side where Dane just kind of got whipped. Sure, it starts with Dane Davis, okay, but the running backs are supposed to help him. He had a rough night. He had a rough night. John Campbell played 34 snaps. That's something that's got to be figured out, and we'll talk about it this week during the bye week. Tennessee's starting right tackle cannot continue to play less than a half a football. 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