Transcript 0:00 Welcome on in to an extra special live edition of the Between the Hash Marks podcast. 0:05 As always, I'm Matt Lombardo, joined by my friend, colleague, mentor, the purveyor of the Two Deep Zone, Mike Tanier, and a cast of thousands filling the room here on Substack Live. 0:16 Mike, a momentous news week, a mo- mo- momentous news day. Feels like the perfect opportunity to just go ahead, flick the switch, do it live, and welcome the people on in to the podcast today. 0:27 A momentous news last 25 minutes. Pretty exciting. We, we lu- we really lucked into this, because there have been- [laughs]... 0:34 many times where we've recorded a podcast, and then there's a big signing or a trade that happens 20 minutes after publication or at least- Yeah... after we go off live. 0:42 But the Giants make the news of the day, which we'll get into, uh, in a little bit here. Um, but if you enjoy the podcast, a little bit of housekeeping for you. 0:49 Um, please go ahead and subscribe in the Apple Podcast Store, leave us a five-star review and rating. Those ratings really do help grow the show. 0:56 And whatever you write in those five-star reviews, we will read it on the air on the show the following week. 1:02 Please subscribe to the Two Deep Zone on Substack if you enjoy Mike Tanier's, uh, exclusive blend and brand of deep dive analysis, analytic interpretations, Superman and superhero jokes and comparisons- [laughs]... 1:14 the whole kit and caboodle in one elite place. Subscribe to the Two Deep Zone on Substack, and of course you can subscribe to Between the Hash Marks on Substack as well. 1:22 Uh, Mike, just a busy, a, a chaotic NFL Sunday, followed now- Mm... 1:27 by a pretty big news breaking Tuesday, as the New York Giants announce the move from Russell Wilson to Jackson Dart a week earlier than you and I might have expected, but Dart mania has arrived. The fuse is lit. 1:44 The fu- the fuse is lit either on the start of Jackson Dart's illustrious career or the end of Brian Daboll's career in the Gi- in the, with the Giants, or both. Gonna tell you right now, I'm a little upset. 1:54 As of about 11:30, I was putting the finishing touches on a mailbag filled, filled with Russell Wilson Jackson Dart questions, and I was basing everything off of yesterday's Daboll mutterings. Yes. 2:09 His mutterings of, "Mm, kinda, sorta, maybe, we're evaluating everyone." But now I got some editing to do. For sure. 2:17 And, you know, it, just the, the quick dive into what this means and how we got here, my big question right out of the chute is, what exactly was the point of playing Russell Wilson for those first two games anyway? 2:29 If, if Jackson Dart did what he did during training camp, and people were so excited by Jackson Dart and what he did in the summer and what he did in the pre-season, if you were so excited in that Giants building by Jackson Dart, what was the point of sitting him against the Commanders, against a pedestrian Cowboys pass rush- Mm... 2:48 and against the Kansas City Chiefs in prime time? Was it really just about getting Andrew Thomas back and healthy? 2:55 Was it just, are we gonna wait until the All-Pro is back and on the field to throw Jackson Dart out there? 3:01 Because Russell Wilson, O and 2, 59.1 completion percentage, 778 yards, three touchdowns, three picks, three losses, including a very dismal showing against a very vulnerable and beatable Chiefs team. 3:14 Mike, what was the point? 3:16 Well, you know, we can make all these sort of reverse engineered, uh, hypotheses about Andrew Thomas, or we're not gonna give him the start in Big D because that would be panicky, or against the, the Chiefs 'cause that would cause panicky in Steve Spagnuolo's defense. 3:30 He's going out there against the 3 and 0 Chargers team, the Jesse Mannar defense, a very strong Chargers team. This is not, like, a soft landing spot by the- No. Uh, right. 3:38 Next week would be the soft landing, except after that I think it's Eagles Broncos Eagles, or Eagles Vikings Eagles, I forget what it is. So there's no soft landing spot. 3:45 Hey, you wanna do something so you won't look stupid? Do something so you won't look stupid, you'll end up looking stupid. Do things so you'll end up being smart, be proactive, be forward-thinking. 3:57 If you're like, "Well, I'm just gonna throw Wa- Russell Wilson out there for a few weeks so I look like I'm patient and I'm conservative and I'm making decisions, and that's gonna make me look like the smarter, shrewder coach," it doesn't. 4:06 It makes you look like you are procrastinating, like you could not make up your mind, and now we're, uh, we're three weeks into this, and we're exactly where we thought we'd be three weeks into this. 4:17 Yeah, so, um- Russell's slosh. Yeah, no doubt about it. And, and you know, the Chargers, they come in with the 11th ranked passing defense in the league. So as you said, this, this is- Yeah... not the soft landing. 4:27 Um- Yeah... Bo Nix, they held under wraps, 153 yards and a touchdown. Uh- Mm-hmm... he still had an 87.6 passer rating, obviously a losing effort for the Broncos. 4:36 Um, but, but I guess you throw him out there in front of the home crowd, you get Andrew Thomas back. Oh, by the way, Tyrone Tracy's banged up, so you're not gonna have one of your top- Yeah... running backs out there. 4:47 Um, you know, it, it, I'm not gonna say it's a panic move for Brian Daboll and the Giants, because the other side of me is arguing that if the kid is ready, you play the kid. Um- Yeah... 4:56 but if you're the Giants, it, it, it, it's now, okay, you, you've tied yourself to this horse. Your, your future- Right... as the Giants head coach is now tied to Jackson Dart's trajectory the rest of the way. 5:07 And I don't know about you, but based on what I've seen from this offense, I don't know how much higher Jackson Dart can raise the ceiling. 5:14 He's gotta be, you know, a b- more efficient at connecting with Malik Nabers, but he's certainly not lowering the floor on what we saw in that fourth quarter from Russell Wilson on Sunday night. Yeah. 5:23 What, what did you think of the end of that fourth quarter? Um, the, the, the four throws to the, the turf in the end zone and the tunnel monster at MetLife. [laughs] I, I give you guys a chance, you know what I mean? 5:36 And then Russell comes out the next day and says, "Oh, you gotta block out the noise," and this, that, and the other thing. Yeah. 5:42 It just seemed like by, at that point in the game, at that point of the season, I think maybe even Russell Wilson had come to grips with, "Hey, this offense isn't working. 5:50 I, I'm gonna go collect a check and put on, put on the hat and put in the earpiece and be a spectator." Yeah. Uh, uh, the best part of it, like, I watched it, and I was like, like mystified. I wa- I, I, I was perplexed. 6:02 The next day I'm on a radio show-And they're talking about the intentional grounding penalty. 6:07 And the three plays after the intentional grounding penalty, which were two throws through the back of the end zone, and the draw play [laughs] Yes. [laughs] The draw play, 6:17 they were so bad, I forgot he drew an intentional grounding penalty. 6:21 Like, normally, if you're in that situation, he threw the ball so far into the tunnel that they drew intentional grounding, that would be the, the, the p- the part that stuck in my head. 6:29 I forgot about it, because three other things happened that were equally or more stupid afterwards than that. 6:34 And you're right, that might have been a little of a, of a thing here like, "Okay, Russ is in paycheck mode right now." You know, whatever the competitor was, it is evaporating before your eyes. 6:44 He's now out there trying to avoid hits, trying to keep the stats looking good, which is a, a situation they had in Denver as well. So, but here we are now with Jaxson Dart, ready or not, Daboll playing the last card. 6:57 This is the last card. Mark checks in in the chat, "There's less pressure on Dart now. He doesn't have the possibility of a competent veteran looming over him. We've seen that that doesn't exist." 7:08 [laughs] Uh, I, I guess that's true. I mean, you've [laughs]... I guess you, you, you saw that, because I think that what bothered me most about the end of that game is how the rest of that game played out. 7:16 You know, you're watching this Chiefs offense, and Travis Kelce is having- Mm-hmm... balls bounce off his hand. 7:22 Patrick Mahomes is under-throwing Travis Kelce by two and a half yards on, on a simple out route to, to the sideline. He's not connecting early with Thornton. They're not getting anything going. 7:33 The Chiefs were there for the taking. The, the- Mm-hmm... the, the Giants defense was keeping them close enough in that game that a- Mm-hmm... 7:39 competent quarterback and a competent offense might have been able to pull off the upset. The competent veteran wasn't there. 7:45 Just before we went on the air, Mike, I reached out to a handful of people, and an AFC scouting director just got back to me. He said, quote, "Jaxson Dart is a talented athlete who flashes- Mm-hmm... arm talent. 7:54 He takes some chances, doesn't have the arm strength to win on those gambles, but also how he handles adversity will be critical. Last year's Florida game was a complete and total meltdown mentally." Mm-hmm. 8:04 "And by the way, Oxford is not New York," unquote. 8:08 [laughs] So that's kind of what he's up against, which goes back to my theory of holding Jaxson Dart until you're back in New Orleans against arguably the worst defense and the worst team in the league in the New Orleans Saints, cut down on the adversity, kind of build the kid's confidence. 8:23 But I think Brian Daboll felt that he was left no choice after Sunday night but to make this move. Also, where is Jameis? Where's Jameis? Where's Jameis? 8:34 I mean, I, I'm not, I'm not advocating it, but that would've been, that's sitting there as a possible solution. 8:39 Um, but I think that that, that scouting director, that s- that goes with w- things I saw, where if you were watching Dart against Arkansas or against, like, the weaker opponents, he looked like [laughs] the best thing since Andrew Luck, absolutely, honestly. 8:52 And then if you saw Florida, Georgia, there was another real powerhouse on their schedule, he could not move the ball at all. And I don't know if he lost his composure. 9:00 I don't know if it was that type of thing, but he was taking hits, and he wasn't able to, to fit the ball. Um, a- and so we're going to see w- who he is. 9:08 'Cause no matter what now over the next couple weeks, he's in New York. He's gonna take losses in New York. He's probably going to, after a victory, get the Sam Chize- Yeah... treatment. He's gonna get a nickname. 9:21 He's gonna get all that stuff, and then he's gonna lose it, and that's the kind of stuff that has to get managed in New York. And I'll tell you who I don't trust at this point to manage that at all is Brian Daboll. 9:30 No, not at all. And you know, you, you think about it, we don't have to look that far. Mike White was the great white hope for the Jets a couple years ago, and- Oh my God... he wasn't. Oh my God. 9:41 Well, there was the Samachize and the Sanchize, and I'm guessing Chris Streveler had a, a nickname at some point for a few minutes there. Um, but, uh, w- here's a question: What do you do with Russ now? 9:54 Man, I don't, I don't know what you do. You have, like... Do, do you start fielding calls? Because I, I mean, you- From who? From who? [laughs] You got, you got me. You got me. 10:06 But, but, but I mean, you can, if you can as cer- unceremoniously dismiss Daniel Jones- Mm-hmm... 10:12 by benching him, making him the scout team safety, and then granting his request to be released, w- you, you, you gotta do something. 10:19 I, I don't, I don't think that Russell Wilson is the, the kind and gentle mentor type that Russell Wilson would relish, or Jameis Winston, rather, would relish being. Jameis c- Jameis, he, he exudes those vibes. 10:31 Jameis seems like- Yeah... he knows what he signed up for, you know- Mm-hmm... going to New York on that two-year deal. I, I just don't know. I don't know. 10:39 I mean, Russell Wilson just does not seem like he, the type of guy who's going to sit back, hold the clipboard, and, and wh- and, and when Dart comes running off the field, be there to meet him with, uh, the Polaroids and say, "Hey, here's, here's what you missed." 10:50 And I can't 100% blame him on that. The thing is, now that, now that it's gone, I, I- if, if they have the mutual decision 10:58 to walk away, that might be the best for everybody, because it, it's not really l- logical to say, "Oh, now you have to be this guy, and you're not a team player if you're not this guy." You've got a Super Bowl ring. 11:07 You've got Pro Bowls. You've got all these other accolades. You've got Ciara. You... The, the phone calls will come from, like, reality shows looking for a host. Yeah. That's where they are come from. 11:16 So you might, uh, it, it might be just- Big Brother: Fifty-Eight or whatever it is. It'll be a Big Brother next year, right? Right. Right. Or, or whatever. Survivor. Put him on an island, Russ Island. 11:25 He can throw moon balls on Russ Island on Survivor. Love Island with Russ and Ciara. There you go. Let 'em, let them host. It's done. It's done. It's good. It's watchable. It clicks. It clicks, baby. 11:37 The Giants offense don't click, but that clicks. 11:40 Speaking of Love Island, the NFC North, that, that, that race kinda got turned on its ears, and it's become a love-hate relationship, I think, in terms of what the Packers are or what they aren't, what the Detroit Lions are or what they aren't. 11:52 And of course, you saw Isaiah Rodgers just completely take over the game with the greatest performance ever by a defensive back in NFL history against Jake Browning and the fighting Cincinnati Bengals running out the clock on Zach Taylor. 12:04 But, but when you just look at the two teams at the top of the division right now, where are you at on the Lions, and where are you at on the Packers? 12:11 Because it feels like Monday night in BaltimoreBased on what happened on Sunday afternoon in Cleveland, Mike, maybe that script flipped just a little bit It rebooted. We slapped the side of the NFC North and it rebooted. 12:25 It rebooted in a factory specification mode now. After week one, after the Parsons trade, we are back to, yeah, the Lions are those guys. They are that team. Uh, the culture matters. The, the, the infrastructure matters. 12:39 Campbell matters. Go- Goff is better than all the, the, the, the smart odds say he is, et cetera, et cetera. And we've rebooted the Packers on the, yes, Packers are a playoff team. Yes, Parsons has improved them. 12:49 Yes, there are still problems. Yes, this is not perfect. 12:53 And they're the two teams at the top, and we've even rebooted the Vikings at, oh, they've got their backup quarterback out there and they're playing well, which is pretty much Vikings to fall. 13:01 So they've been re- For sure. [laughs] And for sure. I talked about this on the Nightcap Recap with Joe Staszak late on Sunday night, early Monday morning. 13:08 It, it has become autopilot quarterbacking in Minnesota with Kevin O'Connell. Mm-hmm. Carson Wentz, it almost doesn't matter. 13:14 As long as you're semi-competent, you're going to do fine, especially with Brian Flores' defense. 13:19 You know, if you had to ask me, am I in or out on the Lions or the Packers, a- and you know how optimistic I've been about Green Bay, how much higher I felt Micah Parsons lifted their ceiling- Mm... 13:30 that they might be the legitimate biggest threat to the Eagles, if not already the team to beat in the NFC. 13:36 After what I saw Monday night in Baltimore, what I saw the Lions do, I feel like I'm shifting back towards riding with- Yeah... 13:42 the fighting Dan Campbells, because when you can run the ball the way they did, and ag- again, I know that the Ravens defense was banged up, but Mike Green was still there, and he had a couple big impact plays where there were impact plays to be had. 13:54 But Jahmyr Gibbs, 67 yards, two scores, really the focal point of that offense. David Montgomery, 151 rushing yards- Ooh... two touchdowns. He averaged 12.6 yards per carry. 14:04 I know he had the two chunk plays, but it was, it felt like five yards, five yards, 12 yards, 57 yards, five yards- Mm-hmm... 13 yards. Every play was a chunk play. 14:12 When you can do that, and when you can play defense the way they did against that roster and that quarterback, man, it just feels like they've, they've somehow figured it out again in Detroit. Both teams are for real. 14:23 Both teams are for real. That's it. And the, the Lions gave us all these reasons for pessimism with their injuries and not adding guys, and then losing in week one. It's like, okay, yeah, we were pessimistic. 14:34 Packers gave us all these reasons for optimism with the Parsons trade, big week one win, big week two win. Okay, Golden's playing well. 14:41 And we got maybe slightly over-optimistic, but there's no reason to not still be optimistic for that team, and they're both gonna be very, very good. 14:48 [laughs] And it's like, all right, here, here we are again, y- you know, with, with that particular division. You can start crossing teams off the bottom. 14:55 I don't think the Bears are going anywhere, so you can start crossing those off, but that's where we are with these teams. By the way, last night, you saw the touchdown that was the little pitch to Aman St. 15:05 Brown, and then he pitched it to- I have the three TVs in the command center for Sunday. 15:10 I toyed with the idea of, during the podcast, just having that play on replay on all three so that I could watch it and relive the joy of it over and over again. Just, just a thing of beauty. I loved it. 15:20 I can't wait to watch a bad team try it. I cannot wait to see the Giants version of that. I can't wait to see the Tennessee Titans version of that. 15:28 There are gonna be balls bouncing all over the Lord's creation as they try to replicate that play instead of running, like, a quarterback sneak. Absolutely phenomenal play. 15:35 By the way, I did see you on, on your Sunday night podcast, uh, with, with, with your, with your snifter of whiskey in your hand. Yes. I see how it is. I see how it is. I, I see how the sausage gets made. 15:46 Open invite to you. Open invite to you, but I know that Sundays are chaotic for both of us writing the column. If y- Right... you, you tell me any Sunday you wanna jump on, y- you, you're on the marquee. 15:57 It is the Between the Hash Marks podcast with Lombardo and Tanier. If Tanier wants to join, come on over. To be clear, after Jordan Davis' blocked kick return, we put up a round of shots at the bar. 16:10 I could not have had another glass of whiskey at, like, 10 o'clock at night. That would've been it. It would've been more typo than article on Monday morning, so it could not have been done. 16:20 No doubt about it, but what a great way. You know, the, the, the image of them actually designing that play- Mm-hmm... where the initial handoff to St. 16:28 Brown, Jared Goff handed him the ball horizono- uh, vertically- Yeah... so it could be an easier pitch on the run. Yeah. Just to think that with that level of detail, that a good team is going to practice it like that. 16:39 Mm-hmm. You, you, you brought up, you know, the bad team running it. My mind eventually, automatically goes back to when the Wildcat was taking the NFL by storm- Yeah... 16:47 and I was covering the Eagles for nj.com, and at Lincoln Financial Field, I, I happened to watch, uh, the Eagles try to run the Wildcat, and the backwards pass that went, like, four yards back behind the line of scrimmage- [laughs]... 17:01 just seemed like it was a complete and total mess. You're right. It's gonna be like football follies when, uh- [laughs]... when, when, when, when Zach Taylor gets his hands on this play. [laughs] Oh, gosh, yes. 17:12 We're gonna put Jamar Chase in the backfield. We're gonna have him pitch it to Chase Brown. No. Just throw a bomb. Just throw a bomb to Chase. Don't try this. Don't try this at home, people. For sure. 17:23 And, and Monday night was a, a fireworks show of a way to end what was really a thrilling, chaotic, insane NFL Sunday. Um, but, but going into it, I have to call, I have to coin the nickname. 17:36 It, it's Mike Stradamus here, because- [laughs]... I think it was last Wednesday, you, you, you write this really in-depth, deep dive feature- Mm... which is really the trademark of the Two Deep Zone. 17:45 If, if, if we get down to brass tacks, it's not just that you're the best in the business. 17:49 It's that you're the best in the business at putting together stories like this, where you take the, the analytics, the stats, and you weave this narrative together like you did with the kickoffs- Mm-hmm... 17:59 and how the kickoff rule was making it a play again. Right. And all of a sudden, Sunday, we get Jalen Lane with a- Yeah... 18:05 kickoff return for a touchdown, um, i- in Washington for the Commanders, and you get a 95-yard Tori Horton kickoff return for a touchdown, uh, for the Seahawks. 18:15 Uh, the NFL is getting what they wanted, and, and, you know, if they haven't called you to, to join the panel of scriptwriters- [laughs]... maybe they should. Oh, I would love to. 18:25 Please let me do the wrestling scripts for the NFL, but, uh, thank you very much. It was, and, and Deebo had a long return also for the Commanders, and he wound up as the cover person on that. 18:35 Um, and then the flip side of that, 'cause what we're talking about is, yes, you're seeing all kind of diversity of, uh, strategy right now.Where, oh, Deebo Samuel, he's a kickoff returner again. 18:44 We're not, like, saving him for offense 'cause that's an important play. And then you had the Eagles, 18:49 and block kicks and everything aside, but when the Eagles are trying to kick- do a kickoff return, it was hilariously bad. Tank Bigsby looked like he was a toddler trying to chase a squirrel around in the backyard. 19:01 It was tough. Falcons had the same problem. The Falcons have Ray-Ray McCloud, who's been returning kicks since like 2018, and he can't return these kickoffs. 19:10 And what you're seeing is some teams have, like, their kickers are like, I, I guess it's a sand wedge. You golf, like- Yeah... 19:15 if you're trying to drop, like, like a floppy doodle, like, shot onto like a wet green, what do you use? It's, it's like a lob wedge, right? Like a, like a lob wedge. 19:23 Get, get a lot of height and, and have it just stick it. And Josh Cardy was just, you know... I talked to a special teams coach over the summer, and he said- Yeah... 19:31 "Look, we had plays drawn up as the kicker on how to defeat this thing. You have to land it in certain spots, and it has to be a certain, well, you know, launch angle coming off the tee to make it happen." 19:43 It, it seems like the Rams, I wrote this in the column, Mike, it's like for the first half of that game, th- they decided that they were not only going to follow the Eagles', uh, manual, owner's manual of complementary football, but they wrote the special teams addendum- Yeah, be-... 19:57 because Cardy became a legitimate weapon. Right. 20:00 He became an actual component of the game because they buried the Eagles from a field position standpoint at every opportunity they could because of the squib kick strategy. And he did the same thing against the Texans. 20:12 You go back to the Texans game, I think they were at the 15-yard line a couple of times where they're wobbling it in there. 20:17 Looks like the Panthers guy also has a wobbler in there, and then different kickers have different things. 20:21 It's gotta be a skill that not everyone has mastered, that some are better at than others, that some have been taught to do a different way than others. And I'll flip this around to the kick returners. 20:29 I mentioned that, like, you know, Ray-Ray McCloud couldn't do it. Tank Bigsby's been returning kicks for a couple years. He has- wasn't able to do it. 20:35 Purpin has some big returns for the Cowboys, but he has a couple of, he has a couple fumble dumbles too. When are football players taught to c- catch a bouncing ball, ever? Well, I, I'll tell you this. Yeah. 20:46 My football career ended at 95 pounds Pop Warner. [laughs] Okay, okay. I, I was, I was essentially the tight end. Um- Okay... 20:54 and, and, and, and we were not taught to, to, uh, catch bouncing, uh, bouncing kicks or bouncing punts- No... or, or, or- Right... how to recover bouncing balls. 21:03 So, uh, you know, unless it's changed in the last 28 years, 30 years, whatever it's been, I, I don't know that it was ever taught. We, we've watched for- special teams r- return drills for years. 21:14 Now, granted, we are always texting and tweeting during the special teams returns. 21:18 But we are there, and of course the kicker and the punter are practicing their long kicks and punts, or they're using a machine, and the guys are catching them in the air. 21:26 You catch punts in the air, you catch field goals in the air. I, I mean, kickoff returns in the air. Obviously, you catch interceptions and passes in the air. Defenses will sometimes do a fumble recovery drill 21:37 every once in a while, so you're picking up a loose ball. I, I, I always looked at that, first of all, it'd be five minutes during the course of the entire practice, and I always thought that was a morale booster. Yeah. 21:46 Yeah. "Oh, we, we got a touchdown," and the guys high-five and they shout at each other if they, if they bobble it or whatever. So- "Practice ends five minutes early tomorrow. Yay." Yeah, yeah, yeah. 21:55 If you recover this cleanly, all that kind of stuff. That's kind of like how the fumble return drills work. And that, so now kickoff returners are catching on one hop. Yeah. Like, they have to be shortstops. Right. 22:07 And they're just not equipped to do it. Right. They haven't pra- They don't have many guys that are equipped to do it. Yeah, they haven't practiced it. 22:12 They, they, I'm sure they practice it in spring and summer, but they didn't practice it when they were 19 or whatever, so we're gonna have an adjustment period to it, and that's gonna be really fascinating. 22:21 And a lot to get into in that Eagles game. Um, we'll get into the offense and how it came alive late. Um, but, but Kyle Lutz checks in in the chat, says, "Mike- Hey... 22:30 what do you think of the Eagles blocking two field goals? The first time in exactly 50 years. Bill Bergey blocked two field goal attempts and an extra point back in 1975." 22:39 Little bit of history there from our guy, Kyle Lutz. Well, Kyle, I know you are younger than me, so I don't know where the Bill Bergey fact came from, but I love it. I love it. I love to hear it. 22:50 I don't remember that, and I'm very old. Um, but two field goals, first time since Bill Bergey, obviously. Y- y- and y- you're based in the Philadelphia area, Matt. Absolute pandemonium. You love to see... 23:02 It was a f- it was a fluky win when you get right down to it. There's a fluky element to it. But the Eagles were in that game because they went down 23 to six, did not throw in the towel. Found adjustments. Found A.J. 23:13 Brown, who I know we want to talk about A.J. Brown a little bit. Rediscovered him, uh, hiding in plain sight in the offense. Also made big stops on defense. 23:21 And you put yourself in position to make, to, to, to roll a crit. To roll a natural 20, and to get that, get that fake kick, uh, blocked kick. For sure. For, for sure. 23:30 And I think that what that game really showed is I think that it, it, it proved a couple of narratives a- as is close to fact as you're going to get. The big picture, defense can still win you a championship, right? 23:42 Because, you know, Vic Fangio's defense, it bent, it buckled, but it didn't break. They held the Rams to, to four field goal attempts in the first half. 23:49 That game could've gotten out of hand really, really quickly, to the point that the Eagles wouldn't have been able to come back. Um, but I also think it reinforces the fact that A.J. 23:58 Brown, not Saquon Barkley, not DeVonta Smith, maybe not even Jalen Hurts, but A.J. Brown is the most important offensive player on that Philadelphia Eagles roster. Mm-hmm. 24:08 Because you think back to a year ago, when he was out against Tampa Bay, the offense looked completely out of sync. 24:13 You look at what happened on Sunday for the first half, really two and a half, three quarters of that game, the offense really looked out of sync. But all it took was that 38-yard bomb to get him involved. Mm. 24:24 Two plays later, it's a 33-yard strike down the seam to Dallas Goedert for the touchdown. Mm-hmm. Um, I spoke to an AFC scout afterwards, and he told me, quote, "A.J. 24:31 Brown is so big, so fast, so strong, that Philly gets blown out if he doesn't make that one big play in the second half. I think he's right. They really should get him the ball more. 24:41 They should get him the ball a lot more," unquote.Yeah, and you know, Tom Brady was saying the same thing during the broadcast. I'm gonna try and do my Brady voice here. 24:49 Um, you know, "It really doesn't have to be that complicated." Um, you know, Tom Brady sounds a little bit like David Lynch. It's what, you gotta go way up in the nostrils here. 24:58 Uh, you know, "He- he's so much bigger and stronger than the guy covering him. Uh, you know, you j- just get the ball up there. Just put, put the ball on his hands and see if he can make the play." 25:07 A- and really that is it. 25:08 And I think there's been a reluctance so far this season to do the obvious, and I don't know if that's AJ McCarron, Hurts, or Greg Caputo, or if it's Sirianni, or just that they add, every year they add 27 new wrinkles to the offense 'cause of the new coordinator. 25:23 Put the ball up for AJ Brown, and wo- worry about if he's getting covered by Jalen Ramsey or somebody like that when he's getting covered by Jalen Ramsey. Until then, if it's Emmanuel, Phil Forbes, put the ball up there. 25:35 And that opens everything el- uh, else up. Now, I was talking on Aaron Schatz's podcast, 25:40 and on that one play, the, that first play you're talking about, it was twins to the right, AJ Brown, Devontae Smith in the slot, two tight ends on the left, shotgun, I think it was shotgun, I don't recall, but, like, Barkley in the backfield. 25:54 In the old days it would've been Swift or somebody in the backfield, or Sanders. That's hard to stop. Yeah. 25:58 If you're gonna throw the ball deep up the sideline to Brown or have him do a scissors or some other thing and then make it committee, that's gonna be hard to stop. 26:06 If you run the ball to the right with Saquon, it's going to be hard to stop. If you're doing zone read, it's gonna be hard to stop. 26:10 You don't have to have 27 pieces of motion and empty backfields and all of these other things when you have this personnel. 26:17 You can have a re- relatively stripped down playbook that's instinctive, and adjustments can be made at the line of scrimmage, and you can beat most opponents with that if you're the Philadelphia Eagles. 26:25 And I'm hoping that what we saw in the second half is the time we're gonna see more of that in the weeks to come. For sure. 26:31 And you know, it, it just seems like i- if AJ Brown is that vital to what they do, if the big play opens up so much of it, I, I don't understand the concept of committing to the run as aggressively as they were trying to do on Sunday without loosening up the safeties over the top, without making the linebackers- Right... 26:48 respect the middle of the field. Especially when you're looking at a situation where Saquon Barkley through three weeks averaging 3.3 yards per carry. Yeah. Sunday he averaged 2.6 yards per carry. 26:58 He has 58 carries, 194 yards. It was always going to look a little bit different going into this year because- Yeah... teams are going to sell out to take Saquon Barkley away. 27:07 But if they're doing that, and it becomes apparent early on that you're not gonna beat them with Saquon Barkley, you need to start going over the top earlier on to AJ Brown, not only to get AJ Brown involved, but to kind of unlock everything else that you do really well. 27:23 Yeah, and there are things that the Eagles just don't do much still, like play action passing. 27:28 It's like you can do a play action pass, you can do a play action zone read where they're worried about both Barkley and Hurts r- uh, running, and then you can take the ball over the top. 27:35 Again, some of this stuff is relatively primitive, and I'm shocked that it's not in the offense right now. 27:40 But let's see, maybe that was a sign of things to come and it's like, let's keep it simple, let's get the ball to our playmakers. Hey, Barkley can run outside, too. 27:48 I mean, I, the number of times where it's just like, "Okay, we're, we're just gonna, we're just gonna go, like, right between the guard and the tackle here with, with Barkley and see if there's, like, a 15-yard hole waiting for him." 27:57 I, I don't know. At some point you have to say no. There, there was always creativity in that running game. That has to come back. For sure. 28:04 And I think that when you look at what the Eagles are right now, you asked the question in the outline, are they the, the worst 3-0 defending champions ever? [laughs] I, I don't know that I'm ready to go there. Wow. 28:14 Only because I think that defensively they have a lot of things that you, you're still trying to figure out. But that defense is playing at a really high level. 28:22 Um, you know, they're, they're getting stops inside the red zone. They're, they're manufacturing pressure without a really dominant individual pass rusher. Uh, and, and they're 3-0. They're, they're finding ways to win. 28:34 It, it's hard to win in the NFL. It's not college where you have to blow teams out 42 to 7 to, you know- Mm-hmm... put together style points to impress the playoff committee and all those things. 28:44 The, the, they're undefeated. The, the biggest test so far to me is gonna be Sunday in Tampa. Mm-hmm. Because I, I look at what the Buccaneers are doing. Baker Mayfield's playing at a, an elite level. 28:53 Uh, Mike Evans is playing really well. Emeka Egbuka looks like he's arriving ahead of schedule, not just as a luxury piece, but as a legitimate weapon. And that defense, they, they'll pressure you all day. 29:04 They, they'll just, those... Todd Bowles does not give a damn about pressuring on 62% of snaps. He knows his guys- Yeah... 29:10 are gonna get home, and his safeties and his defensive backs are good enough that when they don't, he's still gonna force you into a mistake. 29:16 So I think that, that Sunday's a big litmus test barometer game for both the Eagles and the NFC race. 29:22 Um, but, but that offense is gonna have to start pulling its weight a little bit if you're gonna think about them making a r- a long playoff run. Also, Tampa in Tampa is mortar for the Eagles. 29:31 You know, you can go back for years, and Tampa in Tampa is where the nightmares tend to happen. Last year there was a nightmare in Tampa. Gotta check the injury report on Evans. 29:40 Gotta check the injury report on Lane Johnson. Is that correct? That, that's a s- situation that's still developing right now. Shoulder and neck, I believe, for, for Lane Johnson. Ooh. Evans left the game early. 29:49 But, but even so, you know, E- Egbuka looks like he is the real deal. And, and I know- Yeah... it's hard to win with just one receiver, but they run- Yeah... the ball really well with Bucky Irving. 29:58 They run the ball- Mm-hmm... really well overall. They still have Cade Otton. They still have, you know, Baker Mayfield and his mobility and manufacturing plays. 30:05 And it's just the, the idea of going down to Tampa in 94-degree weather and 107%- Mm-hmm... humidity. 30:12 It, it just feels like this is a, a, a spot for a Buccaneers team that's itching to make a statement to, to maybe get a scalp to hang on their wall. Right. 30:20 And all I can say about that right now is nobody's perfect in the NFC. Nobody's perfect in the NFC. Buccaneers are winning. They're winning these games at the end with, like, miracles every single week. 30:31 That's not a detriment, but, like, if you're gonna say, "Oh, Eagles are only winning close games," Buccaneers are only winning close games. Lions look like they were, uh, took a knockout punch in week one. They're back. 30:41 Packers looked unstoppable. They've fallen by the wayside. There is no, there's no Bills. There are no Buffalo Bills in the NFC. 30:49 So go out there with your flood selvesTry to mask your flaws, try to accentuate your strength. Eagles and, like, four or five other teams are in position to do that, and do that all the way to a Super Bowl. For sure. 31:01 And, you know, it's gonna be a fascinating race to see develop, because you have the Packers, you have the Lions that are picking up steam, the Bucs are the Bucs. The Commanders... 31:09 Look, I, I was impressed by what Washington did- Yeah... not because it was the Raiders, but the fact that they won in all three phases without Jayden Daniels. Yeah. 31:17 And you're starting to see Jamin Lane make really, you know, legitimate, tangible contributions. You're seeing Brian Rodriguez emerge. You're seeing- Mm-hmm... 31:26 the sixth-round ru- running back, you know, Bill emerge as, as a- [laughs]... a, a complimentary weapon. The defense is playing really, really well. 31:35 You know, uh, people were really quick to write off the Commanders after that loss in Lambeau. Not so fast, my friend. I still think Washington belongs in that conversation. 31:43 There aren't any elite teams, but I think there are a lot of really good teams that are going to make it a compelling race, uh, for, for the entirety of the 17-game season. Including the Rams. 31:52 Including the Rams, who were kicking the snot out of the Eagles through two and a half quarters, and made some mistakes on their end, otherwise they'd be talking about them as a 3-0 team. 32:01 Um, and I, and I don't want to rule out the 49ers, although, uh- No, don't. Not, you, you don't wanna ru- rule them... You of all people aren't ready to, to write them off. 32:13 I ought to cue the MASH theme here and just start singing it. It'll be Ha- Hawkeye, BJ, uh, and Colonel Potter are gonna rule them out right now. Credit to them for the effort they're doing. I don't, I can't see it now. 32:23 With Bosa gone, it's a bridge too far in a very tough division. Um, but, like, okay, we- we- we'll see. Yeah, and, and losing your top pass rusher, that, that's never good for anybody. 32:36 Um, Brandon Aiyuk's still working his way back. Jauan Jennings, uh, didn't play on Sunday afternoon. I, I will say I, I like the balance. 32:45 I like the fact that they're not running Christian McCaffrey into the ground, but he still finds a way- [laughs]... uh, to post 140, uh, yards from scrimmage. He's still a major- Mm-hmm... factor there. 32:56 And Ricky Pearsall, uh, whether Aiyuk comes back or not- Yeah, he could... whether Jennings comes back or not, Ricky Pearsall might be wide receiver one. 33:05 Eight catches, 100, 117 yards, has a 34-yard play, has another catch of 15-plus yards. I don't know if it's gonna be Brock Purdy or Mac Jones this week. It sounds like Purdy might be coming back. Yeah. 33:17 Are they healthy enough to, to withstand it? I guess that's gonna be the biggest question for them. 33:22 I, I, I like the balance in that they don't really have an offense, but their opponents don't really have an offense, and that's how [laughs] they're winning the games right now, where you go out there, the Seahawks you get into a muck fest, the Saints you get into a rock fight, and the Cardinals you wait around for the Cardinals to implode, and that's how you win the game. 33:39 Um, I, I, I don't know. I'm looking up ahead. Jacksonville's gonna be an interesting litmus test for the Niners this week. The, the, talk about a self-destructive team. You can get them to trip over their own feet. 33:49 Then you go at Rams, at Buccaneers. Okay, maybe you're 4-2 coming out of those and Aiyuk is coming back. We'll see. It's ju- it looks like fate itself is trying to play its hand against this team. 34:00 As it has for the last couple of years, right? It's been three years. Hasn't the storyline the last two years been is the attrition gonna catch up to them? Are they gonna be able to overcome the injuries? 34:08 Is playing that many games as they have the last three years, runs to the Super Bowl with the conference title game, gonna catch up to them? We thought it would've been a year ago, and it was. 34:16 May- maybe they just, maybe there's just too much attrition, too many injuries, and it's kind of a reload cycle, uh, for, for John Lynch and the 49ers right now. 34:27 They were the healthiest team in the NFL when they went to the Super Bowl. It's like they sold their soul 34:33 and said, and said, "Satan, we sold our soul for the health that we need to be leading in overtime in the Super Bowl." And Satan was like, "You got it. You got it. Airtight." You don't even want the trophy? 34:47 You don't even want, um, the, the- "Airt- airtight. No, no, the, the way you said it was perfect. I can't find the flaw in your reasoning. 34:53 No problem, and I'm not going to injure all of your players for two years after that. You, g- good work, Kyle. Genius. No notes." But, but, but here's the thing. We talk about the MASH unit, right? 35:01 We talk about the injuries. Mm-hmm. We talk about losing your top pass rusher. We talk about the revolving-door quarterback. Mike, they're 3-0. Yeah. 35:09 And the, the, the Cardinals look like they took their best shot, and their best shot was playing decent defense, forcing a couple turnovers, and then Marvin Harrison Jr. dropping an infield fly rule, right? 35:19 [laughs] Like, and that, that's just what they are. [laughs] Yes, infield fly rule. Can I just say this? I have to s- say this to Aaron. I know if I'm on Jarrett's podcast or whatever, the Cardinals are bad. 35:30 The Cardinals are not a good football team. Stop thinking it. 35:33 Stop going with, like, your weird priors about DVOA projections or, or, "Look, look at all the guys they signed," or, you know, "If everyone develops right now and Marvin Harrison Jr. 35:43 decides he really wants to play football and not just, like, be a failson." It's not happening. They barely beat the Saints. The Saints went on to lose by 97 points. 35:54 The Saints can't cover a punt return, and the Cardinals played them through the absolute wall. It's not a good team, not a good team, not a good team. I'm tired of hearing about them. You don't watch the games. 36:06 None, none of you are watching the games. I'm calling it right now. I, I saw the game. I saw the game. I was watching it on Sunday afternoon. It was one of the... There were three... 36:12 My, my favorite kind of NFL Sunday is when- Uh-huh... there's only three 4:00 games, or at least three- Okay... 36:18 meaningful 4:00 games that matter, 'cause I have three TVs, so I don't have to mess around with the red zone on one of them. I can actually watch all three. Got to do that with the 49ers. 36:27 The, the Cardinals put the fear of God into them, and then Marvin Harrison decided that he has three left hands. 36:33 They put the fear of God into Mac Jones and Chungus Chungus or whatever the guy, the, the fifth-string tight end's name is, and Ricky Pearsall, and Kendrick Bourne, and Marquez Marquez Cantling, and all these backups, and, like, yeah, we're, we're, we're taking it to them. 36:49 We, we, we got a two-point lead. I, I, okay, you were watching, you were watching Broncos-Chargers.And you were watching Bears-Cowboys like everybody else was, and sort of h- h- tut- tutting and ha- hawing around. Right. 37:03 Right. And you were looking over from time to time to check the score on the third one. You were. You were. Admit it. You know me too damn well. [laughs] I know everyone. It's human nature. 37:14 No one's like, "I gotta watch Mac Jones versus Kyler Murray today." Kyler Murray's father was not watching that game. He was watching, he was like, "I wonder what Caleb Williams stuff do. I gotta see that." That said, 37:25 the, the, the toughest opponents, the rest- the, the, on the schedule, they, they still have the Falcons, who've decided they no longer wanna play football. [laughs] Th- they have Jackson Dart in New York. 37:34 They have the Cardinals again. They have the Panthers, which they, they've got the benefit of the Falcons deciding they don't wanna play football anymore. 37:42 Yes, they have the Brown- they have Jim Schwartz's defense in Cleveland, but they have Tennessee. They have the Bears. They have a rematch with Seattle the last week of the year. 37:50 You might be looking at this as a 13 and 4 49ers football team just by the graces of the schedule, and then finding a way to figure it out, and we all get to pull our hair out again in January trying to figure out why did this team, how did this team do what it did? 38:05 It's because that division stinks. You're right, the division stinks. It stinks. It's terrible. I... 38:10 The, the team you're look- the team you have to watch out for is the Rams, and the other team you have to watch out for is the Seahawks, who I don't think are a great team by any, uh, stretch of the imagination. 38:19 Two convincing wins, one against a waiver wire in matching helmets, the New Orleans Saints. Uh, but they're, they're healthy, and they have a stout defense, and they're starting to figure things out on offense. 38:32 But I think the team you wanna see coming out of that division, watch the Rams. The Rams kinda coughed it up this week. I think they're a solid overall team. Yeah, I think, I think you're right. 38:40 I think the Rams are the sleeper. I think the Seahawks have the picks there, the, the, the pieces there. Um- Mm-hmm... 38:46 I wanna go back to the AFC, and one of the teams that we've talked about as one of the best teams in football, probably dating back, you know, to, to the summertime, and maybe even the free agency and after the draft, thinking they have the, one of the deepest rosters in football. 38:59 That's the Baltimore Ravens. They- they're- Mm-hmm... they're now one and two- Yeah... or two and one, w- two and one rather. And, and I don't know, one, yeah, one and two. One and two. One and two. Stick with the brain. 39:08 So the brain was right the first time. [laughs] The Ravens are one and two, but, but they have all of these pieces, and they have- Mm-hmm... 39:15 Lamar Jackson, but I don't know what to make of them when they let what happened to them happen to them in their own building last night. Here's a couple of things. One is there's a Derrick Henry problem right now. Yeah. 39:27 Yeah. Ag- getting washed comes in all shapes and si- sizes. You do not know how the wash monster will come. 39:33 It might come in the form of fumbles, and there's three, he's, Henry is three for three with fumbles over the last three weeks. That is a legitimate concern. His fumbles were big contributors to both of their losses. 39:45 So this is a team that can win without Henry. They've got other running backs. If Henry is not that guy anymore, they, they were good without him in the past, they can be without him in the future. 39:54 I don't know how you a- even approach this, 'cause I can't imagine sitting in the offensive coordinator room saying, "Yeah, maybe, maybe we should bench Derrick Henry." Those words could not leave my lips. If- No... 40:05 if, and they do- But you know what? You do. I- inside of, inside of six minutes, if you're leading, those handles go to Justice Hill until proven otherwise, right? I mean, you, if you ride Derrick Henry- Yeah... 40:16 for, for three quarters, maybe this is the magic formula to keep Derrick Henry fresh into January when you- Maybe... need him most too, is, "Hey, fourth quarter time, it used to be the, the rock hammer of Derrick Henry." 40:28 Mm-hmm. "But we're gonna give it to Justice Hill, where we, you know, until you earn those carries back, until you can go weeks without fumbling, it, it, it, it's Hill time. Forget Miller time- Like-... it's Hill time." 40:38 You don't sell that to him or everyone else on, in the roster that way. You sell it the way you said it. "We're keeping him fresh right now." Those carries can go to anybody. Hill's a veteran, okay? 40:47 We're keeping Henry fresh for January. "Derrick, we're keeping you fresh for January." And then y- that way, y- you know, in the, in the room, it doesn't come across like, "Okay, this is, this is chaos." 40:57 On, on the one hand, I think the Steelers are frauds, and I think the Bengals kinda demonstrated that the- it's look out below right now. I, I ki- I do like Jake Browning. I don't like their offensive line. 41:07 Oh, so you're the guy. You're the guy who likes Jake Browning. You're the one. Yeah, I like Jake Browning. I like Jake Browning. Okay. Okay? I still, I, I'm still a Brown Liber. 41:17 Um, but I don't believe in their offensive line or their defense, so that's, you know, so that's it for them. So I think that the Ravens will be fine. They're gonna be a playoff team. 41:26 I think they'll still win that division. Here's the problem. Here's your reward for having faced the Bills and Lions already. Chiefs, Texans, Rams. Okay. Mm. So the Texans are [blows raspberry] right now. 41:38 They, they have zero offense. They have less than zero offense. Their defense is still tough. You can't disregard the Chiefs, as bad as they're struggling, and the Rams- Yeah, no, I-... are a very strong team. Yeah. 41:48 I know, I do. I mean, tough place to play. Um, we're gonna get to that game in a little bit, I'm sure. 41:53 I, but, you know, for, for all the issues and all the hand-wringing about Derrick Henry's fumbles, and rightfully so, and you had the really awful fumble, uh, by Lamar Jackson last night too, um- Yeah... 42:04 the, the defense gave up six yards a carry. The defense gave up 426 yards, and I know that- Mm-hmm... they were missing a couple guys up front. Yeah. 42:10 Like we said, Mike Green, first-round pick, playing at a really high level, still made a couple of big plays. You can't give up 426 yards of total offense. You, you, you- Yeah... just can't. 42:18 I mean, that, that can't happen. You can't. They are facing one of the great running games. They are without Mandibuque, as you said, Van Noy. Vaporware, Ware Alexander, forget him. He's never coming back. 42:28 Um, I'm not super worried about that, 'cause I saw them out-physical the Bills. Right. That's what... A- and, and the, and the Browns are a physical team, and they, they were able to out-physical them. 42:38 Um, they've got to get to the bye at three and three, and they have to figure out what they're doing with Henry, 'cause they've shown in the past if they have depth, they can adjust on defense. 42:48 They can figure out a way of eliminating these flawsFor sure. Uh, let's, uh, fast-forward here to week four and the Circle Game, but we're taking the primetime matchup- Yeah... 42:58 off the board, because I think we're both gonna have eyes on Cowboys and Packers. Hell, maybe we should, like, sit down and watch that game and have the Nightcap recap together, even though we're both writing columns. 43:09 We're both gonna have eyes on Cowboys-Packers. A lot of drama there. Uh, I, I just almost can't wait to see if Michael Parsons goes off. 43:18 The constant panning of the Sunday Night crew cameras into the owner's box to get Jerry Jones's reaction. I know. I almost can't wait to see that. Um- Mm-hmm... but, but Circle Game, w- what do we got? 43:31 I picked, 'cause I wanna keep a wide berth on other things, we joked earlier about the worst 3-0 defending Super Bowl champions in NFL history, the Philadelphia Eagles. 43:41 How about the worst 3-0 team ever to completely blow out two of their opponents, the Indianapolis Colts? Now, of course, I'm always being facetious with that. Colts are demonstrating they're a pretty strong team overall. 43:54 Missed me forever with Daniel Jones is good now. That is false. That is not a real thing. 43:58 Daniel Jones is exactly as good as the Cardinals, which is not good, but good supporting cast around him, sturdy veteran line, sturdy veteran defense, winning the games they're supposed to win. 44:09 Going up against the Rams in Los Angeles, I believe the Rams are four-and-a-half point favorites. Now, whatever you might think about the Colts, would you take the C- Colts plus four and a half in that game? 44:22 Yeah, I think I'm taking the points. Oh. I think I'm taking the points. Um, I'm not ready to p- you know, put on my Daniel Jones fan club hat quite yet, but the dude just do- is checking all the boxes, right? 44:34 And, and, you know, he's- Oh, God, he's checking the boxes. He's literally standing there checking boxes. 44:39 Like, he's going click, click, and the pa- and the Dolphins' pass rush a- a- a- and, and t- can't get to him a- and Brian Callahan's on the sideline looking at his play sheet like, "Uh, what do you do at, when you're at the 48 yard line? 44:50 Is that field goal range?" And Jo- and Jones is back there, "Hmm, doo, doo, doo, what do I have to do when I go home?" Anyway, sorry, go on. Yeah, you're, you're patient- I see you patiently waiting through this rant. 45:00 Go on. You have Michael Pittman Jr., you have Alec Pierce, you have Jonathan Taylor, you have an offensive line that he never had in New York. Yes, he had Sa- Saquon Barkley. He never had anything else. 45:09 He has the pieces. He has 816 yards and three touchdowns, no picks. 45:14 That, that's the biggest differentiator for me, because what dogged him in New York was the putrid offensive line that they've spent 15 years trying to build, and they're still trying to, like, look at the blueprint and understand the directions like it's an IKEA piece of furniture, how to build an offensive line, and they still can't figure it out. 45:31 Th- th- he doesn't have those issues in, in Indianapolis. He has Shane Steichen, who un- understands quarterback play, at least to a degree. 45:40 Yeah, I'll, I'll take the Colts with the four and a half, and heck, uh, you know, I, I think Daniel Jones can play them into a division title, because I don't believe in any of these other three teams. 45:49 I don't even believe in the Colts, quite frankly. I don't believe- Okay... in the AFC South, but they're- Yeah... undefeated, they're getting the best quarterback play, they have the best offensive line. 45:58 Right, it, there is that level, where it's like, "Since I disbelieve the entire division, I disbelieve Daniel Jones equally, and therefore I think they can win," and that's fine, that's fair. 46:07 It lo- it looks like we're... We'll, we'll, we'll know more. This is the game with the, the wedge issue as to whether, how for real you think they are. By the way, have you ever 46:15 tried to put together a piece of IKEA furniture? 46:18 Dude, my, my daughter's, uh, the, the, like, dresser drawers where she keeps her clothes, I mean, they, they're, they're not quite wi- you know, bow done, but they, they, they're, they're not, they're not e- uh, they're not level. 46:30 I'll tell you that much. 46:31 It's like a Peewee's Big Adventure type thing, where there are all these, like, weird, uh- You kinda, like, punch the, the, the, the bottom of the drawer back up into place every time you put the laundry back in there. 46:40 Yes, I, I, I, I loathe, I loathe IKEA furniture. If I could sell just a few more Substack subscriptions, maybe I could afford to have somebody come to my house and build it for me. 46:50 Or maybe we could just- Or just buy non-IKEA. Just buy non-IKEA. Scientific fact, proven statistics have shown 97% of American divorces begin at IKEA. That makes sense. Yes. 47:04 Yeah, it, it- Is it because of what happens on the bedroom displays? 47:06 Like, if people, like, you know, uh- It, it, it, it's because of what happens when one spouse tries to put together the piece of furniture and fails, and turns to the other spouse, and they begin sort of snipping each other, or when you're in IKEA and you're trying to follow the arrows and you start getting lost, 47:23 and then, you know, "Well, sh- shouldn't you stop and ask for directions?" I'm not gonna ask for directions in IKEA. "Where, where, where are the meatballs? We just wanna get to..." "No, I don't wanna get the meatballs. 47:32 Uh, trust me." Yeah, you wind up- Trust me... in the warehouse. You're trying to get to the meatballs, you wind up in the warehouse where all of this stuff- Yeah. Oh, that too. 47:39 You have to go to the ware- 30 years of marriage. 30 years of marriage, one trip to IKEA. Yeah. And it almost came crashing down, just saying. That's good marriage maintenance by you. Yeah, no IKEA. 47:48 Here, here's the story I am. So when, when I worked at a previous outlet, you know, we would get, you know, uh, publicists would send us product. Say, "Hey, here's this cool product. 47:57 Talk about it on the podcast," or all these sort of things. Um, I had a publicist send me a, I believe it was like $2,500 or $3,000 NFL Blitz arcade, the actual arcade game that they have in the arcade. 48:11 I spent about an hour trying to build the thing. This was about- Oh... like maybe four years ago. The pieces are still sitting in the corner of my office. Like, two of the pegs are connected, but nothing else. 48:20 So if anybody knows how to, like, build these things, and you wanna make 50 bucks- Okay... I'll ship it to your house, and you can build it, and you can drive it over with your truck. How's that sound? 48:29 We'll have a contest, and the winner gets the partially built [laughs] NFL Blitz. So talk to your neighbors. Somebody will take that off your hands. I mean, that's an NFL Blitz console. Yes. 48:39 Yeah, that's, that's a lot of fun. I, again, I probably would've splurged to hire a contractor to put it together for me. 48:46 Uh- Yeah, i- in, in a perfect world, it's sitting right here as part of the backdrop for the podcast, and then afterwards, as it's loading, I'll, I'll, you know, play the video game. It'd be fun. Absolutely. Absolutely. 48:56 Absolutely. Couple more subscriptions to Matt's Inside the Hashmarks, and he may be able to hire a contractor to come and put together his NFL Blitz arcade game. So we have a goal here on the Substack.Okay. 49:10 Member-supported independent journalism. This is your chance. Paid subscriptions. 49:16 I- if we get to a certain number of paid subscriptions, maybe we'll see it in the back there, and we'll get to wa- we'll, we'll watch Matt play, and I, and I will comment on his, on his style. 49:24 We, we could do a, a play-by-play. It'd be great. It'd be a great segment. It'd be a great bit for the pod. My circle of game. We go to Arrowhead and Chiefs-Ravens. Yeah. It's the big one, you know? Yeah. 49:35 A- a- and, you know, this is the monster that Lamar Jackson and the Ravens can't slay in January, but they get the opportunity to drive the stake through the hearts of this year's Chiefs team in- Mm-hmm... 49:46 their building, coming off a brutal loss at home on Monday night, a short week. It doesn't matter. They go in there, and they're only gonna have so many chances at this, right? Because I think that both of these teams... 49:57 I think the Ravens are still the class of the AFC North, as you said. 50:00 I think that the Chiefs, the metamorphosis of the Chiefs, when they get Xavier Worthy, Rashee Rice, and, and Taquan Thornton all on the field at the same time- Mm.... 50:09 it's gonna induce whiplash from saying, "Oh- [laughs]... the Chiefs dynasty is over, they're done," to this being one of the most prolific, explosive passing offenses in the sport coming- Mm... 50:19 J- November to j- uh, J- December, January. This is the chance to make all of that irrelevant if you're Baltimore. Don't screw it up. 50:27 Go in there, get the upset, change the narrative, change the page, because at one and three, I don't even think Andy Reid and the Chiefs are coming back from that in a conference that has the Bills and has the Ravens, and has the Chargers. 50:39 Right. Right. And yeah, and somebody's going to be one and three, which is shocking at the end of that one. 50:43 And yeah, when you say you're not coming back from that, you're not coming back from that and running a gauntlet to the Super Bowl, and that becomes very hard for both of those teams, where if you say to the Ravens, "Okay, your reward for all this will be at Arrowhead, at Buffalo," that's a problem. 50:57 The Chiefs, if you turn to them and say, "If you mess this up, now you're a wild card," so you're gonna have to do some goofy at Indianapolis, at Baltimore, or what- what- whatever. 51:08 Uh, it- it's, it just makes the, "Oh, we're gonna pull ourselves together at the right time," it makes that even harder. Mike, what's coming up on the Two Deep Zone? Mailbag, mailbag, mailbag. 51:18 I just had to edit a bunch of things. I have to finish them, about Jaxson Dart now being the starting quarterback. People had a lot of Saints questions, which was weird, but we're doing it. 51:26 Eagles questions, philosophical questions. Mm. Uh, um, it's a, it's a multi... It's a multi-day air- uh, mailbag, let's put it that way. What do you got coming up? Can't wait. Friday mailbag as well. So if, if we- Yes... 51:37 have a lot of people in the room, if, if your question kind of overflows from Mike's mailbag, fire it my way at Between The Hash Marks- Yeah... 51:44 'cause I'll, I'll reach out to NFL scouts and executives, agents, get their thoughts on the biggest storylines around the league. It's a Friday tradition unlike any other at Between The Hash Marks. 51:53 Uh, so it's coming up on Friday, and then of course, 4 Downs on Monday. Uh, I don't know how an NFL Sunday can top what we just saw in week three, Mike, but it's gonna be fun to watch the league try, right? 52:03 Next Sunday starts at 9:30 in the morning. Yeah. [laughs] Yeah. Long day. Yeah. Long day. I won't, I won't- So Mike might have an extra pour on that [laughs], on Sunday. Yeah, I will not be having a pour with you. 52:15 Calling it right now. I'm not doing Sunday night this time, not with that, uh, on the schedule. But we will still have lots and lots of fun. He's Mike Tanier. Follow him on Bluesky, @miketanier. 52:24 Be sure you subscribe to the Two Deep Zone. It's mandatory reading. 52:27 Every Monday, my tradition is my daughter gets on the school bus, drop my son at daycare, I get my coffee at the coffee shop, and I sit down and I read, walk through, before getting, uh, going with my day. 52:38 Subscribe to the Two, the Two Deep Zone on Substack. Be sure you can follow me on, uh, Bluesky, @mattlombardonfl, @mattlombardonfl on Threads. Be sure to check in on YouTube. 52:49 If you're on YouTube, subscribe @mattlombardo975, and Between The Hash Marks on Substack as well. Mike, this has been a lot of fun. I love the interaction with the folks. I'm glad everybody- Yeah... could join us. 52:59 We might make this, uh, the new normal for the podcast. It went so well. It was so much fun. We'll see you from here. Yeah, absolutely. Take care, everybody. Enjoy the rest of your week.
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