Texans-Cowboys MNF Recap, Danny Dimes Benched and Finding Joy with Nick Shook

Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Nick Shook to break down the Texans and Cowboys facing off on Monday Night Football. The show starts with a discussion about why, although the Texans won, there is reason for concern (01:40), followed by talk about stand out players for the Texans (09:00), and the state of the Cowboys (13:18). After the break, the guys react to Daniel Jones being benched (25:40), give you injury updates on D.J. Turner, Nick Bosa, and Roquan Smith (38:23), reflect on what has brought them joy during the season (44:29), and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cooper rush with Daell to his left, punch formation white
after motion rush in trouble, strip shock, Who's got it?

Speaker 2 (00:09):
It's still loose? Touch it, pick it up.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Here's Barnett on the lawn.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Twenty fifteen, ten five touchdown scoop score Derek Barnett.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Derek Barnett does it all, causes the force fumble, waits
for his teammate to force another fumble, then picks up
the ball, goes into the end zone. You know, a
weird night in Dallas. They're all weird lately. Texans win
thirty four to ten. That was Mark VanderMeer of Kilt

(00:44):
little andre Ware in the booth as well, A fittingly
ugly but kind of fun touchdown on a night that
was just ugly. It wasn't fun at all for the
Dallas Cowboys, but it was much needed for the Texans.
And I'm joined by my friend Nick Schuok. I need
you with me to make sense of this Monday night

(01:06):
and make it entertaining for the listeners.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Uh well, I'll tell you this.

Speaker 4 (01:11):
I felt massive relief when Jalen Peatree flew in out
of nowhere and knocked that ball out of Tyler Guiton's hands,
freeing it for Derek Barnett to recover Scoop and score
for the decisive touchdown. Because in that moment, I realized
the Cowboys, who are not a good football team and
especially in this state, no longer have a chance of
making this game interesting. It's not that I don't want
to see an interesting game, It's that I don't want

(01:33):
to see a very obviously fraudulent team have a chance
through four quarters in a game like that. So good
on the Texans for getting that job done. They I
got some concerns about them, though, Greg, And I'm sure
we'll get into that here momentarily.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yeah, now, let's just get into it. So that that
touchdown happened with about twelve minutes to go in the game.
It made the game twenty seven to ten. You see
the final score thirty four to ten, you think blowout,
blow up, Cooper Rush and this Cowboys offense. Ultimately, they
weren't going to win this game. I don't you play
it ten times. I think they would have lost all

(02:07):
ten times.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
That said, the yardage ends up being close in this game,
and it was closer than it needed to be. In fact,
it was a one score game before Mike McCarthy actually
took points off the board after Brandon Aubrey hits a
sixty four yard field goal late in the third early fourth,
like when that drive was happening and it was going

(02:30):
to be twenty to thirteen. Instead, McCarthy understandably takes the
points off the board. They try to score a touchdown,
they don't go anywhere, and Cooper Rush tries to turn
the ball over a couple times. The Texans finally stopped them,
but at that point it's still a one score game,
and I'm just thinking, and I'm texting with other people

(02:51):
who love CJ. Straw and I'm watching this game, and
I'm thinking, like, is this offense just not gonna come together?
Because for them to look so disjointed in CJ. Stroud,
to look so inconsistent on a night against the Cowboys
where it just was all laid out for you, it
does make you wonder if it might not just happen
for this team despite the being seven and four and

(03:12):
having a couple winnable games coming up.

Speaker 4 (03:15):
Yeah, it's a perplexing situation because when you look at
them based on record, you're like, oh, well, this is
a good team. This is a team that's going to
be contending and probably make the playoffs because they're in
a bad division. But and when you watch the first
play of the game, you see Nico Collins take a
screen down the left side of the field for a touchdown.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
It gets wiped out by a penalty.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
But if you watch them over four quarters, you kind
of get to understand who the Texans are, which is
a bit of an enigma because at times, like in
the first half against Detroit the week prior, they looked explosive.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
CJ.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
Stroud's dealing, he's got time to throw, he's got that
quick release, he gets the ball out on time, on target,
and then you go to this week and it's like,
where is that? Where is the rhythm of this offense?
I'm done yearning for last year because I know it's
not going to happen with this team. It starts with
the offensive line. They have not protected him well all year.
They didn't protect him well at times tonight. I mean,
you let a free rusher through the a gap, but

(04:02):
a third down where you just got to immediately dirt
the ball and give up possession. That's concerning. Even with
Micah Parsons on the field. That's he's not blowing up
the game to the point where that you know, I'm
sitting back and watching this line thinking he's the problem.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
They're the problem.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
And I honestly think, and this is not a knock
on Bobby Slow because I think he's got a tough
job right now. They their offensive line issues I think
have like messed with his flow, like his ability to
call plays in games. There's a third and short situation
where they hurry up and try to sneak a playoff right,
and it's a quick pass to the sideline, a tank Dell.
It's inaccurate, it's incoplete, and then they punt on the
next play. If you're gonna do that, are you going

(04:36):
forward on fourth down? Like I know, I'm getting in
the weeds here a little bit, but it speaks to
the disjointed nature of the Texans, who at times look
broken offensively. And that's concerning considering they're probably gonna win
this division.

Speaker 3 (04:49):
No, I think that was a great sequence to point out, Nick,
because I'm with you, that was the sign of a
totally discombobulated offense. They punt at that point too. There
was a couple of times in this game actually, where
after failing on fourth down early in the game where CJ.
Stroud was intercepted, they decided to be aggressive. It was

(05:11):
when they were up seven to nothing and they go
for on a fourth and two, fourth and three, and
Stroud just throws a curious pass where it looked like
he had Nico Collins for the touchdown. Troy Aikman was
dumbfounded at first. I thought maybe it was a miscommunication.
He thinks Nico cowns kind of sit down. But it's
pretty clearly, you know, an inbreaking route and Nico had

(05:34):
certainly had the right read because it was gonna be
a touchdown, and Stroud just misses him. And there were
three or fourth throws like that in the night where
I think of Stroud's accuracy as being what's most special
about him, and he's just missing guys and he's out
of rhythm. I think that's the right word for it.

(05:55):
And they're talking up that their offensive line. This is
the second straight week they've had this same group for
the first time in a while, and they do think
this is their best five and maybe they will get
some cohesion. You mentioned that first play of the game.
That was Laramie Tunzell, who that's the first play of
the game. You know you've practiced that a million times,
and he made it easy. He's a legal man downfield,

(06:17):
and maybe they wouldn't have had the touchdown if he
wasn't downfield. He did get the block on that play.
We'll never know. Nico Collins certainly looks one hundred percent healthy.
That is a great sign, and he absolutely helped them
out tonight. But Laramie Tunzel's like the worst great player
in the NFL, you know what I mean. Like he's
an All Pro multiple times, but he screws up this

(06:37):
offense so many times. And there's so many moments of
this game where they're just disjointed. They're wide receivers and
their tight ends they can't block in the running game
very well. And that's the difference between them and some
of these other Shanahan McVeigh tree type of teams. They
draft and develop guys on the outside in terms of
their wide receivers and tight ends who can block. The
Texans can't. So I know we're sounding very negative, but

(06:59):
I think it's because we see the potential of this team.
I had this team in the conference championship before the season. Yeah,
and I'm actually not out of hope yet, how about you,
only because I've watched enough NFL seasons to know sometimes
if you just hang around and hang around, and you
have good players and the schedule's easy enough, sometimes it

(07:19):
really can click at the very last second, like it's possible.

Speaker 4 (07:23):
Yeah, well, that's the key, because at seven and four,
you have a little bit of leeway. You're not in
a good division, so you can kind of work out
the kinks. I'm getting impatient because they've spent so much
time not working out the kinks. But the idea of
continuity with that offensive line and this potentially being their
best five, that does encourage me. I like to compare
them to another team that I still have hoping that's
in a much worse spot, and that's the Cincinnati Bengals,
who we talked about last night, who have the inverse

(07:45):
of their record at this point and need to basically
win out to have a shot. The Texans aren't there.
They have a little bit of breathing room to figure
it out. But I also need them to prove it
to me to a degree, because like we talked, you
just talked about how they don't block the run. Well,
Joe Mixon still goes for a hundred and yards on
twenty carries and scores three rushing touchdowns. Like he's been
fantastic for most of the season, especially when he's been healthy,

(08:05):
and yet that's overcoming some struggles up front. So the
potential is there. It's just you have these remaining seven
weeks to figure it out. Are you going to figure
it out? Because the glimpses we've seen it, we just
need to see it over four quarters for me to
truly believe. I had them in the Super Bowl, Greg,
I know it was going out on the limb a
little bit. I had Lions Texans in the Super Bowl.
I would love to see that, But right now I

(08:26):
don't quite believe in.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
Having it's having I mean, I'm saying I'm holding out hope.
I just have seen too much of NFL football where
it can just surprisingly come together at the end for them.
Maybe that's winning a playoff game or two. You just
never know. I'm feeling great by the way. I went
back to look at my predictions today, and man, I'm
feeling great about those conference championships. I have Lions over Eagles.

(08:50):
That's pretty good. And then I have Bills over Texans.
Don't feel good about the Texans, but I do like
my MVP, Josh Bill. Bill's winning the Super Bowl stack
right now, feeling good. So you never know, let's go.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Okay, you're on a heater.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
This was a game that look like we talked about
this last night, We thought it was going to be
a blot, right. This is a game where if you're
actually of that caliber as the Texans, you prove it
in a matchup like this, and they didn't. I mean
they did, but they didn't.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
So defense, did you know they're not totally healthy upfront,
Will Anderson, They've they've been missing pieces there. Derek Stingley
was fantastic covering Ceed Lamb tonight, so it gives him
some credit. Seventeen routes run on Stingley by Lamb, two catches,
nineteen yards, three pass breakups and an interception. He was fantastic.

(09:38):
I think he's been a little up and down this
year actually for a guy who he thoughts is going
to be a super duper star. Mix Agan Mixon is
a top five running back right now. Twenty two touches
for one hundred and fifty three one hundred and fifty
three yards excuse me, and three touchdowns, and you're right,
it's not getting blocked up very well. I looked at
the end of the game at the success rate because

(09:59):
I I just was wondering he's running so well. There
were a few runs where he got three yards and
it should have been negative two, or he got seven
and it should have been one. And it makes sense
when you look at his runs. He had a forty
percent success rate, which is solid. It's not amazing, it's
not as good as the numbers would indicate. But he

(10:21):
also got stuffed, which means a negative run or at
the line of scrimmage four times, which that's a lot
like good running games don't have that happen. And you
see that week after week with him. So that's disappointing
and that that's the offensive line, and that's the part
where it's hard to imagine them getting it fixed. And
it feels especially annoying tonight because you know they're going

(10:43):
against a team that, yes, they're totally different with Michael
Parsons back, it's obvious, but there's still not a good
run defense, like they should be able to run better
against this team.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
I will say, despite everything that we just said about
the offensive line, their struggles throughout this season, I do
give a big typical Captain Casario for jumping all over
the idea that Joe Mixon's available for a seventh round pick.
I mean, what a steal. He doesn't have a long
life ahead of him. He's approaching thirty. He's gonna be
twenty nine in the summer. But man, for the position
they're in right now, where they have money to spend
in roster spots to occupy, what a move man that's

(11:15):
paid off and he droves for them.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
Yeah, he's a pro bowler. I'm trying to think of
AFC all pro. Well, there isn't such a thing, so
I don't know what I'm talking about. It All pro
is gonna be tough for Mixing to pull off. But
daneil Hunter in this game had two sacks, nine pressures,
three quick hits. And yes it's all coming against the Cowboys,

(11:41):
but it just points out who the players are. I
do worry a little bit about Mixing because with the Bengals,
his issue was he would always start off the season
running so hard. I think no one runs harder on
a per run basis, especially for a guy that's been
in the league this long, But he just would wear
down physically and not be healthy by the end of
the year. With the He had a little injury early

(12:02):
this season. So the key for him is just to
stay healthy. And yeah, I mentioned Nico Collins. We haven't
really done like the stats. He ends up four for
fifty four, but he had thirty seven yards after the catch.
Looked explosive. That was really important. Takedow made a couple
of plays. He makes more sense a little further down
the order. John Metchi looks like he's kind of developing
into a nice third receiver. He also had a nice

(12:24):
tackle on a fake punt. That's how you know the
Cowboys were desperate. They called a fake punt and threw
it short of the sticks on their very first possession,
Bones fossil, you know, going nuts and Mike McCarthy did
not look happy after the game. Yes, in the first
three possessions alone, here's what happened. You had the touchdown

(12:44):
that was almost eighty yards called back by penalty. You
had the CJ. Stroud interception, You had the fake punt
disaster by the Texans. Like that is how we started
this game, I mean by the Cowboys.

Speaker 4 (13:00):
Rather, we knew, we knew we were in for a
weird night, and we got a weird night. It Luckily
it ended as it should have with the Texans running
away with it.

Speaker 3 (13:09):
But all right, I forgot. I forgot. Cooper rushed through
an interception the very next the very next drive as well,
So like that, and.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Kaitlyn Bulleck dropped one that could have been another interception.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
Should we talk a little bit about the Cowboys, Yeah,
we have to. They have trailed all their home games
by at least seventeen points. They have been outscored in
their five home games, most of those with Dak Prescott
by one hundred and eighteen points. Oh, that is the
third largest point differential in NFL history for your first

(13:43):
five home games. So if you're a Cowboys season ticket
holder that's gone to each one of those games, you
have seen the third worst performance by a home team
in NFL history. I mean we're talking about like the
winless Brown We're talking about like the Bucks with McKay,
like we're talking about all the worst teams in history.

(14:05):
This Cowboys team at home is as bad as any
of them. I mean, they get a Cavante Turpin sixty
four yard touchdown where he has the fastest time next
Gen stats all season for a ball carrier. So you
got one highlight in this game. But Cooper Rush is
all over the place. He throws the ball fifty five
times and he was sacked at at least five, So

(14:27):
that's like sixty drop ecks in the game, and they
got seven more games.

Speaker 4 (14:32):
Shook, I know, And that's what I wrote in what
we learned. You can check out on NFL dot com.
Where do they go from here? Like this is it's
not Yeah, he looked better than he did the week
before because he was completely ineffective in his first start.
Cooper Rush was But you don't want to ever ask
Cooper Rush to drop back, to throw fifty five or
drop back sixty times in a game and think that
you're gonna win. There's no support in the running game.

(14:53):
Even the game situation didn't really call for it until
essentially the fourth quarter for them to be throwing that much,
yet that's where they found them. And also to add
on to that stat that you listed, it gets even worse.
They've trailed by twenty plus points at home in six
straight games dating back to the Super wild Card weekend
lost to the Packers.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
That's where everything kind of fell apart.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
They had a quiet offseason and now they're paying the
price for it with seven weeks left to go.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
It's one of the most depressing seasons I can remember.
There was a play when when they were driving, and
that was after they took the three points off the board,
and they're trying to really make this a game. At
that point, it's a ten point game. You get a
touchdown there, it's down to three late third, early fourth quarter,
and on the fourth down play, Troy Aikman just with

(15:42):
disdain in his voice, looking at the route that Ceedee
Lamb and the tight end was it wasn't Ferguson right
because he left with a concussion, and he just said,
he just said, I don't know what's going on over here,
knowing like just with the stage, I don't know what's
going on over here, like someone messed up. They should
not be in the same place. And then here comes Mingo.

(16:04):
He's actually doing a good job for his quarterback, but
Cooper Rush just throws it over his head and Troy Aikman,
they were trying to put a good face on this
game for a while, and by the end he was
just like he was sick of that his Cowboys are
this embarrassing.

Speaker 4 (16:17):
He even commented on the fact that the Cowboys fans
had made a mass exodus out of eighteenth He's stadium
by the fourth quarter. He goes, the amount of red
in this stadium is kind of overwhelming, Like, wow, they,
you know, trying to spin it like Texans fans traveled.
No Cowboys fans left because they that's.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
True, But the Texans fans were loud as hell in
the first quarter when Scout hit that touchdown. I should
have mentioned after, you know, the penalty that called back
the long touchdown, they still went down the field and
had a great drive. It was the one drive all
night where you thought, ooh, we're gonna get the Texans,
like the perfect play calls mixing ends up getting a

(16:53):
forty five yard touchdown. Hell, let's listen to one of
the better moments of the night.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
At the forty five yard of Dallas first and ten handoff,
Mixon starts white, cuts back left, has room thirty twenty
five twenty fifteen ten five rock and roll touchdown Joe
Mixon forty five your TV run Monday Night.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
Mixon love that Monday Night mixic and he ends up
with three touchdowns on the night, So he lived up
to that name. Yeah, the tech the Cowboys are going
to be in primetime. I was going to have this
conversation later as part of the news, but let's have
it now, all right. The Bengals and Cowboys are slated

(17:36):
for a Week sixteen primetime game and they cannot be flexed.
Do you know why they cannot be flexed week sixteen?

Speaker 2 (17:45):
It's not a Monday Night or is it.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
It is a Week fourteen game. It's Troy and Joe again.
It's in just a few weeks. They cannot flex it
because it's the Simpsons watch along game. I don't know
if you've seen anything about this. Oh it was a
toy story last year.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
It's the Simpsons now.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
It's the Simpsons now, and all the pre production work
that goes into that, including the voiceovers and everything, like,
they're putting too much work into that. They're not doing
that on the fly. They're doing that work right now.
So we got to keep Bengals Cowboys in primetime on
Monday Night football.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
Well, I think we'll all come away with the same thing,
the same feeling and quote Bart Simpsons, Bart Simpson in
that moment eat my shorts.

Speaker 3 (18:31):
Oh there you go. It's funny though, because ESPN they
wouldn't flex the Cowboys out anyways. They would be like, oh, yeah,
we can't do it because it's the Simpsons, but they
don't want to do it anyways because it's the Cowboys
and they get the ratings at least for the first
half of these games. I do think they'll get flexed
out in Week sixteen. That's a Tampa Bay Dallas game,

(18:51):
so I don't think that one is going to be
on the schedule, But yes, that Bengals game will stay there.
We'll talk a little bit more about flex in a second.
Just a couple of final thoughts of this game. Did
you happen to see the commercial where it's a part
of the Salute to Service initiative that they let you know,

(19:14):
servicemen play against Michael Parsons on Madden and they put
it up on the JumboTron in Jerry World. And do
you know where I'm going with this?

Speaker 2 (19:24):
Go ahead?

Speaker 3 (19:26):
Did you see the score of the game.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
Yes, it was fifty to seven.

Speaker 3 (19:30):
It was fifty to seven. Michael Parsons put it on
this dude. You gotta honor this man by getting putting
on fifty to seven. And they tried to fake us
out by showing Michael Parsons all upset about a play
that happened. First of all, great job by Parsons that
he was that upset that he even gave up points
to this bum. If you're gonna have a serviceman play

(19:50):
Madden on the big board in Jerry world, let's get
one that can compete a little bit.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
All right, let's get three. Let's get someone that can
compete one on a jumbo tron.

Speaker 4 (20:01):
Was a childhood dream of mine because I saw cecis
a Bathia do it at Progressive Field back in the day.
So good on the serviceman for being able to do
that with Michah Parsons too. That is the type of
competitor Micah Parsons is that he was upset that he
gave up any points, and that's exactly why he put
fifty on him.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
And three actually three a.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
This reminds me of when Cardil Jones, the former Ohio
state quarterback, went to a hospital and played Madden against
the kid and destroyed him even worse.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
And three B.

Speaker 4 (20:27):
I played against the best Madden player on the planet
for a story a couple of years ago. His name
is Henry Leverett. He's won like six Madden Bowls. Nice kid,
and he dominated me by about the same margin.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
So I know how that feel.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
That's the best one in the world. And yeah, I
hear you. Let's just pick a guy that that can
compete a little better, that's all. Yeah, I mean Madden,
it was a knight of no mercy. Parsons like body
slammed Robert Woods at the end of this game. Uh,
let's actually look at the tweet that the Texans out

(21:01):
towards the Cowboys, and they said look out below with
a big fat L on it, and then showed the
piece of metal roof that fell from the Texans stadium.
What a picture, by the way, that someone caught apparently
or they superimposed this, I don't even know, yes, but
before the game they opened the roof and a huge

(21:25):
piece of metal fell. I'm almost surprised that Texans sent
this out, not because they're putting that l on the Cowboys.
This is a real rivalry. Props to those Texans fans
enjoy this win. By the way, your team want to
combine like six games over two seasons, and two years
later you got a couple of nimrods like us honking

(21:47):
that they didn't look good enough while they're beating the
Cowboys thirty four to ten in Dallas to get to
a seven and four record. You've been through it. Enjoy
these moments, like, don't worry about us, but the fact
that they're making fun of this. Texans are making fun
of the Cowboys for their building the fall apart. It's
kind of funny because if that metal had hit some
dude on the or woman on the sideline, like I

(22:11):
don't know, like we could have like a decapitation or something.
That thing thing looked scary.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
I mean it was floppy sheet metal. I don't think
it had a lot of weight to it.

Speaker 4 (22:18):
But it was good on the Texans for taking two
pieces of sheet metal making it into an l that's
great social media work out of their.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
Team's real That's true, it wasn't the real thing, but
that's excellent. Okay, you're saying floppy sheet metal wouldn't hurt you,
but from that high up with the velocity, I guess
it was kind of swinging back and forth with like
a leaf. But like, I don't know, maybe I'm stupid.
Like a football, if it hit you from that far
up would hurt like hell.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
I mean, Gronk once caught a pass dropped out of
a helicopter and he was perfectly fine.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
Yeah you're paying attention. But I'm just saying, if that
that's true, hits you in the head. My last thought
on this game is just I'll remember the facial expressions
in this game Stroud's face after he threw that first interception.
I already was worried that, like, oh man, this he's
in his head a little bit, because after that, I
don't know if he totally got out of it. He

(23:10):
was so mad, so just frustrated already after that first interception.
But the glare that Ceedee Lamb gave Cooper Rush after
Cooper Rush threw behind him on a second down play
was I would say withering. It was withering. The very
next play, by the way, Cooper Rush throws a go

(23:32):
ball that wasn't open at all to Ceedee Lamb almost
to apologize, and Ceedee Lamb has to have an offensive
pass interference and that like knocks him out of field
goal range, like that is the type of night it was.
But the Cowboys offensive players on the sideline, They're like,
I can't believe we got to play with this dude
for another few weeks or a guy that's apparently worse
than this dude Trey Lance, Like what are you thinking

(23:53):
if you're Trey Lance right now?

Speaker 4 (23:56):
I mean, it's a humbling moment for him. I got
a text that it was like, is Trey Lance really
that bad that he can't replace him? I'm like, yeah,
you can.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
We will find out. We will find out he will.
He will be playing Titans Texans next week. Texan's got
to play better. I said, this is a perfect schedule
for them because they can beat up on the bad teams,
get to nine and four, and then the tougher part
of their schedule comes. They have Miami, they have Kansas City,

(24:24):
they have some tough games down the stretch. But you
gotta play better, like even the Titans. I'm not counting
that as a w necessarily.

Speaker 4 (24:33):
No, I would agree. The Titans can be a frisky bunch.
Their defense is not as good as I think people
thought they were earlier in the season. But if Will
Levi is gonna played turnover free football. It could get interesting.
They made an interesting over the weekend this past weekend,
so we'll see. Uh, Texans do have to start to
find a rhythm though maybe this is the first step.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
Yes, I hope so, and yeah that that post by schedule.
If they can get past Titans Jaguars the next two weeks,
they'd be nine and four at that point, about the
three seed most likely in the AFC. And then you
have a bye, then you have Dolphins at Chiefs Ravens
your next three games after that. So they are gonna
be a big part of the story. And I'm glad.

(25:14):
I believe in you.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
C J.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
Stroud. I believe we're gonna make this show. Sing, Nick Schuck.
We're gonna take a quick break. We're gonna do some news.
We're gonna hand out our Captain Morgan Captains of the Week,
and then we're gonna say goodbye. And reached right after
this break back on NFL Daily, we got some jaunty music.

(25:45):
We don't have some jaunty news here. Let's let's get
over the obvious story was coming. We've been waiting for
it for a week. Giants fans were waiting for it
all season. A couple seasons, Daniel Jones will no longer
be the starting quarterback of the New York Giants. It
would be a big upset. I think if he ever

(26:06):
plays for the New York Giants again, he's not only benched,
he's gonna be the third string quarterback. Drew lock will
be the backup. We talked about this, We put this
out in the ether on the preview show a couple
of weeks ago. We said, just put in Tommy DeVito
just for Thanksgiving, give it, Give that to us. That'll
be better than Drew Locke. And we're not just getting

(26:28):
him for Thanksgiving. We're getting them in week twelve and
then five days after that. Yes, against these Cowboys on Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Nick.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
Yeah, Tommy Cutletz. He was the source of inspiration and
in otherwise dark season for the Giants.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
Last year.

Speaker 4 (26:42):
He was so big. He got a I think it
was a pasta sauce ad. His agent dresses in pinstripe
suits and fedoras. He became a sensation on the internet.
That's kind of almost all that he's worth. He did
have a few nice performances, but at this point the
Giants are just well, you know to keep it in
the Italian theme to throw from get at the wall
and seeing with sticks, and they know that Daniel Jones
doesn't stick, so why not go to Cutlets and have

(27:04):
Drew Lock as your backup. Drew Lock, by the way,
did not look good in his appearances with the Giants
this year, so no, he.

Speaker 3 (27:11):
He was so bad that I don't really buy the
conspiracy theory that Florio's thrown out there, that like, hey,
it's some red meat for your fans because they just
will be entertained and they like Tommy Cutlets that and
it's just to make them happy, keep them interested, and
also increase their chances of losing games and trying to

(27:32):
get a high seed. First of all, Daniel Jones is
doing a perfectly good job losing games on his own.
Drew Locke would do a perfectly good job of that too.
I just think there Brian Dabeles not into Drew Lock.
I think Brian Dabele is absolutely in job saving mode
here yep, and that it might not be his choice

(27:52):
to bench Daniel Jones, although it is obviously time. It
was obvious to everyone, including to him. I just think
he truly believes Tommy DeVito gives them a better chance
to win. And in the off chance that they're all
there next year, Drew Lock's not going to be on
this team. There's a chance Tommy DeVito's on this team
as like a backup or even a third stringer again,

(28:13):
and they want to do it. I truly believe they
just think he gives them a better chance to win games.
They are two and eight. They play the Bucks this
week and then at the Cowboys and the Saints. So
that's a pretty forgiving schedule of opposing defenses relatively, But man,
two and eight Giants, it feels so late, so early

(28:36):
for these teams. Nick. There's so many of these two
win teams like the Cowboys that, like this Giants team
has seven more games to play, and we're talking Tommy
DeVito already.

Speaker 4 (28:46):
Yeah, and and the schedule, like you just mentioned, you know,
there's some workuple defenses, but it doesn't really lighten up
all that much. But again, this is an example of
what you just said, which is job saving mode. And
he's going to a guy that he has experience with.
You know, he's at least seen him perform capably enough
to lead them to victory or at least exciting finishes

(29:06):
in his time as a starter in a time of
need for them.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
So that's why he's going there.

Speaker 4 (29:10):
But it is going to be a painful, and it
feels kind of more like there are more of these
teams in these situations than the years past. Maybe it's
just recency bias. Now this painful November to December were
a lot of these teams who are not only watching
the draft board, they're like, all right, where are we
landing this week?

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Because we know we have no hope. It's kind of crazy.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
Okay, So I'm glad he brought that up because it
was something I wanted to talk about during the Monday
Night recap. But it just fits well here. This was
the first primetime game I think of the season with
a truly dead team, and I should have just gone
and looked back at the last couple of weeks. I'm
sure there was one team that There's been teams that
we know weren't doing anything like many of these Giants games.

(29:54):
But the difference is now we're getting close to Thanksgiving.
You see the number of losses that are on there,
We're getting to like the mathematically impossible. We're just playing
out the string portion of the season, and this was
the first prime tame games were really hit to me
that like, oh, their season's over, over, over, but there's

(30:14):
going to be a lot more because of all these
two and three win teams that are out there, and
it's bad for the product. And like, your Browns are
in primetime.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
I just saw that Week thirteen, and that's just Week thirteen.

Speaker 3 (30:35):
It's four times coming up the rest of the season.
They are in primetime this week against the Steelers, so
at least it's like a team that's relevant that they're facing.
There are a handful of other games you can flex
out of Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, and now
Thursday Night Football. There's a Browns Bengals Week sixteen Thursday

(30:58):
Night Football that I think could be did we have
we ever had a Thursday night Football flex? But that
one could be flexed out. And there are a number
of games, but it's unavoidable on some level, Like there's
a Saints Packers Monday Night Football that we might have
to watch the Saints in prime time. There's a Raiders
Falcons Monday Night Football, and there's a Brown's Broncos Monday

(31:22):
Night Football in week thirteen. Now they can only flex
Thursday Night football twice down the stretch, but Monday Night
Football they can as much as they want, So keep
an eye on Tuesday. I am curious how active they're
going to be flexing these games Brown's Broncos. Is that
flexworthy to get the Browns off our screens when they're

(31:46):
scheduled to be there four times in the next few weeks.
They actually would have to make a decision on that
on Tuesday or maybe Wednesday, So we'll find out early
if they're starting to flex some of these Monday and
Thursday night games. They really haven't done that in the
pass much. In the Thursday night flex, that's a new thing.

Speaker 4 (32:03):
Yeah, I'm looking at some of the candidates here for
that week and it does get a little ugly, like
the prime to the Sunday night games between the Niners
and Bills that week, which is gonna be nice because
the Niners are gonna have the backs against the wall
to a degree, but we also know who the Niners are.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Eagles Ravens.

Speaker 4 (32:16):
In the late window on Sunday, maybe we get a
little bit of a swap there and then another swap
to get the Browns out of the late window there,
and there are possibilities, There are opportunities, but it's gonna
become a bit of a puzzle making exercise.

Speaker 3 (32:28):
Just going to watch in those games get protected. There
are different games that are protected. I wouldn't be surprised
if Eagles Ravens for instance, is protected. For instance on
the Bengals, but not everything's protected in the Bengals Cowboys
week there was a Cardinal Seahawks game, which now is
just a better game that they can't move into that

(32:49):
spot and those that's a game that wouldn't have been protected.
So just something to watch this week. If we can
get the Browns out for Week thirteen, we would thank you,
because two weeks from tonight, Nick, if that doesn't happen,
we're doing Browns Broncos and the brown The Broncos are relevant.
At least you got one relevant team you need at
least one. There's gonna be a lot of games like
that this week. For instance, there is not a single

(33:11):
game on Sunday, Nick, between two teams with a winning record.

Speaker 4 (33:15):
Oh god, oh oh wow, you're right. Oh, it's like
a murderer's row of unbalanced match.

Speaker 3 (33:21):
It's just unbalanced and there. Look, the NFC West teams
are interesting, and we got a rams Engles game that's interesting.
We have a forty nine ers Packers game that's interesting.
We have a Cardinals game that that's Seahawks game that's interesting.
So there's some interesting games. I don't want to totally
poop on the schedule, but yes, no, no game between

(33:42):
two teams with the winning record coming up this week.
Just one last thing, Like the Giants stay bad because
they don't stay aligned and they don't self scout. We've
been over. We've talked about Daniel Jones enough. We don't
need to, I think, go into much depth. But the

(34:02):
original sin here was giving him that contract in the
first place and not understanding the player that you had.
And I really felt like Dabel never fully bought into
it either, and they didn't draft him. Gettleman drafted him.
So was Shane and Dabel totally in on him or
was it ownership forcing it on him and then getting

(34:23):
the emotions of it, And now ownership is sane. We're
standing behind Shane and Dabel and they're really putting it
out there strong that they're doing it, and I believe
it because I don't think this has been Dabel's fault.
And yet I think if they lose at a certain level,
he's going to be the one to go, and that
they keep Shane because Jones wasn't his quarterback, but he

(34:44):
was the one who actually did sign him to this
awful contract, and that goes up to ownership. And then
if they do fire Dable but not Shane, then it's
like they didn't come in at the same time. And
this is just how bad organizations stay bad. I'm sick
of talking about Daniel Jones. It's really not his fault.
He his level was obvious. He should be someone's bridge

(35:06):
quarterback or backup, not making forty million, and then everyone
wouldn't hate him. And oh, by the way, he's coming
back from a major injury and he just doesn't even
look as good as he looked previous to those injuries.
He's got back issues.

Speaker 4 (35:20):
Yeah, it's it's two elements that the Giants are paying
the price for. First, they're paying the price for their
success in their first year with Brian Dable because that
gave everybody the false hope that Daniel Jones could be
the guy. But if you look at him statistically, the
numbers were not great. It's that they won with scheme
and players around him playing well and Jones doing enough,
but it also came in a contract time where he
had to make a decision, and they made that decision.
And we found a lot of teams in this situation,

(35:40):
even the Jaguars, you know, a different situation but had
to pay Trevor Lawrence.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
Now because different.

Speaker 4 (35:47):
But you find yourself between a rock and a hard
place with quarterbacks specifically, and the Giants because they came
off of that sneaky good year where they won a
playoff game, then suddenly had to make a decision that
they probably were never prepared to make. But it's also
the of being a quarterback focused league in that if
you don't have one, you don't have a chance. So
you take a swing on a guy in the first
round like Daniel Jones out of Duke and think, well,

(36:09):
maybe he's got the upside because the physicals are there,
but the rest of it was never there In hindsight's
twenty twenty, sure, but.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
They had him for four years in the building. That's
what gets me about the organization. Yeah, and the only
reason they were successful that year was because Dable limited
his weaknesses he basically coached around him. He just had
him dinking and Duncan for most of that season and
then caught a little fire with an easy schedule against
bad defense, and that's what I mean. They started believing

(36:36):
their own hype. And even then he wasn't really pushing
the ball down the field. What was interesting and promising
about Daniel Jones in the first couple of years of
his career, when he was in a much worse situation,
was he actually did make big time throws. He got
that nickname Danny Dimes because even though he wasn't a

(36:57):
good decision maker, he was a little bit of a
slow processor maybe getting through his reads and stuff, he
would he would throw it. He was aggressive and he
made some nice plays, some nice throws, and that led
to variants. I was much more interested in that version
of Danny Dimes. And then it all caved in on him.
Everything was bad. He clearly can't lift up a bad team.

(37:19):
Dable comes in and coaches around him and gets him
to not take any chances. He hasn't taken any chances
in three or four years now. He's like injury prone.
But how can you if you can't evaluate a guy
that was in your building for four years. It's all
because I think John Mara, their owner, thought he was
a nice guy, like, oh, this is the guy that
could marry your daughter.

Speaker 4 (37:36):
Like that's oh, that's a sin that's always going to
hurt your franchise. You don't sign guys because they're nice guys.
You sign hm because they're That's.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
Why they drafted him. They're like that. He reminds me
of Eli manning'schise. He'sy a draft pick actually because you
need quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
That's not morant.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
They somehow got Dexter Lawrence with seventeenth pick. The sin
is not just moving on to three, you know, drafting
another guy two three years later. Okay, that is the
last Daniel Jones Giants conversation. We will ever have an
NFL Daily, I promise the listeners, Well, we'll have that conversation,
but we won't like revisit at all. We got to
remember this Nick, you know, text me on that day.

(38:16):
We won't revisit all. We'll talk about what's next for
Daniel Jones, what's next for the Giants in that moment,
but we will not revisit the original sin.

Speaker 2 (38:25):
Okay, let's move right.

Speaker 3 (38:27):
Not a lot of injury news today, which was really good.
I was like, hey, it's a light day. Oh, that
means there's not a lot of injuries. There's also not
trade rumors anymore, but there were some. DJ Turner, who
was starting at cornerback for the Bengals, had stepped in
and actually was playing pretty well for them, is believed
to have a fractured collar bone. Or that is really
tough news. That's from Ian Rappaport. So Cam Taylor Britt,

(38:49):
who's been in and out of their lineup, it will
be back in their lineup. Gabe Davis is also out
for the season. He has only thirty five yards. I
looked in his last four games. That was a free
agent signing that has really not worked out for them.
And the reason I wanted to stop here for a
second is you know who announced that gave Davis is
out for the season. Can you guess it wasn't Rapaport?

Speaker 2 (39:11):
Was it Gabe Davis?

Speaker 5 (39:12):
No?

Speaker 3 (39:13):
No, it was an important figure in that organization. It
was his coach Nick Shook.

Speaker 2 (39:20):
Oh well that's why would I guess that? Of course,
but I don't things.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
Maybe wouldn't get it. On Monday, Doug Peterson had a
press conference Monday where he's talking about Gabe Davis's injury, like,
are they just busy? What is happening? Are they not
firing him? Just to get back at the people that
kind of said he was gonna get fired, and then
everyone started saying they're they're poorly run. I don't know,
or is it just gonna happen later in the week

(39:46):
like the Daniel Jones benching, you know, a week later
during their bye week. I just I just was really
surprised Doug Peterson was out there doing that press conference
because if they do fire him later in the spy,
it's like, why did you just make him go? Do
that just be decisive?

Speaker 4 (40:01):
Well, we haven't checked off the most important box on
the path to a Doug Peterson firing, which is showing
up on a Monday morning radio show and telling the
host that he's pissed off.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
That is very true. The other injury news that came
out on Mondayfanu Melafanu of the Lions, who they were
hoping would give a nice jolt to their secondary not
that they need another great safety, but they do like
playing three safeties, and he made big plays for them
down the stretch last year. He was one of their
better defensive backs. At the end of last season, he

(40:34):
had an injury. He's been out all season essentially, and
then just got hurt again. Is going to be out
for a while. According to Dan Campbell, nick Bosa will
be evaluated throughout the week. I think that's a really
important injury to watch because that defense just does not
have enough juice without Nick Bosa. You could see the
drop off after he got hurt against the Seahawks on Sunday,

(40:57):
and then John Harbaugh said he is going to monitor
Roquan Smith's hamstring injury. Which injury Nick Bosa or Roquan
Smith would concern you more as a fan of those teams,
because they're both pretty huge.

Speaker 4 (41:12):
They're both pretty huge, Yeah, they're They're both massive. Those
are key players in both of those defenses. I would
lean Bosa because the pass rush disappeared after he left.
That was a big reason why they lost that game,
was because he disappeared and the pass rush disappeared. I'm
also concerned about the nature of the injury. I'm not
a Twitter doctor, but he was grabbing at his hip
and his side and it looked pretty debilitating. Which makes

(41:33):
me worry that it's a multi week thing. We'll see obviously,
it's you know, we're a monitor for a week right now,
but we'll see whereas Roquan you can kind of cover
up because so many teams play sub packages. Now, he's
obviously a massive part of that defense, but they do
have talent around them. I feel a little bit better
about the Ravens chances than I do about the Niners
without Nick Bosa.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
Yeah, it's you couldn't pick wrong there because they're both
just huge. Smith I believe, never missed the game. This
makes me wonder if he's been struggling with a hamstring
injury all year, because he hasn't looked as explosive, and
yet when he went out in that game, they immediately
started targeting Darnault Washington over the middle of the field

(42:14):
and started making some plays. And I think it's a
pretty big drop off, and that defense is already having
its issues. I think if you take Rokewen Smith out
of it, that would be a big problem. So something
to keep an eye on this week. We already talked flex,
but we did not talk Christmas Day. Nick Schook Beyonce Texans.

(42:36):
Let's go We're getting Beyonce on Netflix. You know, we
need the streaming to work, but we're getting Beyonce in
our hometown of Houston. That's next level. Like you think
at CBS and Dallas goes big on Thanksgiving. They always
have a pretty good musical act for Thanksgiving halftime. You

(42:57):
get Creed, you get someone out there. I'm so good
we're going. We're going Beyonce on Christmas. That sets an
incredibly high bar for the future of Christmas programming and
kind of lets you know, like Netflix is not messing around.
Maybe they're they're spending some of that Tyson money on Beyonce. Like,
imagine how much it must cost to get Beyonce to

(43:18):
play your halftime show.

Speaker 4 (43:19):
As somebody who is admittedly going to see Creed on
Friday night in Cleveland, very fired up about Beyonce hosts
doing the halftime show in a game involving the Houston Texans,
her hometown of Houston. Now, Greg, I bring this to
you real quick, just for some levity, some fun favorite
Beyonce song.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
Of all time, Go.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
You Go, because now I forget like the names of Mine.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
Is going to be off.

Speaker 4 (43:44):
The eponymous surprise released album of twenty thirteen. I think
it was rocket great track on that album. Okay, Love
on Top also good.

Speaker 3 (43:55):
I mean, I'm clearly not like that huge a Beyonce fan.
And yeah, I listened to Lemonade like NonStop all that year.
Like Lemonade, Lemonade is my I would say, I would say,
hold up, maybe it might be my favorite.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
All right, all right, awesome, there we go.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
No cowboy going to get buried for that, that choice, Sorr.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
I'm sorry, I love it.

Speaker 3 (44:20):
I'm an old man. You know who else is an
old man? Amari Cooper, at least in football years. He
is in Buffalo. Sometimes the transitions don't work, and he
is loving life in Buffalo. Let's listen to some comments
he had after their big win against the Chiefs.

Speaker 5 (44:38):
First time in a long time that I've actually actually
felt joy, you know, from from winning this game, from
you know, just the way we played, from having so
many guys on the team who you know, are playmakers,
and they come up and they show up when they're
when their number is called, uh, you know, collectively as
a group, it's just amazing.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
You know, a lot of the guys here.

Speaker 5 (44:59):
It's just kind of a from place to Buffalo here
some of the other places I've been to, so a
lot of the guy it's a tight knit group. I
would say a lot of the guys go out together,
they hang around each other at twenty four to seven,
and it truly shows up on the field.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
It truly does. That was deep. That's the first time
he's felt joy in a long time playing football. I'm
just thinking, like Joe Flacco might be watching something and
be like, I thought we had some fun last year.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Bro.

Speaker 4 (45:27):
Yeah, first off, I can relate to Mari, But secondly, hello,
do you remember playing with Joe Flaco and making the play?
I know you got blown out in the playoffs, but
I mean that was a pretty magical run. I understand
you were a little upset with Dallas by the time
he left, and the Raiders experience was pretty rough by
the time they got rid of there.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
But hey, man, Joe Flacco catching stray? So what's going
on here?

Speaker 3 (45:45):
Well, I don't know about Joe. Maybe it was more. Look,
I don't think it's been fun. It's one of the
reasons why right off the bat, before I even saw
what Deshaun Watson looked like. Again, as a professional, I
question that pickup, not just for like the morality of it,
but that the entire rest of the organization are they

(46:07):
having fun right now? Like going through that first off season?
And I don't mean like right now, I mean even
that first off season when they made the trade, Like
was that experience fun up to the moment that he
even got to play football? Because it seemed miserable for
everyone in that entire building and it obviously, you know,
didn't get any better when he did start playing. And

(46:29):
so maybe that's informing what Cooper's talking about of just
like with what was going on organizationally, Like, yeah, I
just can't imagine that even when Flacco was playing like
it maybe it just wasn't the best vibes in the
in the world. But I just I just thought it
was cool too that like he was just being honest
and vulnerable in that moment. It was like, yeah, I mean,

(46:50):
maybe he doesn't really feel much joy playing football all
the time, because he seems like a player player that
needs to be enjoying himself and confident to have a
good time, because you kind of see it when he's
not having a good time.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
He's a stowic guy.

Speaker 4 (47:02):
And he also played with five different starting quarterbacks last year,
so I think the turnstile that was the quarterback position
probably contributed to that as well, which obviously Deshaun Watson
had a hand in. There's also a strange amount of
like unnecessary pressure in Cleveland for a small market regarding
only the Browns, and he probably felt that, especially as
their season unraveled quickly this year.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
Hmmm. I mean, I feel like people are just gonna
gonna get on me for the whole Beyonce thing. You know, Hey,
you know what you already shot shot And yet that
was like that was the song I was. I think
it's just like not a song that you remember like
the name of for some reason. All Night is a
banger too, but a different kind of banger, you know,
but but definitely a banger off of that jumping off

(47:44):
the joy thing. I'm putting you on the spot here
the first time that he's felt joy in a while.
Our first episode of NFL Daily, it was with Jordan
rod Reeg and Patrick Claybon. That was our topic, what
were looking forward to in the twenty twenty four season.
What's gonna give us joy? Like, what's bringing us joy?

(48:04):
Just to think about? So I'm gonna put you on
the spot. If you want me to go first, I can.
If you want some time to think about it. What's
what's been bringing you some joy in the twenty twenty
four season. I'll go first because I was ready for this.
Ye well, first of all, like it hasn't been a while,
hopefully that's coming across to the listeners. I'm really enjoying
this season. You know, I enjoy every season anytime that

(48:27):
I'm not connected to the game and it happens, life, job,
whatever it is. I've found over the years as I
got older that the key for me is to go back.
And it's so freaking corny to just like watching the
actual like whenever I get further away from actually just

(48:51):
watching the tape that to be a dork, but like
watching during the week and drilling down on what I
find interesting, like emotionally or intellectually, like then that's where
I find the love. That's that's where it comes from. Hell,
last week, I just had a lot going on, not
like it was stressing me out, but I just was
taking off my usual preparation and I came into that

(49:12):
preview show last week being like, oh man, I didn't
get into the tape as early in the week as
I normally do, and I felt it I missed it.
I didn't have as much joy talking about the games
because I didn't have that basis so I always have it,
so it's not hard for me to go back and
find like, when's the most recent joy. Hell that Sunday
was pretty joyous to have that Gino Smith run right

(49:34):
after that Drake May performance, followed by the way that
Josh Allen run happened, and Chris Rose is on the
desk right next to me waiting to start his post
game show and we're watching it and just screaming and
knowing that's a moment we're gonna remember at the end
of the season live like that's what I absolutely live for.
But I also been feeling joy on these Monday nights

(49:57):
with you, Nick and obviously throughout NFL daily, but just
speaking about this show in particular, like some are better
than others. I think that's true of games, it's true
of performances, but a lot of times I've come out
of that these Monday nights and they've been really good
games for the most part on Monday nights, and I've

(50:19):
thought like, oh, we kind of nailed that, like, oh,
I hit all the things I wanted to see or
oh that was surprising, and I leave feeling here like
this is good. This is what I wanted NFL Daily
to be. I think we're getting somewhere. I think it's
getting better. And it's almost like hard for me to
go to sleep afterwards, because it's what I've been working
for for twenty years to do stuff like this. I

(50:42):
was doing it when we were around the NFL, and
I still really appreciate it and love it now. So
that's some of my long winded reasons for joy of
the twenty twenty four season. Now, is this show going
to reach that level of some of those high games.
Sometimes you can only get to where the game gets to.
I don't know if this game let us get to

(51:03):
our very best, but I think we've done well with
what we were given.

Speaker 4 (51:07):
Nick, Yeah, I would agree. I would say I've found
joy and two things short term and long term. Short
term the turnaround of the Washington Commanders and watching all
these Commanders fans who have been not in hiding but
just not proud to talk about their team. Suddenly they
find a reason to believe again. And turn on the
TV every Sunday and watch their young quarterback and their
exciting team that may be overachieving based in terms of

(51:29):
roster strength, but is a really fun watch in most weeks. Grant,
they've had a couple of tough games recently, but they're
still a very fun watch because of Jade and Daniels.
So I really enjoy watching those people find happiness, much
like I watched Browns fans around me last year enjoy
their run of the playoffs. Because when a football team
is succeeding, it's really fun to be in that community
and watch everybody get on board and rally around it.

(51:50):
Because there's there's so many things that divide this country
right now, but at the same time, we can all
rally around a sports team in a special moment. I
experienced that with the Guardians this year as well in
the Cavs fifteen to now. But I would say the
joy that I found in football because you're right, the
grind every week is long. Getting QB index done. It
takes a lot of work from Sunday to Tuesday night,
but I always get it done, and sometimes you lose

(52:12):
it when you're grinding through games and everything else it
takes until you step back, like you said, to really
enjoy football. But there are moments. Sometimes it's watching Geno
Smith scramble for a touchdown in the final fifteen seconds
of a game. Sometimes it's somebody getting blasted on a
condensed game the next day. But the joy I find
the most is as soon as we are done here,
I get up and I feel invigorated.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
I feel fulfilled doing this podcast with you.

Speaker 4 (52:34):
I've always been very grateful that you know, you brought
me into this group, you brought me into NFL media
a decade ago, and I love doing this show and
I can't wait to continue doing it for however long
we go, because it's been last and I thank you
for it.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
Well, that is very nice, Nick, It's been really cool.
Like I wasn't planning to have like a mid season
check up on how NFL Daily's going, but it is
the coolest to have this group of people, and it's
obviously different than around the NFL, but to have you

(53:10):
and Steve and Colleen and Jordan and Patrick, that's just
it's just part of the mix and get to know
them in a different way, like more regularly and just
sometimes life changes and it's been it's been a beautiful thing.
And yeah, it's very nice of you Nick Shook ten
years ago. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:31):
Bro, the only thing I missed now is not being
out there with you guys. That I missed the camaraderie
the newsroom and being in studio.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
But that is part of it. I do like, I
do like going into the office. We've gone on too long.
I feel like I had one more thing I had
to say, but I'll remember it after the show. And
it really wasn't that important anyways. You know what, it's
not as important as it's not as important as the
Captain Morgan Players of the Week. It's time for Captain
Morgan's Captain's Corner, presented by Captain Morgan. I'll let you

(53:59):
start this week. We're going to mix it up, all right.

Speaker 4 (54:01):
As much as I am a known hater, self professed hater,
especially on yesterday's show, Taysom Hill is my Captain's Corner
pick of the week because I mean, my god, he
carried that offense to a victory. He's breaking tackles left
and right, He's putting Browns defenders in the Superdome turf.
He goes for a career high one hundred and thirty
eight rushing yards. He tied his career high with three
rushing touchdowns.

Speaker 2 (54:22):
It was a day for what is he?

Speaker 4 (54:23):
Thirty four years old? The thirty four year old had
his moment in the sun after grinding in a number
of different positions for years. He is the guy who
ends up on the roster is number fifty three and
works his way up the ladder to the point where
no matter the regime change, he's still on the team
and he comes through in a big spot. So you
are my captain of the week, Taysom Hill.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
Yeah, the pride of Indiana football who's having a moment
right now and gets mentioned every week by Joe Buck
on Monday Night Football undefeated. Shout out to Rhet Lewis too.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
Yeah, big Indiana, big Hoosier.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
Who's your crowd? Former wide receiver, didn't know that about
rep for a little while. I'm going somewhere different for
captain's corner. But man like, I feel like we've we've
gone pretty heavy on Saints or ex Saints in this case,
I am going to show you some a clip of

(55:15):
Jamis Winston hugging all of his teammates after the game.
What got me about this clip was there was a
huge line of Saints coaches and players. First it's Taysom
Hill and to Mario Davis, and it goes on and on,
and you could see there's some different New Orleans staff

(55:36):
and they're all just waiting and there's all just so
much love for the four years that they spend with
Jamis Winston. And it's so damn genuine. And it's every
different section of the team too. It's offensive lineman's defensive linemen,
it's special teams, it's it's linebackers. Like to Mario Davis,

(55:56):
the leader of the team, you can tell it's personnel
that you know, I don't know who they are, that's
just behind the scenes for the Saints. And it goes
on and on like that video could have been like
five minutes long, and it just shows you, you know,
he's a backup, he's a number one overall pick that
maybe it didn't all work out like he wanted it
to in Tampa, but life's about more than that. And

(56:18):
it's pretty cool. How many people love hit them some
Jameis Winston. How many lives I have a feeling that
he's impacted and people that love to be around him.

Speaker 5 (56:25):
So that is a W.

Speaker 3 (56:26):
That is eating the W.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
Yeah, there we go.

Speaker 4 (56:29):
It's important to impact people's lives positively and clearly Jamis
has done that even with all the pre game By
the way, Greg his pregame speeches on network television have
been hilarious, like fantastic stuff the last few weeks. I
very much suggest you tune in for those. But great
to see him love by so many people.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
That was the Captain's Corner presented by Captain Morgan. It's
delicious and crisp, perfect for your game day with friends.
Spice it up. Visit Captain Morgan dot com to find
a Captain near you. Please drink responsibly. You know, I'm
trying to improve as a host. For instance, I should
have told you about the whole question about asking you

(57:06):
about the joy. Yeah, I should have told you that
ahead of time. We want to get better, we need
to be better. No, it is we are better. We
are getting better. I mean Jamis Winston. He's bringing joy
all around the New Orleans countryside. If I had really
thought about that, I was going to eat a W.
I should have practiced it because it's just like, well,

(57:28):
that was disturbing this is awkward. My fingers are like
dripping now, I don't know if that's the right way
to end this show.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
Oh well, you know when your fingers are dripping, Football's back.
I don't know.