Week 12 fifth quarter: Bears & Panthers show glimmers of hope in close losses
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On this episode of Football 301, it's our first Sunday recap. Charles McDonald joins me as we recap five games that stood out for us for our first edition of the fifth quarter of Football 301. Really fun show. See you guys in a sec. The holiday season is here, and it's the perfect time for family gatherings and celebrating with plenty of delicious food.

If you're the kind of person who loves not only preparing meals, but also watching cooking shows, reading cookbooks, and listening to music while you cook, Amazon Prime has you covered. It brings all of these experiences together, making your holidays much easier and enjoyable. With Amazon Prime, you can get one-day free delivery on tens of millions of eligible items, so everything you need arrives just in time.

With Kingsford Match Lite, all it takes is a match. No lighter fluid needed.

So, whether it's a backyard barbecue or a parking lot tailgate, nothing gets the party started like Kingsford Match Light Charcoal. It's the perfect charcoal for on-the-go get-togethers. Give your food a smoky barbecue flavor and give your crowd something else to cheer about. Kingsford Match Light Charcoal. Kingsford's fastest lighting charcoal. Visit kingsford.com. ♪♪♪

Hello and welcome to Football 301. It's a Sunday recap. We are going to be bringing you, we're going to call it the fifth quarter. The fifth quarter. You just watch four quarters of some game in the morning, some game in the afternoon, or all the afternoon if you're on the East Coast or central time. But we're going to wrap up the day games as Sunday Night Football is going on. And just a recap of five things that stood out to us, either five games, five players. The fifth quarter is what we're calling it.

you know patent pending i'm stealing that from wisconsin they like to say the fifth quarter yeah there's a few there's a few out there so i want to give them a shout out also giving a shout out to help me do this every sunday from here on out wrestle rest of the regular season into the playoffs it's my guy mr forverts charles mcdonald how you doing today charles

I'm doing better than I was yesterday. I got home for Thanksgiving break to my lovely parents' house in Charlotte, North Carolina. Oh, that's right.

Yeah. And I got home after a long days of travel, you know, it's good to see the family. It's good to see the dogs. And I walk into my room and my couch is literally in tatters, uh, like shredded from head to toe. I probably, the dogs had a field day in there one day they, uh, they left in my room when people were over and, uh, they tore my couch to shreds and no one told me. So I've been sitting on a little desk chair, swiveling around in my room, but, uh,

Other than that, great day of action to take my mind off of that, you know? Oh, man. Nice little surprise for you. No one wanted to tell you. No one wanted to tell me, but today the dopamine from the games had me hooting and hollering in a little folding chair. So we're all good. Oh, those morning games are great. Yeah, we're going to, like I said before, in the fifth quarter, we'll knock out five things. Today we're going to do five games and just highlight what stood out to us. A little recap.

Getting you here Sunday night or Monday morning as you go on to work or whatever you do on Monday mornings, people. But game one, we want to start out. I think this was both of ours like, yeah, we got to talk about this. But this was Vikings-

the Bears 30 to 27 over time. A lot of wonky things happen, especially on the Bears end. Two blocked field goals, I believe. They had a botched punt return at the end of the game. Caleb had some magical moments. He really did. Had some really, really nice moments. But Charles, when you watch this game, what stood out to you? What's the takeaways of this game? Because Bears can be very entertaining and very, at the same time, just make you feel really bad. And the Vikings just keep winning. Yeah.

I know Caleb Williams is probably going to be the story for most people. I mean, I wrote about him after the game. He was excellent today. I thought

Given the circumstances and what we thought about going into this game when we previewed on Thursday, to me, this is probably the most impressive performance of the season, just in terms of being able to endure some of what the Vikings are throwing at them. It's one of the best defenses in the league against one of the worst offenses in the league. So the fact that he was able to survive that and keep them in there and have that big throw right before overtime to get them in field goal range, that was cool to see. But...

Dude, the Bears defense is going to be throwing up when they go back and watch this film. Because you go back and you see the Darnold stats. I think he finished like 330 yards, two touchdowns, a QBR of 82 for the game. And dude, how many interceptions did they drop today? Like, especially

in the first half where he's just he's he's begging them to make a big play on the ball uh has had some sloppy plays but at the end of the day you know did just enough drove him down the field at the end but man the bit that was that game was there for the bears to take it and they just didn't make enough plays on the ball

Which is the story of the Bears season. Like they're like a pretty good team. That's what's kind of frustrating. I've watched a lot of Bears this year. I'm like, this is a good team. Like they're a bad, good team. And obviously I had mistakes and big moments and stuff. But like, I mean, there's plenty of good stuff they did today. But I'll start with Caleb. Caleb versus the Blitz was, which is Brian Flores' Vikings defense. So that's always going to be the first thing you look at. All right. How does the quarterback do against the Blitz?

10 of 13 for 156 yards, two touchdowns and zero sacks. That's what you want to see. Comparing that to week two against the Texans where they're just getting slaughtered and couldn't pick anything up. I'll credit the Bears offensive line. I thought they did pretty good today. Like I actually thought like they, they, a couple of times they left some pressures, but that wasn't the thing that stood out to me at all. Good or bad. And I thought like, you know, just moments where,

guys maybe let him down like cole comet had the drop on fourth and three or four uh or third and four i think it was late in the game that was a brutal drop you had the block field goals too just the classic bears i guess this year that dig throw you mentioned to set up the field goal was so sweet the the one to dj more like line drive but looped it over the two two defensive players that's just huge uh he had five scrambles kayla williams today for three first downs

And just, yeah, it wasn't enough because the other end Jordan Addison went eight catches for 162 yards and a touchdown TJ Hawkinson went seven catches for 114 yards. And I know Justin Jefferson not getting in touch is going to, you know, be a story, but this is like, like Kevin O'Connell talked about in an interview last week. He was like, he opens up so much for everybody else. And, and,

I'll do one little play breakdown on it. You know, the big Addison 69 yard, nice 69 yard game inside the 10 yard line. I know, I was like, what can it be 68 or 70? I know, it's like, you know what I say that loud. I know.

On that one, so it's single high. It's just a two receiver look with Addison and Jefferson, but the safety, the Bears safety, deep safety kicks over to Jefferson. So he leans over there. So literally just Addison's just running away from everybody. But because Jefferson draws and eyeballs, it's just like a simple over route and a dig.

Play action, basic as they come, but because Jefferson draws so much gravity, it just opens things up. You kind of saw that huge today. They're like, we're going to make it. Jordan Addison and TJ Hawkinson beat us.

And they did. And they did. And that's exactly what they did. But yeah, Caleb had a good game. Donald had one of his games. And then the other Vikings players kind of stepped up. That's kind of how it felt. But an entertaining game, I thought. But a lot of mistakes, really, on both sides. I thought Thomas Brown, another nice game for him. Yeah. They looked good.

They look a little more organized than they were with Waldron. I thought today had some nice time screens because DJ Moore is actually picking up trunks on Sunderland. And I'm sure that that helped just keep a couple things at bay when they're trying to throw down the field close to the end of the game.

Yeah. And then Caleb third down, like, yeah, another good throw to Keenan Allen on third down. Like he just looks more confident on third down, which I'm going to guess is just a little cleaner coaching. So yeah, good shout out. He had, I mean, they lost today, but that offense just looks a little more fluid. Things don't look as hard on the offensive side, but they're still losing games, but going on the game too. This is another divisional tilt in the NFC. This is the NFC East NFC.

Cowboys upset the commanders even before this week. We're looking at that spread like isn't that crazy? The commanders are double digit favorites. Wow. All that's crazy. And the Cowboys went straight up in Washington and actually kind of like controlled a good chunk of this game until things got crazy at the end.

where do you want to start uh do you want to go with uh the onside kick return do you want to go with uh turban kickoff return do you want to go with the kind of hail maryish terry mccorn catch and run we we got a lot going on several blocks the hail mary i was dude jordan lewis just went to sleep on that play

I don't know what he was looking at because all he had to do was just step back maybe two steps and that would have been a pick where he was running the other way. But I think he just gave way too much credence to what was happening as far as the swing route in the backfield. I was like, okay, dude, let him throw it. If they're going to throw a swing route in that situation, that's fine. You go up and you make a tackle and you keep getting to the end of the game. But

Just fell asleep. And then for Terry McLaurin to run like, what, 60 yards with the ball in his hands, like that's a ball as the game's ending untouched. Come on, have some pride. And then right after that, the onside kick gets returned for a touchdown, which honestly had me throwing up because I was like, dude, you got what you needed when they missed the extra point. So you're still up by one. All you have to do is just lay on the ball and end the game and saw glory.

Especially when you see that team hit two Hail Marys in the course of a few weeks, I'm not giving them a third. I am not giving them a third. But that game was just stupid towards the end. All chaos broke out. Just all chaos broke out. And it wasn't really resembling anything that was close to an organized football game by the time it was over. I think there was a point where there were three touchdowns in the span of three game minutes or something like that with the onside kick and the kick return and the touchdown before that.

Yeah, just a really sloppy game. But Cowboys defense should feel pretty good about how they played for the most part. You had some third down stats about them last week or going into this game about how this was going to be a big part of this game. As far as commanders were really, really killing it on third down up until the last few weeks. And then the Cowboys defense, who we were high on, now with Micah Parsons back, you

yeah that third down defense looks a lot better and it showed up definitely today um yeah the cowboys before this is when they went down 11 the commanders did before chaos kind of started happening i looked up the step because i thought the game was over and then stuff happened and i did not want to look up the stat again because i was like that does that that was not football that was just just what happened there uh the cowboys blitz jane daniels on 12 drawbacks

um seven pressures one sack he went four of 11 for 28 yards and it was they got him with the same one like over and over it was uh michael parsons kept they have michael parsons a bunch lined up as defensive tackle like over one of the guards and i think that's just really interesting i thought he was gonna be one of the stand-up guys when zimmer does his little double mug looks and he's been having them as defensive tackle so i was like ah

I'm going to find how many snaps. Thank you. Next gen stats. I can find how many snaps he's done it this year. 46 snaps at defensive tackle this year. Last year he had 90 all the entire season. So I think that's just a little interesting because they kept getting them. It was overshown. The linebacker would run in. He would ear hole the guard. Oh, so the Gazua would loop around and then Michael Parsons would beat the guard inside. And they just, they just created internal pressure just over and over like the same look. And it was a,

this is what you get a little worried with cliff's offenses yeah is they had a tell every time they go in empty they would do the little chip help thing you know where it's it's quote unquote empty but then austin eckler's next to the left tackle and chipping yeah yeah yeah and so every time they did it the cowboys ran the same blitz against it because they just like they had a they caught them like they had a tell on it all they got out of it late in the game but that's

That's where you get worried with some of the close stuff is that once he's a little slow to adjust mid game and he didn't adjust until once the game was out of hand, really, and then got back in hand and then out of hand again and then back in hand again. And then the other thing was the commander's defense kind of reared its ugly head. They didn't get they barely pressured Cooper Rush. They only pressured him six times on 33 dropbacks, one sack, zero scrambles, and the Cowboys were missing Tower Smith and Zach Martin. So that's.

You know, that's kind of just very concerning for a commander's team that wants to make a push. Rico Dottel, 10 of 19 runs were successful. Only got stuffed once, which is a gain of zero negative yards. So, yeah, like the Cowboys offense who had backup guards in there has a rookie center.

uh, just steamrolled the commander's defensive front. So yeah, that's just not kind of what you want, but yeah, that was, I thought being had a nice game from, I saw on, uh, on the broadcast. All right. And we were, we were talking last week about the, uh, the third downs, like going into this game. That was your main point. It was huge. Yeah.

And I, so now that we have, what, this is the third game that Michael Parsons has been back. The commanders were one for seven on third and long attempts today. So that puts them at two for the last 18. And the Cowboys defense is now one for the last 15 on third and longs. So Parsons has been back since Parsons has gotten back. Yeah. Which is, it's almost like having him on the field matters again. Like,

Right. It actually really helps. It really helps to have this guy. And he's playing so hard, too. I know. Remember when you just complained last week about how many defenses the teams are quitting? And, like, Michael Carson's like, I didn't hear that bell. He just goes, man. He, like, takes every play as a challenge. Dude, the Cowboys defense helped. Like, I was looking at some of the stuff on True Media, so...

This was the second lowest success rate for the commanders this year. Lowest explosive pass rate, lowest EPA per play. Their second lowest was last week against the Eagles. Their third lowest was the week before that against the Steelers. So not the trend you want to be going on. And this was, you know, we thought the Cowboys defense was improving, but still thought that maybe commanders would have answers in this game. So.

Yeah, they kind of had their number today. Even that Cooper Rush offense with all those rainbow throws over the middle. Oh, my God. They made it work. The offensive line took care of business. But we're going to take a quick break, and then we'll come back with a couple more games from this Sunday. The holiday season is here, and it's the perfect time for family gatherings and celebrating with plenty of delicious food.

If you're the kind of person who loves not only preparing meals, but also watching cooking shows, reading cookbooks, and listening to music while you cook, Amazon Prime has you covered. It brings all of these experiences together, making your holidays much easier and enjoyable. With Amazon Prime, you can get one-day free delivery on tens of millions of eligible items, so everything you need arrives just in time.

Imagine having your recipe books on hand right when you need them, plus exciting cooking shows and music with Prime Video and Amazon Music, all included in your membership. Whatever you're into or getting into, it's on Prime. Sign up for Amazon Prime today. From streaming to shopping, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.com slash Prime to get more of whatever you're into. With Kingsford Match Lite, all it takes is a match. No lighter fluid needed.

So whether it's a backyard barbecue or a parking lot tailgate, nothing gets the party started like Kingsford Match Light Charcoal. It's the perfect charcoal for on-the-go get-togethers. Give your food a smoky barbecue flavor and give your crowd something else to cheer about. Kingsford Match Light Charcoal. Kingsford's fastest lighting charcoal. Visit kingsford.com. ♪

All right, we got Titans at Texans, AFC South, a lot of divisional games. Titans win this game, 32-27, and this one was wonky. Every time I looked at this game, something weird was happening. I guess that's what we should expect with Levis. It's like any Levis game is just the chaos game. Yeah. What was your takeaways from this one? I had to go rewatch this one just to kind of take it all in.

Dude, Will Levis is just... He's replaced, to me, like Vikings Kirk Cousins as the funniest quarterback in the league. Oh, yeah. Because he just... It's not just that he makes negative plays, because every quarterback's going to have their moments, but it's just how they happen is...

just unbelievable. Like the interception he threw today, he was sacked eight times today. There's also, there's always plays where he is out there thinking he's like Hulk Hogan in the ring trying to run someone over. But they were able to weather the storm and actually get this game done. And,

Which to me is a little surprising because as flawed as the Texans have been, I still wouldn't expect them to, you know, for a good chunk of this game. And there were, you know, a lot of dropbacks where Will Levis, you know, got sacked or through an interception. But he still had a lot of nice plays through the air today where they were actually able to move the ball and score some points to get some chunk plays. So like Brian Callahan, he has to feel so good after this game because he finally got...

the mostly complete performance that you've been hoping for, where Tony Pollard has had some nice games recently, but the passing game has just been dreadful. And now you got that spark back. So I still am a little in shock that the Titans were able to win this game against a good Texas defense. But Texas deep, the Texans as a whole, we've known have been flawed. And I guess when you're kind of always just teeter on the edge of we're barely scraping by, we're barely winning these games, then you can obviously lose one of these games too.

They just can't squeeze teams, if that makes sense. When they got them, they can't just... They got them on the ground and they just can't finish them. I know this year they're kind of coming back a lot, but it was...

They just lack that kind of one part of their game. Like, even their defense a little bit, other than the pass rush, they just still give up explosive plays that's kind of like, oh, they're always susceptible to maybe just that flash haymaker, I guess is a good way to put it. Dude, they got punched in the mouth versus the run, too. The Texans offense got punched in the mouth. I mean, so, like, yeah, I'll start with Levis because he –

it's bombs and bootlegs that that's this is what all this guy is and it's like a post malone album that that's the first name that's like an album kind of like that beer bongs and bentley's um but it's but levis uh play this offensive tag is just gonna be play action bombs like you're not when you will love your quarterback you're not dropping back 30 times and hoping to

four or five yard stick gains, you know, out routes and anything. It's posts and digs and deep, deep shot plays. But,

It's going to look like this even when it's good. He's going to take sacks, and I think this offensive style will take sacks, but on play action day, he went 6-6, 128 yards, and a touchdown, a perfect passer rating. That's the upside. Yeah, I might take a sack for six yards, but I'm going to hit you for a 50-yard gain. That's the math they're kind of doing, and it kind of worked for them, but I felt bad for both of these quarterbacks on third down. Yeah.

They had 23 dropbacks combined on third down. They were pressured 16 times. It was awful. Both quarterbacks was like 75% pressure rate. It was, it was, yeah, help. And do we have to throw it deep again? Can I just throw a simple one? But talking about Levis being the most constantly entertained quarterback, he had a scramble.

It was like third and 10. I don't even call it scramble. It was like, as he's getting sacked and he like dives forward for a yard or two, he was fighting acting like the line of scrimmage was like the first down marker. Ah, like trying to jump forward. It's like this guy just, just, he has no quit. No, but it's good. It's going to be hilarious because it either goes good for them or really bad for them. But also what's the deal with Titan special teams? Oh my God.

This might be one of the worst I remember, like in recent memory. I do feel like we're kind of at the part in the Texan season where –

it it's starting to feel like all of the like the weight that cj strata has had to carry all season starting to hit him a little bit um because i i mean i don't i don't think today was his best game by by any stretch of the imagination um back in the end zone do you know do you know what the the texas average distance to a first down on third on third down was today was it over time

And now it was close to those 9.6. So we just say that every week with the Texans, we just compare how big the number is. Your first, like, and, and, and I guess that tracks because today Joe Mixon averaged 1.6 yards per carry. And as a team, they averaged 2.4. So yeah, to be, to be averaging just about 10 yards for a first down on third down, you're, you're living in third and 10, third and nine. Yeah.

it's just it's it's just not jeffrey simmons and yeah i had a big sack today too yeah he's been good all year he's exactly what you hope for no now you get worried about paying him but we'll talk about that three years away let's keep it to that get that second contract but yeah just a wonky game you got the missed chip shot by fairburn even though you like blast other field goals just yeah just one of those games is just wonky bill callahan won't sleep for a week giving up eight sacks but uh

no yeah it the texans team is just long frustrating and you know straddle throw pick just a miscommunication sometimes but yeah i don't know good for the titans i got that's a game i'm re-watching because i want to see kind of how some of the young guys are doing all right moving on to the next one game four we got cross conference play here chiefs at panthers chiefs win this one 30 to 27 hey hey we're

So Hoss fight slash slop watch here. We told you guys this one might be interesting. And it was finally usually when we give those and still it's like they turn to like three touchdown blowouts. So yeah. Yeah. Caroline almost pulled this one out. Had a good game plan. Bryce Young may be his best game. One of if not, I mean, one of top two or top three that I can remember. I mean, it ain't that many. So yeah. Yeah, I know. I think his best one might have been last week or the last game, I should say.

um beat some blitzes yeah had some really good moments uh they moved the ball chuba hover at some nice moments what what were you taking away from this game because this this was a fun one a very very very sneaky fun one that ended up being really close i mean i was running some errands this morning and the town or the city is just flooded with cheese fans this morning i was like oh no this feels ominous ominous and then you like you look at the uh

the crowd shots. And it's just like a sea of red people in the stands. And then Patrick Mahomes got off to a great start early and they were up like 20 something, like 20 to nine before you can even blink. But dude, the Pampers, they just kept fighting. They kept coming back and climb back. Uh,

They had moments where you're just like, oh, God, they just don't have enough talent to get it done. Like, I think there was a big cream hunt run on fourth down late in the game where they just got absolutely steamrolled, blown off the ball and dragged for like 20 yards. But overall, you know, I thought that they had some nice counterpunches to what the Chiefs were actually trying to run. I thought Averro called a pretty good game. Again, like we're still talking within the constraints of having probably the worst game

talent on defense in the league right now, especially with Derrick Brown being out for the year. But they were able to kind of weather the storm. I think they only allowed like 10 points in the second half after getting cooked in the first half. And then Bryce Young, like he really did have probably his best game as a pro. He had a 45% success rate today, almost 0.2 EPA per dropback. And there was a throw that he had where the 49ers, not the 49ers, the Chiefs, they sent six.

someone's coming right through the middle and he just ripped a throw on an out route on third down for a huge gain. And it was like a legit dime under pressure. Yeah. As, as he's getting crushed, I was like, Oh, okay. Bryce, like he is, he's definitely improved from where he was at the start of the season. Yeah. I don't know if it's fair to say like he's good yet, but he's absolutely a better player than he was in week one. And shout out to him. Cause it's been a rough,

Rough start for him, but today was actually a really encouraging game. It was. Yeah, that out throw was great. Yeah, he did really well against the Blitz. I'm just looking at it now. He went 11-14 for 135 yards and a touchdown against the Blitz. Woo!

nine nine point six yards uh an attempt he only got sacked twice the whole day i mean again this is it and they threw heat at him he only was a pressure at 11 times like shout out to the panthers old line too we were talking about that a little bit privately but like they're they're uh like really playing well they invested in it that run game you just pointed out they were i mean their success rate the yards was 16 for 58 for chuba hot rod but then his success rate was 9 of 16

So it was because it felt like it was a good running day. And actually, I was like, you've run the ball pretty well today. I looked at the total yards. I was like, can we ran for 58 yards? That felt different. But he, his success rate, and this is why success rates important because a two yard gain could be a really good gain or a three yard gain. Yeah. Nine to 16. So yeah, I got him kind of kept him going.

Yeah, I was just really impressed. Like you said, the Panthers didn't quit even when things weren't perfect. I just think they're playing sound like it doesn't. It's not bad team botches. It was more like what you said. It's more that they just don't have the horses, which is a whole different thing. You know, it's like the Cardinals last year where it was like, oh, yeah, they can't win this game, but they're trying and like no one's giving up and that that.

That speaks more than some other teams that we're watching around the league. But yeah, shout out to Bryce Young beating the Blitz. He's having some moments where he's talking and running like that. Even that's more decisive. You know, it's just everything is more decisive. And it's just he's such a smart player that you can actually really see that. Like he had one scramble yesterday.

where he runs across he made sure he got the first because if he's it's when you start your slide it's not when you go down that's always a misconception people don't realize he was about to slide he saw that he wasn't across the first and he like hops over the line and then drops down and i was like awareness you're like if he's panicking and going i just need to make a play he slides short of that but when you're confident and going like confident things slow down and

This is maybe the time off just kind of slow things down for him. So it's kind of cool to watch him. They didn't even win the game and the chiefs have some really good moments, but yes, I'm, it's almost like I'm proud of the Panthers. Cause it's like, now I can actually talk about you guys. Like you're not just some morbid franchise that shouldn't exist. Like, you know, so yeah,

I know. I'm proud of you guys. We're going to take one last break, and then we're going to wrap it up with Seahawks Cardinals. The holiday season is here, and it's the perfect time for family gatherings and celebrating with plenty of delicious food.

If you're the kind of person who loves not only preparing meals, but also watching cooking shows, reading cookbooks, and listening to music while you cook, Amazon Prime has you covered. It brings all of these experiences together, making your holidays much easier and enjoyable. With Amazon Prime, you can get one-day free delivery on tens of millions of eligible items, so everything you need arrives just in time.

Imagine having your recipe books on hand right when you need them, plus exciting cooking shows and music with Prime Video and Amazon Music, all included in your membership. Whatever you're into or getting into, it's on Prime. Sign up for Amazon Prime today. From streaming to shopping, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.com slash Prime to get more of whatever you're into.

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All right, last game, game number five of the fifth quarter. We have Cardinals at Seahawks and they've made it feel like that Sunday night game from like 10 years ago or 2016 or wherever it was, 2017, that like nine to six one where everyone kept missing field goals. This one was feeling like that for a minute.

But Cardinals and Seahawks, interesting game. NFC West is going to be tasty. Last month, they're all playing each other. The 49ers lost to the Packers. Packers took care of business against all the backups for the 49ers, and they're kind of a willful run defense right now. You're watching this game, though. Cardinals-Seahawks, what stood out to you, Chuck? This is kind of a... I don't know if it was sloppy is the right word. It was just kind of like a hard-fought game, I guess is a better way to put it. Dude, the Seahawks defense, that's...

They should feel pretty good about how they played today. And I don't know if it's quite the same, but it kind of feels like the Seahawks defense is hitting that same turn that the Ravens did under Mike McDonald, where they're just out of whack to start the season. And then you start figuring out how to play within the scheme. I mean, Ernest Jones, I haven't looked at the splits, but I would imagine they're probably one of the more efficient defenses in the league since he's showed up.

just in terms of his ability to help get them in order and maybe not bite on so many aggressive plays like Dodson did and leave the middle field. Stay away from the line of scrimmage just a little bit. Just a little bit. We definitely want to make tackles at the line of scrimmage and get TFLs, but we also need to see what's going on. Don't need to...

Ralph Wiggumson crashed through the line of scrimmage every single play. But they did a really good job in this game, just kind of staying in front of the Cardinals. I thought that that was impressive because when you get Kyler running around back there, it can be easy to lose people. It can be easy to lose Kyler himself when you're in some of those tight situations. And I thought that they did a really good job even playing those out and getting him to just –

play within, you know, play within like the dimensions of the field for lack of better phrasing where there was even like a third down or a second down where he was squaring out towards the sideline and just slid because it seemed like he slid a little bit out of frustration. It's like you could have just thrown the ball away and not taken two yards. I think Mark Sanchez was the announcer and he was like really like

uh, you could have thrown that one away. Like he kind of like didn't know what to say. And Mark Sanchez tries to be a little positive, you know? So he was like, ah, I could tell. He was like, why'd you just do that? Yeah. Yeah. Cause this was late in the game. Like when they've had a bunch of drive that just haven't gotten anything. And I think I, I think I even said in a little group chat, I was like, Ooh, I could feel the angst on that slide. Or he was just like, you know what? F this. And anytime you can make an offense that good, feel like that. Um,

You've done a pretty good job. And, you know, they were helped at the end a little bit. I think they probably still would have won by that missed field goal right before the Cardinals could have tried an onside kick. But but still, you know, the Seahawks defense is coming along. Leonard Williams has been a great pickup for them. He had a hell of a game today. So they're they're about to be top first in the division, depending on what happens with the Rams and the Eagles on Sunday night.

So that's a good spot to be in compared to where they were a few weeks ago. Oh, I know. Feeling like, oh my God, what happened to this team? Geno only had, I was just doing a little napkin math here. Geno Smith only had one tight window throughout the entire game. Threw the ball 31 times. So that, which is speaks to kind of some of the desires. But also if you can block up the Cardinals funkiness,

You can gash them. And I mean, they held them for most of the game. They held, especially in the red zone, got kind of a nice turnover near the end or near the red zone, I should say. But that was kind of what, how that side felt was like, they kind of took care of business. Don't make the mistakes that usually crops up with these Seahawks games where they're like, Oh, that brutal turnover. But yeah, great shout out to the Seahawks defense. Um,

James Conner was seven carries for eight yards. He didn't have a successful carry the entire day. Trey Benson, four carries for 18 yards, only had two successful carries. They only had two successful rushes the entire game, which watching what this Cardinals offense has done to

majority of defenses they played against just put them in the walls of Jericho for four quarters like that is that's really speaking something so two stuffs of James Connor like the Jets should be watching Seahawks film how to tackle they just keep talking about they need to tackle better and they're doing drills for tackling just watch Seahawks film apparently but no good shout I thought the offense is coming together to their

They're adding some nice layers to some of the offense stuff. Helps when you have better blockers. But, you know, how they're using Jackson Smith and Jigba is fun. It's coming to their own. The Seahawks are coming to their own. As far as like three weeks ago, I was kind of like, oh, man, what is going on with this team? But getting those linebackers to shore some stuff up, they can stop the run. Now they're getting after the passer a little bit. Smart on the back end. Yeah, Seahawks are cooking a little bit. Leonard Williams today, two and a half sacks, three TFLs, four quarterback hits. Like...

that's not like Leonard Williams game. He's more of an in-between player. Like, you know, he doesn't always show up in the box score. Like he kind of does a lot of dirty work stuff. So yeah, it felt like it too. Him and Trey McBride. Oh my God. Trey McBride went 12 catches for 133 yards. He's pretty good. Pretty good. All right. Well, that's wrapping it up for our first Sunday recap of football 301. Thank you for joining me, Charles.

We're going to be doing this. Yeah, we're going to be doing this every week. We're going to be having a just one podcast during the week. This week, Tuesday's Thanksgiving special. We're going to kind of a hybrid show is how we're going to do it this week. And that'll be you again. You being Charles McDonald, who you can find where Charles on social media.

Mostly on blue sky. Now I'm, I'm, I'm never going to delete the actual account. There's just too many gems back there. That's backlogged. So it's going to stay up, but I'm more on blue sky. And I see you by me at four birds on blue sky dot social or wherever the hell it is now, but four birds, blue sky. Yeah.

And then what'd you write about today? Today, I just wrote that basically if you're a Bears fan, that's a loss you can stomach because Caleb played well against a really tough defense. So, you know, we're trying to keep a little positive into the holiday. I know. I'm trying. I have so many Chicago fans in my life. I'm trying to be positive with them. But that's good. I had a

Ravens Chargers Harbow preview. So that's going to be still, that's still relevant because they don't play until tomorrow night. Hopefully when you guys are listening to this Monday night, I should say I'm Nate Tice. You can find me at Nate underscore Tice. You can find that article, find Charles stuff all on Yahoo. Thank you for checking out this recap show. Also send a mailbag questions whenever you want football, three Oh one mailbag at Yahoo sports.com.

Keep those rolling. Keep those rolling. Subscribe to us as well. Follow us. Rate us five stars. If not, if you don't like five stars or you want to go four stars, just tell us on Twitter where you're giving us four stars. Also, watch us on YouTube on the Yahoo Sports YouTube channel. Thank you to Brett and Stone behind the scenes. Thank you to you, Chuck. Thank you all for listening. Hope you enjoyed your Sunday. We'll be back with the pod on Tuesday. Talk to you guys then.

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