Week 14 fifth quarter: Stafford, Allen & Darnold sling it, while Bears look putrid
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This is a football three one. It's the fifth quarter. Charles McDonald joins me to recap Sunday of week 14. We got a wild Rams bills game. A lot of points, almost a 90 burger. There got Sam Darnold balling out with the Vikings and you know, not, it wasn't a happy Charles reaction to that game as they beat the Falcons. The Vikings did. We have some best of the worst at the end. Won't want bears and some game balls to wrap it up. See you guys in a sec.

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Hello and welcome back to Football 301, the fifth quarter, our Sunday recap show where Charles McDonald is going to join me as we looked at four games this week for the fifth quarter because there's a decent amount of slop, if you couldn't tell by our Thursday preview show, and then we're going to do a little bit of best of the worst at the end to recap the rest of the games, or maybe just a

Some stray thoughts. We're going to give out game balls at the end of this. There was a couple worthy game balls, especially from one particular game. But like I said, to help me do that, to go over everything for the fifth quarter, week 14, my guy, Charles McDonald, Mr. Forberts. How you doing today, Chuck? Doing all right. It was an interesting NFL Sunday because we had the slop watch preview last week and

But you know how the NFL is. Like, sometimes you can, like, we've had these weeks before where it looks like it's going to be trash. You get to Sunday and it's awesome. Like, every game is coming down to the wire. And I felt like maybe around, like, 2.45 Eastern. So, like, we're getting to the, like, close of the third quarter, start of the fourth. I was like, oh, we might. Well, pre-witch?

Right, like a little pre-witch hour, like, oh, we might have something. And then as it went on, no, we actually didn't have all that much. And then even the four o'clock games...

But we're still going to get into it. There's interesting stretches. There's interesting moments of those. I think what's different about this time of year is you can look it up. There are just way more bad teams this year than almost any other season prior to this. So you end up with a lot of inconsequential matchups at the end of the year, which it is what it is. But top of the league is still good, as evidenced by the Bills and Rams game.

Top of the league QB play is still good. Yeah, that's why anyone pulling their hair out or clutching the pearls about QB play in the NFL should just be watching what's some of the stuff that was happening today, especially the Bills Rams game, which just wrapped up before we started the show. Wow. Rams win 44-42.

There were some points. There were not a lot of sacks. There were zero sacks. There were zero turnovers. There was a block punt. However, so, you know, it's its own thing. But Stafford and Allen dueled in L.A. for probably the most fun of the game of the year or one of the most fun games on the podium, I think, so far. A nice little AFC-NFC duel between one of the top teams in the AFC and a team battling for their playoffs, the Lions and the Rams. Stafford finished 23-30, 320 yards, 2-0.

Josh Allen finished 22 of 37, 342 yards, three touchdowns, 82 rushing yards, three rushing touchdowns, six total touchdowns. The first player in NFL history to finish with three passing and three rushing touchdowns in the same game. Oh my God. And they still lost. Uh,

Kyron Williams went for two touchdowns. Puka Nakua was a triple threat like he always is, 162 receiving. He had some rushing yards as well. Cooper Cupp had some nice moments. Khalil Shakir, my guy, had a big game as well, some big moments. I mean, there were just haymakers being thrown. There's some cool scheme stuff.

have you caught your breath yet from this game because this uh this was yeah this was a back and forth really fun affair it was crazy i i at one point in the uh in the i think maybe like in the fourth quarter i started like writing down some stuff and then honestly i stopped because i was like i just i just kind of want to watch the same thing same thing i kind of i kind of just want to watch and see how this unfolds because

That might be or probably is the best game that Stafford's played this year. And he, I posted this on Blue Sky, but I think when he is on, like,

like the top of his powers, he might be like the most fun quarterback to watch in the league because the arm talent is still a plus, you know, top of the mountain. And when you get guys like Puka and Cooper and even like, you know, they had a big play to DeMarcus Robinson down the field that was offsetting. But,

he was just on fire today. And then you get Josh going like his own version, or it's not quite as like, you know, drop back when any were firing it, you know, like precision in terms of just, yeah, running the play. Like it's more chaotic than that, but still efficient. I think the craziest thing I saw while I was looking after the game was Stafford had EPA for drop back on True Media 0.84. Wow.

For the whole game? Yeah, for the whole game. That's insane. So almost one point per drop back. And Josh on the other side, he was at 0.57. So this is basically, you saw like,

MVP caliber play and like supernova quarterback play on the same field. And that's like, that's what we're here for. I don't know how much like I'll be tripping over the end of the game. If I was a bills fan, I think that, you know, no matter how you slice it, it's going to be tough to execute. You probably shouldn't have burned that last time out because you did get them into a situation where they had to pump the ball. But sometimes you just get got and Stafford's hot. That can happen to any team in the NFL. Yeah.

Yeah, the sneak, the late sneak by McDermott, or I should say McDermott, I mean, Joe Brady, McDermott, Josh Allen, the triumvirate of the Bills. That was a little curious decision, you know, where they were and they got stuffed because, yeah, it's almost automatic with Josh Allen. But in those situations, it's not so much the downs.

you know the wasted plays it's the waste of time so that was just the one like oh you kind of hindered yourself there like he could have maybe thought that one through or you know you know just let the clock go and hurry up and get to the next play it might be a little more chaotic but you got to save time so like that was a kind of iffy decision at the end i did think in a i

I made sure to retweet it a couple times from our preview show, but Matthew Stafford against zone coverage. Oh, yeah. He was cooking them. In the first half, he went 9-10 for 120 yards against zone, and they only ran man coverage three times. But in the second half, the Bills really started to ramp up man coverage, and Tom Brady was doing a great job of pointing this out. I mean, obviously, he can pick up on it pretty quickly. But then in the second half,

Stafford went six to seven for 160 yards and one touchdown against man coverage, which including the last dagger touchdown, the Puka Nakua on the screen, that was an empty play. And our guy Keegan Abdu from next gen stats kind of pointed us out in a group chat. We have that Stafford and the Rams were in empty a ton today, which I thought was really curious. They, uh,

They have, they've gotten away from that in 2021. They were super in empty there. I looked it up 18% empty right in 2021. First in the league. I think first in true media database, they were six massive. That's one out of five place and empty. That's insane. Like, I think I was going nuts about Caleb Williams being in it like 9% of the time. Yeah.

No, no. Imagine double that. They were in empty a quarter of their snaps today, 23%. They were only in empty and 3.7% of snaps going into today. Like they have gotten away from that. Everything's been more just under center pistol, all those types of things. And not really, you know, having Kyron Williams in the backfield, they just have merged these offenses. But out of empty, including that last one in the coup, where they come in the blitz.

seven for seven, 97 yards and two touchdowns. And they'd only run it 26. He only had 26 dropbacks out of it or pass the times out of it earlier, but going into this week. So that was a fun little scheme thing there where I saw the chess match happening. I think the bills were just like, try this.

All right, try this. And then even when they had good coverage, Stafford is throwing incredible balls to Puka Nakua, who's making every catch. Nakua looked incredible today. Yeah, I mean, some of the throws these guys had today. Allen had the sideline throw to Amari Cooper, the touchdown throw to Mack Hollins, the hole shot to Khalil Shakir. It was just like on and on and on. We're going to be...

giddy to tweet out some of these plays. But yeah, I, what'd you kind of think of the bills performance? Cause the guy just kind of, you know, you just ran into a buzzsaw. We kind of wanted to say also AFC NFC, you know, it's one of those where it's like, well, you play each other once every four years. You don't, you don't see each other all that often. I, I don't really think that much less of the bills after this performance. I just, I just think you ran it. Like, like you said, you ran into a buzzsaw. And yeah,

As much as maybe if the Bills have overperformed in some aspects, like Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford and Pook Nakua and Cooper Cupp, they can still get you when you're kind of reshuffling that back end. So when you pull out something that...

maybe they weren't expecting. That's also kind of the beauty of having a quarterback like Matthew Stafford, who's played so much football. He doesn't need to run like 100 snaps of empty before you can have a game like this. You can just say, oh, we'll pull it out the back today. Yeah, throw the dust off. Yeah, yeah. That's such a good point. You already know how to do this stuff. So now we can just throw it in the game plan this week and

the bills didn't really know what hit them. I, man, you, you, you pair that. Like, I just can't get over the quality of the throws that, that were in this game. I, and man, I, it just makes me, it makes me like look back and be like, damn, if only they didn't get so hurt at the start of the year, like where could this team be? Because now, now they're starting to look like the offense that we thought we were going to get.

back in August where you can just mow people down up front and then Stafford and Puka and Cooper doing their thing. It's just, it's too many options to stop, but it looks like, it looks like they'll still have a chance to make the playoffs, but those early season losses, you can see like where it's starting to hurt them on the back end. Now that they're trying to make that push.

Yeah, no, I know the offense when those guys are all healthy on the field, Cup, Stafford, Nakua and Kyron Williams. I mean, they just cook everybody. And yeah, that's such a great point about kind of like pulling out. Oh, yeah, let's get to this this week. You know, Cup, Cup and

You know, Stafford are probably like, oh, yeah, yeah, we got that. And then Naku is so smart and Kyra Williams are smart. So it's nothing for them. I guess probably easy pickup for them. So the one thing I kind of noticed and watching a lot of bills, you know, their special teams is a little iffy. You know, we got the pump block, their 25th and DVOA going in today. So I did want to say that one thing, but I'm with you where it's like,

Maybe their defense has been playing a little bit above their weight, but they have a good defense going into this week. And I feel I'm still confident in the offense and the Bills offense. I mean, and Alan. But it's just kind of like this is kind of the offenses you need to win a Super Bowl or what we saw tonight. I know that sounds so obvious, but this is like the, oh, this is quarterback play.

But you know what I mean? Where it's like, oh, this is the real needle mover type of play. So yeah, I mean, I had so many stats going to this. I just want to be a 40 minutes if I listed all of them. Ben Solak had one previous being stats and info. Bill's Rams was the first game in NFL history in which each team scored 40 or more points with no turnovers.

just, just one of those games where it's just like any stat you look at, it's gonna be fun. I can, you brought the EPA per dropbacks, the success rates were insane. So very fun game. Um, one more scheme thing was the jet sweep stuff, which was really fun. Again, Brady, I thought Tom Brady was doing a better job of some point and pointing some stuff out today, which was a little lozenge on his way back. Oh man. I think he enjoyed LA. No,

Really, from the start of the game, I was like, oof, Tom. Yeah. Can't hear less. No, there's a cold going around, but yeah. Yeah, I know. He commented, too, and he kept getting Rob Havenstein's names wrong, and he kept correcting himself. He's like, I keep getting that wrong. It's like, all right, Tom, it's all right, man. You're good. You're good. Somebody gets a lot of names wrong. Yeah. Yeah.

You can see how he ended up being so good just by listening to him broadcast sometimes because he's so hard on himself. Just obsessive about it. He is. You can tell he's competitive about broadcasting. It's pretty awesome. Yeah. No, I thought... I mean, that was the type of game to get excited about. The other one was...

I was excited about it was exciting for a little bit and then kind of got away after a couple a couple turnovers early in the game. That was Seahawks won 30 at the Cardinals Cardinals scored 18. I don't know why I said that way 30 to 18 Seahawks won in Arizona Seahawks have ripped off some wins for straight.

They've beaten the Cards twice and really got a nice lead in the NFC West here. Geno had an awesome day. Zach Charbonnet had a good day. The Seahawks' run game was really good in the first half, kind of dropped off in the second half. And then Geno really picked it up. Jackson Smith at Jigba kind of continues his run.

increased role. They're using him on the outside a little bit more, but he's just, they figured out how to use him, which is just really nice. He's not kind of an overwhelming player, but it's nice to see him get going. Kyler had the early picks, but didn't have, did have some good stretches in this game. I thought both teams did, but both teams were kind of

Had some moments where you're like, oh, yeah, that's why you're a little different class than maybe the top, top teams. But what were some of your takeaways for this game? I thought Gino had a great game. I'll just drop off the one stat. Highest success rate in the season, 63%, and highest EPA per dropback, I think, of the season. So, yeah, Gino, Seahawks offense click and pull out the win in Arizona.

I know it wasn't quite as good in the second half, but if I was a Seahawks fan, that first half rushing performance would be so damn encouraging. Because it wasn't just like, you can look at the stats, they ran the ball 14 times, 121 yards, two touchdowns, 8.6 yards per rush. But you just watch them, and the offensive line, they were moving guys up front. Yeah.

like Charbonnet. Like, I know, I feel like Ken Walker must've been watching that. Like, yo, what the hell? Like, where, where was this phenomenon there? You know, that's why I always have to run all the way to the sideline to get one yard. Like, yeah, dude,

like, Lakin Thompson was out there looking like damn Larry Allen on some of these plays. Like, it was ridiculous. They were getting, they were moving bodies all over the field. And, like, even to the point where they had the ball before halftime. And this is when you know someone's, like, really feeling their run game. Like, when they're in, like,

that quasi zone, like right as a two minute warning, you're about to do a two minute drill and they start running the ball. That's when you know someone's kind of feeling themselves a little bit. We've seen the Lions do that before. I remember last year, they had against the Bears where they just marched down the field, two minute drive, running the ball and then won the game. They didn't run the ball quite as well in the second half, which is probably a little discouraging when you're up by that much because you would love to just keep doing that and finish the game out. But like you said, you got a good game from Geno. And I think the story of the day outside of that is probably the defense.

It's really, really starting to come together. And we know that this Cardinals offense, we've talked about it a bunch, especially with the back half of the season, they've been one of the best in the league and Seattle kind of kicked their butt for a good portion of this game, which is, I think is really encouraging. So the,

The whole Mike McDonald defense where, hey, got to be good at everything. It's going to take some time. It's time. But it's starting to flesh out. Ernest Jones had a big interception today. He's been a huge upgrade for them. So I think that this is cool because we're at least going to get one division have an insane finish with the NFC West because –

The Rams put up 40 today. We know the Cardinals are a good team, even with that result. The Seahawks are certainly trending in the right direction. And the 49ers, they're always going to be at least a tough out. I mean, they blew up the Bears today. The Bears are not.

real football team right now. At least I think everyone's within two inches of each other, though. Yeah. No, I wrote about it last week, and it was just kind of like it was hard to even handicap because I was like, I think I like the Cardinals with their defense, but I don't know. The Seahawks are really cooking. I trust their defense more. And then it was like, but the Rams offense was probably the best unit of all these guys. And they have a good pass rush, which is kind of can neutralize some things. Didn't really get home today with zero sacks. But yeah, but that I'm with you. The MC West is just kind of...

It's a fun little like slugfest going on right now. But yeah, that Seahawks run game last week, pound away with duo. And I was all about it. And then this week, some pin pull stuff, some, some, or I should say GT counter stuff, which is gap scheme with some pullers. That was what the Charbonnet long TD run was on kind of cop Buddha Baker on it. But then this week,

It was fun because duo is considered power without the polar. And then this week they ran power. And I was like, yeah, that's cool. I don't know. For me, that was fun just to see him run the same formation and the same motions. And it was like, oh, now they pulled the guy. Oh, that's a little like a little difference they had this week. So I thought that was kind of a fun little quirk of their offense. But yeah, the run game had 100 or Seahawks run offense had 176 rushing yards. Their season best before this was week 116.

They had four explosive runs day. They had four over the previous month. They had 14 running back carries in the first half. 10 were successful. Yeah. But then Gino, like I said, had his highest success rate of the season. So it's kind of like, all right, you take that away. We can do this, which is that's what you want.

But, uh, you, you, if you want to win playoff game, you want to make the playoffs, but if you want to win a playoff game, you have to run the ball. Like it's just, it's just the math of it. And they're getting there. It's not all perfect, but that, like you said, that half was really good. Yeah. One more side about the Seahawks run game. Uh, today they had their highest rate of the season in terms of, uh, first downs per rush, 42.9%. Uh,

The other game, the only game they had that was remotely close to that in terms of production was the game they lost against the Lions back in week four. So, which is kind of interesting. But still, we've talked about how they need to run the ball better, need to run the ball more. I'm sure if it looks like that every week, Grubb will be more willing to do it. So, you know, they just got to keep chipping away at it. Except for the worst short yards team in the league. Right, right. It's just the short yards feel so hard with them. And I don't know, it's...

I got to look up what their gun rate is. It's, it's, it's, they, they act like third and one is third and 12. Like it's the, like just had their formations, everything that they do in it. But the, it's encouraging because the, once they switched over the center, once Williams retired, although a team he took over and Abe Lucas got back, even when I was writing about last week, I was like, it's not all perfect. Like the first half of the against jets wasn't great. And then, but it really picked up and it's just,

I don't know, math, I guess, but it's just the classic equation. Like, offensive line needs time. Like, they need time to gel together. And now you get these guys actually playing together and they're like, hey, not one person is just

like taking away the entire play every single snap. So yeah, coming along, coming along. I know I had a whole long note about the Cardinals first opening drive, the opening touchdown, because I thought it was so cool. Kyler checks into it. I'm like, oh, it might be a good Kyler game. Then he throws two picks on back-to-back plays. And I was like, all right. And then you can tell he's pissed off the rest of the game. And he played pretty well. But the Ernest Jones pick was really nice. That was like, this is what Mike McDonald, when you're just talking about it, like it takes time because

I think these guys opponent scout really well. And you need, I mean, this sounds obvious. You need smart players, but it needs time to go like, Hey, this is what I mean by this. And maybe their opponent scouting gets better as the season goes along. But that Ernest Jones pick, he was, he was a cover to pull dropper, you know, the middle dropper. It was a backside dig by Marvin Harrison jr. Then he just undercuts it. But usually what that pull dropper drops towards the trip side to the three receiver side or to the passing straight side,

So he's turned that way. And also, and I think he realizes, oh, it's a drop back concept. And cause the Cardinals love running those backside digs, our Marvin Harrison jr. So it was just a great little account of he's, he's okay in coverage, but he's really good against the run. So him having those smart moments in coverage too, is like, oh, okay. Like you're affecting that now too. But I just had, that was just a really nice play. And I could tell that it was some opponent scouting of how he caught him. So he, and he had another play later where he's running down,

uh kyler on scramble and it was just like he didn't lose himself kyler did his little hezy and he kind of just didn't lose himself he's just a smart player so um he has solidified that whole defense and it's just been really fun to watch so yeah mc west have some fun teams they're cooking and i mean they're they're all gonna be playing each other next few weeks so it'll be fun to see how that unfolds what wasn't fun was your favorite team and we'll get to them

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All righty. Your favorite team. The Atlanta Falcons went to Minnesota and lost 42 to 21. Sam Darnold went for a career high. I didn't know it was a career high. 347 yards and five touchdowns. The Vikings just stomped him in the second half. Yeah, Kirk, not a good game. Couple picks.

Jordan Adison had a big game. Justin Jefferson had a big game. I think we had somebody, we had D. Alford fell down on a Justin Jefferson touchdown. More than that. What was it? Let's just describe that one. That was Justin Jefferson's first touchdown, second touchdown. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Busted play. I don't remember. I don't know what the hell happened to him, but if you watch the play,

He's obviously late to like... Someone messed up, right? Because... Yeah, yeah. Some safety messed up and he's trying to rally. Right. Yeah. So he realizes, right, he has to rally because no one's covering Justin Jefferson down the field. But...

He still had time to make a play on the ball. He had more than enough time to make a play on the ball. But for some reason, when the ball is in the air, he locates where the ball is in the air and then loses it somehow and turns way back to

in the other direction like like towards the sideline when the ball's coming towards the middle of the field and then just fell over like like i i didn't i really didn't understand how that happened because i was like dude if you just if you just kept making a beeline towards justin jefferson you you could there was that ball was in the air so long because justin caught like a punt basically yeah you could have made a play at the catch point but he just he got lost like it looked like it looked like

Okay, so you remember, I don't know if you, I'm sure you guys did this in college at some point where you have like some person that comes to your campus to talk about like the effects of like, you know, running around being an idiot when you're drunk. You have to wear like drunk goggles for a second just to see what it's like. That's what it looked like. Like when he turned around, it looked like someone put drunk goggles on him. And all of a sudden he's like, oh, I don't know where I am. Oh, touchdown. And then, yeah. It was like a dare assignment. Yes, it's like a dare assignment. All right.

You think you can cover Justin Jefferson? What about covering Justin Jefferson with drunk goggles? You wouldn't cover Justin Jefferson with drunk goggles, would you? This is just after three drinks. Yeah. That game was tied at 21 after the third quarter. Yeah. Ridiculous meltdown. He got snapped off. Yeah. It was another one of those games that the Falcons had this season. Better success rate than their opponent. Almost a 58% success rate on the ground.

They averaged four plays per drive that generated positive EPA, which is just like... I start calculating that at a really absurd rate. Their average third down distance was 5.2 yards. They were sacked on 2.6% of their dropbacks. All in all, it sounds like a pretty damn good offensive performance. And then you just lose again. I don't know. I don't know what to say. Because I want to be pissed at Zach Robinson sometimes. But like, dude, that...

It's not bad. It's fine. It's fine. You just, you can't, you can't have these interceptions. Like Kirk had two awful interceptions again today, which is funny because I think success rate wise today was one of his better games of the season. But when you turn the ball over at just crucial spots like that, it's not going to work. I mean, dude, the interception to Kyle Pitts was just too good.

That was so bad. He could have been like Yao Ming's height and not caught that. Yao Ming. The freshman at Florida, Drew. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The 7'9 guy might have had it. Yeah. Kirk's up to 15 interceptions and 12 fumbles on the season. Over the past month, I think he's at eight interceptions and three fumbles. So, yeah.

Yeah. Zero touchdowns too. And the defense finally gets sacks. And then also now it's like, yeah, actually we're going to get sacks and we're going to have high success rate. And if you told me before this season, I'm like, man, Falcons probably cooking then. And just, no, can't, can't have turnovers. Not especially with this type of attack. Like they, they're just,

It's just not a type of offense or a type of team structure, I should say, that can tolerate turnovers. Like the Vikings can tolerate some darn old turnovers because their defense like does a lot of craziness. They can get the ball back and create short drives like three and outs and get the ball back and yada yada. So it's just they don't have the team makeup that can take any turnovers, especially if they're going to put the ball in his hands that much. And I mean,

the first interception he is he freezes cousins does like he's in the pocket and i appreciate it he always tries to progress and this is why coaches love him but it's just like do something like one mississippi two mississippi three miss do something do do something do something not that though like don't throw it late into coverage throw check down throw throw it away run like dive forward like something just don't do what that was but um yeah on the other on the other side

Shoot, Darnold, Darnold got hot. He was cooking. This was a good dice roll Darnold game. But the touchdown that we just laughed about D Alford, he I mean, that was a great creation by him getting out of the sack and throwing on the run. And I mean, yeah, Jefferson comes back on it. But I mean, that's

45 yards in the air on a line drive, like, you know, throwing it late. So that's hard. And then the second Addison touchdown was a pretty cool design, but it was D Alford again. Yeah. That one was funny. And this might be, this might be a nice, and again, Harbinger. I've always, I always want to say canary in the coal mine, but this might be a good,

indicator of a snapshot of the Falcons defensive woes. They were putting our guy, AJ Terrell. I was just about to say this. And they run zone on that play.

So Terrell stays locked on Jefferson and the Alford's like, oh, okay, we're in zone. That's great. And so he thinks they're in cover three. He thinks he's the hook player. He thinks Terrell is the outside player. And so he starts covering. They both started covering the inside. And then he's like, oh, he's got a rally to rally to Addison. But it was like, I think that why I'm saying that it's like a little thing. It's like just that little lack of detail. What happens if Jefferson motions to a stack?

What do we do? I don't know. I know. So, uh, Falcons, they did. I mean, I even had Falcons 12 personnel note. I was ready. Cause I, it was 21, 21. So I was like, make sure you write down the 12 personnel. They had 25 plays out of 12 personnel today. They haven't been doing that. So which is ridiculous by the way, you signed Charlie Warner this off season. Yeah. Why are you not running more 12? I thought that was the whole point. Yeah.

He had a nice game outside of the fumble. Yeah. The only Ray Ray grip I have is not about Ray Ray. It's just about the usage. Sometimes they will give him true number one routes. I'm like, let's stop that. Screens, fine. The monster that has Drake London.

Yeah. Yeah. Dude, there's the Drake London catch where he, it showed that should have been an interception as well, but he saved Kirk from one by just literally going man ball caveman and ripping the ball out. Uh,

Yeah, that game sucks. I think I turned it off at 28 to 21 because you watch, I don't remember exactly what the catalyst was, but I had to actually go back and watch the final two touchdowns in the last interception. But I don't remember exactly what point I turned it off was, but this team has a certain DNA. It doesn't really matter who's in the uniforms. And you can just tell when something is about to get out of hand. So I was like, all right, I don't need to see this. And then I got the score final update. It said 42 to 21. I was like,

I was right. I was right to jump ship on that one. Can't get out of the wrong way, man. Yeah. And then now there's six and seven. They play at the Raiders in a potential Desmond Ritter revenge game.

versus Giants at Commanders versus Panthers. The Bucs are now 7-6 in the NFC South. They are at Chargers, at Cowboys versus Panthers versus Saints. But Falcons do have the tiebreaker, beating them 2-0. But it was just another, like you said, a frustrating performance, kind of like last week. Good success rate. They had sacks, and they still end up losing the game. This one, more handily than last week. And then, yeah, when you're playing, when the run game for the Vikings is going and Darnold's throwing it like that and their design and stuff like that, yeah, no.

Not a lot of teams are going to stop that. It was just that that that's the variance of Darnold in this offense. This is an offense that can get hot. It might have some crap out moments, but like if it's like that, like that's that's the high end of this Vikings offense, which is fun. So especially off play action stuff. So getting into our fourth game for we do a little best of the worst.

Panthers fun game. I don't know. Fun. Yeah. Fun. I don't know if I was going to say good, but there's some good run game stuff, I guess. But fun game. Panthers end up losing 16 to 22 at Philadelphia at the Eagles.

But frisky can't frisky Panthers. They're fighting, doing some good stuff on offense, I think. And then the defense today did some really good stuff against the past. You know, our guy Everill kind of coming back going like, hey, I got life again. People are paying attention to us again. All right. I'm trying to pull up the good stuff again. But yeah, Eagles hang on. They're able to run the ball. Saquon has 124 yards. Ends up being is now the single season rushing leader in Eagles history.

Wow. He's got 16. Wow. Really? Yeah. Beat Shady McCoy's record. I think Shady got in the chip. Still a few games to go, too. He's got 1623 yards with four games left. Thank you, Brett and producer Brett for that stat there. So, yeah, he's got a shot at 2000, which is pretty cool. Yeah. And then Bryce Young has nice moments against the Blitz. I thought at the end of the game, I think the Eagles defense does have some nice moments, too. But I thought the Panthers defense had a lot of nice moments. But yeah,

Some of your takeaways from this game, Chuck, is this is our fourth game of the fifth quarter. I know they are actually winning too many games, but I do feel good for Dave Kamal. It's like, yeah, all right. This is this is selling. Yeah, they look like a real football team. And I think he's given them chances to actually win some of these games with some nice calls, whether they always get executed or not is interesting.

you know they're still working through that like the uh like the uh the throw at the end where to to league it that was just maybe a smidge too far but he still could have caught it and dropped at the one yard line i was like damn that's a nice call because you almost had him spring free to the end zone like if he catches that in stride you're up 23 22 at the end of that game so hopefully as as things start to

you know, get more serious personnel wise. They can start converting a little bit more of those looks. But I thought the Panthers defense, not, not on the ground really, but that just is what it is. But through the air, I thought they had a pretty good performance against the Eagles. I mean, they held Jalen Hurts to 83 net passing yards on 28 dropbacks. I,

He averaged 3.4 seconds to throw, 4.6 areas per attempt. So you got him just sitting, standing back there and just dumping it off basically every single play. And then where Hurts kind of saved some of his numbers, three scrambles for 52 yards. So that'll boost some of your EPA stuff. But on the just straight passing,

They did not have a good day at all. I thought Hurts was really inaccurate, didn't look comfortable in the pocket. The Panthers were throwing stuff at him. But still, you know, this is where you kind of get concerned about Beagle's offense because, yeah, you have Saquon Barkley doing his thing. The offensive line is good. A.J. Brown's a monster. But when Hurts has these games where I don't know how to describe it, but like he he just doesn't really look good.

like he knows what he's doing or what's happening in front of him, doesn't look comfortable playing quarterback at all. Yeah, uncomfortable is probably the best word. Uncomfortable is the best word. Your scoring potential can get squashed

to where you can only score 22 against a team like the Panthers at home when you were two touchdown favorites. So that's got to get cleaned up. And even after the game, some reporter asked Adrian Brown what needs to get better on offense. And he said one word, passing, which is true. He needs to throw the ball better.

He needs to be more decisive with how he throws the ball or else this offense won't go as far as they should. I don't know if it's fair to say a quarterback problem, given how much they're scoring and how much they're winning. But it certainly caps your ceiling if he's going to play like that, especially against a team like the Panthers. And I think that that has to be a little concerning because your goal isn't to beat the Panthers by six points at home. Your goal is to win the damn Super Bowl and you're not going to play like that.

Yeah, that's I mean, yeah, all the stats you just laid out there. It it really felt there was a play early in the game and then a play late in the game that I thought kind of what the Panthers were doing, where they were just it was a lot of it was two RPO plays. But both times they I think the Panthers had a blitzer or a guy DB that's kind of playing the run hard. But both times that DB went, oh, shoot, it's an RPO and jumped out into the throwing lane. So they played both.

And Hurts just like his brain just shot on both of those plays. And that kind of just shows that

I know everyone gets on the coordinator and everything about whoever it is in Philadelphia, but this is what the offense is going to be with Hertz at quarterback. This is what it's going to feel like. This is what it's going to look like. But when they don't add layers or when teams are smart, when you go against really good coordinators, defensive coordinators, they squeeze on this stuff. And that's what's tough. That's where it's like, oh, maybe they add layers, but they still haven't really shown that.

I mean, the run game, of course, we feel good about, but he got sacked four times on only nine pressures, which is just, you know, that's crazy. Yeah, that's yeah. Yeah. Nine pressures. So it wasn't like crazy. He had 3.29 average time to pressure, according to Fran Duffy and next gen stats, I should say. Yeah. So it was there on the stuff. Like I said, all four of those sacks came on the blitz too. He had two touchdowns against the blitz, but those weren't kind of like in the flow. So.

So the kicker had a rough day, Jake Elliott as well. And then the last thing about the Eagles too, I still feel good about the defense. They made it tough on Bryce Young, but Bryce Young had some nice throws. And I thought the, I actually thought the Panthers run game was really impressive today. Oh yeah. Chuba Hubbard, Jonathan Brooks, unfortunately got hurt, but with Chuba Hubbard, I've like, I was, I'm excited to rewatch that because the Eagles defense has been so good. General Carter was a monster, but that four minute drive. So a four minute drive is when you're burning the clock at the end of the game. And, and,

They had a, so there was the one RPL play that I'm talking about. Hertz loses nine yards on it. They end up getting a first down. They throw in a stop route to AJ Brown, get the first down. So it's like, okay, there you go. Now you got to burn some clock. When they completed that pass to AJ Brown, there was four minutes and 49 seconds on the clock. They get the first town. Next ball snapped at four Oh six. All right. We are a four minute drive. They go two yard run. Saquon Barkley. They get a delay of game.

Then it's second and 13 and complete.

which blew my effing mind that they threw the ball there. Incomplete, nice PBU. Then Jalen Hurts passes it. Grant Calcaterra almost gets thrown out of bounds. He should have actually almost got called out of bounds because he was getting tackled out there. But it was a flat route out there, and it was like his momentum almost takes him out of bounds as he's getting tackled. And then they take another timeout. Or I'm sorry, the Panthers take a timeout, and then the Eagles get a delay game and have to punt.

So they were trying to put the game away and they only took off a minute. Yeah, they took, they got that first down and only took off a minute. So then they were punting with three Oh six. And that's where Bryce got that last drive or the Panthers got that last drive, hit a couple of nice throws, almost hit that one until I get at the end of the game. But it's just always those with these Eagles where it's just like,

Can you guys just play clean? Can you guys just play like every facet was good? Or is there always just going to be one that's just staring at me as I watch you? And I'm like, I'm not sure about you because I do feel good about the Eagles team. I love the run game and I love the defense. And so it's just that passing game. That's so volatile. So Devante Smith was back. So there's not even that where you say, oh, AJ Brown and Devante Smith are out. It's like,

I don't know. Just always kind of feels like leaving leaves me wanting just a little bit more or a lot of it more, especially if they want to be a contender. So they had sub 100 passing net passing against the Panthers. That's crazy. Anyone listening right now? How many DBs on the Panthers? Can you name one? Jason? Yeah, that's all. Yeah, that's exactly that. I mean, a quick shout out.

Dude, Taylor Moten played awesome today in the run game. He's played really well. He's played really well. Off of the line coach, because Taylor Moten was trending down, man. And now he looks back. And I think before they put that. Joe Gilbert, right?

I think before they played the giants in London, I talked about Cade Mays, that former five-star who was just like kind of a day three pick, but I had some talent. He had a, he had a good game today too. There was a, I think on one of the goal line runs where a tuba scored, he blocked, he blocked Jordan Davis and another linebacker, like on the same play, like, you know, like bounce, bounce the eight back. Yeah. And, uh,

and scored. So dude, that offensive line is fun as hell to watch. Like they, they will mow people down sometimes. I know they're building stuff that I'm vibes are pretty good with the Panthers right now. I just a lot of their stuff is sound. And even with Bryce Young, Bryce Young doesn't look overwhelmed. You

You know, and that's the, and that just shows like, I think everybody on that team, like the offense, just everyone knows what they're doing. And I know that sounds, Oh, a lot. That's obvious. Watch the bears and watch the Panthers. And you're like, yeah, this is night and day. And that's incredible for me to say three, four months after what I thought the season was going into, you know, or going into the season. So, uh, yeah, I, I, the Panthers are doing some cool stuff. They just, you know, need a few more pieces and they're getting some good play. Other guys. All right.

We're going to take our last break, give out some game balls, maybe best of the worst as well. The holiday season is here, and it's the perfect time for family gatherings and celebrating with plenty of delicious food.

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Sometimes if we don't have enough games to talk about, we'll do a best of the worst. That's what we're starting here on Sunday. But we only have one best of the worst this week. And what is that, Charles? We already hinted at it, but what is it, Charles? That is the Chicago Bears having five total yards of offense in the entire first half of the game against the 49ers. And honestly, people who know me and thought my work for a while know that I can get fixated on just like hilariously terrible things.

Yeah, you like schlock. I like the schlock. So when people were tweeting, because the 49ers, they had the ball, they scored a touchdown. And that's when people started tweeting because it was maybe a minute 30 before halftime. People were like, wait, the Bears are averaging 0.1 yards per play? Like,

0.1, almost zero. Yes. Yes. It was that bad. So they had two yards going into their final drive on, uh, before halftime and they got to a third and two. So they had gained eight yards, right? Uh,

It was looking a little positive. We got 10 yards of offense going in the half and then sack, big sack. Pumped the ball, five yards of offense, an entire half of football. I kept glancing at that game in the multi-view. Every time I looked, the 49ers had the ball. - Had the ball. - Yes, insane. And then I looked at the stats, I was like, oh my God, you've run 14 plays for two yards.

0-4, third down. I cannot believe how bad the thing has gotten. And I think, I don't remember who, like someone in our group chat or maybe someone on the internet was talking like, man, Thomas Brown, his role has really increased over the last month where he became the OC and then he became interim head coach. And I think today maybe that showed that's a big ramp to shoot up in three few weeks. Stretch the look. Yeah.

Yeah, I think so, too. Yeah, I looked it up. I was like, 0.1 yards per play is significant. I got to look this up. It was the third lowest by a team in the first half by an NFL team since 2012. Remarkably, the Jets out.

uh, 0.1 yards per play, uh, against the dolphins a week 15 last year. And then the Raiders and a game that my dad was a part of the Raiders average point or negative 0.8 yards per play against the Broncos and week 14 of 2015. And they won that game 15 to 12 because, uh, Khalil Mack sack Brock Osweiler five times. Oh, I do remember that game. Yeah. I do remember that. Yeah. Pretty ugly one. Yeah. Speaking of sacks, by the way, Caleb took seven.

I'm only 12 pressures today. We got, that's going to be something I'm going to be studying along and be like, all right, is this an issue or is this just you being really stubborn? Which I think, I think it's a little more of the latter about him just going, no, I'm going to progress. I'm working on my own game here. You know, like, well, then you guys got to get open. I'll work on that, but we'll see. Cause he is taking a lot of sex and it's just, it's,

I saw Jake Plummer, David Carr stat, and I was like, you don't want to be in Jake Plummer, David Carr stats, especially early on in their career. So, yeah, sixth lowest average in the first half since 2002. So nice little best of the worst there with the Bears in the first half. Now it's time for our game balls. Doctor, is he going to make it? I'm sorry. He's got that dog in him. Who are you giving the game ball to for week 14?

We already talked about it, but I'm going to give it to Matthew Stafford. I just can't get over some of those throws. Just about all of them today. He really was just playing out of his mind. He had a 97.6 QBR today, which is...

Almost impossible to choose. So like the way you would read that is if we had an average NFL team and we plop this performance onto it, they would win 97.6% of the time. And Josh Allen's today was 90.3%.

Love it. Wouldn't love it today. So this is one of those 10, one out of 10 games that this performance would have lost six total touchdowns. I think it was the highest fantasy game and quarterback quarterback history. Yeah. I got 90 points from Josh and Puka in a, in fantasy today. So we're moving on to the next round. I'll do it. I'll wrap it up. Yep. My game ball. Sorry, Josh Allen. I wish I could give it to you, but I'm going to give it to Sam Darnold. Put it

Put out a huge second half. Actually, a lot of good designs there, too. Good receiver play, but 22-28, 347 yards, five touchdowns for Sam Darnold as the Vikings keep rolling. Those are our game balls. That was Week 14. The Sunday night game is kicking off right as we wrap this up. Chiefs and Chargers. But hope you guys enjoyed your Week 14, your Sunday. I'm Nate Tice. You can find me at Nate underscore Tice on Blue Sky and Twitter. That is for Verts, Charles McDonald.

Also make sure to send your mailbag questions, football301mailbag at yahoosports.com. Emails are great. Videos, voice notes are better. Subscribe to us. Follow us. Rate us five stars. Watch us on YouTube on the Yahoo Sports YouTube channel. Make sure to subscribe to that as well. Thanks to Brett Stone behind the scenes. Thank you all for listening. We'll be back on Tuesday, me and Matt. See you guys then.

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.