After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

Anytime you need comic relief, he is all about it. And the best part is he doesn't mean to. Maybe sometimes he means to. He's got that twinkle in his eye every now and then or he actually will smile. But for the most part, that's just Mike Tomlin.

He is the best. I asked a former player of his, so former Steeler, if he was always like that and he said absolutely. He's the same in front of the microphone as he is behind closed doors.

He just may use a few more of the choice words that you can't say in front of the microphone. Normal dude eating his chicken wings over there. I'm like Mike Tomlin eats chicken wings. Monday night football between the Raiders and Chiefs to wrap week five. We've got Davante. We've got Travis Kelsey both showing off and on the game's biggest stage.

The brightest lights. Vegas losing as in choking away. I don't love the word choking. Coughing up.

Like phlegm. Coughing up a three score lead. We've got a roughing the passer penalty.

Sniff, sniff. And we've got going for two when you're down by one and you can use an extra point to tie. All of these are elements that became talking points on Monday Night Football. So we want to dive in. But what we're asking you actually is, and this is for reals, if you're on the NFL competition committee or they come to you for your expertise, maybe you really impressed them with your tweets.

They come to you with your expertise and ask you how would you define roughing the passer? That's what we want to know. So find us on Twitter. ALawRadio is my Twitter.

After Hours CBS is our show Twitter. While you're there you can vote for TD of the Week. We've got some pretty impressive candidates. And actually I had to leave out a bunch of candidates including a go ahead touchdown in the final three minutes. And then you can use our Facebook page. Utilize it to your heart's content after hours with Amy Lawrence on Facebook.

Now coming up in, we'll call it 17 minutes if I'm on time. A special guest from our Charlotte affiliate who I distinctly remember, and I'm not ripping on him. I'm glad he was happy at the time. I distinctly remember was giddy when the Panthers picked up Baker Mayfield. And it's all gone so horribly wrong to the point where Matt Rule just got fired on Monday. So I thought it was fair to bring him back and to ask for his perspective now. It's not been that long, but pretty much everything has changed except for the winning in Charlotte. We're live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios.

You need to know what it takes for a home to fit your budget and your family. Rocket can. Let's dive right in, shall we?

We'll skip to the good stuff. The Raiders jumped out to a 17 point lead. No, seriously, it was 17 to nothing in Arrowhead Stadium. That's hard to do. 17 to nothing against the Chiefs, middle of the second quarter of Monday Night Football. And I don't know how this happens somehow. Travis Kelsey gets open, as in like gets open over and over again.

He's a master at it. Mahomes, two outs to the right. Here comes. They look to the left. Now they go for the middle. Back of the end zone caught. Touchdown, Kansas City.

Travis Kelsey with the touchdown reception from Patrick Mahomes and a great route by Kelsey. Well, that's how he gets open. He's as good as Steph Curry at moving without the ball. Do you know what makes Steph Curry so friggin dangerous? In addition to the fact that he's dead eye with his shot is that he's constantly moving.

It's so hard to keep track of him. He exhausts defensive players, but also indicates how good the conditioning is for him. For Travis Kelsey, who knows his quarterback, he does the dirty work. He actually likes the physical contact. In fact, he'll hit you if you get anywhere near him. He loves to deliver those stiff arms. And he runs precise routes. But he also knows how to get open when a defender seemingly has him covered.

It's amazing to watch him work at his craft. So the first touchdown for Travis Kelsey, remember the name, gets the Chiefs on the board. That's Mitch Holtus on Chiefs radio. And then there is this moment late in the first half that accidentally, it was not the intent, but this moment that sparked the Chiefs. And yet it actually went against them.

Just one of those quirky things about life. It's all about quarterback safety. 107 to play in the first half. Personal foul. Roughing the passer. Number 97 defense. 15 yard penalty. Automatic first foul. I think he meant 95.

95 too. This was just one of those. It was just a football play, but Chris Jones, as he was going for the sack, his entire body weight lands on Derek Carr.

Really absolutely nothing he can do right here as he's just going for the sack and getting the ball out. That noise you hear from the fans at Arrowhead continued. It continued for what felt like a half an hour, but it sparked the Chiefs. Unintentionally, indirectly sparked the Chiefs. Maybe it was the support from the crowd.

Maybe it was the fact that they were so indignant. If you go back and you watch the video, Chris Jones actually did attempt to brace himself from landing directly on Derek Carr. And not just that, his right arm had the football. So he tore the football away from Derek Carr. He cradles it like he's a running back in his right elbow and with his left arm, I don't know how a guy of 325 pounds does this, with his left elbow he's athletic enough to brace himself from falling directly onto Derek Carr.

I only see the play about 3,000 times overnight here on NFL Network and other networks that I've got up here in studio. We're going to pivot really quickly here because Gene Sterator was a guest on the Westwood One postgame show with Kurt Warner and Kevin Hartland that you just heard making that call. They brought him on board because they wanted him to react to not just this Chris Jones moment, but also the Grady Jarrett flag. Remember the Falcons, late, thought they had stopped Tom Brady and the Buccaneers and were going to get the ball back in their game in Tampa. And instead Grady Jarrett was called for roughing the passer because the officials said they flung or he flung Tom Brady to the ground.

So here's Gene Sterator's assessment. The hit yesterday with Brady in the Atlanta game just isn't a roughing the passer call and tonight I thought there was kind of a two layer with the play we had with Jones tonight where I actually believe he has possession of the football before the players get to the ground. So in that case, looking at a body weight or what may have taken Carl Sheffers to that call to me was a little perplexing because I think we had a change of possession prior to actually the body's landing. But I think from a 10,000 foot area, look, we're into week five. The teams are, you know, everybody's got their football legs under them now. The officials need to get up to that same pace at this point. In other words, the players, the coaches, they're all getting into mid-season form. The officials have to do that as well.

There's no more margin for error here. And I get that roughing the passer calls are subjective, which means they're going to vary from game to game and week to week, but we need more consistency. And also we do not need our quarterbacks in bubble wrap. The number of QBs and offensive players who were weighing in last night, including Kurt Warner, about how the playing field's been slanted so much. What else are defensive players supposed to do?

And so that's what we're asking you. How would you define roughing the passer? I think it's fairly obvious the NFL is overcorrecting and overreacting to what happened with Tua. And I'm not saying he isn't important and his health is not important, only that not every time that a defensive player sacks a quarterback is there going to be a concussion.

Not every time is it roughing the passer. And we'll hear from Chris Jones a little bit later on. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. So the noise in Arrowhead Stadium was so loud that I heard Kurt, maybe it was Kurt, maybe it was Kevin, say you can't even hear yourself thinking here. It was an open-air press box and that noise continued and yes, it did in fact spark Travis Kelce and the Chiefs in the third quarter. Mahomes with McKinnon stationed to his left. Kelce, the walking boss, goes in motion left.

They flood the left side. Caught by Kelce and into the end zone. Touchdown! Kansas City shielding the defender like he does so well. And then spinning that shoulder into the end zone and the Chiefs start the third quarter with a touchdown drive. Mahomes takes the snap at the one and the five. In trouble, moves out past Crosby. Fires it late. Kelce at the catch inside the ten.

Stiff arms one, now two, now three. Stumbles into the end zone. Touchdown! Kansas City, a hat trick for Travis Kelce. An eight-yard touchdown catch. His third TD of the night and the Chiefs have the lead for the first time in the game. Raiders-Chiefs, baby.

It's going to bring it out of you, man. Especially, you know, we started off a little slow. Had some calls not go our way and got not only us fired up but that entire stadium fired up. Nobody cracked.

Nobody, you know, you didn't see doubt in anybody's eyes. All it did was just, you know, almost build the beast. Made us kind of rally together, circle the wagons in a way and just fight for each other. And when you see that out of us, man, we know we can play some good football when we have that kind of mentality. Travis Kelce says that roughing the passer call sparked them and he wasn't done. He had four touchdowns, a fourth touchdown catch later in the game. So Travis Kelce, seven receptions for twenty-five yards.

That's it. Twenty-five yards before them were for touchdowns. Now, Devontae Adams had an incredible game as well. He hauled in two touchdowns, both deep shots. Oh, Derek Carr, you can see that he and Devontae have been doing this forever and really enjoy playing together.

But their connection predates Las Vegas, obviously. So he has another huge touchdown, a forty-eight yarder. And when he does, it brings the Raiders within a point with about four and a half minutes to go in the fourth quarter. So now Josh McDaniels makes the move instead of going for the extra point to tie. Now, keep in mind, there's four and a half minutes left. We're not talking about 30 seconds, although 13 seconds is enough for the Chiefs.

Sorry. Is it too soon? Was that?

Should I not bring that up? It can't be too soon. Anyway, there's four and a half minutes to go and he decides that they're going to try for the two-point conversion instead of go for the extra point to tie the Chiefs at 30. Raiders going for two for the lead. Carr raises the right leg, hands it off to Jacobs.

Jacobs piling forward. They're not going to give it to him. They did not get it. They did not get it. The Raiders did not get the two-point conversion.

Tolan Sanders looks like he clogged the drain. As Mitch Holt is on Chiefs radio, and certainly the way that Josh Jacobs had running all game, they had really not had much success stopping him, but to be able to stand up on the goal line. Again, I love the fans behind them. I love the physical toughness and the fact that their backs were against the wall both figuratively and in that case, literally backs up against the goal line. So they're able to stop Josh Jacobs from getting in.

Up 30 to 29. They end up getting the ball back. That's the point that I don't get. There's four and a half minutes to play. We're not talking about the final 15 seconds here. And so they get the ball back after they force the Chiefs to punt. They're moving the ball, moving the ball, and now they've got another fourth and one in which they decide they're going to pass the ball.

14 seconds on the play clock. She's showing a run blitz. The car is going to throw a play action. Here comes a blitz. They throw it to the left side. Incidental contact. The pass is overthrown. It is incomplete.

I'm looking for flags. I see none! The Chiefs have held on fourth and one on a blitz on Carr. Had 41 seconds to go in the game to preserve a 30 to 29 lead. Alright, so they give the ball to Josh Jacobs on the goal line when they're trying to punch it in on the two point conversion. That doesn't work.

I see none! But as Mitch Holtus points out, they try to pass the ball on fourth and one at midfield. Why not go back to Josh Jacobs there? The man had 154 yards rushing. Literally, the Chiefs were struggling to figure him out. And whenever they would try to stack the box and stop him, Carr would pass it over the top to Devante Adams. Anyway, the part that sucks so bad for the Raiders is that Devante and Hunter Renfro ran into each other and fell down. I'm surprised that wasn't a roughing the passer penalty. Or unnecessary roughness or whatever else they would call it. And so the way this game ended, it adds the insult to injury. They'd already coughed up a 17 point lead.

And then that tough ending. I don't think it could have been more embarrassing. So, a little bit later we'll let you hear from Patrick Mahomes as well as from Derek Carr as part of a QB news. Josh McDaniels explaining why to go for two.

Although, I kind of feel like we get the same answer all the time, right? Oh, I believe in our offense. And Derek Carr says he loved the move. I mean, yeah, I guess you like the confidence, but four and a half minutes to play?

That's weird to me. Alright, straight ahead, we're going to head to Charlotte. It's gone so horribly wrong since July when Panthers fans were thrilled about getting Baker Mayfield. We'll get some reaction locally. You can find me on Twitter, A Law Radio.

How would you define roughing the passer? And also, vote for TD of the Week. We've got some doozy of a candidate. No, we've got, that didn't sound right, we've got doozies.

It's just, why did I have to get fancy? Or Facebook page two, it's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Baker out of the shotgun, four man pressure, throws too high, intercepted by Emmanuel Moseley, running back the other way, cuts inside, ten, five, Moseley, touchdown San Francisco. A lot of time has passed here. We have the record we have, and again, there's different reasons that go into that.

I think that there has been progress of some sort, but we're just not getting over the hump, and we've got to get over the hump. Off the field, on the money, and after hours, it's time to talk football with Amy Lawrence. The voice of Panthers owner David Tepper, explaining that they've got to get over the hump, and when asked what that means, he said it's winning. It's winning.

More signs of winning than losing, and we haven't seen that with the Panthers lately. However, his decision to fire Matt Rule is certainly being hotly debated. Before that, Emmanuel Moseley, who is now actually out for the season with a torn ACL, but did take a pick six off Baker Mayfield as part of the Niners' victory in Charlotte on Sunday. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

When we spoke to our guest the last time he was on the show, Chris McLean, who is host of the Mac Attack on our Charlotte affiliate, WFNZ, it's 92.7 or AM 610. When we spoke to him in July, it was right after the Panthers had traded for Baker Mayfield, and Chris, I'm sure you remember that you were giddy, and I'm not bringing this up to try to embarrass you or anything like that. Only that I can imagine your emotions have changed a lot.

So what is your reaction to what's transpired over the last few months? Oh, Amy, now I see why I'm back on the show. Now I see why I'm back on here. At least I'm straight up with you. Thank God you didn't break out the old audio. I gotta be honest.

Wait, can I tell you something? We did think about it. We actually haven't, and we decided not to. I know you considered that.

Listen, of course, my enthusiasm has waned here. And by the way, the play of Baker Mayfield, someone I thought was going to be a serious upgrade from Sam Darnold, is a huge reason why we're here. I mean, I think you can make a strong case. His performance has been worse than Sam played last year, which is really saying something.

You could probably argue it's been the worst quarterback play since Cam was healthy all the way back in the early part of 2018. So that's a big part of it. There's no doubt about that. But yeah, I mean, the weird thing is, I guess the firing, which was very popular here in Carolina because fans, going back to last year, and I honestly thought at the end of last year, I honestly thought the hoop probably should have been made. But David Tepper wanted to stick it out. This is his first hire as a head coach. You know how that goes, Amy?

He probably wanted to see it through, give him every chance he could. But this season really feels like a carryover of last year. And we did have enthusiasm, as you point out I did, when we brought in Baker. The offensive line, I think, is improved.

I think that was part of the enthusiasm. The coaching staff had changed. Some of those moves have worked out.

Ben McAdoo has really struggled as an offensive coordinator here. So that one hasn't worked out the way we hoped. But I feel like it had to happen. It just felt like this was inevitable. So maybe do it now.

Don't play out the string. And honestly, for Matt Ruhl, I mean, if he doesn't want to work, he can get $40 million, you know, is what he's owed. But if he wants to start looking for those college jobs, which, as you know, some of them already opened up, he can get a head start on that too. Why do you think it didn't work with Matt? Well, first of all, the quarterback position has to be, you know, one of the first things we talk about.

I mean, and you've seen it from the outside, Amy. I mean, first, Teddy Bridgewater's brought in here. And honestly, in hindsight, they got rid of Teddy so quickly. Coach Ruhl and David Tepper both took shots at him in press conferences. It was really weird the way they treated him. And they sent him packing.

But honestly, he was the best one of the lot in the Matt Ruhl era. But since then, they've just, you know, they swung for the fences with Matthew Stafford and Sean McVeigh. And Stafford get together in a hot tub in Cabo, and the rest is history. The Panthers chanted the trade for him, you know, went by the wayside. And then they tried for the Deshaun Watson move, and that didn't work out. And in the meantime, it's just been left over.

Wait, hold on. What about Garoppolo? Would you have been as excited if they had brought in Garoppolo? Because apparently that was also in the works outside of his shoulder issue. Yeah, I think the shoulder surgery kind of threw that pursuit off, and then they kind of pivoted to Baker. I mean, obviously, after watching the two guys play on Sunday here in Charlotte, I would say I'd rather have Jimmy G. There also was the money that Jimmy G was owed, you know, at the time was a factor. They were able to kind of barter the Baker money down where they only had to pay about $5 million. That's $5 million too much based on the way Baker's played right now. And now he's hurt. We're to P.J.

Walker. I mean, I guess this, Amy, is a long way of saying the quarterback position has been the biggest problem in the Matril era. They haven't got it right. And for people out there that are thinking, well, why do you hold that against the coach? I heard you talking about this earlier on my way in here to the station. Like, he was given, as weird as it sounds now, right?

Thinking about it. He was given coming straight from college, having only been an assistant for one year in the NFL. He was given $9 million a year, made the fifth highest paid coach in the NFL, and given final personnel say. So he wasn't a passenger. He was out there, as Bill Parcells would say, he was shopping for his own grocery, the quarterback. And I think that killed, you know?

Yeah. Well, and as we pointed out, it doesn't work with very many coaches. It's something that Bill Belichick's done, but really, how many others have been successful? We know Pete Carroll has a lot of input.

He's earned that. A listener pointed out to me, Sean Payton, he had a lot of input in New Orleans. But yeah, generally, especially when you're talking about coaches who lack experience, it's a fine line to walk. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Chris McLean with us from our Charlotte affiliate in the wake of Matt Rule's firing.

What do you think about the fire sale concept? Because I was actually taken aback by that, especially when you're talking about guys like Christian McCaffrey. Yeah, this is obviously another storyline we have to talk about. I saw two more reports today talking about which players are generating the most calls. I think there was one from Jonathan Jones of CBS that brought up calls are coming in about McCaffrey and Burns. Albert Breer had one from SI talking about Burns and DJ Moore. Burns and DJ Moore, to me, young players at premium positions, pass rusher and wide receiver, I want nothing to do with that, quite honestly. Those are positions where it's hard to get premium talent and we actually do have premium talent there.

The McCaffrey one, as much as I love CMC, the McCaffrey one is honestly one that I would explore if the price is right. Because he has had this injury history, Amy, you know how the deal goes with running backs. You give them that big second contract and they often will have injuries throughout that second contract.

He's dealt with those. There's also three more years he's under contract, 36 total million dollars. McCaffrey, I don't think it's a premium position. I don't think, honestly, as good as CMC is, how many have we lost? How many games, how many years in a row have we lost with CMC on the roster? I don't think running back in this day and age is one of those positions that necessarily is the most important you win because of.

So that one, I would look into honestly. Robbie Anderson is another name out there that I think has been a disappointment since his first year here. Also can be traced back to the quarterback.

You know what I mean? If you're a receiver and you only get to impact the field when the quarterback gets you the ball, that's also a direct correlation. This is very fair. This is very fair.

That's true. He can't throw. As Giselle once said about Tom Brady, I don't mean to bring up the situation apparently, but now that's a whole other lane we're going to go down here.

We're going to be a divorce court. But Amy, as Giselle said, you can't throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. So that's fair. Is there anybody on the roster that you would say is off limits? Brian Burns, definitely. One of the best young edge rushers in the league.

There's no way I would do that one. D.J. Moore, they gave him a new contract where Burns was on his first contract still. They gave Moore a new contract.

I wouldn't do that. His lack of production this year is completely because of what you just said. You can't catch a ball that's sailing five feet wide of you or passes that aren't even thrown to you when you're open. And that's what's been going on with D.J. Moore. I wouldn't want to trade Jeremy Chin off the defense. J.C. Horn, corner off the defense. Derek Brown, I'm not real interested. To me, the young defensive core and D.J.

Moore are the ones that I would be protective of. You know who I feel bad for and actually feel bad for us that we aren't getting it just the same as Matt Corral? Because he'd be taking, he might have taken over already at quarterback if they thought he was even remotely prepared. I know he's injured, but man, I mean, the problem is, Chris, that they probably would have been able to see what he was capable of and see how much they could teach him and train him this year even if they didn't play him. And then just let both Sam and Baker walk because they're in the final years of their deals. And that way you could start fresh with Matt. It does suck for him.

And when that injury happened, we all kind of thought, man, this is a lost year for him. And it really does suck. And then when you start thinking, Amy, about what could be in our future, I don't want to act like I'm one of these crazies that looks at mock drafts early in the football season. But I am.

I live in Carolina. We look at mock drafts very early in the season. That's sad, Chris.

It's just sad. The Panthers right now are number one in the draft order as of now. Now there's a lot of football in play. We'll see what Steve Wilks can do as interim coach. But like, Amy, this is supposed to be a great quarterback draft, right, according to the experts. And if the Panthers are drafting really high, I mean, I'm sorry to Matt Corral, but it's like, how do you turn down the chance to get someone that seems like, you know, a almost can't miss franchise quarterback compared to a third round guy that has a lot of ways to go, you know? OK, so then let's talk about the coaching position.

Not a who necessarily, Chris, but what? What do the Panthers need? What should they be looking for in a coach? Well, you've got a lot of Panther fans here that would love to see David Tepper throw tons of his money at our former arch enemy Sean Payton. The problem with that is the Saints, he's still in a contract with the Saints. So anybody that hires him, as you know, is going to have to be compensated. They're going to compensate the Saints in the form of a draft pick. And the Saints, I'm sure, aren't going to want him going into the division.

They're going to ask for the sun and the moon, I would think. To me, it's offensive mind, though. Like, you look at a guy like Brian Deball and what he's doing. Mike McDaniel before all the quarterback injuries in Miami. But for these young guys that are coordinators and are creative and young, that's what this team needs. Especially if it's going to be Matt Corral or a first-round quarterback. If you're going to want to groom a young quarterback, I would love to have a schematic mind that can work with that quarterback from day one.

That's one of the things that I think killed the rule era, Amy, is that they went shopping for quarterback leftovers. Instead of just drafting and grooming someone early and letting them grow with the regime. So Chris, this is something that you think about and it's hard to kind of wrap your brain around it because we have to see who's available, that kind of thing. But if you're talking about a guy who has the technical side for a quarterback specifically, and if they don't draft a QB, let's just say they don't, aren't they in the same cycle again?

Who else would they even think about in the league that they could get? That's a great question and one that honestly is going to depress me if I start thinking about it more. I'm sorry. That's why I'm saying, to me it's the perfect time now to do what you didn't do in the last regime, in the rule regime.

Go out there. How many times do you see it, Amy, new coach comes in, you're usually drafting fairly high, right? Because the coach is replacing a coach that was losing. And they take that opportunity to draft the QB and the coach and the QB are kind of linked together. That's what happened here with Cam Newton and Ron Rivera. In Ron's first draft, they're picking number one overall. We stunk and they go out and they get Cam and Ron and Cam grow together.

And it's by far the best years that we ever had here in Carolina. So to me, it would be the perfect timing to do that. There's no doubt about it. Interesting. I mean, Cooper Rush might be available. Amy, you cannot throw a name out there we haven't talked about, by the way. We have definitely noticed Cooper's work.

And I wonder if GM Scott Fitterer has noticed it as well. I have one more offer to make. As a Broncos fan, I'm willing to pay you to take Russell Wilson.

During our last conversation, I would have said, oh, it sounds like a deal. I'm not sure necessarily right now. Mr.

Unlimited has become Mr. Limited in Denver. I don't know what's going on there. I just want you to know I feel your quarterback pain. Just so you don't think I'm laughing at you, I'm laughing so I don't cry because I feel your quarterback pain.

Amy, you're not going to get any sympathy out of me. I remember Super Bowl 50. Peyton Manning's arm was throwing off. But your dang defense was so good. Von Miller. Von Miller. Freaking amazing. That's true. Alright, you can follow Chris McLean on Twitter at MacWFNZ.

That's our Charlotte affiliate. And he's got a lot to do, a lot to talk about. Top of the hour, host of the Mac Attack. This was all in good fun, Chris. You know that I would never want you to feel bad.

No, not at all. I'm sure there was not some joy here. The last time I was on, I completely sounded ridiculous.

I'm starting to think my wife put you up to this, Amy. You're like a 12-year-old girl. You were that giddy. I just love that you're a man who can own up to the fact that he was wrong.

How about that? I get a lot of experience. I have to do that a lot, unfortunately. Good stuff. Chris, great to talk to you. We'll talk again soon. Alright, be good. It's going to turn the corner eventually, right?

It has to. And I'm asking that question as a, yes, longtime Broncos fan. I keep saying that to myself, but also for the Panthers.

It's the right leadership. And, of course, the quarterback in both those remaining question marks. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page. Coming up, we're going to jam in some QB news because there's more. Ron Rivera, he mentioned Ron Rivera. Oh, boy, is he having a time with quarterbacks as well in Washington.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Third down and one. Malcolm Brown is checked in at running back. Stafford is under center on third and one. And play fake to Brown. He's rushed and he's sacked. And the ball came out. And Dallas picks it up. It's Lawrence coming left to the five and into the end zone. And it looks like a Dallas touchdown.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Our Defensive Player of the Week is sponsored by the Navy Federal Credit Union, who proudly serves the Armed Forces DOD veterans and their families. Their members are the mission.

Learn more at NavyFederal.com. It was a loud statement by the Cowboys defense to start out the game. Very first drive. Matthew Stafford gets sacked. The fumble is scooped up by Tank Lawrence and goes 19 yards for a touchdown, 90 seconds in, as you hear with Brad Sham on Cowboys radio. And for that reason, I kind of feel like we should split it, though, with Micah Parsons. But for that reason, we'll give Demarcus Lawrence, our Defensive Player of the Week honor. Really, it was the defense for the Cowboys that set the tone, as it has been. They're one of the best defenses, one of the stingiest defenses in the league. Dallas with five sacks, 11 quarterback hits of Matthew Stafford, battered and bruised on Sunday, also three takeaways to make life a lot easier for Cooper Rush and the Cowboys, who have now won four games in a row. And it is. Is it lost?

Oh, my goodness, it's lost. DeAndre Hopkins caught it. Stafford from under center, steps back, throws the fake. Cooper cuts, got it. Touchdown L.A. Burrow back to throw, looking, firing deep for Chase in the end zone. He's got it. Touchdown.

Joe Burrow in the bagels. The Holmes fires for the end zone, caught. Touchdown Kansas City.

And off the echo again. No, Herbert keeps it in zone. Touchdown Chargers. Herbert with his second of the day.

Here's the snap. Josh going to keep it himself and run it again inside the five into the end zone. Touchdown Buffalo. Josh Allen, nine-yard touchdown run. The Bills respond and then some. It's time for QB News on After Hours.

Well, let's jam it in there, why don't we? AFC West on display Monday Night Football. This was a really entertaining game, the roughing the passer penalty notwithstanding. And it dawned on me that this is what we were all hoping we would see from the AFC West with all of their offseason moves. It's just the Broncos didn't get the memo. But as long as Travis Kelce is playing with Patrick Mahomes, we have the potential for fireworks. And last night it was four touchdowns for the tight end and a big comeback for the offense.

I knew when he caught the fourth one that it was the fourth one. I didn't realize he had like seven catches, four touchdowns. But they had a good game plan of kind of that old New England, hit him off the line of scrimmage, double cover him and stuff like that. I thought the other guys responded and made some big plays happen and that's what we needed to see out of our offense.

The Raiders were actually up 17-0 in this game midway through the second quarter. But as Travis Kelce said, it's going to be a beast anyway because it's the AFC West. And certainly Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs have been in these situations before.

You just don't know how guys are going to respond. I mean, we have a lot of the same players that have been in some deficit games. But at the same time, we have a lot of new guys as well.

And so for guys to respond and just to keep battling, no matter we're down 17 points and show that we can fight back from anything, that's what you want to see out of any great football team. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs keep pace with the Bills and the AFC. Now at five, oh sorry, four and one and those two teams meet next week. Come on NFL, how did you know that? From the category of you can't make this stuff up. Also, I got a tweet saying, by the way, 13 seconds too soon. Let's wait until next Monday.

Oh, I got you. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. For the Raiders, they had that moment with about four and a half minutes to go where instead of taking the point after to tie, and yes, Daniel Carlson would have made the kick, instead they go for two and Josh Jacobs is stuffed at the line. We were all fired up. I thought Josh was in from my point of view. He wasn't? He wasn't.

It's frustrating, it's hard. We get the ball back, throw in to Tay. I thought it was a catch. We all thought it was a catch, you know. And I think we're getting into field goal range and going to win the game there and we get it back and we get another chance and we don't make it happen.

Okay, those are all things that happen in the late stages. How about the fact that you had a 17-point lead and coughed it up? In fact, it's the second time this year for the Raiders that they've had a 17-point lead and failed to protect it.

So yeah, now they fall to one and four. It sucks what our record is. We've earned that, but I just keep reinforcing that we have a good team.

I've been on some teams that aren't as good as this one and we're doing the right things. They made more plays than us at the end. Hey, so similar to the Chargers, same division, Brandon Staley choosing to go for it.

So taking a gamble, not taking maybe the safer play or the play that makes more common sense. Midfield against the Browns late stages, they decide to go for it on fourth and one instead of punting the ball away, thus giving the Browns an extremely short field when they don't come up with it. Brandon Staley on the Jim Rome show on Monday. Our offense, it had a huge day, and I really liked the matchups that we had. I had full confidence that we would make it with them out of timeouts, that we would be finishing it there on our terms. Fourth and one and a half, going to trust Justin Herbert and our guys to go do it. I felt like we had the play call, and I would do the same thing again. I also know that there's a lot of scrutiny that comes with it, and I take full responsibility for all of it. But our mindset was to go be aggressive and win that game.

But it's obviously very tempting when you're away and you want to be part of the conversation. He says their relationship is stronger than ever, so we'll just leave that. Ron Rivera was asked about the main difference between the very challenging and competitive NFC East, a 5-0 team and two 4-1 teams, and then his team at the bottom of the division with a single win. The truth is that this is a quarterback-driven league, and if you look at the teams that have been able to sustain success, they've been able to build it around a specific quarterback. You chose the quarterback here, though, so do you have any regrets about that?

No, I've got no regrets about the quarterback. I think our quarterback has done some good things. There's been a couple of games that he's struggled, but you look at his numbers from yesterday, and you say, okay, look at his numbers he's had throughout the year. There was a time he was very solid, and then we had the unfortunate Philadelphia game, and he struggled a little bit in the Dallas game, but the way he performed yesterday, it just shows you what he's capable of. We chose him because we believe him.

We chose him because we looked at what we felt were things that pointed towards him. Ron Rivera says he's got no buyer's remorse for bringing in Carson Wentz, but couldn't you ask the same question of, say, the Panthers now with Baker Mayfield, or how about the Colts with Matt Ryan? He's an incredible quarterback, but man, he's got a turnover problem right now.

And then there's the Niners, who still have Jimmy G, even though Kyle Shannon tries to get rid of him. One more, and this is from Mike McDaniel. He's got an update on Teddy Bridgewater, his backup quarterback who is in concussion protocol. Teddy, he had no symptoms today. He had no symptoms yesterday, but per the rule change, he's being treated as though he has a concussion, and so he's in the subsequent protocol. I mean, the self-control that it requires for Mike McDaniel, shoot, that's tough.

And I get it. I get that concussion symptoms can take a little while to manifest. I get that head injuries are scary, but this is a direct overreaction to Tua. How long are you going to keep him in concussion protocol when he's got no symptoms and hasn't had any symptoms? It's not fair to Teddy, if he doesn't actually have a concussion, to treat him the same way as Tua. And by the way, the NFL PA and the NFL investigation cleared the Dolphins and the independent doctors of any wrongdoing. They've changed their protocols. They say that now if there's any sign of wobbliness or unsteadiness, a quarterback is out the rest of the way. And Teddy wasn't allowed back because somebody saw him wobble.

Not many people, just somebody. But how long are you going to keep him in concussion protocol? Doesn't seem fair either. All right, we'll pick it up tonight. Watch those baseball games. We'll talk about them after our CBS Sports Radio. BOOM!