After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

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That's bluenile.com. You guys want to hear a crazy number? This is crazy, but it makes sense because as fans, especially fans of the NFL, we reserve the right to be completely illogical, irrational. We lose our heads on a regular basis and it seems completely normal.

On the way into work, I was listening to this feature on news radio, taking a break from elections. I was listening to this feature and a woman named Cooper Lawrence who does this podcast called All Well and Good used this stat. According to new research, 52% of us have ended a relationship or a friendship over our rooting interest in our sports teams. 52% of us have ended a relationship or a friendship or a friendship because the other person rooted for a rival team.

Okay, I gotta be honest, I've never done that. So I guess I fall in the 48%. I certainly understand not watching with people that root for rival teams or not necessarily discussing it over dinner if we're that passionate about it. But I grew up in New England and I guess I identified as a Red Sox fan. I did when I was younger, sure. That sounds funny.

That sounds very 2022. I identified as a Red Sox fan and I had tons of friends who were Yankees fans when I went to Syracuse and on into my adult life. For heaven's sakes, I'm now living in the New York City area, a place I never wanted to live in large part because of my rooting interest.

But here I am. I know all kinds of people who are Yankees fans. We're friends.

I don't have any problems being friends with them. Come on. Are we serious about this? We've actually, 52% of us have ended relationships over rival teams. I could see getting into a fist fight if you're boys. I could see screaming and yelling when people are drunk at games, but ending a relationship or a friendship actually like the idea of a mixed marriage, quote unquote, where you root for a team. Well, in my case, that would be the hubs, the hubs rooted for the rival team. That actually would be kind of fun to go to games.

I mean, there might be some silent treatment, but ending a relationship over rooting interest in sports? That, call me crazy. That might be taking you a little bit too far. That might be extreme.

It's kind of interesting. Now the, Cooper Lawrence, this woman went on to say that the number one reason that relationships end is a lack of commonality or a lack of common interest. So I suppose that could sort of fall under that particular heading. We end relationships because the partner or the friend doesn't have the common interest of rooting for the same sports team. The number two reason that people end friendships or relationships, betrayal.

I would have thought that was number one. We get very offended over things. And as humans, we do dumb stuff all the time. So yes, yes, we do very often hurt the people who are closest to us, whether it's intentional or unintentional. Those we love the most, we hurt the most.

That's absolutely the case. So I suppose that those rival teams that we absolutely can't stand could signify betrayal by a friend if they rooted for those teams, those said rivals. But ending one couldn't be a very close friendship or relationship if you ended it over sports.

And I work in a business for heaven's sakes. Jay, have you ever ended a friendship? First of all, the thing you need to know about Jay, he has like 13 or 14 best friends. Every time I talk to him, he's got, this is my best friend. These are my best friends. These are all my best friends.

It's like a girl. 16 year old girls have like seven best friends. I like to maintain friendships. I didn't realize that was an issue. It's not an issue.

I just think it's funny. Yeah. I have a couple of different groups.

I would say yes. Groups of best friends. No, I've never ended a friendship over sports. I mean, especially growing up and living in the New York area where every single professional league has two teams, that would just never work. Two or three. Right. Two or three.

It just, it would be impossible to maintain friendships. Just out of curiosity, were you a Nets fan when they were in New Jersey? Yeah, I would say I got a little, I started following basketball like more on a regular basis.

Like NBA, I always liked basketball, but I've actually started following it more regularly, like late high school. So that's, they were about to move to Brooklyn at that time. They were still in New Jersey.

So yeah, it was. Jay told me he went out to dinner with some friends. These are all his best friends, of course, on Wednesday and they are Knicks fans and he was gloating because the Nets were smashing them to pieces. So that didn't end your friendship, right?

No, right. I mean, like, see, I'm a big Ranger fan. I have my best friends who are Islander fans. It's insane.

It's a mess. How many best friends again? Probably we're pretty close.

They would like 13. Jay's very popular, which you all know because you love him far more than you love me. I'm the one that people love to hate. So I suppose you could end your friendships if they love After Hours with Amy Lawrence and you don't. I would hate to be the cause of betrayal. Actually, that love triangle sounds kind of fun.

So yes, I want to be the reason why your friendships break up. All right. Well, let's go. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, 52%.

What is wrong with us? We are live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios. When you need cash out of your home and a simple way to get it, Rocket can. Far more important than that is the fact that Friday is Veterans Day. And even as we say, sayonara Thursday, sayonara Thursday, sayonara workweek, and we go into Friday, this is one of the two shows every year where I ask you to send us your personal photos. Now sometimes you send photos of your dogs.

I love those too. But this is far more personal than that. On this Veterans Day and this Veterans Day weekend, so it's a long weekend, a lot of schools and federal businesses and other corporations are closed. I think it's important with everything else that's going on in our world, we still don't have the final election results. We've got a hurricane slash tropical storm making its way up the east coast and will soon be curving over into the north, the northeast, as well as the upper plains.

And there's another storm coming in expected to be some crazy weather over a 24-hour, 36-hour period because of this storm. There's a lot happening. It's the United States of America and society and daily life is complicated. I don't know that it's ever going to be as simple as it was when say my grandparents were alive and that's okay. We have the benefits of technology.

We're very connected now for better or for worse. But some things can be simple and that is honoring those men and women who gave up parts of their lives, parts of their families, who sacrificed to serve our great nation. Veterans Day and Memorial Day, they're two different things and yet they are both about honor and they are both about respect and they are both about gratefulness. Memorial Day is for those we lost in the line of duty, we lost serving veterans.

Thankfully we still have them and we can thank them. And so this is one way that we want to thank you as veterans and we're asking you as an audience, as a community to get involved please. If you listen to the show for a year or multiple years you know this is nothing new but it's something we've done now going back most of the last five years. We're asking you to send your photos or in lieu of a photo send a name. Those veterans that you know personally, family members, friends, maybe these are in-laws, families you married into, whatever it is we want you to send us a photo or just send us a name and we're going to retweet them from our show account so that you can go and check out the thread. But we're also going to allow you to post them on our Facebook page. We'll put up a spot on our Facebook page and many of you, part of the Facebook community, you all go and you support one another. So please let's do that. These next four hours, that's the overarching theme of the show is Veterans Day.

And my personal thank you, I have so many friends that are veterans. Thankfully we've been able to welcome veterans to the show in the past. Nate Boyer comes to mind. We've actually been trying to get him on the show for a year and a half and we're going to be trying to get him on the show again. We've had some scheduling snafus because he's the producer of a brand new film and he's been all the rage. Nate, who is a former Green Beret and played with the Seahawks for a bit and was also a Texas Longhorn. He's been on the show multiple times.

We're big fans and so we're hoping to get him on the show again. But Nate, my friend John, my grandfather on my paternal side, my uncle on my mom's side, my father served in the military. He wasn't a soldier, he was a doctor, but he did serve in the army. And so there are so many people out there that are listening. I know that you are veterans and I know that you listen to the show because I see you all follow us and I sometimes see your comments.

I very often check bios before I reply to anyone simply because I need to know that I'm not stepping into a cesspool and a lot of times I'll see that you all have that on your bios that you served. It wasn't that long ago, I'm not doing it anymore, but a couple of years ago that I was working with an organization that mentored veterans who were returning home and trying to get integrated into American Business Society. And so over the course of two years I mentored a young man, and by young I mean in his 20s, and then also a young woman. And it was really, it was an honor to do that. It was really an honor to to help them in ways that I could and at times I would ask a little bit about their experiences and always want to say thank you. So on this Veterans Day weekend as we head into Friday, November 11th, we would love to hear from you. So on Twitter, ALawRadio, we'll put up a spot on our show Twitter After Hours CBS, on our Facebook page too. And so we we look forward to hearing from you. I know that we're going to get a lot of replies.

It'll be ebbs and flows over the course of the next couple hours, but we'll keep the posts up on through Friday and on into the weekend so that you all can go and check them out and thank you. Thank you to those who served whatever branch, whatever capacity, whether multiple deployments, whether the reserves, the fact that you would put your life on the line if that was required, the fact that you put yourself in harm's way, the fact that you left your families in many cases. I've learned by speaking to veterans and even active duty military, it's not just the individuals who serve, it's the families as well.

They're also making the sacrifices. My friend Jen, she's a veteran. Her story is complicated.

It's tough. She served in the military at a time when women were not protected and so she has a really rough past from her military service. I know that many veterans who've seen combat come home with post-traumatic stress.

Many fall into addiction and other really difficult circumstances, not always well cared for by the government, the veterans administration and the veteran services. We fall short in those areas. So those are certainly some of the things that I care about away from work. And today, this Thursday night into Friday morning, I know some of you are already awake on your Friday, November 11th, we want to honor you as veterans. So please find us on Twitter, A-LOL Radio, After Hours, CBS. Those are two separate accounts. And then on our Facebook page, our phone number is 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4CBS. All right, to treetop the show, we've got the start of week 10 in the NFL. Kickoff to week 10. We're in double figures. Whoa, we're mere weeks away. Actually, two weeks away.

We're in double figures. Actually, two weeks from tonight, a lot of us will be worn out from tryptophan in the turkey. We'll be watching turkey on Thanksgiving Day. I'll be here, by the way. I just want you to know, you can hang out with me on Thanksgiving. If all you can do is lay there and talk about football. I'm your girl. So that's coming up in two weeks, Thanksgiving.

I've started to collect recipes and think about some cooking and some baking. I know you can hear the nerdy giddiness in my voice. Week 10 in the NFL. Also Thursday, the start of Major League Baseball free agency.

It is officially underway. Teams can talk trades. Teams can extend qualifying offers. And we did see more than a dozen of those extended to big name free agents, including Aaron Judge. Qualifying offers, their one-year deals.

They're a lot of money, but there's no long-term security in it. And very often players don't accept them because they're looking for the long-term guaranteed money. Unless there happen to be extenuating circumstances coming out of injuries, yada, yada, yada. Sometimes it is meant to give the teams and the players extra time to negotiate. Maybe to avoid arbitration, whatever it happens to be.

It can be a negotiating tool. So qualifying offers are out there, including Aaron Judge. Though if you're Aaron Judge, you have zero incentive to accept said qualifying offer. Justin Verlander turns down or I guess opts out of his contract and now becomes a free agent.

We knew that was going to happen. You may have heard by now that Dusty Baker will be back with the Houston Astros come 2023. And producer Jay found this really cool reaction from Hank Aaron's wife, Hank Aaron's widow, to Dusty winning a World Series as a manager with the Astros.

We'll let you hear from him or from her, excuse me, and from Dusty and others as well. And then Jim Bowden, long-time NFL. Oh my gosh, why do I keep doing that?

The NFL is a behemoth. It pervades all of my thoughts. It just, it's so intrusive. Go away. No, don't do, don't go away. I don't want you to go away, don't go away. I don't want you to go away, really.

But can you just give me some space? Jim Bowden, long-time Major League Baseball GM and front office executive. In fact, he was a front office executive of the year in baseball. We're going to talk to him because he's right in the thick of things. Also, I love listening to Jim on the radio. He does Sirius XM MLB radio.

He's also on CBS Sports HQ. The man never seems to make a mistake. He's so smooth.

No crutches, no ums, no you nos, no hemming and hawing. He's very smooth. You can imagine this is the kind of stuff he does in his sleep. So Jim Bowden, been a long time since we've had him on the show. In fact, I can't remember if we've had him since I moved to CBS Sports radio, it's only been once. He and I used to work together at a previous network and for that reason our relationship goes way back. But it's been a long time since I've talked to him in an official capacity. And speaking of my previous network, before we get to our break here, this first half hour of the show, some of you may have seen my tweet. I did not bring this up on the last show because I was waiting to see if there's more information and just because of where I was in the last show.

But I did want to take a minute on Thursday and so I put it out there on Twitter and Facebook. I want to remember publicly my friend and former colleague Fred Hickman. Many of you may recognize that name or even be able to picture his face.

He goes back to the early days of CNN when they did those sports reports a couple times an hour. He also worked for the Yes Network and then he and I crossed paths nightly in the hallways at ESPN when he was a SportsCenter anchor and I was working for ESPN radio. A lot of times the hours that we worked the hallways would be relatively deserted and so when we would cross paths we would always have a brief conversation, sometimes a little longer, sometimes more than just how are you. Once he found out I was early in my career he was so kind and so supportive, oh my goodness, all the time encouraging me, telling me that I was doing a great job and that if I kept working hard at it I would get where I wanted to go. As an African-American male he understood the challenges and the barriers to being a female in the business.

We each of course face different challenges in those arenas. He was gracious and he was encouraging and he was always smiling. I never encountered Fred Hickman.

I never crossed paths with Fred when he wasn't cheerful. He was full of joy and he frequently reminded me even if it was kind of in teasing or in passing that we were living the dream, that we got to talk about sports for a living and that we were blessed to do so. He was a bright light. I look forward to seeing him every time we cross paths.

It was an instant smile that would cross his face and mine too. Brief exchanges some of them but I'll never forget him. I haven't seen him, hadn't seen him in years but I always knew where he was in terms of his career. He is missed. Sports is only part of who he is. Leaves behind a wife and a couple of kids, a couple of children and I know there have been so many tributes all over social media. I've seen them, former colleagues of mine at our network, lots of people that remember that remember Fred with tributes and kindness and certainly broken hearts over his passing. He was one of those people that made it okay for me to be different. So a trailblazer to be sure. When we come back, we've got football and the start of week 10.

Kickoff in the NFL. As I say, it pervades my every thought. It's after hours with whether it's diamond earrings or an engagement ring, Blue Nile can help you design something special made just for her. At Blue Nile, choose from thousands of diamonds and settings. Have your one of a kind piece delivered right to your door in discreet packaging that won't give away what's inside. Guaranteed free shipping and returns. And now Blue Nile is offering special holiday deals. Go to Bluenile.com and use code radio to save $50 on purchases of $500 or more. Hurry, this offer expires soon.

Bluenile.com code radio. The holidays are coming. Find a gift for someone special with jewelry from Blue Nile. Blue Nile offers an endless selection of bold gold styles, gemstone jewelry and classic diamond pieces. Shop early and save up to 40%.

Need your special piece fast? In most cases, jewelry can ship overnight. Guaranteed free shipping and returns. And now Blue Nile is offering special holiday deals.

Save up to 40% on the season's most stunning trends. Shine bright this holiday season at Bluenile.com. That's Bluenile.com.

Whether it's diamond earrings or an engagement ring, Blue Nile can help you design something special made just for her. At Bluenile.com, choose from thousands of diamonds and settings. Have your one-of-a-kind piece delivered right to your door in discreet packaging that won't give away what's inside. Guaranteed free shipping and returns. And now Bluenile is offering special holiday deals. Go to Bluenile.com and use code radio to save $50 on purchases of $500 or more.

Hurry, this offer expires soon. Bluenile.com code radio. Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the actual Bluenile on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Second down and eight. Leviska Chenault motions behind the formation.

He catches the screen. Chenault's got the 40. 35-30. Accelerating down the sideline.

See you later. Touchdown Leviska Chenault. Mariota under center. The snap.

Fake to Cordero. Mariota in trouble. Scrambling again. Flag down. This is going to be a hold.

Might get another one. Now he launches deep downfield. Intercepted. J.C. Horn.

45. He's got midfield into Falcon territory and takes it out of bounds at the 45. I have no idea why Marcus Mariota decided to throw that ball. Off the field.

On the money and after hours. It's time to talk football with Amy Lawrence. It's not rocket science. It's an age-old formula that has worked in this division for the Carolina Panthers. Who knows whether or not this team ends up in the playoffs.

What I do know is that they battle the NFC South opponents strong. Remember the last time they played Atlanta, which was just two weeks ago, they lost in overtime. It was PJ to DJ and it was a Hail Mary 62 yards. 62 yards Hail Mary and it was a missed extra point.

Go figure. Eddie Pinheiro was kicking the ball from all over the damn field on Thursday night but he did not make that extra point. They went into overtime. You know the story.

But the two went toe to toe. In this game, it was the formula of rush the quarterback, run the ball, stop the run. Super easy. Easy to say.

Not necessarily easy to do. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Run the ball, stop the run, control the trenches, smash mouth physical, hard-nosed, relatively simple football.

Nothing flashy. In fact, between the two quarterbacks, you may not love this, but this is how teams are winning. This is how mediocre teams are winning in 2022.

This is how they level the playing field. Marcus Mariota of the Falcons asked to throw the ball 30 times. PJ Walker, who's a starter again for Steve Wilks and the Panthers, 16 times. Do you remember Patrick Mahomes against the Titans threw the ball 68 times? Tom Brady routinely throws the ball at least 40 times a game because their offensive line stinks or it has to this point. Between Mariota and Walker, 46 pass attempts. Between the two teams, get this, 72 rushing attempts. And the Panthers far better at it, far more successful on Thursday night. Anis Shroff on Panthers radio was 13 to 3 at the half, though the Atlanta Falcons were game because it's the division.

There's Mariota, soft play fake, looks, throws, end zone. Drake London touched down Atlanta and a flag is thrown, but I believe London has secured his third touchdown of the year. In fact, that was a 13-9 score. They missed the PAT. Seriously, way too many adventures in kicking between the Panthers and the Falcons, but middle of the third quarter, West Durham on Falcons radio, they pull within four points.

Who knows how things might've been different if they'd gotten the point after attempt, but Young-Ho Ku missed it. And so it was 13 to 9. And after an extended drive, the Panthers got those points right back. Walker in the gun. Chenault wide right trembles the tight end. Foreman is the running back. Smith now motions right.

The snap. Handoff Foreman running right side, going downhill. 10-5.

Touchdown, Deontay Foreman. Keep trucking. Keep trucking. I like that.

Keep on trucking. Once again on Panthers radio, that's late third. And when you consider the ball control, you consider the number of rushing yards for the Panthers and then you consider the defense. It is absolutely no surprise that the game ended on a high note or that the Panthers were essentially able to shut down the Falcons. Steve Rokes was very emphatic on the sideline, talking to the safeties, everybody in the community making sure they're on the same page, communication wise. Four-man rush, seven-man drop.

Ariyona is sick. It's Haynes again. Back inside the 20. The Panthers take over. The D-line came to play. The pass rush seals it for Carolina.

We talked all week. In order to win this game, we're going to have to control the line of scrimmage. Offensively, I thought we did a tremendous job. We rushed for 232. Foreman had 130 yards rushing off 31 carries.

I think that's very impressive. Deontay Foreman, the feature back, taking over for Christian McCaffrey. 31 carries, 130 yards and a touchdown.

He has more than half of the rushing yards for the Falcons. They finish with 232, and Foreman, he doesn't like the fact that people don't take him seriously. Early in my career, just having ups and downs and injuries. I just feel like people counted me out and just said that I couldn't do these things. I just stayed focused. It was tough at times, like I've mentioned before, but when you get an opportunity like this, you can't look back.

You've got to just go. We knew it was going to be a dogfight out here. I think this team got a lot of resiliency in them.

We were just looking forward to the battle. Prime time game. The defense came out there and played their ass off. I think overall as a team, we went out there and played all three phases, offense, defense, and special teams. We had a lot of guys that had a lot of fight in that locker room. It's tough to look at the record and just say this team is out of it, but when we go out there on Sundays, we play for each other, and that's all that matters. PJ Walker, 10 for 16, barely over 100 yards, no turnovers, no touchdowns, but no turnovers, and only one sack allowed by the offensive line, even as Carolina was ramming the ball down the throats of the Falcons. On the flip side, the defense, fantastic, and PJ mentions them. Five sacks of Mariota.

He was under siege a bunch. Nine other quarterback hits, and this was a victory for the Panthers coming off of a bloodbath against the Bengals. You guys remember the score at halftime? Well, let me just tell you, if you don't remember, Joe Mixon had four touchdowns in the first half. Not only was PJ Walker benched, Baker Mayfield came in, led three touchdown drives, and it didn't even matter. It didn't even make a dent against the Bengals last week, so it's been a rollercoaster ride for Carolina.

I would probably just describe it as a National Football League, you know. That's just how it is week to week. You have your ups and your downs, and however it is, whether you win or lose, you got to hit the reset button, get ready for the next one.

We didn't put a great performance together last week, and the way we practiced, even though it was a walkthrough, the intensity was there, the concentration and everything, and we wanted to come out today, as you saw, and put together a good performance. Steve Wilks and the Panthers are, this is, he's talking about how it's the National Football League, and it certainly is, but this is also unique to the NFC South. The Panthers and the Saints have three wins. The Falcons and the Bucks have four wins.

If the Bucks win in Germany on Sunday morning, our time, they'll be five and five. They'll be the only team in that division with a non-losing record, but they'll be sitting at 500, and they'll be in first place by themselves. If they lose, they fall back into a tie with the Falcons at four and six. Those would be the leaders in the NFC South, four and six. Ew, and there's a very real chance they could lose to Seattle. The Seahawks have won four in a row. We'll see how they travel and how that goes, but just the whole, the whole division is, when did the NFC South turn into the NFC East?

Sorry. When did the NFC East become a beast? So, we are going to have your Game of the Week poll to be sure. If you haven't taken our other football poll, we're pleased with the amount of traffic we've had on our social media about the World Cup. So, we're days away from the World Cup kicking off. Team USA is in Qatar, and we've asked you, on a scale of one to ten, yes we left out nine, we did it on purpose, what is your excitement level for Team USA and the World Cup?

Maybe it's not the Americans, but it's the event overall, so that poll is still live for the next four hours. Jay set it up so it goes all the way through our last show of the week, so on Twitter, After Hours, CBS, also on our Facebook page, and while you're there, we're starting to see your photos, your names, maybe there's a veteran in your life that you want to honor because Friday is Veterans Day, and this is a show that I look forward to all year long to be able to highlight our veterans, those who served, and those families who served and parted with their loved ones for a time while they were protecting our country and protecting our freedoms. Whether it's diamond earrings or an engagement ring, Blue Nile can help you design something special made just for her. At Blue Nile, choose from thousands of diamonds and settings.

Have your one-of-a-kind piece delivered right to your door in discreet packaging that won't give away what's inside. Guaranteed free shipping and returns, and now Blue Nile is offering special holiday deals. Go to blue Nile.com and use code radio to save $50 on purchases of $500 or more. Hurry, this offer expires soon. Blue Nile.com code radio.

The holidays are coming. Find a gift for someone special with jewelry from Blue Nile. Blue Nile offers an endless selection of bold gold styles, gemstone jewelry, and classic diamond pieces. Shop early and save up to 40%.

Need your special piece fast? In most cases, jewelry can ship overnight. Guaranteed free shipping and returns, and now Blue Nile is offering special holiday deals. Save up to 40% on the season's most stunning trends. Shine bright this holiday season at blue Nile.com. That's blue Nile.com. Whether it's diamond earrings or an engagement ring, Blue Nile can help you design something special made just for her. At Blue Nile, choose from thousands of diamonds and settings.

Have your one-of-a-kind piece delivered right to your door in discreet packaging that won't give away what's inside. Guaranteed free shipping and returns, and now Blue Nile is offering special holiday deals. Go to blue Nile.com and use code radio to save $50 on purchases of $500 or more. Hurry, this offer expires soon.

Blue Nile.com code radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Mariota under center, the snap, fake to Cordero. Mariota in trouble, scrambling again. Flag down. This is going to be a hold.

Might get another one. Now he launches deep downfield, intercepted J.C. Horn, 45. He's got midfield into Falcon territory and takes it out of bounds at the 45. I have no idea why Marcus Mariota decided to throw that ball. Steve Rokes was very emphatic on the sideline, talking to the safeties, everybody in the community, making sure they're on the same page, communication wise.

Four-man rush, seven-man drop. Mariota in a sec. It's Haynes again.

Back inside the 20. The Panthers take over. The D-line came to play. The pass rush seals it for Carolina.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Anis Shroff and company on Panthers Radio, and they return the favor to the Atlanta Falcons. Does not take overtime, but they split the season series and they play both these games with all of their drama in the span of three weeks, so right now the NFC South has the Buccaneers at four and five on top of the division. Do you know that four and five is good for last place in the NFC East, but in the NFC South, it's good for first place at the moment. Atlanta Falcons four and six, so they've not yet had their bye. The Saints three and six. The Panthers now three and seven, so neither of those teams have had byes.

Both those teams have played every single weekend to this point. Arthur Smith was in fits on the sidelines during this game. He clearly, through his facial expressions and just in general, the way the game was going, consternation and frustration and annoyance and everything else.

If you can read body language and faces, not to mention if you can read lips because there were moments where he was using choice language that we cannot use here on the radio. Thank you FCC. So this was not a game that the Falcons want to remember. They've now dropped back to back games and though they are still in position to earn a playoff spot, every team in that South division is in a position to potentially win a playoff berth because of the fact that they're all clumped together. It was 2020, right? When the commanders won the NFC East with a record below 500. I don't remember what their record was. Six and no, seven and nine? Might have been eight and eight.

Let me check. But they hosted the Buccaneers. That was the Buccaneers Super Bowl run. They hosted the Buccaneers in the wild card round and lost. They were the number four seed and I thought they were below 500, but Jay's checking right now. So it is possible the Seahawks have won the NFC West in Pete Carroll's tenure with a losing record. A lot of times it just depends and people get so upset and oh they should be reseeded and the division shouldn't matter, but it's cyclical.

Who knew that the NFC East would end up as the top division or one of the top divisions in football along with the AFC East when teams in those divisions have scuffled, but that is one of the reasons we love the NFL is because half the playoff field turns over every year and you can go from worst to first or the opposite in the span of a couple of months. What'd you find out, Jay? You were right. Seven and nine. Seven and nine. And they hosted the Buccaneers and lost to the Buccaneers.

That was the Alex Smith year, though if I don't, if I remember correctly, Taylor Heineke started the playoff game and it wasn't Alex Smith and then Alex retired after that, but the big news from that season, not only did they win the division in Ron Rivera's first year, but they also got to cap Alex Smith's career with an incredible comeback for him after the two years away with the devastating leg injuries. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. We don't yet have our game of the week pull up. We'll get it. We were talking about the games on the air last night and this is a good week of games.

Man, there's some real enticing matchups with teams with winning records or teams that have so much on the line now as we head into week 10. We do have the other football poll up still live. We've gotten a huge response for all of those people who say they don't care about soccer. There's a lot of traffic, people talking about this on our Facebook page as well as taking our poll. So on Twitter, ALOL Radio, all of that is there as well as my comments about Fred Hickman, if you missed him or if you want to see them and share them on our Facebook page too. So we're going to get to football, football, football, as well as MLB free agency, but also we're asking you to share a photo, a name, a memory of a special veteran in your life, whether it's a family member, extended family, a friend, someone that you admire and you don't know personally. We want to honor our heroes throughout this Veterans Day and Veterans Day weekend. So please send those to us again on Twitter as well as on our Facebook page and we're sharing them on our Twitter account. So we're retweeting them and then on Facebook, you all tend to go and support one another. So we really appreciate that. PJ Walker is now the starting quarterback for the Carolina Panthers.

It's weird, right? Because they've got four quarterbacks on that roster. Two of them are injured. Baker Mayfield's the high profile piece they traded for and yet they're starting PJ Walker. Now we had talked about the Falcons being an opposite situation as that before this game. The Falcons also trade for a quarterback when they lose Matt Ryan who's no longer playing.

Boy, what a tangled web. It's like soap operas just considering quarterback movement. So Matt Ryan's no longer starting. He's benched the rest of the way and his head coach is now gone. But in Atlanta where Matt was a Pro Bowl and an MVP and a starter in a Super Bowl, they've got Marcus Mariota who to this point has been, he's been playing efficiently. He's been distributing the ball. Obviously they want to run the ball first.

That's their identity. They were not able to do it against the Panthers and it seemed as though Mariota was off. He was under a lot of pressure, so that's a major piece of the equation. But wouldn't you know, Arthur Smith immediately following this loss asked about whether or not he's making a quarterback change. You can make it about the quarterback. How about about the team? So we had an opportunity at the end of the fourth quarter last two weeks and a lot of different ways and a lot of different phases. Mike, we got to get better and thankful that we got an opportunity to come back and do that with seven games lost.

Really it just starts with me. You know, I got to do a better job of giving our guys opportunities to make plays. I thought our guys were winning on the back end, just didn't make some of the throws. So Mariota is taking the blame on himself and good quarterbacks do that. They recognize their pivotal role in the offense. They did ask him to throw a little more when they couldn't run the ball and for the first half, if I remember correctly, they had something like 15 yards rushing in the first half. They finished with more than that but they were trying to come from behind for a lot of it too. So they end up at 138 yards rushing on 25 carries which is a fairly healthy 5.5 yards per rush but they started so slowly and Mariota when they were asking him to throw was off the mark and he and his receivers were not in sync. 19 of 30 for 186 yards and two touchdowns but he also ends up with an interception in this one.

I know those are the popular narratives right out there. Those are the easy questions to ask as a whole football team. We got to do a better job.

Start with myself. So we look every week to make sure that we got the right guys in the right spots and like I said, we got to protect better. We got to play the run better.

You know, Sha'kiah was going to come in here and try to run it 500 times and so we got a lot of work ahead of us. Really when it comes down to it, we just got to be better on third down. You know, they had some things on defense.

Got some free hitters and that's on me. I got to do a better job protections but when it comes down to it, the game's always going to be won and lost on third down and when you're not converting these third downs and on the flip side, they're getting these long drives. You know, they make the plays when they need to.

Unfortunately, you're going to find yourself in a losing end. Here are the third down statistics that Mariota references. The Panthers were six and 15 on third down. Six of 15 on third down. They did not try a fourth down conversion but for the Falcons, three of 11 on third down. O for two on fourth down. So we're talking about three of 13 in those pivotal plays and they didn't even collect 300 yards of offense.

So I understand the stirrings but I don't think it's necessarily on the QB. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence CBS Sports Radio. Whether it's diamond earrings or an engagement ring, Blue Nile can help you design something special made just for her. At Blue Nile, choose from thousands of diamonds and settings. Have your one-of-a-kind piece delivered right to your door in discreet packaging that won't give away what's inside. Guaranteed free shipping and returns and now Blue Nile is offering special holiday deals. Go to bluenile.com and use code radio to save $50 on purchases of $500 or more. Hurry, this offer expires soon.

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