After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

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For important information, visit Principle dot com slash disclosures. That was a quick hour, but still three to go and 3000 storylines to get to. You know me, I like to exaggerate, but definitely there's a lot that we can take away from week number seven. And I know still there's inconsistency from Sunday to Sunday, from Thursday to Saturday to Monday to Tuesday to the NFL dominates every day. But I think we're starting to see teams settle into their identities and more consistency. And you do have teams that are separating themselves from the pack.

But it's never going to be easy. What we hear from players and coaches all the time is every single win is hard. Every single win is tough. And this week, we had some really impressive wins. And man, do we have some fights to the finish.

Good stuff, especially in that late window. And this is after Browns and Colts go toe to toe down to the wire. Patriots and Bills fight to the bitter end. And it certainly is bitter there in the AFC East. But gosh, in the late window, Broncos, Packers. We're going to talk about these Packers, but Broncos, Packers.

That one goes down to the wire. You also have the Seahawks and the Cardinals. Now, I know it turned out to be a 10 point win, but the Seahawks were down and scored the final 15.

How about these Steelers with a strong and solid and I thought mature fourth quarter performance on the road in Los Angeles? So is it really a road game if it doesn't sound like a road game? If a tree falls in the woods and there's no one around but the Bears to hear it, did it actually happen?

Did it happen to the humans? I hope you had a great weekend. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Walked into my Sunday school class on Sunday morning. And before I could even put my bag down, one of the high school boys accosts me about a call in a college football game.

A call by the officials in a college football game. Did you get blown up on the air last night for that? And I said, I didn't work last night, but he still wanted to talk about it.

And then finally, as he's in the middle of his rant, I was my eyes were rolling back in my head. And I just said, good morning to you too. Oh, sorry. I should have said good morning first.

That's right. I'm just the girl that talks about football. I don't have a heart in here.

Feelings, my poor feelings. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. On Twitter, ALawRadio, if you two would like to blow up my Twitter about some calls. You know me.

No game ever comes down to the flags from the officials, no matter how egregious they might be. So I do not dwell on calls. It's boring. And also, there's no way to win at that game.

So on Twitter, ALawRadio, on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. We're going to get back to the lion's side of that game against the Ravens. Not real competitive, and that might be putting it mildly. But at least the Lions weren't alone. Misery loves company. In week seven, there definitely were some miserable performances. If not, just miserable halves. But if you have a real tough first or second half. You come out of the gate slow, like the Lions. Or you somehow don't score in the second half like the Chargers.

Well, then you got some problems. Because especially in divisional battles, against teams that know you well. There's no love lost in divisional games. But against teams that hold playoff aspirations or division title hopes.

Yeah, there's no margin for error. And that's the deal with the Dolphins and Eagles. The Dolphins have to be able to prove themselves against the best in the NFL. And while they are making strides, their two losses have come against the Bills. I guess it's debatable if you would put them against the best in the NFL. But certainly it's the Eagles who went to the Super Bowl last year.

And there are so small margins, tiny margins for error when it comes to matching up with the best of the best. It's one of the reasons we love the NFL is because any given Sunday, right? I saw that so many times on social media on Sunday. So find me on either of our social media pages.

Our YouTube channel as well. Hard to believe that it is the third week in October. Goodness. But yeah, we're going into the final full week of October. Which means Major League Baseball. Which means we're about to find out our World Series matchup. And we finally have a game seven.

Maybe two, but we have one at least. We'll get to some baseball coming up in 15 minutes here on After Hours. But let's talk about the Super Bowl champions. A track meet against another team in the AFC West that made the playoffs last year.

Get this, in the first half of the game between the Chiefs and Chargers. And I'm not sure which female got more airtime on the NFL and CBS. For a while there, it looked like the super intense viral Chargers fan might be getting more airtime than Taylor Swift.

I wondered, and I don't know the answer to this because I didn't actually look it up. But I wondered if that Chargers fan, who people described as an NFL plant, who is not, I mean she grew up in Minnesota so she cheers for the Vikings and for the Chargers, whatever. Don't act like none of you ever cheer for more than one team. But she was at the game in Kansas City. So I'm wondering if somehow the Chargers or the NFL made it possible for her to be there. They do that sometimes with special fans.

They'll give them trips where they can go and they can watch their team on the road or at a big game, something like that. Anyway, for a while there, super intense Chargers fan in her Chargers jersey was getting more airtime than Taylor Swift, which I don't know Swifties, that might be a travesty. It was one heck of a track meet early on where Kansas City is up 24-17 at the half, but it takes three Patrick Mahomes touchdowns to get there. Now you probably noticed, if you're watching this game, that Mahomes had plenty of room to operate, plenty of room to roam and extend plays and sidestep and scamper and wait for Travis Kelce or his other receivers to get open. The Chargers defense, yeah, not a whole lot of resistance. And the end of the second quarter, it is a 96 yard march for the Chiefs. So they got pinned on a punt and they turn around, they go 96 yards, all six pass plays because they're trying to move the ball quickly. And Patrick Mahomes, six for seven on that drive before he finds Travis Kelce. And so in the second quarter, the Chiefs are up for 21 points and the Chargers defense just has no answers, especially for Travis Kelce, the tight end.

Now it slowed down significantly in the second half, a couple of turnovers in there and then a series of punts. And so there's no points in the third quarter, but really an exclamation point in the fourth quarter for the Chiefs. And I don't know if you heard the news or saw the news this week, but Mico Hardman traded back to the Chiefs from the Jets and he had a 50 yard punt return in this one. So even as the Chiefs are still leading by a touchdown, they're looking for a way to put the Chargers away for good. And that 50 yard Mico Hardman punt return, that was the moment. He also has a third down catch that extends a drive and Patrick's fourth touchdown goes to Isaiah Pacheco. So yeah, the Chargers do not score in the second half of this game. Brian Cook has the second Kansas City interception in this one and that really seals it. The Chargers had a ton of offense early on in the first half, but nearly 500 yards of offense for the Chiefs and gosh, not quite half of it is Patrick Mahomes to Travis Kelce. That's a challenge. That's a challenge for defenses and I know they work on it. This isn't like a secret.

So they're working on those things now. That's when I say Matt and Joe, all the guys that are involved with that pass game putting together things, it's quite a tribute to the coaches and then for those two going out there and executing, he might be getting better with age. Something that you can't take for granted, I mean, it's like almost like he's playing Matt and like he can read the coverage and stop in the windows and be open and be on the same page as me at all times and so he did a great job, man.

He does it week in and week out and that's why he's the player that he is and he'll be a Hall of Famer one day. He had 12 catches, 179 yards. For a while there, I thought he was going to eclipse 200 yards receiving in this game because anywhere he went, now he did drop, it was a touchdown pass, I believe it was in the third quarter. I think I'd have to go back and look but it was somewhere in the second half where he dropped a touchdown pass in the end zone and he was pounding the ground.

He was so angry at himself, he was slamming his hand and his helmet into the ground. So could have been two touchdowns and easily could have been over 200 yards but such a high standard that Kelsey has for himself but that Mahomes and Kelsey have for each other and I've described them as an old married couple. They're one of the most productive duos not just in football but in all of sports because they've got that connection where, and as Andy Reid points out, they work on it but it's not a static connection meaning Kelsey runs his route and if he's open, Patrick gets it to him.

Nah, it's fluid, it's always fluid and Kelsey is one of the best in the NFL at finding an open space because he knows his quarterback is going to extend plays, turning on a dime, posting up if you will because it reminds me of a center or a power forward who will dive into the post and then turn and go back toward the football. A man that big, a dude that big somehow finds openings and seams in a defense though against the Chargers admittedly not quite as difficult. Mahomes 424 passing yards, four touchdowns, he did have a pick but this was a huge performance by the Chiefs. Meanwhile Chargers, though they had some points early on, just couldn't keep up.

Far too many explosions and that ultimately is my responsibility and I didn't do a good enough job. I thought in the second half we made good adjustments, played much better but there was a lot of damage done in that first half. No one's going to panic, no one's going to quit, no one's going to give up and I know that we're going to attack practice this week the same way we have each of the past weeks so I'm looking forward to the challenge, the opportunity. A tough week but we're going to get better because of it. Justin Herbert with a touchdown, a couple picks and then five sacks. My gosh I just looked up and he's talking on the phone to the offensive coordinator.

Well whether it's Kellen Moore or other members of the offensive staff, he's on the phone even as I look up on the TV. Oh goodness, yeah it's tough life if you're in the AFC West while the Chiefs are dominating but you know what stands out about this game against the Chiefs and this is at Arrowhead right? First time all season, even as the Chargers fall to two and four, it's the first time all season that they've lost by more than a score, by more than seven points.

Every other game they've, actually wins and losses, every other game they've played this year has been decided by a single score. This one they can't keep up in the fourth, well can't keep up in the second half and so the Chiefs are able to pull away. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio while we're talking about the AFC West so the Chiefs as defending champions they move to six and one and if you missed it earlier I said, I saw this report from Tracy Wolfson where she indicated that while the Chiefs were warming up and the fans were already filling up Arrowhead Stadium, on the big board of the big screen they showed the replay of the Patriots last second touchdown against the Bills and we'll get to that coming up at the back end of this hour. But as the Chiefs fans are watching this on the big screen, this huge roar goes up inside Arrowhead because they recognize the Bills are one of their competitors for top seed and best record in the AFC and so right now the Chiefs are a game clear. Now a lot can happen, it's only through week seven, but the Dolphins and the Bills take a step back, Ravens and Jaguars actually have the same record as the Dolphins now, but in their own division the Chiefs are pulling away. Raiders get blasted by the Bears and Tyson Bajan, how about that?

It's not even Justin Fields, it's Tyson Bajan who makes his first career start and leads the Bears to a real impressive win. His best buddy on this day, Deontay Foreman, so we'll get to that game coming up but I wanted to talk about Broncos and Packers because we were looking at the NFC North too. So this is another matchup like Raiders-Bears where you're getting a combination of AFC West and NFC North and while Denver is up 9-0 at the half, you may or may not know the dubious streak that predates Sean Payton, 10 consecutive games that the Broncos held the lead at halftime and lost, 10 consecutive games in which they held the lead at halftime and they lost. And so for them, not only were they trying to pick up the first victory at home under Sean Payton, which in and of itself is crazy that it's taken into late October for them to be in position, but the defense able to hold Green Bay at bay, if you will, until the second half, but this is kind of how the Broncos operate. They're up 9-0 at the break, they only have field goals in the first half, but you've got to imagine the demons, they're yelling, they're screaming, they're reminding the Broncos of their past and then once again, their opponent, the Packers, they come up with a late rally because that's what every team does against the Broncos.

Musgrave moves in motion to the wing of the right side, love under center, high formation back field and he takes the snap, fakes the handoff, back to throw, steps up, lost, right side of the end zone for Hey, is that the new iPhone 15 pro? Yeah, it's made with titanium and the pro camera is epic. Just got it at T-Mobile. Nice.

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Vehicle range will vary with options, driving conditions and habits, vehicle and batteries condition and other factors available in limited quantities and select states only. In the end zone, touchdown, Romeo Dabs fighting for it, Jones to the right side of love in the shotgun. Here's the snap fake to Jones, throw right side deflected caught in the end zone, touchdown caught by Jayden Reed off the deflection.

Wow. And the Packers have caught the Broncos hit 16 a piece. And with the extra point, Green Bay actually took the lead. So again, those demons just yelling, yelling and screaming having their way because Jordan Love passes to both Romeo Dabs and Jayden Reed for touchdowns, Wayne Larrabee on Packers radio. So Denver has to scrounge. There is still some time left on the clock.

It wasn't pretty. Once again, a field goal, but Will Lutz nails a 52 yarder after Denver gets into position and the Broncos have the lead again, though it is a slim lead and there is still time for the Packers to break the hearts of the Broncos yet again. I mean, I know that's what Packers fans were hoping that this Jordan Love guy would pull out an Aaron Rogers late game comeback. Three receivers wide left single receiver, right crowd on their feet, making noise.

Four man rush. Love in the pocket bounces around, throws a ball deep down the field. That ball is intercepted, intercepted by PJ Locke and this one is going to end with the Broncos winning the home game. What Dave Logan with the call on Broncos radio.

Yeah, PJ Locke with the pick of Jordan Love to seal it in the late stages. So not only do the Broncos get their first home win in the Sean Payton era, but they also end a streak in which they have dropped 10 consecutive games despite leading at the half. It wasn't our home. I'm saying that respectfully. It wasn't our home. We're trying to win.

Pat mentioned it to me and I thought it was one of these like, all right, what next? Meaning in New Orleans, you know, we hadn't won a playoff game on the road or, you know, all the, it's like, you know, the good teams don't have those issues. The teams that aren't as good have half time, whatever. But that that's, that's, that's not your team would not be the right word for it.

I'm not exactly sure what it is that he was saying, but whatever a win is a win. And Sean Payton, the Broncos, that was a big deal for them though. They only have one touchdown in the win, but the defense is able to seal it. As for the Packers, they've dropped their third consecutive game.

So they go from two and one to two and four. And yeah, another really slow start for the Packers. That's become their M.O.

since Love took over. Offensively, it just comes down to execution. You know, limiting the penalties. We've got to find a way to limit those penalties. A lot of it's pre-snap stuff, you know, a couple of false starts. I think we just got to have more urgency to start the game. It's ups and downs, but I think everyone's very frustrated. We got to find a way to win, got to find a way to win these games. We've been put in this position multiple times where it comes down to the offense, you know, have to go win the game. And we have not capitalized on that. It is extremely frustrating.

I think that the only thing you could do, it tests your results. But I do believe in the guys in that locker room in terms of the character that we have, but it does test you. Yeah. Well, if you make Shue feel any better, Packers fans, and really the Packers, you can hear it with Matt Lafleur and Jordan Love, they're so frustrated. This is not something they're used to. Not that far removed from three consecutive seasons of at least 13 wins and NFC Championship performances. I know they missed the playoffs last year courtesy of the Detroit Lions.

This is a new era. And Packers fans, a lot of you wanted to see the change. You were fine with Jordan Love taking over and Aaron Rodgers being gone. I know that they'd been without Aaron Jones.

He was back in the mix today. But yeah, this was, it was pretty miserable. They just too little too late. And I guess if we're talking misery, then the Lions are right there with you. We'll see what happens with the Vikings on Monday night. But we talked about the Ravens getting humbled, or I'm sorry, the Ravens humbling the Lions, the Lions getting humbled by the Ravens.

And a lot of what you hear Lafleur say is what you heard from Dan Campbell, though with a little different tone. Those guys, they played well, they kicked our ass. And it's a credit to them, Lamar beat us. He hammered us with his arm. You know, he threw the ball extremely well.

He ran when he needed to. And we did not handle it well. You know, our energy was good, which is crazy. You come out of a game like that, you look to score it. Our energy was good. But our detail and discipline, which has been so good over the last four or five weeks was not good enough. So self-induced, that was a combination of a lot of different, a lot of different things, you know, and just like we win as a team, we lose as a team and that was one of those.

I got this tweet from Tyler, A Law Radio. What do you think of the Lions moving forward? Well, I still think they're in a really good spot in the NFC North. So there's a huge benefit to playing in a division that is softer this season.

No one's afraid of the Bears or the Packers at this point. And I would say the same thing about the Vikings, especially without Justin Jefferson. I know they made a major move on the defensive side of the ball and brought in Brian Flores, but we haven't seen a lot of the dividends yet.

They're so disjointed half the time. And remember, at the beginning of the season, the Vikings shot themselves in the foot with a ton of turnovers. So they dropped a couple of games early that maybe they should have or could have won if not for the giveaways. So Vikings, Packers, Bears, right now, total have six wins. Among those three teams, six wins.

The Lions, they got five themselves. So they're in a great position. And I do think because the Lions have really strong leadership, both on the field as well as with the coaching staff, we know that Dan Campbell has sparked a change in culture. A loss like this, a humiliation like this is only going to make them better. That's how good teams respond. So if the Lions respond, when the Lions respond, which I expect them to, you're going to see them take this and use it as a stepping stone.

Taste it, not forget it, not want to be in this position again, which leads to better preparation. I think the Lions are going to be even better off. I'm still on the hype train. On Twitter, ALawRadio, what did the NFL change your mind about week seven? What did the NFL teach you today? We're going to spend a little time with some major league baseball just because it is October. And if you want to weigh in, you can find us on Twitter after our CBS or on our Facebook page. We've got our brand new poll up Monday MVP. You get to vote on either of our social media sites to be revealed on our next show. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. One ball, one strike. Good pitch. Adolis swings and hits a high drive to deep left field. That ball is way back and that ball is history. Adolis Garcia clears him off with a grand slam after four consecutive strikeouts. Not quite the celebration he had two days ago, but another slow jog around the bases as Adolis has broken this ball game wide open. It's nine to two.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Little payback by the Rangers on the Astros home field, because you all remember what happened with game number five, right? Jose Altuve, the ballpark at Arlington or Globe Life Field, I guess it's called, sorry, it is in Arlington, with a ninth inning home run to stun the Rangers and give the Astros the series lead in the ALCS up three games to two. Now that goes back to Friday, but I guess what's good for the fans in Arlington is good for the fans in Houston because the Rangers get five runs in the ninth and actually six runs in the eighth and the ninth off the Astros pen Sunday night. It's the Rangers who get the late offense and the win that now evens up the ALCS at three games apiece, which means what? We get a game seven on Monday as if we needed more in our Monday night. We have Niners on the road at the Vikings. We have two potential closeout games in baseball, so we're looking at elimination games now for the Diamondbacks, the Phillies are back home and they have a game six on Monday, but then it's game seven in the American League. And this is how it goes. This is the last time you'll ever get two baseball games on the same day in 2023.

This is it. So you've got the early game is the Phillies hosting the DBACs. That starts at 5.07 East Coast time, so 5.07 Philly time. But gosh, for those of you who are fans in Phoenix or the desert, follow the Diamondbacks, that game starts at two o'clock.

You may want to come down with a bit of a cold or a fever to get out of there or somehow sneak the game on the radio or on one of your devices. And then the game that goes up against Sunday night football, I'm sorry, Monday night football, just like it did on Sunday night, is the Rangers and the Astros. And here's the crazy part, even as you hear the Astros with that, the bullpen exploding and the Rangers coming up with those big runs on Rangers radio, the road team has won all six games in this series. So I suppose if you believe in the patterns, well then Bruce Bochy and the Rangers are in a really good spot for Monday night's game seven. I wish I could answer that one.

That's a million dollar question. Obviously we wanted to win some games at home, but it didn't happen and they played unbelievable on the road. I mean, you look at their record, but it's a very balanced clubs here that do a lot of things well. They pitch well. They have a good offense and we've been pitching well and we have a good offense too.

But I can't explain that and I wish I could, or we do, or we would have done a better job at home. This will be my first game seven, you know, we had our backs against the wall tonight. We should keep the same mentality. I think, you know, we'll learn from what Javier did to us last time and make our adjustments. That's what we've been doing all year is just continuing to do our homework and make adjustments when we need to and put together good at bats.

Marcus Simeon, he goes two for three at the top of the order, has a couple of walks in there as well. And he mentioned Christian Javier who will start game seven for the Astros. Meanwhile, it's Max Scherzer who starts for the Rangers. Oh, that in and of itself is enough to make me think that the Astros are in a really good spot to finally win a home game in this ALCS.

You know what's crazy? The Rangers and the Astros needed every last day of the regular season to determine who would win the AOS. They have the same exact record. The Astros claim the division title via tiebreak and now they are fighting to the finish. It's a duel to the death in the ALCS between these two teams that have never faced off in the postseason. And as Marcus Simeon indicates, he's never played in a game seven. Most of these guys have not been in a game seven, though they do have a guy like Corey Seeger, right? Who's won a World Series and is actually a former Rookie of the Year, so provides a little bit of experience.

Plus Bruce Bochy, who has three World Series rings of his own. Nathan Evaldi with a huge game again for the Rangers. He allows just two runs against that Astros lineup into the seventh inning. The Astros just not able to generate any real offense with runners in scoring position just one for eight.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Real quick, an update on the Phillies and the NLCS since they will also have an opportunity to close things out coming up on Monday. Swing and a launcher out toward right center field. That's going to be a long home run off the back wall above the pool. A solo home run for Kyle Schwarber. Pay off pitch. Swing and a blast deep to right center field. That'll go past Schwarber's. A solo home run for Bryce Harper. It's the second homer of the inning for the Phillies.

JT, go for three tonight. The pitch. Swung on.

Hit deep. Down the left field line. Gone into the Diamondbacks bullpen, and JT Romuto expands the lead. It's his third homer of the postseason, a two run shot, and it's six to one Phillies in the eighth. Playing against a really good team over there.

We said it before we left. That's not a team that's going to fold or die or anything like that. They're really good. They've played a great postseason, and they continue to show why they're supposed to be here. They're a tremendous coach team as well. They make all the plays.

They hit in every spot. So I mean, you've got to come in here ready to play, no matter the situation or no matter momentum or time or anything. So today was, like you said, it's a big game.

We've got to come in here and take advantage of that. Bryce Harper and the Diamondbacks certainly did push the Phillies. So he points to the competitiveness because Arizona grabbed games three and four before the Phillies were able to close out game five in the desert, right?

And it's once again that same formula. Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, JT Rilmuto, that's not a buddy, JT Rilmuto. They all homer.

Zach Wheeler, he's been impeccable in the postseason. So the Phillies are now on the cusp of back to back World Series appearances. And you can imagine what the atmosphere will be like once they get to the bank. So the Phillies have all those crazy fans.

It's really loud. They've got the best home record in the postseason in the game's history. Came out here and didn't play how we necessarily wanted to. And I mean, we talked about it before the game. It's about winning the series. I mean, if anyone told you at the start of the year that you have the best of three series to go to the World Series, you'll take it. Just keep playing our game and take a good at best. Bryson Stott on NBC Sports Philly obviously goes back to Saturday. But yeah, the Phillies on the cusp and either the Rangers or the Astros will be there come Monday night.

So it's getting out of the nitty gritty. Finally we get a winner take all game. Finally we get a game seven. It's the first one that we've had in now three rounds of the baseball postseason. This is the first one. Maybe if the Diamondbacks could extend the series, we'll go back to back nights with game seven.

Double your pleasure immaculate for everybody. Our friend Steve Sparks on Astros radio. All right. So you hear Scott Fransky, Tom McCarthy on Phillies radio and then it's Robert Ford and it's Steve Sparks on Astros radio, Eric Nadel and Matt Hicks on Rangers radio, Greg Schulte on Diamondbacks radio. There I covered all my bases.

All right. Back to football coming up on Twitter after our CBS. You can vote for Monday MVP already seeing some write in votes as well.

Our Facebook page too. Glad to have you with us. It was yet another weekend with some awesome finishes, wild and wacky. And so we'll look at a few more of those games that went down to the wire and top of the hour, we've got Steelers maturing into what I believe may be a team that could be dangerous in the AFC North.

You are listening to the after hours podcast. Two tights to the left single receivers. Here's Ritter going to the left Desmond rolling to the end zone, dives for the score. His third rushing score of the season is a two yard run and Atlanta's on the board with six 48 to go in this first period of the Desmond Ritter two yard score. Second down 10 for Sean White now in the backfield, Baker maybe if those are sideline route outfield caught ball to the five, touchdown Tampa Bay, my Givens does it again, a point away from tying this game. Hits, misses and messes, time to talk football after hours with Amy Lawrence.

Yeah, yeah, thank you voice God. Mike Evans with his fourth touchdown of the season and game between the Falcons and Bucks was a tight one, nodded at 10 at the half. You hear the calls on both the, almost at the Braves. I'm still a little bit in baseball mode. The Falcons and the Buccaneers radio network, West Durham and Gene Deckerhoff.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. The game was muddied by five turnovers and for Desmond Ritter, man, you want to cheer for him. I like his attitude.

I like his approach. I know he wants to be worthy of the faith that Arthur Smith and the Falcons have placed in him, but he had three fumbles and this game is not even close if he doesn't keep fumbling the ball away. So Shaq Barrett of the Bucks has a strip sack and then, so that's one turnover, and then there's a loss of possession of the football. He's into the end zone, about to be into the end zone and you know that crazy rule that everyone hates where you lose either control of the football or you're starting to get all loosey goosey with the football as you're crossing the goal line, it's actually a rule to fumble and it's a touchback. So you can't fumble forward into the end zone and have it recovered by your teammate for a score. No, you fumble it forward, fumble it right there and fumble it through the end zone and it turns into a touchback. And so there's a couple of just brutal plays for Desmond Ritter that really do put the Falcons in an awkward situation.

But Baker Mayfield was game. He throws a pick with under four minutes to go that ruins a late drive for the Buccaneers. And so after Tampa then is able to rally and tie it with a field goal at 45 seconds left, give Desmond Ritter credit for this. He puts the Falcons in position for a game-winning kick. Piniello home, McCullough will snap to win the game for Atlanta.

Snap, spot, kick from Koo is away and it is good. Fly home safely Atlanta. 16-13 is the final in Tampa. Jung Wei Koo the winner from 51 yards. Atlanta goes to 2-0 in the division, 4-3 overall, 3-2 against the NFC.

Tampa falls to 500 at 3-3. I'd certainly like to make it harder on ourselves, but at the end of the day, I found a way D-led. Come up with situational football, second time in three weeks. Found a way to the last second and Koo as he continues to do is clutch, but our guys make plays in big moments.

We always feel like we got a shot and no matter what happens, it's a resilient group. Yeah, they're in first place in the NFC South, which speaks to you about the division, but it does mean it's wide open and the opportunities are there. Come two months, nobody's going to remember how this game finished, but Ritter is definitely hard on himself.

I will give him credit for this. I mean, Kyle Pitts has been little used for a good portion of this season, but on that game-winning field goal drive, it's a 39-yard connection with Kyle Pitts that puts them into position. But yeah, if not for the three fumbles, maybe this one is a walk away.

We shouldn't even have to get to that point. You know, you go down the fumble and I think you go up maybe 8 or 10 or whatever it was and then you get the touchdown. I mean, you're talking you're up more than what you think you are and what you should be and you know for us obviously we made it and made it a lot harder on ourselves than we needed it to be. But it's huge obviously to see that obviously through all that, we could still come out on top, still play as a team, you know, no one point fingers, no one do anything, blame anyone and just go out and get a win. So Desmond Ritter, whether or not the jury is still out, Arthur Smith would not talk about it after the game.

He said the goal is to win and Desmond just got to win. As for the Bucks, they've dropped back-to-back games and not just two games in a row, but they've dropped them both at home and the offense is really scuffling right now. I think we could have done some things in the passing game, we could have stopped them two minutes defensively, could have done some things on special teams, but we've got to be able to score points. We're going to have to be able to run the ball, we're going to have to be able to throw it and execute better in the red zone all the way around. Can't let one loss turn into two, we've got a game in a couple days, we've got to get ready for that. Understanding the mistakes we've got and we've got to refocus and it's going to take everybody from a mental approach and be mentally tough and bad as this one was, we can't let it affect the next one. Too many penalties, I think anytime you're consistently hurting yourself, getting behind the chains, you don't make your job any easier. You know, it went both ways, they threw some penalties on them defensively as well, but just simple things, you know, a lot of pre-snap penalties for us, which is just sloppy, can't have it, need to clean it up and so, yeah, it's on me for not being on the same page with everybody, I guess, and just got to over communicate, make sure that we're on the same page and eliminate those simple, simple mistakes.

Ooh, I'm an over communicator, I'm all on board with that bigger me field, but yeah, it was tough. For both these teams, they both had their moments, right, where you felt like the game was going to get away from them or gosh, U-G-L-Y, but at the end of the day, if you can walk away with the victory, regardless of how tight it makes your butt cheeks, well, that's a big deal and the Falcons will take them how they can get them, really any team in this division will take the wins, but to be above.500, even though you go 1 for 5 in the red zone and you have 3 turnovers and 9 penalties, both these teams had 9 penalty flags each, it's huge, but they also get 156 yards on the ground and over 400 yards of offense, so you kind of take the good, you take the bad, you take the both and there you have the facts of the NFC South. It's good to know you won't go 0-17. You have the facts of the NFC North as well, man, there are some divisions with, yeah, with some question marks. Who wants to win? I want you to want to win your division. Craig says on Twitter, ALawRadio, I'm a Lions fan and that was brutal. Gene wants us to consider Myles Garrett as the after hours Monday MVP. Speaking of that, Browns and Colts, you want to talk about a fight to the finish, that's straight ahead here after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.