Chiefs, Bengals, and Ravens Are AFC’s Best (Hour 1)

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That's betterhelp.com slash positive. Live from the play show, you're not overly ostentatious, studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Monday edition of the Zach Gelb show right here.

But where else? CBS Sports Radio across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course streaming on YouTube. 855-212-4CBS is numbered to jump on in, 855-212-4227. You could always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Got Moist Mike and also Stuart Kovacs along the other way, and we'll take you all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. Dore Agumbawale from the Houston Texans is going to stop by at 4 20 p.m. Eastern, 1 20 p.m. Pacific. He was called off the bench to kick yesterday, and he's a running back and always do love when we get a few minutes to connect with Dore Agumbawale as the Texans had a big-time victory this past weekend yesterday on Sunday up against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where their quarterback C.J.

Stroud broke a record. Most passing yards by a rookie quarterback in an individual game, 470 yards, also had five passing touchdowns, and when they got the ball with 46 seconds left down four, no one's thinking they're getting a touchdown, and they march right down the field very quickly in an efficient 40 seconds, get into the end zone, and the Texans get a big victory up against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And don't worry, we will get into the drama Dallas Chokin' Cowboys coming up in the next hour of our extravaganza because the Cowboys, just when you thought they were going to go get a big victory and just when you thought that Dak Prescott was that dude and the Cowboys were that team, when they were right at the six, they crapped their pants. That's what the Cowboys did.

That's what the Cowboys always do because even when they think they're leading you right to a victory and they're about to take a step or two forward, they make sure to take three or four steps back and fall on their face. But we have to start in the AFC because we are now starting to get a clearer picture in the AFC. The three best teams in the AFC in no order are the Kansas City Chiefs, the Cincinnati Bengals, and the Baltimore Ravens.

And right now, I think those are your three sure-fired, legitimate Super Bowl contenders inside the AFC. Let's start with the Bengals and Bills. I was disappointed from a Buffalo standpoint in that game.

I thought the game could truly go either way. I thought this game meant more to the Buffalo Bills, especially last year in the division around where Cincinnati came into your house and they absolutely abused you. That was a lethargic effort from the Buffalo Bills. And not only that, it just once again signifies that the Cincinnati Bengals are a better football team. And when you look at Cincinnati, it is clear now that Joe Burrow is healthy. I proclaimed on this show last week that the Cincinnati Bengals were back.

When Joe Burrow laid in that game in a victory, ran for a first down, it was like a 10 or 11 yard scamper, he got up and he let out a roar. And that was the signal that he was fully healthy and he's ready to go. And you saw it last night, his mobility is back.

The way he plants is back. And when healthy, outside of Mahomes, he's the best quarterback. He's the quarterback that you fear the most in the NFL. And you've seen two teams that have been neck and neck for the last few years in the Bengals and the Bills. And Buffalo's apex was getting to an AFC title game. Buffalo's apex, you could argue, was up until the final 13 seconds of the divisional round game up against the Kansas City Chiefs.

And then it was a disaster ever since then. But ever really since that moment where they were in an AFC title game, and then they were up with 13 seconds to go up against Kansas City, there have been times where the Buffalo Bills will have the look of an elite team. But when the moment is the biggest, when the moment is the brightest for the Buffalo Bills, a team in a franchise that deserves a Super Bowl, they have now gone the other way, where the Buffalo Bills now are just a good team. They're no longer a great team. They're no longer an elite team.

And they're 5-4 now. And when you watch the Bills throughout this season, something just looks off. Something just looks missing with the Buffalo Bills.

And you go back to the start of the season where Stefan Diggs had that issue with Josh Allen and Sean McDermott, and it was worse than what it should have been. But really the first game of the season up against the Jets, it was kind of a precursor to what the season was going to turn out to be for Buffalo. Where even when Aaron Rodgers four plays into the season tears his Achilles, you can't beat the New York Jets, and that's nothing against the Jets. The Jets are a solid team. The Jets have an opportunity to be as good as anybody this year inside the AFC East if they could find the way to beat the Los Angeles Chargers tonight.

But when you lose Aaron Rodgers and you turn to Zach Wilson and you can't beat that team, that's problematic. For a team like Buffalo that is trying to get to a Super Bowl and go to a level where they've never been before and be Super Bowl champs. And you watch the game last night, even when right out of the gate, Bengals touchdown, Bills touchdown.

It's like, alrighty, let's rock and roll. The highlight of the Bills last night was Josh Allen pointing to a Bengals defender and drawing what was a very weak taunting penalty. There was two calls yesterday that really annoyed me. That taunting penalty. And then in my game, and I'm saying this as a Patriot fan, and this is not hyperbole, that was the worst roughing the passer call I've ever seen. I don't know how the defender for the commanders, who all he did was ship sack Mac Jones, was supposed to hit the quarterback for crying out loud.

That was weak. It's almost as if just put flags on the quarterbacks and let's play flag football. Cause if you're teaching football, I don't know what else you're supposed to do or how you're supposed to direct a defensive player to hit the quarterback. But anyway, I digress back to the Bengals and Bills. When you watch those two teams, you see the difference. The Bengals now have their Superman back in Joe Burrow and he's a full go. And when he's a full go, they're as good as anybody, not only in the AFC, but in the entirety of the NFL, because that's a well-rounded football team. That's a football team that has elite offensive talent in Burrow and Chase and Higgins and Boyd, even a guy like Erv Smith Jr, who was talking about him last night. And he had an impact in the game. And then defensively, they continue to be the most disrespected defense and underappreciated defense in the league.

Lou Anna Rumo, it's a joke. It's a disgrace that he's not a head coach right now. So when you watch that game last night between Cincinnati and Buffalo, it's apparent the Bengals have the look of a champion. The Buffalo Bills just have a look of a good team that should make the playoffs. But when push comes to shove, you can't trust them in a big game.

So welcome back to title contention for the Cincinnati Bengals. We then go to Germany, where I'll give credit to the fans in Germany. It was an electric crowd. I'm still annoyed at the NFL that they didn't put that game in Kansas City with the return of Tyree Kill to Kansas City. And that game was in Germany, but the environment via TV was absolutely electric.

And I couldn't imagine what it was like in person. You see, though, the Chiefs and the Dolphins, we want to talk about disrespected defenses. Kansas City is one of them because every single analyst and pundit this year, when talking about the Chiefs, they go, what's wrong with the offense?

Who's going to emerge as a number one wide receiver outside of Travis Kelce being a tight end and being their best pass catching weapon? What's up with Kansas City's offense? How much do they miss Eric Bienemey? That's all you hear about Kansas City. And Kansas City 7-2. So when I look at Kansas City, what has been their consistent this year? Hasn't been the offense.

It's been Steve Spagnola's defense. And yesterday, they shut out the high octane, high flying Miami Dolphins offense through the first half. And the Dolphins had two touchdowns and they both came in the third quarter. And oh yeah, by the way, it wasn't like the Chiefs offense was high flying yesterday. The Chiefs defense also got a score on what was a crazy play that led to a Brian Cook touchdown. This Chiefs defense through the entirety of the season has been wonderful. And in years past, when Kansas City has won Super Bowls, it's usually around this time of the year where Kansas City starts to figure out their defense and then just become serviceable. But the real identity, if you watch the Chiefs this year, has been their defense. That has been the thing you could trust the most.

Now I get it. Their best player, the best player in the league is still Patrick Mahomes. But if this offense is still missing something through nine weeks and their defense has been their constant, it makes Kansas City as lethal as ever because you know the Chiefs are eventually going to figure it out with 1587 and someone else emerging on the offensive side of the ball. Now the flip side, very disappointed with Miami. And I don't think anyone in national media has been more respectful and optimistic about the Dolphins before the start of the season than me. I picked them before the start of the year to win their first division championship since 2008.

I still believe that will happen. But if you listen to this show, you know there's a difference between a good team and a great team. And I thought Miami was a great team. I thought Miami earlier in the year had a feel of being a Super Bowl contender. But the Dolphins right now are showing when they go up against, can't even say better teams because like Buffalo right now isn't better than them, but Buffalo beat them by like I think it was 18 points or whatever it was. They crushed them, if not more. And then when they go up against the elite teams in the NFL, Miami didn't really do all that great up against Philadelphia, they lost.

And even when the Chiefs aren't at their best, they couldn't beat Kansas City. And it was so disappointing and deflating yesterday when Tua gets that ball late and they are driving down the field. And in back to back plays, he had a wide open Cedric Wilson Jr. for a touchdown. And it was almost like that Buffalo Wild Wings commercial where you press the button to elongate the game or have something go the other way than the obvious that we thought was going to happen. How he under threw the receiver by like five, six, seven yards was ridiculous. It almost looked as if that ball like hit the jumbotron and then just fell down. That's how poorly thrown the football was by Tua. And then the next play, at first when I'm watching the game, like, oh, maybe the snap was a little bit off to the right.

The ball hits him right in his hands and he drops it. And then that's how the game does conclude. So we saw yesterday, even if the Chiefs may be vulnerable, the Chiefs are still as good as almost anybody in the league. Their defense is phenomenal. And the Dolphins can't be taken seriously as a Super Bowl contender. They're just showing you they're a good team.

And when the competition picks up, they're not capable yet of getting those victories. And then finally, maybe the team I've been most impressed with this year in the NFL, it's the Baltimore Ravens. Going into the year, I thought the Ravens apex would just be making the playoffs. I've always been a big Lamar Jackson fan. When Bill Polian was saying he should move to running back a wide receiver before the draft, I thought that was laughable when he did that at the combine. And the reason was we've seen Heisman Trophy winners. And just because you're a Heisman Trophy winner doesn't mean you're going to be this all pro great quarterback. But we've seen other Heisman Trophy winners get that opportunity when we weren't optimistic about their NFL future. And they've gone on to at least get the right to prove that they could be a quarterback.

The fact that Lamar Jackson fell to 32nd in that draft still makes no sense to me. He's won a unanimous MVP in his first two years as a starter. And the last few years, the injuries have caught up to him. And everyone's saying this guy can't win a championship. This guy can't win a big game.

And I said, nonsense. He's still young in his career. And you look at that roster, it's not the greatest roster in the world. It's not as if they have these awesome weapons all over the place on the offensive side of the ball. Their defense is phenomenal. But this Ravens team, I was very iffy on them making the playoffs. I did not pick them to be one of my top seven teams in the AFC because I didn't like the change in offensive coordinator I was hearing over the summer on what the offense would look like.

And I thought they were going to have an identity issue. And then also you look at Lamar last two years, he hasn't been healthy. And this whole team has been decimated with injuries. But in two of the last three weeks, we've seen the Ravens go up against a very good Lions team and a very good Seahawks team.

And neither of those games were close. The Ravens blew both of those teams out. And you have Lamar, who is dominant.

They plug and play whoever they want at the running back position. And they have been good. And the defense has been great. That Ravens team is definitely a Super Bowl contender. So what I think we learned when we're now nine weeks into the season, the three best teams in the AFC, when they're a full go, in no order, Chiefs, Bengals, Ravens. Bills and Dolphins are only good teams. They're not very good teams. They're not great teams.

They're not Super Bowl contenders. And you may be saying, Zach, are you being disrespectful to the Jacksonville Jaguars? I think the Jaguars right now are the fourth best team in the AFC.

I really do believe that. The Jaguars are 6-2. I love Trevor Lawrence.

I love Doug Peterson. Josh Allen's having a monster season on the defensive side of the ball. But I got to see Jacksonville and I got to be fair here. Like I talk about the Dolphins not beating a quality opponent. I got to see the Jags beat a quality opponent because their wins this year, Colts, Falcons, they beat the Colts twice. The Saints, the Steelers, they did beat Buffalo. But I don't love the Buffalo Bills this year. And that game that still sticks out to me about the Jacksonville Jaguars is they had Kansas City in their building and they were only able to put up nine points offensively.

That still concerns me a little bit. Where I'm not ready to say the Jags are a great team, right now they're just still a very good team. But there's no doubt in my mind, if you had to give me three guesses to get to the Super Bowl this year out of the AFC, it's the two teams in the AFC North, Cincinnati and Baltimore, and then it's the Kansas City Chiefs. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Who do you think will represent the AFC in the Super Bowl this year?

That's our poll question today. You can find it on my Twitter at Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. We retweeted at CBS Sports Radio as well. And right now the early returns 30.1% say the Cincinnati Bengals were my pick to go to the Super Bowl before the season did commence up against the Eagles. 29% say the Ravens, 22.6% say the Chiefs, and then 18.3% go with other.

855-212 for CBS, 855-212-4227. We'll take a break. When we come on back, three college football takes. Basketball season is finally back and BetQL is ready to help you win more consistently this year. BetQL is an absolute game changer if you're looking to find trends to help you win. Make smarter bets on spreads, totals, player props, and more. BetQL has already helped over 300,000 people with powerful analytics and community insights. Don't airball your opportunity this basketball season. Visit BetQL.com for their free daily analysis today.

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AutoZone's free battery testing and charging is available for free at your local AutoZone. Get in the Zone AutoZone restrictions apply. Alrighty, let's get to three college football takes here. We'll start off with USC who once again lost to a team in Washington who, if the college football playoff committee doesn't put them in the top four this week, I don't know what they're evaluating, but that was a really fun game between Michael Penix Jr. and Caleb Williams. But it is bizarre to me that it took that loss to Washington for USC to realize that their chances of going to a national championship game or the college football playoff were over. Because that already ended when they lost to Utah and they suffered their second loss of the season when they lost them back to back weeks to Notre Dame and Utah.

Because no team in the history of the 14 college football playoff has ever got in with two losses. Now, up until this loss to Washington, you could have still told me USC is alive to go to the Pac-12 championship game because even though they had two losses, only one of those losses were inside the Pac-12. Now they have two losses inside the Pac-12, three on the season and any hope or any aspiration that they wanted to build up and try to believe that something was there is now right out the window. But my take here is Lincoln Riley ruined this season for USC because Lincoln Riley trusted his friend in Alex Grinch, who everyone in America knew was not a good enough defensive coordinator. Like last year, we all saw the flaw in USC in year number one of Lincoln Riley.

Their defense stunk. And that's why when many were jumping on the train of USC this season, because they have Caleb Williams, they have the great offense, everyone loves Lincoln Riley. I said, nope, I'm not going to pick them to win the Pac-12 because I didn't trust their defense and I thought there were better teams inside the Pac-12.

My pick was Washington and after Washington, I said it was Oregon. And I thought Utah was even getting disrespected, but we didn't know when Kim Rising was going to come back and he's never made his return this season. It looks like he's going to get a medical red shirt and come back next year, coming off that ACL injury that he suffered in the Rose Bowl. But going back to USC, it was Lincoln Riley's loyalty or arrogance or stubbornness that cost this team a chance to win the Pac-12 and to be one of the four teams remaining in the college football playoff because he thought when no one else thought this, that Alex Grinch was going to be good enough as his defensive coordinator. And after this loss to Washington, when you lose 52 to 42, he finally sent his friend Alex Grinch packing, but it was something that should have transpired at the end of last season.

And if I had to just give you one suggestion, because it's easy to get on the radio and say, oh, fire this guy, fire that guy. For Lincoln Riley moving forward, the higher I would make at the end of the season, if he's interested, because he was at Wisconsin, was their defensive coordinator, was their interim head coach, didn't get the job when Luke Fickel got the job. And then it was all he was going to take a year off. And now he's on the staff in some capacity at Illinois. It's Jim Leonard. Now, Jim Leonard, you could argue, could become a head coach. And Jim Leonard may get head coaching looks this offseason, but if he does not get a head coaching job, I would absolutely bring him in to be the defensive coordinator of the USC Trojans.

And Lincoln Riley, this could be harsh to some, but I think it's accurate and I just think it's truthful. He is overrated as a coach. The guy is a good coach.

I'm not telling you he sucks and he's horrible. He is still a top 10 coach, top 15 coach in the country. But when you have had three Heisman Trophy winners and another Heisman Trophy finalists, and you have not been able to win one college football playoff game, that's embarrassing. That shows me you're a good coach, but you're not a great coach because at Oklahoma, he had two Heisman Trophy winners and Heisman Trophy finalists, got to the college football playoff, loss, loss, loss. Now with the guy that everyone thinks is going to be the number one overall pick and is this generational talent in Caleb Williams, who is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and still has ridiculous stats this season, you have three losses on your resume? Lincoln Riley needs to look himself in the mirror and it stinks that his stubbornness and his refusal to fire Alex Grinch is what cost his team its season because they were failed from the start. And you don't get Caleb Williams back next year.

He's off to the NFL, where he will most likely still be the number one overall pick even after picking up three losses this year to his resume. But if you can't find a way to get to the college football playoff when it's four teams and get a win, when you have all these Heisman Trophy winners or these Heisman Trophy finalists, how are you going to win more games when it goes to 12 next year? Because USC, even though they're out of the top 25 right now, no one should be shocked when they make a college football playoff with Lincoln Riley when there's 12 teams that get invited. But if Lincoln Riley couldn't win a college football playoff game with all those really successful quarterbacks when it was just four teams, what makes me think he's going to be able to do that when there's going to be more teams playing and you're going to have to do more than just win two games to become a national champion?

So that's take number one. Yes, Riley finally made the right decision, but it was way too late. Number two, my favorite thing that I saw this weekend in college football was Oklahoma State winning the last consistent bedlam. Like, I don't think they'll never play this game again. But with Oklahoma going to the SEC at the end of the season, it's all uncertain when the next time we're going to see bedlam between Oklahoma State and Oklahoma and Mike Gundy. We all love his personality. We all remember the I'm a man, I'm 40 rant that he went on many years ago.

But think about it. This offseason, he lost Spencer Sanders to the transfer portal. Spencer Sanders goes to Ole Miss where he's not even starting because Jackson Dart is an Ole Miss is having a really good season. And Oklahoma State was that forgotten about team who's now sitting there at seven and two just totally put the nail in the coffin on the Oklahoma season. And let me remind you earlier this year, Oklahoma State was in a rough spot. They were trending in the wrong direction where they started off two and O against Central Arkansas and Arizona State, but then they lost to South Alabama and they lost to Iowa State. Ever since then, they haven't lost the game taking down Kansas State, Kansas, West Virginia, Cincinnati, and then their best win of the season up against Oklahoma. And you look at this Oklahoma team now, man, their ceiling was the Texas game. And since that Texas game, they barely beat UCF. They lose to Kansas, great win by Lance Leipold. And then they just lost to Oklahoma State. So I was very happy with Oklahoma making an unnecessary move, but you're chasing the cash so I could understand it. Go into the SEC and ending this great college football rivalry for now in Bedlam that Oklahoma State not only kind of told Oklahoma don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you on the way out, but they basically eliminated them from having a hopeful season the rest of the way and going to the levels that we thought Oklahoma could go to where we talked about them after the Red River game where Oklahoma was able to hold on and beat Texas.

And then finally, I think it's time to say this. And I know that there's different levels of being back, but many people wrote the eulogy for Alabama after week two when they lost to Texas. And I will raise my hand and I will be the first one to say I was one of those people because I remember doing a sports minute and the sports minute that I gave was no team in the history of the college football playoff has ever got two losses or had two losses and got in.

That was the take. I think Alabama is definitely going to get one more loss this season. They won't be going to the college football playoff. And you looked at their schedule after that Texas game, forget about South Florida, but they bench Jalen Milro. Then they go back to Jalen Milro and they played some good teams, Ole Miss, Tennessee, LSU, and they won all of them. They beat Ole Miss. They beat Mississippi State. They beat A&M. They beat Arkansas. They were down big at halftime, 20 to seven against Tennessee, come back right after the third quarter and say, Tennessee, you're not beating us two years in a row. And then that LSU game where LSU and USC continue to be the two most disappointing teams in the nation this year, LSU was rocking early. And then as the game did go on, the Alabama defense made their adjustments. The Alabama defense has been great all year.

And I got to give it to Jalen Milro, who was a lethal in the game, not only through the air, but more importantly on the ground. And now Alabama sits at eight and one with Kentucky, Chattanooga, and then the iron ball left on their schedule. That will be win, win, win in a down year and an off year for Alabama. And they'll be in the SEC championship game where there is the big test. Can they take down Georgia and disrupt what many people think will be an undefeated regular season and you factor in the SEC championship game for Georgia as well before they go back to another college football playoff. And as they sit here today with Georgia being vulnerable and we don't know when Brock Bowers is coming back, but Georgia is still undefeated.

And I don't give a rat's ass about style points. I would love to see Georgia and Alabama in that SEC title game. And we're going to get it because now a few weeks ago, I would have said, okay, Alabama can get there, but they're not going to beat Georgia. That's uncertain right now, how that game would play. And I think Georgia right now, that game's played tomorrow, five and a half, six point favorite.

And it would be tough to lay the points there because that would have the feel of a three point game. And it just shows you, even when Saban has a down season, like a few years ago, they got to a national championship game when he didn't think they were going to have that success and they lost. Then last year, they didn't make the college football playoff, but this year after week two, everyone had Alabama and the Crimson Tide dead, done, finished. And you've seen some coaches, I know Dabo just had a nice win finally up against Notre Dame, but you've seen Dabo pick up like four losses this year. Nick Saban, when he has a bad year, it's only like one or two losses. And right now with all the negativity that was surrounding Alabama, they are eight and one and they could accomplish anything this season with the way that defense plays. And Jalen Milro has grown up from that Texas game to where we got to see him several weeks later, go up against LSU with the way that he has performed in between after getting benched up against South Florida and then getting his job back from Ole Miss to LSU. So those are the three college football takes this week. Lincoln Riley waited way too late to fire Alex Grinch. Great to see Oklahoma State have a little message to Oklahoma in the final consistent installment of Bedlam.

And then Alabama looks like they are back and they are a team that can now be viewed in that championship contending conversation. Zach Gilp show CBS Sports Radio 855-2124, CBS 855-212, 4227. We'll take a break.

We'll come on back. We'll update you with some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio. We call that segment the news brief, but first up standing by with the latest CBS Sports Radio update. Here he is the act man, Rich Ackerman. Time to ask the pros where you the listener gets asked us a question brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Simply tweet your question at CBS Sports Radio or at Zach Gilp using the hashtag ask the pros.

Be listening later in the show when we might answer your question. Think O'Reilly Auto Parts while your car care needs. Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. O O O O'Reilly Auto Parts. Let's get to a news brief. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports. It was all fun and games for the Dolphins, then they had to play the Buffalo Bill's the Philadelphia Eagles in the Kansas City Chiefs and they were like Oprah Winfrey during Christmastime when she's handing out gifts Mike McDaniel basically said to his team you get an L you get an L you get an L and the Miami Dolphins are now viewed as a team that are good we know that they could fall behind and then get back into the game rather quickly because of Tua and Tyree Kill and Jayla Model and Raheem Mostert but they're not a team that I consider to be great they're not a team that I think are now Super Bowl contenders because against better competition they have not fared well here is Mike McDaniel taking blame for the loss to the Kansas City how about those Chiefs if I know my personnel well Tua is probably standing up here since he gets to talk before me and saying this that and the other about it's on him it was it wasn't there's a there's a lot that falls on squarely on my shoulders I'm not gonna lie the first like four or five seconds of that clip I had no clue what Mike McDaniel was trying to say Stu I need to settle down here I need to think clearly I need to intently listen there cuz I kind of thought I knew what he was saying but the first four or five seconds I was basically thinking to myself what the heck is going on out here play me McDaniel again if I know my personnel well Tua is probably standing up here since he gets to talk before me and saying this that and the other about it's on him it was it wasn't there's a there's a lot that falls on squarely on my shoulders so Santa you deal with me every day so you know how to translate stupid so help me out here he's saying if he knew his personnel better they probably would have won the game what is like trying to do something different against cancer cancer these defense been good all year so I just don't understand that answer whatsoever other than it's just a coach saying this is on me not on my team which I respect that that's basically what he's trying to do he's basically saying if I know Tua Tua is gonna be up here saying that it's Tua's fault but really it's not to his fault it's my fault so he was basically saying like I know Tua Tua is gonna try to take the blame this is not about Tua this is on me oh here would be my advice to coach I appreciate that I respect the answer but to a tongue of I loa has to hit a wide open receiver and not throw the ball four or five yards short it doesn't matter what the heck you know what you heck you could have thought better or like Tua should take that loss on him because in the first half the offense did nothing now part of that's on McDaniel too but towards the end of the game and this is what great teams do when they don't play their best they find the way to win the game if Tua hits his man for a touchdown maybe they go for two and they win the game but Tua's got to make that throw part of me as I'm watching that play on rewind a couple times I'm thinking to myself he was intentionally trying the only acceptable explanation was that he was trying to throw it short so that the receiver would jump forward and try to get a pass interference there was the only he was so short on that throw there's no reasonable explanation it makes no sense here you say five years here's like 15 yeah one of your short you know what Jerry's world you know at Jerry's world where sometimes you see the punter hit the the jumbotron now I don't know anything about this stadium in Germany I thought he threw the ball so high up in the air which actually would have been impressive that he hit the jumbotron and then it fell 20 yards short let's go to Lamar Jackson he makes it clear that the Baltimore Ravens are rolling we playing like that we don't even need to hit no peak or stride just keep staying locked in how we are and just can never appointed the same way you know physicality on being smart and defending what's ours you know our home turf Lamar knows what it is and he's 18 and wanted his career up against NFC teams I read which is crazy but he knows what it is he's got to stay healthy because even look last year the Ravens almost beat Cincinnati when he wasn't healthy in the playoffs so we all know they have a really good team it all comes down to Ken number eight stay healthy this is my favorite story in the NFL this season Josh Dobbs like it was impressive what he was doing in Arizona and you remember last year when he goes off the practice squad from Detroit and then like nine days or ten days later he's starting for Tennessee towards the end of the season well this year he's on the Cardinals after getting traded there he is in Arizona on Tuesday gets bench behind the scenes they were trading him gets the Minnesota on Wednesday is not supposed to start Jared Hall starts Jared Hall goes out of his first career NFL start with the concussion and Josh Dobbs comes off the bench defeats Atlanta had two passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown here is Josh Dobbs and the challenges starting out on short notice it's like if you were taking Spanish all year and so until you have that AP French exam on Sunday you know someone's gonna talk to you in Spanish and translate it to the French so that's kind of like what was going on out there that's a great analogy and I saw he was taking snaps with his linemen on the sidelines so they could get used to his cadence it's just a remarkable story and shows you in the NFL how much we think about preparation and how I'm not saying it's not unimportant but the last few years we've seen Baker go right from one place to the next and perform well with the Rams so now we've seen Josh Dobbs go from the Cardinals get no preparation able to beat another NFL team here's Antonio Pierce the interim coach of the Raiders who's in a decent mood today smile and haven't seen that in a while and this Antonio Pierce if the Raiders crushed the Giants where this win ranks in his career it's up there my stomach was uh I had them butterflies before the game that hasn't happened but two other times in my life and especially well later on in the show we will take a look back at the best win of Antonio Pierce's career and that's when the Giants beat the Patriots in oh seven in the Super Bowl and he was trying to save Josh McDaniel's ass and then Josh McDaniel's got all annoyed with the way that Antonio Pierce was talking about the or Josh McDaniel's talking about the New England Patriots so that right will be coming your way at 5 p.m. Eastern today 2 p.m. Pacific you will not want to miss it let's go to Derek Carr the former Raiders quarterback now at the Saints back and forth game there I was impressed Tyson Bajant but this is Derek Carr saying on the win over the Bears to take the lead in the NFC South we're able to just drink two in a row in you know now after that terrible feeling that we had before the Colts game and you know seeing some of the just the fruits of their conversations and the hard work paying off it looks like the Saints are starting around into NFC South champion form because the Panthers stink we know that the Bucks are now moving in the wrong direction and Atlanta they're going back to Taylor Ham Heinecke this week he's better than Desmond Ritter but the Falcons just had a miserable loss so it pains me to say because I don't think the Saints are that good but right now begrudgingly it does look like they're gonna win the NFC South here is Baker Mayfield on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers four-game losing streak talent doesn't mean anything if you don't do your job and execute so just frustrating to lose it's like I said there there was some improvement in the right direction today but hurts that loss is so demoralizing because you thought you won when you score that touchdown to take the lead up against the Texans and there's 46 seconds left even though CJ shrouds having this ridiculous record rookie season no one in that moment thought he was gonna be able to march down the field down by four in 46 seconds and get the ball in the end zone but he did let's go to Caleb Williams a lot has been made about his emotions following another loss I had no problem with him jumping into the arms of his family members and crying but there was this exchange after the game when talking to the media Caleb obviously emotional after you know tonight what's kind of your emotional state mentality right now I want to go home and cuddle with my dog and watch some shows like you know who else again something to work hard for throughout months years it's a big game like this we came out with the loss today so emotionally I want to go home and I want to live with my dog it's kind of depressing but you know the dog will will uplift you and you watch some shows as well but man that's a very sad version of Caleb Williams here's Jim Harv on the criticism that cheating helped his team the comments keep coming about you know why they're good how they're good I mean and they're just good if you know football and you watch our guys play I've said it before there's 20 20 22 23 guys it'll be playing on Sundays next year well we're gonna find out because everyone knows the signs this weekend that Michigan can't have the signs this weekend and Penn State has changed it and Michigan should be Penn State if Penn State finds a way to actually do something they never do with James Franklin that's what a big game that it's only gonna add fuel to the fire that these last two years significantly helped Michigan by the way I think Michigan's gonna crush Penn State this weekend and finally let's hear Dabo Sweeney a lot of talk last week with that caller Tyler then he beats Notre Dame here is Dabo on a huge win over Notre Dame courtesy of ESPN that was a fired up Dabo Sweeney I had a feeling his team was going to win just usually works that way the spread was fishy I said it on Friday as well all the criticism everyone jumping off the Clemson bandwagon as they should I'm not ready to buy stock back in on Clemson I think that would be an ill-advised stock purchase because is Dabo gonna change his stubborn ways where he's been arrogant he's been refusing to embrace the transfer portal only has one player in the transfer portal has refused to embrace NIL as well he's made fun of it saying oh my program is built on God's name image and like this if he doesn't change those things yeah went up against Notre Dame in a down season for Clemson isn't gonna mean that this program gets any closer to actually being back to the Clemson standard