NFL LIVE | Rams are a Super Bowl contender! – Marcus Spears on Stafford & Nacua dominate Cardinals

NFL LIVE | Rams are a Super Bowl contender! – Marcus Spears on Stafford & Nacua dominate Cardinals

happened with the Seahawks 9 and3 at the Falcons. Game is tied at six. Opening kickoff of the second half here and Rasheed Shahed, we’re waiting for him. Yeah, come on. Where where you been, Rasheed Shahid? Well, there he goes. Okay, he finds a hole. Takes it all the way for a 100yd kickoff return touchdown. Formally apologize to him making a difference in this offense cuz JSN was going crazy. He absolutely makes a difference. Well, speaking of JSN, how about that? Darnold finding JSN. Takes it in for the touchdown. And every week I ask, how does he keep getting open? And that’s on AJ Terrell, a star. 20-6. Yeah, good point. Darnold there stepping up, flipping it to Smith and Ja for another touchdown. Seahawks win 37 to9. A beatd down of the Falcons. And the NFC West continues to be one of the tighter divisions. The Rams and Seahawks both sitting at 10 and three. 49ers not far behind despite some of the issues they’ve dealt with this season with injuries. They’re at nine and four. ESPN analytics gives the Rams a 60% chance to win the division. So Marcus, as you look at that division, sorry, the sound is so loud in here and it finally stopped a little bit, but now I don’t know what’s going on. All right, either way, who is the scariest team in this division when you look ahead to the playoffs when it comes to Matthew Staffords? That’s the Matthew Staffords. The fighting Matthew Stafford. Listen, the Rams I think first of all, I think the Rams are a team that has a significant margin of error that they can have and still win football games. Obviously, that doesn’t sound great after we saw what happened in Carolina, but if you look at that game in Carolina, they still had opportunities to win that game with the turnovers, which is very unlikely for Matthew Stafford. But you think about Puka Noola, you think about Devonte in the red area. This team still prides themselves on being physical with Kiren Williams and Corum in the back field. Shawn McVey obviously the offensive mind, but the quarterback is playing at an MVP level. The quarterback also has the belief from everybody around him being a Super Bowl champion already that when we get into the tournament, we have the best guy on the field at that position. I think that’s going to bode well, especially in the NFC now where we’ll have teams in the playoffs with questions about if their quarterbacks can really do it or not. Can Can the viewers at home hear the beat dropped because it just dropped and and I’m like it’s kind of been we kind of had some techno vibe. The truth of the matter is uh Niners were on a buy. Better about it when you did it. Yeah, that’s it. It looked good. Niners were on a buy. So if you’re a Niners fan throwing some TV saying, “Why aren’t you talking about us?” We will. Don’t worry. Seahawks had a really dominant win and they got an emergence of a player who I think is going to play a big difference. They play in two weeks against the Rams. Nick Amandari was unbelievable in this game. If you look at Nick’s numbers here, interception, six tackles, two tackles for a loss, a sack, a pass breakup, and then he was all over the place. So much so, he had the blocked field goal on this as well. When you start getting your second round draft pick stepping up in week 14 and like actually let me be go the player of the game. Let me insult insert myself. That’s something that wasn’t there the first time they played the Rams. So fascinating to see how this all plays out. They play in two weeks. I can’t wait for it. He has been a force to be reckoned with. And and by the way, to Peter’s point, the Rams finished the season with the Lions, Seahawks, Falcons, and Cardinals. So that’s how the whole thing shakes out. All right, how about the Steelers and the Ravens yesterday? This one, another important game, playing for a first place lead in the AFC North. Midway through the first, Steelers trailing three nothing. Aaron Rogers fakes the handoff. He says, “No, no, no. I’m just gonna run it in myself. Let’s turn back. Great read by Aaron Rogers. Sees the opening and goes and get it. Boogie. I didn’t know if he was fast enough to get it, but obviously he was. He barely scraped in, but he did it. Okay, middle of the third. Ravens trailing 20 to9. Lamar Jackson to Isaiah Likely. That touchdown was good. Okay, the Ravens trail 20 to 16. Ensuing Steelers drive. Rogers hits Jaylen Warren. He takes it 38 yds. Where’s the defense? Some sort of miscommunication defensively. It was a pressure. Somebody was supposed to take the back on the leak. blown coverage. Steelers lead 27 to6 under three minutes to play. Ravens trailing 27 to 22. Still very much in this. And Jackson throws to likely in the end zone. But was it a touchdown swag? I’m not going to belabor. This should have been a touchdown. Catch the ball, possess it in the end zone, you get two feet down, it should be a touchdown in the NFL, especially with a game that matters this much. That’s a crucial call. Jackson trying to connect with Mark Andrews in the end zone, but it’s incomplete. I actually think this was supposed to go to DeAndre Hopkins. Interesting. Yeah, I I’ve seen a couple views of this. Hop was wide open in the back field. Now, obviously Mark Andrews has no idea of knowing that, thinking he’s making a play. Jackson trying to make something happen here. 9 seconds left, but Alex Highmith sacks. The Steelers win it 27 to 22. Let’s hear from Aaron Rogers after this win. What does it mean to get a win like this after the week that you guys have had and the week that kind of Mike has had you? Means maybe you guys will shut the hell up for a week. Don’t worry, we’re still going to talk, Aaron. But I love it. He’s petty. That’s okay. While the Steelers now occupy the top spot in the AFC North, ESPN analytics favors the Ravens to win three of their four remaining games, including week 18 in Pittsburgh. The Steelers favored to win two of their four remaining games. If that scenario played out, Baltimore would be division champs. So Mina and RC, they’re still in it. It’s just going to have to go their way, right? Yeah, it’s unlikely like that touchdown. We thought he actually scored. Mina, last year an unlikely touchdown. Yeah, unlikely. Mina, listen. Last year this offense was off the charts and Lamar Jackson was second in MVP voting. What was one of the glaring things from this game that you think kept them from having an opportunity to win? It’s been an issue that’s plagued them the entire season, red zone execution. And I actually thought Lamar Jackson started looking a little more like himself as the game went on. But in the fourth quarter, even on good drives, field goal, field goal, then you have the likely touchdown that turns out to be not touchdown. And then you saw something that you see so often, which was a bad run in the red zone. And and I just checked inside the 10 yardd line this year. The Ravens are 31st in success rate running the football ahead of only the New York Jets. the Baltimore Ravens who are 30th leaguewide in red zone percentage touchdown percentage generally when you watch so often when things get tight the offensive line just gives isn’t getting the push that they got last year. So you have these unsuccessful runs suddenly it’s second and long suddenly you know you got your pass catchers and tight coverage and it it’s just been an issue all year long. You know what was one of the crazy things about that though? Baltimore was the ultimate. You know, we’re running the football and you can’t stop us anymore team. And I think that’s what’s changed about this team. Also too, the present and the danger of Lamar Jackson with the football in his hand. Early on in that game, you saw TJ Watt with two times he just ran down the line of scrimmage because he knew that Lamar Jackson wouldn’t have the football in his hand on the outside. And then to me, it was the pressure on third down early as well. We saw a sack by Eckles. There was a big play in a zero coverage that was actually negated by a hold by Joey Porter Jr. But even as they got things going in the second half, they just couldn’t finish in the end zone even outside of that likely play. Yeah, I think on the some of the the pass game, I talked about the run game and the offensive line, Lamar’s legs are actually a huge factor. Guys used to be wide open last year and a big part of the reason why they were wide open was the effect that Lamar’s gravitational pull had on second level defenders. When that’s gone, suddenly the pass catching group is a little bit more exposed. Yeah, I think the thing about the pass catching group is outside of Z Flowers, they don’t create separation. We know who DeAndre Hopkins is. Baitman hasn’t been what you expected him to be. I do feel like they need to incorporate Keith Mitchell more in this offense and not only the run game, but the pass game because you saw that explosive run from him. I think he’s the guy that could change the dynamics of what this offense is for. Yeah, guys, Lamar Jackson blitzed nine times in the fourth quarter after only being blitzed five times in the first three quarters combined. Certainly made a difference. Great points by you guys. NFL Prime Time, Boomer, and Booger only on ESPN Plus. Highlights, breakdowns of every game available Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, so you can watch anytime you want on the allnew ESPN app. All right, Swag, what’s coming up next? Oh, you know what time it is. It’s Monday, so I got to highlight the big fellas. And first, I want to talk about Alcad Muhammad from the Detroit Lions. Three sacks against the Dallas Cowboys. I didn’t like it when it was happening at the time, and everybody knows why. We don’t have to be Captain Obvious, but he made some phenomenal plays. And if you get three sacks in a game where you have to win it if you’re the Detroit Lions and you come up big opposite of Aiden Hutcherson, I’m going to show you love. So, good job, number 96. This is a phenomenal night for you. I got some more big guys to highlight. Y’all come back now. Come back now. You here? We got the big fellas on the other side. And how about we got the band on the field. This is the USC band. Really cool. We’re going to see them later on in the game. I love LA. University of Southern California. More to come here on NFL Live. We’ll be right back.

NFL LIVE | Rams are a Super Bowl contender! – Marcus Spears on Stafford & Nacua dominate Cardinals 45-17