Real deal or fool’s gold: Bengals Joe Flacco, Philadelphia Eagles offense | FNIA | NFL on NBC

Real deal or fool’s gold: Bengals Joe Flacco, Philadelphia Eagles offense | FNIA | NFL on NBC

Let’s get to real deal or fool’s gold. Segment two of the FNIA podcast here and it begins with Joe Flacco. Where else would it go? Joe Flacco. He turns back the clock. Thursday Night Football this against the Steelers for the win. Woo! What a game, coach. I was there in the stands, the whole thing. Real deal or fool’s gold to you? Well, it was the real deal Thursday night. And I have to say I was wrong because when they signed, we talked about it two weeks ago. I This is a mistake. you’re putting an immobile guy behind a bad offensive line. This can’t work out. Mike Tomlin said, “Hey, I don’t know what Cleveland was thinking. They made a terrible mistake. They they helped their our opponents and I was wrong.” And Tomlin was right. Joe Flacco that performance, he masked all the problems with the offensive line. The bad protection was still there, but he was so decisive with the ball. I can get it to my weapons, my great weapons before the pass rush can be effective. uh we start throwing the ball well now we can run it and they had Pittsburgh just flustered totally and it was all Joe Flacco now can he do it again maybe that’s where this is a little bit of fool’s gold we saw him do this with Cleveland we saw him do it with Indianapolis and it didn’t end up great we’ll see how it goes down the road but for one night man it looked fantastic yeah for sure and I think the only difference I would say between this one and those examples is he doesn’t have to necessarily do this through the end of the season or into the playoffs. If he can get them three or four wins over this stretch, which based on Thursday night seems plausible to me, they get to mid December and Joe Burrow comes back. And everything I keep hearing is that Joe Burrow, it’s not like a maybe, should I, could I? It’s like I’m coming back as you’d expect from Joe Burrow. And so if Flaco can stabilize the ship here, I mean, I was impressed, coach, and I want your take on this. his ability to make the offensive line look so much better with his intelligence and with just I’m not getting hit. I’m getting this thing out and getting this into Jamar Chase’s hands. Yeah, I I know I have receivers who can get open and I’m not going to have to take time to read the coverage and figure out who it is. I’m smart enough. If the double’s on Chase, I’m going to T. Higgins. If Chase is one-on-one, I’m going to him. And I’m making my mind up just like that. and I’m throwing the football. And he he gave Pittsburgh a lot of problems. He gave that offense confidence. And he made he made them look like a good team. And you’re right, if he can just hold the fort, if they can be in it in December when Joe gets back, uh they can make some noise. And the way I see the the NFL, it’s it’s not going to be a dominant team. Pittsburgh isn’t going to run away from them and and just be so far out in front that it won’t matter. So, I think Cincinnati’s in good shape right now. I think they are, too. And one of one of those moments that where I knew what Mike Tomlin was talking about was when they came out and they double team the double bracket on T. Higgins and Jamar Chase. He walks up to the line of scrimmage and in the blink of an eye recognizes it and hits the big deep ball down the middle of the field. And you know, that’s the stuff they’re not getting with Jake Browning, that they’re getting with Joe Flacco and and Mike Tomlin. I swear to you, coach, when he said what he said in the press conference, all of a sudden the city of Cincinnati, the 859, the 513, everybody said, “Wait, we might have a quarterback here.” It was Mike Tomlin that solidified the belief in our quarterback now. Yeah. And and Joe then, you know, justified that. And it’s amazing. All it takes is a little bit of belief and a little bit of that that we we’ve got it. And now you take a team that thought, “Oh, we can’t get this done.” To now we we can we can do it. Let’s go. And it’s it looked like a different team out there. Yeah, it did. And that was a game, too, where you had, you know, Aaron Rogers looking like retro Aaron Rogers. And we can we can get into that in a second because we’re going to talk about the Sunday Night Football game. But let’s get to the Eagles offense. They come to life against the Vikings. So, coach, is this real? Is this fool’s gold in your mind’s eye? I I’m not sir. I I love the the production they got from those two wide receivers. And this is the way it should happen. Okay, teams come in, they’re they’re going to take away Squan. Okay, now receivers, you’re going to get the opportunity. Uh and they they took advantage of it. 300 plus yards by those two guys, but I still think I I don’t know if Philadelphia is going to win games consistently with Saquon Barkley getting 40 yards. I I just don’t know. if uh somehow the Minnesota defense says, “Okay, we’re going to play the same way, but we’re going to keep those balls in front of us.” So now you get 150 yards on those 17 targets as opposed to 300. Uh where is the offense now? And uh I I like the way those two receivers played. I like Jaylen Herz getting the ball to him, but still, if I’m in that Philadelphia building, we’ve got to run better than this. We we we’ve got a great back. We’ve got a great offensive line. We we can’t have 45 50 yards a game rushing. That doesn’t make sense. Yeah. I I I’m curious how Philadelphia can get to a place from a play calling perspective where they they’re not living in fear of the commentary from within their own locker room. You know, where if Saquon has a 25 carry game and 200 yards and that they’re not living in fear of AJ talking to the media and creating a firestorm during the week because it just feels like this teeter totter ying and yang that occurs. I don’t know how you get away from that, coach. Yeah. and uh you know that the receivers came through and they made the big plays and that’s great, but what would this have been if they hadn’t if uh they don’t get the pick six and they don’t get those deep balls and somehow you lose this game by a couple of points. We’d be saying the same thing. What What is this offense all about? Why are you throwing the ball like this? Why can’t you get Saquon going? And I I think they’ve got to make a commitment to the second half of the year. We’ve got to be a running football team if we want to win in December and January. Yeah, I’m with you. To me, that’s when it’s going to be real. I I worry with Philadelphia, they don’t have quite as much championship depth as we saw last year. Now, they can develop that with some of these young guys as the year goes on. It doesn’t feel quite as dominant to me, but I don’t know that it has to be quite as dominant with what we’re seeing around the NFL. They just really need to be able to beat teams like the Bucks and the Rams and the Lions, and you know, they’ve proven an ability to do that. Do you feel like they’ll be able to do it again this year? No, they can do it. Uh there’s no question about it. And they can have games like this. Uh the question is though, you get in the playoffs and you got to win three or four in a row. Can you do it consistently against good people? Yep. Fair enough. All right. The NFC West, is this the best division in football? Real or fool’s gold? I I really think it is when you look at it. They’ve got uh good coaching. They’ve got good quarterback play, balanced teams, and there there’s something about, you know, the championship DNA. And uh I love what Seattle is doing. Mike McDonald has brought some just fire to that defense and he’s put it together. They’re they’re a problem when you have to go up against that front four. And Clint Kubak very very quietly. They made a change at offensive coordinator last year. Kubak has come in with the kind of off the Shanahan tree that philosophy that we’re going to be tough. We’re going to run the ball and we’re going to go play action passes. They went from an all shotgun team with Gino Smith to a we’re going to pound you and take our shots with Sam Darnold and it it’s been pretty impressive. But uh we were in San Francisco and all the injuries that they’ve had, they’re now playing good football, five and two. The Rams are probably, you know, that block kick in Philly from being really being talked about as maybe they’re the best team in football. And then you’ve got Arizona who who’s got a poor record, but every game comes down to the last play of the game and they seem to find a way to lose it. But they’re they’re a tough out, too. So this is a good well balanced tough physical division. So who who would it be between for you? Would it be the AFC West? Would it be the NFC North? what what the Bears have become. Green Bay still in the mix, Detroit in the mix. Like, who would be the second best division that you’d have to weigh out in your mind? I I still kind of think the AFC West if the Chargers can get their offensive line back in shape. When they had those guys healthy, they were a team that nobody wanted to play. We know what Kansas City is. Denver is a couple of plays away from being, you know, talked about as one of the best teams in football. And they’ve got Shawn Peyton and Bo Nick is playing well. So, I I think that uh conference or that division is balanced as well. Those two West divisions, I I think uh maybe might have our Super Bowl teams. You may be right. I I gotta say, I’m going to go real on this one, too. Just just with what I keep seeing out of Seattle is what’s putting me over the top on the NFC West right now. I like how they play defense. I like their D line. I like their secondary. I really like what you’re seeing from Sam Darnold. more in particular how they’re running the football. Every time I turn it on, whether it’s a Thursday game, Sunday game, Zack Charbanet and this ground game just blowing people off the line of scrimmage. That to me with Sam Darnold is something you can win with not only in the regular season but into the postseason, too. Yeah, that’s the mentality Clint Kubak has brought. I I saw them in training camp and they were practicing that way. We’ve got to be able to control the line of scrimmage on offense. And then defensively, you’re right, they their front seven is really dynamic. And the last two weeks, they haven’t had their starting secondary at all. And they’ve shut people down just because of how good they are up front. Yeah, they have. Hi, I’m Mike Trico and thanks for watching. Make sure to hit subscribe for the latest news and highlights from NBC Sports.

Jac Collinsworth and Tony Dungy debate if the likes of Joe Flacco, the Philadelphia Eagles offense, and the NFC West are the real deal or fools after Week 8 of the NFL season. #NFL #FNIA #NBCSports
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Real deal or fool’s gold: Bengals Joe Flacco, Philadelphia Eagles offense | FNIA | NFL on NBC
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