Patriots are ‘very legit’, Giants fire Brian Daboll, Are the Ravens officially back? | FTF

Patriots are ‘very legit’, Giants fire Brian Daboll, Are the Ravens officially back? | FTF

Live from New York. It’s a show that has a new addition to the family, extended family, and I’m congratulating you on becoming officially a grandfather, a grandfather. Uh, congrats to my son Demonzze and Maddie and the newest addition to our family, baby Mila Jade. It is overwhelming, and I am now, uh, somehow brew older than you. Yeah, you, you’re the grandfather on the show. I’m no longer the eldest statesman. I’m not a grandfather. I know that. So that does make you the youngest on the show. I don’t know how that works. It’s a true blessing, and I can relate because I feel similar to the love in my heart that I feel for Drake May right now. I, I, I, it just magnifies, right? It’s like your heart gets big. Great weekend for both of them and the Ravens Ravens won. We’re starting with the mighty Byron, dude. I went down the field, Nick, I told Wilds there’s a swagger about him that I’ve not seen. He’s wearing his better hairpiece. That’s right. We’re back. The holiday hairpiece. Uh, 7 wins in a row, 5-0 on the road. Man, you have a soft game. Bucks were in first place. We went into their building, the pirate ship and everything, injected into my veins. Patriots ranks, uh, 8th-best points, uh, 6th-best defense. Look at those rushing yards. Best in the NFL for, uh, defense. Nick, we’re gonna start off with you to hold court for a while here. Did the Patriots prove they’re the best team in the AFC yesterday? I don’t think they’re the best team, but I do think they’re gonna be the one seed, and I do think you should be over the moon excited. Thank you. That was good from you. Appreciate that insight. Excellent job. I was interested in that. We’re back. hello, gentlemen. Part of the trade we have you in Patriots garb now. You didn’t tell me that was part of I know they don’t even look at me. It’s a frown. Look at him with sorry, that was the doorstep of Dusty. Yeah, go ahead. No, do you want me to go? Yeah, I want you. Are you sure? I’m. I have like a whole thing. I want to hear it. OK. All right. In my hands, this is a Seahawks thing. You’re like, oh, what’s this guy doing? There are 6 teams that are top 10, uh, in the offense and defense points. These are them. OK. Seahawks, can we play a game? Well, yeah, you can go through the Seahawks, you got the Rams, you got the Colts, of course, Patriots, and Hello. The Chiefs, Chiefs and the Bills. I was gonna say missing a team, but that’s fine. So Top 10 in scoring offense and defense, correct. So these are your Super Bowl contenders. I didn’t put the Ravens in there, Bill. I remember, because you’re not quite there. Same with the Eagles. Eagles. I was gonna say it’s you’re the Eagles are missing, but that’s, no, they’re not missing. No, he’s saying. Yeah, just this is statistically got it, got it. OK, sure, this is not like a big joke, dude. I got you. Sorry. I told you just because there is a door I’m wearing sunglasses, I like graphics and those are graphics. They’re nice are definitely. Oh, there’s the bills thing. You didn’t have it. It’s printed, OK, yeah. The doorstep of destiny is the Super Bowl. You’re like, too soon, right? Let’s just, how can we get there? OK, first of all, these two teams, they’re in the NFC. They no longer matter. We can play in the Super Bowl, that’s fine, but not germane to this conversation. So you’re out. Oh, the Bills. Oh my goodness, the Bills. We beat you in your building, and you just lost to the Dolphins, and got break danced on, so you’re out. The Colts. Excellent team, lead in scoring. And but who’s the offense powered by? Daniel Jones and some superstar? Uh, no, it’s just Jonathan Taylor is the bulk of that offense and who has the best rushing defense in the entire league? As I mentioned, the New England Patriots. So Colts, unfortunately, you’re out. Oh my gosh, almighty. Oh, this is what we call a win-win. Mike, I’m beloved in, in New England and Kansas City. So look, this is not the strongest take in the world, but it’s just you and me, buddy, and it’s a win-win. If you want to become a Patriots fan, no, I don’t, because it works. But KW, I, I wanna tell you something. I don’t think you’re necessarily wrong. We’re back, gentlemen. Like we are here in this regard, brew. I think it is. So the Chiefs play in the AFC championship game every year. That’s why it’s called the Air Invitational. They literally haven’t had one without inviting Patrick Mahomes since he’s been a starter. So they’re gonna be half of it. If you had to ask me today. Who is the team most likely to be in the other half of it? I would pick you guys. I would. Just right now today because Brew, I think they’re gonna get the 1 seed. And I just think that is such a, such a powerful tool. And so, yeah, I, I, I don’t think they’re the best in the AFC because of this team, but I do think they are very legitimate in a way I don’t think the Colts are, in a way that I don’t think maybe some other teams are. All right, well it’s. You’re done. Yeah, that’s it. I only brought three separate things. I hate to burst your bubble, OK, but the question was, did they prove yesterday that they’re the best team in the AFC and, and. Yesterday was a good win. But you don’t prove you’re the best anything by beating Tampa Bay. Why? Tampa Bay is a, a good team. They’re a cute team. No, I’m just saying they’re, they’re, you beat a nice cute team, all right. They’re 6 and 2 or started 6-2. They’re gonna be 6-5 in short order, OK, so it was a good win, but hold your horses. What I will give you. You guys have been the most impressive team in the AFC thus far. We’ll take it. No question. You got the best win certainly of the, you’re tied with Denver and Indy as the 8 and 2. So let’s just talk those three teams. You got the best win, I would say, of those three in Buffalo. Maybe the two best wins in Buffalo and in. Tampa, I, I mean, uh, you don’t wanna give Tampa any credit, but winning in there’s winning in Tampa, it’s a good win. It’s a good win. It’s a good win. All right, and you’ve got, as you said, the best balance of those three. Indy, look, Daniel Jones, is starting to fumble, yeah, I mean, he’s had 7 turnovers in the last 2 games, and that’s not even including the. Three fumbles he got back. All right, so they, they have their awards. Obviously Denver has no offense. All right, they, they got a great defense offense. You guys have both and you got the best quarterback of those 3. But if I had to pick the best team right, like in the playoffs, who I would favor in the AFC it’s obviously Kansas City. Sure, I still, even after yesterday’s horrific loss. I think I would take Buffalo over you guys and in a few weeks my Ravens will be looking like a Ravens. I would, I would, I would, the show would break if you were like, you know what, Patriots better than the Ravens. I buy that. The Bills, and we’ll get to the Bills in a second, but I, I’ve been tooting the horn of the Bills being overrated for a while. I, I know, but it’s a little tough for you because up until 24 hours ago, you were, it was also your signature win. I it was not, I can it is a confusing before we move on, because, because listen, your athletic playoff predictor KW has you guys at 43% to be the 1 seed. Who’s 2. The second, uh, I think Indy, but we have the best in the entire league. You, you have the best in the AFC by a mile. And this is the one that I thought you were gonna bring up, and then I want to make one point. According to your beloved athletic playoff predictor, you have an 11% chance to win the Super Bowl, which is second in the entire NFL to the Rams. That, that again, bring me my medicine. So bring me my heart me and so I just wanna make this point as we see Dab get fired and other teams do multi-year, multi-decade or half-decade rebuilds. All you need. Is the right coach and the right quarterback and you are in it. And if you are totally convinced you have one of those two correct and you’re not in the mix, then you don’t have the other one. Like, so if you, if you think that, again, just to be the, the Patriots were a, right, that’s what I’m saying. The right, no, no, no, no, the right, if you have one of the guys at head coach and one of the. Guys at quarterback, you’re in it in this league. And if your team is consistently not in it, you either don’t have either or don’t have one. You certainly don’t have both. And so like it is the, the multi-year, kind of nail everything perfect rebuilds is because you don’t have one of those two guys. And the Patriots were a disaster. 15 months ago. No, they were. And by the way, I still don’t love the roster. I think there’s holes on it. But, but Vrabel is so sharp. I thought the end of the first half was sharp. I thought the fact that his rookie running back knew to look to him, to talk, and, and Drake May is awesome. The end of the first half was risky, but it at least shows he’s thinking. It at least shows he’s thinking some teams. Yeah, we just love not, you know what, I don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of not scoring. Prefer scoring. Yeah, I, but it was the fact that he looked back shows that they’re, I like that. But like when Drake, I at the end of the first half, he took a knee to try to burn 40 seconds. It at least shows they’re paying attention. Yeah, uh, Pats host the Jets Thursday night. Gentlemen, would you like to play us out, please? Thank you. This makes me a little, this is, yeah, this is amazing. Excellent as always. We’ll see you after we beat the Jets this time on Friday. Uh, letdown game alert. We can bring them back for the Jets. Uh, oh, hold on. That’s OK. It’s just an old teleprompter from the 70s. Uh, Bills beat the Chiefs. Letdown game alert. Bills beat the Chiefs, then they lost to the Dolphins by 17, the worst division loss of Josh Allen’s career. No. We want to continue. The bruise so. This is, uh, and the fact that this, oh. Oh, he’s nice. Oh wow. Alright, alright, excellent. Well, one man is nice. There it is again. Uh, excellent as always. That’s right. Huge win for Miami is still going. I told you, man. Hey, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right. Whoa, just excellent as that’s OK, no timer. I told you we not. Look, it’s a rare win for the dogs. I know, they got great job, fellas, as always. We thought the break dancers were done for the year. No, yeah, compliment, always excellent. Good to see the break dancers. Back, yes, I love that the Dolphins are leaning into it, you know, just know your identity. That’s who you are. Yeah, that’s cool. That’s a cool dancing. Askdrew the question or else he’s not going to. Yeah. Oh, sorry, bro. Got it. Yesterday changed how you view the Bills, bro, yeah. No, really? No. Look. I know we’re supposed to be over the moon for every victory by a team and we’re supposed to be up in arms for every loss, but the fact is. The team that wins the Super Bowl. Probably might lose 5 games this year and they’re gonna lose some of those games to teams that are worse than them. Kansas City lost to Jacksonville. Philadelphia lost to the Giants that just fired their coach like. In the grands, this was a letdown loss by the Bills. Obviously they’re high coming off the win over Kansas City. Next week they got Tampa Bay, so they’re coming off a great win, probably looking forward to another, a tough game next week, and clearly took the Dolphins lightly. I don’t wanna take anything from the Dolphins. They played, you know, look, the fact that they’re still playing hard for Mike McDaniel, a little credit to him. That’s true. So that, that was good. But here, look, and the, the Bills are flawed. I mean they can’t stop the run. They’re the 3rd worst run defense in the league. Give up about 150 yards, fatal flaw. Yeah, I mean, that’s a pro and, and you’re, look, I’m not saying they’re the favorites. I, I don’t have them coming out of the AFC, but I’m saying I still do think they’re a contender because every other contender in the AFC has flaws. Indy, we talked Indy Daniel Jones is your quarterback until proven otherwise, we’re gonna doubt him. Kansas City has just been, they’ve been a mediocre team for by their standards this year. New England is young. The quarterback’s young. I mean that, that’s not a bad flaw to have, but that’s, that’s something you gotta see him do it, right? And the team is very young around him. They, they don’t have much experience, obviously, uh, Denver, no offense. The Chargers have their issues. Baltimore is trying to come out of a, a slumber. So I just think with the way the AFC is, I can’t say they’re not a contender, even though I don’t think they’re like a super duper team. But what about the fact That up until a few weeks ago. The Bills had been blown out once in like 5 years. And it was the famous game against your Ravens, 35 to 10. They had gone up until, again, a few weeks ago that we can show it to you. They had been beaten by more than, by double digits once in their previous 60 games. 60. And then it’s happened twice. And it’s by, uh, it’s one thing because you’re right, Drew, teams have bad losses. It’s pretty rare a non-competitive team just annihilates. And that’s what I considered last night from the jump, like a domination from start to finish. And so, and I know that, listen, I do want to cut the Bills slack as someone, I obviously have never played in the NFL, but I’m a big fan of the, I. Huge fan of a team and I even feel like a bit of an emotional like letdown after winning a Super Bowl. So I can’t imagine how the Bills feel after winning their Super Bowl last week. Um, and, you know, it’s like, man, we’ve got to play another game days later like that, wow. Well, that’s so weird. Like they didn’t even drive, went into the parade. It’s like, no, you got to go to Miami. Um, and I understand like clockwork, the way this is going to work is. The, the Bills are the scariest team. The Bills are the best team. Josh Allen’s playing the position at a higher level than anyone’s ever played it, and they lose a game because he turns the ball over a few times and it’s Joe Brady’s fault and he doesn’t have enough weapons. Like that will be the narrative arc. Like we know that. We know that Josh. has earned the right to be above criticism in a way like Patrick and Lamar certainly haven’t because Josh has won so much and has so much hardware. But one of the reasons that it is mildly more than, more than mildly concerning is. He’s kind of turning the ball over again. Without adding that explosive big play offense that like in the we show you the turnover numbers last year, they didn’t have the super explosive offense, but they didn’t turn the ball over. This year, again, the offense moves the ball because James Cook has been so dynamic, but they don’t have that quick strike offense they had a couple of years ago. But the turnovers are back and yesterday. It’s 16-0. Throws a pick in the end zone, and then when they’re fighting to come back, they have the sneak where he gets the, like, so that stuff is, again, they are still the team I would least like to play in the AFC because every play, right, no, no, no, they play right every playoff game we win, but they’re all close and that, so I, I’m not. I’m not acting like, oh, they’re a, they’re non, they’re a non-contender, but getting Buffalo doesn’t get blown out. And now Atlanta’s beat them soundly and Miami’s beaten them whistle to whistle. Well, look, we said other than the Chiefs win, they haven’t been that impressive even in a lot of their wins. The Saints gave them a little trouble. Miami the first time gave them a little trouble. We were outplayed by the Ravens and, you know, got the historic. Can I pitch something to you, brew? Um, Dust, can we show this air yards per target? Something that Brandon Beane said, this is average, uh, air yards per target, lowest. So the Bills have the lowest air yards. I mean, the Chargers still move the ball, um, and the Dolphins may that might be a, uh, it’s a two offense thing. It’s just no tire, yeah. So they, that’s the lowest in the league, right? So, I thought that Brandon Beane said, um, last week that, uh, you know what, he said, uh, I went home as mad as any other. I want to do things. I always wanted to do things to make this team better. At the same, so you can say that and at the same time, say, we’ve got enough. Like both of them can’t be true. So when it comes out that they were like dying to get Waddle, and the Dolphins just said no. To me, it’s an admission that they don’t have enough. It’s exactly. They clearly don’t a receiver. So if they don’t believe, I don’t know. Josh has to be, Josh has to be the guy that, that the media has sworn he is. That’s how it has. That is their path this year. It might not have been their path in years past when they had a great defense or when they had better weapons. But now the path is actually quite simple. They need Josh to be a superhero for January. I don’t think he’s got it. OK, well, that’s, but I’m saying that’s, that’s the way to get there, yeah. And, and every year that goes on, his running, as good as it is, it’s gonna get less and less. Uh, Bills host the Bucks next week. They could lose that one too. Well, said the Bucks are gonna lose. OK. Head to Minnesota. Uh, where the Ravens yet again held their opponents to under 20 points. Lamar was OK. Defense forced 3 turnovers. Uh, Ravens defense this season, Bre you called this one perfectly. 1st 5 games, 35 points, he said, you know what? It’ll turn around. The defense in their DNA. Trust me, the toys are in the garbage. I said, I don’t know. Last 4 games. With the 14.5 points, 3rd in the NFL behind the Rams and the Chiefs just for the last 4. You were 100% right. Dre, did you like what you saw, uh, in the Ravens Vikings game? That seems like a yes. The box. Thank you. Alright, Wild, yes, there is no robe in the box, but that’s progress. It has been taken out of the box. Where it’s no longer collecting dust in the box and it should be coming in soon. It has been sent to the dry cleaners. It has been pressed and starched. And it is just waiting for the right time for me to put it on. So when is that it’s going to probably be a few weeks. I, I have to feel it in my bones, in my soul when it’s time to put it on, but we are getting close, gentlemen. We are getting close and you feel it just like I do look. Yesterday, there were two things I loved about yesterday. One, the defense continued to play well, and I look, they gave up 19 points, shame on them, right? But that last, and I, I would bet Nick agrees with me though, I don’t know. That last touchdown that Minnesota scored, I thought Roquan Smith Smith intercepted that ball. Oh yeah, I thought that was a clean interception, and they overturned it, but that’s the drive that Minnesota scored its last touchdown on. So, so yeah, so they really probably gave up about 13 points, you know, like they have been for the last several games. And then the SEC, so the defense continued to play well, forced 3 turnovers for the second straight game. You know, playing, playing well, they gave up a lot of yards, but Ben don’t break is where they’re at right now. I think they’ll continue to improve. Second thing I liked was Lamar after the game, cause they, he was like the offense didn’t play well. You, you have to walk that fine line that I think that the offense, yes, I do agree. And, and, but, but I think you have to walk the fine line between, and Philly didn’t do this two years ago. Between we won but we didn’t play well and just killing yourself and now you’re down and you don’t even feel like you gotta win versus just accepting the win, we’re stacking wins, that’s important. It’s hard to win in this league against any of the 32 teams and acknowledging, but we have to get better. Like they still have a great mentality of it was a great win, we gotta stack these W’s, but the offense. Didn’t play that well. They were 2 and 5 in the RedZone, and that’s Nick. That is one thing. I mean, there, you know, the Ravens are getting back to themselves when, when one thing is great and something else, you know, kind of, but the, the RedZone with Derrick Henry, Patrick Ricard, and Lamar Jackson, you should not be struggle in the RedZone. They didn’t last year. This year they have been, so that’s something, but Good win. Lamar, that was the worst game Lamar’s played outside of a game against the Chiefs. Like the Chiefs, that’s the worst game he’s really played in a while, yeah. So, but they were fine and it was a good win against a decent team. So listen, the, they are in the, they win, Steelers lose. It’s an, it’s the greatest we can imaginable that, but, and people are gonna say I’m hating. I don’t care. I, I think Brew actually will agree with me. I. Last year, the mark of the Ravens was they annihilated good teams. They beat Buffalo by a million. They, they, Lamar had 5 touchdowns and they were up 4 scores on Tampa going into the 4th quarter. They beat Denver by 100. They beat Pittsburgh by late in the year by 20. They beat Houston like 31 to 2. Those are 5 playoff teams they unite. For me to feel like, OK, the Ravens, not only, uh, you know, can they catch Pittsburgh’s in one box? Are, you know, are they the team they were supposed to be coming into the year that’s dominant, leading Super Bowl contenders in another. I need to see that Ravens team come back, and we haven’t seen that yet. I’m not saying it’s not in there, but that was the mark of them last year. They would play good teams. And crushed them. And so this was to me an average team, and they, you know, they, they beat them soundly, but it wasn’t, it wasn’t, didn’t feel like the Ravens games. They left a lot on the board. Yeah. Uh, Lamar’s 100th game, he has the 123, 4th best all-time record. Mahomes Brady, Staubach, Lamar Jackson 7. And it’s the fewest interceptions ever for a quarterback after 100 games. Brian Dabball’s tenure in New York is over. The Giants lost to the Bears. They’re now 2-8. Daball loses his job. He went 9-7-1, won a playoff game. Coach of the Year 2022. Since then, 11-33. Nick, your reaction? Yeah, uh, multi-layered. First of all, I feel a little badly. I mean, it’s the first official scalp of the tackle that turned the tide. Oh my goodness. I mean, had the Giant had, you know, Mahomes not make that strip sack and the Giants win that game, Brian Dabel still the butterfly, right, exactly. And so there is that, um, I also think this is not complicated. He got 4 years, they were consistently awful. And you, you said it, but it’s a little more jarring than that. He started his head coaching career 7 and 2. After that His team went 13 and 38. So you win 7 out of your 1st 9, you then win 13 of your next 50, you’re in trouble. And I thought that maybe it could have the Jackson Dart D connection could have saved him, but I think he at times was his own worst enemy and he seemed to want it so bad and be so. tightly wound that whether it was running into the tent when Jackson got hurt or not being able to resist the, you know, angel on his shoulder as far as maybe cut back on the quarterback-driven runs with our lunatic rookie quarterback who leads with his head. Those things worked against him. And he had bad injury luck. So, you know, with neighbors and Scattabo and, and now Dart as well. So all those things come together. You started the last three years, 2 and 8, 2-13, 2 and 8. You’re just gonna get fired from anywhere. That’s not a New York thing. That’s just a, your record is what your record is thing. So that’s my reaction, coach. Yeah, I mean, I watched TV last year and I saw the GM talk about Saquon Barkley and I don’t need him. I mean, he’s OK, but, and the Eagle Eagles, they’re probably not gonna take him, so that happened, and then Saquan goes and has an MVP season. And they keep Daniel Jones, which makes a lot of sense because you know you wanna keep the quarterback, but then they don’t really have the offensive line in in position to protect him. I mean Daniel Jones could have fired char or filed charges against the Giants last year for how he got beat up game in and game out with that protection. So then they get rid of him. So now they’re eating the dead money on Daniel Jones, who they signed because they didn’t want to sign Saquon Barkley or they couldn’t do both, and then they let him go and now he’s tearing it up in. In Indianapolis, so you wonder, you know, are these coaching all coaching errors, are they personnel errors because then you’ve got to go replace the running back, you’ve gotta replace the quarterback, you’ve got to replace all those different. Different elements and, and I, you know, I spent some time at, at camp this, this, um, offseason and Brian’s a very good coach. He was coach of the Year and, and he can, he can obviously, uh, do that at a very high level. It didn’t work out. The injuries didn’t work out, and we all know going into it that at some point we’re gonna get fired. Everybody gets fired from these jobs. Very few guys get a chance to, to leave on their own terms. So I’m sure he’s disappointed. I’m happy that he has a year and a half left. On his contract, you can go spend some nice quality time with your family, relax, uh, decompress, and then, you know, do whatever else he wants to do. Yeah, I mean, like, like Nick, you said, it’s just a case of the record. I mean, when your, your record is what it is, 2040 and 1 overall with the Giants, you’re, you’re gonna get fired. And then I think coach, the nature of the losses recently, like the blowing those huge leads, the 44 double digit leads. In losses on the road that they had and then 2, they became only the 2nd team since the merger to lose 2 games where you led by 10 or more points with 4 minutes left. And that was all within these 1st 10 games. So, I just think that, that, that might be why it happened now because it was looking so bad and then I do think seeing Dark get the concussion yesterday, whether it was right or wrong, I think some of that ownership probably put on Brian. Uh, just because you’re, he’s not sliding, you’re putting him in these runs, and he’s, you know, clearly just getting beat up and stuff, you know, I don’t totally buy that. We watched Lamar Jackson run all the time. We watched Drake May, we, we watch quarterback after quarterback. Josh Allen put themselves at rest and the guy got a concussion, which happens. But to then say, oh well, maybe you should tone down the runs a little bit yesterday Caleb Williams ended in for a like it’s happening every single week, way more than I think it should happen. Like I don’t think you should put quarterbacks at risk like they do, but it’s, it’s very common across the league to me it’s, it’s the organization hasn’t been very successful in a long time. And you know some of that may be coaching, some of it may be a little bit more, a little bit deeper ingrained in the way that they’re set up. Yeah, I think they, I think they also probably hold the Daniel Jones thing against him too, and not necessarily right or wrong. I think they’re looking at it like we had this guy for all these years and now he goes to India and he’s cooking. Can I say just real quick and I’m very interested. I know you’re saying take the year and a half or at least some time with his family, and God bless him if he does. I’m really interested how this news landed on the Buffalo Bills’ doorstep this morning and whether, whether it’s an informal consultancy, maybe you can’t do that, maybe that undermines. Joe Brady too much. But if, if, if the way you feel about the Bills is correct, that this team is, has a hard ceiling this year, I wonder what that offseason conversation. Yeah, Brian would do it, it’d be a great fit, and Brian’s from Buffalo. His, that’s where his family, and Josh Allen’s became the player he is in Buffalo. Yeah, and I, and, and I think Brian has the type of personality where he wouldn’t go in and try to disrupt the things they’re doing. He’d try to go in and win as many games as he possibly could. They could also just come back to New England maybe. I’ll just be a consultant. Yeah, pretty good. Josh and he have been great friends. He coached with Raves. He’d be a great, he’d be another great. Well, at this point, the, the Chiefs just pay him not to work. What are we doing? Higher? Can you call Brian Dabball so we can book his schedule. Uh, we’re gonna head to, uh, Chargers Pittsburgh. Never good to have a passer rating slightly older than your QB. Aaron Rodgers, 41, passer rating 51, scored 10 points for the Steelers, 2 for the Chargers. Steelers lose. OK, here’s the numbers. Completion percentage, 51, passer rating, uh, 50 yards per pass. This, the whole thing was bad. You get it. Nick, how would you assess Rodgers’ performance? Old and whiny. Oof, tough combo, which again, he hasn’t, he’s been good this year for the majority of the year, as, as good as a 40 year old not named Tom Brady has ever played, honestly, like they, so credit where it’s due. But I thought, When it was 3-2 Pittsburgh, the body language was a disaster. And this isn’t like LeBron James, is he or is he not clapping on the sideline game one body language stuff. This is scowling, pouting, you know, yelling at teammates, and I, I mean, we can show you the rip of it. Like, you saw it all game long from the very beginning. I thought you saw Rodgers yelling at clearly was out of sorts to a degree. And then you also saw, so that’s the whiny part, and the old part is this play when he does the pirouette, which, listen. I, I wouldn’t want to get hit either. But, but I’m not playing quarterback and you just, That you can’t, you’re not gonna win that way. And I, I feel, I, I’m not doubting Aaron Rodgers’ toughness. I’m not doing any of that. I’m a guy wearing makeup on TV. But uh, but, but, but by, but from what we expect from starting quarterbacks, you got to stand in there and take the hit. And so, and we’ve, we’ve seen. You know, Peyton kind of patented the self sack. The, before, once he realizedlay was dead, he’d go down late in his career. Tom was the best quarterback I’ve ever seen at just not getting hit. The best I’ve ever seen. Aaron didn’t have to really develop those traits because he was so escapable compared to those guys. Now he’s not. And it just looked like an old player that didn’t want to get hit yesterday. It was one of the worst performances of his 21 year career, I would say, in the red, yeah, I mean, he missed some open guys. I mean, he said guys weren’t getting open. There were several guys that were wide open, and he just missed them, and I think all of it is stemming from it. He had the two interceptions that were bad. Like it’s all stemming from his. Fear of, uh, fears of, but he doesn’t wanna get hit like you said. Like I think coach, he’s trying to get rid of that thing so quickly so he doesn’t get hit. The spin move is obviously I don’t wanna get hit, and I think that’s messing with his mechanics and his footwork and everything. So that’s where his accuracy is and what it used to be. Look, he’s been good this year, and I’m not saying he can’t be, he won’t be good going forward, but yesterday. I thought his not wanting to get hit controlled that game, and he really didn’t even give him a chance in that game because of the way he played. Well, I, I’ve talked about this a lot. When you have an old team and, and you know, the Steelers have the oldest defense and now the oldest quarterback, when you get to the midseason, the young team. Teams that they’re taking off because those guys obviously are, are better equipped, you know, to, to, to do that and the older teams, they’re getting injured more often. There’s a much more wear and tear on the body from years and years of playing all that stuff adds up and, and this is a classic example of an older guy in the middle of the season. And this time period before Thanksgiving, it’s, it’s a real drain. You’ve been playing football for a long time. You still have half of the season to go. It’s pretty easy to be looking forward and be like there’s no end, no light at the end of the tunnel, and, and you’re gonna get some games like this, and I’d say you don’t play until you’re 40. Unless you’re willing to avoid hits, unless you’re willing to, to not be play hero ball, that’s, that’s why he’s still in a uniform when so many other guys aren’t. So Rodgers after the game says there’s ebbs and flows and we can’t ride the wave. He’s been kind of consistent on that. But this game against the Bengals coming up, I’m very interested to see. Simmons mentioned this. Are we about to get a stretch of washed Rodgers? Was this just a blip like every quarterback like Lamar had? Oh, a bad game. Or he’s like, uh oh, this guy always got old. Is that their next game? Next game is the Bengals. So you should light up be able to play well against. I think you’re gonna probably get kind of tepid Rodgers until we get close to the end of the season, then you maybe get a little bit of a blip.

The New England Patriots beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 28-23, and are now 8-2. Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes ask how far the Patriots can go, if the Buffalo Bills are in trouble after losing 30-13 to the Miami Dolphins, and if the Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson are officially back after beating the Minnesota Vikings 27-19. Plus, they react to the New York Giants firing Brian Daboll and the poor performance of Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Los Angeles Chargers.

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Nick Wright, Chris Broussard, and Kevin Wildes team up on First Things First. The trio offers their take on a bevy of sports stories alongside special guests from across the sports world.

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