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Reaction: NFL Week 5 + College Week 6 · Unicorn Football Talk

• Emily: Unicorn Football Talk is back to react to the NFL week five and the full college slate of week six I will tell you, Hillary, I had a really hard time picking topics this week. We always try to keep this show tight and short if possible, quick hits, but there was so much I wanted to talk about. Hilary: Yeah, me too. Let's get started. Emily: All right, let's start where we always start with the NFL and who is left as unbeaten and only beaten, I guess is the way I would frame it. So Hilary: Right. Emily: yeah, so for the unbeatons, we have three left. The Chiefs were on a bye, so nobody could beat them. They are four and still. they are gonna meet the Chargers this weekend. which we'll get to in a second. the Vikings are five and pretty impressive. Their next up is the Colts, but they have a bye. And then the Forty Niners, unfortunately, are still unbeaten. The last unbeaten at five and and they are playing the Commanders this weekend or next Monday. Hilary: Okay. I hadn't even really taken into account that we were going to have teams on bye weeks from this point forward. So that throws a little bit of a wrinkle in the schedules as to who's got who next week. Emily: Yeah, I can't believe we're already to the point where people can have buys. all right, so we have three teams that have not won a game. the Dolphins are still winless, beaten by the Bengals this past weekend. They are playing the Jets, so there's some hope for them this weekend. The Chargers unfortunately have to play the Chiefs this weekend. So I don't know. I don't know if there's hope for them. And then the final team is the Titans. There's a possibility that they could go winless the whole season. They looked pretty bad and inept last weekend and they are playing the Colts this weekend. Hilary: Okay, I have to say I've been following, who's beaten and unbeaten, but I have not seen the Titans play this season yet. You don't give me a lot of inspiring reason to tune in to a game anytime soon, but it does surprise me a little bit that we still have a few unbeat a few teams without a win. Emily: Yeah, I read a article this morning that the Titans coach Robert Sala had to confirm that yes, Cam Ward, thank you, will Hilary: Ward. Yes. Emily: still be starting for them. So I'm guessing Cam is not having a great season. I only saw them on red zone not looking good this past weekend, but to be beaten that badly. by another team that didn't have any wins. Although I would say the Texans are a good team, but that's who they lost to last weekend. Hilary: Okay, next up. Emily: All right, next up, let's talk about QB injury updates. Caleb Williams is still out for the Bears. I think it's still TBD if he'll play this weekend. Tyler, wait, is it Tyler? Last name Badget played, and boy, did they lose big last weekend to Green Bay. So I'm sure that Chicago is eager to get Caleb Williams back. Jameis Winston, Still playing for the Giants and will be all season unless he's surplanted by JJ McCarthy or somebody else. Baker Mayfield still out. Jalen Daniels started last week and beat Dallas. So that was good for them. Undrafted rookie. Hilary: Right. Well, I'm gonna cover that in a little bit. Emily: Okay. Lamar Jackson was out for Sunday night football, but Tyler Huntley came through in overtime and won that game as a backup. And then the my final one, Michael Penix, unfortunately, in that same game, Atlanta was playing Baltimore, was hurt on the last drive and was out for overtime. Tua Tungabailoa came in and threw an interception in OT to seal their fate. I did read that Penix had said that if the Falcons had gotten the first possession of overtime that he probably would have played, but I think the pain was just getting to him too much after sitting on the bench and he sat out. Hilary: That's a rib injury, I believe. Emily: It is. The Falcons are optimistic that he will be back this weekend, but we will know more on Wednesday. All right. So it was really hard for me to pick what caught my eye, but two big games jumped out at me. I watched the London game very early in the morning on the West Coast. It was the Jaguars and Eagles. That was one of those games that Jacksonville really should have run away with, in my opinion. They were trying to keep the Eagles in the game, apparently. I don't know. They they had 13 penalties for a hundred yards. And the end was an exciting finish. The Jacksonville backup long snapper was playing in the game and did not have a good game. There were several high snaps. One of them caused them to miss a point after, and Hilary: there's a backup long snapper? Is that a roster position? someone must know how to do it, but like that right? Emily: Think every no. I mean, every if the long snapper can't go, every team will have somebody that can take those snaps, but it's not ideal. That is a specialty for a reason. but the extra point meant it was a two-point game late, with 12 seconds remaining in the game. The Eagles kicked a 48-yard field goal to put Philadelphia ahead 17 to 16, eight seconds left. So it's over, right? The game's over. No. No. Hilary: Nope, don't don't bet against Trevor Lawrence. Emily: The game is not over. So the Eagles opted not to kick out of the end zone, and they gave the Jaguars an opportunity to run the ball back. And they did. They ran 53 yards back. left one second on the clock and gave the Jaguars kicker an opportunity to nail the 57 yard field goal to win. Shocking. I mean it was just shocking because everybody thought it was over, you know, with eight seconds left. And so when you say Trevor Lawrence, Trevor Lawrence never touched the ball and they won the game. Hilary: That's true. That's Cam Little, right? Their kicker, I believe. Emily: Cam Little's their kicker. And I think there were a ton of Eagles fans at that game that were very loud. So Cam Little, after he hits that game winner, he runs to the end zone where all the fans are and he starts taunting them. That was just kind of a fun moment to watch. Quite the scene. Hilary: Wow. Emily: So I do know the Jags will be in London again and they're flying a long snapper over to England for this weekend. I don't know who they signed. So good luck to them. Hilary: Okay, wait, so the Jaguars have two London games in a row. Emily: Yeah. Yeah, they're staying over there. Hilary: Okay. I guess maybe hopefully they have a little time off to take in the sights between games, maybe. I Emily: I don't know. Hilary: don't know. I it does make sense to stay though. I wouldn't fly home and fly back either. Emily: Yeah, they play there every year, so they've probably seen all the sites already, All right. And then this is the one I'm really excited to talk about. So for your consideration, Hillary, I know you didn't see all the games that maybe I saw on Red Zone, I wanna talk to you about the Giants Commander's overtime tie game, which I will suggest might be the worst clock management I have ever seen in my life. And that's saying something. I mean, I have watched a lot of football. So let me break it down for you. Hilary: Okay, 'cause I did not see this one. Emily: So Washington and Giants, they're in overtime with fifty-five seconds left on the clock. And Washington has the ball on the twenty six yard line. And so just imagine that. Fifty well Hilary: You're gonna score. That's the goal. Emily: You're at least gonna try to kick a field goal. You have fifty five seconds Hilary: Rap. Emily: left. The clock is not running at this point, and you're on the twenty six. You are at least gonna get a field goal attempt in. Am I right? Nope. Hilary: yeah. Couple plays couple plays and the field goal. No, no. Emily: Nope, they didn't, they didn't get a field goal attempt. They ran out of time. So Hilary: What? Emily: yes. So with 55 seconds left, they ran a play, a run play. They went two yards. Okay, no problem. 55 seconds. That's a ton of time. And then they were casually like huddling up and then calling the play. And then they snap their next play with twelve seconds left. And it's not a pass out of bounds. It's not a quick run, get up to the line, spike the ball. The QB scrambles, they lose a yard, and they're just laying on the ground. And then they're like, wait, we're running out of time. They jump up and they go to the line and it's too late. They can't even snap the ball. They can't clock it. Hilary: So okay, so who's playing quarterback? Emily: Daniels. So Jaden but Daniels is back for the commanders and he is just casual for this entire three plays or Hilary: Okay, so is that on Jaden or is that on the coaching staff? It seems like there should be some basic game situational awareness here by somebody. Emily: Blame everybody, Hillary. I mean, number one, the head coach, that that just can't happen at all. You're the head coach. But the offensive coordinator, Jaden Daniels, all three of them to me bear almost the same amount of responsibility, maybe with the head coach with the most, in my opinion, but that's how I look at it. Hilary: Wow, that sounds like that was a heck of a end to the game. it's a tie and it's a tie now, right? Like I mean Emily: It was. It's a tie. Yeah, there's no excuse. No excuse. All right. I could talk forever about that one, but I will move on. I'll move on. So one Hilary: Moving on. Emily: one more item that caught my eye this week that I really want to talk about before I hand off to you. The Cardinals are trading or have traded. I think they're still pending a physical Marvin Harrison Jr. What a surprising disappointment for the Cardinals. He was a top 10 draft pick in 2024. And he's not the first top 10 draft pick to be traded from 2024. We talked about J.J. McCarthy a couple weeks ago. but now Hilary: Right. Emily: Marvin Harrison. he has had a disappointing season and obviously career there, but in four games, he had just five catches for 85 yards. and one touchdown. He was supposed to be this stud, wide receiver, talent and just nothing. Hilary: Yeah, it'll be interesting to see for him with a fresh start if he breaks loose and has the kind of career that everyone was expecting for him. in other words, was the Cardinals franchise holding him back? I don't know. Emily: I was a little surprised to see Houston trade for them. they're one in four. are they really in a position to be trading away draft picks for a talent? I don't know. they are a good team. Maybe they still believe in the talent that they have and that that's just are off to a rough start. anyway. Hilary: Okay, that does put that does put CJ Stroud and Harrison back together, they're former teammates, correct? Emily: That is correct from Ohio State. So that'll be fun to watch. all right. Well I will hand off to you for what caught your eye for NFL week five. Hilary: Okay, what caught my eye this week? First of all, the NFL lost a legend in the passing of Mike Ditka this week. I wanted to touch on him briefly. He was a Hall of Fame tight end. He played on the Bears nineteen sixty-three championship team. And he later returned to coach the Bears from nineteen eighty two to nineteen ninety two. And that ten years was a period of dominance for Chicago. They had seven postseason appearances. And that includes their only Super Bowl win in nineteen eighty five. he passed of natural causes peacefully and he was eighty six. So Emily: Thanks for bringing that up. I was a big Bears fan in eighty five. That's what got me into football actually. It was such a fun team to watch. So thank you. Hilary: Yeah, of course. and then moving on just really quick to a couple of things that I saw this week. I did watch the Thursday night football game where the Bucks took down Dallas twenty-four to sixteen. And gosh, I sure wouldn't have predicted that score. The Bucks getting their first win, on the road in Dallas and Dallas drops to two wins, three losses. the Bucks starting quarterback, as you mentioned earlier, was Jalen Daniels, and he was efficient. he was 19 of 25 for 189 yards, one touchdown, and his QB rating was 100. That's decent, not bad. I so I think he gave a solid performance as a backup. Bucky Irving lit it up. He had 21 carries for 165 yards. And The Bucks defense looked solid in this game. So they're getting better. Dallas is getting worse. Not sure. Dak looked flustered and out of sync all night. He was 24 of 42, 315 yards, one TD, two interceptions, and a QB rating of 69. Dallas had a total of 50 yards rushing, so no run game there. And their defense just could not. get a stop and get the Bucks off the field. So yeah. Emily: Love it. That was fun. Hilary: I don't I didn't look to see who's up next for them, but disappointing start to the season in Dallas for sure. And probably a disappointing start for Tampa as well. And then my other game was the Ravens Falcons where the Ravens came in back in overtime to win it on Sunday night football. And as you mentioned, QB Tyler Huntley did a good job. he led a late fourth quarter drive for 71 yards and a score and Derrick Henry took the snap for the two-point conversion to tie it up and send it to OT. The Ravens got the ball first and scored to go up 30-23 and then went to a through the interception. That was the end of the game. So that wrapped that one up. Disappointingly for the Falcons, I think that the Falcons played a good game. Emily: They did. that was a great game. I thought they were gonna win it in regulation and I was almost ready to turn it off. I don't know why. I just had a feeling they would win and but it was an exciting finish to get them to overtime. Hilary: Yeah, yeah. All right. Moving on to college. Emily: All right. We've got to talk about college. We have to. We gotta save time for college. What a weekend. we can't cover it all, or I can't. it was really hard for me to pick. We've got great games. We have Bama losing to Georgia, Texas losing to Oklahoma, Oregon losing. in a game that I circle DUCLA. But if I had to pick one Hillary, I had to call out the LSU Kentucky game because you know how much I hate Lane Kiffin. And I picked LSU as a team to root against this season in another episode. This game was exciting and it it's an overtime game. I love when games go to overtime, limits. LSU scored a touchdown in overtime. And now it's Kentucky's turn, right? In college, everyone gets a turn Kentucky scores a touchdown and what do they do? Well the safe thing would be to kick the extra point and go at it again, but no, they go for two. And they get it. And what's interesting too, you may remember, is that this is the second week in a row that Kentucky has gone to overtime and goes for two for a win. Hilary: Has that ever happened before? that's gotta be some kind of record, right? two overtime wins two weeks in a row with the two point conversion. Emily: I don't remember anything like that. people go for two more nowadays than they used to. So we might see more of that, but that's gotta be a first. But what a scene that was in Lexington. And the coach of Kentucky, Will Stein, saw game day where everybody picked LSU to win and he took a picture of it. And he was just like, Everybody keep doing that. It just gives us a lot of fuel. Just keep picking the other team. And I just want to throw in my little two cents too. As a fan of a team who's in the SEC, I will tell you that everybody expects to beat Kentucky. You just don't expect to lose to Kentucky. So not only is the loss hard for Kiffin, because it gives him two losses in the SEC, I think it hurts more when it's little old Kentucky that beats you. Hilary: Okay, well, I watched that game too, and the very ending of it was absolutely crazy, right? The fans are flooding the field, students are coming over the wall, just a chaotic mess on the field there. So I came across a little tidbit that I thought you might find interesting. So when the Kentucky students stormed the field after the wind, they violated An SEC conference policy called access to competition area, meaning that the LSU players and staff hadn't had a chance to make it off the field to the locker room before the field storming. So Kentucky was fined five hundred thousand dollars for that field storming. And not only that, but based on a rule change last season, that money goes to LSU. Emily: I did not know that. Hilary: So hey students, stay in the stands until after the opponent gets to the locker room. Otherwise you're paying them money. Emily: Wow. I don't Hilary: Wow. Emily: blame them. In that moment I would have stormed a failed too. Beating Kiffin is special, but that's really good to know. Hilary: That's a hefty fine. That is a hefty fine. Okay. So other exciting games. I'm a big fan of the Red River rivalry, which is Oklahoma, Texas. And in that one, Oklahoma wins it in a walk-off field goal by Tate Sandel at 47 yards. That one also super crazy at the end. there were all kinds of social media of the Oklahoma fans and students with the Double horns down. anyway. Lots of tr lots of tr Emily: It yeah, that's a big rivalry. Hilary: that is a huge rivalry. Florida State, Louisville. Florida State lost 29 to 44. They blew a 14 to nothing lead. Louisville made a critical stop on fourth and goal and never looked back. The Louisville Cardinals finished with five hundred and thirty-seven yards, including three hundred and ninety-seven on the ground, and that was with their top Rusher on the sideline due to injury for the entire game. So I called out Coach Norvell on the hot seat for his job in the preseason. And I think this loss doesn't help. FSU has now lost 13 straight away from their home stadium. And they Emily: Whoa. Hilary: yeah, that's a long streak there. And they are headed to Miami next week. So Emily: that doesn't look good. Hilary: that does not look good. So much chaos in football this weekend. I absolutely love it. Four unranked teams pulled off the upset. Oklahoma and Kentucky, we talked about, but South Carolina beat number sixteen Florida and North Carolina took down number twenty-six pit. So I woke up on Sunday, waited anxiously for the AP poll to come out and see where everyone had reshifted to. Oregon lost to UCLA and they are no longer ranked. That was a nice way to start my afternoon with a smile. But speaking of the AP, biggest risers and fallers this week, the risers, UCLA is up nine positions, Kentucky's up 11, Wake Forest up six, and your alma mater Northwestern was up five positions to enter the poll at number 25. So congrats on that. Emily: Aww That's nice. Hilary: And yeah. And then the biggest fallers this week, Texas was down six spots, LSU dropped twelve spots, and Oregon dropped out. So wow, right? Emily: Wow, Oregon's been in the AP poll for so long, it seems like. Hilary: Yeah, yeah. our list of FBS unbeaten teams is down to nine. It was fifteen last week. So the remaining teams are Georgia, Notre Dame, Miami, Indiana, Utah, UCLA, BYU, Texas Tech, and James Madison. hey, James Madison, JMU. Current coach, Billy Napier from University of Florida, former coach, Bob Chesney, UCLA. They're undefeated. JMU's coach before that, Kirk Signati, Indiana. Undefeated. So something good's going on at JMU. And I actually had to look it up. They are in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and I didn't know that. Emily: But you mentioned unbeatons. I did not hear your bison in that list. What happened with them? Hilary: Sadly, the North Dakota State Bison took their first loss to UNLV over the weekend. So I am hoping they will be back next week with a win. Emily: I'm sorry to hear that. Okay. Well, let's Hilary: It's okay. Emily: let's wrap up and talk about what we're circling. I circled one college and one NFL to talk about. Let's talk about college. Hilary: You bet. Emily: there's several interesting games this weekend, but the one I'm most interested in is Notre Dame BYU. I have not seen either of these teams play this year. And everyone talks about how great Notre Dame is. They're number two in the polls and So I would like to see if they're for real. So I'm gonna watch that one. What about you? Hilary: Okay. Well, I'm gonna give that one a double circle because that is number two Notre Dame against number eight BYU. And that is also two teams both on the current unbeaten list. So someone's gonna take a loss this weekend. other games of interest. Ohio State is at Indiana, Mississippi State is at LSU, Alabama is at Tennessee. Missouri is at Ole Miss and Oklahoma State is at Houston. And those are all ranked team versus ranked team games. So yeah, lots Emily: Wow. Big weekend. Hilary: go big weekend. Let's hope it's as exciting as this one. Emily: Yeah. and Go Valls. I'm pulling pulling for you against Bama. Okay. Ca had to get that in. All right. So, it's yes, Bama week for me. All right. So NFL. I looked at all the games. Bears Falcons is really intriguing to me. I don't know if Caleb will be back, but if Caleb's back, and assuming Penix is starting, I think this game is very intriguing. Caleb Williams is such a talented quarterback. They they've had a little bit of an up and down record, but to see him come back will be interesting. And then Penix, the Falcons have been so good since Penix has been back. I know they lost on Sunday night football, but they could have easily won and and he's been looking great. So I'm really hoping that they're both back and that that'll be a good game. What about you? Hilary: Okay, I'm gonna check out the Ravens at the Browns. This is a divisional matchup, and we'll see if Lamar is back and the Ravens can build on the momentum from their win this past week while they're on the road. And then Cleveland needs to rebound from that loss to the Jets. That was not good. And one thing I'm watching with Cleveland is the development of Denzel Boston. He's a former University of Washington player who I really enjoy watching play. And he's a primary target for Deshaun Watson. He's a big play threat. And right now he's averaging over twenty yards a catch. And that's at the top of the league. that's up there with Jamar Chase and CeeDee Lamb and others. So interesting to see how that plays out. Emily: That's a good one. All right. Thanks, Hillary. This is a really fun wrap up. looking forward to talking to you next week. Hilary: Looking forward to talking to you too, Emily. Unicorn Football Talk.