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NFL WEEK 5 RECAP: Bad Coaching, Game of the Week & Midseason Panic! 🚨 · Know Your Personnel Pod

• Nathan Hawthorne: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of KYP. My name's Nathan Hawthorne. This is my co-host Jared McEnroy, bringing you a week five breakdown of the NFL. And this is the best part. We've seen a great sample size of some football this year, and it's been a weird NFL season so far. But the good news is we can break down coaches already on the hot seat. We can take a look potentially at some MVPs. We can look at what team is ascending into that Super Bowl bubble, what teams are falling way out of the Super Bowl bubble and what teams just probably need to, I don't know, maybe give it up and stop playing in the NFL. We will see. But Jared, where do you want to start today? I know we got a lot. Maybe we should just keep it simple for the folks on the line. Just break down a little bit of week five. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, I mean let's jump into the game of the week. Before we get into that, you did just say some teams shouldn't even be in the NFL. Are you suggesting they go to the CFL? Should they be Nathan Hawthorne: I I Jarod McInroy: demoted? Should we be you know, sending teams down to a separate league kinda like they do in in the Premier League Nathan Hawthorne: yeah. Yeah, and and pr we do. I mean, we've got the UFL, right? Or UFL XFL, I'm not even sure what it's called anymore. Imagine Jarod McInroy: Who knows? Nathan Hawthorne: if you could get relegated. Your team could get relegated. How crazy would that be? Jarod McInroy: Let's start with the game of the week. It was forty niners at Seahawks. A little bit of a weird game, in a lot of ways. One being let's just talk about the play before we get into the weird calls and the different stuff. the Seahawks played awful, frankly, and they still almost won the game. San Francisco only had one drive of seventy four yards and they ended up scoring a touchdown on that, and then they had one drive of forty three yards. where they scored a field goal. The next longest drive was for only 18 yards the rest of the game. You only had two successful drives the entire game. and then they got a touchdown on that after an interception, and then they had an eleven yard touchdown drive after a fumble from George Helani. What do we take from this? The Seahawks defense is still incredible, but you were just talking about complimentary football last week, and we pretty much chalk that up as the reason they had lost to the commanders as well. so that's something Nathan Hawthorne: Mm-hmm. Jarod McInroy: where this this offense really needs to get back on track. They look disjointed. Frankly, Sam Darnold doesn't really look comfortable. Their offensive line, which is typically pretty good, d hasn't really looked great. I think we can chalk it up also to not having good running back play. So again we talked about canine's contract looks pretty good right about now. but maybe it's time to go Go trade for somebody like we had said already. One of these teams with a good running back, that might be the Indianapolis Colts and who has Jonathan Taylor might be w willing to get rid of him. And I think that would be the perfect fit for him. But they need a premiere back, and honestly, hats off to the 49ers because at when you're playing a good team like the Seahawks who just won a Super Bowl, you're playing it at Seattle where their fan base is incredible. it's really hard to play there. You scored when they messed up. You scored touchdowns too, not field goals. You scored two touchdowns Nathan Hawthorne: Big time. Jarod McInroy: when they handed them to you. That is how you win a football game. turn one of them into just a field goal instead of a touchdown, they lose the game. so capitalize when your enemy makes a mistake and they did. So sometimes it's just win at all costs and they did it. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, and listen, the Niners are a team that are they're gonna gut out a game like that. And this is one thing, when I was breaking down this game, I've realized that Shanahan and Purdy have some of the most continuity, specifically those two in the NFL. You look across all the quarterbacks that have been, you know, moved on and replaced, and coaches moved on and replaced outside of Mahomes and Andy Reid. I'm not sure who else is close in terms of the continuity. So in those sort of games, when the situation gets tight. Shanahan knows exactly what Brock can do. Brock knows exactly what he can do and what Shanahan's gonna call. So when you have those turnovers right at the doorstep, we're we're walking away with touchdowns. And the Seahawks did a great job bottling, I think, Christian McCaffrey, but also, like you pointed out, there wasn't a need for sustained drives for the San Francisco 49ers. And when they tried, they really couldn't get anything going. So you mentioned the points off a turnover. Seahawks had 21, the Niners had 14, like So they still did their thing when they got the turnovers generated, you know, by that Hawks defense. But turning the ball over at the doorstep, I mean, there there's just nothing that you can do against a team like the C like the like the San Francisco forty niners. They're gonna be able to score the football. you talked about the run game for the Seahawks, which I thought was going to look better this week. You know, we know Emmanuel Wilson's a downhill runner. I thought that that was gonna be a a key piece this week. And obviously, you know, between him and Helani, you know Just coughing up the football. And then you've got the interceptions from Sam Darnold. It's hard to be consistent on offense. I think we're starting to see the missing link of Clint Kubiak. Cause you get again four or five weeks into the NFL season, there's film on you. So whatever Brian Brian Fleury had dialed up for the first couple of weeks, you know, between Darnold and Drew Locke, teams are starting to kind of cue in on that. For some reason, they still can't stop Jackson Smith and Jigba. He's gonna get his. But if that's all you have. Then what are you gonna do? To run the game to run the ball well in the NFL, you need at least two of the three of these three things. You either need to have a great running back and a great scheme. You need to have a great scheme and a good O line or a good O line and good running back. And those three things, if you can just have two of them, you're gonna have a lot of success. We were able to see for a number of years, you got Saquon Barkley behind the Eagles O-line. The scheme, let's be honest, wasn't great, but that O-line was huge and physical. And Saquon Barkley is one of the best backs. And now you see Kenneth Walker behind the Chiefs O-line, which has struggled this year, especially to protect Pat. But Kenneth Walker makes up for so much of the bad blocking with his patience and his moves. You can see the Seahawks missing that right now. the ability to take a three yard loss and turn it into a four yard gain. They don't have that on the field right now. It's putting a lot of pressure on Sam Darnold. Long way to say, this was an ugly game for both teams. I still this is crazy to say. I still feel coming out of this like the Seahawks are the better team, but the Niners are undefeated. And right now, there's a couple more wins on their schedule before Minnesota comes to town. This team could easily be nine and So You know, I I can't say incredible game. An incredible watch, you know, that came down to the wire. Very questionable play call there for Cooper Cup at the end. But you know, I don't think either team is going into today feeling superb about it. maybe the Niners just a little bit more 'cause they obviously have the win and you did it in Seattle. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. And typically I would fry the Seahawks for not throwing that ball past the sticks. However, that was simply Sam Darnold had no other option. No one was available, and it's try and let somebody who's supposed to be a playmaker on your team make a play. he did, he made a great move. Seahawks fans need to chill. I don't think it was a first down by the definition of a first down. I I know that this is one of those gray area things where it's like if if you cross out of bounds but your body's in bounds from my understanding is let's say it was a catch, right? it w it wasn't like him reaching for it. His two feet are in bounds, catches the ball out of bounds. There's another similar play. This is why I bring this up, where people Nathan Hawthorne: Mm-hmm. Jarod McInroy: said, Okay, well it was a catch, whatever. You still spot it where the feet are, not the ball are if the ball is out of bounds, right? That's the rule. So I feel like for if you're stretching for a first down it's the s It's kind of the same thing, right? If you don't hit the pylon and you miss the pylon, then you don't get the touchdown. It's the same idea for a first down line. So, since the ball was entirely out of bounds before he crossed that first down mark, I I think it was the right call. I it's kind of it's just one of those things where we c we can't we can't let it come down to that. I know it's that's how the game played out, but you know what, while we're on this topic I don't want to go too far and we don't even do much college football here. Let me rip into Calen DeBore for one second. If anybody who blames any player for he yells at his player for making a boneheaded mistake, he hits the guy right, and then he comes off the field and he yells at him and says, You just cost us the game. Anybody Nathan Hawthorne: He did. Jarod McInroy: who's ever played any sport ever knows that one play does not cost you the game. If you are in that situation, it is your fault. There's yes, it it was a boneheaded mistake, he shouldn't have done it, whatever. Same deal. We can't blame the refs for this one play. There's a million plays that happened right before it that can help determine whether you win or lose a game. So yes, it wasn't a great call. Calen DeBore, you suck, Alabama sucks. But regardless, it was a it was just a another way of saying You can't you can't blame it all on the one play. They they had plenty of chances. They turned the ball over. if they want to beat the forty niners down the stretch, in the playoffs, anything like that, they gotta come out with a lot better stuff. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. And bringing this back to college football, speaking about turnovers and it coming down to the final play, University of Oregon turns over the ball six times. I'm a big duck fan. You just hand it to him and then you want to complain about a half yard difference in the spot and be upset that you didn't get the two point conversion when you couldn't do anything on offense all day. Like, come on now. Let's let's have some pride and act like that that that didn't change the game. However, I will push back on the K I will I Jarod McInroy: A lot of crying about one play. Nathan Hawthorne: will push back on the Kalen DeBoer piece and and here's why. It's not about what he was saying about him costing the game. The idea is you are holding your team accountable. And so I don't care what you say as a coach, it doesn't matter how great the player is and how how big the mistake was, you have to hold them accountable. And you have to let people know that you're not afraid to undress a player for making a boneheaded mistake while that individual play in the moment didn't cost the game, makes it significantly harder for your team to To win the game, right? I've been in a locker room, cat's out of the bag, I played college football, wasn't great. We lost a lot of games. But I would have died to have that level of accountability. You know, if you want to talk about having zero accountability or something. Right. And if you want to win football games, if you want to Yeah, if you want to win football, if you Jarod McInroy: Yeah, some people like it, some people don't. National TV with your guy coming at ya. I d I don't know, man. Nathan Hawthorne: want to win football games at the highest level, there's this thing called ash Jarod McInroy: He's not. Nathan Hawthorne: there's this thing called ash chewing that Nick Saban talks about. You know, never follow up a legend, by the way. But sometimes You just have to chew somebody out. Sometimes sometimes you just have to. Sometimes you just have to. Kaelin DeBoore's winning plenty of games, but we're gonna move on from the Seahawks again. Jarod McInroy: He's not winning a lot of games. But here we are. Here we are. Regardless, the whole point of this the whole the whole point of this being, we can't we can't bring it all down to one one play. sometimes there's a lot of things within a game that that you had plenty of chances and unfortunately your time ran out before that play even happened, because you let it get to that point. So yeah, I mean that's anything else on that that Niners Seahawks game, are we ready to to move on to our next one? Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, I think Brock Purdy looked solid despite the pressure that Jarod McInroy: Again. Nathan Hawthorne: despite the pressure that the Seahawks kept putting on him. he had that very questionable interception, which is the ones we had talked about over the course of the last two years, Brock had been making head scratching throws and interceptions. this one was just straight drop back and he th served it up to the guy on a platter. But you see the disguised coverage and the way that they were working against it. Obviously a call that they had been preparing. For a situation like that. So then you tip the cap to Mike McDonald. I mean, there was just great coaching going on. The execution wasn't superb on the field, but that's the difference between good and bad coaching. And we saw plenty of bad coaching this week. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Speaking of bad coaching, Eagles at Jaguars. Let me hear what you gotta say about Nick Siriani. Nathan Hawthorne: I just no I just think nobody wanted to actually win this game. And the Jaguars should have blown the Eagles out of the building. You had golden goal to go situations two separate times if you were the if you're the Jaguars to close out the game in the second half to absolutely put this game away and score a touchdown and instead you come away with field goals, you end up in a situation where your defense then out of nowhere just starts giving up big plays and then you give up the field goal. The crazy thing to me now flip this back to the Eagles is how is it two weeks in a row, you've got the ninety nine percent win percentage and you mismanage the clock so aggressively that you allow the opposing team to come down and win the game. That just blows my mind. As soon as they got into field goal range, you just run the ball. You just run the ball and you take down the clock. And then I don't care how you want to whether you kick the ball inbounds or whether you want to you know, kick it out of bounds to avoid the return. I can see the argument for both sides. But then you have to be coaching up, okay, we know that there's eight seconds left. If we don't get him down right away, I can't remember who number thirty one is who ultimately tackled Amir Abdullah. If all he did was grab him from behind and hold him up for two seconds instead of just going for the instant tackle, hard to think about in the moment. You're trying to chase a guy down who's who's running for a touchdown, right? If he just holds him up, the game's over then. Right. And there's situational coaching that continues to flop that a guy like Bill Belichick would never allow to happen on his team. And again, in these big games when you should not be in the game and somehow you are, losing those kind of games because of coaching errors is the reason that the Eagles need to fire Nick Siriani. I never like to call for people's heads, but they've had a number of games this year and they got lucky against the Saints as well with that game winning drive where it's it's bottled. The game's over. And I just Jarod McInroy: We're gonna pause there because you I'm gonna let you go more in on Nick Siriani later. So let's let's stick to the game itself for a minute. couple things on on that one. Shout out to Mir Abdullah still doing it. that that guy's still out here returning kicks. Nathan Hawthorne: When they said Amir Abdullah back to return, I said, Who? Who's returning? Jarod McInroy: no, a couple things. One, I don't wanna rip into Liam Cohen too much because I know this was just it was more of just him in the moment, not really being prepared and I think it's a good moment. For him to look back on as the season goes. I love aggressive play calling. I love you you're all the way down the field. And I'm referring to their drive right before half, where they ended up going down into to gold ago situation, went all four downs, turned the ball over on downs, didn't end up getting any points. the play call is atrocious. If you're gonna do it, fourth down, you know you're all you're not gonna get a chance at a field goal afterwards. Final play of the half. It's gotta be in your playmakers' hands. That that's first and foremost. Don't overthink it. Don't try and outthink the room. Nathan Hawthorne: Mm-hmm. Jarod McInroy: Every mature player every mature coach in the NFL will tell you, first and foremost, it's gotta be in your playmaker's hands. That's step one. Two, the the end around, the misdirection, those things, the run plays, whatever. I get it. You're not worried about clock. You're worried about your best play. However, an end around to your third the third best player with the ball in their hand, like it's it's probably not the play call. Nathan Hawthorne: Not at all. Jarod McInroy: I thought it was questionable. again, I think he needs to take this as a as a growing moment because again, not a super def defining moment in the game. However, I mean three points there would have been great in the grand scheme of the final score, but no, be aggressive, that's fine. But let your playmakers make the plays. That's why you pay them a certain amount Th they are better at this game than everybody else for a reason. let Trevor Lawrence go and spin it. He's gonna find somebody. I know he just had three downs. I I get it. I totally get it. You wanna throw a different look at him. But it's gotta be in in Trevor Lawrence's hands. The other piece of this too. And yes, it was a it was a big hiccup on the Eagles part. But again, I come it it comes down to the same thing. The the coaching, it it makes no sense. We're gonna talk about it with Dan Quinn. The building has to all be on the same page. It wasn't just a bad scheme of you know, your your special teams coach not calling the right call in terms of kicking it, not kicking it, whatever. Your team's not bought in. They're not locked in. They're not focused. They're not paying attention. They don't care about the X's and O's because you are not hammering it into them week after week after week. You are d they do not take you seriously. You're one leg out. You're on the hot seat. like d all of Philadelphia wants you gone. Like the the this is a piece of the game where it's like, okay, if you want to get everybody back, you have to get the locker room back first and foremost. And it it just doesn't seem like there anyone's afraid of him. It doesn't seem like and I I love that he took the accountability, whatever. It kind of just seemed like a at the at the end of you know the game, whatever, let's just throw some accountability out there to say face. There it's gonna be he's gonna have to hold people accountable at practice this week. That's where it's done, week in and week out. The final thing on this is you said it's a big game. Most people are probably thinking, week five, how is it a big game? Every game you play against a good team where you have a chance to win, you have to win. That's how you get 13 wins and win a division. That's how you get 14 wins and get home field advantage all the way through the playoffs. That's how it happens. Those are the weeks that matter. So yes, it's just a week five matchup against the Jags, somebody who's not even in your same conference. But it matters. It will matter. When you Nathan Hawthorne: Matters. Jarod McInroy: look at your win total at the end of the year, it'll matter. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, and and if you're the Jaguars too, you're to win in London is huge, right? They if it feels like they've kind of been London's team, if you will, the last couple of years. So I was confused why they had so many pre snap and procedural penalties that made those goal to go situations so tough, whether it was delay games or false starts, just these things that you do not expect to happen. And again, I'm not gonna say you know, a certain league is not all square. I'm going to avoid using the big words so that we don't get, you know, shadow banned here. But it makes you wonder like what how are we all of a sudden just failing so heavily on those procedural side of things? You know, 13 penalties for a team that isn't penalized that frequently. but I'll tell you what, Trevor Lawrence could be a dark horse guy. Bishal Tutin's starting to grow a little bit in terms of his run game responsibility. You've got Brian Thomas Jr., you've got Jacoby, Jacoby Myers, and you've got Parker Washington, who has just ascended incredibly. Like that's one of the best cores in in football right now. So the Jaguars team looks hot and it looks like they're gonna stay hot. Jarod McInroy: Do they a double header in London too? Did did I miss that when Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, I think that I Jarod McInroy: the schedule got dropped? Like what I'm pretty sure they play in London next week. Nathan Hawthorne: They I I think they have three I think they have three games in a row in London. I could be totally wrong on that. I don't want to get fried. I feel like they've got three games in a row in London. Jarod McInroy: The jags have three in a row? my god. Nathan Hawthorne: I actually I I think so. I and again, could be totally wrong. Do not fry me. is it just two? Okay. Jarod McInroy: No, it's not three in a row. It's just next week. But that's crazy that they even gave two l who signed off on that. Who knows? any Nathan Hawthorne: I mean that that's way better than having to travel all the way back and, you know, play another game. You know, why not stay in London? Jarod McInroy: Yeah, London's not that far from Jacksonville. Nathan Hawthorne: you know, probably six hour flight, five, six hour flight. Not too bad. Jarod McInroy: No, it's not too bad. let's jump over to the the Giants and Commanders. So the the theme of this week is bad coaching, man. The theme of this this week is is some real bad coaching and we didn't even we didn't even set the stage before we got into this episode, but man. the Giants and the Commanders was I don't even know what to say. Like it wasn't that entertaining of a game. It was sloppy football everywhere. Jameis is my favorite still to this day. P the he he takes off for a run. He's past the first down. He's thirteen yards down past the line of scrimmage and hits him with the pump fake. Like I I Nathan Hawthorne: And one Jarod McInroy: I love watching the guy play football. They're three, one, and one. All said and done. They're three one and one. now the commander's hand in them attack. It was just a mental breakdown. Again, it's it I it's I chalk it up to coaching. we'll get into that part after this. One, did anyone see any news on Jaden Daniels being healthy for this week? 'Cause I I must have missed it. I have alerts on my phone from ESPN that pretty much micro updates me on everything that exists possibly. most stuff I don't even care about. I didn't even know he was back. And all of a Nathan Hawthorne: You know Jarod McInroy: sudden he's rushing for over a hundred. He looked incredible. His arm was almost out of his or his elbow was almost out of his arm two weeks ago. don't know what Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. Jarod McInroy: to say on that. However, this weird lost season, they have a chance to to win a game against a division opponent, and they fumbled the back. It's it's atrocious, man. It's he's gotta go. Danquin's gotta. Nathan Hawthorne: It is. You know, and the the tough part is is you lost week one to the Eagles in kind of an ugly fashion. You got blitzed by the Cowboys, which is fair. You didn't have, you know, anybody you you had the late injury by Jaden Daniels, you couldn't close out the game, things got ugly. You hang in there with the Seahawks and somehow win the game on a miracle, and then you get blitzed by the Colts who aren't a very good team right now. Like just the the performances are so inconsistent. And you said it already, that that comes down to coaching and what you are talking to your players about week in and week out, what the expectations are from each week, how each unit is being coached. And I hate to say that Dan Quinn's kind of lost the locker room, but it doesn't seem like there's a ton of confidence, not just in him, but in each other. Defense not trusting the offense. Players within the offense not trusting each other. And it seems like a really, really scary spot to be if you're Dan Quinn. There hasn't been a lot to write home about since Jaden Daniels, you know, not freshman year, his rookie year. And then Cliff Kingsbury walked out the door and said, I don't really want to do this anymore. And now you've gone to David Blau. The offense looks pretty stuck in the mud. And I get that Jaden Daniels used his legs and ran for over a hundred yards. That's not the recipe for success for Jaden Daniels. We've seen that. He's going to get injured again. And I think that Dan Quinn is now to the point where he's like, Jaden Daniels, do whatever you want to help us win the game, because now my job is on the line. It's no longer about how are we going to win this game. And not to mention the defense. Dan Quinn, I've never seen a Dan Quinn defense this bad. man, I'm not even talking about the game here. I'm just absolutely kind of ripping into the commanders here, but I I don't know. You're getting twenty seven points put Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: up on you by an offense that has a backup quarterback that doesn't really have a true running back. I can scatterboo you're fun, but you're not a real NFL running back. You're a physical downhill guy. He's not. He's not. He's not. Jarod McInroy: Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on. Hang on. You stop. You stop. We're not we're not doing that right now. before hang on, hang on. Hang on. No, real Nathan Hawthorne: How many, how many games over 100 yards does Scataboo have? Let me know. Let me know. Jarod McInroy: NFL running back is a different title though. Are you saying a premier like top of the funnel best of the best? Or are you just saying a real Nathan Hawthorne: The because he's because he's Jarod McInroy: NFL back? Nathan Hawthorne: Because he is Well no Emir Abdul is a real NFL back, technically still, even though he's only doing kick returning. No, I get what you're saying. No, he's Jarod McInroy: No he's not. No, he's not. I'm talking about I'm talking about let's give you an example. Brian Robinson Junior, for example, how he can compliment Bijan, right? Scataboo could be that for somebody. Do you agree or disagree? Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, but he's not what I'm saying is he's not the three down back. He's not the guy. But because he's in New York, because he's in New York. Jarod McInroy: Okay, fine. But real NFL back is different. That's that that that feels just disrespectful. I feel like you just you didn't. Nathan Hawthorne: How d how you heard the way I said real NFL running back. He's a he's a real Jarod McInroy: No, I know, but like I f Nathan Hawthorne: guy who's really in the NFL, who really Jarod McInroy: Ha ha Nathan Hawthorne: has the running back designation. Absolutely. Jarod McInroy: You're saying but y you okay, hang on though. I just Nathan Hawthorne: The only good game he had running the ball was against the Cowboys. And they'll give up a thousand yards to anybody who asks nicely. I he d but here's what Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Nathan Hawthorne: I like about him. He knows that the yards are forward. And I will give you this. He would be a great compliment back to somebody who is just a better running back. Jarod McInroy: Yeah, I think he could give a team with a really good running back ten good carries while the other one takes about eighteen. I think he's he's a legitimate NFL running back on a goal line situation who can go get you those yards that are forward, grab a quick three, whatever is needed. let's not pretend like he's an absolute bum and doesn't belong on a football field at all. Like that's where I'm like, not no, but not Nathan Hawthorne: Nobody said that. I just said he's not a real running back. Jarod McInroy: a real NFL running back. That's what that means to me. So maybe I just You you just worded it a little harshly. That's all I'm saying. Let's have a quick pause. But back to Jaden Daniels for a second. Why are you letting him run nine times? Why are you letting him do whatever you want unless you are being a selfish head coach? You don't care about the future of the commanders. You care about your job right now. I think that's all we need to say about them. But like you said, with inconsistent coaching, when you have talent all over the field, you're gonna be able to put up twenty seven. Like it it's it's gonna happen. You're gonna be able to put up thirty three against the Seahawks, you're gonna be able to put up twenty against the Cowboys here and there. Like we're not saying they're they're such a lost cause, it's just clearly something at the at the top of this team is is causing the rest of the team to you know, not live up to their potential, if you will. But I feel like a similar situation to that is like how is Vrabel almost in that position? 'Cause Seeing what we see week in and week out with the the Patriots right now, I feel like that's kind of like on this in the same breath. Like they go and they have this big win this week. But again, well, they did follow it up after just beating the Bills, which was great, but they also got humiliated the week before. So like th not having consistence th consistency, week in, week out. The team looks disjointed, like you said, offense mad at defense. That seems very similar to what we see in New England right now, is Vrabel Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. Jarod McInroy: heading in that direction? Nathan Hawthorne: I don't know if Rabel's headed in that direction. Thankfully, the the pounding was so bad on the Raiders that they've escaped a little bit of that conversation. Jarod McInroy: Forty five to seventeen. Nathan Hawthorne: Which which shocked me. I don't know if Vegas, no pun intended, made a call to the Raiders and said, Hey, you know, we've put a lot of time, effort, and energy into making Drake May a superstar in the league, the next Tom Brady, the Patriots, blah, blah, blah. We need you guys to dial it back because the team that showed up last week was not the same team that we saw against the Chiefs a couple or a week before that we thought, my gosh, like this is a, you know, a very, very competent Raiders team, especially defensively. You know, a team that was be was in Patrick Mahomes' lap all day, could not get to Drake May. And that's been the huge sticking point for the New England Patriots is Drake May's been under duress. And when he's under duress, he can't throw the football. So that was shocking to me. So I think I think that the Patriots maybe found a little something that that's working, but also I just weirdly back to back, you know, the Bills we know are not a great defense and then for some reason the Raiders just completely lost focus. Or, you know, maybe God forbid Josh McDaniels made an made an adjustment somewhere along the way. So I Jarod McInroy: Well Nathan Hawthorne: need I need at least two more weeks before I can comment on the Patriots again. You know how I feel about this team. But again, back to the game. I mean, who wants to to win this game? And missed field goal by the Giants, and then you just punt if you're the commanders, and then you fumble if you're the Giants, and then commanders can't get like I'm just so confused by that whole overtime series after a four after a fourth quarter where you know it looked electric. There was three three touchdowns scored, two of them by the Giants. Like I just were you trying who what? That's all that's all I have to say. Jarod McInroy: The Giants wanted it. The Nathan Hawthorne: Is this one of the most confusing years of NFL football? Jarod McInroy: the th I feel like that was a piece it is. It is. I one thing I will say, I do think the Giants wanted it more than the Commanders, but I think the Commanders had are are clearly the more talented team. and the J again, why the Giants are out for blood. They're they're scrappy. They're they're not gonna tank. They they're here to win games and they legitimately think they can. So like if you even opi have the door slightly cracked open, th Scattabu's gonna bust through. Jameis is gonna bust through like it's but unfortunately it just ended in a tie. Nathan Hawthorne: You know the the cr the crazy thing is for the Giants here, you know, they jumped on the Cowboys week one, they got bodied by the Rams, Titans, you beat twelve seven. What's happening there? You escape against the Cardinals, Commanders you tie, you've got the Saints next week, and now the Saints look like an entirely different team than we saw the first three weeks. So what's you know, what's the deal here? Or is it just Tyler Shuck really got a Jarod McInroy: Since you played some good teams. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, and it's I'm confused by the Giants. I'm confused about their direction. again, you don't want to completely throw away the season Jarod McInroy: Fun. Nathan Hawthorne: only two games in. You know, Jameis Winston's shut such a character and between Malik neighbors, Isaiah Likely, Malachi Fields, Tyrone Tracy Jr., you know, they've got a lot of talent. I skipped over somebody intentionally there. But yeah, they and then they play the Texans, and then we'll see what this team's really about. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. let's jump over to the Colt Steelers really quick. So Colts. Talk about a team who's I feel like in a very similar position to the Commanders where it's just like they're trying really hard, but the games just keep slipping away from them. And whether that just be poor execution out the gate and then they get blown out, or they're sticking around but can't close the door. this was kind of a a case of honestly the Steelers looked better than we had expected this week. But I know you have some some choice words about this game, so I'll let you kinda get into this Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah. This Jarod McInroy: one. Nathan Hawthorne: this Steelers offense that we've seen large in part for the last three weeks, you know, we see Aaron Rodgers having a couple weeks now of three plus passing touchdowns. The passing game is starting to get figured out. This is what we expected from the Steelers with Mike McCarthy and with Aaron Rodgers being reunited. Mike McCarthy is a great offensive coach, and it's good to see it getting back on track. They finally unlocked Jalen Warren. Thank not thankfully, Rico Daddle got hurt, but finally they were forced to use Jalen Warren. And he has been an all-star the past couple of weeks and him being unlocked is huge, not just for the rushing side of things, but he's a great receiving back. Jeremy Bernard has started to show up. You know, we heard about that meeting where Bernard had to sit down with Aaron Rodgers and Rodgers grilled him on what coverages to expect, what rolling coverages we expect, what formations we want to run certain plays out of. And he passed Aaron Rodgers test, and we see immediately, you know, that I think he had eight targets. And When you see that kind of development and trust coming from Aaron Rodgers, that bodes well. Now, if you're the Indianapolis Colts here in this game, the jig is out and the jig is up. And we knew that all you had to do to stop the Colts was stop Jonathan Taylor. And now he's gone, I think, three weeks in a row without having over a hundred yards rushing. If you just load that box and stop him, because they paid a bajillion dollars to Alec Pierce, who's not even available to them, their best receiving weapon now is probably Tyler Warren or Josh Downs. But I don't trust on a consistent basis for Daniel Jones to even get them the ball. One of the great part about great parts about Daniel Jones was his legs. And coming off his Achilles injury, you can tell he's a little bit more hesitant and he doesn't quite drive the ball when he's throwing like he used to. He doesn't want to take off and run. And so this offense has shrunk drastically from the start of the season. Cause you started with an injured Daniel Jones. So your offense last year went to this, injured Daniel Jones. You've now lost Alec Pierce. People have figured out that Jonathan Taylor is the only thing that you can do on this offense. And now what are you gonna do? This is what we talked about. There wasn't enough juice on the offensive side of the football to win games. And they scrapped it out against the Texans. I have no idea how. Well, we know how the offense for the Texans was bad, but there's just not like you said, they're fighting really, really hard. They just don't have the tools either on the defensive side. or on the offensive side to win games. And I know that Shane Steichen is in the same thing the same deal as Dan Quinn, fighting for his life as a head coach. It's a little bit quieter now that, you know, Ursae passed away. But goodness gracious, it's it's it's panic time if you're in Indianapolis. Jarod McInroy: You're a week away from the wheels falling off though. You're it I feel like honestly, the best thing for this team right now is for them to lose next week to the Titans. I think that would be the best thing possible because if you go to I'm not and I'm not even joking, bro. Chill. Nathan Hawthorne: no. Jarod McInroy: If you go to three and three, their next three games are the v at Vikings, at Jaguars, at home against the Cowboys, probably three Ls and now you're three and six. You probably and like That's what I'm saying. Like sometimes a win can set you back if the season's just not feasible. you're gonna win too many games. Not enough to make the playoffs, not enough to do anything. Again, just sometimes you just gotta chalk it up. Start sending a couple pieces out the door so you can retool, because now's the time. Now's the time. They're not g they're never Jonathan Taylor's never gonna be more valuable than he is today, moving Nathan Hawthorne: Mm-hmm. Jarod McInroy: forward anyways. And you invested in Sauce Gardner. Great. You spent a pick on him. You don't own your pick next year. so that's gone Nathan Hawthorne: Wasn't it two picks? Jarod McInroy: for that reason. potentially, yeah. I th I I think it might be. but you don't have your pick next year. So in terms of what you have to play for, you still have to get a really high second p round pick. That's very important if you don't have a first, because you like we we look at it in rounds sometimes when we look at the NFL draft, but we also You need to look at the overall numbers. How can I get the thirty-fourth best pick if I don't have a first round pick? That is substantially better sometimes than the forty fifth best pick. If you genuinely believe you're only a couple years away, now's the time. So I I don't know. Lose against the the Titans. I'm not saying throw the game, but if I'm their fan base, that wouldn't be the worst thing. Going over to the Steelers for a second though, they got a lot of lot of winnable games in front of them. And Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, they do. Jarod McInroy: I I still think they're buns. I I I'm I'm still Nathan Hawthorne: Ha ha ha. Jarod McInroy: not convinced that they're a good football team. But if you're looking at at Bucks, at Saints at home against the Browns, those are those are three three games I think I'm winning. so it starts it starts with that Bucks because you know the Bucks are a talented team. they just beat the Cowboys, you know, you're you're at Tampa. we don't need to get into that. I don't want an eye roll, whatever. it starts there. Go do it again. That's a really big game. we we throw around the t the term trap game a lot, but this is a traditional trap game. It's one and four at somebody else's place. and they got nothing to lose. They got a head coach who's trying to win as many games as he can before he gets fired. and then you gotta go to Paris. So anything can happen in Paris against the Kallimore offense. Get it now. But there's a lot of losses on the back half of the schedule, so I I think the jury's out on them too. Nathan Hawthorne: Yeah, you know, I s I still think their defense is good enough, from the the from the remnants of Mike Tomlin, if you will. And again, I just think the offense is gonna continue to improve, but in the big moments, if Aaron Rodgers gets gunshot because he wants Jarod McInroy: It won't. Nathan Hawthorne: to protect his, you know, T D to interception ratio, then Rutro Raggy. Jarod McInroy: I think that this last week is the peak of what we'll see. I don't know what you mean by they'll continue to improve. That that's the peak. That's that's best Nathan Hawthorne: I I I Jarod McInroy: case scenario. You think that's sustainable for every game for the rest of the season? Or even even eighty percent of the games? Nathan Hawthorne: I should I should say this. When we say when we say when we say improve, their floor is gonna continue to go up. We saw a pretty rough floor, I think, against the Browns, Jarod McInroy: Okay. But no. Nathan Hawthorne: but I think that we're gonna see as the peak goes up, I think that floor goes up as well for this team. We can we can disagree there. Jarod McInroy: Yeah. Well, if that's if that's where we're at, you're in a dark place. Nathan Hawthorne: Ladies and gentlemen, that's going to do it here for the week five NFL recap, talking about the the more macro side of the NFL right now If you enjoyed that, make sure to like and subscribe. We would really appreciate the support. And ladies and gentlemen, tune in. We got a special episode coming later this week. My name's Nathan Hawthorne. This is my co-host Jared McEnroy, and we will see you on the next one.