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If you like talking ball, we're going to be talking ball right now. Don't have another commercial break for oh 30 minutes or so. That's from Edwards. I'm Phil Murphy. It's why we fly her m to Bristol every week just to talk ball. Coach Green Bay was run off the field in week three at home to Atlanta. They've won five of six since. Blew out Chicago, blew out New England today on the road. Run game, as you mentioned, still non-existent. We're nine weeks into the regular season. Regular season's 18 with the buy. We're at the midway point. What do you make of the Packers right now?
They know what they do well and that's throw the ball down the field. Their most talent lies at the wide receiver position. They have a quarterback that is very accurate throwing the ball down the field and that's how they're going to live. They're going to play that way now. They know who they are. I mean, when you get this far in the season, there's not a lot of changing you're going to do. You can adjust some things, but you have the players you have. What do they do well? Today, tonight against New England, it was like old time football. Let's throw the ball down field and see if we can score.
See how far he can throw it. And the uh the guys in the green and gold caught it every time. But Drake May, coach, I we're looking at the stat sheet today. It's it's head scratch and you're banging your head against a desk if you cheer for New England. But coming in four games, he goes for 11 touchdown, one pick. At one point in the first half, he had six passes to the good guys. Yes. Three to the bad guys. What went wrong? Well, that's the inconsistency of a young quarterback, right? I mean, he didn't start off real well and then all of a sudden he found his groove and now all of a sudden he kind of had an oops game again. Now
what he's got to do is recover from this because there's a lot of football left. The Patriots have a chance to win this division. No doubt about that. But they can't play like this. You can't throw it to the bad guys. We always say the bad guys get the ball when you kick it to them. If you always kick it to the bad guys, you're doing good. And for the Patriots, if you're going to have a home loss, you'd like it not just out of division, but out of conference. Wipe the slate clean. take your wake up calls in November. Here's their coach postgame. It's new on Sports Center.
Amazing. I mean, just since the first game he got in there, that's why I always struggle at the beginning of the year when everyone's asking me, can I believe how good he's playing and how much better he's improved cuz it's he was so good off the bench versus Miami his first game and then his second week and taking us NFC Championship as a rookie and I think his second year took us to the Super Bowl maybe. Um, so Brock's been the man since he's come in and that's pretty unbelievable deal considering when where he was drafted, how he started and um, very fortunate to have Brock.
How does the emergence of Watkins changed your guys' mindset at all as far as looking for receivers now? Um, yeah, I mean, we're always looking to upgrade a team in any way. So, I mean, we'll definitely continue to do that all the way till Tuesday at one or whenever it is. Um, but it's then it's not just a receiver. I mean, um, you want to have depth. It's not just to replace one guy or anything like that, but um you know, we wanted to give Watkins this opportunity when people got hurt and uh he's really stepped it up and given us a lot of confidence, too. Uh yeah, he had a good practice this week. I thought he looked good in practice. So, we definitely would have we would have done that if one of the
other guys weren't able to go. So, uh he should be ready. Do you feel good about the depth of the defensive? Uh yeah, I think as good as you can. I mean, we lost so many guys at the beginning of the year, more than I had ever heard of, you know, which is six out of the 10 in the first two weeks. And um but all those guys have gotten so much playing time in these the six weeks after. Um and they played at such a high level and done so well. That was a cool thing about getting Buckner is some of these guys that we've been depending on like Grayson and stuff um just gave us a lot more depth. Um, and yes, it sucked to lose one today big time, but we still have good depth there and we'll still always look to
improve in whatever way that is. Um, but I do really like our depth at Dline. Does it feel like, you know, the deadline Tuesday, things could happen? Does it feel like you guys could make a trade like? Feels like any one of the 32 teams can make a trade. Feels like any one of the 32 teams could make a trade. Um, I'm not trying to be a smartass by that at all, but it's, trust me, it's my family's hounding me as much as you guys are. I know it's fun to talk about and stuff, but there's, you know, everybody talks through trades, but really when it comes down to it, how many guys are really available, how many
teams go through with it, and it's there's it's definitely, it's not like free agency. All right. Um, but we've already made one big one. And um, hopefully there'll be options and those options will make sense for us. And I know we're working hard looking at it. So, San Francisco 10-point favorites today. They win by 21. They're seven and one Super Bowl favorites. Coach, it's November 8th. Yes, we got a Super Bowl in what, three months from now. What does San Francisco do with what they can control? What must they do? I know health is a caveat for every team, but with what they can control, what has to happen for this
team to stay at the top of the NFL heap for the next three months? The thing about San Francisco, they know who they are. They have a DNA. Um, look, they don't use injuries as an excuse. They had a lot of players injured. There's a lot of good players right now that are not playing for the 49ers. They find ways to win games as long as that quarterback is upright. Perie, he's playing at an MVP level and it doesn't matter who else is involved at wide receiver because he's going to get guys the ball. And as long as number 23 is playing, everybody knows 23 is getting the ball.
He's important. Can you stop 23 from catching it and running? No one has answered that question yet. But coach, even last year, guys who missed six games for San Francisco, Pertie, KD, Bosa, Warner, McCaffrey, he missed like four games. They still went 12 and five. Here they are seven and one and at the top of a very deep division. Coach, a team won beneath them, the Seattle Seahawks. We know what they can do in the playoffs. They beat the Cardinals now twice. You expect that. But both times with Drew Lock, what can games where we have to find in inner beauty, the ugly wins like today, what can this do for this team as we know what their goals are over the
next couple months? Look, Seattle is known for what? Their defense. And that will take them to where they need to go. But when they get into the playoffs, they understand this. They're going to play some teams that can score. They're going to have to continue to score points. They got a really good receiver, by the way. Pretty good offensive player of the year last year. I would figure out how to get him the ball. There's no doubt about that. But Seattle is a team built to travel on the road. The defense travels. They run the ball as well. Uh and they have a fantastic uh receiver that can catch the
football. And when he catches it, you're holding your breath cuz a five yard catch could be a 50-yard touchdown. Yeah. Hey, top of the heap today. The San Francisco 49ers Seahawks top of the heap last season. The response here is Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, Mike, as you watched the game unfold, uh, what went through your mind, uh, in terms of what you were seeing? Well, just needed to get some stops early, you know what I mean? Obviously take care of the football. And it wasn't the start and I thought that we made it competitive. I thought we did some things early or excuse me before halftime that you know
was a 10-point lead last week and then we just talked about you know thought what's done is done and you know trying to be able to come out and get a stop and I thought if we did that we would be able to get back into the game. Uh that didn't happen. You know, it's tough when you don't get any turnovers and allow X plays and then you turn it over offensively. Roach in the back. Mike, obviously a tough loss all the way around, but what did you see from Christian Gonzalez who obviously struggled today?
Yeah, I mean, again, when your best players don't play good, uh you don't have much of a chance in this league. So, we expect a lot more. He expects a lot more. Like, we need more from him and everybody else. It wasn't just him. man. Again, we got to, you know, be able to coach and be prepared and we have to execute. So, just like it is every single week when we don't win. Um, it's all of us and it starts with me. Daniel, uh, Mike, how disappointing were the four turnovers and what were the Packers doing to make life tough on Drake?
Well, that, you know, I mean, the turnovers are disappointing because, you know, first of all, that's what they've done all year, so that's not a surprise. I mean, 17% 18% of their drives end in a turnover, uh, we just added to that. So, um, you know, between the pressure and, you know, I think probably a little bit of scheme and a lot of execution on their end, I mean, guys made plays. I thought, you know, there were some positive plays that we had and then certainly some ball placements and decisions that, you know, certainly have to be better.
Sophie roller on the right by Mike. Hi Mike. Um, with Raandre Stevenson, I'm curious. We obviously saw him go out at the end of the game there. Um, was the decision to kind of rule him out immediately due to the score at all or was there something bigger there? I he wasn't able to return, so I have to get I'm not sure the extent of what it is. It just came off. So, we'll we'll take a look at it and we'll we'll see. I don't want to speculate right now, but yeah, Mike, you had stressed um during Drake's tough start about decision- making, being decisive with the football, sort of playing free. It looked like he had gotten past the that sort of period of time in the first three weeks. Were you
surprised to see him maybe fall back into that a little? I mean, I'm surprised about, you know, just the way that the day went, the way that it started, and then I guess kind of how this the third quarter went. Um, and I think that would be part of the, you know, whether it's the surprise or just, you know, disappointed. And, and again, that's sometimes in this league these things happen and it's unfortunate and we certainly didn't, you know, prepare for it. Um, you know, I'm sure he'll rebound and we'll get them ready to go. We got a tough challenge, uh, looking ahead of us, but certainly can't win playing that way. and you know turning the ball over and not creating turnovers and you know defensively and giving up X plays.
What they gave up defensively to Christian Watson and Matthew Golden a combined 335 receiving yards. Those two the second pack duo to each go over 150 and a score. Others did it in 1942. Hall of Famer Don Hudson and Andy. Andy missed the 1943 season serving in the US Navy in World War II. Packers beat the Chicago Cardinals that day 55-24. Uh, new on Sports Center after a 49ers win. Their quarterback Brock Pury. Um, no, it's I mean the ones I'm thinking of from today are just like obviously I'm going through my progressions and stuff trying to execute the play at hand, throwing the ball, and then, you know, if something's not
there, defense does a good job with matching our guys and then I see a gap, then yeah, I'll try to go and make something happen. Um I think that longer one was third and 17 or something like that. And um for me I was just like all right let's we're in field goal range here. Let's you know not take a sack and try to get some yards there and then just sort of kept opening up and I found an alley and took it. So um but yeah to answer your question you know it's not something I go into the play going all right I'm going to scramble here. Um, I think that was just like the communication things um between Kyle and I sort of the headset not hearing him clearly on some things and um and then
there was one time where we didn't have like the right guys in for a certain play and um so I was like should we be calling this right now or not? Um, so little things like that, more so communication, not really anything with hard play calls or what the defense is doing or anything like that. Those are just communication things that I think I need to hear better and stuff in the mic and uh, you know, just be better in that area. No, I think honestly every game there's just times like that happen. Um, you know, clock's come rolling down and stuff and maybe something with Kyle's thing like he didn't press the button and he's saying like the h the last half
of the play and I'm trying to obviously put the whole play together. So, I might yell back and say, "Hey, can you say it again?" Um, or wristband numbers and stuff. So, those are all just like communication things and I think those happen, you know, honestly a couple times a game. It is what it is. All my career and stuff it's it's been like that. He was great. And um you know and even just some of the great part about it is there's things that we can improve upon in terms of some of the penalties, but thought he was at his best when his best was required. We talk about competitive greatness all the time and um did a great job being able to close the game out and make his presence felt. That was big time today.
The Rams have been looking for a closer. Yeah. Do you feel like you know you can supply that uh energy and I am that closer. So you know we don't need to look any further. I was born that. Yeah, some people got it, some people don't. Some people got to train it to really amount to it. No, I was born with that. I've only continued to own it along the way. But a potential gut punch for the Rams. Puka Nakua suffered a knee injury on their final offensive snap here. He'll undergo an MRI tomorrow to determine the extent of the injury. The team does not believe he suffered a torn ACL, but imaging Monday will reveal more. LA does play just once in the next
17 days. And coach Herm Edwards, we are not close to Devonte Adams return. Hookah, you look how reliable he's been. 14 catches on 19 targets today. 11 for 12 last week. You go back to Monday Night Football, week five, 17 catches on 24 targets. That's all in the last month. How much time can Puka miss for that to be survivable as an injury for LA? Oh, they got to get him back. I know that. as they try to make this playoff run because look, everyone, they're in a division right now with Seattle and San Francisco and Seattle and the Rams are chasing San Francisco. Uh, Puka helps you uh do that. Without him, all of a sudden, your offense chest a little bit different because remember, he's what
I call like the joker in the offense. He can play inside, he can play outside. He runs all the routes on the tree. You can take send him over the middle, you can get him out of the back field. He has excellent hands and he's a good runner after the catch. He's not the fastest guy, but he finds ways to get open. LA visits Arizona next week where they've had a ton of success. Then their schedule goes Green Bay, Kansas City, San Francisco. But coach, today in DC, first time we see Aaron Donald, Miles Garrett playing together. Took till week nine. First game off IR today. Garrett goes for three sacks and a force fumble in just 25 snaps. Fearsome for some 2.0's as it was advertised. When those
two are out there and Garrett's playing more than 25 snaps, what can they do to cover up some offensive blemishes? Well, it takes the pressure off your offense because what they can do, they can go after the quarterback of the opponent and they keep the score down. When you have pass rushers that can get to the quarterback, that becomes a problem for the opponent and they know all of a sudden we can't send five guys out anymore. They got two guys that can that get to us. So you got to put more guys in protection that helps your defense. And I mentioned some of those games coming up. A schematic dream November 25th Packers Rams especially what we saw from Green Bay today.
Yeah. Quarterback Jordan Love after throwing for 372 in a win in Foxboro. Man, it's just a great win. Um, you know, I think all around all three phases, great team win and you know, be able to have a stat like that no one's done, uh, is pretty cool. But, uh, I think we just came out from the get-go, started fast. Uh, that's what we preached on all week, made plays, defense with all these takeaways, getting us the ball back. So, um, that's just all around win right there. A lot of people don't go at Christian Gonzalez. You guys did pretty much all day. What gave you the confidence to do that, man? Uh, I think that's just the guys we got on the outside going out there making plays. Um, you know, it really
doesn't matter who it is. You know, I feel like we just we trust the game plan. and we trust that guys are going to get open and make plays and they did that tonight. You know, I still got a lot of respect for him. He's a great player. Um, but you know, it's NFL. We see great DBs every week and uh I think our mindset is just we got to keep attacking and uh we got good guys on the outside that are going to make plays. Is that the best football you've ever played? Man, it's it's definitely up there. Um it felt great, you know, so um we'll look at it, but it definitely felt, you know, like a just a real fun game to be a part of, you know what I mean? When
everything's flowing, we're putting up points and uh everybody's making plays. It's uh definitely very fun to be a part of. You said you put up 150 yards against pressure in particular. You're six of nine against pressure. I don't know. This is a top 10 defense in most metrics. like what did you see that you were able to beat maybe the hardest thing to be as a quarterback? Yeah, I mean I think uh like you said they're they're a really good uh defense. You know, we knew that coming in the week. They present a lot of different looks, but I think uh we had a great game plan to, you know, counter a
lot of things. I think uh starts up front with O line. They did a great job uh giving me time obviously against pressure and uh we were able to capitalize. But we know what it is. We've seen pressure all season. Um, and uh, it comes down to guys winning their one-on- ones on the outside and obviously the O line be able to give me time. So, I think all those things we did a great job of doing that tonight. I felt confident in it. Uh, I just turned around and saw the ball in there. Let me get my hands on it. And then, uh, I was messing with Waller. I've been telling people that, you know, I was, you know, I caught that right cuz my
initial reaction was like, turn and run. And then they had blew it dead. But then, uh, I want to give credit to Jac because he's the one that kind of gave coach a nod to like, hey, we need to throw that challenge flag. It was an amazing play. That was his first NFL interception and I gave him a game ball in there and I kind of just left it real low on the ground and he caught it. But that was a huge play. How much do you think that these kind of wins season this team? Yeah. Oh man, it's like uh it's like Tony Satchz, man. You know, you add that to anything and that joint going to be nice and seasoned up. So, I think that's kind of how we
are in this situation. you get put into these situations, you throw little Tony's on top of it and you turn a bland piece of chicken into some fried chicken. So, that's kind of what we already know. Hell of a recipe there, Courtland. Uh, no lead is safe against these Broncos. Certainly not a one-point lead, which the Panthers had early in the fourth. This was Denver's fifth fourth quarter comeback win this season, tying an NFL record through nine games. Overall, when trailing in the fourth quarter the last two seasons, they're 10 and three. 10 and three when trailing in the fourth
quarter. They are impossible to put away. It's Kenneth Walker the third and the third is for three touchdowns. Fifth multi touchdown game of the season. Only other Chiefs player with that many through eight games. Abner Hayes from 1962 when the Chiefs were still in the AFL as the Dallas Texans. Travis Kelce was asked about Walker's impact now in Kansas City. Oh man, K9 is he's one of the best in the league. Um, and ever since he came here, this team is elevated in terms of, you know, the chemistry, the talent.
Um, and we know if we give K9 the ball, good things are going to happen. And you saw that today. Patrick Mahomes in apparent pain there to end the first half. What did you see from your quarterback in the second? Just a fearless leader. Uh, doing everything he can to get back out there and lead us to victory, which he did. And, uh, there's a lot of guys that got banged up today that fought through it. And, you know, that's the game of football and that's why we love it, man. You can just, you know, put your heart on your sleeve and go out there and play with a guy next year. When you have a quarterback that is tough, um, it affects everybody. I mean, that's that's
that position. They're supposed to take everybody's game and help raise it. Part of that is sometimes when you're banged up a little bit, you're in a vulnerable position back there. So, you're going to get banged up a little bit, but you get banged up that you're able to get back up and go. And nobody does it better than he does it. If I'm able to play, I'm I'm going to play, right? That's part of the game. That's part of playing. you know, he scares you in moments when you get some pains and in certain areas of your body. And so, uh, obviously didn't feel great.
Um, but was able to kind of get it worked on a little bit, especially at halftime. Um, and then was able to go out there and play the rest of the game. Her Edwards, Phil Murphy, back with you on Sports Center here till uh 8:30 with this show. Coach, it's going to be Broncos or Chiefs in the AFC West. Denver's a half game up. They're heading into the buy next week. We were talking before the show, who's going to win round three if they meet in the playoffs? probably whoever's hosting Airgo the division winner. Kansas City
has a tougher strength of schedule the rest of the way. What to you decides whether it's Broncos or Chiefs who are at top that AFC West through 17 games as we do enter the playoffs. Quarterback play. It always been it ends up being the quarterback at the end of the day. And Kansas City, what they've done, they've helped their quarterback by getting Kenneth Walker. And we said that four weeks ago. This takes a lot of stress off the quarterback now because now you have to play the Chiefs in this sense. we got to put eight in the box because we got to stop the run game. Well, that plays into Patrick Mahome's hand because when you do that, the play action pass becomes
deadly. And you saw that again today, right? So, all of a sudden, this team has kind of found their way. No one talks about this when they talk about the Chiefs, their defense. They've got a good defense as well. This is a wellbalanced football team. And you know what else they're used to? Being in the playoffs doesn't bother them. It's kind of like almost their right, we're going to be in the playoffs. Well, we thought the defense was going to take a step back. They traded two key pieces at cornerback traded and free agency sent them to the Rams just and hand was hurt. Um Justin wanted to go back in the game. That was the coach's decision to take him out.
Sprain, bruised, bra. There's still They didn't know at the time. Um you know what it is. Could be a fracture. We'll find out. Uh we'll probably take a look at it and see what's what's going on, but uh shouldn't be an issue. Left hand helps, right? Just the fact that it's the other hand. Yeah. I mean, good for throwing for sure. Um but uh something we'll we'll take a look at and do whatever I can to um you know, make sure I'm at 100%. So, it should be good. Disappointing day for the quarterback in New England as well. New on Sports Center. Here's Drake May after the Pats loss to the Pack.
How disappointing uh was this performance for you and overall? Yeah, very um you know very I'm uh too disappointed myself uh for you can't put shoot put the team in the hole you know straight off the bat uh first possession uh first half like in the times we had chances to get back in the game um you know shoot I messed them up and we had chances to you know put us back within three points you know multiple times and uh just frustrating you know I got to uh do a better job um from a holes perspective communication um doing the little things right and uh you know I just I wasn't good. It wasn't good today. And uh we got to um you know, bounce back and we're on a far flight, but uh we got to bounce back and uh know that this uh
there's still some games left and we're we're battling. We got to battle. I think that's just that's it. Drake, you talk every week about turnovers. You know, you had some again today. How frustrating is that for you? And also you just said you got to battle. What kind of a mindset do you have going forward with this team for this week? Yeah, we haven't had a clean turnover free game yet. And it's a um you know, starting with me, man, it's it's it's one of the biggest difference between winning and losing football games. And that's you know, put our defense in a bad spot, you know, in the first drive. Um and just, you know, gave him the football and um had some other chances um you know, down the
field and got to see in front. I gota see in front. You feel like I was um you know just a little late sometimes and I was just trying to you know feel like we got into a throwing game. Um and that's partly because of what we did you know offensively and to our to the team and then um we didn't really get to you know build off the run game and I think we just got to start the game and you know me specifically start better. And you're counting in by Mike P. Dre can you just take us through the three interceptions what you saw pre- snap and then post that led to those turnovers?
Um, yeah, just throwing the football in spots that I don't think uh, you know, I don't think I should have thrown it. You know, the first one I think I just got to see them uh, see the guys, you know, deep, you know, see the safety positions. Um, the second one happens, we got maybe throw it a little further. And then the third one, like I said, um, they're jumping crossing routes, so I got to see in front.
