The 49ers have a chance against Philly. Can they take it?

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreigner and Hutch, alive and not terribly well, but alive. And that's what's most important. The 49ers are also technically alive. They're down bad. The vibes, not ideal. It's almost as if they treated that Week 18 game like a playoff game and then lost. And they're like, wait a minute, there's still more playoffs. They're in a loser's bracket of sorts. [00:00:29] Speaker B: It looks bad. It looks bad. It looked to me like we underestimated how valuable Ricky Pearsall is Slash was. And against defenses that can play, man, and like, play real defense, you kind of need one of those players, and they don't have one. And no, Trent Williams made that an impossible task. And they don't have one or both of those guys. I. I don't think they stand any chance, but we'll get into it. There may be. [00:00:56] Speaker A: I have good news. I have seen Trent Williams in a uniform practicing. He is practicing today. Ricky Pearsall is working on the side. You know who else is working on the side today? Fred Warner. Fred ain't playing, but Fred was in the locker room yesterday. Ricky Pierce, all wasn't just. Just bad, just of note. Just enough. Fred was out there, he was jovial. His wife had a baby that day. He's like, I'm going to work, which I kind of get. Good luck with that. You get the baby, they hand you the baby, and, you know, you as the father are like, oh, wow, precious. And the baby's looking at you like, who the hell is this guy? I don't know you from the back of my mom's uterus. And that's our first uterus note of the day. There's no transition here. Jake, obviously, coming off of that game against the Seahawks, where I want to get your thoughts on this, because this has been my big takeaway. I agree with you on Trent, though not as much on Trent as it was on Ricky. Like, Ricky felt way more significant, the absence. But what stood out to me was that was two years of Seattle Seahawks football culminating into just a glorious fire of a performance where the offense was like, eh. But the defense was. That was their day. And Kyle Shanahan's offense, as you know, is, hopefully our viewers by now know, is predicated on finding mismatches and exploiting them. And Seattle, after two years of trying to build this defense up into this ideal, was like, we're not substituting you. We. We're just going to play our best guys. We're going to line them up anywhere we want and there's nothing you can do about it. And the 49ers are like, you're right. There is nothing we can do. [00:02:50] Speaker B: They've just drafted so well. And with McDonald having such a clear idea of what he wants to do with the scheme, I feel like that helps a ton. And it's. And it's something where teams are going to, you know, value offensive minds. But at the end of the day, like, McDonald is the guy that sort of started that trend of defense is getting out first, getting out ahead of the offenses, knowing what they want to do. And if there's not weaknesses and there's not easy answers, like there's not a linebacker to attack, I don't know what you do. [00:03:19] Speaker A: I. I really just want to talk to you about Nikki Memwari, though. It's a little bit. A little bit too far after the fact. I mean, this is what we talked about during the draft process. You and I both held Iman worry in a high stead, but also I was very. I was very critical about him as an actual safety. But when he went to Seattle, we're like, oh, no. Because he's a Kyle Hamilton player. He's a jackal. He's a joker. He's whatever you want to call that sort of star position, which is so vital to these chaos defenses. And it has taken him all year. But he was the best player on Seattle's defense. Defense, in my estimation. And that defense has dudes, him and Witherspoon as a tandem, where Iman Wari can play all three levels, inside and outside, and then Witherspoon can play outside slot, or you just line him up as a will linebacker and you lose nothing. That was an incredible. That was just an incredible tactical game to watch, even if the result was somewhat painful to watch for 49ers fans. [00:04:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Iman worry was a guy where I was like, he's probably not gonna work for 75, 80% of teams in the NFL, but if he goes to the right one and the right one is clearly the Seahawks, right, that's going to be a problem. And he went to the right team, the right team that values versatility, speed, size, the ability to play every position on the field, and if you have one of those guys, let alone multiple, it's a problem. It's a real problem. And that showed up. [00:04:51] Speaker A: And the good news is that they are not facing that this week. Far from it. In fact, I would say that that Philadelphia's defense, while impressive in its own right and specific rights, is very Traditional in a lot of things. They do. And in fact, when you think in. In some ways it's similar because Seattle's like, we're not substituting anybody. And in a way, Vic Fangio is doing the same thing, but he doesn't have the kind of players that don't require him to substitute because he can just play them anywhere. He just sticks with his base. And the only different differentiation that I was able to notice when watching through the tape was sometimes on early downs, he'll put five guys on the line of scrimmage with two linebackers, and then other times he'll have a nickel in there and that's really it. Do they have an extra defensive tackle lining up as a 0 or a 1, or do they have Cooper DeJean lining up in the slot? That's it. That's all they're going to do. They're going to play cover 6 damn near every snap and they're going to trust that you can't execute consistently enough to beat them. And. And that Quinyan Mitchell, who is about as good of a player as there is in the NFL, not just at corners, just at any position that he will lock down your number one receiver and you're going to have to execute with your second, third and fourth string guys. [00:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I mean, literally, they just have a lot of dudes. And I think up front it's really the J. Like, Jalen Phillips is a really good player and can wreak some havoc, but it's all Jalen Carter. Like everything's predicated on him getting through and he wins. He's got pretty much one move with the swipe and it. And it works. [00:06:24] Speaker A: It's a nasty move, though. [00:06:25] Speaker B: It's, it's. [00:06:26] Speaker A: I mean, Reggie White had one move and he. [00:06:29] Speaker B: You don't need that. That's what D. Ford told me when. When Nick Bosa was talking about adding more moves. He's like, you need two, you need one and you need a counter and that's it. Their linebackers are pretty good. I think they can be got in certain ways, but compared to like some other teams, I think it's clearly an above average linebacker group with Zach Bond and Jihad Campbell, who again went to a pretty good spot for him, but again, can be gotten. I think the Bills ran really well against it with counters. Like, they got a lot of flow going one way and broke it back the other direction. [00:07:03] Speaker A: Have I got to take for you on this? You have to press one gap and hit another one with this team so they're disciplined. They all flow together that can be weaponized. Their run defense is straight up bad. And Zach Bond, who is a really impressive coverage guy at linebacker to the point where he was an all pro last year, he's riding the wave, man. You can pick him up and take him anywhere you want. He is carry on luggage in the run game. I think Campbell's got a little bit more pop, but he's young and not as disciplined when it comes to the gaps. And I am first off. I mean, the Bears ran for like 281 on this team. They had two 100 yard rushers. The 49ers do not have the Bears rushing offense. They do not get the same kind of push up front. I would say this whether you know Trent or Pleasants is in at left tackle, but you have to be able to run the ball against this team. They're willing to give it up. They stack the box 13% less than any other team in the NFL. They go with six. Sometimes they have a fifth guy on the line of scrimmage. It's never going to be overloaded in the middle. And they always play too high. Sometimes Blankenship comes up. I don't really like Blankenship that much as a player. It's. It's. [00:08:17] Speaker B: You have to be able to tackler. I, I think he's. He makes some good plays for them, cleaning stuff up. I don't think he's an elite safety, but I think he shows up in. In more positive ways and he's like an energy guy. He's a little bit like Kufanga for them in some ways. [00:08:31] Speaker A: Okay, I dig that. When I was watching it. I mean you, you can move Bond anywhere you want. [00:08:35] Speaker B: I don't like eps. I'll say that. I don't like. Yeah, I think he can be got. [00:08:39] Speaker A: He's a weak, questionable tackling at safety. From my notes. Hunt JLX Hunt Wild player. I mean this is both Houston Christian. [00:08:49] Speaker B: If I recall correctly. [00:08:51] Speaker A: He is frighteningly long. It looks like his fingernails are scraping the ground when he walks. Not highest level of compliment. This man should be playing a stretch for the NBA level right now. He just looks like a basketball player and kind of plays like a basketball player. Yeah, he will either give you the sweetest, coolest pass rush you've ever seen or he will be shot 40 rows deep into. There is no in between. He is just a wild player. I. Sorry I didn't write the name down clearly. Ojanu. Ojanu, the defensive tackle. They. They use him instead of Carter a lot. They'll rotate him in every now and again. Sorry. You got the depth chart, I imagine. [00:09:38] Speaker B: I have the depth chart. Oh, Johnny Ojomo. [00:09:42] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you. My, my. [00:09:43] Speaker B: It was so close that it was like so far off. Moro Ojomo. [00:09:48] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, he's super movable. Super movable. In the run game. Easy leverage stuff. It's the counter stuff. Every big run that went against this team was a counter run safer, one or two, which was, you know, like one of them was Ashton Genti. Just taking six guys and running more. Everything else was press one way, counter the other. And I think that they are gap disciplined, but that does not mean that they are sound defensively in the run game because you can manipulate their gaps with motion. And this is something that Seattle did not do on principle. And they've been again building up to this game and this matchup their entire lives. When the 49ers would bring someone in motion, whether it was juice and dash or bringing someone across the formation to get a man or a retell, the defensive line did not shift. There was no shifting whatsoever. It's weird as it sounds, the chaos defense stood static. We're not. We're not adjusting to you. So when you go up against, I don't know any other defense in football, and you're using your. Your motions to get tells, but also to manipulate the defense, force them to shift gaps, you can hit those adjustments. And that is what the dash motion has really done with for Kyle and Juice, which is now you're manipulating gaps. You can do it with the, the trap block or the, the wham block, whatever you want to call it, where you bring that opposite tight end to block the weak side. And as everyone flows to the left, that's going to be the gap. That's going to be the gap every time. And really, if Juice is out here dash motioning, I think that it's going to open up gaps for them in the run game. It's just a question if Christian McCaffrey has the juice, which is something we started the season asking and I think something it's fair to wonder at the end of the season now. Well, there was a spectacular five, six week stretch there in between. If he has the juice, there's 20 yard runs to be had in bunches in this game. And Christian McCaffrey might go for two hundo by himself. If he doesn't have the juice, and I don't mean the fullback, though he. He'll be important, then it's going to be a lot of six, seven yarders and you're going to be in third and shorts. Sure. But now you have to pass it against this defense and without Ricky Pearsall, I find that very difficult to expect the 49ers to win this game. Passing the football without a man to man beater on the outside. [00:12:08] Speaker B: I'm with you. I. It's funny because you. You look at this game and when you look at like the Eagles defense, you're like, all right, that's a really good group. You got two great groups. You got the Eagles defense and the 49ers offense. And you switch the other side. And I swear to you, the Eagles offense is absolutely sickening to watch. I mean, everyone involved with that should be put out to pasture. They have multiple, like, really talented players, like a pretty good offensive line group. And it looks like no one knows the play. On every single play, everyone's confused. Hertz is like, adjusting and the offensive linemen are like, what do you. [00:12:44] Speaker A: What? What? Yeah. [00:12:46] Speaker B: And then. And then it's just throws to the flats, like, take too long to process or maybe throw up a deep ball to like A.J. brown. Or occasionally let's use Devonte Smith, like four yards down the field on a hook route, like, rather than. I don't know what they're doing, but the Niners defense looks like. And they have a bunch of guys. Their entire linebacking corps was signed in November. [00:13:10] Speaker A: Right. [00:13:10] Speaker B: So. Or December or January or Jane or literally today. Who's to say? [00:13:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:16] Speaker B: And. And their front can't get home. [00:13:19] Speaker A: Like, Right. [00:13:19] Speaker B: They just can't. [00:13:21] Speaker A: And especially not against this O line. If they didn't get home enough last week, where I thought they had an okay pass rush, which again is grading on a pretty significant curve. And against that Seattle O line, which is really good downhill, but was having a lot of problems with pass pro. They're not getting. If Lane Johnson plays, they're not touching Hertz. Now, to be fair, that might not be an issue because Jalen hurts. Beats himself. Yeah. Okay, good, good. Let's just. Let's just let it out. I watch him and he frustrates me. He frustrates. [00:13:51] Speaker B: I don't know what he's doing. [00:13:53] Speaker A: Did you see any throws that were more. There were a couple of throws, to. [00:13:56] Speaker B: Be fair, by the way, I remember him having a good arm. Like not a great arm, but like a good arm. His arm looks like it's pretty much coming up. Yeah, I agree. [00:14:05] Speaker A: It looks shot. And. And because. And so. And he's still operating on the timing as if he has a great arm. So you see a lot of passes on slants and overs and digs that are behind his receivers because that ball was supposed to be there faster and he thinks it's going to be there faster and it doesn't come out fast enough. And so it's just on that half second delay and it's. He has latency issues with his throwing arm. It's. You got to get off the WI fi. You got to get on the hard line. So it's that plus there are a couple throws that you see, oh, they have zip. And then you're trying. I'm looking through and there's some that have zip. And you're like, huh, what's going on here? And you watch, they're the, the only time they have zip is when he can step up into the pocket and get a running start. Like, he's a javelin thrower and he. [00:14:51] Speaker B: Hates stepping up into the pocket. He loves bailing. He loves bailing so much. [00:14:57] Speaker A: Just. [00:14:57] Speaker B: And, and as much as Shadur Sanders rightfully gets like ripped for like taking all the time in the world, Herz does that too. But he's just like been able to like buy time for so long. But like, yeah, I don't know. He looks like he's phoned in this entire season. [00:15:11] Speaker A: I also got the sense, and this is such an anecdotal. I mean, you can feel free to clown me on this one. I got the sense watching their offense that they just don't like their quarterback. [00:15:25] Speaker B: They don't. No, no. That's been abundantly clear. [00:15:29] Speaker A: They are. I mean, the amount of bad body language, there's not enough therapy bunnies, Happy Easter to go around. Like, they don't like this guy. And there's something to be said for when you watch. So like Mac Jones. Mac Jones had his limitations. Now, Mac Jones also played very good football, but everyone on the 49ers clearly likes Mac Jones because he's this just authentic, good, good natured dude and is trying really hard. [00:15:57] Speaker B: He executes what he's told. He. He plays with bad knees. [00:16:01] Speaker A: Good football player. Yeah, good football player. And everybody around him is like, we want to play hard for this guy because he's putting his body on the line. He's doing it. And Hertz, Hertz plays kind of antithetical to his name. He plays a pretty soft game, all things considered, when he runs. You know, he, he's, he just looks like he's trying to get a 15 year career while playing like Mac Jones played in Jacksonville. Like, I. It just doesn't seem like they like this guy. And the body language on these receivers. I know it's receivers, I know they're div. But the body language on the receivers on these throws is just abysmal. It's abysmal, man. And I, I have to imagine that that manifests in some way even against this 49ers defense. [00:16:49] Speaker B: Well, that's the thing is like, I hate this Eagles team. Not in terms of like, personal. Like, I love their defense. I think that's a really cool group. But watching their offense, it's just so painful. It's so exhausting. I hate. I've said it all year. I think multiple people feel the same. A ton of people feel the same way where they're on every single fox game at 4 in the afternoon. [00:17:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:17:11] Speaker B: Or 1pm and you're just like, get them off my goddamn screen. Tom Brady is doing the worst commentary ever. They're just like loafing around. It's hard to watch because it's poorly coordinated. And even if it's well coordinated, the quarterback's not executing it that well. Everyone's exhausted. Everyone seems like they want the season to be over. And yet, like, I just. They have more dudes than the 49ers, and so at the end of the day, I think it's going to come down to that. And the 49ers just are out of dudes. [00:17:40] Speaker A: It's probably right. I don't know how. If Robert Sala can find a way to weaponize the bad vibes of the Eagles against them, like, that's good defensive coordination. It's also good, you know, societal manipulation. Like that's what we're operating on. Because man to a man, like, I don't know how they stop even this disjointed, siloed bad vibes offense because I will say Saquon Barkley has looked a lot better in recent weeks. If they have Lane Johnson back, their offensive line will be a level higher, which it's already at a decent one. It will be objectively good. They do have two great receivers. I mean, Devonte Smith is so good. A.J. brown, when he. He's not pouting is exceptional. By the way, when the Eagles get the ball on the 20, if you don't throw a safety into, and I'll put this even more specifically, the left corner, just cover the left corner because here's what they're going to throw when they get to the 20 yard line, it's going to be first and 10 from roughly the 20 yard line and they're going to throw a back shoulder sideline ball to A.J. brown. They did it like nine times this season. Anytime they were on the 20, they're like, back shoulder throw. They did against Bears. They did it against the Bills. They did. It's the same play. They're like, okay, we get one on one on the outside and then we're going to throw a back shoulder to Brown. Like if you. There are. The beauty of the Eagles defense, if you're looking at it from a 49ers perspective, is they're very predictable. They're not, they're not interesting, they're not coming up with new stuff. They're just running basic stuff with good players and not particularly great players across the board like Dallas Goddard. Terrible blocker. Terrible blocker, but good receiver. And because Hertz doesn't want to try anything interesting and cool, he'll just throw it to him like all the time. And he does separate as a receiver. I, I do think that everything that I would be able to point out about why the 49ers defense should be able to beat this Eagles offense and put it out of its misery is just moot. Because it's again, the 49ers defense and you're going to have. [00:19:51] Speaker B: Right. [00:19:51] Speaker A: What's the best case scenario at linebacker, the 49ers, Eric Hendricks and D. Winters. Injured. D. Winters. [00:19:58] Speaker B: When? I don't think Winters is playing. [00:20:01] Speaker A: I don't think so either. So, like, okay, so what's, what's the next Kaiser White? [00:20:05] Speaker B: Yep. [00:20:06] Speaker A: Garrett Wallow. [00:20:08] Speaker B: TCU legend Garrett Wallow. [00:20:11] Speaker A: Can I, can I admit something publicly? I think I've done it before. I'm gonna do it again. I had no idea who Garrett Wallow was until I saw him line up on kick return cover or kickoff coverage for the first snap against the Titans. And I'm looking to see who's out there because I thought it would be informative. And I try to pay attention to that stuff. I'm in the press box and I see wallow 49, and I'm like, I literally said to everyone, who the is that? Who is that person? [00:20:38] Speaker B: You know what's funny? I liked him. And back in 2021, I was like, ooh, kind of like, this kid hasn't done much. [00:20:44] Speaker A: He is small. [00:20:46] Speaker B: Yeah, well, that's why I didn't like him. [00:20:48] Speaker A: I saw him in the, I saw him in the, the locker room and I'm like, oh, they signed a new. Oh, no, that's not a safety. He had a really. He had a really tough game against Seattle. I am. Yeah. I. This, this game should defy all logic in that neither team should win based on. [00:21:12] Speaker B: Yeah, let me. Yeah. My prediction is this is a hard watch for everybody involved. This is. And. And I'm. You know, every part of me wants to be optimistic and like root for a good football game and just a good product and be really excited because I know people are looking for anything and if I was better at this content game, I would lie to you and tell you this is going to be a sick football game. I can't wait. 49ers are going to scorch the Eagles. I think it's going to be dog shit football. I think it's going to be. Stop. I think both teams are going to be trudging uphill through the mud the whole game and it's going to look really ugly. And I think the Eagles will win by proxy of having more dudes, by being at home and. And the Niners just being hurt not having a man beater. If Ricky Pearsall doesn't play, I don't think he's played. I. I think the Eagles win in like a mud fest without mud, like 26 to 20. [00:22:10] Speaker A: Yeah, it. It. And. And I think the frustrating aspect of that is there are going to be so many opportunities for even this, for this Niners offense to get points that they won't take advantage of because the drives will stall out. And then it will. I saw it too. And then, and then the defense will be given so many opportunities to look decent and they'll be like, now we're good, we're good. And it not terribly dissimilar from Seattle, right, where they make some good plays in tough moments and you're like, wow, that there it is. That's all you need to do. Like you didn't get the turnover but like Ben, but don't break. And you kept your team in position and oh boy, you know, it just third and 17. [00:22:55] Speaker B: Niners will like allow them to get into the red zone and stop them quite a. Quite a few times on defense because again, the Eagles can't really execute that well. But I also think the Niners could get blown out just, you know. [00:23:10] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. It really is a tough game to make a prediction on because no one. This is going to be a game that whomever wins it is going to come out feeling so bad. They're just, I mean, and even the Niners, who, let's be clear, have not lost back to back games this year and who have responded historically not just this season, but consistently very well from losses. Right. And come back in our at least interesting. It kind of gets Kyle even more locked in than he usually is. Right. Brock, a quarterback who has feel and understands that there's some mystique and art to this quarterbacking thing. Unlike his counterpart in this game who is just trying to execute the most simple, boring game plan known to man so that no one can ever claim that he's, I don't know, freelancing or anything. He's trying to beat stereotypes from 30 years ago. I think Brock is going to be in a situation where it's just, it's just I don't know how much he can. I don't know. He's always bounced back. I don't know how much Brock can do because we just saw it. If you don't have the man to man beater, we saw it in 24. If you don't have the man to man beater, it's gonna be, it's gonna be really, really tough to move the ball on money downs. Can I just do a quick quarterback comparison statistical for you? Because I do think that we have the reputations for these guys precede them so much and maybe we're falling prey to that with Hertz. [00:24:39] Speaker B: Sure. I will say very briefly, sure. The Eagles are terrible against cover four. Awful, worst. It's the worst coverage and the Niners run plenty of COVID 4 anyway. [00:24:52] Speaker A: They don't really have a choice but to run a bunch of COVID four anymore, which I do want to note. I'm gonna, I'm gonna put a pin in that and we're going to talk about Bob in a second. But deep passes somehow hurts a sixth in the NFL in deep pass EPA per play. Brock is ninth. But it's so different in how that those numbers have come to pass. Hertz is just chucking it. Great receivers and they're making incredible plays and Brock is out here. And to be fair, there's been a lot of times where it's been a great receiver makes a great route, he gets the ball to him. But Brock's making something out of them Late downs. This is, this is big because the Eagles have the best goal to go defense in the NFL. The Niners are number two, which is just a weird shocking stat when you watch these. So I. Late downs, money downs. Like if this is going to be a game that's ugly, it's going to come down to third downs. It's going to come down to red zone defense. Both of these teams are good at red zone defense for some reason. Late downs. Brock is number one in EPA per play this season. He's 0.10 better than anybody else in football. I'll be it. On a smaller sample size, Hertz is 10th, and that includes the tush push, which I can imagine is a very high EPA per play play. Okay, on play action. This is, this is maybe why I found these stats, because it's frustrating. People have been saying, oh, Brock's just a play action merchant. Please. I'm. I'm all ears on to when he's been good in play action. He's 27th in the NFL on EPA per play on play action this year. Mac Jones was right there next to him. Hurts is 16th. Okay. Pretty League average. No play action, right. Hertz is 17th, Purdy second. So if they can get some spread, if they can get that man, if Pearsall does play game on against man. Brock is seventh. Hertz is 17th. Okay, fair enough. [00:26:42] Speaker B: Yep. [00:26:43] Speaker A: Probably not going to look like that, given again, no Pearsall, but then again, zone. And this is to your point earlier. Brock is fourth in the NFL against zone defenses. Not shocking. Kyle Shanahan, right, Jalen Hurts is 28th. You play zone against him, he doesn't know what to do, which doesn't really make any sense, but maybe speaks to the arm and the lack of feel it speaks to. [00:27:06] Speaker B: He can scramble easier against man, buy time, and he can chuck it up to receivers who can win one on one. I think that's what it is. [00:27:15] Speaker A: So if the Niners are going to win this game, it's because they still have a great red zone defense. They can bend but don't break. And Philadelphia's offense is just bad enough to where they can get a little bit of a head up. Right? Because Seattle, Seattle had 13 points. They didn't get the turn. They get the turnover. They still do the same sort of thing. It might look bad, it might feel bad, but ultimately the scoreboard's all that matters. So the defense might be able to do just that much. Tough sell, but easier to sell the Eagles messing up than it is the Seahawks. And the Seahawks messed up plenty. Of the flip side, you got Brock on third downs, you got the 49ers offense able to run the ball, which I think if they, if they do that, it does change the tempo, ball control, kind of the Rams game week five all over again. And if they can't do that, then it probably turns into The Rams game in Week 10 again, but in the meantime, or, you know, maybe even the Seahawks game. But it does feel like there's a lot of paths here for the 49ers to win that I didn't see made available early this week. Coming out of that Seahawks game, understanding what happened out of that Seahawks game. And again, to your larger point here, maybe it's because I hadn't actually watched the Eagles because anytime they were on TV I wanted to gouge my eyes out. So I never got like a full detailed look, but they, this is a team that needs to be put out of its misery. And the shame is that I'm not sure San Francisco is the team that can do it for him. [00:28:37] Speaker B: No, I don't think they will. I think whoever wins probably faces the Rams because I'm betting the packers in a bad game. Not, I mean, I, I'm excited for whatever that that game is going to be. But yeah, I'll, I'll bet on the packers, even though I don't like that at all. [00:28:57] Speaker A: It's, it's, it's going to be a fascinating game and luckily Al Michaels will be calling it. So, you know, you're going to get. [00:29:02] Speaker B: Oh, Christ. [00:29:02] Speaker A: The best of the best in this game, too. [00:29:06] Speaker B: But the NFL really has done a lot of things to like, dilute the product in pretty outrageous ways, just in terms of scheduling and other nonsense, just to be like, let's move this game wherever. It's fine, it's fine. They're making hand over. They're making money hand over fist. It's just like, don't you want to see the best games? Like, nah, people watch. Doesn't matter. [00:29:26] Speaker A: I mean, they got right. [00:29:28] Speaker B: They're right. It just sucks. [00:29:33] Speaker A: I was just talking with Ethan Strauss on his podcast and we were talking about sports uniforms, which was not the initial conceit of the conversation. Shocker. [00:29:40] Speaker B: Bad. [00:29:40] Speaker A: And yeah, like, he was saying that he's out on Adam Silver as NBA commissioner because I can't tell who is what team on the court anymore because. [00:29:48] Speaker B: Of the uniforms and the NBA Cup. I guarantee you ratings are terrible because every time the Timberwolves play, it looks like you're in whatever the Nickelodeon slime zone and you can't see anything. It's unwatchable. [00:30:00] Speaker A: And so that, that's kind of the same thing right now when it pertains to like, Adam Silver needs to step in and say, no more uniforms. Like, we all, we're all going back to two for a year and we can build from there. [00:30:13] Speaker B: And everybody has to wear a suit. [00:30:16] Speaker A: Well, I don't feel that bad about it, honestly. I, I will say as someone who covers or really has covered the NBA, I haven't been around in a minute and I, I guess I'll be back as soon as this is over. But there was this pressure to wear a suit to work as a journalist because this. Coaches were wearing suits that you should really just wear whatever the coaches wear as a good principle of proper work attire. And like I just want to wear a quarter zip and athleisure pants that are basically sweatpants. And I, I always felt like out of. It's like, oh, I got a Ted Baker suit. All these NBA guys trying to do the NBA media guys trying to do the fashion walk. And I'm. I agree with you on Fake Hustle, but now that everyone's just wearing the big baggy quarters, I'm like, hey, this is, this is my territory, baby. You're in my world now. I want to dress as if I can go play 18 after this, even though it's night time. Regardless. Regardless. The NFL needs to. Roger Goodell, if he was a good commissioner, not just a money making machine with perpetual growth forever, he would be like, hey, announcers, they suck. They suck on Amazon. And this Brady guy, pick a, pick a lane. You could either half own the Raiders or yeah, pick a lane. I mean, do you also see like Troy Aikman's out here like consulting the. The Dolphins. And then Matt Ryan wants to be the director of football operations. [00:31:36] Speaker B: We're in a big era of people double dipping because nothing gets punished. [00:31:40] Speaker A: Yeah, well, guess what? We're here to punish you with shame and words. [00:31:45] Speaker B: The shame zone. Oh, God, I sound bad. [00:31:47] Speaker A: Meanwhile, Meanwhile, I have three. Three jobs. If we include this one, which maybe we shouldn't. Okay, what else on what else? On the Eagles. What else? [00:31:57] Speaker B: What was your score prediction? That's what I need. [00:32:03] Speaker A: The Eagles have more routes to win this game than the 49ers. I think that the vibes with the 49ers are less than ideal, but that doesn't really matter when you're playing the Eagles. Who will always win in that category. You had what, 24, 21? [00:32:22] Speaker B: I. My initial thought was 31 20, but I said 26 20. I don't think the Eagles can get to 31, but this defense is terrible. [00:32:33] Speaker A: 1917. [00:32:35] Speaker B: Love it. [00:32:36] Speaker A: I want a World War I game with a World War I, you know, year as a score. World War I was still happening in 1917. [00:32:44] Speaker B: Maybe, maybe they don't really talk about that one as. As clearly, they just go, oh, it was all the 1910s. [00:32:50] Speaker A: The Great War. The Great War followed by the bigger one. Okay, is that it you want to call the show? [00:32:58] Speaker B: I think that's it. I think that's it. I mean, I. I am. I am. [00:33:02] Speaker A: Let me see if I. You're on the struggle bus. I don't want to push you any further, but I do need to go through. Oh, by the way, like, attack Adore Jackson. Yeah, just attack them. Double moves. And I. I'll say this. If the 49ers don't have peer salt, there is a way. I think it might not work because it will require. [00:33:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:26] Speaker A: An officiation, abdication of responsibility. But I think you can be more physical than their secondary. I think you can beat him up a little bit now. And they do do a lot of dpi, which is typically their response to kind of trying to get beat up. So I think. I think Juwan Jennings is going to get a dory Jackson once or twice if they get lined up. I do think Jackson's gettable. And that could be. That could be something to keep in your back pocket for a really big third down when you kind of don't know what play to call because you haven't set up anything worthwhile and you're in a weird spot. I mean, legitimately, just like run a double move on the outside against the George Jackson and hope it works. [00:34:07] Speaker B: Yeah. The problem is they don't have anybody with speed. People are talking about Cowan and he's not playing. [00:34:13] Speaker A: Okay. Watkins might play. At least they would. The frustration that I have heard is that of course Peirsol was limited in practice all of last week. Now Kyle is now saying, well, we didn't do anything in practice last week. Yeah, but you were putting together a game plan and you walked through things. [00:34:33] Speaker B: You went from limited to DNP and didn't warm up. [00:34:39] Speaker A: So the decision was made before he got to the stadium. And there's some. Well, I don't have it sourced well enough, but there is a suggestion that the Niners asked him to give it a go because, hey, we're not going to play Cat. We're not. I'm sorry, not counting. We're not going to play Watkins because he wasn't in the game plan. So can you just test it out, give it a go. Even if you can only go a play or two early and then you say, hey, I can't do it, at least we gave it a go and it's not like we have somebody who's going to step in and replace you. We'll just go do what we would have to do anyway because we're in panic mode regardless. And that was. That was not followed through on. Now, maybe that did. Maybe that didn't happen. I can't say definitively, but the suggestion has been out there from enough people who I loosely trust, if I'm being honest. This is all very bad journalism, frankly, right now. But it's not a great look. It's not a great look. And so this week, they're not going to have Ricky Pearsall in the game plan as a matter of principle, because they don't expect him to play. If he does play, they pretty quickly adjust the game plan to fit Ricky Pearsall. But if he doesn't play, they're going to have to figure out ways to get separation with guys who can't separate. And so that might be Watkins. It really might be. It won't be Cowing, though, because as much as it's great that he's out there and running routes against air and practice, he literally hasn't practiced since the first day of training camp until this week. I understand that they're signing linebackers off the street that don't know each other's names yet, but those guys have played football roughly as recently as Jacob Cowing has at wide receiver and linebacker. You know, if you've played nine years in the league, you kind of get it. You kind of know what's up. And Jacob Cowing has no practical NFL experience, really. So he's not going to play. He's just not going to play. [00:36:30] Speaker B: I'm with you. I'm with you. I think Trent plays. Pearsall doesn't. They would help if Keon White played, but. No, I don't know about that one. I don't think D. Winters plays either, either. [00:36:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, it's gonna have to be. Oh, by the way, Jordan Elliott picked up an injury in practice. [00:36:47] Speaker B: Awesome. [00:36:48] Speaker A: That actually might benefit them in a weird way because now they don't really have a choice but to play Collins and West a lot. [00:36:53] Speaker B: Just play CJ west every snap. [00:36:56] Speaker A: I mean, Alfred Collins, I'd like. I'd like to see it. I'd like to see them just throw caution to the wind and say, alfred Collins, here's 65, 70 of the snaps. [00:37:05] Speaker B: Just put Collins at the end. [00:37:08] Speaker A: We. I suggested it last week and we got pretty close. It felt like we were. They were right there on the precipice, just do it. [00:37:14] Speaker B: Just do it. [00:37:15] Speaker A: You want to do some comments? [00:37:16] Speaker B: No. [00:37:17] Speaker A: Cool. Okay, bye.