 Back in beautiful rainy L.A. for up in Adams this Monday, and I thought Halloween was over, but no, my home's off a bye week. Woof, nothing scarier for the AFC. Matt Castle, the perfect person to join me to break it down. Also, Tua for MVP, who says no, I'm saying it, and no more Packers. We're done, toast, curtains, done, hit it. To up in Adams, very excited to have Matt Castle on the show, super happy to be back in L.A. where it is raining, and I decided a red lipstick was the way to go for a rainy day. We're running late to work, as always, on a Monday. I also, I mean, what goes better with a jacket that looks like I'm going hunting? Like, right? I belong in, we and Jay Cutler are out there, like playing big buck hunter in the wild. Nothing better than a red lip for that. Welcome to the show, so excited. Oh, by the way, the shoes are the best part. Anyone? These marbles, these? Listen, Dick's boarding goods. Shout out, no joke. These are the, they're water shoes. They're so comfortable, and they are fashionable. I get comments on them all the time, and that's what I'm doing today. So that's my OOTD, OOTD outfit of the day, as we break down the chiefs. I'm very excited. Listen, Matt Castle, like the perfect person to have on. Patriots, A.C.E. stuff is going on, and yet this game last night, as the Kansas City squad takes down the Titans 20 to 17 and overtime. I thought the entire game, the chiefs were gonna lose this one. And just when we thought that we have seen everything imaginable out of one single player named Patrick Mahomes, every ridiculous thing you could possibly do on a football field, he keeps somehow finding ways to surprise me. He didn't himself, okay? We've seen him lead a miraculous comeback before, but he did it last night with over 500 yards of offense by himself, 444 through the air, another 63 on the ground, including, of course, the game tying touchdown run, and then what was just another remarkable comeback? You can't just heap it on the pile of those that he has because this one is special as this one is showing us that he can do it without Tyreek. And I've already said that he doesn't need Tyreek, he doesn't need him this year, but in a lot of those comebacks on that huge pile that has accumulated for Patrick Mahomes and company, it usually is Tyreek Hill coming and making some big play. It's, oh, they don't have him, nobody will be there to make that play. And they didn't need him. They crushed it, and he crushed it specifically. We're not just gonna give him credit, of course, because it's beyond Mahomes and the offense. It's the defense that deserves some lap and atoms. Love today, check this out. The offense was struggling to get going. Casey's defense kept them in it. They were shredded by Derek Henry and Malik Willis in the first two quarters. What did Spags do? I don't know. Win in that locker room, Aida Cheeseburger with Andy Reed, they came out and they allowed just 22 total yards in the second half. How about that? Buying Mahomes and company, their chance to get it together and get back in the game. That is as good a second half performance as you will see out of a defense. Spags and company, we see you. And of course, I'm very interested in the Malik Willis of it all. So credit to the Titans and Vrabel giving this squad all they could handle. The defense spectacular most of the game. And I do think that Malik sort of showed some signs of growth, especially in the first half. Ultimately, the Chiefs seemed too much to handle with Mahomes under center and the defense playing the way that it turned out playing. So Kansas City now moves to six and two, I believe. And that number one seed in the AFC still very much back in play for them after Buffalo's loss yesterday afternoon. Okay, what is happening in studio right now? There's a lot of movement. There's, what is there, are we okay? Is there some imminent danger I'm in? Is it has to do with the rain? Are we, is the lighting? What is that? Okay, what are you telling me? Something is happening. I need to hear from you guys at Up and Atom show. And I'm smiling. Listen, I like to smile. I wanna have a good time. And so I'm done talking about the Packers because I like having a good time. And here's my takeaways from yesterday's action 59. A loss to the Lions. I knew they were gonna lose going into it. I like to be positive. I like to swim in that side of the pool. I like to, you know, I like the party of it all. I like to highlight the good things teams are doing rather than spend time a week after week talking about all of the Packers missteps. They're mistakes that they've made up to this point. Most self-inflicted, especially when they're not going to listen to anyone by trying to make it better anyway. You, oh, well I don't wanna get into this. You have five plays inside the five yard line early. Why would you give the ball to Aaron Jones? Why would you do that? He's only the best weapon you have on offense. Let's just throw three interceptions in the end zone instead. And now Jones hurt, Dobbs hurt, Watson and Gary. Gary's hurt bad. And I just can't do it anymore. And the schedule makes it easy to make this statement that I'm making because it's not fun. Cowboys, Wolf, Titans, Wolf, Eagles, Wolf Packers. You are three and six, Wolf. And listen, when I watched this game yesterday, I thought I put myself in Odell Beckham Junior's shoes, who is Bella the ball. I can probably go wherever he wants. The schedule, the record, I think there was a good chance because Aaron Rodgers is as good of a player, a prolific player, best in the game, two-time MVP. I think very charming. You can get on the phone and talk to Odell and get him interested in coming there. I don't know, I think it's too late. I think Odell now, he might answer the phone and listen, but I do not think it's anywhere near the top of the pecking order in favorable landing destinations for Odell's services. It's too late. And there was so much yesterday. We tried to get this guy out of that front office in Green Bay and we were in the mix for Chase Claypool. Those are fails, those are fails all around. And then, you know, there's the, how do we handle this selfishly on this show? Because we love to be positive. And we only have 48 minutes every day to divvy up the focus on storylines that we wanna talk about, ones we need to talk about, ones that make an impact. And I just think I'm done with the Packers right now. And there's more useful discussions. My words are not lost on things like this, because I said, run the ball. I said, give Aaron every weapon he wants. So here's more impactful discussion. I could sit here and talk about the detailed meaning of daylight savings time, which does anybody even know what happens anymore? Because you don't change clocks, or I mean to change your PCR when you're a little Marissa, you're too young to remember that, gosh, how to properly care for and treat toenail fungus. But that could, if we went into that on the show, we could help someone out there. Yeah, every single shot from producer Brian's round of golf is speaking, humble brag, how to go? Okay, well, see, I don't really wanna hear about him. My kidney stone, that could be more useful than me sitting here talking about the Packers and what they needed to do, what they need to do, and whether or not they could turn around. How about describing social media to my great Aunt Ethel? And TikTok, no, no Ethel, it's not candy. Let me explain TikTok to you. How about the process of rebuilding a carburetor? Is that how you spell carburetor? That's literally no way. No chance that's how you spell carburetor, really? Oh, I'd be knocked out of round two of the spelling bee, for sure, on a lawn mower. Great, yeah, great. I once changed a water pump in a 1996 Nissan Altima. I could do that, I could tell you things. I'm Tim the toolman, Taylor, the binford 5000. How about how a bill becomes law in the United States government, very topical, very on trend, very necessary for tomorrow? Yeah, it's more useful to talk about every single species of bird in existence on this planet than it is right now to talk about the Packers, how they repair it, what they do, now there's injuries, now there's the schedule. And now I'm looking at the squad and I want to be wrong. And I hope you prove you're wrong, of course, that's why I'm doing this. But you're on your way to a top 10 pick next year where you're likely to choose another cornerback and this vein in my forehead will pour true like a blink and does on the penny. It'll just pop right out and be out there for the rest of time with this Packer squad. It could change. I love Green Bay, wanted to work out, want to live in the positive. I'd like to hear from you guys out there watching. At Up and Adam's show, am I being too harsh? I don't think anyone's gonna say I'm being too harsh on this team because it's not injuries, it's decisions that were made and most of it self-inflicted. And then you got Adam's out there just thriving on a losing situation. It's just a mess, it's a mess. All right, onto more positive things. I like this one. Tua Tunga-Viloa officially needs to move to the front and center of the MVP conversation. Not set it to a rectum, over 300 yards, three touchdowns. The Dolphins won yesterday at 35-32. When at Chicago, Chicago gave them hell. All they could, Justin Fields looked awesome, but the Dolphins are now undefeated. Get this, six and oh, when he starts and finishes the game and are now just a half game back of Buffalo for the AFC East lead. And his numbers have been zany, absurd. He is leading the NFL in passer rating in yards per attempt this season. Which showcases not only how efficient this quarterback is, which is what we always thought he could be, but also his ability to do something that everyone thought that he couldn't in the big leagues, hit those deep balls. Everybody said, oh, he can't do it. I've not seen it. Oh, I love when players shut people up. And I think it was one of my bold predictions, heading into the season, the day the show started, that Tua is going to shut people up. And he's also beaten the favorite for MVP. That's a great thing in his argument here. If you're making the case for Tua, he beat Josh head to head. And I know that the arguments, because that's what you do when you say something like this, you have to say, well, what are people gonna come at you with? And they're gonna say, how can you give him the MVP he missed games? That's exactly why you give him the MVP or why he has to be in a conversation because the Dolphins miserable performances were when he was out with that concussion and that only serves to make the case that much stronger. It has proved how valuable he is, how important he is to said team. It isn't just Mike McDaniel. You can't say it's the speed. You can't say it's Wally. You can't say it's Tike Reed. He is the point guard that is making it all work. So there's a lot of seasons left. I'm not saying he is the MVP, but I'm saying that he needs to be in the mix and thought of that way. Of course, Marissa, I have your computer and I need you to log in. Yeah, I think it's time for critics to sort of lay off him and swallow their preconceived notions about it and admit that maybe they were wrong about Tua and he's having such a special year. And speaking of Tua, thank you, Marissa. You're beautiful and I love you and I'm sorry about the Astros winning. No one wanted the Astros to win. No one except for Kate Upton. Who Kate Upton like all for supporting your man, but like read the room. There's a reason people don't like the Astros to say we don't know what are we doing? Anyway, don't put that on Twitter. I don't need that smoke this morning. And speaking of Tua, I wanted to get into the AFC East which has gotten very interesting Sunday. I said it before, dolphins are a half game back of Buffalo. After beating the bills yesterday, so are the jets. How about, that's amazing. And then look, the daylight savings time happens and everyone's slipping their clocks back and it's raining and I'm cold and what happened New England's performing. Something happened November, that Bill Belichick gets some grinding. They're sitting there at five and four up there with the Patriots. The clocks get turned back, it happens and this coach say what you want about him, grinds out wins, refuses to give it away. The division, the whole point of this, the division is wide open thanks to the jets. And this has been so fun to watch. The first half of the season is over and the bills, of course, overwhelming favorites, probably gonna win it all, probably will take the East as it should be, it should have been easier though and it's important to note they are 0-2 in the division. Did you know that Brian? Okay, okay. And I think a lot of people are penciling them in to be the number one seed and go to the Super Bowl. A lot of work to be done though, here for those Buffalo bills. But however, it shakes out so fun. So fun to watch these four teams. They've been sitting with winning records. Nobody thought that about the AFC East so it's all good times. I have no idea what time it is. There's no clock or should we go to break? Okay, we'll go to break here. I'm 12 after. Matt Castle is joining me after this perfect person. Yes! I wanna talk, I mean, how scary can Mahomes get? We also gotta talk about those Patriots. Staying Alive, why are they so good in November? So when you're looking to book guests for a show like this, you sit in the control room or wherever you hang out with your producers and you look at the slate of action like on a Friday and you say, oh, who's looks good, what are the big games gonna be used for to predict with the big storylines? So we have to book a guest for that show. And we looked at the slate and we, you know, there's a dream guest, right? There's a dream guest pretty much every week. And we landed it for this week nine Monday show. He's perfect for a day, especially like today, the Voltron of guests, if you will, a Pro Bowl quarterback for the Chiefs who won last night. He lives in Nashville, that's the team that they played, of course, at Tennessee. He played with Tom Brady, we gotta get to that. And he studies the game as much as anyone I know. He co-hosts the breakdown on Kansas City Sports and Network, oh, and the Patriots ones, we'll get into that too. Please welcome, and he works with our Matt Hamilton, of course, Matt Castle is here. Matt, hey! Hi, darling, how are you? I love that red lipstick. Thank you so much, sir, I appreciate it. Yeah, looking good, looking good. You agree too. It's that Chiefs red, it's that red kingdom red. That's right. I mean, is it crazy to say that he is better, looks better than ever, better without Tyree Keele? And what differences are you seeing in the Holmes this year? Yeah, it's incredible, because when you lose a guy like Tyree Keele, you think the explosive nature of what he does, the chemistry that those two had together and their time together. But at the end of the day, it's amazing to see the production that he's had because what he's doing is, he's forced to go through his progression and he can't just focus on the one, two punch of Kelsey and Tyree Keele, even though Kelsey had 17 targets last night, but these other guys are stepping up, Juju Smith Schuster. Marquez Valdez Scantlin has been a big part of it. McColl Hardman's been a big part of it. So he's doing a tremendous job and also the stats support what you're saying right now. They have almost 700 more yards at this point in the season right now than they did last year with Tyree Keele. Who's been the most impactful you think among those wide receivers? You've all seen them have their moments, McColl Hardman, they add Tony, all of that. What are your thoughts? I think it's Juju Smith Schuster. I mean, he just brings a presence to him. He's a veteran guy, he understands how to get open and he's been a big presence on third down for him and you can see that that chemistry and that rapport continues to build and he's finding ways to get him the ball and Juju Smith Schuster's getting open. So it's been fun to watch those two work together. I love saying that name. It's like a tongue twister every time. It's so funny because Hamilton told me before the show we almost made a bet over at Fandola Sportsbook that you would have trouble with the hyphenated names and there's Marquez Valdez Scantlin because you guys do a podcast together and it's something like that. You nailed it though. Thanks Hamilton. I hear you brother, he knows me. All right, now my homes who we all know and my home is magic aside. The Chiefs offense went through a serious lull in this game. I was worried pretty much the whole time until the defense really stepped up in the second half. They didn't run the ball at all. Should I be concerned? Well, that's kind of part of this offensive structure, right? What they do is they use the quick passing game, the bubble screens, all that stuff is kind of an extension of that run game. So they're gonna put more on Patrick Mahomes and when you look at this running back room really, it's running back by committee with Pacheco, Clyde Edwards, Aller, Jerick McKinnon's more of a third down back, but they don't really force the issue in terms of the run game. Even though they've got a solid offensive line and I think if they wanted to do it, it would be an emphasis, but it's just not. They're gonna put the ball on Patrick Mahomes' hand. They're gonna get the ball to the playmakers on the outside. They're gonna scheme up some jet sweeps, some shovel passes and that's once again more of an extension of the run game. But the only thing that I'd say would be a concern is when you get later in the months in the November and December and you know Kansas City can have some bad weather in which the elements might play a role in terms of how you can throw the ball effectively, accurately, and so at that point, can you turn to the run game? Something that you haven't emphasized throughout the course of year and now be able to turn that on and win a game running the football. And would you make a Malik? Because he looked great in flashes, but I feel like Spags just defensively, they rolled out something to stop. And would you make, this is a second career start now. This is a second career start and he looks like a rookie obviously and he made some progress from the previous week. And when you look at him, it was the zone reads. They actually were able to scheme some things up that fit his skill set. You saw him take off, he's an outstanding runner. He made some throws, the seam route in the back shoulder to set up the second touchdown to Derek Henry was outstanding, but all in all, he's got a long ways to go and it's gonna take repetition. In addition to that, with the Tennessee Titans, you look at it in the lack of weapons at the skill position, you know, they bring in Traylon Burks from Arkansas who's been hurt. He hasn't been out there, but of his five completions, every one of those were to tight ends. He didn't even get a wide receiver involved yesterday. So they're so reliant on the run game that it's hard to know where he's gonna be if you were to surround him with more talent on the outside. And achieve super tough against the runners we saw in that second half. Derek Henry couldn't get anything going. 22 total yards allowed in the second half of that game last night. Now a guy who has weapons, who you know very well is named Tom Brady and he's also great at game winning drives. He got his 55th, that's an NFL record last night, unbelievable and credit to him. I thought he performed better in this game to be honest because I think that he runs on motivation. He was bleeding last time he saw this Rams game at home in Tampa Bay to kick him out of the, you know, the whole dance. They get played into why he came back and all of that. And it really wasn't until that final drive that we saw something until then it was more of the same from this Burks offense that can't get it together. Why has it been such a struggle for them this year? You know, early on it was easy to make excuses, right? The offensive line, the injuries that they had, you know, Chris Godwin was still not prepared to come back yet off of his ACL injury from the year before. So there was a lot of revolving parts to this offensive unit, but now these guys are back. And this offensive line has been pretty stable for him throughout, but they haven't had the explosive plays that they had the year before. They've struggled in the red zone. They've ranked numbered, I think they're the 30th ranked team in the red zone this year, where last year they were one of the most productive red zone teams. And so in the other part of it, there isn't the balance that they had last year. The run game has not been able to get going whatsoever. They averaged 2.8 yards per run last night. And so once again, when you don't have the balance in the run game, you're not able to get ahead on first and second down and you're reliant on that pass game. It becomes tough to continue to go out and put together sustained drives. And then also you look at some of the wide receivers, it seems like they're out of sync. Like Mike Evans, there's some drop balls there. They had six last night in terms of dropping the ball. So I don't, I can't put my finger on one thing. All I'd say is that they need to get back to running the ball to set up the play action and potentially get something going there. They do, I mean, look at Joe Burrow, what they did yesterday. And he's happy to run the ball. And Tom Brady's always been happy to run the ball if that's gonna get him a win. Tom gets to the podium after this win yesterday. And it wasn't a great game, it wasn't a clean game. And he has that moment that I'm sure you saw and he swears, he drops an F bomb and he's like banging on the thing and he's happy. You know him better than I do, much better. And I don't know why he said that. Like I don't know him, you know him. What does that mean? Like was this a turning point? Read into that a little bit for me. Yeah, you know what? It's gotta be frustrating. He's used to winning. There's an expectation level around that building since he's been there that they're gonna go out and they're gonna dominate football games and it just hasn't gone their way. And in that moment, when you have a fourth quarter drive, you're backs up against the wall, 35 seconds, you gotta make the throws and he does. And all of a sudden goes down and leads a game winning drive. That might be the turning point for this team because you saw what that defense did last night. This is a solid defense. They've got good skill players on the offensive side of the ball. And so they're in the mix for sure in the NFC South. There's no doubt about that. So hopefully this is a momentum changer. It gives this offense confidence. It gives him confidence and they're able to build off this going into the second half of the season. Well, the crazy thing is nobody's challenging them, right? You'd think if somebody wants to run away with the South and take care of the Bucks and put them in their place, but they're still very much alive and they can turn it around. And it was an interesting moment that I think it, I wouldn't be surprised if that little blurb that we saw with them dropping the outbomb is one that sort of we show a lot towards the end of the season when they're doing okay. And in prime time to take the division, of course, Saints Ravens. Tonight we'll have something to do with that as we watch it on Monday Night Football. You do a lot of work for NBC Sports Boston. You, of course, were up there in New England and I just, I need to know the secret and that's why you're here because they come back. It's so impressive. 26 to three, they beat the Colts. I wouldn't say it was the most exciting performance. The impressiveness I'm talking about is this man's ability to get this team to continue to grind and come away with wins. They are five and four. They're so in the mix in that AFC playoff race. What is it that happens in November? Cause we're all very lazy in the national media. No, I am. We all are like, oh, but come November, real football is no play until November. What does that mean and why does it work? Well, these are when the games start to count and you start to understand the identity of your football team. You are to understand your strengths or weaknesses. And so you can build off those positive things that you do well. And so when you get to November, that's when the games start to really mean something. It's to where you set yourself up to win a division, to go and compete for the division, to get yourself into playoffs. And so that's where the emphasis comes from. And at the same time, it has been a remarkable turnaround. They start one in three, Bailey Zappi goes in, wins a few games on the road. They lose to Chicago at home, but then they've been able to grind it out. They win two more games and now they're sitting there at five and four and they're definitely alive in the East. And it's a testament to the players, the leadership coach, Belichick, what those guys have done. At the same time, when you look at yesterday's game, I mean, it was a dominating performance by the defensive side of the ball. They had nine sacks. They were suffocating. They did, I mean, the Colts couldn't do anything. And then also special teams stepped up, but the one area of concern is still the offense and their ability to sustain drives on a consistent basis. They just, they look inept at times. And I don't know why, I think some of it has to do with the offensive line. And David Andrews has been out. They haven't been able to get the run game going. Mack Jones is still, doesn't look like himself like he did last year. And so they definitely have to work through some of those issues that they have on the offense side of the ball if they want to contend in the AFC East. What is it with Mack? What, obviously at a certain point, this is nice. You brought up the word sustainable. I'd like it to be sustainable, but I don't think it is unless they get more out of Mack. What are you seeing out there? I mean, we can say it's the offensive line. Okay, but Mack took a bit of a step back. And how much of that has to do up here with the fact that the whole zappy thing was handled the way that it was. Right, I think that that probably played a little bit of a role. I think the injury played a big part of it too. Cause when you watch the Baltimore game, the game in which he got hurt on the last play of the game, you watched the first half even into the third quarter. And he was exceptional. Then the turnovers came on. One was just a complete miscommunication. Devante Parker didn't get the signal, all this stuff. And then all of a sudden he gets hurt. Bailey Zappy goes in, plays well against two teams that they should beat. And he comes in against Chicago. He gets that cameo appearance. And they, they're booing, they're calling for zappy and all those things. But look, this kid, he's mentally tough. The biggest area of concern for him early on the season was the turnovers. And that actually doesn't, that didn't just start this year. It goes back to the end of last season as well, in which he was struggling to take care of the football. And so right now he's trying to get back to good fundamental football and make sure that he takes care of it. But I think at times it's hindering him because he's so concerned with it that he's holding on to the ball a little bit longer. He's not throwing the ball on with the anticipation that he has in the past. And so some of it's working against him a little bit. They got the Jets coming up. They've got, oh, they got the Vikings. Oh yeah. The gauntlet of the schedule is coming up here. It's not good. They got the Bills. I mean, I don't trust the Cardinals. I'm not worried about that. Is this a buy this week? They've got a buy this week. Yeah. Okay, that's a good week for a buy for them. So that's good. And maybe Tom Colonel, he's off on you and you'll have some time off. I said to start the show, I'm done talking about the Packers. I'm bowing, I'm done. But it doesn't mean you can't talk about them. Oh, thank you. That's very appreciative. That's exactly it. I want to talk about the Toefungus thing. I want to talk about, you know, your kidney stones and all those things that you pointed out earlier. It might help people. They just don't listen. It's just kind of annoying because I want them to be good. I don't like watching superstars exit the league or exit the game. Not at the top. I like to root for fun teams that aren't self-inflicted. That's what it seems like. I know the weapons aren't ideal, but what are you making of what's going on with these Packers and can they turn it around? It's hard to say, because every week you think all of a sudden they're going to take a step in the right direction. They're going to turn it around, but it continues to look like the same product put out there on the field. Yesterday was a complete debacle. I mean, three red zone turnovers. And this is Aaron Rodgers. So uncharacteristic. The guy has been one of the best in the game throughout his entire career of taking care of the football. And this is also going up against a Detroit defense that gives up 32 points a game. And it's inexcusable. And you can point to, look, they have Romeo Dobbs. They've got Christian Watson, young guys playing out there. But this falls on Aaron Rodgers. And unfortunately in this case, I mean, these are three bad interceptions and all taking place in the pivotal part of the field and where games are won and lost. So he's got to do a better job of taking care of the ball. But again, it's so interesting because they've got good players all around. And yes, there's some- So what is going on? I don't know. Is it Nathaniel Hackett leaving? I mean, you watch the Broncos and you go, wait, that must not be it, right? You can't pinpoint one thing. That's not it. Well, it's Aaron Rodgers, right? Like, can we know, is it, you know, the only thing worse, I hate to say I don't want to be negative, but it's just how I feel. The only thing worse than watching their games is listening to their post-game pressers. It's the only thing more disruptive and nauseating because Aaron is not taking full accountability, though it isn't truly all on him. But you know, of course everyone wants to see him put it all on his shoulders. And then you're watching Matt LaFleur say, you know, they dared us to throw the ball. Well, what are you saying about your quarterback and your passing game if you're saying that they, like, and then both sides are saying, we need to run the ball more. And then I'm watching what happened with Aaron Jones yesterday, pre-injury. So it's so frustrating. And I don't know who's more to shoulder the blame, but I certainly would like to know your thoughts on that. Right, the philosophical breakdown after the games is always riveting when you're sitting there and you're going, you're just trying to look through all the minutiae and all that stuff. And you're like, I have no idea what you guys are really saying right now. Why don't you guys just come out and say, we didn't run the ball enough, right? We've got to be better in terms of converting on third down the red zone. We got to take care of the football. We got to be better at taking shots on the field. They're not explosive this year. And that might be the inexperience, but they've got enough guys out there in order to go do and run their offense. And he's had the experience. It's not like this offense has changed. Matt LaFleur and Aaron Rogers have been together for a long period of time. So they should be on the same page and should be able to figure something out. But then it's also the defense aside of the ball. This is a highly paid defense. And you got guys like Jair Alexander the week before against Washington giving up big plays that resulted in the loss in that game, right? You've got guys not stepping up across the board. I don't know if it's a fracture in their leadership if it's disbelief, but this is rock bottom right now for this team and it continues to unravel in a way in which they don't have answers for it, but they just keep saying the same stuff week in and week out. And they've got a tough schedule coming up. And I think going into the bills game, they still had me. I said, oh, Aaron said, this might be the best thing for us. And I listened to Aaron. He's saying this might be what we need. That was the rock bottom that we all thought we were seeing. And then it didn't work out for them. Clearly some things, I guess I would ask you from a quarterback perspective, is it that Matt LaFleur is planning on, like when you exit a game as a quarterback and you are looking at it, because in the game, bullets are flying, you don't know what's going on. And you say like, man, we needed to run the ball more. We weren't balanced. It's something like, in New England, Andy Reed gets away from running the ball too. With the Chiefs. Belichick never did. Very even-handed, balanced, understood that, very rarely let it get into a situation where he's throwing the ball a ton. When you walk off the field and you realize as a quarterback, or when you're going through it, post-game watching tape, like what does it usually come down to? Because I'm looking at, like there's LaFleur going in there, like we're running the ball 40% of the time. And as Aaron changing plays as they go out there because he's wanting to put it into his hands, like where is it breaking when they're getting away from running the ball because it's obvious to the entire world that that's what they need to be doing. Right. Well, I think anytime you go into a game, you have a game plan, right? And you look at your opponent, you look at their strengths or weaknesses, and you say, hey, look, we want to run the ball. We want to run it consistently. And sometimes the situation will dictate differently. And also when you have a veteran quarterback that you trust, he has the ability to change the play at the line of scrimmage, to signal something to get the ball out quick if they see a blitz, a loaded box, something like that. And then as you go throughout the course of the game, I guarantee you what they're doing when they're evaluating themselves this week, they're saying, guys, we just need to take care of the football in the red zone. We need to run the ball in the red zone. We can't turn over the ball three times when you're inside the red zone. And that's really what it comes down to. So they can point to, we need to run the ball more, we need to do this, that and the other, but they're probably all shooting themselves saying, that's the biggest issue that we had in this game. Otherwise they walk out of that stadium with a convincing victory. It's so true. You know, we were just talking about that Patriots game against the uncompetitive Colts team. We're just breaking news right now, while you and I are talking or telling me in my ear, Tom Pelicera of NFL Media saying Frank Reich was just fired. The second in season coach fired. Of course, Carolina Panthers part ways with their head coach as well. This is after saying Matt Ryan is going to ride the bench a 2016 MVP. This is giving Sam Ellinger and you know, Frank Reich say, this is a quarterback coach. This is a guy who's supposed to be able to figure out the quarterback spot. And he was not able to, and I'm sure that's the reason he's parting ways today. Yes, it's an unfortunate situation because this season and the way in which it's gone has not transpired the way that anybody envisioned. They went from being the number one rush offense in the league to the bottom three in the league this year. Jonathan Taylor has been unhealthy. The offensive line hasn't played well. The defense has been pretty good. But again, when you look at his tenure with the Colts, it's been a tumultuous one. You start with Andrew Luck, who's your franchise quarterback, a guy that can get it done. And then once he retired, you go to Jacobi Berset. You have Brian Hoyer step in for one start there. Then you go to Phillip Rivers and you go to Carson Wentz. And now you're at Matt Ryan and you're on to your fifth or sixth quarterback in four years. It's a tough way to build a team and have consistency. And so he's, it's unfortunate for him because I respect him as a coach and I definitely respect him as a human being. 40 and 33 record, despite all of the quarterback problems. Of course, I love Frank Reich saw him about a month ago when I was in Indianapolis. And of course you have to measure, they couldn't figure out the quarterback situation, how much is on Frank Reich and how much is on Chris Ballard, who's obviously made moves. The truth is, this is a team I was so excited about going into the season. They have stars, they have superstars. The camaraderie on the team, on defense. Like we weren't able to get Shaquille Leonard out there as much as they'd like to, of course, to make a difference. But this is the team that should be contending and competing. And we'll see what that Jolt sort of does for them. I don't know if it's the right move, but I don't know that Benching, Ryan was the right move. I don't know if any of that has been favorable for them. So not a good beat for that cold squad as they part ways with Frank Reich this morning. And then of course, you know, Sean Payton will have his pick of the litter and we'll see where he wants to end up as head coach. I do wanna bring up Kirk Cousins to wrap this all up so we can wrap it up on a fun note. I love it. I know you do. I don't know if I do. I'm trying hard to know of it. Just what are your thoughts here after they of course are now seven and one. I mean, the change is so strong, but at the same time I might put on like some sunglasses, not like the just the bifocals there, but he looks like he's having some fun. I think, you know, I just, the dance moves. I mean, you gotta get, you gotta bring in a little bit more, but I love this. I mean, this type of environment, this is what players really remember when you get done playing. It's moments like these celebrate the camaraderie to screamy and everybody's having fun. And I love that, you know, Kirk Cousins just letting loose, having a good time. Cause I guarantee he probably wasn't doing that with Zimmer last year on the plane ride home. And that is what a new head coach can do. Add a jolt. He's got the Clark Kent glasses on. He's trying to, I don't know what that move is, but everyone's saying, give him the chains. I'm worried about his neck, frankly. I think the medical staff's gonna have to interfere if they keep winning here. But let me this, Matt, you, you know, you're so happy about this. You're gleeful for him. We didn't, you know, you went 11. Okay, well they blew the red on this one, but whatever, they put your nevermind. They put your head on this because I was thinking yesterday and I knew you were coming on 11 and five in New England. You get to a Pro Bowl and Casey, does any part of you, and this is an earnest question, does any part of you regret not living and reveling in it a little bit more? That could have been you. That could have been me, you know what? And there were times on those planes where it was me and we were having plenty of fun, but maybe not with all the chains and not with all the social media because I did my party at the club. Okay, let's go. Well, I get off the plane. That's when the party starts. Let's go. But did, but did Bill let you enjoy it at all? You know what I'm saying? Like you should have like 11 and five, bro. Yeah, he did. You know what? He was really, he would walk back, but we had such a good group between Welker and Paxton and Izzo and Brable and Brusky and all these guys. And we would come and have a blast on the back of the plane. And it was that, that was like the fun stuff that you remember. Like I said, you get on the bus, you go to the plane, everybody has some beers. You know, you're enjoying yourself because it's hard to win in this league and when you do, you got to celebrate it and we always took a lot of pride in that. I think it's so cringy and my natural reaction is just like a mean girl is to just hate on it and think it's like so cringy. But I'm not, I'm really actively trying to be happy for Kirk Cousins in this moment because everyone should be, but my natural reaction is to be like, oh, act like you've been there before like Kirk, you're like, but no, I love it. I'm loving everything about it. Matt Castle, I'm learning a little bit about the ponies as it happens. So I'm just, I'm putting that out there. If you guys need like a production assistant, a little PA, some of you to get your drinks on your Derby trip, I'm interested. Oh, what's up? Maybe you're coming along for a mint julep time? Yes, I can make a mean mint julep. You're awesome. Matt Castle, we appreciate you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great one. Matt Castle, Hansel in breaking news on a Frank Reich here on the program. We will be back. We're going to go through more results for games and more follow-up from Frank Reich. Your thoughts, of course. How about Joe Mix in his performance? How about Joey Brose saying, run the ball? Like Roger Brady, you listening? That was awesome. That was awesome. Week nine was awesome. I love when, I mean, that's a turning point. Soundbite, alert, put in your notes. What do you do? Like save it or something? How do you like, whatever? I don't know. I'm not from whatever. Anyway, welcome to Up In Atom show. We appreciate the tweets. We've got tweets coming in about the Packers situation. We've got tweets about Frank Reich, who was just let go by the Indianapolis Colts, of course, could not figure out their quarterback problem, fell miserably to the Patriots last week, leading us to an open door in the AFCE. So it's time to go around the league and check in on some other games that we didn't quite get to touch on yet. And let's talk about the Bengals who dominated the Carolina Panthers. This is going to be another thing. We're, oh, it's a bad opponent, but we're going to start with them because they're the most resilient team in the National Football League. They bounced back with the win over the Panthers six days after a devastating Monday night loss to the Browns that we all saw. 42-21 final score. This is what I want to talk about. It doesn't begin. 42-21 does not begin to capture how dominant this win was. This game was 35-zip at halftime. The Bengals outgained the Panthers. 300, 311 to 32. What? Shock or? Yeah. After all the screaming about the Bengals abandoning the run last year, Zach Taylor was like, hey, Adams, I'm going to listen to you and everybody and myself. I'm going to try to get better. And what did he do? Got back to the ground game in a big way. Joe mixed and racked up 211 total yards. Five. Five touchdowns, and Joe Burrow is all about it. Listen to this. Now, unless you're, of course, if you're a Packers or a Bucks fan, you might want to cover your ears. We run the ball like that. At a Joey baby. We love to see it. I agree. And I love that he's not like, okay, I want to throw the ball and okay. He's perfect. He doesn't need it to rest on his arm. He's a main man. He's been to a Super Bowl. He wants to win. He wants to win one. So I love seeing them, by the way, they're also joining the Patriots and going into a buy perfect timing and on a high note. Let's move on to the Rams. We've got the Buccaneer side of it with Matt Castle was awesome enough to join. But they fell 1613 to those Buccaneers. Tom Brady through the game winning touchdown, nine seconds to go in the game. What was that tweet? I didn't even see it. I don't. Brian and Marshall, if you don't want to know, that's okay. The Bucks are back in first place in the NFC South now after the come behind win over the Super Bowl, defending Super Bowl champs. So there's still four and five, no one in the South is just trying to tell Matt Castle no one has the opportunity to sort of take advantage of the Bucks not being good and struggling and losing. Therefore, Ergo, what so have you, you let Brady hang around and now he's stomping the, you know, being in the table and dropping F bombs. So Tampa doesn't have everything fixed, but they can get hot at any time and make a run. And that's how I feel about it. The Rams, they're in trouble. There's no juice offensively and unlike the Bucks, I just don't have confidence they're gonna get it back. And unlike the Bucks, I don't think that they play in the NFC South, as you can see, though they certainly don't. And there are three games in the win column behind the Seahawks, which I love. For the division lead, they're a game back of the Niners who've already beaten them twice. And speaking of said Seahawks, I'll give them respect instead of correct. And they took care of the Cardinals who cannot figure it out. That's a whole other thing, 31 to 21. Only smiles allowed. Gino's got a good smile. If I were to power rank NFL quarterback smiles, he's breaking the top five. He certainly is. And he threw for 275 yards, two touchdowns. And I think, okay, here's my takeaway here. Cause I can just talk about how great they are, how they keep it going. Everyone's expecting Gino to fail. I don't, I'm not mad at that idea because Gino's never had this sort of success as a starter in the national football league. But I do think that any expectation for the wheels to come off or for this team to fall back down to earth or where they're supposed to be, it can officially be deaded, okay? Because Gino has shown us time and time again who he is. And if the wheels were to come off, if it was going to happen, it would have happened yesterday. He threw a pick six to Zaven Collins and it gives Arizona the lead in the third quarter. It is messy here. Instead, that interception where I expect the wheels to come off and so do you. And we're like, oh, this was fun while it lasted. The interception somehow took him to a place, another plane of existence or something, insane. After that pick, Gino was essentially perfect. You're looking at the numbers, 10 for 12, 123 yards, two runs for 30 yards and led three consecutive touchdown drives to put the Cardinals away. So here's what I'm gonna say. Put your hands up, just hug them. Just embrace, embrace how good this story is, how well he is playing and how the wheels did not in fact come off. All right, more to come on up in Adams. What was that tweet I wanna know? We'll be back. We're living our best lives. Not as good as this though. The Vikings are living it up seven to one. Party while you can. Love it. Fanduil Casino has launched an exclusive Fanduil branded live dealer casino. It's available to play in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Hey, shout out to Marissa. Now you don't need to leave your home to be in the casino. You can play all your favorite table games, a little blackjack, a little roulette. It's a live real dealer who deals real guards against real competition. And you guessed it, real money. Their deposits and withdrawals are so fast, so secure. It's like being at a, anyone, anyone? Bueller, Bueller, a real life casino. Let's bring in Matt Hamilton. Now we've got some news here in the National Football League. Jim Erse, we have parted ways with head coach Frank Wright. Jim Erse, an excellent Twitter follow. He will tell you if the roof of that stadium is open. He will tell you minutiae about who they're adding to their practice squad. He is in it with that team. And he wants the best for the team. What do you make of the move here after that loss to the Pats? It's tough, obviously. Whenever anything like this happens, we don't know the full story of what's going on behind the scenes. It was a lifeless performance yesterday, but obviously Jonathan Taylor is not out there. You know, Sam Allinger at quarterback who nobody expected to be the guy this year. Frank Wright's a guy who's had, this was his fifth season as the head coach of the Colts. He's had five different starting quarterbacks, a different one to start every season. Even when the quarterbacks are good, having a different quarterback every single year as a head coach is so hard. And as you said before, he's still managed to have a winning record over those five seasons. He's made a couple of playoff appearances. And this is all for a guy. He expected to have Andrew Luck for the entirety of his tenure when he took over that job. The rug got pulled out from under him. I feel for Frank Wright this morning because I'm not sure how much more he could have done. And especially this year with Matt Ryan, looking the way he's looked, and Jonathan Taylor being hurt pretty much the whole year. So I haven't been on Twitter yet because I've been doing this show, but I assume there's a lot. I would assume that there's a lot of, we've got the wrong guy, Chris Ballard. What about Chris Ballard? Is that warranted? Because there is blame to be put around here. It's tough and it's even tough with Ballard because who was he supposed to get at quarterback? I think they were aggressive. They got the top options that were available to them because it's hard when you're winning the way that they were winning because it's not like you can get one of the top quarterbacks in the draft. They didn't have a premium draft pick to do that. So I think they did the best job they could do as far as bringing veteran guys in. I think the talent on the roster overall is pretty good, but when you don't have that quarterback position, figure it out, it makes things really hard. It's true. So the coldest part ways with Frank Reich, we of course love him. We know him, we've talked to him a bunch. I wish him all the best. He'll of course end up somewhere as it should. Chips were sort of stacked against him. Who was he gonna get? Baker Mayfield. That was something that we were trying to connect and make happen. Were they even better off adding Mayfield or was it just a kind of a bad situation for Frank Reich? But plenty of respect for him, a wonderful human, great coach, so we're wishing him of course all the best on the human element of this here on Up and Atoms, so we'll be back after this because my parley busted again. The two is gonna be the MVP. Those are the, what are the odds on that? What are the odds two is MVP? We'll tell you after this. Happy Monday from the Up and Atoms show. I'm Kay Adams. Hey everybody, Matthew Hamilton joining me from New York. Miss you buddy, wish you were here in rainy LA. I think it's like an 80 degree day in New York. Yeah, it's beautiful here. New York's obsessed with me, trying to get me back. We all understand. Okay, so my parley, I got Chris Godwin. At the end, what was 225? A lot of news, you drop back 50 times. They don't run the ball. Castle just told you don't run the ball. He can't get 225. He does. Godwin does not. Cooper Cup does go over 70, but my parley didn't happen. So I'm, and you're on this group text with me, myself and our fan dual group. I don't even know friends. And I think we're going to do what we did last week, which is fun. And I had a lot of fun with it is the, and it's a great game tonight. St. Raven's an odds booster. And everyone says it's odds boost. I'm renaming it. I want mine to be called an odds booster. So we're going to play with that. But I liked yesterday and I was texting with you a lot. And we ultimately came up with the one we came up with to root for Brady. Anyone? Beep. He wants. So that's good. But we want, you know, it's all about positivity. If anybody has like suggestions on tonight and we're going to get creative and it's going to be something like unique for me and the show. And you know that I love both the Ravens and the same side. So we might hit up both sides. What do you think? Yeah, this is really cool. Cause you get the chance to customize it. So I think we're going to have a lot of fun with this. So I'd be interested to see what people would people like. I'm going to be the exhibit, hit my ride of Fandall Sportsbook parlay. I'm going to have a fish tank and aquarium in the back of that thing for you guys to have fun with. Throw a couple of bucks at if you still feel okay. In the break I asked what are two was MVP odds because he needs to be in the conversation. There are 20 to one odds over at Fandall Sportsbook right now. Mahomes, Hertz, Jackson and who and Allen are in front of him. Your thoughts. I like it at 20 to one. I feel like now's the, now's a good time to get in. Cause I agree with your argument completely with what he's been able to show. He's put up the best numbers, passer rating wise, efficiency wise of any quarterback in the league. The team hasn't lost a game that he started and finished. I mean, it's hard to have a better case right now than to honestly, especially with Josh Allen losing yesterday. I mean, you helped me craft my argument for two is case. So I'm happy that you agree with me, Matthew Hamilton. Speaking of that love of this fight, we just have to show this is Mike Mc, and Justin Fields, we were texting each other yesterday crushed it. No, I want to show the bite. I don't care if we're late to the next one. Let's just want to show the bite for Mike McDaniel talking to a, to a here or to a, so sorry, talking to Justin Fields on the sideline. Do we have it? How are we leaving? No one's listening to me. Okay. It's fine.