And now move the sticks with Daniel Jeremiah and Bucky Brooks.

What's up, everybody?

Welcome to move the sticks DJ and Bucky with you.

Fuck.

Uh, not a lot of sleep last night, buddy.

The uh the.

Old Monday, the old Monday night turnaround.

I mean, I guess it's a good thing.

It's not a road game because then you're really get home in the middle of the night.

But uh, I love I love games at so Fi.

It's a great atmosphere.

It was unbelievable atmosphere is a crazy game last night, but getting out of that stadium is a flipping nightmare.

No, I don't envy you.

I know Monday nights in Englewood can be tough.

When I when I when I just watched the game, and I watched how it was, because it can be a bit of an Eagles takeover.

There a lot of Philly for Eagles fans that are in town and then they descend upon so Fi, So it can be a bit of a mess.

But it had to be a great game to watch.

And I just keep saying this man, Tony Jefferson has to be my age.

But he's still playing, I mean, like still playing, still being around the ball, make plays or whatever.

So good for him, like Carl had a great career.

I mean he's set the stage for you know, people coming out of retirement, which we'll get to another person.

Who's who's going to do that?

Here it sounds like shortly, but I mean the man was in the scouting department for the Ravens and totally ready to move on.

And then I always come back and he's made some enormous, enormous interceptions for this Chargers team.

And it goes back to you know, what you preach as a high school coach, Buck good things happen when you chase the ball man good.

Uh So there are a few different things because I got to say this, one of my assistant coaches is like the biggest Charger fan, and so he was in the building watching it.

And weird team that plays a lot his own.

But one of the benefits of playing zoner You've seen it on your own eyes with Jesse minner Man when you play zone and you get eyes on the ball and then just the reaction, so it's not even Tony Jefferson's play, it's the corner.

Yeah, Kim Hart just kind of hanging out in the flat, he sees Jalen and eyes he makes a late we actually get a tip, and then you talk about Tony Jefferson running to the ball.

It is just that kind of stuff.

And we've seen more teams go to his own looks.

But when you play visit and break tips and overthrows, becomes a real thing when it comes to taking.

The ball away.

Yeah, no, it was a real thing.

And last night, you know, I give Justin Herbert a tremendous amount of credit to man.

He's out there playing with a broken hand.

He just had surgery, pins and a plate inserted, and he was sacked seven times when he ran the ball ten times, so technically he was tackled at least seventeen times, not counting other times he might have been hit within the pocket.

So an incredible amount of toughness that he displayed.

And I was talking to somebody else on the team and that was new to the team and said like that was the biggest surprise to him or what he did not know going into it was how tough Justin Herbert was.

He's like from the side from other teams, you watch him and you know the town how talented he was.

But he said, I did not know just how tough he was and doesn't complain.

You know, truly kind of a football player, more so than even a quarterback.

Yeah, DJ, when looking at Laura Retlis talk about the injury, I think it's very similar to what I did in my hand.

I think it's a third meta car fool injury, like a spiral fraction.

So the thing that he had on the pad is very similar to what I wore in college when I did mine.

Now I played in like eleven days.

For him to play in a week is ridiculous because I can still remember the thriving and have it, and I know they probably gave him a little sum agent, a little something to take it off.

But DJ even in that, and you can see it's in his non throwing hand.

But when bodies are around, you have to change your natural reactions when it comes to putting your hand down, how you protect yourself.

He's even running the ball that the normal inclination is to put two hands on it, but then that exposes that the context.

So just having to rewire your brain in less than a week.

Man credit to him because they needed him and he showed up.

Like franchise quarterbacks.

I was supposed to shot for EA, your team.

Yeah, and look it wasn't perfect.

He had a couple of fumbles, you know, had a couple of throws he'd like to have back.

But man, it was you know, it was a gretty tough performance in a couple other things stood out in that thing.

Man, Man, it's such a luxury when you got a kicker like Cameron dicker is I think five five field goals last night and Buck he doesn't even flirt with the uprights.

Man, everything is true.

It is right down the middle of It didn't matter it's fifty five yards or thirty five yards.

When you're watching, I know how you do it when you're you know, on the sidelines and where we are situated.

We're kind of in the corner of the end zone where our booth is for those home games, so you can't it's not like you have a great angle to see the kick.

So you have options when you're broadcasting the game.

You can either watch the monitor.

You could watch the screen in the middle of the field the oculus, or.

What I do is I'll watch reaction.

So and I'm telling you, but it's like from the swing from the legs swinging to the to the stick, the hand eye to shake the holder's hand like it's kick and then it's shaked.

They're like, oh, he's this thing's right down the middle man.

Look, man, there's a luxury to having a great kicker, and there's also a luxury to having a bit of an old school coach who takes the points where the points are there at a time where everyone is going for it on fourth.

Down and whatever.

Like Harba's willingness to take the points and just stack the points to give yourself a chance to win.

I love that.

But look, when you have a kicker who is nails and let's just say nails from fifty end, nails from fifty.

Five in, it changes the way that you call games.

You know, I just need to get to the sweet spot, the thirty five yard line, and we have points available.

So for the Charges, it's a huge advantage and it's one that paid off for them last night.

Yeah, I want to get to one other Charger thing.

Then we'll flip over to the Eagles because we need to hit on that thing.

But man, it was nice to see from the Chargers standpoint of Mario Hampton back and he catches a touchdown, It runs the ball thirteen times for fifty six yards, so they know he's gonna be a little bit of.

A pitch count.

First game back Camani by dal it doesn't look like much fourteen for forty four, only three point one yards with a long of eight, but he ran hard and they also popped a long catch, so he gets a sixty yard catch early in this game.

So that that combination, I think is going to be a nice one to two punch.

You know, they think about this team.

Buck, I'm looking at the landscape of the AFC and I'm like, man, he can't say the what ifs, but holy cow, if you had your two all pro level tackles and.

Yeah, they lost.

They've been out without their top two running backs for the majority of the season, so you lose Najie Harris, you know, for the majority of the year, and a Marion Hampton only played a couple of games.

So it's kind of the what if thing.

But where they are now and is it wide open?

Is the AFC looks you know, they've got to They've got to figure out some pass pro in terms of just schematics, not physical beats.

You're going to have physical beats.

You can't have him to Kobe Dean, you get m a clean run through.

Now, there was a times that Big Fangio special where he was able to exploit a little bit of their pass protection.

So they've got a schematic adjustment that needs to be made there.

You know, here's the thing about the AFC, and I say this obviously being down in Jacksonville, it is as wide open as it's ever been in terms of who can go to the show.

And it's a combination of playing your best ball, but it's also being healthy at the right time, being able to have all your guys going into the tournament and the final part of it in terms of who goes the matchups.

Those first round matchups are really going to matter in terms of who you get lined up against, because there's some teams that each team matches up better against the other teams that are nemesis that you necessarily don't want to see in their first round.

To me, I can't say that they're blaming weaknesses in any of the guys any of the teams that we right now for casting a playoff field, but some teams might have a potential to go to a higher ceiling.

But it's gonna be interesting because when I look at the Chargers, I look at the Texans, the Jags and everyone that's in there, very compel matchups.

But the one trade that remains true that we've talked about, it's a quarterback driven league.

You got to have a quarterback to be able to get it done.

Now it looks like quarterback in defense and coach.

But if you got a quarterback, you got a good defense.

You got to heit coach.

He knows how to run the game.

Man, you got a shot.

All right, let's do the not so nice thing.

Let's flip it over to the other side.

Now, first of all, Vic Fangio, those corners, that defense, even without Jalen Carter, that's real.

That group is very, very talented.

I know the Bears ran all over him last week.

Chargers that I know that was their game plan weren't able to have that same success.

But man, they fly around.

I mean they cover as well as anybody on the perimeter.

That is not an issue.

They have a super Bowl caliber defense, especially they get Jalen Carter back in the mix, and Jalen Phillips has been a nice addition for them now we got to go though and spend our time on the other side because I want to get to just your reaction on one play, because everybody's going to talk about the foreigner steps to fumble like the two hundred and two turnovers on the same play from Jayalen.

I've never seen that before.

That was a that was a first to me.

There's opportunities that are there that he's not seeing or attacking or taking advantage of.

And there's one play I want to get your thoughts on because I'm watching it, and they end up taking Saquon Barket.

They removed from the backfield, they split them out wide chargers have and I can't remember if it was Still or Heart, but it had the starting corner on Davante who at the time was in man on the line right yep.

So if Barkley goes out, they bump, so corner goes out with say kuon coverage zone.

Now you get Elijah Moulden who walks down over Davante Smith.

There's nobody else there.

So now I'm sitting, well, man, they got the that's where you start, That's where your eyes are going to go.

Is I think it's a third now it is a big play, but he never even got He never even looked there, even go there.

And I'm like, Davante Smith is good outrunner as you get, and you've got that matchup sitting there waiting for you, and it was never even in his eyesight, never even went there.

Yeah.

The one thing that I worry about now with Jalen, because I won't put it all on him, I'll say it's one of the things that we always talk about.

There's a trust issue that is going on in Philadelphia, and so it could be player the player, it could be player to coach, it could be player regarding the scheme, and the quarterback has to have the trust in all of those parties to be able to play at his best.

Meaning when a play call comes in, I trust it's a great play call.

I know it like the back of my hand, and I'm gonna trust it.

I can just let the ball go to whoever's supposed to go to and they're going to make the play.

Because of all of the noise, I just feel like Jalen just has like a cloud, just a lot of clutter in his brain and so he just doesn't see it and it's just not playing the game the way that we've seen him play.

Now, there's a lot on him, and he should be for a lot of it.

But I just think the job of the head coach and everybody is to simplify everything to allow the most important player to play the game the right way, and right now I can't say that Philly is doing it.

I had a theory on another theory on this, by the way, which I don't know is I haven't been I haven't, you know, obviously been on the sideline with this team, and I haven't paid attention to their mic depth segments over the years or what have you.

But I know that offensive linemen that are usually the better offensive lineman on your team, that are usually the vocal leaders on your team.

I've seen it on teams where they can bully play callers buck and I'm sitting there in that game with Saquon popping some runs and getting the run game going, and even to the end of the game where they're throwing the ball.

Where I've been on teams where I just wondered, with this team, if you had Kelsey or if you had Lane Johnson playing in this game, if they wouldn't have been able in between series to bully the head coach and the play call or be like, hey, we're running the ball, like what are we doing?

Just run the ball?

And I don't know, maybe maybe there is somebody that's trying to do that, but I've seen it before.

I know you've been on teams before.

You see offensive line that can be like hey, enough, like we don't need that.

I know we're turning the ball.

We don't even need why we're throwing the ball, like, what are we doing?

Run the ball?

And so unfortunately this happens at every level.

The squeaky will gets to grease.

Yeah, and sometimes when you have people who have a lot of opinions and they're very loud and you're trying to placate them, you move away from what the team does.

Well.

If we're really honest with the Eagles and why the Eagles have been a dominant team for two and a half three years, it's because their ability to run the football consistently says of everything else, and the quarterback run game was a big part of that.

The more they move away from that, the more they come back to the pack in terms of being just like everybody else.

And I'm not saying that it's over and that they don't have enough time to fix it.

But it's going to take Nick Sirianni step it up and be like, hey, this is what we're doing.

Decide we got to get it done, and I don't care whose feelings are hurt.

Hay Gavin put it in the chat.

Now.

I know the Chargers had a long drive to start the third quarter, which ate up, you know, I think eight or nine minutes, so they didn't have the ball quite as much.

But Saquon had five carries in the second half.

Buck, Like, that's insane.

It's insane, particularly when Saquan has popped one.

We pops one on a big play.

The first time we really get him going, we don't give him the ball.

And I understand as a play caller, sometimes the game can get away from you should get like, oh, man, Saquon hasn't had a carry in a lot, but like he's the driving force of the offense and when he has it going, it makes it easy for everybody else.

I know they've had players only meetings, I know they've had team meetings in those things, but at.

Some point, man, they got to cast us out.

All the individual's agendas and get back to playing team ball so they can be the team that many of us expected them to be this year.

Let me make a quick baseball ology for you from my podre fandom.

This this what the end of this game reminded me of was a few years back when the Podreys were playing the Phillies and the NLCS or a chance to go to the World Series.

Bryce Harper comes up the bat and late in the game, eighth, eighth or ninth inning, crucial part of the game.

They've got Josh Hater, the best left handed reliever in baseball, sitting in the bullpen, warmed up like he looks like he's looking peering out towards the field.

They leave the other picture, and I think it was Robert Suarez and Shoreber hits a home runs the game for him, and I'm sitting here going like you're you're You're all the way down to like the twenty five or thirty yard line, wherever you are.

You've got Sake.

That's your closer.

Your closer is the guy that's going to the game.

That's him.

And I just fixed I pictured Saquon was in the bullpen last night going like why am I not closing this game.

You guys are throwing the ball.

We just lost because we got our closer sitting here to waiting to come in all warmed.

Up, and and it's a game where look, in this situation, you can't like, it's really a no lose situation.

Either we right it or whatever we get to field goal and we extended, or we've run it in four touchdown.

Yeah, but at no point should what that showed up to be.

Shouldn't that be on the asakar?

It shouldn't be on the thing.

And man, that's one.

Now they can get into the playoffs, they can win a division because the Cowboys won't be able to close unless they completely unravel.

But if the Eagles are going to make a run, they have to have one.

Of these hard realities face the music moments where they say, hey, let's figure out a way to get this done.

Well, they need to get their right tackle back.

It sounds like Lane Johnson with that foot injury is going to be coming back.

And man, I don't know that I've ever seen a non quarterback with the win lost splits that they have with Lane Johnson.

I mean, it is like six hundred and something percent when he's on the field in three hundred and something percent when he's not on the field, like it's insane.

He's kind of the lynchpin there that kind of makes the thing go.

And I also think that's where I go back to my theory.

Is he the bully?

Is he the play calling bully for the offensive line?

Like, hey, what are we doing?

Just run the ball?

Man might be man who is the elder statesman, who's the guy that is the voice of reason on that, like Gavin just putting the chat that fifteen and twenty seven record when Lane Johnson is a little I.

Mean, that's just every one of the best teams in the league.

And one of the things that we've always talked about the Philadelphia Eagles is how they've committed to the offensive line.

They're big on the trenches.

But now we're seeing is he the Jenga piece?

Is he the piece of the puzzles that you remove him, everything falls apart.

If that's the case, Man, they didn't need him back, and they need him back in a hurry.

Yeah.

I mean, I you start sizing up the rest of the NFC and you're looking at it going like, okay, man, I don't know that they're in that top tier right now, which sounds nuts.

They just won the Super Bowl, and I do look out there.

I was talking to somebody and their and their media side after the game was over, and I said, man, like the thing about the Eagles when you look out there and you see, first of all, you're down there to warm ups, you see the size and the physicality and what some of the body types are.

And these guys and you see Saquon Barkley, you see AJ Brown, and see Devonte Smith, you see Dallas Goddard.

I'm like, the heck, is this offense not better than this?

Man Like that does?

That does not add up?

I'm telling you, just because they're not playing to their superpowers.

It's almost as as if they just don't want to lean into what they need to be.

And I understand this team has been well constructed where they don't have from a personnel standpoint of glad weakness on offense.

We've talked about the line injuries in those things, but they got two code number one receivers on the outside.

They got a big time tied end.

They got a huge look at all for running back and a quarterback that can drive the bus and they refuse to.

Just Hey, let's run it first and get to the weapons.

Just because we have those guys out there, it doesn't mean we have to run it through them.

Run it through sta Quon and they get to them.

Everyone can benefit if they play a certain.

Way one percent.

All right, quick break, Let's get to this Philip Rivers conversation the funnel right after this.

All right, Buck, I heard about this h morning, the morning this came out in the afternoon.

I heard about it in the morning that this was this was likely to happen.

I think it's fantastic.

I think it's such a it's such a microcosm of how Philip Rivers plays football, and that Philip Rivers does not care.

Hey, you could look.

You could end up embarrassing yourself.

This could look bad.

He does.

He is ready fire aim like.

That's how he's lived his life like.

He's he is all the way down on the gas pedal.

And he loves football as much as any player I've ever been around.

I've been around the NFL since three I've been around a lot of different players.

I don't know that I've been around anybody who loves football more than Philip Rivers and the fact that at forty four years old, he wants try and give it another spin.

I think it's hilarious and I think it's awesome, and I absolutely love it.

Well, one thing that we do know about great players, All the great players we've ever been around, love it.

And his love for the game is undernied.

But he hadn't hung up to cleats and he was already coaching high school ball, and so you know, the love is there.

And I'm a believer in why not man like until the wheels fall off, because once you're done, there's nothing else that gives you that same building like.

You can get it in different ways, but not that same.

Man in the arena, the gladiator in the coliseum feeling that you get from playing.

And if you're Philip Rivers, you have an opportunity in a four game run to save the day for the Indianapolis Coast and whatever capacity, whether that's as a starter, back up, mental, whatever, that is, why not your high school season is over, jump right in.

And just see what you can do.

Well.

The other thing is game plan wise, they had Daniel Jones with a broken leg out there, right, so you were having to design an offense with a guy who really couldn't move it all.

He's on one leg, so you just trying to incorporate the same game plan in there.

But I'll tell you the thing I would be doing if I was, you know, if I was Shane Steichen on that offense, running that offense is tight end.

Let's see how many different things can we install here?

Tight ends screen, slip screen, tunnel screen, bubble screen, like every type of throw that can just get the ball out of Philip Rivers's hand.

And then the thing that's going to be nice is you know who's going to like having him there is Jonathan Taylor because he is going to check if you have a head coach at the line of scrimmage.

He's going to find opportunities in the run game.

He's going to get you in the right calls, in the right plays.

There is zero learning curve.

He played in this offense.

He already knows all the terminology.

He knows he's taught this offense, so he's going to know where the you know where the holes and defenses are.

He's seen every blitz known to mankind, so he's going to have all that stuff dialed in to me, it's just a matter of can he get hit and get up off the ground at forty four years old, you know, haven't been five years removed here.

Yeah, But one thing that we do know about him, his playing style has not changed since he ended the league.

He's never been a mobile quarterback.

He has always had to get the ball all out of his hands quickly.

He has always been great at winning the game at the line of scrimmage.

Watching the game on Sunday where Ridley.

Leonard in the game and Rodley Leonard actually did a really good job for his first appearance.

He did a really good job.

His anticipation, his instincts, his athleticism all served him well.

But there's only so much that he could do because he doesn't have an encyclopedia of knowledge in terms of looks and things or whatever, where Philip Rivers has that.

Now physically he may not be able to do some of those things.

But some of the junk looks that you would like to throw at a young quarterback, those are off the table.

Jonathan Taylor will benefit.

And we've talked about the Indian Outficis Coast under Chris Ballad and what they've attempted to do.

They wanted to get the best athletes, the most explosive athletes, and teach him how to play ball.

And there's him be in a situation where they can impact it.

Where if we're just talking about get the ball in the hands of your best playmakers, Philip Rivers can do that and they can scheme up enough things to help those guys on the PERI have a big impact on the game.

Yeah, here's where the rub is.

This is a team coming off the loss to you know, your Jags last week.

They're in second place in the AFC South and Philip Rivers.

If this happens and he gets the nod, you are at Seattle, San Francisco, Jacksonville at Houston.

Not that is a murderers row, buddy.

I mean, there's nothing like easing them into it.

Just we're just gonna drop you right into the deep end and see if you can swim.

But I think if you're Indianapolis, I think there are eight.

The number number is ten.

M they got to find a way to get to ten.

Philip Rivers coming over with that helped them find a way to get closer to ten.

You know, I would say the division games are probably gonna be their best outlook because you know those teams well, the Jags and the Texans.

Can Philip Rivers help you win one or two of those games to help you solidify yourself into the postseason.

Last thing, last thought on this one.

When we were kids, because we're similar age buck, there was a show, remember called That's Incredible.

There was a there was a guy actually from the church that was on the show because he was riding a motorcycle at like eighty or one hundred miles an hour while playing a guitar, like playing a full song.

So he made it.

It was a big deal in our church.

He made it on That's Incredible the show.

If Philip Rivers takes this team to the playoffs against that schedule as a grandfather h forty four years old just celebrated his birthday off the high school field, it leads them to the postseason.

They need to revive that show, man, because that would be absolutely incredible.

I mean, look, man, it'd be one of the greatest feast that we've seen an older guy get off the cows, five years removed from playing, takes the ball and it goes well.

Now, the Hollywood ending yeah, would be that the young before it would be Yeah.

He realizes, Yeah, just wasn't a great idea.

So well, here's the thing about it.

Buck, there's no in between.

It is going to it's gonna be great, but it's gonna be read.

Yeah.

It's like watching you talk about being a kid watching shows.

It's like looking at evil Codnievel.

It's all good, it's all good at when we're.

Going yeah, until it's not.

Yeah, a lot of broken ribs.

If you missed that jump, All right, that's gonna do it for us, and I hope you guys enjoyed it.

We'll see you next time.

Right here on moving this way,