Welcome to Football Army.

We just survived an absolute marathon of holiday football, from the Thanksgiving triple header all the way through the first ever Black Friday Game.

It was an incredible slate, and now we pivot right into the chaos of college rivalry week.

It never stops.

So today we're going to break down all the fallout from those massive games and then look ahead to what might be the most dangerous Iron Bowl in years.

It was.

It was a Thanksgiving that really reshaped the league.

Just as at the table, we saw the Packers go into Detroit and beat the Lions thirty one to twenty.

Four, huge divisional game.

Then the Cowboys, in a really emotional game, managed to hold off the Chiefs thirty one to twenty.

Eight, the reigning champs Nolah exactly.

And to cap it all off, Joe Burrow comes back and the Bengals just stunned the Baltimore Ravens thirty two to fourteen.

And just like that, the NFC playoff picture gets a whole lot tighter.

That Packers win especially changes the entire dynamic in the NFC norm.

Oh, for sure, before we jump into that first game, you really have to look at that division.

Now the Bears are sitting at eight three, but right behind them were the Packers at eight three to one, and now the Lions have slid all the way back to seven to five.

The margin for air is just gone.

It's zero.

It's completely gone.

Yeah, and that season sweep the Packers just pulled off against Detroit.

That's basically like having a two game lead because of the tie breakers.

That's the stuff that wins you a division title in December.

Okay, let's start there.

Then Game one on Thanksgiving green Bay thirty one, Detroit twenty four.

This result feels, i don't know, almost tectonic for that division.

It really is.

Completing that regular season sweep is just massive.

It's the first time they've done it since twenty twenty.

And for a young team like Green Bay, that kind of road win in that environment, it builds a ton of confidence.

It doesn't.

The way they won was defined by a clear philosophy from the head coach.

It was all about aggression.

Mal flir Right.

He basically came out and said it afterwards.

He's totally transparent.

His quote was that the game came down to fourth down and that he'd rather go down swinging that wasn't just talk either.

That mindset shaped the entire game.

I love that quote.

It gives the team an identity, and they proved it on the field, didn't they.

They went for it right away, right.

Out of the gate that fourth and three early in the game.

Instead of kicking a field goal, they go for.

It and it pays off big time, a twenty two yard touchdown pass to Dontavian Wicks, the rookie.

Exactly.

That's not just a conversion.

That's a seven point swing.

You go from a potential three points to a definite seven, and you send a message to the other sideline.

That you're not gonna play scared, not at all.

And they kept doing it.

Later on.

They had a fourth and one, and what do they do?

Another touchdown to Romeo Doubts I think made it seventeen to seven.

That's the one.

When you hit on those plays, it's just demoralizing for a defense.

They feel like they did their job, they got the stop on third down and they still can't get off the field.

But the real dagger, the moment that showed ultimate confidence, came late in the fourth quarter.

Oh yeah, the game ceiling one.

Green Bay is up by seven, just trying to run out the clock.

They face another fourth and three.

Most coaches in the league are punting there.

You punt the ball, pin him deep, and you trust your defense to get one final stop.

Not Lafleur.

He put the ball right back in Jordan Love's hands.

Which is the ultimate vote of confidence for your young quarterback, and Love delivered.

He finds Wicks again for.

A sixteen yard game that just completely ices the game.

And the craziest part of that play, if you watch the replay, is that Wicks literally lost his shoe mid round.

No way, Yeah, he stumbles, his shoe flies off, but he somehow keeps his balance, secures the catch and gets the first down.

Just an incredible effort, and.

That caps off a career day for him.

Ninety four yards and two touchdowns for an undrafted rookie on Thanksgiving.

That's a huge story.

That whole young receiving corps is growing up fast.

But this game was also about Jordan Love taking that next step.

He had a monster day.

Four touchdowns, and I saw stat that really put his performance in historical context.

For the Paser, it was a big one.

He became the first Packers quarterback to throw for four or more touchdowns on Thanksgiving with a passer rating over one hundred and twenty cents.

Way for it bart Starr in nineteen sixty six.

Wow, that's nearly.

Sixty years, the fifty nine years.

When you're putting your name next to bart Starr in the Packers' history books, Yeah, you're doing something right.

He just looks so poised, so in control.

It really does feel like they've found their guy again.

It's starting to look that way.

But you know, wasn't all good news for green Bay.

The win came at a pretty significant cost.

The injury to Devonte Wyatt.

Yeah, they're big defensive lineman.

He went down late with a what looked like a serious ankle.

Injury, and Lafleur called it a critical loss after the game, which is never what you want to hear.

No, Wyatt is their key guy in the middle for stopping the run.

If he's out for any extended period of time, that fundamentally changes what they can do on defense, especially with some run heavy teams coming up on the schedule.

So while green Bay's offense is celebrating, their defense might have a.

Huge problem, a huge hole to fill.

And speaking of defense, we have to talk about the guy who completely wrecked the game for the Lions offense.

Michael Parsons an absolute game wrecker.

And you have to remember the price Green Bay paid to get him.

It was a king's ransom, two first.

Round picks plus Kenny Clark, right, and then they gave him that massive contract.

One hundred and eighty eight million dollars.

That's the kind of investment you make for a player you believe is a true cornerstone, a generational talent.

And against the Lions, he looked every bit the part.

What was his final stat line, It was insane.

It was two and a half sacks, eight tackles, four quarterback hits, and ten total pressures on Jared Goff.

He was just living in the backfield.

That is complete and utter dominance.

And those sacks pushed him past a pretty significant historical marker.

It did.

He's now at twelve point five sacks for the season, and that makes him the first player in the history of the NFL to record at least twelve sacks in each of his first five seasons.

Well first ever.

That's incredible.

I know he was tied with Reggie White for a similar record.

Right, they both had started their careers with five straight seasons of double digit sacks, but Parsons just took it a step further, hitting twelve in all five of those years.

Nobody's ever done that.

So when you pay a guy almost two hundred million dollars, you're paying for that kind of history.

You're paying for him to be an outlier, and he is.

But what's maybe even more impressive is his mindset about it.

His quote after the game was perfect.

Yeah, they asked him about the record, and he didn't even pause.

He just said, how can we get to six?

That's the mindset.

I love that.

No celebrating, just what's next?

How do you get better?

Once you do six?

How do you get to seven?

That's the mentality.

It's an all time great.

He's not chasing stats, He's chasing perfection.

And to top it all off, he also tied the NFL record for most career sacks on Thanksgiving Day.

He just owns the holiday with.

Eight and a half.

He's basically become a Thanksgiving tradition, just like turkey and stuffing.

All right, So let's flip to the other side of that game.

The Detroit Lions.

This loss has to be a gut punch for them.

A huge one.

They're down to seven to five now, and Dan Campbell himself said, they've dug ourselves a little bit of a hole.

And it's not just the loss, it's how they're losing.

Their whole identity seems to be backfiring on them right now.

It really is.

I mean, their Thanksgiving record is already abysmal, something like one to eight in their last nine games on the holiday.

But the bigger issue is their aggression on fourth down.

It used to be their strength and now now.

It's a crisis.

They failed twice on fourth down against the Packers, and that's become a trend.

What's the stat on that.

It's pretty damning, isn't it.

It is Since Week eleven, the Lions are now zero for seven on fourth down attempts.

That is the most tries in the league and that span without a single conversion, zero for seven.

Ouch.

And Campbell said he's going to stick with it, that it's who they are, but at some point you have to execute.

The league has tape on them now, they know it's coming and the Lions haven't adjusted.

And to make a really bad day even worse, they lost their best offensive player.

Almon Ross Saint Brown.

It's a brutal blow.

He goes down with an ankle injury in the first quarter and he's their engine, leading receiver, leading in yards, touchdowns, everything, And.

Campbell's prognosis wasn't great.

A week or two maybe if we're lucky.

Yeah, And you have to connect that to the fact that they already lost their star tight end Sam Laporta for the season, right.

So you take away Goff's top two targets.

And suddenly you're asking a whole lot from Jamison Williams and the rookie running back Shamir Gibbs.

It just puts immense pressure on a much smaller group of players to carry the entire offense.

They're running out of weapons fast.

All right, Let's move to the second game of the day, the Dallas Cowboys taking down the Kansas City Chiefs thirty one to twenty eight.

A huge win for Dallas, extending their win streak to three.

It was a massive statement win to do it against the defending AFC champs.

It shows that this Cowboys team might have a different level of resilience.

This year, and it really felt like their offense has found a consistent rhythm lately it has.

Dak Prescott was excellent again, two touchdowns, three hundred and twenty yards through the air.

But you really have to give a ton of credit to the offensive line.

They're fantastic, kept him clean.

All day, zero sacks allowed, and that was against the Chiefs defense that was blitzing like crazy, trying to throw them off.

The old line just stoned them, and.

That protection allows the other parts of the offense to get going.

The run game, for example, is finally looking consistent.

Three straight weeks with over one hundred yards on the ground.

Now they had one hundred and thirty seven against the Chiefs, including that big forty three yard touchdown run from Elie Davis.

When they can run the ball like that, it makes everything Dak does in the passing game, especially the play action, so much more dangerous.

And his receivers really stepped up, Seedee Lamb especially.

Yeah, he had a couple of uncharacteristic drops the week before against Philly and you wondered how he'd respond.

He responded like a true number one receiver.

Seven catches, one hundred and twelve yards and a touchdown, just bounced right back.

And then there's George Pickens on the other side, who's just been a model of consistency all season.

Unbelievable season for him.

He had another six catches for eighty eight yards, but the biggest one was that thirteen yard catch on third and two to seal the game.

Just a clutch, chain moving play when they absolutely needed it.

And he's putting up such huge numbers over eleven hundred yards and eight touchdowns already that the talk is already starting about his.

Next contract, the franchise tag right yep.

The non exclusive tag is projected to be around twenty eight million dollars.

It just shows that Dallas is ready to pay up to keep their stars, both on offense with Pickens and on defense with Parsons.

Speaking of the defense, they made the plays they had to.

Holding that Chiefs offense scoreless for a long stretch in the middle of the game was the key.

Forcing four straight puns in the second third quarters.

That's how you beat Patrick Mahomes and Jadeevian Clanny had a huge game.

Two sacks on Mahomes, Yeah, and.

One of those sacks took him something like eleven seconds to finally get there.

It just shows you how hard it is to bring Mahomes down, but also how relentless Cloudy's motor.

Is and the guys they brought in off the deadline are contributing.

Quinn Williams had a bunch of pressures.

He did six pressures and four run tackles.

He's been a perfect fit.

They're getting pressure from multiple spots now, which is exactly what you need in the playoffs.

But this game and this whole wind streak, really it's been about more than just football for the Cowboys.

It's been happening under this cloud of tragedy.

It has this three a run started right after the tragic death of their defensive end Marshawn Neeland.

And the team has clearly rallied together.

The halftime show tribute from post Malone was incredibly powerful.

It was you could feel the emotion when he shouted we love you ninety four.

Yeah, and Dak Prescott talked about it after the game, how they're honoring him, hanging his jersey in the lockerrool and carrying a number ninety four flag on the field.

They're playing for something bigger.

It's an incredible story of resilience, and there was another really personal kind of emotional angle to this game for one of the coaches, for Brian Schottenheimer.

Yeah, it was his first Thanksgiving win and it came against the Chiefs, the team his late father, Marty Schottenheimer, famously coached.

And he said he carries his dad's old football card with him for every game.

Just a little reminder of how deep these connections run in the football world.

It's more than just a game.

It really is.

Okay, let's look at the team that lost that game, the Kansas City Chiefs falling to six to six.

This is uncharted territory for them completely.

And what's so jarring is that they lost a game where Patrick Mahomes was statistically brilliant.

Four touchdowns, zero interceptions, right, and.

He had never lost a game in his career with that stat line before he was twelve to a U.

It just proves that the Chiefs problems run a lot deeper than their quarterback.

Mahomes even said it himself.

The quote was something like, we can beat anybody, but we've shown that we can lose to anybody.

That's a quarterback who is deeply frustrated with his team's inconsistency.

He pointed to missed opportunities.

Getting the ball at midfield twice to start the second half and coming away with zero points.

That's losing football.

And now the playoff picture looks genuinely scary for them.

It does.

Their chances drop from sixty three percent down to forty seven percent with this loss.

Mahomes said it grimly.

You've got to win every game now and hope that's enough.

Their margin for error is gone.

And just when you think it can't get any worse, you look at their injury report.

It's a catastrophe on the offensive line.

They came into the game without their starting right guard Tray Smith.

Okay, that's one starter.

Then during the game they lose their right tackle Juwan Taylor to an elbow injury.

That's two.

And then the biggest blow of all, their rookie left tackle Josh Simmons goes down with a dislocated and fractured wrist.

He's done for a long long time.

So that's three starting offensive linemen down.

For a team that relies on Mahomes extending plays, that is that is a potential death blow to their season.

It's an absolute crisis.

Even a magician like Mahomes can't operate If the pocket is collapsing from three different spots on every single play, the pressure is now immense on a group of backups to somehow hold it together.

Unbelievable.

Let's get to the Thanksgiving nightcap, the Cincinnati Bengals stunning the Baltimore Ravens thirty two to fourteen.

And the headline here is pretty simple, isn't it.

It is Joe Burrow is back and he looked like.

He hadn't missed a beat.

Not at all.

He comes back after missing nine games with that toe injury and just looks completely comfortable.

Two hundred and sixty one yards, two touchdowns, zero picks.

The numbers with him versus without him are just staggering.

It's night and day.

They're three to now when he plays, and they were one to eight without him.

He is the franchise.

And they didn't ease him back in either.

They came out throwing the ball all over the yard.

They trusted him immediately.

He threw the ball forty times in the first three quarters alone.

That's a statement of intent.

They were going to be timid.

But as good as Burrow was, this game was won because of how poorly the Ravens played.

Oh, without a doubt, Baltimore just could not hold onto the football.

A season high five turnovers.

Five that's almost impossible to win with.

Four fumbles in an interception, and Lamar Jackson was responsible for three of them himself.

It's just it's a shocking lack of ball security from a team that was on a five game win streak.

And there was one turnover, one specific fumble, that completely changed the entire game.

The Isaiah Likely fumble.

It was one of the biggest momentum swings you'll ever see.

Set the scene.

He catches a pass, he's rumbling down the field, it's.

A forty four yard play.

He's heading for the end zone, about to give the Ravens an eight point lead.

It looks like a done deal.

And then the Bengals' safety Jordan Battle just makes a perfect play, a.

Perfect punch, knocks the ball out right at the goal line just before Likely crosses the plane.

So instead of a Baltimore touchdown.

The ball rolls through the end zone.

It's a touchback Bengals ball.

It was a potential fourteen point swing on a single play, absolutely devastating.

For Baltimore, and you have to credit that Bengals defense.

They've been ranked near the bottom of the league all year, but they stepped up big time.

They did.

They forced the turnovers and they can capitalized a defensive end.

Cedric Johnson recovered two fumbles himself.

They held a really good Ravens offense to just fourteen points.

Now, in that game, we also saw a bit of history from the Ravens running back Derrek Henry.

We did.

He passed the legendary Jim Brown to move into eleventh on the all time rushing list, an incredible accomplishment.

And he joined Ladanian Tomlinson in a pretty exclusive club.

Too, the only two players ever with ten or more rushing touchdowns in eight or more straight seasons.

Just a model of sustained dominance.

But for all that history, his usage in the game was weird, to say the least.

It was very strange.

In the first quarter he was gashing them five carries thirty three yards a touchdown.

He looked great, and then in the second quarter he.

Got zero carries, not one.

How does that even happen?

Your quarterback is struggling with turnovers, your Hall of Fame running back is playing well, and you just stop giving him the ball.

It makes no sense.

It speaks to a real identity crisis on offense for Baltimore.

They get so focused on trying to make the passing game work that they abandon what's actually working on the ground.

It's a major flaw.

And while we're talking about the Ravens, they had a key injury in that game as well, cornerback Nate Wiggins.

Yeah, he went out with a foot injury.

The good news is coach Harbaugh said it's not serious long term.

But his status for their next game against the Steelers is up in the air, right it is?

And losing a starting corner for a must win divisional game against Arrival is it's not ideal, not at all.

Let's stay in the AFC for one more piece of major news.

This one's out of Indianapolis and it could shake up the whole conference.

Yeah, this is a big one.

Colts quarterback Daniel Jones, who has been having an incredible career best.

Season, leaving the Colts to an eight to three record, top of the AFC.

South, he's dealing with a fractured fibula.

A fracture, and he's saying he's going to play through it.

He is.

He insists he'll be out there for Week fourteen against the Texans, but you have to be hugely skeptical about that.

I mean, a fracture in your leg that's got to affect his mobility, his ability a plant and throw.

We saw it at the end of their last game.

We did.

He was clearly hampered.

He only completed three of eight passes in the fourth quarter.

For a team that's been leading the league in scoring, any drop off from your quarterback is potentially devastating.

Okay, let's turn our attention to the Black Friday Game, a massive NFC showdown between two eight three teams, the Chicago Bears and the Philadelphia Eagles.

The stakes here are just enormous.

The winner gets a huge leg up in their divisional race and in the overall NFC playoff picture.

And the Eagles are coming into this game in a really weird spot.

Mentally, reeling is the word.

They had that historic collapse, as it's being called against Dallas last week.

Blew a twenty one to zero lead.

That's the kind of loss that can linger.

The good news for them seems to be on the injury front, at least for their skill players.

Right DeVonta Smith and Saquon Barkley are both expected to play, which is huge.

Smith is their leading receiver.

You need him out there.

But the bad news is on the offensive line.

Critical apsenes that All Pro tackle Lane Johnson is out with a foot injury.

And when you take an elite protector like him out of the lineup and you combine it with the weather forecast.

High wins at Lincoln Financial Field.

We've seen that movie before.

It completely neutralized Jalen Hurts against the Lions a few weeks ago.

He couldn't throw the ball effectively at all.

So if the wind is howling again, they're going to have to rely on their.

Run game, and that's where the problem is.

Yeah, their run game hasn't been good.

He's ranked twenty first in the league.

It's been a huge point of criticism, and.

Nick Foles, of all people, weighed in on it this week.

He did, and he was pretty direct.

He basically called out their offensive coordinator for a lack of creativity and predictability.

Saying they're too reliant on certain formations, they don't use play action enough, and they call the same run plays over and over in the second half exactly.

He pointed out that for all the talent they have, they ranked twenty fourth in total offense.

That's a damning indictment.

And on the other side, you have the Bears who are coming in red hot.

A four game winning st They're playing with a ton of confidence, and their quarterback Caleb Williams is chasing a big franchise.

Milestone, the four thousand yard mark.

Yep, he needs to average just under two hundred and forty yards a game the rest of the way to get there.

It just shows the kind of high powered passing attack they've become.

And they're getting healthy at the right time.

Their two best cornerbacks.

Are coming back, Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon.

That is a massive boost for their defense, especially when you're about to face a receiver duo like Smith and aj Brown.

Johnson in particular, is one of the best cover corners in the game.

All right, let's leave the NFL for a bit and dive into the pure, beautiful chaos of college football's rivalry week.

And we have to start with the Iron Bowl.

The Iron Bowl Auburn at five to six hosting number ten Alabama at nine to two, and the stakes are just completely different for each team.

For Auburn, it's simple when and you go to a bowl game, a huge accomplishment for Hugh Freeze in his first year.

And for Alabama, it's also simple.

Lose and any tiny remote chance you had of making the college football playoff is completely utterly gone.

On paper, this looks like an easy Alabama win.

They've won the last five Iron Bowls.

And there's that one stat that everyone points to.

A top ten ranked Alabama team has never ever lost to an unranked Auburn team at Jordan Hare Stadium.

Never.

That seems pretty definitive.

It seems that way.

But this is where you have to look past the stats and embrace the famous voodoo of Jordan.

Hare, the chaos factor exactly.

Because while that never lost stat is true, you look at the last two times Bama won there.

They were nail biers.

How close were they They won by a combined five points total against two Auburn teams that were pretty mediocre finished six to seven.

So they don't lose there, but they also don't blow them out.

Strange things just tend to happen in that stadium.

And you look at Auburn's offense right now, and they look like a different team since their coaching change.

A completely different team since they fired Hugh Freeze as the play caller.

They've been playing faster, more exciting football with Ashton Daniels.

At quarterback and their star receiver Cam Coleman has been unleashed.

He had a monster game against Vanderbilt.

This is not the same plotting Auburn offense we saw earlier in the year.

They're going to try and use tempo to put Alabama's defense on his heels.

And on the Alabama side, there are some real concerns about their quarterback Tye Simpson.

There are He's been in a bit of a slump, really uncharacteristic mistakes, turning the ball over.

He had a pick and a fumble against Oklahoma, then through two more interceptions last week against Eastern Illinois.

And if you're turning the ball over against Eastern Illinois.

Yeah, you're in big trouble.

Against your archrival in their stadium with their fans going crazy.

Auburn is going to smell blood in the water and come after him.

So if Simpson struggles, Alabama will need to lean on its defense.

They will, and their run defense has been much better in the second half of the season.

They might have to win this game for them, create a few turnovers of their own, and just grind out a low scoring win.

And that's why, even though Alabama is a six point favorite, you're hearing so much upset buzz from analysts this week.

The chaos is calling to them.

They see an Auburn team playing loose and fast with nothing to lose, and an Alabama team that has looked vulnerable and is facing immense pressure.

We've even seen some specific score predictions floating around calling for the upset.

Oh yeah, Auburn twenty four to twenty one, Auburn twenty nine to twenty seven.

People are genuinely picking the upset, which is rare in this rivalry when the talent gap is this big.

Yeah.

It all comes down to one question.

Does history prevail or does chaos ran on the planes?

And we can't wrap up rivalry week without at least touching on the other massive game Number one Ohio State at number fifteen Michigan.

The game, and this one, unlike the Iron Bowl, has a pretty strong consensus.

Most people expect Ohio State to win, and win pretty comfortably because of their defense.

Mostly their defense is elite and Michigan's offense has just been inconsistent all year long.

The predictions are all in that twenty one seventeen to thirty five seventeen range for Ohio State.

Michigan is trying to win their fifth straight in the series, but it feels like the talent gap is just too much this year.

It does.

A win for Ohio State here probably solidifies their spot in the playoff, And just quickly in the SEC, you've got number three Texas A and M favored over number sixteen Texas and number four Georgia is expected to handle Georgia Tech.

So the top teams are expected to hold Serve, setting up some massive conference championship games next.

Week, assuming they can avoid the rivalry week chaos, of.

Course, which is never a guarantee.

Okay, that was an incredible amount of football to unpack.

We saw Parsons make history for the Packers, Burrows return completely change the bengals fortunes, and the Cowboys gut out an emotional win over the Chiefs.

And if there's one major takeaway for you listening, it's how tight all these divisional races that become the NFC North is now a total dog fight between three teams.

The Packers sweeping the Lions might end up being the single most important outcome of the entire season for that division.

It's true, the margin for error is gone everywhere, and that brings me back to the the biggest question mark in the entire AFC right now.

The Kansas City Chiefs.

Yeah, we watched the most dominant force in the conference fall to six'.

Six we Heard Patrick mahomes basically say they have to win out and pray that it's enough to even make the.

Playoffs and then you layer on top of that the catastrophic injuries they just suffered on their offensive.

Line they are down three, starters including a long term injury to their left.

Tackle so here's the THOUGHT i want to leave you.

With given how bad those injuries are and given the inconsistency we've seen from them all, year do you really Believe Patrick mahomes can overcome all of?

That can he drag this team through a must win schedule into the, postseason or has the magic and their margin for error finally run out