00:00Sam Darnold, out of nowhere on Thursday, get an alert.
00:03Oh, no, oblique injury.
00:05One of the worst-case scenarios you can have.
00:07He left the practice field, went in to get treatment.
00:09He swears he's fine.
00:11Listed as questionable.
00:12All eyes on the pregame warm-ups, Joe.
00:15So as we start to analyze this game, which we will,
00:18give me your first thoughts before we get into the game itself on,
00:20you had a bye week.
00:21You're supposed to be healthy.
00:22Your quarterback is injured?
00:24Yeah, the black cloud could be following Sam Darnold.
00:27Back to Sam Darnold.
00:29And Darnold, yeah, that's how they call him in New York.
00:32Sam Darnold?
00:33Yep.
00:33When he was with the Jets?
00:34But, look, if you're Sam Darnold and you're 85% healthy,
00:40you're getting out there.
00:40Again, now, the only way he's not under center today
00:44is if he can't turn at all and get any torque on the football.
00:48You have to come and play this game.
00:50It's in your house.
00:51You beat this team 13-3 in San Francisco two weeks ago.
00:55Your defense took care of business.
00:57They're now minus another weapon in George Kittle.
01:01Sam Darnold needs this, not just for his football team.
01:04He needs this for his psyche to get through this game, play well,
01:09and at least give this team some hope that they can win an NFC championship.
01:13He comes out today, Donnie, and he doesn't throw for 200 yards.
01:18He turns the football over.
01:19And let's just say they grind out a 17-13 win.
01:23He now has even more pressure next week in the championship game
01:27because nobody's going to back Sam Darnold in a big spot.
01:31The interesting part about that, too, is, again, like, it's not early in the week,
01:35but there's a lot of, like, shroud of secrecy around it.
01:38Like, Darnold actually took to the mic.
01:39He's like, I'm playing in this game.
01:40But then, like, behind the scenes, like, ooh, we'll see how he's going to work out
01:43pregame and see how it is.
01:44Now, understand this.
01:45We're going to have to dock on a little bit later.
01:47Like, there's got to be some medication that says, hey, you know what?
01:49You're not going to feel that abdomen throughout this game.
01:51Go out and let it rip.
01:52But I also believe at the same time, he doesn't have to throw for a ton of yards.
01:57This isn't a high-flying machine on the San Francisco 49ers.
02:00You have a ground game.
02:01You've got solid wide receivers.
02:02You can make this work.
02:03But it's just a worst-case scenario.
02:05Now, understand this, Joe.
02:06Let's play it into the point spread and where it's been.
02:08Seven and a half throughout the week.
02:09But once we got the Darnold injury, it really didn't move at all.
02:12Like, we're seeing sevens on game day.
02:14The quarterback could be impacted with an injury, Joe, and we're still at seven.
02:18Yeah, that is intriguing when you think about it.
02:20But how much is the kiddo factor?
02:22How much is the fact that they're going on the road?
02:24Right?
02:25It is back-to-back road games, and now you're minus one of your best weapons.
02:28It's got to be Jake Tonjes to step up and potentially take over that duty.
02:33And, again, as good of a victory as it was against Philadelphia, it wasn't clean, Donnie.
02:39I mean, Demarcus Robinson with a huge performance.
02:42If I would have told you at the start, it wasn't McCaffrey.
02:44It wasn't Juwan Jennings.
02:45It wasn't Kittle.
02:47It wasn't Purdy throwing for 300 yards.
02:49It was Demarcus Robinson that stepped up and won the day for your team.
02:53You'd say, really?
02:54It wasn't even Kendrick Bourne that was used with Matt Jones throughout the regular season.
02:58So, again, can they take that game plan that they went into Philadelphia with,
03:04and can they duplicate that and replicate that against potentially one of the best defenses in their house?
03:10Again, no.
03:12They're going to need Brock Purdy, in my opinion, to throw for 275 today.
03:16Open it up.
03:17Jump up early.
03:18Get a little momentum.
03:19And then hope that Sam Darnold implodes because of just being Sam Darnold.
03:25And, again, I do like the over in the game.
03:27I know you take a lower scoring game.
03:30But I think because of that fact that if you're looking at San Francisco and Shanahan,
03:35they're going in saying, hey, Darnold's the number one seed.
03:39But we have potentially the Super Bowl winning quarterback or Super Bowl quarterback in Brock Purdy.
03:44I've got to put the game on his shoulder.
