ESPN’s Marcus Spears on the Key to Who Wins Bills vs Rams on MNF

Marcus Spears joined the show remotely in his usual Monday spot, and before the football started, Rich had a theory about why. Spears may be from Texas by way of Louisiana, but on a rainy day in LA, Rich figured he'd gone full Angeleno and refused to drive. Spears insisted it was important family business. His real regret? "The worst part of the day is not getting the snacks."

Rich also passed along that Dan Orlovsky had called Spears "bougie" for raving about the studio. Spears owned it. "It's one of my favorite studios I've ever been to. Real talk," he said. Then they got to work, and there was a lot of it.

**The Commanders' overtime meltdown**

Rich opened with a simple question: which locker room was worse on Sunday, the Eagles or the Commanders? Spears didn't hesitate. "Commanders. Commanders, 100 percent."

His reasoning was that Washington never even gave itself the chance to win on a field goal most NFL kickers can make. Spears put it on Dan Quinn and the coaching staff, but he wouldn't let the players off the hook either. "Everybody on that field been playing football at least 10 years," he said. Someone, whether it was Jayden Daniels, an offensive lineman, a receiver or a running back, had to recognize that the clock needed to stop.

What bothered him most was the lack of urgency after Daniels ran instead of spiking or throwing it away. Spears noted the center getting up off the pile like there was all the time in the world. "It's 11 of us out there," he said. "Somebody needs to say, 'Yo, man, we going to run out of time and have a tie if we don't get the ball grounded.'"

When Rich asked what he thought actually happened in that huddle, Spears said that's what makes it so frustrating. "We played Pee Wee football, and you know to get another play the clock has to stop," he said. "There is no excuse."

**Is Dan Quinn's job in danger?**

Spears went further than most. "I've seen a lot of dumb calls, a lot of dumb stuff by coaches and players, but this one is crazy, bro," he said. "This one is inexcusable, and Dan Quinn job is probably gone because of it."

Rich pushed back, asking whether the rest of the season could change that. Spears said it would take a phenomenal run, ripping off nine or ten wins with Daniels playing out of his mind. He made a point of saying he loves Quinn as a person and a leader. "But these unfortunate situations is why coaches get fired," he said.

Then he flipped the question on Rich: where is the momentum for the Commanders right now? Rich said it starts with Daniels getting back to his rookie form, and pointed to Sonny Styles as a player you could build around.

**Who wins the NFC East?**

Rich laid out the options: the 3-1-1 Giants, an Eagles team that could pull it together, or a Cowboys team where, apparently, somebody got fired for telling Dak a performance was embarrassing. Spears is still going with Philadelphia.

"I probably have more confidence in the Eagles, because the past 2 weeks the Eagles defense has played pretty well," he said. Rich brought up Jalen Carter being "out of his mind in London," and Spears agreed, saying you could argue that outside of Drake Maye and Jordan Love, Carter was the best player in football for the weekend. The Eagles have two losses that could have been wins, and they played London without DeVonta Smith, without Saquon Barkley, and with a reshuffled offensive line.

Dallas, on the other hand, looks unfixable on defense to Spears. "They can't cover anybody right now," he said. He even admitted he didn't know who the Tampa quarterback was before the Bucs beat the Cowboys, and he does this for a living. He gave a shout-out to Jalon Daniels and called this a do-or-die week for Dallas.

On the Giants, Spears was blunt about Jameis Winston. "If James plays well consistently, the Giants are the best team in the NFC East," he said. But consistency has always been the issue, not talent. "The issue is, is James going to cost you four or five games with his decision-making and turning the football over?" So he's sticking with Philly. "The whole division is a disaster."

**Can anyone stop the 49ers?**

Rich asked whether, no matter how good Monday night's Bills-Rams game turned out, the 49ers were still the best team in the league. Spears reminded him he said it weeks ago. He called the Seattle win a statement, with San Francisco's defense coming up with big play after big play while Seattle's defense was playing out of its mind.

Spears credited Mike Evans, who is "still Mike Evans" one-on-one, and said he couldn't believe Seattle kept leaving him in those matchups. He gave Mike Macdonald a lot of credit and said nobody should throw a funeral for Seattle over a close game. But for the 49ers, the only thing he sees derailing them is injuries, and they won 13 games last year with plenty of those.

His reasons for calling them the best team in football: Brock Purdy playing out of his mind, Evans giving Purdy someone to just throw it to, and above all "what Raheem has done with this defense." Spears noted Dre Greenlaw didn't play most of the game, and Nick Bosa isn't even back. "San Francisco a problem, dude."

He also loved the Evans and Trevon Diggs moment, when Evans flipped Diggs around to read his nameplate. "He turned the man around and had to identify him," Spears said. "To see if he was worthy enough to talk noise." He noted Diggs is a Pro Bowler with a $100 million contract. And if anyone did that to him? "It would go beyond the field," Spears said. Rich had a solution: that's why the show runs his name on screen.

**What the Ravens proved without Lamar**

Asked what Baltimore told him Sunday night, Spears called the Ravens a resilient, serious football team still working out some kinks. They featured Derrick Henry the way they should have, with Tyler Huntley at quarterback.

"The most impressive thing to me about that game was in that last drive, how Snoop Huntley handled pressure," Spears said. Huntley got the ball out quickly to Mark Andrews, picked up yards and got down, managing the drive "like a high level professional quarterback." Spears called keeping Huntley and Lamar Jackson together one of the smarter moves he's seen, because the offense doesn't have to change philosophically.

He also pointed to a long Justice Hill run, Kyle Hamilton's interception, and second-year pass rusher Mike Green getting after Michael Penix. But what he liked most was that they didn't forget Henry plays for them. "It's like Novocaine," Spears said. Hand it to him, let him churn, and eventually tacklers decide they don't want to hit him anymore. He credited Declan Doyle and Jesse Minter for remembering who their running back was.

**The NFC North and the Vikings defense**

Rich ran through the division quickly: the Packers looking their best all year, the Lions defense backing up Kelvin Sheppard's fiery press conference, and the Vikings at 5-0. Spears is going with Minnesota.

He mentioned the offense, Justin Jefferson and a run game getting help back. But the real reason is Brian Flores. "It's because of what that defense does to you throughout four quarters of a football game," Spears said. "They make you guess. They make you speed up. They make your quarterback think he's seeing something he's really not." Ben Johnson used to crack that code in Detroit, he said, but it doesn't seem to be working in Chicago.

Rich noted the Vikings have a bye, then Indianapolis at home, and then a stretch that includes a visit to Detroit, a Monday night home game against Buffalo, a trip to Green Bay, and a Week 11 game against San Francisco in Mexico City.

**Marvin Harrison Jr.'s change of scenery**

Rich asked about the Cardinals trading Marvin Harrison Jr. to the Texans, where he reunites with his old college quarterback. Spears' first thought was Nico Collins, whom he loves but who has missed a lot of games, including last year's playoffs. He wondered whether CJ Stroud felt he still didn't have a big-bodied receiver to cover for those absences. "I think it was a good insurance policy," he said.

The upside is the scary part for defenses. "If Marvin Harrison finds his juice and Nico has his juice, best of luck to you trying to stop that," Spears said. With both on the field, teams will have to commit extra players to coverage, and the red zone should be tremendous. He also saw it as a message of confidence in Stroud.

Rich then raised a local Arizona report that Harrison wanted the team to buy a roughly $50,000 virtual jugs machine he'd used at Ohio State, and that the team told him to pay for it himself. Spears' response: "Get the damn jugs machine." Harrison did buy it himself, the studio noted, but the story was being framed as Arizona doing him dirty. "I ain't never heard nobody say, 'Give me a jugs machine so I can be a better receiver,'" Spears said. "Invest in your craft."

**The key to Bills vs. Rams**

For Monday night, Spears had a clear thesis. "If James Cook is not the MVP of this game, Buffalo won't win," he said. "Period."

He's long worried when Josh Allen gets into a high volume of passes. When Allen plays simple, on-time, in-rhythm football and saves his "Superman stuff" for the right moments, the Bills are devastating. When he feels like he has to do it early and often, Spears gets nervous, because Allen "tends to throw it to the other team." He thinks Joe Brady knows that. Stay in play action, let Cook be explosive, and don't give the Rams extra possessions.

**Drake Maye, and Duke and Theo**

Rich asked what to tell Chris Brockman, a Rams season ticket holder and Patriots fan, if he comes in claiming New England is the best team in the AFC East. "You tell him he's right based on what we've seen the last two weeks," Spears said. He believes Drake Maye's struggles were between the ears, and that now Maye's legs are creating open receivers. And don't forget, Spears added, the defense has been good since Week 1.

TJ closed things out with a question about Duke and Theo, two kids whose video on NFL Live's "Bust It Up" segment showed them dancing on the sideline. Spears had asked on air whether they ever got into the game. They eventually sent in footage of themselves actually playing, and, Spears said, "everything was rectified." Rich then asked whether LSU had called them about a ninth year of eligibility. Spears was not amused. "Anything negative for LSU was in my neck," he said.