ESPN’s Marcus Spears on What’s Ailing the 1-2 Patriots and Packers

Rich opened his weekly Monday visit with Marcus Spears by promising to "try and score with this interview rather than just throw it away." Spears did not find it funny. "It's been enough salt thrown in the wound, okay?" Spears said from Chicago, where Monday Night Countdown and the Week 3 finale awaited. "And you guys know it's a wound."

From there, Spears worked through the Cowboys' last-second loss, the AFC North logjam, the slumping Patriots and Packers, the unbeaten Raiders, the controversial pass interference call against the Rams and the Giants' trade for JJ McCarthy.

The play everyone is talking about came on the doorstep at the end of regulation, when Dak Prescott threw the ball away rather than give George Pickens a shot. Brian Schottenheimer said afterward that he told Prescott to do exactly that if the throw wasn't there.

Spears, who called the Cowboys offense "phenomenal" on a 96-yard drive, wanted a different conversation. With CeeDee Lamb, Pickens and even Jake Ferguson, he said, "you would come up with something that would get them in the end zone in that particular situation." He wished the debate were about Dallas failing to execute a play going for the win, not the miscommunication narrative between Prescott and Pickens.

But Spears insisted two things can be true. "Yeah, they should have went for a touchdown," he said. Still, he would not pin the loss on the field goal decision alone. "There is no way in hell Brian Schottenheimer thought with 7 seconds this defense would give up a 30-yard play and end up giving up a 56-yard field goal," Spears said. Give the Ravens credit, he added, for hitting that throw over the middle and even getting the timeout after a long-developing play.

His real criticism is the posture. "I hate that they weren't aggressive. I hate it," Spears said. "Push all the chips in the table." That would have been a huge win for Dallas, even if nobody in that moment imagined Baltimore winning in regulation.

Rich moved next to the AFC North, where every team is 2-1 and Cincinnati just gave up 30 in Pittsburgh. Spears is staying put anyway. "As crazy as it sound, I still like Cincinnati," he said.

He leaned on a line from his playing days under Bill Parcells: "In this game, you can go from the penthouse to the outhouse in a matter of 7 days." Spears had been ready to call the Bengals the best team in the division if their defense kept it up, and then they "lay a big fat burger."

Credit went to Pittsburgh. Spears pointed to Aaron Rodgers having a vintage day and said Mike McCarthy called one of the best offensive games in football. "We're not going to give him credit for it cuz he's not young and beautiful," Spears said. McCarthy, he explained, neutralized Dexter Lawrence by running left to right instead of banging into the middle, forcing the Bengals to pursue and tackle, and Jaylen Warren had a great day.

He still won't jump on the Steelers or Browns bandwagon. The division is wide open, but his confidence lies higher with Baltimore and Cincinnati than the other two.

The Patriots and Packers came next. Asked which of last season's top two playoff teams concerns him more, Spears picked Green Bay without hesitation. The home loss to Atlanta "looked disinterested," he said. "I didn't see a lot of fire."

He made the point during the game and heard that it was just Jordan Love's personality. Spears wasn't moved. "You got quarter of a billion dollars to play that position. Like, you got to do something," he said, while stressing it isn't all on Love. Bijan Robinson ran wherever he wanted, the offensive line has been riddled with injuries, and the absence of fight is what worries him most.

On New England, Rich asked if Spears had ever played on a team where the quarterback lost his confidence. He hadn't, but he sees it with Drake Maye. The trouble feels bigger because of last year's Super Bowl run and the expectation that Maye was becoming a Josh Allen type. "Welcome, Drake Maye. People got film on you," Spears said. Teams are taking away the deep ball that made him so effective. A.J. Brown's injury matters, but Spears doesn't think it explains what Maye looks like right now. His advice: get back to the details, because some of what Maye struggled with last year went unacknowledged while he was in the MVP conversation.

Then Rich posed a pointed one: Detroit or Las Vegas, which one makes the playoffs? "Rich, you are golly, bro. What you on today?" Spears replied, before picking the Raiders.

Brock Bowers coming back makes it a little more real, and Maxx Crosby, as the studio noted, is on a heater. But Spears kept returning to Kirk Cousins. Everyone expected Cousins to be the incubator for first overall pick Fernando Mendoza, and instead he is having a revival, the kind he once had in Minnesota. "I don't see anything about their game that seems a bit fluky," Spears said. He wants a better run game with Ashton Jeanty, but the passing game is there and the defense makes plays when needed. "Most of the games are tight and you got to figure out ways to make plays."

On Detroit, Spears knows the talent of Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs, but he expects the injuries to be a week-to-week theme and still fears for the defense in a conference that may send three teams from one division to the playoffs.

As for the flag that changed Sunday night's finish, Spears was blunt. "No, it wasn't," he said of the pass interference call against the Rams. "It should have been an interception and the Rams should have won the game." What bothered him most was what it cost the young defender. "It stole that moment away from that kid," Spears said, calling it probably the biggest play of his NFL career, erased by a bad call.

Rich then turned to that player's fellow Michigan national champion, JJ McCarthy, just acquired by the Giants for a fifth when they could have pursued a veteran or even Joe Milton off the Cowboys practice squad. Spears said the first-round pedigree still matters. Teams think, "There's something in there that we maybe can get out of him."

With Jackson Dart injured, Spears saw multiple levels of thinking. McCarthy could develop into a quality backup, and "we're starting to understand how important backup quarterbacks are in this league." Or, if Dart can't stay healthy over his career, McCarthy becomes an answer. If Dart does stay healthy, the Giants have a former first-round pick to use as trade bait or a backup who makes them feel good about the room.

Before his rundown meeting, Spears previewed Eagles at Bears. If Chicago can't run the football, he said, it could be a long night, and Ben Johnson needs to give Case Keenum easy throws. Let Philadelphia make the Bears one-dimensional and "Jalen Carter probably going to leave this game the MVP."

Then the deep dish debate. Rich is a thin crust guy who makes exceptions in Chicago. Spears, from Louisiana, loves pizza but doesn't get excited about deep dish versus thin crust, because the food back home is better than anywhere in the world. Once Rich tours the boot with him, he promised, "all you going to talk about is what you ate in Louisiana."