Fantasy Football Daily - 2022 Take Talk Ep 6

Episode Date: September 21, 2022

Brett Whitefield (@BGWhitefield) and Steven ORourke (@callmesteveo7) review Week 2 in detail and also discuss if a current NFL CB is a future hall of famer. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time to the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Hello, everybody. Welcome to episode six of the Take Talk podcast. I'm Stephen O'Rourke. I have Brett Whitefield here. interesting performances, incredible games, great comebacks.

We've got it all here for week two. Brett, how are you feeling today? I'm actually feeling really, really, really good. There's a point in the week, Steve, where like I'm charting things, rewatching games, and I just wish that we didn't have responsibilities so we could just record the pod then and there. You know, as I'm seeing things and making observations, you know, I'd love to just be able to talk about it right away, but we have to wait to Wednesday because that's our,

that's our slot. So, and we have other things we do, like a lot of other things that we do. I know, I feel the same way I get, I get going around, you know, Sunday night. And I'm like, I want to talk about this. I want to talk about this. And it's like almost tempting to, like you said, just hop on right then and there and just go. But we have work out of us after this.

Yeah, no kidding. Sunday night into Monday that unfortunately or fortunately, is more pertinent than recording this podcast. Yeah, and the work does help us kind of develop the takes for the Take Talk podcast, right? Because that's really where we do most of our watching. Yeah, exactly. First reaction. So, yeah.

Well, sweet. So there was a lot of crazy games. Yeah, some wild finishes, some insane performances, some not so great, but a lot of notable performances this week. But the early slate had quite a few. really exciting finishes. Yeah, it's, it was kind of a crappy slate too. Like I remember looking at the slate when I made the schedule and was like,

ugh, ew, ew, who wants to watch that game? And then there ended up being a lot of, a lot of excitement going on. Specifically, the Miami Baltimore game. Holy cow. That was crazy. I know that, you know, I said,

I've said before that, actually you've said before as well, that Tyreek and Jalen Waddle, they're going to cover just a multitude of two his sins. And that's true. That was insanely apparent in this game. And not only that, Steve, like, I think my quote last week was like there's no, there's no reasonable defense you can deploy to stop those two. And by reasonable, I mean, yeah, you can concoct something. You can concoct the game plan, but it's likely not reasonable. which means you're leaving something else open.

That's exactly what this game was. The whole game was, I mean, even from the beginning, I know Baltimore got out to a big lead right away, but Miami was still, they were still doing the small things. They were making little investments into how they're going to set up these two. And it just eventually started popping. And that's why they made their comeback.

But it didn't matter what Baltimore tried. I mean, shoot, dude, they tried press man. They tried off man. They tried cover three. They tried split safeties. They tried bracketing. They tried almost like a double bracket look where they're committing four bodies to two guys. It wasn't quite a zone, so it wasn't quite a straight double team.

But it was, I mean, it was pretty insane. And it didn't matter. I don't know if Tua was checking things at the line or if McDaniel was just that dialed in. But whatever Baltimore through, he had the answer, like immediately. If it was cover too, it legitimately didn't matter. And that was super exciting. I mean, especially from you fantasy guys. Like, I don't see a world where these two slow down or get stopped.

And as long as Tua can keep tearing up the intermediate part of the field, and that's really where they did most of their damage, which eventually opened up some deeper throws. And he doesn't make any short area mistakes. And trust me, Tua made plenty of mistakes in this game. That's part of why they were down early. He missed a lot of throws, threw into some windows he shouldn't have thrown into. But for the most part, he really settled down and played mistake-free foot.

football in those short and intermediate parts of the field. And that's really, really, really what got them back in the game. If he does that all season long, these two are going to be legitimately unstoppable. It's just where speed kind of transcends all. It can fix and help a lot of mistakes. And when you have two receivers like Waddle and Hill and just being able to just unleash them at a defense where they have to respect so many different things for them because it's just so hard to, you know, key in on one thing for them.

And it just, like you said, you could tell by the second half when, when Miami started picking things up that Baltimore's, you know, what they had been doing had stopped working. And then they just, I mean, Miami just exploited it at that point. They also, I mean, they were a little hurt in the second half, right? in the secondary. Yeah. They were kind of hurt coming into the game, but yeah.

I mean, but still, like, for them to go off for almost 400 yards and four touchdowns, that's, yeah, that's, oh, between two of them, yeah, yeah. It was insane. Just going like high-level view about what happened. So, I mean, anytime, so it's actually Waddle and Hill, it's not just that they're fast. They're also quick. Right. And they're also skilled.

technicians. It really sucks. It would be terrible trying to defend those guys. And the worst part is, even if you play off and give them a cushion, which you see a lot of, that speed commands a cushion, right? So even if you do that and you're okay with surrendering that catch, you know, short and keeping stuff in front of you, you can't actually really keep it in front of you because these guys are so good after the catch. It's insane. That speed erodes angles faster than, you know, I mean, it's honestly incredible to watch. You know, not only can they erode those angles, but they also have moves, and Tyree Kill's got great contact balance. Jalen Waddle's got juke moves coming out of his ears. It's honestly a nightmare. And I mentioned that cushion already. So the response to that was, like, McDaniel was drawn up great plays. Hey, you're going to give us a cushion?

Cool. We'll take the six-yard hit drought. We'll take a slant. We'll, you know, we'll throw screens underneath you. You want to play too high and keep everyone far away for the line of scrimmage? Awesome. We'll throw screens behind you. We'll get our yards after the catch. We'll make you do something different. Oh, you want to blitz us? Awesome. We got a screen dialed up for that too. Oh, you want to, now you want to play press man. Awesome. We're going to go vert. We're going to hit you with rubs. We're going to get you one on one and we're going to win that way. It legitimately didn't matter. You want to play, you know, just a more traditional zone with not big cushion or not press. Awesome. We're going to move guys around with motion and shifts until we get matchups we like. And we saw this, right? Because they, like I said before, there was times where they were committing, you know,

four and five bodies to two players, which leaves Mike Dysickey, you know, one-on-one with the linebacker over the middle. Awesome. That's a win. Tyree Kill and Jalen Waldo didn't do anything on the play, but they did because they got the matchup elsewhere that they wanted. And it wasn't just that. It didn't stop there either.

McDaniel, he would spread these guys out. They'd come out an empty or two-by-toes with just spread looks. And as soon as Baltimore made an adjustment, he would say, cool, I'm going to come out with 12 personnel and 21 personnel. And we're going to run Yankee concepts from tight formations and get Jalen Waddle on a deep cross wide open down the middle of the field. And if you're playing single high, we're going to throw it underneath your deep safety. If you're playing too high, we're going to throw up right between your safeties. It doesn't matter. There's no answer.

There's no answer. They were running dagger concepts like crazy. They would actually put Hill and Waddle on the same side. And it didn't matter if it was too high or if it was single. They would run dagger. Tyreek was the inside guy. He'd run right at the near side safety or the single high if there was a single high. And they would just throw that deep dig to Waddle on the backside, which is terrifying.

You get Waddle catching a pass 20 yards down field, you know, moving horizontally. That means someone has to come tackle him. Like, I don't know. That's terrifying. It really didn't matter. It just seemed like McDaniel almost knew what defense is being deployed. that's what they would do. It was just it was drags and slants and overs and in-rout just getting these guys in space putting the ball in their hands and then just letting them go to work. And that's like you said,

the most terrifying part about this offense is that these two are so fast. You don't have to get them the ball super deep. You just have to get them the ball in space and then just let them do what they do best. and that's, you know, get to a point where, you know, like Tyreek does it once or twice a game where he's stopping. He squares everyone up. And then, I mean, at that point, if I'm the defense, you have to be about crapping your pants. Because, you know, like, he has a two-way, two-way go at that point. And you know nobody on that defense is fast enough to keep up with him. So you just have to hope to corral him quickly.

And they couldn't. they couldn't do it and then you know they would do that enough that the you know the corners would start you know sitting on stuff and you know not trying to respect the in breaking routes that it ended up with ended up with wide open nine routes on two different plays to to Tyree kill to score a touchdown like yeah right well that was a culmination of it all. Right? It was a broken cover. It just needs the broken coverages. Yeah, it's like coming down the stretch and this. Right. Well, come down this. And those weren't even really broken. They were just they had been torn up so badly short and intermediate that Baltimore again made another change.

They're playing a little bit of quarters. They're squatting those safeties a little bit. And to a, to his credit, he was patient all game. He didn't force the ball downfield. He took what was given to him. And finally, what was given to him was those deep shots. And he hit two in a row and just made the Ravens defense pay. And the most hilarious thing, Steve, go back and watch, after that second touchdown, go back and watch the very next Miami offensive play. I think there's two minutes left in the fourth quarter, two minutes-ish. Miami was still down by three at that point. That deep safety was 21 yards off the mall. And the corners were beat, too. The corners were deep, too. I think the first, like you said, the first play, we, you know, they hit, they hit an out route.

And it was just deep top coverage from all, like, from both corners and everything. Because they were like, that's it. We're not letting it happen again. We're done with this. Yeah. And it wasn't a true prevent either. I know a lot of people will think two minutes left in the game, it's prevent. No, it wasn't.

The way Miami was moving the ball, they still had timeouts in two minutes. There's zero change. No way. It's just, they got and got. It's that bad that deep safety was 21 yards off the ball. And that just opened everything up in the middle of the field. I mean, it was, I mean, 21 yards off the ball, it's basically just not there. You know, that reminds me of, you remember Jaris Bird?

Yes. Back in the day, played for the Bills and the Saints. That dude was one of the best deep safeties in the NFL for a couple of years. And that's how he was deployed in Buffalo. It's like he was legitimately 21 yards off the ball. And he would just take crazy angles to stuff. And keep, nothing got behind it, period. Greg Williams deployed that defense in Cleveland.

The first year he was there where you would see, it was Randall. Randall would be 22 yards deep. And it's like, what, like, okay, so you're playing defense with 10 guys because he's not the athlete that you need to be had to have at that position. But that, but that's what Miami can make you do with the weapons. that they have. They make you do unconventional things that you're not used to doing because they just kind of break you with the speed and just the constant meshing and middle routes. Yep.

Well, on the flip side of the ball, too, you had another offense that was ticking. Big play galore, you know, with Lamar Jackson and Rashad Bateman and Mark Andrews. Those guys were, I mean, shoot, they had what? four or five they have five plays over 25 yards or something like that i mean it was it was insane and they sold out too you know a few times but those big plays man that helped them rack up the points i think lamar accounted for what like a hundred no what all but 35 of their yards or something i mean it was crazy lamar looked great baltimore couldn't run the ball which ultimate, right, except for with Lamar.

with their running backs. They couldn't run the ball at all, which ultimately was kind of what, I wouldn't say buried them at the end, but it definitely like kept them off. Like they didn't stay on task because of that. Because I think that's what Baltimore wants to do is they want to get out to leads. They want to break big plays. And then they want to break you down. with a runoffense.

And when, like you said, you know, running backs are accounting for only 35 rushing yards on, I think it was somewhere around like 16 or 17 carries, you know, that it just create, it creates a one-dimensional offense, which does not help you put a game away, needless to say. Certainly does not. I will give Baltimore play caller Greg Roman. in credit, though, even when they had that big lead, even before Miami started making their comeback, they didn't just settle into the run game. They knew it wasn't working well, right? So,

like, I know when Miami scored to make it 2814, that's typically, it was in the third quarter, too. That's typically a time in the past where you'd see Baltimore to say, all right, we're going to run to death, get this clock over with and get out of here. No, they came back with three straight passes. unfortunately they had to punt that you know i think it was like a third and seven they got six yards had to punt on fourth and one um wasn't in a great spot to go for it then the next drive they come out and same thing yep they're throwing the ball um and i i do give i do give roman credit for that because it was not typical even when the game was 35 25 um there was only 12 minutes left in the game in the past we really have seen Baltimore just say,

all right, we're going to impose our will on you and run. They had an understanding that it couldn't be done. They come out right away throwing the ball. Lamar Jackson to Devin Duverne, I think, was to play 25 years down the middle of the field. They came back with that through again. We're automatic right away into Miami territory. And then unfortunately, they just kind of stalled out. Was that the drive?

Yeah, that was it driving to win for it on fourth down. Was that, yeah, fourth and one. weren't they going from shotgun? It was like, it wasn't even fourth and one. They lined up in a shotgun heavy formation. And they just ran Lamar. No fake, no nothing, just QB power into the back of the linemen, which I watched that play.

And I was like, the way their offense is moving, you can't come up with anything a little bit more creative than that. When you, like, when you have someone like Lamar, at least throw in an RPO in there, make the defense think for a second. Yep. Yep. Well, in the end, the story of this game was interesting to me because two great offensive performances from two teams that also have pretty good defenses and a lot of talent in the secondary.

Like Miami secondary is very talented and they got roasted pretty good. Baltimore's secondary, as we know, is always talented. I know they're a little banged up. Peters was playing hurt. Humphreys is a little dinged up. I think they were without one of their starting safeties. They were all day. They were.

Yeah, yeah, they were. I'm pretty sure McDaniel saw him and saw blood in the water because it felt like they were going after him a lot. Yeah, well, and that's why they went so zone heavy at one point was just like trying to kind of cover up that, make sure they were committing two guys to the studs. I do think it's funny. Actually, one more note on this game in the Miami. offensive performance. I do think it's funny because we did roast Tua for his comments after the last game where he's talking about how he can't see over the middle of the field. Right.

It was pretty funny comments, right? Well, there were times of this game where he, like that throw to Gisicki in the back of the end zone over the middle was a nutty throw. And that was completely made by the way the defense was having to play Waddle and Hill, but still a great throw. Well, Tua saw him. There were multiple times where Tua hit Gisiki. Was that just elite gamesmanship by Tua to throw that quote out right before the game? Or not right before the game, but late in the week. That's kind of what I'm right. Like did it make, did it make Baltimore thing?

Like, all right, we just have to focus. We have to focus on the outside. And then Miami just smokes them with constant drags overs and slants and just completely throws off what Baltimore thought was going to happen. Exactly. Because if that's the case, then good on you, Tua, because that's gamesmanship right there. Yeah. Right. And the scary part is, like I said, they left a lot on the field.

There was a lot of moments where Tua could have been better. And overall, I think he played good. And I've been really hard on Tua. I think that was one of his better games as a pro so far. But even that said, they left a lot on the field. So moving on. I mean, looking forward, Miami and Baltimore, they both look like really good teams to me. And their defense has obviously let them down this week, both of them.

But I think with the offensive firepower they have, I am curious to see if Baltimore will be able to throw the ball in those pressure situations when they have to throw the ball. They didn't get it done this week. But that is going to be a big tell for them moving forward. That division looks crappy, to be honest. It's been a tough start for that. So I still, Baltimore's still my favorite to win. And obviously we'll probably talk about it a little bit Friday, but Buffalo, Miami this week, just something to look ahead to and start.

And that'll be exciting because Buffalo also has one of the better secondaries and will be interesting to see how they defend this Miami gauntlet. Yeah, for sure. And, you know, their coach is, you know, McDermott, he's a defensive man. mastermind in a lot of ways himself. So I'm definitely curious to see, you know, what they, what they do on the defensive side of the ball to kind of slow Miami down. They'll still be without Trey White as well. Yeah, he comes back after week four, I think, right? Because he was popped. Yeah. So that's not, not ideal for them. But we'll get into that more on Friday. Let's look at another game. One that was maybe even crazier than this one was the Jets Cleveland game,

where we saw just mental lapse after mental lapse on the stretch and Cleveland just handed the Jetsis game on a silver platter. And we really saw the breakout too of Garrett Wilson, who Garrett Wilson was a phenomenal prospect. He was a top 10 player in this year's draft on my board. I think he got drafted 10th exactly, so it makes perfect sense. And he looks freaking phenomenal. That he does.

So, yeah, what did you see? That one I just saw. The Jets, I mean, Joe Flacco just settling in in the second half. And it just came down to, it really was Garrett Wilson that started winning that game. I mean, he was winning his matchup. Cleveland's secondary was, I don't know what is going on in Cleveland, in that secondary on that defense. but I had that unit pegged as one of like a top five unit and they're making me look ridiculous

because they look terrible to start the season and in this game I mean after I mean every touchdown throw that you know that with that wheel route up to Brees Hall the deep touchdown late in the game to Garrett Wilson it was like you'd you you would watch after the play, and it was just all of them, like, staring at each other, arms in the air, yelling at each other. There were so many miscommunications, so many busted coverage, coverages for a unit that... From people you wouldn't expect either. The continuity from last year to this year is almost, like, I don't know if they even have anyone new on that back end. Yeah. Martin Emerson, Jr. That's right, because he's a rookie.

but it just it didn't make a lot of sense because how do you I mean how are you letting how do you let a team back in like that you go up by 14 with about I think it pretty much was at the two minute warning

no timeouts for the Jets and then on the second play of that drive you let I mean you you let up a a go route just completely blown wide open i mean because cleveland's offense was moving yeah yeah denzil ward busted that according to him but well according to him he was only targeted once in the entire game yeah either way i just Cleveland's offense is moving the ball great

Cleveland's offense looked pretty good. Jacoby Percette looked, you know, solid. I don't think. Oh, he was playing, he was playing the game of his life until the end. I think, let me find the official numbers. Like, was not putting the ball into harm's way in any way, shape, or form. I don't think he had, he didn't, he didn't have a turnover worthy throw until that last pass at the end of the game. He looked in complete control of the offense.

The running game was working fantastically as it did last week, and it has looked like one of the best run offenses in the league. They put up, what? I mean, 30 points. It's like the offense did. Bressett was, sorry, Berset was 17 of 18 at halftime. Looked so good. So good.

And the one missed, and the one missed route was a good play by the defense on a stop and go that Brissette tried to hit deep. So not a bad in completion. But I just like, the offense was humming. Run game was working great. Brissette looked good. Amari Cooper finally looks to be settled, looks to be settled in that offense. played very well, but just the secondary. I mean, it all came down to the secondary.

The past rush was getting pressure on flacco. They were like, I just, it was, it was incredible to just see it constantly. Like, not once, not twice. Like, it was like four or five times that they were, that they had busted coverages. and New York would be walking in for a touchdown and a score a touchdown and you'd see three. You'd see like Denzel Ward Delpit in Newsom looking at each other like blaming each other, yelling at each other. I mean, I think I saw it at one point on the broadcast like Delpit looked like a ghost. I think he had gotten yelled at so many times by Denzel Ward, whether it was his fault or not.

Like, but it's just like the whole game. They were bickering the entire game. They completely looked unfocused. And I don't know what Joe Woods needs to do to figure that out in Cleveland, but he better figure it out fast. Because if this, like, if he, if, if this is a team that wants to compete in a division that as of right now, looks like Baltimore is running away, but Cleveland also has the talent to compete, they're going to have to figure out that secondary because that was an inexcusable performance by the Cleveland

secondary. Yeah. Yes, it was. And the way it ended, too, with Brissette throwing the pick, it was a little tragic because he had played so well. But the thing that was weird about that play, Steve, is like. they had a timeout in pocket. I don't know why they're trying to hit, you know, double move or whatever.

I mean, it was more of just a post route that Brissette threw in a double coverage. You know, they're playing like this super deep shell kind of cover two carry thing where in that, that deep buck defender was just like right there to rob it. But what's crazy is. If I remember correctly, they had someone open over the middle too. Yeah. People's Jones is coming three on a dig route. Yeah.

And you know, you get it to People's Jones. He probably catches it, runs for, you're in field goal range. You call the time out. You kick a field goal. You probably win the NFL. Like on the broadcast, they were floating, they were floating the idea of like, okay, if they don't get a completion here, like, it's about a 72 yarder. This is, you know, like possible.

It's like, I mean, that's like, you've got a good leg over there that, you don't like you don't have to get as close obviously you want to get closer and you don't want to and you know end up in a situation like denver last week but yeah just right they it's such a talented team that right now or at least after this week looks marred by just marred by um personalities for sure you know one thing that's on the other side of the ball too was flacco didn't necessarily play well most of that came i mean he was he he had some good throws but they left a lot on the field specifically garrant wilson they left out on the field with him wilson i mentioned how he looks incredible he's i mean shoot he he looks like a season vet already

um they're they're scheming some throws to him which is obviously nice and he's great after the catch, but he's got a really good feel for beating zone, setting those routes down and finding the soft spot and making, making things easy on the quarterback. Not only is he given him a throwing window, he's working back to the quarterback, you know, blah, blah, blah, all the intangible things you look for in the receiver, but he's also beating man coverage, which is really, really good. His release packages look really good. He looked totally, he looked totally in sync. Disgusting. Just with his body. I mean, it was all, it was all one. movement together that, you know, I, especially in the red zone, the corners would go,

go into a little bit of press man. And he was able to get off the line however he wanted to wherever he wanted. It was, it was impressive. He looked, he looked really good. He was put, he put Emerson in a blender a couple times too, which is kind of, uh, good to see. I know Emerson wasn't as highly drafted is, is Wilson, but rookie v. rookie and he was clearly winning that matchup. So in Flacco, like I said, they left a lot on the field. Shoot, Wilson could have had a third touchdown. He had one. He was wide open down the middle in the end

zone. And Flacco threw it straight behind him. And Wilson was able to get a hand on it, but wasn't enough. I think one thing I'm wondering is what does Wilson's emergence mean for Elijah Moore? Because I know Elijah Moore is like a darling there. Everyone, all the fantasy community loves him. He was a stud coming out of college as well. I had a, I believe I had a late first round grade on him. He looked good at times last year. I think for me, especially for fantasy purposes specifically, I'm not sure a flaco-led offense can sustain production from two studs.

I'm not sure that that doesn't necessarily mean more won't ever get his. I think he'll have games where he plays really, really well and produces well. I just don't know that you're ever going to see, you know, Wilson and Moore go off in the same game. especially because Davis isn't bad either. And Flacco just leaves too much meat on the bone, I think, for that to be like a consistent thing. And I mean, Flacco doesn't have the arm talent that he used to. I just, but he does have the most passing attempts through two weeks by a decent margin, too. Yeah, he has a hundred and one.

Does he really? Attempts. Next closest is at 89. I just, yeah. Well, I mean, and it's not even the question of, or it is for a couple weeks, but the real question is, what happens when Zach Wilson comes back for that offense? I don't know, man. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Probably a bad thing at least. Lean toward bad. Because at least Flacco looks to be like, you know, like we said, he doesn't look amazing. but he's, you know, he's getting the ball there. He has some good throws. He's in command of the offense. They're moving, like, for all intents and purposes, I mean, the Jets offense, I think a lot of people were concerned about it to a degree. But they're moving the ball well. Yeah.

I don't know. It'll be interesting. That coaching staff is going to have a decision to make when, when Zach Wilson comes back. yes they will and i was i was to say i was going to touch on it at the end but i think i'll just touch on it now did you see the um did you see nick chubb apologizing for scoring the touchdown late yeah came out because no i didn't cleveland fans can are the breed a breed of their own and there was i've hey i have a lot of cleveland fan friends and i respect the heck out of them, but sometimes they go a little far.

And there was people talking about how Chubb should have gone down instead of scoring that touchdown late in the game, which is completely absurd. The Jets had no timeouts. You're going up by two scores. Why in the world would you go down? That's not going to have. Nobody's going to do that in that moment. But.

Well, hold on. Back up for a sec. Back up for a sec. I think this is worth debating. the Jets had no, if the Jets had no timeouts, you go down. It's game over. But also the Jets have no timeouts and you're up by two scores. Like, you can't, like, that's, I mean, I.

Well, I get, I get, you don't expect your defense to completely implode. But, I mean, from the time you're playing Peewee football, you're, you're taught to go down in that situation, right? I mean, they have no timeouts. All you have to do is fall down. It's first down. they'll get the two minute warning, but then you take two kneels after the two minute warning. It's true.

It's true. I still don't think. It guarantees a win. If Nick Chubb goes down, it guarantees that they win that football game. Him scoring kind of, it opened the door. And while the door was, like, he barely cracked it open, the defense is honestly what screwed them. But it doesn't matter.

I mean, should Nick Chubb have apologized for it? Probably not. I think the defense should be the secondary should be coming out and saying what in the world's going on there and how they're going to figure out their communication issues because that's the issue right now. Nick Chubb running for three touchdowns, I think over 100 yards. And helping to put them in a position to win the game is not the person to be blaming in that moment. but still it's just yeah they have like I said like I said they need they're going to have to figure out some of those communication issues because they looked all like almost all of New York's

touchdowns seem to be completely wide open yep even the one that the flaco missed on Wilson earlier in the game was literally wide open there was nobody near him I mean he had a linebacker you know in somewhat proximity but in that short area there's there's no chance he's making a play on the ball so cool let's move to the monday night game because that's the one freshest in everyone's mind or the i should say the late monday night game yeah the minnesota at philly game um i wanted to start talking about this game with just throwing a complete wild card idea let's do it a discussion i think has to be had something i haven't heard anyone else talk about this is just me this is take talk and i'm presenting a take is darius sleigh a hall of famer i really started

thinking about watching that game because obviously he bawled out i mean the dude could have six interceptions of one day i a lot of people were putting out putting it out there i put it out there that darius sleigh at one point in the game was kirk cousin's most target or highest targeted receiver he was in position yes he was like it was like four or five throws in a row where you're like that could have been one that could have been one um yeah it's like slay was wearing a yellow number 18 jersey or something right yellow and purple number 18 jersey the rate in which cousins was going after him i but i think this is a legitimate argument or a legitimate discussion to be had i because his resume is he's freaking phenomenal it's actually

crazy how good his resume is like every every every Every type of cornerback stat where you do it over the last five, seven years or whatever, he's at the top or near the top every single time, whether it's interceptions, PBOs, passerating, yards allowed. Like, he's up there for every single one. I had not thought about Darius Slay Hall of Fame case yet, because I think, and I think he still has. Me neither. Me neither. I think he obviously still has some good, like, good years left.

Like, this is not the, this is not the twilight of his career. I. So the question is, are we watching a future Hall of Fame reply? My gut says yes. my instant my instant gut reaction is yes because i there aren't many players especially when you consider that he's not he's he does shadow a team's best receiver a lot and has been for a lot of his career this isn't uh and this is no knock to richard sherman i want to very explicitly say that but it's not like Richard Sherman where absolutely he's also a future

in there but Richard Sherman all you generally those generally those teams played or Seattle played sides he just got matched up with whoever he got matched up with but Darius slay is like I said shadowing their like the team's best receiver most of the game he was lined up on um Justin Jefferson a good amount I think it was five or seven targets or five or seven targets against Dariusleigh with Justin Jefferson matched up. Yeah. Like my gut, yeah, my gut says at his current trajectory, especially since he did have like, you know, the last year in Detroit. And then.

Yeah. He had a little bit of a dip. And that, you know, it's a bit. minus that though. Leading up to that since then has looked completely in control. And I feel like a lot, I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I feel like a lot of people after the 2019, after the trade, they kind of stopped talking about him in that upper echelon of quarter of quarterbacks. But I mean, he had like after last night was his re like reassertion into into it. And yeah, like I said, my gut says yes.

Yeah. So when I look at Slay's career, he's basically been a starter since 2014. He, you know, leads all corners in that time frame in past breakups. He's really close up there in interceptions. I think Sherman obviously has had more. Sherman's no longer playing. But Sherman's had more. I don't think anyone else has.

I asked my friend John Costco at PFF what his coverage grade was. over that time span. His coverage rate's a 91.0 since he became a starter. That's pretty freaking elite. He's been so, the part that's so impressive about him is, he's been so steady. You get the same guy,

every game, every season for the last decade almost, except for that 2019 season where there's a lot going on behind those doors with him and Matt Patricia. Patricia was totally a villain in that situation. And, you know, one of the reasons he's no longer, longer in Detroit because he had that mentality with a lot of guys here. But, you know, Sleys moves on, kind of immediately bounces back, you know, got better in 2020 with Philly, got even better last year or whatever.

And then this year he looks to be back to elite Darius Lay. His ability, like, when he gets the ball in his hands, he's electric. Like, that is always fun to watch too. he's very good at just turnover plays he's constantly like even if even if a receiver catches the ball even if it may not be his guy or if it is his guy he's always punching for the ball like he's always he's always looking to turn the ball over but not in a way that gets him burnt like you see with a guy like marcus peters because he he knows when to take he knows when to take his chances he knows his ball skills are ridiculous like

but he yeah and he never he never puts himself in a bad situation to go for the ball so there's four guys that have to get in before i think slay gets in one of them was a finalist last year and rondea barber by the way it's absurd rondea barber's not in the hall of fame yet he's been eligible for you know what five years now yeah going on that six years something like that Yeah, next would be Asante Samuel. The literal interception king. We talk about ball skills. That guy, I mean, holy crap.

And then we got Daryl Revis, probably the best manned corner. He's eligible for the first time this year. Yep. And then Richard Sherman. Now, they've been lagging these on purpose, I think. Even just look at the class that got inducted. Those guys have been eligible for a while. And, you know, Sam Mills and.

Tony Boselli, like these guys, you know, they've been eligible for a while. So I don't expect Revis again right away or Sherman when he's ready. I think they'll go Barber first. Barbara probably gets in this year if I had to guess. And then Samuel and then slowly. So, you know, by the time Slayer retires, hopefully all four of these guys are in. So that way he's not waiting on anybody else. But it is hard for corners to get in the Hall of Fame.

I think the last last one was Thai law. Ty law and Charles Woodson before him. Do you think that changes though moving forward because of how, oh, okay. This is the point I was getting at. Yeah, because the way the game has changed, the voters need to reevaluate what a Hall of Fame level corner is. Because the numbers are going to look different. You're not really ever going to see another corner with 60 interceptions in his career, I don't think.

No, probably not. Offenses are too smart. The game is too designed to support offensive production. That it's just being a great corner is so much harder today than it was in the past. Yeah, there's so much more nuanced. Offenses, I do think. Rout, routes run and all of that are so much harder to diagnose and cover that. Yeah, there's not as much like guys, you know, it's not a lot of like guys just sitting on a hitch or

running with a go, you know, cutting off a post like that. There's so much more nuance and that, yeah, that it's just not this. It's not as much the one-on-one as it used to be. No, just scheme has developed so much that you can just take what you get and you're just going to beat up porters all day. So those are those are the four guys I think, you know, that have to have to have to get in before Slay. If I forgot anybody, don't hesitate to DM me listeners and make me, you know, hear about it because I'd love to, you know, think about all of them. But moving on to this game in general, the other guy I really want to talk about other than Slai was Jalen Hertz. The guy looks

incredible. He's playing at a level right now that is ached to, I know it's way too early to utter these words, but MVP, he's playing like an MVP right now. If you were to start the conversation, he's right up there in the top three going like for even just one and two. Right. I mean, Steve, what was the biggest concern we had with Hertz coming into the year? Like, and I'll preface that by saying, I'm the biggest Jalen Hertz fan on the freaking planet. I've always believed in this kid.

I just know that he's had a lot of, he needs to grow. but I've known from everyone I've talked to, I'm close with people that are close to him that have told me, great guy, one of the greatest dudes there is in the NFL, and the hardest working guy in the NFL. So I've always had confidence that he would get it right.

But that said, what is the biggest concern we had about him? Throwing the ball in the middle of the field? Right. Throw for throw accuracy, right? Hitting those open targets in the middle of the field consistently, just making the easy throws easy. That's what he has to work on.

He makes the hard throws look easy. It's just making the easy. Throes Lick Easy was his biggest concern. Well, guess what? We chart ball location accuracy on every single play. In so far, through two weeks, Jalen Hertz, we have him as the second most accurate quarterback in the NFL. Yeah.

Talk about... Talk about immediately answering the questions that everybody had for you. Right. Right. And it's only two weeks. It's only two weeks. So it might not stick. But for right now, he looks incredible.

He's built on the success he had last. year and he's keeping that part of his game intact he's still running the ball at a high level still making those cool plays out of structure right not really putting the ball in harm's way though which is huge something he's always been good at he's he's but he is getting the ball out in time he's getting through his progressions finding his you know what's open a lot and he's making accurate throws consistently if he plays at this level for the whole season no i don't think he will win MVP. I think it's probably Josh Allen's award to lose at this point. Patrick Mahomes will be up there too. But man, I mean, he's got to be in the conversation. And I'd love to see

him go from like a lot of Philly fans thinking, hey, maybe this guy's okay, but we're probably drafting a guy after 2022 to being an MVP can that. That'd be a pretty special story. I admittedly was not a Jalen Hertz believer when he came into the NFL. I thought that he just had he just had too much that would be hard to develop and would be hard to see him getting to the point of being a completely in control starting quarterback. I was wrong or at least I'm wrong. I'm admittedly wrong to this point. But he does. He looks completely in control.

I mean, he is not, like you said, he's not forcing the ball. In week one, it was the AJ Brown show. He was getting the ball to AJ Brown. In week two, he fed DeVant to Smith more often and was finding him. Like, he's so smart. He's being so smart and so decisive with the football and not locking into his number one world beater receiver in AJ Brown. He's finding the guys that are open and he's taking what's given to him by the defense.

and his couple of that couple his smart decision making with his running ability he's just such a hard quarterback to defend and he's big like he's he's big he's different than lamar lamar is way more quick twitch agile top end speed guy jalen hurts is kind of a bully it's hard like it's hard to get him down he's not really afraid to to take a hit. He, you know, it's, he just has such a good two-dimensional game. And I said it last week and he'll, he did it again this week where they, they deploy that read option so well, that RPO read option offense, part of their offense so well where when they start to get the run game going and now all of a sudden it's the triple threat of does the running back have it?

Is Jalen Hurts going to keep it or are they going to throw it? it just puts the defense in such a difficult position. And because Minnesota's pass rush looked pretty good in that game. They were getting to him at points. But being able to have that ability to run or like, you know, scramble, run the ball, put the defense in difficult positions like that, it slows past rushing guys and allows Jalen Hertz to, you know, sit back there a little bit longer or even move the move the pocket and have more time to throw and he

he's so good at commanding that offense he looks completely in control what yeah i mean dude his his adjusted completion percentage this year so far he's getting close to 90 yeah it's it's it's it's just over 86 percent i believe he hasn't he doesn't have a turnover worthy play yet on the season i mean he's so not only is he cleaned up mistakes but he's also completing passes at a way higher rate. His passing yards per attempt this year is over nine. I mean, it's crazy. Now, his A-DOT has come down.

He's not throwing it or forcing it down in field as much as he did, which I think is good. I'd like to see him maybe split the difference moving forward. I think it's dropped the full two yards per attempt. That's okay. Maybe if he can split the difference a little bit, I'd be happy with that. But he's taking what's given to him, not making mistakes, and he puts the defense in such conflict that it's really hard. I have a hot take, and this is the Take Talk podcast.

I think moving forward from this point on, he will be a better quarterback than Lamar Jackson. Oh, baby. Listen, the rushing upside, especially now that we've seen this version of Lamar this year, he's put on a little muscle, little weight. He still looks great running the ball. Not saying he doesn't, but he doesn't quite have that burst that he used to. Jalen Hertz is running ability, even if Jalen Hertz is running ability is 80% of Lamar Jackson's, which I think that's fair to say.

The upside he brings to the passing game is so much more than what Lamar brings. From an accuracy standpoint, from a decision-making standpoint, just from a running an offense and progression standpoint, the mental aspect of the game, Hertz is giving you a lot more than Lamar is. And the upside of this offense is exponentially larger than the Baltimore Ravens. Because of Jalen Hertz. That's my hot tag. I like, if I'm starting a franchise tomorrow, I would take Jalen Hertz before I would take Lamar Jackson.

The only like my only caveat to that is I agree if he stays in Baltimore. Okay. I do. You think Baltimore's holding him back? I don't think it's a Greg Roman issue. Developing developing him. as a passer in the way that they should. So I 100% agree with you on that,

on that aspect of it for sure. Greg Roman has done this time and time. He did it with Kaepernick. He didn't care about Kaepernick's deficiencies as a passer. He just leaned into the run game to the point where defense has finally figured it out. And Kaepernick regressed and regress and regress. And obviously, Lamar has more armed talent. And that's why he's succeeding and they are succeeding.

For sure. But gosh, I just, yeah. if he stays in Baltimore like I said 100% agree jay i think jalen hurts pulls away and starts to pull away a little bit kind of quickly i just yeah and i ultimately i do think like i don't think there's a world where baltimore lets lamar jackson go i think that would be a massive mistake on their part but for his sake yes for his sake as a pastor as well i would love love to see him in a new environment because he had like lamar has a great arm he has a he has a

good release he has a pretty good deep ball it's just that there's the just some of the fine tuning things a little bit with his footwork a little bit with his throwing motion that at times just kind of gets away from him and he I don't think he has he had I don't think he's gotten the work that goes into it of guys like Jalen Hertz and a Josh Allen that we've seen develop, I don't think he has those things drilled into him that allow him to progress as a passer and progress in situations where it becomes like clockwork. And that sucks because I think it's just doing him a disservice. But they for sure have.

And we've talked about this at nauseam on this podcast. But what is the best, fastest way to make an inaccurate quarterback more accurate? Give him receivers that get open and separate. So what I would have liked the Ravens to have done this off season, instead of trading Hollywood Brown and saying, you know, hey, we're going to get rid of your favorite target Lamar.

How about, you know what? No, we're going to keep Hollywood Brown. And instead of drafting Kyle Hamilton, we'll send that pick to the Tennessee Titans. for AJ Brown. And we'll give you AJ Brown, Rashad Badman, and Hollywood Brown.

Why doesn't that even cross their mind? Like, why, like, do they not think Lamar needs more than one competent receiver on the team at one time? Why is it? I mean, it's ridiculous.

This has been a Baltimore thing for what feels like forever. Is why do they do this thing where they, like, only can have one number one on their team. Like, we're going to build. through our tight ends. You get one, you get one good receiver. That's it. And then we fill out the rest with, you know, patchwork retreads and young guys with semi-potential or like just, you know,

throw them in for a couple of plays. I just don't, I have never understood Baltimore's planet wide receiver ever. Like, when's the last time? They had not counting tight end. When's the last time they had two legitimate receiving threats? Right. I mean, so to that point, what the Eagles have done with Hertz is the right way to do it. And they have, and even before Hertz, the Eagles as a franchise have committed to getting receiver figured out. Now, they haven't always been right.

They've gotten a lot wrong. The Elshon Jeffrey contract. maybe Nelson Aguilar, you know, wasn't worth the pick they used to get him. Jalen Rager was a miss, but they keep throwing darts at it, right? They don't stop. Oh, we missed on Riga. Cool. We're going to go Devante Smith.

Oh, Devonte Smith is pretty good, but that's not enough. We want more. Let's go get A.J. Brown and make him the highest paid receiver in the NFL. And they will. Like, they'll move on quickly. It's like they won't continue to, like, beat a dead horse. Like, they move on quickly. Once they realize that this isn't it, this guy isn't it, he's either out of there, he's bumped down the depth chart.

They do whatever with him and then they bring in the next guy. And then like you said, they found DeVantz Smith looks good. We need to get someone opposite him because, you know, he can't do it by himself. Yes. Yeah, I would love to see Lamar end up in a situation. Maybe it's as simple as getting rid of Greg Roman. So that's the problem. It's twofold, right?

It's not just the personnel that they're running around Lamar. It's also the play caller. Roman's not doing Lamar any favors either. But I would like to see him rid of Greg Roman. And I'd like to see the front office. Baltimore has a great front office. Don't get me wrong. They do a lot of things right.

They do most things right. So I would love them to say, you know what? We're going to spend this next off season building around our quarterback that we're probably going to hand a Brinks truck too or hand a yeah we're going to give a brink truck that's what they're going to do it's going to end up being ridiculous amount of guaranteed money and if i want to protect him too because if i listen if i'm the ravens i don't necessarily want lamar rushing for a thousand yards every season that's dangerous especially if he wants the guaranteed money i don't i don't want that we saw what happened to my team when he got hurt last year let's not do that again so do we need to use lamar's legs to win yes that's fine let's not do it

so much though. So, hey, we're going to invest in the quarterback by doubling down and we're going to go get another receiver, maybe two. I want them to go get two receivers. Devin Duverne, he's a great utility man. I think he offers the offense something. I don't want him being my number two guy. Same with James Prochet. I don't want those guys being cogs in my system. That I have to rely. I would see DeVernay in like a Caleb Raymond role with where the lines are using Caleb Raymond. Special teams, phenom, great returner. We're going to get him some screens, some jet sweeps, the occasional go ball. Send him over the middle every once in a while. Get him on. And if one of our receivers goes down,

yeah, he's a phenomenal fill-in for that moment. That's great. I don't want Devin DuVernay as my number two guy when we're trying to win Super Bowls because that's what the Ravens are about. They're about winning Super Bowls. They don't care about, you know, eight and nine and nine and eight. And that's in, unfortunately, it is a, it is kind of a catch-22 where when Lamar is healthy and he's moving the way he can move and he has a game like he did on Sunday, they're not going to move on from Greg Roman if the offense is moving like that. They would have to do some, like, serious internal, like, evaluation to get to that point. and I mean again this has been a topic

but this is like this has been a topic for a couple years now and you know if they I think if they weren't going to make that move last year I don't I don't know if it's I don't know if it's coming and I fair yeah yeah it would take Lamar saying he's got to go right and we have no idea how he feels about like he might love brotherland we don't know right yeah so i do i do think like i do like the take though getting back to it jalen hurts getting back to the circling back to the original point like

jaylin hurts has had a has had a development that we've only really seen from josh alan in my opinion and it's and that's right right now that it's there which it was like one of his best throws the night was wiped off the board ultimately like ultimately it probably would have sealed the game but there was a holding there was a holding call it was where he scrambled out to the left hit quez wakkins on a i think it was a deep out route or maybe he adjusted the route out for the for the scramble yeah oh yeah that toe tapper no defender was Yeah, disgusting. Half a yard behind Watkins and just put it, like, put it right on the sideline.

Perfect. Cuez Watkins hit it, like perfectly in stride, didn't have to work for the toe tap. Just like bang, bang, foot drag in. But unfortunately, there was a holding call. And. Yeah, that was a thing of beauty. One question I do have, and I'm just going to pose it as a question of, they've pulled out to two big leads in the first half of both games.

And in both of those games, not as much in Detroit, but more so in this one, the offense sputtered a little bit in the second half. It was not as explosive as it was in the first half in both games. Is that any cause for concern? or is that them working a game plan playing from ahead and? Yeah, it's that. It's playing from ahead. So two things, actually both games has happened where, so they kind of get a little bit more conservative.

Like we saw this in the second half of the Lions game where the running game stopped being so Jalen Hertz centric and it became more Miles Sanders centric. Well, he's not quite as efficient. He did have the one big run against the lines, but he's not near the efficient runner as Hertz is. So the offense kind of slows down because of that. They're taking time off the clock. They're not converting as many third down, so they're punting a little bit more. But then in the flip side of that, we saw long drives from the Lions in the second half of that game that killed the clock.

And then we saw a few long drives from the Vikings in this game that end up killing the clock where Kirk just happened to throw picks at the end of them. So the game never really got close. So I think it's the defense kind of loosening up, allowing the opposing offense to burn some clock, as well as the offense kind of tightening up, becoming a little bit more conservative and not really trying to move the ball as well. Not a concern for me yet. And here's the thing about this Jalen Hurts led Eagles team, Steve. Tell me when they're going to be tested. I know. Washington this week, the Lions just beat the brakes off Washington and the Eagles beat the breaks off the Lions.

I know the score was close, but the Eagles were in control of that game the entire time. Then they get Jacksonville. Now, Jacksonville's played way better than expectation so far. I don't see them competing with. I'm not worried about. They're not ready for that. The defense. The Jaguards defense challenging.

Yeah. Jalen Hertz. That's not a concern of mine. Not at all. zero concern. Then they get the Cardinals who are a mess. I know they just pulled out this crazy victory this week against the Raiders who are also a mess. But Cardinals defense is terrible.

Jalen Hertz is going to destroy them. That's more the blueprint of how that game goes against Arizona than the Los Vegas game. Exactly. Exactly. And then they get Dallas in week six, Steve, who that team is in shambles right now. I know, I know, again, a team that just won a game they probably shouldn't have on the back of Cooper Rush. Their defense is pretty good, though. So their defense could give hurt some challenges, but I don't, I don't even really see in that beat in a test for the Eagles.

I think overall the Eagles team is very good. Top to bottom, that roster is really solid. They win in the trenches and they're getting phenomenal quarterback play. You're not going to lose. You're not going to be favored to lose many games when you have that combo, right? And then they have the buy week. Coming out of the biweek, though, Steve, it doesn't get harder. This is what's crazy about this schedule.

And we're looking way ahead right now. But week eight, the Steelers. Steelers are not a good football team. And they're without their best pass rusher. Week nine. Yeah, yes. Week nine, the Houston Texans. Okay, week 10, we're back with Washington.

Another obviously winnable game. Week 11, they get the Colts. Now, two weeks ago, I would have said, That's the game. That's the tough matchup. Gosh. Colts look awful. And then week 12, finally, the Eagles will play the Green Bay Packers.

And that game is a Sunday night game. That's just looking ahead. That is one of the games I am most excited to watch this season. Packers, Eagles, Week 12. It's in Philadelphia, too. So, you know, advantage there to the Eagles in a lot of ways. But really, week 12 is the first time I see, you know, Obviously, any given Sunday, things can happen.

One of these teams could creep up on the Eagles any point in time. But just doing the schedule scouting here, I don't see the Eagles in Hertz really getting challenged until week 12. And that's crazy, man. That F.E. This is such a travesty. Gosh. It is.

You said they play dad. Dude, their schedule is actually just easy in general. after the Packers, they go tight, Titans, Giants, bears. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I'm fully in the, hey, I got to check the Hertz for MVP lines today because that's, at this point, I'm sure I missed a big wave, but it's all right. MVP case because they're just going to keep going up by going up big in the first half.

And then they let the, and then they just kind of take the foot off the gas a little bit. True. So you won't have the raw production to compete with this. the Allens and the Eagles. Gosh, it looks good for the Eagles. That looks good for the Eagles. Yes, it does. Well, dude, I think we just, we just spent like 40 minutes talking Vikings Eagles in a roundabout way between all the Hall of Fame talk, MVP talk, the Baltimore sidecar talk with Lamar. I think we should move on. It's worth talking about right now. Oh, for sure. In a team, I mean, I've made the point to you and Chris privately that like the Eagles. I'm, rooting for them. Like I've never, I've hated the Eagles my almost my entire life. Growing up a Patriots fan, you know, when they, when they played in the Super Bowl, I just grew to hate the Eagles,

then the Eagles eventually beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl. But everything about this team I like, I've always been a Lane Johnson fan, always been a Kelsey fan. I love the way they've built those trenches because I'm, I'm a snob that way. I love Jalen Hertz, as I've already mentioned. A.J. Brown is my favorite player in the entire NFL. love him. Darius Slay is, I own two jerseys, two NFL jerseys. I own five Tom Brady jerseys and I own a Darius slay jersey. I also, I also, I also, I also just to tell you how I feel about there's the only jersey I own. Do you? Okay. Yeah, I'm not a jersey guy. You'll never see me out in a jersey. I'll never wear, maybe to a Super Bowl party, I might ironically wear a jersey just to be

that guy. But I'm, you'll never see me out in public with a jersey on. I'm not Jersey guy. I don't even collect them. I think they're pointless stone. But I own five Tom Brady jerseys and I own a Darius Slay jersey. So there you go. That's how much I love Dariuslays. So point being, I love this team, man. I love the Eagles. And I know a lot of my coworkers also love the Eagles because they're all from that area. So it's kind of funny where I feel like I've kind of been morphed into this Eagles fan, but I'm pulling from them. I would love so much to see this team have success and to see Hertz win. It'd just be awesome for my for my heart. Yeah.

But anyways, we should move on. Let's go. I kind of want to talk, this is going to throw you off, but I want to talk Falcons Ramps for a quick second. I know it wasn't a great game necessarily. Well, I ended up being kind of a good game, actually. But I've gotten a lot of questions about Kyle Pitts from our thousands and thousands and thousands of listeners. Which means I got a couple DMs about it. Yeah.

Yeah. So I've got a lot of questions about Pits. And I've trying to figure this out as much as everybody else. I've looked at our data on Pits. I've gone through it. And I've rewatched every single snap the man has taken multiple times at this point. And they just have problems in general. It's not one thing that's holding Pits back at this moment.

It's a lot of things. The first thing is, I would say, Marcus Mariotta. We have a Marcus Mario, problem on our hands. So if you want to know why Kyle Pitts isn't really producing at the level everyone thought he would, especially you fantasy players, I think first and foremost, we have a Marcus Mario da Vinota problem. Marcus is not a very good quarterback right now.

He's the same guy that left Tennessee. I think we thought maybe two years away as a backup to car in a different system he'd developed a little bit. He hasn't developed at all. He's the same guy. And the travesty with Marcus Mariotta is this dude has a ton of athletic ability, but his athleticism doesn't do him any favors. It actually gets him in trouble.

Because what you constantly see is Marcus Marriota bailing from clean pockets, which happened in this game against the Rams a ton, bailing from clean pockets, getting himself in trouble. And he's not good out of structure. Well, he's not really good in structure either. But he's not one of these guys. He's not a Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson type, who he's Mahomes, who's going to get out of structure and make ridiculous plays.

No, the bad things happen when he gets out of structure. So we want to keep Marcus in the pocket as much as we can, even though he's not very good at that either. But man, like, it's tough to watch. And he has talent. That's the thing that's so frustrating about Mario daisy is he's got talent. He's got arm talent. He's got the athletic ability.

It doesn't make sense why he can't put it all together and be a functioning quarterback, but he's not. He's not a functioning quarterback. So on tape, a lot of what I'm seeing is if there, well, Marioita is really. not comfortable throwing over the middle of the field. And by proxy of Pitts being a tight end, technically, I know he doesn't play a ton of inline, although he is playing a little bit more in line this year than he did last year.

By proxy that, though, even if he's in the slot and playing in line, a lot of the routes he's running are over the middle of the field. And they're oftentimes in the intermediate to deep parts of the middle of the field. parts of the field where Mariotta is not comfortable throwing to whatsoever. So it's kind of, it's a big, big issue. The other thing we're seeing is, and I tweeted this yesterday to a great response as well, but Pitts was dominant on the outside last year, splitting out wide. The top, like, top three. Yeah, dominant over three.

Right. Yeah. No, he was number one in the league in yards per route run when lined up outside. No, no player in the. NFL was more productive on a per route basis when lined up outside as Kyle Pitts. So far through two games, Steve, zero targets when lined up outside. Now, he did have one that was called back from a pass interference penalty. But so far, zero targets wasn't lined up on the outside, which is crazy. So that, you know, someone asked me, they wanted me to touch on, well, London versus

Pitts. Well, why is London kind of breaking out? He plays on the outside if, you know, and Pitts. not. And it's kind of what I said. I mean, Pitts isn't running enough routes on the outside, for one, where London's running most of his routes on the outside. Two, when Pitts is running routes, a lot of times it's just a go ball. It's like a, it's a nine route. Sometimes it's a runoff nine because there's a screen behind him or something. He's not, it's not really a legitimate attempt to get him the ball on the outside where Drake London is thriving. They're getting Drake

London involved. They're scheming him a lot of throws. That's another, so twofold. Mario problem. It's also an Arthur Smith problem. Arthur Smith has made zero efforts so far to scheme throws to Kyle Pitts. He has done so with Drake London, though. Drake London's catching screen balls. They're Mario does a couple times now through two games just checked to a smoke at the line of scrimmage. He sees that big cushion. He's got the man coverage. He's checking to a smoke, just throwing the smoke route to London. He's running for eight yards, getting tackled, blah, blah, they're not doing that with Pitts. They've made no attempts to scheme many throws. London's getting involved in the quick game, Pitts is not.

So those are the two main problems. The other third problem is just Atlanta offensive line is so bad. It distracts Mario-Doha. He's already kind of like we said, bailing from clean pockets. So imagine how he feels when he's getting, he's actually getting pressured. Pretty bad. He just does not,

he's not getting through his progressions. Pitts is open. I mean, I watched this last game. I think just in the first half alone, there were four moments where Pitts was part of the primary read of the play. So every pass concept typically has two, you know, two for sure reads where you've got a concept to the left, you got a concept to the right, and then a checkdown built in somewhere. Pitts was part of that primary or that first read concept four or five times in the first half of this game where he was open. And Mario da, staring right at him just doesn't cut the ball loose.

Right. And I mean, that's the issue with, like you said, having him, like the Marioota issue of him bailing from clean pockets and like escaping out. escaping outside of the pocket for 97% of quarterbacks completely negates the middle of the field. Middle of field's gone. Yep. Right. Oh, and he drops his eyes immediately too. He's not even looking.

He's looking maybe at the sideline to see if he can get a throw in there. Which is like you said, where they've been wanting and not necessarily trying, but it's where he's been running a lot of his route. and so and I don't know hopefully hopefully Arthur Smith has an opening of his eyes to this isn't just about fantasy this is just like literally getting your best player the ball your number four overall pick that you drafted to be a focal point of the offense the ball nightmare a mismatch nightmare like that like there's no there's no archetype of player that can stop Kyle Pitts if you're gonna go one-on-one I if you're just if you're just looking at the numbers I like his usage so far it's almost even across the board of slot in line and out wide like yeah I love that idea in the sense from the sense of getting him different matchups putting him into different positions, but you also have to get him the ball.

Right. And it's frustrating, too, because the one time they tried to get him the ball downfield this game, the result was a 36-yard pickup via pass interference. I got news for you, Arthur, and Mariotto. That's going to happen a lot because he's going to dust who's, yeah, he's going to dust whoever's across from him. Whether if you put a corner on him, he's too big. Corners can't stop him.

If you put a safety on him, he's too fast. Safeties can't stop him. I mean, you're not going to put a linebacker. We saw what he did to Miami last year. Yeah. They literally tried everything. All three of their starting cornerbacks tried to go one on one of them. He torched all three of them.

Then they finally put a safe. I think Holland was on him for a minute. He torched Holland. They put a linebacker, Jerome Baker. He took Jerome Baker deep. There's nothing you can do to stop this man. Yet they're stopping him by proxy of themselves. For the offense to stop him and they've done that so far.

And it's frustrating. I'm perplexed. not just because my fantasy shares, but just because I want to see this dude thrive. Part of me wonders, Steve, if they had a philosophical change in the offseason, like maybe coming into last year, that receiver room was so barren that they were like, you know what, Kyle Pitts, you're a tight end, but you're going to be our number one receiver this year because we don't have anybody else. So you're going to play outside.

You're going to play in the slot. We're going to get you the ball. Maybe now if they have Drake London, they're just saying, hey, we're comfortable with you in a more traditional tight end role now because we have London on the outside. outside. That would be very frustrating if that was the change there. The complete misuse because that means you drafted a guy at number four, an alien at number four to be a more traditional tight end, which like screams like,

screams mistakes all from so many different angles. Yeah. I will say this too. Pits does need to work on some things. One thing I notice in this game specifically is the scramble drill. He doesn't care. So in Mario to scramble it all the time. We've already mentioned the clean pocket bailing. Plus you play a team like the Rams. You're going to get pressured.

If it's not Aaron Donald, they're scheming it up on stunts or those weird outside linebacker positions they have. So you're going to get pressure. And when Mario de scrambles, Pitts basically just stops running. In fact, everyone on the team kind of did except for London. But London comes from this USC receiver tree where they coach these guys up. All these guys are like Pittman Jr. was phenomenal on the scramble drill. Amon-Ress St. Brown was phenomenal on the scramble drill.

And London's no different. I mean, he was coached by the same guys. He's had quarterbacks that bail from clean pockets for the last like 10 years. So they have to teach their guys that. And yeah, it is. It's how much, you know, how much did Pitts have to work a scramble drill last? year not that much with Matt Ryan. Yeah.

Right. No, probably not at all. Because if it got to that point, the play was probably just dead. And that's the way, that's exactly how Pitts is treating his routes. It's like, oh, you know, it's been three and a half seconds. This, this place probably dead. I'm just going to stop running. So my challenge to Pitts is, Pitts, if you're listening to this podcast, if you want to

start destroying defenses again and be productive, you've got to help your quarterback out a little bit more. Start moving. Start, you know, get, get Marcus and run the scramble drill a hundred times a day after practice. I don't care what it takes, but they have to get better at that or else I'm really concerned. I'm not like full ejecting on pits yet because his talent is so extreme, but I'm, I'm getting worried to the point where maybe this season is a wash, unfortunately, for fantasy purposes. And that's, that's really stinks. I would kill to see Ryan Tannahill play in this offense right now, and that's saying a lot because Ryan Tana Hill is just, just okay. But he would, he would find

pets. He would, I would pay the Falcons. He would throw the ball to be it. He would find pits. And he'd find London. Oh, yeah, let's also not let the pits talk minimize how good Jake London looks, because he looks awesome too. So I don't, I don't blame them for getting him the ball. I just don't understand why you can't get both of them the ball. Actually, I'm doubling up here. This is,

this is what's so frustrating. I meant to open with this, but I forgot. Game one, they come out, first drive. Two throws go to pits right off the bat. First game, it was like a deep crossing route. Actually, both games. It was a deep crossing route. Yeah. Yeah. Clearly, this is the game plan. So why then, if you can do that on one drive, if it's scripted that way, why can't you script it for the entire game? I would alternate. Hey, we're going to get London ball. We're going to get pit's ball. Or we're just going to take what they give us. Line them up on the same side. Because, that's one thing they were doing too is they're separating these guys so london would be on the left

side pits will be on the right right and they're getting bracketed you're just making it harder on yourself go watch some miami tape and see how these guys can shred now obviously totally different skill sets London and pits are probably the opposite extremes of hill and wattle but still go take some notes on how to how to get these guys you know running some awesome two-man concepts and beating coverages because he's running it's doable 24 rounds from the slot 15 from in line. Like you said, put them on the same side. Put defenses in positions where they have to think and they have to worry because that's

why you draft a Pitts into London is to use them in that way and they're not. But just the fact that Pitts only has 10 targets through two games is, oh, that's just such a misuse of one of the better, like one of the best talents in the NFL. one of the best athletes in the NFL. I just, yeah. Yep. Yeah. Arthur Smith, yeah, it's not about fantasy.

It's legitimately about getting your best player, one of your best players of football. And every good court in the league can do it right now. I mean, look at Cooper Cup. He doesn't come out of the game without 14 targets. you know what I mean? Garrett Wilson even in the Jets is getting schemed more than pits is and he's a rookie. Amon Ross St. Brown, Justin Jefferson, like there's no A.J. Brown. You're finding ways to get the guys the ball.

You're being creative. And these are all like number one guys. Pretty much. Exactly. Who you drafted Pitts to be. And now you have two of them. That's great. They're going to scheme towards them.

But you have to scheme in return. You have like you have to come back with something. because obviously there are ways to get him open. He is not this like slow plotting receiver where, you know, like you're worried about him getting open. He can get open. Like you said, they've opened both games with him running an over route, him being open. And then it's like both games you think like, all right, here we go.

They're getting him going. And then it just never happens again. and I, I, yep, yeah, I don't understand it. I don't like it. Like you said, like in an offense like that with Drake London and Kyle Pitts, like those are two receivers that are like supposed to sustain and like you're supposed to be able to get them both the ball. Like you don't have a real, really a third. Like you have Cordero Patterson and just kind of a hodgepodgepodge.

of your third receiver guy. But, like, you have London and you have Pitts there. To have them be the focal point, and they've done it with London, when are they going to follow suit with Pitts is the question. Yep. On the other side of the ball, Steve, this game became a game because Matthew Stafford does not look right. He looks broken.

I said he looked broken after the first game at moments. He looked broken again this game. and this was a classic Stafford game where he like linebackers became invisible. I mean, he threw an interception right through a linebacker on a play. I'm just like seen that before. What in the world? The deep throw in the end zone to Higby. Like, bro, why are you like the Higby interception?

It's like there's never a moment in this play where you think Higby's open. I don't know why he throws his ball to him. And then he hangs it way inside. he just looks off, man. And then the last interception was he's forcing it to Cooper Cup on the corner around the back of the end zone. Double covered.

Again, there's not a moment in this play where you're like, oh yeah, Cooper's open. They did start to use Alan Robinson more. He started a little bit, a little bit. Kind of. They started the game that way, but then it kind of faded, right? Five receptions. I mean, nothing crazy, but at least getting him

way more involved than they did in game one. but yeah I just and it's it's it comes in spurts with Stafford there are there are moments where he does look broken he looks like he's lost a step and then there are and then he's but he still has those throws where you're like that is that out is the elbow even an issue you look fine like he had that he had that sick arm angle throw to Higby that was dropped in the end zone. Yeah, he also had a deep out of the Cooper in the second, like late in the second quarter when they're right before half time when they're trying to drive it on the field. Ridiculous throw.

It's, I mean, the biggest. Right. Oh, the touchdown to Cooper too. Right. The fade. It's there. It's disgusting. It's just, I.

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Well, it's always been there. It's just the brain is not working or something because he's not. It's like he's not seeing coverages all of a sudden. I wouldn't even say it's all of a sudden. He's done that. I feel like he's done that his entire career where there's just the, right?

Yeah, that's why I said it was a classic staff where it's just, it's so obvious. Like to everyone else it looks and feels obvious of like, don't throw it there. And you know it. Like you say that, you say that don't throw it there because you know he's going to throw it there. Yep. I just. Yeah. Well, Ram's turnovers got the Falcons back in this game.

The Falcons almost made him pay for it if it wasn't for a errant Mario to throw to Brian Edwards. There he is. You can't get rid of him. The Rams offensive line is a concern. The Rams offensive line, it's week two, but it is a genuine concern and it is going to limit the upside of this team. their run game, we have them at, and we all thought this was a mistake, we have them at negative.05 yards before contact. For those listening, that means on average their running backs are getting hit in the backfield before they even cross a line of scrimmage. Negative yards, like average yards before contact. in a run game with running backs that look mildly pedestrian right now.

And like, you're not like, and they've played Atlanta. Atlanta does not have a good defensive line. They got the run game working at times against Atlanta. That's not going to be the norm. That is not how it's going to be the rest of the season, especially when you face teams like San Francisco. and like, you know, teams of much better defensive lines. Yeah.

One, it shows up too, right? Because like even, even though Atlanta doesn't, they don't have the D-line Buffalo had. So they're not, they're not going to rack up six, seven sacks. They did get after Stafford a little bit. You know, his A-DOT this season is super low compared to what we're used to from him. His average time to throw was pretty quick this week.

Again, nothing too crazy. from the pressure standpoint, but the fact that it was Atlanta and he was irritated as much as he was is not a good time. It's something to watch going forward because it like I said, it completely limits the upside of this team. And Stafford traditionally, if teams are going to get pressure on him without blitzing, that's like the number one way to beat most quarterbacks,

but it's also like a big way to beat Stafford, just pressure him without bringing a blitz. That's how and why Buffalo was able to completely stonewall that, that offense. But it's, it's already, it's weak two and it's already reached a concerning level. It's not,

it's a concern. And especially for a quarterback that has a history. For sure. In the last couple of years of getting injured. already has an injury concern and taking more hits is not going to help the issue. So like just for context, you have you have the Rams who averaged negative 0.05 yards before contact. On the opposite end, you have Detroit, who averages three, who averages 3.56 yards before

contact. That's a good segue because I know we want to hit this game quickly as well. Well, insane. Insane. Their offensive line is absolutely moving people and moving defensive lines that are good. These are not pedestrian defensive lines. I mean, we saw what Philly just did this week to Minnesota's run game. They completely stymied it. I think Delvin Cook. Now, obviously, they moved away from the run game a little bit more because of the position they were in. But still, like, Delvin Cook had six carries for 17 yards.

Like, completely shut them down. Washington had in week one, Jacksonville had to. kind of resort to moving the ball via the pass. Like, these are not bad defensive lines, but this. No, I would say interior-wise, Eagles and Washington, they're both probably top five. Hargrave, Cox, Davis, Milton Williams from the Eagles, insane beef, you know, quad of guys there. And then, right, and then Washington is Payne and Jonathan Allen. That might be the best interior duo in the NFL.

They're both incredible, especially against the run. I was just to say, for Detroit, for Detroit, and it's a combination of having great offensive line coaching. You have to mention that because they were missing their three interior linemen this week, and they still did what they did in the run game. That is a massive. And started a guy. Yeah.

Started a guy who has never played guard before. I was, started a guy who had never started an NFL game before. Couple that with had never, had never started a game at guard and had never, and had never really been worked at guard in the NFL. But is he the tallest person ever started game at guard in the NFL? I was to say six nine. That's probably either the record or tied for the record.

Yeah. But, but like so much shout out, like huge, huge props to Hank Frailey, the offensive line coach over there, for getting those guys developed and having the depth that they have on their offensive line, but also the schemes, they run every type of run play. And they move people, but they run every type of run play. There is not, like, I don't think you could, like, if you had to, if you had to like put,

I don't think you could put their run game in a bucket right now and say, like, they're a zone team. They're a man team. They just do it all. Right. They do. They love pollers. They love counter, pull lead, power. They love all that stuff.

They ran a couple times. They'll come back with zone. They run duo. Oh, yeah, the trap really freaking screwed Washington, too, a couple times. And they disguise it well, right? So they make it look like power to the front side. It's actually trap coming out the backside. and it's beautiful.

I mean, case and point, I mean, so you get good blocking with good scheme. You're going to have a good run game, no matter who's running the, you or I could run in those conditions. But, yeah, but then you add someone as special as Dandre Swift or even Ammanra St. Brown, who had a 58-yard run, and you're going to get these monster plays. They have three 50-yard runs through two games already. And, yeah, I mean, the vision, like, Dandre Swift, I feel like we're seeing him take a step forward as a runner,

which is fun because for everyone that watched Hard Knocks, that was such a big thing that, like, Deuce Staley was talking about on Hard Knocks was like, I want to see him develop as a runner. I don't think he's all the way there yet. And I feel like you're starting to see it. His vision is very good. He's hitting cutback lanes very well.

He is just, I mean, he's just, good luck getting him down in open space. I would love Oh yeah Disgusting I would love to see His jump cut is gross From giving Jamal Williams The ball

As much as they do There were There were a couple runs Where Jamal Williams had a massive hole And he hits it And it's fine But like

You see it And you watch the play And you're like That would have been 15 more yards If it was swift In the backfield Yeah

Even He doesn't have the burst Swift has. And I'm actually, I'm thinking Craig Reynolds right out of my mouth. I was just about to say that I would, at this point, I would rather see Craig Reynolds to get those carries than Jamal Williams. The thing with Jamal, though, is he's such a culture guy. And like, he is going to, whoever's tackling him is going to be in pain after the play. That is for sure. And I think Campbell and Deuce love that, even if they're going to sacrifice a few yards per carry. It's like, it is a, I know analytics people ignore the fact that football is still a psychological game.

I think Jamal is a big component of the psychological. Like this is, he's waging psychological warfare out there with A, his crap talking and B, his ability to just wreck somebody, you know, with his head and shoulders. I agree with you. I would like to see maybe Reynolds get some. This week it was necessitated by Swift being kind of banged up, although he didn't look banged up in any moment he touched the ball.

But maybe he was playing through pain well. I'm not sure. but Williams, man, he, he definitely lacks the burst. It's pretty apparent, too. Like you said, there will be holes where you're like, oh, wow, that's a 15-yard run. And then he'll get hit at like seven yards and drag a guy and fall down. And just, it's a good run, but it's like, man, I felt like that wasn't really maximized. Just for example, he, on man, on man-duo runs, he has eight carries and on Connery has seven carries.

on duo runs, he averages 2.38 yards before contact, but he averages 3.88 yards per attempt. On counter, he averaged it's 2.29 yards before contact. And he has 5 yards per attempt. It's just... So he's, yeah, so he's not even like, he's a physical runner, but he's not changing angles enough to slip tackles. Like, they're literally stopping them. in the hidden basically. DeAndre Swift. Now, he doesn't, they, they usually, they utilize them both in different concepts, just because of their strengths. But for, just for the sake of continuity or not, I mean, man, in man, DeAndre Swift, he's only has two carries in it. He averages 2.5 yards before contact and then 5.5 yards per, per attempt. But if you look at like trap and power and inside zone, power. Power. four yards before contact, 7.67 yards per attempt on three carries.

Trap, 4.4 yards before contact on average, 16.6 yards per attempt. Inside zone, 4.3 yards before contact, 21.67 yards per attempt. Yeah. Just so the listeners, though, these are very small samples, but it is worth pointing out the contrast between the two guys. Don't get me wrong. But for the sake of. of if like I I'm more using this as a way of saying like look at the upside and the explosiveness of the two running backs compared to each other because they're both like they're both getting similar or sudden I mean DeAndre Swift is getting way more yards before contact than Jamal Williams but that's also it's it can it I think I think that that can both be

an offensive line stat as well as a running back stat I think that also like DeAndre Swift is much quicker at hitting the hole. He's much more, you know, he's much more, um, shifty. Like he avoids that. He can avoid that first defender a lot easier than Jamal Williams. But either way, like, like you said, there's value to what Jamal Williams brings. Value that goes beyond just the stat sheet and that. But moving beyond that, like Detroit's offense through two games looks so good.

Ben Johnson's. Yeah, and they've left about 20 plus points on the field, too, because golf's missing throws. Ben Johnson. I think you said it in our chat the other day, but, like, is he up for, like, can we put him up for coach of the year, even though he's a coordinator? So far, man. Woo. So good. He's, like, both games, he's caught the defense just completely out of whack multiple times.

So he's definitely, he knows what he's doing calling plays. man, if golf could just get a little bit more, and golf was so consistent down the stretch last year. He didn't miss a lot of throws. In fact, most companies that chart accuracy, I know we do, I know a few other analytics companies that do, we all kind of had him close to the same level of accuracy down the stretch.

And he was top five to ten-ish for most, all three of us. So, I mean, we just need that guy. need golf like yeah it'd be great if he can hit 17 deep balls he's missed a couple of those too open ones to charke mostly and then chart dropped one but yeah even just the the short and intermediate misses like if he can clean that up it just keeps the chains moving and they're not because that's been the big problem for detroit right now it's like either they're getting an explosive play and scoring off of it or they're going three and out it's like i need i need to see i don't get me wrong love the explosive plays i want that to continue but we can't they've stalled out now

Now, both games have had stretches where they went three and out three drives in a row. That can't happen. No, I think they have like a- I don't be good teams that way. I forget the stat. There is it, okay, I was just say it's 30% 30% three-in-out rate, which is bottom seven in the league, which is it, which isn't good. Yeah.

But you have any deal. I also think that like they do have the most drops in the league right now. T.J. Hawkinson has not looked good so far, and I think that he's a big factor in this offense, consistently moving the chains in the past game. And that, like, we're going to have to see something from that because, like, he has not looked, he's not looked good so far this year.

Yep. And then it's, and then golf tightening things up a little bit and getting a little more consistent. And then also just, you know, as much as we praise Ben Johnson with the play calling, they are still running on early downs too much. And I really hate the double down.

So you run on first and 10, you get a yard. And then because it's your identity, so to speak, you run it again. I hate the double down. Running on second and nine, I'm getting three yards. And now you're in third and six. Yeah. Or another one yard run. That happened a lot.

Or another thing that's happening is they'll get stoned on first down and then golf misses a second down throw. Yep. So now you're in third and third. and 10. It's like it's really hard to consistently convert those, especially when you don't have a quarterback who's very, I would say he's not very good at playing out of structure. You know, he's not a guy who's going to buy time, let stuff break down and get those third and tens easily. I mean, there's not a lot of quarterbacks that are like that, but golf's definitely not one

that's really going to do that. He's got to throw within rhythm in the pocket and that's typically how he's going to move the chain. So if he's missing, it's just going to make it hard. I do think he'll get better though. How many deep balls have they not converted on that have been there? I know at least one in the first game to Chark and then one to Raymond in the first game that was overthrown. And then one this week to Chark that was overthrown. He was wide open.

And then one to Chark that chart dropped. That's four deep. I mean, those are probably 40, 50 yard plays, all four of them. If you hit any of them. Yeah. It changes things big time. But overall, The lines look pretty good.

The defense has got to get a little bit better. No, we didn't expect them to be very good. We were like going into the year, my bar was if they can hit 20th defense, they're doing all right. Yeah. They have a huge game in Minnesota too. Division rival game in Minnesota. Which I think is mildly important to see how the offense travels. and if that, you know, I think Jared Gough has had kind of a somewhat consistent theme in his career of playing well at home and then not playing as well on the road.

So how does that travel? But, yeah, huge game. Like, you get a team on a short week who just got beat to hell. And, like, an offense that, like, Detroit is actually kind of built to. stop in a way. Like their pressure has caught, their pressure, like the pressure has become, become better over the, like, it's, I mean, two weeks.

I do think Detroit matches up really well. Justin Jefferson, which, yeah. That could be a concern. Like, Detroit does not have a Darius sleigh or anybody that can, like, really match up with Justin Jefferson one-on-one. He has. Yeah, Kudas looked very good through two games. I do think they'll probably try that.

When he lined up against McLaurin, McLaurin didn't do much. And we saw what Devonta Smith did against Minnesota this week. And Devonta Smith had zero catches when lined up against Akuta in week one. So that's, you know. Yep. Right. Something to look forward to as, you know, the development of,

because their secondary is super young. So there is a ton of room for development. it's not like retread veterans that you're like we know what they are and you just kind of hope to mask their deficiencies it's young guys that they're hoping to develop so that it's something to watch out for but either way yeah this defense was not something that this team was ever really going to hang their hat on this year and yeah the lion's got to come into this game pretty confident right like they just coming off a win a big win they were up 22-0 at one point. And then they're playing a Vikings team who got destroyed by the Eagles

and the lines on the lost Eagles by three. I mean, that's got to be like a mental victory in a way. So they got to feel pretty good coming to this game where I think in years past, they come in a little intimidated by the Vikings maybe. Yeah. So it'll be interesting to see what Thielen does too because he's kind of been a non-factor through two weeks for the Vikings. And he's historically just torn up Detroit.

I mean, that same with, like, the pass rush in Minnesota has historically given Detroit absolute fits. So how does, because. Yeah. Yeah. But the interior O line is a concern for past protection. But depending on who trots out there. Yeah. Stenberg is a genuine concern in past protection.

And I mean, he increased. His past protection grade went from a zero in week one to a four last week or this week. Yeah. No, I sorry to got it was a zero week one and it was a four last week. So that's something. The nice thing is, you know, the Vikings don't have a single guy that's a very good interior pass rusher. So Tomlinson's a big nose. Phillips is a big, bigish nose.

Bullard is a rub. run deep deep five back basically so. Which is the strength of the lion's offensive line. You'll see a lot of Penae versus DeNeil. It will. Which will be exciting. And Zadarius, you know, my nice stance on him. I don't think he's a very good pass rush.

Yeah. Not one-on-one situations anyways. I will, yeah, I do want to see how they handle stunts because I think the Vikings will come out and try to stunt a lot, get Zadarius clean. If you've got Stenberg starting again, that could be problematic. I don't think he's going to deal with this very well. So. And then the other big matchup is Danzler and Peterson.

Yeah. Against St. Brown and Chark. And he's like, Danzler was not very good last year. Peterson looks a little washed, but they're playing, like dancers playing a little bit better this year. Harrison Smith could be out.

So. I think he got hurt towards the end of the game. He was getting evaluated for a concur. hushin, I believe. But, yeah, it'll be, I think we're at a minute 50, or a minute 50, hour 50. So we're nearing the end. We didn't even get to, we didn't even get to touch on Tampa Bay, New Orleans. Do we want to do, do we want to do a quick touch on that?

Or would you rather? We can, man, I'd rather do Cincinnati, Dallas, to be honest. I mean, we can, yeah, we can, I mean, we can get to some stuff on Friday, too, that we miss a little bit here. But yeah, for sure. Yeah, go where you want. So, Cincinnati Dallas, I mean, Cincinnati just got beat by Cooper Rush. I was sounding the alarm on Cincinnati before the season started, if you remember. I said Baltimore was the easy favorites win the division.

We got crap for it. I got DMs. People really pissed off about that. Cincinnati has shown their colors here and they just got beat by Cooper Rush. I know that feeling. Super Bowl team getting beat by Cooper Rush in high school. Yeah. Yeah.

Did you? But. Nice. Fire up chips. Gosh. I, so my whole thing, like my big thing about Cincinnati going into this year was if that offensive line has improved that that offense could be a top five unit well so far that offensive line has gotten worse Steve we have to interrupt this broadcast with an emergency message

the bengals offensive line is terrible it's bad I went back and um yesterday I was I was watching I was doing separation stuff for receivers for charting. And I watched the Cincinnati Pittsburgh game. Cincinnati's receivers were open a lot. I want to go back and watch that. I want to go back and do that for the Cincinnati Dallas game. But the receivers were open all the time. And every time it's like, holy cow,

they have two guys wide open or like decently open. Joe Burrow should hit this. And then you look at what's happening behind the line. Joe Burrow is, already is either already sacked. He's running, he's running past the line of scrimmage. I mean, the poor guy is running around like a chicken with his head cut off. He has no chance.

I think, like, he's been one of the most sacked quarterbacks to start his career in NFL history. Yeah. Did you, do you see the Joe Burrell fumble? Yes. The sack fumble on this game. It's so funny because if you. pause that play right when his right tackle loses the one-on-one rep. The right tackle is completely supermaned.

He's horizontal to the ground, fully extended, trying to block this guy. That's how bad these dudes are getting beat. I know Parsons is an easy to deal with. They faced two of the best pass rushers back-to-back weeks. They face TJ Wilde, week one, they face Michael Parsons week two. I'm not, I still think they're terrible because I, in the, the Pittsburgh game. I saw the interior defensive lineman.

Cam Hayward was getting through pretty consistently. It wasn't just one guy. It was a pretty, it was a pretty full unit collapse from Cincinnati. And now that, now the, the meme that everybody was throwing around before the draft last year, or not this last draft but the draft before of burrow with Sewell blocking and he can throw it deep to anybody burrow with anybody blocking throwing to chase is just a dud I mean the guy just doesn't stand a chance right now that offense is like can't move the ball but when they can they do I just it's you have two of the best You have one of the best wide receiver doos in the NFL.

You have one of the best slot wide receivers in the NFL as far as, like, depth, third wide receiver having Tyler Boyd is insane. You have Joe Mixing a running back and the offensive line is completely negating these guys right now. And I don't know what the answer is. I have no light. Their secondary looked pretty mad too. It's not just a line that's given admission. They're secondary.

I know Dallas only scored 20, but they did it with Cooper Rush. Yeah. And Noah Brown had almost 100 yards. Cooper Rush and outside of CD-Lam pedestrian receivers. Right. What did I say in our season preview podcast about their deal on? Yeah. I said Hendrickson and Hubbard had a great year, but they are not as good as their level of play last year.

And so far, we saw that. I mean, they, I mean, Cooper Rush is hardly under pressure. And again, this was, the whole defense, they made no, like, little, excuse me, little to no improvements on that defense because they were taking a bet that, like, hey, we were the 17th, 18th defense in the NFL last year. If we keep the gang together, it's only going to improve. But, you know, that's, that's not always the case. And it's not seeming to be the case right now, unfortunately,

because they just, like, I mean, they're, like you said, their secondary is getting beat. They're not generating a pass rush that much. Tyler Smith looked really good for Dallas. And, you know, I think Tyler Smith is a good player, but I also think that it helps when you play, you know, it was helping him playing a Cincinnati defensive line that doesn't have really any juice.

Yep. On the down side of the ball, Steve, I would like to tie a bow on a rant that I had last week. I'm convinced the podcast has only been out for three weeks, basically. I'm convinced that Dan Quinn is already a listener. Let's go. The Cowboys defensive coordinator. Do you want to know why? I know where it's going, but tell me.

Tell me. So last week I went off because Micah Parsons played. played 20 plus snaps off the ball and week one. It's a waste of a snap. It's a waste of a snap. And every time they did that, it's a fireball offense. So this week, Steve, Michael Parsons played 58 snaps. How many of them do you think he played off the ball?

23 last week. How many think? Oh, even better. Three. Three snaps off the ball. And guess what? on all three of them, he rushed a passer. They're learning.

They're listening. They're listening. They're learning. It's incredible. I was so satisfied with this. It's almost like taking one of the best pass rushers in the game and letting him go out for the quarterback every time is a good idea. It's got to be the weirdest concept in the world that, hey, we have this great pass rusher. Let's let him rush the passer.

And you know what, man? we had, I mean, I haven't, we haven't reviewed pass-ras pass pro yet, and it's deterred. But that is one game that I've done. And I think I counted him for 10 pastures wins in like 36 pass-risk attempts. Yeah. His win rate is absurd, bro. It's, it's, it's getting close to 33% on the season, which is actually nuts. Right.

So I'll just say this about the Cowboys. Last week, I buried them. I said they're done. But man, they came out and they win again. with Cooper Rush at quarterback and Dan Quinn, who listens to the podcast, apparently, listen to me and put Parsons on the D-line for all but three snaps. And even when he wasn't, he was still rushing the passer. Which I do think that there's value in that.

And they pull out this win against. Using him as an offball linebacker. Oh, yeah. There's value in that. Huge value. For sure, especially because they were doing enough, you know, twists and stunts and all kinds of fun stuff. Love it.

Absolutely love it. especially because they know he's good, so they kind of converge on him too, and it usually lets somebody else get pressure for free. And anytime you can get pressure for free at like zero cost, I love it. But anyway, so I buried the Cowboys. These two magical things happen, and I just,

I'm left feeling way better about them than I did, even though I probably shouldn't. But it is what it is, man. That defense is probably going to be pretty good all season. The offense is going to struggle until Dax back. But if they can scratch out tough wins like this, it gets a few teams. Is Dad going to miss the whole year?

They're saying six to eight weeks. Okay. Six weeks. Six to eight weeks. I've seen four to six. I've seen six to eight. Seems the consensus leans more toward, you know, the majority leans towards six to eight with like six seeming like Dallas's aiming point of getting him back or after six weeks. So coming back like week eight.

Okay. All right. Well, I'll just say this. The NFC is in a weird place. It is crazy. There's only, what, three teams with two wins through, I mean, that's crazy. And one of those teams is the New York Giants. Only three teams.

Yeah, one of those teams of the Giants. So if they could somehow win two or three games before that comes back, there's a chance they could make a late run. They have to figure some things out still. And the chances that they're actually going to win two or three more games are well. I don't want to do the whole schedule to look ahead with them because I don't think it's likely. but we'll take it we but i just saying that they're doing enough on defense yeah it's i mean the big thing for me is cooper yes cooper rush has actually come in like in the of the few games that he's

come back in and or come in and play he's actually like i think they've won his like his starts most of his starts i mean it hasn't been a lot but the question is you know sustained now he has to do it more like multiple weeks and that's going to be a concern Dalton Schultz could be out they're still waiting for Gallup to come back and when Galp does come back what does he look like the run game has looked okay it's I don't know there's a lot of questions on offense but the defense is what's going to carry them because Michael Parsons is a monster an absolute he's a game breaker he's awesome he is a game breaker he is yeah well sweet i think we should probably wrap it there i mean it is take talk do you have

i just had the nick chub one um i feel like that i that we talked about earlier i i don't have any right now we'll see you know i'll we'll do some digging and take a look for um take a look for friday what about you any any anything that jumps out to you um i mean i'll just say a general overview of like the victory lapping, especially from those in the fantasy community, especially over non, like, exciting performances is hilarious to me. We saw a lot of it this week. I saw a lot of people victory lapping CEH. Like, why?

It's still a three-back rotation. They still played three backs in the first quarter of that game. He just happened to get more touches. And he didn't even look great. He had one player he looked good on. Someone else, actually not someone else. Like 10 people were victory lapping Traylon Berks last night. Or two nights ago.

Weekly segment. We're back. I don't want to. It should be at this point. But go actually watch all the targets Traylon Berks has gotten, guys. And if they're not wide open, he looks like a tight end. It's a good scheme. It's like crossing routes where they, it's crossing routes where they have,

where they're sending deep routes in front of him, pulling, you know, pulling the quarters and the safeties back. And then he. Right. Four of his catches have been drag routes, yes. And then he had one drag route that he turned into a long first down. You know, he ran for a first down. And someone actually added me on Twitter and said, oh, that looked like a tight end now, didn't it?

And I was like, I didn't actually respond, but I should have. But point being is, yes, that actually did look like something every tight end in the NFL could do. If you're not going to cover a man And you're going to let him catch the ball and run With no threat of defense tackling him He's probably going to get a first down Burks did nothing special In that way he gets into the open field

And it's like, oh my ghost And it's like a shiftingness and all this He literally ran out of bounds He got the first down and ran out of bounds He didn't make a guy miss He literally just ran to where there was no defense moderately fast but not really fast He looked like Johnny Smith

I don't want to keep saying it But I do at the same time He looked like Johnny Smith but bigger point being like guys it's two weeks like and if you're going to celebrate in victory lap at least make it like a baller performance you know like Tua this week I've been really down on Tua like if you were a Tua supporter maybe Victory Lab that

he had a crazy game but Treylon Burks and Clyde they did nothing to victory lap like Clyde scored what 15 fantasy points who freaking cares Yeah, I mean, everybody Who cares, honestly? The Trelandberg's saying everybody's throwing out the yards per route run, right? Because he's only run like 30 rounds.

He doesn't actually play. Right. He doesn't actually play. And they bring him in the game to throw him a drag route to build his confidence. I did, I did have one, but I think I'll wait until Friday to bring that up because I think it would leave into an extensive conversation that we just don't have time for right now. Nice. Nice. All right. Well, we're going to wrap it there, guys. We're just over two hours. Thank you so much to all the listeners and listening. Again, we're still getting good feedback. The podcast is still very young. We're still getting better. But thank you so much for the good feedback. We will be back Friday to preview week three. And I am your host, Brett Whitefield, with my co-host, Stephen Rourke, and we are out.

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