NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal - 2025 Week 2 Recap: Burrow's Injury and Dan Campbell's Revenge
Episode Date: September 15, 2025Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Jourdan Rodrigue, Patrick Claybon and Nick Shook to recap the Week 2 action from around the NFL. The show starts with a look at Jaguars at Bengals (01:15), followed by Eag...les at Chiefs (12:20), Bears at Lions (21:40), Seahawks at Steelers (31:09), Rams at Titans (40:44), Bills at Jets (47:00), Panthers at Cardinals (54:04), 49ers at Saints (01:01:30), Giants at Cowboys (01:10:13), Broncos at Colts (01:20:15), Patriots at Dolphins (01:28:15), Browns at Ravens (01:37:00), and the Sunday Night Football matchup between the Falcons and Vikings (01:44:37). Finally, Gregg and Nick wrap the show up with their reaction to the update on Joe Burrow's injury (01:53:20). Note: time codes approximate. NFL Daily YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nflpodcastsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Welcome to NFL Daily, where we never doubted Jake Brownie or Dan Campbell or any of the people that got off the mat in.
week two and help their team to a much-needed victory.
I am Greg Rosenthal here in the Chris Wesleying podcast studio with my friends, Patrick
Claibon, and Jordan Rodry.
Nick Shook will be joining us with some bangers later in the show.
But for now, it's the three of us.
Let's go.
Woo-hoo!
United!
Jordan's first full day here in the NFL network facilities.
You did a show this morning.
You were next to me all day.
like yeah let me tell you guys what that was like off air okay oh it was fine what was it
setting next to gregg i'm just saying you're just like part of uh you're part of the machine now and
at one point gregg came over to my little cubby area and it's a standing desk that you can
automate yeah uh and he just decided you know what i'm going to raise jordan's desk while she's
sitting down well i just wanted to see if it worked into a standing desk yeah like
like one inch one inch um i mentioned jake browning i think that's weirdly where we have to start because
of the news and because of the quality of play like nick wessling on sunday uh let's go to
cincinnati jake browning will be under center chase brown lines up behind now sample goes behind
the quarterback and shoves him it's a touchdown jake browning with 18 seconds left and regular
has given the Bengals their first lead all day.
Dirty dancing style.
That was Dan Horde and Dave Lapham in the back room.
WC. K.Y.
Yes, Jake Browning has to come in, unfortunately, for an injured Joe Burrow early in that game.
And they threw some picks.
He also led the Bengals on a game-winning drive, 31 to 12.
over the Jaguars to get to 2-0.
Patrick, they talked to all off-season about avoiding a bad start.
And in both of these games, at points,
it felt like, man, they're having a bad start.
And the Joe Burrow injury is an issue.
We'll get to that.
But they are 2-0.
Yeah, the conversation about Wins being a quarterback stat is hilarious.
Wins are a coaching stat.
And Zach Taylor had never started 2-0,
his entire Bengals tenure, and by the grace of the universe itself, somehow, this team is
two at oh, because you wondered what would be the tendency breaker?
Liam Cohen's Jags, are they going to get past this Jags attitude of the past where a litany
of errors causes them to lose a game that they shouldn't win?
No, not today.
They start things off with a nine-play 69-yard drive.
Again, they're using Diami Brough early on.
Brian Thomas Jr., they both had 18-yard receivers.
receptions and then the defense comes out they sack joe burrow uh joe borough's oh of one they get the
ball back they go on at eight play 64 yard drive and then trevor lawrence throws an inexplicable
end zone uh interception and then a burrow comes back they ultimately get a drive and a touchdown
the injury which nfl network insider ian rapporte says is turf toe uh which is something for us
to watch because uh they have the broncos the vikings the packers and the lions in the next four games
So, good for them for starting 2-0.
Bachel Tootin look good, but there were weird, like miscommunications.
The broadcast said Brian Thomas Jr. short-armed ball across the middle that was ultimately an interception for Trevor Lawrence, which was another turnover.
The Jacks could have taken advantage on.
It was, it was rough one.
Let's listen to Liam Cohen asked about Brian Thomas Jr. 12 targets in this game for 49 yards.
One of the most inefficient plays in football through two weeks have been passed.
to Brian Thomas, Jr.
He was asked, Cohen, whether, you know, Thomas was short or I'm in that past.
Yeah.
I got to go watch it, you know, and just go figure out what that, you know, was all about
and what it looked like.
Yeah, I got to go take a look at that.
We've talked, Jordan, about Liam Cohen maybe giving too much away in press
conference, and that I actually think was a good enough job by him trying to just
stop himself from saying something that's going to look.
He chewed on his lip.
He chewed on his own inside of his own lip.
You could see it in the audio.
He wears his emotions on his sleeve.
When you saw him shaking the hands of Zach Taylor after the game,
he had such a look of like disappointment.
And like, I can't believe I have to do this right now.
These are two guys that once work together.
And then there was another sequence where if you're watching us on YouTube,
where he has this exchange with Trevor Lawrence where he's kind of like making these wild gestures
from the sideline and Trevor Lawrence kind of waves him off and turns his back. And these things
happened. This was after a misthrow when they're up third and 14 with about three minutes to go.
And just like a lot of tension and a lot of mistakes, Patrick. I guess we will get to the Bengal side of it.
But it did feel like it was a game where the Jacksonville Jaguars like wasted a lot of opportunity.
Yeah. And we can celebrate Jake Brown and kind of what feels like being shoved in the end zone against his will at
the end like he was not ready for that sample push in the back. But there were turnovers
by Jake Browning. Wingard got one, almost took it all the way back to the house, put the
Jags in solid position. They did nothing with it. And the worst one, there was a Lloyd interception
of Jake Browning inside of four minutes to go in the ball game that should have been backbreaking.
They get to fourth and five inside the 10 yard line. They run a crosser to Brian Thomas Jr.
Instead of kicking the field goal, which may have changed circumstances, I don't know.
And who knows if he would have gotten it if he had caught the ball,
but he had a pretty nasty drop.
It was maximum jags, including the final drive for Jake Browning.
There was a defensive pass interference call on Travis Hunter.
I don't think it was defensive pass interference.
I've lobbied for years that this should be reviewable.
The NFL allegedly tried.
It was a false flag.
They never intended to make pass interference reviewable.
And Travis Hunter gets dinged on what was one of the plays it cost in the game.
Yeah, it's tough.
It's, you know, I think back to earlier,
in this same week that we're still currently in.
And Zach Brown, or Zach Taylor, excuse me,
was talking about, you know,
really wanting to be 2 and O and, you know,
seemed really excited about it and eager about it
in his press conference comments.
And I'm like thinking, I'm like, okay, man,
but at what cost, right?
Because that is a tough injury.
Jake Browning is a solid backup quarterback.
A couple of the local writers there.
We're talking back and forth.
with some of the fans responding on social media
to different comments about, okay, well, why does it look like,
you know, there are functional plays happening for this quarterback.
Why does it look so hard for Joe Burroughs sometimes?
And it's like, well, you got to call around the player that you have.
And that's part of what the issue moving forward will be.
We don't know how long Joe Burrow is going to be out.
But it's kind of like, okay, yeah, you know, you got your 2 and O at what cost.
And, you know, you're going to have to change your entire game plan around this guy now.
I think it's important, though, because this part of the season to me
is just about managing, like, your win losses, managing the schedule.
The stuff that really matters for Cincinnati is coming up.
It's obviously devastating.
You lose Joe Burrow, and you're going to be just trying to get a win or two
in these Jake Browning starts, however many there are.
Turftoe is such an unpredictable injury.
I asked, you know, our friend, Nick Wesleyan, who was at the game,
like, if he had any takeaways.
And he was like, don't do the thing where you give the Bengals,
too much credit, the biggest, you know, the factor in this game. Like drop passes were the
difference. And they were getting beat and outplayed when Joe Burrow was in the game. And yeah,
the sequence of these drops was brutal. In the fourth quarter alone, Diami Brown dropped a touchdown.
Brian Thomas Jr. kills a drive with a fourth down drop. And then my guy, Travis Hunter,
who's definitely having a tough start to the season, draws or is called for a long pass interference
on a fourth down on the game-winning drive for the Bengals.
I think it was a good call.
It wasn't absolutely clear, but it wasn't a call.
With pass interference, I always feel like,
unless it's really obvious that it was a terrible call,
I'm not going to make a big deal out of it.
And they called him for pass interference.
And, yeah, just a lot of jagging going on.
Let's actually listen to Liam Cohen also asked about that fourth-down decision.
Why the decision to go for it?
It's 100% ago.
It's 100% ago.
In all analytics and all data, it's 100% ago.
I like, I don't like the way he answered it, but it seems like such, I, the reason that you went for it is because if you go up six, like, you still have to make them kick a field goal, basically, either way.
Yeah.
And if you go up six, they're more likely to go for the touchdown.
And Jason Garrett's on NBC saying, like, he thought it was a really bad decision because you got to force the backup quarterback to go score a touchdown.
Well, what did they do?
They wouldn't score a touchdown.
That, to me, actually is why you go for it.
You have multiple chances to win the game.
You trust your franchise quarterback, and then you trust your defense, and they couldn't
stop them.
They gave up a touchdown.
You disagree, Patrick.
Yeah, it's 100% a kick to me on fourth and five.
Fourth and two, I understand, but it was five yards to the extent that Brian Thomas
Jr. never even got across the line again in the first place to catch the ball in that
situation where the Bengals were sitting there and waiting, but there were so many plays other
than that one. It was a
collection of failures that led to
this Jags loss and we'll see
if they can kind of summon some positives out of the
pass rush look great. And I do think
there may be something to
this Browning T. Higgins
situation. I don't know if the
we'll call them fluffy passes
that Jake Browning throws kind of suit T's
eye a little bit more, but he goes up in
Mosses two defenders and then runs them over for
a long touchdown or maybe in fantasy
world the T. Higgins shares
I think he is the best
contested catch, like go pluck the ball in the air
away from your body guy in the entire NFL.
So maybe like a soft tossing and Joe Burroughs
not that, that different. He's obviously a much better
version of it. A soft tossing guy helps him out.
I just want to say for the record that I also think that it's a go,
especially from that distance from the end zone
and you're averaging 5.7 yards per play a little more than that
even at the time. But I will say
we talked about this earlier and I think this is actually
really important to monitor over the course of the season
we've all mentioned it at different times.
The subtext of the comments post game, the subtext of the actions,
it looked like actually when him and Trevor Lawrence were going back and forth.
That is a put it on his chest.
You saw the ball got tipped up a little bit.
The receiver tipped it up a little bit with the contested coverage as well.
To me, that looked like him saying put it right on his chest.
And then, you know, what are you going to do in that situation?
The play's already done.
You're the quarterback.
You got to turn around and keep going.
So I think that that's the thing.
you can hear the like
thinly veiled rage
and I think more so execution
than any of his own decisions right now.
It's always been Trevor's problem
and he had a couple of interceptions in this game.
He also had three touchdown 271 yards.
He's always not been the most accurate.
It's like yelling at the guy,
make your free throw.
Like obviously Trevor,
I just trying to throw it directly to the Super.
So the Bengals get out of there
with the victory and Jemar Chase
in Nick Wesleyan's words,
the best non-quarterback in the NFL.
After a quiet,
Week one, 14 catches on 16 targets for 165 yards and a touchdown.
Shmar Stewart also got banged up late in this game.
That is something to watch.
But seeing Chase and Higgins do their thing.
I think it's going to be really important long term that they banked those wins.
Another team banking those wins was an arrowhead today.
But it's not the home team.
Now there's motions of the near side of the field on Hunt.
Back goes Mahomes.
He fires.
It's intercepted on a deflection.
There's the turnover. Interceptive by the Kubha.
Down the far sideline, he goes all the way across the 40.
There is the interception that could change this game dramatically.
What a big play.
That was Merrill Reese and Mike Quick on WIP.
It did change the game dramatically.
It's pretty rare that we go with a fourth quarter interception in a 1310 game
that doesn't directly even result in a score.
But that was the kind of game that the Eagles and the Chiefs played.
It wasn't the most entertaining, but it did have a lot of really dramatic moments, I believe.
A lot of coaching decisions.
20 to 17, the Eagles beat the Chiefs.
And yes, Travis Kelsey, who made some great plays today, many of which were right on Andrew McCuba.
That changed the game.
A fourth down pickup, another one where he stiff arms, Cooper DeGene, ultimately drops a pass that could have
been a touchdown, turns into an interception. And I pointed out and make it the highlight,
partly because the chiefs have such a small margin for error right now. They are not an explosive
team. They did hit one to Thornton late in the game after they were down 20 to 10 to make it
interesting. But when they go on a really long drive, they have to capitalize. And what we saw
today, Jordan, I think in that moment was the very like picture of the Vic Fangio defense.
of make them work down
as the field as slowly as possible
and eventually they'll make a mistake.
And the Chiefs did make those sort of mistakes today.
And I will tell you, coaches who play against this,
especially the original of this,
which is Vigfangio running it, obviously,
they describe it as agonizing as an ego death.
And I don't think we worry about that so much with Andy Reed,
the master of the screen game.
He's so happy usually to pick and poke against an opponent.
But the Eagles are really good against the screen.
screen game too. This was death by a thousand paper cuts and that is exactly, I always would get
confused when players who play in this type of system say, we want to make them snap it one more
time. I'm like, why? Just get off the field. But really what it is is you want that psychological battle
in the mind of the opposing offense and you want one more snap to force that mistake. That is what
happened here today. I think the Blitz really tells a lot about this game. I mean, the Chiefs lost
the game at home down by a couple
scores in the fourth quarter
where they held the Eagles to
216 yards. Neither of these teams
top 300 yards.
Five for 14 on third down for the Eagles,
four for 12 on third down for the Chiefs,
but holding the Eagles to that on third down.
And it is incredible, although they,
you know, they did pick up a couple of the fourth,
you know, the fourth downs with the tush push.
Like, where's the NFL that I loved with the big plays
AJ Brown and Patrick Mahomes?
Like, A.J. Brown goes five for 27. And for the most part, Sequin Barclay was bottled up. And what I found
really interesting was the Battle of the Blitz is. So famously, you know, Vic Fangio doesn't send a
single blitz in the Super Bowl. This time, he sent a lot. And Patrick Mahomes ends up going
three for 10 with that interception, which really wasn't on him. But three for 10 with very little
yardage against the blitz.
And I think it was because
ultimately, like,
they weren't worried about the chiefs beating
them over the top. On the other
side, the chiefs have
so little pass rush that
they blitz almost the entire game. And I feel
like every single Spaggs versus Hertz game
or Todd Bowles
versus Hertz game comes down to Jalen
Hertz versus the blitz. And today, I would
give him like a C on that. He goes
nine for 14 for 77
yards. He didn't make a ton of mistakes. He took
a sack, but on a per play basis, that is not very good. Their total yardage was not very good,
but they end up making no mistakes ultimately, didn't make them pay enough. And so the chiefs
have to blitz 64% of the time and the Eagles still get out of there without like really making
the backbreaking mistake. Yeah. And we're on the other side. It put Spax's defense at a very
tough position because you get in that situation. Yeah, they got away with it one time. The double
mug look. They sent two in the gap.
Saquan has to choose. It doesn't block
either one of them. And
Kurt throws it up to Devante and
he tries to make a catch. Lands like
awkwardly. He's down for a few minutes.
But he's back in the game. Later on
same exact situation.
Except Devonze Smith makes the catch and
you see like just
the limits to how
aggressive they could be, but there was only so much
that they could do not
holding Saquan under 60 yards
this time. Like Seekwon had a decent game.
And just, like, with the limitations that they are offensively, like, there was just so much put on them to be successful on defense where it's, this isn't sustainable.
Yeah.
You can't.
Well, it's sustainable if they want to keep losing.
Yeah.
They're row and two.
Well, it's, it's really striking on, on both sides of the ball for the chiefs.
On the offensive side, they do feel strained.
They do feel like, uh, not super cohesive.
And part of it is missing personnel, having Xavier worthy, you, they clearly were, that was a total shock.
I mean, obviously it was a bang, bang play to some.
some home team contact there by Travis Kelsey.
And so obviously you're not expecting that.
So now your entire plan changes throughout.
But on the defensive side, it is absolutely wild to me.
This is actually the most Steve Spagnolo has had to blitz in a game since he first took
this job as defensive coordinator back in 2019.
And the discrepancy of it was Jalen Hertz on 40% of his passes per next gen had over
two and a half seconds to throw.
when he was actually purely dropping back
and A, they were trying to rush for
or B, their blitz was not getting to him.
He had all day to sit back there
and figure out what he wanted to do with the ball
and he didn't even have to show the run threat
like he normally would.
Yes, he scored a rushing touchdown.
But in terms of those pure dropbacks,
he looked so unbothered by so much of what they did.
And then you have to dial up the blitz
to a point where you're stretching yourself
actually pretty thin because your four-man rush can't get home,
you're stretching yourself schematically as the coordinator
past a point where it's not sustainable for you to play.
And yet it was extremely effective.
Like if they won this game because the offense played better,
we'd be talking about what a great game play.
And it was ultimately Hertz averages under five yards per attempt.
But it's a great point on the pressure because they sent Blitz 64% of the time.
He was only pressured 36% of the time.
Like that's a terrible ratio for them to have.
And it's just something to keep an eye on,
two straight weeks,
Chris Jones not really making an impact
as a pass rush. He's had moments
where he starts the season slow before.
And so because it's Chris Jones,
you kind of assume that he will get it going eventually.
It's the rest of the team that both last week
and this week just does not have enough juice up front.
Ultimately, though, their defense played well enough.
It's just tough.
If Travis Kelsey is easily your most important
offensive piece at his age,
and Tyquan Thornton,
and is playing such a big role
and you just haven't had any running game
from Pacheco or Kreme Hunt over the last couple weeks
in very tough matchups
against Jesse Minter's group, against Fick B. Andrews' group.
It will get easier, but not that much easier.
You know, you play the Ravens in a couple weeks
after the Giants next week.
They are feeling it,
and I think they're doing things out of character.
They went for a fourth and one
on their own 36-yard line
to start the third quarter.
Andy Reid, that's not something he would normally do.
And I just felt like,
they're just like a little
desperate and he doesn't get it either
they get stuffed and that was a tie
game at that point I didn't hate that he
went for it I think he's
kind of right to treat his team as the one
that's less talented and being a little
desperate against the Eagles because it's true
it's going to be a long
season for Patrick Mahomes to far
and away be the leading rusher and
like continuing his trend of
running people over
where it's like it's a lot of
contact and then yeah you mentioned
Chris Jones and Travis Kelsey, both of those guys being Canton in my opinion, but at this
point, perhaps more complimentary pieces than instead of like relying on them to do what they've
always done when they've been playing so much football, like making all these playoff runs,
it's a lot of accumulation of football, which is something that no doctor would ever
prescribed. Ultimately, one score losses to two teams that I think are going to be in the playoffs
that are really well coached to good quarterbacks. And so I am not, you know, panicking yet about
this Kansas City Chiefs team.
But your rushing point on...
He's already bracing himself.
Your rushing point on Mahomes is well said.
He had a career high in rushing yards
in the second quarter already of this game.
The fact that he's had to run so much
in both of these games is not a good sign.
Let's go to Detroit.
So this is kind of the revenge portion of the program.
You know, the Chiefs did not get their revenge.
Could the Lions?
get their revenge on Ben Johnson
for flying the coop, turncoat.
21 seconds to go.
First down for the Lions.
Golf's got it back.
Lofts it right side.
Once Tesla, does he make one-hand to catch?
Oh, don't you tell me he did that.
Oh, rookie, you are something else
as he slides out of bounds at the three-yard line.
Here we go.
Six seconds remaining.
Lions come to the line.
The clock is not moving.
It'll start on the snap.
They'll get one shot at the end zone
before they send the field goal unit out.
Gough works out of the gun.
There's the snap.
back here and looking throws and they'll caught touchdown Detroit Lions Amin Rae St. Brown I see you
oh that is so big the rookie makes the catch that sets up the lion for the touchdown and it's the
veteran Amin Ra who makes the grab for the score oh that is a great call from Dan Miller on WXYT
usually we go for one play highlights but when we got our guy Isaac to slaw making the greatest
catching NFL history if it had happened in the 70s or 80s to set up a touchdown with
four seconds left in the half. We're going to play highlight. 52 to 21. Man, Dan Campbell was
enjoying the hell. He out of this win, late, a 50 burger on the Bears, Jordan, in a game that
early, it looked like it was going to be a lot of fun. And late, it just felt like a lot of Bears games
over the last five years.
Someone's going to fact check me this if I'm wrong,
but I believe that's Isaac Tesla's second career NFL catch ever.
And remember,
the first one was also insane,
but in a loss,
so we don't really talk about it so much.
We've talked about it like four times.
It was only last week.
All he does is trick shots.
He's trick shots only.
He's literally two for two.
That's it.
Yes.
And so this was super interesting because,
so they only needed four seconds to get that Amman Rae St.
Brown.
touchdown to put the game up 28 to 14 at half and kind of broke Chicago's back in this
sequence. At first, there was a little confusion because the clock, the officials let the
clock run out, which was super confusing for Jared Gough, first of all, because the referee was
still in the middle of the scrum placing the ball as the clock ran out. The clock official and the
sideline official were not on the same page. Finally, they got all of that fixed. Then there was
a ruled, the catch was ruled in bounds, which means they needed a 10 second runoff.
Anyway, I won't bore you with all the details.
They only needed six seconds, four of the six seconds
to ultimately really put this game away
in terms of the Chicago Bears.
The Bears, it didn't always have to be this way.
It didn't start this way.
Once again, the bears looked really solid
on their opening script, touchdown, Caleb Williams.
Next four possessions were a punt, a fumble.
Brian Branch hit DeAndre Swift so hard
that his mouth guard popped out.
Then a turnover on downs.
then an interception.
This was not a great decision, a pretty bad interception,
that sort of just started to spiral everything a little bit out of control for the bears.
It all sort of convalesced into one thing.
He was on the move.
He's working out of structure, avoiding pressure from the lion's front.
And then he tried to make something happen down the field.
The receiver he wanted had run out of bounds,
kind of halfway stayed out of bounds, kind of came in bounds a little bit.
He ended up throwing, Greg and I talked.
for a little bit after this game about whether maybe he was trying to throw it out of bounds
or was trying to hit the receiver down the field. It looked too in bounds of a throw for me to
think that he was trying to throw it out of bounds. Ends up being an interception. Kirby Joseph
picked it off. And then it just got from bad to worse. And by the way, against the coach who
used to really enjoy running up the score on opponents in that stadium. And Ben Johnson was asked
about that after the game.
What's he supposed to do?
Is fourth and goal, what do you want him to do?
Yeah, he could have kicked the field goal.
They don't kick field goals.
They go forward there.
So he was doing what he was supposed to do.
That's what he does.
Good answer.
Let's not make it more than this.
The idea is to score as many points as you could have.
Ben Johnson was upset about a lot of things in this game.
I don't think.
I think he could have been upset about Romodunzee dropping multiple passes,
including on one drive.
I think he could have been really upset about his offensive line,
21 pressures and four sacks, Brexton Jones, especially struggled. Nine pressures, two sacks, and four of them were quick pressures. Lots of penalties yet again. Anything off script, off the opening drive, off the first 15 plays, off any of this looks so bad for this team offense and defense. They look so discombobulated. This defense, the floodgates just opened. Jared Goff played so, so well, really calm. They stayed even with their run pass balance. They definitely saw the second half.
of that Vikings Jordan Mason attack on the bear's defense.
And they ran the ball pretty evenly throughout.
And Jared Goff was what, 23 for 28 for 33 for 33 for 234 yards, five touchdowns.
The longest time to throw in a game he's had since 2022 through five touchdowns in
a game against the Bears, the first time that's happened to the Bears since 2014.
And also the first time since 2014, the Bears have allowed 50 plus points in game.
The denizens is off.
Yeah, rest in peace to the denizens.
We had a great two quarters, but I think, I think.
Three quarters.
We had three quarters.
Dang it, we had three quarters.
Give up credit for those full three quarters.
I mean, it's not something that Ben Johnson should be upset about.
But, and he's right, like Dan Campbell with Ben Johnson there,
Dan Campbell without Ben Johnson there, they run the score up.
Like that's, it was 21 to 45.
And then Jared Kauf is throwing that pass to Amon Ross St. Brown.
We're like the play, the drive started with a pass on that possession.
So it's like, they were trying to.
the score, which is what they do.
Yeah.
But like, I love that too because so often I watch these games in garbage time and teams
can't do anything in garbage time when they're trying to.
Like they're just out there trying to play and execute offense.
I don't think that all of the line's interior offensive line problems are completely solved.
I don't think that Jared Goff, you know, being as in tune with his offensive coordinator,
John Morton, compared to all the continuity had with Ben Johnson over the years, it is solved.
only way that you got to get better is to do it on Sundays. And yes, you get a little extra to
do it against Ben Johnson's Bears. Dan Campbell, after the game said, we went out, we wanted to go out
there and put on a little show. And yeah, if you see the spray chart from Jared Gough, his next
gen starts, that's, uh, it's just, it's just a beautiful. How would, how would you describe this?
What we don't see is a lot of incomplete passes. It's the Bellagio fountain. I mean, it looks,
It honestly looks like a middle finger.
It's a huge.
Oh my God, it does.
Middle finger.
It is.
To the Chicago Bears.
Oh, my God.
For just doubting even for a second that you could,
you could hang with the Detroit lines.
Well, and you know what?
I was actually, I was really impressed with Jared Goff because it didn't start.
I mean, this team started out pretty even.
They, you know, this looked like, okay, maybe this is going to be close there.
Just for a hot, a hot second there.
And then Jared Gov on that drive where he gets the ball.
to that insane sideline one-handed catch
to Isaac Tesla. There were a couple
completions on that drive
that he
a, he kind of sidestep
pressure a little bit, then stood in
while that secondary rush
came and got him and popped him.
And he stood in and he completed throws
and he really stayed composed.
And then, you know, after some of the
turnovers they had, they would go out and they'd run
the ball six times in a row. I mean, this was a team
that was settling itself down
as it went. It was getting that rhythm.
as it went. And then on the other side, much better performance from this defense,
from this lion's defense than in week one. The coolest, one of the coolest moments of the
game was when Aiden Hutchinson recorded his first sack back home in front of the fans since
getting hurt. And he blew like he was on stage. Like he blew several kisses to the crowd,
double hand kisses to the crowd and was such a showman in the best way about it. You could tell
it was a really emotional moment for him as a really emotional moment for the fans. That crowd was
juiced the whole way through.
And these are the good old days.
A day like this for the Lions fans was better than basically any days for
decades on end for the Lions.
So they are going to enjoy the hell out of this.
And they're going to feel great about getting Jameson Williams like two 40 plus
yard plays, including a 64 yarder.
He had a touchdown.
Amon Ra goes over 100 gets three touchdown.
Jamir Gibbs has a 42-yard run.
He gets his touch.
Like everyone got theirs today.
I don't think everything's solved.
but everything is looking a little familiar in the NFC North with the Bears at Owen 2.
All right, the revenge portion of the program, not over, but we are going to take a quick break.
And on the other side, we're going to talk about D.K. Metcalf against the team that traded him away.
What's up, everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here.
And I'm Bucky Brooks.
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Walker now in the backfield.
J.S.N. Y to the left side.
Walker's going to get the toss.
He's going left side. He's got some blocking.
He turns up, Philly's down inside the five.
Touchdown. Seahawks.
Ken Walker, the third.
If the Steelers are going to load up near the line of scrimmage,
Walker is going to flank you to the left and run right past you,
and he does.
The Seahawks score again.
It is 30 to 17.
Oh, they say that preseason's a liar.
But sometimes you see the great Seahawks running game in the preseason.
And it actually shows up when it matters a week late.
That was Steve Rable, K-I-R-O, Kenneth Walker, with a big time day in a 31 to 17 victory.
He finishes with 105 yards on the ground.
They were the tougher team.
dare I say they were the more Steelersy team, Jordan.
Yeah.
And you know, Greg, we've talked a lot about omens since the season began.
And these coordinators that show their play script
and they kind of designed their first several calls as to what they want to.
So you send a subliminal message to the public, to the cognoscenti,
viewing the games or to themselves sometimes.
At the start of this one, Seattle scored a touchdown on a play action pass.
remember those did not see them in week one definitely saw them again this time and it was
tory horton's first career touchdown from there as soon as Seattle settled down and this was
largely through the second half they they loaded up they used extra tight ends they used their
fullback Robbie outs they used heavy personnel and they ran the ball really physically I loved
how everyone sold out for the blocking that Kenneth Walker touchdown you could see on the perimeter
guys shedding their inside blockers and flushing out to the outside to sell out, put their bodies
in the way to create space for him to run. You could see how much room he knew he had with that
little skip step at the end of the touchdown. I will say it took them a minute to get
kind of regathered back into this identity that they showed us during the preseason because
it looked at the start that it was all about the Steelers defense. These splash plays were
insane. Jalen Ramsey picked off a throw intended for Cooper Cup, former Super Bowl teammate, really
smart play. He saw Sam Darnold's eyes drop and knew the ball was also dropping for the under
concept instead of leading Cooper Cup on the throw where Cooper Cup probably had a touchdown. Jalen Ramsey
took a guess and played the underneath. The ball came underneath, he picked it off. The problem
here, and it plagued the Steelers all day. They only got three points off of that, right? And then after a
blocked field goal, which removed potential points from Seattle, Jaylon Ramsey again, and this is all
first half, Jalen Ramsey again, the Steelers fail to get any points on the following
possession. So this is like, all of this is happening. And then all of a sudden, they start
running slants away from Jalen Ramsey. They figure out where he's lined up and they block him out
of the play. Or they start designing their past concepts away from wherever he's at on the field.
This was a tale of two halves for the Steelers defense and the Seahawks offense because once
they changed their plan and adjusted into this heavier, we are going to be physical. We are
going to bully you.
It really helped the Seahawks that Alex Highsmith had to leave the game with an ankle
might be out for a few weeks now.
This was absolutely a Seahawks team that settled in and rediscovered who they were and
they showed us who they wanted to be with that first play of the game.
And it happens in all due respect to the Seahawks performance against a Steelers defense
that starts, and I know Highsmith left the game to look very funny in the light.
After we saw what the Jets and Breece Hall did, Kenneth Walker has this performance with not
even that many carries and to where I wondered, you know, I know some guys had made some guesses
on that Kenneth Walker run and ultimately were wrong, but maybe some business decisions
were made as well for Kenneth Walker to go skipping in the end zone there. And Aaron Rogers
on plays that lasted over two and a half seconds, he had 141 yards through the air, zero touchdowns
and two interceptions with a pass rating of 28.5. There's a tail and that's a great point. Because
Because he, I mean, he looked bad.
And he looked like he was in pain for a lot of the time that he was playing.
He made bad decisions on some of his throws,
things that you would expect him to take a risk on.
Sure, if this was 10 years ago.
But you don't necessarily expect him.
I'll get to it in a minute.
But like, there's a tale of these two quarterbacks,
the pressure that they faced and the decisions they made out of that pressure.
Sam Darnold got the crap beat out of him earlier.
and he looked skittish and he looked jittery
and he looked like, you know, he was...
You were honking in the first half of this game.
Oh, Greg, you might have been right about Sam, Donald.
It always was.
And I go, oh, Sam.
The football, like Donald shuffle, it just looks awkward.
And I go, oh, Sam.
At one point, I went, oh, Sam, you know.
And, you know, he didn't play a totally clean game.
He got hit.
He turned the ball over.
But there was a third and long later in the game
that Patrick Queen got in as a rusher.
And he got there almost too fast, really,
on the play. And Sam Darnold evaded the pressure very, very calmly and then dumped the ball off
for a first down and then took a shot play, a play later to JSN, who had another really good game as the
clear number one receiver on this football team. And Jalen Ramsey was covering it. So it was just
like that. The entire switch flips. And then the tail of the other conversion was Aaron Rogers on
a third and six deciding he was going to cut and run for the sticks, a conversion he would
have made. He had the flat open Leonard Williams in pursuit. And he looks behind him and he sees
Leonard Williams bearing down on him. And it's almost like he flinched. And he got pulled down and
he was two yards short. And this is not what we would have seen, A, the risk taking and B, the level
of athleticism that just is not there. And he forced the ball. He missed some throws. He got really
annoyed. You could tell he was irritated through a lot of this game. And one of the two huge
mistakes of this game, we'll get to the second in a minute, was the interception that he threw.
I mean, this was a end zone interception that nullified potential points for the Steelers as they
were trying to actually, like, stay competitive in this game. And it's Darion Kendrick,
the cast off from the Los Angeles Rams, who makes the play on the ball that is forced between
multiple defenders in the end zone. And it just, you know, this was just, um, they basically,
both of these teams switch places as the game went on.
And this is one of the best defenses in the league,
at least I thought it was,
coming into the season.
So it doesn't totally shock me,
but it's pretty one-sided in terms of the yardage,
in terms of the pressure.
Boy, Maffei and Derek Hall had two of the highest,
if not, I think, of the three highest pressure rates of the early window.
So the offensive line hasn't looked that good for the Steelers.
They weren't really able to run the ball.
You know, other than this insane Jalen Warren play
where he goes 65 yards and makes a million people miss on a really short path,
But he throws the pick after it.
Right. Rogers basically doesn't have any, you know, meaningful production the rest of the day.
So very concerning.
And Devin Witherspoon, you know, was banged up in this game, didn't play, that they lose the second half, 24 to 3 against the Seattle Seahawks.
Both of these teams, though, one in one.
It's early.
You know, they've got all the time in the world to bounce back.
But Mike Tomlin was annoyed.
we hadn't even gotten to the big
the biggest mistake of the game
Right
Let's hell let's listen to it
Getting ready to boot it away
Is Myers a low line drive kick
Gainwell and Johnson
As the ball bounces through the hands
Of Johnson and into the end zone
It's going to stay in the end zone
Do the Seahawks fall on it
In the end zone
It's going to be a touchdown Seahawks
The ball went through the hands
Of the kick returner
He touched it
It landed in the end zone
zone, the ball hit in the landing
zone on a kickoff.
Somebody's got to cover it for the receiving
team. It was recovered by
the kicking team in the end zone
touchdown. Holy Kempish!
That is absolutely... Even the officials
annoyed and that's on the way to 17
unanswered points by
the Seattle Seahawks, by the way.
Let's listen to Mike Tomlin
asked about it after the game.
Poor judgment by a young player.
That's something you specifically work on in practice.
Every day of our lives.
that's that's brutal that's brutal for caleb johnson because he hasn't gotten a lot of playing
time two snaps on offense uh and and to have that happen looking at the the reverse angle from the top
he looks away before the ball stop i wonder because i know like there's you know he's a rookie
awareness of the rules i'm legitimately wondering if he thought the ball was going to bounce out
and it checked up at the end man the kickoff is such a bigger part of every single game in the
NFL now in many different ways that that was one of them and they'd paid for big time and maybe
that play will kind of cover up all the issues that they have on their defense right now and on
the offense other than Warren because of that big catch like none of their receivers over 31 yards
let's go to a team with some quality wide receivers that went to Nashville today big moment here
third and five in the red zone a field goal and it's still a one score game a touchdown and the
Rams are in the driver's seat.
Big blitz coming.
Stafford heaved from his heels.
It's Devante.
It's a touchdown.
Back right pylon.
Adams first as a ram.
Touchdown, L.A.
How about the guts from Stafford to hang in and hit the fade away?
Oh, the guts of a burglar.
That's J.B. Long on KSPN.
Devante Adams with his first score, his first 100-yard game as a member of the Los
Angeles Rams.
on six catches. Puka Nakua adds a 45-yard touchdown run on our favorite fourth and one play where they in the Cooper Cup play from the Super Bowl. And oh, by the way, eight for 91 through the air. Like, they will need other people to contribute. And I'm sure, you know, some people are. But they don't need that much more to have a pretty great offense. 33 to 19. The Rams win in Nashville. Yeah. And it was an offensive performance where they kind of pulled away late. And for the second consecutive week,
these Tennessee Titans and Cam Ward
have made things very interesting
but it's ultimately the Rams defense
that proves to be stifling. Byron Young
got two sacks, two out of the
five times that Cam Ward
was sacked and the Rams pulled away
in the second half. Obviously the Pooka Nakua play.
The best part of that play
which was a little bit
because Cooper Cup in the Super Bowl started out
out wide and Puka here is one of those
McVeigh wrinkles. Same play right
but it just looks a little different
at the onset. Wittington
like hit 22 miles per hour,
I believe to catch up to Puka and throw a block
there towards the end.
So that was great, but it's tough
because great performance. The Rams 2 and O.
The NFC. West is going to be fun this year.
But to look at Cam Ward,
which was, again, the reason I wanted to take this game,
I lick A.O. Manor is running
an out in the red zone.
Cam Ward drifts across the field.
The entire screening room, including me,
is saying, no, Cam, no.
Throw the ball away.
What are you doing?
No, no, no, no.
Yes.
What a spectacular throw from Cam Ward, midair,
outside of the numbers,
all the way to the T and the end zone
on the other side of the field.
Are you kidding me?
That's what I'm going to remember for this game.
Yeah, the Rams won.
But this is why the least discussed
number one overall pick of all time
is so fun to watch.
Eric Fisher, you know,
begs to differ.
But I mean, we could come up with some others, right?
but Eric Fisher definitely is the winner
in the clubhouse. That's the leader in the clubhouse
for a throw of the year, right? I mean, because
for him to get
the depth on that throw from
where he threw it is just absolutely
outrageous. And for it to come right
after he also hits A.O. Manor
who is really looking like a
great day three pick. He was
an early fourth round pick. He hit him up
the sideline for a beautiful whole shot
right before that. Kim Ward
ends with, you know, 175 yards
but 19 to 33 and those plays that
that make you believe if you're a Titans fan.
If you're going to lose by two touchdowns at home,
I feel like this was about as good a way to do that as possible
with Ward having his second straight good game.
I know we're seeing this every week at this point.
I know it's only two games,
but did this in college too,
where you just see this like fearlessness in how Cam Ward plays.
I do think I turned to you at one point today, Greg,
in the in the newsroom and I was like,
he's got a little Matthew Stafford to him.
In the trick shots that he tries and some of the arm angles
that he takes. It is sort of ironic in that sense that right after that touchdown, Matthew
Stafford and the Rams offense go out on the field and Matthew Stafford is intercepted,
you know, which is the true quintessential Matthew Stafford experience, right? This was an interesting
game to me because it's been the script of a lot of Rams games for a couple of years now where
they start really, really slow. And, you know, we said that the Titans defense was creditable,
creditable earlier this week. And they are and they're respectable. But it's also the Rams playing
down to an opponent and starting slow yet again in the double digits over the last
couple of seasons where it's either one touchdown or no touchdowns at all in the first quarter.
I mean, they end up, like you said, always fixing it. Not always. But this time, you know,
you end up with seven to half yards for play in the end. It looks like a dominant performance.
You mentioned Jordan Whittington, who's stepped in really and become their,
number three receiver, you know, they didn't like when we made fun of Tutu Atwell's $10 million
contract. Well, he has four yards through two weeks. And Winnington's like a bigger part.
I'm sure he'll have his moments too. And I would posit that if Miami were two and oh,
they'd be trying to trade for him right now. I, uh, I noticed the difference in terms of just pressure,
though, you know, Cam Ward and, you know, takes five sacks. The Rams defensive line has six
tackles for loss. There's four passes defense. Whereas Matthew Stafford was under
much less pressure. Byron Young is off to a really fast start this season. So that combination of
these incredible wide receivers and just enough pass rush gets the Rams to 2 and 0. Jordan also
survives. Good job picking the Rams here. She doesn't take it seriously. I do take it so
seriously. Literally when this I said, oh, you're your survivor picks in a little trouble when they
were down 13. 10. I said, I'm not working. You were like, oh yeah, like I care so much.
said that. I said, I'm not worried about it because I care so much.
See, when you said that, that was actually the first time I was like, oh, maybe she does care
a little bit. Well, I'm competing with you, Greg. So, you know, no, you guys, also,
uh, rookie edge rusher, Josiah Stewart records his first sack today. And he's all over
the field on that insane Kim Ward throw almost gets to the pressure. It is weird to me that
he's wearing number 10. I will point that out. A lot of weird numbers around the NFL these days.
I love it. Bryce Huff wearing a 47. We'll get to him later.
I know. Me and Greg were like, who the hell is that? Oh, that's price up.
All right. So that was the Rams. They get to 2 and 0. Titans at 0 and 2.
It's time for the Sunday drive presented by Toyota. Let's Go places, specifically MetLife Stadium.
The bills are right back in 13 personnel. Cook the lone setback.
Here's the snap. It's another handoff. Cook going to cut it back through a hole. Dodges a defender.
And out and out the gate to the races. Down to the 12.
20, 10, 5, touchdown, James Cook, 44 big ones for the score.
James Cook was out the gate, and it was taillight time.
His ability to break those tackles and change direction, if we had a run of the year,
I think that's it so far, 44 yards of the house.
That was Chris Brown, WGR, Bills win 30 to 10 in a game that wasn't nearly that close.
I'm going to get a lot of picks wrong this year
we'll see if I can get any pick more wrong than this
because I thought the Jets were a bad matchup
I thought they would win this game
straight up
until we were in garbage time
of this game
it was 383 yards to 87
24 first downs to 5
Josh
or rather Justin Fields
had fewer yards
passing in this game than Mitchell
Trubisky did on his one throw
that he threw in the first half after
Josh Allen appeared to break
his nose and it just exploded
into a sea of blood.
The bills are the team,
Patrick. I think that the Jets
want to be, at
least offensively.
The Jets want to be that great
offensive line in
this game. Like, hey, we don't even need
our quarterback to be efficient or
effective throwing the ball. We are just
going to mash you running the ball like that's what the bills did they were much better at that
style of play than the jets were today yeah and it's maybe we were and maybe you believed in the
jets a little too much after the performance i know i did the pittsburg steers beware the moral
victory this happens all the time whenever you whenever someone has a moral victory they inevitably
play worse the next week and then just lose by more and and there were some things that schematically
didn't make a lot of sense to me there was some implementation about the officiating as well as the spotters
because Justin Fields, not only did the Jets put Mason Taylor in a situation where he's blocking Bosa off the edge,
but Mason Taylor was on the injury report, wasn't even sure if he was going to play,
then it gets lined up to block Bosa, who gets a hit on Justin Fields, lands on the back of his head,
gets up, he's a little wobbly, then gets hit on the next play, leaves the game with a concussion.
I just wonder, like, you have to be able to implement things to protect the players in that situation better
because multiple folks let Justin Fields down on that one.
the game. Tyrod comes in in garbage time, but this was, there was just no opportunity for the
Jets almost throughout this game. Like you mentioned, Josh takes the hit in the nose. And I'm sure like
all of upstate New York was calling for a visor for Josh at that point. We can see a hand
getting the helmet. And Mr. Shubisky comes in and fires one immediately. Like a perfect layered
throw 27 yards down the field reminded me, it was to Josh Palmer and it reminded me a ton of the
throw to Josh Palmer that Josh Allen made his best throw of the week last week on Sunday night
football. And I was like, damn, Mitch. I was like, I didn't know, uh, you had it in you. At that point
in the game, I believe Chubisky had more yards passing than Allen. He started out like doing
nothing. Uh, and they were still trailing. Like the biggest offensive play early was a 40 yard
Josh Allen run, but it really didn't matter because Justin Fields was off. He did have some open
receivers early that he missed. The offensive line wasn't nearly as good in this game either.
And then on the other side of the ball, the Jets defense has been a disaster through two weeks.
I think Justin Fields has been so extreme. It's going to take attention away. Last week was
his best week in his entire career in EPA per play. Number one in 46 starts. This week was
his worst week in his entire career out of 46 starts. That's going to get the attention.
What's been consistent is the Jets defense through two weeks, I would say,
is the worst combination of completely undisciplined,
crazy amount of penalties in bus and no disguise at all.
They're just lining up.
They're showing you they're in man.
They're showing you they're in zone.
And the bills knew exactly what to do when they saw that.
Yeah, it is interesting.
I know it's a little coordinator change, right?
Steve Wilkes is over there now and they've had some changes in personnel.
But like, this defense should not be as clear as it.
is to the... You figure it's Aaron Glenn really running the show. Yeah, I mean, but Aaron
Glenn's not calling plays or anything like that. And this, these are two very competent senior
defensive minds who are in these roles because they are very good at these jobs. And like,
that is, that is concerning to me. Because at one, at some point, you do understand that, you know,
maybe they're just not as one for one talented all over the roster as they used to be, but they
still do have some players. Right. And so you would hope to see a little bit more,
I guess, are less mental mistakes out of this group.
I guess you would say, especially not used to seeing that from an Aaron Glenn
or a Steve Wilkes team, those types of mental mistakes.
They've got some bad combinations, I think, in the secondary.
I think they're linebackers like Sherwood and Quincy Williams are too similar.
They're like these kind of crazy run after it.
You miss CJ Mosley right now.
It was like, it was just like a come down to earth moment for the Jets
because they were getting booed hard in the second quarter.
A come down to Earth moment for me.
I apologize to Eric
I apologize to the Bill's fan
I mean I want to
I own the L too because I was so high
on this run game for the Jets
I still am but man it's going to be
Feaster Famine sometime
but for doubting this is this is a team
that has Super Bowl aspirations and for them to
they almost felt like the way they talked
throughout the week and then after this that they felt
like they were bouncing back from a win
even as crazy as great as that performance
was at least on the defensive side of the ball
and they didn't have their two best defenders
from a week ago in this game
to Ron Johnson, Ed Oliver, we're out of this game.
It was ugly.
So yes, booing in Metlight Stadium was probably the crowd reaction I'll remember most from today,
except for the entire Lions crowd chanting F. Ben Johnson, F. Ben Johnson at the end of that game,
which was delightful.
And kind of booing us in a way, Greg, for being so excited about the Jets and so worried about the bills.
I guess I know just like a small fraction of what it's like to be a judge.
fan I committed myself to this team today.
But great job by the bills.
Seriously, they are looking already two weeks in
like they might cruise to this division.
That was the Sunday Drive presented by Toyota.
Let's go places.
Let's go to the desert.
Rice Young and shotgun.
The Cardinals rush four.
Young back to pass.
Pressure in Young's face.
He's hit.
He's sack.
It's Callias Campbell who wins the game
in his first game back at State.
Stadium wearing all red.
Calleus the hero and this game finally will come to an end.
Oh man.
If we could play a Calleus Campbell game winning sack in the year 2025,
we are going to do it.
This man is 39 years old, was drafted in 2008.
Thought he was maybe the best player on the field for their defense.
A week ago was a key player tonight.
and he said it was important that he got to rotate in and out.
He wasn't nearly as tired by the end of the game as he was a week ago.
And they were holding on for Deer Life.
That was Dave Pash, by the way, on KMVP.
Cardinals win 27 to 22 in a game that looked completely over.
The Cardinals up three scores and driving in the fourth quarter
before a Kyler Murray interception kick started a wildestead.
comeback and the panthers actually having the ball with a chance to win the game at the end.
Yeah, it was such a like inversion of a game from most of it until that final quarter and
especially, you know, some of the second half overall, but especially that final quarter and then
it got really weird at the end. Clayas Campbell, by the way, was one of many Cardinals players who,
defensive players especially who left the game at one point.
Callias Campbell, thank goodness for the Cardinals, did return to make that game ceiling play.
at the very end.
But by the end of the game,
there are two cornerbacks
on the field named Denzel Burke
and Cottrell Clark.
They were missing Will Johnson,
who has a groin injury,
according to Jonathan Gannon,
Max Melton, and Garrett Williams.
And they were down to, again,
these deep backups,
because they already have been dealing with injuries
at this position,
outside and inside at this point.
And Jonathan Gannon really, really loves to play
dime defense,
and he loves to play rotating coverages,
and shift his D.Bs around and really mix up the looks there.
And then he kind of operates back to front in that way,
which means that what he wants to do on the back end of his defense
will often dictate the type of pressure that he wants to run.
Okay, well, down multiple scores, what starts happening?
But they start losing corners, right?
Starting with Melton.
And then, you know, Williams comes in and out of the game.
Johnson goes out.
They start playing a really regulated defense, right?
this is basically playing rules ball against Bryce Young and the Panthers,
playing more vanilla coverages than you're used to seeing from Jonathan Gannon,
not being able to play as much dime.
At this point, Bryce Young kind of starts dealing a little bit.
He starts slinging the ball around.
They end up mounting a, like, Bryce Young and Hunter Renfro led comeback.
I mean, after touch, after halftime, they go touchdown, touchdown, touchdown.
Now it took them forever.
It was 14 plays, 14 plays.
12 plays, but until that
last drive, which
was a total unmitigated
disaster, almost for both teams, but
for the Cardinals, it was just that they were committing
turnovers. For the
Panthers, it was that they couldn't protect Bryce. He couldn't
make a decision. He was holding on to the ball.
He was making groaner after groaner of a decision
and it just is part of like a season
that's already been
mostly down, ups and downs,
but mostly downs for Bryce.
And it started today with two turnovers
in the first two drives. And they get a couple
of gifts from the Cardinals won is that Arizona
abandoned the run game
with the lead. They just
did not run the ball. It felt like they didn't try.
Kyler had a nasty interception where he was hit
as he threw that kind of gave the Panthers while they
were on that touchdown run in the second half.
Another opportunity. In fact, I think it was after the first
touchdown as well. So they
really made it a game after that. The onside kick
comes back. But yeah, the penalties on that drive.
Yeah.
A lot of them on third down as well and fourth down that just it was like the Cardinals
did everything they could to give Carolina a chance, but Carolina refused to snatch this
victory.
Shout out to the Panthers those for recovering an onside kick and just making us all feel like
it's possible again.
Their first in 89 games.
In the first in the NFL in a while.
Like I think there was at what a 4% hit rate last year.
I think there was only four that.
Like it is very difficult.
And like of course it bounces accidentally off a Cardinals.
defenders put and then Mac Wilson touches it, right? And then that's what happens. Because
that was what this game was. Arizona got really sloppy when they had the lead. They're up
27 to 10. Kyler made an incredible only Kyler Murray can make this play. Christian Roseboom was
blitzing on a delayed blitz and he was able to get to him free. But then Kyleor Murray like sort
of just like makes a shoulder go limp and then scoots out of it. And I wish there was like a
Looney Tune soundtrack to the corresponding 30 yard run like all over the field. But then
they turn it over. And that's a hit by someone named Patrick Jones. And then T.J. Wanham picks it
off. And Bryce Young, after that, goes 14 plays and 88 yards on a really nice, nice drive for the
touchdown. I really appreciated the way that he handled pressure on that. Now, they weren't sending
their normal type of pressure. They ran out of DBs. So they couldn't send the type of pressure
Jonathan Gannon wants to send. But Bryce Young shook off Baron Browning creates the flat was open because
the backup defensive back was in the game and got mixed up on the play.
And he found Chuba Hubbard for the touchdown, made it 27 to 15.
I mean, and then Arizona goes three and out.
This was the story of the second half for the Cardinals just playing with their food
and stalling out after a lead.
They got that lead, though, with some of the players that they brought in.
Like, Josh Sweat started the game with the strip sack.
They had a defensive touchdown from Zaven Collins.
So the Cardinals' offense only scored 20 points in this game.
the defense gets a touchdown early off that Josh Sweat strip sack.
And then they pick off Bryce the very next drive.
So their defense got it done.
They're going to hope to get some of their players back healthy in the secondary.
That is concerning because that's one of the reasons why we like this team a lot.
And for the Panthers, what a disappointing 0-2 start.
Because even though they rallied a little late for Bryce to make that many mistakes in the first two weeks
and for them to feel like one of the worst teams in the NFL,
NFL at least just through two weeks is really disappointing to be back in that position.
At least Tet McMillan looks like a dude, like six for 100 and has made some of the best
incomplete catches out of bounds I have ever seen in my life.
So they got this one right.
Ted McMillan is a dude.
Yeah, it's too bad.
And they will move on.
We cannot find another high draft pick, Xavier Legate anywhere on the field.
You know, targeted late in the fourth quarter, he had four targets, one catch for negative two yards.
and then got targeted twice in a row by Bryce Young on a potential touchdown,
and one of them was defended,
and the other one just sailed right over his head.
I mean, it's...
Eight targets, negative two yards is a rough day,
so that they are still searching.
Another team that was searching, at least for a starting quarterback today,
was the San Francisco 49ers.
A lot of injuries.
They go into New Orleans, and they get a dub.
1.03 left on the clock.
San Francisco 26, Saints 21, 4th and 2.
The biggest play of the game coming up.
Rattler, with the snap.
Here comes pressure.
There's that 409ers.
There's that 47.
On fourth and two, the pressure came.
Radler Fumbo the football.
Cicel Ruiz got it back.
It doesn't matter.
On fourth and two, the defense comes up big again, Tim.
You got to have finishers, and Bryce Huff finishes around the corner.
Oh, that's why they traded for Bryce Huff.
Robert Salas old binky from the New York Jets around the corner.
The 49ers stop a New Orleans fourth quarter rally.
For the second straight week, Spencer Rattler played pretty well
and had the ball needing a touchdown at the end, couldn't get it done.
That was Carlos Ramirez and Tim Ryan on KSFO.
Nick Bosa, also with some big plays late in this game.
But I assigned myself this game.
Mostly for one reason, the storyline.
You secretly love the Saints?
No, because Mack Jones and Kyle Shanahan were a love that was never consummated, Patrick, back in that draft.
And I just wanted to see what sweet, sweet music they could make together.
And after an 0 for 4 start from Mac, the rest of the game, he goes 30 of 39 for 279 and three touchdowns.
and a lot of third and long conversions.
I thought that was the difference was Kyle Shanahan dialing up perfect plays on third down
where he found mismatches and ultimately Mac Jones being good enough to deliver the ball to those mismatches.
There were so many moments where I'm looking back and listening to Greg Rosenthal's voice in my head
as Kyle Shanahan and Mac Jones embrace each other on the sideline.
I think it is.
You ever hear those stories?
about like a couple in high school.
Maybe they have like a little bit of a fling,
but it doesn't work out.
They move on with their lives for years and years
and then they reconnect years later.
And suddenly they start making sweet, sweet love
or football, whatever it is.
Mack Jones, he's that man for Kyle Shanahan.
It's all he ever wanted was Mack Jones in this offense.
I think it's gonna happen this week.
Mac plays the best football that he's ever played.
They get the win.
And that's Greg, referencing love itself between Kyle Shanahan and Mack Jones.
And we got to see that love come to fruition here in this moment where there were some up
and down moments for Mack Jones and this one.
But the crosser to Jennings that he takes to the house, they desperately need Juan Jennings.
This team, it seems to hinge on whether or not he's healthy.
And then Christian McCaffrey running a route against the corner, like still being CMC, still winning
in the back of the end zone, that was nasty
that this team being at 2 and O,
the Cardinals being at 2 and O,
the Rams, it's a fun division,
but they're going to need Brock.
They're going to need Brock in the long run,
but this is kind of like one of those games
I'm talking about where it's like managed the schedule.
You know, you don't have kiddle,
you don't have Mack Jones.
I think the Saints are a little better than people think.
They're not great,
but they've taken like a good honest effort
by these two NFC West teams to come in there.
And in both games,
like when you're looking at yardage
and most of the plays.
Like, they've been two pretty evenly played games,
but you mentioned that that late first half,
Christian McCaffrey seven-year-d touchdown pass.
That was a great two-minute drive by Mack Jones in the offense
because they got the ball with about a minute to go
and went right down the field.
And that was a great route by McCaffrey.
But I was thinking of another, like, third and long in a key spot
in the second half where he gets him matched up against Pete Warner.
And, like, there's just no chance.
And there was just a few of those third-down mismatches.
where Kyle was in his bag.
Like Jake Tongis, the hero from a year ago,
with a very Kyle use check type of route
where he's almost like a fullback on the play
and he totally confuses the Saints
and he's wide open on third down.
You mentioned the long Jennings touchdown.
There just was a lot of coaching wins, I thought.
And Kyle will appreciate it.
I think Mack Jones basically did what Kyle wanted to do
and didn't freak out,
didn't have those freak out Mac Jones moments
other than like the first drive of the game.
He played a clean game.
Over the next couple of weeks, that is all Kyle Shanahan wants from his quarterback is to play.
He did fumble twice.
I should point out while we're singing his praises.
Sure.
In terms of his passing, he played a clean game, no interception, three touchdown, 279 yards, 26 for 39.
You know, he, see ball where ball must go, listen and ear where a ball must go, throw ball to that spot.
That is what for the next few weeks until Brock Purdy, who can throw it around a little,
little bit more and can take the risky throws. We've, we've seen him gain Kyle Shanahan's trust in
order to do that. This is going to be one of those things where if he is debuting like this,
Mack Jones is for Kyle, the way that Kyle clearly and really wants him to, Kyle and the rest of
this offense will do the rest. And that is where I think that this is actually a sneaky good
situation minus the injury. But if you're going to have a backup, have the backup who is going to
adhere exactly to what the head coach is going to want you to do.
He kind of reminded me a pretty in this game, too, because they did not play that well on first and second down.
And there were a lot of third and long situations where he was not afraid to fire it in there.
I think one of the biggest plays of the game was Ricky Pearsall coming back.
Those Mac Jones passes take a while to get there.
And they're just in there.
And it's third and long.
And he puts it in the right spot for Pearsall, but it's just hanging up there.
And I'm like, someone is going to knock that away or intercept it.
But Pearsall comes back for the ball.
And there were a couple plays like that where I just thought it was good teamwork, like good,
good receiving. Kendrick Bourne had
three catches in this game, but they all felt
like big plays. Like he was playing a lot.
And I think CMC's juice is back.
I was a little bit on CMC
juice watch last week. Oh.
Not that he's on the juice, but
just like I didn't see quite the explosion.
There have been accusations. Not by me.
This one more just like
he actually played, I think, with a little more
explosion. Like he warmed up last week.
Yeah. I mean, watching his movement on that
touchdown route that he ran, but then also
and I don't, I realize
Just now I sounded like I was not giving Mac Jones credit for making a couple of good
throws.
One, the Joanne Jennings, big gain, touchdown.
That's a timing throw.
Like, you have to really understand exactly when the receiver is going to hit the void
between all of the defenders at the exact perfect time and understand where you've got to
put the ball at a certain point in your drop, right?
And then the CMC touchdown, you have to drop that pass up and over the top of the defender
without getting a lot of reps to do that with the running back in practice.
Christian McCaffrey is still on that sort of like half practice workload, right?
Because he's been doing that.
That's his quote unquote normal load management.
So I want to give Mack Jones the credit there.
I'm just saying that like this cast, even without George Kittle as a security blanket,
has plenty of players who are willing and able to also come and help the quarterback as well as the head coach scheming things up.
Yeah, got to be a frustrating game, I think, for the Saints when they look back at it.
Again, they look good when they're playing fast and hurry up.
Spencer Rattler had a similar day to a week ago.
I mean, you look at it.
He throws it for 207 yards and three touchdowns on 34, like only nine in
completions.
And some of the prettiest passes you'll see.
Like, he just dropped a dime to Shaheed in the first half of this game.
There was a great touchdown to Vela, even though it was short.
Like, it was the right read, Alave.
Like, he had some dimes, but the timing was just a little off a couple times.
like they could have gone up an early touchdown
and he misses Olave
who's wide open because he's
just a little early on the throw and
like just missing. A lot of drops too
for the Saints offense. Johnson had a couple.
Juan Johnson had at least two or three. They had
four drops in the first half like a lot
of penalties. So just too many mistakes
by the Saints for the second straight week
though they were competitive.
Let's take a break and afterwards
we're going to be welcoming in
Nick Shuck to talk about
maybe the game of the day.
What's up, everybody?
Daniel Jeremiah here.
And I'm Bucky Brooks.
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Okay, right hash, 46, win the game.
Good operation, 46, the kick.
wins the game.
Butter, butter, butter, better, better, better.
Extra butter.
Cowboys win in overtime.
40 to 37.
Aren't you glad you paid attention to this game?
Oh, I am.
That's Sam God.
Brad Sham!
K-R-L-D.
Brandon Aubrey really is smooth like butter.
Apparently,
Cowboys crew,
and Eric was listening in.
We're talking about Brandon Aubrey
at the end of regulation
when they asked him to hit that 64-yarder
and they tried to ice him.
They were saying, you can't ice butter.
You can't ice butter.
And Brandon Aubrey agrees.
And he becomes literally the only man
in the history of this great league,
Nick Shook, to hit a game tying field goal
at the buzzer and a game winning field goal
at the buzzer in overtime.
Which isn't shocking because how many, you know,
winning field goals, have there been at the buzzer in overtime? Not a lot, Nick shook. And if I was
going to guess one kicker to do that, especially hitting from 64 in regulation, it was Brandon
Aubrey. So much happened in this game, Nick. The fourth quarter began with the score 17 to 16
Dallas Cowboys winning. The game ended 40 to 37. I don't envy you choosing where to even start talking
about this, Nick, so I just give the floor to you.
Well, I hate to start with the loser, but the narrative going to this game was
Russell Wilson should be benched for Jackson Dart.
This might be his last, you know, ditch attempt to get the job.
And then he threw for 450 yards and three touchdowns, and the people on the broadcast
were essentially comparing him to old Seattle Russ.
And they even made a let Russ Cook mention during the show.
That was the story of this game until he threw an interception in overtime, which then
set up the Cowboys to lean on brain at Auburn.
to hit that field goal, which by the way, I've never felt more confident in the kicker
making it. And that felt like a chip shot for me just watching. Like he's definitely going to
make this. Like I'd put my whole life on the fact that he's going to make this field goal right
now, which he did. The crazier thing, and Mina tweeted this out is it was diabolical that
they would run a draw to set up a 64 year for Brandon Aubrey to go to overtime. That's just how
much of a weapon he is. And it's obviously huge because it won the game. It stands overtime and then
won the game, but there's so much more to unpack. A quarterback duel, almost identical games.
They each threw a pretty bad interception. One cost one team more than the other. You had
receivers making plays for the Giants. It was Malik Neighbors and Wondale Robinson. For the Cowboys,
it was C.D. Lamb and George Pickens and Jake Ferguson. And you had random breakdowns and
coverage. Defense didn't exist in the fourth quarter. It was high octane football. It was
fitting of AT&T Stadium in Jerry World. And it's perfect.
that it was between the Cowboys and the New York Giants.
Some of the touchdowns in this game were so incredible.
I don't know which one to even choose,
but I do think we should back it up to the final minute
because George Pickens catches a touchdown from Dak Prescott,
who played outstanding again, 361 and 2,
to go up 34 to 30, and it's back and forth all fourth quarter.
There's only 52 seconds left at that point,
and the Giants need a touchdown to potentially,
win the game, and that's exactly what they get, only 27 seconds later.
Wilson out of the shotgun set in a second and 10.
Drops back, has time, deep ball, downfield, looking for neighbors.
Who makes the catch root the sound in double coverage.
48-yard touchdown pass, Wilson and neighbors, and the Giants take the lead.
Oh, boy.
there were two defenders draped on him Carl
and Russell Wilson with his classic moonball
delivers for the Giants
We could show highlights of this game
All day Nick that the early neighbor's touchdown
Was like one of the best plays that you could ever see
Out of a wide receiver, Wondell had that fourth quarter
He ends up with 142 yards, neighbors ends up with 167
Like are you more worried about the Dallas defense
or just impressed that the Giants could do this without much of a running game today?
Well, I want to point first to that call because whoever was doing the color commentary there
just softly said, oh boy, as if he needed to sit down and like take a breath.
That was Carl Banks.
That was Giants legend Carl Banks.
Thank you for pointing that out.
And Bob Papa on WFAN.
It was fitting of the day because you could take this in so many different directions.
Am I more concerned about the Cowboys?
I mean, this is the Cowboys defense we thought, right?
We talked about this last week, great.
they're going to be an offensive team.
We know that they're weak on defense,
and it did not shock me at all
that Wondale's going right down the middle of the field
for huge gains through the air.
It happened early in the game
and then was brought back by a penalty.
The Giants started this game very sloppily.
There was four straight penalties on Hudson,
the tackle, the backup tackle who was in there for Andrew Thomas.
He had like a mini meltdown on the field,
four straight penalties in the first quarter.
The broadcast team was like,
you have to take him out now, right?
Like, you've got to make the change.
This is a disaster.
And they did.
And they got back.
better immediately with Marcus Mabot or whatever, however you say that name.
Yes.
So, like, that was concerning.
I'm not concerned about the Cowboys defense.
I'm not at all shocked by it.
I just feel bad for the Giants that are now, they're not O and 2,
and they played their tails off in this game.
Like, they were not the Giants team of last week.
They were still limited in the red zone early,
and then they broke through in a big way,
and they were making splash plays all afternoon.
And I'm like, this is the Brian Dable offense.
We always imagined it to be in New York,
and yet they still come out on the losing side,
the ledger. The Cowboys are just going to have to put up a lot of points
this season. It's just, it's who they are.
They can't cover effectively.
We know Trayvon Diggs is still, like,
he didn't start the season 100% healthy
and at 100% participation rate.
That continues to increase. But we just know
that they're lacking after they traded Micah Parsons,
and this is just their reality. Well, it
gets better because they signed
Jadivian Clowney. Oh boy.
The boss announcing that today. I mean, it's not a bad
idea. They have a glaring need at
edge for some reason, which
may kind of play in.
into these moonball situations where if 11 at the time is on the field for the Dallas Cowboys,
typically Russell Wilson isn't going to have time to make some of these throws where it's
just, but even like Pop Warner level to let Malik neighbors get behind you with 26 seconds on
the clock is insane.
Well, and over and over in the game, like it wasn't the first time.
And also like there was a bounce back game for CD, got 11 targets caught nine of them.
after all the drops.
You mentioned Dak playing well.
And also Javante Williams.
He's back.
He's fully back.
Like this is a contributing viable fantasy team member at this point.
130 yards from scrimmage, including six catches.
But all the conversation about the Giants front,
and for all the bluster from Phillips and his like personal beef with C.D. Lamb
and trying to slam him over,
they struggle to cover him in Pickens, which is the vision coming in.
I was hoping for points for this one because the cowboys are a little last year's
Bengalsy a little bit to me in terms of they are just going to have to score as many points
as possible to even stay in these games.
And I, I can't help myself.
I find myself really liking watching this Brian Schottenheimer team.
Yeah.
I mean, I just sort of am like, all right, well, we just won't really watch defense at this point
because it's not really happening.
But at the same time, Dak Prescott is playing some of the best football of any
quarterback in the NFL right now. And Brian Schadenheimer is calling a really smart game,
his run game with Clayton Adams and Javante Williams is so solid. Clayton Adams being the
offensive coordinator and former offensive line coach who came over from Arizona. This is a
really, really fun frisky offense. And then to the point of the Russell Wilson experience,
man, nobody's celebrating harder than I am seeing this totally vintage Russell Wilson moment.
But then for every one of those, you get what happens in overtime,
which is a bad decision on a moon ball by Russell Wilson that's intercepted.
Well, and that came after, you know, they're at a second and three situation
after the Giants defense stopped Dak Prescott in overtime.
And I just figured first team with the ball wins.
And the Giants get the ball and they're on a second and three after a good drive starter.
And Russell Wilson like, like holds on to the ball and by mistake fumbles the ball backwards.
and that ends up killing that drive
because he essentially just threw it backwards
out of bounds and then the interception
just a brutal end to what was otherwise
like an incredible game. Because it wouldn't be fair
to say he had just as many mistakes as
as good plays. He had a million good plays
and the mistakes came in overtime. He played great
and the mistakes came when they absolutely
could not at the most crucial moment happen.
But if his defense just gets a stop at the end of the game
or Brandon Aubrey, then we're never even talking about it.
The Giants Giveth with Russell
Wilson and they taketh away.
Imblematic in this game, which
so much happened in this game, but I do have to
mention it. There was a play where the Giants
had three penalties on one
play. There was
an illegal
hands, roughing the passer on
Dak Prescott and pass interference
on C.D. Lam in the end zone, but it got wiped
away because C.D. celebrated the
past interference too vigorously.
Oh my gosh. It was all wiped away
offsetting penalties, replay the down.
And that was this game in a nutshell.
This is the number one draft pick in the game pass draft.
Unless you're just in a hurry, Chuck, it depends what type of game you want to knock out first.
You don't have to, though, because you watched it.
You also watched a classic.
I'm going to call it a classic.
It was pretty fun in Lucas Oil Stadium.
Three seconds left.
The Colts could win it right here and right now.
This will be the last play of the game.
Down by two, a 60-yard field goal from Spencer Schrader.
Sanchez to put it down.
Snap, placement, kick.
It's on its way.
Headed for the uprights.
No good. It comes up short. Wait a minute. There's a flag. There's a flag on the field at the 41-yard line. Hang on just a second a flag on to play.
Personal style. Leverage. Defense number 96. Oh, wow!
The 15-yard, oh boy. And this is much more manageable here for Spencer Schrader. This is a 45-yard try to win the game. No time.
left on the clock. Colts down by 2, 28, 26. Sanchez to put it down. There's the snap.
Kick is on its way. He's headed for the uprights. And it is, it's good. And won't
off field goal. Spencer Schrader wins it for the Colts. Colts win. 29, 28, ball game, I-N-D-Y.
The ecstasy, the agony. Just 30 seconds of
from Matt Taylor and Rick Venturi on WFNY.
Yes, the Colts, after thinking the game was over,
and they had lost because Shane Steichen had some of the most gutless,
pathetic play calling right before that field goal.
Not that different, you know, from what Shottie did with Dallas,
but at least Shottie's got Brandon Aubrey.
Gets another shot at it.
Trader hits it.
Chuck, you don't want to say a whole game came down to,
kind of one play, one penalty. In this case, you know, kind of did. But the Colts won at 29 to 28 and did a lot of other good things in this game. Tell me about it.
Yeah. I mean, the whole game came down to two right feet. One owned by Spencer Schrader, the other owned by Will Lutz.
Will Lutz clanged a field goal off the upright, which kept us a two-point game and gave the Colts just enough room to move down the field and miss and then actually make that field goal to win the game.
But yeah, there was a lot to like from both sides. You know, Daniel Jones has another solid day.
starting to accept that maybe this is Daniel Jones with Shane Stuyken, still a little too early to tell,
you know, votes are still being tallied. It's too early to call the race. But right now, as I see it,
Daniel Jones looks very comfortable in this offense. He had another strong day. Jonathan Taylor
brought great balance to this offense, finishes with 165 yards of 25 attempts. He catches a long
pass that sets up a score for them. They had some struggles in the red zone early. They had some
struggles getting the ball in the end zone in the fourth quarter. And yet somehow, some way,
they make up a deficit with strictly field goals in the fourth quarter.
That's how weird this game got.
Spencer Schrader keeps his perfect career streak going
because he got a second chance.
He goes five for five today.
Entering Sunday, he'd made all nine of his career attempts.
He's as green as it gets.
And yet he came through for them and the Broncos go back to Denver at one and one
thinking how on earth did we just lose this game?
Because they were seemingly a step ahead for most of this contest.
They were good in the red zone early.
Bo Nix was slinging the football over the field.
You had nice runs from J.K. Dobbins.
Then you had him spike the ball, get a delay a game, and other penalty follows.
They knocked themselves out of scoring range.
They stall.
They shot themselves in the foot a lot, I think, in the second half of this game, which
is Sean Payton's going to watch this tape and be pretty frustrated, know that they let
one slip away.
But it made for a great viewing experience for us.
Nick, I have a question for you.
I didn't get to have full view of this game.
I was kind of flipping through a couple of others at the same time.
And this Colts team, I mean, I love that they're making plays on the ball.
I love that they're aggressive.
We've been calling it the Anurumisance for Louana Rumo coming over there with a couple of playmakers.
I really, really appreciate especially some of the things that schematically, Shane Steichen is doing.
There's some balance.
My question for you is, after watching especially this week two is less of a liar game against the top defense, do you think the Colts are bona fide, legit?
I mean, there's levels to legitness, right?
What's too legit?
Is the proper word, right?
Well, too legit to quit.
No, I mean, I think the levels are like they're legit enough to contend for the
AFC South if they play at this on a weekly basis because their defense is playing well
enough to keep them in these games and their offense is balanced and effective through
two weeks.
So yeah, I do very much think that they're a team that's strong enough on both sides of the
ball to not collapse or completely fall out of the AFC South race as they have in recent
years.
And we understand now after two games why Shane Steichen was so confident in his choice of
Daniel Jones, you know, the proof is right there.
We can just look at that and be like, all right, I get it.
But there's levels to this because of the two defenses, I thought Denver's defense would play better in this game.
And this is why the first month of the season is a liar to us.
Because we don't know.
A month from now, Denver's defense could be miles ahead of where the Colts are.
But as we stand right now, they did a good enough job bottling up the Broncos,
especially when it became very important in the second half and the fourth quarter specifically to get the job done.
And that's really all we can measure them by right now.
So yeah, my convoluted answer to that is yes and no.
Like what I'm seeing so far.
Wait, look, they outgained them by 150 yards, so it was not a cheap victory.
The Colts did outgain the Broncos.
And Danny Dimes through two weeks has 588 yards passing.
Is he playing himself on the quarterback island?
Five total touchdowns.
What's the most important stat?
What's the most important stat with Daniel Jones?
No turnovers.
Yeah.
No funbles even.
Not even like a fumble that he didn't lose.
No freakouts yet.
No free.
weekouts yet. We're only two weeks in. That's the thing about quarterback island. You need a little bit
of staying power. So if he stays at this level, I think it's fair to say right now through two weeks,
he is helping to define the quarterback position in 2025. He is one of these stories in the NFL. So
Stuyken. So is Tyler Warren who led them. It's all Tyler Warren. It's two weeks. Yeah, yeah. That
play where he came out of the backfield was so much fun. Just shot him right.
up through the A gap on a sale concept.
I just, I loved it so much.
I'm thankful that he, Nick just made a noise.
Do you need a second, Nick?
I loved it.
It was worse because you were off screen.
You were off screen and you made the noise.
I was like, should I be here right now?
No, it's going to be, we're going to have Shook saying underneath an entire cut up
with Tyler Warren, which through two weeks, I mean, yeah, the, the criticism of like,
oh, Penn State's forcing him.
opportunities. Yeah, you force them the ball.
You get them the ball however you can.
If you could snap the ball, I'd have him do that too.
Right. And I like, you know, Pierce, other than that one catch last week was quiet.
Him and Josh Downs, who both didn't do much a week ago and were both really good, end up being really important parts of this game.
Whereas like Michael Pittman kind of takes a step back.
There is diversity there.
And Jonathan Taylor, 215 yards from scrimmage, 25 carries two catches.
That's pretty sweet.
Nick's had a crucial interception in the second half.
He said it was just a bad throw.
He just missed.
There was nothing confusing about it.
It is interesting that JK Dobbins got so much more of the workload than R.J. Harvey, Troy Franklin,
with a breakout game, 8 for 89.
But the rest of the Broncos receivers didn't really get much going.
No one else over 24 yards.
So the Broncos, a disappointing loss.
We think of Sean Payton as a team that's really buttoned up, disciplined, well coach.
He said it after the game.
Like, we gave this game away.
so many mental errors.
The Colts are 2-0.
Let's go down to the game
that no one actually took.
That was the game
that we all kept an eye on.
Yes, things were bad
in the AFC East
coming into Sunday,
Patriots, Dolphins.
And now it's going to be
a fourth down and 12
for Miami.
Hill to the left.
It's going to Hill.
Washington, Waddle.
It's going to Hill.
Big pushing on the left side.
It's Paco-Baila takes the snap.
He drops back.
He looks down to know.
He's pressing.
Sack by Milton Williams.
Take down in the backfield.
And the Patriots on the verge of taking down Miami
for the first time since 2019 here in South Florida.
That was Bob Sochi with Scott Zolak on WBZ.
Wilton Williams got all that money for a reason.
Moments like that.
Sack to win the game, ending a disastrous final sequence
for Tua, Tunga Vailoa.
33 to 27 in a back and fourth game.
And I mentioned that sequence specifically because it really looked like
whoever had the ball at the end was probably going to win.
And when the dolphins got it and they had a short field to work with
after the rookie kicker for the Patriots didn't make it to the landing zone,
I thought they were going to go and make it happen.
And to a sales, a wide open pass on first down,
on third down.
He leaves before he really needs to.
He had a wide open receiver
with a mismatch Devon A. Chan over the middle
going up against a linebacker
which was a mismatch all day
and his eyes go down and he almost kind of
runs into the sack on third down
and then he takes another sack on fourth down
and it was just a really disappointing
lack of composure from Tua
on a day that he played quite well
until that moment
Mike McDaniel was very
frustrated with that ending sequence.
Ultimately, I look at absolutely everything falling on me.
So I don't see, you know, that's the responsibility of a head coach that you go into,
knowing that.
That being said, I'm very frustrated with, you know, collected, you know,
there's some basically coaches and players that did not execute.
communication in a very dire period of the game, you know, with the game on the line.
Our communication and our substitution was not up to par.
We had the opportunity to win the game and we robbed it from ourselves.
So I said that too played well for most of the game.
That was really the second and third quarters where they scored on every possession.
but in the fourth quarter punt interception and downs.
And I think the thing that killed McDaniel was the interception on fourth down
two through on the previous possession where they barely got the playoff
before that fourth down.
And then he just threw a panic pick.
And there were some good things in this game, Patrick for the dolphins offensively.
But not much on defense.
And ultimately, it doesn't matter how you lose with this team.
They just desperately needed to win.
They didn't get it.
Even the guys who played well relatively today,
Devon A. Chan had a touchdown reception.
He had what could have been a go-ahead score in the final minutes of the game.
We thought it was.
Stepped out of balance.
He fully was celebrating.
This was a game where you had Malik Washington have a punt return.
The very next play, Antonio Gibson has a kickoff return for a touchdown.
So many things happened where the dolphins, if something good happened, they would immediately give it away.
And the only reason the dolphins didn't still have a streak of the.
the opponent scoring on every single possession
was because that A-chan score at the end of the first half
didn't leave the Patriots enough time
so they kneeled out the clock.
Otherwise, the Colts and the Patriots
would have gone three straight halves of football
scoring every single time they got the ball.
So it's a collective failure as Mike Matt points out by everybody.
Right.
And then even when they finally get a force a couple punts
in the second half and actually stopped the Patriots
and forced the field goal to give themselves another chance,
there was a lot of mistakes by the Patriots.
by the Patriots at the end of this game, too.
Special teams fails, and the defense does give up a touchdown drive, too,
where Remandre, you know, gets over on this long throw.
Just a lot going wrong, but a lot went right for the Patriots' offense, too, on a day they needed it.
Yeah, I will say this not to sound dramatic.
It will inevitably sound dramatic, like, sort of like how Mike McDaniels sounded just now.
And that dramatic gesture at the end of the game when Milton Williams got the sack
and Mike McDaniels sort of like folded over.
on the sideline and disappointment.
This very much feels like not only an offense,
but a Patriots team that is on the rise of something
or at the beginning of something in a positive way.
They're starting to put different pieces together.
Certainly, you've seen that from some of their veterans,
Milton Williams, both weeks,
but on their offensive side definitely saw more of that this week.
And on the other hand, it feels like a Miami Dolphins team
that is very much at the end of something.
Yeah, seeing Tyree Kill jump up and down
being upset after Tua skies him with that pass.
You're shaking your head, Shuck.
It's disappointing because, look, Tyreek went six for 109,
and that was the only incompletion thrown his way,
but that's kind of where they're at.
And their defense was terrible.
This was a game with so few drives.
The Patriots only had seven drives in this game,
and Drake May was really efficient with those drives.
Yeah, I'm shaking my head because you're right about Tyreek Hill.
I mean, even the body language,
which he catches a long pass down the sideline and he goes to try to make a move and then gets frustrated that he has to step out of bounds.
And you can just see it in his body language in that moment, how irritated it is that he can't make a bigger impact.
But I was really shaking my head because Jordan said exactly what I was thinking.
It feels like two ships passing the night going in opposite directions.
This is the checkpoint.
This is where we're going to look back and think that's when the Patriots started to turn their first initial corner.
And that was the first real sign that the dolphins are going toward a dark place under this current regime.
Because they're close in terms of how they competed against each other today.
and not even the final result,
but just how they conducted themselves.
And that's concerning for the dolphins
and encouraging for the Patriots.
Watching Mike Vrable sprint down the sideline
following Antonio Gibson on that kick return touchdown,
I was like, he's having fun.
He's back to enjoying coaching.
This is a landmark moment for the Patriots under Mike Frable.
I know it's only week two,
but this is something we're going to look back at
and be like, that was it right there,
whereas the dolphins, everything is difficult for them.
The defense that we thought was going to be their strength,
especially that front seven,
fails to consistently cause issues.
I think after Drake May a couple of times,
but it just wasn't consistent enough
to short circuit this offense.
You're giving up,
not even a jump ball,
just a 50, 50,
one-on-one shot to Kashan booting the end zone
where he makes a great grab,
but you're giving that up for a touchdown.
That's a play that you should be able to bat down.
That's just the state of your team right now.
And even on a day in which Tua plays well
for most of the game,
they crumble in that final sequence
where he just seemed like he was overwhelmed by it.
And that's not acceptable for a guy
who has as much experience as he does,
especially when he's tasked with carrying this team
and they just haven't been able to execute this year.
Yeah, you probably won't see a sequence the rest of the year,
a 74-yard punt return touchdown by Malik Washington,
as Patrick mentioned earlier,
followed by the 90-yard kickoff return touchdown.
And Stefan Diggs was quoted after the game asked,
you know, if he saw Vrable running down the sidelines on that kickoff return.
And he said, yeah, I just saw a clip of it.
He's slow as hell.
It's true.
He definitely looked, he played a lot of NFL football.
And it's taken a little out of Mike Vrable,
but they got to enjoy a win.
And I got a text during at the end of this game from a friend of the show,
Ali Connolly, who noted the first game of Jake May's career
where he faced under 20% pressure rate and he shredded.
You know, 23 attempts for 230 yards and two touchdowns.
If you protect this guy, he can perform.
And actually, when he was under pressure in this game,
four for five for 105 yards,
including that great throw to Remandre.
So on a day where they got almost nothing out of their wide receivers,
He was just spreading it around to Hooper and Stevenson and Henry
and just each receiver making like one play, it was enough.
And he moved.
And he moved.
He wasn't afraid to move around.
Yeah, 10 rushes for 31 yards.
I think that includes some kneel downs too and the touchdown.
And Ramandre don't dig dirt on his career yet.
Trayvion Henderson is not playing that much right now.
I think he will in the end, but only 16 snaps for him today.
Whereas Remandre had 142 yards from scrimmage.
They get the first win of the Mike Brable era.
Let's go to Baltimore.
to wrap up our little Nick Shook four pack.
Lamar from the gun will throw,
lofts it near sideline, looking for Hopkins.
And zone.
That's a jit one.
Touchdown, D'Andre Hopkins,
and they're not going to overrule that one.
He has great hands.
It's unbelievable.
Lamar just put a loft on that ball
and then lets Hopkins make the move on the ball.
Breaking news from Rod Woodson on WB,
L. D'Andre Hopkins has great hands.
Always good to hear Jerry Sandusky on the show.
41 to 17.
Yes, Nuke has put a highlight touchdown on the board
back-to-back weeks, even though he's not getting
like a ton of snaps. They'll take that. If that can continue
all season, shook a game where you look at the box score
and it's thoroughly confusing. The Browns ran almost 20 more
plays than the Ravens, gained 80 more yards than the Ravens,
and yet the score was 41 to 10 until a late Dylan Gabriel touchdown.
That's how ugly this one got for the Browns.
That's going to be the theme of the Brown season and not to start with a loser,
but it's just too fitting.
The 2025 Cleveland Browns, how the hell did this happen?
That's just what their whole season's going to be.
That's going to be their slogan because once again,
in the second straight week, they didn't really dominate in the box score,
but they did succeed in the box score and they lose this time by a wide margin.
Now, the Ravens, you know, this is a difference between a team that knows how to win has been there before and is going to be a title contender and a team that is very far from being that.
And I don't want to point to the details like I did last week with the Browns, but it wasn't the details.
It's also in the fact that no matter how well their defense plays, their offense is so limited that they have to be almost perfect to have a shot against a team like Baltimore.
Baltimore gets the job done by, look, their offense struggled, but they had a blocked punt.
They capitalize on the short field there for points.
They just consistently capitalized on the Brown's small mistakes
and then ran away with it in the fourth quarter
because they are a team that is still producing explosive plays.
We had multiple touchdown passes of 20 plus yards.
Taz Walker continues his streak of only catching touchdown passes.
He's got three career receptions.
They've all gone for touchdown.
The AFC's Isaac to Slaw, like a little different, but similar vibe.
Yeah, yeah, similar vibes.
Yeah.
And, yeah, again, like when you watch this game, you think two things.
Brown's defense is playing well.
They're keeping them in this game.
The Ravens are eventually going to break through that.
And the Brown's offense is not going to have a shot to keep up.
Joe Flacco looked very old and slow today.
There was a couple instances in which he tried to scramble,
and it looked like he was running in quicksand with concrete shoes.
It was that slow.
He throws a pick on one of those scrambles.
Nate Wiggins returns it.
We know how fast Nate Wiggins is.
Flacco tries to double back and catch him.
He's getting outrun by Joel Betonio to tackle Nate Wiggins
and prevent him from scoring a touchdown on that interception.
So not to knock on Flacko,
But it's rough watching this Brown's offense.
And this is exactly what I expect a team like the Ravens to do in a game like this.
Shook, I could not disagree more.
Andrew Wiggins gets in the end zone.
If not for Joe Flacco, hitting 16.8 miles per hour.
No.
Come back.
No, go watch the play.
He threw the chip.
He took the chip out of his jersey and he threw it.
16.8's not that fast.
Nate Wiggins, by the way, Andrew Wiggins.
Yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
I'm falling apart.
NBA star.
Yeah.
I called Cambitam, Andrew Bynum, earlier.
So it's both two of those things
As I'm falling apart
But like yeah
Joe Flacco is hanging in there
At his advantage of age
I'm clearly experiencing cognitive decline
But Joe Flacco is making plays
On defense which is not what you want
As a Browns fan
And yeah
Shook pointed it all out
The Brown's defense
Could have been a problem
It's gonna be a good defense this year
Derek Henry could get nothing going
On the ground
And there was pressure on Lamar
From Miles Garrett on a key play
where Mark Andrews scored a touchdown.
John Harbaugh, for some reason,
has the challenge flag in his hands,
is looking at this on the replay board,
puts it back in,
took so long to make the decision,
they barely get to snap off in time.
Of course, Miles Garrett's looking at the clock,
gets a sack out of it.
But, I mean,
that's picking and choosing
what to be frustrated about
a win that they run easily.
Yeah, if you had told me,
like, Derek Henry's held the 23 yards.
I mean, Grant Delpit,
justice for Grant.
He was right.
It was easy to tackle Derek Henry,
at least for this Brown's team apparently
like that he gets out rushed by Jerome Ford
6 for 31 and then Quichot Junkins
ends up playing a lot and I know some of it's in garbage time
10 for 61 like you would have thought
they were more in this game than
they were it's too bad because I think
they have a lot of they have
two great defensive players in
Miles Garrett and Denzo Ward and Miles
Garrett after the game was
was pretty upset
this is embarrassing
and we got to be better on defense
we got to be better as a team
You know, they slowly chipped the way.
No, we did a solid job,
no holding at the three when we could,
and then eventually, you know, the damn broke,
and then they just did whatever they wanted,
and we have to continue to play,
a 60-minute game.
While we're listening to some sound,
I loved his bluntness.
I also loved Lamar Jackson,
just having a little fun after the game.
A little subtle fun.
They looked extremely mature today.
He got turnovers,
kept points off the board
except that wild touchdown
but those guys just did
their 9-11
I'm sorry I shouldn't say that
you know they might turn this into a meme or something
but they just did the whole thing
but they did what they're supposed to do today
yeah that was a reference
to Marlon Humphrey last week
saying the Ravens defense needs to work on our maturity
and then Kyle Hamilton kind of shot right back
at Marlon Humphrey during the week
it was like a fun little back and forth
of what they thought and now it's all over
because the Ravens won
I just want to take this moment to salute Greg Rosenthal for true profiles of courage in picking this game and The Ravens as his Survivor pick this week.
I don't think you know how Survivor pulls are supposed to work.
That you knew from the jump would be so lopsided that you did not even try to pick even something you knew would be close such as myself in week one.
I don't think you understand what the survivor pools are supposed to be.
I don't think you understand.
You want to pick the one that you think is the easiest.
In fact, I stupidly thought the Browns were going to cover this love and a half.
I apologize.
I apologize to the picks listeners out there.
Yes, let's go.
We all survived, except for Steve Weiss, who I had asked,
he was not on the Wednesday show, for a survivor pick via text.
And he did send it to me that he had taken the dolphins of all teams.
And so I guess it's just down to me and you, Jordan,
trying to help out our listeners by giving them the best possible.
one I open.
Our listeners need you guys
to be eliminated
because the best possible
survivor
is all of us
working together.
Oh.
The best survivor
pick is the friends
we made along the way.
It was a joy
to have Jordan
and Patrick
along for the ride
on this week two
recap.
Oh,
is a big one.
We're going to say
goodbye to you guys now
and then we're going to
come back after the break
with me and Nick Shook
talking a little
Sunday night football.
bang up job. You survived.
We made it. We did it. Shout out to Andrew Wiggins.
14 hours later. Woo.
What's up, everybody? Daniel Jeremiah here.
And I'm Bucky Brooks.
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Pretoriano in motion.
We're going to hand it to Algier.
Tyler Algier's score standing.
Minnesota might have let him score.
I think it is.
But Tyler Algier goes in with his first score of the year
and his 11th career rushing touchdown.
Oh, they all can't be beauties.
Sunday night football for one of the first times I can remember,
maybe had the worst game of the week, 22 to 6.
Falcons beat the Vikings.
There was not a touchdown until late in the game when you heard it.
The Vikings scored a, or let the Falcons score a touchdown.
I'm not really sure why they did that at that point anyways.
I guess their best chance was scoring a couple of very quick touchdowns.
That was not going to happen the way that J.J. McCarthy looked on Sunday night.
Shook, we've said goodbye to Jordan and Patrick.
And for most of this night, we said goodbye to a passing game for both.
teams, but the running game for the Falcons was awesome. When you ask Rahim Morris what he wanted to
see out of the 2025 Atlanta Falcons, I think he would want it to look exactly like tonight.
Who needs to pass when you could run the ball for 218 yards while sacking J.J. McCarthy
six times. This is Rahim ball. This is old school control the game football right here. And
And they set the tone from the first two plays from scrimmage on the night.
It was a 25-yard Bijon Robinson run to the left tackle.
It was a 17-yard run.
Bejohn-Robinson run to the right tackle.
It was a five-yard run.
They didn't stop them until his fourth attempt.
At that point, they were at the Minnesota 18.
Yes, they didn't score a touchdown until, you know, the Vikings let them score late in the game.
But it seemed like they really controlled the game on both sides of the ball.
And what's the theme usually when you run the ball well?
Now, Bejohn's a bit of an outlier.
But the theme usually is that you control the game in the trenches.
and that almost always explains why a team can run well,
except you add Bijan into it,
and it's like another 50 yards because he makes guys miss.
He's just one of the most elusive and explosive running backs in the NFL.
It's a true treat to watch them run the ball.
So those of you who think, oh, they didn't score a touchdown until the fourth quarter.
Why would I go back and watch this?
Because you like a special running back.
You like Bejohn Robinson,
and you like it when the Falcons investment in two edge rushers pays off
from the defensive side of the ball.
Well, Bejohn's athleticism is just nuts.
he had five plays in that game that were just incredible.
One of those three-yard runs which set up the fourth down
that they picked up late in the game was just like absolutely awesome.
I had a friend who texted me and he's like a very casual football fan
and he was just like watching Bejohn Robinson is a total joy.
And then the next text, of course, was,
and that's the only thing that's joyous about this game.
But it's funny you mentioned 50 yards more.
Yeah, they had 160 expected rushing yards in this game, which it would have been great on the attempts that they had.
And then he added 58 essentially over-expected with a little help.
I said that without knowing that, by the way. That's amazing.
That's just an estimate.
Yeah, with a little help from Tyler Algear.
I've always thought, you know, that's how you attack this Brian Flores defense.
This wasn't the normal Brian Flores defense because of injuries.
Andrew Van Ginkle was out.
Jeff Akuta, who is starting for them, was out.
Harrison Smith was out again with an illness.
Brian Cashman has been out.
And then more importantly, than all that actually, I think, was an offensive injury.
Without Christian Derisad, the last two weeks, their left tackle, Justin's school, has been a disaster.
So you mentioned the investment in the past protection, I mean, the past rush for the Falcons.
And Jalen Walker, his first career sack was beating school cleanly, and really all-night school was struggling
until he actually left very late into the concussion protocol, unfortunately.
but they have not looked good protecting J.J. McCarthy and J.J. McCarthy
looked like he looked for the first three quarters last week. This time he just didn't have
that turnaround. He has two interceptions in this game, only 158 yards, a fumble on a play
where he was trying to do a fake, a fumble on a fourth and one. I'm a little concerned
how this season has started for them. I think that fourth quarter, which only really happened
because their defense kept getting them the ballback
over and over and over,
overshadowed, you know,
one of the worst quarterback performances
of the week and week one until that moment.
And then he ends up as a player of the week.
It's a long, long season.
They're one and one.
No reason to panic,
but it's been disappointing through two weeks.
Yeah, I think this game is a bit of an outlier
when it comes to evaluating the Vikings
over the course of a full season
because of the guys they were missing defensively
and it contributed them not being able to stop the run.
But really, it comes down to Christian Darasaw,
like you highlight.
Because, I mean, the left tackle for,
as long as we've been a past first league,
which we're going on, you know, two, three decades this now
has been the most important blocker for a right-handed quarterback.
It's the blind side.
It's the guy that you have to trust.
And it was a guy that they completely and repeatedly victimized
on Sunday night in order to get after just, or JJ McCarthy.
And the thing is, essentially a rookie quarterback here.
Like, I know it's the second year, but essentially a rookie quarterback.
How do you get him, you know, comfortable and in a rhythm?
You've got to protect him first and foremost.
And they just didn't do that.
Well, the Falcons, uh, the past, the pressure rate was over.
50% tonight. Like you're never going to get going when that's the case. When you have a young
quarterback who's facing a pressure rate of 53.3%. It's just not going to happen. He's not going
to get into a rhythm. And it was kind of illustrated, I think, their last ditch attempt in the
fourth quarter when he sails one deep looking for Jalen Naylor, who was open, but he missed him by
about four or five yards. It was just a microcosm of how things just haven't gone right for them.
But I also would not hit the panic button on them because they need guys to come back. I trust the
culture and of Kevin and Kevin O'Connell's experience in guiding this team. It's just going to take
some time when you face teams that are able to capitalize on your weaknesses because of absences due
to injury. Agree, but I also think we can take lessons from the first few weeks and think about
team profiles being maybe a little different than we expected. And just with them, I just think
they're not going to be able to count on their passing game early in the season as much. They're
going to need their defense to carry them and they need to get healthier. And then the bigger takeaway
for me, both weeks, I've been impressed by the Falcon secondary. I mentioned Xavier,
coming into this game.
He made a great interception.
Another rookie Billy Bowman was all over the place,
almost had an interception himself
and made a couple big plays.
They have Jesse Bates out there.
I think J.J. McCarthy had about four or five plays tonight
where he learned NFL athleticism is different than college.
Athleticism on some of those sacks.
One of them was when he tried to scramble
and Jesse Bates got to him and got him out of bounds
before the marker.
And I was just like,
yeah,
no one in college is making the play like Jesse Bates,
made it. And the interception was also crazy. But Bowman did get an interception in the end.
That's right. He almost had two in the game. We won in the first half and he did get one. And
that was like an incredibly athletic play. So I feel higher on the Falcons defense in general.
I do think there's something there. Going into the season, you thought maybe they're going to be
a bottom five to 10 defense. I think it's absolutely fair to have higher expectations if you're
a Falcons fan now. We might have an above average defense. We have something to work with.
Yes, we do have a badass running game.
I should have sold Tyler Auxier short, by the way, Shooki.
He's 17 yards over expectation for him, too.
So he's contributing 16 for 67, or 76 on the ground.
Like, he did great and a great win.
They really outclassed the Vikings on Sunday night.
Yeah, yeah.
And I think a, you know, not a massive win over the scheme of a long season,
but I think an important win for a Falcons team that's trying to find their footing.
I mean, let's face it, the Kirk Cousin stuff last year.
like they're they were a good team they were a hot team and then they fell apart down the stretch they waited too long to pull kirk cousins for michael pennix it's important that they don't start in a deep hole this year with michael pennix the quarterback because then the pressure falls on him you feel the pressure on rahim morrison on the front office and everybody gets tight getting a win like this gets you back to one and one and to say look we just beat a team that you know almost one it almost took the top seed in the nfc last year this is a really good team they've been a good team over the last few years this is an important win for us to prove to ourselves that we can go into uh
a hostile environment on primetime television and win convincingly.
That type of stuff can kind of propel you forward even early in the season.
Yep.
I am impressed with Pennix.
I know the numbers weren't great,
but between last week and this week,
he just looks like a veteran.
I think he's better from the neck up than you could reasonably expect for a second year
quarterback,
but he has that experience.
We'll talk about him more later.
Since we taped the top of the show,
you might have noticed when you listened to the Bengals that we talked about Burrow,
but we weren't really sure
how long he might be out at that time.
Since that happened,
we've had more reporting on it,
and it's obviously very concerning.
Ian Rappaport and Tom Pelliserro,
both reporting that Joe Burrow
could miss around three months
if surgery is required.
Now, he will try to get a second opinion,
but if he gets surgery,
he'd be out about three months.
He is feared to have suffered.
to grade three turf toe injury, according to Rapshi.
And I don't know what you want to say about it, Shook,
other than that it's a bummer,
but three months is most of this season.
Yeah, I mean, three months from today is essentially just mid-December.
That's about when the Bengals were like,
oh, God, we need to win out to try to save our playoff chances
last year and the year before.
So it's bad.
Luckily, they have a backup who has experience in Jake Browning,
but it significantly lowers your ceiling,
not having Joe Burrow out there.
Like, there's no reason to really have to explain that.
And it's a bummer because over the last three years,
he's been hurt basically every year or almost every year.
He was coming back from the knee injury.
He had the wrist injury.
He was finally fully healthy this year.
He was feeling better than ever,
throwing it better than ever.
And two weeks into the season, you lose him.
I mean, talk about a gut punch.
A team that starts two and O.
They're riding high, two and O for the first time
in the Zach Taylor era,
and they lose their quarterback.
Tough, man.
Tough to be a Bengals fan.
You think about the way his career has gone
and the frustration he had,
which he showed in that show quarterback on Netflix,
of the injuries that he's gone through
because, of course, he missed so much of his rookie year.
And you mentioned the 20-23 injury
and then sometimes coming into the season,
missing training camp,
even when he's played every game,
he hasn't been fully healthy.
And he came into the league as a 24-year-old.
He is older than most quarterbacks.
I'm not saying there's not...
a long road ahead for Joe Burrow,
but he is turning 30 next year
and he is going to be getting increasingly frustrated with these injuries.
Now, I don't want to go too deep
until his second opinion confirms what the fear is,
which would knock them out three months.
We'll talk about it at length then.
But the race for this season will be stay alive until Joe's back.
Which is a long time.
It is, but they are 2 and 0.
And so that's a head start.
And the schedule is pretty difficult overall,
although in the middle, it's a little softer around their biweek.
There's a Steelers, Jets, Bears, Byweek, Steelers, Patriots run of games,
which I don't think they should be viewed as heavy underdogs.
But any game with Jake Brownie is going to be a challenge.
And I think this will help teach us a little bit about the rest of the organization
and whether they are good enough and whether they've built the defense up enough.
and the offensive line enough to compete
even without Joe Burrow. Now, when Browning came in
a couple years ago, he actually was able
to win some games for them and kept
them in the mix. And this will
just be a much longer
uphill battle
if he is indeed out three months.
Because I think you play
the Ravens, you said mid-December,
you know, week 15,
that's with four weeks left of
the season. Can you get
there at 7 and 6
or 6 and 7? You're at
two and oh now. That's only four more wins over a lot of games, four or five more wins.
That is going to be the challenge. And frankly, it's one I hope they just aren't going to have
to face. You never know. Maybe the second opinion will tell them you could try to play through it
and play in a week or two. And that would be a positive outcome if he's able to possibly do that.
I mean, the first month of the projected timeline for him to miss if the second opinion
doesn't change anything is a gauntlet. Minnesota, Denver, Detroit, Green Bay.
I mean, the floor is defense, you've got the Denver defense, you've got to, I mean, the Packers defense is at the end of that swing.
Like, that's an incredible amount of challenges for a guy who's a backup quarterback who just, by the nature of any backup quarterback lowers your offensive ceiling.
If they can survive, if they could split that, then I could believe in what you just presented it.
If they, if things go, hey, why are there, then it could get ugly.
When one of those, you're two three and three and three, and then that other part of the schedule, yes.
You're just trying to possibly tread water.
We're going to have a lot of shows and a lot of weeks now to discuss this Joe Burrow injury.
It's really sad to have lost them for any amount of time this season
because the Bengals obviously one of the main characters in the NFL.
And they did finally get out to a 2-0 start, even if it looked funky.
Okay, Shook, we'll be back here in about 24 hours to recap a double header.
It's going to be a late one on the East Coast, Shook.
That thing's going to be ending around 1 in the morning.
So get some coffee, get ready.
Bucks, Texans, Chargers, Raiders.
We'll be back for that.
This was a fun week, too, until the borough injury.
Football, it's back.
Hey, everybody, Daniel Jeremiah here.
And I'm Bucky Brooks.
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