The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - NFL Week 3 Monday Hangover — Vikings sneak past Lions, Broncos win ugly over 49ers, and more

Episode Date: September 26, 2022

OK, we've had nearly 24 hours to digest Sunday's games and nurse the hangover that a few of them gave us. Let's talk through them, shall we? Robert Mays and Diante Lee break down Vikings-Lions, Broncos-49ers and more on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Diante on Twitter: @DianteLeeFBSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Football Show. The Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me today. It's my good friend, DeAte Lee. Deiante, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing well. I got a good laugh on your guys' behalf,

listening to the Sunday night recap show where you were talking about the games that we're covering today. Like, you know what? I actually kind of enjoy it this way. I can roll in some shit. I can roll in some shit on a Monday and talk about some of the games

that might have slipped by some of our fans while they were watching their favorite teams. We got some bad ones today. Digging into Panther Saints isn't going to be enjoyable, but there are some fun moments from the other games we're going to talk about. We're going to start with the game that I thought was incredibly

fun with a couple teams that I think are pretty damn fun. And that is the Vikings and the Lions. Just setting the table here. This is the Monday Hangover, by the way. I'm extremely tired. I flew back from San Francisco. This morning at 6.30 in the morning. It's been a long 12 hours or so.

We're getting going here. This is the Monday hangover where he had some of the games that we did not talk about on Sunday night show. And we were going to start that list with the Vikings and the Lions today. Vikings come back, beat the Lions 28, 24. Vikings go to 2 and 1. Lions are 1 and 2, which seems like some sort of injustice in the football world if this Lions team is 1 and 2, which we can dig into. That was probably my prevailing thought coming out of this, is that the lions are good, the lions are enjoyable. even at one and two, I think they're going to be relevant.

But what was your main takeaway from this one? I mean, if we're going general, I think I'm on the same side as you, right? Like, I used to think that this phrase was the biggest backhanded compliment in the world when you talk about lovable losers. But the lions might be like the first lovable loser that I watch. And I'm actually happy no matter what happens with you guys. And that's kind of what I walked away with it is that they are a legitimately competitive and decent team in the ways that we were talking about preseason. And then as far as like what the film looked like, I mean, the story of the season, looking at the other team, I think, first is how the Vikings are going to use Justin Jefferson, right? And now that puts stress on you defensively to figure out how you want to guard him. And we've seen, I guess, in three different weeks, three different approaches. So, you know, in the Packers game, you're thinking about all the soft zone, right? And Justin Jefferson absolutely tore it up. I think in the Philly game, you got a little bit more tight man coverage. We're going to leave our guy one-on-one on them and we'll figure the rest of the picture out. you know, behind him. And then watching the Lions, one of the things that kind of blew me away was the commitment that they had to try to get two sets of eyes on him, especially early in the game to take away some of those easy rhythm looks that Kirk Cousins wanted, trying to get him in a rhythm and see if you can pick up some cheap explosive plays.

Talk about that a little bit more. When you say two sets of eyes, how does a defense do that structurally? Because they played about 50% man on Sunday and about 78% man on third down, which I want to get into the Lions defensive tendencies a little bit. as we get further into this conversation. But specifically, when they were in some of those looks on Sunday, how were they getting two sets of eyes on him? So specific to the man stuff, and this is something that I think people remember from, you know, NFL films with Bill Belichick talking about Chad Ocho Cinco. And it's one double, right? So, and they played a decent amount of that. So you're basically playing man across the board. And instead of having, you know, in single high looks, you would typically just have a guy that's sitting in the hole underneath to take away those endbreakers.

If it's two man, you obviously have nobody sitting underneath. Both guys are over the top. Well, one double, I think, is an attempt to accomplish both, right? Or find that like happy medium where you can get a set of eyes on their best receiver while also keeping a single high safety so you can give the look that you're loading the box. So there was a lot of that I saw. And I like the way that they were able to manage motions with him because there was a lot of times where you saw Adam Thielen moving around.

They're trying to peel Jeff Okuda off. You're trying to move safeties or force them to check coverages. And they were pretty well committed to keeping two sets of eyes on them, even on stacks and bunches. And that's why it was so hard for them to get Jefferson free. And then when they were playing zone, it was out of a half quarter quarter, which is what we've talked about. Cover 8 is what they call it, I think, in the NFL world now if you're going off of that Fangio tree. And basically the whole setup of that was, or the idea behind it is, if Jefferson is vertical, we're going to have a safety over the top. So that way our corner doesn't have to play at one-on-one.

But if he runs any crossing route, we have another safety on the back side that's basically sitting in that intermediate area. And you can see that a lot early in games on early down, early in the game on early downs, which is Jefferson on these overrouts, on these dig routes. And you're seeing the safety just come flying out the roof to take that away. And I think that that forced the Vikings to look at the offense a little bit differently before they were finally able to kind of get themselves loose a bit in the second half. And half quarter quarter, the traditional way of playing that, we talk about cover six, is quarter quarter half, right?

So what's the difference playing the cover eight version that the Fangio tree does that you would do to a receiver like Jefferson? So that basically, what that means is that you're just playing the cover two side where all the receivers are. So, you know, Nate has talked about three by one and one by three is and having those single receiver matchups on the backside that require, you know, extra help from a defense. Well, that's when you would play cover six because you're getting your. cover two side to the most dangerous wide receiver on the field. With the Vikings, and because they like to move Jefferson around so much, they were basically playing it like Jefferson was a guy that they always wanted to roll the coverage over, and they were basically just going to play tight coverage with the free safety sitting

in that intermediate area on the backside. So just take that picture of, hey, we're playing four over three is what you would call it. So you've got two deep players in zone coverage, two underneath players in zone coverage. to the trip side, and then you're playing a deep safety over the top of the single receiver. Just flip that picture inside out, I guess you would say. So now you're playing with the safety over the top to that three by one side, and now you have your free safety, your robber-type player on the back end to take away some of those passes that are coming back across the middle of the field.

And it was really effective for them on Sunday. I mean, he had three catches for 14 yards in this game. And the plan, obviously, great. You want to get as many sets of eyes on them as possible. But even in some one-on-one situations in man coverage, Jeff Okuda held up really well. We talked about this a little bit last night. I don't remember at what point in the show Nate mentioned it,

but Jeff Okuda really coming on over the first few games of this season. And yesterday, he had some moments where it's like, oh, man, there was a third Nate at one point where he shucked Jefferson the line so hard, he knocked him off balance and then just completely disrupted the entire timing of the route to force an incompletion. And in that moment, you look at it, it's like, oh, yeah, Jeff Okud is 6-1-205 and an out-of-this-world athlete. And him putting it all together, what kind of player can he be? And I think a lot of the fun on the Lions right now and a lot of the things that are worth getting excited about are packed down to the offense.

The offense is fifth in the league in EPA per play. They're just good. And they've done this with some offensive line injuries with Jared Gough at quarterback. We know what he is. That ecosystem they built on that side of the ball, I think, is ready to take off. The defense is still a work in progress. So it's all about adding pieces, finding pieces, and the idea that they might have stumbled into a potential high-level corner this deep into his career, considering all the ups and downs that he's had, is a pretty big win for the Lions potential long-term team building plan here. 100% and you know I was talking with some of my colleagues who were lions fans or cover the lions and one of the things that I sent them was that you know this defense looks great they're just missing that high level slot corner that we've talked about basically all off season they need one of those types of guys to add to their versatility and I think they need another edge rusher to really be able to speed up quarterbacks and I think that that was part of the problem for them in the second half once Kirk cousins kind of got away from trying to squeeze the ball.

in to Justin Jefferson. They got away from some of those designer plays to get Justin Jefferson a ball coming across the middle of the field. And then that's when you saw, okay, Kirk Cousins actually has enough time in the pocket to be able to go find the other mismatches there. And, you know, obviously that final drive was a big example of that. They were really picking on the interior of the defense, whether those are slot corners or safeties, you know, with these crossing routes and corner routes.

And obviously that corner route, they ended up putting them ahead for them to win the game. That, I think, was a big tell for them that while I think they do have a corner one in Jeff Okuda, if he's healthy, and this is a level of play that he has. And I think that we can be excited about Aiden Hutchinson as a edge rusher, even though I still may have some questions about whether he can be edge rush one for your team. If you can add another cover guy and another pass rush guy, now we're starting to complete the picture in a way that will make this defense really, really interesting because the scheme is great. you really don't need to do much on offense this off season. Your offensive line is coming back, probably intact. Vaita is a big cap number. We'll see what they want to do with that.

But that group of personnel offensively is pretty much intact. They're going to drop James and Williams into this at some point. He's just looming there in the background. Chark is obviously on that one-year deal if they decide to bring Chark back or whatever their outside receiver spot looks like. Having James and Williams in this mix compared to Josh Reynolds, It's a pretty exciting idea. We'll see what they end up doing at quarterback if they move on from golf.

Just looking at their resources, period. With a couple logical moves, they can have about $60 million in cap space. And they have multiple first round picks. So do they use both of those first round picks to try to go get a quarterback of some kind? And if they do that, and you have a guy on a rookie quarterback contract, if that's the route that they go, and you have that $50, $60 million in cap space, now you can start spending on defense. players. You can get some plug and play defensive players because that's what they need. Mike Hughes had some rough moments in this game. A warrior had some rough moments in this game.

I'm trying real hard. He was number 24 to be in this game because every five minutes it was illegal contact number 24 on the defense, starting back first down. And they just don't have the horses on that side of the ball right now. And that comes through beyond the past defense issues and the penalties that racked up in this game. Vikings had a 70.8% rushing success rate in this game, which was the highest in the NFL this week by a pretty wide margin. Vikings are number one in the league so far this year, which obviously gets boosted by a day like yesterday.

The lions are dead last in defensive rushing success rate on the season. They are 30th in EPA per play on defense. But their fifth on offense. So there is a lot to like about this team. And there's a lot to like about tuning into this team because, watching the Lions right now, you're going to get a lot of fireworks and a lot of points, even if the wins are going to be up for debate because of the imbalance we're talking about here. Oh, they're going to be the absolute enemy of the one score game in the NFL.

Every game is going to come down to the two-minute drill. And it seems like, I don't know if you remember from the Dan Lovitart show, they used to always joke about the chargers being stuck in two-minute situations down by like five or six. So you got to get a touchdown. You have no timeouts. You know, something is just meant to go wrong. is going to be this team this season. But I am very encouraged and to your point with what they have available to them,

not only in terms of Jameson Williams and what they already have on the roster in terms of young offensive linemen that are productive. I think they have a wide receiver core with Jameson, William's given the development of Amman Ross St. Brown and having DJ Chark. And I think that this is a good role for Chark to be in. So I'd like to see him back here. If you've got three guys like that, a full offensive line, two running backs that I like, and I think a defense that really just need some star power, there's not a lot left to address if you do this right going into next season.

So every game that they play like this, I think should make Lions fans even more encouraged about what this picture can actually look like in 2020. We brought up an idea on the Sunday night show about Epicurean wins. And even if your point differential isn't that great, what is your fun differential? And I think the Lions, the difference in the Lions Epicurean wins and their Pythagorean wins this year is probably going to be the biggest in the league potentially. And I think that's okay. The sheer amount of times, Dan Campbell's like, fuck it, it's fourth and three, where are we? All right, we're going for it. I love that.

And I kind of wish you had done it at the end instead of kicking the field goal. I have no issue with going for it there. I mean, you're in no man's land. I think they're at the 35 or so yard line right there between the 30 and the 35. I would almost rather go for it there because that's the might. mindset that this team has had. If you get that first down, the game is pretty much over. Game is done. It's a coin flip games like this. And losing a game like this, if you're Detroit, at this stage of where things are, I think that's totally fine. Where are you on the Vikings right now?

I'm still not in love with it, which is killing me because this was supposed to be one of my sleeper team. So I thought their offense was going to be gangbusters from the start. So does it has not been after week one. So did I. It seems like I don't know what Kevin O'Connell is going to have to do to marry up some of the things they do best in the run game with the passing games. I think that as these weeks have gone on, I think we're seeing it almost get more disjointed because of the way the teams have approached them in terms of trying to defend them in the passing game. And I think a lot of this would be different if Adam Thielen was still prime, you know, top,

tier Adam Thielin that he was, right? If you have a true number two next to Jefferson where you can't spend so many of your resources and coverage trying to take him away, now you're really talking about an opportunity to hammer teams in the run game without having to change personnel. But because they have to change personnel, because they're not a spread run offense, I think that they're running into some of those difficulties where you can see, and I think that we'll continue to see these high success rates in terms of the run game. But there's not enough explosiveness in it or enough explosiveness outside of Justin Jefferson in the passing game to I think make everything click and come together. So that to me is going to be the challenge for them is trying to find more. more ways to generate those explosive plays that aren't dependent on number 18 making them for them.

That's what I was going to ask you. If teams are going to defend you this way, how can you make them pay? And it feels like it's just one-on-one situations with your secondary receiving options. And right now it almost feels like KJ. Osborne has more juice than Adam Thielen does. Yeah. Which is kind of concerning, I think. I think that might be concerning for them long turn. A couple other guys I wanted to point out, I thought that Jordan Hicks and Eric Hendricks had some huge moments in coverage on third and short situations that torpedoed lions drives. That without those plays, I don't know, this game might go differently. The one that at Kendricks had on that Hawkinson in completion where they tried to

leak him out off play action on third and short, just really good awareness. A reminder that Eric Kendricks is pretty good at this and has been one of those guys in coverage that you can't pick on at that position, which are fewer and further between in the current version of the NFL. So a couple nice moments for those guys. I think both of these teams are firmly in wild card consideration as we get deeper into the season. They're playing. I mean, we'll see what happens with the Packers.

I still think Green Bay is probably the best team in the division. Probably. But if you look at the second tier of teams across the NFC, who's really scaring you? The teams that you were supposed to compete with a wildcard spot for, the Saints do not look very good right now. We're about to talk about them in a second, which against my better judgment. We'll see what happens with Dallas, not scared of Dallas. Those second tier team, we'll see what happens with San Francisco. I think they'll still be fine.

I think the Broncos defense. The NFC South is a nightmare. So both of these teams, I think when it's all said and done, could absolutely be pushing up against nine wins, 10 wins, and potentially a wild card spot, which is fun. If you're a Alliance fan, that's all you could have asked for from this season. And I think so far, even if the defense has been a little concerning, You really can't ask for much more from what you've seen from the offense for what this experience is going to be in the timeline of rooting for this regime.

And that that's all I would want. If I were a Lions fan, all I would care about in 2022 is did I leave this season satisfied with where this is in the grander experience of my Lions fandom with this Brad Holmes era? And the answer to that is yes, you're good. We just talked about all the resources that are coming. That is what matters here. And I think even at one and two, we have shown great progress toward that goal. I just love the last thing I want to call out is like, I just love your optimism because the truth of the matter is that the wildcar team, the NFC is going to be seven and ten. There's no way we're getting to that nine and eight mark.

It is going to be a seven and ten team making the playoffs, which nobody ever feels good about. But I can certainly feel it because of what you were detailing and what's happening with the rest of this conference. I think I just said wild card in my mind and thought, oh, you need nine or ten wins to get nine or ten wins to get. a wild card, so they'll probably get there. But if I looked at it practically, it's probably hard for the Lions to get to nine or ten wins. But it doesn't really matter. All right. It doesn't matter.

We're going to take a quick break here, and then we are going to reluctantly dig into Panthers Saints. Here's the deal. I've got a hangover. Who knows what that means? I feel like I have a hangover after rewatching that Saints Panthers game this morning. I have a question for you. Have the Panthers under Matt Rule created the

worst offensive infrastructure that you can remember in modern football. And this is, this is why I asked this question, because it's over multiple seasons with multiple offensive coordinators and multiple quarterbacks. They finish dead last in pretty much every single advanced offensive metric last year with Sam Darnold. And right now, Baker Mayfield is dead last in the NFL at EPA per dropback. I cannot remember anything like this, where you're cycling between different people, different personalities at the top that are supposed to be responsible for this, and it just doesn't seem to matter. I hate to answer a question with the question, but can somebody tell me what this offense

is even supposed to be good at? I watch all the time, and I'm waiting for like, okay, you know, some teams have a calling card. You know, you think of RPO's of certain teams or, you know, these deep pocket play actions, if you're from the Shanahan tree or these bootlegs, when you're thinking about the Jared Gough Rams, you know, and I don't want to just take the best teams as examples, but you can kind of go down the line with a lot of these different franchises

or head coaches or offensive minds. And if nothing else, you can say, even if it sucks, that you can identify what it is that they're actually trying to do. I have no idea what this offense is trying to accomplish on a play-by-play basis, let alone a drive-by-drive. basis, which stinks because I'm watching Christian McCaffrey actually be a good player healthy again and looking like he has to shoulder the load for this offense. And I don't even think that he's being utilized to his fullest potential. So I don't know how you even address something

like this because it feels like the holes are everywhere, the leaks are everywhere. They have some receivers I like. I just mentioned that I like their running back. The offensive line is still a problem. But you continue to make these changes. Which it wasn't supposed to be as big of a problem. supposed to be. They added pieces along the offensive. I picked a guy in the top six. They spent money on that position group and free agency. It was supposed to be better. And then you watch them being incapable of picking up like a simple twist. It's like, what is happening here? Yes. And I'm like, you change into your point of changing offensive coordinators. First, it's not running the football enough. Then you bring in McAdoo to get in more quick game because

you know that that's something that he's a big believer of. And I'm still watching a quarterback that can't navigate any of this, a team that can't set their protections properly to pick any of this stuff up. Keep in mind the fact that basically everything that the Saints did yesterday is the exact same thing that they did to them last year in the first four weeks of the season when they were in Carolina. So I don't know what exactly it is that if I'm a Panthers fan, I'm supposed to walk away feeling like, okay, this has been addressed and we have actually made improvements in X, Y, and Z fashion, because it's just not there. Yeah, I mean, they blitzed at an absurd rate yesterday. Carolina actually blitzed the highest rate of the week

yesterday. The Saints were second. They were completely unafraid at sending more guys at Baker because they just don't think he can handle it. And if you look at the results, he can't handle it right now. He looks completely uncomfortable. He's crumbling in the pocket. By the way, well, let's get to a couple stats. 12 of 25.

Okay. Over the course of this game, they had five passing first downs in this game. Five. That was the same number as my victorious Chicago Bears, which brings me to my next point about this game. The Panthers won this game. They won the football game. How is that even possible when you go back and rewatch this or look at the offensive box score for this team?

Even if you concede that there was a defensive touchdown involved here somewhere along the way, this still should not be the final outcome. Take the box score out of it. Just watch the highlights and you can see that the Panthers look like the objectively worst football team between the two. They looked awful. awful and to your point about how much blitzing, you know, that they see. And, you know, to me, the interesting thing was watching the Saints. And you know Dennis Allen's defense is not really built to send a bunch of pressure at you. You'll create the illusion of pressure, but not send a ton at you. But for me, I think it was interesting seeing coming fresh off of Baker dealing with Wink Martindale

that I think that Dennis Allen looked at this team and said, well, then why would I do all my best coverage stuff against the quarterback and offense that I don't actually have to respect? we'll send five-man pressures all the time and force you to deal with it. And there was a ton of that and seeing Baker again still being panicked in the pocket. I'm watching him throw these outcuts towards the sideline that looks like it should. Everything looks like the way it's supposed to. And as soon as he releases it, he's doing like the golf lean because he hates the way it's coming out of his hands, hoping that it's completed. He's not working the middle of the field still in a way that you would expect or the way that he did when it looked like he was a viable starting quarterback.

And we talked about this so I don't want to beat a dead horse. about this same conversation last week, but this is just who he is. This is just who he is. And I don't know if there's going to be any improvements made. And I certainly don't believe if there are improvements to be made, that this offensive staff is the one that's going to get it out of him. I have nothing to go off of to make me believe in that. Yeah, I don't think he gets another shot here if it continues to go like this.

It's the last year of his deal, Hillett Free Agency. There's no reason for him to be back. And that just brings us to a series of questions about the Panthers future that I talked about last week and frankly do not care to talk about again because it's just not that interesting when you compare it to everything else in the league that's currently going on. Right now through three weeks, he's getting blitzed 38.5% of the time during on dropbacks, which is the highest rate in the entire NFL. And he's been one of the worst quarterbacks in the league while blitzed.

So if this continues, there's absolutely no reason for teams to slow down with how often they're bringing pressure his way. I hate to pray on a guy's downfall, but I cannot wait for those bucks games. I can't wait for those bucks games just to see how awful this thing might really be. Like, that might be one of those, you know, Lane Kiffin fired on the tarmac situations for this coaching staff. You know, and it sucks to see, you know, because I do love what the Panthers do defensively. And I hope that Phil Snow was able to stick in the league because I find what he does to be really interesting. But, man, looking at this and everything else that's around. it to have drafted an offensive

lineman that has struggled. I think that that speaks more to the coaching than it does of the player to the point that you made about the investments on the rest of the offensive line. They're still having the exact same problems. It's another quarterback and another offensive system and I'm still watching a team that can't marry up its run game

to its play action game to his dropback game. I don't even know what their best personnel is. I don't think that they have good enough players to be multiple enough for me to even debate what kind of personnel they should be in. They're not vertical. You know, it's just, it is the, I feel like I've been fishing for all of these nice things that I can say about this offense because I hate to just lean on it in this way. But it's not there.

It's not there. And it's not there. I don't think. And I can't imagine that the Panthers feel like this is anything other than a lame duck season for its quarterback, offensive staff, and its head coach. When you're trying to dole out credit or blame for the Saints ultimately falling short offensively in this game, how much are you going to give to Phil Snow and some of the pieces on the same, on the Pelt? Panthers defense. J.C. Horn had not only a game ceiling play, but also played pretty well over the course of the entire day.

Chin had some really nice moments. They have some fascinating dudes on that side of the ball. But I also, I think we've come to an existential crisis about what a James Winston-led Saints team looks like. So trying to parse between those two things about, all right, the Panthers defense played well, but how do I feel about what James is going to look like over the next 15 weeks, health, all of those different questions, those two ideas are like rattling around in my brain and then are fighting each other.

It's weird because when you watch James with clean pockets, it looks the way it's supposed to look. Like when the Panthers only bring four, he's navigating the pocket well. He threw some beautiful balls on outcuts. You know, they ran a variation off of 989 where you get these corner routes to Chris Olive. It was a dime that he threw there. I think he just missed Kamara on a touchdown on. a pick route. So when it's there, when it's there only on a four-man pass rush, you can see just enough that convinces you and tricks you into believing that the rest of the James experience isn't going

to happen. And the Panthers have banked on this since he's been the starter. The same thing happened last season when they played in Carolina and you saw all these mugged up and overloaded looks. The second that there is pressure, James Wilson is just not a quarterback that is going to solve his own problems in that context. And that's where you get those misses. You know, that's where you see guys that are streaking wide open because the Panthers while they're playing cover zero, it's like the most disrespectful version of zero that there is because they're not actually looking at the receivers. They're just dropping to death and then just waiting for James to throw the ball to them instead of the receivers. You know, it's like some of the most unsound works. Yes, exactly.

Like it looks so unsound watching or looking at everybody's eyes and where they're at in relation to receivers. But I think that that speaks to the fact that all you need. is one unblocked rusher or a little bit of pocket movement, and James is probably going to make the wrong decision. And I think that now for the Saints offense that doesn't have the heavy personnel, we can bully you whenever we want to get you out of that. You don't have the same kind of dynamic receiving threat out of the backfield that you had in Alvin Kamara. You don't have the same kind of dynamic underneath guy that you would have in Michael Thomas.

Now you are asking James to be a hero in these scenarios. And that's where you land with like, I think the greatest representation of, James, which is the throw to Callaway in the end zone that finally gets them a touchdown. And it's like the worst possible decision in the world. Triple coverage, two wide receivers in the area. And thank God the Calloway just has strong enough hands to go over the top and snag it one-handed. But there was nothing about that that you would want repeated ever. So there is still that James in there.

And I guess this is just what the Saints offense is because they're not moving bodies up front with this offensive line either. So you're going to be dealing with the, you know, calling past plays and closing your eyes, crossing your fingers and turning your back to the field and hoping that nothing bad happens. You look at the blitz numbers for James. He's right behind Baker is being blitzed on more than a third of his dropbacks this year. The only guy between him and Baker-Mayfield is Davis-Mills. And this is the we do not respect you defense. That's what it is. If you're asking me for the three starting quarterbacks in the league that I think would

be worse without looking at the data versus the blitz, it would have probably been those three, too. it's a rough situation and I don't know when it gets better and the problem is this was part of the equation. This is part of the formula is that they needed him to play well to make good on their ambition this offseason. And they needed him to play well to justify the way they tried to build this thing. And we shouldn't really be shocked that James 1 pressed isn't able to play well enough to make good on the bets that they made because we've seen him as a starter in the league. And I think there was a reason that there wasn't a robust market for him when he was available a couple years ago. So this set of gambles and this combination of gambits that the Saints ultimately made, I think may fall short because this very important cog isn't going to get there. Yeah.

And that, again, because there's just not enough in personnel on the offensive end, in my opinion, to make up for just how cash strapped they've been, offseason over off season, and trying to do the magic to stay somewhat competitive. And the more you do of that with the quarterback on roster as your starter, it is implicitly saying that whatever holes we have left on this roster, you're good enough to address it. And I don't think that James has really ever been in a position as a starting quarterback for us to believe that he can address roster holes. So that's just what this franchise looks like.

That's what this team looks like. And it's certainly what this offense looks like right now. And I think that aside from feeling positively about what Chris Olavé can be in this offense, which I think people should be really, really encouraged by with him as a vertical threat. I thought he was really productive today, or excuse me, yesterday in the game against the Panthers. There's just not much else. The healthy version of Alvin Kamara right now, I think is just not enough to generate other explosive offense. And I just don't know if Michael Thomas can generate the kind of separation against tight covers that you need to really be able.

able to give James a breathing room and not ask him to have to fit the ball into tight windows while he's being pressured because those blitz numbers are not going anywhere for the rest of the season. Yeah, that's the concern. It's not that Michael Thomas and Elm Cameron aren't out there. It's at the diminished versions of those two guys when you combine it with the general other past catching talent that they have might not be enough, which I get. I don't disagree with you. I have excited about Chris Oliva, but you can be excited about Chris Oliva and still have questions about this team's offensive. Exactly. I mean, this is just the story of roster attrition in the NFL when you try to hold a core together and you try to compete year over year,

eventually the bill comes due and they have been, I think, tiptoeing their way here. And I think that you can say, you can give them a lot of credit for kind of holding these times for this franchise off for as long as they had, even while Drew Breeze was there. But you can't run from this. You can't run from this eventually in the NFL the way that this thing is designed. You are going to have to be bad at some point if you want to be good again. And I think that they are just kind of bumping into that wall now. There is no way for them to be much better, I think, than average with the roster set up and the talent that they have around their quarterback right now,

given that their quarterback isn't good enough to kind of bring them forward out of whatever issues they may have. All right. Let's continue our conversations about offensive excellence with the Broncos and the Niners. The Broncos win a football game 11 to 10 over San Francisco yesterday. I've gotten to a place where I think the Broncos defense is pretty fucking good. It's lasty. They are, and it's structurally, I didn't mention this earlier, and I want to, just very quickly, getting back to the Lions, which is a stupid little bit of hosting by me. But I am surprised at how aggressive the Lions are and how often they blitz.

They are blitzing on nearly 40% of, they blitz on nearly 40% of their dropbacks on Sunday. They're blitzing at the second highest rate in the league, period, this season after the Cardinals. They're playing more man than anybody else in the NFL. 43.6% of their dropbacks. They're playing man on 64% of third down dropbacks this season, which leads the league. I did not anticipate them playing this style of defense based on where Aaron Glong comes from. The Saints play a lot of man, but this blitzing man-heavy style is not necessarily what I expected from the Lions. transitioning back to the Broncos.

The amount of blitzing that the Broncos are doing is not necessarily what I would expect from Igero Everon where he comes from the Rams obviously cranked it up a little bit last year. But the Broncos so far this season have the third highest blitz rate in the league, 37% of snaps, and they have the sixth highest man coverage rate on third down. On third down, they're getting after the quarterback and playing man coverage. And their ability to play zone on early downs, play man and bring pressure on third down, the overall formula that they have going right now, it's given teams a lot of problems. Well, I think that that's a credit to Evereaux understanding what it means when you might have maybe a top three at worst cornerback on your team and two real edge rushers, I think, between Chub and Gregory. And it's why waste our time trying to be pretty with all the coverage stuff when we can be more aggressive?

And I think that you saw that. And in this game, I think it manifests itself so well because you're dealing with a quarterback that would like to avoid these types of defenses as much as possible. You know, I think that, you know, the entire build of the Jimmy Garapola era 49ers is, please God, let us run the ball well enough that you can't play just like straight man because of all the misdirection and moving pieces and the little matchup problems we can create with IEuk and Debo Samuel and George Kittle. Well, you know, the Broncos are legitimately good enough to, I think, to look at those matchups and say, we can deal. We can deal with your number one receiver. We'll handle, you know, all the end-breaking routes that you might get from a Debo, Samuel, with some of the stuff that they were doing in coverage that will kind of cover. And then they've got edge rushers that can control these edges in the perimeter run game.

And for a Niners offense that's just not moving bodies on the perimeter in the run game, that really allowed them, I think, to crank up the aggression that much more. and you can just see it drive over drive, less throws over the middle of the field. Outside of that big run early in the game, you saw less of, you know, the 49ers getting vertically in the run game off of these outside zone looks. And that leaves Jimmy in one of the worst positions possible, which is having to truly work through an entire progression. And you just saw the discomfort in the past rush really affecting him as a game went on. Niners at the second worst rushing success rate in the NFL yesterday. The only team that was worse. And I think that this defense is really good.

I think the defense has pieces, and I think the offensive line has some questions. Perford had a couple nice reps, and there were a couple nice moments. But overall, I think that they were at a disadvantage playing against this Broncos front. And for the most part, I mean, you have a defense that has good talent everywhere. Justin Simmons is not even playing, and it doesn't seem to matter. I mean, I am very impressed with a lot of the things that they've been able to do on that side of the ball. and I don't, I think this may continue. I have no reason to think that this team and this defense can't keep them in games

deep into the season here. Well, and I think that coming back to Evereaux and kind of the way that he's mixing these things up to be aggressive schematically, and this is the value of being a split safety pre-snap defense. So there is these three plays that I think about, you know, with this matchup that I think kind of defines the way that they were able to mess with Jimmy Garapolo. Early in the game, it might have been in the first quarter. there was a batted ball that he tried to throw in an end breaker, I think, to Brandon I.

And the Broncos were playing one robber. So now you have one of these safeties that's rolling down and playing in the hole while everybody else is playing, cover one underneath. Same thing we were talking about with the Lions dealing with Justin Jefferson. If that ball is not batted, it's a pick six because Jimmy doesn't even see the safety coming. And you can see it on the last 22. You mean like the picky through that got deflected by K.Y Williams later in the game? And that's exactly where I'm going with it.

So there's another play, I think, in the second or third quarter, same kind of in-breaker off-of-play action and iuk breaks and jimmy sees the robber and it's like oh holy shit i know as a robot i have to throw this a little drift route or deep in-rout but i see this guy coming and i don't want to get iuke killed so he kind of dirts the ball basically right at iuk's feet he has to die for it and it's a miss so i'm thinking like okay maybe jimmy has learned you know that he's got to be aware of this guy and to the point that you just made the answer was no late in the game need a conversion later you're trying to drive he doesn't see the safety again, ball gets batted and picked off.

And I think that that kind of goes back to what we're saying, not only about the aggression of the Broncos defense, but Jimmy Garapolo and his limitations as a quarterback, it was so clear that he was only going to look one way based on the look that he got. I think I see one-on-one, even though it's Patrick Sartan. I'm going to throw this because this is just the way that my mind has been kind of programmed within this offense, not even seeing the safety coming down as a robber to get underneath these throws. And when you don't have a quarterback that can get off of that and see, like, where my other one-on-ones be? Can I navigate the pocket well enough to extend and give my receivers time to work against tight coverage? You get those forced throws, those bad decisions, and that turn into sacks because you're holding it too long and not working through progressions or trying to squeeze the ball into tight windows and get them battered away or turn into turnovers. And that's the problem. The answer is no.

Against this team, you're not going to have time to create and navigate the pocket because they're going to bring heat at you consistently. The play you're talking about, Randy Gregory is him being a part of this equation combined with the way the Chubb is playing and some of the stuff that they're doing. I think that deflection you were talking about was DJ Jones. And it was third and nine. And they were in that kind of diamond front that the Saints liked to play where they have three down linemen, one over the center, two wide ends. And the linebackers walked up into the A gaps. And they ran a little game, I want to say, and DJ Jones got free and deflected that ball. on another third and nine on the Niners' third drive

walked up in one of those mugged up looks again, except it's Chubb and Gregory on the left side together with DJ Jones as the edge on the right side. So you're seeing all these funky looks with dudes who can really bring it. And that combination combined with how tight the coverage can be on the back end. When you trust that you can play man and live in that,

and then you can also do some of that shit up front, things get problematic for opposing offenses in a hurry. And that's exactly what's happening right now for teams having a deal with this Broncos team. I mean, it's suffocating, man. Like, again, just watching the process of this game play out from the All-22 copy instead of broadcast where you can see the whole picture, it's just drive after drive and you're just seeing less air and less air and less air. And the further away that the 49ers got from their opening scripts in some of their

designer plays, you think about that Devo Samuel wheel route where it was clearly designed because they figured they'd get single high in that look and they were able to attack it out of that. Well, you can't really go back to that because you're not setting it up with all the other things that exists that exists within this offense. And you can't set it up because of all of that tight coverage. You know, the lack of respect that you have for a Jimmy Garapolo hurting you vertically, the fact that this offense really isn't even designed to hurt you vertically right now because of what they have at quarterback. And the fact that they probably can't protect long enough to push it vertically even if they wanted to.

That takes a lot away from this offense in terms of its potential and its viability. And if this is where they're at, it doesn't matter how efficient Jimmy is off the play action game or whether or not they're able to be viable enough in the running game to stay efficient. You've got to find a way to push the football down the field. That's not just Debo Samuel catching the ball at 12 yards and hoping he makes two guys miss to turn it into a 25-yard game. And that right now might be their best offense. And if that's your best offense, to me, that's not good enough to be able to win games with what else they're dealing with on O.

They had three play extra dropbacks in the second half. He completed one of them. The second was when he ran out of the back of the end zone, which is a thing that happened in this game. And it was a good thing that it happened because on the play, he threw a pick six to parent the chub. It would have been a touchdown if he had not run out of the back of the end zone. So that's a head he played by Jimmy. That's what you get from veteran quarterback play. When we're talking about the difference between Jimmy and Trey Lance is that Jimmy knows situationally he's got to run out of the back of the end zone on that play in order to avoid the pick six.

That it's going to be a disaster. Listen, yet only comes with experience and reps. And that's why the Niners offense is in this spot. And then the third one, Randy Gregory toasts the backup left tackle and finishes off a sack. And that brings us to an entirely different problem that the Niners you're about to face. Kyle Shanahan is his press conference is happening right now. is what our producer is telling us. Trent Williams will miss some time with the ankle injury that he suffered yesterday.

Who was a good offensive lineman left on this team now? That's a very important question. And I think the answer is no one. And maybe at some point down the road, but you got your second year, first year starter left guard, you got your first year fourth round pick, right guard. You have your right tackle who seems to be nursing and knee injury at all times at this point. Instead of take time off left and right,

he had his rough moments again yesterday. And I like the past catchers. I think they're all really good. It's all we got on this offense. And I think that you're looking at an infrastructure where the foundation is slowly starting to erode and what does that ultimately look like? I think the answer is kind of depressing. 100%.

I mean, you think about just last season, right? The entire reason why like the Debo Samuel at running back package work is because you had to honor like Elijah Mitchell and you have to honor the play action game and all these personnel packages look the same, and they can mall you up front. So it's not like you can get cute and say, hey, we'll just play nickel to everything. We saw what happened in that Monday night football game last season when they played the Rams, and they really just ran up and down the field. That was the value of that, is that you had an offensive line,

and I think enough in the running game to make defenses think twice. And now you can move Debo around. You can get IUC and these guaranteed one-on-ones versus soft zone coverage, where you can get these end breakers for easy completion. or you force teams, you can get Kyle Eusecheck out and empty as a wide receiver and teams are just giving you zones. So now George Kittle can work these choice routes underneath against linebackers. Well, the less of that you have because of your lack of ability to run the ball and stay in heavier personnel. You don't have a quarterback that can push you vertically

to make up for that and make you honor it. And this is some of the same problems. I'm sure that we'll get to when we talk about the Broncos. What does that leave you with? Again, you start talking about all these different factors that turn your quarterbacks or force you to ask your quarterbacks to be heroes and drop back scenarios. Jimmy Garabolo can be plenty of things as a quarterback, but a savior for your offense in the passing game has not and will not be one of them. But I think that the longer that this goes on, especially if Trent Williams misses any kind of extended time, the more likely it is that this team goes from sneaky contender with

maybe the best defense in the league to probable disaster where your defense is going to be top five in DVOA and your offense. just going to be off the cliff. And I think that leaves this franchise in a tough spot in terms of trying to forecast what the future of this thing needs to be offensively. Jimmy is not going to be the savior for the Niners' offense. He was never going to be. That's not what his role was within this entire plan.

Russell Wilson was supposed to be the savior for the Broncos offense. And he is not. He's not. Until the data points change, he's not that. What is, and when you're watching this team on offense right now, what is the thing is concerning you the most? I think it's structurally. Like I'm watching, I'm like, is this the most like uninspiring version of the Lafleur-Shan

offense that we have in the NFL currently? And I don't know where exactly I want to point the finger at between Hackett and Russ, but it's hard to watch them make these quick game calls. That will be perfect for Aaron Rogers, but you know that Russell Wilson is not going to throw them. Those stick concepts, the spacing concepts, where you're trying to stretch. a defense horizontally and fit the ball into these underneath windows, that's not who Russell Wilson is as a quarterback. That was part of the problem that they had with empty last season with

Shane Waldron in Seattle. They basically had to force it into being a more vertical type of look because he's not a quick game guy. He's not going to be an RPO guy. He's chucking the ball outside the numbers, 25 yards down the field every single time they go in empty and he's complete like 35% of those passes. And I'm feeling horrible when it's like Jerry Judy in the slot because he's trying to work to find these underneath windows, but the ball's never coming there. It doesn't matter if he gets open or not. And I think about that in conjunction with the defense that they're seeing in San Francisco, and I'm like, you couldn't pick a worse defense to be having these kind of troubles against because this defense smells blood, I think, better than any other zone coverage team that we have

in a league maybe short of like the bills when they have everybody healthy. And again, to the point of the air, just coming out of your offense, you can just see all these underneath defenders, just jumping all over this stuff and basically telling Russ the same way I think they told Dak Prescott in the wild card around last season, you got to go beat us with that to make us honor it. If you're going to chuck the ball down the field, then you're just going to have to go do it 15 times and complete eight or nine of them to get us to do anything differently. And you weren't able to do that. And I think that that leaves Russell Wilson at a point where as a less creative quarterback

with his legs, what do you have now offensively? And it's not good. It's just not good. And I think that the more of that we see with the targeted pressures that San Francisco ran, you're going to start seeing teams play them that way and really forcing Russ to throw the ball hot. They're going to try to make him be a quarterback that he's not, which is throwing the ball underneath on these hot looks or forcing him to take the ball out vertically, you know, against these defenses that are really sitting tight in these throwing windows

and trying to make him win one-on-one against corners that are in tight coverage. I just don't think he's built for the way that football is currently being played. And it's for a few different reasons. The ambition and pushing the ball down the field and how that's kind of been taken off the table with a lot of this basic defensive structures that people are playing is part of it. But I think about the best quarterbacks in the NFL right now, the guys I'm most afraid of playing in this box that defenses have created for them. Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, even like some of the stuff that Trevor Lawrence is doing right now.

Russell Wilson is not a creative thrower of the football. He's not a twitchy thrower of the football. He does some creative things off schedule. Think about a couple of the plays from this game where he's dumping the ball off late. He's like shoveling it to people. He's popping it over people after he starts scrambling.

Watching the best quarterbacks in the league operate within this new world, you have to be incredibly twitchy and you have to put pace behind those throws into tight windows into compressed areas of the field. field. And Russell Wilson has never done that. He's never been able to do that and he's never shown a willingness to do that. So the fact that those types of throws and that approach to the position is a complete disalignment with who he wants to be. And that's what you need to be in order

to consistently move the ball down the field in the NFL. Rogers is like this. The first two drives of what Rogers did against the bucks yesterday, it's really hard to consistently win that way, but he can do it. So it is hard to think of two quarterbacks. more dissimilar than what Aaron Rogers is in this sort of world and what Russell Wilson is in this sort of world. And I think that's what the Broncos are running into right now. I mean, it's that lack of adaptability is really what I'm hearing and what you're describing, right? I think that early in the first quarter, they get into 12 personnel the Broncos do. They fake outside zone, set up a deep pocket and they run like a dagger concept.

So you got a guy on a clear out and a guy on a deep dig. And Russ actually drills a dig. And when he throws it, I'm like, if you just did that. If you could just do that, run this version that Aaron Rogers basically killed the league with last season, getting into those deep pockets and less of the RPO stuff, this offense could work because of the talent that they have at wide receivers. But the fact that they can't and that he won't makes it so there's always going to be this friction with where they need to be schematically versus a personality and skill set of their

quarterback. I don't know how you fix that. And to your point, if him maybe just kind of be. being out of this era, and it happens. Good quarterbacks can run into different styles of offense and defense that they just don't fit properly into. You cannot live in today's NFL just saying, hey, confirm one-on-one on the perimeter. We're just going to chuck it up. The best version of that was last year's bangles. And even with that, you have to go through all of the ups and downs that come with that and basically play a variance game that we just don't play

in modern football now. That efficiency just, You can't be efficient that way, I don't think, even with all the talent that they have. And it makes it really hard, I think, for them to find a way to bring what they do best, which is get into those condensed sets, 12 personnel, bunch looks and try to run those deep pocket play actions because of what you can do with this receiving core with the Russell Wilson that is not creative enough, like you said, with his arms and legs at this stage in his career, not that he's never been that, to be adaptable enough to make something happen with this offensive structure. I don't think he's ever been creative as a throw-in.

years. I think, well, I think that really what I'm trying, I guess what I'm trying to say is for the last five years, we've had the same conversation about Russell Wilson and inevitably the offense looks the same, no matter who the offensive coordinator is. It's the same usage, the same personnel, the same kind of changeups and tendency calls that you can put together in watching this offense. And I think that that's indicative of just who he is as a quarterback. How else, how are you supposed to address it if we keep landing in the same spot? Eventually, you know, we have to identify that insanity is expecting different results from the same thing over and over. I'm trying to thread the needle about the point I'm trying to make.

He made incredibly creative plays earlier in his career, but most of that creativity was drawn, draws from the fact that he could move around, right? He's making throws late and downs outside of the pocket after extending plays. I'm talking about creativity as a playmaker within the pocket, changing arm angles, being able to move guys, being able to. to place the ball into certain areas that maybe is a second or third reading your progression on certain plays, building in working in that box. And I just don't think he can do that as well some of these other guys.

So much of his creativity came from the fact that he could move around. And now he just can't move around as well. So he's less creative. He's one of the most talented pure throwers of the football in terms of arm strength, and his ability to place the ball down the field. But that's stuff where it all needs to be moving in the same direction. And when he has to do stuff, it's a little bit off platform as a thrower and place the ball in tight spaces. I just don't think that's ever been a strength of his game.

And it's definitely not going to be as he creeps into his mid-30s. And I think that you're seeing that a little bit. When you compare him to some of the other guys in the league and how twitchy they are as passers, he's just not that twitchy of a thrower into those areas of the field. At least I don't think so. I don't either. And, you know, I guess on a positive note, it's not like they went out and spent a whole lot of money to secure this guy. future within this offense or anything.

I mean, it's the idea of him making this sort of money and not getting better than what, and I'm sure they will get better. I think it will be okay. It will be okay. But if he can't ever get back to a even like tier 1B quarterback on this sort of contract, and that's an anvil potentially around your ankle as an organization for multiple years, if you're Denver. And that outcome after all of this is a pretty daunting one.

All right, we got one more quick break, and then we're going to get to our last game here. All right, we are going to run through this one pretty quickly. Not a ton that we need to dig into. Just a fun game from the Falcons offense, and I think some flashes that take this team to a place where I wanted them to be, where you have these two young past catchers, you have offensive design that I'm excited about, and you have a version of Marcus Mariotta. What do you think he averaged on air yards per attempt yesterday? Marcus Marioota.

It felt like bombs away in a way that is not actually representative of what I think of Marcus Marioo, so I'm sure this thing is at least over 10 yards. 16 and a half, 16 and a half air yards per target for Marcus Marioi yesterday. 14 and a half on play action, which I was like, oh, that seems like a lot. I wonder what it is on all of his throws. 16 and a half. He had the highest EPA per dropback of the week. He's seventh on the season.

47.4% of his dropbacks have been play action this year, which is the highest rate in the entire league. He's averaging 10.2 yards per attempt on those throws, which is sixth. And he's thrown it to two guys that I cannot wait to keep watching. Kyle Pitts makes that play against Josh Jones down the right sideline. They throw a screen to him. Drake London has some moments. This to me, they could lose and it wouldn't matter, is the perfect version of the 2022C or Falcons for me. is having this offense structurally interesting, using those playmakers in a fun way.

If you win, you win, if you lose, you lose, we'll see what happens. Right. I think that one of the things that I was, you know, I'm not alone in this. I think a lot of people were wondering exactly how Drake London and Kyle Pitts would fit together as receiving threats. Then I'm watching that game and I see a couple of throws from Mario'd off of play action and I'm like, holy shit, they're using Kyle Pitts like Arthur Smith used AJ Brown. That is horrifying to put this 6-6-6-8-in or 6-5 tight-in that can run in that 4-5-4-4 range that can create after the catch that can line up basically anywhere. It's like, oh, I realize exactly what this is now.

And it makes the pistol usage makes so much sense. It makes a way that, you know, Cordero-Pattison, I think, has developed himself into being a really productive running back. Like, all of this stuff is starting to make sense. I see all the pieces coming together in this. And it's like, oh, wow, this really is. the Titans all over again with a little bit worse offensive line, but with these exciting receivers and a quarterback of Marcus Marietta who somehow Arthur Smith is convinced that it's okay to push the ball downfield with. So I think that that's probably the most impressive thing is that you can

take a guy who's been a specific kind of quarterback for so long in his career and even indoctrinate him into what this version of the offense should be with these past catchers. I'm wondering what, so the benefit of going into pistol is essentially you can run you can run straight drop back play action concepts, right? So, and that's what we saw a ton of with the Titans under Arthur Smith. What does it do for you if you're a defensive coach? If you're having to defend those concepts out of the pistol instead of some sort of offset shotgun formation, what changes in your mind?

It's really that the offense can run the ball in both directions and you have to honor it. So, you know, in the offset shotguns, and this is something that actually on ESPN, I know Dan O'Oloff's giving it a big deal of it with the Panthers last week as far as like tendencies and tells. And I think that there's a certain amount of that that exists in every shotgun offense. But the reason why the pistol is so effective is the fact that you truly have to defend that the same way that you would defend under center runs in these kind of single back offenses.

And that's why these outside zone runs are so effective, where they're getting into these 20 and 21 personnel, looks where you have this offset back that's basically standing right next to Marcus Mariotta as an offset, you know, full back or tight end type. And then you've got Corterall Patterson behind them. And you can truly run outside zone in either direction. You can run, you know, your split zones and things like that. And then you can always get back under center and you don't have to, now you don't have to divorce your shotgun offense, quote unquote, from what you want to do under center. And that's a big reason why I think that you can't get the same kind of personnel or

tendency tells that you might be able to get from offenses that go from under center to do particular things and shotgun to do other things. You know, you can kind of tie these things in together, which has been a big reason why play action, I think, has been so effective for them so far this year. Obviously, the offense and the passing game looked really good yesterday. Where are you at with the Seahawks defense and the transition that they've been undergoing into the season that they kind of kick started last year and really brought fully into view this season? I mean, it's not good, but it's funny listening. It's funny hearing Seahawks fans, I think, bemoan it because I don't know exactly what it was that they were expecting for a scheme change after a long talent drain and not really having star players on the edge rack corner.

That don't sound like a good defense to me. I mean, the struggles in the running game, I think, I understand the frustration, but I guess I'm just a little mystified as to what the expectation actually was. for this defense this year. It's going to be a long year. They're bad on the edge. And win and lost columns. Yeah, they're just bad on the edge. We're going to have a lot of time to talk about both of these teams as we dig through the muck every single Monday here on the Monday hangover.

I appreciate you shoveling this show with me, my friend. The fact that you're willing to take it on means a lot. Deonti Lee, always get a chat with you, buddy. We will be doing this every single Monday afternoon. The plan is to do it at 3.30 p.m. Eastern. I was traveling this morning. So appreciate you guys sticking with us. We will be back on Wednesday with me and Mitchell Schwartz. No Monday night recap tonight. It's not a good Monday night game.

And I'm also going to see the Gaslight Anthem. So I apologize for that. But we'll be back on Wednesday with me and Mitch. Until then, a couple things. Please subscribe to the YouTube channel if you have not. If you're listening to this as a podcast, the description has the link in it. So please go subscribe. We've got a ton of YouTube content coming to you guys throughout this entire season. Nate's X's and O series, Y, and the clock.

Our recap shows, this show, our Thursday preview show, all of those will be on YouTube. So please go subscribe if you have not. Please subscribe to The Athletic. Theathletic.com slash football show. We will be back on Wednesday. Appreciate you guys listening. Talk to you soon. This was The Athletic Football Show.