The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - NFL Week 4 recap — Bills rally to beat Ravens, Eagles remain undefeated, and more

Episode Date: October 3, 2022

One-quarter of the NFL season is just about in the books, and we just might be witnessing a run game renaissance. That's just one topic Robert Mays and Nate Tice hit on the Week 4 recap episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also discuss the Bills' comeback victory against the Ravens, the Eagles moving to 4-0 with a win over the Jaguars, the defense-optional point-fest between the Seahawks and Lions, and more.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube1:15 Chiefs-Buccaneers7:20 Bills-Ravens17:30 Eagles-Jaguars32:20 The run game is back!43:20 Are we worried about the Packers?49:17 The Cowboys defense is for real61:08 Kenny Pickett takes over68:10 Defense optional for the Seahawks and Lions79:25 The Panthers are a mess87:25 We See You Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. To the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me tonight. It's my good friend Nate Tice. Nate, how you doing, buddy? Doing well. You know it's week four when we both are coming out with the backwards hats.

That's how we went with the styled hair for the first couple of weeks. Look nice. I'm wearing a wrestling shirt and a backwards hat. That's how you know what's week four. So true story, I officiated one of my best friends' weddings last night. And we were out to a very late hour. My fiance, I don't think, left her bed today. I just ordered food all day, did not leave, was just absolutely dead.

I worked all day. I'm feeling okay. I'm just not feeling okay enough to do my hair before we do this show. That's kind of the state that everything was in today. That's exactly how it is. That's how we felt. I know it's going to be one of those days when my wife goes, do you want to get donuts? And I was like, oh, okay, okay.

Yeah, we're in the same. After we watched, she actually watched the morning game with me, the London game. We were up early because I was like, okay, I get up around that time anyway. So might as well put it off. On a half time, she's like, donuts. And I was like, okay, let's go, let's go. We got them. So I knew what kind of Sunday was going to be for her.

I also picked up donuts this morning. So we're all on the same page today. And let's get on the same page about the action from week four. Let's start with the Sunday night game, something we absolutely have to talk about because Patrick Mobs did some crazy shit the first half. Yeah. It's going to be fun to review. Always got to love it.

I think obviously, big picture takeaway. Best defense in the league, arguably through three weeks, were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Yeah. And the Chiefs absolutely shredded them for most of this game. And I think that says a lot about where the Chiefs offense might be and where the Chiefs offense might be going. Yeah.

That's why when I watched them play the Colts last week, the Chiefs offense, I reviewed it. And it was one of those games where it was like, they just missed a couple plays. And it wasn't perfect. But it was one of those words. It was just one of those games. The NFL is really hard. If you don't, if you have those opportunities to really blow the door open or really just take a double, double digit lead or something and you don't, other team starts creeping back.

It always squeezes. If you ever played NFL Blitz, the video game, it was that midway rubber band effect. That's how the NFL actually is. It always kind of squeezes at the end. As we saw a lot of games today, that's how it kind of finished up. And watching that game, I was like, they're going to be just okay. They played this defense, though, when we were with Deontay, I was kind of like, this buck's defense has some answers for what the chiefs want to do, like what they're actual,

but what they preferred to do, discipline and a good game plan from the Chiefs, and they executed. I mean, they looked phenomenal in the first half. And they didn't play perfect in the second half, and they still put up a 40 burger. Favorite things they did for you in the first half, just structurally to what the bucks were doing on defense. Ran counter. They ran run plays that made sense. And that's the number one thing. It was the run plays made sense to me, not just to under center stuff, but the type of runs.

I saw some gun counter in there. I really want to go back and look at which each one was. But they're putting their guys in better positions. They got really, I mean, they also go, hey, Travis Kelsey's RX, which is just spam the ball to him 50 different ways. I mean, they just pound the rock. And then they got everybody else involved as it kind of like squeezed. I think it was just a nice, well-rounded game plan from them. They weren't trying to do anything too cute.

I mean, of course, in the Redsone stuff, that's when they always go crazy. But I think really the run game looked more disciplined as far as not getting too cute as far as the RPO stuff. And also just it just looks sound. It was, uh, Mahomes is operating quickly. Just like they had an answer for everything that the bucks are going to throw at them. More Pacheco in the run game potentially moving forward. It feels a little bit different when he's the one carrying the ball. It just seems like there's a little less McKinnon in there.

A little bit more pop, a little bit more juice. I mean, every time he touches it, it feels like something could happen. And it seems like that's something that they might want to lean into moving forward. Through three quarters of this game, him in C, C.H, I always say C-H for some reason. Him and Clyde Edwards Allaire had pretty much the same number of carries. And it just felt differently when he was touching the ball. The Mahomes or the Kelsey stuff, I love some of the things that they did. The little jerk route they ran with him when he motioned into that little bunch.

That's like a Julian Edelman play. Think about how many times in man coverage situations we've seen the Patriots do that with somebody who's like a short area quickness guy. Travis Kelsey is a tight end who is 6'5 and weighs like 245 pounds. So that's incredible. And we know he can do that kind of stuff. Mahomes made, I think, three throws that I was like, okay, whatever. Like, I guess so.

There was one, the scene ball he hit to MVS, just ripping that thing and the touch needed to kind of put it into that exact place between the safeties. He hit one where the bucks were mugged up, I think, on a third and ten in like a cover zero look. And he hits his back foot and doesn't even almost take a hitch. like the moment he hits his back foot, he's in his throwing motion. And Devin White was mugged up and had to get underneath Kelsey on the right side line. And he did a very good job of trying to get underneath him. But the ball is instantly out and on time and accurate. It was a gorgeous play.

And then the one he made down near the goal line is just absolutely ridiculous. Like a one of one, like, okay, I guess so. If that's what you're going to do, then everyone else's screwed sort of play. So it was definitely one of those Patrick Mahomes days through four weeks. As we sit here and there's all of this hemming and hawing about whether there are good teams in the NFL and what's happening to offense and who we can really count on, Patrick Mahomes leads the NFL and EPA per dropback. 0.33 pretty much in his own zip code. The more things change, the more things stay the same. But, I mean, I'm glad those throws.

It was the in-structured throws. It was the perfect mohomes kind of like encapsulation. Even the late interception was him all the way, like him trying to do too much throwing. back over the middle. But like also just their use of personnel, like they're getting all these tight ends evolved, Fortson and Noah Gray and actually using them not just as kind of like glorified decoys. But I wouldn't say it's maybe overall tendency breakers that Andy Reed in this offense did.

Mahomes, of course, it was exceptional. But like they won the 13 personnel like were the three tight ends and Fortson got evolved. But then also they were going 11 with Kelsey as the, you know, the only tight end. But a lot of defenses go, oh, you're a receiver. and they would run counter with him and pull him. And he actually did a good job blocking, which is not why you pay Travis Kelsey. It's not why Travis Kelsey's going to the Hall of Fame.

It's not because of that. But it's a nice thing that you can just sprinkle in. You just have to run it once or twice. And that's on. And defenses have to honor it from now on. They look back at this film. They go, shit, we can't just treat them like a receiver because they're actually using them like a tight end.

Like that's what that does. And it sounds just enough to put it out there. Yep. Yes. That they have to account for it. that they have to account for that luck. And that's what, it felt like a Chiefs offensive performance. It was the fun, you know, tricky stuff, but it was also the fundamental stuff that Andy Reid has with his background.

And it was just Patrick Mahomes just looking amazing. I mean, EPA, like you said, he was leading EPA per dropback. I think he was tied with Tua going into this week. And then now, I mean, that performance, even with a late pick, I mean, I'm sure he just, I mean, he looked great. He looked, it looked really, really good tonight against a very good bucks defense. Let's get to some of the other games that are kind of the highlights when we were doing our, weekly preview show last week, Bill's Ravens being one of them. I want to start with that forked down decision at the end from John Harbaugh. I think that was kind of the biggest

conversation point coming out of that game. I just can't get worked up about it either way. I don't know how you feel about it. I understand if you list the facts off this way, all right? It's 20 to 20. You've been slowing them down the whole game. The bill's offense only has 20 points. if you kick the field goal, you're up three in the fourth quarter with four minutes left. All you need is one stop. I think that's a misrepresentation of the facts. Yeah. The bills had scored on three of their last four possessions, the last drive of the first half,

and then two of the – they only had three possessions in the second half before the final possession. They had scored on two of them pretty easily. They were moving the ball fairly consistently. So if you're John Harbaugh in that moment, and I think the way that he explained it was great, if we kick a field goal, they can go down and score and win the game. If we score a touchdown, the worst thing that can happen is that we're going to overtime. And I think the way that game was starting to go, pinning them on the two-yard line and making them go the length of the field to win that game after not getting it or scoring the touchdown,

I can understand that. I can understand kicking it too, but I just can't get worked up about it because I think it's close enough that I understand going either way and feeling the way that things were kind of trending. I understand why he did it. I'm right there with you. That's how I even sit on Twitter was whatever argument you have, I would say yes. Like if he kicked the field goal, I'd be on, yep, I get it.

Take the lead, you know, try and play some good defense, make him go, you know, 75 yards if it's a touchback. But also, okay, if you don't get this, the worst thing too was Lamar through the pick. And they got a touchback as opposed to being pinned. Yes, 20 yards of field position. And that moments matters. And that does matter. It was kind of like everything worst case happened. And on top of it.

And it's not like Greg Roman. I've had my qualms with Greg Roman's offense, and of course, today wasn't perfect either. But there was a guy open on that play. Devin Duvonne Duvonne was open right at the snap of the ball. They ran a pick. They were in a high load to a corner. And I think I got watched all 22.

It's not on the video. I was going to ask you that because I was trying to piece together the timing of what Lamar might have been doing when that would have come open. And I couldn't do it with the replays. So I don't know how quickly he felt like he had to start moving out of the pocket. And if that was before that had broken open. I'm going off the dots. that's the best I could do.

Dots has become my game day all 22 sometimes. And I mean, that's a we got to make lemonade sometimes. And, and, but like with what I think that's, that's the thing with Lamar. Lamar has been playing, I mean, truly,

both of these quarterbacks, Josh Allen and Lamar, I've been playing MVP caliber football. They are their teams. They are, I mean, they truly are their whole offense and not just statistically and also just watching them with the eye test.

And, but Lamar's timing is always going to be unique. Like, he has his own timing. his own footwork. Russ is the same way. Mahomes is even the same way. They all have these, Josh Allen's the same way. They all have their unique footwork.

And that's why I'm curious. I want to watch this on the film. I'm curious where if his eyes went to the high low, to Duvone's side that he ended up getting to. But I want to see where it is at the snap of the ball because I'm trying to piece it together. You know, I almost felt like a ref under the booth, trying to piece it all together. But I'd be a little more decisive than refs are when they have to look at this stuff.

But when you watch this offense, you can see Dobbins injecting some. juice in the run game. But it just was one of those, again, they got into a short yard situation and they couldn't punch it home. I mean, they had four downs from the three yard line, I believe. And they just couldn't get it home. They just kept, you know, they just couldn't get that final step that would have put the game away even before it came to the fourth down.

So I understand the argument. Like, that's why I'm not upset with the Harbaugh. You still got to play defense. There's a lot of things that had to go wrong. And that's what is almost like a plane crash where it's like 15 things have to go wrong. That's kind of what I think the Ravens argument was for it. So I'm not too upset with that decision to do it and be aggressive because it succeeded for them so many times in the past as well. I think this is the sort of game that Bills could easily lose when you think about the turnovers, where those turnovers happened, how those turnovers happened.

They did a tip-ball interception. I believe their first drive, which was a nasty little play. O.A dropped back into coverage and got a hand on it and Humphrey picked it off. And then there was a Singletary fumble. So they turned the ball over twice near midfielder in their own territory. And they still won this game. And I think a lot of it is that when I watched the bill's offense in this game, it was an offense that did at least a little bit to help their quarterback. How many screens to Singletary for chunk yards?

The screen they threw to Khalil Shakir, I believe in the high red zone that was a 15 or 20 yard game. None of that happening from the Ravens. Absolutely none of it. Their passing game today was Lamar scrambling at high leverage moments. A couple lucky tipped balls. I mean, the throw down the left sideline is just absolutely insane. The luckiest thing ever. Even getting that off is crazy.

I think Von Miller was just blown away by how it was possible. Did you see Von Miller on that play? I actually, if we get into Greg Roman thing here, because they did not chip help Von Miller in the first half. And I'm like, what are you guys doing? They kept dropping back and Von Miller's just going, okay, this is great. I get a clean, clean rush on them. Okay.

One more example of how they're not helping Lamar within that offense. Von Miller on that play moves his body in a way that absolutely makes no sense. And then Lamar gets out of it in a way that doesn't make sense. sense. A true one-of-one athletes we've seen in the NFL going at it in that moment. And then he made a couple pinpoint throws. There was that one to Bateman coming over the middle of the field that was just an absolute missile. He had a couple of those today, but it really felt again like this was an all-a-mar-all-all-all-all-all-all-the-time game. There was some of that from Josh Allen on that last drive, that second and three, where he had to get away and make

a ridiculous play. But I do think that there were a couple more elements to the bill's offense that helped him out. And I also think that the Ravens Pass rush when you're just rushing four is not going to take advantage of you the same way the bills are. So you're not going to see some of those holes the way that you did when the sides were flipped in this game. Right. And that's what the thing with the bills is sometimes their first half offense can be very frustrating.

And then you see them dropping weight as the game goes along going, oh, we can't run that. We can't do that. And also some of it's Josh Allen just going, oh, screw it. I got a guys. Just get out of my way. I got it, which is good. But I totally agree with you. Greg Thompson said from cover one.

They cover the bills. He had a great stat. The bill's third down or third quarter scoring this year is 44. Their opponents is zero through four weeks. That just speaks to the coach. That's just half time adjustments and going, hey, we know what we want to run. Hey, we just put all this whole game playing together. Roney run at 20% of it and it works.

Helps on their defense when they run the same plays every time. But as far as offense as well. And they had guys step up. I mean, Kyrie Ewan played a nice game, you know, even with the injuries and stuff. So he was able to play a nice game. And like you brought up Khalil Shik. here. Stefan Diggs, I mean, the chemistry between Josh Allen and Stefan Diggs is so much fun

to watch. Just like, they just have total faith and trust in each other. So it was just one of those games for that you can see two quarterbacks that are magicians and just incredible, but also like where the coaching deficits are, especially on the offensive staffs a little bit. I totally agree. And I just think that that was one of those moments where they helped him out a little bit more. And in a game where the weather's bad and both teams aren't moving the ball that efficiently,

those little bits where you're just lifting your guy up become hugely important. And that's what happened today. And then he made two or three throws. I mean, the one he made to digs where he caught it, I don't even know how to describe the way the ball was going into his hands at that angle, win the rain is a ridiculous catch. And then the one he threw on the corner route to Knox where they bit hard on the slant

to digs on the inbreaker and he saw it on the right sideline. He's going to do that. Over the course of a game, if you let them hang around, he's going to make three or four throws. And that's exactly what happened today. I'm concerned about the state of the Ravens this season. Ronnie Stanley, when he comes back, hopefully that will help. The past protection today, I don't think was the biggest issue.

I just think that they're asking Lamar to do so much within the structure of their passing game as a scramble or as a thrower, all of that stuff. They're asking him to do so much as a runner, and their defense isn't playing very well. Every single aspect of the ancillary parts of who this team should be around Lamar Jackson have causes for concern right now. Luckily, most of the AFC North doesn't look very good. It looks really watered down. And I still think that they're going to be competitive in that division. But nothing outside of the way Lamar is playing right now makes me look at this team and think, yeah, they've got that figured out or they're on their way to getting that figured out. Everything feels very, very unsettled right now with that.

Like what's the Ravens easy button? Like what's there? They don't have one. They don't have one. Yeah. There's not even the screen game. I'm glad you brought that up even with the bills and stuff. You don't see the Ravens run just like a traditional like swing screen or, you know, like a slow developing screen just to stop the defenders pinning their ears back.

Even they, and I get it. This is the argument is the Lamar's his legs or his own checkdown. But they'll run like a five verts concept. They did it today. And there's just, yeah, that's fine. Fiveverts is kind of like, okay, one, two, three ball out. It turns into a whole thing. But make it easy on him.

Give him a checkdown option. Make it so that he doesn't have to do everything. He can do everything. that's why he's Lamar Jackson and former MVP at such a young age. But there's just so much of it where it's like, hey, just take a load off. You know, like let him throw something that's real, give a gimmee. You know, the Khalil Shakir once that you brought up the little flat route that Josh out through that is zero thinking from the quarterback.

It's like, okay, we got him to blitzluck. Aaron Rogers does it all the time. Okay, we got a little blitzelike. Okay, throw it a little flat. I don't have to do anything. And two guys have to block. Do you think that was a cold screen though? Because do you think that was a cold screen?

Do you think he was getting the ball? Because they were blocking pretty fast. I thought it was a cold screen. Yeah, no, they probably checked to it. A lot of offenses now with like double mug looks, they'll check into that. So the guy has to cover from all the all the way inside. So that's what I think. But you don't see the Ravens do that.

Like you don't see those little gimmee throws. It's all hard stuff. It's guys win on one-on-ones or Lamar go do something funny. And it's hard to win that way even with as good of a player as Lamar Jackson is. So I want to kind of continue this conversation into the next game that we're talking about, which is the Jaguars and the Eagles. a game we were very excited about. I'm kind of bummed that they had to play it in a downpour.

Yeah. But my biggest takeaway from this game is that when you watch that game back, it seemed like the Jags were playing in a sideways rainstorm. And it didn't seem like the Eagles were. And I think that explains the difference in the game. And I think the Eagles made conscious choices to limit the impact that the weather had on the game. And I think that's why they won.

Yep. I think there's a big difference between. And the weather, of course, isn't the same. but you watch that Bears 40-Neyers game in a monsoon and you watch this game in the rain. And it's like, well, these Eagles and Jags teams are a lot better football teams because it didn't seem as crazy. Like it did, but it didn't. We'll talk about Trevor Lawrence in a second. But I agree.

The run game that the Eagles got to, they understood RPO games probably not going to be great. We can't hit these glance routes because that's hard. That's hard, you know, handwork for the quarterback and footwork for the quarterback. They hit like two. And that was enough. It's hard to lead. to it because that's just hard. You have to flip the ball, get the laces and throw it in the, in rain and with wind and everything.

So they just went, okay, let's get Devin Lloyd. Let's get this rookie linebacker and put him in a bind. And they put him in the walls of Jericho. I mean, they did. Luicant too. He was just, it was a rough, rough day. But watch the linebackers. So like at first, and what's his name, Poti Kasi, the defense alignment, he went out.

But the linebackers watched them get in a bind every time the, the Eagles will run the ball. Zone read, split zone. Just every time they did it, you can see the linebackers, they're going with Hertz because they're so worried about him keeping the ball. And then so they got all these great angles in the run game. And so that's why the Eagles were able to pound the rock. That's, and then also this is the Eagles have answers.

Okay, you want to play single high? We have these dudes that can win one-on-one. Okay, you want to go too high? We'll just do this. They don't even have to throw RPO. So they can just do the QB zone re-game, which is, it sounds big. basic, but when they can put a linebacker in a bind like that where they hesitate a half second, their offensive line's so good.

They get to the second level. And it's, oh, Jordan. They get an extra blocker on every play. Every play. They get an extra body on every play. And you watch what it looks like. Like, how is this so fucking easy? And it's because they don't have to block the end man on line of scrimmage ever.

And it always gives them an advantage. And they're already so good in the run game that giving them that little bump, it makes things unfair. There was a stretch that like seven-ish. I think in the third quarter where they had like three or four run plays in a row. I watched them back like five times. I'm just salivating as I watched these plays. There was like two in a row where the double team,

it was a combination. They're climbing to the second level between Kelsey and the right guard. And it's perfect. They're getting great movement. They're coming off at exactly how they should. And then on the Sanders touchdown, it was at 3.59, I think, in the third quarter.

It was beautiful. It's a zone replay. They leave the M&A in the line of scrimmage unblocked. they instead of comboing up to the linebacker they have the right guard block down and kelsey pull around and then they had dickerson almost instantly went to the second level they're the only team that does that they're the that's a old school thing yes yes and i my understanding is that they have a lot of freedom i remember talking to jeff stowland about this and i've mentioned this on the show a couple times where they just kind of have a all right here's the problem how do you five guys solve

this problem and when you have a center like jason kelsey yeah that allows you to do it and by doing that you create angles in the run game and they're such great movement. Kelsey didn't even have anyone to block because Devante Smith blocked the safety, which was awesome. And you watched that happen. And like what you said about them having answers to everything, that's what this game felt like. It's like, all right, we're playing in a rainstorm against this defense that has a ton of speed, but maybe doesn't have the best eyes at linebacker or is a little bit young in that position.

Here is what our game plan is going to look like. We're going to run the shit out of the ball. we're going to throw screens to Dallas Goddard. We're going to throw a little tunnel screens to AJ Brown every once in a while. We're going to hit two glance routes, and that's going to be it. I think J.1 Hertz averaged like six yards, six air yards per attempt, which is much lower than a season average. It's bottom five in the league this year or this week and about 2.5 second average time to throw in this game, which for J.1 Hertz is very, very quick. Because that's what the game plan was.

While Trevor Lawrence looked like the ball was covered in Vaseline for four quarters. And the tight-end screen stuff that's still putting the linebackers in a bind because they were they were catching them where Lloyd was all play action screens. Yes. And Lloyd's like, oh, you're blocking. I'm going to trigger and come downhill. And then there's Dallas Goddard running up the sideline. But also it's such an advantage, especially with these aggressive coaches, because I want to commend them, Nick Seriani for going for a fourth down so early and often. It's such an advantage when you have a run game like that.

And it's third nine and go, we just got to get six. Like, okay, you want to check it down? You want to scramble? You want to do it? And we can get to fourth and three. And we have answers. They, I was just looking at the EPA for this. They basically created an extra field goal of points just by going to fourth down.

2.9 EPA. That in a game like this that you think is going to be a battle in the rain that matters. We're talking about game of inches. 1% better. You just basically created a field goal out of nothing just by doing this. And that's a great, great point. That is such an advantage when you haven't run game like this. because three yards in the cloud of dust, that's great when it's fourth and two a bunch.

And we have answers and we can get those first downs in different ways. It's one of those things where it's like, yes, I want to see J.O. and Hertz drop back and do all this. This wasn't that type of game to see that. But the fact that the Eagles had answers in a muck game like this, it's, yeah, tip of the cap to them. Because this is not an easy Jaguar's defense. It really isn't. They made it look like that in the run game, but it really isn't. this Jaguar's defense is a problem for a lot of other teams.

My lot of didn't play for most of the game. They did this without their rough tackle for most of the game, which I also think may have played in the decision making. Let's get the ball all quick. Let's help our quarterback. Let's help our line. Let's help everybody. And they did such a good job of that.

Yes. My favorite fort down sequence was they had that third and goal from, I believe, the 16 at one point and Hertz instantly takes off when he sees grass. Yep. Yep. And I don't think based on some, like I reached out about this, I don't think. they had told him you should go forward on fort down here. We're going to go for it if you get this amount of yardage. But I do think that they have such a refined seek a process there

and the guys know it that I think that does kind of seep into your mindset on it's third and six goal from the 16. If I get nine, if I get 10, maybe we can go forward on fort down. That's just what they do. And I think when it feels like that, there's no hesitation when that situation arises when that decision arises, it ends up becoming the way you play. It ends up becoming the way that you operate. And I think that in the end, over time, we've seen it with the Ravens, we've seen it with all these other teams that tend to go for on fourth down. It is going to give you an advantage if you have that certainty and that ambition with how that process works. When everybody's on the same page, that's what coaching is, is the coaches can know everything. And this is what's hilarious

about really smart coaches. It's like, but it's how, what do your players know? So you can say we're going to be aggressive, we're going to be aggressive, but everyone knows you're going to be aggressive. We're all on the same page. I mean, Doug Peterson also commend to him. Like, he's very aggressive as well. He did it last week against the Chargers. Same thing. He's kind of the OG with it now. But it now, the bills that got advantages by going forward to work down today. So many teams, all the time. It happens all the time. But we never talk about it when it works. Yes, I know. It's only when it does it. But that's just the confidence that instills in this team. And I also, we haven't talked about the Eagles defense. And Trevor Lawrence, I, apparently he's not a

Lutter. I really, he's not because I could only find the one college game that he didn't play in the rain. And he went 12 for 24 for 118 yards in that one ring. Oh, no. I know. So I'm not out. It was just, it was one of those games. I mean, I get it. But it's the interception. I was going to tell you. The interception wasn't that bad. No, it was him being, this is why I like Trevor Lawrence. He took the haymaker when he could have just jabbed him because that was a play. They ran switch verticals with a swing. They ran it last week twice against the charger. Cobbner Blitz both times and Trevor Lawrence hit the swing route.

So you know what? He knows he puts that on film that hit the swing route. Okay, they run the same play. Eagles Blitz got them. The hot route's there. The swing is the hot route on this play. But he goes, you know what?

They know that. I'm going to hit the shot right here. Back pedals hit it. James Brider makes a great play following off that it was a switch vertical. So it was the inside vertical. Boom, makes a great play. It was like a great play against a great play.

Like Hetty versus Hetty. So it's just one of those. It was just a good play. It was an NFL freaking play. That's what that was. To get that ball off at the back of your drop against that blitz was amazing. And he thinks in that moment, you can correct me if I'm wrong, the way that play is structured. I think the Eagles were just playing cover three behind it, right?

Like what you do with a lot of zone blitzes. Yeah, yeah. There's fire zone. He assumes that Marvin Jones is going to run James Bradbury out of that space. Yep. When he sees Bradbury go with Marvin Jones right away, his thought is that's open. If I can get it to that, that's open. And James Bradbury makes a play.

He comes off of it and makes a play. So even though it's an ugly interception, and if you look at the box score, it's just a pick from Trevor Lawrence. That I don't mind at all. And then the fumbles are just, he literally dropped the ball when he was running because it was wet. And he had a first down that you could have ran for too on that. That's what's, it's just one of those games, like just like the Chiefs last week a little bit. It's just one of those games. It's just one of those games.

I think the team you played against had more answers than you. and you ran into a couple bad moments. And Hassan Reddick deserves credit for, let's shit up. Yes. The first one, the first one is a real strip sack. That was just a net. It was a bull. He stuns the right tackle, bull pull, pulls him by, and then just makes a play.

And then the second one is just getting your hands on the ball. Yeah. He is a, he is a nice player that the Eagles have a lot of nice players. They do. They do. They have a lot of nice players throughout at every level of defense and every level of offense. It's a good team.

It really is. And also just those turnovers. It's always going to come out of a turnover battle, just how math works. And that's how football works. But what the Eagles did after each of those turnovers, after the four, I'm not going to include the fifth one. Seven play, 57-yard drive, touchdown. Eight play, 35-yard drive, which is hilarious. Touchdown.

11 play, 78-yard drive, field goal. Six play, 24-yard drive, touchdown. So touchdown, touchdown, field goal. So they took advantage of their chances, which is. that's what football comes down to because they have good players that can do it and a good game playing. And they did it today. When we were coming into this season, one of the reasons that I was bullish on the Eagles that I thought they'd win the division, I thought they'd win one or more playoff games, is that I thought what they showed last season is flexibility, malleability, open-mindedness. It's like, all right, we're going to transition here when we need to.

And we've seen that on both a macro and micro level with them this season. They transitioned on a macro level coming into this year with what their offense looks like now in this next stage of Jalen Hertz with A.J. Brown in the fold. This is another micro bit of flexibility. It's like this is a rainy game. It's a nonsense game. We have a left tackle who's not playing in this game. What answers do we have? Their ability to find answers, short term, long term, pivot when necessary, is very impressive. And when you have that consistently with really good players lining your roster, you become very dangerous.

And I think they keep passing all of these tests when we ask to see different versions of them. And that is not dampening my enthusiasm about the problems they can solve over the long term. It's just the basic, it's the old school saying where the good teams find a way to win. And they won. Like they were in control this game for about the last two and a half quarters, more or less. But it's, that's what it was. This is our situation. Okay, what are we going to do about it?

And that they find a way to do it. It helps when you have good players, of course. but you need good coaching and a good game plan to do it. And they had it on both sides. Like that's, it was, it was really good. Like, that's the thing. I don't want to knock the Jaguars for this game because I still feel the same about the Jaguars.

I really do for that going to get this week. I just want to put more credibility to what the Eagles did and give them really props for this win. I'm with you. I'm absolutely with you. All right. We're going to take our first break. When we come back, it's time for you, hide my attention. Gentlemen, you had my curiosity.

Now you have my attention. All right. This is going to be a little bit of a weird one. But NFL running games, you have my attention. What a weird, bizarre football day this was from a how teams won perspective. Let me read off some stats for you. The Atlanta Falcons won a football game today and wish they ran for 200 yards and their quarterback completed seven passes.

The Packers rushed for 199 with only 200. 44 net passing yards today. The Raiders had 212 rushing yards compared to 173 net passing yards. The Eagles had more rushing yards than they had net passing yards. The Giants won a game today where they had 71 net passing yards and rushed for 262. The Titans also had more rushing yards than net passing yards on the day. That's six games that I just listed off where a team either rushed the ball for more than they passed and won, or those numbers were very close.

We'd have to dig into some historical numbers. It'd be fun to do over the next couple days. I can't imagine that has happened very often in the modern era of football. It's an oddity, but I also think it's indicative of what the league has felt like over the last month. I'm not going to make any prescriptive conclusions here or four games of football. But I do think this explains what the NFL has looked like over the first month. of the season. Yeah, it's a lot of defense is just going, hey, like, we're daring you. We're daring

you. What are you going to do? Are you going to, you can't get these chunk plays that you're getting against us when we're running man coverage, where we're doing all the three match stuff. So it's, they're making it for, hey, complete some hard throws with a lot of defenders around it, running cover two, or run the ball. Are you patient enough to run the ball? And it's hilarious how like a true three down running back has become like super valuable again. Like I, true guy that has no tendencies when they're on the field, they can pass protect. They also can catch the ball and they also can handle, you know, 12, 15 touches. It's like hilarious that this is becoming irrelevant again. These like, it's, it's, it's bizarre. I'm not saying like, oh,

run backs and draft them in the top 10, but I'm saying like, these guys actually have become valuable again. And that's what defenses have dared. It's for me as a as a film nerd, not just movies, but X's and O's in all 22, uh, watching what runs are coming back has been a lot of fun. It's, you know, for years just because of all the single high when I've heard use this term a few times or run it run. A run it run is no matter what the box is, how many defenders are in there, what front you're giving us. We can still call this play, this run play because we have answers to it. Outside zone is the epitome of it. That's why the Shanahan offices for years could just get away with it because, hey, you want to, that's why it proliferated when there's

single high defenses. Oh, we're really good at outside zone. And you want to run single high? Doesn't matter. But now it's fun seeing how offenses are getting to different runs. So there's there's outside run. Or I'm sorry, outside zone, do them pinpole. Those are the run it runs. But now you have inside zone that you can run against light boxes, which is with no tight end. So if you just look at a guard and tackle and you run the zone plate to that, that's inside zone. You have Why is inside zone something you can run against any box where the outside zone isn't? The number count. So when I run inside zone and say you have another safety down into the box, it's a dead play.

Like we just do not have the math. Like, yes, we can not block that defensive end, but we don't have a guy that can climb to the second level. So one guy is going to be unblocked at the second level, which is a no-go. And that's why it's so inside zone, you can run that. And counter is the same thing. All these plays, they can run to the open side of your. your formation away from the tight end. That's when you run towards the tight end, you get an extra pair of hands so you can run it because you're running away from extra bodies.

So single back power is one. That's to the tight end. But now we can run it because the safety is not down. It's just a math game. And that's where we say the quarterbacks change the math because you add another guy in there. But that it's just, it's fun seeing how offenses are getting to. This is why the Scars Guard stuff's interesting with the ramps. They're going 11 personnel, but going eye formation.

That's their way to attack these looks. the Eagles with their quarterback run game, that's how they do it. The Packers gun run stuff. They do the jet sweep and then they split zone with the tight end coming across. You see a lot of bubble plays from the Packers, but different, it's, you're seeing more flavors again. You're not just seeing the teams. Yes, these guys all come from the same branches of the same offenses, but now everyone's

kind of going, well, we got these guys, so we're going to run this. We got A.J. Dillon, so it's run inside zone with him. We got Aaron Jones, so it's run outside zone with him. We got Jalen Hertz in the backfield. So it's run zone read or power read or something of that sort. So it's really, really cool to see these offenses figure out what their answers are. And yeah, I mean, basketball is always going to be king. That's never going away because these quarterbacks are so good now.

But now the defenses are getting really good and understanding how to attack these offenses. I would love to do some actual research on this. I'm not sure where I can quickly access these numbers. I was trying to screw around with it just now. How much, what is the efficiency on runs where players are getting pulled compared to where players are not? Because anecdotally, it seems like the best running games in the league right now. And I'm sure there's a ton of noise associated with those numbers. But anecdotally, it seems like the best running games are teams that can put guys on the move consistently.

The Packers do that all the time. I mean, the way they're using Josh Myers on the move this year has been noticeable. The Eagles we just talked about, they can do some stuff with Kelsey that really no one else can do. the Browns are just as much of a gap scheme running team as they are a zone running team, which when you think about what Stefansky was in Minnesota is incredible, but they have the players to do it. The lions run everything. The long Jamal Williams run was counter today.

And there are so many different things they can get to. And when you have these teams, same thing we talked about with Eagles. It's problem solving. How many ways can you solve these problems? It's a math game. There are this many players in the box. We have this many blockers. how many different ways can we block the players in the box with this many blockers?

And when you can draw up 20 cool ways with all these angles and pulls and different ideas, that problem solving becomes easier. And I think that we're seeing that consistently, which is awesome. It is very cool to open up. It's kind of how I felt a couple years ago watching college tape where you'd watch a corner and he would just do a quarter's turn like every single time. It's like, well, this isn't fun. And there were times over the last five years when it felt like every running game,

you put on in the NFL, it's outside zone, outside zone, outside zone. And now just seeing all of these different versions and ideas and people being like, all right, well, why don't we do it this way? It's very cool. It makes the running games within the league much more interesting and diverse than I think they have been over the last several years. Yeah. And the pulling stuff, especially counter and not only just the box count, but also the

fronts that are given. So counter and pulling a guy and gap scheme is pulling. It's power and counter. That's what gap scheme is because offensive line are blocking down their gap. And then you're pulling another guy to change the gaps. And that becomes more prolific or more advantageous against odd fronts, which is a nose head up. And that's what we see. We see those bear, those mint fronts, more and more penny.

We hear penny fronts, all that gap scheme is great against that. And it's all down. It always comes down the run game and pass protection. Offensive line play comes down to angles and math, which is math also, I guess. Angles and number counts. So just math. That is what it is. You're creating angles.

We've referenced the David Nijoku feigning the block and then the pin pull. Why that works is rather than him blocking out and squeezing the hole that the running backs to run through, have him block down and then we have a guy pulling and kicking out the guy. So you're just creating angles where it's just easier to pull. block that way. And yeah, just the menus open back up. So like, let's toss some cauliflower, cauliflower and buffalo sauce and, you know, let's spice it up. That's what it is. It's like, it's like, we got this like modern run game and past game. Okay, now we're just going to go back some old school recipes with it. So it's fun to see which teams are figuring this out. And that's why if you see the split zone play that we referenced with the Rams last week on Thursday and you see the

Packers doing it, they have two backs in the backfield. One guy runs a bubble and then one guy runs the inside zone. You can run that. against two high boxes. You cannot run that against a single high box. So if you see, wow, there's two, you know, two backs back there and one guy's running a little bubble and they're running the run play, it's because of the defense that's been given against them. That's what it is.

It's, you have to take what you're given. Like that's what and then take advantage of that. And that's why I get mad about the chief sometimes not running counter or even the Rams not running counter, but guess what? Now they are leaning into that. And it's really, really cool. Of all those rushing performances today, I think the. I'm going to say, which is the most impressive.

The most FU was the Falcons, the fact that they just came out and ran the ball like 20 times in a row. They did it against a Browns team that is devastated up front. No Clowny, no Miles Garrett, Anthony Walker's on IR. Their defensive, interior defensive line was the worst part of this roster anyway. I believe Taven Bryant also didn't play today. So they took advantage of a team that was not set up to stop them, but it was still a middle finger to what the Browns were trying to do today. I think objectively, the most impressive might have been what the Raiders did with their fourth, I think, offensive lines combination of the year in four games starting today.

They've purposely been shuffling those guys around to try to find answers, and they were going against a Broncos defense that has been better against the past than the run so far this year. But it's still a very good run defense. So the fact that the Raiders could tap into that and win that game saying get their first win of the year, I think of all of these performances, maybe the most impressive of the bunch to me. Yeah. And the most fun was probably the Giants running the Wildcat out of necessity. That was, but that's the thing is the games that you brought up. So you brought up Falcons, Packers, Raiders, Eagles, Giants, Titans.

Everyone did it in different ways. And that's what's cool. It's not just one run. They're like, wow, you see them run outside zone. You see that guard reached to the second level. And yeah, that was cool. No, you saw guys pulling. You see guys kicking out.

And you see a receiver. Devante Smith. cracking on a safety. Why DeVante Smith is cracking on a safety because there was a too high defense from the Jaguars. So that guy, that's what the receiver has to do. So of course, I'm going to go, you know, Gaga, it's Devante Smith and it's run blocking from a receiver. But that is why you're seeing these things proliferate again, it's just because of the defense they're given. A couple of questions I wanted to ask out of all of this. Are we concerned about the Packers barely beating a team that was quarterback by Bailey Zappy for most of today? A little bit. It's,

the defense doesn't play aggressive. And I know not just because of blitzing sense, but it just feels like they just, they want to get jabbed 120 times. Like it's, it's like, I don't know. It's,

it's a little worrisome. And then also just the offense as well, it's, it's, they look like they were lacking past catchers. Like it's, that's what it looks like Romeo, Romeo,

God, Dobbs. It's Dobbs. It's Dobbs. Yes. You will get there. You will get there. Dobbs and Cobbs. Dobbs and Cobb.

Dobbs. So he had a great pull. You know, he had the back shoulder. That was awesome catch. We also had the drop later. I mean, almost came down with it. But it just looks like they're lacking separation. Even when they throw like little flat routes and bubbles, you can just tell the timing and spacing of it looks weird.

You know, compared to when it was Devante Adams, of course, having good players helps that. But this is, it looks sluggish. And they've done this a couple times. There's been a couple of these performances now. And it's not like the Patriots are some, you know, gunblazing team this year. But they wanted to get back. and actively bad in a lot of areas. Yeah, it's a slow team.

And the packers, I feel like, are a fast team. And they just didn't look like that. And so they're not imposing their will on a lot of teams, which is what you want to see from the good teams. This is going to be a really stupid thing to say. Can't wait. The Packers don't feel like a good defense. When you watch them play,

you know when you watch the Niners, it just feels like a good defense the way that they're coached. And we're going to get to another team very quickly here that also. feels that way. When you watch them play, when you watch their front play, there are guys on the pack. Roshan Gary looks like an absolute monster. But the way that they're flying around, it just doesn't feel like it the, some of the parts is less than the individual pieces. It's less than I want it to be right now when you consider how much talent that they have. I know Amos missed a chunk of today, all that stuff. I just need more out of that group of players because, and I know Alexander didn't

play, but up front in the front seven, the amount of resources they've spent there, I just need a little bit more out of that. And I just haven't gotten it so far. This was the game. I thought maybe they would make a little statement. Like, okay, you know, Belichick can can do what he does on defense against your offense, but I thought this would be a game that really their Packers defense is like, hey, we're going to crank it up. You know, let's go 85 and a 70, right, right? You know, it's really just take it to them. And no, they just stay in cruise control. And it's like, it's commendable in some ways. Like, hey, we're not going to change what we're doing. But it's like, there's times where it's like,

Okay, but when you guys play a better offense, they're going to shred you. You're not going to play the Bears. You're not going to play the Patriots with Bailey Zappi, throwing floaters. I mean, Bailey Zappy is a lot of fun to watch in college. Don't get me wrong. I mean, but you've never, I mean, this guy's got like a four out of 10 arm strength. Like I saw it today. I never talk about like my arm is double what his was.

I had an average arm. But it's just you watch him, but that ball's floating out. And then there's a Patriots player catching it. And there's no one on the screen. And it's like, how does that happen? You guys can't you guys got torched week one about overs and posts and the fact that we're still kind of seeing that in week four that that is a little worrisome like there's I'm not hitting the alarm belt but I took the glass off to hit it. The Packers are currently 28th and run defense success rate. Okay.

The teams below them second last year. They were 30 they were I think I believe they were 31st last year because the Packer or the Chargers exist. So if you look at the teams who are worse than them this season. The Lions are 32nd. We're going to get to this in a bit. The Lions are 31st in spending on defense this season. Yeah. The Lions are not a good defense.

The Lions did not plan to be a good defense. Nope. Based on how they built their team coming into this year. Multi-year rebuilt. The team in 31st and run defense success rate is the team that is 32nd in defensive spending, the Atlanta Falcons. Yep. 30th is a Cleveland Brown's team we just talked about that built, they skimped in one area

of their roster in terms of spending. It was interior defensive line. And they are not a good run defense. The Vikings are 29th and the Packers are 28th. So all of those teams below them for the most part built their teams to be bad against the run. The Packers did not do that with the way that they spent resources in the offseason and the way they've tried to put this thing together and how bad they were at it last year. So that is a concern to me right now.

And so I don't want to get away from this, but they don't have a super powered offense now. So the argument is like the Chiefs when they first got Spacks was, oh, we didn't. don't care about rush defense because we're going to be blowing teams out of the water. We're going to create turnovers in the passing, passing defense. If you want to run six yards of pop, we don't give a shit because we're just going to get the ball back and score a touchdown and hold you to a field goal. And we'll just boat race you every game, every game, every game, every game, every game. But this team is not creating turnovers like that.

It's not getting those big plays. And it's also you don't have an offense that's putting up a touchdown or averaging a field goal a drive like good offenses do. So that's just a hard way to win. if you want to get into 2017, 17, 13 slug fest, but you're giving up six, seven, eight yards of pop, that's a, that's a dicey math equation that they're trying to do. We were talking about it coming into the season. If the Packers could be successful, what the formula would have to look like.

Being a great defense and winning some of these games ugly was part of that formula. And that just hasn't really happened so far. If they're 12th in EPA per play on defense, they're fine, but they've also played some pretty bad teams on offense. They played against Bailey Zappy and they played against the Bears. And so when they're playing against much better offenses, we'll see what ends up happening because EPA is not adjusted for opponent. And it's definitely something to keep in mind.

If you look at Rush EPA on defense so far this season, they are 27. So it's not success rate in EPA, all those things right in the exact same range. And I think that's important to look at. They are second in dropback success rate so far. So again, they played some pretty bad passing offenses. but the run defense is what I am worried about, and I think it will continue to be a concern. All right.

Next one here. Dallas Cowboys defense, you have my attention. Jeez. You watch them play, and you can just feel it. They are, they smell blood up front. They really do. They just smell it instantly. And some of the different ways they're unleashing those guys,

just want some numbers from the first month of the season. Cowboys are second in the league in pressure rate, despite being a forgettable blitz team. They're not in the bottom five. They're not in the top five. They're somewhere. I believe probably in the top third of the league, but not notable.

Second in net yards per attempt so far this season. Okay. They are currently ninth in dropback EPA allowed. They have 15 sacks, which is second in the NFL. They have 35 quarterback hits, which is, which leads the NFL. So all of those numbers, they're fourth and deep in rushing. success rate. They weren't great against the run today, but all of these numbers, I did not expect

this. I did not expect them to be this sort of defense this season because of how much they relied on turnovers last year. And they have felt pretty scary on that side of the ball because of what they can do at front and because of the way those guys are unleashed and today didn't feel any different. They had, they caused two intentional grounding penalties today. It was on top of all the other chaos that they caused. It's every like guaranteed passing down when they pin their ears back is horrifying. It is it's chaos. And of course, Michael Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence are part of that.

But just what they do, they float them. They're running like a radar defense sometimes on third down where the guys are like all like five yards off the ball just kind of walking around. Like it's like we're about to get like a like it feels like west side story. Like, you know, about to start snapping as they come in like. Because that's what it looks like they're doing. And then they just tee off and they're running all these games. So when they're off the ball, they can do that. They can attack angles a little differently than when you're just lined up with your hand in the ground.

And it's just simple tweaks. Like, like, they're not doing anything crazy. They run like man and then they run cover two. Like that's what they do. They kind of go, we're not hitting you. Oh, we are hitting you. Oh, no, never mind. We're running cover two.

But you can see how it's a classic tie in. And you referenced this all the time of how pass rush ties into past defense. Because their DBs can pull. play one oh, Trayvon Dix can play so aggressive because he knows he only has to guard for two seconds. So he can just do what he wants. Like he can, they can kind of freelance a little bit on the back end. And when you're playing Carson Wentz, that's a guy that you're not really too scared about torching you. Yeah, you can do that those type of things. But just the QB's clock has to be so fast because, okay, all right, well, if I get to my second read, I'm like, you can see

Carson Wentz, who loves the pump fake was terrified to pump fake this week because he was like, oh, no, I do that. I'm going to get hit. I'm going to get hit. I'm going to hit, I'm going to hit because he knew one Mississippi, two Mississippi, here comes number 11. You know, here he comes. And also just the Cowboys defense, Dan Quinn's doing a great job of even when they don't blitz and just moving guys around, they just change up the look. They're running games, but Parsons is lined over the center. He's lined over the guard.

He's outside like a traditional edge. That makes it hard. I referenced this with the Ravens, not chip helping on Von Miller early on. Okay, what if your guy lines up in the same spot every time, it's pretty easy to design. a pass protection plan against that. Totally. But if you just move one guy around, that's really, really hard, even if you're not doing anything too crazy other than games.

So they're just doing, I mean, they have awesome players. Anthony Barr is playing really well for them. And he's like helping out with their past coverage stuff because even when they feigned the past protection looks, he's running down the pipe on cover two, you know, Tampa two. A little different than Vander Esch doing that or Jalen Smith with his knee doing that. So that helps them like stay aggressive while also just just playing fast. They have a lot of players playing fast on top of their talent.

I'm sure people will look at this box screen and be like, oh, you're talking about the Cowboys pass rush. They had one sack today. They had 11 quarterback hits. Oh, my God. Two intentional grounding penalties and two holdings that they drew. So you can essentially add four sacks to that total. In the way the game is played, you can add four sacks to the sacked holder that they had today. And you can feel that.

You talked by Anthony Barr, Dante Foller looks really good. Yeah. What the hell? They, because there are certain situations where he's working against the right guard, the right guard who was replaced for Washington today. They just bench straight turn at a certain point in this game. We'll get to Washington here in a second. I really love watching them. I just did not expect that. And now you have this scenario where the Cowboys three and one, Dak could be back sooner or rather than later.

Michael Gallup is back. Their left tackle looks a lot better than I expected him to look. They're running the ball pretty well. Cooper Rush has kept them afloat over these couple weeks, and now they have this defense that can wreck shit when given the opportunity. And in a league where there is no one good in the NFC, they suddenly become kind of interesting. Really interesting.

Unbelievable. Like, as soon as DAC went out, I was like, oh, God, I was like a victory lap. I was like, yes, I was correct. Not making the playoffs. That was my one bet, you know, that was it. No, and that's the thing is what you need, expect you need performances from players you don't expect. They didn't expect Tower Smith to be able to kick out the left tackle.

That's why they have my left guard. I mean, obviously Tyron got hurt, but it, you know, but they bump him out. He looks like a good starter as a rookie already, which even for me, I was an optimist on Tower Smith. I was like, he's, he's going to be a little bit of a project, you know, got fixed his hands a little bit, but he looks good. But that's what helps. You get, you know, performances from a Jake Ferguson looks good, another badger.

Like, you know, just like they're getting these, I don't want to talk about the badgers at all. That just made me sad actually just saying. I'm sorry, buddy. I know it's okay. Well, that's for a story for another day. But it's, but watch. That's what happens. This is when you outperform expectations, when you just get performances from where you're

not expecting it. When you have rookies step up when they need to and you have other players like stars playing like stars. And that's how you end up being three and one when everyone kind of wrote you for dead. Yeah. And also Trayvon Diggs, I want to mention the picky at today is. It's beautiful. There are very few players in the league at that position who can make that play.

and make it look that good. He's so big. He's so fast. His ball skills are so good. There are absolutely criticisms of his game to be at, especially from last year. I think he's probably playing better this year than he was last year, even if the interception numbers aren't off the charts. Even the PPU yet today, just the Inbreaker plays it beautifully, just looks super smooth.

So when he can do stuff like that and you have those guys playing the way that they are in the front, this team becomes scary. And I just did not anticipate their defense being this good. But you talk about guys outplaying expectations. When you build an infrastructure on one side of the ball where the coaching is really good, you consistently get this. You just rotate your version of Dante follower in every single season. That's how good units stay good. And I did not know or did not think that the Cowboys defense were one of those units where it's like, all right, we have built this little ecosystem where we're going to bring these guys in.

We're going to see the best versions of them. And when it's time to move on, we can move on. That's not what I thought they were because we had seen it for one year. I thought it might be a flash in the pan. So far it has not been. And I am willing to hold the L on that definitively. It's fun. And that's what helps when you have stars, man, because then the guys that you rotate through don't have to be your number one or even number two guy.

Like that, hey, you're our number three. Just coming to be a super role player. And that helps out with a lot of players when they are like, oh, I can play 20 snaps and tee off on this guy. That guys get put in better spots when you have really good players too. I feel very good about the Dallas defense. I feel not as good about the Washington offense right now. So, Carson Wentz comes in and it's a, it is a, hey, we traded two third round picks for this guy because he's just an NFL quarterback. We just need somebody who can make all the throws.

We need somebody who can place the ball better than the guys we have over the last couple years. We have enough talent. We'll be fine. We'll figure it out. I understand that thought process. Through four weeks, here are the quarterbacks in the NFL who have a worse, EPA per dropback then Carson Wentz 1. Justin Fields

2 Joe Flacco 3 Davis Mills 4 Jimmy Garapolo 5 Baker Mayfield 6th Mitchell Trubisky That's murder's row right there That's We just needed Nick Foles

thrown in there or something That would have really completed it And it just leads me to a place What is this now? Yeah if now that you've made this move for a quarterback and you're in year four for Rivera. Yeah, right. 1920, 2021 or it was 20 the first year?

No, I can't remember. Year 3, year 4. It doesn't truly matter. It doesn't really matter. You would anticipate some progress and you're benching the right guard mid game that you sign this off season and you're running out of runway here. At a certain point, this thing has got to get some lift off. And we haven't seen that.

I have no idea what this team is supposed to be what it is. And that is my concern. And by now you get so, you get deep enough into this tenure where I would like to see what the plan is. And I was excited about what their offense looked like in week one against Jacksonville. It has not looked very good over the last three weeks because they got a quarterback who I don't think is very good. Yeah. I mean, he's, he's bad, man.

Last week against the Eagles was like atrocious performance. It was like just there's no timing. His internal clock, man, is like a sundial. Like it's just like, it's just, oh my God, get rid of the ball. And it's not the hardest looks. And it's one of those where sometimes that quarterback is, yes, you want to find the perfect answer. And this is when we do talk about Justin Fields, I'm sure in the future, this is what I want to talk about with him is.

Sometimes some quarterbacks just want to, they're like, I know what the perfect answer is. Let me get to it. Just give me a sec. Just give me a sec. I will get to it. Guess what? You have two and a half seconds to find it. That's how being an NFL quarterback.

quarterback is this one Mississippi, two Mississippi, get rid of the freaking ball, get rid of the freaking ball. And for him, he just acts like he has all day in the times that he does have, you know, where he does make a decision decisively, the ball sprays. So he's not throwing the ball accurately. It's like you said, what's your line, big quarterback throw far? Like even when he throws those, the ball's going all over the place or he's triple clutching. Like he threw a flat route today. He got fooled on the post-snap look, which isn't weird for him. But he tried to rally and then he tried to rally again. And the ball gets, he sails the ball over the guy's head like five yards.

I'm like, what are you doing, man? And it wasn't on purpose, I could tell. It wasn't like, oh, I'm throwing this ball away. He was trying to complete it. And there's too much of that for a guy that has so many starts and so many big games. He just has no feel for the game, no feel for the pocket. And so it's, okay, you trade it for this guy, almost like it's a cherry on top move. Okay.

And then what's your offensive line? Like we said, we think the offense is creative, but it's hard to get to the the ball to your talented playmakers if you can't protect and you can't have a quarterback, then get them the ball. And then on defense, the defense align is a lot of fun, but the DBs are up and down every week. I have no idea what to make of the linebackers. They've actually played well last week, but then I don't know with this defense. So I don't know.

It's a team that's just listless in a weird way. And really, which should have been, like it felt like they were trying to make a final stroke. And as opposed, you know, we're going to compete. And really, it just feels like even worse than it did last year. All right. No segment or anything with this, but I did want to talk about Kenny Pickett today. He comes in midway through the game against the Jets.

It feels like a pretty important moment for the Steelers franchise, something we should absolutely touch on. He throws three interceptions, but I actually think he looked pretty good. The ball never hit the ground. It made me excited to watch Kenny Pickett play moving forward. What he is about to face over the next month or so is going to be absolutely brutal with the slate of defenses that he has to play against. But watching him, and we can get to that and why this decision is kind of curious.

But watching him today, I was like, I can get into this. I am much more interested in the Steelers offense now with Kenny Pickett than I was with Mitchell Trubisky. And that's not just because he was a first round pick. The 13 throws he had today made me more interested in the Steelers offense than it was under Mitchell Trubisky. I know. 13 throws, now a single one hit the ground because the three completion is wrong. Interceptive. Two of them were tipped balls.

I mean, the one to Claypool is like, whatever. The first, well, and that's why I want to get into. And this was when we had our Thursday show a couple weeks ago was the, like we're, oh, okay, we're going to talk about the schedule in a sec was, oh, why not drop him in there? Okay, then we got to the schedule. But also it's, is the play calling and play design going to improve at all? And I can say even after this little segment of half game with him is no, because there are still some go balls.

and there's still that pick to Claypool. I don't like, yes, he threw it a little bit short and it was a little bit late, but it's not all on him. There was nothing on that design of the play that held down that safety. So that's not on him. He's thrown the alert. And yes, you want him to find a better play or better throw on that. Okay, check it down.

I know you're geeked up and your first action, but there was nothing. I watched the dots on the play. There was nothing for him to check it down to. So I, you know what? That's on the design. He had a freaking awesome play to Fryer, Mooth in the fourth quarter. It was beautiful.

Awesome. Let that thing rip. That was the exact throw that I had mine when I was like, I'm excited to watch more Kenny Pickett. Quinn and Williams rocking him and he gets up laughing. And I was like, okay. All right, all right, dude.

Like that. He had a couple, he had a scramble on a third down where he pulled away from the defenders. And I was like, okay, I gave him kind of like a good, goodish athlete above average good. He looked like that today. And he was doing it decisively. If you're going to make a mistake, do it fast at quarterback, especially when

you're young. And he was doing it. So you know what? Like go out there and have some fun, man. Like it's like he's trying to make some plays. And it was very, Trubisky looked like he was just scared every snap. And so it's like, okay, go go do something out there.

And he did it. He had a couple plays where I was like, okay, I'm going to give you a chance. It's not like I watched it. I was like, oh, God, never play him out. Never put him out there again. That is a great articulation of why I am more interested in them than I was with Chibisky because it just felt so panicky and withdrawn when Chubisky was playing. And I think it's going to feel a lot more free and ambitious when Kenny.

Pickett is in there. We'll see what the results end up being, but I think the way we're getting to them is much more enjoyable. We will save some Zach Wilson talk for the Monday hangover tomorrow with me and Deiate. We'll talk about Jet Steelers. Saw a good chunk of that game, but we want to watch more before I say anything definitive about how Zach Wilson played in the second half. Not sure what other games will get to. We'll do the London game tomorrow. Maybe Browns, Falcons, a couple more on the schedule. We're not talking about the Colts on this show for a while. They're in the no-go zone. So maybe we'll talk about Colts Titans tomorrow with Deontes.

So I want his perspective on the Colts because at least we haven't had to hear that from him. Yeah. We talk about teams that are running the ball. We should be throwing the Colts into there. Like, and we're not. We can't, like, which is unbelievable. It's like this team should be pound on the rock on teams. But yeah.

No, no, yeah. No fly zone right now. All right. We're going to take one more quick break before we get to what disappointed us a little bit this week. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. All right. We're going to start with any attempt at NFL defense in lion Seahawks.

I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed that it didn't exist. Oh, my God. That was like gash fest. Tackling was optional. Tackling was on and pass rush was optional by both teams. It was, yeah, that was, if you liked offense, yeah. And we had a fake punt in there as well.

It was, yeah, there was a lot going on in that game. that one T.J. Hawkinson chunk played down the sideline where he just no one seemed interested in tackling him. Half the Seahawks gave up as it was going on. The both of the Rashad Penny runs, there was a third and 16. Yeah. Rashad Penny touchdown that somehow happened. The other run that he scored a touchdown, or it was the other huge chunk run that he had in huge moment. Also on third down. Third and five. Third down runs. Yep. First and ten, they nailed him with a trap. Third and 16. Yep. It gets a heavy pressure. like third and five heavy pressure look. And it was trap and then a counter and it was a GT counter where they

pulled the guard and tackle. And you can tell the lines were like, what are you guys doing? Like, no, no, you're supposed to be passing it. We have this like, we're geeked up to run this like pressure on you guys. And there goes Rashad Penny. Just a reminder, by the way, there was shot Penny. He's like one of the best athletes in the NFL. Like, it's just when you watch him run, it's like, oh, wow, this guy can move, especially when he's in open space, which we got to see him do quite a few times today. Plenty of space to be had in this game. Yeah, yeah, it was, so the Seahawks TD to Noah Fant too was, you can tell they watched the Vikings game from last week because they caught him in a miscommunication. Like it was a man coverage.

Like the Lions just insist on running a man coverage down there. So they caught him like miscommunicating again, just like Adam Theon and caught a touchdown last week. It was a different type of play. But same concept of let's get the Lions DBs to miscommunicate down here in the Red Zone. So it worked again. one shout out too and notice that the pass rush was optional today was Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas the rookie tackles for the for the Seahawks played very well today so they do want to give them props but it was a lot of busted coverages uh hawkinson's first

touchdown on the post it this is I'm an offensive guy so I'm just like this was awesome this was so cool like the play to Hawkinson was beautiful beautiful it was a really really cool design with a jet sweep and they run post wheel they it was perfect because Jordan Brooks he wasn't sure, is that my guy first to the flat? Oh, the corner's going to pick him up, but he doesn't know that the corner is going to carry the post. So it's like a, yeah, the Lions Red Zone designs have been really good this year. Actually, they're just their design on offense. Defense not so much.

They've given up the most points in NFL history through the first four weeks, which is. Let's do it. Lions games are fun. They're fun. They're fun. I said with Dan Campbell, he reminds me a lot of my dad's old Vikings teams. Now they really remind me of my dad's old Vikings teams, a lot of shootouts. If you go back and watch that T.J. Hockinson touchdown the first one,

where we're talking about him. They're running that post wheel. They run a jet sweep with number 85, whose name I do not know. And I apologize for that. All the lions receivers were hurt in this game. Got some C-Fas in there. Jet sweep into the flat.

Hawkinson starts that play as the number three receiver on that side because of the jet sweep. So in theory, he is Jordan Brooks's guy. But then he bends it outside to Jordan Brooks lets him go. What Jordan Brooks does not know is the corner is nowhere to be. found because he has followed the guy who was running the first vertical route on that play. In that area of the field, it's absolutely beautiful. And they do that stuff all the time. The Lions' offense is very well constructed.

We already were excited about the Lions' offense, though. We'd seen them do some really good things. They're currently eighth in EPA per play on offense. I think they're going to be an exciting high-scoring offense for a good chunk of this season because it's well-designed. They have good pass-catchers when the pass-catchers are playing. Jared Gough is actually playing pretty well. it's been enjoyable to watch him in this offense, all things considered, and their line is really good.

We have not had a real conversation about the Seahawks offense. We have not. The Seattle Seahawks offense currently ranks fourth in EPA per play in the entire NFL, the Seattle Seahawks, led by Gino Smith. Looking purely at passing numbers, here are the quarterbacks who have had a better EPA per dropback than Gino Smith this season. Patrick Mahomes. Sure. Tuatanga Vila and Josh Allen.

That's it. That's the list. He's fourth? It is time for Gino Discourse, much to the joy of Stephen Ruiz and Greg Rosenthal. Right. The Gino bandwagon. He looks great. I mean, you can see what this offense is supposed to do because he goes to the right

place every single time. And he can run around a little bit. He looked amazing today. My EPA number for it was this was the third highest in a game than he went this season. The other one was Lamar against the Dolphins, Mahomes against the Cardinals, which were just shred fest. So it's like he was, he's playing really good football, not only just the Broncos game where everybody in Seattle treated it like a Super Bowl. But every week after that, like he's had some really good performances against these different defenses. And there are so many, there's a punch of examples in this game.

there was a high low with Metcalf and Lockett where Lockett pins it down. McCaff is coming on the second inbrinker. He just absolutely rips it. There was another in-breaker on playoff. He throws out some big balls. He's so good throwing dicks. And he throws him with conviction. Yes.

And what's really cool to watch is that he's totally comfortable throwing those in a phone booth. There was a play action one that he hits Metcalf. And there is two or three guys in his face. He's really comfortable navigating condensed space within the pocket. And you see that. bodies around him. He is totally fine, letting some of those rip. It has been enjoyable to watch him play quarterback,

and they've got some players. You're McHaff and Lockett, and you talk about the young tackles. The offense has been, I thought it'd be watchable. I didn't think it would be one of the worst offenses in the league. I didn't think they'd be one of the worst teams in the league. This version of the Seahawks is very weird,

that they have a top five offense and maybe the worst defense in the league or one of the two worst defenses in the league. But it is so much better than I thought. it was going to be. And then you combine that with the pop the penny gives them like you talked about. I mean, their defense, their offense has been so, so good compared to expectations for the first month of the season. They got a lot of juice. I mean, MECAP wins on the, like, the go ball right away.

And Gino doesn't lob it. He beats the safety. He lines drives it. It was like a very confident throw. And it wasn't like a, oh, I'm just sometimes as a quarterback, okay, we know these are going to be 50, 50 balls. All right. I'm going to throw basically an alleyub. Like, let him go get a rebound. And he's like, now. I'm lying this bad boy in there because I know my guy's going to get it. And just stuff like that.

And those dig routes, I wanted to bring him up too because that matters how defenses are playing now. You have to, you have to be able to throw those now. And Gino is like one of the best ones at it in the league. Like he is, even when this small sample size last year and what I've seen, uh, giants has a couple starts there. He was, he's willing to hang in the pocket. Like you said, operate in the phone booth and go through the progressions and just rip it. And he can throw without stepping into it. That's where arm strength comes in, comes into play. That he can throw those without having to, having to step into it. So,

and also just the play calling, I want those penny runs. That's conviction to say, hey, you're going to run a cover zero luck and we're going to run a trap run play. You love that shit. That's one of your favorite things in football. Dude, because it's such a leaning into the punch. It's such a like, it's such a like, I know what you guys are trying to do and we're going to go, I know what you know, so I'm going to do this. And I love when teams do it because you have to have confidence in your play design. Because you have to go like, hey, we're going to, we know what you guys are about to bring. And we're not going to try and have our quarterback be perfect and do a pass protection and have a guy win a 50, 50 ball.

It's like, no, we actually have a better design than you because we know we're catching you doing this. And I so I love when teams do it. And they did it twice today. Like that's on a 13. 16. Like on a, it wasn't just a zone. Usually you run zone against those and you're running trap. Sorry, this is cool stuff. Like, this is fun.

I know the Lions defense, again, they have given up the most points in four weeks, but it's fun to watch offenses operating with confidence like this. And Seahawks offense has some confidence and they have some fun players. Like we mentioned, the Lions defense, part of me wants to have a conversation about, all right, we're getting excited about the Lions. Their defense is so bad at what point do we need it to be better? They are 31st in defensive spending. Like this is, I think it's important to remember the state,

the Lions still are in when it comes to their team building process. It is still early enough where you look at one side of the ball being completely devoid of talent, especially on the back end and completely devoid of spent resources. Jeff Akuta was written off. This is a previous regime who was written off coming into the season. Other than that, they have not spent in the secondary for the most part. I know Walker got a mild extension, but for the most part, they have not spent in that area of their team. So I think that's important to remember.

The projected wins was like six games this year. Yes, exactly. We knew this. I know we, I know what the hard knocks hype and we all love Dan Campbell. He's so much fun and all that. We, this is not like an overall like team that's like, oh, on the cusp. It's like, no, they're, it's, it's a process. And it's there's some exciting things that they're doing.

But yes, it's still a process for them. If we get to the end of the season and the Lions are six and 11, but Jeff Akuta is a real player. Yeah. And they give up 38 points a game and they have a top three pick. I know it's going to be sad for Lions fans. There are worse outcomes to this season. If DJ Chark, or excuse me, if I'm on Ross St. Brow is a superstar and you see James and Williams come on, you have a top three offensive line in the league with most of it coming back. When Swift is healthy, he's a dynamic player.

You have two first round picks to see what you can do at quarterback if that's what you want to do. You're going to have a ton of cap space next year. I know the win total is disappointing for people in Detroit right now, probably. When you're scoring all these points and all this stuff is happening on offense, it shouldn't be. I do want to talk about an important takeaway from this game, though. Congratulations to Gino Smith. Or excuse me, congratulations. Botch my fucking joke.

Congrats to Gino too. Congrats to Gino too. Congrats to D.K. Maccalf for really taking a step up in the NFL hierarchy today. I know he got the contract extension this off season, but when you can get the poop cart midgame that takes you to the bathroom, that is rarefied air. How many guys in the NFL could take a cart to the bathroom because they had to go? Not that many, I don't think. And you got the Paul Pierce treatment. Like that's what it was.

Paul Pierce in the playoffs on the wheelchair. And he admitted it too. He's like, the pinch move wasn't working. I think he said. So congratulations to him. This is an important moment. When you're an athlete, those are the type of things you work for. It's like, man, I just ask for this and they're going to take me back.

It's great. It's VIP treatment, wherever you can get it. All right. Last one here. Do we have? The Carolina Panthers. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed.

Deontes said this today. I made a little quip just to disagree because I wanted to make a joke at the bear's expense. He said that Panthers Cardinals was just the most depressing NFL game you could watch this season. It absolutely is. For so many different reasons, okay?

These are teams that were trying to win this year. They were actively trying to win. The uniform combination is terrible. What these head coaches have done over the last few weeks, and I think even over longer ago than that, where these head coaches are some of the decisions that they're making. This is a truly disheartening matchup,

and the Panthers lost it in spectacular fashion. It's so ugly. That's the thing is I'm glad he roped in the Cardinals in this too, because it's like they're not doing any favors on it, where it's like, oh, yeah, at least it was a blowout and like the Cardinals did some cool stuff. They were botching snaps too, like Kyle was yelling at Cliff. They threw a pick six on the first drive.

They snapped 20 feet over the quarterback's head on fourth and inches and their quarterback and coach are screaming at each other on the sideline. And by a wide margin, they were the more competent football team. I know. That's, that's speaking to it. They're like, this, this is the only stat like I can really say is like, this sums up like the Panthers. Panthers are have converted 25% of the third down so far at offense this year. It is moving the ball is just atrocious with them. It is so. And then anytime they do like protect it well or do the right thing, you still have Baker back there. pocket. Baker with, you know, bad feet still and trying to do too much and ripping throws in late and it hits off a guy's back shoulder and a ball pops up. They fumble handoffs every game. Baker's getting balls tipped. Like there's something about a tip ball that's really like defeating because it's like, oh, we didn't even get off the ground. You know, it's almost like worse than the sack a little bit because it's just like boom boom. It's like, okay, because you get like a hope for a quarter second that the ball got off and then it's just dead right away. But it's, and like they're deep. The panes

there's defense isn't that bad like the past it's fine and it has some fun players fun players and they blitz their asses off on third down it's a lot of fun watching them against the saints last week ton of fun brian burns jeremy chen checked on like they have some decent players but it's just this offense is it just feels rough like in situationally like you've seen in past weeks teddy bridgewater had the quote after his year there where he said they didn't practice like red zone and they didn't practice like two minute it still feels that way when i watch this team like it feels just like when they get into situations, they just look inept. And it just feels that way with the whole team.

It just feels like, oh, my God, this is just, it's not even fun to watch you guys. And it's week four. Like, usually you get this feeling with bad teams by Halloweenish. You know, once holiday season rolls around, then players start going, oh, shoot, we're going to get some days off because we got, you know, Thanksgiving coming up and everything. So then, you know, their minds, but we're in week four. It shouldn't look like this. But it does.

It does. It's, I kind of was mad. I had to rewatch that game because I had to rewit. And I was like, just look at my notes. I was just, yeah, I could tell I was pissed when I was taking these notes because it's just, it's just so, it's not fun to watch. It's not fun football. Tom Pelliserro had a note today that is almost, it's unbelievable. The Panthers are now one and 26 under Matt Rule when the opponent scores at least 17 points.

17, 17, not 30. to cycle through multiple offensive coordinators and multiple, so it's what they've had, two and a half offensive coordinators in the last three years because they fired Brady Midway through the season, and then they bring in McAdoo this year. They've had three different starting quarterbacks. They're dead last in passing efficiency this year, and they were dead last in passing efficiency last year. That's difficult to do.

Just by random chance, you'd assume that you might bump up to 31st with all these new pieces, and they have a bunch of new offensive linemen. Yep. And like decent weapon. Like DJ Moore is a good player. And like, you know, quote unquote, CMC is banged up. But like it's, it's not like where you look at this team. You're like, oh, who's that? Like who's that? It's like, no, they should be able to finagle something together. And it's just rough. It's just so rough to watch. Like it really is. Like it just even when they do something right, like two plays like, oh, this is inevitable. Here it comes. The bottom's about to fall out. And that's how the whole team feels. Like just even when they traded up for Matt Corral, you know, like giving up third round pick. next year and everything. It's like, what are you doing? You already gave up stuff. You know, just like every process with them just feels wrong. It's, it's, it's, it's bad. So I'm curious. I, because it's not like they haven't spent at receiver. That's one of the things that's most mind-boggling about this is that they've spent real resources at that position. So I'm pretty sure. So you combine the drafting Terrace Marshall in the second round with the contracts that

they've handed out at that spot. Right now they're 11th and spending at the position this year. The contracts they have on the books, they will be third next season. No way. With the contracts they've handed out to Robbie Anderson and DJ Moore. I was trying to get there. DJ Moore is a $6 million cap hit this year. It goes to $20 something million next year. So as things currently stand right now, the Carolina Panthers would be third in spending at receiver next season. They'd be spending more a receiver than the dolphins. If no way. Yes. It'll be. It'll be. It'll be. next year and they will not keep those contracts on the books. But it's not like Robby Anderson, Robbie Anderson's got some dead money left on that deal. And a lot of those guys have dead

money left on those deals. So it's not like they can just move on for nothing next season when it's time for them to do that. No one man, no one made them hand that contract to Robbie Anderson. He has $9.8 million in dead money left on his deal next year if he gets cut. But I mean, even like the team's just like full of like Temple and Baylor players because of a rule and stuff like that. But they're putting like, like even how they're using these guys. Like Diji Moore is a good player. But it's like, Terrace Marshall, okay, he's an ex. Like, that's what he was coming out of college, coming out of LSU. He is an ex player. You don't want him fit in up blocking and doing the dirty work stuff. You want them look pretty on the outside. They'll like line them up in the slot. And it's like, you got two other

dudes that can do that. Why? What are you doing? Just use your guys how they should be used. And it's, that's, yeah, it's just the whole franchise. It's just, even the players that are good, they're not can use properly. Like even the guy, okay, their first round pick this year, Ikea Kuanu,

who we knew a left tackle is going to be a bit of a project just because he's more of an athlete, he's figuring it out. They like, don't help him. And it's like, oh,

no, like give him some chip help. I know he's going to figure it out, but just wouldn't build some confidence. Like he, when he went against Miles Garrett, it was like, oh God. Oh, God.

Like this, oh, no, I don't want him to lose his confidence so early on. But that's what kind of bad organizations do. Like they, the guys that are good, they don't put in the right spots or they wreck their confidence because they use them the wrong ways.

And that's what they feel like they do every single week. I want to see when a team tries to do this. Maybe it's after a rule gets fired, which it seems inevitable at this point. You hate calling for people's jobs and I rarely like to do it. But it just feels like we're trending in that direction. It has to happen based on the way the results have been. So maybe a team waits until after that happens. And Scott Fitterer is now in a place where he didn't draft this guy and they're not trying to win right now.

make a call about Brian Burns. This is the time. It's time to get into Brian Burns Derby. He's got one year left on his deal after this. If you're a contender and you have this Carolina team with nothing to play for in week six, pick up the phone. I want to see Brian Burns in a good situation because he deserves it. All right.

We're going to get to We See You, talk about a couple guys whose performances we really noticed today. And then we're going to get out of here. Very quickly, I just wanted to talk about some of the reps that Patrick's are Tan had today. Love it. That guy is going to do. It'd be so fun to watch for a really long time. I mean, just unbelievable man coverage. And we knew this coming in.

You know, and his pre-draft evaluation, I think, was pretty easy for a lot of people. And those are famous last words when it comes to a lot of players. Except for the panthers. She took J.C. Horn over him. And J.C. Orr might be fine. Don't give you wrong. J.C. Hort might be fine. But you look, Patrick Sertan was a technically proficient college player from a place where those guys were extremely well coached.

And he is six foot two, 200 pounds. and is an out of this world literally off the charts athlete. So all of those factors combined typically lends to decent prospects. He has lived up to exactly that. He is remarkable. He was a monster today. It's so cool to watch him play because he is so, it's the select aggressiveness.

Like he had a, it was one in the red zone. And the ball gets thrown a tad bit behind. And he bad the ball down like a volleyball player, just like with authority. It was just like, Don't even like, it was just kind of like, just kind of like, don't even try that. Like it's just when you see corners playing with that when they don't do it and then they look at

the refs going like, do I get a flag there? Like he knows he didn't because he played perfectly. Like, well, yeah, second year quarter. Are you kidding me? He shocked Devonthe Adams off the line of scrimmage once. Like two hand chest like just absolutely stunned him off the line of scrimmage once. Rishan Gary, another one that you wanted to mention had two more sacks today. He has been playing very well.

Yep. Just has continued. I mean, he was one of the most efficient pass rushers in the league last year on a per snap basis when it came to pressure. And I thought he was, I mentioned him as a potential bet to lead the league in sacks this season. I thought that he was a fun long shot. I think he was like 30 to 1 or something like that, maybe 20 to 1. He was my long shot bet to lead the league in sacks. I think he absolutely has a chance to do that.

He's been playing very well. And Hassan Reddick, huge game today. Huge. Absolutely huge game today. And this is the type of guy where they went out and signed him for a reason. They wanted one more, just difference maker. on the edge in some of those moments and that's exactly what they got today. That's the type of guy.

This is the type of game in Reddick, a guy like Reddit, you want to step up is that, hey, you got a bunch of one-on-one blocks. Even if he wins one of them on a third down, that, you know, that's earning your money. That's why you pay those types of guys. But he is not only pushing the pocket as a quote unquote undersized guy, but pushing the pocket and making a play on the quarterback and swipe into the ball. So those are literally game-changing plays. And he did it a couple times today.

So, yeah, shout out to him. I'm like he has produced the last couple of years and just keeps producing. All right. That's all we got, guys. Really appreciate you coming and hanging out with us late tonight. Please, if you would, if you're watching this, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you're listening to this, subscribe to our YouTube channel. The link to the YouTube channel is in the description.

Just heads up, we didn't do it last week. Circumstances kind of changed during the Bengals Dolphins game. But when we're doing our Thursday night recaps, Monday night recaps, those are going to be available only on YouTube from here on out. So if you want to hear us recap the very exciting game between the Broncos and the Colts on Thursday, which is a marquee matchup, you're going to have to come here and watch it. So subscribe to the YouTube channel if you have not. Also, please subscribe to The Athletic. Theathletic.com slash football show.

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We talk about some of the games that we could not get to tonight. We'll be doing that same thing again tomorrow. So please come back and join us. That's all we got for now. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.