The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 1 Hangover: Impressive 2026 debuts for the Ravens, Jets and Raiders

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

We all know Sundays are jam-packed. They're so busy, in fact, that we can't possibly cover every game from the day in our Sunday night recap show. And that's why The Hangover is back once again in 2026. Every Tuesday, we'll dive deep into a handful of games we didn't get to on Sunday, and this year, we'll plan to save at least one meaty game per week for the Hangover. In the Week 1 edition, that game is the Baltimore Ravens' 41-23 win over the Indianapolis Colts. After that, Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen dig into the New York Jets' win over the Tennessee Titans, and the Las Vegas Raiders' handling of the Miami Dolphins on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.Join The Athletic Football Show Discord Server: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshowHost: Robert MaysCo-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave HelmanExecutive Producer: Michael BellerSenior Producer: Katy DuffySocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.socialFollow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.socialFollow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.socialFollow Robert on X: @RobertMaysFollow Dave on X: @DaveHelman_Theme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Athletic Football Show, brought to you by the U.S. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card. I'm Robert Mays. It's the week one Monday hangover. I assume most of you are used to our cadence during the season, but if you're not, each Monday into Tuesday, me and Derek are going to pick three games that we did not talk about on the Sunday night recap, and we're going to really dig into them on this show. We've done this for years. It's one of my favorite shows that we do. It's a chance to sit with some games that you either couldn't pay enough attention to, over the course of Sunday or you want to spend a little bit more time with. For example, we picked Ravens Colts because we knew in real time we weren't going to be able to go back and watch that in the way that we wanted and discuss the way that we wanted. So we got to watch every single play of the All-22 this morning. We also dug into Titans Jets and Raiders Dolphins, which are games that are a little bit more fitting for the hangover

and maybe a little bit more of the flavor that you guys are going to be getting on this show over the course of the season. That's what we got today. Let's get to it with me and Derek right now. It is time for the week one Monday hangover aptly named today. I'm feeling. Yeah, yeah. I'm feeling it.

The body's just never ready for week one. It's such a deluge of stuff. And I wanted to, we did the show and we selected the games that we did today in part because we wanted to spend a little bit more time chewing on a game that we just weren't going to have time to yesterday. And that's the Ravens and Colts game. The Titans and Jets and Dolphins Raiders are definitely fit for how we typically approach the hangover.

I do like the mix that we're walking into this with today. Well, that's the thing. Last year was all Raiders and Dolphins games, and Saints were like that caliber of bad. Cardinals were that caliber at. The Vikings also got a lot of run. Like, it was the fact that we're starting off with a team that, I mean, the Ravens had like the highest over-under wind total going into the season.

So the fact that we get to start a game with them, I'm excited for it. So let's dig into this. Where do you want to start the Ravens Colts breakdown? I assume you want to talk about the Ravens offense first? I would like to talk about the Ravens' offense. I feel like if you were optimistic, optimistic at all about what the Declan Doyle, Lamar Jackson, Derek Henry experience was supposed to look like. You kind of got all of it. I mean, the very first play is they like boot to the

left hand side and get Zayflowers wide ass open on this deep corner route. And it was just like, okay, immediate proof of concept. And then that drive ends. They get all the way down to the red zone. And Lamar Jackson gets into the end zone with like this pistol arc read. It looks very like Nevada, Colin Kaepernick. I was going to say, it looks like Greg Roman Colin Kaepernick Niners. That's exactly what looked like. And so the fact that like you kind of got the blend of both worlds immediately, I just thought was was incredibly impressive. So there were a number of things that they did in this game. I thought the run game looked again, if you were super excited about they are really going to commit to Dwayne Ledford outside zone, Declam Doyle outside zone. You have the perfect running back

for it in Derek Henry. I thought they looked good. Like I thought Yawane, the rookie looked really good on a lot of their zone runs. I thought Javon Gwyn was like totally fine for a guy that they were like throwing in there, like who had not started football games before. He looked solid. He looked like a backup center in a good situation. Yes, which is all he has to be. That's exactly how I would describe it. He looked like a backup center in a good situation.

There were probably three or four plays over the course of the game where he's losing quick. There was one, I think, to DeForest Buckner. Yeah. Where it was, uh, with DeForest Buckner was a spinner on like the first or second drive. He loses there. There were a handful of other plays where again, this looks like a guy who's a back end of the roster guy who's thrust into action deep into training camp and is currently

the starter. If that's it and everything else looks good. I think you can get on board with what this is supposed to be over the course of the season. And like, same thing with Yawanna. Like he had a couple of penalties in this game. He had a holding call on a run play, which that one I was like kind of shaky on. And then Buckner beat him pretty bad on on or no, it was Adibawari beat him pretty bad with an inside move. And he just like lost his outside hand immediately starts grabbing.

And so sure, you get a couple of those plays. But for 45 other plays in this game, he was solid to good. I thought the offensive line and blocking scheme overall just looked really good. They were doing some interesting stuff with Matthew Hibner specifically. with a lot of their zone run stuff and having him be this like kind of insert player on the backside a lot of their runs

because they were running like zone they would motion him like say they're running to the right and they would motion him left to right and then the play would wash down and he ends up as like a lead player where the cutback is going. I was like that's pretty sweet. It happened on the Derek Henry touchdown.

And that was the cleanest example of it and they're in 13 personnel on that play I believe. And so and then Hibner is on the left side. He motions very quickly to the right side and exactly what you're saying. The way that this can work out when it's clean is that he's able to kind of lead up on the backside safety, which for almost any other player, when you're a line like that, it would be really difficult for anybody else to get there.

And so having that sort of plan when you're putting in a design cutback, that to me is such a good expression of why this is worth getting excited about. Because we know the world that Dwayne Ledford comes from. The Falcons over the last couple years have been the truest died in the world, outside zone team in the NFL, essentially since he got there because that's the world that he comes from. That's okay. It's okay if that's going to be what you major in. How can you add some wrinkles to that central identity to have it be something where you're comfortable with the mechanics and the rhythm of playing that way? You have to be fully committed to it. Like if you're going to be an

outside zone team, I think they were, I looked at some of the data on I think there were 55% outside zone yesterday, which was about 20% higher than they were last year in Baltimore. And so they are clearly going to be leaning into this. But if you're going to do that, what are your changeups and what are you kind of building onto that core philosophy to make things a little bit harder on teams that you're playing against? That's a perfect example where that's, offensive line is blocking outside zone.

You're not asking them to do anything different, but you're giving yourself one extra layer to pop a couple explosives to get a free hitter out of the box. I loved it. And they went back to it several different times over the course of the game. And because that's the thing. With outside zone, you don't get the experience. explosives on the bang read.

You get it on them bending to the cutback or them bouncing. And so if we can now get a lead player on the cupback with Derek Henry, who I posted it on Blue Sky, there were like three or four instances in this game where AJ Halsey is all alone with Derek Henry running straight out of him. And I was like, man, there is nobody I would rather be less than AJ Halsey in that game. And so just the fact that they sprung in that many times to do that. And I think the other thing, too, if you're going to be purely an outside zone team, or primarily at least,

You need to give me good proof of concept that like when teams are throwing games that you stunts, all that stuff that you can pick it up. Like it's the whole point of a zone team. In the third quarter with about seven minutes to go, they shuffled one of their tight ends from the right to the left and ran like a little bit of a mid zone at him. And the one technique to that side tries to cross the guard's face. He just takes him and says, fine, I'll move you all the way to the outside. And they fire the linebacker at the center right behind him. And the center takes him is like, fine, I'll pull you inside. And it just parts to Red Sea.

And you get one of those plays where Derek Henry is all alone against the safety in the third level of the defense. On the touchdown, there was the insert that we're talking about, but they had to handle it differently because I think it was the three technique to that side, knifed inside. And so they did such a good job collectively where Hibner, I can't remember what was Hibner on that motion, but he actually picks off the defensive lineman as part of that. And then as that play kind of unfolds, John Simpson does a fantastic job. because he actually works back to the playside linebacker, which is not what he was probably thinking before that play got snapped. And because he's able to get back there after the three technique crosses his face, that gives Derek Henry just enough of a crease for him to score.

And so there were several examples of that in this game where it doesn't look exactly how you might have drawn it up on the chalkboard, and it ends up becoming a really positive play. And so on so many different levels, this thing is worth getting excited about just to zoom out quickly and kind of give some context about what we were looking at in this game. 0.26 EPA per play for Baltimore, which was, I think, the fourth highest rate of the week,

20% explosive play rate, which is the top three rate of the week. They finished with 300 passing yards and 200 rushing yards. That has happened 23 times in the past 10 years. So it happens like two or three times a season. They did it in week one. Last year, there was a couple weird teams that did it. The Falcons did it last year, which was very strange.

in like a week 17 game, I think, against the Panthers. Oh, was it the Kyle Pitts like absolutely nuclear game? It was the late game against the Panthers. But the team that, so in 2024, a team did it twice. And when I watched what the Ravens were doing in this game, it's probably the most similar I felt when it came to new play call or new offense. And immediately you're like, oh, they're cooking with gas. The bucks did it twice in 2024.

That makes sense. That makes a lot of sense. Watching that yesterday. Isn't that a little bit? how it felt like when you first got a look at the Liam Cohen-Buck's offense and you're like, oh shit. They can do everything. Yes. And this team has the structural stuff that I think was worth getting excited about with that

group and they have Lamar Jackson. Lamar looked like Lamar. That's the thing. We just spent 10 minutes talking about how cool the offense is and have not touched the fact that Lamar looked like an MVP caliber player again. I said this when we did the Ravens preview and people pushed back on it. And it wasn't even to demean him as a player or to really talk ill of what he did last season, he did not play as well over the first month of last year

before he got hurt as he was playing in 24. And part of the reason for that is that the way he was playing in 2024, he had the league right here. He like in the palm of his hand, everything was so in control. He was seeing things so cleanly. And when you watch that game he played yesterday, that's exactly what it was.

There were several examples that we can point to, The third and 16 scramble where he's something, that's the play where Buckner beats Quinn and it doesn't matter. And somehow Lamar gets out of that, it's a 16 yard scramble for a first down. You know the craziest thing about that where like this was so to me like Lamar is in his bag.

He at the top of his drop knows that he's got. He knows the detackle and the de-ender about to get to him. As they're both coming free, he like steps up and rears back like he's going to throw and it gets them to be like, oh, we got him. And then he dips under it. I'm like, dude.

he's the only one he's the only one and that's when last year specifically especially against pressure he was just more panicky yeah than he had been in 2024 and again that that's why it was just it was so it was jarring to me and it was just it felt different because when you watched him in the pocket the previous season when he was just incredible like even when you go back and look at the numbers you forget how crazy they were in 2024 and the calm and the control and the command no matter what else was happening while he was in the pocket. I had never seen him like that before, and that's exactly what it felt like yesterday. The Scramble play is a great example of this.

My favorite example was actually a play that didn't count. There was a 19-yard completion in, I think, late in the second quarter, and it's the one where you want to get to hold. And you watch Lamar on that play. He buys just a little bit of time to his right while knowing that as soon as he gets his foot in the ground. He's coming back to Bateman on this crosser and watching him play that and speed himself up a little bit to be able to get there, but not too much where he's still in control.

Those are the types of plays where it's like one of one shit. Like what his spatial recognition on that play, the awareness, the ability to escape that like just immediate interior pressure and then make that throw in that sequence on a dime. Like there's just no one else that's doing that. And those are the plays you saw from him yesterday. And again, it's like, it's not to diminish the way he played last season. He was still better than most players in the NFL. But when he's at his best, we are slowing down the world, seeing the Matrix type of shit.

And he was doing that again yesterday. He is a singular force when he is playing that way. And like his spatial awareness is like some other quarterbacks have some version of this. Like I think Matthew Stafford at his best has that. But he has to make good on it with his. arm and Lamar Jackson can and will or his eyes. Or his eyes, right? Yes, he can't, there's no movement from physically while that stuff is happening.

And like Lamar Jackson can and will do that with his arm. Like that plays a really good example, but also with his legs. Like right before the half, there's 30 seconds left in the half. They're on their own like 30 or something like that. Lamar Jackson drops back and he sees like he, they're playing man coverage with the Colts played a shit ton of man coverage. We can talk about that. But they're playing one cross.

And so they have trips to the right side. And so the safety, the opposite side is coming down to nail on the cross. coming from that side. He sees that and immediately, he's like, I can just go. And he takes off and gets 20 yards down the left sideline where that safety just ran away from. And it gets them to midfield, they get three points right before the half. It's just like, it's one play right before the half.

But like to be able to just squeeze out points when most other players and quarterbacks wouldn't be able to do it there. It's just watch you can play at that level. It gets me more excited than almost any player in the league. I'm pumped to watch the offensive line. I'm pumped to watch the quarterback when he's playing like this. I'm pumped to watch Derek Henry in this situation. All of that stuff was.

positive. I thought Zay Flowers was unbelievable. He was awesome. And it's stuff you're talking about and obviously and what was cool and I think beyond the way that he played, it is so clear that Declan Doyle thinks he's a special player.

Just like the way that they're constructing things around him. That touchdown that he catches coming out of the backfield on what I think was supposed to be a choice route but no one covers him so he doesn't have to make a choice. Yeah. There was no choice to be made. That point did, AJ Halphy, I think he coming down to like rotate to like replace the blitzer and he just like keeps going and he did this

he did that multiple times in this game where agent halsey is in the back in the deep part of the field and for whatever reason they're playing cover three and he's just screaming to the flat even though there's no one there so you felt how young the back half of the back end of the colds defense was and you felt how it wasn't even that they were young at linebacker it's just that they're they're bad at linebacker like carlos and akim davis gay they're playing in those roles because the young in Betcher and, oh my God, who's the other? CJ Allen. Anthony Hill and C.J. Allen.

I'm going to mix up a hundred times this season, second round linebackers. The fact that those guys aren't ready to go, it's a difficult situation. And you felt that over the course of the game. There was in one play where Betcher was in, and this is another Zay Flowers play where I was just like, I really like this. It was with two minutes left in the first quarter. It's like a 17-yard chunk. And Zay sits down in the void between two zone defenders.

And Lamar waits for him to get there to see. sit down and you watch that and then you combine that with the explosive element that both of those guys bring and just the feel they both have for each other right now combined with the ways that they think clearly are going to weaponize zay within this offense it was just a really really strong start like you said if you had any sort of hope for what dekine doyle was going to do with this coming into the season i think that this was about as good a note on which it could have started anything else about the raven's offense that you want to dig into I mean, I think that mostly covers it for me.

I mean, I was, again, I was incredibly impressed by it. It's a little bit unfortunate that both, like, Jacoby Lane and Zay Flowers got hurt in this game. They seem to think that the Zay Flowers one is, like, not going to be a big deal. But I think, you know, Lane didn't do a whole lot in this game, but I think they expected him to be a bigger part of the out. He did have a touchdown.

That was, yeah, it was called off the board. Gwen got a hold on that play. Again, it's just like, you saw those are, you know the center that hasn't played, and you have a right guard that's a rookie. And you felt that in this game a little bit. And that's the thing, even though it's still the fact that,

Like the overall offensive line system outweighed some of the negative parts that you got from young and just inexperienced players. I thought like overall, this was about as good of a showing as we could have gotten from them. I was really excited. Yeah. And I'm glad you mentioned Hibner because I do think that he's going to be an important piece of the offense. Like he is the most explosive tight end that they have. And him, they used him as a vertical player in some of those looks. I mean, he's like yanking out coverage.

And so the fact that, you mean, they can. use Durham Smythe to do all the dirty work stuff that they want to. You know, Mark Andrews is going to be an important piece of this offense because they're going to use all the tight ends. But Hibner is, I think, clearly the most explosive player that they have at tight end. And they're going to need him because there just isn't that much explosiveness elsewhere on the offense in the past catching room except for Zay. Yeah.

And so I just do think that that's going to, even over the course of the summer, like I was at Ravens practice in Baltimore early in August. and then I was at the joint practice against the Vikings, which was at the end of August. And during team periods, they were doing a lot of three tight-end stuff, and I'm watching it, I'm like,

88 just matters. Like, he's going to matter for what the offense is going to be. And so to see that come to fruition in week one was really cool. There's one more play I wanted to mention because to me, it's just such an indication of, we have the upper hand in this game.

There was a second and 16, with like eight minutes left in the second quarter, where it's second and 16. Okay, so let's just think about down. and distant situation here. Oh, I know the one. The Ravens come out in jumbo.

Yep. On second and 16 and run a play action pass. Akeem Davis Gather has no idea what planet he's on that play. And so the idea that second and 16 jumbo play action, situationally, it should not work. That should not be something you can tap into just based on expectations for what you're supposed to do in that down and distance. It's a 5-1 front because Carlos has walked down. and the second level of the defense just has no idea which way is up,

and it leads to an explosive chunk play. To Andrews, right? Yes. And so just there were examples like that throughout the course of this game where the Ravens just so clearly had the upper hand on that side of the ball, and it was really exciting to watch. And I'll say, I think in a lot of ways, it extends to the other side of the ball. Like I feel like that, Jesse Minter with this group, we were curious.

All right, we watched what he did in L.A. They were a top 10 defense, borderline top 10 defense each year that he was there. Now, even if we have nomad of BK, even if we have some maybe questions about Roe Kahn and the way that he played last year, I don't think it's out of line to say the talent level among this group is better than what he was working with in L.A. So what is it going to look like as Jesse Minter works with this sort of defensive talent? And step one looks pretty good. Looked pretty good. And first of all, before we can get to the quality of it, a lot more blitzes than you are you.

too from from like some of his some of his days with the chargers and so maybe that is more just like being able to trust i think this back seven a little bit more to handle some of that stuff and like you have an elite coverage linebacker roquan when he's playing well like he was so good in this game by the way he was insane the interception he has like is a mad and crazy play crazy play mad in stuff because he's he's sitting as like the strong hook player in in cover six and they're they're playing quarters to his side and like he has josh downs right in front of him on this whip route and he's so he's plays Josh Downs on the whip route. And he's like stuck to him. But he like as the ball is about to come out, he's got eyes on Daniel Jones. And he feels that Daniel Jones is like a beat late throwing the crosser behind him. And like, I mean it like, you know when Madden, like when you try to throw over the linebacker and he just jumps 10 feet in the air and you're like, that doesn't seem like that was possible. Rokwon Smith had that interception. And I was like, dude, if he just got back to doing that, this defense is going to be awesome.

He plays two guys at once on that play. Yeah. And to be able to pick off the crosser, I think it was to try. tread well while playing Josh Downs there is just a phenomenal play. And so you saw that from him. And I really liked the adjustment that we saw from Jesse Minter over the course of this game because early on, they were playing a decent amount of man coverage on that first drive. So over the course of the game, they played three dropbacks of cover one in the first quarter.

They played three dropbacks of cover one total over the rest of the game because they were picking on them in man on that first drive. And I think he was like, you know what? this. Like I were, I don't have to do this. Like if we play his own coverage in this game, I, I have faith in what the front end coverage can look like together. And that's, that was the other part of this is that there were plays where maybe there would have been somebody open and he's either Trey Hendrickson winning and crushing the pocket, Tavius Robinson crushing the pocket. I really thought that Travis Jones was all over the place

in this game as both a run defender and a pass rusher. He might have been their best player. Like Roquan Smith was great. I thought Marlonne Humphily played a really good game. Kyle Hamilton looked like Kyle Hamilton. Travis Jones, every drive did something in this game. He was phenomenal. And the play that really stuck out to me, it was on the cold second drive. And he's one-on-one with Quentin Nelson and just has his left arm all the way extended into his chest, sticking him back into the hole.

And Mike Green also squeezed the polar on that play. Just both of them condense. space in that way because you look at what the Ravens were doing last year. The Ravens were allocating so many bodies to their run defense last year because they couldn't hold up. And so to watch the front play like that in this game, I thought Trenton Simpson was good in this game. He had multiple really nice moments against the run.

And they did what they should do with Trenton Simpson, which is let's use him as a battering ram. Like there was early in the second quarter, they sent him like through the week B gap and the Colts got caught running weak zone right at it, he explodes Matt Gonzalez. And the plays just over and he gets a tackle in the backfield. And so just like,

weaponizing him in that way, I thought was really impressive. They just did so many interesting things in the run against this game. There was actually, and this was right before the Lamar possession where he gets to scramble and then goes and they kick the field goal.

But this was like, I think to me it was a really telling sequence in the game before the Ravens had got the ball day. The Colts had the ball. It was a third and one with a, about a minute to go in the half. And they're trying to run split zone at the two technique. And I think it was

Clyde Campbell. He destroys the guard on the inside shoulder. And Travis Jones, another great play from him, like, scrapes over the top of Campbell makes the stop. It's fourth and one. They punt. Lamar gets the ball back. They go get a field goal. It's just like, if the Ravens are going to have more of those

moments where they're stealing chances of points before the half from the other team and then getting them on the back end for their team, like that is complimentary football. which you just didn't really feel from this team at all on either side last year. We said it. I was in Cleveland.

I remember where it was when we did the show when we did the players who could swing in the season show. I think if you said about either Roquant Smith or Moreland Humphrey, at some point this season, they played really well this year. What would the chance, the percentage chance that the Ravens were really good on defense, if that's what we're saying by the end of the season,

what would you say it is? 95%? Yeah. And this game, is a very good first box checked when it comes to that. We talk about Roquan, the other play that he had that I absolutely loved on the Tavius Robinson sack on a boot to the right side.

Roquan redirects Josh Downs as he's coming off line of scrimmage, and that redirection is just enough to make Josh Downs not have cleared the linebacker before when Daniel Jones is ready to throw that boot, and that's the only reason that Tavis Robinson is allowed to get there for the sack. Again, it's just really complimentary

when you're looking at all the players working in concert. And then there was a play where Marlon Humphrey, they played an inverted cover two. And he was in the back half and him sticking to that route and squeezing on the inside vertical and taking that away, he makes the most important play of all 11 guys on that specific play. And so everybody contributing to this thing combined with Jesse Minter doing a lot of interesting stuff,

dialing up not only like real pressures, but a decent amount of simulated pressures. It just there is, again, so much to be excited about with what you saw from the Ravens on both sides of the ball in this game. That Marlon Humphrey play, it almost is like what you're talking about with Lamar Jackson, where like when the scheme is right and he's on, he's insane. Like some of his stuff when he was playing with Mike McDonald was insane. So for him to have that play, like, if they call that coverage and he tries to make that play last year,

I just don't think he gets there in time. Like I just think the way that they're teaching it, the way it feels right, like he was firing on all cylinders. He also had the force fumble on the Jonathan Taylor screen. Yeah. that like that was incredibly well blocked by the Colts like both I think it was bordolini and gonzolvis like murdered both of the guys that they were taking it was awesome and Quinn Nelson had a fantastic play at the line of scrimmage yeah it was like incredibly well blocked and then he gets down the field and marlin humphrey humphrey umphrey

just ron humphers just rips that one out before he can go down like if he's going to be playing like that rocone smith is going to have in those plays Travis jones is playing his best ball trey hendrickson had a really important pressure at the end like on a third down like kind of all of the best guys that you wanted to make plays made plays Nate Wiggins they were trying to throw on I think like a third and eight a third and seven at some point in the game Daniel Jones tries to come to this backside dig

Nate Wiggins is all over Alec Pierce and just gets the breakup and I'm like every single good player played like they were a good player on this defense do we think that overall the result in this game and how things shook out is mostly a product of the Ravens potentially being a buzzsaw or did you see stuff from the Colts that leaves you a little bit worse? worried coming away from this game.

I think on offense, I'm willing to say, eh, I don't want to see more. Like, I think the Ravens defense played well. I want to see more from the Colts offense. That's one where the run game had some really nice moments. Yes. Roquan was awesome in this game. There was a jump cut that Jonathan Taylor put on Roquan in the hole.

A couple of the run defense. That was crazy. And so, again, like you said, there were moments from the offensive line. I do think that against different lesser defenses over the course of this season, I still have a reasonable amount of faith that the Colts offense is going to be fine, the defense concerns me. That's exactly what it's hard for not to be.

I think the offense will settle as like a totally acceptable unit. They'll have some games where they score 30, 35 on people. Like I think they'll be just fine. I think the Ravens defense probably will be pretty good. And I think the Ravens' offense will be good. I do want to see what it looks like against a different defense in this one because again, you mentioned the linebackers were heinous in this game. And the other thing is like, you're just not going to get this much man coverage.

No. The Colts played like 46% man coverage overall. and on anything but first down, it was 60%. You're just not getting that most weeks. And so I just want to see what are their answers going to look like for other teams. And that also kind of bring me to some concern for the Colts of like, are you just playing that because you don't trust anybody to be in zone? So it's like, let's just attach to people and that's going to be that.

I know the corners are good at it. I think that's the argument. I think it's still tough. How do we weaponize our best players? And that feels like the way to weaponize your best players. but if teams are going to be able to pick on you as you do this, there is such a difference. And another team we're going to talk about,

I was really encouraged about what the Jets' defense looked like. Titans' offense might be a disaster. I mean, I think we can acknowledge that. But the lions, when they were really humming when Aaron Glenn was there, they were such a good man coverage team. There is a difference between having good man coverage corners and being a good man coverage team, where you can account for the ways the teams are going to attack you.

your whole players know where they're supposed to be. Everyone knows where their help is. Everyone knows where they're pushing certain guys. The leverage is makes sense. Like you do it collectively as a unit. The idea of if, well, we have man coverage corner, so that's what we have to do, that doesn't make you a good man coverage team.

And so I'll be curious against lesser teams that don't have Lamar Jackson, that don't have Zay Flowers, just cooking Justin Wally over an open fire, what this is going to look like for a cold team that clearly wants to live this way. All right, we're going to move on to Jets Titans, but first, let's take our first quick break. Are you the kind of sports fan that wants to dig into the story behind the stats?

Join the Athletic Live on YouTube to get more of the sports stories you can't stop talking about. On game days, they'll watch the biggest matchups alongside the Athletics' most tapped-in reporters. You can become part of the show in the interactive chat. The Athletic Live is presented by Google Gemini. Subscribe now on YouTube. Get to Jets, Titans. Really nice game. for the New York Jets.

I was very, I really enjoyed a lot of the stuff that I saw from the Jets over the course of this game. Finished with a 48% success rate on offense. They were really bad on third down. And that was really the only kind of knock. But the way they ran the ball in this game, the way that Gino played in this game, Gino's accuracy in this game and just the ability to place the ball down the field. This is, as we predicted all these teams and as we forecasted what they might look like, I was very down on the Jets coaching staff.

But I don't want to be. Like, this isn't a situation where I want to be right about the Aaron-Glen Frank Reich Jets looking like a disaster and this being D-O-A. It just looks so bad last year. How could you not doubt it? And like Frank Rack hasn't called plays in two years. I don't want that to happen. I think there's some cool players on this team. And I don't want to watch terrible football.

And so this being the first glimpse that we saw of the Aaron-Glen Frank-Rike Jets, I just think there was enough to like where it just kind of makes me. the side of relief. Maybe the Titans are just bad. And that's something we have to accept. Week one is, who the hell knows? We probably said, we were going to say the same thing about the Jets last year, right? But I do think that what I saw from this team on both sides of the ball leaves me encouraged about what this could potentially be, even if coming into the year, I had some pretty

severe reservations. I said this was the game where you don't want to be the team that embarrasses themselves. And the Jets did not embarrass themselves. They looked like a totally competent competitive football team. And if that means six wins by the end of the year, fine. but like they look like they will be in games and like I was really impressed with the offensive line overall like I think that they were moving people in the run game

when they wanted to. Foshano had so many really nice moments as a run blocker like three or four times where I was like holy shit man that's always been the thing with him of like if he's ever going to get over the line to being like a consistent pro bowl guy it's going to be like can he ever just like move people in the run game and he did have a lot of moments in this game

like Tipman I thought looked really good like they were just they were moving people in the run game which I will say if there was anything I thought the Titans defense would be fine at, even if I had some questions. It was going to be like, the front's pretty good. I think that they'll be okay there. And they, it wasn't like an insane day for the Jets rushing offense, but they were good. Yeah, I mean, you look at the total numbers by the end of it.

They were so successful. Like they got what they wanted. They finished with a 48 and a half percent rushing success rate. People are going to look at it. 3.9 yards per carry isn't great. But they had some stretches in this game where they were doing what they wanted. Their third drive, 5, 4, 3 on 3rd, 1, 7, 9, 8. There was another drive where Breece Hall had back-to-back 10-yard runs.

There was a 13 personnel like, I don't even know what you would call it. It was like a G-lead play where Tipman pulled all the way out to the left side where they got the ball on to the perimeter for a 12-yard game. The next play, they ran inside zone with a little slice motion from the receiver to hold the backside lineback, which they did twice in this game for chunk gains where that's the stuff where it's just like, okay. These are little details about the offense where it's just like, okay, that's really well done. where you're getting the linebacker or you're getting the wide receiver away from the point of attack. There were the one play,

the one I'm talking about in the second half, it just holds the playside linebacker. There was another play where Jermaine Johnson also accounts for it. And so you hang two players out with that motion. And so it's a combination of the offensive line being talented, which we already know. Yeah.

But also just little tiny design wrinkles that are making things easier around your run game combined with backs that I think we feel pretty good about. And so overall, it's like, all right. Like I, if that's what this is going to look like, I think you can get excited about it. And there was another play where, again, some of the motion stuff that they were doing and like getting into different run calls, I thought was interesting. There was a play early in the second quarter.

They start with, they had two tight ends on the field and their fullback, but they set it like it's like three tight ends all to one side. That's what it looks like with Andrew Beck as the fullback as the outside guy. They shift one of the tight ends over to the right side. They shift back into the backfield as like an eye formation. So you've gone from this 13 personnel looking. formation where it's like probably going to get like duo into the strong side or weak side zone into the other side. So you've got those run tons that's on the table. And then they shift into like eye form where you have a tight end on either side. Now you can pull the either side. You can run power.

You can run counter. You can run lead zone. You can run strong. Like you can, they literally opened up every single possible run concept with the personnel and shifts that they put on in the field. I was like, if they're going to do that and toy around a little bit with like that with the offensive line talent that they have, it could be a pretty good run game. And the other thing too, like the passing game just has to be good enough to let the run game breathe a little bit. And we can talk about it like they were. The passing game was more than good enough. Again, this is the Titans, but like they looked competent.

I was most worried about pass protection plans. Yeah. With this staff because of what it had looked like the last couple of times we saw Frank Grech as a play caller. The first big completion in this game to Omar Cooper Jr. It's an incredible job by Dylan Parham and Braylon Allen to pick up the pressure on that play. The Titans bring the Titans bring four to that side. The Jets only have three guys to account for it. Parham blocked both linebackers on the play as Brayle and Allen.

I think Braylon Allen picks up somebody. I can't remember who it was, but they do a great job of picking it up. Jacob Martin dropped into coverage on that play. He got lost in space a little bit, and Cooper just ran totally Scott free for the huge chunk completion. But that, again, just like first drive, opening possession, they're bringing a pressure.

they account for it correctly, it leads to a chunk gain. It's like, okay, that's it. The offensive line in the run game, I feel good about the overall talent where it's probably going to clear a certain bar. In pass protection, was this group, as talented as they are, going to look like the worst versions of themselves

across the board like we had seen with recent Frank Craig teams? And the fact that this was the first glimpse we saw from them, and that was not the case. Again, just box checked week one, makes me feel a lot better about what this could look like moving forward. And the other box checked with this team, we all know Garrett Wilson's talented.

But to see it, like, you were really reminded of how good he is in this game. The slant he caught. On the fourth and two? The fourth and two slant he caught. Him plucking that ball away from his body in traffic. It's like,

holy shit, man. And he gets smoked and hangs on to it. And I was like, okay. And then there was like another, they had him on the right side and he runs like a deep crossing route to the left hand side. And Gino just pins it on him right on the sideline.

I was like, if they're going to really just, be able to access all of what he can do because he can be like a really good dynamic all around the field receiver. If he's going to be able to do that and make tough catches in traffic, it's like he, the thing with him, and you really did see it on that fourth and two play, his hand eye coordination is insane. It really is just the way that he plucks it and finds it and can bend his body and contour.

Like he's a really special just find the ball anywhere type of receiver. And Gino's accurate enough that he can always put the ball where the receiver needs to go and get it. And so it's kind of a fun combination. I'm hoping we get to see a lot of for the rest of this year. This game specifically, it was very much like a wedding crashers. I can make it rain out here. I put the ball where I want to sort of moment.

I mean, he really did. The ball placement throughout this game was really, really good. I will say, the Titans defense made it easier on him than you want to see. That play you're talking about with the big crosser. That's the most basic play action big crosser against single high type stuff that you can imagine. And they were doing that throughout this entire game. I looked it up afterwards because I was curious, how much cover three did the Titans play

and what the numbers look like. It was a good chunk. Gino had 11 attempts against cover three in this game. What do you think his numbers were? I'm going to say 8 for 11 for like 140. 11 of 11 for 164 yards against cover three looks in this game. That's obscene. It just can't do that.

Like if you're going to be a Robert solid defense, you can't allow teams to just carve the shit out of you when you're playing cover three and that's exactly what happened throughout this entire game and on the flip side with the Jets defense it was the opposite of that where they actually didn't play a ton of man coverage

no it was a real role of decks of coverages they played a lot of cover two they played a lot of cover three but in man they had I think six dropbacks in man coverage Ward finished one of five for 11 yards and you look at the secondary and I think that was going to be a question like they had

added a ton of pieces to the front what was the secondary going to look like? I think a lot of guys had some nice moments in this game. Jarvis Brownlee had a couple nice moments in this game. Brian Stevens had a couple nice moments in this game. The one that really stood out, though, which I assume you feel pretty good about. As Ray Thomas looked really good.

He looks really good in this game. Bullie Pressman Corner, just a big, I mean, he's like 6'2. Like he was, when they drafted him, I was like, this is what it's supposed to look like in the Aaron Glenn defense. And just a million things went wrong for the defense last year that you just didn't get to, see it, but him getting weaponized in this game.

I think they sent him on a blitz or two in this game. Like him being able to play the way that he did, I was super excited about that. Because you're right, even if I liked him, I still looked at the cornerback room this year. And I was like, if there's anything that sinks this defense, it is going to be what they're going to be in coverage. But if they can be enough of a Rolodex team, if they can get hands on guys early in plays, which that was the other thing, I think not even just at the line of scrimmage, which they did a little bit.

but them getting hands-on players like a little bit deeper into the stem and just like rerouting seam routes and just making sure that guys are not getting free access to anything they did such a good job it just looks so much more put together on that side of the ball than it ever did last year and the play that jumped out to me the first time i thought that in this game and it shouldn't surprise you is watching demario davis run step for step with tony pollard on that high red zone play where they try to get pollard on the rail and davis is just again step for step with him the entire way adding to merriot O Davis to your defense, the entire point of doing something like that in this point of his career is just to make everything feel more buttoned up. And that's what it felt like. It just so consistently, the play that you're talking about with the corner blitz, Thomas comes off the left side there because they're in like a one by three nub situation where the tight end is the only receiver to that side.

I assume that's a formational call that they're doing in real time. And on that play Jarvis Brownley did a fantastic job in zone coverage. And so that's like, all right, so many nice things happening in concert with one another. And then the stretch from Thomas that I was just like, man, this is really good. There was a two play sequence at one point where he's in cover two on the first play. He does a great job of getting depth. They end up checking the ball down to Tony Pollard in front of him. He makes the play in space.

And then on third down, it's him one-on-one with Iommonor on cover three. it's one-on-one outside the numbers, and he just pushes him out of bounds for an incompletion. And so it just so across the board in the back seven, even if really DeMario Davis was like the big addition that we had from them this year in that area of the defense, I just thought it looked so, so much better than it ever did at any point last year. Yeah, I mean, it is funny that for as bad as last year went, like every part of what you would have wanted the defense to look like, they kind of looked like in this game. like all of the additions. I think the crazier thing about Davis, you're right. Like you bring him in to kind of button some things up.

The fact that he is running step for step with a guy like Tony Pollard down the sideline. He had a run stop in this game where like he saw daylight for just a little bit because like just the way that the blocking scheme worked out, he was kind of a free hitter. How fast he closes a space and makes it like a one yard gain when it very well could have been like a four or five if he was a tick slower. Him playing at that level at this age is just kind of incredible.

And so if this is not like, Bobby Wagner on the commanders where it really is like he can kind of only help you tackle box to tackle box. I really think DeMario Davis played a really good game. I was pretty impressed with the Jets defense. I do think though this is a scenario where I'm like I want to see it against the real offense.

Correct. The Titans' offense was heinous in this game. They had two explosive plays. The Titans offense did. Every other offense in the league had at least four. Wow. In week one. They had two.

I don't even know where to start with this entire thing. I mean, it was just, it was so ugly to watch. I can start with two stats and then we can get into kind of how they arrived here. On anything above 2.2 seconds to throw, so this is taking out RPO's, most of their screen, some of that stuff. Even that stuff looked like shit. Even that stuff looked like shit and we'll get there. Yeah, Cam dirted one that was just like, what are we doing? Which I think like the running back stepped on his foot, just this team has no coordination.

On anything above 2.2 seconds to throw, only the Packers gave up a higher pressure rate this week. And that was mostly in part by like the Vikings split. to 80% of us. Like that was a very unique thing. So in terms of normal games, the Titans were just far worse than anybody in the league. That is coupled with the fact

that this week, the Titans had the second lowest average depth of target in the NFL at 4.4. The only team lower was the Cooper Rush Falcons. Think about what Cam Ward could and should be. That can't be how you run the offense. It doesn't make any sense. It's the same complaint that you kind of had,

which I think has proven right now with the way that Trevor Lawrence looks when he was in the Doug Peterson offense when it was just this spread and shred like throw it short throw a bunch of stick routes throw a bunch of fly routes it's like he's got a bazooka what are we doing watch it now where he's like every single throw is 15 to 18 years down the field yes it's like and again maybe there's some other structural issues don't trust the offensive line whatever it's going to be

but if this is your quarterback this can't be what the offense is about like it just can't be how it functions it was so hard to watch and I don't want to absolve him either because... No, he had a couple of tough plays. I mean, there was... The first one is the throw to the running back that you're talking about, the absolutely dirt. And then there was a swing that he threw like 10 feet

over Tadjay Spears' head. Yep. Like, every single aspect of this was worrying. I don't know what the plan is supposed to be. I don't know what they're supposed to be. You watched the Jets offense yesterday, and you see the vision for this is what we think we can be good at. And so let's try to be good at this stuff.

We have three tight ends that we like. They had 26 plays yesterday. digested with multiple tight ends on the field. They were only an 11 personnel, 44% of the time. They had a 47% success rate on the ground. It's like, all right, I understand what the vision of this is supposed to be. We're going to run the ball. We're going to try to throw some intermediate chunks off of play action because that's

what our offense is built to do. And I think that's what our quarterback can do well if he's protected. What is the Titans offense supposed to be when you go back and you watch that game yesterday? I couldn't figure it out. It was literally like they were cheesing some RPO stuff. They threw a couple of screens that were bad and like one or two. chunk play action plays that they tried to pick up,

which by the way, like, could not get blocked at all. Like, they had guys and could not get them blocked whatsoever. And so, like, you had a bunch of those issues. They're also like on the, where you could kind of see that this was going to go wrong immediately. I think this was the first drive. Maybe it was the second. But it was nine and a half minutes left in the first quarter. It's a third and three.

Titans are an empty. They motion somebody left to right at the snap. The jets fire somebody through the B gap. They get a free runner on Camp Ward. Fine. you've got three guys to the right-hand side and they're just running this little spot route into what could be the void.

The problem is the number three, the closest guy to the formation, he's running that little spot route. The number two right next to him, I think it was tight on Gunner Helm. He like runs into him and then runs in front of him and tries to cross his face to get to the middle of the field.

Well, Camboard's not going to throw that if he can't see the guy he's trying to throw at. And so he holds it and I think it ends up being he like throws it away at some point in the game or at some point later in the play. And it was just like, the details of this offense. It just never felt like

anybody knew what they were doing, which I think is extremely concerning, especially in week one. You look at what the Jets were doing with the plans that they had on third into fourth down in this game. They consistently were like, we know what we're doing.

This is the two-play sequence that we like. We're going to go forward in this situation. They had a touchdown on fourth and one called back that Braylon Allen had. I mean, it's they consistent. I don't know what the numbers were finally, but they had multiple four-down conversions in this game.

and should have had another one. The sequence that I talked about with Azare Thomas when he had the really nice play as the flat defender in cover two and then one-on-one in cover three, that was a third and three from the plus 45. The Titans threw a one-on-one go ball to Alicayor Manor against Azaray Thomas

and then punted the ball from the 45 into the end zone to get 25 yards of field position. How are we not playing to help ourselves here? You have an offensive. line that you've invested a lot in. You paid Denmore a lot of money. You paid Peter Skaronkie a lot of money. Drafted J.C. Latham in the first round.

Let's run the ball on third and three. See what we can get into on fourth and short and consider going for it in that situation. Instead, we punt for 25 yards of field position from Plus territory. And I think it's all of it too. And like the thing I want to talk about is a player mistake, but also I think like kind of comes from the coaching. Tai Shia, I think was it Pollard or Spears that caught that past it? I think it might have been Pollard.

but he's got a chance to catch the ball and get upfield and get it was pollard two yards he can get two yards and maybe it becomes fourth and one maybe he really fights and gets to the sticks but he tries to be a hero and go and make azare thomas miss on the outside so he can get to the sticks and then azare thomas hits him in the backfield and it's a one yard loss like just get up field to me and like make those plays and like make things easier on your offense and then there was a play later earlier in the game in the first quarter they're running mid zone to the right it is the clearest bend cutback read for any running back I've ever seen and tajey spiers just like runs full steam ahead into his guard and I'm like man like if this is going to be like what the offense was going to be this should look smoother and it just like again it felt like the details for the offense whether it was past protection plan guys running into each other on routes guys not getting to the six when they have to guys not making the right reads in the run game guys flipping the ball to themselves on a weird reverse for no reason why are we trying to do that like it just that's that's the the thing if let's just play offense their detail in the offense was we're going to have the quarterback flip the ball to himself not like the receivers are going to be in the right spot on third down like it's it was stunning to me how bad this looked there was again just contrasting it with what the jets were doing the sequence for 17 3 when it was the jets had second and two they had like a gun play action call that was like a beautiful like route distribution that they hit wilson on a crosser linebacker didn't find him as he's running that

deep crosser. And then the first and 20 deep shot to 80 Mitchell. It's like they had answers situationally for whatever the game was throwing at them. The Jets did. And you just compare that to what the flow and rhythm felt like for the Titans offense. And it's just two different worlds. And I think what you said at the beginning is a good place to end this and I think a good point to put on the end of this game. This is a really good measuring stick game for two teams that then coming into the year we all knew could go either way. Right? Just based on the offensive staff and some of the recent returns from those play callers. Like, what was this going to look like and which direction was this thing going to go?

Because I think that there's a real volatility to both of those scenarios in both of these situations. And for the Jets to come out and look like and pass the test in the way that they did and for the Titans to fail it in the way that they did. It's week one. It's a new staff. It's a new play caller. But I would be pretty concerned if I were a Titans fan coming off of last. last season for it to look like this. Because that's the thing.

Sometimes you get good teams embarrassed themselves in week ones, like the Rams. Rams are going to be fine. They're a good football team. I don't know. It might be over. I guess without Miles Garrett will see. It might be over. But when like the teams that you already think might be bad look worst case scenario,

week one, I'm willing to believe those a lot of the time. And so this was kind of concerning. I don't want to overreact too much. With the new staffs, like I don't want to pick and choose. I don't want to say, all right, I wasn't. excited about the Titans coming in, and so them being bad in week one is real. And some of the teams that struggled in week one that I have more faith for that are new staffs, that is a wait and see thing.

That's unfair. There are so many examples we've seen, even with really good play callers, where it's going to take a while. Like, but let's just, the situation with Brian Daibble and Cam Ward, the best case scenario with that is the situation we've seen with some of these other second year quarterbacks or some of these former number of overall picks who were flailing before their guys got there, Caleb Williams, Trevor Lawrence, all that. let's rewind a year and let's think about what the jags and bears offenses looked like for the first quarter of the season, even into the first half of the season, and think about how different that feels to what we were talking about and what we were saying at the end of the year.

It is way, way, way, way too early to get overly concerned about this. But the fact that this is like the opening presentation from this group, and again, you compare it to a very similar situation with the Jets where I think there was a healthy, amount of skepticism for both. If you come out in week one and you get your ass kicked by the Ravens and the way that the Colts did, it's kind of like, all right, whatever. Yeah, we'll move on. But for the, for the jets to come out and do this to you and for them to look as clean and organized and just with a well-founded plan compared to yours, it's just like that,

that's a troubling place to be if you were the Titans. And that's something that has to get better in a hurry. All right. We're going to take one more quick break and then come back and chat a little Raiders Dolphins. Get to our last one here. The Las Vegas Raiders beat up on the Miami Dolphins 27 to 13 in the first game of Clint Kubiak's tenure as their head coach. Do you see the clip of him in the tunnel afterwards? Kubiak?

Yes. No. He was like, he was very excited and celebrating in a way that I did not know Clint Kubiak was capable of doing. All it takes is having your own team. That's right. I think it speaks to how everyone in that building must have been feeling after watching the way that game one went for this regime. I mean, I was pretty impressed. And like, again, this is this is going to be one where we got to take it with a grain of salt because I think this Miami defense is pretty rough for a lot of reasons.

The dolphins overall. Yeah, the dolphins overall were pretty rough. But, like, I just felt like you saw a lot of the beats of stuff that you wanted to see. Like, I thought the offensive line looked much better than they did last year. You're like, you don't really surprised me. It's night and day. Spencer Burford played really, really well. He did a great job getting to the second level.

Oh my God, a lot of those runs. He did a fantastic job. I thought Ashton Gentie was excellent in this game. Like, I think he can be explosive, but I think they have Mike Washington there to also be explosive, which he can be pretty good at. That one too, man. It might be pretty good.

The idea of it when you saw what Mike Washington could be in preseason, it was like, all right, like, what do they have here? And then to see them come out and have, it look like this where you have Gentie making plays all over the place. And then every time Mike Washington touches the ball, it's like, oh my God. And because to the way they do it, like, so many of the Mike Washington runs were like, can we get this to bounce or cut back? Yes.

Because like, yes, he's explicit. His first chunk run is on duo, I think, where he like bounced it outside. Exactly. And like it felt like every run for Genty was like, if we can block this for four, he's going to find seven. Like, I thought his patience in this game and his footwork was just phenomenal. Like, there are just so many times. there are moments where it seemed like it was bottled up at the line of scrimmage and he just

squirts through for another four or five yards it was happening all game it was like half of his runs there was one where late in the first quarter they ran like a they had like a duo run which i did think was interesting they had kirk like reverse pivot the other way and then come back which i thought was like a kind of interesting little wrinkle uh but they run duo and he just how patiently he just lets the play wash down in front of him before he finally hits the hole and goes and gets like seven yards. It was just like, those are plays that last year

if the Raiders tried that they get stuffed for two. And there's just nothing there and he's not able to find it. The run he had immediately after the trade and Stoaks interception, the cut he made on that run. That was one of those

where I rebound it like three or four times. I was like, my God, that looks really good. And the other Genty-specific observation I had in this game, and it makes the Bowers thing even more tragic, I think what Clint Kubiak

did last year with JSN he's clearly so inspired by the talent of his best players and trying to find as many unique ways as he possibly can to get them involved in the game and that's what we saw with Jensi in this game. I mean, we have a split back angle route touchdown to Ashton Jentie. I think maybe on the drive before that, no, on the play before that,

they had him in the slot. They tried to throw him a screen in the slot on the play before he scored on the angle route. And so just all of the different ways they're trying to get him the ball in the passing game To me, it just speaks to When you combine that with what we saw him do With JSN last year,

I really can't wait to see What he'll try to do with Brock Bowers Because his plan When he has special players is essentially Can I find 20 different ways To get this guy the ball over the course of the game Which is a good way to approach Being a football coach

But not everyone does It's a good, it's definitely a good way to start I mean you mentioned all those plays some of their red zone stuff was really good which we can talk about too. There was another play in the middle of the first quarter where Gentie was at like offset eye fullback. And they had,

Laobie was in behind him. No, it was Connor Hayward was behind him. Oh, Keny was like inverted them, which was really, really bizarre. But this was too, and this is actually links to another play that I want to talk about, the Raiders, which is this kind of what had me inspired

about their passing offense. This was one of those like straight dropback from under center, but they had Genti in the offset eye to the left and they had two stack receivers also to the left. And then to the right is Michael Mayer all by himself in the nub. They have the leading stack receiver run this like big overrout. So that's clearing out a little bit of space. And they have Gentie run like a little angle route.

So Kirk starts his read over there. He's like, okay, I can kind of read this high, low, see what's going to happen. Mayor on the right side is running like in 8 to 10 like he stops, pivots outside a little bit and then comes back for it. And it's just like... It's like a backside china route. It's like a backside china and like the timing of Kirk being able to go front side and be like, okay, that's dead.

As soon as he turns around, Mayor is right there, hands out, ready for the ball. And, like, they just did stuff like that all game. They hit another one like that a little bit later in the game that actually got broken up by the defense. It was a good play. But you saw, like, the rhythm of how the passing offense is supposed to work with five out. And I was like, I get it, man.

Like, I kind of think that this can work. It's eerie. The type of stuff we both pick up on when we're going to talk about these games. That exact play with Mayor on the backside on that. on that China route is with and it was jet to you offset in that two back look on the play and the linebacker goes with him and it's you you watch the gravity that they use to their advantage on that play he gently releases to the left the linebacker pulls to that side and then all that space is created for mayor to reverse pivot back into when you see that when you see the the the Niners do this stuff all the time where you'll watch them play the watch Brock play the rhythm of the play and the route that he's coming back to on the back side is coming open just as his eyes are getting there. That's just what good pure progression football looks like. And so it would set about the Jets. And I think the Raiders are maybe even a more pronounced version of this just with some of the

details that we were seeing. It's just you really like the plan from a new staff in year one. And the Raiders don't have superstar players outside of Ashton Jentzy with Brock Bowers hurt. The offensive line is a huge question mark. Kurt Cousins is a stopgap quarterback. But when you're watching what they're trying to accomplish and you see the intention behind so much of it, that's where you can look at a year one, week one staff and be like, okay, like, if this is what we're going to be doing every single week, this is a group that I will be interested in watching moving forward. It was kind of like you talked about with the Jets and then opposite of the Titans, like you saw what they thought they were supposed to be good at and what they wanted to be

good at. And like, I just thought that they did such a good job of it because that was some of their, you know, we're talking about some of their pure progression stuff. I thought some of their play action game looked pretty good too. Like there was, we can start talking about their red zone stuff a little bit. Late in the third quarter, they were like in the mid red zone

and they'd run this like weak eye formation lead play action. The fullback and the linebacker just kill each other at the line of scrimmage. But it creates just enough of a mess that Jacob Rodriguez is supposed to come and get Genti out of the back field. Well, he gets caught up in traffic.

He trips. He's just got free. And it's just like, man, that was a touchdown. That was a touchdown. That was a touchdown. Yeah. Rodriguez trips on that play.

He caught in the wash. Getting stuff like that. All the time. Just like finding ways to create traffic and create mayhem on some of their play action stuff. Even a back touchdown. Even the best touchdown. Kirk on that play does such a great job on that play.

And even like this entire sequence to me is exactly what we're talking about when you compare it to something like what the Titans were doing. It's third and four on that opening drive. We get a gun run on third and four. Because like, all right, they're probably not accounting for this to the degree that they can't, right?

Like you can't, there's only so much you're gonna count for on third and four. Most defenses, even if they know that you might run the ball in that situation, they're never gonna be in the perfect look to stop it because if they are, you should have a play in your back pocket where you can throw against something like that.

So it's third and four, gun run, they get three yards, it's fourth and one, tight end sneak, which shouldn't be surprising after watching the bargainer over the last year do it for them. They get the first down. And then on that drive is when the best touchdown happens.

Kirk does a phenomenal veteran quarterback job on that play where he's watching Besh come on the crosser. He knows immediately, based on the coverage and based on the leverage, he's going to go to Besh to throw that ball. But he keeps his eyes to the left for as long as he possibly can before snapping back and throwing the ball to bash for a touchdown. And so you watch all that stuff kind of happen in succession. And it's the dolphins.

It's week one. All the necessary and worthwhile caveats you, can throw at it. But that type of stuff, when you start stacking it up, it's like, that's what good offense looks like. That's what you want to see from this group. It just didn't feel gimmicky. And again, like the degree to which they will be able to successfully do some of the stuff

against better defenses we'll see. But it just didn't feel like this was fake or gimmicky or like they were getting away with something. Like it just, this felt like good controlled football. And again, you saw the best players look like what they were supposed to look like, like Genti having such an excellent game. Besh looking like what you hoped he could be coming out of. college. Michael Mayer, I thought, like, the stats are not crazy. He was like six for 30-something

yards or whatever. But, like, he played a really good game, I thought, and was like a useful piece for them. And then the guys that you didn't know if they were going to be good, like Spencer Burford having the game that he had for them. There were a couple of plays where Ian Thomas as a blocker, there was one where he moves Willie Gay off the ball in like an outside zone. I saw some of the stuff they were doing with those two guys as pullers on some of those plays was really nice. I really did enjoy watching that offense. And the mayor thing, we haven't talked about, we haven't done anything about the Raiders since he signed that contract, and I think people are going to look at that contract, $15 million a year.

That is 4.98% of the 2026 cap, if you're looking at as a percentage of the cap. It's the contract. It's the Dawson Knox Colquette contract. Yeah. Like, that's all it is. And when you look at those deals and the types of players that they are within the offense, Komet is at 5.56 when he signed his deal in 2023. Dawson Knox was over 6% when he signed his deal with the bills.

And if you look at the role that those guys play with in the offense, he's signed his deal with in offense. It is the doesn't do anything great, does a little bit of everything, we can stick him at Y, and that allows us to use the playmaking tight ends that we have in the ways that we want to. That's a really valuable role if we're going to be living in a multi-tight end world. And so the idea of, man, $15 million is a lot for Michael Mayer. Well, for that archetype of player, it's actually just very much in line with what the market is. And there's really no issue with them giving him that deal. He is not going to look like that player, Walbrook Bowers, isn't. playing. He's forced into a role

that is different than the one you're going to ask him to play. But when that came across, that wasn't surprising to me at all because the idea that he's their backup tight end is a misunderstanding of a multi-tight end world and the position Brock Bowers plays, which is not tight end. Yeah, it's not one for one, but it's like the nickel. Like, it's like your second tight end like almost is a starter at this point for a lot of teams. And so like, especially for this team.

Especially for this team. How often are those two guys going to be on the field together? A lot of the time. Most of the time. I think most of the time they will be there out there together because it's not, we're going to get to the end of the season and the Raiders, when Bowers gets back, it's going to be like, oh, man, they were in 12 personnel 65% of the time. That's the most in the league by X percentage points.

I think it's just more helpful. And you brought up this name we were talking about the Raiders coming into the year. I think it's just easier to lessen some of the cognitive dissonance with this. Just to think of Brock Bowers as Drake London. Yeah. Just like, just think of him as Drake London. And then the rest of this stuff starts making more sense. It makes more.

And like honestly, and like, I don't think that that's a crazy amount of money for Michael Mayor because so much of offense right now is can we just stay on track to do the cool shit we want to with our best players. And if you can reliably get a good blocker out of Michael Mayer, you can be in personnel you wants where you can kind of do everything and everything is open for you. And he can, it's not going to be explosive, but Brock Bowers is going to be explosive. And Michael Mayer, you had a handful of catches in this game. You need six yards on third and five.

he can get him. You need to play in the red zone? He can get them. And like he, again, it's, it sounds like more money than it really is. And I think that he's a good player. I also think he's better than the previous production would say like, I think because of some of the offensive situations, I think that he just had to stuff that he was dealing with. I mean, there's so many things that point to why he has not been as productive as he could be. It's easy to forget that coming out of college, people were like, that dude is really good at football. And I think that he is now in a situation where he can, prove again that he is really good of football. Anything about the Dolphins defense you want to sit with before we get to the other side of the ball real quick? I mean, it was bad. The couple of things I'll say, the defensive line was really rough in this game. And like, I think especially to me the fact that some of those guys I did not expect to look great at this stage in their career, the fact that Zach Seeler, I thought kind of got moved around as much as he did in this game was pretty concerning to me. The other guy that I will shout out as like a positive small silver lining, and I don't even know if this means that he's good.

Michael Taff, their rookie fifth round safety, he plays with a reckless abandoned that I do enjoy. He was throwing his shoulder pads around. And so in coverage, it's a little up and down, but he was making some plays at run defense, I thought. Chris Johnson had a TFL playing from the slot. Like, they're young. They're young and they don't have much talent.

Like, that's just the reality of the situation with the Dolphins defense. But there are some moments where even when you consider that and not sitting in the background, there were a little bit frustrating. But the third and six to J-1-Naylor immediately after, after Chris Johnson makes that TFL, like, why are we giving 10 yards of cushion on third and six? Like, it's just the easiest completion.

A quarterback who's not going to beat you over the top or to the, like, outside the number is anyway. Those things are frustrating. Like, that doesn't, that to me is not a product of inexperience or a lack of talent. Like, that's just situationally not what should be happening. But overall, it's hard for me to get very worked up about a lack of quality from the Dolphins defense at this point.

On the other side of the ball, I was, I don't know if I was, I don't know how I feel about the Raiders defense in this game. I think they were better than I would have expected them to be, and I think that's a good start, especially on the ground. Like that is the one specific area where coming into the season, I was worried about what the Raiders run defense would look like. I just don't think you look at the talent that they have off front

in combination with Max Crosby, and I was feeling a little bit itchy about that. the Dolphins finishing with a 21% rushing success rate in this game. And the guy that really stood out up front, I thought that Fulu Fatsukasi played extremely well in this game. And so the fact that if he can be in the middle of your run defense, the linebackers are obviously significantly improved over what they were last year. I thought both of them had some moments.

That makes me feel a little bit better overall about what this Raiders defense can look like over the course of the season. Because my concern was you got one pass rush you feel. really good about, got some young D.Bs that I think will have some flashes. Trayton Stukes already did. He had a couple of really nice moments in this game. But if teams are just bludgeoning you on the ground, it's just hard to live that way. And so the fact that week one against a talented physical offensive line, even if we have

structural systemic concerns about the dolphins overall, was not able to run the ball against this team, that to me is a really positive sign, considering what I was most worried about with them coming into the season. And that's the thing. We can say it's the dolphins, but I think everybody, even if we thought that there was going to be

some issues with the dolphins, I think the one thing almost everybody would concede would be like, they could probably run the ball a little bit. And they could not really at all for most of this game. And so I thought that was really impressive.

It's not even just that the linebackers are better too. The way that they were using Walker, where they can get into those five down fronts where he's on the ball, I thought was nice. And like, I thought he had a couple nice moments in coverage too,

like awareness-wise. I really did like the way that both of those guys played. Nicoby Dean flying downhill on that, I think, fourth and one. I mean, it's, was it a fourth and one? Well, situationally, when did he make that play? It was a third down. I think it was third down or fourth.

It was like a short stop. I can't remember it was third or fourth and one. But it's, it was a third one. It was third one. I have it right here. And so him flying downhill on that play, like, there was enough that you're like, okay, I can then Stokes, Stokes and Stokes, which is going to be incredibly confusing, both had a couple moments in this game.

Yeah. And Dary and Porter did too. Porter had a couple. He had a couple of breakups that I thought were pretty impressive. They really, too. And like, there were weirdly,

the only thing that the dolphins got were like, they got a couple of explosive passes. Like Caleb Douglas had a couple of explosive ones. There's a couple moments from him where I was like, okay. Yeah, I see it. There's maybe something here. And I will say, I think what summed up my frustration overall

with the dolphins in this game, not even just the quality, but just kind of the way that they went about things. It was the middle of the second quarter. They were in second 26. I forgot exactly how they got there. Malika Willis rips a corner two whole shot down the right hand side. I think it might have been to Douglas.

And it gets them into a third and one. They run the ball and they lose a yard on third and one. Fine. But then they kick the field goal. I know. That, you can't do that. You are not going to be in enough close games and like have that many opportunities. You've got to go for that.

And like, again, I don't mind the running on third and one. Like that's totally fine. But you've got to accept that if we're still going to be in fourth and short, we got to go. And so like that, especially it's not even. even just the fourth and short in plus territory, you've just got a huge explosive chunk play to bail you out of second and 26. This drive was dead in the water three plays ago and you're giving up an opportunity to go for it.

I just... I actually know what your defense is going to look like consistently. Yeah. Ben Johnson's going for it on a fourth and one from his own 21 yard line yesterday. Because he knows that his defense can't stop. And I don't necessarily advocate for that. It's not the right choice, but mindset-wise, we should probably be... there's a middle ground to be found between those two things.

If you are Jeff Halfley and you know what your defense is going to look like this year. And fourth and two and plus territory is within that middle ground. And so I would have liked to seen them have gone for that one. What did you think of Malik Willis in this game? I don't think that he played particularly well. I don't really think he had a shot in a lot of this. Like I just think, I will say it did feel, you could feel how limited the offense was, which I think was kind of to be expected.

Like the offense was limited when it was Matt Lafleur calling plays. It's just that Matt Lafleur is one of the best to do this. and had a much more talented unit. And so I did not think that he looked very good. I think really all that you saw from him was, again, these handful of really explosive throws down the field. But I thought some of the down to down stuff didn't look great. And then I will say there were some moments where the Raiders pass rush got after it.

Pretty good. Like there was a third and 15, I think on the first or second drive. Quitty Pay just like destroys Kaden Proctor. And Kate and Proctor is a rookie. That's going to happen. But like there were more of those plays than you wanted. And I think that there will be better games that Malik Willis can play. And I think they'll learn, they'll find ways to where they can be a little bit more consistent down to down.

But it's going to have to be in working process because it will be limited. Like he is a limited player. My concern is that those limitations breed bad habits. Yeah. They were, when they were down 2713, they were driving and they were down in the red zone. And it's third down. And he's got a clean, like, pristine pocket that he bails from almost immediately. And you just have no shot.

Like if that's how you're going to play that play, you have no shot. And so I worry in a situation where the offense is extremely limited, does that lead to him consistently trying to do too much and then compounding some of the problems that we're feeling from them. It's week one, right? Like, again, it's week one, super limited offense, really young receivers. There is absolutely a chance that this gets better over the course of the year. But that was my like first thought fear when I saw him doing that where it's like,

we don't need to do this. I understand you feel like you have to shoulder a ton of this load. just play within the offense that will serve you well over the course of time. And what I'll say to that is like, I do think they ended up in probably more pure dropback situations than they would have wanted because of how the run game was. I don't think the run game will look this bad every week. Like they have enough talent and enough like Devon Achan is really talented.

Willis has something as a runner. Like I think they will find enough to be better than this. It won't look this bad. But I do still worry. Like there will be good defenses that put them in these games where they're sub 35. percent rushing success rate and he has to be a dropback passer. I do still have my questions about how that's going to look and go. The Raiders last year, we talked about it a lot with when we discussed Patrick Graham in the

offseason, preview show. They were playing with eight guys in the box as often as any defense in football last year because they thought like they felt like they needed to. 11 Devon A. Chan carries in this game. One play of eight or more guys in the box for the Raiders. They had 10 carries that they faced with six or seven defenders in the box. those 10 carries went for 31 yards, one of them was successful. One successful run on those 10 carries in six or seven man boxes for the Raiders.

That's a very good start, considering the way that you had to live last year. And again, I think the linebackers had a big role in that. And I thought Fattu Kassi was really good in this game. The D-line looks good, man. Like all they got, like Adam Butler, who's like one of my favorite, like weird little players. I thought that he had a couple of nice plays. Like, again, I thought Quitty Pay even had a couple of plays. Like they, the front's not going to destroy everybody.

But again, the front last year was such that they had to dedicate every resource they had to make it work. I just don't think they have to live that way anymore. The other guy, again, we mentioned him just quickly, but I wanted to bring it back because I'm really, I think I'm really going to enjoy watching him play. I'm excited about Stoaks. Yeah. The, the play that he makes on the interception is what you saw from him consistently in college where his range is just, just outlandish because he is so explosive. But there are other play.

I think I remember when it was in the game, but they're playing quarters, or these quarters to his side, and he's on the backside. And just how confidently and quickly he cuts the crosser on the backside, knowing what he's doing. He's got to play a lot of college football

is clearly very smart if you've ever heard him talk. And so the idea that in his first game, we saw the physical ability with the interception, but also some of the mental stuff where he clearly has a handle, and what they're asking of him. He's a player that I'm really excited about. Yeah, and they need a juice on that team.

Like, they did not have a ton of dudes who were just like super athlete, I mean, outside of Max Crosby, obviously, who felt like he can make a difference. They've added a lot more like quality players, but if he can actually be a guy who's like a little bit of a needle mover, that does go a long way for them. Good start for the Las Vegas Raiders.

That's one of those games. Which is funny. Last year they beat the AMC Super Bowl. It's true. That is true. Team. I was, you're right. I was about to say when you had a season like the Raiders did last year coming out and looking like this,

if you're a Raiders fan is just such a sigh of relief. Not because you think this team is going to make the playoffs or win 10 games. But even if last week, last year's week one was a liar, I don't think this is going to be the same where even if the Raiders are going to be held back by some of their talent limitations, it is so incredible to have a team that you don't actively hate watching every single week when you had to endure that the entire previous season. And so that's all I want for Raiders fans this year. And that play that we're talking about,

like the backside shine to Michael Mayer and just the rhythm that it happens on, that's the type of shit where it might seem small, but when you add that up over time, it just leads to an offense and a team where it's like they're doing the right things. Even if we're at stage one of the build here and other teams are going to out-talon us,

do I have a team that I think is putting itself in the right positions that's not knee capping itself before the game even gets started. And if that's where we can land with the Clint Kubiak Raiders over the course of the season, that may seem modest, but I do think that that would go a long way in making this fall a little bit more enjoyable for people who root for this team. Just be the sub-500 team that sticks around. And the offense looks good.

That's all it's got to be. When you watch Kirk in this game, is there anything about his performance or the overall environment, with the offense that leads you to any sort of thought about the timeline with Mendoza. I think it's tough. I think on one hand, he does limit what the offense is capable of. You're just not going to get very much downfield throwing. And I will say, like, I even have questions about how good the receiving core even really

is for that. Like, they're going to be an offense that has to live under the 20-yard line. And I do think his ability to push outside the numbers at this point is a little bit tough. I do still think though that, and this is kind of what I said going into the season, he has played more football and played more good football than most of the other quarterbacks who are ahead of these first overall pick guys. So like, I just don't think that this is going to be a situation where it's October and they're ripping him already.

The only case I see that being the case is like they really think Mendoza is like a dude, which like is entirely possible. He's the first overall pick and he's built like a cyborg. But I just, I think that Kirk will handle this well enough that it is not going to be a situation where we're begging for Mendoza would be in the game. Yeah. And I want to see them play against the defense that's not the dolphins in order to get a sense of, again, some of the systemic considerations, like what sort of situation are we

dropping Mendoza into when he gets to play? We don't have an answer on that right now. Not yet. Even if I can be, I can like what I saw from the Raiders offense and I like the plan and I like some of the things that they were doing, I still don't have a proper understanding of what you're putting your first overall pick into until you play a team that is not starting, I'm not even going to say any names because I don't want to be mean. The starting defensive backs for the Miami Dolphins, that's what I'll say.

I want to see them play against a team that doesn't, is not in that situation before I think we start talking about when it's time to see Mendoza just to know you're not putting him in harms away. Right. That's the biggest consideration. And so I, we don't, we don't yet have a proper understanding of how much you would be putting him in harm's way based on this game and their opponent on the other side. That's probably the better way to put it.

let's make sure he's not going to get smacked out there. All right. That is all we've got for week one on the Monday hangover. We'll be doing this every single week, obviously chatting about a handful of games. That's all we've got for today. We'll be back tomorrow on the feed with Building the Beast. Dave and Dane breaking down all things, 27 draft. I don't know what they're talking about tomorrow,

but I assume some of it is related to what we saw. from the 2027 quarterbacks last weekend. It's almost going to be all that true mess to maker, Arch Manning, Dante Moore, Julian San. Those four quarterbacks played against one another, right? Oregon, Oklahoma State, Ohio State, Texas. So a lot of good quarterback talk coming tomorrow. The 227 quarterback class continues to be a moving target.

I think generously, if we put it generously. That's all we've got for today. Sincerely appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you later. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, please like, comment, and leave a rating.

We'll see you next time.