The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 1 Recap: Dolphins-Chargers fireworks, 49ers roll over the Steelers, Browns dominate the Bengals, and more

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

Your favorite Sunday night ritual is back. Robert Mays and Nate Tice are here to recap Week 1 of the NFL season. The guys dig into the Dolphins-Chargers showstopper, the 49ers' drubbing of the Steelers, the Browns wire-to-wire win over the Bengals, Trevor Lawrence-to-Calvin Ridley, and a whole lot more.Follow Robert on X: @robertmaysFollow Nate on X: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTubeThis episode is sponsored by LinkedIn. Right now, you can try LinkedIn Sales Navigator and get a sixty-day free trial at linkedin.com/MAYS23.This episode is sponsored by Sleep Number®: Save $400 on the New Sleep Number® c4 smart bed. Plus, special financing for a limited time. Only at Sleep Number® stores or sleepnumber.com. Sleep Number. The Official Sleep and Wellness Partner of the National Football League. See store for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Join me tonight. It's my good friend Nate Tice. Nate, how you doing, buddy? I'm doing very, very well. I'm glad we've eased into this with some other live shows.

I feel just, I feel, I feel, I feel lubricated for this show. Like, you know, as opposed to most seasons where I felt stiff going into week one. I know, I couldn't find a better word. I feel very, I feel loose and ready to go for this season. I thought week one was started with just so many interesting games, interesting outcomes. I'm so excited to talk about it. And Sunday night game was a little anti-clamatic, but at least there's some things to talk about with the game, at least for one side of the ball. So let's spend a little bit of time on that before we dig into all the other

games that we're going to talk about today. I mean, the Cowboys absolutely throttle the Giants, 40 to nothing. Both of us pick the Cowboys to finish number one in DVOA, really would never advance defensive metric you want to throw out there before the season. Whichever one makes us look smartest. I didn't expect that to start the year like that. It was like they were taking turns too. I was like, all right, you got it. You get the pick here. That's the thing about their defense, though, is that they have so many guys who can make an impact, whether it's a front, the depth that they have in the secondary.

But this sort of statement to open the season, their offense didn't do anything crazy and they still have really good players on that side of the ball. But for their defense to be this dominant, I think it justifies anyone who came into this season with a healthy amount of Cowboys optimism. Seven different guys got TFLs. That's pretty good. One, two, three, four, five, six. Yeah, seven guys got TFLs. They got seven sacks total, just a whole bunch, a dozen hits. It felt just like, they just controlled it from Snap One.

It just felt chaotic on every play. And that's the thing is even with whatever you want to think about their offense. And that's the thing going into this game. It was the offensive line injuries. And it was like, oh, here we go again with the Cowboys. They're missing half their starters. The offensive line's already falling apart. It didn't even matter.

It's because the defense is going to dictate so many games. And then NFC that does have some good teams that we'll talk about in the show too. But there's a lot of bad teams in the NFC. And that defense is going to go against a lot of bad quarterbacks, bad offensive lines, or at least incomplete units. And they're just going to control games like that or at least keep the Cowboys in games no matter what the offense is doing. I think Inc Complete is a good way to describe the Giants offense. They still don't have a lot of weapons at their past catching spots. The offensive line is still very young.

We know, Evan Neal needed to take a huge step forward this year. I think he was my X-Factor when we did our Giants preview. I don't know if he was yours. And he didn't play great tonight. Any concern about the Giants after this game? Was this more of a they ran into a Cowboys defense that might just be a buzzsaw the entire year to teams that are worse than them and are those sort of incomplete units? They were the wall and the Cowboys were a juggernaut. They just ran right through.

And I think that's just what it is. This Cowboys team, even last year, it had some ugly wins early that they squeaked out. That's how I remember it anyways. But they came along. They jelled and they kind of figure out their offensive identity. Really after a couple weeks and that's what we credited those coaches. This team was starting two rookie corners. I mean, I'm glad they brought up that stat. I mean, that kind of speaks to the Giants. They have some nice things. We like the coaching staff. But as a whole team, they're incomplete. We said last year was a bonus year. Like it was unbelievable. They even made the playoffs. So I thought it was just they ran to a really tough matchup and a team

ready to go has championship aspirations and they're not on the same aspirations. yet as a franchise. Totally, a lot of continuity on the Cowboys defense, too. I mean, all those guys have been in that system before, really the only addition, the entire offseason was Stefan Gilmore. Every other piece of money they spent this offseason, every other bit of resources was guys being brought back. Stefan Gilmore, too. Like, you bet who's been several defenses and it's like a vet, like knows the system, knows offenses. Yeah, it's like that's the guy you're adding. All right, let's move on to the highlight of the day. And that is the absolutely wild game that took place between the dolphins and

the chargers in the afternoon slate. I love it. Week one, you get this back and forth shootout between two offenses. I think we're both excited about. I may have to eat a little bit of crow about the dolphins as we get into this. Just overarching. I don't think I gave Mike McDaniel enough credit for what the 2.0 version of this would look like and just how creative that offensive staff was.

And we can get into the reasons for that. But just on a general level, an absolute thriller. to kick off week one in the afternoon window with everybody paying attention. I didn't have either of these teams in my top 10 when it was all said and done. But they'd say positive things about both, but that was more of an injury, overarching, overhanging injury concerns that I think that hang over both of these teams and both these offenses. So that's, we'll talk about in 10 weeks.

But holy crap, Mike McDaniel is good. He is so good. And what, first off, one stat is that they had 16 explosive plays today. And I looked it up. That's the second most. A team has had in the game since 2014. There's only one game that was better, which was a Rams loss in 2020, but we don't talk about that.

It was a weird game that that showed up in. But just the we've talked about before the use of speed and the use of motion that Mike McDaniel has done. And really these Shanahan offenses have done. He's kind of added another layer to it. And it was a motion he kept using. I just wanted to show just one motion, talk about it just to explain everything that he was doing today, was this.

we talk about jet motions all the time across the formation across the formation he was doing out motions and getting and he's hiding alignment every which way or every way now so what they're doing is just think of a helicopter they can go in any direction now that motion go any direction and now you're making the defenses communicate over and over and over and they're doing with tyreek hill and jayl and they're doing with backup receivers like the dolphins do a weird thing where they kind of hockey shift their receivers and so they like okay the starters are out okay backups in and so they're but they're still doing with River Crawcraft, River Crockcraft, River Craycraft. Really?

It's like a twilight novel. But it's, yeah, but they'll get in stack. They're hiding these alignments. And I'm not trying to get too scheme heavy with this stuff, but just how he weaponizes the speed is just, he's creative. It's like a postmodern offense. You know what I mean? Like he uses like tropes and just knows, okay, you're playing.

we're doing all this jet motion behind the quarterback. Now we're just going to go the other way. And it's going to make you guys communicate in a way that you weren't expecting over and over and over. It's just, it's amazing. It's such cool stuff. There's other stuff he did. But that was just the thing that just stood out to me, it was just using just something that seems so simple.

But no one leans into it as much as Mike McDaniel does and weaponizing with the assets that he has. Last year, it was all out of jet motion where you'd have a player come across the entire formation and change the picture that way. Now it's a player starting on one side of the formation, but just changing where he's aligned right before the snap. And the one that really jumped out to me is there was a chunk play early in the second quarter where Tyreek Hill was kind of as an hback lined up almost like a tight end. And he just goes in a quick little speed motion. And then because of the way that the receiver number count changes and the leverage is changed right before the snap, there's just so little you can do as a defense when all that speed is coming at you. And the picture is changing that quickly. There's really no time for them to communicate.

And J.C. Jackson had absolutely no shot on that play because, again, it just all changes so, so fast. And they were using that little tiny quick motion all throughout the game. And I'm sure it happened. It's nothing football is new, right? No. We've seen all this stuff before. But seeing a team use it 10 times today, a dozen times today? A dozen.

The way that they did, I've never seen a team do that before. And it's just one more little bit of wrinkle in the evolution. And why it's important is teams did such a good job late in the season of getting physical with those guys at the line of scrimmage. And this is just one more way that you're creating free releases and changing the picture right before the snap. So the next kind of fold, the next step in this Miami Dolphins innovation and evolution. We saw it today. And it was like a fireworks show. It was like that millhouse meme, just the TV coming at you that I tweeted this morning.

It was insane. Yeah, we're playing the video game. It's, oh, my God. It's the use of leverage, it's almost wingtie stuff, like, or flex bone, like kind of kind of stuff. Like that as far as like the out motion and everything, it's not orbit or anything like that, but just as far as using the motion to go out as they're starting in the wing position, it's just so cool. Like it really is.

I just can't get over it. Like just, I've seen teams do that, but it's a one off play. They ran the play that you talked about to Hill, the one I talked about with the backup receivers. They used it on quick game. They used a bootleg out of it. So they're running everything out of it. And they're just, again, using a guy that runs a 4-240 that the one you're talking about, the fact that they can attack 16 yards down the field after the guy is already going

a motion outwards. That's how fast Tyreek Hill is. But let's use it. Let's break the rules because we have a guy that can break the rules. And then also on top of that, going back to the basics, they're also just doing like under-center stuff. And that stuff that we talked about, they did in the second half of the Chargers game last year under center. They set play action out of it. They did under center run game. Yeah, really just

well done. The explosive plays and everything just kind of like matches how this team looked today. They just looked fantastic. And that's with making some mistakes. The Chargers had no answer in the secondary. J.C. Jackson was just running around, his head was spinning the entire game. He had the pick, obviously, but they were picking on him consistently throughout the entire game. Yeah. It was, how about the play before the end of the first half? He gets a PI. And that, We're going to do a sliding door segment later. That actually should have been one of them because the team lost by two. And they gave up a cheap field goal at the end of the half that just didn't make any sense.

Why do you even think that was a good play? One more sliding doors moan in this game from the Dolphins offense. Mike McDaniel choosing to go for it on fourth and seven from the 42 yard line late in the second quarter and them getting it. Those little things are we forget them. You look at the numbers and two or three for 400 yards and they had 30 first downs. You forget that those decisions are so, so important. The fourth and seven to go for it. It late in the second quarter and get it.

And then that J.C. Jackson shove end up becoming huge in this game. And it was also interesting. This is the last kind of thing with this offense that was, is their use of, they did this last year, but using 21 personnel with Algae and gold out there and kind of making the defense pick their poison. And this is kind of just the story of how the dolphins in this game had were always, or the chargers were one hand tied by their back. Like every time they had one answer, they came up with an answer that the dolphins

had something else for them. The chargers at first were matching with base every time the dolphins try out a fullback out there. So, okay, cool. We'll try out base. You guys aren't going to run on this. 12 plays. They match with base.

Seven first downs for the dolphins. Five explosive plays. Okay. So, all right, cool. All right. So it's matched with nickel, right? Let's get five dbs out there. That way.

Okay, we get a little more speed on the field. 15 plays, four explosive plays on 11 dropbacks and seven first downs. So they're just averaging like a first down at 50% clip. So just you figure out this one, you plug one hole and then dolphins just pop up two more into your boat and just sink it. It was just unbelievable to watch today. And then Al Gingle had a couple big completions in this game. He had a couple big receptions in this game. And so it wasn't even just the speed.

It wasn't just the stars. They were creating easy completions for a lot of guys. I want to also just acknowledge two have made three or four plays out of structure today that were huge in the outcome of the game. He had one down in the red zone where he kind of just created. created after the play, found Durham Smyth for a big completion in the first half. And then the biggest completion of the entire game, he makes that happen. He steps up in the pocket. He extends just a tiny bit, finds a little bit more time and finds Tyree killed down the field.

And that was one of the concerns and questions with him last year is when you take away what's available to him within the structure of the play, what does he turn into? And I think there were four or five moments in this game where he gave you an answer that if you're a Dolphins fan, you should feel very, very good about. And then he dotted that fade to Tyreek, too. Yeah, that was a BB. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, that was a triple 20.

No, but the, uh, he had a couple other ones. Um, no, he had some great ones. Like, and also just throwing on time, getting rid of the ball. Like their, their pressure never really, never really felt like that was affecting them in the game too much. Ron Armstrongston didn't play in the game today. I know. Didn't even notice it. And that's the number one concern with this team.

It's like, oh, they're not going to be able to protect. But it's just like if they throw it like this and they're able to attack, just like last year, they're able to attack 20 yards down to. field under two seconds. That's so incredibly hard to stop. Doesn't matter how good you pass rush is. Are you worried about the Chargers defense? Or is this another case of them just running into a team that had a very good offseason plan knew exactly what the next iteration of this had to look like and just jumped on them the entire game? I'm unchanged. I want to see the Chargers defense against a team that's maybe more mediocre and not super duper explosive like this. So they had some okay moments at least in the

run game, but it's like, yeah, I just want to see them against a quote unquote normal team, as opposed to this, this thing that we just saw today. It's the same concerns I had preseason. You know, how can they stop the run? How's the spine of the defense built? But it's like, you know, I just want to see you. I'm concerned. I mean, again, you're not going to be playing against Tyra Kill and this sort of passing game

every single week, but J.C. Jackson's performance today is at least a little bit concerning to me. Awful. I mean, 16 explosive plays. That's pretty concerning when you're spoke, when technically you're built to not give up explosive plays. I mean, that's like your whole philosophy, at least, for your defense. A tough loss for the Chargers, but I came out of this game still feeling pretty optimistic about the Chargers, especially their offense.

The big questions we had about the Chargers after their offensive performance over the last couple years, can they find explosive plays and can they run the ball consistently? The Dolphins did everything they could to take away explosive plays today, but we got an answer to the second question, boy. 234 yards on 40 carries for the chargers. They were unbelievably efficient. If you look at their EPA per play running the ball, it was about the same as Patrick Mahomes' dropback EPA last season. That's how good they were every single time they ran the ball today. And I just thought they did such a great job of quick hitting runs,

which was their big issue last year. A lot of the runs were way too horizontal. And if teams are going to play you in those light boxes, they want you to have these slower developing runs where their safeties can fill a little bit slowly. All of this stuff was quick hitting. And I thought they did such a great job of using the tight ends in the run game. Yeah. And not asking them to block at the point of attack.

They were leading up on stuff. They were coming across the formation. I thought it was really, really creative. So them being able to find that sort of run game this early makes me feel pretty good about where this offense can go over the course of the year. 24 out 36 round plays are successful. That's ridiculous. That's insane. Yeah.

You lead the league last year at like 45%. They were at 66.7%. Without any real QB runs. I mean, Herbert can do it, but that's not their game. Just traditional run game. Yeah, only four teams have ever had a more efficient day on the ground with the same amount of runs or more. So it's since 2014. So it was a pretty banner day in L.A.

between these two offenses. It's pretty awesome. But no, I would say just even the run game was Kellynne Moore, at least like weaponizing what he has. I guess I've stopped using word weaponizing. but I'll use it one more time. But like Zion Johnson's a great puller. And what you brought up with the tight ends, that's a great point is not having to block a point of attack.

And a lot of teams are doing this. So a pin pull play, usually it's two-poll offense alignment pulling to the outside towards the tight-end side. It's a strong side run. But the tight end traditionally has the pin. He has to block a D-N to get the whole thing going. So that's when you hear me have a lot of concerns about tight-in blocking. It's usually this play I have in mind because-

Especially this group. Yeah, especially this group. But what I've seen teams starting to do, and the Browns kind of popularized this last year and a couple other teams, is they have the tight end kind of feigned the D.N because these D.Ns are so wide now. And then the block the linebacker at the second level. And then they have the guard pull and kick out the D.N. So they just exchange responsibilities. And boy, the Chargers were good at today. And Zion Johnson on those as opposed to like a zone run, he looks fantastic because he pulls.

He just kicks the crap out of a D.N. And it just opens up like crazy. And so they're just spreading it out and doing. runs like that. It's just sound football and they're running duo, which I always love, of course, out of the same formation I just talked about for the other point. It was their best run play last year. They leaned into the things they do best in the run game. And that was one of our biggest questions about them coming into the year. And they didn't telegraph it. That was always the thing with Joe Lombardi's offense. It was like, this formation we're doing this run. I think you and Chase

talked about a little bit, but like this formation we're doing this run. Today, they're doing it at the formation that they do other runs out of. And then so you're just making the look a little different. you're making them communicate with motion, but then you're making like Zavian Howard the corner tackle over and over, and he didn't tackle today. So you're just getting these 8, 12-yard runs on really not a lot of investment. So again, it's just sound football.

So it's good to see because, again, that was a huge concern we had. One real frustrating moment, if I may, was getting on a third and one, getting into empty. And like that was the play that Herbert almost took the safety out on. And it's like, you guys were running the ball.

That was a problem. And then they tried to run a shovel pass to Quentin Johnson on third and one. Both of those were immensely frustrating moments. And again, it's just those little tiny, if that goes the other way, this game could go the other way. And when they're running the ball so well to go to those sorts of looks and those moments was frustrating. And in the end, they needed to make some plays in the passing game, and they couldn't on that final drive. I thought the Chargers passing game was fine, but still meat on the bone that I want to see them be better or more explosive, just more reliable over the course of the season. Even in that final drive, it just didn't feel like they were going to make that happen.

If that game, let's say they score. If the dolphins were only going to lose that game, in my opinion, because they ran out of time, right? If they turned the ball over in the red zone, their offense was unstoppable. Even if the Chargers run game was good today, I never felt that way about that. That was the difference in kind of my overall assessment of how the two offenses played. This is the difference between explosive and efficient is like right here, especially how you get to those. get to those. Like the dolphins say, we'll be fine and efficient on the ground, but we're getting all these

explosives through the air. The Chargers are right now trying to be super efficient on both, but you're not, they're not getting those explosives. They did on the run game today. But it's like, that's why if you're just built that way and not getting them through the air, which was our other question. It was the run game and how they create explosives through the air, how they push the ball. Still, one question, still kind of sort of waiting. We got to see, but it's like, yeah, that's kind of always just one thing,

always wanted remaining with this Chargers offense, it feels like. still bullish about both the offenses, and I think both these teams would be very relevant in the AFC. All right, here we go. It's time for you have my attention. Let's get to it. Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention.

Every Sunday during an NFL Sunday, there's just a wall of stimuli coming at us, especially week one. Week one, I'm never ready for what that initial kickoff looks like. I got five games going on at the same time. So each week we try to find two, three teams, two, three performances. they really just stood up and kind of grabbed us by the collar in what is a wall of football coming at you.

And the first one today was the San Francisco 49ers and what they did to the Steelers in the early Slate Boy. Put up 30 points against the Steelers defense that were both pretty optimistic about. It was a matchup that we were watching coming into the game. The Niners made this look easy today. They controlled the whole game. And they even had some inconsistent moments and it didn't matter. They were talking about explosive. like just that this is the weapons everywhere with Purdy just doing what he purdy does a couple

oh shit moments in a good way and oh shit moments in a bad way and that's that's him that's him he's going to be chaotic but when you have an offense like this and a defense like this oh my goodness like the hive mind of this 40-Nir's defense and the speed is just they took over the game and didn't even matter what the offense did in the offense anyways was just explosive and just all the weapons were doing something okay maybe not all the weapons a couple of the weapons we're really doing a lot. Enough of the weapons we're doing something in this game. When you have four guys that can do a lot and two, you only need two of them to step up. Exactly. You can take turns. If you get 40% of them having monster games, you'll be okay.

I wish I could go back in time. Yeah. I wish I could go back in time when we were talking about the Steelers' offense heading into the season and just slap myself in the face. You shouldn't have gone to practice. That wasn't it. That honestly, that honestly was not it. It was. Because you got in my head, I was like, you know, they did look better on that second half of the year. It wasn't even practice. It was going back and watching a couple of those Kenny Pickett games and just thinking he's got a little bit to him. If they can take a step forward, if he takes a step forward, there's enough talent on this offense for them to be an intriguing offense at the very least. And I wish I could go back and slap myself in the face and say, you know that Matt Canada is still the offensive coordinator for this team, right?

You know this. But you watch that, the Steelers offense today. And you compare that to watching the Dolphins offense, watching a Rams offense. You don't even need to have the Dolphins talent, watching a Rams offense that we're going to talk about later. How dynamic some of these offensive systems and units are in the NFL compared to what the Steelers look like in the passing game. It's insane. It's like they're playing two different sports. And I know that the Niners defense is really, really good.

And they deserve some credit. But it's important to acknowledge that. And I wish I had put more creeds in it before the year started. I'm so mad at myself. I mean, even compared to like the Patriots offense today, like the like Bill O'Brien's the new Dalton line for offense play callers. So it's like better than Bob or worse than Bob? Worse than Bob. No, I'm not feeling it.

Like that would you take back hand over Bill O'Brien? And it's like, no. So that's your answer. But I mean, Fred, watch, talk about the high mind of the 49ers defense and that and also talking about Canada and how predictable the passing game is. Well, I first had the stat a couple of weeks ago I got from Next Gen stats was just the pass ratio to run ratio when there's a motion. Just like, I mean, it's like 70% of the time when they're motioning. It's usually going to be a run play for the Steelers offense. So you kind of have an indicator there.

They don't motion as much when they pass the ball. Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw were just running routes for the Steers passing game. Like they were just every high low that they're running. Even beyond that, the way that they were reacting to motion, there was a play early in the game. where the Steelers use all this jet motion and it was the two safeties. Of course, it was the suit safety's communicating. And that's the difference.

There's this idea that more motion equals good. If the motion is not purposeful, then it doesn't matter. And if the motion makes you predictable, then it doesn't matter. And watching the 49ers so easily communicate to each other with the jet motion and rock the safeties down and everyone was in a perfect position, it's like they had to do everything that was coming. They were one step ahead the entire game. on defense. And I know that they're great and I know that there's so many smart players on that

team, but I still think that this is one of those moments that reminds us that the Steelers just structurally are not at a place that's going to make them as dangerous as they can be, period. It just always feels like the whole concept, everybody's on an island. It's, it's iso ball everywhere, I suppose to. And they watch a 40-9. And think about how different the good offenses feel from that. It never feels like that. It's watching the freaking seven second or less sons going against the ISO ball era of the NBA. Like, that's what it feels. like just right there. It's like, oh, this is really pretty what this one team's doing. You watch the other team. It's like, well, they just pass it and give the, you know, ISO Joe and all that.

And that's what it feels like shoot 18 footers, like contested 18 footers. That is the Steelers offense. It's, and God, I, God, I know. Even I was like kind of coming around on it. I named it as a playoff team. Do you think the defense is much better than this performance today. Because just, again, it's one of those bus saw moments, just running into an offense that just has a lot figured out. And they're adding to stuff too. They have a run concept that I think is really interesting right now, too. I thought that this was one of those games where it was a combination of the offensive line and the back, just playing beautifully off one another.

There was a lot blocked based on how well the 49ers offensive line played. But McCaffrey's vision in this game, he was just getting every single yard that was available, whether it was cutbacks, the spin move he had in the hole on the huge run. That run, the huge run that he had, we had the spin move in the hole to me is the perfect encapsulation of this. If you watch that run unfold, there are two beautiful combinations, beautiful. Burford is great on that play. Jake Brendel comes off at the exact right time. And then there's one guy left in the hole.

McCaffrey makes him miss with a spin move. That's his job. And you make the one guy miss. And then I, you decletes somebody. And McLeod is 40 yards downfield making the play. It's just everyone in the run game acting cohesively. And you get that sort of beautiful result. And I just think that was the expression of the Niners offense today was plays like that where all was falling in line.

The receivers were on a lot of plays. IUC especially were just blocking their tails off. And that's buy-in. That's knowing that, you know, if I do this, if I block this, this could turn six yards into 60 yards, you know, or this can turn two yards into 20 yards. Like that's what, because usually there is, you have to account for those guys. Usually the safety and receiver, the play doesn't get to them. So a lot of them can kind of, you know, take the play off. I'm all right.

But if you notice today was early on, especially, it was the 49ers were doing a lot of toss place to the outside. And that requires receivers blocking because they have to pin. They have to create the angles. And Iyuk was doing it. Like it's pretty cool to see a guy that's so explosive that caught two touchdowns today and went over 100 yards is blocking with stuff that I just go gaga over and just doing all the dirty work as well. So that's a part of this with the 49ers office. We talk about all these guys are so explosive. Look at all these stars.

Kittles a huge blocker. Debo does dirty work sometimes too. Iuke's doing it now. CMC is doing stuff too. He lead blocks when they go to Debo. It's like it's really, really cool. What this death line I was doing right now in San Francisco land. Purdy was exactly the type of guy that he was last year in the sense of how he elevated this

offense compared to other versions that we had seen in the past. You had maybe three or four plays where he extends with his legs and make something happen out of structure the exact way we did last year. And even him letting that ball rip to Iuke down the right side line, that's the difference. He's willing to trust him on that play. On that same drive, the Steelers were in cover two, and he fit a really nice ball into the middle of the field. I think it was to Debo right over the safety in front, right over the linebacker in front

of the safety. And two plays later, he goes down the right sideline to IUC and just makes a throw that other quarterbacks within this offense haven't been willing to make in the exact same situation. So I think goes again, a couple different little moments, a couple different little ways that he elevates this thing and makes it more dangerous. And we've seen that already. Yeah. And that's the thing.

It's like he's going to have the chaotic moments, but he creates. And if the opportunity is there, we talk about that with the Arian's offense. What is no no risk and no biscuit, no biscuit? Like that's on a lot of high lows. There's going to be a quarterback I talk about later that's like if you're, Kenny Pickett sometimes. If you're only taking the low on the high lows, the defense is just going to crowd it. and it's going to get tight, tight, tight, tight. You have to make them piss off.

You have to make them give room. So how you do that is you have to attack the high? This is why I go nuts over guys like Lawrence, like Trevor Lawrence and stuff. And even Burrow, when he's not having a day like today, is that like they will attack the high. Stafford, Mahomes, they get the doubles when the doubles are there as opposed to just a single. They get that extra base. So that's what Purdy does unlock with this offense. There's going to be times where sometimes he flips tails three times in a row.

but then there's going to be times that he's creating something that this offense might not have had before out of structure, which is just, I think, a bonus. The one thing I'm a little bit worried about watching the Niners offense, and they're not going to have to go against TJ Wat every single game. But Colton McKivitz did not have a great day against TJ Wat. It was a rough, rough matchup over there. But I think a lot of right tackles are going to have rough moments against TJ Wat, just something to keep an eye on moving forward personnel-wise with this Niners offense. Yep. Oh, man. But, God, watch this Nyer's defense.

Watch the blitzes they brought today. They were like, they're using Fred Warner as the little 5-0 looks, which is one, you have four defense alignment, one other guy up there, just run all these games with him. They had him and Dre Greenlaw. Greenlaw is acting like he's in zone and then runs over to cover the man. He actually covers the running back. It's like, oh, these guys are just, these guys are at 301, 4-401 level at this point. Which is encouraging with a new defensive coordinator because that was going to be one of the

questions. How far along were they with somebody new pole in the level? And the one difference that we could have possibly anticipated is a little bit more pressure. Even though Domingo Ryan's was starting to live in that world, especially down the stretch last year, Steve Wilkes has always been a little bit more pressure oriented, a little bit more aggressive in those situations. So we've already seen maybe what the Steve Wilkes flavor of this Niners offense could look like.

He was born in the darkness of the Blitz world. He is. He didn't have to learn that. He lives in this world. Speaking of great defensive performances, the Cleveland Browns, you have my attention. Goodness gracious, did they come out and just beat up this Bengals offense? I'm about 48 hours removed from picking Joe Burrow to win the MVP and picking the Bengals to have the best record in the league.

And I still feel like the Bengals will be fine, look back to the way they started last season, etc. But the Browns came out today with, one, an excellent game plan. And two, a mentality on defense that I think I, guy I wanted to see. I wanted to see this defense feel different. I wanted to see them just, there was something missing over the last couple of years. Even with the talent that they had in certain areas personnel wise, there was always something missing. And this was one of those games where it just felt like it was all coming together in a way we haven't seen before. And man, was that encouraging.

Be the aggressor, be not be a finesse defense, which is just seems like an oxymoron. like it's like actually be aggressive and oh my goodness they were just weaponized today god stop saying that but honestly the but just this uh but i mean but look at how the the wide alignments that uh jim schwartz is letting this defense play with and the speed he's letting them play with they just seen they were taking it to them they're running man coverage against the bangles which you and i in our preview show were like well jim schwartz wants to live in a single high world like you got like let's see if he tries it and he tried it and but it was so cool what jim shwarts was pulling the levers. He was dictating a lot in this game. And just looking at what they did on third

down was just so interesting. He was at first doing man coverage. So Burroughs launching go balls, launching inside slot fade routes, which are 50-50 balls. This is sometimes going to lead to inconsistencies. He went 0 for three on those throws on third down. So then what happens is as the game goes along on those third downs is Schwartz shows man coverage, then gets into cover two. Then he shows man coverage and gets to three buzz. He shows three buzz, which is a version to cover three. His safety comes down inside. He's showing all these different looks and they get into cover two.

And then Burrow is holding onto the ball with that pass rush coming after him. And they're giving chip help. So not all five guys are getting out. So now it's not there's no. It's over. As soon as that sort of hesitation. It's over. And that's what it felt like today.

So you look at the Bengals over the last two years on offense. Okay. So we have this world in 2021. where they're this hyper explosive team. And they're making all these explosive players against single high looks. Then you go to last year and teams are playing all this too high coverage against them. And they're just comfortable dinking and dunk in their way and being this hyper efficient offense. So those are the two kind of worlds that we've lived in with the Bengals and they've solved both worlds.

What teams didn't do against them in either of those worlds was Blitz. Teams have not blitzed Joe Burrow because they've been so scared about what he is going to do against them when blitzed. So teams blitzboro on 15.6% of his dropbacks last season, which was the lowest rate in the NFL, even lower than Tom Brady. The Brown's blitz today on 38% of his dropbacks. On those plays, he finished 2 of 11 for 16 yards with one first down. The only first down was on a corner blitz.

I was a heat check moment from Jim Schwartz. And he lobbed it over him to chase. That was the only one. Any more traditional pressure? When you get to a certain place in the game, you're like, ah, fuck it. We might as well just run the corner cat to see how it goes for us. And you're like, hey, we haven't called number seven yet. But everything else they ran, the Bengals had no answer.

And I think it's a great thing to point out. It was just enough little wrinkles in the coverages where they were very comfortable being aggressive and challenging them in man coverage, which a lot of teams aren't willing to do at this stage. Yeah. But there were also just enough wrinkles with the cover two stuff. There was a play in the second quarter, I want to say, where it was a second and long and Delpit followed the tight end over in motion.

So you think, all right, well, they're just in man coverage. And they drop back into cover two and Burrow just had to dump it off. And the next play, okay? So this is the perfect kind of two play sequence. That happens on one play. On the next play, it's third down. And they use Miles Garrett as a spinner over the center, which they did multiple. different times today where you have a 5-0 look with five guys, five one-on-ones that you create,

and you have one of, if not the best past rushers in the league, one-on-one with your center in that situation. And they were comfortable doing that the entire game. And when you say they were dictating, those are the ways in which they were dictating, finding all those one-on-ones and just not being afraid of playing, man, the confidence with which Jim Schwartz called the game and the confidence with which the secondary, especially played in this game was really eye-opening when you compare it to other versions of this Browns defense. The man coverage snaps, exactly. That's exactly what it stood out to me. Was the attitude those

d'Bs played with? So much attitude. Emerson, the way that Denzoward looked early in the game, the guy I thought had the best moments just because, again, it's a departure from what we've seen from him in the past. Delpit had three or four moments in this game where I was like, okay, now we're cooking with gas. Like if this guy is going to play with this sort of assertiveness, then you're going to be in a really good spot as a defense. And that's how it fell today. And again, and that's why, I mean, just the, I mean, honestly, one stat that's to me was, Burrow had 11 throws over 10 yards or 10 air yards.

He went one for 11 on those. Like he was just anything down the field. They just couldn't get any, like, just get them off their backs. Like, just like, okay, can we get a little breathing room on some of this? And again, that's what the man coverage, man coverage, man coverage. Okay, I'm going to beat this pass rush anyways. The Browns were going to pressure under two seconds. Average time to pressure is under two seconds.

So I'm going to get rid of the ball. I'm going to give her the ball. Oh, man coverage. I'll take my one-on-one. I'm going to take my chances with that. And that's what Jim Schwartz was doing. He was doing the Big Brother move. Like, why?

No, I'm not hitting you. I'm not hitting you right now. So again, it's just like, it was really cool to like see that change up from some of that's so aggressive. And then doing like spot drop zone, which I talked about in the Thursday show and just changing up the looks. It just wasn't always the same look at Joe Burrow. And this is what the Ravens did at the end of last season,

which changed those post-snap looks on them and make them just double clutch to ball and just go, is that cover two? Or is that cover three? They got Miles Garrett into coverage multiple times in this game where they had that five-o-look. And they dropped both him and Zadaria Smith into coverage and still brought pressure. So I thought it was creative. I thought it was ballsy. And I thought that this defense felt so much different than it's felt in the past. And the version of Miles Garrett that we were going to get and get to appreciate.

if they continue to play like this, that game ceiling sack he had where he's fighting through the chip help and just being like, fuck you, this is over. I cannot wait if they play this way the entire season to see that guy unleashed because he has help. The Bengals didn't have, so that, and the Bengals didn't have a single explosive pass this entire game. So it was the only time it's ever having Joe Burroughs career. This was Joe Burroughs' worst game ever as a starter, just like everything you look at. Poor and rain.

It couldn't get, had no grip on the ball or anything. The game of things, not a lot of reps. Hasn't in practice. Again, a team comes out and blitzes twice as much as any team will blitz them last year. It's a perfect confluence of factors for them to look like garbage. Division game, all the stuff, yeah. But it was just, no, it was, it really just felt like the Browns just like just always just had their number no matter what. And just cool game plan, like just a nice, always just pulling the right or pushing the right buttons at the right time.

Like, hats off to Jim Schwartz and really just the Browns as a whole. What did you think about the Brown's offense in this game? It felt like they got into a little rhythm as the game got along. I thought they looked okay. It wasn't at some romance early. Yeah. Yeah. I thought that they actually looked okay over the course of the game.

He made a handful of throws. I thought it was well constructed. It was the same sort of stuff we expect from the Brown's offense overall. I came away from the game actually feeling more optimistic about them, even after losing Jack Conklin, most likely for the season than I even did coming into the game. And I had them as a top 10 offense. They felt they,

they felt more confident as the game went along. You got to see kind of like what I think they're going to lean into this year where we, I think we both did. They used empty about a dozen times. They only hit that number three times last year. So I was like, okay. The stretch in the second quarter in the two minute drill, they used it on like five or six straight plays. And that was what made me look it up. It was when I went through that.

They used it on like five or six straight plays in the two minutes drill. And I thought that was a really good instance when we talked about the melding of styles with this offense where they want to be able to run the ball. They want to be under center. They're always going to be like that. Nick Chubb is a huge part of this offense. But in those moments where they need the quarterback to kind of be the central figure within the offense in a two-minute drill when you need to have it, they allowed him to be. It was like, all right, we're just going to spread it out.

We're going to throw it around. We're going to call a quarterback draw on second and 11, and you're going to score a touchdown. So that version of it, I know they want to be able to tap into that when it's necessary. And I think that was a very good kind of moment and light bulb situation for them early in the season. Yeah, the things that said to me. So, yeah, the empty stuff, the stuff you were turned, they had three designed runs, including the two point play, the touchdown that you talked about. All of them, nice plays.

The touchdown run was kind of funny because also I want to compliment Mike McDaniel one more time. They motion, so the Browns motioned to a like empty diamond formation, which is like one of those that like sounds better in practice. And usually it's just like an automatic run play because you only can do so much out of it. The dolphins actually threw a dropback pass out of that formation. And it was a dig route to Tyree. killed. I was like, you psychos. But, uh, but, that just means, that just means a four strong formation for one side, right? Four guys on one side, but they're making like a little diamond, like,

uh, and they're how, and literally how their formation is. So anyways, but, um, but just what the Browns were doing today use a bunch of personnel groupings. They did, uh, a bunch of tight ends and one, uh, uh, at one time. They did seven snaps of 0.01 personnel, which is really interesting, which is, uh, four wide receivers and one tight end. Uh, they did one snap of 02 personnel, which is three receivers and two tight ends. And they did one snap of, and they did that a little in the preseason, but I thought it was going to be kind of like just a, we're going to make the first team kind of look at that and just waste their time. And they actually like leaned into it.

They're using jumbo personnel with the six offense alignment. So some interesting stuff. But you can see that they're trying to merge these ideas. One last thing I did think was really interesting was they're trying to get some shotgun play action game going. And you can see them. They did kind of like a different action than I've seen before. And I might do a video on this. So we'll see.

But I just, they, they're in a shotgun, but it looks like, I'm trying to describe it. It looks under center-ish, the action of the quarterback and the running back, the steps, the motion that Deshaun Watson does. And maybe he's more comfortable with that. And maybe it's to sell the run game a little more. And then they pull the guard along with that. And they did that several times today, which I thought was really interesting. It was kind of like, that was the idea. Well, that guard pull situation, they're trying to tie that with the guard pole play action game that they're using more.

They're one of those teams, I think, is going to use that guardpole play action we talked about in the preseason a lot more. But usually when teams do out of the gun, the runnerback's crossing his face in front of the quarterback. Like you're selling like a zone play. They did it like Nick Chub is to the left of Deshawn Watson. I'm trying to describe this as well as I can on an audio podcast. He's next to Deshaun Watson, to his left, but then goes behind Deshawn Watson like he's doing an under center run play. And then Deshawn's doing that action, which was really kind of full. funky. And I was just like, I want, I, they're trying. And that's like a perfect like,

encapsulation of what this team's trying to do. They're trying to merge two worlds. It's like right there was the little freak baby of a play that right there. That, that was the clone right there, what this offense is trying to do. But I thought that that was really interesting. I said in the preview when we talked about this game that I thought that the Browns offense was going to try to take advantage of the Bengals safetys on a couple shots down the field. That play where they handed the ball off to Deshawn Watson and then he spun back around and threw it. I knew they were going to run that.

And I, so I was waiting for it because they showed it in the preseason where they faked a handoff too. And it was wide open and he just under threw it a little bit. Marquis Goehm was wide open. So that was a fun one that very nearly was a touchdown. But I thought that even beyond the kind of crazy designs from the Browns today, a lot of soundness and a lot of reasons to feel good about this team on both sides of the ball. Yep.

The run game looked good. And that's going to always going to be their identity. And going against this defense, the Bengals defense is never, not going to be a joke. Like, they're a good defense. So that's a good,

it was a good, solid performance from this Browns offense. All right, we are going to hit a quick break here, but then we're going to be back with, I'm not mad, just disappointed. Let's do it.

Oh, man, we're still quite. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. All right. Each week, we're going to talk about a performance or a couple of performances that, again,

didn't make us mad, but just left us a little bit disappointed. And this way we're going to kick it off with the Seattle Seahawks who somehow lose to this Rams team that we all thought had a chance to kind of fall apart heading into the season with how young they were and was without Cooper Cup heading into this game who's currently on injured reserve and somehow this Ram's offense does way more than enough and comes out with a win in Seattle to start off the season. Just like we all expected.

That was just exactly how the script writers did it. That's, that I've seen like 20 versions of that commercial already. But it's honestly, that was, that Rams offense looked sweet. And that Seahawks defense looked not so sweet. And that Seahawks offense was kind of maddening throughout this game, which is an offense that I was pretty high on. I thought this game might be shootoutish, but I didn't think, I thought this Seahawks offense would kind of, even with Aaron Donald out there would kind of be a little bit more, there'd be maybe a little bit more teeth to it in week one. I thought that was most disappointing to you about the Seahawks offense performance. I went back and watched it without the All-22 and what they were doing on the back end.

It's kind of hard to say, but it just didn't seem like they had many opportunities down the field and they didn't run the ball that efficiently. So is there anything when you ran back and rewatch that you felt like was particularly of shortcoming for them today? Run game, which is the number one frustration. It actually felt very much how I felt like the Seahawks when the season ended last year. It was like, okay, they do some nice things in the past game. They run a little bit of everything. The empty stuff is pretty cool. But then the run game is just so inefficient.

And it's just maddening and just a lot of short gains. And, you know, I actually, that's where I thought I am high in Charbonnet, the guy that drafted in the second round. But I thought the situations like this is the, these are the games that he'll kind of get some run, you know, just get some four or five yard gains to keep them on track. I also think they kind of got, I wouldn't say, totally outcoached. But I thought Rahim Morris did some really nice things. And they dropped eight.

The Rams defense dropped eight a bunch of times, the passing lanes. And for a Seahawks team that will use some quick game and use some high lows, that was just really flooding the passing lanes. And when the offense isn't running the ball well, why not? Just keep dropping eight. So we don't care about the run game, but you're not doing anything anyways. And, you know, brought some simulated pressures. But, yeah, I just thought the Seahawks offense just felt very disjointed and very stop-starty. Big play here, good play here.

And then, you know, D.K. Metcalf and a double move. But then just not a lot of sustainability, which is. was one of my concerns kind of going into the season about this offense. When I went to training camp in Los Angeles, and I've learned my lesson doing this with a lot of stops in the getting excited or feeling optimistic about a team that you visit. But with the Rams, it really did feel like people were underselling them. And I think it's for two reasons. One, Sean McVeigh is a very good offensive football coach.

Yeah, he is. And the stuff that we saw today, which we can get into, is extremely encouraging. with Puka Nakua and Tutu Outwell, they're doing some really cool shit, and they still have a quarterback that is willing to just stand back there and rip it, man. So with some improved play and health along the offensive line, even with some shuffling pieces, a healthy Matthew Stafford, and this guy's still with the controls with a staff he feels good about everything else, I just thought, as long as Matthew Stafford's on the field, this is not going to be like a basement level offense. This isn't going to be a bottom quarter of league offense as long as Stafford is playing. And that was me thinking Cup would be on the field. So that was part of it. And the other part of it was Rahim Morris is a very good football coach.

And the energy that they were playing with on defense, especially in practice. And in the secondary, this team has a chance to just be frisgier on that side of the ball that I think people expect. And two guys today kind of exemplified that to me. One was Darian Kendrick and the way that he played on the outside. And I think he had the rough moment against D.K. Meckap, but he had some really nice. flashes in this game. And the other one was, oh, number zero. I can't remember his name now. Oh, Byron Young? The rookie. Byron Young. Yeah. He had some really nice moments in this game. So the youth, which is, I think we can construe as a weakness, they had, they almost don't know what

they don't know. And I think that they can be playing with a little bit of an energy and an edge. And I thought that version of the Rams was possible. And I think that's the Rams, the version of the Rams that we actually got to see today. This is the best case scenario how this game went. I mean, Stafford was, I mean, they just, he was just peppering dig routes just over and over and over. They, Seahawks couldn't stop it. But then you remember, like, Stafford played like fine last year.

Stafford was still Stafford last year. It was just everything else fell apart around him. And so he was just died back there. And then he got hurt. But, I mean, he still got this in his bag. And he was just, I mean, he rips a couple, three, like three throws today at least that were just like, there's like three guys in the world that can do those. Like that's, that's the high end of Stafford.

And you got to see it today. And what they were doing in the run game was sweet. I wanted to talk about the one play that the 49ers did as well. And the Rams were doing this. I think this could be a very popular play. It's, it's duo, which I'm always excited to talk about, which is a very at you run play. But they're motioning a tight end over at the snap of the ball to kick out. So they're basically flopping the play right at the snap of the ball.

And it creates some cool angles. they did it on the Kyron Williams touchdown. You have Kyron from Notre Dame. You have Kyron Williams to run back. They did it a few different times, though, with Higby just quickly coming across the formation. It was a staple for them today. It just creates nice angles. And the 49ers did this as well.

I think a lot of teams are going to go, oh, that's nice. And we talk about blocking tight ends. That's a way to ease it up. So, man, it was just a, I mean, some really nice designs on third down. They coach, the Rams coaching staff coached their asses off this game. 11 of 17 on third down today. 11 of 17. You compare that with two of nine for the Seahawks,

which I think explains a lot of the way the game went. I think that's eventually how it got so lopsided. Matthew Stafford today on throws between the numbers, between 5 and 15 air yards, finished 12 of 13 for 133 yards. Yeah. Yeah. Just ripping balls over the middle of the field with reckless abandoned.

It was really fun to watch that version of him. I alluded to this a little bit when we were talking about the dolphins. the use of motion from this team in the passing game was phenomenal. Again, just little tiny ways of creating a little bunches and stacks right before the snap, the little quick motion, out motion that you were talking about with the Dolphins. They did it a couple times with Tutu Atwell. Using Tutu Atwell with those sorts of ideas and the motions in mind and just how dynamic the passing game felt overall with a rookie receiver from the fifth round

and a guy who hasn't been able to get on the field until this moment, it was really impressive to watch it happen in real time. It was fun for me as like as the as I'm on the prospect side of the business as well and watching these players all play because I was lower on two to out well. I was higher on Pukunakua and that was kind of lukewarm or not lukewarm but middle ground on Kyron Williams. I kind of feel like I am slotted nicely. It was just fun to watch all these guys going to have like nice days.

It's just it's like this is the, it was like a nice, again, a nice snapshot of like the draft world right there. It's like, even the guys, like, everybody can show out. But Puka Nakua, like Dane Bruegler, our athletics draft expert that I do Prospects with, he had Puka Nakuwa as more of like a third round, like a day two guy, but he had injury concerns. Derek Klaassen liked Pooka Nakua. I like Pooka Nakua. So there's some people that really liked him, but I wasn't expecting what?

What was it? 11 catches that he have today? Yeah. 11 catches for over 100 yards. I wasn't expecting that. But he's a fun player. He's perfect. for this Rams offense because BYU used him on jet sweeps and stuff.

He's a good blocker. He's got good size and everything. He just has health stuff. But he was a great day three pick, I think, for this Rams team that needs a lot of these day three picks to look decent. But good start. I mean, that the two out well plays were great. They're using his motion just perfectly or using his speed just perfectly.

That's what he is. He's a vertical threat. He's got real, real juice. And they're just, he's 150 pounds. So they're freeing him up, letting him just play in space. And you got a guy, a quarterback that can rip the ball 40 yards on his back foot. Why not use that? That's what I like about it, though, is that it's using him as a vertical threat in the way that the dolphins use Tyreek Hill as a vertical threat.

Yes. Where you're creating space. Not just a post route over and over and over. Exactly. You're creating space within the defense, but then you're hitting him on inbreaking routes or ones where you're not looking for a shot down the field, but you're still creating explosive plays because you're creating stretched within zones. And I think that was really encouraging to see to. I mean, you're hitting 2-2-at-well on dig routes. He weighs like 150 pounds.

And it looked great. It looked great. I think the Rams had some experience with Bobby Wagner last year, and they're like, hey, but that's kind of what I think they highlighted throughout this entire game. It was the Shanahan microscope meme that Stephen Ruiz does, but it was Bobby Wagner today by the Rams offense. There were two third and eights in the fourth quarter on back-to-back drives that to me kind of explained the entire game. 920 left Seahawks had a third and eight and Byron Young got a pressure against the Seahawks back up right tackle because Charles Cross and Abe Lucas got hurt in this game, which I think is going to be a story to monitor moving forward. So Byron Young gets a pressure and the Seahawks are forced upon.

Next drive, the Rams have a third and eight. Two-two motions to that stack that we talked about that they did multiple different times today just kind of create traffic confusion. And Stafford rips a ridiculous throw on a corner. route to Puku Nuku. I tweeted out a video of it from the end zone view. The arm angle, the gall to even throw that ball and just the arm talent that those two plays, those two third and aides on back-to-back drives, explain the difference in the game to me today. Yes. Yeah. I mean, there's a couple of those. He had at least two balls that like went in between two defenders that like before they even knew the ball was coming out. Like, you know, kind of just like they

like, what was that? What was that? Like, some just wish, would spy them, like, in the background. Like, that's kind of exactly how they reacted to. But, no, the Seahawks' offense tackle thing. I think it was cross as sprained toe and Lucas had a knee flare. But it's like, geez, that's like, that was super concerning. At least I didn't spend the last three months hyping those two up. But it is something that is going to be.

There's nothing you can do about that. But just a heat-seeking jinx right on both of them. But no, I think, like honestly, like you said, but that's going to be a huge component. This Seahawks offense likes to push the ball when they pass the ball. Like, Gino likes to stand back there and let it rip. Those tackles really help. Those tackles are kind of needed to attack that way. Otherwise, this offense can get into a lot of issues if they can't get to their dropback

game because we've already mentioned their run game. We're going to talk about a couple smaller performances, specific performances, that we like today. Let's get to WECU. This segment is sponsored by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV, which was fantastic today, by the way. had a seamless wonderful experience with Sunday ticket on YouTube.

I cued up my multi-view right before the game started. There was so many different versions to choose from. You can kind of program it yourself, even though you can't pick the individual games. I was thrilled with the way that it went after all the nightmares that I've experienced in years past. So credit to YouTube and to YouTube TV for really making Sunday feel pretty clean here

in a way that it hasn't in the past. A performance that we wanted to talk about, Trevor Lawrence and Calvin Ridley, mostly in the first half. I mean, again, it was a tight game for the Jags. Their offensive line did not play very well. But Calvin Ridley and that presence within the Jags offense, I see you, Calvin Ridley.

I see that you've returned and I'm excited to watch what you can do for the Jags all year. He looked incredible. He looked so good. And I know one caveat, the Colts DB room is it's a lot of who's that. That was flowers. What round was this guy? But that is a lot of that in the DB room. But wow, they made them look like what is that in that DB room, which is what you want from your stars.

But just these two already have a mind meld and you can feel it. Trevor Lawrence is one of the best timing quarterbacks that are getting ball out early and on time and really processing and getting the like get the throws in anticipation. And now you have a receiver that's one of the best route runners in the league who's running these routes like just two. Just on a dot, like just exactly where he should be at the exact right amount of time. And it's just, it's amazing. The first catch, it was like a deep hinge route, which is like kind of a 18 to 22 yard route where the receiver will turn around, like stop around. Trevor kind of gets a little off platform. I think this is the first catch.

It's the first one I remember anyways. And he and Trevor gets off platform and he's still on time because that's all Trevor operates and just whips it out there. And Calvin is just turning around, hits him right in the shoulder. Boom. That's like a 20 yard gain right there. Then there's like broken plays where he's finding him. And just there's a bootleg play. Remember I'm talking about quarterbacks getting a double when the single is there?

There's a bootleg play when Trevor's on the move. Probably shouldn't have thrown this because the corner was sinking. I still don't know how he completed that ball. And throws it between three guys including the sinking corner and just puts it right in there. But that's knowing he's my, that's the guy I want this ball to go to every single time. He is the primary. And on a bootleg where he could have taken just a flat route for five yards, He's creating 20.

Again, that's the difference between the top tier quarterbacks and the other guys. Just other things. I mean, I could just go on and on. Every catch was just like, for me, I was just like, oh, that's great. Like, there's a simple hitch route they threw late. I'm just like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah. Like, it was just like just good stuff. And they're just doing every type of route.

Trevor just looks even better than he did last year, which should be really exciting. Again, against a Colts passing game that's very simple, did not blitz a lot. And if they're going to run into issues worth bringing up. still concerned about their offensive line. Brandon Shurf got hurt at one point in this game. They're moving pieces on the interior that I think was already a concern. The interior of the offensive line was already something to monitor coming into the season. Their left guards situation with Ben Bartch starting there.

So that was a huge problem down the stretch, especially in this game, where the Colts defensive front was getting after them consistently. But if they can hold up against mediocre to bad defenses and get a little bit of help when Cam Robinson comes back, the connection. between Trevor Lawrence and now a true number one receiver in this offense, they have a chance to be electric over the course of the season. 40 to 1 to win the receiving title for Calvin Ridley is a very fun bet that we encouraged everyone to make before the season started.

Have real life money on it. It's great. But it's so great. Again, when you have a true blue, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, number one, true guy that you design plays for, everybody else kicks down a step. Now you have Zay Jones running these kind of, you know, specialty routes, which is great. Evan Ingram is running kind of like when he has a good matchup. It's not he needs it.

Like he has to get the ball because that's the read. It's no, I am choosing to give him the ball at this moment because he's good on that route against that guy. Like that that's the kind of trickle down that this can have. And Say Jones's TD was beautiful. It was the world's slowest double move that you'll ever see. But it was unbelievable throw in an unbelievable catch. And it was just such a cool moment between those two, like just like a really nice play. But this Jaguar's offense.

we were both high on and it was just like nothing. I know the offensive line woes, but it's like, geez, this offense could be really, really fun. Before we move on, curious, your impressions of Anthony Richardson in his first start? I think they try to make it as narrow for him as possible. That was always going to be the plan. I think that's a good plan. I think that is a proper plan for a guy like Anthony Richardson and also where you're at as a franchise. I mean, to be honest, where the Colts are at.

So what they have for weapons and offensive line and everything. But at that passing game, they did a lot of more like two-man routes, half-man routes, like one to two to check down, which is fine. It's just that that can have some limitations. And you could see that sometimes because the Jaguars were pushing deep underneath everything. So that's why maybe it felt like Anthony Richardson was checking it down a little often was because he and maybe holding the ball, maybe a split second or too long, was just because he was trying to let stuff kind of unfold down the field. That just kind of happens when he kind of like run a limited pass game. I thought the design run game was interesting. They did a lot of orbit motion stuff, which was really cool.

They did like a play action off of it. So an orbit motion is a motion at the snap of a ball. They go all the way behind the running back. They did like an orbit return. So he goes behind the running back and it comes back as a lead blocker. That was pretty sweet. And then they did a play action off of it. And then they did like an RPO look kind of off a triple option look.

A lot of triple option looks today in the whole NFL. I love athletic quarterbacks because now we're going to like to see like kind of cool designs in that way. So, but I just want to talk about, too, is like, not only just like stats and scheme and everything, it's just like true moments as a quarterback. And this is like what wins you over as a franchise guy. And that is the play before Richardson got hurt, which we can talk about later. But the, he had a fourth down scramble and when they're down 10, I believe, or two scores.

And he scrambles for the fourth down and runs over, runs between three Jaguars defenders and truly shouldn't have gotten. He should have been two, three yards short. and he gets his first down, he gives him a chance to score on the next play. But it was in that moment before that, he has this QB wristband and he takes it off and he throws it. And I don't know why he threw it.

I don't know if it was annoying him. I used to hate having QB wristbands on my wrist so I can understand that. But then he scrambles for that first down. It's just like a freaking awesome moment. I know they didn't win. They lost, all this stuff. He got hurt on the next play.

But I thought that was pretty cool. So I kind of just see that kind of personality shone in like a big, big moment for this team. He didn't look out of place at all. I thought it was a really encouraging, performance. I'm excited to watch him. I'm excited to watch the other rookie quarterbacks. We're going to talk a lot about some of the newer situations in the NFL in various different shows over the course of the week with Chase, me and you a little bit later on. So we'll hit Lamar in Houston. We'll talk about Bryce Young. We'll talk about the way that C.J. Stroud played

against the Texans. We'll get to dig into all of that, but we are not going to hit that today. Last thing we're going to hit, a couple more things we're going to hit. We're introducing a little bit of a new segment today. Talk about some sliding doors moments from Sunday in the way that they unfolded. The sliding glass door shattered. I don't know where we found that drop. Ken always finds him. It's so perfect.

A couple of things I want to point out what we wanted to talk about as we were thinking about different things we wanted to do this season. Just acknowledge some of those moments that really changed the complexion of the entire NFL Sunday. and they can be little tiny things. And the one I wanted to acknowledge today was Kishon Boutte not getting his second foot in bounds on that throw in the Patriots Eagles game. It was the second time in that game where he is one toe away from a really important reception and a really important completion. And if that happens, if he gets that second foot in bounds, the Patriots absolutely could have won that game. And those are just the little tiny things that over the course of an NFL Sunday, there are probably a dozen of them, that can change the entire complexion of how we talk about these teams, the way that we think about

them. And that was one that I at least wanted to acknowledge today. Game of inches, whether it's, you know, trying to get the first down or get your foot in or knock a ball down or anything or hit the hole. It's a game of inches. And I know they would have gotten the ball at the eight-year line if that was completed, which is just like, o'f. But that, the Patriots offense looked competent, again, the B-O-B line. A little bit, a few too many design. Ezekiel Elliott routes for me early in the game. That was my really only concern. I was like, we're drawing up too many design plays for Ezekiel Elliott. Well, too much Zeke for you. Plenty of just enough Kendrick Bourne for for for for my liking. Maybe that's why I was so

encouraged by it. But I thought Mac Jones like I mean, played perfectly reasonable. That was like as, that was a Mac Jones game. You could see some limitations with the arm, but you could just also see some nice throws and just some good timing and everything like the touchdown to Hunter Henry was really nice. Yeah, it's beautiful. Yep. Yeah. And I feel like they're really attacking where we had some concerns with this Eagles

defense. But yeah, that was just like, that game was kind of a weird game. It just felt just off-guilt of the entire game. Yeah. I feel like this is one of those where reserve judgment until the Eagles offense plays against the team that's not the Patriots defense, a defense that has a chance to be very good. And I feel like is a good matchup for the Eagles on a couple different levels.

Yeah, that's exactly it. I'm going to wait a few weeks. before I have kind of like any declarative takes about anything the sky is falling or anything like that. Or I would say it was actually fine performance from Patriots. That's kind of going to be how they play against every team. But I have to say for the Eagles, it's just like, yeah, I'm going to wait a few weeks before they're not playing this team.

One unfortunate kind of sliding doors moment is J.K. Dobbins getting tackled on what looked like a normal play inside the 10-yard line, gets up, limps a little bit, but is able to walk off with just a little bit of help from a trainer. and then about an hour later, we hear that he tore his Achilles on that play and is now going to be out for the season, which is just a devastating, heartbreaking blow to a guy who had a devastating injury a couple of years ago, came back, was theoretically healthy, heading into a contract year, and this is how his season starts. So a really awful moment, not only for the Ravens, but for him and what his future looks like. Yeah, he's just caught that bug even last year.

When he came back from the injury, he got battled another injury that he had to battle back from. Just tough. And the injury is so mind zapping, sapping from a, from a for a player's perspective because of how long the rehab rehabilitation process has to be. This just stinks because I probably just the expectations that he has for himself, just also what the team was probably expecting, but how they're going to use them. I mean, I felt like, of course he was going to be a huge part of his plan. I, Jake Dodbins was so talented coming out of Ohio State. I had him neck and neck with Jonathan Taylor in that class. Like, he's just so, could be so explosive.

It's such a good runner. It just stinks. It's not only just getting hurt. It's not like a, these are, you know, career altering injuries. I mean, knee and then now it in Achilles, which is a true. You miss an entire season. I mean, it's because it's not just a, well, I'll be back by the start of next year. Yeah.

Like a broken arm. 18 month injury. Yeah. And you lose, I mean, 100% chance he is not the same. Like it's the Achilles truly saps all that. explosiveness of these players. So it just stinks, especially a position like that that is such a hard ask of its players. And we know all about the market stuff too. So just not fun. A couple more things to acknowledge, Marcus Williams apparently has a torn peck, maybe out for the season, which is a

monstrous injury for the Ravens defense. And then Ronnie Stanley and Tyler Lindelbaum both got banged up today. So we'll talk more about the Ravens, the way that offense looked a little bit further down the road, but not a good day from a health perspective for a Baltimore team that has pretty high expectations this year. The new black and blue division, but for different reasons, we're just banged up. All right. We're going to talk about a couple coaching decisions from today that made a huge difference, and then we're going to get out of here. He chose one. That one I picked. Yeah, that one I was ready for when we started doing this. Again, wanted to just point out one or two pivotal coaching decisions that change the complexion of a game each

week and the one that we zeroed in on for this one, the Titans had a fourth and six today from the Saints 11 yard line down by four points with 220 left in the game. They elect to kick the field goal to go down by one. And you may not believe this. They never saw the ball again. Wow. It's almost like they should have got for it in a game where points were really hard. Do you really think that after what you've shown on offense, the entire game, you're like, yeah, we're going to

start chucking it down the field because we need like a two-minute got-a-havit situation, even if they did get the ball back. And that's, but people think of it that way where they say, well, your offense has been struggling. You should take the points. No. No. Your offense has been struggling.

You're on the 11-yard line. Your offense has been struggling. This is our best chance at it. We've got to take advantage of that best chance we've had. You know, this could actually also be like kind of like a partial category for I'm not mad. I'm disappointed because Mike Vrable is better than this. Yes.

He is an aggressive coach. He knows he's like just a savant with rules and everything. I just, I was shocked that they did it. I really was. I was with a friend and we had the game, that game was on mute. And so I didn't know like what anyone was saying about that.

But I was aghast that they'd actually do that. Especially how that Titans offense had been moving the ball or like it was disjointed. It's what we expected out of the Titans offense. Like Andre Dealer couldn't block anybody. And it was just, Tannenhill had some weird moments today. It was not pretty. And even if the Saints defense is a pretty good unit,

it was not encouraging. Even the Titans offense is going to be gum and toothpicks. Like that's how that offense is going to be. It's like every week it's going to be, how can we manage to get 20 points this week? Okay, we got to do awesome screens. We got to do a fucking point. And that's why taking a chance to get seven is probably worth it in that moment. Correct.

According to the ESPN win probability model, they lost 10 percentage points of win probability by choosing to kick the field goal, which is a massive swing. A lot of the time, these are 50, 50, 50, 51, 40, Like when you pick wrong, it's like 0.2% win probability wrong. Like lost there. This was not that. And all the same thing to do is get a couple first downs and the game was over. So that's a tough one.

And a close game to make that sort of decision that can really swing the outcome for you, that's a pretty rough. This game felt like it should have been in the rain. Like all those other games were in the rain. Some of the Tadale throws, the way the ball was coming out of his hand, it looked like it was a down horse. Oh, I know. And it's just sloppy moments going on. a disguise falling down. Yeah, this game felt like it should have been in the Northeast or where all the rain was for all the other games that we watch today.

You juxtapose that decision that the Titans made with the decision that the Jags made. They're down four. They went for it on fourth and two from the indie 15 with seven minutes left. They pick it up, they score a touchdown. They never trail again for the rest of the game. Despite, I'm not going to say who it was, despite the color commentator in that game being dead set that they should take the point. points in that situation. Dead set.

He was convinced. It's like, now you got to take the points here. I see, I miss all that and I love making fun of that. So I, oh, dang it.

It was just hilarious to watch it happen like that where he's just, he's like, yeah, you got to take the points. And then they score the touchdown and the game was over. I've been told who it was. I'm not surprised. I know.

Well, Bellar, Bellars tell me who it was. I know who it was. No, no, not trying to put that. Not trying to put that person on blast. No, but also,

that's the argument for going for a fourth down is like, I can make the argument. if I have a really good offense, yeah, I think I'm going to get it, like the Jaguars. I can also make the argument, I have a bad offense. We don't get many cracks at this. So we got to get as many points as possible. Seems like it's a pretty easy decision on this. Like, no matter.

Just go for it. Just go for it. If there's less than half of the game left, okay? Yeah. And you are inside the opponent's 20 and you are down by four points. Why would you make a decision that forces you to score again? I don't get it. I know.

It's fourth and two. And with the Saints, it's fourth and six, but you're on the 11 and there's 2.20 left in the game. The Jags, there's half a quarter left, but still, you have two yards to go. I just would never do that where I have, I force myself into another possession in that sort of situation. And if you don't get it,

you're still in the same situation where you need to stop. Yes, you need to stop. And it's very likely that you will have to go for it on worse than fourth and two. at some point over the course of the rest of the game. Yeah, God, really talk it out. It just makes it even worse. I didn't like it then. I hate it even now.

Where we're going to wrap these up each week? Just talk about what you are going to remember from that week in the NFL. What are you going to remember from week one of the 2023 season? Really, that Browns-Bangles game, I think. I just think that's the game that stands out to me. I think maybe just the mix of that. And then the offensive fireworks show that we saw in Chargers in LA today with Chargers and Dolphids, just like those two games, what we started the show with, really, those two games are going to stand out to me?

Because I just want to remember week one, are we going to laugh at how the Bengals look today? Are we going to laugh how we felt about the Browns or is that going to indicate anything? I'm not saying it does. I'm just saying does that for this. That AFC North is going to be a battle. And all these teams are going to be fighting for that. And all these games in the AFC are going to be tough. So all those matchups that we just saw on the AFC today, it's like really cool to kind of just see a fireworks show and this just really an ass kicking in the AFC North.

The Brown's defense, I think it is a good one. But I'm going with just the performance that Mike McDaniel and that offense had because I think that is one of those that will continue. I think that's one of those that kind of is a declaration of who that person is. I think this was a reminder today of what kind of offensive mind and what sort of offensive creativity resides in Miami. with him and the staff specifically in the players that they have. We saw it early on last year and it hit some snags down the second half of last season for health concerns and other reasons. But just a real reminder of the type of coach and the type of ideas that are floating around down there today. It's it's so cool to see just real, real creativity, just real stuff that's not like, oh, man, I've seen so-and-so do that.

It's like, yeah, kind of. But true, like, Mike McDaniel truly, like, Mike McDaniel truly. does feel like a mad scientist. I know that term gets thrown away, thrown on so many kind of offensive gurus and stuff like that. But his stuff just truly feels like that. He got into his lap. He understands his personnel and he just truly maximizes it. He's getting those guys to 99 on overall rating no matter what. He's going to find ways to grind it there. And that's just what they feel like. It's really, really fun. I tweeted it out earlier today, but Jeff Darlington on on ESPN that he did a sit-down TV profile with Mike McDaniel. It's about 10 minutes long that they

ran this morning. And it's Mike being really honest about his background and all the issues that he had when he was younger, he got fired in Houston for party and too much. And when he was in Atlanta, he checked himself into rehab. He felt himself going down a bad road and understood, like, I need to make some real changes about my life. And as someone who understands that pretty deeply for him to kind of be at this place after going through all of that, it's incredibly cool to see. It's incredibly powerful. And it's encouraging. Like, it's very fun to see somebody. kind of get through all of that and arrive at the moment that he has because that guy at his best and he is really something to behold. And I'm glad that we get to see him at his best.

Absolutely. And also scoring a lot of points. That is as best. No, absolutely. That's a great message to have because I was with him in Atlanta and seeing him now is really, really cool to see kind of like this other side and truly see him as best self, it seems like. All right. That's all we got. That's week one. We will be back all week with a full slate of shows. As a reminder, our Monday into Tuesday show this year, Zach Kiefer, the one and only Zach Kiefer will be chatting with a trio of our beatwriters talking about games from yesterday. Bellar, what games have we got here?

Packers and Broncos, those two games will be on the slate, and we will have one more that has not yet been confirmed. So, Zach will talk with a trio of our beat writers about some of the games. we did not hit today. After that, we have prospects to pros a little bit later in the week, and then the week one premiere of In the Pocket with Chase Daniel and me on Thursday. We'll talk about a lot of these quarterback performances we did not get to today. So please be on the lookout for all of that.

For now, really appreciate you guys sticking around with us late after week one. We'll be back in next week. Talk to you guys soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.