The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 11 recap — Cowboys roll Vikings, Chargers-Chiefs SNF thriller, Eagles and Ravens get by, and more

Episode Date: November 21, 2022

Robert Mays and Nate Tice are back together on Sunday night to recap Week 11. The guys discuss the Cowboys' dismantling of the Cowboys, the Chargers-Chiefs SNF thriller, the Eagles and Ravens just barely getting by, and a whole lot more.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube2:41 Chiefs-Chargers thriller15:43 Cowboys dismantle Vikings34:01 Eagles squeak past Colts46:51 Ravens muster up just 13 points in win over Panthers55:13 Zach Wilson lays an egg72:21 AFC playoff picture77:38 The good version of the Lions83:01 Justin Fields' Week 11 usage87:09 Nathaniel Hackett can't get out of his own way 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, joining me tonight. It's my good friend Nate Tyson. How you doing, buddy? Doing very well. I almost cut you off. I was so excited.

I think I just had that other shot of espresso. Knowing I have to do some baby feeding tonight so I knew I could have some late-night espresso. I also changed up my poster in the background. We got some goonies back there. I thought the Godzilla poster was a little too aggressive. So I switched to the goonies. It just felt right.

another great day, another great Sunday action of NFL football. Yeah, some weird ones today. I don't think there were a lot of obvious things that jumped out before that Sunday night game, which we're going to lead with here in a second. We're going to talk about the Ravens and Eagles winning in, I guess we'll call them uninspiring ways today. Talk about the Cowboys dismantling the Minnesota Vikings in their place. Talk about a really rough day for the Jets offense, and it kind of feels like things

are getting to a place there that are a little bit worrisome. both with the play on the field and the reaction to the play on the field to the guy from the guys in the locker room. A lot of stuff to talk about. Let's start, though, with what we just watched. I joked about it in the moment when they, they being the chiefs, are in those holes. When you score on them with 90 seconds left, 13 seconds left, two minutes left, it just has that feeling like when Michael Myers is like 25 bullets in his chest or when he's been lit on fire or when he's on. under something heavy and you exhale a little bit and the entire audience exhales a little bit. And that is the exact moment that you should not let up because he is coming for you and it

is going to end horribly for you. And that's exactly what happened again today. Patrick Mahomes is inevitable. He just is that the Michael Myers' comparison is perfect because it's just like in the first one where Jamie Lee Curtis looks away and then she looks back and Michael Myers is just still walking towards her. Like, that's exactly what Mahomes is. Like when they score, the Charger scored, they showed Mahomes on a sideline.

He's just like, it's almost like it's the first quarter, you know, where he's just like, oh, okay, all right, just put my helmet on. Here we go. It's just so casual. Like, it's unbelievable what they do and what he does, what him and Kelsey do and just how confident they are at all these snaps. That last touchdown, like, it just was so casual that it's Mesh versus Robber. And, Dermon James, who played a great game today, you know, he's manned up.

on Travis Kelsey. And usually when Derwin James is manned up on someone, it's like, oh, yeah, that's a great matchup. Kelsey just beats manned coverage. And then the robber. You ran away from Samuel on the other touchdown. It's just, yeah, it's like how, what do you do? And when the ball gets put on the money, even if it's tightly guarded, Mahomes just puts

it so all those yards can get created after the catch. It's just, he is inevitable. And that just happens over and over and over. And this was just another instance of it, another instance of it on national TV and a night game and a big matchup against a. the Chargers. And I mean, the Chargers played well. Like, they really did. And it just, the Chiefs and Mahomes played well or, or that's just what he does. I know Michael Williams was out, but this is a game where the Chiefs are already without Judges Smith-Schuster, Cadarius, Tony gets

hurt at some point. We're throwing to Ben, I was going to say Ben Watson. What's Watson's first name? Justin Watson. It doesn't matter. The Earthquaker. Justin Watson, whoever it happens to be, is out there catching passes for Mahomes. The throw. He had to Fortson for, I mean, just absolutely insane. And that's what's happening is that it doesn't matter who he's throwing to. He still has Pat or Travis Kelsey, which is very nice. But just conjuring plays out of thin air down in the last two minutes, drives them all the way down the field, makes two or three huge throws, huge scramble. His ability to kind of figure out these situations and just make plays whenever he needs to.

This is one of those games where you sit there and look at the scenario the charges were in. It's like if they can't knock them off now when they're banged up and they're not playing that great and you've caught them flush a couple different times, it's really disheartening. And a good performance from the Chargers, they still did not manage to put them away. And at a certain point, it just becomes completely deflating. Yeah, it's what, what Stano says, you didn't go for the head. Yes. Like that's kind of what it is. I think they were backed up and he hits the one to the Quaker to Watson, the Quaker.

But he hits it. He was a Penn Quaker. It works. I looked at the stat line right before that play. And it was, I think, Mahomes was 12 for 24 at that point in time. And then after that, he just caught fire. And it was just after that. But it was 12 and 24.

And it was like third and extra long. Converts it for 20-something yards to Watson. Like it was nothing. And then it was just after that was just a barrage of plays. And like you said, that scramble against two men, Chris Collinsworth, did a good job of actually recognizing that. And but Mahomes recognized it so quickly. He gets it and he hit the back of his drop and you can tell he's like, I'm not throwing anything here.

I'm just letting you guys get deep. And he just takes off and runs. Like it's easy. And it's even his slides are so controlled. Like he just knows, okay, I got my first. And there's another scramble he had, I think earlier in that drive. And he goes, or it might have been the drive before. He goes up the left sideline.

And you can see him just tipton up the sideline just to maximize those yards on the scramble. It's just like, again. No one he has to get out of bounds, but not be in a hurry to do it. I can get five more here. The situational awareness and the spatial awareness, everything is just always just off the charts. It's just, it's just unbelievable. And on top of it, like the game playing from the Chiefs was really cool. Like they were using a lot of heavy personnel, a lot of 13 personnel.

Like this was their second highest percentage of that. Lowest percentage 11 personnel this entire season was today, which I thought was interesting. Wide receiver injuries and getting the guys on the field where you have the bodies. I mean, I can understand that. And also a ton of under center. This was their highest percentage of under center this year. So that's the thing is Mahomes is crazy good. Like, unbelievably good.

Best probably I've ever seen. But there's some cool game playing stuff that they do to create advantages. But on top of it, he just takes advantage of those advantages, just like that mesh play. Adderly doesn't get, he's the robber player. He's supposed to give dreams inside help. Mahomes sees Adderley has depth. And he's like, oh, I'm taking the crosser here. If Adderley came down to take Kelsey, I guarantee you he would have hit Skymore on the dick.

which would have been touchdown either way. They both had outside leverage and they're running in breakers. It's just, again, it's a good play call in a perfect situation and Mahomes hits it right on the money, right on time. And it's just, it's impossible to defend for 60 minutes. You can get them for a quarter or two quarters, but you got to go for the head. You can't get it for 60 minutes. A couple nice moments from Skymore today, which obviously it's been a fairly quiet rookie season for him. So that's nice to see.

The other guy I wanted to talk about on the Chiefs, though, somebody that does not get enough credit, does not get enough oxygen. talk about the elite players on Kansas City. We always mentioned Patrick Mahomes. We always mention Travis Kelsey. We should talk about Chris Jones more than we do. Chris Jones is just like quite simply one of the best defensive players in the league. And I mean, the Chargers, if they were doing one thing well all season, Justin Herbert did not get sack this year.

They consistently were able to wiggle out of those moments. They were not taking sacks even when their offense could barely kind of punt, kind of functioned. Putt along this year. Yeah. And so. But Chris Jones kind of taking over this game in huge moments. He had four quarterback hits.

He had a huge sack there at the end, just consistently causing disruption, indirectly causes that final interception. I mean, he is an unbelievable player. He came through in huge moments tonight for the Chiefs. Yeah. And Tony Rombo in an earlier game, and he was talking about Von Miller. I think it was when they played the Chiefs, maybe. But he was talking about Von Miller being a closer. And I love that term for these pass rushers.

because Jones, you know, they try to experiment with him outside last year, but, you know, he kind of does both. But that's what those guys do. Those guys know where they make their money. So they know when it's these big third downs and these big fourth quarter plays. And they just go, okay, time to take over. That's, they, there might be a third and six early in the game. They're like, okay, I'm a little tired right here.

But they know when those big moments is when they take over. And right away, that first play gets a sack on the first play of the two minute for Herbert. And it's like, oh, man, they're already behind the sticks, eating a sack. And that's just what those. guys, dude, those are the explosive plays for defenses outside of just turnovers. And Jones gets, I mean, just as many as anybody. And he's so good at batting the ball as we know from like the Super Bowl a few years ago. He's just so good at stuff like that.

So it's just, yeah, again, that's a great point, great player to bring up because again, he steps up in big moments over and over and over. Where are you out on the Chargers after this game or just in general? I actually feel better about them today. It's kind of how I am too. I'm sort of in the same place, but they lose this game. And the AFC wildcard picture, we're going to get into it a little bit later when we talk about the Jets and the Bengals won today. You know, they're still, they still have a shot in the AFC.

And I think this is one of those games where you see what they're like when things are going well. Keen and Allen being back today, the one play they had with Mike Williams. The idea of the Chargers is always more enticing than the actual Chargers. I think this is a perfect example where you have these peaks and you have these heights. It's like, man, if I can talk myself into this. what could they look like, but it's never that consistent. So part of me is like, oh, man, like, if we can bottle this, what could they be in the AFC playoff picture?

Could they sneak in? Could they be a little bit dangerous? Because Herbert made four, five, six throws in this game. It's like, holy shit. And it's just a reminder of, again, what they can be when everything is clicking, but they're always just a little bit further away from that than when you want to be, then you want them to be. And sustaining that, they have issues with.

And I think that this is just another example of that. So part of me is like, oh, man, I'm starting to talk myself into it. But the other part of me is like, I don't want to go down that road again. But seriously, I mean, that first drive by them was like that's the most confident I've seen that offense play. And I mean, they boom, boom, boom, launches the ball to Palmer. It was awesome. Yeah, Herbert played great tonight. This was also the interior pass rush from the Chargers seemed like it was really good tonight.

Like it felt like they were really creating some havoc in the middle. And Mahomes had about three or four plays. This also speaks to how good Mahomes is, is that like where he's, like, where he's, he's getting dragged down and he threw just moonballs to get it out of bounds. But that like, but my home, those should have been sacks. I would say mere mortal. Those would have been sacks. But Mahomes is my homes.

So I know it's, it's hard. And a loss, this is the best I felt about the charges. I thought, I thought this was just they played actually with, uh, where they felt like they were in control, um, as far as like what they're trying to do. But also just sometimes, you know, the, the, the, the creamy feeling with them isn't always complete. Like you kind of just want them to have more, more, more. this is a play after play because then they get into big situations. It's like, oof, that's just a playoff or protection doesn't get picked up or the runback

trips or something just odd happens. But it was good to have Keenan Allen back and you could see in those big moments, it's like it's good to have a guy that can beat man coverage. And that does help so much for them. So I'm not as out on them as maybe I thought after a loss. I actually feel better about them. But still, yeah, it's just one of those where they just don't feel complete. I think Collinsworth even said this tonight, just this idea. end of the season can they be really good. Can things kind of fall in place for them? And I can understand that argument if they get Williams back. If he does get healthy, but when is that going to happen? I mean, he played what, one, two drives today. It's only in a couple weeks. It's a high ankle

sprain. There's a chance that they're just never back and they're never, I mean, obviously, Slater's not going to be back, but there's a chance that this version of the Charters, this ideal version that we have in our minds, we just never get there. Even if that seventh spot, that six spot in the wild card race is kind of there for the taking, because of how the Jets offense looks, because of how the Patriots offense looks, I still just feel like they're not quite going to get there as currently constructed because they're a little bit too banged up. And maybe we're one more offseason away from them kind of saying, all right, like,

can we be firing on all cylinders again? Right. It has to be, it kind of still feels like it has to be the Herbert show, even though it has some other guys stepping up. You know, Bosa comes, but Bosa probably won't get back to like at least another few more weeks, or four more weeks. And that's like, if he came back now, it's like, ooh, okay, some reinforcement. are coming, but it's still a couple more weeks. So yeah, like you said, it's just too little,

too late almost feels like for them, even if Herbert is going supernova at times. All right, we're going to take a quick break here, and then we're going to get to you at my attention. Gentlemen, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention. We only got one today because I think they deserve all of the attention. Dallas Cowboys paced at the Vikings, 40 to 3. And it felt like that, boy. I mean, from the get-go, they were in absolute control of this game. And we'll talk about whether this kind of makes us more down on the Vikings, whether it gets us excited about the Cowboys. But right now I want to focus on what Dallas did well.

I mean, when you were watching that, what was the biggest thing that jumped out to you? Well, one of the things that got me worried about this, like, not worried, but maybe like staying away from like betting-wise with the Cowboys this weekend was, I rewatch that Packers Cowboys game from last week. And you brought up a great point with Anthony Bar out the use of Micah Parsons. And I'm watching Michael Parsons, the off-ball linebacker. And I'm like, God, you are, you still have a ways to go, bud. You are, your chaos doesn't work when you're off the ball.

And so I got a little worried going into this game that like, oh, you know, he's not going to be unlocked. Well, first drive kind of alleviated those worries. At least for me, I know the Vikings actually probably like, oh, God, dang it. You guys are letting him pin his ears back. But, man, just a complete performance. The defense looked like to how we think that defense could play. But then just DAC is DAC is DAC. And the run game is the run game.

It is a very complete offense. One of the more complete offenses I feel like that is just really, really fun to watch. Dack was 20 for 20 when not pressure today. It had as high as EPA per drawback this season. Had some great kind of a design run plays. Not great plays. I just said just one design run play. But the run game as well from the Cowboys was just so good.

They're hitting everything. Duo, outside zone, inside zone. And it's just, it's a really, really complete team. And I like just the wrinkles that they're throwing in. they're starting to do some, of course, the 12 personnel stuff with Ferguson and Schultz, or Schultz, oh my God, yeah. Shultz. Yeah, Schultz. Wow, we're already at the brainflug already.

But with Schultz going like this, but you see just how DAC was on. And when DAC is on, it's really hard to stop this team because they're able to consistently run on everybody, especially in those personnel groupings. And now they're throwing in stuff like RPO's, smokes, screens, and they're doing all the changeups off those looks. I'll get into a couple of them a little bit. But just I feel like they're a really complete team and one of the more complete teams in the NFL right now. I totally agree. And I just think offensively, they have so many answers right now. And that's why they're so cool to watch.

They can run it on anybody. I mean, they were really pushing. And it's fun because there was downhill runs. There was been a lot of conversations this year, I think rightfully so about all of the power running plays we've seen, all the gap running plays we've seen, all the counter and all the power and all these things, and pin pull and people just pulling and getting on the move. Cowboys say we're like, we're going to run up, let him in 12 personnel, and we're going to run the ball downhill at you, and there's nothing you can really do about it. I mean, that big, the first touchdown drive that they had, we remember if they scored a touchdown in the end of it. I think they did.

I think they did. It's one seek dove in on the one. Yes. There's so many points it's hard to keep track of. Just multiple, like, 12 personnel duo right at you runs from Pollard. Yep. And the first one was a big chunk, you know, probably, you know, 20, 25, then had another one that was a really nice. Zach Martin had an awesome game today.

He had like five really, really good moments. So you have that style where there's running the ball downhill at you. The smoke to CD Lamb is a really good example. They had another swing to CD Lamb that was just like an extended running play that got called back because of an illegal shift. But just those abilities to kind of have DAC control the game where your passing game is an extension of your running game. You control the tempo. There was a lot of that. Even the Pollard touchdown, the first Pollard touchdown where he's getting to the checkdown and the

They manage, or they, the clear out, and they managed to turn it into a 25-yard touchdown because he gets to the ball in space. Like, he was just in total control. And DAC is never going to be this guy that's making all these wow throws, even though he did make a couple today. But when you watch some of these guys that struggle to control the game and they struggle to control the tempo or how the game feels or they always feel scattered or rushed, he's the opposite of that. So just watching somebody who really does feel like he's in command all the time is such a contrast from. bad quarterback play. That's how I feel when I'm watching Dak.

We can argue about where Dak fits in the hierarchy and whether he's a top 10 quarterback, all of that stuff. But it's a very distinct difference when you watch Dak Prescott play the position and when you watch bad quarterbacks play the position. And I think that distinction is almost more important than whatever number we're going to put next to his name

as we're ranking quarterbacks. Right. And that's why I'm a sucker for him because it's like everything is pristine with him. Yeah. He hit a, they were in a quick game, undercenter stick spacing the concept is called. And he hit Pollard on a swing for a first down. It was in the second half.

It was like second and 11. And Dak on a three step drop, under center's three step drop gets through all five options to get to Pollard. Like one, two, three. Do, do, do. And if you want to see the difference, watch Kirk Cousins run a under center quick game concept who just locks in on number one, maybe gets the number two. And most of the time, ball gets batted down. Like that's the difference right there between those two. But I'm glad you brought up the Pollard touchdown on the swing because I had Beller load up the play on that one for our YouTube audience.

But on that one, this is just really showing DAC in control because it's a four strong concept with trips to the right. Michael Gallup is the lone receiver and Pollard is kicked over to the trip's side. On this, a lot of times the Cowboys will run this and they put Gallup on a slant. So instead of going on a slant, they're just outside the red zone here. They put them on a sluggo, which is a slant and go. And Dak, he is so in control, so just calm in the pocket and understands what defenses are. The Vikings are in cover six, which is covered two to the loan receiver side and quarters to the field. And on that cover six look, he looks at the sluggo, gives a little pomp and sees Harrison Smith hanging over there.

He progresses, boom, boom, boom, and gets to the swing to Pollard. And he gets there so quickly. And that's why there's so much space because Patrick Pearson runs with Noah Brown on the under route. And then he gets there so quickly. That's why there's so much room. That's why checkdowns are better with better quarterbacks, it seems like. That's why it seems like, you're like, man, the chiefs, they get these checkdowns. They go for 12 yards.

It's because Mahomes gets there so quickly. Same here with DAC. And that just shows him just being under control and understanding what the defenses are doing. And on top of it, like, just like their run game again, like their play calling is they're really throwing its other wrinkles. I also wanted to mention like, we're talking about controllers. That's RPO's, the smokes that you brought up, the screens that you bring up. when a team runs play action, we think of that as a control to help out the run game.

You know, you're faking the run to throw the ball. Then the opposite of that is running draw plays or other plays, like on third down the run play, like which I always go gaga over. The cowboys are the best draw running team in the league, like just a running back draw. Old school, second and long,

they run draw, and that helps out their pass game. Because now you don't know. You can't tee off on them. You can't do all the things that you want to do. And on top of it, like there's the one designed run on third and six that DAC ran.

So I was going to ask you this. I didn't think this was a design run. I thought it was a play action pass where he took off. It was a design run because I was going to like it even more if it was a design run. So I'm glad that you think it was. It is. It's a design run because they all start blocking all the receivers do. So that's actually what helped me because it did look weird because deck the mesh point was a little funky.

In real time, I wrote it down. I was like, oh, that's a design run. Because I want to bring up a stat here in a second. I was like, oh, that's a design run on third and six. I can't believe they ran a design run on third and six. And then when I rewatched it, I was like, is that design run? Or did he take off in its play action? So you can roll about it.

It was funny that you distinguish between that. I love it because they're running more designed runs with him. They're getting back to some of that early DAC career stuff. Like he's already passed how many design runs he had last year, how many has run this year. So this is just a zone re-design run, third and six. And the Vikings are running a lot of quarters where we talk about how smart the Vikings DPs are and how well-coached they are. Now, they kind of play against.

it because the Cowboys do because those Vikings DBs and defenders are so worried about bracketing their guys and having the eyes on receivers. So the Cowboys just runs Zone Reed and Dak just runs for an easy first down. And they do that and it's such a just a nice changeup. And I love that. Again, they're controlling, they're helping control the pass game because now the now the defense has to keep it up, be honest. They have to play the run as well along with the pass. And they did that. They had a third and three where they ran inside zone. Same thing. Vikings are in quarter. quarters, expecting a pass, running a nice inside zone, easy. So just again, these are just the things that mess with match rules and just control the

defense. And it's like, that's why I'm becoming a sucker for this offense again. I think this is the best Colin Morris call plays, the best he's designed plays. I think this is the best he's looked as a play caller and a play designer. And Dak is just operating like a machine right now. I'm 100% with you. So the stat that I loved, they were seven of seven. Their first seven third down runs went for first downs.

Oh, I love it. It's seven third down runs that went for first downs. I mean, that's just when you can do that, when you feel comfortable running the ball in those situations, and the third and six is obviously the most extreme example. But they were doing it on third and three, third and two consistently throughout the game. And I think one of the reasons that Kellen Moore does look the best that he's looked is that Dack looks the best that he's looked physically. That's the biggest differentiator right now for what this offense is this year compared to what it looked like last year. year. He had a play, I think it was in the first or second drive, where he gets out of the pocket and finds Schultz on the run to his right. Beautiful play, nice throw. And then he had a missile shot to C.D. Lamb to set up that 60-yard field goal on the move outside of the pocket. You just showed that third down run where he's getting the first down with his legs. His ability to scramble, make plays outside of the pocket, combined with all the other stuff they're doing, we didn't see a lot of that last year. We were concerned about their ability to find explosive plays.

last season, even with Amari Cooper in the fold. Dak not being able to extend stuff outside of the pocket and what comes with that, I think really sapped their ability to get those plays. And if they're going to have him moving around, extending plays with his legs, adding to the quarterback run game, diversifying their run game because he can move, those are elements they just did not have last season. And I really do think they're leaning into them in a smart way. And it's really cool to see.

It is. Every place available to them. Like as far as quarterback runs, run at normal runs under center shotgun dropbacks naked like they call everything like there must be they're going to be such a pain in the ass the game plan against because they lean into something different every every matchup and every game and i i'm really really digging what they're doing like it's it's it's cool because they're now they're doing we talked about hitting the easy buttons they're hitting easy buttons for him and on top of some of the hard stuff that they can do it's because he can do the

we already know that he can and so this blend is the right blend that's what it feels like to me that's what it is It's some early career DAC stuff with what we've seen maybe the last two seasons when he's kind of actually two years ago when he was on Fuegogo before he got hurt. And the last year where he was kind of banged up the whole year, but still playing well. But you can kind of, he didn't look right sometimes. There's a reason they didn't run on my QB sneaks last year. They're like he's banged up. They were not running him on purpose. And now they are.

And I think it's a huge difference. Two other guys in the offense that I just want to talk about briefly. I already mentioned Zach Martin on the long touchdown to Pollard where he runs the wheel. they lined up Sedaris Smith over Zach Martin one-on-one on a third and 14, and Zach Martin just stone walls him. And it's just a fantastic ret from a Hall of Fame player. But it's worth remembering, someone to Chris Jones in this game against the Chargers, like what elite players do for you in those moments where they show up?

And Zach Martin is a truly elite player. And then the guy on the receiving end of that throw, having Tony Pollard be a real part of this offense and a high-ish volume part of this offense, higher volume part of this offense is a very good thing. Like, he is right there as like the most explosive skill position player that they have. That includes C.D. Lamb. So using him and unlocking him is absolutely huge. And he's become more of a complete player.

I think what the whole Zeke-Pawr thing is exhausting to me because I still think Zika is useful. It's just that Pollard is explosive. Zeke is a, Zick gets on base. Pollard hits home runs. Like that's the difference. 100%. And when you need juice, they need it. They don't have it.

enough places to marginalize this guy. They just don't. No. No. And I think I want to speak to Paul Ward become more of a complete player. This is the best he's ever been in protection. And that's why he can be on the field on third down. That's why he can be on field to catch that wheel around.

It's because now they can trust him in protection to put him on the field on third down. And on top of that, he's running in between the tackles, the best he's ever run between the tackles. He was always kind of, he wasn't bad at it. He wasn't kind of like, you know, like Miles Sanders, who always wanted to bounce stuff. he's also gotten better as well. But Pollard would kind of, you know, he looked about some stuff. And now I think he's gotten so much better like that duo run. He's willing to, he's learning to kind of pace, tempo his runs.

And I think that is really why he's becoming unlocked because now they can call everything with him. And I think before he was kind of a designer replay type that they're like, oh, we only can run toss plays with him. Ooh, we only can run screens with him. Ooh, it's a past, it's a six-man protection. We don't trust them against this blitz heavy team. And now they do trust them. So they have a one-a, one-b. And it's, oh my God, it's fun.

Going the defensive side of the ball, a couple guys that I thought had some nice moments that, again, speaks to just the depth and how well coached these guys are just all the way through. Anthony Brown picking up the league play to Hawkinson from all the way across the field. Oh, that was great.

A small moment like that. They tried to run a little pick play to Hawkinson in the red zone on second down. Curse sorts through the pick and manages to make a play in the back of the end zone. Doris Armstrong had the first sack that Christian Darrasaw gave up, I think, all season. The first one that Darrasaw gave up on the first drive,

that's on Cousins, which we could talk about it in a second. Like, Couss has to get rid of that. He has Jefferson coming over on the mesh on third down. So, but Armstrong had a really nice moment. It's up and down the roster. You had guys affecting the game outside of the stars. When Michael Parsons got to rush the passer, he had Pairsacks in this game,

affected a bunch of other plays. DeMarx Lawrence affected a bunch of plays. They just, their inability to, pass protect after Darisol went out especially, they just couldn't operate on offense. And that's because the Dallas defense, when they're rolling, is a real pain in the ass to deal with. It is. Last week against the Bills, I was actually kind of stunned watching that game back. I was like, man, Vikings didn't really chip help on like Von Miller.

And they kind of got away with a lot where Kirk Cousins was getting rid of the ball split second before the pass rushers getting home. And I kind of was like, well, this Cowboys pass rushes, you know, Bill's defense is good. The Cowboys pass rushes, you know, they're monsters. And Darisot goes out, and they're not chip helping for the backup left tackle. Like, and it's like, ooh, so that was a little bit of like, they got caught. Like, they weren't, they were not prepped. You're not prepped for your starters to go out. But that's the thing.

You always have, that goes into adjusting throughout the game is that you have to. When you have injuries, you have to adjust your game plan. We have to start chip helping. And they did as the game went along. But then, but then what the Cowboys started doing, they were like, okay, we're going to put persons on Brian O'Neill. and then we're going to have DeMarcus Lawrence over the left tackle. And now Hockison was chip helping.

And now Hockeson, who they just traded for, has to chip help. And now he can't get out. So, man, it was a trickle-down effect. And then you got Dante follower on Ed Ingram. Like, they were just teased off. Multiple twists that they just had no chance of picking up with follower on that side. And when you're down against this team, that is a very bad place to be. Because the whole blueprint is if you can run the ball a little bit against them,

you can kind of have the pen in your hand last. And that's when you're down 20 to 3 early in the first half. It's a recipe for disaster against this team, especially when your best offensive linemen goes out and we're worried about the other guys on the interior. Yeah. No, it was definitely not fun. There's a reason cousins got sacked the most times of his career. And some plays, like, couldn't even get off the ground.

Like, it was just like, ball was snapped. Here comes the pressure. It plays dead. And, yeah, the Cowboys fell in control from the first drive onwards. It just never, especially when the Vikings didn't score on the, that first drive for them where they moved the ball, or second drive, I should say, and moved the ball decently. It felt like after that was like, nope, Cowboys kind of had that game the rest of the game. Concerned about the Vikings moving forward. Do you feel like this is a game that exposed them? Do you think

it's just a really bad day at the office? It was a really bad day at the office. And I think, you know, every week, we're like, what are the Vikings? I think the Vikings are more of a solid team that doesn't reflect their record. I believe they're going into last week. Their expected win loss was you know, five and a half and three and a half or something of that sort. So, you know, they're, they were overperforming. So I think they just came back to Earth a little bit, you know, regression to the mean as a bitch. And that's kind of what happened today.

And also it's just a terrible matchup. When your offensive line and your protection can't hold up, you're not running the ball consistently like you want to. It's a long day at the office, especially when the opponent is just on fire. So I think it was a rough day at the office, but also just a little, you know, cold water dumped down on the Vikings. Not they didn't want to hear about cold water right now because it was, looks like it was freezing up there in Minneapolis.

I do not miss that whatsoever being in Las Vegas. It's like 54 degrees here. And I'm like, ooh, it's chilly out. I got wear a sweatshirt today. And I watched that. There's snow on the ground.

It's like, yeah, I don't miss that Minneapolis at all. Nice chill like 20 degrees here over the last couple days, which is always really good. I do think this is a indication and something that we probably already knew. Like, I think the Cowboys are right there in the conversation,

like in the NFC. It was we get down and get toward the end of the season. I absolutely think they can go toe to toe with anybody. I think the Vikings are a step down from that group. And I think today is a reflection of that and expression of that. I totally agree. That's exactly how I say it as well. All right.

It's time for Not Mad, just disappointed. Let's do it. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. Not a ton of obvious candidates today, not a lot of huge letdowns. I mean, we'll get to some rough performances here in a second. but I wanted to talk about two teams that actually won, but did not look overly impressive doing it. The Colts barely lose to the Eagles 17 to 16.

The Eagles scrape by against Indianapolis. The Ravens win a 13 to 3 game against the Panthers that was 3 to 3 for most of the game into the fourth quarter. So let's start with the Eagles. We talked about their offense on the preview show, whether we were a little bit worried about the game they had against Washington. Anything from today that makes you more worried about Philadelphia's offense moving forward, or do you feel like, again, just a couple little tiny moments here or there? A little bit more worried. It was, you know, again, a game where that was close, and you got to see what they play

like when they're down or the game is close. And, you know, the things that are concerning to me, it was Dallas got it was out, but they still have, you know, A.J. Brown and Devante Smith and, you know, whatever Batman's They want to say that their team has. And it just felt to me that it felt like Hertz was pressing a lot today and not just as a thrower, but especially as a runner. They ran a lot of just zone read types plays or retype plays with the quarterback. And I felt like he made the wrong decision quite a few times.

And it got reflected, really. This was the lowest running back run success rate of their entire season. Only 23.5% of their runs that went to running backs were successful. They average 48%. So less than half of their usual. Again, the Colts run defense is outstanding. It's really, really good. They're also well coached.

In the run game, like they, what they were doing, the defensive end was just crashing pretty much every single zone. You're scraping. Forcing and then they would scrape over the top. So they're forcing hurts to keep the ball, which I'm assuming he doesn't want to do all the time. So he's handing it off into bad looks. And you have the defensive end just crashing down every single play. Just the details of it were very impressive from the Colts side effects. It really was.

And he looked a little banged up today. Hertz did. Like, he seemed like he was going to 80% on some of the runs where he was not, you know, like he was scrambling a little bit and was like, oh, man, I'm used to you out running that guy. Now the guy is kind of staying step for step on him. So I thought that was interesting. Well, that's what happens when you run your quarterback a lot, which I know we'll talk about

with another guy later. But also just this was the most snaps in the Washington game kind of showed this. This was the most snaps that the Eagles played in 11 personnel. This is where the Dallas got her being out kind of gets. reflected. And the Colts lined up in single high, not because it's Gus Bradley, but the versions they were running on single in single high, they were running a one spy coverage on third down quite often where the one safety would rotate down and cover the running back and they'd have a linebacker spying Jalen Hertz. So they run all these games. Hertz, you know, Hertz looks to

scramble very often, very quickly. And that was playing right into the Colts's hands. And because of that, they were just getting all these advantages. So that happened quite a few times. And that kind of is a little bit concerned to me because now that's two weeks in a row where teams have run versions of man, versions of single high against this 11 personnel. And so there's ups and downs with the passing game. And when they can't spam RPO's throughout the whole game or the run game is kind of up and down, okay, well, now we get in these bad situations, these second and extra longs, these third and extra longs. They're the one where they got three penalties in a row. Well, that was a huge part.

of the problem today is they were getting a ton of penalties. I mean, you can go through it all right now. First drive, they have a third and two. They had a conversion to number 81, whoever that happens to be. And there's a hold. So now it's third and 12th. Okay. Second drive, they're driving.

Kelsey gets an eligible man downfield for first and 15. Dickerson gets a hold on first and 15. First and 25, they get a chunk of it back. It's offensive pass interference. I mean, just there are so many of those moments today. There's a sack fumble. A.J. Brown fumbles. when they're driving.

I do think it's a little bit of both where you have these mistakes that they also snapover hurts his head inside the two-yard line where they actually have to kick a field goal. I mean, there's so so many uncharacteristic mistakes that they weren't making over the first nine weeks of the season that they have made over the first couple of the last two weeks, whether it's turnovers, miscues, penalties, all of that stuff. But I do think there are reasons to be worried about the offense and their ability to kind of do a bunch of different things, independent of those mistakes. I agree.

There's, and Ben Solac brought up a great point, and he's kind of get, you know, blasted by some Eagles fans is that, you know, on the last drive, they didn't really trust Hertz throwing the ball. He had the throw away. He had the deep underthrow on the pass interference. That was, pass interference has to be catchable, by the way. That throw was seven yards short. Like, there's no way around that.

It's a game swinging penalty. And then they had a run ball, run. they ran the ball a few times. They ran the ball fairly well, actually. But then there's a couple of replays where, like you said, the Colts gamed it up where Hertz kept the ball and they had guys waiting for him. And then the touchdown was great. But also I wanted to yell at like Gus Bradley and the Colts.

It's like, what do you think they're going to do? You know they're going to run Hertz. That is like so, it's screaming. They went as spread as the formation could be. They were opening up as much space as possible for it. But no, there are those concerns. They only threw three balls, I believe, over 20. yards today. They went one for three. He had the touchdown to Watkins on one, but that was because

there was a Colts bust, and that was because the linebacker didn't robot where he runs with the overrout. And they were in a three match there. So it was, so that if that didn't happen, you know, that's 0 for two on the other ones. So they felt very tight on them today. A lot of bad situations or tough situations, and they felt like they're just kind of get out of a wet paper bag and that sometimes they're struggling. I can see the 20-yard throws. There was a one deep shot to Smith down the right side and they went incomplete, and then they tried to hit a double move against Defon Gilmore with A.J. Brown that just went absolutely

nowhere. And when I can, same as last week, when I can rattle off the shots they took down the field, it's like that. Probably not taking enough of them. That's exactly how the Washington game felt. So one of the stats I thought was interesting. Hertz has been pretty middle of the road when

blitzed this season. I think he's like 17th and EPA per dropback when blitzed. Only 24 and a half percent of his attempts travel more than 10 air yards when he's blitzed. Okay. That is 34th of 38 qualified quarterbacks. And there was one play specifically that stood out.

I think it was the third nine late in the game. The Colts brought a pressure. And I think it might have been just a screwed up screen or something. But they had AJ Brown coming open against it. And he checked it down to Sanders on the right side. And if they're not going to gash teams when teams come after them and they, they go from being the fourth most efficient passing offense in the league to the 17th most efficient passing offense in the league when teams bring pressure, teams are going to

continue to bring pressure. And I think they're going to see more of that. And I do get worried about how tight everything starts to feel when they're not allowed to play their own game. And I think that this was another example of that. We said it on Thursday. This was going to be a similar sort of challenge to the one that they faced on Monday. and in a lot of ways, the game felt sort of similar.

It did. It's just like they couldn't break through. Yes. It just felt tight. That's such a great example on that blitz. I couldn't figure out which clip I wanted to watch. But they had a third and 13 earlier and the Colts ran the spy coverage that I talked about. And the Eagles ran a bubble pump because they throw so many bubbles and receive.

I mean, that's been their go-to play when they're trying to create an explosive this season. The first time you run against the Steelers and you get two touchdowns off it against the dealers. Yeah, that's great. But now it's on tape. Now it's on film. So now the Colts are like, okay, bubble pop. I'm not, it's 13. Who cares about a bubble? Yep. So they just cover it. But that's the thing is hurts. The pocket was fine. They only rush four and hurts Bales immediately. And if you look on the play because it's a one three by one formation, uh, the tight end, I think it was. Yeah, it's a one by three. He runs an out route. That's the answer on this play against man coverage. That's a man

beater that you're supposed to hit the loan up the lone up tight end. When it's Dallas Goddard, I understand that, yeah, I'll take Dallas Goddard, but Hertz on this play looks to scramble right away. And he ends up taking a second. Because that's, that's where I've had those concerns. And I know people are like, oh, you're tough on Hertz, but oh, who cares if he can't operate from the pocket? This is why I get concerned about it is because when he's looking to scramble and

defenses start gaming that up, this is why he always brought up that Bucks playoff game. When defenses are aware of this and know how to game it up, it becomes really tough. It's tough sledding. And we've seen it kind of two weeks in a row where it's kind of got after him a a couple times. I mentioned this before, just about any offense, where you have kind of a new version of the offense. And this is year one of this version of the Eagles,

where they have AJ Brown, they're willing to kind of drop back and throw the ball a little bit more often than they did last season, much more often than they did last season. And they were rolling. For two months, they were rolling. Eventually, during these seasons, you hit a little bit of a skid, especially when you're a team like them who doesn't run a lot of stuff.

their offense is fairly condensed in the amount of passing concepts that they have. So when teams start getting a lot of tape on you and they start understanding how you're going to try to attack them and they have answers, now you have to come up with answers. And there's a chance that they can. But this is when you find out which quarterbacks are really, really good. When teams have answers to what you're doing and now you have to find solutions. This is where the Mahomes and all of those guys separate themselves. And I think this is where we find out a lot about Jalen Hertz and what his ceiling really is in this little fallow period portion of the season. Yeah, I mean, especially like a third and long, they run like three plays on third and long.

Usually you run really gameplay any stuff. They run this like deep curl concept where everyone gets to the sticks and they run three man curls. They provide chip help and they run three curls at the sticks. And I want to say it was the first third down or second third down in the game and it gets batted down. It ended up being incomplete. It was the first third down of the game. It was after the hold. It was Rodney McLeod broke it up.

Yes. That's right. Yes. And he breaks it up. And on that hurts, double clutches it. He drops, he hitches,

and he hitches again. And that let the defender break on it. When you're running these plays, you put it on tape. And now these defenders go, oh, I remember this play. Oh, okay, we just practice against it because they only have to worry about four plays on third long.

So, oh, all curls. Here we go. So he breaks. You hesitate just the slug. is room for error just gets tighter and tighter. And that was just another instance of it happening to the Eagles again. I still think they have plenty of answers against some teams and most teams, but there's going to be other instances where they're going to start to have to find

changeups for what they want to do on offense. And, you know, the seasons, there's only a few, you know, we're hitting the second half of the season. So this is, you know, nut cutting time. It's important to win these games, though. And their defense is very good and their defense can carry them for stretches. And this is another example of them kind of winning in a slightly different way when they weren't really rolling offensively, and they deserve credit for that.

I think that's really, really important. There's a chance they absolutely can work through some of this stuff, but I do think some of the issues that we've seen over the last couple weeks, some of the issues we saw last week, I think, carried over to what they were today. And the other thing I wanted to mention before we move on from this game, Gus Bradley's has done a really good job. I have not, I should, when they got hired him, I was like, it just felt uninspired, you know, just like, all right.

Like, that's what you're going to do. This is a team that's been like a borderline top 10 defense. You know, Shaq Leonard has been out for most of the season. And I just think that they've done a really good job. I think they're well coached. They're just a really sound defense that's hard to play against. And I think that this is another great example of that what this game looked like today. So credit Gus Bradley, credits of the Colts for the way that they play week in and week out on that side of the ball.

The offense is left a little bit more to be desired. No, I agree. Which is so the irony of that from August. this conversation about this team. But no, I totally agree. They make it, like you said, they make it tough on every offense that they go against because, again, it's hard to run against them. And on top of it, I think they're well coached on the back end as far as how, what you're going to run against them. So I agree. You know, Gus Bradley, tip of the cat, we see you, Gus Bradley. And early, we see you in this show right now. All right, let's talk about their offense that

struggled a little bit today in a game where they managed to squeak it out at the end. I am worried about the Ravens. Watching that game today against Carolina, I think the Eagles will figure it out. I think the Eagles will still be a very dangerous team over the course of the season. I think they have too many good players to not work through some of these issues. But when I watch the Ravens play, I see a team right now that I don't think has enough answers. I just don't think that they have enough talent on the offensive side of the ball to be as disjointed as they often look. And I'm a little bit worried after watching this game, even if they won, about what.

what their ceiling looks like when these games really start to matter in December and January. Yeah, when the Chiefs receiver four last year is your receiver one right now, that's, that's not where you want to be. And DeMarcus Robinson, who played well, but that's not where you want to be as a team. I think this game was, I'm back at it. This was the bad part of Greg Roman. This was him and his worst habits. They went to empty 10 times in this game.

Lamar was sacked twice and he had another TFL where he was about to it sacked. He went past the line of scrimmage and then went back behind the line of scrimmage. And so I ended up being considered a TFL. And I got so confused. I was like, man, I swear he got sacked again. And I'm rewatching it. I'm like, oh, it ended up be calling a TFL on that one. But all those, there's one that was absolutely brutal. It was a third and 19. They're at the 35-yard line. And it's in the third quarter, middle of the third quarter. At the 35-yard line, you have Justin Tucker. Three-three game. So, okay, every point matters at this point in time. And what did we talk about last year with this Ravens offense?

Especially after they played the dolphins in that Thursday night, Bruehaha, was that they were getting blitzed every time they went to empty. So now you got Greg Roman panicking. You can tell when Greg Roman is panicking because all of a sudden he's going empty. We've got to go empty. We've spread it out. Come on, Lamar, let's go do this.

So the Panthers bring a simulated pressure. They bring four. The right tackle, Morgan Moses squeezes on the pressure guy, like he should. But that ends up creating a free runner with this guy named Brian Burns, who I don't know if people know. Brian Burns is really good. And you do not want Brian Burns as a free runner. So what happens is Lamar has no chance.

He has the back of his drop. He's sacked because it's 1319. He's trying to get some yards. They go empty and run quick game on here and he gets sacked. And it knocks him out of field goal range. They have to punt on a 3-3 game. And again, that's just, oh, he's just so frustrating as a play caller for me. This is the highest percentage of true dropbacks.

Lamar is out all season, which is non-play action, non-screen plays. and every single dropback he had today was from the shotgun. And this was his lowest air yards per attempt in the game this season. It's like, what are you doing, Greg? It's like it's so frustrating. You don't have these players. Run the ball, control it, play a team game. They couldn't run the ball.

And that was the other problem is that they were not running the ball well in this game. And that's where my concerns lie. It's all right. When you start to pull out the fundamental aspects of what makes you good on offense, what are you left with? I mean, Lamar this season is 29th of 38 quarterbacks in EPA, per attempt on third down. So dropbacks, he's a little bit higher because you can factor in scrambles.

But their third down passing game, it's not good. I mean, it's because they don't have anybody to throw the ball to outside of Mark Andrews. If you're going to have this little receiving talent, if you're going to build your team this way, the construction of your offense has to be very, very good. And your quarterback has to be an alien. Okay. Patrick Mahomes can get by with this sort of collection of players. And that's, Juju Smith-Schuster is as good as anybody. The Ravens are trotten out of their week-to-week, right?

I mean, so Mahomes can get by because he's Mahomes, and I think Andy Reid is one of the best offensive coaches in the history of football. The Ravens are not that. So when it's third and seven and Lamar can't take off, I worry about what this team can do. And that is not a commentary on the quarterback. It's a commentary on the circumstances that exist around their passing game in those situations.

And today, it's like a sequence of stuff. Like, all right, if I'm going to take the running game away from you, if you're the Ravens, what do you become? And that's, we found out today. In the first half, they averaged 2.85 yards per carry. They average negative 0.21 EPA per rush. For context, over the course of a season, that would be worse than the worst running team in the NFL.

I think the Panthers deserve a lot of credit for that. Similar to actually reminded me a lot of watch that Eagles game today. Panthers had a really good plan for the Ravens running game, where the ends are just crashing extremely hard. They're scraping over the top. They did a really good job of just playing team run defense today in this game. And when you take away that, what are the Ravens left with? And the answer is not very much.

When you kind of lay their third down passing game bare, there's a lot to be desired. I mean, just even when they're scheming up, this is a perfect example. even when they're scheming up gimmick plays, they ran a wheel route to Patrick Ricard today. Oh, my God. And it's just like, guys, I know. He's king of the chalkboard. That's what Greg Roman is king of the chalkboard.

This looks, oh, this is going to be so good. And it's like, but you know who your personnel is, right? And that's what's frustrating. And that's just why, like, even if I think Omar is a really good player, I really like a lot of the stuff that they can do in the run game. But when you just see this version of them, it's like, I just don't know how far this can take you. And it makes me a little bit worried. Yeah, that's why that Rashad Bateman injury is devastating for them.

Because that was their man-beater. That was their outside weapon. Like, that was their guy, third and five. Okay, let's run some stuff to Rashad. Not that their stuff was great early in the year. I mean, the passing game of Greg Roman's always been bad because it's very, like, old. If you're very high schooly, a lot of hands. hitches, a lot of, a lot of just basic routes. And he tries to get by with a lot of motions

and formation stuff. And it just, yeah, this is where when they have to rely on it, I really do think they went to this game and they thought they were just going to run all over them, like run all over the Panthers and just have their way with them. I thought they'd watch the Bengals tape. And they're like, wow, guess what we get to do. Hey, Lamar, get ready here. You're going to get player the week this week. I really think that's how, I mean, just they had, that's how, I think that's how they felt when they went to this game. And I think they just got their teeth kicked in and they just weren't ready for that at all. And that's what I think that I really felt, it felt like a panicked game from them where they're like, does this work? Does this work? Does this work?

Oh, oh, let's try this play. And just there's no sense of rhythm. And that's scary that this should have been a game that should have been, again, credits of the Panthers, but a game that they should have maybe been feeling a lot better than they did afterwards. I again, Philly same same way about the Panthers defense today that I felt about the Coles defense. Not they had a really good plan for what the Ravens offense is, and they deserve credit for that. I also thought the Ravens solution late in the game was really interesting. They started actually breaking through in the running game when they were just running draws and at you runs.

Like when they stopped pulling people, they were actually able to move the ball on the ground because that's not what they do. So that's not what the Panthers are game planning for. It's like, all right, they probably ran at least three or four draws on their last two drives in this game, including the big Kenyon Drake run that set up their touchdown. That was a draw. And they're just running draw after draw because their baseline running game and what they actually wanted to do was not working.

So they eventually found a solution. I don't think it's a sustainable solution. And I left that game still feeling pretty concerned about what this team is going to look like moving through the playoffs with this version of a passing game. Yeah. And that's what it is. It stuff gets harder. More tapes out there.

And the draw probably worked because they were in shock in the whole game. dropping back. And so they're like, oh, they finally went to the changeup and it worked. Look at that. But that's the difference between how like what the Cowboys are doing. Cowboys had this plan. They know what the changeups are going to be. Greg Roman is just spinning the wheel and he finally gets to it.

And it finally does work. But no, that's what it is. They're not finding their changeups quick enough. They're not adjusting quick enough. And it felt like when they don't, their initial game plan isn't working, we don't know what to do. All right. Let's move on here.

I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. in the performance that Zach Wilson and the Jets passing game put on today. I don't know where you want to start. My big picture thought here is that eventually this needs to happen. You have a playoff caliber defense. You have spent on this team. I know the offensive line is banged up,

and I know the offensive line isn't very good. But this was not just a protection issue today. This was him just playing pretty miserable football. And then the way they handled it afterwards, I thought was fairly concerning. You know, him being asked if he felt like he let the defense down, he said no. No. Some of the stuff that Garrett Wilson said after the game, I mean, just some of the quotes, let me try to pull some of up.

I mean, just give me a second. Yeah. They were very, very harsh. I mean, I think one of the things he said was, like, this shit isn't acceptable something in that range, something along the lines of, I hope this people in the building wake up a little bit after watching this game. I believe Connor Hughes reported after the game that some of the guys in the locker room didn't appreciate the way that Zach Wilson was handling himself after the game.

This is bad. That is the bad stuff. When that stuff starts to turn, I think that's when you get a little bit worried. And I can understand guys in that locker room when their defense is playing as well as they are when they're winning some games. And you watch the way he played guys in the locker room, no. And if he's not, they know. If a guy's got it or a guy doesn't have it, they typically know it. And after watching that game today, I can understand them being concerned that this guy

he ain't got it. Yeah. The, I was remember the preseason clips that were coming out because they're showing up Garrett Wilson, like the jets, you know, you know, during training camp, there's always the practice clip in slow-mo that the team puts out, you know, like the cool catch or like the long ball and super zoomed up. And everyone of Garrett Wilson, he's catching some throw behind him. Like, that's why it was a highlight catch.

because he had to reach back and catch it. And I was like, that's why those are highlights. It's because the ball was off. But we say this Shanahan-type offense that, like, Michael LeFourer runs is, it's training wheels. It's a training wheels offense for the quarterback. And I really think, like, Zach Wilson has bumpers when he's bowling and he's throwing the ball two lanes over.

Like that, like, he has the bumpers in there, but he's not even throwing it on the lane. Like, that is, like, just how ugly it looks. The second half, 15 dropbacks. He went four for 11, negative 21 net yards. He got sacked four times. It was, the last drive before they punted it and lost the game, they just ran the ball. They were just like, screw this. She was through to pick.

And they're like, no, we're not doing that again. Run the ball. Run the ball. We do not trust this guy. And this is when we talked about it on Thursday, I was trying to really, you know, talk about Zach Wilson and more of a critical sense in the sense of how he could get better. And what are the true kind of like if I were coaching him as a quarterback and or as a quarterback coach. And his feet are just so all over the place.

Remember when kind of really early on this podcast, I went in on Drew Locke and I was like, I mean, early laughing about him and saying, I made a joke that Drew Locke would tell you can tell Drew Locke calls a play and he only knows one route on it. When you call a play, you tag routes and you tag concepts. So you say like X dig, X fade, you know, something of that sort. That's how Zach Wilson kind of plays. It feels like he knows one route on the play. and once that does not come open, he's like, oh, my God, his feet get all over the place. This was the, the Patriots dropped eight a ton. 20% of the dropbacks were drop eight.

They only rushed three. They blitzed barely any times. I want to say two or three times the entire game. They were daring. They brought pressures, but they only were bringing four. So that was the thing is that they were bringing guys from untraditional spots and making them sort things out. And they were struggling to do that.

But they weren't bringing a lot of big blitzes in this game. No. And this is that. throw that McCordy dropped at the dig that Wilson sailed over the middle of the field. That was kind of like kind of exactly what I mean when I say Zach Wilson, that's kind of happy feet. And he's off time. He only knows one route. That was a perfect example.

He's hanging in the pocket, which is like, okay, good. You're not looking to scramble because he always kind of looks to scramble. Or right. It's out of the back of the pocket. Yep. And then all of a sudden, he's hoping a route comes across his face. And then here comes to dig. And because he is off time, because he doesn't know the timing of the play, he's not truly

progressing on that play, his feet are all wonky. And when your feet are wonky, the ball is going to spray. That's early career Josh Allen. Ask him, his feet were so wonky, so all over the place. I'm not saying like Zach Wilson's going to go on the Josh Allen path. Josh Allen also, remind of people, Josh Allen had 40 pounds on the guy and he's not worried about it. It's not even worth going down this road.

It's a completely different thing that's happening right now. Yes. But his feet were so wonky that the ball just sails like five yards over the dig route's head. And McCordy drops the ball. And it's just a domino effect that happens over and over and over. And the fact that he has no ownership on it, I'm sure they're frustrated because it's like, man, there are routes open for you. And you're just not hitting them.

And you're not doing the mental stuff that you need to do to be an NFL quarterback. You can't just go one and done. You just can't. It's impossible. It's impossible to play quarterback like that. And he's just, he hasn't done it. He just has not done it in his career yet. He was 7 of 22 in this game.

And it could have been worse. McCordy drops that interception. There was another semi-dropped interception on that last drive before they ultimately just handed the ball off. It could have been worse. I mean, this is, we've reached a troubling place, okay? Yeah. Here's the stat I have for you.

Since the year 2000, 105 quarterbacks have attempted at least 500 attempts in their first 20 games, okay? Zach Wilson is 98th in EPA per dropback of those 105 quarterbacks. Would you like to hear the quarterbacks who are lower than Zach Wilson on that list? I would love to. I love me some schlock. Okay. Chris Wanky.

Deshawn Kaiser, Blaine Gabbert, John Skelton, Kyle Wharton, Bruce Gradkowski, Josh Rosen. Kyle Wharton started as, and these are all guys, Skeleton, Kyle Wharton, Bruce Grackowski, late round picks that happen to be thrust into action, right? Like, Kyle Wharton started as a rookie in 2000. because Rex Grossman got hurt. The guys at the top of this list, there were higher picks than that. It's really just Josh Rosen and Blaine Gabbard. And we know what Josh Rosen and Blaine Gabbard ended up being his starters.

And the troubling thing about this is that there's no progress being made. I mean, this is as bad as it looks and now we're 20 games into his career. And so that's what would really worry me. The fact that we're not taking steps forward here. And even if there were some glimpses early in the season, for the most of the most of most part, he's right around where he's been for most of his career. And that is not a good sign, in my opinion. No, this is the exact concerns I had, but I wrote up the quarterbacks in this off season. I did an article for him on the athletic. This was my concerns with him coming into the league.

It is there is zero progression happening mechanically and mentally. And you have to be better. He sailed two throws out of bounds. He overthrew Braxton barriers on a checkdown. And then on a swing, he just airmailed one. And it's just like, man, that's, that is tough. Those two and then the one, the, the, the dropped interception by McCordy where it's just like, mistakes that don't need to happen. Like you, you are not efficient enough to be nonchalant with the way that you're letting some of these balls go.

And that's what it feels like right now. I mean, Aaron Rogers can put some sauce on it every once in a while. Like, you don't need to worry about that at the stage of the proceedings. No, it's all trick shots. It's like he's shooting behind the bag. shots. That's like how he tries to play. And it's like his footwork is so wonky. That's why I'm like, also I just want to like strangle every like quarterback coach, private quarterback coach. Oh, we got to do the quick hip stuff. And it's like, how about you just work on normal drops and

footwork and actually working on progressions? Like that's actually how quarterback play is. Everyone's worried about the hard stuff and doing all the extracurricular stuff. It's like you got to work on the fundamentals. And that's the thing. His fundamentals have gotten worse. They weren't great coming in. And they're getting worse, and that's just not good. That is just all the other guys I've seen growth. I mean, Mac Jones is something different, but Fields and Lawrence, you see the growth as far as what they're doing and how they're trying to progress and understanding what they're trying to accomplish. Wilson's still, this is my concern with him last year, and now still is this year, it still will be, I'm sure, is that he just mentally doesn't look ready. And it just, he does not look, he does not have the mental capacity at this point in time to play NFL quarterback.

It's too much for him. It's too fast. And that's how it feels like when I watch him. That's why he does all the spin moves in the pocket. He's just like, who does this work? Does this work? Oh, shoot. That's why he bails out of the pocket because he wants to see everything come open.

It's just he's not, it does not seem like he's mentally capable to play quarterback right now. How often he is turning the best back to the defense trying to bail out of the back of the pocket is. You just don't see good quarterbacks do that. You just can't do that. Nope. And you just can't play the way. Defenders are too good. He needs to be better than this.

Like that is just as simple as it gets. He needs to be better than this. And this is why. I'm sure people are going to listen to this, be like, well, you look at some stats. Justin Fields has been very bad. And even like this year, when he's been running the ball better, their passing game didn't look good today. The timeline for where the bears are and where the Jets are are two very different things. And I think that's important to understand here.

Trevor Lawrence, after his team made some investments, tried to get better this offseason, went spent on Brandon Shurf, went to go good Christian Kirk. They're like, we want to be better on offense this year. Guess what? The Jags has been better on offense this year. Trevor Lawrence is eighth in EPA per dropback this season. Even there have been some warts to his game and he still has a lot, a way to go. He has been significantly better this year. There's progress being made.

The Bears are rebuilding. Bears tore this thing down. There were 20 rookies. Yes. The idea that Justin Fields is even surviving is a positive thing for bears. The Jets were a top five team this season in cash spending to go get players. They had all these first round picks. I know the offensive line has been

been banged up, but their timeline is different than a team like Chicago's is. And you need to see some results from the quarterback faster. Because a lot of other elements of what this team is, they're built to compete right now. That is a

playoff caliber borderline championship caliber defense. And you can't lose these games where you give up three points for the first 59 minutes and 30 seconds of the game when your quarterback is playing like this, this cannot continue in this way. And I think that that's why the Jets have to ask themselves some like very real questions about where this stands and where it's going.

Yeah. And just the lack of remorse after the game. Like that, that is just like, oh, shoot, have some self-awareness. And again, being an NFL quarterback is hard, not just playing and not just studying and not just working at it. It's being the face of the franchise. And being and sometimes taking, even if you don't think. it's your fault, just taking it. That's part of being a quarterback and head coach. That's what you

have to do in that role. It's sometimes, it's not fair. Life is not fair. But that's why you get paid a lot of money. And that's why you get all the accolades. It's because you have to take all those warts and all those kicks in the teeth and get knocked down. And so that is just, yeah, it's just very, very, very disappointing. And honestly, and Seth Galena said this to me is that like, you see the shenan offense and we talk about, ooh, how is this quarterback to be weren't in the shanaan offense. Ooh, the discussion on Tua, discussion on Jimmy G. I haven't seen a guy like this,

this bad in that type of offense. Usually the bar is, the floor is, like, pretty high in this type of offense. The floor is so low with him. And that's scary. That's why it's so scary watching him play. The last thing I wanted to mention here, I think part of the reason that his issues were kind of laid out in front of us in

this game is that they could not run the ball at a 5% rushing success rate in this game. And if they're not going to be able to run, the ball and they're not going to be able to move the ball if he's going to be playing like this. And I wanted to give some credit to the Patriots defensive players. Oh, yeah. I mean, Godfaw had some really nice moments in this game. Lawrence Guy just tossing people around.

Dietrich wise. The fact that the Patriots is great. The fact that the Patriots, I mean, Judans obviously had an incredible season and we really like Kyle Dugger, but coming into the year, I did not have high hopes for the Patriots defense. Couldn't name a starting cornerback on that team. I mean, obviously I know who like Jalen Mills is, but outside people in the general public, it's like who is going to play a corner for this team. They have a lot of guys who are good players, but not great players in the front seven, and they've been one of the best defenses in the league this year. And I understand that we should take that into account when we talk about and consider Zach Wilson's performance today.

But if you're going to be a playoff team, these are the types of teams you have to play against. So it's I understand that it's still early, still relatively early, but when you look at that, that list of guys that his play is compared to. And these are guys that played 15 years ago when quarterback playing offensive efficiency wasn't what it is right now. So you would hear that list. You think about where he is and who he's being compared to at this stage based on production, just the numbers and the facts.

It is troubling. And I would not be feeling very good right now if I were a Jets fan. I heard Bortles and Rosen and I was like, okay, that's kind of all I need to kind of know. group he is like what arrow is getting pointed or what direction that arrow is getting pointed with him. All right. We're going to take one more quick break and then we're going to get back and just do a little bit of a notebook dump before we get out of here.

All right. I wanted to start doing this just to be able to have a little couple stray thoughts as we got to the end of the show. We watch so much stuff every single week that doesn't necessarily need an entire segment. So I want to start with just the AFC playoff picture kind of as it relates to the Jets, right? one of the reasons that games like this and Zach Wilson playing this way is disappointing is that the Jets have a playoff spot or did when they when this day started. But it's not like they're locked in.

They are now out of the playoffs as things currently stand because the Bengals have the tiebreaker against them. And I know the Chargers lost today, but we just talked to earlier about how, you know, it's a little glimpses from the Chargers. Like if Zach Wilson's going to be playing like this, I think you could make an argument that you'd almost feel better about the Chargers than you do about the Jets at this stage. So as it currently sits, the Bengals are the Patriots of the six seed, which their offense, who the hell knows, and the Bengals are the seventh seed. So there's a lot of jockeying to happen here in that 6,7, 8 range, because I do think that

the separation has now become obvious between that group of teams and the teams below them. And there's so many three-win teams in the NFL right now. It's absolutely wild. But those teams right at the bottom, I mean, like, if, you're not. the Jets offense continues to play like this, there's absolutely a timeline where they fall out of the playoffs in this kind of magical season that they've had on defense is eventually for naught. Yeah, I mean, especially, I mean, Bengals, Bengals are kind of underrated. I mean, they really are. Like, I really like what the Bengals are doing.

And, of course, like we said with the Chargers, Chargers have Herbert. Like, they're going to be in every game because of him. And that's why having a really, really good quarterback really helps because he feels his confidence with these teams. And but yeah, and that's the same. I like what you brought up with the Patriots is, yes, they have that the defense is playing. They're a bunch of ass kickers and they're playing so, so well. They're going to make it tough on a lot of teams. But there's going to be a lot of games where it's like, okay, how many points are, you know,

how many points are they going to score? Is it going to be a race to 14? Is it going to be a race to 13? Like that, you know, am I going to really bet on a Matt Patricia, Joe Judge, led offense? You know, that's not where I want to go. But then you look at a team like the Bengals. And they're more important than you realize. I'm really liking what they're doing as a team.

And I just think it's interesting that a team that maybe I was out on maybe a couple months ago. And I was like, oh, okay, you know, regression to the mean. Another team regression to me. This is where, this is what's happening to them. But I like how they're adjusting. I like what the Bengals' offenses started adjusting now just with their run game. They had a play where they're an empty today where they had a tendency beater where they put Joe Mixen on a dig. You know, they put a running back on a dig and they have a hitch route. Like, cool. Like I like that. Like, way to go, Zach Taylor. And I really liked that. They had nine explosive passes after a few weeks where they kind of were nickel and diming and Joe Burrow was learning to be

patient. No Jamar Chase. Man. And no Jamar Chase. And they're doing it without him. You know, Hayden Hurst is playing well for him. Like T. Higgins was really good today. I feel the exact same way where it's like this Bengals team like they're just not that

much different than they were last year. And last year they made a run in the playoffs. You know, if I, we said this earlier today. If Chidobio Woosie was healthy, I would be kind of beating the drum about what the Bengals could do. That injury does worry me. I just think he's so important to what they are defensively. But I still think that they're going to be a potentially potent team in the playoffs.

So got a lot of P. What was the DVOA? There are three teams in the NFL coming into this week that were top 10 offensive DVOA and defensive DVOA. Buffalo Bills, Philadelphia Eagles, and the Cincinnati Bengals. Right. That's a good team. That's a good team.

And I think the one issue I have with them, though, I went to their future schedule. Oh, it's brutal. The hardest schedule by DVOA, Titans, Chiefs, Brow. rounds, bucks, Patriots, Bill's Ravens. So that's my only thing. But it's so funny how they, like you said, I feel similar with them last year, but I feel better about this team. Like, it's funny.

Like, I don't know, Zach Taylor in this offense says they've thrown enough wrinkles and they're adjusting. We're talking about you put film out there and you start have tendencies. I really do think, not only just with the shotgun runs, but also how they're doing stuff, how they're attacking defenses out, the same formations they've been using, but they're just sprinkling in new stuff. And I like it. They did a one-by-four empty concept that we see the random.

do. And this is one of those where it's like, well, when the Rams do it, it's awesome. But if the Bengals do, it's terrible. But the Bengals did. They did it well. Like they had it over. It was an overrout when they're backed up. It's like, okay, so they're doing some new stuff. So I feel a lot better about them, even with this tough schedule coming up. I just think that they are, because of the quarterback play, because of what the offense can look like. I think they're a scarier team than the Jets are come play off time. I just do. And we're going to see how this all shakes out. But this is, this week was a reminder. It's like, not a great game against the Steelers. Jamar chases out. They still manage to win that game. The quarterback plays just so much better. And that gulf in quarterback play between the Bengals and the Chargers and the Jets and the Patriots, I think that that actually may be a huge thing as we figure out who's going to get those final two playoffs spots in the AFC. And the Bengals defense is going to keep them in a lot of games.

Yes. They are one of the best game planning defenses in the league. That is what they do. Their third down stuff is great. And so they're going to be in every game. If Burrow gets hot, he can get. you can be one the hottest quarterbacks like out there. So it's,

that's the thing. They're, they're tough, they're a tough, tough team right now. I want to talk about the lions just very briefly. Not a ton to say. I just,

this is the version of the lions that I thought we were going to get this season. Yeah. I guess is kind of what I, my takeaway from this game. I mean, they beat the giants who have won a lot of games this year by two scores today. And they've won three games in a row.

We've seen some flashes from them. And it's just nice to see. you're a Lions fan and you came into this season thinking this was going to be a step forward and you wanted to kind of have this optimism start to build in year two of the Dan Campbell era. This is the type of team I thought they were going to be where they're able to move the ball on the ground, the play action passing game looks good, they're well coordinated on offense. And this season they've been that. You know, they've been an above average offense this year, but the defense has been abysmal.

And so for them to get a couple turnovers, a couple plays, just play competent NFL defense, combined with an offense that I think is pretty enjoyable and has a lot of good players on it, that's the team I expected. And for them to have rattled off a couple wins in a row, I don't think they're going to make the playoffs. I don't know what this means for 2022, but I would want to hang on to this if I were a alliance fan who watched the first six weeks of the year and thought, when is this going to start happening? Because now I think it's starting to happen a little bit in an encouraging way.

Yeah. And it speaks to, we love their run game. now that like Jonah Jackson and Ragnar fully healthy for the last couple weeks. It's really fun to see that get going and get Pente Sule. He's playing an all pro level. He is, oh my God, he had a pancake on the guy. He tossed the DB at least six yards. Like the DB went off the screen.

I got to clip it tomorrow because it was so fun. It was real cool little schematic thing they did today. So this entire season, they had only run 21 personnel with a fullback, two snaps going into last week against the Bears. They ran it eight times against the Bears. Today they were in 21 personnel, 25. times. Interesting. Today. Right. They were successful on those plays. Sixteen of those 25 plays, they had a successful play, including the Jamal Williams first touchdown. They generated 0.4 EPA per snap of 21 personnel today. Put that perspective, the chiefs currently lead the league at 0.19

EPA per play. So they're doubling the chief's rate. But it was cool. A wink Martindale defense is going to try and be light with a lot of man. Yep. They said, screw it. We're not going to, we're not going to have Jared off drop back up. hundred times. So, what just pound the rock on you. And it worked. I really liked that game plan from them. And even they went 22 personnel.

Going in the last week against the Bears, zero times they're in 22 personnel, two tie ends and two two running backs. Last two weeks, they've run it 10 times. So they just embraced this. That's their version. And I think this is the best version. This is the version of the offense that I thought they would be. And it's cool to see kind of coming happening in the middle of in the season.

They're adjusting. Again, we're talking about tendencies and learning what you are. And this is what kind of good teams. do and it's cool to see the lions have some of those tendencies of what good teams do try to build the case for like okay what could the lions look like over the next year James and Williams you drop into this equation now which is extremely exciting just the prospect of that the lions own the 13th overall pick in the NFL draft which again coming into the year if the lions are picking 13th it's like okay if the lions were fairly competitive

like they yep so finish somewhere around 500 I think that was probably a good exactly feisty the Rams are picking right now. The irony of this. So you're sitting here and it's like, okay, you're the Lions. You show some life offensively. You feel like you have the play caller. Ben Johnson's done a good job. You have the offensive line. We like I'm on Ross St. Brown. You again, dropping James and Williams into this. The defense starts to look competent. And now you have a pick in the top 10. The Rams are probably going to be handing you and your own pick. How do you kind of finish this thing off? Right. Right. So we had these elements. that we like, what are the final two or three kind of strokes that we need to put on this? Is it a quarterback in the top five? We can make a move up to get one, or the Rams might be giving you the pick that you can

draft that quarterback with. So I think that earlier in the year, it was like, man, like, this needs to start happening for the Lions for us to justify the excitement that we had about them. Now I think we're starting to get there. Slowly but surely, it's like the case is building for why people were like, all right, maybe the Lions could do some stuff this year. This is the version of it that I was anticipating. It's so funny.

It's like as people stop paying attention to them. After they got the hard knocks bump and the Man Campbell stuff, people stop paying attention to them. And now they're playing well. It's just funny how that kind of ebb and flow, ebb and flow works. But honestly, like you said, it's like if they want to go quarterback, this draft is going to have a ton of awesome defensive players, especially early. And again, they can sprinkle more guys in.

They have options. And they have a path when you're winning kind of makes things feel good. So kind of like, hey, they're going to keep an eye on how the Rams are doing. And it's like, okay, well, we can win games because who cares? We have two picks that are going to probably be in the lottery or are going to be in the lottery. So I also think it's more important for them to start winning some games. Like I know that they need a quarterback, but they need to start stringing some wins together because I think it was getting a little bit depressing over there.

Like at a certain point, you need to start seeing results. Moral losses only go so far. That's exactly right. That's exactly right, though. At a certain point, you need to start seeing actual tangible. results, and I think that's what you're getting right now. All right. Yep.

A couple more things here. I did not like the Justin Fields usage in this game, and I'm getting a little bit concerned about how many times he's touching the ball. He had 18 carries in this game. I think 12 of them were design runs. There were six scrambles. The usage and the workload is too much. Like, he's going to start wearing down if these are the types of games that we're seeing him in

all the time where he's touching the ball 15, 20 times. You include sacks. He took like 20 real shots in this game. And you saw it by the end. Shoulder injury where you had to get carded back to the locker room, I think after the game. His hamstring was bothering him. Quarterbacks are not supposed to take this amount of punishment. And I understand that this is the best version of your offense with him running the ball as often as he's running the ball.

I don't think this should be just about maximizing your ability to be a good offense in 2022 and win football games. there has to be a long view taken on this. If you have to be a worst team in the short term and prolong the health of your quarterback over the next two, three years, if you really is the guy, I think it's important to take that into account. So when I came away from this game, it was not the way I was feeling over the last couple weeks where it's like, oh, man, the offense looked great and they lost and it doesn't really matter.

I thought the passing game looked as bad as it's looked in a while today, just the dropback passing game. And that workload for him, when it's 20 carries for 85 yards and he's getting a running back workload, that can't happen. Like, I think they need to scale this back a little bit just in the interest of taking the long view on everything. That's the thing is that every time I get excited about it, it's like, we got to know what the bears are. And I think they have to understand that too. It's like, you're not competing. I think it's like you proved it.

You can do the design, run stuff. Okay, let's swing away. Let's try some other theories. Let's have a game where we run empty a dozen times that they've done before. Let's try some new stuff. We're just trying to sprinkle in. Oh, can we do this? Let's get some reps from under center play action.

It's embarrassing how much he gets pressure, too, especially against the Falcons pass rush. That's not scaring anybody outside Grady Jarrett. So he was pressured on over half his dropbacks today. That's the six time this year. It couldn't even functioned. It's happened. No. He got sacked on his screen.

It was third extra long. This is one of the bad hits he took. And it's when he got down to his knees. And I think Grady Jarretted like decapitated him on his knees. It was like a tag team move in a rest of him. wrestling. It was total elimination. Like, and for the ones, anyone that remembers the eliminators, he got sacked on that screen because Tristan, Tristan Ebner, the rookie running back from Baylor, took fucking

forever to go across, to weak across. Oh, my God. Go. Go. I know you're supposed to hide it. Oh, I'm fake blocking. Oh, my God. I rewatched it. I'm like, go. And that's why he got rocked. And I felt bad for the right guard because it was a blitz that the Falcons Browder is simulated. And the right guard's like, oh, do I take them? No, he's like, do I take it? No, I got a release, which is right. That's what you're supposed to do.

Yeah. Yeah, they're blitzing. Hell yeah, we caught him. But the runnerback, and that's what happens. It's not all on him. He's going to try and get all these maximized zeros. He's playing in Georgia where he's from. You know, he's from Kennesaw.

Like, he wanted to put on a show, but sometimes you got to save these guys from themselves. I just keep thinking of what happened to Cam, what looks like what's happening in jail and hurts a little bit. That's the last thing that I want. And that's why I'm a little bit worried about this. I understand it's the best version of your offense for right now. Right now is not the most important thing. And I think it's crucial for them.

Yes. I think it's crucial for them to consider that. I'm also pretty disappointed in the lack of run that Chase Claypool has gotten. Like if you're going to trade a top 35 pick for a guy for him to not really be a part of the game plan now in game number three is, I just don't understand why you make the trade now if you're not going to use him. So whether it's just because they've had trouble kind of fact, him into the game plan or there's been some growing pains, whatever. That's just been a little bit disappointing.

So I want to also mention that before we moved on from this game. But that's left that game with a bad taste in my mouth for how it factors into Justin Fields's three-year outlook. So did not enjoy that very much. All right. Last thing here. Where do we want to start with the day that Nathaniel Hackett had? Oh, boy. Okay.

So, Mr. Hackett. Okay, let's start with every team has scored 20 or more points on the Raiders defense except the Broncos today. Let's go with also, I'm going to get to the time out of a second. He accepted an offensive penalty after they got a sack. Like their defense got a sack and the team, the Raiders got a penalty and he accepted the penalty. So that was interesting. The throwing down field on 3rd 10 after the two minute drill, that was interesting. Got to save the quarterback from himself sometimes.

And this is a guy that took away play calling duties from himself. And the game and clock manager stuff was just as bad as it's been, Because that last one of the two-minute drill was, it's an all-timer. It's the more you think about it, the worse it is. You're watching the Raiders hit this big play. You're watching Derek Carr's signal spike, watching the formation. And you can see him. And I said that I tweeted this, that it was like he forgot that you left the oven on.

And he's like, oh, shoot. And he trots on over to the ref. And he calls timeout. I just could, the Raiders had no timeouts. I'm just like flabbergasted. It was like 30 seconds left in the game. It was unbelievable. They're about to waste the play.

I think he was going to go for the fake spike on it. Still, they're wasting a play here. Like, it blows my mind. His dad was a coach. It's like, what reps did you get? Weren't you a ball boy watching all these, like, getting all these reps watching these game management stuff? Like, I don't know. It blows my mind watching this guy manage a football game.

I think there are two types of head coach relinquishing play calling duties. that we've seen over the last year or so. There is the Nick Siriani, Brian Dable, side of things where it's like, you know what? I have a guy that I trust. You know, I think that there's a solution here. I want to be able to focus more on the big picture. And I think that both of those teams have reap the benefits of that decision. There's also the play calling change that is the first sign that your boat is taking on water when it is the desperation our offense is sinking move.

I am very, very familiar with that first step in the playbook after watching Matt Nagy trying to dodge questions about who was calling plays when he gave it to Bill Laser and the entire disaster that that was. We see it all the time or you fire the offensive coordinator when you're actually the play call. That's always a good one. The Colts did a couple weeks ago with Marcus Brady. Yep. That seems to be closer to the reality in Denver more than the Brian Daible, Nick Siriani version of this. they turned it over because I want a little bit more perspective. This feels like some flailing that's happening with the Broncos and that flailing continued today.

Yeah. He can't Cam Cameron himself, where he fires himself like in the middle of the season. They get the second half boosts like the Ravens in their Super Bowl year. Like there's no of that happening right now. It's that offense, man. It's like third. And like Russ was having a good game. Like this Raiders defense though is like a get right game for most offenses.

The worst defense in the league. It's, I mean, this is, it was bad. And that's the thing. It's not, there's no, that if he, they came out and they kind of, I mean, with Clint Kubiak and they kind of like, okay, they were doing some okay things early on, but you could see when the game started to unravel. There was a third down, I want to say it was. And Russ ended up like throwing it underhand.

And I was like, oh, and I, I know I shouldn't talk about my gambling on this, but I was like, I bet the Raiders live right then and there. Because I was like, oh, I know what's about to happen. And sure enough it covered. It was minus two and a half. I was like, yeah, I'm not even worried about this because I could just see it. It was the third down in the third quarter.

I'm going to replay it at one point. But that's what it was. You could just feel it coming unraveled because they ran out of their scripted place. They had to adjust. And then all of a sudden they're just, Max Crosby was starting to tee off on them. And it's just, you can just feel that come unraveled and Russ isn't helping him.

He's not attacking down the field as consistently as he should. He's, you know, kind of looking scattered brain. But it's just, that's what this team looks like. And it's just blows my mind. It really does. That team is just so, it's a great case study.

It's going to be a team that will remember for a few years. I was going to ask if you felt worse about the Broncos than pretty much any team in the league. But they still have some decent players and their defense is playing extremely well. There's a way to get this fixed. I just, I'm looking at them handing the fifth overall pick to Seattle. And I'm thinking about Russ's contract. And it's like, this is pretty bleak situation. I still think they have enough talent and their defense is playing well enough.

Like, all right, maybe a couple of breaks they turn it around next season. But it's hard to imagine a more disappointing, disheartening season than the one the Broncos have had, considering what the preseason hype felt like. I look at that Russ contract about once a week. It's just, it's something that you have to get reminded of. Good for him. No, I know. I know, right? Yeah, good for him.

He's got straight for him. He's fine. All right. Quick, just housekeeping stuff. This week, we're going to do the Monday hangover with Sando on Monday. we're going to Monday into Tuesday. Randy and Mike are going to do a Thanksgiving preview on the football GM that's going to come out on Wednesday. And then we are going to do our week 12 preview that's going to come out probably on Thanksgiving into Friday.

But we're not going to have five shows this week. It's going to be one fewer show. So Randy and Mike are going to be on Wednesday. But just wanted to let you guys know, we still have a lot of content coming to you over the next week or so. Really appreciate it. hope you guys are excited about the holiday. I know that I am and prospects of pros will also be doing an episode this week. So I got a decent amount of stuff, just a little slight tweak in the schedule.

We will not have any shows on Thursday after the Thanksgiving game. So we will start our Thursday recaps up after Thanksgiving. So be on the lookout for those. In the meantime, please subscribe to the YouTube channel. If you have not, you can click on the link in the description of the show. If you have not done it yet, please subscribe to The Athletic. Theathletic.com slash football show. show. If you have not left a review of the podcast, I would really appreciate if you did that.

It's a really big help to us. So go to Apple Podcasts, go to Spotify, wherever you listen. Leave us five stars. Leave us a review. It would be a nice little holiday gift that you could give to us if you've enjoyed the show this year. And go USA. Yes. That's right. That's right. Big day for you. You're a dad now. The World Cup is starting this week. It's like a big stretch for you in life. And we got Thanksgiving stuffing coming up. I have friendsgiving this weekend on Saturday. I smoked a turkey. for the first time. I roasted it.

It actually went very, very well. I was very happy with it. And I roasted a duck for the first time. So I'm just, I'm mostly butter right now. Like my, my, Casey joked about it. My butter, like my blood butter content is like, high ratio. 3.8 right now. It is not very good.

In the next week or so, food-wise, is going to be troubling. So I made a brio stuffing, which I, there's literally, like three sticks of butter in the two pyrexes that I made. It's been rough. It's been a rough caloric 24 hours for me. I watched John Mad. They did a little clip on John Madd the other day and he used all the turduck and it looks so good. I had a turkey and a duck.

I could have done it. It's one step further. Maybe next year I'll put the duck in the turkey. I love it. Hey, goals. Goals. That's just room for improvement. Just got to keep stacking it.

All right, guys. That's all we got for today. Really appreciate you hanging out with us. We'll be back later in the week. We'll talk to you soon. This was the Athletic Football Show.