The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 2 recap: Chiefs trip up Bengals, the Saints go off again, the Buccaneers and Vikings are 2-0, the Ravens let us down, and more

Episode Date: September 16, 2024

The Chiefs and Bengals gave us another classic, this one with the Chiefs escaping with a 26-25 win. The Saints offense went off for the second week in a row. The Buccaneers went into Detroit and beat the Lions. The Vikings upset the 49ers, while the Raiders tripped up the Ravens. Yup, it was a crazy Week 2. Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen wrap it all up on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.RundownQuick Bears-Texans thoughtsChiefs get past BengalsYou Have My Attention: Saints offenseYou Have My Attention: Tampa Bay BuccaneersYou Have My Attention: Minnesota VikingsWTF?!?...The Rams season feels over?The Cardinals might have somethingWTF?!?...The Colts run defenseWTF?!?...The Ravens lost another game they should've wonGeno Smith is ballingKeion White shines againAidan Hutchinson wrecked the Buccaneers offenseQuentin Johnston caught two touchdowns!It's So Over for the JaguarsWhat Derrik Learned Today: It's gonna take some time for Mike Zimmer in DallasWhat Robert Learned Today: We don't know anything about what will work and what won'tHost: Robert MaysCo-Host: Derrik KlassenExecutive Producer: Michael BellerProducer: Michael BellerSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTubeFollow Robert on X: @robertmaysFollow Derrik on X: @QBKlassTheme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Athletic Football brought to you by Thursday Night Football only on Prime Video. I'm Robert Mays. Week two, a crazy week two. It was hard to even figure out what we wanted to talk about and what we wanted to slot into some of these segments, because I think you probably could have made an argument for like seven different teams, and you have my attention in good ways. The Bucks had a great day. The Vikings go to two and O.

The Saints offense is arguably the biggest story in the entire league. Kyler looked phenomenal. Gino Smith had a big day against the Seahawks. But then there's still some stuff on the other side of the coin. Rough day from the Ravens again, blowing a lead they probably shouldn't have. Panthers look like a complete mess. The Jags look like a complete mess. So there was a ton for me and my buddy Derek Classen to dig into today.

Really enjoyed week two. It felt like a proper return to the NFL after week one, which is always kind of hard to pin down. So let's get to our conversation with Derek. Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. Brought to you by Thursday Night Football only on Prime Video. I'm Robert Mays joining me tonight. It's my co-host Derek. I'm doing great, man.

I mean, we end Sunday night football with kind of a bizarre drive. Yeah, you're doing great. I'm so glad to hear that you're doing great. I'm doing okay. This is, you know, my fandom is not staked in this. We got a couple of upsets today, a couple of other really fun performances. So a really nice treat for week two. We did not have the Bears' Texans game on the outline here.

Just so as you guys understand the mechanics of this, typically we're prepping for the show during the Sunday night football game. Unfortunately, I had to watch this game and watch more of it than I typically would because I'm so emotionally invested. We're going to spend a couple minutes talking about this before we get into the meat of the outline. It was a disaster. I'm going to wait until I wasn't half watching the game, or not half watching, but watching it while I was prepping for a podcast, and I also would like to go watch the tape. It was gross. It was ugly on so many different fronts.

We can talk about some of the details, but the interior offensive line being unable to pick up a stunt period and just pretty elementary stuff. Darnall Wright getting roasted by Daniel Hunter multiple different times. The quarterback looking pretty lost at times. I mean, just some like bizarre misses down the field and down the field accuracy has been consistently an issue. I'm concerned. I'm going to be concerned until it starts looking better.

Tonight was not a good experience. That's what I would say. Yeah, you were sold a different, you know, tail for the Bears quarterback situation. And we're kind of back in the same spot that we've always been with them. I still, most of this to me came down to the offensive line. I mean, DeNeil Hunter getting, just getting home to Caleb on that last drive was, I mean, he just full on bear tackled him. That was kind of just insane to watch. And then to me, like, you kind of saw that.

Right just looks lost. I mean, after the spin move, he just looks lost. And that's the case for a lot of the guys on the offense right now. He was playing lookout protection where you just guy gets by and you scream lookout and that's all you got. But then the bears feel like they were just waving the white flag with pass protection. They were in split back gun the entire game, which says, all right, we need as many guys. back here as possible. So it was just not an encouraging performance.

So they did that last year in Seattle. They were doing a ton of weird, wonky pass protection stuff with the tight ends. And the thought was oh, well, the personnel is just so bad. They need to do this. And this is a creative solution to the problem. The Bears don't have backup tackles in the game right now like Seattle

did for half of that season last year. There are personnel issues in the middle of the offensive line. The center and the right guard, those are pieces that you were kind of piecing together. Nate Davis has been a question for the last two years. Your tackles are not supposed to be a huge, massive issue. So I'm starting to think that some of these past protection problems might be following Shade Waldron from what happened in Seattle to what's happening in Chicago right now. And there are plenty of teams out there that do not have stellar

offensive lines, have offensive line personnel concerns that aren't running into some of these problems. We're going to talk about the Saints in a minute. The Saints don't have an offensive line full of stars, and this looks pretty good for them on offense. So again, I'm going to take a beat. We'll talk about this game later in the week, I'm sure as I get a chance to go back and rewatch it and watch the tape. But this is definitely a concerning outing for the Bears in that offense, even as the defense did a pretty darn good job keeping them in the game. Can I say one thing quickly about CJ Stroud? You sure can. Yeah, I tweeted this during the game. He is entering the rare category of quarterback where when he throws like outside of the broadcast angle and the camera has to pan,

he's one of, I think now like three or four quarterbacks where I just assume it will be completed. And had like four of those places game. I had the exact same feeling tonight. It was probably because my experience tonight was colored a little bit differently than my typical CJ Stroud watching, but every single time the ball left his hand down the field whatsoever, I was just like, I was probably being caught. The Bears did a pretty good job of taking that stuff away later in the game, but he has definitely entered that territory. So I 100% agree with you there. All right, here, let's start the show with what we were going to start the show with, and that is the Bengals and the Chiefs playing another excellent game that goes.

down to the wire. The Chiefs win a wild one over Cincinnati, 26 to 25, comes down to a pivotal pass interference penalty on the Bengals to give the Chiefs a chance to win that game. Even with the Bengals looking shaky last week and the Chiefs offense rolling in week one against Baltimore, these teams still managed to play a very competitive game that goes down to the last moment. What, in your mind, what felt the most different about these two teams in week two compared to week one that kept this closer than we might have expected coming into the game. You know, I would say I'll start with the Chiefs. I thought, first of all, their pass rush or their ability to pass protect and shut down the Bengals pass rush, I thought was kind of concerning. I mean,

Trey Hendrickson kind of had his day. At a certain point, they switched left tackles like late in the fourth quarter where they were like, all right, we just have to switch this up. We have to do anything. And that kind of played into the Chiefs not really being able to, I think, push the ball down the field as much as they wanted to and especially as much as they were able to in week one. And then on the other side of the ball, I thought Joe Burrow actually showed that he could throw the intermediate and deep ball, much differently and much better than he did in week one. You know, like we said in week one, he just seemed like he was playing kind of like he did in week one of last year, where he just a lot of checkdowns, getting the ball out too quickly, all that stuff. But he made a handful of really nice plays down the field in this game. And then he was really good in the red zone.

And so if you can move the ball that way and that's enough, like putting up 25 points the way they did, especially after how they looked week one, totally okay with it. It's just this is one of those games that these two teams. it's always going to come down to one or two weird bounces, weird calls, and that's all it was. Yeah, I thought the same way about the Bengals offense. I was actually really encouraged, by the way that it looked. I thought that Joe Burrow did a good job of controlling the game for the most part, taking completions and those couple ambitious shots that they took. You need those.

I mean, you need three, four, five of those a game. And there was the one off of play action to Eric All, who seems, I'm actually pretty excited about what he looked like today, just another explosive pass-catching option for them as they kind of figure out what they're going to look like over the next couple years. But that play action concept where he runs like a deep corner early in the third quarter, I was like, okay, like I can get behind some of this stuff. You guys need more of these kind of throws and these kind of ambitious shots down the field.

And Joe Burrow was not afraid to take those today. And I still thought that he did a really good job again of just controlling the offense, piloting the offense, taking what was there. And then on defense, Trey Hendrickson almost single-handedly won the game for the Bengals. I mean, the chief's offense today, one of three things happened when they had the ball. They either turned it over, and we can get into some of those turnovers. The drive was torpedoed by a sack or a penalty, typically one drawn by Trey Hendrickson, or they scored a touchdown.

Like those were the three things that happened when the Chiefs had the ball. And Trey Hendrickson went a long way in almost swinging that game single-handedly for Cincinnati. Because, again, we talked about this. There aren't a lot of secondary pass rushers on that team right now. Today they almost didn't need any. That's what's funny. And we'll talk about another team where it felt like that was going on too. But yeah, we talked about going into the year, especially after week one, too, where it was like, man, Hendrickson is awesome, but they need somebody else.

Maybe sometimes if the other left tackle is not good enough, maybe you don't need another guy. Maybe you just need to Trey Hendrickson to force the other team to sub the other guy out. So, yeah, I was pretty encouraged kind of by what they did on both sides of the ball. I still, you know, have my questions about the Bengals defense. But this Bengals defense, no matter what, always shows up against the Chiefs anyway. So props to them for doing it again. I also thought it was a really poor game for Patrick Mahomes overall. Just some strange moments, some strange decisions.

I mean, he threw two picks. He easily could have thrown a third. That was a tiki-tack, illegal contact that had nothing to do with the play on that throw to Watson down the left sideline. The throw to Worthy, that was one of those plays where both the design and the decision are curious to me, right? Like we talked all about week one. We're like, oh, they're doing such a good job.

They're doing such a good job of using Worthy to create space for other people. It's not these vertical routes down the sideline where he can get muscled by some of these bigger corners. And on that play, Camteller Britt essentially ejects him out of bounds on a go route, leaves absolutely no room. A ball Mahomes probably shouldn't have thrown anyway, but Worthy's not making that any easier on him and it gets intercepted. And then the ball was that was picked off by Davis Gathers, a terrible decision. Like, I just don't think he ever saw him. So I don't know what it is about Mahomes when he plays against the Bengals, but he seems to lose his mind. like three or four times in ways that are totally inexplicable.

There's kryptonite, man. Even the best quarterbacks have won for whatever, for whatever reason. The worthy one was just bizarre to me. I'm sorry, I'm never throwing a go ball against press coverage to Xavier Worthy. It's not happening. He's like 170 pounds unless he just absolutely wins on the first step. And he's probably not going to against a guy like Cam Taylor Bray, who can, he was pretty good at getting hands on you. That's his game is that he gets hands on you.

He tackles that sort of stuff. So I'm never throwing that ball. I just didn't really understand that decision. that that decision. The first one he threw to Akeem Davis Gathers, they're running like cover two and Kelsey is trying to slot into that hole like underneath the deep Tampa dropper in between the two other hook defenders and the other guy just melts right into it. So I don't know how Mahomes doesn't see it. I'm sure he's seen that coverage a million times, especially from this Bengals team and just thought he could get away with it. Yeah. And again, that's just the fumble by

Carson Steele is another just moment where it's absolutely backbreak. playing play for the Chiefs. But again, it all comes out in the wash, considering the Chamari-Connor Fumble Return is one of the only reasons that the Chiefs win this game and are in this game. And then you have the past interference, obviously, at the end, which it's always tough when the game swings on a moment like that. But at the same time, it's a penalty, right? Like, you kind of have to call that. He's there super early, even though you don't want to see a game decided by a flag in the final moments. But in that case specifically, I was like, all right, like, I understand it. I understand why that has to happen.

Especially the Chiefs, too. People are already so ready to be up in arms about any Chiefs thing with the refs. Yeah, that one was annoying. But it is a penalty. And I'm usually the eye that's defending the defender on DPI's where I'm like, no, that's not a penalty. Come on. Let them play ball.

But that one, I mean, you get there a second early behind the back. It's, yeah, come on. And Chimari Connor had the touchdown. The us with a huge third and six sack. They didn't bring a lot of pressure in this game. Spags did. But they heated him up with a game on the line on third down. Connor gets home, gives the chief.

Chiefs the ball back. So two big plays by kind of a secondary Chiefs defender, right? Like somebody that we don't think of as a household name. But that seems to be the case every single year with the Chiefs where they're just finding these guys in the defensive backfield and the woodwork over and over and over again. And it feels like Charmari Connor is on deck to be one of those guys for Steve Spagnola. There's always another one. I mean, a guy like with Jerry Sneed or whatever is just going to pop out of the woodwork. There's always one. How do you feel about the Bengals moving forward? They're O and Sue now, which is a huge hole to be in, but the Ravens are also O and two.

Still feels like there's ground to make up in the division. They have a pretty easy schedule, all things considered. The Patriots were supposed to be one of the worst teams in the leagues. You're supposed to win that one, but getting the Chiefs in Week 2, for the most part, this team isn't looking at the sort of uphill climb that a lot of the other contenders in the AFC are, just because they're playing this season with the last place schedule. So I'm not super worried, and I actually am encouraged by some of the things that they did today, but starting O and two is never good, obviously.

Right. Defensively, I think I still have my questions. I think this is still going to be one of the worst run defenses in the league. If the secondary can just play even at like an average, slightly above average level, then that would be a huge win for them. Offensively, this game did kind of encourage me a lot. I still have some questions about the offensive line, but that's been the case, even when the Bengals have been a really good team.

So if Joe Burrow can play the way that he did today, and then we just insert T. Higgins back into the lineup whenever he comes back, and then you add that on top of the fact that, you mentioned earlier, Eric, oh, like Mike Gaseki has kind of been a useful player for them. Andre Yoshavos had two touchdowns in this game, just like really, really good ability to get open in the red zone. So they have some pieces, especially in the passing game. Again, still worried about offensive line and run game.

But I think we said going into the season, if Joe Burrow was healthy and they have all these past catchers, you probably can still put up enough points to win nine or ten games and be okay. Yeah. And I think that Joe Burrow looked right today and looked like Joe Burrow in a way that was encouraging to me. So not the start you want going Owen, too, but I do think there are better days ahead for the Bengals and especially for this offense. All right, let's get you. You have my attention. Gentlemen, you have my curiosity. Now you have my attention. For those of you guys who are unfamiliar

every Sunday, obviously there's 10 million things coming at you, especially with 10 early games. 10 early games is unacceptable. Trying to keep track of 10 noon games. It's just one of my least favorite parts of how the NFL div is up the schedule. So each Sunday on these shows, we try to to pull out some moments that really grabbed our attention over the course of the days. All that stuff is coming your way. What are the three, four, five performances that really kind of grab you by the short collar? And let's start with the New Orleans Saints offense. Put up 44 points against the Cowboys today.

I think it's pretty safe to say that the Saints, Clint Kubiak, Derek Carr, everybody associated with that group. You guys have my attention. Props to them, man. There was a world. I thought the optimistic view where it was, you know, there's a world where the past protection's still bad, but they've got all these pieces. Maybe you can get Derek Carr to play at an above average level again, and you can be like a quality offense. This being the highest scoring offense through two weeks where you are just, I think they've scored like every single drive with their starters.

Like they are truly just mashing teams. And we came into this week saying, you know what, you do it against the Panthers. We knew the Panthers were going to be bad. Can you do it against a Mike Zimmer defense that just blew up the Browns in week one? And then they did. And they just absolutely got their way with them the entire game. And the biggest thing to me was that's exactly it is they had their way. The Cowboys were forced to play 50 snaps of base defense in this game. The Saints were able to just stay under center. They were able to be in heavier personnel. They were able to run the ball. They were able to play the exact Shanahan Kubiak style of game that you want to play. And we've seen at certain points before, you know, when Derek Carr was with John Gruden, if he can get into that style of offense and it's running well like a machine, he can make some damn throws, man. And he certainly did in this game. I love the plan in terms of what they're trying to do on offense.

We've talked all about the play action and the motion. And if you watch the basic structure of what they're trying to do, there's tons of movement before the snap, whether it's guys slicing across the formation, whether it's, you know, just receivers going in quick motion. It feels very dynamic on that side. And then you combine that with all of the play action that they're using and all of the heavy personnel, what it's allowing them to do. We talked about this a little bit last week.

I think the two things that are most important to me. One, it's really encouraging a certain level of aggression from the way that Derek Carr is playing the position. And we'll talk about the he touched out in a second, which is just a ridiculous choice and a ridiculous throw. But the other part of this is by being in all this heavy personnel and using all of this play action, they're wadding up these plays over and over and over again, and you're making your past protection issues matter less. We could talk about three or four different examples from even the first quarter or drive of that game. They've got tight ends slicing across the formation. Often it's two guys.

Sometimes it's somebody going in motion. Sometimes it's somebody sliding across the formation. They're getting four hands on Micah Parsons. They're just getting four guys over three as they kind of wad up one side. I mean, that's what they're doing. They're just trying to make sure that they're dealing with their pass protection issues to give them a chance to take shots against heavy personnel. And their quarterback right now, who has not always been this way, has been willing to take it with really explosive receivers

and it's actually been fun as hell to watch. Derek Carr does this once every three or four years where he just all the stars align. And he just turns into like a top 10 quarterback. Like he can play at that level every now and then. I think what's so fascinating is, you know, kind of like I mentioned earlier, the Saints are getting everything that they want.

They are on first and second downs as a rushing team. They have a 51.6% success rate per true media. That is the best in the NFL right now, which that again, if you're getting into better down in distances, you're going to help your pass protection. That is not so great right now. They also have the second most under center play action passes through two weeks. The first is obviously the Lions.

Of course, they do a lot of that. And they have like 11 yards per attempt on those plays. They are just, when you are getting a first down every time you call like a type of play, that is completely insane. It is just bonkers. So it's really just cool that they've, they have such a clear formula with all of what they're doing. And then Derek Carr every now and then just get. into this mode where he plays to his arm talent.

They're pretty much doing the same play like several different times over the first half. It's like the most classic Shanahan Coupiac play action play you can possibly run. It's like one big clear out on one side and a huge over coming back the other way. And early in the game, they hit Olavé on the monstrous over as Shaheed bleeds it out. And then the touchdown to Shaheed, he just, it's a too high coverage. He just runs through it and Carr throws the ball over. the too high coverage, which is just insane on so many levels. The fact that Derek Carr is pushing the ball to that degree and the fact that you have a guy with that much juice that's just

splitting the safeties for that sort of touchdown, I did not anticipate the New Orleans Saints offense being this sort of unit. And he did it under pressure again. Like he was not perfectly clean when he made that throw, which is it's the exact same throw he made last week against the Carolina Panthers again under pressure. Like, you're probably not going to hit that throw every week, but they're at least proving that it's a pretty consistent pitch that they can go to, which is super impressive. It's been awesome so far. I do have my questions about what it looks like when they're forced to play a slightly different

way, like when they're forced to get into a dropback game where you can't just have two guys out in the route and keep gashing people like it's 2017. Like that's what it felt like today. I mean, this just felt like a Shanahan offense playing the hits against a team that was having to play in base personnel. I think just because they're trying to match what you're doing with two tight ends, two backs, whatever. But at the same time, they're worried about getting gashed on the ground because we'll talk about this a little bit later. I'm still a little bit concerned about the personnel for the Cowboys defense.

What they have in their front seven right now, they were getting their ass kicked pretty consistently. And I think that's part of the reason you feel compelled to put some bigger bodies on the field. When you're playing against a defense that's maybe a little bit better suited to fight fire with fire with this style of play, I wonder if you have to have a few more answers in your passing game than the Saints have shown so far. But right now, who cares? They're not making you do anything else and you're just torching them over and over again. Exactly. And I have some degree of faith that it will be okay because you know what?

What I will say about Derek Carr, when I went back and charted him last year for reception, it was better than I thought it was. And especially in terms of some of the true drop back game. So obviously they're not going to put up 40 points when they have to be forced into those game scripts. but there's a decent chance that they still end up okay. The one throw that actually was probably my favorite of the day because there was no play action, there was no kind of clearing out the middle of the field. It was the throw we hit to a lave by the goal line.

That's just a drop-back concept where he sees an inch of space and he just lets that thing rip on the money. That was the play where I was like, all right. I mean, if you're going to play like this with these pass catchers and how explosive this group is, I could absolutely get behind. behind this. And what to me was more encouraging, it wasn't a perfect throw. Like, I'm so glad that he was willing to throw it and play with that timing and play with that confidence, but he leaves it like a little bit too high and a little bit too inside. Olave just turns his back and snags it

anyway. And it's like, oh man, if Olavi's going to make all those plays on, if they're going to get as many plays open as they are and then guys like Olavere going to make plays like that when it's not perfect, dude. It's a great point because one of the things with Olavé over the last couple years, physicality has been a question. Like, what are the contested catch is going look like, what's he going to do after the catch? And so far, I think there have been guys at those skill position spots up front across this entire offense, including Clint Kubiak, who have been a slightly different version of who we expected them to be coming into the year. And when you can get five, six, seven guys putting up those sorts of performances, that's how you end up with a unit

that is vastly outperforming expectations. And that's where the Saints offense is right now. Let's keep going here. Next one I wanted to talk about Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Our 2-0 after going on the road and beating a Detroit Lions team that I think a lot of people expected to be very serious Super Bowl contenders this year. And after their offense was just high flying last week and did whatever they wanted to against Washington, their defense carried them today. I mean, their offense struggled down to down. You had Baker having to make a couple plays with his feet that became huge over the course of that game. You had the long Kirst Godwin touchdown. But down-to-down efficiency, it was a bad day and a rough day for the Bucks offense.

And it didn't seem to matter because of how hard that defense was making it for Jared Goff. So the two in O Tampa Bay Buccaneers, after some questions about how real that division title actually was last year, you guys have my attention. They certainly do. I mean, we walked into this game saying, okay, you know what? They gave them a game last year. A lot of these same pieces are back on both sides. This should be a game again. And I wouldn't have picked the Bucks to win, but it was a really fun game to watch.

You know, offensively for the Bucks, like you said, not as exciting as it was last week. this passing wise it was kind of funny it seemed like every play for the buck's offense was either Baker mayfield scrambling and making a play uh making a nice throw or he was getting sacked by Aidan Hutchinson like those are those are the only things that were happening that was part of the problem right and so like baker's passing numbers looks good it's just that he was sacked five or six times so so it ends up pulling it down there um defensively is where I was just so impressed man and you would think what was actually really interesting to me about this game is you would think going in, okay, a Todd Bulls defense completely shut down Jared Gough. How did it happen? Well, they must

have sent a bunch of pressure at him and it must have really gotten to him. That's actually not why this game happened. Like, they sent a lot of pressure. I think they sent 20 dropbacks worth of pressure at Jared Goff. And he was fine on a lot of those plays. Like he had like seven and a half yards per attempt. He was playing really well. It was the place where they only sent four that Jared Gough had four point seven yards per attempt. And some of those are kind of pressures where they're, you know, sending a linebacker, but dropping an end off and just kind of confusing the look for Jared Goss. But those were really the place where they were really getting to them. And then when they were going into those just rushing four, man, their defensive backs,

just clicking and closing on everything. Zion McCollum had an incredible game. Jordan Whitehead had a really good game, made a handful of plays in the back end, one on the end zone just before the half. So it was just a- And Zien had a couple of moments. I mean, that group on the back end, I was very impressed by it. I had the same takeaway in terms of the schematics of it all.

They only blitzed on 26% of Jared Goff's dropbacks today. That would be normal for an NFL team. an NFL Sunday, but we talked about this in the week two preview. They blitzed on 52% of golf's dropbacks in the playoff game last year. So we're talking about half. And it's not like they were just bringing a conventional four throughout that game, like you mentioned. There are a lot of simulated pressures creepers where they're bringing four guys, but you

don't know which four are coming and you don't know who's going to be dropping into coverage. There was a third and seven. It was like 13 minutes left in the fourth quarter where the lions are trying to run a dagger that they run all the time. They're clearing it out. They're bringing in the big in behind it. And Joe Tryon-Shankha drops all the way from the line of scrimmage back into that dagger window and golf has to dirt it.

And that was happening over and over again in this game. Troy and Sheenka had 40 pass plays in this game. He dropped on 10 of them. And so I think the Lions just had a really hard time getting a beat on what the coverage was going to look like, which bodies were going to be back there. And I think they looked out of sorts offensively in a way. I honestly don't remember them looking like this against a defense that we don't consider like one of the elite units in the league. They just look like they never had their footing over the course of this entire game.

And I was not used to seeing Ben Johnson and Jared Gough at this stage of their partnership look like that, even in games that are sometimes uneven. They always kind of find it by the end. And I just don't think they ever really got there today. It's annoying too because the run game was actually kind of, you know, they had some really nice moments. and then it just seemed after a certain point, they didn't feel comfortable leaning into it. Yeah, it was fine. It was okay. It wasn't as good as you wanted to be from this Lions team.

And I think that was part of the problem is they couldn't lean on it to the degree that they wanted to over the course of the day. But Vita Vaya also left the game at a certain point. And so I thought with a close game that they would still start to lean on it in the second half. And they really just kind of kept going back to Jared Gough. I'm really glad you brought up them dropping Joe Tryon Shoyenka. I think on Jared Gough's second interception, they dropped Joe Tryon Shion. I ain't good. They send a linebacker just absolutely blows up the running back. He hits golf as he's throwing and golf throws it into basically no man's land. And I think that might have been,

uh, maybe Christian Ision picked it off. Somebody over the middle of the field. That was the game sealing interception. Yeah, that was like, it ended it. And so like just that type of stuff that they were getting at Jared Goff all game was just, it was a really, really impressive performance. The first Jared Goff interception, I think kind of speaks to what this game felt like where he's just trying to throw a timing route. I think it was the Jameson Williams on like an in breaker over the over the middle. Jameson Williams gets caught up just enough. There's a little bit of contact with the DB and it gets intercepted. And that's kind of how this game felt where a lot of those plays with the Lions could just let those things rip over the middle or they're playing

on time because of how much trust they have in the offense. That trust wasn't there today. And there were just some bizarre choices. Like there was a play, it was like there was like 517 left in the third quarter. And they had like a deep two man route. And there was just absolutely nothing there. Like, I don't understand why it was a two-man route. Nobody was open. And, like, watching the Lions today, there were more moments like that than I remember. It was just like, what is that? Like, what are they even trying to accomplish with this play? And I just can't remember coming away from a Ben Johnson game feeling that way. Sometimes golf gets heated up. He plays poorly. You're turning the ball over more than you want to, et cetera. But just the

lack of cohesive plan. And I think they're still trying to figure out, all right, what is James and Williams and all of this, how do we use all of these pieces, et cetera, but it just felt more disjointed than I remember this offense feeling like for most of the last couple seasons. I think that's a great point. Usually you feel like win or lose, this team kind of had a good beat on what they were supposed to be doing. I do think this was kind of a game where you felt the loss of Josh Reynolds. I think having a guy who maybe had some size to compete with some of these bigger Tampa Bay Bucks, you know, cornerbacks and stuff would have been nice to have. fact that he wasn't there hurts you a little bit.

There's another, there's like a second and 12 at one point where they tried to throw like a deep curl to St. Brown and Jamal Dean was just sitting on it. There was a third and 12 where they tried to throw a ball outside the numbers to Tim Patrick. What's like, why? Like, then you think that's your best throw on this play and he had Laporta underneath? Like it just so many choices where it just didn't make a lot of sense to me. And the bucks were, they jumped on it. And again, having a game plan that is a little bit.

unconventional, a little bit surprising based on the tendencies you've shown. I think that's one of the quickest ways to get an offense into this sort of rut where they do feel a little disjointed over the course of the game. So you have to give Todd Bowles and the defensive staff a lot of credit for putting them in that position. All right, let's get to our next one here. The Minnesota Vikings also are two and oh with a huge win over the San Francisco 49ers. The Vikings, Sam Darnold, Brian Flores, all of you guys have my attention after the first two weeks. That's the thing. I don't know which side of the ball I want to start with because they're both kind of

captivating for one reason or another. I want to start with the defense. Like the defense is what jumped out to me just because they're just doing, first of all, I don't know if you saw you sent this to us in the Slack. Brock Purdy said to somebody after the game at midfield, like the scheme is crazy. I think it was too Brian Flores. I think it might have been two Brian Flores. The scheme is crazy.

And if you watch that game, the scheme is crazy. Purdy was pressured on 34% of his dropbacks in this game. When he was blitzed, he finished 10 of 15 with 91 yards, a pick, and four sacks. So he took six sacks over the course of this game. And he was pressured 40% of the time when blitzed. We can dig into some of the specific moments. But all of the shit that the Vikings were throwing at him in this game, he just never got a handle on what they were trying to do to him. No, not from the first minute.

I mean, there was a throw early on where he tries to throw like a little sit or like a little hit trout over, you know, over one of the hashes. And it almost gets picked off. And then later in the game, he throws a pick trying to throw the same route because it's like his little checkdown because I think this was kind of a game for Purdy where he either had the throw that he wanted almost immediately and was able to make an insane throw. He made a handful of really great throws in this game. But then on the plays where he didn't, he was either getting sacked or he was trying to throw an interception, which is a lot of how this game went the last time, right? where Purdy was making a handful of really good throws, and then you just get baited into two or three horrible decisions, and that's how the game ends up like this. There was a play that I tweeted out.

It was, I think it was in the first half. The Vikings had a third, or the Niners had like a third and five. The Vikings were lined up in a cover zero look, and at the snap, they just completely eject out of it. And Harrison Smith goes from the line of scrimmage into the flat. They play just this crazy version of cover two behind it.

And while they're doing that, the Vikings are running a stunt up front, where Jihad Ward just earholes the right tackle and Jonathan Grinard comes on the loop, gets a hand in Purdy's face and it's incomplete. And that's what the game felt like the entire day where you're not sure who's coming and who's not. The defensive line is just playing with a ton of energy and physicality, so many stunts where you have loopers coming from all over the place.

It's hard to pin down, like which guys are actually blitzing. Like Jihad Ward's over the center one time. One time he's over the defensive end. There's a time where Van Ginkle's lined up, but he's the one that's dropping. It's a defense that, the idea of it coming into the season was, now that we have players that better fit what this defense wants to look like, what can Brian Flores accomplish. And this is the plan. Like, this is what it was supposed to be, where you have your Van Ginkles, you have your Dallas Turner's. And what Harrison Smith is doing is like, it's insane watching him before the snap.

Like, it's insane. he, where he's lined up has absolutely no bearing on what he is going to do on any game play. Zero. I mean, it's crazy watching him on the dots where he'll be in the deep half, but he starts the play just kind of roaming around the line of scrimmage before bailing back. We've seen other guys do that in the past, but when he has a handle on what a system is supposed to feel like, that's the type of player that he is. That's what he felt like under Zimmer 2.

And it seems like that's the place that we've gotten to with the Vikings defense, where all the new additions are perfectly suited for playing this way. And the guys who now have two years in the system have gotten so comfortable that they're able to just turn things up a notch. I think that's the perfect way to put it. And to me, this almost feels like it felt like last year the way we talked about him was almost like a Walmart, you know, kind of bizarre version of what Wink Martindale was doing at his best in Baltimore. This feels like the actual thing now. Like this feels like they have fully gotten there to where they want to be. This is way more complex and crazy to me.

All the things that they're trying to do are just insane. Yeah, I'm very bought in on what they've got defensively now. Yeah, so many other examples in this game. There's like a play in the second quarter, the opening play of the second quarter, where they tried to run a swing to the right side, and Van Ginkle takes away the swing, even though he was supposed to be part of the rush. And so that was like a zero-yard sack. There was a sack on third down in the third quarter where there was a stunt with Ward and Tillerie,

where they just crushed the pocket and Pat Jones finishes it off. there's a sack in the third quarter where Van Ginkle hits the tight end just enough to throw him off the route. Purdy's timing is thrown off. He has to hold it for just a second. And I think it was Jones comes unblocked because there was like a full slide to the right. The timing was just a little bit off the entire day. And when you have those bodies up front coming at you in all of those ways that are hard to pin down, you're just going to be on your heels the entire game.

And that's what Purdy felt like. Well, and especially this offense and this quarterback, it feels like. the entire thing is built out of timing. And obviously, Purdy has a little bit more creativity outside the pocket than previous Shanahan quarterbacks back there. But there is still some degree of like this thing needs to be on a certain schedule. And there are only a handful of coordinators that can probably do it as well as Brian Flores. We could also talk about what happened on the offense for the Vikings today because

there's some encouraging stuff on that side of the ball too. Where would you like to start with what we've seen from Sam Darnold over the first couple weeks? I think the Sam Darnold experience has been perfect because you're still getting both sides of him very much. It's so true. He still is trying to throw picks. And there were a couple that got dropped in this game. He's forcing balls over the middle of the field. It looks in that sense exactly how you would think it would.

But then they're also scheming some stuff up and he obviously has a really good arm to make some of those throws. And then every now and then he makes a throw that isn't necessarily schemed up that well. And you're like, man, that's why you went top five in the draft. Like the seam ball that he threw to, I think Jalen Naylor, where he fits it. To Jalen Naylor, it was an insanely good throw. He fits it in between like three people, like leaves it like low and on the back hip so he turns and like spins away from the hit. It was just that is the type of throw that we praise Matthew Stafford and C.J. Stroud and Dack Prescott for. And so for Sam Darnold to come in here and make this throw, it was just incredibly well put together.

Like I think this was the perfect game where you got the running game was going well. Kevin O'Connell was teaming up a handful of throws for him and making some plays. Donald had one or two wow throws and then still had like one or two oopsie moments. Like this is what you bought when you got Sam Darnold in free agency. This is what you wanted. That was a third down throw with the game essentially on the line. Like they needed to get a first down on that play to stop the Niners from getting the ball back. And if you guys go back and watch it, he throws a scene ball to Jalen Naylor.

And the placement on it is perfect because he needs to leave it a little bit outside to his right in order to pull nailer down and away from the safety. It's not a throw that based on the coverage structure, you should make. Like the way that the play actually unfolds shouldn't take you there. And he just makes a ridiculous throw. And then there was another third down conversion on that drive where they used a little bit of motion. They got Brandon Powell in space and they got a conversion. And that, to me, feels like the blend that we're talking about with this Vikings team right now,

where you've got Donald making a couple big-time throws in the first couple games. the corner out to Justin Jefferson in week one, the huge touch shot of Justin Jefferson today, that nailer throw. But then you've got Kevin O'Connell just really pulling the right levers at the right times. I've been very impressed with just what that passing game has looked like overall. And you've got several darnal throws in this game that feel like an expression of his time with O'Connell within this offense. There's the little bender and breaker to J.1. Naylor where he throws it on time and it's a completion. He has like an intermediate completion to Justin Jefferson at one point in this game where he has to check between a couple options. He has a checkdown to Trent Sherfield off a play action on third down where he has to come all the way back to it.

Just the way that he's playing within the offense when things are clean for him, I feel like you get a really good sense of why people think Kevin O'Connell is such a good offensive coach for quarterbacks. You can see how the offense is taught to him in the way that he's playing out the offense. The only times where he has his little whoopsies are where he gets pressured and he gets the zoomies a little bit. But when he's able to just sit and play the offense the way that it's designed, it looks very good right now. It really does. And it's kind of twofold, too. It's obviously Kevin O'Connell is a really good coach. And then on the other hand, you know, I don't remember if it was on the broadcast or if it was just something I read.

But Arnold had even spoken to the fact that, you know, once he kind of got away from New York and was able to settle down even in Carolina for a little bit, And then obviously last year in San Francisco, he realized, hey man, not everything is on the quarterback. Like, I can let other things around me happen and just do my job. And I think obviously when you have a coach as good as Kevin O'Connell and some of the players that they have, it's easy to do that. And then truthfully, too, the way they've been running the ball has been making it really easy for them to stay ahead of the sticks and get into some of these plays they want. Did you know they have the sixth highest rushing success rate in the league right now? The Vikings, I did not think that they would get there with this interior offensive line. but here they are.

We talked about it before the season. They needed to be able to run the ball on their terms. And if they could do that, you have faith in what Kevin O'Connell has shown in his ability to devise the passing game, especially when Justin Jefferson is in there. And Sam Donald and I had that same conversation during training camp. And he said the same thing to me where he's like, all I need to do is just put the ball where it's supposed to be on time. Like everything else around me in this offense will get me there.

And the thing that people always say about O'Connell and just why he's such a good coach with the quarterbacks is just a really good distillation and an explanation of this is the intent of what we're trying to accomplish with these plays. This is why your eyes are going from here to here to here. This is why it's structured this way. And I think all offensive coordinators to an extent try to do that for their quarterbacks. But what I've gathered is he's just very, very good at communicating all that kind of stuff. And that's why we've seen any borderline full-time starter within this offense has played pretty good football. Kirk Cousins, when he was healthy and now we've seen two pretty good games from San Donald to kick off the year.

So I'm excited to see where the Vikings take this thing on both sides of the ball. And I think that the 2 and O is not fluky to me. I think it's very well earned. Yeah, I don't think it's fluky either. I think this is serious. What the fuck? I don't have my bleep button in front of me because I didn't ask Bellar for it beforehand. So we're just going to swear on this show and then maybe bleep it out for the audio version.

The Ram season already feels like it's up in flames based on everybody that's gotten hurt. Pookanaku is out. Samavila's out. Joe Doopoom's out all on IR. Cooper Cup left this game with an ankle injury. Kevin Dotson and Kobe Durant were inactive for this game. So the Rams are now two and just completely crumbling on offense. What the fuck? Like the Rams season are just going to be over after two games because half a dozen guys are hurt and they can't stop anybody. We're being robbed. We are being robbed by the injury gods because this is the one thing that we said about the Rams offense coming in. Like when we did our concerns about what this offense may be, it wasn't any of the personnel, it wasn't the coaching, it wasn't the quarterback. Like we knew they had receivers, we knew they

had past catchers, we knew they had a great running back room. The offensive line, when they're healthy, they're good. But nobody is healthy. They are losing everybody man by man. The only guy left standing really is Matthew Stafford. And look, I know we think he's, you know, top five, top six quarterback at this point. He feels like a superhero at times. But at a certain point, there's only so much you can do. And at a certain point, he's going to start looking like it did back in Detroit when these were, you know, four, five, six win teams. Yeah, if it's going to be Tyler Johnson and Demarcus Robinson and Colby Parkinson, those guys are all fine as part of a collective on offense where they're your supporting pieces. I do not want to watch an NFL passing game that's built

about DeMarcus Robinson in 2024, especially with the guy we've seen play at this level of quarterback. I have no interest in that experience. and it feels like we are dangerously close to that point. I have a, the thing about DeMarcus Robinson, I don't think there's a funnier player in the league who consistently makes like one huge play a game. Obviously, this game they were losing by like two- two-three touchdowns.

For what DeMarcus Robinson is, I'm totally fine with DeMarcus Robinson. But again, the diet we're about to get of those guys I'm not looking forward to. Yeah, we're moving the sliders up a little too far on all of their usages. To me, the bigger story from this game, though, outside of the Rams falling apart is what the Cardinals looked like on offense and what they've

looked like, honestly, over the last couple of games. I'm very excited about what Kyler Murray put together today and just the different facets of it because I feel like we talked about this a little bit, you and I when it was actually unfolding. This felt like the perfect version of what this Cardinals offense is supposed to look like with Drew Petzing, with the supporting cast, and with Kyra Murray. It's perfect. I mean, they have every single thing they wanted. And you could see glimpses of it last year, right?

Where they were getting under center more. They were running the ball really, really well in kind of every way that they wanted to. They were doing a bunch of different concepts. You saw Kyler really start to come on at the back half of last season. It was like, okay, is that real? Like, can they keep that going? Is adding Marvin Harrison Jr.? Is that going to be enough to really send this thing into overdrive?

It turns out, it is. It turns out they have everything that they need. And Kyler, you know, I thought what was. was so fun to watch about this game is the first, maybe two or three scoring drives. It felt like Kyler was just in superhero mode. I mean, the throw that he makes to Marvin Harrison, Jr. On the back line, incredible catch, by the way. And also, it's very funny that we spent an entire week worrying about the fourth overall pick and one of the greatest receiver prospects we've ever seen. And then within like eight game minutes, he looks like the best player in

the NFL. I thought that was very funny. But so they connect on that play. And then I think on the next drive, he connects with Marvin Harrison Jr. again, Marvin's Harrison Jr. is running a big, deep overrout. He starts to get undercut by one of the Rams defenders, and he realizes, very smart player, obviously, his dad was Marvin Harrison. He realizes, oh, I need to just climb over this guy. So he climbs over, Kyler sees him, throws it, and he's fast enough, by the way, to go and score the touchdown. And so the fact that Kyler was just kind of in this creation, go make big play mode early on. And then I think even, too, on the next drive, he makes a scramble and throws another one up to Marvin Harrison Jr. So the fact that you had all that. And then as the game went on,

he was just making a bunch of throws just in structure. He threw a corner out to, I think, Michael Wilson, another one to Trey McBride. That was just the throw and catch were one of the best that I think we saw this week. So just the fact that we got insane Kyler Murray and then put together Kyler Murray on top of how this run game has looked. I mean, they've got everything they want right now. That's why I was so excited about it, because it was that combination of plays within structure and him just going out and making three or four plays himself. Because last year, they just didn't have the dudes to do that within structure outside of Trey McBride.

That first touchdown where Harvard Harrison Jr. makes that play in the back corner of the end zone. Like they needed a dude within this offense for it all to come together. And that's your moment of having the dude. The touchdown he scored on that big over, Kyle still has to like buy a little bit of time outside of the pocket. So that play almost feels like a combination of the two where it's Marvin Harrison, Jr. doing his thing sort of within structure and then Kyle are buying just a little bit more

with his athleticism and with his mobility outside of the pocket. And then you have the scramble play you're talking about where Kyle were escapes to his left. They do an actual scramble drill where Marvin literally flips around and takes it down the left sideline for a huge chunk gain. And then there was just like a 50-50 ball contested catch down the left sideline that Kyleer just throws up to him. And it's like this is it. Like just enough plays out of structure because you're Kyler Murray, and off plays in structure because you have a real dude as your number one receiver. And then you combine that with a really well-designed running game and a secondary pass catcher or a couple in Michael Wilson and Trey McBride.

That was the idea for this offense. And we saw that idea on full display on Sunday. And to your point about having dudes, the throw to Marvin Harrison Jr. where it's the 50-50 ball on the sideline, that gets them out of like inside their own five. Like the Cardinals didn't have a guy really last year where it was like, man, we are just. backed up. We need somebody to go do something. It was, it was Kyler, go run. And if everybody knows that that's the only play you have, it's not as effective. But the fact that Kyler now can just go throw it up to a top five pick at wide receiver who can go make a play like that, it's very

comforting to have some more options in an offense. And they talked about it. The run game is still really, really productive. It's going to be really productive. It's well designed. I mean, this team right now is averaging the second highest EPA per play in the league. And from an explosiveness the standpoint. Kyler last year in his eight starts had 22 completions of 20 plus yards. He has seven already over the first couple games. That's preposterous. That is outrageous. It feels different. And that was the whole thought of dropping a guy like Marvin Harrison, Jr. into this is that not necessarily that we're going to have to change a lot of the things that we're doing, but when you put a guy like Marvin Harrison, Jr., instead of this version of

Hollywood Brown at the stage of his career, into that role, the complexion of the offense starts to change. And you have Kyler feeling a little bit more comfortable in a year two, and Kyler still being able to do the four or five things a game that very few guys can do. I had a conversation with Drew Petsing this offseason when we were at training camp. We were just talking about Kyler and the experience of coaching him. And he was very bullish on what Kyler could do this year. And you know me. Like there are elements where I'm like, you know, I have some reservations and da-da-da,

and the guy, I want to see it actually happen. And his response was, you know, even if there are some moments where it's not on time or and be a tiny bit frustrating. There are going to be six or seven times a game where he just makes me look like a genius. And I think we underrate what it feels like to have that sort of quarterback, both as a play caller and just for an offense, where it's just little moments that are going to show up, the scramble that he had today, like the huge chunk scramble, where over the course, we probably won't even talk about that or think about that two weeks from now as we think

about all the Marvin Harrison Jr. plays. But over the course of the season, those just start to stack up. And when you combine that with down-to-down efficiency, and it's not just those sorts of volatile plays, both good and bad, then you get an offense that really starts to feel dangerous and dynamic on multiple different fronts. And that's what the Cardinals feel like right now. Exactly. If you can get six of those, you know, Kyler-Merry insane, you know, superhero plays and only limit, you know, him to maybe two of the, what were you doing type of plays because the play calling is so good. And the offensive line is better. And you have, honestly, like, I really like what

Michael Wilson is for this offense. He's like their Robert Woods adjacent type of player. He's great. He's awesome. He is a great number two receiver. I mean, like not great in terms of like the pecking order, but like when you're trying to build an offense, he is a very good number two wide receiver when you have a guy like Trey McBride, when you have a quarterback like Kyra Murray, and when you have this sort of run game. I really like the pieces and how they're supposed to all fit together. Yeah, it's what we've talked about a million times with past catching course. You need to build it almost like a basketball lineup. Okay, Marvin Harrison, Jr. and Tray McBrider, your star shooters, this is your guy to kind of

help everything, you know, fall in line. And so, yeah, I just love the way that this is built, the way that it's being called, and the way that Kyla Murray is playing. I love when he's playing like an MVP. It's just fun to watch, man. Our next one here for what the fuck. I was almost throwing up during the Bears game today. There was actual vomit in an NFL game today.

Josh Myers pukes on the football in the Packers win over the Colts at Lambeau Field. I want to listen to Matt LaFleur's commentary about this after the game because it's definitely one of the best moments of the week. I asked Malik why he didn't throw the ball in that third down, and he told me that Josh threw up on the ball. I was like, that's the first time I've ever heard that. Matter of fact, the official came over to me. Sean came over to me and said, you know,

we saw your center thrown up on the ball. Do you want us to take them out next time? I said, absolutely, please do that. Because, I mean, you're talking about a critical situation. situation in its third down, and I've never had a throw with vomit on a football. So I don't know. I don't think Malik probably didn't appreciate that. I have also never heard or seen that happen. So get on Matt LaFleur. I played center in high school, and I also, I puked before every game. So there was vomit involved in the football experience, but it was never on the field vomit. So I do feel a little bit better about this.

but we had like a very Willie Beam and adjacent moment with that happening with Josh Myers. So there's just, you never know what's going to happen over the course of an NFL Sunday. There's always something fun waiting for you. The only thing grosser than Josh Myers puking on a ball that Malik Willis had to catch was what the Colts run defense did again today? 261 yards allowed on the ground to the Packers. And, I mean, they got gashed in a bunch of different ways. How concerned are you about the state of this Colts run defense, too, weeks into the year. Historically concerned, this is through two weeks, they have allowed 474 Russian

yards. I went and looked this up on pro football reference. This has not happened since the year 2000, and the closest was the 2002 Seahawks at 470 yards. So this is like historically bad. And I came out of week one saying, you know what? It looked really bad structurally. They were playing more covered two on early downs than I thought, so they were lighter in the box. You know, maybe it was just week one. maybe the Texans run game is just way better than I thought. And then they come out and do this. And they just, it just does not look like a put together run defense at all. I mean, guys are getting moved around, both on the interior and off the edge. They're not really doing anything interesting up front. Like, they're not really sending that many run blitzes. Like, none of their stunts and

twists are like really interesting in the run game. And then it, to me, seem, the biggest issue, their second level run defenders. And I said this last week, it seems like they're playing in quicksand. Like, they're just waiting for things to happen. They're not, yeah, the ball's getting snapped and they're not moving downhill. And I don't know if it's, you know, they're being coached harder now to play the pass and they're just being slower for that reason or if these players just, like, I can't figure out what the impetus is for why they are playing this way, but they're playing as the slowest linebacker unit in the league right now. And until this gets fixed, they're going to allow 200 yards every single game until this gets fixed. I will say, though,

for today's specifically, the Packers were making it very hard on them with some of the stuff that they were doing. The floor was so deep in the bag with some of the run game stuff that they were doing. I mean, there's like six or seven examples from this game. There's a play early in the game where they're in splitback with Don Tavian Wix. They have Wicks kind of go in like a quick motion to the left, and then they do a reverse pivot handoff to Josh Jacobs coming back the other way. They had a pin pull play from a split back look where Jane Reed was the split back to the left side,

and then they had Josh Jacobs' lead blocking for him going. going to the right. They had Bo Melton run an end around going back to the left where they had the left guard pulling to the right. It's, remember that scene from Little Giants where it's just like, the guards in the backfield. Like that's how it felt with watching the Packers run game today. On that play, Jenkins pulls to the left. Myers, Josh Myers, the center releases to his left.

And so it's just, they're like crisscrossing in ways that like you don't often see with NFL running games. And so the Colts linebackers, I think, justifiably, were completely lost. Like, their heads were just spinning throughout the entire game because every key you could probably try to hone in on in terms of, oh, well, the guards moving that way. That's probably the way that the play is going. It was a false flag and a false signal because of how just crazy complex all the things that the Packers' run game was doing in this game.

And that's what makes LaFleur one of the best coaches in the league. I think he, I mean, he's a great coach regardless, but I think he probably saw that week one and went, huh, their second level defenders are playing really slow and not triggering on anything. Let's make them think a little bit longer even. Let's get some pulling. Let's have some guys running full steam ahead in between the tackles and really go taking them out. So I thought he did a great job in that sense. It also, I don't know where I would have even searched for the numbers on this. It felt like a quarter of their run game involved in end around in some form or fashion, whether they were actually giving that guy the ball or he was just a decoy for something or they were doing an end around and then maybe throwing like a

swing screen to it. I mean, it's just they were getting a guy. fully across the formation, it felt like on a quarter of their plays. And honestly, if your run game can be this good and you're playing a run defense this bad and you're inserting a backup quarterback in there who a big part of his skill set is being able to run the ball and do some of these RPO stuff. I mean, I thought it was just, it's a masterful game plan. And doesn't Matt Lafleur, it seems like once a year he has a game like this where he just has to do something so bizarre. Like I always go back to that Aaron's Jones versus the Cardinals game where Aaron Jones got like a billion touches because that was all they had.

It just seems like he has a game like this every year. He truly is one of my most favorite offensive play callers to watch. You lose your quarterback. You paid $55 million a year before the season. Somebody that I think legitimately was like an MVP candidate, somebody that people were really, really excited about in his second year as a starter and what your team could do.

You lose him in week one. You come into week two with a guy that has been on your roster for like 20 days because you, you traded for him right before the season started. You are tasked with winning a football game. And the Packer said, okay, what is the best way for us to try to win this football game? And the answer was one of the craziest plans we've seen from a run game in recent memory. There was a point in this game where they had 21 rushing attempts and four passes.

That was the basis of how this was going to work. And that's what being a football coach is. these are the players that you have. This is the task that you have in front of you. How are you going to try to win the game? And the answers that the Packers landed on was phenomenal in this game. Phenomenal. And that's what it is.

It's that it was interesting. It was unique. It wasn't, oh, our quarterback is a backup. So we're just going to run the ball for running the ball's sake. And they didn't have a great plan for it and all this other stuff. No, dude, Lefleur spent some extra hours this week trying to figure out how this thing was going to work. And boy, did it. Talk about the end-arounds.

and just that idea in general. We've just seen a ton of them across the entire league this year. And I think that that's a product mostly of, all right, if we're going to be in a place where it's harder than it's ever been to find explosives because of the way the defenses are playing, we need to manufacture them in every way possible. And I think enderounds have been one of those things. And the other thing that's kind of come up and I've noticed is just the amount of fake screens that we've seen.

Like the Chris Godwin touchdown today is another one of those where it's a fake bubble that he takes down the left sideline. We've seen so many of those over the first two weeks because how am I trying to create an explosive if there's going to be a cap over me on defense? And I think faking those bubbles and trying to get like some sort of deception into the plan, I've seen probably at least a half dozen of those

and a good chunk of them have worked over the first couple weeks. So I think just in this general space where defenses are playing this way and we're struggling to find explosive plays, you're going to see more of that kind of stuff because it's almost necessary. Yeah, absolutely. And especially, you know, when we used to live into a cover three world

and a lot of maybe your flat defenders going down to maybe defend some of those fake screens and stuff where DBs, it's like, okay, they're faster. They can cover more ground. They're probably smarter in coverage. A lot of the times now, it's, if you're playing more of this too high stuff, it is a linebacker who is tasked with that sort of stuff, not as fast, can't cover as much ground, not as used to having to do with that sort of stuff. So, I mean, that's even what we saw in this game.

Like Jack Campbell was the one who kind of got beat on that. So, yeah, it's a really great point. One last one here. The Ravens. The Ravens blow another double-digit lead in the second half against the team that they're supposed to beat. They had a touchdown lead in the fourth quarter. The offense still looks disjointed. Ravens, what the fuck?

Like, where do you want to start with this? I am getting very frustrated with watching this team lose these sorts of games over the last couple of years against teams that they're supposed to beat. Why is it always Gardner Minchu in September? Last year, week three, against the Indianapolis. Colts, they lose that game in overtime to who else? Gardner Minshu. What is wrong? Like, why, is it like that this team just walks in and they're like, ah, we can be Gardner Minchew, right? And like they maybe take like a half week off and then here we are. We end up in this game. But no, more seriously, I just thought at the end of this game, Max Crosby has, they send him on a loop to hit Lamar and it just instantly nukes, like, their final drive.

And that's kind of been, that's been the early story for the Baltimore Ravens this season, right? Is that their offensive line, when they absolutely need it in crunch time, do not have it for Lamar Jackson. So that was going to be my question. As you're thinking about why the offense feels disjointed, and you could throw up it out whenever numbers you want to, the one that stuck out to me, they're six of 19 passing the ball on third down so far this season. So when they're in defined passing situations on third down, they've really struggled. And I think that a big reason for that is their inability to hold up in defined passing

situations. So as you're trying to pin down why this group has felt a little bit frustrating, you would start with the offensive line first and foremost. I would start with the offensive line first and foremost. I think it's really hard for them to have very like sound pass protection plans when I think you're just going to get, I mean, they're rotating guys in and out every now and then. They're just getting beat every which way whenever guys send stunts. I mean, they're not picking up blitzes very well. I also think part of the problem is, and this is an issue that had kind of stemmed back to, you know, the Great Roman era and even some of these receivers that are still on the roster, the timing of this passing offense when they

really, really need it. Like when you just need a guy to hit a window on third and seven and get in there and stick the throw, this quarterback and this passing room or this past catching room is just not great at that. Like, say flowers. I'm totally with you on that. Like, say flowers for as useful as he is in some ways, all of his best plays are just like he finds space on an overrout late in the down. And like that can work every now and then, but that's not consistent. Rishad Bateman, I think, has had issues. Like the interception Lamar Jackson threw to Rashad Bateman, And Rashad Bateman kind of shies away from a stick route and doesn't get his body all the way in there and it gets tipped up and it gets intercepted. But even on that play, that play was a really good example because on that play, they're using motion because I think they believe they're going to get man coverage on third down.

And the Raiders, he runs with the motion, but then they bump it over. And I think the Raiders did a really good job of that stuff today where they think, all right, we think it's going to be man here, but it's actually zone. We think it's going to be zone here where it's actually man. I think they did keep them a little bit off balance, but that's a play where the timing is just completely disrupted. And so that over and over again, it's just like, that's a little bit off for this reason or another. And I think that we've consistently seen that. Yeah, like none of the receivers are that type of player. And then even Lamar's timing has always been, you know, he kind of moves to the beat of his own drum sometimes.

And that can just really get you when you're in some of these third and sevens when the past protection is not going to hold up and maybe give you some of that time to go find a scrambling window. So I think that's really the big issue. for this offense. And I was hoping that it would be a little bit better in year two of the Todd Monkin offense. So, I mean, I'll still give them a couple more weeks to figure it out, but so far, it is not any different than I think we saw last year. And you would hope that if the passing game was going to look a little bit disjointed, that they would be able to run the ball consistently. Six of Derek Henry's 18 runs in this game were successful. Six of 18. And it's been a problem over the first two weeks. So they've really struggled to find their footing. And then the issue was, they still should have

won this game despite all of that because the Raiders couldn't move the ball and then all hell broke loose in the third and fourth quarter. The amount of second and 20s and third down conversions that the Raiders had over those final three jibes was absolutely maddening. They got, listen, Gardner Minchu can make one great play for you a game. And the one where he scrambles out to the right and finds Brock Bowers like a 25 yard, 30 yards down the field, that was the one. And it was like, man, if Minchew's hitting this. that played this game, they might have a chance. And then they did, and they won the game. And there was a third down earlier on that drive where the Ravens Bring 5. There was like four

minutes, there was like five minutes left in the third quarter. The Ravens Bring 5. Minchu just buys a little bit of time and hits Jacoby Myers on that deep curl against Marlon Humphrey. And I mean, there's a bunch of plays in the second half where they came up huge. That's second and 20 completion to Devante Adams on that huge scissors concept where Minchu puts that on the money. There's a toe tap played Devante Adams down the left sideline on a huge chunk. The Devante Adams go ball on, I think it was the second to last drive where Minchu just puts it on the money. And then there was a second and I completion of Bowers on that drive where he's completely

uncovered. Bowers against Trent and Simpson on third and five. And then the third and goal PI from Brandon Stevens on Devante Adams in the end zone, game over. Like that plus the Max Crosby sack, that's the game. And so it only took four or five plays, but they gave them the opening to allow those four or five place to happen and for Gardner-Minshue to black out for just long enough to pull this thing off. And wasn't that kind of the formula with this Raiders team? It's like we have our star players,

right? We have Devonti Adams. We drafted Brock Bowers. We have Max Crosby. We just need our stars to do something and pray that we can get enough out of Gardner-Minshu. And then they did. I don't know how I don't know how many times they can do that over the course of a season, but at least we know they can prove it against a decent team. Yeah. Everything just feels like they don't have a good sense for what they're trying to accomplish and why. Like even like the third down go ball to Nelson Aguilar in one-on-one situation. It's like that's what you want to do on third and eight. You want to throw a go ball to Nelson Aglar?

Like that's your best option here. But that's the other thing. It's like I, who is supposed to be there? I need a play on third and eight. Like we just talked about with the Cardinals, right? Like they didn't have a guy last year being in Marvin Harrison Jr. He can go make that play for you. The Ravens just don't have that guy.

Like they have guys who are useful at certain things. Like I think at this point, what we've seen from Mark Andrews, he's probably not that tier of player anymore. Isaiah likely is nice. I don't think he is that tier of player consistently. Say Flowers is just not that kind of player, Nelson Agalore. They just don't have a guy where it's like, man, we need eight yards. Can you go get it?

It's been Lamar. It's just that, like we said, if he's going to get heated up immediately and be forced out of the pocket immediately, it's hard to consistently rely on him and allow him to make those plays. You see that? Did you see that? This is essentially what we want to be like the living in, like the living. version of our Slack channel over the course of a Sunday where there's like little moments that come up over the course of the day where it's just like, did you see what so-and-so just did?

The first one I wanted to talk about, because I think both you and I were very excited to send these messages to each other, did you see how Gino Smith played in this game against the Patriots today? Dude, this was a game that I was like only watching on and off during like while it was happening. And I was like, okay, he's making some really cool plays. That's nice to see. I went back and watched it during like Sunday night football. Oh my God, man. I think he might have played the best game of anybody this week. He was absolutely on fire for every single play. I mean, like, it just felt like everything that he wanted. He got the out route he threw to at one point to JSN was incredible. Early in the second half, there's a play that he makes. I think I tweeted this one out where he's getting

some pressure off of his right. I think it's a third and seven. He slides, third and seven. Yep, he slides like two yards to his left. As he's still moving, just rips the ball in between. two whole defenders over the middle of the field absolutely puts it on the money. There's a second and one he throws to DK in the fourth quarter. There's, I think maybe my favorite throw. Maybe the second seven I just mentioned was my favorite throw, but there's another one late in the game where D.K. Metcalf is running a shallow route from left to right. And Gino gets pressured a little bit, and he's got to move outside the pocket.

He moves outside. He pump fakes the defender in front of him in front of D.K. Metcalf to move him out of the window and then like sidearm whips the past the D.K. Metcalf, I was like, man, if Gino Smith is out here putting a little bit of sauce on some of these throws, they're going to win this game. And then lo and behold, they did. He finished it out. Gino last year, I think we've seen each season, in my opinion, there's been little improvements without how he's playing the position. Last year, I think it was the pocket management where his ability to evade Sacks to just navigate that space was very impressive. This year, so far, especially today, it's been what he's doing outside of the pocket. Like the work that he was doing after escaping the pocket today was remarkable. And then he obviously had the monster scramble in week one for the touchdown. In this game today, he was seven of seven on throws outside of the pocket.

And the amount of sack avoidance and just making plays outside of structure was phenomenal. And so he finished this game 33 of 44 for 327 yards. I want to go over some of the incompletions and just like what. they were. Two of them are on one-on-one throws outside the numbers on slot fades that he should be taking. Like, those are objectively good decisions within the structure of the offense. Easily could have been complete 50-50 balls were taking a shot on every single time. Two tipped balls. Metcalf drops a ball on a slant at one point in the game. The best throw of his day, maybe, was a drop by JSN on the left side outside the numbers. It was second and 20, and he just

puts it on JSN as he's kind of twisting back to the sideline, and JASN can't hold on to it. He was very good in this game, by the way, though. Jackson Smith, the jig, but I'm very excited for what he's going to look like within this offense, but that's a drop. There's a play late in the game where Noah Fant has a killer drop on what should have been a first down completion, and then there's a spike. So 11 completions, we just went over like nine of them, and that's before you take into account the degree of difficulty on the plays he was making.

against a very good Patriots team and a very good Patriots front. He was stone cold today. I'm so glad you say it that way, the degree of difficulty. That is why Gino Smith has been such a compelling quarterback since he became the quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks, is that the throws that he is willing to make, I've said it before, it's why I love watching Dak Prescott or Matthew Stafford or obviously Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, like they are just willing to make throws that are so damn hard in pockets that are closing, with such like very small windows of timing that they can be hit.

But Gino's money, man. He's one of the most accurate quarterbacks in the league and he can throw that thing through a wall. Like it's just, he's such an impressive player. And then what you mentioned with what he did outside of the pocket, I remember in 2022 when he really took over, you know, for the Seahawks, I remember tweeting with Mina Kimes. I think it was the Saints game.

He had an insane play like rolling to his left that he made and made a throw. And I was like, I was not aware. Gino Smith had this in his bag. But it still wasn't fully a complete part of his game yet. But now, like you mentioned, this is something that I think he can do consistently. And it just seems like he adds a little bit of something every year now. And if that's going to be the next step, on top of what we've seen with some of the growth that he can make, just as a pure pocket passer, pure pocket manager.

I mean, he's just such a delight to watch. So this is what I'm talking about with the degree of difficulty, though. The degree of difficulty was there over the last couple years. What we were excited about what Gino within this offense was not having to do that all the time. And I think the JSN prominence within the offense is part of this where you just have that sort of receiver. That's a big part of what you're doing. But also the way he's deployed. It's a very quiet play within the course of this game.

It's third and four with like nine and a half minutes left in the first quarter. They're in a bunch to the left side with JSN as the number three receiver. He runs just like a quick little out route through traffic against man coverage and Gino hits him at the sticks for a first down. It's a completely forgettable play in the grand scheme of the game for the most part. But those are the sorts of plays that weren't available to the Seahawks offense last year. They were abysmal on third down against man coverage because they didn't have those sorts of concepts built into who they wanted to be. Everything was super spread out because Tyler Lockett and D.K. Mecca, for the most part, were the focal points of your passing game. So just building you little things like this.

Let's run a little rub route from the slot on third and short. to give our guy a layup and keep a drive going. It's not rocket science, but when you combine that with the high-end stuff that the guy is capable of, that is why I was so excited about what this could look like this year. That's a great way to frame it too, because you don't, yeah, we're talking, you don't need to scheme up the really difficult intermediate and explosive place for Gino's. Like, he can just make those throws even if they're covered. You just need to get some easy ones.

And it's not because he can't make the short throws. It's just they didn't, like you said, they didn't have that in the offense. last year. If you can just get two or three of those a game where he just doesn't have to do anything, we're cooking. Yeah. And I, again, I think that the JSN inclusion and what he could be in this, that's why I was also excited about it. I think today was proof of concept about what that could look like. Speaking of guys in this game, the other person I wanted to talk about from the Patriots Young's game is Keon White, who is just insane. Like, that guy just plays like he is shot out of a canon for most of the game. He had a sack and a half today and a TFL. He had a 25% pressure rate.

He probably could have done a lot more damage if Gino wasn't doing what he was doing in terms of sack avoidance and moving around the pocket. But I'm extremely excited about Keon White and what he looks like in year two within this Patriots defense. He is mean, dude. Like just a violent, long person. Like, he's, it's, they're not one to one in terms of how they're built or necessarily in how they play, but it feels a lot like watching a guy like Eric. arm's said where just the length and the strength is so overwhelming and overpowering at certain points. And that's certainly what you saw in this game. Keon White, coming into the year, I think he had one sack last season. But it seemed like almost everybody who watched film and was like excited

about the Patriots defense was like, listen, if this guy can just turn it on a little bit and like figure himself out a little bit, the talent is there. And we've already seen it through two weeks. He's been one of their most productive players. He's just, I mean, that first sack he had, he murders the left guard. I mean, just absolutely case him. And what was most impressive to me. And that's what I love is that he's lining up all over the place. You never know where he's going to be.

He's being the left guard at one place, beating the right guard on one plays, over the center on one plays, line up over the right tackle on one play. The fact that they're willing to deploy him like this, it's part of why it feels so dynamic when you watch him. It's like watching Clowny. That's what Clowny was always good at,

as being able to move everywhere and just have the length and the strength to beat everybody. I think his hands are better than Clownies right now than Clownies ever were until last year. That might be true, actually, because Clowny used to just be the best athlete on the field so he could get away with it. That's a great point. But yeah, and you know what was most impressive to me, too, about that first sack was he beats the left guard, I think, through the inside shoulder. And Gino, like, slides to the left and starts to come up.

Keon White somehow bends the corner 90 degrees straight around, like, on the spot around the guard and gets to Gino. And it's like, dude, how do you have that level of flexibility at 285 or whatever? he is. That's why it's so crazy and so encouraging. That's what makes it exciting. It's just the way he moves. It's the power of the explosion, the bend, and some of the stuff he's doing with his hands. I mean, it's just one of those guys where you feel like he's always bending back toward the quarterback or moving toward the quarterback. There's just always that forward momentum to the quarterback from any angle he's trying to attack from. He feels like one of those guys. So I really cannot wait to see where he takes it this year because he's been one of my favorite players to

watch over the first two weeks of the season. Somebody else who had a monster day as a past rusher that we did not talk about in the lion section, but deserves mention. Aiden Hutchinson had four and a half sacks today and it was just feasting on Justin's school. And one of the reasons that the Bucks had to win this game because of defense is because of what Aiden Hutchinson was doing to the right side of their offensive line over the course of this entire game. And you know what's funny too?

The three sacks in the middle, it was, he did the same thing the entire time. The first one, he gets free on the complicated about it. It was nothing complicated. The first sack he had in the game, they loop him inside and he gets free and he gets the hit. Then the next three sacks after that, one of those might have been counted as the half sack. I don't remember. But he just cooks the guy off the right edge. That's it.

Nothing to it. He just beats him off the edge, hand swipes, boom, turns the corner. That's it. Just absolutely nothing to it. So the fact that I think they struggled so much to find answers for when, like you are going into the game knowing that this is going to be a problem. And then it continues to be a problem very early on in the game. and it took them so long to adapt.

Just to credit to his ability to just, you know, he's like kind of being a backup tackle merchant right now. But the fact that you can be this productive doing it, I mean, you're forcing offenses to play a different way. Last one here. Did you see the Quinn Johnson scored two touchdowns today? I could not believe that. It's not even just that he scored two touchdowns. It's the way that he scored the first one. It's like kind of a catch in traffic.

He's got to go low. He's like fighting with the corner. The whole thing was that Quentin Johnson can barely catch the ball when he's just open by himself. The fact that he could go make a play like that while he's contested, I was like, all right, man, maybe we got a different player on our hands. And you know what? He looked kind of good with the ball in his hands in week one. I don't know if we're ever going to get him to be as good as he was, you know, for what a first-round pick should be.

But maybe he can be useful, and that would be a nice spot for the Chargers to be in. Yeah, I'm excited to rewatch the Chargers game. I did not watch a ton of that game. And we'll talk, get to a couple others that we really did. didn't have a chance to dig into today, but that was one of them. So I'm looking forward to kind of rewatching what the Chargers have looked like over the first couple weeks. It's over.

Jacksonville Jaguars. It's so over? It's way over, man. Like, we went into this week saying, I was worried if they lose this game, keep in mind, they have at-bills and at Texans as their next two games. you are not going to be favored in either of those games. Like, preseason odds would not have put you at favorites in those games, let alone how you've looked these first two games.

Like, there's a real shot. Oh, and fours on the table. And this game was just, it was frustrating because it was the exact opposite of last week, in the sense that last week the offense looked great for the first half. And then in the second half, they completely just fell apart. In this game, they did nothing for the entire first half. In the second half, started to figure themselves out. And it just turned out it was too little too late,

because you end up taking a safety, and then it starts pissing rain on your final comeback drive. It was just the worst thing that could have happened for this team. I wanted to throw out a stat to encapsulate what the Jacksonville Jaguar's experience was today. The Bears in that game, the unwatchable game that the Bears just played, had a negative play or a play for zero yardage on 44% of their snaps with like three minutes left to go in the fourth quarter. That's when I check this. And I assume it didn't get any worse. have gotten close.

But it was 44% for the first 55 minutes of the game. The Jags finished at 49% today. Half. Half. That seems impossible. Half their place went for zero or negative yardage in this game. You can throw out so many examples. My favorite stretch of the game, they have a second and five with 7.15 left in the third quarter.

I know exactly where this is. Oh, my God. I had this literally this outlined in my notes as well. the run goes for negative three, the run to Travis E.TN. So it goes from second and five to third and eight. On the next play, Miles Garrett just toasts the left tackle for a sack. Trevor doesn't even finish his drop back.

Trevor does not finish his drop back. It's immediate. Cam Robinson had his moments in this game, some rough moments in this game. It's immediate. So we have a negative three-yard run on second and five. We had Miles Garrett toasting your left tackle for a sack on third down. And then on fourth down, they missed the field goal.

And you know what? That's it. That is it. And if they had hit this field goal on their final drive, they wouldn't have needed a touchdown so they could have played for the field goal. Like, it just, oh my God, everything about this game. And too, there's, I have another frustrating set about this game. They pressured Deshawn Watson on 44% of his dropbacks. And they did not get to him really until the second half.

Like, Deshawn Watson, I didn't count. he probably slipped out of eight different sacks in this game. Like, the Jaguars just could not tackle him. Like, the fact that your defense could play this well and they could not get the negative plays that they want. I mean, Brenton Strange had like seven targets in this game, which just, if that is one of your guys who is getting that many targets, that is also not a way to win a football game.

And I know he had a couple of good plays, but like that is just not a way to win a football game. They had even two in the second half of this game. They get down into the red zone. They get on the goal line. They have a sprint left play where. I forget, I think he hits Gabe Davis on the left pylon, gets taken away by an illegal shift penalty. Oh, great, that just keeps happening with this offense where there's just some sort of sloppy penalty. On the next play, Trevor bails out of his, bails out of the pocket to his right,

tries to find Travis E.TN on the back line of the end zone. As soon as Trevor is releasing the ball, ETN slips. And it is, of course, incomplete when it would have obviously been a touchdown if ETN could stand up, and then they don't end up scoring a touchdown on that drive. Like, it was just everything that could happen. I personally loved the couple snaps where Gabe Davis was in man coverage against Denzo Ward and they tried to throw him the ball. And Denzo Ward was physically in his pocket on both of those plays. The first one is so funny, where they run like the play action stop route and he just never

had a chance. He was in his pocket throughout the entire play. And so I don't know. Again, you'd hope that it looks better when they're not playing the Brown's defense. I mean, that that's really the only positive way that you can spin this. like we mentioned, 0 and 2, you're about to play the Bills and the Texans over your next two weeks. There's absolutely a chance you could be 0 and 4. And at 0 and 4, your season is over.

And even at 1 in 3, you're probably in a pretty bad spot. So losing that game against Miami, they probably should have won based on how they played over the course of that game. And then falling to 0 and 2 against this offense that is still struggling. The Brown's offense didn't play well today, like you mentioned. And they managed to win this game because the Jags offense is completely incompetent. So that's where we are right now. and it is a pretty scary place to be. And you know what?

Really quickly, the thing that really scares me the most about this, it's not that they're Owen two, it's not that the season's over, it's not that they're this sloppy. It's that Trevor's post-game press conference, that was a defeated man. Like, he just not having it. And so the fact that that's where we're at in week two,

it's not good, man. We're going to run through some things here that we're going to talk about as part of our watch list heading into the week because I want to just acknowledge a few things at the end of these Sunday shows that we didn't get a chance to look at, but you and I want to go back and watch over the course of Monday and Tuesdays we get a chance to dig into the film. I've got two.

I want to just look at what's happening with Sean Peyton and Bo Nix and that Broncos offense. I watched it in week one when they played against Seattle, but I watched almost none of the Steelers Broncos game today as I was watching Chiefs Bengals. So that's something I absolutely want to go back and watch. And another game, just because of the 10 games happening at noon, that was just hard to keep track of, I did not watch much of Jets Titans.

And I really want to just go back and take a look at what that Jets offense looked like in week one after they struggled, or what they looked like in week two after struggling against the Niners. So those two things are kind of at the top of my week two watch list as we get into Monday and Tuesday. I think those are some good ones. I mean, Jets Titans, Braylin Allen scored a couple of touchdowns. That's a guy I liked as a prospect. So it's very, very nice to see. I definitely want to see how they put that together.

For me, it was mostly just, I kind of want to take a close. or look at the Ravens passing game. You know, I mentioned it a little bit in this game, you know, how it looked like watching it live and on the broadcast. But I'd like to dig in. It's a little deeper. And then on the flip side of that very same game, Brock Bowers, man, 100 yards today? I would like to see how they were doing some of that because this is a player that,

you know, I think this team, the Raiders took a little bit of flack for like, oh, why are you taking a tight end in the first round when you have all these other roster problems? Good player, though. We're going to wrap this up, the same way we did last week and what we're going to do with all of these recap shows this season. We're going to talk about what we learned today. You know, I think I've learned something today. What did you learn after week two of this NFL season?

I have learned that maybe the Mike Zimmer thing is going to take a little bit more time than I was hoping. I think after week one, got a little bit over my skis, got very excited with how it looked against a not very good Cleveland Brown's offense. And then this week, man, you know, we talked about it a little bit earlier with the Saints offense. They got forced into base. they couldn't do a lot of the interesting stuff that I think we are very keen to seeing from Mike Zimmer. And when you get forced into base personnel and you get forced to play a kind of vanilla defense, you've got to just have the players at that point. And I think we saw very quickly that this Dallas Cowboys defense outside of two or three guys that are pro bowlers,

just do not have the players right now. The amount of Linval-Joseph snaps that we're getting as part of that run defense in 2024 is concerning. How many years have we been saying that, by the way, about a Lin-Ball-Joseph- It's like whoever goes and gets him. That's where we are right now. And even like Osa Dikazuua was struggling in the run game today, 35, whose name I cannot remember, the linebacker, the young linebacker, he was all over the place. I mean, they just don't have a lot of speed.

Overshawn is explosive. But he wasn't on the field as much as he wasn't in week one because they were in base defense the entire game. So you're dealing with 35, you're dealing with Eric Kendricks, and you're dealing with a defensive line that just does not have the bodies that you want on the interior. It consistently was a problem over the course of the game. Yeah. And I think at this point we've seen now kind of like I said, both sides of the Zimmercoin,

week one, we got all the interesting stuff. We got all the speed. We got some of the really cool pressures and coverage rotations. And then this week we got what we feared with the Cowboys defense, which was, ah, they just don't got the dudes. My what we learned today is that we know nothing coming into an NFL season about what is going to work and what is not going to work. Think about the discourse around teams in the NFC South heading into the year.

And think about what Dave Canales was supposed to be for Bryce Young potentially. Dave Canales did such a good job with Baker Mayfield and such a notable job with Baker Mayfield that he was hired as a head coach and the play caller for the Panthers in order to try to save the Bryce Young experiment. Well, two weeks into the season, the Bryce Young experiment looks disastrous. And we've gotten absolutely no positive returns from the initial inclusion of Dave Young. Canales as part of that overall formula. How many people celebrated when Clint Kubiak got hired to be the offensive coordinator for the Saints? We had seen Clint Kubiak as an offensive coordinator. He was the offensive coordinator in Minnesota for a year. He gets fired. He moves on, goes to San Francisco,

kind of sits on their staff, and is just one of the guys on that tree and as the tree keeps getting picked over, he was one of the next people in line to get one of those jobs. And I thought that they did a fine job when he was the offensive coordinator in Minnesota, but the fact that he is the coordinator for the most explosive offense in the NFL over the first two weeks, even if you were bullish on the Saints, I don't think you possibly could have envisioned something like this. And I think that's always a lesson early in the season, is that we really don't have the best understanding of which of these schematic shifts in a given offseason is going to work and which one isn't. And so the fact that the Panthers look completely hapless after hiring Canales and

the Saints look like a monster that has fully unleashed the likes of Chris Olavé and Rashid after two weeks, I think it's just a reminder that we probably know less than we want to any given year about how some of these changes and how some of these hires are going to take. And even just with Canales, you know, we were kind of asking the question of like, oh, man, Canales did such a good job with Baker Mayfield and somewhat what they were doing in the passing game. and then the Bucks go and hire Liam Cohen and we're like, you know, is he going to do as good a job as David Canales did? And then I think like the Bucks offense might be better. It might be more interesting. And so that's just another, it seems like this entire division, you know, kind of like you said wraps up what what that discussion was where sometimes we just don't, we just don't know. I mean, Kubiak, the Kubiak hiring almost felt like, you know, Dennis Allen, this was maybe going to be the last year. Let me just go grab anybody from this Shanahan. That's exactly how it felt. It felt like the last gap.

But like, all right, let's just see if we can steal any of this heat and try to get to a place where there's some excitement for us on offense. Like, we are decidedly above average offense. We can still trot out an average defense because I'm Dennis Allen and we still have enough pieces on that side. And we can compete to be a middling 500 team in the NFC South. And then instead, they look ridiculously explosive over the first two weeks. And to bring it full circle, this extends to even what we saw on Sunday night, right?

Shane Waldron gets hired to be the Bears offensive coordinator. And there are people who are like, oh, well, you know, Shane Walton coordinated a borderline top 10 offense over the last couple of years in Seattle. Like, this is a guy who's done this before. He has experience. Like, this is somebody who will at least give you some semblance of competence as you start doing this. Well, I think what we're learning slowly is that he played with a really,

really good quarterback in Seattle over the last couple years, a guy who did a very good job masking some of those problems. So you look at the final numbers, and when you actually start to try to untie why those numbers look like they did, that's the beauty of football, is that there are like a hundred different factors that actually play into why those things ultimately look the way that they do. And even if you do all this research and you try to understand it as best you possibly can, there's still going to be so much gray area that it's hard to fully grasp what things are going to look like when you move a guy from one situation into the other, whether it's a coach,

a quarterback, whoever. And I think that's why it's just such a fun experience every single year opening the season and trying to figure out what you're going to get because there's always going to be some surprises just because there's no way to possibly account for all of those factors and what they're going to look like when they're all lined up. Yeah, you just don't know. And we spend more months trying to unpack that stuff than we spend actually getting to watch it. And then we end up by two, three weeks in realizing, oh, okay, this was right and this was wrong. and this was completely out of left field. All right.

That is all we've got for today. Sincerely appreciate all of you guys listening. We will be back on Wednesday with our midweek show. Until then, really appreciate it. We'll talk to you guys soon.