The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 2 recap: Eagles beat Chiefs...again, Giants-Cowboys fireworks, and how 'bout them...Colts?!?

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

The Super Bowl LIX rematch was always going to be at the center of Week 2, and this one ended with the same winner as that one back in February did. The Eagles 20-17 win over the Chiefs is where Dave Helman and Derrik Klassen kick off the Week 2 recap episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also discuss the craziness of Giants-Cowboys, the hot start for the Colts offense, Joe Burrow's toe injury, Joey Bosa turning back the clock, and much more.Connect with The Athletic Football ShowX: https://x.com/TA_FootballShowIG: https://www.instagram.com/tafootballshowYT: https://www.youtube.com/@TAFootballShowTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tafootballshowDiscord: https://discord.gg/sPp5md3BCall us: 847-448-0701Host: Robert MaysCo-Host: Derrik KlassenExecutive Producer: Michael BellerProducer: Michael BellerFollow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.socialFollow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.socialFollow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.socialFollow Robert on X: @robertmaysFollow Derrik on X: @QBKlassFollow Dave on X: @davehelman_Theme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the athletic football show. I am Dave Hellman. Very quick programming note before we dive into our week two recap. Robert was out Sunday. He had a personal issue to attend to. He will be back very soon. Derek Classen and I soldiered on with our recap. Let's get into it.

Very full, very chaotic week two to talk about starting right now. You know, it's easy to do a late Sunday night recap show when Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson play a classic. But when we're up late recapping week two after a Sunday night stinker, that's when you really know that football season is. We're in the swing of it for real. Hey there. Welcome to the athletic football show week to recap. I am Dave Hellman. Very quick programming note.

Robert had to step away for a personal reason this week. He will be back shortly. Nevertheless, we press on and I'm joined by my good guy. Derek Klasson, Derek, I think, you know, like I am. I'm like programmed to want to react to the most recent thing that happened, right? This feels like a week where we can bypass Vikings, Falcons. I don't know while you were prepping for the show. I don't know how close of an eye you had on this game.

But I just don't feel like the people are clamoring for a lot of info coming off of that 22 to 6 Atlanta win. I'm kind of thankful for it. I mean, this early in the season when there's no bye weeks, like, you know, it's just there's so many games. And the way the scheduling worked this week where we had nine. of the games in the early slate and then only three, I think, in the afternoon slate because I think they were really trying to squeeze out everything of the Eagles Chiefs rematch

obviously. So the way that the scheduling worked, totally okay with being able to skip over a Sunday night or for now. This entire day felt designed around maximizing Eagles at Chiefs. Like from the fact that Fox did all of their programming live from Kansas City

to the fact that not a whole lot was going up against it in the second window. And even like the Sunday night game winding down from it. Interesting from the Pinnix JJ perspective, but not the banger that you get used to seeing from Sunday night football. So let's lead with that, because that was clearly the storyline that we wanted to focus on what the league wanted us to focus on.

Philadelphia Eagles rematching with the Kansas City Chiefs in just the second game of the season since Super Bowl 59. We have already gotten plenty wrong in the early going of this season, and we're going to keep getting stuff wrong. I'm just going to take a chance to pat ourselves ever so slightly on the back and say, this game went damn near exactly how I expected it to go. Yeah, where the team that just has more talent kind of did some, I will say, if anything, I thought the Eagles would maybe be a little bit more explosive.

Like, I thought someone what they were in week one was just like, we're trying to get our feet under us to get a new offensive coordinator and stuff like that. And maybe that's just like how they're going to be early in the season. But I expected a little bit more from them. but yeah, the more talented team just choked out the better team. And again, we said like, okay, the Eagles will probably win this game and it just won't be as convincing as the Super Bowl, which is like basically exactly what happened to this game.

So the Eagles beat the Chiefs 20 to 17, and yeah, it felt like a boa constrictor over the final 10 or so minutes of this game. But that's pretty much what I came away with. I mean, Patrick Mahomes was pressured 10% less often than he was in the Super Bowl. I do feel like the Chief's offensive line acquitted itself well, for the most part, like Josh Simmons, that is a nice week two against the Super Bowl champions.

Kingsley Sua Mataya, there were some ups, there were some downs, but like, from a protection standpoint, they gave them a chance in this game, which was not in the Super Bowl. In the Super Bowl, you can win with this from a protection standpoint. In the Super Bowl, Mahomes had nothing. And I think we saw, you know,

which we highlighted again, kind of in the preview show, that like, because the run game had absolutely no teeth to it, they felt like they could only RPO stuff. Like, it just felt like the game plan was so limited. in the Super Bowl.

They at least felt like they could try more things in this game and at least give Patrick Mahomes a little bit more of a chance. That then brings us to the receiving core, which I still have a lot of issues with. Like, how could you not? I posted a clip today. There was, I forget exactly one in the game it was. I think it might have been in the second quarter

where they tried to get Hollywood Brown motioning in from the right side and then he's supposed to like stop where he is and pivot back out towards the sideline. Cooper DeGene literally puts him in the ground. And look, Cooper DeGine's a great player. he's a strong player, he's a really good tackler, all that stuff. You should not be as a starting receiver like on the ground right after a motion like that. And like I've already said before that I don't love the way that the Chiefs have built this receiver core.

And they've got too many of those guys. And I think when you run up against these really good defenses, these really physical defenses, this is the kind of game that you can end up playing. This is the game I was scared of. Hopefully for them against lesser defenses is not as big of an issue. They did have some deep shots open up for Tyquan Thornton at the end of this game. Patrick Mahomes missed him badly on a deep ball late and then made up for it with a 49-yard touchdown. So it is interesting that a couple very explosive shots finally opened up at the end of this game.

But the rest of this was exactly what we said we were worried about, where Xavier Worthy gets hurt, Rishie Rice is suspended for another month. Patrick Mahomes goes one of four on attempts 20 plus yards down the field. 59% of his pass attempts were within 10 yards. like he's throwing to the sticks or less almost all the time. And surprise, surprise. Mahomes, phenomenal with his feet in this game, made a lot of stuff happen as a runner. Once again, lowered his shoulder and put-

He decked MacCuba. He put the boomstick down. Like, I don't know. I wonder what that's going to lead to with the way he freelances near the sideline. But clearly trying to set a tone early in the season, still, outside of Patrick Mahomes, one explosive run from the non Mahomes runners on the Chiefs offense. And it is possible to live this way. I want to make that very clear if you're a Chiefs fan.

Like we saw Kansas City do this en route to a 15-win season last year. But it's such a slim margin for error when this is the style of football you're playing. And I thought it was, I'm not rooting for it to happen, but I thought it was so fitting the way this game swung, where you march all the way down, deep into the red zone, Travis Kelsey breaks open on an angle route. Looks like you're going to score to go up 17, 13,

late in the game and maybe have a chance to steal a game where you've been the less impressive team. And instead, the pass clangs off of Travis's Kelsey's hands. The timing is a little bit off. I mean, he should have made the play. But timing's not as great as you would prefer. And Andrew McCuba is there to completely swing this thing. And when you have that,

slim margin for error, every mis-execution is so amplified and that's pretty much the story of this game. And that's the kind of thing. I feel like the margin for error thing with them is like that's fine if you're going to be a high success rate, which one, they actually still weren't in this game. They had like a, I think it was a

they had a 31.6% rushing success rate in this game, which includes the Patrick Mahomes run. So obviously without those. God, what would it be without that? Not great. I was, I was a little bit too quick to look it up. But it would have not been very good without that. But the thing is, like, if you're going to try to live that way, you got to get your explosives or your critical place somewhere. When Rishi Rice is healthy or not suspended, they can

at least get them from there. Or on like the critical down stuff, you can obviously get some of that from Travis Kelsey. But in this game, he had, I think, a critical, like, third down drop towards the left side line that kind of hurt them at some point. And then, like, you mentioned, the touchdown drop where that one was especially frustrating to me, too, because they know they're getting, like, Kelsey knows he's getting man coverage. And like, if the chiefs are getting man coverage in the red zone like Patrick Mahomes probably wants to go to Travis Kelsey because they had done like a little yo-yo motion with the back. Yeah.

The linebacker followed. Kelsey should know that like this ball might be coming out hot. And so there was just like the other thing too, like the ball's a little bit low and at Kelsey's knees so that it seems like a difficult throw but like or a difficult catch. But ball at the goal line like at the face of the goal line, the quarterback always wants to throw low because that's the best way to protect the ball. Like it just that's a play that I feel like three years ago is very routine for those two and the fact that it doesn't come through.

Like that's the difference between sometimes with these teams. from the Makuba interception return, which let's take this moment to shout out Josh Simmons for being the one to hawk down a safety. Insane. Just a super cool play that gets buried in an otherwise straightforward ending and a big win for Philadelphia. But you talk about choking somebody out. The rest of this game felt like a sleeper hold. Like it felt so inevitable. They're going to be able to run the ball.

They're going to be able to do the brotherly shove. They're not going to put the ball in harm. way. And honestly, I felt like the Eagles' entire offensive game plan felt very similar to what they did against Dallas in the season opener where it's not very fancy. It's not very explosive. Even the run game other than Seguan Barclay's early touchdown run is not as explosive as we got used to in the second half of last season. But one thing it is, man, it's pretty efficient. And it's clearly pretty tough to beat, even if it's not the most aesthetically pleasing thing going right now. And that's the thing, especially if the defense is going to continue to play

more like this level than they did in a week one. I think week one is a little bit more up and down. But if they can hold teams, you know, like Kansas City, like Patrick Mahomes to 17 points a week. And then again, you're able to kind of choke out the clock the way the Barclay is able to play in this game. And Jalen Hurts like, again, for as frustrating as it is that he is playing, especially this year, this style of player where he is holding the ball forever and not really throwing the ball down the field. It's frustrating, but he hasn't really put the ball at risk, which is at at least like if you're going to play this way as a team, at least that does something for you.

Like I don't think they completed a single ball past 15 yards except for the one Devanta Smith throw down the sideline where Devanta kind of just does a really good job of coming back to the ball and making that catch. You put your incredible players in positions and more often than not, they'll make you right. I told you I had a stat for you. Are you ready for it?

Oh, I hope so. Through two weeks this season, Jalen Hertz, is 32 of 36 on throws from zero to nine yards. so from the line of scrimmage to the sticks. He's two of five throwing shot plays. He had the big one to Dotson in week one. He had one to Devante Smith today. He has not attempted a throw between 10 and 19 yards yet this season.

He hasn't attempted one? It has not happened yet. No, that can't. I mean, this is for next gen stats. I guess they theoretically they could have sharded it wrong. Maybe there's a glitch in the software, but next gen says he has not attempted to throw between 10 and 19 yards. Now that you say it, though, really has just been shot plays or like quick game or even on the plays where he has run around.

There was one I got mad about today where he held the ball for like six seconds and he came back and I threw the ball to, I think threw the ball to like A.J. Brown and Vance of Smith like two yards away from the line of the script. And it's like I guess they're really just not targeting the middle of the field, which is crazy when you have A.J. Brown. Like that's his thing. That was where he feasted before they traded for him. I have a hard time believing it's going to continue this way. And I don't even mean like from a dramatic standpoint, like the narrative. with AJ Brown and the Philly passing game. I mean, I would guess if it keeps up this way,

somebody somewhere is going to have something to say about it, whether it would be AJ Brown or Devante Smith getting upset, whether it's Nick Siriani getting involved with Kevin Petulow and the play calling. Much like we say with Kansas City, Kansas City lives that way because they have to. Philadelphia has too much talent to live this way every single week. And plus not everyone is going to be equipped to stop them

the way that a Kansas City is, I don't think. So I would expect it to change, but I don't know, I think it's got to be a nice ace up your sleeve to know that you can play this buttoned up and probably beat the vast majority of your teams on your schedule. Yeah, the fact that we have so many issues through two weeks about the Eagles offense and they've still won both games that the Super Bowl champions are fine, I guess. I think this whole game can be boiled down to the exchange that the field mics picked up at the end of the game, which was incredible.

That was ridiculous. Eagles are in victory formation. kneeling out the clock. Chris Jones clearly frustrated with the way the Eagles have just been just draining the clock for the last nine minutes of this game. He says something to Jalen Hertz about you didn't even have 100 passing yards. And Jalen Hertz said, we won the effing game. Shut the hell up.

I'm like, doesn't that boil the Eagles down in a nutshell? Like all the discourse about Jalen Hertz and about this team is like it makes people very upset how complete they are and the way that they win football games. but they do it a hell of a lot, and they did it once again at Arrowhead Stadium. Even, like, from the outside, it's frustrating for me to, like, watch someone with the offense can get away with, and they still win the games, being the guy who is forced to try to stop the offense,

and they still get away with it, I can imagine why Chris Jones is a little upset. If you include the Super Bowl, Patrick Mahomes has now lost three games in a row for the first time in his NFL career. Kansas City 0-2, heading into a road Sunday night game against the New York Giants next week. It should be a get-right. Still too early for me to be overly worried about it, but definitely a weird place for the Kansas City Chiefs to be.

That was the centerpiece of Sunday, but so much more fun stuff to get to. Like, this wound up being a very hectic, very fun day away from Kansas City as well. So let's dive into it with, you have my attention. Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. Now you have my best. attention. I think it's so fitting, Derek. I made a joke about this with my good buddy,

John Schmelk, who's covered the New York Giants for a long time. Giants Cowboys used to be a headline grabber. Like, it used to be Sunday night football guaranteed every single year. Ratings galore, markets galore. We didn't mention it one time in the preview show. It just felt like such an afterthought on the Sunday card. And for good reason, might I'd say. So of course, though. They play the most entertaining, most chaotic, high scoring game of week two, probably not the best game of the season because Ravens Bills just happened, but as far as unexpectedly chaotic results go, the Cowboys take down the Giants 40 to 37 in overtime. You have my attention, everybody, Cowboys, Giants, both teams. The game literally had everybody's attention because it ran into

all of the late afternoon kickoff times. Like, giants and cowboys were playing for a solid 10 minutes while the Eagles and Chiefs were doing their thing in the first quarter. So for a variety of reasons, these two teams had our full attention on Sunday afternoon. This game was so dumb for like 800 different reasons. Like, to me, the Russ hit on every deep ball until he didn't, which was the crazy thing.

Like, there was a point where- And also just the most hilariously bad, miscommunication on the interception that wound up deciding this game. Oh, that, yes. So that was like, that's why to me it's like it was almost like, it was almost like carmic justice in a way where like Russ was hitting, he was betting red and hitting red on every deep ball.

And it was, I think at one point, Mina Kimes had tweeted that Russ was like seven of nine for 260 yards and three touchdowns on attempts beyond 20 yards. Like just chucking it. Like Malik neighbors caught a huge one. Wandale Robinson caught a huge one. a huge one down the seam. That was actually like,

Russ doesn't throw a whole lot of like pure beautiful seam balls anymore at this stage in his career. And that was honestly one of the prettiest throws, I think we saw all day. So he was just ripping it down the field. And then so for him to have that game and then at the very end, just kind of chuck one up that just something goes wrong. And they throw the interception.

It throws the game right a little bit. Just a funny way for that game to unfolded for that offense. Russ finished 7 of 11 for 264, three touchdowns, one interception on throws that traveled. over 20 area. I'm seen. And the final one is just an ugly. It looked like he thought Malik Neighbors

was going to cut it back inside on a post and Malik Neighbors took it up the sideline. And Donovan Wilson also ironic that a Cowboys safety made a game swinging play that gave the Cowboys the chance to win because the Dallas secondary, I mean, good God, man.

I know they lose Durand to a foot injury during practice heading into this. And like, Deron Blan is a good player. Don't get me. me wrong. But for it to go from surprisingly good in the season opener at Philadelphia to this catastrophe, it makes me think Durand needs to hustle back ASAP because if you go back and watch this, I mean, everything that could conceivably have gone wrong in the Dallas secondary happened.

Like you had guys just getting torch deep. Trayvon Diggs looked like a guy coming off of a major injury. Philly, for whatever reason, wasn't really able to take advantage of that. but Malik Neighbors was able to get steps on him on a regular basis. Kair Elam looked more like the guy where you're like, oh, I get why Buffalo might want to trade him. Like he looked more like that guy in week two. Reddy Stewart stepped in at Nickelback for the Cowboys in this game. And when they weren't just outright getting beat,

it looked like they had no idea where they were supposed to be. This was another game where Dallas played basically 98% zone coverage, but we're not on the same page at all, about what those zones were supposed to be. And that's the other thing is like even when the corners, whether it was like cover three quarter or something like that, when the corners were in what ends up becoming more of like one-on-one coverage even than those zones did not keep up well with their men.

And then the Cowboys have played a lot of cover two early in the season. That's something that Iberflus has always liked to do. That's why it was kind of surprising that Russ beat them because Russ is typically like when he throws down the field, he wants to beat you outside the numbers. And cover two is kind of daring you to do it and daring you to make those whole shots. And so one way to beat it is like, all right, we'll just throw in between them,

in between the two safeties, like flying off the hatches. And the fact that Russ actually did that in this game. And like, again, the neighbor's touchdown, the Wando Robinson throw that I think like he got tackled on the one, but it's effectively a touchdown. Those two were both straight down the middle. And like the fact that he was able to make a lot of those throws, it's like that's really not something you ever want to bet on for a quarterback like Russ,

because it's just not something I think at this stage in his career he does anymore. And so when he does it, it's kind of just like, in a way, you almost throw. throw your hands up. It's like, I don't know. I just didn't expect him to do that. I just think Matt Eberfluse's defense is the type of system that can be extremely good when you have good players that know what they're doing. And maybe it can be as simple as a quality player like Duran Blan not being there. But like the minute that starts to fall off, it can go really, really poorly. Iber Fluse only blitzed Russ seven times on 45 dropbacks.

There was no... You should be sending it at him all the time. There was no pressure from the Dallas pass rush. He was pressured 33% of the time. It's a bottom 10 rate among starters who played their entire game on Sunday. We're not getting meaningful pressure. We're not covering well. And this is the result.

Fortunately, the Dallas Cowboys have Dak Prescott, who has now won 14 straight games against the New York Giants. It is the second longest win streak against one team in league history. Which I did not realize he was on such a streak until I saw it today, which, like, I guess in my head it's like, yeah, I can't really imagine many times where he struggled that badly against the Giants. And even I think

last year when he had not that great of a season for him, one of his best games was earlier in the season against the Giants. But it's just like 14 games against anyone is insane. And I thought it was a really shaky day from Dak and a Dallas offense in the early going.

Like they were struggling to stay on the field in the beginning. They were definitely coping with the Giants pass rush, which was active in this game. 12 yards. at or excuse me, 12 attempts at or behind the line of scrimmage, trying to offset that pass rush through an ugly pick earlier in the day. But then like by the fourth quarter and overtime, like this was the type of game where you point to and you're like, yeah, this is why people like that.

That's the thing is like this is for all of some of his blemishes. Like I do think that Dak Prescott in like pure pass scenarios is one of the eight, nine guys that I'm like comfortable with being in that scenario because he's very willing to hang at the pocket. He's very willing to make tight windows throws. And sometimes that leads to the interceptions. Like the interception he throws, he's getting a little bit of heat straight down the middle. I think there's a free rusher. And he's like, okay, I'm comfortable getting the ball out and taking the hit.

And he wants to hit CD Lamb, I think, coming over the middle. But Andrew Phillips just did. By the way, Andrew Phillips had a- phenomenal game today. He might have been the best player on the field today. He was incredible. But he just undercuts that route. And that's one of those ones that, like if you're trying to throw on the break and anticipate it,

and quarterbacks like Dak love to do that, if the DB just kind of runs the route for the receiver, like what are you going to do? Like that's just an incredible play by that guy. I think C.D. Lamb said something during the week about how Drew Phillips put a dirty hit on him in last year's game. And he was like, I got something for him.

It sure seemed like Drew Phillips was like, I got something for you, dude. Because like he was active. He had the interception. He like body slammed CD in this game, which like drew a flag. So maybe not all good, but I really appreciated like the moxies.

Well, and even in like overtime, he was almost what kind of saved them in this game. Obviously, the Giants still end up losing. But there was he had played really, really tight coverage on Jalen Tolbert at one point where like Dak fits the window. But because Phillips is so just glued to Tolbert, it like doesn't allow Tolbert to comfortably catch the ball. He ends up dropping it. That was an overtime.

That was a huge play. And then a little bit later on third down, he makes a great tackle in the flats. That is just like Andrew Phillips was. It was at the time a game saving tackle. Exactly. And it's like again, rest of his team blew it. But like Andrew Phillips, if nobody else did their job today necessarily for the Giants, Andrew Phillips absolutely did.

41 combined points in the fourth quarter. 17 points scored in the final 52 seconds of regulation. Five combined possessions in the overtime period, which is insane. Like sometimes you see an overtime game with as few as one. Like you could have, you could use up the entire allotment of time and have like two possessions. They get five. And then the Dak throw to George Pickens that kind of put them in field goal range, which

Brandon Aubrey's field goal range is like the logo basically. But an amazing throw that kind of sums up Dak Prescott, just a free rusher about to murder him and just throws a strike to Pickens on what was like a deep crosser. Just so much to love about this game, even though it was a very

sloppy game of football. And that, again, last thing I'll say to praise that for the 800th time on the show. It's the fact that he had thrown the pick earlier in the game where he's trying to anticipate a route and getting smoked by a free rusher. The fact that later in the game in overtime game on the line, even though it's like a different route and stuff and all stuff like that, he's extremely willing to be like, I'll do it again. And he just trusts and believes that he can make the play and that Pickens can make the play. And that's just you kind of have to have a quarterback like that. Brandon Aubrey's had my attention forever, but 4 of 4 on the day, 51, 44, 64 to send the game to OT and 46 to win the game.

Not bad. Not bad. Pretty good at his job. You can settle for a 64-yard fuel goal and have it look like a good strategy. Maybe you should extend your kicker. Let's keep it pushing to another unit that has our full attention. And the hand-wringing maybe was understandable because of how dominant the Green Bay Packers looked against the Detroit Lions last week. But here in week two, Detroit Lions, specifically your offense has my attention.

They roared back to life. They looked like the unit we remembered with Ben Johnson, except Ben Johnson was the guy receiving a 52 to 21 thumping as Detroit raced past Chicago. It was bad. And this is one of those that like, yeah, the Lions should get like a little bit of a mullion for week one, especially now that we know what we've seen in the Packers defense doing again,

what they did to Washington. So maybe the Packard, maybe all of this just says a lot more about how good the Packers defenses, but it was really, really encouraging to see the Lions. offense do what they're supposed to do. I thought like a number of like other players just guys that had I think struggled in week one looked a lot better. Like I thought Tate Ratlidge played way better in this game.

Week one I think he was struggling. But in this game, I thought he did a really good job of moving people. And then I think in this game what you saw, especially early on, the bears were trying to play a lot of like one-on-one coverage. I don't think you want to do that ever against the lines because the whole thing is they're just like we're just going to run a lot of these crossers and we're just

going to get a Monross St. Brown's streaking cross. the middle. We're going to get James and William streaking across the middle. We're going to get just all these guys who are too explosive and too fast if you just give them some of these one-on-ones. So when the bears were trying to give on some of those one-on-ones, really bad stuff, when they were trying to play Zohen, really bad stuff.

I think my favorite play that still led me believe the Lions do have some of the juice from last year that like this wasn't all Ben Johnson. In the third quarter, I think it was very early in the third quarter. They have two receivers to the left side. They motion one in, and they

like at the snap, like kind of switch spots basically. And they run, the inside receiver run to like a little dig kind of stop route. And they get Jameson Williams flying over the top of him on the post. Safety sits down for the underneath route. Jameson Williams just flies by everybody. And like that's, that's exactly the type of throw and exactly the type of way you expect from the lines. And for them to not be able to have hit really any of that last week.

And then do that again in this game is just like, that's, it's very encouraging sign for them. I love the way that they just kind of flipped a switch. because the early going in this game, I mean, they scored a couple touchdowns early. It's not like they looked hopeless, but it looked very normal. You know, like they'd score a touchdown and then they'd punt. They had a drive that covered less than like five yards and they punted. They had a four play, no yard gained missed field goal drive, just like standard hiccups and

misfires that you might expect early in a season. And then it just kind of clicked into gear and was devastating the rest of the day. six straight possessions with points before it was victory formation time. 67-yard touchdown drive, 76-yard touchdown drive, 84-yard touchdown drive, and all of a sudden you have 50 points, which I don't think was happenstance, by the way. I didn't realize this at the time because this game got so out of whack so quickly.

Like I said, like one minute it was pretty competitive, and the next minute I was like, holy shit, it's 38 to 14. I'm going to go watch something else. I can check in on this later. And when I did, I realized that Amin Raus Saint-Brown's final of his three touchdowns came on fourth down

halfway through the fourth quarter of a game that had been over for a minute. And I know the lions go for it on fourth down. I know that's what they do. But don't try to tell me that Dan Campbell didn't want to get to 50 with Ben Johnson standing on the other sideline. I would never believe that. Oh, especially now that. that he's got to play him twice a year.

Yeah, if it was like a one-off game, whatever, yeah, he's probably trying to get in his head a little bit, especially after, again, when you're, when the whole deal is like, people thought that this was all Ben Johnson. And I do think Ben Johnson is really good at his job. And I actually think the Bears' offense at certain points in this game looked pretty okay.

It's just it's hard to keep up with 52 points once you get thrown out of your game script a little bit. I thought Jared Goff, I mean, obviously, he was awesome today. 23 of 28, 238, 2,38, 5 touchdowns. He's also, he has now been, he's now scored 50 points. He's been the quarterback for a 50 point offense five times, which puts him only behind Tom Brady,

Drew Brees, and Lynn Dawson for guys who have done it the most in their NFL career. Clearly, he was great. He leads the league heading into Monday Night Football in EPA per dropback. But I thought he was really fun as just a creative player today. Like, I don't think he gets credit for doing that. Like the cliche about Jared Goff is like pressure him and he'll fall down. he was making plays off of schedule today like getting outside the pocket

avoiding pressure he had a fun little throw to Sam Leporta where he like dodged around Montez sweat coming off left tackle and zipped it across his body I was like I was like Jared that's not you what are you doing man it was so fun and then he and then one of the the long one to Jamo

I think it was the yeah the touchdown he had Montez sweat like draped on his back when he threw that ball like it was I was impressed by so many things with Jared Goff other than just the stat line. I think he's, so I think what's funny about Jared Goff, like creating and getting outside of the pocket,

I think, especially I think it started to pop up last year and has, it did again in this game a little bit, he is actually pretty willing to get outside of the pocket and try to make some plays. It's just that sometimes he does not have the facilities to do so. And I think against really good defenses, he'll just get hunted down before he gets outside of the pocket

or certain stuff like that. But if he can find, some space outside of the pocket. He actually does do kind of to your point. He'll side on whip it if he has to. Like the one that he did get to Laporte was like, okay, if you can do that once or twice a game, that's really all, when you're as good as you are in structure, really all

you need is to have those one or two plays. And so I would say he had three or four of them today with as good as the lines offense played. And that's how they could score 50, but it was an insanely good day for them. I also want to say there were a couple things about the Bears defense that really, really irritated me. I think right now, like Kevin Byer just

looks very slow. And I think in a game against an offense as fast as the Lions, I think that that really showed up. And then one other, like, very small thing that I had was in the first quarter, the Bears tried to call a corner blitz from the boundary with Jalen Johnson. If you're calling a corner blitz, you got to go. Like, you are. You need to fly.

And Jalen Johnson, like, kind of saunter's up to the running back and is like, am I going to hit him? And I understand that he's not been fully healthy. But that's just like, well, then don't call a corner blitz for Jalen Johnson in that scenario. It was just like a what are we, what's going on here type of thing. We're not making excuses, but the lion, excuse me, the Bears defense is beat to hell and back right now. And so, you know, Kevin Byard who could maybe get by with more around him, I think it's that much worse when you don't have the guys who can sort of pick up that slack. The Lions point four one EPA per play for week two, which is almost double the next best team as we wrap up Sunday night, 55% success rate.

as an offense, which again, best in the NFL. So just like last week, look, last week was bad. It was only week one. This week was really, really good. I don't know. Maybe we'll stabilize somewhere in the middle, but I'm a lot less worried about the Detroit offense than I was a week ago at this time. I mean, stabilizing the middle at like 30 points a game would probably be pretty good for them.

Let's keep it going with a unit, a team that has our attention. We teed this up perfectly, Derek, in the preview show. We said, who's got a better chance to prove? that week one wasn't a fluke than the Indianapolis Colts. They beat the hell out of a Miami team that really didn't look like they wanted any part of it in week one and week two.

It's the Denver Broncos. We said, let's see you do it against a real unit, Indianapolis Colts. Let's see you do it against a real pass rush that's going to get after you, Daniel Jones. Well, they did. They did. Indianapolis Colts put up 473 yards of offense.

They beat the Denver Broncos 29 to 28. I want to get into the end game madness a little bit because it was if it wasn't the most memorable ending of the week, it was it was either that or Dallas, New York. It was insane. But before we do that, let's make sure we give the Colts some flowers.

And in particular, Daniel Jones, who outright thrived. Like, I was so impressed with everything about particularly this offense, but obviously the team as a whole moves to 2 and 0 on the year. Yeah, there are. there are a couple parts of the Daniel Jones thing that have been fascinated to me. I think the one part of this that we could have

that is like not all that surprising now that we're seeing is that underneath Daniel Jones's accuracy to me has been pretty good. Like whether that's like on some of their RPO stuff, their quick game or even on just when he's, you know, checking the ball down, maybe scrambles outside of the pocket, needs to dump the ball off. He's been very, very accurate underneath with that. It's given the offense a little bit of a floor to work with. He's also been pretty effective as a scramble with their two weeks.

So that part of it is not surprising to me. what has been surprising to me about Daniel Jones is that under pressure he's been like really good yeah dude in this game he was awesome like it was just like he is completely unafraid to slide around to take hits and to make a lot of plays like like there was one where I think it was the second play of the game

where they run like a little play action they've got a guy streaking from right to left kind of on an over route and Daniel Jones just slides a little bit to his left the center gets bold over and Jones just buys a little bit of time to his left still get smacked as he's throwing it but puts the ball right on his guy like 25 yards

down the field and that was like okay if he can do some of that and like remain within himself while he's getting pressured make a couple of plays outside of the pocket so there was that element that I just didn't know if we were going to get that version of Daniel Jones he's also throwing it down the field more than he has in like two years really like this was early Daniel Jones we remember like

you remember the bucks game he played when he was I think it might been his first start where him and James were just like chucking it back and forth like 30 yards down the field ago, but yeah. It was a while ago, but that was something he did early on in his career. And I think that was something that's been missing the past couple of years. And he looked, he just looked more willing and able to do that in a way that I just wasn't sure that we were going to get from him. Denver pressured Daniel Jones on 45% of his dropbacks, which if you take out guys who didn't play the whole game.

So like not counting Tyrod Taylor who like entered for Justin Fields, like among guys who played all of the snaps or the vast majority of the snaps, third highest pressure rate in the NFL. NFL for week two. And particularly on passing downs, like in got to have it situations, Denver kind of got whatever they wanted. Like Indy's offensive line is really good, right? And like he had this fantastic situation in week one where the dolphins just really couldn't get to him. That wasn't the case on Sunday. And it didn't matter. Like that what? They converted six of 13 third downs. Like so you're up near 50% moving like converting and moving the ball down the field. I just, I thought it was incredibly impressive. And it's, it's not like Indianapolis dominated Denver up front.

He just managed the situation in a very impressive way, I thought. He did. And like there's still some part of me that is like, we'll probably still get some bad games from him trying to do stuff like this. We can't say that after this, though. I know. But like we, I think the last couple of years I would have been like, he might have one in 10 good games under pressure.

Now it's like if he can do this, it's like I have a little bit more faith that it's at least closer to like he's not going to have so many bad guys. He did put the ball at risk a couple of times in this game. I'm not ready to wholesale, like, change my opinion of who the Colts are. And teams can start fast and fade. And Daniel Jones probably will play a stinker or two or three if I had to guess. But we think highly of Miami's front.

And they played a much better game in week two, by the way. We can get to them later on in the show. This is a really good resume for the first two weeks, particularly this game, scoring 29 points against a unit that we all think very highly of among the top handful in the NFL. I just, I can't, I, he deserves for me to not like couch what I'm saying. You know what I mean? Like, he deserves for me to just be like, guys playing well, don't have to qualify it any other way. That's fair. I think I'm a little bit more like, you've got three or four years of bad tape on you. I'd like to see it again. But he's, he's starting off really well.

Probably the responsible way to look at it. But the other thing. thing I want to say, the offensive line and run game in the second half in particular, they started off kind of slow in the run game and stuff like that. But in the second half, they were kicking ass. Like, Braden Smith in particular, I thought played a really, really good game in this game. Like the right side as a whole, I thought was really good. And some of the double teams, him and the right guard were getting on were like really good. Jonathan Taylor was awesome. Real 2021 vibes coming off of Jonathan Taylor right now. Yeah, that was if he can keep doing this like, because that was the whole thing where I just like last

year was like, well, part of the formula is that you have this running quarterback and this really good running back. Like, you should be able to create something there and it just never clicked for a number of reasons. And obviously, Richardson missed a lot of the year anyway. Daniel Jones is a good and athletic quarterback. And so they can mix some of the run element with him and like do all this other stuff. And like, it's just, it's looking, it's looking good so far. And I'm pretty optimistic. I think I just like the way the Colts compliment each other. Like, JT's a great back. He's been active in the, in the receiving game this year. He had a receiving touchdown in this game. Yeah, like really good. Daniel Jones is obviously a mobile guy.

And then like all the pieces of their passing game just sort of play a very specific role. And when it meshes together, it just, it looks nice. Like, then don't get me wrong, these are good players, but like the sum of the Colts parts adds up to something cooler than what it looks like on paper, I think. Yeah, it's a lot of like B plus to be minus skill players, but they have like so many of them now. And Jonathan Taylor, I think kind of transcends that. But like, they generally have just no true true superstar at the past catcher position. We'll see about Tyler Warren. He's been pretty good.

The last thing I do want to say about the past catchers, we probably underrated a little bit that Michael Pitman was just not healthy for like all of last year. And I know I did. He's been a player that I've been always kind of up and down on and like what is his as like true value? Because I think he's not a very explosive player. But if other elements of the offense are going to be explosive, Jonathan Taylor is going to be explosive. If Pierce is going to be as good as he is down the field,

then like what Pittman offers you as just running a ton of slants and shallows and converting on all of them, that I think really does go a long way and it certainly has to do two weeks. So we're very impressed with the Colts. Honestly, the Broncos for the most part played a good game themselves. This was this was just the, again, other than Dallas, New York, which was just bonkers chaotic. This was actually like this was the best well-played game of the weekend, just like the most entertaining well-played game up until everybody lost their damn minds in the final

two minutes of this game. And we can be impressed with the Colts and what they've got going on 2-0 start and also say the end of game situation here was just abysmal. The way that Shane Steichen got to I mean, he got to fuel goal range basically with a minute 44

to play and none of his timeouts used. And from the Denver 40 yard line just decided I've had enough. I don't think I want Daniel Jones to get strip sacked here. He's done such a good job getting us to this point. I don't want to risk it. And with a

minute 44 and all of his timeouts proceeded to run one play and get the clock down to 15 seconds and settle for a 60 yard fuel goal. And the only thing stupider than that is that when Indianapolis trotted out their

kicker who had attempted nine NFL kicks in his life from 60 yards, the Denver Broncos drew a leveraging flag because they contacted the center on a on a hopeless field goal. I mean, it had no shot. And he was like five yards short and five yards wide. And I could have told you before he even did it that it would probably go that way. And yet the Broncos draw flag that moves the Colts 15 yards closer, he bangs it in from 45. Everybody's happy. And you can, you can, can just sort of push it into the corner that you bungled the end of game scenario here. This was just brutal for all sides, honestly.

Yeah, it's a weird game to talk about, like, do they deserve to win? Where it's like for the 58 minutes that they played, yes, they deserved to win the game. And then the way they handled the very end game. Like, I don't, yeah, I don't understand your offense playing as well as it did and then being a little bit scared of them at the very end, especially when you have your timeouts. You can manage this stuff. I did not understand that, especially with the kicker situation that they had. The only, like, Denver should really not be even trying to block this kick, obviously, being a 60-yarder, but also- I would tell them not to even, like, fire off the line.

Yeah, like, if you guys want to jump straight up, do whatever you want, but, like, you don't need to go forward and, like, contact the offensive line. I will say 15 yards for that penalty seems a little crazy to me. We got to talk to Roger about that one. Player safety penalties always carry a heavier toll, which, to answer your question, the Colts do deserve to win because the, Broncos made an equally egregious mistake. And so they just sort of cancel each other out and we say, all right, good job, Indianapolis. Before we get into our next segment, we're going to take a quick commercial break. What the fuck?

What the fuck? Like I said, we had no shortage of options to choose from. But I think we got to start. And unfortunately, it's very heavy, serious injury news that headlines the Cincinnati Bengals, week two win against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Bengals rally past Jacksonville. They win by a score of 31, 27, with Jake Browning pulling off the heroics. We'll get into all of that.

But obviously, the big, big macro story here is that Joe Burrow goes down with a leg injury, with nine minutes to play until halftime, does not return to the game. He's seen limping. He's seen in a walking boot afterwards. I think as of Sunday night, the NFL insiders, NFL networks, and Rapaport ESPN's Adam Schaefter, they're reporting that it's a grade three turf toe injury and

that it could sideline him for up to three months. I'm not ready to base anything off of that timeline because when you're talking about a Joe Burrow caliber player, I'm sure the Bengals will exhaust every option. But clearly Cincinnati is facing

a Joe Burrow absence for at least the time being. And kudos to them for finding a way to win without him. Yeah, this to me is like a WTF in the sense of like the Bengals are, the joke is the Bengals always suck in September and they always start 0 and 2 or 1 and 2 or 1 and 3

by the end of their first handful of games. And it's always just like they have to dig themselves out of this hole with Joe Burrow. Is this like a monkey paw situation? I think so. Where the Bengals are like oh, can we just be 2 and O? Can we just have a good September? And the football gods are like,

you can, but it'll cost you Joe Burrow. You can start 2 and O, but it'll cost you the fourth best quarterback in the league for a couple of months potentially. But it is funny. Like they are to be a little bit serious. Like it obviously sucks to Joe Burrow's not going to play. They are at least fortunate in the sense that like they've done this with Jake Browning before.

They obviously did it today and played a pretty good second half of this game. And I think Browning like they understand how to put this offense together with him. And I think so long as Chase and Higgins can stay healthy, knock on wood, I do think they like they'll have a shot to be a competent offense for the rest of this stretch. It's just that they play like a pretty gnarly such of teams over this handful of month. And like these are teams that are going to force shootouts. And it's like, can a backup quarterback really help you in a shootout? We're going to see about that. I love when a team understands itself.

Like when you know the score. And Jake Browning did exactly what he needed to. He did throw three picks in this game. Kind of the ultimate backup quarterback game. But he also got the ball to Jamar freaking chase. And T. Higgins to a lesser degree. But just lean on. those guys and there will be defenses that are good enough to shut that down or at least limit it.

The Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday were not that team and the way Jake Browning and Zach Taylor for that matter, the way the Bengals as a whole were like, we are not going to stop a drop off at quarterback play from getting the ball to our playmakers. Jamar Chase 16 targets, 14 catches, 165. 88 yards of yak by the way. That's the other thing too. Like when you have the most physically imposing duo of receivers in the NFL. Go let them bully people. Jamar Chase, 88 yards of yak, T. Higgins, his biggest impact play is a 42-yard touchdown catch in which half of that is yak because he just sunned the safety and the cornerback at

the same time. Like, that's why those guys draw those paychecks. That's why we talk about them having the contracts that they do is because they can make a backup quarterback look that good when you get them the ball. Yeah, they, dude. the T. Higgins play was, which actually, what's even crazier about this game is so, T. Higgins has that play, obviously, where down the right sideline just kind of cooks Tyson Campbell. I think he ends up taking like a go ball, like a little bit of an inside stem,

fades it back out. And then he catches it. And then Wingerd, the safety tries to come over and help them tackle him and Tyson Campbell's kind of hit each other. T. Higgins off to the races. And that's that. You mentioned Jemar Chase some of his yak. There was, I think, the drive right before the half. Browning ends up throwing an interception at the end of it. but they throw this little screen to the left side for Jamar Chase, and they just, they clear the way for Jabar Chase. And just if you give him a little space,

a little bit of a runway, he's going to turn what could be, I don't know, 12-yard gain into 25. Like, he's the best in the league at that. And then the other guy, the catch that Mitchell Tinsley made on the right side of the end zone.

Like if even your, I mean, he's not even their third guy. Like they have like Andre Yoshibos. Like if he's like, I know if he would be in the top five targets in the Bengals offense. Yeah, if you want to include like Chase Brown

and like, I get sick you when he's healthy, like even though a fan had a pretty good play today. Like Tinsley could be their sixth or seventh guy at any given point. And for him to have a play like that in the red zone is just like they clearly have a lot of guys who are just good at if you throw the ball up to them, go catch it. So even though Browning did throw three picks, like this is how you should be playing to a degree in this offense. I love how the end of this game was a perfect process versus results situation because the dramatic ending, Jake Browning drives the Bengals 93 yards. they go ahead on a love the throwback, Drew Bree's, Tom Brady quarterback sneak, by the way. Like in the era of the brotherly shove, yeah, let's dive over the line and just break the plane.

But the thing that set that drive up, and I can hear Jags fans yelling, big DPI on fourth down on Andre Yoshavos that enabled that whole thing to take place as well. But the thing that gave the bingles the ball was a decision that I loved from Liam Cohen, where you're up three on the Cincinnati seven, line for something to play, I think. Like a four minute situation, Liam Cohen's like, let's just go get the first down and we'll probably win this game. And obviously they don't, which enables everything to come.

But I love the idea of, yeah, if we get five yards, we win this game and like we're not worried about Jake Browning driving 92 yards on us. Obviously, that is exactly what happened. That's still a bet you make. That is a bet you make.

And Liam Cohen said afterward, he's like, that was a go on, in all of our models. all of our data says that's a full go. And it should have worked, by the way. Really, really rough day for Brian Thomas, Jr., highlighted by him not making a pretty routine catch over the middle

that probably ices this game for the Jags. Brian Thomas had a tough one. And head coach Liam Cohen, I think, had some issues, not like really saying everything that he probably wanted to say it. He looked like he had a lot on his mind that he decided not to say into a microphone after this game. I think that film session is probably going to be tough. but like even on so the fourth and five that they they are not able to convert that you're talking about there like they Brian Thomas I think so he's running like a little bit of a shallow route and he clearly wants to sit around the hash mark and catch the ball turn around gets the first yard marker but he I don't know what it is like if he didn't love the ball location even though it was fine like he just clearly was not comfortable catching the ball turning and like maybe getting hit so he ends up dropping that they don't convert there there was the throw that you're mentioning where over the middle he just doesn't want to take the shot to the ribs which like I guess I guess

it that's not fun but like once you catch it you're going to turn around and get hit you're going to you're going to convert the fourth down as well and they pay you to do that like you you got to go do it and then there was even a go ball down the right sideline that like was probably not super catchable but i think you saw him a little bit give up really on the play which which i didn't love so like i do not know if this is going to be a regular issue for him like i think this is something that good coaching staff sort out like good players sort out and i think what we saw from brian thomas last year was obviously phenomenal so if this is still something that they're still having weird issues with by like middle of November like okay I'll be concerned

I'll at least give them a little bit of grace for now I don't want to put too much of a timeline on Joe there's just as we're recording this we just don't know but it seems like a safe bet it'll be a multi-week absence of some sort bengals went four and three with browning as their starter in 2023 they narrowly missed the playoffs despite not having burrow for the basically the second half of that season next four games at Vikings at Broncos, lions, at Packers. So regardless of what happens there and without knowing when Joe might be back, 2 and O is so, so big.

Like, theoretically, you could weather this storm if you can steal one or two here sort of tread water because you're not trying to claw out of a hole for the first time. You have a cushion. The first time in Joe Burroughs time as a Cincinnati bingle, he has a little bit of cushion to work. with as he tries to recover from this injury. Yeah, exactly. Like if they can steal one of those games, they'll end up at 500, like, again, assuming Joe Barrow does not need any type of surgery.

If they can steal that, that would be huge for them. So we'll see. The monkey's paw. That's what it's got to be. Gotta be. Another WTF situation. And look, there's a lot that went into Pittsburgh's loss to Seattle in the early window on Sunday.

And I typically, I don't like to single out. one backbreaking play because you make the wrong read and throw a pick six. Like, do we know for sure what the progression was, what the coverage was? Like there's so many elements that can go into backbreaking plays. Not here. Not when Caleb Johnson flubs a kickoff that leads directly to a Seattle touchdown. And he's basically the only person involved in this. So early fourth quarter, Seattle kicks a fuel wall to go up 1714.

Pittsburgh's going to get the ball, going to have a chance to drive down and tie, maybe take the lead, we'll see what happens. Caleb Johnson, who is the regular kickoff guy? Like, he's been in this role for both games. He's had eight kickoffs on the year. I know he's a rookie,

but this is a job they laid out for him coming out of training camp. The ball bounces past him, and he just lets it go into the end zone. It's so tragic watching him jog off to the Steelers' sideline, just like, ah, well, not going to have a return on this one. And as he's jogging to the sideline, the whole Seattle kick team is meeting in the end zone to recover it for. Like, it's the game winning touchdown. Like, see, it just, it never felt like Seattle was in trouble after that.

And like I said, it's, it's this one easy thing. Hey, man, the new kickoff rules stipulate. The ball goes into the end zone. It's got to be down. It's a live football or else this could happen, which shouldn't but did. and to that I say WTF Jolson. Yeah, that was just gnarly and like on one hand it's like

okay you've had the job for not very long, you're rookie all that stuff, I get it but they're not this is his main responsibility at this stage because they're not even really using him on offense like they are, he is currently right now a special teams player for them like he had one carry in this game

I think he has two carries on the year. Exactly like it's him Jalen Warren has taken the lion's share of the load and then even Kenneth Gainwell has been really their like other back in this offense. And I know part of that is probably just like Aaron Rogers doesn't like having rookies in the offense. And so maybe this isn't necessarily indicative of Caleb Johnson. But it is like they clearly have trusted him to be their kickoff guy right now and not

use him on offense should at least know some of the basic rules. And I know like, again, college doesn't really work this way. And it's a whole new thing. And you never watch football like this. But it's just this is a mistake that you cannot make in a game like this. The other thing that blew me away is, and it's hard to tell from the TV angle. but the way the ball skipped up, it came close to his hands.

Close enough that I'm not sure it didn't touch him. At first I thought it did. And then I think, yeah, they like tried to be shown. And they were like, yeah, we don't know. But it was like, maybe just go and make sure, man. Just maybe go and make sure that you're not about to commit the blunder of the week, which is what happened. If you leave your house, it's like you're not sure you locked it.

You just go back and check just in case. You know, there's no reason not to. There's a lot. Like I said, there's more elements to this game. Steelers' offense. And ironic that as much as we loved the Steelers Jets game in week one, neither offense really followed through on that momentum. Very forgettable week for the Steelers. And like I said, there's so many variables that go into a loss.

But this is just the most obvious and the most avoidable one, in my opinion. Yeah, it probably was. Like the offense just did not. I think part of it is like, this is still to me an offense that even if the run game is not, humming. They want to be in an offensive structure that is allowing them to get under center, to get into tighter formations and like at least have that be part of the element. Like a lot of the Calvin Austin plays from last week against the Jets, they were getting him into tight splits like under center and using him on these corner routes and stuff like that and getting him free releases

that way. I think the later this game went on, especially once you got it to the second half, especially after this when they go down multiple scores, it's like they were forced a little bit more into a pure pass scenario, which I just don't think is how this offense really wants to operate the way it's constructed right now. I think this might have been the game that had the least amount of eyeballs on it, probably because neither team looked particularly impressive in week one. And it was in an early window with eight other games. The New England Patriots improved to one in one on the year. They beat the Miami Dolphins 33 to 27. and basically the whole second half of the fourth quarter

just made me say WTF. Like what? Let me just say it. What the fuck? Because this was a wild sequence of events starting with back-to-back special teams touchdowns. Well, what's funny to me is it starts right before that where it's a middle of the fourth quarter,

nine minutes left is a second and 13 for the New England Patriots. And they're like backed up on their own 22 or something like that. Garrett Bradbury, the center snaps the ball like at Drake May's feet. He gets sacked on like his own nine yard line. And so that in your mind is like, okay, they're about to give up really bad field position to the dolphins. And then they punt it.

And that's when Washington takes it back all the way into the end zone. He takes back the punt return. And then literally on the ensuing kickoff, I think it was Antonio Gibson. It was takes that back for a touchdown. And so that's where you get that whole, that whole sequence of stuff. And then even everything after that started to get a little bit weird to me,

like the, a little bit later in the, in the fourth quarter. quarter. The Patriots are driving. They are about to what feels like put the game away. They get to a fourth and two with about two minutes left on Miami's 30. This is clear go. Like if we get this, we can win the game. Yes. Morgan Moses false start. Man. And so they have to kick that allows Miami to stay into the game. And then Miami goes and tries out and to do their thing. Miami gets the ball. Devon A. Chan almost has like what looks like a touchdown. He steps out at like the 30 or something like that or a little bit shorter than that. So we got to run this all back.

Okay, Miami's got to try this again. They end up in a third and 12. Tua scrambles out of bounds for no gain on a third and 12, which to me is inexcusable. Like we got to try something with the game on the line. And then on the ensuing play, I think he gets just completely smoked around the edge. He does. Yeah. It's just like.

You left out my favorite part, though, which is that after. There was so much. I just. After the Devon A-chan mess up. the dolphins incur a false start while they're like trying to recover from that miscue, a false start. And then they take a delay of game while they're trying to sort that out to the point that the home fans are booing them for their execution in this whole thing.

And then Tua runs out of bounds. And then he gets sacked. And the crazy thing is this was a market improvement on what we saw week one. And remember, We were watching the games together early on Sunday and I think New England went up 13-0 pretty quickly in this game and we were like, holy shit,

is Mike McDaniel going to be fired on Friday after they inevitably lose to Buffalo? And they're still 0-2. Like it's not like they won this game, but from where it was at the end of the first quarter, at least it was a functioning NFL product, albeit a bad one. By the way, 22 total flags in this game.

Oh, that's gnarly. 140 penalty yards, two special teams touchdowns. Yeah, like, it was an NFL product. Still not a very good one is what I would say. Still not a good one. Even to add to that eight sacks between these two teams, like it was just a lot of a lot of sloppy football. And the last thing I would actually want to say to the point of sacks,

obviously I think it was Milton Williams who ended up. He got the walk off. Yeah, like the game clenching sack. So he's the one who ended the game. There was a sack earlier in the fourth quarter with about three minutes left on a third down, which was, I think, Miami's second to last drive potentially. Harold Landry has actually been,

this was a signing that, you know, we kind of talked about a little bit last week of like the Eric Murray, Jordan Lewis signings for Jacksonville and stuff like that. Harold Landry has had a shockingly good start to the season. I think obviously playing the Raiders offensive line and the Miami Dolphins offensive line in their current state, not the two biggest test, but I do think he's looked really, really good for them.

The interception to a through after the Antonio Gibson kickoff return. was bonkers. That was just derogatory. Very derogatory. He's had a couple already this year where he's just, and I think that they, like, Tua is typically not a super high interception player. And so the fact that he's already, and a lot of these are coming outside of the pocket.

And I know again, these are also coming in games where like they're already down and this one was on a fourth down. So it's like I get like why you have to do something. But the fact that he's already had so many mistakes like that, I think is pretty troubling. The dolphins are 12.5 point underdogs Thursday. in Buffalo. I mean, this offensive line and this team on a short week, I get it. Never want to overreact to spreads ahead of time.

Like, crazy things happen in the NFL, but I don't have a good feeling about what the dolphins are walking into on Thursday night. All right, a couple more things to get to before we wrap up the show, but real quick, we're going to take our second break. Like I said, it was plenty of WTF to get to. Let's throw it to what is quickly becoming my favorite. segment on these recap shows. We're calling it, how could you not be romantic about football?

I mean, this thing was a thing of beauty. So the point of this segment isn't always to highlight a game or we don't even have to get to a new game. Obviously, we want to touch as many things as possible, but that's just not realistic with the amount of time that we have. We just want to highlight a moment, a play that made us sit up in our seat or just got us super excited, which is easy to do now that we watch the games in person, by the way, because you can sort of timestamp, like, oh, Derek was losing his shit about that. Or like, I was pacing around

the studio during the end of the Cowboys Giants game. But one thing I did want to highlight is that in a game that I got very wrong, by the way, I didn't necessarily think the New York Jets would beat the Buffalo bills, but after an exciting week one, I would not have been surprised if it was a good game. forget that man the bills smothered the New York Jets and didn't even really have to get out of second gear to do it and for as much as we worried about

this Buffalo defense they were all over the Jets and a big part of that was Joey Bosa looking like it was like 2017 turned back the clock in a big way he was awesome in this game like he had a sack which was

on rookie tight end Mason Taylor but still I think you saw like the closing speed after he beat Taylor, which is exactly what you want. That was like the whole point of signing Joey Bosa is that even if it's only for a limited number of snaps a game, he can give us some juice when he needed. So he had that. He had the Justin Fields punch out fumble,

which was, that was awesome. Fantastic. Fields ends up like scrambling a little bit to his left and then shoots up to the line of scrimmage. And Joey Bosa completely relentless, just hunts him down from behind and punches that thing out. I forget who was starting the tackle, but like Bosa, as is he's going down,

punches that out. That was an incredible play. And then even to me what really felt, the most like, this is also kind of like what peak Joey Bosa felt like. At his best, he was a really, really good edge setter and literally first play the game that Jets tried to like wide zone out to the left and Joey Bosa sets the edge, forces it all the way to the boundary. I think they get like two yards on it. And that was like, that's what you signed him for. That's what you signed him to do. We did a show over the summer or I said I was ready to be hurt again. And one of the things I was

ready to be hurt by is believing like this is the year that the old Bill's edge rusher that they signed in free agency is going to do something. And granted, this is definitely a team that we judge by what happens in January. Still really exciting to see Joey Bosa play that way. Sack two forced fumbles in this game. I mean, if he can be, and I do think you want to pace yourself and not expose him to injury because we know that's been his big issue. But if you have that in your back pocket of knowing that Joey Bosa can be that guy at times,

maybe that could be the thing that elevates the bill's defense and I'll just put the Ravens performance off to the side while I think about this and say we don't have to worry about that for a while. A little bit of proof of concept that the 8 million resources you put into the front. That's a good sign. Speaking of the Baltimore Ravens, not super interested in the totality of their beat down win against Cleveland. It credit to them, it went exactly the way it was supposed to.

They're double-digit favorites. They're coming off a disappointing loss. The Ravens have a tendency for theatrics against teams. They have no business playing close. And that is not what happened on Sunday. They kicked Cleveland's ass from the word go. Final score was 41.17. Don't really feel like relitigating the whole game here.

But one thing you and I got really excited about, D'Andre Hopkins, he's been targeted four times so far this season. Four catches, 99 yards. two touchdowns, two of them being circus catches. Like, we're not asking for a heavy lift here. That's not what DeAndre Hopkins is here to do. But as the wide receiver three, as the fourth option in this offense, if he can do something sick once or twice a Sunday, it's very fun for us as fans.

And it could be very good for the Ravens offense. That was like always the whole sell is like if he's going to get some of what we're just like Nelson Agalore targets in previous versions of this offense, and he can just make one or two insane plays, whether it's down the field in the red zone, whatever it is. That is why you sign DeAndre Hopkins. And like, to me why I think this is beautiful

for a number of reasons. One, DeAndre Hopkins was stuck on a lot of really bad teams for a long time. He was stuck on multiple AFC South teams. Obviously last year he got to play with the Chiefs a little bit, but like I think he was a little bit banged up. He's a little bit closer to the end. And you come into that offense in the middle of the year.

Yeah, sort of limits things. And it was kind of a stinky offense. And it wasn't that. Also, you have no other. guys who can elevate you. That's the whole thing. Hopkins is, there's more here to work with than what the chiefs had as far as skill players go last year.

Yeah, the chiefs needed DeAndre Hopkins. The Ravens are just like, oh, that's a fun thing to add. And so I think there's this cool element of like DeAndre Hopkins, who is this just phenomenal player for like a decade, who is finally getting just the time to go be just a fun little side show character on like one of the coolest offenses in the league. I think that that's really compelling.

And then I think the other thing to me is like, we have now two years in a row, where obviously last year Derek Henry came into this offense and I think he had had one or two years with the Tennessee Titans where it was like he's just kind of running into brick walls and I don't know how much he's really gonna have left in the tank

and the fact that he gets then to go play with Lamar and really have like an offensive player of the year caliber season obviously Saquan Barclay does what he does and kind of takes that crown. But for Henry to kind of have this revival and then even though it's not obviously to the same level for Hopkins to be able to come to this offense and show a little bit more,

juice than he really has in a couple of years again. I just, there's something cool to me about Lamar Jackson being this just like very obvious elevator of other guys around him. Hopkins turned 33 this summer. He looks amazing. Hopefully this continues all year. You would imagine the end of his career is soon, whether it's in one, two, I don't know, maybe you can play three more years.

Even that kind of feels like a stretch to me, to be honest. So it's very cool to like to get it one more time, just like. Yeah, DeAndre Hopkins is that dude. And the play in the third quarter, I think, they wound up not calling it a touchdown. He was ruled down just short of the goal line. You know the play I'm talking about that. That should be a rule of cool.

Like, just give it to him. I just love, Lamar did his Lamar thing. Like, he dances around for a little while. And it reminded me of like Steph Curry or a really good three shooter in basketball where, I mean, there was a linebacker, like, closing down. But Lamar Jackson can run. and at least pick up a couple yards, even if it's not going to be explosive.

Like, he just had an easy play, and it's only second down. And it reminded me of, like, Steph just on a fast break, pulling up outside the three and just shooting it anyway, even though he has, like, an easy basket where you're like,

this is so low percentage. No, don't do this. Like, take the easy layup. Oh, wait, that was awesome. I'm so glad you did that. Yeah. That's right. Fun for everybody involved.

I really loved it. One more we want to get to, which it feels a lot. little bit hollow in light of how this game ended because the Arizona Cardinals wound up hanging on for dear life, which is a theme for them now. They are 2 and 0. It has been diceier than it should have been at the end of both games. Against Carolina in particular, they win this game 2722.

Couple things go the other way. They absolutely could have wound up losing to a Panthers team that they were annihilating for most of this game. early on though Kyler Murray reminded you why he can be so much fun to watch play football he's I mean he's just one of those guys when it looks good

like this is just what football is supposed to be like he's just an incredibly fun loose player and like he had a couple of really nice scrambles in this game but the big one to me where I was like this is just what it feels like to watch Kyler Murray at his best they were in I think like the middle maybe high red zone and they have this play where they have three receivers

set off to the left the number three guy, the inside receiver, runs more of like a bender over to the other side of the field. So it kind of pulls the safety, pulls the middle of the field. And Kyler immediately recognizes, okay, if they're doing that, the guy I have as my number two running the bender kind of towards the middle of the post, I'm just going to rip it immediately and put this thing on the back end of the end zone. And he fires an incredible ball to Michael Wilson.

And it's just this reminder of like when Kyler really is like locked in and focused on a given day, his arm talent is truly special. Like the way that he can just cock back and throw it, the way that he can layer certain balls, the way that he can just drive it in there when he needs to. Like he, on a good day, is phenomenal. And granted, I think it's pretty clear that you can still do that against this Panthers defense

for as much as they've pumped into it. But for him to at least give us that type of day in an afternoon slate that didn't have a whole lot of other games going on, I thought was a very nice reminder for us. I do love that we also got dumb bad Kyler. too, though. Yeah. Like the slipping, the slipping, stumbling, like, shot put interception, which we've talked about

this a lot, but if Kyler Murray is like the franchise quarterback Mendoza line, you know, of like the bar for like me, like, whether or not you want to have this guy be your franchise quarterback, I think people would associate that with steady mediocrity. Whereas Kyler just darts above and below the line like all day long where he'll do like. four things where you say to yourself, this guy's incredible. And then twice a game, you're like, how was that what you decided to do?

Kyler, please help me. Right. It's almost like for the normal, like it used to be the Dalton line. It's like, well, Dalton kind of is what he is for most games. And so if your quarterback generally is above that line, you're probably good. With the Kyler thing, it's more like how many games do you have above the line? And for Kyler, in, you know, in some seasons,

it's like 10 and he's phenomenal and plays like MVP. and sometimes it's like five and like that's kind of the thing and so usually but if you have these quarterbacks who 12 times a year they play above that line it's like a cooey then you're above whatever this Kyler Murray roller coaster version of the Dalton line is Arizona scored to make it 273

with nine minutes to play in the third and proceeded to hang on for dear life so Cardinals next challenge 2 and O very happy for you Cardinals next challenge with a road game against the 49ers can I get a game? 60 minutes of consistent good play or just maybe, if not that,

then just a better finishing effort, a better final 10 minutes of football from the Arizona Cardinals. We'll see what week three holds. One last thing we want to do before we get out of here. And we got plenty more games to cover. Like I said, we can't do it all in a recap show, but we've got the hangover show coming your way. We'll record that Monday.

We'll take your voicemails. Plenty more stuff to do. Let's wrap this up with what we learned for week two. I think I've learned something today. What do you think we learned in week one, in week two? Excuse me. We're already into week two, buddy. Week two of this NFL season.

I mean, I would say, for the most part, week one can be a mirage. And I think that applies to a number of reasons. Obviously, you know, you're already kind of joked about it. That's Steelers Jets game. How excited were we to talk about that game after it happened and be like, maybe this means something? So let's take people inside the production, because I, I came into the studio after you today and you had the remotes and you're like,

what should we watch? Where should things be placed? And I was like, I want Jets bills like in a big spot on a, like I want it in the prime spot with the least amount of competition. I wanted in the two box, not the four box, because I'm dialed in on Jets bills. And like 15 minutes later, I was like, I think we can switch this around. Like move the bills, Jets game somewhere else. Turn the volume off for that one.

Don't nearly need to be paying attention to that game. Yeah, that game very clear. quickly felt like, oh, that doesn't matter. And then you watch the Steelers do what they do. And you're like, I don't know if a whole lot of what they did in week one really matters. And so I think that was a big one. Obviously, you're going to have stuff on the other end, like the Colts offense. It's like, okay, maybe that is a little bit real.

But it's like you have some of those games where it's like you have jet steelers. It's like, we want to immediately make something out of it because it's week one, which is like, of course, this is just fun. And like, we want these solace to mean something. But you got to remember that sometimes it doesn't. And then on the other end, it's like the Lions offense, sometimes that is a Marage in the sense of like, we just didn't know the Packers' defense was like that. Like, you know, when they do it one game, it's like, okay, the Packers' defense looks awesome.

Are they going to do it again? They go out and play Washington on Thursday and just beat the bricks out of them. And it's like, oh, they're just that good. We gave the Packers their own show on Thursday, but it bears repeating briefly. Nobody's flying higher after two weeks than Green Bay Packers. And they got a long weekend to rest and recover, by the way. I think that's totally fair. And we didn't prep for this because it was.

the late game and we had a bunch of other stuff going on. But how does how do the Vikings feel right now where you're just like, ooh, okay, we played one good quarter of football, but the other seven look pretty rough right now, man. I mean, I haven't died. I need to go back and look at this game in more detail. But I saw enough to know that J.J. McCarthy didn't quite figure everything out in that fourth quarter at Soldier Field. The only thing, like obviously I watched some of the.

that game. I think it's just funny that the Vikings probably did feel okay, like, okay, he started to play better in the fourth quarter of last week. Like, maybe we can build on that a little bit. Then you take six sacks to the Falcons who are like notoriously, I've never had a pass-d-darsh. And I know they dumped some resources into it, two first-round picks, a number of, you know, second and third-day picks the last couple of years. But that is not the defense you want to be taking that many sacks against. A lot of Bears fans working here on our show in a Chicago studio, as you might guess. And it also leads to some very interesting questions about, well, if that's what the Vikings looked like right here,

what does that say about the bears? And if that's what the lions looked like in week one and then they did that to you this week, what does that say about the bears? Like it's just a whole lot of, what are the bears right now? Topics for another show, but it'll have to wait.

That'll do it for our week to recap. Like I said, we got so much more coming your way. We'll have another show Monday airing Tuesday. We will take your voicemails. We will dig into a few of the other games from Sunday that didn't quite make it into the recap. Plenty of other interesting stuff going on, by the way.

Like I do, like the Rams Titans come to mind. Mack Jones got a road win against the New Orleans Saints. So plenty of other stuff we want to cover and we'll do that later. But that's all we got for right now. Derek, thank you so much. Thank you all for listening. We'll talk to you next time.