The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 4 recap: Ravens upend Bills, Washington's surge continues, the Vikings keep rolling, and more

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Ravens-Bills wasn't quite the close contest we were hoping for, but it still gave us plenty to discuss about two teams that are likely among the best in the league. That's where Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen begin the Week 4 recap episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also discuss the surging Washington football team, the 4-0 Vikings, troubles for the Jets and Eagles, a silly little game between the Falcons and Saints, and a whole lot more.RundownRavens trounce BillsWashington Football Team...You Have My Attention4-0 Vikings...You Still Have My AttentionEagles...WTF?!?Jets offense...WTF?!?Falcons, Saints and the NFC South...WTF?!?Chiefs and Texans...you guys are almost hereDid You See That? Jaylon JohnsonDid You See That? Darnell Washington hurdle + Steelers-Colts wrapDid You See That? Ja'Marr Chase's ridiculous catch-and-runWhat We Learned TodayHost: 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 Show. Brought to you by Thursday Night Football only on Prime Video. I'm Robert Mays, a fantastic week four in the NFL today, and we broke it all down with my buddy Derek Classen. A pretty notable Sunday night game and a fantastic performance from the Baltimore Ravens. We kicked it off with that and just what the Ravens looked like when they were playing the game on their terms, able to dictate things, and they looked like the powerhouse that they were for much of last season.

Another fantastic game from Jaden Daniels in Washington had to hit. all of that. The Vikings are 4-0. The Vikings are the only 4-0 team in the NFC at this point. So chatted about what they did against the Packers today. Talked about a pretty bizarre performance from the New York Jets offense against the Broncos. Eagles let down against the bucks on both sides of the ball. And then a little chatter about the bears today. The Steelers lost and what to make of that. Monster Jamarck Chase play. And then we chatted a little bit about the chiefs and the Texans and just the ways that they're frustrating us. So let's get to all of that and a little bit more with Derek and our week for recap. Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays joining me tonight.

It's my buddy Derek, Class. And Derek, how you doing, man? I'm doing fantastic. That was, this slate of games kind of snuck up on me because I felt like the first, through about the first half, maybe three quarters of the morning slate. I was like, man, a lot of these games are just ugly or kind of blowouts. And then by the end of the slate, it was like, wait, every game is by three points and it's all coming down to the wire. It was an interesting weekend.

It was so true. I was trying to keep track of everything, and I was like, wait a second. The Colts Steelers game is now like a touchdown game and the Packers Vikings game is now a touchdown game. The real estate that I was allotting on my television was incorrect at a certain point of the early game. So I felt myself scrambling. But that's when you know that you're having a good day. That's when you know there's a lot of interesting stuff going on. Yeah, it should be. It should be a fun league. When you're having to bounce between, you know, the three or four screens that you set up and you're having to switch between games because you realize one is the one score now and the other one's not and it's it that's how it should be man let's kick off this show with what we just watched on sunday night and that is a raven's drubbing of the buffalo bills bills win or ravens in this game

35 to 10 they outgain the bills by almost 200 yards josh allen finishes with a 20.6% excuse me the bills this might include some Mitchell tribisky snaps 20.6% passing success rate for the buffalo bills tonight in this game against the ravens so the ravens i think answered some questions we had about them. at this stage. What was the past defense going to look like against a Bill's defense that was rolling, where they going to be able to find themselves a little bit on offense? This felt like an expression of who this Ravens team can be at its best. I mean, I think for the first three weeks of the season, you kept saying last year it felt like the Ravens defense had an extra guy on the field. And for the

first three weeks of the season, it just didn't feel like that. But today, it finally did. Like a lot of their sim pressures were getting home. A lot of their actual pressures were getting home. Their DBs were playing at a really high level. I mean, you saw Kyle Hamilton. Kyle Hamilton has been solid for a lot of the year, but this was the first game. It felt like, oh shit, Kyle Hamilton is everywhere on the field. And that's exactly what you want. We said it during the preview show.

We need the Stars to start playing a little bit more like Stars. And I think tonight, on top of some other stuff, the play calling looking a little bit better, you really started to see that. The bill's past protection for most of the season had been excellent. Their offensive line was playing at a really high level. And they struggled today in a way that they usually haven't. You mentioned the Ravens getting home when they were blitzing, 75% pressure rate when they blitzed in this game.

And it felt like that. And we didn't know who was coming from what direction, all of that kind of stuff. And it felt like the bills were kind of spinning. My main takeaway from this, though, and we talked about this a little bit on the preview show, what was this game going to look like if the Ravens could play it on their terms? Because the bills had been front running the entire season. They're getting up by a couple scores. And this defense is a little bit undersized.

You know, they want to live in nickel. They don't want you to get into heavy personnel and try to push them around because they're either playing from behind or the game script keeps it close the entire time. We saw that game tonight. The Ravens played this game offensively. From the first play, the Ravens played this game on their terms. And I think that that really showed us what some of the weaknesses and personnel issues on this Bill's defense exists that maybe we didn't see over the first three weeks. Yeah, I think it's kind of both, right?

Like this Ravens team, this is the exact game we wanted to see from them. We came in, it felt like for the first three weeks of the season, the Ravens had. had ran the ball well at points. But this was really the first time where it felt like from the first snap to the last snap, they were just running all over people. And they kind of did it last week against Dallas, but it was like, all right, Dallas is maybe the worst run defense in the league right now. So not that Buffalo has been that great, but it was still something like, all right, do it

against somebody else. And they did it against somebody else. I mean, that first play, they basically, they have a card like on the wing and they use him to trap the defensive tackle and it just springs Henry into a defensive back. and the guy doesn't end up hitting Henry in space, and he's just gone. And they did stuff like that all game. I thought it was a really impressive showing. So because they were able to run the ball, they were able to stay out of those, you know,

third and sevens that this offensive line doesn't really want to be in. This receiving core doesn't really want to be in. Like you said, they were able to play their game. It was pretty perfect. The Ravens ran 24 plays. I got these stats with like eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, just for context, when the game was very well in hand and we could get a sense of how it actually went. With 830 left in the fourth quarter, the Ravens said,

run 24 plays out of two back sets. 16 of them were successful. So they had like a 67% success rate when they were lining up with heavy bodies on the field. And then the bills had to match with base a little bit more often than I think they wanted to. They struggled when they were doing that. And then when they were putting nickel on the field, Buffalo, they were just getting run on consistently. They allowed six yards per carry in nickel sets. Even if you remove that 87-yard run from Henry, it was 20 for 119 yards.

If you keep that run in, it was 20. for $206 for the Ravens. So no matter how you slice this, again, the Ravens were just consistently playing this game on their own terms. Even that play, the touchdown of Justice Hill, it's like, oh, yeah, like Dory Williams is a backup. Like, we have backup players on the second level and in the spine of this defense for Buffalo. We just hadn't noticed it quite yet, but the Ravens are a good enough team to expose a

lot of that. Yeah, they're a strong enough team. They're a physical enough team. You have two of the most unique runners in the NFL in guys like Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry. It's just so funny getting to watch those two in space because they're the two most just when they're striding out, it just looks different than everybody else and it's really cool to watch. But no, you bring up a great point about we hadn't for the first few weeks felt like this Buffalo Bill's defense was really tested and pushed all that much for having a lot of their guys out.

This game, it really felt that way. I mean, having to tackle Derek Henry 20 some odd times over the course of the game while also having to go catch Derek Henry, also being outmanned in terms of, like you said, the Ravens were bringing a ton of bigger bodies into the box and really making them come up and hit. And when you're down to your third and fourth linebackers, you're down to your nickel who, you know, Taryn Johnson is one of the best run defending nickels in the league. And I know Cam Lewis has done a respectable job, but it's different when you have to go against the Ravens playing the way that they did tonight. So I think this was kind of the game that you were worried about for the bills. And we said coming in that run defense was

probably going to be their biggest issue, right? And it absolutely was tonight. We also talked about how the bills this season had just been slicing up man coverage when teams were playing it against them. Tonight, Josh Allen, four of 10 for 32 yards when the Ravens played man, 40% of his throws were into tight windows according to next gen stats. So that success that the bills had been having when teams were lining up and playing man against them. That did not translate to tonight against Baltimore.

And that's good for Baltimore because I think they've wanted to play a little bit more of it. They've wanted to be a little bit more up in people's faces after the first couple games where I think that they were a little bit frustrated by the air and the coverage. And the fact that they could do this to a team that had been really successful against those looks through three weeks. I think that says a lot about maybe the arrow, the direction the arrow was pointed with this Ravens defense. And I mean, to me, generally, too, playing a ton of man coverage and wanting to play a little bit more of it, that is just generally a style that can be volatile, especially when you have a guy like Marlon Humphrey who can be volatile on his own.

You have a rookie and Nate Wiggins who is out there. Brandon Stevens is a nice number two corner, but it's not like he's a superstar. So, like, when you have these games where everyone does get a little bit more comfortable and we're a month into the season now, the pressure is actually getting home. That's kind of another thing, too. When you know the pressure is getting home, it's a little bit easier to play your coverage a little bit differently and, like, have a lot more confidence that you're going to be able to get away with some stuff.

So it was really a great team performance from this Ravens defense. That's a great way to put it. I think it was a good team performance overall. I mean, it just really felt like the first time that this Ravens team was a wagon. And last year, it felt like that seemingly every single week. and so it was nice to see that version of this Baltimore team. The last thing I wanted to mention, we've talked a lot about this with how do the pieces fit together in the passing game?

Like, which roles are guys supposed to play? And I think that he's probably the most talented receiver, so I'm not sure if this is the role he should play. But did you notice how successful they were when they were using Zay Flowers as like a coverage lifter in this game as like a vertical presence to create space for everybody else? I think that actually is probably the best role. Like Bateman running that corner out as Zayfielder. Zay takes it off, that makes more sense than the other way around.

And even the Isaiah likely corner route, it was the same kind of deal. So I think that they're starting to get a better sense of like, okay, this is who we should use in this role in order to get the most out of our passing game. If they have to drop back and it's third and seven a bunch, I think that this, there, you have fewer answers just because that's not how you want to live if you're the Ravens. But with this game and this game script, I thought they had really settled into how we should deploy each of these guys to get the most out of how we want to throw the ball. Yeah, the construction of the offense looks different a little bit than Detroit, right?

But his flowers as usage should be kind of similar to what they're doing with Jameson Williams. Or it's like, all right, you're our clear-out guy. You're kind of our gadget across the formation guy every now and then if we need you. And we are hoping that maybe once a game that we can hit you on a deep shot. Obviously, Lamar Jackson has never really been that kind of guy the way that Detroit is trying to be this year. But I think that's generally the way to use them, especially when all these other guys, I mean, he's good with the ball in his hands too. but all the other receivers they have are really good with the ball in their hands, whether it's their backs, whether it's Andrews, whether it's likely. So, like, I think using him as just a way to

facilitate and, like, get a bunch of space for the other guys, especially when Lamar Jackson, if you open up the space is going to go find it with the way that he scrambles and just moves around in the pocket, I think it's probably the best way to deploy flowers. Yeah, I'm with you on that. So we'll see where this goes from here, but a very promising night from the Ravens overall. All right, let's get to you at my attention. Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention. Each week, we like to kind of pick out a couple of performances, a couple of games that really grabbed us over the course of the day.

Like we mentioned, there was so much stuff coming at you, especially in that early slate today. Which of those performances and which of those moments really stood out? And we're going to start with the Washington football team, absolutely handing it to the Arizona Cardinals. I mean, they are rolling right now. And I think that we have to start here. like Washington, Jade and Daniels, everything happening right there, you have my attention. Both sides of the ball. Like that was kind of the biggest surprise to me is like I, after how the Washington offense has

played the past three weeks and then going up against a pretty bad Cardinals defense, I was like, all right, they'll probably put up points. It's a matter of can the Washington defense step up and actually play football against what has been at times a pretty interesting and pretty good Cardinals offense? And they did. I thought they did a really good job. Their front played out of their minds. secondary, while still not great, they gave up a few, but they played well enough that it really

let the front take over this game. And they contained Kyler Murray very, very well, pretty much outside of that first, you know, they got them on the opening script. And then Marvin Harrison made an incredible catch in the end of it. But like, other than that, they did a really good job of keeping Kyler in the pocket, shutting down the Cardinals run games specifically, like on their pulling stuff. You know, the Cardinals has kind of been the name of their game in the run game is that they've wanted to pull guys to the perimeter. They do that center playside guard thing all the time. And the commanders were like, no, man, we're just going to come hit your guy in the face. And you're just, we're going to squeeze the air out of this thing.

And we're not going to give it to you. So I thought defensively, them actually having an encouraging performance on that side of the ball on top of continued success from the offense. It's pretty exciting over there. That was the blueprint, though, right? Coming into the season, if you were looking at the way that the Washington's defense, the Washington, I'm really trying to dance around this right now. If they're going to be good, this is going to be even harder for me not to mention the name. But over the last couple years, it's been very easy. But if we're talking about Washington's defense and how it's constructed, obviously you look

at the amount of resources they pumped into that front, that was the hope, is that even if you had questions on the back end, could your front four and kind of front seven, depending on how you want to designate Louvo? Like, he's kind of a member of the front for in certain times. But the guys playing out front, could they carry some of the bigger question marks that you had in other places? And I think today was one of those examples of like, oh, shit. Like, they still got a lot of really good guys.

over there. And now Johnny Newton's back. He's in his second game. He was playing on the other side of the line of scrimmage a couple different times. I mean, Louvo had that play where he just completely blew it up in the backfield. And if you're going to have that, if you're going to have consistent mismatches with your front against opposing offensive lines and your offense is going to play this way, then you can survive with a couple questions on the back end. Even though I will say, I thought Noah Igbenogamy had some really nice moments in this game. He did. My draft stock on him is finally hitting. I thought he was a decent play. And now he's bounced around and has be able to figure it out, but I was like, oh, aggressive corner. That's the guy I like.

Took him, you know, four or five years to figure it out. But hey, man, he did have himself a pretty good game. Let's talk about Washington's offense here. We discussed Jaden Daniels in earnest earlier this week, just doing a deep dive on some of the things that he had done. What stood out to you today that maybe was a little bit different, maybe a little bit surprising, even compared to what we had seen from him over the first three weeks. Yeah, so we obviously did that deep quarterback spotlight on the preview show. And we talked about Daniels and we were mostly pretty effusive in our praise. But I said the two things I really wanted to see more from him moving forward and not even necessarily this week, even though we got it, was a little bit more

throwing over the middle of the field, especially into some tighter windows, and then being able to replace the blitz instead of just kind of automatically going into just run mode. So I actually thought on the second drive, Arizona ran like a man coverage, five-man pressure. Jane Daniels actually did a really good job of throwing like the bullet slant to his number one receiver to replace that. I was like, okay, there we go. That is more of the play I wanted to see. and then he did have a couple of really nice throws over the middle of the field. He had the touchdown to Terry McLaren that he threw on like kind of a dig route on the backline. He throws it maybe like a half beat late, but McLaren is so wide open that it doesn't matter.

And he just does a really good job of progressing to that route and throwing it. And so I just thought Jaden Daniels, the two things like I said, Blitz replacement, throw a little bit more over the middle of the field. He did it, man. I mean, like he's just going to keep checking these boxes. Yeah, I mean, he's going to make, I think that we've underrated, and we talked about this a little bit earlier in the week, but just how well this is set up right now and just what the construction of the offense looks like in Washington. And I want to spend some time talking about that because we're going to discuss what Jaden Daniels looks like and that's totally fair. He's setting records, right? I mean, he's 82% completion through the first

four games. It's an NFL record for any player, right? And especially for the first four games of your career. He's first in total EPA, first in EPA per play, second an EPA per dropback. I went back and looked at it. He has the best EPA per dropback over a, player's first four starts for any rookie since 2000 over the past 25 years. That list is, there's some intrigue there. Daniel Jones is third, RG3 is fourth, Marcus Mariotta is seventh. You forget some of these stretches early in guys' career. I do believe that this is real, but that's just a little bit of context worth remembering.

But we're going to talk so much about him that I think we're going to underrate how well constructed the offense is right now. And the thing that I keep coming back to is we were aware. worried about this offensive line and what they would look like coming into the year. They've done such a thoughtful job in how they're helping those guys in protection. I think Brandon Coleman actually looks really good. I'm very excited about what he's eventually going to become. But if you look at the way this thing is built, there was a completion to Ertz late in the

second quarter where McCorn chips and releases super late over the middle of the field. He pulls down the linebackers and then Ertz just wraps right behind it. And so you get a little bit of help and just the timing of it and the spacing of it is perfect. And it's such a small thing. But I think we're seeing that over and over and over again, where they're really helping guys out in protection. They're getting guys out late that are the chippers. So that's just getting somebody into the flat.

We see Detroit do that all the time. It's just one of those offenses where I didn't think I'd be comparing them to the lions in terms of like how sound it is and how many options they're giving their quarterback. But that's what they're doing. And then you combine that with the fact that this team leads the league in EPA per rush. Like they are the best running team in the league by certain metrics. and I just did not expect that coming into the years.

So Jane Daniels has been fantastic, but I also think it's worth acknowledging that what Cliff Kingsbury and the rest of this group has done is way, way better than most of us ever could have anticipated. That's the part that's more surprising to me. Daniels, there were some stuff. It was very clear he was good at coming out of college, obviously an older guy,

so he's probably going to be a little bit more pro-ready. The Cliff Kingsbury aspect of all this and the offensive line aspect of all this, that's what is most surprising to me. I thought the run game would be better. it almost had to be. They were one of the worst in the league last year. They didn't have a quarterback who could run all that much. Cliffs run games in Arizona were typically pretty good. So that part I was like, okay, they'll be better. Did not think they'd be best in the league. So that part is a little bit surprising. They've been really, really cool to watch. The passing game is what I've been more surprised by. They've given Daniels a lot of really good and easy answers. Like on their first third down, the Cardinals are running a little bit of man coverage. And the Washington to the right side have two receivers. is kind of in a close split. One of them runs a corner route.

One of them runs like a little speed out, kind of a flat. And just the way that the stemming works out, the corner route guy ends up just rubbing the corner off, the other corner off, and then he gets to go run into the flat for free. And it's just like an easy answer for Daniels. Go get the first down. We can move on.

And then I also thought in this game, the Cardinals are a team that want to play a lot of two high or even three high. They've done a lot of this three safety stuff. And if you're going to do that, what is the best answer for that? All right, let's go like three by one. And then we're going to either pull into that side or just throw a bunch of screens into that side. We're going to flood that side.

And so they just started if the defense, you know, if the Cardinals defense is going to try to play this, you know, quote, even defense where you're in two high shells. Okay, then we're just going to overload one side and run everything over there. And they did a really good job of just spamming stuff like that. Yeah. Again, I've just been very impressed by the approach and the construction. And then Daniels has his like four or five moments a game right now. I mean, the Cincinnati game, there was that throw where he progresses all the way to the other side. to McCaffrey.

And then in this game, there were two that stuck out to me. One, just like very simple, but I think it was in the first quarter, he throws an out route to McCorren perfectly on time with anticipation, like right as he's on that drop-aid concept. Yeah. And it was just like, okay, I got it like that. And that's just, it's a small thing. But it's like it's a rookie quarterback seeing things very quickly playing on time,

ripping that ball. And then the other throw he had to McCaffrey today, that to me is the most impressive throw he's made over the first month of the season. when he has to drift back in the pocket a little bit, and he has to throw that ball sidearm and change the arm ankle on that crosser to McCaffrey. So if you're going to be making these plays on time, if you're going to be making plays with your legs, and you're going to be showing those little flashes of creativity,

again, like you mentioned, he's just checking every single box that you want him to, and when you're doing that and playing that way in a well-constructed offense that's giving you a chance, that's the result that you're seeing right now. Yeah, and I think I really want to see what it's going to look like when a defense starts to throw a little bit more of like curveballs at him, I would almost like to see teams kind of get a little bit more heavy in the box and like really just like throw a bunch of pressure at him and see what happens. You might have a game where he puts up 40 anyway and it doesn't really matter what you do against him. So I don't know. But I do at least want to see it because that's at

this point just seems like the next, you know, box to check, but he keeps doing it anyway. So there's no reason at this point to see why he wouldn't. That is the one thing that I'm going to say. if we're trying to throw like a tiny bit of cold water onto this. As of today, okay, as of right now, three of the four teams that they have played this year ranked 28th or lower in defensive success rate. The Bucks are 28th, the Bengals are 29th, and the Cardinals are dead last.

So those are three of the four defenses that they played. The best defense they played this season was the New York Giants. In this game, similar to last week, no pressure on 25 of Jane Daniels' first 30 attempts in this game. And some of that is what they're doing with helping out those tackles and just some of the overall plan protection-wise. But they are playing right now objectively bad defenses. There's no reason not to be excited about this. But as we move forward, just keep that in mind about what this has looked like and who they've done it against.

Yeah. I mean, lucky for them in the division. I don't know if there's that many strong defenses for them to, I mean, they might just keep doing this at least for, you know, four or five more games this year. And I honestly think that's a good place to put a bow on this. Right now, they look like the best. team in the NFC East. There's no reason why they can't be this year's Texans, where it's a division that overall is not that strong. There aren't that. It's not another team where it's just like, oh yeah, that's a real contender. We're worried about that team. We think about how uneven Dallas and

Philadelphia have looked. There's no reason why they can't be this year's Houston. I think right now, they look like the best team, and I don't think it's controversial to say that. And it kind of sounds crazy because of how hyped we've all been about Houston, especially coming into the season. But we have to remember, like, that division and Houston winning that division came down to week 18 and a game, they almost lost. So, like, even if that's the outcome where you just kind of barely squeaked by in this division, for being where you're at with like a new regime, rookie rookie quarterback, all that stuff, that's still a really good outcome, even though, even if they're like not what we thought Houston was going to be coming into this season and stuff. Let's talk about another

surprising division leader right now. The Minnesota Vikings are now four and O after beating the Packers. They looked like they were on their way to another monster blowout before the Packers did cosmetic work to keep this somewhat close in the second half. But the Minnesota Vikings, the undefeated Minnesota Vikings, you certainly have my attention right now. Dude, this game, Darnold. It was a crazy game from style. Like it literally the first half in the second half, it almost, we should like talk about them as two different games. I'll start with the Vikings offense though. Sam Darnold. And this is what continues to fascinate me about the Darnold experience and what Kevin O'Connell has done with the.

his offense. Donald's first eight completions were all to different players. All eight of them. He was like he started the game eight of nine and I think his only incompletion over that stretch was like he tried to scramble and force a ball to Justin Jefferson, which like, yeah, he probably should do that every now and then and it's okay that that's your one incompletion. But the fact that he was able to spread the ball out so consistently and Kevin O'Connell was able to consistently set him up for those spots. A couple of them were screens and they've done a really great job of actually just timing up their screens and blocking those this year. So Aaron Jones is just such a fun screen player.

Anytime you can get him out in space, it's just like the perfect use of him. And I just love the fact that they've leaned into that as part of the offense. And that's what Ty Chandler was supposed to be. Even last year, a little bit, that's where they wanted him to be. And I think he's even been a little bit better in that role this year. So that is just the part of this that I continue to be impressed by. It's not like they're just feeding Jefferson. It's not like it's only the run game.

And it's not like Darnold is, you know, you're just getting lucky that maybe he's having a handful of his amazing throws every week. and that's all you're getting by. And it's like, no, they are running a real put-together offense. They're giving him answers. And it doesn't feel like Darnold has to give you those special plays. Every now and then, he'll give you one or two. But it just doesn't feel like he has to.

And that's the part of this that makes me feel like it's real. That's what I love this, though, because I think that the best part about the offense and the most encouraging part of the offense is it's a little bit of everything. Like, Darnold's athleticism and his playmaking does show up. It shows up often enough for you to remember how valuable it is. There's a third one in the first quarter when they're up by a touchdown where he makes a guy miss in the pocket and he scrambles and gets the first down. It's like, oh, yeah, he's a pretty good athlete.

So you have that element of it. Like you mentioned, they're spreading the ball around early in the game. That big scissors route to Jalen Naylor for a huge gain on the first draft. There's a double move to Jordan Addison. You're like, oh, man, I forget they have some pieces on this offense. And when it's well constructed and you've got three, four pass catchers that you feel good about, this is what it feels like. And then there was a run for Aaron Jones. I think it was on the first or second drive.

where Josh Oliver just handles Rishan Gary one-on-one on the right side. And then the guard and the tackle to that side just cave in that side of the defensive line on a double team. And Aaron Jones gains like 15 yards. So it's like, all right, we're scheming up double moves in the passing game. We still have arguably the best receiver in the world. Our running game is playing on our terms, which is one of the things that the Vikings have struggled with over the last couple years. And in the right moments, our quarterback is able to sprinkle a little bit of sauce onto this thing and what his skill set is does elevate us even if he's not being asked to do

that all the time. That feels like a pretty good recipe to me, man. That feels like something I can get behind as we move forward. It feels like a great recipe. The one thing I will say, I kind of want to see them do it in the second half. Granted, in a lot of these games, they haven't really needed to, which is the luxury of putting yourself in like these 21, 28 point leads. But it does seem like Darnold gets a little bit more into his, I'm going to see what happens on this throw type of mode. I mean, the pick he threw in this game where he's trying to throw like a late corner to Aaron Jones and Xavier McKinney just drives on it. It's like Sam, you know that throw is not there. I got it. That's a really nice play by Xavier McKinney, though. It is a great play. He doesn't

necessarily think that Xavier McKinney is going to be there when he makes that play. Xavier McKinney has just been a menace for the first month of this season. That's true. But yeah, that's true. I will say maybe Sammy was just like, maybe I have a lead. Maybe I should test and see what I can get away with. And he learned today that you can't test Xavier McKinney like that. What do you make of the way that the Packers offense played in this game, especially early on in the first half when things were actually close and when, you know, you're not up four touchdowns and playing the game that way?

So I thought early in the game, you could tell that Love couldn't really, like he was not fully comfortable coming off of his knee. Like it didn't seem like he was fully comfortable driving into some of these throw. And then you mix that on top of the fact that obviously Brian Flores was doing what he was doing and throwing a bunch of pressures and stuff at him. And Love was willing to hang in there and willing to make some of those throws. But the problem is just that the nature of some of those blitzes and the timing of when you're getting hit on some of these throws, it's just going to invite a little bit of variance. And both of his picks kind of ended up being just these weird plays that wouldn't necessarily get picked off all the time.

He tried to throw one into tight coverage to, I think Christian Watson and I think it was Cashman makes an insane catch. like while he's hitting Christian Watson. And like that ball probably doesn't get caught a lot of times. It was Grusier Hill. I think it was the way he made the pick. And honestly, that's one of those plays. Overall,

I actually don't feel that bad about the way the Packers played on offense. No, that's what I'm saying. And that pick that Grugier Hill makes. So if you watch the dots on that, I think it's Musgrave is running a clear out up the middle of the field. And so in Love's mind, that end breaker to Watson is open because

the post like the Tampa player like that Grusier Hill is he's cleared out so he's able to throw it underneath him and Grusier Hill just does a fantastic job coming off of that and coming back to pick the ball off so even in the moment I was just like that's just a good play man like I completely understand why you let that ball go and then the second interception he's trying to throw the high and the high low and I think it's musgrave again is sitting underneath it tips the ball and so it gets tipped again and intercepted so both of those plays even though the first one is in a tipped ball, it's a clean pick. It was still a throw where I was just like, I understand you doing that. That's just a really good play by the defender. And the Vikings are doing a lot of that right now. Right. And what did we say about this defense? You have to be willing to make some of those aggressive throws in these windows, in these pockets. But sometimes even if you do, like, shit is just going to happen. And the Vikings got pretty fortunate. That's some stuff happened. And even on that first interception, too, you'll see a lot of times defenses, and even Brian Flores, you'll see if

they're going to put their linebackers on the line of scrimmage, they'll put them in both. of the A gaps. I think on that first interception, they put him in the right A gap and the right B gap, which typically that's not where you put your two mug look linebackers. So even that was just like a weird little thing that they threw in there to mix up Jordan Love. So I just thought Love did all the aggressive stuff and it just didn't work out at all the first half. And then it finally kind of kicked in in the second half. Just a little too late. It's just so fun to watch these plants come together from Minnesota. The Pat Jones sack in the first half comes to mind where they're running like a six-man pressure.

And the Packers actually have it blocked up. I think it was, I can't remember which of the backs it was, but the back was in protection and they actually had it blocked up. But the back failed to pick up the twist between Pat Jones and somebody else. And so Pat Jones comes free a little bit later in the doubt. Love has time initially. And as he's progressing, just as he's about to come to the backside where Dobbs is going to come open, that's when the twist gets home.

And it's just like, yeah, like that's the nature of Russia. coverage. It's like, you can't get all the way back there, then the fact that the guy is open doesn't end up matter. And that's the beauty of watching the Vikings right now is even when there are weak points, quote unquote, or vulnerabilities built into the way that they're playing on the back end because of how aggressive they are, they're getting home in time for it not to matter. And so it all working in concert is just very beautiful. And I think we see that a lot with the Vikings defense right now. That is such a great way to put it. Is that like, yes, there are voids in these zones and stuff that they're sending behind these pressures. but the way that they're sending them and the timing of when they're getting home, your chances are probably just never getting back to what those answers are. And again, Love was aggressive enough to hit the downfield ones, but by the time he was finally hitting those, he was down 21 points on the scoreboard, and it just didn't matter. And the Vikings had enough room to breathe.

Even that play, if they don't do the twist as part of the six-man pressure, it probably doesn't get home. And so just all the way is that they're making this defense feel more dynamic and making offenses uneasy because of all the things and all the moving parts that they have to worry about, that's why watching this team is really fun. So, I mean, we've talked about this a little bit and just about how we're feeling about the Vikings and how real this feels. I don't really know what else to say about it. Like, it does feel very real.

And maybe we'll get to a point in the season where we have some moments where Darnold tries to do a little bit too much. And we start to get worried about what that element might be like when we're in high leverage situations. We're getting toward the playoffs, all that. but for now, I just have no reason to think that this isn't a scary team that can really play with anybody in the NFC. I think Sammy will have a few of those games, but I think over the course of the season, if the run game is going to continue to look this good, Kevin O'Connell's obviously not going anywhere, and I trust that he will be good for 14 more weeks or whatever it is. And if Justin Jefferson's still healthy, you have all this stuff that is going to stabilize whatever is wrong in Sam Donald's brain every now and then,

where if it's only a few games a year that you get beat, I mean, most quarterbacks are going to have a few games a year where they just get beat and don't have their days. So I'm not that worried over the long term. I will say on the other side, I ended up by the end of the game feeling okay about the Packers offense. I actually thought they had some really good answers in the second half. The way the Love was playing was pretty impressive.

Matt Lafleur did a really good job of changing what they were doing in the run game. They turned to a lot more RPOs and like stressing the perimeter, which I thought was really good. So by the end of it, I came out feeling pretty good about them. They just, when you start in a 28-point hole, it's pretty hard to go win the game. On the other side, I feel worse about where the Packers' defense is

than I did coming into this game. You can tell they missed Jerry Alexander. I mean, that was the double move to Addison for the touchdown early on. They're just picking on Ballantyne to that side. But I just think that there are a lot of personnel concerns where like the number two and number three corners you don't feel that great about, the linebackers you don't feel that great about. And the pass rush is not dictating games,

the way I thought it would need to for this to be a good or above average defense. So I'm still a little bit worried about what that's going to look like if that front four isn't going to control the game and they are not right now. I think that's totally fair. We kind of talked about it in the preview show. This is a unit that's, you know, pressure-wise, slightly above average, but they need to be closer to top eight, top seven to actually be able to dictate games, especially if you're going to be missing your best and only obviously good cornerback.

Yeah. Yeah, and I wasn't sure what we would get from Stokes, and it has been uneven to say the least. And so when you remove Alexander from the equation, I think you see some of the results you did today when the Vikings were dropping back to throw the ball. All right, we're going to take our first quick break here, and then we're going to get back for what the fuck. What the fuck? We talked about this in the previous show a little bit about what these Philadelphia Eagles

might look like against their boogeyman Todd Bowles, and whether or not we would see a little bit of a bounce back from J-1-Hertz, this offense, and the Eagles overall. The answer is that we didn't. They got handled on both sides of the ball. 33 to 16, the Bucks take care of business against the Eagles. Eagles, what the fuck? This team just continues to have your number, and I just don't know what the solutions are right now.

We can start on that side of the ball, because that's kind of what we wanted to talk about coming in. They did not have any answers for what Todd Bulls wanted to do on Blitzing, and they never have, and I don't think coming into this week, we really expected them to. Even on the first try, they get... Unblocked pressures for the box today. Six.

Like that is... That is unacceptable on any level, but it's especially frustrating and concerning when the whole talk of the off season is like, yep, we're changing up, you know, like obviously you're losing Jason Kelsey in the middle. And so it's like, all right, we're changing up how we do this.

And then you go face the one test that you've had problems even with Kelsey in the lineup. And it somehow looks just as bad or even worse. And so, I mean, even on that first third and 10 they ran, Hertz ends up being like hot immediately and just sprints out right and then ends up just not being able to convert. So I mean, just certain stuff like that.

They just never really found like they had an answer. I will say it was unfortunate. Dallas Gardert has typically been one of their best players and he really needed to be really, really good in this game, obviously with their two top receivers out. He dropped a delicious corner route that Jalen Hertz through early in the game. and then a couple of plays later Vita Vaya wins beats McCaibecton for a sack. So like just stuff like that, they kind of got unlucky early on and then just never were able to find their groove as on the other side, the Bucks just continued to run up the

score. Bucks finished fourth this week and offensive success rate among the teams that have already played. And it felt that way when you watch what they were doing to this defense. I mean, all over the place, guys just running wide open. Philadelphia right now currently 26 in EPA per play on the season, 23rd, a defensive a success rate. Today, it just felt like, especially early on in the game, the Bucks saw something with, if we use certain types of motion, whether it's changing number counts before the snap,

whether it's changing leverages, we can pick on them. And that was obvious from the jump. And Baker finished 19 of 26 for 204 on dropbacks with motion. He had a 63% success rate on those place. It felt like every time I was looking over at my screen for that game, Baker was hitting somebody on a crosser or a sail route. I mean, especially in the first half. It seemed like, and like you said, a lot of them were off motion, just getting guys to get a little bit of running start. And, you know, I think we kind of came into the season a little bit questionable of where the Eagles were going to be in coverage, especially over the middle of the field. I think this was a big game that answered, okay, it is still very much a problem for them. And so you had all of that

stuff where on, like I said, crosses and sails, it seemed like they had guys open. And then where I really thought the Eagles were going to have no shot in this game, Baker, his, I think it was his second touchdown throws an absolute missile strike down the post. And I was like, dude, laser beam. It was one of the best throws of the day, like that he is throwing that through a donut hole. And he just pins it right on his guy. And I was like, all right, man, if Baker is making those throws on top of some of the stuff, they're scheming up, they're even getting Rashad White out on the perimeter in the run game, I was like, all right, man, they're going to keep putting up points. And they did for the rest of the day. I thought Baker was awesome in this game. He was great. The throw to

the Palmer that you're talking about, I mean, it's a, I think it's a three by one with Palmer on the backside. And so he's just running the in-breaker over there, like just a little bender. And the linebacker is actually in the passing lane. And Baker puts like the perfect amount of touchover. I think it was Nacobo Dean, where he just layers it right over the linebacker, but with, he puts it on enough of a line to get it there. And it was just a beautiful throw. And then, I mean, you talk about three or four others. He had, he had, one to Godwin, where Godwin was number two on the left side. That was like a beautiful throw into traffic.

And then he had a sidearm throw with like 10-22 in the third quarter on third and 11. That was a beautiful play. He had a third down scramble for a first down. He's playing some good ball right now. And I actually think it's all, you never know over the, okay, we're four games in. What are these teams? Because it pings pong so much from week to week. So we watch the buck struggle really badly against the Broncos last week.

And it's like, oh, man, I guess the buck's off. offense isn't quite what we thought it was based on some of the performances we've seen. And then you realize that the Broncos defense might just be good. So this is one of those moments where you take a step back and kind of take a breath. It's like, I think the Bucks offense is going to be good this year. Like it's well designed. They have good players and Baker's playing some good ball. So my excitement and enthusiasm for this group, I think I'm willing to turn it back up again

after we've learned a little bit more about what that Broncos defense might be. I am in on this Tampa Bay Bucks offense. Baker is playing really the best ball that he's probably ever played. I mean, he's just playing with a level of confidence. I think it's undeniable. Yeah, and some of the throws that he's made, like just him being willing to make that throw to Palmer, I think three years ago we wouldn't have even gotten that from Baker.

And just the fact that he's willing to make that throw, I think is super sick. He just looks a lot more in control when he's scrambling now, which was, again, three years ago, not the case for a guy like him. So I think that's been really, really nice to see. Obviously, their past catchers are all. super talented. They've gotten a little bit more out of the run game than they did last year, which has been nice. And this today was probably their best day. I think there's going to be games over the course of this year where the offensive line still gets got. You might have one or two

games from Baker where he just, you know, he's a nice quarterback right now, but he's not one of those elite guys you can trust to win every single week. But over the course of the season, I kind of like what this Bucks team is going to be like. If they finish, I don't know, you know, certainly in the top half of the league, I don't think that's going to be any sort of surprise at all. They've been playing really well. Yeah, I 100% agree. And we would talk about this coming into it. It's like the ways that they would potentially use the receivers and how they would deploy a guy like Mike Evans, right? And two examples come to mind. The touchdown that he had, there's a quick little motion before the snap where I think it was, I can't remember I'm trying to conceive of it, but they changed who was the number

one and number two receiver right before the snap with Godwin. So Evans ends up being the number two receiver to that side and he has a little bit of leverage that he gets to play with. And it's like, all right, that's what I want, right? Like, I want to see those guys. being put in these tiny little advantageous positions because they're so talented. And then there were a couple plays in this game where he's the number two receiver. And what he's getting to do out of the slot is just different than what we've seen from him in the past. And that was what was so exciting to me after week one is just like, all right, we know these guys are talented. Are we going to see little tweaks within this offense that's going to allow us to just get,

not even better versions of them, but feel how talented this group is overall? And I do think that we have gotten there based on some of the stuff that Liam Cohen is doing. Yeah, on top of, you know, we came out of last year saying, okay, can Baker do it again? Because, you know, he's kind of been like this before where it's like, all right, you get one interesting year. Then he kind of takes a set back for whatever reason. Then you get another interesting year at some point. Then he takes a step back. So we were unsure if we were going to get super confident, super interesting Baker again.

And we have. And I think, again, that's another testament to what Liam Cohen is doing with this group. Let's get to our next one here. Speaking about Broncos defense, the Jets just. play a disgusting game and lose 10 to 9 to those Denver Broncos. The Jets lost the game where the opposing quarterback had negative seven passing yards in the first half. That's really all you need to know about this game.

So New York Jets and namely the New York Jets offense, what the fuck? What are we doing here? This game was so gross and people are going to pin it completely on the weather. It was not the weather in this game. Like I've seen Broncos fans being upset with the weather of like, oh, this is why Bo Nix wasn't able to handle it that well. And he certainly didn't seem like he could grip the ball. Aaron Rogers was throwing just fine.

That was not the problem for that Jets offense. The problem with the Jets offense was, and we said this coming into the week, and a thing we wanted to see was this Jets' offensive line versus what the Broncos defensive line has up front. The Broncos defensive line, they controlled this game. The edge guys were playing well. Zach Allen continued to play really well. Like they just run and pass controlled this game.

And they really did not let Aaron Rogers. Aaron Rogers had one or two plays outside the pocket like he did against the Patriots, but for the most part, they did a really, really good job of containing him, and then just putting him in a lot of unfavorable down in distances because they were just owning them in the run game. This is the worst possible matchup for the Jets offense, because we know what Garrett Wilson is, but there are question marks about the other pass catchers. And what can the Broncos do?

They can just slap Patrick Sertan on Garrett Wilson for most of the game and let guys like McMillian and Levi Wallace handle the Allen. Lizards of the world. And that's exactly what happened. Looking at the numbers, Patrick Sartan lined up against Garrett Wilson on 28 of his routes, finished with two catches for 22 yards on three targets. And there were some real moments from Patrick Sotan in this game where they're trying to make him run through traffic. He makes a play on a slide route in the third quarter for like no gain. That way he's just running all the way across the field. And there was a third and one with like five minutes left in the fourth quarter. They did the same thing. They lined up Wilson,

I think is the number three to the right side. They're trying to make Sartan run through all this traffic. He sifts through it, makes the play for it. I think it was actually a PBU and just makes the play for no gain. They line up in the slot one time. They're trying to get him on a little slant. Sartan laughs at it, knocks it down. He was phenomenal in this game.

So the fact that you have that dynamic and then you combine it with what the front is doing right now, and that's when things get really exciting. And what I've really liked about the front, we know they can rush the passer, right? That's what those guys are built to do. you're Jonathan Cooper's, your Jonah Ellis's, your Nick Benito's, these guys who were like 240 and Bendy, yeah, they should be able to rush the passer. This team is now number one in the NFL and rushing success rate allowed. Number one.

And you saw that in that game. There was like a two or three plays in the first drive where Jonathan Cooper is like caving in the edge. It's like, holy shit, man. If these guys are going to be doing that against the run and we know what they can do getting after the passer. I think it's time to get properly excited about what this Broncos defense could be. Jonah Ellis, even off the edge had a couple of plays like that where he's just mashing a tight end and ruining a play. I think Justin Stranod was playing linebacker for them because obviously Alex

Singleton is out. He made a couple of plays in the backfield. It was just, it was one of those games where usually kind of the mark of a really, really good defense is if a guy has to step into the lineup randomly and he still looks like a really good player. And this is kind of what we've talked about with the bills for the past year and a half, right? Generally is that obviously right now they're a little bit too deteriorated, but typically they've been able to just throw anybody into the lineup and they look like a good player. The fact that Stranod could come into this game and kind of have the game that he did, that to me felt like the mark of, okay, this unit is really well coached. They are playing to the same goal. They're doing a really good job of playing fast and playing confident.

That's what you want to see. And to go out and do it, again, I know with the weather conditions, but to do it against an offense that clearly has talent, that's a pretty encouraging sign. Yeah, I 100% agree, especially after the game that that Jets offense had last week. The last play I wanted to mention, there was a ghost move that Nick Benito had on like a sack. It was a third and eight with like 1045 left in the second quarter. And he just, the flexibility he shows on this play and like how close his inside shoulder gets to the ground as he's working against Tyron Smith. But that's what this defense is, right? Like they have all these bendy explosive guys.

And the fact that they've been able to combine that with physical. against the run and just like the play style overall. I'm really excited about watching where they can take this over the course of the year. That that on top, you know, exactly like you said, all these guys you drafted and signed off the edge to do exactly that they're doing it. And then even on the second to last drive, which really kind of, you know, almost puts the game away. And then obviously the Denver offense struggles to convert. And anyway, all that jazz. On a third on a third down on the second to last drive, Vance puts everybody on the line of scrimmage. I'm talking like seven, eight guys. and they get one off the weak side, and he just smokes Aaron Rogers.

And you could tell he was pissed. And it was just the fact that Vance is like, yeah, man, this is what I do. I'm going to put seven guys on the line and we're going to send a bunch of guys and we're going to go get pressure on you to do that in like a got to have it do or die moment at the end of the game against a really good quarterback. It's just, it's really cool, man. Rogers finished 13 of 21 for 94 yards against the Blitz today. And that is certainly how it felt.

So we'll see what the Broncos can keep doing here. Last one that I wanted to hit on. The Atlanta Falcons win a bizarre 26 to 24 game against the New Orleans Saints. The Falcon scored two touchdowns. One of them was on a muffed punt return. The other was on a pick six. Young Wai Koo kicks four field goals, two of them from 50 plus, including a 58-yarder to win it. This isn't an admonishment of either team.

This is more like NFC. South, what the fuck? We had a fourth screen email about this game earlier last week as part of the preview show and one of the listeners described this as the fight for mediocre mountain like that's what the nfc south is i feel a little bit better about the bucks than that but this game this was mediocre mountain like that's exactly what this game felt like and i just don't know what to make of either of these teams or this division as a whole that's why this game is so annoying and it's so it's perfect for this segment because two teams that have won a decent amount of games like Like they're fighting and really look like interesting teams.

We should have gotten some sort of answer on one of them. And the fact that the team that one scored 26 points and did not score an offensive touchdown, like you said, they had that muffed punt return that they picked up and scored on. By the way, a lot of muffed punt returns, by the way. I think there were five or six, which is just, it's, there's always one or two of those weeks in the NFL where like there's some odd occurrence that happened seven times for some reason. And this was evidently the muffed punt week. You know, we'll remember that by the end of the season.

So just a bizarre game, man. And then you end it with another, like, Kurt Cousins has to drive you down the end, drive you to the other side of the field to get you in range for a 58-yard field goal. Why does that keep happening to them? Even the P.I. Even the P.I. is a bizarre play. Paul Sinadipo has this blatant pass interference on Darno Mooney, where he absolutely mugs him on the right sideline.

And he starts running away celebrating as if he's made the play. When everyone in the stadium knows that the flag is coming, and it's probably setting the Falcons up for the game-winning field goal. He's the only guy in that moment who doesn't know. He's the only one. It's just, what a funny game, man. This was announcing it as mediocre mountain coming in was perfect. And then I don't think you could have scripted a better way to crown the winner of mediocre

mountain outside of some sort of tie. The fact that it was a PI that set up like a desperation field goal, it is a perfect way to end it. I'm going to put you in a really shitty spot right now. Oh, God. Which of these two teams do you feel? feel better about in this moment? I actually, I kind of think it's the Falcons.

I really do. I know those first two, I feel better about the Saints. I know those first two weeks were, we're kind of a siren song with what the offense looked like, but I kind of like the way that Kirk is playing a little bit better every week. And I think Drake London is playing really well. Bejohn looks really, really good. I think the run game looks okay.

I mean, I'm buying in enough on what we thought the team was supposed to be coming into this season that I'm I'm kind of settling and be like all right this can be our nine 10 win uh 10 win mediocre division winner I think the bucks are a better team than either I do at this point probably that because I feel better about the offense but if I had to pick between one of these two teams I still think I feel a little bit better about the saints the fact that the falcons needed a tipped ball pick six and a muffed punt return touchdown to win this game and still needed a desperation field goal at the end I'm still worried enough about what their offense looks like down it down because I don't think that the Saints defense is some sort of juggernaut.

And the Falcons, again, struggle to move the ball today. And they have a 36% offensive success rate in this game against the Saints. And it felt that way. There was nothing easy coming for them. So I still think I'm going to give the edge to New Orleans, even if we've cooled off a little bit from what they looked at over the first two weeks. But if I had to bet on one of those teams right now, I just think that the Bucks offense is the best of all of those three.

Oh, certainly. If I had to pick out out of the three, the Bucks offense feels like the best. I don't know if I love any of these defenses right now, but yeah, at least the Bucks offense feels like a consistent machine here. Last one here, I'm not going to fully give them the treatment, but I just want them to know that they're on notice. Both the Kansas City Chiefs and the Houston Texans, I need more from both of you. That's all I'm going to say.

I need more from both of you. I understand the Rishi Rice thing happens. That is an awful, awful blow to this Chief's offense. And I think it puts them back into a situation. It kind of felt like where they were for a good chunk of last year before Rice came on, where everything is going to be a little bit harder than it needs to be on that side of the ball. But even without Rishi Rice, this team squeaks by a Chargers team that was missing both of their starting tackles today. They got Jamari Solier out there. Sam Mustifer was playing guard.

The Chargers could not move the football in this game and the Chiefs still almost lost. So the Chiefs are on notice and I don't feel that much better about what the Houston Texans are putting out there right now. I don't feel great about either of them. And it's kind of for a little bit two different reasons. The Chiefs in this game were actually kind of moving the ball okay, but they had the fumble in the red zone. I think by Carson Steele, that is like a huge problem. And then immediately when they get the ball back again,

Mahomes just like chucks off a random interception. And it's like, doing that once a week now. Yeah, he is. Exactly. That's, I think he's had nine games in a row now. They sit on the broadcast where he's had at least one giveaway. So it could be a strip sack, not necessarily an interception.

but it's like, man, I know this is kind of a little bit in you. I know this is like how you're wired from Texas Tech, but like we've got to not do that. We've got to rein this in a little bit. And I know that's boring to say about the best quarterback in the league, but I think it's been true. We can say he's not playing well right now. Right now he's not. That is an okay thing to say. And I think that it's important to keep perspective on this.

I was literally talking to my wife about this yesterday, just talking about Mahomes and like how he's playing right now. And the fact that he's struggling a little bit. bad quarter really, really good quarterbacks have had bad stretches of their careers. Like, that happens. We threw dirt on Tom Brady like 16 different times over the course of his career. This happens to guys. And so the fact that Mahomes is not playing his best ball, you're allowed to say that and not have it be an indictment of the fact that Patrick Mahomes is still the best player

in the world. Right. It doesn't clear away the last six years. Like I remember Brady, I think it might have been in like 2014. the first month or even like month and a half of the season, he did not play well. And then I think they went on and like had a deep playoff run. It's like sometimes that's just going to happen. And maybe, you know, Patrick Mahomes doesn't pick it up to that level and do what Brady did. But I think it's just one of those things. Yes, we have to keep perspective that the best player is not necessarily

going to be the best player every single day and every single year. It's too much of a burden to ask to put on these guys. Last thing about Mahomes, last thing about Mahomes before we move out of the Texans. I want people are looking at regular season. stats and they're being like he hasn't been good for a while. Are we just hand waving away what the playoffs looked like last year? Are we just forgetting what he looked like in the playoffs last year? I know that the regular season stats were shitty last season. They were kind of sorting through a young offense, offensive line concerns, everything.

He was excellent in the playoffs. If you go look at those numbers beyond the fact that they won the Super Bowl. So just one thing that I think is worth bringing up to fully contextualize the last 12 months that we've gotten to Patrick Moms. That's all. And they weren't even bad. They were like an above average offense. They were a top 10 offense.

Yeah, they just weren't the juggernaut that we've been used to. Speaking of a team, we thought we were supposed to be a juggernaut on offense, the Houston Texans. I have, so this is like a symptom of all the other problems. But the Texans right now, well, I checked this before Sunday night football, but I can't imagine it changed. The Texans right now have the third most dropbacks on third and eight plus. the two quarterbacks ahead of C.J. Stroud right now are Deshawn Watson and Daniel Jones. Those are some two nasty offenses. Those are not good teams that you want to be in terms of like the percentage of your throws or volume of your throws that are on third and eight plus. And look, CJ Stroud can make those plays, right? You just don't want to live that way. You just don't want to have to ask him to do that. You can't live that way. It's impossible. And like he is obviously converting on those chances more than these other quarterbacks who are, you know, put into this situation a lot, but you just can't live that way. And again, that comes back to some of the issues they've had in the run game, some of the penalties they've had. Last week,

they had a big penalty issue on offense. And this week, they had a big penalty issue on offense. I mean, there are multiple drives where they have like two penalties in a row and it is knocking out play. CJ Stroud in this game had a scramble, I think, on a second and 10 that would have set them up really nicely. And they get a holding call. It's just, it's just stuff like that every week. There are 10 examples from this game. Yeah, that's just the first one that came to my mind. There was a stretch where they had like three gains of 10 plus yards. And then the next play, they have a negative three-yard run plus a hold. It's second and 20.

They get 15 on the ensuing play, but there's an illegal shift on Dalton Schultz. So then it's like third and 15. They pick that up. And then Stroud like hangs, finds Ongabalwale late. They get it. Then on the next play, they get zero yards on a jet sweep. There's a hold on Larry Metonsal and it's third and 20. That is the Texas or the Houston Texans offense.

personified in this game. And that's what it's felt like over the last couple weeks. The next drive, there was another hold on tonsill. They're looking at so many, like third and 15s. It's absolutely ridiculous. So the penalties are one problem. That you would assume that normalizes, right? Laramie Tunsell is one of the best left tackles in the league.

That's not going to consistently be an issue. The run game, different conversation. Because now this is a problem that is extended from last season into this season. They had that week one moment against the Colts where they're doing a bunch of of interesting shit. It's like, oh, maybe they have some new wrinkles this year and the run game will look a little bit better. Since week one, the Houston Texans are dead last in rushing success rate in the league.

It's at 23%. The Raiders are 31st at 28%. They are five percentage points worse than the Zamir white-led Las Vegas Raiders running game right now. It's bad. It is really, really bad. And I know that Joe Mixon has been hurt. but Joe Mixon does not explain all the issues that are going on with a Texan's inability to run the football right now.

Yeah, Joe Mixon might give you one or two more successful carries, but that's not going to fix the overarching issue here. And I think the biggest thing to me is I think it's a little bit schematic and I think it's a little bit, the offensive line is just not been as good as we wanted. I think schematically, they do, it's a little bit too much of the basic Shanahan stuff. And I don't think they've done enough of the gap scheme wrinkle stuff. Like this is very much that. they have really leaned back into like a lot of the zone stuff and a lot of just motioning into the strength of the play and it's like look I get why that is supposed to

displace linebackers so you can cut it back but you're just not blocking it well enough and it's not that interesting right now and teams are kind of starting to tee off on it and I think that's been a big issue and then the offensive line good running game in the NFL currently looks like this in terms of construction zero none of them because even Kyle Shanahan does some of that stuff but he also when he wants to will do an entire drive of running power at you that is just not how Houston feels at all right now. And think about how creative the Niners are in capturing edges and the ways that they do it. So all the fast motion they do with the tight ends, just how they create angles and space on the

perimeter. But also, George Kittle is a monster, right? George Kittle is a monster at the point of attack. The Texans do not have that guy. And you feel that when you're watching them try to have a running game that's built the same way that the Niners won us. That's a great point because obviously Kittle is one of the best blocking tight ends. And then a lot of the Niners, their receivers will go out and block.

You saw in this game, there were a couple instances where they're trying to run to like Diggs's side and he's not able to make the play that you want him to make. Obviously, Tank Dell is a smaller guy. He's not able to make those plays. Cade Stover is a young tight end. He has struggled really in the blocking game. Their best blocking ancillary player other than, I mean, Nico Collins will give you some moments and Robert Woods, obviously, that's like kind of all he gives you at this point.

But Brevin Jordan actually early in the season was kind of giving that for them. He's not been. He hasn't been playing. exactly. I don't think that's an accident. The fact that their run game looked the best that it did in week one, and he was a part of a lot of those plays and is no longer a part of the equation. It really is. It's definitely part of it. And then you add that on top of like, I think Kenyon Green looked really, really good in week one. I think he's not looked very good the past few weeks. Some rough moments today. Yeah, he had some really rough moments today, both in terms of just not getting to guys,

not climbing to the right guys, or just missing blocks. So he had a couple penalties as well. I think the right side of the line has not looked that much better either. It's other than Tunsell, who again, even like you kind of mentioned earlier, has had a little bit more mistakes, especially in the penalty department than you're used to from him. It just seems like the offensive line is a little bit sloppier than I would have wanted, which again, when you're in year two of this system, I would have liked this to look a little bit more put together. Yeah, they are still three and one.

And before we move on, I just want to make it very clear that the quarterback is still playing really, really, really good football. he is an he is an excellent player and continues to be an excellent player there is not a single moment where I've become frustrated with what their offense looks like and I walk away from the play being like ah man I really would need more from CJ there this is 100% the situations that he is being put in and his ability to overcome those and outshine those pretty consistently over the first month I think speaks to what type of player we're talking about here yeah I feel like the fact that not a single person is pointing the finger at him, I think it definitely says a lot. And I still

stand by him playing really get well against the Vikings. It's just like we talked about, some of those plays got taken off by penalties. And then the unlucky interception is just stuff happens. All right. We're going to take one more quick break. And then it's time for, did you see that? You see that? Did you see that? I have one that I want to start this off with that to me is like the reason that the segment exists. So the Bears win today, which was, it was nice. It was a nice feeling. It was a game that I enjoyed. There were some good kale, blames moments. We can talk about them if you want to. But the final drive for the Bears defense in that game,

or maybe the second to last drive. Something that was the second to last drive. Where the Rams are down six, they have a chance to go down and score, take the league. On first and ten, I want to say, Jalen Johnson, your all pro corner who's now one of the highest paid corners in the league, comes downhill and actually, like, sets the edge

and pushes the run back inside, and Tremade Admins cleans it up for like a one-yard gain. So it's like the physicality. an effort on that play from a guy in Jalen Johnson's position. Again, just like a corner. It's one of the best players in the league, paid like it. And then later in that drive, it's third and like nine because he made that play, they throw a screen to Kiron Williams and Jalen Johnson just lays the boom down on

Kyron Williams in space. So you have a first team all pro cover corner making those two sorts of like physical, let's chip in, put my hard hat on sort of plays. I cannot even tell you how much. that just warms my soul. And root to them winning a game. They became huge plays in like the context of the game. That third down, you could hear it.

You could hear the crunch on the broadcast, man. It was mean. That was one of those ones where the running back gets hit and you're like, I kind of hurt right now. That doesn't feel good for me to watch. Like you can feel it in your bones. And so I thought that play was super impressive. And you could even see that sort of energy kind of emanating throughout the entire defense

for a lot of this game. Montez Sweat laid somebody out like 15 yards down the first. field because he was making to hustle play. I mean, that's just kind of what you're getting from this defense right now. So when you have that type of energy on top of obviously sweat is like a pro bowl type player, Jalen Johnson's one of the best guys. Jaquan Briskier had a really, really nice game. Your linebackers are playing at a really high level and you somehow have three of them, which almost no team has, which is really impressive. They're just, this defense is really, really fun to watch, dude. That being said, they got carved up a little bit today. Matthew Stafford will just do

that, though. They got carved up a little bit today, but that's because the quarterback for the Rams is an insane player. I thought the Rams front actually played well. I thought they actually ran the ball pretty consistently against the Bears team. It's been really hard to run on. But thankfully, the Bears' offense made enough plays. I mean,

that touchdown from Caleb Williams to DJ Moore, I mean, where he actually progresses and comes all the way back to it and throws that ball with touch. It's like, hell yeah, man. Like, that's the type of stuff I want to see. And the other thing that I was notable about the offense today,

I liked some of the wrinkles in the run game design. They run a lot of split zone where they had Cole come back coming across the formation. and it was really helping their guys get up to the second level. Because we talk about which good offenses are really zone-based in terms of running the football right now. And that's what the bears were trying to do. Like it was just like a lot of zone runs over the first three weeks. Nothing going.

It was tough sledding. And the little tiny things that they were throwing in today that felt a little bit different. It was an encouraging step forward for the offensive construction for the quarterback for everybody involved with that side of the ball. Yeah, Swift had a huge playoff the split zone. And then they even had a couple of not just runs, but like screens at that. they got him out on. So they just did a good job on the Premier's sake. We'll give Shane Wayne his flowers for today. The Rams are one of the worst defenses to the league. Yeah, one of the worst defenses is the league for most of the season so far. So pump in the

brakes a little bit, but it is an encouraging step in the right direction. What do you have for me? What did you see today that you want to talk about? Darno Washington. Did you see that he jumped over a man? Darno Washington, by the way, is listed at 265 pounds and I'm certain he is heavier than that. That is horseshit. Yeah, he, I was probably too 80. I was standing next to Darnow Washington. 280. No. I was standing next to Darno

Washington at training camp, right? The Steelers, you're right there on the sideline. I was five feet from Darnow, Washington. He is all of like six,

seven. And that man, he does not weigh 265 pounds. He's 300. Easy. And he jumped over another person.

And before he jumped over someone, he put somebody else in the dirt. Like, he just threw him off, and then he runs and goes and jumps

over the other guy. And that's just, the hurdle didn't even really gain him that much extra yardage, but it was just one of those things that it's like, why can you do that? Why are you as a person capable of doing a thing like that to it? It was just incredible to watch. What a weird ass game. It was.

I can't believe we're at this point where Anthony Richardson comes out in the first drive. He throws a bullet to Michael Pittman for a chunk play. They get a second chunk play on the second drive, and then he gets hurt again. And so now we have to deal with another week of like, oh, Anthony Richardson's got a hip injury. Like, you know, is he running the ball too much? Every time it seems like we get a couple flashes of that offense starting to find its footing and, you know, him looking like he's settling in a little bit. This seems to happen.

And I just really can't believe and don't want to face the reality that this might just be something we consistently have to worry about with him. It was as good as that offense has looked all year. And obviously, pretty limited sample. He wasn't out there for that long. But it is just frustrating that it's always how it is, though. His staff line last year were like four of six for 88 yards. Right. What was it that Texan's game where he scored like two touchdowns and then like got hurt on

like just it's always something like that somehow. But it is frustrating with Richardson because he's such a talented player. And we said coming out of the draft with him, they're like, okay, he only got one year starting at Florida. He's a very young guy. He hasn't had that many reps. He needs reps. Okay, well, he didn't get a lot of them.

Obviously in his rookie year. He only played three or four games. And now he's hurt again. And it just seems like he's, he kind of is one of those guys. who just keeps getting hurt and isn't protecting himself all that well. I almost wonder, too, with him, he's obviously an incredible athlete, but he moves like a little bit robotically. Like, he's not as fluid as a guy like Cam Newton or even Josh Allen at this point or are obviously

not Lamar Jackson. And so I wonder if that plays a little bit into why he has struggled to, you know, take cleaner hits. But if it's going to continue to be an issue, it's really disappointing because he, this was what you wanted it to look like. And it was immediately taken away from us. What do you make of the Steelers performance in this game? Oh, my God.

It seems like you could ask me that question every week and I would have like some different bizarre answer that I don't feel that comfortable. This one especially is like very naughty to work through. I don't really know what to make of it. I went back and I did the speed watch of this game just because I was curious. And so I watched every single play. And I know they lost this game. I actually think I feel better about them moving forward than I did before this game started even though they lost to the Colts. I mean, Justin Fields.

I don't think it's that crazy because this was probably Justin Fields' best day as a pastor. You know, some of his best plays were actually, you know, kept on the field instead of taken away by penalties, I think, in that Denver game. So that was really encouraging. They are feeding George Pickens a lot. And he is, you know, you kind of talked about this coming into the year about the kind of player you think he is. He still had that one incredibly stupid fumble. Oh, my God. He's like, threw the ball back in bounce.

Yeah, he tried to do it a second time in this game, by the way. And so he's just going to kind of do that sometimes. But in terms of a guy that you can actually run the offense, the passing offense through, he has clearly been that for them. And I think that that's a really good sign. I think the most frustrating part is that the offensive line in the run game didn't look very good, which on one hand, you should be able to get this Colts front because they have been really bad defending the run. On the other hand, this Colts or this Steelers offensive line also has three backups in the game right now,

three guys they don't necessarily want on the field. So it's a little bit of like, I'll give them. them a little bit of time to have their actual guys out there and see how it looks. That's how I felt just about the down-to-down consistency of the offense, why I'm not super worried about it because you hope the run game get a little bit better as they get healthier. Justin Fields made like four or five throws in this game that were some of like the most creative outside of the pocket throws I've ever seen him make.

And that combined with the fact that I actually think he is just the mechanics of how he's playing the position and how he's seeing things just feel so much cleaner than they ever were in Chicago. So you have what he can do with his legs. There's a little bit of creativity outside of the pocket. I think that the overall, like, plan offensively. We're just going to run a shitload of play action, make things a little bit easy on him. And we have George Pickens, who feels like a true guy you can build the passing game

through. I like all of that. Like, I do feel like there's something there. And I think that even though the defense didn't play their best today, I think that's more of a blip than it is a sign of things moving forward. In this game, 29.6 percent of Joe Flacco's. attempts were marked as open by next-gen stats, that would be dead last in the league over the course of the year. Like, if you look at some of the balls that they were completing, we're like

inches away from those things being deflected or picked off. They were living on the edge in this game. They were four of eight on third and long. Joe Flacko was six of eight on third down dropbacks in this game. So I'm not trying to take anything away from the Colts. I just think that it was a little bit, the margins were very, very thin for what the Colts were doing offensively. And I think that over the long haul, this Steelers defense is probably not going to have them happen, have that happen to them consistently. And how different of quarterbacks could you have between Anthony Richardson and then Joe Flacko has to come in midway through the game? Like defensively, that's going to- I disagree. I disagree. I actually think that watching the ball come out of their hands,

you have two guys in the NFL. Like, if you stacked up, just like the, the, the eight purest throwers of the football in terms of like the RPMs when that thing comes out of their hand. I actually think the Flacco and Anthony Richardson, like, there's a stylistic similarity there. I think if you just cut off plays like after the ball comes out and had to guess which quarterbacks they were, then you could put those two in the same bucket. That's kind of what I mean. I think everything before that is very different. 100%.

But when the ball comes out of their hand, there are multiple plays in this game where I was just like, man, like the pure R. strength in the Colts quarterback room is unlike anything else in the NFL when you actually put those two guys together. Because the same way that Anthony Richardson, that first throw he hits a pitman, where he just laces that thing in there, Flacco had one of those later in the game. It was crazy the fact that you had two guys who could make those sorts of throws within the same offense after one of them got hurt. But yes, Joe Flacco is not moving around a lot in the same way than Anthony Richardson is. Last one here. Did you see the Jamar Chase catch and touchdown. It would have been the second, it was because of what that guy in Alabama did on Saturday,

it was the second craziest, like, catch and run that we saw from a receiver this weekend. But on an NFL field, the fact that Jamar Chase could make that play is absolutely ridiculous. Jamar Chase is crazy, man. And you saw like both of the reasons why what he does with the ball in his hand is so cool. He catches like this dig route on third and three over the middle of the field, immediately like eats a tackle attempt just straight to the chest, bounces the guy off. and then he makes two more guys just miss. Like he shrugs with the second guy off and then the third one, he just makes him miss. And it's like, that's every kind of way that you could make a tackler miss in the NFL.

He did all of it and then ran away from everybody else for the touchdown. I mean, he is just, when he gets the ball, he is the coolest receiver, man. Kind of feel okay about the Bengals? Like, I think their defense is actively bad. I just don't think that's going to change. That is a crazy dichotomy of sentences to say. So I think I feel okay about the Bengals, but their defense is bad. Is this playing well enough for them to maintain relevance over the course of the season?

Despite all the questions I have about the defense, I do think that if the offense is going to play at this level, they're at least going to be interesting over the course of the year. There's second in EPA per play since week one. And fourth in success rate. They have the receivers back. I think Burrow is playing pretty good football right now after. He just has this weird thing where I've always thought this about him. I think that he just has larger mental barriers to get over when he's been hurt.

And he's been open about this. Like when he hurt his knee and just like it took him a while to feel comfortable again, I just think that there's a hurdle that he has to get over pretty much every single year when he's coming back from injury. And now I do feel like if he's not all the way there, he's most of the way there. The Brown game looked good today. Chase Brown's giving them a little bit of pop. I do think their offense is going to be good over the course of the season.

And if they can just get to like not terrible defensively, I think they could at least be in the mix in the wildcard race in the AFC. It is crazy to say about a team with their record. But I mean, I'm kind of there. Like the offense does look really good. And it's kind of frustrating because they haven't really been the thing that we wanted them to be in terms of Borough getting more under center as a passer. But in this game, if you watch it, they're like every play was either an under center run. They would sprinkle in one or two dropbacks for borough or under center. And then everything else was empty.

Like they were going at complete opposite ends of the spectrum and forcing the Carolina Panthers to react to it. I think I retracted what I said before. Which part? I thought the Bengals were two and two. The Bengals were one. No, no. That is the scariest part to me. I don't feel as strongly about that anymore.

They're too far in the hole. They're too far in the hole. Yeah. You're probably right. I do think in terms of like the quality of play, though. That's where I agree. The quality of play is encouraging on the offense, but I did not realize that they're too. one and three. I thought there were two and two. It's been a long month so far. All right,

let's get to our last conversation here. We're going to talk about what we learned today. You know, I think I've learned something today. We wrap up each one of these Sunday shows, just with a lesson, a lesson that we learn from the day in the NFL. Why don't you kick us off? What did you learn from week four? Yeah, I took this a little introspectively. I learned something about myself today. Yeah, which is that I can be angry at Trevor Lawrence instead of his teammates, which is a new feeling for me. Because I think even for as bad as the offense looked the first three weeks of this season,

I was watching them and I was like, all right, Trevor will miss two or three throws. That's going to happen. But for the most part, I was like, man, guys are not running the right routes or they're not catching the ball or the offensive line looks terrible. This game today, and Trevor still made a handful of really good throws and he checked into a third and three run that got him a touchdown.

Like he did some good stuff. But he missed five or six throws in this game where it was like, dude, the call is so good. You have to hit this. And there were like two deep ones to Brian Thomas Jr. that he could have hit. And it was just, it was the first time, especially this season, where I truly felt like, I think the game was called well enough and everyone else played well enough that if he had played to the standard that I hold him to, they would have won this game. And he didn't.

What's going to be frustrating about this is that there are going to be a lot of people who come out of the woodwork and say, well, this is how it's always been. It's always. And that and that's just not the case. because for most of the last two years, the supporting cast and everything around him has been the reason that this offense has been held back. And like you said, it's been one or two throws a game where he's going to sail them. And he does.

He has accuracy issues every once in a while. He is going to spray throws. But I think that it has gotten a little bit worse. And I do think that we might be looking at some confidence issues and just some, the way that he feels right now and just like the authority he's playing the game, with gives me a little bit of pause. I guess that's what I would say. No, that's a perfect way to put it. I mean, it's almost like the Baker thing. How different does Baker look now that he's playing with a lot more confidence in swagger as opposed to what he looked like three years ago?

There is, I don't think it's nearly that bad yet with Trevor, but there is a little bit of like he is clearly not playing like the guy he was at the back half of the 2022 season or even for a lot of 2023, even though the numbers weren't great. So it's been frustrating for sure. Yeah, I mean, last year we talked about the running game was awful, the turnovers, which he, he is a part of it, but I think that the sprays have gotten worse. And what he's looked like from an accuracy's perspective, I think is worse now than it has ever been. And that's just tough because, like you said, they probably play well enough outside of him to win the game today. My what did I learn today is just that guys that we

think are known quantities aren't necessarily known quantities. And this is a silly thing to say, but I think that we forget this sometimes in that people can get better at their jobs. and that includes players and it includes coaches. And there are two guys that I think I would want to point out as examples from what we saw today. People were really down, and I'll throw myself into that category. People were skeptical about the Cliff Kingsbury Higher in Washington and what that was going to look like. And what the offense looks like in Washington right now, and the word that I would use is cohesion. Like there is purpose and cohesion and detail in the way that that thing has been built.

and it's very thoughtful a lot of the things that you're seeing and how it all fits together. I never felt that when I watched the Cardinals offense when he was there. That was never the feeling I had while watching them. And he said something to me this summer when I was in Washington that I was kind of thinking about today when I was just taking them in. And it's that when he was the head coach, you're in every single meeting. You're doing so many different things. You can't just be the person who's obsessing about every detail of what the offense looks like. And it wasn't an excuse.

It was just how is this. different. How does this job and where you're at right now feel different than when things were over in Arizona? And I think that's a very simple answer, but it makes sense where it's just like you take a couple years, you mention introspection, like take some time, think about what went wrong, think about what you want to be better at, and now this is your entire purview. And it just feels so much different and so much more cohesive and so much better buttoned up than it ever did in Arizona. So coaches can do that. They can take time away. They can improve. they can take a look at what went wrong, what went right, and how can I kind of take this thing

in a new direction? And the same thing is true with players. And I think that we've seen this with a bunch of different guys this year, but Sam Darnold is probably the best example where we think we have a fully realized understanding of what Sam Darnold is as a player. But if you think about the circumstances that he has been in for almost his entire career and how different those circumstances are now, we are seeing a different version of that player. And the same thing goes with Baker Mayfield. So I just think that I'm saying this more. to me than it's anybody else. Like, show some patience and don't write off guys because based on their last stop,

you know, there were some things about the way that they constructed an offense or the way they played the position that you found frustrating because with time, with a little bit more attention, when the circumstances and the context around these people change, we can get slightly different results. That's a great point about the context and just giving them one or two extra years where they just need to fix some stuff. I mean, think about some of the best players that. are playing up front right now. Like, Zach Allen, two years ago was kind of just a guy. Like,

he was okay. But now he has quickly turned into one of the best defensive linemen in football right now. Boy amafé has, he is almost unrecognizable as a pass rusher from what he was two years ago in Seattle. So like guys like that, Kaiser White, I remember when he was early on in Los Angeles, he didn't want to hit anybody. His head was spinning in coverage. He just didn't seem like he had it together. Now he's like the captain and leader of this Cardinals defense. And he is like one of the only guys who is consistently. flying to the ball and getting where he needs to be on time and stuff like that. So that is a great point that about just the context in which a player is playing in is

like that can completely change what they end up being on the field, especially when you really take it to the next level in terms of what coaches you're surrounded by and what you're being asked to do. Yeah. And what you're being asked to do is a great way to put it. And then the people you're surrounded by is just as important. But I think it's just also a reminder to everyone here and everyone in this world is talented. Everyone has a certain level of talent or a certain level of proficiency in how they do their jobs.

And I think that we should maybe show more respect in the way that we talk about people in this world every once in a while because of that. These people aren't stupid. They're not talentless. For the most part, a lot of struggles are based on a lot of things and a lot of factors that we probably don't consider. And the same way, that's the same thing for when people succeed. Like there's just more going on than I think we'd like to admit sometimes. So it's definitely something that I've been thinking about a lot over the first month and I think was really driven home by some of the performances today.

All right. That is all we've got for today. We will be back a little bit later this week with our midweek show. Our buddy Jane Bruegler is going to come on. We're going to talk about some draft stuff, but also some rookies. Obviously, Dane pays a ton of attention to first year guys, you know, right out of college and what their early careers look like. So very excited to get Dane back on the podcast for now.

Sincerely appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon. Thank you.