The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 5 Recap: 49ers crush Cowboys, Lions and Dolphins keep rolling, Bengals wake up, Ravens disappoint, and more

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

There's only one appropriate question to ask after what we all watched on Sunday night...are the 49ers the best team in the league? Robert Mays and Nate Tice tackle that on this episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also discuss how the Lions and Dolphins continue to roll, the Ravens' disappointing loss to the Steelers, the hugely important bounceback by the Bengals, and more.Follow Robert on Twitter: @robertmaysFollow Nate on Twitter: @Nate_TiceSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the athletic football show. Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays. Joining me tonight. It's my good friend Nate Tyson. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing very well. Just witness a nice little 40 burger on a fabulous week five.

And yeah, that's a good way to sum it up. Some of the things we thought we knew. Some things maybe changed a little bit, but it was a, I'll say a dainty little a nightcap for week five after kind of an interesting day. Kind of a lot of fun games, some sloppy. ball, some good ball. Stuff's starting to happen, starting to see some tendencies getting broken, starting to seeing stuff getting copied.

It's pretty great. It's pretty great. But I'm doing very well. We got a lot to dig into today, like you said, a lot of fun stuff that we're going to chew on from week five. But sometimes on this show, we kind of gloss over the Sunday night game just because this is just for real people understand. There are people when it was a blowout in the fourth quarter, like, you guys should start

the show now. We are frantically preparing until the moment the camera turns on every. single Sunday night. We're not just sitting there waiting for the Sunday night game to end. So typically, we're doing a lot of prep and rewatching and getting ready for the show during the Sunday night game. So we don't dig into it all the time. But this week, we set it aside because we're like, this is one of the games of the year.

And we talked about this game for so long on the Thursday preview show. It's a fantastic match between two really good teams. And then we got what we just watched. But we had planned to dig into it. So that's exactly what we're going to do. Where do you want to start with the 49ers dismantling of the Dallas Cowboys tonight? I mean, they're a super team. They're unbelievable.

I just everybody, offense, defense, new guys stepping up, old guys, old favorites. You can make an argument like Fred Warner's defensive player of the year, but he might even like some games, he might not even be the best player on the field for the 49ers on their defensive side of the ball. That's how you know, by the way. That's how, that's how you know. It's a great team is when you can trade off like that every single week. Like Kittle tonight, Kittle doing what he did tonight.

It's just like, oh, today's one of those Kittle days where he just dominates and scores a handful of touchdowns. The fact that they can just interchange between all pro-level players at multiple different positions on both sides of the ball. The way IYook is playing right now, he's an all-pro-level receiver. Christian McCaffrey obviously is an all-pro-level running back. George Kittles is an all-pro-level tight end that was really only hurt by counting stats and volume at this point in his career more than anything else. And then you go on to the defensive side of the ball. they have one of the best two or three edge rushers in the entire league. And I think pretty clearly right now, the best off ball linebacker in the NFL.

And he put out an absolute show tonight. So the fact that there are different featured players in each one of their successive blowouts over the course of a season speaks to the level of overall roster talent and the ways that they can deploy it when we're looking at this team. I want to amend my like dark horse, dark, dark, dark horse, to make a Fitzpatrick defensive player year or DB take into offball player take. Off ball player take. Sorry to Matt Milano, but he had a great week last week too.

So it was like Fred Warner Roquant Smith. I was like, oh, some of these linebackers right now, it's like, hey, this might be the year. But holy crap. But yeah, like I was going to say, they have a super team. And not only do they have these great stars, I'll just talk about the offense, but the death lineup. And Brock Purdy making the throws. This is, it's great for me, as I've realized, I'm just a Brock. pretty nihilist and I've just like whatever. I enjoy this offense enough. He makes enough

throws, whatever. And it's exactly the point that I have reached. That's it. That's it. I'm good. I'm good. I already do this with Jimmy G. I already fought those wars. I'm good. But they have these, so they have the death lineup. They have this perfect role players. Of course, like Joanne Jennings, Jordan Mason stepping up, giving him like a sledgehammer. The offense align, this is my favorite version of a Shanahan offensive line with the 49ers since he's been Sam friend. I thought so on the preseason and now definitely, and they have a little bit of depth. John Felice Yala had to take a couple snaps because of some stuff and, and boom, you never, they never miss a beat. And that's usually how you kind of could capitalize on this 49ers team as

those injury was. But Debo Samuel misses a game, or I'm sorry, Brandi Ayuk misses a game. Debo Samuel steps up. It's just next man up. I forgot to mention Debo Samuel when I was talking about their offensive players. It's unbelievable. And he just, I mean, now they're handing the ball off back. It was, it's nice when you see these repeat matchups again. We always talk about this. But the Cowboys, you know what they're going to run. It's a lot of man, a lot of cover two. And what you saw the 40-9 was getting them after, again, after them with was stuff that beats man.

So that's why I saw Debo in the backfield because we're messing with the coverage stuff. And then even some Brock Purdy's big throws, especially in the late way of the game, or late in the game that we saw about seven replays of it because Kristen stopped talking about it. But it was the deep dagger to Debo, after the, Ayuk one got called back, and that's against cover two, two Tampa. Layton Van derrash is running with Jaywon Jennings. It's a great throw. And then before that, he hits a quick end breaker, and it's against man coverage to Brandon Iyuk because it's one hole.

And against hole, those players play with outside leverage. So it's like, whatever you throw at them, they're going to have answers and Purdy's making all the throws that he has to. It's just, it's impossible to stop right now. I thought the, Connors did a good job of pointing out just all the ways that they were creating a little bit of hesitance. among the front four just with we're trapping guys, we're cutting guys.

The kiddle touchdown's a perfect example. You're going to come off the edge with a little less steam if you think Christian McCaffrey is going to take you out at the legs when you're not expecting it. And they were doing that all the time. It almost reminded me weirdly enough of a game plan. This was about one person more than the defensive line as a whole. But remember the way that the Chiefs played against the Niners last year

where they're just doing so much to both over the course of the entire game, just flashing color at them, chips, cuts. And over the course of the game, that just drives you crazy. And that's what really good offensive schemers, offensive play callers, and offensive game planners do.

And we saw another set of those examples from Kyle Shanahan tonight. And I will say, even if I'm a pretty Nialis is a great way to put it. I fully leaned into that. They're racing. Nothing matters anymore. Nothing matters.

I will say, the three throws he made on that drive that you're talking about are probably the three throws I've seen him make this season. The best throw I've seen him make this entire football season is the one that called, call back to Ayyuk. He makes that from a muddy pocket.

It's a beautiful throw. Cosmody over too. That was brutal. Sorry. Sorry, that play is just like that one's going to be burned into my brain for a little bit. It's a beautiful throw. There's a no,

he has zero space to get that thing off. And then he makes it directly after a gorgeous layered throw over the linebacker on another one of those inbreakers. Those are real deal throws. That's why I don't want to take those away. And the, and the, and the, one gets called back that deep dig.

That's, those are tough throws. Those are real throws. And that's why it's just, I go back and forth with it. But again, that's what he has to do in this offense. He pilots this offense extremely well,

and he lifts it in ways that other quarterbacks have not. Even if you can put up a side by side and the stats with Jimmy G look almost identical, when you watch the game, I think he does lift the offense in subtle ways that Jimmy Garoppelo did not. I truly believe that. He rips. He's way more aggressive. He's way more aggressive.

He can do a little bit out of structure. We see that consistently. And I think his ability to layer balls to the middle intermediate areas of the field is a, and do it on time, do it trusting the way the plays are going to develop. I think that really does make him a well-suited trigger man for what is a beautifully constructed Death Star-like offense.

And that's exactly what we're seeing right now. On the other side, so just one quick number, 57% offensive success rate for the Niners tonight, which was the best rate in the NFL today. Dolphins running rough shot over the Giants. Yeah. The Lions did to Panthers today.

The Niners had the best one. Dallas had one of the best defenses in football coming into this season. Coming into this week. That's how good the Niners were tonight. On the flip side, the only team in football today that had a worse EPA per dropback than the Dallas Cowboys was the New England Patriots. So as good as we feel about the Niners coming out of that game

and what they looked like, are you a little bit worried about what the Cowboys look like coming out of that game? I was, there's the, this is a good way to put it, I think. It's like, against the 49ers, they will never match up well. That's it. Well, that's a problem because the Niners are going to be there at the end. And the playoffs. I guess most other teams, I feel perfectly fine about this team.

I still think they are very good. But the problem is, you have to beat other contenders. Yeah, I'm going to say, I'm sure Cowboys fans love hearing that. We're going to go 12 and 5 again and then get the shit kicked out of us by the Niners and the division around what has been the issue in the last two years this is the bogey team it really is but that i not because i do think they have answers i i do have concerns with the run game and that's this is just you know you have tony paulward coming off in the killies he only can take so many touches so there's some just unevenness in the run game right now and if that run game isn't going this past game

yes they can nickel and dime but we saw what this defense could do they just teed off i thought it was like okay they could piece together some drives burn some clock kind of was leaning forty nires anyways after I kind of broke it down. But watching Drey Greenlaw and Fred Warner freaking teeing off on every checkdown, you can't stay efficient if those go for one yard instead of four yards. That was my concern is that if you're going to play like that with those super thin margins and they swarm to the ball like they do, you're going to start getting frustrated. At one point during the third quarter, we talked about this on the Thursday preview show.

Dallas had the lowest average air yards per target in the NFL coming into this game. It was like 5.7. It was dead last in the NFL. It was half a year or lower than 40-year-old Drew Brees. that again, I have to repeat that. At one point in the third quarter today, they were averaging 11.7 air yards per attempt,

which was the highest mark of any team this week. So clearly, they thought that they could take some shots down the field. Outside of that one Robert Turpin touchdown, they were incorrect in believing that. So I can understand if you're Mike McCarthy thinking, well, none of this underneath shit is working, and they're just going to swallow up everything we try to do

with the ball efficiently. We might as well just toss it out there, but that clearly was not the way to approach this either. So you're sitting there as the Cowboys offensive coaching staff searching for answers. And none of those paths that you're going to follow are going to bring you anywhere that you're happy about. And that was the final of this game. Nope. Gallup, Galap just doesn't have that juice.

He's not a good corner beater. He just doesn't to win vertically that way. And they were trying to pepper him early. And I could see they're like, okay, Gallup's healthy. He's a solid player. But they're just like, hey, we're going to test these guys on outside early. He just got swallowed up at first. And so, okay, we can't hit that.

So we can't get these intermediate throws going. you know, get these eight to 12 yarders going. And then it kind of just became a, all right, underneath, let's check it down. Hey, okay, what's your play action stuff? Let's do some high lows. All right, I'll just check it down for a nice four or five yard gain at first down. And that's when Drey Greenlaw had about seven clothes lines. They looked like JBL, just as it was just unbelievable.

But that's it. They can't win against a team that does that. So but if you have teams, you got to think other kind of like teams at the top of the NFC are division leaders right now. You know, if you play a soft zone team, they can work. you know, but okay, but if they can play man against you, you can't beat that. So we're still facing that same issue. And that's like, it's just the same problems that we've had.

Offensive line inconsistencies in a run game. Dak trying pressing too much, whenever they have to make multiple throws down the field, and just not enough juice from the past catcher position. And it just, it's kind of a hard truth to realize that they're a good team, but they still have those flaws. How worried are you that we've like run out of road a little bit with what Dak Prescott is? as a player? No, as a person. This is what he is.

I mean, again, he has a hundred-something starts. Like, yeah, I know what he is. He's a, I had him like, what, about the sixth, seventh, eighth-best quarterback in that second range, that kind of that low tier two, high tier three type of guy. That's what I think he is. And I think I'm fine with that. I think he's good, very good at times. But just that he has, he can't push the ball like these other elite guys can.

And he also just was. will have these moments bite him in the ass in the biggest moments. And I think that's just becoming a thing now because I think it's because how these defenses play them and just swallow up all those little short throws. And he doesn't have the kind of play style to throw all that stuff down the field that right get away with. Is that a concern when in order to win Super Bowls, in order to break through, the types of quarterbacks that you're going to have to play against are the guys who are those explosive plays in like a one-man package.

And if you're not surrounded, you don't think it's a concern. If you're the, if you're the Cowboys and you're going to have to extend him after this year, and he's looking for $45, 50 million a year. That's just the life you're willing to live with. This is a genuine question. Like, if you look at this landscape of the league

and you think about what it allows you to build around him when the Niners are paying Brock Purdy, 17 cents in order to build this team around him, you'd be willing to commit that sort of, those sort of financial resources to DAC as you try to build a necessary supporting cast around him if he's not one of those guys that's going to be the top top tier guy that's just an explosive play on his up. I think they've won so many games because of that.

Not just because he's like a caretaker of that offense. That's worth paying. Like especially in this market where Daniel Jones is getting $40 million. Like that this is definitely worth paying. Yes, he has games that he doesn't can't get you over the top against the elite teams. Is that an issue? Yes. But you can get hot.

And he has enough games to give you a baseline. to always be competing, which is just that's worth paying for it in itself, where you don't have to think about it. And he's just entering the prime of his career. I think this is right around that 30-year-old age is right where these guys, these quarterbacks kind of have that nice middle ground of everything. So I think he is worth paying. I really do. I don't think he's that elite guy, but I think he's absolutely worth that $40, $45 million range that you're talking about. Last question.

Now that the bills are banged up in the way that they are. And even when we saw the bills do what they did last week, the Niners pretty clearly the best team in the NFL on both sides of the ball. Yeah. Yeah. Because the only way you can get after them is if you have a perfectly positive game script, good luck against that defense. And so it's just you have to have a lot of,

they're going to lose a couple games. I mean, I don't know. They're going to. But it's just, it's a long season and everything. But it's just, it's very hard to kind of have a game script that you can take advantage of this team

because it's just what they can do on the ground, the explosiveness they have. have them pass a game, how Purdy's playing in it, and the defense is just plays a style that limits explosive place. So if you're ever behind, they're just going to put a cap on it. So I think they are the best team. I mean, just the most complete team, as long as they stay healthy, knock on wood, it's like, yeah, I really think that. Yeah, I mean, what the bills did last week was obviously really impressive against Miami, but Miami's defense is not playing at that high of a level. So for the Niners to do this on offense against the Cowboys defense that had been

playing pretty damn well over the course of the season so far, I just think that's why this one gives them the nod. And to me is probably the most impressive performance any team has turned in this entire season so far. And they've had a lot of that. Yeah, this isn't new. This is just what they've done every single week. They just happen to be doing it against a better opponent this week. Yeah.

Yeah, they just, they're outclassing everybody right now and just doing it in different ways. Everyone's stepping up. It's great. When you have those stars and then you have those star role players just all stepping up and just everyone's taking turns, making an explosive place. You Debo, I, you kiddle. Just like you said at the beginning when we were talked about, oh, this was the kiddle game. that that's a different level of team. And that's how they feel right now.

All right. Let's get to the other good stuff we saw today. It's time for you have my attention. Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention. Every week there's just a flood of stimuli coming at you on a Sunday during the NFL season. We try to pick out two, three performances that kind of made us sit a little bit straight in our chair and really take notice over the course of an entire day. And let's start with something that made me take notice this morning.

And that is the performance that the Jacksonville Jaguars put together against said Buffalo Bills team. Jags win 25 to 20 against the Bills. Same kind of deal with the Jags, multiple backbreaking turnovers at terrible times, bad drops. It was such a frustrating, first half especially, and then even into the second half at times where I'm just sitting there thinking, if I was a fan of this team, I would just be pulling my hair out. but I still think over the course of this game, we got a really good look at what the best version of this Jaguars team can look like.

And we can get to the offense in a second. But in my opinion, it actually starts with the way that the defense played in this game. This has been consistent. They've been doing this all season. We are still somewhat of a concern. It's like, okay, what is the past rush? Who's going to get after the passer? Holy crap, you can't run on this team.

They are stout. And it's like, I mean, this is like John Henderson era, stout against the run defense right now. They are, I believe, top five, fourth and rushing success right on early downs. I was going into when I started these stats early in the Sunday night show. So hopefully that they're not get updated after that. But six overall and just success rate right there. And when you're pairing that with an offense that can just have both explosive drives, but also just meticulous drives.

It's running. And that's important. possible to compete against. This Bill's team was running the ball well. This is why I was excited about this Bill's team. They were six. In rushing success rate coming into the game today, it was like 43%. They had a 20% rushing success rate today. It was half of their season average. They only had two. Two successful runs on the entire day. It's, that's hard. But it's what I will compliment the bills real quick of the bill's offense is that this is why it's awesome to have a guy like Josh Allen. Even if we can't run the ball, just go, Josh. It's like good for better for

worse. It's like, you're going to keep us in the games or give us back in the games because that's what these elite guys can do. But through the spine, uh, full of Kasi, who they signed last year, like now he's healthy, fully healthy and just been playing and just been extremely stout against the run. Uh, I mean, just that, I mean, watching him against the Falcons. He was pushing Drew Dolman back like five yards at times. And then Tyson Campbell is playing at an extremely high level right now, week in, week out. Uh, shoot. Also, uh, friggin, what's his name? Oh, Andre Sisko. Audrey Sisko is playing fantastic football right now. So all these guys along the spine are playing well.

They have a couple, you know, the FOI at the linebacker position. He's run first as well. So they're getting after the run. They're making you go into these third downs, getting third down after third down after third down. Josh Allen could take care of that, but they're making you be meticulous against them. It felt like that the only ways the bills kind of were getting after them was these big explosive plays that they can get to. But when they're pairing that with how their offense is playing and how they can have these long drives, even if they make mistakes at the end, it's just that you don't get a lot of chances. The bills didn't have a lot of plays.

So if you don't score, you don't keep up with their offense. This is what happens to you. They were 7 of 10 on 3rd down in the second half. And it's tough to live that way. That's always going to come back to Earth. But I thought that Trevor made some really impressive plays in high leverage moments in the second half. Obviously, the dot to Ridley to kind of close out the game is the most notable one.

But a couple different high leverage plays on 3rd down. And when I'm talking about the best version of this team, it's their ability to stop the run and doing it out of nickel today. Their base run defense had been so good, and it was so good against Atlanta, but doing it with lighter personnel today against the Bill's team that had been really running the ball on teams. I think that was pretty impressive. And then I think some of the pressure stuff was really notable on defense. Josh Allen was six of 14 for 39 yards when Blitzed today, according to True Media.

And you could see that. They were throwing some funky pressures at him because he did such a great job against Miami of understanding where the pressure was coming from and just replacing it really quickly. And I thought the Bills did, or the Jags did a really good job of overloading a side and then dropping out behind it to the other side. And he just, some of the funky looks, they really struggle with those today. So that combination on defense with Tyson Campbell playing extremely well in one-on-one situations outside of the touchdown to Dix.

But for the most part in that game, he's going to happen. He's an elite player. But I thought he's had some really nice stretches during the season so far. And then on offense, that formula that we're talking about is, Lawrence making high leverage plays. The one-on-one opportunities that really can take advantage of on the outside that we talked about all offseason, this was the game you really saw it start to come to light. And then the explosive runs. They're running games ability to be explosive and have Travis ETM rip off those 20, 25-yard gains that we saw a couple different times today.

So while still not all the way there, while still exhibiting some of those issues and concerns in terms of turnovers and some really bad. mistakes in key times, I still thought that we saw a fuller version of that Jaguar's team that is a possibility for me over the course of the season. And I like this Jags team going into season, but that was the thing. I was like, okay, how is the defense going to play? They're playing a tougher schedule. How they go toe to toe with the big boys now when they're at, now they're playing these elite heavyweights because they have a first play schedule.

And how this defense is playing, legitimately top 10. And again, going against some decent units, too. They play tough against the chiefs. and also like how they played against the Falcons last week I watched as well. But they kept, even when the offenses were struggling, they were keeping them in games. You know, some stuff happened in some of the games like the Texans and stuff like that. But now with this offense, what we know their peaks can be, like you're saying what they can play this way. Like just even Trevor hitting Travis E.T.N on checkdowns because that's what the bills were getting to it with last week.

Push, push, push. All the linebackers are pushing back. So Trevor's looking, looking checks it down. And ETIN's so explosive that he's getting these explosive plays just on little checkdowns. And it's kind of cool to see that element coming to the offense, the explosive plays, the run game, like you're saying. And it's all kind of coming together. It's so like this team, if they have this defense that I think is going to be sticky with how they're playing with this offense that I think is just only going to be ascending. Hopefully, hopefully the offense line gets figured out a little bit because there's some internal stuff.

But man, I mean, this is, I think this is a real good team. I really do. I think they're just going to be ascending throughout the year. the bills, there's reason to think that there's going to be a step back with some of the injuries that they've endured. Now, Trey White is done. We saw Kyrie Erlum struggle with Calvin Ridley in some of those one-on-one situations today. And now to lose Matt Milano reportedly for the season. He has a broken leg and a serious knee injury.

He was playing at a ridiculous level. I was an all-pro-level player last year. And he was playing even better over the first month of the season than he did last season. And to lose him in the middle. And they popped between linebackers. They went to Dodson originally. they weren't sure who was going to replace Tremaine Edmonds. They were trying to figure out the answer at one linebacker spot coming into this season.

Now having to replace Milano with the guys already on the roster and what he means to that defense, that's a really tough ask. And again, we saw what this team could do when everything was kind of firing on all cylinders last week against Miami. And now being without two of those long time, reliable, kind of star-level pieces on defense, it's a huge blow to the heights that this team could potentially reach. Yeah, like the off the bill's offense, I'm not worried about. Yeah, they're going to be just fine.

It's just fine. And, but the, the defense is just because of those injuries and what Matt Milano does on a snap to snap basis. And what he does is everything. He lines guys up. He plays the run. He plays the pass. He's a blitzer.

He's just, he's truly one of the best off ball players in the, in the game at any position. He's fantastic. So that, that is just, he's the heartbeat. I really stinks. and when you have him gone and then also when you see, you see, I like that you brought up Kyrie Elam because not,

you really felt Trey White not being there. This is why having a true dude and we talk about this, having that true ace in the past game. Okay, now you have Calvin Ridley taking advantage of that. That's right. He got, it was like as that fourth quarter or as that second half went along, he just started getting peppered.

Third down, Calvin Ridley. Third down, Calvin Ridley. Just solo routes, outs, comebacks, and then the slot fade. And those are all just man beaters. So that's, That's why just having this next step with this offense. It's again, like why you feel good about the Jags,

but just why you get scared with the bills, because we talk about when you're playing these elite teams, and now all of a sudden you can't go into man at times or you can't blitz, that's kind of scary. It's tough for me today because the Jags win a game against a really good team, and we finally see a nice glimpse of who they could be. And unfortunately, it's a team I also have in the stupid wins league.

So that performance from the Jags, I still got to leave that game and feel one-on-one, which is how you feel about the Niners, I'm sure. Oh, I was like, oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, Cowboys, oh, no. Oh, no, I'm starting looking at their schedule. It's like, how are we going to salvage this? I think it'll be all right.

Well, speaking of the Wins League and reasons I'm a little bit more optimistic than I was. Next one here. Some previously struggling passing games. You have our attention. Let's start with the Cincinnati Bengals and Joe Burrow, who have their best game of the season against the Arizona Cardinals. It looked so, so much better. So much better.

And I know the Cardinals are not the best. team in football, but they've been competitive over the course of the entire year. And this is about the departure from what we had seen over the first month for Cincinnati. This is one of the worst offenses in the league full stop. There were 31st in passing success rate before this game. Joe Burrow, 0.31 EPA per attempt in this game, 0.19 EPA per dropback. For context, that's elite quarterback play. I think Mahomes led the league last year at 0.21.

So if you're in that point two range, you played a really damn good game. And that's what we saw from them today. And even more important than whatever box score stats you're going to look at and we'll talk about some of them as they relate to Joe Burrow, but more importantly, Jamar Chase, the way he looked today and how healthy he looked today and how much healthier, that is a fantastic sign if you're a Bengals fan hoping that this season is going to be salvaged. He first and foremost looked so much better, just the pocket movement, just to be able to throw deep ball consistently. there's a couple times I did feel like that they were it was kind of a performative like hey not I shouldn't say performative but kind of a proof like hey I'm good like kind of I feel like he had a couple of lows today and maybe just their offensive game he almost hit that second one to Irwin too that the one the flea flicker was so close the one I'm thinking of so close but it's good

to see burrow and chase even T. Higgins out to look normal and take advantage of a matchup that they should be taking advantage of and this is exactly the match you should be dominating this And they did throughout the entire game. But it was nice. They did some of the classics, but they're also doing some fun, some fun twists with Jamar Chase, and not just because T. Higgins is out, but because of just what they're trying to do to unlock him. He had not only just a bunch of plays from the slot, they're lining him up as the number

three spot and trips, like, you know, like where a normal tight end spot is, the Devante Adams on third down look. Yep. They've done that now 21, 21 routes this year from that spot, nine catches, six first downs from that spot just this year. over the previous two years combined, he only had 13 routes from that spot. I'm so glad you mentioned that because I was looking at the exact same sort of numbers coming out of the game. Because looking at him at those matchups at the number three spot was huge.

And then even just some of the other ways that they were using him today, they ran, first of all, multiple play action plays from the Bengals today, which is to me, that was the next thing I was going to get into. Very nice step in the right direction because we talked about this. All right, if Joe Burrow is not going to be at full capacity, where are your easy buttons going to come from? The fact that he's getting closer to that is a good sign, but it was still nice to see them incorporating some of those easy buttons, even as he's getting back to full strength. One of my favorite plays of the day, they run that little slide with the receiver on that turn your back to the defense play action that we've seen from the Browns this year, from the dolphins this year. So they're trying to steal from some of these teams that are these shotgun-based teams. They're like, all right, how can we find some easy completions?

So Chase starts on the left side in the slot. he runs the little slide route across the formation into the flat, they dump it to him easy completion. So just stuff like that where he's either in the slot or you're using him on some play action, easy completions. I like some of the RPO advantage throws to him today where they're running RPO's on early downs. He's got the one-on-one on the outside. Let's take a 10-yard-out route. So I just thought that overall the flow of the offense, whether it was some of the designs, them getting easy completions, some more play action, the ability to take shots downfield, and his pocket movement. overall so much closer to the team we want to see them be and again even with some little wrinkles

that are a little bit different than we've seen them seen from them when they've been humming over the last couple years again adding another layer and this is like it's like you just want to like men in black mind wipe just like this was week one you'd be like oh look at the bangles yeah going in some new stuff here yep hey look at that they're adding to their gun run game but shouldn't we give them the benefit of doubt that they are going to do this we've seen them do it so often two years should get some at least two years in my brain like that like they could have done anything this year anything could happen up yeah they're going to figure it out and i got asked about a dozen times hey do you want to you want to talk about the bangles at all that's like no i'm

given this time until he gets healthy and then here we are and it looks better that the long jimar chase touchdown was a gun play action yep and they did they did the moving the pocket play action off the like the horizontal stretch that everyone does now it made me so happy i know And not only is it like a 18, 20-yarder, it's a freaking 60-something-yard touchdown on a cross-country route. Deep, deep, deep, deep, deep stuff. So that gives you breathing room. This team has not created any explosives. So now they're not getting to explosives that aren't just go balls.

This is more sustainable. This is what every offense tries to get to. So it's like, now they're throwing this at defenses. And so now if we really see Burrow getting healthier, it's really scary. I think that in the Ciox next week we're playing good defense as well, it's like a perfect barometer test. for both of those units. I think that's going to be a really fun matchup next week. I think it's going to be kind of a sneaky good one.

It was funny, the first play where I was like, oh, man, look at Joe move. It was the sack he took in the red zone. He slipped out of it. He jumped over a guy. I was like, man, I think he's feeling okay. And then in the fourth quarter, in the third quarter, 17 seconds left in the third quarter, he had like a 10-yard scramble. And that may not seem like that notable of a play.

It was his second scramble of the year that was more. than a yard. His second of the entire year. Coming into this game, he had one scramble for more than one yard. And he had that 10 yard scramble. He had multiple scrambles today. It's like, okay, now we're back on the right track. So that's encouraging.

I will say, still worry about the offensive line. I was, that was, that was going to be my last whole PS on this, on this little discussion here. Still worried about the offensive line. One-on-one situations for Orlando Brown, multiple times today were trouble. And they're still struggling to pick up stunts. That's what it is. 5-0 against them and they use loopers and games. They're having so much trouble picking those up.

And it's often from the offenses left to right where they'll have trouble with that side of the line picking them up. There are two sacks on those today. And it's like, guys, it's week five now. You practice together plenty. Like we got to get this stuff short up here when you start playing some really good teams here down the stretch. Because your schedule as a team that wanted to visit in the AFC last year is not going to be fun over the next couple months. I mean, the AFC third division is just freaking just bloodbath. But those pass rush paths that they gave up the sacks on, I'm so glad you mentioned

it because that's exactly the note I had. But on it, it's a great example for offensive line, BPU, blitz pickup, and protection stuff, and going over blitz pass and just pass rush paths, all the twists and games. Like if you're going against the Cowboys, that is such an important thing about offense the line play. It's much like running a pass concept for the receivers and getting on timing and everything. It's how you pass stuff off. So the fact that they got them twice, it might been an unscotted look, but it's also, guess what's going to happen is every team's going to watch that. It's just like a cover. Someone picks up someone on your coverage. If they're going to find

something, find way, some way to loop it or bait something or bait a scramble, they're going to do it. So that is something that they have to fix. So I'm glad you brought it up. We're going to get to the rest of the AFC North here in a second. But the Ravens losing today. and the Bengals now be in one game back after the way that the first four weeks of the season went and Burrow looking like he did today. Don't want to get too far ahead of yourself if you're a Bengals fan, but you feel a lot better right now than you did when you woke up this morning. And I think that's all that really matters at this stage.

All right, let's stay on these teams, maybe let's say uneven performances in the passing game over the first month that really impressed today. And let's keep going with the Philadelphia Eagles. A really nice day from J-1-Hertz, from age. Jay Brown, got 0.26 EPA per dropback. Again, I'm talking about that elite, elite mark of like point two and change. The Eagles were there today. Hertz finished with three passing yards, eight yards per attempt.

A lot of other like subtleties to their performance that I think are worth pointing out. But when you watch the Eagles in the passing game today, maybe and compare that to some of the stretches we saw over the first month of the season, what jumps out to you? Well, just look at a Dallas Goddard stat line. You might as well start there, maybe. Right there. That was, yeah, getting him. back involved and that really felt like they were getting more to concepts that were conducive to him,

which were concepts that were conducive to his team last year. It wasn't a lot of maybe the tight end screens that they did a ton of last year. But the first catch of the game was that little crossing route. They love that concept. One guy, it's kind of of the drive family. It's a one guy sits right over the ball and then it's mesh without two crossers. It's one crosser and a guy sitting over the ball. That's all it is. But they used to run out all the time last year. And so they started with it. And then the touchdown. touchdown was just a nice, Goddard is so great on those endbreakers that he's a nice, beautiful design, a little pin down from Devante Smith. It was gorgeous.

He just wraps around it and it's perfect and Hurst throws a great ball on it. And it's just a reminder. It's that this team can pivot to one of three excellent weapons at any time. And AJ Brown, Devante Smith, and Dallas Goddard, and just whatever weakness you have, and only just exploit it for like, ooh, a little six, seven-year-gains. Gash it. Just explosive place. Goddard in the third quarter had that little double move. They're running four vert double moves to their tight end. And it's like, oh yeah, and this guy didn't have any, like, he had like eight catches in the past couple weeks. It's like, oh my God, but they can just do these things at any time. It's on top of that, and then you have Hertz scrambling. And then you

have the run game. That it's, it's a tough formula to stop. It's a lot of stuff coming at you with an amazing run game and Hertz that can create. I want to talk about Hertz scrambling because that was another key difference to me today. I have some numbers on it. But I want you to explain very quickly. there was a lot of talk today during that that Goddard double move. Why is Michael Hoeked at 300 pounds covering Dallas Goddard in that situation? So just explain to people really quickly

why that's necessary based on the structure of the defense. It was a pressure or a simulator. I can't remember, but it was a look. So especially in these mint, tight mint fronts that we've seen from the Fangio defenseers or what the Rams have done under Rahim Morris, is that when a blitz comes, you have to have a hot dropper.

fire zone dropper, defensive end, outside linebacker. This is what Dick LaBeau was very famous for. You know, it's the three, four stuff. It's three, four rules. They drop and they covered number two. So it's a number count. When we talk about match coverages, it's the same pressure rules for that. So this is what, this is why I remember from the play anyways.

So he's going to be right. So I don't, what I remember, this may be wrong. I thought that they were in like a penny front with a five down front and nickel. Yeah. And then they were, it was, he was split out. He was like flexed out into the slot. So he was just... Were they in base?

They were, they had a, they, I think they were in a penny front. So they had five down with one linebacker, but he had to be in that spot because they had a five down front against that sort of look. That's what I thought it was. So this is why, like it gets three, four teams, especially with two good pass rushers, why you want to get like a Spag's team or they're four, three, but whatever. But why you want to get these guys walked out. Oh, you can go against the Eagles. You want to get Hassan Redick, or sweat, walked out when you get them on base personnel because that that's their coverage responsibility. They're technically an outside linebacker.

And so when they're in it. And so that's probably what exactly would happen. I think that was a pressure in my head for some reason. Yeah. So, so they're probably in a, the Eagles did run 12 personnel a bunch today. I think 14 times.

I think it was 11, but I think they were, I think they were in nickel, but it was they, they only had one off ball linebacker on the field. Okay. So yeah. So they're probably,

he has to cover him. He's covering number two. Does it, they had a receiver there. He probably would have to cover him too. It was just been a tough spot. But that's exactly what it is. It's just you're covering that,

it's not like he's they're going like we want this guy this usual password that's what that's trying to get us to Dallas gotter. Sorry. I didn't I didn't pay attention to his own. I was geeking out about the design. But all he's doing is covering number two or whatever the alignment is. He is covering whatever that number of alignment is, not the jersey number. That's the difference there. Sorry. Sorry. It was a cool design. The scrambling is a very, very good thing to point out in my opinion, because that really jumped out to me today. The way that hurts use his legs in a of different facets, but especially as a scrambler. So in this game today, he had like four EPA or so, total as a scrambler.

So his scrambling added four points for the Eagles more or less. That is the fourth most scramble EPA he has added in a game since the start of the 2022 season. It is by far the most in a game this year. And it was actually double what he had added over the first four games combined. That's how much more he was. creating with his legs today, both extending plays and as a scrambler. So when you combine that with what he could do on design runs, which he did a lot of damage

on today, what Dallas Goddard added in the passing game, and then what the monster that where's number 11 is capable of in any given moment, you have a really potent offense when this stuff is clicking. And today they were. And it helped that they were going against a team that has one dominant pass rusher. And he had four hands on him every single snap. map and it gave Jaylen Hertz a lot of time to operate with a very good offensive line, playing with one backup.

But again, I think that you saw all of the different strengths the Eagles have to deploy on full display in this game. Yeah, they were straight up man blocking, which is locked in. It's almost like man coverage but blocking. So they're just saying, hey, there's a clip where Lane Johnson is just following along, like especially like cleared up all the scrambling lanes. It was ridiculous. That third and seven scramble was a fantastic play by Jaylon Hur. That was a hero play.

He broke through three tackles. It's like that was no joke. It's the one I have written down. It was awesome. A hell of a play. Yeah. So like there's two huge first downs on third and long. He was great as a runner.

And it was good because his scrambling has in when he's been, he's not a great, great thrower when he has to break out of the pocket. But like usually he can scramble and get these nice first downs and efficient gains. Kind of hasn't been doing that this year. He had like, you know, normal amount, but they haven't been efficient for him. And so it's nice to see him kind of just. have that to throw in there. It's like, oh, yeah, you can do that. And, and I mean, the,

the two-minute drive was insane. Like, the third and one catch and run to 80-minute drive. They had the ball at their own 35 with 17 seconds left and they scored a touchdown. I was, I'm glad you have the time because it felt like it took 10 seconds. It was like, third and one, okay, all right, see, they're going to get field go. I was doing like math in my head. I was like, okay, you can get a play there. Okay, they'd get one more off there. They could probably get like a 47-yarder. Boom, catch a run. I was like, all right, they're in field-go range. They'll get one play, maybe get a little closer. pass interference, sneak.

There was a horse collar in there too. So they got 15. They got 15 on top of the age. Oh, that's a total world DDT. They got 15 on top of the age. The age of brown completion in and of itself is a ridiculous play. He catches it a little bit behind him and then takes it like 30 more yards after the catch.

He's such a ridiculous player. He does that. He gets a horse collar on 15 on top of it. Then he draws a pass interference in the end zone and hurts punches it in from one yard out. It's not a bad sequence when you're the Philadelphia Eagles 17 seconds left in the half. Yeah, everybody can do that, right? Simple. Simple.

Simple. It's like, I mean, but hey, the good teams can do this. They can, hey, they can turn it around and they'll get those double scores, you know, score into the half, get the ball back and just sneak up on you. But honestly, a lot of the play action stuff is great for the Eagles right now. Like, it feels like they're getting to that stuff. Like, I want to mention that 12 personnel again because it's, you know, they're adding to their game. And they need to do that.

That's when teams are going to be gunning for you. So it feels like another team that's searching for, how to revamp their identity, but they just managed to, like, just score 30 points every game and go five and O and be one of the best teams in the league. So, so, like, that's the luxury of what this team and how this team is built, that they can do that. They can revamp and find their identity and still just be kicking teams' asses. Very encouraging days from both the Bengals and the Eagles. I think the Bengals needed it a little bit more, but I can pretty confidently say that they got what they wanted today.

Oh, one last little scheme thing they do. They do like a little smoke to the slot, like, so smoke is just, a guy take, why it's called smoke is like, take a smoke break. So you just stand there. Like that, that's what it means. So they, uh, they throw it to the slot, uh, against like blitzes or kind of like, too high looks. And I like that.

Instead of running a bubble, but they, like they hit Dallas Goddor on one. That's nice. You can hit your tight end on one. But they got like a nice like eight yard gain out of it. So look for teams to do a little bit more of that. I like how the Eagles are doing that right now. I also liked what the Bengals did. I would some of that stuff today.

Just little screens getting a ball in Jamar's hands in space. So again, one more bit of common, one more commonality between those two teams. teams today. All right, let's talk about a team that did not have as encouraging of a day. It's time for I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. We're still cool, man. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. It's not that the Ravens lost to the Steelers today. It's the way that the Ravens lost to the Steelers today. The Ravens lose 17 to 10 to Pittsburgh today. And we're going to give the Steelers a lot of credit in this conversation because they deserve some credit for the way a cup, specifically some of the United States. Specifically, some

of their guys played. It's not a stretch at all to say that the Ravens absolutely should have won this game. If you look at every underlying number about the way this game played out, the Ravens absolutely should have won this game. And somehow they managed to let it slip away, literally and figuratively over the course of this entire game. So they dropped seven passes in this game. It went through their hands.

Yes. It slipped through their fingers multiple different times. They dropped seven passes in this game. According to True Media, which started charting drops in 2019, there have only been five games with at least seven drops over the last four seasons. Okay. So this is one of the worst games that we've seen over the last four seasons. This is one of them a Jaguars game?

I actually don't think one of them was a Jaguars game. There was a couple. I wish I had written down the actual specifics. There was one with like 11 drops. I want to go back and watch that game and try to figure out what the hell happened. But seven drops. And according to True Media, they lost about six points worth of EPA on those drops.

So a touchdown on the drops. And it's not hard to figure out how you get there. On the first drive, it's Zay Flowers. He has a drop on first and 10. Mark Andrews can't make a catch on second and 10. They have to point it away. Third drive, Bateman drops the ball in the end zone for a touchdown. They have to kick a field goal.

This to me, this to me encapsulates the game because it's, how the NFL works. Okay. The Zayflowers drop in the second half where he just drops the ball. It's coming right at him on second down. Then on third down, T.J. Wackett's sec. Okay. So it's not just that the Ravens couldn't hang out to the football.

It's that when you leave the door open in the NFL, the other team still has to walk through it. And that's exactly what the Steelers did today. The Ravens left the door open consistently for the rest of the, for the entire game. And guess what? the Steelers have some really talented players. And if you're going to let them hang around for the entire game, Alex Highsmith and T.J. Watt and today, George Pickens,

are going to potentially make you pay for it. And those three guys, a little bit of Jalen Warren sprinkled in there, was pretty much enough for the Steelers to kind of keep this thing close and win it in the end with all of the mistakes that the Ravens made. The drops were brutal. The Bateman won. Andrews had one in the end zone, and that one was even more brutal because I believe Lamar was targeting Zay Flowers and the backline of the end zone.

And Mark Andrews thought it was for him. So he backed up and then dropped it. I'm starting to think. I do think of some Greg Roman letting it happen. But I'm starting to think Mark Andrews is part of the woes for some of the, like, routes going together, like crowding each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm starting to, I think it's a Mark Andrews issue.

I'm starting to, I'm starting to really think it is because he's kind of drifts sometimes. I'm like, what are you doing? Stay there. but I think the Nelson Aguard drop. I don't even know how I screwed that up. The Nelson, it was the Nelson Aguilor one late in the third quarter. The slot fade that he should have taught.

So he caught one right before that. It was like repeat. It was a beautiful back shoulder, back shoulder throw from Lamar. And then he drops the slot fade on the next play. Watt has immediate pressure. Lamar is forced to step up on third down. He sacked punt.

And that happened throughout this game, where they could not take advantage of the play. that they were there to be made, and then that front for Pittsburgh against Ronnie Stanley for some of this game, who's back and who knows how healthy. But then at right tackle, you're already down Morgan Moses, then Patrick McCarrie gets hurt,

and now you have T.J. Watt going against Daniel Fulele, and that did not work out very well for the Ravens. Even with that matchup in mind, they absolutely still should have won this game. I know. Exactly. But, like, Highsmith was, I even tweeted play that Ryan Stanley kind of gave him a little. gave him the business as the play went on.

But Heismet dominated that matchup throughout the game. Like, easily, yeah, he had a ton of pressures today. You get 10, they get double digits. And then Watt was just as disruptive. Yeah. And Watt was just going, hey, remember me? I can be a defensive player of the year too. But honestly, the first, I guess I stop saying honestly.

I'm not lying. The Ravens for the first quarter and a half, you know, that first 15 a little bit plus, they were cooking. And so it just kind of, and Lamar was making some throws. But that's, again, why you have to take advantage is especially these division matchups where they know all your stuff, they know all your situation stuff, especially repeat matches. Even if Monkins there, they still repeat a lot of the same calls.

I mean, a good chunk of it. I mean, not a ton, but some stuff in the run game at the very least. But also the Lamar pick with four minutes to go, a fade to OBJ, that's not your game. No. You know, OBJ is a slant guy. And anyways, you're not a fade ball guy and you're not a fade ball offense. Like, you know, that's, that's, if you know, pickings out there. there. Hell yeah. I'm dunking on you. But it's, I don't know, that's not your game. So to me,

that was kind of a real why. That was a, that was really disappointing moment I thought for this offense, but I still think this Freeman's team still five. The defense is freaking awesome. They're right, they're right up there with the top of the top of the top guys right now, this defense. The Steelers in the first half at a 27% offensive success rate. They average 3.4 yards per play in the first half. And they won, and they won the game. You're not kidding me with, And no one's getting me with any narrative about this game about how this offense play at the end. They couldn't do anything for most of this game. George Pickens can do some stuff.

They, they were throwing back shoulder balls to George Pickens. And then he had a go ball touchdown against Maui and Humphrey. Yeah. He was their passing offense. And then Jaywin Warren had one drive. That was it. And then they had a block punt. That was it.

Stewer ball. It was back shoulder throws to George Pickens. The Steelers today. You have, okay, let me do my little stealing right here, okay? Yeah, I can't wait. You have a quarterback who feels uneasy in the pocket. He is struggling at any sort of flash of color, and it's not like you have the Eagles offensive line, okay?

Wouldn't it make sense to try in some way to put him in positions where there's some insulation, there's some structure? You're not allowing him to just operate in the pocket like Tom Brady. in 2020. That's not what you're asking Kenny Pickett to be. They are 31st in the NFL at the rate they use play action.

This isn't a like more play action equals good conversation. This could be a potential solution to something that ills your quarterback, something that ails him. One of their biggest plays of the entire game comes with two minutes left

in the second quarter. They run a play action, play from the gun. They move the pocket for him so he doesn't have to worry about being a statue in the pocket. Pines pickings for a chunk gain on the left side. They pre-made the drift in the pocket.

That's what they did. The fact that this team uses their play action on 12.7% of their dropbacks when they have all of these other issues. And then you see what it can look like when you just put him in a tiny bit more structure because he throws a pretty ball. He's a talented guy. He was a first round pick. If you protect him from some of his worst impulses with structure and design, you can

get better returns out of him. Unfortunately, they choose not to do a lot of that stuff. Guess what? Today, it didn't matter. They still won. Yeah, block pot. It's, they, they are not a spread and shred offense. Like, they're going to run the ball.

Like, that's, I mean, so use play action off of that. Condense it a little bit. You're going to be a vertical shot offense. Look at your receivers right now. Look at what Pickens can do. So I don't get that. It's never made sense that offense has always felt silent, but maybe they can just summon their way into it.

fall into it somehow. Maybe, maybe. Maybe they could just see it. How do we create our explosives? Okay, wow, there's a lot of Pickens in there. There's a play action. There's a play action there. Okay, there we go.

Okay, there's another go ball off the on the sideline where Pickens is making a toe tap catch. For as frustrating as their offense was at times, the performance from the Ravens was more frustrating. So not one to write home about with Baltimore, but again, to keep saying it. I do think better days ahead. It's going to be hard to do this against. Seven drops. Seven drops, the terrible Justice Hill fumble, just a lot of frustration from a Baltimore team

that should have won today. There's some frustrating teams of the AFC. Oh, my God. And if the Jags managed to drop that game somehow today, based on the way that they played, I don't know what I would have done. Again, I don't care. It was so funny today.

So I'm in Denver. Okay? I'm in Denver. I was visiting friends. I watched the game out because we couldn't check into our hotel room because we were staying with friends the last couple of nights. So I went to a soccer bar in Denver because soccer bars are open. at seven in the morning. It was perfect.

Walk in, watching the game. And I'm reacting to, I can't remember what it was, whether it was the Trevor Fumble or the drop that I believe Zay Jones had on the right sideline that should have given them a first down. And this woman was sitting at the table next to me and she goes, she's like, who are you rooting for? I'm not rooting for anyone. I'm just getting mad watching Jaguars play football. I have no emotional investment whatsoever. And this isn't even me wanting to be right about a take or me putting this out in public in a forward-facing way. I have no shares of Trevor Lawrence in fantasy football, no shares of Zay Jones whatsoever.

It has no material impact on my life. And I'm watching them in the second half today. And I'm openly just being so mad about some of the stuff that they're doing for no reason. I don't care if they succeed or fail. It is just frustrating to watch as an impartial observer of NFL football. And the, it's like how they fumble too. It's like always the red zone or the two today Trevor had was in the red zone and just outside the red zone. It's like, why?

You do these like beautiful drives with like a bunch of explosives, some third down conversions, like all this stuff happening. Like side to side. Everyone's getting the catch. And it's like first a tent. Here comes like the haymaker. Strip sack. So how it goes. I get it.

It's like you, no matter what you're going one in one with that game. It was a different feeling one-in-one. It was how that game happened. It was a dirty one-in-one. Who are you rooting for? I'm rooting for a team to not make me lose my mind. That's what I'm actively rooting for right now. Just be consistent.

Just be normal. Jaguars, just be normal. Please, it's the Babadook. All right, two teams that probably would deserve entry into this conversation. And I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. But I don't want to spend any time talking about them. and I no longer have the capacity to be disappointed in them.

And that is the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. We're on the no-fly list for the foreseeable future until I have reason otherwise to talk about them. We will have plenty of Patriots talk. Chad Graff is going to come on with that key for tomorrow because I do think the interesting conversation to be had about the Patriots is what this means in the big picture, what Bill Belichick's future potentially looks like, what this team's future potentially looks like. And that is a perspective that you will absolutely get from Chad when he has that conversation with Zach tomorrow. So please come back for Kiefer in the Beats and listen to that because I think it is going to give a lot of insight to where the Patriots are right now. I don't have the stomach or the patience to dig into it myself right now. That's all I'll say.

Those Super Bowl matchups aren't walking through this door. They certainly are not. Those two teams. A little tweak here with the format of our Sunday. show. We're always going to do, not mad disappointed, we're always going to do, you have my attention. We love doing those. But we had found over the last few weeks that some of the buckets that we had created just didn't allow us to talk about some of the games that we wanted to dig into from Sunday. So every Sunday show now, from now on, we're just going to finish with a Sunday notebook,

some stray observations, some stray thoughts about some of the other games that happened today. And let's start with the crazy 312 win that the New York Jets had over the Denver Broncos. I don't know how much substantive talk or insight I have football-wise from this game, but I do think that we just have to acknowledge that it happened and that the Broncos ended up losing this game that we've been waiting all season for because their coach took public shots at the offensive coordinator and the guy he replaced and then lost to this Jets team led by Zach Wilson that is still not much more than like Brees Hall on offense. And the Jets, every department in the Jets building seemed to celebrate this victory with relish. Social media team. I'm sure the trainers, the equipment team, the players were doing breakdowns on Hackett. They were, they were this, we, how many, we went five full wicks, right?

Yes, it was five weeks. We should have broken. This is, this is the highest, highest that we could ever go. Like, this might be a day, Beltzer six star. When your social media team, immediately tweets out a shot at the opposing head coach after the game is over. It's five wicks. We knew that going into the game.

This was a new level. This was this felt even more. But of course, this game featured because it couldn't not. Multiple special teams miscues involving the sun, which has been there our entire lives. I will say the sun in Denver. It's very bright, very, very bright. I've been dealing with it for the last couple days. Colorado sun.

It's that extra couple thousand feet does all the different. difference. But also a great, great, just a tasty botched end of half clock management from Zach Wilson and Nathaniel Hackett. Fifteen seconds left running, I have to break this one down. Running a corner high, low, which is fine. Throw it to the freaking end zone or do not throw it at all. Or throw it to the run back checkdown. That's fine. The rules are you have 14 to 16 seconds. Depending on where I was at, I feel like it's 14 seconds. If you have no timeouts and you want to get like clock it and kick the field goal. You have 14 seconds. That's the rules. So you can't, you have to throw it between the numbers and preferably between the

fricking hashes because then everyone can get up. The end of refs can spot the ball at a quicker pace. So they run just a high low, corners and a flat route. Wilson takes a second and then throws the flat route all the way to the sideline gets tackled inbound. So it's not the end zone and it's as far away as possible. Literally do two things you should not do. He did both. And then they can't get the ball off and they can't clock and they can't kick the field go at the end of the half. And they're already at the field goal range. They're at the 13 yard line.

That was just, we don't get a lot of good ones like that. Like we had Mario Cristoball Saturday night, a beautiful one run the ball when they should take a knee. And then this was a really good one too. But it didn't cost them to game. So who cares? They won by double digits. I know. Because Broncos defense.

And it's just, oh, this game is just messy. This is just messy. Let's get to some better time, some better days. lions and the dolphins, just both of them taking care of business today. I mean, everything you could really want outside of probably those two to a turnovers, just but on a per pay, on a per play basis, some excellent performances from both of those teams. One more little wrinkle every single week for Miami.

So they have that little out motion from Tyree Kill, we've talked about a million times where he's in that like flex bone sort of alignment, just offset from the tight end. They've done it where he'll go vertical, he'll be, he'll run an inbreaker off of it. a million different things. This week they were on a screen off of it. He goes out, he comes back on a little screen, it goes from like 40 yards. So just every single week, there's something new

that they're adding to all of this. A-chan looks incredible. Every single time he touches the ball, it feels like it's going for 50. What they're doing offensively against every team that is not the Buffalo Bills is still a blast to watch, and that did not slow down in any way today. And the Lions, another fantastic day against Carolina.

The play we saw the Niners score a touchdown on, throwback to George Kittle. Lions ran that earlier in the day. And the other guy I wanted to shout out on the Lions. Me and the past catchers for the Lions has been a long summer and about the weapons that they need on that side of the ball. And I still believe a lot of the things that I said. But we are in a real life version of the, I was not

familiar with your game with me and Josh Reynolds. Josh Reynolds had like five plays today where I was like, Jesus, just making acrobatic, ridiculous catches. So you combine that with all the other stuff that they have. They didn't have Jemir Gibbs or Amman Ross St. Brown today. And they were still absolutely rolling. So credit to the Lions. And again, credit to Josh Reynolds,

who had some really impressive highlight real catches today. So there's some explosive runs in a run game with Monty. Also the one, the one. I was getting a couple of responses today. People being like another 100 yard gain from David, Montgomery is like he got 40 of them on one play. Come on guys. He is what he is. He is what he is. And that is fine for this offense. Fine in his role. Fine as his role. Austin Ackler did do a great breakdown of like his game. Kind of just subtletes. He's like he's a running back's running back. He's a comedian's comedian. He's, he's, he's, he's, he's, the reverse fleaicker thing of a jig. That thing has been kind of like the flavor of the month. And so the Falcons did week two. Some other teams tried it. I believe the Saints tried a week or no, the Titans tried at week. Or no, the Titans tried at week. week one against the Saints. But yeah, see this.

So it's twice today. All in the same areas, that area is that shot zone. So you do a run. Looks like it end around or reverse. And it turns out to be a flea flicker. It's just to add as many terms as possible. So I guess it would just be a reverse flea flicker. That's not that many.

Reverse flea flicker play action, I guess. So there's no, I don't have access to these sorts of numbers because the data that we have isn't this granular. But I asked someone at PFF, like, have there been more flea flickers this year than there were last year or just in general? because anecdotally it feels like it. There weren't more than they were last year. But I think if we looked over the last like five years,

and I'm sure it would be hard to find tags on these plays, it does feel like we are seeing more trick plays, period, in the NFL. Flea flickers, reverse passes, either two we saw the score touchdowns today, Drake London threw a pass today. There was a couple, I can't remember what game it was. There was a botched reverse pass that they didn't even. even get off that I watched recently. Broncos.

Broncos had to reverse that they messed up. So yeah. So, yeah. And I feel like this is potentially happening because we're in a world now where limiting explosives is the most important thing. So our teams being more thoughtful about saying if we can create one, two explosives through trick plays over the course of the entire game in a world where those

are harder to find within the normal rhythms of your offense, is that enough to potentially break the game open for us. And that's just like a pet kind of thought that I've had over the last five weeks, but it really does feel like that mindset has kind of trickled into offensive play callers around the league. I mean, what were we seeing? We've seen these safeties and these linebackers, these offball linebackers, once we mentioned in the show, they're playing the play action stuff so well now.

They know the paths that the routes take on play action and bootlegs. They robot. They run up with these guys. They know the route combinations. And as, you know, more Shanhan guys. are in the offenses, they can just talk to the coaches on the other side. What are the concepts that you run with this? So how you get this hard commit from the linebackers and the safeties is you have to

hard commit hard sell on your end as well. And you have to do that with gadgets and these types of plays. And really it's just an extended play action play, but just with the most exotic window dressing possible, at least the flea flicker. It's one of my dad's favorite plays. So flea flicker has a special place in my heart. It really does. The 1998 Vikings had plenty of those beautiful flea flicker.

years. But it, these plays there, to get these safeties, these two-way safeties, they're so good, passing stuff off and knowing what to commit down and run down hill or run down on dig routes, okay, how do we get them to hesitate just for a hair? And then we just put some heat going behind it. And that's, that's, these are the plays that are hitting. And honestly, they stop saying that, Nate. But the lions are just like every week, third down red zone, shot zone, best stuff in the week. Ben Johnson is the best situation like play designer. That line staff, I should say, because I'm sure it's a group effort. They have so much cool stuff every single week in red zone, short yardage, third down. All this stuff is just fantastic. It's a treat to watch every week, what they,

but they kind of unveil. Them, the dolphins, the Niners right now, what they're doing every single week on offense is really something to behold. And it's going to be fun to watch those offenses over the course the rest of the year. The offense, we were very excited. about coming into the season, they've been a little bit disappointed, but had a nice little bounce back day today. The Atlanta Falcons and their passing game showing a little bit of life for you today, Nate Tice. How you feeling right now?

Much better. Much better. That was the Texans hard committed. Talk about hard committing. They were stopping the run game. They were saying hell or high water. We're making ridder beat us. And he did.

He had 59% success rate today on 38 dropbacks. That's the fourth best game so far this entire season by any quarterback. So, but that's what he needs to do. And he had some great ball placement. He had an overthrow to Mack Hollins that was like basically a back shoulder overthrow as a Texan player was trying to wall Hollins. So he just, he backshouldered it and just pinned it on him. But that's creating a throw. They had double digit passing explosives today.

I also thought some of the bootleg stuff was fantastic. The play action game in general, I thought was fantastic in this game. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of sail routes to Cal Pitts, which is great. And that's what I love to see. Yes. Because they're running single high.

And sail routes are great against single high. So what's have Kyle Pitts run them? Great. 60 more than 60% of the Falcons early down runs today were into an eight-man box. The Texans said, we're not going to let you run the ball. And the falcons said, fine. Then we're going to use play action. And I feel like teams have really been packing the paint against them because they know they want to throw the ball over the middle of the field.

So if that's going to be the case, can we get some in break, can we get some outbreakers to guys like Pitts as, kind of a change up to that. And we saw that multiple different times today. So it's still same sort of play action game, but just attacking a different area of the field because trying to hit all those inbreakers over and over and over again clearly just was not working. So I think a smart pivot from Arthur Smith and that coaching staff and a nice little, all right, we know what our issues are. How are we going to address them? And I think we saw a lot of that today. And the play action game was phenomenal. Nine of ten for 147 yards off of play action today. And this is. isn't just again, little in-breakers off-play action.

We got the fake toss and then the outbreaker to pits to set up the first touchdown. That was beautiful. And then one of my favorite plays in all football is the full-back seam out of 21 personnel where he's leading up the block, takes it vertical, and you hit him coming up the scene. We've seen the Niders do it a million different times. And so Keith Smith with the big chunk today was one of my favorite plays of the entire day. It was we ran that against TCU and the Rose Bowl. Brady Ewing had a great one, but he turned, Brady Ewing was a great athlete, but we converted to fullback. And he had to turn to catch it because Scott Zosian got lit up, just a clean runner right at him.

So he kind of threw like an anchor ball. Anchor ball is like, I'm not missing, but I'm not leading him. You're putting an anchor on the receiver. So Brady Ewing makes a nice catch, but he stumbles at the one. But it's like, that's the play that's always burned my brain when I see that little fullback scene right up the shoot. But they had some cool design. They had the stumble play, Michael Pruitt, on third. third and two or third and three.

They're in a little play action. And Pruitt acted like he was fake cutting. And so the D.N. like goes, oh, okay, okay. And then he runs down the line. And then he runs a little flat. And so that was like for a big game that led. That was right before the Bejohn Robinson shovel pass for a touchdown.

But the two point play, I really like this twist on the two point play they had. And teams have run this before. So it was a shovel pass to Jonu Smith, which would have had fancy guys just, like, just loving it. but they had Tyler Algier running instead of so like on a sprint out play and there's a lot of teams

that run sprint out on these like big two point plays or near the goal line. It's really frustrating. They just run two man routes run pick concepts and everything. So they made it a three man concept. So rather than have Tyler Argear,

you know, sealed edge, they just have them run a flat route and because they're going to put the DN in a bind by putting the shovel pass with it. So they package a sprint out with a shovel pass.

And so I just like that little design right there and just create a wide open touchdown. So I just like, yeah, just little tweaks that they're already adding and their defense is playing well. But I will say that. CJ Stroud also had a nice game on the other side, especially in the fourth quarter when he had to step up and get him the lead.

I'm sure people are looking at some of the scores today and being like, oh man, you're going to keep all this praise on the Falcons offense that scored 21 points or a Jags offense that scored 25 points. The Falcons lost 11.25 EPA today on fumbles. 11 and still won the game because of how efficient their passing game was. The Jags lost 8.7-E.8.37 EPA on Fumbles today. So both of those teams were down at the bottom of the NFL in the amount of value lost on turnovers and still won the games they played today.

That's really hard to do in the NFL and speaks to how good you were in some other areas. And I think that goes for both of those teams. So an encouraging performance by the Falcons offense. Another encouraging performance by the Colts offense, just mindlessly efficient. Gardner Minchu was fantastic for stretches of this game on a per play basis. I need to see their hyper talented, exciting young quarterback start and finish a football game because I'm starting to get concerned about this. And this isn't selfishly, I want to see him play, but this is not a good start.

When you have a guy who's this talented and this just, he's an athletic marvel being this banged up this often early in his career, Colts fans don't have to go very far to start getting to like the worst case scenario here. And my mind goes to Cam Newton right away as well. And that's not where I want to go. This guy is so talented. He's in such a good situation with what their offensive infrastructure looks like with Stuyke in there. We've seen it consistently over the year so far. And every single week, he seems to leave the game for one reason or another. Apparently now it's a sprained AC joint.

He's likely going to miss some time. So this is just something to monitor with the Colts, even though there's a lot of reason for excitement there right now. I've had the sprained AC joint. It's not fun. I think you don't want to take away his style play and make him think, but you have to tell him it's not about just this play. It's about your whole career.

And it's like that is that balance you have to find. But obviously, it's, hey, every shot you're taking is potential. You're not showing that you can balance. off this. So until that point, slide, get out of bounds. Yes, sometimes these big time situations like you did in week one. It's like, okay, I do understand going for it and really fight for that that first down, but you can't do that in the first quarter on the first drive or the second quarter. He's just taking big hits. And I appreciate his play style, but I totally agree. It's just hard. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, I struggle to tell a player, don't play your style,

but you just have to explain to him, find your own style, to find your way to save your game. Burrow has found his way. You know, ironically, I know the injury is kind of from a totally different play style than what has happened. But it's like everybody has to find their play style that works for them before it's too late. And he does too. He's just getting these warning sites very early. It's a great thing to bring up. This is a conversation that has to happen with most young quarterbacks.

It's a conversation. I remember talking to Josh Allen about it. I've talked about this a bunch of times when I went there in the fall of 2019, a real story about Josh Allen. the discussion that he had with Sean McDermott after his rookie year, this idea of you don't have to win the game every single play, you don't have to do it. Like there is going to be another play. We're going to live to play another one.

You don't have to score a touchdown every single time you touch the ball. That was important. And I think that him transitioning into the player that we see now, he had to go through that. Joe Burroughs, same deal. I mean, they've had real discussions with him about like, okay, we need to adapt here. Like, we need you to just kind of take what's there.

We know you want to make the biggest plays all the time, but we have to accept what a defense is giving to us. So this isn't a, man, I'm really concerned about Anthony Richardson. This is part of the development process for a lot of young quarterbacks, is that a discussion like this has to take place at some point along the way. But I think it has to happen because I don't think you can live with this if you were the Colts. Because there's so much to be excited about. Zach Moss had another great game. Mitch you played well. they win again.

So I want to see him be part of this because there's just so much to look forward to with this version of the Colts. And it just gets a little bit of a nick every single time he has to walk off or go to the medical tent or whatever. Maybe can with another sack. And also, but the pass catchers all, it's nice to see kind of these guys, these secondary guys are starting to kind of like have some nice games. Josh Downs had a nice game today. See Colin Grants and even outside the drop have, you know, some decent games. But like you're saying, the Zach Moss stuff. We're seeing the tight ends have some moments.

So some young Colts doing some things. That's why we just want to see what I think could be a star quarterback. Just come on, just stick with us. I just need to stay in stretch here. We're not going to talk about the Chiefs tonight just because the Chiefs play on Thursday. So we are going to have a Thursday night reaction show dedicated solely to the Chiefs. We have not talked much Chiefs this year just by virtue of the way things are kind of bounced. You know, they played a Thursday night game.

And they played in a couple other primetime games. be the Jetson prime time. So we are going to talk about the Chiefs a little bit later this week, but we're going to save that for when we get closer to the Thursday night game. Coming later this week on the athletic football show, Zach Kiefer, we'll be joining with some of our beat writers. We have Chad Graff talking about the Patriots, like I mentioned a little bit earlier, Mark Koboli, talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers and their win.

And then Alec Lewis, our Vikings writer, coming out to chat about what happened with Minnesota today, Justin Jefferson's injury, what their outlook may be like. I think the Vikings and the Patriots, some parallels with the discussion. We're in what will next year potentially look like, and I think that there's a lot of interesting ground to cover with those. If you have not listened to that show, unbelievable insight from our beatwriters. They can just give you such a great lay of the land for where these teams are

and where these franchises sit. So please check in with that show tomorrow. Highly encourage you guys to listen to it. For now, that's all we got. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you later this week. This was The Athletic Football Show. Thank you.