The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 6 Reaction: The Steelers keep scoring, Derrick Henry isn't fair, the Buccaneers bounce back & concerned about Cam Newton?

Episode Date: October 19, 2020

From the Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers putting up offensive showcases to stay undefeated, to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers shutting down Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, it was a week 6 full of firepower, big plays, and even more questions about which teams we should be buying. Join Robert Mays and Nate Tice for a full recap of the biggest moments of Sunday including Adam Gase's failure in New York, the Bears red zone defense, Adam Vrabel being a possible Savant, the underrated Lavonte David and much more.Subscribe to The Football GM for a new episode each Tuesday: https://apple.co/3n7yn7OGet access to The Athletic for $1 at theathletic.com/footballshow 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 Maze. Joining me tonight. My friend Nate Tyson, Nate, how are you? Doing great. Six weeks. We knocked them down.

We just had some more fun games than another fun pack Sunday game. Even though there's only like two afternoon games. So it was really like a Sunday morning adventure and a Sunday night adventure with a little like, a little midday lull. But actually it was, it should have been a fun, exciting game. But an interesting game, nonetheless. We will get into that. Before we get into today's game, though, I wanted to take a minute to talk about Vaughn McClure, who passed away at his home earlier this week. Vaughn covered the Falcons for ESPN since 2013. But before that, he covered the Bears for the Chicago Tribune and the Sun-Times. And that's important as it relates to me. The first time I met Vaughn was probably 11 or 12 years ago at the NFL Combine when I was still in college. And it was a big deal for me. I read him all the time and I was a young kid who aspired to the type of job that he had

and he could not have been any more gracious toward me. And Vaughn always had time for you, no matter who you were. And I think everyone would relay that. And every time I saw him over the next decade, he would act like I was the most important person in the world. He made you feel famous in this way. It was really special. He gave these huge hugs.

like the type of hug that you would typically reserve for your best friends, which I think was his point. And he always wanted to know how I was doing, what I was working on, how he could help me. I remember the last conversation we had like that. It was in the hallway of the Falcons facility last summer. And I could so vividly just remember him standing there nodding as I talked.

He was just this intent listener. And I told him what I was working on. And he gave me like three phone numbers right there for people who could help me. The work just truly mattered to him. And covering the NFL nationally can be a strange job. You parachute into these places and each one is different. I always liked going to Atlanta though. And that was in part because I knew the welcome that would be waiting for me from him

and that would I would get to see him when I was there. And I've thought about him a lot this week. And I've thought about how much I can learn from him about being more thoughtful and intentional in the way that I interact with people and how I help people. And thinking about him has made me want to be better. And I just wanted to say that I'm grateful for that and that he was on my mind today. And I think he was on the minds of a lot of people. So Nate, I know you knew him as well.

It would be because during your time in Atlanta and even when your dad was working for the Bears. Yeah. And that's the thing was when I got to Atlanta. I mean, even though I had been around the NFL for so long, I wasn't working in the NFL. And that was my first opportunity to work in the NFL was in the Atlanta and I got lucky to work with my dad. And right away, Vaughn came up to me. It wasn't like my dad was like, hey, Nate, this is, this is Vaughn, Vaughn, this is Nate. Vaughn knew who I was right away. He was like, oh, okay,

your coach Tyson son. You're Nate, huh? He knew all about me. He was, like you said, he made me feel special like a rock star. And, and, you know, I want to be on the other side of it, quote unquote, like being on the personnel or coaching sides, Vaughn was always good with me. I always just felt comfortable with him. It was never that media player coach front like that we ever had. It was like, cool. Like you said, a big hug. How you doing, bro? Everything was great. The last time I talked to him, he sent me a DM on Twitter because I sent a picture of somebody on on on the airplane with their shoes off. And he goes, I got, I sure hope that's not your dad's feet. And so, you know, that was the last time I spoke to him. I was, oh, you do it. That's, that's the type of guy he was. He was just always positive. And like you said,

he remembered the stuff you told him. Even if it was a little tidbit, he really kind of cared about the people he met. And yeah, we're going to really miss Fawn. Yeah, he was a really special person. And I think that the reaction you saw from everybody this week really speaks to that. And I'm going to miss him. I'm going to miss those hugs. I'm going to miss that feeling.

And, you know, I hope that people remember him in a fond way in the way that they have recently. So with that, let's get to the games this week. I would say that there were two statement wins today. And those were by the Buccaneers and the Steelers. Two teams that came in in pretty high profile games. Winning records, Bucks Packers, big game in the NFC, big game in the NFC, north between the Steelers and the Browns, and both of them ended up as boat races. So if I asked you, who do you think was the most impressive team today?

Whose win was more impressive? Which would you say? I would say the Bucks win against the Packers. I just think the caliber of the opponent they were playing against. It was just the complete team win, not that the Steelers didn't have a complete team win. I just think that it was even a bigger statement, even though the Steelers are still running the table so far. The caliber of opponent they played against, the Packers have been shredding people on offense. And the Bucks defense stepped up and did some things, even after getting smacked in the mouth in the first quarter.

And, I mean, they did a whole bunch of things, especially offensively. And it's, yeah, it was a really good win for the Buccaneers. I mean, they just had a nice, complete team win today. What jumped out to you about their plan defensively? Like you said, the Packers were absolutely shredding people and making them look silly doing it. I mean, so many of the things they were doing this year, whether it was the jet motion they were using, the two back sets they were using, how they were getting to their stuff was giving a ton of teams problems. And the Bucks didn't even blink today. So what about their approach really jumped out to you?

Just how aggressive they stayed. It wasn't, we're playing against Rogers. Oh, we got to play soft. Nope. Bulls just does what he does. And he just kept attacking on all downs, third down and rundowns. And also just the whole team played angry and confident. You know, the entire team, you wouldn't guess that they have some younger players back there.

Because that entire team was flying around and getting up and talking smack. They did not care about who they were playing against that the other team was winning. And one of the best teams in the league so far this season. They're playing against Aaron Rogers. Even when they were down, they stayed aggressive. And they just leaned into what they were. I mean, defensively, offensively, just the whole team, they never blinked an eye. It's a really fun team and seeing the young guys step up.

and perform like that too, along with the vets. It's a really fun and scary team. So many guys jumped out for me today. I went back and watched that game this afternoon in between the afternoon game and the night game. And Levante, David, he was making plays. I was sitting there laughing at my computer because they were so ridiculous.

I mean, he had one play. It was about a two-yard gain in the first half where he slipped to Mercedes-Louis in space and then somehow kept moving down the line of scrimmage to make a play. The body is not supposed to. supposed to be able to contort that way and still be able to accelerate the way that he did. He did a ton of stuff today.

I mean, he was just all over the place. He had another really nice play at the line of scrimmage where just outran Corey Winsley, who was supposed to be cutting him off. He had a couple of nice plays in coverage. He had a couple of sacks. Would you say, I want to talk about a couple other guys, but before we could do that, do you think he's the most underrated defensive player of this generation? I think he definitely has an argument for that.

Does that make him underrated that we're not even considering from the underrated conversation? He's too underrated for the underrated category. We played against him my senior year at Wisconsin when he was at Nebraska. And to that day, he is stuck out in my mind. He just made this one play. He ran down the line of scrimmage and made a tackle on like a bubble, I think it was. And it was unbelievable. And that's to this day, I was so, I'm like, oh, my, even since then, I've really actually thought he's been underrated.

Because, like, I was still in this day. It was one of the best players we played against him. And Ryan Carrigan was the other one that always stood out to me. But, like, he is. They've never been on, like, when's the last time the Bucks have been in the playoffs? So he's never been on these teams that have the spotlight on him at linebacker, a position that might not get that spotlight anyways. But he's so, so good.

Like, he should be nationally known because he's so smart. He's like the perfect football player. His ability and coverage against the run, even as a pass rusher today, he dominated that game. He showed up in so many ways. I would say the other people in that conversation, probably Chandler-Jones. Jones, like Chandler Jones just gets 18 sacks a year and nobody notices. But they also have sacks. If you're a pass rusher, there is a stat to attach to your name.

And then it gets people to say, oh, God, he's so underrated. We never talk about him. But Levate David, there isn't even that singular stat to push him into that conversation. And really last year, not even that many people noticed that the buck's defense was playing really well because they weren't a relevant team. Now, I feel like everyone who is paying a little bit of attention to them and some of the numbers that anticipated this sort of performance. performance to them defensively, and now they're even outperforming that has kind of been

locked into what he's been doing. But I don't think a lot of other people have noticed. I remember the first time I wrote about him, I think was in 2013 at Grantland. I did this thing called the All-22 All-Stars. And he was like an underrated player then. And it's still, seven years later, he still is just because of this vacillations and the Bucks relevance. I just find that it's so funny. But other guys, I mean, other than him making plays today, Carlton Davis. So the second interception, it's a third and four, the second interception, that Rogers threw to third and four. They run double slants,

which is a man-beating concept, and that's exactly what they're trying to do. They had Devante Adams on Carlton Davis. Davis just doesn't even blink. Just comes down, plays the slant, gets his hand on it, interception. And he had a few plays today, a deep ball down the left sideline,

I think to MVS, where he was just step for step with him the whole way. So many guys, and Winfield had a couple of plays today. He probably should have had the pick on the play where Levante David had great coverage on Robert Tani, another play by him.

And one of the things that I thought was really cool was how Bowles was mixing it up and just keeping Rogers guessing. There was one play in the first quarter where he was trying to go to Adams on a quick little out and Barrett dropped right into it. And them not knowing which of the guys was coming and who was dropping back, that's a difference between this team and say like the Steelers. The Steelers coming into this week's game, I think, their outside linebackers, Watt and Dupree combined.

I think it's 17 snaps in coverage. But this team likes to blitz. it's linebackers. There are a lot of guys coming from different directions. So don't necessarily know where the pressure is coming from. And I think you saw that today. I think you saw Rogers off balance consistently not being able to play in rhythm the way that he had for most of the season so far.

Yeah. And that pressure you brought up that, or that David on the third and four in the interception that he brought up, it's just such a great point. And some differences. And it speaks to the intelligence of David is that it was a cover zero. And his responsibility was to cover the running back. And rather, he's so aware.

and I don't know if they teach this or what. Usually, okay, he's blitzing no matter what. That's my guy. That's a runnerback. That's my coverage assignment. I'm going to come in on a wait to blitz and, you know, find a open gap that I can hit as a runnerback is occupied. He was like, all right, it's third and four. This ball's probably getting out quick.

And, all right, we're bringing heat anyway. So he just stayed as a whole player. It was just such an intelligent play. And it just speaks that they trust him to read the quarterback's eyes and make the right play as opposed to just going. If that runabout block, runoff back blocks, you're coming on the pressure to and adding on. David's smart enough to just know, no, no, it's 3 and 4. The ball's going to get out quick.

I'll just stand right here because that's where Rogers was like, oh, cover zero. I'm going to hit this inside slant. It's going to split. It's going to go for, you know, might go for a touchdown if they break the tackle. And nope, David just stood right there, knew it was quick game. And they got jumbled around, made the pick. But that just speaks to his intelligence of really the defense playing so aggressively. The offense was also fun today.

I mean, Gronka doing stuff, which was great. I mean, made a couple like really big plays. I mean, the touchdown, you pointed this out, really impressive. catch to turn over on the other shoulder, catch the ball with one hand. The crossing route he caught, or the kind of the vertical play up, the right side line. It's like, oh, man, like Grunk doing things. I just, again, like you said, total team win. They made a lot of plays.

And it's funny to kind of watch their passing game do stuff without Godwin and Evans really having to be the stars. I mean, I think that's encouraging that you have that sort of production, that sort of efficiency and that offense moving the ball with them out having to force feed those guys. Yeah, and Gronk has been in that Jermaine Gresham role that when with the Cardinals. Jesus Christ. That's a deep, deep pole right there. Deep, deep pull and depressing commentary.

Right. The greatest, the greatest tight end of all time is now Germain Gresham. Oh, God. It was because this is how bored I was this summer was like, all right, I'm going to just watch the 2015 Arizona Cardinals offense. See what all this hype's about. Robert's been talking about for five years. So I watch it And in that role

In that offense The Godwin is replacing The 2015 Cardinals was awesome I don't like to hear I don't like that tone from you Continue okay I just want to make sure that we establish that Before we moved on

But in that You know because they're so aggressive Downfield is that And as opposed to having a tight end Maybe attack that intermediate They would rather go 11 personnel And have a power slot Which was Larry Fitzgerald then

And now is Chris Godwin Who's perfect for that role because he can run block like a mofo and he also could just work from the inside. He went on a nice route on an outbreak or against outside leverage man, which was, I mean, for a big guy. Well, it was a great. I know exactly what you're talking about. It was that play where Alexander thought he was going on the crosser and he just cut it back out. And when you give him space to work, it's beautiful stuff.

And I'm really excited now that Godwin's back to see what sort of rapport him and Brady can build on those sorts of plays. I know because it's so tantal. I mean, I keep talking about it. I think just the third mention of Godwin that had in six shows. And so he hasn't even played. Going back to Gronk, though, in that offense, that's a blocking role. It's a traditional Y tight end. Aries is fine keeping the tight end to protect.

And then he just designed plays to the tight end as opposed to the flow of the offense, like I always talk about. So with Gronk usually staying in the pass pro and all that, it's great to see that also they unlocked them a little bit. And speaking to the team win stuff, that play to Gronk that was on the big overrout on down the right side line, great pass protection right there by the box. Like they,

they picked up a blitz like it was nothing. It was like this like it was nothing. I think Brady pointed out before even the snap happened, but the line just slid to it and they were just waiting for the pressure. So Brady was able to stand back there. And when Brady's able to stand back there like that with these weapons, it's, gashes are just going to happen left and right.

Looking at some of the numbers here. You know, they have 13 hits today. They ended the game with five sacks with 13 hits on Rogers. Obviously it doesn't help that Bakhtiari went out of the game. But even when he was in the game, they were having trouble protecting. So there was one play I wanted to ask you about. It was at the 10-11 mark of the third quarter. It was the first and 10.

So JPP crashes inside and David replaces him as the force defender, what I assume is a run blitz on first and 10. When they saw it was a play action pass, Davis just keeps going. and obviously the back I think is supposed to account for him in pass protection, but it was too late because of the run fake, and David just gets in for the sack. So watching that play and the way that the bucks were kind of attacking them on early downs especially, I'm curious, and I think because you could also apply this to the Steelers,

do you think there's something to these blitz-heavy teams, especially on early downs where they have these run blitzes that kind of turn into other things if you go play action that make them well-suited to attack a team like that. the Packers or a team like the Browns that likes to run the ball and likes to use a lot of play action in early downs. Yeah. So you kind of assume third down pressures, that's kind of what everyone kind of will think of and that is to make the quarterback throw short of sticks, rally and tackle. So but like on run downs, all this slanting and twisting that can happen with a guy pressuring like you mentioned with David come down and reading play and disrupting it.

It's that that can cause disruption and edginess with the offense. So, you know, tackle TFLs can be drive-enders too, not just sacks. It could just put the offense behind a stick when all of a sudden it's second and 14. And in their philosophy, they're thinking, what's get 50% back? Well, half of that's third and seven. That's still third and long. So like these TFLs can really add up and it or just stops when you're stopping at the line of the line scrimmage or efficient tackles. And causing this, uh, you know, this edginess because offensive line, you know, you think defense, normal defensive front, defense alignment are just going to get straight up field into their gap. So offensive line is going to assume a little bit. Okay, I got to like this step to block this. My double team's coming here, yada, yada, yada.

But when that's assumed and then also the D-line is slanting because someone's come off the edge or coming up the middle, then they can assume wrong. And they can misstep and be late on something. And if you have an offense line that's not aware, has bad eyes or it's not athletic enough to recover, then that causes disruption in the backfield. And that gets into the whole old line discussion of the sliding scale. Guys, if he's more athletic, can get away with not having the best eyes because they can recover and, you know, make it work.

and all that slanting and added guys causing disruption and play action teams especially if they pull the offense alignment or like a guard or slide the tight end like the Rams like to do, then the offense has movement. And if the defense is changing gaps they're hitting and an offense is changing the gaps, that's a lot to take into account. And all that movement can cause bad stuff for the offense also can lead the gashes against the defense. But all that pressure, the edginess from the changing gaps and who's hitting what can cause the QB to move around the pocket can cause the QB to be late on the throw. And then that can

lead to interceptions when you don't have a QB that can anticipate or stand in a pocket facing these pressures. And even get into like what you said with naked and stuff, it's if a team is bootlegging into the pressure, like if the QB is not aware that that's coming or they don't have something to answer for that, it can lean to a clean hit, a throw away or even just a pick where a ball gets tipped and, you know, flutters in the air, which is the QB's worst nightmare. It's, you know, as the offense are becoming more play action heavy and motion heavy, the motion is hard to decipher because if the offense's line is not aware and they're not well coached, they're not smart players too, the motion can change the strength of the formation, can change what the picture is in

their heads. And if they're not used to that, and also they got stuff coming, a pressure they're not anticipating, it can really just make it screwy for them. Like all of a sudden they're like, oh, shoot. And then that's where you get the free runners guy coming off the edge. Like the Steelers would get all the time on first and 10. Like they've been doing it a couple times. now they had it this week and they had it last week.

I want to talk about the Steelers and just their game. A couple of times today you saw that. There was a play in the second quarter where Mike Hilton just came completely untouched right into the boot and Baker had to get rid of it. There was a play in the third quarter where they tried to boot back. It was like a fake reverse to Beckham and they were trying to come. They were trying to have Hooper come across the formation to block Dupree. Dupree was already six yards in the backfield hugging Baker Mayfield before

Hooper could even move. So that's the thing is it seems like these. teams on defense that are saying we're going to be the hammer here. We are not going to let you use all of this misdirection, all of these motions, all of this play action to put us in bad positions because we're going to put you in bad positions first. And the Steelers today, I wrote about them this week. I wrote about how I think their front has really turned into the best position group in the NFL.

And the timing was pretty good because if you watch them play today, there's nothing from that game that would lead you to a different conclusion. I mean, so good. Is there anything that really jumped out to you? It just felt like this was just the best version of their defense today. Nothing about it was surprising to me. It's like, oh, no, this is just what I watched for the last four days on tape, just kind of taken to 11. You know, especially when you watch film, you kind of get like an idealized version of what each team is.

Like, okay. Absolutely. Yeah, it is. You picture a certain thing, even if it's not that 100% of the time or even 50% of the time. But what the Steelers did today was exactly. like everything that they're good at they did today like in full colors. I mean, or flying colors.

I mean, just the pressures they created, but also like the pick six that happened with Mika Fitzpatrick. I mean, that is like them, the epitome of them is they're letting their really smart players make a play. That was just a robber coverage that they, they love doing and Mika Fitzpatrick just flies down,

reads the quarterback eyes and just makes a nice, easy pick for a pick six. And that's like the stuff you talked about in your article, you know, stuff they're doing with T.J. Watt. I mean, that's the stuff they're doing. He did it in the first play of the game.

First play from scrimmage. And you're like, yeah. So, and they got a sack out of it today, too. So what I wrote about is that they have Watt just kind of lurk behind the line of scrimmage as a stand-up linebacker. And he can decide where he wants to go. It's not predetermined before the play. So it really does that at a level of volatility for the offense. And that can be a problem if the other guys on defense don't know where he's going.

But he usually is pretty good about understanding where he should attack. And again, it puts them in attack mode, which I really, really like. It was funny that pick six, it was the same play for the offense as Rogers' second interception. It was that double slant concept. And where Rogers did what he should have and waited for the outside slant, Baker just said, fuck it, and threw the inside slant anyway and got a return for interception or for a touchdown. So that, the lurk coverage that they did there, I think it's a really interesting thing to talk about with the stewardess because on those third downs, they take out. their second linebacker typically and put in another corner.

So they play a lot of dime in those situations in part to allow Fitzpatrick to be that lurk robber cover guy in the middle. Because typically in a cover one with like a lurker or robber coverage, you're going to have a linebacker there, right? Because you're going to have two linebackers on the field. They take one out, put a corner in, have the corner guard a tight end of the running back. So Fitzpatrick can make those plays. It's just those little tiny things.

They have a really good sense of how they want to use their defensive personnel. Tough break for them today losing Devin Bush. He's somebody that when they do take Williams off the field on third down, they put Bush in. A lot range year, much better in coverage. Really smart. He knows when to Green Dog and when to chase the quarterback. He very rarely is in no man's land on those plays, which speaks to how well he understands what he's supposed to be doing. So having to put Williams in in those spots, it hurts them.

But I thought Spillane, the guy that's the guy. I put in there today. I thought he actually played pretty well. Yeah. The defense, though, shouldn't be surprising. Obviously, they were dominant today. Also, I have to say this before me, Von, Stefan to it, I'm developing like a massive crush on. He today had two TFLs today.

One of them, when I was talking to Keith Butler last week, the defense coordinator, about his guys, he was telling me, if he almost didn't want to say it, you could tell. It's like, well, the difference between Cam Hayward and Stefan, and Stefan kind of does what he wants sometimes. And you need that every once in a while on a defense. And there was a play where he lined up as a three technique outside the guard, and then bump down over the nose right before the snap, and then at the snap, jump back into the B gap. And the guard didn't expect him to do it, and he got a TFL.

That's not what he's been taught to do. I promise you that that's not how the defense is designed. Yes, yeah. It's better be right. And he does stuff like that. He is so twitchy. They just did a lot of fun stuff. But that should be expected.

You know, their defense is full of playmakers. I think they have a chance to buy the end of the season, and maybe be the best defense in the NFL. The offense was the bigger question coming into the game. And I thought, like you said, the idealized version of it, in a way, this was kind of the idealized version of their offense, making just enough plays, Rathesberger being smart, scheming up the right things. What jumped out to you about their overall plan today offensively?

You know, they just, they are very varied in the run game as far as, I mean, their sound no matter what they do, which is always just nice to see. kind of even without Munchank being there, just expected out of the Steelers' offensive line. But I mean, as far as run game, like they, last week they were in a beautiful split zone against the Eagles. But then this week they had those draw plays. Like I think you and I were talking about, you know, kind of diffuse maybe some of the

pressures that the Browns were trying to put on them. They hit them both for like 12, 14 yards on a second and long. And that's always nice. Just a nice, easy draw and you get a first down out of it. But also, like, they did. They tried to run a third one. And Rathisberger had to keep it himself because the back screwed up. And it was one of the funniest plays of the weekend.

Was Rathusberger realizing that he had to run for six yards? I think I compared Rathlberger running to somebody trying to do the crosswalk when the don't walk signs flashing. You know, just like he's trying to scurry across the crosswalk. But, you know, it's one thing I did see that was cool, like just a cool play was on third and four. They ran a trap play and they ran an RPO with it, double slants and out to Claypool. And then later in the game it was a third and seven.

They ran it again and they threw it out to Claypool. So they're just, he's wheeling and dealing back there where they can match up there. They've been doing this for years now. I mean, it's not anything crazy new, but it's fun with the weapons they have now is that they're running the stuff where Big Ben really is acting kind of like a point guard. And the ball's getting out quick. And then the run game complements it where they can just pound it down your throat with any run scheme they want to run that week. And I mean, we talked about it last week, you know, with Claypool and how they were scheming him up.

And that was just another instance they did today. They ran a switch release where he ran it out and up. And even with that, it's a play. play that they're playing to his strengths in the fact that, you know, he, he's, he gathers a lot of steam when he's running. So let's get him on out and up and just let him boss some people. And they're doing that in a great way on offense. It's, they just know what they are. And they know, they have a nice, just, you know, puzzle pieces that just fit together very nicely. And with Big Bang kind of thrown as accurate as he is right now, even vertically,

he's throwing go routes and making them back shoulders and, and putting them really on the money. He had, he had some nice ones last week, too. You know, they're playing. really well right now. And I mean, we already gushed about the defense too. I mean, just that, I mean, just the defensive stuff too is so much fun too. The offense is really coming together. And it's funny because you think of Rathusberger and he's been playing for 100 years, but there are a lot of new elements to this. So Kevin Dodson is a rookie fourth round pick. He's playing guard for them right now. And you wouldn't even know it, which is the best compliment you could possibly give to a rookie offensive lineman is that they've been able to function with him in the game. Claypool, obviously,

they're still figuring out his role. James, Washington is way over qualified to be your number four receiver. He's making plays today. They were in a double move for him. He made that plate on the left side line where he's just going up and getting balls in traffic. Yeah. He's so long for how for his size. He just so he plays so much bigger than he is. It's kind of cool to watch him play. And he's their fourth receiver now. So that's the coolest part is it they have they have all these weapons to kind of choose from. And I think they're figuring out what they want to be. And then you add in the crazy amounts of motion that they're using. So they hired Matt Canada this offseason who was in a coach in college for a long

time. He coached at Pitt. He was an office coordinator at LSU. And he's known for all of that pre-snap jet motion. He's one of the people that really kind of brought it into vogue on a major football level. And so I talked to Randy Fickner about that last week. And he was just talking about how it's nice to have someone who's majored in that because they know where the weaknesses are. But if you look at it, they're still just folding it in. They don't do it when they throw. So if you look at pretty much every single one of Rathsberger's attempts, which I did last week, they don't do it when they throw, even play action. So when they use that jet motion, it's almost always a tell that they're running the ball.

So I assume they'll probably want to change that up here pretty soon. But it is interesting, again, watching a guy who's been there for so long having to integrate these new pieces both schematically and in terms of person. and for them to be having the success they're having in what should be the growing pain stage is really encouraging. And I think that when you consider how good we expect the defense to be for the entire season, the fact that in this kind of embryonic stage, the offense is playing this well, I mean, this team is really scary, man. I mean, they could be really, really good by the time the end of the season rolls around. It's, I mean, they, I mean, they have really, the defense player to your candidate, they got a, which one?

They've got like three. That's what I mean. It's like, but that's before you even talk about all their other pieces that are like, we, that's the threshold. It's like, okay, you're trying to get at least good starters.

I mean, duh, but they legitimately have good starters like throughout their entire team, not just their defense. It's just, but even like you said, the Steelers, even the backups when they have to play,

they're not missing the beat. It's just, it's an entire well-coached team that's marching in unit together. And I think they're just going after, even you got to compliment the personality go after. It's because even on offense, those receivers are blocking their asses off too. So they're getting these athletic, tough guys. And that's a pretty good combo to get for an entire team of flares. It's just so cool to have seen all of the different iterations of what the Steelers have been under Tomlin.

Because they've been such different kinds of teams, right? Their defense, like three or four years ago when it was the three Bs, sucked. They were not good on defense. And now you have all these first and second round picks. You have Tuit, Watt, Hayward, Dupree. Aluallo was not their first round pick, but he's playing fantastic. And now the defensive front is controlling things.

And now you have this post-Brown and Bell version of the offense where last year, that's what it should have been, but no Raffa's Burgers. There's no way to see it. And you have, again, they're folding in these modern tendencies, these modern types of players. it's really cool. It speaks to just how football teams grow and change, watching them kind of figure out this version of themselves. All right.

Let's get to who won the week. I only have one candidate here, really. I guess we have two, but one that stands out way above the rest. And that is the 295-pound running back for the Titans who ran for 200 yards again today. I mean, this guy, it's amazing that, We have a running back in the NFL that can make NFL defenders look like they're playing Pop Warner football, but he does it consistently. Yeah.

We're talking about Derek Henry. Yeah. If you have you gathered that. Yeah. If you're confused with a different 260 pound, 265 pound four four running back. I mean, the whole offense that they're doing is so cool. They built around Henry and then they went from there. and they are doing their own version.

I've mentioned this before of what the Rams kind of done, not as far as exactly the same concepts, but maybe an overall philosophy. There's is more I formation 21 personnel with a lot of motion, you know, as opposed to the Rams 11 personnel with a bunch of bunch. You know, so all they're doing,

they're matching up their stuff in the run game with the outside zone. And it's their own flavor of outside zone. It's more of the physical brand with Henry bouncing stuff. And, you know, an old adage in football, we run blocking is, let's make the corner make a tackle. Let's make the corner make a tackle from the outside. They just keep doing that over and over with Henry as opposed to do.

And they're like, oh, let's try and get the corner to tackle five times. They're like, let's do it 30 times and see how many times the corner can do it. So they do the concept that they use a lot, which to their success, they did a couple times today for big plays. They run split zone where you have the tight end coming back across the formation. So essentially, you're scheming a cutback into the play. because of where the hole was getting created. So do you think that his skill set lends to that design in a way that it might not for other

running backs? That's a great point. You know, because like a normal outside zone is race to outside. You know, what we see, as we see with the 49ers, what they're getting with, you know, Mercer or whoever they want back their breeder and getting the McKinney and getting fast guys to get to the edge and plant their foot and get north. They would split zone, like you said, it's not really meant to attack that outside. So like you said, Henry gets north on a designed cutback gets north.

And it's all these guys tackling from the side on a 250 pound running back. And it's not, it's not fair. I mean, it really is it because not only are they not fitting up on them face on. They have to attack from the side. And like that's just, you know, that's just cruel that they just keep doing it over and over and over. But like you say, like they're split zone. They're physical enough just offensively as an, I mean, just offensive line and the receivers they've on tight ends they've gotten because they're all playing so well and everyone's willing to block.

Like, AJ Brown's a good blocker and all, um, Corey Davis is a good blocker. Is that like that 94 year touchdown run was off a duo and, you know, that's not their bread and butter, but they have the guys that can do it. And Henry makes the one cut. And then he's down the field on his safety. And the safety is like, oh my God, I got Derek Henry with a full head of steam coming at me, uh, pull his flag. And they're trying to pull his flag, like flag football. And he's just like, okay, see ya. And he's just, and not many 260 pound guys can run that fast away from people. It really isn't fair what they're doing and they've leaned into it so much that they're like, this is what we are. All right, we keep winning. So let's just keep doing it.

So that's the thing. If you look at also, Tan Hill and Henry today, first duo in NFL history to have 350 more passing yards and 200 or more rushing yards on the same two. So pretty big day for the Titans offense. Six hundred yards of offense. So those two guys, they bet big on them this off season. When John Robinson was starting to thinking about what they did last year, what they wanted to be this year. They ran it back. They extended, they gave Tanoa that huge contract.

They extended Henry. They brought back everybody. They drafted a first round right tackle who I know was not playing, but to replace the only guy who left in a free agency. So they said, we are just bringing back the same team we had,

we're betting on the same results. And a lot of people, I think, understandably, were skeptical about whether they could replicate what they did last season because some of the numbers were in areas that are hard to sustain,

really good in the red zone, really good under pressure, stuff that typically comes back to earth. Well, ladies and gentlemen, through six weeks, the Tennessee Titans lead the NFL and EPA per play offensively. So it's working. It's the same overall approach that they had on offense. But this summer I was talking to a member of the Titan staff. And I was asking him what they wanted to be offensively this year

and what kind of what the second act would look like essentially. I think that the second act of these guys that kind of take the league by storm is always worth watching. I think McVeigh was a great example. It's like, all right, well, what is it going to look like when everybody's got a year on you? And what he told me is we need the change up to the fastball. We need whatever we were going to do, we need the kind of little tiny wrinkles on it that

are going to allow us to keep being one step ahead. Shanahan's really good at that. He always has been. And you saw that today. So they had to play the throw to Khalif Raymond that they had. It was from the Texans 44. which is shot territory, which is where they love,

they love, they love, they love going to those big personnel packages, heavy play action, Khalif right down the middle of the field. So they do it. Tendency, tendency, tendency. We're going to the big package,

heavy play action. You know the shot's coming. So Kaleaf Raymond, like a bullet, shoots off the line of scrimmage, threatens, threatens, threatens, snaps it off. 20-yard gain because the corner's terrified.

A.J. Brown today had one. where he's running the crosser, running the crosser, run the deep crosser, sits down and wide open. And that's the type of stuff. As long as you have those little tiny wrinkles on your staples and you're using the play action, you're using the running game, keep teams off balance, if you keep finding those, you're going to keep finding big gains. And I think that the staff and Arthur Smith as a whole are smart enough to understand how to use their personnel and how to find those little tiny adjustments on their staple plays

to keep this stuff coming. that's such a good point. I mean, that's what the good coaches do is they know their own tendencies. They know their own weaknesses. And then they're like, okay, it's the 40 chest kind of move, the galaxy brain kind of move. But that's what you have to do. It's like think in what you, well, actually changing up the fastball. That's a great way to put it. It's knowing what your fastball is. Okay, then what's my change up now. And then let's just get really, really freaking good at my art fastball and change up and make them hit it. Make them defend it. And like the dig route, they've run that eye formation off of. play action with a dig and a post, five, six, seven, eight times a game that they hit to AJ Brown. Even when AJ Brown was out there, hitting it to Corey Davis. And they've hit it all the time and they still can hit it. Like even with the defense knowing what,

what to expect. And then that's what makes it even more cruel is that they're running these plays that the defense is trying to stop all week and practice all week. And then they just run a change up off of that. So it's like, okay, they're always just one step behind. And that's fun. That's knowing,

that's a lot of self-scout and knowing what you're good at. and just self-awareness and league awareness. It's really, really is a testament to their coaching staff and knowing what they are. So should we talk about the two-point conversion? Yeah. This is going to be controversial because both of us approve the two-point conversion decision. So for those of you who didn't see the game, the Texans go down. They have a fourth and goal from the one when they're up by one.

They go for it. They score a touchdown. Yay, Romeo Cornell. Good job. Everyone's, I was very excited. then up by seven with, I believe, a minute and 50 seconds left, they go for two. And I would do that a hundred times out of 100. The math actually says that you shouldn't go for two in that situation, just by the book math.

That's the thing, though. I don't care about what the math says by the book in every situation. I think you should, when it's close, going on feel and everything else that people shit on about the analyst community is worth it. And when you are giving up 600 yards of offense in the game and you can't stop anybody, when you have two yards to put the game away with your offense that they can't stop at the moment, I absolutely think that you do that. No, and that's the whole, like I just saying, a good coach of staff is knowing what they are and knowing what the situation is.

I mean, that's what Romeo Cornell was doing. Deshaun Watson average 0.56 EPA a play today, which on 43 dropbacks, which is absurd. And their defense couldn't stop anybody. So it's one of those things. All right, let's put the game away with the best player on the field. Okay, that is good football. Like, isn't that what being competitive is about is like, let's go for the win? Like I won the game as opposed to, oh, we survived with a win.

You know, it's like, I don't know, it just any way you cut it. And I even looked at 538's go for two metrics and what the numbers are for that. And they actually put it as a same. They put it as whichever one you prefer. So it's one of those things where it's, I prefer Deshawn Watson winning me the game and putting a dagger in it and ending it. Then shrouding my defense back out there against the guy that's absolutely destroying me. The corpse of my defense out there who hasn't stopped anything.

It's like, no, I don't care what Rich Gaines is. He can triple down on it, quadruple down on as much as he wants. It's like, it just, I believe in what Romeo Cornell did. I think that was the right play and the aggressive play. And that's what winning, like, if you want to win game and set a tone, that's what you do. So speaking of situational football and decision making, I think that Mike Vrable might be a genius. I think he might be an evil genius. So a couple different things.

You pointed this out and I think it's a really good one. Instead of spiking the ball on that game tying touchdown, they decided to run a play. And I had the same thought in my mind. I was like, you have them on the run. You have them on the run. Just run the play. He hits AJ Brown, touchdown, overtime, game over.

So with about three minutes and 25 seconds left in the game, Mike Vrable, people have pointed this out on Twitter, and I can't tell if this is exactly what happening. It looks like the Titans may have taken an intentional too many men on the field penalty in order to play with time and get like 30 more seconds than they would have. It's you can people have tweeted about it. You can find it on Twitter. It absolutely seems like he might have done that. And he was one, he was the one that found or used that the penalty

loop, the time loop against Belichick last year. So it really does feel like Mike Rable might be a situational god and we just don't think about him that way because he's a former football player and just doesn't come off like the smartest guy in the room. And he talks about cutting off his own genital. Yeah. That is a way better example, which thank you very much. Maybe that's it. He's such a football guy that he truly is a football guy that all he watches 24-7 is just other games, but as opposed to just going like, oh, like good hit there. He's like, oh, wow, look at this situation. Like maybe he's like, that's his football guy, which I would never believe. But look at But I mean, that's the only like thing I've heard about this is the Polish defense, the buddy Ryan Polish defense.

I don't know if I can even say that. But it's that's what it's called. But they had 12 men out there because they would do it at the goal line to go like, okay, you run out the clock, whatever, whatever. We'll just keep making you stop and just run it until we get to the last play or whatever situation you want to use it in. But I don't know. It might just be a savant move that you did. And I mean, but we can talk about, you know, the offensive play. And so maybe it's just it is a team culture thing.

and it's a philosophy that they have that they are really good about situational football because they ran that play on offense rather than spiking it they had no timeouts left they ran forverts and that we can get into a whole whatever two minute offense is but it was smart aggressive play and no one was phased on the titans offense they're like okay yeah what's right on a lot of play no one was like oh we spiking it everyone knew what the play was everyone was set and it's like a transition like transitional offense and defense and basketball where that's sometimes the easiest bucket's like you know three and two two on one you know all this stuff we've Three in transition, man.

They'll kill you. That's the same exact philosophy there because rather than the defense getting sick, getting talking to and hey, okay, okay, hey, remember, watch for the fade. It's like the defense, the guy's just trying to get the call. He's just trying to get lined up. And also I have to guard AJ Brown in the red zone. Like, you know, that's second in his thought process as opposed to if you got a second to take a deep breath and go.

So that becomes the human element thing as with some of the strategy they do. And maybe it's just a team think that they're just super good at situational football. So one more candidate for who won the week here. I just want to talk about it briefly. I'm so happy for Jason Verrett. The fact that this guy could not stay in the field for the past several years comes in, gets a pick today. Plays extremely well.

I mean, beyond the pick even, just making plays. Emmanuel Mosley making plays, I mean, that secondary and that defense for the Niners really lifted them today. It's the only other question I have about that game. Does this change what you think about the Rams at all? Or you feel like this is just a divisional game? You run into these every once in a while. they'll be fine. Second part there. Divisional game running to, yeah, just one of those divisional

games where everyone knows what the other one's doing. The Rams do their stuff, especially, and then 49ers do their defense, no matter what the personnel is, apparently, they're going to run their stuff. But I really, like you said, Jason Verrett, I mean, it's just such a cool story. This is only his 26th career start out of a possible. That's incredible. 102. So the fact that he's going out there and not just like, oh, good, good for him that he's seeing the field again. It's like, no, he's playing good football. ball. I mean, that's cool. He's always been talented. That was just always the thing. It was just he was amazing. He was so good. And it's just, it's so cool that he's out there making plays again in the NFL. I just love to see that. I agree. And it's not even in the perfect scheme fit for him

either. And that's what's awesome. He's just a man defender that's going to get it done. Yeah, it's awesome to see him out there. And not only doing that, just playing well. All right. Let's have Vince to ask the question here. All right. I want to talk about the Jets here. I don't want to, but we're going to talk about the Jets here. The Jets are horrible. And when I say that, I mean, that's obvious on its face. But they look like one of the worst football teams that I can remember. Because they're the worst offense in the NFL.

The dead last in EPA per play, dead last in success rate. Their offense is unwatchable right now. But they're also bad on defense. some of these truly terrible offenses in recent years. I'm thinking about the 2018 Cardinals, the 2017 bills were very bad, if you go back and look at some of those numbers. Those teams had above average defenses. They couldn't move the ball, but they could stop people every once in a while. The Jets are a bottom quarter of the league defense on top of having a transcendently bad offense.

I just have this very simple question for you. and I've posed it to other people. Why should Adam Gase be the head coach of the New York Jets tomorrow? I mean, short answer, he shouldn't. But long answer is that it's all about just how the optics is and whether Joe Douglas is going, do we rock the boat for our young quarterback or not? And also, but that's the kind of thing that's the joke. The boat is as Rockies it's getting, man.

The sailing could only be smoother if you take this guy out of the equation. And that's the thing. It's kind of a lose-loose situation. It's bottom out totally deplete his confidence and say, hey, we're punting on Sam Darnold. But that's the thing is he can, I think Joe Douglas can pick whatever road that he wants to go down with management. As he can just go, hey, yeah, I believe in San Darnold, but like, let's get the guy out of here that's ruining him. Okay, so you can get rid of Gase that way. I believe in Sam Darnold, what's not rock the boat or like you said, whatever, rocket it, however much more it can be rocked.

Or, okay, let's get Gase out of here. I believe in them. Let's give him all the starts we can, give him all the support can. Let's try and build his confidence back up. Not that I think Donald's a guy that gets phased by that. But losing and playing bad will take a toll on you. But I think he just go whatever optics that he decides on if he truly has the power to make that decision, which I think he does. Because he can make the argument.

He goes, Gace isn't my guy and Donald isn't my guy. So I think whatever path he wants to go on, he can. But short answer, I do think Gays should be out of there. He should have been out there a couple weeks ago. I mean, that team is listless. There's nothing to lean on. They are just angry in a bad way. Can you remember an NFL offense with a real offensive, with a real quarterback, not with a

rookie quarterback, with a real quarterback looking this bad, this consistently? It would be back to some of those JAX teams with Gus Bradley. That would probably be the only comparison I have. And that might be the only comparison I have to this team is some of those early Gus Bradley Jack Warr's teams. But I mean, you said no rookie quarterback. the team that I'm thinking of is the Rams, the last year before, Jeff Fisher's last year with the Rams when Jared golf was a rookie.

And that's another good example. 2016 golf, 26, Tevinzine Josh Allen, 2018, Josh Rosen. All of those are good examples, but those are rookie quarterbacks with first year coaches. This is the second year of this guy and they can't do anything. It's miserable. Miserable. And that's the thing. It looks nothing like what they ran in Miami or Chicago or in Denver.

It's different offenses. and you spot and you commend a guy usually and go, hey, at least he's adapting to his personnel and everything. He's regressing. None of this stuff is innovative. None of this stuff is really attacking defenses, even with the stuff they have. It's just bad. It really is.

They just look with us. There's nothing about it that you want to watch and go, oh, they do something. Oh, that's a really cool play that they do right there. So what exactly do you do here, Adam? I mean, that's the only question you want to ask. I think his employment, period, gives a ton of insight into how these decisions get made. and how easy it is to rationalize these decisions. I remember when he got hired, I was like, oh, you know, maybe there was no talent in Miami.

And, you know, I actually have decent memories of Adam Gase because the 2015 bears are the best thing he's ever been associated with that didn't involve Peyton Manning. They put the graphic up today. I think there were 21st in total yards or something, but that's a stupid stat. They were 10th in offensive DVOA when he was the offense coordinator there with color. They were actually a functional NFL offense. He gets the job in Miami. You could explain it away. Oh, they didn't have any talent.

And Tannahill was hurt all the time. And, you know, think about what he did and the other stops. And it's understandable how you get to this place. It's a bad thought process. But you can see how it works. But it's just so amazing that the guy has not been a successful offensive football coach in the last four years. And he's the head coach of an NFL team. If you're going to be a retread coach.

Yes, still is. If you're going to be a retread coach, you need to vastly outperform your current. job as a coordinator to be to earn another head coaching job i.e. what Todd Bowles is doing right now. And honestly, the Adam Gase experience has really led us to believe that Todd Bulls might not have been a very bad head coach in the NFL. So it's incredible. It's just, it's so hard to understand and draw lines of where credit should be kind of delineated. So were the players bad in Miami, where the coach is bad? Was Todd Bulls really that bad of a head coach or the Jets just are terrible organization.

So it's sometimes difficult to understand what falls on which side of the line. But with Gase here, I just, I'm running out of arguments for why this should continue. And I think that what you said, losing is very bad for young players and not developing is very bad for young players. But the Jets don't have that many guys on the roster that are Joe Douglas guys. So just bottoming out this year, getting the number one pick, they're. already rumored to be trying to trade Quinn and Williams, selling off all the pieces that aren't part of your rebuild, getting Trevor Lawrence and starting over, maybe that's what

they want. And the only thing you're really concerned about for the next 10 weeks or so is the optics of being a truly embarrassing football franchise. So the stuff they're juggling here, I don't know what's important and where their priorities lie, but I do know that every single person associated with the football world is just cackling at them right now. All right, it's time for Nate's quarterback corner. Each week, we dig into one specific quarterback performance.

Today I wanted to talk about Cam Newton mostly as an excuse to kind of go back and watch that game. I didn't watch a lot of it live and you look at the box score and it's ugly. 17 to 25, 157 yards, took four sacks, two interceptions. When you went back and watched that game, does it give you any concerns about Cam Newton moving for or do you think it was just a bad day overall for a banged up patriots team? I think the second half there, the bad, bad day for a banged up Patriots team against a defense that is maybe not the best defense for them to go against. You know, I think the Broncos, they're comfortable playing in a too high shell that can attack over routes, that can attack anything over the middle where they have their safeties play aggressively.

And that's what the Patriots offense is kind of built around, you know, as they try to utilize. Cam in the run game. His big plays today were more scrambles. His touchdown was, I mean, unbelievable because he was so strong fighting through the goal line. But his big run plays, I saw the 70 yards I think he ran for. And I was like, oh, okay. So they're using them.

They're utilizing them a little bit. Because I, you know, just like every game, you watch bits and pieces off. But no, it was really off a two big scramble plays. And that kind of speaks to what their offense is really is right now. It's can't, it's can go do something. You know, the first, the first sack is a really good play to kind of summarize what they're doing is if you watch the play cam's holding the ball for like seven seconds and looking at the pass routes on it was a deep play action with just a two man route stuff happening over the middle

cam has never been a great anticipator of throwing i said the same thing about lamar last week he usually will wait to see the guy come open on his route and then you'll see him you know he does that shoulder thing where also he's about to heave that ball and missile it in there it's because he's making up he has the arm strength to make up for maybe not seeing the play unfold and anticipating on that play on that sack there's something there was a little tight i think the route my the route concept might have gone a little too tight on him and he wasn't comfortable you can tell he was waiting for the dig route to come open on the it was a real deep dig route on the left side and i think that's what it was he's not comfortable throwing that ball yet it might not be something that he's just used to doing off a

play action concept he might do it on a third down where he drops back so i still you know it's his first start back so i still see things like that he has no one to really get open for him the other sack he had The problem is, if you're waiting for guys to throw open on that Patriots team, you're going to be waiting a long time. Exactly. It's just not a great mesh of skill set, I believe, is a good way to put it. It's, you know, he's making a couple of plays like bird or everything and the checkdowns, whatever. They have to generate these plays. It's either cam go do something or they ran back-to-back gadget plays on, or not even back-to-back, just the same drive.

They were on two gadget plays because they're trying to generate something. But when the game was on the line, they were running gadget plays. that is so terrifying to me. If I were a Patriots fan and I watched that, when you're trying to go down and score a game-winning touchdown and the way you feel most confident is with Julian Edelman throwing passes, that cannot make you feel good.

And let's talk about screen passes. They look like the Cardinals a couple weeks ago where you have multiple negative plays on complete passes because you're having to run so many screens, you're needing to give your quarterback layups, and you're needing to deal with an offensive line that's totally banged up. I mean, they already were missing like three guys.

They win at some point move from left guard to left tackle in this game, which is never easy to do. Thuny's throwing the ball over Cam's head in shotgun. I mean, there were just so many issues today. A lot of tipped balls. Two of the interceptions were on deflections, but the one that Justin Simmons went up to tip,

one of the reasons he could do that is because Cam is staring it down. So there's so many things that kind of compounded today. And one of the concerns I had about the Patriots coming into the season is that they didn't have the skill position talent and the receiving talent to make explosive plays down the field or to create enough separation. And I think after a couple weeks where they built the plane out of play action in this dominant running game, as the offensive line has gotten dinged up.

You can't be as force for as efficient against on the ground. The play action stuff is not working as well. and nobody's getting open, I think we're starting to see the cracks. Even if you think Cam can play pretty well, can play pretty well, the supporting cast is, it leaves a lot to be desired.

Yeah, there's one play that stood out to me that maybe show, like, I mean, everything we're talking about. I just think it's more of a talent issue that's around him right now.

Because like even the strip sack, the left tackle just gets blown up. Like, it's not Cam's fault at all. He barely hits his drop. But like, I know Cam's seeing these things. And this is just one play,

but he's seeing the right things. He had a bubble pump play where he, pumps the bumble. There's a switchverts on the outside on the trip side. And rather than getting hung up and trying to like maybe force a throw in a game that was kind of getting away from him at that point, I think they're down double digits. He calmly gets to the backside and hits the backside dig. Not a lot of guys are going to do that on a play, like a bubble pump play, which is a shot play, essentially. He read it out and progressed calmly with a rush. The rush was getting there. Hits a throw, right perfect guy coming up coming open. It wasn't like he anticipated it, but he hit it with

the nice progression. And that works for him. So that kind of showed me that he, he's at least comfortable in what they're asking him to do. I just think that he's just getting no help. And if this is their max, I mean, if this is what they have to do to generate offense, it could be a lot of sloggy games like today was. I think the Broncos' defense is better than we might have thought. Because some of the guy, I mean, now they have Bryce Callahan back. They're getting healthier.

Obviously, no Von Miller, but it feels like with Fangio and with the players that they do have, their defense could be interesting and give more teams problems than maybe we thought. here for the rest of the season. Yeah, and they're making, like, Shelby Harris is making a leap. Yeah. I mean, they, they're getting performances out of guys that maybe they thought would just be an average or above average starters are playing good, like really good. And, yeah, like, they're so well coached with Fangio.

All those, like I touched on it, all that quarter stuff or buzz stuff they were doing, the safeties knew exactly what to look for in every play. So I kind of felt for Cam where it's like, that can be a long day when every route's getting run for you by the safeties and they're just cutting everything. The second set or the last sack you took, I think it was looked kind of like a bad sack on Cam, but it's because the safety cut it, the over route. And ideally Cam's going to throw a nice touch ball over, like touch it over the safety that's cutting it. But that's a hard throw.

And especially when you might not trust who you're throwing it to. So yeah, I think it was just a real bad matchup for the Patriots. And it kind of just spoke volumes about what they're putting around Cam right now. So one of the sacks, I think by Chakillo in late in the first quarter, it looked to me, like they did that inverted cover too with the safeties come up and the corners go deep. I don't know if Fangio would do that. Are more teams running that? Because it seems like it's jumping out to me more than it has in the past.

Maybe I'm noticing it more often because my understanding is that people that know football hate that coverage. Hate it. So what is it? So explain what it is and explain why you don't like it? I mean, you're putting, first off, yeah, if I see that as an offensive guy, I love it. In theory, you're trying to put a safety close to. to the line of scrimmage for run support.

And then you're saying, oh, we're still getting that two shell with the corner who's going to be in theory better in coverage. But the thing is, those corners usually aren't used to that kind of look. I'm sprinting backwards to 15 to 20 yards and then I have to turn and then also play a deep half where you have to be deepest as the deepest and widest as the widest. So we saw the Titans. They gave up a touchdown to Fuller on it. And it was because I think it was Malcolm Butler was playing corner, gets to a deep half.

He's not even looking at Fuller running up the sideline because he is just so not used to that angle. I think it's, I don't know why. I think it's just to change it up. And in theory, it's just like a lot of things on theory, it looks great on a whiteboard or a chalkboard. It's like, oh, yeah, this is great. We get the safety to run up there.

And the corner is going to be deep in coverage. He's going to make a play on the ball because he's good in coverage. But then when they do it against offenses that are like, okay, you're not really getting the ideal guys in their ideal positions. We'll just hit glance routes or like the Texans did, just hit something up the sideline, which should in theory be covered, but it wasn't covered. but it wasn't covered. I'm so sad that Deshaun had to lose today.

I wish both of those teams could have won that game. All right, let's get to this week's secret sauce, which is something we like to pinpoint. It's maybe an overlooked aspect of the game that led to a team winning that week. I wanted to ask you about the red zone defense for my Chicago Bears, who against all logic and reason and everything

are five and one and are leading the NFC North right now. I don't want to talk about all aspects of the Bears because I have no interest in talking about Nick Foles or any of that. But I do want to talk about some of the Red Zone stuff. So they came into this game, leading the NFL in points per Red Zone trip. They've been fantastic.

And Red Zone performance from season to season is not sticky. Typically, teams tend to regress, like we talked about with the Titans earlier. But the Bears have done a lot of really great stuff in the Red Zone this year. So I just wanted to ask you, on a general level, what makes a good Red Zone defense? So I think overall, I think if you have real smart players, that always just helps, but like what the bears have and having smart rangey players is a great combo.

You know, most red zone defenses are a almost match philosophy. It's almost a hybrid between quarters and cover two. So just too high and teams will call it red four or red eight. And a lot of it is just get arms in the lane. You know, it is, it's the match up bracket, you know, maybe the most threatening offensive receiver or their tendency. the plays they like to run in the red zone, especially the low red zone where this stuff comes up. And what they're trying to do is like with these smart defenders, it's like a two, three zone in basketball, arms in the lanes, create hard passes for whoever, whoever is passing the ball

and make them attack from range. And that's what they're doing. And if you have defenders that kind of know the weaknesses of this bracket stuff, actually one of my theories has always been that match defenses is red zone defenses that just started playing out into the field. They tweaked it a little bit, but that's what they're creating. They're creating these brackets. They're three over twos, and they're just doing it on different guys. And you'll see offenses attack at the Rams data tonight. That was awesome. They ran a high low with a stick and a dig to woods in the back of the end zone. And that's a great way to show how these defenses work. The stick to cup, two defenders, the nickel and the mic were bracket on either side of them, but they occupied both. And then all of a sudden you see the dig coming

around with a safety with outside leverage because he's, yep, a high dig right behind it. So that it's, that's the stuff that attacks it because, of course, that's how I'm going to refer to these things as an offense perspective. But with the bear is what they're doing so well, too, because I always think one of the best red zone offenses you can have is a good run game. And what they did, even today, they have a great front four, as we know, and they're physical across the board. They got great tackling safeties.

They're comfortable in this, excuse me, in this quarters too high defense. So it's an easy transition for them. I think when they go from the field to the red zone, they just gets a little tighter. We have a couple tweaks. okay, it's red four instead of normal four. But they have these physical safeties that aren't scared to come down. And as the QB run game

has become more and more prevalent in the NFL, like they made a nice play on Teddy Bridgeweiler, who I know is basically just... Fuller made a fantastic tackle in space. Yeah. Great tackle and space. But that just speaks to their whole defensive unit. And, you know, I know Teddy Bridgewater

is just a millennial Brad Johnson, but it's one of those things. The guy, he's not hesitating to come down and make the tackle. And that just speaks to their whole team and just they know what their weaknesses are. And again, I always say that's the thing for a well-coached unit is they know how they're going to get attacked and they're on it.

And they know it. And sometimes it's a whole defensive unit or the coach that really epitomizes this. And sometimes they'll have an assistant coach prioritize that part of the game, either Red Zone or Third Down. And whatever the Bears are doing, they just know what they are and they have really smart, athletic guys.

And that's a great combination to have. So they won this game today because of their performance in the Red Zone. They had the Panthers kick two short field goals. and the guy that really jumped out to me was Jalen Johnson, who had a mixed bag of a game. We can talk about that in a second. But he's a rookie corner, and he's done a lot of really good stuff this year.

And two plays really jumped out to me. So the first time the Panthers kicked a field goal, so it's third down. It's inside the 10. He was playing outside. Robbie Anderson was over to that side. Robbie Anderson goes in a little short motion, so I assume just kind of change the leverage,

get a little bit more space to work back outside. And they were playing, man. but Johnson stayed outside. So Anderson runs a whip route. So it goes inside to come back out. Johnson's just sitting on it because he understands that the only place he can't get beat is back outside. All of his help is inside. And the way that he played it is just such a good understanding of, all right,

what is the defense trying to accomplish and what is the offense trying to accomplish? And for a rookie to have that sense of the big picture in that moment, I thought it was incredibly impressive. So that was a great play on third down. And then the second one, they had DJ Moore come in a little yo-yo motion coming back across the formation. And then Moore ran kind of a deep cross back in the back of the end zone. And Jalen Johnson had to go with him. He avoids the traffic while moving, stays within the whole time, eventually is in the right spot but kind of gets antsy as the ball is coming.

Moore could have caught it. But Johnson was in the right position. I think that's kind of why he disrupted it. And that kind of speaks to what Jalen Johnson has been today. and this whole season. So today, he has a couple weird penalties. He had a pass interference on the one yard line that I thought was bullshit, personally. He was just, he was right there with DJ Moore.

I thought he was in great position. He had a illegal contact that was kind of questionable. And that's kind of what he is. He's in the right spot pretty much all the time. He's always in the right position. He's sticking with guys, especially in man. He knows where he's supposed to be. He just gets a little bit antsy and a little bit anxious as the ball is coming.

Same on a completion down the field of D. G. Moore today. But he's been really good. And I think overall, the Bears' defense has been really good. You know, last year, the numbers were pretty good. But when I watched them, they were not that good of it. They just were not playing that well, in my opinion. I don't think their front four was playing as well as the other year before. I think the corners were a little bit lost, switching from Fangio to Chuck Pagano. Right now, those guys look locked in. Kyle Fuller had two penalties again today that were nonsense. He had one that should have been a pick six to Eddie Jackson. He did the same. thing Carlton Davis did on the interception that Aaron Rogers through but got called for it. So they're playing physical and aggressive and getting caught for it every once in a while, but I'm completely fine with it. And when you transition, that kind of just playing fast, playing downhill, playing with authority the way they are between the 20s down near the goal line, I think that's what you're seeing

right now. So I think the Red Zone execution is a huge part of that. Also, Roquant Smith had maybe one of his best games as a pro today. Yeah. He was just absolutely flying around. So, I mean, it's so many great plays today, both against the run and in coverage, just playing, again, with authority in a way that I have not seen from him, which is really encouraging. When you consider how good the front four is playing, you know Eddie Jackson's going to make plays. Tachian Gibson's kind of getting in the mix a little bit now.

I love the attitude they're playing with defensively. It's contagious. It really is. It really is. And also, they see these smart players making smart plays. I'm so glad you mentioned Jackson and Smith because they are very smart players. because it's like also the other guys see them doing these heady things and they're like, oh, okay, if I look up the tendencies that they look up and I get some of this stuff is just, you know, God given. But it's like if they, it really is contagious when they everyone's like, oh, I can make a play for my teammate because he just made a play for me.

And that stuff picks up. And like when you're, what you mentioned too is like they were running a man coverage there. If they're comfortable running zone, they're comfortable running a man and they're comfortable pressuring, they can do all the things that you want a defense to do and do it well. it's it's good stuff it's good stuff from the bears even though we've been avoiding talking like i'm like like babadook or something like that well it's because i don't i don't want to engage with the fact that they're winning all of these games i don't want to reward them for playing like garbage and winning yeah matt bowen tweeted about it because he has access to the all 22 on sunday night at 11 p.m because he's better than us he was talking about how they ran a lot of cover one with like a lurker to

cut the crosser which is you saw iadie jackson in that spot a couple times and then so my cover four in cover six. So you said, some man and some zone playing a lot of it, doing a lot of twists and games up front. It's working. The last question I wanted to ask you was about a specific play where I think Robbie Anderson came on just a crossing route and Johnson was following him but then backed up when he was in man coverage.

Do you think that's something where he thought he was supposed to bump it over to the linebacker in some sort of cover one and they just didn't communicate? Yeah. It was probably just a man rule they have against crossers where like you said, they run that quarter stuff where the guy cuts down. it might have been a play like that where it might play out like it looks like quarter shell and then that safety cuts on the crosser and then the guy that is a man coverage might just stop running with him and just you know back out of it and if there's a miscommunication on the part yep and that's that's exactly

probably what happened was he was expecting someone to cut it or some whole player to be there and then he backs out and maybe jumps on the throw you'll see the Cocks do it all the time and they're match stuff and that's just the blending of these coverages aren't really spot drop anymore like they have a lot rules with them. It's like this route happens. This guy has to do this and this guy has to do this and they have to do it fast. But that's the thing is they have guys that can do it fast and do it really well. Yeah, that's guy. He was in the right place so often today and really just understanding where he was supposed to be. And again, just getting a little anxious. But as the ball was coming, that was the only play, it was like, oh, he's just six yards off the guy. I assume it was a miscommunication. But he's exciting. I'm very, I'm really looking forward to watching him a bunch because the way that him and Fuller are playing right now, they're going to make a lot of plays. All right, buddy, that is. all we got. As always, guys, thank you so much for listening to the Athletic Football Show. Please rate and review the show on your podcast platform of choice. If you like the show, write a review. I would really appreciate it. Also, please subscribe to The Athletic, using The Athletic.com slash football show. Our $1 per month promotion is still going. Also,

we will not be back until Wednesday. Please listen to the Football GM show with Mike Sando and Randy Mueller. Randy was a former GM of the Seahawks. You guys know Mike. Mike does fantastic work, a ton of insights coming from that show, and you absolutely should give it a try. For now, though, thank you so much for listening. We'll talk to you guys later. This was The Athletic Football Show.