The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 6 recap: Ravens beat Commanders, the NFC North rises, the Cowboys hit rock bottom, and more

Episode Date: October 14, 2024

Ravens-Commanders was the best game on paper in Week 6, and it absolutely lived up to the billing. And hey, that 0-2 start to the season for the Ravens feels like a lifetime ago, doesn't it? Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen kick off the Week 6 recap on The Athletic Football Show with an in-depth look at the Ravens' win over the Commanders. The guys also talk about the disaster in Dallas, the ascendant NFC North, the suddenly relevant Chargers, and a whole lot more.RundownRavens take down CommandersYou Have My Attention: Bucs-Saints sillinessYou Have My Attention: The suddenly relevant ChargersYou Have My Attention: The NFC NorthDallas Cowboys...WTF?!?Eagles and Browns...WTF?!?The Patriots offense shows some life with Drake MayeCalvin Ridley isn't happy about his 0-ferTyler Allgeier does cool stuff, and the Falcons run game gets goingWhat We Learned in Week 6Host: Robert MaysCo-Host: Derrik KlassenExecutive Producer: Michael BellerProducer: Michael BellerSubscribe to The Athletic Football Show...AppleSpotifyYouTubeFollow Robert on X: @robertmaysFollow Derrik on X: @QBKlassTheme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. Brought to you by Thursday Night Football only on Prime Video. I'm Robert Mays. Week 6 is in the books, an exciting week 6. We dug into all of it with my buddy Derek Klasson. Start things off with a really good Washington Ravens game. We expected it to be a good game, lived up to the billing. Shouted about the NFC North and just the NFC North being one of the best divisions

we've seen since the divisions realligned about 20 years ago. Pretty much all of the teams in that division rolling right now. each of them has four wins. Absolutely crazy. Talked a little bit about that crazy Buck Saints game. I didn't really know how else to discuss it. So it had our attention in a ways both good and bad. Talked about the Chargers going to three and two.

You know, the Chargers are team that we might have to start paying a little bit of attention to after their surprising start. Discussed the Cowboys bottoming out against that Lions team. Talked about the Browns Eagles game and everything disgusting in that. A little bit of Drake May excitement, even in a loss. And a lot more from the week's action. So let's get to it with there. We did have a lot of very good games on the slate this week.

And we were going to start with the game that we described as the game of the week, the game we broke down as the game of the week on our show on Friday that really did live up to a lot of the hype. It was to me probably the best played game of the week, really good performances on both sides. And that is the Ravens taking care of business against Washington with a 30 to 23 win. Where do you want to start with this? It was the number one takeaway that you had from this game. I would honestly say the number one takeaway I had was that. even though they lost and there were certainly more moments where the offense didn't look as good as it has for the past month for Washington, specifically from Jaden Daniels, I actually thought this was the most impressed that I'd been with him, like through six weeks of the season. And there's a couple reasons for that. First of all, what have I said like every single time we've talked about Jaden Daniels is throw over the middle of the field. Like I want to see you hit some of those tight like sliding doors, you know, throws over the middle. And he hit like five or six of them in this game. He actually had, I, I

I went and counted. He had five completions past 10 yards between the numbers. And there were two or three of those that were like high leverage situations into tight windows, like really, really impressive throws. So there was that element of it. And then there was also the element of he played really well despite the run game being kind of useless in this game, which had not been a factory. Yeah. And which they had been used to like running for 150, 200 yards on every other team. And then he himself was not really a runner. Like the Ravens did an awesome job of like rush lane integrity and really not letting him. can get outside. He had one conversion, I think, maybe in the first half, but otherwise, he was pretty much held to just being a passer. And he answered the bell. Like, he was really impressive for like large portions of this game. It's funny that you wanted to start with that because I don't necessarily disagree. It was one of the things I kept thinking over the course of the entire game, is that I thought he played really well. And I think some of the exterior factors that you're talking about are really important to bring up. Washington was running the ball pretty much at will for a good chunk of this season. Today, two of 11 running back runs for successful for Washington,

but Daniel still had a 50% success rate on his dropbacks. And that's pretty darn good against a competent Ravens defense. I know that they had played some weaker competition over the course of the year. And I'm 100% with you. I just thought that there were some moments in this game, that drive that that they finished off with the touchdown McLaren on the left side, which was a beautiful ball and a beautiful catch by McLaren. Daniels made like four or five plays on that drive where I was just like, okay. Like this is some real stuff that he's doing right now That drive starts with a big chunk to Ertz With Roquan blitzing

And he has to get that ball off in a tight pocket with pressure He slides right to the pocket hits Ertz for another completion Hits McCorn off a chunk of a fake bubble On that drive And then I thought his most impressive throw the entire day Third and 10 down in the red zone And he whizzes a ball past Roquan's head Right to Zach Ertz for a huge conversion

that eventually leads to that McLaren touchdown. That entire stretch, the entire sequence, the entire drive, with the game still in the balance in the second half against a really good team on the road. And he was excellent. I mean, just was nails the entire drive. So he checks a lot of the boxes that you wanted him to in the biggest game of his career,

on the biggest stage of his career. And I walked away again, I think like what you said, more impressed than I did coming in. And I think that says a lot. Exactly. It's just with all these rookie quarterbacks, it's always just about, again, checking the boxes. And he did, I'm glad you mentioned that throw to Erds, where it puts them on like the two yard line, basically. That throw, that is the exact, when I say I want to see guys throw the middle of the field, tight windows, that is like almost picture perfect, the exact type of throw I'm talking about. He drops an arm angle to do it. Dude, like it's like, like you said, it's right past Rokon Smith's head. It's just all of it is, is fantastic. And if he can continue to do that, then, like, And there's really just not many areas of the field I don't believe he can attack, like if that is going to be part of his arsenal. That throw, and we talked about this one a few times, but the throw we had to McCaffrey against the Cardinals, those are probably to me the two most impressive throws he's made all season. And when you think about just the overall formula that they've been following, they've gotten a lot of really advantageous third down looks.

They've been phenomenal on third down because they've been really efficient on early downs. They've been running the ball well. It's a lot of third and fours, third and threes in this game, because you're removing the run game element. it was a little bit harder on third down. They finished four of 12 on third down in this game, which goes a long way because they needed to be almost perfect to beat the Ravens today. Because if you look at the numbers that the Ravens put up and what their offense felt like in this game, they were essentially perfect.

Dude, the other side of the ball. Lamar is going to win another MVP. Like, it is going to be on the table. If he keeps playing like this, it's going to be really, really hard to take it away from him. And they win a bunch of games and it seems like they might. And I know Washington's defense, we can. came into the week saying they're not very good. But like, MVP's go and do this to really bad defenses. Like,

I mean, Lamar was 20 of 26 in this game. He had a huge run in this game that he ripped off. I think it was like 33 yards. He was avoiding sacks left and right like he has been all season. I mean, he just, it seemed like anything Lamar wanted. He got it. And in this game, it happened to be every single crossing route. Like, it didn't matter if it was man, zone early in the down, late in the down when he's moving. I swear half of the throws that he made in this game were crossing routes and a lot of them were to say flowers especially in the first I think he I think say flowers broke the team record for receptions in the first half he had nine catches in the first half I think it was insane and so um for him to have the connection that he had

with him and to play the game that he did I mean Lamar is just I don't think there's a more fun quarterback when he's truly on his game than Lamar like we can say Patrick is better at his best and Josh Allen whatever for me when I'm watching a guy at their best when Lamar's doing it it's just There's nobody like that. We've talked about this with the Ravens a couple times this year, and it felt like this against Buffalo and it felt like this again today. When they're able to be in advantageous down and distances throughout the game, and they're able to play the game that they want to,

they're just so terrifying. And you have the run game mixed with the play action, and to me, that's what really stood out today. It felt like every single time they tried to hit a shot off play action they did. I have some numbers for you. I'm sure you do. Lamar in this game, 10 of 11 for 100. 70 yards on play action. Okay. Oh, get out of here. Here's why this is more ridiculous. He completes 90%

of his play action throws, 12.5 air yards per attempt on those throws. So they're hucking it down the field off play action the entire game and they're getting shunks every single time they do it. Washington had absolutely no shot. That was the other, it kind of related to that. The other thing I was going to pull up was 15 of Lamar's 26 throws in this game were beyond 10 yards. Only four of them we're behind the line of scrimmage. Like you said, whether it was play action or otherwise, he was throwing it down the field. These were not like gimmies and a guy's making a run after catch thing. No, they were really throwing it down the field.

And whether the window was close or not, Lamar Jackson was making the throw. Yeah, I think if we're just trying to take a step back and think about two of the bigger picture takeaways from this game, and I'll revisit one of these a little bit later in more depth. But I think Jaden Daniels really answering the bell and being as impressive as he's been all season against the best team that he's played, that would be one of them. I think the other one would be this Ravens offense and all the things that they're bringing to the table, you have every right to be extremely excited about where this group can go. Because I do feel that right now with Henry, with Lamar and year two of this system,

and with the way that a couple of the past catchers are playing, I thought Bateman had a really nice day today. I think Flowers has kind of taken his game up to the next level. We saw a little bit from Mark Andrews in this game. I think this group overall is more dangerous than they were last year. And maybe that's offset a little bit because we have some more questions about the defense. But I trust the defense just because they're so talented to kind of find their footing over the course of the year. And even if they can get to be like an average-ish slightly above-average-a-average unit,

I do feel like this offense right now heading into year two with Monkin has more answers than they had last year, even if they had the MVP of the league at quarterback. I think I'm with you on all of that. And my favorite part of it is playing Lamar Jackson is frustrating on its own. And now we've added the element of Derek Henry and not just for what Derek Henry gives you in general, but there is no running back in the league who has that late fourth quarter just demoralizing run the way that Derek Henry has. It's so perfect. When he gets two steps on the perimeter and you're like, oh, game's over. He like he just calls game. And that's it. And like to add that on top of how stressful it is to play. Lamar Jackson for 57 minutes or whatever it is, to add that closing element to it, this team is just scary, man.

And I feel like what we've seen over the past month is more their true form than whatever some of the weird stuff we saw that first two weeks. I absolutely agree with that. And I just think that this formula of we're going to, I mean, it's tried and true. Let's throw to win and run to close out the game, right? And that's what they're doing. They're just putting up a ton of points. Lamar is doing whatever he wants and he's playing an extremely high level.

and then we get to the fourth quarter and the game is close, we're going to give the ball to 22 a couple different times, and he's just going to slam the door on you. That is not a bad formula. And they've played some teams that don't have the best pass rush. I think Washington is one of those teams. They're best up front, but on the edge, Doris Armstrong, gets banged up today.

I still feel like the offensive line after a couple blips in the first couple weeks of the season has really started to Joe in a way that eliminates the only big question mark we really had about this offense heading into the year. I know the receiving group isn't your favorite, it. But I think that they're good enough if the line is going to play well for this to end up being one of the top one, two, three most efficient offenses in football over the course of the year. Well, and you know, quickly to that point, Azay Flowers has frustrated me for a long time for certain reasons. In this game specifically, he did a great job of like coming back to the ball on those

crossers, which is a thing I yell at receivers about all the time is they don't want to come back and they don't want to attack it. And the ball ends up being undercut and a defender gets their hands in the way. He didn't ever let that happen. And I think it won allowed him to secure the wall, but also kind of opened up a couple of yak opportunities because he can come back to the ball, stop on a dime turn. There's just not many guys who can do that. And so I thought he actually played, like if he can play that consistently, then this team is in a good spot. Yeah, the last play I wanted to mention, the touchdown to Andrews, the scene ball. It's not going to look at that impressive from the broadcast angle.

The back shoulder element of that and him keeping it away from the one defender inside of Andrews on that play, just the route is Distribution too. I mean, they're pulling, I think likely is running like a vertical to the left side. They're pulling the safety that way. I really like what this team looks like running some of those vertical concepts from heavy personnel just because with likely and Andrews and Lamar, he just throws those seam balls and those vertical routes so beautifully. And I think that they can just attack you from those looks a little bit differently than a lot of teams can because of what Andrews and likely give you. I know that Andrews hasn't been at his best this year, but even seeing some flashes from him today makes you take a step back. It's like, okay, combine.

more than the sum of the parts, what can the past catching group look like? I think this was kind of the best set of flashes from that group all season today. Absolutely. All right, let's get to you, have my attention. Gentlemen, you have my curiosity. Now you have my attention.

We're going to start with the weird one. And we're doing this because I wanted to talk about this game somewhere and I didn't really know how else to talk about it. The Bucks beat the Saints in a 51 to 27 insane football game that Baker Mayfield threw three picks in the first half, and the buck scored 50 points and ran away with this game. It's really all you need to know about everything else that happened in this game. So for reasons both good and bad,

which is not normally how we handle this segment, Buck Saints, you have my attention. This game, Baker threw all three of those picks in the first half, and I think they still had like 24 or 27 points in the first half. Like they were still putting out points despite all these interceptions. And really like some of those defensive touchdown, but yes, there was a lot of other nonsense that happened as well. And like one of the interceptions, Baker threw it just like bounces off a guy. Actually, I think two of them, like one got tipped at the line. Like it just stupid stuff was happening at all points of this game. You mentioned it. There was a defensive touchdown that Antoine Winfield scores early in the game. And then like the Saints first touchdown was a punt return by Rashid Shahee. That kind of gets them going. Also, you mentioned the Saints scored 27 points. All of them were in the second quarter. They didn't score. in the first quarter and they didn't score it all in the second half.

Like, it was just, it was such a dumb game that it's like almost impossible to properly sum everything up in five minutes. Like, if there's any game, you guys can go back and take the 30 minutes to watch the condensed of, just go back and watch this circus of a game. I think my biggest takeaway from this is, and I said this earlier when I was rewatching the game, I tweeted it. This might be the worst tackling performance I have ever seen from an NFL team by the New Orleans Saints today. It was bad. And I know that seems rash and seems like an exaggeration.

I'm going to give you guys a couple things that might change your mind. Okay. The Saints missed 11 tackles on run plays according to NextGen. That doesn't tell half of the story because their worst tackling moments were actually on pass place. Baker Mayfield in this game threw for 325 yards. He finished one of eight on passes of 10 plus yards in the air. I remember the Godwin touchdown. That should be impossible. I mean, just think about that. That's like a riddle.

His average completion traveled 2.9 yards in the air and he threw for 325 yards. And the best example, or the worst example, if you were a Saints fan, is that 54-yard Chris Godwin touchdown where he throws it to him in the flat. And Chris Godwin somehow runs around like 16 people and scores. But that's not the only one. I mean, there were a ton of them in this game. He threw the ball of Ryan Miller in the flat on the flat on the flat. left side. Paulson Adibo like comically runs into Marshawn Latimore and it turns into a 40-yard gain. He throws a checkdown to Sean Tucker that goes for a 35-yard touchdown for absolutely no

reason. Again, just the ball dumped into the flat. I cannot remember a defense looking as slow and out of sorts as the Saints defense did today. And I know they have some injuries. I know that both of their starting safeties are out. I know that they got some linebackers banged up. But I don't think that excuses the overall performance that we saw from this team today. I'm not the only one saying this. I believe the word that Dennis Allen used in trying to sum this up after the game was atrocious. And I think that's probably generous. Right. That's underselling it. That is definitely not the, I think verbiage he's going to use in the locker room or in the film room on Monday and Tuesday. But you kind of mentioned it. I think the linebackers were kind of the biggest issue. There were a

couple of them. I think on the Godwin play, like Willie Gay is the first guy who misses the tackle. and that is kind of how that that play is allowed to go. And then really, I thought the Bucks run game was actually really good in this game. And they were kind of hitting every concept. Like they got one to pop on like a toss play. They had a split zone play that went really well. A lot of their counterplays were hitting to the outside because I kind of notice what a lot of what the Saints were doing is they were trying to get in these five men fronts. And they were trying to spill a lot of these counterplays where they get inside of the polar and try to force the play outside.

You're supposed to have your linebackers be fast enough to get to the perimeter and kill the. play pretty much never happened. Like there were three or four plays where Tucker just got outside anyway and sprinted past the guy. And so that doesn't even count as a mistackle, right? Like you're just faster than him. So like it doesn't even count on these type of stats. So I just thought the Bucks, they were just, they were just better with the ball.

That's kind of all this came down to. I did like seeing a little bit of life from the Bucks run game because they have struggled for a good chunk of this season. How much of that is what the Saints are doing on defense right now and how much of that is actually real. I think we can parse that out over the next couple weeks. The Bucks had, they average. There's 0.33 EPA per rush in this game.

For context, that's Jaden Daniels is at 0.29 for the season, and he's leading the league as a quarterback. So that's how bad the Saints run defense was today. I feel like there's still, every week there's a couple things from the bucks, even in games where their passing game isn't thriving, like this game outside of the dump-offs. That huge chunk to Evans on the opening drive where he's in the slot. And just the advantages they're creating by alignment and leverage. they're doing it every single week. This buck's offense is easy to get excited about. As we think about just the overall context of the NFC South,

I still feel like this unit is consistently doing really good things, and I feel like this is the unit that is potentially going to be able to lift them above the other teams in that division. I think that obviously the Falcons are in that conversation. Their offense is playing much better, but I consistently find myself being excited about the way that this offense is playing, and I know that's silly to say on a day that Baker may feel through three first half interceptions, but it's still true. No, it is. Like, they're one of those teams that, like,

outside of those elite offenses, uh, you're, you kind of have to pick and choose, like, which teams you really enjoy watching. The Bucks, even though it's like, how far is Baker really going to take you? How far is this run game really going to take you in general? They're still just a really fun team to watch because a lot, like you mentioned, a lot of what they're doing at the passing game. And then if the run game can look like this, I might actually be a little bit more excited. What do you make of the Spencer Rattler performance? I know that you were excited about it. I mean, it was kind of what I thought it would be where he thinks he's a better athlete than he is. And I know he had one or two really good runs in this game, but there were a couple times where he also got hawked down.

Vita Vaya literally like grabbed him by with one hand like at the chest plate and just pulled him down. I was like, all right, that's where you're reminded that Spencer Rattler is like six foot, 200 pounds. So I thought that play was funny. But he actually did have a couple of really aggressive moments that I wanted to see. he had a cool third and five player where he rolled to his right and made a throw on the sideline. There was another disgusting seam ball he threw on another third down that like that was the type of throw where I don't know if Derek Carr makes it, but he goes and makes it and that's kind of cool. But otherwise like kind of skittish in the pocket sometimes wasn't all that creative when he needed to be.

And then his decision making, I think kind of really melted down at the end, which was always kind of a problem for him in college, especially in these got-a-havit situations. He had a throw, I mean, probably one of his best throws of the day. he had a 30-yard completion to Juan Johnson that was called back for an illegal shift that was very frustrating. I thought he had some promising moments in this game. I don't know what it's going to mean after Derek Carr gets back from injury, but in your first start as a fifth round pick, it could absolutely be more of a disaster than it was in this game. I think part of that is the current state of the Bucks past defense and what they've looked like for most of the past month. But I was more impressed with some of Rattler's moments than I probably expected to be coming in.

I guess that's what I'd say. it wasn't perfect, but you came away with it where you can pick five clips and make a highlight reel and be like, I can feel okay about this and what this might look like if he gets a few more reps. Let's get to our next one here. The Los Angeles Chargers are now three and two with a 23 to 16 win over the Broncos. That may not seem like the type of game we would typically pick for this segment. But I wanted to include this for a couple different reasons. We've mentioned this. The state of the AFC, the second tier of the AFC, it's off for grabs, man. Like right now, if the playoffs started right now, the Chargers would be a playoff team at 3 and 2.

And this Broncos are the sort of team they have to beat to get there. And so the way that I wanted to sort of frame this is the Los Angeles Chargers, you have my attention as a team I now have to pay attention to. Like, this seems like the type of team and this seems like the type of performance where we've got to start keeping tabs on where the Chargers are going to fit into this entire hierarchy in the AFC.

and today is really the first time I felt sort of comfortable believing that. This is like our version of putting them on like an In the Hunt graphic. And I know it's only week six. So like technically everybody's in the hunt, but like this is our version of it. But that's basically what it is. And I think really, again, it doesn't even have to be that the charges are this great team or anything. It's just like you said, look at the state of the AFC. Like I don't think anybody in the AFC south outside of the Texans is really like that formidable.

and like a clear better team than the Chargers. AFC East to me is mostly the same thing outside of the bills, obviously. The North is quite competitive. But then even in the AFC West, it's like, are the other teams in the division outside of the chiefs really that much stronger than you? Like, I don't think so. You just beat one of them. So I don't know.

Like this could be a situation where six or seven seed, if they can just get out these wins against these other teams that are not so good, especially against a team that you are fighting for that same playoff spot for, yeah, man, they have a chance. When we were trying to make a case for why the Chargers could be potentially relevant as like a wildcard team, right? And I don't think I was trying to make it that hard. I didn't necessarily believe the same degree that other people believed. It was okay. We see a difference in play style and just a different competency on defense because of that.

And then you have an offensive line that you feel good about and you have Justin Herbert. And this is the first game where I think some of the component parts of that argument started to fall into place because Herbert looks healthier. And so this today, specifically, the Chargers go 11 of 18 on third down. That's a quarterback stat, right? Like that's where you're putting the game in your quarterback's hands. And he had a lot of really impressive moments in that exact situation. The best one easily was there was a 606 left in the third quarter. Broncos are bringing a cover eight or cover zero.

Herbert is retreating in the pocket as fast as he can and lost one up for McConkey for a third down completion. That was the best example, but there were a lot of like third down on the money throws from him in this game. So you combine that and those moments from him with the way that this defense continues to play. I know that there's a lot of nonsense in these numbers, but I think it's still worth acknowledging. We're six weeks into the season. The Chargers are number one in the NFL in defensive success rate. They are number two in defensive DVOA. They've played the 27th ranked schedule, according to DVOA, including games against the 22nd

25th, 28th, and 29th best offenses. But still, they're doing what you should be doing against those offenses. The Broncos could not move the ball today. So if the Chargers are going to be this sneakily impressive defense and you still have Justin Herbert on the other side, that to me is enough for you to be a team that's worth paying attention to and for you to be a team that is potentially relevant in a very watered down middle group of the AFC. And I guess that's enough.

it really might and again that says probably more about the aFC than it does about the chargers but i think the point you make about just the difference in play style and difference in energy we are certainly seeing that on the defensive side of the ball and then even on the offensive side of the ball it's not perfect right like the run game is not as good as you want it to be but i think because they've leaned into it a little bit more like they've tried to get a little they've tried to take plays off of herbert when they can and then they just still end up in these situations where he has to be a superhero but i think they're at least trying to do the right things on offense and Herbert, like you said, is looking a little bit healthier. I think what's amazing in this game, and I know Patrick Sertan missed a lot of this game, so it kind of made things easier for him, and that's worth bringing up. It made it a fair fight between the charges and receivers and the Bronco secondary.

That's what I was going to say. I mean, the guys he's throwing to her like Simi Fahoko and Ladd McConkey. And Lidmanconki's a nice player. He made a hell of a play on this game with like a 50-50 ball on the right side line. Don't besmirch Semi Fahokohco here. He did, but listen, if that's the plays you're leaning on, like you said, a lot of these stuff for quartermen, back stats, I think the most remarkable thing to me is, and again, I know Sartan was out, but against a good

defense, the fact that Herbert really didn't make mistakes, like, he just didn't put the ball in danger, wasn't really taking sacks, like consistently getting the ball at when he needed to. That's just the type of player he is. And I think we both agree that, like, when they get a little bit more talent in this offense, it's really going to look cool when he gets healthy and has this type of environment. I think that's also worth mentioning is that this Chargers season was more about establishing something and then figuring it out over the next couple of years and filling in the gaps on the roster. This was always going to be a reset sort of year. If you look at what the Chargers did this offseason, which we've mentioned a bunch over the summer, there are no moves.

They did absolutely nothing. The big splash that they had was Will Disley. That was the free agent move that the Chargers had. This was all about cleaning up the books a little bit, hitting a soft reset, figuring out who you are as a team, and then being able to add some talent to that over the next couple years. And I think that this is the sort of game, if they can continue stacking these together, that makes you really excited about what that path looks like because the first stage is correct. Any sort of rebuild or mini rebuild that you have, that's what you need to establish first and foremost. And I do think that the charges are on their way to doing that. All right, we're going to get back with one thing that grabbed our attention today.

But first we're going to take a quick break. All right, let's get to our next one here. We're going to do a whole division because three of those teams won today. three of those teams won in very impressive fashion, and we are looking at a historic run of success through the first six weeks for the NFC North. So the NFC North as a whole, after today and through the first six weeks of the season,

you have my attention. Do you want to go in like chronological order here? Start with the morning game with Caleb Williams against the Jags? Let's start with some of the bigger picture numbers about the NFC North before we get into the specific games. The stat has been parroted it a thousand times. over the last couple hours since everything wrapped up. Since realignments in 2002,

this is the first time through six weeks of the season that all four teams in a division have at least four wins. That part is crazy. Here's an even crazier part. Every single one of these teams through six weeks has a point differential of at least plus 47. Those are the highest four point differentials in the NFL. Bell. And they're all in the division.

I was going to say that like hammers point, hammers home the point that like none of these are like a BS records where it's like they have an even point differential or negative and they're just winning coin flip games. Like no, all of these teams are just decidedly winning games for the most for it. That's crazy. To have the four best point differentials in the league after six weeks, let alone those records, I think it speaks to the strength that we're talking about with this division. We kind of knew we might be looking at that coming into the year.

All right, now we can go in chronological order, and now I will allow you to talk about the Bears game. Caleb Williams, every week, it just looks better and better, man. He's getting so good. And like this game, the first driver two was kind of slow, and they didn't really seem like they wanted to, like, they didn't seem like they knew how they wanted to get into this game. But it kind of seems like at a certain point, they started to lock in on like what the Jaguars are doing. And Caleb Williams got a little bit more comfortable. They did a really good job in this game again of getting D'Andre Swift kind of out on the perimeter and just getting him into space. Because again, if the whole thing with DeAndre Swift is that when things get cluttered, he doesn't make the best decisions.

Okay, well, let's just unclutter it for him and throw him screens and get him on the perimeter. And they've done a better job of orchestrating that. And I think that's helped get the passing game and Caleb Williams into these better spots where he can go make plays. And I think he just Caleb Williams all day, I mean, made a number of throws. To me, the one where he puts it on the back shoulder over the middle of the end zone, that is like, dude. His best throw of the air. That's the throw I dream of when I look at like quarterbacks, whether it's probably. prospects or whether I'm watching NFL guys, like Matt Stafford,

Dak Prescott, all those guys, that's the throw. And Caleb's made the throw. And I'm like, all right, man. That's when I started to get really excited. The threat you're talking about is the touchdown to Keenan Allen in the second half. And Keenan Allen's running like, he's faking running a crosser and then takes it vertical against the linebacker. And the throw with the way that Caleb places that ball, he puts up the back shoulder like

just to his left. And he puts it between two guys. Like that, that's the only place that he can throw that ball. he fits it between the linebacker and the safety on time and it's an absolute missile. Soon as he threw it, I was like, that's the best throw he's at all season. I mean, like, you could talk about a couple of the other ones, but that was to me the most impressive throw that he's made. And we're seeing continued progress, both from him and the offense.

And I think mentioning the Swift thing is a really good place to start because one of the reasons that they were just dead in the water over the first couple games of the season is the running game was horrendous. They were 30th in rushing success rate in weeks one through three. They've been 14th in weeks first. four through six. That's all we needed. Great.

We just get there. Just average. Just get me to slightly above average, which I thought would be possible coming into the year. Like their running game last year was good. This offensive line has an ability to run the football. I think that what they were doing while running the football in the first couple weeks, it was all just the plan was so bland.

It was so much like mid zone and wide zone and it just wasn't working. And I think what you said about Swift is exactly right. They've been doing a good job of leaning into either quicker hitting downhill runs. So either gap scheme runs or split zone where like you have a defined aiming point, get downhill. And then they're combining that or complementing that with some of the perimeter stuff. That's typically what we see.

Like that's what the Rams run game was all of last season. It was duo and pinpole perimeter runs. So if you have that quick hitting downhill stuff and getting stuff on the perimeter and getting your guy in space, when you have somebody like Swift, that's a good mix. I really like what they're doing right now in that area. And the other thing that I think is doing, they're doing a really good job of into the tempo stuff that they're doing, I think, has really unlocked the offense in some ways.

They were doing a ton today where they were just getting to the line of scrimmage. They were lining up in the same formation pretty much every single time. It was like a four by one of the left side. And then they were motioning into different looks after that. And they were just calling plays at the line of scrimmage. And whether or not that's because you want to keep the defense simple or you want to keep your offense simple or you just want to get your quarterback in a rhythm. I don't know what the genesis of it is and their ultimate motivation for it.

but I do know that it's working right now. And it's just fun to see this offense and this staff doing some trial and error trying to solve these problems and not just banging their heads against the wall like they were over the first three weeks. Yeah, I don't know what like the impetus for why they wanted to do that is. But part of it is probably, you know, Caleb did some of that in college so he's comfortable with it. But he's also proven that he's just a guy who can handle that that piece snap, right? Where you just get up to the line, you kind of put everything on his plate and be like, all right, man, figure it out, get us into the right play. and he's just done such a good job of it seems like each and every week he gets a little bit more comfortable

like understanding what he wants to do pre-snap and then post-snap kind of like you mentioned earlier just playing on time like it really almost never felt like in this game he was off schedule or doing things the wrong way it felt like for the most part he was playing with a really good base getting through his reads not hanging on to stuff like really the only mistake he made was that that deep interception down the left side and that to me is like his rhythm throwing down the field is just off still sometimes And I think sometimes he doesn't put as much oomph into it as he should.

But otherwise, even that to me is like, all right, he's 21 years old and he's going to get 10 more years to figure this out. I'm sure he'll be fine in that sense. There are two things that really stuck out over the first five games and that one of them came up again today on that play. Even when, again, even last week when they were moving the ball really well, he's still just a tick late on stuff. He's just hanging on his first read and he's a little bit slow getting to everything else. And that was true. Last game, even when the offense was playing well. I thought he played a little bit faster today and continues to play faster.

If that's the worst thing about your game as a quarterback five games into your career, that should be the worst thing about your game. How fast you're seeing things as a 22-year-old who played three college seasons, that's okay. So the fact that that's the biggest weakness and it's getting better, that's really encouraging. But when he's able to rip the ball quickly and he's making quick decisions, that's when he's at his best. In this game, he was 13 to 14 for like 111 yards and three touchdowns on throws of 2.5 seconds.

or less. And you saw it over and over and over again. He rips that bendered Rome. He has a third and five slant. That's just a missile to Keenan Allen. So when he's just able to put his foot in the ground and let things rip very fast, I think it looks really, really good right now. And that's such a great point because one of the, I think, small issues you could have Caleb Williams coming out of college was there would be two or three instances a game where they would call a quick game concept and he'd be like, I'm good. I'm just going to go run and run and make a play. And he just, especially over the past three weeks, not really doing that. Like, he's taking, when they are calling quick game,

he is taking and making throws and doing it on time and not wasting time. And that's just maturity. Let's get to our next one here. The Packers crushed the Cardinals, 34 to 13. The offense rolls, not surprising, against the Cardinals' defense that's really been struggling. But it was nice to see Jordan Love like really makes him highlight real plays in this game.

The touchdown against Cover Zero with like $3.50 in the third quarter where he's just sprinting backwards and throws that ball up. That late in the down, deep in the pocket creativity that he has, it still remains like my favorite part of his game. And I think that we saw that show up in a lot of different moments today. It's not even just creativity. He is like the only quarterback in the league brazen enough to make a throw like that. Almost every other guy is like, like, I know I shouldn't do this. And I probably just can't do this. And Jordan loved like three or four different times in this game was kind of like you said, fading back, rolling back, off his back foot just throws a pass anyway. He had that one.

He had another one to a tight end. I think it was Sims down the left side line where he kind of starts to run like a stick route and then he breaks it back up the sideline. And Love Under throws it a little bit, but the guy's open by 10 yards. So it doesn't really matter. He just has to get it there. It's just stuff like that. Like Love three or four times a game just it's either the platform or the decision that he makes. You're just like, I don't know if anyone else would do that. And then it's completed. And you're like, all right. It was nice to see just the full complement of receivers for the Packers today for at least a stretch of this game. I know that Reed got banged up and then Wix got banged up, but we finally got,

we got Romeo Dobbs back, and then he catches two touchdowns, which is nice. And then you have a chunk play to Christian Watson. And it's just a reminder, like, everyone has done their part at some point for the Packers this year, when there was Reed on some of the explosives that he's had. We've seen what Tucker Kraft can do as a receiver. We saw Romeo Dobbs and kind of that, like, big body outside the number sort of option that he is, right? The second touchdown he had today, like that's the sort of play. Like his ability to make plays away from his body outside the numbers.

It's just a different skill set than a lot of the other guys have within this offense. So when you combine all of that with the way that Love can play, and you're consistently winning by play design, which they often are. You mentioned that play to Sims. Like it's wide open down the left sideline. There are so many different component parts of what this offense is that just make it really easy to get excited about this group. Yeah, like they just have a guy.

They have a guy who can beat. every defense, whether it's Kraft or Reed or Wicks or Watson or Dobbs. Like, they just have a guy who who can beat every type of skill set in some games that's going to matter more or less just depending on who you're playing. But then the other thing about Love too is like, especially in this game, it was funny. He had a lot of throws that were like in the flats area, like one to 10 outside the numbers that a lot, and a lot of them, Lefleur was just doing a good job scheming him up. And then almost every other throw he made was just like what felt like a blind fire 20 yards down the field just into a tight window. And again, some of those were off like his back foot like we mentioned.

But some of them are he's just hanging in the pocket. And he's like, I am going to wait until this guy clears this defender over the middle of the field. He had one where he hits like the fourth window on a dig route over the right side. And he's just waiting and waiting and waiting. And he knows it's going to be there. Protection is good enough. And he just rips it. And like, again, there's just not a lot of guys who are willing to hang in there and make that throw.

And it's, it's cool that he's willing to do it in a league where I feel like right now you kind of have to have a little bit of that unhinged play psychotic, push it to the limits. And love probably embodies that more than anybody else right now. It just gives them access to plays that wouldn't be there otherwise consistently. And again, I think people are going to look at that cover zero touchdown and be like, oh, that was lucky. It's like, that's understanding the situation. That's man coverage. The guy has his back turned.

If you get that ball off and give your guy a chance, there's a very good opportunity that you're going to make a huge play. And that's exactly what happened. That's just knowing, this is cover zero. If I get this ball off, there's a good chance to 50-50 ball that ends in a chunk play or a touchdown for us. And that's exactly what happens. So it's nice to see this offense really.

really rolling and, again, contributing to what feels like the best division in football. And the best division of football also has a team capable just destroying the Cowboys, 47 to 9. So I don't even know where we want to start with the Lions. They could do everything they wanted today against this Cowboys defense. And it's just fun to see this offense when it's really rolling and every single piece that we were excited about coming into the season, whether it's the run game, you know, what they can do from an efficiency standpoint, some of the trick play bullshit.

it and then you're one or two chunks to Jameson Williams. If that was all humming at the same time, we knew this was going to be a very dangerous team. And now we've had a couple different games where every single component has fallen into place at the right time. And that's the final result is what you see today. This game was exactly what we thought it was going to be. I think even during the show, even during the preview show, I said this might be a

situation where the Lions win 40 to 3. It's pretty close. We got in the ballpark. I think my favorite part of this game was, so the Lions ran the ball 36 times for 184 yards, two touchdowns. But the thing is, they didn't have a single run over 20 yards. So they were getting five yards of pop just mashing you. Like it wasn't these sporadic little chunk plays here and there. It was just six to eight yards like all the time all day long.

And it was, I started to feel tired just watching what that rushing offense was doing. They had absolutely no shot. I think they average point, same as the conversation we had about the Saints earlier, the Lions average 0.33 EPA per rush in the first half. They were, they had absolutely no shot. I mean, they were just running the ball at will, and then you combine that with some of the chunk plays. And we'll talk about a few more of the stats when we get to the Dallas part of this conversation. But it's nice to see this Lions team just be the team we thought they might be on offense.

Again, when you combine that with the Bears team that's kind of playing the way we hoped, the Packers team that is as dangerous on offense as everybody thought, and the Minnesota team that on both sides of the ball feels like one of the most complete teams in the league. We're getting to a place now where like every single one of these teams is going to be in the conversation to at least contend for a playoff spot. That's incredibly hard to do in a single division, but I do feel like we're there with the NFC North. And you know, one last thing I want to add about the offense, Jared Goff missed like three or four throws in this game, which is not necessarily like a big time criticism of him, but the fact that they could score 50, points where golf missed like three or four key throws. He had one to like LaPorteur that was open down the seam. Another one where he put like a seam ball on the wrong shoulder and it doesn't get completed. The fact that he could have a couple of big time throws and then even Jameson

Williams had a drop over the middle in this game. Like they missed on some big plays and still put up 50. That's ridiculous, man. Yeah, they missed on some big plays and he was still 18 of 25 for 315. Two things related to this conversation about the NFC North. One, I'm a little worried about the Cardinals. On a broad level, like, there's still the worst defense in the NFL. The offense has been more inconsistent than they can afford to be given the state of the defense. So it feels like some of that early season excitement or early season optimism about where

this team could go, probably unfounded. I think that's probably something we'll revisit over the next couple weeks here as we can consider where this team is. The last thing to hit before we move on to the Cowboys side of this, Aiden Hutchinson injury is one of the most devastating, like, deflating moments in an NFL game that's happened this season and that I can remember on a few different levels. One, the guy's playing at an insanely high level, like had really taken his game to the next level and felt like the tight. We did a thing last offseason, me and Nate did,

about the component parts of what a contender feels like. And you essentially need to be a top 10ish passing offense, even top five. And the thing you really need on defense, more than anything, more than being a good defense. You need somebody in the playoffs that can be somebody that can get five or six pressures a game for you, that can be somebody that's consistently disruptive over and over and over again. And removing that player from what this version of the Lions is, it has real ramifications. He was that guy that could make a difference for you and swing a game in the biggest moments

of the season. And the fact that he's no longer going to be there, I don't know if it changes everything about the lion's ceiling, but I do think it changes a significant part about what their defense feels like. It definitely does. I mean, he was like, he was their captain. Like, he is the guy that everybody rallies around to play the way that they play. I think he's been, like you said, he was already really good. And I think he's even taken another step this year just in terms of some of the pass rush moves that he can get to. I think he's done an even better job of like being able to bend, which I thought early in his rookie season was like not his best trait, but I think he's even figured out a way how to do that.

So he's just been an incredible player. And the other thing is, one, you're losing the impact that you're talking about, right, where you don't have this guy now who can get five or six pressures a game. But it's also like they don't really have the reinforcements behind him. I mean, we came into this season thinking they didn't really have that many reinforcements to begin with. Now you lose Davenport. Now you lose Hutchinson. I think it certainly takes a different element away from this team.

And when you're a team that runs like purely man coverage, it's kind of you start to get into a little bit of scary territory there. it feels like we're going to see more pressure, just period. I think they're probably going to need to lean into that because rushing with four with the guys that they now have, it's going to be a tougher proposition. I know Lee McNeil had some really nice moments in this game, and he is still a good player, but I think if you look at that group overall, they're just going to lack the teeth that they had with a Hutchinson.

And I think that really forces Aaron Glenn's hand a little bit and is going to make them a little bit more aggressive over the course of this year. They can live that way. They've been willing to live that way. It's just a little bit harder to do that. All right. Let's get to the cowboy side of this. It's time for what the fuck.

What the fuck? This is a different conversation than celebrating the NFC North. What the fuck is going on with the cowboys? Like, what is this? They get absolutely destroyed by this Lions team. Here's the number that I was saving for you. In this game, the Lions had a 30% explosive pass rate. So 30% of their passes went for like 15 or more yards.

that is the first time that has happened in a game this season. It's happened 20 times over the past five years. That's it. And that's what this game felt like for Dallas. And I know that they have guys out. I know that Mike Parsons is hurt. I know DeMarcus Lawrence is hurt. I know DeRond Bland has hurt.

But this team looks like they're a little aimless. I guess that's what I would say. This is starting to feel like a season that might slip away from them. And I feel like the gap between this Dallas team that's won a dozen games each the last couple years and then fizzled out in the playoffs. The gap between them and the really good teams in the NFL, when we see them against the Detroit, when we see them against a Baltimore. It seems like it's bigger than it's been at any point over the last two or three years.

And after the offseason that they had, I don't necessarily know if that should be shocking, but it still should be pretty disappointing if you're a Cowboys fan that hoped this year might be a little bit different. It is disappointing because I think we came into this year on the defensive side of the ball. And I know I was higher on it certainly coming in. you were, but like, Zimmer should have fixed something or like there was, there was an assumption that bringing him in playing a different way might have fixed something. But I think we're seeing now, especially with the injuries at the defensive end, they just do

not have the guys right now. Like the linebacker, I think they're still a little bit lost. The defensive interior has not been fixed the way that they wanted to. Like, Macy Smith hasn't really taken to step. I know they signed Limbaal Joseph, which is like Mike Zimmer's, I need somebody. What Frank Rag now did to Macy Smith on that first David Monko on that first touchdown? Oh, my God. That was when you knew the game was going to go exactly the way you thought it was going to go.

Because Ragnow and the right guard just send Macy Smith into like the fourth row. They blew 10 yards off the ball. I mean, you just don't see that happen in an NFL game very often. Maisie Smith had that game against the Giants where it's like, okay, maybe it's coming together a little bit. Then you see that on the first drive of the game. And it's like, oh, this is going to be a long day. It's different against an all pro center. That's for sure.

And then at the end of that run, David Montgomery throws a guy into the turf at like the five-yard line. and then finishes the touchdown drives. Like that is kind of what Dallas's defense feels like right now, where the defensive front is not giving any of the guys behind them very much room for error to miss tackles or anything like that. And then all the guys behind them still miss tackles. And then I think the secondary is like not good enough to clamp down on stuff. And then the pass rush is worse than it has been, you know, last year or two years ago or whatever,

especially, again, with guys like Parsons out. So it's just, it's hard to find what this defense is even supposed to hang their hat on. I think is like the biggest takeaway I have. I expected that we might get to the end of this season, and the conclusion might be, okay, it's just time for a reset. New staff and McArthur's contract, let's figure this out. I thought that they would be a competent, competitive football team that hovered somewhere around 500 and was at least in these games against really good teams. The fact that they're getting blown out in some of these games en route to that end, I didn't necessarily expect that version of the Cowboys season. And again, maybe when some of those guys get back, these games get a little bit closer against really good teams.

But to get blown out by 30-ish against these really or be down by at least three or four touchdowns consistently against these in these games against really good teams, that is a depth that I didn't necessarily expect, even if I was a little bit down on this Cowboys team coming into the year. Right. And again, like the offense kind of makes the defense worse in a way in the sense that they can't run the ball that well. So they can't really control games and, like, limit possessions and keep their defense off the field, keep them rested. So that's a problem. And then it's not like the offense is that explosive to where they can just, you know, have these 35 to 38 games all the time. Like, they kind of just end up in the spot where both sides of the ball are making each other somehow worse. And like they're even worse than the sum of their parts.

It's a tough spot for them to be in right now. I mean, the best things about the Cowboys over the last couple years, like the most excited I've been about the offense and the defense individually. the defense is when it was really leaning into that kind of chaos creation, right? Where they're playing a lot of man coverage. You know, they're bringing five. They're creating one-on-ones. There's tons of stunts up front. They just feel like this really dynamic, terrifying front.

Those days are probably gone even when Parsons and Lawrence get back. Because what you have on the interior and then some of the depth, they just don't have the horses up there to feel like that sort of defense. They went with soundness over everything else by bringing Zimmer in. And now you've lost everything. You're not a sound discipline defense. and you're not scary and dynamic anymore. So that's all gone.

And then on offense, they had that stretch last year after the buy where it just felt so much more alive, where they were using more emotion and they were doing things where it's like, okay, this feels like an exciting version of this. That offense was just them stealing from other things people were doing. It was them watching what the dolphins did over the first four weeks and they're like, oh, maybe we should do some of that. So the thing that I was really excited about with the defense is like what Dan Quinn was bringing in that play style, even had holes in it.

And then the offense, the thing I was most excited about is the shit they were stealing from other people over the first month last year. So in reality, like going into this year, I guess I probably should have known there weren't going to be that many elements of who this Cowboys team were or who this Cowboys team was that I was actually looking forward to and actually thought could make them a good team in the long run. Yeah. And I know this sounds crazy because I think they're three and three.

But like this still feels like a bottom like 10% outcome for what this roster should. I felt like going into the season. Like, despite the record. I guess just, it's, again, it's hard to see, like, what they're supposed to hitch their wagon to on really both sides of the ball. Outside of Dak and C.D., please save us. Yeah, they're three and three. Their wins are against a Browns team in week one that we know is just like a completely

that's one of the worst offenses we've ever seen. We're about to talk about it. Okay. They win that game. Sorry, they lose to the Ravens. That game is a three-point game. It should have been a four touchdown game. absolutely destroyed for like 75% of that game.

Then they beat the Giants and then they beat the Steelers last week on a field goal that required like a last second touchdown drive because the offense really didn't do much again. There are three wins in this season. They have two wins by a combined eight points over the Cowboys and Giants and then they crush the Browns in week one. Like those are the three wins that they have. So three and three does not tell the story about where this team is. There are two other games.

They get 44 to the Saints. to give it 47 to the Lions, and they gave up 28 to the Ravens very quickly before crawling back into that game. So the record is definitely not indicative of where this team is among just the NFC in general. All right. Let's get to our next one here. Do we even want to? Trying to figure out the right way to frame this. Everything about the game between the Eagles and the Browns. What the fuck, right?

So Barnwell at some point in the first half tweeted, if you're not watching the Browns Eagles game, you shouldn't be. Like, you don't have to watch that. It was the same tone that people were using about the replays of the Aden Hutchinson injury. Like, just don't do this to yourself. Like, you do not have to watch it because there's nothing good waiting for you. That's how people were talking about the Browns Eagles game early in that game.

And it was completely justified. My favorite stat, I think, during that broadcast, was at one point in the beginning of the fourth quarter, the teams combined had run 88 plays. and none of them have been in the red zone. That's what we were looking at in this game. And so I just, we can focus on the most disgusting parts of all of this, but overall as a whole, everything about this game, what the fuck? I just didn't feel good about watching any of it, both sides of the ball.

None of what was going on was very interesting. Like the Brown scored a touchdown in this game, but it was off of a blocked field goal at the end of the half. That was their only time, like it's just ridiculous. They are the first team in 10 years to score fewer than 20 points in their six games to start the season. That's portfolio of the eights. That's how bad this offense has been for Cleveland. We talked about this a little bit. I talked about a little bit of the midweek show.

It's not really worth beating a dead horse over it. After the game, Kevin Stefansky said that Watson is still going to be the quarterback. I don't know who's in charge of this decision. I don't know how this is all being influenced. I can't imagine a coaching staff. that's having to deal with this guy every single week is excited about continuing to play. It would be surprising to me if there were no other things going on. If this continues, if they stick with this guy over the course of the year,

it really does feel like everyone's just losing their jobs at the end of this. It is the most hopeless offensive situation I can remember if you're not going to make a quarterback change. So that's what's going on on that side. And the Eagles, and for all the excitement that we saw early in the year for them, there's not much more reasons for opt. I mean, they've been better, obviously, but like, it's still a really deflating situation over on that side of the ball. I think the word that Lane Johnson used after the game was, this feels like a constipated offense.

That's what it feels like right now. And it didn't feel like we were trending that way after the first couple games, but we've arrived in that place with Philadelphia as well. That is too good of a way to put in. I'm glad somebody on the offense actually got to say before I had to be the one who's just saying it. But like even in this game, I mean, it's not like they scored that many points. but most of their good plays were just either very simple man coverage beaters. Like they got a couple of mesh plays where they're just like running too shallows. Somebody gets picked like one of the big Devontas Smith touchdowns at the end where they finally

go ahead and get ahead of this game. Thenzo Ward just like gets picked on the mesh route. And it's like, okay. I mean, I guess if you're just going to have these simple man beaters, fine. And then like Jalen hurts through a couple of go balls early in the game. Like obviously A.J. Brown is going to come down to some of those. But that's the same stuff is like we've been talking about we wanted this Philly offense to be different and like to have more pitches. And when all you have in a game against a defense that

is not playing nearly as well as they played last year is like, we're going to throw a couple of go balls and pray to God that every like once or twice in this game you get picked on mesh, that's it. That's really all you have. I just, it's frustrating to watch this offense with how talented they are and them just not even really try to do that many different things, especially in the passing game. For them to play this way and for them to be going into this game, kind of with the air of this season hanging over them and what this has felt like and Nick Siriani's job security and just their performance over the first month on the heels of how last season ended. I was absolutely shocked to see Siriani like jawing with people in the crowd after this

game ended. I just, I can't imagine bringing that on yourself after enduring everything that he has over the last year. You just look at the ways that people are successful as head coaches in the league, and I think the wiring it takes to be successful as a head coach in the league. You are going to have these massive swings. Like, that's just the nature of the sport. You're going to have stretches where you play like shit, where you're going to lose games that you shouldn't, where you're going to have to walk into the locker room and be like,

all right, we got to really hunker down here. Like, that is going to happen. If you're Bill Belichick, if you're Andy Reid, if you're, if you're, or anybody that is going to happen to you. And if your response, when things are good, and they weren't even that good today, is to start doing stuff like that. That's a level of volatility that I think is just making it so much harder to be a consistently good coach in the league.

And he's been doing this now for like two years. And so it was so surprising to me. I just cannot believe after everything that's happened over the last year or so, that would be his response in a game where they barely beat a, team with an offense that is borderline not functional. Right. And they were nine and a half point favorites in this game. And they didn't cover that.

And again, I know NFL coaches are not thinking about covering the spread. But like, that's just perspective on like what the game should have felt like. Yes, what this game should have felt like versus what they actually needed to get over the line. And so, yeah, to do some of that stuff. And it's not even just like a high energy, you know, don't be like super high energy stuff. You can be high energy. Yeah, look at Dan Campbell. Sean McVeigh.

These are guys are super high energy. but it's a lot more like focused on the right stuff I feel like at least. And so that's kind of where I fall down on some of this stuff. I don't think we need to be jawing it at Cleveland. Those people, the people in the Cleveland stands are like tortured enough. The game was in Philly. That was like, that's the craziest part. That makes it even worse.

Like how much, oh, I just, that makes it even worse. I didn't even count. Showing at your own fans after that game. It just, again, I'm, there has been, there have been some moments, even when things have been going well or we've seen some stuff like that and I'm just like, man, you're just tempted fate doing that stuff. And so the fact that we're going back to it when the season feels like it has so far, I was absolutely shocked.

And I just don't think it portends very good things for the Eagles moving forward. Can I add one small silver lining to this game that it's just one play I thought was actually really good by the Eagles. It was Zach Bonn. I got to get my linebacker shout out in here. They ran a pressure where Zach Bonn is over the left. guard and they like loop him all the way down to the right guard. And as he's getting to the line of scrimmage, he sees the quarterback trying to scramble on him like kind of through the A gap

through the middle and he immediately just knocks inside the guard and squeezes it and close it off. I was like, this guy knows what's going on. This is a guy who knows exactly where he needs to be. He's been good. So I just had to give my linebacker silver lining here for this to you. All right. We're going to get to a couple other smaller things we noticed this week and did you see that? But first, let's take a quick break. You see that? Did you see that? Just Every week we like to pick out a couple small things, you know, that jumped out to us and that we feel like we're worth discussing before we get out of here. The first one is not a small thing. It's a semi-sized thing because we had some, which is such a long kind of extended conversation about it coming in.

I feel like we had to revisit it in some way. Did you see that the Patriots offense actually showed a little bit of life with Drake made today, despite everyone thinking that the Texans were going to tear them limb by limb? They had a little bit of something to them. And I know that's crazy to say when they still get blown out by 20. And obviously the defense has some part in that. And like, May threw a couple of picks in this game. But to me, when I watched this game, there was one, a level of athleticism that May brought that was such a fresh air, like fresh breath of life to this offense that I thought was interesting.

He had a number of scrambles in this game that like kept plays and kept drives alive that previously were not happening in this offense. And then I think there was kind of just a level of aggression on certain throws. and then just May's willingness to bounce around the pocket and find the right throw, I thought was really impressive. Like, he was inaccurate. He was inaccurate today. I will not hide behind, like, I'm not going to say he was accurate. He missed the number of throws that he shouldn't have.

But his process in terms of going one to two to three on his reads, staying with a good base, making sure he's sliding around the pocket, finding these crevices, not doing silly stuff. I just thought it was really impressive. He had a number of plays where he was able to do that. And I know that might sound crazy because he took four sacks. Almost all of those sacks were like, dude, his beat instantly. And like there was no shot. He was doing anything.

He was pressured on like 65% of his dropbacks in the first half. And he ended the game with four sacks. That number would have been much, much, much, much higher if Jacoby Preset was in there. I was very impressed with the way that he played today. That is not, even if he, the moment did not look too big for him. He looked like he understood what was going on. And I'm absolutely with you about. the progression stuff.

Like how often he's getting from one to two to three on time. I just didn't expect to necessarily see that. Like it just felt like that's pretty good stuff and pretty like that's pretty elevated stuff for a guy in his first career start against a defense that has been really good. He had a second nine completion to Pop Douglas at one point where he progresses all the way back to the crossing route and hits him for a big chunk on the driver where he hits Boudet for the touchdown. And it's like, that's just really good stuff.

man. And he was doing that fairly often in this game. He sailed a couple throws. It wasn't perfect. But the fact that he clearly understood what the purpose was behind plays, where he was supposed to be going, that is really encouraging stuff for the first time out against a very good defense. Yeah, I've got two plays that kind of speak to that. And the first one is the Boutty, the Kisham Bouti touchdown. You just mentioned right before the half. There's 15 seconds on the clock. They have two timeouts. And I think they're snapping the ball like, on what is, you know, the projected field goal line or whatever. Like they're basically in range.

A couple more yards would get them there. And instead of being like, all right, I'm just going to take these couple of plays to try to get in range. He says, no, I'm going to take my shots. We have timeouts. We have time. I'm going to go see if my guy can go make a play. I thought him doing that and putting the ball where he did was just super impressive. So I really like seeing that kind of aggression out of a young quarterback.

Again, especially in your first start when you're getting beat to hell in a lot of these situations. The other one was late in the, like middle of the fourth quarter, So the game is blown out by now. Like it doesn't really matter. But they're running like from a, they have a receiver to the right side in a condensed split. And he's running like a 12 yard out route. And then they have a tight end right next to him who's chipped and releasing into the flat.

Derek Stingley is the flat corner. So he's obviously in like this high, low conflict. Drake May knows that. And he gets to the top of his drop like eyes out to the flat, shakes his shoulders a little bit, gets Stingley to stay under and throws it right over him. And I was like, dude. Like that's, he's doing the right stuff, man. Like he really gets how to play the.

the position and it's just fun to watch. And that's something that I think that there was some questions about that from people. Does he have a feel for how to play the position or is it just a bundle of traits that we're excited about? And so to see that feel on display in a start one, even if it was a little bit uneven, I think you have to feel very good about that. I'm not saying that I'm totally okay with how the rest of the season is going to go. I'm trying to figure out how to frame this conversation after we talked about on Friday.

I was a little bit worried about how this would go over the course of the year. It wasn't a Texans thing. It wasn't a like, how can you start him this week? It's how can you start him behind that offensive line period? And now the offensive line is even more hurt. So I am very encouraged by what this look like. And if this is the outcome every single week for the next 10 weeks, this is going to probably be positive experience for him moving forward.

And I do think the argument that he's going to make the infrastructure of the Patriots offensive look better because of the mobility, that was true. for week one. That being said, he still took four sacks in this game. He still got destroyed by Daniel Hunter that he never saw coming off of his right side and took an absolute shot. And there was one play. He steps up in the pocket at one point and he gets bent in half by I think it was Horton coming on a blitz and gets hit as he's moving toward the line of scrimmage and gets bent in half in midair. It's like, okay, even if some of this is positive. experience and some of this is probably positive for your development. There were enough

moments in this game where I feel like there's still going to be some sketchy outings where I'm going to be holding my breath about whether he leaves some of these football games. So it's a good day overall, I think if you're a Patriots fan, but for somebody that was concerned about his well-being coming in, I don't think we're necessarily out of the woods there. I think that's a good way to put it. I think in terms of like his development and how he plays, I don't think it's going to change. I think he's a guy who just, thinks I'm better and I'm going to go make plays regardless of what the scores. That's what I'm worried about.

That's the thing. However, with as much as he's going to get hit behind this line of scrimmage, and listen, he's got a little bit of the Josh Allen's take some Looney Tunes hits to him. And like, you know, he has a little bit of that to him. And so I think you combine that with the offensive line. There is a chance he gets himself hurt, but I don't know. It's the NFL, man. Like people get hurt every week.

And I think as so long as that doesn't happen, I think he's going to play the rest of the season, okay. him taking four sacks a game and having a 65% pressure rate for two full quarters. Again, I'm a little bit worried about what that means over the course of an entire season, even if your point about him being too good for it to matter seems like it is true one weekend. Floyd McVeigh, I wanted to just talk about the Texans a little bit. Still worried about the Texans. Still concerned about what this looks like down to down for them, especially on offense.

The Texans today had a worse offensive success rate than the Titans, the Broncos, and the Eagles. Okay? They scored 40 points. They scored 40 points because they got a lot of short fields in this game because of turnovers. Right now, down to down, this offense is still a group that is trying to find its footing. And I just didn't necessarily think that we would be in that place with this Texas team six weeks into the year.

And I think people are going to look at, if you look at the run game box score, looks great. The problem is it was basically three explosive runs littered in between like one yard and negative gains. Like that was basically what they were doing in the Russian game. And so I think that's part of why it's. It continues to look frustrating, right? It's like they're just still not getting in these good down and distances that they want. And even one of those explosive runs came with like 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter when they're up by like 15, 16 points.

Like that's a cool run to close out the game, but that is not fixing why this rushing offense looks bad for most parts of most games. And so I think that part is particularly frustrating. I want to say, I really hope people do not start to put this on CJ Stroud. That dude is playing like a god among men. He is every dropback is a war zone. And he is making throws. He's like making little shifts in the pocket he has to. He's making throws outside the pocket.

He's making really aggressive plays down the field. Kind of like we talked about with Jordan Love. Like he just, watching him is a true joy. And it's frustrating that like the results for everything else are not all the way there right now. Yeah. And obviously no Nico Collins right now. But I think that it comes back to the offensive line not playing as well as we thought they would with a group that was supposed to be healthy coming into the year. I know they're a little bit banged up, but even with an injury at right tackle, they're still not playing at the level that we expected, especially with how decimated they were for almost the entirety of last year.

And I think some of that is probably contributing to the run game struggles. But overall, it just feels like there's something missing with this offense. I know we've talked about that a little bit, but it's worth monitoring just because of the expectations that a lot of people had for this team coming into the year. Let's stick in the AFC South. Did you see what Calvin Ridley said after this game when he had zero catch. on eight targets. Boy, did I. He did not seem very happy with the target distribution in that game. They asked him a question at the beginning of this conversation when he was in the locker room. And it felt like he was just trying to brush some stuff off. And then they asked him about

not getting any any catches on those eight targets. And he absolutely went off. Here's the quote. He said, I need some targets in the beginning of the fucking game too. She's getting crazy for me. I suck today. I could have been better. But I got to start getting the ball earlier in the game. I can get in the game. It's not going super well in Tennessee right now. So you have that, you have that dynamic. You have a stretch of plays from the quarterback that only he can make.

The fact that Will Levis injured a chain gang member by like running into him in this game, we've had just a crazy moment from him in seemingly every single game. And I'm not, I don't want to like get on Will Levis for hurting somebody. But it does feel apropos for some of the other moments that we've seen from him. It just seems like it's something ridiculous every single week with his Titans offense. And I don't know when that's going to change. Listen, I've gotten to the point where I just don't think it's going to. I thought the Will Levis experiment was like a really fun thing coming

into the season, but through five or six weeks. And I know he hasn't necessarily like, played healthy through all of those. But I'm just like, I'm more inclined to believe that this is just who he is at this point. It was fun to try it. And I know he's going to get more time to to see what goes on here. But yeah, I think, like, for as, for as abrasive as the Ridley quote was, he's right. Like, you kind of have to get your best players involved early in the game so that you're not just force-feeding them bad targets late in the game and then they look bad. Like, these guys don't want to look like they have eight targets and zero catches because

it makes them look like the idiot when it's a number, it's 800 different circumstances that lead to stuff like that. The other moment I wanted to talk about in this game is that the Colts allowed a touchdown in a third and 19 give up draw and still won this game. That's the state of the AFCs. South. Whatever we were saying about that's truly, the game should just end on that play. Whatever we were saying about the state of the NFC North earlier, the opposite is true for the

AFC South, where you have a Texans team that is just kind of stumbling along here, winning this thing, running away with it by the end of the year, most likely, because of what's happening with the other teams. The Jags are in the no-fly zone right now. We're not talking about the Jags. Maybe we could talk about them next week after they lose another game in London and changes are potentially on the horizon. But now you have that Jags team that is just imploding.

You have a Colts defense that continues to struggle pretty badly against teams that are not the Titans and sometimes against the Titans. And then you have this Titans team where you have star players that just signed massive contracts in the offseason like openly revolting in the locker after the game. So not a lot of good things happening in the AFC South in general. No. I mean, and the AFC South for the most part has been like this. I know we came into this season with a little bit of optimism.

Like, oh, there's some reason. I thought it was going to be better than this. You picked the Jags to make the playoffs. I did. I don't know. I just, and I thought like the Colts seemed like they could have been a team that were, that were going to be on the fringe. And they technically still are.

I think the Titans is my first team in our bad teams draft. That's the other thing too. And they are certainly not up to that hype. Like it's just everything that could go wrong with this division, it feels like it has gone wrong. That's exactly right. We are seeing the worst versions of all of these teams. Anthony Richardson is on. Don't worry, buddy.

You can get healthy. You take your time over there. He's on that timeline. He's on time out. The Colts defense is a mess. and everything about these other teams is bad. So I think we are looking at the worst version of pretty much all of these teams based on what their preseason expectations were. And I'm including the Texans in that conversation.

Last one here. Did you see Tyler Al Jir just carry like 16 people for a big game in this game against the Panthers? It was like the perfect way to end this game because the Falcons had been running all over the Carolina Panthers. And to be fair, most teams have done that this season. but the Falcons did a really good job of it in this game. And then early in the fourth quarter, I think there were about 10 minutes left. Falcons get the ball after an interception, like inside their own red zone. Tyler Aousier, they run to the right side.

I think it was just an outside zone. He gets hit at about, I don't know, five, six yards past the line of scrimmage. He carries it for about another 10 or 12, just dragging every defender on that Carolina's team. If you were in black and blue, you were just getting dragged three, four yards down the field before you got ultimately shaken off. And then it took a number of guys to actually bring him down. And just that is basically what the whole game felt like. And so for the game to literally kind of end on that type of play, it was just poetic. 64% rushing success rate on the combined Bijan Robinson, Tyra Alger runs in this game.

Just for context, like 50 would make you the best running game in the league, essentially. And they were at 64%. And why I think that the Alger part of this is worth discussing and kind of why we wanted to lead off with that. It's just a reminder that this is a really good group. of skill position players. And now that there seemed to be really finding themselves on the ground, the offensive line playing a little bit better than they were early in the season, it's just easy to get excited about what this could potentially look like,

even if we're worried about the state of the defense and cousins still outside of that 500-yard game hasn't necessarily been humming. This is still a team with a lot of talent in a watered-down division. And I think that we're consistently seeing new guys step up and make place for them offensively. Obviously, Drake London had the monster game last week. but the fact that your backup running back, quote unquote, is able to have a game like this and is this dynamic of a player. It really does speak to the level of talent that this team is working

with. Yeah, the quote unquote there is perfect because he could, I swear, start for half the league and be better than, like he is that good. He's a legitimate starting like 1,200 yards rushing type of back. Like he is really, really good. It's just that the guy ahead of him happens to be one of the most explosive ball carries in the league. Like they have such a cool backfield. All right, let's finish us off of what we learned today. I think I've learned something today. Is that how we wrap up all of our Sunday night shows? Just a little bit of a big picture lesson from the week in the NFL.

Why don't you get us going? I learned, or I guess I was more reminded that sometimes even really, really good players are just not built for every battle. That's just not the way that this league works. And there are a number of examples I could go to for that. But to me, it was just watching Stefan Diggs do what he did against Christian Gonzalez today. like Christian Gonzalez is a really good young corner. He's long, he's physical, his ball skills are some of the best in the league right now. But some of those receivers who are a little bit quicker,

a little bit shiftier, can work out of the slot. It's not his best matchup. And I think we saw some of that today. And the Texans did do a couple of good stuff to get him again in the slot where Gonzalez typically doesn't play and had to follow him. But it was just one of those reminders that even really good players can have bad days and have bad matchups. And it doesn't necessarily mean anything about like they're a worse player than I thought they were. It's just sometimes you just get got. Mine today is that it took a little while, but a lot of these teams are who we thought they were. It took six weeks, but I think that we've settled into that place. I thought the Lions would be one of the best teams in the league. They absolutely stomped to the Cowboys today, and it seems like

they found their footing a little bit. We thought that the Bears, as constructed, would potentially be a sneaky dark horse playoff contender. That sounded silly when you watch the first two or three games of the year. Now they have an excellent defense and the offense is playing, I think, how we expected them to play, right? It's uneven. He's a rookie quarterback, but they have really good skill position players. The line is good enough for them to be competent.

And they can be an above average offense combined with that defense. That's enough to be a 9-10 win team potentially. If I had to get a playoff spot, they're there. The Ravens, after a couple uneven games to start the year, looked terrifying in year two under Monkin with Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry in the same backfield.

Like that expectation we had about what this team could be, it seems like we've got to that place. The Eagles, who we thought we did not pick in our team draft, figured all right, the vibes there are so bad that it's hard to get excited about what this group can end up becoming, even with all the talent that they have. Well, I think that's exactly. the place that we're in right now. We thought the Saints would be a somewhat forgettable team that

was old and slow on defense. That's what it felt like today. So I feel like even if there were some fits and starts over the first few weeks of the season, now that we're six weeks in, some of these teams are settling in to what we expected them to be. And that's not even like a victory lap. That's more just, it's comforting. It's comforting that sometimes things end up in the place that you expected. And I think today was the first week where we started to get to that spot. I think so. I think some of that like the first two weeks are kind of in the rear view mirror now.

Like we're far enough past them that we don't have to treat them as anything serious. And there's still a couple of surprises, right? Like we got Washington doing whatever they're doing on that side of the ball. They're not what I expected them to be. There are still large parts of this league now where it's like, all right, we're getting at least like very close to around what I thought you were supposed to be. And it helps calibrate what I think going into the next week. in the next month.

For the most part, I think the Vikings being as good as they are is genuinely surprising. I think Washington being really good on offense. I mean, even after today, they're really good on offense. Those to me are the biggest, like, shocking things in the league right now. The Rams are one and four, but the Rams are just, they were decimated by injuries. And we said they could get banged up. Yes. And we said that that could happen.

For the most part, things are kind of in a place that I think a lot of us could have expected coming into the seas. I think there are not that many elements to this that are truly, truly shocking. And again, I think that this is the first week where that all started to come to light a little bit. And I think that the bear is doing what they did, the Ravens doing what they did, the Lions doing what they did. Those were all moments where I was just like, okay, this feels right. Like this feels like the NFL that we expected to watch coming into the year. So it was nice to learn that a little bit. All right. That is all we've got for today. Sincerely appreciate you guys listening. We will be back on

Tuesday night into Wednesday. That's when our midweek show comes out. We talk a little bit Monday night football after Bill's Jets. And then me and my buddy David Hellman from Fox Sports are going to do our midweek show this week. And we're going to do a little team tearing. I think that's the plan. We're just going to do a little like six week in

reset. Kind of a piggybacking off that conversation we just had. Now that we get a little bit of a clearer picture where does everybody sit. So excited to have that conversation with Dave. And then obviously we'll be back with our week seven preview later in the week For now, that is all we've got. Sincerely appreciate you guys listening.

We'll talk to you soon.