The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 7 recap: The Colts and Rams lead the way with big wins in impressive fashion

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

When we previewed Week 7, we made Colts/Chargers and Rams/Jaguars audition for a Game of the Week spot. Neither of those lived up to the billing, thanks to the dominant performances by the Colts and Rams in their respective wins. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman wonder whose performance was more impressive in the Week 7 recap episode of The Athletic Football Show. The guys also dig into the craziness of the Broncos comeback win over the Giants, the lingering problems with the Packers (who did win their game), a big day for Jalen Hurts and the Eagles, a step back for the Commanders, rock bottom for the Raiders and Dolphins, and more.Rundown (timestamps are approximate)2:45 Giants-Broncos17:40 Packers-Cardinals28:47 More impressive win...Colts over Chargers or Rams over Jaguars?47:02 The Eagles passing game has our attention58:17 Is the Commanders season slipping away?1:15:46 Have the Dolphins hit rock bottom?1:18:46 What was that game from the Raiders offense?1:24:11 Jaycee Horn did some cool stuff1:27:14 The Bears ran all over the Saints1:30:54 And that's why you trade for Micah Parsons1:32:59 What we learned in Week 7Connect with The Athletic Football ShowX: https://x.com/TA_FootballShowIG: https://www.instagram.com/tafootballshowYT: https://www.youtube.com/@TAFootballShowTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tafootballshowDiscord: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshowCall us: 847-448-0701Email us: [e-mail]: Robert MaysCo-Host: Derrik KlassenExecutive Producer: Michael BellerVideo Producer: Katy DuffyAudio Producer: Michael BellerSocial Producer: Scott KrinchFollow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.socialFollow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.socialFollow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.socialFollow Robert on X: @robertmaysFollow Derrik on X: @QBKlassFollow Dave on X: @davehelman_Theme song: HauntedWritten by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love SongsCourtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the athletic football show. Week 7 is in the books. It was a good one. You know, there was a moment after the early games heading into the late games where we weren't sure what we were going to hit on to start the show in our week seven recap. And then the Broncos and Giants came through in a big way,

one of the most ridiculous finishes I can remember since I started doing this. We hit that and then also talked about the other game that went down to the wire in the late window with the Packers and Cardinals. Just wanted to take Dave's temperature about where the Packers are. We haven't talked about that team in a while

with him, even though Derek and I have chatted about them on The Hangover. Talked about a couple of teams that grabbed our attention today, the Rams, the Colts, and the Philadelphia Eagles passing game. Had no shortage of WTF consideration with the performances from the Raiders and Dolphins today and also chatted about a season that might be slipping away from the Washington commanders after their loss to the Cowboys. And considering that, we may have had a conversation about updating which teams belong at the table.

had a few things that made us romantic today, including J.C. Horn, the Bears Run game. A lot of other stuff we dug into in the week seven recap with me. Dave Hellman, Derek Klessen. Let's get to that conversation right now. So each week when we sit and we watch these games in the studio, we talk

after the first slate of games and in the second slate of games, we think, what are we going to lead the show with? How are we going to start this thing? And today, we were struggling a little bit after the first slate. We were like how something in the later games will do will pop up and that's what we'll do. And we got about halfway through the late games and it's like, oh, man, like, there's nothing really grabbing our attention here from this entire day about how we're going to actually start the podcast.

And then, thank God, the Denver Broncos and the New York Giants come out of nowhere and save the day with the most ridiculous ending to an NFL game that I can remember in a very long time. Just let the football gods take the wheel, man. Just trust. Sometimes you've got to hand it over. Trust in the way that this whole thing was done. designed. The way this is scheduled, something's going to pop. It always happens.

Just believe. And did I think it would be involve a 33 point fourth quarter by the Denver Broncos? Absolutely not. But I knew something would grab our attention. And boy, did that nonsense deliver. I think it was Ian Eagle on the broadcast said that since 2003 teams were 0 and 1,601 when down 18 nothing. I went down 18 plus with less than six minutes left in the game.

Derek, that is now one and 1,601 after what happens to the New York Giants today. The craziest part to me is I don't think I fully realized the like how crazy it was in the moment. Like you just see, okay, touchdown, touchdown, you know, giants and Broncos are going back and forth. And it felt like a lot was happening. To me, it was like some sort of traumatic event happened and I didn't really like process what had happened, what I was watching until after.

Like, it did not occur to me that they scored 33 points in a single quarter until it was all done and done with. Like, as it was happening, I just didn't realize that the avalanche was like quite that crazy. Like it was just an incredibly stupid football game that both teams tried very, very hard to lose and the Giants tried just that much harder. In fairness, they scored their first touchdown like on the first play of the fourth quarter. They had gotten down inside the five yard line or whatever it was at the end of the third

quarter. than the fourth quarter scars, they scored that touchdown. And I even remember, like, after, might have been after that touchdown or the next one, the one that Bo Nix ran in, he, like, barely celebrated because the game was ridiculous. Like, it was just like, yeah, you know, this is cosmetically,

this is going to look a little bit better in the final box score. Very garbage timing. It probably doesn't matter. Yeah. And then the Justin Stronaut interception is where the game turns. Like, as soon as he picks that ball off, you're like, okay, this can actually happen now. And we said it in the moment.

As soon as the Broncos picked off that pass, it's like, okay, they have to score quickly in order to make this a possibility. They do score quickly, and then we are off to the races. Off to the races is such, it feels like an understatement. The sheer amount of stuff that happened, yeah, in the final five minutes here, and the stuff that you could harp on for a full segment, I mean, the thing that jumps out to me immediately, it's amazing the swing from Rival's, Riley Moss gets DPI to put this thing on the goal line and you're just like, are we really about to reward the New York Giants for the underthrown ball DPI? After the person, after the roughing the passer, on a fourth and 19 where they would have been a yard short if they hadn't gotten the roughing the passer.

Which for the DPI, I don't want to do the whole refs thing. And like this is to me is not about an individual call. I feel like this year there have been so many DPIs on these underthrows where the D.B does turn around and look for the ball. Yeah. And then they still flag it. I'm like, that's the point of the rule is that like, okay, if he doesn't turn around and make contact, fine. I still hate it, but I understand that that's how it's supposed to be legislated. But there's been a lot of calls including that one where the guy does get his head around.

Like, what is he supposed to do? And that happens. And then, and we were only just getting started. Sean Payton runs onto the field, gets a personal file for running onto the field. And I'm not like actually giving him credit for this. But if you want to like really galaxy brain it, him getting the ball to like the one inch line. and the Giants then scoring on the Jackson Dart touchdown immediately instead of maybe getting stuffed from the one yard line,

that's one of the reasons that the Broncos end up winning this game is because they leave too much time for the Broncos on the other side of it because it only took them one play to score after the pass interference. You know what this also reminds me of is week two when the leverage flag costs the Broncos against the Indianapolis cults, you know, like where they move. it from a whatever it was, like a 61-yarder into very makeable range. And that's the reason Indianapolis beats Denver, just the cosmic karma bubbling around

the Broncos in these ridiculous late game situations. I guess they got their lickback this week. Well, let's extend it to that final drive of theirs. That ball, the first one, Derek, that he completes to Marvin Mims, Bo Nix is trying to throw the dig route to Coral and Sutton and he misses it so it lands in Marvin Mims' chest, they get it, spike it, and then he throws a ridiculous, Sullen makes a ridiculous catch on the back shoulder ball in order to get them down even further. Me and Dave are sitting there being like, you got to get it down, you got to get

it down. Somehow they spike it, they kick the field goal to win the game. So not only did the DPI and then that whole sequence give him the ball back. They, Bo Nex has his biggest completion of the entire game to a person he was not throwing the ball to. That happened multiple times in this game. One of the touchdown they scores is it gets tipped up in the end zone and I think Franklin catches it in the back line. And then the Giants had their own one of those on a Theo Johnson touchdown. You ricochet touchdowns in one half

of football. Yeah, so Bo Nix is two like key throws in this game were not to the person he was trying to throw the ball to. And the one where he is trying to throw the dig to Sutton and it ends up being caught by Marvin Mims on the seam. The reason I think we all know that he's throwing to Sutton. One, it just looks that way but two. That's his look at him. I watched it.

And that's his favorite throw on the field. Sutton is cutting across the left hash. I'm going to throw that dig around. Like I know that that's his favorite throw. So I know you're right. Okay. That maybe isn't what he meant to do. But I do just love the poetic justice.

Bonick struggled throwing the ball deep again today. And it's- A period today. Fair. Fine. We'll get to that. But struggles throwing the ball deep. Left a couple out there as he has done several times this year. Two of seven on attempts of 20 plus air yards on the day. But the last two connected.

The last two connected inside the final two minutes of the game. And we're a huge part. of why they scored on those final two possessions. The Broncos deserve to win the game because they claw their way back in and obviously takes a few lucky breaks. And there's even like there's a fourth and three pass interference on Andrew Phillips with like six and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter. If that ball is incomplete, the game is probably over.

Like there's a bunch of sliding doors moments. But let's just take into context the performance the Broncos had for the first three quarters of this game before we keep too much praise on how the game ended. they had a 27% offensive success rate through three quarters. They were averaging 3.8 yards per play. They were averaging 4.2 yards per attempt through three quarters. That was worse than what the Raiders did over the first three quarters of their game today. So this Broncos offense, they had that nice little blip against the Bengals, but for the most part,

they have really, really struggled over the last couple games. Congratulations on the win today, but this is not a team playing very good football on that side of the ball, Derek. No, this is still a team that we talked about it earlier. It might have been on this week's preview show or maybe it was the last show that we did. But like they are a very limited offense in terms of the scope. Like it's a lot of we're just going to boot. We're going to throw the flat a lot. We're going to RPO screen.

Like they had, I forget when exactly in the game that this was, but I think they took a sack and got into second and 18. And they threw like a give up wide receiver screen on second and 18. I'm like, this is manageable if we at least try as an offense. And they didn't. So that continues to frustrate me. They did not run the ball well for a lot of today, which if you're going to be a little bit limited in the passing game and we hope that we get our chunks by going into play action and throwing down the field that way, well, if you're not really running the ball, it can be a little bit difficult to get into that kind of flow and stay ahead of the sticks and stuff. So this is just, it's an offense that continues to frustrate me. Again, credit to them for like getting a little bit of the variance there with a couple of the bounces there at the end and Knicks makes one or two throws that are pretty fortunate for them.

But this continues to be an offense that I just, the more of it we get. yet this year, the less of it I feel like I trust going into the deeper part of the season. It's been a rough couple weeks until the final quarter today where, again, they need this trinod pick and so many of those coin flip moments in order to claw back into this game. That sequence where they were at second and 18, I was actually showing Dave the sack that got them to that second and 18 before we started recording the show. It's a boot and Bo Nix is rolling out to his right. And he just sits there in the flat, like outside the pocket and gets like a bug across a

dashboard against Brian Burns when there's a guy sitting there in the flat. Like it's just, it's not a well-foiled machine on offense right now for the Broncos. Burns's reaction on that snap seemed to be like, I mean, okay. Yeah, exactly. All right. If you want to let me do this, I'll do it. The offensive line coach, the fact that that's going to go down as a sack and the scorebook

is not one that he's going to love. So the Broncos, again, it's their defense caused them back into this game. I think that the defense in the past rush ultimately is what allows them to have enough moments to get back into it. On the giant side of this, the giants in the first half were doing so much good stuff. Derek, I loved some of the things that they were doing from heavier personnel. They were doing a lot of vertical stuff down the right side line where they're throwing away from Certain and they're bleeding out that area with multiple tight ends on the field, getting the Broncos in base defense.

They're getting chunks that way. And I'm getting ready to have this conversation about, oh, man, like, you know, Jackson Dart is not a perfect player, but he's making enough plays off schedule out of structure. and they're doing enough with how they're setting up the offense where they're giving this team a chance and that's the conversation I was ready to have about the Giants and then we get into the second half and all of those issues that the Broncos had

down to down in the first half, the Giants had a 36% offensive success rate in the second half and then Jackson Dart throws that pick and now the game starts to crumble. And then you combine that with missing two extra points and then when they're up 19 to nothing, instead of kicking the extra point to go up 20, they decide to go for two,

it's now 19 and those three points ultimately obviously come up very big in what decides this game. I mean, I'm kind of with you. The offense looked solid until really basically like you said, the interception where once Jackson's art, I think through that, a lot of it fell apart. But like one of his best throws of the day was he had thrown a corner route to like the front right pylon to I think it was Daniel Bellinger and like that gets dropped. I thought that was an insanely good throw that he put on that guy and it just wasn't caught. I also just thought like, yeah, they did a good job with some of their heavier personnel

and just moving guys around. Like we've talked about a little bit these year like, Hufanga, I think you can get him to start chasing stuff. And the big Tyrone Tracy run that they have is they have the tight end splitting across. And Hufanga flies down like he thinks he's about to get boot and has to go cover that guy on the slide route. And it just opens up this huge valley of space like in between that B gap and Tracy just kind of takes off there. So I thought they did like some good just, okay, we know who to pick on. And then it's funny you mentioned the dart interception.

Like I was as that was happening, looking up stats of like, man, I feel like today he's replacing the Blitz really well. And if he gets pressured, he can go and make some plays outside of the pocket. So I was looking up some numbers for that. And like, as I'm doing it, I see him like getting yanked to the ground and then throw the interception. I was like, man, we almost like, it was right there. We almost had this.

So you know what's wild about that? I was looking that up to Derek, great minds think alike. Jackson Dart was good against the blitz in this game. Except Vance Joseph did something that I thought was really interesting. And I went back and looked at this. Over the course of the year, he is blitzed six plus 28 times. And in this game, he did it five against Jackson Dart. And like, obviously, you're going to vary your blitzes against five-man pressure.

Jackson Dart, pretty good. He finished the day 8 of 14 for almost 200 yards, two touchdowns. When Vance Joseph blitzed six or seven, one of four for 13 yards with the backbreaking pick. Like, when Sternod dropped out, there were still six rushers. Like, I mean, it's a gamble, but it's a gamble that pays off. in a big way. And I just think on those occasions where Vance Joseph was willing to truly send the house at him and it's a nice luxury when you have coverage players that can help you in that regard,

I mean, that's the story of the game for me because he played well enough to win this game, even if things bogged down in the second half, if you just see that guy. And obviously he didn't. If you go back and watch that play, he just did not account first or not drifting back there. as we think about the long-term implications of this, Derek, I come out of this game not really feeling much better about the Broncos or much worse about the Giants. Is that weird?

Because that's mostly my like, how do I think about this moving forward takeaway from what just happened today? Even though the ending was obviously insane. I mean, I at least like, at least again, for Jackson Dart to have like relatively acquitted himself pretty well for most of that game until that interception. I was like, okay, that's, you know, you keep building, you keep stacking those.

I can start to feel a little bit better about you. but the Broncos have won like, I feel like most of the games they've won this year. I'm like, I don't know if I feel any better about Denver, but that's cool that they keep stacking them. So I like that that is important for getting into the dance, right? But I just, this is a team that if I thought they had this record by now, I would feel pretty good about like the formula of how they've gotten there. This feels like they've gotten there in about the ugliest fashion possible.

Yeah, I think that's right. And again, I'm just a little bit worried. More than a little bit worried. I'm pretty worried about what the offense currently looks like in the way the quarterback is playing. It's what we were concerned about coming into the season. season don't have a whole lot of reason to feel better about it as we've gotten this far. I will say I have no, I have zero rooting interest.

I'm sad that the Giants didn't pull this out for the simple reason that like, if you just, if you just do one thing different and win this game, you've got a two game win streak against the reigning champ Eagles, the playoff team Broncos who have a winning record who are in the mix in the AFC West. I just, I think it would have been a news cycle unlike anything we've seen in a long time. It's amazing how fast that can change. It would have been Dart Mania for the next seven days. Now the Giants are going to be licking their wounds.

And look, we know how this works too. Like every TV show, like the producers were already, the producers of every TV show were already blowing up their group chats with ideas for the week because the Giants looked that certain to win the game. And all that shit just goes down the drain in five minutes of game time. as that was happening in the Giants Broncos game, we had another team driving down four in the final two minutes of game trying

to scrape out a win at the end. The Packers end up winning that game against the Cardinals, but still not the prettiest game from Green Bay. I mean, it absolutely could have lost this game of one or two things go slightly different against a Cardinals team that has been pretty forgettable this year. I want to ask you this, because Derek and I had this conversation on The Hangover

because we talked about the Packers-Bengals game. the Packers right now are four one and one. How do you feel about like where the Packers are at this moment? I'm annoyed. I'm officially annoyed just because when does it matter? And I get all that stuff. They're four one and one. The sky's not falling.

They're perfectly good shape. But like let me answer your question with a question. Why is it this hard? What can you point to can you point to something? Like I know they had. I actually think I can't. I know they had injuries on the offensive line that made it tough for things to be more cohesive in the early going in the season, but it seems like they're getting over that. I'd love to hear an answer.

I just want to know why this team that we think so highly of hasn't had a stress-free week since week two. This is, I was trying to figure this out as I was rewatching the game. And the Packers finished three of ten on third down today. And so that, they finished three of ten. The Cardinals finished for 7-14. And I think that went a long way in making the game feel a little bit closer. And the Packers, you watch them in those moments and you're like, man, this is a little bit frustrated.

And then you look up the stats. The Packers lead the NFL in third down conversion rate. Okay? But here is the very subtle thing that I think makes this very funny. Packers lead the NFL in third down conversion rate because they are converting an absurd, 48% of their third and longs this season. So on third and seven plus,

they're the best team in the league by a wide margin. on third and short and medium, they are 24th in third down conversion rate. That's the Packers. They can get these chunk plays and they're incredibly explosive. And when it's third and eight or third and 11, it's like, oh yeah, they can pick this up. And then it's third and three or fourth and three.

And Jordan Love is throwing a 40-yard bomb for no reason. It's incomplete and the other team is getting the ball. And so I do think that like collection of numbers, Derek, goes a long way in explaining why this team feels the way that they feel. There's like a weird inconsistency to it, even though the numbers will tell you that they are very good in those specific areas. I think Bucking and get out that way does explain a lot because like they, yeah, when you have a quarterback like Jordan Love and even some of the skill players that they have, right? Like we've seen Tucker Craft make a lot of big catches down the field. I think Golden can separate down the field.

Like they, Romeo Dobbs can do that at times. Like they have these guys who can make the big plays, but the consistency is very frustrating. and I do think some of that is like Jordan Love just accuracy rise. I think in the one to 10 yard area is not always the cleanest. That's why the offense is built to be like a shot play. We throw down the field. We play action. We throw 15 yard outbreakers type of offense.

It's just that again, kind of to your point, on third end four, you don't really need that. You need to throw the speed out and get that out a little bit faster, but that's just kind of not the way that the offense operates. And so I think if the run game were slightly more like powerful, I, I think that they would be a little bit better there. Like the run game isn't bad, but I think because they've been shuffling offensive linemen in and out, I think they've struggled to find probably the peak of the cohesion that they really want with that unit,

and maybe that would help in their third and fort, or their third and short type of stuff. But I think that does a really good job of explaining why they're frustrating. I also think it's frustrating, like, they're very obviously not a bad or even mediocre team, right? Like, they're a good team. It's just this was the year that they were supposed to be great. And then you look at every metric and they're like sixth or,

seventh or eighth. They're like clearly in that like this is firmly a playoff team, but you still don't feel like they're the contender that you thought they would be. I do also want to say like the Cardinals are not a bad football team. Like they're frustrating. You see the stat that they've lost five in a row now and it's by a grand total of 13 points. They're a very competent team. They are very competent football team. They are capable of giving anybody they play a game. They're not getting they're not getting steamrolled by anybody at this point. I still, I get mad when I and y'all make valid points, but like you look through Packers games and you're like, oh, well, the run game just couldn't get going.

And like, it wasn't great today, but it was good enough. And like, and Jordan Love play as well. And you're like, oh, well, where's the pass rush? Oh, Jacoby Brissette got sacked six times. The pass rush was there. They won the turnover battle. Like, they did all the stuff you're supposed to. They hit a huge kick at halftime to help them erase the two possession deficit going in.

They did all the stuff that we say you're supposed to do to win. football games and I'm like they did win but I'm tired of this team stressing me out because everything about them suggests that they should be at the top of the heap at the sequence in their first drive to me is just very emblematic of where this team is it's on their opening drive they have a third and four from the Arizona 37 they do like a little reverse pivot handoff to Emmanuel Wilson that gets blown up because Rashid Walker fails to get around the down block from Tucker craft and the entire thing just explodes for a one yard loss it's fourth and five they didn't decide to go for it.

And Love bombs it, throws it 40 yards into the end zone on fourth and five. And air mails Romeo Dobbs and suddenly they don't have the ball anymore. And then there's a couple other like third and mediums in this game. They hit a third and seven while they were driving when they kicked a field goal in the second quarter. He tries to throw like a deep out to Dantavian Wicks on the right side, even though they're trying to work a high low over the middle of the field, which is like you don't need to, they average 10.3 air yards per attempt on third and medium and short.

10.3. It's just like, that's what this offense is. And sometimes the rewards are great. And then sometimes it's just like, why are we doing this? And then they had a third and three screen to Tucker Kraft that goes through like 15 yards and easy conversion.

They have a fourth and two, a little quick out, get the ball out of his hands, quick to Matthew Golden. Like, I just think that there are these situations that should be a little bit easier that they make harder than they probably have to be.

And then you combine that with some inconsistencies on third down on the other side. They gave up a couple explosives in this game. Like there were two whole shots on a corner route that the Cardinals hit where Evan Williams didn't get over far enough in cover two. Jacobi Percept makes both of those throws.

And then the other guy on their defense that I think we might need to have a conversation about. Like, I think that Carrington Valentine is probably a better outside corner in this moment than Nate Hobs is. Nate Hobs has been picked on a lot where I think Valentine is actually a pretty decent player. And so the combination of those

Evan Williams completions down the right side line, a couple one-on-one moments where Marvin Harrison Jr. is picking on Nate Hobbs combined with the third down inconsistencies on the Packers and in the end result, you get a game that feels like this. And you know what's really funny though? They do always make it more difficult on themselves than they need to, but they kind of win the game when on that like fourth and three or whatever it is, they have the trips to the left side and Jordan Love throws like a 25-yard corner route to Tucker Kraft to end the game.

Yeah, to end the game. So it's like they, they keep doing it. And the gambit is that we will get it when we need it. And for the most part this year, they have. And so I just, they continue to be a frustrating team. And me especially having them in the wind pool, I think has made them even more frustrating. But like, I just, it still feels even though it's slightly more up and down than I would like.

I still feel like they're a really, really good football team. They're just like, I don't know. They're just kind of this way. They're annoying. They're just kind of this way. What Dave said, I think is correct. Like, how do you feel about the Packers right? Now, I'm annoyed by them, and I think that's the right place to land.

I'm annoyed and I'm not going to alter any of my expectations just yet. Like, if this is the Packers being annoying, they got a long way to go to become a more well-rounded, consistent team. Again, like, if this is where you are after a strange up and down, frustrating stretch, then I think it's right that you're a pretty good team. It's nice to see Micah have one of the best games of his career in terms of like sack totals and everything else. who's consistently disruptive, goes a long way in them winning this game. And so at least that part of it looks pretty good right now, even if some of the others are a little bit inconsistent.

All right, guys, before we move on, we're going to take a quick break. Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention. We had a conversation on the preview show this week, trying to figure out which was the second game of the week after Buck's Lions. You took the side of Colts Chargers, Dave. Yes, I did. Derek took the side of Rams Jags.

And in the end, neither was the second game of the week because they were both blowouts. The Chargers do a good job in the second half. They threw the ball a thousand times. They managed to crawl back into this thing. For the most part, these were one-sided games. And so I want to just ask a question about these two games overall before we dig into the specifics of it.

Between the Rams and the Colts, in your mind, which team did a better job of destroying the legitimacy of their game of the week status? Okay, I promise I'm not just being biased because I picked the Colts, but I'm going to go with the Colts because here's my hot take. Can I share my hot take with y'all? You sure can. I've been ruminating on the Rams Jags game all day long because it was the first game of the day.

This, like the Rams and the Jags just played the same game that they've been playing all season long. The Rams just executed in the Red Zone and the Jags didn't get a takeaway. That's all that happened. This is all that happened in this game. The Jags didn't get a takeaway for the first time all year. They did all the same dumb shit that they usually do with operation problems, with too many penalties. They're averaging nine flags a game on the year, dropped balls, inconsistent play from Trevor Lawrence. It was the same stuff they do all the time, except they couldn't convert in big situations.

They didn't get a takeaway. And then the Rams, the Rams just got Devante Adams the ball in the end zone. Like that's all they did. Going into this game, first of all, this is the first time the Rams have ever been perfect in the red zone

all year long. They were converting 50% in the red zone heading into this game, which was 24th in the league. They jumped up to 18th just by virtue of their performance in this one game.

Devante Adams came into the game with 13 red zone targets and two catches for two touchdowns. Today, he had four red zone targets. Three catches, three touchdowns. These are the teams we thought they were. The Rams just did that one frustrating thing well, and the Jags didn't do the turnover stuff

that saved them from all the frustrating shit that they do. So I don't feel like I learned that much about either of these teams, which is a crazy thing to say about a game that the Rams won 35-7. That's interesting. Derek, do you think you learned anything about the Rams of the Jags today? No, I think Dave is actually pretty spot on, and I would concede the game of the week status if I had to. I really would.

Like I, and this is the reason that I would say it. I, for me, for the Colts versus the Chargers, I thought one, I mean just another performance of the Colts offense doing what they do was incredible, especially against, I know that the Chargers defense, this was like a good matchup for the Colts to go exposed, but they still, to kick their ass that way, it was incredible. But also, they had to outgun and outscore Justin Herbert playing the way that he was playing. And I know that there's some issues with that offense, but Justin Herbert was insane today. Like, if I collected the best 10 throws of the day, Herbert had six of them, and that is not an exaggeration.

He was, like, truly a one-man show today. Like, he was phenomenal. And so to outgun him, I thought said something. Whereas with the Jaguars, I was just like, the Rams played a good game. And Dave makes the point. It's like they finally hit on them in the red zone. So it looks like a much better day than the Rams typically get. But he's right.

They mostly played the game that they play on offense. Just the variants kind of swung their way when they needed it. The Jaguars shot themselves in the foot for this entire game. Like, their offense was disgusting to me. Like, they've had issues with drops, right? Especially over the middle. But like Brian Thomas Jr. had a really bad drop over the middle.

He had, there was a corner route that was a little high down the left side line that he had a shot at. He doesn't get, like he's not able to bring that down. There's a go ball down the right side line to him where he slows down and tries to push off the DB, which I get. But it ends up to where looking like the ball is overthrown because he does that. There's a third and 15 late in the game when the jack. Jaguars are a little bit backed up and was probably their last chance to like really go make a push in this game. Parker Washington drops a dig route past the sticks. It's just like that happened more, even more than it's happened in other games.

And then you combine that with like Trevor Lawrence to like there was a screen that he dirted, I think, in the first half. And then there was like just one or two other plays where his inconsistency piled up. And so you have him making those two or three plays on top of probably their worst performance in terms of drop. and just not getting hands on the ball. Like this, this to me felt more like the Jaguars just lost the football game, where I felt like the Colts had to go make a statement. There's something right now about the Jags offense that just feels off, right? I mean, I don't think I'm saying anything groundbreaking and pointing that out.

There was a two-play stretch to me that really explains where the Jaguars' offense is right now, where it's a little bit of everything that's going wrong. So it's third and two with 10 minutes and 44 seconds left in the third quarter. Trevor has Johnny Munt on the left side on third and two from the Rams 30 and he just airmails it by like five yards, right? So that's just a miss and that's going to happen. He's going to have like two or three of those a game at least. That's just kind of where we are with Trevor Lawrence.

So that happens on third and two. And then on fourth and two, he has Diami Brown coming over the middle of the field. He lets it rip right before Diami Brown turns his head around. And so it's not an inaccurate ball. It's just the timing on it is a tiny bit off on fourth and two, and the jacks turn the ball over. So that's what the Jaguar's offense is right now. Like the quarterback is making his share of mistakes, and you're combining it with timing issues and detail issues. And it's a little bit of everything.

And that's why it all starts to crumble. And that's kind of what this team has felt like over the last two weeks. When you have the sack-filled performance last week against the Seahawks, they take seven sacks again today, and they're consistently struggling. It's not just one thing. It's a little bit of everything. It is a little bit of everything. And even before that sequence that you were talking about, Johnny Munt had dropped a screen pass,

like right before that where he overthrows him on that third and two. And so it was just it was a bunch of little stuff like that where screens have typically been there like, this is how we can get on track despite some of the other issues in our offense. And they haven't been able to lean on that. Like you said, they've been sacked now seven times in each of their last two games against. Obviously the Seahawks front is really, really good.

And this Rams front is pretty good. But like seven, is a lot even to some of the best. And so I think some of them too are just, you know, there was one where Quentin Lake fires as the nickel off the left side. And like Trevor sees it and he knows that he's hot. But with the way that the linebacker is kind of dropping under the seam route and then you can see like the safety is flying over the top of it, there's no like short hot route for him.

So in theory, like the best throw would be to like to maybe try to let that seam rip, but it's not really open. So like he doesn't have a good answer. Like it's just some of the little details, some of like how they're trying to this stuff up right now. It just, it's not really working the way they want. On the flip side, I'm starting to

feel like, like, who's going to like legitimately slow down the Colts? Like, that's my big takeaway from watching them once again, where they are just, and we've talked about this a million times, but they're just so well balanced and well

structured and amazing. I mean, it's hard to be too excited, like hyperbolic and excited about the Colts when you remember some of the aliens in the AFC. I mean, like the Chiefs, we're going to talk about the Chiefs. They, they look great. You can't write off, certainly you can't write off the bill's offense. But like, this offense is so damn impressive. And they're just a lock to score 27 plus points. I mean, that's sequence in the second half of this game where the Chargers were clawing back into it and their offense was

getting going and every single time the Colts just put the kibosh on it. That was my favorite part of the whole game is when the Chargers scored to make a 31 to 17 and the Colts got the ball back. And then that sequence of plays right after that, they have like a play action insert with Alec Pierce and it yanks the corner from that side as he's like running a little crosser. They find Warren in the flat for 29 yards. Next play, they rip a wrapper out to Michael Pittman for 11.

And then the next play after that, Pierce snaps off a little comeback off of a two-man play action for 14 yards and the next play after that it's a 19 yard touchdown to Jonathan Taylor and it's just like okay and that that's where this team is right now it's like they the charger score to make it feel like all right maybe they're getting back into this thing and then the Colts squash it immediately because that's just what their offense feels like at this stage and that Jonathan Taylor touchdown run was so beautiful dude just the way that like Bernard Raymond is climbing to the second level and just like swim moving the D tackle guys crashing over from the other side to take him out of the play.

Everybody's walling off their man. And then Jonathan Taylor, on top of the blocking being incredible, Jonathan Taylor has the speed to outrun three different guys to the goal line. That's just, like I said, they're so balanced. They can be so explosive. I think I'll say it more succinctly than I tried to a minute ago. Other than the fact that a few other teams in the AFC just have these superhero quarterbacks who can will their teams to wins,

I do think this is the most complete team in the AFC. I mean, I think top to bottom. The only other players on the offense, like I think it's undeniable. I think they're the best team by far. The only reason. Like an NFC roster. The only reason I'm not just cannonballing in and saying like the Colts are the best team in the AFC, maybe the best team in the league, is just because of the respect that I

have for guys like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen and things like that. We've seen Daniel Jones do it at this level for now seven weeks. And they've been allowed to, we've talked about. this a lot. Similar like the Seahawks, they've been allowed to play the game they've wanted to play, right? It's 45% play action, like they're able to run the ball. They have leads in a lot of these games. Eventually, you're going to have to play left-handed. I'll be curious to see what it looks like when that happens. But their offense has been fantastic. I was looking up some of the stats from today, and it was just, it was so beautiful. So they were seven yards per play, again,

they had a 58% rushing success rate. They had a 53% dropback success rate. They had a 50% success rate from 11 personnel. They had a 67% success rate from 12% They had 147 passing yards off of play action. They had 141 passing yards without play action. There's just this balance where they're hitting you in all these different ways. And we talked a lot about the pass catchers last week on that show. And I did a video about it this week on our YouTube channel. Like I'm obsessed with this past catching group.

Today, going back and watching it, you're just struck by the way the offensive line is playing right now and the way that Jonathan Taylor is playing right now. The first Jonathan Taylor touchdown, and you combine all of this by the way with, Shane Steichen is on a heater. Like just on an absolute heater, and you could feel it in this game. So the touchdown that Jonathan Taylor scores on the first drive, they have a jet motion to the left, and it yanks the linebackers over one gap, and then they run a little split zone where they have the tight-on slicing across,

and that holds the backside linebacker. So you're moving the linebackers over, and you're holding one, and then you watch the blocking on that play. Nelson just does a ridiculous job reaching the backside defensive tackle, and then you watch Bordalini. he does a phenomenal job like climbing off of the combo with the right tackle

and because the linebacker he's supposed to climb to isn't there, he just climbs to the nickel on the play side, hip checks him out of the way and it's a touchdown. Like every single one of these guys

up front there is just doing such a great job. There was a, the third and 13, or the third and three run where they give it to Abdullah for 13 yards. That's another moment

where it's like, it's a great play call. It's a play call or it's a great feel for the situation. And because the chargers are in a pass rush look on that play.

Like, Dan Henley's mugged up, but then he drops out. And so Quentin Nelson has to like climb up to him while Bernard Raymond has to do like a weird thing with a spiking defensive Wyman, but they're getting hands on everybody. Like, it's all working. Every single aspect of it is working together. And it's just really cool when you see a team in this sort of groove offensively. That play exactly is why you want a good run game. Where like when teams are trying to get into their, ooh, I'm going to be getting in a

pass rush front and I'm going to do something fun. You just run right through it. Like, who care? I don't need to see your pass rush stuff. We're just going to run right through you. So I thought, I think the blocking has been phenomenal. Like, I think every player right now on that line is playing up to their best of their abilities, which has been really fun to see. The thing to me that is like striking about Taylor,

and I think you really saw it in this game, when he starts to get to the second level, that like area of five yards past the line to like 10 yards past the line, him like turning over a gear in that moment is unbelievable. Like, Derwin James was flabbergasted that he hit the gear that he hit. I think on that first touchdown run. Yeah, because Jerry was the deep safety. And he's the one that took the bad angle. This wasn't like RJ Mickens from the Dolphins game.

That's the thing. If it was any of the other guys, I'd be like, he's Jonathan Taylor and you're not. Like, that's going to happen. But for it to happen to Derwin James, I was like, okay, he is truly playing on just, I mean, he's the best back in the league right now, at least the best performing back. And so I think player-wise, they've been insane. You mentioned some of the design stuff that they're doing. I really like that.

I think it was maybe later in the third quarter where Jonathan Taylor gets the like jet touchdown where he's off to the left side and they like jet him across. It's fun because you also see Tyler Warren like come across behind him as if they might shovel it to him. So this is clearly like something that they're probably going to build on with their red zone package. Like I just, Shane Steichen is finding every single way to utilize every player in every way that he can

and grow on the stuff that they've done last year. Obviously you've highlighted that with Pierce. becoming like a dig route connoisseur now but like he's doing something like that with all of these players and it's just it's an incredibly fun unit to watch and like the daniel jones of it all brys rossel actually did a really good point of this on the sports info solution podcast talking about like in terms of pressure to sack daniel jones is doing something he's never done in his career while like he's just not taking sacks on pressures in a way that again that he's never done before so that will probably regress in my mind though the accuracy i don't think that's going anywhere

He is putting the ball on everybody right now, like into tight windows. When he needs to layer it, it's really good. Like he's leading these guys for yards after the catch. Like the ball placement to me is what's really stirring to drink right now with that passing offense. And he was pressured at the seventh highest rate in the league for week seven. I mean, there's still two games to play. But so it's not as if the chargers weren't affecting him. I think that's something I think is worth highlighting is, I mean, the Indies offensive line is playing amazing.

But it's not as if he's always drinking a cup of coffee back. there just having all the time in the world to make the right decision. Like he's playing well under pressure. He's done it multiple times this season. I mean, that touchdown to Tyler Warren, he, Derwin's in his face. Derwin is like right in his face and he just makes that throw like standing in against pressure.

He's been doing that all year. It's been very impressive. The last thing I want to mention about these two games is I think the, what the Rams did on offense today deserves a lot of credit because I think the, what they felt like might have been the same as they normally, as it normally has this season. The fact that they use the most 13 personnel of like, At some point during the game, they had been using it at the highest rate in the next-gen era. This is a team that we know lives in 11 personnel.

And I thought it was such a cool wrinkle because you don't have puka. And so I think you're doing this for two different reasons. You're doing it because you don't have your best offensive player who you build a lot of things through. And so if we're not going to have him, why do we want to put more receivers on the field when we have these tight ends that we actually kind of like? And so it was a good wrinkle dealing with his absence. And then you think about it, Derek, the jack struggled so much. against the base defense looks that they were forced into by the Seahawks last week. And so I guarantee you that's Sean McVeigh looking at what the Seahawks did last week and saying,

all right, 13 is the way we can guarantee we get them into base defense. Why don't we try to push this button more than we ever have? And so I thought that was just like a really cool idea when you're trying to account for not having puka. And the other guy that just leapt off the screens immunity day for the Rams. You mentioned him on that sack, Derek. Quinn Lake had an insane game for the Rams. he had two PbUs, including one at the line of scrimmage, one on third down against Travis Hunter.

He had that sack that you mentioned before. He had another play where he rips off the edge and disrupts a dropback as a blitzer. Multiple different plays in this game. He's in the slot. I'm watching the dots as the game is going. He's carrying these vertical routes that, you know, that's where the Jags are trying to go with the ball.

And so that's not going to show up in the stat sheet. But he has really become like a cool skeleton key for this defense. They've got some issues at outside corner, but what he is in terms of like the long term outlook for this thing. But what he's doing in the nickel has been absolutely phenomenal. He's been really cool, man. Like he's, I think he's really level up.

Like when I came into the season worried about the cornerback room, I was probably less worried about him than the outside corners, obviously, but I was still like, you know, he's flashed some stuff. But like if they really wanted to, they could probably upgrade. But he has been the upgrade. And he's like,

I think body type wise when you can get some of these bigger guys the way that he's built, I think that that's honestly the best way to do it, especially if they're going to be kind of what they are. in terms of weird stuff at linebacker and kind of like skimping there for to have a player who can like kind of fill in that role when he needs to as like a blitzer run defender that sort of stuff I think is incredibly valuable back to the other side with the 13 personnel stuff we finally got the Terrence Ferguson game which I obviously have to bring up and the reason I do think that's important I think other than two to at well the vertical element of this offense can be lacking at times Terence Ferguson especially compared to the other tight ends they have like his whole thing is he can just just fly down the seam. And like, they literally hit him on a big touchdown, uh, doing that today. And so I think, again, maybe you're not going to do that every single week. But like the fact that again, with their best offensive player out, they lean to this rookie who really up until last week,

they like they weren't even really putting in the lineup. And all of a sudden now he's like, you're, we're going to throw a shot plate of this guy and score on it. Like it's just, I said coming into the week. I love to see what Sean McVeigh does when he's back into a corner. And this, this is what we got. And it was beautiful. We huddle five times a day throughout the day to talk about what we like and what we want to highlight and Beler helps us get all these wonderful highlights together and every time we did it Robert was like Quentin, we got to Quentin Lake place. So do we have, but we're going to highlight Quentin Lake, right? And I, on, like, that's one thing, but on top of that, it was the 8.30 a.m. kickoff. So he made the first

and biggest impression. Yeah, he certainly did. That was one of the things that just jumped out to me watching football today. I was just a Quentin Lake had one hell of a day. So the Rams and the Colts both had our attention. The Philadelphia Eagles passing game. Let's throw that on the heap as well. 19 of 23 for Jalen Hertz, 326 yards. The Eagles best day through the air in a very

long time in a 28 to 22 win over the Vikings. Jalen Hertz and the Eagles air attack, you guys have our attention. They would have had our attention either way, right? Because like if they can't get it going once again, then

we got a five alarm fire on. our hands, but instead they, I mean, they do what they're supposed to do. You want to talk about frustrating teams. I mean, the potential's been there this entire time, right? I mean, we know these guys. And it's shown up at times throughout the season. Like, we saw a lot of this same stuff against the Rams a few weeks ago, and they just did it very consistently throughout the game. And it was nice to see. As somebody who has thought the Eagles would be more explosive throughout the season, it was, I didn't, I didn't need the reminder that they have two of the best. receivers in the NFL, but I got it anyway.

It was interesting watching this game unfold because, again, they had a half where they did absolutely nothing. I mean, they struggled offensively in the first half. They had a 30% offensive success rate in the first half. They took sacks in the final two drives of that half. They had two passing first downs in the first half and ended with 320 passing yards. And Derek, even watching it in the second half, I think J.1 Hurts made a handful of just crazy impressive plays in the second half, pushing the ball down.

the field accurately. We know he can do that. He had multiple plays where he's creating outside of the pocket. I mean, that third and 15 completion he has to Devante Smith, it's a really good in the third quarter. It's a really good pocket navigation for him.

And a great job by the left side of the offensive line kind of clearing out the pocket late, both Landon Dickerson and Jordan Mila on that left side, and he kind of makes a play later in the down. And then on that third and 13, again, he's creating outside of the pocket, the offensive line including, I think Brett Toff had a really nice play on that, where he's just clearing out

that side, Lane Johnson stands up, Dallas Turner gives him a little bit of space. And so I thought he did a great job extending plays where he needed to extend. And then he had a couple deep shots to Devante Smith touchdown, to Sluggo to A.J. Brown to win the game. That AJ Brown touchdown, that double post was a gorgeous on-time throw. But I still think watching this back, even though the stats are kind of overwhelming, a lot of this stuff is coming off schedule and outside of like the normal rhythm of the play outside of like the Devante Smith and AJ Brown touchdowns and then the sluggo.

So I think that it was a really good individual performance by J.1 Hertz in the second half, but I'm not sure the cracks in the Eagles passing game disappear because of what they did today against the Vikings in the final two quarters. I'm like kind of of two minds about it. I think on one hand I kind of agree because like their their drop back passing game against non-blitzes still worries me. Like they were good against the blitz today and they were even still good against the non-blitz today.

But again, part of that was either off-script stuff, which that is again, the frustration with Jalen Hertz is like he can clearly, he's clearly capable of making these plays. And like the two on either sideline that he makes in this game were like really important third and long conversions that maybe they don't win this game if he doesn't make those plays. And so I thought that those were really impressive from him. And then I think what really stuck out to me that they like really don't do as part of their DNA is some of Jalen Hertz's biggest throws in this game were under center play action, which they do not do.

Like it is not ever in their playbook. Like I had two of completions on those plays all season before today. They had four of them today. And they were all checkdowns like previously. Like they were just check. He was like they were call those plays and then he would check them down. He wasn't actually throwing the deep post route or whatever. So he obviously hits the one to Devon Devanta Smith that goes for a touchdown.

But there was even a later chunk play, not a touchdown that he had. hits where he slides a little bit to his left in his pocket and comes back to the late dig window that Smith had run from the left over to the right hash and he hits him on that. And it's like if we could just again do this twice or three times a game, whereas like when this offense is at their worst, that it's at zero. Like that to me is how they start to get back on track a little bit. So I at least thought them trying to dig into some other stuff that they don't typically go to.

I thought was was pretty encouraging. And then I will say like you mentioned the double post touchdown that he throws. to AJ Brown, which came directly after the Devontas Smith chunk that I just mentioned, that throw is incredible. That might be to me. That might be my favorite throw that he's made all season, where they're, you know, again, they're running that double post and it's against single high. And so the inside post is holding that safety just enough.

And he's like, all right, I know my guy can make it. And he just pins it on him into a tight window. Like that's, those are the throws when I've been like frustrated about like, okay, Jalen Hertz can be productive. but does he make the throws that I like to see from a Dack Prescott, a Justin Herbert, like Matthew Stafford. It's that throw. And he's done it a couple of times this year.

And so to do that on top of some of the under center, we can take our shots here, like it just gives the offense a little bit more fullness that it just typically has not had this year. I really love this because we're not asking for a ton in terms of like giving them structural advantages. Just do a little bit, right? Give them three, four, five plays a game where,

because it's heavy personnel under center play action you're making things a little bit easier on your players. If you do that, right? You give them a handful of completions. They're going to have those were just better than you moments every single week. And so the combination of those two things in the second half was enough for them to feel the way that they did.

It is. And that's the first AJ Brown touchdown is just, I'm better than you. He barely ran a route on that play. He's just like jostling with the safety. He's just like fighting with the safety for three seconds. and he's like, I'm just going to run fast. And then he throws and he makes it.

It's just ridiculous. I was just going to say, like, they've gotten to this point mainly relying on we're better than you. And like that's always been my bet on the Eagles is that they have that caliber of roster that they can be five and two just rolling the ball out there. But imagine a world where they're scheming up easy looks for guys and making life easier on everybody in addition to just being better. That would be fun. Maybe this is the start of that. The number that really jumped out to me that I think the offensive line deserves a lot of credit for how the second half of that game went. 3.7 seconds average time to throw on J-1 Hertz's completions in the second half.

So even if there was some initial pushing of the pocket, like there was a couple of plays where Landon Dickerson like gave up a little bit of ground. But the way that they kept guys in front of them and then cleared out the pocket late allowed him to kind of extend some of those plays and find guys. late in the down. And so this was not just a J.1 Hertz, Devante Smith, AJ Brown situation. The guys up front did a lot of work to make that possible

in the second half of this game. 3.05 seconds in time to pressure as well, which is top five for the league. Yeah, nice to have Landon Dickerson. Yes, and it goes a long way. And the Vikings consciously in this game were loading up the box pretty consistently. And so I'm not surprised that the run game

wasn't really clicking, but you're going to have opportunities in the passing game if a team does that. against you and that's how you need to go about this. And so this is a game where I think it was closer than, you know, there were a couple moments in this game where like the Brendel holding call that wipes off a touchdown. Like that was ridiculous.

That's not a hole. It's like a snatch that that should have counted. The T.J. Hawkinson one where he probably catches that ball, that one's a little bit less impactful because they, I think even if they had scored a touchdown that play, they still would need to score again. But the Brenda one that wipes off that touch. down to Jalen Naylor like that should not have been a penalty yeah for sure and I mean it's worth I mean we just gave Jalen plenty of flowers but like the Eagles avoided something that's played

them all year I mean remember what it was third and nine with 145 to play when he hits that sluggo to a j Brown and you had every reason to think they don't get that because they haven't been converting those sorts of situations for most of the year and if they have to punt all bets are off and maybe you lose to Carson Wins, but they made a great play. All right, guys, before we move on, we're going to take one more quick break. The Washington commanders lose a game 44 to 22 to the Dallas Cowboys today. Jay and Daniels gets hurt again. Manners are now three and four.

This WTF moment is about more than what the commanders did on the field today. This is more about what this loss potentially means for the commander's season. their schedule over the next few weeks is absolutely brutal. You know it off the top of your head. Who do the commanders have over the next three weeks? Chiefs on Monday night next week, followed by the Seahawks, I believe, then the Lions. Okay, so there's like a real chance that this team is either like three and seven or four and six after the next three weeks. And after losing today, they have put themselves pretty far behind the eight ball when it comes to making the playoffs.

So not only what they did on Sunday, but what this means for the rest of the commander's season, What the fuck? We laid this out pretty perfectly in the preview episode. I know. Where some wonky shit happens against the Bears and you're coming into this game really needing to win to keep pace. You obviously don't do that. It's a little, I don't know, it's tough for me, at least,

to like evaluate how I even thought about how they played because Jaden Daniels goes out. I mean, they were struggling before we got hurt. They were. They absolutely were. but we also know this Cowboys defense will let you make some big plays, you know, like, and it was obviously you don't have Terry McLaren or Debo Samuel. I think that was going to be tough.

I think the Cowboys have a good shot to win no matter what. But the game, the competitive portion of it ends for all intents and purposes when Jaden goes out and Marcus Mariotta very quickly throws a pick six that just makes this a laffer very quickly. So I don't have a good feel for where the commanders are as a team. Jaden's healthy and now you're three and four. I think the report I heard after the game was that it's not considered serious, but that's something to keep an eye on. And yeah, man, this, this schedule is absolutely brutal.

Like, you're at a point now. And then after those three games, you have the dolphins, which, okay, whatever. But then it's Denver right after that. I mean, you are going to have to play some of your best football of the year to stay even, like in the hunt, like to even be on the graphic of teams that are. part of the seating and that's we said it i mean this is this is what regression can look like where all of a sudden nothing totally catastrophic has happened but you lose jaden for two weeks you lose to the falcons in part because you don't have your guy you let one slip that you had no

business letting slip i'm sorry to my bears fans but at least in the eyes of the commanders that's how they view it and now you lose jaden again and i mean they got to go to arrowhead and win or else they're and five. That's not a fun place to be. It's fair because I was when I was, we were talking about them this week and why I thought, you know, I feel pretty good about where this team is because the offense when Jay and Daniels had been playing had still looked really good down to down, right? Like this was a consistent group. They were reliable group. They were running the ball well. And Derek, they just didn't look like that today even before he got hurt.

The run game wasn't like a machine on early downs the way that it had been for a good chunk of the season. I thought the Cowboys did a good job of like mixing up their fronts. they were doing a lot of stunting, a lot of like run-down games and getting a lot of penetration on those plays. I mean, I think 21% of Washington's runs in this game went for negative yardage or no gain, which for a team that had been so consistent on the ground for most of the season and even going back to last season,

I think that says a lot about the Cowboys game plan. And I think that there were just inconsistencies in them throwing the ball in this game. It was a little bit of everything. So the Cowboys played 42% man coverage in this game. They had not played more than a little. 11% in any single game all season. And so clearly, coming into this game against a Washington team that didn't have

Terry McCorn that didn't have Debo Samo, they're like, we're going to challenge these receivers. Jaden finished three of 10 for 39 yards against man coverage. That's not all on him. There were a couple drops against man. Zach Ertz had a bad one. I believe Jalen Lane had one at one point. But then Jaden also missed a couple throws in this game.

Like he sails one for Zach Ertz at one point. He leaves one high and outside for Robbie Chosen coming over the middle of the field on what would have been a third down conversion. And so when I'm trying to pin down why they struggled, it wasn't just that they were missing guys in the passing game. That was part of it. And why Dallas felt so comfortable playing man coverage. But Jaden missed like three or four throws in this game that you would typically think he hits. So this is not just a our guys were hurt thing. There were opportunities there to be made that he wasn't able to make today.

And so it just wasn't the type of performance I'm used to seeing when he's on the field for this Washington offense, no matter who's playing receiver. And honestly, I actually think that that's kind of been my issue with him all season. Like, I think you still get really good plays, obviously, outside of the pocket. He made a number of really good throws on the move in this game. In the red zone, he's been really lethal. But I have felt like three or four times a game. He's just missing throws in a way that he didn't last year, whether it's like sometimes it's outright missing, which usually is not his issue. but I just feel like it's been a little bit more of like,

he made his guy go up above the rim when he didn't really need to there. Or, oh, that ball is in the dirt when he's not really protecting it from anything, he just kind of missed. And so it's caught, but it's a little bit more of a difficult catch to make. I feel like we've gotten more of that last year

where last year the ball placement was his superpower, right? And this year it just feels a little bit more normal, which I think is why the down to down passing offense has felt to me a little bit more herky jerky. And again, that's also partly because he's been in and out of the lineup. So he's just not as comfortable as I think that he wants to be. So I think you add all of that on top of, again, you're missing a couple of guys at receiver. And then I'm so glad you pointed out the Dallas front. Like,

that to me is probably the most impressive game that they've played all season. Like I just thought that, yeah, like just by far, like they were actually getting into the backfield. Like, even Kenneth Murray, I thought got into the backfield a number of times and made a couple of good plays. Like they just, that front played Washington's offensive line about as well as anyone since probably Green Bay has this season. It was, I understand what you're saying about the miss is. I think that they're, let me bucket them in two different places. He had one early in the game where the Cowboys are playing, man, it's a crosser to Luke McCaffrey,

and he misses it just a little bit outside. Those are the throws and the manner in which he's missed a couple of throws this year. We talked about early in the season, Derek, where there was a couple of those crossers against man where he's just like a hair off. That is what's been happening. But the one he misses to like Ertz over, I mean, it's a second and I in the first quarter.

It's a clean pocket. Ertz is sitting there in the middle of the field, and he threw it five feet. over his head. And then the one he missed the lane on the Outbreaker on the right side, that's another one where it's just like, that ball wasn't even close. And so I think that there have been like some details

where he's just a tiny bit off in tight windows this year. But some of the misses he had in this game were pretty uncharacteristic. And that's why I feel like it was just a different feel to the performance we got from him than even some of his imperfect moments from earlier this season. I actually think that's a really good way to point out.

Like I think even going back to last year and then certainly early this year. Sometimes when he just needs to lay the ball out on a crosser and let a guy run to it, the accuracy can be a little bit up and down. And again, that was even true when he was really good last year, I think. But throwing like to a spot in a zone, he was money, like all of last year. And like that was supposed to be his superpower. But you make the point of like this year, he's just had a couple of those where I don't know if it's because he's a little bit more unhealthy, especially now obviously that he has been in and out of the lineup or what it is or just random variance. You know, sometimes quarterbacks just go through patches where they're just not as

accurate as they used to be. Like, I don't know what it is, but it's one or two more throws into those tight window spots that last year he just like, it kind of felt automatic at a certain point. Talk about regression. I think this is to me like a really good example of it. Obviously, they're 8 and 4 in 1 score games last year. They're 0 and 2 in 1 score games this year. This wasn't a 1 score game.

But the other area, we talked about all off seasons, what they did on 4thdown. They converted 87% of their 4th down attempts last year. Today, it wasn't the 4th downs they didn't get. It was the 4th downs they didn't have a chance to go for. right so there were two moments in this game where they have fourth and pretty short fourth and like you know fourth and two fourth and three they get two false starts on those moments

where they were going to go for it and then they have to punt on those plays and those are just the little tiny details the little tiny moments that you go from being a team that's lucky a lot and you get a lot of breaks to a team that doesn't feel like it's getting quite as many it didn't wind up mattering but they miss a two point conversion early as well because Zachertz comes off his block like half a tick too soon which yeah like I said when you wind up losing by whatever it was 22 points that doesn't loom quite as large but yeah I mean they were so good at that that type of stuff last season last thing I want to talk about before we move on we just heaped a lot of praise under the Annapolis cults at the beginning of this show the Washington commanders are currently at the table of our 10 teams the Washington commanders are three and four with a brutal

stretch coming up over the next three weeks. The Colts are six and one and look like one of the best teams in the NFL and are absolutely rolling. Is it time to take Washington off the table and put the Colts at the table? Here's the thing. Two things can be true. The Colts, the Colts deserve a seat at the table based on what they've done. And I hope, I hope I've, anybody listening to this, I hope I've been sufficiently impressed

with their resume to this point. I hesitate to take Washington off the table, considering some of the elements surrounding their start. I mean, they didn't have Jaden Daniels for a game. He's been out of the lineup. And I hear what y'all are saying about his accuracy. I do want to throw in there. If it's excuse making, so be it. But not having the top two options in a receiver core that we all agreed is not good enough and wasn't good enough when it was healthy.

But that's what I was trying to, I was trying to extricate that. Like, it doesn't matter who the guys are if they're open and you're not throwing them the ball. And that was happening today. I don't completely agree because, again, it's the guys that you have the most time on task with and also just the best possible players. Like, I think you, I get your point. Like, you sail a throw, you sail a throw no matter what. But I think you could have overall, over the full body of work, better results with a Terry McLaren and a Debo Samuel. My point being...

this offense is, it's been banged up in important spots. And I would argue we haven't really seen what it was supposed to be for the vast majority of this season. And they look like they're in deep shit. But even if that's fair, like I'm not, I'm not admonishing them for what they've been up to this point. I'm just saying they're three and four with the Chief Seahawks and Lions looming here. There are 12 teams in the NFC right now that have a better record than the Washington commanders. So your point is that in three weeks, the commanders might be three and six or three and seven, whatever it is. Right now, who is more deserving to be at the table?

Is it the Colts or the commanders? It's the Colts by far. It's the Colts, but here's the problem. If we take the commanders off, then they're done. I'm not afraid of that. I'm a little afraid of that. There is a reason we're not taking the Ravens off. It's very easy right now.

Absolutely. After the Steelers lost to the bank. angles on Thursday. That to me isn't easy. We're saving the Ravens, right? They could win the AFC North still considering the state of the AFC North after Lamar comes back. So that's why they're not in this part of this conversation. Washington is three and four in a loaded NFC with a brutal three-game stretch coming up. At what point are we going to feel comfortable putting the Colts in this conversation? They're one of the best teams in the league. I mean, I'm very comfortable. It's not about my comfort level with the Colts. It's my

discomfort level taking a team off. I just don't think Washington's top gear is good enough in the current NFC for me to be afraid to take them off the table right now. What do you think, Derek? That's probably fair. So I think the only reason I am now kind of considering we can put the Colts in is that of the 10 teams that we have, and this I think is the nature of the quarterbacks that play in these conferences, we have seven NFC teams and we have three AFC teams, which

it's all the superhero quarterbacks and then the NFC you have whatever is in the NFC. But even with the superhero quarterbacks in the AFC, it feels a little bit weird because the Ravens probably are not that caliber of team. And so by virtue of the way that we set up the table is it's like we're kind of

just saying you're the chiefs of the bills or like get out of town in the AFC. And I just like I feel like the Colts are at least a little bit more deserving than that. Justice for the Colts, fair representation across the AFC. Not where I thought I would land by the way. It's not like, this point in the season, I just did not think.

So what's your vote? If we're voting right now, I would probably put the Colts in. It's not, my issue is not with the Colts. My issue is with the idea of Jaden Daniels leading a second half surge. But it

sounds like I'm outnumbered here. So I, I'm fine just stating, stating my piece. And then really, my favorite thing in the world is just to remind people that I told you so later. So like, I can't lose here because I do like the Colts. I just think it's ridiculous at this point to not have the Colts on. And the only reason that we're not kicking the Ravens off is because they play in the

AFC North. Like that's the only reason. Yeah. And I just think like the NFC is too loaded, I feel like to leave room for a team like this. I think that's where I'm at now. It's like I just look at the other teams that we have and it's like they would have to beat like three of these teams realistically to like get where they want to go. They play the Eagles twice in the back half of the season.

Well, I mean like even in the like even in the event that they get to the playoffs, they would still have to beat like three of these teams to see where they want to go. It's funny because I didn't pick the commanders to make the playoffs coming into the season. I was right there with Derek all summer saying that they're a prime candidate for regression and that's exactly what has happened to them to this point.

But the idea that we can't go back on this just freaks me out a little bit. Jaden Daniels is really good. At least I still think so. But have some courage. The Coles deserved to be at the table. And what I was about to say is that there's not enough.

on this roster elsewhere that makes me feel okay. A bet on the commanders is a bet that Jaden Daniels is just going to go supernova. And even if he does, they still might not have enough. I mean, again, like Terry McLaurin and Debo Samuel, that was part of the thing with the commanders may be regressing too, is like you're counting

on 30-year-old receivers to say healthy and productive. Marshall. One of whom came into the season banged up. Marshawn Latimore had a very forgettable day against these Dallas receivers. So I don't feel good about it, but I'm all right. I will go along with this. All right.

So the Colts are now at the table. It's about time. They deserve to be here. It's not about the Colts. The Colts deserve the place. The Colts deserve the seat. I'm just a coward. We have two more WTF moments from week seven.

We don't have to spend a ton of time on these, but they absolutely have to be mentioned. Miami Dolphins have hit rock bottom. 31-6 loss to the Cleveland Browns. I mean, we thought this game would be pretty unwatchable. Here's a number I have for you, okay? The Browns had a 28% success rate today and averaged 3.9 yards per play, and they won the game 31 to 6.

I'm kind of pissed off at the Dolphins because everything was there for this to be a hilariously memorable, like 10 to 9, 13. They could not come through for you. They couldn't come through. They had to fumble a kickoff. They had to give up a tip-pick six. It wasn't happening.

You had to shift your attention away from this to focus on stuff that was more important because the dolphins no-showed that badly in a game where everything was set up for it to be a hilarious sort of nail-biter and it just wasn't. I don't know what else there is to say about this team. I mean, I think the only question that remains now is like, do we think Mike McDaniel gets fired anytime soon? Or are they in a place, which some of the reports have said, where it's like, I actually like the head coach.

I think there are just some other issues at play. Something's got to give. Like at a certain point, someone's got to, they have to play a different quarterback or someone has to get fired at the end of the season. Like, I don't really understand how you can just keep going with the status quo when this stuff continues to happen. I like Mike McDaniel. I think he's a,

I think he can still be a very good coach, not even just as a play caller, but I think that he could have a new opportunity in two years and make this all work out. And he could be good there. I just for as many moments for them to have like with all the locker room stuff being kind of public, that just to me feels like whatever is at the top kind of just needs to go. And I think at this point it probably includes the head coach and the quarterback. Like quarterback has just not been playing well.

He didn't play well enough last year. He's not played well enough this year. And then I think some of that, whether fair or not, I think probably falls with McDaniel as well because they very clearly have built this offense through the vision of like I can make this work with Tuatunga Viloa and the way that the offense has to work around him. and we have evidence now at this stage in the season that like that's just not going to cut it at this stage. So I think McDaniel will work out at whatever the next stop is, but I feel like we're probably at the point where he's not going to make it to,

I would even guess, Halloween. Tua has thrown six interceptions in his last two games. And ironically, the pick six is a tipped ball. Like I don't like that. I don't put that on Tua. But his other two, because he threw three in this game, were just egregious. I mean, the last one particularly,

particularly where you're just staring down the safety in like a static cover three defense. Like there's no disguise. There's nothing crazy happening. He just ripped it anyway and predictably was very wrong. And then Mike McDaniel,

after the game, don't know for sure that he is talking about Tua, but he had the quote that's going around where he said, if you're negatively affecting the football team routinely, I don't have a choice but to assess a different player. My biggest question now, I think the coach gets fired. If not now, then soon.

Eventually, I just don't know win. The quarterback of the team next year, is he on the roster next year? I mean, the contract is onerous. And so they would have to, like, do the Russell Wilson thing. If my numbers are right, I'm looking at it over the cap right now. If they make him a post-June first cut next year, he has a $67 million cap hit. and if they also cut Tyree kill, they would be under the cap.

Like, they could feel the team while doing that in the same way we saw the Broncos do. And it kind of feels like we might be trending in that direction. Which I think is fine, though, because I think we kind of,

well, not fine. Obviously, that's terrible. But we kind of came into the year knowing, like, with the way that the roster is constructed and where the money is like, you either make it work this year or we're just going to blow it up.

Yeah, or it's over. And so, like, if it's going to be over, sure, eating that much money for a year or two is going to not be. be enjoyable, but like you're kind of at the stage where it just feels like you have no other option than to move on, just wipe the slate clean and try again. The dolphins were at the end, right? We knew that.

In one way or the other, they were coming to the end. We were getting to the end of the road with this construction of the dolphins. That was not the case with the Raiders coming into this season. The Raiders were supposed to have a little bit of hope. We're supposed to be a new era with Pete Carroll. There was supposed to be a certain level of competency to this team. Instead, they have one of the most embarrassing offensive performance. performances in recent memory.

They had the ball for 18 minutes, 17 minutes, 52 seconds. They ran 30 plays, and they finished this game with a 16.7% success rate. I don't know what there is to say about all of that. Like, I don't even know what you say about this sort of performance and how quickly this has gotten this rotten for a team in year one under a new regime. I just, I mean, we said it in the preview episodes that everything the rate were doing seem to indicate a certain floor. And like, even if you weren't buying that this would be a good team right away,

they wouldn't be the sort of atrocious situation that we're doing what the f*** segments on. And here we are. I mean, that's, it's, it defies explanation. 30 snaps of offense is the second fewest since 1999 and one of the third fewest snap counts since 1978 per Aaron Shats. Barnwell's tweeted this today.

The 1999 one, the Browns had a fewer snaps in 1999 the first game of the season. It was their first game as the Browns. They were an expansion team. Yeah. So that was that's the realm that the Raiders today were in. So that's expansion team is a very good note. So the way that I'm going to try to paint how bad this was

by the numbers. Since 2000, we have played just over 13,000 football games. In this game, the Raiders had 5.6 yards per drive, which is the 12th lowest mark of that entire span. 13,000 games. And this was the 12th lowest that we've got. I kind of, I wish I knew what the other ones were. I can't believe it's 12. I can't believe it's not top five. The bottom two are the Browns.

I forget which years exactly. And then the team that has the most occurrences inside that top 12 are the Houston Texans. and two of them were in that expansion era in those first couple of years when they were just like not a serious football team. So the 2025 Raiders are playing like a team that didn't exist last year, a franchise that didn't exist last year. Today was disgusting.

I mean, like when you watch what they were even trying to do in the passing game, it's all stuff that's horizontal behind the line of scrimmage. And then watching their offensive line right now is just, there were a couple of reps from Jackson Powers Johnson against Chris Jones in this game. We're like, I understand that you're outmanned in those. situations, like, there are moments where it's like, I can't believe that's an NFL player, right? And, and like, how he was handling that. And DJ Glaze had a couple of those as well.

And that, I think, is where a lot of this starts, right? Like, there was, whenever you have, and we've, we talked about this all offseason. Like, whenever you have a new regime with a new coaching staff, there's so much unknown about which way things are going to go, right? Like, are you going to take the personnel that you have and are we going to get the best versions of those guys? Like, I think about Washington last year. And just you look at Washington's team on paper, especially the offensive line, it's like, this is not a good group. But what they did on that staff was phenomenal. Like they just were able to pay over so much of it.

Guys showed real growth. It was just, that's what you can get from a first year regime that you've never seen before. And with the Raiders specifically, in that offensive line specifically, where I understood why they came into the year with this group of guys. Like, all the young guys had enough flashes last year. We were like, okay, let's see what they do in year two with Glaze and Powers Johnson. and then we know what Colton Miller is

and every single one of those guys has regressed. It's not that they've haven't gotten any better. It's that they've gotten worse. So you combine that side of the player development stuff with the fact that we were wondering, what will Chip Kelly be? Will Chip Kelly be like a Todd Monkin type

offensive coordinator where he comes in and he's a real difference maker right away from the college game? That hasn't happened. And I think you combine all of that stuff with the fact that that's contributing to the way that the quarterback is playing and he's playing the worst football

that he has played since he became a starter again. And so from about three different angles, you have things just tearing down what this team is supposed to be offensively, and the end result is a game that looks like this. And you know what I will say was like the ultimate, like just nail in the coffin for how bad this had to feel as the Raiders? It's like all of their best passing plays

were ripped off the board by penalties. They had a third and seven early in the game that they convert, and then that gets ripped off the field with, I believe, a holding call. then there's a really nice Ashty 8 yard run later in the game that gets taken back because Jack Besh is lined up Offside offensive offside And then Gino Smith later in the game

I think it was in the late third quarter Had like a nice scramble drill throw That he gets like 12 yards on they move the sticks That also gets called back for I think a holding Like it just even when It was a personal foul on Stone Forsyth Yes that's what it was It was a personal foul and so it's like even when

they had a moment It just gets taken off the board and they don't even get that A typical NFL game game has what, like depending 8 to 10 possessions. Like a team gets 8 to 10 possessions. It's so wild. Patrick Malmes played 5 possessions

in this game. Four touchdowns and a field goal and they're just like, all right, hit the bench. He was out at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Hit the bench. Yeah. The dolphins were supposed to be heavily featured in the WTF segments this year. The Raiders were not. And so with one of those teams, this is a little bit more disappointing than the other.

It makes you wonder where it's I mean, like, Gino Smith doesn't seem long for this. Like, if this is what you're going to get out of him. Yeah, that's, well, we'll revisit that conversation at some point. We're going to hit the Raiders game on the, we're going to hit the Raiders Chiefs game on the hangover tomorrow, simply because I want to watch the Chiefs offense. And so we will be talking about that game more at length, whether that's good for our health. I think we can, we can debate that. Let's actually, let's change the mood here a little bit and talk about a few things that made us romantic about football in week seven.

I mean, this thing was a thing of beauty. Each week, let's pick out a couple moments that just, you know, made us feel nice and warm and fuzzy about the NFL in a given week. Derek, why don't you start us off? What made you feel romantic about football in week seven? Sometimes cool players just do cool shit. And J.C. Horn had a really cool interception this week. He was just playing out of the outside corner.

They tried to, I think it was Alan Lazard. They tried to run a post on him. By this point in the game, Tyra Taylor was the quarterback. and he tries to rip this post route to the very back, like literally throwing onto the goalpost, and J.C. Horn just plucks it out of the air with one hand, like, while he is sprinting. Like, it just looks like a 10 out of 10 golden glove, like outfielder type of play. And just as soon as I saw that when it came up on the screen, I was like, that is the coolest play I'm going to see this week. Like, I just sometimes again, cool player does cool thing and it's as simple as that.

And he had another crazy interception in this game. He had two of them. Yeah, he did. He just, I mean, again, when the cool player can do it. a cool thing. It's just like, he's phenomenal. I'm really glad that the Panthers aren't like an absolute mess. I'm really glad that the Panthers aren't a fixture in the WTF segments that we're doing every single week. There was a moment where we taught we did an under the hood about the Panthers offense. We were like, man, I just, I did not want to be this frustrated watching this team. And it wasn't great offensively today. But they've had some really nice moments

over the last couple weeks. And the defense is absolutely playing better than it did last year when it was a historical nightmare. And so the fact that this team is, competitive and their exciting players are doing exciting things. I'm happy for that. I'm glad that Panthers fans are getting to at least enjoy something this season. Second place in the division? Yeah. What did we say earlier today?

First winning, first time above 500 since Matt Rule. Is that right? Oh, yeah. I mean, they had that stretch where they were won too many games and then traded for C.J. Henderson. I remember that very well. They started 3 and 0 in 21, I think. And it's been a long road here.

But yeah, I'm with you. I'm glad they got off the mat. The Jets are essentially in the same place that Raiders are, where there was supposed to be like some semblance of hope coming into this season with a new regime. And they bench Justin Fields, Derek, like at the beginning of the third quarter of this game because of how it was going offensively,

a week after Aaron Glenn completely dismissed that as like a thought that deserved any sort of merit. And now Justin Fields gets the hook like five days after he berated reporters for even suggesting that should be a possibility. And like, I think the worst part of it is like, I think you do that in service of thinking like, Tyrod Taylor will give us a little bit more stability here and we'll be able to run the offense a little bit. And like, technically that was true in some sense. But then he has two picks that he throws like did not complete as many of his past.

It's like I think the ideal backup version of Tyrod Taylor that I love existed definitely four years ago. I don't know if that version of him exists anymore, especially with what he is surrounded with on this jet scene. how old is Tyraud Taylor at this point? He's 36 years old. Yeah, like it's, you know, that's about when it starts to go away for a lot of these quarterbacks. My moment,

how can you not be romantic about football in week seven, watching the Bears run game today, I mean, that is, there are a few better feelings when you watch your NFL team play than them just deciding we're going to crush the other team's spirit

with what we're going to do on the ground. The office was inconsistent, sloppy in the first half. Like, they were up 13 and not. nothing because of multiple turnovers. They had a 30-yard touchdown drive, but the passing game, there were penalties. There were moments where it kind of looked a little bit like it did over the first

month of the season in stretches over the first quarter or so. And what looked different was the running game for the second straight week showing up the way that they did. In the second half, they were up 20 to 6 at the start of the second half. The Bears ran the ball on two-thirds of their plays in the second half. And while doing that, it had a 61% rushing success rate. In the second half alone, they had 20 carries for 128 yards and seven first downs on the ground. Overall, they racked up 222 yards on the ground.

That is the most rushing yards from a Bears running back room in a single game in eight years. Our wonderful community over on Discord that I encourage you to go check out if you're listening, during this game, some of the gang on there were like, I bet Roberts is going to be upset about this. like it's sloppy and all this other stuff. And I was like, I promise you he's not the way they're running this football right now. The problem in the Raider game and the one that people always keep bringing up and it's like why I wasn't happy about that game, they got outplayed on both sides of the ball. Like down to down, they got out played on both sides of the ball and created a bunch of

turnovers. That was not the case with the bearer's defense in this game against the Saints today. They created a bunch of turnovers, but they were also kicking ass for a good majority of the game. And you combine that with the fact that, yeah, Caleb looked a little out of sorts. It was not the best game overall from the passing offense, but their ability to assert themselves on the ground for the second week in a row, there's least something you can tap into. This is not that sort of performance.

There's a lot of stuff here that's worth being excited about, even if there were some frustrating elements to it. The small thing I want to say for them going into, like, they actually started kicking some ass was like, this was the first team that got Spencer Rattler to go back to like, I'm just going to throw this shit type of mode, which I can't have done all year. And like they just stopped it.

for this first like 10 attempts he was like I don't care anymore man I'm just going to start chucking it Seattle's the only other team that's really beaten New Orleans's ass and that's what I was going to say like I'm not I don't want to make any sweeping proclamations about the bears but they were favored by three or four and a half and

I mean the Saints scared the bills the Saints scared the Patriots the Saints beat the Giants they scared the shit out of the 49ers I thought this would be a really tough game and even early in the second half it looked like we were going to have to settle in for some second half drama and then the bears just pressed out on the accelerator and it was very for the bears to win

this game in very unstressful fashion impressed me even if it's not like a ground shattering result yeah honestly the most frustrating thing about this game to me is like losing cornerbacks like it's more about like oh man the bears are playing pretty well i wish their guys weren't getting hurt no i think there's a lot to like uh with this performance from the bears today against the saints all right dave you're up here what is you what made you romantic in week seven about the NFL let's keep it in the NFC North. We mentioned him when we talked about the Packers off the jump, but I think Micah Parsons deserves more than a mention for what he did on Sunday against Arizona. And what's romantic about it is think back to when the Micah Parsons trade happened. If you're a Green Bay Packer fan,

you hear that news and you are on Cloud 9 for the next three days daydreaming about what that could mean and what having Micah Parsons on your team could be. And you got it in this game. I mean, he's been good all season long, but this is what a field tilting edge rusher can do for your football team. I got his stats right here. What? Ten pressures on the day.

Three sacks just was a nightmare. And I highlighted a few. He's almost single-handedly the reason for so many Arizona drives stalling out. midway through the first quarter, pressures the hell out of Jacoby Brissette on third and eight from the Green Bay eight yard line, gets him to leave the pocket. Cardinals wind up kicking a fuel goal. Early fourth quarter bullies Jonah Williams,

pressures Jacoby Brissette into a throwaway. Might have had, I think he had the running back, like in the flat with a chance to make a play. He has to throw it away. Very next snap, bullies poor Jonah Williams again and sacks Jacobi Brissette to force a fuel goal. And then obviously gets the sack with 30 seconds to play that just kind of ruined Arizona's last gas.

They don't complete, they don't gain any more yards after Micah's sack on first and 10 from the 26. Does Jonah Williams, I'm sorry, dude. I'm sorry to keep saying your name. But he did the hula hoop around him where like it looked like he was doing the training camp drill. That's what Micah Parsons is for. And maybe it maybe like when you're daydreaming about it, maybe you're thinking of it happening in a playoff game. but I mean you said it at the top like almost single-handedly like being such a huge reason why you win this game that is why you do a trade like that and I know some Packer fans are probably frustrated about how close these results have been but that's got to that's got to make you feel warm inside where you're like that guy can do shit like that when the game is on the line that's you go get a guy like that for him to be a closer in those sorts of moments when maybe everything isn't going exactly right for you and that's exactly what happened for the Packer. today.

All right, before we get out of here, let's talk about what we learned from week seven. You know, I think I've learned something today. Today wasn't super easy to come down on like an overarching lesson that we learned in week seven. I think the one that kind of crept up as I was thinking about it is just that

when we look at teams going from year to year and we look at what they did in their off season and I think teams think this way about themselves sometimes, they like to think, all right, this is going to be the growth that we're going to show, the development we're going to show, the progress that we're going to show is going to be linear. We're going to do one thing one year, and then the things that we were good at, we're still going to be good at those things.

And the things that we were bad at, we're going to be better at those things because we're going to address them. And so we're going to take a step from where we were last season to where we want to go. And that's just never how the league goes, right? Like Washington gets very aggressive this off season. They go get Laramie Tunsell. They sign Debo Samuel. They get even older on defense. They're like, our time is now.

We're going to do this right now. and now we just kick them off the table because it feels like their season is slipping away from them. Even something with the young quarterbacks. We'll talk about the Sunday night game tomorrow when we do the hangover show, but there hasn't been that sort of progress from the young quarterbacks. Like Bow Nix doesn't look like a better quarterback now than he did last year. If anything, I think he looks a little bit worse.

Michael Pennax has had his moments where he's really struggled this season. And then on the flip side of that, there are teams where there was no progress to this point. last year and suddenly they completely surprise us in every way. Like the Colts didn't feel like the Colts were building to this moment, right? It feels like the Colts kind of showed up out of nowhere. And so I think it's just important to remember that what happened last year and even what happened at the end of last year in any given season in the NFL probably matters

less than we think it does, right? Like every year is its own thing when it's kind of this living, breathing thing that changes all the time. And today was at least a subtle reminder. that's always true. It's such a well-worn cliche. Coaches always try to get that out of their team's heads, especially like good teams where like, like, hey, put,

the division champions hat away, get rid of it, whatever. Like this is a different group of guys. It's a different team. That's the cliche. It also applies to teams that maybe weren't that good where like this is, again, a completely different team with the Patriots, right? Like the Patriots look like a completely different team. The Patriots didn't build to this moment.

Like it's just every year there's always those three, four teams that come completely out of nowhere and the three or four teams we thought would build on what they did last year can't do that. And I think this week and just even the first six weeks in the NFL, seven weeks have been a very good reminder of that. Speaking of the Patriots, we will hit the New England Patriots Titans game on the hangover tomorrow. We'll also be chatting about Chiefs Raiders and we will be discussing the Sunday night win for the San Francisco 49ers. an impressive win against the Falcons team that knocked off the bills last week. So looking forward to that.

For now, that is all we've got. Sincerely appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon.