The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL - Week 8 Recap: Broncos, Eagles, Dolphins get biggest wins of sleepy day

Episode Date: October 27, 2025

What does a football show have to do to get an exciting Sunday around here? Despite the slate of blowouts and correct predictions, some wins were more legit than others. Is the Philadelphia Eagles offense for real or did they just play a hobbled opponent? Does the Baltimore Ravens win say more about their playoff chances or about the Chicago Bears flaws? And did the Dallas Cowboys loss to the Denver Broncos solidify their presence on the sellers market at the trade deadline, despite Dak Prescott's MVP-worthy season? Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman recap the best and worst of Week 8 Sunday in this recap episode of The Athletic Football Show.Rundown (timestamps are approximate)2:15 Packers-Steelers10:30 Tucker Kraft went crazy14:50 Micah Parsons, GB defense17:57 Broncos - Cowboys27:55 Drake Maye, Patriots-Browns38:00 Myles Garrett41:30 Eagles-Giants51:10 Dolphins-Falcons1:00:05 Bills-Panthers1:05:40 Jets-Bengals1:13:35 How could you not be romantic about football?Connect 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: Katy DuffySocial 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. I'm Robert Mays. Week 8 is in the books. A tough week 8 for a lot of teams around the NFL. A bunch of blowout wins. I think it was an average of 18 points margin of victory before we even got to Sunday night football. So some tough weeks out there across the NFL slate, but still plenty to dig into. We started with a massive win for the Green Bay Packers against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night football.

Paid attention to Drake May and the Patriots, the Eagles offense putting together four great quarters and a big win for the Broncos. some WTF moments for the Panthers, Falcons, and Bengals today in a week where there were a lot of WTF candidates. And then we got romantic about plenty of moments from week eight in the NFL. Really enjoyed this. Me, Derek Classen, Dave Hellman. Let's get to it right now. It is in the books. Not the best week from a competitive standpoint.

We had a lot of blowouts. Before the Sunday night game started, the average margin of victory was like 19 points across the entire slate. It dropped to 18. Yeah, drops 18. Yeah, because the Packers did some work in the second half of that game. But thankfully, we have a, I think a consequential Sunday night football game to dig into. That's how I'll frame this win for the Packers tonight. Well, yeah, I mean, and especially because of the way the Sunday night game started,

like it looked like this was going to be another frustrating Packers night where it was 16 to 7 at half. They were down 16, 7 at the half after McMahon missed that field goal. I thought we were going to be sitting here trying to come up with reasons why the Packers don't look as good as their assembled parts would have you believe, and then they really just put their foot down on the pedal in the second half. And yeah, it was fun to see a team that we all think so highly of kind of flex their muscle for the first time in what felt like a long time. Derek, Jordan Love finishes 16 of 19 for 214 yards in the second half.

At one point, I was shocked by this in real time, and I think the reason I was shocked by it is because two of the completions were so improbable that I figured there's no way he completed 20 straight passes when we had the bloop ball that got caught by Tucker Kraft and then the fadeaway jumper he hits to Christian Watson. But both of those completions in the second half were part of a 20 straight completion stretch for Jordan Love. It was that kind of half for the Packers in the third and fourth quarter.

But it's also like just nobody conceives of Jordan Love as a quarterback capable of playing that way and of doing that, which like is kind of fair. But also I did have a thought that after he had completed those two passes, I was like, I feel like people are going to look at this game and watch this game. And remember maybe those first two drives and then what he did with those, you know, relatively lucky throws. I think the Watson one is actually just a really good throw.

The Kraft one is, you know, he just kind of lets this guy go make a play. But I was like, man, I feel like people are going to see those two moments and be like, ha ha, another Jordan loves silly, just go have fun game. But he was shredding this defense for a majority of the second half. And even in the first half, I felt like there were a couple of drops. Like Dobbs had one at his knees. Tucker Kraft had one hit him in the chest on the third down that he, dropped. Like love could have been even more efficient if a couple of things had gone their way.

And so I'm actually, I didn't think the second half would be this explosive for them. But even going into the half down 716, I was like, okay, they were moving the ball, but they had a couple of those drops like Dobbs drops one, craft drops on like I mentioned. And then two missed field goals. Like if even one of those hits, it looks like more of a one score game going into half. So I was like already kind of ready to cope and be like they're playing fine. Just a couple of bad things happened. And then they have this second half that I don't even need to cope. I can just, I can live with the win and we can move on. You had your arguments all ready to go and then just quietly push them away.

I do, before we go any further, I do just want to highlight that crazy swing at the beginning of the second half. Those two plays swing the game. I mean, I know that he completed 20 straight passes, but like those two moments are what allows the Packers kind of put this thing out of reach much faster than we probably thought heading into the third quarter. That's a pretty six sequence of bad breaks for the Steelers. And like there was some weird officiating stuff in this game, I don't really care. The Steelers had four drives in the second half that didn't cover 10 yards of ground. I mean, the Packers just dominated them after half time.

But to not get the free play flag on that third down and Rogers is like losing his shit, rightfully so he's the best ever at doing that and taking advantage of it. Well, that too, but also, you know, chunk play. To not get that and then to look like you're going to get off the field with the Packers deep in their own territory and love just completes a prayer that turns into a 60-yard gain, that, like, those two plays. And I think the Packers, they played well enough that I think they win no matter what, but it really changed the complexion of everything.

Like in the blink of an eye, because coming out of halftime, you're just like, ah, we're going to be in for like a nervy, weird Packers game. And after that, I was like, I think the Packers are going to dominate the second half, or at least I'll play them. It was mildly frustrating in the first half, Derek, because I did like the portion of the game plan where they're getting the ball out of love's hands. They're trying to create some yak opportunities.

I feel like a lot of that was working. You think about the big chunk to Tucker Kraft in that half. But they were combining that with some decisions on second and long, specifically, that were becoming increasingly frustrating. Like the number of second and long failed runs, the inside handoff to Xavier Williams from that split back look. They throw that bubble to Matthew Golden that goes for negative one yards and sets up a third and 10.

And so I did like the fact that they were trying to create some of those yak opportunities, get the ball out of love's hand. We talked about that on the preview show, but combining that with an inability to run the ball and then some of those short, quick passes that didn't seem to mesh with how they should be attacking this team. That was what was frustrating, but I think you could see the kernels of what would work if they could tap into some of it. And that does feel like the version of the Packers offense that we ultimately got.

It was because it's not like they changed. changed that much of their approach in the second half. Like obviously they get the two chunk explosive plays that love throws. But for the most part, it was trying to do a lot of the same stuff. It was finding Tucker Kraft in the flat, which they did a number of times off of some of their stuff. It was like they just did a good job, I think, of horizontal stretch in the second half. It just started to work a little bit more. And so I thought that that was like, again, something that they really needed to tap into.

And so, again, you get some of your more put together stuff on top of Jordan Love making two plays. and that's generally how they're going to win games. And also, like, I think the other thing that I want to point out is a lot of the herky jerkiness, I think usually gets pinned on Jordan Love because of the way that he can be in his worst moments. But, like, he didn't really have a lot of those moments in this game. I think a lot of it was them trying to find what works with their play calling. And truthfully, I think this is going to be a little bit of a year-long thing with them

and kind of has been because the offensive line is just not good right now. And it's being up for a lot of the year. And so I think they're trying to find, like, okay, what we're, for us. When can we get away with stuff? Like, Robert, you've mentioned before, I think it was maybe on our preview show, that the Packers, on third and log have been really, really successful, and to a degree, kind of lucky with some of that.

But on third and shorts, they've been pretty bad. They have, I think, the fifth worst third and short rushing success rate right now. And you kind of see that in some of these moments. Like, they had a couple of failed ones in this game that put them in some tough spots. There was one that, you know, they failed and then had to convert with a Tucker craft throw to the right flat that they were able to convert. So still a little bit troubling that the run game is a little bit up and down and that the passing game, at least in the short area, is like kind of live or die by a couple of their yak stuff. But I still really do like what this team can do in the intermediate and deep parts of the field.

Running game is honestly probably the thing that is the most frustrating and a little bit concerning to me long term because I do think that the passing game will find itself. But I mean, in the first half of this game, they had a 29% rushing success rate. They had 19 yards rushing at the half. then even in the second half, they really needed to kind of turn to Emmanuel Wilson to find those chunks on the ground. And so combine the fact that, you know, Josh Jacobs has not been that effective

combined with the state of the offensive line and the way that they're playing. This team is still solid on the ground. Like if you look at the overall numbers, but I do feel like as an, we've talked about this, Derek, when you're going to try to be explosive in the passing game and you're going to hunt out those chunk plays,

having the run game that tap into is like the overall engine of your offense as like a stabilizing factor. that becomes really important. And I think tonight for a good chunk of this game, before Wilson got going in the second half, you felt what this offense was like when the run game isn't there to kind of provide that stability.

Yeah, it's a very frustrating type of offense. Like I wish they had a little bit more. And like kind of credit to them that they continue to win games. And I think the reason that they've struggled to pull away from teams for the most part is that usually the easiest way to pull away from teams is like you kind of get into a decent position and then you can run things out, get into some of your good down distances to do that. They've just struggled to do that for a lot of this year,

and we're a little bit fortunate that in the second half, they were able to find it. It's become pretty clear to me, and I think tonight is obviously a very good example of it, but even before the touchdown that he scored, the second touchdown that he scored, I'm watching this game, and I'm like, Tucker Kraft is pretty clearly

the second most important offensive player for the Packers. That seems fair, right? Like, who else would it be? based on what they need him to be in the overall complexion of the offense at this point. I mean, I guess just based on how much they give him the ball, you could mention Josh Jacobs. But like when you're talking about how successful it is,

I don't think it's even close. And what Tucker Kraft was able to do for them in this game. Can I just, I want to read off some stuff I looked up once after he had the 59-yarder. He, after this week, Tucker Kraft came into the week third in the league. in yak among Titans. He comes out of the week easily in first. He had like 120 yards on that.

140 yards of yak. He doubled his yak from weeks one through seven after week eight. He also came into this game averaging nine yards of yak per catch and after tonight it's up to 11.5 yards per catch which is easily the best in the league among titans.

It was just silly. It was silly what he was doing. And also 74% of his yards are yak. It's funny, coming into the season, I remember talking to somebody at Packers Training Camp and just discussing what needed to be different about this version of the Packers for them to break through from where they had been

over the last couple years. And something that came up was just that guy that we can really go to and some high leverage moments at receiver. We have a lot of guys that we like, but who's that player where we can build some of those high leverage, high variance, we got to have at moments over the course of the game?

And I asked him, I was like, who do you think those guys are? And Tucker Kraft was the first name out of the, person's mouth. And it does feel like we've arrived at that point. Like with Matthew Golden, it's still not there yet. Dobbs has had a nice season with some really nice moments, but he still feels like more of a role player. And I think we've gotten to this place where the Packers have the best record in the NFC. They're one of the best teams in the NFL, top to bottom. But Tucker Kraft is the most important skill position player in their offense. And Derek,

I don't know how many really good teams you could say that about for their tight ends specifically, but the Packers are there. Like maybe just Arizona. and San Francisco, right? Like where that is your good thing. And neither of those teams are on this level. No, they're really not. They're really not. And like just think about this is like,

he's continued to do this. One, I feel like every six weeks, Jordan Love has that like literally throws the ball straight up in the air for Tucker Kraft to go catch. And he did it tonight, obviously. But then just think about like, again, in these got to have it situations, in your situational ball,

who do they go to last week? On the fourth in, like medium or short, they go to Tucker Kraft on the corner of Jordan Love hits it. This week, there was again another fourth and short, where I said they hit him in the flat and they go to him as their go-to guy. In the red zone, they really love him as, again, they're yak guy. Like, sometimes yak numbers can be boosted, like, catch a random lucky ball down the field and just like make one guy miss and go. And that's going to be part of it.

And it kind of was in this game. But also, like, any time they throw him the ball in the flat, he just runs through two people. He did it for a touchdown in this game. Like, they just, it really is whenever they need to hit the easy button, Tucker Kraft has been the easy button. And so he would still like one of the actual wide receiver. to step up, but when you're tied in just playing at an all pro level, that kind of eases some of the burden on everybody else a little bit. Yeah, I mean, the 60-yard is like a once or twice a season sort of thing, but like the consistency with which he's able to pick up like eight to 12 yards after every catch, no matter where it is on the field. Just think about that second touchdown.

I mean, they're creating that for him against man coverage. It's a stack on the right side. He's essentially running what amounts to an option route out of that. he's lined up as the second guy in that stack working against Chuck Clark. Like you're designing that for your best player in a man-covered situation, and he has become their best player. On the other side of the ball, Michael Parsons comes up huge in the second half of this game. I mean, that's sack where he gets chipped or an attempt at a chip and then splits the double team to finish that thing off.

Not surprised to see the Packers defense kind of have that boa constrictor feel against the Steelers' offense that we know has limitations over the course of that game. When you watch the Steelers in this game, Derek, anything about this that was illuminating to you or do you feel, in my opinion, watching this game in the second half specifically,

this feels like a stretch where the Packers are a better team and over time you feel that over the final two quarters. And that's kind of what the second half of this game felt like is where the limitations that the Steelers have in what their offense is and then just what we've seen from their defense over the last couple weeks where you can really pick on them, it kind of feels like that version

of the Steelers is the one that manifested over the final two quarters. That's pretty much why I'm at. In the first half, you know, there were a couple of good moments where they ran the ball well, like, or Jalen Warren had caught one or two passes in the flat where he was able to make, you know, just go run through a guy for six extra yards and they were able to move the ball a little bit

that way. But really like their biggest and most successful drive was Kishon Nixon just kind of gets lost with Roman Wilson down the field and Rogers like... It was a, he's been a really good all year, but it was not his best performance tonight. Yeah, like, D.K. Metcalfe beats him in the end zone, kind of bullies him a little bit. And so I think,

again, like, outside of Nixon just kind of getting lost in La La Land on that play and then a couple of decent structures where they could run the ball, I really think the Green Bay defense, like, really was able to hold their own. I also thought, obviously Parsons has a good game, especially on that play that he did. But he also felt like in a number of these, like, got to have it past situations, they would put one of their nose tackles directly over the center

and then have Parsons stand up right behind him. And it was like, all right, who's stunting where? Are we twisting? Who are they twisting with? And it was just the Steelers really, really struggled to pick it up. And so I thought that was a really interesting way to use a player of his caliber. Yeah, they had a lot going on those jumbo runs, mostly running at Parsons' side at one point during that drive in the first half

where you got Darno Washington, Anderson, and the left tackle. and they were just kind of overwhelming them and some of those perimeter runs to J-1-Warren, but that's really the only thing they could consistently tap into on offense. And when that dried up, there was really nowhere else the Steelers could turn. And we know how kind of stagnant and predictable that defense can be. And when you're playing against an offense that has the gear this Packers' offense does,

this is the end result. So now we're at a place where the Packers are 5-1-1. They're atop the NFC. They're the number one seat in the NFC right now. The Steelers are 4 and 3, and why that is particularly important with another Steelers' loss after losing to the Bengals last week, the Ravens are now back to

2 and 5. They are two games back of the Steelers in the AFC North, with Lamar Jackson presumably coming back next week. Is he? Yeah, at this point, I'm not going to write anything in Penn. Not taking the Ravens at their word anymore, that's for sure. But the Ravens have a pretty easy stretch

of their schedule coming up. Now sit two games back of the Steelers with two games against the Steelers remaining here. And so there is a reason that we did not remove the Steelers or the Ravens from the table. They are very much still in this thing. We are not going to talk about that game tonight. We're going to dig into it on the hangover.

But an eventful and important day in the AFC North with those two results. Vindication, at least so far. I got to hand it to Dave. I was getting a little bit scared. I'm not going to last. It's early to victory lap. But I knew we didn't want to be premature with this. Let's get to some of the other performances that stuck out to us today.

It is time for you have my attention. Gentlemen, you have my curiosity. Now you have my attention. Denver Broncos put it on the Dallas Cowboys today. 44 to 24 to 24. Broncos go to 6 and 2. Dallas now sits at 3, 4 and 1. Packers, or excuse me,

the Broncos did whatever they wanted to do on offense today. 56.1% success rate per true media, 7.5 yards per play. Cowboys' defense had absolutely no answers. You combine that with enough good moments from a very good Broncos defense, and this game gets out of hand very quickly in Denver. The Broncos, now 6 and 2, their best offensive performance of the season,

probably even better than the one they had against the Bengals, which is saying something. You guys have my attention. Which I'm glad you framed it the way you did, because before we dive into the good and the bad and what we liked or didn't like on the preview show, we did say, if you can't get it rolling against a defense like this,

when is it going to happen? And they mean they got it rolling, man. that's what they did. 62.1 passing success rate is a top 10 performance by any team this season. So obviously the Cowboys are down, three guys in their secondary. But you still have a top 10 performance on the season.

They had a top five rushing success rate for the week, not for the season, but for the week. They were just good all over. And I love the balance of it all that Bo Nix's day started with a brutal interception. Like he threw it so far behind his guy

on that like shallow post, skinny, or short, deep slant, whatever it was. He threw it so far behind his guy that I think the DB was like caught off guard that it landed in his lap. And then after that, he was great though. Three out of five on throws of 20 plus air yards. That's what stood out to me is like for as much as we've killed him about not connecting when he throws the ball down the field,

after that pick, which was bad, he was on top of it all day long. thought he had a lot of nice throws targeting the deep and intermediate part of the field. I mean, the two shots he had vertically down the left side line, the one of Troy Franklin for the touchdown, and then he had the one to Corwood Sutton as well. He did a good job pushing the ball down the field in this game. But I think it's important to just acknowledge how much of an absolute mess the Dallas Cowboys defense is, even as you're trying to give some credit to the Broncos.

The first two touchdowns for Denver, the first one, 813 left in the first quarter. They run a little pinpole to the left side with RJ Harvey. Just go watch what the the Bronco or the Cowboys linebackers are doing on this play. The combination of the Cowboys linebackers plus what Quinn Miners does. Quinn Miner's on this play, the right guard for the Broncos,

he climbs to the second level. He absolutely decleets. I think it was Kenneth Murray on the backside or one of the Broncos of the Cowboys linebackers. After doing that, he continues climbing, picks off one more guy and then turns around as RJ Harvey is running past him and gets a piece of a third guy.

So that's a combination of Quinn Miner's being an absolute monster out in space and the Cowboys defense being very, very bad. On the second one, and this is just to me the perfect encapsulation of what its lights play against the Cowboys at this point. It's first in 20, right? Theoretically, you're in a bad position behind the sticks as an offense. All the Broncos have to do,

they run a little jet motion from right to left with Franklin. Franklin runs a vertical up the left sideline and then bends it inside. They run a little corner route from the number one receiver that was originally on that side. And it just gets totally dropped by Elijah Clark and the Cowboys backup defensive backs. And it's a walk-in touchdown for Troy Franklin. It's just this team was already in a really tough place.

And now you're in a spot where Elijah Clark, who is a street-free agent, rookie, comes in and is playing safety for you. And then Tricuezzi Bridges, number 25. That's August waiver claim. Yes. And so those are two guys that you noticed a lot over the course of this game for Dallas and good on the Broncos. When that's the state of the secondary, you should be absolutely flaming a team.

And that is what happens. All you can do is look really good, even if we can't necessarily. It's like that's what you should do. But they did do it. The first step is kicking the ass of whoever you play. And to their credit, the Broncos did do that today. And like, again, the first Franklin or that Franklin touchdown where he is just cutting across the goal line on the play that. you just described Robert.

It's like, Knicks takes an extra beat, takes an extra hitch, like double clutches the ball, and he's still wide ass open and nobody is like even in his vicinity. That's kind of the state of the Cowboys secondary. I do want to give Nick's a little bit of credit though.

I actually thought his best throw of the day was dropped by Cortland Sutton. He threw like a post route like down like the left hash that would have been a touchdown if he caught it like hit him straight in the numbers and Cortland Sutton just isn't able to bring it in. And I was like, oh, if we can get more of those throws, I would really get excited. And then Dave said it at the top. Like, I came into this game complaining that almost all of their deep throws in this offense

have been kind of wasted play. And today he actually hit a number of them. And that was how you actually get that on top of running the ball the way they did. That's how you end up overrating a team that should be able to win or at least keep up in a shootout with you. But they just did not even let them hang on. And one more thing, just to give Bo his flowers, he only threw behind the line of scrimmage three times in this game.

and I said on the preview show, I just wanted to see him throw over the middle of the field. The pick was over the middle of the field. But after that, after the pick, he goes 5 of 5 for 78 yards in a touchdown targeting the middle of the field. My favorite throw at the day might have been Derek, they ran a little mesh concept

with the kind of the zone beater behind it on that deep inbreaker. I think it was to Franklin, he rips that ball over the middle of the field. That was one where it's like, oh, you want to see a little bit more of that within this offense. And I think them attacking those intermediate areas of the field,

seeing a little bit more of that over the course of the day and then being able to kind of run the ball at will as well. I think that the backs had a good day, the offensive line had a good day. It's worth mentioning that on that first Troy Franklin touchdown, Dobbins does a great job of picking up Marquis Bell, who's blitzing off the edge.

And then Dobbins, as a runner, had a really good day today. And so it all came together in every way that you want against the bad defense for the Broncos. If you're going to be a team that is serious and wants to be a playoff team and wants to make noise as we get into January, these are the sorts of games you should have against a defense playing, non-playable characters in the defensive backfield.

That's the reality of the situation for Dallas right now. It's only their second 40-point game since drafting bow, I believe. So yeah. And on the other side, I think it's, that Cowboys' offense is good. They had a solid day today. Like, it wasn't a bad performance from the Cowboys' offense, but every single one of those, like,

third down coin flip plays, if you're not getting them, when your defense is currently in this state, the game is just over. Like, to hold on Terrence Steel, on the third and ten scramble from Dak to make a third and 20. They had a fourth and one they didn't go for at one point. Dak misses Cavante Turpin on like a little hitch on third and five.

Like if you have three, four, five of those over the course of the game and your defense is playing like this, the game is over before it even starts. I think that's fair, but I would just like to say to give the Broncos credit. Like Pat Certan injures himself on the Cowboys' first possession of the game. He's dealing with the shin injury all through the first half. And then he leaves with a shoulder. Zach Allen came out of this game at one point. And so, like, sure, there's still plenty talented.

It's not remotely the same as what the Cowboys were dealing with. But this is a Denver defense that wasn't at its full power. And this was still easily the worst game that Dag Prescott's played all year. You saw some of those moments that we talked about this coming into the game, Derek, where in true passing situations, the Cowboys' Offensive Line is getable. I mean, and that first John Franklin Myers sack, it's actually an unfortunate play for Tyler Guyton where, Nick Benito gets chipped

and he's already trying to pull off an inside move and so he essentially gets thrust into the sea gap inside of Tyler Guyton he gets the pressure and then John Flanker Myers picks it up and then Jonathan Cooper very nearly had an interception on a third and one that's act through essentially right to him and so the front got in the mix today the run defense was very good for Denver

I mean this is a good defense this is a team that's going to make it hard on whoever they're playing against at least you're not going to have a 40-ish point game most likely against the Denver defense. And when your defense on the other side is doing what they're doing, it's going to be a really tough day. That's the thing.

I really like Dallas's offense and I think they have the capacity to score reasonably against most defenses. But when you have to score in this game, it would have been 45 points against what is, I don't know, Denver is the third, fourth best defense in the league maybe. That is incredibly hard to do. And I know even Sertan had missed some time, Alan missed some time.

But even with those guys out, like it's still a very, very good. unit for the most part. Like, Riley Moss actually had a couple of good plays. Like immediately when Sir Tan went out, that actually kind of kept some points off the board. Like, they just, they stepped up when they needed to, the rest of the guys up front. And like, that's the thing we've talked about too.

Like, I think Dak is a pretty good when he needs to be a pure dropback passer he can. One, that's just way harder to do when you're down like two, three scores in any game. Because again, the pass rush is just going to go crazy. But also, like you mentioned, Robert, the Denver run defense for the most part in this game was pretty good. outside of one or two, like Jaden Blue had a pop around at some point, but otherwise they did a really good job of not letting Dallas

kind of dictate the game the way that they wanted. And the guys we talked about potentially being areas where the Cowboys could take advantage of the Broncos. Like Alex Singleton, Brandon Jones, not liabilities at all. I mean, the Cowboys barely even were able to target them. Jaquan McMillan, one target in this game, Judi Barron gets his first career interception when Dak did try to target the seam.

So for that to be an area where like, hey, maybe an offense this good could take advantage of the Broncos. Like it did not happen at all. Let's get to our next one here. Drake May has another monster day and a big win for the New England Patriots. I want to talk about this in part because to talk about Drake May's performance, which has our attention. But the other side of this is just that the Patriots are six and two now.

Like the Patriots are going to be a playoff team as things are currently going. And so both Drake May continuing his excellent year to run and the Patriots kind of firmly positioning themselves to be a participant in the postseason this year after a game like this, they continue to roll. The Patriots and Drake May, you guys continue to have our attention. Drake May is just, he keeps doing it. And like, I was, I'm not going to lie,

I was a little bit worried when he threw the interception early in the case. It was a brutal interception. Did you see his quote on it, by the way, in the post-game press conference. Yeah, no, go ahead and say it. So they asked him about it, and it looks very silly because Carson Swessinger is just standing in front of him as a spy,

he throws right at him. And so it looks like you would think that May did not see him. He says in the post-game press conference, he's like, I was looking downfield and I just forgot the guy in front of me could jump. Like, what do you mean? You forgot.

He's just trying to rip it, man. He just says and does some funny stuff like that sometimes, but otherwise, he was like incredibly efficient in this game. And I know he gets sacked like five or six times. I think it was six total and five of them were Miles Garrett. One or two of those, I think, where he was probably holding the ball a little bit too long. But honestly, a lot of them were just like Miles Garrett is better than these two tackles that he's playing against. And even in the cases where he would try to slide up, someone like

one of their other defensive tackles was winning or maybe they sent a blitzer. And so I thought for the most part, May acquitted himself. Well, and honestly, my favorite sequence was, so he throws that really stupid pick to Carson Swessinger, which also is a good play by Carson Swessinger. immediately on the next drive, he rips a ball down the seam to get them a chunk play. I love that throw.

That was my favorite throw of the day. The layering on it was just like phenomenal. And then I think it was either the next player or maybe a play after that. They go like play action under center and he throws a beautiful sailor out to Matt Collins to the right side after that. And so it's just like you throw one of the dumbest picks of the day

and then come back just like fire and just ready to make these stones like that's, you kind of got to have that mentality to be able to go be a really. good quarterback in this league. Love the throw to Hooper so much that you're describing. It came with like the 1115 mark in the second quarter. And the Browns do a lot of inverted cover two.

It's like one of the changeups that they run in a very man-heavy offense. And so on that play, you have a splitback look from the Patriots, which I'm sure is designed to give them some sort of information. And then Stefan Diggs does a little shuffle motion. He's light up very wide to the right and he shuffles toward the formation. And at the last second, you see Denzo Ward back off of the. him a little bit. And you see May peeking over there. And so my assumption is with that little motion and some of the other tells he's getting, he knows it's not man. And if it's not man,

I'm sure there is a percentage thought in his mind of, are they going to run this funky cover two that they often run? And that's exactly what happens, where you have Ward start bailing out into the D-Path and against cover two, what is an area that you can absolutely attack? It is that shot right up the seam as those safety split. And he, He lets that thing go immediately. And so that to me is just a perfect combination of situational awareness, the information you're getting before the snap, aggressiveness in making that throw,

and the pure talents to make that throw in that moment. And so that was probably my favorite play of the day of his. The favorite sequence that I had, it was the one where they go up 30 to 7. He has a 28-yard scramble, right? Which not that many quarterbacks in the NFL can have a 28-yard scramble in the game. He does this three or four times a game now,

where he's ripping off a 15, 20-yard run seemingly. That's a lot. He probably has two a game where he's getting you a massive first down with his legs. This is a consistent part of his game. And then I believe on the next play, they run a little slug-o double move to Kashan Booty for a 40-yard touchdown,

and he just layers it in there beautifully. That was my favorite throw of the day. And that's just, that's normal now. Like those sorts of sequences where he has a 20-yard explosive run and he follows it up by dropping it in the bucket on a vertical shot for a touchdown is just kind of what the Drake May experience has become. To piggyback off of the point Derek was making,

and yeah, like he throws a brutal pick, but I just was very taken by how calm he looked. He's unbothered. He's so unbothered now. It reminds me about what we say about Jaden Daniels. Like you would think a guy that is getting hunted like prey by Miles Garrett all day might look a little sped up or frantic. and go watch some of his throws

and it's like, I'm not saying he's like slow or anything, but he's just like he's just going through it all, step at a time, like he looks completely unrushed. You would not know that his tackles are getting abused by his body language and the way he's doing things in the pocket.

And to do that after you throw a bad pick and the pick was early, like the pick was before any of the good stuff happens. So you throw an early pick and you're getting just battered and you would not know, it if you go watch the touchdowns back or any of the good plays. Like his demeanor is pretty striking.

Yeah. I really love this version of him because Derek, watching him as a rookie, like you could clearly see the talent. Every once in a while, he would just kind of get sped up and you would feel a few more of those bozo moments over the course of the game where it would lead to mistakes. And just doesn't really,

that's not really happening at this point. You have the interception today, but that is a rarity in what we've seen from him over the course of the season. For the most part, he is somebody playing consistently in control in a way that's notably impressive. And I think part of it to me is, and this is especially true, I would say, over the past month, that wasn't even necessarily fully true the first month of the season. He just seems a little bit more willing to just take a sack. Yeah. It's not a great play.

Bad place worse. And that's a really important step in the right direction for him. Literally his worst trait coming out of college. And even his rookie year, like you're saying, is that he will make a bad play. He will take it from a seven to a 10. He will find a way to make it worse. And he just, over the past month, you have not seen him doing that. Like, he'll just, if he has to eat a four-yard sack, he'll do it.

And there were a couple times in this game where he holds on to the ball and, like, maybe he could try to make some crazy checkdown if you wanted to. Or maybe he could try to, like, rush this throwaway out or whatever. But he's like, you know what? We're in the red zone. I'm just going to eat the ball and we can kick a field goal here. Just the little stuff like that where you are not taking points off the board and killing chances on whatever the next play might be.

The fact that he's doing that on top of just seems so calm in the pocket, making throws down the field to every level of the field. Like he's just, it's really all coming together in a way that is like pretty, pretty special to watch. Obviously, the season opener against Vegas was pretty forgettable for everybody on the Patriots. But since then, you realize he's posted a passer rating of 100 plus seven weeks in a row. And that doesn't even include the scrambling. That's even taken into account like what he's doing with his legs consistently all the time.

because of the seasons that they're having, Daniel Jones, and I'm doing this off the top of my head, but I believe Daniel Jones and Jordan Love, I still think are number one and number two and EPA for dropback as it currently stands, but Drake May is number three. Like, it is not at all a stretch to say that in any MVP conversation, eight weeks into the season,

Drake May's name should be mentioned. That is not an exaggeration whatsoever. No, especially not when you consider, like, who he's playing with. Like, this offensive line still isn't good, which we saw today. And the skill players are much improved And I think they have enough in the cover Like Diggs has been solid Kayshaun Bouti has actually become a pretty good player

Their tight ends are not bad But it's not like some superstar unit That it's certainly not the Colts And so like the fact that he's been able to At least like be in the conversation with those guys Like I think like the other two in the top five Are like Jared Goff and Patrick Mahomes Like the fact that he's already in that air

As a second year player With what the offensive line has been And in a lot of games where Obviously not today but in a lot of games he's had to kind of go shot for shot with teams on the scoreboard, it's just pretty impressive what he's been able to do. I agree with that on the skill position talent and just the overall, like, talent level among the 10 other players on the offense.

I will say, situationally, what we've seen from the construction of the offense and from Josh McDaniel, specifically this year, continues to be very good. Like, I really like watching their offense. And today, a lot of it manifested in some of the run game stuff that they were doing. I mean, the ways that they were using some misdirection, and they had like a fake flip to Trayon Henderson, I believe on the first drive of the game

where they're having the Browns overpursue. They get the ball back on the edge. There's a chunk play there. They had a really cool design in the red zone out of empty where they had Ramadre Stevenson run like a little shallow coming back across when he was the number one receiver and empty. They get down inside the five. They had a couple toss plays to Henderson to get him on the edge for chunks.

One was early in the third quarter. And then the second one of those to Henderson, immediately following that. the next play. They hit the double pass Matt Collins for 20 yards. I love a goofy flea flicker. Like anything that's more creative

than just like the dive where the guy turns around. They're doing a great job. I think that McDaniels, we were wondering like what this version of Josh McDaniels is going to look like coming into this year. And I think that he has been very, very good. And even if the talent level

isn't overwhelming on the Patriots offense, I think the play calling, the structure, just the overall build of that thing has been really impressive. Let's talk about the guy on the other team, though, before we get out of here. Because even if the Browns get their asses kicked in this game, we have to discuss the game that Miles Garrett had. Every once in a while, you're going to have a game where somebody piles up a ton of sacks. Then you go back and watch the sacks.

And it's like, eh, you know, these are some cleanup sacks. These are some effort plays. Like, he had three sacks, but how much was he really affecting the game? There's one of those in the five that Miles Garrett had. The last one, the fifth one, is he's cleaning it up as Drake May steps up in the pocket. Fine. The other four are just otherworldly, like, alien plays. The first one that he has, I was watching it back during a break in the Sunday night game,

and Dave, like, heard my response vocally, like audibly responding to the play as I watched it for the first time. On this play, the first Miles Garrett-Zack, he gets chipped, and he works around the chip. and then is able to gather himself and get back on balance quick enough that then he executes like a perfect cross-chop against Will Campbell, bends around the edge and finishes it off for a sack. Like that sequence of moves, the combination of the flexibility, the balance, the explosion, the bend, like there is no one else on planet Earth that would be able to do that.

And that was the first of like the five that he had in the game. There were a couple, there were at least two out of his five sacks where like, like you know how in superhero movies like there's just extra henchmen waiting to jump in and get their ass kicked by Batman? That's what it felt like watching this back where like, that was a tight end ship. Yeah, like Will Campbell's just watching the tight end get mauled and then he hops in and then he gets mauled.

Like it doesn't matter how many guys jump in there. It was, it's comical. And then there was one. I mean, so he had that one. The second one is a little stunt where he actually walks the left guard back into the quarterback. The third one, he's chipped again and then still manages to regain his footing, rip off another rip move, bend around, get the sack.

And on the fourth one, they try to run like a naked boot back his way. And he just chases Drake made down in the flat. Like it's some sort of like planet earth type thing where you're watching a lion kill a gazelle. I mean, just absolutely absurd performance. there has never been a more tungsten arm o' Doyle moment for Miles Garrett than there was in this game. Everyone in this space, in the NFL space is going to make the tungsten Armo Doyle joke. But like it's it's so fitting for what Miles Garrett is doing on this, on this not very good football team. He also like this game was incredible.

Like I just want to really quickly like put into perspective his historical pace. He has a hundred and twelve and a half sacks on his career now. which is the most by any player before they've turned 30. And he doesn't turn 30 for two more months. He's going to have the, he's going to blow the record of this by like 10 sacks total, which is just like, I said before he's the best pure,

like defensive end, I think that I've seen in my lifetime. And like the pace that he's on is just what he can do in these games where again, you mention it, Robert, like it's, he's explosive and he's quick and he's nimble and he's balanced. And oh, also he's 285 pounds.

It's crazy. It's that fair. Like, it's just, he's just, he's a one of one, man. He's phenomenal. I think they affected the game in different ways. But I think the only other guy that I've seen just affect the sport and you feel him in the same way that played on the edge since I started covering the NFL was like what JJ Watt was at his best was just a special game wrecking sort of player.

What did more damage against the run than Garrett did. And he obviously played inside a lot more than Garrett did. And so that's just, it's just a. different style of player. But when I think about like the force of nature ability to just completely destroy a game as someone who is doing 50, 60%

of their work at least on the edge, the only guy that I would even mention in the same breath as like 2012 through 2014, JJ Watts, the only guy. Yeah, JJ. And like, that's kind of why I like do the weird caveat of like pure defensive end because JJ did do a lot of his work on the outside, which or on the inside, I mean, which when he was on the outside

was also still pretty dang good as well. all right, before we move on, let's take a quick break. Let's get to our next one here. The Philadelphia Eagles offense finally finding its stride over the course of an entire day. Even last week against the Vikings, it was still a bad half that they followed with a really good half.

And so to see the Eagles have this sort of game for really four quarters, essentially a 53% success rate, seven and a half yards per play, their yards per play mark from Philly today, the most for them in a game since 2013. And so to watch it all come together for this team, Dave, really nice to see. And I know it came against the Giants defense that has been struggling,

had a couple defensive backs out in this game. Two weeks ago, the Eagles lost to the Giants. So to see them do it, I think, has to be kind of a pace or a heart rate slowing moment for Eagles fans who have been waiting for a performance like this from this team. I mean, they've played almost half the season, statistically. And obviously they've won six games. They've had moments of brilliance.

But when you finally put a performance like this on tape, you should celebrate it. I don't care who it's against because finding this level of explosiveness and consistency has been a real problem for them. And not always against like the best of the best, right? So to do this, to just have it all come together, this is the Eagles team that I thought we were going to see from the jump. And as somebody who bought a lot of Eagles stock,

it's exciting to see it happen as we're rounding toward the second half of the season. Nice to have Landon Dickerson back. Looks a hell of a lot better with him in there. And weirdly enough, my other big impression from watching some of this back over the course of the day and just watching the game, love Fred Johnson, the eligible tackle.

He's so fun. So they're slowly kind of figuring out some of the things they want to tap into on offense. We saw it start to bubble up last week where you have some of those under-center play action shots they hit over the course of that game. They had a lot of under-center runs last week. They turned up a couple of those knobs today

more than they have in the entire Siriani era. 18 under-center carries for the Eagles in this game. That is the second most in a single game since Nick Siriani became the head coach. Eight carries out of jumbo in this game, like you just alluded to, that is the most of any Nick Siriani coach game for the Eagles. 10 snaps of six offensive linemen,

which was also the most of any game in the Nick Siriani era per next gen. And Derek, I feel like them kind of tapping into that because I think the biggest, what's most important about that is that over the course of the first six, seven weeks of the season, when the run game was struggling, the thing that was missing from this version of the Eagles

compared to last year was that they couldn't run the ball on their own terms whenever they wanted to, no matter what defenses were doing to them. And so when the past game was inconsistent and a little bit uneven, not being able to lean on the run game left them with nowhere to turn. If they can just say, if we're lining up under center with six offensive linemen and we have Landon Dickerson back, we'll be able to run the ball at you no matter what, that is a really important component for this team turning into the offense.

We know they can be. And it's so encouraging for a number of reasons. Like last week when they went a bunch of under center, a lot of it was like they did run the ball, but it was a lot in service of trying to hit those play action stuff. This week it was we're going to try to run the ball. I mean, the first big Sequan Barkley run is they're in Jumbo. I think they might have even had multiple tight ends on the field, and they're running duo to the right-hand side.

Entire defense is flowing over to that way, trying to get to the play side. Barclay just kind of bends it back just a little bit over to the left, and he just gone for daylight. Like, he just has so much room to run. And so I think them being able to dictate that way is important. And, like, I've actually even had some conversations with people like on Blue Sky about like, why was the Eagles offense, their rushing offense,

when they were in gun, kind of so static. And it was like, well, last year when it was static, it was fine because all the players were better than you, and also they RPO'd off of it really well. But this year, when they had some of the offensive line concerns, you couldn't be as simple as they were. And to me, running duo out of under center is just, it's a lot easier to get to, like,

the path for the back just makes much more sense. And so for Barclay to have his big run off of that, was like, okay, if they can start to tap into that, parlay that into some of these play action shots that they were showing last week, like that to me is some real growth. I mean, you kind of alluded to it, Robert. This was this game, they got into 42.1% under center,

which is the most in any Jalen Hertz start ever. The second highest was last week against the Vikings. And they're the only two games above 36% in the Hertz era. So I just think it's so cool that this, they are really trying to force this as a new thing for them. And two weeks in a row, it's worked out pretty well. They have two different running backs with more successful rushes. in this game, Bigsby and Barkley,

then a running back has had successful runs in any game going back over the last month. Yeah, that's huge. They had three runs, three running back runs of 15 plus yards coming into this game. They had seven today. You could feel the difference. And the Giants running, rush defense is bad, right? I mean, but...

Second and third level defenders for the Giants, tough day. It still is really nice to see this version of the Eagles. And I thought that the offensive line had a really good day. I mean, there were a couple of plays. There were a couple impactful. Jay-1-Hurt scrambles early in this game. on one of their first touchdown drives.

And if you go back and you watch the work that Jordan Milata and Lane Johnson are doing to Abdul Carter on those two scrambles, like the offensive line at its best is still such a game changing, game-defining unit. I think you really felt that today. And some of the work that they were doing on the run game. And you heard Jordan Milata talk about this after the game. Somebody was asking him about the changes structurally. And he was just like, when we get Fred Johnson on the field and then when we're under center,

you don't know which direction we're running the ball. Like it just opens up so much optionality within the running. game that you don't have when you're running the ball out of the gun. And I think you felt that today. And the other guy that really jumped out to me in the run game. And obviously he has two touchdowns. And so we're going to talk about that. Dallas Goddard was really, really good in the run game today.

And so one of the issues that the Eagles were having early in the season, notably when Goddard was hurt, but even when he was in the game, is when they would get in some of these 12 personnel runs, the second tight end in some of those runs, Grand Calcutera, whoever it was early in the season, is just a zero in the run game. And so you're creating these kind of seven-man surfaces, but you're really not putting a lot of pop into those plays because of who's winding up in those spots. Now, if you have Fred Johnson and Dallas Goddard,

as those two guys on the edge for you, you combine it with Landon Dickerson coming back. We're starting to cook with gas when it comes to the ass kickers. We got out front there, Derek. And I think you're starting to feel that a little bit more. That's such a good way to frame it because really the tackles have been the tackles. Like, they're really good. It's like, so I get, it's cool.

crazy. Those guys have been insane for most of the year. It's been some of the interior play has been up and down because of some of the injury stuff. And then again, the second tight ends. Now that some of that stuff is fixed, one, you can do a lot more, I think, just get under center, get a little bit heavier, start to bully people. And I also think they've been, since Goddard has been back the past handful of weeks, they've been able to tap into more of those like RPO slide routes, which, again, some of their other tight ends, like can be past catchers.

But if you throw a slide route to one of those guys, like how scared of that are you really? when it's Dallas Goddard, I'm a little bit scared that he's going to turn five into 20 or something like that. And so I think just the fact that getting Goddard back gives him a little bit more optionality and how they call plays

on top of the blocking that he provides and Dickerson being back. It just, they seem like they can tap into more now and have shown that they are trying to with all the under center stuff. I also thought Jaylen Hertz had his second. I mean,

after the final two quarters that he had last week, combined with the way that he played today, he's playing his best ball right now. He was awesome. I think that they did such a good job in this game he did specifically of identifying his one-on-one matchups before these plays started and just picking on them consistently.

He gets a little hitch route to Devante Smith at one point on the outside. He comes back with a slant to Devante Smith. I believe the same drive for a nice chunk gain. Them lining Devante Smith up as more of like a true X in this game consistently because they didn't have AJ Brown. Devante Smith was going to work and whether it was Deonté Banks or the backup corner that they had out there, there was really no answer for that. And then you saw that in that

Gallup Dallas got a touchdown. They have him as the isolated receiver to the left side, I believe, against Tyler Nubin or Dane Belton and man coverage, and it's an easy win for Dallas Goddard there. And so I think in terms of getting the ball out of his hands quickly, identifying those one-on-one matchups, taking them in stride. They had another play-action

chunk off an under-center play action in this game, combined with what they were doing in the run game, and then a couple of really nice moments for Hertz beating the Blitz as a passer, which he's done a lot over the course of the season. And so some of the little notes you had earlier in the year when other elements of the offense were struggling that were really

encouraging from Hertz, combined with them being able to do the shit we know they do well, think by far the best performance that we have seen over the course of four quarters from the seagulls offense. All right. Let's get to the other side of the coin from week eight and talk about some of the stuff that wasn't necessarily quite as enjoyable. It is time for what the fuck. What the shot?

The Atlanta Falcons are the most bewildering team in the National Football League this year. I think it's pretty, I don't even think it's like a conversation where in any given week they could do anything. They could lose 30 to nothing to the Panthers. They could really beat up the bills in a primetime game on a nationally televised stage. And then they can do what they did today and get blown out 34 to 10 by a Miami Dolphins team that seemed to be crumbling in real time before this game was played. Atlanta Falcons who are sit at three and four and I still have absolutely no idea what they are. what the are these the two most baffling results

of the NFL season, both involving the Falcons? They might be. Yeah, they might be. Yes. Against Carolina, or losing 30 or nothing to Carolina and now this where.

Yeah, yeah, just gross, man. And like just out, disjointed, out of sorts. You'd like to think that Kirk Cousins could step in. And that's what was so crazy about watching this was, I know he, I know he's been on the bench for half the year. I get it. But like with how much football Kirk Cousins has played

and the time that he's spent playing for the Falcons, wouldn't you think it would look slightly better when he finally got a chance to start against one of the league's worst defenses than whatever this mess was where he's just not, like not on the same page with basically anybody else on Atlanta's offense? I mean, four or five incompletions in this game, Derek, whether there was either a miscommunication or just him,

sailing the ball where you watch it happen and there's like no response. It's got to watch it and like take a beat and then just like what am I supposed to make of that? I mean, the one where he misses David Stills on the right side, like that's clearly a miscommunication. But there was the one, I'm trying to find it in my notes, where it was to the left side.

Oh, it was Mooney? Yes. The Mooney overthrow? The Mooney overthrow to the left side. I'm just like, I don't know what to do with this. It's a clean pocket. Mooney is open and he throws it like five feet over his head. And so maybe we shouldn't be shocked by that

considering some of the low lights we saw from Kirk Cousins last year. He hasn't played all year. But when you combine that with the fact that this team average 2.7 yards per carry and is supposed to be a team that can run the ball however they want to whenever they want to, you get a game that feels like this. That's kind of where I land with it. Like Kirk obviously played pretty poorly in his own right,

missed a number of throws, still can't move in or out of the pocket. It seems like there were a number of times where he, felt pressure and kind of did the 2015 Peyton Manning thing of like, I guess they got me and just kind of sat down. Ah, darn. Oh, no. And he just kind of ate it. And it was like,

all right, that's kind of unfortunate to see. So he definitely struggled in that right. But I also do think that this was probably the best game that Miami's front has played all year. Like, the defensive line was really, really good. I think in both the run game and the past game, like Seeler had a good game. I thought the linebackers in run defense probably had their

best day. Like they were coming up. was crazy in this game. Him and Tyler Dodson were just like TNT after TNT after TNT into a guards chest. Like they were insane in this game, just like coming up and hitting people. And when you get a run game that is as predictable as Atlanta's, I will say, you can get games like this

where if they can just come up and hit you, they're going to do that. And so I think those guys were especially comfortable doing that, knowing one, the passing offense was already going to be limited with how Kirk was probably, going to play coming in. Also know Drake London. And then seeing how Kirk was playing

and responding to pressure in this game, I think they were like, all right, we can just tee off and do whatever we want. So you get the run game not working and then you get Kirk cousins not playing all that well in a lot of situations where he needs to be a pure dropback pastor. Just not a recipe for success for Atlanta.

Jordan Brooks had multiple TFLs and run stuff in this game. I mean, the one down near the goal line where he had that run through for like the three-yard TFL. That's actually torpedoed that drive. He had a sack in this game. He had four pressures in this game. And what he was doing on the ground, even plays where he wasn't making the tackle. I mean, there was one. There was a third and one early in the second quarter where he beats Charlie Warner inside off the left edge where

Warner's responsible for him, ends up spilling that run a little bit further outside than it should go. And then Celer tracks it down from the backside for a TFL on third and one. Like that was a type of game that Atlanta's offense was having. And it was definitely in part. because of how well Miami's front was playing. They do deserve a lot of credit, and Brooks is the first guy that comes to mind. And on the other side of the ball, I mean, Atlanta's defense really, really struggled

against Miami's offense in this game. Like, Tua essentially did whatever he wanted over the course of this thing. Tuva looked awesome today. Like, if I just watched this with no prior context and didn't know that A, the dolphins look bad, and B, Tua is up at the podium saying the most bizarre shit

every time he talks to the media, I would have no idea, dude. He was ripping it all over the place in this game. And we talked about how much we enjoyed Atlanta blitzing. 8 to 12 for 114, 3 of his 4 touchdowns came against the blitz, just like unfazed by Atlanta sending stuff after him. Yeah. I was very impressed at the game plan from the Dolphins

because clearly they had two things that they were really going to focus on. One, they knew they would be able to run the ball in murky, down and distant situations, right? If it was third and three, third and four, third and five against this team and the way that they want to play, we're not going to be afraid to run it in those moments. They had three short yardage conversions on third down at some point in this, on one single drive. They're third and two, a third and one, a fourth and one.

Over the course of the game, the dolphins had five rushing first downs on third down. And that is a very good way to attack this Atlanta team specifically. So we're going to get after them on the ground, especially when they're going to be in some of these fine pass, like, funky looks up front, that box checked, and then the two guys they consistently picked on were J.D. Bertrand and Mike Hughes.

Over the course of the entire game, they looked at the Atlanta Falcons defense and said, these are the guys that we're going to be able to go after with Divine Diablo out and with AJ Terrell on the other side. And Derek, they made essentially all the work that they did, all the big plays they had in this game were essentially

circling those two guys whenever they threw the ball. And on top of that, you mentioned the way that Miami was playing like this what we said coming in was like this Atlanta defense when they're in pure pass and their pass rush can do a lot of stuff to you they can be a scary defense Miami did all the things that mitigate that like Tua was getting the ball out of his hand which he always does right get the ball out of his hands quickly but he was really doing that in this game and

they were doing a good job of just giving him some easy options with all that and he was doing a great job finding where the ball needed to be making sure he's leading guys for yak opportunities all that stuff but then like you mentioned in these murky, maybe they could throw something out of us in the pass rush. Miami's run game was very efficient and it was also more varied than I think that we are used to from them. I think we all think of them as like the,

oh, they're just an outside zone team, but yada, yada, yada. They were really pulling a lot of guys and really trying to get hands on people and move a falcons front that is very movable. Like you look at the box score and it's, I think it was 3.9 yards of carry which doesn't really scream to you. But they had a 50% rushing success rate. And like you said, on these

short yardage, we need to keep the drive going type of runs they were able to convert pretty much every single time and so I just thought that they did a really good job of controlling the ball in this game in a way that I'm not used to seeing from this offense if I'm being honest did y'all clock the I don't remember when it happened but the the batted screen I think it was to devon a jane where Jesse Bates and bertrand had a shot to like pick off a batted to a ball and they fought each other over the carum and knocked it to the ground It sounds right.

Like, that's about what you could expect from the Falcons. Just in the middle of all of this. Like even when they had a chance to make like a momentum swinging play and just Keystone cops all over the place. The 43-yard touchdown to Waddle to me is like a perfect example of like what the Dolphins offense was in this game, right? It's like a fake pitch where you get a little bit of movement on the second level to a flips his head around.

Mike Hughes is in coverage there. You get some movement from the linebackers to create that void off play action. and then it's an easy pitch and catch for a touchdown. So you'll see it. Like you see the linebacker step up. You see, you know, there's Bertrand in the guardian cap. That space created over the middle of the field plus Hughes not being able to stick with that route. That's essentially what Miami's passing game felt like today.

Like those two guys showing up in a bad way consistently. And that's really a lot of the work for the Dolphins did. Tua just looked so confident, which is shocking. Considering where the dolphins have been this year. Get to our next one here. sticking the NFC South. The Carolina Panthers get destroyed by the Buffalo Bills. This isn't necessarily a,

I can't believe you lost to this team, WTF entry. This is a, I thought we were better than this, WTF entry from the Panthers. And like, we deserve... Can we put our hands up? Yes. Throw the cameras on us on, yeah, mea culpa. Yes.

I'm sorry, Bryce Young. I'm really sorry that we sat here on Thursday and said like, ah, Bryce Young to Andy Dalton probably doesn't change how this game's going to go. And maybe the Panthers still lose with Bryce Young in the lineup. The bills are a really good team, but it was a rough day at the office for Andy Dalton

in a way that I did not necessarily see coming. Yeah, we were very wrong about that. It was definitely a drop-off from Bryce Young to Andy Dalton, who Derek had like three or four plays in this game where it was like, I'm not sure we need to see Andy Dalton anymore. it was I mean obviously the interception like he throws to AJ and Vanessa all that jazz is like really really bad but they were just it's to me it wasn't even actually the place that he made which I do think Andy Dalton looked like last year I thought Andy Dalton looked fine this year I just does not feel like he's firing the ball in there the way that he I think did at certain points last year but to me it was just there were certain shots of him on the sideline and on the bench where he just looked like this hurts right now and the bills were getting after him like their front I think in terms of pass rush played one of their best games of the year. And we've said it before, right? Like this Panthers offensive line, when they are

not really beating the hell out of you in the run game, and they ran the ball fine in this game, just not the way that they can at their peak, which I think they need to for the offense to work, you can get after all of these guys in terms of the past protection. And so I think they did a really good job of that. And you just saw, outside of, I'm going to go

find Tederoa McMillan, Andy Dalton just really had a tough day trying to sort this thing out. And the Panthers defense had been better up to this point in the season. It was one of the reasons that the Panthers felt as competent and as like borderline frisky as they had over the first seven weeks. And today, that was not the case. On 19 runs for James Cook today, 15 of those runs were successful. He finishes with 11.4 yards per carry on those 19 runs. And that was not, I mean, there were a couple chunk plays obviously, but I mean, they're just ripping off 8, 9, 11, 12, 16, 20.

It was one of the more efficient, dominant rushing performances I can remember from an NFL team. Maybe this is what the bills needed to get back to their roots. Like, you are the NFL version of ground and pound. And it's nice that you have Josh Allen who can do a lot of magical shit. But that's when they're at their best. That's when they looked their most dangerous here. And for me, I think where you really saw it in this game. And this I feel bad for having.

not been able to kind of intuit the way that both of these teams are built. The bills love to get either into 21 personnel or 12 personnel. Just get multiple, like some other, either a fullback or two tie downs on the field or even sometimes all of it. And the Panthers, even though the defense has been better,

their linebackers are not good. And James Cook had a number of runs in this game where one of those guys is just clearing somebody out. Like the big Dalvin Cook run, I think in the middle of the second quarter, they run like a little bit of a counterplay to the left. and Gilliam just gets in the hole meets Trevin Wallace and blows him out of the water. And Cook, all he has to do is make Trevin Merrick miss.

That goes for an easy touchdown. There was another one where I think they're running zone to the right-hand side into a two-tied-end surface. Jackson-Hawes just gets up and climbs to the second level, finds Christian Roseboom, and just completely seals him out of the play for another easy run and laying down the right-hand side. So I just, they did a really, really good job

of not letting the Panthers second level play at all in this game. and then whenever Cook got to or through the second level, he was making one of those DPs miss for, if not a touchdown, at least another like 10, 20 yards to tack on top of the run. It was just way too easy over the course of the entire game. And some of it was like actual dominance by the front, right? And so one of the reasons that the guys were so easily climbed to the second level

is that you're going to win in one-on-ones consistently up front the entire game. Like you watch some of the reaches from David Edwards, for Osirons Torrance, and it just, there wasn't a lot of help necessary as those guys were climbing to the second level. I think that that was a big part of it. And like you mentioned, Derek, the fullback and the tight ends in this game show up in a big, big way.

They had 25 plays the Bills did with two backs on the field. They averaged 7.16 yards per play on those 25 plays. And you watch the work that Jackson Hawes, and honestly, Dawson Knox, too, like the work that they were doing on the backside of some of these runs. And then when they were running some of the strong side stuff to the tight end side, the work that Dawes was doing either in one-on-one block situations or like climb to the second level on combos. I mean, he's obviously been a weapon the entire year,

but combining him plus having Gilliam on the field, them getting those big bodies out there today, they did whatever they wanted to when they were lined up in those moments. The Panthers are 4 and 4 with a minus 38 point differential. The only other team that's anywhere in that neighborhood in terms of like that good of a record with that bad of a point, differential. It's the Falcons. Oh my God, man.

This division, every year they do this and then the bucks are just going to steal it. Let's get to our last one here. Cincinnati Bengals somehow lose to the New York Jets today. The Bengals in this game were up 14 with 10.30 left. Then they were up 15 with 240 left. They were at 311-16 with 241 left in the third quarter. I think it was 311-17, actually. And then they were at 14 with 10.30 left in the fourth quarter.

So there were two different moments with less than 18 minutes left in this game where the Bengals were up by two touchdowns. Dave, we're saying this in real time when I didn't think that they were going to lose the game. I felt like, oh, this is funny and kind of annoying, but they're going to win. Like, well, the Bengals offense is back. Unfortunately, the entire Bengals experience is back. The offense is able to score again, but now you have to live with this defense for the second straight week. And eventually, it did them in. they lose a game the Cincinnati Bengals do

where they averaged 7 yards per play had a 59% rush, had a 59% success rate overall on offense and had 400 total yards and they lose. Cincinnati Bengals, what the fuck? Yeah, I don't want to talk about the offense at all. Like, this is what they do.

Yeah, the offense, we don't need to talk about it all. The offense did everything they needed to do to win the game today. I just love the monkey's paw aspect of it all where like if you're a Bengals fan, you were despondent. Just give us a shot. Don't waste these receivers in their prime after we just extended them.

And you got it, but playing viable football as the Cincinnati Bengals means, yeah, this is the team that you had before your quarterback got hurt. Like you were doing this with Joe Burrow all last year. So now you're doing it with Joe Flack. Looking at the couple drives. So 3116, I think I had that right, with 146 left in the third quarter. They slip into Mason Taylor in the flat. 15 yards.

35-yard gained by Breece Hall. You watch that playback. Mason Taylor and Jeremy Rucker just handle two linebackers on a combo to that side. Like easy work. You have two tight ends, just taking care and dusting two linebackers on a combo. And then the angle that Jordan battle takes

on that 35-yard, Breece Hall touchdown, is just enough to make your skin crawl. And so that happens. And then that's a 35-yard. And then on the five-yard touchdown to finish off that drive, Geno Stone is just like flailing

in the C gap on that play. If you go back and you watch that replay, so that's the first touchdown drive. They're down 3824 with 10 and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter. You have a fourth and one where Jeremy Ruckert sneaks into the flat, Barrer Carter has no shot at the 24-yard game.

The 27-yard touchdown that happens on that drive, I cannot describe to you how gross it is to watch the second and third level Bengals defenders on this play. Demetrius Knight is the backside offball linebacker on this 27-yard touchdown run. He runs fully in a circle. You want to talk about, like, I heard Robert watching this too, like during the course of the day.

He runs fully in a circle. I can't describe to you what is happening. You can see it even on the broadcast replay here. There's a tackle pulling back to the left, right? And so I think part of him is he's seeing the tackle pull that way. And so he thinks the right run might be coming back. to the left side, but he spins fully in a circle. And then on that same exact play,

Barrett Carter steps inside, and then it makes the angle super, super easy for Joe Tipman climbing up to get him. And then again, Jordan Battle just takes a horrendous angle. Like, you watch the angle that he's taking from that safety spot and just why he's moving the direction he's moving with the urgency he's moving, and none of it makes sense. So this has been a consistent problem for the Bengals defense all season. like what's going on on the second and third level of this team is really rough to watch.

And today, Derek, it was enough for them to lose a game. They had absolutely no business losing. But yeah, you brought up like three or four plays there and I've got a couple more that you didn't even ring up. Like there was one where I think it was the first play out of the second quarter. The jets run like a jet run to the left hand side. And Demetrius Knight with the angle he has should be able to get there and at least get some hands on on the jet player or at least force and wide completely angle of race. like God just is able to get free and get to the first down. And so that one was frustrating.

There was another run at the very end of the third where the jets are running a little bit of outside zone to the right hand side and to a two tight end side. Barrett Carter as the weak linebacker has like a clear as day run through to get into the backfield and at least try to drag the runner down. Maybe you just slum down and somebody tackles him three yards later. He like stops running as he gets to the line of scrimmage. There's no blocker around him.

Like he has the clearest run ever and just doesn't. take it and running back table to get up the right sideline. So just a bunch of plays like that way that were just beyond frustrating for me watching this team. So you get all of that on top of the entire Jets offensive line and run game played well. I swear every combo between Joe Tipman and Armand Membu moved somebody like eight yards off the ball. It was just like every run that way was an absolute explosion.

You might have said it and I apologize, like my head's spinning trying to keep track of it all. Did we mention the 50-yarder by Isaiah Davis? No. Where Barrett Carter just has him in the hole, dead to rights. I mean, it's mono-imano, and he just gets trucked by Isaiah Davis, who proceeds to go 50 yards into Bengals territory. I think Jordan Battle took a rough angle on it as well. I mean, that just describes the game.

And you know what's crazy? The story coming out of Cincinnati this week is that Logan Wilson requested a trade, because they've been decreasing his snaps. And I'm not trying to sell anybody that Logan Wilson is like an all-pro player, but I was watching this game and I'm just like, why exactly? Like, sure, sure. I'm probably trying to get the young guys run, but at a certain point, like, this is not working.

Young guys need to get run. And look, I get it. Like, you're trying to replace an aging, expensive player with younger, cheaper players. But this is how you lose football games, man. It's excruciating. You win that game. You're four and four. And now you're what, a half game back of the Steelers in the AFC North.

You have like a very real shot to keep pace in the division race and potentially in the wildcard race. And now you're sitting there at three and five with very little margin for error the rest of the way. And the Ravens are a half game back. And like with 40 year old Joe Flacco and like he's played well, I'm not saying they won't play another game this good again. But like I look at it as like you just wasted a really good game where like we know Joe Flacco can have a bad week.

We know that that can happen. And like you wasted this phenomenal effort. Do you guys know I had it pulled up here a second ago? This Bengals rushing game, P. Ryan and those guys, not what we're talking about. The Bengals rushing offense had the second best success rate of any game this season. Yeah, you can't waste those. You cannot waste Somaget, P Ryan, and Chase Brown going off on in addition to Flacco playing well. And he got the receivers involved.

they had a 70% rushing success rate themselves. And they lost. It defies belief. And Aaron Glenn deserves a lot of credit for going for two when they were down by two scores. They set themselves up for if they score the game tying touchdown. They only have to kick a field goal or kick an extra point to win the game. And so they handle those situations the right way. And then we'll talk about Justin Fields and his role in all of this a little bit later in the show.

But my God, just an absolutely indefensible, horrifying loss for the the Cincinnati Bengals. Welcome back, Bengals. All right, before we move on, we're going to take one more quick break. All right, let's change the tone here a little bit and talk about what made us feel romantic about football and week eight. I mean, this thing was a thing of beauty.

Dave, why don't you kick us off here? What made you feel romantic about football in week eight in the NFL? Let me get out in front of this. I know the 49ers is super depleted. We know they cannot rush the passer. We know Robert Sala is pulling. every magic trick imaginable to get this unit doing anything and doing a pretty good job just for the record.

So I know this isn't the most fire breathing unit in the NFL or anything, but after what we saw on Monday night when Houston went up to Seattle and what C.J. Stroud looked like against the Blitz, against the Seahawks, he's 9 of 17 for 72 yards and a pick. And remember, the discourse was, like, is C.J. Stroud broken?

Like, where is the guy that I remember? That's why I don't care how hurt the Niners defense is. When you're capable of the performance that the Texans offense had last week, it doesn't matter what the team you're playing against if you can do what they did today. So what makes me romantic about football is it's third and seven from the San Francisco 30. Robert Sala, blitz is six because it's probably the only way he's getting any pressure on C.J. Stroud anyway. And Mikkel Williams, like, he did his job.

He's fighting the center. He's got his face right in C.J's or his hand right in his face. and C.J. Stroud does what I know he can do and just rips it right over Mikhail Williams' shoulder pad to Xavier Hutchinson just, the placement is just phenomenal. 22-yard throw that you just couldn't, you couldn't hand it to him any better.

Hits Xavier Hutchinson perfectly in stride, and he's off to the races for a huge touchdown. And I just, I know C.J. Stroud's a good player. We don't have to rank him in the hierarchy of, NFL quarterbacks or do any of that shit, but I know he's a good player and he did some good player shit in this game, including that throw, which

was one of my favorite from the world. Very nice to see Jaylen Noel get involved, just give this team a little bit of juice that they've been missing at receiver and obviously they don't have Nico Collins in this game and they still have their best offensive performance of the entire week, or the entire season so far. We're going to dig into this game on the hangover tomorrow because I

absolutely want to go back and actually watch bad performance from Houston's offense in depth and kind of dig into why they were able to this. I don't know how to articulate this, but like when a quarterback just rips a beautiful throw and the placement is so perfect where it looks like the football is a

magnet and the receiver is like attracting it, you know what I mean? Like when CJ Stroud does that as beautifully as like anybody in the NFL and like there are plenty of other quarterbacks that can do it. But like when he's on and the placement is good, it's just it's a joy to watch.

It looks beautiful. I mean that's part of the reason I was so intoxicated with C.J. Stroud as a rookie is that we got a lot of those moments. And so it was nice to see a couple more of them today. Derek, what made you feel romantic about football and week eight? I'm just glad that Justin Fields got his moment. And this is like part joke and part serious. Like obviously we come into this week with Woody Johnson, the owner of the Jets, pretty much airing out Justin Fields and saying like, we're not that bad of a team. But if we could complete a pass, that would be great. Like that whole type of deal. Justin Fields ends up coming back and starting this week, and they get the win.

And he actually plays, like, pretty decent. He's just not a perfect quarterback by any means, but he made a number of really impressive and important throws and runs in this game to go and get them their first win of the season after they've had a couple of other games that were close and just slipped away for them for one reason or another.

That is like the, it's kind of fun that he got that part of it. I think that this was a really cool moment for him, though, because he actually started to, in his post-game press conference, he said, I'm going to be pretty vulnerable. and then he kind of shared this little story about how he had actually been like crying in a closet with just a lot of the things that were going on with him and he went on to say that it wasn't really about football

that it was about a lot of other things going on for him. So I think just for him to whatever he is dealing with and whatever is going on top of the owner kind of airing him out publicly in terms of his quality of play, for him to go out and have the game that he did, play the way that he did, get the win was just like, that stuff is cool, man. And he's by all accounts seems like a really great,

great guy. And so for him to get that, I just, it's cool. At every single stop, people seem to love Justin Fields. I just remember talking to people in Pittsburgh last year about what it was like to work with him every day. And it was like, they think they truly believed it was like a joy. They loved having him in the offense. They loved working with him and loved going to work with him. And it just, I've talked about this a lot just because I've obviously had a front row seat to the Justin Fields experience for a good chunk of his career. But just imagine what it would be like to be Justin Fields. You're one of the highly touted recruits in the history of high school football.

You go to Ohio State. You have a fantastic career at Ohio State. You play in this incredible offense. You end up becoming a first round pick. You've been the best at what you do for the time you were so, so young. And to kind of realize in real time as you get into the NFL that it's not going to be what you imagined it to be. And coming to terms with that in your early 20s.

And then this year, you get the opportunity. to potentially try to turn your career around, like so many guys done over the last couple years. You were the day one starter. You're given the chance. This is your team. They pay you like it. And to see that start to slip away,

I just can't imagine what that would have to be like. I mean, it's looking back and like figuring out who you are and what you're good at and what your personal and professional failings look like in your 20s, like doing that in public when you were supposed to be what Justin Fields is. it would be really difficult to handle it with the grace that he has handled it with, pretty much every single step along the way. That's wonderfully said.

And the vibe in a building when you're having a season like this, it's inescapable and it's horrendous. And even if it's just for a week, for all of those guys to get off of that and not be associated with that for at least, until Thursday, you know, like when you're in the depths of the next game plan or whatever.

Like, yeah. And I mean, that's, it's Justin Fields for sure. And he's the most visible and the most scrutinized of anybody. But it's everybody on that roster, too. Mine for week eight, my moment that made me feel romantic about football, just watching what Jonathan Taylor did again. I mean, just another incredible performance. 12 carries, 153 yards, two touchdowns.

Only took 12 carries to put up the game that he had to. The two touchdowns he had, obviously the 80-yarder is crazy. It's 21.2 miles an hour, just outrunning everybody down the left sideline and just the explosion and the burst. Even like Derek, that first little cut that he has to kind of find that crease before getting going, watching that game today and just watching Jonathan Taylor over the course of this entire season, to me, arise me a little bit of the Saquan-Barkway thing from last year for this reason. With running back specifically, running backs, great ones, can be high.

hiding in plain sight, right? Like Jonathan Taylor had a good season last year, but your success as a running back is so dependent on the overall quality of your offense that you can be a spectacular player and we can forget how truly great you are. I mean, Sequin Barclay was very forgettable in those last couple years with the Giants.

And so to see Jonathan Taylor be put in a situation like this where the entire offense is humming and really reminding everybody what sort of talent that he is and getting this moment for himself where he is very likely, if he continues on this pace, going to be the offensive player of the year and be somebody that we mentioned in the MVP discussion,

even if he doesn't get it. It's a really cool thing to have, if you're Jonathan Taylor, considering just some of the detours your career had taken over the last two or three years, both you personally and where the Colts offense was as a whole. I like how it's the bizarro Barclay, where, like, instead of dropping him into an amazing situation, the situation became amazing.

They dropped a competent quarterback into a situation, that was already good and it's like and it just took off. I have a very dear friend of mine is a long time Colts fan and they're suffering Colts fan over the last few years. And he texted me during the games today

and he was just like I know JT's really good but like was he always this insane and I was like yeah, I think he was. He just we just kind of forgot about it for a couple years. There was probably a little bit of like a reacclamation period. I would say that's fair. Last year he was playing really.

well. He was amazing down the stretch last year, and I've said it before. He had an 1800 yard season with Colts version of Carson Wince, and the Colts were within grasp of reaching the playoffs with him just

carrying so much of the load, whatever that was, four or so years ago. He's an amazing player. I'm glad he's getting this moment. And I think for Taylor, it's almost, there's a part of it to me that is not necessarily better than Sequan Barclays last year, but obviously and there have been really good other running backs this year,

but Barclay was kind of sharing that spotlight last year with Henry also kind of emerging into a new like spotlight for himself with the Ravens and they were kind of going back and forth. And there have been other really good backs this year, but it does kind of feel like in terms of how guys are playing the position, especially from an explosive perspective, Jonathan Taylor is kind of one of one right now.

Like he is, there is not another back playing quite the way that he's playing. Like, Bejohn Robinson has games like this, but it seems like every week, Jonathan Taylor is just doing the most absurd thing that you can do at the position. To me, it's the explosiveness, right? I mean, it's just the ability to go from zero to 60.

And, like, even when he stopped in the hole, get back up to full speed and just outrun people. I mean, the 80-R touchdown is obviously an incredible play. The first touchdown he scores is a more impressive play. It's like a, I think it's like a crunch, like, like, rep from the gun where you have multiple pullers and they're trapping multiple guys. And so you see him coming off the right side.

He makes, I think it was gray, miss in the hole. And then cuts back outside, like, very subtly and then just outruns everybody for the touchdown. Just like watching the subtle movements in condensed space for the first two-thirds of that play and then him hitting that final gear to outrun everybody to the end zone. There are a couple special plays on tape pretty much every single week from Jonathan Taylor at this point, and today was no exception.

All right, let's finish things off by talking about what we learned from week eight in the NFL. You know, I think I've learned something today. It was an ugly week, right? Had a lot of blowouts, had a lot of lopsided games, a lot of games that were over, you know, before we even got to halftime. And some of those results were pretty surprising.

And I think my biggest takeaway from this week is, no matter what happened the week before, there are still teams in this league that are liable to get their ass kicked in any given week, right? Like, the fact that the dolphins were able to put it on the Falcons that way, The fact that the Panthers who have been playing pretty well just got absolutely embarrassed by the bills. The Houston Texans could not move the football

against the Seahawks last week and they went by double digits against the Niners today. The Cowboys have been playing okay football and they get destroyed by the Broncos. And so I think it's just a reminder that every team, for the most part, outside of a couple exceptions, has this gear to them, where if you come out and you lay an egg

in this league, you can get the absolute shit kicked out of you. And I think that week eight was a very strong and very rude reminder of that for a lot of teams. The list of teams that are like that I don't view as susceptible to that is it's super short. And even teams that we think so highly of, like remember, well, I am totally drawing up like, oh, yeah, all the way back in week one, the Lions team that we love so much, like started this season off, getting their asses beat. The bills produced a very confusing result because the Atlanta team that we just shit on for 10 minutes

looked so good in a home game against them, beating them by two possessions. Like, even the Eagles got beat by 17 by the Giants two weeks ago. A couple of weeks ago. Like very, very few teams are not susceptible to this. And yeah, I mean, you better come correct. We say that every week. And yet, we're still surprised.

still surprised sometimes when it happens. Like when something goes really off script and you're just like, I did not think this team was capable of losing by 17 points. It's just amazing if you have an off day and if things are not coming together for you and it is for the other team, you can just absolutely boat race by somebody that shocks you. Like even the Chargers beating the Vikings 37 to 10 on Thursday night. Like that Vikings defense is not supposed to be the type of unit that you can hang 37 on casually and that is always possible in the NFL based on how just clumped together all of these

teams are. And so that was my prevailing takeaway from what was an ugly week eight on the NFL slate. It's just kind of a reminder that like every that these guys are all professionals. Like the Bill's game like I think sometimes some of these blowouts can happen because every roster has one deficit you can pick on. But like in the Bill's Falcons game, it wasn't even that. It was like, oh, Jeff Robich just came out with a really good game plan. And so, Sometimes these professionals are just going to do that to each other. That's all we have for the week eight recap. Like I mentioned, we've been hitting three games on the hangover tomorrow.

We'll be doing Bears Ravens, which I'm not looking forward to, but that's something we're going to have to do. Bucks Saints, the Saints, the official team of the Monday Hangover in the athletic football show. And then the third one is going to be Niners, Texans, which I actually am looking forward to going back and watching. Very curious to see how the Texans did that today. For now, that is.

is all we've got. We'll be back with a full slate on the athletic football show all week. Talk to you guys soon.