The Ringer NFL Show - The Bears Refuse to Pass, the O-and-Tombstone, Disorganized in Denver, and more Big Takeaways from Week 2

Episode Date: September 20, 2022

Sheil and Ben get together to share their reactions to the Week 2 NFL action and start the conversation by examining the anemic Bears offense and the exciting changes Mike McDaniel has made for the Dolphins. (9:01) Next, Ben explains the "O-and-Tombstone" phenomenon that often dooms teams that start the season too slowly, while Sheil breaks down Nathaniel Hackett's coaching issues in Denver. (14:30) They end the pod by talking about the Colts' team-building problems, applauding the Jaguars' rejuvenation, and Ben gives us his weekly extra point. (28:47) Hosts: Ben Solak and Sheil Kapadia Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopal Production Assistance: Chris Sutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to the Ringer NFL show, Shield Capadia, joined by Ben Solac. Week two is in the books, and we've got takes. If you missed last week, this is how it works. It's a very simple exercise. We go back and forth, three takes each. We go in blind. I don't know what Ben's going to say. Ben doesn't know what I'm going to say.

We could agree. We could disagree. And we'll find out here in the next little bit. Ben, let's see, you know, we don't have time for pleasantries today. I feel like we've got a lot to get to in week two. So start us off. What is your first take after sort of reviewing and digesting what you think about week two? We always have time for pleasantries.

pleasantries. Okay, this is a pleasant podcast with pleasant people and say hello to one another. Hello to the listeners. The Bears got to let Justin Fields saw the football more. That's take number one. To this point, we have recording before the Monday night football games. The bills have attempted 31 passes. The Titans have attempted 33 passes. The Eagles and the Vikings have both attempted 32 passes. They've all played one game. The Bears after their second game last night against the Green Bay Packers have attempted 28 passes. So they are the league. was the opposite of leader, follower. They're the league lagger in passes attempt,

passes attempted, and they have played one more game than everybody else was getting to play tonight. That the Bears are not a pass happy team is an intentional decision. They were over the first two weeks of the season, they're 30% in dropback success rate when they throw the football.

It's dead last in the league. This past game against the Packers, they were 19% in terms of dropback success rate. horrible, horrible number. Fewer than one out of every five passes was ending in, quote, unquote, a positive play, let alone like a first down or an explosive play, just a positive play for the offense.

They get some leeway on that because Justin Field scrambles a little bit. His touchdown was on a scramble. So like, okay, that helps. But really, when they choose to throw the football, nothing goes well for this offense. And everybody could see this coming. The receiver room is Darnal Mooney,

Byron Bringle, and Akimus, St. Brown. Their offensive line is Kevin Jenkins and Larry Borum. Like, we all knew this was going to be a problem. problem. However, you're two weeks in, you had like the win against the Niners, good, you know, defense played well. You ran the ball really well against the Packers. You have a culture coach and Matt Iberflus who's all about like competing in intensity. There's a way, and I think the bears are on this way right now, where you talk yourself into continuing to approach each week in a very competitive way. Like, oh, we just establish the run and we play a good defense. We can win this 13 to nine slots. And like, that's good in the sense that winning games is good. But the Bears had a 5.5 win total coming into the season. They're clearly not like a playoff caliber team. This season is not about the season.

The front office doesn't believe this season's about the season. They spend no money on this season. They're just accruing money for next years. So if your front office is looking towards next year, that is in disharmony with how the coaches are looking towards this year. Because the coaches very clearly want to win football games. That's fine. That's what coaches they're supposed to do.

but you need to get some harmony between your offensive calling and your long-term outlook in the front office because you are missing data points on fields and it's hurting him. Fields looked worse against the Packers than he looked in any game I can remember in week one, in year one back in 2021. He's just not triggering on open throws. He's running himself into pressure. He's throwing late into interceptions.

He's had these problems before, but all together is one of his worst passing performances. So hold on, hold on. Clear this up for me. Are you saying that they need to throw more so that they can get a better evaluation of Justin Field or they need to throw more because it will lead to more wins and team success?

Because I do think those two things are very different. The first one, if it leads to more wins and team success, it'll do so in 2023 and beyond once the front office starts trying to win football games. But the front office isn't trying to win football games right now. So for the coaching staff to be like, if we can just have 45 minutes of time of possession against the backers, then we'll beat them. It's like, okay, great, sick.

It's weak two, so I get it. You're still kind of in like, yuppie, let's try mode. You beat the Niners. But very simply, like, the bears have to get their ducks in a row in terms of we are building for the future. If they're building for the future,

they need to let Justin Fields get more reps throwing the football. He needs to get better. And he's not going to get better handing it off to David Montgomery and Cleo Herbert a combined 25 times. I understand it, like, that's the system on offense,

but he needs to drop back. The organization told us for six to nine months in the off season that they don't care even this much. We're doing video, so I'm putting my fingers apart. They're not very far apart about getting a good evaluation on Justin Fields this year. I mean, nothing they did.

Not one thing from offensive line moves to wide receiver moves to signing veteran defensive linemen over anyone on the offensive side of the ball. We have zero indication that this organization, whether it's GM, coach, everyone together, cares about getting a good evaluation of Justin Field this year. I mean, if he surprises them, then maybe they will reassess. But I mean, I don't, dude, have you seen any hints that they care about that this year? To me, they just care about it. Let's get a little bit of the culture in. Like you said, with Iberfluous, we'll try to win some games. We'll be gritty.

We'll get some evaluation on some other young players who we just drafted, those kinds of things. Justin Fields, I mean, he's the quarterback in 2022. Beyond that, I don't. know that they have much of a plan for him. Do you, do you disagree with that? That's the thing. It's like, all right, so if they don't trade him, he's just going to depreciate every week you put him out there and he throws the ball 11 times and he throws it to horrible receivers by and horrible pass protection. Like, if you're really already after what is this like Fields 11th, 12th start maybe, if you're already there where you're like, well, yeah, I mean, clearly we're going to look for a change of the quarterback position. Now's the time to trade him. He's still worth something.

He's still moldable to some degree, but Fields is very quickly getting David where he's just taking so many hits behind such a bad offensive line that his development is stunted. And you run the risk where if you drop him back a lot in the upcoming weeks, he takes a lot more hits.

He continues to accrue injuries. He was getting banged up last year. And then he's really like lost and forsaken. But at least then you'll know, as opposed to like, all right, you're going to walk into next season with all this cap space. It feels is still on the roster.

They're not going to make a change of quarterback because they're going to use the cap space everywhere else because they have a super cheap rookie contract quarterback. And then you're, in year three, hoping that he starts to take developmental steps. That's not where you want to be. In my head, they're discombobulated.

I need to see them care more about their quarterback's development for me to take seriously the fact that they're even planning on winning later. If you're planning on winning later, help the young quarterback get good. See, to me, the way they're playing isn't a surprise at all. It's almost what I expected. They have shown no faith that they believe Fields is the guy and they haven't shown much inclination that they care about really finding out whether he's the guy. Now, things change.

If he comes out, if he balls out, if he's doing more every week and you're watching him in practice and you say, wow, he's different than the guy. We thought he was when we came in. Then those things can change. But I almost went into this season being like, they're just going to throw them out there. They're going to play the way they want to play. They're probably not going to be very good. And then they're going to figure out their quarterback situation at the end of the season. I mean, you mentioned cap space, but we don't know how many games this team is going to win.

This team could be picking in the top five. And then all of a sudden, you're making a different decision. And this happens sometimes when you, you. coaches and GMs come in. I mean, there's, all right, we didn't draft that guy. And you want to give it a fair evaluation, but we don't even know what they thought about him when he was coming out. So I hear what you're saying. It sucks for fields. I will say that. You know, for Ms. The Texans are like trying to set up Davis Mills that we can't even get the 11th overall pick with like a little bit of interest. It's horrible. Dispickable. Yeah, no, it does suck for him

where he, you almost feel like what is going. Like I said, they don't care that much about it and are the pieces around him where you can get a fair evaluation. I just think the answer is probably going to be no, but I hear what you're saying. And if I was like a Fields fan or a Fields friend or whatever, I would be like, this is terrible. But to me, there were so many signs of this in the offseason. All right, my first take, Ben,

the Dolphins Win told us more about Mike McDaniel than it did to a Tunga Vailoa. 100% agree. Okay, 100% agree. No notes. Let me tell you why. I know you guys talked about this, you, Nora, and Stephen did a great job talking about the dolphins in the last episode. Here was my take when looking at this, and I looked at McDaniel, and I thought he was a real wildcard coming into this season.

Like, I had no idea whether he was going to be a good coach, a terrible coach, a train wreck, a genius, whatever you want to say. We only have two games of evidence. So let's make sure we have the proper context for this. But the signs we saw in that game, if you're a Dolphins fan from McDaniel, are so encouraging. Number one, he might be a QB elevator. These are the coaches who can coach a Jimmy Garoppolo and get to the Super Bowl, who can coach a Jared Gough and produce a top 10 offense three out of four seasons. We always have the question, is quarterback X the guy?

But that's not always the question. Sometimes it's can you win with quarterback X? And those are two very different questions. And I think what you saw in that game against the Ravens, the way they're targeting Jalen Waddle and Tyree Kill 32 times, the way they're using motion and play action and different personnel groupings and attacking coverages when those coverages bust and attacking Jalen Armour Davis, the rookie cornerback for the Ravens,

those are all such positive signs for the offensive scheming, the offensive philosophy and McDaniel's approach in putting Tua in the best position to succeed. I mean, looking at it statistically, obviously 469 yards and six touchdowns. It was Miami's best offensive performance since 2014, if you just look at EPA. for drive. That's a span of 118 games. And this is McDaniel's second game with Tua. So that really stood out to me. Was there anything else that stood out to you just, you know, kind of the way he used him that I didn't mention where you say, wow, that that was really cool. They might really have something there. I think it's the fact that like watching last year, you would have thought,

okay, Tua always has to be an RPO quarterback because it maximizes how quickly he gets rid of the ball, like his releases so fast. And the dolphins are still maximizing that. Why, also finding a way to be vertical with it, right? In the sense that like they're rolling two out, they are letting those vertical guys get really far down the field really quickly. Like I made the remark on the Sunday show that like two or three step drops and then he goes to release the ball. And as a football watcher,

you've just seen a quarterback three step drop and then throw the ball so many times that you think you know generally where the receiver is going to be. So like, yeah, it's like 10 yards deep. And like waddle's like 17 yards down the field. And you're just like, that's not where you should be. How did you get there? Right? It feels like they're teleporting a little bit.

So like two is fast in the pocket, but they're still getting their speed downfield. There's no offense in the league right now that's more vertical stretchy than the, than the dolphins. The dolphins use every vertical inch of the field from like five yards behind line of scrimmage with like running back swings to 30, 40 yards down the field with Tyree Kill and Jay and Waddle clearing dudes out. And then all the space in between is accessible. It's, you can't say it's like the chiefs were at the peak because that's not fair.

it was different because Mahomes made it different, but it's similar in terms of how much stress it puts on use the defense. So that's the scheming, the play calling, the offensive ideas. The other thing I loved, which probably isn't getting talked about enough, his game management has been outstanding through two weeks. And we'll get to the- Oh, we're going to talk about game management. We'll talk, oh, I've got, yeah, I've got that on my list.

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it's there. Hard for a new coach. I think McDaniel through two weeks is the most aggressive coach in the NFL after the jocks took Brandon Staley and stuffed them in a locker and said, hey, no more going for it on fourth down. Someone had to take that title. And I think it's McDaniel. Week one, they had a fourth and seven before the half where he goes for it. And they score a touchdown to Jalen Waddle.

Now, there were no former NFL quarterbacks on TV yelling about analytics at the time because it worked out in this game. They went for it on fourth down twice in their own territory. Now, fourth down is one thing. I know people get annoyed about hearing about it. But the thing you really can't argue about is the way they hand. handled that last drive. I mean, that was brilliant. The announcer's going, maybe she should get a timeout here and save clock. No, part of it is you want to score the touchdown, but you don't want Lamar Jackson on the field with 37 seconds left. You want him on the field with as little time as possible

back there. And I thought the way he used those timeouts, didn't use those timeouts. I mean, the Ravens didn't get the ball back until 14 seconds left. And then the call he made really reminded me of like when everyone was loving Kyle Shanahan in those playoff games, when dolphins had that 46 seconds left at the Baltimore 35, it's a huge play. You're thinking pass, pass, pass, well, no, they pop a run, a little split zone run inside, 28-yard gain. I mean, when those plays don't work. I'll be the first to rip a coach, but it tells me something that he said, all right, we might get this look here. We might be able to pop this. We might be able to pick up a big chunk. So all those things I saw from McDaniel.

Again, it's one game, it's two weeks, but putting all those pieces together, offensive schemer, okay, knows how do you get the most out of his players? That's pretty good. Game management, yeah, that's really good. They didn't panic. They came back. They didn't fold in the second half. All those things, really, I feel like you should be really encouraged by him from that week two performance. All right, what do you got for me? What's the second take, Ben? So are you familiar with the Owen Tombstone? I am not. The Owen Tombstone. Explain it to me. Yes, so the Owen Tombstone. So since 19. 1970, the merger, teams that start 0 and 2 make the playoffs less than 10% of the time.

Now, that number is probably a little bit skewed for a 17 game season versus a 16 game season, which obviously only have one data point of the 17 game season so far. But no teams have, no team has started 0 and 2 and made the playoffs since 2018. This is from Edward Stula and Sporting News, right? So the Owen Tombstone is very real thing. If you start 0 and 2, there's a chance that you played a couple of tight games, a couple close games and almost pulled out of victory and you're feeling okay and you're growing.

But it's just because you're with those two losses in your back pocket, it's so hard to climb back into the playoff picture. So we have a few teams that are right now taking on the Owen Tombstone, the Cincinnati Bengals are. Is this your term the Owen Tombstone? Or is this something I should know about. Oh, this is your term.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just teams that go Owen two. Okay. Flex a little bit. I want to give you credit. Yeah. Yeah, we have two teams, Owen, oh, two, the Cincinnati Bengals are O and two.

there's a lot to be worried about there. The Carolina Panthers, O.N2. The team that is O&2 right now that I'm feeling okay about and I think still has a window for the playoffs is the Las Vegas Raiders. So the take is this. Raiders get right weeks are inbound.

Week three, the Raiders get the Titans. We're about to see the Titans on Monday night football. I've not been impressed with the Titans. I think they're going to step back. I think the Raiders are a better team. Week four, they get the Denver Broncos. You're going to talk about the Denver Broncos later. So I think we can get this ship back to two and two.

And then we get the chiefs on Monday night football. And here's why I think the Raiders have a good chance of pulling this thing out. They lost a five-point game to the Chargers and which the Chargers kind of let them back in it, but they weren't able to get over the hump offensively. And then obviously they had a massive comeback from the Cardinals where the Cardinals had multiple hugely high leverage, fourth down plays and two-point conversion plays to get back into the game. You run that game back a lot of times the Raiders win that game. So they've had two close games against two legit opponents, playoff caliber opponents.

When you go and you look stats-wise, they're about an average team. Defensive DVOA, they're 15th, offensive DVOA, their 19th, EPA per play on offense, their 23rd, success rate their 16th, they've just been like, ma' across the board. When you watch it, you can see how it's going to make sense on both sides of the ball. Devante is winning. He will never have a seven-target two-catch game again in the Raiders. That's no way there's ever, ever going to happen again.

That was Devante's first two-catch game since Brent Honley was his quarterback in 2017. I get that like Mac Hollins was objectively open, but that's the sort of game that you have when you bring in a new star receiver, you feel like you're still running the offensive way you used to, you lose, you look back at the tape and you go, okay, well, that was just really dumb. We're just never going to let that ever happen again.

Because Byron Murphy was not gloving up DeVosay Adams. He was getting like Cohen coverage, but nothing extravagant, like he should have gotten the ball more. The offensive line is young, but honestly not playing terribly. They're not great, but they're not horrible. They've got some simple communication stuff that if they're able to figure it out and Josh McDaniels has always been around

good offensive lines, then they should be okay. Defensively, they look, you can see it. It's so close to coalescing. They have super disrupted edges. Like Max Crosby and Chandler Jones are playing great against the run. They're hair on fire.

They're winning on the outside. Jonathan Hakenz and Andrew Billings. This team is built up front to fit the run from too high. Patrick Graham just throwing the weirdest fricking pressures out there, finding ways to get free rushers with like bad linebackers, divine diablo is like running the pole in tampa two they play the chiefs in week five and when i

watch this raiders defense with patrick graham i go this is what is given the chief's problem it's two high shells they have the ability to match guys in zone they can get pressure with four along the outside track right mohams leaking out the back of the pocket crosby and chanelhoones consistently winning i don't like the numbers and i don't like the record and i it's still a long long road to the playoffs going through the a fc west star and o and two but the raiders are going to write the ship They have a few games upcoming again. Titans, Broncos, Chiefs, Week 5, Texans Week 6, Saints Week 7. They have a way to kind of get this thing back on track. If there's a team I'm picking to get out of that Owen Tombstone, it's the Raiders. When I rewatch that game, I would agree with you.

I was rewatching it thinking, all right, there's going to be some notes here about what the Raiders should have and could have done differently. And I really just didn't have a lot of those. I mean, like you mentioned, the amount of, the number of things that had to go right for the Cardinals to complete that comeback. That's just rare. It's uncommon. It's why we love watching. It's why Kyler Murray in those situations is so fun to watch.

I mean, the Marquis, the Hollywood Brown catch, how often is he going to make that? The fourth downs, the running around for 20 seconds. So at first, I was like, well, did they get conservative? But the Raiders had a series where they threw the ball three times, three in completions, and only took 24 seconds off the clock. So there's a fine balance there between being conservative, being aggressive. Max Crosby, I mean, might have been, you know,

if we're naming five, the five best defensive players from week two, he's on that list. I thought he was incredible in this game from start to finish. And that is not an easy task staying on the field that often against Kyler Murray. It's a little bit of football nerdy and like doesn't actually matter. But the way that they get Crosby and Jammler Jones into inside gaps against run, like you watch that Chargers film, the charges are trying to run outside zone. And it's just Jones and Crosby, shooting inside the tackle, shooting inside, disrupt, penetrate, screw you, problems, problems, problems.

that works. It only works if you have an elite athlete on both sides and they both commit to it. But Jones and Crosby are bought the frick in. And it's really, really cool. In terms of like stealing numbers in the running game, that's one of the best ways you can do it, especially we've got big fellas in the middle

like Billings to get it done. It's, the bones are right. They just got to get a couple wins, finish a game. I think this plan can take off. It's not a wild take. I would not go there with you. I have my concern.

Well, my concern is the, How is the head coach going to look now? I mean, this is a tough spot. First time head coach. I had questions about him coming in. You're 0 and 2. The wide receiver you just traded for got two targets. I believe left the locker room I read before talking to the media via the athletic,

which listen, that can be nothing at all. It could be who cares, but I can't imagine. It won't happen again. Okay. Well, they better make sure of it. Devante Adams 15 target game incoming. Promise. That and then I did think the offensive line does concern me.

When they had those hiccups in the second half against the Cardinals offensively, I thought more often than not, there was an issue with protection with the offensive line. And I don't know if there's a quick fix there. But you're right. I mean, the first half of that game, they looked as good as anybody. They were going up and down the field. The defense was getting stops. So we'll say, that's not a bad one.

I like that one. We'll keep an eye on it. All right. My second one, we're staying in the AFC West, Benjamin. It's not going to be as flattering. The Red Zone channel should be required. to broadcast all of Nathaniel Hackett's fourth down decisions for the rest of the season. Is anyone against this? There can't be anyone against this, right?

Broad, like, so broadcast, do you mean go to it, cut to it? Starting on the third down play. So, like, we can all, like, learn the lay of the land. Oh, yes. And then there's a little, like, ticker. Like, go to this link on your phone and click what you would do. And you just, like, watch the numbers shoot up for like, go for it on fourth and two. And Hack is just there kind of like, slurring uncertainly at the field, not saying anything discernible into his headset while the play clock ticks down? Listen, he seems like a nice guy. I think we've said it in a previous pot,

if he's your neighbor, or maybe that was Lindsey, if he's your neighbor, you're feeling good. You know, he can get the mail for you. You need something in the house. Like, he's there. I would feel good about that. But my gosh, I can't remember a more disorganized performance in terms of game management in recent years.

And I try to stay away from hyperbole. But when I went, you know, watching it live, I thought, okay, there's some issues here. There's some issues there. When I went back and counted them all up, let me recap these as quickly as I can, Ben. Okay, so the first one. End of the first half, Russell Wilson throws the ball away on a third down. It was the sixth play in the first half inside the five without a touchdown.

So now it's fourth down. All right, what are you going to do? You're going to go for it? Or are you going to kick the field goal? Well, Hackett couldn't really decide. He keeps the offense on the field. It's tough, man. It's hard.

Then he changes his mind. Then he tries to run down the field to get the ref to call time out. He can't get him, and they take a delay of game, and then they kick the field goal. Now, it didn't matter to take the delay of game. They're inside the five. It's not a long field goal. But that was an early sign that maybe the issues they faced on Monday night were not resolved in this game then. Third quarter, fourth and two from midfield.

They have to waste a time out before deciding to go for it. Like, come on, my guy. Haven't you read all these stories? I've written many of them. You want to know on third down. Are we going for it? Are we not going forward on fourth? down. This is what you need to have. So they had that. Then the third quarter, this might have been

my favorite sequence in all of week two. It's third and one. They run a full back, full back option. I know you saw this because you were tweeting about it today. They run the full back option with Andrew Beck. Great play. Great play. Andrew Beck. When it works, I agree. It's pretty. It's executed as installed. Yeah. Andrew Beck has been in the league since 2019 and had one career carry going into this game. He gets stopped for a loss. Okay. You know, Everyone makes bad calls, not that big of a deal. Fourth and two. First Hackett decides to go for it.

Then he decides to kick. Brandon McManus runs out there, gets out there late. Drills a 54-yarder. It's all good. Uh-oh. They got called for a delay a game. The play clock went down to zero. Now a 54-yarder is a 59-yard field goal.

They punt. They've got a punt here. They didn't get a timeout. The crowd shot, I'm going to give the Broncos crowd so much credit. Their crowd was amazing in this game. They knew exactly. what was being screwed up the moment it was being screwed up. And so after this, they punt. The crowds going nuts. The CBS cameras are going to the crowd. I don't know who's in charge of

in stadium music in Denver, but they're playing, y'all going to make me lose my mind. And then you got the Broncos fans with their with their face in their hands. But it's not over yet, Ben. It's not over yet. Later in the fourth quarter, they don't have a punt returner back. The Broncos. Yes. This was this was absolutely. This is a cherry on top. They had to call another timeout in the fourth quarter. There's 739 left in the fourth quarter. They don't get the offensive play call in.

They use their final timeout. They have no timeouts for the final seven minutes of a one-possession game. In a one-score game. I guess the Easton Texans. Oh, my God. It's the fourth quarter. The fans, this is the best fan moment we've had all season. They start counting down the play clock.

And I'm not talking like, y'all, you can kind of hear that. No, this was coming in. on the TV copy, six, five, four. And then players are being asked about it afterwards, Javante Williams, that it actually helped them. Can they do that in future games? I mean, this was a disaster. This is so concerning.

I grew up going to veteran stadium and watching Eagles games. I know when fans are angry. I have a meter for angry fans. And that crowd was beside itself. They make the big trade. They pay the quarterback. They think this year is going to be different. and this is the product you put on the field after the Monday night disaster.

I didn't even mention the 13 penalties for 100 yards. I didn't even mention how bad the offense looked when they were doing anything other than throwing a one-on-one to Cortland Sutton. So Nathaniel Hackett, my guy, just hire someone who's played Madden for like the last 20 years, put them in the booth, get them in your headset, just ask them what to do every time, be more organized. This is a disaster. All these coaches, they sleep in their office, they brag about how much film they watch,

and then the game management, they completely ignore, they have no plan. So that way I want to see every fourth, third, like you said, third down, going into fourth down from Nathaniel Hackett for the rest of the year. So I'm writing about Hackett and the Broncos for Wednesday. So I don't want to empty the clip. But like, I can't think of an example of greater clarity that a coach does not know what he should do. He doesn't, he does not have an idea, a paradigm by which to make decisions. than the fact that he attempted a 64-yarder in Seattle,

and then after the delay of game penalty, had a 58-yarder in Denver. His home stadium, he is the man who gets to play eight, nine games in Mile High, the biggest kicking advantage in the entire league, bar none. He had a 57-yarder on the table and elected to punt, because it shows that he's not, he doesn't have a chart, all right, if I'm in this yard line, this distance, then this time,

this is what I want to do. Instead, he has, oh, last time I attempted a field ball, they yelled at me. I should probably punt this one. Like, it's just like, how do you, how does your special teams coach, your place kick are not in your ear going 58 yards a mile high isn't real? It's not anything. It's not, I could make this with my heel. Like, how do, how don't you know where you are?

Do you need a map? It's just my life stadium. It is impossible to figure out what Nathaniel Hackett's doing in Denver. Like you said, like all these coaches don't sleep. We live the only of our office, Monday Saturday. What's he working on? They're 0 and 6 in goal to go drives. Are you working on Red Zone?

They're one of the worst teams in the league in third down, you're working on third down? Like, you and I've been to training camps. What do they work on? They work on third down. They work on two minutes. They work on Red Zone. All of this sucks.

What are you working on? Listen, no one's more indecisive than me. I get anxiety thinking about what I'm going to eat for lunch. You know, like 11 o'clock rolls around. I start texting my wife. If I have to choose a restaurant, no way. Somebody else choose for me. I get it.

If I were an NFL head coach, there's no way I'm making those calls. Just hiring someone. They're like teams have been doing this for a long time now. The person is in the booth. They will literally tell you green go, red don't go. Yellow, it's 50-50. Just make a call. That's it.

You don't even have to think about it. Otherwise. So there you go, Nathaniel Hackett. I just fixed that for you. I want to see all those calls. All right, Ben, what do you have for your third one? All right. So I've been beating this, that horse around the yard a little bit.

So if you've been listening to Ringer Pods for a while, you can, you know, go step away and get some chores. done or something, I don't know. The take is this. The Chris Ballard Colts are going to go down as one of the greatest cautionary tales in team building over the course of the next like 10, 20 years. This snowball has been coming down the mountain for so long, man. And my love for Matt Ryan as an individual, as a player across the course of his career, kind of blinded me to it, but also not really a little bit. Like I wrote about Matt Ryan landing in Indianapolis over the course of the offseason. And in doing so, you started to take a look at this roster and you realize the

highest paid pass-catching weapon is Mo Allie Cox, who was a backup tight end who got the starting job because Jack Doyle is gone. The highest paid wide receiver is Ashton Doolin, 2.4 million, because T.Y. Hilton was not returned, because T.Y. is still a free agent. And Zach Paskill was not brought back in free agency. The only receiver that the Colts added was second round rookie Alec Pierce to a room of Michael Pittman, who Pittman is a fine NFL receiver. You know what, Colts? You can happen as a wider Super 1. Yeah, Pittman's a wider Super 1.

He isn't really, but like, let's not, I don't even care about that one. I'll give you that one. Paris Campbell, like, that's the whole room. So you got one of the cheapest and thinnest receiving cores in the league. And then you start to look at the offensive line. You realize that Anthony Gassonzo retired and they brought in Eric Fisher for a year, but didn't feel good about his health. So Matt Pryor, quote, won the job, unquote, which is what happens when you're the backup

and they don't sign anybody. You know, he won the job in camp. the job was open. You could have not been winnable. It could have been already filled. Danny Pinter is at right guard. Mark Lewinsky's with the Giants, left and free agency.

They dropped the Danny Pinter, like day three pick a couple years ago, he's going to be our starting right guard. You and your old co-host, Bo Wolf, on the birds with friends, the athletic show, used to have a great phrase called taking a whiff, right?

Where someone's really impressed with themselves, they just take a whiff. And Chris Powell's been taken a whiff for three, years now at this point. Chris Ballard had a great sequence of drafting. He had a couple of really nice day two, early day three picks. Shaquille Leonard, baby. I mean, Carrey Willis, like Michael Pittman.

It's just good drafting. Well done. And then he thought that was the whole boat. He thought you just kept drafting players and you just put them in when there's an open spot, you plug them in and you don't sign big free agent contracts. And God forbid, you get aggressive at quarterback. You just cycle it out. And then once you figure it out, once you figure a quarterback out, Once you get that one lucky break, once you get your guy, your franchise dude, the entire menu will be set.

The entire room will be ready because you've drafted so well. And that's such a lovely thought if development were linear. If the NFL were predictable, oh, if the NFL were predictable, I'd be a millionaire at this point. I'd be so good at sports betting at the NFL were predictable. It's not. Quinn Nelson, sixth overall pick, best guard ever taken, massive contract. You know who hasn't looked the same since his foot injury?

Quentin Nelson. Shaquille Leonard was a really cheap, incredible turnover machine, middle linebacker. Guess who's got back problems at a big fat contract now? You don't get to keep stringing it out. You don't get to just wait. You cannot afford to build a great team

and then not get quarterback right and just say, okay, well, we have the building blocks. We just get Carson Wentz in here after Philip Rivers, then we'll be good. Oh, we'll get Matt Ryan in here, we'll be good. Eventually, just regression comes. eventually there are some unlucky coin flips. Nelson isn't the same player he was.

We haven't seen London in the field. They brought in Stefan Gilmore. He's not the same player he was. Yannick and Gokway, Gus Bradley needs him. He's not been that great. Quitty pay, top 20 pick. He's got flashes. He has a big assistant.

DeForest Buckner hasn't dominated this year. You don't, it's, you can't make it neat in the NFL. You can't be like, and we just boom, this guy. We'll get this trading piece and we'll bring this guy in and then everything will be ready. Stuff hits the fan, man. So when you, you had a window,

you had 2019, you had, You had one of the cheapest and most talented young groups of players in the league. And you wrote a Philip Rivers, Carson Wend's Carousel that brought you here to a 38-year-old Matt Ryan, who's fumbled the ball five times, thrown four picks, and he's going to get better and Pittman's going to get back and it's going to look nicer. But you missed your window. Well, let me, hold on. Let me interrupt you on quarterbacks. So what was the move that they didn't?

Because I agree with a lot of what you're saying, and I'll get to that in a second. But with quarterback to me is probably the most interesting because it's the hardest. spot to fail. What was the move you're saying they should have made that they did not make? Because we can point to the mistakes that they made, but what was the one that they should have made? Wentz over Stafford is the one trait that always wriggles in my mind because I think they could have been way more aggressive in the Stafford conversation, which Stafford would have come with his risks. He was having back problems. He was on the wrong side of 30. But everybody knew the ceiling was higher with Stafford than with Wentz and with Rivers. I know that for a fact, because I know what

was traded for Stafford versus what was traded for once and obviously Rivers was signed and then I watched what Stafford did with the Rams, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That or you load up the draft capital gun and you go get yourself an early first round pick, right? They were like Jordan Love is a great example. There were so many rumors they liked Jordan Love and they didn't pull the trigger on Jordan Love. And then they told everybody they didn't like Jordan Love. You can't just try to draft dudes in the second round and show them in to start. Eventually you got to use a first round pick on somebody. you have to, you've got to put your neck on the line a little bit and commit to a guy. Ballard's inability to commit to a starting quarterback is going to prevent him from ever having

the opportunity to really commit to that perfect guy that he thinks exists somewhere. And that's frustrating because the Colts could have been really, really interesting over the last few years. And like, yes, Andrew Luck shocked them. I know. Welcome to the NFL baby. That was what five years ago? Four or five years ago, yeah. Yeah.

Cardi Lewis randomly retired this year. this is not for long. When you have a window, hit the window. The Colts missed it. And I always then immediately think about the Lions. I think about the Lions' awesome offense right now. I think about the Lions' young stars on defense right now. And I go, that team is approaching a Ballard window.

And if Brad Holmes sits on his thumbs and does Jared Gough for another year, he is inviting one bad injury, one more expensive contract, one unlucky retirement, one guy leaving football. And then all of a sudden, you don't have the, the fact. foundation you don't have the bedrock that you thought you did yeah i just looked at them and it's only you know one week or two weeks you know they'll probably still be around a 500 team i don't think anyone looks at them as a team with the high ceiling they just look like the hope is not a strategy team i mean left tackle and wide receiver colts writers national writers podcasters this was all anyone was talking about about the colts coming to the scene wait they're really going to go into the season

with matt prior who by the way he starts and then he gets replaced by bernard raymond i mean i would be surprised if there's another team out of the other 31 in the NFL who would look at Matt prior and be comfortable with him as their left tackle in week one. That would legitimately surprise me. And then wide receiver, it's like, you know, now there's talk probably in India, I was just looking today. Oh, Nahim Hines needs to get more involved. I mean, listen, Nahim Hines is a nice player, but look at, we just talked about the dolphins, you know? Like, come on. This is a different scenario. Jonathan Taylor needs to get more involved. Like, like, Naim Hines is good pass catching back. The single best thing you have on offense right now is the ball in

Jonathan Taylor's hands. He should have had six targets. They had no receivers. Yeah. Throw a scream. Yeah, absolutely. To me, I never saw them as the most talented team. I see them as sort of a middling team that could benefit from an easy schedule. Jags AFC South, divisional winners, baby, Jags AFC South. Yeah, so we'll say, and the coaching has to take a hit too. Listen, you come out the first two weeks of the season, and that's what you look like in the first half of these games that, you need to be held accountable to. So everybody there, it's a rough, rough start for Indianapolis. All right, let's get to my last one.

You mentioned it. You let me right into it, right into my third one. Doug Peterson, Trevor Lawrence, and these Jacksonville Jaguars might have something, baby. I think we both like the Jaguar. We disagreed on a lot coming to season. This was one we thought, yeah, we both kind of like the Jags a little bit. 24-0 against the Colts. It was heartwarming to see.

I think it was Marvin Jones give Doug Peterson the game ball in the locker room. Ben, I don't know if you saw that video or not. It was a cool video. You could tell when the players are just real happy and they're getting after it and they're happy to not have Urban Meyer there anymore. So was this just one game or was this sustainable? There were things I really liked in this game.

It wasn't the flashiest performance from Trevor Lawrence, but he was getting rid of the ball so quickly. He looked like a quarterback who knew the answers. Now, when you're facing Gus Bradley and that defense, that's easier than some of the other defenses you're going to face. You should know the answers. still 25 for 30, 235 yards, two touchdowns.

They were rolling him out on bootlegs. He was rolling to his left, throwing strikes downfield for 26 yards. He had a, his best throw might have been this 41-yarder to Jamal Agnew that Agnew couldn't come down with. It was kind of over-the-shoulder type catch, but that absolutely could have been a touchdown. So Lawrence looked as in command as we've seen him as an NFL player,

in my opinion. And then just some of the other stuff, I mean, our buddy Nate Tice had a great video on how they used Christian Kirk. They motioned him into the backfield and then used him on the Texas route in the red zone. That led to a touchdown. Doug Peterson had a great call on fourth and goal, I believe it was, where they fake the pitch. And then Trevor Lawrence rolls to his right and finds Kirk in the end zone. And the stuff we were just talking about with Hackett, I don't think Peterson has ever gotten enough credit for this.

His game management is outstanding. When they face fourth down, they know what they're doing. They're thinking about it on third down. He's the play caller, by the way, in addition to being the head coach. So all those things were so encouraging for me watching that Jaguars team. And then let's not discount that defense. I mean, their front was getting after it, stunts, twist. Josh Allen had a nice game.

Trayvon Walker has really flashed the first two weeks of the season. So I looked at them in week one and thought Lawrence missed some throws. Etienne had a drop. Like there were plays left on the field there where I felt like, well, Doug is calling a good game here. They've got a lot of stuff open and they didn't convert in those high leverage spots. But the offense seems to be working.

Lawrence is gaining confidence. They seem to be playing with the joy. You mentioned it. The division is wide open. I am buying like the, if you have any Jaguar stock, if there's any Jaguars hype I can buy, I'm really buying that here

after the first two weeks of the season. You just want to take a win. I want him to win it. I want him to win it so bad. Yeah. one thing that I would add and emphasize is that when I watch that team through two weeks, that

defensive line can play. That, when it's going to go up against like really good offensive lines, really good quarterbacks, it doesn't have like the star talent yet, but right now by defensive DVOA, the Jags are third in the league,

it goes bills, bucks, Jags. And that's because that front, they can get up field, they can move a quarterback off a spot. Trayvon Walker, like,

it was still a really wild pick, but it works in the sense that, man, just put the athlete on the, field and then we'll kind of figure things out as we go. He does one thing really well, but God, Donna, he does it really, really well. Jaguars defensive front and then the corners also, Tyson Campbell and Shaquille Griffin are both playing really, really well on the outside. This is not, like Flash of the Pan is wrong since it's two games. They're one-on-one,

and they did just lose the commanders. But the Jaguar's arrows pointing up. This team is going to be better every single week. It's going to be fun to watch. Yeah, quick note on the previous things we talked about real quick. Matt Ryan, 30% of his throws, winning. to tight windows compared to 6% of two his throws this weekend. I mean, if you're just looking at defense skill positions, scheming stuff up, that really speaks to it. Every week, we're going to have an extra point. We'll alternate each week.

Ben, you've got it this week. What is your extra point to close us out? Yeah, so I feel like extra points are in the eye of the beholder. It's something that I think is like, you know, this is fun for me that I get to talk about. Bill's Chiefs' playoff game last year is amazing, right? It was just back and forth. Anybody could score any given time. Offense is moving the ball down the field.

like we will always remember that game. But I found myself re-recalling that game watching all the comebacks this week. We had a, the dolphins, the dolphins' comeback was 21 plus points in the fourth quarter. That's the 10th such comeback in NFL history. The Cardinals are only the fourth time

a team has successfully had two eight-point touchdown plays in the fourth quarter to come back and force overtime. The Browns are the only team in the league. This is from Scott Kaksmar, by the way. Only team in the league since 2001 that's lost a game that they're winning by at least 10 with under three minutes left.

And they've done it three times. They're the only team that's done it, and they've done it three times. It's unbelievable. The offenses that pulled off those comebacks for the Cardinals, Kyla Murray, awesome, but also like the Joe Flacco Jets

and the Tuotungaviloa Dolphins. And it made me think about how one of the coolest things about this whole passing revolution, every quarterback works. You talked about how, how Mike McDonald's a quarterback elevator, or excuse me,

Mike McDaniel's a quarterback elevator, the floor of quarterbacking, the floor of passing offenses have been raised so much over the last two decades, is that like, it doesn't make these comebacks any cheaper because they're still sick.

There's still so much fun to watch, but they're all so much more achievable now. They're all so much more there. Like, we're not going to see another week this season, another week next few series with three such singular individual, astounding comebacks.

But man, games are, like the Falcons almost brought the race. back from 28 to 3, baby. Like, offenses have gotten so good at scoring points, throwing the football, scoring the fast, taking advantage of soft coverage when teams are sitting on leads, that you keep getting these games that claw back into the fourth quarter.

When I go and I think about, like, other sports and how they go up against the NFL, the NFL has such a great ability, like what not like intentional, unintentional rules helping the passing offense, whatever it was, that got it to the point where I tuned into a game that's two possessions in the fourth quarter. And I'm like, yeah, this is worth, watching because there's not a there's there's there's i can count on one hand the number of passing

offenses in the league that really earnestly can't pull that off if they get a little bit lucky so three huge comebacks from one some you know quite good passing attack but then two more than a big question marks just made me think about how cool it is that we have like an offense driven league and that means that like literally every game is within reach almost all of the time what a fun product to watch yeah 20 years ago you could point to a handful of teams their cubies suck they had no chance it's not the case anymore. Everybody has that floor. Most teams have that floor of competent QB play. I think it changes the way team

should operate in the offseason. I never thought of that. It changes the way you should watch these games in the fourth quarter because if Joe Flacco baby can come back and put that on the Browns, anything in this life is possible, kids. Remember that as you listen to this podcast. All right, good one. That's going to wrap us up. I don't know if I want to sell

inspiration with Joe Flacco. That feels like pedaling snake oil. All right. Thanks to Chris Sutton for producing. Thanks to Ben for joining me. to Arjuna Ram Gopal and Connor Nevins for additional production supervision. Stay tuned to the feed this week. We'll have Jason Gough and Austin Gail with the Power Ranking Show. We'll have Nora Preciati with the Island.

I'll be back with you Thursday. Ben will be back with you Friday. Thank you for listening to The Ringer NFL show and we'll talk to you soon.