The Ringer NFL Show - Week 5 Recap: Cowboys Edge Out the Steelers, Ravens Beat the Bengals in OT, and More

Episode Date: October 7, 2024

Sheil, Steven, and Diante return to discuss, debate, and share their expert takes on the biggest games and story lines from Sunday’s NFL action. Cowboys-Steelers (1:42) Ravens-Bengals (11:41) Texans-Bills (23:44) Browns-Commanders (39:49) Cardinals-Niners (48:45) Jets-Vikings (54:33) They then survey the league and offer superlatives and awards to the players, coaches, and teams who made newsworthy contributions to the Week 5 headlines (1:00:25). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Sheil Kapadia, Steven Ruiz, and Diante Lee Producers: Chris Sutton and Tucker Tashjian Production Assistance: Daniel Comer Production Supervision: Conor Nevins and Arjuna Ramgopal Social: Kiera Givens Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Follow Ringer reality TV on Spotify and subscribe to us on YouTube. Welcome to the Ringer NFL show, Shield Capadia here with my friends Deonté Lee and Stephen Ruiz. If you're watching on Fanduil TV, welcome if you're listening on Spotify. Welcome. It was week five. There were some barn burners. There were some tight matchups against possible Super Bowl contenders.

We're going to lead off the show talking about three games that caught our attention. Deontay, how are you doing with this, what, 16-hour day watching football? Honestly, I'm feeling great, and I'm glad that I had a lot of football to watch. Otherwise, I might have been throwing stuff on a Dodger field, just like the rest of the fans. Giving the boat weapon, they just took to the Padres. But no, man, I'm feeling good. This is a good week of football, and we had some nice, like, big brand games. I resent that answer from Deonti.

I need a huge cup of coffee right now. And if I do that, my sleep cycle will just be totally ruined. This is untenable. No more London games, please. Well, only three. season. The day started with the Jets in London, losing to the Minnesota Vikings, and it ended with the Cowboys beating the Steelers. We're going to start with that game. Cowboys Steelers, Cowboys string together a 70-yard touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter. Dak Prescott

finds Jalen Tolbert, who like 90 seconds earlier could not walk. And then he does a fantastic job, not creating offensive pass interference, gets open for the game-winning touchdown. Cowboys win that game 20 to 17. I think this game was a reminder or maybe a clarifier that the Cowboys have a higher ceiling than the Pittsburgh Steelers. I don't care what happened in the first four weeks of the season when the Steelers were three and one. And the Cowboys were kind of up and down. Cowboys had 445 yards of offense in this game. Steelers had 226.

If the Cowboys could just stop doing stupid stuff, Ruiz, this could be a really good team. But they have two Red Zone turnovers. They have three turnovers overall, and they need a fourth and goal completion to Jalen Tolbert to win the game. But still, if I'm looking at ceilings and what's the best version of each of these teams, I believe more in the Cowboys than the Steelers. Am I nuts, or are you with me? No, I'm with you there. They have the better quarterback, and I think they have overall the better offense when you look at all of the pieces combined. The problem is, like, if I'm a Cowboys fan, I don't want to see where this season goes.

Like, I know how it ends. It's going to be heartbreaking. It's going to be disappointing. I'd almost rather just flame out like we know the Steelers are eventually going to do by the end of the year. It's the same old problems we've talked about with this team where it feels like Dak Prescott has to just basically be perfect for this team to move the ball right now. And the fact that he turned over the ball three times, I think speaks to the fact or speaks to his degree of difficulty is how I would say it. He averaged over eight yards per attempt in this game. It was like 0.13 EPA per play, which is a very solid number from him.

He played efficient football, and it resulted in 20 points. I think I asked the question on the Friday show, like, what does a great Dak Prescott game? I know he turned the ball over and prevented that. But even if he didn't turn the ball over in the red zone there, what did they score an extra six points? It would be a 26 point outing for this offense. So, yeah, I think the ceiling is higher than the Steelers,

but the ceiling is not high enough to get excited about this team. What do you think, Deontay? I'm in the same boat. Like, ultimately, this game was won because they had the quarterback that could bail them out from the mistakes that he was making earlier in the game, right? And I don't want to, I don't want to take away from some of those turnovers because that pick to Joey Porter Jr. had me ready to like starfish on the floor. Like what are we doing here, Dak Prescott? Even the throat, you know, I understand there was

probably a miscommunication expecting a back shoulder from CD Lamb in the red zone. Those happen, right? But even with that, it's like, dude, these are turnovers you can't have. These are the turnovers that lead everybody to have in these Dak Prescott discourses week over week, season over season. It just looked like, yet again, a Cowboys team that's more talented than its opponents finding ways to hand it away because they just can't execute, you know, on a down and down basis. But you get to see what this team can be like more often than not, which, you know, Dak Prescott can move the ball against any defense, any look that he sees. And you saw that today. I think that them spreading the ball around was probably the most positive sign,

finding guys that are finding guys outside of CD Lamb that they could push the ball to, seeing that Dak Prescott still was willing to push a ball downfield to guys that were not CD Lamb, I think bodes well, especially against the defense that wants to play a lot of tight man coverage. But ultimately, I'm in the same boat that Stevens in. I feel like we can write the story on this season right now for the Cowboys. And it will probably play out almost exactly the way that we predicted it on a week-to-week basis. All right, listen, you're probably right, but I'm going to put a more positive spin on this Cowboys win.

This was a banged up team. They're going on the road. They're underdogs. No Micah Parsons. no DeMarcus Lawrence. Their quarterbacks are banged up. They turn the ball over three times. You turn it over twice in the red zone.

And you still come away with a victory. That's not nothing. They're three and two on the season. I actually thought, I mean, the final numbers for their run game don't look good at all. 31 for 109. Watching it, I thought, all right, they're running the ball better than they have previously this season. And to your point, Deonté, Jake Ferguson, more in the mix. This game, six catches for 70 yards.

Ruiz's boy, Mike McCarthy, drew up a nice screen to what's the fullback's name? Hunter Leipke. What a screen for that 18-yard completion on that game-winning drive. Imagine if it went for three yards and Mike McCarthy called a full-back screen and crunch time. We would not be celebrating that, man. We would be going, oh, McCarthy did it again. But it didn't. It went for 18 and you just went to dial up. Leapke's number there. So, you know, part of this is the old adage that you just kind of stay in the mix until Thanksgiving or after Thanksgiving or whatever it is. And that's kind of what the cowboys are doing. You just, if you can stack up some wins,

here in a very winnable NFC East and an NFC that's totally wide open. I think you have a chance. Now, on the other side, the Pittsburgh Steelers, I mean, I just, that offense, I don't know how you can win big with that offense. Like, I admire them for being gritty and being in every game and, you know, they're playing Tomlin ball and they're doing all that. But 226 yards of offense, they had four completions in the first half. What we're going to do for this segment is at the end of each game, we're going to talk about

Do we believe each team is a contender? So let's go with the Steelers. And we're a defining contender. This isn't some vague, you know, YouTube segment where what do they mean? But no, contender means this team can get to the Super Bowl. It doesn't mean you're predicting them to get to the Super Bowl. But in your mind, they have a realistic opportunity to get there. They have that ceiling.

Deontay Pittsburgh Steelers, from what you saw tonight, from what you've seen so far this season, three and two team, do they have a shot in the IFC? They could be five and all right now, and the answer's no. And I'm probably the one guy on this show who has probably been most ardent with Justin Fields looks better. He's a grown up in the pocket. And he has done a pretty good job of playing smart football, especially if you're grading him on the Justin Field curve of years prior. But still, it's just so clear that there is nothing this offense can do to find explosive plays outside of wishing, you know, that George Pickens comes down with three or four one on. one ball as a game. Outside of that, they haven't been able to run the ball. This would have been a

great week for us to see them be a little bit more creative, find ways to attack the edge, especially when Michael Parsons and Marcus Lawrence not there. You know that they don't have a good defensive interior. And this is a team that has spent a lot of this draft capital on trying to build up an offensive line and one that I think should be able to mash a team like this. So the fact that they couldn't, the fact that they are playing the exact same football game we've seen from them week over week. It's concerning. And I don't think that there's a way for me to consider them a contender outside of them having maybe like the greatest sack and interception year that I've seen since like the 2015 Broncos

basically for me to think that this team could contend at that kind of level. Yeah, I agree. I'm in the same boat. I don't need to repeat too much with the Steelers. I mean, I think they're going to, they'll pull off some upsets. They'll win some games. You don't expect them to win. T.J. Waddle has some takeover games. Minka Fitzpatrick, Joey Porter, you know, they'll play ugly. They'll be bad weather. they'll win, but I just don't take this team seriously as a contender in the AFC. Ruiz, you're in the same boat with us? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Justin Fields does look better, but that just speaks to how far

behind he was in his development in Chicago. Like 15 for 27 for 131 yards. That's a Bo Nick's ass stat line. I'm sorry, I can't see that team going to the Super Bowl. All right. We're all in the same. And I'm with the Cowboys. I think there is, I know what's probably going to happen. It's been 27 years since they've gotten out of the division. around. But if you're just asking me on paper, like if you did a thing where you took away everyone's face and took away the names of the teams and just said, this model of a team that I'm putting in front of you, can they get to the Super Bowl and the NFC? I'm actually going to put them as a yes right now. Deonté, yes or no for the Cowboys after five weeks? I mean, as long as they have

Dak Prescott, especially looking at the rest of the NFC, I would say that they do have a shot to contend for a Super Bowl. We could very easily be talking this time in November. And they might be, you you know, the number, they could be one of the top three seeds in the NFC, right? And contended maybe for the number one seed in the NFC because they have a quarterback that allows them to access that kind of ceiling. But again, you can't, when the margins are as slim as they are for this team, it reminds me a lot of watching the Rams. The Rams obviously have their own talent deficit problems that I think expose it a little bit more. But when you watch the Cowboys, it's just so clear, it's not about Mike Zimmer and adding different pieces to this defense and different looks to this defense. It's not about whether or not they have enough pass catchers.

This all comes down to is Dak Prescott playing like an MVP or not. And anytime a team has to exist on a binary that defined, I'm not comfortable saying that they're going to make it. I just know that they're capable of doing so because they have a quarterback that can't play like an MVP. I just got to say, what Cowboys team have you guys been watching over the last five weeks? This team has no shot in hell of making the Super Bowl. I would bet every, like my life savings that they're not going to make the Super Bowl.

maybe I'll regret this that sound bite in a couple of months but I doubt it it's just too hard it doesn't ever look this hard for a Super Bowl level offense and we already know the problems that that defense has

like you have to have an elite offense or an elite defense to make a Super Bowl and the Cowboys I just can't envision them having either of those things right now especially in comparison to the rest of the teams in the NFL like you could imagine this Cowboys team going or like beating San Francisco

in San Francisco? No chance. No, it would never happen. No, we've, the San Francisco, yeah, the story stops there. Yeah, I just had a chance. Yeah, in my head, it's like, could they be playing in the divisional round? Because if you're playing in the divisional round, then maybe you have a chance to get to the Super Bowl. You only have to win two games. But your, your point is correct that this is not the best Cowboys team we've seen of the recent Cowboys teams. And those Cowboys teams failed to even make it past the divisional round. So it's probably

now. All right. I don't know. Unless I'm forgetting one, this felt like the game of the year. Ravens and Bengals exchanged haymakers. Both quarterbacks were fantastic. Ravens get a 56-yard field goal at the end of regulation to force overtime and then a 51-yard Derek Henry run in overtime to set up the game winner. Ravens go home a winner, 41-38, the Bengals fall to 1 and 4. Ruiz, you could go in 400 different directions with your biggest takeaway from this game, but what stood out to you? I want to start with the Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow duel. Like this felt like the proper quarterback duel that we've been waiting out of this rivalry. We've only seen five games that had to head before, and they've either been

lopsided or they've just been low-scoring affairs that weren't very exciting to watch. In this we saw the best of both quarterbacks. And we saw the best of both offenses, quite frankly. Let's start with the Ravens offense. We talked about this on the Friday show. This Bengals defense has given Baltimore problems by selling out to stop to run it. And that's what it looked like on the live viewing here.

They obviously hold Derek Henry to, I think it was like 30 rushing yards in regulation before he kind of broke out in overtime. And in the past, that would be, you know, the end of things for Baltimore's offense if they couldn't run the football. But it wasn't because we saw a new Lamar Jackson. And we've seen this Lamar Jackson for the past year plus.

But I think this was the game that really punctuated. This was him going head to head with a supposedly prototypical quarterback, the type of quarterback that Lamar Jackson wasn't and couldn't ever be. And he outplayed him. He out threw him. He made some of the most amazing plays we've ever seen outside of the pocket. But the work he did inside the pocket was just as impressive to me. His ability to avoid negative plays and turn them into positive play.

I mean, the touchdowns in the back of the end zone. Incredible. He fumbled the snap is one of the most impressive football plays I've ever seen. I still don't understand. Like the throw itself, which kind of gets lost in the shuffle, how difficult that throw was because of the absurdity of the first 10 seconds of that play. But his body, his chest is facing the sideline, and he kind of has to torque his body while taking a hit and kind of in midair.

And he throws a dart to the back of the end zone where only his receiver can catch it. It was one of the greatest throws I've ever seen and that was like only part of the play. He stiff-armed Sam Hubbard who's a good defensive end who makes $10 million a year to the ground like it was nothing. And that was the third most impressive thing

he did on the play. I might have lost of words for what Lamar Jackson can do. But like on the other end if I'm a Bengals fan, I know it's one and four but with the way that offense played I would be a little more encouraged than I would have been if this loss happened in any other circumstances. Now you sound like me.

a little bit there with the Bengals. Deonti, I thought, like, I don't know that it's possible to play better than Lamar Jackson played today. I mean, 348 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, one sack, ran for 55 yards. This was the complete package, like Ruiz was saying, this was pinpoint accuracy. I mean, some of those intermediate throws that kind of get lost in the course of a game when you're looking at the exciting ones. You're just like, man, how do you squeeze that in there? Are we sure that was a completion? There were so many of those, that signature play, just that Ruiz just described, stiff arming, Sam Hubbard, jumping out of bounds, taking a hit and throwing a touchdown. By the way, in a high leverage spot in the football game. I mean,

I mean, really the only thing, the only error it felt like he made all day was just a physical fumbling the snap in overtime, which would, you know, ironically could have cost them the game. Didn't end up costing them the game. But after halftime, they had three touchdowns, two field goals, and that one fumble. Those were their six possessions. They had five hundred and twenty yards of offense. That version of Lamar Jackson is the most fun player in the league and the most

the hardest player to defend in the league. It might be the best player in the week. Might be, yeah. I was going to say, like, what Stephen's saying is almost an understatement because Louana Rumo do like the Patrick Mahomes game plan at Lamar Jackson. He tried everything in the playbook.

You saw seven, eight guys at the line of scrimmries. Those old blitzes that used to give Lamar trouble when Brian Florence was in Miami. me and he handled it just fine, getting away from pressure, getting the ball out quickly, trying to set up the protection to keep him clean. You know, when they were playing more, you know, playing more with depth than trying to take away throws in the middle of the field. You saw him be very accurate outside the numbers in a way that, you know, his game kind

of waxes and wanes with that at times. You know, you usually can kind of tell a good Lamar Jackson Day from a bad one on whether or not he's able to connect outside the numbers. And then once he had the respect to the defense and made them start defending the sideline, You got to see great seam throws to Zay Flowers. You saw a good scene throws to Nelson Aguilar when he was in the game. You saw a good seam throws to Rashad Bateman and Isaiah likely. And that, to me, what really underscores it is the fact that Cincinnati was so clearly came in,

committed to taking away Derek Henry. And the game was going to be one with, with Lamar Jackson from the pocket. And you see what he does to manage a pocket. And there's really only like two other guys that can even have that, you can even have that conversation with being better or as good as he is. And when he's at his peak of his powers like he is today, like Stephen said, that's the best player in the NFL, the most dynamic player in the NFL and maybe the hardest one to stop. He had the one play where he was scrambling to his left and the two defenders were on his right, like chasing him. And he gave him a little fake like, like I'm coming back towards you. And they were terrified.

It's incredible. It looked like a bad like Madden glitch, like a bad animation in a video game. But no, he just juke the hell out of those guys that badly. and I know he ended up throwing away the ball, but that was like one of the greatest and most exhilarating throwaways of all time. I had that in my notes. I go, this is the best incompletion.

It's one of the best incompletions I've ever seen. That was incredible how he created that space. And he did avoid a negative play on it. So it wasn't like there was no function to the play. Yeah, one sack all game. So I think this is a pretty easy one are the Ravens contenders. I mean,

they look like one of the best teams in the NFL is back to back wins over the bills and the Bengals. Not saying it's perfect. They got some stuff to figure. out defensively, obviously, but I don't even know how much more we need to say. I think we all probably agree that the Ravens are contenders, correct? Yeah, as long as they have number eight. I mean, I think it's time to start worrying about this defense.

I think this was the game where it's like, okay, they miss Mike McDonald. Because Mike McDonald used to have this offense in hell. He used to have Joe Burrow in hell, and Joe Burrow had no issue diagnosing what he was seeing when the Ravens got creative on third down. I think at one point in the second half, there were six for six on third down. and yeah, Burrow had no problems dissecting what they did. I thought Burrow had a couple shaky moments in the first half, but in the second half he was just lights out.

Yeah, I mean, they were going up and down the field on this Ravens defense. And if you're a Bengals fan, this season stinks, or if you're someone who said the Bengals are going to the Super Bowl, this guy right here, this season stinks. Because if you would have told me after five weeks, they're second in EPA per drive, their second in offensive success rate. They just put up 38 points against the Baltimore Ravens.

I would go, oh, yeah, Sheila, you nail that prediction. Let's go. And Bengals are going to the Super Bowl and start. They're one and four. All four losses have been by a combined 15 points. They've all been one possession games. And now one and four is just a hard hole to dig out of. And by the way, I need to rip Zach Taylor here real quick for that overtime.

That overtime approach. You don't play for a 53-yard field goal. I know that teams are better at making 53-yard field goals. But Lamar Jackson fumbles the start. snap there. You take over on the Baltimore 38, run for no gain, run for three, run for no gain. You park the bus. Don't park the bus. You have a, you know how much money you're paying Joe Burroughs? Ruiz just mentioned it. You know how he was playing? I know there's always a risk of a negative play, but you can call a high percentage play. If you can't trust your quarterback there, like,

make it a little bit easier for the field goal kicker. I know they botched the snap, but like, that really could have cost you the game. So yeah, I did not like how he parked the bus right there. That might be a me thing, though. And he also iced his own kicker. It's all the timeout right before the kick. I know it was the bad hold, but I don't know. Maybe he iced his holder. Maybe he did.

Yeah. But, yeah, there's, I think we're all probably on the same side of the Bengals. I mean, one and four. I'm not. Don't speak for me. The Bengals are absolutely coming back and they're going to make the playoffs. All right. Well, you playoffs, but can they get to the Super Bowl?

Absolutely with them play like this. From one and four. Okay. Look at their schedule upcoming. They're playing the Giants, they're playing the Browns, they're playing the Eagles, they're playing the Raiders. They have a rebatch with the Ravens in like five weeks. That will be a fascinating game to watch. But then after that, the Chargers, the Steelers, the Cowboys, the Titans, the Browns, the Broncos, the Steelers, they can run the table in theory.

And they're playing good football. You talked about the numbers on offense. They can just figure something out on defense. That's just something. Then I think they could definitely make the playoffs. And if the offense is playing like this, like you can go on a run. in three games in January with an offense that's playing at a level like this. What a role reversal. Deonti, where are you at on the Bengals?

Joe Burrow is playing the best quarterback of his life. Jamar Chase is more efficient than he was in 2021 and this team is one and four. It's over. Can they? Sure. But it's over. Just like just how Stephen took the lot, took his role with the Cowboys are saying like, have you or have you not been watching that football team? I've been watching Cincinnati's defense. This is not a Super Bowl contending defense. It's not even close to a Super Bowl contending defense. And they sold out as many resources as possible to stop this run game. And this was probably their best showing against the run this season, if not, like, in the top top one or two. And still, they can't keep teams from finding explosive plays.

It doesn't matter who's in or out of the lineup. They're not able to get enough pressure. They had seven, eight guys at the line of scrimers, like I said, they could not make Lamar Jackson uncomfortable in the pocket. And with that being a unique challenge for them, You can look at any game that they've played this year outside of the Patriots. It's probably like the most inept passing offense in the league right now. They can't do anything to affect teams or keep teams from finding what they want in the passing game. And that's a disqualifying factor for me. So no, they're not a contender.

I'm playing the long game here. If they don't make the Super Bowl, I could laugh at Shield for predicting this team was going to make the Super Bowl in the first place. And if they do, I could steal all the his spotlight and be like, actually, I was the Bengals guy who never gave up on him. Stephen taking the team content, team content angle. Yeah, why am I backing down? Don't well, I'll just, I'll just lie and said, I say, I said one thing. No one's going to remember. It's October.

You think they're going to remember this in January? The run, I could, I could buy the run the table thing on offense, but defensively, like you're going to have a weird offensive game where you turn it over where I just feel like the way their defense is playing right now. I mean, these are two losses they've had to the Ravens and the commanders, where if they have like a C-minus defensive game league-wide, they're winning both those games. They couldn't get there. I mean, the Ravens offense today, that was the 10th best game by any offense in the NFL this season based on success rate.

It's like, you know, I just don't buy this defense. But we'll say their offense is good. And if you're, by the way, if you're a Bengals fan or your Bengals ownership, how do you not say, look at what we're doing with Jamar Chase and T. Higgins and what a difference that makes. And you can just grow with these two for the next whatever, three, five, seven years and keep that window open for this offense to execute the way it executed today. And don't tell me they don't have the money because you can fit two wide receivers under their salary cap. So that is a flat out lie. And what are they going to spend that $25 million on anyway? Exactly.

They're going to sign Bryce Huff or something. No, hey, T. Higgins, keep this trio together. It's the only shot at winning games right now. And it's been a trio that's carried you to a Super Bowl in the past. I agree. All right. Another wild IFC game in Houston where the Texans nearly blow a two touchdown lead to the Buffalo Bills, but they hold on 2320 win,

Kimee Fairburn with a 59-yard field goal. I know you're saying, Chile, you just said, don't park the bus. He hit a 59-yarder. I know, but you don't want to make them if they don't have to make the 59-yarder. But he made the 59-yarder as time expired. Texans improve to 4-1, Bills 3 and 2. Deonté, what caught your attention in this game? By EPA, this is Buffalo's third worst passing performance since 201.

And that's the year that like Josh Allen got good. And you can look at any metric. You can just watch on a down to down basis. It's clear that the interior of this offensive line is really causing them problems. Right now, this has been back to back weeks of them giving up quick pressure on the interior. And that forces Allen to get into super creation mode much earlier than he would like to. And they don't have guys that are separating downfield often enough for him to have to operate that way. They were awful on third down today.

And I think a lot of that came from Josh Allen having to be in trick shot mode. You saw throws late over the middle of the field. You saw him have to shake off pressure and have to work the sideline. And we got to see one of the best throws I've ever seen in my life last week with him being right on the sideline and just flinging one downfield. But that's great when you get one of those every two or three weeks. That was like their base mode of operation. It felt like in the dropback game was Josh Allen having to make everything right?

And I don't want to be unfair and say like, hey, I know you look over there at Nico Collins. say, man, wouldn't it be nice to have a number one wide receiver that can get us out of trouble when we need it? Because I understand the reasoning behind them building the roster that they have. And I think that has done them more good than harm. But in games like this, when you can't protect your quarterback, it would have been really nice for them to just have a guy that could go win one-on-one. So Houston couldn't sit on them the way that they were defensively in the second half. And to your point about that amazing throw that Josh Allen made along the sideline against Baltimore a week ago, he tried a similar throw against Houston on Sunday. threw it right to a defender, which like, I'm not blaming on him. If you, if you're throwing fadeaways, go into the sideline, you're going to throw it to a defender every once in a while.

But yeah, I think you're totally spot on here. Well, we saw over those first three weeks when they were just rolling was they never really had to come off script. They never faced adversity based on situation. But the last two weeks, they've lost on first down. And then we've seen kind of, like you said, the creation mode come out of Josh Allen. That's not where this offense wants to be. That's why they fired Ken Dorsey in the middle of the season last year. But it's going to be hard against good teams. And they have another good defense coming up that will be able to win on first down against them in the Jets on Monday night next week. And if they lose that game, like all of the goodwill that they built up over those first three games will be completely gone if it isn't already gone, especially how that game ended.

And Sean McDermott's role in losing that game. Well, let's talk. I do want to talk more about the passing game. But I sort of, are we sure he's not getting a little unfairly? ripped for the way that game ended. Now, okay, so all right, so give me your case for why he blew the end of that game. So for those who don't know,

the bills had the ball at their own three with 32 seconds left and the game was tied there. Yeah, 32 seconds left and zero timeouts. So they would have had to go like about 65 yards with zero timeouts to even have a chance at kicking the game when he field goal. The chances of them going three and out

and kicking the ball back to Houston, which it ended up happening, were way more likely than them going 65 yards in 32 seconds. I thought the worst play call of the three was that first one. Calling a pass there, kind of locked them into passing the ball in the next two downs because Houston had three timeouts. If they don't use a timeout on that first play, they're not going to use them on the next two plays unless you run the football.

And they would have been expecting the run at that time. They would have expected Buffalo to wave the white flag and just play for overtime. I think they should have been in, let's get to overtime mode from the very first play. because that was their best case scenario in terms of likely outcomes there. And then not moving the ball at all was really the thing that lost in the game because they had to punt the ball from the three-yard line. The punter had no room. The protection unit had to hold their blocks a little bit more just to avoid a game-losing block.

And that allowed Robert Woods to have one of the easier returns for like 10 or 15 yards, which put them in a position to just need one play to get into field goal range. I thought it was a terrible gamble on Sean McDermott's fault. And to his credit, he took the full blame in the postgame presser, but that doesn't make up for the fact that he did throw away a game here, in my opinion. I felt like he sort of took the blame because I think in his mind, I don't know that he thinks he did the wrong thing. He sort of took the blame of we didn't move the ball.

That's on me. Because my thing is the Texans had three timeout. So if you run the ball three times and you pick up, you know, you might get stuffed on three of those runs or you might pick up two or three or three yards. Now, the difference would be if they used their timeouts, they did have to complete one pass for like five yards. So that would have had to be near the sidelines and they would have had to get out of balance. I understand that. I also think there is a case that once you get to overtime, it's 50-50. And if you have Josh Allen, I know the odds are slim, but is there a chance

you can, you know, he can get you into field goal range? This is a team that knows what, you know, great quarterbacks can do in 13 seconds. They had more than 13 seconds. So I just, I don't know that it was quite as egregious as what I was seeing online. Deante, I might be nuts here. I don't want to say it was egregious. I think I can understand the logic behind. If we have the ball, let's take a chance at the win. The umbrage I take is that first down call. To me, knowing that you're out of timeouts, your opponents have timeouts, you need to find a way to try to put some stress on their management of the end of game scenario. So if I run the ball and move the ball at all, A, I'm trying to help out the old position as much.

as possible first. And number two, you can gauge how you want to handle the rest of the, how you want to handle the rest of regulation based on whether or not they call a timeout. If you do force them to call time out because they're thinking about forcing the punt, now you get an opportunity if you've got four, if you've got five yards to be able to take a quick throw on the sideline. Now it's, and then it becomes a matter of like how much of a chunk can we get, you know, within whatever, whatever amount of time would be left. But to me, I think to pass the ball early, like Stephen said, it locked you into you now I have to just try I'm trying to get out of punting out of the back of my own end zone which is going to cause for worse play calling and you have not affected Houston's management at the end of the game and you know Robert was basically catching the punt right at right around midfield you knew immediately that there were one completion away from at least having a shot at winning the game and to me the thing I just have I have the biggest issue with is them making it ultimately a non-competitive situation for themselves by passing early and not trying to put any strain on Houston and what.

how they were going to manage their own timeouts. I feel like there are only two situations where you go for it in that situation. And I mean like go for the field goal. It's if you're desperate and you need it because you're losing the game or if you're in a place where you have the advantage situation. Neither of those things apply to the situation. They didn't need a score there to extend the game. And they were not in an advantageous position at the three yard line with the other team

holding three timeouts in the field position advantage. And that's the other part of it. If they do run and they get stuff and they get six yards, one, Houston uses all of its timeouts. And two, they're not getting the ball at midfield. They don't need just one play. They probably need like a 20-yard completion and need to get out of bounds just to get the field goal kickoff. So I think it totally changes the math on that. You can't just assume that they would have gotten the ball.

What were they like five yards away from field goal range in that situation? I don't know if that's the case. I doubt it's the case, actually. Yeah, I think the calls they made also. I mean, I don't have an issue if they said, we need to get a first down because we need to make them use their three timeouts. But yeah, then to have three incompletions in that spot that you don't end up making them use any of their timeouts. Came back to bite them. They lose the game in regulation.

Josh Allen, you mentioned the EPA numbers. I'll just go old school. Nine for 30 for 131. And the old box score is not what you expect to see from Josh Allen. I will say watching that game, there were like, it felt like there were several almost throws where guys had like their fingertips on it, you know, like Keon Coleman, Mac Collins, Dalton, Kincaid, all those guys just watching in the first thing. What was that second name you just gave me? Was that Mac Hollins? Oh, Mac Hollins is the first one. Mac Collins almost made a play. Yeah, I think the problem is there. The problem

is in the person, oh, more than anything. Well, I think that was one of my big takeaways from this game is like, I personally jumped the gun probably after three games being like, they can still do it with this group and Josh Allen. And then the last two weeks, it's like, I don't know if they could do it with this group in Josh Allen, those August storylines are coming back into my head. Like, all right, you know, this might be what it actually looks like. So I still think the bills have a chance, obviously, to get to the Super Bowl. In my opinion, they've been up and down. They won three.

They lose to. But as long as you have Josh Allen, you get some guys back healthy, I still believe in them. Ruiz, where are you with the bills? Yeah, you have to believe in that. They have one of the three best quarterbacks in the NFL. And these are the three quarterbacks in Mahomes, Lamar, and Josh Allen, where you truly have a chance as long as they're out there. I know we're saying that about Burrow,

but I think Burrow has to have a great offense around him for that to be the case. These three are just like a top 10 offense starter pack on their own. So, yeah, I think they can make it. And I believe in Sean McDermott as a developer of a defense. And I think this defense is going to continue to get better. It's not like it was bad today. C. Dex Trout was amazing for those first three quarters. I tweeted about him and complimented him.

And then he turned into the worst quarterback I've ever seen over the last quarter. He almost blew this game for them. But I'm going to take all the blame for that. I drink CJ. It's not his fault. Deontay, where are you with the bells? You're still in on them? For sure.

They can still win a Super Bowl. I think that what we've seen over the last two weeks is maybe how tight their margins are versus other contenders versus just how far in a way better they are than most of the other teams in the NFL. I just don't think that they have many escape routes. You know, if they land in trouble against the Houston, against the Baltimore, against the Kansas City. And I think that that means that we probably need to reconsider.

what our expectations of them are when we get to December and January and beyond. But I do think as long as they have this quarterback and assuming that they get some better injury luck, because they've been missing a lot of guys on a week-by-week basis, getting guys back, I think will be a big help for them. And I think, but really what we got to see is like something as simple as missing Khalil Shakir completely derails this passing game. And I think that's something that we talked about in the summer, you know, and maybe just kind of waved it away because, hey, Josh Allen, they should have a nice.

guys in the aggregate to make it work. But you see like this thing is this kind of this house of cars, I think is a little bit more rickety than we might have even given it credit for coming into the year. And then on the other side, you mentioned it, Ruiz. I had the same thought. I was like, man, CJ Stroud's playing awesome here. And then fourth quarter interception. It was a very nice play by Terrell Bernard, fumble on the next possession. Then he had an intentional grounding, which I hate these intentional grounding calls where it's just a miscommunication between the quarterback and the pass catcher, and he thinks he's breaking out. No, he's breaking in and he threw it. And then they call it an intentional ground. But that knocked them out of field goal range. I mean,

they outgain the bills 425 to 276, but they needed a 59-yard field goal to win this game. Ruiz, where are you on the Texans after five weeks? Is this a team that can get to the Super Bowl? I mean, you look around the landscape of the NFL right now, and I have to say yes, because there are not a lot of good teams. and there's certainly not a lot of good dominant teams. Maybe Baltimore is, but we almost saw them blow a game against a one and four team today. So, yeah, you have to say that. What are they?

Four and one right now? I think they're going to cruise to a division title. They'll probably be in the driver's seat for the number one seat as Deontay called in the summer. Props to him for that. So, yeah, I mean, they're going to be in the position to make a run to the Super Bowl. The question is, can this young team play against a Kansas City,

play against a Baltimore, or even play against a Buffalo in a playoff setting where they don't have a lot of experience and win those games, especially with an O-C that I'm still questioning. Sorry, Bobby Sloke. I know you guys won this game, but you're not off Rodwatch yet.

Deontay, I would imagine you're still high on this Texan team. I'm still in, but I think the problems that I and the rest of us have identified about this roster maybe a little bit worse than I had thought about coming into the year. I think that this offensive line is just not good. I don't think this was a matter of them getting healthy. they just might not be that good of an offensive line.

And Bobby Soak, I think, has taken a lot of criticism and rightfully so, for how awful the run game has been. But even when they try early down passes, you see so often CJ Stroud running for his life. And now he's got to take a check down. So I do think, I think that they are contenders. They can win a Super Bowl. I think similar to the conversation we were having with Dallas and not to say that they're the same team, when you see a Baltimore and they can really puny. issue for being a bad first town team offensively. That's where a playoff,

playoffs can be ended quickly. You see Steve Spagnolo in Kansas City, especially if you have to go see them on the road and they're able to beat you on first down on a regular basis and get you in the obvious passing situations. We've seen that story play out against Kansas City. It usually doesn't go well for the opposing quarterback, no matter how much magic C.J. Stroud has been able to generate for this team. So I think they are contenders, but I don't feel very strongly about where things ultimately land for them. Rightfully slow, it feels like a segment we're going to be doing in the in the weeks ahead if this team disappoints.

I will tell you this. All the nerd metrics would tell you that the Texans are kind of fraudulent right now. I mean, they're a minus 12 point differential on the season. They're 4 and 0 in one score games on early downs to speak to the offensive issues. They are 28th in success rate and 29th in EPA per play on early downs with C. DJ freaking Stroud as their quarterback. So I'm still a yes, like you guys on them, because I think the quarterback's that good. And I think they had that ceiling.

Also, that's a nice defensive performance they had today. So they can win in different ways. I like that. But they got some work to do in the weeks ahead for this to be a team. I'm believing in. If this is the same team in December, I'm going to be putting them on fraud watch. All right. We take a break.

We come back. We plant some flags from what we saw in week. Get ready to tackle the NFL action with Fandul America's number one sportsbook because right now new customers can bet $5 and get $300 in bonus bets if you win. The Fandual Sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place. Kind of like the Saints plus five and a half Monday night football against the Chiefs. You can go with that. You can go with whatever wager you want. And also remember that when you get a hunch and the.

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Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook. Fanduel.com. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit RG dash help.com. All right. We are back on the Ringer NFL show. This is a segment we like to call Plant Your Flag, where we just play. Ant our flags. It could be anything, something. We saw today. I thought that popped into our head as we were watching 16 hours of football. I guess I'm going to go first. And I'm going to go to Washington, where the commanders took care of the Cleveland Browns. And I'm going to say, forget rookie of the year. Jaden Daniels right now is a top five MVP candidate in the NFL. I mean, this was supposed to be the game where the commanders got hit with some regression. Now here comes veteran defensive coordinator, Jim Schwery.

and Miles Garrett and all these cornerbacks. And Jada Daniels is out of the game with 13 minutes left because it was over. Marcus Mario is getting some run. They put up 434 yards of offense. He passed it. He ran it. They were going up and down the field. If they didn't have a short yardage miscue, this score could have looked even worse.

He's sidestepping free rushers. Third and 13. He finds Terry McLaren for a 66-yard completion. He's making some of these NFL defenders look unathlething. and silly. And it's just like, I am done doubting this guy. They're four and one. They're averaging 31 points per game. Statistically, they have the best offense in the NFL. I know there's going to be a game where he looks terrible. That's what happens with rookie quarterbacks. But I'm looking at the supporting cast. And you cannot tell me that if you just put any quarterback

into this group with who he is playing with right now, that this offense, other than a, you know, a handful of guys, like I said, top five, that they would be able to execute and perform like they're performing right now. So Jaden Daniels, top five MVP candidate right now. I see Ruiz looks like he's got a little disgust on his face. Go ahead. Let me have it. What do you got? A little disgust, no, a lot of disgust. No, I mean, I think you're right to not doubt Jaden Daniels. I think all of the doubt is the infrastructure around it, which I think will eventually crumble. Like, I've seen a Cliff Kingsbury offense, and this isn't different from a Cliff Kingsbury offense. All of the numbers are basically the same as they were in Arizona in terms of splits

and how they move the ball, what they do on early downs compared to what they do on late downs. I think that's the worry. There's an expiration date usually on a Cliff Kingsbury offense. And when that comes, it's going to be tough to expect a rookie to be able to pull this offense through them. I think we all think that those times are coming eventually. And if they do, I will not blame it on Jane and Daniels. That blame will go directly on Cliff Kingsbury. But I mean, you said like, this. this was supposed to be the game where he gets exposed. Did you not listen to the Friday pod that you were on?

I mean, I think both of us were like, no, it's not happening this week. They're going to beat the Browns. You whispered Ravens. No, I said it's definitely not happening this week against the Browns. I've seen this Browns team play. I've seen what Deshawn Watson can do to the spirit of a defense. Like, if you watch that game at the beginning, the Brown's defense was finding some success, limiting what the commanders have done in the past couple of weeks.

But then it eventually broke. I just think you saw a team just give up and realize, you know, we're not winning this game. I'm not going to try hard for this team that's going nowhere. But no, I think the true test comes next week. And it's not like that Baltimore defense is infallible. Like I think there's a chance that Washington has a great game. And if they do, then maybe I'll be done doubting Cliff Kingsbury. But for now, that's my one concern.

It has nothing to do with Jadenials. Because I think, like, he's proven. He's a good player. He's a good football player. I don't think he's like some advanced quarterback who's going through his progressions and doing all this thing that I think people like people are giving them way too much credit. Grangle Olson on the on the telecast was like, oh, he always passes or when he scrambles, it's to pass, it's not to run.

Like historically, that is untrue. He's like one of the most scramble happy quarterbacks this league has ever seen so far. So let's not like embellish what he's doing. He's playing really good football, but he's not like this advanced quarterback who's already, who already has NFL defenses figured out. When he comes up against a defense that is able to tear down those structures, this offense has provided for him, then we're going to see some weaknesses in his game. What is the offense providing for him?

You just mentioned it. Cliff Kingsbury, you got a guy who was a laughing stock when he got hired as their offensive coordinator, and then you got a bottom. I mean, no one would take this offensive line is what, a bottom five unit on paper. You got Terry McLaren and nobody else. It's probably a bottom five, maybe not bottom five. It's a below average skill position group as well. So that's why I just look at it and say he's already lifting everybody up.

Yeah, everything you're talking about is on paper. The games aren't played on paper shield. They're on the TV. You can watch them. Like, it doesn't look hard for this offense at all. Who would draft this offensive line? Why does that matter? They're playing well and nothing looks hard.

Because it shows you the quarterback is doing more with less and lifting the people around him. What do you mean? Why does that matter? That's the whole point of playing this point. He moves. His point is not to impress every button by getting to a backside dig. His point is to move the ball in what he's asked to do. And they're putting up 30 points every week with a bad supporting cast.

The reason why those backside digs are impressive is because those are the hallmarks of a sustainable offensive approach. Spamming RPO's on first down is eventually going to catch up to you as they always have in Arizona with Cliff Kingsbury. Okay, but everybody had those Cardinals games on film. Why isn't it happening through five weeks of the season? I would say it's because Jaden Dand was just playing out of his mind. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I agree with what you're saying about. I'm not disagreeing with Cliff Kingsbury.

I'm just saying there's nothing around the structure and around him that is helping Jaden. Daniels, I feel like he is making this whole operation look better than it should with all the other supporting pieces. They're running no huddle at like a ridiculous rate compared to the rest of the league. They are literally going out of their way to prevent defenses from subbing their subpersonnel on and throwing these complex looks at them. That's the protection that Cliff Kingsbury's offense is providing for him. Like it's clear.

It's easy to see when you want, like I don't know how else to play. Well, any offense in the NFL can run no huddle if it were that simple. I mean, defenses are pretty good now. I'm not the personnel changes, but they can get into looks when teams are running no huddle. I mean, that was Chip Kelly. That was like a decade ago. He was trying that,

and eventually that got figured out pretty quickly. So I don't know. They're a little more advanced now. I saw Nick Foles throw 27 touchdowns and two interceptions because of the power of no huddle. I mean, Jared Gough got to learn how to be a viable quarterback by playing in a tempo offense as well in Los Angeles early in his career. I think to, to Shield's point, I mean,

I would have never predicted Jayden Daniels being, you know, a guy who makes more with less, a guy who is that rising tide that lifts the offense's boats. And I think that the more I've tried to poke holes in it and the closer I've watched, the more I've just kind of come to terms with the fact that I do think

the things that make for sustainable quarterback play may come back to bite him eventually. Right, like he's still not good in the red zone. You saw that this week, even as they're being explosive, I don't know if their scoring is going to keep up with as explosive as they've been so far. and they're still not great on early downs.

But at the end of the day, the scrambling stuff has been effective. I thought if there was going to be a week where a team was able to get the better of them, at least like in obvious passing situations, it might be Cleveland's pass rush because they do have a good mixture of playing base rush and using like Jeremiah Uso Coramola as a blitzer and kind of, you know, playing around with different looks. And the truth of the matter is that Jay Names is just making guys miss and getting the ball out, you know, outside of structure at times.

I'm with you, Steve, and I do disagree with Greg Olson's take. You know, I think a lot of that is kind of playing the results a bit outside of play in the process because they found explosive offense when he's outside of the pocket. But the truth of the matter is that this guy continues to create in ways that I think that none of us really expected. And I think that when you add that in with them getting just enough explosiveness out of their running game, out of the screen game, out of the RPO game, I think that that's enough to at least kind of carry them through for a while. And while he is being protected, I think that he is making the absolute most of what they're asking him to do offensively right now. Right, we're seeing like historic results in Washington. That doesn't happen with just a great quarterback stepping into a situation. We didn't see that in Houston.

And like as good as J. and Danvers looks, he doesn't look any better than C.J. Stroud. I don't think he looks better than C.J. Stroud. I would take C.J. Stroud over him right now and every day of the week. And we didn't see these types of results. So there has to be some benefit that Cliff Kingsbury is giving this guy. And if that breaks down, like I'm not saying Jaden Daniels is going to fall off because I think Jaden Daniels is a very good player. I just think it's going to get harder for him.

it's going to get harder for this offense. Yeah, there's going to be, I mean, it could be, like you said, it could come as soon as next week he could go six for 19 and, you know, seven sacks. That would not shock me. Those are typical results from a rookie quarterback season. Hasn't happened yet for him. And I just continue to be, again, with that environment that he's in,

I didn't think these results were possible and he did it again today. All right, Ruiz, what do you got? What are you planning your flag on this week? I'm going to surprise a lot of people. and I'm going to pin this loss, this latest 49ers loss, they least in Arizona 24 to 23. I'm going to pin it on Kyle Shanahan. I'm going to say, I don't think Kyle Shanahan has been a top five offensive play caller this year.

Like, I'm stripping all credit away from Kyle. You don't think he has been, or he has been. Oh, you don't think he has been. Wow. I don't think he has been. I think this is continuing a trend that we've seen over the last, I would say, month where this team has fallen in love with the dropback pass and has forgotten the foundation of this offense,

which is running the football, running that outside zone, setting up play action. You heard Tom Brady today, if you watch the broadcast, he was clamoring for more play action. And I don't take Tom Brady as a guy that wants to see like system-style quarterbacking. He wants to see a guy go to the line, call the game from the line, and then, you know, kind of spread it out and do a drop-back passing thing. But he was asking for more play action. I have to agree with them. Jordan Mason was carrying the ball.

Well, I know he fumbled the game away kind of at the end there. But he was averaging over six yards per carry. and Brock Purdy, despite the game script, which was in the 49th favor for much of this game, threw it 35 times while they ran it only a couple of like 24 times and eight of those were Brock Purdy scrambles. They totally abandoned the run game in the heart of this offense. And I think that's happened throughout this year. If you look at the stats, how much they're throwing it. And I mean, I guess it's faith in Brock Purdy, which he has repaid in some ways. But I think it's also contributed to some of these losses that we've seen.

The three losses that they had were. really avoidable if they just sit on the ball, run the ball, and run the clock out. I don't know about the Vikings game. That was a different story. But definitely the Rams and the Cardinals game. I'm putting those losses on Kyle more than I am. Like on Brock, like Brock through two interceptions that kind of turned the game, but they should have never been in that position to begin with. Yeah, they got outscored 14 to nothing in the second half in that loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Their last four possessions, interception, turnover on downs, fumble interceptions. So the two interceptions were on Purdy. One got tipped, one he was pressured a little bit,

not a little bit a lot on the second interception. The fumble was Jordan Mason at the eight-yard line when they're going into score. And then they had to go for it on fourth and 23 because their field goal kicker got injured. So that's it. I'm in your take has my attention because I looked at this just going, this is like a weird random loss. Now they did just have one of these a few weeks ago against the Los Angeles Rams, that's two times now that they've lost games where they've had this season where they've had 10 point leads

in the fourth quarter. So now they're two and three on the season. Deontay, what do you think? A little randomness, weird stuff happening? I will say this about the fourth down where they had to go for it on 4th and 23. The reason why they were backed up so much is because Kyle Shannon called a pass on first down

and Brock Purdy took a sack. So they couldn't be avoided by establishing a rawful set. He lost nine yards. And it wasn't like you couldn't tell Brock Purdy was in that mode that like Josh Allen mode where I'm holding on the ball forever. I don't care if I take a sack or not. I'm waiting for a big play to happen.

And by the way, Kyler Murray, I played him. Deontay, what do you got with the Kyle Shanahan take? To me, I don't hate it. If you're just talking about it from a play calling perspective, I think this is a little bit of getting drunk on some of the high variant stuff. That's worked out for them the first month of the year. I mean, if you look at it through five weeks, this is the first time since Kyle Shanahan's been to that they've been below 20% play action rate

through, you know, at this point in the season. To me, that's shocking, given the fact that they had Brandon Ayyuk trying to get his rhythm back. They've missed Debo Samuel at different points in time. They obviously don't have Christian McCaffrey. And the status on that is still kind of in question. And I think that they've been moving the ball much better than anybody would have guessed, given having a new guy in at Guard and Dominic Poonie and an offensive line that I think everybody just keeps waiting for attrition to hit hardest, given Trump Williams's age.

And they've just not leaned on it at all. You know, it's been concerning to me. I think all season when I look at area yards for attempt and I see Brock Purdy first one week, second the next week, first to next week. And I think he's like top five overall again, despite the number being down compared to other weeks. They have to find a way, I think, to kind of rein some of this stuff in because this game, I think, was a very instructive example of what can go wrong for this offense if they are just going to lean on Purdy in the dropback game. And that's not to say that he played poorly, you know, I think outside of the bad sack that he took that basically kind of hamstrung,

them in the early interception. I don't put too much of this on him as much as Kyle Shanahan does have to find a way to protect his quarterback. And I think that, and this is kind of masked in all this, once again, and this is something I've been concerned about the whole way, even while I've been pounding the table for Fred Warner, this defense is not going to bail them out if they land in trouble, if they land in any kind of trouble at all. I think the run defense for them is going to be an issue.

I think that the more teams push the ball downfield against them and play action games on design shots, the more trouble. they're going to run into. And to me, I'm just looking at a team that just slowly but surely you're starting to see these little roster holes and these little play calling holes that are making them look less and less like the juggernaut they've been over the last couple years. It was like kind of easy to wave away this game as like, oh, it was bad luck. A couple of plays went against them.

It's not like they didn't catch breaks either. They returned the plus block that changed the game. The Nick Bosa interception was just an amazing instinctual play. It wasn't like an earned interception, I wouldn't say. It was like a fluky kind of interception with the Cardinals driving in that situation. So the Cardinals left a lot of points on the board. And I think it was on the second drive. A tight end drops a touchdown and they have to settle for three.

It's not like Arizona played its best game either. And it won this game. This could have very easily been a 10-point win for Arizona. Yeah, I thought it was pretty evenly played overall when you look at the brakes. Each of them gone. All right. What do you got, Deontay? Here's where I'm playing on my flag.

If this ends up being Aaron Rogers' last season, and he is not just missing the playoffs. He's in and his career going below 500 with the Jets. And watching him today, I would say today, I would love to hear how Stephen feels about this, but I would say that today for him as a passer was much worse than it was last week. And they were in like driving, twisting rain for the majority of their game against the Broncos. And I think he got,

I think that the Broncos got after him a little bit more than Minnesota did in terms of just sending pressure from all over the place. I do think that the thing that's probably stuck, out to me most, and maybe I should have predicted this, and I know that other people have said it, is just how little this offense can trust his offensive line. And you look at it's like, oh yeah, they're old, they're slow. These are guys that are always hurt. Of course, he's got to have trouble against the defense that's going to put a lot of speed up by the line of scrimmage. And I think that when you look at Rogers and how he's reacting to pressure, how he's reacting

to man coverage, the accuracy being all over the place, the lack of sack avoidance, the lack of pressure avoidance. This is not the quarterback that they went and acquired, that they thought they were acquiring, right? They thought that they were getting a guy that could get them out of these situations against good defenses. And what you got was an awful pick against tight man coverage because he just sailed a ball. What you've got were, was a lack of accuracy outside the numbers that I've literally never seen from Aaron Rogers on a down-and-down basis in his career. I don't know what the fix is for this team, especially if they can't run the ball. And I'm saying this in a game where Aaron Jones was hurt, so Minnesota wasn't able to lean on his explosive

running game, which it had. And they were able to force another bad Sam Darnold game. And I still don't feel like this offense had a shot to be competitive down the stretch. Yeah, I mean, they run the ball 14 times for 36 yards, Ruiz. Rogers drops back 57 times in this game, three interceptions, one of them returned for a touchdown. Another one ends the game. Average it's just 4.5 yards per attempt. My thing watching them is just like, this is the new do they practice team. You know, you're just watching, I'm going like, wait, how many times can an announcer say not on the same page between Aaron Rogers and somebody else? And it's like everything's a back shoulder.

Everything's a one-on-one. It's just like, it's just so glaring that one of these coaching staffs was helping their players succeed. And the other one, it's just. And then this is, Aaron Rogers has take some blame here because he saw what life was like when he could bash with Matt LaFleur. And wow, this offense looks pretty good. I don't know that he wanted that at this stage of his career.

He wanted somebody he knew. And it's him and Nathaniel Hackett, and I don't see a lot of answers for them. Yeah, there are no answers. And Nathaniel Hackett's not supplying these answers. This early down offense is just, is cutrid. And it's awful. They haven't generated an explosive play off play action all year. They're the only NFL team that hasn't done that.

I think that speaks directly to the lack of structure in this offense and the poor job Nathaniel Hackett is doing. And I also think it speaks to what you're saying, Aaron Rogers' reluctance to play in a system that helps them out, to be that system quarterback that I think he needs to be at this point in his career. And the other part of this is, like, if I'm them, just go trade for Devante Adams. I mean, you're in too deep at this point. Joe Douglas and Robert Saller are not surviving the season if it ends without a playoff.

Aaron Rogers isn't going to stick around for long. You just got to throw every dart at the board at this point. And, like, I had high hopes for Garrett Wilson. and the Aaron Rogers, Garrett Wilson connection. But I kind of forgot how long it took for him and Devante Adams to work that chemistry up in Green Bay. Like, it's easy to forget, but Devante Adams had a few lean years at the beginning of his career where people were like, oh, God, this guy kind of stinks. Like, you can't create separation. He drops the football sometimes.

And then he turned into that reliable security blanket. But that took years, and the Jets do not have years to wait around for that. So if I'm them, I'm mortgaging the future. I don't care. Just trade for Devante Adams because they need something. Oh, of course. I mean, what do they care about future draft picks? They're not going to be making those picks if this team finishes under 500. Yeah. Let's all get fired together.

It's a life lesson, you know? You know, they had one play of 20 plus yards in this entire game today. That's with your quarterback drops back 57 times and you had one play of 20 plus yards. It feels like he wants everything on like kind of a hard mode. He chose this. This is like at this stage of his career. and this is what it's going to look like, even that last interception. You know, him and Mike Williams aren't on the same page.

Stefan Gilmore makes a great play. The Vikings knew that they were throwing back shoulders all day. I mean, they were on those on the sidelines all day. So, yes, not a good show. Do you know who they see over the next month? It's Buffalo, then Pittsburgh, then New England, and then Houston. These are going to be four defenses that back to back to back to back are going to crowd the line of scrimmage because they've seen it work over the last two weeks

and force him to beat tight coverage by being. accurate passer and trusting his offensive line to keep him clean. I don't think that that's the kind of offense we're going to get from New York at all. And like I said, they can't run the ball either. And that's something that is unconscionable to me, given the running back room that they have. And the fact that they have been able to run the ball in past years, even when they didn't have what they believed to be a franchise alter and quarter rec. So I don't know what the out is for this team, but this is not only is it boring, this is

actively feeling like a non-competitive offensive unit. They're running the, you wouldn't get it offense. It's like that meme, the Joker meme. You wouldn't get it. Like, that's what Aaron Rogers likes to, that's the place Aaron Rogers likes to be. And no, I do not get what this offense is trying to do. 22 targets for Garrett Wilson. And what did you have, 101 yards?

Like, come on out. 22 targets. There you go. All right, we'll see what the Jets do. Two and three. Deontes is under 500. We'll be back in a minute to hand out some week five awards. All right.

We're back on the Ringer NFL show. time to hand out some awards. We got to some big games. We didn't get to all the games, all the storylines, all the takes we had to get off of our chest. So this is where we just make up some awards about other stuff we saw. Ruiz, I see you smiling. So I'm like a teacher in class.

You're smiling. You got to go first. Share it with the class. What is your first award? I'm going to give my look. I get it award to the Patriots and their continued insistence on making us watch to Kobe percent and not playing Drake May. but the more I watch this Patriots'

Offensive line and this offense and the lack of support they're giving to their quarterback, the more I understand why they're holding out Drake May. But the other part of this, the more significant part of this, is how good Jaden Daniels and Caleb Williams look right now. And if you drop Jake May into this situation, I'm expecting him to look terrible. I'm expecting Justin Fields and Chicago level stuff.

And I think you might break the kid. You might lose the kid. And that's the one thing you cannot afford to do this season. need to go into next season being optimistic about Drake May. And if it takes sitting him on the bench for all the games this year, then so be it. Because this offense is not conducive to good play out of a rookie quarterback, especially one who I think has a lot more flaws than maybe we thought, just based on his preseason performance. I think that's the biggest concern. It's like, all right, if you go out there and it doesn't look perfect, that's okay. But if you start developing bad habits

and now those are carrying over and now you got to work on those next off season, Deonté, right? That's like the nightmare scenario that it's like if you even think there's, I don't know, 15% possibility of that happening, then you're probably just like, let's just not bring you back here. Especially with the pressure, because you know the pressure, he's human. The pressure to kind of match with Jaden Daniels and Caleb Williams are doing it, it's going to get to him. And he might start pressing that might lead to the development of bad habits. I was going to say play style is a piece of that. But if you watch the Patriots at all, there is no way a rookie quarterback would not build up scar tissue playing behind that

offensive line. Because there are times where I'm watching Jacoby Reset, and I was talking with Nate Tice about it earlier today. He was like, I don't know how this guy gets up after the amount of contact that he takes on a week by week basis. And this is not just like the hey, I'm throwing the ball and a guy kind of shoves me so I land on my non-throwing shoulder falls. This is a lot of face masks directly to the chest, directly to the rib cage. You know, he's crumpling often and having to get back up. And you can't have a quarterback in Drake May, especially a who we know by play style wants to push the ball down the field. He's shown in his college tape that he's willing to take punishment to try to push the ball down the field.

And I don't think that that's a viable way to try to run your rookie quarterback out there right now, given the state of this offense. So while I hate it for Jacoby Reset, it looks like it hurts. You know, a lot of this looks like, you know, those old heavyweight boxing matches or the guy's too proud to just take the 10 count and lose and just keeps building himself back up. there's a lot of that it looks like in a Patriots game. But I do think for the sake of this franchise and what he can be as a quarterback, you've just got to punt this year and try to keep him on the bench for as long as you possibly can.

He got in that Jets game and took a huge hit. He managed to take a huge hit in the game. We can't, like, it's in his nature to scramble and he's try to extend plays. He's going to get hit very hard if they drop him into this offense. Jacoby Burset today, 18 for 34, for 100. 160 yards, two sacks, but to your guy's point, nine times, nine quarterback hits in the box score against a Miami Dolphins defense that is not exactly a juggernaut. Yeah, out there. So the Dolphins beat the Patriots 15 to 10. All right, Deontay, what do you got? My first one is it's about damn time. And I think this one is obvious, if you read what I wrote last week about Trevor Lawrence. But it is about damn time for this offense. And I think that the easiest answer for this team was to stop asking this quarter. quarterback who for all of his great, all of his great qualities, clearly has flaws with mitigating

pressure, has flaws with accuracy at times, has flaws on making bad plays worse. I thought they did such a better job of getting the ball out of his hands quickly. I thought he did a better job of finding shortcuts in his progression and taking smart chances down the field. So that way you're not just pushing the ball in the way you are, you know, against Cleveland or against Houston when guys are blanketed and you don't have a clean pocket. You know, I think that by the ball, him playing a smarter game, by them calling a smarter game and credit to Doug Peterson and Press Taylor for it. Then when you do get those man looks or those soft zone looks, you can find a Brian Thomas

Jr. on a sloaf aid to get your big play. And they still can't really run the ball the way that they would like to. So what this showed me is that there is a viable offense still in there somewhere. It is just going to be a matter of Trevor Lawrence and Doug Peterson really putting their heads together and finding a way to just accept the fact that Dink and Dunk offense on a down and down basis is probably the better way to go for them right now. Is there, so let me answer to this question. They are one and four.

Is it more on the offense or the defense? Because you could build a statistical case. I know you got the quarterback on offense. I understand that. So expectations are higher. That defense, even in this game, they beat the Colts, but they let the Colts back in this game on the season. They are 30th in EPA per drive.

I mean, they made that big move in the off season. and to bring in Ryan Nielsen and they fired Mike Caldwell even though they were I think 10th in DVOA last year and they've had a bunch of injuries on defense but I don't know you could certainly make the case that hey the offense hasn't been quite as bad as it's getting its rap for it's been more mediocre

and the defense has been a disaster I don't know that I believe that but you could make that case unfortunately for Doug he can't go to Shot Conn and be like hey look the offense is actually more of a disaster than this shitty office set where they're playing with like I'm the one that hired the defensive coordinator And the last one who got ran out of town. The defense hasn't been good.

There's no way around that. I think that there is, there's a little bit of issue when we talk about playstyle. I think there's a little bit of issue in Ryan Nilsson wanting to be so man-heavy and relying so much on playing tight coverage and some of these very specific types of match coverages. I think it looked great against Miami because you have all of training camp to work on stuff and you're thinking about what you're going to run on week one. And I think that as guys get hurt as, you know, they have issues with availability and teams get a little bit more accustomed to where the mismatches may be within this defense.

You're seeing teams kind of pick at them in ways that are making that that are a little uncomfortable to watch. I think things will even out for the most part. I think the pass rush for them has actually been pretty decent when all their guys are available. It's just going to be a matter, I think, of Nielsen accepting that, yeah, you can't be a cover one and a match quarters guy with this defensive backfield right now. I'm not buying anything this team is seven. Yeah. Me? Oh, no, this season is still over. We're playing for moral victories here.

Doug still gets to go to London, right? They go to London. So this game was Doug does Doug get on the plane? That was what this game was about. Some good golf courses over there. Yeah, Scotland, right? You can go Scotland, Ireland, those aren't too far. Yeah.

I don't think we talked about this last week, but there was a moment in a press conference where Doug Peterson offered like a great breakdown on what was happening in the President's Cup and like what happened on a Friday in the President's Cup. Like, you're in the middle of a season. that's going horribly wrong. I'm not the guy that it's like, oh, you should be watching film at all times, but you're watching way too much golf. That's why he was so mad about being asked about his

job security. Why are you talking to me about job security when I could talk about, you know, who's using their nine ironed the best. Work life balance, a lesson from Doug Peterson to us all. There you go. All right. My superlative, saddest thing I heard all day. I think you guys might not have had the sound on for this whole, for all of Sunday night football. So hopefully I'm, I'm breaking some news to you, but they had a report during Sunday night football about Russell Wilson and that, you know, he's getting better, all this stuff, but he has a new catchphrase. This is, talk about how you're spending your time. He has a new catchphrase.

Oh my God, my stomach is already turning. Where, you know, when he ends his press conferences, when he ends his interviews, he's going to say win the seventh. What? win the seventh, I guess the Steelers Super Bowl. You know, yeah, Steelers win the seventh Super Bowl. So I think he's going to end his press conferences. This was the saddest thing I heard.

Like, this man doesn't know that he's probably not going to play unless there's an injury. Why is the backup quarterback coming up with catchphrases? And if you're going to spend your time, you know what I blame this on? You need better friends. Imagine this is what I always say. Like, you know, when you wear something weird and your friend, what are you doing? Like they just will make fun of you and then you won't go out in the public and actually do that. If I were Russell Wilson and I said to my friends, this is going to be my

new phrase, win the seventh. There's no chance that makes it to actual air. Yet he's sharing the phrase before he uses the phrase on an NBC broadcast. Come on Russ. The worst part of that to me is that I thought this was going down like some quasi-spiritual realm of like, oh, you know, Sunday the seventh day. you know, that's where I thought we were going. But to know that the backup quarterback is trying to come up with catchphrases to win the seventh Super Bowl, Russ, it's okay, bro, we know. It's okay. You can let it go.

It's all right. Complete a backside dig, Russ, please. Throw a pass over the middle. Let's forget about the seventh. That's, you know, attainable goals here. That is horrible, man. Maybe it is, Birch. I don't want to assume.

I don't know what it actually is for. So if I misinterpreted that, I apologize. I blame Seahawks fans for enabling this over the years. Yes. This is all Pete's care. This is Pete Carroll's fault. And honestly, Shield deserves a couple of the, some of the blame too, because he was there. He was there.

Two years. I was, I was deep and deeply embedded by the time I got there. How many times did you hear Gohawks after a press conference in those two years? Too many. You could have done something about it. Once a week. You're right. Well, we all live with regrets.

All right. Who's up? Ruiz. Are you up? Yeah. My next award is the juxtaposition. Panthers fans didn't ask for it, but probably need it. Like, not only did the Panthers get torn up by Caleb Williams in what was the most impressive

performance of his career to date. But Bryce Young made an appearance in this game because it got so out of hand in the fourth career. Really? Yes, yes. I had no idea about this. Okay, filled me in. I didn't watch it.

I turned this game off in the second half. Like, I was protecting my mental health. I tweeted this out. I wasn't lying. I don't lie when I tweet. Like, I watched the first half. I watched the third quarter. And I was like, I've seen enough here.

I can't keep watching this. I can't keep dreaming what could have been if David Teper would have just waited one year and drafted the generational prospect instead of taking a guy that is 5-9 and weighs 180 pounds. I'm very upset about it until this day. But that was the worst possible game Panthers fans could have seen out of Caleb Williams

because it was everything you want to see in a franchise quarterback. And I'm not just saying a rookie quarterback. I'm saying a legitimate, established franchise quarterback from the pre-snap command of the offense to making plays in structure to making plays out of structure that I haven't seen him make so far during his NFL career. It was like it was proof of concept for why he was considered a generational prospect. And it is it's in line with what we've seen from him, the week to week progression. This is the best version of that we've seen from him. Last week was the second best version.

The week before that was the third best version. He's gotten better every year or every week. And I think it's just going to continue. Luckily, we got it out of the waist quicker. And Panthers fans aren't going to have to watch the finish product up close in person. 36 to 10 bears over the Panthers. Now, I don't know, you might be giving Bryce Young a raw deal, four for seven for 58 yards, Ruiz. 8.3 yards per attempt.

Too late. I don't care. No, I don't care. No bounce back. Caleb Williams, 20 for 29, 304 yards. only took one sack, two touchdowns, no interceptions, no fumbles in this game. So like you said, his best game statistically and assuming you watch, since you watched the first half, I test as well. Deonti, I know, were you watching this game as well? Yeah, this was on my fourth

screen. And to Steven's point, like, of saying the progression from week to week, I think that we started the first two weeks of the year saying like, okay, there are outlines of some of the things we think he might be good at. This was a game where it was very clear that he's going to have certain skill sets and certain qualities of his to lean back on no matter what's happening around him. Using him in like the play action boot game and allowing him to use his athleticism to throw off platform, he already looks like one of the NFL's best at that. He's able to create a kind of velocity on the move that's pretty rare for quarterbacks, especially young ones and guys that are on a more undersized, you know, type of side of things. And then you see the, the sack avoidance and the

that we did not see at all the first two to three weeks of the year. He did a great job of getting around past rushers and not making bad plays worse with that. I thought he did a much better job of not bailing out the back door, of not trying to push the ball down field when you didn't need to just taking the five or six yards, you know, winning that kind of hitting yardage game. And then you see in structure today, this was probably the best game plan that is offensive coordinator Shane Walshant is put together as well of getting the ball in the middle of the field, down the field, up the seams, you know,

really kind of balancing out the plan of attack. I'm in my head. I don't want to believe that that's because you finally had Keenan Allen back and healthy and available 100% of the way. But I do think that they have a little bit better balance of how they're using guys now that everybody is available to this offense again.

And just to turn the knife a little bit in the back of Panthers fans, DJ Moore had two touchdowns in this game. That's right. Oh, man, you got punched a bunch of times today. You know, the kept pounding, the banders. Bears to my spirit, to my will to keep watching this damn team. The takes on Sunday morning, we got Bears, Jaguars in London.

I mean, there's a lot of possibilities. Trevor Lawrence, Caleb Williams, Doug Peterson, Shane Waldron, who knows what Matt Eberflus will be up to in London. I mean, there's going to be a lot of takes flying on Sunday morning. That might be must-see TV. All right, Deontay, what do you got? What's your next one? I will preface this by saying that all of my superlatives from this point are deeply

unsurious. This one is who he play for, and I'm giving this award to Isaiah Simmons, who blocked a huge field goal in a giant Seahawks game. I had completely forgotten that he was still on the Giants. I forgot that he was on active rosters because we just have not

heard about him very often, but that was really impressive. And then I've kind of got a two for here. First one is thank you for giving me a reason to watch and Patrick Sertan the second. CNI 100 charge pick six in the Broncos Raiders game. It just kind of shows you why I consider a guy like it to be the top corner in the league.

And this has been happening quietly because the Broncos have just been such a bore to watch. And on the other side, if you're Mark Davis, you should probably be looking up your return policies on this whole Antonio Pierce thing. Because this team week over week looks worse and less prepared and less competitive. And now they're playing. This is another week where they've played around with who's playing at quarterback. And neither of those guys look like the answer. And I don't see anything outside of the combo of Max Crosby. Christian Wilkins and

new tight-in, Brock Bowers, as guys to look forward to and watch this team over. And you don't give that, you don't give Antonio Pierce any credit for these guys. These are all either established veterans or a guy that was clearly like the best player available at the time that they were making the pick. So I don't know what he does here or what he adds to the

equation. Mark Davis is probably regretting taking the interim tag off Antonio Pierce. This is why you don't take coach hiring advice from Max Crosby. They should read Shield's articles. his yearly article about how to hire a coach. Now, instead of listening to Max Crosby,

he doesn't know what he's talking about in hindsight. How would he know who's a good head coach? What was that? He said he would demand a trade, right? If they hired someone else. He might end up demanding a trade anyway. Yeah, I was going to say. Now, Devante Adams has already demanded a trade.

All right, one of mine kind of relates to what Deonti just had, Wildest box score from a game I didn't see. That was giant Seahawks. I'm looking at this. Tyrone Tracy 18 carries for 129 yards. in a Giants 29-20 win. And I did see that they had that long drive in the first half where the Seahawks have 102-yard fumble return.

So this one could have been even worse. How did the Giants have 420 yards of offense without Malik neighbors? How does Gino Smith go from not, I don't know how many sacks he took on Monday night against the Lions and then he gets sacked seven times in this game. What was going on with their offensive line? And even with all that, Deonti, the play,

you mentioned, the Giants needed that to avoid going to overtime. If Isaiah Simmons doesn't pull, you know, he actually was probably paying tribute to Bobby Wagner, who used to do that with the Seahawks, just jump over the line. It's such a like obnoxiously athletic play where you're like, how can a human being be able to do this, blocks it? And then they return it all the way. So I don't know. Are the Giants respectable or did the Seahawks have a bad game? I have no idea. I'll catch up tomorrow and find out. I think we just saw the problems that have been festering in Seattle over the first couple of weeks that were masked by that 3-0 starting against bad competition.

The offensive line has its issues, which we've known going back to the offseason. The defensive line, I think on paper is good, but they're banged up right now. You can run the ball on them if you want. We saw their problems in Detroit. I don't think they play teams that could capitalize on their weaknesses on defense. Here's my proposal. Can we loan Mike McDonald back to Baltimore for the rest of the season? Let them take the year off here.

He can go back to Seattle after next year. Like there's unfinished business in Baltimore It kind of sucks that he left a year early They still have a Super Bowl to win. Come on Mike. He's already instilled the culture So now he can hand it off to an assistant Someone there, they can get some experience You know, they can paint this as though he really believes

In grooming his own staff type of deal That he goes back to Baltimore Helps coach their defense win the Super Bowl And then return to Seattle in the area It would be unorthodox but you know, Pete Carroll probably would have mind You just go up there for the rest of the season Although I don't know With this loss of the Giants, maybe he's like, I'm not getting anywhere near that.

All right. Ruiz, you got any more? Yeah, I got one more. This is another unsurious one. This is the Common Sense Isn't Common Award, and I'm giving it to the NFL uniform designers. We saw three beautiful throwback sets this week, starting on Thursday in Atlanta, where they were wearing the red helmets and the throwback black jerseys, which are just perfect. I don't know why they went with this current setup they have, which looks like an Arena League uniform. Then Denver was wearing the Orange Crush uniforms with the Royal Blue Helmet.

Those look great. And then Jacksonville wearing the late 90s throwbacks. And by the way, I understand why they wore those jerseys for the Tom Coughlin induction into the Ring of Honor. But Tom Coughlin didn't deserve that. Tom Coughlin was the brains behind their current uniforms, which are some of the worst in the NFL right now. So he does not deserve to be celebrated with those great uniforms that Jacksonville was wearing.

Today. But there was that true? Did Tom Coughlin design some uniforms? Look it up. He did? Yeah, look it up. He had a big say. He was like the guy that got to dictate what the uniforms look like.

And his decision was, how about we wear just white uniforms with black numbers and nothing else? No, no other, no teal accents, no logos, just, you know, just white uniform black numbers. Tom Cawton, God damn it. He ruined some of the best uniforms in the league. Anyway. But this is like a thing across the league, like the Eagles. They should be wearing the Kelly Greens full time, although I do like the dark green uniforms, but that should be the alternate.

Miami, the dolphins, like go back to those 80s uniforms. Everyone loves them when they wear them, and then they never wear them again. And then Seattle, like the Royal Blue uniforms should be their primary set. I will say this, the best modern uniform, and this is a shout out to Connor and Evans, who kind of pointed this out about how Derek Henry looks in that uniform. The Ravens uniforms are perfect for that, like, second act of a star's career. none of the Ravens stars like that look out of place in that Ravens uniform. It's not like seeing Aaron Rogers in a Jets uniform where you're like, oh, something's wrong here.

Like Steve Smith, Ankhorn Bolden, Dionne Sanders back in the early 2000s. All these guys just look natural in that Ravens uniform. It's really one of the best looks in the league. I like it. I'm with you. Yeah. How come the old school uniforms always look better than the new uniforms? I mean, it's pretty much for every team.

So then why don't we just go to the old ones? Or then if you go to the old ones, then we'll say, the other ones are better because you don't get to see them. I don't know. I just think the old ones are better. So I'm with you there. The worst reasoning in the world to me is we don't wear these anymore because we sucked in them. Guess what?

Most teams sucked back in the 70s. And you're going to suck again. You sucked in the 80s. The juniform probably didn't have anything to do with that. All right. My last one here is, how should I phrase this? Old school football guy take that I can't let. the nerds see is that do running backs matter again? We watched that London game.

Aaron Jones leaves the game and they literally can't move the ball. And this is Aaron Jones. Very good player, but not like an elite of the elite play. I mean, their offense completely fell apart. We've talked about it before with the Eagles this year and Saquan Barclay. He's like just saves them every week with the 50-yard run. We're seeing all the supporting cast be the same. You're changing the running back and it feels like the running back is actually matter. again is 20-20 for the year of the running back mattering once again. What do we think? And in San Francisco, like, they're two and three without Christian McCaffrey.

They scored 30 points in that opener, but they haven't gone over 30 points since then. I think they scored 30 against New England, but that was New England, and they didn't go over 30 points. So, like, I think there's something to this. I think running backs are having a moment. They're bad. Houston's running game looked a lot more viable when Joe Mixon was on the field. It's true. It doesn't look very viable now.

The Browns with no Nick Job, they can't run the ball at all. Saints offense has been built around Alvin Camara. He's back. Derek Henry, see what the impact he's had. That's undeniable. I'm sure you could find some nerd tweets out there from the offseason, but they're like, oh, yeah, this is going to save the Ravens offense, and it kind of has.

Running backs are back. There you go. That's my last take of the night. All right, we got to them all. We didn't get to every game, but we got to all our takes. We got to all our awards, all our superlatives. We got more shows to fill this week where we'll get to all the stuff that we missed tonight. Thank you to Deontay Lee and Stephen Ruiz. Thank you to Christopher Sutton for producing

additional production supervision by Connor and Evinz, Arjuna Ramgapal, and Dan Comer. We will be back later this week on the Ringer NFL show. Talk to you then. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C. Gambling problem. Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-dash-help.com. Call 1-88-7-8-8-9-7-77 or visit ccpgpg.org or visit MD Gamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit Gamblinghelpline, MA.org or call 800-3-2-7-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-8-7-7-8-8-Hope-N-N-Y or text It's Hope and Y in New York.