Walker This Way: Recapping the Chiefs Win and Week 1 Winners and Losers
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
1 hr 3 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Sep 15, 2026
Published
Tue, September 15, 2026
22
Player insights
18
Players mentioned
Topics
Bo NixCaleb WilliamsJaylen WaddleJordan LoveC.J. StroudChris OlaveChristian WatsonD.J. MooreDalton KincaidDerrick HenryJ.K. DobbinsJosh AllenKenneth Walker IIILamar Jackson
Player analysis
Player insights
Bo Nix
NegativeUsage28:51
Bo Nix struggled significantly, taking four sacks and facing pressure on over 45% of his dropbacks. This is highly uncharacteristic, as his primary strength is typically avoiding negative plays and sacks.
Insight pageNegativeUsage31:45
Bo Nix struggled significantly against the Chiefs' pressure, taking four sacks and facing pressure on over 45% of dropbacks. He was particularly ineffective against the blitz, completing only 2 of 9 passes for 13 yards and a 39.6 passer rating. While his sack rate was historically low over the last two years, his reluctance to trigger on tight-window throws into intermediate areas remains a major limiting factor for the Broncos' offense.
Insight pageC.J. Stroud
PositiveProjection62:16
Despite two fumbles that contributed to the Texans' loss, C.J. Stroud played very well for the majority of the game. The Texans' offense performed as promised, and Stroud remains a high-level performer.
Insight pageCaleb Williams
PositiveValue63:44
Caleb Williams is highlighted as a top quarterback draft target, with Mina Kimes expressing high confidence in his potential following the Bears' strong offensive performance.
Insight pagePositiveValue63:44
Mina Kimes identifies Caleb Williams as her personal quarterback draft pick, expressing high confidence in his fantasy potential despite the Bears' offensive performance.
Insight pageChris Olave
PositiveBreakout60:12
Chris Olave looked excellent in his recent game, with his ability to win on deep jump balls serving as a reminder that deep ball success is largely a wide receiver-driven stat.
Insight pageChristian Watson
PositiveUsage92:05
Christian Watson performed amazingly in the first half of the Packers' game, successfully beating the blitz before the offensive line's struggles became overwhelming.
Insight pageD.J. Moore
PositiveUsage55:36
DJ Moore was highly effective for the Bills, contributing both through direct targets and his gravity, which opened up opportunities for other receivers like Palmer. He is functioning as a key field-stretcher and secondary option alongside Kincaid.
Insight pageDalton Kincaid
PositiveBreakout50:58
Dalton Kincaid played 72% of snaps, his highest since returning from a PCL injury, and looked like the elite prospect the Bills envisioned. He demonstrated exceptional ball-tracking skills, beating high-level corners like Derek Stingley Jr. downfield, and is emerging as a primary target in the Bills' passing attack.
Insight pageDerrick Henry
PositiveRole67:11
Derrick Henry is an 'unbelievable fit' for the Ravens' new under-center scheme, recording 19 carries for nearly 7 yards per clip with a 53% success rate, benefiting from a dominant offensive line.
Insight pageJ.K. Dobbins
NegativeUsage44:00
J.K. Dobbins saw limited usage with only eight carries, only one of which was successful. The Broncos' overall inability to run the football effectively remains a significant issue for the offense.
Insight pageJaylen Waddle
NegativeUsage30:39
Jalen Waddle was a complete non-factor in the Broncos' offensive performance during the game.
Insight pageNegativeUsage35:33
Jalen Waddle was utilized in creative ways, including lining up in the backfield and motioning out to create space for teammates like Evan Ingram. However, the offense failed to get him involved enough throughout the game, which was a missed opportunity for the play-calling.
Insight pageJordan Love
NegativeUsage57:16
Jordan Love faced significant pressure due to a small offensive line, leading to the Packers keeping extra blockers in and limiting route concepts; he is accumulating hits, which is a negative trend for his long-term health and performance.
Insight pageNegativeBust90:53
Jordan Love is under extreme pressure, facing a 33% quarterback hit rate and 37% quick pressure rate. The Packers' offensive line is undersized and struggling, leading to high hit counts and safety concerns.
Insight pageJosh Allen
PositiveProjection50:48
Josh Allen recorded his highest average depth of target since late 2023, showing a willingness to attack aggressively downfield. Despite some turnover luck, his ability to threaten every part of the field from any platform makes the Bills' offense significantly more dangerous this season.
Insight pageKenneth Walker III
PositiveUsage3:32
Kenneth Walker dominated with 191 total yards and 177 rushing yards, the most by a Chiefs running back since Jamaal Charles in 2012. He showed improved patience and consistency, moving from a 'home run or strikeout' player to one who consistently gains yardage, evidenced by a 44% success rate in this game.
Insight pageLamar Jackson
PositiveUsage65:02
Lamar Jackson looked fully recovered from last year's injuries, showing elite efficiency against the blitz (6-for-10, 166 yards, 16.6 YPA) and strong play-action usage (42% rate).
Insight pageRashee Rice
PositiveUsage7:26
Rashee Rice is a focal point of the Chiefs' passing attack, though the unit as a whole faces questions regarding separation. He demonstrated toughness by bouncing off defenders for a touchdown.
Insight pageTrey McBride
PositiveUsage60:33
Trey McBride is a major winner in the Cardinals' offense, seeing significant usage in the slot (approximately 80% of the time) and emerging as a top-tier tight end.
Insight pageXavier Worthy
NegativeUsage15:58
Xavier Worthy is struggling with separation and making mistakes, including an interception on a play where he was involved. Ben Solak notes that Thornton has been better than Worthy thus far.
Insight pageZay Flowers
PositiveBreakout65:44
Zay Flowers is described as 'uncoverable' and 'untackleable,' with Lamar Jackson showing increased trust in him on tight-window throws, moving beyond his typical role as just a separation specialist.
Insight pageFull transcript
Episode Transcript
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0:24Welcome back to the Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny.
0:26Monday Night Football Recap Edition. New face, Ben Solak.
0:29As I mentioned last week, Dominique and Ben basically switched places.
0:32So you'll see Dominique every Thursday. You will see Ben on Tuesdays joining me to recap Monday Night Football and also to
0:38pick our winners and losers from the weekend so you can think of it as a broader recap.
0:44Ben, how you doing, bud? Week one. Week one.
0:46And it was football. There were points. And everybody's very excited.
0:49Oh, one of the highest scoring week ones ever.
0:52A lot of the points didn't feel very good.
0:55It felt like disastrous slop ball. But we have real football to ingest, to consume, and to build longstanding beliefs off of
1:01despite the fact there's only one game. I'm thrilled to be back.
1:04Yeah, week one's always tough because there's a little bit of, are these offenses incredible?
1:09Are these defenses that bad? And some of them I think we can kind of get out a little bit ahead of.
1:15And I think maybe in our winner section, we're going to highlight a couple of those offenses.
1:20One of them I think we could talk about today because the Chiefs offense put up a 30-burger, 31 points on the Denver Broncos.
1:27I think this is a really fascinating game and I'm so glad you're here to discuss it because all offseason, we spend
1:33this time, we do all these podcasts trying to predict what offenses will look like, what their goals are, what scheme changes mean.
1:40And then week one comes and a lot of those conversations are just immediately rendered moot.
1:44Like we were just talking about the commander's offense before we started and it's very funny that like after all of the
1:51offseason talk, Jane Daniels, under center, it's like not really what they did.
1:55Chiefs are the opposite. The Chiefs did exactly what they told everyone they were going to do with their actions.
2:00They leaned into the under center run game. Ben, I would say maybe though to an even greater degree and with greater success than anyone anticipated.
2:08But that is the story of this game. The Chiefs being so dominant running the football.
2:12Kenneth Walker, I mean, 191 total yards on the ground, averaging over seven yards, a carry.
2:17Broncos missed tackles everywhere. We can talk about that side of it, but what did you make of this Chiefs run rushing performance?
2:24What stood out to you? Because that was the story of the game.
2:27Yeah, 177 rushing yards for Kenneth Walker on this game is the most by a Chiefs running back since Jamal Charles in 2012.
2:34By his big run there to start the third quarter, the six yard touchdown run.
2:38Kenneth Walker had more rushing yards from under center than any Chiefs running back had had in over a decade.
2:44There was still half of the game left. This was this was it's important to like a little bit calibrate expectations before
2:51we go hog wild about the Chiefs have finally made the changes we've been asking for.
2:55This was like the perfect aligning of stars for how well the Chiefs are going to run the football.
3:01They got the drop on the Broncos. They're coming out with a lot more under center, a lot more condensed sets.
3:07They've got these like super duper jumbo, Kairis Tonga and Hunter Norzad and, you know, Josh Zedu sets.
3:12Like so they've got, you know, weird formations that are unscouted that nobody's really ready for yet.
3:17You have all the broken tackles like Kenneth Walker is amazing.
3:20He's unbelievable at breaking tackles. Don't get me wrong.
3:23He's probably not going to do that at a historic rate every single night.
3:27So like in general, this was probably a peak Chiefs running game and they're not going to set, you know, new season highs every single week.
3:34With that said, it was sick. It was so sick.
3:37Like I think my number one biggest takeaway is like less of the Kenneth Walker and more of the other guys that
3:43are already on the Chiefs where Creed Humphrey and Trey Smith have been the highest paid center, one of the highest paid guards for years.
3:51And the Chiefs have never gotten juice for that squeeze because they've never been able to be a downhill, you know, behind the guards running game.
3:58They've never been a vertical running game. And by finally getting under center and there's there's a rep of duo in the
4:04second quarter where Creed and Trey Smith take a Broncos defensive tackle just nine yards down the field.
4:10Like this is what you've been paying these guys to do.
4:13You could have been this for so long. So those players and then the skill position guys, my big concern with the
4:19Chiefs under center rushing attack was do you have the tight ends and wide receivers to pull this off?
4:25Right. Right. Yeah. Oh boy. I mean, you talked about like the duo runs.
4:29There was the one in the beginning of the fourth quarter.
4:32Or is this? I have a few marked down.
4:34Yeah. The fourth quarter where like it's due. Up near the wrong goal line.
4:39Yeah. Right. And he runs into the rice. By the way, Kelsey actually.
4:42Got pretty good. I was going to bring up a rice and Kelsey.
4:46She rice. It was Kelsey on Benito who came inside and then rice black to Fonga on that one.
4:51And again, when you're when you're doing these condensed formations and you mentioned this, this is the most I think I posted this during the game.
4:59I didn't check after. But at near the end of the game, the Chiefs had a 21 yard average with their formation, which is very tight.
5:06That's the tightest core next gen stats that they have had in a decade.
5:11This is the Chiefs offense that, you know, in the Andrews, Patrick Mahomes era has been very spread out.
5:16Right. And there's reasons why you get in those condensed formations with this type of back.
5:21I think versus this type of opponent, they wanted to make the corners tackle.
5:25And Riley Moss in particular, you know, had some pretty bad missed tackles in this one.
5:29He wasn't the only one, though. We'll get to that.
5:32But to do that, this is to cut to your point, like it has to be a team wide commitment to run the football.
5:39Right. Like if you're going to get in those condensed where you need your skill players to get in there and block
5:45so that Kenneth Walker gets that space when he gets to the edge.
5:49And he was extraordinary. I really like your point, though, at the beginning about the interior of the offensive line, because I
5:56think when they signed Walker, it was kind of viewed.
5:58And this maybe was a little bit of the slept on piece.
6:02Like we thought a lot about how, OK, the Chiefs game run game has been so not explosive.
6:07Let's go out and get the most explosive back.
6:10Cool. But I think the Chiefs also felt the strength of our team.
6:13Like, yes, we don't have like superstar wide receivers.
6:16Kelsey's in the twilight of his career. What not?
6:19The interior of our offensive line, we will put up with anyone.
6:22What if you dropped in a back into that particular infrastructure?
6:25It's kind of like Saquon's for I don't want to overstate it because, again, this is just week one.
6:31But like the thought is like the same as like Saquon joined the Eagles offensive line.
6:35Like, I think we talked about this, too, when you talk about like, should you spend money in a back?
6:41Yes. If you have pieces in place to get the most out of that back.
6:45And I think Kansas City thought we already have these pieces.
6:49We haven't been using them to like the interior of our offensive line is so strong and we haven't been able to capitalize that on the run game.
6:57Let's go get the back. And this is what it looks like.
7:00And do you pay the back when it fundamentally changes how your offense will operate?
7:05Yeah. When it fundamentally changes how opposing defenses will have to defend your offense?
7:09Yeah. When you have Patrick Mahomes, who like in a previous life, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey and Terry Hill, they were
7:15geometry breaking world ending field shifting players. And you had lost that.
7:18So you need to reintroduce some sort of stress or some sort of if you do X, we will always be able to get to Y.
7:26And just like after this week one performance, there's not going to be a team in the league that wants to sit
7:32there and play too high and light boxes against the Chiefs.
7:35Because Walker, for all how explosive he was in the big six yard touchdown run, he was so patient and he was so good between the tackles.
7:43Right. They're constantly running like power and short yards.
7:46They're trying to get them behind pullers. And the Broncos are killing the pullers.
7:50Right. They are beating them in the line of scrimmage and they're gumming it all up.
7:54And Walker just pitter patters behind guard center guard and just waits for creator trade.
7:59Just get him, you know, a little bit daylight two yards.
8:02Then he eats through like the there are things like Walker's right at the peak of his value.
8:07The playoff run with Seattle into this game, like this is the best Walker's ever been.
8:12And so there is like some, like you said, you don't want to be hyperbolic and compliment to say once there is
8:18something like hyperbole around him as a player right now.
8:21But the one thing that he has dramatically improved over his time in Seattle, you've seen it for years, is he went
8:27from being like home runs and strikeouts. Yeah. In year one, year two, to being a lot more like home runs and double singles.
8:34He gets on base a lot more than his reputation implies.
8:37Yeah. Like I think like a 44% success rate in this game.
8:41And that's kind of your sweet spot for Kenneth Walker.
8:44Like that's I mean, if you're if you're there, you're golden.
8:47Right. Like because of his explosivity, he's never going to be the most efficient back in football.
8:52Maybe famous last words. We'll see. But as long as he reaches kind of like a threshold, like that 40% mark is
8:58what you're looking at and success rate of efficiency.
9:01The explosiveness makes the juice worth the squeeze. It's very funny that the Chiefs put up 31 points.
9:06And obviously some of that turnovers, too. But on a night when Patrick Holmes didn't complete a single pass over 10 yards.
9:12Yeah. And that's kind of the not to pour cold water in this, but I want to ask like so.
9:18OK, we talked about how the Broncos. It's it's it's it's.
9:21It's weird, because like you said, like they had drop on them.
9:25There's a few things. But like they knew what everyone knew what Kansas City was going to do.
9:30It just seemed like they really from an execution standpoint were awful tackling.
9:34And we can get to what that I think that will be better than what we saw.
9:39But the past game was very bad for Kansas City.
9:42Now, some of that had to do with the fact that like because they were so afraid of Nick Bonito against the
9:48rookie left tackle, Patrick Holmes threw the ball in, let's see, 2.27 seconds.
9:52That's the fastest time to throw ever according to next gen stats.
9:55But, you know, it looks like last year. No real separation.
9:58Worthy making mistakes. The interception. You had one nice split speeder to Kelsey who got matched up on Baron.
10:04That's that's a tough beat. But for the most part, you know, like they didn't hit on any of the under center play action.
10:11The hope is like we've got this like dominant under center run game.
10:14Hopefully the play action game flows off of that.
10:17But it didn't then. Now, it didn't have to.
10:20So I guess my question for you is how much do Mahomes under center in this game?
10:25It's funny. Kenneth Walker under center. 9.9 yards per carry.
10:2715% success rate. Mahomes under center. 0 for 4 for 0 yards in the interception.
10:32Rough. Okay. So like are you worried about the pass game?
10:35Does it matter? I think it's going to have to be better than this.
10:39What are your thoughts generally about the Chiefs passing offense?
10:42Yes, absolutely worried. Been worried about the wide receiver talent and the separation ability for a while.
10:47And I think that when it's interesting because you then say, okay, you know, this is a highly explosive rushing attack.
10:53And okay, I hit the big explosives. They also were nails on third and fourth down, right?
10:58They're nine and 17 on third down and converted.
11:00They're two fourth downs. I want to say because they were so good running the ball in short yardage.
11:06If we strip the Chiefs from this and we talked about this sort of an offensive approach where it's like, okay, you had a couple turnovers on defense.
11:14You scored on some short fields. You had on some big explosive runs, but we don't really trust you to throw the ball.
11:21That sounds like, you know, the Jets, right? It's like, all right, cool.
11:24You hit your peak game. You're not going to be able to do this kind of week over week.
11:30The issue is if I were to describe the defense that would, you know, take the wind out of the sails, I'd
11:36be like, all right, like really, you know, violent front that can penetrate and that can create negatives in the running game.
11:42And then corners who trust in man coverage, just mug the living daylights out of these receivers.
11:47That's the Broncos. And we just like, they didn't put up 31 points on him.
11:52And that's why I think like, right again, week one, no tendencies yet.
11:55Like, I think it's a little bit. I get the drop on them sort of a game.
12:00I expect the drop back passing game to be better when Simmons is in there.
12:05I expect them to be able to go gun more often and get found out of the concept more often than opposed with Benson.
12:12But who you want to be getting the football to and what they can create down the field still remains a legitimate question, right?
12:19It's a type one Thornton Xavier worthy Rishi Rice show.
12:21And that sort of show worries me a great deal.
12:24There was a early on, I think that was a play action shot where he just overthrew Thornton.
12:30Yep. I don't know. Why can those two not get on it?
12:33Thornton gets open to like much more. He frankly has been better than Xavier worthy.
12:37Like if there's something about like Mahomes and Thornton where they're just never quite on the same page on those deep shots.
12:44And I just, I just, I, I, I'm going to, you know, this is like a half-baked thought.
12:49And so you probably shouldn't say it on a podcast and have it live on the internet for forever.
12:54But I do, I do. I am starting to buy the theory that like Tyreek Hill ruined Mahomes' ability to throw pure
13:01vertical balls because he just constantly hangs these things out two or three yards further.
13:05Yeah. I'm watching the Thornton one. And it's, it's exactly, it's like two yards in front of him.
13:10And, and I think, I think it's, it's half of that.
13:13And then I think the other half is they've never really gotten him a good contested ball receiver on those vertical routes.
13:20Right. You remember the Deandre Hopkins moment? They try to make that happen.
13:23Such that Mahomes has never had the experience of like, oh, I can just short this.
13:28And that receiver down the field is going to be able to turn face the football and win it in the air.
13:34So it's a little bit Tyreek Hill ruined me.
13:37And it's a little bit Brett Beach is ruining me, but he just, his, he tries to throw all of these vertical
13:43ones, especially not deep crosses, but vertical balls like picture perfect teardrops into the trash can, hit him in stride in the
13:50basket, home run, hit your head on the, on the, on the goalpost.
13:53And he just consistently misses two yards further than he should.
13:57Yeah. It's odd. Yeah. I still have the chiefs on trade watch for receiver.
14:01Really quick, the Denver defense. So, you know, we alluded to, you know, the, I mean, the missed tackle numbers are like kind of shocking.
14:08Uh, NGS has them as 28 missed tackles, allowing 247 yards, the highest yardage total allowed by defense since at least 2018.
14:14Is that bad? Uh, it's so I think what needs to be noted here is, you know, this Denver defense was very good against the run.
14:22There was a point where during the game to, um, Laura mentioned the Jonathan Cooper not being in the game because of
14:28the domestic violence charges, which of course the mere mention of riled up a certain idiotic corner of the internet.
14:34But Aikman, and I don't think he's wrong to say this was like, I don't know if John the Goober would have mattered in this game.
14:41Um, classic Aikman just like, yeah, I mean, sure.
14:44But no, like they're losing. They're getting their butt kicked.
14:47Yeah. Um, pretty shocking display of, cause it was Riley Moss, you know, got called out on a couple of the explosives, but it wasn't just him.
14:55I'm looking at some, I mean, there was also, it wasn't just on the ground.
14:59Uh, the Rasheed Rice touchdown where he just bounces off of, I can't remember.
15:03I know one of them was Jacob on McMillan, but I'm pretty sure.
15:07Yeah. Yeah. Like I guess that's what I want to ask you about.
15:11Are we concerned about this Broncos defense against physical downhill run teams?
15:14It's like, like we've gone too early to say just like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
15:18Whatever. I thought the John Franklin Myers absence was more notable than the Jonathan Cooper.
15:22Right. J FM is the one where like, again, on some of these double teams, some of these rotational defensive tackles, it was Yomo.
15:29It was a Riki in the early doer. When I talked about, or just getting moved off the ball.
15:35There is also the Broncos try to become very like slant and penetration heavy as a response to all of these four man surfaces.
15:42These, these condensed sets that they were getting from the chiefs.
15:45And the thing that Franklin Myers does best, like that is best straight is how good he is as a penetrator where
15:51he can slant and he can stunt. And then he keeps his balance and actually makes tackles and makes plays behind the line of scrimmage.
15:58There's like a great DJ Jones slant where he gets back there and Kenneth Walker just and he's out of there.
16:05Right. And, and, and I don't know if Franklin Myers is finishing that play.
16:09I don't know if he's helping on a night like this, but that was the absence that I feel like I felt
16:15more, more severely in terms of the front. Then you get Kenneth Walker into the second level and he's obviously like absolutely
16:21on one and he's going to break some tackles.
16:24Alex Singleton and Justin Stranod are the starting linebackers for this team.
16:27And just every time the Broncos have a bad game, just like, you know, they bills in the regular season a couple
16:34of years ago, even bills in the post season last year, which obviously the game, they still won this game.
16:39It's always because teams do a really nice job getting Stranod and, and, and Singleton to have to make tackles in space, right?
16:46The Kenneth Walker 28 yard run. Singleton beats the blocks of the spot.
16:50He has Kenneth Walker and he hits him with contact.
16:53Just melt right off them. And so to me, it's always those linebackers.
16:56I circle with the, this is still a very good secondary, still a deep defensive line.
17:01So it's two starting linebackers. I circle, which is when you can isolate those players against the Broncos and make plays, you consistently make plays.
17:08You find explosives. Um, the Broncos, I think have the Jags next week.
17:12So that'll be an interesting, really cool rematch from last year.
17:15Cause you remember like the Broncos defense was giving up like nine points per game.
17:20That was Jacksonville walking. I came in and lit them.
17:22That was kind of the old weight is Jacksonville actually like, yeah.
17:26Big deal game. Um, okay. Other side of the ball, real struggle bus for Bo Nix.
17:31Um, probably the, you know, just very like, I, incredible through line by their plot line of Davis web, the camera cut
17:37to him so many times in this game. Yeah.
17:39If you didn't know what Davis web looked like before this game, which I imagine a lot of people did it, you
17:46know, you can pull them out of a lineup now.
17:49Uh, okay. I guess just to remind people, uh, Sean Payton sort of confusingly handed over a play calling to Davis web
17:55and everybody joked all off season that he would rip it back as soon as Davis web had a bad game.
18:01And of course that was something that was, uh, Laura again, to refer to my NFL live teammate asked Peyton about it for incredible television moment.
18:09First of all, shout out to Laura, uh, about play calling.
18:12If he's going to take it back. And he said something like, we'll see.
18:16I forgot, but it was a very like telling answer or non-answer.
18:19Um, he did not in this game, but the clock is ticking.
18:23What's that? Like, uh, that meme of the bunny with the clock, you know, with the, like that, I feel like they was web, you are on watch.
18:31Um, okay. Lots to unpack here. So I think probably the most notable thing.
18:35There's so much in this one. The fact that the Broncos still couldn't run the ball.
18:39Jalen Waldo was a complete non-factor things I want to get to.
18:43But the thing I think that was kind of the most shocking was, um, bone X taking so many sacks because off of my list.
18:50Yeah. Like the bone X is the, his most positive attribute as a quarterback is he doesn't take sacks.
18:56And some of that has to do with the Broncos offensive line, which we can talk about, but he also has been
19:02very good at avoiding negative plays, getting the ball out quickly.
19:05We have criticized him maybe for the lack of, um, consistency, throwing the ball downfield between the numbers, whatever.
19:11But some of that comes with the fact that he doesn't take negative plays in this one.
19:16He was a negative. There was so many negative plays, including ones that didn't end up Matt.
19:20Like there was a fumble that wasn't a fumble, but he was, um, it sacked four times pressured on over 45% of
19:27his drop backs, which is within, you know, just very unusually high for bone X under pressure.
19:32His numbers were awful. So I guess my question for you is how much of this are we putting on the offense
19:38and the line and bone X versus how much are we putting this on the chiefs defense?
19:43Uh, which is last week with, or yeah, it was last week, this time last week with Nate, I was talking about
19:49how I was kind of like sneaky, optimistic about so, so dispersion or how are we assigning credit here?
19:55Yeah. No cheese defense. Like after I saw the man's sword, Elaine picked to start the game, I was like, man, if
20:01no one man's sore can be what they think it's going to be like, they're going to play by the way.
20:07It wasn't, that was not a bad, that was just, he was in son's hip pocket.
20:12And then Delaney gets hurt on that play. And it's like, Oh my gosh.
20:16Well now like, what are they going to be able to do?
20:19And man, let me like, uh, luxurious Snead looks like he just never left, dude.
20:24I, I, I, I left last night impressed by Snead.
20:27And then I watched the film this morning. I just could not pick my jaw off the floor.
20:32He's so physical. And I forgot what the chiefs defense looks like with a physical corner.
20:36So they've been struggling our physical slot. Excuse me.
20:39They've been struggling for that over the last couple of years, just their ability to stretch out runs and stretch out the
20:45screens, everything the Broncos want to do behind the line scrimmage, none of it was as effective seeds, drawing, holding penalties.
20:51He's blowing up blocks. He's creating tackle for loss or tackle line scrimmage opportunities for other players.
20:56The physicality of Snead, I thought was a big, big, big difference.
21:00They were very well prepared for the Broncos base stuff, right?
21:03The opening script. The boot right away when no Williams blows up the boot in the first play.
21:08I was like, Oh, David, you gotta have a change up.
21:11Cause now, now right on the first drive, which I mean, is the second drive.
21:16So we're still on the script. This is when the Broncos score their touchdown web walks out with some wonky nonsense, right?
21:22They were knocking on the door of the red zone.
21:25He went in formation to the boundary. He jet motion to fourth player into the boundary, which is insane.
21:30And then ran a bubble screen, picked up 13 yards.
21:33The, the Evan Ingram touchdown. They start with two players in the backfield, both to Bo Nix's left.
21:38One of them is Jalen Waddle. And then they motion the back out.
21:42So now you have Waddle in the backfield. This is the big thing.
21:46We've won as wide receivers in the backfield. And Waddle goes out, runs a little route and Evan Ingram opens up behind him.
21:53So web like empties the clip on the, on the script.
21:56They come up with a cool stuff. They catch the chiefs in weird spots.
22:00And then the rest of the game, the chiefs are just on every base concept, all the easy stuff, right?
22:06They're able to generate a lot of second, long third and longs.
22:09And then. Oh, our Mason Thomas rookie second round edge rusher, a couple of wins.
22:13On Mike McGlin. She, Nick Bolton was used as a blitzer a lot more effectively in this game.
22:19Like I felt like personnel wise. Yes. He's had dudes to send that they haven't had previously.
22:23I, the talent on the chiefs defense is really what jumped out to me.
22:27I agree with you. Like about them being all over the court concepts.
22:31Also the Broncos inability slash reluctance to run the football is continues to be a issue with this team.
22:37Um, but as far as the chiefs defenders go.
22:39Yeah. I mean, Delaney comes out, pick credible plays out of the game.
22:43Uh, Noel Williams talked about last week who I, you know, really have begun to like, uh, as a chiefs corner, uh,
22:49I was, I thought excellent in this game as well, but that pass rush too, is just very intriguing.
22:55Um, it was interesting. So there's two things. One, the blitzes started actually getting home and working, which is, it was an issue last season.
23:02We talked about this a lot, how spags blitzes weren't hitting at the same rate in this game.
23:07Uh, 10 blitzes. 10 blitzes, six of them resulted in pressures, bone nicks against the blitz.
23:12Uh, also notably behind the blitzes. He really struggled with some of their fire zones.
23:16He went two for nine for 13 yards and a 39.6 fast rating.
23:20Uh, but then also again, talent are, you mentioned our Mason Thomas who had a 0.79 second get off something we haven't
23:26seen in Kansas city in a minute. Uh, I thought miles Garrett last year was like 0.71 or something.
23:32That's insanely fast. That's very fast. Anything under 0.8 means you're like, but that's bonito territory.
23:36Yeah. Um, I thought Karloftis was looked healthy. And then, uh, again, I kind of mentioned him a couple of times during
23:43the preseason, but Felix and a DK is on my man.
23:46First round draft pick. Did hadn't done anything for them for, you know, and he really came on in this one.
23:52So it kind of feels like it was, it was cool to watch the chiefs defense and particularly that front and the
23:58pressure package, just pressure general, have a good game where Chris Jones didn't have to do much.
24:03Cause that that's the whole goal of this off season is like, okay, we have literally been Chris Jones and nothing, you
24:10know, like we've leaned so heavily on him. Wouldn't it be nice if we had some.
24:14Defense, some pass rush steps and it really looked like they did in this game.
24:19Yeah. And Chris Jones plays 51% of the snaps in this game, which I forgot to check beforehand, but it felt like he was right.
24:26Yeah. I mean, like last year he was consistently averaging 70, 80, 70, 80, 90% of the snaps.
24:31They were able to rotate them more, which the Chris Jones complaint in this later stage of his career is some effort
24:37and intensity complaints right late in the fourth quarters.
24:40So if you can consistently kind of keep them more than 50, 60 range, you're going to get better.
24:45Chris Jones impact over the course of a season.
24:48Now, like, so flowers to the chiefs defense, I think largely over the Broncos offense.
24:52I'm not ringing major alarm bells with the Broncos offense.
24:55The fact that Knicks, the way Knicks was bad in this game was quite uncharacteristic.
25:00And they took the four sacks when he's had the lead lowest sack rate over the last two years to me is
25:06like, all right, I just don't, I think that Knicks is going to avoid more sacks, be able to scramble out of more problems moving forward.
25:13With that said, I mean, he just doesn't rip throws.
25:16He does not rip throws against zone into the intermediate areas.
25:20They're open. There's deep stop routes to Corlin Sutton.
25:22There's slant. You got to be able to stand in there, take a hit and throw a slant to Jaylen Waddle on third and seven.
25:29When you have man-to-man coverage against an off-cover corner, like you got to, the, the, this Knicks game was bad in a
25:36way that he's uncharacteristically bad, but the stuff about Knicks that is frustrating to me still remains a through line in his bad games and his good games.
25:44And it's when the running game isn't as effective and they're not as good on the screens and on the swings and everything.
25:50They try to throw so many screens in this game.
25:53Knicks's reluctance to just trigger on a tight window and yam that sucker in there is, is so deteriorating for the offense.
26:00It limits it. And that's something just moving forward.
26:02Like there are, I'm not, you know, we're, we're praising the chiefs defense, but this is something you did see at times
26:09last year against Denver, which is defenses having a beat on Denver's offense as passing game, the boots, right?
26:14The screens because it was limited and they're never going to beat that.
26:18It's not a scheme thing until Knicks is more willing to throw over the middle of the field intermediate.
26:23As you said, all of that said, I really think Davis Webb could have found more ways to try to get Jalen Waddle involved in this game.
26:31And again, to go back to the run game, like I don't, it's funny, this team talks so much about how they
26:37want to run the football and then they just don't.
26:40And I mean, I understand game script, all that, but like Dobbins had eight carries.
26:45One was successful. So they're bad at it. And it's, it's very odd.
26:48The offensive line will be better. And I do think they'll be better against, like, I just think this chiefs defense might
26:55be a little bit like a lot, like has top 10 potential.
26:58And I think that probably was, you know, like again, when we do week one and we're trying to like kind of
27:05gauge proper comps, part of the reason this Broncos loss felt bad is because of all the uncertainty questions around the chiefs.
27:11And I think the outcome actually might be less about, yeah, like the Broncos disappointing and more that the chiefs defense in particular is better than people thought.
27:19So I agree with you on that. Yeah. I'm not, I, it's hard to come out of the gate with that stumble
27:25when you have a Sean Payton lurking over your shoulder for Davis Webb, right.
27:29And for the other, like first time OCs who had like a shaky week one, we're not there being like, all right,
27:36when's daddy going to come and take the playbook away.
27:39So like, it's unfortunate for that reason. I'm not too close to the alarm bells.
27:43I think the office line point is a great one where the chiefs are such a good blitzing.
27:48team. And that in particular causes bow problems, cause RJ Harvey, a lot of problems.
27:52Anytime they saw RJ Harvey on the field food, they were calling blitzes intentionally when 12 was in the backfield.
27:58So you're, you're going to run into other good defenses that don't blitz nearly as successfully.
28:03And that line's going to show up more and get bone more time and everything.
28:07So I'm not, I, I, I believe more strongly in chiefs defense better than expected than Broncos off.
28:12It's going to be way worse, but you only have a, you have a short, short leash if you're web versus these other OCs because Sean Payton's there.
28:20Uh, Jack's defense is challenging. So, and they'll, they'll blitz too.
28:24They'll bring pressures. Actually, after they see this film, Jonah Coleman, free my guy, by the way, speaking of those RJ Harvey,
28:30Jonah Coleman returning kicks because Marvin Mims is her.
28:33But yeah, okay, sure. Uh, okay. Let's take a quick break.
28:36Come back and do winners and losers from the weekend.
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29:43All right, we're back. Winners and wuss. Thank you.
29:46Let's go first with your winner. One of the more interesting and exciting games of the weekend.
29:51Yeah, how about the Bills offense? The 36 points against the Houston Texans defense.
29:55And they even could have won this game like 24-18.
29:57And I still would have wanted to put them there because last year's loss to the Texans was so humiliating.
30:03It's a primetime game. The Texans have Davis at Mills back there because CJ's hurt.
30:08Spencer Brown and Deion Dawkins. Remember, we were coming into that game.
30:11We were like, elite Bills tackle duo, elite Houston pass rush duo.
30:14What's going to happen? Eight sacks for Josh Allen.
30:17Two picks. Spencer Brown was hurt in that game very clearly.
30:20And they couldn't get him a lot of help.
30:23And there was a lot going on. But it was a humiliating game.
30:27And for Deion Dawkins, for Spencer Brown, for that Bills offensive line.
30:30It's a terrible game for Josh. This was the game where everybody was like, the Bills are going to run mesh for the 40th time.
30:37And then they did. And this kind of was like the unspooling game for Buffalo.
30:42It mattered a lot to them to come out and say, we are going to be able to beat defenses like Houston.
30:48And boy, howdy, did they? Josh Allen, over 11 air yards per attempt in this game.
30:53One of the highest air yards per attempt the last five seasons for him in a single game.
30:58They walked out with Dalton Kincaid. I thought he played 72% of the snaps is the most he's played since before his PCL injury.
31:05I thought Dalton Kincaid looked exactly like the Bills promised us he would look like this will be the theory when we go and we draft this guy.
31:13He's skying over Derek Stingley 30 yards down the field to take a ball off the top shelf.
31:18He's running away from Kamari Lasseter, a corner. That's so important because I think like, okay, yeah, Kincaid was unbelievable in this game.
31:25He's healthy. Like you said, this is the guy who he hoped he would be as a prospect, which is, you know,
31:31like a Kelsey like tight end, quite frankly. I mean, a guy who can press the seam, a guy who can get
31:37vertical on all manner of DBs, a guy who's unbelievable at tracking the football.
31:41I remember that's what I loved about him as a prospect is the ability to track the football.
31:47Tracking is the most important word. He's so talented at it.
31:50There is no tight end in the league. I don't think it's maybe Kittle, but there's no tight end in the league
31:56who sees the football better in the air than Dalton.
31:59The Stingley ball. You just watch his eyes, watch his adjustment as he makes that catch.
32:04And again, it cannot be overemphasized enough. Like this is not Dalton Kincaid beating linebackers.
32:08This is him beating arguably the best corner. One of the best corner tandems in football in Lasseter and Stingley Jr.
32:14He was incredible. A lot of 13 personnel in this game.
32:17And they're one of the few teams that can do it at an extremely high level with the passing game because the
32:23other two tight ends are good at blocking. And Kincaid is your basically a big receiver.
32:28I think like what's cool about this. So I talked about this a little bit on NFL live.
32:33Josh Allen having his highest average depth of target since late 2023.
32:37It's like the opposite of what you think when you play the Texans, which is, oh, you got to run the football and like play small ball.
32:45That is what they want you to do to beat this team.
32:48You have to be willing to go to war, like to challenge them because they're so aggressive in coverage.
32:53Problem is most teams are afraid to do that.
32:56And when we talk about whether it's replicable, no, it's not.
32:59But because, um, just watch, watch the Josh Allen throw to DJ more and ask, can your quarterback do this?
33:05He has no little throws in this game where it's just like him off his back foot off platform.
33:11Just insane. Yes. He should have turned the ball over a couple of times as well.
33:15I know that. Um, but they also, I thought had a job.
33:19He had a really good plan for buying him time, putting him on, like moving the launch point.
33:24We talked about the 13 personnel. Pass protections, pulling the guards, 28% pressure rate in this game against the Texans.
33:30That's crazy. But then they also have the deep threats now that they didn't and they had Kincaid, but he wasn't healthy.
33:36And they have DJ Moore, who I thought was really good in this game.
33:40Also had some hidden yards. He had a couple of DPIs.
33:43You saw the effect that his gravity had on the Palmer touchdown.
33:47So like, this is, this is a Buffalo offense that was like bottom 10 and averaged at the target the last couple of years.
33:54That seems equipped to go bombs away this year.
33:56Not just against, not just against the Texans. Like Ben, the thing about the bills offense last year is they were incredibly efficient.
34:03There's still a top five offense, but like I had a barometer where it's like, if James Cook has a sub 40%
34:09success rate, I don't know this offense, you know what I mean?
34:13He didn't even run the ball well in this game and it didn't matter.
34:17And that to me is such a bellwether for, oh wow, we're in a different territory now with Buffalo.
34:22Yeah. You have, you have to be able to prove teams and show teams that you can, you can, if you play
34:28this aggressively into us and you play this downhill, you play this tight in coverage, we will be able to punish you
34:35because nobody feared the bills when it was right.
34:37Keyon Coleman and Khalil Shakir and Tyrell Shavers and, and Meikle Harbin out that receivers is okay.
34:42They were going to play tight to routes and eventually Josh going to make a mistake.
34:47And in this game, right? I mean like the ball hits Kamari Lassner in both hands, but that's what that's like, you
34:53know, that, that play happens in the very next play.
34:56Josh was the game when he touched down. That's it against the Texans.
35:00That's what you're, that's what you're fighting for, right?
35:02This Texans team is going to be an AFC contender.
35:05You're an AFC contender. It's going to come down.
35:08Like it was bills against Broncos in the, in the playoffs bills against Jaguars, the playoffs, it's going to be margins.
35:14And, and so you don't need to freak out about that.
35:17You, you were there for four quarters, right? Despite the fact that the defense, you know, obviously you have a lot of
35:24learning to do, but the explosives point against Houston is so, so important.
35:27The Texans last year were second defensive success rate, second in defensive EPA per play because of the fricking Seahawks.
35:33But they were 14th in explosive play rate allowed.
35:36Because when, when you play this aggressive and one guy misses a tackle, one guy isn't able to get a guy down.
35:42There's room in their space, right? It's, it's a Kincaid running away from Lasseter and then breaking the tackle.
35:48And there's a ton of space. It's it's re-blankenship going for the pick on DJ Moore, not getting it.
35:53And then there's room. So you have to, it's, it's a heavyweight fight.
35:57It's four quarters. You've got to swing. Honestly, it's kind of similar to Minnesota, right?
36:01Where like everything was great, except for they gave up a lot of explosives.
36:05Right. Not a lot, but like it was the one area where they were vulnerable because these defenses, different structural reasons for Minnesota.
36:12But like the, if you have a quarterback who's willing to like Jordan Packer, Jordan Love was in the first half.
36:18We're going to talk about him. You can beat them.
36:21And I think the same thing applies to Houston, different reasons, but you have to be willing to attack and not many, not many teams are.
36:28I loved everything about the way Joe Brady approached this game.
36:31And I was pretty dubious about Brady head coach fully taking over everything.
36:35And I, you know, week one, but I loved every single piece of the approach with this game against this opponent who
36:41embarrassed you last year from the bills, huge stock up for me.
36:45And the, again, the adding DJ more really looks, looked, it's kind of just exactly what you hope for, which is like,
36:51again, he doesn't have to be Jabbar Chase in this offense to make a massive difference.
36:56Honestly. Yeah. I honestly think as the year goes on, it's going to be Kincaid who's like the primary and it's going to be.
37:03Yeah. Right. More is kind of the ability to masquerade as the primary, like as the, as the tube and also the field stretching.
37:10It's both of those guys together. And again, like because of like, if you have a quarterback who can threaten every part
37:16of the field from any platform, unless you have receivers who can credibly threaten that as well.
37:21Defenses don't care. So we saw last year. Right.
37:24So very different situation now in Buffalo. Um, not terribly.
37:27I think the Texans, Ooh, I worried for who's playing them next week.
37:30The Cincinnati Bengals. Oh, fun. Extremely interesting games. The Texans lose this game on the back of two CJ Stroud fumbles.
37:36The Bengals recover four fumbles against the Buccaneers. So we might not know anything about these two teams coming into week two.
37:43There's just so much turnover luck. I'm going to, I'll get into this later this week, but I thought CJ Stroud was
37:49really good in this game until the end. It was one of the lead things in my column that came out today
37:55was Texans offense was what was promised. Yeah. And ran the ball well too.
37:59Buffalo defense. Still have questions. Um, okay. A lot of small players on that football field, man.
38:04What was his name? Uh, walk Dion Walker, right?
38:07The Holy mackerel. And we so hadn't made some good place.
38:10All right. My winner is another offense. It's not the bears.
38:13We probably should have the bears in here. We all knew the bears had a 59 point game in on that.
38:19Who cares? Bears offense is awesome. I promise. I'll talk about it later this week.
38:24Bears fans. Caleb Williams. That's my pick. That's my QB draft guy.
38:27Just remember. Just remember. Uh, okay. I went with the Ravens here.
38:31Um, so the Ravens are it's. So we talked, I talked at the beginning of this podcast about how the chiefs were
38:37the, Oh, they actually said they were going to do a thing and then they did it.
38:42Mm-hmm. The Ravens are the other team, right? Where it was like scheme change under center outside zone, Declan Doyle play action.
38:48They did it. And to the surprise of no one who has watched Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry, it looked sick.
38:54Mm-hmm. Uh, Lamar and Derek both under center at Raven high rates.
38:58Mm-hmm. Well, Lamar's always been a Raven. Uh, get to Derek in a second.
39:02Lamar, uh, absolutely shredded the blitz when Indianapolis. And I do think we probably should talk about the Colts defense a little
39:08bit, but yeah, uh, when they tried to send pressure, he went six for 10 for 166 yards and a touchdown at 60, 16.6 yards per attempt.
39:16For those who are keeping score. Lamar looked, uh, play action, 42% play action rate, seven for eight for 128 yards.
39:22It's pretty good. Uh, Zay Crosser, who mercifully is not injured.
39:25He, well, he's injured. You called him Zay Crosser?
39:28Is that the, is that the name now? Did I call him Zay Crosser?
39:32You called him Zay Crosser? Is this a cool nickname?
39:35Is this Emerald City Route Artist? Are we the youth?
39:38Does he have a cool nickname? Zay Flowers? Flowers is...
39:40Well, I'm about to give him, give Zay Flowers his flowers.
39:44Zay Crosser. Uh, he was like a god in this game.
39:47Holy shit. Uh, he was uncoverable and then he was untackleable.
39:50Yeah. Uh, I think one thing that struck me too with Lamar and him in this game is just some of the
39:56throws were like in very tight windows, which I think when we think of Zay Flowers, we think of the separation.
40:02And he is a big part of why Lamar always has those high open, wide open target rates, right?
40:08Because Zay Flowers gets open. So that's his best attribute.
40:11Right. But I, in this one, Lamar hit a couple of tight window throws to him and trusted him immensely.
40:16Jackson looked all the way back. There was a play early on where he Houdini'd his way out of pressure.
40:22And that was the moment where you were just like, Oh, you were really hurt last year.
40:27Right. Right. That's, that was not Lamar Jackson. We saw last season.
40:31Um, I want to mention, I want to highlight Derek Henry for a second.
40:35Cause you know, again, we talk about the scheme and we talk about what it could do for Jackson.
40:40We could talk about what it could do for the skill players and creating, you know, openings against zone in this and,
40:47and how good Lamar is from over the middle of the field and all that.
40:51But it's also just an unbelievable fit for Derek Henry, who was under center 79% of his carries in this, which is
40:57his average with a Raven has been 60%, by the way, 19 carries for nearly seven yards, a clip with a 53% success rate under center.
41:05Um, watching him, Ben, I, you know, you, you saw like, obviously how good of a fit he is for that.
41:11But I was also struck by how good the offensive line looks zone blocking, which.
41:15You know, my question, right. This is a new interior, entirely new interior.
41:19And when we think about Declan Doyle coming over from Chicago, you did an excellent piece on that run game and how they had a new interior too.
41:27And they had to learn to, you know, the run game in Chicago didn't really explode until later in the season.
41:33But I have to say, and again, opponent matters, sure.
41:36But like watching that interior, the Ravens offensive line as a whole, I thought they looked like they've been blocking to get
41:42like the, the way they moved as a unit to get displacement for Henry on those zone runs was fantastic.
41:48So the run game already looks on, it looked Chicago-esque to be honest.
41:52Rosengarten, I thought looked better run blocking in this game that I think I've ever seen him the right tackle.
41:58You want, it looked like exactly expecting to be pro right away.
42:01Can contribute John Simpson still got it. I mean, they are.
42:04And then, and he brought up the, you know, the, the style of the running game, right.
42:09And the amount of tight ends that they're moving around and they're snapping the ball with the tight end and weird spots.
42:15One of the things that Doyle very clearly brought from Ben, because a lot of the passing game, I think it was
42:22like Sean Payton style stuff, but a lot of what the running game when he brought from Ben is we're going to
42:28bring this tight end in motion and we might snap that when he's behind the tackle guard center guard tackle over here.
42:34Right. And he might keep going. He might go back.
42:37Right. And, and you have, you know, we've taken jet motion at the snap and we've just really expanded this.
42:43And we were drawing a lot of blood from this stone.
42:46First three quarters of the game, because by garbage time, you know, the kind of Colts are running at the running game.
42:53Ron running back carries. The Ravens averaged 5.1 yards before contact.
42:56That's right. It's the seventh best of a game in the last three years.
43:00Right. And to be clear, other, the two of the six other better games are also Ravens games from 2034.
43:06It's so important to mention that to focus on the fact that this is an under center run game.
43:11So this isn't teams be like, oh no, Lamar might keep it on, you know, count.
43:16Like they're taking the design quarterback runs, not entirely, but it's, it's not why the backs, Harry Henry is getting that level of removal up front.
43:23That's so important. Right. As we think about the transformation of this offense and league wide, as teams move away from quarterback
43:30runs, like the, the fact that the Ravens can already do this is really scary.
43:34Yeah. And if you, if you include quarterback runs, they jumped to fourth in the last three seasons because you include Lamar
43:40scrambles in there, but also it's the fact that when the quarterback runs, he tends to be a guy who right gets big chunk yardage.
43:47And so if you have the ability to do that, if you have the ability to, you know, road grade for four
43:54yards before contact to carry, you're the 2024 Eagles, right?
43:57Where it's just at no point are we not in control of the tempo of this game.
44:02At no point do we not have our hand on the throttle of how fast we want this to go, how slow
44:08do we want this to go, clock running, explosive plays.
44:11What do we want to be speed wise? Then you have the play action pass game and the ability of Zay Flowers in space.
44:18And then like, you brought up the middle of the field throws and the tight window throws.
44:23Now you brought up the Colts defense to start.
44:25I wrote for me, am I calling this week?
44:28I was like, listen, the Ravens offense by like, that was incredible.
44:31Everything was perfect. I love everything. I saw it might not be that good every single week.
44:36This was as disastrous of a defensive performance as any team had, including the team.
44:41I'm going to talk about. We put about them.
44:43Dallas and Carolina. Carolina. Yeah. I'm going to talk about the Cowboys in a little bit.
44:48Here's all try to frame the Colts. The Colts drafted CJ Allen, rookie linebacker in the second round.
44:53He was a, he was a healthy scratch in this game because they don't feel like he's con he's comfortable enough calling the plays yet.
45:00Like wearing the green dots. So they just straight healthy scratched him, which meant that starting at linebacker where a team Davis gave her and Jalen Carly's.
45:08I mean, if you think Lamar looked at a King Davis gave her and said, hello, old friend.
45:13I mean, like, Lord, forgive me. I'm sorry. He can do it.
45:17I think he saw him and went, you're still here.
45:20You're still. No, he was Lamar terrorized him on the Bengals for like, you know, yeah, it's not a good situation right now.
45:26Wow. Also, I, I, I mean, Doyle, we didn't even talk about the way he used flowers, the way he, you talked
45:33about him in the backfield or you talked about receivers in the backfield, but just generally like, say flowers is like evidence
45:39that you can in, in 2026, you can have a wide receiver in NFL one with a unique profile.
45:44Like he, you know what I mean? Like you can, you can have a wide receiver one in the slot.
45:50Like it's, you just have to have a play caller who knows how to get him.
45:55And you'd weaponize him as a long time. Zay flowers data doubter and, and, you know, suspect because I don't, I worry
46:01about the size and I don't like how it takes on contact or we're at a big L on this one, man.
46:07That was crazy. Crazy. I got, I got nothing.
46:10I got no prevarication. I got no, look at this advanced number and I was pretty good.
46:15You know, like they, cause they terrorized Justin Wally, who's the Colt slot.
46:19He actually wasn't even in bad position on some of those plays.
46:22I feel so bad for, like, I felt so bad watching him.
46:26Okay. You just want to play man against the Ravens.
46:29Because Zay is just so hard to stay within space.
46:31Yeah. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome.
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46:56On September 25th. Me, me, me. No one's coming for us.
46:59It's just you and me, boy. 58 miles. Heart of the Beast is the must-see adventure of the year.
47:04An incredible story of survival. I got you. One of the most extraordinary on-screen bonds you'll ever see.
47:09Only the greatest dog to ever walk the earth.
47:12Brad Pitt. I'll get you home. Heart of the Beast.
47:15Pauline Theater, September 25th. Rated PG-13. Maybe inappropriate for children under 13.
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47:41Tough. The Giants could not be tackled, stopped on early downs.
47:44Offensive success rate for the Giants over the course of the game.
47:48Excuse me. This is a rushing success rate, 48.3%.
47:50Passing drop back success rate was over 53%. The Giants were a methodical.
47:54Tomlin talked about this in the halftime show, in the pregame show, in the postgame show.
47:59Harbaugh. They're going to play Harbaugh, right? They're going to take the air out of the game.
48:04They're going to play Princeton basketball. We're not going to get in a shootout.
48:08Now, with Jackson Dart and Cam Scadaboo, these are highly volatile players who consistently made mistakes early in their first season as pros.
48:14You're going to walk out and you're going to try to play ball control, try to play convert on third downs, just increment our way down the field.
48:23There's no way a functional NFL defense should allow this to happen.
48:26The Giants fumbled the ball four times. Four fumbles, right?
48:29They did not have good ball security. They had 10 penalties on the day.
48:33They did not avoid penalties. This is not the model of a team that should be able to pull this off, but
48:39the Cowboys cannot tackle and then consistently blew assignments.
48:42I mean, talk about preseason football, right? And Brian Schottenheimer said this in the postgame presser.
48:46We had some young players, you know, fail to make mistakes, right?
48:50Fail to push out. What he's talking about is, you know, linebacker Jason Barham, and they're completing all these passes to the flat.
48:57They're constantly picking up 10 yards. Jackson Dart throwing the football behind the line of scrimmage in this game.
49:02Dart was five for five for 24 yards and two touchdowns within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, 12 for three for 110 yards.
49:09He looked great pushing the ball when he had to, but he didn't need to because there was so much air in the zone coverages.
49:16And so Dallas last year, Matt Aberflus, cover two.
49:19They would drop in zones. They would allow easy completions.
49:22They couldn't tackle. Christian Barker comes in. There's a massive personnel overhaul.
49:25Caleb Downs is in. Jalen Thompson is in. Kobe Durant is in.
49:29Rashawn Gary is in. Yeah. Lawrence is in. Guys, guys, guys.
49:32And they were exactly the same. Exactly the same.
49:35That's the thing. And then last year, they were, honestly, they were worse in this one because at least in the second
49:41half of the season, they got decent against, they were decent against the run.
49:45This one, I mean, they got bought it. Their edges are bad.
49:49You talked about the Ravens yards before contact. The Giants averaged 4.05 yards before contact per carry, which was the best in the NFL.
49:55Some of that is the Giants offensive line is like legit good.
49:59And that's definitely one side of this. But they got bodied at the line of scrimmage.
50:04And then in zone coverage, similar to last year, they just got absolutely wrecked.
50:08I just, when they gave up the second score to the flat, I gasped.
50:12And low effort, too. There were low. Yeah, it's low effort, right?
50:15Yeah. I apologize. It's not like the Giants are also doing anything particularly crazy.
50:19They had three guys on one side. And then, like, it wasn't.
50:23Leap one install. And then at the beginning, the end of the first half, when they just kept hitting those corners, it was crazy.
50:29Like, I think that's what was so alarming, was just seeing them not have individual poor efforts, but continuously giving up the
50:36same plays over and over was pretty jarring. Okay.
50:38I'm not going to say. Well, first of all, I feel like Christian Parker catfished me with his glasses.
50:44Because I was like, he looks smart. Right. Well, so I will say, like, easy mistakes tend to be easy solutions, right?
50:50These are like week one coverage as written on the page in the playbook blows.
50:55And so that should be not hard to fix.
50:57Yeah, but like that's. But it should have been not hard to fix it in stream.
51:02Should be able to fix it during the game.
51:04That's what I'm saying. When you think about, like, Mike McDonald, right?
51:08And those first two games in Baltimore were like, whoa, this isn't good.
51:12I think about the Dolphins game. A lot of that had to do with some of the complexity on the back end.
51:18Like, you'd have guys like sprinting back, you know, and in coverage.
51:21And like, it felt like they weren't quite sound.
51:24Like, this to me didn't. It was. It felt worse because, I mean, there was a couple busts where they were trying to, like, roll coverage or in.
51:32But like, it was just so rough. And I do think this linebacker room, which I expressed some hope around, is going to be really a sore spot.
51:40I think that the secondary will be better. I think that the front will be better than what we saw.
51:46I really do. I don't think. They'll be that bad, but I do still worry about that.
51:51I mean, the Giants, you know, clearly wanted to get out there and put a fullback on the field and make them put three linebackers, which they did.
51:59And it's not a good group. It's not a strength.
52:02The edges are just so light when it's Zara and it's Lawrence, right?
52:06And then Gary goes out there and you just don't have any pass rush presence because it's Rashawn Gary.
52:11Yeah. The young, like Malachi Lawrence blew a couple of plays where he was unblocked, like read option stuff.
52:17Barham blew a couple of plays. He's moving from edge at Michigan back to stack linebackers.
52:21Like, okay, young players, rookie first games. The Ron bland.
52:24You're our second contract player, right? You're one of our veterans in the secondary.
52:28We got to know where we're supposed to be, right?
52:31I mean, he's late to line up like three plays in this game.
52:35So there's, I don't know, you know, difficulty installing how different was the defense?
52:39This like, I am, I'm very much accepting of a world in which the light bulb comes on and the Cowboys defense gets better later in the season.
52:47It's what like when in the summer, when we talked about this defense, I said, I said it was going to be
52:53bad to start and it would get better. I did not think exactly.
52:57I did not think we're going to be starting from ground.
53:00I absolute zero. Well, okay. So I thought, I think the, maybe in terms of like, why did it look so bad?
53:06In addition to like the miscommunications and blown coverage and all that, and the linebacker play, you know, I think the front
53:13was supposed to be the strength and to the Giants credit dart.
53:16I thought did was very good at throwing. Like I thought he played super fast, super smart in this game in a
53:23way that in addition to the offensive line winning, which they did.
53:26And I think that's going to be a real strength, particularly in run blocking his quick release help mitigate the Cowboys ability to affect the game up front.
53:34I don't think this Cowboys pass rush is going to be great, but they should be better than what we saw in this game.
53:41Um, I think the Giants game plan was like, you know what, let's take them out of the equation.
53:47Let's run the ball and then let's make them tackle.
53:49And they couldn't. So I like darts. They brought that quick release.
53:53I really liked darts quick release and ability to throw off platform with what they were doing Greg Roman style in the running game.
54:00Right. Because one of the things about being able to be super heavy personnel and have polars and being able to flick
54:06some of those RPOs and flick some of those one read passes.
54:10You didn't really see that with the chargers and Greg Roman and Justin Herbert because Herbert is so big and he's so
54:16tethered to the ground dart would just like, you know, trick shot, you know, over the head, you know, adjust the arm
54:22angle and, and be very prolific with that. So I very much liked, and I'm a believer in what I saw giants offensive improvement.
54:29I just, it's much like the Ravens where I would like to see you play a defense with a visible spine before
54:36I really start to get over my skis here.
54:38Rams is an interesting matchup without miles Garrett. And I think they can do.
54:42And the Rams are going to try to go light personnel.
54:45So that, I mean, might be a scataboo and record day all the way down the field.
54:50Yeah. All right. My woof screen Bay Packers offensive line.
54:53Officially on red alert sirens blaring. I am deeply concerned.
54:56I don't think this is too strong of a take Jordan.
54:59They're lucky. Jordan love didn't get hurt in this game, man.
55:03That's a good day. He got to see how much he got hit.
55:06Yeah. I tell you, cause I got it right here.
55:09Jordan love this week. 33% quarterback hit rate. Let all quarterbacks.
55:1237% quick pressure rate. That's two and a half seconds or less.
55:16Let all quarterbacks face 10 unblocked pressures. Let all quarterbacks.
55:192.13 time to pressure. Okay. So the first half of this game, he was beating the blitz and he made some incredible throws.
55:25Christian Watson was amazing. And then it just got to be too much.
55:29And Flores never let up. And they just started getting whooped.
55:32At the end of this game, I swear to God, I thought Blake Cashman was like a Green Bay Packer.
55:38Cause he was like, it was so ugly. And honestly, I feel like I, I regret thinking I, I didn't downplay it.
55:44Cause I did. I've mentioned multiple times. I thought, Oh, the Packers offensive line is on me.
55:49Lots of questions, lots of injuries, but holy smokes.
55:52This was bad. And Ben, I'm worried that it's not like, is this going to get better?
55:57They're going to play the Vikings every week. And the Vikings are very, very good at getting those unblocked pressures and whatnot.
56:03But this was bad, dude. Like this was an ass kicking up front.
56:07Yeah. It's 16 quarterback contacts in this game for love.
56:10That's the second most for a single game in his career behind only a 2025 matchup with the Broncos, right?
56:16Another game that they lost late last season, 11 times he was hit in the pocket.
56:20It's only one out of two games, which has been a double digit times.
56:24And again, it's the other games that Broncos game.
56:27Backers line is too small bothers me. And, and they try to have Aaron banks to try to have Anthony Belton at
56:33the guard spots and banks is hurt and belt.
56:36And they, they did the experiment. They moved him to guard and they didn't like it.
56:40And then they kind of aborted it late in the, in the preseason process.
56:44But when I load up the film and I see Zach, Tom and Sean Ryan, and then I see Donovan Jennings making this first career start.
56:52Jacob Monk making a second career start. Monk to me looks like a center.
56:56Jennings looks like a center. The center looks like a center.
56:59Everybody's too small. And, and the second I see that I, even if I'm not Brian Flores, I started thinking to myself,
57:05well, I'm just gonna be able to break pocket integrity.
57:08I'm just going to be able to consistently ruin the shape of this pocket.
57:12And sure. That guy, you know, 10 back there likes to throw fadeaways.
57:16Anyway, Jordan loves likes to be a guy who's kind of throwing off platform, but you know, I mean, then he had
57:22a 15% explosive pass rate in this game. Sick.
57:25Cool. The Packers still weren't able to convert short yardage or punch the ball into the red zone because the line's too small.
57:32And I was still able to create sacks and fumbles because the line's too small.
57:36And so I, I, I, the Packers tried to scheme around it.
57:40Jordan love at 15 dropbacks in this game in which he only had, he had three or fewer players in the route.
57:46So they're trying to keep six in. They're trying to keep seven in and then only have like, you know, a half field stretch.
57:53But the issue is it's Brian Flores is water against the dam.
57:56It's I'm just going to throw bodies at this.
57:59So I find the crack. I don't really care where it is.
58:02Someone's going to lose. And then I've got the pressure and okay, you get those bodies in.
58:07If you can survive for long enough. Great. Matthew going for 30 yards.
58:11You're just not gonna be able to do that frequently, especially once you get down.
58:15So I think that they tried, but at personnel wise, I do not like, I don't like Zach Bacobo is coming out, you know, he's injured.
58:23So, or he was, you know, he's coming off of the injury.
58:26So that's, you know, he'll be better. Hopefully. I love your point about Brian Flores too.
58:31Cause I get, I think in the first half when love beat the blitz a few times for big plays and the
58:37play caller might've been, might've like backed off of it a little bit.
58:41Nope. It was all go. Nope. Yeah. The whole point is to accumulate hits, right?
58:45Is to get him shaking the third quarter, shaking the fourth quarter because he's been hit.
58:50You know, I'm looking at all of his most hit games.
58:53He had a 2023 against the Vikings. 11 hits 2024 against the Vikings.
58:5711 hits lost both those games. So you're just collecting contact on the quarterback.
59:01Uh, before the, uh, season, I went on bill Simmons pod and he said, Jordan love is going to be the, is the new Justin Herbert.
59:08He's the new, not his fault quarterback. And I was thinking about that watching his game.
59:13I was like, sit, it's happening. Oh, I listened in a game in which you lose to Carson.
59:18And the Vikings, because they're able to put how much was it?
59:2233 points on you. 39. Uh, yeah, I'm not, I'm not running to the offense as my reason for the, for the,
59:28uh, it was 25 and then there were multiple turnovers.
59:31Yeah. Gannon was trying to see. He was playing a lot too.
59:34He was trying to the moment, the moment LaFleur had three on the board and took it off to go for fourth and one.
59:41I was like, they're screwed. They're losing. Yeah. That has to become discourse.
59:45And the only way it becomes discourse is if you lose this game, ergo, you will lose this game.
59:51Well, there was a lot. It is the bears offense.
59:53I'm trying to think of other, the Panthers defense could have been a wolf.
59:57The chargers mercy. You got lucky. We didn't you chargers.
60:00You're on wolf watch. You're on wolf watch both sides of the ball.
60:04That was actually, I think the Cowboys defense lines.
60:07Yeah. You know, sometimes Tyler shot. It's hot. It's a lot.
60:10Not often. Hey, it was good. The second half.
60:12Chris Olave. He's got the second half of the interception into a sack, into a sack fumble.
60:17Chris Olave was so sick in this game, by the way.
60:21Holy. That the, the deep ball, the jump balls is a reminder that.
60:24Deep balls are generally a wide receiver stat. Oh dude.
60:27Um, but yeah, the charges is probably the more, most underwhelming performance outside of the Cowboys defense for me.
60:33Honestly, Cardinals offense winner. Cardinals. Yeah. Awesome. Trey McBride.
60:35So sick. Trey McBride in the slot, like 80% of the time.
60:39Jacoby percent through like 40% in breakers in this game.
60:42Just ripping McVay classics. That line looks solid. Once you're my love gets to move, dude, I'm a buy on the Cardinals offense.
60:48I'm there. There's so many incredible tight ends right now.
60:51I was thinking about that with Kinkade and McBride.
60:54Like the next generation of tight ends is so sick.
60:57We, uh, we had 160 total snaps in week one of 13 personnel.
61:00It's the most in history. As far back as I've dated at 2007.
61:04Never, never had that many before. Wow. Um, dude, tight end week.
61:08What do they call it? Tight end day. I know.
61:10Oh, it's going to be so exciting this year.
61:13I can't wait. Too many of them. I know I have both Matthew Hibner and Marlon Klein on my dynasty team.
61:19Don't you have Loveland? I don't have Loveland. I have Trina Bride.
61:23That was, yeah. I have like a weird, oops, all tight ends build.
61:26Nice. Uh, yeah. It's not. That's Sean McVay looking at his roster in week five of last year.
61:32Uh, okay. That concludes this week. Ben, where can folks find you this week?
61:36Uh, on Twitter, at Benjamin Solak. On the socials, at Benjamin Solak.
61:39Uh, Colum came out this Tuesday. Next Ben Stats comes out every single Sunday.
61:43More to come. I asked for permission to announce something this morning, and they told me no, so I'll announce it later.
61:49Okay. Well, stay tuned. Follow Ben on all the socials.
61:52Uh, I will be back later to preview week two.
61:55This week with my buddy Daniel Jeremiah. So that's going to be a ton of fun.
62:00Uh, thank you as always to folks at Omaha Productions.
62:03Kirsten Specky, Owen Saylor, Tucker Tashen, Jack Foster. We're up.
62:06Wow! On September 25th. Me, me, me! No one's coming for us.
62:09It's just you and me, boy. 58 miles. Heart of the Beast is the must-see adventure of the year.
62:15An incredible story of survival. I got you. One of the most extraordinary on-screen blonde you'll ever see.
62:20Only the greatest dog to ever walk the earth.
62:22Brad Pitt. I'll get you home. Heart of the Beast.
62:25Pauline Theater, September 25th. Rated PG-13. May be inappropriate for children under 13.
62:29May be inappropriate for children under 13.
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