Week 1 Hangover: Impressive 2026 debuts for the Ravens, Jets and Raiders

STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.

1 hr 18 min

Duration

Estimated from transcript

Sep 15, 2026

Published

Tue, September 15, 2026

Player insights

Players mentioned

Topics

Brock BowersBreece HallDe'Von AchaneDerrick HenryGarrett WilsonGeno SmithJonathan TaylorLamar JacksonMalik WillisMark AndrewsMatthew HibnerMichael MayerMike Washington Jr.Tony Pollard

Player analysis

Player insights

Breece Hall

PositiveUsage31:09

Breece Hall was a key part of a successful Jets rushing attack, highlighted by back-to-back 10-yard runs during a drive, benefiting from design wrinkles and strong offensive line play.

Insight page

Brock Bowers

PositiveRole53:26

The source suggests that Clint Kubiak's creative usage of Ashton Gentry and his history with JSN indicates a high likelihood that he will find unique ways to involve Brock Bowers in the Raiders' offense.

Insight page

PositiveRole168:50

Bowers should be viewed as a wide receiver archetype (similar to Drake London) rather than a traditional tight end. Once healthy, he will be on the field alongside Michael Mayer in 12-personnel sets for the majority of the time, serving as the team's primary explosive playmaker.

Insight page

De'Von Achane

NegativeUsage185:51

Achane was limited by a struggling Dolphins run game in Week 1, receiving only 11 carries. The source expects the Dolphins' rushing efficiency to improve as the season progresses, noting that Achane remains a highly talented player.

Insight page

Derrick Henry

PositiveUsage2:09

Derrick Henry is the perfect fit for the Ravens' new outside zone-heavy scheme, which saw a 20% increase in usage compared to last year. The team is effectively using tight end Matthew Hibner as a lead blocker on cutback runs, creating explosive opportunities for Henry, who looked dominant against the Colts' defense.

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Garrett Wilson

PositiveUsage34:36

Garrett Wilson demonstrated his elite hand-eye coordination and ability to make tough catches in traffic, specifically on a fourth-and-two slant and a deep crossing route.

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Geno Smith

PositiveProjection28:21

Geno Smith was highly accurate and effective, particularly against cover three looks where he went 11-for-11 for 164 yards, showing he can place the ball where needed.

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Jonathan Taylor

NegativeMatchup25:45

Despite the Colts' offensive struggles, Jonathan Taylor showed flashes of talent, including a crazy jump cut on Roquan Smith, though he was ultimately stifled by a strong Ravens defense.

Insight page

Lamar Jackson

PositiveProjection9:30

Lamar Jackson looked like an MVP-caliber player, displaying superior control, command, and spatial awareness compared to his early 2024 season. He demonstrated elite pocket presence, including a notable 16-yard scramble on 3rd-and-16 where he manipulated defenders, and showed 'matrix-like' ability to escape pressure and deliver accurate throws.

Insight page

Malik Willis

NegativeProjection181:58

Willis struggled in Week 1, showing limited down-to-down consistency and a tendency to bail from clean pockets. While he has explosive flashes, his limitations in a struggling offense create concerns about him forcing plays and developing bad habits.

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Mark Andrews

PositiveUsage16:43

Mark Andrews remains an important piece of the Ravens' offense, which is utilizing a heavy rotation of tight ends. He was the target of an explosive chunk play on a play-action pass out of a jumbo set, demonstrating his continued value in the passing game.

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Matthew Hibner

PositiveUsage4:13

Matthew Hibner is the most explosive tight end on the Ravens' roster and is being utilized as a key vertical threat and lead blocker in the team's zone run game. His role as an 'insert' player on the backside of runs is a significant wrinkle that helps create explosive plays.

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Michael Mayer

PositiveRole91:41

Despite modest stats (6 catches for 30-something yards), Mayer played a vital role as a reliable chain-mover and blocker. His contract is market-appropriate for a 'do-it-all' Y-tight end, and he will remain a key piece in the Raiders' 12-personnel heavy offense even after Brock Bowers returns.

Insight page

Mike Washington Jr.

PositiveBreakout51:50

Mike Washington is highlighted as an explosive weapon for the Raiders, with the source noting that every time he touches the ball, he demonstrates significant playmaking ability, including a notable chunk run on a duo play where he bounced it outside.

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Tony Pollard

NegativeUsage45:12

The source notes that Tony Pollard struggled with decision-making on a key play, attempting to make a defender miss instead of getting upfield for the first down, which resulted in a one-yard loss.

Insight page

Zay Flowers

PositiveBreakout2:16

Zay Flowers was 'unbelievable' and clearly a focal point of the offense, with the coaching staff constructing plays specifically to weaponize his skills. He showed great chemistry with Lamar Jackson, including a touchdown catch out of the backfield and an ability to find voids in zone coverage.

Insight page

Full transcript

Episode Transcript

1,013

0:00Welcome to The Athletic Football Show brought to you by the U.S.

0:03Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card. I'm Robert Mays. It's the Week 1 Monday Hangover.

0:07I assume most of you are used to our cadence during the season, but if you're not, each Monday into Tuesday, me

0:13and Derek are going to pick three games that we did not talk about on the Sunday Night Recap, and we're going

0:18to really dig into them on this show. We've done this for years.

0:22It's one of my favorite shows that we do.

0:24It's a chance to sit with some games that you either couldn't pay enough attention to over the course of Sunday, or

0:30you want to spend a little bit more time with.

0:33For example, we picked Ravens Colts because we knew in real time we weren't going to be able to go back and

0:38watch that in the way that we wanted and discuss it the way that we wanted.

0:43So we got to watch every single play of the All-22 this morning.

0:46We also dug into Titans Jets and Raiders Dolphins, which are games that are a little bit more fitting for The Hangover

0:52and maybe a little bit more of the flavor that you guys are going to be getting on the show over the course of the season.

0:59That's what we got today. Let's get to it with me and Derek right now.

1:03It is time for the week one Monday Hangover, aptly named today.

1:06I feel it. Yeah. I'm feeling it. Yeah, the body's just never ready for week one.

1:10It's such a deluge of stuff. And I wanted to, we did the show and we selected the games that we did

1:16today in part because we wanted to spend a little bit more time chewing on a game that we just weren't going to have time to yesterday.

1:23And that's the Ravens and Colts game. The Titans and Jets and Dolphins Raiders are definitely fit for how we typically approach the hangover.

1:29So I do like the mix that we're walking into this with today.

1:33Well, that's the thing. Last year was all Raiders and Dolphins games and Saints were like that caliber of bad.

1:38Cardinals were that caliber at the Vikings also got a lot of run like it was the fact that we're starting off

1:44with a team that I mean, the Ravens had like the highest over under win total going into the season.

1:49So the fact that we get to start a game with the game with them, I'm excited for it.

1:54So let's dig into this. Where do you want to start the Ravens Colts breakdown?

1:58I assume you want to talk about the Ravens offense first.

2:01I would like to talk about the Ravens offense.

2:03I feel like if you were optimistic at all about what the Declan Doyle, Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry experience was supposed to

2:09look like, you kind of got all of it.

2:11I mean, the very first play is they like boot to the left-hand side and get Zay Flowers wide ass open on this deep corner route.

2:18And it was just like, okay, immediate proof of concept.

2:21And then that drive ends, they get all the way down to the red zone and Lamar Jackson gets into the end

2:26zone with like this pistol arc read. It looks very like Nevada Colin Kaepernick.

2:30I was going to say it looks like Greg Roman Colin Kaepernick Niners.

2:34That's exactly what it looked like. And so the fact that like you kind of got the blend of both worlds immediately,

2:39I just thought was was incredibly impressive. So there were a number of things that they did in this game.

2:45I thought the run game looked again, if you were super excited about they are really going to commit to Dwayne Ledford

2:50outside zone, Declan Doyle outside zone, you have the perfect running back for it in Derrick Henry.

2:55I thought they looked good. Like I thought you want to the rookie looked really good on a lot of their zone runs.

3:01I thought Javon Gwynn was like totally fine for a guy that they were like throwing in there, like who had not

3:07started football games before he looked solid. He looked like a backup center in a good situation.

3:11Yes, which is exactly how I would describe it.

3:14He looked like a backup center in a good situation.

3:16There were probably three or four plays over the course of the game where he's losing quick.

3:21There was one, I think to DeForest Buckner where it was with DeForest Buckner was a spinner on like the first or second drive.

3:27He loses there. There are a handful of other plays where again, this looks like a guy who's a back end of

3:33the roster guy who's thrust into action, deep into training camp and is currently the starter.

3:37If that's it and everything else looks good. I think you can get on board with what this is supposed to be over the course of the season.

3:44And like same thing with you want to like he had a couple of penalties in this game and he had a

3:50holding call on a run play, which that one I was like kind of shaky on.

3:54And then Buckner beat him pretty bad on or knows out of a war.

3:58I beat him pretty bad with an inside move and he just like lost his outside hand immediately starts grabbing.

4:03And so sure you get a couple of those plays, but for 45 other plays in this game, he was solid to good.

4:09I thought the offensive line and blocking scheme overall just looked really good.

4:13They were doing some interesting stuff with Matthew Hibner specifically with a lot of their zone run stuff and having him be

4:18this like kind of insert player on the backside a lot of their runs because they were running like zone.

4:24They would motion him like say they're running to the right and they would motion him left to right.

4:29And then the play would wash down and he ends up as like a lead player where the cutback is going.

4:34I was like, that's pretty sweet. It happened on the Derrick Henry touchdown.

4:38And that was the cleanest example of it. And they're in 13 personnel on that play, I believe.

4:42And so and then Hibner is on the left side.

4:45He motions very quickly to the right side and exactly what you're saying.

4:48The way that this can work out when it's clean is that he's able to kind of lead up on the backside

4:54safety, which for almost any other player when you're aligned like that, it would be really difficult for anybody else to get there.

5:00And so having that sort of plan when you're putting in a design cutback, that to me is such a good expression

5:06of why this is worth getting excited about. Because we know the world that Dwayne Ledford comes from.

5:11The Falcons over the last couple years have been the truest died in the wall outside zone team in the NFL, essentially

5:17since he got there, because that's the world that he comes from.

5:20That's okay. It's okay if that's going to be what you major in.

5:23How can you add some wrinkles to that central identity to have it be something where you're comfortable with the mechanics and the rhythm of playing that way?

5:30You have to be fully committed to it. Like if you're going to be an outside zone team, I think they were,

5:36I looked at some of the data and I think there were 55% outside zone yesterday, which was about 20% higher than they were last year in Baltimore.

5:44And so they are clearly going to be leaning into this, but if you're going to do that, what are your change-ups

5:49and what are you kind of building onto that core philosophy to make things a little bit harder on teams that you're playing against?

5:56That's a perfect example where that's your offensive line, just blocking outside zone.

5:59You're not asking them to do anything different, but you're giving yourself one extra layer to pop a couple of explosives, to

6:05get a free hitter out of the box. I loved it.

6:08And they went back to it several different times over the course of the game.

6:12And because that's the thing with outside zone, you don't get the explosives on the bang read.

6:16You get it on them bending to the cutback or them bouncing.

6:19And so if we can now get a lead player on the cutback with Derrick Henry, who I posted it on Blue

6:25Sky, there were like three or four instances in this game where AJ Halsey is all alone with Derrick Henry running straight out of him.

6:32And I was like, man, there is nobody I would rather be less than AJ Halsey in that game.

6:37And so just the fact that they sprung in that many times to do that, like, and I think the other thing

6:43too, if you're going to be purely an outside zone team, or primarily at least, you need to give me good proof

6:48of concept that like when teams are throwing games that you stunts all that stuff that you can pick it up, like

6:54it's the whole point of a zone team. In the third quarter with about seven minutes to go, they shuffled one of

7:00their tight ends from the right to the left and ran like a little bit of a mid zone at him.

7:05And the one technique to that side tries to cross the guard's face.

7:09He just takes him and says, fine, I'll move you all the way to the outside.

7:13And they fire the linebacker at the center right behind him.

7:16And the center takes him and is like, fine, I'll pull you inside.

7:19And it just parts the Red Sea. And you get one of those plays where Derrick Henry is all alone against the

7:25safety in the third level of the defense. On the touchdown, there was the insert that we're talking about, but they had

7:31to handle it differently because I think it was the three technique to that side knifed inside.

7:35And so they did such a good job collectively where Hibner, I can't remember what was Hibner on that motion, but he

7:41actually picks off the defensive lineman as part of that.

7:44And then at the, as that play kind of unfolds, it John Simpson does a fantastic job because he actually works back

7:50to the play side linebacker, which is not what he was probably thinking before that play got snapped.

7:54And because he's able to get back there after the three technique crosses his face, that gives Derrick Henry just enough of a crease for him to score.

8:02And so there were several examples of that in this game where it doesn't look exactly how you might've drawn it up

8:07on the chalkboard and it ends up becoming a really positive play.

8:11And so on so many different levels, this thing is worth getting excited about just to zoom out quickly and kind of

8:16give some context about what we were looking at in this game.

8:200.26 EPA per play for Baltimore, which was I think the fourth highest rate of the week, 20% explosive play rate, which

8:25is a top three rate of the week. They finished with 300 passing yards and 200 rushing yards.

8:30That has happened 23 times in the past 10 years.

8:33So it happens like two or three times a season.

8:35They did it in week one. Last year, there was a couple of weird teams that did it.

8:40The Falcons did it last year, which was very strange in like a week 17 game, I think against the Panthers.

8:46Oh, was it the Kyle Pitts, like absolutely nuclear game?

8:48It was the late game against the Panthers. But the team that, so in 2024, a team did it twice.

8:53And when I watched what the Ravens were doing in this game, it's probably the most similar I felt when it came

8:59to new play caller, new offense, and immediately you're like, oh, they're cooking with gas.

9:03The Bucs did it twice in 2024. That makes sense.

9:06That makes a lot of sense. Watching that yesterday, isn't that a little bit how it felt?

9:10Like when you first got a look at the Liam Cohen's Buccaneers offense and you're like, oh shit.

9:15They can do everything. Yes. And this team has the structural stuff that I think was worth getting excited about with that group.

9:21And they have Lamar Jackson. Lamar looked like Lamar.

9:23That's the thing. We just spent 10 minutes talking about how cool the offense is and have not touched the fact that

9:29Lamar looked like an MVP caliber player again. I said this when we did the Ravens preview and people pushed back on it.

9:35And it wasn't even to demean him as a player or to really talk ill of what he did last season.

9:41He did not play as well over the first month of last year before he got hurt as he was playing in 24.

9:47And part of the reason for that is that the way he was playing in 2024, he had the league right here.

9:53He like in the palm of his hand, everything was so in control.

9:56He was seeing things so cleanly. And when you watch that game he played yesterday, that's exactly what it was.

10:01There were several examples that we can point to the third and 16 scramble where he some that's the play where Buckner beats.

10:07Yeah, when it doesn't matter. And somehow Lamar gets out of that.

10:11It's a 16 yard scramble for a first down.

10:13You know, the craziest thing about that, we're like, this was so to me like Lamar is in his bag.

10:18He at the top of his job knows that he's got he knows the D tackle and the D end are about to get to him.

10:25As they're both coming free, he like steps up and rears back like he's going to throw and it gets them to be like, oh, we got him.

10:32And then he dips under it. I'm like, dude, he's the only one.

10:36He's the only one. And that's when last year specifically, especially against pressure, he was just more panicky than he had been in 2024.

10:42And again, that that's why it was just it was so it was jarring to me.

10:46And it was just it felt different. Because when you watched him in the pocket, the previous season, when he was just

10:52incredible, even when you go back and look at the numbers, you forget how crazy they were in 2024.

10:57And the calm and the control and the command, no matter what else was happening while he was in the pocket.

11:03I had never seen him like that before. And that's exactly what it felt like yesterday.

11:07The scramble play is a great example of this.

11:09My favorite example was actually a play that didn't count.

11:12There was a 19 yard completion in, I think, the late in the second quarter.

11:16And it's the one where you want to get to hold and you watch Lamar on that play.

11:20He buys just a little bit of time to his right while knowing that as soon as he gets his foot in

11:26the ground, he's coming back to Bateman on this crosser and watching him play that and speed himself up a little bit to be able to get there.

11:34But not too much where he's still in control that those are the types of plays where it's like one of one shit.

11:40Yeah, like what his spatial recognition on that play, the awareness, the ability to escape that like just immediate interior pressure and

11:45then make that throw in that sequence on a dime.

11:48Like there's just no one else that's doing that.

11:50And those are the plays you saw from him yesterday.

11:53And again, it's like it's not to diminish the way he played last season.

11:57He was still better than most players in the NFL.

11:59But when he's at his best, we are slowing down the world, seeing the matrix type of shit.

12:04And he was doing that again yesterday. He is a singular force when he is is playing that way.

12:09And like his spatial awareness is like some other quarterbacks have some version of this.

12:13Like I think Matthew Stafford at his best has that, but he has to make good on it with his arm and

12:19Lamar Jackson can and will or his eyes. Yeah, there's not there's no movement from physically while that stuff is happening.

12:24And like Lamar Jackson can and will do that with his arm like that plays a really good example, but also with

12:30his legs, like right before the half, there's 30 seconds left in the half.

12:34They're on their own, like 30 or something like that.

12:36Lamar Jackson drops back and he sees like they're playing man coverage, which the Colts played a shit ton of man coverage.

12:42We can talk about that, but they're playing one cross.

12:45And so they have trips to the right side.

12:47And so the safety, the opposite side is coming down to nail on the cross are coming from that side.

12:52He sees that and immediately he's like, I can just go.

12:55And he takes off and gets 20 yards down the left sideline where that safety just ran away from.

13:00And it gets into midfield. They get three points right before the half.

13:04It's just like, it's one play right before the half, but like to be able to just squeeze out points when most

13:10other players and quarterbacks wouldn't be able to do it there.

13:12It's just watching him play at that level is it gets me more excited than almost any player in the league.

13:18I'm pumped to watch the offensive line. I'm pumped to watch the quarterback when he's playing like this.

13:23I'm pumped to watch Derrick Henry in this situation.

13:25All that stuff was positive. I thought Zay Flowers was unbelievable.

13:28He was awesome in this game and it's, it's stuff you're talking about.

13:31And obviously, and what was cool. And I think beyond the way that he played, it is so clear that Declan Doyle thinks he's a special player.

13:38Yeah. Just like the way that they're constructing things around him, that touchdown that he catches coming out of the backfield on

13:44what I think was supposed to be a choice route, but no one covers him.

13:48So he doesn't have to make a choice. Yeah.

13:51Right. There was no choice to be made. That play too.

13:53AJ Holfi, I think is coming down to like rotate to like replace the blitzer.

13:57And he just like keeps going and he did this.

14:00I'm gone. He did that multiple times in this game where AJ Holfi is in the back, the deep part of the field.

14:06And for whatever reason, they're playing cover three and he's just screaming to the flat, even though there's no one there.

14:12So you felt how young the back half of the back end of the Colts defense was.

14:16And you felt how it wasn't even that they were young at linebacker.

14:20It's just that they're either bad at linebacker, like Carlos and Akeem Davis gave their playing in those roles because the young

14:25guys in Boettcher and, uh, oh my God, who's the C.J.

14:28Allen, Anthony Hill and C.J. Allen. I'm gonna mix up a hundred times this season.

14:32Second round linebackers. The fact that those guys aren't ready to go, it's just, it's a difficult situation.

14:37And you felt that over the course of the game, there was in one play where Boettcher was in, and this is

14:43another Zay Flowers play where I was just like, I really like this.

14:46It was with two minutes left in the first quarter.

14:49It's like a 17 yard chunk and Zay sits down in the void between two zone defenders and Lamar waits for him to get there to sit down.

14:56And you watch that. And then you combine that with the explosive element that both of those guys bring and just the

15:02feel they both have for each other right now, combined with the ways that they think clearly are going to weaponize Zay within this offense.

15:08It was just a really, really strong start. Like you said, if you had any sort of hope for what Dequan Doyle

15:14was going to do with this coming into the season, I think that this was about as good a note on which it could have started.

15:21Anything else about the Ravens offense that you want to dig into?

15:24I mean, I think that mostly covers it for me.

15:27I mean, I was, again, I was incredibly impressed by it.

15:30It's a little bit unfortunate that both like Jacoby Lane and Zay Flowers got hurt in this game.

15:34They seem to think that the Zay Flowers one is like not going to be a big deal.

15:39But I think, you know, Lane didn't do a whole lot in this game, but I think they expected him to be a bigger part of the out.

15:47He did have a touchdown. That was, yeah, it was called off the board.

15:50So Gwynn got a hold on that play. Again, it's just like you saw those are a center that hasn't played and

15:56you have a right guard that's a rookie. And you felt that in this game a little bit.

16:01And that's the thing, even though the fact that like the overall offensive line system outweighed some of the negative parts that

16:07you got from young and just inexperienced players. I thought like overall, this was about as good of a showing as we could have gotten from them.

16:14I was really excited. Yeah. And I, I'm glad you mentioned Hibner because I do think that he's going to be an important piece of the offense.

16:21Like he is the most explosive tight end that they have.

16:24And him, they use him as a vertical player in some of those looks.

16:27I mean, he's like yanking out coverage. And so the fact that, I mean, they can use Durham Smythe to do all

16:33the dirty work stuff that they want to, you know, Mark Andrews is going to be an important piece of this offense

16:39because they're going to use all the tight ends.

16:41But Hibner is, I think clearly the most explosive player that they have at tight end and they're going to need him

16:47because there just isn't that much explosiveness elsewhere on the offense in the past catching room, except for Zay.

16:52Yeah. And so I, I just do think that that's going to, even over the course of the summer, like I was

16:58at Ravens, Ravens practice in Baltimore early in August.

17:00And then I was at the joint practice against the Vikings, which was at the end of August.

17:05And during team periods, like they were doing a lot of three tight end stuff and I'm watching it.

17:10I'm like, like 88 just matters. Like he's going to matter for what the offense is going to be.

17:15And so to see that come to fruition in week one was really cool.

17:19There's one more play I wanted to mention because to me, it's just such an indication of we have the upper hand in this game.

17:25There was a second and 16 with like eight minutes left in the second quarter where it's second and 16.

17:30Okay. So let's just think about down and distance situation here.

17:33Oh, I know the one. The Ravens come out in jumbo on second and 16 and run a play action pass.

17:39Akeem Davis-Gaither has no idea what planet he's on, on that play.

17:42And so the idea that it's second and 16 jumbo play action situationally, it should not work.

17:46Like that should not be something you can tap into be just based on expectations for what you're supposed to do in that down and distance.

17:53It's a five, one front. Cause has no idea which way is up and it leads to an explosive chunk play to Andrews, right?

18:00Yes. And so just, there were examples like that throughout the course of this game where the Ravens just so clearly had

18:05the upper hand on that side of the ball.

18:08And it was really exciting to watch. And I'll say, I think in a lot of ways it extends to the other side of the ball.

18:15Like I, I feel like that Jesse mentor with this group, we were curious.

18:18All right. We watched what he did in LA.

18:21They were a top 10 defense, borderline top 10 defense each year that he was there.

18:25Now, even if we have no matter BK, even if we have some maybe questions about broke on the way that he

18:31played last year, I don't think it's out of line to say the talent level among this group is better than what he was working with in LA.

18:38So what is it going to look like as Jesse mentor works with this sort of defensive talent and step one looks pretty good.

18:44Looked pretty good. And first of all, before we even get to the quality of it, a lot more blitzes than you

18:50were used to from, from like some of his, some of his days with the chargers.

18:54And so maybe that is more just like being able to trust, I think this back seven a little bit more to handle some of that stuff.

19:01And like, you have an elite coverage linebacker Roquan when he's playing well, like he was so good in this game, by the way, he was insane.

19:08The interception he has is like, is a mad and crazy play, crazy play mad and stuff.

19:13Cause he's, he's sitting as like the strong hook player in, in cover six.

19:17And they're, they're playing quarters to his side. And like, he has Josh Downs right in front of him on this whip route.

19:23And he plays Josh Downs on the whip route.

19:25And he's like stuck to him, but he like, as the ball is about to come out, he's got eyes on Daniel

19:31Jones and he feels that Daniel Jones is like a beat late throwing the crosser behind him.

19:35And like, I mean it like, you know, in Madden, like when you try to throw over the linebacker and he just

19:41jumps 10 feet in the air and you're like, that doesn't seem like that was possible.

19:45Roquan Smith had that interception. And I was like, dude, if he's get back to doing that, this defense is going to be awesome.

19:52He plays two guys on at once on that play.

19:54And to be able to pick off the crosser, I think it was to tread well while playing Josh Downs there is just a phenomenal play.

20:01And so you saw that from him. And I really liked the adjustment that we saw from Jesse Minter over the course

20:07of this game, because early on they were playing a decent amount of man coverage on that first drive.

20:12So over the course of the game, they played three dropbacks of cover one in the first quarter.

20:17They played three dropbacks of cover one total over the rest of the game because they were picking on them in man on that first drive.

20:23And I think he was like, you know what this?

20:26Like I were, I don't have to do this.

20:28Like if we play zone coverage in this game, I, I, I have faith in what the front end coverage can look like together.

20:35And that's, that was the other part of this is that there were plays where maybe there would have been somebody open

20:40and he's either Trey Hendrickson winning and crushing the pocket, Tavius Robinson crushing the pocket.

20:44I really thought that Travis Jones was all over the place in this game as both a run defender and a pass rusher.

20:50He might've been their best player. Like, like Roquan Smith was great.

20:54I thought Marlon Humphrey played a really good game.

20:56Kyle Hamilton looked like Kyle Hamilton. Travis Jones, every drive did something in this game.

21:00He was phenomenal. And the play that really stuck out to me, it was on the cold second drive and he's one-on-one

21:06with Quentin Nelson and just has his left arm all the way extended into his chest, sticking him back into the hole.

21:12And Mike Green also squeezed the polar on that play.

21:14Just both of them condensing space in that way, because you look at what the Ravens were doing last year.

21:19The Ravens were allocating so many bodies to their run defense last year because they couldn't hold up.

21:24And so to watch the front play like that in this game, I thought Trenton Simpson was good in this game.

21:30He had multiple really nice moments against the run and they did what they should do with Trenton Simpson, which is let's use him as a battering ram.

21:37Like there was early in the second quarter, they sent him like through the week B gap and the Colts got caught

21:43running a weak zone right at it. He explodes Matt Gonsalves and the place is over and he gets a tackle in the backfield.

21:49And so just like weaponizing him in that way, I thought was really impressive.

21:53Um, they just did so many interesting things in the run against this game.

21:56There was actually, and this was right before the Lamar possession where he gets to scramble and then goes and they kick the field goal.

22:03But this was like, I think to me, a really telling sequence in the game before the Ravens had got the ball there, the Colts had the ball.

22:10Uh, it was a third and one with a, about a minute to go in the half.

22:15And they're trying to run split zone at the two technique.

22:18And I think it was Clice Campbell. He destroys the guard on the inside shoulder and Travis Jones, another great play from

22:24him, like scrapes over the top of Campbell makes the stop.

22:26It's fourth and one. They punt Lamar gets the ball back.

22:29They go get a field goal. It's just like if the Ravens are going to have more of those moments where they're

22:35stealing chances of points before the half from the other team, and then getting them on the backend for their team, like

22:41that is complimentary football, which you just didn't really feel from this team at all.

22:45And on either side last year, we said it, I was in Cleveland.

22:48I remember where it was when we did the show and we did the players who could swing the season show.

22:54I think if you said about either Roquan Smith or Marlon Humphrey, at some point this season, they played really well this year.

23:00What would the chance, the percentage chance that the Ravens were really good on defense?

23:04If that's what we're saying by the end of 95%, and this game is a very good first box checked when it comes to that.

23:10We talked about Roquan, the other play that he had that I absolutely loved on the Tavius Robinson sack on a boot to the right side.

23:17Roquan redirects Josh Downs as he's coming off line of scrimmage, and that redirection is just enough to make Josh Downs not

23:23have cleared the linebacker before when Daniel Jones is ready to throw that boot.

23:27And that's the only reason that Tavius Robinson is allowed to get there for the sack.

23:31Again, it's just really complimentary when you're looking at all the players working in concert.

23:35And then there was a play where Marlon Humphrey, they played inverted cover two, and he was in the back half and

23:41him sticking to that route and squeezing on the inside vertical and taking that away.

23:45He makes the most important play of all 11 guys on that specific play.

23:48And so everybody contributing to this thing combined with Jesse Minter doing a lot of interesting stuff, dialing up not only like

23:54real pressures, but a decent amount of simulated pressures.

23:56It just, there is, again, so much to be excited about with what you saw from the Ravens on both sides of the ball in this game.

24:03That Marlon Humphrey play, it almost is like what you're talking about with Lamar Jackson, where like when the scheme is right and he's on, he's insane.

24:11Like some of his stuff when he was playing with Mike McDonald was insane.

24:14So for him to have that play, like if they call that coverage and he, he tries to make that play last

24:20year, I just don't think he gets there in time.

24:23Like, I just think the way that they're teaching it, the way it feels right, like he was firing on all cylinders.

24:28He also had the forced fumble on the Jonathan Taylor screen.

24:31Yeah. That like, that was incredibly well blocked by the Colts.

24:34Like both, I think it was Bordellini and Gonsalves, like murdered both of the guys that they were taking.

24:39It was awesome. And Quinn Nelson had a fantastic play at the line of scrimmage.

24:43Yeah. It was like incredibly well blocked. And then he gets down the field and Marlon Humphrey just rips that one out before he can go down.

24:50Like if he's going to be playing like that, Roquan Smith is going to be having those plays.

24:55Travis Jones is playing his best ball. Trey Hendrickson had a really important pressure at the end, like on a third down,

25:01like kind of all of the best guys that you wanted to make plays made plays.

25:05Nate Wiggins, they were trying to throw on, I think like a third and eight, a third and seven at some point in the game.

25:12Daniel Jones tries to come to this backside dig.

25:14Nate Wiggins is all over Alec Pierce and just gets the breakup.

25:17And I'm like every single good player played like they were a good player on this defense.

25:22Do we think that overall the results in this game and how things shook out is mostly a product of the Ravens potentially being a buzzsaw?

25:28Or did you see stuff from the Colts that leaves you a little bit worried coming away from this game?

25:34I think on offense, I'm willing to say, eh, I want to see more.

25:37Like I think the Ravens defense played well. I want to see more from the Colts offense.

25:42That's one where the run game had some really nice moments.

25:45Yes. Roquan was awesome in this game. There was a jump cut that Jonathan Taylor put on Roquan in the couple of the run.

25:51That was crazy. And so again, like you said, there were moments from the offensive line.

25:55I do think that against different lesser defenses over the course of the season, I still have a reasonable amount of faith

26:01that the Colts offense is going to be fine.

26:03The defense concerns me. That's hard for it not to be.

26:06I think the offense will settle as like a totally acceptable unit.

26:09They'll have some games where they score 30, 35 on people.

26:12Like I think they'll be just fine. I think the Ravens defense probably will be pretty good.

26:17And I think the Ravens offense will be good.

26:19I do want to see what it looks like against a different defense in this one, because again, you mentioned the linebackers were heinous in this game.

26:26And the other thing is like, you're just not going to get this much man coverage.

26:30The Colts played like 46% man coverage overall. And on anything but first down, it was 60%.

26:35You're just not getting that most weeks. And so I just want to see what are their answers going to look like for other teams.

26:41And like, that also kind of bring me to some concern for the Colts of like, are you just playing that because

26:47you don't trust anybody to be in zone? So it's like, let's just attach to people.

26:51And that's going to be that. I know the corners are good at it.

26:55I think that's the, that's the argument. I think it's the, how do we weaponize our best players?

27:00And that feels like the way to weaponize your best players.

27:03But if teams are going to be able to pick on you as you do this, there is such a difference.

27:08And another team we're going to talk about, I was really encouraged by what the Jets defense looked like.

27:13Titans offense might be a disaster. I mean, we, I think we can acknowledge that, but the lions, when they were really

27:19humming, when Aaron Glenn was there, they were such a good man coverage team.

27:23There, there is a difference between having good man coverage corners and being a good man coverage team where you can account

27:29for the ways the teams are going to attack you.

27:31Your whole players know where they're supposed to be.

27:34Everyone knows where their help is. Everyone knows where they're pushing certain guys.

27:37The leverages make sense. You do it collectively as a unit.

27:40It, the idea of if, well, we have man coverage corners.

27:43So that's what we have to do. That doesn't make you a good man coverage team.

27:47And so I'll be curious against lesser teams that don't have Lamar Jackson, that don't have Zay Flowers, just cooking Justin Wally over an open fire.

27:54What this is going to look like for a Colts team that clearly wants to live this way.

27:59All right, we're going to move on to Jets Titans, but first let's take our first quick break.

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28:22Get to Jets Titans. Really nice game for the New York jets.

28:26I was very, I really enjoyed a lot of the stuff that I saw from the jets over the course of this game.

28:32Finished with a 48% success rate on offense. They were really bad on third down.

28:36And that was really the only kind of knock, but the way they ran the ball in this game, the way that

28:41Gino played in this game, Gino's accuracy in this game, and just the ability to place the ball down the field.

28:47I, this is, as we predicted all these teams and as we forecasted what they might look like, I was very down

28:53on the jets coaching staff, but I don't want to be like, this isn't a situation where I want to be right

28:58about the Aaron Glenn Frank Reich jets looking like a disaster and this being DOA.

29:02It just looks so bad last year. How could you not doubt it?

29:06And like Frank Reich hasn't called plays in two years.

29:08I don't want that to happen. I think there's some cool players on this team and I don't want to watch terrible football.

29:14And so this being the first glimpse that we saw of the Aaron Glenn Frank Reich jets, I just think there was

29:20enough to like where it just kind of makes me breathe a sigh of relief.

29:24Maybe the Titans are just bad. And then that's something we have to accept.

29:28It's week one is who the hell knows. We probably said we're going to say the same thing about the jets last year.

29:34Right. But I do think that what I saw from this team on both sides of the ball leaves me encouraged about

29:40what this could potentially be, even if coming into the year, I had some pretty severe reservations.

29:44I said, this was the game where you don't want to be the team that embarrasses themselves and the jets did not embarrass themselves.

29:51They looked like a totally competent, competitive football team.

29:53And if that means six wins by the end of the year, fine.

29:56But like, they look like they will be in games.

29:59And like, I was really impressed with the offensive line overall.

30:02Like I think that they were moving people in the run game when they wanted to.

30:06Fashanu had so many really nice moments as a run blocker, like three or four times where I was like, holy shit, man.

30:12That's always been the thing with him of like, is if he's ever going to get over the line to being like

30:18a consistent pro bowl guy, it's going to be like, can he ever just like move people in the run game?

30:23And he did have a lot of moments in this game.

30:26Like Tipman, I thought looked really good. Like they were just, they were moving people in the run game, which I will

30:32say if there was anything, I thought the Titans defense would be fine at, even if I had some questions, it was

30:38going to be like the front's pretty good. I think that they'll be okay there.

30:42And they, it wasn't like an insane day for the jets rushing offense, but they were good.

30:46Yeah. I mean, you look at the total numbers, but they were so successful.

30:50Like they got what they wanted. They finished with a 48 and a half percent rushing success rate.

30:55People are going to look at it at 3.9 yards per carry.

30:58Isn't great, but they had some stretches in this game where they were doing what they wanted their third drive five, four,

31:04three on third and one, seven, nine, eight. There was another drive where Brees Hall had back to back 10 yard runs.

31:09There was a 13 personnel, like I don't even know what you would call it.

31:13It was like a G lead play where Tipman pulled all the way out to the left side where they got the

31:19ball onto the perimeter for a 12 yard gain.

31:21The next play, they ran inside zone with a little slice motion from the receiver to hold the backside linebacker, which they

31:27did twice in this game for chunk gains where that's the stuff where it's just like, okay, like these are little details

31:33about the offense where it's just like, okay, that's really well done where you're getting the linebacker or you're getting the wide

31:39receiver away from the point of attack. There were the one play, the one I'm talking about in the second half, it just holds the play side linebacker.

31:46There was another play where Jermaine Johnson also accounts for it.

31:49And so you ain't two players out with that motion.

31:52And so it's a combination of the offensive line being talented, which we already know, but also just little tiny design wrinkles

31:58that are making things easier on your run game combined with backs that I think we feel pretty good about.

32:03And so overall, it's like, all right, like I, I, if that's what this is going to look like, I think you can get excited about it.

32:10And there was another play where again, some of the motion stuff that they were doing and like getting into different run calls, I thought was interesting.

32:17There was a play early in the second quarter.

32:19They start with the two tight ends on the field and their fullback, but they set it like, it's like three tight ends all to one side.

32:26That's what it looks like with Andrew Beck as the fullback as the outside guy.

32:30They shift one of the tight ends over to the right side.

32:34They shift back into the backfield as like an eye formation.

32:36So you've gone from this 13 personnel looking formation where it's like probably going to get like duo into the strong side

32:42or weak side zone into the other side. So you've got those run times that's on the table.

32:47And then they shift into like eye form where you have a tight end on either side.

32:51Well, now you can pull to either side. You can run power.

32:55You can run counter. You can run lead zone.

32:57You can run lead zone strong. Like you can, they literally opened up every single possible run concept with the personnel and

33:03shifts that they put on the field. I was like, if they're going to do that and toy around a little bit

33:08with like that, with the offensive line talent that they have, it could be a pretty good run game.

33:13And the other thing too, like the passing game just has to be good enough to let the run game breathe a little bit.

33:20And we can talk about it. Like they were, the passing game was more than good enough.

33:24Again, this is the Titans, but like they looked competent.

33:27I was most worried about past protection plans with this staff because of what it had looked like the last couple of

33:33times we saw Frank Reich as a play caller.

33:35The first big completion in this game to Omar Cooper Jr.

33:38It's an incredible job by Dylan Parham and Braylon Allen to pick up the pressure on that play.

33:43The Titans only bring, the Titans bring four to that side.

33:46The jets only have three guys to account for it.

33:48Parham blocked both linebackers on the play as Braylon Allen.

33:51I think Braylon Allen picks up somebody. I can't remember who it was, but they do a great job of picking it up.

33:57Jacob Martin dropped into coverage on that play. He got lost in space a little bit and Cooper just ran totally scot-free for the huge chunk completion.

34:04But that again, first drive, opening possession, they're bringing a pressure.

34:07They account for it correctly. It leads to a chunk gain.

34:10It's like, okay, that's it. The offensive line in the run game, I feel good about the overall talent where it's probably going to clear a certain bar.

34:17In past protection, was this group as talented as they are going to look like the worst versions of themselves across the board?

34:23Like we had seen with recent Frank Reich teams.

34:26And the fact that this was the first glimpse we saw from them, and that was not the case.

34:31Again, just box checked week one makes me feel a lot better about what this could look like moving forward.

34:36And the other box checked with this team, we all know Garrett Wilson's talented, but to see it late, like you were

34:42really reminded of how good he is in this game.

34:44The slant he caught on the fourth and two, the fourth and two slant he caught him plucking that ball away from his body in traffic.

34:51It's like, holy shit, man. And he gets smoked and hangs on to it.

34:55And I was like, okay. And then there was like another, they had him on the right side and he runs like

35:01a deep crossing route to the left-hand side. And Gino just pins it on him right on the sideline.

35:05I was like, if they're going to really just be able to access all of what he can do, because he can

35:11be like a really good dynamic all around the field receiver.

35:14If he's going to be able to do that and make tough catches in traffic, it's like he, the thing with him,

35:20and you really did see it on that fourth and two play, his hand-eye coordination is insane.

35:24It really is. Just the way that he plucks it and finds it and can bend his body and can tour it.

35:30Like he's a really special, just find the ball anywhere type of receiver.

35:34And Gino's accurate enough that he can always put the ball where the receiver needs to go and get it.

35:39And so it's kind of a fun combination. I'm hoping we get to see a lot of for the rest of this year.

35:45This game specifically, it was very much like a wedding crashers.

35:48I can make it rain out here. I put the ball where I want to sort of moment.

35:53I mean, he really did. The ball placement throughout this game was really, really good.

35:57I will say the Titans defense made it easier on him than you want to see that play.

36:01You're talking about with the big crosser. That's a, the most basic play action, big crosser against single high type stuff that you can imagine.

36:08And they were doing that throughout this entire game.

36:10I looked it up afterwards. Cause I was curious how much cover three did the Titans play and what the numbers look like?

36:16It was a good chunk. Gino had 11 attempts against cover three in this game.

36:20What do you think his numbers were? I'm going to say eight for eight for 11, for like one 40, 11 of

36:2611 for 164 yards against cover three looks in this game.

36:29That's obscene. You just can't do that. Like if you, if you're going to be a Robert solid, you can't allow teams

36:35to just carve the shit out of you when you're playing cover three.

36:38And that's exactly what happened throughout this entire game.

36:40And on the flip side with the jets defense, it was the opposite of that where they'd actually didn't play a ton of man coverage.

36:47It was a real roll with decks of coverages.

36:49They played a lot of cover two. They played a lot of cover three, but in man, they had, I think six

36:55drop backs and man coverage word finished one of five for 11 yards.

36:59And you look at the secondary. I think that was going to be a question.

37:03Like they had added a ton of pieces to the front.

37:05What was the secondary going to look like? I think a lot of guys had some nice moments in this game.

37:11Jarvis Brownlee had a couple of nice moments in this game.

37:14Uh, brand Stevens had a couple of nice moments in this game.

37:17The one that really stood out though, which I assume you feel pretty good about as Ray Thomas looks really good.

37:22He looks really good in this game. Bully press man corner.

37:25Just the big, I mean, he's like six, two.

37:28Like he was, when they drafted him, I was like, this is what it's supposed to look like in the Aaron Glenn defense.

37:34And just a million things went wrong for the defense last year that you just didn't get, didn't get to see it,

37:40but him getting weaponized in this game. I think they sent him on a blitz or two in this game.

37:45Like him being able to play the way that he did.

37:48I was super excited about that. Cause you're right.

37:50Even if I liked him, I still looked at the cornerback room this year.

37:54And I was like, if there's anything that sinks this defense, it is going to be what they're going to be in coverage.

38:00But if they can be enough of a Rolodex team, if they can get hands on guys early in plays, which that was the other thing.

38:07I think not even just at the line of scrimmage, which they did a little bit, but them getting guy hands on

38:12players, like a little bit deeper into the stem and just like rerouting seam routes and just making sure that guys are not getting free access to anything.

38:20They did such a good job. It just looks so much more put together on that side of the ball than it ever did last year.

38:27And the play that jumped out to me the first time I thought that in this game, and it shouldn't surprise you

38:32is watching Demario Davis run step for step with Tony Pollard on that high red zone play where they try to get Pollard on the rail.

38:39And Davis is just again, step for step with him the entire way.

38:43Adding Demario Davis to your defense, the entire point of doing something like that in this point of his career is just

38:48to make everything feel more buttoned up. And that's what it felt like.

38:52It just so consistently, the play that you're talking about with the corner blitz, Thomas comes off the left side there because

38:58they're in like a one by three nub situation where the tight end is the only receiver to that side.

39:03I assume that's a formational call that they're doing in real time.

39:06And on that play, Jarvis Brownlee did a fantastic job in zone coverage.

39:09And so that's like, all right, so many nice things happening in concert with one another.

39:14And then the stretch from Thomas that I was just like, man, this is really good.

39:18They added, there was a two play sequence at one point where he's in cover two on the first play.

39:23He does a great job of getting depth. They end up checking the ball down to Tony Pollard in front of him.

39:29He makes the play in space. And then on third down, it's him one-on-one with Iamanor on cover three and it's a one-on-one outside the numbers.

39:36And he just pushes him out of bounds for an incompletion.

39:39And so it just so across the board in the back seven, even if really Demario Davis was like the big addition

39:44that we had from them this year in that area of the defense, I just thought looked so, so much better than

39:50it ever did at any point last year. Yeah.

39:53I mean, it, it, it is funny that for as bad as last year went, like every part of what you would

39:58have wanted the defense to look like, they kind of looked like in this game, like all of the additions.

40:04I think the crazier thing about Davis, you're right.

40:06Like you bring him in to kind of button some things up.

40:09The fact that he is running step for step with a guy like Tony Pollard down the sideline, he had a run

40:15stop in this game where like he saw daylight for just a little bit, because like just the way that the blocking

40:21scheme worked out, he was kind of free, a free hitter, how fast he closes the space and makes it like a

40:27one yard gain when it very well could have been like a four or five.

40:30If he was a tick slower him playing at that level at this age is, it's just kind of incredible.

40:36And so if he, if this is not like Bobby Wagner on the commanders where it really is like, he can kind

40:42of only help you tackle box to tackle box.

40:44I really think Demario Davis played a really good game.

40:47I was pretty impressed with the Jets defense. I do think though, this is a scenario where I'm like, I want to see it against the real offense.

40:54Correct. The, the Titans offense was heinous in this game.

40:57They had two explosive plays. Titans offense did every other offense in the league had at least four.

41:01Wow. In week one, they had two. I don't even know where to start with this entire thing.

41:06I mean, it was just, it was so ugly to watch.

41:09I can start with two stats and then we can get into kind of how they arrived here on anything above 2.2 seconds to throw.

41:15So this is, this is taking out RPOs, most of their screens, some of that stuff.

41:20Even that stuff looked like shit. Even that stuff looked like shit and we'll get there.

41:24Can't yeah. Cam dirted one. That was just like, what are we doing?

41:27Which I think like the running back stepped on his foot.

41:30It just this team has no coordination on anything above 2.2 seconds to throw only the Packers gave up a higher pressure rate this week.

41:37And that was mostly in part by like the, the Vikings splits to 80%.

41:40Yes. Like that was a very unique thing. So in terms of normal games, the Titans were just far worse than anybody in the league.

41:47That is coupled with the fact that this week the Titans had the second lowest average depth of target in the NFL at 4.4.

41:53The only team lower was the Cooper rush Falcon Falcons.

41:56Think about what Cam Ward could and should be.

41:58That can't be how you run the offense. It doesn't make any sense.

42:02It's the same complaint that you kind of had, which I think has proven right now with the way that Trevor Lawrence

42:07looks when he was in the Doug Peterson offense, when it was just this spread and shred, like throw it short, throw

42:13a bunch of stick routes, throw a bunch of flat routes.

42:16It's like, well, he's got a bazooka. What are we doing?

42:19Watch it now where he's like every single throw is 15 to 18 years down the field.

42:24Yes. It's like, and again, maybe there's some other structural issues.

42:26Don't trust the offensive line, whatever it's going to be.

42:29But if this is your quarterback, this can't be what the offense is about.

42:33Like it just can't be how it functions. It was so hard to watch.

42:36And I don't want to absolve him either because he had a couple of tough plays.

42:41I mean, there was the, the first one is the throw to the running back that you're talking about the absolutely dirt.

42:46And then there was a swing that he threw like 10 feet over Tajay Spears, his head.

42:51Yep. Like every single aspect of this was worrying.

42:53I don't know what the plan is supposed to be.

42:56I don't know what they're supposed to be. You watch the jets offense yesterday and you see the vision for this is

43:02what we think we can be good at. And so let's try to be good at this stuff.

43:06We have three tight ends that we like. They had 26 plays yesterday.

43:10The jets did with multiple tight ends on the field.

43:12They were only in 11 personnel, 44% of the time they had a 47% success rate on the ground.

43:17It's like, all right, I understand what the vision of this is supposed to be.

43:21We're going to run the ball. We're going to try to throw some intermediate chunks off of play action because that's what our offense is built to do.

43:29And I think that's what our quarterback can do well if he's protected.

43:32What is the Titans offense supposed to be when you go back and you watch that game yesterday?

43:37I couldn't figure it out. It was literally like they were cheesing some RPO stuff.

43:41So they threw a couple of screens that were bad and like one or two chunk play action plays that they tried

43:47to pick up, which by the way, like could not get blocked at all.

43:50Like they had guys and could not get them blocked whatsoever.

43:53And so like you had a bunch of those issues.

43:56They're also like on the where you could kind of see that this was going to go wrong immediately.

44:01I think this was the first drive. Maybe it was the second, but it was nine and a half minutes left in the first quarter.

44:07It's a third and three Titans are an empty.

44:10They motioned somebody left to right to the snap.

44:12The jets fire somebody through the B gap. They get a free runner on camp word.

44:16Fine. You've got three guys to the little spot route into what could be the void.

44:21The problem is the number three, the closest guy to the formation.

44:24He's running that little spot route. The number two right next to him.

44:27I think it was tight end Gunnar Helm. He like runs into him and then runs in front of him and tries

44:33to cross his face to get to the middle of the field.

44:36Well, camp board is not going to throw that if he can't see the guy he's trying to throw at.

44:41And so he holds it. And I think it ends up being, he like throws it away at some point in the

44:47game or at some point later in the play.

44:49And it was just like the details of this offense.

44:52It just never felt like anybody knew what they were doing, which I think is extremely concerning, especially in week one.

44:58You look at what the jets were doing with the plans that they had on fourth, third into fourth down in this game.

45:04They consistently were like, we know what we're doing.

45:06This is the two play sequence that we like.

45:08We're going to go forward in this situation. They had a touchdown on fourth and one call back that Braylon Allen had.

45:14I mean, it's, they consistent. I don't know what the numbers were finally, but they had multiple four down conversions in this

45:20game and should have had another one. The sequence that I talked about with Azari Thomas, when he had the really nice

45:26play as the flat defender in cover two, and then one-on-one in cover three, that was a third and three from the plus 45.

45:32The Titans threw a one-on-one go ball to Alec Iomanor against Azari Thomas, and then punted the ball from the 45 into

45:38the end zone to get 25 yards of field position.

45:40How are we not playing to help ourselves here?

45:43It's, you have an offensive line that you've invested a lot in.

45:46You paid Dan Moore a lot of money. You paid Peter Skarnsky a lot of money, drafted JC Latham in the first round.

45:52Let's run the ball on third and three, see what we can get into on fourth and short and consider going for it in that situation.

45:59Instead, we punt for 25 yards of field position from plus territory.

46:02And I think it's all of it too. And like the thing I want to talk about is a player mistake, but

46:08also I think like kind of comes from the coaching.

46:10Taisha, I think, was it Pollard or Spears that caught that pass set?

46:14I think it might've been Pollard, but he's got a, he's got a chance to catch the ball and get upfield and get, it was Pollard two yards.

46:21He can get two yards and maybe it becomes fourth and one.

46:24Maybe he really fights and gets to the sticks, but he tries to be a hero and go and make Azari Thomas

46:30miss on the outside so he can get to the sticks.

46:33And then Azari Thomas hits him in the backfield and it's a one yard loss.

46:37Like just get upfield to me and like make those plays and like make things easier on your offense.

46:42And then there was a play later, earlier in the game, uh, in the first quarter, they're running mid zone to the right.

46:48It is the clearest bend cutback read for any running back I've ever seen.

46:52And TyJ Spears just like runs full steam ahead into his guard.

46:55And I'm like, man, like if this was going to be like what the offense was going to be, this should look smoother.

47:01And it just like, again, it felt like the details for the offense, whether it was pass protection plan, guys running into

47:07each other on routes, guys not getting to the six when they have to guys, not making the right reads in the run game.

47:13The ball to themselves on a weird reverse for no reason.

47:16Why are we trying to do that? Like it just, that's the thing.

47:19If let's just play offense, their detail in the offense was, we're going to have the quarterback flip the ball to himself.

47:25Not like the receivers are going to be in the right spot on third down.

47:29Like it's, it was stunning to me how bad this looked.

47:32There was again, just contrasting it with what the jets were doing.

47:35The sequence for 17, three, when it was, the jets had second and two, they had like a gun play action call.

47:41That was like a beautiful, like route distribution that they hit Wilson on in a crosser linebacker.

47:45Didn't find him as he's running that deep crosser.

47:48And then the first and 20 deep shot to 80 Mitchell.

47:51It's like they had answers situationally for whatever the game was throwing at them.

47:54The jets did. And you just compare that to what the flow and rhythm felt like for the Titans offense.

48:00And it's just two different worlds. And I think you, what you said at the beginning is a good place to end this.

48:06And I think a good point to put on the end of this game, this is a really good measuring stick game

48:11for two teams that then coming into the year, we all knew could go either way, right?

48:16Just based on the offensive staff and some of the recent returns from those play callers, like what was this going to look like?

48:22And which direction was this thing going to go?

48:25Because I think that there's a real volatility to both of those scenarios in both of these situations.

48:29And for the jets to come out and look like, and pass the test in the way that they did.

48:35And for the Titans to fail it in the way that they did.

48:38It's week one to new staff. It's a new play caller, but I would be pretty concerned if I were a Titans

48:44fan coming off of last season for it to look like this.

48:47Cause that's the thing. Sometimes you get good teams embarrass themselves in week ones, like the Rams.

48:51Rams are going to be fine. They're a good football team.

48:54I don't know. It might be over. I guess without Miles Garrett, we'll see.

48:58It might be over. But when like the teams that you already think might be bad, look worst case scenario week one,

49:04I'm willing to believe those a lot of the time.

49:06And so this was kind of concerning. I don't want to overreact too much with the new staffs.

49:11Like I don't want to pick and choose. I don't want to say, all right, I wasn't excited about the Titans coming in.

49:17And so them being bad in week one is real.

49:20And some of the teams that struggled in week one that I have more faith for that are new staffs.

49:25That is a wait and see thing. That's unfair.

49:27There are so many examples we've seen, even with really good play callers, where it's going to take a while.

49:33Like, but let's just the situation with Brian Dable and Cam Ward, the best case scenario with that is the situation we've

49:38seen with some of these other second year quarterbacks or some of these former number of our picks who were flailing before their guys got there.

49:45Caleb Williams, Trevor Lawrence, all that. Let's rewind a year and let's think about what the Jags and Bears offenses looked like

49:51for the first quarter of the season, even into the first half of the season.

49:55And think about how different that feels to what we were talking about and what we were saying at the end of the year.

50:01It is way, way, way, way too early to get overly concerned about this.

50:05But the fact that this is like the opening presentation from this group, and again, you compare it to a very similar

50:11situation with the Jets where I think there was a healthy amount of skepticism for both.

50:15If you come out in week one and you get your ass kicked by the Ravens in the way that the Colts

50:21did, it's kind of like, all right, whatever. We'll move on.

50:24But for the Jets to come out and do this to you and for them to look as clean and organized and

50:29just with a well-founded plan compared to yours, it's just like that's a troubling place to be if you were the Titans,

50:35and that's something that has to get better in a hurry.

50:38All right, we're going to take one more quick break and then come back and chat a little Raiders-Dolphins.

50:43Let's get to our last one here. The Las Vegas Raiders beat up on the Miami Dolphins 27-13 in the first game

50:49of Clint Kubiak's tenure as their head coach. Did you see the clip of him in the tunnel afterwards?

50:54Kubiak? Yes. No. He was very excited and celebrating in a way that I did not know Clint Kubiak was capable of doing.

51:00All it takes is having your own team. That's right.

51:03I think it speaks to how everyone in that building must have been feeling after watching the way that game one went for this regime.

51:09I mean, I was pretty impressed. And again, this is going to be one where we've got to take it with a

51:15grain of salt because I think this Miami defense is pretty rough for a lot of reasons.

51:19The Dolphins overall. Yeah, the Dolphins overall were pretty rough.

51:22But I just felt like you saw a lot of the beats of stuff that you wanted to see.

51:27I thought the offensive line looked much better than they did last year.

51:30You know who really surprised me? It's night and day.

51:33Spencer Burford played really, really well for them. He did a great job getting to the second level consistently on a lot of those runs.

51:40He did a fantastic job. I thought Ashton Gentry was excellent in this game.

51:43I think he can be explosive, but I think they have Mike Washington there to also be explosive, which he can be pretty good at.

51:50That one too, man. It might be pretty good.

51:52The idea of it when you saw what Mike Washington could be in preseason was like, all right, what do they have here?

51:58And then to see them come out and have it look like this, where you have Gentry making plays all over the place.

52:04And then every time Mike Washington touches the ball, it's like, oh my God.

52:08And because to the way they do it, like so many of the Mike Washington runs were like, can we get this to bounce or cut back?

52:15Yes. Because like, yes, he's explosive. His first chunk run was on Duo, I think, where he bounced it outside.

52:20Exactly. And like, it felt like every run for Gentry was like, if we can block this for four, he's going to find seven.

52:27Like, I thought his patience in this game and his footwork was just phenomenal.

52:30How many times were there moments where it seemed like it was bottled up at the line of scrimmage and he just

52:36squirts through for another four or five yards? It was happening all game.

52:40Off of his runs, there was one where late in the first quarter, they ran like a, they had like a Duo

52:45run, which I did think was interesting. They had Kirk like reverse pivot the other way and then come back, which I

52:51thought was like a kind of interesting little wrinkle.

52:53But they run Duo and he just, how patiently he just lets the play wash down in front of him before he

52:59finally hits the hole and goes and gets like seven yards.

53:02It was just like, those are plays that last year, if the Raiders tried that, they get stuffed for two.

53:07And there's just nothing there and he's not able to find it.

53:11The run he had immediately after the trade in Stukes interception, the cut he made on that run, that was one of

53:16those where I rebounded like three or four times.

53:19I was like, my God, that looks really good.

53:21And the other Gentry specific observation I had in this game, and it makes the Bowers thing even more tragic.

53:26I think what Clint Kubiak did last year with JSN, he's clearly so inspired by the talent of his best players and

53:32trying to find as many unique ways as he possibly can to get them involved in the game.

53:37And that's what we saw with Gentry in this game.

53:40I mean, we have a split back angle route touchdown to Ashton Gentry.

53:43There were, I think maybe on the drive before that, he, no, on the play before that, they had him in the slot.

53:49They tried to throw him a screen in the slot on the play before he scored on the angle route.

53:54And so just all of the different ways they were trying to get him the ball in the passing game, to me,

54:00it just speaks to when you combine that with what we saw him do with JSN last year, I really can't wait

54:06to see what he'll try to do with Brock Bowers because his plan when he has special players is essentially, can I

54:12find 20 different ways to get this guy the ball over the course of the game, which is a good way to

54:17approach being a football coach, but not everyone does.

54:20It's a good, it's definitely a good way to start.

54:22I mean, you mentioned all those plays. Some of their red zone stuff was really good, which we can talk about too.

54:28There was another play in the middle of the first quarter where Gentry was at like offset eye fullback.

54:33And they had- Was it when Lowby was in behind them?

54:36Yes. No, it was Connor Hayward was behind him.

54:38Oh, Connor Hayward was behind him. Interesting. And they like inverted them, which was really, really bizarre.

54:43But this was too, and this is actually linked to another play that I want to talk about with the Raiders, which

54:49is this is kind of what had me inspired about their passing offense.

54:52This was one of those like straight drop back from under center, but they had Gentry in the offset eye to the

54:58left and they had two stack receivers also to the left.

55:01And then to the right is Michael Mayer all by himself in the nub.

55:04They have the leading stack receiver run this like big over route.

55:08So that's clearing out a little bit of space.

55:10And they have Gentry run like a little angle route.

55:13So Kirk starts his read over there. He's like, okay, I can kind of read this high low, see what's going to happen.

55:19Mayer on the right side is running like an eight to 10.

55:22Like he stops, pivots outside a little bit and then comes back for it.

55:25And it's just like a backside China route. It's like a backside China.

55:29And like the timing of Kirk being able to go front side and be like, okay, that's dead.

55:34As soon as he turns around, Mayer is right there, hands out, ready for the ball.

55:38And like, they just did stuff like that all game.

55:40They hit another one like that a little bit later in the game that actually got broken up by the defense.

55:46It was a good play, but you saw like the rhythm of how the passing offense is supposed to work with five out.

55:52And I was like, I get it, man. Like I kind of think that this can work.

55:56It's eerie. The type of stuff we both pick up on when we're going to talk about these games.

56:01That exact play with Mayer on the backside on that China route is with, and it was Gentry offsetting that two-back look on the play.

56:08And the linebacker goes with him. And you watch the gravity that they use to their advantage on that play.

56:13He, Gentry releases to the left. The linebacker pulls to that side.

56:16And then all that space is created for Mayer to reverse pivot back into.

56:20When you see that, when you see the Niners do this stuff all the time, where you'll watch them play, watch Brock play the rhythm of the play.

56:28And the route that he's coming back to on the backside is coming open just as his eyes are getting there.

56:33That's just what good pure progression football looks like.

56:35And so it, we said about the Jets, and I think the Raiders are maybe even a more pronounced version of this,

56:41just with some of the details that we were seeing.

56:44It's just, you really like the plan from a new staff in year one.

56:48And the Raiders don't have superstar players outside of Ashton Gentry with Brock Bowers hurt.

56:51The offensive line is a huge question mark. Kirk Cousins is a stopgap quarterback, but when you're watching what they're trying to

56:57accomplish and you see the intention behind so much of it, that's where you can look at a year one, week one

57:03staff and be like, okay, like I, if this is what we're going to be doing every single week, this is a

57:09group that I will be interested in watching moving forward.

57:11It was kind of like you talked about with the Jets and then opposite of the Titans, like you saw what they

57:17thought they were supposed to be good at and what they wanted to be good at.

57:21And like, I just thought that they did such a good job of it because that was some of their, you know,

57:27we're talking about some of their pure progression stuff.

57:30I thought some of their play action game looked pretty good too.

57:33Like there was, we can start talking about their red zone stuff a little bit.

57:37Late in the third quarter, they were like in the mid red zone and they'd run this like weak eye formation lead play action.

57:43The fullback and the linebacker just kill each other at the line of scrimmage, but it creates just enough of a mess

57:49that Jacob Rodriguez is supposed to come and get Gente out of the backfield.

57:52Well, he gets caught up in traffic. And it's just like, man, that was the touchdown.

57:57That was the touchdown of Gente. Rodriguez trips on that play.

58:00They caught in the wash. Getting stuff like that all the time.

58:03Just like finding ways to create traffic and create mayhem on some of their play action stuff.

58:07Like again, the best touchdown that Kirk on that play does such a great job on that play.

58:12And even like this entire sequence to me is exactly what we're talking about when you compare it to something like what the Titans were doing.

58:19It's third and four on that opening drive. We get a gun run on third and four because like, all right, they're

58:25probably not accounting for this to the degree that they, they can't, right?

58:28Like you can't, there's only so much you can account for on third and four.

58:32Most defenses, even if they know that you might run the ball in that situation, they're never going to be in the perfect look to stop it.

58:39Because if they are, you should have a play in your back pocket where you can throw against something like that.

58:45So it's third and four gun run. They get three yards.

58:47It's fourth and one tight end sneak, which shouldn't be surprising after watching the barnyard over the last, over the last year, do it for them.

58:54They get the first down. And then on that drive is when the best touchdown happens.

58:58Kirk does a phenomenal, professional veteran quarterback job on that play where he's watching Bess come on the crosser.

59:03He knows immediately based on the coverage and based on the leverage, he's going to go to Bess to throw that ball.

59:09Yep. But he keeps his eyes to the left for as long as he possibly can before snapping back and throwing the ball to Bess for a touchdown.

59:17And so you watch all that stuff kind of happen in succession.

59:20And it's the Dolphins. It's week one. All the necessary and worthwhile caveats you can throw at it.

59:24But that type of stuff, when you start stacking it up, it's like, that's what good offense looks like.

59:29That's what you want to see from this group.

59:32It just didn't feel gimmicky. And again, like the degree to which they will be able to successfully do some of this stuff against better defenses, we'll see.

59:39But it just didn't feel like this was fake or gimmicky or like they were getting away with something like it just, this felt like good controlled football.

59:47And again, you saw the best players look like what they were supposed to look like, like Gentie having such an excellent game.

59:53Bess looking like what you hoped he could be coming out of college.

59:56Michael Mayer, I thought like the stats are not great.

59:59He was like six for 30 something yards or whatever, but like he played a really good game, I thought, and was like a useful piece for them.

60:06And then the guys that you didn't know if they were going to be good, like Spencer Burford having the game that he had for them.

60:13There were a couple of plays where Ian Thomas as a blocker, there was one where he moves Willie Gay off the ball in like an outside zone.

60:20I saw some of the stuff they were doing with those two guys as pullers on some of those plays was really nice.

60:26I really did enjoy watching that offense. And the mayor thing, we haven't talked about, we haven't done anything about the Raiders since he signed that contract.

60:33And I think people are going to look at that contract, $15 million a year.

60:37That is 4.98% of the 2026 cap if you're looking at his percentage of the cap.

60:42It's the contract, it's the Dawson Knox Colk Met contract.

60:44Yeah. Like that's all it is. And when you look at those deals and the types of players that they are within

60:50the offense, Komet is at 5.56 when he signed his deal in 2023.

60:53Dawson Knox was over 6% when he signed his deal with the Bills.

60:57And if you look at the role that those guys play within the offense, it is the doesn't do anything great, does a little bit of everything.

61:04We can stick him at Y and that allows us to use the playmaking tight ends that we have in the ways that we want to.

61:11That's a really valuable role if we're going to be living in a multi-tight end world.

61:15And so the idea of, man, $15 million is a lot for Michael Mayer.

61:19Well, for that archetype of player, it's actually just very much in line with what the market is.

61:23And there's really no issue with them giving him that deal.

61:26He is not going to look like that player Walbrock Bowers isn't playing.

61:30He's forced into a role that is different than the one you're going to ask him to play.

61:34But when that came across, that wasn't surprising to me at all because the idea that he's their backup tight end is

61:40a misunderstanding of a multi-tight end world and the position Brock Bowers plays, which is not tight end.

61:45Yeah, it's not one for one, but it's like the nickel.

61:48Like your second tight end almost is a starter at this point for a lot of teams.

61:52And so like, especially for this team. When Bowers gets back, how often are those two guys going to be on the field together?

61:59A lot of the time. Most of the time.

62:01Yes. I think most of the time they will be out there together because it's not, we're going to get to the

62:07end of the season and the Raiders, when Bowers gets back, it's going to be like, oh man, they were in 12 personnel 65% of the time.

62:14That's the most in the league by X percentage points.

62:16I think it's just more helpful and you brought up this name when we were talking about the Raiders coming into the year.

62:22I think it's just easier to lessen some of the cognitive dissonance with this just to think of Brock Bowers as Drake London.

62:29Yeah. Just like, just think of him as Drake London and then the rest of this stuff starts making more sense.

62:34It makes more sense. And like, honestly, and like, I don't think that that's a crazy amount of money for Michael Mayer

62:40because so much of offense right now is, can we just stay on track to do the cool shit we want to with our best players?

62:47And if you can reliably get a good blocker out of Michael Mayer, you can be in personnel you want where you

62:52can kind of do everything and everything is open for you.

62:55And he can, it's not going to be explosive, but Brock Bowers is going to be explosive.

63:00And Michael Mayer, he had a handful of catches in this game.

63:03You need six yards on third and five. He can get them.

63:06You need to play in the red zone. He can get them.

63:09And like he, again, it's, it's, it sounds like more money than it really is.

63:13And I think that he's a good player. I also think he's better than the previous production would say like, agreed.

63:19I think because of some of the offensive situations, I think that he just had some stuff that he was dealing with.

63:25I mean, there's so many things that point to why he has not been as productive as he could be.

63:30It's easy to forget that coming out of college, people were like, that dude is really good at football.

63:35And I think that he is now in a situation where he can prove again that he is really good at football.

63:41What's the thing about the Dolphins defense you want to sit with before we get to the other side of the ball real quick?

63:47I mean, it was bad. The couple of things I'll say, the defensive line was really rough in this game.

63:52And like, I think especially to me, the fact that some of those guys I did not expect to look great at this stage in their career.

63:59The fact that Zach Seeler, I thought, kind of got moved around as much as he did in this game was pretty concerning to me.

64:06The other guy that I will shout out as like a positive small silver lining, and I don't even know if this means that he's good.

64:13Michael Taff, their rookie fifth round safety, he plays with a reckless abandon that I do enjoy.

64:17He was throwing his shoulder pads around it. So in coverage, it's a little up and down, but he was making some plays at run defense, I thought.

64:24Chris Johnson had a TFL playing from the slot.

64:27They're young. They're young and they don't have much talent.

64:29That's just the reality of the situation with the Dolphins defense.

64:32But there are some moments where even when you consider that and that's sitting in the background, there were a little bit frustrating.

64:38But the third and six to Jalen Naylor immediately after Chris Johnson makes that TFL, why are we giving 10 yards of cushion on third and six?

64:45It's just the easiest completion. To a quarterback who's not going to beat you over the top or outside the numbers anyway.

64:51Those things are frustrating. That to me is not a product of inexperience or a lack of talent.

64:56That's just situationally not what should be happening. But overall, it's hard for me to get very worked up about a lack

65:02of quality from the Dolphins defense at this point.

65:04On the other side of the ball, I was, I don't know if I was, I don't know how I feel about the Raiders defense in this game.

65:12I think they were better than I would have expected them to be and I think that's a good start.

65:17Especially on the ground. Like that is the one specific area where coming into the season, I was worried about what the Raiders run defense would look like.

65:24I just don't think, you look at the talent that they have up front in combination with Max Crosby, and I was

65:30feeling a little bit itchy about that. The Dolphins finishing with a 21% rushing success rate in this game and the guy

65:36that really stood out up front, I thought that Foulu Fatsukasi played extremely well in this game.

65:40And so, the fact that if he can be in the middle of your run defense, the linebackers are obviously significantly improved over what they were last year.

65:48I thought both of them had some moments. That makes me feel a little bit better overall about what this Raiders defense

65:53can look like over the course of the season because my concern was, you got one pass rusher you feel really good about.

65:59We've got some young DBs that I think will have some flashes.

66:03Trayton Stooks already did. He had a couple of really nice moments in this game, but if teams are just bludgeoning you

66:08on the ground, it's just hard to live that way.

66:11And so, the fact that week one against a talented physical offensive line, even if we have structural systemic concerns about the

66:17Dolphins overall, was not able to run the ball against this team, that to me is a really positive sign considering what

66:23I was most worried about with them coming into the season.

66:25And that's the thing, we can say it's the Dolphins, but I think everybody, even if we thought that there was going

66:31to be some issues with the Dolphins, I think the one thing almost everybody would concede would be like, they could probably

66:37run the ball a little bit and they could not really at all for most of this game.

66:42And so, I thought that was really impressive. It's not even just that the linebackers are better too.

66:46The way that they were using Walker, where they can get into those five down fronts where he's on the ball, I thought was nice.

66:53I thought he had a couple nice moments in coverage too, like awareness wise.

66:57I really did like the way that both of those guys played.

67:00N'Kobe Dean flying downhill on that, I think fourth and one.

67:03I mean, it was a fourth and one. Well, situationally, when did he make that play?

67:07It was a third down. I think it was third down.

67:10It was like a short stop. Yeah, it was a stop.

67:13I can't remember if it was third or fourth and one, but it was a third one.

67:17It was third one. I have it right here.

67:20And so him flying downhill on that play, there was enough that you're like, okay, I can then Stokes, Stokes and Stokes,

67:25which is going to be incredibly confusing. Both had a couple moments in this game.

67:29Yeah. And Darian Porter did too. Porter had a couple, he had a couple of breakups that I thought were pretty impressive.

67:35They really too. And like, there were weirdly the only thing that the Dolphins got were like, they got a couple of explosive passes.

67:41Like Caleb Douglas had a couple of explosive ones.

67:44There's a couple moments from him where I was like, okay.

67:47Yeah, I was like, yeah, I see it. There's maybe something here and I will say, I think what summed up my

67:52frustration overall with the Dolphins in this game, not even just the quality, but just kind of the way that they went about things.

67:59It was the middle of the second quarter. They were in second and 26.

68:02I forgot exactly how they got there. Malik Willis rips a corner two hole shot down the right hand side.

68:08I think it might've been to Douglas and it gets them into a third and one.

68:12They run the ball and they lose a yard on third and one.

68:15Fine. But then they kick the field goal. I know.

68:18That, that, you can't do that. You are not going to be in enough close games and like have that many opportunities

68:24you, you've got to go for that. And like, again, I don't mind the running on third and one, like that's totally

68:30fine, but you've got to accept that if we're still going to be in fourth and short, we got to go.

68:35And so like that, especially it's not even just the fourth and short in plus territory.

68:39You just got a huge explosive chunk play to bail you out of second and 26.

68:43This drive was dead in the water three plays ago and you're giving up an opportunity to go for it.

68:49I just know what your defense is going to look like consistently.

68:52Right. Ben Johnson's going for it because he knows that his defense can't stop.

68:56I don't necessarily advocate for that. It's not the right choice, but mindset wise, we should probably be there's a middle ground

69:01to be found between those two things. If you are Jeff Halfley and you know what your defense is going to look

69:07like this year and fourth and two and plus territory is within that middle ground.

69:11And so I would have just have liked to seen them have gone for that one.

69:15What do you think of Malik Lewis in this game?

69:18I don't think that he played particularly well. I don't really think he had a shot in a lot of this.

69:23Like I just think I will say it did feel you could feel how limited the offense was, which I think was kind of to be expected.

69:31Like the offense was limited when it was Matt LaFleur calling plays.

69:34It's just that Matt LaFleur is one of the best to do this and had a much more talented unit.

69:39And so I did not think that he looks very good.

69:42I think really all that you saw from him was again, these handful of really explosive throws down the field.

69:47But I thought some of the down to down to down stuff didn't look great.

69:51And then I will say there were some moments where the Raiders pass rush got after it pretty good.

69:56Like there was a third and 15, I think on the first or second drive, Quidipe just like destroys Caden Proctor and Caden Proctor's a rookie.

70:03That's going to happen. But like there were more of those plays than you wanted.

70:07And I think that there will be better games that Malik Willis can play.

70:10And I think they'll learn, they'll find ways to where they can be a little bit more consistent down to down, but

70:16it's going to have to be a working process because it will be limited.

70:20Like he is a limited player. My concern is that those limitations breed bad habits.

70:24Yeah. They were there when they were down 27, 13, they were driving and they were down in the red zone and

70:30it's third down and he's got a clean, like pristine pocket that he bails from almost immediately.

70:34And you just have no shot. Like if that's how you're going to play that play, you have no shot.

70:39And so I worry in a situation where the offense is extremely limited, does that lead to him consistently trying to do

70:45too much and then compounding some of the problems that we're feeling from them?

70:49It's week one, right? Like again, it's week one, super limited offense, really young receivers.

70:53There is absolutely a chance that this gets better over the course of the year, but that was my like first thought

70:59fear when I saw him doing that where it's like, we don't need to do this.

71:03But just, I understand you feel like you have to shoulder a ton of this load.

71:07Just play within the offense that will serve you well over the course of time.

71:11And what I'll say to that is like, I do think they ended up in probably more pure drop back situations than

71:17they would have wanted because of how bad the run game was.

71:20I don't think the run game will look this bad every week.

71:23Like they, they have enough talent and enough, like Devon H.

71:26Hand is really talented. Willis has something as a runner.

71:29Like I think they will find enough to be better than this.

71:32It won't look this bad, but I do still worry.

71:34Like there will be good defenses that put them in these games where they're sub 35% rushing success rate and he has to be a drop back passer.

71:42I do still have my questions about how that's going to look and go.

71:45The Raiders last year, we talked about it a lot with when we discussed Patrick Graham in the offseason, preview show, they

71:51were playing with eight guys in the box as often as any defense in football last year because they felt like they needed to.

71:5711 Devon H. Hand carries in this game. One play of eight or more guys in the box for the Raiders.

72:03They had 10 carries that they faced with six or seven defenders in the box.

72:07Those 10 carries went for 31 yards. One of them was successful.

72:10One successful run on those 10 carries in six or seven man boxes for the Raiders.

72:14That's a very good start considering the way that you had to live last year.

72:18And again, I think the linebackers had a big role in that and I thought Fatukasi was really good in this game.

72:24The D-line looks good, man. Like all they got, like Adam Butler, who's like one of my favorite like weird little players.

72:30I thought that he had a couple of nice plays.

72:32Like again, I thought Quiddy Pay even had a couple of plays like they, the front's not going to destroy everybody.

72:38But again, the front last year was such that they had to dedicate every resource they had to make it work.

72:43I just don't think they have to live that way anymore.

72:46The other guy, again, we mentioned him just quickly, but I wanted to bring it back because I'm really, I think I'm

72:52really going to enjoy watching him play. I'm excited about Stooks.

72:55Yeah. The play that he makes on the interception is what you saw from him consistently in college where his range is

73:01just outlandish because he is so explosive. But their other play, I think I remember when it was in the game, but

73:07they're playing quarters, at least quarters to his side and he's on the backside.

73:10And just how confidently and quickly he cuts the cross around the backside knowing what he's doing.

73:15These guys played a lot of college football is clearly very smart if you've ever heard him talk.

73:20And so the idea that in his first game, we saw the physical ability with the interception, but also some of the

73:25mental stuff where he clearly has a handle on what they're asking of him.

73:29He's a player that I'm really excited about. Yeah.

73:31And they needed juice on that team. Like they did not have a ton of dudes who were just like super athletic.

73:37I mean, outside of Max Crosby, obviously, who felt like he can make a difference.

73:41They've added a lot more like quality players, but if he can actually be a guy who's like a little bit of

73:47a needle mover, that does go a long way for them.

73:50Good start for the Las Vegas Raiders. That's one of those games where...

73:53Which is funny. Last year, they beat the AFC Super Bowl team.

73:56I think that's a real Raiders fan is just such a sigh of relief.

74:00Not because you think this team's going to make the playoffs or win 10 games, but even if last week, last year's

74:06week one was a liar, I don't think this is going to be the same where even if the Raiders are going

74:12to be held back by some of their talent limitations, it is so incredible to have a team that you don't actively

74:17hate watching every single week when you had to endure that the entire previous season.

74:21And so that's all I want for Raiders fans this year.

74:24And that play that we're talking about, like the backside China to Michael Mayer and just the rhythm that it happens on.

74:30That's the type of shit where it might seem small, but when you add that up over time, it just leads to

74:36an offense and a team where it's like, they're doing the right things.

74:39Even if we're at stage one of the build here and other teams are going to out-talent us, do I have a

74:45team that I think is putting itself in the right positions?

74:48That's not kneecapping itself before the game even gets started.

74:50And if that's where we can land with the Clint Kubiak Raiders over the course of the season, that may seem modest,

74:56but I do think that that would go a long way in making this fall a little bit more enjoyable for people who root for this team.

75:03Just be the sub-500 team that like sticks around.

75:06And the offense looks good. That's all it's got to be.

75:09When you watch Kirk in this game, is there anything about his performance or the overall environment with the offense that leads

75:14you to any sort of thought about the timeline with Mendoza?

75:17I think it's tough. I think on one hand, he does limit what the offense is capable of.

75:22You're just not going to get very much downfield throwing.

75:25And I will say like, I even have questions about how good the receiving core even really is for that.

75:30Like they're going to be an offense that has to live under the 20 yard line.

75:34And I do think his ability to push outside the numbers at this point is a little bit tough.

75:39I do still think though that, and this is kind of what I said going into the season, he has played more

75:45football and played more good football than most of the other quarterbacks who are ahead of these first overall pick guys.

75:50So like, I just don't think that this is going to be a situation where it's October and they're ripping him already.

75:56The only case I see that being the case is like, they really think Mendoza is like a f***ing dude.

76:01Which like, is entirely possible. He's the first overall pick and he's built like a cyborg.

76:06But I just, I think that Kirk will handle this well enough that it is not going to be a situation where

76:11we're begging for Mendoza to be in the game.

76:14Yeah, and I want to see them play against a defense that's not the Dolphins in order to get a sense of,

76:20again, some of the systemic considerations, like what sort of situation are we dropping Mendoza into when he gets to play?

76:25We don't have an answer on that right now.

76:28Not yet. Even if I can be, I can like what I saw from the Raiders offense and I like the plan

76:33and I like some of the things that they were doing, I still don't have a proper understanding of what you're putting

76:39your first overall pick into until you play a team that is not starting, I'm not even going to say any names

76:45because I don't want to be mean, the starting defensive backs for the Miami Dolphins.

76:49That's what I'll say. I want to see them play against a team that doesn't, is not in that situation before I

76:55think we start talking about when it's time to see Mendoza just to know you're not putting him in harm's way.

77:00That's the biggest consideration and so we don't yet have a proper understanding of how much you would be putting him in

77:06harm's way based on this game and their opponent on the other side.

77:09That's probably the better way to put it. Let's make sure he's not going to get smacked out there.

77:14All right. That is all we've got for week one on the Monday Hangover.

77:18We'll be doing this every single week, obviously chatting about a handful of games.

77:22That's all we've got for today. We'll be back tomorrow on the feed with Building the Beast.

77:26Dave and Dane breaking down all things 2027 draft.

77:29I don't know what they're talking about tomorrow but I assume some of it is related to what we saw from the 2027 quarterbacks last weekend.

77:35It's almost going to be all that. Drew Mastemaker, Arch Manning, Dante Moore, Julian Sainz, those four quarterbacks played against one another, right?

77:41Oregon, Oklahoma State, Ohio State, Texas. So a lot of good quarterback talk coming tomorrow.

77:45The 2027 quarterback class continues to be a moving target.

77:48I think generously, if we put it generously. That's all we've got for today.

77:52Sincerely appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you later.

77:54Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode.

77:59If you enjoyed what you heard, please like, comment, and leave a rating.

78:03We'll see you next time.

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