Week 2 Preview

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

1 hr 27 min

Duration

Estimated from transcript

Sep 18, 2026

Published

Fri, September 18, 2026

Player insights

Players mentioned

Topics

Trevor LawrenceBaker MayfieldBo NixBrenton StrangeBrian Thomas Jr.C.J. StroudCaleb WilliamsChris RodriguezChristian McCaffreyCooper RushD.J. MooreD'Andre SwiftDalton KincaidDaniel Jones

Player analysis

Player insights

Baker Mayfield

NegativeBust1006:48

Baker Mayfield is coming off a horrendous Week 1 performance characterized by poor ball security, unnecessary scrambling, and forcing throws into coverage. He faces a high-stakes matchup against the Browns, where his emotional state is heightened.

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Bo Nix

NegativeProjection47:27

Bo Nix struggled in Week 1, appearing actively bad when pressured and failing to get the ball out on time, which is a major concern given the offensive line's poor performance.

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Brenton Strange

PositiveUsage58:57

Brenton Strange is being utilized in backfield actions reminiscent of the 49ers' run game, contributing to an aesthetically pleasing and effective Jaguars offense.

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Brian Thomas Jr.

PositiveUsage46:17

Thomas Jr. is being used effectively on deep hook routes, exploiting linebackers who fail to gain sufficient depth in coverage.

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C.J. Stroud

PositiveProjection26:51

CJ Stroud is praised for his Week 1 performance, with the source noting he was operating well, seeing the field clearly, and throwing accurately.

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Caleb Williams

NegativeProjection99:17

Caleb Williams struggled with deep-field accuracy against the Vikings last year, completing almost nothing past 14-15 yards. Week 2 serves as a critical follow-up to determine the validity of his Week 1 performance and his ability to handle pressure.

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Chris Rodriguez

PositiveUsage44:55

Rodriguez handled his limited carries effectively in Week 1, contributing to the team's improved, more physical run game.

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Christian McCaffrey

NegativeMatchup49:59

Teams often avoid playing man coverage against McCaffrey to prevent linebackers from being put in difficult coverage situations.

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Cooper Rush

NegativeMatchup50:43

Defensive coordinators may adjust their schemes specifically to avoid giving Rush easy throws, as seen in the Steelers' game plan against him.

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D.J. Moore

PositiveUsage4:06

DJ Moore was the recipient of a 'whole shot' throw from Josh Allen, a high-difficulty pass that few quarterbacks would attempt or successfully complete.

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D'Andre Swift

PositiveUsage98:35

DeAndre Swift was highly effective in pass protection during Week 1, which provides the Bears offense with better utility against aggressive blitzing defenses like Brian Flores' Vikings.

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Dalton Kincaid

PositiveUsage5:26

Dalton Kincaid made an 'unbelievable catch' over Derek Stingley, demonstrating the type of high-difficulty play that contributed to the Bills' offensive success in Week 1.

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Daniel Jones

NegativeProjection53:34

Jones is facing concerns regarding his mobility and comfort level throwing outside the numbers. His performance against pressure is a major question mark, and he struggled to drive the ball outside the numbers in his last outing.

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Drake Maye

NegativeMatchup50:14

The recommended defensive approach against May is to force him to check the ball down consistently by playing soft zone and forcing runs into light boxes.

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Ja'Marr Chase

NegativeUsage13:53

Jamar Chase had a 9.1% target rate in the slot in Week 1, significantly lower than his three-year average of 27%, as the Bengals experimented with new offensive schemes; the team is working to integrate him more effectively moving forward.

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Joe Burrow

NegativeInjury25:27

Joe Burrow is dealing with back tightness but has dismissed the idea that he would miss upcoming games as 'ridiculous'.

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Josh Allen

PositiveProjection2:22

Josh Allen delivered a superhuman performance in Week 1, executing five game-breaking plays that are rare for any quarterback, including a 20-yard touchdown run and a high-difficulty game-winning throw to Josh Palmer; the source suggests this level of production is unlikely to be replicated consistently but highlights his unique ability to go off-script.

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Josh Cameron

PositiveUsage38:17

Cameron is being targeted by Lawrence on quick-strike passing plays, showing the quarterback's willingness to rip the ball at the top of his drop.

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Mike Gesicki

NegativeRole24:06

Mike Gesicki is viewed as a 'big slot receiver' rather than an in-line tight end, with the source noting he is not a candidate for 13 personnel blocking roles.

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Nico Collins

NegativeInjury25:35

Nico Collins is at risk of missing the Week 2 game, which would significantly deplete the Texans' receiving corps alongside the season-ending injury to Jaden Higgins.

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Parker Washington

PositiveUsage38:11

Washington is being utilized in the Jaguars' passing game, specifically on drift routes behind play-action fakes, where he is a target for Lawrence's quick-release passing.

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Tee Higgins

NegativeUsage18:51

Tee Higgins was the target of a deep 'go ball' shot play, which the Bengals utilized as part of their new under-center, play-action heavy offensive approach.

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Trevor Lawrence

PositiveProjection37:29

Lawrence is showing elite traits reminiscent of 2021 Matthew Stafford, specifically in his ability to execute empty looks, push the ball downfield, and make high-level throws outside the numbers with explosive velocity. The offense is functioning at a high level, drawing comparisons to the 2016 Falcons' efficiency, and Lawrence is demonstrating the talent of a top-three pick when placed in the right scheme.

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PositiveProjection60:28

Trevor Lawrence led the league in EPA per dropback in Week 1 (0.65) and showed elite efficiency, going 5-of-5 for 105 yards on empty dropbacks with a 22.8 air yards per target average.

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Full transcript

Episode Transcript

1,071

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

0:03Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card. I'm Robert Mays. Week 2 is here.

0:07We dove into our Week 2 Preview, our first one of the year.

0:10Talked about two games of the week, Jags Broncos and Texans Bengals.

0:13Hit one thing from a few more games, Steelers Patriots, Chiefs Colts and Vikings Bears.

0:18Spent a little time on Sicko Street with Browns Bucks.

0:20I talked through my just existential dread at this point about the state of the Cowboys defense after one week in a new segment we're calling Take Therapy.

0:28And then we hit what we want to know, coming out of Week 2 in the NFL with me, Dave and Derek.

0:34Let's get to it right now. Week 2 is upon us.

0:37We will be sitting here watching Bill's Lions in a few.

0:40That recap should be available wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube if you're listening to this right now.

0:46We've got plenty of other good games on the Week 2 slate and we're going to kick things off by digging into a couple of them.

0:53I assume some of you here are new. With each one of these weekly previews, we start with our games of the week.

0:59And Dave, let's kick it off with the Bengals and the Texans.

1:02Coming into last week, if you look at the four units and these two teams, Bengals offense and defense, the Texans offense and defense.

1:09I think we had some curiosities and lingering questions about three of them.

1:12The Bengals were undergoing a change offensively. We're going to see more under center.

1:16What was that ultimately going to look like? Obviously, a huge influx of new talent for the Bengals defense.

1:21And then the Texans offense. New offensive lineman. Is this a unit that's going to be able to take enough of a

1:28jump to justify the quality of the defense? So 75% of those units that we had an eye on and the early

1:34returns on all three of them were pretty good.

1:36And then the unit that everyone agreed was the best in football and just the most rock solid feel the best about

1:42in the entire league had a tough day against Josh Allen.

1:45I say that with my tongue planted pretty firmly in my cheek, but I mean, the stats are the stats.

1:51It was not the start I expected for the Texans defense, even knowing they were going against the bills.

1:56If I had given you some odds going into week one, Derek, that among these four units, the Texans defense would have the worst performance.

2:03I'm not sure what I would have had to give you for you to buy into that.

2:07It would have been pretty low and it would have been the only world would have been Josh Allen does something completely superhuman.

2:14And that is exactly how we arrived here, which is honestly why, like, I don't feel any worse about saying the Texans

2:20still might be the best defense in the NFL.

2:22Like what it required of the bills to get this game.

2:25You had Josh Allen, like you mentioned, how many other quarterbacks run in that 20 yard touchdown the way that Josh Allen

2:31does where like his ability to take off there and stride is one thing.

2:35The fact that he risks like cracking a rib at the goal line to get that over the line.

2:40That's unique to him for the most part. Um, so you have that, you have the whole shot to DJ more.

2:46I don't know how many other quarterbacks make that throw, even try to, even try to exactly like there, but that's the other thing.

2:53There might be eight guys who try it and four who can do it.

2:56And I think that like half of them get picked off by reblankenship there.

3:00Then you have the, obviously the game winner to Josh Palmer, which Josh Allen admitted, we didn't rep that throw.

3:06That was just, he saw the safety cheating and he let it go, which is that's, that's just one of those things

3:12that like, as a quarterback to have the amount of confidence in yourself, in your guys, in your ability to kind of

3:18go off script a little bit like that is kind of rare to him.

3:22And then it's also just an incredible throw. He puts that a hundred miles an hour.

3:26And then that doesn't even get to like Dalton Kincaid making an unbelievable catch over Derek Stingley, which again, how many times does that happen?

3:33So it was like all of these, it took like five truly game breaking plays that if any other team gets one

3:39of those in a game, you feel good about it.

3:42And Josh Allen and the bills had five. I just don't think that's going to happen again.

3:46We covered it substantially on the recap show, and it's not as if we swept it under the rug, but what an incredible performance by Josh Allen.

3:54And it wasn't like this stop the presses moment.

3:56It was just like, well, yeah, like you got a great Josh Allen game because he's capable of doing that.

4:02I like the odds that the Texans aren't going to go up against too many guys who can do that to them.

4:08Derek, I think based on what you're saying, you are not the least bit worried about what we saw from the Texans

4:14defense in week one and what it's going to look like moving forward.

4:17Not even a little bit. Like, I still think that this defense is going to be just as good as we thought they were going to be.

4:25I think it's just, you know, week one, there's always a little bit of like, what is this team going to do?

4:31What are they going to try to do to us again?

4:34And then the bills hit on five or six, like top two percentile plays that I just, I just don't think that that's going to happen very often.

4:42And then honestly, a lot of what happened, they got beat up in the first half, pretty bad.

4:46The Texans defense for the most part, actually, I thought played pretty well in the second half.

4:51And you even saw them make some adjustments. Like they were getting got a little bit in the run game early on.

4:57Cause you know, like I mentioned on the recap show, all the bills run game is either weak zone into the open

5:03side or duo into the three tight inside. And in the second half of this game, you actually saw the Texans defense

5:09adjust with how they were answering some of their weak side zone runs.

5:13Like they were spiking the one tech, it was freeing up the linebackers.

5:16So like the fact that it took so many insane plays, and we still saw the Texans defense finding answers over the course of the game.

5:23I was like, yeah, they're going to end the season.

5:26One of the best. And we're going to forget that this game even happened.

5:30Let's talk a little bit about the Bengals offense and what we saw from them in week one against the Bucks going back and rewatching that game today.

5:38I'm, I'm really interested in how this is going to go over the course of the season, just in terms of the

5:44experimenting that's going on with what the Bengals are trying to do offensively.

5:47And we were wondering, okay, this idea of them committing to being under center more, what was it ultimately going to look

5:53like when the game started getting played? When you actually have to make decisions about who you want to be and how

5:59you want to play, how committed were they going to be to this shift that we had heard about and talked about all off season.

6:06So in week one, the Bengals were under center per next gen on 30, about 33% of their early down snaps.

6:12That is a below average rate, like a considerably below average rate when you look at the league overall, because there was

6:18such a huge shift to under center stuff and early downs.

6:2148% of under center snaps in week one were under center.

6:2440% of early down staffs were under center in week one.

6:27That's up from 39% about last year, again, per next gen.

6:30The Bengals were under center about 30, 20.7% last year on early down.

6:34So that's still a significant jump. And I think in the general range of what they were going to try to do

6:40during training camp, they were at about 60% of their plays during practice in order to make sure that they were working on it.

6:46They knew they were at 20% last year. The goal was to land somewhere around 40% when this was all said and done.

6:53And so one week into the season, they are on track, I think generally with where they wanted to be and how they wanted to approach this.

7:00And for the most part, I thought it looked pretty good.

7:03I mean, like we talked about it on Sunday, the turnovers on Tampa's part kind of skewed this game.

7:08But in general, I thought the Bengals offense looked pretty smooth.

7:11Like it didn't look like there was a lot of procedural or structural issues.

7:15And especially for an offense that didn't really get Jamar Chase involved in their game plan for various reasons.

7:20I came away mostly encouraged. I think it's going to be interesting to watch how cohesive they can make all of this

7:26feel because that world that they want to be living in on early downs that they talked about is a pretty big

7:32departure from them being in the gun and being more spread out the way that they've played before.

7:37And I think bridging those two worlds, Derek, can be difficult for teams at times.

7:41But the team that I kept coming back to when we were talking about the Bengals and the best version of what

7:48this could be was actually the 2025 Cowboys, because the Cowboys were still a team that especially on like get back on

7:54track situations on second down, we're like, all right, we're going to give our quarterback a ton of space in the gun.

8:00We're going to spread things out. We're going to let him go to work.

8:03But on early downs, we're going to be willing to live under center.

8:07We're going to have more play action. It's going to be part of who we are.

8:11And the Cowboys, I thought, did a very good job of blending those two worlds last year.

8:16And that's to me what week one felt like for the Bengals, where you have these very distinct identities situationally.

8:22But if there is a world and there is an outcome where you can blend them together and have it be a cohesive offense, and it's not perfect.

8:29I think the Jamar Chase stuff is a really good example of this.

8:33So Chase was in the slot about 30% of the time in that game.

8:37It's not out of the norm. Like that's he's hit those slot rates consistently over the last couple years and they've started

8:43moving him around that game on Sunday against the Bucks.

8:45He had a 9.1% target rate in the slot.

8:48The average that he's had over the past three years is 27%.

8:51And so typically they do it to access him on those plays.

8:54But last week, I think it's again, you're just trying to do so much that you're not going to be able to

9:01hit on everything that you want to do. And so the fact that we forgot about Jamar Chase because of all the

9:07other things that love are we'll have to make sure that we fold that in properly moving forward.

9:11Like they're trying to do so many things all at the same time that I think it's going to take a little

9:18bit of tweaking and a little bit of time to make it all hum together.

9:22Dan Pitcher said after the game that like finding Chase was his one of his first priorities afterward.

9:27Like, hey, we gotcha. We're going to get you the ball.

9:30Don't worry. And they did try at times. I will say credit to the Bucks DBs.

9:34Like Jacob Parrish made a really impressive play near the pylon against him.

9:38Zion McCollum had a really impressive breakup on a slant, I think on maybe the first third down of the game.

9:43So the Bucks DBs did also do, I just thought Chase was just like uncharacteristically not himself, I thought.

9:49And then like you said, they're just trying to do so many things.

9:52I think I can believe that they're going to continue to try to make this a core part of the offense.

9:58I am interested to see how long it takes for them to stay in the flow.

10:02Because I think another thing of it too is like, one, you're trying to schematically bridge all these things together and find

10:08out what can work with what and when do we really want to call this stuff.

10:13But I also think, even if I didn't love that this was the way that they used to run the offense, where

10:19it was all gun, it was all spread, all that stuff.

10:22It at least allowed like the quarterback to stay in the same rhythm.

10:25And I think getting him out of that, I think in like changing that, how the rhythm of a game goes, I

10:31wonder how long that's going to take for him to start looking fully comfortable.

10:35Because I will say, I thought he left a couple of throws on the field in this game.

10:40Like he played fine, but there were a couple of aggressive opportunities I think he did not take.

10:45Well, not even aggressive. He missed Chase as wide open as you can possibly be for a touchdown in the red zone.

10:51And I mean, that stuff happens. But yeah, I mean, there was definitely some stuff left out there.

10:56Derek, you brought this up when we were talking about the game earlier today, but what the Bills were able to do

11:02pushing the ball down the field, that's an area where if you're going to take advantage of the Texans, you can hurt them specifically there.

11:09I think back to even like Keishon Booty against Derek Stingley last year, like that you have to be able to push

11:15the ball down the field against them, because if not, that they're really going to squeeze you.

11:20And that is the area where this under center play action stuff is, that's what it's designed to do.

11:25Right. I mean, I think the first real shot they took in this game against the Bucks was that I was T

11:31Higgins on just like a straight goal ball. And I think it might've even been like the alert on the play and

11:37Burrow does take a shot to try to get there.

11:40And so that the vertical element that comes from this, I think that's what was part of the rationale for why they

11:46wanted to lean into it against the Texans specifically.

11:48That is the version. And that is the benefit that you're going to try to have to access.

11:53You absolutely have to. And again, I think why it's going to be difficult, all the throws that I mentioned, you know,

11:59five minutes ago, those are extremely high difficulty, either throws or just incredible plays by like a guy like Kincaid and that

12:05part you can sell me on like Chase can make incredible catches.

12:08Higgins can obviously do that. I think another element of it was the bills have so obviously committed to a big chunk

12:14of the passing offense being we're in 13 personnel, we're getting under center.

12:18We have all these ways to make sure the quarterback is insulated for three seconds and he can chuck this thing.

12:24And the Bengals are trying to do that. I think that this is another mode where I'm like, I'm not as confident

12:30that they are there in the same way that the bills are there.

12:33And so like how much of that they can actually get away with?

12:37Because I thought the bills in this game did a fantastic job for the most part of keeping Will Anderson quiet and

12:43Daniel Hunter quiet and keeping those edges in check.

12:46I'm not sure the Bengals have quite as many answers for that.

12:49And so can they keep Burrow protected on some of this play action shot play stuff they want to do?

12:54And does he have like the vertical juice to really get it to those guys without it just being a 50-50 every time?

13:01That is one thing I think is worth highlighting is just how good I thought the Bengals offensive line was.

13:06They have a bad reputation. Actually, I saw Texans GM Nick Casario was talking about this on some media he was doing

13:12this week where he was like, that's an outdated perception of the Bengals offensive line.

13:16And I mean, they mauled the Buccaneers. The Bucs had a 15% pressure rate when they didn't bring the blitz.

13:22Obviously, Todd Bowles is going to blitz a lot.

13:24But even when he did, it was their pressure rate was 29 and a half, which was like 26th in the league,

13:30like nothing was really doing for them. And even, you know, my guy Josiah Trotter had a sack.

13:35It was not like he didn't beat anybody. It was like a coverage sack.

13:39And so they played fantastic. How do you do against Houston?

13:42And also, I just think the Bills were really good at varying things and switching up the pace to keep them off

13:48balance with the degree to which Joe stands in the gun and how much he prefers to do that.

13:53You can live that way. And Joe Burrow is good enough to do it.

13:57But I don't think you're doing yourself any favors against a pass rush like Houston, the way the Bengals prefer to play.

14:03Amarius Mims was somebody that we were, we talked about coming into the season as a potential breakout player and really him taking another step forward.

14:10And it was about as good a start as you could hope for in that specific area.

14:15He looked incredible. And poor Reuben Bain, like for the guy with short arms to get his first NFL game against the 6'8 tree.

14:22I called him an int on social media. So I think it'll be easier for Reuben Bain moving forward.

14:27But Mims looked incredible. The 13 personnel stuff we saw from the Bills last week, theoretically, the Bengals could do some of that.

14:33We saw a lot of Eric Hall in week one, which we knew we were going to.

14:38He's going to be a part of them unlocking some of this under center stuff.

14:42But even if Kincaid is only sort of a tight end, Mike Gusecki is just the more advanced version of how we would talk about Dalton Kincaid.

14:49Mike, I don't know if Mike Gusecki has played in line at any point in the last like two years.

14:55And so it could be 13 personnel if they line up with all three of those guys at the same time.

15:00But it's not really. And I doubt that they'll actually try that.

15:04It's just when we get to 12 with all and Drew Sample, that's about as heavy as we're getting.

15:09If you're the Cincinnati Bengals, you can pretend with Dalton Kincaid.

15:12You can't even pretend with Mike Gusecki. We all know the game here.

15:16And he was really good in that game, but he's really good as a big slot receiver when it's second and 10.

15:22That's the role that he is supposed to play.

15:24Let's get to the other side of the ball in this game.

15:27By the way, just mentioned Joe Burrow dealing with some back tightness.

15:31He said the idea of him not playing is ridiculous on the other side of the ball.

15:35It is not ridiculous to think that Nico Collins might miss this game, Derek.

15:39And that is when you combine it with Jaden Higgins already being out for the season, we're potentially looking at a Texans

15:45receiving core in this game of Kayshaun Booty, Jalen Knoll, Xavier Hutchinson, and Jared Wayne, which not the place you want to

15:51be if you're CJ Stroud two weeks into the year.

15:54No, definitely not in week two. And it's just so funny that like, it's almost like a monkey's paw situation where it's

16:00like the Houston, Texas run game is exactly as good as we wanted it to be week one.

16:05And now they don't have Nico Collins or Jaden Higgins.

16:08And it's like, man. And I do think that there is still a world that, you know, I thought CJ Stroud, just

16:14the way that he was operating on Sunday was like really impressive.

16:17I thought he was seeing the game. Well, I thought he was throwing things pretty accurately for the most part.

16:23I thought the offensive line looked better, but I do think these Bengals DBs are good enough that if, if we don't

16:29get Nico Collins out there, like Kayshaun Booty can do some stuff.

16:32And I did think he looked good against the bills as well.

16:35Like he had an inbreaker where I thought he looked really smooth, but that's just not going to be enough of a

16:41number one receiver to like comfortably win this game that way.

16:44Like they would also need the defense to have like an insane game.

16:48I think the Texans run game early returns, very promising.

16:51We talked about it in the moment on Sunday when we did the recap and some of the gap scheme runs and

16:57some of the pull stuff that they were doing, they just didn't have that in their bag last year.

17:02When you think about what you saw in week one going against this Bengals front, that is obviously much improved and really

17:08made their presence felt against the Bucs last week.

17:10How much do you think we can see what the Texans did last week carry over into what they can do against the Bengals?

17:17I mean, I kind of think most of it, one thing I'll note with and I'll start with, this was a team

17:23that we joked about them last year, putting six offensive linemen on the field because they couldn't move any people.

17:28They couldn't move anybody. Otherwise, they didn't have any tight ends.

17:31They truly couldn't play tight ends because they didn't have any last year.

17:35Well, and that's the thing. So now they have the tight ends and they did run the ball really well out of,

17:41you know, 12 and whatever they were doing with that, but they still had nine runs with six offensive linemen on the field.

17:47They got two first downs in short yardage. In short yardage, it looked pretty good, but there were some other instances where

17:53they were trying it on first and tens or second and fours or whatever, and they were trying to hit the outside and there was nothing doing.

18:01If you remove all of their six offensive linemen runs, they had the highest rushing success rate in the league.

18:06And so I actually do think that that probably carries over fairly well into this game.

18:11I think you're going to get a little bit of a difference on the defensive interior.

18:15Like Deion Walker is big, but he's like a gap shooter, move around, get into the backfield player.

18:20Dexter Lawrence is more of both. Like he can do that, but he can also just sit there and eat a double

18:26team and let his backers come down. And so I think that maybe straight up the middle stuff, they're not going to

18:32be able to move the interior quite as much, but I just thought that the way the Texans were climbing on their

18:38combo blocks or having whoever the puller was get there in time and really take people out.

18:43Like I thought they did such an excellent job against that.

18:46And so I think against the Bengals front where I still kind of want to see a little bit more from the

18:52edges and I still don't know if these linebackers are really good enough.

18:55I do think the Texans will be able to run the ball fairly well.

18:59This is such a great, are you a liar matchup?

19:02Because this was the Bengals were one of the most woeful run defenses in the NFL last year.

19:07The Texans were one of the worst rush offenses.

19:09Texans fans have right now have to be like, yes, we have a run game.

19:13And Bengals fans equally are like, we stopped the run.

19:16They gave up one explosive rush last week and it was 10 yards, which is the threshold for what constitutes an explosive run.

19:23They gave up no rushes of 12 plus last year.

19:25They averaged four explosive rushes allowed a week, three rushes of 12 plus allowed a week and one rush of 20 plus a week.

19:32I mean, they were, they were just abysmal. And so to take that out of the game entirely in week one, you

19:38have to be feeling good about the additions they made on defense.

19:41Like Dexter Lawrence and Boye Mafé looked the part.

19:44Cassius Howell had a really fun play where he contributed to a sack.

19:47So I'm very, everybody showed up every, every, every single member of the front last week had a moment.

19:52And again, going back to how we started this conversation, we talked all off season about how those additions would impact the

19:58way the Bengals defense feels week in and week out.

20:01And one week into the season, it felt so much different because every single one of those guys, big or small, put

20:07an imprint on the game in a way you just, that never happened with the Bengals defense last year.

20:12You would never come away from a game thinking you're saying that.

20:16I will say four takeaways masks, some issues. They missed 13 tackles per PFF, which would be, I think that's tied for the third most in week one.

20:23So maybe some of those issues loom larger if you don't force takeaways and have defensive scores.

20:28They did. So it's fine. But again, are, is, is this an encouraging trend for the season or was week one a little bit of a lie?

20:36And I'm, I'm excited to see what that looks like.

20:38I can't remember who I was talking to. It was a defensive coordinator over the course of my training camp trip.

20:44And we were talking about playing from two high alignments and what it does to your run defense and how, even if

20:50teams can be a little bit more effective and efficient against you, it's going to limit explosives just because of the way that you're lined up.

20:57And so the Bengals last year, it seems counterintuitive, right?

21:00You limit explosive runs by playing with lighter boxes.

21:02But in reality, that actually is something that you can do because you're going to have two safeties to clean things up.

21:08They're giving up all these explosive runs last year in part because they're playing out of all of these single high loaded

21:14boxes because they had to last week, Buck Eurring, six of his eight carries last week came into light boxes.

21:20And so even if those are efficient plays, they're not going to be explosive because of the way that you're aligned.

21:26And so I think that's just an interesting and telling difference between the way the Bengals had to play last year and

21:32the way that they're choosing to play this year because the front talent is just so much better.

21:37Let's get to our next one here. The Jacksonville Jaguars traveling to Denver.

21:40You look back at what happened in week one with these two teams, about as good a start for the Jags as you possibly could have imagined.

21:48And we'll talk about what fed into that. It's not only the result.

21:51It's not only the numbers for the quarterback. Every single question that I might've had about the Jags offense coming into this

21:57season, they answered emphatically in a positive way. The offensive line looked as good or better than it had at any point

22:03last year in large part because of the way that Pregnon played the way that Anton Harrison played.

22:08I was so impressed by what they looked like up front in that game.

22:12The defense just came to play in exactly the way that you would have hoped from last year.

22:17I mean, I really enjoy watching this defense in the back seven specifically, which we can talk more about.

22:22So if you had any bit of optimism or hope or excitement about what the 2026 Jags would look like and what

22:28the follow-up act would be after last year, none of that has been diminished based on what you saw in week one.

22:34You are turning up the volume on that shit so far.

22:37It's been amplified. Yes, it is so encouraging. And again, even Cohen, we're two years in with him as a play caller

22:43after last year, one year in with Anthony Campanile last year.

22:46I think really that one of the bigger questions beyond just normal regression considerations is, all right, can they do it again?

22:52Like, can they keep stacking these seasons together? And so to come out of the gate like that is just incredibly exciting.

22:58And we'll talk more about it on the flip side.

23:01The exact opposite is true for the Broncos. Like if any bit of optimism or excitement or hope you had about what

23:07Denver could be, you're one of Davis Webb, you're three of Bo Nix.

23:11We have Jalen Waddell here. Now, the defense is still supposed to be great.

23:15None of that showed up in week one, not a single element of that.

23:18And so the vibes could not be more disparate with the Jags and the Broncos as we head into week two here.

23:25As somebody who had a lot of Broncos optimism and bought a lot of Broncos stock, I've been staring into the abyss a good amount since Monday night.

23:32Just, you know, you have them in the wind's pool.

23:35I haven't been in the wind's pool. I, I had them going to the Superbowl in my preseason predictions.

23:40I'm high as I was sky high on Jalen Waddell who caught, I think one pass on Monday night.

23:45It's all bad, man. Is that, I mean, Derek, do you have anything to contribute before we dive into this or should

23:51I just smugly sitting there satisfied with himself? Talk myself off the ledge here and now.

23:56I feel fine with everything I've ever said about that offense.

23:59I think the other thing though, I feel bad for not letting myself do the Jaguars thing all the way.

24:04Like I've been so high on Trevor Lawrence for so long.

24:07I love the way that the defense plays like Cohen, I think has done such a fantastic job at two spots now.

24:13And there was just something in the back of my head this year where I was like, I don't know.

24:19I really want to see it again. And maybe, maybe that's fair because it still is a young coaching staff, all that.

24:25But like, I thought this kid, they were insane in week one.

24:28They were insane and they were so good. And I'm so excited, but like, you don't have to, you don't have to

24:34freak out too much about one week and especially one week of Jags football.

24:38Like I'm going to say something reckless when we talk about their offense, but we'll get there.

24:43Oh my God. I'm going to say something reckless when we talk about the Broncos offense.

24:47So let's start with that. Let's start when the Broncos have the ball in this game, going back and rewatching what that performance looked like against the chiefs.

24:55I think beyond again, beyond the production, beyond the final results, it was such a disappointing game to when you, when I

25:01watched the Broncos, the biggest disconnect, and we can talk about the quarterback and the play caller and all that shit, but

25:07the biggest disconnect for me and going back and watching that game, if you look at just AAV, so no funny money

25:13with the cap stuff, just on a per on an average basis, what are you paying your offensive line?

25:18The only team in the league that is allocating more money per year to their offensive line in the Broncos is the

25:24Eagles, which is all that money is fake. Again, they shouldn't even be a part of these discussions because they can pay

25:30everybody whatever they want based on how they handle the cap.

25:33You can't have that sort of allocation to the way that you've built your team and have your running game and your

25:39past protection look the way that they did last Monday against the chiefs.

25:43If that's going to happen, if that's the version of the Broncos offense that we're going to see, and I'm not even absolving the quarterback.

25:50I would never absolve the quarterback. If that's the version that we're going to see, this is a non-starter.

25:55You cannot be the team that you want to be if your biggest investment is going to play like that and look

26:01like that in every facet and just get really punked physically by the chiefs.

26:05Like the chiefs came out and punched them in the mouth in that game.

26:09And that's just not going to be feasible. If you want to be the team that you think you can be on

26:15that side of the ball if you're Denver. Virtually all my optimism about the Broncos on the offensive side of the ball.

26:21Yes, Jalen Waddell being dropped into it was a huge part of it, but that's because I was operating under the assumption

26:27that this was at the very least the best pass protecting offensive line of football, which it has been over the last couple years.

26:33And the continuities there, you just mentioned all the money they've spent on these guys.

26:37That's not what we got. The Broncos allowed 17 pressures top five most in the NFL for week one and a 51

26:43and a half percent pressure rate, which is the most pressure they have allowed in a game by rate since week two

26:49of 2023 against Washington, which was that goofy game where they tied it on a Hail Mary at the end and still

26:56lost because they didn't get the two point conversion.

26:58Russell Wilson. Basically, that's what we're talking about. That was the last time the Denver offensive line looked this leaky and also we shouldn't again.

27:05It's similar to the Eagles and money. We shouldn't talk about pressure rates with Russell Wilson.

27:09Also, those are the way the quarterback chooses to play north of 50 percent for the first time since 2023 17 pressures

27:15in a game is the most they've allowed over the last calendar year with one exception, which is pertinent to this conversation

27:21last December against Jacksonville, who definitely got after them.

27:24And I expect to happen again. The running backs were horrendous playing their role in this.

27:28And so all of my hope for Denver was that Bo Nix was going to have a relatively clean ecosystem to work in.

27:34Like you said, that's not to absolve him for the part that he has to play.

27:39But I don't think Bo Nix can quarterback this team to the level it's looking to reach without like sterling offensive line

27:45play and not it wasn't even mediocre on Monday night.

27:48It was just outright bad, which was that's the most shocking thing of all of this.

27:52Like even the defensive miscues for me, whatever, it's week one teams have left of a preseason than ever.

27:57Maybe you can coach yourself back up on tackling.

28:00But for the offensive line to go from looking unassailable for most of the last two years to what we saw against

28:06the Chiefs was that's what has scared me more than anything else.

28:09Ben Powers took a cut play pay cut this offseason, not surprising that he would be a relatively clean.

28:14And he was he had a couple of rough moments in that game.

28:18But McGlinchey getting toasted by our Mason Thomas twice in like short order.

28:21And then like you mentioned with the backs, the thing that was so you could set your watch to it with the

28:27Broncos over the last couple of years is just how sturdy and put together it all felt in pass protection.

28:33The plan, even beyond the individual talent of the component pieces, was so good so often.

28:37And so to watch this version of the team combined with the fact that they couldn't run the ball for shit, it

28:43just felt so different than what we've come to expect from this team.

28:47And Derek, it's only amplified because for as promising as some of the moments we've seen from Bo Nix have been over

28:53the last couple of years, he is an actively bad quarterback when pushed off his spot and pressured.

28:58And that's exactly what's happening over and over and over again in that game.

29:02And that's why I think some of these so many of these things work in concert with each other, like the Broncos

29:08offensive line has been pretty good for the last handful of years.

29:11Part of why the pressure numbers are so low is the plan is often good, but they're also an offense that is all about being on schedule.

29:18And so they throw a lot of these screens that like, hey, let's get us to second and five and we can call kind of whatever we want.

29:26They were not able to do really hardly any of that in the game against the Chiefs.

29:31Like the Chiefs were just killing all their screens, all their quick game stuff, not letting them stay on schedule.

29:36So you got into a little bit more pure pass.

29:39And I think one, the offensive line, like they were getting schemed up, like, I mean, first play of the game, they

29:45send a double cap pressure, which is completely insane.

29:48But then even on the R. Mason Thomas, the third and one pressure that he had, he didn't get a sack, but

29:54he forced Bo Nix out to the right. The Broncos slide their entire line to the left-hand side to Chris Jones playing

30:00at three technique because it's Chris Jones. It's like, yeah, we got to go cover him.

30:04And you just have this ocean of space for the one-on-one with R.

30:08Mason Thomas. He's clearly got a lot of juice and he's able to make that play.

30:12And so they got beat in that sense. And then also, even for all the other issues I have with Bo Nix,

30:18he did get the ball out on time and early in previous seasons.

30:22Like he was always like, ball's going to be out.

30:24I'm going to check it down. I'm going to throw away.

30:27I'm going to bail. I thought in this game, he struggled a lot more holding onto the ball, did not feel as comfortable getting out to his options.

30:35And so maybe that's part of that. They were trying to be more aggressive and he wasn't comfortable with it or it's

30:41first time with Davis Webb as a play caller.

30:44They're not sure how they want to piece this thing together yet, but it just looked very discombobulated in every single way,

30:50which is a problem when this entire, the whole thing for the offense was like, yeah, we're buttoned up.

30:55We might have like some limitations, but it's extremely buttoned up.

30:58You look at the way that the Chiefs defensive front is built compared to the Jags.

31:02Obviously, there's no Chris Jones on the Jaguars front, but I think the carryover is the edges are better.

31:07Even if we had some really nice moments from the Chiefs young guys in this game, including FAU, which that was the

31:13biggest surprise of all of this is that, yeah, we, you can understand our Mason Thomas showing up as a pass rusher

31:19based on where he was drafted, what he showed in the preseason.

31:23FAU having multiple really nice moments. That's a situation where you look at the Chiefs front.

31:27It's like, Oh shit, what could this be over the course of the year?

31:31But the edges in Jacksonville are really good. Even if the interior pieces aren't going to affect the game in the same

31:37way that Chris Jones is the element that I think is the easiest to carry over between what the Chiefs are doing

31:43and what the Jags want to do, because they both did this in week one, some of the simulateds, you're going to

31:49see a ton of those from the Jags. I think in this game, that when you go back and you watch how

31:55much the running backs particularly struggled in pass protection, the Jags are going to do some of that.

32:00They did it last week. Like I thought Ventral Miller had a couple of really nice moments as a blitzer.

32:06Campanile is really creative in some of those situations where there was one play.

32:09I can't remember when it happened. It was in the second quarter.

32:13Oh, excuse me. The pick, the pick that Watson threw to a Luokan was a simulated pressure where both edges dropped out.

32:19And it's actually an incredible play by Miller. He gets picked a little bit, like the clipped a little bit by the

32:25back, but keeps his feet and keeps affecting the play as it's happening.

32:28And that he, I thought he was really impressive.

32:31That was one of the question marks we had about this team with him stepping into that role for Devin Lloyd.

32:37And I thought he was really good. I think we'll see him a lot as a blitzer in this game based on

32:43what we saw from the Broncos in that one specific area last week.

32:46I mean, and like Dave said, these, the Broncos running backs could not pass protect like Nick Bolton almost had another strip

32:52sack that, you know, ended up being called. I think they ruled it like a, they ruled it an incomplete pass because

32:58his arm was coming forward a little bit, but like you're going to be able to get the backs.

33:03And like, I think the fact that Ventral Miller specifically is good as a blitzer.

33:08I was like, he's probably not going to be as good in coverage as Devin Lloyd was.

33:12And maybe he doesn't have the same range that Devin Lloyd did, but it was like, I think there's a chance that

33:18because he's just like a missile send them at the quarterback or send them at the line of scrimmage type of guy, they can get that.

33:25And so the fact that week one, you already saw that value.

33:29It's like, okay, I think the defense can still do what they want to do.

33:33He's an old school off-ball linebacker in a way that I appreciate.

33:36And if you know how to weaponize those guys, you can get by with those sorts of players.

33:41And I'm smiling and just thinking about what it's like to watch the Jaguars defense.

33:45And week one was the same thing that we saw for a huge chunk of last year, where they're clearly just so well coached in the back seven.

33:53And there were multiple plays in that game where they're in man coverage and the way that they're passing things off, like

33:59to the, the, uh, Robert player and cover one, like just the communication, the cohesion early in the season for a group that was banged up last year.

34:07And so the combination of like Antonio Johnson, Eric Murray, Jordan Lewis, and Travis Hunter is a new piece to this.

34:12Anyway, this group hasn't played a ton of football together collectively and to watch them be as good and as buttoned up as they were last week.

34:20I know it's the Browns, but I just think on both sides of the ball, and we'll talk about the offense in a second.

34:26It's just clearly such a well coached group in Jacksonville.

34:29I was just laughing because off the top of my head, almost everyone you just said in the Jags secondary missed a solid chunk of time.

34:36Antonio Johnson didn't, but like Jordan did, but he wasn't like a week one starter.

34:40Travis Hunter obviously did. Eric Murray did. So yeah, like for them to be on that the same page that quickly is, is really impressive.

34:47As much as I felt that about the defense watching them last week, my favorite unit bears aside because I'm, I'm willing

34:53to admit that I can't see that with clear eyes.

34:56My favorite unit that I rewatched over the course of this week from week one was the Jaguars offense.

35:01It's like smelling salts. It's what they're doing. I compare where I was talking to Brandon Thorne about it on Twitter earlier

35:07in the week and just how satisfying it is to watch.

35:10It's an incredibly satisfying, aesthetically pleasing offense. It's almost balletic in some of the things that they're doing with all of the

35:16motions and the way they use formations and the rhythm that they play with.

35:20It reminds me a little bit of watching the Niners at their best in the ways that they move.

35:25And I think that there's a lot, whether the influence is direct or not, we said this on Sunday night, there were

35:31a lot of elements of what the Jags were doing in that game that felt like the Niners getting five out.

35:37Some of the motions they were using, even some of the backfield actions with Brenton strange are reminiscent of what the Niners are doing in their run game.

35:45The difference between what the Niners look like with Brock Purdy and what the Jags look like with Trevor Lawrence, the difference

35:51is purely expressed and the stylistic differences in the quarterbacks.

35:54And the Jags, even if there are again, the foundation and the bedrock and some of the ideas you can carry over

36:00when you have a quarterback that is at his best attacking in the way that Trevor can and has been from the

36:06second half of last year into week one, that's what makes it feel so distinctly different from what the Niners are.

36:11And it was the best possible version of that last week.

36:14I tweeted out the stat about it last night.

36:17To me, the purest example of this, they had five empty dropbacks the Jags did against the Browns last week.

36:22Trevor was five of five for 105 yards on those plays.

36:25He had 22.8 air yards per target on those throws.

36:2822.8. That's like breaking the chart type shit. Trevor led the league in EPA per dropback last week, which is not surprising.

36:340.65. He was fish the fifth, excuse me, in average depth of target.

36:38Like his average depth of target was 10 and a half yards downfield.

36:41It's not unprecedented, but I went back over the last five years and I could only find like nine other performances that

36:47met those thresholds where you're that efficient while throwing the ball that far down the field.

36:52Half of those are Lamar Jackson, a few or even some of the, even that number to me is probably, I think I was looking at it.

36:59I was looking at a similar numbers yesterday. I want to say like 62% of his attempts in that game were 10 yards or more in the air.

37:07And so the, what you're talking about with the average that the target stuff that's dragged down by the fact that they

37:13threw some screens like the Travis Hunter plays drag that down.

37:16And so it's the idea that 62% of his attempts are 10 yards or more in the air that the closest comparison I can come up with.

37:23And the empty stuff reminds me of this, Derek, when you go back and you think about what the Rams felt like

37:29in like 2021, Matthew Stafford got there and they're in all these empty looks where they got the two chippers.

37:35They're getting hands on the edges to give yourself a little bit more breathing room to let you push the ball down

37:41the field out of those sorts of looks. That is something that Trevor can do at his best that very few quarterbacks have the juice to do.

37:48And so to see that be such a prominent piece of what the Jaguars offense was in week one, I'm just incredibly

37:54excited to see what this thing is going to look like over the course of the year.

37:59I like the Rams early Stafford comparison for this reason.

38:02I think Trevor Lawrence has the perfect blend of, I will throw whatever the hell you want me to.

38:07And you saw that some of they do like, uh, they fake the outside zone.

38:11They throw the drift route to Parker Washington right behind it.

38:14He's just like top of his drop, ripping it the touchdown.

38:17He throws to Josh Cameron, same thing, top of his drop, absolutely ripping it.

38:21He will make the like, Hey, I'm going to scheme this open for you.

38:25Please just put the ball there. He has no problem making those throws, but he can also switch gears like a Stafford

38:31in, in 2021 and be like, Hey, I can read out four and five man concepts like pure drop back, like down the field.

38:37Like I can, and I can really make these throws all the way to the sideline.

38:42Like just how explosive the ball comes out of his hand when he's throwing outside the numbers is pretty special stuff.

38:48Like that's where you, you clearly see why he was a first overall pick talent a while ago.

38:52I just, I know that it's week one, but this is like partly residual from obviously what we saw off the end of last year.

38:59I think this can be like 95% of the 2016 Falcons.

39:02Like this offense, I think might be completely insane.

39:05I don't think that's crazy. And I think comparing it to the Matt Ryan MVP year, there's carryover between that and the

39:11Stafford 2021 year when you have these guys who they've been one thing for with Stafford and Matt Ryan, it was for eight, nine years, right?

39:18Like we had come to understand them as one thing.

39:21And then you change the circumstances and they emerge as something different with Trevor.

39:25It's only been four years, but we're seeing that happen.

39:27Like we're seeing what a guy that that has that level of talent, a top three pick in the same way that

39:33Stafford and Matt Ryan were when you put him in these sorts of circumstances, it can be electric nuclear results on offense.

39:39And again, I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but when you're stacking it up to what in combination

39:45with the second half of last year looked like that to me is where it gets really exciting.

39:50That's what I was going to say is even if you want to be cautious at the start of a new season,

39:56this has been since week 11 of last year.

39:59Like when they made the Jacoby Myers trade, this stuff clicked into place and it has looked like this more often than not since.

40:05And so for them to pick back up right where they left off, how could you not be excited?

40:11Even if you're trying to temper it, it's still very exciting.

40:14Well, here's the thing that makes it even harder to temper.

40:17The elements that we were maybe had some reservations about coming into the year, the run game was actively bad for them.

40:23Even when everything was humming, when they were throwing the ball in the back half of last season, the offensive line, I

40:29think was a worthwhile concern that looking as good as it did in week one pregnant specifically, I thought was like unbelievable.

40:35Like I thought he was so incredibly good in one-on-one pass and one-on-one pass protection situations against Mason Graham specifically over and

40:41over and over again in this game, the recovery, the movement skills.

40:44I was so impressed by what I saw from him.

40:47You combine that with Harrison playing next to him.

40:49Go watch what Anton Harrison did on the first play of that.

40:53First play. Oh my God. He, he, that, that you talk about how frustrating I will, how I was with the lack

40:59of physicality from what the Broncos were. That's the exact opposite of what Anton Harrison was showing you on play one of that game.

41:05And then the other guy that I think you have to throw in there to how this feels different.

41:10Talk about it. Borkutcher is like, he is that.

41:13And, and even Quentin Morris as their third tight end in this game, like it just the physicality, the ability for them

41:19to assert themselves in the run game and not getting picked on in pass protection.

41:23That was the one thing lingering in the back of your mind about what might hold this offense back because it did

41:29hold the offense back at times last year. And so for this to be the first glimpse we get of this group

41:35and for them to really kind of shove that back in your face about doubting it in the summer is the best

41:41early returns that you could have gotten from this Jaguars team.

41:44I always got the vibe that a lot of the Borkutcher pushback was fantasy football related.

41:49That's just my own interpretation of it. But even, even still, like even from a pure football perspective, I think it's reasonable

41:55to say, well, what are the odds that this guy is going to come in and like get a substantial amount of

42:01snaps and have like the play strength and the wherewithal to do all of the various things that you need him to do right off the bat?

42:08I'm sorry, my bad. Because like if you turn this game on and watch it for 15 minutes, he's taken Jared verse

42:14out of the play at the point of attack.

42:17He's chipping an edge before climbing up and just wiping Grant Delpit out of a play.

42:21And then they had a wide zone run at some point in the first half where he's just washing Carson Swessinger like 10 yards downfield.

42:28I would have never even like screw catch production.

42:30I don't care about that. But like the multifaceted way that he was able to make an impact on this game from the word go blew me away.

42:38I think for the most part, it's about price and it's about what you're paying for that sort of player.

42:43Because last the comparison to like Jackson Hawes is the guy that I keep coming back to for the skill set you're

42:50seeking out that all these teams drafted on day two.

42:52He was a fifth round pick. And so drafting a guy like that in the second round, I think that's where you

42:58can have a little bit of an issue with it.

43:01But this is a weird ass draft. And I think it's you're chasing the trend, but also understanding what the player pool looks like in this group.

43:08And so at the end of the day, who gives a shit?

43:12Like if you had draft that guy two rounds earlier than you wanted to, if he's going to have this sort of

43:18impact, then none of that really matters. They were second in the league in rushing success rate.

43:22And of course, we have to see how that ages over more games.

43:26But let's just say Borkutcher helps you achieve that level of respectability, even if it drops off from where it is right now.

43:32Worth it. Like, I mean, this is a team that won 13 games last year.

43:36If he makes you a more three-dimensional offense with a chance to win the division and God knows what more, worth it.

43:42Absolutely. It also makes it easier. Pregnon's giving you first round returns as a third round pick, which he was on Sunday.

43:48The last thing about the running game that I think is worth mentioning, I was really impressed with Tootin.

43:54Like his, the balance and the play strength. I remember talking to somebody there during training camp and them just saying that

44:00even if he's a smaller speed back, that's the way we think about him.

44:04His strength is an underrated part of his game.

44:06He's not necessarily going to run people over, but his ability to play through contact and the balance that you see, that

44:12is something he's bringing to the table. And Derek, we saw that multiple times in this game where he is not going

44:18down at first contact and he's getting every ounce of what is being blocked.

44:22And we typically don't think about guys that have his 40 time playing that way, but that's what we got from him in week one.

44:29I mean, there was one stretch run they tried to hit to the perimeter to the left-hand side and he gets hit

44:35by like multiple defenders at the line of scrimmage and he still turns it into like a seven yard carry because he's

44:41able to pump through some of those broken tackles.

44:43And so he did that. He also just, I really appreciated how like his presence of mind of when it's time to just get north.

44:50I really appreciated that because that's what this offense needed.

44:53Like Travis Achan can do some things for you.

44:55That is not what he's good at. And so the fact that we saw that from Tootin, and I thought Chris Rodriguez

45:01had like, he didn't, he only had like six or seven carries in this game, but I thought that he handled those pretty well as well.

45:09Like the fact that the run game between the offensive line, the tight ends and the running backs just feel like they

45:15have a little bit more like push you around and really fight for stuff that I really appreciate.

45:20Against the Broncos specifically, I think people are going to look at what the Jags did against the Browns and say, well,

45:26you're not gonna be able to do that against Denver.

45:28And I think I can understand that to a degree.

45:31I don't think that's wrong. I don't think the Jags are going to have the same game they had last week against the Broncos.

45:38Two things I'd bring up. One, the Jags had a really nice outing against the Broncos last year.

45:43Like that's, I mean, they had a fantastic day against Denver relative to what other offenses were doing.

45:48And two, the corner talent, we know that for Denver, the spine of the defense and the coverage quality in the spine

45:54of the defense is the relative weakness for that team.

45:56And that's actually where the Jags were getting after the Browns in this game.

46:00When you look at a lot of the explosive plays, I mean, the big crosser to Parker Washington, the play where Quincy Williams doesn't even move.

46:07Like that's the worst example that I assume the Broncos linebackers will move as the play happens.

46:12But the other one that I keep coming back to that deep hook route to Brian Thomas Jr.

46:17on the right side, that's a play where you're taking advantage of a linebacker, not getting enough depth on that play.

46:23You're putting those guys in conflict. That's where this Jags team.

46:26I mean, they're iron, the touchdown of Jacob Myers was deep throw.

46:29But for the most part, these are not 40 yard bombs down the field outside of the numbers.

46:34These are 12, 15, 18, 18, 12, 14 over the middle of the field.

46:38This is a team that's going to try to just murder you on these intermediate lasers that Trevor Lawrence is really good at throwing.

46:44And the linebackers are the players that you're picking on when you're trying to play that way.

46:49And you're trying to take advantage of what it looks like when you're getting five out in the route and you're doing that.

46:55And so this is going to be a game where Stranod and Alex Singleton are tested and strained because that's exactly what

47:01the Jaguars are trying to do to you. And the only solace of hope that the Broncos had in the last year's

47:07matchup was they sacked Trevor Lawrence five times. I don't know if they're as equipped or if the Jaguars are as poorly

47:13equipped as they were in that department last year.

47:16So if they can't even get to the quarterback and we're just going to have Trevor Lawrence thrown over the head of

47:22these linebackers, like I feel pretty good that this is going to be another good day for them like it was last year.

47:28It's a really good test. And the Browns front has talent, right?

47:32Like I think that we're going to look at this being a blowout win and say, well, it's the Browns Jared verse

47:38and year two Mason Graham and Malik Collins. Like there are guys on that Browns front.

47:42We don't, we shouldn't hand wave away the past protection game that we saw from the Jags.

47:47It's a really good start. It is a, probably a more stern test this week.

47:51And it's a really good one. It's a really good follow-up game for us to have a baseline of how much should

47:57we be buying into the past protection improvement, the past protection quality that we're going to see from Jacksonville this year.

48:03All right, before we get to a few more of these week two games, let's take our first quick break.

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48:28Each week, we like to pick a handful of games that we just want to dig into one element of what we're watching on Sunday with that game.

48:36I'm going to start with this Steelers at Patriots.

48:38I want to know whether the plan that we saw from the Steelers defense in week one against Atlanta is their identity

48:44defensively, or if this is a Falcon specific approach that Patrick Graham was taking.

48:48Coming into the year, part of this was Joey Porter Jr., but part of this was Patrick Graham's history.

48:53He's a Patriots guy. I think given his druthers, he would like to play a decent amount of man coverage.

48:59They played zero snaps of man coverage per NextGen against the Falcons last week.

49:03And so my question with this is, why? Why?

49:05What is the motivation for playing none of it over the course of the week?

49:09I think there are a lot of potential explanations.

49:12One, Joey Porter Jr. did not play. Asante Samuel is not a man coverage guy.

49:16He's the exact opposite of that. And so how much of it is your true press man corner not being in the lineup?

49:22I don't think that can be all of it, but maybe that's some of it.

49:26Two, the Falcons used a ton of pre-snap motion.

49:29The Falcons are going to be a huge pre-snap motion team this year in the same way that they were last year.

49:35We see this with teams sometimes where if you're going to use a lot of motion, do we get, do you want

49:41to play a lot of man coverage so your guys are sprinting all over the field the entire game?

49:46It's kind of how teams are with the Niners.

49:48It's why teams don't play a lot of man coverage against the Niners.

49:52The other element of why teams don't play a ton of man coverage against the Niners is they don't want to play man coverage against Christian McCaffrey.

49:59So is this a B. John Robinson thing where we don't want those linebackers to have to worry about B.

50:05John and man. So we're going to play a lot of zone.

50:08It might be some combination of all of those things, but I want to see how much they carry over because when

50:14you think about the best way to play against the Drake May Patriots, it's exactly what Seattle did last week.

50:20We're going to make you run the ball into light boxes.

50:23We're going to play a lot of soft zone and make you check the ball down consistently.

50:27And so the way the Steelers played against Atlanta last week, I think is the way for them to play against the Patriots.

50:34I just wonder how much of that approach was Atlanta specific and how much of it is.

50:38This is who we want to be defensively. You think any part of it could be quarterback specific?

50:43It might be. That's that. That was the other thing I did not mention where it's just like, we're not going to give this guy anything easy.

50:51Yeah. Like this is a Cooper Rush specific game.

50:53I'm not going to give Cooper Rush an easy throw because Drake London's good at his job.

50:58Exactly. Yeah. Maybe that was it. Maybe that was maybe that was the entire explanation.

51:02And so I'm just curious where we land, because again, if you just want to carry over a ton of that stuff,

51:08they didn't play much cover six was a lot of quarters.

51:11And the Seahawks leaned into some of those, you know, too high base looks, whether it was pure cover six stuff.

51:17There was some game plan stuff that Nate had pointed out on Twitter that they were those kind of like bespoke for

51:23the way they wanted to play against the Patriots, but making him check the ball down consistently and forcing them to run into light boxes.

51:30That's the way you should approach this game. And we just saw the Steelers do that last week.

51:35Yeah, I am interested to see how much of it because like I do obviously not having Joey Porter, who wherever you

51:41want to rank him among the quarterback rankings, like his whole thing is that he can play press man coverage.

51:46I thought Asante Samuel looked great in the preseason.

51:49I thought he looked good in this game, but he's like a sit in zone, play the quarterback size.

51:54I'm reading routes sort of cornerback. And so maybe they just felt more comfortable with that.

51:58I think it's also a chance that they signed Jamel Dean thinking that he could also be like this press man corner,

52:04but he's getting a little bit older. He's been banged up a number of times.

52:08Maybe they were just like, you know what, actually sitting in some of these more like quarters soft zone coverages actually just makes more sense to use him.

52:16And so I do wonder how this defense is going to progress.

52:19And I think it's hard to figure out too, because Patrick Graham has kind of been everything at some point.

52:25And so figuring out exactly where he lands is like, I don't know, we'll check back in in October and see what the coverage rates look like.

52:32We've spent a lot of time reliving the fact that the Pats opened last season with a loss to the Raiders.

52:38Never forget that they lost to the Steelers in goofy ass fashion last year, too, in September.

52:43They turned the ball over five times in a seven point loss.

52:46So the potential is here for some shenanigans with the talent the Steelers have on defense.

52:50Absolutely. And I thought the Steelers defense looked really good in that game.

52:54I thought they, again, it's you're playing against Cooper Rush, but the game one of a new coordinator, I think that's what you want to see from Pittsburgh.

53:02And so what that looks like in the approach, the both the approach and the quality against Drake May compared to Cooper Rush.

53:08That is something I'm I am watching when when they open this game on Sunday.

53:12Colts and Chiefs is our next one here. Derek, what is one thing you were watching in the Colts Chiefs game on Sunday?

53:18How much they are going on Sunday? You'll tell me if I'm wrong.

53:22Colts Chiefs is Sunday night. Thank you very much.

53:24Appreciate it. So right down to the wire of being pushed to a different day.

53:29I think for me, it's how uncomfortable this Chiefs defense is going to make this game on Daniel Jones.

53:34And I think a big part of it last week, we were talking about it a little bit with the Broncos game.

53:40The Chiefs had a forty five point five percent pressure rate, according to next gen stats.

53:44That was the fourth highest pressure rate in the league.

53:47Only the Eagles, Vikings and the Ravens were better.

53:49Do you know who the Ravens played? They played the Indianapolis Colts.

53:53And so they're now facing a team that clearly has some juice with like, again, our Mason Thomas looked good.

53:58I thought Chris Jones looked really good. FAU having the game he had like they have bodies and waves and we know

54:04that Spags can bring some of these pressures. And now I think they have more talent and like guys who can win

54:10the one on ones when they create those. And so I'm a little bit interested to see that because again, Daniel Jones looked fine moving around.

54:17I'm still not like confident that he is 100 percent the same athlete and mover that he was last year.

54:23And the other point that I would make to that in this last game against the Ravens, Daniel Jones threw two passes outside the numbers beyond eight yards.

54:31That was I think that it was I think tied for the lowest in the league.

54:35I just don't know if he was comfortable driving the ball outside the numbers like that, especially against good corners.

54:40The Ravens got good corners. So did the Chiefs, man.

54:43Like if Delaney can play and I think Noel Williams had a fantastic game in this week one, like even LeJarius Sneed

54:49at nickel, I thought looked pretty good like they can cover.

54:52And so if they're going to be able to lock out guys one on one and Jones isn't going to throw those

54:58and you're just telling me Spags is going to be able to create some funky shit over the middle that Daniel Jones

55:04is going to have to get right and do it under pressure.

55:08I think this game could unravel. The lane is expected to be available as of recently.

55:12So I'm just excited to see this defensive at full strength again.

55:15Yeah. And it's, it's a fun matchup. Just when you think about last year, that loss to the chiefs was kind of

55:21a turning point moment for the Colts like that they had that game.

55:25They absolutely could have won that game and they didn't.

55:28And it was really the last time we saw that version of the offense before Daniel Jones gets hurt and the wheels come off.

55:34And so it's week one is so funny, man.

55:37Like you think you have an idea of what the season is going to be, even if I think we all had

55:43a level of collective optimism about what the chiefs could be.

55:46You see yourself like being chomping at the bit to watch the chiefs.

55:49Exactly right. I just, I, even if you thought, even if you had optimism about it, even if you're like, oh man,

55:55and we, we said this, like the juice that they could have with the young guys.

56:00That's so real. Like, I do think that there's a version of this, that the chiefs end this season with a really good defense.

56:06Never in a million years did I think I'd be sitting here before a week two and be like, I can't wait

56:12to watch what the chiefs defense is going to do after what they did in week one.

56:17And that's what is so fun about the beginning of the season.

56:20Get to our last one here. Vikings at bears.

56:23Dave, what is one thing you are watching in Vikings bears on Sunday?

56:26I'm so mad that this is a noon game.

56:29It at least deserves like a three 30 window to lessen the attention around it, but it will have its own large television.

56:35I'm talking about, I'm talking about for the league writ large for America.

56:39We live in Chicago, so maybe we're in a bubble, but it really feels like this one thing is the one thing

56:45in the NFL this week, which is Ben Johnson going against Brian Flores, particularly after what they did to open the season.

56:51Each of them, I mean, masterclasses on each side of the ball, and now they get to go against each other.

56:56The Vikings, they blitz anyway, but just for context and the numbers will look different depending on who you ask per true

57:03media, Flores blitz the Packers 73.9% of the time.

57:05I've seen it north of 80%, depending on who you, whose stats you want to look at.

57:10But so I was curious per true media over the last 10 years, there have been 12 defensive performances with that high of a blitz rate.

57:17Right. So Todd Bowles is in there when he coached the Jets.

57:20Romeo Cronell did it. Joe Barry. Romeo Cronell did it against Denver a long time ago.

57:24Joe Barry did it when Bailey Zappi was starting for the Patriots.

57:28That's just mean. Hell yeah. Okay. So that's three out of the 12.

57:31The other nine are either Wink Martindale or Brian Flores.

57:34God bless them both. It's just, it's beautiful characters in the tapestry of NFL history.

57:38It is an absolutely silly blitz rate. Obviously the Vikings are not going to do that again.

57:43Like even for what you think about Brian Flores and how often he likes to bet to blitz, I think it's going

57:49to be a much more normal, but that is the, that's the fun cat and mouse game of how's Brian Flores going

57:55to stay true to who he is while dealing with an offense that I think is going to be a hell of

58:01a lot more equipped to deal with that than the Packers were the other day.

58:05And I got to shout him out specifically. Jason Leisure of the Chicago Sun-Times asked Ben Johnson the question that led to

58:11my favorite quote of the week that I've seen where he basically was like, you know, how do you, how do you

58:17do what you want to do without overthinking and trying to anticipate Flores to the point where you're getting away from what you want to do.

58:24And Ben Johnson just kind of laughed and he was like, yeah, there's an element of that.

58:29And he was like, well, how do you keep yourself from going into that rabbit hole?

58:33And Ben was just like, I'm in that rabbit hole.

58:36Right now. A rare moment of levity. We don't get a lot of those, but how you, how you sort this out

58:42is it's going to be fascinating because there's no way Flores, I can't imagine Flores like not blitzing at all, even in

58:48the two games last year and they split the series week one last year.

58:52He really only blitzed like 33% of the time.

58:54And then in Minneapolis, he cranked it up to like 67%.

58:57It was highly effective in that game. Like Caleb completed almost nothing past 14 or 15 yards downfield.

59:02I just, I don't know, man. I think this offense is a different beast.

59:06I think they're better equipped to deal with that.

59:09They did such cool shit with their tight ends last week where all of them can contribute to the blocking game.

59:15I want to, if I say nothing else, I want to say DeAndre Swift was a demon in pass protection last week.

59:21And so I just, I think if Flores tries anything remotely as crazy as he did against the Packers, it's not going to work out.

59:27So how does he adjust the sliders to try to find a more delicate balance?

59:32I mean, I cannot wait to watch this chess match.

59:34And when you look at it, the way that the Packers were just the players that the Packers are trying out compared

59:40to what the bears have, you have two guards that have barely played NFL football that the Packers had last week.

59:46You have Marshawn Lloyd, who's played almost no football.

59:49And then in Chicago, you have Joe Tooney, Jonah Jackson, and then DeAndre Swift and a coordinator who has seen this defense

59:55many, many times and, and relatively, and I, I famous last words.

59:58I almost don't even want to say this because I don't want to jinx it has relatively had some success against Brian

60:04Flores compared to other play callers around the league.

60:06He definitely has, but I will, the last time they played bears did win, but Caleb was highly ineffective targeting like the, the deeper portions of the field.

60:14And it was a Devin Duvernay kick return that kept that from being a really unsettling loss to the JJ McCarthy Vikings.

60:20So the potential is here. I, I think I lean toward the bears based on what we saw in week one, but you never know.

60:27I'm not going to doubt Flores. Same thing we said about the Jags and having the Broncos in week two being a

60:33really good test to see how much of this is real.

60:36I want watching what Caleb Williams does in this game and comparing that to what we saw in week one.

60:41I I'm, it's a very good follow-up if you're trying to determine exactly how we should think about the game that we saw from Caleb Williams last week.

60:49Yeah. I think like what Jordan Love did to keep them in the game for three quarters last week, where it was

60:55just chucking it 12 yards down the field off of like a three-step drop, knowing you're about to get smacked.

61:01I think Caleb's got that in him at some point in his career, how much of he, that he can do in

61:07this game, I think is, is interesting. And the other thing I would say the Packers had no shot of running blind Brian Flores out of those looks.

61:14Yeah. The bears might be able to run Brian Flores out of those looks a little bit.

61:19All right. It's time to take a trip down to sicko street for week two.

61:23Again, if you're unfamiliar with the show, how we do these previews each week, you're going to look at the schedule and

61:29they're going to be some games that are easy to dismiss.

61:32And we're going to try to give you a reason or two, possibly a perverse reason that you should not dismiss hopefully a perverse reason.

61:39Hopefully is there. There is one for us to find as to why you should actually care about and tune into this game this week.

61:46It is Browns at bucks where I'll start with this is no matter what happens in this game, there is going to

61:52be one fan base that leaves just feeling completely awful about themselves.

61:55If you're the Browns, just more of the same, right?

61:58And the problem is if you lose this game and the way that you, the ways that you could potentially lose it,

62:04the quarterback on the other side represents what you could have done.

62:07And the path that you chose not to go down.

62:10So beyond just the eternal pain of being a Browns fan in this era, you get kicked in the teeth even more.

62:16If it's Baker Mayfield doing this to you, if you're the bucks and you lose this game, you lost to the Browns.

62:22So it is a, it's a very same. You lost to Deshaun Watson.

62:26So that one is pretty simple, but on either side of this, Dave, we could have a fan base feeling pretty awful

62:32by the time this thing wraps up. I think I'm not trying to rub salt in the wound.

62:37I think Browns fans are probably pretty used to not feeling great about the team.

62:41If the bucks don't win this game as an eight and a half point favorite in Tampa coming off of last week.

62:47And you know, you prefer the quarterback. You just signed to an extension, not turn the ball over three or four times in a game, but whatever.

62:54We lost to a good team that has high expectations for the season losing this.

62:58This is one of those games where when you get the schedule in April, you're like, okay, like we'll beat the Browns.

63:04So that's all right. Like where are the hard games?

63:07You can't drop games like this if you're Tampa and you're trying to improve on last year.

63:12And yeah, I know it's not Baker's first game against Cleveland because he started against them when he was in Carolina.

63:18That doesn't count though. It's his first game against Cleveland since his football resurrection.

63:21Since Sean McVay just, you know, dipped him in magic waters in LA and saved his football career.

63:26And then Liam Cohen continued. And then Liam Cohen.

63:29And this is his, this is his first game since finding his football second life.

63:33And Baker's pissed off and looking for an edge all the time.

63:36Anyway, you remember that old SNL skit where this was like 10 years ago when Drake like manufactured beef with everybody that worked on SNL.

63:43He's like, why didn't you say hi to me?

63:46And he's like writing rap songs about it. That's how Baker's brain works.

63:49That's how Baker's brain works. And now he's playing the Browns.

63:52Like he actually has a reason to be pissed off about this game.

63:56So like Baker tuned up to 15 out of 10 on the pissed off scale is worth the price of admission alone.

64:02I think too, the other small thing with the Baker thing, he's coming off of a game where he was horrendous.

64:08Like just doing all of the worst habits that you have with Baker Mayfield where not protecting the ball and he's scrambling

64:14when he shouldn't, he's throwing the ball into coverage and all this other stuff.

64:17And so if you get that game from him week one, there might be a kernel in the back of your mind

64:23as a Brown fan where you're like, oh, he's down.

64:26We can get him again. And what if he just comes out in the bucks score like 40 points on you?

64:32And then you're like, oh no, like we got, we thought we had him.

64:36We thought we had him at his lowest and it doesn't matter.

64:39They're back. The Browns defense is another one of those units where I'm just wondering what's real and what's not for them

64:45to get cooked by the Jags in the way that they did last week.

64:49Are they going to be a group that we have to worry about again?

64:53It's a lot of the, there's a decent amount of talent among that group.

64:57It's not perfect, but there's a decent amount of talent among that group, but it's a new play caller.

65:02It's a new situation. Like maybe that just overall is a unit that we should be more down on than we probably were coming into the season.

65:09I don't think we'll have that answer by the end of this week, but it'll be an important data point in trying

65:15to figure out which direction we're going to go on the Browns defense specifically.

65:19Similar for the other side of things. I thought for losing the turnover battle terribly, for the most part, I was really

65:25excited about the Bucks defense playing an explosive Cincinnati group.

65:28Alex Anzalone, not the best debut in NFL history, but so many of their young players, Benjamin Morrison stepped in for Jacob Parrish and kicked ass.

65:35Zion McCollum had a really nice game. Tykee Smith was flying around.

65:38Reuben Bain was not very good, but I think this is a more favorite Titus Howard and Spencer Fano in game number

65:44two is a little more favorable matchup than you said this this week.

65:48He's playing an actual ent last week. Marius Mims, not, not where you want to start.

65:52If you're Reuben Bain, I'm optimistic that the Bucks defense can look really fun and fly around and do some cool shit in this game.

65:59And if they don't, then I start to get kind of nervous.

66:03I really didn't think about this, but the Reuben Bain, Spencer Fano battle of the short arms test is maybe that's the

66:09way to get the most out of Reuben Bain.

66:11It really might be. Again, you guys mentioned it.

66:13I think Marius Mims is literally like physically the worst matchup he could have drawn.

66:18Like there are better players, you know, Tristan worse, whatever, but that is physically the worst matchup he could have drawn.

66:23I'm really, I'm looking up a, I'm on Reuben Bain's mock draftable page right now.

66:27And Spencer, Spencer Fano's roommate didn't test. And so it looks much different.

66:31Spencer Fano's is just hilarious. Like on this octagonal spider chart, all of the athletic stuff is in like the 90th, 85th percentile.

66:37And then you look at wingspan, arm length and hand size, and it doesn't exist.

66:41Like there's just all white space on the spider chart.

66:44And I assume Reuben Bain's would probably have been pretty similar if he did any of the athletic testing.

66:49His mock draftable chart looks like Pac-Man. Yeah, that's exactly right.

66:52Yes. Got the Pac-Man chart. Between all the Browns, between Fano and the Browns receivers, and then the sheer number of big

66:58draft picks the Bucks have used on defense. This is a, this is a big draft net game for sure.

67:04I can't wait to see who just feels like absolute shit after this thing wraps up.

67:08That's the entire point of Sicko Street. All right, let's take our second quick break here.

67:13And we're going to come back and chat about a couple more games from the week two slate.

67:18Try out a new segment this year, just as a way to kind of dig into something that's five, four, three, try out a new segment this year.

67:25We're calling this take therapy. And it's just a way to talk through something that one of us has been sitting with over the course of the week.

67:33Something that's been in the back of your mind that you know, or at least you hope you'll feel a little bit

67:39better about if you get to talk something through just an intrusive thought that has weighed on you a little more heavily

67:45than you want to over the course from the time that the games ended last week until we're recording this show on Thursday.

67:51And for me, it is just my overall concern about the Dallas Cowboys defense.

67:55We talked about this on Sunday night in real time.

67:58I think, and again, this is going to be a space where nothing is off the table.

68:03This is a safe space. We're allowed to say whatever, and we just trust each other here.

68:07I know that it's irrational to think that this is just going to be how it goes for the Cowboys the entire year.

68:14It's week one. We talked about it in real time.

68:16There have been even great coordinators that have really struggled early in their first seasons with new teams.

68:21And so I know it's irrational to let that week one performance from the Cowboys defense completely change the way I feel

68:27about this group moving forward and think that this is going to be an absolute disaster.

68:32But then you go back and you watch it and you just think about and read all of the panic that has

68:38come out of the Dallas media over the last few days.

68:41And just every single person in that building talking about fixing communication issues and how much better that they have to be.

68:47I don't feel great about it, guys. I'll be honest with you.

68:50I do not feel great about where all of this sits one week into the season, even if I know intellectually it

68:56should get better over the course of the year with a first-time coordinator.

69:00I'd love to say I told you so, but I didn't even see the New York Giants walking them down the way they did.

69:06And that's the most troubling part about it is like, if you gave up 10 explosives in week one and it just

69:12like you just, you know, guys were running open and a missed tackle turns into a 60-yard gain or whatever, that's not

69:18good, but it's easier to hand wave away. We talked about it at the time, like the Giants were just so methodical.

69:24They had they had a 13-play touchdown drive with no explosives and they had two others that only generated one explosive.

69:30They just shipped their way downfield against a defense that was completely unable to adjust to it all night long.

69:36And when you consider, by the way, Malik Hooker is hurt now, as is DeMarvian Overshown.

69:40Not that they necessarily even played well in this game, but now the depth of a unit that grossly underperformed is already being tested.

69:47And oh, by the way, if you lose, you're 0-2 in the division with a trip to Brazil to play the Ravens on deck.

69:53How's that make you feel? Oh, that sounds insane.

69:56That is like an ultimate getting caught in the bad vibes and just being shot down even further.

70:01I think I'm mostly in the same boat with all this stuff.

70:04And I think kind of to your point too, Dave, it's not just that they looked bad.

70:09To me, it was the way in which they looked bad, where for me, the biggest concern for this style of defense,

70:15what I'm going to call the Fangio style of defense.

70:17I think I said this at some point during our preview shows, they've all had awesome linebackers.

70:22Like go look back at all of Fangio's teams.

70:25Almost all of them had dudes at linebacker. And I think you can even say, you know, the Mike McDonald system is a similar style of system.

70:32They traded for Roquan Smith and then the same thing with Ernest Jones in Seattle.

70:36They always have dudes there. The fact that Dallas's linebackers looked completely unplayable in this game, like Jayshon Barham.

70:41He's a rookie third round pick. That's going to be tough.

70:44But I thought his head was spinning. Overshawn did not look good.

70:48D Winters, you could pick on. The fact that like a defense that is so reliant on the core and the spine

70:54of the defense looking good, and those guys were the weakest link, that did scare me pretty bad.

70:59I think it's just the fact that this is a defensive system that's really rooted in communication is so important, right?

71:04Like you need to be so but especially, and that was the promise of this, right?

71:09And that's what I, the talent was better than it was last year.

71:12They added so many pieces. Like it is a different group.

71:15It's a ship of Theseus joke we made when we're talking about this defense for the first time that like the talent

71:21level is just drastically different because most of the players are different, but it still isn't an overly talented group.

71:27This was the thing. This thing was going to have to sink or swim based on how well it was coached and how buttoned up it all felt.

71:34And that was the, what you had to talk yourself into.

71:38The fact that that was the element of it that looked as poor as it did in week one, that's scary as hell.

71:44Like it's truly terrifying as somebody who had a level of optimism about this going into it.

71:48And I think if you're trying to tell yourself a story about why it's now we're totally panicking over this, I think

71:55you go back to the best and cleanest example is what the saints were last year.

71:59You look back at, and you think about like what the saints were in the first half of last year, they were getting up 25 points a game.

72:07They weren't a great defense. They were significantly better in the second half of the year.

72:11And it's again, similar Fangio bones and some of this, the nuance and the complexity associated with that.

72:16It takes a little bit of time. And so the fact that it was communication issues, maybe you can talk yourself into that being correctable.

72:23Like those are things that you actually can get better at over time and with a little bit more time on task.

72:29But again, this is all stuff that you're really having to rationalize what you saw last week.

72:33And so I've been sitting here very worried about it.

72:36And I think spinning it forward a little bit, if you can't look better against Washington than you looked last week, that's where it gets really scary.

72:44Because while there are elements of this Washington offense that can give a defense that we, the quality defense we saw last week can still give you problems.

72:51This should still be a group that you can bounce back against at least a little bit.

72:56You would like to think, but to go back to your point and add at recording, we don't know the answer to this.

73:02The Cowboys are playing it close to the vest, but overshown is dinged up.

73:06Barham might wear the green dot on Sunday. Oh, and I'm not, I refuse to shit on Jay Sean Barham because the

73:12fact that he took on this mythic status within the Cowboys fan base because of training camp is a symptom of the

73:18Cowboys own issues of not addressing linebacker better. This is why I wouldn't shut up about Jordan Brooks during the lead up

73:24to training camp until the Dolphins finally extended him.

73:27It's an untenable situation for a third round rookie.

73:29I mean, a third round rookie that's a tweener.

73:32Yeah. That's not a space player. You know, that's even another element of this.

73:35If Sonny Stiles was being forced into this situation, it would still be tough, but more understandable.

73:40This is just a completely different story entirely. And so when you hear stuff like that, that like a third round rookie

73:46might be calling this defense on Sunday in week two, after looking like he wasn't ready for it in week one, it's

73:52hard to come up with a realistic source of optimism.

73:55And the commanders did not look great on Sunday.

73:57That was against the real deal. Like the real Fangio defense that we are highly confident is very good.

74:03It's, it's not great, man. I'm sure actually, I can't even say I'm sure.

74:06I hope it doesn't look that bad throughout the season.

74:09And I do trust that Christian Parker can attain a higher degree of communication and, and buttoning things up than what we

74:15saw in the season opener, but how much better?

74:18Cause we were hoping this could be a unit that would take a leap to the middle of the league.

74:23That, that's, that was the hope. Could this be the 15th best defense in the league?

74:28That doesn't feel realistic based on one week. No, maybe that's an overreaction, but this is supposed to be a safe space.

74:34I mean, if you're getting, if you're giving up what they did last week, you're already putting yourself in a hole to

74:40be the 15th best defense in the league over the course of the season.

74:44We only play 17 games, right? Whether or not they feel that way, statistically, they're making it really hard to get there.

74:50Yes. And so again, it's a long, long season and it's not a matter of them being the eighth best defense in the league.

74:56It's a matter of them being the 16th or 17th best defense in the league.

75:00That's certainly not off the table yet, but it's, it's been, uh, it's been a lot to wrestle with over the last 72 or so hours.

75:07I'll tell you that. It's if the Broncos weren't playing a game of the week, we could have done the same thing about their offense.

75:14So I'm right there with you. Let's talk about what we want to know coming out of week two in the NFL.

75:20We're going to do this every week. Each of us is going to have something that we just want a little bit

75:26more information on a little bit more clarity on by the time the week wraps up, I'll kick us off.

75:32Are the Cardinals going to be the team that surprises us this year?

75:35Every year, there is a team that is better than we expect, that is more competent than we expect.

75:41And I think to give ourselves a little bit of credit.

75:44When we talked about the Cardinals in the NFC West preview, we did not treat the Cardinals as some disaster class.

75:49It was, this is a team that is flawed, that has a stopgap journeyman, a quarterback, and is playing against one of

75:55the toughest schedules in the NFL and arguably the toughest division in the NFL.

75:59Even if they were going to win three or four games, I think we all collectively believe that this would be a watchable team.

76:06There are a lot of redeeming elements of this.

76:08Well, maybe if, maybe that wasn't enough, maybe that wasn't enough optimism.

76:12Maybe this is going to be a team that, I mean, we're one and O we beat a team that we're people

76:18were picking to make the playoffs and win the NFC West.

76:21And so is it going to be more than a plucky team that loses a lot of games?

76:26Are they actually going to be a group that really overachieves that is consistently giving teams a hard time every single week

76:32that ends up somewhere closer to 500 or better in a way we never could have anticipated.

76:36And so again, we won't have a firm answer on that for a long time, but that's what I want to know coming out of week two.

76:44How confident should I feel and how excited should I feel about the Cardinals being that team?

76:48Okay. I'm going to, I'm going to put everyone on the seat really quickly in your heart of hearts.

76:54Do you think that this Cardinals team can or will be better than last year's Panthers?

76:58Yeah, I believe I are. Yes. Ooh. Yes. Like I, I kind of think that I already, I'm like, I kind of think that they're better than that.

77:06The only, the only complicating factor to that division.

77:08It's yeah, exactly. But in terms of quality of team, yes, a hundred percent.

77:12I have no problem saying that like right now.

77:14And cause that's the other thing that the, the, the Panthers were not even as good as their record suggested last year.

77:20I think last year they were like 23rd or 24th by DVOA, but that's kind of the thing with this Cardinals team

77:27is like the schedule is probably going to put them in such a place that winning anything more than seven games, even

77:33in a really good season is going to be difficult.

77:35But this was a roster, like to your point, they were a better roster than you ever see for a team that

77:41had like the worst, like, I guess the highest odds to like lose the most games.

77:46You know what I mean? Like you usually just don't see rosters that have this much talent be projected to maybe lose the most games in the NFL.

77:53And so again, I don't know how many that means they're actually going to win, but like, you can kind of sell me that this is competitive.

78:01They looked good. Okay. Let me ask you this, because I just said, I can't see it from a record standpoint because

78:07the NFC West is so strong, but you know how you subvert those expectations.

78:11You steal wins from teams like the Seahawks when they don't have their quarterback.

78:15How realistic do you think that is? That Seahawks are three and a half point road favorites, even without Sam Darnold.

78:20I don't know how realistic it is because that's why I'm talking about the Cardinals right now.

78:25I want to know. I'm like, what do I want to know?

78:28I want to know how realistic it is. I have no idea.

78:32We have one glimpse against the Chargers team that just looks so disappointing, right?

78:35Like just was everything about the defense specifically, right?

78:38Like the defense was talking about your worst fears being realized.

78:41The Chargers looking the way they did defensively last week is your worst fears being realized about the talent level, just not

78:47being good enough in the same way that we talked about over the last couple of years when they had to play

78:53against really good teams deeper into the season and Jesse Minter being such a multiplier.

78:57And so I don't know. It's not an interesting answer, but that's where I sit with it.

79:02I don't know. I think it's fair not to know.

79:04And it makes this game a hell of a lot more compelling than it looks on paper because if week one was

79:11not an aberration, then the 2-0 Arizona Cardinals is not completely out of the question.

79:15I would pick Seattle if I was picking this game, but it shouldn't be completely out of the question if they look

79:21remotely like they did last week, that they could beat a team with its backup quarterback at home.

79:26And so I can't wait to find the answer to that.

79:29And that's how stuff like this is how you have a surprisingly good season.

79:32If you can steal a game like this and all of a sudden at the end of the year, you're seven and

79:3810 or eight and nine instead of five and 12.

79:41Like that's how it happens. I will say they don't need to win this game for the answer to this to be

79:47yes, that they are the team that's going to surprise us this year.

79:51You don't need to beat the Seahawks in order to be that team.

79:54But I think these questions are more relevant in week two than probably at any other point in the year of what do I want to know?

80:02And so I think we will learn a decent amount about the Cardinals this week.

80:06Derek, what do you want to know coming out of week two in the NFL?

80:10Speaking of the Chargers defense, how long do we got to do this with them?

80:14Because they got picked apart in this game by the Cardinals.

80:17And I think this to me was so different than like the Bills hanging 36 points on the Texans.

80:22Like I mentioned, it took so many insane plays for the Bills to be able to do that.

80:27I watched the Cardinals go against the Chargers defense and they were just destroying them schematically, like just picking apart and finding anything that they wanted.

80:34And last year with Jesse Minter, it just so rarely felt like this team was out of the wrong call or they

80:40were miscommunicating something or they couldn't tackle or whatever it was going to be.

80:44It felt like they knew what route combinations were coming.

80:47I thought the Cardinals did such a good job of consistently putting the ball where they wanted to.

80:52You mentioned, I think on the Sunday show, how well they were opening up the middle of the field.

80:57Something I picked up on also when I was watching this game against the Chargers, Jacoby Brissett was 11 of 12 for

81:0388 yards and a 75% success rate on throws of one to 10 air yards between the numbers and the hash marks.

81:09And what they were doing was they were consistently finding some way to like, Hey, let's get the flat defender out of

81:15here and we're going to replace him with the ball.

81:18And the amount of times they were able to do that so reliably for four quarters.

81:22I was like, man, that is what it looks like when you are a first time NFL play caller, they're going to start picking on you.

81:30We said, well, we said Denver was ultimately the least and like the, the most surprising in a bad way performance of week one.

81:36Right. Right. Yeah. But the Chargers are not far behind.

81:39Yeah. The Chargers are in the conversation. I think with the way, the way the offense looks specifically was incredibly disappointing, but

81:45that's the other thing we haven't even mentioned about the Cardinals.

81:48The Cardinals defense might actually be good. They're deep dude.

81:51Max Melton was nuts in this game. I thought Max Melton played a really good, good game.

81:55Mac Wilson was really good in this game. Like Buddha is Buddha.

81:59Like I thought the front looked good. I do think with the Chargers offense though, like I have enough faith in Justin

82:05Herbert and Mike McDaniel that like we can get there and we can figure this out with the Chargers defense.

82:10We had questions of like, how talented is this defense really?

82:13And we've never seen O'Leary call plays at the NFL level before.

82:17And flip side of the Cardinals thing, especially because the Cardinals took that game from the Chargers.

82:21You look at this schedule in April and you say, well, at bills at Seahawks, Broncos, Chiefs Rams, Texans, Ravens, but at

82:27least we start the season with the Cardinals and the Raiders.

82:30So big sigh of relief there. And now you're staring down the barrel of O and two if the Raiders do that to you as well.

82:37I mean, the fact that you dropped the first one is already kind of unforgivable.

82:41And that's how a promising season goes sideways quickly.

82:44I honestly think it's the Raiders are a really good test though.

82:47Cause I think the Raiders in week one, like it's exactly what Derek is talking about where the talent level isn't even

82:53on the same level as the Cardinals talent level, obviously like with the pass catchers, especially without Bowers.

82:58But I have confidence that Clint Kubiak is going to make it hard on you.

83:02The schematically they're going to make it hard on you.

83:05And so if you're going to get picked on again by a play caller and an offensive ecosystem that I have faith

83:11in that I think will be a solid test at the very least, I think that actually makes it a really appropriate

83:17week to measuring stick for this Chargers defense specifically.

83:20Dave, what are you watching in week two of the NFL?

83:23What do you want to know? What I want to know is can the Green Bay Packers a play a normal game and be finish it?

83:30And that is a valid question to ask after the journey we have been on with this team.

83:35As y'all remember, Green Bay beat Chicago on December 7th to improve to 9-3-1.

83:39Since then, they have now lost six games in a row dating back to last season.

83:43It's their longest consecutive loss streak since the end of 1990 going into 1991.

83:47We've literally never seen the Packers lose over this prolonged period of time since before Brett Favre.

83:51We are in new waters. They also haven't started 0-2 since 2006.

83:55So if they can't manage to beat the Jets on the road, we really are just in a new place for most

84:01of us in our consciousness with the Green Bay Packers.

84:04Reminds me of the quote from Peter Gibbons in Office Space where he's like, every day of my life has gotten worse since I started my job.

84:11So if you see a Packers fan, that's on the worst day of their life because they keep finding ways to lose

84:17these games and all in the second half and fourth quarter, by the way.

84:21I'm willing to say this because it's a jinx I'm more than willing to live with.

84:25I think we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves with the, oh man, could they lose to the Jets on Sunday?

84:31That to me is not a proper response. I'm not saying you did this.

84:35Other people are doing this. And I just, I feel like we're getting there a little bit too fast.

84:40But, and that's why I want, that's why I included the normal game aspect of this.

84:45Even like the Jets looked surprisingly good and competent, and I don't mean to write them off, but like for who the

84:51Packers are, what we expect of them and what they've been under Matt LaFleur, they should go win this game without having to sweat too much about it.

84:58They're going to win this game and they are going to win this game in convincing fashion.

85:03There's no way the Packers lose to the Jets on Sunday.

85:06The old reverse jinx. I do think you're right though.

85:09Like the Jets beat the Titans and it wasn't like it was, it wasn't like they throttled them.

85:14Like they played well, but they, you know what I mean?

85:17And so I think the Packers will be fine in this game.

85:20I am terribly worried about the guard play though.

85:23And whether or not that loses them a game against the Jets by themselves, I don't know.

85:27Over the course of the season, I don't think that this will be the first time that we have them in like, what do you want to know?

85:35Can you hold up against X teams interior? I do think that that will be a question.

85:40I would just love to see the Packers build a lead and then not look up an hour later and be like, what happened here?

85:46They've been outscored 110 to 39 in the second half during this losing streak.

85:50You better be on your P's and Q's with Gino right now.

85:54Gino was slinging it last week. We're back. We could have done morbidly interested for, for a variety of reasons, morbidly interested

86:00to have an eye on that game. We could have done 10 of these this week.

86:04I mean, that's week two is the ripest time to have these sorts of conversations.

86:08There are a lot of things I think we want to know after this, after week two in the NFL wraps up

86:14and hopefully we will have some more answers when that all goes down.

86:18We will be back here on Sunday nights, recapping the week that was.

86:21We would love if you guys would come join us.

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86:37For now, that's all we got. Appreciate you guys listening.

86:40We'll talk to you very soon. Thanks for tuning in.

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86:47If you enjoyed what you heard, please like, comment, and leave a rating.

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