Week 3 Recap: Broncos stun Rams, Ravens upend Cowboys, Jaguars roll Patriots, and the 3-0 Raiders
STACKED extracted the fantasy-relevant player signal from this podcast and kept the full transcript here for context.
1 hr 51 min
Duration
Estimated from transcript
Sep 28, 2026
Published
Mon, September 28, 2026
28
Player insights
28
Players mentioned
Topics
Brock BowersCeeDee LambChris OlaveDak PrescottDarnell WashingtonDavante AdamsDavid MontgomeryDK MetcalfJadarian PriceJake FergusonJaylen WarrenJosh DownsJustin HerbertKeaton Mitchell
Player analysis
Player insights
Brock Bowers
PositiveUsage56:44
Brock Bowers was sensational, showing rare versatility by playing 13 snaps out wide, 14 in the slot, four inline, and one in the backfield. He is being targeted one-on-one as an X receiver and is effectively being schemed into the offense as a primary weapon.
Insight pageCeeDee Lamb
PositiveUsage22:46
CeeDee Lamb remains a focal point of the Cowboys' offense, showing elite playmaking ability, including a notable screen play against the Ravens.
Insight pageChris Olave
PositiveRole59:35
Chris Olave remains the star of the Saints' offense and is playing at a high level.
Insight pageDak Prescott
PositiveProjection19:19
Dak Prescott is playing at a high level, serving as a key component of the Cowboys' passing attack alongside CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens.
Insight pageDarnell Washington
PositiveUsage46:02
Darnell Washington had two insane plays and was consistently open over the middle of the field against the Bengals, contributing to a 64.3% success rate for the Steelers in the seams and between the hashes.
Insight pageDavante Adams
NegativeRole8:21
With Puka Nakua and Terrence Ferguson sidelined, Davante Adams remains the primary pass-catching option for the Rams, though the offense struggles when he is the sole focus.
Insight pageDavid Montgomery
NegativeUsage85:57
David Montgomery struggled to find success on the ground, recording only two successful runs on 11 carries, contributing to the Texans' poor rushing efficiency in Week 3.
Insight pageDK Metcalf
PositiveUsage69:53
DK Metcalf is noted for his role in the Steelers' red zone success, specifically running deep crossers, and for his physicality as a blocker, despite a questionable holding penalty.
Insight pageJadarian Price
NegativeUsage72:24
Jadarian Price is noted for a fumble during the game against the Seahawks, which contributed to the team's overall struggles in that matchup.
Insight pageJake Ferguson
NegativeUsage40:33
The source criticizes the Cowboys' usage of Jake Ferguson, specifically calling out the shovel pass as 'cutesy bullshit' and arguing that the team should prioritize explosive plays to their elite receivers instead of short-yardage gimmicks.
Insight pageJaylen Warren
PositiveUsage45:48
Jalen Warren looks awesome and is playing like a baller; the Steelers' offensive line is providing him with consistent free runways to the second level, which is a major positive for his production.
Insight pageJosh Downs
PositiveUsage82:41
Josh Downs exploited the Texans' zone coverage, catching a slant and spinning out of a tackle for a near-touchdown, highlighting the Texans' defensive struggles in the middle of the field.
Insight pageJustin Herbert
NegativeBust65:27
Justin Herbert is making multiple big-time mistakes every game, including a horrendous, inexcusable interception against the Bills that occurred when the game was still in the balance.
Insight pageKeaton Mitchell
NegativeUsage69:16
The source criticizes the play-calling for Keaton Mitchell, specifically noting an outside zone run on third-and-five that failed to pick up the necessary yardage, questioning the team's decision-making process regarding fourth-down aggression.
Insight pageKyren Williams
NegativeUsage11:56
Kyren Williams is being utilized in tight end-like roles, including zone coverage responsibilities where he was targeted by the Broncos' defensive scheme.
Insight pageLamar Jackson
PositiveUsage20:37
Lamar Jackson is operating a highly efficient passing offense, finishing 15-of-20 against the Cowboys while continuing to leverage his dynamic rushing ability.
Insight pageMatthew Stafford
NegativeUsage9:24
Matthew Stafford struggles significantly under pressure, finishing 5-of-18 with an interception when pressured against the Broncos; the Rams' offense lacks the personnel to compensate when he is made uncomfortable.
Insight pageNico Collins
PositiveValue81:13
The source suggests that the return of Nico Collins will help the Texans' offense, specifically by loosening up defensive boxes that have been stacking against them.
Insight pageParker Washington
PositiveBreakout46:55
Parker Washington is praised for his exceptional balance, strength, and ability to track the ball in the air, with the source comparing his physicality and contested-catch ability to Amon-Ra St. Brown.
Insight pageQuentin Johnston
NegativeUsage66:46
Quentin Johnston had a heinous drop on a critical third-and-10 play against the Bills, contributing to the overall sloppiness of the Chargers' offense.
Insight pageRashod Bateman
PositiveUsage21:07
Rashod Bateman is being integrated into the Ravens' offense as a motion player, contributing to a more dynamic passing scheme.
Insight pageRoman Wilson
NegativeBreakout70:33
Roman Wilson is highlighted for his performance, specifically a high-difficulty third-and-long conversion catch and a rub slot fade touchdown, showing he is becoming a reliable target in the Steelers' offense.
Insight pageSam Darnold
NegativeProjection71:01
The source notes that Sam Darnold was playing well for much of the game against the Seahawks, despite a late, costly interception that the source describes as a bad decision that cannot happen in a close fourth-quarter game.
Insight pageTerry McLaurin
PositiveBreakout72:52
Terry McLaurin delivered an unbelievable performance against the Seahawks, highlighted by a difficult back-shoulder touchdown catch and significant contributions in the run game as a blocker.
Insight pageTrevor Lawrence
PositiveProjection48:31
Trevor Lawrence is playing with immense comfort and confidence, demonstrating a willingness to make difficult, rhythm-based throws across the field. The source notes he is currently one of the most entertaining players in the league.
Insight pageTreylon Burks
PositiveUsage74:18
Treylon Burks caught a touchdown pass in a game where the quarterback was forced to make tight-window throws to attack the Seahawks' zone coverage.
Insight pageZay Flowers
PositiveUsage21:20
The Ravens are utilizing Zay Flowers in new, creative ways, including increased motion and 11-personnel sets, making him a central figure in their passing game.
Insight pageZay Jones
NegativeBust56:44
The source notes that Zay Jones had a completely inexplicable fumble out of the back of his hand, which the source jokingly attributes to the humidity or Jared Wilson bleeding on the ball.
Insight pageFull transcript
Episode Transcript
0:00Welcome to The Athletic Football Show brought to you by the US Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card.
0:06I'm Robert Mays. Week 3 in the NFL was one heck of a ride, really from start to finish.
0:12Both windows were incredible. Tons of just amazing, exciting games.
0:15We hit all of them. Started with the Sunday night game, hit Ravens, Cowboys, and then tried to dig into everything else we possibly could from week 3.
0:24An amazing week in the NFL. Let's get to it with me, Dave, and Derrik right now.
0:30What a game. What a day. That's what you look forward to for nine months while we wait for this whole thing to get going.
0:38I mean, the only thing missing was like an insane London game in the early, early window and we'll get that in
0:45a few weeks to really hammer home the like 18 hours of pure football.
0:49My goodness. I'm not even sure my nervous system could have taken that.
0:54I've got a game this morning based on everything that we just saw.
0:58We'll dig into all the action from today, but we're going to start with a phenomenal Sunday night football.
1:04I mean, obviously all the way down to the end.
1:07A really impressive performance by the Broncos in the second half considering what their offense looked like in half number one.
1:14It felt like the Rams were in total control of that game.
1:18And then over the course of the second half, you just start to feel it leaking out.
1:23The Rams settling for a couple field goals because of penalties ultimately came back to bite them.
1:29And then they leave the door open and a couple special teams mishaps and the Broncos defense really locks in.
1:35And that's enough for the Broncos to kind of claw their way all the way back in this game.
1:42Would you say a couple special teams mishaps? That's right.
1:45No, that's right. Not the LA Rams. Well, you get a long field goal on that.
1:50You get a long punt return on the first drive of the second half where they're going to score a touchdown.
1:57And then what should have been a fantastic punt down inside the 10 turns into is followed up by a penalty and then they have to re-kick it.
2:06And then the Broncos get the ball in midfield again.
2:09And so two drives essentially end in the Broncos getting the ball in midfield in the second half.
2:15They turn both of those drives into touchdowns. Touchdowns inside the game is tied.
2:20This is two weeks in a row where the Broncos have looked dead in the water going into halftime of a game
2:27that they wound up winning against a team that we think really highly of.
2:31I mean, I don't think this does a lot to sway my opinion of the Rams.
2:37Denver is an incredibly tough place to play. The Broncos turned it on in the second half, but still like a team
2:44that I think really highly of and the way the Broncos were able to, you know what I think is impressive?
2:51I don't even know if you could say they clawed their way back into it because the aggressiveness with which they went
2:58after those two point conversions and you see why people push for that in these sorts of like in-game situations when you're playing the math out.
3:06I mean, they were back even before the third quarter was even over.
3:10I thought that was tremendously impressive. The execution to steal those points, not just once, but twice in order to just erase that deficit in one quarter basically.
3:19And then when the fourth quarter starts, you're even.
3:22And obviously we can get into some of how that happened, but we're able to outlast the Rams and just, I mean,
3:29I'm still processing the finish to be honest with you.
3:33I mean, I think it happened. Go ahead, Derek.
3:36Yeah, I was going to say like, I thought the way that Denver kind of handled that game in terms of going
3:43for the two points the way that they did in multiple situations.
3:47Like I just thought that that was really impressive.
3:50That is like a clear, you know, the kind of team you're playing.
3:54And obviously the Rams have had some mishaps and stuff like that, but they also had the drive where in what four
4:01plays Matthew Stafford goes down and scores. You know that they can do that.
4:06And so if you know that they have that capability, why would you not try to get this game as close to
4:13tied as you can or actually tie it rather than I will take the two, you know, touchdowns.
4:19We'll be down to and we'll go for the field goals.
4:22And especially to like, like you guys mentioned the special team stuff.
4:26They were capitalizing on short fields. Like to that point in the game, they just not moved the ball very well.
4:33They got two, they got two situations where they get great field position.
4:37Boom. They score. They say, let's get the most out of it.
4:41And then after that too, I thought their defensive game plan in the second half was incredible.
4:46Like I just, it was a really, really well called game.
4:50I thought. You really started to see where the limitations for the Rams are just as a team period.
4:56And those limitations are compounded when you lose guys over the course of this game.
5:01I mean, you go into this game and you're the Rams.
5:05Essentially your most important pass catchers are the running back.
5:08Devante Adams and Terrence Ferguson. And then Terrence Ferguson goes down and you're essentially down to Devante Adams, the running back, can
5:15not a mump field and whatever you can piece together with the tight ends.
5:20And then the area we we've talked about this with the Rams all the time.
5:24If you can start to make Stafford uncomfortable in the pocket, that's how you start to just puncture a hole in the
5:32offense and it starts to leak out air. And that's exactly what started happening in the second half of this game is
5:39that the interior pressure, and we saw that last week for Dendr, right?
5:43I mean, when the Broncos are really able to give trouble to these really good offenses, it's because their interior guys in
5:50a world where we don't have Jonathan Cooper are winning consistently.
5:54And that was happening. Malcolm Roach had a moment.
5:57Zach Allen had a moment. Look at the stats from Matthew Stafford when pressured in this game, finished five of 18 with an interception.
6:04And we can mention the pick six is probably the swing point in the entire game.
6:10But I thought that's when you can get them into pure dropback situations.
6:14They're just not equipped normally. They're not equipped when Puka Nakua and Terrence Ferguson, when he's a big part of the game
6:21plan or playing in the game, let alone when they're not.
6:25And I thought when they were in those situations in the second half, that's when you really saw the Broncos really take hold.
6:32And it was everything. It was some of the one-on-ones like obviously Zach Allen had that moment where I think it was
6:39a play action and he just beats one of the offensive linemen like that was super impressive.
6:45But they actually like took their foot off the pedal a little bit with the blitzes in the third quarter.
6:51But then by the fourth, they come back to it and there's that third and five with about 10 minutes left where
6:58they're kind of showing a gap pressure. Stafford moves the back to go handle it.
7:03And then Hufanga comes screaming off the left-hand side completely untouched.
7:07And then they kind of show like a similar-ish look on the next drive.
7:11And that's where you get Hufanga actually staying out there in zone coverage.
7:16He kind of is playing the two-for-one on the tight end Kyron Williams and he just jumped that out route.
7:22And so it felt like in the fourth quarter not as well equipped to handle some of the pressures that Denver was
7:29bringing, especially from I think both of those plays were in empty.
7:33And I think they just assumed like Stafford's seen this stuff.
7:37He can make us right and he can make it work.
7:40And he just in both scenarios, just like they did not have the answer for it.
7:45And you look at what happened on the final drive.
7:49Obviously, the Rams score, they get the double move to Monfield, which is a phenomenal job in pass protection by that entire
7:56group to pick up that big pressure and even give yourself time to hit that double move.
8:01It was two really impressive completions to Monfield on that drive.
8:05The one that's like a keyhole shot on the previous chunk play and then you hit the double move.
8:11And then on the final Broncos drive, it's really nice play design.
8:15I mean, you have two plays in a row essentially where the coverage gets dropped.
8:20One is like a big crosser that McDuffie drops where he's passing it off to somebody else.
8:25And on the Franklin completion underneath, McDuffie sticks with the vertical route and leaves that underneath one wide open.
8:32And so on two big, big chunk plays on that final drive, the Broncos just purely by design get guys wide open.
8:39And then we obviously have to talk about the call that flipped the game.
8:43And that's just, it's one, the second of two that we'll talk about over the course of this game or over the
8:50course of today that really dicey defensive pass interference calls in moments where it probably should not have been called.
8:57Live in the moment, I thought it looked like a DPI, but I'm not standing there with a, you know, with the
9:04vantage point on the call and right up next to it with a bird's eye view like a referee.
9:10And by the time you saw like two replays of it, you're like, oh no, this is, this is a terrible call.
9:17And certainly not one that should allow the Broncos to completely control the end game, which is what they were able to do.
9:25That combined with the illegal hands to the face on Quinn Lake, which I mean, that, that's a legit call.
9:31That's fine. But like when you, when those things snowball on top of you and when that DPI just gives you control
9:38down there that close to the goal line, it was a crappy call.
9:43I don't, I don't think there's any way around it.
9:46It was a horrific call. And I'm honestly, I'm always in the camp of like, if you let the game come down
9:53to one call, losing you the game, you didn't deserve to win the game anyway.
9:58So this is not even like, I don't even really feel bad for the Rams.
10:03It's just like the DB is clearly playing the ball and the receiver, if anything, is pulling him back and like kind of flopping away from it.
10:12Like I was, that just to me is one of those, it really doesn't matter whether that could have happened the first play of the game.
10:20And I think it would have been just as insane of a missed call, just purely on based on like how it looked.
10:27It's just such a, it's, it's a penalty that just swings things in such a huge way.
10:33And you're alluding to Cowboys Ravens, which we'll get to in a little bit.
10:38But the, just the way that a call like that going in favor of the offense, again, just allows them to dictate everything that happens after that.
10:46The game would have been over. It was an interception.
10:50Yes. The game would have been over. Like he caught that ball cleanly.
10:54He's playing the ball. It's a phenomenal sell job by Pat Bryan in the same way it was a phenomenal sell job
11:01by CeeDee Lamb in the first game. I do agree in general, Derek, that a lot, like if it comes down to
11:08a call by a referee in a situation like that, there's something else that could have been done.
11:14And that, I mean, that is true in this game.
11:17We talked about the Rams settling for too many field goals, missed opportunities, but that's still just, it's a brutal swing in
11:24a sport where the rules are stacked in favor of the offense anyway.
11:29They're not equal games, but this is like recompense for Sean Payton losing the playoff game over the most insane EPL.
11:35I'm curious if he thinks that's equal in the ledger.
11:39Am I assuming? I know that he doesn't. Probably not.
11:42Probably not. I was going to ask you guys if you think there are any big picture takeaways from this game.
11:49And I think the answer is yes. Like even if the Rams, I think, clearly played well enough to win, this is,
11:56and I think they'll be, even at one and two, obviously will be a relevant team as we continue throughout the rest of the season.
12:04I will say that even in a game where Puka doesn't play, you get banged up, you lose Jalen Watson, the fact
12:11that the same issues keep plaguing this team against really good teams in really big moments, that is important.
12:17I think that is something that's worth pointing out.
12:20Like I don't, because I think too often, I know I'm guilty of this.
12:25We've hand waved that shit away in moments like this and been like, ah, you know, you have a couple special teams flubs, but you're a good team.
12:34It's probably going to be fine in the long run.
12:37And it's happened way too often to do that and continue to do that.
12:42The fact that, again, multiple penalties on offense, like just, and like just shooting themselves in the foot in some of these
12:49moments combined with the special teams mistakes. I think that when you have the aspirations that this team does, even on the
12:56road against a good team banged up, it's not stuff that you can just sort of hand wave away even at this
13:03point in the season just because it's been such a consistent issue over a multi-year period.
13:08You can't hand wave a game that you had a 16 zip lead on.
13:13No. At halftime. Like, I mean, plenty of way into the game.
13:17Like, it's not like some fluky start gave you a lead.
13:20I mean, they controlled this game. They dominated it in the early going.
13:24And to the point we were making earlier with the two-point conversions, like I said, the Broncos didn't even have to scratch
13:32and claw to get back into this thing. You kind of blinked halfway through the third quarter and you're like, oh shit, we got a game.
13:40And so to let it slip the way they did, I'm not worried about the Rams and I mean, you lose Terrence
13:47Ferguson in the blink of an eye in this game.
13:50Like, I think I was working on other notes for the show and I looked up five minutes into this thing and
13:58I was like, oh no, he's headed to the locker room and that's when you already don't have Puka Nakua the defense is missing Miles Garrett.
14:06Like, I'm not worried about the Rams but I think you're right.
14:10This isn't this isn't stuff that you can ignore.
14:13I mean, the LA Rams, the super team, the team that everybody expects to win the Super Bowl is one and two.
14:20That is a pretty huge story even if the losses are very explainable and to good teams that's still not where they
14:27were supposed to be as we approach October. They, to me, look like the same team as last year which is a
14:34very good team and maybe you can have you know, last half full that and be like, well, if they look like
14:41roughly the same team without Puka Nakua in this game, without Miles Garrett in this game, it's like, and obviously, you know,
14:49you lose a handful of other players. Watson goes out, Ferguson goes out.
14:53For them to still look roughly of the same quality is maybe nice but again, I think some of the special teams
15:00flubs and we knew this like the fact that Matthew Stafford when he gets pressured is such a problem and the offense
15:07falls apart when they can't play the game that they want to.
15:11Again, I probably trust that they'll win 11 games anyway and play enough of the games that they want to but it's
15:18a little bit frustrating that we've seen the same cracks that we always have.
15:23Can I ask you this because I think really if I'm because at the end of the day having said all that
15:30I'm not that worried about the Rams. I'm sorry, I'm just not.
15:34What if my big picture takeaway is the Broncos and the fact that they've looked like dog shit in all three games
15:41they've played for at least a little while and they're 2-1 they're 2-1 with wins against the Rams and the Jags and
15:48they just put up 30 in one half against the Rams.
15:52Like I'd like to see sort of I mean they put up 30 points the defense did some lifting but they did
15:59that they scored 30 points in a half that happened and the team scored 30 points in a half the offense I
16:06didn't say the Broncos offense that's not what I said I said the Denver Broncos there's three components to this thing I
16:13would love to see it over four quarters I'm not convinced that they're I mean clearly they have a lot of work
16:20to do I'm not convinced that they're like a juggernaut or anything but to be in this place especially after the way
16:27the season started I think my big picture takeaway is like okay the Broncos should be a pretty good team even if
16:34they're incredibly frustrating you have to feel really good about being two and one at this point when you had one disaster
16:42game offensively and then let's call it half a disaster game offensively in this one even though they finished with a 34%
16:49drop back success rate and still won the game I mean this is a game where you win on the margins to
16:56their credit right again special teams the defense comes through with several huge game swinging moments whether it's pressures interceptions all that
17:03stuff and so yeah to feel like you haven't played your best football and you're sitting in two and one in an
17:10AFC that's just a mess I mean you look at it right now I mean it's the AFC wildcard race as it
17:17currently stands the Ravens Browns and Bengals are all two and one there's no there's only one two win team in the
17:24AFC South and the AFC West the Raiders are 3-0 which we'll see what happens with that but to feel like you're
17:32squarely we're probably where you wanted to be out of this stretch after really not playing well I think you have to
17:39feel pretty damn good about that if you're the Broncos all right let's get to the rest of the day let's get
17:46to a couple performances a couple games that really stood out it is time for you have my attention gentlemen now you
17:53have my attention the Ravens win just a thriller over the Cowboys 34-31 in Rio I mean so just to give you
18:00guys paint your guys a picture a little bit we had a huge meeting of all of our NFL editors and staff
18:07here so we were watching the game with like 30 people today and it happened during a day where there was plenty
18:14of stuff to get excited about and so there's just a huge crowded room of people watching the end of Ravens Cowboys
18:22and that's as good of a late game ending and good of a late game finish as you could possibly ask for
18:29so we'll dig into every aspect of this game but just Ravens Cowboys period you firmly have our attention you had everybody's
18:36everybody's attention that that was the perfect game to come away feeling good about both teams like I feel very good about
18:43both teams actually I'd feel better about both teams if Brian Schottenheimer had just gone for it down in the low red
18:50zone when they kicked it kicking that ball out of the end zone with 7 seconds left is borderline indefensible and the
18:57only reason you probably decided to do that is that you kicked two balls out of bounds over the course of the
19:04game special teams I'm sensing a trend for the week my god two kicks out of bound and a blocked field goal
19:12by the way which I field goal even with Brandon Aubrey doesn't need to be the fallback this feels safe to me
19:19in the NFL especially when you have Dak Prescott CeeD Lamb and George Pickens playing the way they were playing today we're
19:26getting ahead of ourselves but I thought Brian Schottenheimer made some really shitty decisions in this game in my opinion and you're
19:33right kicking it out of bounds if you're going to play for overtime at least make the Ravens return and bleed clock
19:40but we talked about it in the moment we talked about it on the preview Kobe Duran and PJ Locke weren't available
19:47for this game they lost Jalen Thompson during the course of the game like they were down to like DB 8 and
19:559 you saw it on that final play it was nothing short of heroic that the Cowboys were even able to do
20:02all year and so to know what your defense was up against I would have just I would have lived or died
20:09with one more play at the end when it in regulation and go home or say we did a with seven seconds
20:16left and giving them a shot to run a play and call time out it's just borderline indefensible like I just don't
20:23understand how that ball does not land short of the goal line when there are seven seconds left in the game and
20:30you have a pass offense that you have not been able to stop the entire day Lamar finished 15 of 20 in
20:37this game they only thing they did defensively when the Ravens wanted to throw the ball they did what they wanted and
20:45so even to give them one more shot with seven seconds left I just have no idea how that is your approach
20:52in that moment and because the thing is man Lamar threw the piss out of that in they continue to do a
20:59lot of the stuff that I really liked and so on offense like I was just really impressed with the way that
21:06they're using Hibner the way that they're using like Bateman as a motion player like they stuff while you also have the
21:13most dynamic quarterback running back duo in the league is they're just an incredible team to watch I really really love offensively
21:20what they're doing with Zay and I don't really remember them like any Ravens team ever using him quite like this before
21:27he was used on a ton offense where and it's probably I mean the reality of it might be that they're playing
21:35with way more 11 personnel and just more sets where you can have a where they're just getting him on guys like
21:42D Winters and there's just no shot and I just that's a situation where I think that this is a staff that
21:49is really inspired by what he can do in a way that and I'm not even like I pass catcher they have
21:56and they're consistently all the time trying to get him into these matchups where he's unguardable in the middle of the field
22:03I couldn't believe he played like coming on the injury the way it pretty damn close to himself and being I mean
22:10he was the biggest component of this Ravens passing offense all day long he I look on Marquise Bell right before the
22:17Hibner touchdown like it just he the way left D Winters as the solo middle of the field zone defender on a
22:25lot of plays in this game and they just had absolutely no shot and especially when you combine that with the depth
22:32at safety and the fact that they they're and I don't think even at their full power they would have been a
22:39match for what the Ravens were doing or have been doing they hit a screen to CD Lamb Jack Jack checks into
22:46the play where he hits the quick out to floor and I JJ Watt nailed it in the moment where he was
22:53like if anything that should be OPI and if you don't want to call OPI on CD Lamb there that's fine at
23:00the bare minimum it needed to be a no call again especially in a moment like that and that's what I'm talking
23:07about where you give these offenses so like I said you don't have to throw a flag on CD Lamb if you
23:15don't want to but to just to throw a flag why just let them play in a situation like this especially how
23:22much fun we were having in this sequence of the game where we were trading haymakers Robert I'm glad you brought up
23:29the play where Dak ejects the screen because there was actually on I think the previous drive he almost threw a pick
23:36to throw like the alert slant to I forget who the receiver was but like Tavius Robinson jumps up and gets in
23:43the way dropped right into it almost threw a pick that might have ended the game there if Robinson picks that off
23:50that really would have given the Raven to go back on the next time you see something like that where he's like
23:57oh shit I'm just going to tuck it and pick and pick on top of a couple of schematic ways they were
24:05able to I think especially when the Ravens were in quarters they were just you can get big plays like that and
24:12so I thought that was a great call from that spot that that call that play specifically pointing that out drives they
24:19were starting to move people for the first time that was really nice to see but even as that was happening I
24:26had been frustrated just with how underneath and quick game centric a lot of the passing game had been I looked it
24:33up at the time of the Ferguson fumble when he fumbled on the shovel pass at that point in the game the
24:40Cowboys through the first two and a half games of the season were 31st in the NFL in explosive pass rate that
24:47can't happen on that short yardage situation I don't want you to be throwing shovel passes to Jake Ferguson that's cutesy bullshit
24:55you have aliens on the outside you have Dak Prescott as your quarterback let's throw some haymakers let's try to push the
25:02ball down the field let's try to be explosive and when they started that's the version of this offense that I think
25:09it's going to be really easy to buy into and get excited out over the course of the season and I think
25:16like Derek said that's probably where I land with both of these teams the was was he was that weak safety on
25:23that play he comes down and takes away the in breaker at the sticks for no reason I mean like who cares
25:30if they complete that pass he does that it gives a huge window behind it for Zay to break in when Stewart
25:37thinks he has help inside it leads to the game swinging completion if you're playing with third fourth fifth safeties on a
25:45defense that already was going to have a hard time keeping this together there's a chance they're just kind of holding on
25:52for dear life for a while I think the offense this is the version of it today that we saw that has
25:59a chance to be dynamic explosive good enough to keep them afloat even as the defense has to figure this out I
26:06don't disagree but oh my god was it encouraging to see Quinnen Williams looking like Quinnen Williams if the front is good
26:13if Quinnen Williams blows up two to four plays by himself a week if Jay Sean Barham keeps you know shrieking in
26:20from the top to get TFLs and if Caleb Downs keeps coming along I think they don't get me wrong I don't
26:27think they're going to you a chance I don't disagree with that game and that was the that was the most different
26:35about this defense in this game compared to the first two I still just when you combine the safety issues with the
26:42fact that the linebackers can't really cover anybody I just don't know how that's feasible or workable when you play anything resembling
26:49a good offense you're going to be hanging on for dear life that's absolutely true and hopefully you can just make A
26:56get enough from the offense the offense looks I overall feel encouraged about the Cowboys to your point I feel like they
27:03let the Ravens off the hook at the end that being said the Ravens don't get stuffed on fourth and one in
27:10that Gwynn got hurt and then Poach had a terrible I mean it looks like he broke his leg it was a
27:17disgusting injury and then at one point you want to snap and they have Andrew Voorhees in there and so those are
27:25the moving pieces on the Ravens offense that are worth paying attention to but you look at how efficient the Ravens passing
27:32game has been again Lamar was 15 of 20 in this game I mean they're doing so many really nice things in
27:39the passing game I think they will continue to do that I deserved to win this game I hope I didn't sound
27:46otherwise if anything I expected the Ravens to win this game pretty comfortably and the fact that it had the finish that
27:53it did is why the Jags and their offense the Jags at 2-1 with a near 30 point win over a team
28:00that went to the Super Bowl last year you guys have our attention if y'all are they feel like once they get
28:08in the 20 they got it like he the in breaker that he throws to Myers is incredible the way that he
28:15finds underneath Josh Cameron is insane and Parker Washington's balance and strength and ability to find the ball in the air no
28:22matter where it is really special it reminds me a little bit of like he's kind of like Amon Ross St.
28:29Brown a little bit in that way where he's just stronger than you think he always finds the ball he always muscles
28:36it what he does in the air is more impressive though like the contested catch stuff Amon is great area specifically I
28:43mean that touchdown shouldn't have even needed to happen he mosses a dude on the play before that and it gets called
28:50back because of the penalty like his physicality in that area of the field is exceptional and I think it's a good
28:57thing to point out Derek because it's a little bit of everything it's the fact that you have a player like that
29:04that just brings again just incredible physicality and physicality and a test of catch ability to some of those situations and to
29:11me it's just how Trevor is seeing it right now like on the touchdown to Jacoby Myers he it's there's four minutes
29:19left in the second quarter Trevor starts to the right side he comes back to the backside on that play if you
29:26pause the tape watching it on the end zone view you cannot see Jacoby Myers when Trevor decides to throw that ball
29:33he is not in the picture and it's not like Marcus Jones is totally out of position like he's actually kind of
29:40sitting underneath that throw and it requires a missile shot from Trevor Lawrence to complete that thing and that play and I
29:47said this to Dave in the moment the way that he goes front to back there and sweeps the board and how
29:54he throws that ball in rhythm he is playing with so much comfort and confidence within what the offense is asking him
30:02to do and I think that on top of a lot of the schematic designery shit that we can every single element
30:09of this Jaguars offense is right now it is truly a pleasure to watch and I think the quarterback being willing to
30:16make those throws and being confident enough to make them is through you know he's got Britain Strange is breaking over the
30:23middle and it doesn't need to happen it doesn't need to that's what I would say but that's that's kind of why
30:30I love it so much is because Trevor's just like it's there screw it it's there and I'm going to have confidence
30:37in the play and the scheme and yeah Jalen Reed is draped all over him and yeah this could go poorly but
30:44screw it here we go it reminded me of Game of Thrones Valor Margulis he's just like we're all gonna die I'm
30:52ripping this thing I out and I will throw you the ball I thought that was insane and you speak of like
30:59oh we're all just gonna die here I much with as good as the pass catchers are and the offensive line looking
31:06better than it had last year they've really got all the right stuff man it's it's they're just so fun to watch
31:13right he's going down somehow he spits the ball to bashal to in the flat for 15 yards and so that combined
31:20with him the exact two play sequence on that drive I had written down Derek that combined with him staring down the
31:27barrel and throwing that ball to Kobe Myers is excellent and then you combine it with so many little nice moments that
31:34make things a little bit easier I think the first drive of the game it was late in the first quarter they
31:42had a third down where they do a little shuffle motion to get Parker Washington number one and he has a little
31:49bit of leverage on Carlton Davis runs a little in breaker Trevor rips it the Jags used bunch formations on 28% of
31:56their snaps in this game it's the highest rate by any team in couple others their completion to strange where he inserts
32:03as the fullback is such an incredibly cool play and it happens it's 23 yard game but my Trevor spits it to
32:10him for a 20 yard game it's the purest expression of putting a defender in conflict that you can ever see because
32:17the guy is literally covered that ends up making the play and Ellis turns around and starts sprinting in the other direction
32:24because of what that design is doing to him and then they did a lot of nice stuff on the ground I
32:32think that to me is maybe the most encouraging thing about this entire offense is that we've seen the passing game do
32:39this in the back half of last year that part shouldn't be new or surprising to anybody the fact that they're really
32:46moving people on the ground and the guy that jumped out to me we've talked about a lot of their offensive lineman
32:53this year talked about we talked about Harrison in the first couple weeks I thought Hainsey was really good in the run
33:00game today I mean some of the stuff they're asking him tootin is just a better overall player than he was last
33:07year and then Rodriguez that being your second guy off the bench also has a Trevor Lawrence right now he's one of
33:14the most entertaining players in the league through three weeks all right so how do we feel about what's happening on the
33:22other side of this game I'd rather not talk about it because it's easy in the early window when there's nine games
33:29on and stuff is just flying at you it's easy to look away and it's 14-3 and then it's 21-3 and then
33:36Drake throws the pick to Jerry and Jones and you're like well Jesus get this off the screen let's find something more
33:43entertaining and you go back and look at it and it sounds silly to say in a 35-6 game I'm not saying
33:50there's a world where the Patriots win this game but it took a little while for it to just snowball away from
33:57them you know like they were getting stops early Drake has the completely inexplicable you know fumble out the back of his
34:04hand Aaron Brooks style did you hear that I'm guessing it was the humidity no I think he said Jared Wilson bled
34:12on I'm pretty sure that is what he said about what happened yes great that's when you know things are going your
34:19way this is on NBC sports it's on everything he bled on the ball slipped out of his hand that fumble leads
34:26to the Jags first touchdown so it's 7-0 then Trevor throws his pick on the Brenton Strange ball bad drive you know
34:33that's I think that's the drive where the Patriots can't just can't stop shooting themselves in the foot and they back way
34:40the hell up and then kick a field goal but 7-3 and then at the end of the half you got a
34:47chance to at least make it a one score game going into halftime even if you don't cash it in for a
34:54touchdown and that's where to to Derek's point you just have this completely nuclear moment where the Travis Hunter interception is just
35:02the most indefensible thing I saw all week I but the blow up moments in this game just completely exacerbated the issue
35:09and made it easier on the Jags than it needed to be here's where sit with this it's a combination of a
35:16lot of stuff the offense is bad right now independent of the mistakes the quarterback is making the offense is bad two
35:23things really jumped out to me today Morgan Moses was unplayable for the entire time he was out there he eventually gets
35:30yanked for Caleb Lomu because of just what the state of the right tackle pass protection was over the course of this
35:37game so that's a problem I have a of the offense is built out of quick game on third and two the
35:44sheer number of plays one of the sacks on third and medium and there's nowhere else for him to go with the ball he game.
35:53Remember in week one against Seattle, when he threw the pick in the red zone and people were like, why is the offensive tackle on the ground?
36:01Well, the offensive tackle is on the ground because it's supposed to be a quick game concept and he's cutting the guy,
36:08but then the ball has to come out. It happened again in this game where they do it in the red zone.
36:16Lomu cuts, the ball doesn't come out. And then he's trying to push the ball downfield with an unblocked guy in his face.
36:23Like if it's quick game cut, if it's, if you're not, if it's not, you're not getting rid of the ball in half a second.
36:31Why are guys cutting? Like, I just don't understand what they're trying to do on offense.
36:36Like there's so many plays that are dead in the water based on like what they're trying to do situationally.
36:43And then when you're combining that with the quarterback making at least two to three plays over the course of the game,
36:50they're like, what are you possibly thinking in that moment?
36:53You get an offense that looks like this. It's, it is everything.
36:57Like they still can't run the ball. They ran the ball terribly in this game and they ran the ball a lot in this game.
37:05And so that was, I think a big part of the issue, the past protection plan overall, I think this year has not been good.
37:13And then, like you said, Morgan Moses has taken a step back.
37:17I do not think that he's obviously not playing well enough to even continue to hold the job.
37:23I think the other thing too, about the structure of the passing offense.
37:27And I think that they were hoping that AJ Brown would be a good fit for this.
37:33They don't use as much movement and shifting and motioning as other teams.
37:37They want to beat you by formation. And then the quarterback is going to be right.
37:42And the player's going to win. Well, that's cool when you have AJ Brown or last year, when you're maybe not playing
37:49the strongest schedule, when you've played the last eight teams that they've played, where they are all machines for the most part,
37:57and now you don't have AJ Brown and Romeo Dobbs is probably not really what you wanted him to be.
38:03Well, who's winning? It's, you thought it was going to be like Kyle Williams on this deep stop route when you're trailing
38:10and he can't even sort of get open. And so I think it really is everything.
38:15And then May is, again, I think long-term, I still think that he's going to be really good, but he is the
38:23type of quarterback that when things are not going right, he's still going to try to make the play.
38:29He will lose the game fast. And I think that that is kind of the problem they have right now.
38:35It's a great thing to point out. And if you're trying to figure out, well, why does the offense look the way
38:42that it did in the playoffs last year? That's the reason is because they're trying to pick on teams they can pick
38:50on with, they're trying to do it formationally. They're trying to do with matchups.
38:54Like if you're trying to win that way against teams that are as good or better than you, you're going to have a bad day.
39:02And so I think that's why there's been such a stark difference between what this offense has looked like in the playoffs
39:09last year and against good teams this year compared to what it looked like for most of last season.
39:16Like that shit's going to work when you're playing against teams that are poorly coached, like they're of lesser coaching than you and lesser talent than you.
39:24When you're playing against teams that are equal or better to you in both of those scenarios, you're going to look like this.
39:32You're not going to be able to hold up against them in the same way.
39:37And we've seen that twice in three weeks from this offense.
39:40The other team that is like similar in terms of, ah, they don't use as much motion as you would think or
39:47all that stuff is the Dallas Cowboys this year.
39:50Well, you know what the Dallas Cowboys have? They have Cee Lamb and George Pickens and a quarterback who's going to see it and throw it.
39:59And so it's like it, and the offensive line is better.
40:02Like it just, they have the dudes to do it.
40:06And maybe that's not the ideal way to do it anyway, but they can at least, they have the horses to do the things they want to do.
40:15New England is not even sort of in that stratosphere.
40:18Let's get to our next game here. The Pittsburgh Steelers offense has a big time bounce back game against the Cincinnati Bengals
40:25after looking completely dead for the first two weeks of the season.
40:29The Steelers put up 30 in this game. Get to some of the plays, seven yards per play for the Steelers.
40:36Second best mark of any game over the last two years.
40:39The only game that was better was their win against the Bengals in week seven last year when the Bengals didn't have
40:46an offense or didn't have a defense. And the Bengals defenses look considerably better over the first two weeks.
40:53And so for the Steelers to have this sort of output against a Bengals defense that had really shown some life, Pittsburgh
41:00Steelers and this offense today, you guys have my attention.
41:03How much do you think is a Steelers bounce back and how much did the Bengals just revert to being the worst version of themselves?
41:11Do you think combination of the two? Because I rewatching this game.
41:15If I sound like I'm taking credit away from the Steelers, I'm sorry.
41:19I could not get past some of the absurdity of what the Bengals did today, forcing two punts, having one of them
41:26called back by a roughing the punter, having the other one muffed to hand the Steelers.
41:32A late game field goal, the tackling issues cropped back up.
41:35Did a Steelers receiver catch a touchdown with somebody near him today?
41:39No. Like where it was, did a Steelers receiver catch a touchdown where the, where a Bengal was nearby, like capable of breathing on him?
41:47I don't, I think the answer is no. And so good, like these good scheme, good, good play calling.
41:53I mean, we talked about it just before the show, the red zone touchdown to DK, where they just ran deep crossers
42:01through the end zone and the Bengals DBs just took themselves out of the play by colliding with each other, like the Keystone cops.
42:08So that's, it was very fun to watch. But it, I think it made me more concerned about the Bengals than anything.
42:15That's a fair place to land. And I will say there were a couple, like, I think big time plays in this
42:23game from the Steelers offense that I was very impressed with.
42:26The, there, there were two of them. There was a throw that Rogers made to Roman Wilson on a third and long
42:33early in the game that he pins on Roman Wilson for a huge conversion.
42:38Like that to me was probably the most impressive throw he made over the course of the game.
42:44The other one was the ball that nearly gets hit by DJ Turner to DK Metcalf late in the game.
42:50Like Rogers was making some tight window throws that he had not made over the first couple of weeks.
42:56I think that sticks out. I'll say that even winning by design is something that was not happening for the Steelers in the first couple of weeks.
43:05That's Garonic touchdown, even both touchdowns, the, the, the Garonic touchdown design is gorgeous.
43:10And then even hitting like the little rub slot fade to Roman Wilson on the first drive, like getting easy completions by
43:17design is not something that was happening for the Steelers offense over the first couple of weeks.
43:22So I think there's enough of that to be excited.
43:26The other thing that to me is totally Steelers centric, their offensive line was kicking ass in this game.
43:32Like they were moving people. And you know what?
43:35It wasn't even just the offensive line. If you go back and you watch the effort from the tight ends and the
43:42skill position players as blockers in this game, really the only down moment of that was the DK Metcalf hold on the
43:49huge Jalen Warren run, which I don't think was a hold.
43:53Mm-hmm. And you, dude, the, especially to how much have we talked about, especially with the first two weeks with the Bengals
44:00defense, man, their run defense, the way that Dexter Lawrence is playing, like all the front guys and the linebackers look better and all this stuff.
44:08And in this game, like Steelers come out, it was like six yards of pop, 40% success rate.
44:14They had four runs of over 10 yards. Like they were moving people the way that you wanted.
44:20And I do think like, sure. Rogers make honestly, like Rogers making two or three really nice throws.
44:26You having one schemed up really nice, big explosive play, whether it's a touchdown or not, whatever.
44:31And then the run game being your engine. Cause your offensive line can kick people's out.
44:36That's the formula. Like that is exactly what it should be.
44:40It's exactly what it should be. And so I think that's why, even if the Bengals should win this game without two
44:47catastrophic special teams mistakes and the turnover at the end by Joe Burrow, the fact that the formula is actually closer to
44:54what it needs to be for this to be a real team.
44:58I think that's the encouraging part. The guy that to me, I have to shout out, Fatanu made like five crazy blocks
45:05in this game, like crazy blocks either in space or reaching people has no business reaching or just blowing people off the ball on double teams.
45:14Like I really do. And that's, that was, if you were going to have any sort of optimism about this team coming
45:21into the year offensively, it was going to start with the offensive line.
45:25And so for them to look as out of sorts as they did over the first couple of weeks, it's like, man,
45:32if that's not even going to be something you can rely on, what is this offense going to look like?
45:39And so for them to look like that, Hanushofer got his first start today.
45:43Like that's the group because of what they can do in the run game.
45:48And then the other, I mean, we haven't even mentioned his name, Jalen Warren.
45:52Incredible. Awesome. Baller. He looks awesome. I thought we were going to talk about the other big man, Darnell Washington had like two insane plays in this game.
46:02I got, I got something for him. Although I liked, I liked this point though, because it's worth, it's worth bringing up in a week to week league.
46:11Dexter Lawrence controlled an NFL football game all by himself a week ago.
46:15And you can hate on the Bengals linebackers. I thought Barrett Carter probably wants to forget today a little bit.
46:21Well, that's, that's what I was going to get to with the Darnell Washington.
46:26Absolutely. Absolutely. But in their defense, like the way the Steelers were mauling the line of scrimmage and like if Jalen Warren
46:33has a free runway to get up to the second level on a consistent basis, every you're always going to have a bad day.
46:41That's a terrible world to live in when he's getting a free runway for the first three to five yards of a play.
46:48And it felt like the Steelers were doing that on a consistent basis.
46:53So if I'm encouraged by anything from this game, yeah, like I'm, I'd be excited to go back and rewatch the Steelers offensive line.
47:00It was a lot of perimeter runs or runs that were hitting, if not like explicitly perimeter runs.
47:06And they had a couple where it was, it was pin pull, it was tosses, but then multiple runs where it's hitting
47:13off tackle, where they got to kick out. The one that was called back is, is that exact sort of play.
47:20Fryermuth comes screaming across, kicks out Cassius Howell, that hits off tackle and it's a big chunk gain.
47:26And so that's the area that the Steel, that the Bengals and their run game are going to have to worry about
47:33is that if you're got anything happening outside, that's where it's the edges, it's the linebackers, it's the DBs.
47:39And the tackling overall was a team problem for this team today.
47:43And that's what we can get into. I think the Darnell Washington plays, I mean the big one, obviously Bear Carter misses
47:50a tackle, but a lot of the other Darnell Washington completions, where are the Bengals defensive players in the middle of the field?
47:58Like last year. I don't understand. There were so many just simple, easy completions for the Steelers over the middle of the
48:05field in this game with absolutely no resistance. And I just don't understand how that's the game plan.
48:11I looked it up because I was curious, but between the hashes and in the seams in this game, 64.3% success rate for the Steelers per next gen.
48:20That is their best in a single game over the past two seasons.
48:24I was going to say, that's not what they do.
48:27Rodgers doesn't do that anymore. That's not what they do.
48:31And so some of that is the Roman Wilson completion on third and 11, where that's definitely not what they do.
48:37They're not attacking that area of the field very often, but so many of the completions in this game, it doesn't matter if it's not what you do.
48:47If Darnell Washington is walking off the line of scrimmage, catching a ball, turning around, catching a ball and running for six yards.
48:54And that was happening so often in this game.
48:57And we did, is this real on Wednesday with me and Barnwell, we were talking about the Bengals defense.
49:03And my hesitation with the Bengals defense was the middle of the field spine of the defense in past defense is still
49:10a concern when you go back and you watch it.
49:13I didn't realize it was going to look like this.
49:17Again, as somebody who was even relatively skeptical about it, this was a worst case scenario and just what they were allowing
49:24consistently throughout this entire, it happened on the, the first drive and never really stopped.
49:29Like their inability to defend tight ends whatsoever is something that is going to need to change if this team is going
49:36to have any shot over the, over the long run.
49:39And then even tackling the back end, I think one of the Warren runs, like Brian Cook, like way over runs the
49:46angle and he's just completely what you thought he was supposed to be your fixer there.
49:51And like, he's been generally good, but this game was not his mess either.
49:56He got banged up in this game too, I believe.
49:59So that's something to watch moving forward. Before we move on, I think sitting with the idea that if you're a Bengal,
50:06if you're the Bengals, if you're Zach Taylor, you got to be sick losing that game to lose, to lose that game.
50:14And because the Steelers defense has been the best defensive football over the first two weeks, the Bengals offense was excellent in this game.
50:21I mean, just in terms of how they were moving the ball.
50:25I mean, they, they, they played as well as you could hope to play essentially against the Steelers defense defense and still
50:32lost this game because of just, um, drive swinging play on a roughing the kicker and then a muffed punt.
50:39But it just off. Like, I mean, it's, that is to lose that, to lose the game that way when your offense
50:46played like this against the Steelers defense, I, that's one that's going to sit in the pit of your stomach for a while.
50:53I hate to do it to my boy, but don't leave, uh, don't leave the offense out of that completely because 48
51:01seconds to play on plus 38 with a timeout is exactly where you want to be to at least tie the game.
51:08If not just steal it and rip the Steelers hearts out.
51:11And, uh, Dalton Risner gave up an easy pressure to Derek Harmon.
51:15There was two moments where the guards got their asses kicked and just got walked back into the quarterback.
51:21There was the third and one that, uh, Cam Hayward did it to Dylan Fairchild, I think on the drive before or
51:29two drives before to nuke the drive. And then there was the Derek Harmon sacked in the game.
51:34And then I'm like, obviously it's terrible if you take this sack, but like the Bengals picked up chunk yardage in this
51:42game at will, like Joe could have thrown them out of here if he doesn't, if he doesn't put the ball in
51:49the ground, if he doesn't fumble the game away here.
51:52And so every single person had a hand in this, including Joe Burrow, which, which hurts.
51:57But I mean, this, this is, this is a tough one for Cincinnati.
52:01And it, and having said all that about the offense as high as Bengals fans were on their defense through the first
52:09two weeks, this was, this had to be a pretty gross wake up call.
52:13Last one here. This was not in our original plan until the late game went a certain way because it looked like
52:20they were going to be out of it. The Las Vegas Raiders are three, you know, the Las Vegas Raiders with a
52:27big time comeback win over the new Orleans saints today, their defense coming up with some huge turnovers in the second half,
52:34Las Vegas Raiders, the three and Oh Las Vegas Raiders.
52:38You guys have our attention. I think it's important to say too, because their game was winding down during the end of
52:45Cowboys Ravens, which had the attention of the football universe.
52:48But yes, we did see this happening. And I, for one was pretty impressed by it.
52:53Like the way they just took this game over in the fourth quarter, they were down 27, 16 after fumbling the kickoff
53:00return and allowing a touchdown with six minutes left in the third quarter and came back and won this game because of
53:08all the turnovers they created on their end of it.
53:11I'm going to, I'm just, I'm not going to do this for, for that rock this week because I just used the Las Vegas Raider.
53:19Malcolm Kuntz. Yeah. Damn near on this game on his own because, and it's worth pointing out, Kelvin banks gets hurt last week.
53:26I thought the saints did a pretty admirable job of mitigating that for most of this game.
53:32And then awesome Richards gives up the sack fumble that really swings this thing and puts the Raiders up.
53:38And then one play later, Kuntz, I, it like took my breath away.
53:42First play of the drive after the Raiders take the lead.
53:46I think it was 29, 27. Malcolm Kuntz just puts his hand in the hand on awesome Richards, his collar and just
53:53walks him right back into Tyler Shug. It's just like, we are going to the quarterback, whether you like it or not.
54:00And that's why that pick looked so goofy is awesome.
54:03Richards was just stepping right into Tyler Shug's throw.
54:06It's massively underthrown. Zeke masses gets the pick and that kind of felt like all she wrote.
54:12And like in, in the span of like two and a half minutes, I was like, God damn, Malcolm Kuntz just turned this game on its ear.
54:21And the Saints down to down moved the ball well in this game.
54:25Like this was not a dominant all the way through four quarters performance from the Raiders defense, but they're consistently doing enough
54:32interesting stuff, especially in high leverage moments where I'm impressed at what the plan looks like.
54:37Two of the other turnovers that ended up swinging this game, the chin sack that creates the sack fumble.
54:43It's really cool. If you go back and you watch the all 22 on that, the Raiders are in a pressure look
54:51before the play happens at the snap. Both of the DBs on the right side get depth off the line of scrimmage
54:58and the pick play that the Saints were trying to run doesn't work because they can't get the rub because the guys are playing at different depths.
55:06And so there's no one to throw the ball to chin, the linebacker or the tight end that he was covering.
55:13It's a cover zero look where they have multiple droppers.
55:17And so it does turn into man coverage. Shin is covering the tight end to the right side.
55:22He stays in the block. And so when Shuck doesn't have anywhere to go to the left side, he pulls it down
55:30and Shin just takes grass and gets the sack fumble.
55:33So that's a play where just one little thing right before the play happens gives Shuck nowhere to go with it.
55:40And then the pick he throws with, I think eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, he thinks he's going to have
55:47a one-on-one with the left side because they're in a single high look before the play.
55:52As the play happens, they shift into cover two, like as it's unfolding, he double clutches it because Hezekiah Massas was sinking underneath the vertical route to Olave.
56:01And because he double clutched it, he gets hit as he's throwing that ball and Massas gets the interception.
56:07And so again, they don't have great players top to bottom.
56:11The Saints moved the ball pretty well in this game.
56:14But yet again, there are multiple moments over the course of this thing with the Raiders where I'm impressed at some of
56:21the stuff that Rob Wenard is doing and they're really feasting on turnovers because they're creating them.
56:27They feel like they can be explosive. And if you're going to keep enough games close, you really just need to make a couple of good plays.
56:35And I think that's kind of what I want to say on the other end.
56:40Like I think offensively, they can keep a lot of games close.
56:44Like what they were doing with Brock Bowers in this game, which being that he hadn't played the first couple of games
56:51of the season, we weren't even sure what he was going to look like.
56:56The fact that he was just able to move around as much as he did, like Bill Barnwell had this from the
57:03first half and I'm sure this mostly held for like the rest of the game, but he had 13 snaps out wide,
57:1014 in the slot, four as an inline tight end and one in the backfield.
57:15They were targeting him one on one, like outside as an X receiver a number of times against like Kool-Aid McKinstry.
57:22He was picking balls off the ground like when he had to because it's just based on where the throw was like
57:29Brock Bowers was sensational in this game. He is, we've done for so many years of like, Oh, this tight end, you
57:36can just play him at wide receiver. He actually can do that shit, man.
57:41And it's like kind of rare to see it in practice the way that he's able to do it.
57:47He's, I think that he is just phenomenal what he's able to do for them.
57:52We were talking about this in real time, how I think a lot of coaches in the league, they want, it's not
57:59that they want to do it the hard way.
58:02It's that they want to do it what they see as the smart way, right?
58:07It's like, we're going to take what the defense gives us, you know, we're going to design the offense and go to the right read.
58:15That's how we're going to play where the ball is going to go where it should go.
58:20The last two years, Clint Kubiak has been like, that I got a really, really awesome dude.
58:26And I'm going to throw him the ball 15 times a game.
58:30And I'm going to see if you can stop it.
58:33And I respect that approach. Yes. It's like, why would you not, when you have a player like this?
58:39Like I just, yeah, the way, and like, obviously them scheming up stuff for Bowers in the red zone, they had that
58:46little like slant flat rub where the nickel has to get over and he can't like, obviously that's open by design, but
58:54also Bowers just gets out of that break so fast that it makes just for such an easy throw for Kirk Cousins,
59:01which at this age, given his arm, you need as much room as you can get.
59:06And so the fact that Bowers is able to make that happen, I thought was great.
59:11Um, I did want to give one saints shout out, uh, for this.
59:15I feel like Devon Vela is kind of becoming to what Juwan Jennings was for a long time.
59:21Like he just feels like automatic. Yes, it is.
59:24He was, he is becoming like a really good player for them.
59:28And obviously Olave is the star in this, in this offense and he's really good, but when they really need to play,
59:35when they need to attack the stakes, when they need to just throw a one-on-one on the outside, he could do it, man.
59:43Like Vela, I think is playing really, really well for them right now.
59:47You want, you want to take a guess at Devon Vela's measurements?
59:51He's 6'5", 210. Yes, sir. Which actually he's, he's not quite as heavy as I would have guessed for Derek to have
59:58a crush on him, but it tracks. As good a start as you could possibly ask for if you're a Raiders fan.
60:05And beyond like the 3-0, it's just looking like a put together operation.
60:09Being fun to watch. Just being fun to watch.
60:12Like just having, just the plan on offense and just the fact that it all seems so put together.
60:18And again, the fact that the defense, even if there's not a ton of talent line in that thing, it's a lot
60:25of young guys, a lot of young guys I think you can get excited about.
60:30But, and then, and N'Kobe Dean is also somebody we should mention.
60:34N'Kobe Dean's made a play in every single game for the Raiders.
60:38And so if you're a Raider fan, I, after going through what you went through last year and just having your team
60:45be unwatchable every single week and now getting to enjoy a team that I don't know what it's going to look like over the course of the year.
60:54I don't know if they're going to make the playoffs even starting 3-0.
60:59Like Kirk Cousins is playing well, but Kirk Cousins is still Kirk Cousins at this stage of his career.
61:05But just to watch a team that has a handful of exciting players and that you know is giving itself the best
61:12chance to win week in and week out has to be such a welcome experience.
61:17And I know it's going to be a welcome experience for us.
61:21Like having another team, and we'll talk about another one of these later, like the Jets and the Raiders could have been disasters this year offensively.
61:29And the fact that both of them are in a place where I'm going to be excited to like open up the
61:36tape the next morning and see what the Raiders and Jets did is, it's just a really, really great place to be
61:43considering how unwatchable those teams were last season. Throw in the Cardinals who were just a pain in San Francisco's ass all day.
61:51And that's three teams that were widely joked about as fighting for the number one pick who look like, and I'm not
61:58saying they're going to win a ton of games, but they look like buttoned up NFL operations right now.
62:04The Cardinals are doing exactly what we hoped they might.
62:07Seriously. It's just like be, look like a team that probably knows what it's doing, be decently entertaining, and just keep losing all of these games.
62:16Like that, that's exactly what the Cardinals, we'll talk about the Cardinals a little bit later, but of all those teams, like
62:23they're the one that I think is actually the closest to what we thought they might be coming into the year.
62:30All right, let's talk about a couple of teams that are not what we thought they might be coming into the year.
62:37It's time for what the fuck. What the fuck?
62:40Here's are now 0-3 and lost a game where the other team turned the ball over five times.
62:46Don't really know what else to say about this team at this point.
62:50Right. Everything about the 2026 Los Angeles Chargers, what the fuck?
62:54Can I put a number on that? The five turnovers thing?
62:57Before today, please do. Before today, the last 10 years of NFL football, teams were 4-64 when they turned the ball over at least five times.
63:06And none of those wins were by more than eight points.
63:09There was only one win that was eight points.
63:12That is exactly how much the Bills beat the Chargers by today, despite turning the ball over five times.
63:18So you have like a 93% loss rate or whatever.
63:21And the Chargers ended up being on the other side of this.
63:25Like it's the perfect way. This is a very Chargers loss regardless of how the season had been going.
63:32But given how this season has been going, it's an extremely, extremely Chargers loss.
63:36We were on the same wavelength, Derek. So I'll pull out the other stat I found that teams with a plus four
63:43turnover margin in a loss over the last decade, the Chargers today, the 2025 Cardinals who went three and 14 and the Broncos did it in 2020.
63:52Did the Cardinals do it against the Titans? They did it against the Jags.
63:57Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That game is weird. Yeah.
63:59I also thought tights for a second. Yeah. It's not supposed, it's just not supposed to happen.
64:05It's really, it's a stat that encapsulates everything in a game like this.
64:09And you could kind of feel it immediately. Like when, what Josh threw two picks and James Cook had the fumble on
64:16like the first play of the game. He was out of sorts the entire game.
64:21He was double clutching. Like he was not seeing it cleanly the entire game.
64:26This was one of those games where the Bills have it every once in a while where they try to give it to you.
64:34The quarterback is not sharp. And to allow that to happen and to allow it to happen to maximum extent and still
64:41somehow lose the game is something that really is only reserved for this version of the Chargers and whatever they happen to be.
64:48Well, that's the funny thing though, because even like when the Bills were in full on meltdown mode, cause they turned the
64:55ball over like three of their first, three or first four possessions.
64:59It was 10, 10 at halftime. Like they drove for the touchdown at half.
65:04And I was like, ah shit, the Chargers squandered all of this.
65:08Like even if this isn't a good win for the Bills, they're not going to lose this game.
65:13And that is like at halftime, I was like, the Chargers are just going to be living in some misery here in about an hour and a half.
65:23And that's exactly what it felt like. I mean, it's exactly what it felt like.
65:27And again, everyone is culpable, right? I mean, there were some truly like hero plays in the pocket where like with some
65:35of the pocket movement from Herbert in the first half.
65:38And then you have him throwing a horrendous interception with the game still very much in the balance.
65:44I think that's one of the dumbest plays he's ever made in his entire life.
65:49Like it's just a horrendous choice. It may not like there he's, it makes no sense.
65:54There's like no conceivable reason for him to throw that ball in that moment.
65:58But there's nothing moving the middle of the safety, the middle of the field safety anywhere, but to that throw, like there's nothing tying him down.
66:07Like he's going to sit and jump that route every time.
66:10Like it truly was, like he made some other plays in this game.
66:15He's made other plays for this team. I think over the first handful of weeks where like things should have gone his
66:22way, that particular interception, I was like, if he's doing that, they are not going to win this football game.
66:28And then it's in the fourth quarter, it's third and 10 game is still in the balance and Quentin Johnson just has a heinous drop.
66:36And then they have to go for it on fourth and 10.
66:40And part of the reason they had to go for it on fourth and 10 is that the game is only that
66:47close because twice in this game, when you are having the season that you're having, you cannot kick 21 yard field goals on fourth and three.
66:56That, that can't happen. And so it's just, everyone has a little bit of blame in this the same way that's everyone's
67:03had a little bit of blame in this over the first two games.
67:07The offense is incredibly sloppy. The amount of drops and just consistent mistakes happening everywhere is fine.
67:13It is just, it continues to pile up. The quarterback is making multiple big time mistakes every single game.
67:19And the coaching overall is just not putting this team in positions to win when the entire argument as to why Jim
67:26Harbaugh is your coach is that that's supposed to happen.
67:29Can we actually, you mentioned the 21 yard field goal.
67:32Can we like walk through the process that got us to the 21 yard field goal?
67:38It's second and six from the plus 16. Arande Gadsden gets called for an illegal block that backs him up.
67:44Joe All gets called for holding immediately after that, which backs him up.
67:48So now like you were, you were on the plus 16 and you get backed up like 20 yards.
67:55They gain enough of it back and they get a defensive holding that goes to first and goal from the three false
68:02start on a replacement tight end that backs you up to second and goal from the six unsuccessful bubble screen, which just
68:09whatever, like the bills made a nice play. Then Cole strange false starts on third and third and goal from the sixth.
68:16So then it's third and goal from the 11.
68:19You throw the check down near the sticks and then decide not to, not to go for it and just kick from
68:26the three yard line, which the offensive line got six of the chargers, seven flags in this game.
68:32Again, there's no, I don't really want to say like, I don't have to, we don't think we have to spend much more time on this team.
68:41Like this was, it was a frustrating loss just because again, when you win the turnover margin to this degree and still
68:48lose, it's worth mentioning, but I don't really think we have to like sit in this.
68:53Why, why should we keep talking about this team?
68:56One other thing that pissed me off just because I took the time to chart it and write it down that they,
69:03I mean, they went one of four in the red zone today and the bills went three or four.
69:09Again, that's how bad teams lose football games. They had third and five from the plus 15 and they just, they outside
69:16zone to Keaton Mitchell, like a perfectly acceptable play call.
69:20If you're deciding to go for it anyway. And it picked up two yards and then they kicked the field.
69:26That was the other fourth and three kept field goal.
69:29Yeah. I'm in this game to call that run, not knowing for sure that you're going to go for it.
69:36And I'm sure they would probably say, well, if it had, if it had gotten another yard, we would have gone for it.
69:43Screw you. Don't call that play then. Like, why are we running outside zone on third and five unless going for it
69:51on fourth down is absolutely the game. I thought that was mystifying as was most of this entire game for the charters.
69:58So we can be done now if you want to be congratulations to the Buffalo bills for winning a game that they
70:05consistently like any team would lose, but the bills seem to have a couple of these every single year.
70:11And so to get away with a win in this one, I think speaks to the current state of the Los Angeles chargers.
70:18All right, before we move on, let's take one more quick break.
70:22Our next one here, the Seahawks lost to the commanders today in a game that had was way more exciting than it
70:29had any right to be Seattle Seahawks. After looking like an absolute machine over the first two weeks playing against the team with its backup quarterback.
70:38What the fuck? You know, what's funny. I thought they looked kind of good for a lot of this game.
70:44I did not come away thinking like, Oh man, there's some sort of like flaw with the Seahawks or like, Oh God, what's wrong with them?
70:53I was like, I don't know, man. Sam Darnold's ass was broken and he was kind of dealing for a lot of this game.
71:01I really appreciate that you said this because when I went back and re and looked at everything and did the stats
71:08and broke it all down, I was like, I think this was just a goofy game and the Seahawks shouldn't burn the tape.
71:15It was a goofy game. I refuse to take anything meaningful from this.
71:20I just think a lot of weird shit happened to the Seahawks on a day where they were kind of banged up.
71:27Sam Darnold was coming back from injury and I just, I don't know.
71:31I'm not going to draw any weird, like firm conclusions from this.
71:35I just think the Seahawks had a really weird day at the office.
71:39That last interception is a backbreaker. Like that, that's, that's a play that just can't happen.
71:44That was a bad throw or bad decision. That's a play that just can't happen.
71:49And I think that's one where, you know, I, you want to say like, we've just learned to live with that with
71:56Sam at quarterback and you live with the highs and every once in a while that stuff is going to happen.
72:03But in a game where it's close in the fourth quarter, that's the type of stuff that can't happen.
72:09Like that's one where I do think that we can sit with that being a bad moment.
72:15Other than that, I don't disagree. Like the first interception is a tipped ball that gets picked off.
72:21The Jadarian price fumble happens at one point in this game.
72:24And I'll say this, I, the, what I do want to talk about is I think Washington deserves a ton of credit.
72:31Of course. For how their offense played. Like I, well, again, down to down, it's not like Washington was moving the ball at will in this game.
72:40They finished with a 35% success rate offensively. But what there are a couple of things that stuck with me just in
72:47rewatching that game and, and just trying to parse like exactly how Washington did this.
72:52First thing, Terry McLaurin was insane. Unbelievable game. Unbelievable Terry McLaurin game.
72:56The touchdown is a crazy play. Like getting, adjusting to that ball on a, like a back shoulder throw that 30 yards
73:03down the field coming back to make that play is crazy.
73:07But what I was really impressed with is he does that, but the play, the first play that I wrote down from
73:14Terry McLaurin on the opening touchdown drive, he cleans out AJ Finley, digging him out on a run play that goes for nine yards.
73:22And that's the other thing that really jumped out to me about this performance from Washington.
73:27You have no Jane Daniels. You are Oh, and two, it would be so easy to just completely roll over in this
73:34moment going and playing against the Seahawks. And from the first moment, it was clear that was not going to happen.
73:41Your $30 million receivers digging out a safety on the first drive of the game before he goes on to make like three or four insane plays.
73:50And so that was part of it. McLaurin just overall ridiculous.
73:53The other side is even if it wasn't again, super consistent down to down, there are two things you need to do to beat the Seahawks defense.
74:02The first is you need to make some tight window throws that you shouldn't have any business making.
74:08Mariota is like a decade into his career. It doesn't give a shit anymore.
74:12Like he will let those things go. And the Trayvon Burks touchdown is a perfect example of that.
74:18Like he's throwing that thing come hell or high water.
74:21And you do need to do that when you're playing against Seattle.
74:25And so that throw in that moment, like that needs to happen.
74:29You need to be whizzing the ball past guys ear holes to beat this defense.
74:34And the other part, you need to be patient.
74:37You need to take stuff underneath. If they're going to sit there and let you throw five yard hookup routes to Stefan
74:44Diggs, you need to do that over and over and over again because of the depth they play with in zone coverage.
74:51And he did a little bit of all of that in this game.
74:55And so again, it's a weird game for Seattle, but Washington deserves some credit for how they were able to consistently chip away at this thing.
75:04So Mariotta solid man, like he is playing legitimately like a really nice football the last couple of years.
75:10And like the throw there to Burks, that's also, it's not even just like, that's how you have to attack this defense.
75:17That's their backup safety. That is the guy you should be attacking and really trying to throw the ball against.
75:24And honestly, I thought, I think their first touchdown was maybe one of my favorites.
75:29I thought it was a really heady play by Rashad White.
75:32So he's on the shallow coming from the left to the right, but he sees Mariotta bail back out to the left-hand side away from pressure.
75:41And he just like whips his head around back around the linebacker he's on and just finds a little soft spot in the zone.
75:48And just like to have that awareness to quickly snap into a spot where the quarterback was going to be able to
75:56go make a play for him, I thought was impressive.
75:59And I think that's the other thing I want to say, like a lot of the new pieces that you would have
76:06wanted made a play like Rashad White had that play.
76:09I thought of Meek Robertson, even though he gave up the one touchdown to JSN, like it was perfect coverage on that, play.
76:17And he also had a number of really impressive reps.
76:20I thought in this game, Sonny Styles had a number of impressive plays like the interception is kind of just like right place, right time.
76:28But in the two minute he runs with Jadarian Price on a wheel wrap and breaks it up.
76:34And I was like, Oh buddy, if we're going to be able to do that.
76:39And we knew that we could, he could based off his athleticism, but to finally see it in practice in an NFL
76:46game, it was like, all right, man, we're, we're starting to cook what this could be.
76:51But he had another play where I think it was on, it might've been the play where Jadarian Price fumbled.
76:58He gets to that ball on a run through from the backside, like the sheer amount of ground that dude can cover.
77:05I'm really excited to watch him over the course of this season and moving forward.
77:10Like he just moves in a way that off the linebackers do not move.
77:14And that pass breakup is a, perfect example why.
77:17And it's again, it's a burn the tape sort of game from Seattle and them losing this thing.
77:23I do think that it's an example that at a certain point, it doesn't matter how much magic you have.
77:29If you're Mike McDonald, when you're on safety number four or whatever it is with now Julian Love also hurt, you're going
77:37to feel that over the course of a game, even against an offense that's been struggling, even against the backup quarterback.
77:43I guess you could look at this one of two ways.
77:47They played this game last year around this time.
77:50It was probably like week five or six, but the Tampa game and Julian Love didn't play in that game either.
77:57It's a great backup DBs got picked on. They are not infallible, even though they started to feel that way by the time they won the Superbowl.
78:05And you could say, all right, well, Julian Love, Tai Okada, get Nick and Manwari healthier, like, and we'll be fine.
78:12And that's true. But this is a 100% chance of injury sport.
78:16And I mean, hopefully you don't have to figure out how to live this way over a prolonged period of time.
78:23I'm not going to be concerned about the Seahawks right now, but it is, it's not fun to gaze into, like imagine
78:30a future of what the Seahawks defense could look like if it does unfortunately deal with injuries like this.
78:36But for a one-off, I'm not going to worry about it right now.
78:41This was the second best defensive rushing success rate of the Mike McDonald era.
78:45And the irony is, and again, that's where I come back to with just like burn the tape.
78:51They allowed like six successful runs on Sunday and one of them, and the only explosive they allowed was the game clincher,
78:58like the third and nine, you know, they, they sent seven because they were expecting pass because they had enough timeouts to
79:05where they thought Washington would want to throw because they had been pretty aggressive and they just leaked out the side and ran for like 19 yards.
79:14That was their, their only explosive run allowed was when they sold out to stop the pass at the end of the game.
79:21And so I just think it was a shitty day at work for the Seahawks.
79:26I'm not super worried about it, even though I do admire the job the commanders did.
79:32There were a couple of those moments and there was a really nice successful run on like a second and nine when
79:39the Seattle was in like a pressure look thinking they would get past and the commanders caught them in.
79:45It's not, that's just play calling stuff that I think David Bloud deserves some credit for the last guy I wanted to
79:52mention before we move on on the Rashad white touchdown.
79:55And I'm only saying this because he had some really nice moments against Quinn and Williams last week to Chris Paul clamps
80:02down Leonard Williams on that Rashad white touchdown run.
80:05And so as a guy that spot started last year, didn't get paid a lot of money in free agency.
80:12He's had a couple of really impressive moments in past protection over the first three weeks.
80:17And he had another one today on again, a crucial play for Washington.
80:21Last one here, the Houston Texans after falling to the Colts 1917 are 0-3 for the second year in a row.
80:28And I find myself maybe a little bit more worried about this group being 0-3 than even that group last year.
80:35The Houston Texans, a team that is currently sitting at our contender table here, is 0-3 three weeks into the season.
80:42What the feels like foreshadowing? It is a little bit.
80:45I'm definitely more worried than last year because honestly, some of the offensive stuff, again, I can live with.
80:51Like, I don't like how bad the offensive line has looked.
80:55Obviously, we can talk about that. Rutledge got picked on, I think, a number of times in this game, which you don't really want to see.
81:03The pass catching stuff. Yeah, both guards. Because yeah, they're on a backup there too.
81:08Like the pass catching stuff is like, yeah, they're down Nico Collins and Jaden Higgins.
81:13That sucks. That is what it is. I think when Nico comes back, that's going to look a little bit better.
81:20My issue is that the defense... I think this was the most frustrating game that they had to me because the first
81:27two weeks, their success rates were like pretty good.
81:30But you run into Josh Allen doing some of the stuff that he can do and then Jamar Chase just being an absolute superhuman.
81:38Sometimes that's going to happen. This was a game where I actually thought schematically they got picked apart.
81:43Like the Colts were able to find a lot of the stuff that they wanted over the middle of the field against Houston's like spot drop zone stuff.
81:52That's really all that they played. When they tried to get into some of their like double mug pressure looks and stuff
82:00like that, I thought Jones was able to pick them apart and kind of find all the spots and throws that he wanted for the most part.
82:08And there was one play in particular. It was early on in the second quarter.
82:13It was a second nine high red zone and they run this like zone cover zero where Reed Blankenship is at like
82:2012 yards or whatever sitting over the slot. He's trying not to show that everybody's going to actually go.
82:27And he should know if we're pressuring like that slant might be coming as like a quick sight adjustment or maybe they've
82:34just got that called because of what you have there.
82:37And he is so slow driving on it that it allows the receiver.
82:41I think it was Josh Downs to catch it, spin out of it and almost go score a touchdown.
82:47That kind of play to me is like, we have to be faster on this shit.
82:53If we're going to be the defense that is like bigger, faster than stronger than you.
82:58And I think the fact that they had that moment and a couple of moments like that in this game, that's where
83:05I start to get a little bit of concern.
83:08You still get the sacks, the strip sacks, a couple of nice plays, but down to down, this game was the most frustrating that they've played.
83:16I thought that area of the field specifically, that was a no-go when you play against this team over the last couple of years.
83:24Like the, when you watch those safeties come downhill, you were going to try to access middle of the field throws against this team at your own peril.
83:33And that's just not what it felt. That's not what it felt like today.
83:38Like the Colts were able to really attack that area consistently.
83:41I think some of that is you're down to backup linebackers, right?
83:45Like Jake Hansen's playing 71 snaps in this game.
83:48I think you see that, but I think blanket ships had some rough moments over the first couple of weeks.
83:55And so just the spine of this defense overall against the pass, it just doesn't feel as good as it did over the last couple of seasons.
84:03When again, like it was a hornet's nest in there.
84:07Like you just wouldn't even try to throw the ball in there.
84:11And so for the Colts to be building their passing game around attacking that area, it just doesn't feel like this unit
84:18has quite the same teeth as it did over the first couple of years, for over the last couple of years.
84:24I think like to Derek's point, it was easy to explain that away over the first couple of weeks because explosives are really what was doing them in.
84:34Today, it wasn't just explosives. It was the Colts passing game having the upper hand way too many times over the course of this thing.
84:42I think y'all are living in the reality that the Texans are in right now.
84:47And so you have a point, but I can't get past the idea that we're harping on the Texans defense in a
84:54game where they held the opposition to 19 points on the road, forced to take away, sack Daniel Jones four times, completely
85:01shut down one of the most ruthless running games in the NFL.
85:05And to sit here and pick apart the Texans defense, admittedly, we're not, they did not play up to the very lofty
85:12standards that they have set, but to be harping on them for why the Texans are Oh, and three when the offense put that out there.
85:20And I know I won't speak for y'all. I went into this game saying, well, it's the Colts, the Colts, the Colts defense has been so bad.
85:29You need to look good against you. You needed to look better than this.
85:34They were atrocious. They didn't like, I got to give the Colts way more credit for, or give the Texans way, way
85:41less credit than I did because clearly the minimal gains they made against the bills in week one was complete fool's gold.
85:48Like to have a 38% rushing success rate in this game.
85:52Absolutely. And that was even not indicative of how they ran the ball in this game.
85:57That was a couple of CJ Stroud runs. David Montgomery had two successful runs on 11 carries per next gen.
86:03They had no explosive runs and they had six runs of five plus yards.
86:08That's bottom three in the NFL for week three.
86:11It's bad. It's untenable. And Derek, I think you're right that getting Nico Collins back could fix a lot of this shit
86:18because they ran into an eight man box on 62% of their attempts this week, which is a top five number.
86:25But I can't completely trust Nico Collins availability at this point.
86:28It doesn't even matter. It's getting Nico Collins back is not, it's, it would help some of that.
86:34It would loosen things up a little bit in terms of what defenses could do to you.
86:40It's not solving all of these issues that these issues start out front period.
86:44That's what's happening. They absolutely start up front. And the thing I'm actually glad you kind of have framed it this way, Dave.
86:52I want to be clear too, but the reason they're Oh and three is the offense's fault.
86:57I don't think it's the defense's fault. I just think that if the defense felt like the defense last year, I could
87:04live with it or cope myself out of it.
87:07They don't quite feel like that. Back out of the same hole they did last year.
87:12That's the point that I was trying to make is that that's why this feels different.
87:18Last year, they're sitting at no and four, but you can win any single game because of how the defense is playing.
87:25If the defense isn't going to play to that level, then it's going to be a lot harder to dig yourself out of this.
87:33And the offense is culpable here. The offense's inability to run the ball and what the fact that the offensive line doesn't
87:40look any better than it did a year ago is just a devastating place to have landed.
87:45And that is where we have landed. I think y'all very respectfully, because I do this more than any of the three of us.
87:53I think y'all might be being prisoners of the moment a little bit right now though, because last year, these were, these were the scores of their games.
88:02The first three weeks of the season, they lost 14, nine to the Rams in like one of my favorite defensive games
88:09in recent memory, 2019 to the bucks, 17, 10 to the Jacks, where like the offense was just doing nothing for them.
88:16And like, these were low scoring games. I know the bills game wasn't low scoring, but they turned it on as the season went, went on.
88:25And like, and so I think in a, in an era where like training camp is as that's year one, that's year one.
88:32I just mean like two, I mean, it's supposed to look better than this playing your way into form with new pieces
88:39on defense, particularly a new piece of safety. And you're dealing with an injury injuries at linebacker.
88:45I think it's understandable if the defense is merely holding the opponent to 19 points and looking merely good instead of like frightening.
88:52I like that. I think like the Texans could look frightening in December and that wouldn't surprise me at all.
88:59Will it matter if the offense doesn't start doing anything?
89:02I think like that's the bigger issue for me, even though I agree with you though, that the defense, it definitely, it hasn't lived up to the expectation.
89:11Absolutely. That's completely fair. But is it, is it fair to expect them to be that right out of the gate every, every week?
89:19Yes. Like I just, I thought this had a chance to be like a once every several years sort of defense that
89:26was just dismantling teams week in and week out.
89:29And that has not happened. I do think Dave makes a decent point.
89:33Like if you just look, I looked it up right now, like their EPA and success rate from the first three weeks
89:40of last season is like not that different from where they're at now.
89:45But I just think that like this game in particular, watching how they got picked apart by the Colts passing offense, a
89:52passing offense that I think is like pretty limited in what it can do right now.
89:57And I know that they have the best player in the league, but yes.
90:02In Josh. Yes. He had a pretty good game.
90:05Um, but like, I, I just do not. But watching it happen that way just felt a little bit ickier to me
90:12than I can ever remember it really feeling. And again, I, this is still going to be a really good Texans defense,
90:19but if they are the eighth best defense or even like the sixth, instead of absolutely nuking everybody that they played over
90:26the course of last year, for the most part, that I do think is going to be a little bit concerning.
90:33And I do think they will get better. Like Blankenship will probably look better in this defense.
90:38They will get healthier or, you know, the linebackers should look better at a certain point, but I don't know.
90:45It just doesn't feel quite as sturdy as I wanted it to.
90:49I think y'all are a hundred percent right. And you're, I mean, we set lofty expectations for this unit heading into the season.
90:56I'm not trying to back away from that. I do kind of hate the idea that they've given up 23 points in the last two weeks.
91:05And I mean, they didn't even have a shot in the Bengals game and then they lose this game.
91:11And like, we knew going in that this was going to have to be a defense first team, but they're getting no help the last couple of weeks.
91:20And it sucks. And it sucks that they're back in this hole.
91:24And if I was a Texans fan, I would be clinging to the fact that they've done it before as to why the season's not over right now.
91:33That's why I don't, that's what's worrying to me is that you needed to be that you needed to be a truly
91:40dominant, dominant defense to climb out of that hole.
91:43And I just don't know if they look like that right now because of the way the offense looks like you need
91:50the defense to be next level exceptional for you to dig out of this hole because of how the offense looks.
91:57And that's just not what's happening right now. I want to say we joked about it.
92:02Josh Downs had some like ridiculous moments in this game.
92:05Josh Downs is a really cool player and they're having to build a lot of the passing game out of Josh Downs
92:12right now, considering the current state of the Colts offense.
92:16And they were able to do that in this game.
92:19So it's credit to him because he had a few really, really nice moments.
92:24And I thought that they really deployed him in a cool way.
92:27Like some of the stuff they did with him in motion and just getting him on some of these explosives.
92:34Like, again, I thought that the Texans, that the Colts on that side of the ball had the upper hand in this
92:41game in ways that you just aren't used to seeing with the Texans defense.
92:46And that's where I land with it. I'm with Derek.
92:49Even though it was limited, like it's not like the Colts had this explosive day.
92:54The Colts felt like they were dictating things to the Texans on a pretty regular basis, which is a, it's a disconcerting place for Houston to be.
93:02All right. So with that in mind, Texans are sitting at 0-3.
93:06Patriots got dismantled by the Jaguars today. Both of those teams are currently at the table.
93:12I don't think either of them should be. Patriots are definitely not.
93:15I'm offended that the Patriots are at the table.
93:18Like I want them out of there. The Texans it's, it's, it's mainly math for me.
93:24Like, Oh, and I mean, seven teams in history have made the playoffs after 0-3.
93:28Especially now where we can put teams back on.
93:31If right now, if you can put teams back on, the Texans absolutely should not be at the table.
93:38Like we shouldn't be hesitant to do this when you're sitting there at 0-3 just because they did it last year.
93:44And again, we just went over all the reasons that I don't think they're quite as capable of pulling out of it as they were last year.
93:53So, and if they, if they do, we can put them back.
93:57Like, yes, that's even if I'm, I'm not as down on the Texans as y'all are, but 0-3 is 0-3.
94:04And knowing that we can put them back later, I have no problem getting them out of there.
94:09The Patriots, I'm just like, we look silly having a team that's played this way through the first three weeks at the table.
94:17I'm ready to do something about that. So we're taking them both off.
94:21I think the two worthwhile replacements are the team that just kicked the shit out of the Patriots today.
94:27That is the Jacksonville Jaguars who have looked really, really good for most of the first three weeks.
94:33And the other team that deserves to be on here, very similar to the Rams last year, where one of the reasons
94:40we didn't have them on here was injury concerns.
94:43What are they going to look like coming into the year because of how rickety this thing feels?
94:49The Niners offense has been insane over the first three weeks and was insane again today.
94:54I mean, just what they're able to do throwing the football right now and how well the quarterback is playing and just
95:01how well-oiled of a machine the San Francisco offense feels like.
95:05I think both of those teams deserve to be at the table.
95:09Do you guys agree? A hundred percent. I mean, Jacksonville, you know, I don't want to speak for both of you, but
95:16like might've been the closest to knocking on the door before the season started.
95:21Like they were, I think Jacksonville and the Niners are probably the two teams.
95:25Yeah. And so the fact that maybe that's what it is too, like they were the ones that were right there.
95:32So we only needed a few games of confirmation to be like, oh yeah, maybe they just should have been the teams that we're in.
95:40So I'm totally on board with both of these.
95:43All right. So I'm, I'm weighing on the Jags.
95:46So let's just, we'll have that be unanimous, but I I'm not done here.
95:50So the Jags can have a seat at the table.
95:54I'm with you about the Niners and they look like a wagon.
95:58They're currently dealing with the thing that scared us in the preseason.
96:01Mike Evans left this game against Arizona. It's, they're calling it a rib strain.
96:06We'll see what the prognosis is there. Trent Williams left this game too.
96:10And I know Stinger. The Amador Lenore came back, but he also got hurt.
96:15Joey Bosa got hurt this week. Right. As I like, as I was just donning my Sourdough Sam outfit in the studio
96:22this afternoon and just getting ready to love on the Niners.
96:25All of that existential dread came rushing back where I was like, wait, this is an old hurt team and they get old and hurt sometimes.
96:34I don't care. You said Stinger very dismissively. You said Stinger very dismissively as if it can't be like a chronic, very painful thing that happens to guys.
96:43I don't care. Like I don't, we, we did this before the season and they have been by far unquestionably the best
96:50offense in the league through the first three weeks.
96:53Like we can hem and haw and go back and forth and be like, oh man, they're all banged up.
97:00Who cares? When you, when you go to look through the advanced stats, like, oh man, like Trevor, you're like, oh, Trevor's
97:07having this crazy start to the season. How do his numbers stack up?
97:11And like every single time you do that, it all, like everything starts behind Purdy.
97:16Like Purdy's leading like every category. He's had the two best efficiency games of any quarterback in the league over the last two weeks.
97:24Like this is not a, I don't even think this is a discussion.
97:28Even if you have concerns about them, if your offense is playing at this level, even if you're having to piece some
97:35of the rest of it together, it doesn't matter.
97:38Like, well, we can talk about it in week 12, like based on where they're at right now, based on the way the first three weeks have gone.
97:47If you have a table and a list of 10 contending teams, the Niners unequivocally should be on there.
97:53I think that's my thing. I don't think if we have an empty seat, because I think this table thing is honestly
98:00more about removing some of those teams than not.
98:03I don't think an empty seat necessarily has to be filled immediately, but if you have the best offense in football, you
98:10have a coach I've seen make it to the Super Bowl multiple times before with this quarterback, with a lot of these pieces.
98:18I'm willing to just be like, yeah, you'll do it.
98:21It is funny though. Why are the Cowboys here if the Niners are not here?
98:26Right. Yeah, exactly. I think that that is completely fair.
98:29Also the other thing. I didn't want the Cowboys there in the first place.
98:34I still want them there. I believe that they are.
98:37I feel better about them being there right now than I did a week ago.
98:42So that's okay. I don't want to do, which is funny.
98:45I will say to Dave's point, the defense right now is worse than they were at the start of last season.
98:52They're decimated. They have no linemen. Well, I know, but that was the problem last year.
98:57The offense is better than it was last year.
99:00I do think it's, well, they are better. I would like to see how that holds up over the course of the season.
99:08Of course. What it looks like relative to, I do think though, like CMC looks healthy.
99:13Kalen Black has obviously been good for them. George Kittle looks like way healthier and better than I thought he was going to.
99:21The offense is a wagon, but I do think that like Dave is not wrong that this is probably not that different
99:28than what it actually was last year. You know how you love fantasy football.
99:32You know how, and I don't mean to make light of players' injuries.
99:36I know these are real people dealing with real pain, but like, you know how in fantasy football, when you just have
99:44to keep an eye on a guy's injury status every freaking week, it just starts to wear on you.
99:50You're just like, oh my God. Like I just, I keep having, like, am I going to have to sit him?
99:57Am I going to have to start him? That's how I feel about the Niners.
100:01Yeah, but then if, but if your fantasy football team is scoring 135 points a week, you cease to care.
100:08Well, you cease to care on Sunday, but on during the week, you're still doing all of the same juggling and preparations and stressing out about it.
100:17So let's do that. Let's do that from Monday to Saturday.
100:20And we'll watch the Niners have a 65% offensive success rate every single week.
100:25And we'll be like, good. They should be, I'm glad they're at the table.
100:29They should be. You know who the Niners play next week?
100:33No. Denver. Great. I can't wait. All right. You said you're very convicted at Derek.
100:38I'm I'll, I'll go along. I, I, I'm at a hundred percent.
100:42Yes, to be clear. I just don't think that you're like small modicum of pushback was like that crazy.
100:48It's not crazy. I completely understand where he's coming from, but like, we'll deal with those problems when we get there.
100:55The idea that the Niners defensive injuries and deficiencies might be enough to keep them from winning the Superbowl is a completely rational thing to say.
101:03But if we're going to have 10 teams that sit here, an offense that has looked the way the offense looked for
101:10the Niners for the first three weeks has to have one of those spots.
101:15You said defensive injuries as if two of the biggest pieces of their offense did like they didn't finish this game and they won by six points.
101:24Like, it's not like this was a blowout where they just sat these guys.
101:28I, I'm choosing to believe that Trent Williams is going to be fine.
101:32I'm sure he will be because he's Trent Williams, but it scares the shit out of me.
101:38I just wanted to say that. I want to make one more compelling case.
101:42And again, I do think that they should be on here.
101:46Who, who would even be next? That's like, if it, like, it's not, I don't even think it's close.
101:52Yeah, maybe the Bengals. Yeah. You can, maybe the Bengals.
101:55But I only, no, if I, that's even in the stratosphere, it feels like.
102:00Like, my, my suggestion would have been to leave an open spot for a week.
102:05And like, you know, if the Niners beat the Broncos, that's a hell of a statement to go at the table.
102:12But I just, I don't think that I get, I, if there were, if there were teams that were like.
102:18If they beat the Broncos, I probably won't care.
102:21If there were teams where it was like, oh, we need to steam more.
102:26If we were like making a point. If we were like parents, like trying to teach our kids a lesson by leaving an open spot at the table.
102:35That's fine. The Niners don't deserve that sort of treatment after the last three weeks.
102:40The Niners don't deserve to be made an example of, but considering how well they've played offensively.
102:45Like, let's do this. Like, the Niners should be at the table.
102:49I'm in. All right. Quick note before we get to what we, what was romantic about week three.
102:55Three hangover games for tomorrow. Three games we did not hit today.
102:59We're going to dig into in depth tomorrow. The Vikings win over the Bucs.
103:03Baker Mayfield injury, obviously something to monitor for an 0-3 Bucs team that feels like it's unraveling.
103:09We'll hit that game tomorrow on the hangover. Giants, Titans, and Browns, Panthers.
103:13Those are going to be the three games we dig into in depth on the hangover tomorrow.
103:19Just wanted to get that out there. Let's talk about what made us feel romantic about football in week three.
103:25I mean, this thing was a thing of beauty.
103:28The game we wanted to sit with was Jets-Lions.
103:31Because Jets-Lions, I think, really did encapsulate what today felt like.
103:34Where every single game that was on, seemingly over both sets, was must-see TV.
103:39And the Jets-Lions game was absolutely that. Starting at the six-minute mark in the second quarter of this game, it was nothing
103:46but fireworks back and forth from both of these teams.
103:49The, I can't remember what play made me think that.
103:53But it was at six minutes left in the second quarter.
103:56I think it might have been, oh, I know exactly what it was.
104:00Six minutes left in the second quarter, I believe, is when Gino throws the corner.
104:05No, it's the corner route to Jelani Woods that Gino throws.
104:09Oh, yeah, yeah. Gino throws a nasty corner route to Jelani Woods.
104:13Comes back, finishes that drive off with just an absolute missile shot up the seam to Kenyon Sadiq.
104:19And as soon as that happens, we are on.
104:22On both sides of this thing, the back and forth from that moment is just wild.
104:27Five different guys had plays of the day. In any other week of football, might have been the coolest play of the entire day.
104:35The first Gibbs touchdown that he scores, that's like a Barry Sanders play.
104:39Like him cutting that back and taking it all the way to the house.
104:43Drew Brees said that on the broadcast. He did he?
104:47I was trying to like, who reminds me, like what does that remind me of?
104:51It felt like watching Barry Sanders on that touchdown.
104:54Garrett Wilson had three like insane plays in this game.
104:58The catch he has over the middle of the field, I think in the third quarter with like nine minutes left.
105:04Him going up full extension and catching that ball is absolutely ridiculous.
105:08The Jamison Williams hole shot on the left sideline that he goes up and gets would be the best catch in any
105:15other game in almost any other week. And then Garrett Wilson follows it up again on that fourth and sixth touchdown where
105:23he gets the PI and somehow comes down with that ball.
105:26And then Gino throws another just rocket on the two point to tie it.
105:31It's just insane. Like the amount of back and forth.
105:34We say haymakers in the Dallas Ravens game. The amount of haymakers offensively from both of these teams in this game.
105:41What an absolute thrill this thing was. I just feel like you got like both teams hitting like had some moment of
105:48like all of the stuff that you wanted the team to be like you got it.
105:53Like obviously like some of the plays that Gibbs made I thought were really impressive.
105:58I thought the Lions offensive line for the most part was winning a lot of their one on ones and pass protection
106:05and in the run game down the stretch. But early in the game, you actually saw Aaron Glenn like scheme up another
106:12a number of really impressive like sacks and pressures where they were able to scheme open guys.
106:18You had one where like golf literally completely like 180 in the pocket.
106:22He was like, oh shit. Demario Davis is about to kill me.
106:26So you had those plays and then on offense like or on offense for the Jets.
106:31The fact that Gino is sticking and ripping again where he is just like on his spot.
106:37God damn it. I'm going to make this throw.
106:40It's incredibly fun to watch because it makes this offense work again.
106:44I don't know how good they're going to be every week.
106:47I don't know how good they're going to be when they're playing teams that are not the banged up line secondary.
106:54But the fact that you get to see, oh yeah, Garrett Wilson is incredibly talented.
106:59Oh yeah, they spent a first round pick on a tight end who Sadiq had the seam shot, but he also had there was another really impressive play.
107:08They threw like a little sticker out to him and it's like way outside of his body and he just plucks it from the air like so easily.
107:17And so you get those plays like Brees Hall.
107:20They were checking it down to him a number of times.
107:23He had some impressive plays like all the young players in the offense finally have someone to facilitate it.
107:30And I actually still think the defense had their moments in this game for the Jets, even despite the line seal players
107:37also having some insane moments on the other end, like all around.
107:41It was just an awesome game. And the, when the Lions were, the Lions were, I think we're down seven to three at one point.
107:49Late in the first quarter. And that it was seven, three late in the first quarter.
107:54The throw that golf pins on Tesla on fourth and two.
107:58Oh my God. Him putting that ball low and away is just such an incredible throw in tight, in tight circumstances.
108:04And then he comes back. The throw on that, like de facto fade ball one-on-one to Amon Ross St.
108:11Brown, the touch necessary to get that ball up and over on that play.
108:15You mentioned it, Derek. Like we're talking about Parker Washington.
108:18What the golf Amon Ross St. Brown connection looks like in the condensed area of the field when they have to be
108:25precise, there's like really nothing else like it in the league.
108:29Like their ability to fit balls into just the tightest of windows all the time in that area of the field is
108:36truly unlike any quarterback receiver pairing in the entire NFL.
108:39And that play was a phenomenal example of it.
108:42I was mad at myself re-watching this game halfway through for not being more excited about it going in.
108:49Because we talked about it as like the Aaron Glenn reunion.
108:52And that's an interesting component of it. So personally, I didn't feel that juiced up for it in the noon window with everything else going on.
109:01And then I was re-watching it and I was like, Oh shit, we've seen this before.
109:06It's actually almost to the day. Because it was September 30th.
109:09Derek and I were in Detroit. 2024. Oh my God, yes.
109:13What a beautiful moment. It's the two-year anniversary of Lions Seahawks when Gino was still in Seattle.
109:18One of every nerd's favorite football games. And I was just like, how did I not see this coming?
109:25And why can't Gino Smith and Jared Goff play at Ford Field like once a year?
109:30Because incredible shit happens. I actually was curious. It wasn't quite as crazy.
109:34But remember in that game in 2024, Goff went 18 of 18.
109:38Goff was 10 of 10 for like 120 something in the second half of this game.
109:43Before the Seahawks figured it out on defense. And Gino was just incredible.
109:47I think the Sterling Shepard two-point conversion was my favorite throw.
109:51Followed closely by the fourth and two to Isaac Tesla.
109:54Because they were both similar ideas of like, I'm just going to fire this right past your face before you can do anything about it.
110:02And I bet it's going to work. And just ethical hoops, man.
110:06Just two guys standing back there, playing iso ball, dealing the ball all over the yard.
110:11It's a shame it was buried in the noon window.
110:15Because it was a phenomenal game. I don't know how many people actually got to see the whole thing.
110:21But it was fantastic. Tough if you're a Jets fan.
110:24The fact that you go down, tie that thing up, and then you drop a coverage.
110:29And Tesla is just wide open and leaves the door open for the Lions to win the game.
110:35But even if it's a frustrating end, similar to what we said about the Raiders, if you're a Jets fan after enduring
110:42what that team looked like last year, like getting to watch stuff like this every single week for the rest of the season, it's a welcome change.
110:51Because this team has been entertaining. It's been fun.
110:54The quarterback, when he's able to... The quarterback, when he's playing like this, even if, again, the quality of it over the
111:01season, who knows what it's going to look like, it is entertaining.
111:05And so to watch them play this way over the course of this game, again, what a fantastic entry into what was an amazing day of NFL football.
111:14All right. That is all we've got for the week three recap.
111:18We will be back here tomorrow chatting Bears-Eagles. Please be on the lookout for that for now.
111:23That's all we got. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon.
