Loan shot back ball at the one and a half here on first down and goal to go ten ten times, handoff goes to p Ryan behind right guard, trying to press forward a bunch of botties.
Into the engine.
Touchdown tensas City Sama Jay Pey Ryan his first touchdown as a Kansas City Chief and the Chiefs lead first time in the game at sixteen to ten.
Welcome to NFL Daily, where we know what appyrhic victory means. That's what the Chiefs got on Sunday across the street, not even a street.
Just like a walkway the way at.
Sofi Stadium, seventeen to ten. The Chiefs get the win over the Chargers. Yeah, we're just jumping right into the first game this week, and that first game was attended by Steve Weiss.
Of course, this is NFL Daily.
I'm with Patrick Claybon in the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio as well. Patrick will be here the whole show. Nick Schook is coming aboard after this game. But we got boots on the ground at a game we want to hear from the man that was there. They get the victory down ten to nothing on the road in the Division. Hey, the Chargers got a ton of injuries. The Chiefs got
a ton of injuries of their own. They're not going to apologize for anything, Steve, but you just came from next door and I get the feeling maybe the locker room doesn't have the vibes that you would normally have after a big win like this.
Yeah.
I mean the big thing with the Chiefs and that's the locker room I went to, is you know they're they're pretty down because wide receiver Rashid Rice, who has been killing it this year, is the leading wide receiver that the test, the diagnosis is not full yet.
He's gonna have an MRI on Monday.
But it seems like they know that he could be gone for a long time, if not the season. And part of the guy who felt the worst about is Patrick Mahomes, a quarterback, because he threw an interception on the return he goes to make the tackle. It was his friendly fire that hit Rice in the knee that could cost him his number one receiver.
It's such a tough moment as that happened, and I'm thinking, oh, they're gonna maybe lose this game, Like this is a tragic play because Mahomes continues his up and down play. I don't think he's been playing as well, even if you take away what's going on around him, which is obviously not helping. He's also just missing some throws. And that was another one of him where it was an interception.
He comes in to try to make the tackle on a play that Ray Rice, I mean Rashee Rice rather forces a fumble, so he was going in to try to make a play. The ball goes out of bounds on the fumble, so the Chargers get the ball. They end up going up to ten nothing. But we're reaching a point here where their offensive weapons are now Kareem Hunt took over as they're starting running.
Wait very well, Okay, Xavier Worthy.
Had a fifty four yard big time play in this game. Travis Kelce goes seven for eighty nine. But they're wide receivers Rashee Rice and Hollywood Brown.
They might not see him again this season.
Yeah, I get ready for some juju Smith Schuster and you know, they really have to hope that Xavier he grows up, you know, and so far he's shown us no reason why he can't have a z A Flowers type of effect as a rookie. I mean, he's had a couple of games, big plays, big moments, and he's got good hands.
He hangs on to the ball every time he has the ball.
It looks like he's got to do something awesome when they throw it to him short.
The speed is crazy.
The fifty four yard touchdown was just like, hey, run fast down the field and he got it. And you've been wanting those big plays Patrick. When this score was ten to nothing, Chargers, like, were you thinking, oh, we made a big mistake with our survivor pick by the way, we did survive. Yeah, we drive as a trio and like we're you surprised that she's come back in and get this.
No, because Patrick Mahomes adds to this insane record of wins by our quarterback that's trailing by ten or more points. All right, he comes out to right. It gets another way. But an incredible game by Tully. He was ridiculous. Khalil Mack. The pass rush for the Chargers was great, but yet again it's Patrick Mahomes with an opportunity. Receivers down, weapons
comes up and the Chargers offense just really sputtered. I understand that they're committed to the run and it's all this mindset stuff and Justin Herbert's playing on a bum ankle. Herbert did all he could, but just with the options available to them, there just wasn't much there.
He's so tough. I mean, if you can't respect Justin Herbert, you're nuts. I mean when he showed today, remember he was out both of his starting tackles, Joe Alt and.
Josh Later we're both out.
So George Carlaftis and Chris Jones were in his mug all the time. And I don't blame Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman for muddying up this game. Remember it was ten ten until midway through the fourth quarter. I mean, it worked. They were getting nothing going after scoring off those first two giveaways by the Chiefs early in the game, but they were still able defensively to put the pressure on Patrick Mahomes to not let the ball get into the end zone. Part of that was inflicted by the
Chiefs with these penalties. And it doesn't sound like last year, Patrick, all the penalties, all of the things that were kind of we were talking about with the chief saw slow start man, this could be problematic. We're saying the same exact things.
And They're four and oh. They are four and oh unbeaten. They're two and two. They are now what two games up in the division. The rest of the division is two on two spoiler alert for what's coming up. The Chargers had that two and oh star. They need to be able to run the ball if you're a Chargers team. And I've been disappointed a little bit by the Chiefs defense this year, and this is a game that their
defense needed to step up. And I know the Chargers weren't playing with a full deck, and Herbert took.
Some big hit He took some big shots.
Man, he took some big hits in this game, and he's not being protected.
But ultimately JK.
Dobbins and Gus Edwards run twenty times for fifty one yards. The Chiefs defense did an awesome job. After giving up ten points in the first quarter, they force four and out, three and out, three and out, a miss field goal which looms large. They get the ball on downs where Jim Harbad decides to go. I was I was done by that on fourth and goal on the goal line, A little surprised by that. The first fourth down actually Jim harraskne for in the entire season, and he goes for in a tie game.
And they didn't, and they called the pass.
In a tie game when they have just chewed up about eight minutes of clock bridging the third and fourth quarter. They've got said they were running the ball well, but they didn't have the type of magic momentum where you're like, okay, we're gonna push this. Because once things got tight, that's when that chief defense stood up. I'm like, take the points right now, because the points are hard to come by.
They get stopped, their defense forces a punt, but then the Chiefs defense forces a three and out, and then that's when you know, Mahomes gets that the touchdown drive going with the twenty nine yard started, you know, started to.
Drive to know a gray right there.
Yeah, when no Gread cut that pass, I was like, oh, man, Kelsey's got some wheels.
Everybody even in the the in the press booth, they were like Travis Kelcey.
I was like, wow, Kelsey's got.
I was like, suddenly he got way way faster. But hey, Travis Gus did have anice.
Yeah, he is back in our lives. Seven catches for eighty nine yards, and again it's it's a Kansas City Chiefs. You see fifteen out there, he's a threat, but I do I can't help but think that, Yeah, you want to run the ball, but this isn't that Chiefs team. Like, this isn't the Chiefs team that's running up and down the field scoring all these points. You had caught to have the explosive plays. There's seven targets for Ladd McConkie.
Really nothing available down the field. A lot of that's the Chiefs defense, but I just wanted to see attempts in that direction, but there was just nothing.
And when I mean, Herbert had a crazy throw that could have been caught by Dobbins up that.
He could even gone if he would have had bow.
It was one of the best throws of the year. Wasn't incompletion year? Oh we got best throws in your conversation.
Well, I'm just saying I'm not putting it as the official nominee this week, but that was pretty awesome.
Lad McConkie goes five for sixty seven.
So yeah, it's a weird start to the season because all that matters for the Chiefs is January in February, and they're going to get there they're there at four and o and yet we feel worse about January, I think because of this team, because of injuries. Yet they're finding ways to When you were there, Steve, again, I want to take advantage of the fact that you were there. Give me the vibe in the building and also just anything you picked up, Yeah, from talking to the players and everything after.
Yeah, well, well first off, let's let's start with the back of stuff I picked up. Patrick Mahomes is frustrated, I think, more with himself than anything going. You can just tell, you know, I had a little private conversation with him. He just it's not like, you know, Patrick Mahomes is one of the most competitive people I've ever been around, and I've covered guys like Michael Jordan Duo's like that.
Mahomes is a little sick.
With you know how so he holds himself to a high standard and you can tell he's like, I am not doing it now. Part of it could have been how he was feeling about hitting Rashi Rice. He's like, you know, look, if I didn't throw the interception, we wouldn't be going through that. But when your standard is what it is, like they're like, Okay, we came in here, did what we were supposed to do, but we had to fight too hard for it against a team that was really banged up, right, And so I think there's
that which is good. You want, you want really good teams to feel like that. I mean, this is not they don't play to win September, but otherwise the overall feel of it, I mean, Andy Reid and and some of the people on the on the coaching staff, it's kind of like, we still have work to do. But one thing that we can rely on and we know we can rely on is our defense. And they're going to continue to get better defensively when they get some
of these guys back. Mike Danna didn't play today. I mean, but they've got such good linebackers and guys up front. Unless they sustain injuries there, that's going to be, as it was last year, their default when all things don't work, our defense is going to keep us in games.
Default to a defense that, yeah, gets three quick pressures today by Chris Jones, including I don't know if they counted as a quick pressure on that fourth down. He was the guy who ultimately made the play of the game. It won't even show up in the stat sheet but got the pressure on. Herbert also had two sacks. He's just the best of the best and has a chance.
Carlaftis is really emerging into a standout player, and Nick Bolton might be one of the best inside linebackers.
So what was was it? Half Chiefs? What was so fi feeling like today?
Oh?
Half Chiefs? You know what?
You know?
I like the atmosphere when it's half the other team. It actually feels like a Super Bowl, except except they're more into it, where it's like super loud on both sides. I actually, as a as a neutral fan, I think it's one of the cooler atmospheres. But I know, you know, haters from the outside will be like, oh there.
And I'm want to make this clearer.
But I want to make this clear because we see this in almost every stadium now. And here's what the deal is. Because season tickets are so expensive everywhere in the NFL, season ticket holders are going to sell off two of their games, if not three, to at least get somewhere to the break even point. When I see forty nine Ers fans taking over the Superdome in New World's like, that's insane. No one takes over the Superdome.
It's starting to happen more and more just because the costs again off season tickets are what they are.
I love it.
I love that you came over after a big afternoon at SOFI Stadium. So yeah, the Chargers are two and two, the Chiefs are at four to Oh.
Thank you Steve West for having me for the cameo.
Thanks. I'm waiting.
I'm gonna listen up to hear the Browns venom though. I just cannot wait.
Race is over there.
Texted me about these bad decisions to Shaun Watson's making in the Browns being a mess. I'm like, Wei, you got a great game in front of you, but it clearly you had it on the monitor. And we will get to that on NFL Plus Yes with Nick Schook a little later in this show. Nick Schook is going to join us on the other side here actually to talk about another undefeated team.
A little surprising. In the NFC North first and.
Goal from the fourteen, Darnold out of the shotgun, puts Jefferson in motions of the right.
He'll go that way to the end zone. Caught touch down.
Kidding me with that catch Justin Jefferson with a fourteen yard touchdown grab and the Minnesota Vikings lead the Green Bay Packers at lambeau Field D seven zero with five twenty eight to go in the first half.
How about this?
How about it?
Paul Allen on kfan there with his buddy Pete Bursich. Oh yeah, Sam Donald hits Justin Jefferson with the pass that was so good.
Jefferson had no choice but to catch it.
He just turns around and it's it's in its chest and it just stuck there. The great players, they just have beltgrow there. It got a little crazy after that. Twenty eight to nothing turned into thirty one to twenty nine by the end.
Of the game.
Yes, the Packers did have a chance, not really late, but there was a one score game here. Sam Donald made enough plays to salt it away, have a field goal drive give him a two score lead. They end up winning the game, and man, Nick Shook, I really enjoyed the hell out of this game. I'm glad I assigned it to myself, and at the beginning of it, I was thinking, man, this is not going to be a good one to assign to yourself, because it was
just like such a blowout. Donald's first eight completions were to eight different receivers. And one thing that stands out to me is when Donald makes a mistake, you got to take advantage McDuffie.
Oj McDuffie.
The Packers dropped a possible interception on one of the first drives, that it's suddenly third and fourteen and he has a throat to nailor and these guys Naylor and Addison are getting these one on ones. Addison had a few outstanding routes today to get seventy two yards in a touchdown for his game, and then it just starts going from there. So yeah, Donald will give you some chances, Nick, but Brian Flores is going to give you some extra
chances as an offense. And this team is just a lot to deal with right now.
You could be concerned about why things got a little hairy in the second half, but I'm not worried about that because what you really wanted this team is that they continue to play good on both sides of the football, which is what they did. Another good day from Sam Darnald. You know he had one pick, but you still have three more touchdowns. Another strong day from Aaron Jones, who clearly loves being there and is not enjoying your renaissance but having a good year with them. It's just a
strong team. Like I picked the Packers in this game because I'm thinking eventually they have to run into something and this Packers defense could maybe give them fits. Nope, I was wrong. It got close, but I was still wrong. I'm just convinced the Vikings are a sound football team and they go into Lambeaux and get a win today.
There were some signs in the second half because in the first half there was a wall constructed around Sam Donald. The Packers pass rush could do absolutely nothing, and Donald was getting whatever he wants and could combine that with the offense turning the ball over giving them a short field. I got a touchdown off of that, Jordan Natison got his second of the day. But in the second half interception, punt, punt, fumble,
field gold, punt, turnover on downs ball game. Yes, there were like some signs of perhaps weakness because Jeff Haffley and company in Green Bay figured things out, like Xavier McKinney got his fourth straight interception. Upon review, Vikings fan's pointing out it probably shouldn't have been an interception either way. He counted. They get that turnover. But there's this is going to be a fun one because these teams, these two teams are gonna play again. I think the Packers
will be healthier, they'll be ready this time. But man, the Vikings are so hot.
Yeah.
Like, so the Packers ended up being without Jory jay r Alexander and then their number two cornerback Carrington Valentine as well. So the Vikings had great matchups on the outside and they took advantage, like I said, Addison on some of these backup cornerbacks. Man, he is just one of my favorite route runners in the league. He's just shaken guys. And then Naylor only had that one catch, but it was such a massive moment in the game. And Jefferson's presence just helps them get the one on ones.
And yeah, McKinney picks off Donald in the second half. I mean they were going in to put that really out of bounds there. I think it was twenty eight to seven after at that point. But that was a great interception. That was a great individual play that you know, maybe he shouldn't have been counted, but Darnold has been giving chances to opponents the whole you know, four weeks,
that's who he's gonna be. He held the ball maybe a little too long on his fumble, so he had two turnovers in the second half.
A blitz gets to him.
But ultimately, when they need to make a drive in the fourth quarter, like seventeen yards to Justin Jefferson, twenty seven yards to Justin Jefferson, you get a field goal. You have an extended drive to takes some time off the clock. And on a day where in the end Brian Floris's defense gave up four hundred yards, the offense had to do a lot. I just think this is a team that's gonna they're gonna go for it, like
Floris is like that too. And the Packers were playing hurry up in the second half, and maybe that's one way to kind of calm down all their blitzer and stuff. I thought the Packers actually had a pretty good plan
in the first half. Jordan Love just was missing some throws and early in the game I was thinking, man, they should have maybe sat him for another week because he didn't look right, And he even said it after the game, like the reason that Doantavian Wicks had some drops and he had the inner and everything is like, yeah, he wasn't entirely accurate, but I think he was better by the fourth quarter when he started putting up numbers.
Yeah, probably some rust. And of course it's not a team where you can figure things out against the Minnesota Vikings because they're just playing such good football right now. There was a tough one where he throws essentially a bad pass to Christian Watson. We're gonna have to get an update on his ankle because it gets picked off by grew Jay Hill as well, who's coming back to the ball kind of rolls up on top of Christian Watson.
But Dontavian Wicks gets thirteen targets and replacing him, including a couple of touchdowns.
And drop as long at least three, yeah, I would say, And one was on a fourth and long. They went for two fourth and longs in the game because they were trailing and they were on the plus side of the field. And one was an example of why Jordan
Loved to me then look great today. For most of it was this kind of like a Hope ball where actually, if Jordan Love had done like his thing where he makes him crazy throw over the second level defender, but before or the third he actually could have hit him, but it just his ball.
His passes were like fluttering a little bit.
And then the second one was a nice throw that pretty much hit Dontavian Wicks in the chest and he dropped it on a fourth down. And so those were big plays on a day nick where Jordan Love ended up with three hundred and eighty nine yards, four touchdowns, three interceptions.
That's a stat stuffer right there. That's like I always talk.
About him how he used to lead in PFF scoring in the preseason, if if you accounted three preseasons in a row, turnover worthy plays and big time throws. This was this was that game in a nutshell. But I do think they have to feel better that he kind of warmed up by the end of it, and you hope he's fine, and you really hope Christian Watson's fine because I thought he had a lot of juice this year when he was playing.
That's kind of the story of Jordan Love's experience the first half of last season too, by the way, like kind of you know, self destructive plays, then turnover worthy plays and then he dialed it in in the back half, and obviously we know what happened that season, So I think he kind of expects something like this when he comes back from an MCL sprain, and maybe there's a little bit of a lack of confidence there, maybe the rust like Patrick mentioned, But I think that this is
something that shouldn't concern them over the long haul. It's just a matter of reps in time. But I'm more curious as I look at the Vikings and I think about, all right, what defenses are capable of putting Sam Darnold in conflict where he will have ball security issues because he's largely avoided it, or he's avoided it in that he's still turned the ball over once or twice in a game, but it hasn't been catastrophic. So if you
run down their schedule, you get the Jets. Next, the Jets who struggle to get pressure, you get to buy, you get Detroit, the Rams, the Colts, the Jags, the Titans. I don't think until you get to Week twelve against the Bears, are any of those teams gonna set up a serious challenge for him to where they could capitalize and exploit his ball security issues, so we might be talking about the Vikings like this for a long time.
Yeah, that Jets game is fascinating. If they can try to they're going to try to get to their bye week undefeated. Pretty amazing. And Dustin Jefferson, even though the numbers aren't quite as stratospheric as they have been, sometimes I'm just convinced like he's the best player in the league.
He's just such a cheeko.
He goes six for eighty five in a touchdown and when they really need it, he may the plays. Aaron Jones has also been awesome for them. They end up he ends up with one hundred and thirty nine yards from scrimmage on twenty six touches, twenty two on the ground. Let's listen to Aaron Jones just talking about how he came to Minnesota and he's happy he did.
Koc.
He's meant he's been everything to me. He's helped me so much in my short time here, and I'm glad I made the decision to come here. He's definitely a special coach.
Yeah, Koc absolutely getting that.
I was kind of thinking during this game, this is like a pass diverging, you know, very early Coach of the Year Canadacy game, you know, just because like I'm just saying, Lafleur has been incredible these first couple of weeks with Malik Willis or something. But Kevin O'Connell says, I'm the boss of this race, and right now I'm the boss of this division. They're now up two games.
They have a game in hand over the Packers. They won in Lambeau lamb You know, green Bay at this point is probably gonna have to go and win in Minnesota if they want to try to win this division. All right, let's move on to another undefeated team entering Sunday. See if the Steelers stay that way in Indianapolis, this is it down.
He's gotta go to pick hims up, coup empty set for fields backs, the pass plants still has time.
Rolls up in the pocket. Pros down field Boss picked off by the Colts.
But it's an incomplete pass in ten of downfield for Fan Jefferson and the Colts defense comes up enormous in the fourth quarter with hundred a minute to go, It's a turnover.
On downs and the Colts aren't gonna win it.
A week four, Oh, the Colts defense. I mean, they weren't coming up enormous in the fourth quarter until that moment after Justin Fields leads the Steelers on a comeback that includes three straight touchdown drives in the late third quarter and then two more in the fourth. The Colts do get that stop, twenty seven to twenty four. They're two and two. Steelers their first loss now at three
and one took. This is a game where Anthony Richardson leaves with a hip injury and Joe Flacco comes in and he's beaten teams in the AFC North.
It's like twenty twenty three all over again.
I wanted to write, the Steelers are probably really tired of seeing this guy, until I went back in the history and realized they didn't see him last Kay, It's just that he saw a bunch of other teams. But yeah, it felt eerily similar. Like here it is Joe Flacco coming into a game and dealing and handling another AFC North team, you know, in a matchup where his team didn't expect him to have to play, and suddenly Anthony Richardson gets hurt and he has to play, and he
handles it with the composure of a veteran. Now, Greg, I know this irritated to you, and we'll just bring it up right now. Anthony Richardson gets hurt and then he goes the sideline and he comes back in after like a play and they run a designed run for him with a hip injury. So of course that doesn't work out well for him and he ends up going out the rest of the game. I think it sounds super serious. It sounds like he could have played if they really needed him too, But they have Joe Flacco
at their disposal. That's why you go get him in the offseason. But it was funny because there was a bit of a jackal and higher performance from this Colts defense, which has kind of been like that through four weeks
this season. They start early by just bum rushing the Steelers offense, just attacking that pass protection and getting after Justin Fields, and they build themselves a seventeen to nothing lead, and I'm thinking of the Steelers ever gonna get out of first gear in this game, because I don't think
they are. And then Justin Fields puts the team on his back and he's throwing darts and he's using his legs and he scores a couple of rushing touchdowns, and I'm like, the Steelers are going, if they have enough time, they're gonna come back and win this game. And then it all fell apart down the stretch because they couldn't protect and they had a weird snap that resulted in a fumble and you saw you just heard the last player.
If you watched on YouTube, you saw it so weird back and forth game, but also a fitting first loss for the Steelers in the fact that their strength did not help them today. Their defense was not their calling card today and that was.
The problem Fields being able to keep them minut game where their defense is not playing well. Overall, I've been like, this is a real thing. Patrick, fifty five yards in the ground, two rushing touchdowns, three hundred and twelve yards through.
The air, and a touchdown. They're like, it's happening.
No, it's it's real, And it's not just that touchdown flurry at the end of the game, which might jump out to people. Pittsburgh wins this game if not for a random George Pickens does this thing where he holds the ball way away from his body. He had one in the first half. Fields hit him on a ball down the sideline. He was inside the five yard line and for some reason, George Pickens is flailing the ball around,
has the ball punched out, and the Colts recover. Because other than that play and just a dominant performance, I say it's dominant. The numbers don't leap off at you, but against the Pittsburgh Steelers defense, this performance by this Colts offensive line, like it really it really showed just how solid and strong they are front. Jonathan Taylor goes for eighty eight yards at four point two yards per carry.
Flacco comes in right where it's not. I feel like, because we saw it last year with Cleveland, we kind of take it for granted. Did you go Flack? Right? It just shows up and plays good football, and it seems there's there's other backup quarterbacks. The game's over.
In that sitsu, he's thirty nine years old.
I love it's that tweet. It's like the aging wonder, which is you know the guy that you're you're older than.
Well, you know, I was saying, that's extremely.
It's a miracle. How's he even breathing?
Speaking of which, Joe Flacco spoke with our friend Addie Ki Kabwala on CBS after the game.
I do have to tell you, Anthony Richardson told us that you were cooler than he thought he was.
Listen, he told me his mom is eight days older than I am.
So there's no chance in the world that he thinks I'm cool. So, uh no, Flacco is cool.
He's cool. He's cool. Now we get like the amenable dad Flacco after these last couple of years where we've come a long way from it's not my job to coach the backup to like this fatherly Joe Flacco's hugs and smiles and getting there talking about people's moms.
And he was injured for a couple of years and he's bouncing around and struggling, and I think there is something too that maybe he appreciated what he had in life.
You're not gonna have it forever. Play in this game.
And he kind of came back with a different attitude to his younger quarterback teammates so that he's not threatened by anymore.
And how did he look?
Shoo, Because I'm going to watch this game more closely later, But Josh Downs goes eight for eighty two in a touchdown. That's a really good sign for them for him to get back going, and Pittman goes for one hundred and thirteen. They bogged down a little in the second half. But how do you think Flacco looked. I don't think he's gonna play next week though based on Richardson after the game, we don't know, but he like put his shoulder pads
on even though the team had ruled him out. I think they were just being cautious at that point, but it seems like he could be back by How do you think Flaco looked?
Yeah, so downside a hell of a day and a lot of that was because of Joe Flacco. And I mean he made a few catches where he broke a tackle and picked up a key first down here and there, especially in the second half, and the run game really helped bounce it out. Patrick's completely right. This offensive line is very good and you could see it as they're handing it off to Jonathan Taylor. But none of this gets done without Flacco coming in and handling the job.
Well.
He looked a lot he did last year. He didn't throw for the yardage total that he did in some of those games with the Browns, but at the same time, He looked just as confident and accurate and shot off all the arm talent that he had last year and he's had for most of his career like he was nothing. He had a nice touchdown pass through coverage that I was just like, Wow, there it is. There's the arm right there. And then the best part was as he celebrated last year with the Browns and was I feel
like I'm a kid again. He had the same expression on his face today and it almost looked like I could just throw him in a different uniform. It's the same thing from last year, run down the field with his arms out, halving the time of his life. So if look, there's a lot of bad backup quarterback situations in the NFL, it does not exist in Indianapolis. After doing it with Gardner Minshew last year, they're at a step above that with Joe Flacco and with Shane Stiken's
doing there. Their offense looked different by the way, as naturally it would. You're not going to run with him, but overall he stepped right in and didn't miss a beat.
Yeah.
I think Stichen saw that Steelers defense, which is great but not like complicated. You kind of know what you're going to get from them, and they were able to execute him for a while in this game. Now this Colt's last touchdown, which was flak out of Ogletree, came after a controversial penalty by Minca Fitzpatrick. It was an unnecessary roughness. Let's listen to Minca.
I mean, I thought we were playing football. I don't know what we're playing at this point, very different game than what I grew up playing, and what I grew up. Can't hit nobody hard. I can't be violent, So I don't know. I don't know what to say in here.
Can't be violent. Minca Fitzpatrick says. That was a courtesy of Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. It's kind of interesting to me, And you could tell me if you thought it was a good caller, bad call shook. But I thought it was interesting that Minka could have been called for a penalty. I thought, on the play that injured Anthony Richardson, it's kind of a late hit. I mean, it was one of those old Cam Newton plays where he doesn't get the call because it didn't look.
Crazy, but he slid.
And if that was like Bryce Young and then you hit him after sliding the quarterback would have gone spinning because it was Richardson.
Not so much.
But he didn't get the call there. He did get the call later in the game. Do you think it was the right call when they did make.
It bang bang yes? On replay No, because as soon as it happened, it was one of those ooh hits and you're like, oh, he was defenseless, that's probably gonna draw a flag. And it did, and it made sense. And then he looked at the replay and he didn't go for the head. It was basically shoulder to shoulder. The head was nearby, but it didn't really qualify and I think they said that on the broadcast too. So
it's a bummer. But like football's played an incredibly fast speed, especially when you're at field level, and it's hard to make those judgment calls. But again I will say this, I know it bought them, you know, another opportunity to go down and score a touchdown, But football usually decided by like five or seven key plays. That could be one of them. But also, you buried yourself in a seventeen to nothing hold. I didn't lose you the game as much as the entire game did well.
And you also when they got the ball back and your offense was cooking at that point with a couple of minutes left, just earlier than the two minute warning, you have the ball at the thirty eight yard line rather the forty two yard line with a first and ten with one forty three to go. That's that's a lifetime only down three and an early shotgun snap hits justin fields like in the face or so, and that
puts them behind the sticks. They miss a throw that down the field and they pick up you know, the eleven yards on like a third and twenty two, and that that led to.
And Naji Harris doesn't he doesn't get out of bound. So the plot keeps running and it basically, you know, ruin their chances.
So you know, they played outstanding on offense until that drive. Dio Adingbo got seven pressures for the Colts, who got a lot of pressures without blitzing in this game. So if you can do that, you can win a lot of games. Let's move on, and now we're out of the undefeated area, but we're still with a very compelling game, a surprising one in a rainy New Jersey.
Missed from fifty, Sir line from fifty to give the Jets to lead fifty one seconds to go out of the hold of more skit.
The snap, the placement down, the kick is.
On the way, It's got plenty of distance, and it is no good.
It floated right.
Heartbreak for the Jets at Sir lime, howd it curve off to the right and he can't hit from fifty And it looks like the Broncos will hold on and win this game by a point. Both kickers in tough conditions can't convert.
They could not greg the leg misses.
That was waxq Bob was choosing a surprising ten to nine loss by the New York Jets before they get on a flight later this week for London. Bronco's at
two and two, Jets now at two and two. Fascinating game here, Patrick, But I keep going back to the fact that the Jets had two opportunities in the last couple of minutes to win this game, and the three plays that preceded that fifty yard missed field goal were ultimately failures to the Jets not being able to advance the ball and get the ball closer in tough conditions for their court, their kicker, and Aaron Rodgers and the Jets offense come up short.
Yeah, and a tremendous performance by this Broncos defense in what you called a compelling game. It was not pretty. It was certainly not a fun game.
But it was weird to me.
I was kind of fascinated by it because it just looks so weird, like, Wow, what the heck is going on here?
Well, what we saw was just a good pressure defense. Rodgers was running. We saw Rodgers run against the Patriots, A scrambled for some first downs. He was getting away and getting out. But it was not the same. Just the first loss for Aaron Rodgers in his career where he didn't score a touchdown at home. Like that's how good advanced Joseph's defense was today. And we've come a long way from Gray the leg from fifty seven in the super Dome to the Rams to the Super Bowl.
That fifty yard ers sprays to the sprays to the right. But this is a game where bo Nicks in the first half was seven of fifteen for seven yards passing for negative seven yards passing. Excuse me, that was the important part. Negative seven yards through the air. They had one.
Play what yeah, in the first half, how deep into it in.
The first half. His first half stat line seven of fifteen for negative seven yards. It's amazing. It was a struggle on offense. But in the second half, really that defense because Rogers had a strip sack in that fourth quarter, I think six minutes to go. Next drive did absolutely nothing. They kept coming up short miscommunications between he and Garrett Wilson. But it's tough to pin this all on the Jets offense because Patrick's are ten yet again played a spectacular
football game. There was one particular play where Garrett Wilson's coming in motion and it's very tough for the opposing corner to come all the way tracking a guy on motion, navigating all the traffic and then getting to them on the screen, and he did just that for like a
two yard game. Just a great defensive performance. We can discuss the Jets being on fraud watch, but that's back to back week where the Broncos are on the road and their defense just stifles a quarterback with the week before was red hot.
That's a great point and so Certan I don't think even face the target in the first half. He ends up facing three targets in coverage against Garrett Wilson in the second half two catches for twenty two yards twenty five routes. You're just not seeing guys shut down opposing number ones like that. Then again, this Broncos defense was great overall. They blitzed forty nine percent of the time,
so they should keep their lead. They are the heaviest blitz team in the NFL, and opposing offenses aren't really dealing with it well. Rogers's time to throw is two point five, which is actually quite low. Then again, he held onto the ball on a lot of those and got sacked five sacks, fourteen quarterback hits. It's one thing I've known noticed this season. He's take a taking a lot of hits almost every week. Titans hit him a lot. Patriots actually did hit him a decent amount eight tackles
for loss in this game. Meanwhile, the Jets get like no pressure on the other side. I've been really impressed with this Broncos defense. Shook, and I guess we got to start taking them somewhat seriously. Even if bo Nick's sixty passing yards is the least in a quarterback win since Eli Manning did it back in two thousand and seven. Somehow not surprising to me that that did it. Maybe maybe also in MetLife.
What you're saying is Bonickx's two Super Bowl rings away from making the Hall of Fame.
Go see Eli's, by the way, is up for up for debate this year, and I don't think he's going to be first ballot.
I think we can at.
Least, but he'll get in. He'll get an eventually. It is crazy. It's crazy to see a game, a team win a game with sixty passing yards like from a quarterback.
It is nuts. But on the flip side, like I think about the Jets offensive approach because it's just been so up and down through four weeks, like they had they were stifled by the Niners in Week one, they get back on track, they end up, you know, looking like gangbusters, like world beaters in Week three against the Patriots, and then they come back to earth with this and I you know, we talk about the Broncos defense and how good it is, but if you look at them statistically,
they were twenty second in the league against the run, Like that should be their weakness, that should be where you attack them and it's raining at MetLife Stadium. Why are you throwing the football forty two times in a game that finished ten to nine. I need to know that.
Why is your run past difference? It's sixty seven point one percent past to run like that's a that's a failure on the part of the coaching staff in coaching within the game, in my opinion, and putting it all on the shoulders of Rogers and you just don't help your offense out that way. So I think that's something that the Jets have to iron out.
They don't forget it was the Nate Hackett revenge game. Supposedly Aaron was going to try extra hard. The extra hard didn't really pan out. They gave Breese hall tien carries. He got four yards out of it. Really, Braylan Allen was the guy that was having success.
I keep banging this drum.
Bresol had a zero percent success rate today, Brailen Allen seventy five percent his runs were successful. To me, their running game just looks a little more in sync when he runs at Breeshaw sometimes is looking for the big play, and yet you can't get too mad at the play caller with the Jets because Rogers ultimately is the play caller. He has a lot of options at the line of scrimmage to choose, okay, depending on the look, and most of the time you're going to trust him to make
that right decision. Today he leaned towards the pass and you could see how disappointing was. At the end of the game, he just puts a towel over his head and I saw someone right. It's just like it was like, Okay, you're now officially a member of the Jets. I'm not going to go that dark. I'm not sure about froudwatch we'll see. It's a big game in Minnesota though. Have to figure out how to protect Rogers against the blitz. But yeah, Rogers was very disappointed after the game.
We were kind of killing ourselves. As you know, I can't say I had a spectacular game. I missed some throws. You know, the weather sucked, but so did some of my throws. So you know, we had some chances, but you know, way too many mental mistakes. But when your defense holes on the ten, you got to you gotta win the game on hundred percent of the time. So that's on the offense. It's on me. Yeah, not good enough.
Yeah, it was not good enough. Jonathan Franklin Myers with a little revenge game. Quiet little trade that the Broncos made on Draft Day, the kind of money related I believe because they were expecting Hassan Reddick to come on the books, then they kind of could use Jonathan Franklin Myers right about.
Now, all right, we're going.
To take a quick break and we'll be back with maybe my favorite game of the day.
Oh so, now it comes down to Young Way two to try and win the game for Atlanta. A fifty eight yard try to win the game was seven seconds left, snap spot kick from ko is away.
And it is good.
Fifty eight and the money shot for young boy Koo.
That is a great call by West Durham. On w z g C.
It's time for the Sunday Drive presented by the all new hybrid Toyota Camry. And yeah, we had to save it for what I thought might have been the game of the day, the rivalry of the league. This Falcon Saints game had everything that you would have wanted, plays that both teams would have regretted if they lost. Both teams kind of finding different ways to let the other team in but a lot of fun. The Falcons win
without an offensive touchdown. They win with a deflected pick six and a fumbled punt that they recover in the end zone on a day they were mostly outplayed. They also won on a penalty by Paulson Adebo, who sets up that long Coup field goal and the Falcons couldn't get any closer. And yeah, young waykup. Maybe he was listening on the Manning cast like me in week two and he heard Bill Belichick talk about him and he said, oh, yeah, we had Coup in our building for a little bit,
which I forgot about for a minute. He's like, he's very accurate, but not really good from distance, doesn't have much distance.
Take that, Bill.
It's like, have you seen how much that dude's been in the weight room. I was next to him on the field and one in London one year. That dude is thick, he's strong, and yeah he hits it from fifty eight and what a missed opportunity Patrick for the Saints in this one.
Yeah, just to the giveaways. You mentioned the judaon tip pass that was pick six. Rashiz He'd for some reason getting turned around. Maybe is the fact that he's spun to try to catch the punt, but he was inside the three when he tried to field a punt and he hoffed it. The defense played well. They lost Tyer Matthew I think in the middle of the second half having to play without him. A man down. Paulson adball
in that pass interference call. The ball was underthrown. He could have turned around and got a chance to make a play, but he went ahead and grabbed the receiver because I guess he thought that was in the situation. And after that, so the Falcons have a first down already inside Young Wayku's extensive range, you know, much to the chagrin of Bill Belichick, and they get nothing. There's three straight plays where for some reason, Kirk Cousins is
taking deep shots inside the twenty yard line. They go zero for three on those attempts and get nothing for Young Wayku, who bails out his team with a fifty eight yard kick. That were people you're not watching the game. You're thinking, oh, they get down there in a PI called the last second. No, they had tom and they did not make it any easier for Coup. Much like the Saints team just made it easy for the Falcons to win with all these mistakes.
Yeah, sometimes I think Cousins is like a robot and he just does what he's programmed to do. And like, I think that's just where the progression took him because they were taking they probably were trying to take away the sideline routes. They had no time out at the time. So it would have been interesting too if he had hit that last one to Mooney because they snapped that ball with thirteen seconds and it was a downfield throw.
If he had caught that around the twenty in bounds like that would have been, they might have lost the game right there. Mooney, though, runs great routes and he figured out a way. He's kind of been Kirk Cousins's guy. What a weird spot, though. I want to get on Dennis Allen just a little bit or going for the
touch back at the end. Have you noticed this, Nick, I've kind of been tracking late game situations, not much time left, and these co coaches who they go for the touchback in that scenario, which gives the other team the ball at the thirty and takes no time off the clock, And it just seems like coaching scared, like, hey, we don't feel like we can coach this well enough. The average return right now is actually when it's being returned, is only going to like the twenty five or twenty six.
So more times than not, you're actually doing well that the Texans, who will talk about later, in a very similar in a similar situation, kicked it and they were They got the benefit of a penalty on the Jaguars, and the ball ended up being like at the ten yard line. So that I've seen that a bunch of times. It's not just Dennis Allen, but it puts it at the thirty where you only need like in this case, like what twenty five yards, and suddenly you're kicking a game when you feel goal.
Yeah.
I wonder if coaches are so afraid of the dynamic kickoff that they'd rather just give up the extra five yards in the time, Like it doesn't really make sense, because that's what.
I mean, I get it they are, Yeah, but that's stuff.
Average is usually like the twenty six.
You talk about competing all week, Why don't we compete play a little football?
Yeah, exactly. Put your money where your mouth is. Dennis Allen and every other coach. How about coaches that need to bleed clock and throw the ball on second down when they just need to drain clock. You're gonna drop me. I'm gonna go on a whole soap box here. Let's not go there. This is gonna I think, sit back for the Saints and they're gonna be a few weeks ahead and be like, man, game should have won. Like
it's hard to win games in this league. It's really hard to win games in this league that you think you should win, and then you give them opportunities to take it from you, like fifty eight yards is no joke, but young Waiku just bangs it through. This is a game that you should be able to feel confident that, hey, we've played well enough, we've outplayed them, we deserve this win. Let's close it. And they didn't close it, and coaching coaches coaching scare.
So they scored three offensive touchdowns and the Falcons didn't score any, and they lost.
And they lost.
I can't imagine that's happened many times. It's very similar to the stat about the Commanders and the Giants and the Giants in Week two. In the difference in this case is the Falcons did get a couple of touchdowns, they were just from a pick six, which was you know, Derek Carr said after the game, I did hold it too long, and that's probably true.
He shouldn't have tried to jam it in there.
But also, like we can just be real when luck is a massive, massive part of the game. It bounces up in such a way and is caught on the pick six and it was.
Kind of bad luck.
Yeah, you could try.
I thought Derek Carr played pretty well in this game. Actually there was a couple moments when when they were driving, but for the most part I thought he played Well, what were you going to say?
So?
Yeah, No, the connection with the Lave you can see that start to get better as the season goes on. But you could go out back and get your friend to stand about five yards away from you and throw the ball at their elbow and try to get it to ricochet into the air like happened where the ball comes off of Derek Carr's hand, goes to Matt Judon's bottom elbow and somehow goes up into the air right twenty yards and is a pick six.
I think both of these teams have to be concerned about their pass rushes. Both quarterbacks they thought had too much time in this game. Cousins had a lot of time early in this games pass rush really wasn't getting their Cousins still is not moving well. Like when he is given time, he spins it. He actually had a handful of really nice throws in this game. But again, if you look at his numbers on play action or outside the pocket or under center, it's very minimal and
it's like negligible production when he's doing it. I think he was like four for six for like under thirty yards on play action and so he's just very limited in what he can do. Like I said, though, when they given time, he spun it a handful of times in this game.
Yeah.
That kills me though, because like again, coach to your your strengths, coach to the strength.
But he can't move. No, he can't move.
I know that. That really pains me. And then you're going to ask him to hold the balllogger too. I mean twenty five attempts over two and a half seconds like that, that's kind of that's Jalen Hurts and the Eagles.
Yeah, Kirk Cousins is not Jalen hurts.
Okay, he was three for six on play action for twenty eight yards, two for three outside the tackle box, and yeah, I mentioned Car ending up and down a game. You know they got the ball. It's Saints Falcons. They had just failed on a fourth down inside the Atlanta Falcons ten yard line with about four minutes to go, and you thought, oh, that might have been their last chance.
I like that Dennis Allen went for it there.
I want to give him some credit actually, because they could have tried to cut the lead to three. Got the ball back and stop means said he went for the touchdown, and they sent some blitzes after Car. He might have been a little panicked and got rid of the ball too quickly, and that was probably his worst moments in what was otherwise a good game. But then he gets the ball back. Saints force a really ugly
three and out by the Falcons. They get the ball back on the Atlanta forty two and despite some boneheaded penalties and by his teammates Rashid Jahed and the offensive line makes a mistake, Carr has a nice drive down to the goal line, and what I thought was going to be like one of the touchdown calls of the day. Alvin Kamara, who had just a heroic game despite a broken ribs, gives them a go ahead touchdown.
Two tight ends I filmation borrow.
Hand off Albert Jamera, he gets pushed into the endzipe. I had a predis Albert Camera touchdown.
New who that tied the game with the extra point to follow with a minute left? That was Mike cossin ww L. And yeah, just as a fan of Alvin Kamara. Seventy seven yards on the ground with that touchdown, seven catches for forty two yards in the air, playing with a broken rib. Derek Carr said after the game, like he reminds me so much of Marshall Lynch. I just who people might forget was with Derek Carr in Oakland at one point and just says, those two guys love football,
maybe more than anyone I've ever known. Taysom Hill, I also think loves football a lot. Was massive in this game. I think was going to have a big workload. Had six carries early with two touchdowns, playing with a rused lung. Another guy that loves football, and then he suffers a rib injury on the other side of his body according to Dennis Allen, and was knocked out of the game, so they didn't even want to use Kamara that much. A lobby was going in and out with like a hamstring injury.
It was a lot. It was Falcon Saints. It always delivers.
That was the Sunday Drive presented by the all new hybrid Toyota Camra. Whatever your vibe, it's a camera vibe. Learn more at Toyota dot com slash Camray. All right, that's enough of these like close, really entertaining games. Let's go to a really entertaining blowout in Arizona.
Third and goal from the ten eight forty to go fourth quarter. Here's the snap. Arizona Brigs score, plenty of time for Jaden throws over to the middle into the eds.
Of Dennis tar touchdown, touchdown Washington.
Terry McLaurin. Back to that weeks for a score of the four.
I love hearing the glee every week from Bram Weinstein of wb IG. You can just tell this guy's having the time of his life, as are all Commanders, employees and fans.
Of which I guess he's won. He's an employee.
Jaden Daniels goes twenty six for thirty two hundred and thirty three yards through the air.
With a touchdown and a pick.
Also runs for forty seven yards on the ground. The Washington Commanders are three to one and they lay the SmackDown on the Cardinals forty two to fourteen on the road.
Where the defense hasn't really performed recently was they had to have a win and a score fest where they scored every time against the Cincinnati Bengals. I thought it was going to be up and down the field, and to start things off it was the Cardinals go right down. Kyler has a touchdown pass to Marvin Harrison Junior right after Jayden leads things off with a touchdown run, but eventually the defense gets pressure on Kyler. Kyler is sixteen
of twenty two. A lot of those, a lot of those incompletions came on third down where Arizona was ultimately four of eleven on the day. But it's tough to not watch this game and come away with, oh my god. Jaden Daniels is legit for the second week, only four in completions, including an interception. Second game in a row where Jayden has had this random miss where the ball doesn't go anywhere near where he wants to go. It's actually behind the defender as well. He kind of makes
a great one handed grab. Other than that, pretty much a perfect game where also Brian Robinson Junior goes over one hundred yards on twenty one carries. He's averaging almost five yards to carry in this game. And Cliff Kingsbury comes back afterwards. Dan Quinn, laying just a litany of f bombs in the locker room, says that Cliff Kingsbury is not leaving this blanking city without a blanking game ball and tosses it to Cliff and they're going crazy
in lock Everything's coming up Commanders right now. Show is this their world? They're leading the NFC East.
Never, this is also a Cliff Kingsbury revenge game, by the way, I got a side note. Never in a world that I think that we would be praising so much Cliff Kingsbury so much just because of the way that his tenure went with Arizona. But here we are, and you know what, let's take a moment here on a very happy day, somber moment, pour one out metaphorically. The possession streak ends at oh Okay, okay, it finally ended. They finally didn't score on a possession. But that's how
good they've been. They've been dominant. They've been pumping the ball in the end zone. Jade Daniels, he completes, his completion percentage was eighty six point seven percent. That's after he set the rookie record last week and that went over the Bengals. You can't stop these guys. They're a machine. No Austin Eckler because he's in concussion protocol, no problem. Jeremy McNichols, come on down. Eight carries, sixty eight yards, two touchdowns. Throw anybody in there. This offense is a
well oiled machine. All we need to do is put warm bodies in there. We're going to blow you out of your own stadium.
Yeah.
The success rate for Brian Robinson, Jeremy McNichols, and Jaden Daniels, all of them were individually over fifty percent, which is like a huge number when you're running the ball. So it just shows it doesn't matter who it is. Yes, Daniels is obviously special and choose as well when to run. I think he's gotten a little more careful over the last couple of weeks, which is a great sign. But the offensive line, that's the one thing I think Kingsbury
deserves the most credit for. Really the thing that he did well in Arizona I thought was coach up and have a good offensive line despite you know that you looked at the talent and you weren't really sure.
And they've been very good.
And it's not just to throw the ball behind the line a scrimmage thing. Patrick Jaden Daniels was five for five under pressure today, so when they got some heat, which wasn't too often, five passes under pressure is not a lot. He was complete and seven for nine on throws between ten and nineteen yards, so he's been pretty good on the mid range. The deep balls haven't really happened except for the two famous plays now from that
Monday night game. But it's amazing this team could I don't know what this team could do.
Well, could win the division?
Why not?
And honestly, because the defenders are scared to get too far upfield, you have to be honest about your rush lands because you don't know when Jayden's gonna pull down. He's making the decisions very very well. Is get coming into this game. It was two point five to one second snap to throw or we just talked about Rogers getting rid of the ball in that range in a slug fest where they couldn't move the ball at all.
That's that's how quickly Jaden's been getting It seems like perhaps the Giants in that field goal Festival a few weeks ago had the best game plan with Jayden Daniels in.
I mean they didn't stop him though, I mean, right, they stop twenty Yeah, yeah, that's true.
I mean they were just like when they were blowing open holes in the red zone. It was just these were they were easy. The Cardinals defense played a little closer to where I thought the Cardinals defense would play in the first three weeks of the season, and then the Cardinals offense was disappointing. You watched it closer than me, Patrick, but Kyler took four sacks. He looked a little frazzled at times. I thought like his eyes were down where
he he looked a little confused. So I don't know if that was something did dan Quinn with Senny m DR's Armstrong had a good game, But for the Commander's team that was thirty second out of thirty two in a lot of categories.
This was, you know, obviously a great performance by them.
After you know, a quick start by the Cardinals offense, they get the first drive touchdown, not much the rest of the day.
Well, well, the one thing that has been consistent with the commander's secondary is when the quarterbacks, the opposing quarterbacks have taken the shots, they haven't always been able to make plays on the ball. And Kyler just I'm not sure how things were he was seeing them, but he just wasn't taking those one on one opportunity when they were available early. But Emmanuel Forbes, who's gotten a lot of negativity from the way that his career started, made
several plays in this game. Saint just as well. Who's they've these guys the commanders at corner have really really struggled. And we'll see the next time that, you know, they get a chance to make plays on these fifty to fifty balls. But today Kyler just didn't didn't really want to pull the trigger.
On They're in the mix, Washington. I mean, they are leading the NFC East, and at this point you have an offense that good, you have to think they got a real chance. Our friend Nate Tice, who's helping us out at the NFL network here, so I'm on Good Morning Football, tweeted out something that the Washington Commanders through four weeks of the season, I believe are in the
top ten all time in success rate. So that in terms of just like do you have a good play on a play down and down basis, they are ranking through four weeks with the best four week starts of any offense in history.
They are getting it done.
Let's move on to Tampa, where another offense got it done.
Lead a yard and a half Mayfield shotgun look, Hans.
Keeps the ball himself times. He's got a Tampa by touchdown. Mayfield with a designed quarterback.
Keeper Geene Deckerhoff from w A fu s. Yeah, that was Baker Mayfield's rushing touchdown to give them a big lead in this game. They held on for a thirty three to sixteen win. And this was way easier than anyone would have thought. I mean, just even them winning was a surprise to me. I picked the Eagles. I feel like an idiot. You picked the Eagles, I'm sure did. Then again, we didn't totally know the injury report at that time.
Lane Johnson did not play.
Devonte Smith and AJ Brown did not play, despite AJ Brown returning to practice on Friday. So that was unfortunate, and yet you can maybe put it more on the Eagles defense, which is healthy. The first quarter twenty one to nothing, lead one hundred and eighty nine yards to zero yards. That's a tough way to start a game.
Yeah, it was a honestly, because to see the struggles that Jalen Hurst was having again no DeVante Smith, no AJ Brown. He was holding onto the ball very long time. Got a sack from Vitevea holding onto the ball as well, two strip sacks in those situations. But over on the other side, because we saw Vic Fangio's defense absolutely shut the Saints down in the Superdome less than a week ago.
And then to come out and see Baker Mayfield, which Tom Brady on the call, he was freed from his curse of the Cowboys scourge early on in the season. He's watching his former teammates go up and down the field. Just heaping praise on Chris Godwin. But you could see what a healthy Chris Godwin does to this offense. He got non targets, caught six of them for sixty nine yards our crucial third down conversions as well. It was just Baker operating at a level against this Eagles defense
where they didn't necessarily know what was going on. QUINNYA. Mitchell made one play on Mike Evans to knock away a touchdown. I can't really think of another play that Eagles defender made in the first few drives of this game. Baker three forty seven and two touchdowns, and I don't even know what to say about the Eagle at this point. Nick. It's it's a rough situation.
It's not pretty. I mean, you go back to some of the markers in the next gen categories for Jalen Hurts and it's kind of telling. Again, sixteen attempts over two and a half seconds, doesn't have his top two receivers out there, nobody's getting open. He's holding onto the football. They've looked like this for most of the season. He did have fourteen under two and a half seconds, but still half of it being longer. That worries me, and they didn't protect him well. He was sacked six times.
That speaks to the fact that he's holding onto the ball too long. You go in there shorthanded against a team that is aggressive. Todd Bowles defense is aggressive and it's going to get after you. And you find yourself in a twenty one and nothing hole after going three
and out on each of your first three possessions. You're fighting an uphill battle that you're probably not gonna win, especially when a guy like Baker Mayfield is balling, which he did to start the season and now he's right back on track after a rough week last week.
He's all or nothing.
This guy's crazy because he had one of the worst games of his career. When I rewatched that, when last week I thought it was it was kind of on him.
Last week he was the problem.
And then he comes out today and that touched un and he had to Trey Palmers like that was perfect coverage. I can't remember who was in coverage.
Was it Sligh, Yeah, it was nothing. It was Darius Slay.
And the safety was coming over the top. There was no window there and he just fires it in there and that's just like, well, that's that's too good. There's nothing that you can even do with that. Mike Evans becomes the all time leading Bucks scorer with a touchdown earlier than that and the Bucks get the ball going on the ground for the first time all years. Both the White and Irving go ten for forty nine. That's like the nicest running back split I've ever seen.
Let's unpack that real quick, because that's all the talk in Tampa right now is give Bucky Irving more carries than than Rashad White. He's playing better, his success rates higher, everything else. They like mirrored each other the difference. He got the touchdown. So what do you do now?
It's fine, you need you need him both.
Yeah, it's the way Bucky is gonna pop on some plays and you can see the explosiveness. He's a different style runner. And when it works and the faster guy gets more yards. In the fan, Bryan Rain, it's like, okay, yeah, this is the guy because we feel like we have we have a chance where they haven't really been running the ball very well. They didn't really run the ball a lot today, even in a game where they led
wire to wire. But it's it's just one of those it's one of those things where they're both gonna be a part of this offense. But I do think we will see more and more Bucky Irvring as the season goes on.
Let's listen to Dallas Goddter talking about Nick Sirianni's message after the game.
You know, he said it's early. You know, we're two and two. He talked about that. You know, it's not college football. You know, our season's on over. We got a lot of football ahead of us, and uh, you know, we just gotta find ways to uh stay ahead of the sticks, move the ball and uh, you know, come back. We've got a lot of football left.
Something about that bothers me that, like, why is Nick Sirianni telling the coaches this is not college football?
The seasons is not over.
It's like if the pros in that locker room are not thinking the season's over, yeah, Like it just gives a U a window. It's like, hey, guys, don't think the season's over. The season is not over, guys, no matter what they're saying.
And I just maybe it's maybe it's a little personal projection regarding who finishes the season.
I do worry about that because last week they just won the game, and every press conference was included some version of the question from reporters like and what is it you do here?
Actually? Nick?
Because like it was talking about how he jumped in and messed things up with the fourth down call last week. And then they asked Jalen Hurts a question and asked, like, how if they're gonna get together and they're going into their bye week, get two and two, if they would get together and maybe decide how you want the message to be the team or how you want to handle things between him and Nick as you go into the second part of the year. And Jalen Hurts his answer was, we have our moments.
Let's just it.
This is this is carryover from last year. That's what this is. This is the pressure of last year already weighing them down one month into the season.
I think that.
I mean, it's just he's always they always give them and they know what they're doing. They always give them a chance to say something nice about Nick Sirianni and then he never says it. Hurts had to have been frustrated. He was pressured on forty eight percent of his dropbacks, four of eleven under pressure.
Great job by the Bucks.
Look, the Bucks have had two games where they looked out standing this year, Week one against the Commanders and this week they stole one in Detroit in a game they probably should want. And that's why those steals are so big, because now they're sitting there at three and one, Eagles are two and two. But it's gonna feel worse
than that during their bye week. All right, before we head to break, want to let you know and just send all of our thoughts to everyone that is in Tampa or anywhere in the Gulf Coast region and struggling with the after effects of Hurricane Helene. As we hear more about it, it's really devastating and families affected by the Hurricane Helen urgently need support. You can help the American Red Cross provide meals and shelter to these families.
Donate today to her Urricane Helen relief efforts by going to Redcross dot org.
Flash NFL.
Third down and three, the Bengals hit their own thirty eight.
Joe Looking has lots of time.
His pass caught it to fifty by Jamar Chase breaks a tangle streaking down the far sideline. She got too many teammates to walk and he will take it to the house night for a sixty three yard Bengals touchdown.
Nice Belie, great job there by Dan Hord and Dave Lappin. I believe what Dave Lapham said during that highlight.
Was nice, nice sea Cea nice.
This is fantastic. Damar Chase takes a house call on a play that probably should have been about a six yard game helps his buddy Joe Burrow out on a day where yeah, they got it going on offense thirty four to twenty four. The Bengals get the win in a any Dalton revenge game that was not although I don't think he was the problem. The Bengals defense took made just enough plays. They got a goal line stand early and they got a pick and that was about it.
What the offense is doing well the rest of the day.
Yeah, that's the story of the Bengals so far.
Good.
You can finally get off to Shanine get a win. First off, congratulations of the Bengals. I thought they set the tone with that goal line stand early in this game. They arrived in Charlotte on a mission and that was don't go zero four and don't lose Dandy Dalton, and they did that, so good for them. This is a team that's going to be carried by its offense. It's going to be carried by Joe Burrow, who made one
mistake all day, which was the interception. Otherwise he was excellent again and luckily they got enough out of their ground game. That was probably their best game on the ground this season, just visually speaking, you know, thirty attempts between Chase Brown Zach Moss for one hundred and thirty one yards and two touchdowns. That kind of set the tone for their offense and Joe was allowed to build
out of that. Of course, he has the hookup with Jamar Chase the human pinball on that sixty three yard touchdown reception, which moved him into a tie with Odell Beckham Junior for the most sixty plus yard receiving touchdowns in the Super Bowl era with nine. Can you believe that? Nine? So they're hum and offensively. Defensively leaves a lot to be desired. Trey Hendrickson left this game with an injury in the fourth quarter that we need to keep track
of because that's their only source of pass rush. That's where I'm concerned. But again, good for them to get that win on the road.
Yeah, in the concerning area as well, because Trey Hendrickson dips down his helmet runs into another player. It leaves the game there. But the positive side on the Bengals offense, which were a whole bunch of positives, just five pressures on thirty two dropbacks against the Panthers. Albeit it's against the Carolina Panthers, but this is the new look Carolina Panthers Andy Dalton's starting now defense. For some reason, for
some reason, the defense got better. Yeah, but ultimately Chase Brown gets leads the team in rushing, didn't play most of the game. I think he only played. He played less than forty two percent of the snaps. Also got a goal line carry as well, which was a little bit of an upset.
Because fifteen for eighty with two touchdowns.
Yeah, it was.
And he was sitting down there in my kids fantasy like I'm trying not to tell them what to do too much.
I'm like, how's Chase Brown on your waive rider at that point?
You gotta you gotta pull rank go ahead and go ahead.
And see I give suggestions. Yeah, sorry, Greg leads. They both teams really didn't have any pressure, so that's it's a little concerning. I think for both of these teams. Two quarterback hits zero sacks. Now both quarterbacks are getting
the ball out. I always check after these games, like, are the Bengals ever gonna like run more of a offense that Zach Taylor, you know, was used to running, like the one that he ran when Joe Burrow was hurt last year, And like try a you know, try to get Joe Burrow to do a little more play action, a little more underset or stuff. And the answer is usually like, yeah, we tried a little, and it never works. He was four for six for eighteen yards with play action.
Like they're trying to push Joe Burrow to not just be that, but that's just not what he's good at. He's good at sitting in shotgun and just kind of playing distributor and get the ball out quick.
Yeah.
I mean it worked out for him like that that. My concerns are not with their offense. My concerns are entirely with their defense. On the flip side, the Panthers, let's talk about Andy Dalton, who looked good again. That interception that he threw was not his fault. It was a deflected it. His arm was hit when he threw it. Otherwise he looked pretty good again. They had a shot to win this game. They were down a touchdown late,
they had the ball and they came up short. They didn't really mount much of a comeback effort on that drive, but the fact that they were in the game alone just shows how far they've come in two weeks from Bryce Young and this is the least talented team in football. And Bryce Young limits this offense to Andy Dalton can go out there and throw for two twenty and keep this offense going. And Chuba Hubbard went for over one
hundred yards today, which was great to see. Like they have life offensively, It's just that in this game, much like the Bengals loss to the Commanders last week, they didn't have quite enough offense to keep up. What really happened is they went down twenty one to fourteen with a well timed little dump off to Brown along the sideline for a touchdown. It was twenty one fourteen and a half.
Bengals come out, go right down the field and score, and they're up two touchdowns and the Panthers are trying to play catch up. If they weren't in that situation, probably would have been tight all the way to the final snap of the game.
Yeah, the Bengals get a little more production out of t Higgins with six catches. Things are moving in the right direction. We'll see when the defense plays.
Uh.
Better offenses coming up. But look, they caught up a game in the AFC North. They this was a must win game. They said afterwards, you just can't go to zero to four. They're gonna try to be crawling out of this hole, probably for the whole season, maybe for the just the first half of the season. But they caught up a game in the AFC North. The Panthers fall to one in three. They are already a couple of games back. So dreams of suddenly being relevant maybe
taking a little break here. Let's go to two teams who are definitely entering Sunday in Vegas, worried about falling into irrelevance.
They gotta get right. They're not right, They're not right. They're covers.
Just from.
There's the snap, Watson Puss, he's under pressure, he's.
Rolling out to the left. Blighters given Chase balls out.
That's charge snod In with the sack, and the biggest player.
Of the day, Charles snowed it off the edge.
Back to back plays and the Raiders defense with thirty four seconds left, might have just won this game against Cleveland.
More, there's no might have.
After a couple nils, the Raiders get the win at home twenty to seventeen. They are two and two, the Browns at one and three and not feeling good about life. Yes, Deshaun Watson got them within striking.
Distance inside the ten.
There late holds onto the ball looks like a disguised coverage confused him. Nick his read that he expected to be open. I think what was Cooper And I think he thought it was man coverage and ends up he's double covered. He holds onto it too long, doesn't get rid of the ball, and man, they lose.
Sad times in Cleveland, Yeah, sad times.
And the funny thing is is most of the season has been defined for the Browns not to focus on the losers first, but most of it has been focused on the fact that DeShawn Watson has not played well. He actually played pretty well today. He put them in multiple spots where they could score points or at least get closer to scoring points. It was everybody around him failing.
It was the penalties committed. He stepped up in the pocket and found a Mary Cooper wide open for an eighty two yard touchdown that would have flipped the game and gave them the lead. Gets called back by holding on Nick Harris, who came in for the injured Ethan Posik at center. There's another play earlier in the game where he throws a pass over the middle to a Mark Cooper, perfect ball, hits him right in the chest,
pops right up in the air for an interception. It was that type of day for the Browns and a gritty win for the Raiders, playing without Max Crosby, playing without DeVante Adams and getting as creative as you'll probably see outside of Matt Leffluur's approach with Leak Willis a couple weeks ago. With the ground game, they had like seven different guys carried the ball. Two receivers scored rushing touchdowns in this game. Their lead running back was alexand
Madison with five for sixty. They rushed as a team for one hundred and fifty two yards, the first time the rushing game has shown any life this season. So it was one of those team victories that didn't look pretty, but they needed it and they needed to be gritty without Adams and Crosby, and they got the job done. But to circle back on that play one more time, Okay,
Watson's he's got two guys opened. Yeah, he's got two guys open, and he's about to fire, and I think he sees somebody slide back in coverage and that's when he pulls it down and by then the pass rush was in his face. Good day for him. Otherwise, tough ending for the Browns. The Browns are a bad team. They are about bad football team of the quarterback who can't be trusted, as simple as that.
Yeah, on that play, you're right, guys were open, and that's ultimately on the quarterback to figure out what the defense is doing and stay calm under pressure.
Look they yeah, they had.
First and ten at the Vegas sixteen with two minutes to go, so they had all sorts of time then like a bungled snap and an incomplete just a lot of sloppiness. Watson had one interception in this game that was just a drop right by Amari Cooper and it could have been a big play and it turned into an interception. And to your point on the Raiders running game, I did have to google who is d Turner for the Raiders. DJ Turner one carry, eighteen yards, touchdown.
Yeah, it's one of those wide receiver carries. The other one went to Trey Tucker, come all the way around on the end zone of a play that started with a handoff to Zamir White, which seventeen plays ultimately handed off to Zamir White. He got fifty yards. He was two point nine yards per carry. Alexander Madison is out gained Zamir White in every game they've played this season. And at a certain point, I know AP wants to get this ground game figured out. Was Zamir White, but
this seems like Alexander Madison's backfield. He had five carries for sixty yards today. Looked explosive.
Did he have the conversion on the third and nine? That was where I was like, man, the Browns are not the Browns because it was a third and nine run?
Picked it up?
Yeah, well they don't tackle well, they lead the league in the most mistackles, And yeah it was masking on that run. A hard fought run, but another poor display of tackling.
And again this is this was a game that we weren't necessarily thinking this was going to be a score fest coming in two very very hurt teams, two offenses that are playing poorly. But there were so many chances. There are so many chances for Cleveland, and they didn't take advantage of almost any of them in the plays that they did make, that the holding call being the
key one. And I understand the fourth down play pressure comes to shut you have to throw the ball somewhere on that, but again it should have been to that point, right, It should have even come into that circumstance because in the second half, the Browns defense eventually did get things figured out.
Yeah, they got to pick.
I mean, they got that Joka forces a fumble that they return for a touchdown. And I was just about to say, look, the Brown's defense, it's still a good defense. But you just couldn't expect them to be as dominant as they were a year ago.
Consistently. It's just not gonna happen.
And then again, you know, in this game, they did score seven points to to mitigate whatever, you know, mistakes they made against a team without DeVante Adams. They're missing both their tackles. You mentioned the center got hurt.
There.
There are extenuating circumstances Nick for sure, but they're they're not overcoming them. And in this one, give credit to the Raiders who are I mean, Isaiah pola Mayo is out there at Mayo, not Paula Malo. Pola Mayo is out there and making pass breakups at safety and getting a sack on a blitz and they're having guys step up and get enough like calebon chas On showed up and had three pressures in this game. I'm like, oh wow, Caleb On, Jason's It's happening finally after after five years.
So it's probably not really it's against some backup tackles, but it was a big It was a big day for Antonio Pierce who had a tough week, and for the Raiders to get this win, to get the two and two.
Yeah, that safety pull the maul that you talked about. He made a fantastic breakup on a pass, a perfect pass from Deshaun Watson to Jerry Judy that would have been a huge gain and he arrives at the perfect time they're playing. I mean, that defense has been good all year and even without Crosby, they still play good football. The Browns bad vibes like the bad vibes group in the NFL right now, there are two teams in there, the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Cleveland brownsm Okay.
I think some Eagles fans will probably yeah yet almost but not yet.
They're pretty bad, Yeah, pretty bad vibes.
But yeah, the play that Nick was talking about with Poula Mayu, his helmet or shoulder pads are inches different, and that's a flag and a fine. Like he really got his helmet and shoulder pads in the perfect place. It's a break. Judy was asking for a flag, but he couldn't, you know, he has the benefit doesn't have the benefit of seeing the play from the outside where it was perfect timing and perfect placement.
And it was a great throw.
It was also third and three in the fourth quarter and Watson was for a shot and it was like it was like wide open. It was like there was a safety. You know, obviously there was a safety back there and he didn't beat covered that much. So it's like the decision, the decisions with Watson not the best. You say the vibes are aren't good in Cleveland. I mean, if you listen to Boston Talk radio on Monday, I doubt the vibes are gonna be great there either.
Let's go to Santa Clara.
They have three left and Hunter Henry, the former Charger tight end right. Forsett back steps up. Here comes Floyd throw over the middle and accepted by Fred Warner. Fred gets up and runs back the other way thirty twenty one block and he's in ten five pushed out.
Dives for the end zone touchdown. San fred Sisco picked City.
Baby one of my favorite plays of the year. Fred Warner picks six. This guy is your best defensive player in the league through four weeks, Greg Papa Tim Ryan on k N the R. You just love it when potential Hall of Fame type players are at their very peak and you can just count on tuning in every week they're gonna do something special that looked like a glitch in a like a video game in tech Mo Bole where the guy would just fly right off the top of the screen and Fred Warner just I didn't
even see him. Jacoby Brissett definitely didn't see if he flies to the top, gets up off the ground and gets a touchdown. Unfortunately, Warner left the game later with an ankle injury was not able to return was standing on the sideline, hopefully not too serious. And I just thought watching this game and seeing the individual plays by the forty nine ers and enjoying hearing Greg Papa's voice
so much like. This game had two highlights, two touchdowns that were maybe better than any two touchdowns I sawidate So let's hear another one.
Bard and Chen on the twelve yard line. Chance play the drive. They've had two touchdowns called back by penalty. Brock shotgun, hues check, Jewish right along back. Now you chike right and they go Kittle Jennings Devo from inside, you out left, rock back and to throw for the end zone for Kittle lock Bell.
George went up and caught the ball.
Touchdown, say Fred Cisco Kittle in the corner, baby.
Superman in the phone move.
He went up and there are players raped all over him.
Three Patriots defenders there to try to stop George Kittle.
You can't stop him. What a play.
It turns out that you're better when you have Deebo Samuel on the field and George Kittle on the field. And yeah, they were back to being the forty nine ers. They ran away and hid very early in this game.
Yeah, Deebo Samuel had a fifty three order from Brock Party. Just those because you wonder, like what happens when you don't have those guys. It's not necessarily always the continued offensive end, So sometimes it really is just four or five plays, and those four or five plays when they're big plays like that, gettle over three guys d Bow for fifty three. It just it pops over the course
of the game. And Yeah, the scary thing for San Francisco as they get all those guys back is Fred's gonna get MRI tomorrow and you don't really get in that machine for fun. So that's concerning. But it's I mean, when they're healthy, I mean, they're the forty nine ers. It's glad to see them back to being the forty
nine ers again, albeit against this Patriots team. Right, made plays in spots, made plays in spots, and they actually made it a game towards the middle of the fourth quarter, but just not enough at the end.
Yeah, it was twenty to ten at one point in the third quarter. Joey Sly hits a sixty two yard bomb at the end of the first half. I mean, that was their highlight. But at that point it was, it was twenty to nothing and they were As an announcer there mentioned it's like there were like touchdowns called back by penalties multiple times for the forty nine ers, and then they would they just like score anyways, a couple fumble situations which you know worked out in San
Francisco's favor. The Patriots offensive line is just so bad, and then they lose David Andrews, who's their best player, their center early in this game. Kayden Wallace, who's their third string left tackle, got hurt and left the game, and it's just insane. Brissette play had a face to fifty four percent pressure rate, ten QB hits, six sacks. I'm amazed that he's been able to keep getting up because he's taking hard hits.
The difference in this.
Game shook on one level is actually Perty was under a lot of pressure in this game. Kean White had a good game in Their offensive line wasn't amazing, and Purdy is outstanding at escaping pressure in a way that you know Jacoby is not going to be.
Never was.
I was, but definitely not at this stage of his career.
No.
Yeah, And I feel like this game essentially like delivered what we expected from both teams speaking of strengths and weaknesses, because like Jacoby's been under attack like this every week, and he's taken a ton of hits, like you said, to the point where there's been many times where everything like oh, is that the one that knocks him out? And he just keeps getting back up and getting back
out there and continues playing. I mean, it answers every question as to why people are like, why aren't they playing Drake May because they can't protect well enough and there's no reason to put him back there. But on the flip side, you know, you also get, you know, the one hundred and twenty three yard rushing day from Jordan Mason, and you know, everything that you see from the fort Niners, you know, highlights wise and George Kittle being the most joyful guy other than Bob Papa in
the entire league stadium. As soon as he makes that catch like this very much fracks with what we expected. And unfortunately, because of who the Patriots are, and it starts again in the trenches. As I'll always say, this is going to be how a lot of their season goes, and you're just gonna have to you know, accept it and hope for the best.
It's tough. They're probably the worst team in the NFL. The forty nine Ers had six plays over twenty yards. I you had a big chunk early, but then again seemed a little off on a couple of plays. Almost caused an interception with Purdy. Juwan Jennings made a ridiculous catch in for forty five yards and tight coverage over Jonathan Jones so that it was like a beautiful ball
by Purty. So is the ball to Samuel. I've really been impressed with how Perty's playing this year in out standing throw early in this game, across his body on the third and nine to keep a drive going that was just not an ordinary play.
And then those nice deep balls.
He missed a couple deep, but he kept trying for him and they're hitting these post shots, which is you know, you don't see him hitting going for those bombs all the time, and he's a good deep ball thrower. They do not miss Christian McCaffrey that much because their running game is so effective. I know they miss him Patrick, but Jordan Mason had one hundred and sixty yards in this game. They are statistically one of the most effective running games.
I just mean, like the.
Running game is is pretty low on their list of concerns. Anything offensively is pretty low on their list of concerns. Yeah, that particular aspect of when he's a really good player too.
Jordan Mason is a solid run. It's not to take away from Christian McCaffrey. Jordan Mason can contribute on a lot of teams. I do think in the passing game not having Christian Christian mccafrey is a significant loss because it just forces you to have to defend so many aspects of the field and contend with Debo and Brandon Ayuk and George Kittle. It allows everybody to kind of be at their best, which is why they traded for
him in the first place. But regardless, New England didn't have the horses on either side to really be in this game, and San Francisco kind of able to zombie.
Don't get too confident in San Francisco. The Jets also had a game like this and you know, came back to Earth quickly because they might think like, oh, we got our defensive line problems solved, Like Kevin Gibbons had two and a half sacks, in this game, actually played all well all year. MALIEK Collins had five pressures, a lot of them quick. Nick Bosa was involved in back to back sack plays in the third when when when
it looked close for a brief second. But yeah, this this Patriots line and everything about their offense just under manned.
Right now.
They go to one and three and the forty nine is gonna much win, much needed win to get to two and two.
We're gonna take a quick break here.
We're actually gonna say goodbye to Patrick Claybonn and thank him for his service on this program. We're gonna say so long to Nick Schook for just a little bit. He'll be back with me on Sunday Night Football. And I'm just gonna chop it up with one of my favorite dudes, Kevin Patrick. Just a couple of games Bears, Rams, Jags, Texans, both good games.
The Patrick games this week see a Patrick LEAs see Gus.
Most of the tight end Parkinson, snap stut up front, pressure coming stay up, putting by intercept Prisker, the grab of the eighteen yard line, the pressure fighting Stafford and Prisker.
Well there's second, well almost second. It tip with the day.
The first one in the end zone did not count for this one catch very much and we got to fade the bluff moment that soldier field.
That's right, Jeff Doniac there on w MVP Matthew Stafford. Look, he battled, That's what Matthew Stafford does. But throws a late interception under pressure while getting smacked.
If that for a second, maybe did they get him around the head?
No?
Oh, they definitely did.
Okay, they definitely did, but the call did not happen. And yes, that is Kevin Patra. The Bears win twenty four to eighteen, Rams fall to one in three and the Bears get a big win to even their record at two and two.
So you think they missed that call? Patrick, I do.
I do think you got hitting the chops.
But you know, to me, this game was all about the what the Rams didn't do and how the Rams like that was the interception to seal it. But Stafford's fumble in deep in his own end early in the game was what really kind of pullted the Bears like they Then there was a penalty on the Rams that gave him a first down in first and goal at the one, and they plunged it in. But before that it was like the Rams were marching up and down the field, installing as they are wont to do without
their top guns. And then the Bears couldn't do anything on an offense at all. It was one first down and then a three and out and then a couple first downs, and Caleb Williams did not play well in the first half, and the ground game in Chicago again as we'd seen all year. I mean, they have ninety seven yards in the first half and I think like six first downs, so it wasn't pretty early. But that turnover deep in end zone gave the Bears life.
So yeah, you're talking about the turnover that sets up a very brief drive by the Bears for the Rosawan Johnson touchdown run gives them a seven to six lead up with a ten to six halftime lead in a half that it felt like the Rams were kind of controlling.
But you got to give the Bears defense credit here. Like, just coming into the game, I thought, Okay, the stafford and this story that they had a week ago, which was great, is going to be challenged more today by the Bear So it didn't surprise me that they finished with like eighteen points in this game, or that they struggled in the red zone, Like what did the Bears defense do?
Well, Well, they got pressure, I mean and as they.
As they usually do.
And Brisker was all over the field as in that call. He should have had another interception earlier in the game in the red zone, actually in the end zone, but he just stepped out by a toe. It was a very laxadaisical pass by Stafford. I couldn't believe he unleashed it. But Brisker was all over the field, twelve tackles, a
couple tackles for loss, the game closing interception. He was everywhere, and Sweat had the game changing fumble in my opinion, earlier he's the one who caused that that Stafford fund so he had that and the Rams, we know they're shorthanded.
Karen Williams did his thing. But when you don't have Cup and you don't have Puka Nakua to take away some of the coverages, the Bears could just sit on the run run game and they just kind of stuffed them and there was just no like the Rams offense was just waves up and down all game, all game. You didn't know what you were going to get one drive to the next.
Well, they they changed up their wide receiver rotation Jordan and Winnington takes over as like the guy who's running the most routes gets eight for six or six for sixty two. Finally makes me feel like it was worth going to a Rams preseason game for the first time.
I thought of you home almost every time.
Right because he was awesome in the preseason. I actually do think he can replicate what Puka and Cooper Cup does more than any Wells just because of his style of plays physical.
He's obviously not going to be as good as them.
He played well today and he was their leading receiver for most of the game until two two had a couple big catches later, but he was clearly the guy that staffer was comfortable with throwing the ball to over the middle.
Yeah, and too two has been great for them. Too gets four catches for eighty two yards.
Yeah.
That the Caleb side of things and the Bears offense, Look, they get the job done. DeAndre Swift busts open a big run late in this game. Hell, let's listen to this touchdown run by Jeff Joniyak.
Here with the call one back set snap, dance against side.
Over a man Swift, but the burst.
Of the twenty five twenty, he's going benny ten five hens out touchdown Bears thirty six yards chuck.
By DeAndre Swift.
Needed that this team is not going to get anywhere without a running game. Swift goes sixteen for ninety three. Helped out by that. But they were better in the second half. They kind of took Khalil Herbert out of the rotation. They'll need that because Caleb Williams is certainly still struggling to throw deeper throws. He was fifteen for fifteen on throws under ten yards Kevin Patrick, so that's good, yeah, but two for seven over ten yards over four over twenty.
His three wide receivers combine the three big ones, DJ More, Keenan Allen, and rome A Dunze combined for fifty one yards on seven catches.
So not a lot on the outside here.
No, And you can tell he kind of still doesn't trust his offensive line, I think because it's either he gets it out quick or he just seems that the gears start to turn and he just like kind of is overthinking it where you know, you'd like to see a little bit more progression from him, and he flashes it every once in a while, but it really is if his first read isn't there, he's overthinking it and I think he's just waiting on pressure.
He did that a lot in the first.
Half, like he was just like, Okay, pressure should be here by now, because this is what the offensive line that I have in front of me go bing back to Swift, I think from what we saw last year and that he was a bunch of memes about him on the on Twitter last year last week after the Colts game, but he was much more decisive this week, and I think that's what he needs to be. He's one of those guys who kind of gets in his own head when he's got two lanes to pick and
he just needs to hit the hole and go. And he was much better with that today and I think that's why you saw an improved run game.
Love it, love uh love Kevin Patrick with the coaching tips for DeAndre Swift and yeah this this this Rams defense, you know that you get it a sacked by Braden Fisk and uh, they're just not special enough. They ran the ball fairly well, but This is gonna be a very challenging season. Pukka is reportedly going to be out till about week nine, according to Fox's Jay Glazer. So we'll see when Cooper Cupper turns he is not on injured reserve. All right, let's go to Houston, where we
thought it'd be a one sided game. Instead, Patrick got another good one.
Second and goal digs to the right side.
Offset I C J. Rowls after the right close to.
The X one hit story the texait score they lead.
C J.
Stroud.
Tataria, who's had a huge game, puts the Texans off top.
Oh, they didn't tell you that it was gonna be the dari A Goombawale.
Revenge game, did they?
Big game winning touchdown four catches for a Gumbawala for forty seven yards and for the second time this season, the Texans needed a touchdown late. Happened against the Colts, got it, happened against the Jaguars. Got it or else. This team could be looking at a totally different season. But they get to win three and one on the year. The Jaguars fall to oh And for Kevin and it was on a day where seemed like they they gave
the Texans everything they could have wanted. They had a second half lead but couldn't.
Close the deal.
Yeah, the Jags played better than they have but they still left the door open. And this was a Nico Collins game all day. Every time a big third down happened, Nico Collins big, big second and long. Because the Texans couldn't stop committing penalties on especially the offensive line, like Laramie Tunzel is just a penalty machine right now.
It's kind of ridiculous.
They were in like second and fifteen all game and it would just be Stroud drops back, hits a Nico over the middle, and then they moved the chains. But I mean, this game started pretty hot for Houston and then they scored three of their first four possessions and then it was just the second half just punt punt, punt punt. And I'm actually surprised that the Jags defense stood up without They didn't have Devin Lloyd Alukhan's on
IR so their run defense was pretty impressive. I mean, Akers had a few decent ones, but I mean they couldn't run the ball very well consistently. I should say They're just a lot of third and long situations for CJ. Stroud to manage his way through, and they did it when it counted, And that's the kind of metal that you have when you have a Stroud type of player.
It kind of felt to like that once they got the ball back with so much time, because we can get into the Jags on how they kind of imploded at the end, but they got the ball back with all day to just drive down and do whatever they wanted and milk the clock inside the five yard line before they scored, right.
I mean, on one hand, I have a lot of faith in CJ. Strive to do it do that. On the other hand, they had just gotten five straight puns, So the Jaguars offense had every chance to put this game away earlier. And I know they were out gained in this game, but I couldn't help but see that. Look, they had the better rushing game today. Tank Big goes seven for ninety including a fifty eight yarder, Etn has a fifty yarder. Even Brian Thomas has a thirteen yard run,
so he supported there. The defense is getting a lot of stops and you need Trevor Lawrence to kind of step up a little more.
Than he did.
He had a negative seven point five percent completion percentage over expected. Again, he's been at the very bottom of the league so far this season, and that matches the eye test.
What did you see from Lawrence today?
He just continues to be scattershot. Especially most concerning is the short throws and the over the middle throws that should be easy for him. He should be completing in a Doug Peterson offense. Those are should be the easy throws that you can convert. And he They called two pass plays on their final drive when they should have. They could have just milked the clock because, like you mentioned, the run game was working in the second half. That's
what got them into the lead. And so they instead of you know, just leaning on that at least on second down and getting you know, getting into a manageable third down, they threw it twice and then c J. Strout had three and a half minutes to work his way down the field. Where I mean, just given how Trevor Lawrence has played, I was kind of surprised they put the ball in his hands in those spots and
he missed. He missed twice. Like it wasn't It wasn't like some great defensive play he put up the ball behind Kirk on one on the third down play he had him.
He's just missed. Like I made a joke the other day.
It's like he kind of reminds me of my toddler son when he first tried to started peeing, like standing up, like just the totally's right there, just hit it.
Hit the I mean like it's like a lot. It's like a lot of the guys here at NFL Media. I don't know what's going on, but you go to the urino and there's just like there's there's always some liquid on the ground. I'm just like, is this that challenging? Someone had to put a sign up at one point last year. I don't know if anyone you remember that, Eric, Like someone put us a sign up being like whoever keeps missing, Like, let's get it under choice words on
that sign too, Yeah, get it under control. Uh that is Trevor Lawrence right now. And uh it's interesting. Just keep that evaluation from patra in mind when you listen to Doug Peterson after the game being asked about possibly taking over play calling duties.
For what I thought he called a great game. We as coaches, we can't make the We can't go out there and make the plays right. It's a two way street. So you know, you guys can sit here and point the finger all you want and that's fine.
Point it right at me. I can take it. Okay, I can take it.
So whatever you want to ask me, say whatever, right, go ahead.
Mmm.
This is really tough and they're going to be going to London soon. And when you hear that that, that's that's a tough one because that's gonna be shown in the headlines of like, yeah, hey, the players, you know, I mean, he's not wrong like that. It's probably not all about the play calling it, but it's hard not to connect the dots between what's going on with his quarterback and just what the team is and it's not about the play calling.
It's been four weeks of this. It's been four weeks of Trevor missing in big spots over and over again. They've had chances to win games. And Brian Thomas was great again.
Today sixth a touchdown.
Yeah, he deserves more targets.
Honestly, he should have had more targets on Christian Kirk to just to be honest about that.
But he was great.
But Trevor just misses the layups. He just has to make layups. They're not asking him to do a whole lot. They don't They don't push the ball down the field a ton, so he just has to hit the ones that are there. Fifty four percent completion rate for a guy with that came into the league as a number one overall pick is just highly disappointing.
Yeah, the yards per attempt down too, And yeah, I just wanted to circle back quickly that Nego Collins' final stat line is twelve for one fifty one and a touchdown on fifteen targets.
And I was having this conversation. I wish I had it on air.
Off air, It's like, we don't have to wait to be like, hey, Nigo Collins is one of the five best receivers in the league. It's not it's obvious. He does literally everything. When you draw up what an X receiver is, like, you kind of think of, oh, Mike Evans, maybe even younger Mike. Get it, like that's what you
would want. Who can literally do everything after the catch at the catch point right, can run routes as physical, red zone, short long, everything that is Nico Collins he is the guy by himself on one side, with the receivers on the other side. No Tink Dell, no problem. Stefan Diggs is a very nice second receiver. He goes five for sixty nine and it runs in for a touchdown. But this guy is freaking awesome. Kevin, you are awesome as well.
Appreciate Can I just throw a stat on that that doubles down on what you were saying really before we go? So he totaled one hundred and fifteen of his one to fifty one from next gen stats. We're on targets of over ten yards. So he's just he's not doing these bubble screens, right, little dink duncan getting callow yards.
He's doing work. He's doing work.
He's great hands and you can connect those great hands to at least two of their victories, if not all three where he was the difference in the game. Awesome stuff from him and Stroud ends up with three forty five in a touchdown, and yeah, they are leading the AFC South at three and one. Kevin Patrick always leads the way when he is on the show. Looking forward to having you on again. We will wrap up the show with the Little Sunday Night Football to Baltimore.
Can Lamar starts to the pistol formation with Derrick Henry behind him.
Jackson stands five yards deep. He'll give it to Henry right side, pig hole, Henry the fop the hole.
He's going leg right, Tony, the kids in the pill bowling, Tony Coty.
He go big cool Tony com part poo woo, go all.
The way touchdown right him and this house is going wield right out of the gates.
Eighty seven yard touchdown.
Listen to this w B A L.
Jerry Sandusky on the call, And that was Rod Woodson saying he gon.
Derrick Henry twenty four carries one hundred.
And ninety nine yards on the ground, two touchdowns on the day, including one receiving. They left them in the game at the end to try to get over two hundred. John Harbaugh loves stuff like that. He just couldn't get. Everything else went right for the Ravens on a night where they win thirty five to ten, humbling the Buffalo Bills, who are at three and one, Ravens dig out of their zero and two hole. They are two and two on the season. Lamar adds fifty four on the ground
with a touchdown. Was very efficient passing the ball. Nick Shook, Justice Hill gets seventy eight yards receiving when they brought Nick Derrick Henry to Baltimore. The last two weeks are exactly what they imagine Nick Shook, This Baltimore Ravens offense and their ground game are are.
They're just scary right now.
Gee, you what a surprise the last two games they've won. It's exactly what we what we thought was gonna happen in the offseason, and it took a couple of weeks, but they finally figured it out and they looked like a machine. And I made the joke last week that I know Greg Roman was coaching for the Chargers because I saw him on TV, But I thought that he was coaching the Ravens again because they're just a dominant ground team again. They were good last year on the ground.
They are way better on the ground this time around. When they get Derrick Henry out loose in the open field, he don't have to be the open field, can run guys over, it doesn't matter. But that mixed with Lamar Justice Hills a little scatback change of pays catch some passes. It's tough offense to stop. And I know it's only week four, but people are probably looking at the Ravens right now and thanking God, how are we gonna defend that? Especially late in the year.
Yeah.
The trademark of Ravens teams, which I really respect their organization more than any other, is throughout the course of the season, they continue to add elements.
They figure out what they can do, what they can't do.
Their offensive line has had some issues the last couple of weeks really to start the season that they're missing one of their starting guards. Tonight, they have Rose and Garden out there at a right tackle. They moved the right tackle to guard. You have Patrick Ricard out there, and they figured out, okay, what works what doesn't. They've
really almost created two different rushing attacks. You have the shotgun rushing attack, which has Justice Hill more than not, and he had a couple effective, you know, one effective run tonight, but ends up getting a lot of big gains as a receiver. They really had a touchdown drive, their third touchdown drive which was keyed by multiple Justice Hill catches a fifteen yarder on third and fourteen, a
nineteen yard touchdown catch. But otherwise you got Derek Henry back there, and it's mostly running out of the pistol and out of under center, and the pistol formation is where they got the touchdown out of. And Jordan rod Rigg, she talked about it on our podcast. A lot more offenses are going to be using the pistol because it's more flexible of how you.
Want to run out of it.
And Henry hit that big touchdown out of the pistol, but also had many more successful runs out of the pistol formation tonight. It was over fifty percent success, right, So it wasn't all just about Boom or bus with one big run.
He had a lot of good chunk runs.
They're figuring out the under center stuff like that's been okay sometimes it hasn't. Otherwise we know what Lamar Jackson can do, which is not even require his wide receivers in a game where they absolutely dominate offensively. They had that long throw to Likely and he's a tight end of course, and like Zay Flowers and Rashad Bateman almost
got a touchdown like they're barely involved. Bateman has one catch, Aguilar two for ten Flowers one for ten, and yet it was one of the most efficient offensive games of the year. You really felt like the Bills defense, which had been playing well, missed Milano and Tron Johnson and Terrell Bernard. And that's three of their best players and they should have two of them back pretty soon. Milana won't be back anytime soon, so that's good news for them.
But man, this Ravens offense. Okay, now they've added elements. They figured out how they're gonna marry the Derek Henry running game with the rest of their offense where Lamar likes to throw.
Yeah, and the personnel losses that the Bills are dealing with are exactly why it was still hard to defend them, because you're gonna see other offenses run more of the pistol,
which wore a hardest. Somebody who can think back to the days of the Nevada wolf Pack and Alan Kaepernick and the pistol offense and college football now that it's prevalent in the NFL, but this is going to be the team that does it the best because of who they have back there, because they have Henry as a hammer who's also liable to break off a big play at any moment because they have Lamar who's so hard to predict and defend and can also throw out of
that formation and also beat you around the edge, and the way to counter that is to be stout up front. But really it's all about your linebackers, and missing those guys in that defense made a huge difference for them, which then in turn makes the Ravens offensive line look that much better when they get to second level and they're able to get to guys that are replacing those
usual starters for the Bills. So not going to be as lopside I think on a week to week basis, but this is gonna be one of the hardest teams to defend out of that formation, specifically because they can go in so many different directions and it all starts with Lamar Jackson and right after him it's Derrick.
Henry, right.
So the Lamar's rushing touchdown was such a cool play where like the.
Line's going one way and the guards are going the other.
And two guys going out runs just like so.
Much much for defenses to deal with. You want to settle down all these blitz packages people are sending your way and the Bills are not a heavy blitz team anyways, but this is what you do. And yeah, I mentioned they had twenty two plays under center nine out a pistol. That's out of fifty four place, so way over fifty percent the pistol plays seventy eight percent success rate, had two touchdowns out of it, not just the Henry play, just really cool stuff out of them, and they're using
heavy formations. I look, they they barely ever had three receivers on the field tonight, so it's it's too full. But you know, it's Ricard and running back almost you know, two thirds of the play, and it's two tight ends on a lot of the plays. You know, some plays they don't have any receivers on the field, but like it's crazy that a lot of these plays.
They have one receiver on the field.
And yeah, they even went heavy, and I want to give their defense some love. Josh Allen was pressured on fifteen of his thirty four dropbacks. I don't think he was like terrible tonight. He ends up sixteen four twenty nine, one hundred and eighty yards. There was just like a couple nice plays by the Ravens that got them off the field one time. McDermott didn't decide to go for it on a fourth and one. It was at his own thirty nine, but they were already down fourteen three at the time.
But it's because they were giving up some penetration.
Travis Jones had some plays, David Ajabo had to play, and yeah, Josh Allen took some sacks. He's not used to taking a lot of sacks, got hit quite a bit, So a really encouraging game by the Ravens defense too.
Yeah, the penetration was overwhelming the second half because what essentially happened for the Bills in the final two quarters was Josh Allen got away from the rush one time and made a heroic throw down the sideline for a long completion, and that was it. Every other time that they faced a third down where they knew he had to throw, they would just send the house and a
number of different guys are getting pressure. At one point of offay Olway got there and forced him out to the right and you just see Josh surrounded by like three Ravens who are closing in on him and he's trying to stiff arm one away and two more come in to clean it up and he's just got nowhere to go and you could see the frustration on him on the sideline. They try to run a trick play to keep the Ravens off balance, didn't work out, turns
out into a fumble. Josh gets blasted, like everything just snowballed into a nightmarage evening for them. And you know what, Greg gets crazy because you look at the Bills where they were a week ago. We did this on Monday night, they dominate the Jaguars to three and zero. We're talking about how Josh is the best player in the league, but you said something that totally came to fruition tonight.
They're gonna get tested and they're probably gonna lose before long, and it's probably coming up this week, and we saw it play out exactly as you thought it would.
Yeah, I had had the Ravens winning this game. Never you know, it was a coin flip and never would have thought it would have been like this. But the Bills have won this year by protecting Alan well didn't play as well tonight and really being able to control the game on the ground.
It's not like they ran the ball poorly.
They just had a couple of short yardage ones early and their defense really lost them the game. The matchup that was really the key for me was the Ravens offense in this running game, which is one of the stories of this young NFL season. Took a game or two to really get going, but Derrick Henry very cool to see him just in the open field and busting tackles,
making people miss, like swerving and really looking young. And it really reminds me of those players that get in the second spot, and that's kind of what puts their Hall of Fame candidacy over the top. I think of Kurt Warner in Arizona, and if Derrick Henry even has this like one magical year here in Baltimore, even if it was just that one and who knows like that, that could be enough that that puts him over the top.
And it's just cool seeing a couple of the greatest players in our game, Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry joining forces. The rest of the league is gonna have to deal with that and the Bills. They'll be back. They'll be fine. It's three and one. They were a little light and
tough matchup for them. I heard John Harbass say after the game when he shook hands with mcdermy's like hope we see again, and I was thinking, like, yeah, I'll bet you hope you see him again, Like that would be better than seeing the Chiefs again, Like you feel like you can handle this team?
Yeah, I mean I'd rather run into the team I just obliterated at home on Sunday Night football than the team I can't get past.
Ye.
Absolutely, It's all about the tone of voice, he said in a nice tone of voice. If he had said in a very smarmy, sarcastic tone of voice, that would have been like, I hope we do see you again in the playoffs. We'll see long, long, long way to go. Fun week for fun game in Baltimore. Not as close as we wanted, but good enough. We will be back.
Shook. Nick at Night continues.
It's been renewed for a fourth week here Monday Night football. We got the doubleheader Seahawks against the Lions. That's capping the night. We got the Titans and the Dolphins. Is kind of the undercart. It's a very it's a boxing feel. You got the warm up and you got the big show. It'll be a lot of fun. Join Nick and I check that out after Monday Night football. We'll see you then. If the Ravens are running, you know football is back.