Fantasy Football Week 7 Reactions - WE KNOW THE GOOD TEAMS

Eight teams in week seven scored over 30 points. Obviously, none were projected to do that, uh, ahead of this slate of games. So, I cannot wait to go game by game here and talk about every single fantasy-relevant player for you, plus your team, even if they won or they lost. We appreciate you watching this episode.

Hayden, there's only one place in my mind to kick off. I didn't see a single snap. You covered the entire thing. But I would argue the story of the season so far, the 6-1 Indianapolis Colts go into LA, beat the LA Chargers 38-24. Obviously, the Chargers have some flaws, they have some injuries, but the Colts feel like whatever they want to do offensively, they are in rhythm. They are in sync. They execute the play that is called by Shane Steichen. And it's an entirely different operation than the one we have seen over the last two years. It was just a beautiful game from Shane Steichen, but all the personnel players did fantastic, too. Seven yards per play. They did not have a turnover. They only had three penalties. This was a runaway game early on. They had no answer for Jonathan Taylor from the get-go. And by the way, Jonathan Taylor, his pace right now, we're talking about over 2,000 yards rushing, 26 total touchdown pace if you combined his last 11 games here. So, this is on pace, if he can keep this up, to be a potential top 10 running back season of all time. That is not an exaggeration. That's what Jonathan Taylor is doing. He's obviously being able to do that because Daniel Jones is playing well and Shane Steichen right now is running away with coach of the year, uh, buzz right now. And rightfully so. There's so much misdirection in this offense. There's so much play-action attempts. When Daniel Jones has to slide around and make a play, he's capable of doing that. One of the early plays was a third and 17. Hits a 48-yard pass to Alec Pierce. Alec Pierce, who's just a role player, has another dig route in this game as well. They get Michael Pittman on the RPO to the flats, wide open. Tyler Warren's wide open in the red zone, too. So, this team just feels like there's guys that are wide open all the time. And the only reason that's happening is because they're super balanced. You don't know how to defend them. And then Shane Steichen, just a total maniac on the whiteboard right now. So, this, this Chargers defense is still feeling the loss of Khalil Her or Khalil Mack. But this was a blowout. And if Justin Herbert didn't go crazy in the second half, this could have been like 38-13. And when you went back and watched this game, Josh, on Monday or Tuesday, you'll feel how much of a lopsided affair this one was.

Let's go player by player here because the first one is Jonathan Taylor. And I remember prior to the 2024 season, I brought up that, hey, it was going to be difficult for Jonathan Taylor to have an overall running back one season because of the season that he did. Just was insane usage inside of the red zone. The amount of carries he was getting and opportunities there versus everyone else was astronomically different. I didn't think that was possible when you have Anthony Richardson obviously stealing away some of those goal-line or inside the 10-yard line touchdowns and carries this season. And we don't have today's numbers, but heading into today, he has 31 carries inside the 20-yard line. That is four more than anyone else across the NFL. And I only see that extending and expanding from here. It is simply amazing. And on top of it, we, we've discussed it a lot compared to the last two or three years, even if he's not getting there in the rushing game, which he is, he's also adding two or three or four catches on a game-to-game basis. What an absolute electric player who is big-bodied, can get to the edge, and can reel off big plays on top of it. Just one of the most, if not the most, I think, complete running back in the NFL right now. Yeah, we had a couple of them up, up there and he's, he's going to make a big-time run for offensive player of the year. Jonathan Taylor's touchdowns today though, I hear you on all the red zone stuff, from 23 yards out, from eight yards out, and then from 19 yards out. So, these aren't goal-line carries that he's converting. These are big boy runs all throughout. But yeah, it's, it's the role players on top of that. They hit a home run with Tyler Warren early on. They're also getting Tyler Warren just moved around the formation. So, he adds four for 69 and a touchdown. He's not exactly competing with Brock Bowers in terms of receptions last year through seven games, but general fantasy points are fairly similar. Obviously, Brock Bowers went completely nuclear in the second half, too. I'm not sure if Warren's going to be able to do that, but it's really nice to see like Michael Pittman without, um, Josh Downs in this one. A lot of stuff underneath. So, there's a lot of balance to this offense. It's layered approaches all throughout. And Daniel Jones is playing really, really high-end football. Only took one sack on this one. Just did not feel like he was pressured a whole lot. I think that's the, the big weakness for the Chargers team right now is they just lose the battles in the trenches right now and that's due to injury, of course, but they just, this was a game where they lost the battle in the trenches. It was not even close.

Final point here on the Colts. First of all, their offensive line, you know, they lose Ryan Kelly, they have Will Fries go away in a large contract move. They planned ahead in terms of, uh, my guy Tanner Hull and Don Calves at right guard and they step in here and it looks like an awesome unit in pass protection and in run blocking and that is not said among many other franchises out there that replace two starters along the offensive line.

Uh, Alec Pierce in a contract year, we know what happens in a contract year and he's earning himself a ton of money. Obviously been a deep threat earlier in his career and now he's making more and more stuff, you know, in the intermediate portion. Uh, and then final note on Jonathan Taylor, I just went back quickly. It was a 2021 season. He had 85 carries inside the 20-yard line. The next closest was Austin Ekeler and Dalvin Cook at 46. So, a gap of 40. I don't think that's the case, but, uh, it's still, he, he, he can easily get there as a running back when to me is the odds-on favorite for it.

Okay, let's ask about the real quick. Yeah, go ahead. Just on the Colts, this team could make it to the Super Bowl. It sounds that crazy. This offense, it, it's the sample size is way too big. If you look at, we'll post the EPA numbers, which is the best stat to look at, the success rate numbers. They're in their own quadrant right now. We're talking about a seven-game sample size here. So, obviously, anything could happen. I'm still worried about their secondary. This team is, is beyond real on offense right now. Like, this is not just like some gimmicky, like they're playing bad defenses thing. Like, they have a bunch of dudes everywhere right now. You can't do this, but let's have this exercise. If you changed their logo and if you know, you couldn't see the players' faces, you didn't know what team they were, and one of these other operations was six and one and winning in these ways, both in the receiving department with multifaceted pass catchers at every level of the field, including a rookie tight end, and this running game, then we would be more ready to claim them as one of the favorites for the Super Bowl, for the playoffs. And it takes us a while to get there. And especially me, look, we love to say when we're right.

Hand up. I'm not the only one that didn't think this was Daniel Jones and the possibilities here. And he's playing unreal football this season. And it's just so cool to see when this happens. And it goes completely in the opposite direction of where many people expected.

Okay. Let's look at the Chargers here. Uh, I saw some tweets in the like opening five minutes of this game. Did they lose the left tackle that was filling in for the left tackle that was filling in for the left tackle? They were on like their seventh and eighth tackles at one point. He played through it, but it was a problem, you know. So, it sounds like we're gonna get Joe Alt back probably this next game. He was at least like somewhere, uh, on the team practicing in in some capacity going into this. But, it really wasn't like even that was the the problem. They just couldn't stop anybody and they were just in complete one-dimensional offense. So, Justin Herbert drops back 58 times and I think a couple add a couple scrambles on top of that. So, probably like around 60 drop backs. The running backs had 10 carries. So, this was just a completely one-sided affair. Now, when they were passing the ball, it looked pretty good. There were two interceptions for Justin Herbert. One of them he was holding into the pocket. Ball gets deflected, goes up in the air, big defensive tackle gets his first career interception. The second one was more problematic. That one he was trying to hit Quinton Johnson in the red zone after a long drive and just misthrows it and he just throws it right into the defender who made a great play. But there were some some accuracy issues from Justin Herbert in this game which you typically don't say but over like the last month has anyone faced more pressures than Justin Herbert? So maybe he's just feeling a little bit rushed in the pocket. The, the big thing from the Chargers side of this and kind of just zooming out, what's, what's going to look like the rest of the season once the offensive line gets a little bit healthier here.

Aronado Gadson's a real player for them and the, the TV broadcast made sure to let us know that this was not just some fluke and that there's like actual belief from the front office and the coaching staff. At one point the broadcast called him quote special and they were quoting the coaching staff after watching, excuse me, after watching him in training camp. He is a wide receiver, tight end hybrid who, who's playing a lot of snaps right now. Finishes for seven, 164 and a touchdown. We don't see tight ends get 164 yards very often.

On that note from Ian Kenyon, the top five rookie tight end performances of all time by yards. Number one, Jackie Smith 212 yards in 1963. Number two, Mike Ditka 190 in 1961. And number three, Aronado Gadson with 164 in 2025. So again, by yardage, this is the third best rookie performance singular game of all time.

Which, Hayden, this is fun to see because he's the archetype of player that we as a fantasy community fall in love with. And I'm not like saying that this is his destiny, right? But you have your Jared Cooks of the world, you have your Darius Greens of the world, like.

Yeah. The pure receiving tight end hybrid-esque. That said, we already have three other wide receivers that are getting a ton of targets and ton of receptions. So, while it's great and it's plentiful to have options like this, it then pulls from another because you can't have all four have awesome days every single week.

Definitely. So, I think we should just be long-term very excited about the prospect profile of this. This is how like the Darren Waller type of profiles kind of break through all of a sudden. So, there's some clear just one and done, just that was a remember that guy and that could easily be Aronado Gadson or it could just be this something very promising and this is going to be a very spread offense that drops back a ton and he's going to be able to get there. So, you should absolutely pick him up. Remember, he did this with Quinton Johnson being back. Quinton Johnson scores a touchdown, had a couple red zone targets, doesn't have a lot of yardage here. Vlad McConkey had like a couple RPO bubble screens, some underneath looks, catches nine passes on a team-high 15 targets. Uh, which share-wise is like solid, but nothing too crazy because they're not going to drop back 60 times per game. Keenan Allen was money in the bank. He had a toe drag by the sideline. He scores a touchdown. He had some yards after the catch opportunities. I still think that Keenan Allen like looks good as a football player. So, this offense is dangerous and if it's gonna be a pretty one-dimensional offense where they're going to want to pass the ball a ton and it really just comes down to can Justin Herbert continue to take the beatings that he's taken. So, this is like another 40% pressure rate from him and this team just needs a couple more guys back and healthy ready to go. Um, but it is cool to see like Aronado Gadson just yards after the catch from a tight end is is pretty hard to find and he's kind of on that border of is he a wide receiver, is he a tight end? Like that's how he looks.

Okay. I'm sure we'll cover them in depth on Stats versus Film here on Tuesday. The Chargers are in this weird group of teams that are four and three, and I would put them at like talent-wise, one of the top. I understand that Jesse Minter's defense got absolutely torched in this game, but Jesse Minter's defense has done really well in other games, albeit many of those when Khalil Mack was out there on the field. You'd hope that Joe Alt comes back and you'd hope this team plays their best football, uh, moving forward. They do have this like nice run coming up. Minnesota Vikings, Tennessee Titans, Pittsburgh Steelers, then they play Jacksonville, and then Las Vegas Raiders. So, you'd expect like, I don't know, three wins out of five there at the very least. So, I still expect this Chargers team to make the playoffs, albeit they've been dealing obviously as the franchise always does with a ton of injuries. That leaves what if, what could they have been if they didn't have them?

Yeah, and this is remember the second year of a rebuild. They kind of traded away some pieces two offseasons ago to kind of get this thing going. So, they're still missing some depth pieces, I think, everywhere. That's why I brought up the trenches. I think you kind of see that at like edge rusher, defensive tackle, and then offensive line as well. Um, but yeah, they need to get their two best trench players back and and before we can kind of like really take them serious, but there's a ton of potential here. I thought that Justin Herbert, this was his sloppiest game and still was making some ridiculous threats.

Green Bay Packers are 4-1-1 on the season as they beat the Arizona Cardinals 27-23. I believe the broadcast mentioned that the Packers were the only team in the league this season who led by 10-plus points at some point during one of their games. That did not happen here. They only took the lead with about four minutes to go, or let's say a minute and 50 seconds to go in the entire contest. But they do come out on top. The key difference here and why the Packers I would say look sleepy and as if they were on the tarmac for a five-hour delay heading to Arizona, that really did show up and the Cardinals looked very sharp, specifically Kyler Murray. The difference was the Cardinals were seven of 14 on third downs in this game compared to the Packers being three of 10. I mean, I could just go in a list of big-time throws that Kyler Murray made in critical moments. A third and four early on, nice corner route, contested catch by Michael Wilson that led to a field goal drive. Third and 23 before halftime, you know, Kyler Murray throws an absolute dot, hole shot to Zay Jones for 43 yards. And then later on, third and four in the red zone. They're not just playing for a field goal, a 15-yard score to Trey McBride, front left of the pylon, again, obviously a touchdown drive. Third and 14 later on, a 35-yard missile to Marvin Harrison Jr., another red zone touchdown to Trey McBride, which is now his third touchdown in eight quarters with Kyler Murray at quarterback. And then a third and two in the red zone to Bam Knight that also ended in a field goal drive. But, and as we've talked about with Jonathan Gannon in the past, he's kind of been hit or miss with these calls to be super aggressive or to roll on his back and let the other team win it for him. Well, six minutes to go, fourth and one around midfield. They try a tush push/quarterback sneak and the Packers totally stuff it. So, the Packers get the ball back. Uh, a fourth quarter shuffle pitch to Josh Jacobs which went, did not go anywhere. And Matt LaFleur definitely had some major issues with some of his play calling in those short-yardage situations in this game. He takes offense off the field. Jordan Love argues with him. He puts the offense and takes a timeout back onto the field. Fourth and two. Jordan Love drops back and goes to his ISO ball winner. That is Tucker Kraft on an outside-breaking route along the sideline. And then Josh Jacobs on just 13 carries ends with his second touchdown on that drive again to lead this game 27 to 23. But obviously with about a minute and 30 seconds to go, the Cardinals definitely have a chance. Uh, two more second-down conversions by Kyler Murray. But Michael Parsons following a first down gets his third sack of the day. Second against Jonah Williams on the right side. And the Cardinals must score a touchdown this drive in order to win it. And that's not going to happen when it's a running clock. Second and 19. Michael Parsons was electric, unbelievable, exactly what the Packers wanted as your superstar, get you off the field type player. And when they needed to get off the field, he was there.

Okay, two questions on the Packers side of this. Number one, let's just start with Josh Jacobs. There was obviously a bunch of just reports before the game. How did he look? Was it just survive and advance? You get two goal-line touchdowns. Thank you for your fantasy points and keep it moving.

Perfect way to put it. I mean, typically when we look at Josh Jacobs and the Packers score 27 points and Jordan Love only throws for 179. Yeah. You would think, oh, he got 25 carries over a 100-yard, you know, he did the damn thing. No, it's just 13 carries, 55 yards, and two scores. I'm sure.

The stats when they come out tomorrow about the usage and the snap share will show that even on the first drive, Emanuel Wilson was checking in. Even on the first drive, Chris Brooks was checking in. Josh Jacobs was not playing his full complement of snaps. Um, and it was felt, you know, he wasn't healthy, but when his name was called upon in those crucial moments, he looked awesome, you know, and so it was great to see him get those short-yardage. He definitely helped them win because the entire offense, and I think this is maybe the football cognoscente, uh, issue with the Packers right now, is they kind of play down to their opponents. Like they haven't really blown out a team yet in terms of from start to finish, week over week over week, even if they have the talent to do it and they got away with it once again. And, uh, they still haven't played their best football, which leaves me with optimism, but I think that leaves other people with criticism.

Yeah, 4-1-1's totally fine. They're, they've had some injuries, uh, on on the offensive line as well, so hopefully they can figure that out. Michael Parsons obviously having those three sacks gives them that Super Bowl difference-maker. Uh, kind of the inverse of Josh Jacobs. It seemed like early on in the game they were going to Matthew Golden who ends up with what, four for 37 on four targets. But I felt like a lot of those were happening early and then by the end of the game it was all Romeo Doubs and Tucker Kraft. Do I have that right?

Yeah, they kind of forgot about Matthew Golden. I mean, I think he had three touches on the first two series and then after that just one more catch the rest of the way. Tucker Kraft was the go-to player and okay, you know, whatever corners or safeties or linebackers that he was matched up against, uh, he was just simply overpowering them. And then, yeah, you had Romeo Doubs on kind of like working those middle areas and hooking into it and catching it in the tight quarters. Uh, Packers offensively just look bad.

Jordan Love hitting his back foot, drifting, drifting, drifting, not pulling the trigger. Uh, he really didn't want to scramble in this one too much. Much. I mean, just go four for 22. But again, feels like the first two weeks, yes, they did kind of blow out their opponents and they played their best football. The last four games, not so much. They have won two of those, drawn one, lost one. Uh, but I, I, I would expect more here from a Jordan Love passing attack, and we're just not getting it right now.

That's 83 snaps or routes for for Matthew Golden there. So, that's that's startable. It's going to be hit and miss for him, but at least they're getting some some designed touches. If you took like the first two series snapshot, I would say, "Oh man,

You're coming into this week knowing that Matthew Golden has the juice against these Cardinals quarterbacks and it just really hasn't been able to kind of sustain itself all four quarters yet.

Now, you're going to have to tell me about Kyler Murray because whenever I watch the Cardinals,

Bro. I think that the run blocking and the offensive line play is very, very low end. And these some of these Kyler Murray highlights that I was watching on my feed were pretty impressive. Sometimes I don't know how he does it. Uh, because even on his scrambles, he like bumps into his offensive lineman. He's like just quick enough to escape Rashawn Gary and Micah Parsons and these interior guys that are like diving for his ankles. He's like high-stepping away and making plays out of them. And yeah, I mean, if there's an offsides, he's hitting his back foot and ripping it. You know, on these plays that are, and we've talked about it before, like on third and twelves, Kyler Murray had an historically bad rate of converting those last season. And Kyler is doing them in this game like it's no big deal. And he did them in last game like it's no big deal. And he gets the football to their best player in the red zone in Trey McBride like it's no big deal. And yet when we've seen Kyler Murray over these last couple years, that has been an issue. And so look, this team is two and five. Who knows what this coaching staff is going to be in the future? Who knows what Kyler Murray's future is going to be. I will say if you play Kyler Murray the rest of the way or even when Kyler Murray is quote unquote healthy and you bench him from that, then that kind of dictates what the 2026 I think season looks like here. Even if we do, you know, handle each quarterback individually. But Kyler Murray over these last two games in critical, got to have it moments has simply outplayed, uh, Kyler Murray and specifically in an offense that Drew Petting has dropped.

Before the game started, I think this is crucial. They said Kyler Murray is going to be our quarterback. So they wanted to get ahead of this one. After the bye week, they get the Cowboys. So this should be a good spot for this offense to get going. My thing with the, the offense in general now that they've lost their run game coordinator who's now in Dallas and just kicking ass. They've lost their first and second string running back and they just don't have the offensive line talent. They've been investing elsewhere, which I totally understand. They had a bunch of holes. This team's just not gonna be able to run the ball. And if you just remove the Kyler Murray carries from this, this is one of the worst yards per carries that you'll see. And that's why I think I'm super excited about Trey McBride the rest of the way. And I almost wanted to put him like the end of our conversation when we were making our top 12 overall players because I think he's going to go crazy. And today was what, 10 for 74 and two touchdowns. If you just look at his like last, I think it's like eight or nine games he's on pace for double-digit touchdowns and that was the only concern was is he going to be able to score touchdowns and at the end of last year he was able to and then throughout this year he's now able to. So obviously he's scored more of them with Kyler than Kyler Murray, but I think the team is going to be very one-dimensional moving forward and they're going to have to throw the ball just because they're running out of, they just don't have the the skills and they're going to be so inefficient to even try to run the ball. So we might get more Trey McBride and Marvin Harrison like deep shots in goal line usage in general. These pass rushes are more intelligent now than they ever have been before. And it's very clear that there's a weak spot along this Cardinals offensive line. And it's Jonah Williams at right tackle. And obviously the Packers have more invested in their pass rush than a lot of these other teams. And Michael Parsons is better than a lot of these other teams. But they were just able to isolate him in critical moments down the stretch. So get off the field and he was just like instantly beating Jonah Williams on the right side. Like Paris Johnson's very good at left guard, left tackle and they have, you know, other players that are quality. Helt to throw Hold is really good too, but yeah, they just don't have enough players at this moment that is for sure. Would you feel better about Trey McBride rest of season as Kyler Murray was his quarterback in that kind of way?

Um, it's probably about even. I feel like they do different things and it kind of nets out in the wash, but.

One guy throws to his tight end in the red zone and one guy doesn't.

Right. Right. Right. Hey.

I mean, if it's, it's true.

Yeah. Yeah. It's been true for for these last two games. I think Trey McBride can score a lot of touchdowns this year just because they have to. They can't.

Especially if Kyler Murray is his quarterback.

That would be nice.

Again, just shout out to Matt LaFleur. It was a rough day when it comes to these third down runs. One went to Emanuel Wilson early, then did like the shuffle pitch to Josh Jacobs a little bit later on. I think both lost yardage. But just trusting your best players, even if your best players did not play well for the majority of the game. Yeah. In that fourth and two, that's what winning teams do. And like to get you back into the group. I mean, Jordan Love even missed Romeo Doubs on a previous fourth down that was just a pure overthrow that they got.

I think almost cover zero or cover one look that it was a deep post and, uh, he just didn't hit it. It was open. He had two yards of separation. And so again, trusting him later on the fourth quarter instead of kicking just a field goal allows you to win this game.

A theme of this show in recent weeks has been hyping up the talent of the Philadelphia Eagles. And yet, for four quarters, it has not been sustained in many games this season. Well, I can't wait to go back and watch Philadelphia Eagles 28, Minnesota Vikings 22, where you see DeVonta Smith 9 for 183 and one. You see A.J. Brown 4 for 121-2. And you see Jalen Hurts 19 of 23, 326 yards, three touchdowns. Talk that good stuff to be Hig Wigs.

There's just talent winning out and a surprising game plan from the Minnesota Vikings in just disregarding everything we talked about going into this game where the Vikings were number one in passing EPA allowed, the best in the league. And they played a lot of zone defense. And then what, what do they do here? They send blitzes. I think it was 20 blitzes to, to six non-blitzes in this one. And Jalen Hurts had one-on-one opportunities down the field. And unlike throughout the entire rest of the season, he was actually completing them. His placement was very reminiscent of what it was in 2024 when they won the Super Bowl. And what do you get? DeVonta Smith career outing. I believe those are actually career-best numbers for DeVonta Smith. And then A.J. Brown gets two touchdowns and a game-winner. All explosives here. This team still cannot run the ball. And they tried to run the ball early on and they were completely ineffective. Saquon Barkley 44 rushing yards on 18 carries. I think Bigsby actually had the longest carry, um, his only carry in of the game. And this team just needs to sit there and pass the ball. Let's just get with it. The interior offensive line is too injured and they, they're dealing with Cam Jurgens now also injured. Their only way to move the football right now is to live and die by the deep ball. And guess what? For the last couple seasons, if you even that out, it's been really, really strong. And it was good to see it today. Uh, early on in the game, A.J. Brown on a scramble drill. This was not like a designed read. We don't give a bunch of credit to, to Kevin Patula for this one. Just on a fourth down, they get A.J. Brown in the scramble drill for a touchdown. But what was nice is more under center play action where you're actually marrying the run game, which is non-existent, to the pass game. And that's where you had the DeVonta Smith where they were crowding the box and then all of a sudden over the top you get a huge, huge 79-yard to DeVonta Smith. So, I thought it ended up being a better coached game here because they threw in a couple more wrinkles and I like the under center stuff here. And I was kind of surprised that late in the game Brian Flores kept sticking with these blitz looks because that was like the one opportunity that the Eagles have had this season is like they can make these one-on-one plays with the receivers down the field. And that's what happened in this one. So, it was like one of the best Jalen Hurts games of his career. I did bring up it was either the quarterback episode or wide receiver rankings this week that I was a little bit nervous that the Vikings EPA pass defense stuff was just about who they had played. You know, they played Caleb Williams in week one, then they played Michael Penix, and we know what he's been. And then ever since it was like.

Jake Browning and Dylan Gabriel and Aaron Rodgers always suffers against Brian Flores and that type of stuff.

Are we allowed to just be concerned that this Vikings defense isn't close to what it was last season? Like Andrew Van Ginkel has been injured. Dallas Turner hasn't taken this leap after spending a first-round pick on him. They're worse at stopping the runners, right? The corners definitely.

Yeah. Obviously, they sold out, like you said, to kind of stop the run here, even if they've been bad stopping the run so far this season. And if this is the case and it was like bad quarterbacks that they faced in order to get that high DVOA or EPA number, then they might just be a worse unit that is high variance based on the style that they play. They're always going to be high variance just because Flores is just a complete madman out there. But I think that the, the wide receiver cornerback mismatch here and it was actually a little revenge game from Rodgers, their corner here, and they just kind of ate him alive, including on the game-winner with A.J. Brown beat him. So, yeah, one other little wrinkle just to keep in mind, Brian Flores had their like backup, uh, outside linebacker on the tush pushes lay down on his face right next to the center to try to create like a leverage mismatch where like the center can't go diving under there. I've never seen that one before. I don't know what the. Imagine being told, guess what? All those Eagles guys are just gonna be laying on top of you this weekend. Get over it.

These guys have been watching some of the beautiful game. They've been doing this on free kicks for years. Even the great Lionel Messi has been laying behind these walls, uh, to stop the low kick. So.

Yeah. Did it work?

I mean, well, one of them he got down there and then it was a, a penalty or timeout, forget what it was, but it was just something where like if Flores is doing this, I do wonder if other teams are going to be like, "Let's give it a damn shot." I mean, usually it's their own strategy is not working. So, I would, I would give it a shot here.

I, I will watch this at length obviously for Stats versus Film. And, you know, Eagles fans get really chippy when you say they've been bad and then they go and have a good game. I'm not anti-Eagles. I am anti-bad Eagles football. And we've seen Eagles bad football probably too often in comparison to their talent. So, I guess my final question is, is this a repeatable passing attack based on what you saw today to DeVonta Smith and Jalen Hurts? Not to this degree, but like, did they find the concepts that can work versus the turn downs, the inaccuracies, the spacing, the routes, the effort from the wide receivers in the last few weeks?

The vibes were certainly better. A.J. Brown was pretty excited when he scored that second touchdown. I do think that the under center play-action stuff and you only do that so many times in a game. We just have not seen that and they did kind of go away from the ground game at one point and that's where you got the explosive play. So, it's still going to be boom or bust in nature because they're so big-play dependent. But on the averages, if you only have three big plays, you're still going to have some big games. And that's how they, they sold that game earlier on this season, too. So, if you're asking me like the playoffs start right now and it's like Packers versus Eagles, who are you taking? I don't know, man. I still struggle, struggle kind of going against Philadelphia. They're so talented. They're not as good as they were last year. We've talked about that too many times. Like the interior offensive line, they, they've lost too many starters on defense. This year's team would lose to last year's team, but this team in a wide-open NFL is still extremely dangerous. And when they're completing their downfield passes, it's one of these teams that's very difficult to beat. I still feel like at some point the running game will get right even if the run blocking has been so poor. But they've been cycling all these offensive linemen on the interior especially and even at right tackle. So maybe it doesn't. I would just.

Jurgens left today.

Okay, we got to talk about the Minnesota Vikings. Uh, Carson Wentz 26 to 42, 313, but he throws two interceptions. Um, the reporting around the J.J. McCarthy injury even took a weirder turn today because initially when this happened it was like, okay, they, it's an ankle injury, high ankle, and then he's going to miss definitely what, two games and then they're going to London and Dublin and then they have their bye and so the expectation was that he would play out of the bye, but then the same person, Adam Schefter, who had that previous note, said, "Well, the expectation all along was J.J. McCarthy to miss six weeks, no matter what." All along. I think that's kind of like rewriting what was previously reported.

It is.

Now, that is to say that I understand it's 313 yards and they scored 22 points, but it certainly feels like the early interceptions contributed to the Vikings losing this game. And so while J.J. McCarthy is not healthy, to me, this is one of those points of like, okay, now we should probably go back to J.J.

They're on a short week. They head to my neck of the woods and they play, uh, the Chargers on Thursday Night Football. So, if we're talking about all the practice reps that Kevin O'Connell makes sure to note that J.J. McCarthy has not had, then you're not going to have a bunch of them ahead of this next game. So, then like the speculation was, well, it's going to be week nine then. I agree with you though. The timeline keeps getting rewritten here. And.

We are literally moving goalposts.

We are moving the goalposts here. And by the way, CeeDee Lamb, who had a high ankle sprain where when he tried to return from from the game when he had it, he was unable to run and he just returned and had what, 100 yards and a touchdown. And he plays wide receiver. So, you, you, you got to miss me with all this stuff. They're, they're hiding behind injuries. And that's okay. We're not riding off J.J. McCarthy long-term. And Carson Wentz is not gonna win the Super Bowl for the Minnesota Vikings. He's not doing anything like the Sam Darnold stuff from his last year. And those two interceptions were horrific. The first one, Jalen Carter goes untouched, which by the way, do not recommend that. Carson Wentz got absolutely obliterated, but also threw it right to a linebacker. And then the second one was a second and 25, which don't get into second and 25s, but Carson Wentz bails out and just throws an arm punt. So those were the two interceptions early that got them down early going into halftime. It was 14 to 6. In the second half, I did think that Carson Wentz did settle down. That's why he had 313 passing yards, uh, and only took two sacks. Was it perfect? No. There were some inaccuracies. Those two interceptions were brutal, but they were still throwing a lot of out routes. Jordan Addison went crazy for nine for 128. Justin Jefferson had five for 79 and nearly had a touchdown that Cooper Kupp kind of punched out. So, they were able to move the football. That's a credit to Kevin O'Connell. It's a credit to how good, uh, their skilled guys are. And Carson Wentz ended up playing okay in the second half to kind of keep this one, uh, at least with a chance to win. I don't know if they're going to go to him this next week. If I'm just reading between the lines and how important practices are, I'm guessing he's going to play one more and then it'll come down to week nine. And I think this is always about developing J.J. McCarthy and not putting him into a bad spot. And with the offensive line being banged up and because they didn't want to practice him and throw him out there into London and Dublin, they're just going to wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, and then he'll come back in week nine and then we'll go on with the rest of our lives.

I guess my point is now it can't be, well, Carson's playing so well that we can't take him out.

Yeah. No, for sure. For sure. They have to live and die by J.J. McCarthy the rest of the season and they'll be right around 300. They'll be either be four and three and three and four, and then it's, can he go on a run?

I mean, I'm even looking at their schedule. I even wonder if the Minnesota Vikings make the playoffs this year because it's a buzz all coming up. Who knows about the Chargers? That is a short week. Then it's Detroit. Then it's Baltimore. We expect a very different Baltimore team out of the bye.

Then it's Chicago, Green Bay, Seattle, Washington, Dallas, Giants, and then Detroit.

It's real tough.

So, uh, if I had to guess, I do not believe the Vikings are making the playoffs.

Yeah. And it'll be just kind of one of these interesting years where they went kind of all in. And if you look at their offseason moves, this is kind of like an all-in year. Uh, obviously they have so much talent still lingering that this team can go on a crazy run. And this is always going to be a tough spot this year with the Minnesota Vikings going to an inexperienced quarterback who is now going to have to bail them out.

He's got to play. Like I understand.

That's why I've been saying the whole time.

Yeah, he, he needs to play. Um, he's young.

He's played what, six quarters in his entire career basically so far?

Yeah.

Eight quarters. Like he has to play. Uh, it's, it's really that simple.

And even if he plays poorly, they're probably not going to be in a position to draft someone, uh, in terms of being like the number one, number two, number three overall pick, even if this quarterback class is up in the air. And then he's the youngest starting quarterback in the NFL and you just go into next year and hopefully there's more development. To me, it's that simple. Unless they flirt with Aaron Rodgers again, which I really wonder if they could go back and redo everything. If they really did want to resign Aaron Rodgers for the season.

That's the guy, the quarterback that went away. What about Daniel Jones, Sam Darnold, all the other, you know, guys that are winning?

I'm just saying Aaron Rodgers was the last one of that group. I mean, that was like, you know, that July storyline before he's like, "Yeah, okay, fine. I'll just go over to Pittsburgh, I guess."

Yeah. Bottom line, if J.J. McCarthy was a dude, he would have been playing weeks ago. They don't know if he's a dude. And they want to play the long game because he's a young quarterback and they, they want to develop him. Is that the worst plan? I don't think that's the worst plan, but you also have to stop gaslighting me that he has like this crazy super high ankle sprain that he had to be sitting out this entire time. If Carson Wentz throws three interceptions on Thursday, I will guarantee he's going to be the quarterback in week nine.

Final question. Anything you want to say about Jordan Addison or Justin Jefferson? I mean, Addison goes nine for 128 on 12 targets.

Jefferson goes 5 for 79 on 10 targets. Then Jordan Mason gets a touchdown on top of 15 carries for 57.

Not a lot of big takeaways. Like I said, they were trailing the entire game and they were pretty one-dimensional trying to throw the ball like crazy. So Jordan Jordan Mason dives out at the pylon and scores a touchdown there. And then Addison was going crazy. So he's, he's been catching great game scripts and obviously we talked about the Eagles defense as a drop-off in the secondary going from cornerback one to cornerback two. Justin Jefferson was like this close to having a big game and five for 79 is is something that you can live with. So, uh, yeah, it was like they, they kind of fought back in the second half. Like this team easily could have just cried on the sideline after the the beginning two Carson Wentz interceptions. This team's still like just too good to not move the football continuously.

Dallas Cowboys 44, Washington Commanders 22. You know, we had this idea of who the Cowboys are going to be this season. Just, hey, they're going to have to score 44 points every week because their defense can't keep the other team to less than 40. Well, what if, Hayden, what if this Cowboys team actually might have a defense? Today they did. Today the defense steps up in a big spot and really plays complimentary football to the offense, but obviously the CeeDee Lamb return and everything else that Dak Prescott was able to do in this game will still headlines and so we'll begin there. I mean, even early in this game, you really get the trifecta. You get a defensive pass interference against George Pickens down the right sideline. You get a short conversion to Jake Ferguson over the middle.

of the field. And then you get a 74-yard touchdown to CD Lamb with Three Stooges-esque Commanders DBs running into each other and him literally running three down the middle. You know, we talk about throwing up the mailbox when you're open for these wide receivers.

Yeah. I think CD Lamb threw that six yards beyond the line of scrimmage because he just ran down the heart of the Commander defense and no one was even close to him. He was open early, he was open middle, and he was open late and goes untouched for this long score. Obviously on top of it, Pickkins four for 82. Um, just continues to win on the boundary and come up with unreal catches. And then Javvante Williams, 19 carries, 116 yards, one score, 33-yard run. Uh, and just getting to the edge, I'll continue to say it. Bobby Wagner, Frankie Louvu are just trash linebackers at this point. They are a massive critical issue of this commander defense and all these teams know that they can get on edge runs and they're not going to be able to reach them.

There was this critical sequence here with just before halftime. Um, the commanders are going to bring it to about like 15 to 20 and you know, they have an unreal pinball bumper car run by Jeremy Nichols get at the two-yard line. Jane Daniels runs it in on the next play. They leave 45 seconds on the clock. Dak gets sacked, then has a 44-yard catch to George Pickkins, then has a 33-yard run to Javvante Williams, and has a two-yard touchdown pass, I believe, to Jake Ferguson. And so, in that moment, it shows that the Cowboys have some of the best offensive, you know, firepower in the league and they totally canceled out that like short clock touchdown by the Commanders.

And then overall, a big takeaway is Jaden Daniels, who had a left knee injury early on in the season, leaves in the third quarter with a right hamstring issue on a sack fumble, and the hits just continue to build up on him at this point.

Yeah, really bad spot for the Commanders, but want to focus on the Cowboys because I think there's a chance that they might have the the best offensive numbers in the NFL by the end of the season. And I mean, they're already flirting with it right now, so obviously they have their hands full with how the Colts are playing, but this team is just putting up crazy numbers weekly. CD Lamb plays all of the routes, so that's encouraging. I'm assuming he looked totally fine, you know, based off of his numbers. No problem there. Jvonte Williams, you brought up that that 33-yard run after the the Pickkins play. He keeps breaking a lot of tackles. Like this Javant, this looks like a new human being uh back there, which is really cool. Like I think that he should be in the conversation for comeback player of the year. I don't have it memorized, but this is a complete 180 turnaround uh on a cheap contract there. So, I'm I'm really hoping this Cowboys team could trade for one more defensive player and get actually serious because this offense, if they are in the wild card race, they can go point for point with any team in the NFL. We just obviously saw that with the Packers and they keep flirting with us saying, "Hey, we're going to trade these. We have all these draft picks. Like, are our we have another move to make."

Yeah, it might take even one or more. Like Kenneth Murray left this game. He's been a liability at linebacker. Donovan Wilson, I believe that's the safety, has like had some issues this so far this season. We know Trevon Diggs had a concussion at his home. Yeah. This week, Don Bland, >> the man did come back and as soon as Jaden Daniels left, Marcus Mariota on a third and six kind of drops his eyes, moves around. Yeah. Throws super late to the outside and that's where Don Bland gets his pick six and again at that point it was 41 to 15. Donovan Ezrau did really pop up though with a bunch of pressures and moments there too.

So they do not have a Micah Parsons and am I saying like oh in the aggregate they're able to package all these players in order to get there? No. But you know, you would like to think at some point Matt Eberloose the reason why he got a head coaching job was how good his defenses have been in the past. That hasn't been the case so far with the Cowboys, but again, maybe in like these critical moments and when they get to the playoffs, you can put like a game plan or two together that

Yeah. >> Hey, just keep the opposition to 22 points.

Mhm. >> And I would give the Cowboys strong odds to score 23 points on any given opponent on any given week.

There. This would be if you're if you were the one seed or the two seed and all of a sudden you refresh your playoff uh game and the Cowboys are on deck like that that would have me nervous.

Let's talk about the Commanders. So again, Jane Daniels 12 of 22, 156, one touchdown. He's also the leading rusher with 35 and that one short yardage. I mean, this Cowboys team had been demolished on the ground recently, including a 200-plus yard performance against the Panthers. And so Jaka Crosky Merrick can only go 13 yards or 13 carries for 33 yards. Jeremy McNichols two for 22. The two leading receiver or rushers are the two quarterbacks here.

So look, we always talk about this and think of it with these second-year quarterbacks where man, they caught on fire during their rookie seasons and shocked the world with how good they looked immediately and especially how they finished. And then you go into year two, they make improvements around them because they're on a rookie contract and you think it's only up from here. They're going to pick up exactly where they left off last season. And that's just not the case with these commanders. I mean, they're three and four right now. We know Jane Daniels has missed some time. They made the move for Debo Samuel. Terry McLaren got the contract after missing training camp. Both those receivers were missing. So, he's throwing to Jaylen Lane who had a drop. Chris Moore freaking I didn't know Robbie Anderson was an active player for them, but he goes up here for four catches for 36 yards. Really didn't know until the football was in his hands.

But at the same time, you know, I would say the offensive line overperformed last year and they tried to make it better and then it's probably not better. Maybe in individual spots they are. Maybe it gets better when Sam Cosmy's out there. So, it's just one of these cases where I think Jaden Daniels play has taken a step back. He, you know, just didn't see some middle of the field options in this game. He was airmailing them or underthrowing them at the exact same time. And so I think he has regressed and it makes sense coming off an injury. But again, slight frame, banged up, and this happened last year and now it's happened basically twice in seven games so far. And it does make me nervous kind of the rest of the way with how he opened himself up to these hits.

Yeah, that was going to be my point here. It's unfair to talk about this. We're dealing with very small sample sizes, but it was the knock on him pre-draft is he takes big hits and he's a very slender quarterback. And now this can be probably his third miss uh stint because of an injury. Took like a huge rib shot. He was battling through some injuries last year that uh play in the pocket where he got his knee wrapped up uh caused him to miss some times. And this one inside the pocket, his hamstring is is going to be the culprit here. So just in general when he's been playing this year, you're not seeing like the crazy explosive runs in general at the same rate. And I think that's because of the knee injury and then once you kind of take that away, it takes some time. So Lamar Jackson like as his career picked up, he became better and better inside the pocket. And hopefully that's what kind of helps Jaden Daniels uh round out for the rest of his career. But yeah, a little bit concerning that we've already had three or four instances in one and a half years where injuries have have mattered to him.

Also, shout out Brennan Aubrey. He has now made five field goals of 60-plus yards in his career so far.

Yeah, the one today I think is still going up. I mean, that was a boot.

I actually thought because this game was so out of whack in terms of domination by the Cowboys that they might just take a couple knees and allow him to try a 70-yard just for shits and >> he probably make it. I mean, I'm not going to bet against the guy. It's insane.

Uh, yeah. I mean, I really have no other like Zach gets his touchdown. That was one of the few plays where Jaden Daniels had so much time, seven seconds to throw >> near the goal line and they're able to get it. So again, I keep talking about schedules, the Commanders one coming up, especially if Marcus Mariota is at quarterback. And this is because that was a blue tent to immediate locker room.

Mhm. >> For Jaden Daniels, but it's Kansas City, Seattle, and Detroit over the next three games. Then you have Miami and then Denver after that. So, uh, four of those five are I would classify as difficult matchups.

You got the Eagles and the Cowboys in your division. It's like no no piece of cake. We opened with so many teams, eight of them scoring 30-plus points. The Kansas City Chiefs were one of them. Well, the Las Vegas Raiders posted zero. And that improves the Chiefs to four and three. The lowly Raiders at two and five.

Uh Hayden, big talking point this week. The last infinity stone of Rushy Rice comes back and very early and in just three quarters, 10 targets, by far and away the most. Doubled up the next closest. Seven receptions, 42 yards, and two scores. The first touchdown was one of those just little jet sweep situations where Mahomes flicks the ball forward for a passing touchdown. That's really a run play. That is a designed look. Touchdown there. Later in the game, they throw a jump ball to him. Rasheed writes after the game says, "Hey, this is what I played like in college. You can also throw these big jump balls up to me." They got that one. I will also note that there was a pre-snap penalty on another Rasheed Rice at the goal line. Little flick play to him that would have been a touchdown as well. So, there was a clear emphasis to get Rashid Rice the football.

I'll just bring up the the notes through halftime because this game was completely over. We saw Jacobe or uh uh we saw like backup quarterbacks Gardenner Mchu >> Gordon Mchu >> pretty pretty early uh in a revenge game for him. Uh at halftime, Xavier Worthy 82% routes, Rasheed Rice 55% routes, but he had eight targets at halftime. Pretty wild. Juju Smith Schustster, Hollywood Brown and Taekquin Thornton all hovered uh between 27 and 52% of the route. So, it was a rotation there. Rashid Rice was not a full-time player, but the second he stepped on the field, he looked really good. His yards after the catch ability is really nice. And the Chiefs just they got a first down, it seemed like every single play. So, they ended up having more first downs here than the Raiders had offensive plays. The Raiders set a couple records. We'll get to them in a second. But, uh, Kareem Hunt early on in this game on that Rashid Rice goal line touchdown, he got rolled up on as a lead blocker. He was able to come back for a little bit, but it was a lot more Brashard Smith and Isaiah Pacheco after that Kareem Hunt injury. Pacheco did have a nice uh touchdown here. So, for your best teams, he's starting to earn in a little bit more. And just in general, you just watch this Chiefs team, you're like, would you actually pick against the Chiefs in the playoffs at this point? This this offense is looking absolutely scary. And if this game was closer at any point, this team could have put up 40 easily on the Raiders.

Anything you want to say about the Rice role? I mean, I think the doubters heading into the season said, "Oh, everyone's focusing on, you know, the first two games of last year." when it really extends from about week 10 from his rookie season through the Super Bowl and then until what we saw last year that was it still the same middle of the field work running after the catch all that type of stuff and how he scores touchdowns.

1.5 averaged depth the target and the touchdowns were and there was another one that could have been a touchdown to the goal line so it was all just it was all the the the BS stuff that you're used to with Andy Reid um we had elements of that I will also say that the Chiefs were playing with their food and converting stuff there was one moment where Mahomes is down there and he says, quote, "This play never effing works, man." On a fourth and one just to set up uh an actual snap that goes for a play. There was also another one where Mahomes went out of his way to do a no look pass to move the change. There was other moments where Patrick Mahomes looked like he was playing on rookie level in Madden. It was it was sensational. It's a reminder when Patrick Mahomes has his guys back. There's nobody better. Like Josh Allen and Lamar, these guys can have their moments, but the consistency level and I'll say that Mahomes has a swagger back. He's the number one fantasy quarterback right now. And if I was actually drafting today, I would rather have him than Lamar and Josh Allen. I think this team's going to go absolutely nuts. And this will be the team that I hope you guys invested a lot of. And if you held the line with Rasheed Rice, if you can sneak into the playoffs, he's going to be a real asset. And I think that we would have some conversations of how many wide receivers would we rather have than Rasheed Rice rest the season. It would be on one hand and I'm I'm not even sure how many fingers.

Is there anything we can read into Isaiah finally getting 15 carries, 57 yards and a touchdown? Which by the way, and I'm sure this is garbage time stuff. It might not have been. He might have got involved early, but Bashard Smith also popped in here with 14 carries in comparison to Cream Hunts four. Early in the game was the Bashard Smith just like first down, sub in for a play, getting him a little screen play or another little underneath play and he he converted all of them.

Motion type guy.

Yeah.

Yeah. He has his own playbook. It's like the fifth sheet of the playbook. It's just all Bashard Smith plays and it was very effective. He got more carries late in the game. Uh a lot of it just stem from the Kareem Hunt ankle injury which doesn't sound like it's overly serious, but it did impact him. And then yeah, check scores running right up the the gut. Kind of vintage Isaiah Pacho touchdown.

All right. I'm sure the Raiders did do some historic things. I see just on the team stats page when looking at them that they had 30 total plays on offense.

Uh Nate Ty pointed out that that has the fewest amount of plays an NFL offense has run in a game since at least 2002.

That's >> I got it.

It's the second fewest by an offense in NFL history. The only team to have fewer than that was 1999, the Cleveland Browns, which I think somebody pointed out was like their first game back.

I mean, this was like unprecedented BS. What it felt like, you play half court basketball, you know, you can play winners or losers, and winners, you get a bucket, you get the ball back. That's what it felt like in this game. The Chiefs would score a touchdown. I would go get a cup of coffee. I would refresh, come back to the TV, and all of a sudden, the Chiefs would have the ball again. I never saw a Raiders play the entire game. I was covering this this team. I never saw a Raiders play. Also, on top of that last stat, the Raiders became the 20th team since the 2000s kicked off to have under a 100 total yards. So, it wasn't just the play volume. They had no explosives in this one. Ashen Genty was it was completely over. But, there was one little note for Ashen Genty. He only ran a route on 11 of 21 uh dropbacks with Gino on the field, which is a little bit more Raheem Moster. This defense for the Raiders, by the way, lost Max Crosby halfway in this game with back and knee injuries. And immediately you don't see Max Crosby on the field for one second, you're like, "Oh, he's actually like really injured because he never leaves the field." If they don't have Max Crosby, this will be a generationally bad defense on top of this. So, we're going to get Jacobe Myers probably going to get traded soon. And on top of this, Josh, if you want to pull up their schedule, they plays they play the Broncos twice. Uh, they get the Browns, they get the Eagles, they get the Texans. It's one of the most difficult defensive schedules for the Raiders on offense the rest of the way. I'm not sure if they're going to bench Gino Smith soon enough, but I know Pete's one and done. I know Chips one and done. And you can pretty much kick uh kiss the guaranteed money for Gino Smith. That's just going to turn into dead money. And I don't know what the Raiders are going to do long term. Like how many like actual crucial pieces do they have moving forward here? And this is why you can kind of nitpick the Ashen Genty pick instead of an offensive lineman or get Jackson Dart. Like there's so many other ways to do this. Ashen Genty the cherry on top piece. We're so far away from the pie being completely made here. So this was this was a low for the Raiders and that that's saying something.

I'm looking back at September 12th, 1999. Again, expansion franchise I believe Browns when they came back after, you know, losing their team to become the Baltimore Ravens, so on and so forth. The Steelers beat them 43 to nothing, even if the Browns were at home in that game. The quarterbacks quarterbacks were Ty Demer and Tim Couch who went 0 for three in his debut. Uh >> yeah, rushers and Terry Kirby and then the leading receiver in Kevin Johnson. Uh and that's it. That's very different.

It started the jersey, the couch jersey was started on how bad that team was. That is very different than bringing in a 70-plus year old Pete Carroll, a offensive coordinator from Ohio State used to be an NFL head coach and Chip Kelly, >> a quarterback who's well beyond 30 years of age and trading a pick for him and Gino Smith and then yeah, spinning an early pick on Ashen Genty. Uh they tried to expedite the process and believe that they could compete. You know, that's what other moves did and it's clearly not working. Um this is just like a bad move. Like we could look on it from the jump from the offseason and paint a picture like we try to do with both the positives and say, "Oh, this is how it can work." But with really how the offensive line started from week two and on, to me it was very clear that it wasn't going to work. And basically all the defensive pieces outside of Max Crosby that it's like, okay, you might be able to pick here and here and here as these veteran players that have done and rookies that have done well in these other spots, >> but you just don't have a roster to try to like no >> jump the line and compete immediately. And that's probably a Davis and Tom Brady issue at the top.

Yeah, definitely is. team had just no business making the moves that that they did and it's going to blow up in their face. It's going to cost them $18.5 million guaranteed for to get out of the Gino Smith contract. Um and yeah, they're going to get peanuts for Jacobe Meyers um at the trade deadline and then they're going to start playing Jack Bash and these guys and like that's just going to be the state of the Raiders for the rest of the season and there's just no promises if they're going to stick with Gino Smith. But really like all this like really kickstarted when they lost Colt Miller at left tackle. That was the only saving grace on that offensive line and now it just goes like five underwhelming players across the line.

Speaking of underwhelming, let's talk about the Miami Dolphins as they get stomped on the road, 31-6 by the Cleveland Browns. Yes, this Browns team >> post 31 points and your offense that you've invested everything into can only muster six points. Heading into this one, it was obviously well known. We'd get winds and weather. I would say like overall you couldn't see a huge impact on the success of plays but from a play calling standpoint it probably did impact it in the tune that hey when you look at the Browns only dropping back 20 times and then having you know 31 carries they just did not ever feel the need to throw the football in the least. Quinn John Judkins, 25 carries, 84 yards, three scores. Now, you might wonder, how can he only have 84 rushing yards when one of those runs is 46 and then on the 24 he has, you know, just 38. Uh, and by the way, I think that 84 went lower than his rushing projection despite >> a 90. Despite him being one of the highest scoring running backs out there. It's because the quarterback in the other side was literally handing the football to the Cleveland Browns on short fields over and over and over again. Tou Valley was 12 of 23, 100 yards and three interceptions. There was one when he was pressured in his face, free rusher from way deep, almost like a safety, and he just like stares at it for so long, and then just forgets where his wide receivers are going to be, throws it into space, and directly directly into the hands of uh Cleveland Brown. There was one where he's a bit high of an overthrow to Devon Aan. Goes off his hands. Tyson Campbell grabs it and runs it in for a pick six and then the final interception I believe out of his own end zone. Um, you can just see Mike McDaniel basically pointing to the sideline and saying hey go sit over there. Do you think like how permanent was that fingerpoint is >> I mean to you an aggressive animated >> I'm gonna try to find the clip tomorrow to put it out there on Twitter but it was hey you're dunzo and then on top of all this Mike McDaniel postgame says well this week of practice actually Quinners earned the backup job over Zach Wilson and that's why they pivoted on over to Quinn Es being here as 5 for8 53 3 yards, which by the way, >> Quinn Yur's first snap, he tried to throw an interception directly into the bread basket of a Cleveland Brown. And then this first third down, he drops the snap and takes a sack.

So, it's no better. You know, he also like has Jaylen Wadd who in this game only one catch for 15 yards and four targets. Beautifully run out route for probably a gain of 20-plus and then puts it on his inside shoulder directly into the defensive back and means he's not gonna have success or catch that football. So I don't know what the Dolphins can do at this moment. They were terrified offensively and that's despite Devon Hen going 13 carries or 82 yards and >> an up the middle or I should say actually on the edge off tackle with a pulling offensive lineman. 46-yard run for Devon very early on. You one surprised he didn't break it away because he got actually hawkked I think from Tyson Campbell and then two oh maybe they get the running game going. Nope. Dunzo absolutely nothing. And you just wonder what is the first thing to fall? Is it Tua no longer being the starting quarterback or is it Mike McDaniel being fired tomorrow?

What would you do? I have an answer.

Well, I mean, I would be terrified of what Tuatongo looks like in a non-Mike McDaniel passing offense. I would like to see >> no choice. Yeah, >> I would like to see Mike McDaniel call an offense for a quarterback that is not Tua Tonga or Skyler Thompson. Unfortunately, based on this roster, it has to be either Quinn Yurs or Zack Wilson. I'm not sure if that's much better.

Yeah, I I agree with you. Tua is not the answer. There's a chance Mike McDaniel still is such a good play caller that you'd want to stick with him. I think ultimately both are end up going to be gone, but if I was picking the order, I would much rather see Mike McDaniel another quarterback than Tuo with a different quarterback. By the way, today Tua had a 10% pressure rate against which most quarterbacks are in the 20s, 30s, 40s. 10% is nothing. To have that game and you weren't even under pressure very much is as bad a as it gets. That's crazy.

I mean, I I could go through individual notes. I I'm not going to. It really was tremendously bad. I mean, there was this one moment, Dolphins on first down at the 11-yard line after they were gifted a series in the red zone after a missed field goal, but got unnecessary roughness. Okay, first down at the 11, low snap. He just has to fall on it. So, it turns into second and 19. And then a quick speed out turns it to third and 13. And there's no chance to tongue is going to convert a third and 13 without Tyreek Hill on the field. And by the way, in the second half of this game, Darren Waller leaves because of a pectoral injury. And so pectorals never a good sign. I would expect >> I've never seen a two-week pectoral injury in my life. >> I I would expect him to miss the rest of the way. Um, just quickly because I know I talked up Harold Fannon a lot. Uh, he did lead the team in both targets with five and receiving yards with 36. The Browns scored 31 points. Obviously one of those was a pick six. They just didn't have to pass the football.

You know, it's that simple. The Dolphins could not press them in the least. And so we did get a couple screens here or there, but uh, you know, Jerry Judah got nothing and he actually outscored Jaylen Wadd on top of it. So obviously we had a bunch of great tight end scoring this week in a in a parallel universe. Maybe Tuango doesn't see ghosts and isn't terrified to play out there and Harold Fannon, you know, gets another four targets and maybe doubles his receiving usage. But all that they had to do was short fields and Quinnon Judkins actually got back-to-back uh Wildcat carries in order to score his touchdown. Yeah, Fannon 82% snaps. So, this was the game without David Njoku, they could have kept him in that same exact role and brought in a run blocker. They didn't. So, they he was actually on the field for a lot more. So, if David Njoku misses again and the Browns are trailing points, I think Fannon would be a great play. Uh, going back to Tua real quick, we're going to play a game here. How much guaranteed money is on the books for 2026 for Tua next year?

Yeah. >> And guess higher than we think?

Higher than I think. I was going to say $40 million. $54 million guaranteed and if they're going to cut him because the way the pro ration works, even if they post June cut him, it'll cost them more money than otherwise to to keep him around. So, it it's it's the worst contract in the NFL right now as him and Deshawn Watson. It's like, you know, it's about the same. Like, we're talking about this will be one of the biggest dead cap losses out there. And I don't think that you're going to get very many head coaches to come sign up for two. Uh that that's what I was going to ask because like look we just saw Daniel Jones who kind of looked like a train wreck during his time often injured uh at the final points with the New York Giants. Um I think Carson Wentz might be the next closest one that even when you know he left Philadelphia then he goes to I believe it was Washington and is able to start some games after that. So we do see like reclamation projects and we can go further down the list. you know, same Donald Baker Mayfield after he, you know, gets cut and signs up for that one time.

I do think this 2011 is different where >> you know, you are one shot away, >> like one bad hit away and like it's tough to just build a team around that or even count on that in the least. And so to me, I really do wonder if he like lands on another team after this. I'm sure he does in some maybe backup capacity, but I don't know if it's going to be as open-ended to even earn a starting role, but I could be way off on that. He could also just be the backup to the fourth overall pick that's going to be a quarterback to the Dolphins, too. I can see that where it's like, all right, well, we're already paying him, might as well stay around like kind of what Kurt Cousins is doing for Michael Pennock, a situation like that. Um, but it's it's a really dire situation. I think that the difference between Tua and all those quarterbacks you listed is those guys, while bad, they at least had more physical tools than Tua does. Tua is very accurate and but we've seen the best of Tua in the offense that is perfectly suited for him with the best weapons in the NFL for him and I think Mike McDaniel is a very good play caller and it still wasn't enough once games actually mattered. So with the other quarterbacks you can at least dream of a situation Sam Darl ripping all these downfield pass and stuff. I just don't think that you're going to see that with Tua. I think the imagination starting to dissipate.

I don't like watching Tua in a Mike McDaniel offense. I would be terrified to watch Tua in a non-Mike McDaniel. Broncos 33, Giants 32. And one of those games that when you see the win probability chart, it goes 95% 95% 95% 100%. A crazy ending. And we have our guy Brenley Weissman talking about it. Brenley, I mean, I don't even know where to begin here other than the Broncos refusing to play football for three quarters, 000, and then posting literally 33 points in the fourth quarter. Talk me through.

Yeah. So, I mean, a lot of lot to talk about, a lot of takeaway here, Josh Hayden. But, I mean, the Broncos literally were playing the worst offensive game through three quarters that I've seen all year, maybe minus the Jets last week. They were abysmal. But in the fourth quarter, Shawn Payeyton finally got out of his own way, let Bo Knicks do what he does well, push the ball down the field. They got him uh on two designed quarterback runs in the red zone. Receivers like Marvin Mims, Courtland Sutton making plays down the field. Like early in the game, Payton was just so afraid to let Bo uncort the ball. Everything was underneath. There was execution issues with drops and things like that from receivers. But Shawn Payne needs to under like needs to let Bo unleash because that's how the this offense will go. Because I think today was like a perfect perfect showing.

I'm gonna raise my hand.

I want the people to know that Brentley is an Oregon duck.

That he hand up. I do. Guilty.

If I if if if if if I can I just want to put that on the table. If I can just offer a counter perspective on that. I think one reason why Shawn Payeyton might have been hesitant to open this is because Bo Knicks has been bad this season. And on 10-plus yard passes, Bo Knicks has been like the 31st quarterback in the NFL. So maybe this is like the turning point of, oh, Bo has now reearned my trust and I don't have to just call these swings and underneath stuff that, hey, moving forward, how Bo ended last year on these downfield throws is what we took in the fourth quarter and we can move forward.

That's definitely a fair point, but all I know is how he's been calling the offense through through this season is not going to win the football games. It's just simply not, you know, and yes, Bo hasn't been as sharp as he was last year. However, if that's how you're going to call a football game, then you might as well bench him. You know, that that's kind of like where I'm at. But their turnaround today was really impressive. I I do think the Broncos, even with Bo struggling, they have a Shawn Payeyton problem. I I really believe that. I I don't think he is right now currently has a good flow for calling plays. There was I think six times they had the ball at the two in the red zone and there was six straight pass plays. One resulted in a in the in a fourth down stop when they on again they were on the two a wide receiver for screen got got stuck you know and missed out on a touchdown. JK Dobbins is running the ball really well and then they decide to not to give him the ball on the two-yard line for essentially six straight plays. And so I just think Shawn Payeyton is just not having a good season so far. Uh, but still today was just incredible incredible game in the fourth quarter.

Yeah. Kind of just like splitting the difference between you guys. It's they're not running the regular standard drop back game at all which was and that's going to be like my question for you Brenley in this fourth quarter. How much of this was bootleg? Now I'm throwing the back to the other side of the field. How much of this is like a Marvin Mim stuff or was this all layered throws? This is I I agree that he has to at least see if he can do it because the way that they're calling is too conservative and that just not going to you can't win playoff games like that.

How much of this comeback was >> regular quarterback stuff? Obviously he's getting lucky if you can go put up 33 points in one quarter, which is by the way the first time in NFL history a team put up 33 points in the fourth quarter after being shut out through three quarters. That's a lot of football being played for for actual history there. So, how much of this was normal stuff versus what we saw as a rookie where it's reverses and yards after the catch?

Truth. >> T truthfully, probably 50/50. Uh, you know, honestly, a lot of it was kind of rolling out. Marvin Mintz bailed him out in two passes. I mean, to be to be to be honest, uh, he had a few good passes down the field, uh, which were really impressive. Really really nice balls. But again, I mean, he was hurt by a lot of drops earlier uh in the game as well, but a lot of it was to your point, Hayden, roll outs, Bo using his athleticism to get him on the edge and then kind of making a good pass down the field, but his receivers really stepped up in the fourth quarter.

Fourth quarter was nuts. >> No, it was insane.

I mean, we could go play byplay here. Hopefully a lot of people watched it on red zone, but like the six play 68-yard touchdown drive in 51 seconds that turns, you know, a 26-23 lead for the Giants into a 30-26 lead for the Denver Broncos. We'll talk about the Giants here in a moment, but you know, I'll say Jackson Dart having one good throw on that drive and like other missed ones. I mean, a fourth and 17 conversion is a pretty good throw if we're going to talk about >> correct. It was a good throw, >> but also >> he was short though. >> Dropped interception because two guys ran into each other. A terrible DPI call when Riley Moss is actually playing for it. He obviously scores the go-ahead touchdown towards the end. And then, yeah, the field goal when actually the Giants kicker for the second time in the game misses the extra point which would have sent this game to overtime. 29-yard pass to Marvin Mims like you said kind of a back shoulder go and get it which Marvin Mims hasn't come up with so far this season. Five-yard penalty because Brian Burns was like cramping in his calf and couldn't get back on. Then a 22-yard to Courtland Sutton and then obviously that ends it. Uh crazy crazy stuff. Okay, let's talk about the Giants because >> overall here Brenley >> Vance Joseph destroys rookie quarterbacks, right? And so the New York Giants posting 32 points, Jackson Dart going 15 of 33, 283, three touchdowns, one interception, four sacks. I know there was a lot of really good positives early on, some luck that played involved, >> some negative moments, too, but I think just overall having a chance to win this game is a major positive takeaway.

I 100% couldn't have said it better. I mean, Jackson Dart outside of the interception late in the fourth and then obviously the one that should have been picked where the two defenders hit each other, he was playing damn near flawless football. I mean, it was really, really impressive. And especially when you consider who he's throwing the ball to. I mean, his number one receiver is Well Robinson, who props to him, he is an a fun player to watch. Like I like me some Ronda Robinson, but Jackson Dart doing this on the road against a top five defense in the league, Vance Joseph, who we know is one of the best coordinators in the league. Super impressive. I mean, very, very impressive. Jackson Dart, I like his ability to escape pressure, keeping his eyes down the field. that he was able to find Cody Bellinger um kind of on a on a uh on a kind of a broken play down the field for the for Daniel Benj Bellinger, excuse me, tight end on a broken play down the field uh where he evaded a sack. It was great throw and then his athleticism on the move is really impressive. Like >> the Giants have something here with Jackson Dart. I think it's very clear. Um he's going to be a good quarterback I think for for a long time. Hopefully it's with Dable. So I think Dable's good for him. I think I think he's a good fit in that system. I'm afraid of a fire dable that could mess up his development, but overall it was a really impressive showing by Jackson Dart.

Yeah, just like zooming back out, they put up 32 points. They easily could have won this game. They should have won this game. He actually had that big drive. And he did this without Malik Neighbors. And the guy that's replacing him in the offense is Lil Jordan Humphrey who ran 40 routes and didn't have a damn yard. So you're you're working with the confines of this offense. And the offensive line is pretty hit and miss, too. He got a great left tackle, but the rest of it is pretty hit and miss. So, I think in general, we can nitpick. There's definitely some bad moments here, but you put up 32 points on the road uh without Malik Neighbors. Like, you you you got something here.

No, totally. And the Daniel Bellinger stuff and obviously the Statue of Liberty stuff is so cool and he and Brian Dar are on the same page at the same time. Like we can say that and also say the you know 41-yard touchdown to Theo Johnson that >> is a third and 17 that collects off of Wondell Robinson and Theo Johnson grabs it in midair and runs for a touchdown >> isn't really like a touchdown throw you know. Yes. And then the final drive is sack incompletion five-yard delay of game incompletion 19-yard pass incompletion incompletion incompletion and then a one-yard touchdown run. Um, so I agree this is not a full deck that the Giants are going with here. It is miraculous that the Broncos won this game. It kind of this whole like aura thing I buy into a little bit with Cam Scataboo and they've changed the mentality, but like did they change it enough to, you know, win this game that >> right >> obviously you have a fourth quarter interception on and all that type of stuff. Like it's still I want dayball to stay but at the same time they have to win games in order day ball to stay. It's that simple. I >> I that was a great point that you brought up just talking about D like going to dayball because you have Jackson Dart and that's obviously what he's going to be telling ownership. Josh to you is there like so much kind of colleggininess and just like the vibe >> I didn't get to watch this game until the fourth quarter so I I didn't see the good stuff early on. >> Yeah. Ju just in general though like do you think that there is a case that Dball is orchestrating such an odd offense that there could end up being a case that he needs to stay if the even if the record is kind of bad?

Yeah, I mean, you can tell that he knows that that Dave Ball knows that for how much he is investing emotionally animated wise to his quarterback and basically hugging him >> and emoting to him on the sideline that he knows that this is his ticket to stay. I just think that that's difficult if you don't win more than >> Yeah, I think this is going to be like a really good case study because we always hear, oh, a coach on the hot seat draft a young quarterback who maybe save your job. Well, this is it. You know, because a young quarterback is playing well, the team isn't necessarily winning. We're going to find out, you know, if if the ownership is going to want to, you know, have day ball still in the building.

Yeah, I don't know. The schedule's tough.

The schedule's difficult. They need to win some ball games here. But it is like a unique situation where not everybody wanted Jackson Dart and Brian Dal did. And if he can kind of prove that he's knows something here, then I do think that he might actually have a chance to say. But this is way too early. But I thought it was interesting. I don't really hear many people saying like Dal should stay. And um I think we're getting to the point where if there's enough production here, even if the wins and losses aren't translating, that he's at least be able to go to ownership and be like, "Hey, >> I he should I mean, this is I mean, we saw him make the playoffs in his first year by like winning on the boundaries of what Daniel Jones and that offense could do." Obviously this year not having Malik Neighbors is going to change the win loss column just overall, >> but it's very clear that Jackson Dart feels more comfortable in this offense and with this coaching than he would with others. It's just one of those things, not to keep repeating ourselves, can ownership look past a team that might have >> four, five wins at most this season, even if they're super competitive and this should have been one. I'm not sure if that's going to happen moving forward because of kind of the things that we talked about.

Or is it as simple as, oh, they get along and he's playing good football and that's going to get better in the future when we get our wide receiver one back.

Yeah. >> Uh off a knee issue.

Yeah. But I mean, still a great game. Just one last note. Scataboo had another touchdown. He's just such a fun player to watch, guys. Gosh, he he's runs ball really hard. Um this is a tough defense, obviously, but he gets loose, gets skinny, breaks tackles. He's He's a fun player to watch.

Hey, how many yards on that 31-yard touchdown that Tyrone Tracy had that was totally untouched with who runs?

Hey, that that was that was ugly, man. Literally wanted no part of that. No part of that.

I I was going to say with Scato, he came like the first player to like lower his head about three yards into the end zone for no reason. So, he he wanted that smoke even when he was in the end zone. Crazy.

Final question here, and sorry to go all the way back to the Broncos.

With them struggling so much, it's weird that JK Dobbins averages 5.88 yards per carry but only gets 14 for 81. Does this kind of go back to your concerns or your frustrations at the top of hey, why not just lean on that?

So Shawn Payton, he looks like at the run game with his screens like that's his run game, you know, the the screens, the bubbles, like that's part of extension of the run game. So he has no urgency to get JK Dobbins or even RJ Harvey going. You know, there's no rhyme or rhythm with this run running game at all. Dobbins in late in the third quarter was really starting it going. He busted off a 30-yard run. You would think they would start leaning on more throughout the game later in the game, and they didn't. And there's just again, there's no rhyme or reason to this offense with this play calling. Um, just makes zero sense. I I I do think this offense is at its best when Dobbins is going getting going on the ground.

Let's talk about the Big Revenge Bowl.

Because uh Mike Vrabel and the New England Patriots going to Tennessee off of a fired head coach and his dad offensive line coach, uh, and beat the Tennessee Titans 31-13. We can see Drake May, 21 of 23, 222 yards, two touchdowns, and like finally they get a running game going. 18 of 88 and one score with Rhamondre Stevenson. And it certainly felt like they took the pedal off the gas later on, too.

I mean, guys, the main takeaway here is, I mean, we're watching a young promising prospect in Drake May elevate to a bonafide top 10 quarterback in the NFL. I mean, this is like Justin Herbert year two type stuff. I mean, he is an amazing. This is probably the first time I got to sit down all season and just watch Drake May cook, and I couldn't, and I was watching Caleb Williams on the same TV, and it's night and day difference between the two players. Uh, Drake May, guys, he's just the the what you want in a quarterback. He was flawless today. You saw him push the ball vertically down the field to Jahan Dotson. Made really good decisions all throughout the day. Really good use of his legs. He had a pass, and people won't talk about it, but when you guys go back and watch the game, it's late in the third quarter to to Stefon Diggs on the sideline, and it might as well have been a handoff. Like that ball placement was unfreaking real. He He's just an extremely talented player with a good coach, a lot of good players around him. He's going to be a problem for the NFL for years to come, guys. I mean, this he's phenomenal. Um, Josh, you mentioned they got they got the running game going. Rhamondre Stevenson had a breakout game. I think it's very clear he is their RB1 moving forward. Uh, he outnapped Trevon Henderson. I think uh Stevenson played 42 out of the possible 45 snaps in the first three quarters when the game was competitive. So he is very much their workhorse moving forward, at least in the short term. But guys, overall, really good performance for the Patriots and tough one by the Titans.

Drake May's got the trifecta. He's got crazy athleticism. Going to see eight scrambles here. Like we haven't seen like that fully take off this year, but if you go back to North Carolina and as a rookie, there was definitely some moments. We saw that today. He is downfield throwing the ball, and he's got plenty of arm talent there. And then on top of that, I think this is like maybe the biggest surprise to me.

Is the success rate is out of control. It's top three, top five, and 21 of 23 in this is another one. So that's a credit to Josh McDaniels, obviously, but Drake May being a success rate guy on top of being the toolsy guy, like that's where I think the Justin Herbert comps kind of can come into play. Like that's how you can envision eventually turning into somebody like Josh down with a little bit more creativity down the line. So this is a huge jump start. And I think to tie it back to Rhamondre and Diggs, there's an actual like fantasy upside case for these two guys. Like if this team's going to be projected for 24 or more points the rest of the way out, which they definitely could be. Now, like Stefon Diggs can go from like, ah, whatever, to maybe someone being like an actual legit wide receiver two. And Rhamondre, if he's going to have a 90-10 split here, he's going to be one of the best picks that you could have had.

Yeah, I do get nervous that this running game was a one-game sample because it hasn't been so far this season in terms of being effective. We talked about it heading into this Titans game. They were missing their top three edge rushers and I believe Jeffery Simmons died like halfway through the game on top of it.

Uh, and then next week for them, they face the Cleveland Browns. Oh, yeah.

So I don't know if I should immediately bank on this rushing performance to sustain itself. My final point here though, Brentley, is there's something going on with Trevon Henderson where I don't understand at the end of the game why Tyrell Jennings would just get five useless carries and those would not go to Henderson because he ends the game with just two for five. If you're trying to get your young guy just some more work, why give it to the third-stringer and not the second-round rookie that you have?

I so I was wondering the same thing because you would think given the way, you know, they kind of allocated the snaps early on in the game, hey, game's out of hand, like let's put Henderson in now in the fourth quarter. Let let him get going. Let him build some confidence and maybe we can build on to the, you know, future weeks. But they treated him like he's also a player they want to, you know, protect and rest in the fourth quarter, but that doesn't make any sense because he wasn't involved early on in the game. Um, so it's like I I I don't get it.

You got the worst of both worlds. It makes no sense. The way you said that really was so.

It makes no sense. And so like I wonder if there's something going on off the field, you know, cuz Vrabel's kind of like he had some comments I think this week about, you know, we got to just.

Well, they're not playing Kyle Williams. Like they're just not playing these rookies other than obviously their left.

Tackle. Exactly. So I don't know what's going on. Obviously, we we all like Henderson. We all think he's a really talented player.

But it's really weird dynamic with him and the coaching staff. I feel like.

It is fascinating, Hayden, going back and looking at other games because there was that one where both Antonio Gibson and Rhamondre Stevenson fumbled and Trevon Henderson owned the entire second half of that game. And ever since then, his usage has been in the tank despite basically not making a fumble mistake, a pass pro mistake ever since then. And then here we are where, like Brentley said, it's the worst of both worlds. I think I think the pass protection issues early on the season is just like leaving a pretty sour taste in their mouth. And on top of that.

But he should still get the five carries at the end here.

No, I I agree. I agree with all you like let him develop, give him some touches. He's also not making guys miss out in space and like you got to be able to do that if you're his profile and he's always just going to be kind of a committee member and I think they've just been kind of underwhelmed in general. But I I agree even with that.

Jerrell Jennings. Let's All right, let's let's name the college. Anyone want to throw out a guess? I mean, dude.

Arkansas State.

Terrell Jennings. I'm going to say.

Yeah, you're pretty close. Florida. Florida, you know, like we're making up A&M's, you know, like why is he getting the ball? I don't have a good answer, but I can tell you why Rhamondre Stevenson is playing a lot. I think he's just making more guys missed and even with the fumbles, he's just a little bit more trusted.

Okay, let's talk about the Titans because early on seeing on my feed, Cam Ward making throws. Then you look at the end, one interception, five sacks, 13 points. What went right and.

Yeah, I mean, I was like tweeting out, "Hey guys, like, you know, Brian Callahan was the problem. Cam Ward's on his way to his best his best game of the season." And then it changed really quickly. You know, in the first two drives, Cam was delivering really, really accurate passes down the field. Um, DK, one of the rookies that they have, he obviously was playing a lot 'cause Calvin Ridley was out with a hamstring, was balling in the first two series. I think all of his yards came within the first two series. He had a long touchdown, which is really impressive. But then New England, New England's pressure just really started to get to Cam later in the game, guys. I think he was sacked five times. Um, he had a really, really bad fumble, which was essentially a fumble six where the ball literally just like slipped out of his hands.

Just like last week, just lacks a critical and flies out of his hands.

I heard on the broadcast they're saying, you know, he's turned the ball over every single game of of the season. And I think today he had two turnovers with a bad interception as well. Um, as I mentioned, Calebien Chason was the one who caught the fumble and ran it for a touchdown. And and really, yeah, he just after the first sack, he never was able to settle back in. Uh, the offensive line was getting beat to hell by the Patriots, and Vrabel was doing a lot of, you know, intricate blitzes and things like that. Um, it's just tough. You know, there there there's flashes of brilliance from Cam Ward where you see the tools, you see the the arm talent, you see the athleticism. It's all great. Then he goes on long stretches of just sloppy, sloppy football. And and it's and honestly, it's, you know, we got we got to recognize who he's playing around. It's not a lot of talent around him, but you wish you'd see a little more consistency down to down. So, you know, this far into the season. And I will mention it's not a great offensive line, but it is JC Latham, Dan Moore, Lloyd Cushenberry, Peter Skoronski, and Kevin Zeitler. That's better than some some offensive lines. Now, the guys throwing to is really, really bad. And the defense without Jeffery Simmons, and they're going to trade some guys away. It's going to like this roster is really going to clear out. But I think with Cam Ward, it's it's he was a difficult pre-draft eval because the arm talent I thought was really good. He is a decent athlete. He doesn't really showcase it very often. Never.

You know, and that that was kind of the one thing like in order for him to really hit, you're have to start kind of he's got to clean up some of these issues that we're talking about and then you also got to imagine him kind of getting there. Way too early to write him off, but I do think at some point some of the blame does need to go Cam Ward's direction because like you at least see more glimpses and we've seen glimpses, but like more at least full drives and consistent halves and stuff, and we have not really seen that from Cam Ward uh through what six games now. It it's just a wasted season. And unfortunately, we've seen this a lot with, you know, four straight number one pick quarterbacks when their head coach gets fired halfway through, and that just leads to.

Yep.

You know, warts and bad moments and things you hope that they don't carry over like just losing the football without getting touched and you're not trying to juke anyone out.

Twice in the nine-inch hands. Nine-inch hands.

Is.

Yeah.

Just real bad stuff. So, I I don't want to go on it too much, but uh it's rough out there. Anything you want to say about the usage here? I mean, we get five carries for Taj Spears, six carries for Tony Pollard. Tony Pollard gets his most work in the receiving game with six receptions for 43 yards. Anything else here?

No, I mean, just watching the game like I like Taj Spears for what he is. I I don't think he should be eating into Tony Pollard's workload as much as he currently is and as since he's been back. Pollard was pretty well doing well, you know, to start the year when he was a solo running back, the feature guy. Um, you know, I I think Pollard is the better player, so I would, you know, try to lean more into that, but we'll see what they do moving forward.

Yeah, I think it came out a report this week, Hayden, that anyone but Cam Ward or Jeffery Simmons are available via a trade for the Titans. So, imagine if you're one of the other 51 people on the roster.

Could you get a third-round pick for the rest of the roster all in one tough sell?

That's kind of the problem here.

Right. Right now, by the way, the Titans have had the highest amount of points they've scored in a game this year is at 22. They've been uh under 13 or lower uh one, two, four times. Um, so they're lucky that they got that win um against the the Cardinals because otherwise right now like they're on pace to have like one of these like historically bad seasons and there's some I guess winnable games down the stretch here, but it's this could be like a two and 15 team. Let's talk about Chicago Bears because they're 4-2 as they beat the Northern Saints 26-4. Then they're four-one after that crazy debut game against the Minnesota Vikings when everyone read off the Caleb Williams and Ben Johnson connection. But what's fascinating about this box score.

Brentley, and I would love for you to dive into it is this Caleb wasn't really needed. I mean, 172 passing yards and one interception basically for the first time other than that Commanders game. D'Andre Swift, 19 carries, 124 yards and one score. And it's not just him because as a team, 40 carries, 223 yards and two scores. Rookie seventh-round pick Khalil Herbert, 13 for 81 and one. Talking about this rushing attack. Have they found something?

Yeah, I mean, the Ben Johnson effect is real. I I I think like more more than anything, you'll see what his fingerprints all over the running game from the play designs, you know, the matching being able to get get uh defenders isolated. Uh, the this running this offensive line is really physical up front and it's way way better at run blocking than they are pass blocking. And then D'Andre Swift and Khalil Herbert, they just ran downhill and they ran extremely hard. Like D'Andre Swift put his foot on the ground, made excellent cuts, made people miss. He has incredible vision and his ability to locate the cutback lanes and consistently find that is really impressive. Herbert, I think he played the most snaps he has all year. It was essentially almost a 50-50 split. Um, and he looked really impressive, really explosive, broke some tackles, had a goal-line touchdown run. I mean, he uh was really impressive. It's given Gibbs Montgomery vibes with kind of what Ben Johnson wants to do, you know, and.

Thank gosh they for those two running backs because Caleb was atrocious today in my opinion and if it wasn't for that strong running game, I think the Bears would have been in trouble. So, props to those guys. I think Ben Johnson has it figured out on the ground and I think moving forward, this is going to be a much more run-heavy team rather than a high-flying passing attack.

Today was 3.2.2 yards before contact for the running backs, which is would be the best in the league if they held. And that was the case last week, too. And what you saw out of the buy is the D'Andre Swift vision. I think when you're asking him like run up the gut and stuff, it gets very wonky. And then sometimes he has a tendency to cut things back outside and bounce it instead of cut back. But if you are going to give him on these pitches like they did last week, I haven't watched this game.

That's where you're going to get the best stuff. And it's it makes the cutback lanes, I think, a little bit easier to kind of envision. You guys have.

And that's what he was doing today as well. It was a lot. It was a lot of outside tosses and things like that.

Good. Yeah, because that's where you're like just winning a foot race to the perimeter and that's what D'Andre Swift is all about here. So, I am getting like more optimistic about what this balance of this team is going to look like and obviously Caleb Williams having up and down games throughout the season. I think generally playing fine, but uh if they can actually have a balanced rushing attack and if that just even means it's all these perimeter runs and you're just going to have to live and die by the success of those, but you're going to actually get some explosives. That's a humongous upgrade versus the pre-buy stuff where this team was like almost dead last in every single rushing category. And I thought that DeAndre Swift was playing bad football then. But if you're going to lean into what he's good at, then I think we have to reset our priors.

Swift in these edge runs and I haven't watched this one, so I'll definitely watch it for stats versus film. Yeah.

That's where he's at his best.

This to me is also a huge feather in the cap for Herbert who.

You know, was basically giving Swift a rest and other ones. It makes sense when you're a seventh-round rookie coming in and you have to like really earn that trust and you were really brutal in pass protection early on. But if this is like a starting point for him, I'm not to say to make it a 50-50 split moving forward, even to get like 35-40% of the work, that could be huge for him moving forward. Uh, because they need this other complimentary style of runner to be what Ben Johnson wants to be.

Rushing. No, I mean, yeah, he was I mean, in terms of the down the down usage and things and kind of where they were on the field, it was like, you know, they were interchangeable, you know, so it wasn't just Yeah, it wasn't just Herbert as a third-down back or whatever. It was even on early downs, red zone, it didn't really matter where they were on the field or the time of the game, you know, they were just kind of interchangeable players.

Yeah.

I always like when the backs do that. He he should be rostered on in most serious leagues. Okay, let's go through the New Orleans Saints here because uh Spencer Rattler, two touchdowns, three interceptions, four sacks, 233 yards. You know, the other part of this too was Dennis Allen's defense was not performing very well to start the season. And it kind of feels like Dennis Allen's defense has turned it around. But focusing in on the Saints, what worked and what didn't.

Yeah, I mean, Rattler, look, I I I appreciate Rattler's willingness to take shots and be a gunslinger, but with that comes these kinds of games. Um, he just had three kind of really boneheaded, really aggressive throws that led to interceptions. One he was late um kind of over the middle of the field or the corner got a good jump on it. Another was kind of just a lame duck throw down the sideline where uh Kevin Bernard was able to kind of from the free safety spot make a play on the ball. Um, and and then yeah, I I think Rattler, he made some good throws kind of late in the second half or late in the first half when they were just struggling really bad all first and second quarter. He made a really good throw to Chris Olave down the field, then found him again in the end zone. Um, so you you see the arm talent like I think Rattler is better than a lot of the other young quarterbacks in the league. But again, I think, you know, being that as aggressive as he is as a thrower, these games are gonna happen, you know, and then I do think the Bears front seven got all after the Saints offensive line and these running backs had no room to run. Um, and then they they were down a lot, you know, pretty much this entire game. So, they had to kind of abandon the running game early and just kind of play from behind, which, you know, with a bad offensive line and this front seven is never a good good mix. So, it was ugly performance for the Saints overall, but honestly, a lot of credit goes to the Bears defense.

I think with the Bears, they got a couple of their defensive players back from injury. So, they're they're still missing uh their top corner, but their linebacker, defensive tackle, like slot corner, their safeties are ready to go. So, this this defense, which at one point could have been a top 10 unit, and they dealt with a lot of injuries, I think we have to readjust our priors. Uh, Brentley, I did see Kendry Miller leave with an injury. Is that is there any update on that? Because Alvin Kamara was like very much trending with like, could you even start him in fantasy anymore? If you remove Kendry Miller here, it was just him.

Yeah, he left I think it was uh either late in the first half or early in the second half with a knee, didn't return and then it was essentially like the Alvin Kamara didn't come off the field, you know, after that. So, um, I'm not sure the severity of uh Kendry Miller's injury. He obviously did not return. Um, so that'll be something to monitor monitor throughout the week, but it was no longer like, hey, they're splitting carries. It's it's now the Alvin Kamara show uh once he left the game.

Yeah, it's 84% snaps for Alvin Kamara.

And then one injury as well just on the Bears.

And Chris talk about it and Chris Olave will talk about in Stats versus Film.

Seven targets, five receptions, 98 yards, and two scores. You know, he was mentioned as a trade candidate and then I believe.

Diana Russini reported that they're actually working on an extension for him. So, it's like.

Doesn't that make way more sense? I mean, they need to have somebody good. He's like, he's like their only good pass catcher. Why Why would you trade him with a young quarterback?

That that was the conclusion that we made that.

Guys like this talent-wise are rarely available. And so, why would the Saints.

Make him available? All right, Brentley.

No, appreciate it, guys.

At Wembley Stadium, the home team loses in the Jacksonville Jaguars as the Rams stomp the Liam Cohen-led Jags 35 to 7. I mean, tons to talk about here. Matthew Stafford, five touchdown passes on just 182 passing yards. He opens this game, Hayden, we asked, how can you replace Puka Nacua? Well, Colby Parkinson, 3 for 47. My guy T. Ferg, Terrence Ferguson, one for 31 and one score. Tyler Higbee, three for 19. Even the guy who I believe played the second most wide receiver snaps. No, Hayden, check that. The most wide receiver snaps at Jordan Whittington of 42 of 70. Uh, only gets two catches for nine yards. Wise.

Yep, that does. Yeah, he wasn't a full-time player because they used a lot more two tight end sets, which was like a pretty cool wrinkle. And I think uh part of that was because Jacksonville was missing some some key players uh over the middle of the field. But yeah, Matthew Stafford's playing out of his mind. I just looked at it after today's five touchdown game. His pace, 53 touchdowns through the air. 53.

And then the key player was Davante Adams. Five catches, 35, three scores on eight targets. Uh, we mentioned heading into this game that he was second in the NFL when it came to end zone targets only behind George Pickens. Uh, that hadn't come into fruition in terms of production so far. But when regression hits in a positive way, some people might call it progression, it hits in a massive, massive way. And he gets just three iso ball winners for scores. Now, to me, we don't have to have this long conversation once again, but it is frustrating when a team spends two first-round picks plus a second-rounder on the best cornerback in the draft and arguably the best wide receiver in the draft. And while we did get awesome wide receiver work today from Travis Hunter with 14 targets, eight receptions, 101 yards, and a score, his best by far, which by the way, they didn't score that touchdown until the fourth quarter, and a lot of that production was in the second half. It's also frustrating when the reason why this team, this just my interpretation, isn't playing him full-time in two wide receiver sets and only keeping him restricting him to three wide receiver sets is because they also want to get him defense work. I think today he played 14 defensive snaps on 77 opportunities or 70 opportunities. Why is it so important to get him on defense and he had a great pass up pass pass break up for Davante Adams at one point in this game? Why is it so important to get him there when in pivotal situations when there are timeouts and penalties and you can substitute a one-on-one man-to-man corner against Davante Adams in that area of the field and he's not out there. That just does not compute to me from a coaching standpoint, from a usage standpoint. If we are to believe that it's so imperative he's getting these defensive snaps and that's restricted from playing and contributing to the highest degree on offense.

And if he's only going to be put playing in like against three wide receiver sets, you can get scripted out and that's what like the Rams partially did by all those two tight end sets, he's never going to be out there. So you can kind of just like phase him out of that side of the ball if if a team really was that concerned about him. But I think what the Travis Hunter stuff is this team is so three wide receiver set committed now on offense that he is playing enough snaps to matter. Um, obviously this is big garbage time stuff, but once again, I just think that his his talent at wide receiver just stands out when he knows where to line up. I think that's kind of the frustrating part is.

He would be putting up I think pretty crazy numbers if he understood the playbook. And I think as the season progresses he's going to get more familiar. Going to have a better strategy of how to actually win with him and things should get better, especially if the Brian Thomas injury late in the game uh really starts to to matter. But I think that the frustrations are warranted. I will also note he played like 85% of the offensive snaps here because they're so dedicated to these three wide receiver sets. And I think ultimately we're going to start seeing his his talent kind of win out there because that was not nearly this rate uh in the first month of the season.

Right? But the reason why they're dedicated to the three wide receiver sets right now is also because Britain Strange is out and they're also, you know, down 35 nothing.

Yes, they have to be.

Yeah. So my frustration is when it's part of the plan, why can't and I understand the other caveat is he's had difficulty lining up and being in the right position, but I guess my point is I think Travis Hunter is an unbelievable football player and and wins this season like the 49ers of in your own end zone, the 23-yard catch over the middle of the field. They don't win that game without that, right? The Chiefs game, they don't win that game without him on offense, too, right? Why aren't we just getting two wide receivers that stuff? Like his biggest impact is in that area. I understand you can make the argument that, oh, he's also our best cornerback. Well, then why isn't he playing corner isolated in Davante Adams when he's second highest in terms of end zone targets across the league in true one-on-one situations? I'm not the only one saying this. Literally, the wide receiver legend of the Jacksonville Jaguars said he should be our number one wide receiver. It's kind of simple to me. Uh, but I just don't know how you can fix that this deep into it. And I just hope that the rest of the way they are using Travis Hunter effectively and efficiently and best, which to me is being this team's best target earner and target getter on offense.

I mean, yeah, Brian Thomas has continued to struggle. He had a couple big drops here and the the injury late in the game makes makes me a little bit nervous for what exactly is going on. And I think that was a shoulder injury. We know he had that wrist injury. So, he's making some plays, but uh not consistent enough, obviously. So, I think Travis Hunter remains a fascinating guy for for bench wide receiver three decisions. The next couple weeks, there's a ton of teams on bye as well. I'm very curious what the Jaguars are going to do when they come out of their post-bye rookie bump for Travis Hunter as well. But, yeah, they they're kind of committed to him to being three when there's three wide receiver sets on either side, that's when he plays and and that's what he plays. And on the defensive side of the ball, too.

Why limit it to that? Why?

I think it's because you're splitting up his practice reps and he can't mentally take all of it. And I think that's there's that's a choice that they've made and we'll see if it's the right choice and if they're they're going to continue with this going into the next season. So, they're they're still experimenting. I do wonder if at the at the break if they are going to pivot. Tim, he makes he he makes big plays on both sides of the ball. This is not a question about talent. He's going to be extremely talented in this league. Just what is the best avenue for him to stay involved? And when you have the football, you got to dictate where the ball is being thrown to. And I always think that makes it where I would lean towards offense because you get to throw him the actual football. And that's not the case when you're playing defense. It's not your choice.

100%. I I am not anti-Travis Hunter. I am anti this plan so far because I don't think you are maximizing the talent that Travis Hunter is at this moment. Okay. We can talk about some other things here. You mentioned Brian Thomas. He dropped another one over the middle of the field. Then he had some others that were kind of fingertip grabs that I would say he, you know, would have caught last year and he's just not doing it right now. It just hasn't been right all season long. And, you know, you have one middle of the field drop every single week. And then I think the other conversation here is just about this rushing attack because I mean, we hit week five, week six, week seven, and Travis Etienne stuff has really gone downhill. 7.3, 7.5, and then 6.0 fantasy points over the last three. So that was a huge win for them in the first four games of the season. They were three and one, and the rushing prowess has kind of fallen off a cliff in these last three games.

Get the Raiders next week for that to bounce back. So I feel I feel very good about him. It's not like that Tuton's like doing anything crazy. He he stumbled. He was this close of breaking a big play and he his cleat kind of just.

Slipped out.

This is the bye-week. So like again, new coaching staff can reflect on everything. What has worked? What hasn't? And obviously, we need to say that Trevor Lawrence played poorly in this game. That's very obvious. Very simple.

Seven sacks. And we'll definitely talk about that in depth in Stats versus Film. But I feel like this team started off red-hot and it was difficult to criticize them, but now that they're four and three, it's uh kind of logical too.

Yeah, they put up 19 points in the last two weeks. Next up, the Rico Dowdle, Chuba Hubbard conundrum as the Carolina Panthers are 4-3 and go up to New York, New Jersey and win 13 to 16. There's not much offense to talk about here. And the big again conversation point is the rushing dynamic between these two runners because Dave Canales wanted to hide it from everyone. What it turned into, Hayden, was a true series by series by series by series. And Chuba Hubbard is the one that got the first series, then went to Rico Dowdle back and forth, back and forth, even if there was a three and out or a five and out or whatever. That's what happened. What ended though from a box standpoint is Rico Dowdle finished with 18 touches for 96 yards and Chuba Hubbard finished with 16 touches for 55 yards. Rico Dowdle, some explosives, some breaking arm tackles at the second level, and then Chuba Hubbard's long gain of 26 was the most wide open screen with a convoy of three blockers that you'll see. And I didn't really see much tackle breaking. Just to my eye, Rico Dowdle is the better football player at this moment, but I highly doubt they move off of this series by series by series stuff.

Yep. The good news is the Panthers are very committed to the the ground game when things get close. The problem will be if the Panthers start losing games and now they're passing more and now it's an even split in terms of of touches. So this is gonna we're gonna have to pick our fights here. I would rather have Rico Dowdle than Chuba Hubbard, but Chuba Hubbard does start and he's not going to get completely erased until it's like too obvious that Rico is better than Chuba Hubbard just because what he's meant to this football team. So we learned something, but I think it's kind of a predictable finish. It was a little bit more Chuba than I was going to guess going into this. Um, but Rico D had the better game and maybe that's enough for the next week for things to slightly change.

Also, Bryce Young throws a touchdown uh and then he exits in the third quarter with an ankle issue uh on a sack. He gets it like stepped on and then also twists it. And so it's kind of up in the air uh if he plays next week against the Buffalo Bills. Andy Dalton comes in and they score zero points on top of that. You know, Javian Sanders has something to say about that by not continuing a drive. But I did want to bring up Xavier Legette.

Yeah.

Okay.

He's the butt of many jokes. We kind of discussed this heading into the game where and when you go back and watch on many, many downs in the first three quarters because that's when Sauce Gardner played before he left with a concussion. He was lining up opposite T.J. Hockenson who had a key, you know, third and 14 catch for a gain of 11 and then another fourth down conversion right after that to lead to a touchdown. But someone has to step up opposite, you know, T-Mac when he's getting shadowed and Xavier Legette, arguably at his best game as a professional. Some tight window catches, a 33-yarder at the end to seal it and then the off-script touchdown from Bryce Young to stay on a string. So nine for 92 on 11 targets and one score. Uh, Xavier Legette over the last two weeks. Some nice stuff happening over the last three weeks.

Yeah, that's that's really good for them. He out snapped Jaylen Coker two to one and so he remained the two wide receiver set starter and then Jaylen Coker slid in there for the um three wide receiver sets as a slot receiver. But yeah, it's a great point with the Sauce Gardner and we talked about this with T-Mac. Sauce is both playing really well and shadowing players inside and outside. So when there's a huge talent drop off, we could look at the next the next name. And I think that Sauce Gardner is back to where he was really early on in his career where it's it's a legit problem. Like he's on you like you guys can pretend that quarterback matchups don't matter. It's he's he's an issue out there. And we saw that with the the T-Mac splits today.

Yeah, there was a either third down or fourth down that he totally draped T-Mac and got his hands in between and gave no separation. Now it is a concern that he is dealing with a concussion and we'll see what happens. Yeah.

Moving forward. Um, and then yeah, quickly on the Jaylen Coker stuff because he has many fans out there. Um, it's obvious they were bringing him along slowly. They also rotate the other wide receivers like Bryson Turbine gets in, Jimmy Horn gets in, and this team runs a ton of multiple tight end sets and he's just not going to play in two wide receiver sets right now over T-Mac and Ziggy. So, that's just how it is. All right, on the Jets end after Aaron Glenn lost his head on a reporter who asked, "Hey, after your quarterback had negative 10 net passing yards, would you consider benching him?" Uh, Justin Fields got to halftime with 25 net passing yards and gets benched. To me, that is egregious management and coaching, not to bench him. That should have happened. But to have that reaction and then have this entire week and then after two quarters immediately go away from it when it was obviously not working just shows to me a lack of thought process and foresight into what was going to be best for your team.

Yeah, I think the whole Justin Fields phenomena from this offseason was just completely far-fetched. So, he signed a very big contract and next year he's got $10 million guaranteed and I just thought it was wishful thinking um for just the Jets optimism in general. So, I'm not sure if they're going to go back to him next week or beyond. Um, I think that Tyrod Taylor is going to run the offense cleaner. He's not going to add the explosiveness and Tyrod Taylor is not the answer either. So, long story short, the Jets have no answer at quarterback as we all thought going into the season. And without Garrett Wilson, and he's still weak to his own injury, this team just has has no chance. Like Josh Reynolds leads the team in targets with nine. He gets 29 yards. So, it even Mason Taylor, who I have like some interest in fantasy, but the offense, the state of the pass game is is so bleak right now that I'm not even sure we can get Mason Taylor uh into lineups. And then I saw Breece Hall was was hobbling in this one. Um, came back in.

He left just before half on a tackle. Did come back in in the second half. Um, I will add that Tyrod Taylor threw two interceptions. Uh, there was a flea flicker that he underthrew. That should have been a walk-in score. And then the next play, a vertical shot post route that he also underthrew. That was a great one-hand stab in the end zone by Jaycee Horn for an interception. And he, you know, threw a tight coverage sideline pick again to Jaycee Horn. So.

Yeah, I mean, Tyrod also took three sacks in this game. So, no one is the answer here. This team is obviously drafting a quarterback high. The big question, we can talk about this every single week. To me, it's these three games kind of defined Aaron Glenn if he was going to be here, like if he's going to be Groh Mayo and get fired after one year or not, because you had the Panthers, the Bengals, and the Browns. You should probably win two of those three if you're a competent organization. Show more competitiveness than putting six points on the board. I mean, you also have the Dolphins and the Saints a little bit later on, but you can't go over and keep your job. It's really that simple in today's NFL. Like, we're a long way away from week one when you scored 32 points and making your debut ten straight.

I think Fields and Glenn are both going to be gone. I think the entire organization resets once again. You're going to have the first overall pick. It's them or the Titans. It's it's down to those two teams. You're going to have the first or second overall pick. I think there's a couple quarterbacks that are going to be worth taking a flyer on that high. So, I think everyone's going to be gone once again and we're back to where we are with the Tyrod stuff. He's not good. He's also 36. I I He's gonna like he unders if he did a pop quiz on the entire playbook and told you get on the whiteboard and explain this to me, Tyrod Taylor would be better at that. Will the talent difference matter? I don't know. I don't have any optimism here. We'll close by rolling it all the way back to Thursday. Cincinnati Bengals 33 and three and four in the season. The Pittsburgh Steelers 31, four and two on the season. Now, Hayden, my big question for Mike Tomlin, big-time coach, gone to the playoffs year over year, smart veteran. What type of defense were they running when you can allow.

Brutal.

The primary wide receiver in the NFL to go 23 targets, 16 receptions, 161 yards, and a score and really open the door for another team in the AFC North in the Baltimore Ravens with the biggest victory without even playing in this game.

I had no idea what the hell they were doing. They have a the most expensive defense in the NFL and it's not even close. And if you just go back to the last five years, like after the COVID season, the Steelers are 16th in EPA per play on defense. Think about how many defensive players they've been bringing in. Uh, veterans, uh, young players, they've had T.J. Watt go on massive runs through that stretch and they're 16th. So, they're not coming up with like a scheme difference on that side of the ball. I thought last year that they were getting exposed with like a crazy amount of coverage busts and then this year another season of crazy amount of coverage busts and then on top of that, I would say one of the worst decisions you'll see about punting the ball in the fourth quarter and the models are what they are, but they account for most things and it was one of the most clear go for it there were and they punted the ball and it ended up uh costing them at the very end here. So, I I I'm interpreting your question of to me about Mike Tomlin as what exactly do you do here right now? And I I think despite the record, it is worth investigating. Is it the in-game decisions or is it the the defensive um adjustments like like what is it? Because otherwise it's like he's just good for the locker room, which matters only so much. Because the Ja'Marr Chase stuff was amazing and obviously Jake Browning on a terrible streak in those three games and then Joe Flacco comes in here.

And Hayden, what I felt like it was primary read first read after first read slants crossers speed outs and it was just open every single time. It was an insane watch to see for a team that had so many veteran players and veteran staff to allow that time after time.

series after series.

And I think it was for most of the game. I haven't liked separ and rewatched it on all 22 yet, but it was Jaylen Ramsay on Jamar Chase coming off of it was Slay. It was Joey Porter. But early like it was Jaylen Rams just getting cuckooked and he's coming off a hamstring injury and he has just doesn't have to have the same juice as he does athletically um to be keeping up with Jamar Chase.

The good news is Joe Flacco is pumped to be there and he knows what he's doing and he said it in he was like freelancing. He said, "Yeah, but he but he was like, I know one thing. I'm throwing the ball to Jamar Chase." And he was at in the post game, he was laughing like he's like, "What is this?" Like, "Why are you even talking to me like I just throw the ball to Jamar Chase and he picks up a first down again and again, by the way, to have all those the production and his longest play was only 18 yards."

There will be some games where he has this with a 50 yard game. And I I do think that the Joe Flacco stuff because he's not so familiar with the offense and he's just out there for the vibes, he's just going to throw the ball to Jamar Chase over and over and over again. I would guess that from this point forward he's going to lead the NFL in targets and I think they're going to be good enough. They also play the Jets next week probably without S Gardner.

Oh my gosh, that timing could not be more brutal for the Jets. This might be a little too farfetched, but they're at least competing. They're three and four right now. And they did say that Joe Burrow has a chance to play mid December. So, they're they're trying to piece this thing together, but there's signs of there's there's signs of life. If the Jake Browning was if they weren't going to make that trade, the team was going to give up. Um, and I think they have some life.

The other part of this too, it's not just the receiving work. And it wasn't just Amar Chase like T. Higgins obviously a very talented player and he even gets there despite not getting there ever so far this season for 696 and one and it's also the Bengals haven't been able to block anyone in the running game and Chase Brown gets 11 carries for 108 yards including a 37 yard run. So it's every phase everybody every level and it's like Mike Tomman lost it as soon as he got upset about the Browns trading a starting quarterback in the division in that press conference. It's such a difference. Not just for you being five-one, but for also the Ravens who are at 1 and5.

Oh, they're winning. They're winning the division. The Ravens, right? It is easier to mount a comeback from one and five to now beat a 4-2 team versus a 5-1 team. Just simple math.

Yeah, because they get the the Packers next week. Um, and then they still have to beat the Ravens twice. like the Ravens are back weighted against the division, which is really really nice for them schedule-wise because all these teams are not as good as the Ravens once they're fully healthy and most of their games are in division. Um, so despite the records right now, the the markets and what I think both you and I agree is the favorites for the division are the Ravens and they're going to come back healthy. So this was this was a pivotal game for them to lose because it would have been a much harder to come back from five and one versus one and five versus, you know, now only four and two. Who cares?

Now, final thing. We'll bring this up in Saturn's film, too, but Aaron Rogers had some unreal throws. I know. I mean, that throw to Pat Footh down the middle of the field that he ripped it as soon as he crossed over the safety's face was sweet. Uh, and zero sacks taken in this game. And you even have Jaylen Warren who again, despite the opportunity share shrinking in previous weeks, now he elongates it once again with 16 carries for 127. But I'm not saying the Steelers team feels fugazi so far this year, but they're 4-2 and they're maybe like the least intriguing 4-2 team to me across the league right now.

We say that all the time and like that's why Mike and Tomlin still here. It's like they end up winning more games than they should, but at the same time, I I think it's largely a pretty unserious uh team for for the playoff hunt. I think they're they're going to be in the mix for sure, but I mean, are they going to win the Super Bowl? I I would they'd be completely stunned. And by the way, with the Roger stuff, even the Hail Mary, I mean, he threw that thing down 70 yards.

All right. Anything else you want to say before we get out of here? No, I think a lot more fun this week than last week. Week six was kind of like a weird quiet week. This there's there's some some big stuff coming on this last week.

All right. Well, as always, you all need to be tuning in to the waiver show that posts. I'm actually not even sure now. Two Monday Night Football games. Oh, the last time we posted one after the second Monday Night Football game or during it, it's the lowest viewed waiver show of all time. Uh, so we just get screwed and this is why I hate it, the schedule makers, because our shows and our content get screwed. So, go and check that out and we'll be back here on Tuesday with stats versus film on top of it. Shout out to Mosha and we behind the scenes up the villa. We'll talk to you'all soon. See?