Fantasy Football Week 10 Reactions - The Rookies Arrived

The good teams are good, the bad teams are bad, and we'll talk about both here today, going through every single game that happened here in week 10. And Hayden, let's start off with the two division leaders facing off against each other. One from the AFC, one from the NFC South, and that is the New England Patriots going into Tampa Bay off a by-week for the Bucs and beating them 28-23. We can talk about Drake May, we can talk about Trevon Henderson, we can talk about Cal Williams. Lead off. Who do you want to discuss first?

So, with the Patriots, the game starts out and there was three just missed passes from Drake May and there was some weather and all of a sudden I was like, whoa, I've never seen this really before this season. And then the weather disappears and here comes MVP Drake May. Uh, the big one was the crossing route to Kyle Williams. Kyle Williams on one-on-one catches the ball, sprints up field and nearly hits 22 miles per hour. At the time that was the seventh fastest ball carrier of the season. Uh hint, one of his rookie teammates ends up breaking that a little bit later. Uh going into halftime, there was a really weird sequence for another touchdown where they're at the goal line. Trayvon gets him to the goal line. Uh they decide to not score because they don't want Tampa Bay to get the ball with like 90 seconds to go. They run the ball up the middle. Trayvon gets stuffed. They run up the middle again. Trayvon gets stuffed again. Now it's fourth down. And that decision to not try to score a touchdown on the first down uh was kind of looming large. They hit Drake May hits Steph Diggs in the corner of the end zone. Diggs gets his toes in. That was a fantastic play for him. And then the second half, that's when you get the Trayvon Henry stuff really rolling. Uh it was once again tosses to the outside. He nearly broke one in the first half of it, but in the second half he runs it uh up the middle, goes largely untouched all the way, hits 22 miles per hour, beating uh Kyle Williams in the mile per hour department. And then later on, they get him on a little toss play with a 330 lb fullback that's leading the way and he kind of seals off the the corner out in space and Trayvon's off to the races again. And so this was like the speed. Remember with Drake May last year and the Patriots just in general the last couple years how slow they were. I don't know what the miles per hour was on the last Trayvon run, but he had enough time to actually look at the sideline to see if he should slide or get into the end zone. So this was a lot of speed. They even get like M. Holland down the field for a chunk play. So Drake May was excellent. We'll get to him in a second. But just the Patriots, this version of the team with the rookies in there just they win a relay race versus the week one uh Patriots. And that's pretty exciting.

Very exciting. Uh, I can't wait to go back and watch the Trevon Henderson tape tomorrow. Uh, just overall this Patriots team, no matter who the runner is, has struggled to run the football up the middle. So, I'm really glad that now they continue to lean into the outside. Like, other than that one game that we got for Randre Stevenson against the Tennessee Titans. You know, he has 14 carries for 34 yards against the Cleveland Browns, 13 for 18 against the Saints, 7 for 14 against the Buffalo Bills, 9 for 38 against the Panthers. I can keep going on and on. 11 for 54 against the Miami Dolphins, right? So, getting Trevor Henderson here for 14 carries, 147 yards, and two scores, one big run to the edge, which by the way, with like seven yards to go, he had enough juice and enough space versus anyone else behind him to look over at Mike Vra or whoever else >> and say, "Oh, can I score? Can I score?" Like, that's a Okay. And then also the one up the middle where he like pinballs off a couple and then runs it to the house. So look, I I I am not saying that Trian Henderson is this total complete alpha talent. What I am saying is the Patriots freaking suck at running the football between the tackles all season long, no matter who the runner is. So Hindo's gotten blamed for that. Terrell Jennings got blamed for that. Raandre Stevenson, Antonio Gibson, all these guys. And so their best approach to me is having someone like Trevvin Henderson with having this juice on these edge runs and on these outside runs in order for them to have some type of balance to their offense moving forward. He really reminds me of Raheem Moert. And in the biggest Raheem Moster seasons, it would be pitches and then stretch runs where you just showcase the juice. And he obviously has the juice. No one really was debating that. So that was really exciting to see. The hard part about like the rushing game is early down success rate on runs, two of which is a bottom second uh percentile performance again. So they got the big explosives, but those were off uh to the edge uh where he just wins uh a race up the middle. Uh Terrell Jennings, he had the first three carries in the game, then leaves uh going into the second quarter with a knee injury. Uh Tayvven also kind of got bent out of shape uh on the sideline uh but came back in and scored touchdowns after that. So, who knows about Arandre Stevenson's toe injury. Even if Around Stevenson has a role, the Hendo stuff, they're using him the correct way. If we don't feel good about the run blocking in front of him and the vision's a little bit uh tentative, get him out to space and let him hit home runs. And that's what we're starting to see here. Uh but to to me that was like all that was still kind of secondary what to what Drake May was was doing over the middle. Uh NextGen stats had a really nice um stat to kind of summarize his season. He currently leads the NFL in completions and passing yards on intermediate attempts which they defined as 10 to 19 yards. That part of the field is where he was just relentless. Uh his average depth of the target was at about almost 12 yards downfield. There was not like any checkdowns in this offense. They were going over the top and over the middle. that also means like over the middle of the field and in the intermediate parts uh depthwise. So, it was a really really nice uh game for Drake May. Unfortunately, had a scramble drill touchdown right as the Patriots fans who were on the road were chanting MVP. Um, so, that kind of soiled that moment, but right now, if you do look at the current uh odds, Drake May is the MVP favorite. Him and Matthew Stafford have a great case. Um, but after he sealed those passes in the first quarter, he really settled in and that was a big road win against a Bucks team that will certainly be in the playoffs.

Just to run through the stats, Matt. Collins, 10 targets.

Yeah.

Six receptions, 106 yards. Stefon Diggs, eight targets, five receptions, 46 yards, and a score. And then Kyle Williams, two targets, one catch, 72, and a touchdown. Did you already talk us through that touchdown?

The Kyle Williams. Yeah. Crossing route one-on-one speed 22 miles per hour. Uh Kyle Williams, he was third in routes. It was actually M. Holland, then Diggs, then Kyle Williams, and then Pop Douglas is in that kind of wide receiver for role. But even like Pop Douglas, like whenever he's on the field catching passes, those are like potentials for explosives. So this team just feels faster. Diggs is making like clutch plays, even if he's not like the like total ball dominant wide receiver that maybe we were hoping for. He's kind of settled as like a wide receiver 34 flex play in fantasy. But just having like the secondary guys around Drake May who's just dominant passing the ball down the field right now, like that to me is the exciting part of where I think that the New England Patriots like could go on a real run in the playoffs where maybe in the first quarter of the season they were exciting team, but now that they have like legit speed and juice from a couple breakout candidates like to me that is where they become like frisky to like, okay, no, they're actually a real team.

They've won seven in a row. Uh, look, they've had the easiest schedule in the NFL, but you can only play the teams that are in front of you, right? And they've beaten some legit organizations out there. We talked about they beat the Bills, and now they go on the road to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Again, beat them both on the road. The next three games, Aiden, the Jets, the Bengals, and the Giants.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the point differential is also still really good, too. So, you can only beat the teams, but they usually beat their ass.

I am totally with you. Okay, let's talk about it on the Bucs end because I see, you know, Baker Mayfield dropping back 45 times. I see actually Shawn Tucker out rushing Rashad White 53- 38. Uh, I believe that's the first rusher that's gone over 50 yards against the New England Patriots all season long. That was the backup running back course. Uh, and then it's Emech Ibuka for 6 for 115 and one. Kotton for 9 for 82 and then TZ Johnson 4 for 42 and two. Yeah, this was a game where the Bucs were moving the football pretty well. They just like kept losing the high leverage situation. So, they had a failed two-point conversion late in the game when the game was really close. There was a fourth and three. Uh, they had a pick penalty that would have been a first down. Instead, that gets called and now they have to punt the ball. Like those little things added up to a loss here. Also, on late down passes, Baker was two of 12. Uh, there was like one early on the game, third and three. He's kind of getting outside the pocket and we've seen Baker Mayfield pick up first downs as a scrambler. Today he gets chased down. So lucky for us, the guys that were playing in fantasy get home. Amecha Ibuka, they put him into the slot. That's his first touchdown. Uh, he has another explosive in the slot. That was a good way to use a Mecha who can play inside and outside because you're dodging Christian Gonzalez out there. Uh, he did have a drop on an out route against Christian Gonzalez. But in general, NECA looks totally fine and it was a very predictable breakout game for him after kind of slumping for uh throughout October. And then TZ Johnson, he gets a scramble drill touchdown uh in the end zone. Then like garbage time crossing route in the back of the end zone for his second touchdown. Then as expected when Baker Mayfield is chasing and when they can't really run the ball very effectively as we talked about on the preview shows, uh Kottton nine receptions. Do they go anywhere? Not really. But in full PPR, Kate Dot and without Chris uh Chris Godwin and Mike Evans, he's gonna be a fantasy tight end one. So, this is a not like a very surprising game from the Bucs. It kind of went how I expected. They were competitive. Uh just couple injuries here and there. The defense not fully up to speed. Um, and my last note for them early on this game uh on extra point attempt, Ben Bredesen, the right guard, he just like tears his hamstring just getting pushed back. So, right when we get like four of the five starters back, Luke geted plays in this one. Out goes one of the guards. So, that's just like something where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this year like it's just been too many injuries. When you're playing like good teams like the Patriots, you're going to lose small. They're not going to get blown out very often because they're too good for that. Uh, but just kind of nitpicking some of these injuries is where a Tampa Bay season might kind of fall short.

Their next two games are the most difficult on the schedule. They're on the road against Buffalo and then they're on the road against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday Night Football. But after that, it's basically a cakewalk the rest of the way. So, let's keep that in mind. Let's have some perspective on that when we're ranking these players, when we're talking about this team after those next two games because again, it's like the Cardinals, the Saints, the Falcons, the Panthers twice, and the Dolphins after that. So, it's really these next two games, if they're going to, I don't know, win 12 games this season or win 10 >> or nine games this season. They're still going to walk into the playoffs as the winner of the NFC South. Talk about a game with two young quarterbacks. The Chicago Bears in true Chicago Bears fashion and especially New York Giants fashion uh beat Big Blue 24-20. I mean, the Bears open this game three of 14 on third and fourth downs. There was a fourth and four miss to DJ Moore in the right corner of the end zone from Caleb Williams. Another third and four miss to Zakias. Uh, don't worry, Alamade had his own struggles in this one, including a third and five on a return route drop and then an endzone drop on top of it. Just too many passes were like on the frames of the arm length of wide receivers versus like being on their body uh in between the numbers, hands, extended catches bouncing off of them all day long. And this allowed the Giants to have the lead basically all game. We'll get into their offense in a little bit, but I want to specifically bring you to around the 17-10 mark because Jackson Dart, his concussion forces Russell Wilson into the game. Uh Russ helps this Giants offense drive them down to the oneyard line. Uh on like a third and goal from the two, he tries to climb the pocket, gets it to a fourth and one. Giants kick the field goal. I don't know if this is going to be discussed often enough, but on that field goal, the Bears have 12 men.

Whoa.

So, Brian Dball could accept this penalty, taking it to the half yard line and try to get the lead to, you know, 24 to 10 instead of just handling the 20-10 lead. He declines. It stays 20 to 10. So, nextish series, third and 10, 520 to go. Caleb does his standard spin out and hits Coulson Lovelin over the middle field. This off frame extended big-time catch, big first down. Second and 10 on the body on the break to Roma Dunce over the middle field. 20-yard gain. Next snap near 30 yard scramble here for Caleb Williams down to the oneyd line. Next play Roma Dunce touchdown. So there we are. 2017 Giants lead. Bears force an immediate threeandout on Russell Wilson which ends in a chanty Garner Johnson sack. His second of the game. What? It's his like third team.

Yeah. What team is he on?

He is on the Bears and he got two sacks in this one because Germaine Illuminor failed to pick him up on both of them.

On top of this, Gileiam Gileian, whoever the punter is for the Giants, 26 yard. Okay, so there's 253 to go. Big Luther Burton catch on 20 plus yards. ISO route as an outside wide receiver. Then a 17ard run again in the fourth quarter from Caleb Williams on what looked like a slide route pattern in front of him. Instead of flipping it, he ran it himself and Kimett turns from a receiver into a run blocker and then Caleb runs it in for the score. So there's like still a minute 40 seconds with two timeouts. The Giants have a chance to score a touchdown and win this game. Russ can't do it. Game over. This means that the Giants on the season are 0 and4 in games that they live by 10 plus points. And I don't know if it can get any any worse than uh what we've seen over the last couple weeks here for Brian Dable and company.

I mean the Brian Dable decision that you talked about. I mean you're two and seven. Like go out swinging, right? Especially if you don't have like your quarterback out there. I think there's a couple like also like roster decisions I I saw out there where like Gunnar Elchevki is like playing outside wide receiver um because they're not like wanting to play Jaylen Hyatt and little Jordan Humphrey and stuff. So there's like some just questionable decisions going on with the Giants and I think that some people wanted to see um Jamus out there instead of Russ as the backup quarterback. So there's lots of weird things going on with New York and that's even going before like the backfield which uh it looks like it kind of completely flipped. So really weird stuff for for New York.

Very weird. Um, I mean, again, these teams combined to go for it on eight fourth downs because of the wind and the weather. Apparently, none of the kickers were making it from like 45 plus yards out in pregame. Uh, just to call attention to some players here, specifically on the Chicago Bears, uh, DeAndre Swift comes back from injury, the groin issue that kept him out of last week. He does go 13 carries for 80 yards. Uh he had a sick fourth and two conversion where he was basically met by two New York Giants helmet to helmet. He runs one over and then Cordel Flock comes in and knocks over the Giants defender and then he's able to pick it up by himself for like a six-y gain or nine yard gain on that. Then like that same series gets to fourth and four and he has a drop on fourth and four. Uh Kanong guy does they start off series in series out. Now we'll look at this in stats versus film. the second series he gets the rushing score, but only seven carries for 28 yards and a touchdown and no catches for him. While DeAndre Swift got five catches for 18 yards. Uh DJ Moore goes over. DJ Moore also got banged up in this game. He like comes down with a catch, his legs spread like really far wide and then he's like in and out of the game. A lot of people because of the day Zakius drops, miscatches, whatever you want to call them, uh have been calling for Luther Burton to take those snaps from Zakias. I've been of the opinion that Luther Burton is the replacement for DJ Moore. So, we'll see if the injury keeps him out at all, but that is where they're basically lining up Luther Burton as as an outside player, some of these motions and everything of the sort. And to me, he is performing every time when he's on the field right now. Yep. three catches for 51 and then Coulson Lovelin even with both tight ends back in there four catches for 55 and uh Roma Dunce hit his higher 52 and a half receiving yards in the first half and total six for 86 and one here.

I want to stick with the running backs just because I think they have the potential to be like huge storylines down the stretch especially if one can kind of take over the back field. So it looks like DeAndre Swift about 70% of the snaps manungai gets that goal line carry but eight targets for DeAndre Swift is a pretty big deal versus one for Kyle Manungai. So, um I think DeAndre Swift still has a lot of upside as an RB2. And then Kyle Manunga, I think is like in a miniature version of the uh David Montgomery role. Um the Bears, we don't trust them like we've trusted the Lions. But I think that you can probably do worse as a flex play. And he's just one of these upside plays where if the the game script flips or if Swift picks up another injury or something like that, we're going to want to hold on to Kyle Nungai. So that was like good to see that the ground game was very effective. And then that also includes Caleb who he seems faster this year. I'm not sure if you've noticed that. There's times last year where I thought he would try to escape the pocket and kind of get ran down. That explains some of his sacks where this year he's like actually getting out in space and scoring that one touchdown uh around the perimeter. So, I just thought that Caleb's uh his playmaking in clutch situations in the fourth quarter, scrambles, that type of stuff has like really stood out to me this year.

There were a number of times where Greg Olsen pointed out that, hey, against a free rusher or pressure, Caleb should just dump it off to his running back who's like flaring out wide open. But instead, you know, Caleb would drop his eyes and do the spinneroon that he loves. I will say Caleb didn't get sacked a single time in this game. And there were numerous ones where he like gets grabbed and, you know, twirled around, but he's strong enough to escape it. Again, there are times where you want him to take the easier play and he doesn't, but he still does some really cool stuff on the more difficult ones. I think Ben Johnson is still trying to find that balance, but they obviously are a much more talented football team that they were able to win this game, go to six and three on the season. And yeah, with the running backs, we were expecting the Bears to have like complete control of this game against a bad Giants rushing defense and that just wasn't the case. I mean, they had to score 14 points in the fourth quarter to win it. So that's why, you know, one only gets 13 carries and one only gets seven carries. Uh, last note, looks like Cole Ket and Coulson Leven play about the same amount of snaps, about like twothirds each there. Um, anything stand out from either one of those guys?

Yeah.

Nothing. Let's talk about the Giants here because there's a lot of individuals to talk about. Two injured players. First, we'll start with Darius Sllayton. All right, arguably the catch of the day. Uh, an amazing back shoulder extended one-handed grab through contact that was also defensive pass interference. He had another 38 yard gain along the right sideline. He left in the second quarter with a hamstring injury and at the second quarter had four for 89 and that's really frustrating after the performances he's put up over the last two weeks.

I know. I think it was like coming back in for for moments. Was I misremembering that? Like Sllayton comes back in for a play or two. Yeah. Just a weird rotation that they got going on over there. Um, and like the fact that their backup for when Sllayton goes out is freaking Gunner Orchessky, who is a like Patriots specialtamer who's now playing on the perimeter. It's it's insane the lack of depth for for Jackson Dart. I thought Jackson Dart I was watching this game casually. I thought he was still making some pretty impressive plays uh just as a passer in this one. And I mean, he only takes two sacks uh in this one as well. So, I think both of these young quarterbacks like dodging the sacks and still making some plays on the move um seemed like pretty promising stuff from before his injury. Yeah, we can have the Jack Jackson dart conversation now. Uh he had a goal line rushing touchdown. It was like a fake toss with the quarterback counter with offensive lineman pulling in front of him.

Hell yeah.

That means five straight games of the rushing touchdown. He had another 26 yard on top of that. More offensive line pulling in front of him. They add new wrinkle this week. Remember like the first game that he started it was basically not air raidish but very old missy spread out empty or single back that type of stuff. I'll look at the numbers, but in the bulk of the first half, he had about a 40% under center rate here.

Whoa, that's good stuff.

Uh, and then he was like hitting digs off of it and all that stuff. And he gave his, you know, tight ends chances. There was a fourth and one that he threw to Daniel Bellinger on the move. Was kind of in a double coverage, but Bellinger had both hands on it. Uh, they knock it away in the end zone. Uh, so he gave his tight end chance and his tight end didn't come through. There were other throws to Theo Johnson as well. Um, but the big talking point here is that he was actually sliding early in the game and then in that what fourth quarter he takes a massive hit. Uh, fumbles it, tries to recover it and catch it out of the air again. Takes another big hit on top of it. Lands directly on his face. Is very obviously groggy, but then somehow someway comes in for like the next four or five place on the next series. Doesn't go into the blue tint. I don't know if like

Dball taped it up or says no, you can't go in there or whatever.

Yeah.

I mean, and then

Jackson Dard is immediately removed from the game and then like puts his snood up above his face and then

heads directly to the locker room and is immediately ruled out with a concussion. I mean, it was very clear to me that he had one.

Yeah.

Um Yeah.

And again, it's a talking point every single week. He has great scrambles, great design runs, and then takes a massive hit. We saw him like crawl to the bench last week. And so Brian Dable keeps calling these. I understand because there's not many weapons that you have. At the same time, dude, you are setting your quarterback up for these massive, massive hits. And that one ended in a fumble on top of it. So, it's part of his game. It's going to be a part of his game, but I guess so will injuries.

Yeah. Unfortunately, he's just gonna have to learn his lesson. And hopefully, as the team gets better around him, he doesn't feel like he has to run around as much as he's being asked to. The the hard part about that is he's so good at it. Like he's legit fast. He's got good vision. Like a lot of the stuff is like the design polar stuff where it really reminds me of what Jaylen Herz plays like um at times. Now you just have to find the right balance and and we'll see. Concussions like more times than not you're missing the next game. So it's it's still around 5050. So we'll see about them for next week. But they're they're two and eight. Uh they're officially on the tankathon.com uh watch party list right now. And it's not looking good for for anyone. next three games, Packers, Lions, and Patriots there for the New York Giants.

Who uh

who decided this schedule, man? It's brutal.

The New York Post had an article this week saying, "Hey, not necessarily that Joe Shane and Brian Dal are tied together in terms of if one gets fired, both gets fired." Uh, and they lean towards Joe Shane staying and not Brian. I mean, again, the decision I talked about of not going for it to bring it up to a two touchdown lead and then four games where you've lost a 10-point lead. At some point, this comes up with like some type of coaching dynamic. And while you and I think that he is good for Jackson Dart, >> uh I mean, there's a lot of red. There's a lot of red in the loss column in games that I mean if we're looking at odds on them winning they were probably above what 60 to 70% in a lot of them or 80 or 90% like the Denver Broncos game and then they've all ended in losses.

I think it'd be a pretty attractive head coaching gig. You already have I think a hit on the the quarterback uh cost controlled. You get to live in New York City and then the Giants have been very very very conservative on when they're trying to fire their guys. Like you have a long leash with the Mera family. So, I think if they fire day ball, I think there will be a lot of head coaches that would want to come to New York.

Final point on the running back situation because last week, uh, everyone got it wrong, including us. Yep.

Tyrone Tracy here, 14 carries, 71 yards. Devin Singleary, eight catches or eight carries, 20 yards, excuse me. His biggest work was in the receiving game. Three catches for 53, including like a 41 yard on third and one that he tightropppes the sideline. Then Tyrone Tracy really doesn't get in the receiving game. I mean, Tracy had an early explosive run of 16 yards in the second half. Uh, I guess he looked better. I don't know. Uh, it just doesn't feel like either one matters. Uh, if you have Dart, you know, going in for short yardage stuff in the red zone.

If you have Russell Wilson for the next one,

it's over.

Uh, then it's over on top of it all.

Yep. It's a catch 22. You want Jackson Darden in there because they're better and then the second he's in there, he's your goal line back. when we get questions about this, I think we can now say that Tyrone Tracy is the lead ball carrier for this team, which uh it was a true like 50/50ish last week. So, I'm not sure what that gets us, but that gets us something. All right, let's talk about a bunch of points. Los Angeles Rams 42, San Francisco 49ers 26. It's going to be the NFC West portion of our program. I mean, Matthew Stafford for what, the third straight game, four touchdown passes. Nutso stuff. Devonte Adams, another red zone touchdown. Puka Nakua touchdown. And then we get the tight ends again involved with Kobe Parkinson and Davis Allen. Uh, the Rams can do it all on offense right now.

I think the Rams are the best team in the NFL. They've got elite coaching.

Welcome to the club. I love it.

I mean, it's elite coaching on both sides. We'll talk about the versatility on both sides. They have like gametogame uh just matchup based uh wrinkles. They have a lot of star players on both sides of the ball. They're good in the trenches. And then Matthew Stafford is just playing at a borderline MVP level. So in this one kind of as as we expected with the 49ers, they're just too injured right now. Matthew Stafford's only pressure on 5% of his drop backs. That is crazy stuff right there. And then of course he shreds him for 97th percentile total EPA, four touchdowns. his pace right now uh for this season's at 47 passing touchdowns to to four interceptions. I mean, if that's not MVP caliber stuff, then I don't know what is. Looking at that versus his career, it's his highest success rate, the highest touchdown rate of his career, and all of a sudden they're doing this three tight end stuff where they're getting like explosives through the air. Like a lot of teams use the third tight end to run the ball. They're only doing that, you've talked about this, to get base personnel, get a bunch of linebackers and safeties out there instead of corners. And then those guys can't run as fast as uh their rookie tight end in the second round versus Higgby out in the flats. Kobe Parkinson on leak routes. So they had four tight ends that played at least 20 snaps in this one. Three of the tight ends played about half the snaps or more than that. They combined for 10 receptions. So that's the element where now Shawn McVey, if he doesn't like your linebacker depth, like you didn't like with the 49ers, you're missing Fred Warner. In comes all these tight ends. If they don't like your safeties, in comes all these tight ends. And then if they do respect your linebackers and safeties, you can still go three wide because you have Dvonte Adams and Puka Nua and then either like a Tutu Atwell or somebody else to kind of spin off. And then on top of that, they can run the ball. Kairen Williams and Blake Corum. I thought both looked good in kind of a 6040 split in this one. Uh but in terms of balance been there health right now it's just one of these teams where it seems like everything's kind of lining up and this like three tight end wrinkle it seems like one of those things where we we've seen it at times like the Dolphins going back to like how they were ripping those like play action shots over the middle in the middle of the season it's kind of so hectic to try to figure out where maybe in the offseason teams have a a better idea of how to defend this but Shawn McVey can kind of go into his bag there and then pull back out of it and then they're spreading you out again and Matthew Stafford is not missing many throws right now. So, this is, I think, the most complete team when we get to the playoffs. They might have a by-week if they get lucky here down the stretch, but it's just a team where I think week to week, I'm going to like their matchup. Uh, no matter who it is.

Yeah, they were in 13 personnel on 35 of 77 plays last week. Can't wait to dive into what it was this week. Again, last week against the Saints, it was gains of 36, 16, and 13 yards. Uh, again, can't wait to see it. Like you said, Terrence Ferguson has downfield athleticism and downfield juice that he can pull away someone. And if he's pulling away the first defensive back, then the flat is open and then you can just rumble. And then the flat's not open. Guess what? Kind of the flood pattern to the second level of this >> uh passing concept is going to be open on top of it. So >> if you're running with three tight ends, only one wide receiver is on the field. And then if you want to go two wide receivers, then boom, you've got Devonte Adams and Puka Nakua. Then if you want to run the football, you have Kron Williams, who I think looks more explosive this year because he's playing about half the snaps, 60% in some games.

And then Blake Cororm has talent on top of it, too. And they're just not turning the football over other than that like one fumble that Karen Williams had near the goal line against the San Francisco 49ers. So this team is this close to being undefeated. Uh they also had all those miskicks and block kicks against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Just a wellbalanced team. and Sean McVey, like you said, we went from 11 personnel all the time, three wide receiver sets, Todd Gurley, so on and so forth, to now it's I'm gonna pick you apart and figure out where you're at your weakest, and we have a personal grouping and play sheet to match that.

And they've gone from outside zone to now duo runs, like they've kind of majored in every single type of way to play football at this point, personnel-wise, scheme wise. So, they can they can really uh put some points on and I think

the defense is a part of it, right?

Yeah, 100%. So obviously Jared Verse gets a ton of the attention as he should, but this Byron Young dude is an extreme athlete. He shuts down the 49ers on a fourth down run uh where he just got the the point of attack versus a tight end completely blows it up. So they got it's a good scheme with the Rams and they play a lot of defensive backs and they can really kind of change the picture post snap and then they also have a great defensive line. Like that's to me like in terms of trenches and just been there before and then star talent that the Rams really have all of it. I do want to give a big shout out to the 49ers though. They're so decimated on defense. They had no chance against the Rams offense. But M. Jones went out there and he baldled out, man. 33 of 39 for three touchdowns, 319 yards. The one interception was a fourth down. He just chucks it up instead of getting sacked. It's whatever. I thought it was a fine enough play. Uh Christian McCaffry's kind of slowed down on the ground game, but Brian Robinson gave him a nice little drive there. Show a little bit more burst on the ground, but KD was making fantastic plays. He's kind of uh has a garbage time touchdown where I could not believe that he was able to stop, turn on his toe, and then dive for the pylon the way he did. So, that was encouraging to see him uh look more explosive and healthy. And then Jawan Jennings was making some big plays. Uh but before he started making those plays, it was one of those games where you have to have a drop, you have to have a penalty. Uh, and the fumble of course too. So, the 49ers did not have enough horsepower ultimately to hang in there. But M. Jones, man, this was like another one of these games where I'm not so sure that he's a backup quarterback anymore. And I'm really not sure like how much of a drop off there is versus an an injured Brock party. Like to me, Brock Party might have been able to play right now. But if he's not the same, it's hard to compete with M. Jones just inside the pocket. So that was 90th percentile EPA per play, 95th percentile completion percentage over expected here. He was just kind of in the zone. the entire game. That's like against this defensive line that we're talking about and the Rams can do a lot of funky stuff on defense. So, I just wanted to give them a shout out because against lesser opponents, this this 49ers offense would have absolutely steamrolled uh to a win.

And the 49ers have arguably the easiest part of their schedule coming up. It's the Cardinals, the Panthers, the Browns, and the Titans over the next four games. So, hopefully they can get to I don't know, nine or 10 wins >> in that span of time. Uh, I guess this is Chris McCaffry's lowest fantasy out output of the season, but he still had eight catches for 66 yards and then 12 carries for 30 yards. So, like even when it's not his day, uh, he still doesn't sink your week at all.

Yep.

Yeah. The the floor is unbelievable. Um, did want to know uh, one other thing. Jawan Jennings, his touchdown was a designed play for him where he was the cheap motion defender and it's one of those cheap motion to dig routes where the defender's like having to like backpedal and then stop and then sprint forward again where Jawan Jennings has more momentum. Um, so that was like a first read look for Jawan Jennings in the the red area. So we'll see about Ricky Pierce. It doesn't seem like he's like season for Jawan Jennings.

Yeah, it's a roller coaster.

Yeah. I mean, in this one, what he had a false start, a drop, and then the fumble, but then he obviously had a ton of things directing his >> direction with nine targets, six receptions, 71 yards, and a score.

Yeah. After the game, they they're not sure about Brock Pury playing next week. Um, there's they said he's getting closer, but I mean, he's not saving the season. M. Jones has played very well the entire time. So, they they're going to beat the bad teams. They're going to win a lot of 50/50 games and then I think ultimately their defense is just too injured where the best teams in the NFL are just going to run and pass all over them and so I think ultimately in the playoffs it's going to be a team that's doesn't have like too much of a fighting chance but they're going to put up a lot of fantasy points for us down the stretch here.

Yeah. And George KD's touchdown was unreal.

Laying out at his size to like get the ball in front of the pylon is sweet. One final shout out because, you know, first round picks get labeled as bust and, you know, this guy probably still is, but Emanuel Forbes goes to LA and he makes plays every single week now. Like he got lit up on a form tackle against Taesm Hill last week >> and then this week he gets two pass deflections.

Yep.

So that's, you know, they add defensive pieces while like the 49ers, for example, are losing defensive pieces. Uh, and that's probably the difference here in the NFC West. All right, let's stick in that division as the Seattle Seahawks totally put it on the Arizona Cardinals 44 to 22. I mean, this game was over honestly in the first quarter when it was 21 nothing and then at halftime when it was 38-7. Let's go through each of these things. Okay.

Uh for the Seattle Seahawks on their first drive, 43 yard touchdown to Jackson Smith and Jigba. He takes like an outside stem, then goes up the field. It's like he's open without actually being open. There are two defensive backs kind of bookmarking him. Uh, and still perfectly paced pass in between the two. Touchdown catch. Easy. Jacob Brassette, first Arizona Cardinals drop back. 25 yards to Trey McBride. Third Arizona Cardinals drop back. Fumble six. Uh his arm barely even gets moved forward in its motion while Tyrese Knight sacks him. Demarcus Lawrence scoop and scores it. Uh this was on a six offensive lineman snap. Again, you remember when Kell Beichum was terrible last week? They tried to pull from the left side and a theme of the Seattle Seahawks defense this week was overloading one side and the Cardinals pass protection had zero and I mean zero answers to it. So, next one. Seahawks already up 14 nothing. Ken Walker gets them to the red zone. Then, yes, George Hani runs it in for a touchdown inside of the 10 yard line. That brings it to 21 to zero for the Seattle Seahawks. Next series for the Arizona Cardinals. Another sack fumble. Another free rusher. And it's the same exact pairing. Tyrese Knight sack. Demarcus Lawrence scoop and score. Free rushers everywhere. He's trying to throw it. He's Jacob's trying to stand in the face of a pass rush, but it's not even close. 28 to nothing. Back-to-back games here for the Seattle Seahawks where they've gotten to a 28 to nothing lead. I believe Mike Rener said that's only the third time in the Super Bowl era for a team to have a 28- nothing lead in back-to-back games.

And so, yeah, there's just more stuff like Cooper Cup gets a 67 yard gain with 50 of it after the catch. You can literally see his battery drain out as we go along. All, and I mean all of the Cardinal stats in the second half were in garbage time. Uh, but I mean, this Seattle team is an absolute monster at this moment on both offensive side and the defensive side.

Yeah, it really reminds me of the Vikings from last year. Just the defense was just completely chaotic. And then the downfield stuff when it's on, it is a team that you're just not going to beat. And that was this the story here where just immediately you just needed the one chunk play to JSN and the yak play for Cooper Cup and that was that was a wrap. So I am curious though just on the ground for fantasy purposes. George Helani that touchdown was early on right. I mean define garbage time for me. That was not garbage time. That was their second series on offense again. Like Ken Walker gets them down to the nine yardd line. Uh I believe there's like a timeout either due to an injury or something and then Hani checks in and he runs it in for for nine yards. I mean, all three of the guys look good and like Zack Charbanet had one series as this was like deep into the game being over where he had like a 30- yard run, a 16 yard run, and then two nine yard runs on the same series. He also had a six-y touchdown run.

Ken Walker also looked good. He had a 24 yard run, which you can't run for 24 yards if you're inside the 10 yard line, apparently. Uh I don't think he got a single touch. I mean, he got one touch inside the 10 in this game, but none of the goal line stuff. And then, yeah, George Hani, seven for 31, a lot of that in the second half outside of that early early touchdown run. I know a lot of people want to know about Rashid Shahed since he was traded last week and knew Clint Kubak's playbook. Uh, he was the first team punt returner, first team kick returner, and then did play wide receiver four in snaps. that equaled, you know, some end rounds, some screens, two carries for 20 yards, and

Then one catch for three yards. Uh, obviously the game was out of whack, but, you know, Cooper Cup played more snaps than him in the first half and then played more snaps than him in the second half. JSN, uh, left with like concussion-like symptoms or was checked at one point and was cleared to come back, but then even Cody White played more snaps ahead. Again, I'm sure a lot of it was for run-blocking purposes. And I'm sure moving forward, Rashi Shahi will play more and more snaps. I just felt like it was notable that immediately he didn't come in here and, you know, was second in wide receiver snaps or in two-wide receiver sets all the time. It could get there for sure, but it just wasn't instantly once he joined the Seattle Seahawks team.

Yeah, they traded a lot for him. It's an expiring contract, so I think he'll grow into that. But I think he needs to prove it first in terms of the, um, snaps. And even when he's out there, if he is the number two receiver, um, this is just going to be a low-volume offense once you kind of subtract all the JSM touches.

Like there is a chance, and it might not be this, there is a chance that he's a not as much of a fantasy asset as we want him to be at this point. Um, I'm just saying like when we head to next week, when we were wondering if Rashichi could be a starter this week, I have to lean towards probably no in the next contest just because of, you know, what we saw in this game. I still think he's incredibly talented. If they win it all, I guarantee you Rashid was a main feature in them winning it all. And that can flip like this. But I'm kind of at the point where for a team that wants to run two-wide receiver sets, keep the opposition in base personnel, uh, I don't know if he has totally surpassed Cooper Kupp at this point.

Next week we'll find out. Rams, Seahawks, it's for the division, at least partly for the division. Both of these teams are awesome. I, I think Seattle has got a case for the the most like underrated like real contender. I mean, their their defense, I would take, I would take their defense over any other defense in the league right now. They just have so much depth. Nick Manwar on the stat sheet led the team in tackles.

Um, he left with an issue late in the game. I did want to bring up that despite again being up 38 to 7, Sam Darnold did have three second-half turnovers here. A fumbled exchange from center because the center left with an injury. Soundell. So, uh, Olu Olu comes back in. That was a fumbled exchange at their like one-yard line. He also had an interception, uh, from basically his own five-yard line and then he had a sack fumble from his own 19-yard line. So that kind of popped up here when they're dropping back in the second halves against like the Houston Texans, I believe it was. So, uh, hopefully one of those moments don't come back and bite the Seahawks in like a real close game here.

Okay, let's talk about the Cardinals again. Jacobe's stat line, uh, 49 dropbacks, five sacks, 22 of 44, 258 and two touchdowns. Thankfully, those touchdowns went to Trey McBride, 9 for 127 and one, and then Marvin Harrison Jr., 3 for 33 and one. It truly was an entire second half of garbage time, and they played almost all of it until like the final series or two, and it helped us get there. So, we appreciate that. Uh, but right now, the Arizona Cardinals, you know, spent all week, uh, talking, slash, not talking about Kyler Murray, and then now the mirror is kind of just pointed in the Monta San for Jonathan Ganon direction, where, you know, that Jacob's your star for the next four weeks again. I think he earned it after his previous two games. They just were never going to be the Seattle Seahawks on the road in this year.

No, I'm going from the Cowboys to the Seahawks in one week is a difficult task. Um, yeah, like this was a predictable game. At least Jacob is functional enough to get the ball to Trey McBride repeatedly. Trey McBride's leg, he's posting like elite wide receiver one numbers. I don't know what I would, where I would draft him, but if you were making the case for him, like the round one, two turn, I would absolutely listen to you right now. Like he is the guy that's repeatedly just being the dominant volume hog of the offense. Uh, I got to ask though, quickly, just Marvin Harrison. You get 12 targets, he scores a touchdown. Don't know how it happened, but for 33 yards, was there anything about the Jacobe-Marv connection here?

Well, he had another two-point conversion that he came down with, too. He nearly had another touchdown that was like extended, but then, uh, the Seattle Seahawks defensive back just made an incredible play while falling down, kind of punches it out.

Uh, no, there's honestly nothing else I, I can add to that. Um, I wonder if I look back and some of those might be throwaways in, in this direction. Uh, Walter Nolan left deep into the fourth quarter holding his left knee, assisted, like on the two shoulders by two trainers walking off the field.

Uh, so that's like, you know, not what, what seven quarters into his NFL season. We don't know how severe it is, 'cause by that time, no one was reporting anything on the sideline, but it did not look good.

Yeah, the reporters had left already. There was nobody left.

Um, already.

With, with the Cardinals though, the defense has lost a lot of injuries. The Walter Nolan one would be big. They play some teams that can score a lot of points like the N. They got the Niners, the Bucks, the Jaguars, you got the Rams, the Falcons, the Bengals down the stretch here. This is like one of these teams where I think they're going to be in a lot of shootouts. Like Jacob Brassette, he's going to have some strip sacks and throw the ball over the middle for interceptions, but he's also functional enough. So Trey McBride and Marvin Harrison, I do think are going to find themselves in a lot of shootouts. And I think to me, it's like the Trey McBride stuff. I think it gets very serious down the stretch.

Darius Robinson, their first-round pick last year, also left with an injury. So these are all things we need to monitor here.

Let's close your games with the Baltimore Ravens continuing their winning streak, beating the Minnesota Vikings in Minneapolis, St. Paul, 27-9. I didn't get to catch a single part of this game, but it doesn't look like really there was a blow-up by any Ravens offensive player. Lamar held to 176 yards passing. Derrick Henry held to 75 yards rushing.

Yep.

Zay Flowers held to 75 yards receiving. How'd they get this victory?

There was really like an uneventful offensive game for the Ravens here. He had a touchdown to Mark Andrews. He always has a touchdown, uh, to Mark Andrews in the end zone. Mark Andrews did have a drop. Isaiah Likely had a drop. So, it's kind of one of those games where not everything was clicking on late downs. Lamar was only one of nine. So, it's one of these games where a lot of checkdowns underneath. Uh, Derrick Henry was not overly efficient. He had like a couple nice first-down runs breaking some tackles, but like you said, no one really stood out. There was two catches where Zay, uh, Flowers had some nice like yards after the catch. So, showed some like real speed out there. Unfortunately, Justice Hill, his, I think his only carry of the game, happens to be at the one-yard line. So, Derrick Henry doesn't get like that spike week RB1, uh, stat line. Instead, it's just 75 scoreless yards for him. Um, so it's one of these games where the Ravens offense was not firing. They still score 27 points as a team, but this was like not some like ludicrous, uh, game by any means. Just did want to note this though, real quick. Uh, this from the NFL research team. Lamar Jackson's thrown just 50 interceptions in his first 100 career starts. That breaks Aaron Rodgers' record for the fewest interceptions in a quarterback's first 100 starts. Rodgers had 54. So Lamar Jackson did not turn the ball over in this one. Um, took, I believe, a couple sacks. Uh, just, just the one. Um, but he felt like a little bit under duress. I'm sure on the, uh, all 22. Flores was like throwing some wrinkles out there. But, uh, a quality win. I think there's like a lot more notes on the Minnesota side of the ball.

Well, let's go there then, because, you know, we're only what, four games into JJ McCarthy as a starting quarterback. Every single one is going to be picked apart of what he did well and what he didn't. So, what did he do well and what did he not do well? Well, on the first drive, third and six, under pressure, gets smoked by Kyle Hamilton, throws an out route to Justin Jefferson, picks it up, and then later on throws a ball in the bucket to the sideline to Jalen Naylor for 62 yards. They score. Aaron Jones scores a touchdown. So, the first drive, I post that and of course everyone's like, "See JJ McCarthy, blah, blah, blah, he's so good that you wrote him off too early." And from that point on, he was not good. The thing that's really concerning with JJ McCarthy, he feels very hyped. Maybe it's the nine thing going on there, but it's almost like to a detriment where the ball is spraying, where he's like so juiced. Justin Jefferson took some big shots and I thought Justin Jefferson was a little bit frustrated at his quarterback was missed a couple times when he was wide open. Both of the interceptions were to Justin Jefferson. One of them he got his feet tied up on, kind of like a prayer way down the field where Marlon Humphrey catches it, but Justin Jefferson was not trying to tackle Marlon Humphrey afterwards. And then earlier on in the game, uh, JJ McCarthy steps up within the pocket, launches it downfield right to the free safety. So, I thought that was a pretty bad interception. But I think on top of just like the inaccuracies, it was the false starts. Josh, they had eight. They're at home. Eight false starts. They're at home.

How is that possible? Is it, like the, the center-quarterback cadence that this team like hasn't been around? I mean, this is the second game with it though, since the returning from injury.

Yeah, I can't explain it. I think it's probably just partially the quarterback and just they're a little frustrated. It wasn't because the Raven, the Ravens had a bunch of fans at the stadium. It was just like a, one of those things where it's like when you're inexperienced, like this happens. Uh, but yeah, through the first four games now, we're at like 108 dropbacks for JJ McCarthy or pass attempts. He's closer to Josh Dobbs and Carson Wentz than he is to Nick Mullens, Kirk Cousins, and Sam Darnold. So the yards per attempt now is at 6.44. When you adjust that down for sacks, that drops down to 5.7 yards per pass attempt or so. It has not been a clean start. I thought he had like a couple moments. He's still a good scrambler and can kind of buy some time.

Or even the leading rusher for the team in this one.

Yep. And tough, but the down-to-down consistency. I mean, he completed less than half of his pass attempts. Only took, uh, one sack. Uh, but a lot of that was kind of buying some time, but really he has to settle down or the ball is just going to keep spraying. And another thing is there's a bunch of batted passes, which I think is kind of correlated. So, he's not the tallest guy, but on top of that, he throws on the line drive because he just keeps throwing like 95 mph fastballs, 102 mph fastballs. Got to adjust for the era. Um, and they just keep getting swatted down. So, Kyle Hamilton had a couple of those in particular. So, frustrating game for Justin Jefferson, uh, and Jordan Addison here. And, uh, all not really, not that impressive for JJ McCarthy aside from the first drive.

Yeah, just to go through some of those stats. I mean, Jalen Naylor, five for 124 and one. Uh, yeah, crazy course. And JJ, 20 of 42 for 248, one touchdown, two interceptions. I'm just looking at the Lamar Jackson time to throw. It is easily, easily the quickest of the week at 2.2 seconds. The next closest is 2.62 seconds of Baker Mayfield. So maybe, uh, Todd Monkin and company think that, you know, this Brian Flores defense has gotten his juice back a little bit.

Yeah, that's, that's really interesting to me. I, I didn't realize it was that, that quick. Not, not even that many screens. It was only four screens, so it was just get the ball out for Lamar.

And look, who knows what the rest of the season has in store for the Vikings, but what they had 13 penalties, three turnovers, and they still had a final drive to like potentially tie this thing and send it into overtime, which again, I think puts in perspective that the defense gives you chances and then they just couldn't make good on it.

For the Vikings, they're now at a 14% chance to make the playoffs. So largely this season is about JJ McCarthy and how serious is he? Do we have to bring in competition for him the following season? Does Kevin O'Connell have his eyes elsewhere? And through four games, they should, like the JJ McCarthy stuff, he, he seems very unsettled. I know he's inexperienced, but the accuracy and then just the level-headedness of the offense, it's been lackluster. And like you can go ask Justin, Justin Jefferson, honestly, if you were rating this performance, he would be extremely frustrated. He's, he's seems like a good guy and really never in the news for this type of stuff, but I can tell he was visibly frustrated just by watching the game.

Even my guy Miles Price, who in the season opener against the Bears, looked like one of the best returners in the league, fumbled twice, lost one as well.

It's not good.

Yep. Yep. You can't lose at the margins. The penalties, that turnover right there, JJ McCarthy throwing a couple prayers down the field, like that was really kind of what explained it because it was not a very impressive performance from the, the Ravens offense.

Let's talk more about losing and winning at the margins as the New Orleans Saints beat the Carolina Panthers 17-7. Uh, the Saints finished 10 of 20 on third and fourth downs. Their important players made big games, and not a single one on offense or defense for the Panthers did. So, let's talk about the man, the myth, the legend, the 40th overall pick, Tyler Shuck, having his best performance as a professional in this game. First series, third and 12 on his own 18 after previously taking a sack on the play beforehand. He makes two defenders miss on a sack. Juwan Johnson totally uncovered, gain of 52 yards. That drive leads to a field goal. Then third and seven. JC Horn perfectly in phase on a stutter and go versus Chris Olave. There's some hand fighting while JC Horn, I guess, is trying to get Olave to the sideline. But that hand fighting forces him to fall to the ground. It ends in a Chris Olave 62-yard touchdown on the day, five for 104 and one score. And then third and 12 in the second half when this game is still tight, just a three-point contest. Tyler Shuck again buys more time. JC Horn again falls down trying to change direction. And Juwan Johnson walks in for a long touchdown. So, four catches, 92 yards, and our favorite tight end PPR scam streamer is a big play merchant in this one with another score on top of it. Meanwhile, on the opposite end, like Rico Dowdle, just 39 yards and a touchdown on 11 carries. At halftime, the Panthers go into the stretch of four three-and-outs. They have one solid drive out of halftime where Dave Canalis calls, you know, some under-center play-action intermediate chances. Then that drive ends with a Jimmy Horn jet sweep handoff exchange fumble that he just doesn't get his hands up. Uh, so that's a turnover. And then Bryce Young, not a good day, throws an interception, uh, as Alante Taylor, who was like his nemesis in the NFC South, uh, faux blitzes and then backs off into zone coverage, and it goes directly at him. So, the Saints were able to force the Panthers into trying to pass, and it felt like Bryce Young and Dave Canalis, uh, just had zero answers when it came to a passing game. And that is borne out in the stats where it's Tedro McMillan at wide receiver and everyone else doing absolutely nothing. You were all over the Tyler Shuck passing yards, uh, today, and you got it, I mean, early because of the explosives, uh, down the field. So, how much, like, on those explosives was that Tyler Shuck? How much could we take, like, from this game? Because obviously this could be his best game of the season when we look back at it. Um, and we need to like put, like, the proper context to this one.

The most impressive part, and it's not like the Panthers have a great pass rush, but they were getting some disruption and muddying things. And look, the Saints are down a couple of offensive linemen. He was just again, kind of like getting skinny through these crevices and climbing and then throwing these passes. It's not like he was throwing off his back foot and, you know, making these sick in the face of pressure throws, but he was still able to have like functional athleticism to find, you know, operational space and then for somehow, someway, Juwan Johnson is just wide open. It really was those three big passing plays, and that was the crux of his entire passing day. Uh, but that's totally fine. Like he just ripped them apart, and, uh, Kellen Moore, you know, dialed some things up. Even Alvin Kamara got going on the ground, which we hadn't seen in weeks. 22 carries, 83 yards, adds another three catches for 32 yards. Like, when was the last time we got a 100-plus day for real in total yardage here from AK?

Yeah, it's been a while.

It's, it's been a very long time. Yeah, I think you said it, like the offensive line, it's, it's all gone. Like the fact that he was able to do this was, I think, and that's even with 22 plays with Taysom Hill on the field, I think, in this game.

Oh my gosh. I mean, yeah, they can't help themselves out there in New Orleans. Even in a win, you got to do some funky stuff. But I would say generally exciting because it's one of these situations where the Saints are going to be picking most likely in the top five. Currently, they're second overall. There's only so many quarterbacks that you can have. So, they might not ever be in a position to draft a quarterback to replace Tyler Shuck. And then you start fielding calls for draft picks and whatnot. So, it's going to be interesting to see how, how this one, um, kind of finishes up because right now, at least the top two teams or the top three teams in the draft, the Titans, the Saints, and the Giants, they all have rookie quarterbacks, uh, playing to varying degrees of, of good football enough. So, it'll be curious to see, like, the jockeying that we have up front, um, with how many quarterbacks are going to go up that high.

Anthony, you want to ask about the Panthers end of this as Rico finishes with 18 carries for 53 yards and a touchdown. Uh, and then Chuba only three carries for 14, obviously.

Yeah, I mean, Tedro McMillan, five for 60, no touchdown. That's kind of just like the baseline for him. Rico Dowdle, like touched the ball all the time and scored a touchdown. So, I think the game kind of went as expected for the box score. Just, I want like a state of the union for Bryce Young. Like, just what we've seen. It's been half the season now for for Bryce Young in year three. Like, where are you at with Bryce? Like, is there comps? Anything that you can say about him, like, big picture-wise? So, it's a totally different passing game than what finished last season. They are just not throwing the football down the field at all. And I'm not sure if that's because they don't want to turn the football over, which again, they did in this game twice. Uh, and there was nearly a third, uh, but that was called back for roughing the passer because Bryce got his helmet pulled off. Um, but like, just comparing it to last season, like from weeks, what, eight through 18, on like the top, what, 20, 25 quarterbacks in the NFL, he was one of the best downfield passers statistically in the league. Like he was sixth in attempt percentage. He was third in adjusted completion percentage of 20-plus yards. He was second in big-time throw rate. He threw for the sixth most yards on those 20-plus yard passes, the second highest drop percentage. You know, this season that's only 7.8% of his attempts. And like on the individual numbers of those, there are still some big plays in that. Like he's sixth in big-time throw rate in that. He's 10th in adjusted completion percentage on that. But they are just not having a downfield element at all. And again, it took until the third quarter for them to have any of this dropback under-center stuff. I don't know if they're nervous about his ankle at all. I don't see any issues with his movement, but there were just other games and obviously you're talking about the Dallas Cowboys defense, which is terrible, but there were like some easily designed intermediate stuff to the tight ends or to Rico Dowdle out of the backfield and all that type. And out of this, it was, oh, we're just going to go empty and allow and like do the quick-hitting stuff. Yeah. And then not have any plan of an intermediate to downfield. So, I'm not sure if there's like a disconnect here, if that's a quarterback issue, if that's a play-calling issue, but like you said, we're 10 games into this. They were favored by five points.

And they shouldn't just, like, be stuck into, well, if our running game gets stuffed, then we can't throw the ball because last year, they threw the ball better than they could run the ball. Yeah, that's why I wanted to ask because the defense is about league average right now, and the run game, the run game is top five-ish on like a play-by-play basis throughout the season, and they're five and five, but the pass game's just been so lackluster. It's year three, so like you can only kind of play these games so long. So, as we kind of like wind down the season here, just like, all right, would the Panthers be bringing competition for Bryce Young? Has he earned it? The way that you're explaining it, he's had some moments that he can still throw nice, like, just whole shots to the sideline pre-snap-wise when he sees the right, right picture. But the fact that they're not attempting these downfield passes and they're running the ball as often as they are, it's like offense.

Yeah, that doesn't make any sense to me though, because if you're running it as successfully, like we see in Seattle with like heavier personnel groupings, you should your pivot off of that should be downfield shots, and they're just not taking these downfield shots. Yeah, but he's not like the under-center play-action, step-up. Yeah. So, like that's like, I think the thing that you have to get to that, that's got to be the baseline, like if, if Bryce Young's going to succeed in the NFL and he's needs talent around him to do that, and obviously Carolina is a work in progress with that, you got to be able to do the under-center play-action.

Right. So, they have to get back to that, or else, like, they're a team that has a quarterback. They have to be kind of looking out across the league. They have to.

Yeah. Like he, he definitely has to play better, but at the same time, it, the passing game was just flat out better last season. And it was one of those things where you would think with an improved defense and an improved rushing game, then you just incorporate that stuff. Like you remember the Broncos game last year was all of the downfield shots. You had the, uh, obviously the New Orleans Saints game. You had, uh, the Arizona Cardinals, even the Philadelphia Eagles, all these. So, it's just weird. It is weird that it's not happening. And I'm not sure if there's just like a total lack of confidence in it. And I do think there is a massive fear of, if we throw the football down the field, there's a higher chance of turning the football over. And now they just want their identity to be solid defense and running the football. And the more possessions we get, then the more chances we have of winning the game.

Yeah. And you can only win so many games with Rico Dowdle as like the focal point, you know?

I'm with you. Uh, and look, this was like, I don't believe one is a favorite in five years. I think I read that.

Is that an actual stat? Please tell me that's true.

It might be. So, yeah, it's the Atlanta Falcons next week. So, you're back. You're back. The Davis Mills-led Houston Texans beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 36 to 29. Brenley Wiseman watched this entire thing, and I cannot wait to hear about it because I see in the box score, I see it in red zone, I see in the stat sheet. The Jaguars are up 29 to 10, and then it totally fell apart with a Houston Texans fourth quarter. It has been a roller coaster of a season for the Jaguars, and Liam Cohen winning games they shouldn't, losing games they shouldn't, and now we add another one to that list. Brenley, how did it all happen?

Yeah, it was really a tale of two halves for the Texans. I mean, the first quarter, first half was just so bad. Uh, two really bad turnovers by the Texans, a really poor interception by Davis Mills, a fumble on kick return, which directly led to Jaguars points, and then a Parker Washington punt return touchdown. It was just everything that could go wrong for the Texans was going wrong. But in the second half, they must have just flipped the switch because Davis Mills remembered Nico Collins exists. Dalton Schultz exists, and he was just peppering those guys all like a second half. I mean, the Jags defense had no answer for Nico Collins. They moved him all over the formation. They were just isolating him and getting him the football, which obviously was a great move. Um, uh, uh, oh gosh, Davis Mills was just delivering the ball so accurately down the field, evading the rush. He was a, he was awesome, guys. He was really good in the second half. But more importantly, the defense, this Texans defense, which I think we all know is arguably the best in the NFL, was unbelievable in the second half. Danielle Hunter, I think he had three and a half sacks today, just completely engulfed the Jags offense in the second half, and it was just a brutal, brutal, uh, uh, just letdown by the Jags. I gotta go straight to Trevor Lawrence in the pass game there because we got Jacobe Meyers to try to, um, kind of solve the, the Jaguars issues while they don't have Travis Hunter and Brian Thomas. Uh, obviously it was a total collapse. His numbers don't look overly good. Took five sacks on top of this. So obviously you can explain a lot of that just having those two nasty pass rushers and Derek Stingley. But what else are you seeing from Trevor Lawrence just in general, and then if any of that applies with an offense that that doesn't have their top two receivers?

Yeah, I thought Trevor was really bad today. Um, just inaccurate. I mean, the pick he threw to Derek Stingley was just late and, and you got, you kind of got to know who you're throwing against, right? You know, you know, Stingley has the, the skills to make a play on the ball. Um, just poor decision-making and then just kind of inaccurate passes down the field. To your point, you know, without Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter, I don't want to be too critical of Lawrence, but for, you know, a past number one pick being clearly outplayed by Davis Mills in the second half, that's not, you don't want that. That's not going to make you feel good if you're a Jags decision-maker. Um, you know, so then also to be fair, he didn't give a lot of help on the running game as well. So, um, that, that was an issue. But overall, it's not a good day by, by Trevor Lawrence. Stephen Ruiz tweeted that Trevor Lawrence after the Jaguars went up 20 to 19 had six dropbacks, a 100% pressure rate.

Yep.

Three sacks, two scrambles for 24 yards, and then one pass attempt that was batted at the line of scrimmage. I guess my thing is, I understand that, you know, the Jaguars have gone through some offensive linemen this year, but when you're up 29 to 10 and the most feared part of the Texans is Dell Hunter and Will Anderson and then throwing at Derek Stingley and the rest of the defensive back group, how can you not run the football at that point? You know, like this is a team that in the first month of the season was one of the best rushing attacks in the league. And then now, I know Travis Eye gets in the end zone, but he goes 16 carries for 58 yards, averaging 3.6. Basel Tutin only averages 1.3 on four carries. That's just not good enough when you're trying to like close out games and be like a serious offense here because that really wasn't the case last year with Liam Cohen and the Tampa Buccaneers.

Yeah, I mean, Travis Etienne is is tough for me because when I watch these games, I think he looks good when he has the ball. Like I, I like the explosiveness. Like I don't think he's a bad player, but then 3.6 yards per carry, like what are we doing, you know? And then Tuton, uh, he was banged up in the first quarter or first half. It was on a kickoff, a kick return. He like hurt his ankle, but he's able to come back in. But I don't know how, like healthy he really was in the second half. But yeah, this running game, which to your point, was so good to start the year and so efficient, they couldn't do anything today. And all they needed to do was close the game out, run the ball, and move, move the chains. They could not do it.

Three yards before contact for Jacksonville. I think you just Liam Cohen comes, but you don't get to bring Tristan Wirfs and Grant Barton and everybody else that they have up front. So, that's just going to be a problem as they try to figure this thing out. It's negative passing EPA on the season now for for Jacksonville. So, that's just, it's just not a good offense right now. They, they make too many mistakes with penalties, and then Trevor can make some throws, then misses some others, and then guys are dropping the ball. I think this is like why I was kind of critical of the Jacobe Meyers trade because now I'm looking at it. They have a 36% chance to make the playoffs. And if they do make the playoffs, they'll be the worst team to make the playoffs and they'll probably lose. They traded like a fourth and a sixth-rounder for Jacobe Meyers, and he's an expiring contract, and he doesn't even play, uh, all that much in this game here. So, it's just one of these teams. They're like, I'm not sure if how all-in they are right now. They're making some like bold decisions, but the team whenever I'm watching them just does not feel all that threatening. No. Um, and if the defense isn't gonna be making all those turnovers that they did in September, then they're like solid but not great. And I'm just kind of like stuck with like, what exactly am I watching on a week-to-week basis with this team?

Okay, Brenley, there's some big fantasy conversations to have here. First, let's go to the Texans running back room because we feel like we have an answer every single week when it comes to this. And this might be the biggest feather in the cap of Woody Marks. I mean, 60 of 75 offensive snaps in comparison to just 10 for Nick Chubb here. So, let's talk about that before we talk about the wide receivers.

Yeah. And those numbers are actually a little skewed because Woody Marks missed some time early in the game with an injury. Like he had like a weird ankle. He grabbed his ankle. He was walking to the sideline and just like fell right, right by the sideline. So, he probably would have played more snaps had that not happened. So, but this, this back feels completely dominant, like Woody Marks, and I thought he played phenomenal today. I wasn't, like, admittedly the back, the biggest Woody Marks fan coming out. I didn't think he was that talented, but the way he runs, his patience, his quickness, his ability to make defenders miss is awesome. I mean, like, really, really impressive.

He instantly sold me, Brenley, in the preseason. Like, yeah, you know, where he's termed this scatback, airback, third-down guy, but then how he makes his cuts and even wins on contact and getting to the edge or working back inside. Uh, yeah, that was one where I instantly flipped my opinion, and I believe he's the best, you know, back on this team for weeks and weeks at this time.

100%. He broke tackles today, just ran with good patience. He really good vision. I was really impressed with him today. Like I think he's definitely their best running back, and but Nick Chubb did play well. I, I don't want to take anything away from him. Five carries, I think he had over 40 yards. Like he did play well, but Woody Marks is clearly the best option in this backfield.

Yeah, that's a huge, I mean, all those snaps, that's that's huge, huge news for.

Uh, okay, there's also something at the wide receiver spot because Xavier Hutchinson did play the third most wide receiver snaps at 40, but Jaden Higgins just played three more than him. And then obviously you had Nico Collins, uh, with by far the most. Xavier Hutchinson doesn't get in the stat sheet. We know he had done that in recent weeks, but Jaden Higgins does at five for 42 and one. Is this simply one of those tropes, Brenley, of well, Davis Mills and and Jaden Higgins spent a lot of time together in preseason and scout team action, that's why he's targeting him versus the starter out there?

Yeah. No, I mean, Jaden Higgins was just getting open, honestly, guys. Like, he was getting open down the field. He had a really nice touchdown in the end zone off like a, a quick slant. He had a good release, and Davis Mills was just targeting him. I, I was reading in prep of this call. I mean, they were definitely using the rookies more and more as the season goes on, which is what is to be expected, obviously, but Jaylen Null and Jayden Higgins were more involved than Xavier Hutchinson and Christian Kirk. And I think that's going to be the trend moving forward. They're bigger. They're, they're more explosive. Like, those are the guys you want to feature as the season progresses.

And they're not locked to make the playoffs. Like, they need to step on on their offense. Like, they already got a good defense. And right, right now they have a 4% chance of making the playoffs. They got to go upset a bunch of teams down the stretch here. So, the only way that you're going to be able to pull that off is just hopefully find the right combination, a sixth offensive lineman up front, see gets healthy, and then you got to get some juice, uh, on the perimeter. We always talk about it, November comes and like the teams that are feel slow, get those damn rookies in there and see what happens.

Exactly.

Yep. It's why,

Patriots today. I mean,

Exactly. Uh, they face the Titans next week on the road. That should be a victory. That should get them back to 500. Then it's a, a row of the Bills, the Colts, and the Chiefs after. Got to upset them. All of them. Got to upset those teams. And it's, it's a shame if they don't make the playoffs because that'd be wasting the arguably the best and worst, a top three defense in the NFL. All right, let's now go to the Tankathon Bowl, as the New York Jets are two and seven as they beat the Cleveland Browns 27 to 20. Avert your eyes if producer Weaves throws the passing chart of Justin Fields out there on the screen. Uh, he was six for 11 for 54 yards, one touchdown, one interception. His touchdown was a 42-yard catch at the line of scrimmage by Breece Hall that he was able to scoot for the big score. Uh, it looks like offense was optional for both sides here.

Yeah, I mean, ugly game, which is obviously to be expected, but I thought honestly, it wasn't a good team win for the Jets. Like all three phases of the game contributed to winning the ball game. I mean, in the first quarter, it was crazy kickoff return touchdown for the Jets, tied the ball game up. Literally the very next time a Jets player touches the ball, return touchdowns. It was back-to-back special teams touchdowns. And going against the Cleveland Browns, which are the worst offense I've ever seen, you score 14 points, special teams, you're probably got a win. When the, in the second half, you mentioned Josh, Breece Hall really came alive. That 42-yard catch and a run was outstanding off a dump-off, and you see Breece hit the Jets and he's gone. Like, very few players have his level of explosiveness and straight-line speed. He has, he has a C and he's out the gate. And then in the fourth quarter, they really leaned on him in the running game to kind of kill the clock. He had an explosive 30-yard run where a defender met him in the hole, he quickly cuts back, sees a seam, exploits it, explodes through the hole, 30 yards down the field, like just vintage Breece Hall stuff. Really reassuring because I didn't know what we're going to see from him like after all of his buddies were traded. Like I didn't know if he was going to be pouting and just not involved. But really, really good game from him. The Jets only scored one offensive touchdown, but against this Browns team, that's all they needed. So, good, good win for the Jets.

I mean, just put the Justin Fields stat line in perspective. The Breece Hall touchdown was a 42-yard. He had 54 yards in the game. You subtract that, that's 12 passing yards. He took 12 yards of sacks. So, you remove the, the screen touchdown, Justin Fields walks away with as many net yards passing as the three of us today.

Yep.

Dude, and a really bad fit. Like, he was terrible. Like,

I need to ask about Garrett Wilson. I know he left in like the third or second quarter.

Uh, and he ends with zeros across the board here.

Oh man.

Yeah. The, so, uh, Aaron Glenn said in his press conference, he tweaked the same knee that's been dealing, you know, he's giving it issues all season. He left, yeah, left midway in the third quarter, and then they quickly kind of announced like he's out for the rest of the game. But I mean, it was hard to even notice him leaving just given the Jets offense. But yeah, something to monitor. I, I'd be surprised if we see him. The kind of rule of thumb for those injuries, a, if it's the same injury, just at least double the time they miss on the first time, you know, like he's going to be out for weeks now.

So, Tennessee right now has the number one pick. They are one and eight. After that, they're a bunch of two-win teams. I mean, a lot of them. And the Saints, the Giants, the Browns, the Jets, and the Las Vegas Raiders. So, let's talk about those Browns here because we know this week that Kevin Stefanski gave up play-calling to Tommy Reese, that resulted in Dillon Gabriel against this Jets defense that just traded where their two best defenders, going 17 of 32, 167. Did have two interceptions, two touchdowns, I should say, but six sacks on top of this. What did it look like?

Yeah, I mean, like early on, you you saw, uh, Dillon Gabriel make some plays down the field. Like he had a nice play to Njoku for the touchdown, and then him and Jerry Judy obviously do have a connection. I think he targeted Judy 12 times, like definitely wants to force-feed him the ball. But man, guys, I don't know. This is tough to watch, Dillon. And I love, I'm a fan of his, but he just doesn't feel the pressure. And yeah, Will McDonald literally went off today. He had four sacks and he was just killing the, the Browns left tackle, but a lot of those sacks was Dillon not feeling the pressure at all. And he has no internal clock. Just hold on to the ball far too long. Uh, even when he throws the ball down the field and he completes the passes, a lot of them are just so low to the ground where the receiver has to make a diving catch because he doesn't have the arm strength to push the ball down the field. Um, so the offense is just so limited with him, and yeah, I don't know. I, I just feel like now is the time to make the switch if you're ever going to do it. I mean, Stefanski even said today they're still sticking with Dillon, so I don't think that's happening anytime soon. Projects a really ugly performance by Dillon in this offense and his offensive line.

Doesn't handle pressure well and doesn't have the arm strength, and then doesn't add much in, in the rushing department, too. It's like, okay, what happened to you?

He does get 54 yards on five carries in this game. Okay.

Yeah, he had, he had a long run. He had a long run today. Uh, like late.

Um,

Is the Tommy Reese offense, the Jerry Judy offense? Because he's been a total zero this year. His first touchdown of the season is here in week 10, and he does go six for 78. I'm sure we'll cover this in SAS versus too.

Yeah. Yeah. And I know like Stefanski, when he was quoted today or in the early on the week when Tommy Reese, uh, got play-calling, he wanted to create more explosives. That was like one of the reasons why he wanted Tony Reese to take on play-calling. Uh, so targeting Jerry Judy on the field does make sense. I, I think if they had a better quarterback, Jerry Judy would be going off on this offense, but, um, he's definitely, I see a ton of potential.

I don't think Kevin Stefanski lasts for this job. I think he's going to get fired after this one. Just, I mean, you hand over the play-calling, and then you lose to the Jets. And Brenley, what you just said there, like you have to hand over play-calling because you needed more explosives. Like, so you couldn't create the explosives yourself. I mean, like, that's all, if you're an offensive guy, you know.

No. Well, let's talk about more coaching changes because out of nowhere, the Detroit Lions get an offense. They win this game, by the way, 44 to 22 over the Washington Commanders on the road. And I guess it's Adam Schefter, someone, no, Mike Garafolo reports that maybe some tensions behind the scenes between Johnny Morton, the players, other people on the coaching staff. And there you see Dan Campbell, not just with his headset on, but with the call sheet in his hands. And he's calling the plays here, Brenley. He did this in the opening part of his head coaching career before Ben Johnson took over. But that leads to 320 passing yards and three touchdowns for Jared Goff. 142 rushing yards and two scores here for Jahmyr Gibbs. Jameson Williams, six for 119 and one. Granted, it's against the Commanders defense, but that's a, a nice first choice.

For Dan Campbell to get back on the headset for.

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, like Jonathan Vilmo, who is who's calling the game, was like all over. He's like, "What is going on?" All you see is Dan Campbell with the headset, with the play sheet, and he's calling the plays. I mean, he's he's calling the plays, and he was cooking today. I mean, the Lions offense could do whatever they want. They never punted, guys. They never punted the ball today.

Uhhuh. They scored on every single drive, every possession. Uh, the first half was the Jir Gib show, just unreal athlete. The explosiveness, making people miss. He had a really cool touchdown on a choice route uh early in the first quarter and was just doing whatever he wanted. In the second half, they were just spamming Jameson Williams, uh, Williams, just slanting crossers, beating man coverage with his speed over the middle of the field. The Commanders had no answer for Jameson Williams in the second half. I mean, you name it, every single player ate. It was just a master class. If this offense plays like this, and again, Commanders defense, we know is not good. This team's not gonna lose. Like this, this offense was truly, you know, life's good when you change offensive play callers when heading into the game, you were second in scoring. Um, so that's when you know you, it wasn't acceptable that you weren't first. And then of course, uh, it gets better. I want to watch this game. But Josh, like we've talked about this tons with Jameson Williams where last year was the crossers and maybe that was like a Sam LaPorta not being a part of the field. But Brenley was saying bunch of crossers, man coverage, wins, yards after the catch, stuff rather than just being like a kind of catch-point Alec Pierce style role. So that would be pretty exciting if you've been holding on to Jameson Williams this year. But yeah, shout out to Dan Campbell, who just, as reminds everybody that he started this thing as a play caller. Um, and he's not just some meathead over there. He's actually one of the best play callers in the league, too.

All right, we'll talk about Washington quickly here. Uh, nothing going. I mean, Marcus Mariota does get 213 and two. Shout out the Oregon Ducks.

Uh, the running game with all the Chris Rodriguez love in terms of coach speak heading into it. Six carries, 16 yards, and a touchdown. I know he left with an injury. The team's leading receiver, Hayden, did you look at this for the Washington Commanders?

Oh god, no. I'm looking at it now. Unbelievable.

Unbelievable.

Dave, there, there was so many times in the game I was like, "Who the hell was catching Robbie Chosen?" Like, he's in the league. I was shocked.

Is B looking big? Because there's some times I watch Tayen Burks and I'm like, "Oh, that you're looking, looking big."

Yeah, I mean, generally.

Yeah, are they eating out there? Lightning split out wide? Like, yeah, they had me, they had me tripping. But I, I did, you know, they wanted to get Da more involved in in the game. They gave him two like goal-line carries just on reverses. He got so close to scoring both times, so it was sucked up. The one that was frustrating, but they did, uh, were able to isolate him on a quick out or found him in the end zone. Then Deebo did have a really impressive like sideline catch where the defender was all over him, and he was still able to kind of high point the. So the stats may not show it, but I do think Deebo played well today, which is at least somewhat reassuring, giving Scary Terry is who knows if he's going to play like anytime soon.

The Commanders right now, according to The Athletic, have a less than 1% chance of making the playoffs now. So Jaden Daniels is not gonna return. Jaden Daniels. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's Deebo's just not coming back, you know? So like we have to evaluate Deebo Samuel with Marcus Mariota. The only thing that matters. You can't, if you're starting Bill right now, you're in your consolation bracket. So there's two guys that matter. Marcus Mariota as a streamer, and then is Deebo Samuel a starter or not? And today was kind of where we had him ranked as like the wide receiver 25, give or take. And he needs all that goal-line work. So, like that's the only thing that matters in Washington, uh, at this point.

Yeah. And now they fly to Spain. They're in Madrid next Sunday morning.

Is it in air? Is it in Air Force One? Do they get to borrow the jet? It's, uh, it's against the Miami Dolphins, whose, you know, defense should be picked apart. But, you know, there was that report this week of, well, Jayden Daniels isn't going to go on injured reserve and he's going to like stay in the active roster and all that stuff. He's going to miss like at least two more games, if not four more games, if not the rest of the season. So just call it. I, I do wonder if like Dan Quinn, uh, loses the team. I mean, Ron Payne literally punched Aman-Ra St. Brown in the face, like an overhand right for, I mean, I'm sure talking like we've heard him podcasting, uh, but I mean, that was right in front of the referee. He did that.

Yeah.

Yeah. That, I mean, that's what five losses will do. By the way, the last four losses, they lost 44 to 22 to the Cowboys, 20 to 7 to the Chiefs, 38 to 4 to the Seahawks, and now 44 to 22 against the Lions. So you're basically not in any of those last four games, and that is demoralizing.

Yeah. Josh, do you think that, I mean, after last season, it was like such a crazy season. Is there any, like, how bad does that have to get for Dan Quinn to, for his seat to get actually hot?

Good question.

No idea.

No clue. We'll close out with the final three games. The first one, we didn't get a single second to look at it. And Hayden, I'm sure the Buffalo Bills wished it never happened on top of it, as they somehow lose to the Miami Dolphins 30 to 13. I guess this will be the first one I boot up on Monday morning. I just don't know how this happens. But the Buffalo Bills continue their weirdness, their awkwardness this season of not knowing and not being able to continue on a week-to-week basis of, you know, being the Chiefs and now losing to the freaking Dolphins.

It's a Super Bowl hangover. You win the Super Bowl against the Chiefs in the regular season and then you slop it up against the Dolphins in the division. It's like the, the room for error is pretty low now because New England keeps winning all these games. So, uh, right now, like they would be a wild card team, not they don't have control of the division no longer, which felt unpredictable going into the year, but that's what Drake May is doing. So, yeah, I, I couldn't tell you a single thing that happened on the Buffalo side of the ball here. I watched Devon Achane reach about 26 miles per hour. Uh, but aside from that, I, I haven't seen anything.

I mean, again, every single facet of the Bills are hot and cold, right?

Yep.

Sometimes their passing game really works. Today, sure, it goes for 306, two touchdowns, one interception. I guarantee you a lot of that was in the third and fourth quarters, right?

Yep.

Then their run defense sometimes quite good, like against the Panthers and some of these other teams. Other times absolutely horrific.

Saw week one against the Baltimore Ravens, and here in week 10, they get torn to shreds by an offensive line that, you know, doesn't really block anyone, but they get to the edge, and Devonte Chen, 22 carries, 174 yards, and two scores. The inconsistency here of the Bills is going to keep them from winning the entire thing unless somehow, someway, they can string it together for four straight games, which anything's possible, but I just don't know if they have the dudes to do it.

Yeah. I mean, missing Ed Oliver and then looking at this Christian Benford, their top corner to not play, uh, this one. So that's a couple key players on their defense. And like, also quickly, credit to Mike McDaniel and the Dolphins. Like I keep seeing that Mike McDaniel's like lost the locker room. Like I just keep watching the Dolphins. They fight. They fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, fight. Huge win here. Jaylen Waddle and Devon Achane, that's enough speed to upset teams. Um, so credit to them for for keeping fighting. They were two and seven, they could have easily rolled over. Uh, but I mean, this game was not even close.

I even see Hurn going six catches for 51 yards on top.

Nasty.

Incredible stuff. Um, wow. Yeah. I, I don't know what happened, man. I mean, James Cook runs on everyone, and then James Cook faces the worst rushing defense in the league or bottom three. And then, you know, he gets 53 yards and 13 carries, has a fumble on top of it. And then, you know, five for 24. It really shows. I mean, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 players. 11 players caught a pass. When you have 11 pass catchers, you don't have one. That's, that is a fact. That is for sure.

Also, I saw, I read that Ray Davis kicked the onside kick here for the Buffalo Bills.

Yeah, he always, yeah, he had the extra point, uh, last year, whatever it was. Yeah. Interesting.

Let's go to Sunday morning during our live show. The Indianapolis Colts in overtime, beat the Atlanta Falcons in Berlin. It's a true Falconsing here. Uh, because Daniel Jones put his worst foot forward, kind of in back-to-back games. Seven sacks, one interception, had some sack fumbles on top of it. I believe Jaylen Walker had one. James Pierce had one. But in the end, you have some dudes. You have Tyler Warren with an incredible fourth or third down catch to convert, eight for 99. You have Alec Pierce opening the scoring with a 37-yard touchdown, four for 84, and a grab there. And at the top of the table, it is Jonathan Taylor with just a cool 286 total yards on 35 touches. Uh, insane superstar they have.

Yeah, he's averaging almost 140 yards per game over the last calendar, um, last 365 days. So he's going to get MVP votes. He deserves the MVP votes. And I just think this is a sign where the last couple weeks, the Colts have had some flaws, obviously on offense, and still in this one, they average seven yards per play. I mean, no team in the NFL is averaging seven yards per play. So, this game, did it feel sloppy? Yeah. Did they also score 31 and average seven yards a play, which would have been the highest in the NFL this year? Yes. So that's what happens when Jonathan Taylor can bail you out, when you have Tyler Warren after the catch, and then our boy Alec Pierce from back-to-back thumbnails from you, uh, and an aggressive ranking from me, pops up for, uh, a big one, a quarter-beater over the top. So, yeah, like, is there some, some spots that Daniel Jones is regressing a little bit right now? Yeah, but still, I thought this was a pretty dominant performance by the offense.

They're eight and two, and you know, sometimes you win ugly, and you win when you lose a turnover differential, and that's exactly what they did here, and that's what good teams do. Uh, on the Falcons' end, first, I want to talk about the running backs because, you know, Bijan had more yards in this game, and obviously, David Montgomery being on injured reserve is a part of that. But he was outscored by Tyler Allgeier for a certain reason. I mean, Bijan goes 17 carries for 84, so that's a respectable nearly five yards per carry. Allgeier gets the same thing, but adds, you know, two touchdowns to his 57 yards. Um, Dwayne McFarland tweeted this out that the Falcons' backfield splits inside the 10-yard line this year. Allgeier, 48% of snaps, but 75% of the attempts and four touchdowns. Yep.

Bijan, 58 snaps, 25% of the attempts and zero touchdowns. Obviously, Bijan is an incredible talent. He's had incredible explosive plays to have long scores, and I think he's probably even had at least one or two, uh, inside of the red zone on top of it.

But when the rushing attack did work, he didn't even get back really into the fancy stat sheet at a high level.

We're saying Arthur Smith did nothing wrong, right? I mean, that, that he started this trend, and the next coaching staff has kind of continued it. So, yeah, that's an unfortunate wrinkle, but, um, it's just also not that crazy to me either. I mean, Arthur's good, and, yeah, if the fourth down bowling ball roll can then be translated into inside the 10-yard line stuff, it's not overly shocking, even if Bijan could probably do the exact same thing.

Um,

Yeah.

We got to talk about the passing game here.

Yes. Michael Penix, 12 of 28, 177, one touchdown. Now, granted, big drop by Kyle Pitts, who might still be running. Big drop by Jonnu Smith on a comeback route along the sideline, but it's like anytime he's moved off the spot, anytime he's forced to hold on the football a little bit too long, anytime he's throwing in the trash, especially over the middle of the field, it's just like behind receivers. Yep. It's awkward sky passes. This Falcons team in back-to-back offseasons has had some questionable decision-making. Two offseasons ago, massive contract at Kirk Cousins, then you draft Michael Penix in the top 15. So, a double shot at quarterback. Questionable if that has worked out long term. And then this year, then this year you draft Jaylen Walker. Great sack fumble today. You know, then you send your first-round pick next year to the Rams. Great sack fumble today. Right now, because you keep losing and you're three and six, that's the ninth overall pick, I believe, heading in the direction of the Rams in this.

Yeah, I think during the draft, uh, I have to grade the the drafts, and I think I gave the Falcons an effort close to it because it was so risky to trade that future first-rounder because you didn't know if Michael Penix was good. It'd be like one thing if the Chiefs send their their next year's one because we know the Chiefs are always going to be picking at the back half. With the Falcons, you couldn't guarantee that with Michael Penix being so uncertain. And right now, Michael Penix, he's at under 60% completions. The only teams right now under that, the Jaguars, the Browns, the Titans. I mean, you can't complete regular passes. It's not going to be any good. And that's with Drake London and Bijan having massive moments. I know that Kyle Pitts had that huge drop working over the middle, and that was really unfortunate. But the Michael Penix just mechanics and how the ball comes out, it always has felt weird to me. Like this is one of these games where the ball is so far behind.

Yes.

And it's because his feet aren't, his feet are never pointed right at the wide receiver. It's always open to that. So,

We'll see if they can get that ironed out. But I'm with you, with the amount they've invested into the position, which is arguably the most in the NFL, like what, eighth overall pick and a hundred million dollars. And you have, to me, bottom eight quarterback play across the league. It's just like absolutely not good enough. They're three and six, and they're not gonna be able to fix it this next offseason because they don't have their first-rounder. So we'll see if if heads are going to roll if they keep losing games like like this one, but this was an unfortunate one, and if they had better quarterback play, this was one of the games where your defense has been better than expected this year, and you can't even steal a win out of it.

Drake London still bought out. Uh, we got a report from I think Stacy Dales and then also Mike Garafolo that Sauce Gardner was going to shadow Drake London. Obviously, yeah, we always talk about it. Drake London goes into the slot about 35% of the time. Yeah.

But even when he was outside, you know, they stack him, they do all this type of stuff. It's very difficult to have a corner that used to spend two first-round picks shadowing someone. There were multiple times though, like a two-point conversion where he routes up Sauce and puts him in the dirt. There's another route that should have been an interception by Sauce on top of it. So, I'll be interested to go back and watch those. But again, Drake London, Jet, other than Bijan, the best football player on the scene.

Yeah, reporters lose the term like shadowing. It's just like they never have it right. So, like use analysts for that. Reporters, they get stuff right that we wouldn't, and vice versa. This is one where we just know more ball than them, and you should not have moved Drake London at all.

No, no, no, no.

Uh, I just thought it was notable to, you know, relay it because,

The dude just got,

Two first-round picks in exchange for it, you know.

Yeah.

All right, let's close this out with Thursday Night Football. That game seems forever ago, and I think I might have ejected it from my memory. Uh, there's a lot of bad football going on. And the Denver Broncos are eight and two, and they're playing, but they're not playing good football. Uh, and it goes to multiple levels, but at the root of it is the quarterback.

16 of 28, 150, one touchdown, two interceptions. Our guy Pat Surtain is the leading receiver with one catch for 43 yards. Uh, the deep shots simply are not working. Sean Payton is terrified of what Bo Nix does on a game-to-game basis right now. So the pure dropback stuff is also not working because Bo Nix doesn't set his feet. And then when Sean Payton tries to scheme things up with screens and swings and designed stuff, that's also not working as well as it did last year. So it's like a domino effect from across the board. And now it's kind of becoming this cycle. And despite all that, they're eight and two, right? And this is behind a really good offensive line, too. So he wasn't like under duress the whole time. So it was a very frustrating game for Bo Nix. I'm seeing the same thing with you where there's I think maybe too much manufactured stuff in the offense. And then also Bo Nix seems terrified to like turn the ball over, which means that you're not going to have the most efficient throws, which are deep passes over the middle or intermediate passes over the middle. If you're not throwing those types of passes, it's hard to run an effective offense, and they just have not done that so far. So the Correllson stuff has fallen off because of that. Troy Franklin's getting a lot more looks, some manufactured, some not. And that's kind of eating at Correllson, but they have not had enough of like the magic moments from Bo Nix to justify this. And then fallout from this game is the J.K. Dobbins foot injury where he's got a second opinion. He's tweeting. He's mad about it. He's been battling injuries. He, it looks pretty bad to me. I know he finished, he got two extra carries.

I was, I was stunned that he kept going.

I know. I watched one, one of his reps in pass protection or him getting out to the flats, and he might as well just like fallen over. So I don't know what. Drop tackle.

Yeah, it was tough. But he's been like at least some level of consistency for them. RJ Harvey is going to add explosives if he does become the starter, but I think there's probably a reason why he's been more of a joker than like the J.K. Dobbins role. So that'll be a new wrinkle. We'll see how that goes. Um, so they're an 8-2 team. They're most likely going to make the playoffs here. Um, but they got to fix out, fix this offense, or, um, it's just gonna be one of the teams like the Texans from last year where the defense is really good, but the offense was so stuck the entire year. We know how these type of teams end once we get to the playoffs, and Go Smith could have on what a half of a leg could have beat him.

Should we talk about the Raiders? I mean, I, I don't even remember anything about this. I mean, it's Tyler Lockett getting out there with five for 44, and then no one else doing anything. Brock Bowers with one for 31.

Yeah. Uh, I mean, Gino has six sacks and an interception in this game.

Yeah. Well, my takeaway for the Raiders is, well, one, there's no excuses to have Brock Bowers finish with that stat line, but their right tackle, D.J. Glaze, who was a rookie last year, um, and was a rookie right tackle, uh, not a first-rounder, anything like that. He allows five pressures in this one. Nick Bonito was just eating him absolutely alive. There was no just like helping him out. Uh, so that's like, I think a problem for for Chip Kelly. They didn't have hot answers. I think it's a problem for Geno Smith and Chip Kelly, but also this is just like Spycch I think completely botching his first draft. And like that's why you draft Armon Watts instead of freaking Ashton Dendy. He's a solid player, obviously, but if you can't pass protect and run block with your right tackle, then you're not going to have a functional offense ever. And then the the wide receivers are barely playing. Tyler Lockett is leading the team in receiving. Like it's, it's been a really bad, uh, draft class for the Raiders. And that even goes down like the third and fourth rounders have been healthy scratches at like defensive tackle and lineman as well. So, it's, it's a really bad first year for the offseason that this new, uh, management has laid out.

We'll cover those games, the last three, even more when we get to Stats vs. Film and look at who played, who didn't, and why. Uh, thanks for joining us this week. It gets even worse from here in terms of the bad teams. So, thanks for sticking with us again. Hopefully, all of you are propelling yourselves towards the fantasy football playoffs and even more importantly, the championships. We're back with a full slate of shows this week, including Hayden and Jacob on Monday night after Monday Night Football for the waivers. And we're back at with Stats vs. Film and all the rankings plus rest of season rankings on Thursday's episode. So for Mosho and Weaves behind the camera, Hayden in front of it, Up the Villa. We'll talk to y'all soon.