Fantasy Football Week 8 Reactions - Polishing A Turd

Look, we don't lie to you. We don't polish a turd and tell you it's gold. Week eight of NFL action absolutely sucked. All right? I don't think there was a single good game. So, we're not going to give a little preamble. We're just going to kick it off and go through maybe at least one good team that looks like they can play NFL caliber football as the Philadelphia Eagles beat the New York Giants 38 to 20. Hayden, this one had a ton of narratives heading into it. We know these two teams play each other a couple weeks ago. Giants had a massive upset at home. Heading into this one, there's some uncertainty with AJ Brown. He was out for this contest. But what I see is Saquon Barkley, 150 yards and one rushing score, his first 100-yard game of the season. Six and two. They have a buy, then they'll play the Packers, and they're riding off into that buy with two huge wins.

It was great to see Saquon Barkley absolutely pop off and it took the very first play. It was a big Landon Dickerson block. If you watch him climb to the second level, so he helps out his center, climbs to the next level, and then it's just uh a race and Saquon Barkley, it was never his fault. Earlier in this year, the numbers were not there. I thought his tape looked exactly how it did all last year, and the only difference was he did not have anywhere to run. And then this week, that was not the case. The the Giants have struggled to stop the run the entire season. That continued here because even Tank Bsby later in the game was getting to the perimeter every single time for about 10 yards. like it was like what like almost 10 carries for like a 100 yards. It was a absolute huge win for the offensive line to actually push the pile. The yards before contact even if you remove the Saquon Barkley huge run was massive. So shout out to them. I don't know if that's Eagles offensive line, Giants defensive line. Uh that's the hard part here. Uh Saquon Barkley does pick up a groin injury late but he does have the by-week. I'm sure that they'll update that later on. And I believe he mentioned to reporters that if the game was closed, he might have been able to return, which is a real positive. Uh just real quick on this backfield because it's something that we literally have not been able to say a single thing that was positive all season long on Saquon Barkley's 65-yard touchdown run. He hit 21.68 miles per hour. And it's one thing that we say every single week that as you just said, it's not him. It was the environment so far this year. And so he hadn't had a run of over what, 18 yards so far. And he hit that.

The other big takeaway, Hayden, is that Tank Bsby, who they traded for in the preseason, is now this team's clear backup running back, which is kind of a massive change based on where Will Shipley and even freaking former Packers running back that he's AJ Dylan. And that's a huge leap for Tank Bsby. And he looked decisive and he looked explosive. Yeah. Yeah. Looked big and explosive in this one. They got him to the perimeter on on a couple different ways. and that he was making a couple missed tackles and picked up first down on over half of his carries. So, yeah, that's really good to know. I think that he's somebody that in a deep league you should be picking him up before the by-week, even if Saquon's injury is not a big deal. And if he's for some reason have Will Shipley or AJ Dylan, we can pretty much remove them from the picture. Uh through the air though, uh it was another great game for for Jaylen Herz. Took a couple sacks uh as he usually does, but has four passing touchdowns. Uh he had a couple downfield shots. Um he got Dvonte Smith on a bunch of crossers underneath. He did not score a touchdown but did lead the team with nine targets. 84 yards is nothing to sneeze at. Uh Dallas Goddard had a couple uh touchdowns. He had a little slant touchdown um early on in the game. And then Saquon Barkley was left wide open uh for another touchdown on just a coverage bust. And then even Jan Dodson straight up moss as a defender. Did want to note the Giants secondary was already without Javon Holland and Paulson Adibbo. they had other uh secondary members leave this game. So, it was really like I know AJ Brown was not there as well, but the Giant secondary is just wanted to obviously attack uh as we move forward. So, it was not like the craziest Jaylen Herz game ever. Uh but because there's a lot of players that were that were wide open here, but it was good to see that the deep ball there were some wins there as usual. And this team is kind of if you just refresh through eight games or six and two, they got some momentum and uh the defense stepped up. Jelix Hunt um had a career-high nine pressures. Like that was one of the missing ingredients. So So the defense had some struggles early on. The the ground game had some struggles. Those two things uh picked up in this one. Dallas Goddard is like this team's passing red zone offense. It really is that simple. Another two scores here. Like you said, three catches for for 28 yards.

Okay, let's talk about the Giants because Jackson Dart and Cam Scaboo had been a sweet duo to watch. the Bash brothers, some might say. And maybe the big takeaway for them, Hayden, is that Cam Scataboo severely injures his ankle. It points in the opposite direction, and he's actually staying in Philadelphia to have emergency surgery on it and easily lost for the season. Out for the year, it depends on what type of dislocated. If it was like a broken leg or an actual dislocated ankle, we'll kind of determine how bad it is for next year. If it's too Yeah, it could be. Who knows exactly what the details? I know that they probably stuck through his skin and that's why he had surgery. So, long story short, unfortunately out for the season. There was nothing he could have done about it. It was just like a little uh receiving rep over the middle and just got tackled awkwardly with it. It was not cuz he runs hard or anything like that. It was just this could have happened to anybody. Terrible luck. Obviously, kind of just took the air out uh for the Giants offense here. Uh Devin Singleary has like a wheel route reception is a really nice play, but it was largely Tyrone Tracy. So Tyrone Tracy's going to be the top pickup uh of the week pending some other injuries as well. Um Daniel Bellinger leaves, but really there was not like a whole lot going through the offense. Jackson Dart I thought was making a lot of plays, took some sacks, but three of them were actually against the defensive tackles. The interior offensive line remains a little bit of a weakness there. Um but was out of structure making some plays, but really like the the Giants were on the receiving end of a couple really really tough calls. First, we'll start with Darius Sllayton. 68-yard touchdown called back. It was a tickytac offensive pass interference. I thought Quan Mitchell was holding against him. Sllayton pushes off. That would have been a really nice play uh for us in baseball. Uh but the other one was earlier in the game. I just wanted to save this for last. The tush push. We have another problem with the tush push. So, it's not just the false starts. The tush push. They blow it dead because he thought there was a forward progress. Jaylen Herz was very clearly moving forward. I get why it's harder to rule forward progress because you're in the middle of a pile, but that's one of the the the problems with the tush push. As he's extending, the ball gets ripped out from Ka Kavon Tibido. They say that's you're not allowed to challenge that because forward progress. If you listen to the whistle, I thought the whistle was well after uh the ball coming out. Either way, the Giants did not get the ball after all this. Brian Dable tried to challenge it. It didn't go anywhere. All of a sudden, the Eagles were in the end zone. So, those were like two huge plays. It wouldn't have mattered. The Eagles were definitely the better team. They would have won regardless. But that was another massive problem with the tush push. And at this point, we're coming up with new ways to make this more controversial. And most likely, this is going to be the last season we'll have it. The referees just can't officiate it properly. And if that's the case, then it can't be a football play. It's that simple. We pointed it out after what, week one, week two against the Kansas City Chiefs, how it was multiple false starts in a row and none were called. Uh, and then now he's truly getting pushed from behind, going forward, extending for a first down. It's not the goal line. And so the ball gets ripped away. And as you said, when you watch the replay, the whistle is clearly blown after the football is in the Giants hands, yet the referees say it's for progress. And so just there's nothing you can do about a terrible officiated call and it's kind of becoming a theme here with this play. And so enjoy it while you can because I just do not know how. I I am not anti- tushbush. You know, watch other teams attempt it across the league and it's just not successful. Watch the Bears try to run a quarterback sneak with Caleb Williams. We'll talk about truly horrific. You know, but it has gotten to a point where one, you run it four times in a row and that's not good television. I'm just saying it from the optics angle. And two, if referees are not calling it correctly and these are meaningful third and short, fourth and short plays, then the rest of the NFL is just going to do something about it. It Yeah, that is where we're headed right now. Yeah, it was already a vote and it was a pretty close vote and I think I think it was Dean Blland or one of the referees in the booth uh he was saying, yeah, it's a hard like anything up the middle forward progress is really hard to kind of get right because you're trying to protect the players, but at the same time the pile I thought was moving forward too. So just one of those things.

Did want to just wrap all the way back to Jackson dot real quick. The numbers would will not wow you. Who went 14 for 24, took five sacks. The Eagles pass rush was winning. Jaylen, they had no answers for Jaylen Carter. Nobody does. He's still making so many plays out of structure. I He's going to run into some sacks. A lot of these players like Jackson Dart will, but there were still some like big third and 12s uh that he was uh moving the football and he did not have a lot of help like Bo Collins out there, Wanda Robinson, Darius uh Sllayton. So yeah, it's going to be really tough. You lose Malik Neighbors and Cam Scout. that makes it like one of the worst supporting caps you could possibly drop for the rest of the way. So, I thought he played pretty well, better than the box score would indicate. We have the same take every single week. Uh I just wonder how many wins Brian Dable has to have in order to keep his job. Uh I mean, maybe there's two left on the schedule, so we'll see. On any given week, anything can happen, but he he is furious when things will go his way. Oh my gosh, furious. So pissed.

Uh, okay. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles have some really fun matchups, and you're going to see probably at least one of these teams in the NFC Championship in the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions over the next two weeks. So, it's a preview of whatever's to come here in December and January. Let's flip it on over to the Baltimore Ravens coming out of their by-week going two and five, beating the Chicago Bears 30-6. No Lamar Jackson in this game. The point spread switches from seven and a half point favorites to the Ravens to a two and a half point road favorites here for the Chicago Bears and in the end they win by 14 freaking points. Was this a Todd Monk and masterclass? Like what the heck happened here? I mean it was kind of everybody masterclass. They started the game on nine for nine uh through the air. Tyler Huntley Zay Flowers caught a bunch of passes underneath. Converted seven of his nine targets for 63 yards. Did not score a touchdown in this one. That only touchdown through the air was actually to Charlie Kohler on a little play action uh attempt. But yeah, it was a well-managed game. You can feel that the Chicago Bears defense was not overwhelming that they can't really stop the run uh all that well. And then like their entire secondary, the top four corners were out. So that made the the matchups easier for Z Flowers and Rashad Baitman. Baitman had one of the better catches of the week. Uh but classic Rashad Baitman only has 51 yards scoreless in this one, so it doesn't really matter for fantasy purposes. Uh Derrick Henry gets two uh touchdowns here both in the red area. 21 for 71. Nothing like too magical there for Tyler Huntley. Real quick though, uh he had a 29-yard uh scramble, 533 yards on the ground. That was the real difference here. And it just goes back. Why was Cooper Rush the number two like a couple weeks ago? I mean, it's very similar offense. Obviously, Lamar Jackson is way more explosive, way better down the field, all that type of stuff. But trying to do the Cooper Rush thing like that that hit a real rock bottom and this felt a lot better. Prioritize Cooper Rush during the offseason as the backup and Cooper Rush has certainly had moments as a Cowboys backup, but obviously the offense is entirely different when it's someone with the lack of mobility with Cooper Rush in there versus somewhat of a similar playbook with Tyler Huntley in there.

Uh did want to note Ronnie Stanley was like laying on the ground like visibly in pain. He's been battling through injuries like for years now, but heading into this week and and the week before he was uh on the injury report, too. So, don't know the final update there. Lamar Jackson and the Ravens play on Thursday Night Football. Lamar Jackson will be out there or he at least better be out there because of what happened. Yeah. Well, there there's that. But I just wanted to quickly hit on the just whatever happened on Friday. They're going to get fined very heavily. Like that was a big no no. Like they they broke the NFL rules for a reason. he was not a full participant because he was on the freaking scout team. Harbaugh said he was a full participant. They they changed the official designation the day after. So, you just talked about how much uh the Lions swung, but obviously if you're the Bears, you don't know which quarterback it's going to be. So, yeah, a big fine, maybe a draft pick, I don't know, but that was something that the Ravens uh absolutely could not get right. But it also did show that Lamar Jackson is probably going to return. Yeah, it's manipulating the injury report. You know, you can't be a full-time participant on the scout team and be a full-time participant because as you have said, it's attached to based on what your normal activities are. And Lamar Jackson is normally the starter and if he doesn't get all the starting snaps, then he's not a full participant. Easy. Pretty easy. Yeah, they lied. They straight up lied.

Okay, I need to I need to ask about this Ravens team because Derrick Henry has had an abysmal week two through week six and they had the bye-week in week seven and then here he has 21 carries, 71 yards and two scores. It's just a long run of 10. Did it look any better or was this oh we're leading by a lot. This is the focal point of our offense and he gets the goal line touchdowns on top of it. Well, I think throughout the entire year, Dererick Henry's been an explosive rusher and you see that now sometimes at the end of his uh explosive runs, he's fumbling the football, but if you look at like the yards before contact and his success rate and it's been really really low. So, in this one, once again, under one yard before contact, so he had to work for his yards once again. uh he had the two goal line uh touchdowns to to kind of seal it, but they the Ravens just like had the ball for a lot of this game and the Bears like did not feel like they were clicking on offense at all. So it was one of those situations where the defense was making some plays like Nate Wiggins had a good play that we'll talk about. So like in general the team was kind of vibing. There's nothing to really take away from Derrick Henry. Just a reminder though, when they score 30 points on offense, Derrick Henry is going to be scoring a lot of touchdowns. And guess what the the team totals are for the rest of the season? It's going to be like 26 up to 31 depending on the matchup.

Okay, let's talk about the Chicago Bears here because I noted that I thought last week was Caleb Williams worst performance in this game. He goes 25 of 38, 285 yards, one interception. We won't start with like the final four down goal to go sequence because they were down 14 points. But it's kind of to me like a perfect encapsulation of where they're at where there were certain games where it felt like everything was in sync and he has learned this Ben Johnson offense and yet in this one Hayden it certainly differed from that. Yeah. The first drive, 13 plays but only results in a field goal. The second drive, 11 plays ends up in a field goal. And there's a couple missed throws that are kind of involved in there that might have swung things uh differently, but in general it was starting out decent. But uh later on there was just some moments of like really bad inconsistent play from Caleb Williams. The most egregious one was the interception where he just like takes that pause. Remember we're talking about the robotic stuff from this like he just has that pause. So, he's he's on either end of the spectrum where he's like not move like he's like literally my controller just ran out of batteries or I'm sprinting to the sideline at full speed and throwing the ball like I'm Derek Jeter. So, he needs to find that Goldilock zone to steal another one of your phrases there. It was a bad game, but you can't be late and pause and throw the ball over the middle. And that allowed Nate Wiggins, who by the way is playing really good corner, one of the fastest players in the league, plays a lot of man coverage, kind of undercuts uh Roma Dunce. But that was a really bad play. There was a couple like really bad situations like an intentional grounding uh that cost them three points where he was hot. He knew he was hot. He was trying to either throw the ball to Roma Dunce on an out route who either ran too far and didn't know that he was hot or he was waiting for Coloulston Lovelin running the option route that cost him. And then the cringy goal line sequence when they were down four where they were rushing. He gets down at the goal line. He tries to quarterback sneaky, which I don't think that's like the worst call, but does not get it. Of course, there's a huge pile on everybody. It takes forever to get there. It looks like there was going to be an a delay of or not a delay game, a false start. They were kind of struggling to get what whatever play call in next and he's a little bit scattershot. DJ Moore is in the end zone and the balls just goes incomplete. So that was a very cringy side arm through a window and again DJ's wide open in the middle of the field and just totally sails him. And the other part of that was on second and goal, it was a two-yard pass well short of the goal line and so that ran the clock on top of it. And this was all after a 42-yard ridiculous one-hand stab grab from DJ Moore where Caleb like dropped his eyes, did the hokeyp pokei, ran to the left side, and then just launches it. To no one. Uh, I'm sure he was targeting DJ Moore. Yeah. But I mean, if DJ doesn't come down with this miraculous catch, then it's another what type of play are you doing here on second and 10 when trailing by 14? Yeah, it just depends on how you read that. That was like the I would say the good of Caleb and there was a couple plays where like he out of structure makes a play that Rome drops and there's that one where it was a really nice play by both of them. But in general, we can't just grade to the Flashes in year two. like we can do that as a prospect, we can do that as a rookie, but at some point you just can't grade towards the Flashes. Once again, Ben Johnson told the the TV broadcast and they made sure to relay that to the audience that the second year in this system is going to look a lot cleaner than the next one because they're asking this offense to do a whole lot and there's a lot of details and they're still trying to figure that out. I think there there is like some actual truth to that, but also that that is a little bit of excuse making. We can say the same thing about Drake May and the Josh McDaniels offense. So, Caleb has struggled more in October than he did in September. The ground game was solid. Luther Burden leaves with a concussion. Coulson Level plays 81% of the snaps. Uh, did all right. Nothing too fancy there. Uh, I thought DeAndre Swift had a another decent game. Scores a touchdown at the goal line. Had a couple of nice receptions, 25-yard down to the red area. Uh, last note for fantasy purposes though, Kyle Manungi 46% snaps. And I looked at it, there was no like garbage time with that. They were pretty much dead even the entire way. DeAndre Swift was more involved, had the better game in general, but on the first drive, Kyle Manungai did have a goal line carry. So did DeAndre Swift. Both of them got stuffed. That's why they had that field goal. But that's pretty interesting. Like it's more of the Gibbs Monty on a much worse offense, but like that style of uh backfield at this point. And really the the the guy through the air is like DJ Moore had a couple yards after the catch plays, but it was like Rome Adun the entire time. So, finished with 114 yards, drew a man coverage flag on a dig route. Had four catches, I believe, on the first drive even too. So, uh I rank it as Rome Swift and then it's like DJ Mormon guy in and Coulson Love kind of just battling. And I believe Luther Burn leaves with a concussion uh which delays any impact he might have in the future.

All right, your final game of the night, the Houston Texans in a big bounceback spot at home. A game they're actually favored in despite the buzz of the San Francisco 49ers heading into it. Houston Texans win 26-21 to 15 and improved to three and four which brings the 49ers to five and three. If you just look at the box score, 30 of 39, 318, two scores, one interception here and seven carries for 30 yards for CJ Shroud. Nearly flawless and the eye test was even more the case even without Nico Collins. You got the three Iowa State Hawkeyes. Xavier Hutchinson 5 for 69 and one. Jaylen Null 5 for 63. And then Jaden Higgins four for 34 and one. Go Cyclones. Yeah, Cyclones were were just made the offense feel so much faster. I mean, just so much faster. We still got a little bit of Braxton Barriers, but there was some real like nice wrinkles this week versus in the previous weeks. And once again, there was this was looking a little bit more rookie year schematically than what we saw over like the last year and a half. The Texans ended up finishing this game with 26 plays with a sixth offensive lineman on the field. So a lot of those it's it's two wide receiver sets. Jaylen Null had a nice big crossing route where that was off a six offensive line play where so it's like lots of protection only two guys in the route way downfield and they get a big big explosive there. Xavier Hutchinson also had a big play there. Lots of runs out of that. So that was the most plays by a team with six plus offensive linemans by any team this entire season. That also helped them out. Only a 13% pressure rate for the Texans. So without like looking that up, that's the best uh of the season for the the Houston Texans. And we have to figure out is that a 49er stat or is that a just a kind of a new wrinkle to this Texans offense where I thought the pressure plan felt much better and just putting a big six offensive lineman out there rather than have a tight end come across the the field and try to pick up an edge rusher, which I saw last week. I thought was nice.

Well, it could be both. You know, it could be that this with Blake Fischer, I think he was playing the pseudo tight end, offensive line, sixth offensive lineman role. And then, yeah, for the 49ers, they have no pass rushers left, right? Like even Bryce off, who has taken them up a level or two after Nick Bosa went down and they have no one else like Michael Williams has been a run defender during his rookie season, and they just don't have anyone else to offer. Like when CJ Stra with this offensive line gets sacked zero times, and as you said, a pressure rate of about 15%. Then, yeah, I mean, your defense has some issues. Um, so I I don't want to be a Texans hater, you know. I I want to believe in them and I especially want to believe in Woody Marks going 11 for 62 on the ground and then four for 49 in the air while I see that Nick Chub, you know, has the most carries at 17 for 56. But Hayden, if we like, you know, allowing these rookie wide receivers to get more run, too, is it kind of just time to turn the backfield over to Woody Marks? That's what I would be doing. Woody Marks was breaking off a bunch of nice plays here. His his big one was the 50-yard mostly after the catch, but on that that was CJ Strad stepping up into the pocket like three, four hitches in a row and then getting to his checkown. Then Woody Marks sprints down the fields like that was like when the offense felt fast like that was a play that you can definitely point out to uh for the most part. I thought that CJ Strad was just throwing the ball accurately. He had one inaccurate throw that was an interception that was going into halftime. It didn't really matter all that much, but a lot of stepping up into the pocket, lots of downfield attempts in this one. uh we had just to hit on these. Hutchinson had a a crossing touchdown which was a nice play, a little blitz pick up there. He showed some nice uh speed. He also had like a really nice like high point catch and then um with Jaden Higgins zone coverage uh a little like glance route like a big the kind of deep slant route skinny post variety for a touchdown there. So nothing from Dalton Schultz. They just didn't really need him. And got a bunch of explosives here which which was nice. They're now ninth in the conference. They're not going to catch the Colts in the division, but this team is definitely in the mix for a wild card. And hopefully like the speed and the little wrinkles in pass protection are like kind of the the things that can unlock CG Strad moving forward.

Well, the pass rush is going to be tested in the next two weeks because it's the uh Denver Broncos and the Jacksonville Jaguars over the next two weeks. So, yeah, we're going to find out if this is real or not. if this is like a pseudo Ravens thing when they win 42 to 10 and then get crushed by the Seahawks and then you have this win against the 49ers. But look, you can only play who's in front of you. And hey, let's talk about the 49ers end of this and who was in front of them. M. Jones statistically looks like one of his worst performances. 19 of 32, 193, two scores, one interception. And while CMC got it going on the ground last week here just eight for 25 and then it felt like just while watching all three of his catches for 43 yards were basically on the final drive of the game. Yeah. So they had the ball at halftime for 5 minutes and 29 seconds. Oh my gosh. It was like punt punt punts and then they had like a scoring drive uh with their last drive. So there was penalties, there was some like short throws that were were missed. There were some bad runs early and then I mentioned there's like what 13 play sequence, 11 play sequence right off the bat from the Texans. So the time of possession I I don't love that stat in general, but it was so lopsided in this one that all the stats are kind of hard to take serious in this one because the 49ers did not have the ball. Now they weren't moving the ball and that's why that happened. So luckily on national tight end day we did get George KD seamball touchdown in traffic. That was a good throw uh from from M. Jones there. Really nice catch from George KD. George KD probably could have had a second touchdown. There was kind of just a little concept where both tight ends were running to the right. Both of them are wide open on a little bootleg play action. The ball ends up going to Tanes instead of George KD. But I thought KD was moving fine out there. Jawan Jennings had a couple near plays for him. a big post route where if that was Ricky Persaw or Brandon Iuk that probably would have been a touchdown for Jawan barely gets there. And ultimately does not catch the ball on a big post route. gets tackled at the one yard line on another play out there, but nothing really from Kendrick Bourne, nothing really from CMC, but game script was like so wonky. I mean, at halftime, uh I don't have the score written out, but it was like pretty clear that the Texans were were dominating um in this one.

Oh, I mean, Yeah, go ahead. On the Niners, next week, I think they're going to get Brock Perie back. I think there's going to be a chance that Ricky Piell's back. They're going to activate Brandon Deuke's practice window. I believe it's like week 10 and 11 or 11 and 12. They get the Cardinals and the Rams. So like big division games coming up on the schedule. I think they'll be fully healthy on offense. Then you are not going to be able to fix this defense. This defense just ran out of bodies. And in my notes there's like wide openen plays, no pass rush. We mentioned the stats on that as well. This 49ers team when they're fully healthy on offense and this defense is this bad, I think we're going to have some crazy shootout games. Like I would not be surprised if we go on a run here where the 49ers even after this bad game, they're projected for 28 points moving forward just because we're going to get a lot of the horses back in this offense. And like the reality is like Kendrick Bourne, Jawan Jennings, that's just like not a fast enough wide receiver group and you're going to get some speed back hopefully if Ricky Pierce and Brand Aayuk are like somewhat themselves, which we don't know. Yeah. The reason why we wanted to draft so many 49ers this year is because they had on paper the easiest schedule in the NFL. And you know that's proved itself out in a few of these games, but the injuries I think have kind of limited their ceiling in terms of points. Um coming up they do have the Giants. We'll see which direction that goes. Then they have the Rams. I would assume a loss there. Then you have like the Cardinals and the Panthers. The Browns defense is tough. And then the Titans after that. So, like there's a stretch of three to four gamesish in a row that if they're back to full health, we haven't seen the best 49ers football. But again, we already got Brock Party back for a game and he wasn't healthy and then he has to miss more. We got Ricky Pieraw back for a game, then he's not healthy and he has to miss more. So, I just hope these guys are fully healthy when they come back and we get them for the entire rest of the season because there's still to me plenty of time for these guys to make a massive impact for your fantasy teams and your best packs.

Yeah. just comes down to the health, all those guys. And hopefully it's not just a huge rotation where like Kendrick Bourne's still playing, Jawan Jennings doesn't get dealt at the the trade deadline and then all of a sudden it's just like really hard to kind of split it up a bunch of ways. But I think this team was so injured and and we knew this like going ahead of the game largely kind of throw it away, you know? I mean, but a 13% pressure rate, I think maybe if I was focusing on one stat, that's the one that would make me nervous. If you're the 49ers. We booted Hayden for the rest of the show. No, in fact, he just has dad duty the rest of the night. So, I got to bring in my guy Brenley Weissman for the remaining six plus games to discuss here. And Brenley, we got to start with the freaking six and two New England Patriots. That's very cool to see because Brenley, to me, this Patriots team is quite enjoyable, quite entertaining, and quite likable. I mean, putting 32 points on this Browns defense, even even with Miles Garrett with five sacks in this game, is an incredible feat. Tell me how this 282, three touchdown, one interception performance from Drake May happened here.

Yeah, I mean Drake May, again, I said it last week, he's just one of the best young passers in the league. I mean, his athleticism, his ability to really put the football anywhere on the field is outstanding. And I just want to say, you know, Josh McDaniels in terms of offensive coordinator, he's doing a hell of a job. his ability to get these players into space. Isolate Stefon Diggs, Kahan Booty, like they have good really good playmakers and they're doing a really good job spreading the ball around.

Well, let's talk about spreading that football around because like you said, that's exactly what they did. Matt Collins 7 for 89. Kahan Booty again pops up three for 75 and one. All right. And then we have Trevan Henderson who as we had a five-minute conversation last week of why he didn't get the five freaking meaningless carries and Terrell Jennings did against his Titans team pops up here and Brenley it's early in the game 10 carries for 75 yards. Did he look a lot better? Was he used throughout the entire game? And then why so much so effective so early on in this one? Yeah, again like there's no rhyme or reason I feel like with this backfield like uh distribution. Um, so that's that's helpful. Uh, so Raandre still outnapped him and still out touched him, but Trayvon Henderson, he looked much more efficient, much more explosive than Raandre with the ball in his hands. Um, I think he had what, 10 carries for 75 yards, ran the ball really, really well. Um, he made guys miss in the open field. Like he looked like the dynamic player that we saw at Ohio State. However, of course, because we can't have nice things, he fumbled late in the game um in the in the red zone. Really bad fumble. And then, of course, the next series he doesn't go in. So, I'm hope hopefully, you know, he's not going to be punished because I I thought he looked really really good. What were the runs were they between the tackles? Were they on the edges? Cuz obviously, this Browns defensive line had their way with the pass rushing department. Six sacks and Drake May. We talked about five for Miles Garrett, which is just an insane number. Insane. And and you know, this Patriots pass protection offensive line have been much better than, you know, their run blocking so far. So any running back here popping up for seven and a half yards per carry when in comparison Mandre had 2.4 uh is a stark contrast.

Yeah. No, so a lot of his runs more kind of inside zone. He him able to kind of get skinny through a crease and just break it. That's kind of where most of his production came from. But there was there was also one kind like quick toss. he was able to use his speed and get to the corner and and kind of break it for I think a 10-yard gain. So, it was a good mix I would say of inside and outside. But yeah, I mean I think his skill set certainly best kind of between the outside runs. And we'll find out because obviously this is the first time he fumbled. And he never fumbled at Ohio State. Meanwhile, he's dealt with fumbles to Raandre and Inuno Gibson all season long. They got punished in game but not after game. So, we will see what changes here uh for the Patriots. And yeah, anything you want to say about the Kahan Booty stuff or even Stefon Diggs, while he's not a full-time player, his impact for this team is still incredibly high, I think. And he's the receiving touchdown other than Hunter Henry and Booty here.

Yeah. Yeah. No, Diggs, I mean, like they don't throw to him a lot, but when they throw to him, it's on like those key got to have it downs. Like their chemistry between Diggs and May is outstanding. Um, and I think as the season progresses, I think Diggs will get much more involved in the offense moving forward. But yeah, I mean M. Hollands had a big day. Kan Booty, I mean like the ball was just going everywhere, you know, and um you know, in the second half once they started really getting cooking, you just saw Drake May become much more comfortable and yes, Miles Garrett was ridiculous. I mean, it was truly unreal. Uh but but yeah, overall this offense was really efficient and everyone kind of got the ball.

Was Miles Garrett opposite Will Campbell, the rookie, a lot? Was he going across the offensive line or did they kind of say, "Oh, you have this phenom chiseled out of stone and while Will Campbell has played well this season, he does have short arms and this is why like maybe short arms are discussed during the draft process." Yeah, I'll say Will Campbell will be having nightmares of Miles Garrett for the next week. Uh so I think three of his sacks were on Will Campbell. Um and then the other one the other one was on the left side and then he also was reduced inside and got a sack as well. Yeah, I think Miles Garrett entered this game with five sacks and finishes it now with 10. Uh, you opened with this and I'll close with this. I think Drake May got on the microphone after the game and said Josh McDaniels was born to be an offensive coordinator, which slight digest head coaching career. But very, you know, very nice compliment to his coordinating skills, that's for sure. And look, this Patriots schedule is cake. you know, they're six and two and because, you know, they finished last in their division last year, it's easy. It's the Falcons next week, the Bucks is tough, then it's the Jets and the Bengals and the Giants in the three games after that. So, uh, let's keep it rolling in New England.

Okay, let's talk about the Browns end. There's a pretty amazing quote here from head coach of the Patriots, Mike Vrael, that on the Browns offense after the game, quote, "They hadn't turned it over and then when their quote gimmick plays ran out, I thought we played pretty good defense." So, Brenley, fair that Yeah, because Kevin Sansky and his gimmick plays were the only source of offense here for the Browns. It's fair. Um, and again, I'm an Oregon guy and and Dylan Gabriel, we got to have a conversation. I I think now is probably the time. I mean, he had two terrible interceptions. One was essentially just like a punt. Like, I don't even know what he was thinking on one of the throws. And then, I mean, Josh, inexcusable, intentional grounding in the end zone. There was no one even remotely in the area when he threw it away. Safety. It's like, what are we doing? And and so, yeah, this Browns offense is is really struggling today. And Gabriel gives him no shot. unfortunately. So once their fifth, you know, once their first 15 scripted plays ran out, it was it was nothing. They couldn't do anything against this defense.

A lot of those scripted plays seem to go to Harold Fannon. Yeah. Six receptions, 62 yards, one score. Um I know that he like lined up as a fullback, kind of escaped out, no one covered him because not many people catch footballs from the fullback position. And then he he rumbles that one for I think a long gain of 19. So heavily involved. And look, whenever we discuss this in SAS versus film, we always point to the Browns being number one in tight end usage. And again, their two leading receivers, Fannon 62, and then four for 37 and one score here for David and Jooku on top of it.

Yeah, I think just Gabriel, he's much more comfortable throwing kind of, you know, to the tight ends, bigger targets. Um, so naturally when he's the starter, you know, those tight ends are going to eat. And then just one thing of note, Quinnon Junkkins left the game early. Shoulder injury, didn't return. And then Dylan Samson really was kind of the lead back after his departure. And as we saw the first what two weeks when Dylan Samson's the lead runner is much different than when Quinn Chan Judkins is the leading rusher. And I also want to point out that Jerry Judy had two targets and a zero and a zero and a zero across the board.

Yeah, final conversation here on Delhi Gabriel. Shidor Sanders was an active for this game. He had an injury heading into it. I do wonder if the owner steps in and says, because he's the one that continues to say publicly, yeah, oh, all three of these guys, including Joe Flacco at the front, are going to get starts this year, which to me in the back of my head was never a good thing for Dylan Gabriel, even if we kind of all assumed that was going to happen. Yeah. No, I mean, after today, I I feel you have to make the move. Like, it was just so lifeless, you know, like there's just no excitement. There's no upside with this offense. make the move. You got to see what you got in Shadore and kind of evaluate them both. And at the same time, none of it matters because they're just going to take a quarterback in this draft and that's where it's all headed to. So, I've it's why I've never really spent effort or time in this whole discourse between Dylan Gabriel and Shador Sanders because only one of them is going to be the backup quarterback next year.

All right, I'm going to lift your spirits here, Brenley, because we go from one Oregon duck in Dylan Gabriel to one Oregon duck in Bon Knicks as the Denver Broncos were kind of back at least against the

Dallas Cowboys. Uh, 44 to 24 in Mile High in this one, and it was a huge showcase of the 2025 rookie class here for the Broncos. Uh, I mean, we got an RJ Harvey touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. We've got a Pat Bryant touchdown, and we've got even a Baron interception on top.

Now, it didn't start out great. Like, the Broncos actually got their first first down on their first drive after going three and out in each of the last three games. So, maybe that was some foreshadowing of how good this game was going to be for them. But then the very next play, Bo Nix throws an interception. Just, I mean, totally erratic and off-target to on a slant to Pat Bryant. It looked so bad that you thought it was a miscommunication, but it wasn't a miscommunication. It was just a bad ball.

Now, on that next drive, we got a sick 30-yard pass play from Dak to CeeDee Lamb. When Dak Prescott got clobbered, George Pickens gets an endzone target, but it's knocked away by Patrick Surtain. But this was the first of two injuries to Patrick Surtain in this game. He goes down holding his right leg, does return on the next series, but then just before halftime, as he's trying to like wrestle a football away or wrestle a defensive or offensive player down, he goes down with a shoulder issue and then doesn't play in the entire second half. So that is certainly an injury that we are going to monitor. Uh, and then Lamb gets also an endzone target, but it's knocked away by Bradley Chubb. That's the high point for the Cowboys because they go three up and after that, again, three touchdowns for RJ Harvey.

The first one was a sweet pin-and-pull with Garrett Bolles going to the outside, basically depleting a defensive back, and then you have Quinn Miners, the All-Pro guard, getting to the second level and again, truly depleting another Cowboys defender. And then you have RJ Harvey, who shows, I think, some nice patience and some nice vision, weaves between his blockers and then runs away from the defense, uh, and showcases, I think, the big-play ability that he has despite now being touched on that play. His second touchdown was a third and goal, uh, from the one-yard line out of Wildcat. Former high school quarterback takes it in for the score. And then the third touchdown was again third and goal where he's almost lined up adjacent to the quarterback, uh, kind of behind the tight end. It's just a runaway play with mesh over the middle of the field to stall out the linebackers, and then they can't chase him, and he's faster than that, and he gets to the front pylon for a score.

Um, and yeah, I mean, that was truly the game. There's some elements here that we can talk about, Brenley, where J.K. Dobbins actually has an extremely effective rushing day. 15 carries for 111 yards. Uh, but obviously, the short yardage, despite a smaller body, went to RJ Harvey in this one. And then Troy Franklin, your guy, has once again a fantastic day. Six receptions, 89 yards, two scores. Whenever you look at the underlying metrics, he's kind of their go-to player inside of the red zone. And when that's the case, and they score 44 points and you're facing the Dallas Cowboys, even if he's a roller coaster, guess what? A lot of these other, uh, wide receiver twos and threes are roller coasters and flex options. And so just go to the one that's projected for the most points on a weekly basis.

>> Yeah. No, I thought the Broncos looked good on offense today. I mean, definitely better than they did last week besides the fourth quarter. Um, I don't, I'd say the lack of Courtland Sutton is interesting to me. You know, I do think he's like, they're probably best player on that side of the ball, but there's just no, they just haven't gotten on the same page, I feel like, this year between him and Bo.

>> Great question. I have something to say on this. So Tony Romo on the broadcast, because Courtland Sutton only had one catch in the first half, and it was actually on the final drive of the first half, said that Matt Eberflus had a game plan to eliminate Courtland Sutton from this game. Uh, I'm not sure how much that's the case because, you know, we don't get to see these wide receivers in corner matchups. But guess what? When that happens, literally everyone else ate on the offense. Everyone.

Uh, I mean, I, I mentioned Pat Bryant, who was being featured quite early on in this game. We mentioned the interception that went in his direction. He had another slant catch for about 16 yards. The next snap on a long run, he had a nice kick-out block across the formation as well. Uh, and then Evan Engram even had four for 36. But then Sutton does get it going in the second half. Four for 67. Uh, but yeah, just not quite the, you know, top 12 wide receiver stuff that we were hoping for, uh, on that side of the ball.

Meanwhile, we do need to talk about this Cowboys defense because Jerry Jones and I think his mouth continues to get himself in trouble. I understand trading Micah Parsons from your perspective. If I'm trying to put myself in your shoes, you're just not going to get along with, you know, his representation, and you think you offer this money, and the relationship was dissolved. But then you can't say, "Well, we traded him because we wanted to improve our run defense and then get run over all season long on, you know, 179 yards on 6.4 yards per pop here." Like, you have not improved your run defense at all. And you're actually still looking for someone to rush the passer because Bo Nix gets sacked zero times in this game. On top of that.

>> Yeah. I mean, this defense has been atrocious all year, and I feel like there's no answers currently on the roster. Like they have, they have no one that they can turn to and say, "Hey, like, you're the guy. You lead us." And they traded the guy away. You know, they traded Micah. So, it's going to be a long season for the Dallas Cowboys in terms of the defense.

>> Even if they just got to below average on defense, then this could be a playoff team that goes on a run. Like, we've seen that before, right? But they are just bottom of the barrel bad that, you know, we're not even getting garbage time opportunities because Joe Milton pops in here for a touchdown pass with eight minutes to go. So, if you, and look, I even think Brian Shottenheimer needs to understand this scenario for this team because with about 3:18 left to go in the third quarter, um, I believe you're down about 15 points at this point. The Cowboys punt on fourth and five at the 44-yard line, their own 44-yard line. And that's like trusting your defense to get the ball back, which, by the way, six plays after that, the Broncos are already in the red zone. And then 12 plays, they're in the end zone for a touchdown. And so you just have to understand that, hey, we've invested so much in offense that fourth and five and shorter around the 50-yard line, we just got to go for it. Like, we, we sure the Cowboys pass rush has had their moments here or there, but this is not a unit that you can have any trust in or put any faith in because you can't get off the field on third downs, and then you're allowing big plays on top of it, and then your cornerback unit is a mash group that continues to lose corners on a weekly basis. And so again, just never punt. You cannot punt.

>> Yeah. I mean, literally, like literally keep the ball in your offense's hands at all times because that's the strength of their team, and their offense, like, has been cooking all year. Obviously, obviously today it didn't go their way, but, you know, I would certainly not punt and always kind of keep the ball in Dak's hands.

Speaking of their offense, Dak: 19 of 31, 188, zero touchdowns, two interceptions. Um, one of the interceptions was just before half. He was forcing the middle of the field, uh, trying to get some points before half. Uh, and then Javonte Williams, because Dak didn't have any passing touchdowns, it's because both of Javonte Williams' rushing scores were basically from the one-yard line. George Pickens did see a good amount of Patrick Surtain early, again, just in the first half. He actually finishes the leading receiver. Seven catches for 78 yards. CeeDee Lamb, inside out, seven for 74. Both guys got, you know, penalties drawn on them. Riley Moss was put in a blender a few times and even had some, I would say, rough calls against him that probably shouldn't have been. Um, but that's, that's kind of it. Like, look, this Cowboys team is three and four. Uh, they are who they are. We can trust their offense on a weekly basis and we can definitely trust them against the Cardinals and the Raiders in their next two games with the by-week in between there. But like we talked about, it just feels like there's a ceiling on this team because the offense is bad, and not even below average. The defense, I should say.

>> Yep. Absolutely.

All right, let's go back to your second game. Speaking of offense and bad defense, uh, the Miami Dolphins go into Atlanta and win 34 to 10. The Falcons have been the biggest confusing conundrum of the season. And we know Kirk Cousins came in this one, and no Drake London on top of it. But Brenley, I feel like it would be unfair to start with anything else other than the Dolphins on offense with Tua Tagovailoa throwing four touchdown passes.

>> Yeah, this is probably the biggest surprise for me of the weekend. Um, obviously the Falcons with no, you know, no Michael Penix, no Drake London, but they did not even show up, and Miami and Tua did what they wanted. I mean, truly, like it was vintage Mike McDaniel offense. Everyone in space. Um, get the ball to the playmakers' hands. Jaylen Waddle looked like prime Jaylen Waddle. The explosiveness, ability to kind of take the ball after the catch and explode for the long touchdown. I mean, you see the different gear that he has. And then really for the Falcons, I mean, they just couldn't stop the run. And Miami's offense just ran the ball down their throat and showed a level of physicality that I didn't think that they had. Ollie Gordon had a good game. Devin Achane, obviously, had a good game, and the overall unit just looked explosive. Like it was great to see for the Dolphins.

If I'm looking at the underlying metrics appropriately, uh, we know that this Falcons pass rush has kind of been the strength of their team. Heck, they even traded up with this year's first-round pick to go get James Pearce and spent, you know, two first-rounders on edge rushers. That is tough to get home when Tua Tagovailoa has a time to throw of 2.37 seconds. So, you have to cover primary reads and quick options and quick outlets in order for your heavily invested pass rush to get home. And I also believe that didn't Jesse Bates leave this game, too? So like their best cover man in the middle of the field. If you're just running Cover 1 over and over and over again, uh, you're going to get torn up by Mike McDaniel here in a dome.

>> Yeah. No. Yeah. Jesse Bates left, and they got the ball out so quickly, and all of their playmakers are just making everyone miss in the open field. Like, Atlanta Falcons could not tackle a soul today. And when that's the case, you're getting the ball out quick, getting the ball to Jaylen Waddle, Ollie Gordon, um, gosh, Malik Washington, like all these playmakers, and they just didn't get touched. Like, it was such a poor effort from the Falcons where it's almost, I don't want to take anything away from Miami, cuz props to them, they did great, but the Falcons should be embarrassed today by their effort. Like, it was pretty abysmal.

Okay, I'm somewhat bearing the lead because we have to talk about this Falcons offense. Yeah, because it looked like on paper the biggest smash spot of the century for Bijan Robinson to have an, I mean, this Dolphins defense who just gave up 206 rushing yards to Rico Dowdle a few years ago. We're now facing Bijan Robinson, and Bijan Robinson is stuffed for nine carries, 25 yards, three catches for 23 yards. How the hell did this happen? They just loaded the box and said, "Hey, like, you know, if you guys are going to beat us, Kirk's going to have to beat us with his arm." But they had no weapons to stress the defense. And so Miami just straight up said, "Okay, here's nine men in the box. Bijan, you can't, you can't do anything today." And he was hit at or behind the line of scrimmage multiple times and just couldn't get anything going on the ground. I mean, it was wild to see, but he couldn't break tackles. There was just no holes for him, and it was essentially just running into a wall all game, and then by the time in the second half, they're already down by so much, they kind of just had to abandon the run. And so it was kind of a perfect storm for him to have a bad day today.

How did Kirk look?

>> You know, I don't think Kirk looked bad.

Okay.

>> I thought he played well. I thought, I thought he got the ball out. I thought he made good decisions. The issue was he had no one to throw to. Like Drake London was his best receiver, I think today. Like, that's not going to be conducive to putting up good numbers. And so that, that was an issue, I would say. Uh, he was pressured quite a bit as well by Miami's, uh, defense, but I did think he looked good. Like, if I was a quarterback on a mediocre team and I watched this game, like I'd be like, "Okay, like, I would want to trade for Kirk Cousins." I thought, I thought he played well today.

Okay, if that's the case, then I do have to ask because we do have Kyle Pitts' nine catches for 59 yards, by far and away this team's leading offensive player. Hayden and I were suggesting people start Darnell Mooney, and he only goes, uh, throughout the entire game, four targets, one catch for 11 yards. And I think it's impossible for me to ask you and for you to have an answer of what went wrong here because, you know, we're not seeing the routes, we're not seeing who's open. We can only look at what's on the screen. But that seems miserable without Drake London on the field. Darnell Mooney has been, you know, very productive when he has played so far this season, and this is basically a bottoming out in a spot that when we all needed him, he didn't deliver.

>> Yeah. So Kirk looked his way a few times, they just kind of, uh, just couldn't connect on a lot of it. You know, Mooney's so good on the deep stuff, the deep overs, those kind of post-corner routes. That's not really Kirk's game anymore. And so he was finding Kyle Pitts and Drake London more in the short, intermediate areas of the field. And so I just don't feel like he felt comfortable enough to sit back long enough in the pocket for these kind of long, deep shot plays to develop to Mooney. So that never really occurred today. Um, but yeah, you would think Mooney would have a blow-up game without London, but yeah, it just didn't happen.

All right. Well, let's keep talking about some rushing attacks because, yeah, when the Buffalo Bills were in their by-week, Hayden and I both asked the question, what would they focus on? What would they improve on out of the by-week? Uh, my thought was, knowing Sean McDermott, and when he previously made the offensive play-caller change from Ken Dorsey to Joe Brady, then they'll just lean on the rushing attack. And guess what? That's exactly what they did in Carolina, as they beat the Panthers 40 to 29, and James Cook goes 19 carries for 216 yards and two scores. I mean, he was dicing, running through, by the way, a run defense that had kept Javonte Williams to absolutely nothing, Devin Singletary to absolutely nothing, and Breece Hall to absolutely nothing over the last three weeks. Those games did not even equal, I think, 120 rushing yards. And James Cook gets 216 by himself. And the headliner is the 64-yarder that he goes straight up the middle and runs through, I think, like a Nick Scott arm tackle, and then is off to the races and just runs around everyone else. By the way, Khalil Shakir also gets a 54-yard touchdown where, you know, it's a short reception that he breaks tackles and runs down the field. Josh Allen finishes with 12 of 19 for 163 yards and one passing score. Brenley, I think this is just what they are as a passing unit. It's quick hitting, short receptions. We're going to try to win after the catch. We don't really have a downfield element here. We're not going to have 20-plus air-yard passes, and instead, we're going to rely on Shakir and James Cook. And then when that's covered, we are going to have Josh Allen have, you know, the superhuman extension ability to gain first downs or run for them or do anything like that. And that's just again, what they are at this point. It's kind of stuffed a little bit from a passing game standpoint, as we saw from the Chiefs maybe of the each of the last two years for stretches. Uh, but on some level, I think they're kind of fine with it.

>> Yeah. Well, I think it works out because they have the personnel to have that style of offense, you know, receivers like Shakir, who are so good with the ball in their hands, and so, kind of playing more of that quick game rather than the deep vertical stuff probably suits their personnel better than it has in years past. But I do think if the team wants to kind of, you know, reach their goals, ultimately winning the Super Bowl, there's going to have to be a vertical element to this offense that's currently lacking. Um, I'd love to see Keon Coleman get more involved. Um, not sure what's going on with that, but, you know, I, I do think there's more upside to this offense that we, that we've not seen so far this season.

Well, they also had a 12th man for them today, and that was Andy Dalton. Yep. Who's a 15-year NFL veteran and played like he has seen 15 minutes in the league. Uh, let's just go through each of these. All right, so after starting with the football and going three and out with negative five yards on the first series, which, by the way, Chuba Hubbard gets the start. We'll talk about that in a moment. Long, 11-play, 49-yard grinded out, which again, this is what the Bills like to do, drive for a field goal for the Buffalo Bills. The Panthers in their first drive with Rico Dowdle. Imagine that. Getting a 24-yard run on like a third and five. Uh, they're in the red zone. Andy Dalton, again, at 39-ish years of age, decides to scramble, gets four or five yards, and then has the ball punched out from behind. So there's his first turnover. Okay. Then another 12-play, 58-yard field goal drive by the Bills. So that should have been at least 33, maybe even 73. The Panthers were up. Instead, they're now down 6-0. They get a field goal drive, so it's 6-3. Then we get a touchdown drive by the Buffalo Bills to take them up to, I think it's 12 or 13-3 at that point. And then Andy Dalton out of his own red zone area is trying to throw a wide receiver screen and throws it in directly to A.J. Epenesa's mitts. Uh, we see this all the time. We know these are batted passes, or they check out of it, or he changes an arm angle, these types of things. And A.J. Epenesa tips it to himself and intercepts the pass and then takes it down to the one-yard line, which then we get a short-yardage, I think, Josh Allen touchdown run. So again, Andy Dalton has now taken points off the board because of a fumble, gifted the opposition a touchdown, which at that point brought it to 19-3. And then, oh, and then Brenley, a third-down sack in the red zone as the Panthers are driving, driving to get points prior to halftime. Again, 15-year NFL veteran knows that, hey, man, at the very least on third and goal, we need to get this football out of your hand. Throw it out of the end zone. You know, instead, he pump fakes it, gets sacked, time runs out, and so the Panthers, instead of at least 19 to 6 at half, are down 19 to 3 at halftime, and then it only gets worse from there. I mean, the guy cannot function. He again second-guesses himself, clutches it multiple times, and gets sacked numerous occasions. He has no movement in the backfield. And yeah, any person, I understand that you can look at the box score and say, "Oh, Terrace Marshall had 10 targets, seven receptions, 99 yards. We want Andy Dalton to start." No, you do not, because Andy Dalton was probably the worst quarterback on the NFL field on Sunday. And that is saying something.

>> Yeah. I mean, I caught snippets of this game, but every time I feel like they would cut to some highlights, it's Andy O'Dalton messing up or doing some crazy mistake. Um, so prayers for Bryce Young. Hopefully, he gets healthy soon. Uh, because yeah, Panthers fans should not be subjected to any more of Andy Dalton, uh, for future, future games.

I mean, it was a bit, he also got sacked seven times. Again, he cannot move. Now, there are some other notable things to talk about here for the Panthers. Uh, they've been down multiple offensive linemen due to injuries. They went down with three again in this game. Center Cade Mays left, who had been filling in for Austin Corbett and kind of overtaking him in the starting job. He said he's fine after the game, but we'll see. He missed a whole half. So did Taylor Moton, their star right tackle. He missed the entire second half. And then Brady Christensen, who has been a shining star here after a one-year resigned deal, filled in for Robert Hunt, who was, you know, a massive agent contract a couple offseasons ago, tears his Achilles and he's going to be out for the entire season. So, just as you thought, like the Panthers had hope at four and three, if you're down three offensive linemen, you face the Green Bay Packers pass rush next time, then it's just over. It's going to be over.

Yeah. And we also need to talk about the coaching here for a moment with this running back situation because it's as simple as this: at halftime, okay, Chuba Hubbard has seven carries for 17 yards. Rico Dowdle has seven carries for 52 yards. It, it really is simple. I, I am not a Chuba Hubbard hater. He has talent. He's been productive in the past, but it is so clear that Rico Dowdle is a better football player at this moment that at the very least, you should have him going in the first series if you truly are going to do this one series for Rico, one series for Chuba, and we go back and forth. But instead, they start with Chuba and they go three and out.

And against the Bills or any team, you can't afford to do that. They really should give Rico the vast majority of the opportunity, but if they're not, then you should at least start him in these games. And they're not doing either, and that's just poor coaching at this point.

>> Yeah. I know. Like, I think Chuba is a team captain, so I think a lot of it's like leadership and wanting to do right by him as the person, and I get all that, but it's evident D is the much more explosive ball carrier. I mean, like, it's it's clear as day. Um, he makes defenders miss, he breaks tackles, like he's what you want in a starting running back. And Chuba, like, he's serviceable. He's not a bad player, but it's very clear that D should be the featured back, um, in this offense. You know, I, I just think Dave Canales is making a lot of mistakes that are hurting this unit.

I totally understand, you know, leadership and a guy that's been around the organization and has helped them even win four games and turn things around a little bit, but the locker room probably knows that Rico is better at football right now than Chuba Hubbard is. So, the correct decision needs to be made with that, but I can't count on them to make that decision this week. Okay, let's go to the team that Brenley has probably already locked up the NFC South. Yeah, and that is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, that are six and two right now. Yes. Only through eight games, and they've probably won this division. Uh, they go to New Orleans and beat the New Orleans Saints 23-3. Again, this is without Rachaad White. This is without Mike Evans. This is without Chris Godwin. And this is really without offense. Uh, they have 88 rushing yards on 29 carries, and they have 124 net passing yards, and it really comes down to Anthony Nelson early on in this game being an absolute force on defense.

>> Yeah, he was everywhere. Um, I'll say this, good overall team win for Tampa, but this offense does have some issues. Um, obviously losing Mike Evans, losing Rachaad White, like, I, that's not easy. And then certainly, you know, hopefully Chris Godwin can maybe come back down, you know, some point this year, but very clearly you see the lack of playmakers on the outside for Baker. Um, Trey Palmer wasn't really heavily involved today. I think Tez Johnson was the leading receiver. Um, they, they just looked really out of sync, Josh, throughout the whole game. I think there was only one offensive touchdown that Sean Tucker had, like, quick, like goal-line touchdown run, but they just looked out of out of sorts. Baker was missing a lot of passes. Uh, he was not very accurate today, I would say. Um, and then there were a few drops which really hurt this unit, but thankfully they played the Saints, so they didn't really need too much offense, but I do think for the unit to kind of get back on track, they need Rachaad White to come back healthy. I think that's really, really hurting this unit.

I think that was very clear, uh, in a certain series near the goal line. I believe it was the first series at the start of the second quarter, a 17-play, 91-yard turnover on downs drive because they get down to the one-yard line with 9:51 to go in the second quarter. Zero-yard run. Then first and goal again because the opposition was offside. A zero-yard run. Then second and goal from the one, Rachaad White, zero-yard run. Then third and goal from the one, zero-yard run from Rachaad White. Then fourth and goal from the one, zero-yard run for Sean Tucker. Which, by the way, Hayden and I just discussed on Stats vs. Film that this season, Rachaad White had been the most efficient and highest success rate runner on short-yardage situations. And that regression came crashing down to earth. But Brenley, it doesn't end there because the first drive of the third quarter, once again, they get down to the one-yard line. First and goal, incompletion, Baker Mayfield to Sterling Shepard on a goal-line fade to Sterling Shepard.

A fade to Sterling Shepard. Who would, uh, who, who dialed that up?

Second and goal from the one-yard line. Zero-yard run from Sean Tucker. Third and goal from the one-yard line. Baker Mayfield, incomplete pass to A.J. Brown. And then finally, fourth and goal, one-yard touchdown run. Nine tries from the one-yard line, and they get one positive gain out of it.

>> Yeah, it was actually painful to see. I mean, the, my reaction to dialing up a fade back of the end zone to Sterling Shepard, who I think is 5'10". Like, what are we, what are we doing here? I mean, honestly, what are we doing? But, um, but yeah, no, I think, you know, they need Rachaad White to be able to kind of convert those short-yardage runs. Um, I thought Sean Tucker overall played well today. I thought he looked explosive with the ball in his hands. Like, I think he has more juice than Rachaad White. Um, but yeah, I just feel like this unit overall, Josh, was not in sync is the best way to describe it. Had a drop in the end zone, which would have been a really tough catch, but you would think he would make that catch for a touchdown.

And just overall, yeah, Baker, the whole, the whole unit just kind of looked out of sync.

And look, they won this week, but this is kind of back-to-back weeks we can say that about the offense. Like, they only scored nine points last week against the Lions. And it's all these injuries that are piling up, that's for sure. I even saw Tristan Wirfs getting backed up a little bit and pressed into the backfield, which is very uncharacteristic.

And then they go on this run here, Patriots, Bills, Rams over the next three weeks, which is tough. I mean, all three of those are very, very difficult. Uh, so we will see what happens with them. Okay. But to me, their MVP was on defense, and it was Anthony Nelson. I mean, we talked about fumbling quarterbacks while scrambling. He comes from behind and does like a, uh, hammer fist on Spencer Rattler and forces a fumble on a scramble. And then a couple drives later, does the same punch it up, tips it to himself, runs over Spencer Rattler and takes it down, uh, very, very close to the end zone. Anthony Nelson, what a day for a role player. I love it, man, when a role player changes the course of a game.

>> Yeah. No, he was, he was everywhere today. I mean, this, over this defense overall, I mean, was very, very impressive. I think they forced four turnovers, um, sacked the quarterbacks quite a bit. You know, Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shuck were just kind of getting clobbered all game. Um, so, you know, the unit for the defense was fantastic, and thank goodness, cuz if not, they probably would have lost this game. Um, so props to Todd Bowles and that unit because they were everywhere.

Okay, we got to talk about this quarterback split because, Yep, Spencer Rattler gets pulled. He goes 15 to 21, 136, one interception, three sacks. Was it basically in the middle of the third quarter at halftime that Tyler Shuck comes in and does nothing better? I mean, he's 17 to 30, 128, one interception, and one easy walk-in touchdown that he totally throws out of bounds to Rashid Shaheed.

>> Yeah. So, the commentators were alluding to it all broadcast. I guess Kellen Moore internally is getting really frustrated with Rattler's, uh, turnovers.

So, so last week, obviously, he had a tough game. I think he had, what, the two or three interceptions last week.

>> It was real bad last week. Yeah. Against,

>> It was bad. It was bad. And early in the, early in the first quarter, he had the fumble, you know, that you mentioned, and then again, that kind of tip pick-six or whatever it was. And that, I think that was kind of the last straw, you know, that was the last straw for Kellen Moore after the interception, and it was in the middle of the third quarter, and he just kind of sat him down, you know, and I, I do think Shuck didn't look much better than Rattler, but he also had some moments like, okay, you kind of see it. You know, he's athletic, big, strong kid, had a good arm, but I don't know if either of these guys are going to be the long-term answer for the Saints. Yeah. So, I think I've had a pretty level head with Spencer Rattler, whereas, you know, I think it can be quite easy to see a guy who's played a lot of college football and then make some plays and they're kind of highlight plays and you're like, "Oh, he actually has something." Whereas to me, he's just part of the feistiness of the Saints and has kind of fit what they've done well in terms of run a bunch of plays, and he's mobile, and he has a decent arm, and can throw these passes either short, and then when they want to attack the field, attack the field, you know, on 20-plus yard passes. It is surprising to me that internally Kellen Moore seemingly has been down. I understand they're one and seven. That, that is not the surprising part of it. It's just I don't know if Tyler Shuck's gonna be any better than this, and obviously neither are gonna be the quarterback of the future. But, uh, Rattler, again, just from my seat, has been part of the reason why some of these games have been competitive for them, that a lot of these quarterbacks ruin games and tank offenses, and I don't know, other than last week, and I guess this week, he has really tanked the offense so far.

I completely agree. I, I didn't love the move to bench him today. I thought, I think when you look at, like, in totality of his performance this year, you, it, you have to walk away from it positively. You know, he, he's played well besides last week and and today, and you see flashes of, hey, there could be something here. He has a, he's a strong arm. He's athletic. Like, he's not afraid to push the ball into tight windows. Like, a lot of the things you'd like to see for a young quarterback. And it's only his second year. And so, like, for me to bench him so soon, and he has such a short leash, I thought it was a mistake. I'll be curious to see what happens next week if they, if they go back to Rattler, or if, you know, they're going to stick with Shuck. But I did think it was a bit premature, um, to kind of put him on the bench.

Again, they're one and seven. And also part of this, Brenley, is they spent the 40th overall pick, excuse my French, on Tyler Shuck, who's 26 years old. And so if you're already going to have another starting quarterback next season, you have to play Tyler Shuck at some point, or else it's a literal waste of a second-round pick. And not the 64th overall pick, the 40th overall selection in the NFL draft.

Literally might as well be a first-round pick. It's, it's crazy.

Yeah. So I, I from that perspective, I do understand putting Tyler Shuck into the game. Uh, they do have the Rams coming up next on the road. So good luck to you if that's your first start in the NFL.

Best of luck, Tyler Shuck. Um, any closing thoughts here with Rashid Shaheed or Chris Olave? This is the first time with Alvin Kamara without Jamaal Williams on the field. Uh, we had seen Jamaal Williams, you know, have some stuff inside the 10-yard line. I thought he ran really well this season when he was in. Uh, and then, you know, his backup was Deon Jackson, but Deon Jackson doesn't get a single carry and only gets three, uh, receptions for 11 yards. Yeah, I mean, they just, they were, they were just always down in the game, so they never wanted to commit to the running game. I think they, they passed the ball so much today, it was crazy. Um, Rashid Shaheed, literally, I think the last player they had on offense went down with injury. Big bummer. Hopefully, it's not too serious, but he had to get help coming off the field. And Olave, I mean, he was, he had an okay game, but he's just constantly hurt. Like, every other series, it feels like he's being helped to the sideline or limping. Like, it's wild, you know, um, but overall, the whole offense couldn't really do much today. I mean, the defense of the Tampa is everywhere.

And both of those names continue to be mentioned in trades out there. I think Rashid Shaheed is more of a complete wide receiver than other people do. To me, he's often viewed as just a speed merchant, but I think he has like really nice route pacing. And as we saw in what should have been a touchdown, like his release and instant separation is just there. Again, I think he's kind of Jameson Williams-esque without the first-round draft capital attached to him. And then Chris Olave, I think Jeremy Fowler put this out there that if he doesn't agree to a contract extension, they'll be more likely to deal him, but the price will be quite high. So, I, I think both are still extremely talented players and would help whatever, uh, whatever offense gets them. Yeah.

Okay, let's close out final two games here. The first one, the Indianapolis Colts continue to roll. They're seven and one on the season. I mean, they did face the Tennessee Titans here, but they posted another 38-point affair. Uh, and it's on the back of Jonathan Taylor, who for the fourth time this season, Brenley, already has three-touchdown games. So, four three-touchdown games, and MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, these are all in his sights. Uh, I mean, his first touchdown was an 18-yard run where on his off-hand, he did such a cool job of like warding off linebackers and safeties, and like his footwork to create little pockets of space and then burst through them was fantastic. He also had an 80-yard touchdown run for a dude that's 220-ish pounds. He's super physical and also super fast, and if it's nice and properly blocked, which they were, grand canyons of space today with a Jeffrey Simmons-led Tennessee Titans defense, then he's just going to run right through it and beat your angles and get to the edge and tiptoe along the sideline and he's off to the races. So yeah, 12 carries, 153 yards, two scores, and then two receptions, 21 yards, and one touchdown. The other name I want to call attention to here is Michael Pittman. Yeah.

Because you know your team and your offense and your game is hot when crazy things happen. There was a 14-yard Michael Pittman grab which hit him in the face over the middle of the field, and instead of falling to the ground or going into a defender's hands, the ball skies in the air directly in the path of Michael Pittman continuing to run in a straight line, and he catches it for a 14-yard gain. And then a few plays later, he's got one-on-one isolated coverage. The ball gets pinned to his back right shoulder, and he just goes up and catches it like this and falls into the end zone for for a touchdown. So, Alec Pierce also had a 50-yard reception again on one-on-one coverage. He had inside leverage. Daniel Jones throws it up, and again, big catch, big gain, comes down with it. There is nothing, nothing wrong here with the Indianapolis Colts other than Daniel Jones taking three sacks in the first half, but they got that ironed out and they dominated.

>> Yeah. I mean, again, like when that, when they showed highlights of this game, all you see is Jonathan Taylor just exploding through the Tennessee Titans defense. I mean, truly, like MVP, Offensive Player of the Year. Like, he needs to be in the forefront of that conversation. But like from what, from what I saw of this game, I just love Shane Steichen's play-calling. Such a balanced offense. Spread the ball around, maximizing Daniel Jones' strengths, relying on JT. Like, I just love it. They're a well-oiled machine, and I think this team's the real deal. I really do. And Tyler Warren, I mean, he had a good game. Like, just great offense.

I mentioned the 50-yard completion to Alec Pierce. That's on third and 13. So, again, that's Daniel Jones trusting his guy to go up and get it. And then the Josh Downs touchdown that he scored on a three for 39 and one score. Uh, that was on third and eight. And so Daniel Jones just understands the time he had behind his offensive line to elongate the play just long enough to, you know, have that score. And it just goes to show again, if a quarterback trusts in his environment, trusts in his protection, trusts in his guys to make plays, and has the answer of when to go to the football in what moment of the play and phase of the play, then good things can happen. I mean, Brenley, you go back and watch these games. Yep.

Like, the Colts offense has the most wide-open pass catchers in the NFL consistently, and it's on a weekly basis. So Shane Steichen is walking into the cursed Coach of the Year award, uh, as we go on. I mean, they're seven and one. Yeah. Um, they're seven and one. I just don't know who's slowing them down at this point. We will get some fun games when they face like the Chiefs and the Texans defense and the Jaguars and the Seahawks and the 49ers, but until then, it's the Steelers and the Falcons over the next two weeks. So, nine and one is definitely in the path.

Okay, we'll close this thing out, uh, on this game with the Tennessee Titans, and it was abysmal. Uh, I mean, Taj Spears did have, I think, a 41-yard run, but then the rest, he only had eight carries for 18 yards. He had a meaningless goal-line touchdown at the end. Uh, DeAndre Hopkins is this team's like go-to receiver, and, you know, he goes with seven for 93, but this is one of those offenses right now, Brenley, where I watch it and I understand like stats are being put on a box score, but it all just seems pointless and meaningless and disjointed and without expression or flow or styling. And my biggest fear right now is Will Levis when there's a pressure look or a delayed blitz or a free rusher, he kind of just like drops his eyes and runs into another pass rusher and doesn't know if there is a hot. I, I don't know where the hot is, and I need to get the football out to that or to recognize that pre-snap. Uh, and to me, that could be a glaring issue heading into his second season.

>> Yeah. No, he's showing a few signs of regression in terms of that, like pre- the pre-snap stuff. He was never great at it in college, but I thought he made good strides at Miami last year. But yeah, you're seeing a lot of those issues flaring up, and obviously the supporting cast, the head coach change, like, there's a lot of things going on around him, but I would love to see a little bit more progression instead of regression. And I fear that that's kind of what's happening unfortunately with Will Levis. Also, Mike Vrabel, interim head coach, know your role, dude, and understand the situation. It was, they're down 7-17 with a minute 53 left to go in the first half. They have the ball on the 48-yard line, the opposite end, the plus 48 here on fourth and four. And he just punts the football. Just punts it instead of like, "Hey, we are one and six at this point. Why not have this drive to try to score a touchdown and, you know, bring that to 17-14 or even a field goal, 17-10 heading into halftime." Instead, you just punt it and you get no points. So, uh, yeah, you just give up. You, you surrender punt, and, uh, your team sucks right now.

All right, speaking of sucks. Yeah, we'll close this game out, this show out with the New York Jets getting their first victory, 39 to 38, over the Cincinnati Bengals. Jets are 1-7. Bengals now drop to three and five. This is after, Brenley, a 23-4th fourth quarter from the Jets after he took stray shots from stray shots from the team's owner in Woody Johnson was asked about the comment afterwards, said that's just outside noise. I understand he's the owner of the football team, but I consider that outside noise, which that's a 10-9 round for Justin Fields who's played terribly this year.

In this one moment, I love it, man. Uh, this is on the back of Breece Hall, 18 carries, 133 yards, and two scores. Justin Fields, 244 passing yards, which, by the way, just a couple games ago, he had negative 10 passing yards. We can talk about the Jets offense, but Hayden, I know you're a draft guy. Part of me instantly wants to jump to this Bengals defensive unit who fired Lou Anarumo. They had no personnel last year. Brought in Al Golden from Notre Dame, heralded and former NFL coach on top of it. Have spent seven of their last eight first and second-round draft picks on defense, and they have the worst unit in the league among them, right? You, you can't give this situation up to a lack of an offense, and that's just what they did in this game and lost it.

>> Yeah. No, I mean, the Bengals defense, they, they have players, you know, they, they have Myles Murphy, they have Logan Wilson, who I know he's requesting a trade. They just don't play well as a unit. It's, it's, there's, there's no, there's always miscommunications. There's missed tackles. There's blown assignments. And it's the fundamentals, really, because they, they have good players in their secondary. I like Cam Taylor-Britt. Like, they have, they have guys, but it's always just players not aligned in the correct spot or allowing open receivers in zones. Like, bunch of coaching issues. So I think that's really the kind of the crux of this unit. I mean, the coaching stuff, again, we all know who Justin Fields is. Yeah.

He doesn't have Garrett Wilson here, and you can't even take away like his primary read. You can't manufacture a pressure look. You can't force them off the field in one, like fourth down or fourth quarter drive to win the game. Again, the investments they made in defense haven't paid off. Some of the guys are like finally taking steps forward. You have Trey Hendrickson like in and out of this game. We know what happened to like Shamar Stephen prior to the season and not being in training camp. That's again, a lot of investment. 30 defensive picks over the last few years, and they're still terrible. That's really bad management. Just really bad management.

And you know, Zac Taylor's some bad coaching here too.

So, his seat's getting hotter. His seat is getting hotter by the day, I would say.

Just just wondering, uh, what's up all around here. Final note, Chase Brown does go 12 carries for 73 yards and a score. Three catches, 32 yards, and another score in the air. So, that's two straight weeks of Chase Brown getting home. Uh, we'll see if that can continue, um, moving forward, and that would be a huge, huge win for everyone's fantasy football teams. They do have the Bears and the Steelers over the next two weeks. All right, Brenley, that does it. We covered it all. I mean, that's,

Good. Another one in the books.

Another one in the books. That's 10 games. 10 games that we covered here today. Thank you all for tuning in. Hayden and Jacob will be back after Monday Night Football with the Waiver Wire Show. Uh, I'm sure plenty will be discussed there and then as well, Stats vs. Film on Tuesday with all the individual player performances and underlying stuff that we did not get to discuss here today. As always, if you made it to the end, be sure to hit the thumbs up, subscribe, help us reach 170K before the end of the season. Shout out to Mosha behind the scenes. Brenley and Hayden in front of the camera. Up the talk to you all soon. See you.