Week 3 Preview

Welcome to the Athletic football show brought to you by the US Bank smartly visa signature card. I'm Robert Mays week three is a packed slate tons of stuff for us to dig into today. Let's waste no time me Dave and Derek talking about all week three all things week three in the NFL. Let's get to it right now. week three is here. A bunch of good games that we want to dig into today. We have two games of the week. One, we're going to give the full treatment to the other one because we've talked so much about those teams recently, including in last week's game of the week treatment. We're not going to dive all the way in, but our let's blow it out. Game of the week, week three Ravens versus the Cowboys in Brazil. I also like to march. You guys know some are yesterday paying homage to Vin Diesel and fast five. I think this is that is Brazil. I didn't realize it was a fast five tribute. I just thought I don't think it really was, but in my mind, it was really funny though. In my mind, Lamar is just a huge fast five fan. Derek, if you're not familiar, the reporter said to Lamar that the Cowboys are America's team and he said, well, this is America, that's Brazil. Did not hear that. But I like him claiming another territory. I have not seen. I don't think any of the Fast and Furious movies in this is this is heartbreaking. What did you expect me to say? Absolutely heartbreaking. This is there has never been a bigger millennial Gen Z gap on this podcast. Then Derek and Katie never having seen any of the Fast and Furious movies. I know I've had them on. Have I finished any of them? I couldn't tell you. I don't expect you to have seen all 10 or 11 of them, but to not even see one is crazy. Fast five is a genuinely great movie. It's one of my favorite theater-going experiences of the last 20 years. Is that the one where they drag the safe down? Correct. Yes. That's my favorite one too. And it's one where the rock is introduced. It is truly, I mean, reinvigorated the franchise. Well, Derek Manuel was awesome on succession one day. We'll spend a day doing that. We'll be nine out 24 hours. It's going to be a lot of coffee. Not how I expected to start the week three preview. Speaking of Brazil, Ravens and Cowboys, the reason this is the game of the week, these are two teams at the table, which you can take issue with if you want to, but two teams that I think a lot of people believe would be playoff teams coming into the season. The Ravens were my AFC Super Bowl pick. And I think two weeks in, even if the Cowboys have been really good on defense, I think we can make an argument about that. Because they certainly haven't been good on defense. Even if the Cowboys have been really good on offense, if you were somebody that firmly believed in the Ravens coming into the year as I did, and more somebody that firmly believed in the Cowboys coming to the year as I did, one of those to me two weeks in, even with the Ravens losing last week, feels a lot sturdier than the other. I agree with you. And I, I think the Ravens have had the better two weeks than the Cowboys, all things considered. But when we talked about this, I said, there's a little bit of disillusionment between these two teams and certain, like the Cowboys defense has not looked remotely as good as we hope that it might. The Ravens do look sturdier. But the reason I said that is, I think Ravens fans everywhere expected to be done with the inexplicable bullshit September loss when John Harbaugh left and to immediately turn around and have that happen under a new regime with a new coach, I would be really annoyed by it, even if I think the Ravens overall are fine. I would be annoyed by it, but the idea that there's something endemic about the Baltimore Ravens that allows this to happen, I just don't believe that to be true. I don't think that type of flaw follows an organization around as the entire coaching staff, the way you play, a million things get switched at. I also like in a lot of other situations, especially towards the last couple of years, it felt like, I mean, some of them are like Mark Andrews dropping passes and stuff like that and Zay Flowers fumbling at the end. So like in a lot of other cases too, it was like coaching errors made by like John Harbaugh and like, I did not really feel like that's why they lost this game. It was just like the Saints defense kind of boat up there at the very end and like Chris Moore drops a pass. And then they, I think the other thing too is some people were saying they should have gone for that fourth and one after the Chris Moore drop. That's a situation where like you have eight minutes left in the ball game, like you probably think you're going to get the ball back with more than a minute and a half and you don't think the other defense is going to score. And so I can hindsight that looks like a bad decision, but I'm like, you dared the other team to make the only really good drive that they've had all day and they did like shit just happened sometimes. I think in terms of the coaching, you probably want to call a different play on third and one than you did. Declan Doyle literally said that tonight. He's like, I would like that one back. If you give it an opportunity. It's his second game calling plays like that. That's why I'm going to give this group a little grace and not say you have the old Baltimore Ravens problem. I hear you. It's still it's just annoying that this happened again when everything is supposed to be different. A knowing versus concerning that I think that's an important distinction because we had Ravens fans like in the discord this week. Like should I, you know, should we be worried about this? It's happening again. I'm like, let's let it happen again. Like at least one more time before we think this is some weird pull that has carried over from one staff to the other where I think the biggest gap is between these two teams right now is obviously when the Ravens have the ball and the Cowboys defense is on the field because I think that the Cowboys defense was better in week two. We can talk about some of the areas where they were a little bit better. I still think when you're watching this group right now, you can kind of feel the gears grinding of guys in a new system thinking really carrying a lot mentally and what this Ravens offense is going to do to you, Derek. If you're in that state, especially on the second and third level, just with all of the movement, all of the layers are adding in the run game. Even if I think over the course of the year, the Cowboys defense can kind of find its sea legs. This being your matchup in week three when you're trying to get onto solid ground is potentially concerning for Dallas. I think especially for the defensive line. I think if we came into the year and thought this was going to be a little bit of a slow process for the defense in the back end, I'm like, yeah, like some of these coverages are pretty complex. There's a lot of communication. You have like almost entirely new starters back there. Like the fact that that looks as shaky as it does and especially right now, like they just have guys banged up. So like, of course, that doesn't look perfect. I've been a little bit concerned with how slow it feels like the defensive line is playing off the ball, especially in the run game. Like you can tell that like, when in Williams is thinking, Kenny Clark is thinking, all these other guys like they're not just going and attacking and that's that's obviously partly like how the defense is ran, but it's going to take some time to get those guys to adjust to that. And like, are they going to be able to solve that by Halloween? Totally. Maybe you're now playing a Ravens offense that I think is so clear in their identity as a rushing team and has so much movement, especially on the interior with how often they bring in like Hidner specifically to run some of those motions and get movement on like the three technique. This just feels like even if the Cowboys can be fine later on defense later in the season, this feels like a nightmare week three matchup for them. I thought Brian Schadenheimer had an illuminating quote when he was asked about Quentin Williams this week. And there there's been a lot of consternation about Quentin, but the way he's healthy, I mean, yeah, a lot of just, yeah, a lot of times this summer. And Schadenheimer made the point, like he's new to this scheme. We're asking to do a lot of stuff. And he mentioned he's played it at Alabama. He did some of this stuff when he was in college, but at that point, you're talking about the 2018 season. It's been a minute since he's done this. And I think the juxtaposition of what Dexter Lawrence did has done for the Bengals the last two weeks, particularly the way he just owned the Texans game. You are clearly not seeing that from Quentin Williams to this point. I am far from ready to panic about it, but that is, that's just the blunt truth. And so this is a hell of a week and a hell of an opponent to still be in that not having to think about it face. Like they're not there. And good, good luck getting there this week, especially with what, I think as we're recording this, they're about to get on a 10 hour flight. And on top of that, it's this Ravens offense. It sounds like a tall order. My thoughts about the Dallas defense coming into the season and thinking they could be like an average unit by the time the season is over. And there's a chance that as they get more comfortable, we do see improvements. I'm open to that. And I think we can have that conversation. But that outlook about the Cowboys defense was driven in part by them having a hyper elite player on their front in the middle of this whole thing. And I think for reasons that are understandable, he has not looked or felt like a hyper elite player at this point in the season. And I think it extends to the entire defensive line and the front seven as a whole. There was a play against Washington where I watch John Bates just walked down of an as a rock who off the line of scrimmage. That can't happen if you were going to be able to hold up in the way that the Cowboys want to hold up with some of these boxes because of how Christian Parker wants to play. And I do think that over time they could potentially get there. And that's why I'm not panicking about the Cowboys overall because the defense it might take a little while. But the offense is going to be good enough, I think, to keep them afloat as that process happens. There are other units. I was talking about the Chargers with Barnwall yesterday, where you have new play callers. And neither one of those units is capable of lifting the other one up wall that new unit and that new play collar gets comfortable. And Dallas, I think that's possible. But I don't think it's going to be possible by the time we get to Sunday. I think like Derek said, it may take to Halloween. I'm a little panicked about the immediate future for this defense for a variety of reasons. And number one is just what the Cowboys are doing against the run right now. I mean, they're bottom four in rushing success rate. They're bottom seven in EPA per rush. They're one of seven teams in the league right now allowing a double digit explosive run rate. And going back to the same game. We talked about this in the recap show. The numbers will tell you the Ravens ran the ball well and just kind of got away from it. But rewatching that game, I thought the Saints did a phenomenal job of forcing the Ravens to just be patient and play it slow and steady. And I think that's why they got away from it because they did not have a designed run of more than nine yards in that. That's what it was. There's a lot of five, eight, seven, eight, five. The Saints were daring the Ravens to be cool doing that all the way down field. And a week after blowing the doors off the cults, they didn't want to. And I mean, Pete Werner and Kaden Ellis, I thought were fantastic in that game. Just I mean, the stuff they did rushing the line of scrimmage, putting pressure on the mar and what Pete Werner was able to do to help prevent any of those sorts of gains from happening. I just don't think I buy the cowboys have that. Not not right now anyway. You got to try to play that way at the very least. If you have that's what you need to try off the wine of scrimmage and trying to read out everything that's happening. I think run blitzes trying to cut up the front just doing everything you can to try to make a mess of this thing. Because if you're sitting there with all of the moving parts that the Ravens run game has right now and you're asking an adjacent bar him who I think again, commendable improvement from week one to week two, you could just see him really trying to internalize a lot of the things they talked about the week before being really demonstrated with the communication, all of that. But that doesn't mean that he's capable of sitting there three or four yards off the ball and processing everything the Ravens are about to throw at him. I think trying to do everything you can to create negative plays if you're the Cowboys run defense is how you have to approach this the same way that the Saints did when they were having success last week. I couldn't agree more because I think like the Ravens are going to move get movement and move you off the ball if you don't do stuff like that. And I think this is an interior where the zone running scheme in theory has a lot of answers for stuff like this. But you have a rookie right guard. You have a center who's never really started before even if he looks fine. And you have a left guard who has been in the system or have been in the, you know, on the team before. But like he is still working with new pieces around him. And so I think attacking those got like I think one of the on the first drive of the game. The Saints got you wanted to miss on like a fire the linebacker through the A gap. And he just whiffed. And so if you can do some of that's why I'm thinking about when I say this. And like you want to think week one looked good week two. I thought he looked a little bit slower, a little bit heavier. And so I was like, okay, if you can throw some stuff at him. And like honestly, that's what barham should be coming out of college. He was a tweener. Like we were like, is he going to be Frankie Louvue or something like that? And it's like you should probably think about trying to use him that way. I think the last point about the run game specifically, I'm so impressed already at the layers that the Ravens have built into the multi tight end run game. Like when they're in 13 personnel, there's some full house stuff that they're doing. They can tap into some Niners Esk stuff where they have one of those tight ends going in that slam motion and changing the strength of the formation just on outside zone. They're gonna really delved into this on the hangover show last week. If you guys didn't listen to that. What they're doing with Hibner, you guys can watch it. I'm sure they'll do it a ton in this game. They'll be in 13 personnel. Hibner will be on one side of the formation. He'll go in motion. They'll snap the ball before he crosses the center. And it's a zone run to the side where he's going into motion. And it's almost acts like he's creating like either a lead or wine back block by inserting into the middle of the offensive line. It's a really cool idea. And the fact that they're doing that in combination with all the other things they've already tried it out, it can take a while for a new scheme offensively and especially on the ground to hit. There's only so much timing you can work out during training camp. And so the fact that they're already in this place three weeks into the season is just immensely impressive. Hibner's averaging a block a week where when I see it, I like blink at the screen. You know, we're like week one. He like sat his guy down on the goal line on the on the Derek Henry run. I'm honestly blanking on what he did in the Saints game, but he had a block against the Saints where I was like this kicks ass. I can't believe this guy's a day three rookie doing this in week two. I have that in my notes, Dave. I'm actually glad you brought that up. It was first quarter with about nine minutes left. He smokes Pete Werner on that exact motion that we're talking about. Well, he just gets open and he just Werner's there and he just meets him in the hole. Two more things that I think they're worth mentioning on this side of the ball. But three more. They flowers probably not going to play. Obviously that matters. I don't know how much it matters in this game against the Cowboys defense specifically. I think they're still going to have a hard time because the Ravens were still able to move the ball pretty consistently against the Saints last week, even with flowers not playing personal lives for Dallas were without Kobe Durant and PJ lock. Marquis Bell played a ton last week with PJ lock and Bleak hooker hurt. It was not a good situation. This defense was going to be holding on to their hats when healthy over the first stretch of the season. The fact that now we're already on safety number four in this game when again, the safety is matter so much in the run game when you're trying to play this way because they're having to fit the run from depth. And that was a consistent issue last week against Washington when Bell started playing. So that's something to watch. And then the last point I wanted to make about this. And I felt this way watching Lamar on the rewatch. And it's come up when I was watching Josh Allen this week earlier this year. I legitimately think that we might be in store for an all-time collective quarterback performance season by the best guys in the league. And I say that for two different reasons. One, all of these, all these guys are top three guys that we think we all just collectively understand or have been the best recorder backs in the league over the last three or four years, the MVP's, Mahomes, Lamar, Josh Allen. Those three teams are three of the top four teams in the NFL and rushing success rate through the first three weeks. That has not happened. Right. The bills and Ravens have done that. The chiefs have not done that. So we've built these incredible engines around these players. And watching out, Mahomes has always been like this for a while. But watching out on Lamar over the first two weeks is really a reminder that they're just hitting their primes. Lamar's 29. Josh Allen is, this is the age 30 season for both of these guys. This is the moment where the mental and the physical was converging at the exact right place, where they're still as talented as they's really, I really ever been. And now they're, they're feel for how to play the position is just more refined than it's ever been. There was a play against the Saints. So simple like nine-yard completion in the two-minute row where Lamar just peeks down to the flat defender, yanks him down for just a second and then on time just rips the completion of Rashad Bayman. And we have a guy that is one of the all-time supernova talents at the position and same with Josh Allen now really getting a feel about how to manipulate defenders in space. And I just think that the results have a chance to be insane in terms of the types of seasons we get from these three guys collectively. I would add to that my last real note about the Ravens offense and we know how good Lamar is as a passer and he hasn't always needed this over the last few years. He's running more right now than he has since the last time he won MVP. Obviously, he was banged up last year and you could feel that when you watched him, he's scrambling on 10% of his dropbacks right now, which is the highest rate since 2023. He's had explosive runs in both games. And I think that's worth bringing up this week more than any other because the Cowboys are allowing a 70% success rate to quarterback runs. It was awful last week. Dart and Jaden, Dart and week one and Jaden in the first half of last week gashed them. I mean, Jaden had 69 rushing yards at half time when he got hurt. And so it's a great thing to bring up. I don't think Lamar's doing Greg Roman shit, but I think Lamar's going to have half a dozen carries in this game and I bet a few of them will be explosive. It's just the different and we've seen this throughout the league over the first two weeks. Design quarterback runs are down as they should be. They're no longer efficient plays. They're no longer explosive plays because defense is more used to seeing them and when you're playing out of these two high looks, they're just not going to go for explosives the way that they used to. So if you're not going to have positive gains and you have a chance of hurting the quarterback, why would you run design quarterback runs, but scramble remains some of the most efficient plays in football. So these guys who can use their legs, even if they're running less in design plays, the scrambles are still back breaking. And I think that we're going to still see the teams that have those guys and the teams they don't and the gap between them over the course of the year. Let's get to the other side of the ball here when the Cowboys are on offense. Derek, I'm curious, watching the Cowboys def offence over the first two weeks. This team is third in the NFL and EPA play. If you look at a lot of base metrics, they've been really successful. They lead the league and points per drive as they pointed out earlier today. What is your feeling going back and rewatching the Cowboys offense over the first two weeks and kind of where things sit right now? I think they're good. I think I wanted to come out of the first two weeks being like, oh my god, the offensive line and run game is what I wanted it to be. And I know that Tyler Smith is missing, but I think that there are a couple of other factors that would have fallen to how that happens. I think the center and right guard who are both young players. I think it's your three and your two respectively for those guys. I wanted them to take a little bit of a step and I thought that Terrence steel. I know last year was a little bit up and down to just like hang on and be fine. The fact that they this team like traded for project Jones because they didn't think Terrence steel was be good and he's been tough the first two weeks. And then the center and right guard, you know, I don't know if this is because they just have so many run concepts on the menu, but I've just especially last week there were just a lot of mental mistakes where they're just like taking weird angles. They're not ready for blitzers in the a gap. They're not being able to pick them off just stuff like that. And so I was just hoping for I think when I thought this offense would be dominant, it would be yes, DAC and CD and pickings are doing the thing that we want them to. And also the offensive line looks dominant. I think they've looked good. I think they've looked a little bit hit or miss. I want to be very clear. I still think they're going to be good. I just thought maybe this would be a fireworks show a little bit sooner than it has been. It's exactly how I feel two weeks into the season and I think the positive way to spin this would be it's been in perfect. There are still things where you can feel them searching and the run game to me is the best example of that. We can talk about some of the details about in a second, but I think the positive spin on it is that's the situation. And they've still been third in the NFL in EPA per play. And they still have lead the league and points per drive. And I think part of that is because the way teams are I think we're accounting for them running the ball in a surprising way when you have pickens and lamb. And I think some of that is this team uses a decent amount of heavy personnel. And I think the defenses have accounted for that. This year so far the Cowboys have 27 runs into blocked boxes. So where they have more players in the box than there are defenders per next shed. That's the third fewest number in the league, which is surprising when you have those two guys on the outside. I think part of the way that defenses have allocated resources to stopping the run has allowed the Cowboys play action game to be really, really good. They have a 63% success rate off play action over the first two games. And you combine that with them getting stuffed on runs at the 4th highest rate in the league. So it's just been a weird mix of stuff. And the run game specifically where they've actually found the most success is on gun runs out of light personnel. And so you can just kind of feel them searching for the right answers in that area specifically. And I do think that there's a chance they find them and this thing really gets kicked into high gear. But two weeks into the season, I'm with Derek. It's just been a little bit more stop start and a little bit more hitter miss than I probably wanted to see in year two of this offense in this system, which I still just go back to the fact that it's funny. We're saying that about what has been one of the best offenses in the NFL for two weeks. You can look at it either way. You can be like, oh man, this is clunkyer than I want it to be. Or you can say, man, when they really click into place, this thing is going to be terrifying because there was even in this Washington game like a deep corner route that like was almost open. But like George Pickens ran it. I think shallower than than DAC wanted. And that's one of those that like, I don't know, by week six, they'll probably have that sorted out. And that's going to hit. And so again, I'm still very optimistic about what this is going to be. And I don't think I moved at all about how high I took them in the offenses after anything. I just thought we would hit the ground sprinting instead of like running at a good pace. You know what I mean? I will say the one matchup thing specifically for this game. I mentioned some of that. I think the interior up and not up and down, but like I thought this interior would kick a little bit more ass. Obviously they're working with the backup left guard right now. For the Ravens, Travis Jones is playing career football right now. He is insane for them. And I do wonder how much of this game he's going to be able to control because he's done it for them the last couple of weeks. The other guy throw out Tavius Robinson looks the best he's ever looked. So you've got two guys playing as good as they ever have on the front. And guess what? Let's address the the Aggie in the room. Cause Namedi Mata Bique. We're recording this on Thursday. You can never say for sure. But all signs are pointing toward him doing something in this game. Did you see Anthony Weaver's quote at media availability? He said he told Namedi, you complete me. We'll see. We'll see what it looks like. But I mean, hey, it's just exciting that he's in a spot where he should be playing football soon and be adding him to a front where these guys are already playing pretty well. And again, this interior of this Cowboys offensive line has not been fantastic to start the season. Hopefully Tyler Smith is back immediately when the IR window allows him to be. But I mean, even without Namedi, and especially if he is available to play and look remotely like himself, that's something I'm watching very closely. The Ravens defense, I think, is another one of those units where new play car, even if the system is the same, probably will take them a little while to get fully unlocked. But there are a lot of things they have done over the first two weeks. I'm like, I have a lot of hope about what the best version of this thing can look like. They are fifth in the NFL and pressurate through two games. The pressure stuff that they're doing with Kyle Hamilton, specifically, he is blitzing on 22% of his snaps per next gen. It was 11% last year. And so they are really using him as a past rusher and the different types of carriages they can play behind it. The depth that they're playing with reminds me a little bit of the sea ox where they're forcing a lot of stuff underneath. I think they're tackling really well in space. There is a version of this defense as we get a little bit deeper into the season that to me can just be a buzz saw. I don't think they're quite there yet. But I do think that it is potentially on the horizon. I've seen enough of the crumbs through two weeks. This was one where I was like, I kind of wanted to see it a little bit to believe it through two weeks. Even if it's been imperfect, I'm like, yeah, they will be a top five defense by the end. Like I fully believe it. It is funny that and maybe some of it's because Matt of BK hasn't been available, but Jesse Minner's blitzing way more than we're accustomed to. Like he blitzed 25% of the time with the chargers in 24. And then last year it was all the way down to where he wasn't even blitzing 20% of the time. It's up near 32% right now, which is I think it's 11th in the league. So like not it's not Brian Flores, but this is just not what I associate Jesse Minner with. And you immediately figure out why when you toggle the stats to show how they're rushing the passer with four. It's not very good. Like when they're not sending those extra guys, I think they're bottom 10 in pressure rate. And it's a small sample size. I get that. But like you see why he's doing it. And I just wonder, is that to compensate for not having somebody like Matt of BK or is that just a wrinkle in the Ravens defense that Jesse Minner is going to add? I think it's the latter. I think it's more about I think it's more the latter. I think that overall in talking being there this summer and hearing the way they were talking about how they wanted to play, I expected more aggressiveness, a little bit more man coverage, more just trying to force the issue. And I think some of that is, this is Jesse Minner's third year as a defensive play car in the NFL. He's still fairly new. And something Mike McDonald said to me once that is always stuck with me is that when he was doing it the first year and even his first year in Seattle. So two of his first three seasons, he was calling defensive plays to not make mistakes. It was more about making sure you were putting your guys in the right situations, rather than putting them in an attacking mindset and calling it through the players and unleashing them as to the fullest extent that you could. And I think I'm psychoanalyzing him here. Jesse Minner looking at the guys he has now. I think this is a how can I truly unleash these guys in every way possible? I think it's been a little bit of a shift in mindset because there's been a shift in talent. That's my read on it. Watching Kyle Hamilton rip in from the slot as often as he has been when you just rewatch Ravens games has been very fun. So I hope you're right. And the corners are just so different than what they had in with the charges. Those guys played admirably, but that was a we're just trying to get by at this position. Look at the way that secondary playing. We'll talk about that later. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's get to our other game of the week for this week. We talked about at the top. We talked about the Broncos at Nazim last week in a game of the week. The Rams are an island game. So we're not going to spend quite as much time on this one. We had two teams, both of these teams last week, huge bounce back games after way that they looked in week one. Dave, I'm curious. Looking at the way the Rams and Broncos played in week two, which of those bounce backs in your opinion was more impressive or more real? I might say the Rams, if Jackson Dart had been available, but when he goes out of the game, three snaps in. And we already had questions about the Giants defense. I think what Denver did in the second half against the Jags is more impressive than anything the Rams did against the Giants, even understanding that it was very fun to watch. But to especially to have the game they did against the Chiefs where we were staring into the abyss about what the Broncos season might be. And Derek pointed it out on the recap show at half time. We were staring into the abyss. And so for them to write the ship and look as impressive as they did clawing back in that game, it's much more impressive than anything I've seen from the Rams so far. They definitely needed a lot more. Like against the Giants team, especially once Dart goes out, it's like that was the game the Rams played was a dominant team. A top five team should look like that against the team that is expected to go sub 500 what the Broncos were able to do. I think especially with some of their second half adjustments, just especially playing different stuff on defense. I thought their corners and DBs played exceptionally well in the second half. Like on top of the offensive line because I think overall, this was a team where the offensive line, the talent in the secondary and the talent upfront on defense. Those were the pillars of like this is why this team is elite. The fact that the secondary and the offensive line looked so much better in that game than they did in week one, it was like, okay, we can go back to thinking that this is a pretty good team again. The secondary being what it is, I think, really sticks out in this game simply because if Puka doesn't play, yeah, who are you really scared of? And you, it's a little bit of a different world, having Devon say Adams pick on Colton Hood, then it is going against Patrick Sartane potentially for a good chunk of this game. And so I just wonder without Puka and against this defense, compared to what the Giants are doing, what is the Rams best path forward on that side of the ball? What would your answer to that be Derek? What is the, so I actually for as good as I think the Broncos defensive line is I do think that you can get after them specifically in the duo run game, which is exactly what the Rams want to do. And I think reason being their edges are a little bit smaller. There are guys who are good against the run when they can knife under stuff. They're the cutback player like all that sort of stuff. And then I think even like Zach Allen is having a phenomenal season. But because of the way he's built where he's so top heavy, when you get four hands on him and like move him and like push him over a little bit, you actually can get movement on him. I think with some of these double teams. And so I think them just making sure they're saying on track, trying to keep Denver out of some of their past rush stuff, especially with again, as good as this past rush looks right now. And with the Rams offensive line being more like, I still have some question marks about how good they're really going to be this season. This is the exact type of game where the Ramses philosophy of we're going to stay in duo. It's always going to be second and five and third and two. I think you absolutely have to hit on that in this game, with especially without Puka, especially without Puka because I do think that just leaning into the heavy personnel stuff, I'm 100% with you downhill runs trying to stay efficient. And what those downhill runs and saying efficient does not only does it not put your offensive line in clear pasting situations where it's second and nine, you're having to worry about the NASCAR dudes that the Broncos have. It allows you to stay in those heavy personnel groupings. And the what the Bronco with the Rams do out of 13 personnel throwing the ball is just a lot of bullshit. Like the amount of tight end screens and the amount of spitting the ball to the flat. Like that's how they really do want to play every once in a while. They'll be able to hit and explosive because they'll explode that thing out and they'll break up heavy personnel groupings on defense and I'll try to hit you with something vertical. But that's not what a lot of this offense is built out of when they're living in 13. And when Puka's not out there, you're going to have to. And so making sure you're ahead of the sticks this entire game is the most important component of this entire thing for me. And again, against Denver, their linebackers, they don't see that stuff very well. Like they had issues last year seeing all the boot stuff, motion to flat, like, you know, getting all of that sort of stuff handled and seen and picked up. And even just right. He's a hammerhead, man. That's what he is. That's what he wants to be. They are between the hashes move forward type of players. Everything else is a little bit of a struggle for them. And so yeah, if we can get tight ends moving and just mishmash some of this motion stuff, I think it does cause a lot of issues for them. I was interested to see when I went back and looked because we talked so much about how impressive the Jags heavy personnel was in week one. They kind of did an about face like they ran 64% 11 against Denver. Like, I mean, they did some multiple tight ends stuff, but they did not lean into it the way that I thought they might. And to your point, LA doesn't really have a choice. Like they're like, I mean, you're not going to run 11 and Jordan wouldn't winning 10 is dealing with an injury as well. So like, if you wanted to run 11, what would it even be? Well, they were doing it. The funniest play of the Rams game from last week against the Giants. I tweeted this out earlier today. They did the use check lead dash motion with Xavier Smith. He like led up on the nickel. He's 180 pounds. And like, that's just Rams nonsense, right? Where it's like, we're going to run the same plays in 11 that we do in 13. It looks a lot different when it's Xavier Smith and not Puka or Jordan, Wittington. So they can do it. I just don't think they want to do a lot of it for a team that's already so good in 13. How often are you going to do that with what's available to you? I just want Jake Wan Mcmillan is a small nickel man. Maybe they do lean into that stuff. Maybe we see Xavier Smith, the fact of fullback in this game. Jake Wan Mcmillan's legit awesome, by the way. He's been playing as a man. He's exceptional. Yeah, he's just phenomenal. That's the last question I have about this. How much man do we see from the Broncos? Because they did not do a lot of it last week against the Jax. And the Jax last season were third in the NFL in the second half of the year in EPA for dropback against man coverage. The Rams were number one. I don't know how real that is in a world without Puka. I think within a world without Puka, do you actually want to play a lot of FU man coverage and dare them to throw the ball into tight windows and not give them any space? I think that to me is the right approach to this, even if the numbers from last year would tell you otherwise. The Rams numbers this year against man have been bad. It's been two games. But I think that's probably where I would drift to if I were Vince Joseph. I mean, especially with Patrick Chutan, I think I would like to want to add him to still really good, but Patrick Chutan is currently the best in the league of what he does. And like Riley Boss played in really, really good game last week. And if the guys that he's going to be going against are the Xavier Smiths and Cannata Mumpfields and stuff like that, it's like I think him and Mcmillan are going to handle themselves pretty well. To go back to your point about tight end screens and bullshit out of 13 personnel, the Broncos tackled better last week because it would be impossible not to. They still miss 10 tackles against Jacksonville. Like, I don't know if that's all the way fixed. It needs to be like I like Alex Singleton and Sternad need to have a clean day because I don't like, you can't afford to give up bullshit gains on plays like that, considering the firepower that the Rams have otherwise. When the Broncos have the ball in this game, number one thing I'm watching and I honestly think this is true for both sides. I think whoever protects better in this game will win. I think that's often true, but when you both anecdotally and the numbers look at the difference between Matthew Stafford and Bo-Nix, when kept clean and when pressured this year and over the last couple years, it's a drastic difference. And the biggest difference in watching the Broncos offense in week two versus week one is that the interior of the offensive line was able to hold up because the Jags just don't have interior past rush. Like, that's not a strength of that team. The Rams is a different story. And so I think how the Broncos interior looks against the combination of Frisk, Frisk, Frisk, Kobe, Jesus, I did it again. He is Frisky, a combination of Braden Fisk, Kobe Turner, Aaron Donald. Does it look more like week one than week two? That's probably the number one thing I want to see when the Broncos have the ball in this game. I think that's what I'm looking for is what like the Rams just have so much past rush use. And I do think that like Donald look fairly good last week. I do think it's funny though about like why these two quarterbacks are so up and down. I would say when they get pressured for Stafford, it's like he wants to play football too much where he wants to just hang in there and make the throw. And he's like, I'm going to stay on this spot. God damn it. And I'm going to throw it. Bo-Nix is a complete opposite where he just like does not want to do anything but get the ball out of his hands. And I think it creates different issues. And to that point, I would say like I actually do trust this Rams secondary right now to come down, clicking close and tackle. McDuffee can do it. Watson can do it. The safeties are really good at it. If they can get enough of those plays out of Bo-Nix, I do think that that is probably a pretty good avenue for them to win this game. It is a really good thing to point out because this Rams team against a previous version of the Broncos that was a lot of underneath. It was a lot of yak. And they didn't do as much of that in week two, right? They were pushing the ball more down the field. But that has been the identity of the Broncos offense for a while now against a Rams team that couldn't tackle that is a more viable path than it might be against this version of the Rams with the physicality that they've added in the secondary. And you're curious to explain so much man last week. 44% man was the most a Rams team has run since 2019. And you mentioned it. I don't remember if it was after the Niners loss or after Monday night, but we're just gathering data on how Cresciulo wants to run this collection of talent. Like, is that an outlier? And did you crank it up because James Winston came into the game for snaps in or is that how the Rams want to be? I just, I think that's really interesting because he has the horses to do whatever he wants. So what is his vision for how he wants them to play? So I'm going to have an eye on that just how Cresciulo wants this group to play because I don't think we know the answer to that yet. I think anecdotally, Derek, I would want to make bonics read stuff out more than giving him easy answers based on playing a lot of man coverage. I think I mostly agree with that. He's a quarterback where I do think that if you can make things a little bit complicated for him a little bit more muddier, especially in the back end, he has a tendency to I think to not hold on to the ball, but to immediately check down. If bonics does not like what he's looking at the first two seconds in the play, he's just going to spit it out. And that works well enough when you get it out on time. And RJ Harvey can make a guy miss whatever it's going to be. But like I said, I do think this Rams secondary tackles better than they had in the past. And so I don't know if you can do only that and get away with it. I think they're going to have to do more. I'll say this. He was doing more of it last week. And he was trying to access throws last week that he typically does not. And I think the way that they were trying to attack windows, push the ball down the field, that's the version of the Broncos. I think they need to be for them to hit their peak as a team. And I think the what we saw against the Jags is a good start of them kind of heading down that path. All right. We're going to get to one thing from three more games on the week three slave. But first, let's take a quick break. All right. Three games hit one thing from these games that we're watching in week three. Dave, why don't you kick us off for Raiders at Saints. One thing you're watching in this game. Go for it. This is really straightforward. It's a game I'm dying to watch, which with respect to those teams, I don't think I would have felt that way looking at the week three slate heading into the season. I had what we got Ravens Cowboys, Rams Broncos. We'll get into we'll get into some of these other games, but like the Patriots are playing the Jags like this absolutely three weeks ago was like, okay. And then that's happening. And now after two games, I'm like, put the Ram, put the Raiders Saints game on TV. Like what are we doing? You tried to make it a game of the week. I pitched for it to be a game of the week because and I don't want to be mean and say this is as good as the vibes will be for either of these teams. I don't know if that's true. And that's what's so exciting. This could be the start or something special for one or both of these teams. And I just, I want to watch this. And if that's not juicy enough, all signs are pointing toward Brock Bowers playing as well. And if you have like one thing holding you back about the Raiders, I don't know if the offensive success is fraudulent or not yet. Well, I mean, the numbers are not good. Like EPA per play, EPA per drive, points per drive, explosive play rate are all middling to bad. And so is it going to look that good when you're a playing a team that's not imploding? Or when you actually insert an all pro level pass catcher into this thing, because that's that's the one problem. Like it's very fun when Cody White and Trey Tucker are catching touchdowns against the church. Harder's team that's falling apart, but are you going to survive weekend and week out in the NFL with that? I mean, Clint Cubi X, a hell of a play collar, but at some point you need a difference maker and maybe Brock Bowers can take this thing to another level. I don't know if I said this in conversation or on a podcast because my entire life blends together at this point. But as I think about and look at the chart at the Raiders in 2026, I think the best case scenario is you were a diet version of the 2025 Jaguars. And when I say that, there are a couple of different elements that lead into it. It's a combination of difference making offensive play collars, your head coach who's just doing a lot of really good shit. And I do think that coming off of last year, I really do like what Clint Cubi X is bringing to the table, even if it's not maybe it's one a half tear down from what Liam, what Liam Cohen has done. But I think generally similar archetype of coach that we're talking about. The one I actually do think is has a chance to be kind of one for one or close to it this year. What if Rob Leonard is just last year's Anthony Campanilla? Oh, it's like out of nowhere, defensive coordinator who kind of has something to him. Yeah, I like that because honestly, they've almost a lot of the hallmark in a lot of cases, especially I think for defensive coaches, even more than offensive coaches are guys who you didn't necessarily expect playing their best football. Nicobie Dean looks really good for what they paid for them. The way they're using Kway Walker as like an on the edge player, like half the time him being this like, he really helps them out in the run game because of his length, but you can drop him out. He can rush the pastor a little bit. The way that they're using has a kind of masses like, I think that he's been playing really well and they're letting him fire off the edge whenever he's like, I mean, there were a couple plays in that Chargers game where they're like running type formations and they're like, all right, you can just go if you feel like that you're going to be in those formations. So the fact that almost all those guys are playing some of their best ball, it is really encouraging. And also like for all the weird stuff that we had, we know Max Crossby getting traded and does he want to play here? He looks in sane again, dude. He is amazing. Let's just make it. Let's make it our pet cause because we talk about it a lot, but like having a down year or getting hurt, doesn't mean that you stopped being a good football player. He traded two first round picks for him. Yeah, but then I got miss and they should have kept it. And then it was, it was voided and everybody was like, oh, his knees sucks so much. He'll never play good football again. And he's just out there terrorizing teams. And I do think the defense again, there are enough parallels where the Jags were last year. You have one truly elite player. Josh Hines Allen is that for the Jags Max Crossby is that probably to an even bigger extent for the Raiders. The rest of your defensive wine, the way that they're defensive tackles the play against the run is encouraging to me because that was my biggest concern coming into the year is that they would just get blown off the ball. That hasn't really happened. Quitte pay being like a rugged runstuffers. Your other edge player is again, like a tick down from Trevon Walker, but there's enough similarities there. Adding a kind of weird veteran presence, nickel that we didn't know how good that would be. But maybe it actually was the right thing for you. Like I do think there are enough similarities on that side of the ball for them to be something akin to last year's Jags. Maybe they're not a top 10 defense, but they're a top 12 defense or top league defense that we didn't expect. On offense, they don't have the horses to be the Jags from last year. Like Trevor Lawrence isn't walking through the door, even if Brock Bowers is. And I think that part is okay. But I think overall, even if the multiplier isn't quite as strong as the talent isn't as good, having the same beats as last year's Jags and having that be the reasons we can get excited about the about this year's Raiders, I do think there's enough there for me to start believing in it. It just looks very buttoned up. Yeah. And that's good. It's that stark contrast from where the Raiders were last year. A couple other fun things I just wanted to say while I was looking into this game, Kalimor reminded me this week that he and Kirk Cousins were on the same senior ball roster. Kalimor's been coaching since 2018. What I don't like about that is it's just a real implication that those dudes are old as shit and both of them are younger than me. Hannah fell old. It's different. You know, it's like it's the tweet. We're like, here he comes, the oldest player in the league at 33. But that you but he used to be where I was slightly younger than that joke. And now I'm older than that joke. And I'm not sure I like it. You mentioned the Cowboys success rate on play action earlier in the show. Do you know who's leading the league in EPA per dropback on play action? Is it the Raiders? Not only is it actually the Raiders are two. Guess who's number one? Is it the Saints? It's the Seahawks. Oh, that is definitely makes sense. I mean, this is the guy that does it better than anybody. And the team that's just trying to emulate what they had when he worked for them last year. Listen, buddy, you don't have to tell me how exciting it is. The Coupiac ball is back. The fact that that's what the league is right now again. We're just riding. We're going all the way back to like 2008 is just music to my ears. That's exactly what I want. Professional football to look like. It's so good. Like and honestly, like you said, Dave, I don't know how good this offense is ever going to be even with when Brock Bowers comes back. But the offense makes sense. And the quarterback is seeing it really well. It's just like a comforting offense to watch. I find I think this feels very raider focused because we've talked a lot of the Saints, but like both both sides of this are so fun. Obviously, I think what Shuck has done through two weeks speaks for itself, a lava is on a freaking heater. Like this, like I said, this felt like a game that I would throw in a quad box in the late window because it is a it's a three 30 game or a three a game, which is like weird for the Saints. The Saints don't play at three because there are central time zone team. But I thought this would be in a quad box and I could just like conveniently ignore it. And instead, I'm like, put this game on. How many late games do we have this week? I think five. I think when they do that, respect the TVs. Therefore, therefore, which is perfect. There's a right amount of late games. Is that just because we have four TVs? That's the only reason I think that or do everyone else agree the four is the right amount. It's a good. Because even if you have one TV, if you have the multi view, you can watch them all together. NFL four games in the late window. You want the why are we not doing this? You want the noon slate loaded. You want the noon slate to have like too many things to watch. So you have as good a chance as possible of the witching hour. And then something that settles you down in the afternoon to go into Sunday. You should be able to watch all four late games on one television. I maintain that. There's no reason for them to be five. Even still even if honestly, even if it was a noon game this week, Raider Saints deserves like solo TV treatment. That's how I feel about it. We got I mean, the new the late window here is very compelling. We'll talk about a couple more of those games before we get out of here. One thing from Patriots Jags Derek, what do you got for me? Yeah, I think there's been a lot of talk about how Drake May has handled some of these zone coverages. I think specifically some of the like top down or even some of the hot pressures and zones that like the sealers were throwing at him this past week. The Jaguars in theory are a very good zone defense. Like they were obviously great at this last year. I think some of their spacing was phenomenal. The way that the corners were playing the way that the safeties were seeing stuff and passing stuff off. I thought was great. What I will say in this matchup is that they feel more gettable underneath than they had been when they had Devon Lloyd last year. Last week you saw them bringing in Branson Combs off the bench to be there like third down cover back or whatever it was going to be. He got absolutely fried on an angle route because he like tries to get too high and too fast to the sideline seeing the guy out to the flat cuts back across his face. That's a free a free completion. And then there was another one early in the fourth quarter where they're running this four deep two under pressure and combs is on the line of scrimmage. He's got to pop out to a hook zone. He's a little bit lost about where he's supposed to be and they throw the dig right behind him. And so I do think that this was a defense that like so much of their bread and butter was being able to move around some of those pieces and play top down zone and make the quarterback throw into those things. I wonder a little bit if the Patriots are going to be able to attack that in a way that I'm not sure they would have been able to against how well the Jags defense was playing last year. Looking at the Jags defensive grouping numbers from next gen right now on the Jags defensive grouping numbers when they're in some dime looks 5d lineman two linebackers 3db's one wide receiver is how it's labeled. Oh, yeah. Travis Hunter. Yeah. It's funny to when you watch very useful in terms of bucketing this stuff. When you watch on NFL pro it has the on the right hand side. It has everyone's like numbers and and like positions and stuff. And it mostly does it right by like D line is first and then it goes to linebackers and then it goes to safeties. But because Travis Hunter is a wide receiver, he's always at the top. And so it always messes with how I look at how the roster is is assigned. The reason I'm looking at this is isn't the Jags best answer for when they're in defined passing situations just to play dime against this team. I absolutely would because this is a team where last week I think they had issues kind of big boying the Denver Broncos team like I think that their offensive line did play it better. But this is a Patriots front where I know they ran the ball decently well against the Steelers last week. I would still make them prove to me that you can move people off the ball and move my linebackers, move my edge players until you prove that to me, I'm going to try to see how much dime I can get away with. Can I ask you all an earnest question? I didn't spend a lot of time with the past Steelers game because I knew y'all were going to hit it on the hangover and I was working on other games for the preview very earnestly. How much should I be shitting my pants about the Patriots offense? What dare against that? I think to me it depends a little bit about what AJ Brown is going to look like when he comes back. I think until we get him back I am pretty worried that they don't have enough of a vertical element and I think that they're going to be stuck playing this game where everything is them trying to run the ball in a way that again they were kind of good last week but for the most part this has not been a team that has been good at running the ball. And it's a lot of fun. No one went out and now no one was so much physicality without him in the lineup. And Greg Van Roten was not good when he had to come off the bench and play. And so I think that that is going to be a little bit of an issue. And I think the biggest thing that we've seen with Drake May so far, I still think that he's been good. I think last week he was good. But I think part of why he doesn't feel great right now is that he's a little bit less like trigger happy. I think he's just not as confident throwing into some of those windows. And again, I think if defenses are not going to be as scared of what's going to happen over the top, they can kind of just squeeze on some of that stuff. And so I don't know if I'm worried about like long term end of season, but I do think for the next month or so until IJ Brown comes back, I'm a little bit concerned about how up and down it might look. The term we used in the hangover was that his shot selection last year was so good so often throughout the entire year where it just felt like he was seeing things so clearly. There was such command with how he was playing. And I just think that the shot selection over the first two weeks has looked so much less certain, like why he's making decisions. I think it's just I think it'd be harder for him to articulate why he's doing some of the things he's doing and why he's making choosing to make some of the throws that he's making. It all just seems a little bit shakier right now than you probably wanted it to coming into year two of this offense delightful. Last one here, speaking of that game. Bangles at Steelers Steelers so far this season two games in obviously a lot of caveats. I mean the best past defense in the league having playing Cooper Russian week one will help those numbers, but they for down to down played very well against the Patriots last week as well. I have really enjoyed going back and rewatching a lot of these Steelers pressure stuff that they've been doing with Patrick Graham. Some of that is blitzing and they blitzed about about half their drop-backs last week against the Patriots, but it's not just that they're doing a lot of interesting pressure stuff when they're not sending five pretty much I went back I think there were 13 drop-backs last week where they only sent four pass rushers on a huge percentage of those those pass rushers are an unconventional four where you don't know exactly where they're coming from. Some of that is simulated where they're having Ramsey calm on a simulated pressure on third down and they eat up the check down as part of that it creates a one-on-one where the shipping tight end can't ship on walk because he has to deal with Ramsey. So just some of the creative ways they're creating one on ones for the defensive front. There's another play where they're in a three-down look in dime. They drop both linebackers. It's drop eight. May has to eat it on that play. They're in penny in one play where they have five defensive linemen and one linebacker on the field. They're dropping high smith on that. And so I just think that they're doing a really good job of creating confusion and hesitancy against the offensive lines that they're playing against. And while the Bengals offense the offensive line is better than it's been in a long time. We have seen Orlando bounce struggle over the first couple of weeks. I think this will be a really good test with all of the different things that Patrick Graham has been throwing a teams over the first couple of weeks for in Bengals offensive line that has been a little bit up and down in past protection outside of a Marius Mims over the first couple of weeks of the season. Yeah, he is. Mims has been sensational. I would say yeah, Orlando Brown has probably not looked as good as we were hoping. I think we were just hoping he's like one of those left tackles that you just forget is there. And I think that there's been a little bit more remembering that he is there than you would want. I also think too like I think we I think that there's still a lot of reason to be excited about Dylan Fairchild, especially in the run game. I think in the past game he's still fairly gettable either with the way that some teams are attacking with pressures or like this is a Steelers front that like Cam Hayward Derek Harman. These are guys that can like really get into your chest and give it to you. And so I wonder how that's going to go for them. But yeah, I agree with you. Like the Steelers defense. It's crazy that they've made good on how excited we were about them without what we thought would be their best defensive back. Like it's kind of remarkable. When you told me that and I remembered that Joey Porter Jr. hasn't been part of this. It kind of blew my mind and like that's incredibly impressive. I think it's I want to pump the brakes just a tiny bit based on the competition level over the first two weeks. I do think that there are when they're out there with 60b's and Rayshan Jenkins is in the part of the field that you can still get this team. I mean, there are a couple moments in that Patriots game where it happened. I wouldn't be surprised if that did happen for Cincinnati given the wide receiver talent that we're talking about here. It's a little different when Cooper Rush is throwing the Drake London and the Patriots are playing without AJ Brown when you're playing against Joe Burrow, Jamar chase and T Higgins. I really enjoyed Joe Burrow's quote this week where they were asking about the past protection and like obviously Orlando Brown had a tough day at the office. And Joe gave a it was really cool quote where he just kind of reminded people about everything that goes into past protection and like the quarterbacks a big part of it. And he was like, there are things that we would never share that go into this that make it hard to evaluate what's really going on. I also just wanted to be like, you played the Texans. Do you like? Do we need to have all of this panic and explanation about Daniel Hunter and Will Anderson being hard to deal with? I just want to see Joe go up to the podium during his press availability like Al Davis with overhead projector and just having like a picture of Will Anderson and Daniel Hunter and be like, yeah, do we understand why this is happening? You circle both of those guys and you just walk off. Unfortunately, like the Steelers are a similar way. Well, I don't want to compare anybody to will. So like, this is another week where that's going to be a problem. But if the Texans make you look like shit, I don't think that's worth panicking about. I think that's probably fine. Speaking of looking like shit, let's take our second quick break and get back and talk a little sicko street. Get into our sicko street match up for the week for anybody that's new. We like to pick one game on the schedule that maybe isn't all that appealing at first glance, but has the potential for some grossness that might actually make it interesting. This one doesn't really fit that bill, but I do think the potential for carnage on one side of the ball based on how each unit has played over the first two weeks is makes it fitting for this segment today. Baker Mayfield is in a state right now where he is just overstimulated. That's where we are. Baker just needs to like calm down and sit in a corner and take some deep breaths based on how he's played over the first couple of weeks. I can't imagine a worse team to be playing against when that's been your issue than the Brian Flores Vikings. I sat up here last week on the preview episode and said, yes, Brian Flores blitzed 78 percent of the time in the season opener, but he won't do that two weeks in a row. And then he did exactly that. I think the blitz rate actually ticked up like one or two percent against the bears. And so all bets are off, particularly with a quarterback who is dealing with pressure and just, yeah, what did you say in the production meeting? He's got the zoomies. Yeah. I'm a little worried about this. He has the extreme zoomies and this is a defense that kind of forces every quarterback into that mode. Like, and I think right now too, I want to start with Baker. I think there were actually some like more good moments in that browns game than that we're going to leave thinking based on the box score and them having lost and all that stuff. However, he is bottom three in EPA per dropback right now and success rate versus zone coverages. He's not seeing it very well right now. And I think you what you're getting a lot from him right now is he's either just like taking these vertical shots immediately. He's checking down quickly or he's running. He's not doing as much like I'm sifting through the zone boom, boom, boom, and making throws. And then even the times that he's doing it like there were a couple drops week one where like KDOT and he rips one into it into the zone and he drops it. Ted Hirsch had a couple of drops this last week. And so even when Baker's right, some of the players are making him wrong on the other end. And then the other part of it that I think is important specifically for this game. Baker has the second highest scramble rate when pressured this year. Like he is seeing it and immediately like pulling the record and going. And last year, we kind of lauded him for that, right? We were like cool. He's like making plays for a team when you know, they were a little bit up and down. It doesn't feel like he's quite as athletic or quite as like right in his mind about when is the time to do that. And it's leading to more, I think, missed opportunities than you would want. This is a defense where if you miss too many opportunities to fill those zones in the in the coverage because like Brian floor is he's leaving somebody open by virtue of what he's doing. Somebody is open, but you have to be able to stand down the barrel of the gun and make those throws. And I'm not fully confident that right now the way that Baker may feel this playing that we're going to get enough of that Baker Baker Baker's first month of the season. Last year is like one of bad three point shooter hits one early in the game. Oh man. Yeah. Don't remind me. He's like, well, he's like, you're just keep putting them up. Yeah. You're mathematically, you're mathematically right that somebody's open, but like the Vikings are so impressive. Like there was a there was a blitz in the Bears game where they mugged the line. They had like six guys on the line. And not like you see guys drop and do simulated all the time, but it was like delayed. It was probably it was either cashman or Eric Wilson, like they waited like a beat and a half and dropped right into where the hot crossing route was. And just like they took the easy completion away. It was just dastardly. That's what he did a phenomenal job last week of just erasing the middle of the field no matter how many guys they were sending at the quarterback. And to be able to do both of those things simultaneously is just so incredibly impressive against a Bears offense that wants to live in that one specific area. The tightening narrative for this game is, ooh, Dallas Turner leads the league in pressures. And now he gets to go against Chris Tristan Wurfs in reality. I can't wait to see how Flores schemes it so that Dallas Turner is drawing Kate Aughton. That's what's happened. That's what he's happening with this Viking. defense. I'm just imagining Tristan Werf's watching Dallas Turner walk Kate out and back into the pocket. It's the other part of the Vikings defense that I just want to mention before we move on is that what Flores has done consistently and yet again, in their ability to just muck up your run game. Like the amount of movement that you have to deal with stemming right before the snap, all the slanting, just their ability to make a mess at the line of scrimmage with all of these guys who are UDF. I mean, I don't care. Banks is a first round pick, but the the Levi Drake Rod regas is and and and Jalen Redmins and just like the Redmins are really good player, but I just am so impressed in their consistent ability to get you into second and nine over and over and over again because of some of the stuff schematically they're doing to just with you on the ground on early downs. And I think why the whole Flores things works is with other like regular kind of blitzing teams where they're a little bit higher, but not obviously with Flores is doing the idea is like, well, if we can just beat them hot in the passing game and we can run maybe just like some simple run concepts that are going to block things up like duo where you can kind of just like wash everything down, wash down all this movement will be okay. We can get four and five yards at a time. That is like fine when the when the defense is blitzing like 35 to 40% of the time and it's not all your plays. The Vikings are making you do that 80% of the time right now. You can't live offense for yards at a time. And so the rate at what they're doing it, it really is like you got to hit like seven explosive plays on us or you're just not going to be able to move the ball down the field the way that you want. And I think the important distinction and this is not a new thought, but I think it's important just to bring it back as we talk more and more about the blitz rates and how Brian Flores wants to live. When we had super blitz heavy teams in previous eras of the NFL, I think you think about the wink Martin Del Ravens. Those teams are like the face melting teams where that's what the blitzes feel like. That's not what this is. The amount of zone coverage they're playing behind it. There is a certain level of safety, not like the position, but not putting yourself in dangerous positions defensively with the way that they play like their ability to get the best of both worlds because of how the defense is structured is incredible. Like it truly is a one of one thing and he's leaned more into it this year than he ever has in years past. We said it coming into the year, took a screenshot of the Vikings defensive debt chart and was like, if that guy can build a top five defense out of this, we should just construct a monument to him now. Well, it's happening. We two games into the year. We are on our way to that happening. It's incredibly impressive. Should probably at least mention that it sounds like Kyler Murray is going to be back to by the way. That certainly helps makes the other side of the ball eminently more watchable. Holy shit. Boomer. The other game we wanted to hit very quickly on Psycho Street. The Titans are playing the Giants and I think that there are one specific reason that I really want to talk about this game. When we were doing the team previews and we were talking about the Titans, no, it was the Giants, no, it was the Titans. We're talking about the Titans. You don't even remember. I can keep the two straight at this point. We were talking about the Titans and in my notes, in our shared doc, I called them the Titans and in real time, Derek was trying to correct it because it was annoying him. And I was like, no, you have to keep that because it's an accident that I think is very telling the Titans playing the Giants. It's going to take people two hours on each sideline to say hello to everyone they know on the other sideline. It's going to be an eternity over here. Brian Dable is going to be talking to everybody like all these guys have shared. And even like, I know the players, even the Daniel Belinger handshakes need to happen by the time this thing is going. How many Giants did they signed this off season? Three, four, five. Yeah. It was quite a lot. One Dale, Schlotman, Belinger, Flot. I forgot about getting somebody. Oh my God. Yeah. It's going to take them an eternity. We can move on after this. But I legitimately hate for Giants fans that they got that breath of relevance. And now they're back on Syco Street for the Brian Dable. The Dable shout out Bella for that pun. I really hope that the James Winston version of this offense is more watchable than it was last week. His arm just seems like it might be shot. And that what's the point of having James Winston if that's how he's going to throw the ball. And the idea that the Giants looked the way that they did in week one. And there was so much excitement about it. And now I think if I earnestly asked you, which offense do you have more faith in or which offense do you want to watch more? The cam word Titans after last week or the James Winston Giants after last week. What would you say? Titans, no question. That's absolutely the Titans. Like if you're a giant, if you're a Giants fan, that's a fate worse than death. Like I can't even imagine landing in that place after what week one looks like. What a kick to the nuts. Like just just an awful, awful place to land. We haven't really talked about the Jackson Dart injury. And like because after the Monday night game, we thought it wasn't a big deal. The idea that you had that game in week one. And now that guy is out for the season. I cannot imagine a more painful pendulum swing if you are an NFL fan. Like we had to live that for two hours on Sunday as a Bears fan base. And then now even O case canem is going to drag the team to victory on Monday night. It's probably going to be short lived. Having to stare down an entire season of that. If you're a Giants fan is just a brutal, brutal outcome. Like I'm truly sorry to people who are for that team. We're making light of it, but I'm trying. I'm truly sorry. I can't like in the range of outcomes for football fandom, losing your quarterback in the early going of the season is about as bad as it gets sticking with about as bad as it gets. We wanted to try out a probably a one time segment here. Maybe we'll bring it back. Katie made a graphic for it. And so now we have to keep bringing it back. We're going to call this the danger zone. Teams that even two weeks into the season feel like they're entering the danger zone. I love that we had three different cultural moments in the production meeting about where danger zone shows up the most. I immediately think of Archer. Like that's the first thing I think about you thought of Kenny logins. What did you think about? Was there one more? There's just there's a book. Yeah. Katie had the the air raid siren. We're having to do this because Katie made the air raid siren graphic, but there are teams that really are staring down the danger zone two weeks into this. Chargers at that. Chargers at the, I mean, come on now. If you if you have not watched season one of Archer, I highly recommend that you go watch it. I'm going to rub sand in your beatie little eyes. I don't know if they grade it, but course. Chargers row into they are probably the most disappointing team in the league. We spent so much time talking about the chargers and the midweek episode with me and Barnwell. I'm curious where you guys sit with the oh and two chargers as they stare down a what's the line? Seven point seven and a half point dogs coming into the season after being the having the being the biggest favorites in the league in week one. Like that is a snap back to reality sort of moment. It has been bet down to seven since I know it's yeah, exactly. Good for you guys. I fell down a wormhole, which not for now that I've, I've had plenty of dumb opinions so far this season, but I just refused to buy the chargers heading in and I didn't even know why and I feel totally vindicated. It's so funny that you say that. I bought the chargers going in and I didn't know why. I'm kind of that's one of those where I just penciled them in in the AFC West and I think part of it was looking at the Super Bowl odds before the season. They had the six best Super Bowl odds. Highest and last year the Patriots had an overrun that made no sense to me and I was like that doesn't make any sense to me. Why why would the Patriots win 12 games this year and then they went to the goddamn Super Bowl and so I was looking at those chargers Super Lads and I was like maybe that it all comes together for the Chargers like maybe the offense is just incredible from the start. The defense will be fine and the best version of this team comes together like maybe that's just gonna happen and so without really thinking about it, I was like yeah, the Chargers would be a playoff team and so it's funny that you didn't believe in them for no reason and I believed in them for no reason and you were absolutely right. The funny thing about making prognostications is you have to like just because we know things are going to be different from year to year. You have to talk yourself into something that sounds dumb being true. Yes. And if you're wrong about it, you're going to look really dumb. It's just it just goes with the territory. I spent 45 minutes this week looking for precedent of a team that was favored by a touchdown one week being a seven point dog the next week without a major injury being part of the equation. Like if Justin Herbert was hurt, we would all know why the Chargers were seven point dogs. That's not the case. The like clearly the bottom has dropped out on the Chargers as a team, but I can't remember a time where public perception and trust in a team so completely bottomed out as well to the point where a team with the sixth highest super ball odds in the league is a seven point dog. And I know they're on the road. I don't care. Like typically if if the Chargers had shown us anything in the first two weeks, they would be like a two and a half to three point dog in this game. And to be to be to be seven points in the hole is just wild. And it speaks to how shitty it's looked for this team. It's probably it'd probably be more than two and a half or three. Because the bill looks like a way. That's that's again being a touchdown dog after being being favored in the way that they were over the first two weeks. I can't remember a bigger and quicker swing like you said without a major injury. three. If the chargers lose this game, which I assume the chargers will, and they're their next seven games, it's hilarious. Talking to Barnwell, I listed off their next six games on the midweek show and he goes, you realize the Ravens are the seventh game. Tough. So they had this thing, this insane six game stretch. I didn't see the next one down and it was the Ravens. That's what the chargers are staring at. And not only are we going from six best super wise to potentially oh and three and being a touchdown underdog in week three, we're already in a place where super bowl aspirations have turned to are people going to lose their jobs soon. That's crazy. But I don't think it's unfounded. No, when the schedule is going to be that bad and you bring up the Patriots from last year, the Patriots have played like the weakest schedule, one of the weakest scheduled to have ever seen. And we did know going in to this season that the the chargers schedule was going to be tough. I think the thinking was losing mentors going to suck, but Mike McDaniel is going to be good. It's going to offset things enough. They won 11 games last year. They can do something like that again. And I think that like, I don't think that that was necessarily unfounded and we just haven't really seen any of that. I think the two biggest areas of concern to me, like honestly, all the drops and stuff like that on the offense. That's like, yeah, it's not a very talented skill group. That part is not surprising to me. I am a little bit frustrated with how bad the operational stuff is. Joe Alt having like three fall starts in that game. They have the third and one where they snapped the ball late in the because they run out of clock and they snap it into the motion man on third and one. And then they obviously don't get that. They have to punt on the players are to kind of or the game was already over kind of by then, but after they'll marry in Hampton, Fumble, the first play after that. It's the first play of the drive. They come out and get an illegal formation penalty because nobody is on the ball on the right hand side of the formation. It's just like stuff like that is really, really frustrating to me. And then the other thing, this secondary, everyone except during when James and Taribe still have a target on their back, they cannot play right now. Cam Hart looks terrible. Dante Jackson does not look good his last year. RJ Mickens, I think, is really slow in the post. Like it's a really, really difficult spot for this secondary, which is funny because like, I think the front's kind of playing pretty well. It's just the secondary is not at all holding up there into the bargain. Two things that that makes you think about one offensively. When we have shut short memories, the bears and Jags looked bad in the first month of the season last year. They looked bad. We were making fun of the Jags because of all the operational stuff that wasn't going right. When you have complex offensive systems that you're putting in in a single year, this type of ramp up period can happen. There are two problems with that. We talked about this with the Cowboys defense. There is no, the unit on the other side cannot lift you up if you're the chargers because of how the defense is playing right now. So the offensive struggles matter even more. And two, could you steal a win against a bad team over the first couple of weeks? Could you maybe tread some water in this six game stretch? It doesn't matter if the offense eventually sort some of this shit out. If you're oh and seven or you're one and six, it like that. It doesn't matter. And that's the problem here. Even if a new offense, we probably should have a little bit of patience and a little bit of grace with this thing getting sorted out. You're not afforded that based on being oh and two, the defense looking as bad as it is and the schedule that you're about to face. And the fact that this is year three. And we should have a little bit of urgency about not being the sort of team and your beat to shit. Two of their three primary tight ends are out. Coyote, Ousea is going to miss this game. Trey Pipkin's might miss this game. That's still up in the air. It's not like that's going to inspire anybody with a ton of confidence anyway, but you're still down to offensive guard. Five is those two guys don't play. I will say if this goes sideways for the bills, I'm fully prepared to blame the nickel city uniforms that they're going to wear. I'm not even kidding. When I saw that they were wearing those this week, after the first two weeks, after the way the first two weeks have gone messing with somebody in the operational department should just be like, we have to cancel this. You're messing with the vibes. We have to cancel this like it in a normal scenario. When we're having a normal season, you just let it ride the way that they've looked over the first two weeks, I'm not even kidding. They should not wear those uniforms. If if this go and the NFL is weird, like I said, everything we just said, of course, the chargers could pull the weirdest win of their lives out of that. It's going to be hilarious when they do. If they do, I'm blaming the nickel city uniforms. Let's hit two more teams that are currently in the danger zone. Texans at Colts both sitting at 0 and 2 as we head into week three. I, this one's a little bit clearer to me in terms of an 0 and 2 team and how worried I feel about them. I don't really feel that worried about either of these teams in the sense that I don't even, the Colts are just out of my mind, but this is just over and so I'm not concerned about it. And I'm not that concerned about the Texans because I think they win this week and the defense is still really, really good. Again, the tidy narrative for this game would be 2 0 and 2 teams. We know the track record. If you fall to 0 and 3, you can't let it happen. Who's going to get the win? That's your last year's Texans, which is very fun. Two of the seven teams that have ever bounced back from 0 and 3 are both Texans teams. They did it in 2018 too. So they really shouldn't be worried. And I think it was either Daniel Hunter or Will Anderson. That was like, I am not worried about that at all. Like we started 0 and 3 last year and I can feel that the energy and the building is right. Like I'm really not concerned. But I don't think that narrative applies to this game because even if like even if the Colts win and the Texans are two and a half point road favorites, it could happen. Like they're at home. The Colts could win this game. Doesn't change my outlook for either team remotely. Like if the Texans are 0 and 3, I'll still believe that they can get to the playoffs. And if the Colts win this game, it won't make me feel any better about their long term outlook. The only pushback I have to that is that I need the Texans offense to look considerably better in this game than it looked last week against Cincinnati, in part because of how awful the Colts defense has been. If you can't show some signs of life and have a bounce back game against this version of the Colts defense, that would be cause for concern to me. That would truly be the danger zone. I think that's actually what I'm about to do this again. 0 and 3. Like it sounds weird. 0 and 3 doesn't bother me. But I think the reason it might is that if they lose, it would either be like some sort of shoot out against this Colts team where like your offense looks the way it's supposed to against this defense. But for some reason, the Texans defense is maybe like in oh shit, they actually can't stop allowing explosive placed territory. And if they if you do that to the Colts, then I'm worried with with Josh Allen in week one and Jamar chase being what he is, like I can give you a little bit of a pass for that, especially with that as good as they've been on a down to down basis. If you let the Colts do it, I'm going to start being concerned a little bit or on the flip side just respect. If they lose on the other end in like a sloppy 17 to 13 game, whatever it is, where the defense looks great. But it's like you couldn't move the ball against the Colts defense that can't defend the run and can't cover anybody out of the slot. That would concern me. That is a good point. I mean, it is a long season though. So I stand by what I said and having watched the Texans dig out of 0 and 3 so recently would alleviate some of my concern. But the ways you lose this game, like why are we in a shootout with the Colts, considering how good we think the Texans defense is or why can't you score points on a Colts team that is giving up a 10 plus yard gain on 30% of their snaps. That would be concerned. Why can't you run the ball against the Colts defense that is giving up almost seven yards per rush? Like if the Texans can't move the ball and really more specifically run the ball against the Colts, that is concerning for the long term outlook, even if 0 and 3 doesn't in their season. Let's get into some, let's pull some people. Let's run some power. Let's run some counter. Let's push some people around. And if you can't do that, I do think that is worrying. And I don't mean to be flipping about the Colts season being over. I just think that the promise of the Colts being a relevant team over the long term is that the offense, the defense would be passable and the offense would be firmly in the top 10. Without Alec Pierce and with the state of the receiving core, I just don't think that's feasible for the Colts offense and the defense is not passable. The defense is like a bottom falling out of it sort of unit. We had an argument in the preview about what the corners could do for the defense. A, having them hasn't helped to the degree that I hoped it could. And B, char various word is dealing with the growing injury now. And you said on the preview, like, well, what if the corners just aren't available? And I was like, well, I won't be excited. And it's week three. Are you excited? Not excited to watch the Colts defense at all. Let's talk about three things we want to know coming out of week three in the NFL. I'll kick us off. The Jets defense has shown some life over the first couple of weeks. Another play in a rain storm last week against the Packers, but they dismantled the Titans in week one. The Titans actually had a pulse against the Eagles in week two. I don't know how much of this is real. I have no idea. This is one of those throw up my hands, wait and see about how good the Jets defense actually is. But what I want to know coming out of week three is as the Detroit Lions look at the other sideline during this game. How much do they miss Aaron Glenn? Is the Jets defense? Does it play well enough against the Lions? And is the Lions defense still struggling enough where we've talked so much about the Jets losing Ben Johnson or the Lions losing Ben Johnson? What that's meant for their offense? Is the fact that Aaron Glenn now the defense play call again with the Jets with a requisite amount of talent? Is that the guy that the Lions actually find over the course of this season that they are really, really missing? And what does week three do that kind of push us to that place? This isn't a revelation because there hasn't been a good update about Kirby Joseph in months, but Dan Campbell's quote about Kirby Joseph today heartbreaking heartbreaking. And like it's just so easy to think back to 2024 and what the Lions had and what they're missing right now. I'm not willing to wave the white flag until Brian Branch gets back. I do think he's a good enough player that that'll make a difference. But but feeling pretty certain that Kirby Joseph isn't going to be part of this thing anytime soon. It just it just hurts to think about what the giants are excuse me the Lions defense was supposed to be verse what it's been. There's a chance that the bills are just a machine. Sure. And that but you look at some of the just the issues on the back end the Lions were having just how all over the place it looked. That's my concern. It's not about talent gaps at this point. It's about just lapses. And does that continue? And if you're measuring yourself against a jets defense that looks buttoned up for the first time after looking that way all of last season. What does that do to you if you're a Lions fan seeing Aaron glad on the other side. That's what I want to know coming out of week three Derek. What do you want to know after week three in the NFL wraps up? I mean, so this is a little bit more like about how this game is specifically going to go. But the the cardinals are a team that like kind of fascinates me to this stage in the season. And I don't think they're going to win this game. But I think the way that they're set up. I kind of want to know if they can bully this 49ers defense around a little bit because I do think that they've got a little bit of size and run through you in the run game. And then really at the past catcher spots like this. This nineers secondary is good. Like they are good cover guys from our green. I think it's good. Up to the stout is good. The Lamont Lenore is really good. They are all pretty small. They are all like 190 and smaller. And then you've got now a cardinals receiving core. That is Michael Wilson, who's like bordering on being built like a tight end like Kendrick born is 205. Tremic bride. If you can get them on some of these corners one way or another like I do think that they have a chance to even mention Marvin Harrison's name. We're listen, if we're talking about we have time to do that right now. We're like at the end of the show. Yes, because listen, if we're doing size and bully issues. Marvin Harrison is the opposite of that. Like I do still think that there are some things he can do. But if my theory in this game is like they can push a team around a little bit. He's not helping you at all in that department. The Marvin Harrison discourse makes me sad. I just hope he gets traded. That that's where I sit with. I just hope he gets trading. It's a fresh start because what's happening right now is it is sad. That's that's the right word to use. Hey, what do you want to know coming out of week three in the NFL? You talked about it with Barnwell. So I'll make it short and sweet. But I do see you and I do hear you panthers fans. And I am really excited to see Bryce Young this weekend. I think you could make the case even with the loss to the Bears. I think this is the best two week stretch of Bryce Young's entire career. And if it's not, it's it's very close like he had a couple really nice games at the end of 2024 where he was on a similar here to this. But I mean, he's seventh in the league in EPA for dropback. He's fourth in yards per play. He's 10th in area yards per attempt. He's second in the league to Josh Allen and touchdown scored, which is just a hilarious juxtaposition between Optimus Prime in the in the one spot. And then the smallest quarterback in the NFL at number two. And now I think, you know, maybe this Cleveland defense isn't the juggernaut. I thought it could be in the preseason. But I still think it's the best one they will have played. Like Atlanta is clearly outgunned. And the Bears, we have expected them all along to struggle on defense. This will be the best defense that he's played. And more importantly, to defense that I think the Browns adjusted their sliders in week two and played a hell of a lot more man coverage and had a lot of success doing it. How is Bryce going to do against that? How is he just going to do against the defense with a pulse and will we be talking like if he plays well against the Browns, that is like worth leading the show with on Sunday night, you know? Yeah. So he did not have a two week stretch during the 2024 season where it was anything like this in week 12 and 13. He had positive EPA per dropback. Those are the, that's the only two straight games he had in 2024 with positive EPA in 14. It was at 0.03. So barely positive. So he had, he did not had two straight games with better than 0.1 EPA per dropback in 2024. It's been decidedly above that in both of those games to borrow our own phrasing from our own show. Bryce Young's first two weeks have had my curiosity. If he does it on Sunday, he will have my attention. The man thing is very good to point out. 10.9 yards per play for the bank for the Panthers against the on coverage is your 10.9 3.6 against man. Yeah. If you give him space and windows, he will be able to find them. If you make him drive the ball, I think that's where maybe you can see some of the limitations. I think the Browns will play that way because that's how they want to play anyway. All right. That's all we've got for the week three preview. If you're listening to this, I mean, if you're listening to this in your podcast feed are Thursday night recap of the Packers of Falcons game, which Michael Pentax mercifully is playing in will be available to you. If you're watching this on YouTube, it will also be available. I have no idea why I framed it that way. If you are watching this on YouTube, especially if you're new to the channel, please like, please subscribe. Tons of YouTube specific stuff coming your way over the course of this year. This rock this week was about has a guy a masses. You want to dig into that? How it happened is about what this week, Derek? My how it happened is about Brian Flores and what his insane defense looks like currently. There we go. And I talked about the bill's offense and the new and improved Dalton King Cade. That will be out hopefully today when you guys are watching this or a little bit later today. All of them will be out by the weekend. Encourage you to check that out. Encourage you to like and subscribe to the channel. That is all we've got for now. We'll be back here on Sunday nights. Talk to you guys soon. Thanks for tuning in. Make sure to hit that subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed what you heard, please like, comment, and leave a rating. We'll see you next time.