Week 2 recap: Eagles beat Chiefs...again, Giants-Cowboys fireworks, and how 'bout them...Colts?!?

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1:01Derrik Klassen: Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. I am Dave Hellman. Very quick programming note before we dive into our week two recap. Robert was out Sunday. He had a personal issue to attend to. He will be back very soon. Derek Klassen and I soldiered on with our recap. Let's get into it. Very full, very chaotic week two to talk about starting right now.

1:25Derrik Klassen: you know it's easy to do a late sunday night recap show when josh allen and lamar jackson play a classic but when we're up late recapping week two after a sunday night stinker that's when you really know that football season is we're in the swing of it for real hey there welcome to the athletic football show week two recap i am dave hellman very quick programming note robert had to step away for a personal reason this week. He will be back shortly. Nevertheless, we press on and I'm joined by my good guy, Derek Klassen. Derek, I think, you know, like, I am, I'm like programmed to want to react to the most recent thing that happened, right?

2:08Derrik Klassen: This feels like a week where we can bypass Vikings, Falcons. I don't know, while you were prepping for the show, I don't know how close of an eye you had on this game, but I just don't feel like the people are clamoring for a lot of info coming off of that 22 to 6 Atlanta win.

2:23Dave Helman: I'm kind of thankful for it. I mean, this early in the season when there's no bye weeks, like, you know, it's just there's so many games holding. And the way the scheduling worked this week where we had nine of the games in the early slate and then only three, I think, in the afternoon slate, because I think they were really trying to squeeze out everything of the Eagles-Chiefs rematch, obviously. So the way that the scheduling worked, totally OK with being able to skip over a Sunday nighter for now.

2:45Derrik Klassen: This entire day felt designed around maximizing Eagles at Chiefs, like from the fact that Fox did all of their programming live from Kansas City to the fact that not a whole lot was going up against it in the second window. And even like the Sunday night game winding down from it. Interesting from the Pennix JJ perspective, but not the banger that you get used to seeing from Sunday night football. So let's lead with that because that was clearly the storyline that we wanted to focus on, what the league wanted us to focus on. Philadelphia Eagles rematching with the Kansas City Chiefs in just the second game of the season since Super Bowl 59.

3:28Derrik Klassen: We have already gotten plenty wrong in the early going of this season, and we're going to keep getting stuff wrong. I'm just going to take a chance to pat ourselves ever so slightly on the back and say, this game went damn near exactly how I expected it to go.

3:43Dave Helman: Yeah, where the team that just has more talent kind of did some, I will say, if anything, I thought the Eagles would maybe be a little bit more explosive. Like, I thought some of what they were in week one was just like, we're trying to get our feet under us to get a new offensive coordinator and stuff like that. And maybe that's just like how they're going to be early in the season. But I expected a little bit more from them. But yeah, the more talented team just choked out the better team. And again, we said like, OK, the Eagles will probably win this game and it just won't be as convincing as the Super Bowl, which is like basically exactly what happened.

4:11Derrik Klassen: So the Eagles beat the Chiefs 20 to 17. And yeah, it felt like a boa constrictor over the final 10 or so minutes of this game. But that's pretty much what I came away with. I mean, Patrick Mahomes was pressured 10 percent less often than he was in the Super Bowl. I do feel like the Chiefs offensive line acquitted itself well for the most part. like Josh Simmons, that is a nice week two against the Super Bowl champions. Kingsley Suamataia, there were some ups, there were some downs, but like from a protection standpoint, they gave him a chance in this game, which was not in the Super Bowl. You can win with this from a protection standpoint.

4:47Dave Helman: In the Super Bowl, Mahomes had nothing. And I think we saw, you know, which we highlighted again kind of in the previous show, that like because the run game had absolutely no teeth to it, they felt like they could only RPO stuff. Like it just felt like the game plan was so limited in the Super Bowl. They at least felt like they could try more things in this game and at least give Patrick Mahomes a little bit more of a chance. That then brings us to the receiving core, which I still have a lot of issues with. Like, well, how could you not? I posted a clip today. There was I forget exactly when in the game it was.

5:16Dave Helman: I think it might have been in the second quarter where they try to get Hollywood Brown motioning in from the right side. And then he's supposed to, like, stop where he is and pivot back out towards the sideline. Cooper DeGene literally puts him in the ground. And look, Cooper DeGene's a great player. He's a strong player. He's a really good tackler, all that stuff. You should not be as a starting receiver, like on the ground right after a motion like that. And like I've already said before that, like, I don't love the way that the Chiefs have built this receiver core. And they've got too many of those guys.

5:43Dave Helman: And I think when you run up against these really good defenses, these really physical defenses, this is the kind of game that you can end up playing. And this is the game I was scared of. Hopefully for them against lesser defenses, it's not as big of an issue.

5:55Derrik Klassen: They did have some deep shots open up for Taequann Thornton at the end of this game. Patrick Mahomes missed him badly on a deep ball late and then made up for it with a 49-yard touchdown. So it is interesting that a couple very explosive shots finally opened up at the end of this game. But the rest of this was exactly what we said we were worried about, where Xavier Worthy gets hurt, Rasheed Rice is suspended for another month, Patrick Mahomes goes one of four on attempts 20-plus yards down the field. 59 % of his pass attempts were within 10 yards. Like he's throwing to the sticks or less almost all the time.

6:31Derrik Klassen: And surprise, surprise, Mahomes, phenomenal with his feet in this game, made a lot of stuff happen as a runner. Once again, lowered his shoulder and decked Makuba. He put the boomstick down. Like I guess he just he's I don't know. I wonder what that's going to lead to with the way he freelances near the sideline. But clearly trying to set a tone early in the season. still outside of Patrick Mahomes one explosive run from the non Mahomes runners on the Chiefs offense and it is possible to live this way I want to I want to make that very clear if you're a Chiefs fan like we saw Kansas City do this in route to a 15 win season last year but it's such a slim margin for error when this is the style of football you're playing and I thought it was I'm not rooting for it to happen, but I thought it was so fitting the way this game swung, where you march all the way down deep into the red zone.

7:28Derrik Klassen: Travis Kelsey breaks open on an angle route. Looks like you're going to score to go up 1713 late in the game and maybe have a chance to steal a game where you've been the less impressive team. And instead, the pass clangs off of Travis's Kelsey's Travis Kelsey's hands. The timing is a little bit off. I mean, he should have made the play, but timing is not as great as you would prefer. and Andrew Makuba is there to completely swing this thing. And when you have that slim margin for error, every mis-execution is so amplified. And that's pretty much the story of this game.

8:00Dave Helman: And that's the kind of thing. I feel like the margin for error thing with them is like, that's fine if you're going to be a high success rate, which one, they actually still weren't in this game. They had like a, I think it was a, they had a 31.6 % rushing success rate in this game, which includes the Patrick Mahomes run. So obviously without those, not a great deal. without that not great I was I was a little bit too too quick to look it up uh but I it would have not been very good without that um but the thing is like if you're going to try to live that way you got to get your explosives or your critical plays somewhere when Rasheed Rice is healthy or not suspended they can at least get them from there or on like the critical down stuff you can obviously get some of that from Travis Kelsey but in this game he had I think a critical like third down drop towards the left side line that kind of hurt them at some point and then like you mentioned the touchdown drop where that one was especially frustrating to me too because they know they're getting like Kelsey knows he's getting man coverage and like if the Chiefs are getting man coverage in the red zone like Patrick Mahomes probably wants to go to Travis Kelsey because they had done like a little yo-yo motion with the back yeah the linebacker followed Kelsey should know that like this ball might be coming out hot and so there was just like the other thing too like the ball's a little bit low and at Kelsey's knees so that seems like a difficult throw but like or a difficult catch but ball at the goal line like at the face of the goal line the quarterback always wants to throw low because that's the best way to protect the ball like it just that's a play that I feel like three years ago is very routine for those two and the fact that it doesn't come through like that's the difference between sometimes with these teams

9:22Derrik Klassen: from the Makuba interception return which let's take this moment to shout out Josh Simmons for being the one to hawk down a safety insane just a super cool play that gets buried in an otherwise straightforward ending and a big win for Philadelphia but you talk about choking somebody out the rest of this game felt like a sleeper hold like it felt so inevitable they're going to be able to run the ball they're going to be able to do the brotherly shove they're not going to put the ball in harm's way and honestly I felt like the Eagles entire offensive game plan felt very similar to what they did against Dallas in the season opener where it's not very fancy it's not very explosive even the run game other than Saquon Barkley's early touchdown run is not Not as explosive as we got used to in the second half of last season.

10:12Derrik Klassen: But one thing it is, man, it's pretty efficient and it's clearly pretty tough to beat, even if it's not the most aesthetically pleasing thing going right now.

10:20Dave Helman: And that's the thing, especially if the defense is going to continue to play more like this level than they did in week one. I think week one is a little bit more up and down. But if they can hold teams, you know, like Kansas City, like Patrick Mahomes to 17 points a week. And then again, you're able to kind of choke out the clock the way that Barkley is able to play in this game. and Jalen Hurts like again for for as frustrating as it is that he is playing especially this year this style of player was he where he is holding the ball forever and not really throwing the ball down the field it's frustrating but he hasn't really put the ball at risk which is at least like if you're going to play this way as a team at least that does something for you like I don't think they completed a single ball past 15 yards except for the one Devonta Smith throw down the sideline where Devonta kind of just does a really good job of coming back to the ball and making

11:03Derrik Klassen: that catch you put your incredible players in positions and more often than not they'll make you right I told you I had a stat for you are you ready for it oh I I hope so through two weeks this season Jalen Hurts is 32 of 36 on throws from zero to nine yards so from the line of scrimmage to the sticks he's two of five throwing shot plays he had the big one to to Dotson in week one he He had one to Devontae Smith today. He has not attempted a throw between 10 and 19 yards yet this season. He hasn't attempted one? It has not happened yet. No, that cannot. I mean, this is for next-gen stats. I guess they, theoretically, they could have just sharted it wrong.

11:42Derrik Klassen: Maybe there's a glitch in the software, but next-gen says he has not attempted a throw between 10 and 19 yards.

11:48Dave Helman: Now that you say it, though, it really has just been shot plays or, like, quick game or even on the plays where he has run around. There was one I got mad about today where he held the ball for, like, six seconds and he came back and I threw the ball to, I think, threw the ball to like A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith like two yards away from the line of scrimmage. And it's like, I guess they're really just not targeting the middle of the field, which is crazy when you have A.J. Brown. Like, that's his thing.

12:09Derrik Klassen: That was where he feasted before they traded for him. I have a hard time believing it's going to continue this way. And I don't even mean like from a dramatic standpoint, like the narrative with A.J. Brown and the Philly passing game. I mean, I would guess if it keeps up this way, somebody somewhere is going to have something to say about it, whether it would be A.J. Brown or Devontae Smith getting upset, whether it's Nick Sirianni getting involved with Kevin Petullo and the play calling. Much like we say with Kansas City, Kansas City lives that way because they have to. Philadelphia has too much talent to live this way every single week.

12:45Derrik Klassen: And plus, not everyone is going to be equipped to stop them the way that a Kansas City is, I don't think. So I would expect it to change, but I don't know. I think it's got to be a nice ace up your sleeve to know that you can play this buttoned up and probably beat the vast majority of your teams on your schedule.

13:02Dave Helman: Yeah, the fact that we have so many issues through two weeks about the Eagles offense and they've still won both games, the Super Bowl champions are fine, I guess.

13:09Derrik Klassen: I think this whole game can be boiled down to the exchange that the field mics picked up at the end of the game, which was incredible. Eagles are in victory formation, kneeling out the clock. Chris Jones clearly frustrated with the way the Eagles have just been just draining the clock for the last nine minutes of this game. He says something to Jalen Hurts about, you didn't even have 100 passing yards. And Jalen Hurts said, we won the effing game. Shut the hell up. I'm like, doesn't that boil the Eagles down in a nutshell? Like all the discourse about Jalen Hurts and about this team is like, it makes people very upset how complete they are and the way that they win football games.

13:46Derrik Klassen: But they do it a hell of a lot. And they did it once again at Arrowhead Stadium.

13:50Dave Helman: He even like from the outside, it's frustrating for me to like watch someone with the offense can get away with. And they still win the games being the guy who is forced to try to stop the offense and they still get away with it. I can imagine why Chris Jones is a little upset.

14:02Derrik Klassen: If you include the Super Bowl, Patrick Mahomes has now lost three games in a row for the first time in his NFL career. Kansas City 0-2 heading into a road Sunday night game against the New York Giants next week. It should be a get right. Still too early for me to be overly worried about it, but definitely a weird place for the Kansas City Chiefs to be. That was the centerpiece of Sunday, but so much more fun stuff to get to. Like this wound up being a very hectic, very fun day away from Kansas City as well. So let's dive into it with You Have My Attention.

14:43Derrik Klassen: Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention. I think it's so fitting, Derek I made a joke about this with my good buddy John Schmelke, who's covered the New York Giants for a long time Giants-Cowboys used to be a headline grabber like it used to be Sunday night football guaranteed every single year ratings galore, markets galore we didn't mention it one time in the preview show it just felt like such an afterthought on the Sunday card and for good reason, might I say So, of course, though, they play the most entertaining, most chaotic, high-scoring game of Week 2. Probably not the best game of the season because Ravens-Bills just happened.

15:29Derrik Klassen: But as far as unexpectedly chaotic results go, the Cowboys take down the Giants 40-37 in overtime. You have my attention. Everybody. Cowboys, Giants, both teams. The game literally had everybody's attention because it ran into all of the late afternoon kickoff times. Like Giants and Cowboys were playing for a solid 10 minutes while the Eagles and Chiefs were doing their thing in the first quarter. So for a variety of reasons, these two teams had our full attention on Sunday afternoon.

16:00Dave Helman: This game was so dumb for like 800 different reasons. Like to me, Russ hit on every deep ball until he didn't, which was the crazy thing. Like there was a point where.

16:13Derrik Klassen: And also just the most hilariously bad miscommunication on the interception that wound up deciding this game. Oh, yes.

16:21Dave Helman: So that was like, that's why to me it's like it was almost like it was almost like karmic justice in a way where like Russ was hitting. He was betting red and hitting red on every deep ball. And it was I think I think at one point Mina Kimes had tweeted that Russ was like seven of nine for 260 yards and three touchdowns on attempts beyond 20 yards. Like just chucking it like Malik neighbors caught a huge one. Wanda Robinson caught a huge one down the seam. That was actually like Russ doesn't throw a whole lot of like pure, beautiful seam balls anymore at this stage in his career. And that was honestly one of the prettiest throws I think we saw all day.

16:56Dave Helman: So he was just ripping it down the field. And then so for him to have that game and then at the very end, just kind of chuck one up that just something goes wrong and they throw the interception. It throws the game awry a little bit. Just a funny way for that game to unfold it for that offense.

17:10Derrik Klassen: Russ finished seven of 11 for 264, three touchdowns, one interception on throws that traveled over 20 area yards. And the final one is just an ugly. It looked like he thought Malik Neighbors was going to cut it back inside on a post and Malik Neighbors took it up the sideline. and Donovan Wilson. Also ironic that a Cowboys safety made a game swinging play that gave the Cowboys the chance to win because the Dallas secondary, I mean, good God, man. I mean, I know they lose Deron Bland to a foot injury during practice heading into this. And like Deron Bland is a good player. Don't get me wrong. But for it to go from surprisingly good in the season opener at Philadelphia to this catastrophe, makes me think Deron Bland needs to hustle back ASAP because if you go back and watch this, I mean, everything that could conceivably have gone wrong in the Dallas secondary happened.

18:06Derrik Klassen: Like you had guys just getting torched deep. Trayvon Diggs looked like a guy coming off of a major injury. Philly, for whatever reason, wasn't really able to take advantage of that, but Malik Neighbors was able to get steps on him on a regular basis. Kyer Elam looked more like the guy where you're like, oh, I get why Buffalo might want to trade him. He looked more like that guy in week two. Reddy Stewart stepped in at Nickelback for the Cowboys in this game. And when they weren't just outright getting beat, it looked like they had no idea where they were supposed to be. This was another game where Dallas played basically 98 % zone coverage, but we're not on the same page at all about what those zones were supposed to be.

18:48Dave Helman: Well, and that's the other thing is like even when the corners, whether it was like cover three quarters, something like that, when the corners were in what ends up becoming more of like one on one coverage, even in those zones did not keep up well with their men. And then the Cowboys have played a lot of cover two early in the season. That's something that Iberflus has always liked to do. That's why it was kind of surprising that Russ beat them, because Russ is typically like when he throws down the field, he wants to beat you outside the numbers. And cover two is kind of daring you to do it and daring you to make those hole shots.

19:15Dave Helman: and so one way to beat it is like all right we'll just throw in between them in between the two safeties like flying off the hashes and the fact that Russ actually did that in this game and like again the neighbor's touchdown uh the Wando Robinson throw that I think like he got tackled on the one but it's effectively a touchdown uh those two were both straight down the middle and like the fact that he was able to make a lot of those throws it's like that's really not something you ever want to bet on for a quarterback like Russ because it's just not something I think at this stage in his career he does anymore and so when he does it it's kind of just like in a way you almost throw your hands up.

19:44Dave Helman: It's like, I don't know. I just didn't expect him to do that.

19:47Derrik Klassen: I just think Matt Iberflus' defense is the type of system that can be extremely good when you have good players that know what they're doing. And maybe it can be as simple as a quality player like Deron Bland not being there. But like the minute that starts to fall off, it can go really, really poorly. Iberflus only blitzed Russ seven times on 45 dropbacks. There was no... You should be sending it at him all the time. There was no pressure from the Dallas pass rush. He was pressured 33 % of the time. It's a bottom 10 rate among starters who played their entire game on Sunday. We're not getting meaningful pressure.

20:24Derrik Klassen: We're not covering well. And this is the result. Fortunately, the Dallas Cowboys have Dak Prescott, who has now won 14 straight games against the New York Giants. It is the second longest win streak against one team in league history.

20:38Dave Helman: Which I did not realize he was on such a streak until I saw it today, which like I guess in my head, it's like, yeah, I can't really imagine many times where he struggled that badly against the Giants. And even I think last year when he's like had not that great of a season for him, one of his best games was earlier in the season against the Giants. But it's just like 14 games against anyone is insane.

21:00Derrik Klassen: And I thought it was a really shaky day from Dak and Adalos offense in the early going. Like they were struggling to stay on the field in the beginning. They were definitely coping with the Giants pass rush, which was active in this game. 12 yards at or excuse me, 12 attempts at or behind the line of scrimmage, trying to offset that pass rush through an ugly pick earlier in the day. But then like by by the fourth quarter and overtime, like this was the type of game where you point to and you're like, yeah, this is why people like Dak Prescott.

21:30Dave Helman: that's the thing is like, this is for all of some of his blemishes. Like I do think that Dak Prescott in like pure pass scenarios is one of the eight, nine guys that I'm like comfortable with being in that scenario. Cause he's very willing to hang to the pocket. He's very willing to make tight windows throws. And sometimes that leads to the interceptions, like the interception he throws, he's getting a little bit of heat straight down the middle. I think there's a free rusher and he's like, okay, I'm comfortable getting the ball out and taking the hit. And he wants to hit CD lamb, I think coming over the middle.

21:57Dave Helman: But Andrew Phillips just did who, by the way, Andrew Phillips had a phenomenal game today. He might have been the best player on the field today. He was incredible, but he just undercuts that route. And that's one of those ones that like, if you're trying to throw on the break and anticipate it, and quarterbacks like Dak love to do that. If the DB just kind of runs the route for the receiver, like, what are you going to do? Like, that's just an incredible play by that guy.

22:17Derrik Klassen: I think CD Lamb said something during the week about how Drew Phillips put a dirty hit on him in last year's game. And then he said, he was like, I got something for him. It sure seemed like Drew Phillips was like, I got something for you, dude, because he was active. He had the interception. He body slammed CD in this game, which drew a flag. So maybe not all good, but I really appreciated the moxie.

22:42Dave Helman: And even in overtime, he was almost what kind of saved them in this game. Obviously, the Giants still end up losing, but he had played really, really tight coverage on Jalen Tolbert at one point where Dak fits the window, but because Phillips is so just glued to Tolbert, it like doesn't allow Tolbert to comfortably catch the ball he ends up dropping it that was an overtime that was a huge play and then a little bit later on third down he makes a great tackle in

23:07Derrik Klassen: the flats that is just like Andrew Phillips was at the time a game-saving tackle exactly yes like

23:13Dave Helman: again rest of his team blew it but like Andrew Phillips if if nobody else did their job today

23:18Derrik Klassen: necessarily for the Giants Andrew Phillips absolutely did 41 combined points in the fourth quarter 17 points scored in the final 52 seconds of regulation five combined possessions in the overtime period which is insane like sometimes you see an overtime game with as few as one like you could have you could use up the entire allotment of time and have like two possessions they get five and then the Dak throw to George Pickens that kind of put them in field goal range which Brandon Aubrey's field goal range is like the logo basically but an amazing like an amazing throw that kind of sums up Dak Prescott just a free rusher about to murder him and just throws a strike to Pickens on on what was like a deep crosser just so much to love about this game even though it was a very sloppy game of football and that again last thing I'll say to praise Dak for

24:08Dave Helman: the 800th time on this show it's the fact that he had thrown the pick earlier in the game where he's trying to anticipate a route and getting smoked by a free rusher the fact that later in the game in overtime game on the line even though it's like a different route and stuff all and all stuff like that. He's extremely willing to be like, I'll do it again. And he just trusts and believes that he can make the play and that Pickens can make the play. And that's just, you kind of have to have a quarterback like that.

24:30Derrik Klassen: Brandon Aubrey's had my attention forever, but four of four on the day, 51, 44, 64 to send the game to OT and 46 to win the game. Not bad. Not bad. Pretty good at his job. You can settle for a 64-yard field goal and have it look like a good strategy. Maybe you should extend your kicker. Let's keep it pushing to another unit that has our full attention. And the hand-wringing maybe was understandable because of how dominant the Green Bay Packers looked against the Detroit Lions last week. But here in week two, Detroit Lions, specifically your offense, has my attention. They roared back to life. They looked like the unit we remembered with Ben Johnson, except Ben Johnson was the guy receiving a 52-21 thumping as Detroit raced past Chicago.

25:20Derrik Klassen: So it was bad.

25:23Dave Helman: And this is one of those that like, yeah, the Lions should get like a little bit of a mulligan for week one, especially now that we know what we've seen of the Packers defense doing again, what they did to Washington. So maybe the Packers, maybe all of this just says a lot more about how good the Packers defense is. But it was really, really encouraging to see the Lions offense do what they're supposed to do. I thought like a number of like other players, just guys that I think struggled in week one looked a lot better. Like I thought Tate Ratledge played way better in this game. week one, I think he was struggling, but in this game, I thought he did a really good job of moving people.

25:54Dave Helman: And then I think in this game, what you saw, especially early on, the Bears were trying to play a lot of like one-on-one coverage. I don't think you want to do that ever against the Lions because the whole thing is they're just like, we're just going to run a lot of these crossers and we're just going to get Amon Ross St. Brown streaking across the middle. We're going to get Jameson Williams streaking across the middle. We're going to get just all these guys who are too explosive and too fast if you just give them some of these one-on-ones. So when the Bears were trying to give them some of those one-on-ones really bad stuff when they were trying to play zone really bad stuff I think my favorite play that like still let me believe the Lions do have some of the juice from last year that like this wasn't all Ben Johnson in the third quarter I think it was very early in the third quarter they have two receivers to the left side they motion one in and they like at the snap like kind of switch spots basically and they run the inside receiver run to like a little dig kind of stop route and they get Jameson Williams flying over the top of him on the post.

26:48Dave Helman: Safety sits down for the underneath route. Jamison Williams just flies by everybody. And like, that's exactly the type of throw and exactly the type of play you expect from the lines. And for them to not be able to have hit really any of that last week, and then do that again in this game is just like, that's, it's a very encouraging sign for them.

27:05Derrik Klassen: I love the way that they just kind of flipped a switch because the early going of this game, I mean, they scored a couple of touchdowns early. It's not like they looked hopeless, but it looked very normal. You know, like they'd score a touchdown and then they punt. They had a drive that covered less than like five yards and they punted. They had a four play, no yard gained missed field goal drive, just like standard hiccups and misfires that you might expect early in a season. And then it just kind of clicked into gear and was devastating the rest of the day. Six straight possessions with points before it was victory formation time.

27:42Derrik Klassen: 67-yard touchdown drive, 76-yard touchdown drive, 84-yard touchdown drive, and all of a sudden you have 50 points, which I don't think was happenstance, by the way. I didn't realize this at the time because this game got so out of whack so quickly. Like I said, one minute it was pretty competitive, and the next minute I was like, holy shit, it's 38-14. I'm going to go watch something else. I can check in on this later. And when I did, I realized that Amon Ross St. Brown's final of his three touchdowns came on fourth down. Halfway through the fourth quarter of a game that had been over for a minute.

28:22Derrik Klassen: And I know the Lions go for it on fourth down. I know that's what they do. But don't try to tell me that Dan Campbell didn't want to get to 50 with Ben Johnson standing on the other sideline. I would never believe that.

28:34Dave Helman: Oh, especially now that he's got to play him twice a year. Yeah, if it was like a one-off game, whatever. Yeah, he's probably trying to get in his head a little bit, especially after, again, when the whole deal is like, people thought that this was all Ben Johnson. And I do think Ben Johnson is really good at his job. And I actually think the Bears offense at certain points in this game looked pretty okay. It's just, it's hard to keep up with 52 points once you get thrown out of your game script a little bit.

28:55Derrik Klassen: I thought Jared Goff, I mean, obviously he was awesome today. 23 of 28, 238, five touchdowns. He's also, he has now been, he's now scored 50 points. He's been the quarterback for a 50-point offense five times, which puts him only behind Tom Brady, Drew Brees, and Lynn Dawson for guys who have done it the most in their NFL career. Clearly, he was great. He leads the league heading into Monday Night Football in EPA per dropback. But I thought he was really fun as just a creative player today. Like, I don't think he gets credit for doing that. Like, the cliche about Jared Goff is, like, pressure him and he'll fall down.

29:33Derrik Klassen: He was making plays off of schedule today. like getting outside the pocket, avoiding pressure. He had a fun little throw to Sam Laporta where he like dodged around Montez sweat coming off left tackle and zipped it across his body. I was like, I was like, Jared, that's not you. What are you doing, man? It was so fun. And then he, and then one of the, the long one to Jamo, I think it was the, yeah, the touchdown. He had Montez sweat like draped on his back when he threw that ball. Like it was, I was impressed by so many things with Jared Goff other than just the stat line.

30:06Dave Helman: I think he's so I think what's funny about Jared Goff, like creating and getting outside of the pocket, I think. Especially I think it started to pop up last year and has it did again in this game a little bit. He is actually pretty willing to get outside of the pocket and try to make some plays. It's just that sometimes he does not have the facilities to do so. And I think against really good defenses, he'll just get hunted down before he gets outside of the pocket or certain stuff like that. But if he can find some space outside of the pocket, he actually does do kind of to your point, like he'll sidearm whip it if he has to, like the one that he did get to Laporta was like, okay, if you can do that once or twice a game, that's really all when you're as good as you are in structure, really all you need is to have those one or two plays.

30:47Dave Helman: And so I would say he had three or four of them today with as good as the Lions offense played. And that's how they could score 50, but it was, it was an insanely good day for them. I also want to say there were a couple of things about the Bears defense that really, really irritated me. I think right now like Kevin Byer just looks very slow and I think in a game against an offense as fast as the Lions I think that that really showed up and then one other like very small thing that I had was in the first quarter the Bears tried to call a corner blitz from the boundary with Jalen Johnson if you're calling a corner blitz you gotta go like you are you need to fly and Jalen Johnson like kind of saunters up to the running back and is like am I gonna hit him and I understand that he's not been fully healthy but that's just like well then don't call a corner blitz for Jalen Johnson in that scenario.

31:32Dave Helman: It was just like a what are we, what's going on here type of thing.

31:35Derrik Klassen: We're not making excuses, but the Bears defense is beat to hell and back right now. And so, you know, Kevin Byard who could maybe get by with more around him, I think it's that much worse when you don't have the guys who can sort of pick up that slack. The Lions,.41 EPA per play for Week 2, which is almost double the next best team as we wrap up Sunday night, 55 % success rate as an offense, which again, best in the NFL. So just like last week, look, last week was bad. It was only week one. This week was really, really good. I don't know. Maybe we'll stabilize somewhere in the middle, but I'm a lot less worried about the Detroit offense than I was a week ago at this time.

32:18Dave Helman: I mean, stabilizing in the middle at like 30 points a game would probably be pretty good for them.

32:22Derrik Klassen: Let's keep it going with a unit, a team that has our attention. And we teed this up perfectly, Derek, in the preview show. We said, who's got a better chance to prove that week one wasn't a fluke than the Indianapolis Colts? They beat the hell out of a Miami team that really didn't look like they wanted any part of it in week one. And week two, it's the Denver Broncos. And we said, let's see you do it against a real unit, Indianapolis Colts. Let's see you do it against a real pass rush that's going to get after you, Daniel Jones. Well, they did. They did. Indianapolis Colts put up 473 yards of offense.

33:01Derrik Klassen: They beat the Denver Broncos 29 to 28. I want to get into the end game madness a little bit because it was if it wasn't the most memorable ending of the week, it was it was either that or Dallas, New York. It was it was insane. But before we do that, let's make sure we give the Colts some flowers. And in particular, Daniel Jones, who outright thrived. Like I was I was so impressed with everything about particularly this offense. But obviously the team as a whole moves to 2-0 on the year.

33:31Dave Helman: Yeah, there are there are a couple of parts of the Daniel Jones thing that have been fascinating to me. I think the one part of this that we could have that is like not all that surprising now that we're seeing it is that underneath Daniel Jones's accuracy to me has been pretty good. like whether that's like on some of their RPO stuff, their quick game, or even on just when he's, you know, checking the ball down, maybe scrambles outside of the pocket and needs to dump the ball off. He's been very, very accurate underneath with that jank has given the offense a little bit of a floor to work with.

33:57Dave Helman: He's also been pretty effective as a scrambler through two weeks. So that part of it is not surprising to me. What has been surprising to me about Daniel Jones is that under pressure, he's been like really good. Yeah, dude, in this game, he was awesome. Like it was just like, Like he is completely unafraid to slide around, to take hits and to make a lot of plays. Like there was one where I think it was the second play of the game where they run like a little play action. They've got a guy streaking from right to left kind of on an over route. And Daniel Jones just slides a little bit to his left.

34:27Dave Helman: The center gets bowled over and Jones just buys a little bit of time to his left. Still gets smacked as he's throwing it, but puts the ball right on his guy like 25 yards down the field. And I was like, OK, if he can do some of that and like remain within himself while he's getting pressured, make a couple of plays outside of the pocket. So there was that element that I just didn't know if we were going to get that version of Daniel Jones. He's also throwing it down the field more than he has in like two years, really. Like this was early Daniel Jones. We remember like you remember the Bucks game he played when he was I think it might have been his first start where him and Jameis were just like chalking it back and forth like several times ago.

35:02Dave Helman: Yeah, it was a while ago. But that was something he did early on in his career. And I think that was something that's been missing the past couple of years. And he looked, he just looked more willing and able to do that in a way that I just wasn't sure that we were going to get from him.

35:14Derrik Klassen: Denver pressured Daniel Jones on 45 % of his dropbacks, which if you take out guys who didn't play the whole game, so like not counting Tyrod Taylor, who like entered for Justin Fields, like among guys who played all of the snaps or the vast majority of the snaps, third highest pressure rate in the NFL for week two. And particularly on passing downs, like in gotta have it situations, Denver kind of got whatever they wanted. Like Indy's offensive line is really good, right? And like he had this fantastic situation in week one where the Dolphins just really couldn't get to him. That wasn't the case on Sunday.

35:50Derrik Klassen: And it didn't matter. Like what? They converted six of 13 third downs. Like so you're up near 50 % like converting and moving the ball down the field. I just I thought it was incredibly impressive. And it's it's not like Indianapolis dominated Denver up front. He just managed the situation in a very impressive way, I thought.

36:09Dave Helman: He did. And like there's still some part of me that is like, we'll probably still get some bad games from him trying to do stuff like this.

36:15Derrik Klassen: Because we can't say that after this, though.

36:18Dave Helman: But like we I think the last couple of years I would have been like, you might have one in 10 good games under pressure. Now it's like if he can do this, it's like I have a little bit more faith that it's at least closer to like he's not going to have so many bad. He did put the ball at risk a couple of times in this game.

36:32Derrik Klassen: I'm not ready to wholesale, like change my opinion of who the Colts are. And teams can start fast and fade. And Daniel Jones probably will play a stinker or two or three if I had to guess. But we think highly of Miami's front. And they played a much better game in week two, by the way. We can get to them later on in the show. This is a really good resume for the first two weeks, particularly this game scoring 29 points against a unit that we all think very highly of among the top handful in the NFL I just I can't I he deserves for me to not like couch what I'm saying you know what I mean like he deserves for me to just be like guys playing well don't have to qualify it any other way that's fair I think I'm a little bit more like you've got three or four years of

37:22Dave Helman: bad tape on you I'd like to see it again but he's he's he is starting off really well probably the

37:26Derrik Klassen: responsible way to look at it.

37:28Dave Helman: But the other thing I want to say, the offensive line and run game in the second half in particular, they started off kind of slow in the run game and stuff like that. But in the second half, they were kicking ass. Like Braden Smith in particular, I thought played a really, really good game in this game. Like the right side as a whole, I thought was really good. And some of the double teams, him and the right guard were getting on were like really good. Jonathan Taylor was awesome. Real 2021 vibes coming off of Jonathan Taylor right now. Yeah, that was, if he can keep doing this like because that was the whole thing right is like last year was like well part of the formula was that you have this running quarterback and this really good running back like you should be able to create something there and it just never clicked for a number of reasons and obviously Richardson missed a lot of the year anyway Daniel Jones is a good and athletic quarterback and so they can mix some of the the run element with him and like do all this other stuff and like it's just it's looking it's looking good so far and I'm pretty optimistic I

38:21Derrik Klassen: I think I just like the way the Colts compliment each other. Like JT is a great back. He's been active in the receiving game this year. He had a receiving touchdown in this game. He's been good in pass pro too. Yeah. Like really good. Daniel Jones is obviously a mobile guy. And then like all the pieces of their passing game just sort of play a very specific role. And when it meshes together, it just, it looks nice. Like, and don't get me wrong. These are good players, but like the sum of the Colts parts adds up to something cooler than what it looks like on paper, I think.

38:49Dave Helman: Yeah. it's a lot of like B plus to B minus skill players, but they have like so many of them now. And Jonathan Taylor, I think kind of transcends that, but like they generally have just no true, true superstar at the pass catcher position. We'll see about Tyler Warren. He's been pretty good. The last thing I do want to say about the pass catchers, we probably underrated a little bit that Michael Pittman was just not healthy for like all of last year. And I know I did. He's been a player that I've been always kind of up and down on. And like, what is his, is like true value? because I think he's not a very explosive player.

39:20Dave Helman: But if other elements of the offense are going to be explosive, if Jonathan Taylor is going to be explosive, if Pierce is going to be as good as he is down the field, then like what Pittman offers you as just running a ton of slants and shallows and converting on all of them, that I think really does go a long way. And it certainly has through two weeks.

39:37Derrik Klassen: So we're very impressed with the Colts. Honestly, the Broncos, for the most part, played a good game themselves. This was just, again, other than Dallas, New York, which was just bonkers chaotic. This was actually like, this was the best well-played game of the weekend. Just like the most entertaining, well-played game up until everybody lost their damn minds in the final two minutes of this game. And we can be impressed with the Colts and what they've got going on, 2-0 start, and also say the end of game situation here was just abysmal. The way that Shane Steichen got to, I mean, he got to field goal range basically with a minute 44 to play and none of his timeouts used.

40:24Derrik Klassen: And from the Denver 40 yard line just decided I've had enough. I don't think I want Daniel Jones to get strip sacked here. He's done such a good job getting us to this point. I don't want to risk it. And with a minute 44 and all of his timeouts proceeded to one run one play and get the clock down to 15 seconds and settle for a 60-yard field goal. And the only thing stupider than that is that when Indianapolis trotted out their kicker who had attempted nine NFL kicks in his life from 60 yards, the Denver Broncos drew a leveraging flag because they contacted the center on a hopeless field goal. I mean, it had no shot.

41:09Derrik Klassen: He was like five yards short and five yards wide. And I could have told you before he even did it that it would probably go that way. And yet the Broncos draw a flag that moves the Colts 15 yards closer. He bangs it in from 45. Everybody's happy. And you can just sort of push it into the corner that you bungled the end of game scenario here. This was just brutal for all sides, honestly.

41:34Dave Helman: Yeah, it's a weird game to talk about. Like, do they deserve to win? Where it's like for the 58 minutes that they played, yes, they deserve to win the game. And then the way they handled the very end game. I don't understand your offense playing as well as it did and then being a little bit scared of them at the very end, especially when you have your timeouts. You can manage this stuff. I did not understand that, especially with the kicker situation that they had. Denver should really not be even trying to block this kick, obviously. It's being a 60-yarder, but also... I would tell them not to even fire off the line.

42:04Dave Helman: Yeah, if you guys want to jump straight up, do whatever you want, but you don't need to go forward and contact the offensive line. I will say 15 yards for that penalty seems a little crazy to me. We got to talk to Roger about that one.

42:16Derrik Klassen: Player safety penalties always carry a heavier toll, which to answer your question, the Colts do deserve to win because the Broncos made an equally egregious mistake. And so they just sort of cancel each other out and we say, all right, good job, Indianapolis. Before we get into our next segment, we're going to take a quick commercial break. One thing I love about summer is how easy everything feels. Days are a little more relaxed and I find myself reaching for the same comfortable go anywhere pieces again and again. That's why I keep coming back to Quince. They focus on well-made essentials that naturally become those everyday staples you live in all season long.

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44:25What the f***? What the f***?

44:27Derrik Klassen: What? Like I said, we had no shortage of options to choose from, but I think we got to start. And unfortunately, it's very heavy, serious injury news that headlines the Cincinnati Bengals week to win against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Bengals rally past Jacksonville. They win by a score of thirty one twenty seven with Jake Browning pulling off the heroics. We'll get into all of that. But obviously the big, big macro story here is that Joe Burrow goes down with a leg injury with nine, nine minutes to play until halftime does not return to the game. He's seen limping. He's seen in a walking boot afterwards.

45:06Derrik Klassen: I think as of Sunday night, the NFL insiders, NFL Network, Ian Rapoport, ESPN's Adam Schefter, they're reporting that it's a grade three turf toe injury and that it could sideline him for up to three months. I'm not ready to base anything off of that timeline because when you're talking about a Joe Burrow caliber player, I'm sure the Bengals will exhaust every option. But clearly Cincinnati is facing a Joe Burrow absence for at least the time being. And kudos to them for finding a way to win without him.

45:40Dave Helman: Yeah, this to me is like a WTF in the sense of like the Bengals are the joke is the Bengals always suck in September and they always start 0-2 or 1-2 or 1-3 by the end of their first handful of games. And it's always just like they have to dig themselves out of this hole with Joe Burrow.

45:55Derrik Klassen: Is this like a monkey paw situation? I think so. Where the Bengals are like, oh, can we can we just be 2-0? Can we just have a good September? And the football gods are like, you can, but it'll cost you Joe Burrow.

46:07Dave Helman: You can start 2-0, but it'll cost you the fourth best quarterback in the league for a couple of months, potentially. But it is funny. They are, to be a little bit serious, it obviously sucks that Joe Burrow is not going to play. They are at least fortunate in the sense that they've done this with Jake Browning before. They obviously did it today and played a pretty good second half of this game. And I think Browning, they understand how to put this offense together with him. And I think so long as Chase and Higgins can stay healthy, knock on wood. I do think they'll have a shot to be a competent offense for the rest of this stretch.

46:40Dave Helman: It's just that they play a pretty gnarly stretch of teams over this handful of months. These are teams that are going to force shootouts, and it's like, can a backup quarterback really help you in a shootout? We're going to see about that.

46:50Derrik Klassen: I love when a team understands itself, when you know the score. And Jake Browning did exactly what he needed to. He did throw three picks in this game, kind of the ultimate backup quarterback game. but he also he got the ball to jamar freaking chase and t higgins to a lesser degree but just lean on those guys and there will be defenses that are good enough to shut that down or at least limit it the jacksonville jaguars on sunday were not that team and and the way jake browning and and zach taylor for that matter the way the bingles as a whole were like we are not gonna stop a drop off at quarterback play from getting the ball to our playmakers.

47:31Derrik Klassen: Jamar Chase, 16 targets, 14 catches, 165. 88 yards of yak, by the way. That's the other thing, too. When you have the most physically imposing duo of receivers in the NFL, go let them bully people. Jamar Chase, 88 yards of yak. T. Higgins, his biggest impact play is a 42-yard touchdown catch in which half of that is yak because he just sunned the safety and the cornerback at the same time. Like, that's why those guys draw those paychecks. That's why we talk about them having the contracts that they do is because they can make a backup quarterback look that good when you get them the ball. Yeah, they do.

48:10Dave Helman: The T Higgins play was which actually what's even crazier about this game is. So T Higgins has that play, obviously, where down the right sideline just kind of cooks Tyson Campbell. I think he ends up taking like a go ball like a little bit of an inside stem fades it back out and then he catches it and then Wingard the safety tries to come over and help them tackle him and Tyson Campbell just kind of hit each other Tee Higgins off to the races and that's that you mentioned Jamar Chase some of his yak there was I think the drive right before the half Browning ends up throwing an interception at the end of it but they throw this little screen to the left side for Jamar Chase and they just they clear the way for Jamar Chase and just if you give him a little space a little bit of a runway he's going to turn what could be I don't know 12 yard gain into 25 like he's the best in the league at that and then the other guy the catch that Mitchell Tinsley made on the right side of the end zone like if even you're I mean he's not even their third guy like they have like Andre Yoshibas like if he's like you know if he would be in the top five targets in the Bengals offense yeah because yeah if you want to include like Chase Brown and like a sick you when he's healthy like even though a fan had a pretty good play today like Tinsley could be their sixth or seventh guy at any given point and for him to have a play like that in the red zone it's just like they clearly have a lot of guys who are just good at if you throw the ball up to them go catch it so even though browning did throw three picks like this is how you should be playing to a degree in

49:28Derrik Klassen: this offense i love how the end of this game was a perfect process versus results situation because the dramatic ending jake browning drives the bengals 93 yards they go ahead on a love the throwback drew breeze tom brady quarterback sneak by the way like in the era of the brotherly shove of, yeah, let's dive over the line and just break the plane. But the thing that set that drive up, and I can hear Jags fans yelling, big DPI on fourth down on Andre Yoshivas that enabled that whole thing to take place as well. But the thing that gave the Bengals the ball was a decision that I loved from Liam Cohen, where you're up three on the Cincinnati seven-yard line for something to play, I think, like a four-minute situation.

50:13Derrik Klassen: Liam Cohen's like, let's just go get the first down and will probably win this game. And obviously they don't, which enables everything to come. But I love the idea of, yeah, if we get five yards, we win this game. And like, we're not worried about Jake Browning driving 92 yards on us. Obviously, that is exactly what happened. That's still a bet you make. That is a bet you make. And Liam Cohen said afterward, he's like, that was a go on in all of our models. All of our data says that's a full go. And it should have worked, by the way. Really, really rough day for Brian Thomas Jr. Highlighted by him not making a pretty routine catch over the middle that probably ices this game for the Jags.

50:52Dave Helman: Brian Thomas had a tough one. And head coach Liam Cohen, I think, had some issues not really saying everything that he probably wanted to say.

51:01Derrik Klassen: He had a lot on his mind that he decided not to say into a microphone after this game.

51:06Dave Helman: I think that film session is probably going to be tough. But even on the fourth and five that they are not able to convert, that you're talking about there. Like they, Brian Thomas, I think, so he's running like a little bit of a shallow route and he clearly wants to sit around the hash mark and catch the ball turnaround, get to the first yard marker. But he, I don't know what it is. Like if he didn't love the ball location, even though it was fine, like he just clearly was not comfortable catching the ball turning and like maybe getting hit. So he ends up dropping that. They don't convert there.

51:32Dave Helman: There was the throw that you're mentioning where over the middle, he just doesn't want to take the shot to the ribs, which like, I get it. That's not fun. But like once you catch it, you're going to turn around and get hit. You're going to get smacked.

51:42Derrik Klassen: You're going to convert the fourth down as well. And they pay you to do that.

51:46Dave Helman: You got to go do it. And then there was even a goalball down the right sideline that like was probably not super catchable. But I think you saw him a little bit give up early on the play, which I didn't love. So like, I do not know if this is going to be a regular issue for him. Like, I think this is something that good coaching staff sort out, like good players sort out. And I think what we saw from Brian Thomas last year was obviously phenomenal. So if this is still something that they're still having weird issues with by like middle of November, like, okay, I'll be concerned. I'll at least give them a little bit of grace for now.

52:15I don't want to put too much of a timeline on Joe.

52:18Derrik Klassen: There's just, as we're recording this, we just don't know. But it seems like a safe bet. It'll be a multi-week absence of some sort. Bengals went four and three with Browning as their starter in 2023. They narrowly missed the playoffs, despite not having Burrow for basically the second half of that season. next four games at Vikings, at Broncos, Lions, at Packers. So regardless of what happens there and without knowing when Joe might be back, 2-0 is so, so big. Like, theoretically, you could weather this storm if you can steal one or two here and sort of tread water because you're not trying to claw out of a hole for the first time.

53:02Derrik Klassen: You have a cushion. How great is that? Even Joe Burrow's time as a Cincinnati bingle, he has a little bit of cushion to work with as he tries to recover from this injury.

53:10Dave Helman: Yeah, exactly. If they can steal one of those games, they'll end up at 500. Again, assuming Joe Burrow does not need any type of surgery, if they can steal that, that would be huge for them. So we'll see.

53:22Derrik Klassen: The monkey's paw. It's got to be. It's got to be. Another WTF situation. And look, there's a lot that went into Pittsburgh's loss to Seattle in the early window on Sunday. And I typically, I don't like to single out one back-breaking play because you make the wrong read and throw a pick six. Like, do we know for sure what the progression was, what the coverage was? Like, there's so many elements that can go into back-breaking plays. Not here, not when Caleb Johnson flubs a kickoff that leads directly to a Seattle touchdown and he's basically the only person involved in this. So early fourth quarter, Seattle kicks a field goal to go up 17-14.

54:07Derrik Klassen: Pittsburgh's going to get the ball, going to have a chance to drive down and tie, maybe take the lead. We'll see what happens. Caleb Johnson, who is the regular kickoff guy, like he's been in this role for both games. He's had eight kickoffs on the year. I know he's a rookie, but this is a job they laid out for him coming out of training camp. the ball bounces past him and he just lets it go into the end zone it's so tragic watching him jog off to the Steelers sideline just like oh well not not gonna have a return on this one and as he's jogging to the sideline the whole Seattle kick team is meeting in the end zone to recover it for like it's the game-winning touchdown like see it just it never felt like Seattle was in trouble after that.

54:53Derrik Klassen: And like I said, it's, it's this one easy thing. Hey man, the new kickoff rules stipulate the ball goes into the end zone. It's gotta be down. It's a live football or else this could happen, which shouldn't, but did. And to that, I say WTF, Caleb Johnson. Yeah, that, that was just gnarly.

55:10Dave Helman: And like, on one hand, it's like, okay, you've, you've had the job, you know, for not very long, you're a rookie, all that stuff. I get it, but they're not there. This is his main responsibility at this stage because they're not even really using him on offense. Like they are. He is currently right now a special teams player for them. Like he had, he had one carry in this game. I think he has two carries on the year. Exactly. Like it's him. Jalen Warren has taken the lion's share of the load. And then even Kenneth Gainwell has been really there, like other back in this offense. And I know part of that is probably just like Aaron Rogers doesn't like having rookies in the offense.

55:42Dave Helman: And so maybe this isn't necessarily indicative of Caleb Johnson, But it is like they clearly have trusted him to be their kickoff guy right now and not use him on offense. Should at least know some of the basic rules. And I know, like, again, college doesn't really work this way. And it's a whole new thing. And you never watch football like this. But it's just this is a mistake that you cannot make in a game like this.

56:02Derrik Klassen: The other thing that blew me away is and it's hard to tell from the TV angles, but like the way the ball skipped up, it came close to his hands. Close enough that I'm not sure it didn't touch him. At first, I thought it did. And then I think, yeah, they like tried to be shown. They were like, yeah, we don't know. But it was like, maybe just go and make sure, man. Just maybe go and make sure that you're not about to commit the blunder of the week, which is what happened.

56:24Dave Helman: If you leave your house, it's like you're not sure you locked it.

56:27Derrik Klassen: You just go back and check just in case, you know, there's no reason not to. There's a lot. Like I said, there's more elements to this game. Steelers offense and ironic that as much as we loved the Steelers Jets game in week one, And neither offense really followed through on that momentum. Very forgettable week for the Steelers. And like I said, there's so many variables that go into a loss. But this is just the most obvious and the most avoidable one, in my opinion. Yeah, it probably was.

56:56Dave Helman: The offense just did not. I think part of it is like, this is still to me an offense that, even if the run game is not humming, they want to be in an offensive structure that is allowing them to get under center to get into tighter formations and like at least have that be part of the element like a lot of the the calvin austin plays from last week against the jets they were getting him into tight splits like under center and using him on these corner routes and stuff like that and getting him free releases that way i think the later this game went on especially once you got it to the second half especially after this when they go down multiple scores it's like they were forced a little bit more into of a pure pass scenario which i just don't think is how this offense really wants to operate the way it's constructed right now

57:36Derrik Klassen: I think this might have been the game that had the least amount of eyeballs on it, probably because neither team looked particularly impressive in week one. And it was in an early window with eight other games. The New England Patriots improved to one and one on the year. They beat the Miami Dolphins 33 to 27. And basically the whole second half of the fourth quarter just made me say WTF. Like what? Let me just say it. What the f***? Because this was a wild sequence of events, starting with back to back special teams touchdowns.

58:13Dave Helman: But what's funny to me is it starts right before that, where it's a middle of the fourth quarter. Nine minutes left is a second and 13 for the New England Patriots. And they're like backed up on their own 22 or something like that. Garrett Bradbury, the center, snaps the ball like at Drake May's feet. He gets sacked on like his own nine yard line. And so that in your mind is like, OK, they're about to give up really bad field position to the Dolphins. And then they punt it. And that's when Washington takes it back all the way into the end zone. He takes back the punt return. And then literally on the ensuing kickoff, I think it was Antonio Gibson.

58:44Dave Helman: It was takes that back for a touchdown. And so that's where you get that whole that whole sequence of stuff. And then even everything after that started to get a little bit weird to me, like the. A little bit later in the in the fourth quarter, the Patriots are driving there about to what feels like put the game away. They get to a fourth and two with about two minutes left on Miami's 30. This is clear go. Like if we get this, we can win the game. Yes. Morgan Moses false start, man. And so they have to kick that allows Miami to stay into the game. And then Miami goes and tries out and to do their thing.

59:15Dave Helman: Miami gets the ball. Devon H. And almost has like what looks like a touchdown. He steps out at like the 30 or something like that, or a little bit shorter than that. So we got to run this all back. Okay. Miami's got to try this again. They ended up in a third and 12. to a scrambles out of bounds for no gain on a third and 12 which to me is inexcusable like we got to try something with the game on the line and then on the ensuing play I think he gets just completely smoked around the edge he does yeah it's just like you left out my favorite part

59:45Derrik Klassen: though which is that after so much I just after the after the Devon H and mess up the Dolphins incur a false start while they're like trying to recover from that miscue a false start and then they take a delay of game while they're trying to sort that out to the point that the home fans are booing them for their execution in this whole thing and then Tua runs out of bounds and then he gets sacked and the crazy thing is this was a marked improvement on what we saw week one and And remember, we were watching the games together early on Sunday, and I think New England went up 13-0 pretty quickly in this game.

1:00:29Derrik Klassen: And we were like, holy shit, is Mike McDaniel going to be fired on Friday after they inevitably lose to Buffalo? And they're still 0-2. It's not like they won this game, but from where it was at the end of the first quarter, at least it was a functioning NFL product, albeit a bad one. By the way, 22 total flags in this game. Oh, that's gnarly. 140 penalty yards, two special teams touchdowns. Yeah, I like it was it was an NFL product. Still not a very good one is what I would say.

1:01:01Dave Helman: Still not a good one. Even to add to that eight sacks between these two teams. Like it was just a lot of a lot of sloppy football. And the last thing I would actually want to say to the point of sacks. Obviously, I think it was Milton Williams who ended up. He got the he's the walk off. Yeah, like the game clenching sack. So he's the one who ended the game. There was a sack earlier in the fourth quarter With about three minutes left on a third down Which was I think Miami's second to last drive Potentially Harold Landry has actually been This was a signing that we kind of talked about a little bit last week Of like the Eric Murray Jordan Lewis signings For Jacksonville and stuff like that Harold Landry has had a Shockingly good start to the season I think obviously playing the Raiders offensive line And the Miami Dolphins offensive line in their current state Not the two biggest tests But I do think he's looked really really good for them

1:01:45Derrik Klassen: The interception Tua threw after the Antonio Gibson kickoff return was bonkers. That was just derogatory. Very derogatory.

1:01:55Dave Helman: He's had a couple already this year where he's just, and I think that Tua is typically not a super high interception player, and so the fact that he's already, and a lot of these are coming outside of the pocket, and I know, again, these are also coming in games where they're already down, and this one was on a fourth down, so it's like I get why you have to do something, but the fact that he's already had so many mistakes like that I think is pretty troubling. The Dolphins are 12.5 point underdogs Thursday in Buffalo. I mean, this offensive line and this team on a short week, I get it.

1:02:26Derrik Klassen: Never want to overreact to spreads ahead of time. Crazy things happen in the NFL, but I don't have a good feeling about what the Dolphins are walking into on Thursday night. All right, a couple more things to get to before we wrap up the show, but real quick, we're going to take our second break.

1:02:46Derrik Klassen: There's nothing like the American Express Platinum card. Find out your welcome offer after you apply, which could be as high as 175 ,000 points. Learn more and find out your offer at americanexpress.com slash explore dash platinum. Terms apply.

1:03:06Derrik Klassen: Like I said, it was plenty of WTF to get to. let's throw it to what is quickly becoming my favorite segment on these recap shows. We're calling it, How Could You Not Be Romantic About Football? I mean, this thing was a thing of beauty. So the point of this segment isn't always to highlight a game or we don't even have to get to a new game. Obviously, we want to touch as many things as possible, but that's just not realistic with the amount of time that we have. we just want to highlight a moment a play that made us sit up in our seat or just got us super excited which is easy to do now that we watch the games in person by the way because you can sort of time stamp like oh Derek was losing his shit about that or like I was pacing around the studio during the end of the Cowboys Giants game but one thing I did want to highlight is that in in a game that I got very wrong by the way I didn't I didn't necessarily think the New York Jets would beat the Buffalo Bills, but after an exciting week one, I would not have been surprised if it was a good game.

1:04:11Derrik Klassen: Forget that, man. The Bills smothered the New York Jets and didn't even really have to get out of second gear to do it. And for as much as we worried about this Buffalo defense, they were all over the Jets. And a big part of that was Joey Bosa looking like it was like 2017.

1:04:30Dave Helman: turn back the clock in a big way he was awesome in this game like he had a sack which was on rookie tight end mason taylor but still i think you saw like the closing speed after he beat taylor which is exactly what you want that was like the whole point of signing joey bosa is that even if it's only for a limited number of snaps a game he can give us some juice when we need it so he had that he had the the justin fields punch out fumble which was that was awesome fantastic fields ends up like scrambling a little bit to his left and then shoots up to the line of scrimmage and Joey Bosa completely relentless, just hunts him down from behind and punches that thing out.

1:05:02Dave Helman: I forget who was starting the tackle, but like Bosa, as he's going down, punches that out. That was an incredible play. And then even to me, what really felt the most like, this is also kind of like what peak Joey Bosa felt like, at his best, he was a really, really good edge setter. And literally first play of the game, the Jets try to like wide zone out to the left and Joey Bosa sets the edge, forces it all the way to the boundary. I think they get like two yards on it. And that was like, that's what you signed him for.

1:05:26Derrik Klassen: That's what you signed him to do. we did a show over the summer where I said I was ready to be hurt again. And one of the things I was ready to be hurt by is believing like, this is the year that the old Bills edge rusher that they signed in free agency is going to do something. And granted, this is definitely a team that we judge by what happens in January. Still really exciting to see Joey Bosa play that way. Sack, two forced fumbles in this game. I mean, if he can be, and I do think you want to pace yourself and not expose him to injury because we know that's been his big issue. But if you have that in your back pocket of knowing that Joey Bosa can be that guy at times, maybe that could be the thing that elevates the Bills defense.

1:06:10Derrik Klassen: And I'll just put the Ravens performance off to the side while I think about this and say, eh, we don't have to worry about that for a while.

1:06:17Dave Helman: A little bit of proof of concept that the 8 million resources you put into the front, that's a good sign.

1:06:22Derrik Klassen: Speaking of the Baltimore Ravens, not super interested in the totality of their beat down win against Cleveland. Credit to them, it went exactly the way it was supposed to. They're double digit favorites. They're coming off a disappointing loss. The Ravens have a tendency for theatrics against teams they have no business playing close. And that is not what happened on Sunday. They kicked Cleveland's ass from the word go. Final score was 41-17. Don't really feel like relitigating the whole game here. But one thing you and I got really excited about DeAndre Hopkins. He's been targeted four times so far this season, four catches, 99 yards, two touchdowns, two of them being circus catches.

1:07:09Derrik Klassen: Like we're not asking for a heavy lift here. That's not what DeAndre Hopkins is here to do. But as the wide receiver three, as the fourth option in this offense, if he can do something sick once or twice a Sunday, it's very fun for us as fans. And it could be very good for the Ravens offense.

1:07:28Dave Helman: That was like always the whole sell is like if he's going to get some of what we're just like Nelson Aguilar targets in previous versions of this offense. And he can just make one or two insane plays, whether it's down the field in the red zone, whatever it is. That is why you sign DeAndre Hopkins. and like to me why I think this is beautiful for a number of reasons one DeAndre Hopkins was stuck on a lot of really bad teams for a long time he was stuck on multiple AFC South teams obviously last year he got to play with the Chiefs a little bit but like I think he was a little bit banged

1:07:56Derrik Klassen: up he's a little bit closer to the end you come into that offense in the middle of the year yeah sort of and it was kind of a stinky offense and it was relatively also you have no other guys who can elevate you that's the whole thing like Hopkins is he's there's more here to work with than what the Chiefs had as far as skill players go last year. Yeah, the Chiefs needed DeAndre Hopkins.

1:08:17Dave Helman: The Ravens are just like, oh, well, that's a fun thing to add. And so I think there's this cool element of like DeAndre Hopkins, who is this just phenomenal player for like a decade, who is finally getting just the time to go be just a fun little sideshow character on like one of the coolest offenses in the league. I think that that's really compelling. And then I think the other thing to me is like we have now two years in a row where obviously last year. Derrick Henry came into this offense and I think he had had one or two years with the Tennessee Titans where it was like he's just kind of running into brick walls and I don't know how much he's really going to have left in the tank and the fact that he gets then to go play with Lamar and really have like an offensive player of the year caliber season obviously Saquon Barkley does what he does and kind of takes that crown but for Henry to kind of have this revival and then even though it's not obviously to the same level for Hopkins to be able to come to this offense and show a little bit more juice than he really has in a couple of years again.

1:09:07Dave Helman: I just, there's something cool to me about Lamar Jackson being this just like very obvious elevator of other guys around him.

1:09:14Derrik Klassen: Hopkins turned 33 this summer. He looks amazing. Hopefully this continues all year. You would imagine the end of his career is soon, whether it's in one, two, I don't know, maybe you can play three more years. Even that kind of feels like a stretch to me, to be honest. So it's very cool to like to get it one more time. Just like, yeah, DeAndre Hopkins is that dude. And the play in the third quarter, I think they wound up not calling it a touchdown. He was ruled down just short of the goal line. You know, the play I'm talking to be a rule of cool. Like, just give it to him. I just love Lamar did his Lamar thing.

1:09:51Derrik Klassen: Like he dances around for a little while. And it reminded me of like Steph Curry or a really good three shooter in basketball where, I mean there was a linebacker like closing down but Lamar Jackson can run and at least pick up a couple yards even if it's not going to be explosive like he just had an easy play and it's only second down and it reminded me of like Steph just on a fast break pulling up outside the three and just shooting it anyway even though he has like an easy basket where you're like this is so low percentage no don't do this like take the easy layup oh wait that was that was awesome I'm so glad you did that that's right fun for everybody involved.

1:10:31Derrik Klassen: I really loved it. One more we want to get to, which it feels a little bit hollow in light of how this game ended because the Arizona Cardinals wound up hanging on for dear life, which is a theme for them now. They are 2-0. It has been dicier than it should have been at the end of both games. Against Carolina in particular, they win this game 27-22. A couple things go the other way. They absolutely could have wound up losing to a Panthers team that they were annihilating for most of this game. Early on, though, Kyler Murray reminded you why he can be so much fun to watch play football. He's I mean, he's just one of those guys when it looks good.

1:11:12Dave Helman: Like this is just what football is supposed to be. He's just an incredibly fun, loose player. And like he had a couple of really nice scrambles in this game. But the big one to me where I was like, this is just what it feels like to watch Kyler Murray at his best. They were in, I think, like the middle, maybe high red zone. And they have this play where they have three receivers set off to the left. The number three guy, the inside receiver, runs more of like a bender over to the other side of the field. So it kind of pulls the safety, pulls the middle of the field. And Kyler immediately recognizes, OK, if they're doing that, the guy I have as my number two running the bender kind of towards the middle of the post.

1:11:46Dave Helman: I'm just going to rip it immediately and put this thing on the back end of the end zone. And he fires an incredible ball to Michael Wilson. And it's just this reminder of like when Kyler really is like locked in and focused on a given day, his arm talent is truly special. Like the way that he can just cock back and throw it, the way that he can layer certain balls, the way that he can just drive it in there when he needs to. Like he on a good day is phenomenal. And granted, I think it's pretty clear that you can still do that against this Panthers defense for as much as they've pumped into it.

1:12:16Dave Helman: But for him to at least give us that type of day in an afternoon slate that didn't have a whole lot of other games going on, I thought was a very nice reminder for us. I do love that we also got dumb bad Kyler, too, though.

1:12:29Derrik Klassen: Yeah, the slipping, stumbling, like shot put interception, which we've talked about this a lot. But if Kyler Murray is like the franchise quarterback Mendoza line, you know, of like the as the bar for like me, like whether or not you want to have this guy be your franchise quarterback. I think people would associate that with steady mediocrity, whereas Kyler just darts above and below the line like all day long where he'll do like four things where you say to yourself, this guy's incredible. and then twice a game you're like how was that what you decided to do Kyler please help me

1:13:08Dave Helman: right it's almost like for like for the for the normal like it used to be the Dalton line it's like well Dalton kind of is what he is for most games and so if your quarterback generally is above that line you're probably good with the Kyler thing it's more like how many games do you have above the line and for Kyler in you know in some seasons it's like 10 and he's phenomenal and plays like MVP and sometimes it's like five and like that's kind of the thing and so usually but if you have these quarterbacks who 12 times a year they play above that line it's like a go then you're above whatever this Kyler Murray roller coaster version of the Dalton line is

1:13:40Derrik Klassen: Arizona scored to make it 27-3 with nine minutes to play in the third and proceeded to hang on for dear life so Cardinals next challenge 2-0 very happy for you Cardinals next challenge with a road game against the 49ers. Can I get 60 minutes of consistent good play? Or just maybe, if not that, then just a better finishing effort, a better final 10 minutes of football from the Arizona Cardinals. We'll see what week three holds. One last thing we want to do before we get out of here, and we got plenty more games to cover. Like I said, we can't do it all in a recap show, but we've got the Hangover Show coming your way.

1:14:21Derrik Klassen: We'll record that Monday. We'll take your voicemails. plenty more stuff to do. Let's wrap this up with what we learned for week two.

1:14:30Dave Helman: You know, I think I've learned something today. What do you think we learned in week one, in week two?

1:14:36Derrik Klassen: Excuse me. We're already into week two, buddy. Week two of this NFL season.

1:14:40Dave Helman: I mean, I would say for the most part, week one can be a mirage. And I think that applies to a number of reasons. Obviously, you know, you already kind of joked about it. That Steelers-Jets game. how excited were we to talk about that game after it happened and be like maybe this means something

1:14:56Derrik Klassen: so let's take people inside the production because I came into the studio after you today and you had the remotes and you were like what should we watch where should things be placed and I was like I want Jets bills like in a big spot on a I want it in the prime spot with the least amount of competition I want it in the two box not the four box because I'm dialed in on Jets and like 15 minutes later I was like I think we can switch this around like move the Bills Jets

1:15:25Dave Helman: game somewhere else turn the volume off for that one don't really need to be paying attention to that game yeah that that game very quickly felt like oh that doesn't matter and then you watch the Steelers do what they do and you're like I don't know if a whole lot of what they did in week one really matters and so I think that was a big one um obviously you're gonna have stuff on the other end like the Colts offense it's like okay maybe that is a little bit real but it's like you have some of those games where it's like you have Jets Steelers it's like we want to immediately make something out of it because it's week one, which is like, of course, this is fun.

1:15:52Dave Helman: And like, we want these solace to mean something, but you got to remember that sometimes it doesn't. And then on the other end, it's like the Lions offense. Sometimes that is a mirage in the sense of like, we just didn't know the Packers defense was like that. Like, you know, when they do it one game, it's like, okay, the Packers defense looks awesome. Are they going to do it again? They go out and play Washington on Thursday and just beat the brakes out of them. And it's like, whoa, they're just that good.

1:16:14Derrik Klassen: We gave the Packers their own show on Thursday, but it bears repeating briefly. Nobody's flying higher after two weeks than the Green Bay Packers. And they got a long weekend to rest and recover, by the way. I think that's totally fair. And we didn't prep for this because it was the late game and we had a bunch of other stuff going on. But how do the Vikings feel right now where you're just like, ooh, okay, we played one good quarter of football, but the other seven look pretty rough right now, man. I mean, I need to go back and look at this game in more detail, but I saw enough to know that J.J.

1:16:53Derrik Klassen: McCarthy didn't quite figure everything out in that fourth quarter at Soldier Field.

1:16:57Dave Helman: The only thing, like, obviously I watched some of that game. I think it's just funny that the Vikings probably did feel okay, like, okay, he started to play better in the fourth quarter of last week. Like, maybe we can build on that a little bit. Then you take six sacks to the Falcons, who are like notoriously have never had a pass rush. And I know they dumped some resources into it, two first round picks, a number of, you know, second and third day picks the last couple of years. But that is not the defense you want to be taking that many sacks against.

1:17:21Derrik Klassen: A lot of Bears fans working here on our show in a Chicago studio, as you might guess. And it also leads to some very interesting questions about, well, if that's what the Vikings look like right here, what does that say about the Bears?

1:17:35Dave Helman: And if that's what the Lions looked like in week one, and then they did that to you this week, what does that say about the Bears?

1:17:40Derrik Klassen: It's just a whole lot of, what are the Bears right now? Topics for another show, but it'll have to wait. That'll do it for our week two recap. Like I said, we got so much more coming your way. We'll have another show Monday, airing Tuesday. We will take your voicemails. We will dig into a few of the other games from Sunday that didn't quite make it into the recap. Plenty of other interesting stuff going on, by the way. Like I do, like the Rams Titans come to mind. Mac Jones got a road win against the New Orleans Saints. So plenty of other stuff we want to cover and we'll do that later, but that's all we got for right now.

1:18:13Derrik Klassen: Derek, thank you so much. Thank you all for listening. We'll talk to you next time.