Week 3 Recap: Broncos stun Rams, Ravens upend Cowboys, Jaguars roll Patriots, and the 3-0 Raiders

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1:00Robert Mays: This January, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship takes over the ocean. The inaugural Brews Cruise sails from Miami to the Bahamas aboard the Norwegian Jewel. Three straight days with pool deck bare knuckle fights in the Caribbean. Massive parties, beach events, DJs, cigars, tequila tastings, and nonstop action. The lineup reveals coming soon. Cabins are disappearing fast, and the prices won't stay this low. Reserve your spot with just$200 down at BKFSEA.com. Welcome to The Athletic Football Show, brought to you by the U.S. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card. I'm Robert Mays. Week three in the NFL was one heck of a ride, really from start to finish.

1:43Robert Mays: Both windows were incredible. Tons of just amazing, exciting games. We hit all of them. Started with the Sunday night game, hit Ravens-Cowboys, and then tried to dig into everything else we possibly could from week three. An amazing week in the NFL. Let's get to it with me, Dave, and Derek right now.

2:05Robert Mays: What a game. What a day.

2:08Derrik Klassen: That's what you look forward to for nine months while we wait for this whole thing to get going. I mean, the only thing missing was like an insane London game in the early, early window. And we'll get that in a few weeks to really hammer home the like 18 hours of pure football. My goodness.

2:25Robert Mays: I'm not even sure my nervous system could have taken that if we had a London game this morning based on everything that we just saw. We'll dig into all the action from today, but we're going to start with a phenomenal Sunday night football game. I mean, obviously all the way down to the end. a really impressive performance by the Broncos in the second half, considering what their offense looked like in half number one. It felt like the Rams were in total control of that game. And then over the course of the second half, you just start to feel it leaking out. The Rams settling for a couple field goals because the penalties ultimately came back to bite them.

2:54Robert Mays: And then they leave the door open and a couple special teams mishaps and the Broncos defense really locks in. And that's enough for the Broncos to kind of claw their way all the way back in this game.

3:05Derrik Klassen: What did you say? A couple special teams mishaps? That's right. No way. right? Not the LA Rams.

3:08Robert Mays: Well, you get a long field goal and you get a long punt return on the first drive of the second half where they're going to score a touchdown and then what should have been a fantastic punt down inside the 10 turns into, is followed up by a penalty and then they have to re-kick it and then the Broncos get the ball in midfield again. And so, two drives essentially end and the Broncos getting the ball in midfield in the second half. They turn both those drives into touchdowns inside the game is tied.

3:33Derrik Klassen: This is two weeks in a row where the Broncos have looked dead in the water going into halftime of a game that they wound up winning against a team that we think really highly of. I mean, I don't think this does a lot to sway my opinion of the Rams. Denver is an incredibly tough place to play. The Broncos turned it on in the second half, but still like a team that I think really highly of and the way the Broncos were able to, you know what I think is impressive? I don't even know if you could say they clawed their way back into it because the aggressiveness with which they went after those two point conversions.

4:06Derrik Klassen: And you see why people push for that in these sorts of like in-game situations when you're playing the math out. They were back even before the third quarter was even over. I thought that was tremendously impressive. The execution to steal those points, not just once, but twice in order to just erase that deficit in one quarter, basically. And then when the fourth quarter starts, you're even. And obviously, we can get into some of how that happened, but we're able to outlast the Rams. And just, I mean, I'm still processing the finish, to be honest with you.

4:39Robert Mays: I mean, I think it happened. Go ahead, Derek. Yeah, I was going to say, like, I thought the way that Denver kind of handled that game in terms of going for the two points the way that they did in multiple situations, like, I just thought that that was really impressive. That is like a clear, you know, the kind of team you're playing. And obviously, the Rams in the second half had some mishaps and stuff like that. but they also had the drive where in what four plays Matthew Stafford goes down and scores you know that they can do that and so if you know that they have that capability why would you not try to get this game as close to tied as you can or actually tie it rather than I will take the two you know touchdowns we'll be down to and we'll go for the field goals and especially to like like you guys mentioned the special team stuff they were capitalizing on short fields like to that point in the game they just not moved the ball very well they got two they got two situations where they get great field position, boom, they score, they say, let's get the most out of it.

5:29And then after that too, I thought their defensive game plan in the second half was incredible. Like I just, it was a really, really well-called game, I thought.

5:37Robert Mays: You really started to see where the limitations for the Rams are just as a team, period. And those limitations are compounded when you lose guys over the course of this game. I mean, you go into this game and you're the Rams, essentially your most important pass catchers are the running back, Devontae Adams and Terrence Ferguson. And then Terrence Ferguson goes down, and you're essentially down to Devontae Adams, the running back, Kanata, Mumpfield, and whatever you can piece together with the tight ends. And then the area, we've talked about this with the Rams all the time. If you can start to make Stafford uncomfortable in the pocket, that's how you start to just puncture a hole in the offense and it starts to leak out air.

6:16Robert Mays: And that's exactly what started happening in the second half of this game, is that the interior pressure, and we saw that last week for Denver, right? I mean, when the Broncos are really able to give trouble to these really good offenses, it's because their interior guys in a world where we don't have Jonathan Cooper are winning consistently. And that was happening. Malcolm Roach had a moment. Zach Allen had a moment. Look at the stats from Matthew Stafford. When pressured in this game, finished five of 18 with an interception. And we can mention the pick sixes, probably the swing point in the entire game.

6:46Robert Mays: But I thought that's, when you can get them into pure drop back situations, they're just not equipped normally. They're not equipped when Puka Nakua and Terrence Ferguson, when he's a big part of the game plan, are playing in the game, let alone when they're not. And I thought when they were in those situations in the second half, that's when you really saw the Broncos really take hold. And it was everything. It was some of the one-on-ones. Like, obviously, Zach Allen had that moment where I think it was a play action and he just beats one of the offensive linemen. Like, that was super impressive.

7:14But they actually, like, took their foot off the pedal a little bit with the blitzes in the third quarter. but then by the fourth, they come back to it, and there's that third and five with about 10 minutes left where they're kind of showing a gap pressure. Stafford moves the back, he'll handle it, and then Hufanga comes screaming off the left-hand side completely untouched, and then they kind of show a similar-ish look on the next drive, and that's where you get Hufanga actually staying out there in zone coverage. He kind of is playing the two-for-one on the tight end, Kyron Williams, and he just jumped that out route.

7:43And so it felt like in the fourth quarter not as well equipped to handle some of the pressures that Denver was bringing, especially from, I think both of those plays were in empty. And I think they just assumed like, Stafford's seen this stuff, he can make us right and he can make it work. And he just, in both scenarios, just like they did not have the answer for it.

8:02Robert Mays: And you look at what happened on the final drive. Obviously the Rams score, they get the double move to Mumfield, which is a phenomenal job in pass protection by that entire group to pick up that big pressure and even give yourself time to hit that double move. it was two really impressive completions to month old on that drive. The one that's like a keyhole shot on the previous chunk play and then you hit the double move. And then on the final Broncos drive, it's really nice play design. I mean, you have two plays in a row, essentially, where the coverage gets dropped. One is like a big crosser that McDuffie drops where he's passing it off to somebody else.

8:35Robert Mays: And on the Franklin completion underneath, McDuffie sticks with the vertical route and leaves that underneath one wide open. And so on two big, big chunk plays on that final drive, the Broncos just purely by design get guys wide open. And then we obviously have to talk about the call that flipped the game. And that's just, it's one, the second of two that we'll talk about over the course of this game, or over the course of today, that really dicey defensive pass interference calls in moments where it probably should not have been called.

9:08Derrik Klassen: Live in the moment, I thought it looked like a DPI. but I'm not standing there with the vantage point on the call right up next to it with a bird's eye view like a referee. And by the time you saw two replays of it, you were like, oh, no, this is a terrible call and certainly not one that should allow the Broncos to completely control the end game, which is what they were able to do. That combined with the illegal hands to the face on Quinn Lake, which, I mean, that's a legit call. Of course, yeah, you hit him in the face. But when those things snowball on top of you And when that DPI just gives you control down there that close to the goal line, it was a crappy call.

9:47Derrik Klassen: I don't think there's any way around it. It was a horrific call. And honestly, I'm always in the camp of like, if you let the game come down to one call losing you the game, you didn't deserve to win the game anyway. So this is not even like, I don't even really feel bad for the Rams. It's just like the DB is clearly playing the ball and the receiver, if anything, is pulling him back and like kind of flopping away from it. That just to me is one of those, it really doesn't matter whether that could have happened the first play of the game. And I think it would have been just as insane of a missed call, just purely on based on like how it looked.

10:18Derrik Klassen: It's just such a, it's a penalty that just swings things in such a huge way. And you're alluding to Cowboys Ravens, which we'll get to in a little bit. But the, just the way that a call like that going in favor of the offense, again, just allows them to dictate everything that happens after that. The game would have been over. It was an interception.

10:38Robert Mays: The game would have been over. Like he caught that ball cleanly. He's playing the ball. It's a phenomenal sell job by Pat Bryan in the same way it was a phenomenal sell job by CeeDee Lamb in the first game.

10:48Derrik Klassen: I do agree in general, Derek, that a lot like if it comes down to a call by a referee in a situation like that, there's something else that could have been done. And that I mean, that is true in this game. We talked about the Rams settling for too many field goals, missed opportunities. but that's still just, it's a brutal swing in a sport where the rules are stacked in favor of the offense anyway. They're not equal games, but this is like recompense for Sean Payton losing the playoff game over the most insane EPL.

11:19Robert Mays: I'm curious if he thinks that's equal in the ledger. I know that he doesn't. Probably not. I was going to ask you guys if you think there are any big picture takeaways from this game. And I think the answer is yes. Even if the Rams, I think, clearly played well enough to win, this is, and I think they'll be, even at one and two, obviously will be a relevant team as we continue throughout the rest of the season. I will say that even in a game where Puka doesn't play, you get banged up, you lose Jalen Watson, the fact that the same issues keep plaguing this team against really good teams in really big moments, that is important.

11:55Robert Mays: I think that is something that's worth pointing out. Because I think too often, I know I'm guilty of this, we've hand-waved that shit away in moments like this and been like, ah, you know, you have a couple special teams flubs, but you're a good team, it's probably going to be fine in the long run. And it's happened way too often to do that and continue to do that. The fact that, again, multiple penalties on offense and just shooting themselves in the foot in some of these moments combined with the special teams' mistakes, I think that when you have the aspirations that this team does, even on the road against a good team banged up.

12:30Robert Mays: It's not stuff that you can just sort of hand wave away even at this point in the season just because it's been such a consistent issue over a multi-year period.

12:38Derrik Klassen: You can't hand wave a game that you had a 16-zip lead on. At halftime. I mean, plenty of way into the game. It's not like some fluky start gave you a lead. I mean, they controlled this game. They dominated it in the early going. And to the point we were making earlier with the two-point conversions, Like I said, the Broncos didn't even have to scratch and claw to get back into this thing. You kind of blinked halfway through the third quarter and you're like, oh shit, we got a game. And so to let it slip the way they did, I'm not worried about the Rams. And I mean, you lose Terrence Ferguson in the blink of an eye in this game.

13:12Derrik Klassen: Like I think I was working on other notes for the show and I looked up five minutes into this thing and I was like, oh no, he's headed to the locker room. And that's when you already don't have Puka Nakua. The defense is missing Miles Garrett. I'm not worried about the Rams, but I think you're right. This isn't stuff that you can ignore. I mean, the LA Rams, the super team, the team that everybody expects to win the Super Bowl is 1-2. That is a pretty huge story, even if the losses are very explainable. And to good teams, that's still not where they were supposed to be as we approach October. They, to me, look like the same team as last year, which is a very good team.

13:51And maybe you can last half full of that and be like, well, if they look like roughly the same team without Pukunakua in this game, without Miles Garrett in this game, it's like, and obviously, you know, you lose a handful of other players. Watson goes out, Ferguson goes out. For them to still look roughly of the same quality is maybe nice, but again, I think some of the special teams flubs, and we knew this, like the fact that Matthew Stafford, when he gets pressured is such a problem and the offense falls apart when they can't play the game that they want to. Again, I probably trust that they'll win 11 games anyway and play enough of the games that they want to, but it's a little bit frustrating that we've seen the same cracks that we always have.

14:24Derrik Klassen: Can I ask you this? Because I think, really, if I'm... Because at the end of the day, having said all that, I'm not that worried about the Rams. I'm sorry, I'm just not. What if my big picture takeaway is the Broncos and the fact that they've looked like dog shit in all three games they've played for at least a little while?

14:41Robert Mays: And they're 2-1?

14:42Derrik Klassen: They're 2-1 with wins against the Rams and the Jags, and they just put up 30-1 half against the Rams. Like, I'd like to see... Sort of. I mean, they put up 30 points. The defense did some lifting, but they did that. They scored 30 points in a half. That happened. The team scored 30 points in a half. The offense didn't score 30 points in a half. I didn't say the Broncos offense. That's not what I said. I said the Denver Broncos. There's three components to this thing. I would love to see it over four quarters. I'm not convinced that they're... I mean, clearly, they have a lot of work to do. I'm not convinced that they're like a juggernaut or anything.

15:17Derrik Klassen: But to be in this place, especially after the way the season started, I think my big picture takeaway is like, okay, the Broncos should be a pretty good team even if they're incredibly frustrating.

15:27Robert Mays: You have to feel really good about being 2-1 at this point when you had one disaster game offensively and then let's call it half a disaster game offensively in this one even though they finished with a 34 % drop back success rate and still won the game. I mean, this is a game where you win on the margins to their credit. Again, special teams, the defense comes through with several huge game swinging moments, whether it's pressures, interceptions, all that stuff. And so, yeah, to feel like you haven't played your best football and you're sitting in two and one in an AFC that's just a mess. I mean, you look at it right now.

16:02Robert Mays: I mean, it's the AFC wildcard race as it currently stands. The Ravens, Browns, and Bengals are all two and one. There's only one two-win team in the AFC South. In the AFC West, the Raiders are three and O, which we'll see what happens with that. But to feel like you're squarely, we're probably where you wanted to be out of this stretch after really not playing well. I think you have to feel pretty damn good about that if you're the Broncos. All right, let's get to the rest of the day. Let's get to a couple performances, a couple games that really stood out. It is time for You Have My Attention.

16:35Derrik Klassen: Gentlemen, now you have my attention.

16:39Robert Mays: The Ravens win just a thriller over the Cowboys, 34-31 in Rio. So just to paint you guys a picture a little bit, we had a huge meeting of all of our NFL editors and staff here. So we were watching the game with like 30 people today. And it happened during a day where there was plenty of stuff to get excited about. And so there's just a huge crowded room of people watching the end of Ravens-Cowboys. And that's as good of a late game ending, a good of a late game finish as you could possibly ask for. So we'll dig into every aspect of this game, but just Ravens-Cowboys, period. You firmly have our attention.

17:16Robert Mays: You had everybody's attention. Everybody's attention. That was the perfect game to come away feeling good about both teams. I feel very good about both teams, actually.

17:28Derrik Klassen: I'd feel better about both teams if Brian Schottenheimer had just gone for it down in the low red zone when they kicked it to tie, like when they decided to force overtime.

17:37Robert Mays: Oh, see, I don't even... That's not my... That's not the mistake. I don't think that's like a mistake. I think that's a 50-50 call at worst. To me, kicking that ball out of the end zone with seven seconds left is like borderline indefensible. And the only reason that you probably decided to do that is that you kicked two balls out of bounds over the course of the game.

17:57Derrik Klassen: Special teams, I'm sensing a trend for the week. My God. Two kicks out of bounds and a blocked field goal, by the way, which I think was a shitty decision in the moment. It was fourth and six, so I get how you wind up there because it's long enough that maybe you don't feel good about it. But a 59-yard field goal, just even with Brandon Aubrey, just doesn't need to be like the fallback. Like, oh, this feels safe. This feels safe to me in the NFL, especially when you have Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and George Pickens playing the way they were playing today. Anyway, we're getting ahead of ourselves.

18:32Derrik Klassen: But I thought Brian Schottenheimer made some really shitty decisions in this game, in my opinion. And you're right, kicking it out of bounds. If you're going to play for overtime, at least make the Ravens return and bleed clock. But we talked about it in the moment. We talked about it on the preview. Kobe Duran and PJ Locke weren't available for this game. They lost Jalen Thompson during the course of the game. Like, they were down to like DB 8 and 9. You saw it on that final play. It was nothing short of heroic that the Cowboys were even able to force the stops they could get. They forced not only the goal line stand that sparked the comeback, but they got a 3 and out in the second half of this game, which they've barely been able to do all year.

19:12Derrik Klassen: And so to know what your defense was up against, I would have lived or died with one more play at the end. Win it in regulation and go home or say, we did a hell of a job here at the end of this thing and we fell just short. I would have preferred that, but they played for OT instead.

19:29Robert Mays: I think if you get the ball back in overtime, your offense is playing well enough, that's not the issue that I have. My issue is that that game should have gone to overtime. The idea of not kicking out of the end zone with seven seconds left and giving them a shot to run a play and call timeout, it's just borderline indefensible. I just don't understand how that ball does not land short of the goal line when there are seven seconds left in the game and you have a pass offense that you have not been able to stop the entire day. Lamar finished 15 of 20 in this game. They essentially did what they wanted throwing the ball.

20:02Robert Mays: The Cowboys had plenty of really nice moments and several huge run stuffs on short yardage plays in this game. That's the only thing they did defensively. When the Ravens wanted to throw the ball, they did what they wanted. And so even to give them one more shot with seven seconds left, I just have no idea how that is your approach in that moment. And because the thing is, man, Lamar threw the piss out of that ball. He threw that so fast, so hard. I was shocked that he was able to come down with it and they were able to have enough time for him to call the timeout. Like that is, you probably lose that game less than 1 % of the times, but obviously they still put themselves in a bad position, but that's a crazy thing that like Lamar was able to make that throw.

20:45And then loop was able to make that kick. Like the, the fact that he was able to do that, I thought it was incredible. Like I was really impressed overall with the Ravens in this game. Obviously, like you mentioned, the Cowboys stopped the Ravens run game for the most part, especially Derek Henry. Like they were coming up with a bunch of huge stops. I think in the red zone, obviously they had the one fourth and one other than that the Ravens had a number of other plays that they were able to get but I thought they acquitted themselves fairly well the Ravens I just thought man like they continue to do a lot of the stuff that I really liked and so on offense like I was just really impressed with the way that they're using Hibner the way that they're using like Bateman as a motion player like they had at the end of the third quarter it was the first play of a possession and they motion Bateman left to right and he like shoots up through the sea gap on that like banana motion like whatever the juice check thing kind of and he just runs his deep corner that bleeds everybody out and Hibner is open for like a 30-yard gain because he just catches in the flat and runs like their ability to scheme up that sort of stuff while you also have the most dynamic quarterback running back duo in the league is

21:45Robert Mays: they're just an incredible team to watch I really really love offensively what they're doing with Zay and I don't really remember them like any Ravens team ever using him quite like this before He was used on a ton of inbreakers and that was where he lived against zone when they were really rolling in 24. But they're using him even more as an underneath player in this offense where, and it's probably, I mean, the reality of it might be that they're playing with way more 11 personnel and just more sets where you can have a player in the slot. But what they're doing is they're keeping him at number two or in the slot in so many of these situations and they're getting him one-on-one with linebackers or just spine of the defense defenders on the little jerk routes and just like creating leverage for him.

22:34Robert Mays: And he's unguardable in those situations. I mean, there were multiple of those receptions on their final touchdown drive where they're just getting him on guys like D Winters and there's just no shot. And I just, that's a situation where I think that this is a staff that is really almost like inspired by what he can do in a way that, and I'm not even like, I thought Todd Monga did a fantastic job in Baltimore, but just the ways that they're using Zay Flowers right now, and you just felt the difference in the offense with him playing this week versus when he wasn't playing last week. Like, he's just far and away the most important pass catcher they have, and they're consistently all the time trying to get him into these matchups where he's unguardable in the middle of the field.

23:18Derrik Klassen: I couldn't believe he played. Like, coming on, the injury the way it was, and then all the talk about the field in Rio and how concerning it was, all the videos coming from Brazil made it look like it was going to be a mess. And maybe if he did play, you know, maybe he's mostly a decoy or a guy that draws attention away from other people. So to get him looking pretty damn close to himself and being, I mean, he was the biggest component of this Ravens passing offense all day long.

23:47Robert Mays: He threw a PI, again, Marquise Bell, right before the Hibner touchdown. Like it just, the way they're using him, especially against this team, like Dallas at this point where, and Barham was playing downhill a lot in this game, either as a blitzer or obviously made several really nice plays against the run. Like how much better he looks over the last two weeks than he looked in week one. You have to be excited about if you're a Cowboys fan, but it left D Winters as like the solo middle of the field zone defender on a lot of plays in this game. And they just had absolutely no shot. And especially when you combine that with the depth at safety and the fact that they're down to like safety five and six, the Ravens did anything they wanted throwing the ball in the middle of the field.

24:26Derrik Klassen: Mark Isabel, who they picked on, also got left to get an IV. He was dealing with dehydration. And Caleb Downs got... I don't know if he missed time or how much time he missed, but he was dealing with something as well. So again, this... And I don't think even at their full power, they would have been a match for what the Ravens were doing or have been doing this year. But I just... I thought the Cowboys defense had a hand tied behind its back at the end there.

24:53Robert Mays: and they still almost won this game in part because the last drive, when there was 1.30 left with the Cowboys and they had one timeout left, that last drive, just insane stuff from Dak. I mean, he hits Flournoy on a little quick out cut, big yak on that play. He checks into, or then they hit a screen to CeeDee Lamb. Dak checks into the play where he hits the quick out to Flournoy with Trey Hendrickson just in his lap. And then my favorite play, maybe on the whole drive, They're throwing a screen. He ejects it in the middle of the play because he sees that it's dead, scrambles on that play, and then they get down, and then obviously the pass interference, we don't have to talk a ton about it.

25:35Robert Mays: It's an awful call. Like, it's absolutely an awful call. Like, that should have been pass interference on CeeDee Lamb, if anything.

25:41Derrik Klassen: J.J. Watt nailed it in the moment where he was like, if anything, that should be OPI. And if you don't want to call OPI on CeeDee Lamb there, that's fine. At the bare minimum, it needed to be a no call. again, especially in a moment like that. And that's what I'm talking about, where you just give these offenses so much control. I mean, 28 seconds with one timeout from the plus 22 as opposed to 23 seconds from the plus two. I mean, it's just, it's unbelievable. And like I said, you don't have to throw a flag on CeeDee Lamb if you don't want to, but to just throw a flag, why? Just let them play in a situation like this, especially how much fun we were having in this sequence of the game where we were trading haymakers Robert I'm glad you brought up the play where Dak like ejects the screen because there was actually on I think the previous drive he almost threw a pick trying to throw like the alert slant to I forget what who the receiver was but like Tavius Robinson jumps up and gets in the way dropped right into it yep dropped right into it almost through a pick that like that that might have ended the game there if like Robinson picks that off that might that really would have given and the Ravens like a pretty strong hold in the game.

26:50And so then to go back on the next time you see something like that, where he's like, oh shit, I'm just going to tuck it and go. And he, I mean, it's like a 10 yard game. It was, it was like one of their best plays on that drive. And so I just thought that that was such a nice, nice little spot of like in-game learning. This was a game too, where like, I know the Ravens defense struggled in a lot of ways. I thought their tackling in particular in this game was horrific. But in a lot of other cases, is I was mostly just impressed with how Dak and Seedy and Pickens played on top of a couple of just like schematic ways that they were able to, I think especially when the Ravens were in quarters, they were just getting a bunch of beaters.

27:25And I thought that that stuff was really impressive. Like the big Seedy throw that they get out of their own end zone, that's just they get the weak safety to poach the other way. And Dak is just like, all right, I have my one-on-one. I'm just going to rip it. And like that, that particular thing where you just get the weak safety to poach the other way is like, kind of feels like the explosive play hack in the NFL right now. and the teams that can do it, if you have a guy, and the Cowboys obviously do, you can get big plays like that. And so I just thought that was a great call from that spot.

27:52Robert Mays: That play specifically, pointing that out, I think is worthwhile because my frustration with the Cowboys offense, I mean, two things really crept up to me when I was watching the first couple games back as we were preparing for this week. We talked about coming into it. The run game just hadn't been very good, and them really starting to push people around in those first couple drives was really nice to see. It's the first time they had gotten any sort of consistency on the ground. they finished the game with I believe 48 % rushing success rate you felt that like those first couple drives they were starting to move people for the first time that was really nice to see but even as that was happening I had been frustrated just with how underneath and like quick game centric a lot of the passing game had been I looked it up with at the time of the Ferguson fumble but when they he fumbled on the shovel pass at that point in the game the Cowboys through the first, let's say two and a half games of the season.

28:42Robert Mays: We're 31st in the NFL in an explosive pass rate. That can't happen. Like on that sort of like short yardage situation, I don't want you to be throwing shovel passes to Jake Ferguson. Like that's cutesy bullshit. Like you have aliens on the outside. You have Dak Prescott as your quarterback. Like let's take some hate. Let's throw some haymakers. Let's try to push the ball down the field. Let's try to be explosive. And And they started trying to tap into that as the game went along. That's the version of this offense that I think it's going to be really easy to buy into and get excited, get excited out over the course of the season.

29:17Robert Mays: And I think like Derek said, that's probably where I land with both of these teams. The Cowboys defense, there's a chance it's just a problem all year, especially with how banged up they are in the back end. I mean, you saw them. I mean, like Reddy Stewart was like a combination of like Reddy Stewart and Marquise Bell and Elijah Clark were the three guys who had the most important assignments on that chunk game to Zay before the game ended. I think it was Bell was, talk about poaching, Derek, he was that weak safety on that play. He comes down and takes away the inbreaker at the sticks for no reason.

29:49Robert Mays: I mean, who cares if they complete that pass? He does that. It gives a huge window behind it for Zay to break in when Stewart thinks he has help inside. It leads to the game swing completion. If you're playing with third, fourth, fifth safeties on a defense that already was going to have a hard time keeping this together. There's a chance they're just kind of holding on for dear life for a while. I think the offense, this is the version of it today that we saw that has a chance to be dynamic, explosive, good enough to keep them afloat even as the defense has to figure this out.

30:21Derrik Klassen: I don't disagree, but oh my God, was it encouraging to see Quinnen Williams looking like Quinnen Williams.

30:27Robert Mays: That was the biggest part. The front was good this game. This was the best they've looked all year.

30:31Derrik Klassen: Yes. If the front is good, if Quinnen Williams blows up two to four plays by himself a week, if Jay Sean Barham keeps, you know, shrieking in from the top to get TFLs and if Caleb Downs keeps coming along, I think they, don't get me wrong, I don't think they're going to be good anytime soon, but they can be disruptive enough to give you a chance. I mean, that's what they did against Baltimore, who we think so highly of. You're not going to be playing Baltimore every single week. And so even as bad as it looked at times in this game and as bad as the secondary looks on paper, we'll see how the injuries bear out.

31:10Derrik Klassen: I weirdly feel encouraged about the defense overall, just because the front was sort of holding up its end of the bargain.

31:17Robert Mays: I don't disagree with that. And the front, especially Quinton Williams playing the way he did early in that game. And that was the big, that's what felt the most different about this defense in this game compared to the first two. I still just, when you combine the safety issues with the fact that the linebackers can't really cover anybody, I just don't know how that's feasible or workable.

31:37Derrik Klassen: When you play anything resembling a good offense, you're going to be hanging on for dear life. That's absolutely true. And hopefully you can just make, A, get enough from the offense. The offense looks like this more often than not. And B, get a couple wonky plays or a goal line stand here or there. I overall feel encouraged about the Cowboys, to your point. I just, I feel like they let the Ravens off the hook at the end.

32:01Robert Mays: I mean, that being said, like, the Ravens, if they don't get stuffed on fourth and one in that game, like, in terms of winning the game, yeah, they let the Ravens off the hook, but I still think the Ravens offense in particular in this game just, and the only thing with the Ravens is we're down to center number three now. And that's actually not true. We're down to center number four. Juane was snapping at one point in this game. He sure was. And so that's probably the one thing about the Ravens where I'm like, Like, man, how are they going to figure that out? Because Gwynn got hurt, and then Pochish had a terrible...

32:28Robert Mays: I mean, it looks like he broke his leg. It was a disgusting injury. And then at one point, Ioane's having to snap, and they have Andrew Voorhees in there. And so those are the moving pieces on the Ravens offense that are worth paying attention to. But, I mean, you look at how efficient the Ravens passing game has been again. I mean, Lamar was 15 of 20 in this game. I mean, they're doing so many really nice things in the passing game. I think they will continue to do that. I think the interior offensive line shuffling, the run game is where you might see that show up here over the next couple games.

32:57Robert Mays: But I think to Derek's point, I leave this game feeling encouraged about how both of these teams have looked and especially the Ravens. You combine the offense with Kyle Hamilton, another huge game where he's making three or four big time plays. There's a lot to be excited about with Baltimore.

33:12Derrik Klassen: The Ravens absolutely deserved to win this game. I hope I didn't sound otherwise. If anything, I expected the Ravens to win this game pretty comfortably. And the fact that it had the finish that it did is why you come out of it feeling good about the Cowboys. But a phenomenal performance from Baltimore.

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36:33Robert Mays: Let's get to our next one here. The Jacksonville Jaguars absolutely stomp the New England Patriots 35-6. Another rough outing from the Patriots offense, which we'll dig into, but another really nice game from the Jags and their offense. The Jags at 2-1 with a near 30-point win over a team that went to the Super Bowl last year. You guys have our attention. If y 'all are wondering why the hair's down, it's because Trevor threw a hat trick.

37:01he the way that I think what's been so impressive overall especially recently with Trevor Lawrence and really the passing offense in general I don't mean to just put this all on Trevor the way it's all operating is incredible their red zone passing offense right now is insane like they feel like once they get in the 20 they've got it like he the inbreaker that he throws to Myers is incredible the way that he finds underneath Josh Cameron is insane and then really on the other touchdown the Parker Washington touchdown, he's running that like seam up the left-hand side. By the time Trevor throws it, he is not open.

37:34But Parker Washington like fights and nudges Marcus Jones, I think it was Marcus Jones, off the spot just a little bit and goes and like plucks that ball out of the air while he's diving to the ground. Like Parker Washington's balance and strength and like ability to find the ball in the air no matter where it is, is really special. It reminds me a little bit of like, he's kind of like Amon Ross St. Brown a little bit in that way where he's just like stronger than you think. He always finds the ball. He always muscles it.

38:02Robert Mays: And that's why I think what he does in the air is more impressive though. Like it's like the, the contested catch stuff, like Amon Ross great in tight spaces, but the way that Parker Washington can elevate for balls in that area specifically, I mean that touchdown shouldn't have even needed to happen. He mosses a dude on the play before that and it gets called back because of the penalty. like his physicality in that area of the field is exceptional and I think it's a good thing to point out Derek because it's a little bit of everything it's the fact that you have a player like that that just brings again just incredible physicality and attested catchability to some of those situations and to me it's just how Trevor is seeing it right now like on the touchdown to Jacoby Myers he there's four minutes left in the second quarter Trevor starts to the right side.

38:53Robert Mays: He comes back to the backside on that play. If you pause the tape, watching it on the end zone view, you cannot see Jacoby Myers when Trevor decides to throw that ball. He is not in the picture. And it's not like Marcus Jones is totally out of position. Like he's actually kind of sitting underneath that throw, and it requires a missile shot from Trevor Lawrence to complete that thing. And that play, and I said this to Dave in the moment, the way that he goes front to back there and sweeps the board and how he throws that ball in rhythm, he is playing with so much comfort and confidence within what the offense is asking him to do.

39:36Robert Mays: and I think that on top of a lot of the schematic designery shit that we can dig into which there's plenty of from this team is just such an indication to me of how dialed in and well coached and on the same page every single element of this Jaguars offense is right now. It is truly a pleasure to watch and I think the quarterback being willing to make those throws and being confident enough to make them is a huge part of that.

40:03Derrik Klassen: have you if you've ever wondered what Derek is talking about when he talks about honorable quarterbacks it's that man just watch just watch Trevor Lawrence what cracked me up the most was uh I mean I'm not even going to call it a mistake I don't think it was but the interception that Trevor threw you know he's got Britain Strange is breaking over the middle and it's a throw that

40:25Robert Mays: doesn't need to happen it doesn't need to happen that's what I would say but that's that's kind of

40:29Derrik Klassen: why I love it so much is because Trevor's just like, it's there. Screw it. I mean, it's there and I'm going to have confidence in the play and the scheme. And yeah, Jalen Reed is draped all over him. And yeah, this could go poorly, but screw it. Here we go. It reminded me of Game of Thrones, Valor Margulis. He's just like, we're all going to die. I'm ripping this thing. I don't give a shit. And it's so fun. Trevor Lawrence is third in the league in pass attempts. eight plus yards between the numbers. So everything in the middle of the field, downfield, he doesn't give a shit. And he's fourth in the league in EPA per drop back on those throws.

41:06Derrik Klassen: Despite doing it more than everybody in front of him on that ranking. He's just, he's fearless, man. And it's not always going to work out. And maybe the mistakes don't need to happen. Maybe there are throws that he could dirt or check down, but that's not what Trevor's all about. He's here for a good time. And I really appreciate that about him. It's not what he's about. And like they have, I think one of my biggest gripes for a long time with the Jaguars offense is like, listen, he's going to throw he's going to throw the ball no matter what. And for a while early in his career, they just did not have receivers who were good at that.

41:36The fact that they built the thing now out of Jacoby Myers, Parker, Washington, and now Josh Cameron, who I think has a little bit of that, where it's just like, get to the middle and I will throw you the ball. I thought that that was insane. And you speak of like, oh, we're all just going to die here. I think my favorite play from Trevor in this game, there were four and a half minutes left in the third quarter. and this was like right as the Jaguars were like really pulling away to make this just a completely dead game. He stares down the barrel of the gun against the free rusher and rips one to Jacoby Myers against man coverage against Christian Gonzalez.

42:08I was like, he believes he cannot die in this offense. And a player that talented believing that much with as good as the pass catchers are and the offensive line, I think looking better than it had last year. They've really got all the right stuff, man. They're just so fun to watch right now.

42:22Robert Mays: The other play on that drive was when they went up 21-3. So that is late in the drive. And it was 3rd and 9. The Jags got a screen blown up. And Ellis just comes completely untouched. Folds Trevor in half as he completes that ball to Jacoby Myers. But to start the drive, and this is just a reminder of how nice it is to be big and strong playing quarterback in the NFL. He's getting yanked down to start that drive. As he's going down, somehow he spits the ball to Basial Tootin in the flat for 15 yards. and so that combined with him, that was exact two play sequence on that drive I had written down, Derek.

42:57Robert Mays: That combined with him staring down the barrel and throwing that ball to Kobe Myers is excellent and then you just combine it with so many little nice moments that make things a little bit easier. I think the first drive of the game, it was actually, it was late in the first quarter. They had, it was a third down where they do a little shuffle motion to get Parker Washington at number one and he just has a little bit of leverage on Carlton Davis, runs a little in-breaker or Trevor rips it. The Jags used bunch formations on 28 % of their snaps in this game. It's the highest rate by any team in a game this season, which makes a lot of sense when you're playing against a team that's playing a lot of man coverage and playing a lot of man coverage really well.

43:34Robert Mays: And that's exactly what the Patriots have been doing. A couple others, their completion to Strange, where he inserts as the fullback, is such an incredibly cool play. And it's a 23-yard game, but my favorite part about it is Ellis is on him as the play starts. He inserts in like the B gap from a fullback spot. Ellis is on him in the flat. But because there's like a wraparound inbreaker coming, Ellis knows he has to get back under that. And so he leaves Brenton Strange in the flat and Trevor just spits it to him for a 20-yard gain. It's the purest expression of putting a defender in conflict that you can ever see.

44:14Robert Mays: because the guy is literally covered that ends up making the play and Ellis turns around and starts sprinting in the other direction because of what that design is doing to him. And then they did a lot of nice stuff on the ground. I think that to me is maybe the most encouraging thing about this entire offense is that we've seen the passing game do this. We saw the passing game do this in the back half of last year. That part shouldn't be new or surprising to anybody. The fact that they're really moving people on the ground and the guy that jumped out to me, we've talked about a lot of their offensive linemen this year.

44:46Robert Mays: We talked about Pregna. We talked about Harrison in the first couple weeks. I thought Hainsey was really good in the run game today. I mean, some of the stuff they're asking him to do as a pivot player, as the center, reach blocks that he's making. I mean, like, overall, just every box checked, again, with what you want to see from the Jags offense, which is just a really exciting place to be for a team that clearly has an incredibly high ceiling on that side of the ball. They just have more teeth in the run game. Like they can just do stuff in the backs. Like I think Tootin is just a better overall player than he was last year.

45:19And then Rodriguez, that being your second guy off the bench also has like a little bit of punch to him. The offensive line looks better. Like you mentioned, I thought Hainsey, like he's had a couple of moments up like this year where it's like, okay, you can start to see it coming along. This was his best game overall. I think we're still really excited about pregnant on. Like I thought Harrison had a couple of nearly nice moments in this game. Like I'm starting to believe in the Jacksonville Jaguars in a way that makes me uncomfortable. Yeah.

45:44Derrik Klassen: I just adore watching Trevor Lawrence right now. He's one of the most entertaining players in the league through three weeks.

45:52Robert Mays: All right, so how do we feel about what's happening on the other side of this game?

45:55Derrik Klassen: I'd rather not talk about it. It's bad, I think. Like, it's, I... They are in a weird spot where I still think that, like, on a down-to-down basis, Drake May is playing fine, but then the blow-up moments are completely nuclear. And that's kind of the issue. I'm really glad you said that because it's easy in the early window when there's nine games on and stuff is just flying at you. It's easy to look away and it's 14-3 and then it's 21-3. And then Drake throws the pick to Jerry and Jones and you're like, well, Jesus, get this off the screen. Let's find something more entertaining. Then you go back and look at it.

46:37Derrik Klassen: And it sounds silly to say in a 35-6 game. I'm not saying there's a world where the Patriots win this game. but it took a little while for it to just completely snowball away from them. You know, like they were getting stops early. Drake has the completely inexplicable, you know, fumble out the back of his hand, Aaron Brooks style. He explained it. Did you hear that? I'm guessing it was the humidity. No, I think he said Jared Wilson bled on the ball. Jesus. Well, I mean, that's the secret world of football if I've ever heard it. Bled on the ball? Bled on the ball. I'm pretty sure that that is what he said about what happened.

47:14Yes. Great.

47:16Robert Mays: That's when you know things are going your way. Yeah, this is on NBC Sports. It's on everything. He bled on the ball and the ball slipped out of his hands.

47:24Derrik Klassen: That fumble leads to the Jags' first touchdown. So it's 7-0. Then Trevor throws his pick on the Brenton Strange ball. Yep. Bad drive. I think that's the drive where the Patriots just can't stop shooting themselves in the foot and they back way the hell up and then kick a field goal. But 7-3. And then at the end of the half, you got a chance to at least make it a one-score game going into halftime, even if you don't cash it in for a touchdown. And that's where, to Derek's point, you just have this completely nuclear moment where the Travis Hunter interception is just the most indefensible thing I saw all week.

48:02Derrik Klassen: I mean, the Jaron Jones one's not that far off. But at least that happened to put this thing completely out of reach. This happened in a game where if you make a better decision here, you go into halftime feeling a hell of a lot better about your chances of climbing back into this game. I'll say it again. The Jags were playing well enough that that probably doesn't happen, but the blow-up moments in this game just completely exacerbated the issue and made it easier on the Jags than it needed to be. Here's where I sit with this.

48:32Robert Mays: It's a combination of a lot of stuff. The offense is bad right now. Independent of the mistakes the quarterback is making, the offense is bad. Two things really jumped out to me today. Morgan Moses was unplayable for the entire time he was out there. He eventually gets yanked for Caleb Lomu because of just what the state of the right tackle pass protection was over the course of this game. So that's a problem. I don't understand what the intent and overall vision for the offense is supposed to be. Like, you have a quarterback, and maybe this is a product of not having A.J. Brown or whatever. A.J.

49:11Robert Mays: Brown wasn't on the f***ing team last year. Like, I don't, like, why are we in a spot where you lose A.J. Brown and now half of the offense is built out of, like, quick game on third and two? Like, the sheer number of plays, one of the sacks that May took in this game, it's they're running a quick game concept on third and medium. Hunter Henry like slips on the play and there's nowhere else for him to go with the ball. And so he just eats it. It's like that, those are your options on third and three. And the number of times, it happened multiple times again in this game. Remember in week one against Seattle when he threw the pick in the red zone and people were like, why is the offensive tackle on the ground?

49:53Robert Mays: Well, the offensive tackle is on the ground because it's supposed to be a quick game concept and he's cutting the guy. But then the ball has to come out. It happened again in this game. Where they do it in the red zone, Lomu cuts, the ball doesn't come out, and then he's trying to push the ball downfield with an unblocked guy in his face. If it's quick game, cut. If it's not, you're not getting rid of the ball in half a second, why are guys cutting? I just don't understand what they're trying to do on offense. There's so many plays that are dead in the water based on what they're trying to do situationally.

50:25Robert Mays: And then when you're combining that with the quarterback making at least two to three plays over the course of the game. They're like, what are you possibly thinking in that moment? You get an offense that looks like this. It is everything. Like they still can't run the ball. They ran the ball terribly in this game and they ran the ball a lot in this game. And so that was, I think, a big part of the issue. The pass protection plan overall, I think this year has not been good. And then like you said, Morgan Moses has taken a step back. I do not think that he's obviously not playing well enough to even continue to hold the job.

50:55I think the other thing too, about the structure of the passing offense, and I think that they were hoping that A.J. Brown would be a good fit for this. They don't use as much movement and shifting and motioning as other teams. They want to beat you by formation, and then the quarterback's going to be right and the player's going to win. Well, that's cool when you have A.J. Brown, or last year when you're maybe not playing the strongest schedule. When you've played the last eight teams that they've played where they are all machines for the most part, and now you don't have A.J. Brown, and Romeo Dobbs is probably not really what you wanted him to be, who's winning?

51:28You thought it was going to be like Kyle Williams on this deep stop route when you're trailing and he can't even sort of get open. And so I think it really is everything. And then May is again, I think long term I still think that he's going to be really good, but he is the type of quarterback that when things are not going right, he's still going to try to make the play. He will lose the game fast and I think that that is kind of the problem they have right now.

51:49Robert Mays: It's a great thing to point out and if you're trying to figure out, well, why does the offense look the way that it did in the playoffs last year. That's the reason. It's because they're trying to pick on teams they can pick on with, they're trying to do it formationally, they're trying to do it with matchups. If you're trying to win that way against teams that are as good or better than you, you're going to have a bad day. And so I think that's why there's been such a stark difference between what this offense has looked like in the playoffs last year and against good teams this year compared to what it looked like for most of last season.

52:22Robert Mays: That shit's going to work when you're playing against teams that are poorly coached, they have lesser coaching than you and lesser talent than you. When you're playing against teams that are equal or better to you in both of those scenarios, you're going to look like this. You're not going to be able to hold up against them in the same way. And we've seen that twice in three weeks from this offense. The other team that is similar in terms of, ah, they don't use as much motion as you would think or all that stuff is the Dallas Cowboys this year. Well, you know what the Dallas Cowboys have? They have City Lamb and George Pickens and a quarterback who's going to see it and throw it.

52:55And so it's like it and the offensive line is better. Like it's just they have the dudes to do it. And maybe that's not the ideal way to do it anyway. But they can at least they have the horses to do the things they want to do. New England is not even sort of in that stratosphere.

53:08Robert Mays: Let's get to our next game here. The Pittsburgh Steelers offense has a big time bounce back game against the Cincinnati Bengals after looking completely dead for the first two weeks of the season. The Steelers put up 30 in this game. Get to some of the plays. Seven yards per play for the Steelers. Second best mark of any game over the last two years. The only game that was better was their win against the Bengals in week seven last year when the Bengals didn't have an offense or didn't have a defense. And the Bengals defenses looked considerably better over the first two weeks. And so for the Steelers to have this sort of output against a Bengals defense that had really shown some life, Pittsburgh Steelers and this offense today, you guys have my attention.

53:50Derrik Klassen: How much do you think is a Steelers bounce back and how much did the Bengals just revert to being the worst version of themselves, do you think? Combination of the two. Because I, re-watching this game, if I sound like I'm taking credit away from the Steelers, I'm sorry, I could not get past some of the absurdity of what the Bengals did today. Forcing two punts, having one of them called back by a roughing the punter, having the other one muffed to hand the Steelers a late game field goal. The tackling issues cropped back up. Did a Steelers receiver catch a touchdown with somebody near him today?

54:29Derrik Klassen: No. Like, did a Steelers receiver catch a touchdown where a bingle was nearby, like, capable of breathing on him? I think the answer is no. And so, good scheme, good play calling. I mean, we talked about it just before the show. The red zone touchdown to DK, where they just ran deep crossers through the end zone and the Bengals DBs just took themselves out of the play by colliding with each other like the Keystone Cops. So that's, it was very fun to watch, but I think it made me more concerned about the Bengals than anything.

55:00Robert Mays: That's a fair place to land. And I will say, there were a couple, like I think big time plays in this game from the Steelers offense that I was very impressed with. There were two of them. There was a throw that Rodgers made to Roman Wilson on the third and long early in the game that he pins on Roman Wilson for a huge conversion. Like that to me was probably the most impressive throw he made over the course of the game. The other one was the ball that nearly gets hit by DJ Turner to DK Metcalf late in the game. Like Rodgers was making some tight window throws that he had not made over the first couple of weeks.

55:33Robert Mays: I think that sticks out. I'll say that even winning by design is something that was not happening for the Steelers in the first couple of weeks. That's Skoronic touchdown, even both touchdowns. Beautiful. The Skoronic touchdown design is gorgeous. And then even hitting like the little rub slot fade to Roman Wilson on the first drive, like getting easy completions by design is not something that was happening for the Steelers offense over the first couple of weeks. So I think there's enough of that to be excited. The other thing that to me is totally Steelers centric, their offensive line was kicking ass in this game.

56:07Robert Mays: Like they were moving people. And you know what? It wasn't even just the offensive line. If you go back and you watch the effort from the tight ends and the skill position players as blockers in this game, really the only down moment of that was the DK Metcalf hold on the huge Jalen Warren run, which I don't think was a hold.

56:30especially to how much have we talked about especially with the first two weeks with the Bengals defense man their run defense the way that Dexter Lawrence is playing like all the front guys and the linebackers look better and all this stuff and in this game like Steelers come out it was like six yards a pop 40 success rate they had four runs of over 10 yards like they were moving people the way that you want it and I do think like sure Rodgers make honestly like Rodgers making two or three really nice throws, you having one schemed up really nice big explosive play whether it's a touchdown or not, whatever and then the run game being your engine because your offensive line can kick people's out, that's the formula.

57:06That's exactly what it should be. It's exactly what it should be

57:09Robert Mays: and so I think that's why even if the Bengals should win this game without two catastrophic special teams mistakes and the turnover at the end by Joe Burrow, the fact that the formula is actually closer to what it needs to be for this to be a real team, I think that's the encouraging part. The guy that, to me, I have to shout out, Fatanu made like five crazy blocks in this game. Like crazy blocks, either in space or reaching people has no business reaching or just blowing people off the ball on double teams. I really do. And that was, if you were going to have any sort of optimism about this team coming into the year, offensively, it was going to start with the offensive line.

57:52Robert Mays: And so for them to look as out of sorts as they did over the first couple weeks, it's like, man, if that's not even going to be something you can rely on, what is this offense going to look like? And so for them to look like that, Ahana Shore got his first start today. Like that's the group because of what they can do in the run game. And then the other, I mean, we haven't even mentioned his name, Jalen Warren. Incredible. Awesome. Baller. He looks awesome. I thought we were going to talk about the other big man, Darnell Washington. had like two insane plays in this game.

58:20Derrik Klassen: I got something for him. Although I like this point though, because it's worth bringing up. In a week-to-week league, Dexter Lawrence controlled an NFL football game all by himself a week ago. And you can hate on the Bengals linebackers. I thought Barrett Carter probably wants to forget today a little bit.

58:39Robert Mays: Well, that's what I was going to get to with the Darnell Washington point. Absolutely, absolutely. But in their defense,

58:44Derrik Klassen: like the way the Steelers were mauling the line of scrimmage. And like if Jalen Warren has a free runway to get up to the second level on a consistent basis, you're always going to have a bad day. That's a terrible world to live in when he's getting a free runway for the first three to five yards of a play. And it felt like the Steelers were doing that on a consistent basis. So if I'm encouraged by anything from this game, yeah, like I'd be excited to go back and rewatch the Steelers offensive line.

59:12Robert Mays: It was a lot of perimeter runs or runs that were hitting, if not like explicitly perimeter runs. And they had a couple where it was pin pull, it was tosses, but then multiple runs where it's hitting off tackle, where they got to kick out. The one that was called back is that exact sort of play. Fryermuth comes screaming across, kicks out Cassius Howell, that hits off tackle and it's a big chunk gain. And so that's the area that the Bengals in their run game are going to have to worry about. is that if you've got anything happening outside, that's where it's the edges, it's the linebackers, it's the DBs.

59:43Robert Mays: And the tackling overall was a problem for this team today. And that's what we can get into, I think. The Darnell Washington plays, I mean, the big one, obviously, Bear Carter misses a tackle, but a lot of the other Darnell Washington completions, where are the Bengals defensive players in the middle of the field? Like last year. I don't understand. And there were so many just simple, easy completions for the Steelers over the middle of the field in this game with absolutely no resistance. And I just don't understand how that's the game plan. I looked it up because I was curious. Between the hashes and in the seams in this game, 64.3 % success rate for the Steelers per next gen.

1:00:23Robert Mays: That is their best in a single game over the past two seasons. I was going to say, that's not what they do. Rodgers doesn't do that anymore. That's not what they do. And so some of that is the Roman Wilson completion on third and 11 where that's definitely not what they do. They're not attacking that area of the field very often. But so many of the completions in this game, it doesn't matter if it's not what you do. If Darnell Washington is walking off the line of scrimmage, catching a ball, turning around, catching a ball and running for six yards. And that was happening so often in this game.

1:00:52Robert Mays: And we did Is This Real on Wednesday with me and Barnwell. We were talking about the Bengals' defense. And my hesitation with the Bengals' defense was the middle of the field, spine of the defense, in pass defense is still a concern when you go back and you watch it. I didn't realize it was going to look like this. As somebody who was even relatively skeptical about it, this was a worst-case scenario in just what they were allowing consistently throughout this entire... It started on the first drive and never really stopped. Their inability to defend tight ends whatsoever is something that is going to need to change if this team is going to have any shot over the long run.

1:01:30And then even tackling the back end, I think one of the Warren runs, It's like Brian Cook, like way over runs the angle. And he's just completely what you thought he was supposed to be your fixer there. And like, he's been generally good, but this game was not his mess either.

1:01:41Derrik Klassen: He got banged up in this game too, I believe. So that's something to watch moving forward.

1:01:48Robert Mays: And before we move on, I think sitting with the idea that if you're a Bengal, if you're the Bengals, if you're Zach Taylor, you got to be sick losing that game. To lose that game, because Steelers defense has been the best defensive football over the first two weeks, the Bengals offense was excellent in this game. I mean, just in terms of how they were moving the ball. I mean, they played as well as you could hope to play, essentially, against this dealer's defense and still lost this game because of just a drive-swinging play on a roughing the kicker and then a muffed punt. It's just awful. I mean, to lose the game that way when your offense played like this against this dealer's defense, that's one that's going to sit in the pit of your stomach for a while.

1:02:31Derrik Klassen: I hate to do it to my boy, but don't leave the offense out of that completely because 48 seconds to play on a plus 38 with a timeout is exactly where you want to be to at least tie the game. If not, just steal it and rip the Steelers' hearts out. And Dalton Risner gave up an easy pressure to Derek Harmon.

1:02:52Robert Mays: There was two moments where the guards got their asses kicked and just got walked back into the quarterback. There was a third and one that Cam Hayward did it to Dylan Fairchild, I think on the drive before or two drives before to nuke the drive. And then there was the Derek Harmon sack to end the game.

1:03:08Derrik Klassen: And then like, obviously it's terrible if you take this sack, but like the Bengals picked up chunk yardage in this game at will. Like Joe could have thrown them out of here if he doesn't. If he doesn't put the ball in the ground. If he doesn't fumble the game away here. And so every single person had a hand in this, including Joe Burrow, which, which hurts. But, I mean, this is a tough one for Cincinnati. And having said all that about the offense, as high as Bengals fans were on their defense through the first two weeks, this had to be a pretty gross wake-up call.

1:03:40Robert Mays: Last one here. This was not in our original plan until the late game went a certain way because it looked like they were going to be out of it. The Las Vegas Raiders are 3-0. The Las Vegas Raiders with a big-time comeback win over the New Orleans Saints today. Their defense coming up with some huge turnovers in the second half. Las Vegas Raiders, the 3-0 Las Vegas Raiders. You guys have our attention.

1:04:06Derrik Klassen: I think it's important to say, too, because their game was winding down during the end of Cowboys-Ravens, which had the attention of the football universe. But yes, we did see this happening. And I, for one, was pretty impressed by it, like the way they just took this game over in the fourth quarter.

1:04:23Robert Mays: They were down 27-16. after fumbling the kickoff return and allowing a touchdown with six minutes left in the third quarter and came back and won this game because of all the turnovers they created on their end of it.

1:04:35Derrik Klassen: I'm not going to do this for that rock this week because I just used the Las Vegas Raider. Malcolm Kuntz. Yeah. Damn near swung this game on his own. And it's worth pointing out, Kelvin Banks gets hurt last week. I thought the Saints did a pretty admirable job of mitigating that for most of this game. and then Awesome Richards gives up the sack fumble that really swings this thing and puts the Raiders up. And then one play later, Koontz, it like took my breath away. First play of the drive after the Raiders take the lead, I think it was 29-27. Malcolm Koontz just puts his hand on Awesome Richards' collar and just walks him right back into Tyler Shuggs.

1:05:18Derrik Klassen: Just like, we are going to the quarterback whether you like it or not. And that's why that pick looked so goofy is Awesome Richards was just stepping right into Tyler Shook's throw. It's massively underthrown. Zeke Masses gets the pick and that kind of felt like all she wrote. And like in the span of like two and a half minutes, I was like, God damn, Malcolm Kuntz just turned this game on its ear.

1:05:38Robert Mays: And the Saints down to down moved the ball well in this game. Like this was not a dominant all the way through four quarters performance from the Raiders defense. but they're consistently doing enough interesting stuff, especially in high leverage moments where I'm impressed at what the plan looks like. Two of the other turnovers that ended up swinging this game, the chin sack that creates the sack fumble. It's really cool. If you go back and you watch the All-22 on that, the Raiders are in a pressure look before the play happens. At the snap, both of the DBs on the right side get depth off the line of scrimmage and the pick play that the Saints were trying to run doesn't work because they can't get the rub because the guys are playing at different depths.

1:06:24Robert Mays: And so there's no one to throw the ball to. Shin, the linebacker or the tight end that he was covering, it's a cover zero look where they have multiple droppers and so it does turn into man coverage. Shin is covering the tight end to the right side. He stays in the block. And so when Shuck doesn't have anywhere to go to the left side, he pulls it down and Shin just takes grass and gets the sack fumble. So that's a play where just one little thing right before the play happens gives Chuck nowhere to go with it. And then the pick he throws with, I think, eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, he thinks he's going to have a one-on-one with the left side because they're in a single high look before the play.

1:07:01Robert Mays: As the play happens, they shift into cover two as it's unfolding. He double-clutches it because Hezekiah Massas was sinking underneath the vertical route to Olave. and because he double clutched it, he gets hit as he's throwing that ball and Massas gets the interception. And so again, they don't have great players top to bottom. The Saints moved the ball pretty well in this game. But yet again, there are multiple moments over the course of this thing with the Raiders where I'm impressed at some of the stuff that Rob Wenard is doing and they're really feasting on turnovers because they're creating them.

1:07:35They feel like they can be explosive. And if you're going to keep enough games close, you really just need to make a couple of good plays. And I think that's kind of what I want to say on the other end. Like, I think offensively, they can keep a lot of games close. Like what they were doing with Brock Bowers in this game, which being that he hadn't played the first couple of games of the season, we weren't even sure what he was going to look like. The fact that he was just able to move around as much as he did, like Bill Barnwell had this from the first half. And I'm sure this mostly held for like the rest of the game.

1:08:03But he had 13 snaps out wide, 14 in the slot, four as an inline tight end and one in the backfield. they were targeting him one-on-one like outside as an X receiver a number of times against like Kool-Aid McKinstry. He was picking balls off the ground like when he had to, because it just based on where the throw was like Brock Bowers was sensational in this game. He is, we've done for so many years of like, Oh, this tight end, you can just play him at wide receiver. He actually can do that shit, man. And it's like kind of rare to see it in practice the way that he's able to do it. He's, I think that he is just phenomenal what he's able to do for them.

1:08:38Robert Mays: we were talking about this in real time how I think a lot of coaches in the league they want, it's not that they want to do it the hard way, it's that they want to do it what they see as the smart way, right? It's like we're going to take what the defense gives us you know, we're going to design the offense and go to the right read that's how we're going to play, the ball's going to go where it should go the last two years, Clint Kubiak's been like f*** that, I got a really really awesome dude and I'm gonna throw him the ball 15 times a game and I'm gonna see if you can stop it and I'm gonna take that approach yes it's like why would you not when you have a player like this like I just yeah the way and like obviously them scheming up stuff for Bowers in the red zone they had that little like slant flat rub where the nickel has to get over and he can't like obviously that's open by design but also Bowers just gets out of that break so fast that it makes just for such an easy throw for Kirk Cousins, which at this age, given his arm, you need as much room as you can get.

1:09:38And so the fact that Bowers is able to make that happen, I thought was great. I did want to give one Saints shout out for this. I feel like Devon Vele is kind of becoming what Juwan Jennings was for a long time. Like he just feels like automatic.

1:09:53Derrik Klassen: Yes, it is. He is becoming like a really good player for them. And obviously, Olave is the star in this offense and he's really good. But when they really need to play, when they need to attack the stakes, when they need to just throw one-on-one on the outside, he could do it, man. Like, Valey, I think, is playing really, really well for them right now. You want to take a guess at Devon Valey's measurements? Like 6 '4", 220. He's 6 '5", 210. Yes, sir. Which, actually, he's not quite as heavy as I would have guessed for Derek to have a crush on him, but it tracks.

1:10:24Robert Mays: As good a start as you could possibly ask for if you're a Raiders fan. And beyond, like, the 3-0, it's just looking like a put-together operation. Being fun to watch. Just being fun to watch. Just having... Just the plan on offense and just the fact that it all seems so put together. And again, the fact that the defense, even if there's not a ton of talent line in that thing, it's a lot of young guys. A lot of young guys I think you can get excited about. And N 'Kobe Dean is also somebody we should mention. N 'Kobe Dean's made a play in every single game for the Raiders. And so if you're a Raider fan, after going through what you went through last year and just having your team be unwatchable every single week and now getting to enjoy a team that, I don't know what it's going to look like over the course of the year.

1:11:09Robert Mays: I don't know if they're going to make the playoffs, even starting 3-0. Like, Kirk Cousins is playing well, but Kirk Cousins is still Kirk Cousins at this stage of his career. But just to watch a team that has a handful of exciting players and that you know is giving itself the best chance to win week in and week out has to be such a welcome experience. and I know it's going to be a welcome experience for us. Having another team, and we'll talk about another one of these later, the Jets and the Raiders could have been disasters this year offensively. And the fact that both of them are in a place where I'm going to be excited to open up the tape the next morning and see what the Raiders and Jets did, it's just a really, really great place to be considering how unwatchable those teams were last season.

1:11:52Derrik Klassen: Throw in the Cardinals who were just a pain in San Francisco's ass all day And that's three teams that were widely joked about as fighting for the number one pick who look like, and I'm not saying they're going to win a ton of games, but they look like buttoned up NFL operations right now.

1:12:08Robert Mays: The Cardinals are doing exactly what we hoped they might. Seriously. It's just like, look like a team that probably knows what it's doing, be decently entertaining, and just keep losing all of these games. Like that's exactly what the Cardinals, we'll talk about the Cardinals a little bit later, but of all those teams, like they're the one that I think is actually the closest to what we thought they might be coming into the year. All right, let's talk about a couple of teams that are not what we thought they might be coming into the year. It's time for what the fuck. What the fuck? The Tigers are now 0-3 and lost a game where the other team turned the ball over five times.

1:12:43Robert Mays: Don't really know what else to say about this team at this point. Everything about the 2026 Los Angeles Chargers. What the f***? Can I put a number on that? The five turnovers thing? Before today. Please do. Before today, the last 10 years of NFL football, teams were 4-64 when they turned the ball over at least five times. And none of those wins were by more than eight points. There was only one win that was eight points. That is exactly how much the Bills beat the Chargers by today. despite turning the ball over five times. So you have like a 93 % loss rate or whatever, and the Chargers ended up being on the other side of this.

1:13:23Like, it's the perfect way. This is a very Chargers loss regardless of how the season had been going, but given how this season has been going, it's an extremely, extremely Chargers loss.

1:13:33Derrik Klassen: We were on the same wavelength, Derek, so I'll pull out the other stat I found, that teams with a plus four turnover margin in a loss over the last decade, the Chargers today, the 2025 Cardinals, who went 3-14, and the Broncos did it in 2020. Did the Cardinals do it against the Titans? They did it against the Jags. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That game was weird. I also thought Titans for a second. Yeah. It's just not supposed to happen. It's really, it's a stat that encapsulates everything in a game like this. And you could kind of feel it immediately. Like, when Josh threw two picks and James Cook had the fumble on like the first play of the game.

1:14:14Robert Mays: He was out of sorts the entire game. He was double clutching. Like he was not seeing it cleanly the entire game. This was one of those games where the Bills have it every once in a while where they try to give it to you. The quarterback is not sharp. And to allow that to happen and to allow it to happen to maximum extent and still somehow lose the game is something that really is only reserved for this version of the Chargers and whatever they happen to be. Well, that's the funny thing, though,

1:14:40Derrik Klassen: because even like when the Bills were in full-on meltdown mode, because they turned the ball over like three of their first four possessions, it was 10-10 at halftime. Like they drove for the touchdown at half, and I was like, ah, shit, the Chargers squandered all of this. Like even if this isn't a good win for the Bills, they're not going to lose this game. And at halftime, I was like, the Chargers are just going to be living in some misery here in about an hour and a half.

1:15:07Robert Mays: And that's exactly what it felt like. I mean, it's exactly what it felt like. And again, everyone is culpable, right? I mean, there were some truly like hero plays in the pocket where like with some of the pocket movement from Herbert in the first half. And then you have him throwing a horrendous interception with the game still very much in the balance. I think that's one of the dumbest plays he's ever made in his entire life. It's just a horrendous choice. It makes no sense. There's like no conceivable reason for him to throw that ball in that moment. There's nothing moving the middle of the safety, the middle of the field safety anywhere but to that throw.

1:15:45Like there's nothing tying him down. Like he's going to sit and jump that route every time. Like it truly was, like he made some other plays in this game. He's made other plays for this team, I think over the first handful of weeks where like things should have gone his way. That particular interception, I was like, if he's doing that, they are not going to win this football game.

1:16:04Robert Mays: and then it's in the fourth quarter, it's third and 10, game is still in the balance and Quinton Johnson just has a heinous drop and then they have to go for it on fourth and 10 and part of the reason they had to go for it on fourth and 10 is that the game is only that close because twice in this game, when you are having the season that you're having, you cannot kick 21-yard field goals on fourth and three. That can't happen and so it's just everyone has a little bit of blame in this the same way that everyone's had a little bit of blame in this over the first two games the offense is incredibly sloppy the amount of drops and just consistent mistakes happening everywhere is fine it is just it continues to pile up the quarterback is making multiple big-time mistakes every single game and the coaching overall is just not putting this team in positions to win when the entire argument as to why Jim Harbaugh as your coach is that that's supposed to happen.

1:17:01Derrik Klassen: Can we actually, you mentioned the 21-yard field goal. Can we like walk through the process that got us to the 21-yard field goal? It's second and six from the plus 16. Aranda Gadsden gets called for an illegal block that backs him up. Joe All gets called for holding immediately after that, which backs him up. So now like you were on the plus 16 and you get backed up like 20 yards. They gain enough of it back and they get a defensive holding that goes to first and goal from the three. False start on a replacement tight end that backs you up to second and goal from the six. Unsuccessful bubble screen, which just whatever, like the Bills made a nice play.

1:17:42Derrik Klassen: Then Cole Strange false starts on third and goal from the six. So then it's third and goal from the 11. You throw the check down near the sticks and then decide not to go for it and just kick from the three yard line. The offensive line got six of the Chargers' seven flags in this game again.

1:18:04Robert Mays: I don't really have anything to say. We don't think we have to spend much more time on this team. It was a frustrating loss just because, again, when you win the turnover margin to this degree and still lose, it's worth mentioning, but I don't really think we have to sit in this. Why should we keep talking about this team?

1:18:24Derrik Klassen: One other thing that pissed me off, just because I took the time to chart it and write it down. I mean, they went one of four in the red zone today, and the Bills went three of four. Again, that's how bad teams lose football games. They had third and five from the plus 15, and they just, they outside zoned to Keaton Mitchell, like a perfectly acceptable play call if you're deciding to go for it anyway, and it picked up two yards, and then they kicked the field goal. That was the other fourth and three kept field goal. They had two of them in this game. To call that run not knowing for sure that you're going to go for it, and I'm sure they would probably say, well, if it had gotten another yard, we would have gone for it.

1:19:01Derrik Klassen: Screw you. Don't call that play then. Why are we running outside zone on third and five unless going for it on fourth down is absolutely the game plan? I thought that was mystifying, as was most of this entire game for the Chargers. So we can be done now if you want to be.

1:19:19Robert Mays: Congratulations to the Buffalo Bills for winning a game that they consistently, like any team would lose, but the Bills seem to have a couple of these every single year. And so to get away with a win in this one, I think speaks to the current state of the Los Angeles Chargers. All right, before we move on, let's take one more quick break. When you're running a growing business, the right systems can unlock your full sales potential and make fulfilling every order effortless. Switch to ShipStation before peak season so you're prepped and ready before the rush hits. ShipStation connects Shopify, Amazon, TikTok Shop, and over 200 more marketplaces

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1:21:12Robert Mays: Our next one here. The Seahawks lost to the Commanders today. in a game that was way more exciting than it had any right to be. Seattle Seahawks, after looking like an absolute machine over the first two weeks, playing against a team with its backup quarterback. What the f***? You know what's funny? I thought they looked kind of good for a lot of this game. I did not come away thinking like, oh man, there's some sort of flaw with the Seahawks or like, oh God, what's wrong with them? I was like, I don't know, man. Sam Darnold's ass was broken

1:21:44Derrik Klassen: and he was kind of dealing for a lot of this game. I really appreciate that you said this because when I went back and looked at everything and did the stats and broke it all down, I was like, I think this was just a goofy game and the Seahawks shouldn't burn the tape. Yeah, it was a goofy game. I refuse to take anything meaningful from this. I just think a lot of weird shit happened to the Seahawks on a day where they were kind of banged up. Sam Darnold was coming back from injury and I just, I don't know. I'm not going to draw any weird, like firm conclusions from this. I just think the Seahawks had a really weird day at the office.

1:22:17Derrik Klassen: That last interception is a backbreaker.

1:22:19Robert Mays: Like that's a play that just can't happen.

1:22:21Derrik Klassen: That was a bad throw or bad decision.

1:22:23Robert Mays: That's a play that just can't happen. And I think that's one where, you know, I, you want to say like, we've just learned to live with that with Sam at quarterback and you live with the highs and every once in a while that stuff is going to happen. But in a game where it's close in the fourth quarter, that's the type of stuff that can't happen. Like that's one where I do think that we can sit with that being a bad moment. Other than that, I don't disagree. Like the first interception is a tipped ball that gets picked off. The Jadarian Price fumble happens at one point in this game. And I'll say this, what I do want to talk about is I think Washington deserves a ton of credit.

1:23:01Robert Mays: Of course.

1:23:01Derrik Klassen: Oh, I agree with that.

1:23:02Robert Mays: How their offense played. Like, well, again, down to down, it's not like Washington was moving the ball at will in this game. They finished with a 35 % success rate offensively. But there are a couple things that stuck with me just in re-watching that game and just trying to parse exactly how Washington did this. First thing, Terry McLaurin was insane. Unbelievable game. An unbelievable Terry McLaurin game. The touchdown is a crazy play. Like adjusting to that ball on a back shoulder throw that 30 yards down the field, coming back to make that play is crazy. But what I was really impressed with is he does that.

1:23:45Robert Mays: But the first play that I wrote down from Terry McCorn on the opening touchdown drive, he cleans out A.J. Finley digging him out on a run play that goes for nine yards. And that's the other thing that really jumped out to me about this performance from Washington. You have no Jaden Daniels. You are 0-2. It would be so easy to just completely roll over in this moment going and playing against the Seahawks. And from the first moment, it was clear that was not going to happen. Your$30 million receiver is digging out of safety on the first drive of the game before he goes on to make like three or four insane plays.

1:24:23Robert Mays: And so that was part of it. McLaurin just overall, ridiculous. The other side is, even if it wasn't, again, super consistent down-to-down, there are two things you need to do to beat the Seahawks' defense. The first is you need to make some tight window throws that you shouldn't have any business making. Mariota is like a decade into his career and doesn't give a shit anymore. Like he will let those things go. And the Trayvon Burks touchdown is a perfect example of that. Like he's throwing that thing come hell or high water and you do need to do that when you're playing against Seattle. And so that throw in that moment, like that needs to happen.

1:24:59Robert Mays: You need to be whizzing the ball past guys ear holes to beat this defense. And the other part, you need to be patient. you need to take stuff underneath. If they're going to sit there and let you throw five-yard hookup routes to Stefan Diggs, you need to do that over and over and over again because of the depth they play with in zone coverage. And he did a little bit of all of that in this game. And so again, it's a weird game for Seattle, but Washington deserves some credit for how they were able to consistently chip away at this thing. Mariota's solid, man. He is playing legitimately really nice football the last couple of years.

1:25:32And the throw there to Burks, that's also it's not even just like that's how you have to attack this defense that's their backup safety that is the guy you should be attacking and really trying to throw the ball against and honestly I thought I think their first touchdown was maybe one of my favorites I thought it was a really heady play by Rashad White so he's on the shallow coming from the left to the right but he sees Mariota Bale back out to the left hand side away from pressure and he just like whips his head around back around the linebacker he's on and just finds a little soft spot in the zone and just like to have that awareness to quickly snap into a spot where the quarterback was going to be able to go make a play for him I thought was impressive and I think that's the other thing I want to say like a lot of the new pieces that you would have wanted made a play like Rashad White had that play I thought of Meek Robertson even though he gave up the one touchdown to JSN like it was perfect coverage on that play and he also had a number of really impressive reps I thought in this game Sonny Stiles had a number of impressive plays like the interception is kind of just like right place right time but in the two minute, he runs with Jadarian Price on a wheel wrap and breaks it up.

1:26:38And I was like, oh, buddy, if we're going to be able to do that. And we knew that we could, he could based off his athleticism, but to finally see it in practice in an NFL game, it was like, all right, man, we're starting to cook what this could be.

1:26:50Robert Mays: He had another play where I think it was on, it might've been the play where Jadarian Price fumbled, he gets to that ball on a run through from the back side. Like the sheer amount of ground that dude can cover. I'm really excited to watch him over the course of this season and moving forward. Like he just moves in a way that off the linebackers do not move. And that pass breakup is a perfect example why. And it's again, it's a burn the tape sort of game from Seattle and them losing this thing. I do think that it's an example that at a certain point, it doesn't matter how much magic you have if you're Mike McDonald.

1:27:29Robert Mays: When you're on safety number four or whatever it is, with now Julian Love also hurt, you're going to feel that over the course of a game, even against an offense that's been struggling, even against the backup quarterback.

1:27:40Derrik Klassen: I get there. You could look at this one of two ways. They played this game last year around this time. It's probably like week five or six with the Tampa game. And Julian Love didn't play in that game either. Yeah, it's a great point. Their backup DBs got picked on. They are not infallible, even though they started to feel that way by the time they won the Super Bowl. And you could say, all right, well, Julian Love, Tai Okada, get Nick and Manwari healthier, like, and we'll be fine. And that's true, but this is a 100 % chance of injury sport. And I mean, hopefully you don't have to figure out how to live this way over a prolonged period of time.

1:28:16Derrik Klassen: I'm not going to be concerned about the Seahawks right now, but it is, it's not fun to gaze into, like imagine a future of what the Seahawks defense could look like if it does unfortunately deal with injuries like this. But for a one-off, I'm not going to worry about it right now. This was the second best defensive rushing success rate of the Mike McDonald era. And the irony is, and again, that's where I come back to with just like burn the tape. They allowed like six successful runs on Sunday. And one of them, and the only explosive they allowed was the game clincher, like the third and nine.

1:28:53Derrik Klassen: You know, they sent seven because they were expecting pass because they had enough timeouts to where they thought Washington would want to throw because they had been pretty aggressive. And they just leaked out the side and ran for like 19 yards. That was their only explosive run allowed was when they sold out to stop the pass at the end of the game. And so I just think it was a shitty day at work for the Seahawks. I'm not super worried about it. even though I do admire the job the commanders did.

1:29:17Robert Mays: There were a couple of those moments and there was a really nice successful run on like a second and nine when Seattle was in like a pressure look thinking they would get past and the commanders caught them in it. So that's just play calling stuff that I think David Blount deserves some credit for. The last guy I wanted to mention before we move on, on the Rashad White touchdown, and I'm only saying this because he had some really nice moments against Quinton Williams last week too. Chris Paul clamps down Leonard Williams on that Rashad White touchdown run. And so as a guy that spot started last year, didn't get paid a lot of money in free agency, he's had a couple of really impressive moments in pass protection over the first three weeks.

1:29:56Robert Mays: And he had another one today on, again, a crucial play for Washington. Last one here, the Houston Texans, after falling to the Colts 1917, are 0-3 for the second year in a row. and I find myself maybe a little bit more worried about this group being 0-3 than even that group last year. The Houston Texans, a team that is currently sitting at our contender table here, is 0-3 three weeks into the season. What the f***? It feels like foreshadowing. It is a little bit. I'm definitely more worried than last year because honestly, some of the offensive stuff, again, I can live with. I don't like how bad the offensive line has looked.

1:30:38Obviously, we can talk about that. Rutledge got picked on, I think, a number of times in this game, which you don't really want to see. The pass-catching stuff. Yeah, both guards. Because, yeah, they're on a backup there, too. The pass-catching stuff is like, yeah, they're down Nico Collins and Jaden Higgins. That sucks. That is what it is. I think when Nico comes back, that's going to look a little bit better. My issue is that the defense... I think this was the most frustrating game that they had to me. Because the first two weeks, their success rates were pretty good. but you run into Josh Allen doing some of the stuff that he can do and then Jamar Chase just being an absolute superhuman.

1:31:12Sometimes that's going to happen. This was a game where I actually thought schematically they got picked apart. Like the Colts were able to find a lot of the stuff that they wanted over the middle of the field against Houston's like spot drop zone stuff. That's really all that they played. When they tried to get into some of their like double mug pressure looks and stuff like that, I thought Jones was able to pick them apart and kind of find all the spots and throws that he wanted for the most part. and there was one play in particular. It was early on in the second quarter. It was a second nine high red zone and they run this like zone cover zero where Reed Blankenship is at like 12 yards or whatever sitting over the slot.

1:31:46He's trying not to show that everybody's going to actually go. And he should know if we're pressuring like that, slant might be coming as like a quick sight adjustment or maybe they've just got that called because of what you have there. And he is so slow driving on it that it allows the receiver, I think it was Josh Downs, They catch it, spin out of it, and almost go score a touchdown. That kind of play to me is like, we have to be faster on this shit if we're going to be the defense that is bigger, faster, and stronger than you. I think the fact that they had that moment and a couple of moments like that in this game, that's where I start to get a little bit of concern.

1:32:20You still get the sacks, the strip sacks, a couple of nice plays, but down to down, this game was the most frustrating that they've played, I thought.

1:32:26Robert Mays: That area of the field specifically, that was a no-go when you play against this team over the last couple of years. Like when you watch those safeties come downhill, you were going to try to access middle of the field throws against this team at your own peril. And that's just not what it felt like today. Like the Colts were able to really attack that area consistently. I think some of that is you're down to backup linebackers, right? Like Jake Hansen's playing 71 snaps in this game. I think you see that. But I think Blanketship's had some rough moments over the first couple of weeks. and so just the spine of this defense overall against the pass it just doesn't feel as good as it did over the last couple seasons when again like it was a hornet's nest in there like you just wouldn't even try to throw the ball in there and so for the Colts to be building their passing game around attacking that area it just doesn't feel like this unit has quite the same teeth as it did over the first couple years for over the last couple years I think like to Derek's point It was easy to explain that away over the first couple weeks because explosives are really what was doing them in.

1:33:29Robert Mays: Today, it wasn't just explosives. It was the Colts passing game having the upper hand way too many times over the course of this thing.

1:33:36Derrik Klassen: I think y 'all are living in the reality that the Texans are in right now. And so you have a point. But I can't get past the idea that we're harping on the Texans' defense in a game where they held the opposition to 19 points on the road, forced to take away, sacked Daniel Jones four times, completely shut down one of the most ruthless running games in the NFL. And to sit here and pick apart the Texans defense, admittedly, they did not play up to the very lofty standards that they have set. But to be harping on them for why the Texans are 0-3 when the offense put that out there. And I know I won't speak for y 'all.

1:34:16Derrik Klassen: I went into this game saying, well, it's the Colts. The Colts defense has been so bad. You need to look good against the Colts defense. You needed to look better than this. They were atrocious. They didn't, like, I got to give the Colts way more credit for, or give the Texans way, way less credit than I did because clearly the minimal gains they made against the Bills in week one was complete fool's gold. Like, to have a 38 % rushing success rate in this game. Absolutely.

1:34:45Robert Mays: And that was even not indicative of how they ran the ball in this game. That was a couple CJ Stroud runs. David Montgomery had two successful runs on 11 carries per next gen.

1:34:55Derrik Klassen: They had no explosive runs, and they had six runs of five-plus yards that's bottom three in the NFL for week three. It's bad. It's untenable. And, Derek, I think you're right that getting Nico Collins back could fix a lot of this shit because they ran into an eight-man box on 62 % of their attempts this week, which is a top-five number. But I can't completely trust Nico Collins' availability at this point. It doesn't even matter.

1:35:20Robert Mays: Getting Nico Collins back is not, it would help some of that. It would loosen things up a little bit in terms of what defenses could do to you. It's not solving all of these issues. These issues start out front, period. That's what's happening. They absolutely start up front. I'm actually glad you kind of have framed it this way, Dave. I want to be clear too, the reason they're 0-3 is the offense's fault. I don't think it's the defense's fault. I just think that if the defense felt like the defense last year, I could live with it or cope myself out of it, they don't quite feel like that. They could dig balls back out of the same hole they did last year.

1:35:54Robert Mays: That's the point that I was trying to make, is that that's why this feels different. Last year, they're sitting at 0-4. You can win any single game because of how the defense is playing. If the defense isn't going to play to that level, then it's going to be a lot harder to dig yourself out of this. And the offense is culpable here. The offense's inability to run the ball, and the fact that the offensive line doesn't look any better than it did a year ago is just a devastating place to have landed. And that is where we have landed.

1:36:24Derrik Klassen: I think y 'all, very respectfully, because I do this more than any of the three of us, I think y 'all might be being prisoners of the moment a little bit right now, though, because last year, these were the scores of their games the first three weeks of the season. They lost 14-9 to the Rams in, like, one of my favorite defensive games in recent memory. 2019 to the Bucs, 17-10 to the Jags, where like the offense was just doing nothing for them. And like these were low scoring games. I know the Bills game wasn't low scoring, but they turned it on as the season went on. And so I think in an era where like training camp is as...

1:37:01Robert Mays: That's year one. That's year one. This is year two.

1:37:06Derrik Klassen: It's supposed to look better than this. Playing your way into form with new pieces on defense, particularly a new piece of safety, and you're dealing with injuries at linebacker. I think it's understandable if the defense is merely holding the opponent to 19 points and looking merely good instead of like frightening. Like the Texans could look frightening in December and that wouldn't surprise me at all. Will it matter if the offense doesn't start doing anything? I think like that's the bigger issue for me. Even though I agree with you though that the defense, it hasn't lived up to the expectation.

1:37:41Derrik Klassen: Absolutely, that's completely fair. but is it fair to expect them to be that right out of the gate every week? Yes.

1:37:51Robert Mays: I thought this had a chance to be like a once every several years sort of defense that was just dismantling teams week in and week out and that has not happened. I do think Dave makes a decent point. Like if you just look, I looked it up right now, like their EPA and success rate from the first three weeks of last season is like not that different from where they're at now but I just think that like this game in particular, watching how they got picked apart by the Colts passing offense, a passing offense that I think is like pretty limited in what it can do right now. And I know that they have the best player in the league, but yes, in Josh.

1:38:26Yes, he had a pretty good game. But like, I, I just do not watching it happen that way just felt a little bit ickier to me than I can ever remember it really feeling. And again, this is still going to be a really good Texans defense. But if they are the eighth best defense, or even like the sixth, instead of absolutely nuking everybody that they played over the course of last year for the most part, that I do think is going to be a little bit concerning. And I do think they will get better. Like Blankenship will probably look better in this defense. They will get healthier or, you know, the linebackers should look better at a certain point.

1:39:00But I don't know. It just doesn't feel quite as sturdy as I wanted it to.

1:39:04Derrik Klassen: I think y 'all are 100 % right. And you're, I mean, we set lofty expectations for this unit heading into the season. I'm not trying to back away from that. I do kind of hate the idea that they've given up 23 points in the last two weeks. And I mean, they didn't even have a shot in the Bengals game. And then they lose this game. And like, we knew going in that this was going to have to be a defense first team. But they're getting no help the last couple weeks. And it sucks. And it sucks that they're back in this hole. And if I was a Texans fan, I would be clinging to the fact that they've done it before as to why the season's not over right now.

1:39:40Derrik Klassen: That's why I don't.

1:39:41Robert Mays: That's what's worrying to me. is that you needed to be a truly dominant, dominant defense to climb out of that hole. And I just don't know if they look like that right now because of the way the offense looks. You need the defense to be next level exceptional for you to dig out of this hole because of how the offense looks. And that's just not what's happening right now. I want to say, we joked about it. Josh Downs had some ridiculous moments in this game. Josh Downs is a really cool player. And they're having to build a lot of the passing game out of Josh Downs right now considering the current state of the Colts offense.

1:40:12Robert Mays: and they were able to do that in this game. So it's credit to him because he had a few really, really nice moments. And I thought that they really deployed him in a cool way. Like some of the stuff they did with him in motion and just getting him on some of these explosives. Like, again, I thought that the Texans, that the Colts on that side of the ball had the upper hand in this game in ways that you just aren't used to seeing with the Texans defense. And that's where I land with it. I'm with Derek.

1:40:39Derrik Klassen: Even though it was limited, It's not like the Colts had this explosive day. The Colts felt like they were dictating things to the Texans on a pretty regular basis, which is a disconcerting place for Houston to be.

1:40:52Robert Mays: All right. So, with that in mind, the Texans are sitting at 0-3. Patriots got dismantled by the Jaguars today. Both of those teams are currently at the table. I don't think either of them should be.

1:41:07Derrik Klassen: Patriots are definitely not. I'm offended that the Patriots are at the table. I want them out of there. The Texans, it's mainly math for me. I mean, seven teams in history have made the playoffs after 0-3.

1:41:20Robert Mays: Especially now where we can put teams back on. Right now, if you can put teams back on, the Texans absolutely should not be at the table. We shouldn't be hesitant to do this when you're sitting there at 0-3 just because they did it last year. And again, we just went over all the reasons that I don't think they're quite as capable of pulling out of it as they were last year.

1:41:38Derrik Klassen: And if they do, we can put them back. Yes. Even if I'm not as down on the Texans as y 'all are, but 0-3 is 0-3. And knowing that we can put them back later, I have no problem getting them out of there. The Patriots, I'm just like, we look silly having a team that's played this way through the first three weeks at the table. I'm ready to do something about that.

1:41:58Robert Mays: So we're taking them both off. I think the two worthwhile replacements are the team that just kicked the shit out of the Patriots today. That is the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have looked really, really good for most of the first three weeks. And the other team that deserves to be on here, very similar to the Rams last year, where one of the reasons we didn't have them on here was injury concerns. What are they going to look like coming into the year because of how rickety this thing feels? The Niners offense has been insane over the first three weeks and was insane again today. I mean, just what they're able to do throwing the football right now and how well the quarterback is playing and just how well-oiled of a machine the San Francisco offense feels like.

1:42:39Robert Mays: I think both of those teams deserve to be at the table. Do you guys agree? A hundred percent. I mean, Jacksonville, you know, I don't want to speak for both of you, but like might've been the closest to knocking on the door before the season started. Like they were, I think Jacksonville and the Niners were probably the two teams. And so the fact that maybe that's what it is too, like they were the ones that were right there. So we only needed a few games of confirmation to be like, oh yeah, maybe they just should have been the teams that we're in. So I'm totally on board with both of these.

1:43:04Derrik Klassen: All right. So I'm weighing on the Jags. So let's just, we'll have that be unanimous, but I'm not done here. So the Jags can have a seat at the table. I'm with you about the Niners, and they look like a wagon. They're currently dealing with the thing that scared us in the preseason. Mike Evans left this game against Arizona. They're calling it a rib strain. We'll see what the prognosis is there. Trent Williams left this game too. And I know Stinger. The Amador Lenore came back, but he also got hurt. Joey Bosa got hurt this week. Right as I was just donning my Sourdough Sam outfit in the studio this afternoon and just getting ready to love on the Niners, all of that existential dread came rushing back where I was like, wait, this is an old hurt team.

1:43:53Derrik Klassen: And they get old and hurt sometimes. I don't care. You said Stinger very dismissively. You said Stinger very dismissively as if it can't be like a chronic, very painful thing that happens to guys.

1:44:06Robert Mays: I don't care. Like, I don't, we did this before the season and they have been by far unquestionably the best offense in the league through the first three weeks. Like, we can hem and haw and go back and forth and be like, oh man, they're all banged up. Who cares?

1:44:22Derrik Klassen: When you go to look through the advanced stats, like Trevor, you're like, oh, Trevor's having this crazy start to the season. How do his numbers stack up? And like every single time you do that, it all, like everything starts behind Purdy. Like Purdy's leading like every category.

1:44:37Robert Mays: He's had the two best efficiency games of any quarterback in the league over the last two weeks. Like this is not a, I don't even think this is a discussion. Even if you have concerns about them, if your offense is playing at this level, even if you're having to piece some of the rest of it together, it doesn't matter. Like we can talk about it in week 12 based on where they're at. right now, based on the way the first three weeks have gone, if you have a table and a list of 10 contending teams, the Niners unequivocally should be on there. I think that's my thing. I don't think if we have an empty seat, because I think this table thing is honestly more about removing some of those teams than not.

1:45:14I don't think an empty seat necessarily has to be filled immediately, but if you have the best offense in football, you have a coach I've seen make it to the Super Bowl multiple times before with this quarterback, with a lot of these pieces, I'm willing to just be like, yeah, you'll do it. It is funny, though.

1:45:26Robert Mays: Why are the Cowboys here if the Niners are not here? Right. Yeah, exactly. I think that that is completely fair. Also, the other thing.

1:45:32Derrik Klassen: I didn't want the Cowboys there in the first place. I still want them there. I believe that they are. I feel better about them being there right now than I did a week ago. So that's okay. I don't want to do, which is funny. I will say, to Dave's point, the defense right now is worse than they were at the start of last season. They're decimated.

1:45:48Robert Mays: They have no linemen. Well, I know. But that was the f***ing problem last year. the offense the offense is no the offense is better than it was last year i do think it's well they are better i would like to see how that holds up over the course of the season of course like what it looks like relative to i do think though like cmc looks healthy caleb black has obviously been good for them george kittle looks like way healthier and better than i thought he was going nothing ever happens is a wagon but i do think that like dave is not wrong that this is probably not that different than what it actually was last year.

1:46:24Derrik Klassen: You know how, you love fantasy football. You know how, and I don't mean to make light of players' injuries. I know these are real people dealing with real pain. But you know how in fantasy football, when you just have to keep an eye on a guy's injury status every freaking week, it just starts to wear on you. You're just like, oh my God. I keep having, am I going to have to sit him? Am I going to have to start him? That's how I feel about the Niners.

1:46:47Robert Mays: Yeah, but if your fantasy football team is scoring 135 points a week, you cease to care.

1:46:52Derrik Klassen: Well, you cease to care on Sunday, but during the week, you're still doing all of the same juggling and preparations and stressing out about it.

1:47:02Robert Mays: So let's do that. Let's do that from Monday to Saturday, and we'll watch the Niners have a 65 % offensive success rate every single week, and we'll be like, good. I'm glad they're at the table. They should be.

1:47:12Derrik Klassen: Do you know who the Niners play next week? No. Denver. Great. I can't wait. All right. You're very convicted, Derek. I'll go along. I'm at 100 % yes, to be clear. I just don't think that your small modicum of pushback was that crazy.

1:47:29Robert Mays: It's not crazy. I completely understand where he's coming from, but we'll deal with those problems when we get there. The idea that the Niners' defensive injuries and deficiencies might be enough to keep them from winning the Super Bowl is a completely rational thing to say. But if we're going to have 10 teams that sit here, an offense that has looked the way the offense looked for the Niners for the first three weeks has to have one of those spots.

1:47:53Derrik Klassen: You said defensive injuries as if two of the biggest pieces of their offense did like they didn't finish this game. And they won by six points. Like it's not like this was a blowout where they just sat these guys. I'm choosing to believe that Trent Williams is going to be fine. I'm sure he will be because he's Trent Williams, but it scares the shit out of me. I just wanted to say that. I want to make one more compelling case. And again, I do think that they should be on here. Who would even be next? That's no one. The Bengals may float. Maybe the Bengals. Maybe the Bengals. My only... They're the only other team that's even in the stratosphere, it feels like.

1:48:31Derrik Klassen: My suggestion would have been to leave an open spot for a week. And if the Niners beat the Broncos, that's a hell of a statement to go at the table.

1:48:40Robert Mays: But I just... I don't think that... If there were teams that were like...

1:48:44Derrik Klassen: If they lose to the Broncos, I probably won't care.

1:48:45Robert Mays: If there were teams where it was like, oh, we need to see more. If we were making a point, if we were parents trying to teach our kids a lesson by leaving an open spot at the table, that's fine. The Niners don't deserve that sort of treatment after the last three weeks. The Niners don't deserve to be made an example of considering how well they've played offensively. Like, let's do this. The Niners should be at the table. I'm in. All right. Quick note before we get to what was romantic about week three. Three hangover games for tomorrow. Three games we did not hit today. We're going to dig into in-depth tomorrow.

1:49:16Robert Mays: The Vikings win over the Bucs. Baker Mayfield injury, obviously something to monitor for an 0-3 Bucs team that feels like it's unraveling. We'll hit that game tomorrow on the hangover. Giants, Titans, and Browns, Panthers. Those are going to be the three games we dig into in-depth on the hangover tomorrow. Just wanted to get that out there. Let's talk about what made us feel romantic about football in week three. I mean, this thing was a thing of beauty. The game we wanted to sit with was Jets-Lions. Because Jets-Lions, I think, really did encapsulate what today felt like. Where every single game that was on, seemingly over both sets, was must-see TV.

1:49:55Robert Mays: And the Jets-Lions game was absolutely that. Starting at the six-minute mark in the second quarter of this game, It was nothing but fireworks back and forth from both of these teams. I can't remember what play made me think that, but it was at six minutes left in the second quarter. I think it might have been, oh, I know exactly what it was. Six minutes left in the second quarter, I believe, is when Gino throws the corner route to Jelani Woods that Gino throws. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Gino throws a nasty corner route to Jelani Woods, comes back, finishes that drive off with just an absolute missile shot up the seam to Kenyon Sadiq.

1:50:40Robert Mays: And as soon as that happens, we are on. On both sides of this thing, the back and forth from that moment is just wild. Five different guys had plays of the day that in any other week of football might have been the coolest play of the entire day. The first Gibbs touchdown that he scores, that's like a Barry Sanders play. Like him cutting that back and taking it all the way to the house. Drew Brees said that on the broadcast. He did? I was trying to like, who reminds me, like what does that remind me of? It felt like watching Barry Sanders on that touchdown. Garrett Wilson had three like insane plays in this game.

1:51:21Robert Mays: The catch he has over the middle of the field, I think in the third quarter with like nine minutes left, him going up full extension and catching that ball is absolutely ridiculous. that Jamison Williams' hole shot on the left sideline that he goes up and gets would be the best catch in any other game in almost any other week. And then Garrett Wilson follows it up again on that fourth and sixth touchdown where he gets the PI and somehow comes down with that ball. And then Geno throws another just rocket on the two-point to tie it. Just insane. Like the amount of back and forth. or we say haymakers in the Dallas Ravens game, the amount of haymakers offensively from both of these teams in this game, what an absolute thrill this thing was.

1:52:10I just feel like you got both teams hitting, had some moment of all of the stuff that you wanted the team to be, like you got it. Obviously, some of the plays that Gibbs made, I thought were really impressive. I thought the Lions offensive line, for the most part, was winning a lot of their one-on-ones in pass protection and in the run game down the stretch. but early in the game you actually saw Aaron Glenn scheme up a number of really impressive sacks and pressures where they were able to scheme open guys. He had one where Goff literally completely 180'd in the pocket. He was like, oh shit, Demario Davis is about to kill me.

1:52:43So you had those plays. And then on offense for the Jets, the fact that Geno is sticking and ripping again where he is just on his spot, goddammit, I'm going to make this throw, it's incredibly fun to watch because it makes this offense work again. I don't know how good they're going to be every week. I don't know how good they're going to be when they're playing teams that are not the banged up line secondary. But the fact that you get to see, oh yeah, Garrett Wilson is incredibly talented. Oh yeah, they spent a first round pick on a tight end who Sadiq had the seam shot, but he also had, there was another really impressive play.

1:53:14They threw like a little sticker out to him and it's like way outside of his body and he just plucks it from the air like so easily. And so you get those plays like Brees Hall, they were checking it down to him a number of times. He had some impressive plays. all the young players in the offense finally have someone to facilitate it. And I actually still think the defense had their moments in this game for the Jets, even despite the Lion-Seal players also having some insane moments on the other end. All around, it was just an awesome game.

1:53:40Robert Mays: And when the Lions were... The Lions, I think, were down 7-3 at one point. It was 4-3. It was 7-3 late in the first quarter. The throw that Goff pins on Tesla on 4th and 2. Him putting that ball low and away is just such an incredible throw in tight circumstances. And then he comes back. The throw on that de facto fade ball one-on-one to Amon Ross St. Brown, the touch necessary to get that ball up and over on that play. You mentioned it, Derek. We're talking about Parker Washington. What the golf Amon Ross St. Brown connection looks like in the condensed area of the field when they have to be precise, there's like really nothing else like it in the league.

1:54:28Robert Mays: Like their ability to fit balls into just the tightest of windows all the time in that area of the field is truly unlike any quarterback receiver pairing in the entire NFL. And that play was a phenomenal example of it.

1:54:41Derrik Klassen: I was mad at myself re-watching this game halfway through for not being more excited about it going in. Because we talked about it as like the Aaron Glenn reunion and that's an interesting component of it. Personally, I didn't feel that juiced up for it in the noon window with everything else going on. And then I was rewatching it and I was like, oh shit, we've seen this before. It's actually almost to the day because it was September 30th. Derek and I were in Detroit. 2024. Oh my God, yes. What a beautiful one. It's the two-year anniversary of Lions-Seahawks when Gino was still in Seattle. one of every nerd's favorite football games.

1:55:21Derrik Klassen: And I was just like, how did I not see this coming? And why can't Geno Smith and Jared Goff play at Ford Field like once a year? Because incredible shit happens. I actually was curious. It wasn't quite as crazy, but remember in that game in 2024, Goff went 18 of 18. Goff was 10 of 10 for like 120 something in the second half of this game. Before the Seahawks figured it out on defense. And Geno was just incredible. I think the Sterling Shepard two-point conversion was my favorite throw, followed closely by the fourth and two to Isaac Tesla because they were both similar ideas of like, I'm just going to fire this right past your face before you can do anything about it.

1:56:03Derrik Klassen: And I bet it's going to work. And just ethical hoops, man. Just two guys standing back there, playing iso ball, dealing the ball all over the yard. It's a shame it was buried in the noon window because it was a phenomenal game. I don't know how many people actually got to see the whole thing, but it was fantastic.

1:56:21Robert Mays: Tough if you're a Jets fan, the fact that you go down, tie that thing up, and then you drop a coverage and Tesla is just wide open and leaves the door open for the Lions to win the game. But even if it's a frustrating end, similar to what we said about the Raiders, if you're a Jets fan after enduring what that team looked like last year, Getting to watch stuff like this every single week for the rest of the season, it's a welcome change because this team has been entertaining. It's been fun. The quarterback when he's able to... The quarterback when he's playing like this, even if, again, the quality of it over the season, who knows what it's going to look like, it is entertaining.

1:56:58Robert Mays: And so to watch them play this way over the course of this game, again, what a fantastic entry into what was an amazing day of NFL football. All right. That is all we've got for the week three recap. We will be back here tomorrow chatting Bears-Eagles. Please be on the lookout for that for now. That's all we got. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon.

1:58:05We'll be right back.