Week 4 preview: Eagles-Buccaneers, Colts-Rams, and a Game of the Week that wasn't

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2:00Robert Mays: Welcome to The Athletic Football Show. I'm Robert Mays. Week four preview for you guys today. A couple of really fun games on the slate. We had two games of the week. Eagles, Bucks, Colts, Rams. A lot to dig into with those. The Eagles and the Bucs has become a mainstay game in the NFL at this point. Teams know each other very well. And the Colts and the Rams might not know each other quite as well, but very interested to see what that Colts team can do against the Los Angeles Rams this week. Had a bizarro game of the week. Chiefs and the Ravens probably should be, but who's excited about that?

2:29Robert Mays: Trying to figure out which team is worse between the Chiefs and the Ravens four weeks into the season is not a place I anticipated being, but here we are. Hit one thing from a couple other fun matches in the week. Jags, Niners, Browns, Lions, and Jackson Darts first start against the Chargers. And then a few more odds and ends from week four with me, Dave Hellman, and Derek Klassen. Let's get to that conversation right now.

2:55Robert Mays: It's the week four preview here on the Athletic Football Show. Some great ones on the slate this week. We have two games of the week to kick us off today. Let's start with the games of the week presented by BetMGM, the Los Angeles Rams against the Indianapolis Colts. The Rams are three and a half point favorites in this game. Dave, it's always fun when you get about a month into the year and there's a game of the week that you never anticipated being the game of the week heading into it. But the Colts are three and oh, the Rams, I think, even after losing to the Eagles last week, we feel look like one of the best teams in the NFL.

3:29Robert Mays: A lot more intrigue from this one than we might have expected a month ago.

3:33Derrik Klassen: I mean, the whole first month of the season, like with all due respect to the Colts and their fans, I just never imagined we would be talking as much about them as we have through the first few weeks of the season. And even going all the way back to the opener, we talked about them just because they overpowered Miami so much. Then they beat Denver in a really fun game. And now I don't want to move the goalposts on them too much because I do think the Broncos win is a nice one. Like, I don't know about y 'all. I pretty firmly believe the Colts are a good team. Like, I don't know if that means that they make the playoffs or what, but I think what they have put out so far gives me confidence that they're real.

4:12Derrik Klassen: So I don't need them to beat the Rams to make some kind of statement, but I don't know. I think of them as a legitimately good team, and this is what I think of as a Super Bowl contender. And yeah, it's just fun that we're in this spot. I'm not like morbidly curious or novelty curious about this. I'm just like, yeah, this should be a good game between two good teams.

4:34Dave Helman: I think this is just a test of like, yeah, how high do we really have to put the Colts in the hierarchy? That's a good way to put it. I believe in them insofar as like competent teams beat the hell out of bad teams. And they did that in week one and three. And then week two against the Broncos, competent teams find a way to win some close games against other competent teams. And I think the Broncos are that. And so this is the first time they're playing a game against what is like a Super Bowl contending caliber team. Like I think on both sides of the ball.

5:00Robert Mays: And the Colts had a really good game against the Broncos defense, who I still think is a very good unit. They have not played a team that is as complete on both sides of the ball. And we did an entire show yesterday. Me and Ted went about the offenses that are struggling in the league. The Broncos are currently 31st in offensive success rate. Like their offense has not been very good this year. And so the Colts got the benefit of that in week two. this is the first time where you're playing against an offense that's bumping up against the top 10 and a defense that I think is going to give a lot of teams problems and so even if we've learned a little bit about the Colts over those first three weeks Dave in terms of them being a legitimate team that we have to take seriously I think we'll learn more about them

5:34Derrik Klassen: this week than we have to any point this season yes without trying to take credit away from them a win here or really even a good like a competitive you know good looking loss would say a lot to me about just what this team might be capable of.

5:51Robert Mays: Let's start on the side of the ball that I think absolutely has the most intrigue just because the Colts offense has been so surprising, Derek. So if you're trying to figure out, all right, the Colts offense is, I believe, number one in offensive DVOA, number one in offensive success rate, all the stats that you want to look at. We've talked about this a little bit, but we have not given them the treatment previewing this unit. So just the benefit of being able to go back and watch a bunch of stuff and then kind of project forward. When you've studied the Colts offense up to this point in this season, what are they doing well that has allowed them to get out to this sort of start?

6:19Dave Helman: Yeah, like I there are a couple of things that feel unsustainable, right? Like some of what Jones is doing under pressure, some of the deep ball stuff, but like the stuff that they are doing well mechanically and schematically and stuff. One, their RPO game is really, really good, and they've been using it a lot more than most other teams. According to Sports Info Solutions, the Colts have ran the ball on RPO attempts 28 times and thrown them on five attempts. And on those rushing attempts, they're averaging four and a half yards to carry like this is an incredibly efficient way for them to move the ball.

6:45Dave Helman: And so I think that has helped him staying to some easy down and distances, really taking the load off of Daniel Jones, which I think that was always the gambit kind of going into this, is that you don't want to have to ask him to do a whole lot. To that same point, whenever they do get in other passing scenarios, they have rolled out 16.2 % of their plays, which is a lot. Like league average is about 7.5%. They do this way more than anyone else. So between all the RPOs, between some of this rollout stuff, and then really throwing in a ton of play action on top of that, They are just, it's a lot of easy buttons for Daniel Jones that to me, they can access because the offensive line is kicking ass.

7:21Robert Mays: Like they are a really, really good unit right now. When we talked about the Colts and framing the best case scenario for this team, I think it all came down to, and when we did the supporting cast show earlier this summer, you had them in like the top five in the AFC. Like you're even more of a believer than I was. And I still had some faith, especially in the pass catchers and in the offensive line infrastructure. You believed even more in me about the 10 guys around the quarterback and the play caller. Those guys have been excellent, top to bottom throughout this entire year. The two new starters along the offensive line have played about as well as you could have hoped.

7:50Robert Mays: The skill position players are all becoming like the best versions of themselves. And so I do think that top to bottom, there's a lot to like about this group. And that has made a lot of this legitimate. The one thing I will say is that this is a team right now on offense that is living in extremes to a degree that just can't continue. It's not to take away from anything that they've done, but a lot of these numbers are just going to fall back to earth because that's how the NFL works. They lead the league in play action rate at over 40 % of their dropbacks, almost 41%. You mentioned the fact that they're rolling out at the highest rate in the entire NFL.

8:24Robert Mays: They have led the league in the number of blitzes they have faced this year. They've led the league in the amount of man coverage that they faced this year. Daniel Jones, so far this season, there are three teams in the NFL with a positive EPA when pressured. One is the Buffalo Bills. who are quarterbacked by Josh Allen, who consistently bucks the trend in terms of how good he is when pressured. Baker Mayfield is another one of those quarterbacks who for the last two years has done a really, really good job of making the most out of those plays, out of structure, scrambling. The Colts are third.

8:52Robert Mays: It'll be interesting to see where Daniel Jones falls because Baker Mayfield used to be one of those quarterbacks who was bad when pressured and now has become good at it. We'll see if that can happen with Daniel Jones. But the point is, there are a lot of stuff that is at the high end of every single one of these ranges. and when the game script starts changing a little bit, you're not going to be able to use play action on 40 % of your dropbacks. You're not going to be able to do a lot of this stuff. Where do they land? Do they land outside of the top 10? Do they land as the seventh best offense when all of this stuff comes back to normal ranges?

9:22Robert Mays: I guess that's my main question here and I feel like this is going to be the week where we start getting pushed towards some of those answers.

9:29Derrik Klassen: Which raises a really fun question for me and look, I'm not ready to push all my eggs into the Daniel Jones basket just yet. I don't want to speak too firmly, but he played really well against the Denver defense that we said was going to get after him. We said was going to challenge him. And they did. Like Denver did their thing and he still played a good game and looked good. Obviously the Colts score, what was it, 29 points and they win that game. Now you get the Rams who are pressuring the quarterback at a top five rate in the NFL. Like again, this is a legit defense. more importantly a legit front that will make life difficult on you even if your offensive line is good if it even if it even if the numbers come down a little bit like if it looks good again here is that enough to make you believe that it's sustainable even if it's not at that crazy clip to me it's just about checking boxes against different sorts of defenses right so what let's

10:25Robert Mays: just take this one this is a very sort of different defense it's a very different sort of defense and so you look at week one and week two you have two teams with the dolphins and the broncos that are blitzing at one of the highest rates in the NFL. Pass both of those tests. Week three, you play against the Titans team that did not blitz and did not play a ton of man. It was the first time that had happened this season, but the Titans front is not very good. It's not a group that's really going to scare you. And so even if you're not blitzing, you're probably not going to heat the quarterback up.

10:50Robert Mays: This Rams team doesn't blitz a ton. They send a lot of simulators at you and it's a ton of stunts. So what do they do against a team that doesn't play a lot of man, is not going to blitz a lot, and is going to play a decent amount of zone coverage with a really good front. These aren't disqualifying things. I'm not saying like, oh, they're going to struggle against this. I just want to gain more information about this offense. And this Rams defense, I think is going to provide you with some of that information.

11:12Derrik Klassen: I think that's completely fair. And I guess my point is just, and, and of course I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself. Let's watch the game. But if it looks good, if you can come out of games against Denver and this Rams defense feeling good about Daniel Jones and feeling good about this offense, like what else do you need to see at least to think of the Colts as like a legit team that that could make the postseason win what looks like a very winnable division I mean if they if they even play well in this game but lose I might have some some bold things to say about the Colts on Sunday night they lose like 21

11:49Dave Helman: to like 26 I'd be like all right you know you kind of you kind of handle business here I think the one part of it that schematically not even really schematically but more personnel wise I'm interested in is I think obviously coverage wise this will be a little different in terms of throwing blitzes but to me the one defensive line that Indy did give up a little bit of pressure against was Denver the way that Denver's front is built is you've got all of these like monsters on the interior DJ Jones yeah DJ Jones JFL like you've just got huge huge guys on the interior and then on the outside it's a lot of these guys who are 240 250 pounds just flying at you the Rams are built kind of the opposite where they've got all these like short explosive fire hydrant defensive tackles and then their guys on the edge are big long strong kind of cave the pocket and I do think one is just an interesting new test but also two I do think that the way you can get after their tackles a little bit are get into their chests and bully them and so I do wonder how those guys are going to be able to handle that that's a really good point Bernard Raymond

12:45Robert Mays: is somebody that has shorter arms isn't play strength is not necessarily the best fantastic athlete great athlete yeah I think that's a really good thing to bring up two injuries on the cold side of it that I think are worth mentioning. Just when you think about where the Colts have been good and where the Rams have been taken advantage of a little bit so far this season, Alec Pierce concussion, not practicing, and he has been the Colts best perimeter receiver this year. He's been really, really good. And, you know, there are elements of Alec Pierce's game if he were playing where he can moss dudes on contested catches down the sideline.

13:14Robert Mays: But where he's been really good is on some of these like bigger crossing routes. And so those outside corners for the Rams, that is the area of this defense that you can really take advantage of. If Alec Pierce does not play, are the Rams necessary, are the Colts set up to pick at the Rams defense in the same way the Eagles were last week? Probably see more AD Mitchell, who I know on the perimeter stuff, he's very good. But some of those crossing routes, middle of the field things that Alec Pierce can access, that's really not on the table for Mitchell. And then the one that might be even more important, Mack and Salves, who's stepped in as their starting right guard this year and has been pretty good.

13:45Robert Mays: He is not practicing either. And so if you have a backup right guard, we're going to see a million different little stunts and twists sent at the right side of that offensive line because that's what the Rams do anyway. And if they know that there's a backup in that interior there, I feel like that's going to be something they hit pretty hard from the start of the game. Let's go into when the Rams have the ball in this game because I think this is actually the biggest test that the Colts have faced all year. The Broncos defense is a really good unit, but the offenses that the Colts have had to play against, we have a crumbling Miami team in week one.

14:15Robert Mays: We have a struggling Broncos team in week two. Then we have a Titans team in week three that is dead last in offensive DVOA and was starting two backups on the right side of their offensive line. So I think even more than the clarity we're going to get about the Colts offense in this game, Dave, this is the game where I think we're going to get a lot of clarity about

14:31Derrik Klassen: the Colts defense. Yeah, for all the glowing things I just had to say about Daniel Jones and the Colts offense. Okay, we talked about this in the production meeting. I'm not, I'm not willing to say that I don't think the Colts defense is good. and just watching it, like Lou Anarumo is there now. I still think very highly of him, despite what happened in Cincinnati. You can tell that this is a well-coached defense that knows what it's doing. Like they all just work in harmony with each other. Like this is a solid unit. I don't know if that means that they're actually good. And to your point, they just, what am I supposed to base that off of?

15:13Derrik Klassen: Like halfway through rewatching the Titans game, I kind of like pushed my laptop away. And I was just like, what is what is what even is this? What am I getting out of this? OK, cool. You are caving in a horrific offensive line. We're not talking about them right now, but the Titans need J.C. Latham back in the worst way. And I didn't play it last week. It's it was disgusting trying to watch the Titans deal with that. And I mean, it's the NFL. You play who's in front of you. But after a certain point, I was like, am I supposed to be impressed by this? I don't think I am. And like, there are some good players on the Colts defense.

15:49Derrik Klassen: I mentioned it in the meeting as well. Like, it's very fun to watch DeForest Buckner on a 3-0 team. You know, the Colts have been, we'll say, not relevant toward the playoff picture for most of the last couple years. To watch him, you know, he's like hawking down Tony Pollard, you know, just getting getting out to the numbers from the D tackle spot. He's an incredibly fun player. I really like Nick Cross, their safety, just a very like a very fun player. Like there are good players on this defense, but the pass rush has not impressed me from what I've seen so far this season. What they're they're pressuring the quarterback 28 percent of the time.

16:27Derrik Klassen: It's 26. And that includes that game last week against the Titans. 26 in the NFL. Yeah, like as bad as the Titans' defensive line looked, it could absolutely have been better. So there's just, I don't feel solid about this. And obviously this is as good of a test as you can ask for when you're talking about Matthew Stafford and these receivers.

16:48Robert Mays: I think there are players that stand out. I think it's been nice to see Charveris Ward regain a little bit of form this year. DeForest Buckner, we obviously know what DeForest Buckner is. I think watching them schematically has been enjoyable just because it's clear to me that Lou's having a good time. It's cool when the player's nowhere to be. And just, I think that he has talent that he's excited about. I think that this happens a lot in the NFL where creativity is pushed forward by the players that you have. And so the first third down in the game, I'm pretty sure it was the first third down in the game against the Titans last week.

17:17Robert Mays: It's third and long. And the Colts are in a three-man front with Latu and Quidipe lined up as off-ball linebackers in like the B-gap. How well, how effective that stuff is, I think we can talk about, but he's definitely trying some weird stuff, simulated pressures. And I think that you're seeing a lot of creativity because the players are pushing that forward. But even if the ideas are cool, and even if we do have some strengths, there are some weaknesses on this defense that I think the Rams offense, Derek, is particularly set up to take advantage of.

17:47Dave Helman: That's exactly where I'm at with them. Like some of their players are playing really well. Like the two interior defensive linemen are still awesome. Trevor Arias Ward is playing well. Bynum, I think, has played well. and again some of the schematic stuff has been really cool it's not as much of a rolodex as you would think it's a lot of cover two and three but how they get into that stuff is often really

18:03Robert Mays: really interesting dresses most of it up that's fun to watch the window it's almost like old

18:07Dave Helman: Shanahan offenses where it's like they run three things but it's all dressed up so well like that's how his defense works but they have a couple of players you can circle the second linebacker right now it's Joe Bacci number 48 you can circle him in coverage run defense you can circle him and then Xavion Howard at the cornerback two spot and the Broncos did that like they were finding Sutton whether it was penalties or big plays they were finding Xavion Howard on the field and so I think they have gone relatively unpunished for those weaknesses given the offenses that they've played Sean McVay is going to find him Matthew Stafford is going to find him Pukenaku is going to find him like it's just this is a much different task that I think they're going to have to deal

18:45Robert Mays: with it's also I just think that the way the Rams offense is constructed right now is built to take advantage of the Colts defense. Talk about Devontae Adams on the outside against Zavian Howard. They have that perimeter option now. One of the reasons we'll talk about this in a bit. Devontae Adams slowed down last week is because Quinny Mitchell was on him for a huge chunk of the game. That's just not going to happen on Sunday against the Colts. I want to say, yeah, so, and the Colts do play sides for the most part at corner. So the first two games, Zavian Howard played all on the right side, a little bit mixed in the third game.

19:16Robert Mays: So I assume they'll continue to do that. And if you want to have Devontae Adams against Avery and Howard, that's something you'll be able to do. And the other part of it is the linebackers, even Zaire Franklin, who is a better player than Batchi is at this point, you can get after those guys with misdirection and play action. So the Titans in that game last week had multiple chunk gains over the middle of the field because they're getting those linebackers moving. What did we say about the Rams last week? Well, the Colts are the heaviest play action team in the league right now, heaviest boot team in the league right now.

19:43Robert Mays: The Rams are number two. So you're going to see a whole lot of that between these two teams this week. And so I think the Rams are well suited to hurt that Colts team where they are weakest at this point.

19:52Derrik Klassen: Another perennially underrated player, Kenny Moore, not practicing where it's Thursday afternoon. Maybe he plays, but it kind of sounds like they might just try to rest him and just not push it. I mean, you are 3-0. That's something to watch. But, I mean, he's been in the slot 75 % of the season. That's what he does. I would imagine, you know, Sean McVay finds a way to take advantage of that if he's not out there for sure.

20:18Robert Mays: One more thing to point out about this matchup. The Colts have only had 59 rushing attempts against them the entire season up to this point because they've been winning by three scores in the first quarter of these games.

20:28Derrik Klassen: They've only played one real game script this season and it's week four. I mean, it's a great it's a fun spot to be, but that's not life in the NFL.

20:35Robert Mays: And when we talk about them using less play action on the other side of the ball, just again, when you're not being able to dictate the terms of the game, you're pushed into areas maybe you're a little bit less comfortable that we're going to find out some stuff about the offense in that way. The Rams are number one in rushing in DVOA right now through three games. And we saw the Rams really start to get that run game going last week, Derek, because we see some of the more of the gap scheme stuff. I'm getting people moving. Like, I feel like them drifting a little bit further away from those duo downhill runs to try to find a little bit more explosiveness with Blake Corum.

21:02Robert Mays: I wanted to see it after week two. And last week against the Eagles, we got a few of those nuggets. And I think we might be seeing more of those as we move forward.

21:09Derrik Klassen: Colts are 25th in defensive rushing success rate this season. Half of the explosive runs they've allowed this year were in the Denver game, the one close game that they've played.

21:19Robert Mays: Just something to watch. Talked about the Titans having backup offensive linemen last week, and that's why the Colts front was able to get after them a little bit. Rob Havenstein not practicing for the Rams, and I think that's absolutely one to watch. Steve Avila will be back, it seems like, at left guard, but Havenstein missing some time. We've talked a lot about this with the Rams. when their pass protection starts to get diminished a little bit, you really notice it. I think that was even the case over the first couple weeks, right? Like that offensive line just is not that stout of a group in pass protection.

21:49Robert Mays: It's been banged up, but it's going to continue to be banged up against the Colts on Sunday. So just something to keep an eye out for. All right, we are going to take a quick break here and then come back with the Eagles and the Bucs.

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24:21Robert Mays: our second game of the week this week the eagles are three and a half point favorites over the tampa bay buccaneers pretty pretty easy to land on why this is a game of the week these teams are undefeated beyond that though dave this is gonna become like kind of a weird quasi rivalry between these two teams in the nfc they seemingly play every single year because the bucks win their division every single year they played in the playoffs multiple times we've got like a decent backlog of experience between these two teams, the quarterbacks and the coordinators. It's become something that I look forward to because we've just gotten it so often in recent years.

24:55Derrik Klassen: It's really funny. The Eagles have won so many games. Obviously, they've been to two Super Bowls. They won one. They've been able to beat the Chiefs on a regular basis. They beat Josh Allen in that crazy overtime game. The Eagles show up against the NFL's elite all the time and usually win. And then the Buccaneers that most people don't consider a serious contender just have their number. Like they beat them all the time. They had two really humiliating playoff losses in Tampa over the last, you know, during the Jalen Hurts era. They obviously, you know, the low point of their season last year was after the Bucs game, which I do want to bring that up.

25:33Derrik Klassen: The Bucs have had the Eagles number that week four game last year where the Bucs just hammered them. They didn't have A.J. Brown. They didn't have Devontae Smith. They didn't have Lane Johnson. And then something that cropped up this week that I thought was really interesting, in this Jalen Hurts era, where the Eagles have rarely been able to get the better of the Bucs, A.J. Brown's only played one game. And the one game he played was the one game they won. And he had 130 yards in that game. He did his A.J. Brown thing. So it's early to know just how full strength that they're going to be. We'll get into some of the injuries in a minute, but I think this is a much healthier Eagles team that gets to play this game this week.

26:12Robert Mays: Here's my counterpoint. I think that's a very good thing to bring up. Missing A.J. Brown, and we clearly saw what he is for this offense last week, and we see it very often. The Bucs' plan against the Eagles last year was already the A.J. Brown plan, and I would not be surprised to see them trot it out again. Okay, so the Bucs last season against the Eagles, 97 % zone coverage, 32.5 % cover two. that is the most a Todd Bowles defense has played cover two in a single game in the past five years and it's very similar to what we saw from the Cowboys defense in week one I'm going to tell you right now the Bucs have more horses on their defense than the Cowboys defense currently does and so this may be another game Derek where the Bucs are pushing Jalen Hurts to have to attack other areas of the field than just taking advantage of those one-on-one matchups with AJ Brown on the

27:02Dave Helman: the outside I think he that's where it's going to be kind of interesting I think last year a little bit the Bucks defense got to a point where they were doing not what Bulls like actually wants to do whereas I think now that they have some horses you obviously bring in a guy like Redick I think the secondary is much better I think in his heart of hearts Todd Bulls wants to be a guy like we're going to load up the boxes on early downs we're going to get you into second and nine and then I'm going to do all my fun stuff and I do think that we're probably going to get a little bit more of that in this game because when they've been doing that they have been insane like they're loading the box more than almost any other team.

27:33Dave Helman: And right now they are one of the best run defenses in the NFL. Out of the 96 like total defensive performances that we've gotten this season, all three of the Bucs games are top 23 in run defense rush success rate. And two of them are in the top 10. Like they are, Vitavia and the rest of this front are mashing people. And we've talked about it before. This Philly run game right now is not as good as it has, certainly as it was last year. And part of that is they're banged up and stuff, but they're going to be a little bit, you know banged up and not fully themselves in this game and I think Vitavia and kind of the rest of this front is going to really be able to take advantage of them and if they get into you know these second and nines third and sevens Jalen Hurts again has been pretty bad against the blitz this year he's 25th out of 30 qualifying quarterbacks right now in EPA per drop back he's 26th in sack rate against the blitz and he is 27th in percentage of his throws that go to the sticks on blitzes so he's playing like very conservative not getting the ball out getting sacked a lot.

28:28Dave Helman: I really think Bulls is probably going to bring some funky stuff and get after him.

28:32Robert Mays: The Bucs are already structurally set up to give the Eagles problems. The run defense, like you mentioned, the numbers are pretty stark. So against all other teams over the past three years, the Eagles are averaging 0.05 EPA per drop back and about a 46.5 % success rate. Against the Bucs specifically, in that same time frame, it's negative 1.8 EPA per drop back and a 42 % success rate. For context, that is the difference between the 2024 Rams passing game and the 2024 Titans passing game. And so that's the change that we see for the Eagles against everybody else and with the Eagles against the Bucs.

29:08Robert Mays: Like Dave mentioned, they're going to be at much fuller strength in terms of the pass catchers this year. But I think just structurally, the Bucs give this team problems. And you alluded to this, the Bucs just have better players across the board right now defensively than they had for a good chunk of last season. The secondary is better. You move Tykee Smith to safety, you get Antoine Winfield back full time. Jacob Parrish has been good for them in the nickel. I think both corners, Jamel Dean's playing well. Zion McCollum's playing well. I really like the front. Like Yaya Diaby is just one of those players that when you watch him play, he's the type of guy that just makes an entire unit better.

29:41Robert Mays: He does so many little things. Like rewatching that game from last week. Let me see if I can find my notes on it. he has a pressure and a TFL on the first drive. He has a, he has penetration on the front side of a run in the second quarter that allows Redick to clean up a TFL. And then he draws a holding penalty on Fashanu in the second quarter. It just, all this stuff, all this stuff starts to add up. And then you add Redick to the mix here. And even without Kalashicansi right now, it's just a better front because you have multiple guys that you have to worry about.

30:08Dave Helman: And Diaby, Robert, I'm not surprised you love Yaya Diaby because he's kind of Jared verse ish. Like they are, have some similarity Daya Jared Verse is actually a really good way

30:17Robert Mays: to talk about Yaya Diaby he really is like

30:19Dave Helman: Daya Jared Verse and Jared Verse is a player who has consistently given the Eagles problems he did last week he did beforehand in the playoff game and so obviously it's not one to one but they are very similar players and I think you know Diaby really could be like a really big difference maker for them in this year

30:33Robert Mays: the Rams last week had some success on DB blitzes especially in they were throwing some weird stuff and guess what the Bucs do Antoine Winfield and Antoine Winfield had a sack and Jacob Parrish had a pressure on like the exact types of things the Rams were doing last week. And the numbers are actually kind of, they're notable. When Todd Bowles plays against condensed formation teams, and we talked about how the Eagles are playing more condensed this year, the early down blitz rate for the Bucs goes up 10 percentage points. So I would not be surprised to see them trot out a lot of the ideas that the Rams had success with last week because it's very true to their DNA.

31:06Derrik Klassen: Bucs DBs lead the league in pressures and sacks right now.

31:08Dave Helman: And you know what? That's great because last week, the particular pressure stuff, I thought the Rams did that was super interesting. One, they were bringing the safeties a lot. Like there were multiple pressures and sacks that they brought home with safeties that were already creeping closer to the line of scrimmage and then they fired once they went. But there were, I think on two different occasions, they had a deep safety fly out of the roof at the snap to go and just hunt Jalen Hurts immediately. Like kind of a spy, kind of like a really late add-on. And I was like, you just don't really see a lot of that.

31:39Dave Helman: But I do think Bulls is the kind of guy that he, you know, might go back and look at that and be like, hey, that's an interesting idea. And Winfield's a pretty good athlete. Let's see if we can do some of that.

31:47Derrik Klassen: Antoine Winfield's one of my favorite players in the league. And it's, you know, not to let them off the hook completely, but he missed a lot of time last year. And I don't think it's the coincidence that they weren't up to the Todd Bowles standard last year. He's such a fun player. I would guess he's going to do some really fun stuff in this game.

32:05Robert Mays: Just like a heads up, I think the reason we're focusing more on the Colts and the Bucs in these previews is because we just did a Rams-Eagles preview last week. We know who these teams are. The Colts and the Bucs are the new teams that we're talking about here.

32:16Derrik Klassen: The Eagles have been playing nothing but games of the week since the season started. That's what they do.

32:19Robert Mays: That's why these are tinged a little bit more with the teams we have not talked about as much because I think the Rams and the Eagles at this point kind of known quantities in terms of this show and how we understand them based on the last couple weeks. Let's go to when the Bucs have the ball in this game. I don't really think you can start anywhere else other than who is playing for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because that to me is the number one thing at front of mind. Watching them last week against the Jets, I was so impressed with just how they were able to survive given all the pieces they were missing up front.

32:50Robert Mays: Even like the construction of the run game. They were getting hat on a hat all the time. I think that everything was well planned. I really liked how they were trying to tap into the screen game. Everything they were doing is what I would want them to do. They had a 17 % rushing success rate. Like the guys just, the guys up front just aren't good enough right now. I mean, you're playing with backups. How could they be? They can't be. It's nobody's fault.

33:12Derrik Klassen: Their best offensive lineman is their center who's playing left after. That's right. You have one.

33:17Dave Helman: And your second best guy is also playing out of position because he's playing center now.

33:20Robert Mays: You have no starters playing the position that they're supposed to play. And you just watch them. It's like, God, they're trying their hardest. They have no shot at this point.

33:28Derrik Klassen: They deserve, like Graham Barton deserves some kind of award. It sounds like Tristan Wirfs is going to play in this game. I guess it's maybe that'll age poorly, but that's what it sounds like on Thursday. to help the Bucs get to 3-0 playing left tackle for the first time in the NFL because you have to and you're a sinner. Like, that's incredible.

33:47Robert Mays: So the 17 % rushing success rate goes along with how many holding penalties did they have last week? Okay.

33:52Dave Helman: So they had seven holding penalties. And I felt like the four of them were on the first two drives, by the way. Great junk play, holding penalties. But they had seven in this game. First of all, there's not been any other game this year with more than four by a single team. and then I went back all the way to 2000 in TrueMedia's database. The only other game with seven offensive holding calls was a 2003 Eagles game, which weirdly they also won in the way that the Bucks won this game. So maybe that's a weird hack, but it's getting this amount of holding calls has really never happened. But that's what when you have three backups playing and your two best guys are out of position, that's kind of just what's going to happen.

34:28Robert Mays: If worse can come back, the benefit of that is you get better at two positions, hopefully, because he gets to play left tackle and then you can move Barton back to center and move Bredesen back to guard. So now we're still really worried about the right side. You're still really worried about the right side. Nolan Smith is probably going to miss about a month. He is now on IR, but this is still, especially an interior for the Eagles that you really have to worry about. Jordan Davis is playing the best football of his career, full stop, and then we know what Jalen Carver is. And so I'm concerned about the Bucs' ability to move the ball on the ground in this game.

34:57Robert Mays: I'm concerned about their ability to hold up in pass protection. And the other side of this is, now with Mike Evans hurt, and Chris Godwin coming back, who knows if he plays, even if he plays in this game, what sort of strength he's at. One of the things that really benefited the Eagles last week is that Quinion Mitchell followed Devontae Adams and made that second cornerback spot matter a little bit less just because of how the Rams passing game is constructed. So I wonder, do we have Quinion following Emeka Ibuka in this game? And what does that mean for the rest of the Bucs pass catching options, even if Sterling Shepard is playing well against a very good Eagles defense?

35:32Derrik Klassen: And again, if Chris Godwin winds up playing in this game, what is, I think, either 29 or 30-year-old Chris Godwin and his first action back from that gnarly injury. I mean, what does that look like? And I would take my chances with, I would do what you're saying. Like Quinion Mitchell, try to limit Ibuka. And if old Chris Godwin coming off of an injury is the biggest problem you're dealing with, I think that's a good spot to be. Yeah, that's one of those,

36:00Dave Helman: if he beats you, then so be it.

36:01Derrik Klassen: Like it just, you kind of live with it.

36:02Robert Mays: I think again, the screen game was a big part of the Bucs approach last week against the Jets. I think that the second level defenders for the Eagles can be hard to take advantage of them there. Like even like the tackling guys like Cooper DeGene and what the linebackers can do in space. Problem here is Jihad Campbell and Zach Bond have been banged up this week. Bond not practicing. Jihad Campbell was limited today. So absolutely something to keep an eye on. The last thing I wanted to mention about the Bucs offense before we move on is that even with all the injuries that they're dealing with, I can't describe to you how much fun I'm having watching Baker Mayfield play football right now.

36:39Robert Mays: Like there were five or six moments in that game against the Jets last week where I was like, what is even happening? There was a play where he had pressure coming off his left side and he's done a really good job of feeling that and making guys miss in the pocket all year. This is something where I'm starting to believe this is like a repeatable skill for him when it comes to his ability to wiggle out of issues. He is the most effective scrambler in the league right now. We talked about only Josh Allen has a better EPA per play when pressure than Baker Mayfield right now. But there was a play he made to Sterling Shepard where he's getting pressure off his left side.

37:14Robert Mays: He feels a little bit spooked. He starts to run. And in the middle of taking off to run, he turns and whips the ball to Sterling Shepard over the middle of the field and all in one motion. And I'm like, what is happening right now? So this was starting to build last year, Dave, But we've come to a place where I'm enjoying the Baker Mayfield weekly experience pretty much as much as any quarterback in the NFL.

37:35Derrik Klassen: Baker freaking rules, dude. He's he's he's one of my favorite players in football. And I don't want to I don't want to diminish him. Like Baker was drafted number one overall. He won the Heisman Trophy. He's a world class athlete. Right. But you look at like Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. Like it's so it is so apparent that these guys are like human, like they're transformers. You know, like you can't relate to them, whereas you can't relate to any NFL player. But like Baker Mayfield's 6 '1", 215, like he it is more relatable to see him doing the stuff that he's doing. And he does it anyway. I like we joked over the summer about he it doesn't look like he should always be able to make people miss in the open field.

38:19Derrik Klassen: And yet there he is doing week after week, dead leg and NFL linebackers. It's it's awesome.

38:25Robert Mays: He's so fun. And I think this is the biggest difference with Baker Mayfield. And you might agree with me on this. He tried to do all this stuff early in his career. Like he's been trying to do this forever. He just couldn't do it. He just didn't have either the feel or the athleticism to make good on the efforts to make all these plays out of structure. And over the last two years, he has been able to do it. It's been kind of remarkable.

38:48Dave Helman: He's I don't know if it's more confidence or he's just been in the league longer and seen it more. but like early in his career, anytime he bailed out, it was very, hold on to your hats. It was a bad thing for the offense. It was usually a very bad thing for the offense. Like he was, you kind of needed to keep him on the rails within the offense. And that's why, you know, they had the one year with Stefanski and it kind of looked good, but otherwise it was a lot of like up and down.

39:09Robert Mays: But that was on the rails. That's what I'm saying. Because it was on the rails.

39:12Dave Helman: Because they kept it on. And whenever he wasn't, he was a very up and down player. But ever since he's gotten to Tampa, and honestly, not even so much the first year he was there. The first year he was there, it was a lot of like, Like, we're just chucking the ball downfield and hoping it's going to work. And I still thought his pocket stuff was a little like, eh, I don't know. And then last year, he got really, really good at, I think, managing the pocket a little bit better, getting outside of the pocket and making plays. And so he's just, whatever it is, he's gotten a much better feel for when he's outside of the pocket of who's open, when are they coming open, where are defenders moving, when I'm moving, like that sort of thing.

39:41Dave Helman: He's just, it's the kind of thing that sometimes, you know, takes eight years for a guy to learn.

39:45Derrik Klassen: and he's doing it all with one of the worst offensive line situations in the NFL to this point. I can't say enough. He's one of my favorite people to watch in football right now.

39:56Robert Mays: Let's get to two teams that have been not so fun to watch over the first three weeks of the season. This is the Bizarro game of the week. Coming into the year, if we program these shows based on the schedule, this would have been the first thing we would have talked about. The Ravens play the Chiefs this week, the loser of this game, Derek, will be one in three. This isn't like a loser leaves town match or anything, right? The AFC North is bad enough that the Ravens will still likely win the division no matter what happens this week and even over the next couple weeks. But these are two teams that we just feel their flaws in ways I didn't really expect over the first three weeks of the season, especially with the Ravens.

40:36Robert Mays: But even considering the injuries for the Chiefs. They're just a diminished team in ways I really couldn't have predicted.

40:43Dave Helman: Yeah, this is a like, again, it's not a loser leaves town situations because again, even a one in three Ravens with this division, they can probably still win it. And they've lost a lot of close games, right? Like the Lions game was close. Bill's game was really close. They've been really competitive against a lot of really good teams. So they'll probably be fine. Same thing even with the Chiefs. Like they, they might not win their division because that's a much more, it's a much tougher division. Yeah, the Chargers are undefeated with a win over them. But they'll probably still get into the playoffs even from one and three but I do think whoever loses this game given that they would probably be that their biggest flaws are getting hit on even harder again like for the fourth time in a row it would probably be like you guys are not up to the level of a Super Bowl caliber team where I think you know literally three weeks ago we all thought that they would

41:24Robert Mays: be that both of these teams would be I think if you look at to me the flaws that are most glaring right now it would be what the Ravens are doing against the run and it would just be the fact that the Chiefs offense does not have much juice at all. And so this is a very stoppable force, movable object sort of scenario between these two units. The Ravens rushing defense has been the worst team in the league by defensive rushing success rate over the start of the season.

41:48Dave Helman: They're on pace to be like the worst ever, basically. Like I looked it up since 2000. There has never been a rushing defense that has been under 50 % success rate. Right now, the Ravens are at 48.8%. Granted, they play the Bills. They're not going to play the Bills and the Lions ever. It will find its level and it won't be that bad. But that's just to give you perspective on how bad it has been up to this point.

42:11Robert Mays: And if the Chiefs can't get the ball going, get their run game going against this team, that's when, again, whatever happens in this game, even if it's not the end of the season for a 1-3 team, it's going to be one of those, oh, we should feel this bad about this particular aspect of these teams. The Chiefs have been fine running the ball this year. They're 13th in rushing success rate. Part of that is driven, Dave, by the fact that they run into light boxes 65 % of the time. 13th probably isn't good enough. And that's before we even take into account the total lack of explosiveness from this running game that is kind of glaring and jarring to see it when you look at the numbers and when you watch this team right now.

42:48Derrik Klassen: If you remove scrambles from the equation, and by the way, Patrick Mahomes is currently on pace to carry the ball 100 plus times this year. That's not right. It's early. that type of stuff might stabilize over time, but that's not where you want to be. And also, he's the only thing resembling explosiveness in the run game. Four explosive runs by not Patrick Mahomes in the Chiefs rushing offense. And those four runs, so if you're listening at home, the next-gen threshold for an explosive run is 10 or more yards. All four of their explosive runs are 10 or 11 yards. So, like, we're getting the bare minimum of what qualifies as explosive from the Chiefs offense right now.

43:27Robert Mays: On the other side of the ball, the thing I'm going to be looking for is teams that blitz Lamar at the second highest rate in the NFL this year. Only Daniel Jones has been blitzed more than Lamar Jackson. And Lamar, if you look at the efficiency numbers, he's been pretty good against the blitz. And it's funny because I think that was the old book on Lamar, is that if you heated him up, he struggled. And last year he was really good against the blitz. And so the fact that teams are doing it to such a degree early on, I wonder what the driving force behind that is. when the Chiefs played them in week one last year, Spags was not sending a ton of pressure at him.

43:57Robert Mays: And the fact that Lamar has been less effective when teams have played coverage against him this year, you saw it in the Lions game, right? The Lions had some of their best moments when they were kind of rushing three and a half guys with like a quasi-spy, and that's when he was taking a lot of sacks. So where the Chiefs' defensive game plan falls between those two poles, based on what the Ravens have been so far and what teams have had success doing, just something I'm keeping an eye on when I watch this game.

44:20Derrik Klassen: I'll say this too, and I want to go back to this because we talked about it on the recap show. I kind of waved my hands at the Ravens and like, I'm still, I'm not going to panic about Baltimore. Like it's a long season. We've seen them sort of correct themselves, but you've had some time to sit with it. Not only have I had some time to sit with it, I had some time to listen to John Harbaugh talk about Nnamdi Matabike's next situation. And like, I'm not trying to make light. It sounds like a, potentially very serious issue. Like, I am mentally preparing to not have Nnamdi Matabike back in this defense anytime soon, which is devastating for so many reasons.

44:59Derrik Klassen: And then on the flip side of that, with the Chiefs, I'm like, okay, I can see light at the end of the tunnel, though. You know, like Xavier Worthy is practicing more, so you can find some optimism that he'll be healthy and available as the season goes. We're already getting closer to the return date for Rasheed Rice. Jalen Royals, I don't know how much you're expecting from a day three draft pick rookie, but Jalen Royals is getting healthier. So if I'm a Chiefs fan, I'm like, this should all be fine in the grand picture of the season. Whereas with the Ravens, I'm like, what is the reinforcement here?

45:35Derrik Klassen: What is going to fix this? Because if Matt Abike can't be it, I mean, Kyle Van Nooy doesn't sound like he's going to play in this game. Like, I need something. I'm not ready to say the Ravens need to jump in the trade market, but it's definitely something that has crossed my mind this week since that game.

45:51Robert Mays: I'm just worried about the Ravens just missing their window. Lamar was the best quarterback in the NFL for the last couple years, and now it's Daniel Jones' time. And I just feel like the Ravens just missed their shot. That's dark. I don't even know.

46:07Derrik Klassen: Also, it's the Colts that have Daniel Jones, so that's like an extra knife twist for a Baltimore football fan.

46:14Robert Mays: We're going to take one more quick break and then come back with one thing from three pretty intriguing matchups from this week.

46:44Derrik Klassen: at discover.com slash credit card.

46:52Robert Mays: We do this every week on the preview show. Just pick three games and one thing to watch from those three games. Derek, let's kick this off with Browns-Lions. I feel like it's pretty easy to zero in on the most interesting and important part of this game.

47:05Dave Helman: Yeah, this Lions offense versus this Browns defense is going to be a firework show. I am so excited. And we can talk about all of it. To me, it's the fronts. I mean, you have a Lions offensive line that I think week one obviously struggled against the Packers, but since then have really started to find their level. And they are at their best a unit that mashes you. They put four hands on people and they just they are going to move you off the ball. And we certainly saw that against Baltimore. This Browns defensive line is as explosive as any in the league. I mean, Miles Garrett is Miles Garrett.

47:35Dave Helman: And then Mason Graham has been good as a young draft pick. Malik Collins is one of the most freakish pass rushers in the league. Like he is just so quick off the ball, both in the run game and as a pass rusher. I mean, the sack he got against Elton Jenkins, where he just immediately crosses his face early in that Packers game was phenomenal. And then even a lot of their secondary edge rushers have been good. Carson Swessinger is phenomenal right now. Like his, I think we all knew coming into the league, like sideline to sideline would be good. Like that was kind of the book on him. But he's been so much better coming downhill and like playing blocks than I ever thought he would.

48:09Dave Helman: And I think that's helped their run game. So this is just a, you've got a Lions offensive line that wants to crush your soul. And you have a Browns defensive line that just wants to be quicker than you. And it's just kind of like which part of that wins out. It's a styles make fights thing.

48:24Robert Mays: It really is. It's just a style. And it's funny because, what was it? It's the line from Watchmen where Rorschach says, I'm not trapped in here with you. You're trapped in here with me.

48:34Derrik Klassen: Yeah.

48:34Robert Mays: That's kind of what John Warren this week, they were talking about the Browns defense. He's like, well, they haven't played a running game like ours. And it's like, well, you haven't played a front like theirs, buddy. I mean, the Packers is good, but stylistically, it's just a different sort of approach with the way that the Browns want to play getting up field. And so I can understand him thinking that where it's like, well, they haven't played against us yet. I'm telling you right now, this group is not to be with.

48:55Derrik Klassen: Did you guys see the clip from the? I sure did. Well, I mean, that could that could describe so many. I know exactly what you're about to say, though, about Rasheed Walker. Yes. Did you see this? No, it was amazing. Garrett beat Miles Garrett beat Rasheed Walker so badly at one point and Miles Garrett was mic'd up on Sunday and his mic picked up Rasheed Walker screaming Jordan Brown and like in a very like very like terrified tone of voice like I mean yeah it's probably the best thing I saw from

49:26Robert Mays: week three and Miles Garrett was redacting it on the bench yeah and it was just it was absolutely perfect we we don't at some point you know I'm gonna I was gonna say something and I'm gonna to retract it. I was going to say, what else is there to say about Miles Garrett? I think we do that too much on this show, especially where we just treat these elite players as givens, as known quantities. And it's like, well, what else do we really have to say about Miles Garrett? Miles Garrett, I think right now is the best football player in the world. And I think that the way he is playing right now, I think I'm ready to say this is the best he's ever been.

49:59Robert Mays: The way he looks right now, how clean he looks just coming around the edge, bending against the run. Like the way he's defending the run this year is more dynamic than I think it's ever been. And the fact that we could be seeing a better version of this guy than we have over the last two or three years when he's probably been the best defensive player in the league, it's truly horrifying. And you combine that with the fact that you have three, four, five more guys along that front who are contributing. And that's why this Browns defense just feels like such a slog right now.

50:30Derrik Klassen: They are, they're must see, which, and we talked about it in the preview show in the summer like this was the best case scenario for them on defense and we kind of said like it was so mystifying why they were bad last year like even if they weren't the best defense in the league from 2023 there's no reason for them to be as abysmal as they were at times last year and I'm just I'm glad we were right about that like

50:55Robert Mays: not about being right but it's just we're there it's more fun to watch the numbers were there they were top five in success rate they gave up a ton of explosives like there were plenty of reasons to believe that they could have a bounce back season and that's exactly what we've seen so far.

51:07Derrik Klassen: I just I'm I'm happy that like the Browns are a team that I'm interested in watching for the first time in a while.

51:15Robert Mays: In the back end of this it's also a very noteworthy just stylistic matchup. The Browns continue to play just an astonishing amount of man coverage.

51:26Dave Helman: It's like

51:26Robert Mays: it's kind of comical and like pretty bold what they're doing. It's just what they do right and Even with coming into the season without Martin Emerson, they have not been afraid to play this way. And unfortunately for them, on the other side here is the best team in professional football. Not just we're in small sample size theater here with every stat that we're going to throw out from the first three games. But with the Lions, they are number one in the NFL in e-paper dropback against man coverage. They were number one in success rate. And oh, yeah, they did the exact same thing last year. This team slices and dices teams that play man coverage against them.

52:01Robert Mays: And so that element of this is going to be really cool to watch on Sunday.

52:05Dave Helman: And this is why I think this game is going to be a very. Every Lions drive is going to be three and out or they score in four place because the line that either like Malik Collins is going to get into the backfield and really put them in a, you know, get them in a bad way on their drive script, or they're just going to get hit with one of these, these shot plays. Because again, the Browns are a 49 % man coverage team, which is tops in the league. of course when they blitz that jumps to about like 80 percent which is just like they're playing a different sport the way they're doing it and again you mentioned the lions are they're great against man coverage one because jared goff is to beat man coverage you kind of just have to be accurate like that's it it's not as much decision making and finding zones you just can you put the ball where you need to jared goff is about as good as that as anybody in the league and they've got two receivers who you have amin ross a brown who's as good as running across the field as anybody in the league and then jamison williams who's as good as running down the field as anybody in the league And if that's all you're going to be in man coverage, it's a, I really think it's going to be a gash or be gash game more so than we've seen in almost any game this year.

53:05Robert Mays: Denzel Ward limited in practice today. That's going to be a huge part of this, whether or not he can play. The last thing I want to say about this game and this matchup specifically is what we've seen from Jared Goff over the first three weeks of the season. Obviously the production has been there, but you watch the command he has at the line of scrimmage right now, getting them in and out of the right plays, just clearly the control, the autonomy he has within the offense. And I'll say that I didn't really take that into account enough when we were thinking about the carryover between the Ben Johnson-coordinated Lions to the John Morton-coordinated Lions, is that every once in a while, when a quarterback has spent enough time in one single system and has a mastery of that system, his ability to kind of, in a very cliche way, be like an extension of the coaches, allows you to kind of endure attrition.

53:52Robert Mays: And we've seen this all the time, right? Like the great quarterbacks, the great pocket between the years quarterbacks were able to carry over their success between different coordinators no matter where they went. I'm not saying Jared Goff is Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, but I think that he's come to a certain level of just intellectual control over the way the game is played. And I think that you're really seeing that from him as he's gotten deeper into his career. And I should know that, like I was in talking to Jared about offensive football and about that offense and about the way that it's kind of been shaped and shaped him over the last couple of years.

54:26Robert Mays: Should have been more in tune with that coming into the year. But I think you've really seen it over the first three weeks of the season.

54:31Derrik Klassen: I think even when the Lions like even like they've been successful for a minute, but even like into that stretch, like 2023 and last year, I still think golf was overcoming some of the stigma about him. Absolutely. He was. And like, and like, I, like, I feel like people were late to the game though. Like, and, and, you know, maybe myself included, but I feel like a lot of people were, he is now, he is getting his flowers and it's like, and even like, and people felt this way when he was playing really well. But at this point in time, people are just like recognizing, like, this is a good quarterback and not like Jared Goff is along for the ride on a really good team, which I think is how people viewed him.

55:12Derrik Klassen: Even at times last year. I think people are coming around on that not being the case now. I'll say this.

55:20Robert Mays: The Ravens front has struggled to get after the quarterback this year. The Bears have struggled to get after quarterback this year. They played one game against a truly frightening pass rush in week one. The offense struggled. They're going to get another one on Sunday. And so Jared Goff is at his worst when you're pushing him off his spot consistently. Can the Browns do that? I think a lot of the game will potentially come down to that. Let's get to the next one here. Jags and the Niners. This is my one thing from the week. And the Jags offense is very interesting to me. I want to be clear about this.

55:49Robert Mays: We are going to spend some time next week on the midweek show talking about a handful of offenses. This is the plan right now, at least talking about a handful of offenses that have new coordinators and trying to incorporate new ideas and what that has looked like over the first month. The Jags will be the first team that we talk about. I'm very excited to kind of go back and study a little bit more of the Liam Cohen, Trevor Lawrence relationship. But for this game specifically, I'm curious whether this Jags defense is good or whether they've just played against the Panthers, Jake Browning, Bengals and the Texans.

56:18Robert Mays: Right. And specifically, there's one area of this where the Jags run defense, right, has been great over the first three games of the season. Just when you look at pure success rate numbers. Well, the two previous offenses they played against were the Texans, who are the worst rushing team in the league and the Bengals, who are turning into one of the worst rushing teams in the league with this offensive line and no Joe Burrow. There are elements of the Jags where I'm like, okay, I believe in this. Like Josh Hines Allen is playing at an extremely high level right now. The way that they're using Trayvon Walker right now, I think is perfect.

56:47Robert Mays: Like his lineup is a four-iron early downs. And just like, it's almost, it kind of reminds me a little bit, this isn't a perfect one-for-one comparison, but the way that Lucas Van Ness is playing for the Packers right now, where you're kind of just like a big, strong athlete, and we're not asking you to be like a bendy edge rusher, just go do that. That's what the Jags are asking of Trayvon Walker, and he's been very good at it. I think Jordan Lewis has been excellent. You look at some of the finer details of the way they're coached. I thought that they did a great job like rerouting guys in the Texans offense.

57:14Robert Mays: And I think that the details on this are good. The amount of coverages they play, like there's a lot of like funky cloud coverage looks that they're getting into. There are difficult defense to play against right now structurally and with a couple of the high end players. I just wonder if there are enough weaknesses personnel wise that when they play against a team like the Niners, even not quite at full strength, are we going to see some of the cracks start to form? Well, that's what I was going to say is it's a fun, like you squint and try to decide what

57:43Derrik Klassen: you think sort of matchup because like we don't know for sure how real the Jags are. 49ers are also beat to shit. Yeah. I mean, it is what it is. If that's an excuse, I'm sorry, but like this is not the Niners that we've been used to. So the Jags could be very, very successful. What does that look like? how worried should we be about the 49ers on offense? And I feel like you could probably bend this game to fit your narrative either way, you know, like depending on what happens.

58:10Dave Helman: Yeah, they're a unit that I think I'm okay being late on if I have to. Like I'm fine just sitting and waiting and seeing. I think that's kind of the way that I'm going to approach it because again, there are a couple of players where I certainly believe it. Like Josh Heinz Allen is out of his mind right now. Like truly playing some of the best edge defense in the league right now.

58:28Robert Mays: But even that, and I don't mean to diminish what he's done. He's been fantastic. He just absolutely put Rante Ursi in the torture chamber last week, but it was a rookie left tackle. That's true. The previous week, you're playing against the Bengals' offensive line, which looks like it does right now. And the week before that, Iki Akonu missed the season opener. So you've got a backup, the Bengals' offensive line, and then a rookie second-round left tackle. So this week against Trent Williams, maybe a different sort of story.

58:56Dave Helman: That is a different sort of story. He's playing extremely well, though. it's absolutely worth pointing out and he was at least still like a good player last year whereas like some of these other guys I think there have been questions about like how good is Trayvon Walker really and then and so there's there's been that element of it I just with them it does feel like there's still a little bit left on the board talent wise for them to to kind of shore up and that's been a little bit of my issue with them I also still like I think the linebackers played fine last week and had one of their best games I still have a lot of questions about teams that can really abuse your linebackers and obviously Kyle Shanahan that's kind of his whole thing is he's going to make he's going to make those guys work he's going to test their discipline and I just Devin Lloyd is a really good athlete I still kind of question his discipline at times and like his spacing and especially in the passing game and so I think this is going to be a really good test of like how serious are those guys especially over the middle of the field one

59:47Robert Mays: last thing I want to bring about the Jags defense and I'm curious your thoughts on this I have a working theory right now about defensive players in the NFL and what they should try to tap into aesthetically. You watch what Andrew Van Ginkle has been for the Vikings defense. And then you watch what Dennis Gardek has been as a role player for the Jags defense. If you are like a white edge player or off-ball linebacker, don't you just grow your hair out and see how it goes? Like the hit rate at this point seems like it's good enough where there are worse strategies.

1:00:18Derrik Klassen: If it's not the hair, it should be something, you know, like it should be something that stands out about you. Like for like, who am I? Keisel from the old Steelers defenses. Keisel. We break Keisel. Yeah. The beard like that. Yes. Like a defining trait that makes you like easy to note on a football field.

1:00:39Dave Helman: Would this make Trey Hendrickson like a definitive all pro?

1:00:42Robert Mays: Here's the thing. Trey Hendrickson does have one of those. He wears the long sleeves. That's okay. I immediately pick out Trey Hendrickson. Give me something I can

1:00:48Derrik Klassen: I can just lock in on. This is going to be sacrilege.

1:00:52Robert Mays: J.J. Watt had the elbow brace. I could pick out J.J. Watt immediately on any single play. So maybe you just need like some single defining characteristic. There's like... I think J.J. Watt didn't need it. I don't know. I don't know. You can't prove otherwise right now. But I was watching Gardeck last week, and I did, you know, slightly serious. He's been a useful player for them. Like, he can play on the edge. He can play off the ball. He had like a nice tipped ball on what would have been a completion of Nico Collins last week. Like, he is doing a lot of nice things for this defense. And I was watching him play, I'm like, him, Van Ginkle, and they actually are kind of used in similar ways, like just the way they're kind of edge players, they're kind of linebackers.

1:01:28Robert Mays: I really just think that if you're one of those types of guys, just grow it out and see what happens. Like the downside to me just doesn't feel nearly as pronounced as the potential upside. This is not the point of

1:01:38Derrik Klassen: this show, but just in general, the average viewer outside of quarterbacks, like the average viewer has no idea what football players look like underneath their helmet. Yes. Like they just don't. From a marketing standpoint, you'd have to be crazy not to try to come up with something to distinguish yourself, like among football players where anybody can just be like, oh, that's Andrew Van Ginkle. Of course it is. He's got the long flowing hair. Like, so that is not the point that this is not a marketing class, but I would definitely do that if I was a football player.

1:02:08Robert Mays: And I'm going to say like Anzalone has stuck in the league and been a part of like some pretty good Lions defenses for longer than we probably anticipated. And you can't prove to me that it's not because of the hair.

1:02:19Dave Helman: I mean, and he's been banged up a lot, so maybe it's like weirdly helped him.

1:02:23Robert Mays: You should be the person championing this.

1:02:25Dave Helman: That's a great point. I don't know. That's a great point there. Maybe if he was a little bit better, I would be able to do it.

1:02:29Robert Mays: So you don't want me to attribute your success to the hair. I think that's what you're a little bit worried about right now. Yes.

1:02:35Dave Helman: However, this hair's not going anywhere, so it's a good move.

1:02:39Robert Mays: Last one here, Dave. The Chargers and the Giants. Pretty easy to pick out one thing from this game.

1:02:44Derrik Klassen: I really love this matchup for Jackson Dart's first career start because there are there are scarier defenses you could be going against in your NFL debut. Like you, I mean, the Browns, the Packers, like it's easy to pinpoint these defenses that have these all world edge rushers and be like, oh, man, that's that's really scary. The Chargers aren't that, especially with Khalil Mack on IR from like a sheer overwhelming talent perspective. but what better matchup for a rookie in his first start than this defense like Jesse Minner is just gonna throw the kitchen sink at this kid and like this is a this is like a definitive masters in understanding NFL defense sort of game where it's like we're gonna know just how much you understand about playing quarterback in the NFL when this game is over because like even if Jesse Minner doesn't have the overwhelming like Miles Garrett sort of player on his team.

1:03:38Derrik Klassen: And I know they have talent. Like I know Derwin James is off to an incredible start.

1:03:42Robert Mays: But the guy that you're missing here is that Tyer Tartt is the second best defensive player in the league now after Miles Garrett. And so that is a big driving force behind this as well. The Chargers are. It was surprising to me, too. But we've arrived at that point with Tyer Tartt.

1:03:54Derrik Klassen: I mean, they're fourth in EPA per play. They're first in passing success rate. I just I just went and pulled out a bunch of incredible stats from what the Chargers have been doing. Opposing quarterbacks are 6 of 29 on attempts of 10 or plus yards down the field. It's unbelievable. Put a roof over it, baby. Obviously, they can get got by the deep ball a little bit. I mean, it's Bo Nix's fault that they didn't get hit up a lot more last week. But what? Intermediate, 10 to 19 yards down the field, opposing quarterbacks are 3 of 15 for 69 yards against this defense. Jesse Minner is just going to throw everything at you, try to confuse you as much as possible, bring weird pressure from different places.

1:04:35Derrik Klassen: Another one that I really love, Mentor's blitzing 17 % of the time, which is the third lowest rate in the league. When he blitzes, he's getting a 70 % pressure rate. That is a 42 % jump from their non-blitz pressure rate. Focus strikes. Yes. They are, the gap between the Chargers at one and the Rams at two is bigger than the gap between the Rams at two and like the ninth place team when it comes to getting pressure with the Blitz. He's going to, I mean, he's going to throw everything at this guy and how Jackson Dart adapts to it, it's going to be interesting to watch. And it's going to say, I think it's going to say a lot about how like ready he is for this moment.

1:05:18Derrik Klassen: This is going to be a bloodbath. I just, Derek called that the minute we heard it.

1:05:25Robert Mays: I was going to ask you what a good start from Jackson Dart looked like in this circumstance. And you're not even willing to go there. If this goes poorly, if this goes well for Jackson Dart, you're not going to be able to go on the internet for two weeks.

1:05:36Dave Helman: I'm going to be like stun locked if that if that happens, like I'm truly. And this isn't even like Jackson Dart might figure things out a couple of years from now. I just he was a player who, to me, came from a very serious or very unserious college offense and is, you know, a month into his rookie season going to be thrown against. Like you said, Dave, is it personnel wise the scariest defense? I don't know, but schematically it might be. and I just, he's going to throw a lot at you. And this is a defense we've talked about it. The way to beat them is you either hit some of like two of those shot plays down the field, which maybe Dart can do.

1:06:07Dave Helman: He throws down the field pretty well. Or you are perfect underneath. I'm sorry, that's not happening. Because even some of the best quarterbacks can't do that. And I just don't think that Dart's going to be able to do that. I just think this is going to be a really, really difficult game.

1:06:21Robert Mays: It's funny that also the other dynamic of this that's at least worth mentioning, I assume that Brian Dable, who talked about this watching dart in the preseason. Brian Dable loves college football. Loves it. Like enjoys mining it for ideas. I think when you think about those early Bills teams, they were using a lot of like weird Cole Beasley SMU stuff. They use a ton of RPOs with Josh Allen. He was part of the college game. He was a college offensive coordinator. And so we saw it with the Jackson Dart snaps in the preseason. It's a lot of Ole Miss stuff. It's a lot of college stuff. Well, Jesse Minter won a national championship defending college defenses two years ago.

1:06:58Robert Mays: So it's that part of it, I think is really fun. Like if they want to, with some defensive coordinators coming into it, it's like, oh, we're going to have to defend all this college stuff. Like what do you, I mean, maybe you're talking to a guy that was on your staff that coached in college recently. Like how would you do it against this stuff? Jesse Minter is built for this moment.

1:07:14Derrik Klassen: Jesse Minter, like he wheeled to a different part of his desk and grabbed like some game plans from Michigan. Like he's like, oh yeah, like I just did this two years ago. It's fine.

1:07:24Dave Helman: Other minor take with this game about Jackson Dart. Too much face paint. The quarterbacks with too much face paint. A lot of aesthetics on this show.

1:07:32Robert Mays: We were talking about this yesterday.

1:07:34Dave Helman: Almost all of the quarterbacks who wear too much face paint are bad. It was like Jackson Dart does it. Zach Wilson does it. Tua wears too much face paint. J.J. McCarthy wears a lot of face paint. That's the other one. Bo Nix wears a lot of face paint. It's eye black. It's not face paint. We're not going to a kiss show. It's white's eye black. it is effectively like yeah i black down like through your cheeks if you just have like the one stripe that's fine like like is this a quarterback only thing yeah okay because i did that that's fine especially if you play in the trenches do whatever you want like a hutchinson

1:08:04Robert Mays: does some of this like a chris hovan like totally accepting because you're it's a different it's a

1:08:09Dave Helman: different asset for a quarterback it's like i what are you why are you hiding behind the i black i

1:08:13Derrik Klassen: don't reject this wholeheartedly mainly the only exception is like jalen hurts has won a super bowl And that's kind of it. Garrett Nussmeyer wears a lot of eye black and I just, he hasn't played in the NFL yet. I'm not ready to give up on him.

1:08:25Robert Mays: I'm not ready to close the, to turn that page. This is very much a, I got too much shit on me type of thing. Where those quarterbacks in real time. I think Jackson Dart might be realizing that when he's playing as Jesse Minter on Sunday. All right. That was, I think it's Owen version of sicko street, but we are going to hit sicko street for a couple of games from this Sunday slate. For those of you guys who might be unfamiliar with the segment, We could pick a couple games that might not be the sexiest on paper that we're going to try to convince you to watch. Let's start with everybody having to wake up early.

1:08:55Robert Mays: That's right. The international games are back for Viking Steelers in Dublin on Sunday. Dave, what are you trying to sell people on with the Viking Steelers match on Sunday?

1:09:06Derrik Klassen: So to take you inside of our studio, Derek is going back to California tomorrow. So this will be the first weekend of the year that we're not all in the studio together. And I love you, man. I don't, I'm not wishing ill on you, but I do think it's very funny that your first weekend back will involve a 6.30 a.m. wake up call to watch Aaron Rodgers go against this Brian Flores defense. I'm going to get one normal night of sleep back home. And then it's back to just straight into the 6.30 wake up. 6.30 a.m. watching Aaron Rodgers deal with whatever Brian Flores came up with. I mean, what could be better than that?

1:09:42Robert Mays: We have not talked about it a lot for a lot of different reasons. One, they won last week against the Patriots because the Patriots fumbled 17 times. They beat the Jets in week one where we didn't really understand what the defenses were. The Jets defense, which we'll talk about at some point, is troubling right now. Watching the Jets defense makes me uncomfortable. They were like five or six plays in that game against the Bucs where I was like, what are you doing? What is happening right now? So as we've gotten more context about all of these teams and as the Steelers have gotten to hide behind two very strange Black Magic Mike Tomlin wins, we have not talked about the Steelers' offense very much.

1:10:21Robert Mays: The Steelers' passing game right now is 29th in success rate through three weeks. The teams that are worse than them, one is the Tennessee Titans with a rookie quarterback and a crumbling offensive line. Two is the Cleveland Browns, which had quarterback by committee coming into the season. Whoever happened to be available to play quarterback was going to play quarterback for the Browns. The third team is the one that just benched their quarterback three weeks into the year and is the New York Giants. That's where the Steelers sit right now, 29th overall. They are playing against a Vikings defense that I honestly think might be better than the ones that we've seen over the past couple years, which is hard to wrap your mind around.

1:10:59Robert Mays: But when you watch the way that like Jalen Redman and Levi Drake Rodriguez are playing as the third and fourth defensive tackles, very clear why they were comfortable trading Harrison Phillips. Eric Wilson has had to come in and play for Blake Cashman. had some really nice moments over the past couple weeks. We talked about Isaiah Rogers a bunch on the Monday Hangover show. Dallas Turner is now contributing to this team. This could be a Sicko Street matchup in the same way that, like, the Saw movies are Sicko Street. Like, that's kind of what I'm anticipating with this Aaron Rogers offense against Brian Flores.

1:11:30Robert Mays: Aaron, do you want to play a game?

1:11:31Derrik Klassen: I don't think he does. Dude, I went back and, I mean, I remember it from, I just remember watching it, but I went back and I, you know, I skimmed through the Vikings-Jets game. That was also played, I think that one was played in London. This is in Dublin. But they got after him, man. Rodgers, you remember Rodgers threw... I love that he's having to take like six-hour flights to get his ass shamed. To just get mauled. Rodgers threw a pick six to Van Ginkle in that game. That was just, it was so beautifully designed. It was a sim pressure where Van Ginkle came down, I think it was the A-gap, and just immediately dropped back out right into the throwing lane for the slant that you know Rodgers is going to want to hit because he wants to get rid of the ball fast.

1:12:14Derrik Klassen: Same thing this year, by the way. It's the same stuff. Here's a poll for you. Have you ever seen Patton? The really old movie where he's like, I read your book. That's Brian Flores just knowing exactly what Aaron Rodgers wants to do. They picked him off three times in that game. and I don't know, maybe this will be better, but I'm riding with the Vikings defense here. I do not think it's going to be better.

1:12:40Dave Helman: I just think this unit is going to get mashing because honestly, last year, I think the thing that you could maybe get on the Vikings, I know their run defense success rate was well, but I still thought that you could kind of move a lot of the players up front. A lot of that is schematic. Right, it was schematic. They were throwing a lot of bodies.

1:12:55Robert Mays: A ton of run blitzes, and they still do a lot of that stuff, but the interior is just top to bottom so much better than it's been over the last couple years.

1:13:02Dave Helman: that and also the players are just better and it's again it's not just the starters that they brought in with guys like jonathan allen it's like again the the second string guys in jalen redmond and levi jake rodriguez are awesome yeah they're better than a lot of starters on most other

1:13:13Robert Mays: teams legitimately played 115 snaps last year like he's played 20 snaps a game this year he's so fun i mean he's really really really good this is a true sicko street matchup the next one we're going to talk about we don't have to spend a ton of time on this but you wanted to try to sell us on the patriots panthers game i would love to hear how you're going to pull this off yeah so this is

1:13:31Dave Helman: less gore in the same way that the last game was. Like that is a, if you just like violence, that's what you're going to get from the last game. This is just a, if you need something a little bit weird that you probably wouldn't have tuned into, this is what you can watch. For me, the Patriots defensive front specifically is kind of interesting. Like they're, so they're interesting for a couple of reasons. I think the two players we knew would be good, Milton Williams and Christian Barmore,

1:13:54Robert Mays: but they've been as good. Christian Barmore, we didn't, Christian Barmore's coming back, right? We didn't know what Christian Barmore was going to be coming back.

1:13:59Dave Helman: We weren't certain. We were hoping that he could be this level of good. and he has been. Both of these guys have been as advertised. There have been seven defensive tackles this year who have produced at least 10 pressures. Two of them are Christian Barmore and Milton Williams. Granted, they've not played a lot of great offensive lines, but they are mauling these offensive lines. And then the guy I've been really surprised by is Harold Landry. Like this was, I think we kind of joked during the offseason that this was a, Mike Vrabel gets to bring in one of his guys' signings. And that was it. It just felt like the type of signing we see in free agency all the time where immediately you're like, that's a bad idea.

1:14:28Dave Helman: Like that just doesn't work out. They paid him a lot of money. it just felt like, oh, he knows this guy. They're trying to establish the culture. But you watch him and it's like, he's not a world beater, but he is consistently, you can see the power. He's got bend for his size, obviously. And then I just, the motor is running really hot. I've just been really, really impressed by what he's doing, where just, once every couple of drives, you're like, oh man, there's number two making another really good play again. So this is just, it's not a great Patriots front. They're probably like the 13th or whatever in the league, but against the Panthers offensive line that is very gettable, you might see some stuff.

1:14:59Robert Mays: The fact that you just tried to sell us on the Patriots game and it did not include anything about Drake May, are you softening a little bit? It feels like you're slowly getting out on Drake May.

1:15:07Dave Helman: No, I think I need to learn to embrace the rest of the team if I'm going to be as invested. The team that you explicitly said, this team sucked. That was the other players around Drake May.

1:15:17Derrik Klassen: These are the guys on the other side of the ball. I'm going to try to embrace them. Derek is so unworried about Drake May that he's just taking that for granted. Yeah, Drake May is just a giving.

1:15:25Dave Helman: This is the Drake May is so good, I don't even think about the Panthers. Like, well, come on.

1:15:29Robert Mays: Last thing we want to hit here before we talk about what we want to know from week four. We used to have a segment on this show, and we're kind of bringing it back even if we don't have the drop ready for it, where we had, it was called the WIC scale. And the WIC scale was a way to measure these revenge games going into a week. How much revenge was actually involved, right? And so it was one out of five. The Micah Parsons game against the Cowboys is like a 12 out of five on the WIC scale. if you're traded away and the team deems you not good enough to hang on to anymore, that's one thing. How many things did Jerry Jones say about Micah Parsons as he kicked him on the way out the door about the run defense, just about his, the leadership, you know, every aspect of this.

1:16:13Robert Mays: We've seen it go back and forth publicly. We've heard about how it went privately. I don't think there's ever been a bigger revenge game for a high profile player than there is for Micah Parsons against the Cowboys in this game.

1:16:28Derrik Klassen: After Green Bay beat Washington, Derek, you and I did that recap a couple of weeks ago. You know, like they bring the star of the game out to talk to the guys and they sit at the desk and the, you know, typically like a section of fans stays behind to watch it. there were like 3 ,000 Green Bay fans there and they were all chanting, thank you, Jerry. And the look on Micah Parsons' face as he was like riling them up to do it. But like, there was like no joy in his eyes. I was like, oh, this guy is pissed. Like he is so angry. Wouldn't you be? Of course, absolutely. And I think he even said this week, like the Cowboys aren't gonna do a tribute video for him, which for the record, I think that would be insane.

1:17:12Derrik Klassen: He was there for four years. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. But Michael and Michael was like, he said there were a lot of disrespectful things about how this was handled. But like making me a tribute video is not one of them.

1:17:24Robert Mays: And I've got enough ammunition ready to go. I don't need to worry about the tribute video.

1:17:29Derrik Klassen: I yeah, I deservedly so. I think he is incredibly pissed. I think, yeah, this breaks the John Wick scale. And Tyler Booker is now out for a few weeks. Cooper Beebe was already hurt. Terrence Steele and Tyler Guyton have allowed for 21 pressures and three sacks allowed through three games. I think Guyton I feel good about where Guyton is going in the long term. I don't feel good about it right now.

1:17:58Robert Mays: Much better in the run game. I think that line overall is much better in the run game. The thing about the Packers and Micah Parsons and about where your weaknesses are along the offensive line, they can pick. Doesn't matter where you can line up wherever you want, one through five. And so I feel like we're going to see him moved all the way around here and think they're going to try to do everything they can to allow him to wreck the game.

1:18:18Dave Helman: And not that Micah Parsons need this because he can beat any tackle in the league, but he knows how to beat all these guys. He's played with all of them in practice and stuff.

1:18:25Robert Mays: Well, he didn't practice all year this year, but yeah. I mean, they've all been there, though.

1:18:28Dave Helman: Yeah, I know. I'm just joking.

1:18:29Derrik Klassen: He knows how to beat up Terrence Steele if he needs to. I like to imagine Dak going to Jerry and being like, I have to answer for the shit that you say. Like, what are we doing here?

1:18:39Robert Mays: What are we doing? And at least to be fair, Micah did say it's going to hurt when he sacks Dak Prescott. Not if, but when it happens. That's going to be painful. Yeah, I understand that. Listen, this Cowboys offense without CeeDee Lamb against a really good Packers defense, most of the time I'd be like, this is something that you can kind of push to the side. This one, plenty of intrigue for this one reason specifically. Let's finish this up with what we want to know from week four in the NFL. Dave, why don't you kick us off?

1:19:08Derrik Klassen: you know the photo that goes around the internet where the sign the sign is like our expectations were low but holy shit that's how I feel about Titans Texans this weekend which actually I can't even say that because my expectations were clearly at least somewhat

1:19:24Robert Mays: high like I picked both of these teams to make the playoffs

1:19:26Derrik Klassen: I thought the Titans could be a surprise wildcard team I thought the Texans still had enough juice to win the division even if I was concerned that they weren't as good as they should be I was excited about both of these teams for various reasons, and one of them is going to be eliminated from relevance on Sunday. One team in NFL history, the 1992 Chargers, has made the playoffs after an 0-4 start. So this is a loser leaves town match. Like, we just, I mean, I'm going to watch everything Cam Ward does because I hopelessly love him. He is also one of my favorite players to watch in the NFL already.

1:20:00Derrik Klassen: He just does a handful of amazing things a week. But in terms of like mattering to the landscape of the NFL, one of these teams is out on Sunday. And that I never, even if, even if I didn't, like, even if these teams didn't meet the expectations, I didn't think we'd be here. They're both so bad that we can write one of them off before October even starts.

1:20:22Robert Mays: We did a show yesterday breaking down the offenses that have been disappointing so far this year. The Texans were on that list, did a deep dive on what's plagued them. Where the Titans, I didn't include them in that exercise just because it's a rookie quarterback through four games. With a ton of hurt offensive linemen. I mean, there is a very real chance, though, that a couple weeks from now, and even before we get to the middle of the season, we're having to do like an autopsy on what the Titans are over the last couple of years. Because we talked about this. I mean, so many of the ways they shot themselves in the foot consistently last year, well, they couldn't possibly do it at that level again.

1:20:53Robert Mays: Yeah, they can. And they have been doing it again. And so that is coming, that conversation, if it continues going down this road with Tennessee. I just feel like three weeks into the year with a rookie quarterback, just maybe one breath before we actually did it and dive into that. My what do I want to know? This is probably cheating, but I'm going to use it anyway. We took the Texans off the table. We removed their seat at the table after Sunday's game. For those of you guys unfamiliar with the exercise, we picked 10 teams we thought were like the legitimate Super Bowl contenders heading into the year.

1:21:23Robert Mays: We removed the Bengals after two weeks, put the Rams in, feel pretty good about that. If a team comes out, they cannot come back in. We didn't replace the Texans on Sunday night just because we thought that might be hasty, you know, and we wanted to spend a little bit more time figuring out who that 10th team should be. I'm putting a deadline on us on Sunday's recap show. We're picking who the 10th team is that has to go in over the Texans. Got a couple options. I think the Colts are in there, right? I think the two stronger options are probably the Chargers and the Bucs. And so by the end of Sunday, Sunday's games, we have to make a decision.

1:21:56Robert Mays: So that is what I want to know. by the end of Sunday is who is the 10th team at the table. I'm ready barring a catastrophe. So, Oh, you're ready. You're all set.

1:22:03Dave Helman: You're already got my team. See, I'm,

1:22:06Robert Mays: it's the chargers for him. It is definitely the chargers.

1:22:08Dave Helman: They have the better quarterback.

1:22:10Robert Mays: Pretty simple. I love this. Baker Mayfield disrespect continues.

1:22:18Derrik Klassen: I can't wait. That's a defensible spot, but the chargers played a game that I don't want to speak for y 'all, but like, I expect them to comfortably beat the giants. And I don't expect that's why this game doesn't matter. But my point. So like the Chargers can't do a lot to sway me on Sunday. All they can. The Bucs can and the Colts can. Like the Colts can. Those two games of the week. So games the week. Right. The Chargers beat the Giants in anything less than like jaw dropping fashion. Is that going to matter more than let's say the Colts or Bucs do something really impressive. But if they don't do that.

1:22:52Derrik Klassen: Right. Sure. Of course. Can you hum in the way that they are? I think that might be enough. My spicy take is that the Bucs, really, for me, the Bucs could play well enough in a loss that I'm like, yeah, I don't care. I'm sold. If the offense looks good, the worse than Godwin. I love that we're way different on this. I mean, I think the Bucs are a really good team.

1:23:11Robert Mays: I'm weirdly becoming the hate the Bucs guy.

1:23:15Dave Helman: Derek, I'll live with it. What do you want to know by the end of week four? Speaking of the NFC South, just the Falcons offense needs to prove to me that they can be functional because they've played a lot of weird games this year. Obviously, you know, week one was week one and they played okay in some parts of that game. But week two against the Vikings, moving the ball fantastically between the 20s. And then they get to the red zone, just got nothing. And then last week, just not throwing the ball where it needs to go, like really missing opportunities over the middle of the field, getting shut out for the first time of any team this year by the Carolina Panthers.

1:23:49Dave Helman: Listen, if like the Broncos or the Browns had shut them out, I'd be like, they can probably do that. to teams. Yeah, they can probably do that to teams, whatever. Doing it against the Panthers is just like, it's pretty inexcusable to me. And so I would like to see them, I would like to know if they can stop the spiral of weird and indefensibly bad games.

1:24:06Robert Mays: My favorite quote of the entire week so far about the NFL is Michael Panik's telling reporters today, I need to throw the ball to the wide open receivers when they're open. Yeah, it's a good way to play quarterback, I would say. I don't know a ton about quarterback play, but I feel like that's a directionally accurate. it. So I feel like tapping into that a little bit more might benefit the Atlanta Falcons. Really fun game, a really fun slate of games coming up this weekend. Really looking forward to it. We got a Monday night doubleheader this week. And so we will be doing a two-part Monday night recap on Monday.

1:24:33Robert Mays: We'll be back here on Sunday night on YouTube live. If you guys have not checked out those shows, I encourage you to do so. If you have watched them, you can tell that they're different this year. We have highlights in real time, you know, just visually things look a little bit different coming from the studio. So this is the time if you're curious about tapping into those live to do it. We're having a blast doing them and they do have a different look and different feel this year than they have in the past. If you're watching this on YouTube, encourage you guys to like and subscribe. If you're listening to it on your favorite podcast app, please leave a review of the show.

1:25:03Robert Mays: It does help us. And so if you want to take 30 seconds, if you're a longtime listener and never have to let us know why you like the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, anywhere else would really mean a lot considered a personal favor. And if you have not checked out our discord, there is 2000 strong in their conversation never really slows down some great ball talk, there should be a permanent link to the discord available in the YouTube link in the show description. I know that that has been expiring over time. And so now the one that's in there should be permanent. And so if you've been having issues with it, please recheck it because it should be good to go.

1:25:38Robert Mays: That is all we've got today. Sincerely appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon.

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