Week 7 preview: Buccaneers-Lions, a Game of the Week faceoff, a deep dive on the Falcons defense, and more

0:28Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. Derek took opposite sides and whether it should be Colts, Chargers or Rams, Jags, which was fun. We hit one thing from Texans, Seahawks, Eagles, Vikings and Commanders, Cowboys set up, spent a little bit of time on the sickest of streets. Like it does not get any worse than Dolphins, Browns in a windstorm. So we're going to watch that for all of the wrong reasons. And then did a little under the hood on the current state of the Atlanta Falcons defense, which is somehow number one in defensive DVOA through six weeks, even though most people expected them to be one of the worst defenses in the NFL.

1:03So a lot of fun stuff in this one. We enjoyed it. Hope you do as well. Let's get to it right now.

1:12It's the week seven preview on the Athletic Football Show. When we were talking earlier this week, when we were doing our production meeting for this, we do it about a couple hours before we start recording. Derek was like overly enthusiastic about this show and this week. I was like a little bit taken aback by how much excited he was to dig into this. What's got you fired up today, buddy? It's a good week, man. We I think, OK, part of it last week was probably the most sleepy down week that we've had of NFL stuff. So coming out of that and having like, I don't know, you look at the schedule and there's like depending on the week, like five games we could have argued for like the best game of the week or something we could have thrown into that segment that is at this stage in the season after last week I'm I'm extremely jazzed about that it's funny I agree but the noon slate in week seven has some serious like yucky potential like there's a lot of there's a lot of potential mess ready to be on display in the early window but I really like the late window games Monday night is just gonna be a banger and so like I feel like that's the centerpiece but yeah I mean I think it'll be better but there is there's some potential for some real ickiness in the noon window on Sunday you guys already know in the new window what are you talking about that is true we're talking to a guy who gets that excited about Spencer Rattler it's gonna be really fun because this is the first time that the Bears have played at noon since we were in that since we've been in the studio right and so I this is the first experience you're going to have with me forcing the Bears game onto its own TV as everything else is happening and you guys having to live with it.

2:49So I know you've said that you're okay with it. Just wait until we get like four weeks into this experiment. It's actually, it's like nature is healing because the Bears are back at noon and the Cowboys are playing the 3.30 game, no matter how deserving they are of it. So this, this is the NFL I know and love. We've got like two and a half games of the week this week. You guys will figure out what that means here in a little bit but we're going to start with the marquee game of week seven the bucks at the lions these games of the week presented by bet mgm the lions are five and a half point favorites in this game which i don't know caused me to raise a little bit of an eyebrow i think that seems like a pretty big line considering the fact that the bucks are five and one right now derek not surprised he's a bucks hater so he that this has to make sense to him they when you win five of your games on the last play of the games there's a little bit of weirdness going on here like there's a little bit of they're good but not that good maybe this is this is Derek to a tee where you're like man did you see this NFC South quarterback that's lighting the league on fire and Derek's like I know Spencer Rattler's the man dude forget about Baker Mayfield I can't wait until we get to the Baker MVP part of this discussion and Derek starts making the case for Spencer Rattler's MVP case all right Bucks at Lions why is this a game of the week we try to answer that with all of the games that we pick for this segment and this feels like a pretty easy win to me, Dave.

4:08We have a five and one Bucs team going to the Lions. We know the Lions are yet again a contender in the NFC. I think we talked about this a little bit on the team tier show that we did earlier on the athletic football show this week, just about the Bucs and their placement and all of this and whether they can kind of kick down the door of that contender tier in the NFC. They've beaten mostly teams that were in tiers two through four in the show that we did earlier this week. This is the first time where they have a chance to really knock off one of the best teams in the NFL. And so I do think this is a potential for this is a potential week for the Bucs to maybe change the way that people like Derek are currently thinking.

4:44I was going to say, yeah, single out Derek, because I don't need the Bucs to prove anything to me, especially when it comes to the Lions. I mean, they were one of the only teams that beat the Lions last year. They played them really well in the playoffs a couple of years ago. So I have every faith the Bucs can put on a good showing in this game. but I guess narratively and and you're right our tears show kind of illustrated that where you just don't think of the bucks as a team that you can take for granted where you're just like ah the the bills and the chiefs will be in the playoffs no matter what they're dealing with like the bucks are not thought of that way winning playoff team every year but they're like a divisional round exit team every year not a heavyweight and and winning games like this could maybe change people's perception of them.

5:29What's interesting to me, when you look at these two teams specifically, I find that there are a lot of parallels in just what they've become over the last few years. And again, I do think that the success that the Lions have had is at a slightly different level. They went to an NFC Championship game, I think for a good chunk of last season, you probably could have said they were the best team in the NFL before injuries kind of tore them apart. But I think in the ways that they've kind of established themselves over the last few years, I said this on a show a long time ago, and I think it applies to these two teams really well.

6:00I said, being a GM in the NFL is having to figure out a way to win with Ryan Tannehill as your quarterback, right? Not everyone gets a Josh Allen or a Lamar Jackson or a Patrick Mahomes. For the most part, you're dealing with guys that are in the middle class of quarterbacks, guys that can be really good like Jared Goff and Baker Mayfield have been, but they aren't the aliens of the sport. And that just leaves you with a little bit less margin for error. And if you look at what Jason Light and Brad Holmes have done and how they've built these teams, I think the vision they have for what types of teams they want, how they're kind of always thinking two or three steps ahead for building depth at certain positions.

6:33Like, I know that the Bucs are banged up at receiver, but the idea that like Tez Johnson has come in and given them like real productivity at that spot. Players like Ben Bredesen, who signed for nothing after a really down year with the Giants, and then he comes to Tampa, plays well enough to earn an extension. You see the best versions of guys as they come through these buildings. And I think the same has been true in Detroit, the way that it has been in Tampa. And so what Jason Light and Brad Holmes have done specifically just in how they've created a culture of resilience, continuity, and just throughout that entire building.

7:08I do think there are a lot of similarities between these two organizations over the last three or four years. And maybe most importantly, and you touched on it briefly, but just nailing your draft classes. That's the core of it. Deeply, deeply impressive. And I think it's fun to think back in retrospect as the Lions have become this fantastic class of the NFL type of team where a lot of that has been second guessed for Brad Holmes by people like you and me, where he got killed for taking a running back and a linebacker in the first round. Or did you just give up too much for the Arkansas receiver in the third round who didn't really do a whole lot in college?

7:47And time and time again, and it is a it's a small ish sample size because it's only since 2021 or trading up for Jamison Williams. Like I've been right about a lot of these sort of DNA changing decisions, like the major draft picks, like you hit on the obvious ones like an Aiden Hutchinson. but you're also right about anything that remotely resembles a gamble. And then Jason Light, I mean, that is a decade plus of excellence in the NFL draft. I mean, obviously, when you do it for that long, you're going to have some whiffs. Well, it comes on the heels of like the Roberto Aguayo years. It comes with lean stretches that the Bucs had, but it absolutely has been turned around.

8:28I went back and looked like, yes, you can go find some pretty embarrassing decisions, some embarrassing classes if you if you look back over jason light's history roberto aguayo being the most famous one but man from that the vernon hargraves draft too like it was a rough stretch for them but a little while i always forget he was a first round pick that like jump scares me every time i look at it there are some real fun ones waiting for you in the bucks draft history page of pro football reference you can count on the bucks for like at least a hit a year for the most part over the last like six years and then some truly incredible ones like you get a headlining class like they drafted Tristan Wirfs and Antoine Winfield.

9:06That's the one that I always come back to because it felt like that roster was after they got Brady. Right. And so they signed Brady. And then when I thought about that team, I was like, man, if they get like one defensive playmaker and attack a lot of this draft, they could be really good. Like all pro caliber pro guys at both of those spots and then won the Super Bowl that year. Or even like, OK, I'm not about to say a single sexy name, but the 2022 draft produced Luke Gadecki, Rashad White, Kate Otten and Zion McCollum, just putting the ball in play, like three, three out of four from the plate with like two RBI, like just doing your job really, really well.

9:41And it's been like that way more often than not. It's really impressive. And 2025 looking really strong through the first six weeks of the season. And that joke, Derek, about you having to win with Ryan Tannehill, I use that as like an archetype of quarterback, right? Like it's a guy who is probably the 12th or 13th best quarterback in the league, even when he was playing at his best. But in this situation, both the Bucks and Lions have their version of the Ryan Tannehill arc in terms of finding a discarded, formerly productive player and then getting more out of him in this stop than he had ever been in his entire career.

10:15Like what did the Lions and Bucks have done respectively with Jared Goff and Baker Mayfield is a huge reason that they are currently in this spot. Yeah, it is like, I mean, finding above average quarterback play in this league is incredibly hard to do and sometimes you have to to go on to the scrap heap for it and obviously ryan tannahill was traded for like nothing uh jared goff was traded for a much better quarterback on the other end and then obviously baker mayfield acquired for absolutely nothing and so for them to be able to do that it's also like you see a pretty clear formula with all the teams that have done this right it's like really good offensive line in front of these guys you that's another parallel that's absolutely worth mentioning between those two teams the offensive line ecosystem they've created is remarkable it's insane and obviously it's like a slightly different like how they've done it and where they they've invested a little bit but like they've just done a really good job of you get a couple of your stars with obviously for the lines for a long time it was frank ragnaut and then penne sewell and then you just fill it in with a couple of these other mid-round picks or guys that you sign off the street to do it for a year or two and they've both done a really really good job of that and then on top of just protecting the quarterback well and making sure that he feels comfortable you find whatever his mode of offense that he really wants to operate in with baker mayfield it's a lot of we're going to throw down the field and then we're going to take some stuff off your plate with are like a really good screen game and they do a really good job of that in Tampa Bay whereas obviously with the Lions it's we're not going to throw down the field that much but we're going to throw over the middle where Jared Goff is like he's going to pin that dig route that drift route whatever onto anybody into any window I mean you even saw it against the Chiefs some of the windows that he was fitting in that game were preposterous and like very few other quarterbacks want to throw and like he more than anyone probably fits into the the exact Ryan Tannehill archetype and he's just kind of leveled it up since then the other one that I hadn't really thought about until this very moment, the Bucs' ability to maintain this level of success after moving on from multiple offensive coordinators, that was a lingering question we had about the Lions coming into the year.

12:03So far, so good. And I think that, again, speaks to just resilience in your organization, your ability to kind of withstand that level of attrition. I'm trying, I'm thinking about this off the rip, but I mean, this is the conversation we're having about these two teams and these two programs. Like obviously, Philly would have a lot to say about this. There are a couple of teams like Kansas City and Buffalo, obviously, when you draft a quarterback of that caliber. It makes everything easier. But the stability that these two teams have put together over the last four or five, six years, whatever it is, it's just really impressive.

12:39And I think these are two of the best programs in the NFL over recent history, especially when, like I said, you don't have a Josh Allen or a Patrick Mahomes or a Lamar Jackson and that can kind of tie everything together and paper over the cracks, the stability and the consistency with which they've done things well is commendable. Yeah, I think you can make a really serious argument that over the last three or four years, Jason Light and Brad Holmes have been the best general managers in the NFL. And I include Holly Roseman in that conversation because I think we've talked a lot about this, Derek.

13:12There's just more of a margin for error in the way the Eagles are allowed to do things. Like the way they financially kick the can down the road, you can make mistakes here and there and they just don't hurt you quite as much. I don't think if the Bucks and the Lions made a mistake to the level of like the Bryce Huff contract, I think you'd feel it a little bit more than you would for a team like Philly just because of the way that they've been able to spend and the way that they've been able to go about constructing that roster. That's the thing. I think there's no denying that Howie has made the most of his situation, but it comes with like a very small asterisk of, yeah, like he just gets to do stuff that other guys don't get to.

13:45He gets to take more swings, you know, more bites at the apple than I think a guy like Jason Light or Brad Holmes would be able to. Like you said, if those guys made some of those misses, I think it would hurt this roster a lot more. But they just don't make a lot of those misses, and a lot of their aggressive moves have generally worked out for them. So let's get to the specifics of what might happen on Sunday between these two teams. Monday. Let's get to the—this is me. This is another example of me not knowing what the schedule is. I have no idea what anybody is playing at any given week. Let's get to the specifics of what happens when these teams play this week in week seven in the NFL.

14:15This weekend, in week seven, yeah. Yeah, the Bucs have historically played the Lions really well. They beat them in the regular season last year. They lost to them close in the 2023 playoffs when that Lions team felt like they were significantly ahead of where the Bucs were at that point. And I think, Derek, the more intriguing side of the ball when it comes to that tough matchup is when the Lions offense has the ball against this Bucs defense. I think the way that Todd Bowles usually goes about his business, but especially the way that he's approached Jared Goff over the last couple matchups, I think there's a reason that the Lions offense doesn't look like the well-oiled machine that they often do when they have to play against these Bucs teams.

14:53And I think Todd Bowles, that was kind of a learning process for him, because I think the first, you know, a couple of times that he played against this team since Jared Goff has been the quarterback is he did want to throw a lot of the blitzes, because that's what Todd Bowles goes into probably any week thinking that he's going to do. but I think that last year we saw he was like you know what Jared Goff if we send extra bodies he's very good at knowing where the voids are but if we create the illusion of a void and we only bring forward with some of these simulated pressures creepers all that stuff drop random guys off into the hash you know or hook area that he just didn't think would be there that's how you can start to frazzle Jared Goff I also think that getting pressure along the interior is a way to to pressure Jared Goff which again if you're firing your linebackers that's going to be where a lot of the pressure is coming from.

15:39And so I think that they've done a really good job. Like last year, they only sent more than four pass rushers, 23.2 % of the time, which was like a league average game and like well below whatever Todd Bowles wants to do in a given season. And so I think this was a learning process for him. And I think that's going to be a huge part of this game. I think in the passing game, it's going to come down to like, can they just get Jared Goff guessing the wrong way three or four times this game versus how many times is Jared Goff going to throw a dig route right past the linebackers ear hole like i think that's going to be the push and pull uh on some of these passing downs just for context so they blitzed on per next gen is like 26 of snaps in the two combined matchups in 2023 it was 46 of snaps so that is a huge difference and golf i think his success rate was like 45 in that game last year to negative 0.23 epa per drop back in that bucks game and what's even more important when you consider all of this is that jared golf was the best quarterback in the league against the blitz last year if you look at any sort of advanced metric.

16:37He has a 65 % success rate against the Blitz per next-gen stats this year. It was like 55 % last year. So all these areas where the Lions offense was incredible last season against the Blitz, against man coverage, they've actually been better in those areas over the first six weeks than they even were last year when they looked like an absolute monster in those situations. Funny thing, it's fun to remember the context and I remember that game vividly obviously we didn't know the lions were going to go on to only lose one more game but when they lost to tampa in week two of last season they put up 463 yards of offense they went one of seven in the red zone like it's just the classic case where like execution down there can make or break you and tampa did enough to force an incompletion or get a sack or i think they they picked golf off in the red zone at least once i don't remember exactly how many times but they They gave them fits down in that part of the field.

17:34And so obviously Goff is killing the Blitz. It doesn't seem like something you want to do. But remember, was it two weeks ago? Darnold was killing him on the Blitz too. And then the Blitz that decided the game was the one that led to the errant throw that Levante David was able to pick off. And I just, I wonder who's going to be more on the screws in those sorts of situations. Because like, I'd be shocked if the Lions can't move the ball here. It's just a matter of, can they finish the job? Let's get to the other side of the ball. We have a matchup between two mash units at this point with the Bucs receivers and the Lions defensive backs.

18:09I actually appreciate this because at least it makes it like a somewhat fairer fight. In most situations, the Bucs receivers, when you're down to like your fourth and fifth guy and you're going against a team starting secondary, it's like, oh, that's kind of a bummer. At least in this one, we're at similar levels of depth that we've had to dig into. It's so funny because there's an outside chance or a chance that Mike Evans comes back from his hamstring. And typically, like if I'm Baker Mayfield, I'm bummed out. I'm pissed off that my receivers aren't all healthy together. But with what he's been dealing with, he's like, this is manna from heaven.

18:44Like if Mike Evans can be available, so it's not just Tez Johnson, Cameron Johnson and Sterling Shepard in his 12th year. He's like, yes, please. Mike Evans would make me in my life so much easier if he's available for this game. It sounds like a Lee McNeil might be back for the Lions, which we've talked a lot about that over the first five or six weeks. Even though the Lions defense has been playing pretty darn well, you clearly see a lack of pass rush juice in the middle of that defense. So getting a guy like a Lee McNeil back is going to be huge. Anything else, Derek, that you have in front of mind when you think about this matchup, the Bucs offense against the Lions defense in this game?

19:19I think that probably is the big one to me. I would also still say like the Bucs screen game has still been good, but I would also say the Lions have done a pretty good job. like their linebackers are playing extremely well. And so I think that's going to be an interesting like strength on strength, which of these guys is going to is going to handle that well. Because again, I think Jack Campbell is probably playing the best ball that he's ever played. And then Alex Anzalone, I think, looks pretty good, especially coming downhill right now. So I think Tampa is pretty used to getting three free plays a game on some of those screens.

19:46Are they going to be able to get them in a game like this? The last thing to note on this side of the ball, our producer Katie brought this up when we were talking earlier today. It's pretty ridiculous. Baker, before this season, his MVP odds per bad MGM were plus 3 ,000. He was 30 to 1 to be the MVP. As it currently stands, he is plus 325 to be the MVP of the NFL. The only two guys ahead of him are Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen, which that's just like baking in history. The fact that it's this close between these three guys, I think, speaks to not only the season that Baker has had, but I think, Dave, some of the growing momentum and the narrative around the season that Baker's had.

20:25We've talked about it a lot. Everyone else seems to be talking about it a lot. Like he is probably the central figure in the NFL so far this year. Yeah, he absolutely is. And A, the success that he's having. And B, I think people have paid attention to what the Bucs have been through, like the injuries on their offense and the things he's had to overcome. The fact that obviously Emeka Ibuka is a phenomenal rookie, but having a lot of success with a rookie receiver. And I think also visibility probably plays a role. Like you get a Monday night game against Houston. And I know it wasn't a primetime game, but everybody was watching that show between the Seahawks and Bucs.

21:03Like everybody saw that game. And when you throw that in with a highlight like the third and 15 scramble, third and 14 scramble he had against San Francisco that, you know, that's the type of play where they're cutting in during every other game to be like, you see this shit that Baker did? Yeah. So I think, I mean, he's playing well enough to justify it. but there's a lot of narrative push behind it too. A couple things to keep in mind here. Brian Branch is suspended for this game. So just throw that on top of the pile of injuries that the Lions are dealing with. And then Kirby Joseph also is banged up right now.

21:32And so beyond the corners that are hurt, the Lions could also be missing two safeties in this game. They're going to be missing at least one. If Kirby can't go, then it would just be Amik Robertson as far as guys that are supposed to be out there. And he's in a different spot than the one where he started the season because they had pushed him outside. Our next game of the week is two games of the week, and this will make sense in a second here. We were trying to pick what our second game would be, and we couldn't decide. We were arguing about it in real time on Tuesday when we started programming the show.

22:02So we thought, you know what? Let's just talk about that and why we couldn't decide between these two games. This naturally works out very well because you and Derek are on opposite sides of this argument, and so I'm just going to sit back here and be the arbiter as you guys try to make your case for which game belongs in this discussion. The two options here are the Colts at the Chargers and the Rams versus the Jaguars in London. Derek, you are on the side of Rams-Jags as being our second game of the week. You have the floor. Make your case for why Rams-Jaguars is the second game of the week.

22:33I will make my case. And I want to lay it out for the audience, too. Objectively, it is very close. These two teams are like, I think the Rams and the Colts. He's already backtracking. We haven't even started. He's already backtracking. I am not going to back off of this, by the way. The Rams and the Colts are within two spots of DVOA at each other. And I believe the Jaguars and the Chargers have been two spots like this is about as close as it gets in terms of a matchup. However, the reason I am picking Rams Jaguars is that if I'm comparing the two, quote, better teams in this game, which to me are the Rams and the Colts in either respective game, I would rather if I have to split the difference in quality or what I want to watch.

23:06It is the team that has Matthew Stafford. And I also think the Rams defense is just a little bit better. And so I'm going to just be the Colts. exactly like we've already have proof of concept that this team is at least a little bit better than them so that is why i would i would say that that team is a little bit better now it comes down to the jaguars and the chargers if this was happening in week three i would probably say that the chargers are more a more compelling team where they had a little bit more health like kahlil mack was still there joe alt all this stuff you still had some of your best players marion hampton those guys may not play this week and probably won't play this week which to me makes a Jaguars team that is randomly like one of the better teams in the league by record and having a really good defense, I think that makes them a more compelling team.

23:47So I would much rather watch Rams Jaguars. There's also like the added little bit of element of like Liam Cullen going against Sean McVay, which I think is really interesting. Like there's just there's a little bit more juice to this game for me. The Liam Cullen Sean McVay wrinkle is actually a good thing to bring up. We had not mentioned that earlier today. And so I think that's a point in Derek's favor. I don't appreciate the Kamani Vidal erasure and how we're not excited about that. Oh, Marion Hampton not playing is a reason that Derek Roy doesn't want to watch this game. So here's my concern with Derek's case.

24:16I think this is a lot of, well, the better teams of the two, I prefer the Rams, and the lesser teams of the two, I prefer the Jaguars. That's not how I conceive of matchups and which one is more compelling to me. And so I think there's an argument that even if the teams, the better and the lesser team aren't quite as interesting or intriguing in your matchup here the game itself could be more interesting so I'm already like giving you a little bit here yeah no I'm I'm more intrigued by just the matchup and I think I think the stakes for me and the kind of what I mean the stakes that's that's the normal way I could have said that by virtue of this being an AFC matchup Colts at Chargers I just think there's a little more on the line and a little more that gets me juiced up.

25:01And on top of that, I'll be, I'll be painfully self-aware. A, I don't trust the London game to be good. And they can be sometimes they can be, but I don't fully trust a London game to be good. And that's where the Rams and Jags are playing. And on top of that, I'll be brutally self-aware. I don't want to have to treat an 8 30 AM game with like game of the week intensity. You know, like I don't want to hang on every moment of this game. I want to sort of like make my coffee and get ready for work and just sort of have it on. You know, like it's way too intense. Like Derek's going to get out of bed at 630 with game of the week intensity.

25:38That's a little much for me. He's going to get out of bed at 630 with his Trevor Lawrence jersey and wig on. He's going to be ready to roll. What are you talking about? Those two quarterbacks, I will be up for it. Derek's going to sit up in his bed at six on Sunday and yell, Duval! Anyway. He doesn't need the wig. He just takes out the ponytail holder. That's exactly right. His hair's already ready to go. I think, and like Derek's point is valid. The Chargers are very beat up, but I do think, I think there's a natural tendency to just write off the Chargers because of everything that they've been through.

26:10And like when you saw Herbert trying to throw against the Giants front and you saw what it looked like last week, there's a tendency. And we kind of talked about it on the tear show where you're like, ah, poor Chargers. They're just, they're too beat up to compete. Who could ever, who could ever take this team seriously? I think there's at least optimism that they are moving past the active triage station portion of their season. Like they are beat up, but Denzel Perryman is back to practice. I think like full practice, like he's expected to go. So I think that helps your run defense. I don't want to get too excited, but they opened the Khalil Mack practice window.

26:48So even if he can't go now, like Khalil Mack is making his way back to the practice field. That is very exciting. I also don't I don't think Joe Alt makes it back for this game but he at least Could and so yes The Chargers are beat up but I think The Chargers are They're they're more competent And more complete and healthier than they Were when we watched them against The Giants which I think weighs very Heavily in people's minds where you're just like What the hell is Herbert supposed to do if he's Getting pressured 60 % of the time or Whatever silly number it was so I Think the Chargers are a better team evidenced by the fact that they are favored to win this game, by the way.

27:27Like it's easy. That's another interesting wrinkle to this. Yeah. I mean, the Colts are five and one. They would, they're the top team in the AFC by record, but they are not favored to win this game. They are, I think a good team. I think they are still not like they are a flawed team. I think Justin Herbert, provided he has time to throw, can take advantage of this Colts defense. Charverius Ward's still not practicing. Sounds like Kenny Moore might be back, but we don't know for sure. And by the way, I don't I don't think that much of the Colts pass rush. I just like it's not terrible. It's not some sort of Achilles heel, but it is not Abdul Carter being in Justin Herbert's lap in the blink of an eye 12 times on Sunday afternoon.

28:07Given the potential health of the Chargers offensive line getting better and the state of the Colts pass rush, the Colts pass rush is not equipped to ruin the watchability of the game in the way that the Giants were, which I think is an interesting point and a good one. That is completely what I mean. And so like if you take out the idea that Herbert won't have time, what could be more fun than one of the most complete offenses in the NFL in the Colts doing their thing against a team that can't stop the run, by the way. So that's fun to watch with Jonathan Taylor. And then on the other side, we just get to watch Justin Herbert play Superman and try to win this game, which I think secondary is still really beat up.

28:44Yes. And so there's a chance that we actually get like some watchability from the Chargers offense overall. And Derek, I'll ask you this, because as somebody who has really enjoyed watching Puka Nakua play football this season, I think a lot of us have, the fact that he may not play in this game is a huge bummer on multiple levels. I think you can make a solid argument that without Puka in the fold, even with Matthew Stafford, I think the Colts offense is a more compelling watch than the Rams are without Puka Nakua. Do you think that's fair? Yes and no. obviously Puka is one of the coolest players in the league to watch because he just he plays like a psychopath and he's a receiver and there's just not a lot of guys that do what he does at the same time how many coaches are more fun to watch when they have to problem solve than Sean McVay like I just that's the thing that sells me and like we're gonna get a little bit more Jordan Whittington I'm so ready for the Jordan Whittington like seven for 90 in a touchdown game I'm all the way there for that.

29:43So if we can get that, I'm super in. I think I'm probably going to give the nod to Rams Jags for a lot of the stuff that Derek said. And I think I'm really curious about what the Jaguars are. Like I'm still trying to figure that out. And so I think a game against the Rams maybe gives you a little bit more information about that. And I also think that the chaos factor of what the Jags have been so far this season and all the weird games they've played and just the general like that last drive that Trevor Lawrence had against the Chiefs and sort of like the franticness that they can play with and how fun that can be.

30:19I think I'm kind of interested in that. And the Rams have a little bit of that too. Like the Rams red zone woes. And just like, I think that there is a potential for hilarity involved in the Rams Jags game. There might not be with the Colts Chargers game. A Jags London game is bound to involve some hijinks. Like there's no doubt about that. I'm still, I just, I think, I just think this is going to be a really good game. And this is the type of, this is the type of thing I only care about, but the Colts are doing the elusive SoFi Stadium double there. They played there against the Rams like three weeks ago or whenever that was.

30:54And now they're going back. I just think that's a dumb little quirk of this game. It doesn't happen very often. Uh, so yeah, that's fun. All right. So we're going to give it to Rams Jags as the second game of the week, but we only have time to hit one thing from each of these game so let's do that Derek the one thing you are watching in Rams Jags is what I mean it's kind of myself for this game which is Matthew Stafford in this offense versus what the Jaguars defense has been where I think they've been good but I think even with that there's still like a smidgen of like how good are they really and so I think that that's going to be interesting especially without Pukunokua like this is a Jaguars team that is really good at defending the run even with some of their lighter boxes I think their backers are playing better I think the line is playing a lot better and this is against the Rams front that or Rams offensive line that like they can kind of get successful gains but they don't really get any pops but maybe if the Jaguars front can stop them from getting some of those successful gains that would be really nice for them and then I think we've just seen a lot of nice moments from the the Jaguars secondary like obviously Jordan Lewis has played incredibly well this year I think Monteric Brown is what he is as like a cornerback too but like he's had some really big plays and big moments the last handful of weeks and then I think the more they work Greg Newsome into the system he's going to start to look pretty good for them because he was really good in Cleveland before he got traded you go back and watch that game that the Jags defense played against Seattle last week and the Seahawks had like three or four chunks off of play action that were huge swings in the game obviously the huge JSN touchdown that comes against Greg Newsome and his first start in that system they had a really big game to Cooper Cup over the middle of the field and so but down to down especially when the Seahawks were forced to drop back in that game the Jags did make get hard on them.

32:30And Jordan Lewis had it again, like every single week, it feels like he has three or four plays that are like, holy shit, that guy's playing well. So I'm a hundred percent with you on that. The one thing I do think carries over in that entire equation though, is that the Jags have struggled against play action so far this year. They are 29th in the NFL defensively and success rate on play action per next gen. They're allowing 10 yards per attempt on those plays. Not only is that just something worth keeping in mind overall, we've talked about this. The Rams are using a ton of under center play action this year.

33:00And so kind of the focal point of the Rams passing game this year is exactly where the Jags have had a little bit of trouble. And you saw that as recently as a week ago. Let's get to the next one here. Colts chargers. One thing from Colts chargers that you're watching, Derek, what do you got for me? This one to me is the Colts run game is the best in the league. Maybe at least by success rate, that is true. They're up just above 48 percent, which is the best in the league. And some of that is their RPO game is good. Some of that is Jonathan Taylor is playing like an all pro. Some of that is the young offensive linemen they have in there have been playing really well for them.

33:35And even Tyler Warren as a blocker has been kind of kicking people's ass. And so you've got that against what Dave said earlier, a little bit of a mash unit still on on, I think, the Chargers defense. And they've been one of the worst run defenses in the league this year. They play from a lot of two high shells. And I think the thing I want to say about that is you can be a really good run defense from those two high structures. We saw it from this team last year. They were they were pretty solid at certain points. But one, I think when you are one of those two high teams, like you want to live that way, you're just more feeble.

34:06Like if you pull out one of those cards from that house of cards, it all just starts to fall apart. And for them, that's been Puna Ford, obviously Paramin missed some time. And then I think some of the safety play for them in terms of fitting the alley has not been as good this year. So it's just you add on all of those things and all of a sudden you're the 28th best run defense in the league facing Jonathan Taylor. Yeah, you watched that game last week that they played against the Dolphins and RJ Mickens, who's like their third safety now that Alohi Gilman is out of the mix. He's in there for 11 snaps.

34:34One of those 11 snaps, he takes a bad angle on what turns into a 55 yard Devin Achan run. And you really do feel Denzel Perriman not being in there. I think that's compounded by Junior Colson's also on IR. So now they're done that they've been down to Troy die. He was like their fourth linebacker. And he's just not the ass kicker between the tackles that my man, SpongeBob SquarePants, Denzel Perryman is like, I, you feel him not being in here. And then Khalil Mack is truly been one of the most physical edge setting players in the NFL against the run for a very long time. They bring in Odafe Owe, who actually did have an impact on the game.

35:06Lastly, you could feel the difference with them having another like bendy pass rusher in the mix. He had a couple of big pressures, but he is not put together to defend the run. And so I think on a few different levels, you're really starting to feel why this Chargers team is not capable of holding up considering structurally the way they want to play. I'm so glad you said SpongeBob SquarePants because another selling point is the Chargers are wearing the monochrome like electric yellow this week. It's going to... If I had known that, we wouldn't have even had this argument. Bring some Excedrin when you watch this.

35:36It's going to give you a headache. If I had known that, we wouldn't have even discussed whether which one should be the game of the week. I'm geeked, man. Like, that is a valid point. I mean, I won't be surprised if this looks a lot like the other game that the Colts played in SoFi Stadium, where, you know, I mean, I think the Chargers can take advantage of some things about the Colts' defense. I don't know what the Chargers are going to do about Jonathan Taylor, and I think you probably need 28-plus points to win this game. It's crazy. We did an entire video this week about the Colts' pass catchers, and we've talked a lot about it.

36:08I'm obsessed with them as a group. I love the way the pieces all fit together. I've had so much fun watching them this year. And every time I think and talk about the Colts, I just kind of forget to mention that Jonathan Taylor is playing like the best back in the league. He is the most unsung all-pro player in football right now. And like, I mean, there's a lot of guys worth getting excited about on the Colts. I hear you. I mean, all the skill players I saw, and I love how collaborative people are in this space, but our friend Mina Kimes was gushing about Quentin Nelson in the Cardinals game.

36:42So I went back and put that tape on. I was like, yeah, let's go check that out. And he's just beating the hell out of everybody in that game. So there are a dozen reasons to be excited about the Colts offense. That doesn't make sense because there's only 11 players, but there are so many. I mean, every player in chance. You can have the coach. That gives me a dozen reasons. But like, I really, I think Jonathan Taylor is kind of the engine of the whole thing. The idea that Traverius Ward might miss a second game here after sustaining a concussion during warmups last week, all the karmic value that the Colts had to pump in there to get the most out of Daniel Jones, like the cosmic bet you had to make in order for that to work out, they're paying for it on the other end with stuff like that.

37:23We're going to take our first quick break and then come back with one thing from three more of these Week 7 matchups.

37:32The other Monday night game, I see. I know it's on Monday night. There you go. I've thought enough about this to know Texans Seahawks. Another good matchup from this week, Derek. One thing you're looking for in Texans Seahawks on Monday. I feel like we've got to go to the Sam Darnold of it all. I think even though there's a lot of interesting things to talk about with the Seahawks offense, I mean, you know, bringing a new quarterback is what we're going to talk about. So for me, I want to explore this for a second before you dig into this. You tried to pitch the idea of talking about the Seahawks run game against the Texans when we have Sam Darnold in the passing game is like one of the best in the league against one of the best pass defenses in the league.

38:09I just, I love you so much. And I'm still going to do it. I'm still going to do it because it ties into what I'm going to be talking about here. So I'm still going to find my way. Derek is so bored by anything that you can like possibly take for granted. Like he's going to, he's going to seek out the underlying aspect of it. I'll find a way. And so, and so here's, here's my starting point, which I will work to my little run game thing in a minute. the Sam Darnold on so on true media there's you can look up this metric from PFF which is like a probability of drop back rate based on down and distance personnel all that jazz on throws where the probability of a drop back is below 70 percent so you're closer to just like this could be a runner pass doesn't matter defense doesn't know Sam Darnold's the best quarterback in the league 0.56 EPA per drop back he is shredding teams part of that is they've been really good out of 12 personnel, obviously.

39:00And so that can be a little bit more. Is this runner pass? Their play action game has been really good, all that stuff. But when the probability of drop back is above 70%, Sam Darnold drops to 20th out of 37 qualifying quarterbacks in EPA per drop back, which isn't like disqualifyingly bad or anything, but you get to like, OK, this is an offense that we can start to kind of stop. And I think the way that the Texans would get there is the Seahawks run game, to go back to my other little bullet point, gets hit in the backfield more than any other, almost more than any other team in the league. And the Texans front is kind of built to try to hit you in the backfield.

39:37And so if they can get three of those second and twelfths and really start to put them in, hey, you've got to drop back in 11 personnel now, that's where maybe they can get some of the, some of the bad Sam Darnold plays that we just haven't seen very much this year. Yeah, the Seahawks have been able to kind of dictate the way that a lot of games have gone. They haven't been trailing very often. and Darnold has the fifth fewest dropbacks while trailing this year. The Seahawks are 25th in their number of third down dropbacks with five or more yards to go. They, for the most part, have been able to play the game they've wanted to on offense.

40:07What I'm interested in is just the personnel matchup on both sides of the ball. Teams this season, this is crazy, and this says a lot about the way the Seahawks want to play offense. Teams are playing 51 % base defense against the Seattle Seahawks this year. In 2025, we're getting 50 % base defense against the Seahawks. Do you know how many yards per attempt or yards per play the Seahawks are averaging when they throw against those base looks? 13.1. I was going to say 9.7. That's obscene. When I saw that this morning, I was like, oh my God. And you feel it when you watch them. 13.1 yards per play on throws against base defense this year for the Seahawks.

40:50The league average is 6.9. And the Texans, like they have for multiple different years, they play as much nickel as anybody in the league. They're 79 % this year. It's the second highest rate in the NFL. And I'm curious, Derek, because I think we talk about the quality of the run game and then how it really hasn't been very good. The structure of playing with a lot of heavy bodies and committing to the run allows you to unlock everything else about the Seahawks offense. I wonder if a team like the Texans is just going to be like, this. Like, why would I put another linebacker on the field when I don't trust you to be able to run the ball at me?

41:23I know this is what you want me to do. So I feel like eventually we're going to reach a critical mass where a team is just going to say, oh, you're not going to dictate the terms of how this is going to go. Your run game isn't good enough to warrant that. And also isn't like half the point of having Jalen Petrie is that he's kind of a linebacker for you anyway. And that's why you can live in a nickel. I'm going to say that feels like a unique advantage for them in this matchup. Yeah, it's like kind of a perfect setup for them to be like, yeah, we'll be a nickel. This is fine for us. We don't really care.

41:53I think Danico Autry is making his way back. I think there's a chance he might play this week. He's been on IR for a good chunk of time. And then the Seahawks have 35 players that have been hurt. And so Derek Hall, Rick Wollin, Julian Love, Devin Witherspoon all missed last week. Again, this is a Monday night game, so we do not have a lot of clarity about injuries, but just something to keep in mind. Our next one here, Eagles and Vikings. My one thing I want to know is what is going to happen for the Vikings at quarterback? Because this is going to be an ongoing discussion now for since free agency, essentially us discussing both the short and long term plan for J.J.

42:30McCarthy. Both of the quarterbacks for the Vikings are practicing right now, but they have not committed to who is going to play. And I know Derek's part, that is like a little bit of an alarm bell about what they currently think of J.J. McCarthy. I'm curious what you think is going into this approach and this decision for Minnesota in this moment. I was a beat writer for 10 plus years. I roll my eyes and don't believe most of what comes out of press conference settings. In the case of J.J. McCarthy, if he says he is not 100 % healthy, which is what he said when he talked to reporters, I think it was on Wednesday talking about his ankle.

43:13And he said, what you want to hear from a quarterback, like, you know, I hope I get to play, but we're going to be smart. We're going to be patient, all that type of stuff. This is a case where I'm like, good. Yes, don't don't do that. Like, please, God, don't you are not in a position in your career where you you should be rushed out onto the field at less than 100 percent because you give your team that much of a chance to win. I mean, we saw the first two games of JJ's season like that is. I don't want to see a less than 100 percent version of that, and I don't really think it's fair to him.

43:49You're going against Vic Fangio, by the way, and even with how we might feel about some of the holes in Philly's defense, like that is still a talented group that can make life hard on you. This is a case where 99 percent of the time I'm like, this is bullshit. You're you're hiding him. You're doing something. I don't think that's the case at all here. I think you kind of owe it to a guy that you have invested in this kind of capital in to put him in the best situation possible. And if he's anything less than 100 percent, I think the only sensible play is to keep him the hell out of there. And if it has to be Carson Wentz, well, at least we get to see a Carson Wentz Eagles reunion.

44:26That part of this is fair to me. If they don't think he's 100 percent, he's a young quarterback. They've already like kind of built themselves a cushion with winning some games. So like I get if you want to keep him on ice. I just think to me, a lot of the messaging about what he is as a player has been very noncommittal and not as enthusiastic as you often see with a lot of young quarterbacks. That to me is always. And some of that started in the offseason with the flirting with X, Y and Z quarterback, including Aaron Rodgers. And I think that's just continued with the way that they've kind of talked about what Carson Wentz gives to the offense, you know, for all the issues that he has versus a lot of the stuff.

45:01them being like very honest and forthright with a lot of the stuff that J.J. McCarthy still has to work on and kind of puts on the offense. I think the messaging behind closed doors has been not like full-throated enthusiasm, but more belief than the Aaron Rodgers dalliance would lead you to belief. I think that was in part an Aaron Rodgers wanting to play for the Vikings thing, right? And so here's where I land on this. I think there are similarities broadly with what happened with Anthony Richardson last year, where you have a young quarterback who needs work and needs time and needs reps. But in the Colts situation, I think that they were justified in kind of pulling him back because there were some things going on behind the scenes where you can't really lie to the locker room, right?

45:45When he's pulling himself out of games and things behind closed doors are not being done to the level they need to be done at. I think you make a decision for the health of the organization. shit. I think in the JJ McCarthy case, based on everything I have heard about the way he goes about his business, the way that he works, the way that he is wired, there's nothing going on like that. And so I think some of us made mistakes in saying, well, you have to develop Anthony Richardson last year without thinking about some of the optics here. I don't think that should be under consideration. And so I'm a little bit more tempted to say he has to play at some point.

46:16And so I think if you're making the decision to play Carson Wentz because you want to win some football games in the short term, that is a mistake in my opinion, because eventually J.J. McCarthy is going to need to play in order for this to all come together. Because let's say you play Carson Wentz for the rest of the year, you win nine, 10 games and you lose on wildcard weekend and J.J. McCarthy doesn't play. Where does that put you at the end of the year? That I don't support. But if the thought process is this guy is important enough that we have to insulate him from not playing at 100 % because his development, his confidence, his trajectory is key to where we're eventually going to have to go.

46:52That part of it, I can more easily get behind. And to be clear, if we're still doing this song and dance in another three weeks, now my bullshit meter is going off and I'm like, all right, call this what it is, which is you don't trust this guy to get into the game. But it's been a month since he sprained his ankle. ankle sprain can be a four to six week injury that's very normal and if he's and like this is a case where if uh if it was i mean name a quarterback if it was any franchise quarterback i'd be like throw some extra tape on that thing bud we need you but jj is not at that point in his career no and the last three starts he's three he's two starts and he hasn't even made the third one yet.

47:33So to ask that of him just because he needs to play, I can't get there. But again, if we're doing this at the end of October, what, they play Thursday night football after this Eagles game, and then they've got the Lions on November 2nd. If we're not pretty confident that he's going to be playing when we get closer to that, then I'm starting to get suspicious. But right now I'm like, please protect your investment. Carson Wentz can start this game and it won't sink or save your season. Specifically, more granularly about this game, what I'm looking at is the offensive lines on both sides of the ball and the run games on both sides of the ball.

48:11Because the Eagles' inability to run the ball on their own terms this year has been one of the things that's really held them back. Last season, even as the passing game was really uneven, even if they had stretches where A.J. Brown was asked what was wrong with the offense, and he said passing before they won the Super Bowl, they were able to run the ball whenever they wanted to. I was looking up the numbers on this today. It's wild. The Eagles have two runs of 20-plus yards this year. Two. A Jalen Hurts scramble and a throw that was backwards to Will Shipley in week one against the Cowboys. Saquon had 17 runs of 20-plus this year.

48:47He has zero so far this season. And so they need to be able to get back to a place where they can at least rely on the ground game. And it does sound like Landon Dickerson may be back this week. He has been limited in practice. Getting him back, I think, would go a long way. And I think the same thing goes for the other side of the ball. No matter who is playing quarterback for the Vikings, it looks like they're going to get Donovan Jackson back this week. Brian O 'Neill, who we thought would miss more time than this, was back at practice this week. And so if that offensive line can get back to something closer to full strength, even if Ryan Kelly is still out, and they can run the ball in the way they want it to coming into the season, that is an area where the Eagles have struggled.

49:21And so I think which of these teams can more consistently run the ball in this game? Derek, that is probably the specific thing that I'm looking for the most. And honestly, like I think we kind of forget or like glaze over the fact a little bit that like the Eagles front is like kind of just missing a lot of guys and banged up like Z'Darrius Smith just retired. Their linebackers have been a little bit up and down just in terms of health this year. Like it's not as surefire of a unit as I think that we want it to be or maybe thought that it could be coming into the season. And so I think if the Vikings can get some of their guys back, it could be a decent game for them.

49:56I also think getting Quinn Yon Mitchell back is huge because we already were worried about one of those outside corners for the Eagles and then him going out. You just felt like how important he is to the overall formula with that secondary when you're so worried about who that other outside corner is. Can I throw out one more dumb stadium nugget that might only be interesting to me? You sure can. If it's Carson Wentz, which it kind of sounds like it will be. It's funny that I just don't care about that. I probably should care that Carson Wentz is playing against the Eagles. He's playing against the Eagles in the building where the Eagles won the Super Bowl when he wasn't their quarterback.

50:28Like this is where the Eagles Patriots Super Bowl happened. So that is just a fun little thing for me. Carson Wentz having to play the Eagles in that building of all buildings because he's a Viking now. Derek, do you think that Carson Wentz has cause or case for a revenge game? It's too many teams ago at this point. I mean, this is what like too much money by the Eagles. Yeah, this is what like five, six teams later. Get over it. Pro athletes are psychos, dude. They will look for any reason to feel slighted and motivate themselves. So I think everything qualifies as a revenge game when it's your old team.

51:02Carson Wentz was paid$79 million in cash by the Philadelphia Eagles. He's fine. I think he's going to be okay in the long term. Last one here, Dave. Commanders-Cowboys, one thing from this game that you're looking out for. The commanders side of this is more pertinent right now, although there is a DAC thing I want to hit. But Derek, you and I, I mean, we've been on the train that the commanders are candidates for regression. We don't know if that'll happen yet, but kind of already is this. Well, thank you, Robert, because this is this is kind of what it looks like, right? Commanders started four and one in one score games last year.

51:41They were eight and four on the year in one score games. They're oh and two right now. Part of that is because you didn't have Jaden Daniels for a loss, but some goofy shit happens in the rain. and you lose to the Bears, ironically, they lost to the better team. I mean, that notwithstanding. I just, I love how their biggest thievery of 2024, the Hail Mary game, came back and turned into a game that they should have won. Like, wow, it's McJustice. Welcome to, can we get through this? Welcome to the variance of the NFL. And so now you go on the road against the Cowboys, like on paper, this is a game that you should win.

52:23It's a miserable Dallas defense. They have a losing record. They can't stop anybody. You're favored on the road. This is a game that you should win. Dak Prescott's playing well enough that you should be worried about not winning. Like Dak Prescott is playing at a level and he's got a lot of hell over the course of his career for not being a quarterback that can will a team to a win. That's what he's doing right now. I know the exact situation the Packers were in when they went down to Jerry World like two weeks ago. They should have won that game and they didn't because Dak played out of his mind.

52:53And CeeDee Lamb is practicing, by the way. Brian Schottenheimer said, like, as long as he's breathing, he's probably going to play. So, I mean, they haven't even needed CeeDee to be incredibly explosive. And I do love the wrinkle of if he played for any other team. Like, I'm thinking about Geno as a Seahawk and Kirk Cousins in his latter years as a Viking where football hipsters like us are like, Kirk's actually playing some of the best ball in the league but casuals don't know that because he's like buried at 12 o 'clock on Sunday. And just, you know, you got to be enlightened like us to know that these guys are balling out.

53:29Dak is that guy. Like he is your favorite quarterback's favorite quarterback right now. But he plays for the Cowboys. Everyone in the world knows what he's doing. Like you cannot fly under the radar, even if you should. Like I said, this is this is a lousy Cowboys team. Their defense makes them unserious, but they're playing the 330 Fox game. That's just who they are. So here's the problem with that, though, is that the visibility makes the narrative more fragile. It's the exact same way it was with Tony Romo, where it's like you can play well 98 percent of the time and be one of the best quarterbacks in the league based on the eye test, any metric you want to look at.

54:04And then if you throw one late interception, the entire thing changes because everyone saw you throw that late interception. And I'm going to lose my mind. Actually, you talked about a minute ago, Sam Darnold and the snaps, the dropbacks he's played from behind. Do you want to know Dak's number? it's probably most of them Derek do you want to know Dak's number of dropbacks while trailing it's gonna be some obscene horrible number but yes lay it on me 133 which is second only to Cam Ward in the NFL I feel like there are some quarterbacks in the league who have barely thrown that many passes total let alone while trailing so the other fun thing so like it's not completely unique.

54:45Actually, Patrick Mahomes and Baker Mayfield have played 91 and 88 dropbacks respectively while playing from behind. But since they're playing for good teams, their snaps, their dropbacks when trailing in the second half drop to 37. So like two-thirds of these snaps where you're trailing from behind are in the first half. Do you want to know Dak's second half number? That is double that. 89. This man is doing everything himself. and I know they have a losing record, but for the most part, he's been incredibly successful and I will turn into the Joker if he, like, he's going to leave, he's going to leave, like, an outbreaker inside and get picked off in the fourth quarter of this game and everything that has happened over the first six weeks is going to get completely erased.

55:33And even though the Cowboys are not a serious team, they're going to, like, lead all the Monday talk shows and I'm going to lose my mind. This is going to be the most Sisyphusian season in what has been a Sisyphusian career for Dak Prescott. It's hard to say. But having said all of that, to take it back to the Commanders, you gotta win this game? It's huge. I have a lot riding on this with this Commander situation because I put them in the playoff team's tier of the tiers we did earlier this week. And if they lose this one, have you looked at their upcoming schedule? After Dallas, it's at Kansas City, Seattle, Detroit.

56:06Then you get a little bit of a break, but then the week after that, it's Denver. Like this is murderers row, no weeks off, like after, after this game against Dallas, which isn't even necessarily easy with the way the quarterback's playing. And this is, this is what it looks like. Like, I hate to be alarmist, but this is why you can't fumble at midfield in the fourth quarter against the bears and lose that game. Because how much better do you feel if you're coming into this at four and two instead of three and three? I mean, if the commanders are three and four on the other side of the weekend with what is awaiting them.

56:39That's not good. I maintain they lost to the better team. We're going to take one more quick break here and then come back and spend some time on Sicko Street.

56:50Derek, we've done this every week. We try to spend a little bit of time breaking down a matchup that might look ugly on paper, but we're going to try to give you a reason to watch it. This is by far my favorite one that we have done so far because this is the sickest street that we have ever spent time on so far this NFL season. browns dolphins in a windstorm break it down for me so here's the cell you you've almost never seen a game like this and that's kind of the point is it going to be bad yes but one we don't get two lefty quarterbacks under any conditions of playing against each other very often we've got two of them here both of these guys are quarterbacks from hawaii yes like they're not only lefties They're like every other thing about them is like kind of the same.

57:36It's crazy, like both super prolific college quarterbacks, just like so many different things about them. They also don't have the strongest arms. Now, that matters in any given week. I was generous. That matters, particularly this week when we're getting potentially 40 plus mile an hour wins in Cleveland. And these guys are not built to cut the wind like that. This is not Dan Marino. This is not John Elway. These guys are not going to be able to do that. and so you already have the weirdness of those two quarterbacks and then these teams are bad like we just have potential for two teams that have to run the ball 45 times or throw a bunch of screens it's going to be a lot of tackling it's going to be a lot of pads crunching who wants it more I'm not sure either of these teams have the greatest vibes right now but I'm pretty sure Miami's are worse given all the press conferences I think these are the worst two sets of vibes in the NFL right now less yeah yeah you know what yes it's a who wants it less Beller I think we got to get a running tab of sicko street candidates like the Browns are the runaway like they're leading the clubhouse right now but I have a sneaking suspicion that Dolphins are gonna gain some ground over the second half of the season the Browns are such a bizarre team even the things that are like fun and intriguing about the Browns it's like a weird duck-footed tight end and like an undersized second round linebacker.

58:57Like they are truly a bizarre NFL team right now. But I'm personally looking forward to this. The issue is if we get down to like an actual serious point, if you're going to have to run the ball 40 times in this game, the Browns run defense, even if they struggled a little bit against the pass last week against the Steelers, and that's where they've had more issues, this run defense is still tenacious. And so I think the Dolphins, if that's the type of game that's going to have to be played, are going to, it's going to be an uphill battle trying to play that way. We all, like we come here for the quarterbacks and the high-flying offense, and don't get me wrong, like that is, that's ultimately what I want to watch.

59:33But every now and then, it's nice to go back to like Rutgers-Princeton in 1869 and just really get back to the root of this whole thing. I was going to bring up Iowa. As a college football fan, this is going to be very much like an Iowa football game that we're going to get to watch on Sunday. We're playing it on the shore of Lake Erie, baby. and like it's Big Ten football all the way. It's going to be great. All right, let's get something we're actually excited to talk about. It's time to do a little under the hood about the Falcons defense. So we mentioned this in real time when we were breaking down the Monday night game between the Falcons and the Bills.

1:00:04I kind of sprung this on you guys that I wanted to do a little bit of a deeper dive on the Falcons defense. For this reason, I'm pretty sure, and I'm not trying to like shit on them for this. I'm pretty sure that FTN and DVOA predicted that the Falcons would be the worst defense in the NFL during the 2025 season. Six games into the year, not only are they not the worst defense in the NFL, they are number one in defensive DVOA through six weeks coming off of a big win against the Buffalo Bills. So the entire point of Under the Hood is trying to figure out, well, why is this unit better than we expected them to be?

1:00:39I think you can make a case, even with Sam Darnold, even with Daniel Jones, the Falcons defense being this, Dave, is probably the most surprising single unit performance in the NFL so far this year. I've had a blast watching them since we decided we were going to do this. I have become a big fan. I still don't know why they're that good. Number one in DVOA is so impressive. I wonder how much variance there is going to be as the season goes. But you know what really helps? Having the sixth highest pressure rate in the NFL, which if it lasts would be Atlanta's best pressure rate as a team since 2018.

1:01:19That feels like not even long ago enough. I thought it would be like 10 or 12 years. Falcons fans are just like grimly nodding their heads right now. I was looking at some of the numbers today, and we'll dig into some of them, but I think the one that may be most evocative about how different this Falcons defense feels, Derek, than last year. They are getting pressure on 34.5 % of their non-blitzes this season, which is a pretty good number, right? They got pressure on 32.5 % of their blitzes last season. So their pressure rate on non blitzes this year is four percentage points higher than it was in 2024.

1:01:53That's what we're talking about and looking at with this Falcons team. And I think it's like it's kind of twofold, right? Like one, they are just sending like they are just doing a lot of really interesting stuff with their entire pass rush. Like some of their simulators and stuff are cool, but also just the edge players are better. To me, it is what they're doing with the blitzes, even though their four man rush has been better. That is really like kicking this thing into overdrive. One, they're literally doing it more than anybody in the league. Like they're the only team above a 40 percent blitz rate.

1:02:21Like they are throwing stuff at you. And it's it's not just that they're doing it like the construction of it is really good. Why they're doing it, how they're doing it. Like even just this last game against the Bills. For one, I thought they did a good job of, OK, who's the guy we can pick on? And on the Bills offensive line, I think in terms of trying to get him to move and try to pick stuff up, it's Osiris Torrance, their right guard. They were blitzing that side all of the time, just doing a lot of stuff like there was one where they put Caden Ellis in the B gap and then another linebacker a couple of steps back over the A gap.

1:02:54And I think in Osiris Torrance's mind, he was like, well, Caden Ellis isn't a typical big like a defensive lineman or a defensive end. So I've just got to pick inside threat and go get that guy. And so he goes and grabs the A gap linebacker and there's nobody to go pick up Caden Ellis who's standing on the offensive line like they just the way that they craft this stuff together. is really, really impressive to me. And then I think part of two, why their blitzes didn't get home as often last year, well, if they brought five or six guys, they had some schmuck DB out there who you could just throw at no matter what and just target that guy.

1:03:25They don't have that guy anymore, really. And so I think just the floor of the secondary is a little bit better. And their pass rush plan has been just awesome to watch. You look at some of the numbers. And so just comparing it to last year, this reminds me a little bit just in the difference of feel with the units where you go from something that feels a little bit passive, a little bit more reserved, a little bit more conservative to something that looks unhinged, right? That, it's kind of what the Vikings did going from Ed Donatel to Brian Flores. Like, I do think that there are similar kind of vibes around like watching last year's Falcons and watching this year's Falcons.

1:03:59That tracks so well because if it holds, their blitz rate is the highest since Brian Flores' first Vikings defense in 23. So the numbers on that, They are bringing five-man pressures per next-gen on 41 % of dropbacks this year. It was 19.5 % last year. So they are sending five twice as often, literally, this year than they did last year. When you get to third down, when you get to define passing situations against this team, they're blitzing 65 % of the time. League average is 30.6%. No other team in the league is above 44%. That's Todd Bowles and the Bucks. when you're making Todd Bowles look like Todd Bowles is like, wow, these guys like Smith Bears.

1:04:43And I think you're you're you're really playing in the extreme side of things right now. And I think what's so notable when you watch this team, Derek, is that when you have a team that's this blitz heavy, you can kind of bucket it that way where it's like it's just pure chaos all the time. But it's the details that they're playing with that I find to be so impressive. The way that they're manipulating certain protection plans and the way where guys are coming from, you really feel that. There was a second and 18 on the Bills' first drive in that game. The Falcons had both linebackers walked up just before the snap.

1:05:16At the snap, both linebackers drop out and James Pierce drops out. So it turns into a three-man rush, but because they're coming from unexpected places, a little bit non-traditional, you have the left guard and the center, both get wasted on that play. And so even though it's a three man rush, you get three one on ones, they get a pressure and Josh Allen scrambles for five yards, it sets up a third and 13. So just little stuff like that. And then the other thing that I just, two things that really, really jumped out to me while watching that game, just from a like coaching points and teaching standpoint and a details perspective, the amount of times that they perfectly understood, all right, if the back is running like a wheel or some sort of route to the flat to my side, if I'm an edge player, I have to peel off with him.

1:06:04And because I think they probably know, Josh Allen is so good at finding those quick outlets versus pressure, we have to make sure we're taking away those quick outlets. If you're gonna be a pressure team, you've gotta understand where the answers versus pressure are. And I think they're doing such a good job of that. You saw Arnold Ebicchetti did it three or four times. There was one play where they tried to get James Cook on a wheeled on the left sideline. Caden Ellis is running step for step for him all the way down that sideline, takes away that throw. And then the other thing that just kept coming up on a lot of these third downs, the Bills are so good at having these runaways on third down.

1:06:38A lot of mesh, a lot of crossers. It's like a huge part of their offense. And in some of these pressure looks, they would just drop Jalen Walker out after he was like mugged up in the B gap. And he would literally be perpendicular to the line of scrimmage, just waiting to catch whatever crossing route was coming to him. And so beyond just the aggressiveness and them really turning up the volume, Derek, I think when you watch this team right now, you just have a really good sense of the coaching points and the teaching that's going on and the game plan specific stuff that they're really being able to hone in on.

1:07:10that's the thing is like it looks chaotic when you watch it with all the five and six guys flying around everywhere but to your point like the details are good like knowing that the we're just going to make guys peel also like yeah having Jalen Walker just build a wall instead of a lot of times when you see guys drop off they are exactly like back to the end zone I'm eyes on the quarterback I'm waiting for him to to release and get outside of the pocket and like Jalen Walker can do that obviously but them instead making the decision no we know what they like to do on a lot of these passing downs and where their outlets are.

1:07:39We're just going to take that away. And if Josh Allen gets out of the pocket, fine, but we kind of trust our pass rush right now to not let him do that. And so I thought that was really interesting to me. You mentioned it. The James Cook wheel route that Caden Ellis defends. This to me is where you see the details where they push James Cook out a little bit to the left hand side and they have a tight split receiver to that side with the Falcons, their corners and press coverage. They try to run that receiver right across the middle of the formation to create that little pick on Caden Ellis so that he can't get to the wheel route but the corner actually sees this and like gives a little bit of cushion between himself and the receiver so that Caden Ellis can run in between the two of them and then go and make that wheel right like that's just the communication that those players clearly have and those players knowing what they might get out of certain formations like that's where that comes into play like it's just the details are this of like not that I thought Ulbricht was a bad coach I just don't know if we knew how good of a coach he was.

1:08:34I think what we're seeing now, it's like, OK, this this stuff is pretty buttoned up. It reminds me again of the Flores thing where it's a little bit different because Flores was always very blitz heavy, but it was a lot of man blitzes when he was in Miami. And so you did see him change his stripes a little bit and do something drastically different structurally when he got to Minnesota. I think he learned about himself. He learned where some of his weaknesses were. And we talked about this coming into the year. Jeff Ulbrich was pretty explicit about this. He's like, I think the words that he used were like, I kind of had like an awakening about how you'd have to play defensive football.

1:09:04And we thought that was going to manifest in the front structures they were using because the body types are different. It's manifested in a very different way. Like this is him doing a lot of stuff he never really did with the Jets. Some of the overload stuff where they have an overload front and the linebackers walked into the B gap. That was a part of the Jets pressure plan. But all the layers they've added to it, they've taken it to an entirely different level. And Derek mentioned the Caden Ellis part of it. He's really well fit for this system. The other guy that every time you watch them, what Devon Diablo has been, his ability, he's so rangy, the amount of ground that he covers.

1:09:36Everywhere on Monday night. The play that he makes, roboting, which so when you're a linebacker and there's a play action, you're obviously going to step up and they kind of teach you. You literally turn around and run back toward your area and cover to try to disrupt whatever crossing route or deep route is developing. He does it so perfectly on a quarter route that Dawson knocks. He just kind of reaches his hand backwards without even looking and gets a PB. you. Like there's aren't that many linebackers physically capable of doing that. And so they've had a lot of players that fit what they want to be schematically.

1:10:05And I think that's also helped unlock some of this stuff. It's funny too, because Caden Ellis has been one of the best blitzing linebackers for a minute now. They haven't used Diablo as a blitzer that much, and they did it a lot against the Bills. And I found myself thinking like, well, I know, I know this is Ellis's thing, but you should be doing this with Diablo more too. Like he's awesome at it. I don't like find somebody else who can stay home. Cause both of these guys are good getting into the, into the backfield. And I think the other guy that we know he's a good player, but he's playing an extremely high level right now.

1:10:38Like watching AJ Terrell in that bills game, every time they went at him, it was like, absolutely not like shut down those two Keon Coleman targets. Then there was another one where they were trying to get like, I think it was twice. It might've happened, but there was one on the right side, where Allen had a play action. He was trying to take like a speed out. I think it was to Keon Coleman again. And he's like, I've learned my lesson. Like, I'm not doing that again. And he ultimately gets sacked because AJ Terrell takes that away. And so you got one lockdown guy in the back end. They're playing more single high than any team in the league, which is a drastic change from what they were last year.

1:11:11And I think part of that is because they're willing to live with AJ Terrell in those one-on-one situations. And so again, it's just a really nice marriage of personnel and scheme. And then you combine that with all of the rookies that they currently have contributing to this entire ordeal. It's early, so I don't want to get too excited. But like, I personally, I gave Terry Fontenot some shit. Like, I didn't love the trade for James Pierce. It's still very, very early on that. There's a chance it does not age well. It is, but like, honestly, young guys in general, like Derek, you talked about it over the summer of needing some of the guys you drafted last year to step up.

1:11:48Rook Arororo leads defensive tackles in pressure rate right now. I mean, I'm sure that'll vary as the season goes, but 15 and a half percent pressure rate. That's a guy who's stepping up. And then, yeah, this rookie class is nuts, dude. Like Jalen Walker and James Pierce get the headlines and rightfully so. I've been so impressed with Xavier Watts. I mean, we saw what he could do as a ball hawk in September. But even in this game, just watching them play, you just said they're playing like 70 percent single high. When I saw that stat, I was like, well, yeah, OK. Jesse Bates is probably doing most of that because he's one of the best safeties in the league.

1:12:24And then you watch him and Jesse Bates and Xavier Watts are, I mean, they're playing like they look like they've been playing together for like six years. And they're both, you know, big veterans in this game. I'm like, this is Xavier Watts' sixth game. And he feels this comfortable and confident moving around and playing deep, coming up when he needs to, flipping duties and like deciding who's going to roll in the moment. Like incredibly impressive stuff from him. talking to Jeff Ulbrich before the season, talking about those DBs, what he said to me about Xavier Watts and stuck with me. He's like, football comes very easy to him.

1:12:56Not in a way that was like pejorative, but like in a way that it's just very, very natural. Like when you watch him play. And I think that's why they knew early on he was probably going to be the starter next to Jesse Bates. At the nickel, they weren't sure if Billy Bowman was going to be like the week one starter there in part because they still liked the Alford. Like when they were watching him during camp, they're like, that's a good football player. Bowman gets that job, has some really nice moments early in his career, the moment that he gets hurt and misses a game, D 'Alfred comes in and has the game of his life.

1:13:24It's a nice place to be, right? I mean, that's how you build a really good defense, right? When you have to swap out some of the component parts and you don't see any sort of drop-off, that's what these really good units look like. I do just want to say, too, obviously, when you're drafted that high, you're going to hope that Jalen Walker becomes a dominant guy who can win on the edge and do all that fun edge rusher stuff. In the meantime, he reminds me a little bit of the other Georgia guy, Mikael Williams, up in San Francisco, which ironically they're playing this game against each other. But he's just so fun and useful.

1:13:57They're hard hat players right now. They're just like, hey, go knock the shit out of a guy and make everybody else's life easier. And Jalen Walker's like, yeah, you got it, dude. I'll do that a dozen times a week. Yeah, he's not like some dominant edge rusher just yet, but he just does half a dozen cool things in a game. So this is all the positive stuff. I think if we're really doing like a real diagnostic on what this has been, we have to talk about where the weaknesses are as well. This team is 31st in rushing success rate on defense. And with all of that speed and all that explosiveness and all of that chaos creation that they have in their personnel, Derek, it's left them light in the pants, right?

1:14:34Like, Devon Diablo is a 220-pound player. and you saw last week when the Bills wanted to run the ball straight downhill at them, they're going to struggle to hold up against that sort of run game in those situations. And so that is the drawback of building a team like this and having body types like this is that you are susceptible if a team wants to play against you that way. Right. It's they've just built a lot of small, fast people who hit. And like, honestly, like the Texans are kind of like this. It's just their players are better so they can kind of live with it a little bit more. But it's it's kind of the same issues.

1:15:06And like, yeah, for them, this is why I think they're a good defense. And I have a lot of faith that they can stick as like a top 12 issue unit with just how insane their pass rush is, how much more full their secondary is, all that stuff. But they're a very script dependent defense to me, whereas like I feel like if their offense doesn't give them some sort of cushion early in the game or the opposing offense is a really, really good rushing team or some combination of both. you can end up in games like the Panthers game where you just lose 30 to zero and you don't really ever get a chance in the game because you're the clear like unit for you that can win the game which is your front four and your however many guys are adding on to it can't win you the game anymore and so I worry about that with them a little bit but the good is so good that it's like I'm okay with them in this stage of their rebuild kind of being still a little bit of a script dependent unit the good news for them is the San Francisco 49ers are not built like the Buffalo little bills up front.

1:16:02Even in the good years, that's not how the Niners wanted to run the ball. It's a lot of getting the ball on the edge, a lot of zone. The Niners run game has been objectively bad this season, and so that's not an area where they could probably take advantage of this Falcons team. And the other thing that I think on the other side where it's actually a pronounced weakness for them, the Niners right now are 10th in the NFL in EPA per dropback versus four pass rushers this year. They are 28th when teams bring five or more. You felt that last week when they played against the Bucs. San Francisco with Kyle Shanahan, even in really good moments, last year being one of those examples where even when they were super banged up, they were still a top 10 passing offense, teams have started to figure out ways to pick on that sort of offense and protection.

1:16:42And now you have Jeff Ulbrich, who understands that offensive system extremely well, going against the Niners team that is vulnerable in that situation. And so if there is an offense that is able to pick on this Falcons team, the Niners as currently constructed don't seem like that sort of offense. And especially not with Purdy. Like at least Purdy, you could get the chance of like, ah, he makes a guy miss and goes and makes a play. Mack Jones doesn't do that. And Mack Jones, even though he's played well overall, has been one of the worst quarterbacks in the league when pressured this year. And so if they can get 12 pressures on him in this game, that's where you start to open the door for a pretty tough Niners outing.

1:17:19Before we get to what we want to know from week seven, one more thing we wanted to hit this week, Dave, that you've been on and talking about and thinking about is there are some times where like there's a narrative that crops up over the course of the week that they can be a little bit overdone, but I'm like, no, I'm actually very into this one. Like I actually buy into this and I'm really excited about this. Mike Vrabel going back and playing the Titans a couple of days after they fired their head coach, perhaps so he did not have to play against Mike Vrabel. I'm all in on this one. There's just no perhaps about it in my brain.

1:17:51And like that's, I was trying to be careful. The, the writing, the writing was on the wall that Brian Callahan was on his way out. If it wasn't this week, it would have been eventually. I like, that's totally fair. And the Titans, with the exception of the Cardinals, just handing them a game, the Titans looked like they were getting worse every week. So like, it's not like this is surprising. It's not like this is out of nowhere, but you cannot tell me that the timing of this was a coincidence where arguably the most successful head coach in Titans history? Would it be Mike Vrabel or Jeff Fisher?

1:18:29I think Jeff Fisher probably still, right? Just for a longer period of time. I suppose. And he did get to a Super Bowl, but still an incredibly successful coach who got this team to two division titles, got them to the one seed in the AFC, coming back into town. And if I needed more evidence of this, And I got to give Albert Breer credit for just putting me back on this. I mean, it's common knowledge, but he wrote about it. But the day after A.J. Brown torched Tennessee in 2022, John Robinson got fired. The Eagles beat Tennessee 35 to 10. A.J. Brown, who had just been traded to Philly for a first round pick, goes eight for 119 and two touchdowns.

1:19:12And the next day, John Robinson is fired? does that not reek of reactive ownership decision making to you and so with that in the background and it's it's Amy Adams trunk calling the shots she still owns the team do you think it's a coincidence that even though it's been obvious the Titans were in trouble for a long time and even though I don't think it's questions the Titans bye week is week 10 which is on the horizon like there were so many other times you could have done this and they just didn't want to watch their old coach embarrass their current coach. Like, that's all there is to it. They didn't have an interim, like, in mind.

1:19:48They had to, like, pick Mike McCoy because there wasn't an obvious candidate. It was like, we just, we can't, I can't watch this. Like, I cannot watch Mike Vrabel do what he's going to do to the guy that we replaced him with. Apparently, Mike Vrabel this week, KDR producer brought up the quote that he said, you know, there's some things that are interesting and some things that are important. This is interesting, but it's not important. Like him going back and playing in the Titans. that sounds like somebody who thinks this is important. Mike Vrabel also said, and I'll also say Mike Vrabel had a really nice comment about being sad to see that Brian Callahan got fired.

1:20:22And the coaching fraternity is a very small one. And he had a line about how you hear from a ton of people when you win, but nobody texts you when you lose. So, you know, I don't think it's personal between Vrabel and Brian Callahan. I think it's very personal between Vrabel and the Titans. and he also had a line about the Goodwill in Nashville having a ton of Titans gear that he dropped off on his way out of town. So yeah, regardless of who their coach is, I think Mike Vrabel's interested in having a moment here this weekend. At least the colors are the same. If he's got some red shoes, he can keep rocking those.

1:20:56So if there's not a team specific, at least that carries over. Before we get to what we want to know from Week 7, quick wins pool update. For those of you guys unfamiliar with the practice, We pick five good teams and five and two teams pick to win ish or pick Vegas projecting them for six and a half wins or fewer. So seven teams each seven weeks into the season. I am currently in the lead. I'm 24 and 18 after I think I had a one in six week in week five. And so the fact that I still have that level of cushion makes me feel pretty good. Dave, you were at 19 and 22. Derek is 16, 23 and one. The tie remains disgusting.

1:21:31I listen the Packers disgust me for a number of reasons right now and that that is chief among them I I will say though at this stage to only be like two and a half games back given how like the first three weeks of my season looked I I feel okay I feel okay two and a half games back of not losing well I just need to not lose I don't give a shit about winning yeah I'm really I don't care about winning. I'm just trying to avoid what, which the other fun wrinkle of this is I'm just keeping a close eye on the draft order. Like who's, I mean, obviously it's the jets right now because they haven't won, but I'm just like, all right, which, which, which fan base am I going to have to consult for tips on how to dress like a super fan?

1:22:16So it adds a little extra element of suspense to it. I hate, I feel mean even saying this, Derek, part of me hopes you lose. So you have to do the Bengals like that. There is part of me that like does want to see that. And am I going to be the Bangalorian? Is that, is that where this is going to go? We could use that as like a, like a mood, like inspiration board and then kind of build on that. But I absolutely think that's going to be part of the text that we pull from. Okay. Dave, what do you want to know by the time week seven in the NFL is over? It's flying under the radar because it's not a big game.

1:22:50It's kind of strange to see the Chiefs play at noon, but I want to know what their offense looks like with Rasheed Rice. I mean, we've been saying since August, six game suspension. They don't have or she rice. We don't know what this offense is truly going to look like. And by the way, even with without him, they're second in offensive DVOA right now. Fourth in offensive success rate, ninth in scoring, tenth in explosive play rate. Like they've got that last part is that's that's what really gets me going. It's it's been a while. They're pretty they're pretty good. They're they're rounding into looking like the team that I thought they were going to be.

1:23:25and they have done it without Rasheed Rice. So what does that look like now? And I think this is a good week to bring him back into the fold. I think the Raiders are a defense that you should be able to get the best of. I know the Raiders have famously kind of given the Chiefs fits at times over the years, but a home game against this Vegas defense sounds like the perfect place to reintroduce Rasheed Rice. So I want to know what that looks like. My what do I want to know from week seven is what volume does the Jackson dirt hysteria reach by the end of this game? Right. Obviously your primetime game against the Eagles who just destroyed you consistently over the last couple of years.

1:24:05You win that game. The vibes are just insanely high with the Giants right now based on how he is playing. They have something to be excited about on offense for the first time in a long time. The Giants have finished bottom three in scoring in four of the last five seasons. the year where they didn't was 2022 where they tried to turn their quarterback into a piece of furniture that could just be forgotten like it has been a very long time since you could be a Giants fan and be excited about the quarterback the quality of his play like that's that's an ongoing conversation right like what Derek said on the recap show after they beat the Eagles is right he's just doing shit and it's fun like what they're bringing him and Scadabo to this is incredibly exciting to watch and incredibly enjoyable.

1:24:47If they play well against the Broncos, if the Giants somehow beat this Broncos defense and those guys are at the center of it, I think we're going to be reaching new levels here. And so how excited should we be about the Jackson Dart experience and what does that look like with one game more under his belt? If they even play well, my God, if they beat the Broncos, I'm just imagining like the Sunday morning shows doing like Cam and Dart impressions or like, you know, like Gronk is doing a skit about Jackson Dart or or they're getting Terry Bradshaw to like take his shirt. Everyone's going to have their shirts off.

1:25:26That's exactly what's going to happen. It's going to have shirtless shows everywhere because of Cam Scadabo. Derek, what do you want to know by the end of week seven? Listen, I teased my Spencer Rattler stuff at the top of the show, and I'm going to bring it back this. So his last two games that he's played, I've thought he's played well on film. And we were even talking about this like week one in the hangover and stuff like that. The last two games that he's played are the only two that he's thrown at least 225 yards and at least seven yards in attempt. Like it's been a tough go of it in terms of the numbers, but he's actually stacking some good statistical performances.

1:25:57One, I kind of want to know if he can do it again against the Bears defense that even though they're getting some of their guys back and played OK in that last game, they're still pretty gettable to me. I also think the other more interesting element of this the guy who replaced Spencer Rattler at Oklahoma five years ago or whatever it was was Caleb Williams and so I think there's just a little bit of this yeah it's it's a little bit of a little bit of a revenge game I kind of just want to see how how do they interact and how does that go and how they've been talking about this game I'm a little bummed Derek isn't going to be here to watch the games because it would be very easy to sell him on having the Bears Saints game have their own TV basically as Rattler is playing So I'm going to have to do a lot of the heavy lifting.

1:26:36Along with the six other Bears fans we have in our office. I can't wait. Derek will be back in like three weeks. And if the Bears are still winning and playing this way, he's going to get jumped if he says their defense is gettable. Like, what the hell are you talking about? You're talking about the NFC number one team. You're going to have to recalibrate as a Chicago resident before you get back here. He left down and everybody thought the Bears sucked. And he comes back and they're like, watch your tone about the monsters of the midway. I'm going to have to be slightly dishonest about one team.

1:27:03All right, guys, that's all we have from week seven. Very excited about the slate this week. A lot of good stuff on tap. If you're watching this on YouTube, encourage you to like and subscribe to the channel, doing a lot more stuff specifically for YouTube this year. Our Monday and Thursday shows are only available on YouTube, and both Derek and I are doing plenty of standalone video stuff. I did one about the Seahawks offense last week. Derek has had one pretty much every single week about one scheme nugget that he has noticed from the previous week or just over the course of the season. So I encourage you guys to check those out if you have not.

1:27:35For now, that's all we got. Appreciate you guys listening. We'll talk to you very soon.