Week 8 Recap: Broncos, Eagles, Dolphins get biggest wins of sleepy day

0:02Welcome to the athletic football show. I'm Robert Mays week eight is in the books a tough week eight for a lot of teams around the NFL bunch of blowout wins it was an average 18 points. margin victory before we even got to Sunday night football. So some tough weeks out there across the NFL slate, but still plenty to get to dig into. We started with a massive win for the Green Bay Packers against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night football, paid attention to Drake May and the Patriots, the Eagles offense putting together four great quarters and a big win for the Broncos. Some WTF moments for the Panthers, Falcons and Bengals today in a week where there were a lot of WTF candidates.

0:37And then we got romantic about plenty of moments from week eight in the NFL. Really enjoyed this. Me, Derek Klassen, Dave Hellman. Let's get to it right now.

0:54Week eight is in the books. Not the best week from a competitive standpoint. We had a lot of blowouts before the Sunday night game started. The average margin of victory was like 19 points across the entire slate. It dropped to 18. Yeah, because the Packers did some work in the second half of that game. But thankfully we have a, I think a consequential Sunday night football game to dig into that. That's how I'll frame this win for the Packers tonight. Well, yeah, I mean, and especially because of the way the Sunday night game started, like it looked like this was going to be another frustrating Packers night where it was 16 to seven at half.

1:31They were 16, seven at the half after McManus missed that field goal. I thought we were going to be sitting here trying to come up with reasons why the Packers don't look as good as their assembled parts would have you believe. And then they really just put their foot down on the pedal in the second half. And yeah, it was fun to see a team that we all think so highly of kind of flex their muscle for the first time in what felt like a long time. Derek, Jordan Love finishes 16 of 19 for 214 yards in the second half. At one point, I was shocked by this in real time. And I think the reason I was shocked by it is because two of the completions were so improbable that I figured there's no way he completed 20 straight passes when we had the bloop ball that got caught by Tucker Kraft and then the fadeaway jumper he hits to Christian Watson.

2:17But both of those completions in the second half were part of a 20 straight completion stretch for Jordan Love. It was that kind of half for the Packers in the third and fourth quarter. But it's also like just nobody conceives of Jordan Love as a quarterback capable of playing that way and of doing that, which like is kind of fair. But also I did have a thought that after he had completed those two passes, I was like, I feel like people are going to look at this game and watch this game and remember maybe those first two drives. And then what he did with those, you know, relatively lucky throws.

2:45I think the Watson one is actually just a really good throw. The Kraft one is, you know, he just kind of lets this guy go make a play. But I was like, man, I feel like people are going to see those two moments and be like, ha ha, another Jordan loves silly. Just go have fun game. But he was shredding this defense for a majority of the second half. and even in the first half, I felt like there were a couple of drops. Like Dobbs had one at his knees. Tucker Craft had one hit him in the chest on the third down that he dropped. Like Love could have been even more efficient if a couple of things had gone their way.

3:11And so I'm actually, I didn't think the second half would be this explosive for them. But even going into the half down 7-16, I was like, okay. They were moving the ball, but they had a couple of those drops. Like Dobbs drops one, Craft drops one, like I mentioned. And then two missed field goals. Like if even one of those hits, it looks like more of a one-score game going into half. So I was like already kind of ready to cope and be like, they're playing fine. Just a couple of bad things happened. And then they have this second half that I don't even need to cope. I can just, I can live with the win and we can move on.

3:39You had your arguments all ready to go and then just quietly push them away. I do, before we go any further, I do just want to highlight that crazy swing at the beginning of the second half. Those two plays swing the game. I mean, I know that he completed 20 straight passes, But like those two moments are what allows the Packers kind of put this thing out of reach much faster than we probably thought heading into the third quarter. That's a pretty sick sequence of bad breaks for the Steelers. And like there was some weird officiating stuff in this game. I don't really care. Like the Steelers had four drives in the second half that didn't cover 10 yards of ground.

4:14I mean, the Packers just dominated them after halftime. But to not get the free play flag on that third down and Rodgers is like losing his shit rightfully so. He's the best ever at doing that and taking advantage of it. At losing his shit? Well, that too, but also, you know, chunk play. To not get that and then to look like you're going to get off the field with the Packers deep in their own territory and Love just completes a prayer that turns into a 60-yard gain, those two plays, I think the Packers, they played well enough that I think they win no matter what, but it really changed the complexion of everything.

4:50Like in the blink of an eye, because coming out of halftime, you're just like, ah, we're going to be in for like a nervy, weird Packers game. And after that, I was like, I think the Packers are going to are going to dominate the second half or at least outplay them. It was mildly frustrating in the first half, Derek, because I did like the portion of the game plan where they're getting the ball out of Love's hands. They're trying to create some yak opportunities. I feel like a lot of that was working. You think about the big chunk to Tucker Craft in that half. but they were combining that with some decisions on second and long specifically that were becoming increasingly frustrating like the number of second and long failed runs the inside handoff to Zabian Williams from that split back look they throw that bubble to Matthew Golden that goes for negative one yards and sets up a third and ten and so I did like the fact that they were trying to create some of those yak opportunities get the ball out of love's hand we talked about that on the preview show But combining that with an inability to run the ball and then some of those short, quick passes that didn't seem to mesh with how they should be attacking this team, that was what was frustrating.

5:49But I think you could see the kernels of what would work if they could tap into some of it. And that does feel like the version of the Packers offense that we ultimately got. It was, because it's not like they changed that much of their approach in the second half. Obviously, they get the two chunk explosive plays that Love throws. But for the most part, it was trying to do a lot of the same stuff. It was finding Tucker Craft in the flat, which they did a number of times off of some of their stuff. It was like they just did a good job, I think, of horizontal stretch in the second half. It just started to work a little bit more.

6:21And so I thought that that was like, again, something that they really needed to tap into. And so, again, you get some of your more put together stuff on top of Jordan Love making two plays. And that's generally how they're going to win games. And also, like, I think the other thing that I want to point out is a lot of the herky jerkiness, I think, usually gets pinned on Jordan Love because of the way that he can be in his worst moments. But like, he didn't really have a lot of those moments in this game. I think a lot of it was them trying to find what works with their play calling. And truthfully, I think this is going to be a little bit of a year long thing with them and kind of has been because the offensive line is just not good right now.

6:56And it's been picked up for a lot of the year. And so I think they're trying to find like, OK, what works for us? When can we get away with stuff like Robert, you've mentioned before, I think it was maybe on our preview show that the Packers on third and long have been really, really successful and to a degree kind of lucky with some of that. But on third and shorts, they've been pretty bad. They have, I think, the fifth worst third and short rushing success rate right now. And you kind of see that in some of these moments. Like they had a couple of failed ones in this game that put them in some tough spots.

7:23There was one that, you know, they failed and then had to convert with a Tucker Kraft throw to the to the right flat that they were able to convert. So still a little bit troubling that the run game is a little bit up and down and that the passing game, at least in the short area, is like kind of live or die by a couple of their yak stuff. But I still really do like what this team can do in the intermediate and deep parts of the field. Running game is honestly probably the thing that is the most frustrating and a little bit concerning to me long term, because I do think that the passing game will find itself.

7:50But I mean, this in the first half of this game, they had a twenty nine percent rushing success rate. Like they had 19 yards rushing at the half. Then even in the second half, they really needed to kind of turn to Emmanuel Wilson to find those chunks on the ground. And so combine the fact that, you know, Josh Jacobs has not been that effective combined with the state of the offensive line and the way that they're playing. This team is still solid on the ground. Like if you look at the overall numbers, but I do feel like as an, we've talked about this, Derek, when you're going to try to be explosive in the passing game and you're going to hunt out those chunk plays, having the run game to tap into is like the overall engine of your offense is like a stabilizing factor that becomes really important.

8:29And I think tonight for a good chunk of this game before Wilson got going in the second half, you felt what this offense was like when the run game isn't there to kind of provide that stability. Yeah, it's a very frustrating type of offense. Like I wish they had a little bit more and like kind of credit to them that they continue to win games. And I think the reason that they've struggled to pull away from teams for the most part is that usually the easiest way to pull away from teams is like you kind of get into a decent position and then you can run things out, get into some of your good down distances to do that.

8:58They've just struggled to do that for a lot of this year. And we're a little bit fortunate that in the second half, they were able to find it. It's become pretty clear to me. And I think tonight is obviously a very good example of it. But even before the touchdown that he scored, the second touchdown that he scored, I'm watching this game and I'm like, Tucker Craft is pretty clearly the second most important offensive player for the Packers. is that that seems fair, right? Like who else would it be based on like what they need him to be in the overall complexion of the offense at this point? I mean, I guess just based on how much they give him the ball, you could mention Josh Jacobs.

9:35But like when you're talking about how successful it is, I don't think it's even close. And what Tucker Craft was able to do for them in this game. Can I just I want to I want to read off some stuff. I looked up once after he had the 59 yarder. He, after this week, Tucker Craft came into the week third in the league in yak among tight ends. He comes out of the week easily in first. He had like 120 yards on that. 140 yards of yak. He doubled his yak from weeks one through seven after week eight. He also came into this game averaging nine yards of yak per catch. And after tonight, it's up to 11 and a half yards per catch, which is easily the best in the league among tight ends.

10:20It was just silly. It was silly what he was doing. And also 74 % of his yards are yak. It's funny, coming into the season, I remember talking to somebody at Packers training camp and just discussing what needed to be different about this version of the Packers for them to break through from where they had been over the last couple of years. And something that came up was just that guy that we can really go to in some high leverage moments at receiver. You know, we have a lot of guys that we like, but who's that player where we can build some of those high leverage, high variance, we got to have at moments over the course of the game.

10:49and I asked him, I was like, who do you think those guys are? And Tucker Craft was the first name out of this person's mouth. And it does feel like we've arrived at that point. Like with Matthew Golden, it's still not there yet. Dobbs has had a nice season with some really nice moments, but he still feels like more of a role player. And I think we've gotten to this place where the Packers have the best record in the NFC. They're one of the best teams in the NFL, top to bottom. But Tucker Craft is the most important skill position player in their offense. And Derek, I don't know how many really good teams you could say that about for their tight ends specifically, but the Packers are there.

11:23Maybe just Arizona and San Francisco, right? Like where that is your go-to guy. And neither of those teams are on this level. No, they're really not. They're really not. And just think about this is like, he's continued to do this. One, I feel like every six weeks, Jordan Love has that like literally throws the ball straight up in the air for Tucker Craft to go catch. And he did it tonight, obviously. But then just think about like, again, in these gotta have it situations, in your situational ball, who do they go to? Last week on the fourth and like medium or short, they go to Tucker Craft on the corner.

11:51Jordan Love hits it. This week, there was again another fourth and short where I said they hit him in the flat and they go to him as their go to guy in the red zone. They really love him as again, their yak guy. Like sometimes yak numbers can be boosted, like catch a random lucky ball down the field and just like make one guy miss and go. And that's going to be part of it. And it kind of was in this game. But also like any time they throw him the ball in the flat, he just runs through two people. He did it for a touchdown in this game. Like they just, it really is whenever they need to hit the easy button, Tucker Craft has been the easy button.

12:22And so he would still like one of the actual wide receivers to step up. But when your tight end is playing at an all pro level, that kind of eases some of the burden on everybody else a little bit. Yeah. I mean, the 60 yarder is like a once or twice a season sort of thing. But like the consistency with which he's able to pick up like eight to 12 yards after every catch, no matter where it is on the field. Just think about that second touchdown. I mean, they're creating that for him against man coverage. It's a stack on the right side. He's essentially running what amounts to an option route out of that.

12:51He's lined up as the second guy in that stack working against Chuck Clark. Like you're designing that for your best player in a man covered situation. And he has become their best player on the other side of the ball. Michael Parsons comes up huge in the second half of this game. I mean, that sack where he gets chipped or an attempt at a chip and then splits the double team to finish that thing off. Not surprised to see the Packers defense kind of. have that boa constrictor feel against the Steelers offense that we know has limitations over the course of that game. When you watch the Steelers in this game, Derek, anything about this that was illuminating to you, or do you feel, in my opinion, watching this game in the second half specifically, this feels like a stretch where the Packers are a better team.

13:34And over time, you feel that over the final two quarters. And that's kind of what the second half of this game felt like is where the limitations that the Steelers have in what their offense is. And then just what we've seen from their defense over the last couple of weeks where you can really pick on them. It kind of feels like that version of the Steelers is the one that manifested over the final two quarters. That's pretty much why I'm at like the in the first half, you know, there were a couple of good moments where they ran the ball well, like or Jalen Warren had caught one or two passes in the flat where he was able to make, you know, just go run through a guy for six extra yards and they were able to move the ball a little bit that way.

14:07But really, like their biggest and most successful drive was Keyshawn Nixon just kind of gets lost with Roman Wilson down the field and Rodgers. It was, he's been really good all year, but it was not his best performance tonight. Yeah. Like DK Metcalf beats him in the end zone, kind of bullies him a little bit. And so I think again, like outside of Nixon, just kind of getting lost in la la land on that play. And then a couple of decent structures where they could run the ball. I really think the green Bay defense, like really was able to hold their own. I also thought obviously Parsons has a good game, especially on that play that, that he did, but he also felt like in a number of these gotta-have-it-pass situations, they would put one of their nose tackles directly over the center and then have Parsons stand up right behind him.

14:50And it was like, all right, who's stunting where? Are we twisting? Who are they twisting with? And it was just the Steelers really, really struggled to pick it up. And so I thought that was a really interesting way to use a player of his caliber. They had a lot going on those jumbo runs, mostly running at Parsons' side at one point during that drive in the first half where you got Darnell Washington, Anderson, and the left tackle, and they were just kind of overwhelming him. And so with those perimeter runs to Jalen Warren, but that's really the only thing they could consistently tap into on offense.

15:20And when that dried up, there was really nowhere else the Steelers could turn. And we know how kind of stagnant and predictable that defense can be. And when you're playing against an offense that has the gear this Packers offense does, this is the end result. So now we're at a place where the Packers are 5-1-1. They're atop the NFC. They're the number one seed in the NFC right now. The Steelers are four and three. And why that is particularly important with another Steelers loss after losing to the Bengals last week, the Ravens are now back to two and five. They are two games back of the Steelers in the AFC North with Lamar Jackson, presumably coming back next week.

15:55Yeah. At this point, I'm not going to write anything in pen. Not taking the Ravens at their word anymore. That's for sure. But the Ravens have a pretty easy stretch of their schedule coming up. now sit two games back of the Steelers with two games against the Steelers remaining here. And so there is a reason that we did not remove the Steelers or the Ravens from the table. They are very much still in this thing. We are not going to talk about that game tonight. We're going to dig into it on the hangover. But an eventful and important day in AFC North with those two results. Vindication, at least so far.

16:25I got to hand it to Dave. I was getting a little bit scared. I'm not going to lie. It's early to victory lap, but I knew we didn't want to be premature with this. Let's get to some of the other performances that stuck out to us today. It is time for You Have My Attention. Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention. Denver Broncos put it on the Dallas Cowboys today, 44-24. The Broncos go to 6-2. Dallas now sits at 3-4-1. Packers, or excuse me, the Broncos did whatever they wanted to do on offense today. 56.1 % success rate per true media. seven and a half yards per play. The Cowboys defense had absolutely no answers.

17:08You combine that with enough good moments from a very good Broncos defense. And this game gets out of hand very quickly in Denver. The Broncos now six and two, their best offensive performance of the season, probably even better than the one they had against the Bengals, which is saying something you guys have my attention, which I'm glad you framed it the way you did. because before we dive into the good and the bad and what we liked or didn't like on the preview show, we did say, if you can't get it rolling against a defense like this, when is it going to happen? And they mean they got it rolling, man.

17:42That's what they did. 62.1 passing success rate is a top 10 performance by any team this season. So obviously the Cowboys are down three guys in their secondary.

17:56but you still have a top 10 performance on the season they had a top five rushing success rate um for the week not for the season but for the week they they were just good all over and i love the i love the the balance of it all that bo nix's day started with a brutal interception Like he threw it so far behind his guy on that like shallow post skinny or short deep slant, whatever it was. He threw it so far behind his guy that I think the DB was like caught off guard that it landed in his lap. And then after that, he was he was great, though. Three out of five on throws of 20 plus air yards. That's what stood out to me is like for as much as we've killed him about not connecting when he throws the ball down the field after that pick, which was bad.

18:41He was on top of it all day long. I thought he had a lot of nice throws targeting the deep and intermediate part of the field. I mean, the two shots he had vertically down the left side on the one to Troy Franklin for the touchdown, and then he had the one to Corwin Sutton as well. He did a good job pushing the ball down the field in this game. But I think it's important to just acknowledge how much of an absolute mess the Dallas Cowboys defense is, even as you're trying to give some credit to the Broncos. The first two touchdowns for Denver, the first one, 8-13 left in the first quarter. They run a little pin pull to the left side with R.J.

19:12Harvey. just go watch like what the Bronco or the Cowboys linebackers are doing on this play. The combination of the Cowboys linebackers plus what Quinn Miners does. Quinn Miners on this play, the right guard for the Broncos, he climbs to the second level. He absolutely de-cleats. I think it was Kenneth Murray on the backside or one of the Broncos, the Cowboys linebackers. After doing that, he continues climbing, picks off one more guy and then turns around as RJ Harvey is running past him and gets a piece of a third guy. So that's a combination of Quinn Miners being an absolute monster out in space and the Cowboys defense being very, very bad.

19:49On the second one, and this is just to me the perfect encapsulation of what it's like to play against the Cowboys at this point. It's first and 20, right? Theoretically, you're in a bad position behind the sticks as an offense. All the Broncos have to do, they run a little jet motion from right to left with Franklin. Franklin runs a vertical up the left sideline and then bends it inside. They run a little corner route from the number one receiver that was originally on that side. And it just gets totally dropped by Elijah Clark and the Cowboys backup defensive backs. And it's a walk-in touchdown for Troy Franklin.

20:23It's just, this team was already in a really tough place. And now you're in a spot where Elijah Clark, who is a street-free agent, rookie, comes in and is playing safety for you. And then Chikwese Bridges, number 25. That's... August waiver claim. Yes. And so those are two guys that you noticed a lot over the course of this game for Dallas and good on the Broncos. When that's the state of the secondary, you should be absolutely flaming a team. And that is what all you can do is look really good, even if we can't necessarily. It's like that's what you should do, but they did do it. The first step is kicking the ass of whoever you play.

21:03And to their credit, the Broncos did do that today. And like, again, the first Franklin or that Franklin touchdown where he is just cutting across the goal line on the play that you just described, Robert, it's like Knicks takes an extra beat, takes an extra hitch, like double clutches the ball and he's still wide ass open and nobody is like even in his vicinity. That's kind of the state of the Cowboys secondary. I do want to give Knicks a little bit of credit, though. I actually thought his best throw of the day was dropped by Cortland Sutton. he threw like a post route like down like the left hash that would have been a touchdown if he caught it like hit him straight in the numbers and Cortland Sutton just isn't able to bring it in and I was like oh if we can get more of those throws I would really get excited and then Dave said it at the top like I came into this game complaining that almost all of their deep throws in this offense have been kind of wasted play and today he actually hit a number of them and that was how you actually get you know that on top of running the ball the way they did that's how you You end up raising a team that should be able to win it or at least keep up in a shootout with you, but they just did not even let them hang on.

22:04And one more thing, just to give Bo his flowers, he only threw behind the line of scrimmage three times in this game. And I said on the preview show, I just wanted to see him throw over the middle of the field. The pick was over the middle of the field. But after that, after the pick, he goes five of five for 78 yards and a touchdown targeting the middle of the field. Like my favorite throw today, it might've been Derek. They ran a little mesh concept with the kind of the zone beater behind it on that deep in breaker. I think it was to Franklin. He rips that ball over the middle of the field. That was one where it's like, oh, you want to see a little bit more of that within this offense.

22:35And I think them attacking those intermediate areas of the field, seeing a little bit more of that over the course of the day, and then being able to kind of run the ball at will as well. I think that the backs had a good day. The offensive line had a good day. It's worth mentioning that on that first Troy Franklin touchdown, Dobbins does a great job of picking up Marquise Bell, who's blitzing off the edge. And then Dobbins as a runner had a really good day today. And so it all came together in every way that you want against a bad defense for the Broncos. If you're going to be a team that is serious and wants to be a playoff team and wants to make noise as we get into January, these are the sorts of games you should have against a defense playing non-playable characters in the defensive backfield.

23:11That's the reality of the situation for Dallas right now. It's only their second 40-point game since drafting Bo, I believe. So yeah. And on the other side, I think that Cowboys offense is good. They had a solid day today. Like it wasn't a bad performance from the Cowboys offense, but every single one of those like third down coin flip plays, if you're not getting them, like when your defense is currently in this state, the game is just over. Like the hold on Terrence steel on the third and 10 scramble from Dak to make a third and 20, they had a fourth and one they didn't go for at one point deck, Kevante Turpin on like a little hitch on third and five.

23:48Like if you have three, four or five of those over the course of the game and your defense is playing like this, the game is over before it even starts. I think that's fair, but I would just like to say, to give the Broncos credit, like Pat Sertan injures himself on the Cowboys first possession of the game. He's dealing with the shin injury all through the first half, and then he leaves with a shoulder. Zach Allen came out of this game at one point. And so like, sure, there's still plenty talented. It's not remotely the same as what the Cowboys were dealing with. but this is a Denver defense that wasn't at its full power, and this was still easily the worst game that Dak Prescott's played all year.

24:25You saw some of those moments that we talked about this coming into the game, Derek, where in true passing situations, the Cowboys' offensive line is gettable. I mean, on that first John Franklin Myers sack, it's actually an unfortunate play for Tyler Guyton where Nick Benito gets chipped, and he's already trying to pull off an inside move, and so he essentially gets thrust into the C-gap inside of Tyler Guyton. he gets the pressure and then John Flanker Myers picks it up. And then Jonathan Cooper very nearly had an interception on a third and one that Dak threw essentially right to him. And so the front got in the mix today.

24:58The run defense was very good for Denver. I mean, this is a good defense. This is a team that's going to make it hard on whoever they're playing against. At least you're not going to have a 40-ish point game most likely against the Denver defense. And when your defense on the other side is doing what they're doing, it's going to be a really tough day. That's the thing. Like, I really like Dallas's offense, and I think they have the capacity to score reasonably against most defenses. But when you have to score in this game, it would have been 45 points against what is, I don't know, Denver's the third, fourth best defense in the league, maybe.

25:29That is incredibly hard to do. And I know even Sertan had missed some time, Allen missed some time, but even with those guys out, like, it's still a very, very good unit for the most part. Like, Riley Moss actually had a couple of good plays. Like, immediately when Sertan went out, that actually kind of kept some points off the board. They stepped up when they needed to, the rest of the guys up front. And that's the thing we've talked about, too. I think Dak is a pretty good, when he needs to be a pure dropback passer, he can. One, that's just way harder to do when you're down two, three scores in any game.

25:57Because again, the pass rush is just going to go crazy. But also, like you mentioned, Robert, the Denver run defense, for the most part in this game, was pretty good. Outside of one or two, Jaden Blue had a pop run at some point. But otherwise, they did a really good job of not letting Dallas dictate the game the way that they wanted to. And the guys we talked about potentially being areas where the Cowboys could take advantage of the Broncos, like Alex Singleton, Brandon Jones, not liabilities at all. I mean, the Cowboys barely even were able to target him. Jaquan McMillan, one target in this game.

26:30Jadai Barron gets his first career interception when Dak did try to target the seam. So for that to be an area where like, hey, maybe an offense this good could take advantage of the Broncos, Like it did not happen at all. Let's get to our next one here. Drake may has another monster day and a big win for the new England Patriots. I want to talk about this in part because to talk about Drake may's performance, which has our attention. But the other side of this is just that the Patriots are six and two now, like the Patriots are going to be a playoff team as things are currently going. And so both Drake may continuing his excellence year to run and the Patriots kind of firmly positioning themselves to be a participant in the postseason this year after a game like this.

27:15They continue to roll. The Patriots and Drake May, you guys continue to have our attention. Drake May is just, he keeps doing it. And like, I was, I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit worried when he threw the interception early in the game. It was a brutal interception. Did you see his quote on it, by the way, in the postgame press conference? Yeah, no, go ahead and say it. So they asked him about it, and it looks very silly because Carson Schlesinger is just standing in front of him as a spy and he throws right at him. And so it looks like you would think that May did not see him. He says in the postgame press conference, he's like, I was looking downfield and I just forgot the guy in front of me could jump.

27:50Like, what do you mean you forgot? He's just trying to rip it, man. He just says and does some funny stuff like that sometimes. But otherwise, he was like incredibly efficient in this game. And I know he gets sacked like five or six times. I think it was six total and five of them were Miles Garrett. One or two of those, I think, where he was probably holding the ball a little bit too long. But honestly, a lot of them were just like, Miles Garrett is better than these two tackles that he's playing against. And even in the cases where he would try to slide up, someone like one of their other defensive tackles was winning, or maybe they sent a blitzer.

28:20And so I thought for the most part, May acquitted himself. Well, and honestly, my favorite sequence was, so he throws that really stupid pick to Carson Swessinger, which also is a good play by Carson Swessinger. Immediately on the next drive, he rips a ball down the seam to get them a chunk play. And then I love that throw. That's my favorite throw of the day. The layering on it was just like phenomenal. And then I think it was either the next play or maybe a play after that. They go like play action under center and he throws a beautiful sailor out to Matt Collins to the right side after that.

28:50And so it's just like you throw one of the dumbest picks of the day and then come back just like firing, just ready to make these throws. Like that's, you kind of got to have that mentality to be able to go be a really good quarterback in this league. Love the throw to Hooper so much that you're describing. It came with like the 11-15 mark in the second quarter. And the Browns do a lot of inverted cover too. It's like one of the change-ups that they run in a very man-heavy offense. And so on that play, you have a split back look from the Patriots, which I'm sure is designed to give them some sort of information.

29:20And then Stephon Diggs does a little shuffle motion. He's lined up very wide to the right and he shuffles toward the formation. And at the last second, you see Denzel Ward back off of him a little bit. And you see May peaking over there. And so my assumption is, with that little motion and some of the other tells he's getting, he knows it's not man. And if it's not man, I'm sure there is a percentage thought in his mind of, are they going to run this funky cover two that they often run? And that's exactly what happens, where you have Ward start bailing out into the deep half, and against cover two, what is an area that you can absolutely attack?

29:55It is that shot right up the seam as those safeties split. And he lets that thing go immediately. And so that to me is just a perfect combination of situational awareness, the information you're getting before the snap, aggressiveness and making that throw and the pure talents to make that throw in that moment. And so that was probably my favorite play of the day of his. The favorite sequence that I had, it was the one where they go up 30 to seven. He has a 28 yard scramble, right? Which not that many quarterbacks in the NFL can have a 28 yard scramble in the game. He does this three or four times a game now where he's ripping off a 15, 20 yard run seemingly.

30:32That's a lot. He probably has two a game where he's getting you a massive first down with his legs. This is a consistent part of his game. And then I believe on the next play, they run a little sluggo double move to Kayshawn Booty for a 40-yard touchdown, and he just layers it in there beautifully. That was my favorite throw of the day. And that's just, that's normal now. Like, those sorts of sequences where he has a 20-yard explosive run, and he follows it up by dropping it in the bucket on a vertical shot for a touchdown is just kind of what the Drake May experience has become. To piggyback off of the point Derek was making, yeah, he throws a brutal pick, but I just was very taken by how calm he looked.

31:16He's unbothered. He's so unbothered. It reminds me about what we say about Jaden Daniels. You would think a guy that is getting hunted like prey by Miles Garrett all day might look a little sped up or frantic, and go watch some of his throws, And it's like, I'm not saying he's like slow or anything, but he's just like, he's just going through it all step at a time. Like he looks completely unrushed. You would not know that his tackles are getting abused by, by his body language and the way he's doing things in the pocket. And to do that after you throw a bad pick and the pick was early, like the pick was before any of the good stuff happened.

31:52So you throw an early pick and you're getting just battered and you would not know it if you go watch the touchdowns back or any of the good plays. His demeanor is pretty striking. Yeah. I really love this version of him because, Derek, watching him as a rookie, you could clearly see the talent. Every once in a while, he would just kind of get sped up, and you would feel a few more of those bozo moments over the course of the game where it would lead to mistakes. That's not really happening at this point. You have the interception today, but that is a rarity in what we've seen from him over the course of the season.

32:27For the most part, He is somebody playing consistently in control in a way that's notably impressive. And I think part of it to me is, and this is especially true, I would say, over the past month, that wasn't even necessarily fully true the first month of the season. He just seems a little bit more willing to just take a sack. Yeah, it's not a great play. It's worse. And that's it's really an important step in the right direction for him. Literally his worst trait coming out of college and even his rookie year, like you're saying, is that he will make a bad play. He will take it from a seven to a ten.

32:57He will find a way to make it worse. And he just over the past month, you have not seen him doing that. Like he'll just if he has to eat a four yard sack, he'll do it. And there were a couple of times in this game where he holds on to the ball and like maybe he could try to make some crazy check down if he wanted to. Or maybe he could try to like rush this throw away out or whatever. But he's like, you know what? We're in the red zone. I'm just going to eat the ball and we can kick a field goal here. Just the little stuff like that where you are not taking points off the board and killing chances on whatever the next play might be.

33:24The fact that he's doing that on top of just seems so calm in the pocket, making throws down the field to every level of the field. Like he's just it's really all coming together in a way that is like pretty, pretty special to watch. Obviously, the season opener against Vegas was pretty forgettable for everybody on the Patriots. But since then, you realize he's posted a passer rating of 100 plus seven weeks in a row. And that doesn't even include the scrambling. That's even taken into account like what he's doing with his legs consistently all the time. And because of the seasons that they're having, Daniel Jones, and I'm doing this off the top of my head, but I believe Daniel Jones and Jordan Love, I still think, are number one and number two in EPA for dropback as it currently stands.

34:05But Drake May is number three. Like, it is not at all a stretch to say that in any MVP conversation, eight weeks into the season, Drake May's name should be mentioned. That is not an exaggeration whatsoever. No, especially not when you consider, like, who he's playing with. Like, this offensive line still isn't good, which we saw today. and the skill players are much improved and I think they have enough in the cupboard. Like Diggs has been solid. Keishon Booty has actually become a pretty good player. Their tight ends are not bad, but it's not like some superstar unit that it's certainly not the Colts.

34:36And so like the fact that he's been able to at least like be in the conversation with those guys, like I think like the other two in the top five are like Jared Goff and Patrick Mahomes. Like the fact that he's already in that era as a second year player with what the offensive line has been and in a lot of games where obviously not today, But in a lot of games, he's had to kind of go shot for shot with teams on the scoreboard. It's just pretty impressive what he's been able to do. I agree with that on the skill position talent and just the overall like talent level among the 10 other players on the offense.

35:03I will say situationally what we've seen from the construction of the offense and from Josh McDaniels specifically this year continues to be very good. Like I really like watching their offense. And today, a lot of it manifested in some of the run game stuff that they were doing. I mean, the ways that they were using some misdirection, they had like a fake flip to Trae on Henderson, I believe on the first drive of the game where they're having the Browns over pursue. They get the ball back on the edge. There's a chunk play there. They had a really cool design in the red zone out of empty where they had Ramondre Stevenson run like a little shallow coming back across when he was the number one receiver and empty.

35:39They get down inside the five. They had a couple of toss plays to Henderson to get him on the edge for chunks. One was early in the third quarter. and then the second one of those to Henderson immediately following that. I think on the next play, they hit the double pass to Matt Collins for 20 yards. I love a goofy flea flicker. Like anything that's more creative than just like the dive where the guy turns around. They're doing a great job. I think that McDaniels, we were wondering like what this version of Josh McDaniels is going to look like coming into this year. And I think that he has been very, very good.

36:10And even if the talent level isn't overwhelming on the Patriots offense, I think the play calling, the structure, just the overall build of that thing has been really impressive. Let's talk about the guy on the other team, though, before we get out of here. Because even if the Browns get their asses kicked in this game, we have to discuss the game that Myles Garrett had. Every once in a while, you're going to have a game where somebody piles up a ton of sacks, then you go back and watch the sacks, and it's like, eh, you know, these are some cleanup sacks, these are some effort plays. Like, he had three sacks, but how much was he really affecting the game?

36:44There's one of those in the five that Miles Garrett had. The last one, the fifth one, is he's cleaning it up as Drake May steps up in the pocket. Fine. The other four are just otherworldly, like, alien plays. The first one that he has, I was watching it back during a break in the Sunday night game, and Dave, like, heard my response vocally, like, audibly responding to the play as I watched it for the first time. On this play, the first Miles Garrett sack, He gets chipped and he works around the chip and then is able to gather himself and get back on balance quick enough that then he executes like a perfect cross chop against Will Campbell, bends around the edge and finishes it off for a sack.

37:30Like that sequence of moves, the combination of the flexibility, the balance, the explosion, the bend, like there is no one else on planet Earth that would be able to do that. And that was the first of like the five that he had in the game. there were a couple there were at least two out of his five sacks where like you know how in superhero movies there's just extra henchmen waiting to jump in and get their ass kicked by Batman that's what it felt like watching this back where like Will Campbell's just watching the tight end get mauled and then he hops in and then he gets mauled it doesn't matter how many guys jump in there it's comical And then there was one.

38:18I mean, so he had that one. The second one is a little stunt where he actually walks the left guard back into the quarterback. The third one, he's chipped again and then still manages to regain his footing, rip off another rip move, bend around, get the sack. And on the fourth one, they try to run like a naked boot back his way. And he just chases Drake May down in the flat. Like it's some sort of like planet Earth type thing where you're watching a lion kill a gazelle. I mean, just absolutely absurd performance. There has never been a more Tungsten Armo Doyle moment for Miles Garrett than there was in this game.

38:51Everyone in this space, in the NFL space, is going to make the Tungsten Armo Doyle joke. But it's so fitting for what Miles Garrett is doing on this not very good football team. He also, this game was incredible. I just want to really quickly put into perspective his historical pace. he has 112 and a half sacks on his career now, which is the most by any player before they've turned 30. And he doesn't turn 30 for two more months. He's going to have the, he's going to like blow the record of this by like 10 sacks total, which is just like, I've said before he's the best pure like defensive end I think that I've seen in my lifetime.

39:32And like the pace that he's on is just what he can do in these games where, again, you mentioned it, Robert, like it's, he's explosive and he's quick and he's nimble and he's balanced. And oh, also he's 285 pounds. It's crazy. How is that fair? Like it's just, he's just, he's a one of one, man. He's phenomenal. I think they affected the game in different ways. But I think the only other guy that I've seen just affect the sport and you feel him in the same way that played on the edge since I started covering the NFL was like what J.J. Watt was at his best was just a special game-wrecking sort of player.

40:07Watt did more damage against the run than Garrett did and he obviously played inside a lot more than Garrett did and so that's just it's just a different style of player but when I think about like the force of nature ability to just completely destroy a game as someone who is doing 50-60 % of their work at least on the edge the only guy that I would even mention in the same breath is like 2012 through 2014 JJ Watt's the only guy yeah JJ and like that's kind know why I like do the weird caveat of like pure defensive end because JJ did do a lot of his work on the outside which or on the inside I mean which when he was on the outside was also still pretty dang good as well so all right before we move on let's take a quick break

40:54let's get to our next one here the Philadelphia Eagles offense finally finding its stride over the course of an entire day. Even last week against the Vikings, it was still a bad half that they followed with a really good half. And so to see the Eagles have this sort of game for really four quarters, they had essentially a 53 % success rate, seven and a half yards per play. Their yards per play mark from Philly today, the most for them in a game since 2013. And so to watch it all come together for this team, Dave, really nice to see. And I know it came against a Giants defense that has been struggling, had a couple defensive backs out in this game.

41:32Two weeks ago, the Eagles lost to the Giants. So to see them do it, I think, has to be kind of a pace, a heart rate slowing moment for Eagles fans who have been waiting for a performance like this from this team. I mean, they've played almost half the season statistically, and obviously they've won six games. They've had moments of brilliance. But when you finally put a performance like this on tape, you should celebrate it. I don't care who it's against because finding this level of explosiveness and consistency has been a real problem for them and not always against like the best of the best.

42:09Right. So to do this, to have to just have it all come together. This is this is the Eagles team that I thought we were going to see from from the jump. And as somebody who bought a lot of Eagles stock, it's exciting to see it happen as we're rounding toward the second half of the season. Nice to have Landon Dickerson back. Looks a hell of a lot better with him in there. And weirdly enough, my other big impression from watching some of this back over the course of the day and just watching the game, love Fred Johnson, the eligible tackle. He's so fun. So they're slowly kind of figuring out some of the things they want to tap into on offense.

42:47We saw it start to bubble up last week where you have some of those under center play action shots they hit over the course of that game. They had a lot of under center runs last week. They turned up a couple of those knobs today more than they have in the entire Sirianni era. 18 under center carries for the Eagles in this game. That is the second most in a single game since Nick Sirianni became the head coach. Eight carries out of jumbo in this game, like you just alluded to. That is the most of any Nick Sirianni coach game for the Eagles. 10 snaps of six offensive linemen, which was also the most of any game in the Nick Sirianni era per next gen.

43:21And Derek, I feel like them kind of tapping into that. And because I think the biggest, what's most important about that is that over the course of the first six, seven weeks of the season, when their run game was struggling, the thing that was missing from this version of the Eagles compared to last year was that they couldn't run the ball on their own terms whenever they wanted to, no matter what defenses were doing to them. And so when the past game was inconsistent and a little bit uneven, not being able to lean on the run game left them with nowhere to turn. If they can just say, if we're lining up under center with six offensive linemen and we have Landon Dickerson back, we'll be able to run the ball at you no matter what, that is a really important component for this team turning into the offense we know they can be.

44:02And it's so encouraging for a number of reasons. Like last week when they went a bunch of under center, a lot of it was like they did run the ball, but it was a lot in service of trying to hit those play action stuff. This week it was, we're going to try to run the ball. I mean, the first big Saquon Barkley run is they're in jumbo. I think they might have even had multiple tight ends on the field and they're running duo to the right hand side. Entire defense is flowing over to that way, trying to get to the play side. Barkley just kind of bends it back just a little bit over to the left and he just gone for daylight.

44:30Like he just has so much room to run. And so I think them being able to dictate that way is important. And like I've actually even had some conversations with people like on Blue Sky about like, why was the Eagles offense, their rushing offense when they were in gun, kind of so static? And it was like, well, last year when it was static, it was fine because all the players were better than you and also they RPO'd off of it really well. But this year when they had some of the offensive line concerns, you just couldn't be as simple as they were. And to me, running duo out of under center is just, it's a lot easier to get to.

45:01The path for the back just makes much more sense. And so for Barkley to have his big run off of that was like, okay, if they can start to tap into that, parlay that into some of these play action shots that they were showing last week like that to me is some real growth I mean you kind of alluded to it Robert this was this game they got into 42.1 percent under center which is the most in any Jalen Hurts start ever the second highest was last week against the Vikings and they're the only two games above 36 percent in the Hurts era so I just think it's so cool that this they are really trying to force this as a new thing for them and two weeks in a row it's worked out pretty well they have two different running backs with more successful rushes in this game, Bigsby and Barkley, than a running back has had successful runs in any game going back over the last month.

45:48Yeah, that's huge. They had three runs, three running back runs of 15 plus yards coming into this game. They had seven today. You could feel the difference. And the Giants rush defense is bad, right? Second and third level defenders for the Giants, tough day. It still is really nice to see this version of the Eagles. And I thought that the offensive line had a really good day. I mean, there were a couple of plays. There were a couple of impactful Jalen hurt scrambles early in this game on one of their first touchdown drives. And if you go back and you watch the work that Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson are doing to Abdul Carter on those two scrambles, like the offensive line at its best is still such a game changing game defining unit.

46:25I think you really felt that today. And some of the work that they were doing on the run game and you heard Jordan Mailata talk about this after the game, somebody was asking him about the changes structurally. And he was just like, when we get Fred Johnson on the field, and then when we're under center, you don't know which direction we're running the ball. Like it just opens up so much optionality within the running game that you don't have when you're running the ball out of the gun. And I think you felt that today. And the guy that really, the other guy that really jumped out to me in the run game, and obviously he has two touchdowns.

46:51And so we're going to talk about that. Dallas Goddard was really, really good in the run game today. And so one of the issues that the Eagles were having early in the season, notably when Goddard was hurt, but even when he was in the game is when they would get in some of these 12 personnel runs, the second tight end in some of those runs, Grant Calcaterra, whoever it was early in the season, is just a zero in the run game. And so you're creating these kind of seven man surfaces, but you're really not putting a lot of pop into those plays because of who's lining up in those spots. Now, if you have Fred Johnson and Dallas Goddard as those two guys on the edge for you, you combine it with Landon Dickerson and coming back, we're starting to cook with gas when it comes to the ass kickers.

47:31We got up front there, Derek. I think you're starting to feel that a little bit more. That's such a good way to frame it because really the tackles have been, the tackles, like they're really good. They're like, it's crazy. Those guys have been insane for most of the year. It's been some of the interior play has been up and down because of some of the injury stuff. And then again, the second tight ends. Now that some of that stuff is fixed, one, you can do a lot more, I think, just get under center, get a little bit heavier, start to bully people. and I also think they've been, since Goddard has been back the past handful of weeks, they've been able to tap into more of those like RPO slide routes, which again, some of their other tight ends like can be pass catchers.

48:07But if you throw a slide route to one of those guys, like how scared of that are you really? When it's Dallas Goddard, I'm a little bit scared that he's going to turn five into 20 or something like that. And so I think just the fact that getting Goddard back gives them a little bit more optionality in how they call plays on top of the blocking that he provides and Dickerson being back. It just, they seem like they can tap into more now and have shown that they are trying to with all the under center stuff. I also thought Jalen Hurts had his second. I mean, after the final two quarters that he had last week, combined with the way that he played today, he's playing his best ball right now.

48:38He was awesome. I think that they did such a good job in this game, he did specifically, of identifying his one-on-one matchups before these plays started and just picking on them consistently. He has a little hitch route to Devontae Smith at one point on the outside. He comes back with a slant to Devontae Smith. I believe the same drive for a nice chunk gain them lining Devante Smith up as more of like a true X in this game consistently because they didn't have AJ Brown Devante Smith was going to work and whether it was Deontay Banks or the backup corner that they had out there there was really no answer for that and then you saw that in that Dallas got a touchdown they have him as the isolated receiver to the left side I believe against Tyler Newbin or Dane Belton in man coverage and it's an easy win for Dallas Goddard there and so I think in terms of getting the ball out of his hands quickly, identifying those one-on-one matchups, taking them in stride.

49:23They had another play action chunk off an under center play action in this game combined with what they were doing in the run game. And then a couple of really nice moments for Hertz bleeding, beating the blitz as a passer, which he's done a lot over the course of the season. And so some of the little notes you had earlier in the year when other elements of the offense were struggling that were really encouraging from Hertz combined with them being able to do the shit we know they do well, I think by far the best performance that we have seen over the course of four quarters from this Eagles offense.

49:50All right, let's get to the other side of the coin from week eight and talk about some of the stuff that wasn't necessarily quite as enjoyable. It is time for What the Fuck. What the fuck?

50:07The Atlanta Falcons are the most bewildering team in the National Football League this year. I think it's pretty, I don't think it's like a conversation where in any given week they could do anything. They could lose 30 to nothing to the Panthers. They could really beat up the Bills in a primetime game on a nationally televised stage. And then they can do what they did today and get blown out 34 to 10 by a Miami Dolphins team that seemed to be crumbling in real time before this game was played. Atlanta Falcons, who are sitting at three and four, and I still have absolutely no idea what they are.

50:42What the... Are these the two most baffling results of the NFL season, both involving the Falcons? They might be. 30-0 against Carolina, or losing 30-0 to Carolina, and now this where? Yeah, just gross, man. And just disjointed, out of sorts. You'd like to think that Kirk Cousins could step in. And what was so crazy about watching this was, I know he's been on the bench for half the year. I get it. But with how much football Kirk Cousins has played and the time that he's spent playing for the Falcons, wouldn't you think it would look slightly better when he finally got a chance to start against one of the league's worst defenses than whatever this mess was where he's just not on the same page with basically anybody else on Atlanta's offense?

51:36I mean, there were four or five incompletions in this game, Derek, where there was either a miscommunication or just him sailing the ball where you watch it happen and there's like no response. Just kind of watch it and like take a beat and then just like, what am I supposed to make of that? I mean, the one where he misses David Stills on the right side, like that's clearly a miscommunication. But there was the one, I'm trying to find it in my notes, where it was to the left side. Oh, it was Mooney? Yes. The Mooney overthrow? The Mooney overthrow to the left side. I'm just like, I don't know what to do with this.

52:05It's a clean pocket. Mooney is open and he throws it like five feet over his head. And so maybe we shouldn't be shocked by that considering some of the low lights we saw from Kirk Cousins last year. He hasn't played all year. But when you combine that with the fact that this team averaged 2.7 yards per carry and is supposed to be a team that can run the ball however they want to, whenever they want to, you get a game that feels like this. That's kind of where I land with it. Like Kirk obviously played pretty poorly in his own right, missed a number of throws, still can't move in or out of the pocket, it seems.

52:38There were a number of times where he felt pressure and kind of did the 2015 Peyton Manning thing of like, ah, I guess they got me, and just kind of sat down. Ah, darn. Ah, darn, oh no. And he just kind of ate it, and it was like, all right, that's kind of unfortunate to see. So he definitely struggled in that, right? But I also do think that this was probably the best game that Miami's front has played all year. The defensive line was really, really good. I think in both the run game and the pass game, like Seeler had a good game. I thought the linebackers in run defense probably had their best day.

53:08Like they were coming up. Jordan was crazy in this game. Him and Tyler Dodson were just like TNT after TNT after TNT into a guard's chest. Like they were insane in this game, just like coming up and hitting people. And when you get a run game that is as predictable as Atlanta's, I will say, you can get games like this where if they can just come up and hit you, they're going to do that. And so I think those guys were especially comfortable doing that, knowing one, the passing offense was already going to be limited with how Kirk was probably going to play coming in. Also, no Drake London. And then seeing how Kirk was playing and responding to pressure in this game, I think they were like, all right, we can just tee off and do whatever we want.

53:48So you get the run game not working, and then you get Kirk Cousins not playing all that well in a lot of situations where he needs to be a pure dropback passer. Just not a recipe for success for Atlanta. Jordan Brooks had multiple like TFLs and run stuffs in this game I mean the one down near the goal line where he had that run through for like the three yard TFL that essentially torpedoed that drive and he had a sack in this game he had four pressures in this game and what he was doing on the ground even plays where he wasn't making the tackle I mean there was one, it was a third and one early in the second quarter where he beats Charlie Warner inside off the left edge where Warner's responsible for him, ends up spilling that run a little bit further outside than it should go.

54:30And then Seeler tracks it down from the backside for a TFL on third and one. That was the type of game that Atlanta's offense was having. And it was definitely in part because of how well Miami's front was playing. They do deserve a lot of credit. And Brooks is the first guy that comes to mind. And on the other side of the ball, Atlanta's defense really, really struggled against Miami's offense in this game. Tua essentially did whatever he wanted over the course of this thing. Tua looked awesome today. like if I just watched this with no prior context and didn't know that a, the dolphins look bad and two and B two is up at the podium saying the most bizarre shit.

55:07Every time he talks to the media, I would have no idea, dude. He was ripping it all over the place in this game. Uh, and you know, we talked about how much we enjoyed Atlanta blitzing eight of 12 for one 14, three of his four touchdowns came against the blitz, just like unfazed by Atlanta sending stuff after him. Yeah. I was very impressed at the game plan from the Dolphins because clearly they had two things that they were really going to focus on. One, they knew they would be able to run the ball in murky down and distance situations. If it was third and three, third and four, third and five against this team in the way that they want to play, we're not going to be afraid to run it in those moments.

55:47They had three short yardage conversions on third down at some point in this on one single drive. They had a third and two, a third and one, a fourth and one. Over the course of the game, the Dolphins had five rushing first downs on third down. And that is a very good way to attack this Atlanta team specifically. So we're going to get after them on the ground, especially when they're going to be in some of these fine pass, like funky looks up front, that box checked. and then the two guys they consistently picked on were JD Bertrand and Mike Hughes. Over the course of the entire game, they looked at the Atlanta Falcons defense and said, these are the guys that we're going to be able to go after with Divine Diablo out and with AJ Terrell on the other side.

56:27And Derek, they made essentially all the work that they did, all the big plays they had in this game were essentially circling those two guys whenever they threw the ball. And on top of that, you mentioned the way that Miami was playing like this. What we said coming in was like, Like this Atlanta defense, when they're in pure pass and their pass rush can do a lot of stuff to you, they can be a scary defense. Miami did all the things that mitigate that. Like Tua was getting the ball out of his hand, which he always does, right? Get the ball out of his hands quickly. But he was really doing that in this game.

56:57And they were doing a good job of just giving him some easy options with all of that. And he was doing a great job finding where the ball needed to be, making sure he's leading guys for yak opportunities, all that stuff. But then like you mentioned, in these murky, ah, maybe they could throw something at us in the pass rush. Miami's run game was very efficient, and it was also more varied than I think that we are used to from them. I think we all think of them as like, oh, they're just an outside zone team, but yada, yada, yada. They were really pulling a lot of guys and really trying to get hands on people and move a Falcons front that is very movable.

57:27You look at the box score, and I think it was 3.9 yards a carry, which doesn't really scream to you, but they had a 50 % rushing success rate. And like you said, on the short yardage, we need to keep the drive going type of runs. They were able to convert pretty much every single time. And so I just thought that they did a really good job of controlling the ball in this game in a way that I'm not used to seeing from this offense, if I'm being honest. Did y 'all clock the, I don't remember when it happened, but the batted screen, I think it was to Devon HN, where Jesse Bates and Bertrand had a shot to pick off a batted to a ball, and they fought each other over the carom and knocked it to the ground?

58:07Sounds right. That's about what you can expect from the Falcons in this game. In the middle of all of this, like even when they had a chance to make like a momentum swinging play and just keystone cops all over the place. The 43-yard touchdown to Waddle to me is like a perfect example of like what the Dolphins offense was in this game, right? It's like a fake pitch where you get a little bit of movement on the second level to a flips his head around. Mike Hughes is in coverage there. You get some movement from the linebackers to create that void off play action. And then it's an easy pitch and catch for a touchdown, right?

58:38So you see it. Like you see the linebacker step up, you see, you know, there's Bertrand in the guardian cap that space created over the middle of the field. Plus Hughes not being able to stick with that route. That's essentially what Miami's passing game felt like today. Like those two guys showing up in a bad way consistently. And that's really a lot of the work that the Dolphins did. Tua just looked so confident, which is shocking. Considering where the Dolphins have been this year. Get to our next one here. Stick in the NFC South. The Carolina Panthers get destroyed by the Buffalo Bills. This isn't necessarily a, I can't believe you lost to this team, WTF entry.

59:15This is a, I thought we were better than this, WTF entry from the Panthers. And like, we deserve criticism. Can we put our hands up? Yes. Throw the cameras on us. Yeah, me and Culpa. Yes. I'm sorry, Bryce Young. I'm really sorry that we sat here on Thursday and said like, ah, Bryce Young to Andy Dalton probably doesn't change how this game is going to go. And maybe the Panthers still lose with Bryce Young in the lineup. The Bills are a really good team, but it was a rough day at the office for Andy Dalton in a way that I did not necessarily see coming. Yeah, we were very wrong about that. It was definitely a drop-off from Bryce Young to Andy Dalton who Derek had like three or four plays in this game where it was like, I'm not sure we need to see Andy Dalton anymore.

1:00:05It was, I mean, obviously the interception, like he throws to AJ and Vanessa, all that jazz is like really, really bad. But they were just, to me, it wasn't even actually the plays that he made, which I do think Andy Dalton looked, like last year I thought Andy Dalton looked fine. This year I just does not feel like he's firing the ball in there the way that he, I think, did at certain points last year. But to me it was just there were certain shots of him on the sideline and on the bench where he just looked like this hurts right now. And the Bills were getting after him. Like their front, I think, in terms of pass rush, played one of their best games of the year.

1:00:35And we've said it before, right? Like this Panthers offensive line, when they are not really beating the hell out of you in the run game, and they ran the ball fine in this game, just not the way that they can at their peak, which I think they need to for the offense to work. You can get after all of these guys in terms of the pass protection. And so I think they did a really good job of that. And you just saw outside of, I'm going to go find Ted Arroa McMillan, Andy Dalton just really had a tough day trying to sort this thing out. And the Panthers defense had been better. up to this point in the season.

1:01:03It was one of the reasons that the Panthers felt as competent and as like borderline frisky as they had over the first seven weeks. And today that was not the case. On 19 runs for James Cook today, 15 of those runs were successful. He finishes with 11.4 yards per carry on those 19 runs. And that was not, I mean, there were a couple of chunk plays, obviously, but I mean, they're just ripping off 8, 9, 11, 12, 16, 20. It was one of the more efficient, dominant rushing performances I can remember from an NFL team. Maybe this is what the Bills needed to get back to their roots. You are the NFL version of ground and pound.

1:01:44And it's nice that you have Josh Allen who can do a lot of magical shit. But that's when they're at their best. That's when they looked their most dangerous here. And for me, I think where you really saw it in this game. And this I feel bad for having not been able to kind of intuit the way that both of these teams are built. The Bills love to get either into 21 personnel or 12 personnel. Just get multiple, like some other, either a fullback or two tie downs on the field or even sometimes all of it. And the Panthers, even though the defense has been better, their linebackers are not good. And James Cook had a number of runs in this game where one of those guys is just clearing somebody out.

1:02:24Like the big Dalvin Cook run, I think in the middle of the second quarter, they run like a little bit of a counterplay to the left. And Gilliam just gets in the hole, meets Trevin Wallace and blows him out of the water. And Cook, all he has to do is make Trevin Merrick miss. That goes for an easy touchdown. There was another one where I think they're running zone to the right hand side into a two tight end surface. Jackson Hawes just gets up and climbs to the second level, finds Christian Roseboom and just completely seals him out of the play for another easy run and laying down the right hand side.

1:02:53So I just they did a really, really good job of not letting the Panthers second level play at all in this game. And then whenever Cook got to or through the second level, he was making one of those DBs miss for, if not a touchdown, at least another like 10, 20 yards to tack on top of the run. It was just way too easy over the course of the entire game. And some of it was like actual dominance by the front. Right. And so the one of the reasons that the guys were able to so easily climb to the second level is that you're going to win in one on ones consistently up front the entire game. Like you watch some of the reaches from David Edwards, from Osiris Torrance, and it just, there wasn't a lot of help necessary as those guys were climbing to the second level.

1:03:31I think that was a big part of it. And like you mentioned, Derek, the fullback and the tight ends in this game show up in a big, big way. They had 25 plays. The bills did with two backs on the field. They averaged 7.16 yards per play on those 25 plays. And you watch the work that Jackson Hawes and honestly, Dawson Knox too, like the work that they were doing on the backside of some of these runs. and then when they were running some of the strong side stuff to the tight end side, the work that Dawes was doing either in one-on-one block situations or like climbing to the second level on combos, I mean, he's obviously been a weapon the entire year, but combining him plus having Gilliam on the field, them getting those big bodies out there today, they did whatever they wanted to when they were lined up in those moments.

1:04:14The Panthers are 4-4 with a minus 38 point differential. The only other team that's anywhere in that neighborhood in terms of that good of a record with that bad of a point differential is the Falcons. Oh my God, man. This division, every year they do this and then the Bucs are just going to steal it. Let's get to our last one here. Cincinnati Bengals somehow lose to the New York Jets today. The Bengals in this game were up 14 with 10.30 left. Then they were up 15 with 240 left. They were 31-16 with 241 left in the third quarter. I think it was 31-17, actually. And then they were up 14 with 10-30 left in the fourth quarter.

1:04:58So there were two different moments with less than 18 minutes left in this game where the Bengals were up by two touchdowns. Dave, we're saying this in real time when I didn't think that they were going to lose the game. I felt like, oh, this is funny and kind of annoying, but they're going to win. Like, well, the Bengals offense is back. Unfortunately, the entire Bengals experience is back. The offense is able to score again, but now you have to live with this defense for the second straight week. And eventually, it did them in. They lose a game, the Cincinnati Bengals do, where they average 70 yards per play, had a 59 % success rate overall on offense, and had 400 total yards, and they lose.

1:05:38Cincinnati Bengals, what the f***? I almost don't. Yeah, I don't want to talk about the offense at all. Like, this is what they do. Yeah, the offense, we don't need to talk about it all. The offense did everything they needed to do to win the game today. I just love the monkey's paw aspect of it all, where if you're a Bengals fan, you were despondent. Just give us a shot. Don't waste these receivers in their prime after we just extended them. And you got it, but playing viable football as the Cincinnati Bengals means, yeah, this is the team that you had before your quarterback got hurt. You were doing this with Joe Burrow all last year, So now you're doing it with Joe Flack.

1:06:18Looking at the couple drives. So 31-16. I think I had that right. With 146 left in the third quarter. They slip it to Mason Taylor in the flat. 15 yards. 35-yard gain by Brees Hall. You watch that play back. Mason Taylor and Jeremy Rucker just handle two linebackers on a combo to that side. Like easy work. You have two tight ends just taking care and dusting two linebackers on a combo. And then the angle that Jordan Battle takes on that 35-yard Brees Hall touchdown is just enough to make your skin crawl. And so that happens. And then that's a 35-yard. And then on the five-yard touchdown to finish off that drive, Geno Stone is just flailing in the sea gap on that play.

1:07:02If you go back and you watch that replay. So that's the first touchdown drive. They're down 38-24 with 10 and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter. You have a fourth and one where Jeremy Ruckert sneaks into the flat. Bear Carter has no shot at the 24-yard gain. The 27-yard touchdown that happens on that drive, I cannot describe to you how gross it is to watch the second and third level Bengals defenders on this play. Demetrius Knight is the backside off-ball linebacker on this 27-yard touchdown run. He runs fully in a circle. You want to talk about, like, I heard Robert Watt, watching this too, like during the course of the day.

1:07:41He runs fully in a circle. I can't describe to you what is happening. You can see it even on the broadcast replay here. There's a tackle pulling back to the left, right? And so I think part of him is he's seeing the tackle pull that way. And so he thinks the right run might be coming back to the left side, but he spins fully in a circle. And then on that same exact play, Barrett Carter steps inside and then it makes the angle super, super easy for Joe Tittman climbing up to get him. And then again, Jordan Battle just takes a horrendous angle. Like you watch the angle that he's taking from that safety spot and just why he's moving, the direction he's moving with the urgency he's moving and none of it makes sense.

1:08:24So this has been a consistent problem for the Bengals defense all season. Like what's going on in the second and third level of this team is really rough to watch. And today, Derek, it was enough for them to lose a game they had absolutely no business losing. But yeah, you brought up like three or four plays there, and I've got a couple more that you didn't even bring up. Like there was one where I think it was the first play out of the second quarter, the Jets run like a jet run to the left-hand side. And Demetrius Knight, with the angle he has, should be able to get there and at least like get some hands on the jet play or at least force him wide, completely angle erased.

1:08:57Like God just is able to get free and get to the first down. And so that one was frustrating. There was another run at the very end of the third where the Jets are running a little bit outside zone to the right-hand side and to a two-tight end side. Barrett Carter, as the weak linebacker, has like a clear-as-day run-through to get into the backfield and at least try to drag the runner down. Maybe you just slow him down and somebody tackles him three yards later. He like stops running as he gets to the line of scrimmage. There's no blocker around him. Like he has the clearest run ever and just doesn't take it and running back's able to get up the right sideline.

1:09:30So just a bunch of plays like that that were just beyond frustrating for me watching this team. So you get all of that on top of... The entire Jets offensive line and run game played well. I swear every combo between Joe Tipman and Armand Membu moved somebody like eight yards off the ball. It was just like every run that way was an absolute explosion. You might have said it, and I apologize, like my head's spinning trying to keep track of it all. Did we mention the 50-yarder by Isaiah Davis? No. where Barrett Carter just has him in the hole dead to rights. I mean, it's just, it's mano a mano. And, and he just gets trucked by Isaiah Davis, who proceeds to go 50 yards into Bengals territory.

1:10:14I think Jordan battle took a rough angle on it as well. Just, I mean, I think that just describes the game. And you know, it's crazy. The story coming out of Cincinnati this week is that Logan Wilson requested a trade because they've been decreasing his snaps. and I'm not trying to sell anybody that Logan Wilson is like an all pro player, but I was watching this game and I'm just like, why exactly? Like, sure. I'm probably trying to get the young guys run, but at a certain point, like I understand. This is not working. Young guys need to get run and look, I get it. Like you're trying to replace an aging, expensive player with younger, cheaper players, but this is how you lose football games, man.

1:10:53It's excruciating. You win that game, you're four and four. and now you're what a half game back of the Steelers in the AFC North. You have like a very real shot to keep pace in the division race and potentially in the wild card race. And now you're sitting there at three and five with very little margin for error the rest of the way. And the Ravens are a half game back. And and like with with 40 year old Joe Flacco and like he's he's played well. I'm not saying they won't play another game this good again. But like I look at it as like you just wasted a really good game where like Like we know Joe Flacco can have a bad week.

1:11:28Like we know that that can happen. And like you wasted this phenomenal effort. Do you guys know? I had it pulled up here a second ago. This Bengals rushing game. So like Pirine and those guys, not, not what we're talking about. The Bengals rushing offense had the second best success rate of any game this season. You can't waste those. You cannot waste Samaje, Pirine and Chase Brown going off on an addition to Flacco playing well. And he got the receivers involved. They had a 70 % rushing success rate themselves. And they lost. It defies belief. And Aaron Glenn deserves a lot of credit for going for two when they were down by two scores.

1:12:06They set themselves up for if they score the game-tying touchdown, they only have to kick an extra point to win the game. And so they handled those situations the right way. And then we'll talk about Justin Fields and his role in all of this a little bit later in the show. But my God, just an absolutely indefensible, horrifying loss for the Cincinnati Bengals. Welcome back, Bengals. All right, before we move on, we're going to take one more quick break.

1:12:35All right, let's change the tone here a little bit and talk about what made us feel romantic about football in week eight. I mean, this thing was a thing of beauty. Dave, why don't you kick us off here? What made you feel romantic about football in week eight in the NFL? Let me get out in front of this. I know the 49ers is super depleted. We know they cannot rush the passer. We know Robert Sala is pulling every magic trick imaginable to get this unit doing anything and doing a pretty good job, just for the record. So I know this isn't the most fire-breathing unit in the NFL or anything, but after what we saw on Monday night when Houston went up to Seattle and what C.J.

1:13:16Stroud looked like against the Blitz, against the Seahawks, he's 9 of 17 for 72 yards and a pick. And remember, the discourse was like, is CJ Stroud broken? Like, where is the guy that I remember? That's why I don't care how hurt the Niners defense is. When you're capable of the performance that the Texans offense had last week, it doesn't matter what the team you're playing against if you can do what they did today. So what makes me romantic about football is it's third and seven from the San Francisco 30. Robert Sala blitzes six because it's probably the only way he's getting any pressure on CJ Stroud anyway.

1:13:51And Mikael Williams, like he did his job. He's fighting the center. He's got his face right right in CJ's or his hand right in his face. And CJ Stroud does what I know he can do and just rips it right over Mikael Williams shoulder pad to Xavier Hutchinson. Just the placement is, is just phenomenal. 22 yard throw that you just couldn't, you couldn't hand it to him any better. hits Xavier Hutchinson perfectly in stride, and he's off to the races for a huge touchdown. And I just, I know CJ Stroud's a good player. We don't have to rank him in the hierarchy of NFL quarterbacks or do any of that shit, but I know he's a good player.

1:14:32And he did some good player shit in this game, including that throw, which was one of my favorite from the world. Very nice to see Jalen Nolgan involved, just give this team a little bit of juice that they've been missing at receiver. And obviously they don't have Nico Collins in this game, and they still have their best offensive performance of the entire week or the entire season so far. We're going to dig into this game on the hangover tomorrow because I absolutely want to go back and actually watch that performance from Houston's offense in depth and kind of dig into why they were able to do this.

1:14:58I don't know how to articulate this, but when a quarterback just rips a beautiful throw and the placement is so perfect, where it looks like the football is a magnet and the receiver is attracting it, you know what I mean? like when CJ Stroud does that as beautifully as like anybody in the NFL. And like, there are plenty of other quarterbacks that can do it, but like when he's on and the placement is good, it's just, it's a joy. It looks beautiful. I mean, I think that's part of the reason I was so intoxicated with CJ Stroud as a rookie is that we got a lot of those moments. And so it was nice to see a couple more of them today.

1:15:34Derek, what made you feel romantic about football in week eight? I'm just glad that Justin Fields got his moment. And this is like part joke and part serious. Like, obviously, we come into this week with Woody Johnson, the owner of the Jets, pretty much airing out Justin Fields and saying that, like, we're not that bad of a team. But if we could complete a pass, that would be great. Like that whole type of deal. Justin Fields ends up coming back and starting this week and they get the win. And he actually plays like pretty decent. He's not a perfect quarterback by any means, but he made a number of really impressive and important throws and runs in this game to go and get them their first win of the season.

1:16:08After they've had a couple of other games that were close and just slipped away for them for one reason or another. that is like the it's kind of fun that he got that part of it I think that this was a really cool moment for him though because he actually started to in his postgame press conference he said I'm going to be pretty vulnerable and then he kind of shared this little story about how he had actually been like crying in a closet with just a lot of the things that were going on with him and he went on to say that it wasn't really about football that it was about a lot of other things going on for him so I think just for him to whatever he is going dealing with and whatever is going on, on top of the owner kind of airing him out publicly in terms of his quality of play, for him to go out and have the game that he did, play the way that he did, get the win was just like, it's, that stuff is cool, man.

1:16:53And he's, by all accounts, seems like a really great guy. And so for him to get that, I just, it's cool. At every single stop, people seem to love Justin Fields. I just remember talking to people in Pittsburgh last year about what it was like to work with him every day. And it was like, they think they truly believed it was like a joy. They loved having him in the offense. They loved working with him, love going to work with him. And it just, I've talked about this a lot just because I've obviously had a front row seat to the Justin Fields experience for a good chunk of his career. But just imagine what it would be like to be Justin Fields.

1:17:24You're one of the most highly touted recruits in the history of high school football. You go to Ohio state, you have a fantastic career at Ohio state. You play in this incredible offense. You end up becoming a first round pick. Like you've been the best at what you do from the time you were so, so young. And to kind of realize in real time as you get into the NFL that it's not going to be what you imagined it to be. And coming to terms with that in your early 20s. And then this year, you get the opportunity to potentially try to turn your career around like so many guys have done over the last couple years.

1:18:00You were the day one starter. You're given the chance. This is your team. They pay you like it. and to see that start to slip away, I just can't imagine what that would have to be like. I mean, it's looking back and like figuring out who you are and what you're good at and what your personal and professional failings look like in your 20s. Like doing that in public when you were supposed to be what Justin Fields is, it would be really difficult to handle it with the grace that he has handled it with at pretty much every single step along the way. that's I wonderfully said and like the the vibe in a building when you're having a season like this like it's it's inescapable and it's horrendous and like even if it's just for a week like for all of those guys to like get off of that and not be associated with that for at least until Thursday you know like when you're in the depths of the next game plan or whatever Like, yeah.

1:19:02And I mean, that's it's Justin Fields for sure. And he's the most visible and the most scrutinized of anybody. But it's everybody on that roster, too. Mine for week eight, my moment that made me feel romantic about football, just watching what Jonathan Taylor did again. I mean, just another incredible performance. 12 carries, 153 yards, two touchdowns. Only took 12 carries to put up the game that he had. The two touchdowns he had, obviously, the 80 yarder is crazy. He hits 21.2 miles an hour, just outrunning everybody down the left sideline and just the explosion and the burst. Even like Derek, that first little cut that he has to kind of find that crease before getting going.

1:19:41Like watching that game today and just watching Jonathan Taylor over the course of this entire season, to me, reminds me a little bit of the Saquon Barkley thing from last year for this reason. With running backs specifically, running backs, great ones, can be hiding in plain sight, right? Like Jonathan Taylor had a good season last year, but your success as a running back is so dependent on the overall quality of your offense that you can be a spectacular player and we can forget how truly great you are. I mean, Saquon Barkley was very forgettable in those last couple of years with the Giants.

1:20:15And so to see Jonathan Taylor be put in a situation like this where the entire offense is humming and really reminding everybody what sort of talent that he is and getting this moment for himself where he is very likely, if he continues on this pace, going to be the offensive player of the year and be somebody that we mentioned in the MVP discussion, even if he doesn't get it. It's a really cool thing to have if you're Jonathan Taylor, considering just some of the detours your career had taken over the last two or three years, both you personally and where the Colts offense was as a whole. I like how it's the bizarro Barkley where instead of dropping him into an amazing situation, the situation became amazing.

1:20:53They dropped a competent quarterback into a situation that was already good. And it's like, and it just took off. I have a very dear friend of mine is a longtime Colts fan and a suffering Colts fan over the last few years. And he texted me during the games today and he was just like, like, I know JT's really good, but like, was he always this insane? And I was like, yeah, I think he was. He just, we just kind of forgot about it for a couple years. There was probably a little bit of like a reacclimation period. I would say that's fair. Last year, he was playing really well. He was amazing down the stretch last year, and I've said it before.

1:21:30He had an 1 ,800-yard season with Colts' version of Carson Wentz, and the Colts were within grasp of reaching the playoffs with him just carrying so much of the load, whatever that was, four or so years ago. He's an amazing player. I'm glad he's getting this moment. And I think for Taylor, there's a part of it to me that is not necessarily like better than Saquon Barkley's last year, but obviously Barkley, and there have been really good other running backs this year, but Barkley was kind of sharing that spotlight last year with Henry also kind of emerging into a new like spotlight for himself with the Ravens and they were kind of going back and forth.

1:22:06And there have been other really good backs this year, but it does kind of feel like in terms of how guys are playing the position, especially from an explosive perspective, Jonathan Taylor is kind of one of one right now. Like he is, there is not another back playing quite the way that he's playing. Like, Bajon Robinson has games like this, but it seems like every week Jonathan Taylor is just doing the most absurd thing that you can do at the position to me it's the explosiveness right I mean it's just the ability to go from 0 to 60 and like even when he stopped in the hole get back up to full speed and just outrun people I mean the ADR touchdown is obviously an incredible play the first touchdown he scores is a more impressive play it's like I think it's like a crunch like rep from the gun where you have multiple pullers and they're trapping multiple guys and so you see him coming off the right side he makes I think it was Gray miss in the hole and then cuts back outside like very subtly and then just outruns everybody for the touchdown.

1:22:59Just like watching the subtle movements in condensed space for the first two thirds of that play and then him hitting that final gear to outrun everybody to the end zone. Like there are a couple special plays on tape pretty much every single week from Jonathan Taylor at this point. And today was no exception. All right, let's finish things off by talking about what we learned from week eight in the NFL. You know, I think I've learned something today. It was an ugly week, right? Had a lot of blowouts, had a lot of lopsided games, a lot of games that were over before we even got to halftime. And some of those results were pretty surprising.

1:23:38And I think my biggest takeaway from this week is no matter what happened the week before, there are still teams in this league that are liable to get their ass kicked in any given week, right? Like the fact that the Dolphins were able to put it on the Falcons that way, the fact that the Panthers, who have been playing pretty well, just got absolutely embarrassed by the Bills. The Houston Texans could not move the football against the Seahawks last week, and they went by double digits against the Niners today. The Cowboys have been playing okay football, and they get destroyed by the Broncos. And so I think it's just a reminder that every team, for the most part, outside of a couple exceptions, has this gear to them where if you come out and you lay an egg in this league, you can get the absolute shit kicked out of you.

1:24:26And I think that week eight was a very strong and very rude reminder of that for a lot of teams. The list of teams that I don't view as susceptible to that, it's super short. And even teams that we think so highly of, like, remember, well, I'm totally drawing up like, oh, yeah, all the way back in week one, the Lions team that we love so much, like, started this season off getting their asses beat. The Bills produced a very confusing result because this, like, the Atlanta team that we just shit on for 10 minutes looked so good in a home game against them, beating them by two possessions. Like even the Eagles got beat by 17 by the Giants two weeks ago.

1:25:10A couple weeks ago. Like very, very few teams are not susceptible to this. And yeah, I mean, you better come correct. We say that every week. And yet we're still surprised. We're still surprised sometimes when it happens. Like when something goes really off script and you're just like, I did not think this team was capable of losing by 17 points. It's just amazing if you have an off day and if things are not coming together for you and it is for the other team, you can just get absolutely boat raced by somebody that shocks you. Like even the Chargers beating the Vikings 37 to 10 on Thursday night.

1:25:45Like that Vikings defense is not supposed to be the type of unit that you can hang 37 on casually and that is always possible in the NFL based on how just clumped together all of these teams are. And so that was my prevailing takeaway from what was an ugly week eight on the NFL slate. it's just kind of a reminder that like every that these guys are all professionals like the Bills game like I think sometimes some of these bloods can happen because every roster has one deficit you can pick on but like in the Bills Falcons game it wasn't even that it was like oh Jeff Robick just came out with a really good game plan and sometimes these professionals are just going to do that to each other that's all we have for the week 8 recap like I mentioned we'll be hitting 3 games on the hangover tomorrow we'll be doing Bears-Ravens which I'm not looking forward to, but that's something we're going to have to do.

1:26:35Bucks Saints, the Saints, the official team of the Monday hangover in the athletic football show. And then the third one is going to be Niners Texans, which I actually am looking forward to going back and watching. Very curious to see how the Texans did that today. For now, that is all we've got. We'll be back with a full slate on the athletic football show all week. Talk to you guys soon.

1:27:06We'll see you next time.