Bake it Til You Make It: Recapping the Bucs and Chargers Wins

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0:34Welcome back to the Mini-Kime show featuring Lenny Monday Night Football recap edition. Our first doubleheader. We will be talking about both games. Dominique, it's a tough night for Geno Nation. Tough morning.

0:52Tell the truth Tuesday. We'll get to that game. We're going to start with um the first game which was much better much closer exciting went down to the wire uh two playoff teams from last year the bucks and the texans i had a lot of trouble picking this game i feel like every single texans game comes down to are they going to be better at the line of scrimmage on defense than they're bad on offense kind of was the story of this in some ways um let's start with the bucks perspective though i think like what impressed you the most about this bucks win i mean i think baker finding ways and i i don't want to just lean on cliches like that but like the some of the biggest plays moxie scrappy he just scraps it out he really i know that we're like i'm joking because it's obviously stereotypes but the way he runs really does invite a lot of those adjectives he's like you know he's got a little bit of that and uh the whole time troy is pointing out that he's not a good athlete.

1:50He's like driving home. It's like, he's really not that quick. He's not that fast. He's not a good athlete. But I think the point that I'm making is, it is a cliche and you're right. It does, it is the way that it looks, but it's also not just the way that it looks. It's the plays that he was making. And so many of the plays are free runners. And he turns it into a scramble. So like, that's the part where it's like, this isn't coaching. This is like big, like big moment. somebody's being special. And I know we only like think about those like great quarterbacks as the guys who are able to do that.

2:24It's because they're able to do it consistently is the thing why we think of that Baker's not always been able to do that consistently, but he's put up some great numbers. And I thought that stood out to me, honestly, if I'm being completely honest with you, the thing that stood out to me the most was, well, you want to start with the bucks, but it's like the Texans defense is scary. That plays into this though, right? because the texas offensive line is continues to be a train wreck we'll talk about the offense but it's not like baker was sitting back there behind the books offensive line at full strength he had your center still playing left tackle he had a good rep early on against daniel hunter i think it was for the touchdown right and i thought oh wow graham barton holding his own whole buddy after that it got ugly again and it's it's not his fault he should be playing left tackle he's an amazing center and Daniel Hunter and will Anderson will Anderson was just cooking.

3:16Yeah. I mean, I will Anderson. I felt like I had like, I think 10 pressures. It felt like more in this game. Texas defense was awesome, but yeah. So the flip side of that is like Baker Mayfield. It's not like he was playing in better circumstances. The one thing I think I would say he did have going for him that Stroud didn't was a run game. And that was another thing I wanted to highlight with the bucks, those two backs, man. oh i mean they close they called game basically with those two players they had okay so bucky had a 59 success rate rashad white had a 70 success rate to put that in perspective guys anything over like 45 is very good in the nfl for running backs um duo runs counter runs both running with great vision getting downhill again behind a makeshift offensive line you'll lose against Against that defense.

4:05Against that defense. Yeah. Holy smokes, this team can run the football. Yeah, I was super impressed with that. And it wasn't just running the football. I think the biggest play on that last drive outside of the Baker fourth down scrambles was Bucky catching the ball and somehow breaking four times. Oh, that was an insane play. He spins around Al Shayer and then gets hit by four other guys and keeps running. Or maybe three other guys, then the fourth guy finally tackles him. It's just a ridiculous play. And it's a great like those are the situations where we talk about, like sometimes the players, especially late in the games, like the players have to lift the team and make the big plays.

4:40And we saw it happen for them time and time again in that game. I would say that the whenever I hear Will Anderson's name, I I think about how wrong I was. like that's one so so so many of my draft opinions that are bad I just forget but there's like two there's like two that I just was so passionate about that I could never forget and or three I guess and one of them I'm sure you can guess is I mean other than Will Anderson it's a cornerback yeah I know you're talking about yeah but anyway I I um we can say Jeff Okuda's name is not we can't say it but yeah that's the one that always jumps out to me but the will anderson one like it's he's so good well but i mean your your criticism of that which i shared wasn't really about the player it was about the draft capital they gave up and how and and you could argue if the texans weren't surprising it didn't also have cj stroud be good that year they wouldn't have finished with the record they did would have given up a valuable draft pick i don't know i'm just saying like you're right i'm i'm right too but we're wrong what it means is just monster for that kind of trade to work out you can't just draft a good player you have to draft a superstar and they did will anderson jr is an absolute superstar he is one of the best pass rushers in the entire nfl um we're supposed to be talking about the bucks i think is where you want to start no i mean it's freaking testament to how good the bucks were yeah you know it's 20 points but like 20 points against this team means something running the football against this team at the end of the game means something baker mayfield making plays outside of structure behind a makeshift offensive line against this front means something this bucks offense um you know we had questions after losing liam cohen josh grizzard grizzard grizzard sorry he's grizzard from lizard lick that i remember they said on the broadcast i almost lost it um i thought called a good game like he found answers for him i mean baker was getting the ball out quick and i think that by the way is another interesting point of contrast like it didn't it felt like okay so both sides were getting their kicked up front right we can agree with that yeah it felt like baker some of it was him playing making plays on his own but the ball was coming out quick and he had answers uh and it felt like cj stride didn't um is that too are we am i making too many excuses for stroud we can go to the other side now because it felt like everything for him was so hard in this game and baker was hard too but it was a much more efficient quarterbacking performance.

7:14Yeah. I mean, and Baker had obviously a Buka was, was the matchup. If he's looking for a receiver matchup that he liked, it wasn't the Mike Evans versus Stingley matchup. That didn't work out for him. Yeah. It didn't work out for him too many times. And I loved watching it because DBs get short shrift, but I thought that was a great matchup, but it's, it's, I think this goes back to like, it kind of all the takes are right. and you just have to use them at the right time because I think a remedial take is often just like look at the big names and the playmakers and people like you and me are like well actually what happened is the offensive line and this game it felt like for the Bucs it was kind of the opposite but offensive line was good in some places but like it was really about these playmakers like Ibuka he didn't make that one catch but he made good plays and and we already talked about the running backs that they created some I mean there was some stuff that was there for them because it's well blocked, but they created so much more, and Baker did too.

8:13So if you have a serviceable offensive line, which I think they were, then you get to where the playmakers can change the ceiling of your team, and that was what I walked away with from this game. So I mentioned the success rates for the two bucks back. Nick Chubb had more run stuffs than successful runs, and it didn't feel like it was his fault, obviously. I mean, honestly, he looked pretty damn good. He had one big run, and on that run, he looked pretty damn good. It's just, it feels exactly the same as it did last year, watching this Houston Texans offense. 13 different Bucs got pressure in this game.

8:5220 pressures total, eight of which were quick. CJ Stroud did not make many plays under pressure. He went three for eight for 25 yards. They blitzed him a ton, and he struggled against the blitz as well. So I think that leads me to the kind of question I raised earlier, which is we know a lot of this is on the offensive line. There's no doubt about that. How much of it is on Stroud? And is there anything that Nick Haley, who's your offensive coordinator, can do to alleviate some of this? Because it's easy for me to say, play action, quick game, move the pocket, run the football. But you also have to be able to execute those things.

9:31And those aren't, I think it's a, like, those aren't cure-alls for bad offensive line play. Like, sometimes you can't run play action because you can't, you're scared to turn your thing back to the defense because the interior pressure is so bad. So, I think also we do a lot of, like, this guy is good or this guy is bad, but we don't take into account how much a guy is built for a situation. And I think what is upsetting to me about the CJ Stroud situation is what he does well is get those big chunk plays. And what you would like for that is protection. And OK, having a good offensive line is difficult.

10:09But I really hate when you have the same problem year after year and you don't improve it like that. nothing stresses me out more or frustrates me more about a team is when we all know what the issue is and you've come into the season having not addressed the issue and also not altered your strategy in a way or altered your personnel in a way that would allow you to to minimize how how much of a problem that is because like nico collins big chunks cj stroud big chunks offensive line quick game we we need a quick game and that's the thing that is kind of and it's not new if they just learned it this year all right those are last year they're all right maybe we don't know how good our offensive line is but no it was bad and you got rid of the best version the best player on the offensive line to return with a player who who is so good at playing in that position and not protect them that's the part that's frustrating to me 29 of baker's pass attempts who are behind the line of scrimmage went 10 for 11 for 70 yards so you know the bucks have a great screen game cj stroud had two pass attempts behind line of scrimmage again do you have the play right to make that happen like yeah i thought so i mean they drafted two receivers early jaylen noel looked dynamic on that return i think no christian kirk has been a little bit of a issue for them because I think they may be they were counting on him to be the quick outlet option for Stroud but yeah obviously they're not the box I'm just saying yeah I feel like a jerk um saying that that enormous return was was not explosive but like I didn't walk away from that thinking no I'm not like you know like that's a guy we gotta get some quick screens too I mean no one looked really fast in college I don't know I'm just saying like they yeah But they still call him either way.

12:09Yeah, yeah, yeah. They call him either way. Yeah, I mean, the ball, you know, it's a lot of hitches, and, you know, they're trying to make it work with Stroud. He also, like, oh, man, his ball placement on outs. I don't know. Some of it is not on him. Yeah, it's just, I don't know. It's not fun to talk about because it just feels so redundant from last year. But also, you know, credit to the Bucs defense. Like, to kind of put a pin on this, because the Bucs pass rush, like I said, a zillion different guys got pressure. Some of that is on Houston. Some of that is on the pass rush. It looks more dynamic this year.

12:45I mean, you had, you know, old Levante David coming through and, like, he still looks good. These are one. I mean, well, these are two of the teams that we liked for our top 10 defensive conversation. Well, you didn't like the Bucs as much as I did. You liked them a lot, yeah. Everyone likes the Texans. And, man, did they look good last night. I mean, before we get off of this one, I feel like one of the things that we have, there are two things that I think I expected to be a bigger conversation today that wasn't. And one of them is Baker Mayfield throwing the ball up on that two-point conversion at the end.

13:21Like, no one pointed out the fact that he could have lost the game right there. And also, yeah, that was bad. And also Todd Bowles' timeout. I mean, when you win, nobody cares about any of this. Uh, yeah, it's a two point swing. Like if, if he throws a pick six in that situation, you go from taking the lead with three seconds left. They kind of got him for it on the broadcast a little bit. No, no, but not enough. I think to your point, like that was like, I should have been a big story, but I guess it had it happened. It would have been a big story, but like, we should have pointed out that that was just flat.

14:00stupid we're very results oriented public they won the game so nothing matters the other thing before we move on sorry to jam no no you're right to point that one out but the as good as the texas defense was so many penalties penalties and missed tackles penalties and missed tackles they killed me they's given away when they had them backed up they just kept giving away um uh big situations and advantages i wanted to defend most of the penalties but every but most of the time when they replayed it I was like oh yeah that was holding yeah you know because I just you weren't trying to rip his helmet off and in so yeah yeah like I love the way they play but yeah they a lot of the penalties were legit and you're right that was a lot of those drives got extended because of untimely penalties um anyways the the Texans remained same thing week one same thing last year i don't know how this gets fixed um on offense and then the bucks you know i think can't see got hurt it's a little bit concerning but i think when they get worse back the fact that they're able to hold serve without tristan worse is really impressive and really important that they're winning these games because when they get him back think how good this run game has looked already um and then they're going to get godwin at some point hopefully you know obviously injured players but um mcmillan they're doing this with injured players i think that matters i think the improvement we're seeing i mean good lord anton onefield jr by the way um okay charges raiders uh okay i'll start with the geno side the offensive side of this because it was an absolute beat down by the chargers defense geno played really poorly in this game um i kind of think i i've seen a lot of focus on the interceptions to me the struggles were much more about some of the missed he missed like two or three passes downfield he always hits the interceptions i thought i said the first one was was quite bad and they were all over it um there was a tip ball and an arm punt i can't get too mad about that you know there's and at the end there's just kind of desperation the misses were bad so he was bad in this game that said holy crap i'm taking a way bigger l on the chargers defense which i left out of my top 10 I pointed to as a regression candidate.

16:21I said, there's no way Jesse mentor can do this again. We now have a two game sample size. Okay. Let me read you some stats because I think these are very, sometimes stats really do paint a good picture of the way they play through two games. They have forced the average lowest average depth of target in football by a significant margin, 3.2 air yards per attempt. And you can say, yeah, they played the chiefs week one. the Raiders were bombing the pads so uh that was pretty notable to me in this game Geno Smith uh threw into tight tight windows 28 of the time that's the most of any game of any quarterback this season um the Chargers uh had 12 passes defensed in this game uh absolutely bonkers performance by the secondary it felt like they ran half of the raiders routes for them dominique they were just they just choked them out i don't know how else this is like it was just stifling it was it's smart of you to bring up the coaching i think the players i obviously lean um a lot towards players when doing this analysis because they're out there doing it um but i think a combination of coach preparation and player execution is important to point out here because One thing that I know when I'm watching tape is nobody covers that well.

17:48It's hard. 15 passes defense, not 12. 15, I misspoke. I say that to say that they are anticipating and prepared in a way that I think is indicative of the coaching that they're receiving. and when you know what when you know the tendencies of the team and you anticipate that they might change the formation but they still in key moments they're going to go to what they like they're going to hit the concepts that mean something to them the concepts that they believe in um and jesse mentors like generally they want to be able to keep things in front of them as a philosophy i think eliminating those big plays and anticipating just being smart they play really smart and derwin james is obviously a very good example of a super smart player that makes everything a little bit easier because uh you're anticipating it and you're making things happen so i think that that's what i saw was like man these guys they know what to expect you know kyle hamilton once said something i should stop being like kyle hamilton once said this to me but it's something that's kind of lived in my mind where everyone thinking about the ravens defense which was last last year um ahead of last season he was talking about how like we can play this much split safety because of how strong we are in the spine of the defense.

19:04And I'm watching this defense last night, which lives in that split safety shell coverage. And I'm thinking you got two damn demons in James and Diane Henley, who is I think already one of the best whole linebackers in the NFL. And because those two players are elite, like, you know, they have other good players, these young cornerbacks, I thought played out of their minds. They're really talented. Maybe we'll be talking about some of them at the end of the year in the same way. But I'm watching this and I'm thinking those two players are superstars. So you can live in this, you know, quarter centric light box world because these two guys are such agents of chaos and are able to defend so much ground.

19:46So, yes, I do not. You know, I know I went to mentor and how much. but like it is that coach with these players in this by the way in this iteration of the NFL right where this is a style of play that a lot of the best defenses are playing right now. Ed Reed once told me now he didn't actually tell me this but I feel like that got to do Ravens safeties once told me but the thing about cover four if you have a cover four centric defense is if your safeties can get a consistent good run pass read, then you have the best of both worlds. So if you can trust your run read, then you end up with both safeties adding to the run and being in the box.

20:35If you get a good read and recognize that it's play action or a straight drop back, then both of your safeties can engage in the pass game. That's the major difference. That's why when teams are really good at cover four or split safety-based coverages. They're not two-man or anything like that, but you're going to mix in some cover twos, some cover six. You're going to mix in some other coverages, but the base of what you're doing is cover four, and that is kind of the secret is if you have a couple of good safeties because they're reading the end man on the line of scrimmage, and if they get a good run read, they can add into the run, and it's as if you're playing with more than a loaded box with a double loaded box and if they don't then it's the opposite which is it's a hell of a hell of an advantage to have aloha gilman also really good player i i know i mentioned you know james henley are like the stars but like i'm watching to me he really flashed a bunch last night he always seems to be in the right position to make plays both in coverage and tackling um yeah on the flip side i think for gino like i like i said he played bad where I'd be worried as a Raiders fan because I don't think he's gonna be that bad and he's gonna bounce back you know he's gonna have much better games than that one that was a very very good defense the inaccuracy I think he's still gonna put the ball in harm's way which I'll get to in a second the inaccuracy I think was just a that was a bad game where you get worried is to me um what you saw is like if this Brock Raiders offense doesn't have Brock Bowers at full strength it's not a good receiving group and the problem is you have a quarterback who and this is the in Seattle too.

22:11He will always play like his receivers are really good. And like, like if he sees a one on one or a one on two, he's throwing it up there. Right. And if you don't have ball winners, um, that can go to problems because they were bad in this game outside of Jacobi Myers. Sometimes, you know, they, they schemed up some touches for him and that's, again, I know people are gonna say you're exonerating Gino. I'm just specifically speaking about his style of play is one where you want to have receivers who can win. So they really need Bowers to be healthy, would be my emphasis. And the Gentee situation too.

22:45I know the O-line isn't helping him, but he's – I think this was the conversation about drafting a running back like that. It's like you got to be really special for it to be a worthwhile draft pick. And really special means that even when the O-line is not great, that there's something that you can produce out there that feels like it's helping your team. And I haven't seen Gentry do that yet. So if he's a great player behind a great offensive line, that's hugely valuable also. But you knew you didn't have that when you drafted him. So we'll see. It's early, but his impacts on the game have not been in watching him.

23:20It's not like I'm like, oh, yeah, this is going to pan out really soon. It's not like when we were watching Bijan when he first got drafted. Well, Bijan walked into a good situation. I mean, it's a good blocking offensive line in Atlanta when he was drafted i'm saying you know so yeah i mean i felt that way watching both these teams and their first round draft picks like ooh mina every year like just please stick to your guns on this because i didn't you know both of these picks don't look great it's not an indictment of the player it's just the reality of the position in the draft um okay we didn't i didn't talk about just justin herbert it was kind of a weird game for him first half he was lighting it up made crazy play out of structure scrambling all over the place then the charge offense was pretty muted in the second half, I got to say.

24:02So, you know, I don't know. I the first game, it felt like, wow, this charges offense play actually passing attack. They're killing them. I didn't I think it was a little bit of a step back game for me watching this offense. Ultimately, it didn't matter. They did enough. And people say, well, Herbert protected the ball. Herbert threw it on linebacker, man. My brain just didn't come down with it. Again, results. Not the best game from, you know, I'm obviously very high on him. I think he'll be fine. McConkie's a star. You had Johnston winning on a ball downfield, which was really nice to see. But, yeah, they didn't look good running the football either.

24:38Offensive line, still some concerns. To me, the story of this game was the Chargers defense, not the Chargers defense. I agree. But, I mean, I'm looking forward to the Chargers and some more, like, competitive, I guess, is the wrong word, I guess. But you know what I mean. I want to see them really challenged because it didn't seem like the Chiefs were at a strength level to really challenge them. But, I mean, they're still the Chiefs. We have to respect them for being the Chiefs and having the talent that they do on defense in particular. But obviously, I don't think anyone believes the Raiders are world beaters.

25:11But I think the Chargers, we need one of those measuring stick games so that we can kind of validate the things that we're seeing so far. I think with this Chargers defense, you and I talked about structurally what they do. you got to be able to run the football to run them out of these looks. And so far they've faced two teams that are not good at running the ball. As I pull up the schedule, I'm looking to see, or you got to have like a real, like a big ball winner downfield. So you got Denver, New York, Washington, Miami. They're not really the Colts who we'll get to in a second. Well, that's a very good running team.

25:49So maybe that'll be a good challenge. All right, let's take a quick break actually and come back and talk about the Colts. I'm excited to talk about this. They're my winner for the week. As you know, managing maintenance, repair, and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back. From professional-grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery, they are there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. and because Granger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner and protecting both your people and your facilities.

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28:10week one they faced the melting down Dolphins defense we said do it again Danny Dimes said all right holy smokes the Broncos defense I have thoughts on what went wrong there let me pose it to you this way through the first two weeks of the season we were the Clint Kubiak Saints offense looked like world killers that fell apart. Yeah. Is this more likely to be a two-week mirage, or do we feel like this is something sustainable because through two weeks, it looks awesome? I mean, I think it's sustainable. I don't know where the mirage would be, where the issue would be. Like, it's not with the O-line.

28:53It's not with the weapons or the running back. The quarterback is not great, but he's shown the ability to be, like, effective in other situations other than this one. I think maybe in tight situations when you need him to make the special play, maybe he won't be able to make that as routinely as some of the great quarterbacks can do it. But I don't think that this is going to be a complete mirage. And I don't know, Tyler Warren, man. What a good player. Good player. He's a good player. He moves like a receiver. well watching them against denver first of all jonathan taylor yeah it's funny because like last year he put up ridiculous numbers and everyone just kind of ignored it because the colts and what a reminder of how special he is uh this early process has been um but like watching them against denver so denver is a defense that plays a ton of man coverage um which is fine unless they have a glaring weakness you can attack and right now it's linebacker drae greenlaw is not playing the Colts and Shane Sykin circled those linebackers with a red pen.

30:02Alex Singleton put the microscope on him and Warren. They, they killed him with, it was a, it was a cool play. They had him in the backfield and he was like a play action pass and he ran through the B gap, got him cover one, boom, huge gain. Jonathan Taylor was the wheel. I think again, got him boom, huge gain. so that's yeah it does feel sustainable they have really cool skill players who can be weaponized in a bunch of different ways but you also need a quarterback put the ball on them I think my biggest question for Daniel Jones moving forward is not whether he can do that in the deer at a 15 yard range because I think that's consistent but he's been also thus far in the season pushing the ball downfield and he has also played really well under pressure those are the things I think moving forward if anything it feels like oh let's see how this plays out it would be that for me how good he's been under pressure because historically and he's got a long career at this point he has made pretty crucial mistakes against pressure and the blitz or not felt it but early on that hasn't been the case um i also just i mean like just to revisit the decision to go with him look i think it's way too early to like make my take on that i think i don't think did you and I talk about, I know I talked about it with Ben and we were a little bit, not of a, we had a little bit of a difference of opinion about it.

31:25I was critical of the decision, not because I believed in Richardson at this point. I think I was pretty clear. I thought like, you know, they were justified in not starting him, but I felt like with Daniel Jones, you had a clear ceiling on this offense. And like, what was the point? I think what I, first of all, the ceiling thing appears to be wrong. We'll see. but I also think I underestimated okay but these skill players are so good and this is a really good play caller what if we just had a functioning quarterback back there do I think this team is going to win the Super Bowl I do not but with Daniel Jones I do not but there is a lot of value in functioning in competence and I think we're seeing that um this was one or not one of this is probably my my greatest preseason take so far is that and we're only at week two but like I saw this situation and thought that it was going to be much better than anyone else thought.

32:20And of course, all this would have been different if they didn't have the leverage play and they end up losing that game. I guess we wouldn't feel any different about the Colts, but would we be calling them winners and talking about them right now? No. Would I be celebrating during the victory lap about my week two preseason prediction? No. But I think all the things that you mentioned are stable. And I guess what I was banking on was Shane Steichen is still a very like he was really good offensive coordinator. And there is a limitation put on your offense when your quarterback does not consistently hit the easy ones.

32:56And that was the thing where I was like, which is a long time coming for me to advocate for Daniel Jones over Anthony Richardson. but I liked Daniel Jones as the choice before they chose him because of that fact. And looking around at the talent that they had is like, let's just get him the ball. And so I think your logic and anyone else's logic about potentially going with Anthony Richardson is good, obvious, long-term, want to win a Super Bowl logic is like, yeah, this guy, if we can get him right, we get there. that's just not how I think. And I guess I'm like, if I'm on this team and I'm watching this dude consistently or inconsistently hit easy targets, I want the guy that's going to give me a chance.

33:45This is such a great, like evergreen discussion about NFL and roster construction. And like, what are we playing for and competing in the longterm versus the short term and quarterback strategy. It's way too long for this. like but yeah like i you were thinking like an owner yeah well or you know like a gm with like an infinite job security right which does not exist does not exist well but you know howie roseman can do things like trade cars and quince you know i'm just saying like there's this was a very a hot seat situation and my criticism was like i felt like the hot seat was motivating them too much and look it might be that might be the case daniel jones could turn into a pumpkin and we could look at this discussion and maybe it ages poorly but i do think you're certainly saying for shane steichen why why they went this way and because for two weeks i mean it's been a reminder of how good he is and how much he was being held back passes zero to ten i think i mentioned last year anthony richardson was like the only quarterback in football with a sub 60 percent completion percentage through two weeks Daniel Jones is completing 77 percent of those passes um that's kind of the ball game right there you know so anyways this is too long of a discussion and also like I'll be quiet I have so much more to put a pin in it there's so I know there's so much there but let's put a pin in it because I think it is one that is going to be worth revisiting as the year goes along I haven't even talked about Lou and Ruma's defense and which I'm enjoying too although you know Dolphins got him a few times uh your winner Atlanta Falcons victorious on Monday Night Football.

35:23So, obviously, watching Bijan do anything is incredible and exciting. Watching Kyle Pitts have some version of a resurgence where he looks explosive and actually gets targeted on plays is impressive. However, it's the defense, right? It's the defense for the first couple weeks, and all the rookies that they have that are playing incredibly well, Pearson Walker like their impact on the game is noticeable and yeah I mean I think it's I did not anticipate this defense being as good as it has been in the first two weeks so that's really what jumps out to me the impact that they've had on on this team and specifically this well I guess both of the games it felt like because you're not supposed to win a game when your quarterback plays the way that Michael Penix played and their red zone efficiency was I mean functionally all field goals that gave him a touchdown at the end it's just like a hard way to win the defense got it done the offense still i just have some issues with but um and i think that continued to show up and that i'm just there's just some things about it that are bothering me right now but yeah the defense is the story because defense is where they invested the defense has been what has dragged this team down for years and through two games um they've looked pretty damn good obviously most notably getting after the quarterback uh yes some of that had to do with jj mccarthy holding on to the football too long and some issues on the vikings offensive line but you know i thought they also looked pretty damn good week one and it's been different players too i think that's what's kind of cool is like my my biggest question with the falcons defense is china just been who's going to emerge who's going to step up they've drafted they put so much draft capital into not just edge this year but prior defensive line i still don't know the answer to that question like i think i don't think there's been like it's not been like wow james pierce jr is that dude or brandon dorliss right now it feels like a team effort and they're finding ways to get different guys one-on-ones and different guys are winning up front which is um great right because you have invested so much up front but yeah at minimum like what we've always said about this team is like, you don't have to be the purple people eaters out there.