Bear Trap for Detroit? Previewing Every Week 2 Game

25:42Nate Tice:I think this is like a good heat check for Pittsburgh after winning last week. I'll go first. I'm on the Steelers. So what I wrote down is Rogers versus Mike McDonald, I think is like the matchup that I'm interested in. So because last week, Rogers performing, I don't think we talked about Justin Fields earlier in the week and how good he was Rogers was incredibly efficient uh very low 4.7 air yards per attempt okay but however something that I think when he used quick game which was a lot uh 2.5 seconds or less they had the highest first down rate in the NFL 0.56 EPA per play anything over two and a half seconds that dropped to 0.03 epa per play okay so he was peppering them but accurate set up receivers to get yards after the catch good play calls on the part i thought of arthur smith so now you go up against a seahawks defense that's going to try to take all that away you're going to have guys dropping into his throwing windows you're going to have guys closing on it's a better tackling defense than the jets there's no one brandon stevens to pick on so i i think like what i'm interested in for rogers like last week it looked good it was clean it was efficient you were able to you know solely matriculate your way downfield but this is a much differed challenge for that brand of offense that really does force you to run the football well and be explosive in away they just weren't last week yeah it's oh man the the Steelers are weird for me because I'm like oh yeah this defense is a kick and look at it and they're just getting blown blown off the line scrimmage by the Jets who I do like the Jets and I like what um like a lot what the run game is going to be which we saw last week but I don't know it was this is just one of those games too where it's like, I actually think the Seahawks match up really well.

27:50Like, uh, the, as far as, cause what the Jets ran last week was a bunch of zone runs, you know, and that, that was just, it was just so curious to me. Um, no, but with the Rogers stuff too, if I want to hold before I get to my Seahawks point, uh, before, but Rogers to me is that the two touchdowns that were on bootlegs were the exact exact same play. And it looked more like botches. I mean, the nice play to Calvin Austin, that was nice, you know, throwing that one. One was the jet sweep. I thought DK Metcalf had some nice moments where all those bubbles and smokes and everything. I know, like, but DK can change direction like that now.

28:24You know, like, that actually looked really nice. Like, and so there's more to it than, than I figured out the freaking running back rotation, which is hilarious. They play Kenneth Gainwell and they're like, yeah, we can't play a rookie because Rogers doesn't trust him in protection. The Kenneth Gainwell goes back there and botches protections. Like, great job, guys. Way to really develop some talent there. um but no i um i do can i get into some seahawks run game stats versus this yeah let's do that

28:47Nate Tice:yeah i do think your point and i'm gonna get to the jets side of it later i want to talk about the jets but yeah they got rocked on the ground yeah they did so last last week the jets on zone runs this is from uh ftn zone runs for steelers defense 31 zone runs 31 zone runs again that's the number the next highest team that ran zone runs was the colts with 23 only the other team above 20 31 is crazy ridiculous that's me that it was basically every run i don't think they even had like a gap scheme run off the top of my head 139 yards 4.5 yards per carry a touchdown 45 success rate i don't know if you know this mina but the seattle seahawks have an offensive coordinator that's part of an offensive system that likes the zone run

29:35and they average 5.1 yards per carry on zone runs a week one with a 55 success rate uh the jets offensive line is better but i actually thought the seahawks offensive line run game wise was doing some nice stuff across the board other than you know the right guard had some issues but like across the other guys i thought were pretty dang good gray zabel looks awesome so i think they're gonna have some be able to just pound the rock like i think this is gonna to be a nice run play action what you expect to have a kubiak offense because i think that's what

30:03Nate Tice:those steelers are susceptible to how much do you think though the steelers being susceptible to that had to do with the presence of fields on those zone runs as well oh definitely a part of it but they did some under center stuff and it was just true zone like there was a true outside and inside zone yes but there was some read stuff that was part of it the steelers play they actually play uh qb read games really well like the steelers have always held lamar to to lower yardages than you would expect. Jane Daniels didn't run well against them last year. Where I do think that Sam Dirtle can run a little bit.

30:37But no, but I do think just the straight runs and outside zones is where they're still susceptible to it. Their linebackers are a little shaky. They're a little too fast, but they're kind of fast in the wrong direction sometimes.

30:50Nate Tice:Yeah, I think that there is potential for the Seahawks' offense, pardon me, to look better this week than they did last week. That's another, man, I thought Steelers' defense would look much better than that i had them as a top 10 defense and there were some asier issues particularly not just on the ground against the run but that really jumped out but they got um slay they got it went after like they the jets were able to like hunt them through the air as well in a way that i did not see coming um i think for pittsburgh on that side of the ball you really just need your pass rush to go crazy in this particularly on third down because you saw the usual kind of like darn like getting rattled by that um i'm taking seattle i didn't take seattle last week to be clear i picked the niners and for me it's really i just think this mike mcdonald defense is going to i'm not saying that the steelers offense last week was fool's gold or whatnot because i think that is how they're going to win against a lot of defenses i just think this defense is going to be a lot better at taking away some of the things we saw them the easy stuff against the Jets.

31:59Yeah, I think the Jets defense is pretty, from a quarterback perspective, pretty easy to read. I'm also taking Seattle, but pretty easy to diagnose. I think that's why Rodgers had some success too. Glenn likes to run quarters on first and second down and man coverage on third and fourth down. It's pretty easy to figure out. Even I can do that without looking up the numbers. But I also just think that Rodgers last year too, the last couple of years, he's been, you know, the last couple of years, it's been really kind of bad against the Blitz. like he kind of hasn't really found the answers they used to because defenses have evolved to what he likes to usually find well that's what mcdonald does some great stuff simulators and creepers and blitzing so i do think that i just think the seahawks have a lot of natural answers they don't have to do anything extraordinary to find good answers here i'm also curious like slay is a huge target for other teams to target only a couple targets he got last week gave up the touchdown jason okay let's move him out of the slot away from ramsay away from joey Porter Jr.

32:56We're moving to the opposite side. Like there's ways to get after Slay as well. Like this might be a Torrey Horton bomb.

33:01Nate Tice:I was going to say the Seahawks really need someone other than Torrey, other than probably Jason to, I mean, it was insane. It's a call of targets. Yeah. By the way, you talked about the simulated pressures. I just pulled it up last year. Leonard Williams dropping and then pick six St. Rogers. Do you remember that when the Jets played the Seahawks? Yeah. So like, I think that's the kind of thing you're, talking about there. We might see some exactly. Okay. Keep it moving. I will go next with bills. I'm going to do bills. Jessica's it's kind of tied to what we were just talking about. I wrote, can the jets option ground game kill Buffalo the way Baltimore's did?

33:44Nate Tice:I mean, maybe, you know, I think on the other side of the ball, Josh Allen will have no problem moving the ball in this Jets defense. Uh, but, um, two sides of this one is the Jets side. Holy smokes. The grant, the running rushing attack looked like everything we hoped, everything we dreamed of it. Every off season podcast. I, and I'm sure you're the same. We did about the Jets was just like, can they run the ball? Can Justin Fields be a threat to run? Can this offensive line take the leap that we thought they would? And yes, yes, yes. I mean, And Brees Hall, 5.6 yards per carry, 53 % success rate, so good under center, as you talked about the zone running game.

34:25Nate Tice:Justin Fields, 12 carries, 48 yards, 67 % success rate. And, man, going back and watching some of those Baltimore runs against Buffalo, just until the end, when everything changed in those last two drives, it was such a nightmare. there like the linebackers were just getting like out leveraged missed tackles safeties coming from bad angles it was obviously the ravens have one of if not the best rushing attacks in football but it was really concerning and so i think if i'm new york like i'm watching that and thinking let's make all the same guys tackle because we got a pretty damn good running game as well i i've made jokes before the past like oh this game's a race to 20 oh this game is a race to 10 points this game might be a race to 40 like the the in the sense because i do think again jets have a natural answer they want to run they just want to run it over and over and over and i will say that i i thought um wide fields had the best success rate best epa per play or epa per drop package to save his entire career in a single game he had the best success rate in the entire nfl in week one was because I thought that the offensive system was really conducive to what he's good at.

35:45The RPOs weren't over the middle. The RPOs were out routes to the outside. That's what feels has been comfortable with his entire career, including back to Ohio state. I thought he was just playing fast. He stepped up in the pocket. I'm like, Justin feels the stepping up in the pocket. What did you guys do with them? Like, this is great. But again, it's, they're built around the run game. They have two amazing backs and even their number three back is pretty good. And then both of the tackles, Olufushanu had a great week one. Armand Membu had a great week one. I switched between Membu and Membu.

36:14Nate Tice:One of the best week one rookie tackle performances. I've seen, I mean. Recent years, I know. I know. This game, I was like locked into this game for some reason. I mean, not for some reason, it was amazing. It was like the best game. Yeah, it was. By far. And I just, Fox is making fun of me. But I was like, dude, I could not take my eyes off this dude versus TJ Watt. Yeah. Yeah. It's not, it's not a nobody. I know that's, I don't know. I think the jets might run it 40 times. Like I see until the bills stop it. Like, and that's the other thing is the jets now can go bully ball with two tight ends.

36:51Mason Taylor played a bunch of snaps. He's a solid blocker, especially on zone, but then Jeremy Rucker and then Jeremy Rucker played well. Like they, they, the jets tight ends have been so bad in recent years. And I, it's mostly because they had the same coach there for like 20 years, It seemed like, and it really seemed like a record. Finally, you're like became what I thought he was going to be out of Ohio state. He's a good blocker can do some receiving stuff. So I don't know. Again, the jets just have natural answers. And that's why I'm kind of focused. I know what the bills offense is going to be.

37:17Like, I know what they could do. And then the jets defense is pretty predictable. I know that the bills are going to score points. Like it's, there's no like, Oh, can the jets get them? They don't have the horses to run the defense that Aaron Glenn wants them to run right now. They need another corner. Like Brandon Stevens is just a big gigantic target on his back. so he was one of the he was one of the worst corners in the game last year as far as just nearest defender and last week he i think the same thing he got torched again so climbs ladder

37:42Nate Tice:on you right come on what are we doing here okay wait uh okay jets our bills are seven i'm gonna pick the bills we're just do straight up but seven and a half i know i'm yeah bills but a jets cover and i think this i think this can be a pretty fun game actually i'm kind of i'm very this is a kind of a freak show game for me uh yeah i i if the jets do it again which is to say if the offense is fun again then i'm officially adopting them as like my sneaky snack team my co-host matt harvin at yahoo keeps making fun of me he's like they're your 2022 falcons and i'm like yeah yeah don't do that again to me don't do that again to me i don't want to fall off my guy if he does this with justin keeps doing it with justin fields he ain't gonna be in jets for long um especially watching detroit okay keep moving you've got oh pat's dolphins oh man i kept it simple i was just like can drake may have his kind of breakout performance against a pillow soft dolphins back seven uh he had he had really high usage last week and good success rate he was kind of finished middle of the pack sprayed a couple in the rain but then also had some great throws kind of just looked like kind of like a standard may performance so far i thought he was solid though one of those on rewatch i liked it better than maybe as i was watching on on tv and i don't know the dolphins front i mean everyone we've all been staring at the dolphins like look at this train wreck happening in front of us the front supposed to be their best part of the team really and they disappointing.

39:25Nate Tice:That was by far the most disappointing. I agree. I got all hyped up about their front. I was like, these guys are going to really keep them in games. And then the offense has been kind of solved. Do I think, you know, the Patriots defense coordinators is taking some time off, but like about to mention that. Cause I saw that right before, um, so, you know, this is the dolphins are the classic, like game plan against team. Okay. Can you game plan? can you run the game plan because we kind of know what it is but can also you teach it can you guys implement it can you execute it can you do like i i that was actually my dork um intrigue for colt's dolphins week one i was i wanted to see lou anarumo do the game plan yeah great just throw some game plan at it we know what it is you know you gotta you gotta get them off the first read you gotta take away the windows in the middle of the field you gotta get guys to landmarks So I'm kind of interested in seeing what that looks like for the Pats as well.

40:22Nate Tice:I don't think the past defense was bad per se. I just think Gino killed them through the air and made some Gino throws against the blitz. Yeah. They got emotionally blitzing a couple of times. That's yeah. Very well. Yeah. They came out a couple of times at the worst moments. I was like, just woosah. Your main point is really, your main point is he wasn't horrible against the Raiders, but it was very much like a, oh, we have like a veteran quarterback on one side and a rookie on. That's how I felt watching him against Gino Smith. You know, I always call him Gino Smith, professional quarterback.

40:57Nate Tice:And like, that's kind of, you know, what it was. I'm going to take the pats in this. Maybe that's, I'm not going to try to catch the dolphins falling knife. No, no, I'm going Patriots all the way. Even Christian Gonzalez is out. And usually that'd be, I'd be like, oh, going against Tyreek Hill and Waddle. And it's like, guess what? But Tyreek Hill has taken away all fear because of just what he is, the non-captain Tyreek Hill. And I think Jalen Waddle got banged up last week too. So, yeah, even with Gonzalez out, potentially out, I don't know. I just think the Patriots will find a way. All right.

41:31Nate Tice:Saints, Niners. Niners, Saints. This one is just me. We got some news here. Just broke now. Adam Schefter reports. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters that Brock Purdy could miss multiple weeks and that he's a long shot to play Sunday at New Orleans. Mack Jones is in line to start. Of course, there is irony, but there's a lot of history here because there was a lot of reporting around the Trey Lance Mack Jones draft that indicated that Kyle Shanahan wanted Mack Jones. Well, now he finally gets to start him. uh so george kittle is also missing in this game a few ways to look at this i think with mac he is not walking into there's been niners backup quarterbacks who have walked into great situations and reproduce well this is not a great situation um absence of kittle looms large already a banged up receiver group the offensive line i thought really struggled a bit last week admittedly against a very good seahawks defense Brock Purdy was pressured 26 times.

42:40Nate Tice:Six were unblocked. The Saints pass rush is not as good as Seattle's, but that is a concern. I just wrote as a key, they got to run the football better than they did last week. They averaged under two yards before contact per carry. They got Christian McCaffrey activated in the passing game. I think that's going to be a big part of this one again. But they go up against Saints defense that looked pretty solid against the run week one, but I am not convinced is going to be a very good run defense. um demario davis has been good against christian mcafree historically in the passing game so yeah i just think if they want to run the football and play action off of that uh it's gonna start up front for them i will say before i move on um i thought spencer rattler was not terrible against the cardinals saints are not a very good football team, there are issues on both sides of the ball, but I thought at least he looked competent and I wouldn't be surprised if they're able to activate the receivers against this Niners secondary.

43:47Nate Tice:This is now really hard. I was going to pick the Niners with Brock Purdy. I think I'm still going to pick the Niners here just because I think that the Niners defense is improved and they're probably the best unit now on the field between the four of them but this is obviously going to be very ugly and just continued brutal injury luck for San Francisco 49ers okay before the break Jags-Bangle I like this game I'm interested in this game I like this game

44:24I just said the key to this game is competency for any of these four units. That's the key to this game. Can the Bengals offense be the Bengals offense? Like, please, in September, can you look like how I thought you were going to look like? And then can their defense be like an NFL defense? No, I don't think so. Shmar Stewart had some nice moments. And then I think for the Jacks, too, can Trevor Lawrence put together four quarters? Like, I am a Trevor Lawrence guy, and I'm starting to go like, all right, enough of these B minuses. Like I need an A, like a flat A out of you, which I haven't seen in a while.

44:57And then the Jags defense, you know, you're going to get to Carolina. Like they did some nice things, I will say, but you're still starting Andrew Wingard at safety. Like that's kind of all I need to say. So it's one of those, all right, any of these units, do something that makes me kind of feel good coming out of it.

45:12Nate Tice:I have a Jags thought I want to get to, but real quick, like what, when you watch the Bengals offense, because this was like quietly one of the more disappointing performances of week one in my opinion and but just nobody watched the game so it didn't get talked about because it wasn't an island game and it was against the browns like what do you think was the biggest problem god it was just like when everyone's when they get a top put on them as far as like and you get heated up that's the terrible combo for them burrow wants burrow is very patient but he gets antsy and wants to start taking shots and wants to start doing double moves and starting doing that but they were just never able to get into that rhythm of it like i thought he was pressured i thought he was kind of i don't say jittery but he wanted to get the ball out quick we everyone saw the clip of miles garrett looping around um i don't i don't think the offensive line was that terrible or anything like there wasn't great but um it's just one of those where i just like i thought they got impatient and they just kind of kind of couldn't get over the hump so i don't know i i'm a believer in the in the bangles offense this year not the bangles team did not make them have them making the playoffs i think i kind of know what they are because i think the defense is stinky but i i don't know that it was a little disappointing because i've been kind of very bullish on the kind of what that i thought they were going to be going into this year so i'm very tempted to pick the bangle or jags pardon me in this one because i think that uh i don't know actually yeah let me know but i think that um the bengals defense is worse than they looked week one i think that was browns and i think jacksonville's going to be able to run on them uh i texted you at some point like some unhinged time of night brenton strange blocking his ass off yeah can we talk about his the jacks rushing so this is a longer conversation you know i talked to um oh no this is something i got into an nfl live with dan when these really great offensive coordinators leave they're often not able to bring their run games with them because they're not bringing their offensive lines with them cough cough chicago we just saw that right um so when we have calm came to jacksonville a whole off season i was like i really like this i love btj and trevor lawrence or not charlotte um travis hunter but like oh this offensive line can they run the football and oh they signed robert Hainsey and Macari okay they ran the piss out of that thing and I just going back and like first of all it was all the big runs came out of 12 personnel and Brent and Strange delivering like key blocks on like every single explosive run it was like a lot of split flow but I thought terrific job using motion to move to second level defenders Hainsey had a couple of great blocks but Cari on like a big power run stood out to me I thought the run game was so heartening to watch out of this check.

48:08Nate Tice:Cause you know, I think that was my concern. Is this Jacksonville just going to be all candy bombs away? You got these two receivers now. They looked like substantive in a way that I think is going to get this Bengals defense presents an opportunity to continue. There was, this is the biggest difference between the end of Doug Peterson and now what I saw from week one, cause I totally agree with you. I I've been kind of with Liam Cohen, but kind of like I've been encouraged and Michael was pretty optimistic of what he could be but i was like man this is a young staff the offensive line's a little iffy but like you say like you just pointed out like they actually looked competent like nobody was botching a protection and going the wrong way they might have lost one-on-one or nobody was doing a route concept where a guy was two guys are in the same spot or they're just doing the same thing over and over which is what happened with doug pearson and actually or myers offense before that uh but it's just really it was significant to me that they got rid of tank bixby because i've been even though i got him in exactly zero fantasy leagues uh basial tootin i i do think is going to take over this backfield as time goes along um just has the juice they still don't trust travis etn and protection um so like it's going to be the two i think the two young guys are going to really help help bring some juice to this run game all three backs got a little bit of juice now and i do think that the offensive line will get overwhelmed by some teams but it's not this team you know this is not the team i think that will overwhelm them um yeah i I really just thought their misses were Trevor, Trevor saw the right things.

49:33He just missed the rose and, or they had a drop like, but that's to me is not a bad concept football. That's just, you know, doing your assignments and accomplishing open.

49:42Nate Tice:I mean, yeah. Offense. I'm with you. I know the Panthers defense is stinky, but it's just one of those words. Like, no, this is what you hope to see. What was that line? You looked it up three and a half. Bengals are three and a half favorites over unders at 48 and a half. All right. Well, I'm picking the Bengals straight up. I think this is a bounce back game for the Bengals offense. Oh, you said you were tempted? I was tempted. I'm tempted straight up. I might take the Jags to cover. I'm going to go with – I know all that run game. I'm going to go with the Jags. I love it. Even with the three.

50:14Yeah, it's just my bad, bad unit. I bet against the bad units. That's what I do, and the Bengals have the worst unit in this game.

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52:45Nate Tice:all right we're back the oh and one bears versus the oh and one lions must win game for certainly Detroit I would argue um I'm on Detroit you go first let's keep the bears in this one you already you already hinted at it can the bears get their run game going I know everybody's talking about Caleb Williams and this and that and that missed throw and him scrambling too much well Drew Dahlman's got to earn his paycheck and DeAndre Swift has to earn his paycheck because that run game sucks. That game was terrible. And there's supposed to be what lifts the floor of the team. Like that's the whole theory of why you get Joe Tooney and you get Jonah Jackson and then you get Drew Dahlman.

53:29So yeah. And this is why I wanted them to invest in a running back in the third round, preferably. I thought there were some good backs, maybe in day three, there were some backs that you could have gotten here. They had a 19 % success rate, the worst of week one. And that's kind of really it.

53:43Nate Tice:Is that counting Caleb or no? No. I believe that is counting. No, that's not counting Caleb. That is the sign of it. So, yeah, 19%. So, it is, yeah, I mean, they have to. I thought, and just my Caleb kind of side, watching it back, I thought he made a lot of good decisions. He misses the throws. I think my two theories with it are when he hitches, his accuracy can spray. Like when he hitches and has to progress. And the other is that I think he throws the ball way too freaking hard. And so he tries to be perfect. He's trying to lead guys as he throws it hard. And it's just physics. He's got pinning on guys.

54:19I don't know. I actually came away not as disheartened, to use even that term, as I think the public is on it. I actually thought it was perfectly fine performance. I know that's crazy to say, but I thought it was – Well, I know.

54:31Nate Tice:I went on a rant on our show yesterday. I was like, did people forget that the Vikings defense is like a top five? Like they're one of the best defenses in the NFL. And really hard to go against because – I really did feel like the discrepancy in the run game in the fourth quarter kind of like it was a decisive factor. I mean, and also credit to the Vikings front office because both sides went shopping And one team appeared to have got a lot better value for their interior offensive line. And this one with Ryan Kelly and company, as well as the trade for Jordan Mason. We'll get, we'll get to the Viking side.

55:06Nate Tice:Who I thought looked awesome in that game. I'd agree. I mean, Deandre Swift. It was exactly what I was hoping to say on the Vikings offense. I was like, yeah, that that's what, that's my, that's what I've been saying this whole off. Yeah, there it is right there. Swift did not. I just, yeah. He's not, he's my, one of my least favorite backs. Not nothing against him, the guy, but just how he plays and him bouncing around. The division is so frustrating from the all-way to angle. Always been bad. Yeah. Okay. So on the Detroit side of it, speaking of interior offensive lines, that's what I'm locked in on here.

55:41Nate Tice:It was really a rough outing week one against Green Bay, but as we discussed early on, the Packers might just be world destroyers up front. And there's also – this is a new group playing together on the inside. um in detroit so you'd like to see some improvement there um you know i i i feel like i'm worried i'm a family okay okay okay let's take a minute here like let's do it no no i actually no i want to i actually do want to line's off draft on my yeah like what is the level of concern you have because i have some it starts with the iol clearly to me yes to me it's pretty obviously the biggest problem iol and the oc and i i thought the play sequencing was yeah i had concerns about john morton going into the season anyone that listens to football 301 lions fans are really confused because i've been big one of the biggest lions dan campbell guys for the last few years and then i predicted they wouldn't make the playoffs this year um i'm concerned because just some of the play sequencing where if a bad play happened they ran duo just this nice simple run play like even me watching without charting i could tell that was happening which to me was a panic call.

56:56Like, I don't know what to call here. Something safe. The, the lions. I mean, they had their 22.7 % success rate. They, this is the lions. They should be cooking 40 % or above every single game because that is the identity of the team. Not even just the offense. The team is based on the run game. That's the second worst rushing success rate of the Dan Campbell era. It's their worst since week 16 of 2022. Again, you're going into the hornet's nest of Lambeau with that defense fired up and everything. but 22.7%. No, that's no, that's such an outlier to me. Um, and I, and they had the lowest explosive play rate.

57:32I already mentioned that stat. Like it just felt to me, guys were making mistakes. I know the interior line is young. They're going to have those moments. Like Tate Rattledge is going to have those moments, but I just even thought that the, there was just like a lack of confidence in some of the stuff. Like the first play of the game, again, there's some of this is canary in the coal mine stuff. The first play of the game, they ran to the left at Lucas Van Ness with Sam Laporta at the point of attack love Sam Laporta the receiver Sam Laporta is one of the worst blocking tight ends in the league he tries but he's not very good that that was your first play of the entire season was to run behind Sam Laporta that was like I know I'm again extrapolating but these were what my concerns going into the season I'm like it didn't he did nothing to dissuade me from like going like oh no actually it's not so bad and then you saw jerry goff going underneath like this offense not having those on play action hit some of those daggers or overs they're so good at throwing that's not the formula for this team and so yeah i am pretty concerned that's like that's just the offense the defense is concerning too because i thought they had so many botches like guys just not covering guys or looking at each other going palms up so yeah i'm i'm actually one one to five like five just like yeah truly like holy crap what the hell's going on like four right now with the arrow pointing up

58:51Nate Tice:the offensively there's definitely a bit of a get right opportunity i think because i i i think the bears defense is better this year than last year and i think the past defense can be really good but i still think there's some vulnerability against the run that they can take advantage of i think a lot of their core play action concepts can work against this team um you know we saw last week dennis allen's gonna play a lot more man coverage i think you're gonna see against you know the lions who have um what evan williams described as an immobile quarterback cover two man is is something that i think they're gonna see a lot of and they should be able to get the ball to the playmakers the pass rush is not as good as there's no Micah Parson.

59:39I think they bounce back, but I also think on the other side

59:44Nate Tice:of the ball, I mean, you talked about the coverage bus on the back end of the Lions defense. I mean, the pass rush was really underwhelming. That was surprising because I thought this Green Bay offensive line had a lot of question marks. That was kind of one of my, and they stonewalled. it was great yeah i know your love was just like chilling um i also think ben johnson's gonna unload the clip you think yeah i mean i think he's pretty excited about this game yeah i know i it's i'm with you the pass rush stuff was the lions were doing a lot of stuff on defense that i i just talked about erin glenn where it's like they're challenging you they're saying we're lining up and you have to beat us with what this look all right that's fine but like you got to do something to like make it a little hard like the guys are just rushing straight there's no movement and games and twists that's pretty easy for offensive line to pick up if you know where you're going and the packers offensive line generally does they're one of the best coach units period is the packers offensive line and so love is like okay and you're running man coverage okay that's pretty easy for like competent quarterbacks and competent offensive lines to to beat so that's why i'm like all right so what's the what's the knuckleball you're going to throw what's the change up are you just going to run the same hits and they're bad uh you know so that that i'm i am pretty concerned just because it was mental bust as opposed to maybe just a guy losing or guy getting unlucky as well I'm talking myself into Chicago.

1:01:13Nate Tice:I came into this planning to pick Detroit. I do think I'm going to stick with Detroit. I think they're going to be able to run the football better than they did last week. I think Jabir Gibbs is going to have a big game in this. So I'm going to stick with Detroit, but I don't feel good about it. Nervous. I'm going to go Chicago. I'm nervous as well. I do. I don't know. I do think Dan Campbell. They have a lot of faith in Dan Campbell, but my gut's telling me Chicago. Because it just wasn't. This is the sour taste of an island game. it's just that and just really in film watching is nothing is as good as you think it's ever going to be and nothing is as bad as everything it's going to be i watched the bears back and i'm just like all right this wasn't awful this is not the sky falling this is not caleb williams is never going to figure this out this is not like oh my god we played tyson baguette that's why i call him sorry i know his real name but you know so it's just it's just one of these where i think they're a little bit a little bit more confident i think people are realizing right now um or i could be totally wrong and the whole thing gets new no i i which happens i mean yeah no i think bears lions vikings games are all going to be really tricky for me early on i'm going to need a second packers i feel good about i feel like i have a handle on who they are um okay real quick ravens brown browns ravens this is you i just said the browns rookies that's the game in the game but there's also like a little scheme part of this uh but we laugh at it but we're all got fanning and our day feeling pretty good about that i know i want mason taylor i have him and i had drafted trey mcbride three four years ago what was that i'm just the greatest identifier of tight end talent in our our league's history do you have i lost to you by the way you didn't gloat about it i okay so i had something in i have something in the draft you're worthy sorry that i was i was gonna quote to you because i think you said derrick henry's really nice to have and i was gonna say josh allen's better josh allen's better to have brutal for me i know but no these were fainting's real and i know their coaches really like him i really use them is fun too yeah he's truly yeah what's the what does sean payton call his guy and everybody just has been saying joker everyone just keeps saying he's the act yeah he's actually what a joker is he is an adjuster, which is a receiving tight end, a slot guy, backfield guy, him, Mason Graham had a nice performance.

1:03:35Um, Carson, I really like Carson. He was my dark horse rookie defensive rookie of the year pick. Good. He looked good.

1:03:44Nate Tice:Samson. I know. Yeah, I know. Yeah. And then I was gonna say the running backs, you know, if Jodkins plays or not, but Samson, one of those, they don't want to play forward. It's very apparent that they just think forward is auxiliary back. So, but there's scheme stuff to this too. Like, like, Roquan Smith looks rough. So if you've got Harold Fannin or one of these backs on Roquan Smith, you can do some damage against them. I'm still high on the Ravens defense. I still overall am. But, you know, Jairo Alexander was pretty rough. And Roquan Smith was pretty rough. So I do think, yeah, Browns rookies.

1:04:17Like, that is really much – it's a big key of this game because they're going to get some touches.

1:04:21Nate Tice:Yeah. No, there's optimism. I think they got to play the Bengals defense. I think the talent discrepancy show up a bit here. Yeah. I think they're going to turn over Joe Flacco a few times in this one. I can see that. I assume we're both taking the Ravens. Not much to talk about with the Ravens. Just angry team here probably. Just me on Panthers Cardinals. Okay. Oh yeah. I'm curious where you went with this one. I don't know if you're gonna, I don't think you're gonna agree with what I'm about to say. So it took me a while to watch the Panthers Jags game. This is when I was texting around strange.

1:05:03Nate Tice:Bryce Young wasn't as bad as his box score. I really, the Panthers pass catchers were killing me outside of Ted McMillan, our sweet baby. It was amazing. Killing me. Xavier Leggett. Bro. He's so frustrating. Infuriating. Yeah. They charted them with three drops, according to PFF. It looked like more, honestly. There were some pretty bad drops in key situations in this one. The other thing was Bryce Young faced the highest quick pressure rate in the league in this game, the absence of tackle. I mean, Najman. And then one of the interceptions was a really, really bad decision, but the other one was tipped.

1:05:50Nate Tice:He was not good. I'm not lying to you and saying he was good in this game. I just don't think he was quite as bad as the score says. And I wouldn't be surprised if he bounces back in this one because Carl's defense, I feel like still has a bit of a ways to go is how I felt coming out of that Saints game. It's the, yeah, the Colonel's defense is one. They were in so much dime and there's so much light or light bodies. And they're trying to just funky you it up. Kawhis Campbell had a great game. It was like, are you ever going to go away? He just keep playing well. Yeah, I'm with you. Again, it's never as bad as it looks, never as good as it looks.

1:06:28And you watch it back, and you understand why it was decisions. Yeah, the bootleg was probably my least favorite. Bootleg and the fourth down throwaway were my two plays. I was like, Bryce, you got better than that. The run game, though, still looked good. Run game was still a – Chuba Hubbard's become one of my favorite backs to watch because he's a teach-tape back. He gets all the meat that's blocked for him, which I really appreciate out of him. um and god t-mac looks awesome i remember i just talked about pickens and a true x oh my god that he doesn't even need separation who's not separation he's just gonna dunk on you

1:07:04Nate Tice:like he was facing press on the right side i think he had the go ball it was i was like oh is he gonna he's gonna just for it yeah i know andrew's a penalty yeah it's it's um yeah i i am going with cardinals i'm gonna be wrong but i actually do think that the panthers are gonna be able to run on them like i actually think the panthers again the term natural answer they can get heavy and they like to run the ball like so i actually think they have some decent answers so it's bryce young versus the blitzes like and he's kind of he can be really good against the blitz we saw at the end of last year like because he's a decisive player pre-snap he is that's his best quality is his pre-snap diagnosis um so that's the thing is like all right if you're gonna be funky if he can i I think he might catch him once or twice because I do think that he has a guy now.

1:07:50All right. I got one-on-one. All right. Go get it, T-Mac. Go get it, T-Tora. Go make a play for me. But that's what it's going to come down to.

1:07:58Nate Tice:One other Cardinals note, Marvin Harrison Jr. looked way better. Great. Yeah, early on. So that's really encouraging if you're a Cardinals fan. Almost had a 98-yarder at the end there. I know. I know. McTerry had a rough day for the Saints. Trey McBride broke him off on an hour out once. I was like, oh, boy. Broncos Colts sneaky. Great game. Sneaky. Let's figure out what the hell's going on here. Game is what I'm describing. This is this is you. I know it is. I, yeah, I went Bo Nix slash Sean Payton versus Lou Anna Rumo. That's what it comes down to. Lou Anna Rumo did some great things last week and it was like, Oh, you're not Gus Bradley.

1:08:35You actually have new ideas in the modern age of 2024, 2025, as opposed to run cover three, every play. Really though, the matchup is the Colts run defense versus the burly Broncos run offense. And that's going to dictate so much of this game. Uh, yeah, we can, whatever you want about Daniel Jones going against the Broncos defense and everything, but it's really is can the Broncos just offense can just take care of business. Like, cause last week they did against the Titans and that's what kept the Titans in the game with a rookie quarterback on his first start on the road with a holy offense, not in a biblical way, but more of a holes in the offense.

1:09:13And so I just really, it's just like, can you take care of business on your offense? Can you run the ball? Can Knicks hit one or two shot plays that are designed for him? I don't know. Anaruma is really well game plan guy. And he might, he's gone against Sean Payton a lot. I should have looked up some stats on this, but I don't know. Last week, the Titans had a lot of answers to the typical Broncos answers passing game wise. And that's what, that was really interesting to see. And I'm curious other teams copy it.

1:09:38Nate Tice:Yeah, that's what I said to Dominique. Watching the Knicks against the Titans, it was like a combination of two things for me. One was I felt like, okay, I definitely underestimated how well coached this Titans defense is, and they actually have some decent players across the board, to be honest. But also it felt like they were just all over. Like every time he rolled out, every like. So this is, it's kind of like it's on Peyton, but it's also on Bo Nix. okay, can you push the ball downfield a bit more in this one? If Luana Rumo throws different looks at you, are you going to get fooled? What are you going to look like post-snap?

1:10:18Nate Tice:I think that's a really interesting coaching matchup. Colts defense, sneaky decent, I think. Colts offense, I'm just really excited to find out how much of week one was the Miami Dolphins, right? Couldn't be any more opposite. it's just the team that we think is one of the most venomous defenses in the nfl versus walking zombie team yeah it's yeah that's that's gonna be an interesting one right there the uh just talking about like the game plan stuff though like the titans had um there's a thing that sean payton last year really started using on passing downs it's called dash pass which is uh it's kind of sounds like a service you can order uh but it's it's a protection and it's when you You see Nick sprint out and they kind of launches a lot of overs and posts and back throws on it.

1:11:03And to make it easier on the quarterback, it's heavy protection. It's a half field read for you. And more teams are starting to use it on blitz. We see the commanders use it pretty popular in college. Now you see Arch Manning doing it now with a Stark. I'm sorry. But it was funny. It was last week. Both of his picks came on dash passes. And because the Titans were running the routes for him, they're like, Oh, one of those. All right. We know exactly where to go in the spots. and there's another play i mentioned with legerry sneed he just swamped courtland sutton and on that play it's a four by one that everybody runs where it's just pick a side for the quarterback if it's zone you take the four man side if it's man you take the isolated side and then you watch it you see all the titans defenders go oh it's that motion and you see sneed cheat inside going i know you're about to run a slant and he swamps it i don't know that's on film now like you know i mean like those those things are on film now and it's like that's i'm very curious very curious what the new answer is going to be.

1:11:59Nate Tice:Yeah, I think you're – No, I'm so tempted to, but I think Denver is going to be able to run the ball, and I think there's going to be a bit of an awakening for the Colts offense. I mean, they're really fun to watch week one. I love all the stuff, all the tight ends on the field. I think that's interesting how Broncos match up with that, by the way, when they use that like 13, 12 personnel. Tyler Warren looks like an absolute monster truck out there. This to me feels like a very heavy Tyler Warren game. I would smash over on targets to him in this because you're not wanting to throw the ball otherwise at these Broncos corners.

1:12:42Nate Tice:I'm going to stick with Denver just and best unit on the field. But that opening performance in the offense is pretty disheartening. It is. Yeah, I'm also going Broncos, but it's, yeah, I have to see the Colts and Daniel Jones do it again. It's like, I'm listening to my head in that one. Sagan did some great stuff. I love some of the designs. Jones was very efficient. The run game looks solid. The O-line looked better than they looked in preseason, but it's the Broncos. It's the Broncos defense, and that's just a totally different animal. cluster only here for la quinta by wyndham summer means travel and for a lot of people that includes their four-legged mvp mine is a yellow lad named quinney but finding a hotel that actually welcomes pets can feel like striking out at la quinta by wyndham pet friendly stays are part of the game plan so you don't have to leave your best travel companion behind you can bring them along for every inning of the trip because the road is better when the whole team's together and when When you book at LaQuinta.com, you can earn Wyndham Rewards points on your qualified stays along the way.

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1:15:29Nate Tice:Super Bowl rematch. We're on both sides of this one. We're going to talk about both sides. Yes. I'll go first. I have the Chiefs, the home team. I wrote, if the Chiefs have to blitz, and I think they will, can they cover behind it? I mean, I think I have a couple of bullet points. It's an interesting game. I said, as any game involving this defensive coordinator and this quarterback comes down to the blitz, like Spags versus Jalen Hurts. I mean, so last week, the answer to the question I posed was no. They could not cover behind it. I heard it was horrific. you know i mean he was excellent but um yeah so many lapses in coverage i mean it was kind of shocking watching the chief's defense back because in the game i was so like i was like damn they're really not getting a pass rush you know and then they started sending pressure and you know when you do that you create vulnerabilities and they just were not there was just too many places for justin herbert to pick on um yeah you know they uh ended up playing so mcduffy's like he's probably gonna play outside in this one i imagine they're gonna put him on aj brown um but outside of him it's like connor cook who i think they want fulton to be the opposite you know but like it's just not a the secondary i feel like we've been for so long it's it's felt like oh c's by know, I can put any corner, young corner safety back there.

1:17:01Nate Tice:And they figured it out. And watching them against the Chargers, Nate, it really felt like they did not have it figured out. So that is a concern of mine in this one, because I do think he's probably going to send pressure. And it's going to come down to whether or not Hertz. And it is a challenge for him and Kevin Batullo, by the way, know what to do, those situations, where to attack, who to attack, because the opportunities will be there based on what we saw last week. Yeah. The usual ways you get after spags is you, you bop them out of the blitz. You, he keeps bringing it. You have to bash them out of it.

1:17:35And by bash them out of it, I mean, you hit explosives. You do what the bangles did a few years ago. Like that's how you have to get them out of it. And the other way is you go base and you go big and you try to run on them. Oh, something big happened that. Okay. Yeah. You try to run on them. And if you do that, well then, okay well then you can get you can make spags basic or more basic than he usually is i'm like against sub looks and all that i'm not trotting out i saw the eagles trot out their tight ends grant calcaterra can't block a soul and and dallas goddard is a great receiver but he's become an iffy blocker um you know at times he's he's up and down depends on the matchup but it's just one of these things where it's like i kind of have i use a lot of super bowl notes actually when i copied and pasted some of them and to me it was okay target the slot like when you play this chiefs because of the pressure they bring all that chiefs were 32nd success rate allowed last year against slot targets tomorrow connor who plays in the slot allowed six catches on six targets last week last friday so but jalen hurts 27th and 28th and throwing to the slot because where are his dudes lined up there to the outside so to me it's like whoever mcduffie's not guarding if he can hit maybe he hit he'll hit dallas goddard on like an outbreaker does mcduffie finally pick one of those off like that's really what it comes down to like it sounds so like like you know basic analysis but really it is because the chiefs are good run defense we saw what they did in the super bowl they well reed is not there anymore they tackle well though so yeah i don't know that that's really what it comes down to to me and then he goes off into line well you know lane dickerson's banged up tower well that's what i was gonna say you're

1:19:09Nate Tice:Probably, you know, Chris Jones, I feel like, obviously massive for them, but particularly the vulnerabilities we saw in the interior of the offensive line. You know, and even last week, like, the Hurts was good, but the Blitz got to him a few times, especially – and we've seen this with him. Like, if the pressure's coming from the inside and he's forced outside the pocket, that's not when he's his best as a quarterback, right? That's what you want. He was incredibly dynamic as a runner week one, So that's something also Kansas city has to worry about, but yeah, like they're in a tough situation where the four man rush isn't going to get it done.

1:19:45Nate Tice:I certainly not against this past. It's just offensive line, but then behind that blitz. It's just bad. So I do worry about that math problem for the chiefs defense based on what we saw last week. What do you have for the Eagles? Oh man. Well, that was a really, it was how he's targeted the slot, but the other one is it's the blitzing. I kind of merged and sorry, I went there, but no. And then also last week, the, I mean, but again, it's kind of a, it's not strength versus strength. It's kind of, it's the complete opposite. And, but it's not like a true weakness. We mentioned the Eagles allowing a lot of rushing yards last week, Jalen Carter that was out for spitting.

1:20:24So I was curious, you know, does the run game get back or can the chiefs run game get going? I don't think so. Like Pacheco's it's not, I've never been high on him. Anyways, he didn't look great last week. Kareem Hunt's not going to get anything done. I thought the Chiefs offensive line was up and down. It wasn't terrible, but it was up and down. But that's the thing. I don't think that's a strength of the team. So it's one of these things where both teams have to do the things they're not good at, I think, to win. Hurts was decent against the Bulls last year. Don't get me wrong. But historically, he has not been good.

1:20:54So that is just kind of the matchup for me. So I kind of merged my thoughts. Sorry about that.

1:20:58Nate Tice:No, no. I'm with you. I also like a question whether the Chiefs can do what Dallas did, which is hunt whoever is no not uh quinnati mitchell yeah right seriously though or or gubernageen um yeah i don't they kind of can't in the same way that like the cowboys could that a lot of offenses will so i just don't think that they're poised offensively you know they can still put together these like annoying efficient drives where mahomes scrambles on third downs and they're able to like their way down the field. It'll happen. Right. But I just don't. I just think from a, as we saw in the Superbowl, the Eagles are really good at tackling.

1:21:43Nate Tice:They're really good at keeping things in front of them. You have to be able to run the ball, which as you said, Kansas City is not good at, or go after their one glaring, obvious weakness. And I don't know if Kansas City can in this. It's the hardest thing. Vic Fangio's defense that makes you do under it's like shooting layups and threes you have to do those things against vic fangio you have to run the ball or you have to hit him over the top but to hit him over the top you have to protect all right are we trusting the chiefs offensive line already i'm optimistic but are we trusting okay or you have to have a guy that can win deep and it's like taequan thornton is the key to this whole offense you know it's just again natural answers aren't really there for the chiefs it's andy reed we'll see but again it's just it's just it's hard to figure i'm going with i am going with the eagles in this game not totally out on the chiefs still think they are gonna find stuff but it might be a bye week until they do that yeah they need rice back and i think the secondary hopefully we'll play behind all right we'll play better as the season goes along they always do every single year spags gets better like every single year they're justin herbert buzzsaw and i mean he's one of the you know five best scorebacks in nfl like people forget so kind of a week one like hey that you you were just he was unconscious in that game i don't think they're as bad as they looked that week but yeah i think the eagles are they match up well with them i'm taking the eagles as well um okay so i uh we've got three more games and i actually i picked falcons vikings for both of us because i uh i wanted to hear your thoughts in particular on the atlanta falcons and so when i saw their away team i thought okay i got it let's do this um i'm going to talk about the vikings in this but um yeah what's your key for atlanta because this was not i did not enjoy watching them week one as much as i hoped i would uh and this is talking about the vikings new additions we talked about the three offensive linemen they also added two defensive linemen and joan hargrave they went nuts i think they both had six pressures alan and hargrave and yeah and the thing is one's a gap shooter one's a little more burly they go against the falcons interior offensive line that got vita veid at times and he was just i know vita veid is a different type of player but it's just talent is what i'm saying here um you know the falcons offense was everything with that offense right now feels very siloed to me nothing i do trust the run game and some of the designs i mean i love bajan like and i tyler all that stuff that's the strength of the team but it's just very there's a lot of tells at least to me all right if you're in the gun you do this if you're understanding you do this if you're they don't do understand with penics but if you're in pistol you do this um and i was hoping week one after a whole off season there'd be a little bit more like flowing together no very very siloed and that it's better defenses like a off defense that we both think might be top five are going to really really pick up on those tendencies like okay you're gone all right you're doing this you're gone with the back offset here in this formation like over time that's what we just talked about spags that's why he's so good as the season goes along he gets more data and he adapts that's what i'm a little scared with this falcons offense because it feels i use the term siloed where it's just nothing the play action doesn't work with the run play um it's like if you're in this formation you're doing this thing if you're in this formation you're doing this thing it's actually a lot like how the bangles were when zach taylor first got there with burrow and they've adjusted since then but that's yeah they have talent they have good stuff the run game is good it's just that it could be a little bit more that they just added just a little bit more fluidness and cohesiveness bucks have a great run defense yes they've had a great spin you know ever since vita babe how about yaya diaby good player oh man oh i mean you got the bucks but i thought him and reddick actually it was very encouraging i'm adjusting my bucks defensive of thoughts on the fly throughout this year.

1:25:40Yeah, that's a top 10 defense it looked like to me, but sorry to cut you off.

1:25:45Nate Tice:Problem is the Vikings also have an amazing run defense. So I'm a little bit discouraged. I also just wrote down Zach Robinson versus Brian Flores. I still trust it. I know. Also just like the predictability. I mean, it's just the outs, flats, hitch. If you're not going to throw over the middle of the field against this Vikings defense, they're going to probably pick you off, frankly. And they're just going to sit on this stuff. I understand they're going to blitz them a lot, so you definitely want to bake in easy completions for Penix against that. And the Vikings also don't have Blake Cashman in this game, so i think bajon is going to be a part of the passing game again but like if michael panics isn't throwing the ball downfield like what are we doing here it's the whole reason why you're there yeah like i know so i i was just like oh like it was just not very pleasant to watch i don't think panics even played poorly per se it was just no i just didn't love the offense week one and i really need to see some evolution against one of the best play cars in the nfl in this game so panics played well enough to win in my estimation like yeah he had a couple sprays but he also had some big time throws i thought like yeah i thought you know he has some strengths he's not he's gonna miss a couple throws every game that's just his that's his negative but you get over that because he doesn't get sacked and he can make some high-end throws they have a math to win i think that's why it's so frustrating they have an efficient run game and an explosive pass game it's just like i just gotta see it all kind of working all together also the other thing Flores has done the he'll do the one double zero double stuff not as much as these days but if Drake London eats all those targets well I know who I'm double teaming throughout the entire game so now just Penix march through and move through and find the auxiliary targets it might be a Kyle Pitts game who knows yeah Mooney was out let's see I actually didn't get his status that was actually a big deal I think I have to think like he was a pregame workout so I'm going to guess that you know I talked about them not pushing It's a good call.

1:27:54Nate Tice:It's definitely probably altered their game plan against Tampa. On the flip side, offensive player of the week, JJ McCarthy. Come on, man. Matt Stafford. Stafford. Yeah. Stafford or Puka. You know, one of those two. You know, those two. Yeah. Stafford just threw some like, absolutely unbelievable. The corner he threw to xavier smith i was 40 yards down the field that's that's the thing that staffer gets under pressure and it was the best defense in the end i'm like come on get out he i think the the distance gets especially on film and tv you don't realize how far 40 yards is it's 120 feet he's throwing it over a defender in between another god i mean i i cannot stress enough how good this texas defense was the guys were like it wasn't like bust it wasn't got like the guys were on him cj garner johnson was in petrie we're like on him and he's just so tough and physical and fast and like oh i know amazing football player it's a joy to watch him play okay the rams are my favorite study like i hate every year i just love watching the ranch i just they sucker me in every year they're just he's a hooper um i wrote just like hey can you do what you did in the fourth quarter again yeah i know that sounds silly but like or basic but like run the football well jj mccarthy was pushing the ball downfield um the accuracy improved a lot in the fourth quarter felt like you know he's still a fastball thrower and like that's always going to be his bread and butter but you know can you avoid the batted passes hold it can you speed up your process which is early on of just kind of felt like everything was taking a little bit too long and also the they just you know he was just putting too much sauce on some of them and yeah but but he's a rookie it was first start like i'm not you know settled down and i thought he was really good in the fourth quarter and crucially the run game was excellent i think they should be able to do everything they did in that quarter against this falcons defense um so yeah i'm just kind of looking to see that consistency over the course of the whole game yeah mccarthy i'm not willing to declare anything because it's kind of like my Michigan evaluation.

1:30:11Like they – I thought that McCarthy is not going to get asked to do as much as maybe other quarterbacks because of the offense. But the thing is he can do that. Like he can do it well enough that I'm like that's why I have no concern. So like my eval on him is going to take time because then I can start seeing true dropbacks on third down when it's not his first start in Chicago. You know, actually these types of things. So that's why you got to see the zone read element, which I did think was a good part of his game is the athleticism. in college he didn't take a lot of sacks which i thought was encouraging and not so much the first game um but no that it's all about their run game man like you mentioned already the first half it was only 33 success ray it wasn't looking totally great second half 41 three explosive runs so like that's the this the floor of this vikings offense has been really lifted compared to last year because of that the interior trio and mason and they're gonna face a ton of too high all year long all year long because of justin justin and then when they get addison back

1:31:07Nate Tice:obviously even more so um so you know they'll be this was just the problem with the vikings defense last year is just like the lack of balance they have these amazing skill players and you know offensive line's been a little bit up and down but they've good tackle duo but they haven't been able to punish defenses who play shell to take away justin and so just the ability to do that is everything flows from there for them it's so obviously they went into this season wanting to fix. Yep. It's been one of my favorite timelines is KOC in the Vikings revamping, realizing, okay, Justin Jefferson's really good and defenses play us a certain way.

1:31:41How do we take advantage of that? And every year they've done something last year at an Aaron Jones this year with the offensive line trio, the year before that Addison and Hawkinson to give auxiliary weapons. So it's like, it's been one of these things I've just kept my eye on. I'm like, yeah, I get what you guys are trying to do here. Cause that makes sense.

1:31:57Nate Tice:Um, I'm something to monitor. I'm picking the Vikings too. The Jones Mason balance of snaps is something that we saw Aaron Jones, obviously pass catching upside and he, you know, on the touchdown, or it wasn't a touchdown. It got the vertical shot. But Mason had some nice pass protection reps, so it's going to be hard to get him off the field and he's got the juice. Let me tell you. Okay. There's two Monday night games. sorry world they're both good i think they're both like kind of fun games uh i gave you bucks texans and myself chargers raiders um so you can go first bucks texans this is it's i feel like i'm pulling the string a little bit uh like where i'm just repeating myself but it's the offensive line of the texans cj stroud against todd bowles and that defense i mean it's it's kind of pretty obvious when you kind of look at the cast of characters in this game.

1:32:57Texans' early reviews, offensive line, just because it's different doesn't mean it's better. And it's very funny to me that Ed Ingram, who just statistically...

1:33:08Nate Tice:Forget Ed Ingram, Lincoln Tomlinson. Well, I was going to say, Ed Ingram is out. All offseason... Oh, sorry. No, Tomlinson too. All offseason, I just go, oh, this Nick Haley is going to come in and fix this offensive line. and C.J. Stroud, the Brainiac quarterback. And every single time I heard one of you guys who are always very smart talking about this, I said, Laken Tomlinson, Laken Tomlinson, Laken Tomlinson. Because as someone who lived through that experience... It's a stat I keep reciting. I know it off the top of my head now. He was third in pressure rate allowed last year. And it looked like he was third in pressure rate allowed last year amongst guards.

1:33:46Who was first? Ed Ingram. And Ed Ingram eye test is exactly what looks like that. I thought he was one of the worst starting guards when you play with the Vikings. That's why Matt Harmon, who I do Football 301 with, brought out the great point. He said, all these new offensive linemen they added came from the worst offensive lines in the NFL. So you got Ed Ingram and Ken Robinson from the Vikings. You got Laken Tomlinson from the Seahawks. You got Jake Andrews from the Patriots. You're not even good enough to stick with the Patriots. And it looked like that, again, week one. Going against Vita Vea.

1:34:16Going against Kalijah Kansi. Going against Yaya Diaby. going against Todd Bowles funkiness knuckleball defense that's really hard to discern. I think this is going to be a really cool game to rewatch for me as a nerd, as a football nerd, because they have put more on Stroud's plate and protection and pointing and doing all that. Here's an amazing test for him. This is a great test to get everybody aligned and get everybody going because this is more of a curiosity. I know what it's going to look like.

1:34:48Nate Tice:it's not gonna look good how many yards to go do you think stride had on third down last week it's got to be over 10 it's oh yeah so just like last year same exact things last year yep and i think uh kayla i looked it up for kayla too i think the bears were like 10.4 yeah yeah so say 10.8 10.8 oh my god um also jacob parish for the bucks awesome slot player yeah yeah circle highlight him he's very fun to watch jason like man fuck buko oh my god great no jason white's like my favorite this is a draft wizard um okay so i don't think the next one's gonna be able to run the ball well against this defense so this is going to be very challenging and tough sledding however kex's defense still rocks so um i mean the rams like matthew stafford Kyle Hamilton once told me Matthew Stafford's his favorite quarterback in the NFL to watch and we talked about when the Rams played him and like everything they do to try and take it away and he was like but honestly he was like when I go back and watch the game like you don't feel bad about it because like it was just 99 out of 100 throws you know he makes those what can you do as a defense I'm paraphrasing he did feel bad about it but my point is the Texans defense that's what happened to them like Matthew Stafford they weren't it wasn't I didn't come away from that thinking less of them, I was just like, damn, Stafford still got it.

1:36:11Nate Tice:They're really good. They're much better than the Falcons defense and the Falcons defense just hold the books to kind of lackluster offensive performance. Bigger was not good. Yeah. Below average. I know he had an awesome touchdown throw, but other than that, man, it was not a good performance from him. I'm having a lot of trouble picking this game. I am, too. I once again default to the best unit on the field as a Texans defense, in my opinion. Agreed. But the Bucs are higher average, and I really did not love what I saw from Texans offense week one. So it kind of feels like another gross, low-scoring game to me.

1:36:49Nate Tice:Yeah. I hate picking gross, low-scoring games. I think I know where I'm going. Are you going to go Bucs or Texans? I'm going Texans. Texans just need a win. They can't start 0-2. I know it's two NFC teams they would lose, too, but they just need this game so badly. Texas defense is so good. I think I'll probably go Texas as well. No Tristan Wirfs. You know, you got Graham Barton at left tackle. I love Graham Barton. He did well in a pinch, but it's still Graham Barton at left tackle and still insert name here at left guard, Ben Bredesen at center. One thing to go up against Arnold Epikady, who is actually quite good in this game.

1:37:28Nate Tice:Actually, he was okay. It's quite another to go up against Will Anderson Jr. and Daniil Hunter. that's the thing and we can't say it enough we've already said five times they looked like how i expected the texans to look on defense like that is like oh that might be the best unit in the nfl like that's all good they were and fast they were it's just that they just got beat okay chargers raiders um i am interested in this raiders offense against charges defense because the Chargers have one of the very few players in the world who I enjoy, I think can go up against Brock Bowers and make it a really fun matchup in Derwin James.

1:38:15Nate Tice:The Raiders in week one were very heavy, 12 personnel team, very aggressive throwing downfield, not just to the tight ends. They were actually keeping them in pass protection a few times off of play action, but they had a 64 % success rate. passing out of 12 personnel 13.2 yards per play Gino was bombing that's awesome bombing them so you go up against a Chargers team that is going to play a lot of nickel and dime even against those looks I think um so I'm interested in seeing if they try to run the ball on that and how that goes and really look good week one but also it's Gino Smith like he's going to take shots and I you know against defense that really tries to like put a shell on you.

1:39:00So I just think it's going to be a fun offense versus defense matchup. Yeah.

1:39:07Nate Tice:I, you know, the Raiders are going to be fun every week, to be honest. I know they're, they're what they call the week pass team, you know, Sunday ticket team. Like there definitely are. I know I was trying to find a Jesse Minter, Chip Kelly battle if we ever had that in college, but no, this is, this is a fun scheme fight, which is, which is great where teams have strengths. I think both the units of charges defense and the Raiders offense, So I'll just focus on that where they both have stars, but then they have a bunch of like good players. Who's that? Who's that? I was like, I have a, he was scouting report on that guy.

1:39:39Nate Tice:Trey Tucker is good. There's going to be shots to him in this game. Yes. Trey Tucker has been the, had a stat on this. He was the fastest player in the NFL last year. Based on speed. That's what it looks like on that. No, Chip Kelly likes he wants speed. And I, you mentioned the 12 personnel thing. Michael Mayer is a key cog of this offense. And we got to remember how highly touted he was coming out of college and that great tight end class. He was the consensus number one tight end. And I really like him. He's a good blocker, good receiver. But then that unlocks Bowers because they use Bowers all over.

1:40:10He was out wide, like eight snaps. They had him as an X receiver. So they just do some really cool stuff. So that's why it's fun going against a Jesse Minter defense. It's all about game planning, all about like we're going to do this this week because that's what you're good at. So, yeah, it's just a fun little chess match in this game.

1:40:25Nate Tice:I think they had him as the X receiver on the Tucker touchdown. Yeah, I remember correctly, and I was thinking like, oh, they didn't see that coming. Yeah, other side of the bottom, the Chargers offense looked incredible week one. Off to Greg Roman, dang. Yeah. Get ready to learn play action, buddy, is all I have to say. The Raiders, I mean, it was just, the Chiefs just got, the backers just got wrecked. I will say the Raiders defense was probably a little nicer than I thought week one. I was very worried about this unit and they came to play. Pass rush I thought looked good. Malcolm Koontz being back was big.

1:41:05Nate Tice:So something to monitor there. I think, I mean, you know, Crosby and Koontz are and Wilson should be able to get something going against this Chargers offensive line when they're in straight dropbacks. So you know, we'll see. I think that there's clearly a priority in Vegas on getting better at stopping the run as well yeah um yeah this I just want to see if the charters run the ball like I there's people declaring Hampton a bust and I was like I re-watched I'm like what do you want him to do Chris Jones is destroying every run play and so that this is a little bit it's not a little bit easier matchup Patrick Graham's a hell of a coach they're always going to be game planned well um but I am curious if they just try if there's a little bit more balance to this game plan like I thought that's that's the the props to Greg Roman, he realized, oh, this is a tough slog.

1:41:52Let's chuck it. And so curious if this is more of that usual Harbaugh split. I think it was a good way to put it.

1:41:59Nate Tice:Yeah. I'm going to take the Chargers just because I think they're the more balanced team. I think the Raiders defense maybe is not – I think they're a little worse than they looked week one perhaps. But I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised if this is more fun maybe than people think it will be. Yeah, I'm going Chargers too. but I think this is going to be a nice, fun, close game. I think this will be a really fun game to watch. Geno Island game could go either way. Well, it's the – yeah, is it on ESPN Plus or something? Remember the last year? Oh, is it the second game? But no, they might go double ESPN on that.

1:42:35I don't know. You should know. I remember Chargers Cardinals played a Monday night game on ESPN Plus last year, and it was like, it's the quietest I've ever seen the timeline during an Island game.

1:42:47Nate Tice:How dare you? How dare you? You can cut that. You can cut that. I'm sorry. That's the slogan. I'm actually looking to see now which ones where. Because, okay, no, this game is on ESPN. The first game is on ABC and ESPN. Oh, 4 p.m. Yeah, they do the early time slot one. Yeah, yeah. This used to be the Chris Berman special. Raiders, Chargers always played that second night game. And then this is when Chris Berman would do a game. I always remember that as a kid. All right. That's it for this week. good slate of games unless i've forgotten any i don't think i did um you guys check out nate's podcast football 301 you guys come out three times a week right three times a week sunday tuesday thursday um i will be back next week to once again recap both monday night games with dominique foxworth you can also check out my tv recap pod with david dennis jr where we are discussing alien earth which we are loving are you watching that right yes two episodes in i'm also watching Legion, the creator's old show.

1:43:48Nate Tice:Oh, yeah. Interesting. We are also recapping this season of The Paper, which is the show by the guy who did The Office this week. If you're interested in hearing about that and you watched it, check it out. Otherwise, thank you as always to my friends at Omaha Productions who make the show, Kirsten Sebecki, Owen Saylor, Jack Foster, Tucker Tashman, and we'll see you guys next week.

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