Bear with Me: Recapping Chicago and Atlanta’s Wins

0:01This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+.

0:30Welcome back to the Minicam show featuring Lenny. Monday Night Football Recap Edition. Dominique, we have two games to talk about. Two surprising games. Monday night, a lot of upsets this year. It feels like I should look that up, but I feel like this has been one perhaps more surprising than the other. Commander's Bears did feel pretty close going into this, but still, it's definitely been a string of interesting games. That's for sure. Yeah, I mean, I feel like this season there's been quite a few surprising games. And I mean, I guess we're calling it parity, but it's also like no great teams.

1:06It's not like we have a ton of great teams. That's why we have parity. It's just like everyone is flawed. And we certainly saw, I mean, I thought the commanders were going to win. I think everybody did, or most people did. So they were definitely both upset. And they had three turnovers. It's still lost. So like, yeah, we'll get into all that, I'm sure. You have to answer this immediately. You can't think about it. Who's the best team in the NFL? Chiefs. Yeah, that's always a safe. It's always a safe bet. I have Chiefs as well. Drew Brees did a top five on first take and he didn't have the Chiefs in his top five and he had the Niners which shout out Drew Brees.

1:40You understand first take you're doing great. Um that's my reaction to it. Um okay. Yeah, let's start with the later game. Let's start with uh commanders bears uh a game that was very fraught to fan bases that have been going at it because of the quarterbacks being drafted where they were you could argue i think this is fair that the commanders kind of broke the bears last year this was the of course the tyreek stevenson infamous hail mary game so this is emotions hot running into this one um we can talk about the commander side and the turnovers that ultimately doomed them because that is kind of the story of the game on offense for them but i want to start with the bears offense dominique because i found this to be maybe the most interesting part of the game for me.

2:26It felt the most Ben Johnson-y that this team has felt. That was my big take. I was watching this and I was like, oh, okay. This is like the Lions, the remix that we're watching because it's not exactly like Detroit. We can get into like some of the little things, but in terms of like the under center, outside zone, it's actually working. Play action. The screen game is on fire. Everybody's blocking. I was like, this to me feels like Ben Johnson and finally putting his stamp on this football team. That's funny because, I mean, I think when you say it, I obviously agree with you. I think you're right, but it's the first time, even though I've been talking about this game all day, it's the first time that I considered what that actually means for the quarterback because the way that I've been talking about this game most of today is everybody pump your brakes.

3:15It feels like because they've been winning and they started out 0-2 and we have all the baggage from last year that just by the mere fact that they're winning, the story is Ben Johnson and Caleb are figuring each other out. But I know that you mentioned the fan bases are at each other's necks about they're both first-round quarterbacks last year. I didn't leave this game thinking like, oh, Caleb has arrived. Caleb is super comfortable. It was clear that there's one guy out there that's a real deal top-of-the-league quarterback that was in control even despite the turnovers of much of the game.

3:48And it also felt like Caleb still hasn't. And I guess the point I was trying to get to that I said you made me think of is like the peak Ben Johnson. We think of how it is designed to help Jared Goff. And when Jared Goff is playing really well in that offense, it makes him perform maybe better than we think that he would be capable on his own. And that's not what we want in the future for Caleb. But I guess you got to start somewhere. Yeah, I mean, I think, though. watching this Bears team thus far, Caleb's played well this year. And I thought he was good in this game. I just thought, I think the reason why I'm, I don't mean to like over, um, give too much credit to the coach.

4:32That's kind of not what I'm saying. I think, but like, it was, this was the first game where I was like, I bet Ben Johnson turned on the tape and he was really happy because, you know, like they have, let's start with the, I, what I think again, to me was the biggest story of the game. They finally ran the ball well. and this is the team that's not been able to run the ball well at all this year and so much of what ben johnson wants to do as a play caller going back to detroit is based on having a dominant run game and but it wasn't just that they ran the ball well it was like the way it looked going back and watching um some of those outside zone runs it really did look a little bit like detroit in terms of like the execution of the offensive line in particular and then again the skill player I thought were blocked really well in this game.

5:17And that really showed up on the screens, but like the tackle, I mean, the actually not just the tackles, but the, the linemen were moving in this one, like the bear, it felt like they were cause off outside zone run blocking is really about working together as a unit. And it felt like for the first time watching them from the end zone view, they were exerting their will and move and playing as one, as an offensive line. That was like my big takeaway from watching them. Like Swift was great. And he was, you know, they had a couple of really fun play calls that got him big explosives. But it was and it was mostly I think four of the five, the biggest runs were to the right side.

5:52Darnell right side. He was moving out there, Dominique. I know that's why you said you said tackles and you took it back and set off at the lines. But no tackles matter. And I think the reason why you were saying tackles or thinking of tackles is in part because those outside zones, the end, they were like collapsing the end of the line. And that is the most important thing. So my first three seasons were the Denver Broncos with Mike Shanahan, and we ran the zone running scheme. And I was on defense, of course. But the thing that they coached us defensively, and Mike Shanahan would coach us defensively, about stopping that zone is you need to set a hard edge on both sides.

6:27You can't let them move the line. You have to set that corner, which stops and compresses all the gaps and forces like a windback. And then you also need to be on the back end, as normally a cornerback, to set that edge there, too. And you could see that there were no edges being set. And the Commanders' defensive line isn't bad. They got some good players. They dominated the Giants early in the season. So that is impressive. I was actually surprised by how poorly I thought the Commanders' front seven played in this one, the run defense. It wasn't just the line. It was the linebackers as well.

7:03It felt like, yeah, they looked less athletic than Chicago. Can I ask you a question? how did how did you okay i guess that answers it i was going to ask is like how do you differentiate between them playing poorly or the bears making them play poorly it's a mixture of yeah right it's like there's it's a mixture sometimes it's they're getting pushed around and that's the bears offensive line and it is playing poorly but like you know when you're kind of looking at what you're describing but there were also plays where i thought like on the interior where the defensive tackles for Washington just didn't play the right.

7:38Kinlaw, they're just not playing it well. Sometimes I thought Kinlaw was overly aggressive because they knew that some of these were going to be play-action passes. That was another thing I noticed in this game. It felt like both the front seven at times almost overplayed the play. This is why when we talk about play-action, we talk about how the play-action pass can help the run because you're seeding that doubt in the minds of the defense. And I thought that was the case. It was a heavy play action game for Chicago again, and I thought that was the case. I think they look tentative. Linebackers, I thought at times, they were just not fitting it well, choosing wrongly.

8:17I don't know. I keep going back to scheme with this one, but it just was like, oh, they're finally settling into identity on offense with Chicago. I absolutely think that you're right. The scheme certainly is important here because it's a Ben Johnson staple. We don't know what it would look like if or what he would like evolve to if he didn't have this outside zone, effective outside zone running game. And we haven't we're not going to need to find out. It seems, by the way, that they block this. But to your point, and that's why I was having a hard time like grading, I guess, the commander's defense, because particularly the linebackers, because there are plays where you're right.

8:57they choose wrong but they also have like linemen in their lap where it's like the you don't have a two-way go anymore you can't see as clearly so yeah it's it's a breakdown all around because that's one of the things that i feel like um warner and louvoo are good at is like playing the run and they did not in this game yeah yeah but wagner yeah that was surprising oh who'd i say i said warner warner yeah warner's very good playing the run yeah and wagner's usually good warner was um yeah wagner this was um a tough one for him and and louvu as well and um yeah i mean like the passing game i mean to me the story of the game for watch chicago was running the football um you know they hit some good play action passes i mentioned that like the deep over to burden i thought the play design on third and four the commander sent an all-out blitz for the swift where he like um motions into the stack and then runs like an out and out that was nice you know again Caleb I thought was was good a couple mistakes you know but I just this to me the screens also like some of the screen designs are really lovely and it was like convoys of dudes going back and watching on tape really well executed story of the game for me from Chicago side though was this run game finally clicking into place and if they man if they can run the ball like that yeah you know like that's like really impressive um okay on the flip side like so you talked about it with jayden i don't think he played poorly but it is there's a couple things happening and we're gonna talk about the bills and this like concept of regression when we talked about the commanders we talked about like the possibility of like some of the things they were doing last year maybe coming back to earth a little bit and watching them i mean turnovers is one of them.

10:47Like, he just didn't turn over the ball last year. And the turnovers in this one were just absolutely brutal from an EPA standpoint. I guess, like, my question for you is, like, when you watch this commander's offense, do you think it's just turnovers? Or do you think there's anything beyond it in terms of struggles that are jumping out to you watching them? Yeah, I mean, I have a hard time assessing any or blaming anything in this game other than three turnovers. Like they gave away three possessions and it wasn't even just random possessions. They were significant possessions that were going to result in points.

11:22Like the end of the game was like a game ceiling drive in the ball to your point. Like this is not practice stuff that you can improve upon or something you can criticize. Like Jaden Daniels turns around and the ball slips out of his hand. Like that's not something that you can like knock the offense necessarily for. It sucks. Hold on to the ball. The red zone turnover way through the interception. Again, it's like, we're about to get seven. and it turns into three for the other side for a mistake that Jaden Daniels rarely makes. So, yeah, and then there was another fumble that they were moving the ball again.

11:53It didn't feel like – I mean, they were running the ball well. They still, like – you don't want to walk away feeling good about anything in this game because you lost. But you had three turnovers and still probably should have won the game. That's, like, super rare to give away three possessions and still be in a position one yard away from sealing that game probably. yeah like the the botched handoff you know it was raining out there i mean i'm not making excuses just like you know we're looking at this in the lens of like did they do anything right not that but more like okay do we have things to worry about in the future i'm not worried about jane daniels botching handoffs and when it's not like pouring rain interception he was late on that right and um it was a great play uh by brisker it was interesting by the way like that the bears defense to take a moment it was um guys have been solely returning to the lineup they were pretty banged up earlier than year gordon brisker and like they're starting to get healthier obviously no jalen johnson her although nishan wright is the one who um he had a really bad he like tried to jump a screen i think that was one of the was that him who tried to jump that yeah that was not good um we're back on the bears now no no no no um i won't say what the washington offense I thought they would run the ball better in this one than they did.

13:12And I think going back and watch it, I thought like the bears, it was more to me about bears defensive improvement from the beginning of the year in that regard. But yeah, like I'm not worried about the Washington offense going forward. I think that it was a weird rainy game and turnovers happened. I am worried about the commanders run defense. Like if I'm coming, not to keep harping on like, what's the story of this game? But if I'm coming out of this thinking, okay, that was it for Chicago. I'm like, yes, you're running the ball. You're screening off. You're playing actioning. Washington moving forward, because this was such a problem for them last year, right?

13:47Like you think about the way they lost in big games and just getting gashed. And it felt like they had improved. So to see that bad of a performance in run defense, I think if I had to pick a Commanders fan, like what's the one thing I'm worried about, that would be it. Yeah, and I don't think it's going to improve significantly. um they have to this feels like this is why you have jayden daniels it's like the margin of error is slim for him it's like they have to get in these situations where they can control uh the game the game offensively and defensively by having a lead and i don't imagine and they because you can't stop the run and i would say that from a roster strength standpoint your secondary is probably the weakest point on your roster.

14:31So you're not in a great position if you need to supplement the run game with people from the secondary, and then you're putting your cornerbacks in isolation who you wouldn't want to trust back there anyway by themselves. So their defense, I do think, is in trouble. If the expectation is as high as the result was last year or any higher than that, which was conference championship, that doesn't feel feasible unless they find – they get early leads every time, honestly. All right. That's a big win for Chicago. I mean, I think these teams are about the same. Like, you know, we talked at the top about nothing about the same, but like there's a reason why it was, if they play this game 10 times, I kind of think they split it 50-50.

15:15I disagree. I think the commanders. Yeah, I think the commanders. Yeah. I'm out on this. Yeah. Do you think I'm overly worried about the defense? I don't think you're overly worried about the run defense. I guess I'm just going off of the game that we saw. It didn't feel like – The Mariners should have won if not for the Jets. Yeah. And I guess the way that they won felt like something that I don't think they could count on a bunch more times. Chicago, yeah. Yeah. I hear you. I think – I am very interested – who do the Bears have this coming week? Oh, they're on by. No, no, they have New Orleans.

15:51Okay, good. I'm really interested in seeing if they can continue to run the ball at this level. I think that's going to be the big, like, how seriously should I take this team moving forward is going to come down to that. Okay. Bills. The Bills go down to Atlanta. First half was ugly. Then they sort of cloud their way back. We can talk about it.

16:16I want to talk about the Falcons at length, and we will. And there's so many exciting things happening in Atlanta. but I I want to start by talking about the bills offense in this one and the Falcons defense of the pass rush obviously being the other side of it um I put out a post during the game Falcons fans how does it feel to watch a competent pass rush and their responses are so funny um I you know how my love for Falcons fans is well documented but just the videos and like I mean this this team they haven't seen a pass rush like this in 15 years I mean it's it's so very happy for you we will talk about it I promise but I want to throw something at you about the bills I know I started with like here's my theory on the bears but I want to watching Josh Allen in this offense did it not feel to you it felt a lot to me like it did watching patrick mahomes at the beginning of this year and at times last year pat and pat and pat and no one's open taking sacks no real weapons to worry about that's kind of the story of it right now wouldn't you say i know the Bills fans are very mad at Joe Brady.

17:38We could talk about that. But, like, it just feels like watching them. It just feels like it did watching the Chiefs. It's this specific game. So, yeah, I agree with you, obviously. It feels slightly different, but the general concept is the same because this Falcons team was aggressive. I feel like the story on the Mahomes situation was, like, they couldn't protect, so people didn't even have to blitz. And he didn't have any, like, receivers to bail him out. like this this felt a lot more like to me like um like early lamar like after lamar was a starter for a couple of years yeah and then people decided out of him yeah and he didn't have a weapon like that's what it felt like to me like we're just gonna you're right yeah we're just gonna attack the hell out of him and and the fear is like all right he'll break a tackle then we're in trouble But if he doesn't break the tackle and this goes back to the I guess Brandon Bean's offseason kind of tirade is a stretch, but his offseason aggressive defense of not having like a true number one receiver is it's a strategy and their tradeoffs when you make these decisions.

18:45and you know how I feel I had this conversation with Jeff Saturday earlier today about he was not happy with their their plan to pick up the blitz and I was making the point that rather than pick up the blitz you have to make them pay for blitzing you but you don't have anybody like I would love for him or you don't have anybody that's yeah that scares the defense I would love for him to get rid of the ball quickly to a guy that's in a one-on-one matchup and there'd be like a fear that there's a broken tackle and makes a big gain that was why they just felt so comfortable blitzing over and over again it's like they didn't have anybody out there that scared you yeah even the moments where he got it off to someone they were able to rally and tackle them short of the sticks which again a lot of that credit belongs to the falcons defense and like the way they their front and their coverage work together i thought was really impressive but notably i mean it's i'm not this is not an excuse but so much of an explanation so dalton kincaid didn't play in this game and josh palmer went out early so he hits the bomb to palmer early on i think it was off of like play action out of 22 personnel if i remember correctly because so they were using a lot of heavy because kincaid no kincaid in this game right and um And after that, I'm thinking, okay, is this finally the Keon Coleman breakout?

20:15And he just didn't do anything in this, which is, yeah, pretty. So I just pulled this up. Sorry, I was buying time. Dalton Kincaid, when Josh Allen is blitzed this year, leads the team in targets per route run. That's what I wanted to see. He doesn't lead in target share, but if he's actually running a route out there, he's been a target for for alan loose blitz i it felt like off the top of my head that's why i wanted to pull it up um and like i'm not saying if dalton kinkade plays in this game and palmer doesn't get hurt that they're gonna win no but and the other side of the ball has a lot to do with that which we'll get to but it's like damn you're in a position as a team where you need Dalton Kincaid and Josh Palmer to play.

21:04And that's not to say I like Kincaid a lot in particular, but like, you know, who's, who's winning for you? Yeah. I mean, I, I had liked, um, I guess it was two years ago. I really liked Shakir and thought that he could develop into that guy, like short area quickness type to get separation. Um, but it's just, I mean, they don't have a guy, which is they made this decision with Stephon Diggs which is fine no one can knock the decision it's funny because that every year I feel like they're they're legitimate criticisms of the decisions that the Bills make and then they come out and prove that it doesn't matter as much as we think it matters but sometimes it matters you're going to lose some games that you expect to win because you don't have all the tools that you would love for your quarterback to have and defensively too We didn't get to their defense, which is not pretty either.

21:55That, to me, is actually the bigger problem. Because I think in most – so the Bills' offense, this is another way it feels like the Ravens – that was the better analogy than the Chiefs. Because if they're running the ball well and dominantly and they're not behind, everything kind of flows off of that. Right. But, again, with the Ravens, you've seen this as well because they don't have dominant receiver play. if they're not running the ball well things get a lot dicier uh the bills like they actually ran decently well in this it wasn't just wasn't dominant but yeah like cook had a 65 success rate but they had to go away from it obviously falling from behind yeah i could feel joe brady like trying to stick with the run through the game but um it could have been worse like it could have been over if they didn't get the time running out just before halftime it just I feel like the game would have been even worse where um London barely misses a touchdown um I do want to give a lot of credit to the Falcons defense here you talked about the pressure we talked about the blitzing they blitzed him the highest rate he's seen since 2021 in this game uh they I I ultimately ended up with, he had like the highest rate of pressure.

23:21This is true media stats since the 2020 AFC championship. Yes. Some of that was holding onto the ball guys getting open, but a lot of it was the Falcons. Even when the four man rush, I feel like the four man rush had a good pressure rate in this. I can pull that up. But I thought, you know, like the, I think what we're seeing is this is not a perfect unit. There's still holes on the backend, But I think it is dramatically better than last year. The pass rush is really where this thing is being bread and buttered right now. And it's fun to watch, man. I mean, this is the Falcons' defense. You know what else I love, by the way?

24:00I want to talk about this quickly. When they would rush four, it felt like the defensive line, it wasn't a spy, was so good at hemming in. That was really impressive to me. the way they caged him in with their pass rush. And it wasn't like, it was mostly the defensive line. I was wondering. Tremendous. Yeah, they were great in those situations. It feels like, and this is just completely like, just off the top of my head, but there's like a progression for defenses. They go from being bad to good. The first step feels like a blitz heavy version. Like it feels like that is the way like early aggressive is like you mature from that to like a more like, I guess, a more conservative defense.

24:50But certainly early on when you got a lot of young, highly drafted, talented people like you just kind of want to turn up the heat and the result may not always be good. But it feels like that's the best possible thing you can do for a young defense. And I know that like Oberg style wise, like is generally a little bit more aggressive, but I don't know. It was, there was no like point to that statement. It just jumped in my head as I was thinking about like a lot of these defenses start out that way. I think they're leaning into their strength, which is, I'm still not looking at this and seeing a dominant edge.

25:27Yeah. But they might have like the best blitzing linebacking group in the NFL, Ellis Diablo. good player um so you know like that might be part of it you know like I think just kind of figuring out what are we actually I mean on Yamada was really good in this too but like just kind of being like what are we actually really great okay we got these Kate Nellis always has these like insane pressure numbers since a blitzer he did last year too um and I think Ulbricht leaning into that is is really smart I mean they're really good blitzers and the bills play right into their hands it's kind of like a styles makes fight situation too where because they don't have those scary guys to that you don't want to leave isolated they're like oh this is perfect all right other side of the ball be john robinson fun mvp case yeah i mean sure why not we can have fun and pretend like a running back's gonna get it at this point in the season um so this this was more predictable than the other side, right?

26:34Because the other side was like, whoa, this is crazy that the Falcons defense is doing this to Josh Allen. The Falcons offense running rough shot on the on the bills was a lot more predictable. And if the bills don't go on a deep playoff run this year, I know we talked about like, oh, the offense, do they have enough guys or whatever? They'll be fine. I think it's the defense that's ultimately what is going to tank him if they can't get it fixed um I mean they just get pushed around they really I one of the things I highlighted going into this game on NFL live yesterday was how much the bills off defense struggles with motion at the snap you constantly see guys getting displaced and especially the second and third level the defense Atlanta uses a ton of motion in their running game and just it looked exactly like I mean it was just it was really bad and then you take a running back who's just slicing through teams like a hot knife through butter, and on top of this existing dynamics, and it's pretty ugly as a result.

27:40Bijan is fun, man. You're right about all the things that you said, but we only get to have fun with Bijan when he can get to the second level, and they were allowing him. Like the 81-yard run, he barely got touched, and then when he did get touched, he showed his power. Like the strength and vision and all that stuff was super impressive for B. John. But it's a good again to go back to the styles make fights things is it's a reminder about the decisions that the Bills have made. When you see that the Falcons, though, they haven't had as much success as the Bills. They've obviously gone the other way where it's like we're going to draft a bunch of special guys.

28:18And it hasn't worked out perfectly. But the Drake London touchdown early in the game was like strength and special player stuff. Like that was, I'm going to catch it and hold the ball over because I'm a unique size and talent. B. Jones is the same thing. It's like, that wasn't great scheming. Like, of course, yeah, motion, whatever. All right. 81-yard touchdown is the running back being special. And then there's that touchdown that didn't, the touchdown that wasn't just before halftime where it's like Drake London is doing special stuff. The guy like that for the Bills is James Cook, maybe. But when you're out of it early.

28:53Yeah. But when you're out of it early, it's different. He's not like their third down back. He's a run game guy. So anyway, back to the Falcons. Yeah, it just was fun watching them play. Sorry to keep beating up the Bills, but like the contrast with like Keon Coleman on one side, Drake London on the other. It's a tough comp. London, yeah, he went crazy in this one. 158 yards, touchdown. He was targeted on half of his – I mean, he was like the passing attack in this. um you know and he's so good in the slot he's so good on those in breakers I really love his feel for zone coverage it felt like the Bills defense had a ton of air in it right like but he was just again been an issue all year long but he was really good at finding the soft spots in the zone um and you know Pedics was good at um in in the moments where he had to be at finding him he was he was good in this I think you know in the second half it was a little like oh I don't know about that you know but it didn't matter i saw um i forgot who i think it was patrick clavon who posted this on blue sky but he was like yes it was patrick clavon he he said coming into this statistically the bills defense has made everyone look like bijon here's what happens when they actually face bichon and i think that was kind of the story of the game it's just like oh my god um panics try to throw one away too he he tried to throw a pick six yeah i did yeah Yeah, that's why it's funny.

30:21Like all these, across all the games, the quarterback play was like not really the story of the game in any of these games for me on either side, winning or losing. Yeah, he was fine. But Bijan was the story. Drake London was the story. The Bills defense was the story. And just to sit on that for a second, like can this be fixed in Buffalo? Because it just seems like, you know, they've been missing some guys. When I saw the nose, Daquan Jones was, he like got hurt during warm-ups I literally I audibly went oh no because this team um like what would you do if you're Buffalo defensively is there anything any moves to be made yeah I mean I I keep hearing that this is supposed to be like the most active trade deadline in NFL history that's what um some of the insiders are hyping up but I just don't like we never know who is available so like of course there are moves that could be made but i don't know who actually is on the block so it's hard to speculate because there's not even any rumors really about what position would you go after forget names you don't have to name names like what position do you think is like the most glaring need on this defense safety yeah i mean that when they were at their best they had really good safety play so i guess i would i'd go with safety uh i mean d line is It's kind of a cure-all whenever there's a problem.

31:43If you can somehow upgrade your D-line, it makes everyone else's job a little bit easier. Linebackers can move more freely. The pass rush gets better. It's just hard to find those type of difference makers. I don't know how many players you'd have to get if the right one isn't available. Yeah. I do think there's going to be some receivers that are available for today as well. I think that would help too. They need... That feels like the most tradable position, too. Is that fair? Yeah. I feel like receivers are always something that people are willing to move on from and also feel that it could have a big impact.

32:21How often do they actually end up being impactful, though? Yeah. I mean, Amari Cooper is the one we go back to, and it's not when Amari Cooper joined the Bills last year. It's when Amari Cooper joined the Cowboys and they springboard into something else. I'm looking at the bad teams and thinking about who might be traded. Jerry Judy, maybe. I mean the Bill the Bill the Bill the Bill could use Joku that's an interesting one not for Buffalo but for another team but yeah the I'm not seeing a lot of receivers actually I'm looking at the list of potential trade candidates ESPN Rashid Shahid they could use him Olave Jacoby how dare they take away my dear Spencer Rattler's weapons Spencer Rattler the best one one and five quarterback in the history of the NML Yeah.