Case Closed! Recapping the Bears’ MNF Win, Plus Raiders and More

0:03Welcome back to the MediaCom show featuring Lenny. Monday Night Football Recap Edition. Also picking winners and wuss from the weekend. Raiders fans, your time has finally arrived. Talk about them. Patriots fans, try to discuss what was wrong. Some other teams will be mentioned. But first we have to start with last night's upset. Got back from Chicago at 9 p.m. my Eagles fan mother-in-law was sitting on the couch. I didn't tell you this, Ben. She's been here for my son's birthday, wearing her Eagles sweater. The facial expression when I walked in the door. At two, Vic Fangio. At two. Ben and I had an exchange, because I posted right after the game, I'm so mad at myself for not seeing this upset coming.

0:50Sicko play caller with a backup quarterback. It truly is the formula. But Ben, you saw it coming. before we dive in i want to ask what was the number one reason why you thought the bears would win this game before we talk about why they actually won because ben with a very different stylistic quarterback meant that the offense was going to be very different and it was going to be pretty unscouted it was going to kind of take the eagles off by a drop and then typically when you see backup quarterback in in the first couple weeks that the backup's in the defense gives you really impassioned effort right there's a big conversation in the room that week of like you know we're gonna have to do special stuff so you tend to see when backups play their first or their second game kind of in a mid-season stretch the defense tends to have above average performances and that's what you got here uh eagles bears right keenum and the quick passing game very clearly got the drop on the eagles early and then as they started you know trying to fire and blitz keenum up a little bit more because they couldn't get him down he's getting the ball out so fast they basically challenged him and they said we're gonna you know load the lineup we're gonna stop the run we're gonna pressure we're gonna make you make throws case keenum and case keenum said watch this i'm watching some caleb williams film and he made the throws he needed to make and so yeah it was it i didn't think 27 to 7 i'll tell you that but i thought bears a pretty good shot in this one let's talk about the offense first versus the eagles defense which in some ways was the more uh i think um disappointing side for me if you're an eagles fan because the eagles offense we know is inconsistent we know that they have struggled for like there's they have actually been up and down to the first few weeks they've gotten bailed out by hurts and some third downs but this eagles defense was supposed to be a top five defense in the nfl and this was a i thought humiliating is a little strong but this was a brutal performance for them now a lot of that had to do with uh what was going on the other side of the ball for sure uh ben johnson i want to talk about what he did and how he depanced vic fangio's defense but i do want to mention like some of these throws it wasn't just case keenum sitting in a clean pocket throwing to wide open receivers all day like i'm looking back on some of my notes and because i was watching it on delay on the plane on tape and run it was an extremely fun texting experience by the way because you'd be like this was awful i'd be like there's about to be three more awful things you haven't even seen yet yeah you i texted you before the hertz interception and you were like just wait just wait um i wrote down am i hallucinating or did case keenum just hit a fadeaway crosshair to luther burden with jonathan granard in his back like did that happen did i just did i look i'm the play and I'm like this can't be real I'm like this isn't uh it happened he was actually excellent under pressure he was uh throwing like it wasn't again I just want to mention and praise case Keenum for this game because he was phenomenal like this is yeah I this wasn't just easy mode all game long and there were things that were in easy mode but like this he hit some genuinely difficult throws in this game and uh johnson said after the game that the thing about case is that he's been playing 15 years in the league he just knows where everybody is supposed to be pre-snap out of the snap post-snap and so just he got he got to his answers so so so quickly against pressure looks when it was first read relative to coverage they had the dig through to roma dunze where where troy aikman said like this throw should not be opening as this coverage right it's quarters andrew mccuba the quarter safety just has his hips a little bit too far open to the three receiver sides a little bit too deep and and keenum with zero hesitation with zero fat you know you know third string quarterback out there for the first time in almost three seasons just says all right like there's a a whisker of a window here and rips it right no pat nothing just balls out and it barely beats Zach Vaughn barely beats Rick Wollin or excuse me Quinny Mitchell barely beats Makuba it's just he trusted he saw it and he ripped it uh and then the other thing you have in terms of the like you said talking about some of these like uh not so much outer structure throws but under pressure throws Bears pass catchers did a lot of good work for him in this game Roma Dune's a absurd drop in the end zone not withstanding you had guys getting fast into their routes getting their head around you know you're i'm always when i watch the bears so impressed by the details on the coaching these receivers clearly understood ball's gonna be on you get into your brakes get your head around as secure the football get down they were on their p's and q's in this one yeah i i kalif raymond sure all right man uh we frame his breakout man it was great uh so that was the kind of out of non ben john's just i just want to take a moment to acknowledge that like you that Case Keenum was throwing the ball so confidently with anticipation.

5:08The Eagles' defense, we've got to take a minute to talk about. So there were some issues that were just the players not being as good as they were in the past, particularly the safeties that were really struggling. They looked slow to the ball on certain circumstances, both in the run and the pass. The backers got pretty undressed in this one. And it was a rough one for the second level of this defense. But the thing that shocked me the most, and I want to hear your thoughts on this. I could not believe how poorly they handled motion in this game. And I texted you. I think it was the Dajene-Woolen busted coverage where Dajene's playing man and Woolen staying in his zone after, I forget who comes across.

5:53It's a burden comes in motion. Raymond's the guy's vital. Yeah. Yeah. So with motion in this game, case Keenum averaged 12 yards a pass without it was three. And a lot of that was because of miscommunications on the back end, going back and watching them on film. Like it honestly, when I think about this Vic Fangio coach defense, I think about them being excellent and handling motion and communicating on the back end and passing things off. And in this game, they look like a completely different different pass defense. So tell me what you saw, because that was jarring to me watching the Eagles.

6:29Yeah, a worst game for a Vic secondary that I can remember in Philadelphia in terms of the operation, right? In terms of the X's and O's on the field. The first Khalif Raymond completion was a fast motion where they're snapping the ball with the receiver, running at the snap, and he's running like into a stack or into a bunch. He's becoming the new number one receiver. The reason why this is significant is because it stresses your match rules and your bunch rules, your stack rules, all those match coverages Fangio wants to run or changing who's releasing aware right at the snaps you really have to communicate well there were multiple disagreements between Dejean and Rick Woolen I thought in this game there was a Luther Burden wide open cross in the middle of the field where both Dejean and Zach Bond took a running back to the flat left the middle of the field wide open Andrew Makubo is trying to pass off routes to Michael Carter who's the nickel who converted to safety who didn't know he was trying to pass off the route so then there's there's space in the middle of the field there they were swapping Marcus Epps and Carter in and out because they didn't know who they wanted on the field at safety the touchdown like you said they got out of zone coverages because they couldn't they're kept busting they get into man uh man coverage or just chase everybody around the field and woolen zones off on that play and then all of a sudden now you've got nobody running with khalif raymond and so i had the calls wrong and couldn't get stuff figured out on the field when players were moving in motion and ben just kept hammering them with it right every single time it looked a little bit different now it's at a four by one now it's a different player is in motion now the motion man's into a different route and it's it's the iterative nature of it it's the way that there's always something on the next play that separates ben johnson so clearly like i i was struck in this game about how like it ben johnson is just so clearly next to sean and next to kyle right it is and and we've been saying this for a while but it's important to be very clear about it because liam cohen has a good three weeks and shane steichen has a good two weeks and kubiak's killing it and we want to elevate those guys up there there is nobody who from the moment he picked up the headset has so consistently stayed at the level of sean and kyle the true upper echelon than ben johnson it's a trio at the top unimpeachable on the flip side of that were you not also thinking man brian flores i know that's within a rainstorm i know it was a rainstorm so that is important context but flores versus fangio on the other hand there's there's now yeah they're right because at some point i need to just talk about brian flores and like how he's completely like some of the things the bears defense did in this game actually reminded me a little bit we'll get to that side of the ball but yeah anyways yeah it was yeah ben johnson completely debanced him i thought um and it's worth noting the 2025 game they used all that motion to kill him in the running game run game yeah if i told you before this game that was the bears stat line on the ground it was fine it was just unremarkable right like you know it was like a decent success yeah deandre swift 20 for 84 kyle manungai 10 for 31 and about 40 of those swift yards were late in the game so if i told you that like okay it's case game quarterback here's the running stat line you would imagine oh the eagles defense played really well and shut them down but it was the pass game and this safety group duo group whatever is the problem uh woolen i it's it's tough because i actually he was really good the first two weeks of the season but this was kind of a nightmare you know seahawks fans at home every time there's a penalty pointing at the screen game uh quinnion man mitchell innocent no actually not no because catch the football quinnion catch it two pass breakups you're gonna house both of them quinnion but i just god dang jugs machine i honestly thought the eagles defensive line was pretty good in this game it just there was a couple plays where they got pushed around the ground but for the most part this was all about the linebackers and the secondary and miscommunication and um they're the bears pass catchers like i'm glad you mentioned that they made a lot of good individual plays as well because yeah you did a great piece before the season on the bears offense and how it was put together and how explosive it aimed to be and one of the things i remember you mentioned in the piece was the attention to detail on the part of all the skilled players and how much it matters to pull off this symphony of motion and sequencing play calling and you just don't see guys out of position when you watch this offense you just don't like they're always in the right position they're all yeah it's just new quarterback new cadence and not only were they flawless operationally no pre-snap penalties but and and they were very lucky this game is on monday night football because monday night football has always had like the really good mic to catch the quarterback cadence not only were they flawless operationally they also were dummy cadencing and changing stuff with the line of scrimmage and that's like the whole point of case keenum is like well he's going to be so good operationally but this is a very difficult offense pre-snap and the bears were like it's so like stupid football nerdy of it but the third and seven case keenum scramble into a fourth and two hard count for a first down like that's the play of the game right there it's just it's so cool that they can do that with their third quarterback oh interesting fourth down that might come up later when we talk about the other side of the ball uh yeah it was it was a one to remember for the bears offense for ben johnson for that group of skilled players yeah as far as the eagles we all gotta stop pissing off ben johnson the whole like he's never had his backup quarterback thing like again the whole the moment that started i was like yeah he's gonna walk out and i just regret you know he relished it too yeah they had like five completions of the first drive right he clearly wanted to make a point kyle shanahan mac jones matt lefleur and relique willis these guys get off on it um can this eagles defense be fixed and when i say fixed i mean like can they still be elite this season i think is where i want to put a pin on this conversation um i think the pass rush is good enough and will get better i think the backers will be play better i think the secondary some of these communication issues will get sorted i am worried about the safety duo i think that's a real problem for this unit yeah and i didn't really understand why they wanted to be in the offseason they were really thin at safety and in a Vic Fangio defense to me that doesn't make a lot of sense I do think that it still can be like a top eight unit because they should be able to get to a lot more man coverage and a lot more simple options with Wolin with Quinny Mitchell and with Dejean who Dejean has had a very weird start to the season he's had coverage issues in a game where he got banged up he had communication issues in this game so I don't know what's going on with him but the bulk of what we've seen from Dejean over the course of his career with those three players and then with John Grenard into the pass rush yes, you should be able to be like a top eight group.

12:47This is a very inconsistent team, a unit right now. And that's the thing. I think the Eagles have a lot of name recognition on defense and they've had some really splashy performances. But even over last season, there's games in the stretches where Jalen Carter vanishes. Zach Bond, big money, huge breakout, totally understandable. Love the contract, love the player. There are games where he is just kind of guessing and making aggressive coverage reads and they attack him in the middle of the field. John Campbell, nice splashes, a lot of errors. And so this big peaks, low valleys right now with Philadelphia.

13:16Coaching's got to solve that problem over the course of the season. All right. Eagles offense. So this was in some ways less surprising for the reasons we discussed, which is this Eagles offense has not been great the first two weeks. They've had great moments. They had a great first half in this game. Less people forget. Like I was looking back at my notes from the first half and they did so many good things. They were running the football well. In the first half, Ben, like I'm looking, I'm like, ooh, great run to the left side. Ooh, great block by Milata. Ooh, the tight ends are getting black stock.

13:49But then in the second half, it was like every bad thing you've seen about the Eagles' defense over the last several years, quite frankly, in terms of inability to run, interior pressure, Hurts not seeing the middle of the field, Hurts not seeing droppers. It's just like it felt like a rerun of sorts. Bears fans have been saying I should apologize to the defense. They're not as bad as I said they would be. And honestly, I will apologize. I think they are not as bad. I do not. I still do not think this is a good defense. Sorry. Just because, you know, you had pitched a great half. Some of that had to do with, I thought Dennis Allen put together a really good game plan, which we'll talk about.

14:26But, like, I still think there are some issues. You got some decent performances from individual players. Dylan Thienemann, by the way. Hit, right? Like, he looks great. but I did feel this was more about Eagles offense just general

14:44inadequacy incompetence and it just sucks because it's a lot of the same stuff we've seen like what's new like tell me tell me like I did I'm missing something about this Eagles offense in the second half like was there something that surprised you or did you feel the same way I did which is like oh this is all the same stuff we've seen now for years the uh the Bears defense thing is funny because they may they may clear the bar for bears fans of like i can go demand an apology for my favorite nfl podcaster do they clear the bar of like i will feel good in the playoffs going to go yeah exactly i'm not i think that's a pretty big chasm between those two there and i'm not sure we're up to the highest watch bryce young this week against cleveland uh okay yes so geno smith lasers all right eagles offense the sean manion right now has a smattering of plays that have worked for him in Green Bay.

15:33And he is trying to figure out identity wise, how to sequence all these together, where his bread is buttered. Okay. Where are, you know, Devante Smith, easy buttons. How do we get Makai Lemon involved as our first round pick at wide receiver? Not screens, please. I never want to see another Makai Lemon screen for the rest of my life. The Eagles have, the Eagles have never, the Eagles have no blockers on the field at wide receiver and tight end, right? Cause it's Zach Hertz in his first game back. So I'm taking makes Devontae Smith, who I love to death. Devontae Smith, he's amazing. He tries. He's 170 pounds.

16:05Some of the early runs in the game. He was really blocking his little tush off. Darius Cooper took like two snaps on offense in this game. Darius Cooper's their only receiver with size, made a big play against the Titans. I don't know why they don't want to get him out there. They had like Elijah Moore out there to start the game. Whatever. So Mania is still very much a guy who's off of a tree that had good stuff. And he's trying to figure out what to do now in like, you know, location two, team two. Like, what do I bring over? What do I graph? How do I add stuff? so the manion experience is still very herky-jerky like against the titans jalen was seeing middle of the field well was seeing crossing patterns well was throwing it relatively on time in this game just like for a drive like that end of the first half drive absolutely was seeing it and then would walk up the next drive and just not see it and so it is extremely erratic at this point you can survive survive erraticism if you can rely on the running game stay ahead of the sticks if you can scramble if you can kind of you know just link together some first down first downs and the Eagles, again, going back to last year, they just get to three and out so quickly because they get a negative on an early run because they bust something on the interior.

17:07The guard center guard play right now in Philadelphia is not good in the running game. And so they get behind the sticks. And then Jalen just, for whatever the conversation was in 2024, where they were like, dude, stop throwing picks, stop fumbling the football. He just has these games where he just has no interest in being aggressive whatsoever. To hit the Devontae Smith throw that they hit on Jalen Johnson's head down the right sideline and then to never get back to it again it's just like pull your hair out frustrating anytime you have davante 101 the ball should be hung up the same way you did with aj brown they won't do it receivers are better than their corners i thought this would be way more downfield there was like a third and 12 where um this was before the game got out of hand it was like early in the second half like the end coverage or something and he just like checks it down and I just so, um, yeah, it's the interceptions.

17:53I mentioned this earlier, but he should, I said, sorry, it's just one. It should have been two. Both times he just threw it at the dropper. Once was, uh, I forgot who was it. Edwards. Both times. Yeah. And it was like Edwards plays the hot to the, but yeah, it's, these are, that's something that Hertz has struggled with at times in his career with simulated pressures. This is not new in terms of like, just not seeing the backer as they drop out. The dissolution of the run game, I want to ask you a question because Dennis Allen did something in this game that it's funny. I think we're seeing more and more.

18:29Dan and I were talking about this yesterday vis-a-vis the Rams, just blitzing the under center play action, which is something I think we're seeing more and more throughout the... Actually, stats blacked this up. Blitz rates versus under center dropbacks are significantly up, even if you take out the Flores snaps. So I guess I want to talk to you about the Eagles in terms of the lack of adjustments to that and what you would do in the run game when the interior is getting blown up the way it was in the second half. I want to be able to toss the ball into the boundary. I thought one of the best things about the 49ers running game over the last couple of years, and you saw, I think the Steelers against the Bengals was eye-popping this past week.

19:08They said, all right, we do not want to deal with Dexter Lawrence or the Steelers specifically. for the 49ers is they don't want to deal with their guards trying to move guys off the line of scrimmage and so they have a really varied way to get the ball to the boundary fast in the running game right where it's okay we're going to now make the the point of war right make the engagement not in the center but on the flank and that's what we're going to be able to use our blocking wide receivers and our big body tight ends to solve our problems for us which is why the eagles are deficient they don't have those players right this is the thing like we talked about this with the chiefs in their running game under center okay but what happens when and Rasheed Rice needs to block, and Travis Kelce needs to block, and through three weeks, they've really risen to the occasion.

19:43But if you are going to be an under-center running team, what do you need to have in terms of tools in your toolkit to solve the problems that will be presented to you? One of the number one things you need is office linemen you can get on the hoof, guys who can run out there and who can tag players in space, and then tight ends and receivers who are willing to get their nose dirty. Watch any Bears film. They had it on the first drive, where they got the pin pull, Roma Dunze pinning down defensive end. They got Darnell Wright and Jonah Jackson on the run. And right now, Darnall Wright on the run is like freaking like Superman in flight.

20:12He's unbelievable in space. And so you need to have those constraint plays where you're getting the ball into the boundary. In the shotgun running game, right, it becomes RPO stuff and it becomes bubble screen stuff. That's how you solve that problem. But we don't want to be in a shot in an under center world. Excuse me. One step dropping and throwing alert smokes to wide receivers one on one against corners. That's college nonsense, right? NFL, we should be able to get the ball to the boundary with the back. The Rams also are good at making that adjustment. and it didn't really work in the Broncos game, which was a game where, I mean, Vance was just blitzing every single under center drop back.

20:45Yeah. Which, again, is something to pin in for the Rams offense because their run game is so good, you at some point just have to pray for negative plays and they were able to get them against them and you give up some plays and you just kind of live or die by that. But it is just something I think we're going to see more of against these good under center offenses the solution the solution the past game is to do a lot of what the rams have done so the bears do in this game which is under center drop back no play action because now the quarterback's head stays up so i can see it and now the back doesn't have to go play fake and so the back and just go get to the backer in the blitz right away and you can survive that way it's not great but you can survive that way um it's i think if like you're an eagles fan there's there's still hope that this offense will be better.

21:34I think I really do believe that, but there's like, okay, let's, let's do a priority of like the things that they've got to figure it out. So one of the things we talked about is the run game. And if the interior of the offensive line starts getting their butt kicked or there's, they're getting, you're getting blitzed through the a gap. Can Sean Mannion come up with counters? We were just discussing just so that it's not so dependent on the pass cat, particularly on early downs. Can this offense stay on time? Can you get the defensive looks you want, yada, yada, yada. They got to figure out a better way to use Makai Lemon than what we've seen.

22:08And I know he was open, by the way, so I don't want to put this on Mannion. There were a couple plays where Hurst just didn't see him, which was, of course, what everybody feared with the draft pick, and there's narratives and all of that. But, like, Ben, do you, like, do you feel that there's other ways that Makai Lemon could be used other than what we've seen early in the season? Yeah. Quarterbacks got to start ripping the football in Philly. And it's annoying because in Tennessee, on third down, he had like nine conversions in week two. He was ripping it when he had to rip it on third down.

22:38Jalen got very, you know, no turnover, just keep this offense on the track pilled in 2024 and 2025. Elite running game, elite defense, just do not turn the ball over and we will win games. In this offense, gotta rip the football. Gotta be able to throw between layers of the field. Gotta be able to throw between zone defenders. Gotta throw on time to maximize yards after the catch. Gotta be able to make aggressive throws. Gotta be able to risk some more turnovers, right? there's this sort of an offense which is inherently a lot more vertical a lot more crossing patterns vertical is a tricky word because the eagles would throw all those go balls i'm talking about in the middle of the field there's a lot more three-level stretch you are just not going to get juice for your squeeze on lemon on davante smith if you are not more aggressively throwing the football and so i i think jaylen wants to get there but i do think that you know sirianni and manion have to kind of drag him into the water and let him know like you know it's not going to be a disaster when you go there so that's going to help get lemon more involved from a design to touch perspective I mean, he should be a good screen and swing player.

23:32It's just the Eagles do not have the resources for this because they don't have the blockers for it. That's my biggest hang-up with this team is that everything on the boundary dies because they don't have physicality at those positions. I do want to... So I know I was... I mentioned Dylan Thienemann. TJ Edwards obviously had the super heads-up play. I'm sure you've seen the clip of him leaning in. I do think this Bears front maybe looks better than I feared coming into the season, the pass rush. I think Austin Booker's a legit guy. I think the defensive tackles have been playing a bit better than I thought.

24:16I think the back end is still extremely vulnerable and good passing attacks will be taking advantage of that. But, you know, shout out to Dennis Allens. You had a great game plan in the second half. I think, just trying to think of like the Bears defense, like do you feel different from them now than you did at the beginning of the season in any way? So I think that when a Dennis Allen defense works, it's always got like four absolute just hogs up front because he wants to be, he's a, you know, oh, two highlight box guy, you know, play from split field, but he's not much one for like, and here are my cool simulated pressure solutions.

24:52Like they do that stuff. But in general, he's like, I want my poor defensive lineman to be able to win point of attack. Right. And then we'll come fill behind. We got a good look in this game at what they wanted to be able to get to last year in terms of on pressure downs, being able to kick Dayo Dangbo inside and then have Austin Booker Montez on the outside. I think that's a good like package for them to go ahead and generate disruption. I think the rookie corner Malik Muhammad, who just started straight over Tyreek Stevenson in this game, seems a little banged up. But I think that they found a nice young player in him.

25:19yeah like there are enough like you know i think polls has invested a ton in this defense and while he has largely missed more than he's hit you still have you know like grady jerry is still a good player neville gallimore can still do stuff right so you have a a decently high enough floor it's this the story to me this is more eagles often yeah i understand i'm sorry but it is yeah i think allen has also kind of done like look he had he gets hit with the kobe bryant injury before the season kind of gordon supposed to be available he's not i do like the fact that he's experimented with different group players instead of just sticking to like Tyreek Stevens has been really bad.

25:54Like, um, you know, I think like Elijah Hicks is pretty good in this game, right? Like, you know, like Cam Lewis is playing, like he's trying different things on the backend to fix it. I just think they're going to be more tested. Honestly, I'll just say it. The Jets offense is better than the Eagles offense and you got them next week. No breeze hall that, you know, now, now I don't know how, how deep that Jets offense is going to be, but boy, well, Kenyan Sadiq, little six catches for one of those six. That's a C touchdown to Kenyan Sadiq. I felt something in the core of my theory. You see the debate to Wilson.

26:29He's, you know, famous last words. Uh, anyways, great win for the bears. Legit. Um, Ben Johnson, you're a God. It's an extremely well coached football team. They can win any game with any personnel, anytime. Love watching them. Take a break. Come back and let's pick our winners and wuss of the weekend.

27:15episode of the three questions where Andy and I talked about competing on celebrity jeopardy, parenting, and of course the Jennifer Hudson dance tunnel. Listen to the three questions with Andy Richter available wherever you get your podcasts, new episodes every week. All right, we're back. All right, Raiders fans. It's fine. I said last week, I said, if you beat the saints, I will. I promised you I would spend more time talking about the three and Oh, speaking of well-coached teams, by the way, that's the number one thing that jumps out to me when I watch the Las Vegas Raiders is just how well coached they are um so watching this game was an interesting one uh I thought the defense was fine they made some plays Koontz big moments down the end always been a Malcolm Koontz guy he had one year he was awesome then he got hurt then came back and they've just been signing him on one-year deals ever since being like get back get back get back and he looked nice uh I was just looking at my defensive notes man he was cooking who was playing in for Banks, Asim Richards, the left tackle.

28:15He got his butt kicked by Kunz. So yeah, he did some nice things. Hezekiah Mass is still kind of like a main character. I thought the safeties were pretty rough in this one, but let's be real. It's about the offense and it's about Brock Bowers. And that's the focal point here. What did Clint Kubiak call him? Like a football robot sent from heaven? I might be paraphrasing. I think just watching him in this game cook corners. Just want to emphasize that. Corners. Like they're putting him on the backside, on the back shoulder where he beats McKinstry. They're going four strong, isolating. It's like Prime Kelsey.

28:58If he is isolated, Kirk Cousins correctly has infinite trust that he will come down with the football. um his footwork at the line just looking at the notes i took watching him first of all he's mostly aligned wider in the slot he's basically a giant receiver for them this is the team that lives in i think they probably use 11 personnel like the lowest rate in the league um so that 81 percent multi-tight end sets in this game is the highest of any team any game this year fifth highest in the last three years but if you watch it it's not 12 personnel formations he's like a big receive i mean yeah um just looking at my notes though yes like so beating corners insane footwork at the line of scrimmage his routes are beautiful his feel for zone is exceptional his body control is outrageous the one where sanker has good coverage him on the corner he's it's like a flood concept oh my god the third and 14 the third and 14 it's so good his hands i mean he really is a football robot sent from heaven.

29:59That might not even be what he said, but it's correct. Yes, it is a football robot from heaven. I just don't think you can be over the top talking about this guy right now, Ben. Like, I'm just crazy tape. That's exactly what it is. It's every time I talk about Brock Bowers, I'm like, all right, now remain calm. And within like 15 seconds, I just, it's the four by one where he's isolated on Kool-Aid McKinstry. He goes to give him the inside move to relocate McKinstry and it doesn't work. McKintree has upfield leverage on him. It's chalked. It's a great coverage by McKintree. Bowers explodes and gets to McKintree's upfield shoulder.

30:35The tight end gets fast enough on top of the corner to threaten him vertically, such as to open the space for the back shoulder. The ball is short by multiple yards because Kirk, who hasn't thrown a lot to Brock, underestimated how fast the 240-pound tight end was. And Brock goes and picks it up off his knees for a first down. I have 10 ,000 good stats. Here's my favorite one. Bowers had 13 targets from slot or wide alignments in this game. It is the most such target a tight end has seen in the past three seasons. Out wide, he had eight targets. The most out wide targets a tight end has had since the 2016 season, which is as far back as we have data.

31:11He had six catches when he was lined out wide. Kelsey never got there. Yeah, it's tied with Kelsey. So games with six plus targets out wide. Kelsey over the last decade has 10. Bowers already has two. five plus receptions out wide kelsey over the last decade has five powers already has two this is it this is the first guy to actually be the next kelsey yeah kelsey he's this is the real deal i can't stress this enough the corners were not bad if you want them go like they were legit like there was corners which is already like crazy because he's a tight end like there were many plays where they were in good position and it just did not matter he is inevitable uh want to give a little love to kurt cousins though because um he was kind of slinging it and there were some throws i'm just saying i didn't know he still had in his bag the one where he's like rolling right and finds tucker where he extends i was like what i didn't know you could still do that kurt cousins um he is playing with a level of aggressiveness that i wasn't sure he would play with in terms of throwing downfield uh uh the other thing i i mentioned is the raiders offensive line that was my big concern coming to the season they look great they looked like a pass protection speaking of uh they look legit so yeah it's a tough they're a tough matchup the raiders offense is a legitimately like what what do you think like what kind of team is best equipped to handle this oh i mean there's no bowers solution so you want to be a team that can zone and a team that can match you got to be able to pressure kirk i mean like yeah pressure yeah because you got to be able to dm of the spot broncos are probably going to want to play man and it's certain against bowers which i mean like dude i will be seeded for the first broncos uh i mean chiefs are an interesting one they're going to send pressure though and kirk will be about to see some of that undress some of that kirk it's like you know like the uh again as the you know mendoza's gonna play guy 2024 kirk right off the achilles thing where everybody remembers of him dreadful couldn't drive the football 2025 kirk when he got back in there after penix got hurt there was a lot more there in terms of the physical toolkit i still i still think there's some some serious limitations and and and this game was was great from the raiders bowers was so good kind of the first dawning teams are going to find ways to force the football to other players And then it's going to become a Trey Tucker and a Jalen Naylor and a Jack Bash sort of a conversation.

33:38So that the depth there concerns me. The other thing about the Raiders, I think is really important is the role that Mike Washington has played in some of these explosive touchdown run. Gentry for as much as I like that player, Gentry is a guy who turns negative plays into positive plays. He's not really a run away from you. The third level sort of a guy, you know, he's much more joystick, herky jerky. Washington has given them this big play opportunity in the backfield, which is, as we remember from Kubiak, but the Seahawks is really, really important to have in this running game that was a crazy run it was uh power and it was they got them dead to what rights yeah and i'm watching that thinking all right this is over and then he it's similar to the preseason like manages to squeeze out of it and then they got some nice blocks from the skill players downfield but like i was legit like shocked by that run becoming explosive um yeah i think i i think you just make the game about kirk cousins so it really is about pressure and you know the saints i like i said he made some actually legit impressive throws under pressure uh but i was surprised too the saints played so much they got him to play a ton of single high some of that was through the play action game which they just completely killed them but it should be noted the saints have been good against play action so the saints defense is not bad um and i don't even think they had a bad game in this game i think they ran into kubiak there was turnover kubiak had 14 chapters of his playbook he was just waiting to deploy with Brock and they finally got there.

35:00Use them like JS that dude is so cool. The turnover really hurt them. Obviously they could have won that game. So yeah, it was, it was a good game. It felt even. I think that's the thing I'll say. Like I watched that one and I was like, ooh, like, you know, it felt even. Okay, your winner. Are you ready for me to times guess as the lines? Raiders Chiefs week four. Chiefs are traveling to Las Vegas, playing at 425. Traveling to Las Vegas. Chiefs by two and a half. Four and a half for the Chiefs right now. Four and a half? No respect for the 3-0 Las Vegas. Three and four are both pretty key numbers, too.

35:42I've looked at that plus four and a half at home. Clint Kubiak's very clearly fired up. He wants to make a little bit of a statement here. I don't know. Raiders-Chiefs, that's game of the week next week to me. It's going to be really fun. All right, who's your winner? My winner is the Cleveland Browns, man. And the two and one. I want to hear where you're going in this because I watched this game last night trying to anticipate what was going to be your angle. I have some guesses as to what you're going to say. Main thing for me is the defensive side of the ball. I'm impressed by what we've got going on here on the on the on the defense line, really at all three levels.

36:11Mike Rutenberg steps into Jim Schwartz's shoes with no Miles Garrett. Tough ask, brother. I mean, as far as new coaches and new jobs, about as brutal as it gets through three weeks, they have done a really nice job retaining the aggressiveness in the front. while also becoming more varied in coverage, right? It's exactly what you want to be doing because Schwartz would be, you know, all right, all about our front four, all about the rush, but then you can kind of know what we're doing in coverage and beat us on the back end. You're to Mason Graham. Good morning. Good afternoon. Hello, sir. You want to hear my comment for him after watching this game?

36:41Pac-Man. He literally plays Pac-Man. Like on every single one of his pressures and he had a bunch of this game, he's like gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble. Like there's just something about his style of play that cracks me up. He's so like honey badger-ish. very high effort very like you know a little bit like erratic and intense yeah the one the sack where it's like he runs a pig stunt and loops around it's like he's like gobbling them and they've got another they've got another young player mike hall out of ohio state who's winning on a lot of these penetration plays as well jared versus causing problems quincy williams now was the linebacker they brought him from the jets quincy like fell apart in the aaron glenn defense couldn't handle it comes and rejoins mike brutenberg and coached him with the jets much more simplified role quincy's playing with his hair on fire through three weeks he had a hit on Bryce Young in this game where he hit him so fast, Bryce Young like flew three yards, right?

37:27So they're playing with a hair on fire. They're playing with high, high, high speed and intensity. But then when this team gets a third down, they are showing split field. They are rotating against Bryce Young specifically. They wanted to get a lot of low hole players, take away the immediate crosser, take away the slants. And they were on their nails in terms of the coaching, in terms of route recognition in this game. and they're taking away the mesh concept, passing things off. Ronnie Hickman had a drop into cover one where he took away the first crosser. And then as Bryce Young moves his eyes, he leaks back to take away the second crosser.