Dart Break: The Rams Beat NY and Week 2’s Winners

25:40And so if you are dealing with Malik neighbors in and out of the lineup, I'm just going to absolutely load the box on you. And I'm going to dare Jameis to make accurate throws to Darnell Mooney, Malachi fields without throwing picks. and that bet has just won against Jameis for much of his career, even when he's been playing well. So I can see a few wins because of the running game and because of the defense. I would really like to see the running game without Dart have a nice healthy game. I'm just, I guess Dart really does impact the numbers a lot.

26:07Ben Solak:Oh, definitely. I mean, week one, the Cowboys defense really struggled with the possibility of him running and they have like four yards before contact per carry, which is usually a side, if not of a dominant offensive line, of a defense that's on its heels a bit. I just want to say I was smiling here because Will Levis just signed with the Jets practice squad. Big ups for Will Levis. Big time. News that cross the transom. All right, transmission. All right, we're going to take a quick break, come back and do winners and woofs. The greats don't shy away from change. They attack it head on with confidence, preparation, and a clear strategy.

26:45Ben Solak:KPMG, LLP, and their transformation professionals work with organizations across industries using advanced AI to help them move faster, work smarter, and adapt with purpose. Because in today's business environment, winning teams don't react to change, they shape it. Learn more at visit.kpmg.us slash velocity. Evan Cohen here. Game day brings the excitement. Your stay should feel just as memorable. With Marriott Bonvoy, official hotel partner of the NCAA and U.S. soccer, you're connected to a portfolio of brands designed for how you travel. Some offer complimentary breakfast. Others give you room to spread out space to stay productive or extended stay comforts.

27:26So whether you're a traveling fan or part of the team, Marriott Bonvoy celebrates the moments that live on before and after the game. Marriott Bonvoy where game day checks in.

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28:09Ben Solak:It contains essential prescription medications in your name for over 30 common conditions, strep throat, sinus infections, pneumonia, UTI, stomach bugs, and more. Plus, telehealth doctors standing by for questions. I trust my medical emergency kit and I can save you$45 right now. Visit urgentcarekit.com slash sports promo code sports. That's urgentcarekit.com slash sports promo code sports. All right, we're back. I'll go first. my winner bangles defense who uh so there's two things i want to talk about but let's start with the run game yeah the houston offense yeah the running backs had 14 carries for 18 yards so a little less than the rams on monday night just a little 1.3 yards one was successful one successful dog woody marks was stuffed on 50 of his runs in this game the bangles play have through two weeks have played with a 66 light box rate which leads the nfl dexter lawrence i would argue in run defense that this game from dexter lawrence was about as dominant a game i've seen from a defensive player in run defense in recent memory it's it's i i just like i wrote about it in the column i i've clips of it it is they spent the 10th overall pick on the theory that they'd get a run defender so good that they could do anything else they wanted the other 10 positions and it would work and it's like all right that's kind of a crazy bet fellas and in week two it's just immediately nope 100 yes nailed it uh the evan brown will go to sleep shaking thinking about the number 97 for weeks dude the Texan center who like was a guard with the Cardinals and the Texans are trying to move him to center and like it's a little bit of a shaky situation to start with Dexter did not move in this game that he did not want to move he had no point in this game was moved against his will I a stud he's a fire hydrant out there he is an immovable object tethered to the earth it was so sick we should note that the Texans run rushing attack is probably just really bad again as well that's part of this it does it is which is again not taking away credit through uh two weeks now i mean so because i was looking at the bangles schedule and i was like are they going to go up against like a really good run game that's going to test this hypothesis um you get the you get the uh ravens obviously twice and then you've got the Chiefs, which will be interesting, but not a lot of good run games in the NFL right now, period, kind of quietly outside.

30:59So like really good at getting to the boundary would interest me against the Bengals because I would want to be like Miles Murphy, Cassius Howell, get Barrett Carter moving. But you have to you have to not wave the white flag entirely guard center guard. But just if you are trying, the Texans are really trying to be a downhill power running game. And right now the teeth of the Bengals is like to Daryl Slayton, who also had a great game, by the way, in rotation, defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence and like that interior. Barrett Carter, the second-year linebacker, is playing so fast behind Dexter Lawrence uphill.

31:25Yeah, like, it is. You gotta get outside.

31:28Ben Solak:Also, I feel like lost in, like, all the Dexter Lawrence deserved love. Jonathan Allen looks like a freaking beast out there, dude. Leading the league in defensive tackle pressures right now. He is so disruptive as part of that pass rush. So, yeah, the defensive tackles in general looks like a home run offseason in terms of the additions they made. The other thing I want to talk about with the Bengals' defense in this game, is I just thought they were so well coached, and I loved the pressures in particular. I did a tape on this on NFL Live, but the use of simulated pressures I thought was so clever and also so effective against this Texans team missing Nico Collins, which is something they did last week.

32:09Ben Solak:I mentioned it, I think, on last week's show that I thought some of the sim pressures were really smart. But in this game, there were so many. I mean, I have quite a few charted here. and what they would do is they would walk up six seven at one point they went engage eight with lawrence and allen as the droppers which was just and lawrence almost had a pvu i don't think he actually got it yeah he was full statue of liberty he was ages from it nfl logo guys um but what what was so clever about it um there's a couple things obviously when you have simulated brush shirts where you show blitz you drop you're creating one-on-ones for your edges and you saw them who were you know mafay you saw them winning consistently jonathan allen got a few one-on-ones and won as a result because you have too many blockers for too few rushers because you're showing blitz and yada you understand math uh but the other thing i think that was very clever about this is what does cj stroud do really well what does he do all right blitz excellently right what does he what where does he like to throw oh intermediate in breakers yeah in breakers they were dropping consistently dropping the safeties and backers into the throwing windows on those in breakers, forcing him to throw outside where they, the Bengals, with their very good corners against these very bad Texans receivers, had a clear advantage.

33:23Ben Solak:So basically, they're creating advantages not only for their pass rushers, but also for the coverage because the area where they're weaker is the spine of the defense, but CJ didn't have opportunities in those occasions to throw there. So I just thought, Al Golden, Sean Desai, that staff, great job game planning for this particular quarterback and taking advantage of their matchup advantages. Everything they've done in the secondary since Al Golden has gotten there, I've liked. They have the DJ Turner shadow and they'll have him follow around wide receiver ones and allows them to get brackets elsewhere.

33:55They've been able to, I think, use Jordan Battle really effectively. Jordan Battle is a player who like...

34:00Ben Solak:He's usually a dropper, by the way, on these impressors. He's the one. And I like what Battle's good at quite a bit from a tackling perspective, from a physicality perspective in the box. This is a limited player you want to hide at times, and they do a really nice job, I think, hiding him and kind of minimizing his scope and coverage. Ryan Cook's been a big part of that as well here in year two. And so from a secondary perspective, everything they've done there from a coaching style I've always liked. Last year, the running game was like, oh my God, what are we up to? And now they just have bodies.

34:26They can be a lot more simple up front and continue to pour those resources in the defensive back end. And yeah, like if Jared Wayne punks you downfield on like a sideline ball, then he does. You just, you know, wash your hands and go next. And okay, he did that one time, but it's Jared Wayne.

34:41Ben Solak:You know, like you're going to be playing in his game, by the way. A little like Texans, man. The Texans once a game hit an unbelievable explosive to Jalen Dole, who was just running away from Jalen Dole's leaving DJ Turner runs a 4-2 in the dust. Every week they hit it and they're like, let's never do this again. And it drives me nuts. Yeah, I, I, there's a lot of things. I don't know why they use so much 11 personnel in this game as well. I thought we would see more of the tight ends. I don't know. Very frustrating from Houston, the 0-2 Texans. All right, your winner for the week. We're going back to the Broncos.

35:18Well, Broncos, a huge, huge, huge win. Firstly, at home beating the Jacksonville Jaguars and going one-on-one, not falling into that same 0-2 hole that the Texans are in now. but then also I thought you know from a improvement on some of the stuff that we talked about from week one to week two perspective just check the boxes across the board we'll start defensively Trevor Lawrence was on one in this game Lawrence was a flamethrower Lawrence was hitting throws against man against zone it was accurate he was reading things out Lawrence was outside of his mind and the Broncos I think very nicely said okay we need to break the pocket right we're going to lose to some explosives here our secondary is not having the kind of blanket effect that we wanted to have.

35:56So we're going to start sending more blitzes, presenting more early down pressures. We're going to really test, you know, the young guard and Emmanuel pregnant. We're going to test this reshuffle Jaguars off its line. And they got benefit from that four pressures a piece for Zach Allen and Nick Benito, like three quick pressures for Zach Allen, Zach Allen in this game took Ezra Cleveland and Emmanuel pregnant.

36:15Ben Solak:Unbelievable in this game. They, the Broncos do a great job. They do a great, a great job widening out the offensive line, and forcing wider splits and getting, you know, the pocket, the fan out. So Allen can get two way goes. And then he's just ripping guys off, off, off the turf. And he's able to finish through and keep his balance. So Allen, big, big, big splashy there. So defensively, I thought that, you know, they got extremely embarrassed from a missed tackle perspective in week one. In week two, Trevor Lawrence is lighting up this very, like, you know, vaunted secondary. There was a chance that things spiraled.

36:46And Benito and Zach Allen basically said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We are going to break this game at the pocket. And they did so. That second half was lights out. offensively. Bo Nix in week one took so much pressure and very quickly in week two, right? 45 % very clearly in week two just said, we're going to, you know, I'm going to get the ball out a lot faster. Sometimes the offense is detriment, but generally distributed the football a lot queen cleaner, a lot quicker. I thought the office line played a lot better in pass protection there. And then Davis web, a little bit less. Look at this cool thing I thought of in the summer.

37:19Look at these three players moving around in the backfield, a little bit more bread and butter, a little bit more bread and honey, get to our base plays, and they were a lot more successful.

37:25Ben Solak:Base plays, but I thought he put some interesting twists on some of the stuff that they did in the second half. So obviously the offense looked bad in the first half. In the second half, you really saw the turnaround. First of all, they cut down on the screens, mercifully. Good God. But one out of every three Bo Nix dropbacks in the second half was a designed rollout, which they weren't working in the first half. The Jags were all over it. but he got some really creative stuff out there. The two best plays were Nate Adkins, both of them. Yeah. The one where there's the big, the explosive. He is the third option on a three-man concept to the left side.

38:05Ben Solak:When Nix rolls out, the Jags are thinking, ain't no way. It's 22 personnel. They got their base defense out there. And then Adkins goes above Sutton on that. I think that really took them by surprise. And then the touchdown was a really cool play where they've got him lined up next to one of the other tight ends. I forget. And then Bryant releases in between them. And motions in and releases in between them. Adkins wide open in the flat there. So I thought he understood Davis Webb. And this is promising, right? Quarterbacks the best throwing on the move. We get that. The Jags are all over some of our design rollout.

38:40Ben Solak:So we want the design rollout game to be a big part of this offense. But let's put some twists on it in terms of who's getting the football. in a way I thought was really clever. The other thing Bo Nix did in this game, and I saw you post one of these plays, so I want to talk about it. Yeah, the waddle inbreaker with anticipation. Between the numbers, Bo Nix went 12 for 13 for 160 yards, 66 yards, pardon me, in this game. It's not a lot, like in terms of volume, like he was still throwing primarily outside the numbers. But you saw, you know, what you didn't see week one, which is this has to be a credible part of this passing attack.

39:15Ben Solak:Otherwise, defenses are just going to take away those outbreakers. And the one you posted was the one we talked about this on Live yesterday. The dig to Waddle on third down, anticipatory throw ball is out between the hashes before Waddle breaks. That is the type of throw that Jalen Waddle was brought in to coax out of Bo Nix. He also hit him on like a post, a crosser. So I just think like, you know, that's so important. Bo Nix is never going to be Jared Guff. He's never going to have a high percentage of his throws between the numbers. But you need to threaten there. And this week they did against Jacksonville, largely thanks to Jalen Waddle.

39:55Go ahead and have said it better. It is the presence of this in the offense, not as our primary, but as the side dish. You have to respect this. We're going to do it. The Jags are lined up in full pressure look on third down, and then they're dropping a backup linebacker off the line of scrimmage into that zone. And the only way a defense gets to treat you like that is if they don't fear your quarterback throwing that linebacker wrong. That is a white linebacker wearing 50. Throw the ball at him, right? You have to, have to, have to do this. And if you do it enough, and like it's a fastball, it's on time, it's not accurate.

40:27Pulls Jalen Waddell into the ground, right? When Bo goes to put velocity on the ball, like he tends to get some sprays. If you do this enough where you actually get some yards after the catch after this, now we're actually attacking enough geometry of the field, right? My number, like, you know, Broncos fans are convinced I hate Bo Nex. I've never hated Bo Nex. I've always been perfectly milquetoast on Bo Nex. The thing that drives me crazy about Bo Nix is that he has enough arm to rip and trigger intermediate throws and he never ever does it. He is too cautious. He's too quick to throw the check down and then he'll sail these beautiful downfield balls.

40:54And it's like, yeah, but you need to use velocity in the middle of the field. If you can do this with Jalen Waddle, you become a super bowl caliber passing attack immediately.

41:02Ben Solak:One of the Waddle's balls was like a deep post versus quarters, I think. And yeah, like he's got... He's on the run throwing it. It's beautiful. He's got arm strength. It's just like that part of the field has not been available to this offense. So that's an important development for this Broncos offense. Very big win. Very felt. By the way, I just realized Rams Broncos this week. That was my Super Bowl pick. Rams Broncos. You on that too? I was Rams Ravens, which I would like. I was Rams and then like put your hand into a hat and pick out one of seven AFC teams. Like I was Broncos Texans. I was there on all of them.

41:38Shohei Otani's interpreter was fired today. Ipe Mitsuhara ran up gambling debts to a Southern California bookmaking operation. The inside story of the biggest scandal in modern baseball. He was absolutely bananas, the amount of bets he was making. I've never seen anything like it. From 30 for 30 Podcasts, this is The Betrayal of Shohei Otani.

42:00Ben Solak:Presented by Gusto. New episodes available now. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is brought to you by PayPal. You know how a mom's bag has everything? Sunscreen. Snacks. A stapler? The new PayPal app is like that, but for your money. Shop, pay, manage your account, and earn rewards all in one place. And with purchase protection on eligible items, biometric security, and pass keys, you're protected at every step. Download the new PayPal app to get started. See paypal.com slash protection terms. this episode is brought to you by state farm no two football players are exactly alike and the same is true off the field that's why state farm gets to know you so they can help personalize coverage for your life and budget like a good neighbor state farm is there all right woofs i'll go first here i don't even know where to start with the la chargers I mean there's no where that's wrong yeah run defense um so okay god here here is the LA Chargers in a nutshell seven false starts the most in the NFL through two weeks uh I watched just to torture myself all the Quentin Johnson targets in this game.

43:27Ben Solak:He went one for five or seven yards. Heck yeah. First target tip pass. Second, perfect hole shot. He doesn't catch. Third, he trips. Four, it's a four yard screen in a legal formation. Five, Herbert misses him. That to me encapsulates the state of the Georgia's passing attack at the moment. Everything is not working except for Ladd McConkie at the moment. It's just brutal to watch. And I think very important in what you said there is that Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater aren't working. This to me is like the biggest canary in the coal mine where both Alt and Slater look to me like guys who are still coming back from injury and are not 100%.

44:08The numbers think Alt's having kind of an okay season. He's like fine and passed the block win rate. The numbers on Slater, he's like one of the 10 worst offensive linemen in football through two weeks. Right? Now some of this is scheme. And some of this is scheme and structure and like what's McDaniel asking you to do and like learning assignments and there's been busted protections and whatever. Some of it is, hey, we all, you know, very quickly in our, like, you know, paragraphs of thoughts about how the Chargers were looking at the interior offensive line. We very quickly said, well, like, obviously they have elite tackles.

44:35So you do that. And then, like, you can do all these, you know, clever things, guard center guard and protection wise. You can put all your resources there. Yeah. What if you just don't have elite tackles? What if you have, like, I would even just say, like, fine. Like, they both are, like, a little bit worse. but if they're average tackles with this interior in this scheme, with this quarterback who likes to take too many hits, it is, it is every pocket is an unmitigated disaster. The shape of it is not good. Herbert is not comfortable in it. And then like, you know, they're trying to hit timing routes where Herbert's just supposed to throw these things blind.

45:03He doesn't want to throw them blind. It doesn't work.

45:04Ben Solak:Yeah. Right. So like I, one of my biggest regrets here is I think not questioning and our last scheme made some good points in the off season. Cause we're all like charges off fans. Let's go. Mike McDaniel, run game, Justin Herbert. And Orlovsky, I remember on NFL Live, someone was like, I don't know about the marriage between this quarterback and this play caller. And I was like, yeah, it'll be fine. It's not fine. Now, it's obviously not just Justin Herbert. The run game is just a symphony of execution flaws. Every play. Every play, somebody different, F's up. The guys they brought in, the fullback's been awful.

45:41Ben Solak:Horrendous. Alec Engel is, I mean, like, I love Alec Engel. I put him on all pro list. Horrible. And then they just lost the two Titans. Kohler and Njoku. I mean, it's been crazy. Yep. Like, they lost both of them to injury. I guess Gadsden is, I mean, he's not a blocker. Yeah, Slaughter is not moving people at center whatsoever. The Cole Strange signing, I didn't understand. I didn't even think he was good with the Dolphins. And then he is just a complete liability in pass protection. And you're not even getting value with him moving it in the running game. and then Awashika is... Awashika might be the best run blocker they have center guard.

46:15This is a guy that wasn't even starting in week one because they rotate with Pipkins and he went out there for week two and now he's banged up.

46:21Ben Solak:This sentence is the most cursed sentence I've read all week. Trey Pipkins, who rotated left guard with Awashika in week one, would be in line to start, but he missed Sunday's game with a knee injury. Harbaugh said that Trevor Penning will start at left guard if Pipkins isn't healthy to go. Like... And just, again, some of this is out of their control. Like, of course, Biotis getting hurt. All these guys, but this was not a team that I think sufficiently invested in the guard position this offseason, despite having a bazillion dollars in cap space. And, oh, we haven't even gotten to the defense, which, you know, that was something I did say all summer.

47:01Ben Solak:I think this defense is going to take a step back. I didn't think that they were going to get torched by Kirk Cousins and Jacoby Brissett. and I want to give Kirk in the Raiders offense, which did a lot of cool stuff, some credit because I did think Clint Kubiak had a great game plan and has really found ways to get the most out of their skill players. Trey Tucker got him some opportunities downfield. But here's the thing about Kirk Cousins, and we know this about him from watching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If you play zone coverage against him and you leave those windows open, he will throw into them.

47:36Ben Solak:The Chargers zone windows, which used to go are just open for business right now. This is the big thing. Just like, if you can read it. Right. It's so nice and easy to say from the outside. So here's what you do with the defense. You take the two high dial and you turn it up and you take the zone match dial and you crank it. You take the simulated pressure dial and you turn to a 10. Like you press all these big, big, big buttons. But the reality is that while offense can be like mash the button, mash the fashion button, mash the, you know, understand about whatever. Defense is a lot more tools to solve problems.

48:09So it's like, okay, simulated pressures, zone cover, split field. Yeah, if I give my two-year-old a hammer and a screwdriver, like she doesn't know what to do with them. She's just going to cause problems, right? Like it's not going to be beneficial. You give her the right tools for the job, she ain't going to build the IKEA dresser. And so Jesse Minter to Chris O 'Leary. Jesse Minter's defense over the last two years was a high zone cover, high to high, high light box defense. Great. Those defenses usually give up a decently high success rate, but they limit explosives and they, they tighten down in the red zone.

48:39And, and with Minter for the last two years, they've been a low success rate defense. They've somehow been a high zone light box, but not giving up successful plays because they screwed down on everything. They were dialed in on tendencies. They were driving in on routes, man. They were, they looked passive on like next gen stats, data sheets. They were actually aggressive and they were creating, forcing tight windows and winning the football. This defense does all the big strokes, the same with Chris O 'Leary. Oh, too high. Derwin James, like the light packages, like all that stuff but they are not so nearly as dialed in on tendency they are not so nearly as sharp and so they're not they're not they're still stopping explosives but they're giving up a super high success rate and then on their tight window to trey tucker who's still running down field between the safeties right and then on their tight window throws because they're actually forcing they have the second highest tight window throw rate in all all of the league only the bills even still forcing more tight window throws they can't break up the pass because they're late and they're not big enough right cody white is dunking on you for touchdowns what are we doing from

49:34Ben Solak:personnel perspective so they are um yeah did he get a better job of getting pressure in this one again credit to kurt cousins because i didn't actually thought he was pretty good this game and i know i've been skeptical of him uh to start the season but i i thought he was really really good in this game and i coupled with a really really smart clint kubiak's just kind of got the goods as a play caller you know clint clint i live in awe of clint kubiak man i can't believe how good he is i um yeah i'm i'm i'm not selling my mendoza starting soon stocks but man raiders 2 and 0 is not helping me out there in my uh my mendoza propaganda at least he's on the sideline wearing a helmet imitating dropbacks my absolute hard study and go i love that kid so much hezekiah masses by the way man out of cow okay great great name for nicknames um All right.

50:27Ben Solak:So I guess to put a bow on the Chargers, I think week one, my Chargers coat was that they were like one execution error away from breaking off a bunch of big runs. But with all of these injuries, it's kind of hard for me to find the cope right now. Yeah. And, and, and the schedule. One week of execution errors is one week of execution errors. Two weeks is what, what we working on the off season fellas. Like what, what coaching is just like, what the hell's going on? um after this they've got the hills bills seahawks broncos chiefs rams texans ravens yeah they're gonna get beaten with a baseball bat dude i mean it's it they got no shot jeremiah smith la charger on the table is that the cope i mean it's good cope i you know seeing the way this front office has moved i'm guessing we're gonna get like you know a fifth round pick sent for marvin harrison jr and then they're gonna be like whoa we're fine all right you're woof.

51:25Ben Solak:This is one I've been wanting to talk about after watching the tape. Give it to me. I don't know what side of the ball you want to focus on. I could do either here. I'll woof the Buccaneers and I will start defensively, which is the tape I've most recently watched. There are a lot of individual players on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who I think are making good plays. I think Josiah Trotter and I think that Antoine Winfield and I think that Elijah Roberts and Vita Vea and And, you know, Zion McCollum, I think these players are making good individual plays. When you have this many good players making good individual plays and you are continuing to bleed yardage, we have a coaching problem.

52:04And this is a coaching problem that has been around in Tampa Bay. Very evident for a while.

52:09Ben Solak:Sorry to interrupt you, but like I watched this late last night. So half the time when they're playing zone coverage, I cannot tell what they're playing because it feels like half the defense is doing one thing and half the defense is doing something else. the sale routes of fan on the first drive is it it's a two-man concept they don't know who's supposed to be where so much bust yes the linebackers okay by the way my biggest l alex anzalone yeah so that's what i was gonna get to yeah i anzalone can't tackle right now cannot get a player down onto the turf um he's fast enough to run with guys but he doesn't actually stick with them in cover and he's also guessing behind the line of scrimmage i've got no idea what's going on with anzalone trotter at the very least like so's disruption we're asking a second round rookie linebacker who was already like a feast or famine player to like solve problems because the veteran he's playing next to can't get into the right gap and can't get players down i mean the there was a a tfl that would have ended a drive that anzalone missed that ended up being the drive that got down the field into the denzel boston throw which anzalone is only opens to the three receiver side and so and i understand why he does it but he's not playing with any cognizance to the quarterback deshaun's taking you where he's throwing the football look at the quarterback and then eventually finally gets back there when boston catches the ball can't drive boston down and ends up slingshotting him down the field for the touchdown.

53:20Anceloni is a clear net negative for the Buckingham's defense right now. It's a huge problem in the second level.

53:26Ben Solak:Look, Watson played reasonably well in this game. He averaged 3.7 air yards per attempt. He completed three passes over 10 yards. The Browns racked up 163 yards after the catch, second only to Kansas City this week. That's bad defense. Now, I love your Harry O 'Fan and his near and dear to my heart, and he's always going to get you a lot of yards after the catch. But yeah, the plays that you talked about, I'm just going back and watching them, the missed tackles, the missed coverages, really wild stuff from this Bucs defense that I was very high on coming into the season because of the player talent, but the coaching right now is a real issue for this team.

54:07Now, you know, okay, 23 points. We should be able to win games still with our offense, with what we poured into it when the opponents score 23 points, even when they're the Browns. Baker's a mess right now. I mean, through two games, Baker has a top five rate in terms of the amount of throws he throws behind the line of scrimmage and a top five rate in terms of the amount of throws he throws 20 plus yards down the field.

54:28Ben Solak:Nine attempts over 20 yards in this game for some reason, by the way. And we are shooting downfield to Ted Hurst and to Tez Johnson. So we're not even like, it's not even like, oh, prime Amika Buka targets. There were a couple of Buka in there. And he's disagreeing with Hurst and with Johnson. He's throwing into space when they're not working into space. He's throwing them back into coverage when they're trying to work into space. So there's no chemistry on the downfield routes with these receivers. So they're not even like, oh, you know, a bad regression day throwing downfield targets. No, like these are uncatchable balls.

54:57They're landing in different areas of the field than the receivers are. To be, when I see a quarterback who is high behind line of scrimmage and high down the field, that tells me that quarterback is scared of coverage. He doesn't want to throw it zero to 20 because that's what the defenders are. So he doesn't trust his receivers. He doesn't trust his timing. Doesn't trust his feet. Doesn't trust his routes. And it's Zach Robinson, a new OC. And there's a lot of these like motion at the snap releases, bunches and everything. But still, you're a 31-year-old quarterback. You're a veteran. It should be better than this.

55:22Then there's the pocket management stuff. I got no patience for this because you get on a Netflix special and you talk about all the injuries you have in 2025. All right, get rid of the football, young man. If you're going to be banged up, then you need to be willing to distribute the ball quickly. Third and seven, Chris Cobbins open on the slant. Throw it. He climbs up and he gets sacked by the safety because he can't outrun the safety. He's 31 years old. And remember, Baker's that Baker has the second highest scramble rate of all quarterbacks over the last three years. It's Jane Danielson him.

55:48His game is very predicated on escapability and athleticism. And he does not look as quick as he used to look. And he's still trying to play like the 24 year old, you know, man who was, you know, defeating the doubters and the detractors and whatever. It's silly stuff. But you are a third contract, brother. Let's it's time to execute the offense, throw the football.

56:07Ben Solak:Run game still looks very mixed at best. the screen game burn them all with fire like on every screen someone runs into someone else on this day and i'll tell you jared verse you know verse had himself a special day in terms of defending screens and play recognition versus smart cookie dude i was impressed by jared verse film on the seasons right now the tampa bay bucks have eight screens averaging 2.6 yards per time by the way i looked this up out of spite after watching them uh yeah so i think if there's coat for the Bucs. They're too talented to be this bad. I think I've said about Zaloni who might just be cooked.

56:46Ben Solak:They're still good players on both sides of the ball. Right now it's a combination of bad quarterback play and bad coaching. I think we both agree. The Panthers' offense looks great, but we need to see them against a better opponent. The Saints are winning game or won beat the Ravens, but it's like weird second half versus first half. I like the Saints. I like what I've seen from Bryce Young. I just think the entire NFC South right now is kind of in wait and see mode. So the Bucs, this is not over. You can still turn it around because the Chargers have, you know, the Broncos and the Chiefs in their division.

57:22Ben Solak:I'm sorry. Don't mean to disrespect the 2-0. Let's make Spakers. Anyway, I have them. Who are they playing this week again? Because I wanted to give them the Raiders. The Raiders have the Saints. I did. I'm making that a spotlight game guys. Okay. Yeah, go birds. Saints fans. We are talking about both of those teams because I think they've earned the right to be talked about. We're playing. We're playing another game of being a sets the line. Saints are at home hosting the Raiders. What do you think the line is? Saints by three. That's like a pickup. That is exactly correct. Meena Kimes. We're we're we're we're gonna make a Bill Simmons guess the line go out of you yet.

58:00Ben Solak:Feeling good about my Saints preseason division pick. Saints defense. I'm right there with you. I have them and I've I have the Vikings, the NFC North. I feel like I'm sitting pretty right now. I posted the Vikings. Yeah, dude, I posted this about the Ravens because all the rave, everybody was freaking out about like Derrick Henry only getting one tart, York Curry. But when you go back and watch, they only had three possessions for the two minute drill. And one of like two of them, they get runs, get blown up and then they can't really run the ball. There's only the third one where they should.

58:25Ben Solak:But my overwhelming takeaway, watching those Ravens drives was not like, oh my God, Declan Doyle, you idiot. It was goddamn. A lot of Saints defenders are executing at a high level. all of those tries. They were run blitzing, right? And then taking advantage of the young center. The Ravens were also only up by eight the entire second half. Yeah, so it wasn't like they were like kicking their... How did the Ravens not feed Derrick Henry? It was a one-possession game. The Saints defense might be good, also. Like, can we accept that? This is something we saw in the second half of last season. Go.

58:54Quincy Riley, so good. Caden Ellis, really good at what he does. I like the Saints defense. I really do.

58:59Ben Solak:The play that Carl Granderson makes to blow up the screen, like, we just saw the Ravens pop one of those for like 20 yards last week um it was so heads up and so intelligent they just are they look well coached like you said the adjustment with the blitzes in the interior really smart so ravens had like negative eight special teams epa in that game like i know i know it was a wonky game yeah they're the hardest fan base to say this to but it's like this one probably was just weird this one was probably just losing the same like stupid ways so i think that's what's so frustrating yeah i agree um okay uh ravens cowboys this coming week so that will also get in brazil that'll be weird no matter what all right we'll be back later this week with dominique to preview week two ben where can folks check out your work benjamin so like on twitter and on instagram and on tiktok and uh my column came out on tuesday and i will probably be able to announce things next week i'm very excited all right stay tuned the next money game is oh it's the bears eagles Tyson Bagman.

1:00:02I mean, listen.

1:00:03Ben Solak:Listen, better than Winston. We'll put up a fight. Also, the Eagles run defense against Chicago. Remember the Eagles-Bears game last year with the way the Bears ran the football? I don't know, man. Bears, the Eagles run offense right now sucks. That's an interesting game without Caleb. I just felt too tempted to play the Bengals defense, but I didn't want to put the Eagles receivers as my winners because I love them both very dearly, and they're very special, special to my heart. It's just really good now. I have Eagles fans be like, how do we get Lemon more involved? I'm like, buddy, Dontavion Wicks has a starting job and he's never giving it away.

1:00:35Ben Solak:Should Howie have drafted a law offensive lineman? My goat wash. All right, that's it. We got to go. I got to go do NFL Live. Go check out Ben on all the socials. He'll be back next week, hopefully with some news for you all. Thank you, as always, to everyone at Omaha Productions. Kirsten Sebecki, Owen Saylor, Jack Foster, Custodian Brown.

1:01:08This episode is brought to you by State Farm. No two football players are exactly alike, and the same is true off the field. That's why State Farm gets to know you, so they can help personalize coverage for your life and budget. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.