Truth hurts? Previewing Every Week 7 Game

31:03The Browns, if they can run the ball, they've got a real good shot in this game. If they can't, then ugh. Totally agree. They just got to make this really ugly and muck it up. And like you said, they got to run the ball, which they're capable of. And it was a little bit puzzling that they didn't lean into that more last week. So yeah, defensively too, the Browns defense is so interesting to me, Sam, because they're like the best defense that good offensive play callers can attack. Does that make sense? Yeah, I guess. They're so talented, but they're just so predictable in ways, I think. And Pittsburgh really was, again, very good game plan by Arthur Smith.

31:52I feel like going after them, Miami potentially could do the same thing, I think, in this one. So I actually think that I think I'm going to take Miami in this one because of that, because I think that the Miami offense will be able to move the ball on them. Yeah, I mean, I think it's entirely possible. It's another one where it does come down to the offensive line at times as well. Like Miami certainly doesn't have anyone that can block Miles Garrett. And they've got more than just Miles Garrett at the moment. like they've got a stable of pass rushers. I don't know if they can hold up long enough to be able to get those passes in the air that they want to.

32:27That's true. You could talk me into the Browns here. This is a hard one to pick. I'm succeeding far too well in talking to you. If you've seen my picks for the season, I would not be listening to my arguments. All right. I'm going to stick with Miami. I mean, these teams are so bad. It's just, it's when you have like a bad team against a bad team, it's always difficult to pick. All right. What about you? Dolphins, Browns. I'm going to go with the Browns. I think last week was a bad representation. I think they're better than that. I agree. All right. Saints, Bears. I'd like to make a statement.

33:09The agenda is back on. It took me a second to get to the Patriots-Saints tape from this week. I've been teetering on the edge Of buying back into Spencer Rattler And I'm back in I'm back in I'm in the Rat Pack I'm sorry But he's playing So much better than their record In that game against New England He was on absolute heater at one point But he threw some of the best passes I saw all week And What's striking to me is they're not like gimmies yeah some of the throws he is routinely now making under pressure are by the way fourth league wide amongst quarterbacks in qbr under pressure despite facing the fourth highest quick pressure rate in the nfl are entirely because of his i would say one his arm talent which has always been there but also his development um against new england And I think about like the bomb to a lava versus the blitz, the way he like calmly sidestepped the rusher to reset and throw.

34:20That's been the case all year. He's been so much better this year as a manager of the pocket. And that is leading to some of the production we're getting as well as coupled with better decision-making overall. I really think he has taken a step forward as a quarterback and should be a starter in the NFL. Yeah, he's been a really surprising player. I mean, I imagine most people wrote him off based off what last year looked like, including the Saints. I mean, I don't think they had any intention of him being the starter coming into this year. They wanted Tyler Shuck to win that job. And only because he didn't, they had to go, OK, fine.

34:52I guess we'll go with Spencer Rattler again for a while. Right. Presumably imagining that at some point he would play his way to the bench and they put in Shuck anyway. And he hasn't. He looked really good. We spitballed this idea on our show this morning when we had Austin Gale on. I asked him, look, if you were no more information than what you've seen, would you take Spencer Rattler over J.J. McCarthy right now as the quarterback going forward? It sounds like you'd put him even higher. How many of those quarterbacks would you take over Rattler? The class is all looking really good, so I'm not taking him over the big three.

35:27But he's definitely been better than J.J. Obviously, J.J. McCarthy's barely played. But like, what I think too, Sam is like, I watched all of his games last year, which I feel like a lot of people did. And he was just, you know, it was, the situation was awful. The offensive line was awful. A lobby didn't play whatever, but he also was, I think he is a significantly better quarterback now this year than he was. And by the way, that continues something we've seen with him, which is linear improvement, which is something I love in a young quarterback. Like when you look at, have they been consistently improving over the course of their career?

36:01And when you go back to Spencer Rowler and you look at his college trajectory and obviously going back to high school, he has consistently gotten better as time has gone on at the quarterback position. Plus arm talent, athletic ability. Why wouldn't you bet on this guy and give him a shot? I really, really I'm like, I'm buying in. I'm not saying, you know, oh, he's going to be like the next. I'm just saying he's a starter. He's absolutely a starter. I mean, he's making their decision pretty interesting now because the Saints presumably are still going to end up with a very high draft pick. They're going to have like the thing they thought they would have, which is, you know, the shot at the next quarterback.

36:36And all of a sudden you might have one already who at the very minimum has made that a difficult question. Not not not a slam dunk. I'm taking the Saints. Wow. What you're saying is you would take Spencer Rattler over Caleb Williams. That's what we're hearing. I wouldn't take him over Caleb Williams, but I'm not a buyer of this Bears defense. Oh, let me know. You know what? No. God, I'm so wishy-washy this week. Let me know. I tried to talk myself into it, but I'm sticking with the Bears. I am taking the Bears. The Saints defense is bad. Chicago, I love the way they ran the ball last week. The other thing with the Bears defense, I know I'm completely undermining myself, is it was cool.

37:18You really saw the benefit of guys returning to the lineup last week. It's like, oh, right. this defense is not as bad as they looked at the early in the season as as players like brisker and gordon and edwards like okay sorry i got a little crazy there was all that spencer rattler talk made me crazy i'm taking the bears well look there's there's no there's no negative repercussions for me picking them so i'll pick the saints and that way we've got somebody sticking on the rattler bandwagon all right um raiders chiefs you can we get geno smith to stop turning the ball over. I mean, that's my key for this game, right?

37:51What has happened to Gino since moving to silver and black, the player that was there in Seattle and okay, maybe he never backed up like the best season he had there, but he wasn't this like, how has this happened? It's befuddling to me. I mean, I've talked about it a lot because every week people are just constantly like you idiot. How dare you say he would be good. I was like, I, I'm like, look, obviously I was wrong. I'm taking the L here and Darnold has been amazing. We'll get to Seattle. but like i gino was not this player in seattle and anyone who says that is blind um but he's bad so i'm wrong because you know part of the job is saying like what you think is going to happen obviously that's not uh shaking out the turnovers are insane um they're just he's just forcing it i i have no it's it's just bizarre to me i think it's like you know that everything around him is pretty bad right like there's no bowers the offensive line is a nightmare but he is making it worse um and you know the chiefs often oh my god where she rises back this week good board she's yeah that's the thing which you know it's not even necessarily the volume of turnover worthy turnover type plays which has been bad i'm not saying that's good but it's not even that that would i would be focusing on it's like it's the just it's the type of turnovers he's making.

39:11It's like, what is that? It's old school jets. Gino has come back. Totally agree. Yeah. Like as in Seattle, when he turned the ball over, it was very much like, Ooh, he thinks he can fit tight window throw. And he's got a little bit too much dip on his chip. Or maybe there's a miscommunication with the receiver. These are just like boneheaded. It's crazy every week. We don't, not much to talk about with the chiefs. I will be interested in seeing if they can get the pass rush, you know, really activated in this one because the Raiders offensive line is so bad. And if I was to look at the Chiefs and say, what's the one thing that concerns me about this team?

39:43It is pass rush. So, you know, otherwise, like the Chiefs are back to chiefing. All right. Let's take a quick break. Come back and hit a good game. Colts Chargers. As you know, managing maintenance, repair and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Granger has your back. From professional grade products you can count on to fast, dependable delivery. They are there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities.

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41:30All right, we're back. Oh, sorry, you picked the Chiefs, right? Yeah. Okay. Colts chargers. Woo. We got both sides of this. I'm going to go first in this one. I got the chargers who are at home here. I wrote, can Joe alt return to time to save the day? Cause I think he's going to play in this and maybe you're listening to this. You find out he's not so, but the same analysis will apply, which is basically, I'm very curious to see if the offensive line can show some improvement here. I think he's going to play, though. Fingers crossed. Apparently he's out of boot. He's moving. And boy, do they need him.

42:08We don't have to get into that. So the Colts defense, the Colts offense has been a wagon. The Colts defense has been interesting but flawed. But one thing that jumps out to me, Sam, is they're just much better when they get pressure. And they got a lot of pressure against Arizona. I was really impressed by the pass rush in that game. I thought Quidipe went crazy. um adobore i would say his name wrong latu the 26 pressures on brissette some of that was brissette holding on to the ball a little bit but they were good when the colts get pressure colts defense they are sixth league wide in success rate fourth and first downs per attempt when they don't get pressure that drops to 26 and 24 so they get the opportunity now to go up against what's been one the worst offensive lines in football don't need to give any stats on that use your eyes but they might be getting back their star left tackle and i think that could be huge in this one but like gandalf up the hill you know the white light joe alts riding to the rescue i we've basically done it again i have the same i have the flip side laatu latu to me is the key to this game because Number one, I was banging the drum for Latu as Edge won that year in the draft.

43:23I am invested as anybody in Latu being good, and he really wasn't as a rookie, surprisingly so. And he's been on a tear recently this season. I think he had seven pressures or something against Arizona. He looks like the player he looked in college where you've got this incredibly broad skill set of pass rush moves. Like he's so well developed, and all of a sudden it's working. in year one none of it was there he suddenly didn't look that athletic and he didn't the the tools weren't working you're like this is just not good all of a sudden he looks like a really up-and-coming like dominant potential pass rusher and it's i love that you singled him out because in this game if all it returns hypothetically he could be the one lined up opposite trey pipkins so that you know the weak part of the chargers offensive line um and yeah it's good it'll be like a matchup thing right because they the charges will have such a glaring weakness in pass protection um just to turn it to the flip side really quickly since we both focused on the chargers offense in this one uh daniel jones been awesome this year has come close to turning it he did turn the ball over should have turned it over twice the rams game and it's interesting because the turnovers all kind of look the same where he's like i don't know if he's not seeing the safety or if he's throwing, you know, just not maybe like putting too much faith in his own arm too late.

44:47Do you have any? And the other thing I've noticed is like, you know, he's not, he's average of the targets coming down a little bit. Any pumpkin concerns here? Or do you feel like the infrastructure around him is so good in Indianapolis? He's insulated from regression. Yeah. I mean, I think Danny Dimes, you know, Indiana Jones for MVP. I don't think that that was ever realistic even you know over the course of a season but i do think like i'm not expecting him to go back to being oh this is a train wreck like this is awful it's a disaster like i think the situation has resulted in a better daniel jones and unless the situation completely collapses around him i would anticipate this still being a career year from daniel jones and people always sort of forgot i mean the guy got whatever about how wise or otherwise it was they gave him a 40 million a year contract in New York.

45:38Like he had had bouts of performance where actual NFL people convinced themselves that Daniel Jones was at least a long to medium term solution for that franchise. Right. So there was always the potential that in a really good situation with the best receiving core he'd ever had, probably the best offensive line he'd ever had. Um, and arguably the best coach he'd ever had was always going to result in a, like in an improved in a career year of Daniel Jones. So I think that's what we're getting. He's unlikely to be the MVP based off being Daniel Jones, but I think he's probably going to have the best year he's ever had.

46:15I'm really interested in seeing how Jesse Minter defends the run in this one. Um, cause the Colts run game is amazing right now. And on Arizona against Arizona, I talked about this on live, the left side of this offensive line was just stealing souls. I mean that one big run it was like a pinpole run where Quentin Nelson is pulling he is like halfway he is down the field faster than like the skill I mean he is moving out there just dominating I mean it's he had an unbelievable performance um Taylor has been unreal this year the vision he's running with in the backfield and he's so explosive and you go up against charge defense that we know loves to play with light boxes and has been gettable on the ground so So if I'm Jesse Minter, I'm like, you know, the fear of, of course, adding bodies to the box against Indianapolis is they can play action you and then they've got guys who can turn short to intermediate targets into explosive ones.

47:15So I don't love this for the L.A. defense. Just structurally, I think they're going to be challenged. Yeah, I think the Colts, I mean, that offense, I think, is a legit threat to anybody in the NFL. They have so many different ways to win. They've got athletes at every position. Tyler Warren coming in is completely not just fixed. It's turned a weakness into a strength. They're a tough assignment for any defense. I'm taking the Colts, I've decided, even with Alt back. And potentially, by the way, Khalil Mack, that's another name to monitor, which is also the real thing. I'll take the Chargers.

47:53I think the Chargers are favored, last I checked. i i really feel like that's a joe alt thing because if joe alt doesn't play i'm pretty comfortable taking the colts if joe all plays you're like a little nervous because i do think herbert can carve him up but on the flip side i still i just love this colts offense um okay just me on giants broncos i wrote just to get a little granular here when the den baroncos play man coverage and they played at the highest rate in the nfl can anyone beat them on the giants and can they contain dart as a scrambler i feel like that's kind of the ball game there right like um dart was so great against the eagles very different events that had some real weaknesses in man coverage because of the injuries that they had on the back end uh there are areas in this broncos defense you can go after and then linebackers riley moss at times but i think it presents a much more significant challenge for Jackson Dart.

48:52And I'm very interested in seeing how much he runs in this one if they play man. And also when he runs, I, the more I see of him running, I'm fascinated. Is he, I don't understand it. I can't work out why it's so successful because he's not hyper athletic. He's not like, he doesn't strike me as a gifted runner of the football. And yet it works the same way. You know, I mean, Steve compares his scrambling to Patrick Mahomes because Mahomes is always, it doesn't matter what his 40 time is, nobody ever catches him, right? He's always like his 40 time is 10th of a second faster than whoever is chasing him at the time, regardless of who that is.

49:30Jackson Dart, I watched that play against Zach Bond like 12 times to try and work out how he made him look so ridiculous because all he did is just turn to his right and run into the end zone. I'm like, what is happening here? But he did in college too. too. And of course, you're like, okay, well, I guess the NFL he's gonna get right punished for it. Um, do you think it like defenders just don't understand like they're under over underestimating his elusiveness or something? I don't know. I it is interesting. I I will push back. I actually think he's a pretty damn good athlete. Um, obviously, he's not like one of the elite runners, but he is definitely good enough to the point where if you play man or if you seed a lot of grass, he He will take it.

50:15Now do I love the amount of contact he's taking when he takes it? I do not. That's another reason why he's a good runner, by the way, is because of his willingness to run into crowded areas. But that was like, that was sort of part of his scrambling success in college. Like the dude is a load to bring down when he decides he wants to run and plow through people. Now, flip side of that is you're launching your face at linebackers, and that's probably not a great idea for a quarterback.

50:42Really quickly. Broncos offense. It kind of got lost in the Jets game because the Jets put up like statistically the worst offensive performance of maybe all time. That the Broncos offense, which should have had a field day against the Jets defense that could stop a nosebleed, really put up a clunker. Do you have a degree of concern watching them on that side of the ball? Yeah, a little bit. I mean, it's definitely not been. They're making too many mistakes from sort of several areas. And like sometimes happens with these teams, they don't all time them for the same play, right? So like somebody makes a mistake here and then a few plays later, somebody makes a mistake here.

51:22And stack enough of those on top of each other and that's enough to stall your offense for a significant period of the game. You know, Troy Franklin will have like a drop a game and it's usually in an important time. Bo Nix, once a game, has an overthrow on a wide open touchdown target that's there to Mims or Franklin or whoever. You know, our guy Brandon Perna, nicknamed him Bover throws, won a game at least, right? So and then the offensive line is getting a little bit banged up as well. They can't have those mistakes. Yeah. Defense is so good that it obviously sets a floor for this team. But if we're really talking about them as a serious playoff contender, I need to see more from this offense moving forward.

52:06I'm still taking the Broncos in this one. I think the defense is going to really make life hard for, for Jackson Dart and the giants, but yeah, same O 'Reilly auto parts can help take the guesswork out of your vehicles, check engine, ABS or maintenance light with O 'Reilly Veriscan. The service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ASE certified master technicians. Ask for O 'Reilly Veriscan today. If you've shopped online, chances are you've bought from a business powered by Shopify. You know that purple ShopPay button you see at checkout? The one that makes buying so incredibly easy?

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53:19And did I mention that iconic purple ShopPay button that's used by millions of businesses around the world? It's why Shopify has the best converting checkout on the planet. Your customers already love it. If you want to see less carts being abandoned, it's time for you to head over to Shopify. Sign up for your$1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash network. Go to shopify.com slash network, shopify.com slash network. It's Charles Barkley here with Wayfair. Let me tell you game day is serious business at my house. If I'm grilling, chilling and watching hoops, my outdoor setup better be ready to play.

54:00That's what Wayfair wins from patio seating. and umbrellas to grills and grill accessories. Wayfair's got it all and it shows up fast. I'm talking fast and easy delivery. So level up your grill game and your outdoor chill game and head to Wayfair.com to get your outdoor space ready for the season. Wayfair, every style, every home. Alright, you have Packers. This is a little... I think Jacoby Brissett is playing. Packers Cardinals. I don't know if you heard... I'm sure you are more up to date on it because it's your game. But Packers Cardinals. What's your key? So my key to this game is the red zone.

54:36Green Bay is top five on both offense and defense for a red zone success rate. They're really good in the red zone on both sides of the ball. Arizona is not notable necessarily in either direction. I think they're sort of below average on defense in the middle of the back on offense. But Green Bay, they've had this sort of weird season where I watch them play. and usually like you watch them score a touchdown drive and you're like how does this not how how does anybody stop this i know i feel the same way watching them i think they do they do stop it for like a huge amount of the game like what i don't understand how they're not 45 up at this point it's so they're um i'm i'm gonna do weekly power ringings right now um by the way you can check them out on the show now has an instagram meanie kimeshow go check it out on ig exclusive to there but i want to put the packer so much higher than everyone else has them because it's like you know have you ever seen um you've seen she's all that with rachel lee cook where she plays like a nerd and freddie prince jr sees that she could be beautiful um and like gives you know he dates her and makes her cool and you're nodding maybe you haven't seen it this might be okay okay so the joke around that movie is like she was obviously like hot the whole time she was just wearing glasses right right the green bay packers like have the hottest girl in the world inside of them i feel like watching them i know that analogy doesn't make any sense and i'm just like take off your goddamn glasses green bay you're so hot that but that like they have everything required i I really think to be the best team in the NFL.

56:22And yet to your point, there's these like frustrating drives that make no sense. And it's always like, I would say penalties are a lot, a common problem. Yeah. Offensively or just like weird little execution lapses. It's like they're, they just haven't put it all together, which is odd too, because they're really well coached and the defense kind of falls apart at the end of games and it doesn't really make sense. and I just watched them and I find them I find them right now to be like a very frustrating team because I feel like they should be so much better than they are yeah I don't know if it's just a eventually it'll click into gear thing but it does feel like their ceiling is like best team in the NFL high and yet it just doesn't show up every game or even all the way through the game it's very frustrating watching them on the flip side watching Jacoby Brissett I love Jacoby I'll never quit him it felt to me like he's a better fit for drew petzing's offense than kyler murray i don't think he's a better player than kyler murray and i've been dabbling with the take that kyler murray is going to be the next baker mayfield at some point like i could see him i could see this these team in this quarterback parting ways and then in like five years people are like how do they ever move on from kyler murray so talented but i watching brissette i was like oh this just you're like yeah this was never a good fit.

57:49Yeah. I mean, I can, so I definitely agree that it's, it's a fairly damning indictment of Kyler Murray that, that, you know, Jacoby Brissett comes in, who despite certain fans is probably not a top 25 quarterback in the NFL. And yet it probably upgraded, probably upgraded the offense. Um, I, I agree with you that I think like Kyler might just end up being the sort of casualty of like, it's just not a good fit and we're, you know, we can't really make this work. I would go in a slightly different direction with the sort of logical conclusion of that though. And instead of he's, he's a future Baker Mayfield reclamation thing.

58:25I do kind of wonder if he's just one of those players that doesn't fit the NFL. Like he's such a special athlete, but he's more of a college player where you can get away with just being that. And actually when you dive into his unique qualities as a player, it's really hard to craft a scheme for that that still works in the NFL. I think the reason I go into the Baker thing is like, I hear you, but I think Baker mentally and Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold, all of those guys had arm talent and athleticism. They just had to mentally put it together. And that's what I'm looking at, Kyler. I'm like, maybe in a few years, you're going to take a leap because you just played so much football.

59:07But whatever, That's all speculative and weird. I got the Packers in this one. I think Jacoby comes back to earth a little bit too against this defense. I think they're better. Even if they don't come back down to earth. Take off your glasses. All right.

59:23Commanders, Cowboys. We've got, wow, we've got four more games. Okay. Sorry. I spent too much time on my Rachel Lee Cook analogy. That made no sense. We can go a little bit quickly. I mean, this is a big game. you go first. You've got the commanders who are the away team. What do you got in this one? Bill. Bill Krosky Merritt is the key to this game. Dallas's defense can't stop anybody. It's a wet paper bag, even on the ground, which is better than the past game. Bill could go off with a monster game. I have the flip side, which is like, can the Cowboys offense get back to running the ball? Well, because they were so good until the Panthers game and Carolina just Stonewall them and boy, the commander's defense really struggled to stop Chicago on the ground, particularly the off tackle runs and little tosses.

1:00:16So I like, which makes sense because I think they lack the speed, particularly at the second level, but they were also getting pushed around up front. Yeah, this might just come down to who runs the ball better, to be honest, now that I think about it. I mean, the commander's defense is better than Dallas's, I would say. But I think Dallas's offense is better than the commander's offense. So it's kind of like this is a sneaky, sneaky close game. I actually went back and forth on this one a little bit. What an analytics take that is, though. It's just going to come down to who runs the ball better.

1:00:54This is a podcast brought to you from 1985. It's the NFL in 2025, right? Who do you have for this one? I am going to go with Dallas to bounce back. Yeah.

1:01:11In Dallas. The defense is so bad. I'm going to pay. I'm going to pick Dallas too, though. I think the Dallas offense is really good. CD lamb, by the way, is as a name to keep your eye on. He. they're getting some good news about him. That's me Googling. Actually, this one I looked up for personal reasons because he's on my ESPN Fantasy team, which is the worst fantasy team of all time, partly because I drafted C. Lamb, in respect. But I don't think... So him and McLaurin both are obviously names to watch in this one. Definitely, we're going to see McLaurin. And CD is supposed to return to practice today.

1:01:58So that's a name to... If CD plays, I feel really good about picking down lists in this. I mean, the fact that they've been this good passing without CD Lamb is... Dak's playing out of his mind. Dak also has been playing better than Drew Daniels. So, you know, just saying. Okay. Falcons Niners. This one's just me. I wrote... how does san francisco handle motion without fred warner which is a very nerdy specific thing but the bucks absolutely motioned them into the oblivion when warner went out in that game i talked about it early in the week but they cranked it up to 62 percent motion at the snap guess which team uses motion at the snap at the highest rate in the nfl the atlanta falcons um One thing I think that I'm interested in from the Falcons perspective is whether or not Penix does what he did at a higher degree, higher rate, pardon me, last week, which is attack San Francisco between the numbers, which, of course, you know, without Fred Warner, another thing Tampa did.

1:03:05So weeks one through five, Penix threw outside the numbers at the highest rate in the NFL, 50 % of the time. I think Jaylen Hurts is behind him at second. But this week, so 50%, this week against the Bills, he actually threw over the middle of the field and had a lot of success doing so. And that number dropped to 37.5%. would like to see them, Sam, continue that this week, because I do think it's a weakness for San Francisco now. And it's also like, I just felt the Falcons passing tech was so predictable, um, throwing outside the numbers so much and not really in the middle of the field. So it was good and encouraging to see them actually throwing on like in breakers to Drake London.

1:03:48Yeah. Which is what, I mean, Drake London's so good at those as well. It's, it should be something you're trying to do as much as possible because he's so good at that stuff. Um, yeah, it's a natural, I think, matchup to attack. Fred Warner is so good. I mean, losing him. I feel bad for the 49ers because a lot of teams are banged up and injured, but almost all of them, they're expecting to get most of those guys back. You've literally gone in and handpicked the two best players from that defense and gone, well, they're not coming back. So no matter what you do, that's a problem. I'm on Atlanta here.

1:04:19I just think this is the one that breaks the camel's back for San Francisco, the Warner injury. And that defense is on such a tear. Like they might turn Mac Jones back into a pumpkin. Who's your favorite player to watch on the Falcons defense right now? I mean, Ellis is such a dynamic force as a blitzer. Like they're terrifying that front. Yeah. The backers are really getting after it. Okay. You're Atlanta too, I presume. Yeah. All right. Three more or two more. Pardon me. The Monday night double headers. doubleheader. I'm going to be in Detroit for this game. Oh, nice. Brian Branch isn't. Well, he'll be in Detroit, but he's not playing.

1:05:02You go first. Bucs go to the Lions. This is another one where I feel I know I'm broken record here, but you really got to see who's returning to action. A lot of injuries on both sides. Tampa has been really banged up. What's your key for the Bucs team? Yeah. So it's kind of it's like the banged up wide receiver core against the banged up secondary. And specifically, if I'm going more granular than that, I want to see Tez Johnson off the back of that insane catch and breakout performance against Amik Robertson for the Lions. Tez, I think, is such a dynamic playmaker. He's going to be good in the NFL, but Amik Robertson quietly is a really difficult assignment.

1:05:39There's a slot type of corner. The next time, this is a tangent, but the next time Tampa plays in Tampa. I want Bucks fans to just chant MVP every time as Jansen does anything as a joke. I think it'd be a great bit. I like him too. I liked him in college and I was I feel like higher on him than consensus and it's cool. You're right. He's got like true game-breaking speed and it was cool to see him that way. And yeah, like without Branch there's a lot of matchups for Tampa to attack in that Lions secondary. But But on the flip side, I also think this matchup favors Detroit in the passing game. Speaking of the Lions offense against this Bucs defense, the Bucs struggle with play action.

1:06:27You really saw that against the Seahawks. They're 30th in EPA per play, yards per attempt. The linebackers are vulnerable in coverage, and they're really bad against intermediate throws. These are all things that, of course, the Lions offense measures in. I'm really interested in this game from a John Morton perspective because I think the Bucs run defense is very, very good. And I think there also could be a problem for some of the specific types of runs that Detroit measures in. So I want to see if he's willing to just – I love first down play action in this one. Don't lean into Tampa's strengths.

1:07:12in the same way that Seattle didn't, right? So I remember this was my key for the Seahawks against the Bucs. I was like, just please, the first down runs, you really got to attack them early, and they did that. And I think Detroit can also do that successfully against this Bucs defense. Yeah, I think so. Their offense is kind of fascinating this year because obviously so much of it is the foundation from the Ben Johnson era, but they've kind of changed the approach at the top in terms of almost the overarching philosophy behind it. It's the same system, but instead of me rigidly prescribing exactly what you're going to do, we're going to empower you guys a bit more on the player level to just go out and make it work.

1:07:57If Brian Branch was coming, I would feel a lot better about this, but I'm going to take Detroit. I think Tampa's kind of been living a little bit on a razor set. Like they, they're good. They're really good team, but I think that they've also got a little bit lucky. And I think that Detroit, Oh, I forgot. I really wanted to mention this. Detroit gets a limb McNeil back. It's huge. They really have missed him at defensive tackle. So I think this Detroit pass rush is going to look a lot better this week than it has. So I do worry about the Detroit secondary to our discussion, but I think that the return of McNeil coupled with just the fact that their passing game is such a bad matchup for Tampa, it has me picking the Lions in this one.

1:08:47Yeah, I'm okay picking against the Bucs for the wild because I think they'll be a better team when they get people healthier than they are now. I think it's okay to sort of say, look, they're winning games. That's great for them long term. They are getting – it's not they're getting lucky. I mean, Baker Mayfield generally has been making plays and making miracles happen, but it does feel a little bit unsustainable. And if it doesn't sustain, that's fine because they'll be better in December with everybody healthy. The Lions, who also play a lot of man coverage, have to come into this with a containment plan for Mayfield.

1:09:18He has won so many of these games with timely scrambles on third downs. you cannot if you play man gotta have a plan for him escaping um because he is also a sneaky good scrambler yeah another guy like that it doesn't make i mean like why why is baker mayfield able to make this work every third and 14. i see he i i said this on the pod on tuesday he reminds me a lot of mahomes on those third downs like the way he scrambles because like dart it's like okay you're big and fat you know you look but baker it's it's like he's he's got that dad bod, but he's just like wriggling away. He's so good. He's so slippery too.

1:09:56Not just even on scrambles, but in the pocket, like he really manages to, and that's been a big difference versus last year, by the way, because I think last year there were a lot more like bad sacks and big moments this year. He has mostly avoided that. Um, but maybe, you know, we'll see how long that lasts. So, all right. So we're both on Detroit. Yep. All right. Final game Texans Seahawks. you go first I'm on Seattle Seattle's the home team I feel like this is another one where we're pretty clearly going to have the same key here yeah I mean every game the Texans play the thing is the offensive line they allowed I think three pressures against the Ravens but the Ravens defense is awful for some reason this year it's everybody's get right spot so every other game it's been a massive problem for them and it determines whether they win or lose.

1:10:47Now you go up against Seattle that just wrecked, you know, Jacksonville's offensive line. Can they go any way towards slowing that down? I don't think so. Yeah, we talked about the Texans offense. We'll get to the other side of all Texans fans where I'm more optimistic about your prospects than I am every week because your defense absolutely slaps. So put it in that. We talked about the Texans offensive performance after the Ravens game and, you know, like, yeah, And Orlovsky was like, you know, but they were using more under center play action and Stroud had time. And I was like, Dan, like, you can just write this.

1:11:25I mean, I understand it looked a lot better and they did a few things that we've been wanting them to do. But the Ravens defense is like NPCs everywhere right now. The Seahawks defense, you can't just be like, oh, cool, let's press the under center play action button. They're going to still just, CJ Stroud is going to turn his back and Byron Mercury is going to be like kissing him, right? Like it's just, and the other thing is like this Texans offensive line, similar to last year, struggles so much with games. It's crazy. Mike McDonald is like the games master, right? Like what they do with that DTX defensive line is just the way he moves guys around.

1:12:04It's, I just think this is a nightmare, potential nightmare matchup for them up front. I mean, look, we're biased as people that, you know, we used to work with Bobby Sloick, but like Bobby was the problem last year, right? Like why hasn't he fixed any of this stuff? They get rid of Bobby and it still looks like they've never seen a stunt before in their lives. Like how have they not dial that in, in the space of a year and a half? Players matter. Turns out just changing to worse players doesn't actually make you better on the offensive line. The CX defense right now. So one thing I noticed on rewatching, because i think on the i don't know maybe i didn't talk about this but like you know the pass rush was the story of the game right um and like i love where's leo williams is like my favorite game watching the seahawks on the the seven sacks he was like lined up at a different alignment on every single one of them the most disgusting one was he was like a wide nine outside in wosu i don't remember that it was like oh my god i don't know how you know like nightmare fuel and he just is i i really believe he's like the best defensive lineman that people don't talk I think he's so good.

1:13:12But the other thing that caught my eye in this last one was, I thought Nick Aminwari played really well. And that's one to keep your eye on because, so they used him mostly in the slot, but he blitzed him a few times. He got two pressures, forced incompletion, couple of incompletions. They're getting Julian Love and Devin Witherspoon back. To me, that is going to unlock something with Aminwari where it's like, okay, cool. Now he can just be an agent of chaos. Just, I love the Seahawks defense. I also love the Texans defense though, Let's talk about it briefly because they're great and they're awesome.

1:13:44And they're, they, they really do present a problem. The CX offense has been rolling Sam, but they can't run the ball. Like, do you think there's potential for the Houston Texans to make this like a dirty low scoring game? Yeah, definitely. I mean that they, they can cover and they can rush the passer. I mean, those are two really important things, particularly when you're going up against the team that struggles running the ball. Like they want to live in the passing game. They have, I think one clear mismatch on Abraham Lucas on the right side of the line. But then even like Charles Cross is really good.

1:14:13I don't know if he's able to win every rep against the other side. So I think they can definitely, I mean, not just make it an ugly, low scoring affair, but turn the ball over, like force mistakes and steal drives from your opponent. Yeah. I also think that the fact that CL has been so bad at running the ball does make you worried because if they try to and you get into third and longs, you really is where this can get kind of hairy. Again, this is true of literally every team that plays the Houston Texans. They're so good. But I would feel a lot better if Seattle had been able to run the ball better.

1:14:50It's an interesting offense, right? Because the premise of the Kubiak offense is like under center, wide zone, play action off of that. And it's a good example of why you don't actually have to run the ball well for play action to work because the play action part is great and the passing game looks awesome. awesome, but the run game is not fixed at all, which is, um, does give me a little bit of concern in this particular matchup. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely maybe it's definitely an issue in this matchup. It's also a longer term thing for them, right? Like this is, this looks great in a lot of ways, but that's definitely a concern.

1:15:24All that said two great defenses, one offense, I believe in a lot more than the other. And that's, so I'm taking the Seahawks in this game. Same. I think, I mean, until I see otherwise that Houston offensive line is like, it's an Achilles heel that's going to show up against any good team. Really quick. JSN is the blank best receiver in the NFL right now. It's a trying to think of a PG way of saying it. He's dude, he's, he's so good. I mean, I'm not ready to put him above the guys that are like Chase, Jefferson, but I mean, he's putting himself in that conversation. The other guy, by the way, that never gets put in that top, top tier is Nico Collins from this game.

1:16:11Nico Collins, honestly, I think deserves to be in that legitimate top tier of wide receivers. He's so much more nuanced than I expected him to be. When I like really watched all of his plays this off season. I don't think Seattle can cover him, but I also think CJ Stroud is going to be so challenged. Yeah. I mean, it won't matter if he's the meme, right? The chase, uh, chase. is finaiso meme no i'm with you he's amazing um yeah this is this is really the past protection bowl um nico's great jsn like i feel it this year has taken such a leap to is just like a complete player right he's the nuances to his game that out he ran this last week against um jacksonville is one of the filthiest routes I've seen.

1:17:01I think as a pure route runner this year, it's very hard for me to put many receivers in the conversation with him. And then he's got like hands and he's all of it, but the routes, oh buddy. And the deployment, like the fact that they're going, you know, we're going to move them everywhere. We're going to use them outside. Like all the things people thought he couldn't do coming into the draft. We're going to do all those and just show you how silly that was. Crazy. All right. Well, that's it. We're both on Seattle. Really quick. So check the mic. You can get anywhere you get pods. You guys also have a YouTube page, correct?

1:17:36Indeed. Yeah. Check the mic. YouTube is where you get to see the mastery of the studio, which I crafted with my own hands or by crafted and put some stuff on the wall. So yeah, YouTube or anywhere you get your podcasts. Go check it out. It's a great pod. Also, if you are watching Love is Blind, my co-host of viewer discretion my tv podcast david dennis jr and i will be recapping episodes nine and ten uh tomorrow on yeah tomorrow friday that drops on youtube or wherever you get your pods as i mentioned go follow the show instagram follower mina kime show by now the power rankings will be out sam i have been agonizing over these powerings it is really hard to power rank the nfl right now.

1:18:21It's like a, do you guys do that on your pod? Do you do power rankings? No, we studiously avoid power rankings for precisely that problem. Well, normally it's not this hard right now. It's like a living nightmare. I mean, I, I, yeah, I don't know. It's, it's great. It's great. It's great for the league, but it's very, it's, it's tough, tough life for us power rankers. So go check out me and time show on Instagram. You can also watch this on YouTube. Uh, and I will be back next week to talk about those awesome Monday night games with Dominic Foxworth on Tuesday morning. Thank you, as always, to our friends at Omaha Productions.

1:18:55Here's to Becky, Owen Saylor, Jack Foster.

1:19:13Turn it up. Storm has zero sugar and 200 milligrams of caffeine, so you can turn that workout up a notch. Good energy in, good energy out. Energy for life.