Transcript of 2024 Week 4 Recap

Loan setback ball at the one and a half here on first down and goal to go. 1010 tie handoff goes to peeline behind right guard trying to press forward a bunch of bodies into the end zone. Touchdown, Kansas City. Sama J. P. Ryan, his first touchdown as the Kansas City chief. And the Chiefs lead first time in the game at 16 to ten.

Welcome to NFL Daily, where we know what a pyrrhic victory means. That's what the Chiefs got on Sunday. Across the street. It's not even a street, just like a walkway the way at SoFi Stadium. 17 to ten. The Chiefs get the win over the Chargers. Yeah, we're just jumping right into the first game this week and that first game was attended by Steve Weiss, of course. This is NFL daily. I'm with Patrick Claibon in the Chris Wesleyan podcast studio as well. Patrick will be here the whole show. Nick shook is coming aboard after this game, but we got boots on the ground at a game. We want to hear from the man that was there. They get the victory down ten. Nothing on the road in the division. Hey, the Chargers got a ton of injuries. The Chiefs got a ton of injuries of their own. They're not going to apologize for anything, Steve, but you just came from next door and I get the feeling maybe the locker room doesn't have the vibes that you would normally have after a big win like this.

Yeah, I mean, the big thing with the Chiefs, and that's a locker room I went to, is, you know, they're, they're pretty down because wide receiver Rashee Rice, who has been killing it this year, is the leading wide receiver. The test, the diagnosis is not full yet. He's going to have an MRI on Monday. But it seems like they know that he could be gone for a long time, if not the season. And part of the guy who felt the worst about is Patrick Mahomes, the quarterback, because he threw an interception on the return. He goes to make the tackle and it was his friendly fire that hit rice in the knee that could cost him his number one receiver.

It's such a tough moment as that happened and I'm thinking, oh, they're going to maybe lose this game. Like, this is a tragic play cause Mahomes continues his up and down play. I don't think he's been playing as well. Even if you take away what's going on around him, which is obviously not helping, he's also just missing some throws. And that was another one of them where it was an interception. He comes in to try to make the tackle on a play that Ray rice, I mean, Rashee Rice, rather forces a fumble.

Yeah.

So he, he was going in to try to make a play. The ball goes out of bounds on the fumble. So the Chargers get the ball. They end up going up to ten, nothing. But we're reaching a point here where their offensive weapons are now. Kareem Hunt took over as their starting running played very well. Okay, Xavier Worthy had a 54 yard big time play.

Yep.

In this game, Travis Kelsey goes seven for 89, but they're wide receivers. Rasheed Rice and Hollywood Brown, they might not see him again this season.

Yeah, get ready for some Juju Smith Schuster. And, you know, you really, they really have to hope that Xavier worthy grows up. You know, and so far, he's shown us no reason why he can't have a ze flowers type of effect as a rookie. I mean, he's had a couple of games, big plays, big moments, and he's got good hands. He hangs onto the ball.

Every time he has the ball, it looks like he's going to do something awesome. When they throw it to him short, the speed is crazy. The 54 yard touchdown was just like, hey, run fast down the field and he got it. And they've been wanting those big plays. Patrick, when this score was ten to nothing, Chargers, like, were you thinking, oh, we made a big mistake with our survivor pick, by the way, which we did survive. Yeah, we as a trio. And like, were you surprised that she's come back and get this?

No, because Patrick Mahomes adds to this insane record of wins by a quarterback that's trailing by ten or more points. He comes out to Ryan, gets another way, but an incredible game by Tooley.

He was ridiculous.

Khalil Mack. Pass rush for the Chargers was great, but. But yet again, it's Patrick Mahomes with, with an opportunity. Down receivers, down, weapons comes up in the Chargers offense. Just really sputtered. I understand that. They're committed to the run and it's all this mindset stuff. And Justin Herbert's playing on a bum ankle. Herbert did all he could, but just with the options available to them, there just wasn't much there.

He's so tough. I mean, if you can't respect Justin Herbert, you're nuts. I mean, what he showed today, remember, he was out. Both of his starting tackles, Joe Alt and Slater. Slater were both out. So George Carlaftis and Chris Jones were in his mug all the time. And I don't blame Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman for muddying up this game. Remember, it was 1010 until midway through the fourth quarter. I mean, it worked. They were getting nothing going after scoring off those first two giveaways by the Chiefs early in the game, but they were still able defensively to put the pressure on Patrick Mahomes to not let the ball get into the end zone. Part of that was inflicted by the Chiefs with these penalties. And it doesn't sound like last year, Patrick, like all the penalties, all of the things that were kind of, we were talking about with the Chiefs slow start, man, this could be problematic. We're saying the same exact things and.

They'Re four and oh, they are four and oh, they're, they're two and two. They are now, what? Two games up in the division? The rest of the division is two on two. Spoiler alert for what? What's coming up. The Chargers had that two and o, sir. They need to be able to run the ball if you're a charger. Steven, I've been disappointed a little bit by the Chiefs defense this year and this is a game that their defense needed to step up. And I know the Chargers weren't playing with a full deck. And Herbert took some big.

He took some big shots, man.

He took some big hits in this game and he's not being protected. But ultimately, JK Dobbins and Gus Edwards run 20 times for 51 yards. The Chiefs defense did an awesome job. After giving up ten points in the first quarter, they force four and out. Three and out. Three and out. A miss field goal, which looms large. They get the ball on downs where Jim Harbaugh decides to go for it.

I was stunned by that on fourth.

And goal on the goal line. Little surprised by that. The first 4th down. Actually, Jim harbor has gone for in the entire season and he goes for it in a tie game and they didn't. And they called the pass in a.

Tie game when they have just chewed up about eight minutes of clock bridging the third and fourth quarter. They've got, like you said, they were running the ball well, but they didn't have the type of magic momentum where you're like, okay, we're going to push this because once things got tight, that's when that chief defense stood up. I'm like, take the points right now because the points are hard to come by. They get stopped, their defense forces a punta. But then the Chiefs defense forces are three and out. And then that's when, you know, Mahomes gets that, the touchdown drive going with the 29 yard start, you know, start of the drive to Noah Gray right there.

Yeah. When Noah Gray cut that pass, I was like, oh, man, Kelsey's got some wheels. And I was like, oh, wait, everybody.

Even in the press booth, they were like, travis Kelsey.

I was like, wow, Kelsey's got.

I was like, suddenly he got way, way faster. But, hey, Travis Kelsey did have a nice.

Yeah, he is back in our lives. Seven catches for 89 yards. And again, it's. It's the Kansas City Chiefs. You see 15 out there. He's a threat. But I do. I can't help but think that, yeah, you want to run the ball, but this isn't that Chiefs team. Like, this isn't the Chiefs team that's running up and down the field, scoring all these points, get caught to have the explosive plays. There's seven targets for lad McConkie. Really nothing available down the field. A lot of that's the Chiefs defense. But I just wanted to see attempts in that direction, but there was just nothing.

And when, I mean, Herbert had a crazy throw that could have been caught by Dobbins up the speaker three.

He could even gone if he would have had.

That was one of the curveball. That was one of the best throws of the year. Was it in completion?

You were, oh, we got best throws of the year conversation.

Well, I'm just saying, I'm not putting it as the official nominee this week, but that was pretty awesome. Lad McConkie goes five for 67. So, yeah, it's a weird start to the season because all that matters for the Chiefs is January and February. And they're going to get there. They're there at four. No. And yet we feel worse about January, I think, because of this team, because of injuries, yet they're finding ways to win. You were there, Steve. Again, I want to take advantage of the fact that you were there. Give me the vibe in this, in the building. And also just anything you picked up. Yeah. From talking to the players and everything afterwards. Yeah.

Well, first off, let's start with the back of stuff I picked up. Patrick Mahomes is frustrated, I think, more with himself than anything, going. You can just tell. I had a little private conversation with him. He just, it's not like, you know, Patrick Mahomes is one of the most competitive people I've ever been around, and I've covered guys like Michael Jordan, dudes like that. Mahomes is a little sick with, you know how so he holds himself to a high standard. You can tell he's like, I am not doing it. Now. Part of it could have been how he was feeling about hitting Rasheed rice. He's like, you know, look, if I didn't throw that interception, we wouldn't be going through that. But when you're, when your standard is what it is like, they're like, okay, we came in here, did, we're supposed to do, but we had to fight too hard for it against a team that was really, really banged up.

Right.

And so I think there's that, which is good. You want, you want really good teams to feel like that. I mean, this is not, they don't play to win September, but otherwise, the overall feel of it, I mean, Andy Reid and some of the people on the, on the coaching staff, it's kind of like we still have work to do. But one thing that we can rely on and we know we can rely on is our defense. And they're going to continue to get better defensively when they get some of these guys back. Mike Dana didn't play today. I mean, but they've got such good linebackers and guys up front, unless they sustain injuries there, that's going to be, as it was last year, their default when all things don't work, our defense is going to keep us in games.

Default to a defense that, yeah, gets three quick pressures today by Chris Jones, including, I don't know if they counted as a quick pressure on that fourth down. He was the guy who ultimately made the play of the game. It won't even show up in the stat sheet, but got the pressure on. Herbert also had two sacks. He's just the best of the best and has a chance.

Carl Aftis is really emerging into a standout player and Nick Bolton might be one of the best inside linebackers.

So what was it? Was it half Chiefs? What was so fi, feeling like, oh, half Chiefs. You know, you know, I like the atmosphere when it's half the other team. It actually feels like a Super bowl game, except they're more into it where it's like super loud on both sides. I actually, as a, as a neutral fan, I think it's one of the cooler atmospheres. But I know, you know, haters from the outside will be like, oh, real fans there.

But I want to make this clear because we see this in almost every stadium now. And here's what the deal is. Because season tickets are so expensive everywhere in the NFL, season ticket holders are going to sell off two of their games, if not three, to at least get somewhere to the break even point. When I see 49 ers fans taking over the Superdome in New Orleans. Like, that's insane. No one takes over the Superdome, but it's starting to happen more and more just because the cost again of season tickets are what they are.

I love it. I love that you came over after a big afternoon at Sofi Stadium. So yeah, the Chargers are two and two. The Chiefs are at 40. Thank you, Steve Weiss, thanks for having me for the cameo.

Thanks. I'm going to listen up to hear the Browns venom, though. I just cannot wait to speaker.

Three. Weiss is over there, texted me about these bad decisions Deshaun Watson's making and the Browns being a mess. Weiss, you got a great game in front of you, but clearly you had it on the monitor and we will.

Get to that on NFL.

Yes, with Nick shook a little later in the show. Nick shook is going to join us on the other side here actually to talk about another undefeated team. A little surprising in the NFC north.

First and goal from the 14. Darnold out of the shotgun puts Jefferson in motion to the right. He'll go that way to the end zone. Caught.

Touchdown.

Kidding me with that? Justin Jefferson with a 14 yard touchdown grab and the Minnesota Vikings lead the Green Bay packers at Lambeau Field 270 with 528 to go in the first half. How about this?

How about it? Paul Allen on KFan there with his buddy Pete bursitch. Oh yeah. Sam Darnold hits Justin Jefferson with a pass that was so good. Jefferson had no choice but to catch it. He just turns around and it's, it's in its chest and it just stuck there. The great players, they just have Velcro there. It got a little crazy after that. 28 to nothing turned into 31 to 29 by the end of the game. Yes, the packers did have a chance. Not really late, but there was a one score game here. Sam Darnold made enough plays to salt it away. Have a field goal drive, give them a two scorer lead, they end up winning the game. And man, Nick shook, I really enjoyed the hell out of this game. I'm glad I assigned it to myself. And at the beginning of it I was thinking, man, this is not going to be a good one to assign to yourself because it was just like such a blowout. Darnold's first eight completions were to eight different receivers. And one thing that stands out to me is when Darnold makes a mistake, you got to take advantage.

McDuffie, OJ McDuffie of the packers dropped a possible interception on one of the first drives. Then it's suddenly third and 14 and he has a throw to Nailer and these guys, Naylor and Addison, are getting these one on ones. Addison had a few outstanding routes today to, to get 72 yards and a touchdown for his game, and then it just starts going from there. So yeah, Darnold will give you some chances, Nick, but Brian Flores is going to give you some extra chances as an offense. And this team is just a lot to deal with right now.

You could be concerned about why things got a little hairy in the second half, but I'm not worried about that because what you really want out of this team is that they continue to play good on both sides of the football, which is what they did. Another good day from Sam Darnold. You know, he had one pick, but you still have three more touchdowns. Another strong day from Aaron Jones, who clearly loves being there and is not enjoying a renaissance, but having a good year with them. It's just a strong team. Like, I, I picked the packers in this game because I'm thinking eventually they have to run into something and this packers defense could maybe give them fits. Nope, I was wrong. It got close, but I was still wrong. I'm just convinced the Vikings are a sound football team and they go into Lambo and get a win today.

There were some signs in, in the second half because in the first half there was a wall constructed around Sam Donald. The Packers pass rush could do absolutely nothing, and Donald was getting whatever he wants to combine that with the offense, turning the ball over, giving them a short field. I got a touchdown off of that. Jordan Addison got his second of the day, but in the second half, interception, punt, punt, fumble field. Gold punt, turnover. On downs. Ballgame. Yes, there were like some signs of perhaps weakness because Jeff Halfley and company in Green Bay figured things out. Xavier McKinney got his fourth straight interception upon review. Vikings fans pointing out it probably shouldn't have been an interception. Either way counted. They get that turnover. But there's, this is going to be a fun one because these teams, these two teams are going to play again. I think the packers will be healthier. They'll be ready this time. But, but, man, the Vikings are so hot, right?

Yeah. Like, so the packers ended up being without a joy, Jair Alexander and then their number two cornerback, Carrington Valentine as well. So that the Vikings had great matchups on the outside and they took advantage. Like I said, addison on, on some of these backup cornerbacks, man, he is just one of my favorite route runners in the league. He's just shaken, guys. And then Naylor only had that one catch. But it was, it was such a massive moment in the game, and Jefferson's presence just helps them get the one on ones. And, yeah, McKinney picks off Darnold in the second half. I mean, they were going in to put that really out of bounds there. I think it was 28 to seven after at that point. But that was a great interception. That was a great individual play that, you know, maybe shouldn't have been counted. But Darnold has been giving chances to opponents the whole, you know, four weeks. That's who he's going to be. He held the ball maybe a little too long on his fumble.

He.

So he had two turnovers in the second half. A blitz gets to him, but ultimately, when they need to make a drive in the fourth quarter, like 2017, yards to Justin Jefferson, 27 yards to Justin Jefferson, you get a field goal, you have an extended drive that takes some time off the clock. And on a day where, oh, in the end, Brian Flores's defense gave up 400 yards, the offense had to do a lot. I just think this is a team that's going to. They're going to go for it. Like, Flores is like that, too. And the packers were playing hurry up in the second half and maybe that's one way to kind of calm down all their blitzes and stuff. I thought the packers actually had a pretty good plan in the first half. Jordan Love just was missing some throws, and early in the game I was thinking, man, they should have maybe sat him for another week because he didn't look right. And he even said it after the game. Like the reason that Dontavian Wicks had some drops and he had the interception and everything is like, yeah, he wasn't entirely accurate, but I think he was better by, by the fourth quarter when he started putting up numbers.

Yeah, probably some rust. And of course, it's not a, it's not a team where you can figure things out against the Minnesota Vikings because they're just playing such good football right now. There was a tough one where he throws essentially a bad pass to Christian Watson. We're going to have to get an update on his ankle because it gets picked off by Grujier Hill as well, who's coming back to the ball, kind of rolls up on top of Christian Watson, but Dontavian Wicks gets 13 targets replacing him, including a couple of touchdowns.

And drops at least three, I would say, and one was on a fourth and long. They went for two fourth and longs in the game because they were trailing and they were on the plus side of the field. And one was an example of why Jordan Love, to me, didn't look great today. For most of it was this kind of like a hope ball where actually, if Jordan Love had done like his thing where he makes a crazy throw over the second level defender, but before the third, he actually could have hit him. But it just, his balls, his, his passes were like fluttering a little bit and then the second one was a nice throw that pretty much hit Dontavian wicks in the chest and he dropped it on a fourth down. And so those were big plays on a day. Nick Jordan Love ended up with 389 yards, four touchdowns, three interceptions. That's a stat stuffer right there. That's like, I always talk about him, how he used to lead in PFF scoring in the preseason. If you, if you accounted three preseasons in a row, turnover worthy plays and big time throws, this was, this was that game in a nutshell.

But I do think they have to feel better that he kind of warmed up by the end of it and you hope he's fine and you really hope Christian Watson's fine because I thought he had a lot of juice this year when he was playing.

That's kind of the story of Jordan Love's experience in the first half of last season, too, by the way. Like kind of, you know, self destructive plays, the turnover worthy plays, and then he, he dialed it in in the back half and obviously we know what happened that season. So I think he kind of expects something like this when he comes back from an MCL sprain. And maybe there's a little bit of a lack of confidence there. You know, maybe the rust like Patrick mentioned, but I think that this is something that shouldn't concern them over the long haul. It's just a matter of reps and time. But I'm more curious as I look at the Vikings and I think about, all right, what defenses are capable of putting Sam Donald in conflict where he will have ball security issues. Cause he's largely avoided it, or he's avoided it in that he's still turned the ball over once or twice in a game, but it hasn't been catastrophic. So if you run down their schedule, you get the jets next. The jets who struggle to get pressure, you get a by, you get Detroit, the Rams, the Colts, the Jags, the Titans.

I don't think until you get to week twelve against the Bears, are any of those teams going to set up a serious challenge for him to where they could capitalize and exploit his ball security issues? So we might be talking about the Vikings like this for a long time.

Yeah, that jets game is fascinating. If they can try to, they're going to try to get to their bye week undefeated. Pretty amazing. And Justin Jefferson, even though the numbers aren't quite as stratospheric as they have been, sometimes I'm just convinced, like, he's the best player in the league. He's just such a chico. He goes six for 85 and a touchdown. And when they really needed it, he made the plays. Aaron Jones has also been awesome for them. They end up, he ends up with 139 yards from scrimmage on 26 touches, 22 on the ground. Let's listen to Aaron Jones just talking about how he came to Minnesota and he's happy he did.

KLC. He's meant, he's been everything to me. He's helped me so much in my short time here and I'm glad I made the decision to come here. He's definitely a special coach.

Yeah. Koc absolutely. Getting that. I was kind of thinking during this game, this is like a past diverging, you know, very early coach of the year candidacy game. You know, just because, like, I'm just saying, LaFleur has been incredible these first couple of weeks with Malik Willis or something, but Kevin O'Connell says I'm the boss of this race and right now I'm the boss of this division. They're now up two games. They have a game in hand over the packers. They won in Lambo. Lamb. You know, Green Bay at this point is probably going to have to go and win in Minnesota if they want to try to win this division. All right, let's move on to another undefeated team entering Sunday. See if the Steelers stay that way in Indianapolis.

This is it.

Four down.

He's got to go to Pickens.

Up top.

Empty set for fields. Backs the pass. Plants still has time. Rolls up in the pocket. Throws down. Failed. Almost picked off by the Colts. But it's an incomplete pass in ten and downfield for Van Jefferson. And the Colts defense comes up enormous in the fourth quarter with under a minute to go. It's a turnover on downs, and the Colts are going to win in week four.

The Colts defense, I mean, they weren't coming up enormous in the fourth quarter until that moment. After Justin Fields leads the Steelers on a comeback. That includes three straight touchdown drives in the late third quarter and then two more in the fourth. The Colts do get that stop, 27 to 24. They're two and two Steelers. Their first loss now at three and one shook this is a game where Anthony Richardson leaves with a hip injury and Joe Flacco comes in and he's beaten teams in the AFC north. It's like 2023 all over again.

I wanted to write, the Steelers are probably really tired of seeing this guy until I went back in the history and realized they didn't see him last, just that he saw a bunch of other teams. But yeah, it felt eerily similar. Like here it is, Joe Flacco coming into a game and dealing and handling another AFC north team, you know, in a matchup where his team didn't expect him to have to play, and suddenly Anthony Richardson gets hurt and he has to play and he handles it with the composure of a veteran. Now, Greg, I know this irritated you and we'll just bring it up right now. Anthony Richardson gets hurt and then he goes to the sideline and he comes back in after like a play and they run a designed run for him with a hip injury. So of course that doesn't work out well for him and he ends up going out the rest of the game. I don't think it sounds super serious. It sounds like he could have played if they really needed him to, but they have Joe Flacco at their disposal. That's why you go get him in the offseason.

But it was funny because it was a bit of a Jekyll and high performance from this Colts defense, which has kind of been like that through four weeks this season. They start early by just bum rushing the Steelers offense, just attacking that pass protection and getting after Justin Fields and they build themselves a 17 to nothing lead. And I'm thinking of the Steelers ever going to get out of first gear in this game because I don't think they are. And then Justin Fields puts the team on his back and he's throwing darts and he's using his legs and he scores a couple of rushing touchdowns. And I'm like, the Steelers are, if they have enough time, they're going to come back and win this game. And then it all fell apart down the stretch because they couldn't protect and they had a weird snap that resulted in a fumble. And you saw, you just heard the last player, if you watched on YouTube, you saw it. So weird back and forth game, but also a fitting first loss for the Steelers in the fact that their strength did not help them today. Their defense was not their calling card today and that was the problem.

Fields being able to keep them in a game where their defense is not playing well overall, I've been like, this is a real thing. Patrick, 55 yards on the ground, two rushing touchdowns, 312 yards through the air and a touchdown. They're like, it's happening.

No, it's, it's real. And it's not just that touchdown flurry at the end of the game, which might jump out to people. Pittsburgh wins this game if not for a random George pick. George Pickens does this thing where he holds the ball way away from his body. He had one in the first half. Fields hit him on a ball down the sideline. He was inside the five yard line. And for some reason, George Pickens is flailing the ball around, has the ball punched out, and the Colts recover. Because other than that play and just a dominant performance, I say it's dominant. The numbers don't leap off at you. But against the Pittsburgh Steelers defense, this performance by this Colts offensive line, like, it really, it really showed just how solid and strong they are. Front Jonathan Taylor goes for 88 yards at 4.2 yards per carry. Flacco comes in right where it's, it's, it's not. I feel like because we saw it last year with Cleveland, we kind of take it for granted that Joe Flack, right, it just shows up and plays good football and it seems there's, there's other backup quarterbacks. The game's over in that situation.

He's 39 years old.

I love it. It's that tweet. It's like the aging wonder, which is, you know, the guy that you're, you're older than.

Well, you know, I was saying that that's extremely old.

Miracles. How's he even breathing?

Speaking of which, Joe Flacco spoke with our friend Aditi King Kabwala on CB's after the game. I do have to tell you, Anthony Richardson told us that you were cooler than he thought he was.

Listen, he told me his mom is eight days older than I am, so.

There'S no chance in the world that.

He thinks I'm cool.

So Joe Flacco is cool.

He's cool. He's cool. Now we get like the amenable dad Flacco after these last couple of years, where we've come a long way from, it's not my job to coach the backup, to, like, this fatherly Joe Flacco's hugs and smiles and getting, talking about people's moms.

And he was, he was injured for a couple years and he's bouncing around and struggling. And I think there is something, too, that maybe he appreciated what he had in life. You're not going to have it forever play in this game. And he kind of came back with a different attitude to his, to his younger quarterback teammates that he's not threatened by anymore. And how did, how did he look so, because I'm going to watch this game more closely later, but Josh Downs goes eight for 82 and a touchdown. That's a really good sign for them, for him to get back going in. Pittman goes for 113. They bogged down a little in the second half, but how do you think Flacco looked? I don't think he's going to play next week, though, based on Richardson after the game, we, we don't know, but he, like, put his shoulder pads on even though the team had ruled him out. I think they were just being cautious at that point, but it seems like he could be back. But how, how do you think Flacco looked?

Yeah, so downside, a hell of a day, and a lot of that was because of Joe Flacco. And, I mean, he made a few catches where he broke a tackle and picked up a key first down here and there, especially in the second half. And the run game really helped balance it out. Patrick's completely right. This offensive line is very good, and you could see it as they're handing it off to Jonathan Taylor. But none of this gets done without Flacco coming in and handling the job well. He looked a lot like he did last year. He didn't throw for the yardage total that he did in some of those games with the Browns, but at the same time, he looked just as confident and accurate and shut off all the arm talent that he had last year. And he's had for most of his career like it was nothing. He had a nice touchdown pass through coverage that I was just like, wow, there it is. There's, there's the arm right there. And then the best part was as he celebrated last year with the Browns and was, I feel like I'm a kid again.

He had the same expression on his face today, and it almost looked like I could just throw him in a different uniform. It's the same thing from last year, run down the field with his arms out, having the time of his life. So if, look, there's a lot of bad backup quarterback situations in the NFL, it does not exist in Indianapolis after doing it, Gardner Minshew last year, they're at a step above that with Joe Flacco and what Shane Steichen's doing there. Their offense looked different, by the way, as naturally it would. You're not going to run with him, but overall, he stepped right in and didn't miss a beat.

Yeah, I think Steichen saw that Steelers defense, which is great, but not like complicated. You kind of know what you're going to get from them. And they, they were able to out execute him for a while in this game. Now, this Colts last touchdown, which was Flaco to Ogletree, came after a controversial penalty by Minka Fitzpatrick. It was an unnecessary roughness. Let's listen to Minka.

I mean, I thought we were playing football.

I don't know what we playing at this point. Very different game than what I grew.

Up playing and what I grew up loving. Can't hit nobody hard, can't be violent. So I don't know what to say anymore.

Can't be violent. Minka Fitzpatrick says that was a courtesy of Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune review. It's kind of interesting to me, and you could tell me if you thought it was a good call or a bad call. Shook, but I thought it was interesting that Minka could have been called for a penalty. I thought, on the play that injured Anthony Richardson, it's kind of a late hit. I mean, it was one of those old Cam Newton plays where he doesn't get the call because didn't look crazy, but he slid. And if that was like Bryce Young, and then you hit him after sliding, the quarterback would have gone spinning because it was Richardson, not so much. But he didn't get the call there. He did get the call later in the game. Do you think it was the right call when they did make it bang bang?

Yes. On replay? No, because as soon as it happened, it was one of those ooh. Hits and you're like, oh, he was defenseless. That's probably going to draw a flag. And it did, and it made sense. And he looked at the replay and he didn't go for the head. It was basically shoulder to shoulder. The head was nearby, but it didn't really qualify. And I think they said that on the broadcast, too. So it's a bummer. But, like, football is played at an incredibly fast speed, especially when you're at field level and it's hard to make those judgment calls. But again, I will say this. I know it bought them, you know, another opportunity, go down, score a touchdown. But football usually decided by like five or seven key plays. That could be one of them. But also, you buried yourself in a 17 to nothing hold that didn't lose you the game as much as the entire game did.

Well, and you also, when they got the ball back in your offense was cooking at that point with a couple minutes left, just earlier than the two minute warning. You have the ball at the 38 yard line, or rather the 42 yard line with a first and ten with 143 to go. That's, that's a lifetime. Only down three and an early shotgun snap hits Justin Fields, like in the face or so, and that puts them behind the sticks. They miss a throw that down the field and they pick up, you know, the eleven yards on like a third and 22.

And that, that led Najee Harris doesn't, he doesn't get out of bounds, so the clock keeps running and it basically, you know, ruined their chances.

So, you know, that they played outstanding on offense until that drive. Dio Dingbo got seven pressures for the Colts, who got a lot of pressures without blitzing in this game. So if you can do that, you can win a lot of games. Let's move on. Now we're out of the undefeated area, but we're still with a very compelling game, a surprising one in a rainy New jersey.

Let's miss from 50. Sirloin from 50 to give the jets the lead. 51 seconds to go out of the hold of Morstead. The snap, the placement down, the kick is on the way. It's got plenty of distance and it is no good. It floated right. Heartbreak for the Jetse. Zirlein had it curve off to the right and he can't hit from 50. And it looks like the Broncos will hold on and win this game by a point. Both kickers in tough conditions can't convert.

They could not. Greg the leg misses. That was wax. Q. Bob was choosing a surprising ten to nine loss by the New York jets before they get on a flight later this week for London Broncos at two and two. Jets now at two and two. Fascinating game here, Patrick, but I keep going back to the fact that the jets had two opportunities in the last couple of minutes to win this game, and the three plays that preceded that 50 yard miss field goal were ultimately failures to the jets not being able to advance the ball and get the ball closer in tough conditions for their quarter. Their kicker and Aaron Rodgers and the jets offense come up short. Yeah.

And a tremendous performance by this Broncos defense in what you call it a compelling game. It was not pretty. It was certainly not a fun game.

But it was weird. Like, to me, I was kind of fascinated by it because it just looks so weird. Like, wow, what the heck is going on here?

Well, what, what we, what we saw was just a, a good pressure defense. Rodgers was running. We saw Rogers run against the Patriots, scramble for some first downs. He was getting away, getting out, but it was not the same. Just the first loss for Aaron Rodgers in his career where he didn't score a touchdown at home. Like, that's how good Vance Joseph's defense was today. And we've come a long way from grade the leg from 57 in the Superdome to send the Rams to the Super bowl. That 50 yarder sprays to the sprays to the right. But this is a game where Bo Nicks in the first half was seven of 15 for seven yards passing. Yeah, for negative seven yards passing. Excuse me. That was the important part. Negative seven yards through the air. They had one.

What?

Yeah, in the first half.

How deep into it?

In the first half, his first half. Stat line. Seven of 15 for negative seven yards.

It's amazing.

It was a struggle on offense, but in the second half, really, that defense, because Rogers had a strip sack in that fourth quarter, I think six minutes to go. Next drive did absolutely nothing. They kept coming up short. Miscommunications between he and Garrett Wilson. But it's tough to pin this all on the jets offense because Patrick Sutan, yet again, played a spectacular football game. There was one particular play where Garrett Wilson's coming in motion, and it's very tough for the opposing corner to come all the way tracking a guy on motion, navigating all that traffic, and then getting to them on the screen. And he did just that for like a two yard gain. Just a great defensive performance. We can discuss the jets being on fraud watch, but that's back to back week where the Broncos are on the road, and their defense just stifles a quarterback who the week before was red hot speaker.

Zero. That. That's a great point. And so Turtan, I don't think, even face the target in the first half. He ends up facing three targets in coverage against Garrett Wilson in the second half. Two catches for 22 yards, 25 routes. You're just not seeing guys shut down opposing number ones like that. Then again, this Broncos defense was great overall. They blitzed 49% of the time, so they should keep their lead. They are the heaviest blitz team in the NFL, and opposing offenses aren't really dealing with it well. Rogers is time to throw was 2.5, which is actually quite low. Then again, he held onto the ball on a lot of those and got sacked. Five sacks, 14 quarterback hits. It's one thing I've noticed this season. He's taking a lot of hits almost every week. Titans hit him a lot. Patriots actually did hit him a decent amount. Eight tackles for loss in this game. Meanwhile, the jets get like no pressure on the other side. I've been really impressed with this Broncos defense shook and I guess we got to start taking them somewhat seriously. Even if Bo Nick's is 60 passing yards is the least in a quarterback win since Eli Manning did it back in 2007.

Somehow not surprising to me that Eli that did it. Maybe, I'll say maybe also in MetLife.

What you're saying is Bo Nick's is two Super bowl rings away from making the hall of Fame.

Gotta see Eli's, by the way, is up for, up for debate this year and I don't think he's going to be first ballot. I think we can at least speaker.

Two, but he'll get in. He'll get in eventually. It is crazy. It's crazy to see a game, a team win a game with 60 passing yards, like from a quarterback. It is nuts. But I, on the flip side, like, I think about the jets offensive approach because it's just been so up and down through four weeks. Like they had, they were stifled by the Niners in week one. They get back on track, they end up, you know, looking like gangbusters, like world beaters in week three against the Patriots. And then they come back to earth with this. And I, you know, we talk about the Broncos defense and how good it is, but if you look at them statistically, they were 22nd in the league against the run. Like, that should be their weakness. That should be where you attack them. And it's raining at MetLife Stadium. Why are you throwing the football 42 times in a game that finished ten to nine? I need to know that. Why is your run pass difference? It's 67.1% pass to run. Like that's a, that's a failure on the part of the coaching staff, in coaching within the game, in my opinion, and putting it all on the shoulders of Rogers.

And you just don't help your offense out that way. So I think that's something that the jets have to iron out.

Speaker two, don't forget it was the Nate Hackett revenge game. Supposedly Aaron Rogers was going to try extra hard.

The extra hard didn't really pan out. They gave breeze hall ten carries. He got four yards out of it. Really. Braylon Allen was, was the guy that was having success.

I keep banging this drum. Brie Saul had a 0% success rate today. Braylon Allen 75%. His runs were successful. To me, their running game just looks a little more in sync when he runs it. Breeze hall sometimes is looking for the big play. And yeah, you can't get too mad at the play caller with the jets because Rogers ultimately is the play caller. He has a lot of options at the line of scrimmage to choose. Okay, depending on the look. And most of the time, you're going to trust him to make that right decision. Today, he leaned towards the pass and you could see how disappointing was at the end of the game, he just, he just puts a towel over his head and I saw someone write. It was like, okay, you're now officially a member of the jets. I'm not going to go that dark. I'm not sure about froude. Watch. We'll see. It's a big game in Minnesota. They'll have to figure out how to protect Rogers against the blitz. But, yeah, Rogers was very disappointed after the game. We were kind of killing ourselves. I can't say I had a spectacular game.

I missed some throws.

The weather sucked, but so did some of my throws.

So, you know, we had some chances.

But, you know, way too many mental mistakes. But when your defense holds on the ten, you gotta. You gotta win the game 100% of the time.

So that's on the offense, it's on me.

Yeah, not good enough. Yeah, it was not good enough. Jonathan Franklin Myers with a little revenge game, quiet little trade that the Broncos made on draft day. The kind of money related, I believe, because they were expecting Hassan Reddick to come on the books and they kind of could use Jonathan Franklin Myers right about now. All right, we're going to take a quick break and we'll be back with maybe my favorite game of the day. Oh, after this.

So now it comes down to young Waco to try and win the game for Atlanta. A 58 yard try to win the game. 7 seconds left. Snap. Spot kick from KhU is away and it is good. 58. And the money shot for young Waco.

That is a great call by West Durham on WZG. See, it's time for the Sunday drive presented by the all new hybrid Toyota Camry. And, yeah, we had to save it for what I thought might better have been the game of the day, the rivalry of the league. This Falcon Saints game had everything that you would have wanted, plays that both teams would have regretted if they lost. Both teams kind of finding different ways to let the other team in, but a lot of fun. The Falcons win without an offensive touchdown. They win with a deflected pick six and a fumbled punt that they recover in the end zone on a day they were mostly outplayed. They also won on a penalty by Paulson Adibo, who sets up that long coup field goal, and the Falcons couldn't get any closer. And yeah, young way coup. Maybe he was listening on the Manning cast like me in week two, and he heard Bill Belichick talk about him and he said, oh yeah, we had coup in our building for a little bit, which I forgot about for a minute. He's like, he's very accurate, but not really good from distance.

Doesn't have much distance.

Take that, Bill.

It's like, have you seen how much that dude's been in the weight room? I was next to him on the field and one in London one year. That dude is thick, he's strong and yeah, he hits it from 58 and what a missed opportunity. Patrick, for the Saints in this one.

Yeah, just to the giveaways. You mentioned the Judah tip pass. That was pick six, Rashid Shahid, for some reason, getting turned around maybe is the fact that he spun to try to catch the punt, but he was inside the three when he tried to field a punt and just let it go. The defense played well. They lost Tyler Matthew, I think, in the middle of the second half, having to play without him. A man down, Paulson Adiebol on that pass interference call. The ball was underthrown. He could have turned around and got a chance to make a play, but he went ahead and grabbed the receiver because I guess he thought that was in the situation. And after that. So the Falcons have a first down already inside young Waco's extensive range, you know, much to the chagrin of Bill Belichick, and they get nothing. There's three straight plays. Yeah, wherever I, for some reason, Kirk Cousins is taking deep shots inside the 20 yard line. They go over three on those attempts and get nothing for young Waco, who bails out his team with the 58 yard kick. That where people, you're not watching the game, you're thinking, oh, they, they get down there on the PI call the last second.

No, they had time and they did not make it any easier for coup, much like the Saints team just made it easy for the, the Falcons to win with all these mistakes.

Yeah, sometimes I think Cousins is like a robot and he just does what he's programmed to do and like, I think that's just where the progression took him because they were taken, they probably were trying to take away the sideline routes. They had no timeout at the time, so it would have been interesting, too, if he had hit that last one to Mooney because they, they snapped that ball with 13 seconds and it was a downfield throw. If he had caught that around the 20, inbounds like that would have been, they might have lost the game right there. Mooney, though, runs great routes and he figured out a way. He's kind of been Kirk cousins guy. What a, what a weird spot, though. I want to get on Dennis Allen just a little bit or going for the touchback at the end. Have you noticed this, Nick? I've kind of been tracking late game situations. Not much time left. And these coaches who, they go for the touchback in that scenario, which gives the other team the ball at the 30 and takes no time off the clock, and it just seems like coaching scared, like, hey, we don't feel like we can coach this well enough.

The average return right now is actually, when it's being returned, is only going to like the 25 or 26. So more times than not, you're actually doing well. That the Texans, who we'll talk about later in a very similar. In a similar situation, kicked it and they were, they got the benefit of a penalty on the Jaguars and the ball ended up being like at the ten yard line. So that I've seen that a bunch of times. It's not just Dennis Allen and. But it puts it at the 30 where you only need, like, in this case, like, what, 25 yards and suddenly you're kicking a game when you field goal.

Yeah. I wonder if coaches are so afraid of the dynamic kickoff that they'd rather just give up the extra five yards in the time. Like, it doesn't really make sense. Cause that was what I was.

I mean, I get it.

They are. Yeah, but that's the average is usually like the 26.

They talk about competing all week. Why don't we compete? Play a little football.

Exactly. Put your money where your mouth is. Dennis Allen and every other coach. How about coaches that need to bleed clock and throw the ball on second down when they just need to drain clock? You're going to drive me. I'm going to go on a whole soapbox here. Let's not go there. This is going to, I think, sit back for the Saints and they're going to be a few weeks ahead and be like, man, game should have won. Like, it's hard to win games in this league. It's really hard to win games in this league that you think you should win and then you give them opportunities to take it from you. Like 58 yards is no joke. But young Wake, who just bangs it through. This is a game that you should be able to feel confident that, hey, we've played well enough, we've outplayed them. We deserve this win. Let's close it. And they didn't close it. And coaches and coaches coach and scared.

So they scored three offensive touchdowns and the Falcons didn't score any. And they lost.

And they lost.

I can't imagine that's happened many times. It's very similar to the stat that about the Commanders and the Giants and the Giants in week two. And the difference in this case is the Falcons did get a couple touchdowns. They were just from a pick six, which was. Yeah, Derek Carr said after the game, I did hold it too long, and that's probably true. He shouldn't have tried to jam it in there. But also, like, we can just be real when luck is a massive, massive part of the game. It bounces up in such a way and is caught on the pick six and it was kind of bad luck.

Yeah, you could try.

I thought Derek Carr played pretty well in this game, actually. There was a couple moments when, when they were driving, but for the most part I thought he played well. What were you going to say?

Yeah, no, the collect, the connection with the lava, you can see that start to get better as the season goes on, but you could go out back and get your friend to stand about five yards away from you and throw the ball at their elbow and try to get it to ricochet into the air like happened where the ball comes off of Derek Carr's hand, goes to Matt Judahn's bottom elbow and somehow goes up into the air 20 yards and is a pick six.

I think both of these teams have to be concerned about their pass rushes. Both quarterbacks they thought had too much time in this game. Cousins had a lot of time early in this game. The Saints pass rush really wasn't getting there. Cousin still is not moving well. Like when he is given time, he spins it. He actually had a handful of really nice throws in this game. But again, if you look at his numbers on play action or outside the pocket or under center, it's very minimal and it's like negligible production when he's doing it. I think he was like four for six for like under 30 yards on play action and so he, he's just very limited in what he can do. Like I said though, he, when they, given time, he, he spun it a handful of times in this game.

Yeah, that kills me, though, because like, again, coach, to your, your strengths, coach to the strength.

Yeah, but he can't move. He can't move.

That really pains me. And then you're going to ask him to hold the ball longer, too. I mean, 25 attempts over two and a half seconds like that, that's kind of, that's Jalen Hurts and the Eagles.

That's what it works. Yeah, it was.

Kirk Cousins is not Jalen Hurts.

Okay. It was three for six on play action for 28 yards, two for three outside the tackle box. And yeah, I mentioned car and up and down game. You know, they, they got the ball. It's Saints, Falcons. They had just failed on a fourth down inside the Atlanta Falcons ten yard line with about four minutes to go. And you thought, ooh, that might have been their last chance. I like that Dennis Allen went for it there. I want to give him some credit actually, because they could have tried to cut the lead to three, got the ball back and stop him. Instead, he went for the touchdown and they got, they sent some blitzes after Carr. He might have been a little panicked and got rid of the ball too quickly, and that was probably his worst moments in what was otherwise a good game. But then he gets the ball back. Saints force a really ugly three and out by the Falcons. They get the ball back on the Atlanta 42 and despite some boneheaded penalties by his teammates, Rashid Jahid and the offensive line makes a mistake. Car has a nice drive down to the goal line and what I thought was going to be like one of the touchdown calls of the day, Alvin Camara, who had just a heroic game despite a broken ribs get, gives them a go ahead touchdown.

Two tight ends, high formation.

Morrow handoff.

Alvin Camara, he gets pushed into the.

End zone by Adam Prentiss.

Alvin Caveira cuts.

That tied the game with the extra point to follow with a minute left. That was Mike Haas and WWL. And yeah, just as a fan of Alvin Camara. 77 yards on the ground with that touchdown. Seven catches for 42 yards in the air, playing with a broken rib. Derek Carr said after the game, like he reminds me so much of Marshawn lynch, who people might forget was with their car in Oakland at one point and just says, those two guys love football maybe more than anyone I've ever known. Taysom Hill, I also think loves football a lot, was massive in this game. I think was going to have a big workload. Had six carries early with two touchdowns, playing with a bruised lung, another guy that loves football. And then he suffers a rib injury on the other side of his body, according to Dennis Allen and was knocked out of the game, so they didn't even want to use Camaro that much. Olavi was going in and out with like a yemenite hamstring injury. It was, it was a lot. It was Falcon Saints. It always delivers. That was the Sunday drive presented by the all new hybrid Toyota Camry.

Whatever your vibe, it's a Camry vibe. Learn more@toyota.com Camry all right, that's enough of these, like, close, really entertaining games. Let's go to a really entertaining blowout in Arizona.

Third and goal from the ten, 840 to go. Fourth quarter.

Here's the snap.

Arizona breaks four.

Plenty of time for jaden.

Throws over to the middle, into the edge. Oh, that is caught.

Touchdown.

Touchdown, Washington. Terry McLaurin back to back weeks for a score in the fourth.

I love hearing the glee every week from Bram Weinstein of WBIG. You could just, you can just tell this guy's having the time of his life, as are all commanders, employees and fans, of which I guess he's won. He's an employee. Jaden Daniels goes 26 for 3233 yards through the air with a touchdown and a pick, also runs for 47 yards on the ground. The Washington commanders are three and one, and they lay the smackdown on the Cardinals 42 to 14 on the road.

Where, where the defense hasn't really performed recently. It was, they had to have a win in a score fest where they scored every time against the Cincinnati Bengals. I thought it was going to be up and down the field, and to start things off, it was the Cardinals go right down. Collar has a touchdown pass to Marvin Harrison junior, right after Jaden leads things off with a touchdown run. But eventually the defense gets pressure on Kyler. Kyler is 16 of 22. A lot of those, a lot of those incompletions came on third down, where Arizona was ultimately four of eleven on the day. But it's tough to not watch this game and come away with, oh, my God. Jaden Daniels is legit for the second week in only four incompletions, including an interception. Second game in a row where Jaden has had this random miss where the ball doesn't go anywhere near where he wants to go. It's actually behind the defender as well. He kind of makes a great one handed grab. Other than that, pretty much a perfect game where also Brian Robinson, junior is, goes over 100 yards on 21 carries. He's averaging almost five yards of carry in this game.

And Cliff Kingsbury comes back afterwards. Dan Quinn, laying just a litany of f bombs in the locker room, says that Cliff Kingsbury is not leaving this blanking city without a blanking game ball and tosses it to Cliff and they're going crazy. Every, everything's coming up. Commanders right now shook this, this their world. They're leading the NFC east.

Never. This is also a Cliff Kingsbury revenge game, by the way. I think that's a side note. Never in a world that I think that we would be praising so much Cliff Kingsbury so much just because of the way that his tenure went with Arizona. But here we are. And you know what? Let's take a moment here on a very happy day. Somber moment. Pour one out. Metaphorically. The possession streak ends at.

Okay, okay.

It finally ended. They finally didn't score on a possession, but that's how good they've been. They've been dominant. They've been pumping the ball in the end zone. Jayden Daniels, he completes. His completion percentage was 86.7%. That's after he set the rookie record last week and that went over the Bengals. You can't stop these guys. They're a machine. No, Austin Eckler because he's in concussion protocol. No problem. Jeremy McNichols, come on down. Eight carries, 68 yards, two touchdowns. Throw anybody in there. This offense is a well oiled machine. All we need to do is put warm bodies in there. We're going to blow you out of your own stadium.

Yeah. The success rate for Brian Robinson, Jeremy McNichols and Jaden Daniels, all of them were individually over 50%, which is like a huge number when you're running the ball. So it, it just shows, it doesn't matter who it is. Yes. Daniels is obviously special and chooses well when to run. I think he's gotten a little more careful over the last couple of weeks, which is a great sign. But the offensive line, that, that's the one thing I think Kingsbury deserves the most credit for, really. The thing that he did well in Arizona, I thought was coach up and have a good offensive line despite, you know, that you looked at the talent and you weren't really sure. And they've been very good. And it's not just a throw the ball behind the line, a scrimmage thing. Patrick, he, the Jaden Daniels was five for five under pressure today. So when they got some heat, which wasn't too often, five passes under pressure is not a lot. He, he was complete and seven for nine on throws between ten and 19 yards. So he's been pretty good on the mid range. The deep balls haven't really happened except for the two famous plays now from that Monday night game.

But it's, it's amazing. This team could, I don't know. I don't know what this team could do. We could win the division. Why not?

And honestly, because defenders are scared to get too far upfield. You have to be honest about your rush lanes because you don't know when Jaden's going to pull down. He's making the decisions very, very well. Get, coming into this game, it was 2.5, 1 second snap to throw where we just talked about Rogers getting rid of the ball in that range in a slugfest where they couldn't move the ball at all. That's, that's how quickly Jaden's been getting. It seems like perhaps the Giants in that field goal festival a few weeks ago had the best game plan with Jaden Daniels incident in.

I mean, they didn't stop him, though. I mean, right?

They were 20.

Yeah, they really, yeah, that's true. I mean, they were just like when they were blowing open holes in the red zone, it was just, these were the, they were easy. The Cardinals defense played a little closer to where I thought the Cardinals defense would play in the first three weeks of the season. And then the Cardinals offense was disappointing. You watched it closer than me, Patrick. But Kyler took four sacks. He looked a little frazzled at times. I thought, like, his eyes were down where he, he looked a little confused. So I don't know if that was something Dan Quinn was sending them. Dorans Armstrong had a good game, but for the commanders team, that was 32nd out of 32 in a lot of categories. This was, you know, obviously a great performance by them after, you know, a quick start by the Cardinals offense. They, they get the first drive, touchdown, not much the rest of the day.

Well, the one thing that, that has been consistent with the commander secondary is when the quarterbacks, the opposing quarterbacks have taken the shots. They haven't always been able to make plays on the ball. And Kyler just, I'm not sure if, how things were, he was seeing them, but he just wasn't taking those one on one opportunity when they were available early. But Emmanuel Forbes, who's gotten a lot of negativity from the way that his career started, made several plays in this game. St Juice as well. These guys, the commanders at corner have really, really struggled, and we'll see the next time that they get a chance to make plays on these 50 50 balls. But today, Kyler just didn't, didn't really.

Want to pull the trigger on they're they're in the mix. Washington. I mean, they are leading the NFC east, and at this point, you have an offense that good, you have to think they got a real chance. Our friend Nate Tice, who's helping us out at the NFL Network here, so I'm on good morning football, tweeted out something that the Washington commanders, through four weeks of the season, I believe have, are in the top ten all time in success rate. So that in terms of just like, do you have a good play on a play to down to down basis, they, they are ranking through four weeks with the best four week starts of any offense in history. They are getting it done. Let's move on to Tampa where, where another offense got it done.

Need a yard and a half. Mayfield shotgun. Look, hands the keeps the ball himself times. Got a Tampa Bay touchdown. Mayfield with a designed quarterback keeper Gene.

Deckerhoff from WF us. Yeah, that was Baker Mayfield's rushing touchdown to give them a big lead in this game. They held on for a 33 to 16 win, and this was way easier than anyone would have thought. I mean, just even them winning was a surprise to me. I picked the Eagles. I feel like an idiot. You picked the Eagles?

I sure did.

Then again, we didn't totally know the injury report at that time. Lane Johnson did not play, Devonta Smith and AJ Brown did not play, despite AJ Brown returning to practice on Friday. So that was unfortunate. And yet you can maybe put it more on the Eagles defense, which is healthy. The first quarter, 21 to nothing lead, 189 yards to zero yards. That's a tough way to start a game.

Yeah, it was a, honestly, because to see the struggles that Jalen Hurts was having again, no Devante Smith, no AJ Brown. He was holding on to the ball a very long time ago. Got a sack from Vita via holding onto the ball as well. Two strip sacks in those situations. But over, over on the other side, because we saw Vic Fangio's defense absolutely shut the Saints down in the superdome less than a week ago. And then to come out and see Baker Mayfield, which Tom Brady on the call, he was freed from his curse of the Cowboys scourge early on in the season. He's watching his former teammates go up and down the field just heaping praise on Chris Godwin. But you could see what a healthy Chris Godwin does to this offense. He got nine, nine targets, caught six of them for 69 yards. Our crucial third down conversions as well. It was just Baker operating at a level against this Eagles defense where they didn't necessarily know what was going on. Quinyan Mitchell made one play on Mike Evans to knock away a touchdown. I can't really think of another play that Eagles defender made in the first, in the first few drives of this game.

Baker, 347 and two touchdowns. And I don't even know what to say about the Eagles at this point. Nick. It's. It's a rough situation.

It's not pretty. I mean, you go back to some of the markers in the next gen categories for Jalen Hurts and it's kind of telling. Again, 16 attempts over two and a half seconds. Doesn't have his top two receivers out there. Nobody's getting open. He's holding onto the football. They've looked like this for most of the season. He did have 14 under two and a half seconds, but still, half of it being longer, that worries me. And they didn't protect him well. He was sacked six times. That speaks to the fact that he's holding on to the ball too long. You go in there shorthanded against the team that is aggressive. The Todd Bowles defense is aggressive and is going to get after you. And you find yourself in a 21 to nothing hole after going three and out on each of your first three possessions, you're fighting an uphill battle that you're probably not going to win, especially when a guy like Baker Mayfield is balling, which he did to start the season. And now he's right back on track after a rough week last week.

He's all or nothing. This guy's crazy because he. He had one of the worst games of his career. When I rewatched that one last week, I thought it was. It was kind of on him. Last week, he. He was the problem. And then he comes out today, and that touchdown he had to Trey Palmer is like, that was perfect coverage. I can't remember who was in coverage. Was it slay?

Yeah, it was. I think it was Darius Lay and.

The safety was coming over the top. There was no window there, and he just fires it in there. And that's just like, well, that's. That's too good. There's nothing that you can even do with that. Mike Evans becomes the all time leading Bucks scorer with a touchdown earlier than that, and the Bucks get the ball going on the ground for the first time all year's. Both White and Irving go ten for 49. Like the nicest running back split I've ever seen.

Let's. Let's unpack that real quick, because that's all the talk in Tampa right now, is give Bucky Irving, more carries than, than Rashad white. He's playing better, his success rates higher. Everything else they like, mirrored each other. The only difference is he got the touchdown. So what do you do now?

It's fine. You need. You need them both. Yeah.

It's the way Bucky is going to pop on some plays, and you can see the explosiveness. He's a different style runner. And when it works in the faster guy, gets more yards in the fan. Brian Brain, it's like, okay, yeah, this. This is the guy. Because we feel like we have a, we have a chance where they hadn't really been running the ball very well. They, they didn't really run the ball a lot today, even in a game where they led wire to wire. But it's, it's just one of those, it's one of those things where they're both going to be a part of this offense. But I do think we will see more and more Bucky Irving as the season goes on.

Let's listen to Dallas Goddard talking about Nick Sirianni's message after the game. You know, he said, it's early. You know, we're two and two.

He talked about that.

You know, it's not college football.

You know, our season's not over.

We got a lot of football ahead.

Of us, and, you know, we just got to find ways to stay ahead of the sticks, move the ball, and.

You know, come back. We got a lot of football left. Something about that bothers me that, like, why is Nick Sirianni telling the coaches, this is not college football. The season's not over. It's like if the pros in that locker room are not thinking the season's overdevelop, like, it just gives you a window. It's like, hey, guys, don't think the season's over. The season is not over, guys, no matter what they're saying. And I just.

Maybe it's. Maybe it's a little personal projection regarding who finishes the season.

I do worry about that because last week they just won the game and every press conference was included. Some version of the question from reporters, like, and what is it you do here? Actually, Nick, because, like, it was talking about how he jumped in and messed things up with the fourth down call last week. And then they asked Jalen hurts a question and asked, like, how if they're going to get together and they're going into their bi week at two and two, if they would get together and maybe decide how you want the message to be the team or how you want to handle things between him and Nick as you go into the second part of the year and Jalen hurts, his answer was, we have our moments.

This is, this is carryover from last year. That's what this is. This is the pressure of last year. Already weighing them down one month into the season.

I think that, I mean, it's just he's always, they always give him, and they know what they're doing. They always give them a chance to say something nice about Nick Sirianni. And then he never says it hurts. Had to been frustrated. He was pressured on 48% of his drop backs. Four of eleven under pressure. Great job by the buckshe look. The Bucs have had two games where they looked outstanding this year. Week one against the commanders, and this week they stole one in Detroit in a game they probably should won. That's why those steals are so big, because now they're sitting there at three and one eagles or two and two, but it's going to feel worse than that during their bye week. All right, before we head to break, want to let you know and just send all of our thoughts to everyone that is in Tampa or anywhere in the Gulf coast region and struggling with the after effects of Hurricane Helene. As we hear more about it, it's really devastating and families affected by Hurricane Helene urgently need support. You can help the American Red Cross provide meals and shelter to these families.

Donate today to Hurricane Helene relief efforts by going to redcross.org NFL third down in three.

The Bengals at their own 38. Joe looking has lots of time, has passed. Caught at the 50 by Jamar Chase. Breaks a tackle, streaking down the far sideline. Got two teammates and he will take it to the house for a 63 yard Bengals touchdown.

Nice.

Believable.

Great job there by Dan Horde and Dave Laffen. I believe what Dave Lapham said during that highlight was nice. Nice. See ya. See ya.

Nice.

Just fantastic. Jamar Chase takes a house call on a play that probably should have been about a six yard gain. Helps his buddy Joe Burrow out on a day where, yeah, they got it going on offense, 34 to 24. The Bengals get the win in a Andy Dalton revenge game that was not, although I don't think he was the problem. The Bengals defense, Chuck made just enough plays. They got a goal line stand early and they got a pick and that was about it. With the offenses doing well the rest of the day.

Yeah, that's the story of the bagels so far. Good to finally get off the shiny and get a win. First off, congratulations to the Bengals. I thought they set the tone with that goal line stand early in this game. They arrived in Charlotte on a mission and that was don't go in for and don't lose to Andy Dalton. And they did that. So good for them. This is a team that's going to be carried by its offense. It's going to be carried by Joe Burrow, who made one mistake all day, which was the interception. Otherwise he was excellent again. And luckily they got enough out of their ground game. That was probably the best game on the ground this season. Just visually speaking it, you know, 30 attempts between Chase Brown, Zack Moss for 131 yards and two touchdowns. That kind of set the tone for their offense. And Joe was allowed to build out of that. Of course, he has that hookup with Jamar, chase the human pinball on that 63 yard touchdown reception, which moved him into a tie with Odell Beckham junior for the most 60 plus yard receiving touchdowns in the Super bowl era with nine.

Can you believe that? Nine. So they're, they're humming offensively, defensively, leaves a lot to be desired. Trey Hendrickson left this game with an injury in the fourth quarter that we need to keep track of because that's their only source of pass rush. That's where I'm concerned. But again, good for them to get that win on the road.

Yeah, and a concerning area as well. Cause Trey Hendrickson dips down his helmet, runs into another player. It leaves the game there. But the positive side on the Bengals offense, which were a whole bunch of positives. Just five pressures on 32 dropbacks against the Panthers, albeit it's against the Parolina Panthers. But this is the new look. Carolina Panthers and he, Dalton starting now.

He'S not playing defense for some reason.

For some reason, the defense got better. Yeah, but, but ultimately, Chase Brown gets. Leads the team in rushing. Didn't play most of the game. I think he only played. He played less than 42% of the snapsh. Also got a goal line carry as well, which is. Was a little bit of an upset because.

15 for 80 with two touchdown.

Yeah, it was.

And he was sitting out there in my kids fantasy league, I'm trying not to tell them what to do too much. I'm like, how's Chase Brown on your waiver at that point?

You gotta, you gotta pull rank. Go ahead and. Go ahead.

And I give suggestions.

Yeah, sorry, Greg leads, leads in his own way.

They both teams really didn't have any pressure. So that's. It's a little concerning, I think, for both of these teams. Two quarterback hits, zero sacks. Now both quarterbacks are getting the ball out. I always check after these games, like, are the Bengals ever going to, like, run more of a offense that Zach Taylor, you know, was used to running, like the one that he ran when Joe Burrow was hurt last year and, like, try a little, you know, try to get Joe Burrow to do a little more play action, a little more under center stuff. And the answer is usually like, yeah, we, we tried a little, and it never works. He was four for six for 18 yards with play action. Like, they're trying to push Joe Burrow to not just be that, but that's just not what he's good at. He's good at sitting in shotgun and just kind of playing distributor and get the ball out quick.

Yeah, I mean, it worked out for him like that and.

Right.

My concerns are not with their offense. My concerns are entirely with their defense. On the flip side, the Panthers, let's talk about Andy Dalton, who looked good again. That interception that he threw was not his fault. It was a deflected. It was a, his arm was hit when he threw it. Otherwise, he looked pretty good again. They had a shot to win this game. They were down, touchdown late. They had the ball and they came up short. They didn't really mount much of a comeback effort on that drive, but the fact that they were in the game alone just shows how far they've come in two weeks from Bryce Young, and this is the least talented team in football, and Bryce Young limits this offense to Andy Dalton can go out there and throw for 220 and keep this offense going. And Chuba Hubbard went for over 100 yards today, which is great to see, like, they have life offensively. It's just that in this game, much like the Bengals lost to the Commanders last week, they didn't have quite enough offense to keep up. What really happened is they went down 21 to 14 with a well timed little dump off to Brown along the the sideline for a touchdown.

It was 20, 114 and a half. Bengals come out, go right down the field and score, and they're up two touchdowns, and the Panthers are trying to play catch up. If they weren't in that situation, probably would have been tight all the way to the final snap of the game.

Yeah, the Bengals get a little more production out of T Higgins with six catches. I things are moving in the right direction. We'll see when the defense plays in better offenses coming up. But look, they caught up a game in the AFC north. They, this was a must win game. They said afterwards, you just can't go to Owen. Four. They're going to try to be crawling out of this hole probably for the whole season, maybe for the just the first half of the season. But they caught up. A game in the AFC north. The Panthers fall to one and three. They're already a couple games back, so dreams of suddenly being relevant, maybe taking a little break here. Let's go to two teams who are definitely entering Sunday in Vegas, worried about falling into irrelevance.

They got to get right. They're not right.

They're not right.

Their coverage is not a better.

They bring Cooper to the left. There's the snap.

Watson pumps. He's under pressure. He's rolling out to the left. Raiders giving chase. It's Charles Snowden. Snowden with the sack and the biggest play of the day. Charles Snowden off the edge. Back to back plays. And the Raiders defense with 34 seconds left, might have just won this game against Cleveland.

There's no might've. After a couple kneels, the Raiders get the win at home, 20 to 17. They are two and two. The Browns at one and three and not feeling good about life. Yes, Deshaun Watson got them within striking distance inside the ten. They're late, holds onto the ball. Looks like a disguised coverage confused him. Nick. His read that he expected to be open, I think was cooperative and I think he thought it was man coverage and ends up he's double covered. He holds on to it too long, doesn't get rid of the ball, and, man, they lose. Sad times in Cleveland.

Yeah, sad times. And the funny thing is, is most of this season has been defined for the Browns not to focus on the losers first, but most of it has been focused on the fact that shadow Watson has not played well. He actually played pretty well today. He put them in multiple spots where they could score points or at least get closer to scoring points. It was everybody around him failing. It was the penalties committed. He stepped up in the pocket and found Amari Cooper wide open for an 82 yard touchdown that would have flipped the game and gave them the lead. Gets called back by holding on Nick Harris, who came in for the injured Ethan Posek at center. There's another play earlier in the game where he throws a pass over the middle to Amara Cooper. Perfect ball, hits him right in the chest, pops right up in the air for an interception. It was that type of day for the Browns and a gritty win for the Raiders. Playing without Max Crosby, playing without Devontae Adams, and getting as creative as you'll probably see outside of Matt LaFleur's approach with Malik Willis.

A couple of weeks ago with the ground game, they had like seven different guys carry the ball. Two receivers scored rushing touchdowns in this game. Their lead running back was Alexander Madison with five for 60. They rushed as a team for 152 yards, the first time their rushing game has shown any life this season. So it was one of those team victories that didn't look pretty, but they needed it. And they needed to be gritty without Adams and Crosby, and they got the job done. But to circle back on that play one more time.

Okay, Watson's got two.

He's got two guys open. Yeah, he's got two guys open. And he's about to fire. And I think he sees somebody slide back in coverage and that's when he pulls it down. And by then, the pass rush was in his face. Good day for him. Otherwise, tough ending for the Browns. The Browns are a bad team. They are a bad, bad football team of the quarterback who can't be trusted. Simple as that.

Yeah, on that play, you're right, guy. Guys were open, and that's ultimately on the quarterback to figure out what the defense is doing. And I stay calm under pressure. Look, they. Yeah, they had a first and ten at the Vegas 16 with two minutes to go. So they had all sorts of time then, like a bungled snap and an incomplete. Just a lot of sloppiness. Watson had one interception in this game that was just a drop right by Amari Cooper, and it could have been a big play, and it turned into an interception. And to your point, on the Raiders running game, I did have to google who is d turner for the Raiders. Dj turner. One carry, 18 yards. Touchdown.

Yeah, it's one of those wide receiver carries. The other one went to Trey Tucker. Come all the way around on the end zone. A play that started with a handoff to Samir White, which 17 plays ultimately handed off to Samir White. And he got 50 yards. He was 2.9 yards per carry. Alexander Madison is out. Gained a in every game they played this season. And at a certain point, I know AP wants to get this ground game figured out was Amir White, but this, this seems like Alexander Madison's backfield. He had five carries for 60 yards today. Looked explosive.

Did he have the conversion on the third and nine? That was where I was like, man, the Browns are not the Browns because it was a third and nine run.

Yeah.

And they picked it up.

Yeah, they don't, they don't tackle well. They, they lead the league in the most missed tackles. And yeah, it was Madison on that run, a hard fought run. But I. Another poor display of tackling.

And again, this is, this was a game that we weren't necessarily thinking this was going to be a score fest coming in. Two very, very hurt teams, two offenses that are playing poorly. But there were so many chances. There were so many chances for Cleveland, and they didn't take advantage of almost any of them. And the place they did make the holding call being the key one. And I understand the fourth down play, pressure comes to shut. You have to throw the ball somewhere on that. But, but again, it shouldn't have been to that point.

Right.

It shouldn't have even come into that circumstance because in the second half, the Browns defense eventually did get things figured out.

Yeah, they got the pick. I mean, they got that J. Okay, forces a fumble that they return for a touchdown. And I was just about to say, look, the Browns defense, still a good defense, but you just couldn't expect them to be as dominant as they were a year ago consistently. It's just not going to happen. Then again, you know, in this game, they did score seven points to, to mitigate whatever, you know, mistakes they made against a team without Devontae Adams. They're missing both their tackles. You mentioned the center got hurt there. There are extenuating circumstances, Nick, for sure, but they're, they're not overcoming them. And in this one, give credit to the Raiders, who are, I mean, Isaiah. Paula Mayo is out there. Mayo, not pala Malo. Paula Mayo is out there and making pass breakups at safety and getting a sack on a blitz, and they're having guys step up and, and get enough. Like Caleb on Chase on showed up and had three pressures in this game. I'm like, oh, wow. Caleb on Jason. It's happening finally after, after five years. So it's probably not really, it's against some backup tackles, but I, it was a big, it was a big day for Antonio Pierce, who had a tough week, and for the Raiders to get this win, to get to two and two.

Yeah, that, that safety pull, mal, that you talked about, he made a fantastic breakup on a past, a perfect pass from Deshaun Watson to Jerry Judy. That would have been a huge gain. And he arrives at the perfect time they're playing. I mean, that defense has been good all year, and even without Crosby, they still play good football. The Browns bad vibes, like the bad vibes group in the NFL right now. There are two teams in there, the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Cleveland Browns.

Hmm. Okay.

I think some Eagles fans will probably.

Yeah, not yet.

Almost, but not yet.

They're pretty bad. Yeah. Pretty bad vibes, but, yeah.

The play that Nick was talking about with polo mayo, his helmet or shoulder pads are inches different, and that's a flag in a fine. Like, he really got his helmet and shoulder pads in the perfect place to break. Judy was asking for a flag, but he couldn't. You know, he has to benefit. Doesn't have the benefit of seeing the play from the outside where it was perfect timing and perfect placement and it.

Was a great throw. It was also third and three in the fourth quarter. And Watson goes for a shot and it was like, he was, like, wide open. It was like there was a safety, you know, obviously there was a safety back there, and he didn't beat coverage that much. So it's like the decision. The decisions with Watson, not the best. You say the vibes aren't good in Cleveland. I mean, if you listen to Boston talk radio on Monday, I doubt the vibes are going to be great there, either. Let's go to Santa Clara.

They have three left, and Hunter Henry, the former charger, tight end, right. Brissette back, steps up. Here comes Floyd. Throw over the middle, intercepted by Fred Warner. Fred gets up and runs back the other way. 30, 21 block and he's in. Ten, five. Pushed out, dives for the end zone. Touchdown, San Francisco. Pick City, baby.

One of my favorite plays of the year, a Fred Warner pick six. This guy is your best defensive player in the league through four weeks. Greg Papa, Tim Ryan on KNBR. You just love it when potential hall of Fame type players are at their very peak and you can just count on tuning in every week. They're going to do something special that looked like a glitch in, like, a video game in Tecmo bowl where the guy would just fly right off the top of the screen and Fred Warner just. I didn't even see him. Jacobi Brissette definitely didn't see him. He flies to the top, gets up off the ground and gets a touchdown. Unfortunately, Warner left the game later with an ankle injury, was nothing, not able to return. Was standing on the sideline, hopefully not too serious. And I just thought watching this game and seeing the individual plays by the 49 ers and enjoying hearing Greg Papa's voice so much like this game had two highlights, two touchdowns that were maybe better than any two touchdowns I saw all day. So let's hear another one.

Third and ten on the twelve yard line, 10th play, the drive they've had two touchdowns called back by penalties. Brock, shotgun. You check to his right, the long back. You tight right, and they go, kittle, Jennings, Debo from inside you out left. Brock back and a throw for the end zone for Kittle. Loud ball. George went up and caught the ball. Touchdown, San Francisco. Kennel in the corner, baby. Superman in the phone booth he went. And there are players raped all over him.

Three Patriots defenders there to try to stop George Kittle. You can't stop him. What a play. It turns out that you're better when you have Debo Samuel on the field and George Kittle on the field. And, yeah, they were back to being the 49 ers. They ran away and hid very early in this game.

Yeah, Debo Samuel had a 53 yarder from Brock Purdy. Just those, because you wonder, like, what, what happens when you don't have those guys? It's not necessarily always the continued offensive excellence. Sometimes it really is just four or five plays. And those four or five plays, when they're big, plays like that get all over three guys. Debo for 53. It just, it pops over the course of the game. And yeah, the scary thing for San Francisco as they get all those guys back is Fred's going to get MRI tomorrow. And you don't, you don't really get in that machine for fun. So that's concerning. But it's. I mean, when they're healthy, I mean, they're the 49 ers. It's glad to see them back to being the 49 ers again, albeit against this Patriots team.

Right.

Made plays and spots. Made plays and spots. And they actually made it a game towards the middle of the fourth quarter, but just not enough at the end.

Yeah, it was 20 to ten at one point in the, in the third quarter. Joey sly hits a 62 yard bomb at the end of the first half. I mean, that was their highlight, but at that point, it was. It was 20 to nothing. And there were, as the announcer there mentioned, it's like there were like touchdowns called back by penalties multiple times for the 49 ers. And they would just like, score anyways. Couple fumble situations, which, you know, worked out in San Francisco's favor. The Patriots offensive line is just so bad. And then they lose David Andrews, who's their best player, their center early in this game, Kaden Wallace, who, it's their third string left tackle, got hurt and left the game. And it's just insane. Brissette play had a, faced a 54% pressure rate, ten QB hits, six sacks. I'm amazed that he's been able to keep getting up because he's taking hard hits. The difference in this game shook on one level is actually Purdy was under a lot of pressure in this game. Keon White had a good game and their offensive line wasn't amazing. And Purdy is outstanding at escaping pressure in a way that, you know, Jacoby is not going to be, never was, but definitely not at this stage of his career.

No. Yeah. And I feel like this game essentially, like, delivered what we expected from both teams. Speaking of strengths and weaknesses. Cause, like, Jacoby's been under attack like this every week and he's taken a ton of hits, like you said, to the point where there's been many times where I've been like, oh, is that when it knocks him out and he just keeps getting back up and getting back out there and continues playing. I mean, it answers every question as to why people are like, why aren't they playing? Drake may because they can't protect well enough and there's no reason to put him back there. But on the flip side, you know, you also get, you know, the 123 yard rushing day from Jordan Mason and, you know, everything that you see from the 49 ers, you know, highlights wise and George Kittle being the most joyful guy other than Bob Papa in the entire Levi stadium. As soon as he makes that catch like this, very much tracks with what we expected. And unfortunately, because of who the Patriots are. And it starts again in the trenches, as I'll always say, this is going to be how a lot of their season goes and you're just going to have to, you know, accept it and hope for the best.

It's tough. They're probably the worst team in the NFL. The 49 ers had six plays over 20 yards. I. You got a big chunk early, but then again, seemed a little off on a couple plays. Almost caused an interception with Purdy. Juwan Jennings made a ridiculous catch in for 45 yards in tight coverage over Jonathan Jones. That was like a beautiful ball by Purdy. So is the ball to Samuel. I've really been impressed with how Purdy's playing this year. He had an outstanding throw early in this game across his body on the third and nine to keep a drive going. That was just not an ordinary play. And then those nice deep balls, he missed a couple of deep, but he kept trying for him in it. And they're hitting these post shots, which is, you know, you, you don't see them hitting, going for those bombs all the time. And he. He's a good deep ball thrower. They do not miss Christian McCaffrey that much because their running game is so effective. I know they miss them, Patrick, but Jordan Mason had 160 yards in this game. They are statistically one of the most effective running games.

I just mean like the running game is, is pretty low on their list of concerns. Anything offensively is pretty low on their list of concerns.

Yeah, that, that particular aspect of when.

The speaker three a really good player, too.

Jordan Mason is a solid running back. It's not to take away from Christian McCaffrey. Jordan Mason can contribute on a lot of teams. I do think in the passing game, not having Christian, Christian McCaffrey is a significant loss because it just forces you to have to defend so many aspects of the field and contend with Debo and Brandon Iook and George Kittle. It allows everybody to kind of be at their best, which is why they traded for him in the first place. But regardless, New England didn't have the horses on either side to really be in this game and San Francisco kind of able to zombie.

Don't get too confident, San Francisco. The Jets also had a game like this and, you know, came back to earth quickly because they might think like, oh, we got our defensive line problems solved. Like Kevin Givens had two and a half sacks in this game. Actually, he's played well all year. Malik Collins had five pressures, a lot of them quick. Nick Bosa was involved in back to back sack plays in the third when, when it looked close for a brief second. But yeah, this, this Patriots line and everything about their offense just undermanned right now. They go to one and three and the 49 ers get a much win, much needed win to get to two and two. We're going to take a quick break here. We're actually going to say goodbye to Patrick Claibonne and thank him for his service on this program. We're going to say so long to Nick shook for just a little bit. He'll be back with me on Sunday night football and I'm just gonna chop it up with one of my favorite dudes, Kevin Patra, coming at you. Just a couple games. Bears, Rams, jags, Texans, both good games.

The Patrick games this week. See you, Patrick. Thank you.

See you guys.

Motion the tight end. Parkinson snap, stun up front. Pressure coming. Stanford hit. Bow intercepted.

Brisker.

The grab in the 18 yard line. The pressure flattened Stafford and Brisker with his second, well, almost second swipe of the day. The first one in the end zone did not count. This one counts very much and we got a feed of left moment at.

That's right, Jeff. Jack there on WMVP. Matthew Stafford, look, he battled. That's what Matthew Stafford does, but throws a late interception under pressure while getting smacked for a second, maybe. Did they get him around the head?

No, they definitely did.

Okay. They definitely did, but the call did not happen. And yes, that is Kevin Patra. The Bears win 24 to 18. Rams fall to one and three, and the Bears get a big win to even their record at two and two. So you think they missed that call, Patrick?

I do. I do think he got hit in the chops. But, you know, the, to me, this game was all about the, what the Rams didn't do and how the Rams like that. They, that was the interception to seal it. But Stafford's fumble in deep in his own end early in the game was what really canapulted the, the Bears like they. Then there was a penalty on the Rams that gave him a first down and first and goal at the one. They plunged it in. But before that, it was like the Rams were marching up and down the field installing as they are one to do without their top guns. And then the Bears couldn't do anything on, on, on offense at all. It was one first down and then a three and out and then a couple first downs. And Caleb Williams did not play well in the first half. And the ground game in Chicago again, as we'd seen all year, I mean, they have 97 yards in the first half and I think like six first downs. So, like, it wasn't pretty early, but that turnover deep in his own z end zone gave the Bears life.

So, yeah, you're talking about the turnover that sets up a very brief drive by the, by the Bears for the Roshan Johnson touchdown run, gives them a seven to six lead, ends up with a ten to six halftime lead in a half that it felt like the Rams were kind of controlling. But you got to give the Bears defense credit here. Like, just coming into the game, I thought, okay, the Stafford and this story that they had a week ago, which was great, is going to be challenged more today by the Bears. So it didn't surprise me that they finished with like 18 points in this game or that they struggled in the red zone. Like, what, what did the Bears defense do?

Well, they got pressure, I mean, and as they, as they usually do. And Brisker was all over the field, as in that call. He, he should have had another interception earlier in the game in the red zone, actually in the end zone, but he just stepped out by a toe. It was a very lackadaisical pass by Stafford. I couldn't believe he unleashed it. But Brisker was all over the field. Twelve tackles, a couple tackles for loss. That game closing interception. He was everywhere. And sweat had the game changing fumble. In my opinion earlier, he's the one who caused that, that Stafford fumble. So he had the that and the, the Rams, we know they're shorthanded. Kyron Williams did his thing. But when you don't have cup and you don't have Puka Nidoku to take away some of the coverages, the Bears could just sit on the run run game and they just kind of stuff them. There was just no like the, the Rams offense was just waves up and down all game, all game. You didn't know what you were going to get. One drive to the next.

Well, they, they changed up their wide receiver rotation. Jordan Winnington takes over as like the guy who's running the most routes, gets eight for six or six for 62. Finally makes me feel like it was worth going to a Rams preseason game for the first time ever.

I've heard of you home almost every time, right?

Cause he was awesome in the preseason. I actually do think he can replicate what puka and Cooper cup does more than anyone else just because of his style of plays. Physical. He's obviously not going to be as good as them.

He played well today and he was their leading receiver for most of the game until two two had a couple big catches later. But he was clearly the guy that staffer was comfortable with throwing the ball to over the middle.

Yeah, and two two has been great for them to gets four catches for 82 yards. Yeah, that the Caleb side of things. And the Bears offense, look, they get the job done. DeAndre Swift busts open a big run late in this game. Hell, let's listen to this touchdown run by Jeff Jack here with the call.

One back set snap. Dancing inside over a man swift for the burst to the 25 20. He's going, baby. Ten, five, end zone. Touchdown Bears. 36 yard jaunt by DeAndre Swift.

Needed that. This team is not going to get anywhere without a running game. Swift goes 16 for 93. Helped out by that, but they were better in the second half. They kind of took Khalil Herbert out of the rotation. They'll need that because Caleb Williams is certainly still struggling to throw deeper throws. He was 15 for 15 on throws under ten yards. Kevin Patras. So that that's good. But two for seven over ten yards over four over 20. His three wide receivers combine the three big ones, DJ Moore, Keenan Allen, and Rome Dunze combined for 51 yards on seven catches. So not a lot on the outside here.

No. And you can tell he kind of still doesn't trust his offensive line, I think. Cause it's either he gets it out quick or he just seems that the gears start to turn and just like kind of overthinking it where, you know, you'd like to see a little bit more progression from him and he flashes it every once in a while, but it really is, if his first read isn't there, he's overthinking it. And I think he's just waiting on pressure. He did that a lot in the first half. Like, he was just like, okay, pressure should be here by now because this is what the offensive line that I haven't had front of me going back to Swift, I think from what we saw last year and that he was a bunch of memes about him on the, on Twitter last year, last week after the Colts game. But he was much more decisive this week and I think that's what he needs to be. He's one of those guys who kind of gets in his own head when he's got two lanes to pick and he just needs to hit the hole and go.

And he was much better with that today. And I think that's why you saw improved run game.

Love it. Love, love a Kevin Patrick with the coaching tips for DeAndre Swift. And yeah, this, this Rams defense, you know that you get it sacked by Braden Fisk and they're just not special enough. They ran the ball fairly well, but this is going to be a very challenging season. Puka Nakua is reportedly going to be out till about week nine, according to Fox's Jay Glazer. So we'll see when Cooper cup returns. He is not on injured reserve. All right, let's go to Houston, where we thought it'd be a one sided game. Instead, Patrick got another good 1 second and goal.

Diggs to the right side.

British Brooks unit ready, offset. ICJ rolls out to the right, throws to the end zone, hits Dory, and the Texans score.

They lead.

CJ Stroud to Dario. Gon Boale, who's had a huge game, puts the Texans on top.

Oh, they didn't tell you that it was going to be the Dario Gumbawale revenge game, did they? Big game winning touchdown. Four catches for Agambuwali for 47 yards. And for the second time this season, the Texans needed a touchdown. Late happened against the Colts. Got it happened against the Jaguars. Got it. Or else this team could be looking at a totally different season. But they get the win three and one on the year. The Jaguars fall to zero and four, Kevin. And it was on a day where seemed like they. They gave the Texans everything they could have wanted. They had a second half lead, but couldn't close the deal.

Yeah, the. The Jags played better than they have, but they still left the door open. And this was a Nico Collins game all day, every time a big third down happened. Nico Collins. Big, big second and long. Cause the Texans couldn't stop committing penalties on. Especially the offensive line. Like, Laramie Tunsil is just a penalty machine right now. It's kind of ridiculous. They were in like second and 15 all game, and it would just be. Stroud drops back, hits Niko over the middle, and then they move to move the chains. But, I mean, this game started pretty hot for Houston. And then they scored three of their first four possessions. And then it was just the second half, just punt, punt, punt, punt. And I'm actually surprised that the Jags defense stood up without. They didn't have Devon Lloyd Lukans on Ir. So their run defense was pretty impressive. I mean, Akers had a few decent ones, but, I mean, they couldn't run the ball very well consistently, I should say. There's just a lot of third and long situations for, for CJ Stroud to. To manage his way through. And they did it when it counted.

And that's the kind of metal that you have when you have a stroud type of player. It kind of felt to me like that once they got the ball back with so much time, because we can get into the Jags and how they kind of imploded at the end, but they got the ball back with all day to just drive down and do whatever they wanted and milk the clock inside the five yard line before they scored.

Right? I mean, on one hand, I have a lot of faith in CJ Stroud to do it, do that. On the other hand, they had just gotten five straight punts. So the, the Jaguars offense had every chance to put this game away earlier. And I know they were outgained in this game, but I couldn't help but see that look. They had the better rushing game today. Tank. Big, big goes seven for 90, including a 58 yarder. ETN has a 50 yarder. Even Brian Thomas has a 13 yard run. So he's supported there. The defense is getting a lot of stops, and you need Trevor Lawrence to kind of step up a little more than he did. He had a negative 7.5% completion percentage over expected. Again, he's been at the very bottom of the league so far this season, and that matches the eye test. What did you see from Lawrence today?

He just continues to be scattershot. Especially most concerning is the short throws and the. The over the middle throws. That should be easy for him. He should be completing. And in a Doug Peterson offense, those are. Should be the easy throws that. That you can convert. And he. They called two pass plays on their final drive when they should have. They could have just milked the clock, because, like you mentioned, the run game was working in the second half. That's what got them into the lead. And so they. Instead of, you know, just leaning on that, at least on second down and getting, you know, getting into a manageable third down, they threw it twice, and then CJ Stroud had three and a half minutes to work his way down the field wherever. I mean, just given how Trevor Lawrence has played, I was kind of surprised. They put the ball in his hands in those spots, and he missed. He. He missed twice. Like, it wasn't. It wasn't like some great defensive play. He put up the ball behind Kirk on one. On the third down play. He had him. He's just missed. Like, I made a joke the other day.

It's like, he kind of reminds me of my toddler son when he first tried to. Started peeing. Like, standing up. Like, just. The toilet's right there. Just hit it. Hit the bowl.

I mean, like, it's like, a lot of. It's like a lot of the guys here at NFL media, I don't know what's going on, but you go to the urinal, and there's just, like, there's. There's always some liquid on the ground. I'm just, like, right there. This. That challenging it. Someone had to put a sign up at one point last year. I don't know if anyone. You remember that, Eric. Like, someone put us a sign up, being like, whoever keeps missing, like, let's get it under choice words on that sign, too. That is Trevor Lawrence right now. And it's interesting. Just keep that evaluation from Patra in mind when you listen to Doug Peterson after the game, being asked about possibly taking over play calling duties for what.

I thought he called a great game. As coaches, we can't go out there and make the plays right. It's a two way street. So, you know, you guys can sit here and point the finger all you want, and that's fine. Point it right at me. I can take it. Okay. I can take it. So whatever you want to ask me, say whatever. Write. Go ahead.

Mmm. This is really tough. And they're gonna be going to London soon. And when you hear that, that's. That's a tough one because that's gonna be sewn in the headlines of like, hey, the players, you know? I mean, he's not wrong like that. It's probably not all about the play calling it, but it's hard not to connect the dots between what's going on with his quarterback and just what the team is. And it's not about the play calling.

It's been four weeks of this. It's been four weeks of Trevor missing in big spots over and over again. They've had chances to win games. And Brian Thomas was great again today.

Six range and a touchdown.

Yeah, he deserves more targets. Honestly, he should have had more targets than Christian Kirkland to just. To be honest about that. But he was great. But Trevor just misses the layups. He just has to make layups. They're not asking him to do a whole lot. They, they don't, they don't push the ball down the field a ton. So he just has to hit the ones that are there. 54% completion rate for a guy with that came into the league as a number one overall pick is just highly disappointing.

Yeah, the yards per attempt down, too. And, yeah, I just wanted to circle back quickly. That neglect Collins is final stat line is twelve for 151 and a touchdown on 15 targets. And I was having this conversation. I wish I had it on air, off air. It's like, we don't have to wait to be like, hey, Nico Collins is one of the five best receivers in league. It's. It's obvious. He does literally everything. When you draw up what an x receiver is like, you kind of think of, oh, Mike Evans, maybe even a younger Mike Evans. Like, that's what you would want. Who can literally do everything after the catch at the catch point, can run routes as physical, red zone, short, long, everything. That is Nico Collins. He is the guy by himself on one side with the receivers on the other side. No tink tell. No problem. Stefan Diggs is a very nice second receiver. He goes five for 69 and runs in for a touchdown. But this guy is freaking awesome. Kevin, you are awesome as well. Appreciate.

Can I, can I just throw a stat on that that doubles down on what you're saying real quick before we go. Uh, so he totaled 115 of his 151 from next gen. Stats were on targets of over ten yards. So he's just, he's not doing these bubble screens right. Little dink Dunkin getting hollow yards. He's doing work. He's doing work.

He's great hands and you, you can connect those great hands to at least two of their victories, if not all three, where he was the difference in the game. Awesome stuff from him. And Stroud. Stroud ends up with 345 in a touchdown. And yeah, they are leading the AFC south at three and one. Kevin Patcher always leads the way when he is on the show. Looking forward to having you on again. We will wrap up the show with the little Sunday night Football to Baltimore.

Lamar starts in the pistol formation with.

Derek Henry behind him. Jackson stands five yards deep.

He'll give it to Henry right side.

Big hole. Henry across the leg. Race 40 he could 2010 five. He will go all the way. Touchdown Ravens. And this house is going wild right out of the gates. 87 yard touchdown. Listen to this.

WBal Jerry Sandusky on the call and that was Rod Woodson saying he gone. Derek Henry 24 carries, 199 yards on the ground. Two touchdowns on the day including one receiving. They left him in the game at the end to try to get over 200. John Harbaugh loves stuff like that. He just couldn't get it. Everything else went right for the Ravens on a night where they win 35 to ten. Humbling the Buffalo Bills who are at three and one. Ravens dig out of their zero two hole. They are two and two on the season. Lamar adds 54 on the ground with a touchdown. Was very efficient passing the ball. Nick shook Justice Hill gets 78 yards receiving when they brought Derrick Henry to Baltimore. The last two weeks are exactly what they imagine. Nick shook this Baltimore Ravens offense and their ground game are. They're just scary right now.

Gee, what a surprise. Last two games they've won. This is exactly what we, what we thought was going to happen in the offseason and it took a couple of weeks but they finally figured it out and they look like a machine. And I made the joke last week that I know Greg Roman was coaching for the Chargers because I saw him on tv, but I thought that he was coaching the the Ravens again because they're just a dominant ground team again. They were good last year on the ground. They are way better on the ground this time around when they get Derek Henry out loose and in the open field. He doesn't have to be the upfield he run guys over. It doesn't matter. But that mixed with Lamar Justice Hill is little scatback change of pace, catch some passes. It's tough offense to stop and I know it's only week four, but people are probably looking at the Ravens right now and thinking, God, how are we going to defend that, especially late in the year?

Yeah. The trademark of Ravens teams, which I really respect their organization more than any other, is throughout the course of the season they continue to add elements. They figure out what they can do, what they can't do. Their offensive line has had some issues the last couple of weeks, really, to start the season that they're missing one of their starting guards tonight. They have Rosengarden out there at right tackle. They moved the right tackle to guard. You have Patrick Ricard out there and they figured out, okay, what works, what doesn't. They've really almost created two different rushing attacks. You have the shotgun rushing attack, which has Justice Hill more than not, and he had a couple effective, you know, one effective run tonight, but ends up getting a lot of big gains as a receiver. They really had a touchdown drive, their third touchdown drive, which was keyed by multiple Justice Hill catches, a 15 yarder on third and 14, a 19 yard touchdown catch. But otherwise you got Derek Henry back there and it's mostly running out of the pistol and out of under center. And the pistol formation is where they got the touchdown out of and Jordan Rodrigue, she talked about it on our podcast.

A lot more offenses are going to be using the pistol because it's more flexible of how you want to run out of it. And Henry hit that big touchdown out of the pistol, but also had many more successful runs out of the pistol formation. Tonight it was over 50% success rate. So it wasn't all just about Boomer bus with one big run. He had a lot of good chunk runs. They're figuring out the under center stuff like that's been okay. Sometimes it hasn't. Otherwise we know what Lamar Jackson can do, which is not even require his wide receivers in a game where they absolutely dominate offensively. They had that long throw to likely and he's a tight end, of course. And like Zay Flowers and Rashad Bateman almost got a touchdown. Like they're barely involved. Bateman has one catch, Aguilar two for ten, flowers one for ten. And yet it was one of the most efficient, like offensive games of the year. You really felt like the Bills defense, which had been playing well, missed Milano and Terron Johnson and Terrell Bernard, and that's three of their best players and they should have two of them back pretty soon.

Milano won't be back anytime soon, so that's good news for them. But, Mandy, this Ravens offense, okay, now they've added elements. They figured out how they're going to marry the Derrick Henry running game with the rest of their offense, where, where Lamar likes to throw.

Yeah. And the personnel losses that the Bills are dealing with are exactly why it was so hard to defend them, because you're going to see other offenses run more of the pistol, which warms my heart as somebody you can think back to the days of the Nevada Wolf pack and Colin Kaepernick and the pistol offense in college football now that it's prevalent in the NFL. But this is going to be the team that does it the best because of who they have back there, because they have Henry as a hammer, who is also liable to break off a big play at any moment because they have Lamar, who's so hard to predict and defend and can also throw out of that formation and also beat you around the edge. And the way to counter that is to be stout up front. But really, it's all about your linebackers. And missing those guys in that defense made a huge difference for them, which then in turn makes the Ravens offensive line look that much better when they get to second level and they're able to get to guys that are replacing those usual starters for the bill.

So not going to be as lopsided, I think, on a week to week basis, but this is going to be one of the hardest teams to defend out of that formation specifically because they can go in so many different directions. And it all starts with Lamar Jackson and, and right after him, it's Derek Henry.

Right. So the Lamar's rushing touchdown was such a cool play where, like lions going one way and the guards are going.

The other and you guys going out right.

It's just like, so much for defenses to deal with. You want to settle down all these blitz packages people are sending your way, and the Bills are not a heavy blitz team anyways, but this is what you do. And yeah, I mentioned they had 22 plays under center, nine out of pistol. That's out of 54 play, so way over 50%. The pistol plays 78% success rate, had two touchdowns out of it. Not just the Henry play, just really cool stuff out of them. And they're using heavy formations. I looked and they barely ever had three receivers on the field tonight. So it's, it's two full, you know, it's Ricard and a running back almost, you know, two thirds of the play, and it's two tight ends. On a lot of the plays. You know, some plays, they don't have any receivers on the field, but, like, it's crazy that a lot of these plays, they have one receiver on the field, and, yeah, they even went heavy and, and I want to give their defense some love. Josh Allen was pressured on 15 of his 34 drop backs. I don't think he was, like, terrible tonight.

He ends up 16 for 29, 180 yards. It was just like a couple nice plays by the Ravens that got them off the field. One time, McDermott didn't decide to go for it on a fourth and one. It was at his own 39, but they were already down 14 three at the time. But it's because they were giving up some penetration. Travis Jones had some plays, David Ajabo had a play, and yet Josh Allen took some sacks. He's not used to taking a lot of sacks. Got hit quite a bit. So a really encouraging game by, by the Ravens defense, too.

Yeah, the penetration was overwhelming in the second half because what essentially happened for the Bills in the final two quarters was Josh Allen got away from the rush one time and made a heroic throw down the sideline for a long completion, and that was it. Every other time that they faced a third down where they knew he had to throw, they would just send the house, and a number of different guys are getting pressure. At one point, Adafa Oa got there and forced him out to the right, and you just see Josh surrounded by, like, three ravens who are closing in on him, and he's trying to stiff arm one away and two more come in to clean it up, and he's just got nowhere to go. And you could see the frustration on him on the sideline. They try to run a trick play to keep the Ravens off balance. Didn't work out. Turns out into a fumble. Josh gets blasted. Like everything just snowballed into a nightmarish evening for them. And you know what, Greg? It's crazy because you look at the bills where they were a week ago, we did this on Monday night, they dominate the Jaguars to three, and, oh, we're talking about how Josh is the best player in the league.

But you said something that totally came to fruition tonight. They're going to get tested and they're probably going to lose before long, and it's probably coming up this week. And we saw it play out exactly as you thought it would.

Yeah, I had had the Ravens winning this game never, you know, that it was a coin flip and never would have thought it would have been like this. But the Bills have won this year by protecting Allen. Well, didn't play as well tonight and really being able to control the game on the ground, it's not like they ran the ball poorly. They just had a couple short yardage ones early, and their defense really lost them the game. The matchup that was really the key for me was the Ravens offense in this running game, which is one of the stories of this young NFL season. Took a game or two to really get going. But Derek Henry, very cool to see him just in the open field and bust in tackles, making people miss, like, swerving and really looking young. And it really reminds me of those players that get in a second spot, and that's kind of what puts their hall of Fame candidacy over the top, I think, of Kurt Warner in Arizona and if, if Derek Henry even has this, like, one magical year here in Baltimore, even if it was just that one, and who knows?

Like that, that could be enough that that puts him over the top. And it's just cool seeing a couple of the greatest players in our game, Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry, joining forces. The rest of the league is going to have to deal with that. And the bills, they'll be back. They'll be fine. It's three in one. They were a little light and tough matchup for them. I heard John Harbaugh say after the game when he shook hands with McDermott, he's like, hope we see again. And I was thinking like, yeah, I'll bet you hope you see him again. Like, that would be better than seeing the Chiefs again. Like, you feel like you could handle this team.

Yeah. I mean, I'd rather run into the team I just obliterated at home on Sunday night football than the team I can't get past. Absolutely.

It's all about the tone of voice. He said it in a nice tone of voice. If he had said it in a very smarmy, sarcastic tone of voice, that would have been like, I hope. I hope we do see you again in the playoffs. We'll see. Long, long, long way to go. Fun week four, fun game in Baltimore. Not as close as we wanted, but good enough. We will be back. Shook Nick at night continues. It's been renewed for a fourth week here. Monday Night football. We got the doubleheader, Seahawks against the Lions. That's capping the night. We got the Titans and the Dolphins is kind of the undercard. It's a very, it's a boxing feel. You got the warm up and you got the big show. It'll be a lot of fun. Join Nick and I. Check that out after Monday Night Football. We'll see you then. The Ravens are running. You know, football is back.