WILD Bills-Falcons & Bears-Commanders Doubleheader Caps Off Week 6!

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Kicker awaiting a snap.

00:00:03
Speaker 2: Scott Daly centric back spot down kick up Jake Moody from.

00:00:07
Speaker 3: The thirty eight It is gone time expires. They have a Bears wins.

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Speaker 4: They're thirty in a row for.

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Speaker 3: The first time in five seasons off of Jake Moody.

00:00:19
Speaker 4: We haven't even met Jake Moody yet.

00:00:23
Speaker 2: That is Jeff Joniac on w MVP And yes, that is Jake Moody finishing off a Bears upset victory on a wild Monday night football double header. Twenty five for the Bears, twenty four for the Washington Commanders.

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Speaker 4: On a night that featured some great running back performances.

00:00:47
Speaker 2: Who would have thought it was the DeAndre Swift game, just like that Falcons game was the Bajon Robinson game. We are going to get to both of the great double header games on this Monday night, all games, No news with Nick Shook. When Jaden Daniels had the ball in the fourth quarter, Commanders driving up to what percentage chance did you give for the Bears to pull this one out after blowing a thirteen to nothing lead.

00:01:17
Speaker 1: I think it was probably like below twenty percent. In fact, Next Gen Stats had it at fifteen percent when he scrambled for eight yards with three or fourteen left, and then when he fumbled and gave the ball back to the Bears, it jumped up to forty two percent. So we're within the ballpark.

00:01:36
Speaker 2: It all, it all, you know, adds up math wise, and on a night where you know, I was ready to talk about all the things that the Washington Commanders overcame and yes, they lost the turnover battle three to nothing.

00:01:49
Speaker 4: Tonight.

00:01:50
Speaker 2: Jaden Daniels a bad interception early and then a great game until late in the rain affected a couple of plays, the ball slips out of his hands. He never even gets it to Bill aka Jakorey Krofsky merit. The Bears pick it up, but the game's not over at that point. No, the Washington Commanders could make a stop, and their defense had played well for most of the night. But if the Bears had lost this game, I was going to point out all the positives, and the number one positive, Nick Shook, is that they went into the buy and they came out and they figured out their run game. DeAndre Swift finishes with one hundred and eight yards on the ground. He also, by the way, leads the team in receiving because he had that fifty five yard touchdown catch of a broken tackle to end up with sixty seven yards through the air. They did look like a different team up front. And I know that makes Nick Shook happy.

00:02:47
Speaker 1: Yeah it does, because that's been there Achilles Hill. Going back to the justin Fields era, really is that we didn't have an offensive line that was good enough to protect our quarterback. We didn't have an offensive line that was good enough to create running lanes for whoever we had back there, whether it was David Montgomery or now it's DeAndre Swift. And I've always thought that DeAndre Swift is an underrated running back, even from his days in Detroit, who could never just quite put it all together. Not saying that he has put it all together, but tonight was probably one of his best performances of his career when it comes to versatility and being a valuable player on all three downs, and especially in this inclement weather as it's raining hard in landover Maryland, He's coming through with big runs in the fourth quarter, with that big catch and run he breaks attackle one of the worst tackle at times I've seen a long time, by the way, and takes it to the house for a crucial touchdown, and then they iced the game. Kind of going in reverse here, but they iced the game with runs of four to ten fifteen yards for DeAndre Swift to move them into field goal range to set up Jake Moody for the game winner. That is what the Bears' identity should be if you're going to turn around a team. Let's go back to the Lions and what they did with Ben Johnson. It started on the ground. It's got to start on the ground for the Bears to help Caleb Williams develop. And we saw all of it come together tonight.

00:03:57
Speaker 2: Yeah don't don't you just see the imprint of the Ben Johnson off. Oh yeah, like easy buttons there. Caleb Williams ended up with great numbers two hundred and fifty two yards in a touchdown on twenty nine attempts seventeen for twenty one on a night that I thought hen made a lot of mistakes, but I think that shows you what a strong team around him. I thought the pass protection for the most part was good. The running game obviously supported him, and then yeah, you have enough plays where you're throwing it to your backs in the flat, you might hit a big one. Let's listen to that. DeAndre Swift touchdown catch down the sideline.

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Speaker 3: Football at the forty five yard line.

00:04:38
Speaker 1: Bears territory snap back sugar rush and.

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Speaker 3: I throw the left his cat by Swift sidelines and he gets away. I have a tackle away for thirty hankles middle fifteen ten. Goodbye Diandre Swift a touchdown catch.

00:04:52
Speaker 1: And run, fifty five big ones.

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Speaker 3: Emma Bears a two pointers away from tying it up twenty four Washington.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's easy to forget that. Yeah, the Commanders came back in this game. You know what the Bears did too. That was a touchdown. They're down twenty four to sixteen. After Washington, you know, has a great drive finished off with a touchdown by zach Ertz, and they get that quick drive. That was just the third play of the drive to Swift and that's the drive you know that sets up ultimately the game winning field goal drive. Now, they did do some bearsy things right before that. They they get the ball right near the goal line. They have a illegal you know, I think it was a pre snap penalty right on the goal line.

00:05:37
Speaker 4: They get stuffed on the goal line.

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Speaker 2: They have a drop on a throw from Kleb Williams that could have gone for a big play to Zakis, and you think, oh man, it's gonna be so close, And Bears fans probably don't want.

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Speaker 4: To hear it, but they should just be so happy.

00:05:50
Speaker 2: Like sometimes programs turn around and teams start to believe in themselves a little bit and and the ball starts going in the right direction with a little bit of luck. And I think they made their own luck by running the ball well early in this game and getting enough stops on Washington, and they got a little bit of luck there with the drop from Jaden Daniels, and they took advantage of it.

00:06:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, That's the thing that has been probably the most like the most standout attribute for this team over the last few weeks has been that they are going to battle like bad teams get that opportunity. For example, the Cleveland Browns just throwing a team out there, but they're not the only one get that opportunity and don't cash that in either don't get in field goal range or don't make the field goal. The Bears did it, and they did it like with a measured drive, like with confidence like, we know high pressure situation, but we're going to slowly move down into field goal range. We already like where we are field position wise. We're going to trust our kicker in a rainy night, and they got it done. They got it done in Vegas two weeks ago in the fourth quarter, Kayleb Williams leading a big drive. Those two games showed me that's the first clue as they start to try to turn a corner under Ben Johnson that his impact is starting to show with this team because because they are battling, they believe they're playing through all sixty minutes, and even when it looks unlikely that they're going to come away with a win, they take advantage of those opportunities that pop up out of nowhere and they cash them in. And that's what makes me so excited for them, because it's not pretty all the time. Over four quarters. It's not pretty. Like you said, Caleb made some mistakes. He also made some great throws. He had that touchdown pass to Romo Dounsey that was wiped out by offensive pass interference. I mean, I liked. I'm just very excited about what we're starting to see. It's baby steps, but it's turning into wins, which is the way you get fans on board with this.

00:07:31
Speaker 2: I hated that call on a doonsay. I'm glad you pointed that out. That was a huge play in this game. They called an offensive pass interference and that's just a call you just don't see much. I don't know what's with the opis this week, and the Patriots had a couple of bad ones called on them. I get why they saw it, but I think they were calling that a little too close. And that was a great throw by Williams. He also had some plays where he was late, like the two point conversion, has an open receiver, he just doesn't throw it. There's a fourth down play earlier in the game where I thought, if he let go of the ball quicker he gets it, but he hesitates just a little bit and ends up getting deflected turnover on downs. There were enough bad things that happened in this game that you thought, man, this is going to be a typical Bears type of loss. One of those things was on special teams, and you know, I think we just kind of skipped past the fact that Jake Moody is the quarter is the kicker for the Bears, Jake Moody hit four kicks when they flash that up, you know, career long for Jake Moody line on the last drive, I'm like, it is raining, it is Jake Moody. You want to get so far past that line? And you know what they did it and he went Did he go four for four on field goals? Yes, the ones that he actually got over the line, you know he made it. There was one that didn't go over the line. We haven't heard braand Einstein in this show. So let's just take a listen to the field goal block call or kicker.

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Speaker 1: We weren't to left.

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Speaker 5: Here's the snap holds down the lead lord and you talking about you think we're gonna block a kick because body, I've been taking them plenty love.

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Speaker 3: I mean, look at that though, but let's look at us almost like what we're talking about.

00:09:20
Speaker 1: I have a theory, Greg. Yes, we've talked about the juice caballs and how they're like helping kickers, you know, reach new distances that we've never seen before, and like the fieldbal record is gonna get broken at some point this year, right, But we've also seen some really weird movement on these kicks, and I think that also is related to the caball because that one off the foot first, he kicks it right into a wall of defenders. Yes it was a low angled kick, Yes it was ripe to get blocked, But I'm not certain that that kick is gonna end up between the uprights anyway because of the angle that it came out, unless it does a little bit of the dance back toward the center between the goalposts. Who knows, maybe he's put a little bit of a fade on it or a draw. I can't remember which ones which, but that like he might have missed that one. Either way, he gets blocked. Game continues and the Bear overcome that, which is crucial to this.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean it's a big job overcoming the loss of two lane great Cairo Santos, but they managed to do it with the most surprising kicker possible. Jake Moody shout out to the everyone in the chat right now. By the way, I love the comment. I love football, I hate fantasy football, but I love NFL Daily. My poor son almost interrupted the YouTube tonight to walk in right before we were starting to tape, literally crying, which sucks to see he saw Jayden Daniels lead his team to a great comeback against one of his best friends. And then Jayden Daniels is fumbled. Oh no, gives you the negative too. You aren't really a fantasy football owner till you have a game exactly like that. And I'm sure Jane Daniels is feeling heartbroken too, because he really did play well tonight, you know, I know. Look, the ball slips out of his hands, that's unfortunate. The interception at the beat beginning, that's not like him. But between that, you know, I thought he played really well. The first touchdown throw was absolutely fantastic. Let's listen to that one while we're here.

00:11:14
Speaker 5: Second to ten at the twenty two snapped the Dangels. Here comes another blitz from Chicago. He's got time load enough once it all for Chris Moore.

00:11:20
Speaker 2: Here you get both bickut touchdown, touchdown walk again in fredible text like Chris Moore.

00:11:27
Speaker 5: That's it, right, tim the parents off the doll man and man across the book and this is just what you want. Pass back Chris ball on the slop. Faith take this propsy of the bucket for a touchdown.

00:11:41
Speaker 2: Oh great catch and that's London Fletcher on the call with our friend Bram And it's really noticeable that, like they're getting these huge plays from Jalen Lane, a rookie who had a really nice double move on a touchdown, from Zach Ertz, who I thought was done a couple of years ago and is still playing well. From Chris Moore, who I don't think ninety nine percent of the audience is familiar with. And this was like a quiet Deebo Samuel Knight note Terry McLaurin. So it's such a surprising group around him, and I thought whenever he needed to make a play tonight, he did, especially with his legs when the Bears did get pressure, which which was not enough for the Bears tonight.

00:12:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's essential that you bring that up when discussing this game, because for the first time since maybe like Week one, Jayden looked like himself, Like he looked like the quarterback who didn't have any issue. He was agile again, he was dynamic, you know, he was mobile. He was picking up yards on the ground with his legs and keyspots like you mentioned, you know, ten carries for fifty two yards. He goes nineteen to twenty six or two eleven and three touchdowns like that is Jaden Daniels, who we know from last year, and until this point we hadn't really seen twenty twenty four offensive Rookie of the Year Jaden Daniels. We'd seen like a smaller, reduced version of him. So that should be a really promising takeaway from this game for the Commanders. Yes, the loss will sting, but your quarterback looks like who he's supposed to be and that can get you so so much further, especially without these the receivers that usually depend on either out there or contributing in a big way. That's all really important for you as you go forward. So the loss, the one loss, is gonna hurt, but you're gonna flush that move on and be very happy that it looks like your quarterbacks back to who he is and you can continue to build around it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, the most surprising thing to me in this game was Bears designed success rate fifty six percent, which is sky high, and Commander's thirty four point eight percent. So you got to give the Bears defense credit. And I was really surprised the way Washington's run game has been going. I thought Cliff Kingsbury was gonna dice up this Bears defense and they came out looking a little better after the BUYE got a comment here that Zach Ertz is the unk of the night, and hell, let's let's watch that touchdown catch too, because that was the moment where I just figured this game was over. Great throw, great catch by Ertz in.

00:13:47
Speaker 5: The back field with Jamie He's gonna throw for looking Survey FROs back.

00:13:52
Speaker 1: Up?

00:13:52
Speaker 4: Did Zack Ertz touchdown? Tuckdown? Wash again?

00:13:58
Speaker 5: This is stupid, baby, I can trust.

00:14:05
Speaker 3: Nobody.

00:14:06
Speaker 5: I could have to check it the day a perfect pass.

00:14:10
Speaker 2: Bears fans are probably wondering, why do we have so many commanders highlights at a night they lost. Well, it was back and forth and we just love hearing Weinstein in London?

00:14:20
Speaker 1: Can we can we nominate that booth for like most electric pairing in the NFL? Like we should? That should be an award we give out most electric booth in the NFL because they have so much energy. It's always good when they're doing well.

00:14:30
Speaker 2: Yeah they are, and look it is a lot of commanders talk for now, but I think it's more about what this game is, what it means these two teams are trying to make it to the playoffs. I think the Commanders, for the most part, this season has shown me it's more sustainable from last year than I expected because a lot's gone against them.

00:14:55
Speaker 4: You've had injuries, Jade.

00:14:56
Speaker 2: Daniels, I thought the offensive line was gonna be a mess. I think the d is better overall, and I know they're three and three, but you look at where the Eagles are at and I feel like they're in a good spot. Then you look at the Bears and you think, Okay, your season ended on a total heartbreak at this point in the season, roughly last year against this Commander's team. Bears fans are sick of hearing that the Commanders got the right quarterback. Now they're sick of hearing that the Patriots might have gotten a better quarterback.

00:15:27
Speaker 4: And to get a win like.

00:15:28
Speaker 2: This, to pull it out at the last second, to me is massive for them, and it's a tough division. But I really do now look at them as a team that, okay, like keep showing me. But I kind of expect they're going to be playing meaningful games all season long. Maybe they'll make the playoffs, maybe they won't. It's a deep NFC, but like they're going to be playing for it late in the year and win wins like this are just absolutely huge. I hate to be like the NFL guy, but like, it's just great to see these two quarterbacks kind of going at it like this and like, give me this game in primetime every year. This is now like a little mini rivalry in the NFL.

00:16:05
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, first off, they get their revenge for their heartbreaking loss last year by giving it back to the Commanders in the same place that they lost on a hail Mary Tyreek. Stevenson is vindicated or whatever. But I actually think it's a really good case study in the psyche of a fan base and how it can change for the better or the worse year by year, because last year the last year of Battye Reflu's tenure ultimately, But there's a lot of optimism going into the season. They have Caleb Williams, they finally have their quarterback, They've made additions in the offseason, and it flopped and the optimism was probably too much going into the season, and most of us knew that right then. That same kind of optimism, but it's more cautious bubbles up going into this year because Ben Johnson's there. The results are not going to happen overnight. But if you can get vaults that are tangible, that you've seen in the Raiders game, that you've seen tonight, if you can get that over the course of the season before you get to week eight, you are ahead of schedule. Like you should be very excited about where the rest of the season could take you. There are going to be bumps in the road, but I personally, I am now excited to watch Bears games. Last year it was it was misery. It is not that anymore. So feel good Bears fans, not only about this win, but about where your team's headed.

00:17:08
Speaker 2: The one little fly in the ointment is just a little bit of the eye test with Caleb, and I think the things that helped him out tonight can sustain That was a much improved offensive line performance overall, pass protection and run blocking.

00:17:22
Speaker 4: That's a really good sign.

00:17:23
Speaker 2: The defense looks like it's rounding into okay, and they're getting healthier on the back end, like Kyler Gordon is out there and everything like that.

00:17:32
Speaker 4: That's really important for them. That's stabilizing.

00:17:35
Speaker 2: It didn't shock me when I checked late in the game and the PFF as the in game you know live grades and that Caleb was under fifty for this game and Jade's around eighty. You know, Caleb at a very low mark, and I think that's because of some misthrow, some potential turnovers that were there.

00:17:54
Speaker 4: And that's fine. I'm all about like being able.

00:17:58
Speaker 2: To try to improve as you're winning, because I think you heard it from Troy Aikman, like he's been all over Caleb in these games. And I kind of get where Troy is coming from, but I think it's going to be easier for Caleb to like keep improving without the weight of the world and everyone getting me on them for losing games like this.

00:18:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it helps when you get a good day like you did from DeAndre Swift. And it helps when you have not only Romo Dunze and DJ Moore, but also Luther Burden out there making plays like he has weapons and all starts though with the offensive line, and that is why you should feel better. I don't know if it's going to carry over week by week. It's been only one game in which we've seen these improvements, and I don't know if I view the Commander's defense as highly as you do, just because they're old, but they do have a pretty strong defensive front. So if you take all of that into account at this point in the season, you should still feel good like they have built this offense into what should be a competitive bunch and as long as Caleb can continue to progress slowly and not make crushing mistakes, which he made mistakes tonight, but they weren't disastrous. He missed some throws, he made a poor decision to keep the ball when he should have thrown away, and took a tough hit for Frankie Louvu. That's fine. These are lessons that you're gonna learn at this point of the season. If you can keep it all together gradually improve, you're gonna be in a much better place.

00:19:11
Speaker 2: Nice game by Louvu. But to your point about not really having as much faith in the Commander's defense, they've kind of been every other week. They only had four quick pressures tonight, which is not a big number. They blitzed over thirty percent of the time, didn't get much and the four quick pressures are from Frankie Luvu, you know, blitzing linebacker Bobby Wagner a blitzing linebacker and Darnald Savage a blitzing free safety. So their down four was really not getting it done. They got pushed around up front. Ultimately, that is great news for the Bears long term. Okay, that game was really interesting. It was fascinating, and yet I do not think it was the most fascinating or best game of the night. I know ESPN had their quote unquote b team on Bill's Falcons, but this one I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. I loved it. Let's go down to Atlanta.

00:20:11
Speaker 3: Buffalo adds another man to the front. They're gonna hand to Robinson right side through the first wall, around the corner. Here goes Pajon Robinson keeps his feet thirty twenty five, twenty ten five touchdown Atlanta. Oh my goodness, the math on this one is easy. Eighty one to the house.

00:20:35
Speaker 2: Oh that is Wes Durham calling an eighty one yard touchdown. By recent NFL Daily guests, Pajon Robinson. Okay, he did a lot of podcasts last week.

00:20:47
Speaker 1: Front of the show, but he's getting he's getting a bump.

00:20:50
Speaker 2: I don't Thinkajon Robinson needed like a breakout game or a hey, like, I'm like one of the best players in the Like, he shouldn't have needed that, But I mean two hundred and thirty eight yards from scrimmage at home on Monday Night football, their first home Monday Night football game actually in the Bajonna Robinson era to beat Josh Allen in the Buffalo Bills. Yeah, like, I think that qualifies. He also had six catches for sixty eight yards in that mix of two hundred and thirty eight yards, And I thought the way that they used him took was awesome. Tonight he got to show off all of his skills.

00:21:34
Speaker 1: Yeah he did. I mean, I think that he needed one of these breakout games in primetime stage in order to bring the attention of the larger NFL fan base, both domestically and internationally to the Atlanta Falcons, because he plays in Atlanta, the Falcons who blew a tire last year and missed the playoffs. Right, But like you know, it would surprise a lot of people to learn that he had a ton of scrimmageyards last year too. It should not surprise you. We're all talking about Baker Mayfield being in the MVP conversation put Bejon in there too. I know running backs don't win it all.

00:22:02
Speaker 2: Wait, I banned MVP conversation. We're not allowed to use the words.

00:22:06
Speaker 1: Oh, okay, offensive player of the Year Bjeon Robinson. There's your loophole because he's having a hell of a start. Like consider this real quick, Okay, two guys in NFL history after tonight have had four hundred and fifty plus rushing yards and three hundred plus receiving yards in their first five games of a season, Thurman Thomas and Bjeon Robinson. Like, he's off to an incredible start, and he was the reason they won this game tonight with the numbers that you just described, with the highlight that we just played. He is one of the best, if not the best running back in the NFL. He's looked like it since he was at the combine. He just moves differently. He's dynamic, he can do everything, and when they focus on getting him the football, they are a much better team. And tonight it came down to three guys Michael Pennix plus b Jhon Robinson, Drake London and a little bit of Kyle Pitts, and that was enough to win the game.

00:22:57
Speaker 2: I'll throw in one other guy, have a Jeff Obrick defensive quarterrier go or Raheem Morris. I mean, their defensive plan against Josh Allen was amazing, and we will get to that, but I think let's just to close the circle on Bijon on this twenty four to fourteen victory. By the way, I mean, they held the Bills to fourteen points and most of the damage was in the first half. But you think about that first drive, for instance, and it just looked so easy, and he's lined up all over the field, and the attention that he is drawing as a receiver as a runner is opening up holes for Drake London. And then you know sometimes they're even telegraphing when they're gonna run, when they're gonna pass out of the pistol, and yet it really doesn't matter. And I was wondering, like watching this game, man, like, I know he plays outside sometimes, and I know he plays in the slots sometimes, but this seemed a little extra, And so I checked. He had fifteen snaps in the slot tonight, six out wide. That adds up to twenty one snaps essentially at wide receiver. That almost matches the snaps that he took at running back. That is a high for this season by a good amount. I didn't go back to check. I'm guessing it is.

00:24:11
Speaker 4: The high for his career.

00:24:13
Speaker 2: And it's one of those offseason stories that's kind of cliche. Oh, they're going to use him as a receiver. Oh, they're gonna have two running backs on the field and stuff. It's like, yeah, but your running back as a receiver is actually helping the defense out because he's not as good as normal receivers except for one guy usually, and that's Christian McCaffrey. And now I think we can make it two guys, Christian McCaffrey and Vijon Robinson, who all respect the CMC is not at the same level. But Jhon Robinson was the number one Fantasy draftic and he's been delivering week after week. Just an awesome performance by the coaching staff An Robinson.

00:24:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, And the only thing that I think was missing today, at least from a writing perspective, was I was really hoping they would lean on him to close the game, and then he's absent. I think he was gassed. They went to Tyler Algier, which makes sense. He's a hard running physical back that you want to get out there to turn up those yards late in the game, get the first downs, closed the game out because it would have been the perfect Saquon arc, which is he starts fast, he closes games. Because that's what the story of Saquon was last year. But that's fine, because he's still fantastic. It's and I'm glad you mentioned the defense too, because wow, what a difference a year can make for a team. A Falcons defense that was largely toothless last year has completely transformed, had the perfect plan for Josh Allen, made him look human, made him look uncomfortable for a variety of reasons that we'll get into. But that was the other key to this game, limiting the Bills output, forcing more three and outs than they've had in a long time, and just shutting down this offense and allowing their offense to control the game when they had the football.

00:25:42
Speaker 2: Okay, it's a good idea to make it time for who's delivered by uber eat, It's got to be the Falcons defense. I mean, that's to me, who delivered all night? And I could pick a few different plays, but why don't we start at the back and work our way forward. Let's go to the final bill's offensive play of the entire game.

00:26:08
Speaker 3: Let's see how many come here. Here's Alan up in the pocket, Atlanta trying to shadow him. They'll move to his left. He's gonna throw a gun into septic and that ball is down on the play, and that's the Angelo Malone after Zack Harrison deflected it.

00:26:26
Speaker 2: Zach Harrison on the deflection there, and look they're down ten there. They're just in hurry up mode trying to make it happen. But I think it was typical of a day where just Alan always had someone in his face.

00:26:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, and look, you can call me a hater as much as you want. I'll take that. But there's nothing other than good offensive line play that warms my heart more than watching a defense send guys at mobile quarterbacks from all angles to where when they try to break the pocket, Oh no, I can't go there. I'm gonna go the other way. Oh no, there's a defender there. Oh my god, what am I gonna do? And it just results in chaos. I love that because there needs to be a counter to the modern quarterback, the dynamic mobile quarterback, and when a defense can pull that off. It's an example of great collaboration and also fantastic coaching and game planning. And I think that's exactly what the Falcons did tonight by caging Josh Allen, by sending pressure on him. I think it was two plays prior. They got a free rusher at him and Alli gets the ball out for completion. But I think that's still stuck in his head in that sequence where it's just like, oh my god, I'm not gonna have time to throw all night. I'm supposed to have a good offensive line. They can't stop this rush right now. I don't know what to do. He looked frazzled for most of the night.

00:27:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, We've got a great comment in the chat from your co host Katie Caldwell, who said some of the Bills play calling was outrageous. In Eliza Moore end around on third and one. This is the time for you to give the plug for your other podcast.

00:27:47
Speaker 1: Katie Knows Ball. Check us out on the grid Iron podcast, Iron and Brackets. We cover NFL and Formula one. Katie's one of my co hosts, Sean Berry, who works for Fox thirteen down in Tampa, as the other come check us out because Katie knows ball.

00:27:58
Speaker 2: See she absolutely does, and she's right that like plays like that drive you crazy. What I would say is is a play out of desperation because their normal stuff just wasn't working, and that you know that didn't work either. You can second guess so much, but two plays really stand out to me as the ones that were indicative of what happened tonight. They go for a fourth down late in the game, in the fourth quarter, when it still very much feels like, Oh, the Bills are going to come back in this, aren't they The Falcons are gonna falcon And on fourth down, they send the heat flush out Josh Allen to his left and he tries to flip the ball forward instead of just making a normal pass, which he it seemed like he had enough time in room to do so, but he just tried to like make a great play by flipping it forward. And that reminded me so much. Shook of a third down play in the first half where they had been blitzing like crazy and they wound up blitzing fifty six percent of the time tonight, and it reminded me so much of a play in the first half a drive killer on a third down where yes, the pressure was coming, but usually Josh Allen extends that play and he just kind of threw the ball at the feet the foot of a receiver it was, I forget which receiver it was. They lost Josh Palmer early in this game, and so they were going deeper onto the bench and I was just like, wow, Josh Allen just looks a little shook. I'm going to give a ton of credit to the defense, but it's also like the defense was making Josh Allen not play very well, and those were two plays where he did not stay calm and composed like he has been for most of the last two seasons.

00:29:43
Speaker 1: And outside of their first drive in which they went down the field and scored a touchdown to mag Atlanta, I think that that was pretty evident early on, so much that it motivated Sean McDermott to make one of those gutless punt decisions in the first half, like in the second quarter where it's like fourth and three, they're near midfield and they're down a touchdown good, and I'm like, dude, gutless punt. Like Greg's gonna hate this, because why are you punting here? It's fourth and three. I sincerely believe they didn't think that they could get the fourth the fourth down conversion because of how much they were struggling offensively.

00:30:13
Speaker 2: Because of results like that, well, the numbers would indicate you were right. And man, you think of this game, and I just kept thinking, Wow, the Falcons that that first half performance was incredible on defense. They can't they need their offense to keep scoring, which they really did in the second half. They need to keep going or else, like, they can't count on winning this game. And the defense just kept getting stop after stop after stop. They finished the Bills with six punts, one turnover on downs, which we just talked about, and then the interception. Even before the late interception, he ended up with two interceptions, right, So, like that is an incredible performance by a defense that wasn't really winning a lot like one on one up front. If you look at their pressure numbers, it's really spread out out. Yeah, Like I don't even know who to single out from their pass pressures. Who I would single out is their linebackers, Divine Diablo and Caden Ellis. To me, they were kind of the key for this game, not just in terms of the pressure but just the entire defense, like I said, fifty eight percent blitz forty four percent pressure rate. And you compare the numbers to the Bills, who were twenty percent blitz rate and a lot of those were late and only twenty five percent pressure rate. So they're not as aggressive and they're not getting home or to the quarterback nearly as much.

00:31:30
Speaker 4: How about that.

00:31:31
Speaker 2: The Atlanta Falcons have a difference making defense in the year twenty twenty five.

00:31:36
Speaker 1: I know, it's a beautiful thing you talk about spread. There was four guys with three pressures, four guys with two pressures, three guys with one pressure. And even the four sacks they racked up, each one was by a different player. David an Yamata, Rucu, Roo d Alford, and Sam Roberts, like three defensive linemen and a dB like they brought it from all these different angles, and I think that that really complicated the picture for Josh Allen on a night in which he was never comfort And if you look at the Falcons defense statistically, they were like first in the NFL in a number of different categories. They were tied for six for sack percentage. So this is not an aberration. This is not a one off on a primetime stage. This is who they've been all year and that's what makes it really exciting to track them because you can kind of flush that whole thirty to zhering loss to the Panthers as just chalk it up to we had a bad day. We're going to burn the tape. Otherwise, they've been competitive in pretty much every game and frankly, if the Buccaneers don't hit that field goal, or if Young Heyku doesn't miss that field goal at the end of that Week one game, they might have another win in their in their tally. Like they're they're a fun team to watch.

00:32:34
Speaker 2: Yet they had not given up three hundred yards in a game until tonight, and I don't.

00:32:41
Speaker 1: Believe no, they finished in two ninety one.

00:32:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Bills were just under that for tonight, so they you know, yardage Dvoa their number one. They're already have more sacks right now than they've ever had for as a Falcons franchise through this point in the season. And I've been kind of dis pointed by their first two draft picks, Jalen Walker and James Pierce, which is, you know, Jalen Walker had a big play on special teams tonight. They've each you know, popped up with a hurry here or there, but they're not playing that much their first two picks. Yeah, and they gave up a first round pick, you know, for Pierce to the Rams, the twenty twenty six pick and the one thing to the credit you know of this front office and shout out to you know, Patrick Claybon who put Terry Fontina in the top ten GMS and never heard the end of it for me and from our listeners in the offseason. Well, Patrick Claibon's laughing at you right now because all the moves that he's made. It's it's getting them to a pretty fun place. Anyways, my larger point was these two rookies, if nothing else, what they've done and the way they've built the defense and the rookies are helping here. They have so much depth, so many different types of players, so many players that they can play that it really does support this crazy pressure package and all the different things that Ulbrick and Raheem Morris want to cook up. Like, they have enough dudes with different skill sets to do that that are versatile, so they are supporting them in that way, and they're playing really good team defense.

00:34:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not a Star Layden defense. Their most notable players exist in their secondary, which, by the way, shout out to aj Terrell, who basically erased Keon Coleman tonight because he wouldn't stop fallowing him around the field. That hurt the Bills offense as well. And I think that when you are a su of parts defense and the sum ends up being greater than your parts because of the versatility that it offers you. That will travel and that will give you a shot against some of the perceived top tier teams in the NFL, which I don't know if Buffalo is. If you look at their resume right now, I'm gonna say team that speaten so far didn't win this last week. Most of them are some of the worst teams in the NFL. And the last two teams that they've played, the Patriots and the Falcons, have brought the fight to them and they've backed down in both of those games. Another thing that a common thread between those two games. And I know I'm harping on two losses and the sound like a hater, and that's fine. Josh Allen officially has a problem with throwing picks over the middle of the field, because the picky through tonight looked a lot like the pick Marcus Jones got on him against New England and Buffalo in primetime as well. So I don't know if it's take him off of primetime or if it's figure out your offense. It's the ladder, it's not the former.

00:35:14
Speaker 2: Okay, Well, they did beat the Ravens in Week one, and I know the Ravens haven't you know, looked so great since. But that was an incredible quarter out of the Bill's offense. But I think the Cracks were showing for their defense, yeah already, and the defense was driving all the Bills fans crazy. You know, in the first half of this game, they just looked like a SIV. They gave up one hundred and fifty four yards on miss tackles, and you know a lot of that was on the John Robinson run because Cole Bishop had a chance to get him down with about forty yards to go, but there was about another one hundred and ten yards of misstackle yardage there as well. So look, they have really struggled defensively. Josh Allen doesn't look this and you're right when you look at the teams that they beat other than the Ravens, it was the Jets, it was the Dolphins, it was the Saints, and we kind of gave like the Dolphins and Saints pats on the back. Oh, you competed with the Bills. You covered, I mean the you know, good teams win, great teams cover. I mean, when was last time Bill's covered in a game? I guess they just that Jets game, because you know, everyone keeps either beating them or becoming closer. By the way, we should point out, because we're done talking about the Falcons defense.

00:36:29
Speaker 4: That that was who's delivered by Uber Eats.

00:36:32
Speaker 2: So when football makes you hungry, get game day meals on Uber Eats, the official on demand delivery partner of the NFL order. Now, I mean, look, Uber Eats got their money's worth there too. That was That was That was meaty.

00:36:44
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, and you know what, Look, sometimes it shows up later, it doesn't show up at all, But that's when you go to their competitor, not Uber Eats. They're always reliable.

00:36:51
Speaker 2: There you go I for no reason other than I want to see it. And we really appreciate everyone who is making these Monday nights really fun in the comments and watching and obviously everyone listening to us on the podcast, but when you watch it on YouTube, you get to look at the highlights. We have the rights the highlights, and it's a beautiful thing. And I know it's crazy, Shuk and I thought this game was gonna go much differently when I suggested that Josh Allen's incompletion against a blitz in the first quarter, I'm actually gonna throw it up there for a Throw of the Year nominee, because they get a blitzer clean on him falling backwards and he drops an absolute dime in the bucket to Khalil Shakir, who's not even that open over d Alfred Robert Alford, who has had a good night tonight. And you know, the review shows Khalil shakers out of bounds. But my god, that was an incredible throw. So even on a bad night, Josh Allen can do things that just make you say wow, shouldn't.

00:37:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, he's still a superhero. He just looked rather mortal over the last two weeks against defenses that have the right plan for end. I don't know if the blueprints necessarily out I think it's more about the Bills kind of looking in the mirror, circling the wagons like the Buffalo Bills do, and figuring out what they need to do, which, by the way, stop going away from James Coke in the fourth quarter. I know it wasn't working in the third quarter, but my god, you're in a one score game. Keep giving one of your best players the football. It will work eventually, for God's sake. It's been a point of frustration for me for the last two games for the Bills. I hope it doesn't continue.

00:38:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that is an awesome point shook because look you saw with that play like what they needed to do to complete passes against the Blitz. It was a humbling night, I think for Allen as the guy who's now I think thought of and known as one of the sharpest quarterbacks in the league. I watched every game of Tom Brady's career, by the way, you know, once or twice a year, no matter how old he got, like a defense confused him, a defense got him like that's football, Like they would dominate and surprise tom Brady like it does happen. But on a night where that seemed obvious. Their success rate running the ball on design runs was sixty percent. Cook was doing great all night. Josh Allen was scrambling pretty well. But Cook goes seventeen for eighty seven.

00:39:06
Speaker 1: So I think that with one carry in the fourth quarter, Oh my god.

00:39:10
Speaker 2: You know last week, I can defend it the way the gameplay was going and the way they were stuff and Cook for the most part, like I could defend it, I can't defend it here. So I mentioned the injuries in this game. There were quite a few. Joshua Palmer leaves early with a knee injury and that led to a lot of time for Tyrrel Shavers. That was the man who was targeted on that fourth down. I was trying to think of her third down in the first half. So a lot of Shavers, a lot of khalilshak here. But that's an injury to watch. And then Treel Bernard, their linebacker, was out for most of the second half of this game and I do not think ever returned to the field. And then for the Falcons, they lost their left tackle, Jake Matthews. So let's wrap up actually giving a little bit of love to the Falcons.

00:39:53
Speaker 4: You know, the the.

00:39:55
Speaker 2: Michael Pennox experience is consistently inconsistent, and he ends up had a very similar night I think to Caleb William where you look at the numbers, two hundred and fifty yards, got the touchdown, got the win. They did well enough. He did well enough to win. There were a couple of near interceptions late there. There are a couple curious decisions. There were some dimes too. If you watch him, this is kind of who he's settling in to be this season. Evaluate for me the experience with keeping in mind that the points scored in the first half are worth just as much as the lack of points I guess in the second half.

00:40:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean he had a touchdown pass e Race by Drake London's foot going out of bounds in the one yard line as time expired the first half, so we could have added that to his ledger. But yeah, there were times where he would overthrow guys. If you're watching on YouTube, you're seeing that completion of Drake London where he's out running Taylor rep to the goal line, and it looked like he got in it first on first look, and then the replay shows his right foot steps out at almost exactly the one as he's reaching for the pylon, which took away like big excitement in that moment because it was like the Bill deserve that because they had a turnover which gave the Falcons just enough time to try that, and it was an aggressive attempt by Drake London. It was like, oh, this is like karma football, karma paying off right now for the Bills. But overall, the Drake London experience is exactly how you describe, which is that it is consistently inconsistent. But it's not negative, it's not discouraging. It's just you gotta find more consistency. I hete to say that because it sounds overly reductive, but what he has a live arm. He overthrows guys sometimes he did tonight. He also leans on he has a favorite in Drake London, and he's always looking at him and essentially his from what I've seen so far, it's is Drake London open no is Kyle Pitt's open no check out to Bijan Like that's kind of the process that he's going through right now, and I understand that's that's his top three guys, right. He will get better over the course of a season. I think that his processing is better than some young quarterbacks that we've seen. It's still better than justin fields, and that is all a positive. It's just that he's not going to be a star overnight. If you think of Josh Allen's career took him multiple years and changing his throwing, you know, form, his technique and everything else before he became who he was. Just give it time, he'll be fine.

00:42:07
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:42:07
Speaker 2: He had another decision where he kind of locked in to Casey Washington on the third down when he's well covered by Tron Johnson, and he didn't face much pressure on that play. He didn't face a ton of pressure overall on the night, but it was like he just made that decision when there were more open receivers with better matchups elsewhere on the field. I thought there were a couple of moments like that. He also on the last Falcons drive when they ended up kicking the field goal to go up ten, the only thing that they could possibly do to lose the game then was turned the ball over and he threw it right over the middle to awaiting Shack Thompson, who played well tonight.

00:42:45
Speaker 4: I thought, you know, now the year.

00:42:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, like a ageless Shack Thompson, and Shack Thompson, you know, just couldn't pull in the interception after anticipating the play, and we would be talking about Penix' night, you know, quite a bit different if that happened. But I also don't want to forget the dimes. So let's let's actually go back to the first half and let's see the touchdown throw that did stand up to Drake London.

00:43:07
Speaker 3: There's London moving out on the wide side. They take the snap, here's Pennix, Michael Luk rips it, London stretches the ball across.

00:43:15
Speaker 4: That's a touchdown for Atlanta.

00:43:17
Speaker 3: By goodness, what a play.

00:43:19
Speaker 6: I loved it.

00:43:20
Speaker 4: What a touch and.

00:43:21
Speaker 3: Then the presence of mine to reach it chucker right over the white line for the scoreble with.

00:43:28
Speaker 1: So this play is like a he's a quarterbat laid on that throw, but he's got such a strong arm that he can still fit it in there. He put it in the right spot and it was great play design where he had a receiver kind of take away the defender inside. They're basically playing like I think it was covered two on the goal line and just making a picket fence and he just it's kind of a spacing concept where he just sits down right there, you put on the inside with the defender and outside leverage, Boom, touchdown. And you could do that because you have the arm talent, which is why we obsessed with arm talent on quarterbacks who come out of the draft because it matters in tight windows in the NFL, and there's a ton of them in the NFL.

00:43:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he showed it off tonight and like that was one of those plays where when he reaches that out, like you can just imagine it getting getting knocked out and that would be such a Falcons play. And you mentioned that the end of half sequence when they did not get that touchdown. Even though it was a little bit of found money, it was such a unique play where you're thinking at first, like get out of bounds, Drake London, so you can so you can kick, you know, for the three points, and then you realize, oh, it's all or nothing. He's either gonna score a touchdown or you're getting zero points. And it was so surprising because you mentioned the turnover that was the clunker of a Josh Allen interception just trying to do too much and then he comes up short and the you know, the Bills go into halftime down twenty one to seven, and they get a quick touchdown coming out of the break and you're like, oh man, that's seven points they didn't get. That's that's gonna haunt them all night. But the defense just didn't let it happen. Pretty awesome, an awesome performance by another team. Look, this NFL is really heavy in terms of the upper middle. There's a lot of teams, and I still consider the Bills one of those teams. They're four and two. The Falcons are three and two, where it's just like, all right, you're in position like you got a pretty good chance to make the playoffs. I have no idea how to separate about ten to twelve of those teams. This Bill team still has Josh Allen. They've shown that they can figure things out as the season goes along. I've seen some bad Sean McDermott defenses where everyone thinks he's going to get fired by the end of the year, and somehow he turns it around even after. You know, Tyler Dunn writes a big feature about how he used nine to eleven as a motivational pactic.

00:45:37
Speaker 1: Blake Oh, I was wondering if you're going to bring that up. They're missing, They're missing personnel. They don't have Matt Malonell. They had three healthy defensive tackles tonight at Oliver just came back from the party. They got to get guys back. But I don't want to discount that because that does matter.

00:45:49
Speaker 2: But yeah, they always have lalls, They always have lulls. And in the Falcons defense, they were playing Mike Jarrell at left tackle and Elijah Wilkinson at right tack go by in the second half of this game, and they really need Jake Matthews to come back. I mean, that is as troubling a tackle combination and pass protection as.

00:46:09
Speaker 4: You'll ever see.

00:46:11
Speaker 2: And that's I think part of the reason why the offense slowed down so much in the second half. Like had I believe near one hundred and fifty one yards at halftime yards from scrimmage, so most of them were in the first half. Dake London had one hundred and forty seven yards at halftime like fantasy games were one in the first half, and then he only added you know, eleven more yards. But he does end up with ten for one fifty eight and a touchdown. Last thing on the falcons before we go. I love that we had John Robinson and just to kind of close the circle on him on a night where he announced himself yes as an award potential candidate. My whole thing with the MVP conversation took. It's just like, you know, what is this conversation? Just why are we talking about a conversation?

00:46:59
Speaker 4: Just have it?

00:47:00
Speaker 7: Just say it, you know, I mean, it's a flaw a week, it's week it's week six. Yeah, here's the clue. None of this is going to really matter in the MVP talk. Like stats that they're cumulative and they will still count, but ultimately it's basically what you do from week eleven and twelve onwards that matters. And yeah, we're gonna winnow out a lot of players, but there's gonna be a lot of players in the mix going into week ten or eleven, and then that's when you really figure and.

00:47:25
Speaker 1: Is your team good? Like that's the other criteria. Your team has to be good. There's no envy, there's no Jerry West losing the NBA Finals and winning NBA Finals MVP. That doesn't happen in the NFL. Your team has to be good too, so that helps us kind of sorted out as well. It's fun fodder for now you gotta fill some time somewhere.

00:47:42
Speaker 2: Something about the phrase, oh why didn't he should be in the MVP conversation? It's well, I think week six is the same, Like I would have him top five for MVP, like put say something specific, is what I'm saying, because he's in there. You can only vote for three guys, you can you know, five guys. Someone's asking if he's in the Offensive Player of the Month conversation.

00:48:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, yeah, you know what he is.

00:48:03
Speaker 2: He's in the NFL Daily Guest of the Week conversation, maybe of all time conversation. I thought it was really interesting the question that Jordan rod Rieg asked about the way that he gets extra vision lining up in the pistol. Let's actually listen to him talking last week on the show.

00:48:25
Speaker 6: For me, it's just you know, using using my vision and just anticipating what's coming before it even happened, for the play even starts, and for me, like you know, it's very important to use my eyes at a very high level. And some manipulate linebackers, safetyes, uh d, lineman, just just every every one of them, because when I do that, and when I'm controlling the pace of the game, then then everything else is taking care of yourself.

00:48:49
Speaker 1: So that's a good brand deal. By the way, Codate total, he is the total back.

00:48:55
Speaker 4: There you go, vision, power, speed.

00:49:00
Speaker 2: I love the question from Jordan and she loves she loves the pistol offense. And I think tonight was a great sign that even if on this particular Falcons team, like the pass and the run aren't always married up, there are a lot of big time advantages And Baijon talked about it there and his vision to me is second to none.

00:49:19
Speaker 4: Right now in the league statement win season changing win?

00:49:24
Speaker 2: Are the Bills going to be one of those teams that just like every time they lose, everyone's like, oh, the Patriots have arrived. Oh now the Falcons have arrived. There are like there are tennis players to use an example that probably most of our listeners don't care about that, like it's like, oh, that's the biggest win of his career. That it's people that just are always handing out those wins. Stefan, you know, Stefano sits a pass back in the day. A top five guys Alex verv.

00:49:51
Speaker 4: Oh, it's the biggest win of their career. He beats number four.

00:49:53
Speaker 2: It's like, well, it's not the biggest win of your season if the Bills are just kind of an average team.

00:49:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's why we play the game. Parody is maybe at an all time high right now, at least it feels like it.

00:50:03
Speaker 4: It is like in the mid upper middle.

00:50:06
Speaker 2: And yet we still have like eight teams I feel like we can cross off, including the Tennessee Titans. Brian Callahan was fired on Monday. It's no longer even Monday where Shook is taping because these games were so good and we love, you know, serving this doubleheader as much attention as it can get. We're going to talk about the Callahan firing all the other news that has come down on our Tuesday show in the studio with Jordan rod Rieg. So so stay tuned for that one. And yeah, this was an absolute pleasure, Nick Shook.

00:50:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, doubleheaders they're good and they're bad, but when the games are good, they're more good than bad.

00:50:47
Speaker 2: That has beautifully said from an NFL dot com writer who still has some writing to do. Sorry with that tonight, I want to point out to everyone that's the last simultaneous doubleheader in NFL history. Roger Goodello doesn't like it. They're off the schedule indefinitely starting next year. They're not part of the TV package.

00:51:06
Speaker 4: Like, that's it.

00:51:07
Speaker 2: We have one more double headers, so if you love the double headers, we got one more for you next week. We'll be live then, but they're separated, no more simultaneous.

00:51:15
Speaker 4: We'll see you that