2025 NFL Week 2 AFC Preview

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Welcome to NFL Daily, where we love a good revenge game. I'm Greg Rosenthal here in the Chris Westling podcast studio with Jordan Rodrieg.

00:00:12
Speaker 2: And Patrick Claybahn.

00:00:14
Speaker 1: Yes, a top of the rundown this week is a Super Bowl rematch, but I found other spots in this schedule where there's some good revenge games just sprinkled throughout.

00:00:24
Speaker 3: A thematic revenge week two as some teams looking to bounce back.

00:00:29
Speaker 4: It's good a dabble of revenge.

00:00:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'm glad to discuss revenge with two people that I have no vengeance with.

00:00:38
Speaker 1: No.

00:00:38
Speaker 2: We almost get along too well.

00:00:40
Speaker 1: I think like a little creative tension would be good for the show, Jordan.

00:00:44
Speaker 2: So if you just want to tick some frits, I get it.

00:00:46
Speaker 4: That's what you've been trying to do. I understand.

00:00:49
Speaker 1: So we're breaking up the preview this week, and we're talking all the AFC teams, all the AFC games, and AFC teams that have the home games first. And it did feel weird to start anywhere else but the Super Bowl rematch.

00:01:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Philadelphia Eagles at the Kansas City Chiefs. The Eagles got their revenge, and I guess now the Chiefs are re revenging that situation. It is an over under a forty seven and a half Kansas City giving up a half a point at home. Kevin Burkhart, Tom Brady, Tom Rinaldi and Aaron Andrews on the call. We saw the Philadelphia Eagles passing game light up the night in the Super Bowl. Greg, what does Jalen Hurts have for Spacs's defense this time around?

00:01:28
Speaker 1: It is difficult when there's only been one game played between that to not have that in your mind and think something similar could happen again. And that's why I've seen like the big Chiefs fans out there, like our friend Nick right, like, you know, making it a big cause that Wow, the Chiefs are underdogs at home. That's disrespectful. I think the lines flipped the other way. Either way, it's basically a toss up. But these teams are so different. I already think a lot differently about these two teams and how they're constructed right now. And the biggest takeaway for me is on both sides, I'm not as confident in their defenses.

00:02:06
Speaker 2: Like for the Eagles and the Chiefs.

00:02:08
Speaker 4: I think, first and foremost, we do want to see what this looks like when Jalen Carter's actually playing in the game. So first and farms and that front, because I mean, you have Jordan Davis playing what eighty seven percent of snaps, which he's never done in his career before, you have Moro Jomo playing a lot more. This is a defensive front that's supposed to be predicated on having Jalen Carter present. Obviously we all were aware of Spitgate and his absence from their season opener. It completely changed what they want to do with their defense. But your point on questions is good, Greg, because after watching Adri Jackson last week and Vic Fangio's hesitancy, but maybe has to eventually put Cooper dejen outside because it's been sort of a catastrophe out there. I do have questions about the secondary still.

00:02:52
Speaker 3: And ultimately right, I think it's fair to have a Dorri graded on a little bit of a curve. Yeah, to go from playing Ceedee Lamb to playing what left of the Chiefs wide receiver corps, I know Hollywood Brown is going to get majority of opportunities that Andy Reid said this week that surgery is not on the table right now. For Xavier Worthy, which was scary to hear that. Right now, caveat that's.

00:03:13
Speaker 2: That's as good as you can hope for. He's not going on injured reserve.

00:03:15
Speaker 4: And right now from day to day, quote unquote, right now again right now, I just I just.

00:03:21
Speaker 3: Don't like hearing that that right now part. Travis Kelsey also took the blame for Xavier Worthy's injury. Now that that's going to make anything better or worse. But I just looking back at the Super Bowl, there was so much attention and rightfully so buy Spags in stopping Saquon Barkley, that it's tough to imagine the game playing out that differently. I know there's like there's some there's some parts of the of the teams that have changed, and mostly on the Philadelphia Eagles point of view. But just from that standpoint of approaching this Eagles offense, I think the priority is still Saquon, which leaves DeVante Smith, who is close to one hundred yards a game in his career against the Kansas City Chief of being a guy I thinks is gonna have a good opportunity.

00:04:02
Speaker 4: And guess who maybe is in a great mood after a game plan like that. But aj Brown, who by the way, has never started and finished a game with less than four targets in his entire career, So something's gonna change in that regard after last week.

00:04:15
Speaker 2: It's a good call.

00:04:16
Speaker 1: And I just don't love the fact that they have Trent McDuffie on the outside and Samari Connor as their slot corner because I think it makes two of their positions worse. And I think you can pick on Connor a little bit, but I think one of the reasons they signed Zadarius Smith and we haven't talked about that on the show, that the Egles signed him and that could turn out to be a great signing if they get what he was a year ago. That's one of the best third edge guys in the league. I'm assuming he will be behind Jylex Hunt and who am I forgetting Nolan Smith of course, who didn't have a QB hit last week. Yeah, Like their pass rush was not great, josh Ucha was by far their best pass rusher and he was given me like two thousand and twenty two on the Patriots josh U j vibes. So if suddenly you have Oocha and Zadaria Smith coming off the bench. That's a really interesting matchup against you boy, Josh Simmons at left tackle and then Juwan Taylor at right tackle. And I feel better about that pass rush. But it was interesting to me that it was a very quiet game from that perspective. I know Jailen Carter wasn't there, but you.

00:05:22
Speaker 4: Know, yeah, and you know what, but even I know there's like a right down the middle split between the people that think that was a really, really big deal and the people that don't think that should have been that big of a deal. But I mean, if you think about the amount of attention he commands and mathematically the amount of just pure space, let alone matchups or or blocking help or chipping or anything. If you just account mathematically for the amount of space that's being dedicated to stopping that guy and freeing the rest of the people around him, including the people on the edges, I mean that is and to your point, it is a big deal for the two tackles because they struggled. I thought that Josh Simmons, I thought his feet looked really good, and I think he's going to get better as time passes, and I think he's already pretty good. But the penalties, the jumpiness, the settling into their frames and into the cadence and timing of the offense, not getting freaked out by the speed coming off the edges. Those are things that still have to be cleaned up. And Juan Taylor's had struggles with penalties every year, right.

00:06:21
Speaker 1: And their biggest problem really in that game was Sue Mattea, who's the left guard, and you can you can get you know, Carter over him at some points. And Jordan Davis, I thought in retrospect when I rewatched the game, had a good game. Actually it was probably one of Jordan Davis's better.

00:06:35
Speaker 4: It looked like he was in shape.

00:06:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, better games of his career.

00:06:38
Speaker 1: And then watching and I do want to get to the Chiefs offense of it all, but watching Campbell and Zach Bond and so this was, you know, the the first.

00:06:47
Speaker 2: Game of the year.

00:06:48
Speaker 1: So I kind of have a tradition. You know, you enjoy it, you go watch, you have the time. There's not a ton of get you go rewatch that back like the All twenty two And I just focused on them and man them they have to be the best duo in the league, and they can just muck up everything there was. There was that stretch in the game where they both had passes defense down the field, Bond had a great tackle in space, and then Campbell helped out on the force fumble. He got the credit probably shouldn't have gone to him, but who cares. He made a big play there, and Bond's two open field tackles essentially saved the game, one, you know, running down Miles Sanders, but another one to set up the fourth and three that you know was the second to last play. I don't want to just talk about last week, but when I think about that versus the Chiefs, like where are their playmakers? Like Patrick Mahomes went full playmaker. I loved to that was the I've been asking for the old Patrick Mahomes. It was back. It was three or four big time throws. It was scrambling. It was him trying to make plays. But does he have enough of the guys around him that can also make plays.

00:07:43
Speaker 3: The plus side on that for the Eagles where the upside for Johat Campbell was going to be the easy stuff that you asked rookies to do, like occasionally rush the passer, and here he's great on pass coverage. Right against a locked in Dak Prescott, who I think the pressure numbers a bit. Because the pressure was there, they weren't able to finish the plays because Dak's pocket management was incredible. He kind of got sold by his entire receiving unit in that game. But it's I think things will look better for this Eagles defense clearly, and we'll see it's gonna have to be a lot of fifteen, a lot of fifteen making plays.

00:08:19
Speaker 4: And I think when we talk about changing the math with the Eagles front, we have we also think about changing the math with the Chiefs receivers with and without Xavier Worthy on the field, because obviously he does so much for them, and he makes the defense accountable for so much space, not just in front of the zones but behind them as well, and so we'll kind of have to see whether he's available. If he's not, it's a big Travis Kelcey game. I know we say this year over year over year, and especially if vic Fango decides to pop Cooper Dejen out onto the outside or the perimeter a little bit more, then if I am Andy Reid and Matt Naggie, I'm sort of licking my chops thinking, Okay, I'm gonna, now, you know, really spam the tight end on the in the middle of the field. But then that's where you're so lucky, And probably luck is the wrong word if you're the freaking Eagles, because you got two cover linebackers in there who are gonna just maul the tight end. I just I love this. I love all the counter possibilities in this game.

00:09:12
Speaker 1: Mahomes was twelve for nineteen last week for eighty four yards, again split safety coverage, and now he goes up against Fangio, who helped to change the league in terms of the coverages that has essentially strangled the Chiefs into being one of the worst deep ball teams in the league. So the matchup is fascinating and like logic leans Eagles. And yet there is part of me that just I can't imagine the Kansas City Chiefs being owing to I do sometimes make picks based off of that, I just I.

00:09:41
Speaker 2: Can't quite imagine it.

00:09:43
Speaker 1: And there is something about whenever you think that the Chiefs are really in trouble, they just, you know, find a way. And that's why fifteen is fifteen at home too.

00:09:51
Speaker 4: And that crowd at the Super Bowl, Greg. I mean, I remember we turned to each other at one point. We looked at each other and we were like, holy cow, there's a lot of Eagles fans here, just like as loud as I've ever heard any place ever. And so the Chiefs fans, they're gonna want to show up for this one, and they're going to want to try to affect the game.

00:10:07
Speaker 3: Get the revenge because the doubt and the disrespect, as Mitch Holtis would say, is on the way up. We'll see zero and two because they're trailing in the division to literally everybody, including a team that's tied for first place in the division. Our next game, the Denver Broncos going on the road where they are giving up two and a half points at the one to zero Indianapolis Colts, the over runners forty two and a half. Kevin Harland, Trent Green, and Melanie Collins on the call. Dimes came out and he was spectacular. Jordan, the Dolphins had no answer. What did the Denver Broncos do to stop Daniel Jones?

00:10:44
Speaker 4: I mean, they're a better defense, first and foremost, right, So the things that were available perhaps for Daniel Jones to attack and for Shane Dyke in the space that shanees Dyke and was able to capitalize on, especially getting Tyler Warren into space finding some of these voids, you're going to have less of an easy time doing that. With the caliber of Vance Joseph's defense. You're also getting a better pass rush here. The Broncos were at a fifty one percent pressure rate against kind of a shaky Titans offensive line last week, and Daniel Jones only faced a twenty four percent pressure rate in the opener, which had a huge effect. Is the third lowest of his career, and obviously he made the most of that time, all right.

00:11:25
Speaker 1: So Daniel Jones made some plays last week that looks familiar. He took a couple of big hits, which makes you worried if you're a Colts fan and you want this success you saw in week one to continue. It just seems like a matter of time until we see Anthony Richards and if Danie Jones keeps being so unaware in the pocket, which we've seen throughout his career, but well we haven't seen. First of all, he was very good against pressure against blitz is his numbers against the Blitz last week were fantastic, and that to me is coaching. He had good answers from Shane Steichen that they were ready for. And you also saw some of the big time throws back in Daniel Jones's game that we saw as a rookie. And I know we didn't have a throw of the Year candidate on the Sunday Show, but I've got one that if you're watching us on YouTube, you can you can catch Daniel Jones throwing deep down the field. And I don't think when I went back and watched games this week, I saw a better throw than this whole shot to the sideline and Alec Pierce catching it. And I do love the synchronicity of the fact that Week one last year, Anthony Richardson, I believe, had the best throw of the entire season and it was to Alec Pierce and here's Daniel Jones just making it.

00:12:34
Speaker 3: And I did not think that Alec Peerce was going to have an opportunity to do what Alec Pierce does Daniel Jones at quarterback, But Daniel Jones has proved me wrong. He's the best quarterback stat in the NFL.

00:12:43
Speaker 4: I love that the roof was open and they didn't. He didn't lose him in the shadow like I mean, I think it pretty easy to lose him in the shadow there of the like the crossbar coming over the top. It was a great play, great throw. I'm hesitant on giving Daniel Jones the you know throw of the.

00:12:58
Speaker 3: So far after a lot of football left deployer.

00:13:00
Speaker 2: Well, I know that.

00:13:01
Speaker 1: But the point is we're supposed to have like the candidates and the leaders in the clubhouse, and we just keep adding to the list and I'm waiting. You know, you guys are on the recap show, so I'm open to any nominees that you see that have been better.

00:13:14
Speaker 2: Matthew Stafford had a no luck win.

00:13:16
Speaker 4: That was and also the shot, the sideline shots, he had two. They had a couple of which I did present, but it seems to have just gone one one.

00:13:23
Speaker 1: Okay, So those those are two early you know what, I early candidates.

00:13:27
Speaker 4: You know what I think is kind of cool about this, And you pointed this out earlier in the year. The an aurumassance, lou Anarumo's defense looked really, really good. They were disrupting to a tonguele by los timing. They were disrupting disrupting some of the timing on the routes that were unfolding too, getting some of that those speed guys off of their spots. Cam Binam and Xavion Howard turns out they're pretty great, really entertaining safety duo that are making plays on the ball. They're extremely active. Interception by Cam Byinam and then a combined strip sack by Xavion Howard and Kenny Moore. I mean, this defence is playing the ball and they're playing the quarterback and I think that's exciting.

00:14:04
Speaker 3: That was the one time Cam bart Binnam was targeted up. Yeah, in Week one was the pass from two that he picked off. Pretty effective sign don't.

00:14:12
Speaker 1: Throw at me, they stay went and he did this totally insane backwards worm. Afterwards, I was like, oh, it's Cam buying them with another reference to some like early two thousand show that I've never heard of. And then they asked him about it and he was like, no, I don't know what I was doing. I just sort of just made that up as I went along and did a backwards worm and it was awesome. Unfortunately, the Colts won't have Charvarius Ward. It sounds like Wednesday, he's out of practice. He's in the concussion protocol. It is very rare for someone in the concussion protocol on Wednesday not practicing to play. And they already were thin at cornerback. That's why they signed Zavian Howard in the first place. Jalen Jones is out, And yeah, they are fresh though the they I was looking at the snap like they only played like like thirty eight forty four snaps on defense, even the guys that were on the field for every steps, they should be fresh. And and I think it's an interesting matchup because bo Nicks is coming off one of the worst games of his career.

00:15:05
Speaker 4: Yeah, he had a bad game. And again, the way that Luanroomo played to uh, specifically disrupting the timing plays that is a Bonnick staple as well, is those timing plays and those route combinations in accordance to specific cadences and all of those motions and all those things. And Anamo's guys were really really aggressive on that. They play intelligent defense, and that is exactly where Bonnicks has really got to bounce back this week. And it's a concern because of you know, the week that he had in Week one.

00:15:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, there were some opportunities there. There are some throws that bo Nicks left on the board, the wide open touchdown that would have sealed the game on fourth and night, or Courtland Sutton was by himself all alone. I do think the difference between in this week for the Colts defense is the Broncos aren't going to abandon the run. Yeah, way that the Dolphins did was just even though the Dolphins I think he was over eight yards carry still, but it and it's not like the scoreboard was that lopsided early on where they could have gone to the run. The Broncos, I think, are going to run the ball enough to keep Bonnicks a lot cleaner than to them. Yeah.

00:16:11
Speaker 1: I have a theory about Bonix after watching that game, it felt like, you know, he had spent this whole offseason. We've heard Bonnix is getting better, he's feeling himself, and he put entirely too much dip on the chip, like he was trying out all this stuff that it was kind of like, you know, throws across his body while running to the left, all about improv Like every other throw that he made was an incredibly difficult try into a small window, and that's partly why he had a couple of interceptions. He had some really nice plays too, but it was almost like he was trying to do so much like showing it. It's like the guy who comes back from school and he, you know, he went to another country and he's just like practicing out the new language and like the new clothes that he has, Like he was trying to show everyone how much he Yes, it's Rob Dillingham. No, I'm just making that. It was just like it was a lot of boot.

00:17:06
Speaker 4: If you have a game like that, that's the coach you want to be coached by, because Sean Payton will nip that in the bud like now you know, like he'll be like, ah, yeah, he will. He will say some stern things. I'm sure.

00:17:18
Speaker 1: The matchup also I want to see is Nick Bonino versus Bernard Ryme. And I mean Nick Benino got that contract last week and then it was just the best player on the field against Tennessee and you just kind.

00:17:26
Speaker 2: Of forget what a what an incredible player.

00:17:28
Speaker 1: He was first among everyone in the league at pass rush win rate with over twenty you know, pass rush snap. So they just have so much talent. It's hard to start to lean Indianapolis. But it wouldn't It wouldn't shock me. Riley Moss Hustle. I thought, after kind of a bad second year, had a really nice first game last week.

00:17:46
Speaker 3: Clearly after my fraudulent Survivor pick.

00:17:49
Speaker 1: Will Oh, that's right, you took Miami. We will be doing Survivor picks on Wednesdays.

00:17:56
Speaker 3: And I'll be watching you guys.

00:17:58
Speaker 2: You're wrong.

00:18:00
Speaker 3: Our next matchup the want to Oh Buffalo Bills giving up six and a half points to the division rival New York Jets. The over under is forty five and a half after Justin Fields and Company ran up and down the field against the Pittsburgh Steelers last week. Jim, Tony and Tracy on the call, Greg, do the Bills have a trap game?

00:18:21
Speaker 2: Mmmm?

00:18:22
Speaker 3: I mean I don't believe in that.

00:18:23
Speaker 1: I don't know it should it shouldn't be a trap game. If they're watching the Jets tape from a week ago. I still can't move past that new sound drop. So I guess I'm gonna's let's use it here. So if I was talking to the week one version of myself that was so confident the Jets were gonna pull off the upset against the Steelers, I would hear back, You're wrong.

00:18:51
Speaker 4: It might be my new favorite.

00:18:52
Speaker 1: I'm sad that that that exists. I'm glad this is a gym in Tony game. I'm shocked that the Bills are favored by this.

00:19:00
Speaker 2: To me, it's a toss up.

00:19:02
Speaker 1: And I know it was against the Ravens, and I know Josh Allen only plays for one of these teams, so of course there they should be favored. But there were a lot of concerning signs for the Bills last week.

00:19:11
Speaker 4: On the one hand, Josh Allen so happy for this team that they have Josh Allen, so happy for all of us on the planet that Josh Allen exists right. On the other hand, Eric, especially on the other hand, I think I was right to worry about the Bill's defense coming into the season. Guys. I mean, I know I got some, I got some, I got some talk back on that one. But watching you know the Ravens, and it's the Ravens, yes, watching them run all over, especially the linebackers in the safeties, and the safeties were taking bad angles to tackle and the linebackers were out of position. They were getting moved off their spot. The front line was just getting moved or boxed into these bad like spatial areas where they couldn't shed their blocks, and like it, just every single level of this defense gave me cause for conser And that's not even talking about the outside spots, which at corner, which still aren't figured out.

00:20:05
Speaker 1: The secondary looks like a mess, and I think the last team you want to play when you're the Bills, who even against the Ravens are just sitting back in that shell coverage and they're just running all over them. And there's no right way to do it, because even when they brought people up to try to stop Derrick Henry in the playoffs, it didn't necessarily work that well.

00:20:23
Speaker 2: It is what they do.

00:20:24
Speaker 1: But I do think the Jets are a particularly difficult matchup for that style of team based off all the way they ran the ball.

00:20:30
Speaker 4: At Oliver can't do everything he tried. He had a great game, but he needs some help. And the Jets are tough because they are physical. We saw this last last week. They're physical, they are running the ball really really well. And they also had a number one receiver who went almost one hundred and he went what ninety five yards Garrett Wilson had ninety five yards, and the kind of went quietly underneath the run game by Breze Hall and how much that line was moving people around. I mean, this could be dangerous.

00:20:59
Speaker 3: The one thing like that left off the screen to me was because Mike Tomlin loved that defense. I know that the projections for the twenty twenty five Pittsburgh Steelers defense were significantly better than the offense. I was one of those folks. And then AmAm Mimbu comes out his first career NFL game, going up against t J Watt and Cam Hayward and all those guys. Twenty six pass blocking snaps with a time to pressure of three point eight seconds, almost four seconds of pass protection from your rookie in his first game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Where and we saw just again there's so much that's a Raven's asterisk with that. Yeah, first week that I understand to concern.

00:21:40
Speaker 1: They were a mess. They were a mess in practice. Reportedly, they were a mess in the preseason in terms of whether it's Bishop or Damar Hamlin on the back end at least.

00:21:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, and those those are concerns that we had on the back end for a team that could have easily gone to and won the Super Bowl a year ago. There's only so many different ways you can get a team together in the NFL in twenty twenty five. But it's it is almost a josh An all Josh show. And as you mentioned Ed Oliver, I know he can't be everywhere, but so much is reliant on ninety one to make a play and that's what he that's what he was able to do. And the Bills just are going to need just enough and get the ball into seventeen's hands and have him make a play at.

00:22:20
Speaker 1: The end and get into Kean Coleman's hands too. Yeah, I'm excited. He had one of those training camps where if you're tracking like the daily coverage from your colleague Joe bassaldlea who I think does a great job, you know, it was like a rough start to camp. They're hoping he bounces up and then you heard a steady drum bee as it was ending that the light was kind of turning on and in one of the catches that he made, not the touchdown, which really was an incredible individual play, And when I rewatched that, that really was the intended target for Josh Allen. It was just I think can catered knocks. Whoever it was that kind of saw it and put his hand, but he was trying to throw it to Coleman. But great concentration, but he had to play up the sideline earlier. That to me showed everything you want out of Keon Coleman. They have to me more than enough weapons they did last year to be the number one most efficient offense in league.

00:23:11
Speaker 2: My problem is, like with the.

00:23:13
Speaker 1: Jets, Like, okay, asking the Jets to keep up in a shootout is kind of a wild thing to expect, But based on how their defense looked a week ago, yeah, maybe that stuff they can fix because it felt like a lot of coverage bust. Guys were just running wide open. If that stuff is happening in like week six, that's the type of defense you would say, Oh, that's not a well coached defense right now. It was a lot of just big time mistakes from the Jets defense.

00:23:36
Speaker 4: I would rather have that type of problem that's schematically correctable. Then guys are not tackling at the right angle, Safeties are not in the place that they need to be to make the proper tackle on the running backs. Linebackers are out of position to make the tackles on the running backs. Running backs are just running through. That's where I'm concerned, because if you can run the ball like this this early in the year, if you're the Jets and you're the Bills and you know you're gonna put up a lot of points, you're still in trouble every single week that this is not fixed on the defensive side. Because yes, you can rely on your superhuman quarterback and that will probably get you pretty far. But like I said, if you're getting pushed around like this, the way that the Jets did to the Steelers through a lot of that game, and also the way that the Bills themselves got pushed around for most of that game by the Ravens, this is I'm worried about this team.

00:24:29
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, there's there is a real difference in getting blown up and not being at the right position at the start of the play. Baltimore Ravens and you know Taylor rap trying to make a tackle on Derek Henry in space, it's going to have a predicable outcome. But when ben' Skeroonic and Calvin Austin are just running down the field by themselves. Right, They're both, They're both scamatic issues that desperately need to be addressed.

00:24:49
Speaker 4: Ben's Kronick erasure right, the.

00:24:51
Speaker 3: Pool old champion, no shade that Ben I love.

00:24:54
Speaker 1: Early in the season, and these teams are just figuring themselves out. It's almost the first three four weeks. It just we're we're just finding out who they are. But it's hard. Patrick, as a member, a longtime member, I would imagine of Justin Field's nation, which I consider myself a member of, not to be excited about one of the best games of his career.

00:25:13
Speaker 2: I don't think that's it in it, No, it's exaggerate.

00:25:15
Speaker 3: That is not a stretch, Like.

00:25:16
Speaker 1: In every single way that we talked about that we thought they would maximize him, but it was really the past the day passing. I thought that was impressive in terms of the plan and the execution.

00:25:27
Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree, and I do think it kind of went under narrated, I guess. But they lost, Yeah, because they lost and then but also I mean, he had he had time, he had space, but he also had this confidence and he had this like the way that he ran the offense. You could tell it has been built for him in every phase, and I have to believe that gives somebody confidence on the other side. And I say it again, like, what are you going to do against Josh Allen? Probably nothing honestly all season, and he's going to have to do everything at least for now and get the ball to his playmakers. But I just I kind of think this could be a shootout.

00:26:04
Speaker 2: I love that. I mean, I would love if that.

00:26:06
Speaker 1: The Bills Jets rivalry in the year twenty twenty five is an offense fueled game.

00:26:13
Speaker 4: As the Patriots disappear from view.

00:26:15
Speaker 1: I mean, the Patriots and the Dolphins barely exist this week. But that's the power of Week two. You can just completely flip it. We are going to take a quick break.

00:26:23
Speaker 2: We're just getting started with all these AFC.

00:26:27
Speaker 1: Teams back on NFL Daily Fun slate of games. I gotta say cam Ward last week had one of the most exciting nightmarish games possible. Like his performance wasn't a nightmare, but like the Titans overall team and the result was.

00:26:57
Speaker 2: Kind of nightmarish. And yet going back to.

00:26:59
Speaker 1: Watch that like it was, I was, I was like, give me sixteen more of these, obviously with more completions and more productions.

00:27:05
Speaker 2: But I just want to watch this man play football.

00:27:07
Speaker 4: Okay it please keep him safe?

00:27:09
Speaker 3: Must see TV for cam Ward on the road. He and this Tennessee Titans get to be back at home facing off against the man who was deprived of a Throw of the Year candidate nomination, that is Matthew Stafford.

00:27:19
Speaker 2: I'll put it on, put it on. We gotta just document it, Okay.

00:27:21
Speaker 3: To Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams, who are a six point favorite at the Titans. The over unders forty one and a half Iron Eagle TJ's brother and Evan Washburn on the call as Greg these Rams seemingly nine is healthy. He was standing very upright in his postgame interview after a win. How do you feel about them against the Tennessee Titans.

00:27:43
Speaker 1: I feel great, except the offensive line already looks like it's going to be down. Two starters slipped a little under the radar. Steve Abula and Kevin Dottson are both listed as week to week, so that's their their starting interior players and going up against the Titans defense that I came up with after watching them against Denver, Like, what would you guys describe them as if you if you could do it in one word, because I think I came up with the perfect one word to describe.

00:28:09
Speaker 2: The Titans defense.

00:28:10
Speaker 1: I want to see if you can tap me ibouly violent, violent, okay, Jordan angry, angry.

00:28:17
Speaker 3: I was going to do creditable, Oh okay, Oh we went with more.

00:28:22
Speaker 1: Like professional would be another. I just was watching them and I'm thinking, you know what, that's a that's a creditable defense. Credible, creditable, that's a word, you know, just like they're there, they're professional, like they they they do credit to themselves.

00:28:39
Speaker 2: It's not going to be flashy.

00:28:41
Speaker 1: But it's just a lot of players without like a lot of a lot of team speed overall, but a lot of players who are just like rock solid and yes a little a little violent.

00:28:51
Speaker 4: Well they've got to carry a lot. That's why I say angry. I would be if I not to do my job like that.

00:28:58
Speaker 3: The rest it's a very polite way to say mid for those.

00:29:01
Speaker 2: Of you who know, see that's different.

00:29:03
Speaker 1: It's a creditable edible, but it's not like you have me a question itself.

00:29:09
Speaker 3: Creditible public acknowledgement and praise, but not necessarily outstanding or successful.

00:29:14
Speaker 1: I mean, read a book, Jordan, come on, expand that vocab okay, like this okay, So and when I think about creditable angry, I mean Jeffrey Simmons is a little beyond that, Like he is violent and he was yes, and it was that's.

00:29:28
Speaker 3: The play that I'm thinking of, Jeffrey Simmons personal foul that you could make the case cost the Titans a legitimate shot at winning the game because it extended a Broncos drive. Uh, that was the violence that I was thinking.

00:29:39
Speaker 1: I think they're just tough, Like if you go go through the like Sebastian Joseph Day, like he's a pro Defandre Sweat, He's a lot to deal with. They have guys like like arden Key and shy Tittle who are like coming off the bench. And then I thought it was big for them. Lagarius Sneed was on a pitch count, but while he was in there, he he looked like Lagarious Snead And you think about this matchup, you know, he's probably the guy who would draw DeVante that is a much tougher, like he's gonna be the guy who's going to go against the physical cornerbacks.

00:30:10
Speaker 2: I don't know if they're going to use him more.

00:30:12
Speaker 1: But you add up the players in that secondary, and again it's not flashy, but Roger mccrue's like a good player. Monti Hooker is a good player. They just gave a contract doing. It's just like a lot of guys who are solid, and maybe we see some year two growth out of this defense and that would help cam Ward out.

00:30:26
Speaker 4: A couple of years ago, when the Rams hosted the Titans, this was a really bad game for Matthew Stafford. This was multiple hits, multiple turnovers. Jeffrey Simmons had his way with the interior of that offensive line as well. Even if you have Steve Avula and Kevin Dotson back on the left and right side, they're dealing with respective leg, foot, ankle, knee injuries, and so that's something that is definitely going to factor in. Matthew Stafford did, in fact, not only survive but thrive in this game. By the way, I will note this is my survivor pick oo this week. I could not bet against Matthew staff Watching the game that he played this last week, I was really really impressed with it. I did also win my Survivor pick last week. I do take this game very seriously. Minnesota, Now I believed in the entire time definitely was the right pick. But in this in this game, I think it's super interesting because you know, the Rams actually the defense, the pass rush which is so outstanding and again put on quite a show. You know, recovered that last force fumble at the end of the game to ice out. The Texans pressured CJ. Stroud quite a bit about a fifty rate forty eight percent rate this last game. It's they're also really susceptible to quarterbacks who can move. There were a couple times where CJ. Stroud baited the over rush where they lost their rush integrity because they are young and they want to sect the quarterback. This happened to them all last year. It's a coaching point that they've reiterated over and over again, especially to those edge guys, and they did see it right away at the beginning of that game. So I think that cam Ward can make some things happen against this front, even though I do think over time this front will just wear on you and that's going to ultimately decide the game. In my opinion, but I think he'll make some plays against him.

00:32:16
Speaker 3: They were so much better against Houston when they didn't blitz.

00:32:18
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:32:19
Speaker 3: I think they were only able to convert about twelve percent of their pressures when blitzing into sacks against the Houston Texans. And so they just ultimately decided we're going to utilize that talent and have in great plays in the secondary. At cam Kinchen's had that turnover, and I believe there was another interception that was from Kobe Durant.

00:32:39
Speaker 4: Kobe Durant, he snatched it right out of receivers, had.

00:32:42
Speaker 3: A stolen play where it's like, if you have those guys in position to make plays, just get the extra defender there. I really don't think coach Oula doesn't even need to worry about the blitz. Just let these let those four guys get out. Yeah.

00:32:54
Speaker 1: I think that's the recipe for this team. Is the defense improved significantly this year.

00:32:59
Speaker 4: Kind of sneaky though Darius Williams got benched, Emmanuel Forbes and Kobe Durant were playing on the outside, and then Kello Witherspoon was barely playing on the outside. He is coming back from an injury but those two guys are as about as healthy as they can be, which means because if Darius Williams is their highest paid defensive player, just someone to keep an eye on as the next week's and potentially month and a half continues. But it is really really interesting to me because they aren't asking their secondary to do so much because their front seven is doing everything and Chris Shula is mixing up his fronts. He's got odd fronts, he's got even fronts. I mentioned this last week. He's got Braden Fisk out wide as a nine technique with a bunch of other guys who are usually on the edge now on the inside. They're sort of inverting their line in different ways. So they're going to give this embattled Titans offensive line pretty much everything it can handle. And so Cam Woard again, I fear has to be have sort of that Superman game. I think he'll make his plays, though.

00:33:54
Speaker 1: Dan Moore was a disaster for the Titans last week. And you call the offensive line in battle if that remains true.

00:34:00
Speaker 4: Was that the right word or should I thought you google?

00:34:02
Speaker 2: That's perfect? No, the wrong word was bet.

00:34:04
Speaker 1: You can't we can't say bet on NFL Media but of course we kind of can because no one knows it's no one knows it's true.

00:34:11
Speaker 2: I'm making a joke about you know, the let.

00:34:14
Speaker 4: You know when you want to google a word for me again.

00:34:15
Speaker 1: Thanks, I mean creditable, I mean you had you had me. I'm wondering because I was.

00:34:20
Speaker 3: I wasn't certain.

00:34:21
Speaker 2: I started to feel crazy. I was like, that is a word.

00:34:24
Speaker 1: But their offensive line, that's what this whole team is built around. Right, first round picks huge money to Dan Moore.

00:34:31
Speaker 5: J C.

00:34:32
Speaker 1: Latham has a hip injury and we're not sure about his status and Dan Moore had a nightmare game a week ago, and so if they're not good, like this team is not going to be good.

00:34:43
Speaker 2: I do want to have the cam word conversation quickly.

00:34:45
Speaker 1: I do love your Survivor pick too, so much so that I actually texted Quob it's going to be my pick. But now that I'm thinking out loud about it, I'm changing my mind because I'm thinking we're giving these Survivor picks for the people because we are not allowed to b word, but the people out there are. But in reality, we're also I guess having a competition within this room. We want to have our Survivor picks against Judge, so it does seem stupid to have the same one. So I will hold off and come up with another one. But just know, I do think it is absolutely a great pick. I got some texts this week, Patrick from our friend of the show, Kevin Clark, and the takeaways from those texts was, have you know, have you watched this game yet? It's it's cam Ward and ten bozos out there. I now know how Justin Herbert feel.

00:35:35
Speaker 4: Justin Herbert fan, noted Miami fan Kevin Clark.

00:35:38
Speaker 2: By the way, he's.

00:35:39
Speaker 1: Like, this is how he's like, I know how Justin Herbert. You know fans feel. Over the last few years. It was tough. It wasn't all perfect for cam Ward, but man, he had a lot of great Yeah.

00:35:49
Speaker 3: There were drops. There were some in the in the fourth quarter especially he was firing steam balls at two hundred miles an hour, the Chigo Conkuo. We're like, I understand not cashing those. But there was no There was never this And if folks were watching the Monday Night game where you saw JJ McCarthy kind of evolved as the game went on and get that confident cam Ward had that at the start of the game, at the very start game, and to an extent where now I'm wondering what he did to the schedule makers to start with offensive line problems, to start Broncos, then Rams, and then in two weeks they're the Texans.

00:36:26
Speaker 2: It's absolutely brutal, Like give the kid a break, please.

00:36:29
Speaker 1: It's brutal because he had some just wild man throws to throw across his body from his own goal line, which was money and just the things he was trying.

00:36:38
Speaker 2: This is a great quarterback matchup, this, you know. Adding in a perfect.

00:36:41
Speaker 1: World, he would evolve into a Matthew Stafford like player. And Stafford is already right there.

00:36:48
Speaker 4: Plays fearlessly like Stafford.

00:36:50
Speaker 1: Right, He's just he's a walking advertisement for a mortal. I think Jordan, and I don't want to put words in your mouth. Jordan, who Stafford?

00:36:58
Speaker 3: Right?

00:36:58
Speaker 2: I mean, do you think a Mortal's going to go crazy?

00:37:01
Speaker 3: Now?

00:37:02
Speaker 4: I'm not giving them any more pops.

00:37:03
Speaker 1: Okay, fine, Jordan has gotten so much grief. I think over the years of being you know, yeah, you've covered the Rams, so you know we talk about the Rams. I don't think we talked about them anymore that if anything, we were Yeah, we were under selling that Stafford performance last week, Like he just came back and he looked my absolute peak Stafford. So for the record, I picked them to win the division on NFL dot Com, like, as long as it's a healthy Stafford, they're going to be fine.

00:37:28
Speaker 2: And man, he looks health.

00:37:29
Speaker 4: Fourteen points did not tell the story either. Poor Jordan Whittington could not catch a break, caught everything else, couldn't catch a break. A huge special team's play called back because of a penalty. Troy Reader rams fans, I know, you know gets makes a catchdown field potentially puts them in huge position to score actual points which they had very little of, called back again due to a penalty. And Jordan Whittington was playing a little fullback for them, which is very intriguing sit in that position. And more significantly more twelve personnel as well, which I think is a factor, especially settling down their run game, especially taking the teeth out of more fearsome defensive fronts. And they're going to face another one this week.

00:38:12
Speaker 3: I'm not often conspiratorial, but as good as Matthew Stafford played, and we mentioned a brand relationship, now I'm starting to wonder, where are.

00:38:22
Speaker 4: We face that's what they want.

00:38:24
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't know.

00:38:26
Speaker 2: We'll come back in like week five.

00:38:27
Speaker 1: Now, that's going to have to be up there after four games of getting hit in.

00:38:30
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll see. But he looked, he looked fresh.

00:38:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, could be so it could be some magic beans. Speaking of magic, let's get up to the Pacific Northwest, where the Seattle Seahawks will be leaving this week to fly to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers. These Steelers are giving up two and a half points the over unders forty and a half. Adam a Mean, Mark Sanchez, and Christina Pink on the call. Jordan d Seahawks fans saw little Sam Donald throwing the ball to JSN. Will he throw the ball to other people in this game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

00:39:00
Speaker 4: I mean he has to, right, but like if they would like to win this game. Two matchups that I really love in this game is DK Metcalf now Pittsburgh Steeler versus his former team. Another little dabble of revenge, Patrick trying to get those to you.

00:39:17
Speaker 3: Also against the Jets.

00:39:19
Speaker 4: Also this is Jalen Ramsey versus the former NFC West team that he used to hate playing against or kind of love playing against as well. This is former Super Bowl teammates Jalen Ramsey and Cooper Cup potentially squaring off a couple of times depending on where either of them lines up. Jalen Ramsey was playing on the outside by the end of that game because Joey Porter Junior got injured. But this is kind of exciting. There's dabbles of revenge all throughout the Aaron Rodgers was almost the Rams quarterback if they couldn't get a deal done with Matthew Stafford.

00:39:49
Speaker 1: Sam Donald was almost the Steelers quarterback. How about Aaron Rodgers' revenge on Sam Darnold for him being like one of the seventeen quarterbacks that Steelers wanted before they signed Aaron.

00:40:00
Speaker 4: Rodgers, and for being friends with Rayin Wilson. You know, Aaron Rodgers love that.

00:40:04
Speaker 2: I didn't know any of that, but I do love that.

00:40:07
Speaker 4: I know. Yes, there's so much dabbling of revenge and intrigue.

00:40:11
Speaker 1: Play action I think tells a story in this game. So Rogers, famously throughout his career has not been play action friendly, didn't want to do it that much, and he ends up with ten of his attempts last week in play action. Three of his touchdowns were in play action. Was very effective. Looked a lot of like Arthur Smith Doffens were. On the other side, we were sold to bill of goods in the preseason with Clint Kubiak. We think under center play action they had the lowest play action rate in the league. It was almost like he was Clint Kubiak trying to Jedi mind trick the forty nine ers. We're not going to do what you think we're going to do. We're going to do the total opposite. And it didn't really work for the Seahawks. So that's something I'm going to watch if they go back to what we thought they were going to be.

00:40:53
Speaker 4: It's kind of strange too. And I saw a couple of plays that were really outstanding by Fred Warner who was reading his keys and really because he knows so he knows the kettle of Kubiaks that we've ascertained is going to be the name for the grouping of Kubiak people that are in the league. And he really read the fullback really, really well. So there's a lot of things that the linebackers in San Francisco were doing to sort of say, hey, we know what you're going to do, which might have hamstrung uh kubiak as oc a little bit and made him DEVI eight from what he wanted to do. I have no doubt that they're going to get try to get back to doing that. What I thought was curious is that Aaron Rodgers didn't throw an attempt past twenty air yards despite all that play action, And I do wonder if they start to sling it out a little bit more, it's going to be tough.

00:41:35
Speaker 1: It's kind of the new Aaron Rodgers at least that we've seen over the last few years.

00:41:38
Speaker 4: But that's that's like the only the third time in his career that that's happened, So you know, it's it's going to be interesting because you have to get the ball down the field. I don't know if they can much against the Seattle defense, though.

00:41:49
Speaker 3: I think well as far as Tarik Willen's performance, because I know Seahawks fans are going to look at a couple of very glaring plays and plays a lot of blame on Treiqu Willen. I don't necessarily think it was all that bad considering how close the game was. This was more of an issue with the Seattle offense, where Sam Donald got pressured thirty two percent of his dropbacks, higher than any game with the Minnesota Vikings. And I say this not just to build up Gino, because we said this at the onset. It's just a fundamentally different situation for Sam Donald when the pressure is coming in that way, especially the interior pressure, where it causes him to not play like the peak Sam Donald that we've seen. Interior pressure is going to bother a lot of quarterbacks, but it seems to bother Donald more than others.

00:42:34
Speaker 1: I was curious when I put that game on to see him, like how he struggled, and in the end I thought Donald played fine. Actually these two quarterbacks, I think Rogers was good but he wasn't as good as the numbers. And Donald wasn't great, but he wasn't as bad or as quiet as the numbers. I think he did his job. They just had like the highest run rate versus expected of any team in the league, and they weren't that effective. It was a lot of sharp and it was okay, but like there was no Arroyo on the offense, there's no explosion on that offense. I think Cooper Cup makes you a slow offense. I'm not rooting against him, but you know, he led the team and snaps and he kind of had a nightmare game. He was a problem in the running game multiple times, blowing his block on plays that got blown up and obviously didn't give them much to their So they need to get more out of them, and I'm glad you mentioned Riek. Mike McDonald was asked about him on Wednesday whether he will start this week, and he said, we'll see.

00:43:34
Speaker 4: So they might be speaking of coaches that are like pretty honest, maybe without meaning to be at the podium.

00:43:41
Speaker 2: You know, we've had m McDonald.

00:43:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've had some moments we've seen we watched from him, because yeah, they're they're depending on it seems like if things aren't working, they're trying to depend on Jackson Smith and Jigbus so much. And he's lining up over you know, sixty percent of the time on the outside, and yes, he's getting fed a lot of targets. But they need layers. They need to mention in that passing game, and they also need to get get off the ball better in the run game because A good running back is not going to fix your run blocking. It can compliment it, it's not going to fix it.

00:44:13
Speaker 1: There's so many mystery box teams, almost every team is at this stage of the season, but these two would be in like my inner circle of the biggest mystery box team. I would stay away from this game. I have no idea who is going to win this game.

00:44:25
Speaker 3: It's an avoid, avoid at all costs, and maybe even eyeballs. Just kidding, I am not averting my eyeballs from our next game in any way whatsoever. I think this could be a calculator game Jacksonville at Cincinnati, where the Bengals are giving up three and a half points after feeling like they were going to score three and a half points last week. Greg Over under fifty and a half. We love numbers. Chris Lewis, Logan, Ryan Tiffany Blackman on the call. Do the Bengals bounce back and beat trevn Company at home?

00:44:58
Speaker 1: I will pick them for I think, but I would not go with the three and a half points that the Jaguars were impressive enough, and I just think it's a It's a coin flip game in general. And Zach Taylor's struck a weird post to me, like the last couple of weeks, like I like him in front of the media.

00:45:17
Speaker 2: I've gotten to like him more as I've watched him more.

00:45:19
Speaker 1: But he was remarkably positive after last week's game after they had negative eighteen yards in the fourth quarter, and like he was like this was like he was just saying, like, we're you know, this was great, this was amazing. They had seven yards after halftime. And then this week, I mean, he is really excited about this opportunity.

00:45:39
Speaker 3: What would it mean to win?

00:45:40
Speaker 2: It would be your first win in week two since becoming head.

00:45:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just want to be two.

00:45:44
Speaker 5: And oh, I know I haven't been too an os something here bad, I can tell you.

00:45:48
Speaker 2: I mean I want them. I want him to aim higher, you know.

00:45:52
Speaker 1: Then scraping out a win with negative negative eighteen yards against the Browns.

00:45:57
Speaker 4: Yeah, three and out on their last four drives on the positive for the Bengals. I mean, this is a big question they'll find out this week against Liam Cohen and Jacksonville and ETN and Basehel Touton and guys who ran the ball really well last week against the somewhat happiless Carolina Panthers if they can still run the ball against the Bengals. My question is did the Bengals fix their run defense because their run defense looked pretty dang good last week.

00:46:22
Speaker 3: And Week two mix for those was that the Brown yes? Or was that Bengals defense. I do think after watching Joe Flacco get around two point eight four seconds per throw and seeing Joe Flacco throw on the run and play very well and look very very comfortable, I don't see hmm. I know Trevor Lawrence had a bad underthrow of Travis Hunter that got picked off by Jacon Horn, one of the best plays in Week one. If the pass rush is like this, the Jags will score forty points. Wow.

00:46:54
Speaker 1: I thought I thought the d line showed something a little bit from Cincinnati side. I think Jamar Stewart I think flashed a little bit. I'm like, Okay, he's going to do some things inside. You mentioned they have bodies where I'm like, at least you could look at it and think there's room for improvement. I'm really worried about their offensive line. You know, on the interior, the Bengals were giving up pressure throughout and I know everyone's like just throw it away. Burrow is always terrible in Week one division opponent, the Brown Strog. I get that, but I think this offensive line could be an issue all season, and it's going up against a JAG's pass rush that I think people.

00:47:35
Speaker 2: Aren't going to be sleeping on much longer.

00:47:36
Speaker 1: Heinz Allen and Chevon Walker and Eric Armstead while he's healthy.

00:47:39
Speaker 2: That's a difficult matchup.

00:47:41
Speaker 1: And I think I'd be a little worried about that offensive line if I was a Bengals fan.

00:47:45
Speaker 4: If I am remembering correctly, wasn't Josh heinz Allen like one of the highest.

00:47:49
Speaker 1: Graded play I think he had the most pressures of anyone in the league.

00:47:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean he played, he jumped off the screen, he played fantastic. It's like he kind of heard the question mark surrounding that entire defense group and the structure of it. And let's not forget it's all new coaches over there, you know, offense, defense, special teams head coach. To me, it's like, I see, I see the potential of another strong start by the Bengals, but they could not run the ball, which is going to really hurt them. And then in the entire second half of the game just completely deteriorated, deteriorated, no explosive plays, negative yardage. This is an issue that I don't know. I mean, you really expect more from Joe Burrow, a Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase led team, and to me, it's again, is Week one a liar kind of a thing.

00:48:37
Speaker 3: Well, I think the liar might be the way we feel about this team when they're not playing the Cleveland Browns, like the.

00:48:43
Speaker 2: Schwartz of it all, the Schwarts of it all.

00:48:46
Speaker 3: In hindsight, Yeah, this is what happens. The Cincinnati Bengles play this defense and like Miles Garrett having sacks on back to back plays like that, Yeah, that's something I'm willing to chalk up and say that. Yeah, they're going to play better on offense. But again, the defense got zero pressures on Joe Flacco on the zero.

00:49:03
Speaker 1: So you would say to the Jaguars defense, like mad the Schwartz be with you, absolutely everybody take take that game plan.

00:49:12
Speaker 3: I can't say my favorite space Ball's quote.

00:49:13
Speaker 2: Run it back.

00:49:15
Speaker 1: I also want to just say I know people are talking and like, how come Greg hasn't said anything about this, Like what, what's happening. There's just a lot of whispers. But as the president of Travis Hunter Nation, we are not concerned that was.

00:49:28
Speaker 3: Gonna be a touchdown that Jacon Horn picked off.

00:49:30
Speaker 1: We we are holding firm. You know, the offensive and defensive Rookie of the Year predictions might have been like a slight, you know, bit of extra dip on the chip on the defensive side, but Liam Cohen said this week they're gonna crank up his defensive snaps a little bit. It's gonna take it might take a little bit of time to for all to get integrated, but Hunter Nation has no concerns whatsoever.

00:49:55
Speaker 4: Also, the number one thing the Jaguars wanted to do, I mean, not only was it clear Bye. We talked earlier this week about how a coach's script and then consecutive plays kind of shows you what he wants to do or what he wants you to think he's about. They wanted to run the ball. They wanted to run it down Carolina's throat, and they did, and they knew that that was the easiest way, the best way to probably dominate them. Even with all the questions that they've had, They're not going to put an ordinate amount of pressure on the quarterback or on the perimeter receivers before they have to. So I have no doubt they're going to ramp up his workload.

00:50:31
Speaker 1: M I might have to grab this game. We haven't assigned games yet for the early window. I am very intrigued about Jaguars Bengals. Let's take one last break here on the podcast. We're going to wrap the show with Patrick Claibon's Team, My Team, and a spicy Monday night doubleheader back on NFL Daily, wrapping up the AFC Week two slate. Patrick always announces the broadcasters for each game, right, but I see it. It's on the sheet, and it just occurred to me looking at this CBS crew doing Brown's Ravens, Tom McCarthy, our friend of the show, Ross Tucker, he's been a guest, and Amanda ballyonis.

00:51:24
Speaker 4: New friend of the show.

00:51:25
Speaker 2: That is, who's a new friend of the show.

00:51:28
Speaker 1: I was unaware of this, but one of our producers, Jason, showed me an Instagram video she had put out on her feed like a month ago. It was like a day in the life, and she was hiking and she said, now it's time to listen to my favorite NFL podcast, and she just holds up NFL daily and even did like the scroll thing where you actually saw the feed of it. Shout out to Jpacosta. It was his episode with me. So thank you, Amanda, wherever you are.

00:51:55
Speaker 4: Are you upset that she followed me on Instagram and not you?

00:51:59
Speaker 1: I don't as as long as she's listening to the show, I'm that's all I know.

00:52:03
Speaker 4: Whatever, thank you, Amanda, I see you.

00:52:05
Speaker 3: We appreciate you, Amanda. You and Tom and Ross get a chance to see the Cleveland Browns visit the Baltimore Ravens, who are an eleven and a half point favorite. This Ravens team Jordan can beat anybody in the NFL. They can also lose to anybody in the NFL. Its history shows forty four and a half the over under. That's a lot of points. But Baltimore did score a lot of points against the Buffalo Bills. How do you think they will perform against the Cleveland Browns.

00:52:30
Speaker 4: I mean, anything kind of goes in these ones, right because I mean it's Ravens Browns, and the Browns defense looked like the Browns defense, and I don't know that the Ravens are going to be able to run the ball as effectively against the Browns defense as they were able to do against the Bills defense. I mean, how are you kind of feeling about this? Are you getting little nervous?

00:52:48
Speaker 3: Well? Yeah, I think in certain situations. Seeing the way that JayR Alexander was covering Josh Palmer towards the end of the game, and I know that both Tillman and Jerry Judy had drops that led to Turner that ultimately cost the Cleveland Browns the game, and Joe Flacco played well. I think the Ravens front can get more pressure on Joe Flacco than the Bengals did. But ultimately, yeah, I'm a fan who has seen a team have catastrophic collapses and losses, and so yeah, I come into this extremely exceedingly negative. But then I see Greg's confidence and it clears up the skies.

00:53:22
Speaker 1: It's not that high, but yes, I will take the Ravens as my survivor.

00:53:27
Speaker 2: Who mixed feelings.

00:53:30
Speaker 3: Now, I can't lose, because all you lose.

00:53:33
Speaker 4: What if I told you this? This is courtesy of Mike Sando and his Pick six column at The Athletic since two thousand, when leading by nine to sixteen points in the fourth quarter. Over the last four seasons, seven teams have done so twenty games total, thirteen losses. Baltimore accounts for six of them.

00:53:57
Speaker 1: I'm not surprised. Yeah, this is what this team does. Have, these catastrophic losses. Now, I wouldn't expect it two weeks in a row. But I do think the Browns played really well last week and they have a better chance to be competitive than people think. I don't like that eleven and a half. I don't like that it's a division matchup. I don't like the idea that the Ravens are going to try extra hard this week because they lost. That should be a segment, by the way, that should maybe be a sponsored segment, Patrick's try extra Hard game of the Week, because the Ravens would be that team this week if all of these teams actually really well.

00:54:30
Speaker 3: Also, again I've told the story waves too many times on the pod. If you go to the facility in Owings Mills and you look around and you see Ray Lewis, you see jo you see all of these ed Rey photos of everybody that's contributed, and then you're like, oh, there's Joe Flacco. But it just so happens that Joe Flacco is standing behind Marshall Yanda in the picture. Maybe Joe Flacco is the one that's getting revenge. I guess the team that didn't want him.

00:54:53
Speaker 1: Let's listen to Joe Flacco. I do think it's amazing. This is essentially a homecoming game for the Raven honoring the Super Bowl championship team, and Joe Flacco just happens to be, you know, coming into town.

00:55:09
Speaker 5: I got to play him a couple of years ago. But going back to Baltimore is definitely a little bit different story is It is somewhat surprising honestly that I've been going for a decent amount of time now, so you know, the fact that I haven't had a chance to go back is a little surprising. I think I'm very capable, capable of just seeing it as another division game, But it will be cool to go back in that stadium. I haven't had a chance to do it since I've played there. I really love playing there. It's an awesome place to play. It's an awesome venue, it's an awesome atmosphere. They do a great job, so I love playing there. So I think in that respect, it will be pretty cool to go back.

00:55:43
Speaker 4: For sure, this is not a revenge game. Do not put on the internet that this is a revenge game.

00:55:49
Speaker 3: Is he gonna go Rogers? And then after the game be like, yeah, it was really good to beat the Baltimore Ravens.

00:55:55
Speaker 1: I think he genuinely likes the Ravens because they changed his life in one of the I think one of the top moments in NFL network history. I will never forget it, just because I happened to have been watching it live and I remember I wrote the article on NFL dot com about it, like reacting to it. That night, he sits on the tape you know, the dais with Rich Eisen and everyone after winning that Super Bowl. One of the very best playoff runs any quarterback has ever had, like without any qualifiers. Joe Flacco had that, and he had it in the middle of a contract run in his contract year, and he said, Steve Bashatti told me, if this happens, I can go pound on his desk and really stick it to him. And That's exactly what I'm gonna do. And I just remember being like, yes, you're feeling yourself. Joe Flacco right after the Super Bowl and he gave him like a market changing contract. He was probably like a thirteenth best quarterback in the league, and he was by far the highest paid quarterback.

00:56:49
Speaker 4: I love it, and he is not wrong. That is one of the coolest places to play in the entire NFL. It's one of the coolest home stadiums in their intros and how gothic it is, and especially night game when you know, when the sun goes down, like it just gets so much fun there. I love it. I Also what I also love is, you know, there's a lot not to like about the Browns and how they've done business over the last couple of years, But in terms of this season and what it is, it's kind of, you know, just playing for the future and developing young players. And I know they want to be competitive. I'm not ruling that out. Joe Flacco certainly wants to be competitive. But you've got to feel really good watching some of these young guys play this last week and their debuts in the NFL. Greg and I talked about it a little bit earlier this week on a previous show.

00:57:34
Speaker 2: It just good omens.

00:57:35
Speaker 4: It gets a good omen it to me, it's like latch onto those guys, Watch those guys play and think about twenty twenty, twenty twenty six and what you can start to build out of this new core.

00:57:47
Speaker 2: You worried about the Ravens defense.

00:57:50
Speaker 1: Nine guys last week specifically to this week played fifty eight snaps, some of them eighty to ninety snaps. They were on the field a lot. It's always on my raider. Early in the season. You've got Chidobio Wuz starting over, Jyra, Alexander and Diarrah.

00:58:04
Speaker 3: Case that's not even close.

00:58:05
Speaker 1: It's the right decision, right, Diarra Alexander really struggling the pass rush other than Madam Week just wasn't there. This is an easier matchup certainly in terms of their pass rush, and there was a lot.

00:58:17
Speaker 4: Of buzz that Mike Green was going to come in and make a difference off the edge, but you know, you just got to.

00:58:21
Speaker 3: See it a little concerning. Yeah, it is concerning. They won't be on the field as much. The rare only Ravens problem of having an offense that was too explosive, especially in the second half against the Buffalo Bills, where you would like to see more of a constrictor. Sean McVay type drive towards the end of a game to grind things out where I don't think the home run potentially against this Brown defense is as high as it is against Buffalo, which is like, oh, no, bad news. Maybe it's good news. See if Baltimore can slowly move the ball, give those guys a break, A little bit of time off to our next AFC match up. The New England Patriots coming off a loss at home to the Las Vegas Raiders. All the boys and all the girls are begging to play Miami. They are one and a half point favorites with an over under of forty four and a half. Andrew cattel On, Charles Davis, Jason mccordy, and aj Ross on the call, Greg, your squad gets a chance to bounce back against the team whose vibes are down horrendous?

00:59:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, wait, which team has the vibes down horrendous?

00:59:25
Speaker 3: Come on, go.

00:59:28
Speaker 1: To Foxborough, Go listen to Boston Sports Radio. I'll pass Greg, I will too, but I'm just imagining it there.

00:59:36
Speaker 4: See if I can get to it on my long long list of things. You know, I don't know, darn, I'm not.

00:59:41
Speaker 2: Gonna I think if you were just ranking.

00:59:44
Speaker 1: Just based off Week one performance, the Patriots would have been one of the five worst teams in the NFL only they were the only team to give up more than five twenty plus yard plays. They gave up nine guys were wide open in the secondary. They decided to blitz a lot. Maybe that's gonna be their strategy. Seems like a bad one against Gino Smith, who flamed them last year. I know it's a different staff, but you know he knew exactly what was happening. Bus All over the back end, no one can really cover. Christian Gonzales does not look like he is going to play in this game because he missed on Wednesday. And then on the offensive side, it was a little more cohesive, but Drake May did not look good like He certainly didn't look better than he was as a rookie. He looked rather jumpy. So it doesn't surprise me that the Dolphins are favored in this game. To me, it's just a toss up of two teams that I just don't know what we're going to get out of. One of them could pop up this week and just look much better. I just don't know. But to me, it seems equally like he likely that it's the Dolphins that pop up and look better yeah, than it is the Patriots, because the Dolphins at least have some continuity and have been together.

01:00:49
Speaker 2: Yeah.

01:00:49
Speaker 4: And I can just almost guarantee, especially because you know, the Miami defense did not look good. But I can almost guarantee the Anthony Weavers looking at what Patrick Graham did with that Raiders front. You make Drake may look frazzled and look castled. They were mixing up odd and even fronts. Patrick Graham does not play generally like a four to three, but they were mixing up, you know, presenting more even looks than maybe that they had done in the past. They were doing a lot of different types of zone coverages behind it. This is something where you look at that and all of these things the Dolphins defense is capable of doing. We have seen it despite the fact that they've lost some players, even you know, upfront, they actually got some guys back and healthy, so they should be able to at least, you know, make Drake may look confused, but it is kind of weird. It was weird seeing it because when I and I know I brought this up a lot to forgive me, but when I was at that those joint practices and they were going against a very confusing defense. They were using Trevon Henderson as an outlet. They were calming Drake May down, giving him a lot of options, giving him a lot of pressure beater options, giving him a lot of just things that settle a young quarterback. And then also you know they were raining him in intentionally to not use his legs at will. But if you're looking rattled like you've got to just at a certain point, I mean, what is it. You know he ran around four times this last game. You've got to at least like say, okay, if you're not feeling comfortable, go make some plays, Go make something happen.

01:02:12
Speaker 2: It's a trend.

01:02:13
Speaker 1: So I don't listen to Boston Sports Radio, but I do listen to Tom Kurrn, who's one of the best in the game.

01:02:17
Speaker 4: And a great accent, also the best.

01:02:19
Speaker 1: Outstanding, and Greg Bodard, and they both they made he talked about on his podcast this week. They made a comment like Drake May has been so accurate and so calm and so good in every practice that they've watched, just about and literally every time so far, and this includes a preseason. I watch all the steps that you know, there's been a scoreboard in referees. He's just throwing the ball all over the place. Now, whether that's a coincidence or not, it is a fact that he's kind of been throwing the ball all over the place in terms of his accuracy and his comfort in the pocket. And they're not sure what to make of that really, other than they just think this offseason it has been a trend and may even alluded to it that he's been a little hyped up for these games at the beginning and these sailing passes. But you know, you would think he would maybe settle into the game. If anything, it got worse as last week went on. Doesn't mean he's not going to get out of it, but right now he's in that mode.

01:03:13
Speaker 4: But and I think Josh mcdaniels's reputation is to make things harder on the quarterback even when things are stressful, And so what if, hey, here's a concept, What if you didn't do that. What if you make things easier on the quarterback when you see things get stressful or too much maybe for the quarterback to handle as capable as Drake may has been, and that's very true, how calm and like truly collected and just sort of like, Okay, I don't have that option. I'm going to go here, or I'm going to take it and run or whatever, and very very poised. If you're not feeling that way, don't stick and do the same things that you started the game with. Make things easier, get the quarterback to settle in, run the ball, you know, these types of things that would really help.

01:03:51
Speaker 1: I think the run games stunk, and if it stinks, they're not going to be a good team.

01:03:55
Speaker 3: And I think like your tendency to feel like, well, yeah, Drake's got it, the problem might be everywhere else. I don't think that's bias for you to feel that way. I think the problems maybe more surrounding Drake may especially on the sideline. Then Drake may himself like being in these situations. And I think the spot here is a spot where you can feel comfortable that things are going to go just fine, because if you think that the Fins are going to speed him up and blitz, especially after last week when when Dimes was very very comfortable, they're one of the like in the bottom half of the league in blitz rate and success rate win blitzing today, I don't think that's in the bag at all for them, Like, I really don't think that that is a part of the tools that they can utilize against Drake may So as a Gill healthy.

01:04:38
Speaker 1: Game for you, I don't know, because the I think if there's the biggest weakness, and there are a few on this Patriots team, it's like linebacker and the back end with cornerback, and then it's the offensive line until proven otherwise. And I think the number one strength of this dolpheninse team in theory is their pass rush, and they were okay last week, but Danny Dimes was getting it out so fast. His time to throw was just like they had answers and everything was getting out out fast, fast, fast, So I think that could be a mispatch on the other side, though, Look, Milton Williams had a nice game, Harrod Landry had a nice game.

01:05:07
Speaker 2: They've got some players, certainly upfront.

01:05:10
Speaker 1: And the Dolphins lost two starting offensive linemen right off the bat this season, or at least Austin Jackson's not there yet, and then they lost James Daniel to an injury, and then their rookie Jonah savonaa who supposedly they swiped from the Patriots and then the Patriots ended up with Travon Henderson instead. He's really been struggling seven as so that's just something to keep an eye on. Also something to keep an eye on is a comment from Brian McCarthy, official PR spokesman for the NFL. We mentioned Tyreek Hill's latest domestic violence allegations, which is part of a divorce proceedings that TMZ obtained and those results are sealed, but the Associated Press has written about it as well, and they're out there and you can find specifically what they were. We went over it on Monday night. But he just says it's standard policy for the league to review a matter such as this. So at this point, as far as we know, Tyreek Hill is going to be available for this game, But stay tuned.

01:06:16
Speaker 3: Let's go to the next matchup. It is a Houston Texans team that lost in Sofar Stadium, playing host to Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, fresh off of shutting down the Falcons run game and getting a closing seconds win thanks to the efforts of a Mecca A Buka forty two and a half is the number. Texans again favored by three Chris Fowler, Dani Rolowski, Lewis Riddick, Katie George, and our friend Peter Schreeger on the call as well. Jordan, this Texans team went through a lot and now they get to give a lot to Baker Mayfield. How do you feel about their options at home?

01:06:50
Speaker 4: Okay, so two things. One, I feel like this has the potential to be a blood and guts Baker Mayfield type of game because in watching this Houston Texans defense in person, they're hitting guys, they're hitting and they look awesome. And I mean, holding the Rams to fourteen points in an opener in a McVeigh opener is kind of a big deal, despite the fact that they the Texans offense, got as much as they gave and were limited themselves. That defense. They are aggressive, they are physical, They pressured, They pressured Stafford. I mean he was hit three times. One of them was kind of a weird bad snap and he had to run back and get the ball and all that. They pressured him quite a bit, especially off that right side and especially when the guards came out and got him in the interior and so I think that when you're going up against kind of a magical moment for this revamped Bucks offensive line, which we didn't really talk about too much because it was kind of a surprise. I missed that, and I will tell you like it was a total surprise. So obviously we know they're missing Tristan Wurfs and they will be for another couple of weeks. But Todd Bowles pulled a fast one off of what he was watching in practice when they decided to move Graham Barton to left tackle from center, and they tried him out for a couple of snaps in practice like four four days ago, four days before the opener, and then Todd Bowles was like, hey, that looks pretty good. We should try that full time. So then they moved him full time to left tackle from center. Ben Brettison kicked inside from left guard to center. Michael Jordan not that one a late summer edition elevated from the practice squad, then played left guard and they fared okay, they fared pretty pretty well good, not great. A lot of pressure, not a lot of hits on Baker, but a lot of pressure. It's like going against like a bona fide defensive line, you know, and one that's proven. The Falcons did get fifteen pressures, but this is a very different This is a very different beast here with Houston.

01:08:49
Speaker 1: I think you really saw it in the run game. I mean, you saw those pressures, but the run game was disjointed, and it reminded me so much of the way last year started for the Bucks, which if you remember, they were one of the worst running teams in the league for about a month and then suddenly they were like poetry in motion, like everything was clicking and Bucky Irving is off to the races, and they were extremely disjointed. Like it's just something you can see with your eyes that they weren't all on the same page. It seemed like one player was like blowing the block all the time. They like they were working so hard against the Atlanta Falcons, it does make you wonder how this week is going to go against Texans. There was a sixteen play drive. This always cracks me up that they had to kick a forty seven yard field.

01:09:33
Speaker 2: Goal and there was nothing there.

01:09:35
Speaker 1: Whenever that happens, it's usually because you have a bunch of penalties that you had to back up Nope. There was one five yard penalty early in the drive. It wasn't about that. It took ten plays to get to the fifty. It took another like six to get to the thirty. And it was just like that and that that's not normal for this Bucks offense. So I think, you know, maybe Todd Bowles was really hooting and hollering because he knows he stole one at a time of year where maybe they're just figuring some things out.

01:09:59
Speaker 3: It was almost three seconds for Baker Mayfield to throw. Yeah, two point nine to five second time to throw against the Falcons rushion and all that they've done. It's not going to be three seconds against Texans, right the Houston Texans, it's not. So whatever changes that they made late, especially Baker hitting a Mecca Buka for that, I don't think the wide open opportunities will be there, but perhaps a chance to get more consistent in the ground game and to adjust to the changes that they surprisingly made up front right before the game started.

01:10:28
Speaker 4: And we know on the other side that Todd Bowles is just going to pressure the crap out of you know, c J.

01:10:34
Speaker 2: Stroud, He's the same issue really out on either side.

01:10:36
Speaker 4: He's really going to do everything he can. You know, there were some bright spots I think with how c. J. Stroud specifically and some of the scheme we mentioned it earlier in the show handled some of the pressure, baiting the rushers and all of that. That's not always going to work against the Todd Bowles defense, especially if they're bringing extra pressure, they're bringing blitzes, things like that. I think that the Texans can run the ball. I mean, Nick Chubb looked really look good over fifty percent success right, four point six yards per carry, and they didn't you could argue they didn't run it enough like they they looked, and Nick Chubb looked really solid running the ball.

01:11:09
Speaker 3: I get four unique combinations of offensive linemen. By the way, did Nick Chubb look good? Like the Texas to be having these problems already? Then, despite that Chubb being successful, I.

01:11:18
Speaker 1: Can hear like all the Claymates out there after Jordan points out Chubb, He's like.

01:11:23
Speaker 2: Patrick said that we could go. He said he was gonna look good.

01:11:26
Speaker 4: And as they should. They should have pointed.

01:11:28
Speaker 1: The Claymates are absolutely they're both me by the way. Essentially, Yeah, these two teams are kind of mirror images of each other because I was wondering, why did Cam Robinson start again at left tackle? That was a total flip of everything that we heard, But it was because of an injury at guard, and then they wanted to move Titus Howard inside, so then they moved Ursery where he wasn't at to right tackle and Robinson over the left. Then their center got hurt. Then I think a guard got hurt, and so it's like all jumbled up, and yeah, that's concerning for the tech.

01:12:00
Speaker 4: Pam Robinson came back in, but Jake Andrews, the center, did not come back in. So that's something definitely to watch, especially with that interior pressure that the Bucks like to bring.

01:12:08
Speaker 1: One last quick point on this game is just I think the old Antoine Winfield is back. One of the biggest reasons why the Bucks defense was not as good last year as he was the year before was because of Antoine Winfield. And he had a play at the end of that Falcons game where he absolutely lit up Casey Washington, the Falcons receiver, and it was the second to last play of that drive, and it reminded me so much of the game winning plays near the goal line that he made throughout that bucks running and.

01:12:34
Speaker 3: He almost made one of those against Pinnocks where he was out of bounds but he had stolen the ball and was running the other way, and it's like, oh, well, here goes Winfield Junior again, game wrecking.

01:12:44
Speaker 4: Right in the end, they don't call him Antoine Lusefield.

01:12:46
Speaker 2: Guys, she was just waiting for that one.

01:12:50
Speaker 4: You could see me shaking my pen as excited.

01:12:52
Speaker 3: Let's get to our final game if our NFC preview as excuse me as the AFC preview as the Las Vegas Raiders get a chance to be at home in Las Vegas where they are getting points three and a half points against the one to zero division leading Los Angeles Chargers and their quarterback Justin Herbert. It is Monday Night Football. Joe Buck, Troy Yickman, Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge on the call. Greg, do the Chargers push to a commanding lead in the West.

01:13:20
Speaker 1: I'll pick them to win. I'll probably pick them to win by more than three and a half. It's just the Raiders defense. I want to see it more. I was amazed. I mean, they played really well.

01:13:32
Speaker 4: So much better than I think people expected them to look and they talked about it postgame. They were very vocal. They know what the expectation or lack thereof was, and it's like, it's scheme and effort, and that's Patrick Graham and Pete Carroll together, a balance of scheme and effort, and that's what you need because you have a deficit of talent on that side.

01:13:50
Speaker 1: Right And I think that can go a long way, and it means they can overachieve compared to expectation. But we've only seen them matchup with one offense so far, and it was an offense that was really disjointed. So I'm as surprised as anyone that Devin White and Jamal Adams absolutely were difference makers for a defense in twenty twenty five last week, and so was Jermaine Pratt, like they were all They all were out there making plays. This will be a much tougher test against a charters offense that maybe for the first time in the Herbert era, but definitely for the most in the last few years, like looks deep in terms of the amount of ways they can beat you through the air and I think eventually on the ground, but at least the diversity of the type of players that Herbert is throwing to. Year three Quinton Johnston is not year one and two Quinton Johnson and Keenan Allen. This year is not Chicago Bears Keenan Allen, Like he's like.

01:14:48
Speaker 4: I saw the other side and I dislike it.

01:14:50
Speaker 1: And you have these rookies just like kind of waiting on the bench are who are interesting too.

01:14:55
Speaker 2: It's late Lad mcconkey's yar too. It's it's a nice group.

01:14:58
Speaker 3: And it also felt like in the old and again it was the opener against the Chiefs, but twenty twenty five is Greg Roman. Isn't Greg Roman down We're so pass heavy and and I think that's a that's a credit to Greg Roman because like we don't get that version of Quentin Johnston, like we don't get Lad being very creative in terms like Lad was out there setting picks, like it's like the team's far and away number one is grinding so other guys can get open and colluding a guy who's been getting maligned all the time. Like I loved it. I love the Chargers offense in the opener.

01:15:28
Speaker 4: Yeah, and and their run past balance, especially early in the down is like skewing now toward pass, which is crazy. And and even when they ran Omrion Hampton look good. They need to they need to, you know, run the ball a little bit more efficiently, a little bit better. But but they looked really good in both phases. They look more balanced. To me, they're letting justin Herbert kind of like, I think, just grow into himself a little bit more of what we know he can be and kind of build that confidence, do a little bit of that spice.

01:15:56
Speaker 3: He was really feeling himself. Yeah, like the slide with it was various at the end of the game, and the fade away throwback across the field with Quentin Johnson on that touchdown pass, like Herbo was feeling it.

01:16:07
Speaker 1: He's in like a celebrity relationship. Now he's literally in first place. Like when have the Chargers ever been in first place even for a week. I can't remember the last time there was this much optimism about the Chargers. And now I feel terrible about saying they're going to cover three and a half, because like, that's the that's the moment. If you're a Chargers fan, which I'm not like a fan, but I'm definitely rooting for good things for Herbo. That's the moment where it gets taken away from you.

01:16:33
Speaker 4: I just I think that one of the things I was most impressed with was even when they lost Rashaun Slater and then Joe Alt moved over to the left side, he looked incredible.

01:16:44
Speaker 5: Yeah.

01:16:44
Speaker 4: I mean he looks like he's never going to relinquish that spotting. All right, yeah, tackle that's over, yeah all yeah, or all right, delete opposing edge russer rushers. And that's that's tough because Max Crosby is kind of in a solo shows for now. We'll see if someone else emerges along that defensive line, but like it's going to be basically Max Crosby trying to make something happen and Joe All plus a cast that looked really impressive, that blocked really well, a lot of really big skill guys chipping all the time and making some of the heavier layers when they want to go heavy pass or when they want to go heavy run come to life. I was really, like I said, I was really impressed with this Raiders defense. But to me, I think it's the points game. I do. I think it's points game because Gino is playing.

01:17:29
Speaker 1: Like Gno looks extremely comfortable too, so like Gino, these are two of the best quarterback performances of Week one. I know he had that interception, but he is not afraid to make the tough throw. He has seen the field well. For him to do it one week into being with Chip Kelly is really promising. And if I had one concern about the Chargers in this matchup, it is their pass rush.

01:17:51
Speaker 3: Yeah.

01:17:51
Speaker 1: I know Bosa wasn't healthy last year, but Mac and that group overall interior on the edge, I think they're hoping to be average. I don't think they're going to be above average. I think in Week one they weren't great. So I think that's if you give Geno time, he's gonna cook it.

01:18:09
Speaker 3: Some of that was Mahomes, though. There was a play where Khalil Mack won instantaneously and was chasing Mahomes, who makes this back cross body throw to Hollywood Brown where it's like.

01:18:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think some of that if I'm watching that, some of that, I think they're trying not to, like I mentioned before, overrush on a Mahomes who's just gonna flush and escape and then make something insane happen downfield. This will be a bigger and you know Gino can move, but you know he's not Patrick Mahomes in terms of making those like I'm parallel to the ground and still somehow throwing the ball down the field kind of throws. The thing that I'm worrying about is brock Bowers because he told Tom Pelisarro at the game that he is fine. He banged up his knee. He told him he was fine. Pete Carroll you can check this right now, Greg if you're able to. But Pete Carroll has said earlier this week that he's day to day. This is something where their offense runs through this guy, and as it should. He's incredible. He's playing incredibly like he's picking up right where he left off. Just something, a little something to keep an eye on.

01:19:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, they get an extra day to recover, so their Wednesday is an actual Thursday. We are taping these preview shows on Thursday, so especially with the Monday night games. But it's true, really, of all of them, you got to keep you on top of the injury situations because he, other than Gino, is the most important. Yeah, I mean, he's the most important player I think in the entire franchise.

01:19:32
Speaker 2: He really is.

01:19:32
Speaker 1: And this is one with Max Crosby, but I would put Brock ahead of him. So they need him out there because everything kind of feeds off of him. Suddenly Michael Mayer is open. I really liked what I saw of Trey Tucker. I've always liked him, but in a week when he's getting better, it's your two brock Bowers. They Oh, this is fun. I love that they got They're both undefeated too. They could have easily both been zero to one. But this is a Monday Night capper with Joe Buck. This has to be one of the bigger Raiders games. Yeah, since the Raiders Chargers game where Derek Carr ripped out Justin Herbert's.

01:20:06
Speaker 2: So that was the back and forth to both of the playoffs.

01:20:09
Speaker 1: Yes, and and Justin Herbert played like, oh, he's never played well in a big game. That was one of the best games of his career. But you know, the Charges defense couldn't hold it on for him.

01:20:17
Speaker 4: I'll be there Monday night for the athletic and I texted Greg earlier this week and I asked him if he was jealous I was going to go see Gino play in person.

01:20:25
Speaker 2: He's like, no, I'm not mad. Don't put in the paper that I'm mad. What a show. Love it.

01:20:32
Speaker 1: So we're we're all done with the AFC, but we're not done here just yet. We wanted to find a way to cover each one of your teams even more so, like we are going deeper on these previews, all the NFC teams that are playing in home games this week.

01:20:51
Speaker 2: It is in your feed.

01:20:52
Speaker 1: We have our NFC preview also up and I'm excited because if you, if you give us a chance to just like honk a little more, throw, throw a few more puns. I think our puns per minute ratio is just like I know through the roof right now, I.

01:21:08
Speaker 4: Had a brock Bowers one. I'll save it.

01:21:10
Speaker 1: Though, Okay, tune in next week or even Sunday night when when you join us again for the recap show brock Bowers pun. But for now, just hang tight and go check out the rest of the preview with the NFC