Gregg Rosenthal is joined by Nick Shook to recap a Monday Night Football double header featuring the Bills and Jaguars facing off in Buffalo and the Bengals and Commanders in Cincinnati. The show starts with the guys talking about Jayden Daniels' breakout game (0:28), the Commanders' surging offense (10:32), the Bengals missing opportunities through the first three weeks of the season (16:10), and the current state of the team in Cincinnati (22:37). After the break, things shift to Josh Allens's dominant performance against the Jaguars (26:42), Trevor Lawrence's lackluster game (35:13), and Damar Hamlin's moment of the game (41:33). The show is wrapped with news from around the NFL including injury updates for Sam Darnold (44:32) and Joe Alt (47:30), some spicy quotes from Antonio Pierce (51:09), and Gregg and Nick's players of the week (57:30).
Note: time codes approximate.
Mc keeffrey doesn't know what the play is, neither does Hurts, but they got a stamp it on the third and seven and they do Bengals bring the house. Jade lundling up from the corner there zone, Jacob King, he did dot jun dot ye Jacob, What.
What's that?
Holy?
Now that right, there was a franchise legend being born. The Jaden Daniels game happened, and we were all witnesses.
Nick shook thirty eight to thirty three.
Of course, those were the words of Bram Weinstein and the cackling laughter of London Fletcher on WB I g and I don't blame any commander's fan. If you have a commander's fan in your life, they were probably texting and they were. They were the Lebron meme, Like, I just can't believe what has happened. This woe begone franchise has a quarterback. Jaden Daniels goes twenty one of twenty three for two point fifty four, an NFL rookie record for completion percentage for two hundred and fifty four yards, two touchdowns, two absolute dimes to Terry McLaurin.
And before I get to you, Nick I just want to take the listeners.
I'm gonna take you just a little bit through that last drive. Okay, here's the situation that they're up by five points.
They'd love to get three.
They'd love to burn clock because the Bengals, for as great as the Washington Commanders, played offense all night and they didn't punt, and they didn't turn the ball over. For a second straight week, the Bengals didn't punt or turn the ball over either. This was the first game since nineteen forty for that to happen for both teams. That's absolutely insane. So he knows you need points. Early in the drive third and two on the Commander's side of the field, the Bengals set and six. They send the house. Jaden Daniels sees where the blitz is coming from. He gets around the edge, he calmly completes the pass to keep the drive going just poise for days. Later in the drive second and twenty one, after Trey Hendrickson finally gets home and gets a big time sack, you think maybe they can get him off the field. Here he calmly takes two shorter throws where the Commanders get nice yards after the catch, he doesn't try to get it all back in one throw, and the Bengals can't tackle like they can't tackle all night. Meanwhile, they're defenders are celebrating that they have big hits or that they got him down before fourth down. But this isn't the old dan Quinn. This isn't the old Commanders. We get to fourth and four and they're going for it. They're not gonna punt that ball away. Fourth and four. Calmly takes a deep drop back to give him a little extra time because again he knows the pressure is coming. He gets it to zach Ertz to keep that drive going and that finally sets up the third and seven. They're in field goal range. They can make it an eight point lead, but they see what lou Ana Roumo is gonna do. He's gonna send six. He might as well have sent everyone, because the guys in the middle of the field weren't, you know, doing anything. Jadeen Daniels knows he's gonna get hit on that play, but he sees his guy Terry McLaurin one on one coverage on the outside. They give him a chance. Great job by Cliff Kingsbury. Great job by Jaden Daniels and Terry McLaurin makes one of the catches of the season. The Next Gen Stats say it's the most improbable touchdown catch of the season because of the quality of the throw to just just put it in the smallest of spots, and the quality of the catch too, because McLaurin was well covered on that play, had no room on the sideline. And Nick that the image that's gonna stick with me in all this is actually before the fourth down, and it's Jade and Daniels yelling over at the sideline to Cliff Kingsbury, who had a great night, let's go, let's go, let's go. And he's not saying let's go, let's go for it. By then, that's assumed they know they're going with Jade and Daniels, give you this play man, Let's get the play call in. Stop with the delaying and in that moment for him to be hurrying up, and you know what he did. I think he really did get Cliff Kingsbury to hurry it up like quickly. You saw him respond. Get it out. They have plenty of time to get the fourth down. This kid is something else. Forgive me, Nick, but uh, man, this was an awesome moment. One of those performances I think we're gonna remember for the rest of Jaden Daniels' career.
You know, it's not awesome that we look at a schedule going into a season and think, ooh, Washington Commanders National Game Monday, Week three, Yeah, that's gonna be the moment. But this was the moment. If you've paid attention to Jaden Daniels like we have since the start of the preseason, you've seen a confident, composed, poise quarterback who's had the maturity and the ability to handle the situation, never been sped up by the game. Even in their first two games, he had put together nice performance. In that loss to Tampa, he put together a good performance and that went over in New York. But this was the moment when the rest of the football world was introduced to the guy who is probably gonna win Offensive Rookie of the Year if you're asking me, because he is every part of what you saw Monday night. Like you said, twenty one to twenty three, the highest completion percentage for a rookie with a minimum of twenty one or twenty pass attempts in the NFL history at ninety one percent. That is the type of quarterback he is, and he delivered over and over again that fourth down. He's a weapon with his legs. He led the team in rushing. You can't stop him through the air, you can't stop him on the ground. He had the Bills or the Bengals defense on skates all night. Obviously they couldn't make tackles, but they also had no answer for him and for him to finish it that way by going to Terry McLaurin, the guy who hadn't been involved in the offense very much in the first two weeks. That was the narrative going into the week. Where's Terry McLaurin. Well, I'll tell you what. There he is. Catch the nifty five yard pass over Cam Taylor, Brad who talked a bunch of smack about the offense going into the week. A twenty seven yard bomb over Dax Hill to plunge the dagger into the hearts of Bengals fans everywhere. That is an emphatic way to finish the game. Football world, meet Jaden Daniels. He ain't going anywhere, Okay, So you're absolutely right.
I've been watching and you know, my wife I was watching the first gat half of this game and she was like, who the hell is Jaydeon Daniels. So it's like for some people, it truly is being introduced. And you know, Walker thinks that's funny and starts repeating, who the hell is Jaden Gamnons. Okay's it's not like a welcome to our consciousness. This guy's a Heisman Trophy winner. He was in college forever, we've known him. And yet for all that you said, Nick, I was shocked. I wasn't as convinced from the preseason or even the first two games. I perhaps stupidly was looking at some of the negatives that Troy Aikman talked about during their telecast, that he wasn't always seeing the open receivers, some of what Cam Taylor Britt talked about before the game. They're not going down the field at all. It's this stink and dunk offense, Like it was giving me too much Kyler Murray when it wasn't working in Arizona flashbacks of like this offense just it can't just be all horizontal. He was a fantastic runner, so I was excited. I loved all the intangibles. But I guess I needed to see this too, because it's okay to compare him to twenty nineteen Lamar Jackson.
That is the comparison.
Yeah, and for me it is different on some levels, but in terms of game style and even this box score for much of the night, that's it. I think the difference is like that first throw to Terrychlorin, the bomb to him. I mean, that was one of the prettiest throws of the entire season. I don't know which Daniel's throw I like better. That's even prettier than Lamar, who doesn't major in like deep throws outside the numbers.
So they're different in style.
But I guess I had to see it tonight that there just is something a little extra about this kid that I think has that whole sideline you could see it, believing you could see it in the first or second quarter.
That really struck me.
Nick how loose and how much fun they were having in the first and second quarter. It was like it was like, we've never done anything like this before. This is gonna be awesome.
Let's think about what this franchise was. I mean, a couple of years ago, Chase Young was pointing at the back of Taylor Heineke's jersey. That was where their hope was coming from. Now they have a legitimate star in the making at quarterback. I know it's only three games, but I'm telling you I've seen enough to believe that this kid's not He's gonna be around for a long time, and he's going to continue to make plays like this, and he's gonna be a nightmare for opposing defense. Is the great thing about you know what we saw in that fifty five yard completion over Cam taylor Bridge to set them up for the Daniels rushing score, was he missed him earlier in that drive. He had him open and ran out of time before he was able to actually hit McLaurin for a long what would have been a touchdown. And it kind of spoke too well. There they are not getting on the same page, and then boom they get on the same page. Boom, Daniels is in the end zone. And what I also think, and you mentioned this with the whole early Kyler Murray and everything else, who was his coach, Cliff Kingsbury. In life, everything is either a lesson or a blessing. Cliff Kingsbury, I think has learned a little bit, even in this first month, has learned a little bit because they were a great offense between the twenties, but they couldn't finish drives. And what do they do tonight? Finished drive after drive, three straight touchdown drives to start the game. They went perfect throughout that night, didn't have to turn the ball over, didn't have to punt, settle for a field goal once. That was this team tonight. And I think that that's just the maturation of Daniels. It's Cliff's settling in and kind of improving in the situations and sometimes he needs a little prodding from his rookie quarterback to hurry up to get the play call in. That is two guys really working in tandem quite well. I'm excited. Terry McLaurin talked about it after the game with SVP. He said, I think this is a momentum shift for us. You know, this is a franchise that's needed that shift for a long time, and in dan Quinn's first year, only three games in. You never know where something like this could take you, right.
And I love that's really well said, and I love as we're getting to do these Nick at Night shows together that I'm learning more about. And I like it when Nick drives drops the little words of wisdom.
What was that you said about Cliff. You're either learning or you're dy.
Anything in life is either it's either a lesson or a blessing. Somebody told me that in the Sana last week at the gym, and I was like, you know, that's that's profound if you didn't.
Tell that part of the story. But I love no, I love it.
I think it's just like this hard earned wisdom from a guy in Nick Schuk who is wise beyond his years.
I love it, not beyond his hairline that'd betrayed me years ago.
So I mentioned it earlier. But they have gone two straight weeks without being stopped. I think it's thirteen straight scoring drives. They also had a kneel down that we're not counting, you know, at the end of the first half a week ago. But that's absolutely insane and I don't want to get it lost in this game that Joe Burrow in the Bengals.
Had a good game, not just a good game.
They scored or attempted a field goal. McPherson missed a forty seven yard or early which proved to be, you know, an important moment.
In the game. They scored every time they had the ball.
Joe Burrow's played really well the last couple of weeks, and like we'll we'll get to We'll get to the Bengals in a second. But I do just want to wrap just on the on the Washington side, pointing out that they're now first in the league in EPA per drive on the season.
I mean, that's gonna happen.
There's only been three games, and two of them they've been almost perfect. McLaurin, who had been so quiet the last few weeks too, just outstanding catches, is getting wide open. He's been open on tape and it's really cool to see him. When they showed the graphic of all the different quarterbacks he's played with, I was like Garrett Gilbert. I was like, oh, yeah, that was like a pandemic. Oh yeah, was that like a weird pandemic?
Yeah, frid Time game.
I thinkt was Cowboys.
I mean, this kid, I just I relate so much to Wes in all these games, and I'll mention it. In the Bengals side of things, they were honoring Corey Dillon. But I remember a Monday night game that we watched actually at an apartment Keisha had with him, the only time he ever lived at Keisha's place. It was the first time he had cancer. And we watched the Washington primetime game with the whole group and it was awesome together and Keisha's mom was there too, And I remember Wes, who was not feel great at the time, just like and I think it was mclaurin's rookie year. He's just like, that kid is going to be special. And it's a position wide receiver, and he just loved McLaurin from that moment, like it's a receiver position that you're just so reliant on everything around you. And even after the first couple of weeks he had a little worry that maybe this isn't going to work at least his role in the offense. And suddenly it feels like one of the great NFL receivers is going to have a great quarterback to match for the next handful of years while he's still kind of towards the end of his prime probably, but still in his prime.
Yeah, and that's what's great about partnership. That's really starting to blossom right in front of us. This is like the first step because that's what he's missed for so long, and you knew that was going to be an essential connection that they would have to if they were ever going to get to where they want to go. They need to develop that connection. And it is only one game, and I'm sure Terry's going to attract a ton of attention, as he rightfully should because he is the best weapon on this offense. But it was also really nice to see Jayden hook up with other guys to lean on zach Ertz to find Noah Brown along the goal line to set up a touchdown. Like it wasn't just Terry. Terry finished with four catchese hundred yards touchdown great, but it wasn't just him. And that's why I actually do believe in this offense, because they didn't even run the ball that well. I mean, Jaden finishes as a leading rusher. He had Ackler three for thirty five and Robinson's sixteen for a hard earned thirty three and against a Bengals front that got torn up by the Patriots in Week one, you thought, well, maybe that's where you can make some Hey, they didn't even really make that much progress there, and yet that didn't matter because of how good their quarterback is, and because he got on the same page with Terry and was able to spread the ball around. So again, super encouraged.
Yeah, that's a great call. I expected them to run the ball so well. Brian Robbins, who's looked much better. I think this year actually ends up with only thirty three yards and sixteen carries. Austin Eckler, who had a big return to start the second half and really let everyone know after that first half that was so electric by Washington that they weren't gonna go away. He leaves with a concussion, which was unfortunate because he's been really reborn in this offense. You mentioned Luke McCaffrey, I mean, Noah Brown has been a godsend for then. But none of them were as exciting and surprising as Jaden Daniels's first career touchdown throw.
Let's listen second goal they brought in an extra offensive wineman under center. Daniels got this snap fakes right, throws left in the end zone, caught, It's caught by alignment in the end zone, and it's craped by Trent Scott, the backpedaling fix six catch a six six.
The lineman caught the touchdown pass. It was a yard away. An Washington goes up twenty seven to thirteen. Wait in the second half in Cincinnati.
Shout out to Kevin Harlan there, great job for Westwood one Radio, and shout out to Mike Golick Junior, who has to feel like he really accomplished something major in life that he coined thick six and now Kevin Harlan is out there saying it.
It's that's as someone who just does what we do.
And I know Mike Golick, you know he was actually you know, a college player and everything.
But someone that does what we do.
I mean, that's that's the dream to coin something and have Kevin Harlan say it on a big time throw.
The first ever touchdown pass by.
Daniels, Yeah, the first ever touchdown pass thrown by a rookie selected in the top five in a draft to an offensive lineman in NFL history. The only other guy to do it JP Losman, who connected with Jason Peters. He was a twenty second overall pick. Losman was on September eleventh, two thousand and five for the Buffalo Bills.
Are we sure Peters was alignment at that point? He came into the league as a tight end, but he did he did switch. I think he switched the line that they're not gonna they're not gonna get that run. JP Lossman from Tulane. All right, let's get to the Bengals side. I mentioned Joe Burrow. He was desponding after the game. He was almost uncommunicative to be er to three. This Bengals team has Super Bowl aspirations and they have lost back to back home games that couldn't have been any more different. So it's frustrating they don't know what is their biggest problem. To the Patriots and now to the Commanders. Let's listen to.
Joe mostrating thing about how that played out.
You, yeah, that was uh, that was a tough one.
So we didn't get to wink.
No.
I'll think I've ever seen to go inside not a lot of rooms right through.
The least it's private conversations, aren't.
So he said something here after that that I thought really hit the nail on the head. And it was right after I had filed what we learned and what sticks out to me. For the Bengals through three weeks and especially tonight's just missed opportunities. They had red zone opportunities. In week one, they fumbled the ball away. They had red zone opportunities. Tonight they installed and had to settle for field goals. They missed one of those field goals, and he even spoke to it. He just said, the common denominator through three weeks is missed opportunities for our offense. We just have not cashed in. And in a night like tonight, when your defense cannot get a stop, you have to play almost perfect, and Joe almost did, but they didn't convert in those key moments, and that's what the difference of the scoreboard was. And that's gonna be their biggest hurdle because as they figure out this defense. Lou An Rumo is a venerated defensive coordinator. We know why he's earned it. But they're not generating pressure and they're not playing as a unit as well as they did in past years. So if that's going to be what they're gonna be for most of the season, then the pressure is going to be on that offense, which means they have to cash in consistently, and they just haven't. They got T Higgins back tonight. He made somewhat of a difference, but they got to be better and they just weren't to.
I mean, okay, but they had thirty first downs in this game, and I guess that point four hundred yards right. That does point out that they went two for four in the red zone. But two for four in the red zone is fine. That's that's normal. You shouldn't have to be right, you have to be pro now. I hear your point, and from his perspective, I get it. That's why he's great, That's why he is who he is. And there were some frustrating moments. They threw the ball on third and goal from the one, and they threw it because they weren't winning in short yardage right then.
But they threw a couple times there.
And you got to be able to trust your running game and you got to be able to execute your running game in that situation. Like there was no way Washington was going to give up on the running game if they got stuffed once or twice. I mean, they ran the ball better than the Commanders tonight. I'm stunned by that. Chase Brown seven for sixty two looked good. Zach Moss very effective, twelve for fifty eight in the touchdown. So they ran the ball for six point two yards per carry tonight, and so some key decisions where they chose not to. Yeah, you could look back, but it's all on the defense. And this defense. You can say what you want about lou Anrumo. They stunk last year. Their run defense is so bad, and then they lose DJ Reader, their best run defender, and then this season to injury, they've lost BJ Hill and Sheldon Rankin. So you had a defense that was set up to defend a certain way against a certain team, frankly the Chiefs, and in twenty twenty four in Nick Schook's run the Damn Ball season, they're not quite set up the same way. I've been thinking about this as this season develops, that the defenses and the Bears I would throw in there too, that are like built to stop the pass, Like that's great, you still obviously want to do that, but there's kind of a breaking point where if you're a soft run defense, this was a terrible matchup for them, and I know they ended up stopping the run and everything and ended up, but the run set up the pass. And still Jane Daniels was extremely effective what he did run in terms of pick camp of the yards that he needed, and maybe they're not quite built for twenty twenty four.
Nick took football.
Yeah, Well, what I'm really concerned about is the pressure numbers were so low and the blitz numbers were so low until late. I mean, like I took a quick look at the stats right after the game because I'm like, I felt like they didn't get home all night, and they didn't they pressured. The numbers were so low. I mean they pressured it the seven pressures the whole night. Twenty one point nine percent. That's not gonna get the job done. But they only blitzed ten times, and I think three or four of them came on that last possession. So strategically, do you not believe in your defense enough to be able to blitz like you'd think a rookie quarterback. What's the number one thing you do to a rookie quarterback? You speed him up? How do you speed him up? You blitz him. I know he's a mobile guy and he's gonna evade guys, but I mean, send the pressure. If you're that desperate and yet they didn't. So I think there's gonna be a little bit of soul searching done with this Bengals defense with Loui an Arrumo and trying to figure out, like, how do we fix this if we if we go on to face a team that may not even run the ball that well, but we got to get after and get after the quarterback. We got a manufacturer somehow. So very curious to see how they evolve over the course of the season, because if this holds for a long time, they're gonna be a tough spot.
Yeah, you know, I highly suspect they did the door to the Belichick thing where you're playing a runner like this, and you know it's they're focused on trying to not.
Let Jayden Daniels out the gate and.
The rush is a little more cage that. Yeah, that's a big focus of it. But Hendrickson, like you said, didn't get home all night, and Sam Hubbard's been quiet this year, and they're just they're just a little thin. They have a lot of money to a handful of guys, and I think they they honestly just trusted their guys in one on one coverage because other than McLaurin, no one scares you. But the Washington scheme got them wide open. I mean, I'd love to see the average separation because there weren't a ton of tight point one like, there wasn't a ton of tight window throws. Those two ons. McLaurin sure, on the go balls, those are going to be tight. But otherwise those guys were open. Cliff did a great job. I mean, Cliff has a history not to pour a little water on it, but his Arizona teams consistently started so fast. We were talking Kyler MVP a couple times, like the numbers were dramatic. Weirdly, it was similar at Texas Tech that his teams would start super fast and then it fall locked. It was like a thing. So this is one thing to think about. But he is starting fast, and I like that. They had a very different game plan tonight than they have the first couple of weeks. The Bengals have lost three straight. They have a long road. It's a long season. You get one extra game now, we're still getting used to that.
That helps.
You got the Panthers next week, that helps, But you know you're gonna start into the vision scheduled. I think the Ravens are after that, and you know, just just every game is gonna feel so big. And they are only the seven teams since nineteen ninety to lose three straight to start the season by six or less, so they've all been close. I mean, they gave that Patriots game away. That was just a dumb game where they made a bunch of boneheaded mistakes. The Chiefs game they should have won, and they didn't. They blew it at the end, but they should have won that game. They outplayed the Chiefs, and then this one where they just couldn't stop a nosebleeds. It's adding up, and we'll close here on a night in terms of this game, we got a whole other game to talk about, Chuck. In terms of this game, on a night where they honored Corey Dillon, I couldn't help but think first of all of Wes again, one of his absolute favorite players, Corey Dillon, one of my favorite Patriots of all time. Corey Dillon one of my favorite runners. What a natural, instinctive hard runner. You can't measure how hard a runner runs. I swear no one ran harder than Corey Dyllon My God, I mean just the tenacity that he played with was electric and he was a special player and they honored him tonight, and I thought that was great considering the way it all ended and the way it ended with Cincinnati. It was a contract dispute and all this stuff, Mike Brown not wanting to pay, and it's one of the many things that was in Wes's dossier of why he gave up being a Bengals fan. And I couldn't help but think that in context with what's going on with this team. The Jamar Chase thing was weird. I listened to Paul Dayner's podcast The Growler. People should check that out. That week where they didn't get the contract done after the week one of the seasons, it felt like a big loss, Like Jamar Chase felt like he lost.
The Bengals felt like they lost.
There were some weird stuff going on behind the scenes, Like it was really disappointing. They thought they were gonna get that done. It didn't get done. Their best player wasn't happy, They weren't happy. The t Higgins thing is out there. He comes back in this game, and I'm not saying that's the reason why they lost tonight. But I am saying, like history is instructive, it wasn't all like this, these great dan Quinn vibes like the Washington has coming into this season. It was like a heaviness and the stuff you don't want to be dealing with with your best players. Trey Hendrickson asked for a trade, you know, in the offseason. It's just like it's a little too much same old Bengals for me. And it's hard not to think about that when you see Corey Dillon's name go up and when you start zero to three.
Yeah, and Corey Dillon had an issue with the team himself before they finally reversed course and inducted him to their Ring of Honor.
Right, that's what I mean.
I mean, it was going on for twenty years and the only reason he wasn't there was the issues that he had with Mike Brown back in.
The There's a bit of a like a last Dance vibe here, but not with like they're going to go on to win the title. But just like, you know, you have all this money to these stars, you know, te Higgins into the franchise tag probably not going to be there next year. You know, you got a pay Jamar Chase. The pressure is mounting. And the beauty of the Bengals before was we had Joe Burrow on a rookie contract. We had all these young stars that were playing alongside each other and everybody was playing well together. Doesn't feel like that anymore. I know it's early, but it just doesn't feel like that right now.
No time moves on and they're not that young, up and coming team anymore. With the whole like life in front of him. That's the Washington Commanders and Jayden Daniels. Yeah, right now, and look, Dough Burrow's just starting as prime. Jamar Chase just started as prime. I'm not saying like windows are closing. It's nothing like that. But this season that they're in right now, it's heavy, and Zach Taylor absolutely feels it. We feel it, and there's another team that's feeling it that we're gonna talk about after the break. Bill's Jags recap and then a little bit of injury news coming up in a bit.
Two receivers to the right along with the tight end one to the left and now knocks in motion right to left. Here's the stats back to pass pressure coming pros has Ty.
Johnson for a touchdown, a sixteen.
Yard touchdown reception for Ty Johnson, and.
Josh Allen has four touchdown pass in the first half. Are you kidding me?
We are not kidding you, Chris Brown of wg R. Josh Allen was on one Monday night four touchdowns in the first half of this game, two hundred and forty seven yards in the first half of this game. By that point, the score was thirty four to three and the game was over. I mean this is like, Hey, if you're a beat writer, you love a game like this, you're right in at halftime. You barely have to update that thing because the story was told, and that throw to me Shuk was typical. Here's Josh Allen fading to his left, feathering a beautiful ball over a stumbling, bumbling Jaguars linebacker who was that Muma, Chad Muma? And he hits his like backup tight running back, like his third string running back, Ty Johnson, and it's just an absolute thing beauty that he makes look so easy.
Yeah, throwing it over Chad Mooma. That's wyoming on wyoming crime. By the way, I love that. How dare you Josh Allen take out one of your fellow cowboys. Yeah, this is just another example of an offense that is just absolutely blossoming before our eyes. Like it makes me think back to the Ken Dorsey era with the Bills and where we are now with Joe Brady, and I'm just like, how did they stay in that for so long? Because it's just so much better. Obviously, like in the first couple of weeks it was about the running game, and it's still predicated on the run, but you have Josh Allen back there and you're not asking him to also lead the running game. He can just go be himself. There was a period in the first half where he was getting out to his right and ripping missiles for touchdowns, and I heard the broadcast crew just talk about, like where do you not want to let him escape to to his right? And that's where the Jaguars were. Let him go. He could do whatever he wanted on Monday night. It's a thing of beauty. The Bills are absolutely rolling, and you're right, this is one of those games where like beat writers could just sit back and kick their legs up. In the second half, my righte up's done. I know what happened here? Let's get mac Jones in time for the Jags. Let's get this one's over.
Yeah. By the end, mac Jones was getting strip sacked and I'm just having flashbacks to some ugly Patriots afternoons and discussed that evening even a playoff game in Buffalo, though mac Jones wasn't really the problem in that particular game. That was another game where a team did not punt or turn the ball over, but it wasn't both teams like in the Washington game.
My god, this Bill teams.
So they did something only one other Bills team had ever done, which was score four straight touchdowns to start the game in a row. I was surprise only one team had ever done that. But it is hard to do four straight without even a field goal. And you mentioned like he's not killing them with his legs, but it's still the most effective play in football. I like to bring this up that just by success rate, there is nothing higher than a Josh Allen run. And he went six for forty four tonight. The success rate, so that's defined as it depends which down it is. Obviously a first down is a successful play. I think it's four yards on first down. It depends on the down and distance. He had three third down conversions shook that really stick in my mind from the first half. One was a designed run. Actually two of them were design runs, and then one was a scramble. And it's just like, no matter what you do, if you cover them up, you're screwed. If you spread out and you're in zone your man coverage, you're screwed. Then they call Then he calls a design run and he just goes up the middle, and now he's actually being smart about it.
He's sliding. And it reminded me.
Actually these two runners tonight Jade Daniels too. His success rate on the runs he had in the game was sky high, and it's been sky high throughout the season. It's just that little extra something that makes a quarterback like Allen who's at the absolute peak of his powers. My MVP pick is feeling pretty good. My Super Bowl pick's feeling good. It's week three, but you know, I still like it. But it's just one of those things that you don't know how to stop him.
Were you the only one who did that? Who picked the Bills?
I don't know. I gotta I think that time I should should check.
Bill's island by yourself.
Let's go.
And that's that's why the NFL has shifted in this direction over the last decade. The running ability of quarterbacks makes it so hard to prepare for an offense. As a defense, it makes it so hard to predict what they're going to do. And especially when you have a running game that you have to respect that doesn't involve the quarterback, as soon as you mix that quarterback into the element, it's that much more difficult to stop them. The Bills are firing on all cylinders. The funny thing is that so much of this offseason we spent talking about how are they going to replace Stefan Diggs. They lost Gabe Davis, Khalil shook Here, Mac Hollins, Dalton Kin, k Tyd Johnson, Keon Kleman has one catch for twenty four yards for a touchdown tonight. Otherwise didn't need to do anything else. They put up forty seven points on the board. It doesn't matter because they can go anywhere because they're firing on all cylinders.
I don't even know if I mentioned the final score was forty seven to ten.
The second half was such an afterthought, Like many people, by the fourth quarter. I just have it in a small screen in the corner, just loosely paying attention to Mitchell Trubisky get into the game. But yeah, you mentioned it like coleman is wide receiver five now because he didn't at least for this game.
It's probably a game plan thing.
But he was behind Valdez Scantling and Matt Collins and Curtis Samuel and Shakir and then they just put him in for like one play, and he's talented enough he can win those one on one situations, so they find a role for him. But you mentioned Shakir seventy two yards touchdown. He had more yards after the catch than he had yards because that's how many like because he had a play where he made a big play that he caught behind the line of scrimmage and everything else is just he's a great runner with the ball. He reminds me a lot of Cole Beasley. Just a perfect guy to add to this offense. James Cook drops what would have been a forty yard touchdown. Of course they score later that drive anyways, so Josh Allen got his, but James Cook gets eighty seven yards from scrimmage and a touchdown. Has been about as consistent in terms of his success rate as any running back in the league. This offensive line is awesome, and I wasn't just picking them just because like whatever. It was, Like Josh Allen is at the peak of his powers and he has the best offensive line he's ever had, and they've got enough around him Like that just seems like a year where I don't want to pick the Chiefs. I'm sick of picking the Chiefs. I got to pick someone else else that it could happen, and they're a long long way from making it happen. But it's really positive that they can pick it take advantage of bad defenses. And I think the Jaguars defense right now is bad. They lost Jerry and Jones, who's a rookie cornerback. They are now down three of their top corners there, Nickel, Darnell Savage, their top cornerback Tyson Campbell.
So there are reasons for this.
And the Bills have had a relatively easy schedule in terms of the defenses that they've played, but whatever, that's what great teams do.
They beat up on bad defenses.
Yeah, I mean, we went into this game with Washington Cincinnati, Washington was the worst defense the NFL last year, and look what happened, you know, like it didn't really Yeah, I mean they put up a ton of points, but at the same time, they still weren't able to win that game. So like we can you have to say that with a grain of salt, because you still to go win that game. It's just it's it's so amazing to see them doing this, yes, against some bad defenses earlier, whatever, but to do it so early in the season when we just had so much worry about where they were going to be and like you said, it's all Josh Allen and now I just wonder, like can they just I want to see them tested. That's what I want to see. I want to see them tested. Because these games are great and they make the fans happy and everything else, but I want to see them test.
I've got it.
I've got a game for you next Sunday night. How do they do it? NBC? They I mean, look, all the primetime games are great, the ESPN. It didn't look like it was going to be a great game tonight Washington Cincinnati. Necessarily that ended up being one of the best games of the year.
So you never know.
But NBC always just seems to have that stroke of luck. And they got Ravens bills next week, which to me is perfect. I know the Ravens are one and two. They're also like third or fourth in overall DVO way like they are better than their record shows, and they are the Ravens and that is a great matchup next week. Keep an eye on that one note. I had a Spencer Brown their right tackle we just got a contract extension. Has faced the most amount of dropbacks without giving up a pressure all year, so they're getting great protection on the right side.
Trevor Lawrence can't say the same.
My god, it wasn't all on the offensive line, but it was part It's been partly on the offensive line all year. They have not been able to run block, they have not been able to pass block. And they had run three plays by the time they were down fourteen nothing, so they had a three and out their first possession. By the time they get the second possession, they're down fourteen nothing, and you could almost see Trevor Lawrence panic. He did not play well in this game. His stats at halftime ten for twenty one fifty one yards in an interception and an overthrow on that interception.
It was better than last week that he was five for fifteen or five for sixteen fifteen yards by halftime. They're in a bad spot offensively right now. And this started last year. Honestly, watching Trevor week to week, it was as if you know, I heard them talking about in the broadcast and it kind of made sense where he's try to make the perfect play and it was just like near misses all year and this year it's just getting worse. Like he has a guy open over the middle of the field early third quarter and he misses him, throwing it low, bounces it off the ground. He makes some nice throws. He ripped another one a nice pass down the scene, but it's just too inconsistent. And this was my fear. I knew they had to pay him because they believe he's the guy, and they were in a situation where they had to pay him. But I just wonder if he's ever gonna take that next step, and behind an offensive line like this, it really concerns you. Like if you look at some of the next gen numbers, he was five for ten against pressure for twenty nine yards, but he also had twenty eight attempts where he wasn't pressured, and he threw a pick when he wasn't pressured, So of course that pick being Damar Hamlin. Highlight moment, by the way, for a guy like Damar who has traveling an incredible road back, really cool scene to see on primetime. He gets his first career interception in Buffalo. That was really nice. But yeah, Trevor Man, bad spot. And I mean they're struggling like it's only after It's only week three and you don't start looking at coaching jobs and everything else.
Really at this point, I know you can.
God, I'm worried about Doug Peterson's job because I just don't see any signs. So it's going to get better.
Oh, no, you can.
Here's a quote from shod Con, the team owner. Now this was as part of a team documentary that they released, and it was actually a message to his players in the building, and he said, I met. This was like him kind of confirming some things he had said recently. He said, I met with the reporters and the discussion quickly turned to football, and I was quoted saying for us, winning is now the expectation. So really, I've been looking forward tonight to set the record straight. I was not misquoted, and let me just repeat, winning now is the expectation. Make no mistake, this is the best team assembled by the Jacksonville Jaguars ever, best players, best coaches, but most importantly, let's prove it by winning now. And to me, that sort of quote and the quotes that he said to the reporters that like winning the expectation, they have to win now, that is a clear message to Doug Peterson and it informs something I heard last week. John Shipley, who does a great daily podcast on the Jaguars with s I, said Doug Peterson was about as down in his press conference after their loss last week as he's ever seen him. That He's usually very you know, up beat and afterwards talking positively, and you know, just he just sounded like a little a little defeated, like he didn't know what the answers were. And so I was thinking about that press conference and then watching a team that looked completely defeated tonight, and yeah, it's it's only week three, but they're winless, and like he they got to they gotta have like ten nine or ten wins this year or else he's losing his job.
So just through the math, Yeah, now I'm wondering do we get an I'm pissed Angelo situation like we did in Philly before he got fired by the Eagles, because like, if he doesn't have that much like energy in him responding this early in the season, I feel like he's not gonna have it at that point in the season when it actually gets really dire. Not saying it's going to, but as it looks right now, it's certainly trending that way.
Right in Laurence, you remember Lawrence after last week games and like we just suck right now, and yeah, you sucked. That interception was typical. It points out my problem with that I've had with Lawrence other than like he just seems to be missing something in terms of I don't know whether it's processing or intangibles of just like not always putting together making the right decisions at the right moments that it's just like a little uneven. But the main thing I've had the problem with because I used to do it charting QB index, is just he misses way more throws than top tier quarterbacks then you would expect for him. He just he'll just miss like three or four game and he makes so many great throws that you don't get it, and like that interception was one of them. Like he just missed his throws. His completion percentage over expected coming into this game was third or fourth worse than the entire NFL and probably only getting worse after this.
Yeah, and that's my biggest concern. When they paid him, I was like, are you sure, because that's what showed up last year as well, the occasional misses, the inconsistency, and it seems like it's just getting it's exacerbated through three weeks this year. That's just not a good that's supposed to be the guy's scary your offense, and it's just not happening right now. I feel bad for guys like Brian Thomas who he could be leaned on, you know, like a Milik Neighbors is with Daniel Jones in New York, but they can't even get the ball there because they're just so dysfunctional offensively right now.
Yeah, they had a sequence where they had the ball in the seven yard line, false start, incomplete pass drop, false start sack, they ended up on the twenty seven yard.
Line it's like it's bad football.
It's rough. The lines are back.
I mean the pass rush actually has been there one saving grace usually, but in this game, like I mentioned, the Bill's just dominated up front. Josh heinz Allen one pressure on out of twenty six rushes. Their best player, Trevon Walker, the number one overall pick who's played pretty well this season, zero pressures. Eric Armstead, the big free agent pickup one pressure. And yeah, that's just it's just a rough night. Let's end this recap on a positive note. You mentioned the Deamar Hamlin interception. What an awesome moment. Let's take a listen.
One receiver to each side, the two tight end.
Look, here's the snap picks the handoff, gonna roll to his left, has time, throws deep.
Over the middle, He overshoots.
Thomas intercepted by Tamar Hamlin coming the other way to.
The forty five.
As he races to the far sideline and is tackled at the forty one yard line by Ferrell, hits an I int and another.
Takeaway for the Buffalo defense. This time Tamar Hamlin is awesome.
The crowd there case in point right there, like like if you look at that footage right there, that's everything you need to know. Like Thomas has four yards of separation on both sides of him and he just misses him over the head by three or four yards too high. Great moment for DeMar Hamlin.
And all you need to know with the reaction from the teammates and the crowd, that.
Sneaky.
Just one of the most electric moments that that stadium is going to have all year because when he got over to the sideline, just like the teammates and he said it after the game.
With Laura Rutledge.
You did a good job on the interview just saying like, hey, seeing them, they were even more excited for me than I was for myself. And she asked him sort of, just how do you process this because he's having a good season, he's starting, they're playing really good defense, Like his coverage numbers for what you want to put into that from PFF are outstanding, and more importantly, they're just not giving up big plays and that's you know, his priority number one.
And yeah, she asked him.
Like, how do you process like a night like this, and he gave very honest answers, like everything that's going on with me is like, I'm still in the middle of processing it, honestly, just like it's a yeah, it's a day to day thing, and it's still not that far away when he was in Cincinnati, and for him to be out there, it's amazing.
Yeah.
And you know, they cut to that during the Bengals Commanders game and Buck and Aikman mentioned that the last time they were in the booth in Cincinnati was the game in which you know, everything happened, And I mean, that's fitting. I know that obviously that the Bills game isn't taking place in Cincinnati, but the fact that game was also on like that just tells you we are not that far removed from it. And what a story. Man. And he's he like you said, he's playing well, he's probably just he probably wakes up every day and thinks, like, man, I'm lucky to be here and now look I'm starting in the NFL and I'm delivering it said.
He said, I'm just so glad that I'm a Bill, I'm a Buffalo Bill, that this is the perfect place for me. I'm so happy to be there right now. That was the Bills. That was the Jaguars. Bills moved to three and oh, Jaguars at oh and three. I'll see it in a few weeks, Jaguars, Let's get some wins before I see that Jags Bears game. Okay, it's not over, please, we can we can respond. Let's take a quick break. We're gonna come back with some news and our players of the week back on NFL Daily. Hey, there's a whole league out there, Nick, not just these four teams, and a lot happened on Monday that we.
Found out, So let's uh, let's do some news. Okay.
So there was a lot of injury news today, but there were like huge, huge head lines for the most part. To me, the thing that struck me the most was that Sam Darnold's fine. It's crazy that we're at this point and the season's crazy that I'm at this point in the season because I get so annoyed by the Donald hive and look at to give it up to him.
He's just playing good football right now.
That I was really relieved, and I thought the biggest story going into the day is how serious is this Sam Donald injury? And it sounds like he's gonna be fine. They had an MRI and he's expected to play this week and it's just a bruise. So Vikings the one of the five undefeated teams along with the Bills.
They're gonna be fine.
Bullet dodged and it's a good one for the Vikings. All the vibes are very good in Minneapolis right now, and a lot of it has to do with Sam Donald, So keeping him on the field fantastic news.
I will say I did a deep dive. I watched Donald closely. He's playing really good. There are some like everything's really good around him too. He's really good, Like under two and a half seconds. I thought Sunday was a step forward for him in a major way because actually he did better holding the ball on plays in rhythm, and that's more what you got to see because those numbers haven't been as strong, the numbers against pressure or anything like that haven't been as strong. But play, they're through the roof, quick decisions are getting guys open, and he's avoiding the big mistake, which is absolutely massive. So I am that is awesome because what a value loss that would be if Darnold went away, because it's a big drop to their next quarterback.
Who would be?
Who would it be? It would be Nick Mullins, Yeah, would be said not good. Yeah, Javon Hargrave, Man, this came out of nowhere. It's going to miss the rest of the season. The forty nine ers defensive tackle there, they're big signing in free agency a year ago, who had a great game on Sunday in a losing effort against the Rams. A ton of pressures is out and yeah, that's a huge loss for a forty nine Ers defense. I'm going to talk about a little bit more on our next show with Jordan Rod Reagan and Collien Wolf.
But that has not been playing.
Well, hasn't been playing well. And they also got a little thinner on the defensive line. They led Javon Kinlaw walk in the off season. They replaced them Jordan Elliott former Brown and I mean, look, man, you lost two in a row. That's just not good news right now.
No, and they don't rotate as much as they used to, like into torn triceps that knocked him out for the season, and they're really counting on Bosa to dominate. And when he has games like he did against the Rams where he was just like good but not amazing, that it shows up more injury news in Los Angeles. This time, Joe Alt, the Chargers first round pick at tackle, is going to miss some time. That's a surprise because he did finish the game. I didn't even know anything was wrong with him, although he did give up a late sack to TJ. Watt maybe that was part of it. I don't think he could extend, so he's gonna miss some time. They have a bye week coming up, which also could inform how they handle Justin Herbert X rays were negative on his ankle, Rashaan Slater and Joey Bosa. Slater with a pectoral injury. Bosa with a hip injury, also could be out. It's uncertain how long. But if you were making a list of the Chargers' best players, that's a bunch of them. Another person that would be on it would be Derwin James, who is suspended for this game against the Chiefs. Like maybe it's like a fantasy football league situation where almost I always was of the mind, like it's fine to have all your guys on the same bye week. Just try to win that week. You might win anyways, but just take the l that one week if you have to. That's like the Chargers this week, like all their good players are gonna be out.
Well, we thought that was the proch of the Rams and they came out and beat the forty nine ers.
But yeah, that's a good point.
It's bad because what the story was last year, and while they went and spent you know, a pick on Joe Alt was because they couldn't keep Justin Herbert protected. Now he's dinged up with that ankle, which is really concerning. I know that we're still kind of awaiting what's going to happen with that, but like he's clearly not mobile, and then you lose both your tackles, suddenly you're right back where you were last year. And it's only week four. So it's definitely a concerning situation for them right now.
Yeah, and for all the people that complain about the Chiefs getting the breaks, you're not gonna enjoy Sunday's Chargers game with Trey Pipkins blocking for Taylor Heineke and whoever is back there one and a half speed one and a half speed. Although frankly, the secondary is the least of my concern. This Chargers defense is playing really well.
They're good.
They're a good group overall, but yeah, that they have the bye week. Like I said in week five, it might just be a take your medicine situation all around, and then come back.
In week six.
At two and two, the Ravens were in the news signing Unique and Gacway. This is just like the most Ravens news ever. They just they need a little more juice up front. I thought that the defensive line has played pretty well, but they get a pure pass rusher, can't really stop the run. It's it's just such a Ravens signing.
Uh.
In the division, the Steelers lost Troy Fautanu for the season. It's just something I wish I mentioned on our show Sunday was news that happened. We didn't know about until the weekend. But he's on injured reserve. He is not coming back. He suffered the injury at practice. Been a lot of practice injuries. That's brutal for a team that just benched Broderick Jones their first round and now they got to put him back in the lineup.
He could be back for the playoffs.
According to Ian Rapaport, that was the update from Monday. So if they make the playoffs and at three and oh, they have every reason to think they might. He might be back by then, but that's cutting it close.
Yeah, Historically Dan Moore has not fared well. That's in one of the tackles that they're gonna have to rely on. So I'm a little concerned about that, But it is a little bit easier to bear when you are three and l Just keep an eye out, Steelers fans. If the protection starts to break down, the offense changes a little bit, that's gonna be your reason why.
It's been bad. It's been like really bad. I would say their offensive line is bottom man. There's so many bad offensive lines. There's no way they're outside of the bottom quarter of the league, which is eight teams. There's no way they are. They're in that group. It might be bottom four or five. Like I know, there's a bunch of bad offensive lines, but they're one of them, and they're not really playing well. They got the run game going at the end of last week's game, but they've been overcoming that with defense in good play by fields and the skill position players. The Raiders surprise me in twenty a peers. Just I love a coach that is not afraid to just say something, and yet he talked on Monday about possibly changing quarterbacks.
Well, I just think, you know, you look at how the game went. We're down by two scores or so, they ain't come in and see what he can do with the offense, move it, and we're just trying to the first part.
Did that mean anything going forward?
Or is it still Gardner still the guy?
I think we got to give with the players and just you know, evaluate everything from yesterday first.
Usually when a coach says that it's bad news, and yet literally an hour or two later, the athletic UHC Victaffer, who's been on this show before, reported it's gonna be Gardner Minshew, which is just kind of funny to me, don't.
Yeah, Well, I mean I watched this game back today and I was like, I mean, Gardner wasn't like awful, awful like Benji.
He was fine.
Yeah, he was fine. I thought that that was people jumping to conclusions based on the result. I thought he was fine. It would be unnecessary to make that change right now.
No, it sounded like a coach who was like still mad that his defense got dog wins his decision Like Gardner Minshew has played better than you could have expected, especially after what we heard in training camp all season. I mean, he he has like one play a week. That's just truly mystifying. But he's played better than I would expect it. I think he's played better this year than he did on average last year so far. So it will be Minshew's still according to the Athletic. But Pierce was also asked about that comment where he said he's going to have to make some business decisions about his players too.
After the game, you talked about the Raiders having to make business decisions and have you made any of those yet?
No, we haven't. No, we haven't got to give with the players first. Obviously a lot was made of that comment, you know, national media wise this morning, I guess you if you think about it, are you happy that you pointed it out?
Yes, sir, I like it, honestly, it freshly the media.
It's like people now is like, are so careful back in the you know, back in they wasn't back in my day. It's more like reading some of these books behind me, the Paul Zimmern books and the great history books here, uh man, they were always trash talking the hell out of the other players like in the other teams partly because the news like didn't ever get to them until like weeks later. By carry your Pigeon, it's like, oh yeah, we saw it in the paper like three days later whatever like.
But sometimes a big deals.
But they were trushed that they were They were honest, they were talking, they were talking their ish when there was this to be talk. So I like Antonio appears a bit of a throwback, just some other very quick injury and it was all throw out there. Marcus Davenport, pass rusher for the lines is out for the season. Man bad luck in terms of injuries for him and elbow injury, and uh, they kind.
Of needed him.
They're they're not that deep in terms of their pass rushers. Derek Barnes, who's a good linebacker for them, is gonna be out a while. Your Brown's got good news on Miles Garrett day to day after an MRI. Uh was his ankle or his foot? But bad news and why.
Hell fat Yeah, that's not to cut you off there, because why I tell her news is more concerning considering their offensive line has not played well through three weeks. But Miles Garrett's feet not foot, but feet, and I know your feet are important because he does look a step slow, and I know it was good news. I'm not buying it. I would wait to see the next few weeks because he just he's not quite.
Wait a second, here, wait a second. He housed Andrew Thomas in that game when I that was my that was the first game I watched.
I don't know why.
I was just like, why would you do that to yourself?
Well, I like to when I get home Sunday and I sometimes like to bang out a game that I don't think is that gonna be that good? Just as like I don't know why because after the blur of Sundays, that game that I try to knock out because I try to get through all these games eventually, sometimes I like almost have hard time remembering it, and I write down all the notes I can remember it, but it's like I usually throw like a mediocre game in that spot because I want to like be fresher and enjoy the game's So I was like, let's hear, let's see some Deshaun Watson slop in some surprisingly fun Daniel Jones early. But I thought Miles Garrett played great in that game. He kind of housed Andrew Thomas over and over, which is hard to do.
You know, he did, he did, but he's not getting that last half step to get home. He's getting really close. He didn't get in the pressures. He's not getting the sacks. And that's the difference for me, because if you just watch him year over year, he's been much faster than he is right now.
Fair the strength is there because there was one for Shay where he sort of carried Thomas, who's one of the best players in the league, and he is like three hundred and ten pounds, like on his shoulder a little bit.
He got that bend. Yeah, he got a holding.
One to one man. He is one holds a freak. Uh Yeah.
Teler is going to miss a month a starting guard. Their tackles, they thought they were going to get back on Sunday. Will's comes back, he gets hurt. Conklin's still hurt. Is just it's a dissawan. Jones got smoked all Game two, just getting beat with speed. It's not a good situation for them. There's some teams in some rough situations. I don't think there's any anyone worse than the Browns. I guess the Jaguars would be worse because the Browns at least have some hope that the defense is going to do something.
But I think just globally not good.
At Least the Jaguars can convince themselves they have a quarterback long term. Globally, I'm very worried about the Browns.
One of the toughest or easiest experiences for me is Mondays when I go to the gym, when I work my split shift on the news in the morning, go to the gym, come back for Monday night football because all the people my gym are Browns fans and they all like to come up to me one by one and talk about the game. Today it was just, oh man, that was really ugly what happened. And I'm like, dude, they're not a good football team. They have a good defense, and that's it. And it's kind of get worse before it gets better. I think that is rough.
And yeah, the last just little item of injury news, chidobiu Wuzzy, the quarterback for the Titans, was a big free agent signing.
Is a candidate from I Are.
Actually, one last thing I did want to mentioned just on the forty nine ers was that Kyle Shanahan said that Christian McCaffrey went to Germany to have his achilles to the nightis examined.
Which that's not good.
Feel like it's never good sign. No, never good sign. Lit'tle worrisome Christian McCaffrey. This forty nine ers team, it's.
Not really happening for him. All right. That's it for the News.
We did the recaps, but we're not saying goodbye until we do the Captain Morgan's Players of the Week. It is time for the Captain's Corner, presented by Captain Morgan.
I'll let you get us going, Nick.
All right, let's pour an extra strong one here. Instead of two fingers, gonna go three fingers in this one. And it's in honor of the red rifle Andy Dalton. You might call me going chalk here. That's fine. I don't care. The guy sits on the bench except for one game last year. He's on the bench behind Bryce Young. Again, he gets the call and he maximizes his opportunity. We already talked about his performance yesterday, but I do want to bring this out. He's the first Carolina Quarps with three plus passing touchdowns in the first half of a game since Cam Newton in Week fifteen of the twenty fifteen season at the Giants. Do you remember what the Panthers were back then? That's how long it's been since Carolina has had the type of performance from a quarterback that they got from Andy Dalton on Sunday. It was funny to me that we even had to like check this box where Dave Canalis had to answer, like, is Andy Dalton still your quarterback today? Yeah? Obviously they're much better with him.
Yeah, Yeah, that's that.
Twenty fifteen season was one of the best quarterback seasons I've ever seen. And Andy Dalton, I just he's making them more watchable. Jade Daniels has put the Commanders up a bunch of notches, but let's be real, Andy Dalton has put the Panthers up at least one notch. Like, I'm not saying they're the first team I want to watch on Sunday, but I want to watch them more than I did with that Bryce Young experiment going on.
So yeah, I loved watching it was a really good performance.
Yeah, out there has a chance to watch against what we thought was a pretty good defense. I'm gonna go I'm gonna double do it the captain, you know, why not there can be two captains, two receivers, you know, to two at Well and Juan Jennings. Duan Jennings is like six three two fifteen to two. At Well is five to nine lifted as one sixty five. But we learned on one of those Rams documentary type things that he's really like one fifty five, which is crazy.
He's in the.
NFL and Juan Jennings, I have to give him the love of one of the best wide receiver games I've ever seen. If you just go watch his completions on NFL Pro or anything, it's just he mosses a guy for one, he beats him at the line of scrimmage for another deep one, he digs one out that's in the ground for another, he leaps for another contested catch. It was a sideline catch. Like everything that you could possibly do. He had some yak, not exactly a burner, you know. Maybe that's why he's not usually the starter, But my god, I don't necessarily think this is a one game wonder. I think he's gonna have a big role on their team. And then two to Atwell, who was the number five Rams receiver coming into this year always viewed as like Sean mcvay's pet project. This guy they took pretty early and he finally became a good role player last year. But this year he's kind of moved down in the pecking order and hasn't played much this year. And then man, he comes out there and he makes some contested, difficult catches, including one on the sideline they ended up ruling wasn't a catch, but he made an incredible effort ends up I think almost one hundred yards in that game. But just the quality and the clutch catches that Tutu Atwell had, he gets my nod along with Juwan Jennings. Just the yin and the yang. I like the NFL. You know, you can have all sorts of different body types. Jaydan Daniels like one of the skinniest quarterbacks I've ever seen. He's out there taking big hits. Tough guy, even slid tonight. What a remarkable development. Yes, he did a better job of avoiding hits. The only times he took hits were kind of when he had to. I'm like third and three is up the middle where he needed to get the first down.
Yeah, your two receivers. Since this is Captain's Corner shot chaser right there, Boom.
There you go. Thank you, Nick Shook, and thank you for everyone listening. Again.
That was Captain's Corner, presented by Captain Morgan. It's Delistia's and Chris perfect for game day with friends. Spice it up. Visit Captain Morgan dot com to find a Captain near you. Please drink responsibly and yeah, that's my instructions to you.
Nick. It's been a long day of work, long.
Couple days for you, so go ahead, put one back and we'll be back on NFL Daily. I mentioned on Wednesday. It's the Wednesday Crew. You know it, you love it. It's Colleen Wolf, It's Jordan Rodrig Gotta talk about some stuff.
We like, stuff we don't like.
Preview a compelling T andF game between the Giants and Cowboys.
I'm into teams with high stakes. Earlier in the year.
The Cowboys can't take a loss here. We will talk to you then until then. Jayden Daniels, he brought football back