The MMQB NFL PodcastChiefs Become Modern Pats & Raven's Dominant Win
Conor Orr and Albert Breer break down Jalen Hurts tough performance in the Eagles win over the Dolphins, why the Chiefs stellar regular season play is overlooked at this poit, the Chargers falling to 2-4, why the Raven's are better than people thought they would be after a dominant win over the Lions, and the rest of the week six slate
Hello, and welcome to the MMQ The NFL Podcast. I'm Conor Royal. We got an Albert Brier here and we're leading off the show talking about the Philadelphia Eagles who strong armed Miami Dolphins on Sunday Night Football thirty one seventeen. Every week you look for this one game, and I got another one after this that I feel like tells a tale of the week that's something sustainable, something that we can kind of flesh out throughout the entire season. And Albert, everyone's kind of wondering after this game, is it nice that Miami is the fastest football team alive? But what happens when they get into a little bit of a I don't know, a barroom fight, a jiu jitsu battle, whatever you want to call this, because the Eagles kind of handed it to him a little bit.
Yeah, And you know, I think what's interesting and like, you got to go back and look like at the Dolphins games this year, but I feel there's a sort of proving a theory I had earlier in the year true that if you knock the Dolphins off schedule, they're just not the same team. And if you go back and you look at like that game they had against against the Broncos where they scored seventy points. They didn't face their first third and long until their seventh touchdown drive. They didn't face their first third down period until their third touchdown drive. Well what does that tell you? That tells you if you get them in third and long, you create negative plays, you put them behind the sticks. They're simply not the same offense. Well why is that? It's because so much of that offense is based off play action and movement and motion, and once you get along yardage and you can start to you know, make them play one way and they become more predictable, a lot of that stuff is null and void. And I know people have said over the years, oh, will play action, you know, the run game doesn't. Really it's it's not that it's not the run game. That it is the run game, you know what I mean? It is the run game. That's when undred percent what makes play action come alive. And I think you see the Dolphins who are good at that sort of thing, at marrying the run and pass and you know, making everything look alike and making run plays look like pass pay plays, and making you defend the whole field. You know, so much of the effectiveness of what Mike McDaniel has been doing has been staying on schedule, you know. And that's a credit to him, by the way, that's not like a shot at him whatsoever. But you know, I think you see a team that, you know, when if you can get them behind the sticks, if you can create negative plays like the Eagles did last night, if you can put them in in in penalty situations where they're grabbing or holding, you can make them a different team, you know. And so I just sort of look at it, Connor. I look at the first couple of possessions, and you know, the Eagles were able to create long yardage situations, put the Dolphins in those long yardage situations, and the Dolphins were out of sorts. And as a result, they finished the game with forty five yards rushing, which is way, way, way below their average. And you know, you can attribute it to whatever you want to attribute it to. I'd say, you know, their offensive line issues are certainly up there on the list. But you know, in the end, I think it's sort of if you can create negative plays against Dolphins, you can make them a different team. And I think that's been the underlying thing to the whole season. As impressive as they've been through the first seven weeks of season, I think that's the underlying thing. So what Buffalo was able to do a few weeks ago was what the what the Eagles were able to do on Sunday night.
Yeah, Buffalo's mission was to take away the first read, and you're seeing that a little bit now. Basically, I mean I can draw a line back to when I saw New England kind of play them well, I believe it was last year, where now there's delayed action on behalf of defense on every down, and so to what you're basically trying to do is you're trying to cover up the place where he's going first, and then all of a sudden, that's when you can find yourself in a situation where he's just a little bit uncomfortable. And I would say that that was certainly the case with sort of the backbreaking interception that the Eagles had in the fourth quarter that really turn the tide of this game. And then all of a sudden, you just start muscling it to aj Brown down the field. And that's the other place I want to go here, because I just think it's so interesting, Albert that for years that we've talked about the effectiveness of the running game and what it does to opponents down the stretch. I would venture to say that the Eagles and the forty nine ers have figured out the evolution there in that you almost want your pass catchers to have the same kind of ability where they can just beat up cornerbacks, they can run over safeties, and my argument is that's even more effective over the course of the season. And now you have AJ Brown, you have Dallas Goddard, you have some of these guys that are really kind of throwing haymakers down after down. It takes a lot of stress off adjailent hurts, it increases yards after catch, and I think I see the plan. I get it. It makes sense to me.
I mean, the touchdown to A. J. Brown wasn't like it's gigantic down the field play or anything, but he caught the ball over the middle of the field and you knew he was getting in, you know what I mean, Like I think he had what I mean, he probably caught it with six seven years ago. I'd have to look that up again, but you know, he caught it with six seven years ago, and you just looked at him and you see like smaller people around him, and it's like he's getting in, you know, and it's amazing. I think this is his fifth straight game at least one hundred and twenty five years receiving, right. I mean, you talk about a trade that changed the complexion of a team. And it's not like they weren't a good team the year before. They were in the playoffs the year before. But you know what having a guy like AJ Brown does not only for Jalen Hurts, but for Dallas Goddard, for DeVante Smith, for dere Swift, like for all the other guys in their offense. How he makes you choose and you either choose to change the math and open things up for everybody else, or you put him in a position where not only is one guy gonna have to cover him, but that one guy's gonna have to tackle him too. And I just think he kind of he's proven himself to be so valuable on so many different fronts because of the type of body he has, the type of runner he is. He's more than just a receiver. And you know, I think you have to give how he rowsman a lot of credit on that one too. I know we've talked about this over the last few weeks, but I think there's like a certain humility in Howie Roseman doing what he did there in that it was the willingness to admit your mistakes fast enough to take advantage of an opportunity like that. You know, Like where they in nineteen drafted jj r Kiga Whiteside, I believe somewhere in the forties or fifties, maybe even in front of AJ Brown that year, I'm not sure, but it was right around the same range, right, So they draft him, They draft Rager in twenty and instead of chasing their mistakes, they quickly recognize that they've messed up up for Davante Smith in twenty one, and then they go and get AJ Brown in twenty two. Now, they very easily could have said, you know, okay, we've got Davante Smith. We hit on that one, and like, let's keep working with the other guys. But they didn't chase those mistakes. They recognize them fast enough so they could react and make a play for a player like this, and it's completely changed the face of their team. And here we are Sunday night football with a huge game between two five and one teams, and I don't think it'd be a stretch to say he was probably the best player on the field last.
Night, certainly, I mean, and I do think too a lot of the stuff we should save bigger reactions for the course of the season. I think Philly matches up against this defense particularly well, like they are a little bit on the slow side, and they are also not very physical. And so I think this was Jalen Hurts's second easiest game. And I'm putting easiest in big air quotes here because it's never easy to play quarterback in the NFL, but second easiest in terms of the number of throws that he had to make under pressure. And so if Jalen Hurts has time, he's mobile enough to finesse his way into a situation where he can get aj Brown open. Even if he's not, he can get Dallas god Or open, and all of a sudden, you're basically just plastering a secondary with you know, full back style hits down after down, and there we have it. So my big but I will ask you one, a big sweeping question on Philly is do you think that this team has shown you enough and has been steady enough to lead you to believe that they are capable of erasing a return to Super Bowl type of curse. You know.
I'm I'm really a big believer, and I become increasingly a big believer in that. Like the type of football the Travels is the type that's played on the lines of scrimmage, and they are so good and so deep on the lines of scrimmage. I mean you could argue, I mean, Connor, are they better this year than they were last year on the line of scrimmage. I mean when you add Jail and Carter to the mix on defense and he looks dominant, you know, and like you have him as part of a rotation. And yes, they lose Yvon Hartgrave, so that's a pretty big loss. But you know, I think you could argue that they may be a little deeper and a little better upfront than they were a year ago, which seems like a crazy thing to say, but I think it shows up in a game like this again, Like it shows up and that whole thing I talked about off the top, which is being able to stay on schedule, you know, and being able to create advantageous situations for your offense from a down distance standpoint, that you're never playing from behind the I think what what sticks out about the Eagles most is like they just never let games get away from them, you know. And I think that's a result of being as strong as they are at the lines of scrimmage, Because if you're that strong with the line of scrimmage, you're not going to have a lot of negative plays on offense, right You're always going to kind of be able to stay steady on offense, and you're going to be able to create negative plays on defense, and you're going to be able to knock the other team offs edual on defense. So you're always going to have some level of control over the pace of the game if you're really strong on the lines of scrimmage. And yeah, I don't know, is I mean them and the Niners are probably the two best when it comes to what you've got up front. I would argue the Eagles are probably better just because of the balance and depth they've got up front. Like the Niners have big stars, you know, and you know, now Hardgrave obviously, Bosa and Armstead and Trent Williams, but just the balance and depth that the Eagles have across the board on the lines of scrimmage was awesome last year and helped carry them to a Super Bowl, and it is awesome again this year.
Go from one Super Bowl contender to another. We had the Chiefs and the Chargers yesterday.
And no one talks about the Chiefs. Man.
I mean, all right, so let's I.
Wrote this morning. Though they've they've entered Patriots territory, haven't they.
Oh, it's just everyone's.
Said we're during this season, no one's allowed by them anymore. We sort of picked them apart a little bit and then you look up and they're six and one, three games up in their division, and the AFC West is.
Over now, right, I would say so. And it's always interesting, right because like the Patriots, there are about three or four ways where you can try to attack them defensively, and it's sort of a choose your card and see if you get hot kind of thing. And the Chargers went from There was a play early in that game where they forced a bad Mahomes throw with some pressure and then nearly tipped the ball and got an interception, and then from that moment on they didn't pressure him at all. This was the least amount that Mahomes was pressured in any game this season, and so you're just like, Okay, you choose your poison. It was almost like a Bill's game plan from the AFC playoffs a couple of years ago, where they never blitzed him. But the counter to that is that if you don't have the dogs in the secondary, Mahomes, almost like Jalen Hurts, but just in a different way, is just going to keep the play alive long enough, and he's just gonna find somebody, and he will always find somebody. And so lo and behold, we now have the biggest Mahomes game of the season. Four hundred and twenty four yards, four touchdowns, one interception, twelve catches for Travis Kelcey one hundred and seventy nine yards in a touchdown. This is as easy as it gets for the Chiefs, and it also puts the Chargers in like, I don't know, I think they were in lukewarm water for a while, but I would sense that this is hot water, and it's it's so disappointing because they were in this game. They were in this game for a long time, and.
I would say, like, you know, obviously more often than not when you give Pat Mahomes that time, like the guy he's gonna find his kelsey and you know, like it's sort of similar to aj Brown in a way that you got this big receiver running down the middle of the field and you know, like give it enough time, he's gonna get the ball and he's gonna be really tough spring down. You know. But what that does, and I think you see it with the way the Chiefs have played and what who they are does this is again, this is something you saw with the Patriots when Tom Brady was there, is being this consistent and being able to kind of bleed out wins. The way they're able to bleed out wins allows them to develop different parts of their team. And so like look at Rossie Rice yesterday, five catches sixty yards, Like they could have a rookie who's really functional at receiver by the end of the year. And it looks like they're getting there. Valdez Scantling has a nice game, like you know, and everybody was kind of pulling their hair out about like do they have a number one receiver and do they have enough around Pat Mahomes. Well, Kelsey's their number one receiver, and they've got time to develop guys who they've drafted pretty high or they signed to know decent sized contracts in the receiver group. So they're gonna be fine by January. And you're right, this was an opportunity for the Chargers. They It feels to me like watching them big, like they feel the weight of what they're under right now, like everybody in that operation, you know, like that there's a lot on the line for Brandon Staley. Kellen Moore gambled by going there. There's a lot on the line for him, you know, justin Herbert. There are questions that are coming up on him that haven't come up before. It's it's just they've been the lesser than the sum of their parts team for so long now that it is it is fair to start asking a question, right like, is there fundamentally something wrong with the way the team's built? Is the coaches like that they should not be two and four?
And that happens, I mean that happens where you know, and it's partially our fault, It's partially coach's faults, it's partially GM's faults. Where all of a sudden, you know, hype gets out of control and it gets to the point where it's unmanageable. In this case, I mean, just you look at the talent on paper and you would assume that someone could make this work. But I think the real failure with the Chargers, and you know is in moments of attrition, right, is in moments when you need resilience, Like the Chargers were playing as well as I've seen them play all year through the first half of this game, and then all of a sudden, you know, Patrick Mahomes goes the length of the field before halftime, and then coming out of halftime, they didn't score right then, but he converted like a third and fifteen or sixteen, and then the following drive is when you had Justin Herbert and the red zone pick, and from there, forget about it. It's it's wilted Flowers. It's done. And so for me, I'm just wondering, and we've seen this before with them, where as soon as the tide starts to turn in a game, all of a sudden, it's like this collective panic. And maybe it goes back to what you're saying where I think everybody kind of understands the cost. Everybody understands the cost of these mistakes, and it doesn't look good.
Yeah, and I think it's it's also you know, it's fair to ask now that you got a quarterback on why like a two hundred and fifty two million dollar contract more of him? You know, like should he be coming up bigger down the stretch of a game like this. You've invested a lot in around him, you know, like you've invested and I know Mike Williams is down and that's not an easy thing to recover from. But you still have, you know, a high first round pick at left tackle. You have you know, one of the best receivers the last ten years, Keenan Allen. There, you have Austin Eckler behind you, you have Qwenton Johnston, a first round pick. There, you have Josh Palmer who you've developed. You know, I think, like a lot in a lot of cases, when quarterbacks on those big deals, you're actually putting less around them. And I think Mahomes is going through that now, you know, with having to you move on, with the Chiefs having to move on from Tyreek Hill. But you know, I look down the stretch of this game, and and where are the plays that that that Justin Herbert's making, you know, I mean I look at their I'm looking at their their their their second half possessions right now, interception, punt, punt, punt, interception right and in those five paus sessions, there's three, three and ounce. At some point we have to hang some of that on the quarterback. And I tend to trust what people in the league tell me about these guys, and people in the league have always thought very, very highly of Justin Herbert. But it does feel like for some time it's been somebody else's fault. You know, it's been the injury's fault, or it's been Joe Lombardi's fault. It's always sort of been pinned on someone else. And you know, I wonder where we're at right now, because I think some of the questions with Justin Herbert that existed in college are there now, if that makes sense, Like some of the things about him being able to lift a team up and put it on his shoulders and perform in the biggest moments, and you know, his personality and everything else, Like, I think it's fair to kind of circle back on some of those and look at it because in a big game against a rival, with your season potentially on the line, you're two and three coming in to have that sort of second half isn't good.
No, And in a situation too, where it felt like there were things working. I mean, Josh Kelly was you know, you had the fifty yarder. But so it inflates the average a little bit. But every time they kind of did those little backside runs, it seemed like that they were finding some success. And I know, I hate being that guy that's like, oh, if it worked one time, it probably is gonna work all the time. I know that. But there's some stuff that you would be able to manufacture, it looks like. But I mean, I just saw that team straight up fall apart after that, and it's just so weird that they can be in games and then all of a sudden not being games. Brandon Staley, when he was with LA the Rams was on a historical pace in terms of defensive When he was a defensive coordinator, defensive second half points allowed, he was one of the best adjustment makers in the NFL. He was averaging like less than three points in the second half allowed. Now, the Chargers offense this year is similarly dubious because they are averaging over the last three games ouvert three and a half points in the second half.
And that's which it's hard. It's hard not to pend that on the coaches, right to some degree, Like and I I don't know, I'm just looking at their schedule. Now. I know this can be superficial, but you know, standalone games are kind of like digested differently, right, like your standalone Monday night, Thursday night, you know, Sunday night games. Right, the Chargers have two very winnable ones coming up in a row, their next two games Sunday night at home against the Bears and then the following Monday in New York against the Jets. If they lose those two in consecutive standalone games and look like they did in the second half against the Chiefs, like you know, I like, I don't think we're there yet, like where the big time changes are coming. But sometimes these standalone games can cause an owner to feel some heat, you know. And I'd say that these two net these next two games again winnable games against teams that might not have their starting quarterbacks. We know the Jets won't on on that Monday night, and the Bears might not have Justin Fields on Sunday either. You know, I like, it's hard to imagine what the conversation on the charger is going to be if they don't find a way to win these next two.
Yeah, no, I agree, speaking of difficult conversations. Baltimore thirty eight, Detroit six. Let me get into Let's back up for a second. I do the Power rankings every week here at Sports Illustrated. I put the Lion seven. I didn't think that was a big deal. Turns out it was a very big deal.
You get done.
Lions fans have twenty fifteen Panther fans syndrome, where all of a sudden their team is successful and then they turn into like these paramilitary psychopaths and start saying like we will stand against you. It was like, who you like, like a I don't even know. I was kind of trying to come up with like a good fake Twitter handle.
But anyway, I wish people knew how much I wish people knew how much time and effort I put into my picks. It's like thirty seconds every week, like, and they get so mad. People get so mad over it. It's like it's like, dude, like I was reminded by Mitch, like at nine fifty seven on Wednesday, I just filled out the spreadsheet.
So here's why I put the Lions seventh. And I don't think I think power rankings are a living, breathing thing. Sometimes you're good, sometimes you're bad, and then at the end of the season you try to catch the average.
But one of the times, I don't know if I'm bad. I don't know if I'm asking about this, what's your method?
Or you?
Are you an eye test guy or you a resume guy. There's two sufferent things, you know what I mean.
So I mean, you know you and I spend time talking to people throughout the week. I like to wait that with some of what we see that's going on. So the perfect example here with the Lions was, you know, one of the coaches that was watching them because everybody watches Detroit because Ben Jonson's really good, was, hey, keep an eye on the Lions. You know, with David Montgomery down, they can't get into some of their bread and butter rud run concepts. And you saw Tampa Bay put some stuff on tape that looked good against Detroit. So you're wondering, can some better defenses take that stuff, manipulate it, utilize it, and force Detroit into some discomfort. Okay, so let's drop them from like six to seven for one week to see how bad this really is, how hard this process is. And you would have thought that I burned the city of Detroit down. I got asked to go explain myself on talk shows for putting them seventh. You're in the playoffs? What are you complaining about anyway?
First? So firsts. So, first you get called on Boston sports radio for seeing the Patriots are too good.
And then you get Patriots this week and by the way.
I know, I know we're gonna get to that, right, And then you go on Detroit Sports Radio to defend yourself or saint the Lions are too bad.
But like seventh, you're one of the seven best teams in the NFL. Right, there's eight teams every year that can win the Super Bowl. I'm saying they're one of the eight. I feel like if you're thirteenth, all right, I'll go on and I'll explain myself. I feel like I don't have to explain this anyway. The Lions get the doors blown off them, And yeah, I was I passively aggressing, aggressively liking comments on Twitter the whole game.
Yes, I was.
And you know, and this game proves nothing. This game proves nothing. This is what I said, right, you lost David Montgomery. You are unable to do some of your core concepts. You are learning and you are adjusting. Jamir Gibbs, this is a flight or fight situation now, and we're seeing him get force fed in the second half. To see if he can kind of pick up and start to play a little bit better and carry the load here, that's gonna take some time. Plus, the Ravens are like one of the worst teams in the NFL to face when you're in obvious passing situations consistently. Mike McDonald, their defensive coordinator, has been on a roll this year. His pressure package is one of the best that I've seen in the NFL this year year. And they pined their ears back and they knocked the Lions around. Okay, you know that's fine, We're learning. This is how it goes.
This is this Ravens team is better than people think.
Way better.
This is like people don't pay attention to them and I don't know why, and maybe it was just the fatigue of Lamar Mania a couple of years ago. And you know, they're not like the maybe they're not the most exciting watch for the casual fan, and I get that, but like, this is a team that went into Cincinnati and won. This is a team that stomped the Browns, and now, you know, a Lion's team that I think, like legitimately is like a tough, hard nosed team got just popped in the mouth, you know, like and I just like look at like how complete this was. Like, So I talked to John Harbaugh last night about the about where his team is, and he was explaining how like that, you know, they went through this reset and how you know the schemes on both sides of the ball too. Relatively new coordinators Mike McDonald in his second year Todd Munkin in his first year are starting to take hold and how like they feel like now they're starting to get the best out of every player. Lamar Jackson hit nine different receivers yesterday, nine and they ran for I don't know what was one hundred and fifty yards right through for three point fifty At one point, I think the total yards was like three thirty six to four or something like that. I mean, this isn't happening in an NFL game, you know. And you know at one point they have four touchdowns, the Lions had zero first downs. So I think, like you know, when you look at the championship experienced the head coach as you have a quarterback who for two or three years was in a really unsettled situation contract wise. I don't care what people say about like that's not a factor on the few. It is like you have to be thinking of it, right, Like if you're Lamar Jackson, there's double you can't be at least that can't at least be in the back of your head. Now he's able to go out and play free knowing the the organization has his back. It's just I think like the Ravens aren't a better spot than they'd been at maybe at any point since Lamar got there, and maybe since the last time they won a Super Bowl. And you know, I think that there's also this oh you forgot about us thing going on with them too, because every other team in that division at some point over the last calendar year got more attention than they did, and yeah, so.
I think, yeah, you brought up a really good point, and so I'm going to address that. But first I just want to give you. I really I appreciated what you said about Todd Munkin. I feel like that's what people are not talking about. Last year, through the first seven games of the season, Guess how many times Lamar Jackson completed more than seventy percent of his passes.
Through seven weeks.
You said through seven weeks last year. Zero one. Okay, guess how many games this year Lamar Jackson has not completed more than seventy percent of his passes.
Just for symmetry's yeah, I was gonna say one. So you screwed up, Connor. I was trying to guess, and then you put your finger up in the zoom and I thought that's where you were going, but you didn't let me. You didn't let me close the circle.
There there you go. But this is this is incredible and you don't see tigers change their stripes like this, But I think what we're what we are seeing. Lamar at Louisville was his last two years, averaged a quarterback rating around one fifty. He was a accurate high volume passer at Louisville when Greg Rollman got a hold of him Baltimore, I think, due to the immediate need to win, you turn him into a little bit of something else. I think Lamar then develops that habit where okay avde of ade of eight in the pocket, get rid of the ball later. Now he's playing in rhythm, he's playing instruction, and there are so many you know. I talked to a QB coach who said this a couple of years ago that if you got every snap to look the same for Lamar in terms of one two three out, one two, three out, he's going to be unstoppable. And watch these watch the games this year, one two, three out. Everything's in rhythm. You got him some receivers, You're getting him some quick completions. He looks like a different guy.
If you watched Georgia last year you could see it too, Like how creative they were using brock Bowers the last two years. Like, and I don't know how many of our listeners are aware of who brought powers, because I think most of them.
Like Villain and super Mario Brother.
Yeah, Like, so brock Bowers is going to be a fun guy. To talk about in the spring because he's about his versatile tight end prospect. He's different, but he's about his versatile tight end prospect as I've seen coming in the league in my twenty years covering it. But you can see the creativity there. And that was why I was excited to see what this would look like, because I do think when Monkin went back to college, you know, from Cleveland and from uh and from Tampa, like, there was an opportunity to kind of diversify what he was doing. I think he took that opportunity, and I think you're seeing it now. And you know what's so cool about Connor is so Lamar was involved in four touchdowns yesterday. All four of them were different, right, So there was the bootleg to the left right, I think it was on fourth and one. Okay. There was the scramble touchdown where it looked like he made four different guys miss and found Nelson Ageler in the back of the end zone. There was like the movement play where you know it's sort of a sprint out and he's able to dump the ball in the flat, running out that way and influencing the defense to Mark Andrews and then there was the one from the pocket where he stood in there and found Mark Andrews and just put a dime on him in the back of the end zone. Four touchdowns scored, four very different ways, And that just tells me that it's a coaching staff that's now using every tool that Lamar Jackson has in his box, right and having to defend that version of Lamar Jackson's going to be very difficult, especially if you can kind of and I think they're doing this too. Beatju dishes on how you use him as a runner so he doesn't get worn out over the course of the year. Is the offense he was playing in the last couple of years. Now. I want to give Greg Roman credit because that was about the most creative run game the NFL has ever seen, right like that was. I mean, you talked to defensive coaches and they would tell you what a pain in the asset was to go up against the Ravens. So Greg Roman is no no one's fool, But I do think that there was a toll that was paid for playing that way if you're Lamar, and I think they're able to maybe take a little bit off off of him in that sense too, And so I see this as like being sort of Lamar two point zero, new contract, new coordinator, new offense, new weapons around him, and you see it yesterday scores touchdown four different ways, hits, nine different receivers. They're making everybody, They're making everybody they face defend the entire width and length of the field. And that makes a guy who's as explosive as Lamar Jackson in so many ways so much more dangerous.
One more stat that follows that same line, guess how many times how much more times Lamar Jackson has run this year than he did last year through seven weeks of this season?
How many to wait, how many?
How many more times has run? Has Lamar Jackson run the ball this year through seven weeks than he did last year?
Through something? He's run more this year than last year. I wouldn't have thought.
That one more time?
Right?
Same?
Okay, same, yeah, okay, but my perception was different.
Yet. Yeah, the rushes are different than he's not run.
I mean, he's not running the Army Navy offense where he's in between the tackles quite as much. I don't think. Doesn't seem that way anyway.
No, And let's close the book on this with one other Twitter related controversy. I think that the real advice here for me is just to get off the platform.
But the Ravens, which is same advice for a decade now for all of us.
The Ravens post a graphic after the game of all the expert picks and they're like, they said, you guys, sure about that? And it says like Connor or Sports Illustrate picked the Lions, John Plumes, Sports Illustrate picked the Lions. We didn't pick the Lions. We picked the Ravens. I posted a screenshot of it and nothing crickets from Baltimore. So I'm fire.
I love like how like all these teams employ like these twenty three year olds whose job is to dunk on people. You know what I mean?
But I dunked on you. And now it's like it's like.
It's like we're gonna we we like, like, on one hand, we're gonna send our coach up to the paid podium five days a week to say the blandest thing possible, like that is his goal to be as boring as humanly possible. And then over here we're gonna imply this, we're gonna We're gonna hire this twenty three year old who has been in the has been involved in the NFL for two weeks, and his job is to viciously dunk on everybody on social media.
How how how much do you think the Chargers like cashing the checks that their social media team rights with that schedule release video every year, and then they're the ones that have to pay for it with their bodies when everybody gets pissed off and offended. You know, I'm sure that I'm sure that they absolutely love that. But anyway, it's all about engagement. Another surprise one for me, Albert was.
Busy.
Yeah, the Patriots beat the Bills, and it's just like, what the hell?
What?
Like I watched the game, I watched it again this morning, and I'm just.
That was like, that was what I was talking about.
Well, yeah, and of course it happens like So the timeline of events is I publicly rescind my Patriots AFC pick, I admit the flaws in my process, and then all of a sudden Sunday morning, splash reports come out Bill Belichick signed a contract extension of stuff.
So do you want to talk about that?
I want to talk about that. Let's talk about love.
I read the words. He never said extension. Now, if somebody might have splashed it over his name or aggregated it incorrectly, he never set extension. And he also never said long term. He said multi year deal. So what's multi year? If you're not saying long term and you're saying multi year, what's multi year? Two? Okay, if you're not saying extension, it's just deal. What does that mean?
It was a reworked contract, reworked to your deal?
Maybe? Yeah, So I'm just hypothesizing here, But if his report says reworked to your deal, that's the translation. They wouldn't the real news here not be that Belichick signed a new deal. It'd be that Belichick is going to be in a contract year in twenty twenty four, and that that's Normally when teams make decisions on their coaches, they usually don't take coaches. You know this as well as I do, right.
Connor Sure.
Usually usually teams don't take coaches into contract years unless that's either you know what to get off the that's either you know what or get off the pot time? Right?
Oh? How about that? So there's just.
Just I mean, I'm just saying, like I don't think, like good, those are hard contract details to get to, so good like good on Ian forgetting them. But I mean I would say that nothing has changed, Like that's my perception of it anyway talking with people, and I don't think anything has changed, Like and I think like that that was a great win they had yesterday, But you know, I still think, like you know, Robert Kraft is not happy with the state of his football team, the trajectory of his football team. Where his football team's going now, that can change over the next ten weeks, you know, But like standing where it is right now, I would think if the season ended the day, there would still be a lot of change coming in that organization. Again, that can change, you know, Like, and there's ten weeks and I don't think that anything's gonna happen in the middle of the year. But you know, like I would still say that, you know, one good afternoon against a team that basically crapt all over itself for a couple of quarters. You know, I don't think changed is much of anything.
I want to know what happened to like like yesterday had like to Mario Douglass making like diving grabs like Mac Jones looked like he knew what was going on. And this is a team that got got pretty handily beat by the Raiders a week ago, and the Raiders team goes out and gets the doors blown off against Tyson Badget, Like, what is happening?
I'm gonna sound like a down and distance like evangelists now, but do you know when the Patriots first converted third loong came?
I don't.
It was the third night to Hunter Henry at the end of the game. Wow, it was. So it's interesting because, like I've had this conversation before they the Patriots and Dolphins played earlier in the year. I did like this Mac to a thing and to it look great obviously in week one, and I had a couple of people tell me that they thought there wasn't an enormous diference between Mac and Twa. It was their situations and was what was happening around them. And I think if you watch like the Patriots play, and if you listen to what Max said, Max said, Billy O'Brien's doing a lot of things that we both know from Alabama. Now, he took some stuff I liked at Alabama and he put it in right with the movement and play action and all that different stuff right, And then you think of how it's looked when twuas succeeded in Miami and we talk about how successful the Dolphins were in managing situations and staying out of long yardage early in the year and what that meant for Tua. Well, then lo and behold, Mac Jones has a game where he's doesn't need to convert a third long until the very end of the game to win, and what do we have a much different Mac Jones. So I just think it's food for thought, Like I think it was Jordan Palmer someone told me like a few years ago, and I never really thought of it this way, to distill it this way, but I think it's actually true. It's like, elite quarterbacking is third and long. Elite quarterbacking is when you're down by twenty, you know. Elite quarterbacking is those sorts of situations where you have to be the best player in the field. And I think in some cases, like these games are really well coached offensively now, and you put these quarterbacks in these situations where they're not battling down in distance and where the coaches have the leeway to make everything look the same because on second and six or third and two, the playbook is wide open and you make things so much easier on them. And that's what I think happened with Mac yesterday. They were able to find them easy completions, They were able to manage the game, and Mac, to his credit, came up big at the very end. But when they're asking you to win the game on the final drive, and just that one drive, that's a lot different than asking a guy to win the game on every play, you know. And so I think I think what you saw yesterday was a much better managed game by the Patriots and you had a much better quest quarterback as a result of it. And now now I'm the down and distance guy.
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I don't know.
Do you think the Dolphins? You think that the Patriots can replicate what the Eagles did to the Dolphins? Probably not right, But they play the Dolphins this week, and if they beat the Dolphins, their schedule softens up after that.
Oh I double down. This would have been such a good week if I doubled down.
So let's just play Devil's advocate here. Okay, so they I believe, I think I have this right. So if they beat the Dolphins this week, then their next two games after that are the Commanders at home and the Colts in Germany. Then they have their bye. So if they beat the Dolphins, they're three and five with a shot to get to five and five in the bye. Ooh, maybe you shouldn't have backed off, Bud.
God, of all the things that I thought i'd come to regret this year, how far down list is that.
I don't think it's happening because I just still think they're good enough. Let me be clear on that, Like, I don't think the roster is good enough to consistently win week after a week after a week, but you know, I think I do think like part of where they are as their schedule was tough early, you know, and and look like I think they happened to catch a Buffalo team that's really not playing well right now. And I would say this like this game on Thursday night for some of the same reasons we just mentioned with the Chargers, like the whole dynamic of a standalone game like the Bill's playing on Thursday night against the Bucks that's Looming is a pretty big game for Buffalo. Yeah.
Yeah, they could get themselves knocked off, knocked off, the knocked off the tracks a little bit, you know.
Yeah, and down in the power rankings too.
Jeez, I tried, people, you know, I try to make it special for you. Another another bit of outrage, and then we're going to get to the lightning runner. This is the last thing I really wanted to get to. And part of me thinks that this is a conversation we're having on a tread where we just keep going and getting tired and getting nowhere. But you cannot have what happened at the end of that Colts game happened, You can't. And it happened to the Steelers, and it happened to the Cheap it happened to the Jets this year. You're you're so.
You want to put a tinfoil hat on.
Oh, sure I do, but I would love to for a second.
The cold contact the Colts that was in a wheel contact, Well, go ahead and explain it.
Yes, So Browns beat the Colts thirty nine to thirty eight. They score at the end of the game, but there is an illegal contact penalty that basically like Amari Cooper gets his thigh pad touched, and then on the following I think it was like the next player of the play after that, whatever it was, the Browns throw the ball out of the back of the end zone and then you get another pass interference on a clearly uncatchable ball. Here's how I know the second one was so bad was because Gene Sterotur on TV said, if I were on that officiating crew, I probably would have asked for a few more moments to discuss that call. That is the referee, because all referees stick up for each other. That is the referee equivalent of what a dog shit call that was. That is the only that is the That is the meanest thing you'll hear rules analysts say about an officiating career on TV.
Yeah, Gens Sterotorn referees is like Tony Romo and quarterbacks. Yeah yeah. I So here's my theory. Scoring is down. Games have been ugly, right, okay, So, and we know like defenses are head of offenses, and I have my own theory on that too. I think the cutbacks and practice time and and contact and the addition of games in the place of that, and guys not playing in preseason games, Like I think that that's a part of it, right, like that this is finally catching up with the league where it's much It just takes longer to get it, get a for an offense to get at sea legs, and you're taking time away from the offenses, which is making it harder and harder for them to put themselves in a position to be at the highest level over the first month to six weeks of the season. And a lot of that is because the owners don't give a crap about trading off practice time or contact in practice so they can get more money from the players. So the owners want scoring. The owners don't like the fact that scoring is down, that quarterbacks aren't playing as efficiently, that their games are messy. So they had their league meeting last week. What's an easy way to get defenses to back off a little bit, what's an easy way to try and push it so passing games start to get in their rhythm.
All the comfitsive pass interference in the stands have.
A couple of weeks where you just start calling freaking everything, and you get these defensive players in a position where they are scared to put a finger on a receiver, so dumb, and then in a week or two, you know what, all of a sudden, we got seven on seven again. So it's just a theory of mine. But these league meetings, you know as well as I do, Connor like these league meetings. They have the Competition Committee come up and give them all the numbers on everything in the NFL, everything like scoring's up, scoring is down, this is up, this is down. This is the feedback we're getting. This is what we like, this is what we don't like. So they get all that, like all the owners get that in one place at these meetings every quarter. And so their fall meeting was last week in New York, and suddenly we had a million and I mean a million ticki tac pass interference and defensive content llegal contact penalties in games that affected games. And I wonder if it's like a one to two week point of emphasis for the officials to try to make it so come two or three weeks the casual I guess they're scoring back.
So dumb. It's just that this is so far believable, right, incredibly believable. Yeah, it's just so far removed from the product that I think that we all fell in love with.
And you know, I mean some of the some of the contact penalties were outrageous yesterday.
I mean, Donovan Peoples Jones was not on the field. It wasn't in the field. You can't you can't do that, you know, Like it's just I don't know, it's outrageous, but.
Yeah, it did. It did. Actually, Like the one positive to me was that it did allow for us to get a game that was legitimately, legitimately won by an edge rusher, almost by himself.
Right, here's the other thing I want to do that.
He honestly, like I talked like I talked to him after the game that was like, it's very hard for a player who's not a quarterback to put to like legitimately put his team on his back and here to victory. Miles Garrett like created like a twenty point swing yesterday. Yeah, if you if you add it all up, two touchdowns too, field blockfield goal, the blockfield goal that leads to an easy that leads to an easy chip shot field goal. Right. Then you have the touchdown that he generated on the sack fumble in the end zone. Then you have the other sack fumble, which I believe led to a touchdown and so they Yeah, there's a two field goals like this with the field goal swing right, so that's six point swing and then the two touchdowns, that's twenty points. Miles Garret had a twenty point game.
Yeah. Now, after the game, Kevin Stefanski said that if PJ. Walker had been hurt, Deshaun Watson goes back into that game and DeShawn came out of the game after he was a little beat up after just a horrendous interception. I mean, he looks awful on the field, he also looks hurt. So are we to interpret that with from Kevin Stefanski as we don't have a better option and we probably just would have one armed it brock party style, or are we interpreting that as like PJ. Walker is better than like a fifty percent to Shaun Watson.
Right now, this thing is so sideways, it really is. I mean, it's just from the beginning the way that it's been handled. And I'm trying to think now, like that Ravens game that like he was a surprise and active for or whatever, like that's what three weeks ago, now, isn't it. Yeah, because you have their bye so and that whole thing about him being cleared and then deciding not to play, And I mean, in those situations, the player is always going to look bad. You know. I'd heard this is a pain tolerance thing. I know, players hate that term for obvious reasons because it means they're It implies that there are you know what if they can't go right sure and like so this thing, like from a communications standpoint, feels like it's gotten really sideways. And the one thing that I give me, like the feeling that it's gonna be okay, is like when you when you've watched Deshaun speak publicly, he seems okay with everything, but I don't know what's going on deep down, you know what I mean, Like, and I don't know how he feels by the way all this has been handled, and it's just a it's a weird situation. And it's especially so because this is a team that's ready to win, you know what I mean. Like, you watch the rest of this team. That's a good freaking team, and they've got I would say a top five defense. Now they nailed their defensive coordinator higher. They've you know, I think for the most part, survived the loss of Nick Chubb, not that it didn't hurt, but they can still run the ball without. I'm Jerome Ford looks good, Kareem Huntsfield a role. I mean, everything about that team seems like it's pretty much ready to go, Like even in Elijah Moore. They've gotten something out of Elijah Moore, you know. Like so everything about that team seems like it's ready to roll, except the quarterback position. So that's why, like you look at it and it's like God, Like, if they get that as Shaun they got for that Tennessee game, you really have something here. But who knows if we're going to get that guy again.
Yeah, I'm gonna leave it at that. I've had a lot of Deshaun thoughts. I think everybody knows where I stand on it. But but you know, I I I just you know, it's you can't screw that up, and uh it's it's looking pretty screwed up. All right, Let's get to the lightning round. A couple of games here, obviously, uh Shepherd Shepherd University, Sheppard College quarterback factory that it is. Tyson Badget leads the Bears in a win over the Raiders. Am I even saying that, right, Tyson Badgeant, I.
Think it's agent. I think it's Paige's agent. I think it was Paigent. I thought it was Paigen, but I could be wrong too. This is new for me too. All. I like, I remember, I think he was at the Senior Bowl, so I remember hearing about like the his arm wrestling situation, right his dad. Yeah, so that was the and then like, I feel like you didn't hear a lot about him for the rest of the draft process. He goes undrafted and yeah, I mean, good win for the Bears. The Raiders, man, I just you know, sitting there at three and three now and they beat the Packers and Patriots in succession. This feels like, if you're the Raiders, this is one you have to have, you know, where it's a winnable game. Yes it's on the road, but it's against an undrafted rookie quarterback. Your defense is playing really well, and to allow the Bears to run the ball the way that they did, and to stop the run the way they did and control the game the way that they did. I know the Bears are playing better than they were at the beginning of the year, but this one I think is worse for the Bears, worse for the Raiders than it is good for the Bears.
They do this, I mean they you know, they had a couple of good games and they lost to Jeff Saturday last year. It's just these kind of inexplicable little hiccups, which is you know, it's why you can never really take this team totally seriously as a contender. Atlanta sixteen Tampa Bay thirteen Falcons were in survival mode here. I don't know what was your takeaway here from this one.
I feel like the Falcons are almost like it feels like they're playing like a four corners offense, you know what I mean. And I think Arthur Smith is a master at managing the game.
You know.
It's just they've put Ritter in a place where they're asking him to do not a ton and they've been very creative in the run game and that's been enough. But I mean, I feel like it still feels like the margin for error with Atlanta is very very slim right now, like they have to play a certain way to win, and to their credit, they were able to do it against the Buccaneers team that now is what three and four right, Yeah, going into Thursday night in Buffalo.
So Bijon Robinson had a headache. They basically, I mean that's what he told reporters after the game. They said they kind of yanked him from that one because he's not feeling well. So nothing that it would seem to be like kind of a massive long term deal. But you can see how that offense transforms when you get a little bit more singular in the run game and Tyler Algier is great and then you kind of mix it in Quarterrell Patterson all that, but it's it's not the same, and so you know, everything kind of regresses to the metal action.
By the way, the Bucks are throwing three I apologize.
Oh man, I just agreed with you because he sounded confident. I have a bad I have a really bad habit of doing that. All right, Giants Washington a win for Tyrod Taylor. The Giants slowly just removing themselves from the Caleb Williams sweepstakes, which I don't know why you're doing that, but good for you. Get a fourteen seven win over a divisional opponent. The Commanders kind of follow that similar Raiders path where they just look so good. Some weeks and then they just completely lay the Giants. You know, didn't win the turnover bat. They won the turnover battle here, but didn't win time and possession. You know, this is not one of those classic control the clock Giants victories, but somehow Tyrod Taylor comes out of it. Two touchdowns, no interceptions, Sae Kwon Barkley gets seventy seven rushing yards, another forty one receiving yards, and a touchdown. Okay, you know, I really don't know what to make of this. None of these teams to me, are factoring in at all to the remainder of the NFL season in an important way. But I guess it's good for morale for the Giants, kind of getting off their backs there.
Yeah, And I mean obviously this is a rebuilding year for them. My big takeaway would just more relate to what happened in Washington in the locker room after and Jonathan Allen kind of voicing his frustration. And I feel like this is a real crossroads game for the organization because you know, you have the trade deadline and we're now what eight days away from the trade deadline, and they were three and three now they're three and four, and they've got some pieces that would be of value to other teams on that roster, and they're in that awkward position of having a general manager, a personnel executive, and a coach and Martin Mayhew, Marty Hernie and Ron Rivera or you're not sure if they're going to be there next year, so how do you handle the next week? And you look at the roster too, and they've got Montes Sweat and Chase Young are both in contract years. You only have one franchise tag. Chances are you're not going to sign either of those guys to an extension before the end of the year. So now it's like you only have one tag, which would mean you probably let one go in free agency. Don't you have to think about trading one of them if this isn't the year, right, because you probably get something valuable for one of those guys. And so I sort of look at this as like one of those situations where it's like, if you're the owner, do you come in and order a guy who knows he might not be there in four months to trade one of the best players. I don't know, but I do know, but I do know, Like, if I'm another team. They are now on the list of teams there with the Vikings and the Broncos and the Panthers of teams that I would call right now if I were looking for some help at certain positions.
If I were Martin Mayhew, Marty Herney had say, cool, I'll do whatever you want, give me to your extension. That's you know, I got to make sure I got that in my back pocket. Another Steelers moved to bourn too. With the win over the Rams. I thought there was no way Pittsburgh was winning this game. I mean, they had a travel cross country they don't typically Like Steelers travel less than almost any team in the NFL on a year Leig Basis, and you know you figure out they're not gonna be able to travel well. Darryl Henderson is back for the Rams, and the Rams have kind of reshaped this run game. They've had everything kind of motoring a little bit. This is going to be kind of one of those games. But no, I mean, I you know, this is one to me that the Rams had to have if they wanted to stay relevant in the in the playoff picture. He dropped this one and that hurts him.
It was a carbon copy and the Steelers went over the Ravens too. Yeah, you know, like it was a carbon copy. It was the Steelers get out played for three quarters, they get their crap together in the fourth quarter and they blow the other team off the field. And I think seeing how Kenny Pickett came alive late in the game was impressive. You know, the big play that Deontay Johnson really got them going, and then to consistently make plays, you know, with George Pickens down the field was really encouraging. You're seeing I think the young core that team start to kind of come together, and you know, I just think like you can see the talent there that they've got on that roster and where that could be a really tough team to deal with by the end of the year if those guys keep growing. So yeah, I think it's another example of like a young quarterback and Kenny Pickett, who we were all asking big picture questions about after a month, is now showing some real growth in big situations. So I mean, the Steelers have a reason to come out of that encouraged. And then I think for the Rams, like this is a reset year for them. We knew that, right, You wonder if the depth thing starts to catch up with them. Now they're carrying all that dead money, you know what I mean that the carry seventy five million dollars in dead money, and generally with teams like that, you'll see like towards the end of the year where the corner cutting they had to do to make it work with less money to spend on the team starts to catch up to them as injuries start to set in. So it's going to be an interesting few weeks for the Rams coming out of this one. Where do they go from here?
Great Kenny Pickett's stat line eight carries, zero yards, one touchdown lot of two and they put it no passing touchdowns.
Oh he had eight carries for Zerio. It's like, seems almost impossible because they don't count sacks and the quarterbacks rushing yards right, So it's amazing.
It's amazing.
Sometimes you're going to go back and review the tape on that one.
Yeah, seventeen to twenty five no touchdowns noces and you put up twenty four points on a defense that has aaron Was it a.
Bunch of was it like a bunch of failed touch bushes that I missed or.
Something maybe just absolutely phenomenal. I love the Steelers. I want them to you know, I don't. I don't want anything to ever change.
I love like Mike Tomlin too. He said something after the game about like he's like he said something like like, what just happened is in a plaud and it's required, but I want to make sure that it's recognized phenomenal.
Good God, all right, very quickly here the Seahawks beat the Cardinals. Okay, if you didn't have that one, I'm not really sure. I'm not really sure what to tell me.
You'll still playing hard though? Sure?
Yeah, I don't really, I don't really I don't know what we say. What else do you say this?
I mean, I feel like we say the same thing with the Cardinals every week. They're really hanging in there, but they're not falling. This is like ideal, isn't it. If you're Arizona, you're not falling out of the Caleb william sweep steaks whatsoever. But you're showing a lot of effort week to week.
You know, you're orchestrating the bare minimum of competitiveness so that you know, if you get you get to come back next year.
If you are Jonathan Gannon, will you just be trying weird stuff in the fourth quarter of every game?
All these coaches should be, but that they don't, you know what I mean, Like they should use this as a kind of an experimental ground, but I do it would be.
The ultimate opportunity to do it where your team's playing really hard. It's like, hey, let's see what works, you know, Yeah, yeah, this is a chance to do it.
One highlight here was a touchdown catch by by a man named Jake Bobo, one of the best catches I've seen.
Concord Maszoni's from the town over from me. It was the fertile football breeding ground of the Metro West suburbs of Boston, Concord, Massachusetts.
That's that's if you had ask me where he was from, That's where I was going to guess.
Went to the same school as Jonathan Craft's son, Almont Hill.
Yeah, there you go. Packers loose to the Broncos. My, you know, a couple takeaways here. Russell Wilson had a big run in this game. Again, like he's he's twenty to twenty nine, Like he is getting better, but he's also just becoming a more efficient version of what he was in Seattle, and again that's not the player that he was trying to be last year. The Packers just look lost.
And I.
Noticed that when when you're doing throwbacks, a lot of throwbacks, like I felt like the Patriots were doing that a lot towards the end of the Tom Brady air where they're just like, I don't know, let's just throw it to the wide receiver and then have the wide receiver throw it to someone else, And feels like that to me is sort of a red flag, a last resort, sort of a last resort. And then for AJ Dillon to be your leading wide receiver, I'm not talking about your leading rusher. He shouldn't be your leading rusher either, but when he's both, you know, you got some problems. And I hadn't looked.
Through this before now, like holy crap. Like so they did go to ten different receivers. The yardage thirty for us Grave, twenty seven for Watson, twenty two for Jones, twenty one for Reid, thirty four for Dylan, thirty for Dobbs, Apra Wilson, seventeen for Wicks, three for tore and two for Sims. Holy crap. That is the weirdest looking box score I've ever seen.
And then Jordan Love kind of has the I mean, it's the it's sort of the game, I don't know what you want to call it, but just the well, first of all.
It's well, the second down throw to finish it was really weird how he just threw it into a team meeting, you know, I don't know it was like it was, yes, it was. I think it was second and twenty, right, but that was I used that. That whole thing at the end of the game felt strange.
And one of your touchdowns here's actually.
Third twenty, I apologize, not second twenty, but.
Still, and your your touchdown comes, your touchdown pass comes, one of your touchdown passes comes, by the absolute grace of God on an art a play that's tipped in a very dangerous area right into the outstretched hands of a wide receiver. So this offense, if it's possible, was better on paper than they were in this game. So that's weird times for the Packers right now.
Yep, yep, yeah. And I'm with you at the Broncos too. I think Russell Wilson has been fine. You know, he has not been the problem. Is he worth going forward with it? Fifty million dollars a year, that's a different question entirely.
Sean Payton said it himself. Caleb Williams is worth thanking for. He better get on it, though, because this is gonna help. I know the Bears are going to run away with this thing, all right. Thank you, Albert for everything. As always, thank you guys for hanging with us today. Apologize for some of the technical difficulties here. When you leave your computer bag in someone else's car, all of a sudden all of your recording equipment goes with it. But next week we'll be on our stuff and be sure to stay too for the Matt and Gilberto Show on Thursday.
Which apologized as Shelby two for the for for our weekly mishaps with technology, me and Connor I will follow on the sword for it.
Our producer is an absolute saint. Every time we come to UH tape the podcast like we've never done it before. Can you tell when? But anyway, Uh, Albert, You're the best. See you next week and UH stay tuned for for another great week of football, guys,
