# Brett Kollmann and Trevor Sikkema UNLEASH reactions to ALL Sunday's Week 2 action

An episode of [NFL: The Insiders](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1543090622), 21 Sep 2026, 50 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/f10d0743-9ff9-4fde-8286-b4b200dd74e1/6ef03973-7fb0-4648-b068-b4cc009002b9/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=3e412703-0644-468e-9001-ae390070e4db

On this Week 2 edition of the NFL Pro reaction show...it's the good, the bad, and the ugly. Bryce Young and Tyler Shough led their NFC South teams to impressive victories while Titans & Jaguars blew 1st half leads and the LA Chargers fumbled 6 times en route to a shocking 0-2 start. Get the key Next Gen Stats insights and in-depth breakdowns that reveal the how and the why of everything that went down in Week 2's Sunday action on the NFL Pro podcast. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Pro Week 2 Reaction Podcast. Thank
[0:03] Speaker 1: you for listening on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
[0:06] Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Be sure to follow and
[0:09] Speaker 1: subscribe to the show.
[0:29] Speaker 2: Brett, I just want to start out with this. We're
[0:31] Speaker 2: going to get into a deep dive of a lot
[0:33] Speaker 2: of these games that we saw on the Sunday slate,
[0:35] Speaker 2: but specifically the NFC, man. I mean, just from week
[0:38] Speaker 2: one to week two, this feels so wide open at
[0:41] Speaker 2: this point. The Panthers back to back 30 point games.
[0:45] Speaker 2: If you go back to Thursday night football, the Bills
[0:47] Speaker 2: continuing to look like a juggernaut. Are the Lions not
[0:50] Speaker 2: quite the team we thought? Vikings now 2-0. What happens
[0:54] Speaker 2: to the Bears moving forward? Eagles barely get out of
[0:56] Speaker 2: a win in Tennessee. Cowboys look good. Dude, I just
[1:00] Speaker 2: feel like the NFC is so wide open two weeks
[1:04] Speaker 2: into this season.
[1:05] Speaker 1: And the weird part is we have an offense that
[1:08] Speaker 1: in week one puts up 59 and then in week
[1:10] Speaker 1: two puts up three and a defense that in week
[1:12] Speaker 1: one gave up 59 and in week two gave up three.
[1:15] Speaker 1: So just nothing makes sense right now.
[1:17] Speaker 2: I think the swings are crazy because you and I
[1:19] Speaker 2: talked about what week one was where a lot of
[1:22] Speaker 2: teams didn't seem ready. We talked about the missed tackle
[1:25] Speaker 2: rate being super high for a lot of these teams,
[1:28] Speaker 2: just not a lot of execution, not a lot of
[1:29] Speaker 2: great defense, but it's amazing what having one game and
[1:34] Speaker 2: maybe a little bit of a fire under your ass
[1:36] Speaker 2: actually does when you actually get into the next week
[1:39] Speaker 2: and say like, okay, hold on. That game was not
[1:41] Speaker 2: our best. We now started the season. Oh, and one,
[1:44] Speaker 2: it didn't look great. We better get off to a
[1:46] Speaker 2: roll in week two. And I feel like that happened
[1:47] Speaker 2: with a lot of teams, but The Philadelphia Eagles, you
[1:50] Speaker 2: mentioned them. Let's start with Philly because Philly goes into Tennessee,
[1:54] Speaker 2: and Tennessee did not look good against the Jets in
[1:56] Speaker 2: Week 1. But final score here, 24-20. Eagles, a true
[2:01] Speaker 2: heroic come-from-behind win for Jalen Hurts.
[2:05] Speaker 1: Floats it back to the end zone. It is caught!
[2:08] Speaker 1: Philadelphia's got the lead!
[2:10] Speaker 2: You know what? Good for Jalen Hurts, right? I mean,
[2:13] Speaker 2: we even talked about this a lot in the season preview.
[2:16] Speaker 2: What are the Eagles going to look like? New offense coordinator,
[2:19] Speaker 2: no A.J. Brown. It obviously did not look in sync
[2:22] Speaker 2: at all for them the year before, but this was
[2:24] Speaker 2: a hero game for Hurts. I mean, he had the
[2:26] Speaker 2: bad pick early on in the game, but that final drive,
[2:30] Speaker 2: he's 8 for 10, 65 yards. I mean, he was
[2:33] Speaker 2: absolutely fantastic. When you look at Devontae Smith as well,
[2:36] Speaker 2: I mean, no A.J. Brown, that just means that you
[2:38] Speaker 2: lean into Devontae Smith a lot more. Devontae Smith caught
[2:41] Speaker 2: six of eight targets outside the numbers for 77 yards
[2:44] Speaker 2: and a touchdown in week two, which is Jalen Hurts
[2:47] Speaker 2: all bread and butter, including two sideline catches for 24 yards,
[2:51] Speaker 2: which is more than he had all of last season.
[2:53] Speaker 2: Smith was totally the focal point of this offense for
[2:56] Speaker 2: the Eagles, though, on that game-winning drive. Targeted on four
[2:59] Speaker 2: of nine routes, four receptions, 38 yards. I mean, it
[3:03] Speaker 2: just looked like, even without Saquon, who went out with
[3:05] Speaker 2: a stinger injury early in the game, Hurts knew he
[3:08] Speaker 2: had to take over, and I felt like this was
[3:11] Speaker 2: a hero Jalen Hurts game for Philadelphia this week.
[3:15] Speaker 1: Second straight week with bad offensive line play as well.
[3:18] Speaker 1: They allowed a 42.4% pressure rate with four or fewer rushers.
[3:23] Speaker 1: Not like they were blitzing like crazy, but still a
[3:25] Speaker 1: lot of super high pressure rate. Second highest since the
[3:28] Speaker 1: beginning of last season. And last season, they already started
[3:32] Speaker 1: to show some cracks in the offensive line. Nobody on
[3:35] Speaker 1: the Eagles roster averaged more than 3.4 yards per carry.
[3:38] Speaker 1: They had, as a team, negative 34 rushing yards over expected.
[3:43] Speaker 1: Throw in a Saquon Stinger on top of that. Hurts
[3:46] Speaker 1: really didn't have a whole lot going around him. And
[3:51] Speaker 1: for the second straight week now, you look back to
[3:53] Speaker 1: last week at the This is the second week now
[4:02] Speaker 1: where Hertz has kind of had to put this team
[4:04] Speaker 1: on his back and dig them out of a hole,
[4:06] Speaker 1: even one that he kind of partially created early on.
[4:09] Speaker 2: It's a throw, end zone, and it is picked off!
[4:13] Speaker 2: When you look at Philly moving forward, it's at Chicago
[4:17] Speaker 2: next week on Monday Night Football, then they play the
[4:20] Speaker 2: Rams at home, and then it's in Jacksonville.
[4:25] Speaker 1: Oh no, this is a.
[4:26] Speaker 2: international game so 930 930 kicks this has got to
[4:29] Speaker 2: be an international game for the Jags uh the Eagles
[4:32] Speaker 2: versus the Jags so that's obviously like it's it's a
[4:36] Speaker 2: tough three game stretch that's coming up for Philly but
[4:39] Speaker 2: they got to feel good about being 2-0 heading into
[4:41] Speaker 2: that although the margin for victory is six total points
[4:44] Speaker 2: in those first two games but you know when we
[4:46] Speaker 2: look at Hurts he had the bad interception which looked
[4:49] Speaker 2: like a bad interception but you and I were talking
[4:50] Speaker 2: about this a little bit before the show it was
[4:52] Speaker 2: just kind of a Monty Hooker making a really good
[4:54] Speaker 2: play Could Hurts have gone a different direction with it? Yes,
[4:56] Speaker 2: but I feel like he had the bad throw, but
[4:59] Speaker 2: it's the way that he bounced back from it that
[5:02] Speaker 2: allowed Philly to win that game that I think was
[5:04] Speaker 2: the most impressive.
[5:05] Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think what's bad about it is you
[5:07] Speaker 1: don't like when the defense gets their hands on the
[5:09] Speaker 1: ball in the end zone, right? It directly takes points
[5:12] Speaker 1: off the board, let alone getting a massive return that
[5:14] Speaker 1: sets up a Titans touchdown. So in the end, the
[5:17] Speaker 1: scoreboard on this one maybe was closer than it on
[5:19] Speaker 1: paper should have been, but this is an eight-year safety
[5:23] Speaker 1: in the NFL that just kind of doing stuff. And
[5:25] Speaker 1: when you have veteran safeties that have played that much football,
[5:28] Speaker 1: they don't do stuff that you expect. It was an
[5:31] Speaker 1: interesting look here from Tennessee. So they have a bunch
[5:34] Speaker 1: of people walked up on the line of scrimmage. You're
[5:35] Speaker 1: expecting pressure here. They do bring four rushers here. They
[5:39] Speaker 1: end up dropping seven, but it's not the seven you expect.
[5:42] Speaker 1: And the key thing to pay attention to is shapes.
[5:46] Speaker 1: Football in a lot of ways is all about squares
[5:47] Speaker 1: and triangles, right? And so this is a box that
[5:50] Speaker 1: the Titans defense has built. around three receivers, that triangle
[5:55] Speaker 1: from the Eagles. You have the high corner, the low corner,
[5:57] Speaker 1: the high corner, the low corner, inside and outside. And
[6:00] Speaker 1: the function of this box is, hey, if we get
[6:03] Speaker 1: a vertical route to the inside, this safety takes it inside.
[6:06] Speaker 1: If we get an inside route that's low, this linebacker
[6:09] Speaker 1: is going to wall it off. If we get a
[6:10] Speaker 1: high seven to the back pylon, this DB is going
[6:13] Speaker 1: to take it. If we get something to the flat,
[6:14] Speaker 1: this DB is going to take it. So no matter what,
[6:16] Speaker 1: you have somebody in whatever direction a route can break
[6:19] Speaker 1: from whoever, especially coming out of a bunch where people
[6:22] Speaker 1: are doing switch releases and stuff, you build that box
[6:25] Speaker 1: so that you have leverage advantages everywhere. And so what
[6:28] Speaker 1: Hertz is looking at here is, okay, I have my
[6:30] Speaker 1: tight end taking the attention of both of these inside
[6:33] Speaker 1: defenders in the box. I have Devonta running a high seven.
[6:36] Speaker 1: It's going to pivot back inside where we had that
[6:39] Speaker 1: leverage advantage. So Hertz is just thinking, okay, I'm going
[6:41] Speaker 1: to throw this ball back to the inside, use that leverage. It's,
[6:45] Speaker 1: it's a very run of the mill touchdown, right? It's
[6:47] Speaker 1: a red zone concept that every team uses. but hooker realizing, okay,
[6:52] Speaker 1: this linebacker without any threat low and inside is just
[6:55] Speaker 1: going to keep carrying this vertical. I'm now free to
[6:58] Speaker 1: be a football player and go make a play. He
[7:00] Speaker 1: comes off of that, goes hunting inside and picks it
[7:04] Speaker 1: off and returns it for what was that? 92 yards.
[7:09] Speaker 1: So this is just a veteran safety doing veteran safety
[7:12] Speaker 1: stuff and hurts nine times out of 10 is not
[7:14] Speaker 1: expecting a safety to come off on that inside threat.
[7:17] Speaker 1: But You know, it's just football players making plays. And
[7:20] Speaker 1: to your point, Hurts did bounce back later.
[7:22] Speaker 2: Before we move on from this game, Tennessee, they've been
[7:27] Speaker 2: up and down through the last couple of weeks. I
[7:28] Speaker 2: think Cam Ward has looked good at times. He's looked
[7:30] Speaker 2: uncomfortable at times. We talked about that a little bit
[7:33] Speaker 2: on last week's show. But specifically, you mentioned this game
[7:36] Speaker 2: maybe looked a little bit closer than it should have
[7:38] Speaker 2: been because of that interception and the result. I'll tell
[7:41] Speaker 2: you why this game also looked closer, because Philadelphia's defense
[7:44] Speaker 2: had all sorts of miscues. The Tennessee Titans wide receivers,
[7:48] Speaker 2: their average separation in this game, 3.7 yards. That's the
[7:52] Speaker 2: third most in a single game this season, trailing only
[7:56] Speaker 2: the Buffalo Bills and the Chicago Bears. from week two
[7:59] Speaker 2: so these guys were just running free all over the
[8:02] Speaker 2: place you had the crazy third and 22 conversion that
[8:05] Speaker 2: the Philadelphia defense let up on the ground not even
[8:09] Speaker 2: a passing play so this game yes from an offensive
[8:12] Speaker 2: standpoint how well they were kind of mitigating and not
[8:15] Speaker 2: great offensive line and how well Jalen Hurts was playing Sure,
[8:18] Speaker 2: it felt like it should have been a little bit
[8:20] Speaker 2: more in Philly's favor, but that's the reason why. This
[8:23] Speaker 2: defense was giving up chunk plays and wide open receivers
[8:26] Speaker 2: way more than we're used to seeing Philadelphia do over
[8:29] Speaker 2: the last couple of years. And so that's a trend
[8:31] Speaker 2: that they got away with it this week. But I
[8:34] Speaker 2: mentioned that the three games they have upcoming, you better
[8:38] Speaker 2: clean a lot of that stuff up or those offenses
[8:41] Speaker 2: are going to make you pay.
[8:42] Speaker 1: I can't fix every problem, but just trying to show
[8:45] Speaker 1: up in the ways that I can. So I'm I
[8:47] Speaker 1: was happy to enjoy that moment with them more than anything.
[8:51] Speaker 2: We've talked a lot about the NFC here to start
[8:53] Speaker 2: the show. Let's go to the AFC because we had
[8:55] Speaker 2: a major matchup that, hey, honestly, with as good as
[8:58] Speaker 2: these two teams looked, I know it was a little
[9:00] Speaker 2: bit of a tale of two halves that we'll get
[9:01] Speaker 2: into here in a second, but Jacksonville and Denver, the
[9:05] Speaker 2: Broncos and the Jacks. I mean, this could be an
[9:08] Speaker 2: AFC championship game type of a preview with the potential
[9:11] Speaker 2: that we saw yesterday. from both of these teams. Brett,
[9:14] Speaker 2: what really stood out from you here in this game
[9:16] Speaker 2: with Denver getting that come from behind win that they
[9:19] Speaker 2: desperately needed, honestly, coming off that loss against Kansas City
[9:23] Speaker 2: last week?
[9:24] Speaker 1: Tale of two halves, man, for both these quarterbacks, right?
[9:26] Speaker 1: Bo Nix kind of started off rough, heated up late.
[9:29] Speaker 1: Trevor Lawrence, I thought he was brilliant in the first half.
[9:34] Speaker 2: Brilliant? Brilliant almost doesn't even do it justice.
[9:38] Speaker 1: Oh my God.
[9:39] Speaker 2: He was doing some... You remember NFL Street, right?
[9:44] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[9:45] Speaker 2: Thank you. You remember how you would press the trick
[9:47] Speaker 2: button and then you'd throw behind the back or you'd
[9:50] Speaker 2: jump off the wall and throw it behind you?
[9:53] Speaker 1: That felt like.
[9:54] Speaker 2: I was about to see that from Trevor Lawrence at
[9:56] Speaker 2: some point. That one play where he gets bumped. I
[9:59] Speaker 2: don't even know who he got, bumped by but he
[10:01] Speaker 2: gets bumped and then he sets his feet from from
[10:04] Speaker 2: getting bumped by the defender sets fires right in between
[10:08] Speaker 2: the zone and you just go Who is it? What
[10:11] Speaker 2: is this guy on? What are we doing here? This
[10:13] Speaker 2: is how do you stop a player who's playing this well?
[10:16] Speaker 2: So I just I'm what we saw from the first
[10:20] Speaker 2: half of Trevor Lawrence.
[10:20] Speaker 1: Yes, it was.
[10:21] Speaker 2: That was pretty incredible stuff.
[10:23] Speaker 1: And I wish the box score reflected it because 12
[10:26] Speaker 1: of 17 for a buck 38 in the first half,
[10:28] Speaker 1: 94-7 rating, you know, 8.1 yards per attempt. It seems
[10:32] Speaker 1: like solid. But when you're watching that game, you're like, oh,
[10:35] Speaker 1: my God, he's on one right now. Yes, he was incredible, right?
[10:39] Speaker 1: But then you get to the second half, kind of
[10:41] Speaker 1: a too-much-dip-on-the-chip situation, and it really, really went in the tank.
[10:47] Speaker 1: Second half, he was 5 of 12 for only 51 yards,
[10:50] Speaker 1: 19.8 passer rating, 4.3 yards per attempt. It was ugly football, 41%
[10:57] Speaker 1: completion percentage, just absolutely ugly. Another near interception. That is
[11:01] Speaker 1: a poorly thrown ball by Lawrence. What happened? He went
[11:06] Speaker 1: in the locker room and came out. a completely different quarterback.
[11:09] Speaker 1: And when you package that with, okay, Bo Nix kind
[11:11] Speaker 1: of bounced back from that ugly red zone pick. And
[11:14] Speaker 1: then earlier in the game, they got down to the
[11:15] Speaker 1: one yard line and couldn't score. Like Broncos offense just
[11:18] Speaker 1: wasn't really doing a whole lot. And then they heated up,
[11:22] Speaker 1: you know, Jalen Waddle had an incredible game today as well.
[11:25] Speaker 1: And you just can't take your foot off their neck
[11:29] Speaker 1: at this point. Like the Broncos, they are a second
[11:32] Speaker 1: half team. Largely because their defense tends to be really
[11:35] Speaker 1: good in the second half. And if you can't just
[11:37] Speaker 1: finish drives and put them away, they will come back.
[11:40] Speaker 1: They did it twice last year against the Eagles and
[11:43] Speaker 1: the Giants. We've seen what they can do if you
[11:44] Speaker 1: don't put them away. And it got them today. Yeah, absolutely.
[11:49] Speaker 2: And look, Sean Payton is obviously a you-can't-count-your-win-against-him-until-the-clock-truly-hit-zero-in-the-fourth-quarter-and-you're-up-on-the-scoreboard. Because anything
[11:59] Speaker 2: less than that, especially with a quarterback like Nix who...
[12:02] Speaker 2: It's a little bit more of a roller coaster than
[12:04] Speaker 2: you want it to be at times, but Nix has
[12:06] Speaker 2: the arm talent, and Nix has the mentality to push
[12:10] Speaker 2: the ball down the field when they know they need
[12:11] Speaker 2: him to. He struggled a little bit in the first half,
[12:14] Speaker 2: but second half, Bo Nix, 11 for 15, 132 passing yards.
[12:19] Speaker 2: He was just so much more efficient, and the run
[12:20] Speaker 2: game was so much more efficient as well. They went
[12:22] Speaker 2: from a 0.9 yards before contact average in the first
[12:26] Speaker 2: half to 2.5 yards before contact average in the second half.
[12:32] Speaker 2: Quinn Miners, of course, a big reason why he had
[12:34] Speaker 2: a huge pancake block in the fourth quarter. Yards per
[12:37] Speaker 2: carry as well, just in general, 3.0 in the first half.
[12:41] Speaker 2: It goes to 4.2 in the second half. It went
[12:43] Speaker 2: from a negative EPA per rush in the first half,
[12:46] Speaker 2: positive EPA per rush in the second half. So it
[12:48] Speaker 2: was just totally different. And I think you can look
[12:50] Speaker 2: to Jacksonville's side of things as well. The defensive line
[12:53] Speaker 2: wasn't as sharp this game. Devon Hamilton goes out of
[12:56] Speaker 2: the game, and he's one of the best run defenders.
[12:58] Speaker 2: So when you lose him, obviously it's not going to
[13:00] Speaker 2: be easy.
[13:00] Speaker 1: But man, just.
[13:02] Speaker 2: A 19.4% pressure percentage for this team overall. only four
[13:06] Speaker 2: players on Jacksonville recorded a pressure at all in this game.
[13:10] Speaker 2: I think it was a tale of two halves in
[13:11] Speaker 2: a lot of ways, but again, just going back to
[13:13] Speaker 2: Lawrence specifically here, he faced man more in the second
[13:19] Speaker 2: half than he did.
[13:20] Speaker 1: In the first half. They stopped screwing around.
[13:23] Speaker 2: They were, they were trying to run zone against Lawrence
[13:26] Speaker 2: and that's when he was heat check throwing all over
[13:29] Speaker 2: the like game breaker throwing all over the place. And
[13:31] Speaker 2: they said, okay, we got to switch those things up.
[13:33] Speaker 1: And, Yeah, they were a 10.5% man coverage rate the
[13:36] Speaker 1: first half. Clearly wasn't working. Trevor was shredding quarters. He
[13:39] Speaker 1: was shredding cover three. You're giving these guys free releases.
[13:42] Speaker 1: You're not really challenging them. So they're just running free
[13:46] Speaker 1: through your defense. And I think there are benefits. If
[13:49] Speaker 1: you're going to play spot drop zone, there's benefits to it, right?
[13:53] Speaker 1: It does tend to create more turnovers, more tip drill situations.
[13:57] Speaker 1: It is easier to get guys to rally and tackle,
[13:59] Speaker 1: which was an issue in week one, so maybe that's
[14:01] Speaker 1: part of the reason why they were doing it, to
[14:02] Speaker 1: get more bodies on receivers and get them down after
[14:06] Speaker 1: the catch. But if you're just letting people run free
[14:09] Speaker 1: against Trevor Lawrence and all these weapons, you're going to lose.
[14:12] Speaker 1: And so in the second half, they went from a 10.5%
[14:14] Speaker 1: man rate to a 33% man rate, which is high
[14:18] Speaker 1: by NFL standards, right? That averages around ish about 25%
[14:21] Speaker 1: for the entire season. It's not super common, right?
[14:26] Speaker 2: Unless you're the Browns. Unless you're Jim Schwartz and then
[14:33] Speaker 2: it's just 75% real football.
[14:36] Speaker 1: We could do something else besides play man.
[14:38] Speaker 2: Who knew?
[14:39] Speaker 1: But Trevor was tearing apart covers three and quarters, and
[14:43] Speaker 1: really the only impactful zone changeup that Denver had in
[14:47] Speaker 1: the second half was they were playing more cover two. Why?
[14:50] Speaker 1: Because when you're in cover two, those corners have license
[14:52] Speaker 1: to play the flat super aggressively, get hands on guys,
[14:56] Speaker 1: and be aggressive to the ball, and it worked. It
[14:59] Speaker 1: absolutely worked. Riley Moss got a really great interception where
[15:04] Speaker 1: it was cover two. He was the flat defender. They
[15:07] Speaker 1: showed Man pre-snap, backed out into cover two. Trevor tried to,
[15:11] Speaker 1: you know, again, a little too much dip on the chip.
[15:14] Speaker 1: Tried Riley Moss, got picked off. There was an outbreaker
[15:17] Speaker 1: late in the game against man coverage where there was
[15:20] Speaker 1: less cushion to work with. Still a little bit of cushion,
[15:22] Speaker 1: but less cushion compared to the quarters they were playing
[15:25] Speaker 1: in the first half. Got a PBU on that one,
[15:27] Speaker 1: also by Riley Moss. He had a great game. And
[15:30] Speaker 1: just when they started challenging these receivers and really making
[15:35] Speaker 1: Trevor and these guys step up and and win a fight,
[15:39] Speaker 1: couldn't do it. Totally collapsed. So that's something I'm really
[15:42] Speaker 1: looking into is, okay, we saw it happen to the
[15:45] Speaker 1: Broncos offense week one where Kansas City challenged them to
[15:48] Speaker 1: a fight and they lost. Now Denver's challenging Jacksonville to
[15:51] Speaker 1: a fight and they lost. Is this just like a
[15:53] Speaker 1: baton that's being passed from week to week where you
[15:55] Speaker 1: play against man coverage? You're like, oh, that worked against us.
[15:57] Speaker 1: We should really try that in week three.
[16:00] Speaker 2: Last thing I'll say about this game. Anytime a game is, is,
[16:04] Speaker 2: Such a stark difference between the first and the second half.
[16:07] Speaker 2: It's a little difficult to know exactly what's real taken
[16:10] Speaker 2: out from it. But I think this takeaway point is
[16:13] Speaker 2: a big one for Trevor Lawrence. On in-breaking routes, so
[16:15] Speaker 2: a lot of times that's between the numbers, over the
[16:18] Speaker 2: middle of the field kind of throws. He was 8
[16:20] Speaker 2: for 9 for 139 yards. He was cooking on anything
[16:23] Speaker 2: over the middle. When you are that fearless and efficient
[16:25] Speaker 2: over the middle, I think that really unlocks a lot
[16:28] Speaker 2: of different things for you. So I'm excited to continue
[16:30] Speaker 2: to see this Jags team and this Liam Cohen offense
[16:32] Speaker 2: moving forward, even though it didn't end well for them
[16:35] Speaker 2: this week.
[16:36] Speaker 1: Every year is so different, and every game, I mean,
[16:39] Speaker 1: it's just, you got to go show up with your
[16:41] Speaker 1: best for three hours on Sunday.
[16:43] Speaker 2: We got to talk about the Panthers, and I say
[16:46] Speaker 2: that we got to talk about the Panthers, not because
[16:49] Speaker 2: their game against the Atlanta Falcons was close. It was
[16:51] Speaker 2: 34-3 as a final score. This was not a close game,
[16:54] Speaker 2: but we did not really get to talk about the
[16:56] Speaker 2: Carolina Panthers the way that They probably deserve to, especially
[17:00] Speaker 2: on the offensive side of things, in Week 1, because
[17:04] Speaker 2: they gave up 59 and then got destroyed by Chicago's
[17:06] Speaker 2: offense because it looked like an absolute juggernaut. Bryce Young
[17:10] Speaker 2: right now looks phenomenal. This is the best version of
[17:15] Speaker 2: Bryce Young that has existed in the NFL. This is
[17:18] Speaker 2: the closest thing to Heisman Trophy winning Alabama Bryce Young
[17:23] Speaker 2: that we have seen in his pro career. He was
[17:26] Speaker 2: fantastic in this game. You guys can see all the
[17:28] Speaker 2: common stats for yourself, but of course, we've got the
[17:31] Speaker 2: power of NGS here on this side of things, so
[17:33] Speaker 2: we're going to flex a little bit of different numbers
[17:35] Speaker 2: at you, specifically when it comes to Bryce Young. Remember
[17:38] Speaker 2: last week when I was saying, man, did you see
[17:42] Speaker 2: that throw up the sideline at Teter O. McMillan and
[17:44] Speaker 2: just how much anticipation was on that throw when the
[17:48] Speaker 2: Panthers were playing the Chicago Bears? Well, they took that
[17:50] Speaker 2: and they just made the whole game plan out of
[17:52] Speaker 2: Bryce Young against zone coverage this week, 16 for 24,
[17:57] Speaker 2: 240 yards and a touchdown. 529 passing yards versus zone
[18:03] Speaker 2: is the most in the NFL through two weeks. And
[18:06] Speaker 2: he also has the highest completion percentage above expected against
[18:10] Speaker 2: zone plus 16%. That's nuts. I highlight all that to
[18:15] Speaker 2: not just say that he's been great week one to
[18:17] Speaker 2: week two. I also want to show you what that
[18:20] Speaker 2: means in terms of Bryce Young's progression. Because let's take
[18:24] Speaker 2: it back to when Bryce Young was coming out of
[18:27] Speaker 2: college from Alabama to the NFL. He was known as
[18:31] Speaker 2: this quarterback who, yes, he's a little bit smaller, but
[18:34] Speaker 2: he doesn't quite have the physical tools that a lot
[18:36] Speaker 2: of these other NFL guys do.
[18:38] Speaker 1: But it was his mind.
[18:39] Speaker 2: He was an assassin. The way that he read defense
[18:41] Speaker 2: is pre and post snap. It was just, It was
[18:44] Speaker 2: so perfectly executed, such great touch on passes, the timing,
[18:48] Speaker 2: the rhythm, that anticipation, that football IQ. It was all
[18:51] Speaker 2: there at an elite level for Bryce Young. But when
[18:54] Speaker 2: he got in the NFL the first couple of years,
[18:56] Speaker 2: we didn't really see that. And specifically, it showed up
[18:59] Speaker 2: against zone. The very thing that he's excellent at this year,
[19:04] Speaker 2: he has not been very good at at all. at
[19:07] Speaker 2: this point throughout his NFL career. Young has faced the
[19:11] Speaker 2: third lowest rate of zone coverage this season, but has
[19:14] Speaker 2: a 53.3% success rate. That's the seventh highest in the NFL.
[19:19] Speaker 2: It took Bryce Young until week 10 of 2024, which
[19:24] Speaker 2: was his second season in the NFL, for him to
[19:27] Speaker 2: throw a touchdown versus zone. He's carving up zone two
[19:32] Speaker 2: weeks into the season. I'm just putting this into context
[19:35] Speaker 2: for you guys. It took him a year and a
[19:38] Speaker 2: half to throw a touchdown versus zone. Now, why is
[19:42] Speaker 2: that the case? It's because when you are a little
[19:47] Speaker 2: bit late to reading things, especially when it comes to
[19:51] Speaker 2: zone coverage, you got to have the arm to make
[19:54] Speaker 2: up for it. You got to be able to put
[19:56] Speaker 2: your back foot in the ground and fire that bad
[19:58] Speaker 2: boy in there faster than maybe even you want to
[20:01] Speaker 2: because you're a little late. Zone coverage in this league, yes,
[20:05] Speaker 2: it's about arm talent. It's also about anticipation. And for
[20:09] Speaker 2: the first couple of years, Bryce did not have that anticipation.
[20:13] Speaker 2: He anticipated at a very high level in college, but
[20:15] Speaker 2: the jump proved to be a major jump for him.
[20:18] Speaker 2: So he really, really struggled against zone coverage because of that.
[20:23] Speaker 2: That is not the player that you see today. The
[20:25] Speaker 2: player that you see today is processing the game at
[20:29] Speaker 2: the level in which he did when he was at Alabama.
[20:32] Speaker 2: And that specifically shows up against zone coverages. He had
[20:36] Speaker 2: a negative EPA per pass and barely even a positive
[20:39] Speaker 2: touchdown to interception ratio over the last two seasons versus zone.
[20:44] Speaker 2: And this year, it is night and day. And I
[20:46] Speaker 2: think that's the best way to encapsulate how much Bryce
[20:49] Speaker 2: Young has really, really taken that next step early on
[20:52] Speaker 2: in this season. It's the best version of him that
[20:55] Speaker 2: we have seen because he is anticipating things at an
[20:58] Speaker 2: incredibly high level.
[20:59] Speaker 1: I'm going to ask our production crew to give me
[21:01] Speaker 1: a little walking room on this one because I am
[21:04] Speaker 1: a modern day alum, right? Bryce Young, modern day alum
[21:07] Speaker 1: as well. I had first heard of him when he
[21:10] Speaker 1: was 16 years old and he was transferring into modern day.
[21:14] Speaker 1: And the reason I heard that, about him was because
[21:17] Speaker 1: I had a chance encounter with an old modern day
[21:20] Speaker 1: coach who had been there for decades and Bryce was
[21:23] Speaker 1: coming in. You know, he had been there with Colt Brennan,
[21:26] Speaker 1: Matt Leiner, Matt Barkley, who was in my year, JT Daniels,
[21:30] Speaker 1: like all these D1 quarterbacks, guys that went on to
[21:33] Speaker 1: the NFL, you know, Heisman winners, Heisman contenders, all that.
[21:38] Speaker 1: And so I had probably an hour conversation with him
[21:40] Speaker 1: at the gas pump. And he's like, we got this
[21:43] Speaker 1: kid coming in. I have never seen a brain like
[21:46] Speaker 1: him before. Those were his words to me. I've never
[21:49] Speaker 1: seen a brain like him. After all the quarterbacks he
[21:52] Speaker 1: had worked with, all those guys probably would have been
[21:55] Speaker 1: the best quarterback in 99% of every high school in
[21:58] Speaker 1: America's history. Bryce Young was coming in. He was seen
[22:02] Speaker 1: as a new standard. And he looked like it, right?
[22:05] Speaker 1: Five-star kid, Alabama, Heisman winner. And every time he leveled up,
[22:11] Speaker 1: The defenders got faster and faster, even going from Trinity League,
[22:14] Speaker 1: obviously the SEC. The Trinity League is the SEC of
[22:17] Speaker 1: high school football. Well, then you went to the real SEC.
[22:19] Speaker 1: You got to play against Georgia, right? And then he
[22:21] Speaker 1: goes to the NFL. Guys are even faster, right? They're
[22:24] Speaker 1: 33 years old. They got wife and kids at home.
[22:26] Speaker 1: They got to feed and they're hunting, right? And you
[22:30] Speaker 1: could see he got a little bit shaken because it
[22:33] Speaker 1: was never that difficult for him. Yes. And something clicked
[22:37] Speaker 1: right after he got benched. And then, you know, Andy
[22:39] Speaker 1: Dalton got in that random car accident. He got back
[22:41] Speaker 1: on the field. Something clicked in the Eagles game of
[22:44] Speaker 1: that year. And maybe that was the one where he
[22:46] Speaker 1: finally threw a touchdown against zone. We got to double
[22:48] Speaker 1: check on that. Something clicked in that Eagles game when
[22:50] Speaker 1: he came back and he's just gotten better and better
[22:53] Speaker 1: since then. And now in year, what is it for now?
[22:56] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
[22:57] Speaker 1: Now he looks like Bama Bryce. Now he looks like
[22:59] Speaker 1: that 16 year old kid. I saw at modern day
[23:01] Speaker 1: who was unbelievable. He's finally adjusted to the speed, and
[23:07] Speaker 1: that brain is doing all the work.
[23:09] Speaker 2: It's been a joy to watch him get better because
[23:11] Speaker 2: he was a lot of fun to watch at Bama,
[23:13] Speaker 2: and I was really bummed when he was struggling early
[23:15] Speaker 2: on in his career, but it's so much fun to
[23:16] Speaker 2: see somebody like that carve up defenses still the way
[23:20] Speaker 2: that he did in college. We've seen that through two weeks.
[23:23] Speaker 2: We've got to talk about Devin Lloyd as well, though,
[23:25] Speaker 2: because a prized free agency signing for the Carolina Panthers.
[23:30] Speaker 2: The Carolina Panthers and their stars on defense didn't look
[23:33] Speaker 2: good for them week one. Devin Lloyd wrapped up Defensive
[23:37] Speaker 2: Player of the Week, no question about it. But this
[23:40] Speaker 2: performance is, okay, Defensive Player of the Year. Is he
[23:43] Speaker 2: a frontrunner two weeks in? Because this was insane, the
[23:47] Speaker 2: game that Devin Lloyd had against the Atlanta Falcons.
[23:50] Speaker 1: Nine tackles, five stops, two picks, one of them a
[23:52] Speaker 1: pick six, another pass defense on top of that, and
[23:55] Speaker 1: a stack, and a partridge in a pear tree. He
[23:57] Speaker 1: was unbelievable, dude. And everybody's going to look at the
[24:02] Speaker 1: pick six. Everybody's going to look at the other 53-yard
[24:04] Speaker 1: return on the other interception that he had and be like,
[24:06] Speaker 1: oh my God, this is the play of the week.
[24:07] Speaker 1: I want to look at that fourth and one tackle
[24:10] Speaker 1: for loss. Because when I looked at it on tape,
[24:12] Speaker 1: and luckily through the power of next-gen stats in the NFL,
[24:16] Speaker 1: we could look at tape fairly quickly after stuff happens.
[24:19] Speaker 1: And so I was like, I got to see this.
[24:21] Speaker 1: How did he see this coming? And on tape, I'll
[24:24] Speaker 1: pull it up here, you can literally see him not
[24:27] Speaker 1: even look at the quarterback or the running back. As
[24:29] Speaker 1: soon as Drake Drake London goes in motion he is
[24:33] Speaker 1: triggering like he's just getting after he's like I know
[24:36] Speaker 1: exactly what this play is I'm gonna go get this
[24:37] Speaker 1: TFL and he did I was like how did he
[24:40] Speaker 1: see this coming what did he see on tape so
[24:44] Speaker 1: I looked at okay Falcons coaching staff they were in
[24:46] Speaker 1: Cleveland last year let me go uh do a quick
[24:50] Speaker 1: little peruse through all their short yardage runs last year
[24:52] Speaker 1: in Cleveland because I'm pretty sure Devin saw something on
[24:55] Speaker 1: tape and he did week 10 Browns Jets, fourth quarter,
[24:59] Speaker 1: 12.56 to go. It's a third and two. This is
[25:02] Speaker 1: a Malachi Corley carry. Very similar look. Not the exact
[25:06] Speaker 1: same formation, but very similar. We have our receiver that
[25:09] Speaker 1: we know we're going to give this end around to.
[25:12] Speaker 1: And they actually kind of mess up the blocking assignment.
[25:14] Speaker 1: They were supposed to pin the defensive end here. They
[25:16] Speaker 1: have three guys arc releasing. They kind of messed up
[25:19] Speaker 1: the blocking, but Corley made a good play and just
[25:22] Speaker 1: cut up field and got this. This was the only
[25:25] Speaker 1: time the Browns ran this play the entire year. And
[25:28] Speaker 1: Devin Lloyd saw it and was like, okay, if I
[25:30] Speaker 1: see a receiver who's really good with the ball in
[25:32] Speaker 1: his hands, i.e. Drake London, in the core, off the ball,
[25:36] Speaker 1: as soon as I see him motioning, I'm just going
[25:38] Speaker 1: to go. They're not going to give this ball to
[25:40] Speaker 1: Bijan here. They're going to give it to Drake because
[25:42] Speaker 1: they're assuming that I'm going to be biting on Bijan.
[25:44] Speaker 1: He didn't bite on Bijan. Didn't even get downhill at
[25:47] Speaker 1: all towards the action. He was just following Drake London down.
[25:51] Speaker 1: He just used his film study to his advantage, got
[25:53] Speaker 1: this TFL, and that was a play after he got
[25:56] Speaker 1: another stop on third and two. So they got to
[25:58] Speaker 1: third and two, and then Devin Lloyd stopped them twice
[26:00] Speaker 1: in a row just because he knew exactly what he
[26:03] Speaker 1: was looking at on tape. He found the one time
[26:06] Speaker 1: Kevin Stefanski dialed this up in Cleveland and knew it
[26:08] Speaker 1: was coming. Just a brilliant, brilliant play. And when you
[26:12] Speaker 1: have that kind of brain on offense with Bryce and
[26:14] Speaker 1: you have that kind of brain on defense with Devin Lloyd,
[26:16] Speaker 1: that's a smart team you've got to contend with.
[26:20] Speaker 2: Some of my favorite mic'd up moments, podcast moments from
[26:25] Speaker 2: former players, whatever it is, are when they say, yeah,
[26:28] Speaker 2: I knew exactly what was coming. I saw that on film, right?
[26:30] Speaker 2: I mean, that's why the Luke Keekly mic'd ups are
[26:33] Speaker 2: so funny, just because he's screaming out exactly what the
[26:35] Speaker 2: team is going to do. It's because he's watching it
[26:38] Speaker 2: on film. With an Xbox controller, by the way, as
[26:42] Speaker 2: his clicker. He was using an Xbox controller. Just wanted
[26:45] Speaker 2: to shout that out. But man, Devin Lloyd, certainly for
[26:47] Speaker 2: week two, Worth every penny for the Carolina Panthers. Spent
[26:51] Speaker 2: a ton of time on that game. We do have
[26:52] Speaker 2: to talk about Minnesota and Chicago. Again, peek behind the
[26:56] Speaker 2: curtain here. There were some people in our preview show
[27:00] Speaker 2: who were like, how could you not cover Minnesota and Chicago?
[27:03] Speaker 2: How could you not cover this game? It's one of
[27:04] Speaker 2: the biggest games. Guys, we did think that it was
[27:08] Speaker 2: going to be one of the better games. And full transparency.
[27:12] Speaker 2: We said to ourselves, you know what? We've talked about
[27:17] Speaker 2: these teams a ton because we talked about them in
[27:19] Speaker 2: the season preview show. I think we talked about both
[27:21] Speaker 2: of these teams in the week one preview and the
[27:24] Speaker 2: reaction show. We had a feeling we'd be talking about
[27:26] Speaker 2: it in the reaction show. So we wanted to kind
[27:28] Speaker 2: of show some love to some other fan bases that
[27:30] Speaker 2: we haven't shouted out their team yet.
[27:32] Speaker 1: But here we are.
[27:33] Speaker 2: We obviously are going to talk about Ben Johnson versus
[27:35] Speaker 2: Brian Flores. So this game ends up 9-3 as God intended.
[27:41] Speaker 2: Everybody expected that. Caleb obviously goes out late in the
[27:46] Speaker 2: game with a hamstring injury. Seems like he could be okay.
[27:51] Speaker 2: Certainly hoping that that's going to be the case because
[27:53] Speaker 2: there were some crazy... Although they only scored three points, Brett,
[27:57] Speaker 2: there were some moments in this game where Caleb was unbelievable.
[28:02] Speaker 2: Where I'm watching this game and I go... only Caleb Williams, well,
[28:08] Speaker 2: maybe there's a couple of quarterbacks, but like very few quarterbacks,
[28:11] Speaker 2: Caleb Williams being one of them could have gotten to
[28:14] Speaker 2: the point where you're even throwing that ball away. Like that's, that's,
[28:19] Speaker 2: that was a win on that play, but you had
[28:21] Speaker 2: to work so hard just to not have a negative play.
[28:26] Speaker 2: The numbers that we have for this game are pretty fascinating.
[28:29] Speaker 2: And I want to talk about them here with you
[28:30] Speaker 2: because the, the, the, preview of this game was the
[28:34] Speaker 2: chess match between Flores and Ben Johnson and there was
[28:37] Speaker 2: a question that was going around social media that somebody
[28:40] Speaker 2: asked at Chicago's presser with Ben Johnson earlier in the
[28:43] Speaker 2: week and they were like you know do you ever
[28:45] Speaker 2: try not to fall into the trap of you know
[28:48] Speaker 2: I'm thinking about what Flores is thinking he's thinking about
[28:50] Speaker 2: what I'm thinking so I'm trying to think about what
[28:51] Speaker 2: he's thinking about what I'm thinking and that's sort of
[28:54] Speaker 2: just the the crazy journey that you get to go
[28:57] Speaker 2: on game planning for this game in the end Caleb
[29:00] Speaker 2: Williams faced a career-high blitz rate of 81.8% and a
[29:07] Speaker 2: career-high pressure rate of 54.5%. Now, when I was watching
[29:13] Speaker 2: this game, I was like, okay, the simulated pressure's got
[29:17] Speaker 2: to be all over the place because there were so
[29:18] Speaker 2: many guys near the line, scrimmage, everything. Actually, it wasn't
[29:21] Speaker 2: the case. There weren't any sim pressures for the Minnesota
[29:26] Speaker 2: Vikings in this game. And the line of scrimmage defender
[29:29] Speaker 2: drop rate was only 39.5% this week. It was 78.3%
[29:32] Speaker 2: from Flores the week before. So it was a little
[29:35] Speaker 2: bit less, but when you look at it, it's a
[29:37] Speaker 2: little bit less. at week two, how many five-man fronts
[29:43] Speaker 2: they had? 47.1%. How many six-man fronts they had? 30%.
[29:50] Speaker 2: So there was a lot of action at the line
[29:52] Speaker 2: of scrimmage, but Brett, it was less deception and it
[29:56] Speaker 2: was more of, we're coming after you. We're absolutely going
[30:00] Speaker 2: to come after you. And I think that this next
[30:02] Speaker 2: stat ties into it very well. When the first half
[30:05] Speaker 2: was over, our NGS team got in contact with us
[30:09] Speaker 2: and said that the Bears had zero play-action dropbacks. In
[30:13] Speaker 2: the first half of this game.
[30:14] Speaker 1: Zero.
[30:15] Speaker 2: For Ben Johnson offense. That was the first time that
[30:16] Speaker 2: Ben Johnson had not used play action in a half
[30:19] Speaker 2: since 2022. Been a long time. Play action is a
[30:22] Speaker 2: big staple of what Ben Johnson does. Second half it
[30:24] Speaker 2: was 25.9%. But I thought to myself, why would that
[30:28] Speaker 2: be the case? The Bears used play action under center
[30:32] Speaker 2: 211 times last year. They only used play action from
[30:38] Speaker 2: the shotgun 37%. When you run play action from under center,
[30:44] Speaker 2: what do you have to do? You have to turn
[30:46] Speaker 2: your back to the line of scrimmage. And when you
[30:49] Speaker 2: have five or six guys on the line that are
[30:53] Speaker 2: just aggressive, there's no deception about it, we're not dropping back,
[30:57] Speaker 2: we're coming after you, you then have to turn your
[31:00] Speaker 2: back And then when you turn, there's a chance that
[31:04] Speaker 2: somebody could already be tackling you because of how Flores
[31:07] Speaker 2: sends pressure your way. So I think it came down
[31:10] Speaker 2: to Ben Johnson, who loves to use play action as
[31:14] Speaker 2: a weapon in his offense, chose to not use it
[31:17] Speaker 2: at all because he said, I have to give Caleb
[31:20] Speaker 2: every nanosecond possible to assess what's going on. And at times,
[31:26] Speaker 2: he had that and still needed to play Superman just
[31:28] Speaker 2: to throw the ball away and avoid a negative.
[31:31] Speaker 1: And they finally started to put it together late in
[31:33] Speaker 1: the game, too, right? Because, you know, one of the
[31:35] Speaker 1: reasons why they weren't doing the under center play action
[31:38] Speaker 1: stuff is that does affect how you can use your
[31:40] Speaker 1: running backs in pass pro, right? If you have to
[31:42] Speaker 1: execute a fake, it's kind of harder to do cross
[31:45] Speaker 1: protection than where you have to like wrap around and
[31:47] Speaker 1: try to pick up somebody off the edge. And so
[31:50] Speaker 1: it does affect your protection plan. Now, on the pick
[31:54] Speaker 1: that Caleb threw, speaking of cross protection, I don't know
[31:57] Speaker 1: why you're cross protecting against Dallas Turner. Like you're having
[32:01] Speaker 1: a running back go across Caleb's line of vision to
[32:04] Speaker 1: go pick up Dallas Turner off the edge. Probably not ideal.
[32:07] Speaker 1: Maybe they wanted to show a different look and get
[32:10] Speaker 1: away with it. Obviously they didn't. He got pressure and
[32:13] Speaker 1: then Caleb just kind of threw a YOLO pick, which
[32:15] Speaker 1: was weird. There was an intentional grounding later in the
[32:18] Speaker 1: game that again was a result of Swift losing his one-on-one.
[32:22] Speaker 1: The Van Ginkle sack was completely unblocked. Apparently they didn't
[32:25] Speaker 1: have any hots built into that because Caleb wasn't even
[32:27] Speaker 1: looking for one and nobody was really turning around for one,
[32:30] Speaker 1: but eventually they did punch back and they punished those,
[32:35] Speaker 1: you know, really aggressive blitzes targeting the running backs. They
[32:38] Speaker 1: punished it with a screen late in the game, got
[32:40] Speaker 1: 32 yards.
[32:41] Speaker 2: I thought they'd run more of that. They didn't.
[32:43] Speaker 1: I thought they would too. They got to it kind
[32:44] Speaker 1: of late.
[32:45] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I thought, I thought so too. I thought
[32:47] Speaker 2: I'd see, I thought they would get to the screen
[32:50] Speaker 2: game a lot sooner giving, given how aggressive the Flores
[32:53] Speaker 2: game plan was.
[32:54] Speaker 1: And it was a huge chunk play. It got him
[32:57] Speaker 1: down in the red zone eventually. And six plays later,
[33:00] Speaker 1: that's when Caleb popped his hammy. And then Bajent came in,
[33:03] Speaker 1: couldn't finish the drive, field goal blocked. But like they
[33:05] Speaker 1: were first and 10 from the six. They could have
[33:08] Speaker 1: very easily finished. I mean, on that play, Caleb could
[33:11] Speaker 1: have scored. He was on his way to the pylon.
[33:14] Speaker 1: And it's just the entire game went out the window
[33:18] Speaker 1: the second he popped his hammy. But they finally schematically
[33:20] Speaker 1: responded and then just didn't get another point.
[33:22] Speaker 2: So.
[33:23] Speaker 1: Hopefully Caleb's okay. Potentially could be a grade one. That's
[33:26] Speaker 1: what we saw reported during Sunday Night Football. I'm looking
[33:31] Speaker 1: forward to the rematch, but unfortunately we've got to wait
[33:33] Speaker 1: until the last week of the season to get it.
[33:36] Speaker 2: Yeah, and there wasn't a ton going on with Minnesota's offense,
[33:39] Speaker 2: but they ran the ball pretty well in this game.
[33:40] Speaker 2: And obviously, hey, look, 2-0 is 2-0, no matter how
[33:44] Speaker 2: you want to slice them. Kyler Murray goes down super
[33:47] Speaker 2: early in week one. You have the big-time comeback last
[33:50] Speaker 2: week against the Green Bay Packers, and then you get
[33:51] Speaker 2: another divisional win. against the Chicago Bears. They're in Tampa
[33:57] Speaker 2: next week, I think, for week three. And I remember
[34:00] Speaker 2: beginning of the season, you were like, hey, what's more likely,
[34:03] Speaker 2: the Vikings start 0-3 or 3-0? Both of us said
[34:05] Speaker 2: it's more likely that they start 3-0. We weren't going
[34:08] Speaker 2: to bet that they were going to be 3-0. But
[34:11] Speaker 2: I think that now with them being 2-0, they've got
[34:14] Speaker 2: to be pretty confident moving forward.
[34:16] Speaker 1: Yeah, especially with how Tampa looks.
[34:17] Speaker 2: Sorry.
[34:20] Speaker 1: Buddy.
[34:21] Speaker 2: We'll talk about that another day. I mean, look at
[34:23] Speaker 2: the time.
[34:24] Speaker 1: Look at the time.
[34:25] Speaker 2: We got to move on and talk about, we got
[34:27] Speaker 2: to talk about the Saints and the Ravens. Of course
[34:32] Speaker 2: we do. And Tyler Shuck, boy, he just picked up
[34:36] Speaker 2: right where he left off with overtime last week. That
[34:39] Speaker 2: fourth quarter in overtime was special with him and they
[34:42] Speaker 2: were one play away from getting a big win against
[34:44] Speaker 2: the Detroit Lions. That's the kind of loss, too, where
[34:47] Speaker 2: it's an emotional loss at the end, where you go, like, man,
[34:50] Speaker 2: is this going to linger? Is this team going to
[34:52] Speaker 2: kind of be mad at what happened there? And, man,
[34:53] Speaker 2: they just came out, and I think that they played very,
[34:55] Speaker 2: very well. Shout-out to Tyler Shuck in this game, specifically
[34:58] Speaker 2: pushing the ball down the field. Kellen Moore is dialed
[35:01] Speaker 2: with this team right now. I was wondering what the
[35:03] Speaker 2: downfield passing attack was going to look like with no
[35:06] Speaker 2: Jordan Tyson. Mm-hmm.
[35:08] Speaker 1: We're doing all right.
[35:09] Speaker 2: On passes of 10 or more air yards in this game,
[35:12] Speaker 2: Shuck was 6 for 8, 109 yards against the Blitz.
[35:16] Speaker 2: Shuck was 10 for.
[35:16] Speaker 1: 13 for 113 yards. I mean, he was fantastic.
[35:18] Speaker 2: That 113 yards, that's a career mark for him. While
[35:20] Speaker 2: he also went 17 for 21 with 139 yards and
[35:23] Speaker 2: a touchdown when facing four or fewer rushers. I mean,
[35:33] Speaker 2: he was just absolutely dialed in this game. He completed
[35:38] Speaker 2: six of his eight downfield attempts that I mentioned of
[35:40] Speaker 2: 10 or more air yards. Chris Olave and Devon Vele,
[35:44] Speaker 2: they were the two responsible for those six receptions. And
[35:47] Speaker 2: I want to take a look at the Olave touchdown
[35:50] Speaker 2: here because this, I think, is just not just a
[35:53] Speaker 2: ton of confidence and guys running things really well, but
[35:55] Speaker 2: it's a great way for Kellen Moore to sort of
[35:56] Speaker 2: dial up this deep passing attack. Okay, so this is
[35:59] Speaker 2: the Chris Olave TD. Here's Olave pre-snap, but before the snap,
[36:03] Speaker 2: he's going to be in motion. He's going to come
[36:04] Speaker 2: over to this side, and then he's going to run
[36:07] Speaker 2: up the field. We'll see that pre-snap motion here. Get
[36:10] Speaker 2: him to the other side of the line of scrimmage
[36:12] Speaker 2: to sort of point out that, okay, the motion proves
[36:15] Speaker 2: that this is not man coverage. This is going to
[36:17] Speaker 2: be zone coverage because there was a shift in the defense,
[36:19] Speaker 2: but nobody was really following him over to the other side. Now,
[36:22] Speaker 2: they kind of already figured that was going to be
[36:24] Speaker 2: the case because this route combination is going to be
[36:27] Speaker 2: set up to really defeat quarters coverage. You've got this
[36:30] Speaker 2: defender dropping here. This defender is going to be dropping here, here,
[36:34] Speaker 2: and here. So it is a four deep look. Now
[36:39] Speaker 2: here's the route combination. It's going to be a corner
[36:41] Speaker 2: route that is then paired with Olave who's going to
[36:44] Speaker 2: be coming back inside here. Now you would say, okay,
[36:46] Speaker 2: this is pretty simple, right? The safety is going to
[36:48] Speaker 2: take Olave's route. So he's going to run with him
[36:50] Speaker 2: as he goes to the middle of the field. And
[36:52] Speaker 2: this defender, he's going to drop and cover this corner route.
[36:55] Speaker 2: But because of when the routes are run and sort
[36:58] Speaker 2: of this release that Olave has where he's already in
[37:00] Speaker 2: motion and the fact that this corner route is going
[37:04] Speaker 2: right in front of this defender, it makes it really
[37:07] Speaker 2: difficult for him to sort of not take the cheese,
[37:10] Speaker 2: if you will, not fall for it. it commands excellent
[37:14] Speaker 2: communication on the back end. And when you don't have
[37:16] Speaker 2: excellent communication, well, this is the result that you get.
[37:20] Speaker 2: There's a little bit of hesitation here that you see
[37:23] Speaker 2: from Malachi Starks who stays with this receiver because naturally
[37:26] Speaker 2: you don't want to leave him and have him open
[37:28] Speaker 2: because Tyler Chuck could very well rip this corner route
[37:32] Speaker 2: to the front pylon and this receiver can score. So
[37:36] Speaker 2: you don't want to give up all that space, but
[37:37] Speaker 2: then At the last second, you realize, oh no, there's
[37:40] Speaker 2: no way this defender is going to get to Chris Olave,
[37:43] Speaker 2: which only means one thing, and that he is going
[37:46] Speaker 2: to come wide open for the easy touchdown. And I
[37:50] Speaker 2: just wanted to highlight that because it's that little route
[37:53] Speaker 2: combination setup that when you have a quarterback that is
[37:55] Speaker 2: playing as confidently as Tyler Shuck, you can rip those throws.
[37:59] Speaker 2: And if you don't have elite communication on the back end,
[38:02] Speaker 2: that can be the result when this Saints offense is
[38:04] Speaker 2: cooking the.
[38:04] Speaker 1: Way that it is. And here comes New Orleans. A
[38:08] Speaker 1: 21-yard strike from Shuck.
[38:11] Speaker 2: Brett, at one point, the Saints had a 6% win
[38:15] Speaker 2: probability in this game with a minute and 50 seconds
[38:18] Speaker 2: left in the third quarter. But when you have a
[38:20] Speaker 2: quarterback that is willing to push the ball deep down
[38:23] Speaker 2: the field the way that Tyler Shuck is, you always
[38:27] Speaker 2: got a chance to come back.
[38:28] Speaker 1: There was some very Ravens-y game management in this one.
[38:32] Speaker 1: And I know Ravens fans were very upset towards the
[38:34] Speaker 1: end of the Harbaugh tenure with how second halves were
[38:37] Speaker 1: handled as far as situational football goes, when to kick,
[38:41] Speaker 1: when to punt, what are we doing in short yardage.
[38:43] Speaker 1: And I think Jesse Minter learned a lesson on this one.
[38:47] Speaker 1: If you're in a very tight game and it's third
[38:50] Speaker 1: and one and you're in the fourth quarter on your
[38:53] Speaker 1: own 39-yard line, give Derrick Henry the ball. I don't
[38:57] Speaker 1: know why they took a deep shot, which, by the way,
[38:59] Speaker 1: it was open. Lamar tried to get a little bit greedy.
[39:03] Speaker 1: He had like the deep cross coming across, very easily
[39:06] Speaker 1: could have completed that for a chunk. He wanted it
[39:09] Speaker 1: all in one go, fell incomplete, and it just kind
[39:14] Speaker 1: of spiraled from there, right? And then you get a
[39:17] Speaker 1: failure to tackle on a zero call just outside the
[39:20] Speaker 1: red zone. You pick up 25 yards on that, turns
[39:23] Speaker 1: what could have potentially been a field goal into a
[39:25] Speaker 1: touchdown because you gave up that explosive, right? And now
[39:29] Speaker 1: instead of getting the ball back likely with about two
[39:31] Speaker 1: minutes to go and two timeouts, now you're getting it
[39:34] Speaker 1: back with 121 to go, down by six instead of
[39:37] Speaker 1: down by three, and you have no timeouts. So now
[39:39] Speaker 1: you have to throw, throw, throw, throw, throw. It takes
[39:41] Speaker 1: Henry completely out of the game because you're not going
[39:43] Speaker 1: to run the ball in that case. So just really, really...
[39:47] Speaker 1: Interesting in a negative way. Game management towards the end there. And,
[39:52] Speaker 1: you know, while I'm okay with a zero call in
[39:54] Speaker 1: that situation, you better tackle. Because if you don't tackle,
[39:58] Speaker 1: it's 25 yards. And you saw the kind of like
[40:01] Speaker 1: win probability from next-gen stats swing wildly on those two plays.
[40:07] Speaker 1: And they were very impactful.
[40:08] Speaker 2: Henry, five carries in the second half. Well, they had
[40:12] Speaker 2: a double-digit lead at one point.
[40:14] Speaker 1: Can't do it. Not ideal.
[40:16] Speaker 2: I will say, I think that the lack of Zay
[40:19] Speaker 2: Flowers was big in this game. I know that's kind
[40:22] Speaker 2: of an obvious duh, but I think it's more of
[40:24] Speaker 2: just a style or schematically more than anything else. Obviously,
[40:29] Speaker 2: losing the talent of Zay is important, but they don't
[40:32] Speaker 2: really have anyone other than Zay to do what Zay does. Now,
[40:38] Speaker 2: I'm not even talking about from an overall talent ceiling perspective.
[40:42] Speaker 2: I'm talking about just skill set. There's not really anybody
[40:45] Speaker 2: on the roster who does the Zay Flowers stuff. Ravens
[40:48] Speaker 2: had 173 yards after the catch last week. Most of
[40:51] Speaker 2: that was from Zay Flowers. They had 86 total this week.
[40:54] Speaker 2: I mean, you're just not even really running the same
[40:56] Speaker 2: game plan at that point. So it's always tough. When
[40:59] Speaker 2: you lose your best receiver, duh, it's going to be
[41:02] Speaker 2: a very difficult time sort of adjusting your game plan.
[41:05] Speaker 2: But it's even more difficult when you go, hey, we
[41:08] Speaker 2: just lost our best receiver. We have no one who
[41:11] Speaker 2: really does that anymore. So everything has to switch. You
[41:14] Speaker 2: have to get Mark Andrews a little bit more involved.
[41:16] Speaker 2: Derrick Henry becomes more of a receiver. Sure, you're giving
[41:19] Speaker 2: more targets to the other guys that are the outside
[41:21] Speaker 2: wide receivers, but things fundamentally change when Zay Flowers isn't
[41:25] Speaker 2: out there, and I think that this was an issue
[41:28] Speaker 2: for the Ravens all night.
[41:29] Speaker 1: So who do you think had a worse week, too?
[41:32] Speaker 1: Jesse Minner's current team or Jesse Minner's old team? Because
[41:34] Speaker 1: I would argue his old team might have been worse.
[41:38] Speaker 2: I think Jesse Minter's old team's having a rough go.
[41:41] Speaker 1: Of the 2020 season. Six fumbles, dude.
[41:43] Speaker 2: They had six fumbles?
[41:46] Speaker 1: They had six fumbles. That's the most in the game
[41:48] Speaker 1: since 1987, by the way. Six fumbles. They only lost one, which,
[41:52] Speaker 1: by the way, miracle.
[41:53] Speaker 2: That wasn't born in 87.
[41:57] Speaker 1: What they only lost one i don't know how.
[42:01] Speaker 2: Okay okay that's that's that's why that number was such
[42:05] Speaker 2: sticker shock to me because when you said six i
[42:09] Speaker 2: was like how but it does.
[42:13] Speaker 1: Uh it's a fumble like what once every like eight
[42:15] Speaker 1: plays something.
[42:17] Speaker 2: Like that yeah i don't even i don't even want
[42:19] Speaker 2: to do the math on that one look it's tough
[42:21] Speaker 2: It's tough for the Chargers right now, man. And it's
[42:24] Speaker 2: tough for everybody. I think that offense is completely anemic.
[42:28] Speaker 2: I think that they are having difficulty everywhere. Justin Herbert
[42:32] Speaker 2: right now, 61.5% completion this season. Not just this game,
[42:37] Speaker 2: for this season. His career low is above 65% for
[42:41] Speaker 2: a year. And he's at 61.5%. So it's just automatically
[42:45] Speaker 2: a much worse year from an efficiency standpoint. He has
[42:48] Speaker 2: a negative... a 1.7 completion percentage above expectation. But specifically
[42:53] Speaker 2: against zone, man, Herbert against zone, 58.8 completion percentage, seventh
[42:59] Speaker 2: lowest in the league. He's got three interceptions, which is
[43:02] Speaker 2: tied for the most. The Raiders ran the second highest
[43:07] Speaker 2: zone percentage at 89.7%. So when you kind of put
[43:10] Speaker 2: those numbers together, it makes sense that Herbert struggled in
[43:13] Speaker 2: this game. but also against the Blitz. He's struggling against zone.
[43:17] Speaker 2: He's struggling in general. He's struggling against the Blitz. When
[43:19] Speaker 2: you look at his completion percentage with no Blitz versus Blitz, 64.3%,
[43:25] Speaker 2: which is not the greatest in the world, but 64.3%
[43:26] Speaker 2: is fine when teams aren't Blitzing. It goes down to 41.7%.
[43:32] Speaker 2: It's more than a 20-point swing when teams are blitzing him.
[43:36] Speaker 2: And I think a big reason why, brother, Rayshon Slater
[43:39] Speaker 2: and Joe Ault both had 12.9% pressure percentages allowed. Four
[43:45] Speaker 2: of the five charges offensive linemen had pressure percentages.
[43:48] Speaker 1: Above 12% in this game.
[43:51] Speaker 2: We talked about the struggles last week with the Green
[43:54] Speaker 2: Bay Packers and how when you are giving up pressures
[43:56] Speaker 2: like that, it's so hard to run your offense. Herbert's
[44:00] Speaker 2: not playing well. I know I can already see the
[44:03] Speaker 2: comment section now. Oh, it's never Herbert's fault. It's always
[44:07] Speaker 2: somebody else. You're blaming somebody else.
[44:08] Speaker 1: This one was kind of Herbert's fault.
[44:10] Speaker 2: Herbert also is not playing well. But the reason why
[44:13] Speaker 2: I started this by saying the offense just looks overall
[44:17] Speaker 2: anemic is because it does. The offensive line's not playing well.
[44:21] Speaker 2: The run game's not as explosive as it needs to be.
[44:23] Speaker 2: They don't have reliability from their pass catchers. It's all
[44:26] Speaker 2: not going well under McDaniel right now. This is a
[44:29] Speaker 2: tough start to the Mike McDaniel offensive era with the
[44:33] Speaker 2: Los Angeles Chargers.
[44:34] Speaker 1: I will say he did have a classic Justin Herbert interception,
[44:36] Speaker 1: and by that I mean absolutely wasn't his fault, like
[44:38] Speaker 1: literally just bouncing off his receiver and ending up with
[44:41] Speaker 1: the defense. But he also had three fumbles in this game. Okay, yes,
[44:45] Speaker 1: he was under pressure. Maybe give him half credit. But
[44:49] Speaker 1: you still got to hold on to the ball. There's
[44:50] Speaker 1: a lot of quarterbacks under pressure that hold on to
[44:53] Speaker 1: the ball better than three fumbles in a game. I
[44:56] Speaker 1: also got to point to Joe Altman. Four penalties in
[44:59] Speaker 1: addition to the pressures given up. He also gave up
[45:02] Speaker 1: a safety because he committed one of those penalties in
[45:04] Speaker 1: the end zone, which resulted in quite possibly the most
[45:08] Speaker 1: Chargers endgame scenario I've ever seen where you have to
[45:11] Speaker 1: attempt an onside free kick after a safety. booting it
[45:18] Speaker 1: up to the jumbotron and hoping, you're just praying that
[45:22] Speaker 1: your team winds up with it. To be honest, though.
[45:25] Speaker 1: It's so Chargers, dude.
[45:26] Speaker 2: We've all practiced that at recess, right? How high can
[45:29] Speaker 2: I punt this ball without it going super far?
[45:33] Speaker 1: It went straight up in the air. That's the weirdest
[45:38] Speaker 1: s * * * I've ever seen. It just went
[45:41] Speaker 1: off the camera.
[45:42] Speaker 2: That was like a second grade rec soccer game when
[45:46] Speaker 2: the goalie tries to punt. Do you want to hear
[45:48] Speaker 2: what their next seven games are?
[45:50] Speaker 1: Are you ready for this? Oh, God.
[45:52] Speaker 2: The Chargers are 0-2, okay? Their next seven games at Buffalo,
[45:59] Speaker 2: at Seattle, versus Denver, at Kansas City, at the Rams,
[46:08] Speaker 2: versus Houston. At Baltimore. They don't play a game in
[46:14] Speaker 2: which they're going to be favored until November 22nd.
[46:20] Speaker 1: I'm only half kidding. They might be in the Jeremiah
[46:23] Speaker 1: Smith running. If that's the gauntlet, dude. Yeah, he's already
[46:27] Speaker 1: a Buccaneer, brother. It's a race to Jeremiah Smith.
[46:34] Speaker 2: I want to say good things about the Raiders offense.
[46:39] Speaker 2: But it wasn't really a great day for the Raiders.
[46:41] Speaker 2: I mean, they averaged 2.3 yards per carry average. And honestly,
[46:46] Speaker 2: when you look at a lot of the team stats
[46:51] Speaker 2: between the Chargers and the Raiders, a lot of it
[46:54] Speaker 2: is pretty similar. The Chargers' success rate as a team, 38.7%.
[46:58] Speaker 2: The Raiders' success rate as a team, 36.8%, so even a.
[47:03] Speaker 1: Little bit less.
[47:04] Speaker 2: The Raiders had less first downs. The Raiders had a
[47:07] Speaker 2: worse third down efficiency. They had about the same penalty yardage,
[47:13] Speaker 2: even though the Raiders only had six versus the Chargers
[47:15] Speaker 2: having eight. The time of possession, they were a little
[47:20] Speaker 2: bit less.
[47:21] Speaker 1: They survived.
[47:24] Speaker 2: And that's ultimately the thing. The yards per play of
[47:27] Speaker 2: both of these teams was exactly the same. It was 5.2.
[47:30] Speaker 2: The difference was the Chargers had three turnovers. The Chargers
[47:34] Speaker 2: had three turnovers. And the Raiders also had... the explosive
[47:39] Speaker 2: deep pass to.
[47:41] Speaker 1: God, who did he throw it to? Who did Kirk
[47:43] Speaker 1: throw it to? Oh, Trey Tucker.
[47:47] Speaker 2: Yeah, because when he was winding up, I was like, Kirk?
[47:52] Speaker 1: Remember what year it is.
[47:54] Speaker 2: Remember what year it is, Kirk.
[47:55] Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just happy that Raiders fans get to
[47:58] Speaker 1: have some joy in life. It's been a while. They're winning.
[48:00] Speaker 1: It's not pretty, but they're winning. When's the last time
[48:02] Speaker 1: the Raiders were 2-0?
[48:04] Speaker 2: I was going to say, not just some joy. They're 2-0, brother.
[48:08] Speaker 1: They're on top of that division. And they don't even
[48:09] Speaker 1: have to start the first overall pick. Mendoza has no
[48:11] Speaker 1: pressure to start right now because they're winning. It's good
[48:14] Speaker 1: in Raider land.
[48:16] Speaker 2: And we haven't been able to say that in quite
[48:18] Speaker 2: a long time. The Bengals are 2-0. You know.
[48:23] Speaker 2: I was listening to some people and trolling social media
[48:29] Speaker 2: after the late afternoon games. And... A lot of people,
[48:35] Speaker 2: I just got to say, a lot of people are
[48:37] Speaker 2: too surprised that the Bengals are 2-0. This is a
[48:40] Speaker 2: good football team.
[48:42] Speaker 1: You said they were going to go to the AFC Championship.
[48:43] Speaker 1: I had a mind of the North.
[48:45] Speaker 2: And I think people are mostly like, whoa, look at
[48:48] Speaker 2: the Bengals in the trenches. And I think a lot
[48:50] Speaker 2: of us have been like, yeah, follow the clues.
[48:54] Speaker 1: We've been here.
[48:54] Speaker 2: We've been getting here. And I thought there was another
[48:56] Speaker 2: great day in the trenches for them.
[49:00] Speaker 1: You're Texans, home of two. Yeah, not ideal. First of all,
[49:04] Speaker 1: it's just great players making elite plays. Dexter Lawrence was incredible.
[49:07] Speaker 1: Jamar Chase was incredible. Joe Burrow did Joe Burrow things.
[49:10] Speaker 1: T popped off. When the Bengals are at their best,
[49:13] Speaker 1: the five best players on their team are probably better
[49:16] Speaker 1: than the five best players on your team. That's what even,
[49:19] Speaker 1: even Houston, right? Like you got Willie Anderson, you got
[49:22] Speaker 1: to deal Hunter, but there was no Nico Collins today.
[49:24] Speaker 1: And I, I like CJ Stroud, but he's, he's not
[49:27] Speaker 1: Joe Burrow. Right. Yet, yet, you know, we'll see. And
[49:31] Speaker 1: they just couldn't run the ball. They couldn't block them.
[49:33] Speaker 1: They couldn't stop Jamar. Like Jamar did that against Derek Stingley.
[49:36] Speaker 1: He's a top five corner in the league. You tip
[49:39] Speaker 1: your hat. Right? You start the year against.
[49:41] Speaker 2: Nothing else you can do.
[49:42] Speaker 1: Josh Allen and Joe Berger.
[49:44] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[49:44] Speaker 1: Yeah. Okay. They're 0-2. They've been 0-2 before. They'll be fine.
[49:49] Speaker 2: Shout out to the fantastic team at NextGenStats for power
[49:52] Speaker 2: and everything that we get to talk about here on
[49:54] Speaker 2: these instant reaction shows. And shout out to everybody behind
[49:57] Speaker 2: the glass making this show possible as well. From Brett Coleman,
[49:59] Speaker 2: I'm Trevor Sikama saying, see you guys next time. Thanks
[50:02] Speaker 2: for listening to our Week 2 Reaction Podcast. You can
[50:05] Speaker 2: listen to NFL Pro on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
[50:09] Speaker 2: or wherever you get your podcasts.

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