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Talkin' Ball with Pat Leonard

First Down with Bennie Fowler, Week 2: Daboll's icy glare, Cowboys' weakness, Daniel Jones' improvement, Davante Adams' special skill

Super Bowl champion Bennie Fowler, a former NFL wide receiver, joins New York Daily News NFL columnist Pat Leonard for 'First Down with Bennie Fowler,' a weekly recap of the NFL's full slate @Bleav. Fowler and Leonard dive into the Dallas' Cowboys' biggest problem in a blowout to the New Orleans Saints, Brian Daboll's icy staredowns of Pat postgame at Washington, Daniel Jones' improved play, Bennie's memory of a young Jones first learning the NFL, Davante Adams' special skill set and more.
Broadcast on:
17 Sep 2024
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Super Bowl champion Bennie Fowler, a former NFL wide receiver, joins New York Daily News NFL columnist Pat Leonard for 'First Down with Bennie Fowler,' a weekly recap of the NFL's full slate @Bleav . Fowler and Leonard dive into the Dallas' Cowboys' biggest problem in a blowout to the New Orleans Saints, Brian Daboll's icy staredowns of Pat postgame at Washington, Daniel Jones' improved play, Bennie's memory of a young Jones first learning the NFL, Davante Adams' special skill set and more. SUBSCRIBE to the @PLonNFL YouTube page to get the latest Giants updates and news delivered directly to you, and to participate in regular LIVE Q&A chats with Pat. Purchase a Super Chat or Super Sticker to have your comments elevated to the top of the feed and have Pat answer your question FIRST! Watch the full video of this @Bleav podcast on Pat's YouTube Channel. Find Pat also on 'X' (@PLeonardNYDN), Instagram (@PLonNFL) & TikTok (@PLonNFL). Talkin' Ball with Pat Leonard is brought to you by MyBookie. It’s MyBookie’s 10th year anniversary, and they’re rolling out the red carpet for bettors, including Risk-Free Thursdays and weekly no-sweat bets all season long. Use the promo code 'PATSPICKS' here to get your first deposit of $50 or more matched 100% up to $1,000 plus a $10 casino chip. Make your Football season a winning season with MyBookie! Bet Anything, Anytime, Anywhere. Talkin' Ball with Pat Leonard is also sponsored by @BoomChaga and @Estate98Coffee. BOOM Chaga Mushroom SuperDrink is a natural extract loaded with anti-inflammatory, immune-boosting antioxidants and heart-healthy compounds. Go to BoomChaga.com and use the code TALKINBALL25 to get a 25% discount on your first Subscribe and Save Order. Estate98 is an all-natural, specialty coffee with no sugar that is convenient for the on-the-go coffee drinker. Go to estate98.com/talkinball to get a special buy one, get one free deal.

All right, welcome to another episode of Talking Ball with Pat Leonard. This is first down with Benny Fowler, breaking down week two of the NFL's action around the league with the Super Bowl champion former NFL wide receiver. Can't wait for that. First, I want to tell you guys about my bookie, my bookie sponsors, Talking Ball with Pat Leonard. They have a promo code now, Pat's picks, go to the link in my profile, whether it's on X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, threads, click the link, enter the promo code, Pat's picks, and you will get your first deposit of $50 or more matched up to $1,000 plus a $10 casino chip. 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I personally felt a post workout like energy boost with boom, chaga also has the ability to lower cholesterol, reduce inflammation and improve immune and heart health with its beta gluten in antioxidants, go to boomchaga.com today to place your first order and if you use the discount code talking ball 25 or access it through the QR code on your screen, you'll get 25% off your first subscribe and save order. Right now that means a month's supply costs you only $30. Start filling the difference today at boomchaga.com and now on to first down with Benny Fowler. All right, we're back with our week two edition of first down with Benny Fowler Super Bowl champion former NFL wide receiver knows the ins and outs of how the league works, which teams are up, which teams are down and we're going to tell you the breakdown of what we see every week around the late Benny. Thanks for being back here, man. Absolutely Pat man. Appreciate you having me, man. Looking forward to just diving into what we just saw. Yeah, no doubt. And it's nice to see somebody smiling at me, Benny, because I just came from Washington and I was getting icy glares from Brian and Abel and let me just be clear to the fans out there. The clip going viral is I asked Brian table if he's concerned about his job and he answered it. And then as another reporter was asking the next question, he goes back and just starts staring a hole through my soul. But he was staring at me before that, Benny, icy glares, just over questions about Graham Gannell about mismanaging the kicker injury situation. I don't know exactly what it's referring to, whether it's about something I wrote. I, however, take it as a full picture of where the team stands. Benny, I want to put the first question to you is, do players see that kind of behavior from a coach? Do players care about that kind of behavior from a coach and does that kind of tense behavior and that kind of aggressiveness or defensiveness carry over maybe to how a locker room behaves in an O and two situation like this? No, I would just say everybody is in that, I mean, we talked about this last week, but everybody in that locker room, everybody in that coaching, that's on that coaching staff is definitely on high alert in terms of their job. And I would say that what he, him staring through your soul won't carry over into, it won't carry over into the locker room because I think those guys are more worried about their job and what they can control. But I definitely think it goes into the coaching staff and everybody may know that they're coaching for their job and that they can't make mistakes, but geez, Pat, you're pissing a lot of people off. I liked it. I liked it. When you're owing to, when you're owing to, he can feel that pressure and he's a couple bad seasons, some questionable calls, an opportunity, I saw the stat where, you know, you score three touchdowns, you don't allow a touchdown and it's like, I don't know what the record is, but only two people have lost that game and now the Giants are one of those teams. Yeah. That's tough. Yeah. Do you, do players react to, so like, you know, heavy criticism of the Giants decision? They know Graham Gino's hurt going into the game. They decide not to elevate a kicker and in a contingency plan in case Gino gets hurt. And then he gets hurt on the first play of the game chasing down a kickoff. And that means they can't kick extra points now. They go for two unsuccessfully a couple of times. They can't even kick a field goal after Daniel moves them down the field into field goal range during a tie game. So I'm wondering if do players start to second guess things when that happens? Definitely second guess in the leadership. We were practicing all week and that doesn't make any sense for us to go into this game. You know that the kicker's injured and you don't make the right decision in terms of elevating somebody else, just having the right plans in place and that just, that's a lack of leadership right there, that's a lack of direction. And we need all the wins and all the positive momentum we can get. And usually, and Daniel played really well. Usually the Giants go down to Washington or when they play Washington, they play really well. And as of late, they've been winning those games and just not get this win and be one in one because of little errors like that, coaching errors, roster errors, that'll piss you off as a player because you already knew and it's like, it's almost like you're throwing that game and you're throwing that game. I'm glad you mentioned Daniel because I wanted to say from a positive side, like last week you were direct and candid about how much better Daniel had to play. This week, what did you see from him that you liked and also once you take on neighbors because obviously in week one, they tried to get him the ball but we definitely saw it with 18 targets in week two kind of explode a little bit there. Yeah. Daniel played really well. Super efficient. Missed some throws here and there but overall, he played how I know how he knows how to play and he can move the ball, throwing the ball, finding his targets. When DJ gets comfortable with the target, you know, they have an incredible relationship and rapport. You saw that with Malik neighbors this past week and you've seen it in the past with Slaton. They have a great relationship and they find each other and they, you know, they just know how to play really well together. He had a Australian Shepherd and Golden Tate as well, a little bit with Evan Ingram but what I saw from in the league neighbors is he had first round talent, first round pick and he knows how to play. Run after the catch, strong hands, missed the one in the fourth quarter but, you know, 10 catches, I forgot how many yards he had over maybe over a book 50 but incredible player and a young player and I think he has, I think the sky is the limit for him and you could just see, you know, I mean, you know, these kids that come out of LSU, these receivers that come out of LSU are some of the best and the New York Giants have had success with another LSU receiver come out in the first round, make an incredible plays, run after the catch plays. So, I saw some great things out of DJ, I saw some great pocket presence that touched down. He threw the neighbors, great pocket presence right there, going through all his reads and then finding him in the end zone. So, DJ looked a little bit more comfortable. I think he looked even more comfortable, continuing throughout the season and Malik neighbors. Watch out. Yeah. And to be honest, listen, I know it gets paid a lot of money, but I feel bad for Daniel, like I woke up Sunday morning and there was a big headline from ESPN and Adam Schefter actually with his byline on it before the game, reminding people that Daniel has an injury guarantee of 23 million that kicks in next season if he gets hurt this year and has an injury that prevents him from passing a physical next March. And I just think that's dirty work from however, why whoever is behind why that's getting out there, like it is a reality. We've been reporting on it for months. I asked Daniel about it. I mean, he gave like a diplomatic answer, but I don't know about you, but just as a friend of his, like I just, I just don't like stuff like that. Like that's, you know, I think he is operating if fans, if fans don't fully appreciate this. And again, he's getting paid a lot of money to do it. I think he's operating from the standpoint of understanding that very few people around him actually believe in him. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like that has to be especially difficult. The quarterback's hard enough, I don't know if you've, you know, if you have any kind of take on that, but I just feel like it's for him to have confidence in himself. I don't know where he's drawing it from other than him and the people closest to him, to be honest. He's drawing confidence from those paychecks, that's where he's drawing the confidence from. But DJs, I don't think DJ has ever, I can't say that he's never lacked confidence, but DJ doesn't really care about what other people think about him. And I know that for fact, and that's why he'll go out there and he'll play how he went on to play. He'll do the things that he wants to do. Yeah, but it sucks though, when you have coaches or people in the front office putting out things like that before you're playing or giving those, you know, inside scoops of information, releasing these on Sunday morning before the game, you know, it's kind of ridiculous because I think one of the things that I always appreciate it as a former player is that when my coaches believe to me, I play to the best of my ability because you feel like you can't lose. You know, you feel like you can go out there and you're not thinking from a place of failure or you're thinking from a place of abundance. And I feel like right now it's going to be hard for DJ to come from that abundance mindset and that confidence, super confident mindset, I should say, in terms of how he played because he knows that Dave all or whoever the offensive coordinator is and, you know, the front office staff don't necessarily believe in him and hard knocks didn't really do the Giants any favors in terms of them, their belief in him, their belief in themselves, to be honest. I mean, they don't even believe in themselves in the way they pick players besides neighbors. He they did a good job with that one. But other than that, I mean, right now it's a complete shit show in New York. Yeah. One more question about DJ. So this week they resumed the like team dinners or the offensive dinners. They went to a place called Iliya Mediterranean restaurant, a Greek place in East Rutherford. They were raving about the food, all that. But I just found it very interesting because, well, first of all, Justin Pugh came in and made sure they were doing it last year. But I remembered when you and Russell Shepard were here and slay was a rookie and Daniel was a rookie, you and old chef, as we called him back then, you guys were kind of fostering that understanding with Daniel that that was a type of like constructive and helpful thing he could do with his teammates. I just want to know if you could take me back to what you remember about those initial impressions of Daniel when you got to, you know, sit around, get to know him, but also mentor him a little bit and how you see that carrying over to him, you know, shepherding these now. What I remember about those dinners is that it was just fun. I mean, we weren't we weren't doing a lot of winning at the time, but it was a great team. It was a great locker room in terms of the camaraderie and the types of conversations that we were having. Yeah. A lot considered a lot of those guys friends to this day, like, I mean, not texting every day, but definitely, you know, I keep in touch with big chef, young chef, you know, and in slay, just, you know, congratulating them, congratulating BJ after he got his contract and it's just good to see those guys in the league still, Evan Ingram, thriving in Jacksonville, had to get out of New York for people to realize how incredible he was and, you know, congratulations to him on his contract, but that's what I remember from those dinners is just having a lot of fun with those guys. It was just really cool, funny people day, it was funny, and it was just, you know, he was eyes wide. I mean, you come in, you replace a legend in Eli after four games and then, you know, he had some success winning down in Tampa, but he was a lot of fun hanging around with those guys. Yeah. Great game by him and slay. I was slay is coming off party as well and, you know, it's just good to see those guys still in the league, still thriving and for the most part, healthy, but yeah, we were just having conversations, and I think what I remember most is telling those guys about the league because I had seen it now from a couple of different points of view. My first couple of years being the number one seed out of the AFC West with Peyton as a quarterback and then us winning the Super Bowl in my second year and then two really bad years after that, a nine and seven year and then a five and 11 year with different head coaches. I mean, I played four years in Denver, won a Super Bowl in my second year, but I had three head coaches in four years. It was a lot of turn over and you just don't, you would never think that from a team that had two number one seeds out of those four years that I was there. So I had already saw a lot and I had incredible veterans around me. So you know, you have a Peyton Manning, you have a Demarcus where you have an Heat lead, a TJ Ward, I played with Wes Welker, I played with Bond Miller, like I just, I had seen it all and heard it all from that point of view, Emmanuel Sanders. So Julius Thomas, so I played with some incredible players who really gave me a different perspective that I was able to share with those guys. I was only, but I was able to share a lot of winning things and things that we did when we were winning, such as the Thursday night dinners and you know, Peyton taking us out to dinner on Thursday nights and really, you know, telling us stories and showing that he was a part of the team. And I think that's what you want to do with those Thursday night dinners that we're all in here together and we're all going to play on Sunday together. And I think, you know, it's good to hear that those guys are picking that back up. That's where you really get to, you know, you fight for your teammates and you really get to know one another. And that's where the relationships get built. That's really cool. You're right. It's, it would be nicer for me to call Russell, Russell Shepherd big ship instead of old ship as I was, that's a much nicer way of doing it. All right. Let's shift to around the league. Benny, I'll let you pick where we start. But I have to say like though, as far as the wins of the week category, it's really hard to pick it because there are a lot of impressive wins this week. Raiders beating the Ravens, Saints beating the Cowboys. The Bucks beating the Lions on the road, Vikings beating the Niners, Cardinals waxing the Rams. I'll let you pick where do we start? Which game stood out to you maybe as the most impressive win of the week? Most impressive to me is going on the road to Dallas, New Orleans. I just don't know. I don't trust Derek hard just yet as that quarterback. But like right now, the offense looks good. They scored on their first 15 possessions of the season. They're with a field goal where it touched down, but they look incredible. And Alvin Camara, the receivers, I mean, they're just playing. They're playing complimenting football and shout out to Clint Kubiak, who is the offensive coordinator there now who was, you know, the offensive coordinator and not offensive coordinator. He's quarterback coach in Denver and just seeing his progression throughout is just incredible to see. But I don't know if it's, I don't know what it is. But right now New Orleans is sticking out in terms of how they look. Another, another impressive win would be at Bucks going to the Lions. These two teams went on the road from the NFC South, Baker Mayfield, playing some really good football, playing some complimentary football, he had a nice little juke on a quarterback run. So it's just, you know, this is the NFL though. This is, you just never know what's going to happen, but yeah, the Bucks and New Orleans both went on the road, both NFC South teams and they're both 2-0. Very impressive wins on the road. Quarterback play. These quarterbacks who have been questioned in terms of their play, more so Baker Mayfield a couple years ago, but he played really well last year and now it's picking off this year. Last year Derek Harg played okay, not really. And you know, New Orleans didn't do all that well last year and him getting up to a super fast start, playing some really, really good football, making some really good throws and just complimentary football, running the ball, passing the ball and their defense continue to do their thing with, you know, guys like DiMario Davis, Cam Jordan on the, on the, on the defensive side of the ball. I'm really mad at myself for it because I gave out my Pat's picks of the week and I intended it. I don't know why I forgot to do this, but that Bucks as a seven point dogs on the road in that game made no sense to me coming off of how they did in the playoffs there last year. Like I felt like they, they were toe to toe with the Lions and it was just a play made and not made at the end. But I definitely felt like that, that's a team that people need to pay attention to, you know, like I think you and I both agree we're still watching the Saints like, wait, is this for real? But the Bucks, we know it is, I think, you know, the, the Cowboys game, Benny. So New Orleans obviously now this is two games where they've cooked. Do you look at a game like this where, you know, Dan Quinn's out and listen, his defense was terrible in the playoffs against Green Bay, but his defense largely would dominate a lot of regular season games when he was there under Mike McCarthy. So you have Mike Zimmer in, does this kind of an output by them against the Saints team that has some weapons? But like you said, Derek Carr is, has not in his career been an absolute world beater. Does this concern you about where Dallas is? Yeah, definitely. I think Dallas's defense is built to play with the lead though. You know, they don't have anybody who likes to try to stop the run. They all want to get sacked and rush the passer. And the offense that they just played is a zone scheme offense. It's the Kyle Shanahan, Mike Shanahan, offense, it's West Coast zone cut, one cut. And you saw Alvin Camara, I mean, just the way he was running the ball. And that slows somebody like Michael Parsons down because he just wants you to be in shotgun and he wants to be able to rush the passer. And they took him completely out of the game. All of their pass rushes out of the game because they're going to run the ball and their offense is built off of running the ball. So the Dallas defense is built for rushing the passer and getting picks, you know, a tray of on digs, those types of guys like they like to sit on routes and you're not able to do that if they're running the ball on you and they're running it at you. So that's, that's what's concerning about Dallas, the defense and it's going to be hard to fix. You need some big people up front to, to claw the middle. You know what scares me about that, Benny, is you're telling me that the Dallas defense has the same problem they had at the end of the playoffs last year, like 100% that's, you know, so I think that's, you know, from not to take it back to betting all the time, but I'm saying, you know, you think about who's going to win the Super Bowl and, you know, like I actually, I get emails all the time from different websites, right? It says that this, our analytics predict XYZ and there was one that had like some AI generating machine that at the start of this season, I just got this email the other day. It said it picked the Dallas Cowboys to beat the Dolphins. So obviously he's not looking good for the Dolphins right now either, but when you think about the Dallas Cowboys, you know, being in that position, you know, they're not going to win a Super Bowl with a defense like you just described. They're going to be a team that doesn't have the lead at some point in a critical game down the stretch and they're going to need to be able to stop the run. And if they can't do that, you could just draw a red line through their team right now. 100%. Might as well pivot real quick to what I just mentioned there, the Dolphins and to a situation. Is there season over? I mean, can they, can they recover from something like this? It'll be hard to, I mean, you have two of who played incredible all last year, just got his new contract, who's built incredible rapport with Tyree Kill, Waddle, River Cray Craft, all, all the, all of his skill players, you know, he mostered HA. So he has built these rapport and he knows that offense and he, he, he has played really well in that offense at, at times. It's going to be hard, who steps in and plays, you know, that type of football to where their offense can continue to thrive like that. And if that offense is a lot of timing, you have to play in that office, you have to play in that offense well, and you have to really understand the timing aspect of it. So it's going to be tough. It is going to be tough. I don't know if they go trade for Garoppolo or somebody who's been in that offense before and who really understands Mike McDaniel and the calls and the things that he's trying to do, but it's going to be tough. It's just, yeah. Where do you go? It's so crazy that they like, they, they got penalized and docked and fined for tampering with Tom Brady a couple of years ago. Now he's in the booth and everyone's just waiting for that phone call to actually happen. But now he's getting paid what $25 million a year by Fox to call games. He's buying into the Raiders as an owner. So it feels like that. I would tell him Brady want to come back like he's saying. Yeah. Well, what if he could throw three yard passes to Tyree kill to get 80 yard touchdowns. Yeah. But what's in it for Tom Brady? You got every record, like, just go be in the booth and let it go. No doubt. No. Well said. I want to tell our listeners and viewers real quick one more time about my bookie. My bookie is where you're going to win all season long, bet anything anytime anywhere. It's their 10th anniversary. They have a lot of great offerings there and a new loyalty rewards program. Go check it out the link for signing up. My bookie.aj is in my bio and all my social media. Click on that. Use the promo code PATSPIX and you'll get a special deal. Your first deposit of $50 or more matched 100% up to $1,000 plus a $10 casino chip. Look for my PATSPIX on social media every week leading into the games. Also brought to you by BoomChaga Mushroom SuperDrink, go to boomchaga.com today to place your first order. If you use the discount code TalkingBall25 or access it through the QR code on your screen, you'll get 25% off your first subscribe and save order. Right now, that means a month's supply costs you only $30. Start feeling the difference today at boomchaga.com and estate98coffee, estate98.com/talkingball. You'll get a special buy one, get one free deal on an all natural specialty coffee with no sugar that is convenient for on the go coffee drinkers. Benny, the Minnesota Vikings. Are they for real now? Like we thought the week one loss, I mean it was terrible no matter who it was to. But Sam Darnold, the way he's playing right now, Kevin O'Connell, the schematic advantage he's giving them and beating a team like the 49ers who are either going to be or going to challenge to be in the Super Bowl again. Does this tell you right now, like this Vikings team is not who we thought they were? Yeah, they're definitely a lot better. I'm still, I feel the same way about the Minnesota Vikings, the way I feel about the New Orleans Saints. It's like it's too good to be true almost in terms of how they're playing. But I think we talked about it last week, Sam Darnold, he was the number two pick. So he is talented and he does know how to play and I think this might be a scheme that really fits him the way he likes to play and his attributes. So if we look at that and we think about that, I mean, Sam Darnold, he's doing his thing. Kevin O'Connell, that goes back to Kevin O'Connell, the New Orleans Saints, Minnesota Vikings. They're both running the same offense. That's Mike Shanahan, Kubiak offense, a lot of play action. It's always built off the running game. It tries to make the throws easy for the quarterback. I mean, obviously Justin Jefferson has that 97-yard touchdown. But if you look at the touchdown to Naylor, that was built off of a play action fake where the receiver inserts in between the tie it in and the tackle, acts like he's going to block the safety and then slips out underneath. But it's all built off of play action and the run game. So yeah, the Mike Minnesota Vikings look good, defense played really well. I think Flores does a really good job. I think they beat them. I mean, they beat the 49ers last year as well. So they do a really good job of playing that team, but Kevin O'Connell can call plays with the best of them, really scheming people up and it's impressive to see. So we'll see. The NFL season is so long, you can have these people who start off fast and they don't necessarily finish strong. So, but right now, you know, their stock is up. Minnesota stock is up and Sam Nutter playing some really good football. Speaking of stock up, the Raiders, a team that I and a lot of people did not give much credit coming out of week one. They come back, beat the Ravens 26-23 and then to me, what I wanted to ask you specifically about this game was, seemed like to me, they were down 10 early in the fourth quarter and Devonta Adams kind of took the game over. We talked about him before a little bit, but what makes him a guy who like that in that select group of players who can at the wide receiver position just completely take over a game like that. I mean, that's a double digit deficit they overcame. I just think his ability to understand the game, you know, it never looks like he's running full speed, but always can get open because he made that incredible catch on the sideline. He throws in a ball kind of like a back shoulder fade or come back whatever it may be. And for him to, you know, do the Tony Toad tap and catch that ball on the sideline and make that incredible play, his hands, his just ability to get open, you know, he creates that separation. And, you know, when you're, when you're men's shoe, you got to go to somebody who, who has that type of skill and that type of ability, like it doesn't matter, double covered, you know, triple covered. Devonta is going to make the ball. Is he one of the only players that I ever seen where this is when he was playing in Green Bay? I think they might have been playing Baltimore, they are down in the red zone and he was getting double covered. The safety was on the inside. The corner had outside leverage, not letting him outside. Devonta, Adam, still beats him outside because of the way he just released off the, off the line of scrimmage and scores a touchdown. So he just has that type of ability in terms of understanding leverage, being able to make the defender go where he wants them to go and then make the play and then men's shoe, shout out to him for, you know, threading the needle and getting him some of those balls. What makes Devonta such a good route runner with those releases and, you know, when you say beating a corner outside who has outside leverage, is Devonta crafting a route where his steps and momentum is taking the corner, right, just for a split second, changing his eyes like it, and how much does he have to practice something like that to like to actually physically play with it at that speed if that's, if that's a fair question. Yeah, Devonta has that type of ability. That's something that he naturally has and I think it comes from his, his basketball background and, you know, the way he has that dead leg that is kind of like an in and out crossover. So that's how Devonta plays and he naturally has that because he naturally, he's a basketball player and it has a basketball background and he has that type of movement in wiggle. I think as he's gotten older, he has just learned to continue to just perfect his craft. I don't think that's something you practice all the time, but he just naturally knows like I want to get a defender to move inside. This is how I'm going to set it up and he just slow plays it and he rocks him asleep. Gets him where he wants him to go and then he's gone, you know, you can't hit what you can't see. So Devonta just has that, that natural ability and he has a natural feel to the game. You can see it when he plays. That's why no one can speed him up. Wait, are you telling me, basically, that this is like an Allen Iverson type situation where he's where he's a juking guys with a killer crossover type thing? I wouldn't say in a way, in a way, it's definitely not that quick. But yes, he has that deceptiveness of like, oh, yeah, I'm going to get you go this way and then I'm gone. I appreciate you putting it in basketball terms, knowing that it would make more sense to me if you went that way. So yeah, the deck, the dead leg route is that that definitely hit. All right, close it out with this. We talked last week about a couple of teams that look like serious contenders, the Chiefs and the Texans, both are Super Bowl picks. You picked the Chiefs. I picked the Texans. What stood out to you about both of their abilities to win these games? Chiefs, 26, Bengals, 25, a tight one, and then Texans, 19 bears, 13. Well, shout out to Cincinnati. They played really well. Unfortunately, they had that pass interference call at the end. Patrick Mahomes, you can't turn the ball over. You cannot turn the ball over. He had a couple of turnovers where I'm questioning where he's going with the ball and what he's looking at. But they find a way and it's weird that these fourth and six teens, usually when you see a fourth and 16, you're like, all right, this game is pretty much in the bag, but he's going to find a way to actually make the throw or get a penalty. It's ridiculous. And then they finish it off at the end. But the Chiefs, what's incredible about that win, I think, is that they always find a way to win these tough, close games and games where they actually should lose. They find a way to win these tough games and that gives you a lot of confidence going in or like you know when the game is going to be close, you've been there before. And also worries the other team is like, you know, you just never know what's going to happen on that other side because they have number 15 and then they have an incredible kicker. So what stands out to me is that Ken C finds out a way to win these close games all the time. You always just feel like they're winning either whether they get in the call or they're just making a play. They always win the tough and the close games. What stands out about the Houston game is that CJ Shroud, his pocket presence is incredible. He doesn't, he looks like a tenure vet out there in terms of the way he climbs the pocket, the way he goes through his progressions and throwing that most, you know, that catchable ball. When you think about the Niko Collins dig route, touchdown that he caught the other day, you know, CJ Shroud puts that on the money, Niko Collins runs through the ball and then run after catch and then scores a touchdown. But CJ Shroud, I mean, they didn't score a lot of points. But if you just think about the balls, the footballs that he was throwing him climbing up into the pocket, I mean, it's just incredible to see that guys in a year or two, you know, year two game two making some incredible plays and incredible leadership. And that's what you want to see out of a quarterback going from year one to year two, is the progression him getting more comfortable in that offense and just the type of the way he was playing. But they were flying around and it looked like they, they had Caleb Williams's pitcher up all over the locker room and up all over the facility because the way they were hitting him on Sunday night was, it was insane, I was like, gee, they are trying to put him out of the game. But yeah, they play really well, they play the sound game. But yeah, I like you to make continue to do well. Excellent breakdowns, as always. That is Benny Fowler, Super Bowl champion, former NFL wide receiver. This has been first down with Benny Fowler. Benny, your insights are always amazing. Looking forward to catching up next week, because as we sit here now, still waiting on Saquan Barkley's second game with the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night football against the Atlanta Falcons. So definitely it would be more to talk about next week and I'm looking forward to it. Awesome. Appreciate your path. Great insight from Benny Fowler. As always, join us every Monday for first down with Benny Fowler to break down the week's action across the NFL. We are sponsored here by MyBookie, MyBookie.ag. Go to the link in my bio on X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, threads, wherever you can find me on social media, click the link and use the promo code, "PatsPix," the special promo code, "PatsPix," that'll get you 100% match on your first deposit of $50 or more, up to $1,000 plus a $10 casino chip. Whether it's underdog upsets, backdoor covers, or a shootout between two Lombardi contenders, MyBookie is here to help you cash in on every single moment. Make your football season a winning season in the 10th anniversary of MyBookie. MyBookie.ag bet anything, anytime, anywhere. 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Super Bowl champion Bennie Fowler, a former NFL wide receiver, joins New York Daily News NFL columnist Pat Leonard for 'First Down with Bennie Fowler,' a weekly recap of the NFL's full slate @Bleav. Fowler and Leonard dive into the Dallas' Cowboys' biggest problem in a blowout to the New Orleans Saints, Brian Daboll's icy staredowns of Pat postgame at Washington, Daniel Jones' improved play, Bennie's memory of a young Jones first learning the NFL, Davante Adams' special skill set and more.